Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. Power Rangers and all related materials are property of Buena Vista Entertainment. Further inspiration is drawn from sources including but not limited to Star Wars, The Wheel of Time, Final Fantasy, and Magic: The Gathering. All other ideas are original unless otherwise stated. Any resemblance to any other work is purely coincidental. No part of this fanfiction may be reproduced without permission. Any and all comments can be sent to Randelm@hotmail.com.
Mutual Malice
A Dual Attack, New Lights Promised, and A Quest Begun
The lights within the dark room had flared so brightly that the presence had had to turn away so as not to be blinded by it. The Red Dragon, Red Ape, and Blue Sphinx had unlocked a forgotten ability. It had been this ability along with the healing nature of Ros and the purity of the Blue Unicorn that had allowed the Red Tyrannosaurus, Red Dragon and Pyramidas to regain strength in the light, to continue fighting.
In another area of the room, five new representations of power were slowly coming into being. And yet, it should have been too early for them to be making an appearance in this room. Nothing could be expected to be as it was supposed to have been since the mistake. The mistake changed what was and changed what will be. Despite that it is often said that there are not predetermined paths, the way things are happening now…
It is too fast.
~*~
Lord Zedd lay in bed in his human form, staring at the ceiling. It was a nice room really. Dimly lit by lights turned down low, the room contained two large comfortable chairs, a low table, a fireplace currently filled with split wood and flickering orange flames, and one very large four poster bed. Thick rugs of red and ivory and brown maze patterns covered the hard stone floor
Zedd winced slightly at the retching noise coming form the restroom nearby. After a while his wife, Rita, tottered into the bedroom and collapsed on the be next to her husband.
"I can't believe you did this to me," she muttered.
Zedd chuckled softly. "And Finster is certain that there is now way to speed up the process?"
"Not without harming the baby," Rita groaned miserably. "Hey, maybe he could think of way to put it in your belly!"
"I don't think so, Rita," Zedd replied a bit hastily. "I haven't the right… equipment."
"But Zeddy," Rita wailed, "I don't want to swell up like some kind of brood cow!" Rita had almost reached her characteristic screech with the end of that sentence and then put a hand to her head and began muttering about headaches.
Zedd sat up and put a hand on his wife's back, rubbing it soothingly. "It'll be all right, I promise."
"Yeah right," she spat back, glaring at him. "I'm never letting you touch me again!" Rita stood up and stormed out of the room, still clad in only her night dress.
Zedd sighed. Rita was only about three months pregnant. The two of them had been too preoccupied with the coming baby since learning of the development a week ago, that there had been little time for any sort of a decent attack against the Rangers, only random Putty and Tengu attacks simply to remind the Rangers that the evil monarchs still existed.
Standing up, Zedd resolved that today he would mount an attack. Even Mondo hadn't done much in the way of threatening Earth recently and it was about time someone saw to it.
I wonder what's got Mondo so preoccupied, Zedd mused, surely Machina isn't pregnant. The evil lord actually laughed at the thought.
Zedd strode purposefully down the grim, hard stone hallways of the Moon Palace until he reached Finster's laboratory. Seldom had the Lord of Evil deigned to come to his servant's work area and he took a moment to look over the clutter of papers and unsculpted clay and bits of pieces of who knew what.
It took a while for the white furred bespectacled scientist to noticed that his boss had entered and Finster jumped to see Lord Zedd there. What really surprised the old sculptor was that Zedd was not in his terror inspiring warlock form of a metal exoskeletoned skinless body, but was instead in his natural human form.
"Yes m'lord?" Finster prompted when Zedd continued to say nothing.
Zedd turned his brown eyes to Finster, seeming almost surprised to find the scientist in the lab. Then he flickered for a moment between his warlock and human forms before settling on the frightening form of his evil self.
"Finster, it has been too long since we have attacked the Rangers. I need a monster to lead my Putty Patrollers and Tengu Warriors into battle."
"Well now, let me see m'lord." Finster produced a large clump of clay from an earthenware jar and set it on his worktable. Seating himself at his bench, his dexterous hands began to smooth and shape the clay. "I have been working on notes for this monster for some time now, Lord Zedd," Finster spoke as he worked. Glancing quickly out of the corner of his eye, Finster found that Zedd was actually watching him work. Zedd had never before taken an interest in Finster's work.
"This is Kary, Seductive Mistress of Fire," said Finster as he began to put the final details on the beast. It was a lithe female in shape with two sets of arms, each hand gripping a wicked curved blade. "She utilizes the element of fire and produces pheromones that have a hypnotic effect, especially upon men."
Zedd nodded, "Excellent, send her to me when she is ready."
"Yes, m'lord," Finster bowed to his master as the Red Lord left the room, then started up his machine and began to mix the chemicals and magic that would give Kary her power.
~*~
For over two weeks now, King Mondo had had his Cogs working on the construction of a kieroo. A kieroo, though appearing as simply a sentient tower, was really much more complicated than that. If all Mondo had wanted was to create a giant robot in the shape of a tower, he could have easily done it. The construction of a real life kieroo, however, was much more difficult. After capturing Tanya those two weeks ago, Mondo had 'borrowed' her Zeonizer and had managed to use it in order to make a sort of blueprint for the complex kieroo. The large construction was nearly finished. It had taken non stop work to have it completed so quickly, and ahead of schedule too.
The kierro was a tower with sleek metallic sides. Being a tower, it had no manner in which to move itself in the normal way of things. Instead, the kieroo had a way in which to almost teleport itself. The theory behind this movement was that the kieroo did not move, but instead moved the space around itself. Whatever the actual method, the fact that it actually worked was what was important to Mondo.
So long as the wheel turns, Mondo thought.
On opposing sides, Mondo had designed strong arms tipped with blunt fingers. Between its heavy shoulders, there was a dome mounted on the top of the tower and this dome contained the kieroo's primary weapon, a large ion cannon.
Suddenly, Mono engaged his overbearing voice, "Klank!"
"Yes m'king?" the faintly Scottish sounding robot appeared quickly to his master's side.
"Today I shall attack the miserable planet below us with my newest marvel," Mondo gestured grandly at the metal tower.
"Yes sir," Klank bowed respectfully though Mondo took no real notice.
"I want you to send something down there to warm up the Rangers," Mondo continued.
"Yes yer Majesty," Klank replied, "I've just the thing. A machine I've been working on called WarMech." Klank was about to go into the various components of the machine, but Mondo interrupted.
"Wonderful, send it and a troop of Cogs down immediately."
"Yes yer Majesty."
~*~
Angel Grove Park is not always the safest of places. For some uncanny reason, monsters seem to find the place a good one to battle Rangers. Perhaps it's because of the pretty scenery as the Parks Department tries to keep the place kept up nicely, or perhaps it's because there is plenty of room to swing a sword. Whatever the case, the citizens of Angel Grove, despite this possible danger are determined not to allow the occasional battle that occur in the park deter them from enjoying the space.
Two teenaged girls with only three days of Summer Break left, walked together to the park. A quick glance at the two might make one think that they were exactly alike, in fact they shared a sur name, Secore. A closer look would reveal that while the girls did indeed share wavy light brown hair and hazel eyes, their faces shaped exactly alike, that there were many differences between the two.
First off Candace, the one in a pale yellow shirt and khaki shorts wore her hair back in a sensible tail. She was the more assertive of the two grounded in what she could work with physically. Her twin sister, Casey, was clad in a green shirt and blue jeans and wore her hair down. Casey was usually looking to the horizons and perhaps beyond at something others couldn't see and she couldn't explain, except, of course, to her sister. The twins were excellent compliments to one another. Once the girls had reached the park, they immediately noticed two of their friends already there.
"Hey Fred, heads up," hollered Justin Stewart as he flung a red frisbee across the field. Justin was fourteen, the same age as the twins and would be joining them in starting high school on the next Monday despite the fact that he was a genius. The school administrators had wanted to jump Justin ahead several grades, but Mr. Stewart hadn't allowed it and Justin was now glad that his father had done so. Justin was rather muscular for his age, a result of his martial arts training; he had a mop top of brown hair and an eager face.
Fred Kelman, a short boy who caught the frisbee with a spectacular leap into the air. Fred was also fourteen, had brown hair and blue eyes. Fred was, though he'd never admit it, the leader of this small group of friends. Each of them was, of course, able to make decisions for themselves, but in the times when the friends had been endangered by monster attacks, it had been Fred with his clear headedness that had gotten them efficiently to safety. Fred jogged over to where Candace and Casey were already talking with Justin.
"We were thinking of heading over to Ernie's," Candace told the red clad boy, "What do you think?"
Fred nodded, "Sounds good to me. Who's buying?"
Casey smiled, "I am,"
"That makes it even better then." Fred smiled.
As they turned in the direction of the Juice Bar, the group noticed a girl with long red hair sitting with her back to a tree. The girl's apparent attention was on the book in her hands, but it seemed she had been glancing at them surreptitiously a moment ago.
"Who's that?" Justin asked
"That's Angela Hopkins," Casey supplied, "She moved here just last month. We don't really know her but we've seen her around."
Justin was still staring at the girl and the other three grinned at each other behind his back.
Candace nudged the blue clad boy, "Hey, why don't you go introduce yourself?"
"What?" Justin turned to look at his grinning friends. "What do you mean Candace?" Justin was blushing so hard his ears were red.
Taking pity on her friend, Casey said, "Why don't we all go introduce ourselves?"
The four approached the girl, Fred out in front. "Hello Angela," Fred started.
Angela looked up at the group a somewhat startled look on her face. She had bright green eyes and pale skin. "Yes?" she asked warily, "can I help you?"
"We noticed that you're new around here and we wanted to know if you wanted hang out or something," Justin spoke quickly and was blushing again.
Angela narrowed her eyes at Justin, "What's the gag?"
Justin was taken aback. "What?"
"We noticed you by yourself and simply wanted to know if you'd like to join us at the Juice Bar," Casey reaffirmed Justin's invitation. "Besides that, its not particularly safe to be in the park alone."
Angela had come to the park that morning on a hunch… a feeling. The girl had never had one of her feelings tell her wrong and had learned early on in life to trust those feelings. But there was something about these kids… They were no older than her and seemed friendly enough, but again there was some thing about them that was not quite normal. Whether or not this was a good or bad thing, Angela couldn't tell, but normal was safe and 'not quite normal' could be dangerous. Angela stood up.
"Thanks, but I'll pass." Without another word, Angela turned and began to walk home.
The group watched her walk a way for a while, surprised at the reaction to their invitation.
"Harsh," muttered Candace.
Justin shrugged uncomfortably, "Maybe she just needs time to get used to it here."
Fred nodded, "You're probably right. She-"
Fred stopped in mid sentence, interrupted by a shrill scream from where Angela had just disappeared around a group of trees. Justin was off like a shot, the other three right behind him. Angela was standing quite still, staring terrified at the shiny robots that were slowly marching towards her.
"Come on Angela, we gotta go," Justin said urgently to the petrified girl.
When she didn't respond, Justin grabbed her wrist and began dragging her at a right angle to the Cog's marching, the other three guarding their backs incase the machines decided to attack. Finally Angela shook off Justin's hand and began running on her own at which point the group sped all out in the direction of the Youth Center. When Fred was certain that the Cogs weren't following them the group slowed to a walk.
Between gasps of air, Angela asked, "What the heck was that?"
"Cogs," replied Candace, "The shock troops of the Machine Empire."
"And those," Fred stopped and pointed straight ahead of him "are Tengas, and Putties."
"Oh shit…" muttered Casey as they began to run again, this time further into the park and hopefully away from all the monsters that had begun to roam it.
"I'd heard stories about this place, even seen it on the news," said Angela as they again slowed, "but I thought all the stuff about evil monsters from other planets was totally bogus."
"No," said Candace, "it's totally true. Even the weirdest stuff you've heard is probably true."
"A giant purse monster?" Angela cocked an eyebrow unbelievingly.
"Yup." Said a slightly accented voice from behind them.
The young teens turned around to see the Pink Zeo Ranger standing there. "Don't you think you five ought to be heading to one of the shelters?"
"We were trying to Pink Ranger, but Cogs are at one end of the park and Tengas and Putties are at the other." Explained Justin.
The Pink Ranger nodded. "I'll have you teleported to Ernie's" She pushed a button on her communicator and spoke into it. "Alpha, teleport these five to the Juice Bar."
The five looked on in awe as they were suddenly enveloped in an Ivory column of light. When the light cleared they were standing in the Juice Bar, all eyes on them.
"Uh… hi." Was all Fred had time to say as the others taking refuge in the Juice Bar began to pelt them with questions.
~*~
Tommy, Katherine, and Billy were facing off against a troop of Tengas and Putties. A tiger stripped Puttie swung at the leader of the Rangers. Red Zeo quickly ducked, and answered with a flurry of punches and a devastating kick that knocked the villain into its comrades. The purple and gray creatures attacked the three Rangers, and chaos was the result.
Katherine blocked a blow from a Tenga only to be hit from behind by a 'Z' Putty. Instantly Billy was there, thrusting with his Power Lance, keeping the Putty off her. Billy reached down to help her up when a flying red object crashed into them knocking them both to the ground.
"Ouch…" Tommy groaned and slowly stood up. "Guys, we're fighting a loosing battle."
"What else can we do?" Asked Kat. "The others are fighting off Cogs on the other side of the park, and Jason's still recovering."
"I know, but… Damn!" Tommy dodged some more attacks and countered, all the while backing up with his teammates. "Wait a sec… I've got an idea. Follow me." With that he was off, Kat and Billy close behind.
Tommy looked back over his shoulder to make sure the Putties and Tengas were still following them, just as the other Rangers came into view fighting off Cogs.
"Rangers! Form up!" At the command the Rangers gathered behind Tommy. The atmosphere in that area of the park was tense. A three way face-off between the evil forces of Zedd, and of Mondo, and the Power Rangers.
The Cogs were the first to make a move. At an unseen signal half of the robotic warriors attacked the Rangers, and the other half attacked Rita and Zedd's forces.
The three-way melee came to a halt when a powerful blast destroyed Tenga, Puttie and Cog alike. A bipedal, mechanical creature stepped forward. It's legs connected directly to its head and it had no arms. A small turret rotated on the top of its dome-like head. "I am WarMech." It announced in an electronic voice.
WarMech's blast was answered with a blast of fire. The fire connected squarely with the WarMech, but it merely stood there and looked at the creature that had attacked it. "I am Kary, Seductive Mistress of Fire." The two squared off, not even looking at the Rangers.
"Sheesh, are we out of the loop here, or what?" said Rocky leaning against a tree.
"Well what do we do?" Tanya asked, a bit confused.
"Well we ah… we… Well we certainly can't let them just keep fighting each other." Said Tommy.
"Why not?" Asked Rocky.
"They are causing a lot of property damage." Pointed out Billy.
The two creatures were trading blasts. WarMech's legs granted spectacular jumping abilities, while Kary's speed allowed her to dash in and attack with one of her four blades. The resulting clashes and explosions were putting deep scars in the park's turf.
"Maybe we should contact Zordon." Suggested Tanya.
Kat nodded and brought her communicator to her lips. "Zordon…" Just then Kary and WarMech fired at the same time. The resulting explosion knocked the Rangers to the ground. When the smoke had cleared no trace of the two monsters could be found.
"Well… that was interesting. Let's go back to the Power Chamber and see what Zordon has to say." Tommy looked around to the others who nodded.
In six columns of light the Rangers were gone.
~*~
"In an interesting development the two monsters began to fight each other paying no attention to the Power Rangers. It has been rumored that King Mondo of the Machine Empire has a great rivalry with Lord Zedd of the United Alliance of Evil. As the Rangers watched, doing nothing, the evil beings fought until there was a mighty explosion, apparently destroying the monsters. The city was lucky this time. Two forces clashed while the Rangers did nothing. If the fight had gotten close to civilians it could have been disastrous. This is April Conther, signing off."
"Hey! That's totally bogus!" objected Fred Kelman
"Yeah, the Rangers can't just attack, besides if the fight'd gotten close to civilians the Rangers would have protected them" Added Justin.
"You guys are right." Said Ernie from behind the counter. "April Conther is just sore because she can't get an interview with the Rangers."
Fred nodded. "Hey Ernie, can I get five smoothies please."
"Sure thing Fred."
"Wow, Fred's paying, this is a first." Candace said as she walked over to the counter. She and Casey had been talking with Angela at one of the tables. Fred and Justin had been with them until April Conther's report had come on.
"Here you are." Said Ernie delivering a tray of smoothies to Fred. Fred paid him and carried the drinks over to the table where his friends were sitting. The five relaxed and drank their smoothies, and talked. Angela joined in the conversation, becoming less and less suspicious.
The door opened and five soon-to-be Seniors at AGH walked in. Among them were some of the best martial artists in the City, probably in the state.
"Hey Ernie, how's it going?"
"Hey Rocky. You guys want the usual?" They all nodded and Ernie spoke again. "Tommy. I need to talk to you, in private."
Tommy looked surprised. "Uh… sure Ernie, be right there."
Tommy walked behind the counter and into the kitchen where Ernie had gone. The portly man was cooking up some fries when the red clad teen walked in.
"Interesting fight today huh?" Commented Ernie.
"Wha- What are you talking about Ernie?"
"Come on Tommy, give me some credit huh?" Said Ernie cracking a smile. "I've been watching you kids since your freshman year."
"Oh… So you know?" Ernie just nodded. "Ok… so is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"
Ernie scooped the fries out of the fryer, and set them down to dry. "Like I said I've been watching you guys for a while now, and I've noticed a trend with soon-to-be Rangers."
Tommy was interested now. Grabbing one of the plastic baskets he put wax paper in the bottom and dumped the cooling fries in, while Ernie started on making the smoothies.
"About a week before the Power Rangers showed up, Jason, Kim, Zack, Trini and Billy started hanging out here a lot, more than usual. And they were all wearing distinct colors." Tommy nodded, signaling for Ernie to continue. "Then you showed up. You were wearing green. I wasn't too sure about you until the Green Ranger showed up and you started acting… strange. And so on, I noticed when Rocky, Adam and Aisha showed up, and when Katherine and the Tanya arrived, and finally when Jason returned."
"So I guess it was kinda' obvious huh?'
"Not really, I'm just more observant than most. The point is, Tommy, that four kids, who will be entering their freshman year next week, have been hanging out here more and more, and they're all wearing specific colors each time. Today those four were teleported here by one of you guys. And they had a new friend with them."
"So you're saying there is a new team of Rangers coming."
"It's just a hunch." Admitted Ernie, "But yeah, I'd say there will be a new team of Rangers before the start of the school year."
Tommy nodded. "Thanks for the info man." The two carried out the fries and drinks and delivered them to the table next to the one they usually sat at. Two of the occupants of the Ranger's usual table were talking with Rocky and Adam animatedly about martial arts.
"Sure, we got time to spar." Said Rocky as Tommy and Ernie set down the food. Rocky grabbed a handful of fries before walking out on the mats with Fred, Justin and Adam. Tommy raised an eyebrow, but Ernie just smiled in response and headed back to the counter.
Katherine and Tanya had begun to talk to Angela, Candace and Casey so Tommy snatched a few fries and walked down to the mats with smoothie in hand. He'd tell his friends about the future Rangers later.
~*~
In the desert outside Angle Grove, in a structure known as the Power Chamber, Six people stood looking up at the mentor of the Power Rangers of Earth.
"Alpha, what do the scans say?"
"Jason has completely recovered Zordon. He is in prime condition."
Zordon smiled. "Good, thank you Alpha." Then he looked down at the assembled. "As you know both Zedd and Mondo attacked today. The Zeo Rangers had difficulty fighting both attacks at once. Mondo and Zedd's hatred for each other was the only thing that saved us from them." Zordon paused.
"And…" prompted Zack with a grin.
"And we need another team of Rangers if we are going to be able to deal with another such dual attack."
"Yes!" Zack jumped into the air and pumped his fist.
"Now Zachary, I know you still have responsibilities at the Peace Conference…"
Trini began to laugh lightly at Zack's antics. "Zordon, when Zack and I decided to come home, we thought it time we stayed. We've been gone a long time after all. We informed the Peace Council of our decision before we left."
"I see…" Zordon seemed a bit startled. "Well then, Kimberly, I don't want to keep you from…" He stopped when he saw the look on Kim's face.
"Actually Zordon. Gunther told me he didn't expect me back. He practically said I should stay here."
Zordon nodded. "And you Aisha? Certainly they still need your help finding a cure in Kenya?"
"Yeah, but can't I still become a Ranger? I can stay in Africa and you guys can call me in an emergency."
Zordon paused for a minute. "Yes, that would be acceptable. Jason, Billy you two have already visited some of your Spirit Guides. After further study of your Powers I discovered something missing from each of you. Most Humans have four Spirit Guides, for the Body, Mind, Soul, and Self. I realized that you two only met the Spirits you were already familiar with. To truly find yourself and your guides you must be placed in a deep sleep. Alpha and I will put you into this sleep and monitor you. The rest is up to you. Are you ready? It is possible this will be dangerous."
The six teens nodded.
"Good. Good luck Rangers, and May the Power protect you…" Zordon cast the deep sleep spell and the Rangers immediately slumped to the ground. "…even from your dreams. Alpha, teleport them to their prepared quarters."
"Yes Zordon. Do you think they will be able to acquire their Powers?" Asked Alpha as he pushed a few buttons sending the sleeping Rangers to the living quarters beneath the Power Chamber.
"I do not know Alpha, the Grid Warrior Power is still an unknown. I have been studying Billy and Jason, but there is nothing conclusive."
"Yes, well I have to say Zordon, this is the most powerful and tightly knit group of Rangers you've ever had."
"I agree, and thank you Alpha. They're all back home now. I didn't realize how much I'd miss them. And even though Aisha will be living in Kenya, she'll still be on call."
"Aye yi yi. You're getting sentimental Zordon."
Zordon smiled down at his friend. "I'm only human Alpha. So… how is our project coming along?"
"Steadily Zordon. It should be entirely finished before the beginning of the school year."
"Excellent. I think I will rest now, please tell me if anything happens."
"Yes Zordon."
And with that, Zordon's image faded from his ion tube, and he entered his meditative dimension.