Disclaimer: the usual

CHAPTER 22

The Unity Morpher

The Time Force Rangers were struggling slightly with this particular fight. Not only were the Cyclobots and the new monster running muck, but Ransik had joined in the fight, apparently after some type of device the rangers were clueless about. Ransik gripped Lucas by the neck and brought him close as the blue ranger struggled for the air.

"Where is she punk? Where's the girl with the power source?" Ransik asked harshly, squeezing little by little on Lucas's neck. Lucas tried to answer that he had no clue but a blast shocked Ransik's grip on him, opening up his airway as he coughed and tried to recover. Katie ran to his side as the others saw Eric racing toward the fight.

"QUANTUM POWER!" he cried as he ran, morphing into his suit as he engaged in battle. Wes and Eric ended up fighting side by side, right when Ransik approached them.

"Where's the girl, rangers?" he demanded once more.

"What girl?" Wes asked simply. Ransik noticed that Eric was thinking which he in fact was. He was wondering if Ransik meant the same girl he had seen earlier. Ransik zeroed in on the Quantum Ranger.

"Where is she!" he bellowed, snapping Eric out of his trance. He stepped away cautiously.

"Huh? How should I know? She ran away after destroying monster. Why do you want to know anyway?" Eric demanded. Ransik growled.

"She has something of mine," he answered before taking a step towards the two rangers, only to be stopped short by a new voice.

"Well if you want it, just ask for it instead of running around crazy," came a new voice. Everyone turned to see Lina, wearing her Red Inferno Ranger suit standing nearby. It did not click immediately to anyone what Lina had said. The only thing that registered was that there was a mysterious new ranger in front of them, which completely disgusted Ransik.

"CYCLOBOTS!" he commanded. The minions immediately knew what he wanted. They all turned and started towards Lina, who did not move, knowing what she was doing. When they were crowded around her, only inches away, she again used her telekinesis and launched the whole lot of them backwards. She knew she shouldn't over use any one power because of running low on energy. So she immediately went into fight mode right after the Cyclobots launched backwards, fighting off the few that weren't destroyed in the attack. Ransik growled and motioned towards his monster, who made his way towards Lina. Now she could never get tired of her Inferno Blaze attack. She landed on her feet after double side kicking two Cyclobots and quickly formed an energy ball, recalling the previous fight in Eric's mind.

"It's her!" he screamed. Wes glanced at him questioningly before turning his attention back to the new ranger. The energy ball was huge and she formed a fist with it.

"INFERNO BLAZE!" she cried before slamming the energy ball into the ground, creating a fault line that blew up the monster beyond any kind of repair. Ransik, realizing it was him against seven rangers now, disappeared back to his lair. Lina, however, had disappeared again during the commotion of her blast. All the rangers looked around in confusion and for anymore sign of danger. They were also seeing if there might be a clue or sign of the new ranger. Wes turned to the baffled Quantum Ranger.

"What did you mean by, 'It's her'?" he asked as the other rangers crowded around them. Eric sighed.

"Let's go back to the clock tower and I'll explain everything there," he said. The others silently agreed and followed each other back to their home/headquarters. Meanwhile, Lina had let go of her morph and was just wondering around Silver Hills aimlessly, debating about whether or not to confront the rangers as herself yet or not. Her thoughts slipped back to the new morpher when her communicator box went off. She grabbed it from her pocket and opened up the screen to reveal Zeek.

"Zeek, what's up? You usually pop out of nowhere and scare the crap out of me," Lina said sarcastically though slightly bitterly to her mentor. Zeek just sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I think I found the information on that new morpher. If this is correct, then you found the Unity Morpher," Zeek explained. One of Lina's eyebrows shot up in a questioning glance.

"Unity Morpher?" she repeated, unsure of what to make of that.

"Yes, the Unity Morpher. It's a morpher designed for it's user to morph with the merged powers of one particular ranger team for a temporary amount of time," Zeek continued to explain.

"So basically I could morph as the Red Inferno Ranger but be powered by the energy of all the Time Force Rangers?" she asked, trying to understand what he was explaining.

"Yes, but only if they are willing to let you have it. Which means you'd have to gain the trust of every team member in order for it to work," Zeek said. Lina's face fell.

"I knew there was a catch," she muttered. Zeek frowned at this response.

"You haven't had a problem before with that," Zeek said. Lina held the box up with one hand and placed the other on her hip.

"Would you like to come and meet Eric, the Quantum Ranger whose boxers are on too tight?" she asked sarcastically but with noticeable sincerity. Zeek chuckled.

"If anyone can do it you can," Zeek said simply. Lina sneered.

"Oh, now you go to wise Sensei mode," she said sarcastically but Zeek had known her long enough to know she was only joking with him because she was tired.

"Good luck," he said before cutting the call off. Lina groaned and switched the box off, stuffing it back into her pocket. It was only then that she noticed she was across the street from the clock tower. She bit her lip in anticipation, debating on whether or not to go up there.

"Oh, what the heck?" she said to herself before crossing the street and heading towards the door. Meanwhile, Eric was pacing back and forth, finishing up his story of what happened with Lina earlier and why he thought the mysterious new ranger was her.

"So do you have any idea what this power source she stole from the monster is?" Katie asked.

"No clue. We weren't even chasing the monster for that in the first place. We didn't know he had that until he brought it out and the girl took it," Eric said.

"Well she's obviously not working for Ransik but that doesn't mean we're any safer with it in her hands," Lucas added to the conversation.

"But she's a ranger. Should we really be so concerned?" Trip asked.

"There have been evil rangers in the past Trip," Wes pointed out. Jen let out an annoyed sigh and groaned.

"This isn't getting us anywhere. We need to find her. Eric can you give me a description of her so we can run a scan of the city?" Jen asked as she walked to the computer and set down. Eric thought for a moment.

"Okay, dark blonde hair and little past the shoulders, she's about 5'5'' or 5'6'' but she was moving kind of fast so I could be wrong. Uh, she's not heavy set but she isn't bone thin so, um, I guess 130 to 140 pounds…," Eric explained before trailing off. All the rangers except Trip were looking at either Jen or Eric, who were both preoccupied in their tasks of remembering and typing.

"Was she wearing khakis, a small white shirt, and a blue flannel over shirt?" Trip asked suddenly. Eric frowned and looked at him.

"Yea she was. How did you know that?" he asked. Trip pointed to the door and all the rangers turned to see Lina leaning on the doorframe glancing into the room.

"Um, hi," she said, slightly nervously. Eric glared suspiciously at her.

"How'd you get in here?" he asked. Lina just glanced at him.

"The door and then the stairs," she replied bluntly, getting a slight laugh out of Trip, Wes, and Katie. Lucas tried to hide his smile. Jen just got up from her seat and went to stand in front of Eric before he did anything stupid.

"We have some questions for you," she said in her best Time Force leader voice.

"Let's have them," Lina replied simply.