The temple was cold and dark. Plant overgrowth would have lead most people to believe it was abandoned, but Kalix knew otherwise. He had done his research well on the temple and was prepared for anything. His search would not be in vain, he promised himself. He would get what he came for and return to Lothor victorious again. He would make Zurgane pay for betraying him and he would once more be the evil space ninja's favored general.
The reptile man stalked quietly through the dank hall that led to the main chamber of the temple. He knew that was where he would find the whole reason for his expedition. He had no sooner entered the chamber than he had to duck an attack from a threat he had been waiting for the whole time. With an unconcerned sneer he unlatched his battle axe from his back and looked at his foe. It was a power ranger; one Kalix had only ever seen pictures of in archives. The rangers suit was pure black except for strange gold symbols on the chest and around the sides of the helmets that probably meant something in his planet's native language. There was a black gem set in the forehead with silver outlining it and on his chest were six gems; red, blue, green, white, purple, and yellow. Kalix knew from reports that the ranger, called the Knight Ranger, was armed with a full ranger team's worth of powers. The reason being that the Knight Ranger embodied the powers of his fallen teammates. He was a powerful foe and no one had figured out how to kill him yet, but Kalix didn't want to kill him, just incapacitate him.
"Leave now and I'll spare your life." The Knight Ranger boomed.
Kalix kept a schooled mask of indifference on his reptilian face, but he felt the power behind the words. Given enough time the Knight Ranger would beat him, but Kalix hoped to make his attack quick and spring the trap even quicker. He readied his battle axe and leapt forward. The Knight Ranger pulled a sickle and in one fluid motion snagged Kalix's weapon and jerked it out of the reptile's hand. Kalix gawked at the ranger, not having expected to lose his weapon at all let alone within the first few seconds of battle. He was unprepared as the ranger landed a fierce kick to his chest that sent him crashing into a wall.
"How…?"
If he could have seen the ranger's face Kalix could have sworn the human would have been smirking as he replied. "You really didn't expect to waltz into my home and have your way with me did you? Honestly, you lackeys are getting dumber and dumber."
"We'll see ranger." Kalix hissed.
He scrambled to his feet and pulled a few round objects from a pouch at his waist. With a flick of his wrist he threw them at the ground in front of the ranger and smirked as they exploded with a flash, filling the area with smoke. Like a click in his mind his eyes immediately began reading heat signatures and he was able to see the ranger. He was a little surprised to find the Knight Ranger hadn't moved an inch from his position. Regardless, Kalix charged in, ready to do the deed with his claws, and was stunned that the next thing he knew he was laying half on his neck and half on his shoulders, upside down against a wall. How had the ranger moved so quickly and without clear sight?
"The Gems of Power are not for your taking snake. This is your last warning to leave." The Knight Ranger said with such authority that Kalix felt himself starting to get a little nervous. Still, he knew that if he could get close enough to the ranger he could implement his plan.
Kalix righted himself and stood up, instantly deciding to change tactics. Without even acknowledging that the ranger had called him a snake, the reptile turned on his own taunting. He used what he had read about the Knight Rangers and stabbed at what he hoped were sensitive places.
"You're awfully powerful for a ranger, but why are you the only one of your team left?" Kalix didn't give him a chance to reply. "My guess is that you were the weakest of the team and that you hid when the Shadow Rogue came. You watched your teammates die and then drew their power to you so that you would be more powerful and could have the guts to stand up to Shadow Rogue."
Kalix grinned to himself as he watched the ranger's cool composure begin to break down. The ranger's hands clenched to fists and Kalix could detect the slightest twitch beginning to develop. He pressed on insulting the dead teammates and destroyed planet and anything else he could think of to rile the ranger up. He hardly saw the Knight Ranger move, but his instincts led him to dodge and he saw the sickle dig deeply into the wall where his head had been. On reflex he reptile kicked the ranger in the chest and grabbed the wrist holding the sickle. He gasped as the ranger's free fist slammed into his gut right before he was flipped to the ground.
The Knight Ranger was nearly growling with fury and his mind was clearly clouded. Kalix rolled away from his enemy and sprang to his feet only to hiss as a crossbow bolt shot clean through his shoulder. He saw the ranger preparing another shot and ducked and rolled to the side. As he stood again he found himself being pummeled by a furious ranger and couldn't do anything to defend himself. When he fell the ranger pinned him to the ground and continued beating him, but Kalix had the presence of mind to finish his plan. Using his tail the evil reptile pulled a small circular device from his boot and slammed it onto the ranger's back.
The Knight Ranger stiffened and bellowed with agony as white-hot electricity surged through his suit and body. If there was one thing ranger suits were bad at blocking it was electricity, a fact Kalix had learned quickly. It almost seemed like the material ranger suits were made of just conducted pure, raw electricity without hindering any of the charge. Kalix was relieved when the Knight Ranger slumped over, knocked unconscious by the extremely powerful blast. With little trouble the reptile shoved the limp ranger off of him and pulled himself to his feet with a little more effort than he cared to admit. He looked down at the defenseless ranger and briefly thought of killing him, but decided it went against what little honor he had to kill something that wasn't able to fight back.
"Thank your stars ranger that I have more honor than most of the beings that have come here." Kalix said.
The reptile then turned his attention on his prizes. On a pedestal in the center of the chamber were five glowing gems. Kalix knew from his research that the Gems of Power were supposedly linked directly to the source of all ranger powers, but unlike the devices rangers used to call on the power the Gems of Power had no limit to how much power they drew. Used properly they could do immense good or terrible evil. But the Gems had proven to be unusable by any power rangers and most normal beings couldn't even touch them. Kalix didn't even try to touch them. He used his telekinetic power to lift them up and drop them in the pouch he had brought with them, but even through the thick fabric he could feel power of the Gems burn at him. He glanced down at the prone Knight Ranger and smirked.
"It was a nice try ranger, but one day all of you will realize that good doesn't always win."
With that Kalix left the temple and went back to his shuttle. He had what he wanted and all he needed was the transfer of power. Then he would be able to go back to Lothor with a force strong enough to impress the evil space ninja…just long enough to overthrow him.
ZzZzZ
Lothor watched with growing annoyance as the rangers took turns beating up his latest monster, teasing and taunting it like it was nothing. He was starting to get tired of failure and of the rangers in general. Why couldn't they just be defeated? Nothing seemed to be able to beat them as of late and on that note he decided to not even supersize his latest failure. He looked around himself and wondered where he had gone so terribly wrong. Things had started out right. He had captured all the ninja academies except for three ninjas that had just happened to known for tardiness. If he had known how much trouble they would cause he would have gone down himself and finished them before they had an inkling of ranger power.
"My lord, there is a ship approaching our vector." Zurgane announced. "It is Kalix's ship sir. I am arming our weapons."
"Not yet." Lothor said. Something inside him felt strangely reassured to hear Kalix's name. Though the reptile had never been good at hiding his obvious desire for Lothor's position he was a capable general and Lothor sorely missed his presence in the army. "Let's see what he has to say."
In a matter of seconds Lothor was looking at his ex-general's scaly face. Kalix bowed his head with respect even though he no long served the space ninja. Lothor eyed Kalix's reptilian face warily for a minute before the reptile began speaking.
"My lord Lothor I come with the request of re-joining your army." Kalix said.
Lothor rolled his eyes. "I guessed that already. Why should I let you anywhere near my army? Tell me one good reason why I shouldn't just destroy you and your ship."
"Well, I heard you were having problems with rangers so I've brought you a solution." Kalix said. "Interested?"
Lothor eyed the reptile cautiously. Kalix was devious and traitorous, but he would not take the risk of approaching Lothor if he didn't have something viable. Nothing else was working for Lothor and he surmised that it wouldn't really hurt to give Kalix another chance.
"Alright Kalix, let's see what you've got." Lothor said.
Kalix showed his teeth in a reptilian smile and stepped aside. Lothor immediately felt extreme jubilance surge through him at what stood behind the ex-general. He knew the rangers wouldn't stand a chance.
ZzZzZ
"And Lothor sends another dud." Dustin laughed as he and the rest of the rangers made it back to Ninja Ops. "When is the dude gonna learn his lesson?"
"He's an evil space ninja, my guess is they don't learn lessons." Tori replied, used to Dustin's often inane comments.
"Oh." Dustin said as if actually disappointed. No one paid him any mind as they were all used to his behavior by then.
"I'd say nice work, but you hardly had to do anything out there." Cam said, not looking up from the computer.
"Yeah, is it just me or is Lothor totally slacking?" Tori commented.
"Now is not the time to get cocky Tori." A deeply soothing voice spoke. The rangers looked over as a guinea pig flipped onto the table beside them. The Wind Ninja's Sensei watched them all with calm black eyes that showed the true intelligence of the being trapped in the form. "I fear Lothor still has much to throw at you. You must not let your guards down."
"We won't Sensei." Shane promised.
Soon after the rangers began to split up and do their own thing. Dustin, Hunter, and Blake headed to Storm Chargers to work while Shane went to the skate park. Tori went home to spend some time with her parents. All seemed calm. None of them knew the hardship they were about to face.
ZzZzZ
The peaceful buzz of downtown Blue Bay erupted with confused terror. People shrieked and scrambled out of their cars as powerful explosions destroyed them. Building crumbled as their lower levels were weakened. Innocent people found themselves stuck half in the ground while others were left hanging from street lights and yet others were drowning in poles of water that shouldn't have been deep enough for anything of the sort. The town was in total chaos and the question everybody had was not where are the power rangers, but rather, why are the power rangers doing this?
Indeed, to the stunned citizen's total horror it wasn't a monster or even an army of monsters that were terrorizing them. It was five powerful humans that were supposed to be protecting him. It was the five beings they had put their trust in to keep them safe. The Wind and Thunder Ninja Rangers were terrorizing the town worse than any monster ever had.
ZzZzZ
Cam could hardly believe what he was seeing. The fully morphed Wind and Thunder Rangers were running amok in Blue Bay and doing worse things than monsters did. He had to put a stop to it.
ZzZzZ
Dustin wasn't even surprised as the bracelet on his wrist chimed. He looked up at Blake and Hunter who both put down the boxes they were carrying. The three of them made sure Kelly was still out getting lunch before they answered. They were instantly taken back by what came through.
"Guys, what the hell are you doing?" Cam demanded.
The three boys shared a confused look. "Uh, working."
"Very funny Dustin." Cam snapped. There was a pause and then Cam continued. "Alright, morph and get downtown and quick. I'll have Shane and Tori meet you."
The three boys shared another confused look before they once more made sure no one was around. Sure that their identities would be safe the three rangers morphed and ninja streaked to the downtown area of town. Just as they arrived Shane and Tori did as well, morphed and ready for whatever the problem was. None of them were prepared for what they saw. It was like watching themselves in a mirror only their mirror selves were destroying everything and harassing innocent civilians. For a long moment the rangers stared in utter confusion, before Shane realized they should be stopping the doppelgangers.
"Hey!" Shane shouted, but was unable to say much more. He wanted to make a smartass comment or just say something reprimanding their clones, but he was too furious to think straight.
The five exact copies turned to face the originals, standing so that their positions matched exactly. Both sides stared each other down for a long moment before the doppelgangers began to laugh. The sound was strangely mechanical and almost seemed to echo. For a long time that's all they did was laugh as if the sight of the original rangers was the funniest thing they had ever seen. Finally the laughter died down until only one was still laughing, the yellow one, until the crimson one smacked it and then that one stopped laughing too. There was a pause before the red duplicate began to speak, the voice just as strange sounding as the laughter had been.
"So, you're the power rangers, huh? You don't look like much to me."
"Yeah, they promised us a challenge." The crimson look alike sneered.
"You haven't even fought us yet." Hunter retorted.
Crimson laughed again, the sound becoming chilling and deadly. "Then let's change that."
In a flash Hunter was separated from the group and on the ground clutching his stomach. His look alike stood over him with a foot on his chest. Hunter growled, grabbed the foot and rolled, throwing his duplicate to the ground. In an instant both were up and exchanging attacks so rapidly the normal human eye would never have been able to follow. It wasn't long before the copy gained the upper hand and Hunter was sent reeling with his suit sparking.
Blake ran to his brother's side and reached down to pull the older boy to his feet when he was suddenly attacked from behind. The Navy Thunder Ranger was sent tumbling, but used the momentum to roll to his feet and face his attacker. His duplicate stood before him silently, but the body posture screamed that he was being mocked. Blake charged his foe but quickly found himself at the receiving end of a brutal beating.
By then all the rangers were fighting with their doppelgangers and they seemed to be losing. The copies were pounding the originals into the ground. Suddenly the red one whistled and the team of apparently evil rangers broke off. They once more formed a line in front of the rangers, who slowly began to pull themselves up. Hunter supported Blake, though it really seemed as if he was just leaning his weight against Blake and the two were supporting each other.
"See, hardly a challenge." Crimson said tauntingly.
"Who are you guys? You're no rangers." Shane snarled weakly.
"You're right, we're not." Red said.
Lightning crackled around the five duplicates and the rangers had to cover their eyes. When the smoke cleared from around them the five copies didn't look like the rangers anymore. Their suits were mostly black with silver outlining the visors on the helmets, the gauntlets, and the lightning symbols on all their chests. The inside of the lightning varied in color matching with the ranger they had previously impersonated. The suits had their respective colors decorating the chests and helmets where the color seemed to sweep toward the back of the head and create a spine like appearance. Their helmets had white faceplates that almost gave the impression that they were smirking, which behind the masks they were. All and all they looked extremely intimidating and utterly evil.
"We're Psycho Rangers." Crimson announced.
"And we're here to destroy you." Navy continued.
Yellow looked over at him. "Nice way to state the obvious moron."
"Hey, don't call me a moron!" Navy yelled. He started to make a move toward the Yellow Psycho, but Crimson grabbed his shoulder and held him still.
"Will you two focus?" Red snapped. "You can destroy each other once we deal with these losers."
"We're the losers? You're nothing more than copies!" Hunter taunted in reply.
The Crimson Psycho started to make a move, but Red stopped him. "We do this together. Psychos show them what these copies can do!"
The two sides streaked at each other at the same time and they clashed with brutal power. The teams paired off, each ranger fighting their psycho counterpart, and moved at speeds the human eye couldn't even follow. Suddenly Tori found herself nearly wrapped around a streetlight, the metal bent from the impact. The Psycho Blue picked her up off the ground and threw her through the wall of a nearby building. Tori managed to get to her feet, but one arm was wrapped around her ribs in pain.
"Pathetic." Psycho Blue sneered, her voice the same metallic, mechanical echo as the others.
At the same time Blake was kicked out of the air so hard his body made a crater in the street. Psycho Navy dropped down on top of him, pinning the ranger down. Blake, though in pain, had the strength to throw himself to the side and switch their positions. Unfortunately for him Navy had a chance to pull his feet up and plant them in Blake's chest, flinging him backwards into a car. The metal shrieked as Blake hit it with enough for to not only leave a dent and break the glass, but to move the car several feet from where it had been.
"Blake!" Hunter called, distracted by the sight of his baby brother nearly unconscious on the ground.
"Better worry about yourself kid." Crimson snarled.
Hunter didn't even have time to react before Psycho Crimson showed how a shield could be used as an effective offensive weapon. Crimson bashed Hunter repeatedly in the head making the ranger stumble back until the psycho maneuvered just right to smash the back of Hunter's head. The Crimson Thunder Ranger went down hard and didn't get back up.
A few yards away Dustin dove into the ground in a desperate attempt to buy himself some time, but Psycho Yellow followed easily. The psycho ranger grabbed Dustin by the throat as the two ejected themselves from underground. With a laugh that sent chills up and down Dustin's spine just before energy crackled over the psycho's gauntlets and into the yellow ranger's suit. Dustin cried out as his suit sparked and crackled as if a thousand watts of electricity was surging through him. He couldn't think clearly enough to fight back or try to get away, he could only hang limply in his new nemesis's grasp.
"I'll see you bowing before me wishing for your death before this is all over with." Psycho Yellow sneered, his voice clearly expressing the insanity hidden behind the helmet. "Scream for me ranger." And with an increase of power Dustin couldn't help but do just that.
And the most surprising thing was that Psycho Red was hardly doing a thing to Shane. He slashed him across the chest with his Psycho Saber and then quickly maneuvered behind him. The psycho ranger locked his arm around Shane's neck and wrapped the other around his chest pretty much putting the red ranger in a helpless position. Shane struggled, but the psycho cut off his air supply with a simple flex of muscle.
"Calm down." Psycho Red intoned in a falsely gentle voice. "I just want you to watch. Watch as you fail your team."
"No." Shane growled, then choked as his airway was squeezed shut again.
"Oh yes." Red sneered. "Look at them. The Crimson Ranger is out cold. The Blue Ranger is out of sight, probably getting her ass handed to her. Your Yellow Ranger is having a shocking experience. And the Navy Ranger can't even get to his feet." Psycho Red laughed mockingly, the sound eerily chilling. "You're failing them just when they need you. What kind of leader are you?"
Suddenly a torrent of water smashed into Psycho Red and sent him flying. Shane fell to the ground as Tori ran up to him and helped him to his feet. She was limping and one arm was wrapped around her chest, but otherwise she seemed fine. Shane wanted to ask her how she had managed to get away from Psycho Blue, when the evil being in question streaked out of nowhere and slammed Tori away from Shane. The Red Ranger started to go to her aid, but a kick to his midsection sent him flying into a wall and then straight through it.
"Psychos, it's connection time." Psycho Red announced through their communication link.
The psycho rangers then did something that no monster before them could. With one hand on a ranger's head they began to basically copy their enemy's mind. Instantly they were learning fighting styles, tactics, tricks, and other various things they would need to know in order to soundly defeat the rangers. But the psychos didn't want to just defeat the rangers, they wanted to make them suffer. They wanted the rangers to be defeated in spirit before they were beaten physically.
"Now I know everything about you red ranger." Psycho Red taunted. "You can't beat me."
"We'll see about that." Shane snarled definatly, albeit very weakly.
Dustin had long since stopped struggling against Psycho Yellow. He barely had enough strength to keep his eyes open, let alone fight back. Psycho Yellow was still laughing like some crazed mad scientist. Dustin briefly wished the Crimson Psycho Ranger would come over and smack Psycho Yellow just to shut him up, but the thought was lost very quickly to the pain he was feeling. Other than keeping his eyes open not another muscle in his body would respond to his wish to move. It didn't help that Psycho Yellow was ramming him into the wall repeatedly and he was losing all sense of reality.
Then just as suddenly as it had all started the Psycho Rangers were gone leaving one very beaten ranger team behind. Shane was the only one who could stand without limping and to him that was worse, because he had watched his teammates get knocked around and he wasn't able to help them. It tore him up inside and though he tried to stop it doubts about his leadership abilities began to filter into his mind. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind and got to his feet albeit a little unsteadily. He slowly stumbled his way over to the closest to him, who happened to be Tori.
"Tori?" Shane shook the blue ranger's shoulder. He sighed in relief as she groaned in response. "How bad are you hurt?"
"I'll be okay. She didn't really do that much to me." Tori replied. She winced a little as Shane helped her to her feet. "How are the others?"
"Haven't checked yet." Shane said. He motioned towards where Blake had been fighting Psycho Navy. "Go check on Blake. I'll check on Hunter and Dustin."
Tori stumbled away to where Blake was trying to get up, while Shane found Hunter sprawled across the road. He was a little frightened to see the most powerful of them unconscious and helpless. If just one of the psychos was powerful enough to beat down Hunter, then what did that say about the group as a whole?
Just as Shane knelt beside Hunter the thunder ranger stirred and groaned. Hunter raised and hand and tried to press it to his aching head, but the helmet got in the way. He let Shane help him into a sitting position, but had to put his head between his knees and take deep breaths to keep from passing out. Shane put a hand on his shoulder, but Hunter knocked it away with a grunt of annoyance. Understanding the mood Hunter was in Shane decided to leave him alone and instead went to where Dustin was lying almost completely still except for the uncontrolled twitches that happened every once in a while.
"Dustin."
No response.
"Dustin, answer me man." Shane gently shook the yellow ranger, but still got no response. He started to panic and shook him a little rougher. There was still no response. He looked around at his other teammates and found they were starting to recover a little. "I'm taking him back to Ops."
Without another word Shane picked up Dustin and ninja streaked away.
ZzZzZ
Lothor laughed as he watched the Psycho Rangers tearing into their foes. It was so good to see his forces winning for once. He especially enjoyed seeing the Thunder Rangers getting pounded. Traitors always got what they deserved.
"I've waited for this day long enough." Lothor said with glee. He expected to watch the five Psychos finish off the rangers, but instead they teleported away. Lothor was beside himself with anger. "Why did they stop?"
"Perhaps they want to make the rangers suffer." Kalix said. He knew that was the case. He had told them that he wanted them to break the rangers emotionally before they destroyed them. Lothor had no clue that only Kalix could give them orders.
"I don't want the rangers to suffer. I want them dead." Lothor growled.
"I'll talk to them my lord." Kalix said. "But do they please you? Have I earned my place back?"
Lothor shot the reptilian creature a look. "We'll see."
Kalix bowed and left the room. Zurgane stepped up to his master. "Master, surely you do not trust that snake."
"Of course not." Lothor snapped. "He is nothing more than a pawn, but his Psycho Rangers are going to prove very useful to me. Very useful indeed."