Disclaimer: Power Rangers belongs to Disney and the like, which I am not affliated with.

"You fools! You were supposed to get the escapees," hissed Mesogog.

"Our apologies, Master," Elsa said in a simpering tone. "The prisoners had only just gotten through the portal. We weren't expecting a Ranger convention."

"We'll just have to make do, I suppose," Mesogog said. He gestured at Ethan. "Take his gem. Lock him up. Leave me to deal with Doctor Oliver."

Ethan assumed the position: "Dino Thun--" but he was cut off when a mass of Triptoids cascaded over him, babbling incoherently in his ear, stripping him of his bracelet before he even quite realized it was gone, and dragging him down the hall. He tried to fight them off, but they seemed to be multiplying. There were so many on him that he was no longer being dragged, but carried, and he couldn't even see the ceiling, just a mass of black and white writhing bodies. Next thing he knew, he was being thrown in a cell.

Elsa glared down at him. "Your little friends proved to be too much trouble, so now you're under surveillance." Ethan noted the shattered lock. "I hope you had a pleasant last moment with your teammates, because it's the last time you'll see them."

Elsa stalked off. He wasn't sure if by her parting words she meant that she was going to kill Conner and Kira, or that she was going to kill him. He guessed both.

Three Triptoids stood sentry in front of Ethan's cell, blocking his view through the bars. Not that there was much to watch in the dank hallway, but it gave him a feeling of claustrophobia that he wasn't terribly fond of.

Ethan sat down, trying to figure out how he was going to get himself out of this one.

Three powerless Power Rangers. Three separate factions, all with different agendas, and the only side with a worthwhile cause was the only one who could do nothing about it.

Ethan awaited fate.

"Ethan!" shouted Kira, as Conner spoke simultaneously, "Dr. O.!" Conner jumped to his feet and started to run for the portal, but Kira grabbed hold of his hand at the last second, stalling him. "Are you out of your mind?"

"I'm going after them," he said, trying to wrestle himself free, but not trying very hard.

"Oh, sure, that's a great plan. So then he has four Rangers, ripe for killing and power-stealing," Trent drawled in his nastiest, most sarcastic tone.

Conner whirled on the still-morphed White Ranger, furious. "You had something to do with this, didn't you," he said. "I knew I shouldn't have agreed to your ridiculous plan!"

"Hey, I had no idea your dorky little friends were waiting," Trent said.

"You could show a little concern," Kira said. "This affects you too, in case you've forgotten. That means that Mesogog has four gems in his possession. You were worried about just two? You're pretty much screwed now."

"Kira, believe me, there's nothing I'd enjoy more than watching Trent get creamed. But now isn't the time or the place to think about this loser. We have to rescue them."

"And how do you propose we do that?" she said, conceding to the fact that he was right. She turned to face Conner, but Trent remained in her periphery. "'Cause we're powerless."

"Our deal with Trent still stands," Conner said firmly. "He's going to get us in, he's going to distract Mesogog, we're going to grab our morphers and the other Rangers. Then we'll help him."

"You're going to what?" Trent said, as Kira said, "We're gonna what?"

"We. Are going to. Help. Trent," Conner said slowly. "Am I speaking a foreign language? Listen, you're going to be fighting Mesogog anyway, right? You don't want him defeating you, we don't want him defeating us, if we work together, neither will happen."

"What makes you think I want to be working with you?"

"I'm not any happier about this than you are," Conner said. "But that's what's gonna happen."

They stood in thoughtful silence, then with a loud, reluctant sigh, Trent said, "Fine, we go in."

"We go in," Kira echoed.

"We go in," Conner said firmly.

They had all committed to the plan, the crazy, stupid, suicidal plan. They had all voiced agreement, and yet, here they stood, not doing anything yet. Kira looked to Conner; she was waiting to follow his lead. She hadn't trusted Conner when she'd first met him, but when she'd first met him, he was an arrogant jock who probably couldn't do simple addition. But she'd watched him morph into a respectable human being, a good Ranger, and a great leader. And she trusted him.

He'd done some stupid things. Namely, getting them into this whole mess in the first place. But he was committed to seeing it through to the end, he was committed to getting them out. She trusted him with her life.

Maybe more.

She did care about Conner a lot. Which was why she was so terrified, to see him continually risk his life for her. There was no conceivable way this plan would work. They were going to fail.

They were going to fail, they were probably going to die. They'd managed to drag Ethan and Dr. O. into this mess, and they were probably going to die, too. Trent was probably going to die. Kira hadn't felt the same way about him for a little while now, but that didn't mean she wanted him to be another casualty.

Then when the five Rangers had died, there would be nothing standing in Mesogog's way. He would have his own resources, his own evil, maniacal plans, and then he would have the Ranger powers. He wouldn't be able to be stopped. No one could even try. Scores of people were going to perish in this war.

Conner shook his head, as though clearing his hesitance from his brain. "Okay, let's kick it," he said. He glanced at her nervously for a second, before taking Kira's hand. She felt a little better, a little less scared, as they gripped anxiously at each other. All three of them lifted their hands at the same time to touch the portal, provoking it to suck them in.

"Conner! Kira! Are you there? Come in!"

The hands dropped. The unmorphed Rangers cast confused looks at each other, recognizing Hayley's voice, but unable to pinpoint it. "Hayley?" Conner called out.

"Conner, Kira, come in!"

"The bikes," Kira said, pointing at where the Red and Blue Raptor Cycles lurked in the shadows. They ran over.

"I forgot...Hayley installed a prototype com system on my Cycle," Conner said. "I didn't even know they were over here." He swung his leg over the side of the bike, and answered the call. "Hayley?"

"Conner, what a relief. We've all been frantic looking for you two."

"We got out," Conner said.

"But Mesogog got Ethan and Dr. O.," Kira filled in the blanks, "and he has our morphers, too."

"Then this problem is even bigger than I realized," Hayley said with a weighted tone. "Guys, Mesogog's released a monster on the city."