This story is a collaboration between Cmar and MzDany. While it is action/adventure, it also contains slash, in the form of Wes/Eric and Cam/Hunter. It's based on background events in MzDany's C/H slash series and Cmar's 'Red Fire' slash series.
Doomtron might have been damaged, but there was no way to tell as it stood, waiting for them, in the clearing its fall had torn in a patch of forest in the park. Wes took a second to look for signs of people in the area, and to his relief found none. At least they could go all out without fear of killing someone, although damage to the trees and wildlife was bad enough.
"Megazord mode," Alex's voice said in his communications link. The Shadow Winger turned in midair and transformed, a process as startling to see as the one that changed a normal human into a Power Ranger. It slowed, parts reconfiguring until it took on the shape of a huge, armored humanoid robot and landed on its feet with a heavy thump, now as the Time Shadow Megazord.
"Remember how to operate the Time Force Megazord, Wes?" Jen asked.
"Hey, it's like riding a bicycle. You never forget. Time Force Megazord, Mode Red!"
In an instant Wes was taken back four years to what he realized he'd started thinking of as the 'good old days', as the flyers separated from their jet configuration and changed position around him before rejoining into a second humanoid shape. As the dizzying maneuver completed, he was automatically relocated into the megazord's control room, where he dropped into place behind a control console. Jen, Lucas, Trip, and Katie had appeared next to and behind him.
"Samurai Star Megazord!" commanded Cam's voice.
Curious, Wes paused a moment to watch as the Samurai Ranger's combination helicopter and jet underwent a similar transformation, its rotary blades changing shape to become a star-like breastplate over its giant robot form.
He jumped as a familiar voice came over the link, more mechanical than he remembered but still recognizable. "I will destroy you."
"We'll see, Frax," he said grimly. The three of them faced Doomtron. The odds were on their side - and yet, Wes remembered fighting the previous version of Frax's ultimate weapon with this same megazord and the Q-Rex, which was probably the most powerful fighting machine Time Force had ever built. They had come close to losing then.
But a glance in the direction of the destruction already marring downtown Silver Hills wiped out any doubts. There was no way they would let the city suffer the way it had four years ago. They would win because losing was not an option.
The Invisaportal had deposited Lothor right outside Silver Hills City Hall, from where he had watched Frax's initial attack.
With a highly satisfied sneer he viewed the chaos all around him; the terrified cries of the fleeing civilians clogging the streets, chased by his army of kelzaks and cyclobots, was sweet music to his evil ears. Further up ahead, in a park of some sorts, Frax's Doomtron zord was battling what seemed to be three other Megazords.
Probably those two pesky red Rangers' zords, he thought, his grin widening as Doomtron drove forward and landed a blow that had one of the other huge machines staggering precariously. It made him laugh out loud with glee, savoring his temporary partner's imminent victory for a moment, before he re-focused on the objective of his own mission, namely to find Cam and Hunter.
First, a better vantage point... Lothor looked around. In a tiny decorative park just in front of City Hall, on top of an eight-foot stone pedestal, stood the bronze statue of six helmeted figures. Their left arms were raised in a uniform pose.
Silver Hills' heroes. The Time Force Rangers. Lothor wanted to hurl at the sight.
With a cry of rage, he launched half a dozen powerful energy beams at the statue, toppling it almost instantly. The sculpture barely touched the ground before the evil space ninja had already leapt onto the pedestal.
"Ah, much better." With a content nod he surveyed the near-anarchy all around him from several feet higher up.
"You there!" he called to the nearest kelzak, "Take as many drones as you can and scour the city for my nephew and the blond Thunder ninja!" The drone bowed and scurried off, avidly motioning to all its nearby clones as it went.
Hands on his hips, Lothor once again let his eyes wander over the scene below him, soaking up the aura of chaos, fear and utter destruction all around him. A wave of adrenaline surged through his system and he fixed his gaze back onto City Hall.
"Well, might as well do something productive while I wait," he smirked, and flicked several beams from his wrist towards the building's front entrance. The huge oak doors disintegrated, the shockwave shattering every single window on the ground floor into millions of pieces. Screams could be heard from inside, and Lothor cackled. "Ah, it's good to have a hobby!"
He launched more beams, this time not even aiming, getting more and more caught up in the same mindless destruction his golden counterpart was engaged in halfway across the city.
He was enjoying himself immensely - until he heard the distinctive sounds of multiple engines rapidly drawing closer behind him. His head swung around and for a moment he was frozen in shock at the multi-colored sight.
"NO! It can't be!"
Doomtron attacked swiftly, charging forwards straight at the Time Force Megazord. Wes wondered if Frax's robot remembered fighting and almost destroying them before... if it was capable of memory... but that wasn't the same Doomtron, he reminded himself. Maybe Frax remembered. As they were all shaken by the impact of collision, there was no more time to think about it.
"Come on, guys! Fight it!" Jen shouted over the clank and rumble of metal.
"Man, we're out of practice..." Wes pulled out the sword controller and swung it. The giant zord echoed his movement and struck out at the bronze robot with its weapon, while using its shield to fend off the hooked limbs reaching for them.
"It's just as strong as before!" Trip cried.
"Look! Out there!"
Wes turned his head at Katie's shout, glancing back at the city streets visible on their viewscreens where he saw a mass of cyclobots, plus the strange, black-suited kelzaks Lothor commanded. They were attacking, with no one to stop them. Just as he was wondering whether they should split up to protect the people he saw running...
"Hey! It's Hunter!" Cam's voice shouted. "And they got the others out!"
"They made it!" Wes found himself grinning in relief as five colorfully suited figures came into sight and began to cut into the ranks of drones.
Eric must be out there too, somewhere, and hopefully safe. But he realized he might not be able to say the same for themselves as Doomtron's chest cannon opened fire on them. The Time Force Megazord staggered back, almost throwing Wes off his feet as it toppled onto the ground with a deafening crash.
The TF Eagle swooped down in a wide loop over downtown Silver Hills just in time for Eric to see the black-clad and masked figure blow the Time Force Rangers' statue to microscopic pieces. "Hey, I earned my spot on that pedestal!" he cried in outrage. "You are so going to pay for this, buddy!"
But before he could circle back and get low enough to aim the Eagle's weapons, a deafening crash vibrated through the air. Eric yanked his head around just in time to see the Time Force Megazord go down.
"Wes!"
Without hesitation, Eric steered his aircraft away from City Hall and towards the park.
"Wes!"
"Eric!" Wes shouted in reply as the familiar voice came through the communicators.
"Hang on!"
He could hear an indrawn breath from Jen as they saw the TF Eagle soar into view, firing its lasers towards Doomtron. The huge machine, however, was completely unaffected. Almost casually it raised a hand, swatting at the Quantum Ranger's agile aircraft as if to shoo away an annoying mosquito.
Eric was putting himself at risk to protect them... and he wouldn't stop until he thought they were safe. "Come on!" Wes cried. "We have to get up! Move this thing!" He grabbed at the controls, saw his teammates do the same, and to his relief felt the mighty machine obey, starting to push itself up as the Time Shadow stepped in to draw Doomtron's attack away from them.
"We're all right!" he shouted into the comm. system. "Help Hunter and the others!" To his relief, he saw the small aircraft loop once more, safely out of range of Doomtron's reach, before picking up speed and heading back to the city streets.
Lothor stifled the urge to rub his eyes. 'It's a trick. It has to be,' he thought desperately as he stared in morbid trepidation at the five sleek motorcycles that had come to a stop a mere few feet from the pedestal. Five color-coded Wind and Thunder Rangers were looking up at him from behind darkened visors, the lasers of their Tsunami Cycles - still smoking slightly from mowing down several dozen of his drones - pointed right at him.
"Give it up, Lothor," the Red Ranger called. "You are not walking away from this one!"
Trying desperately to regain some of his composure, he cast a covert glance beyond the Rangers to where the remainder of his drone army was assembling itself. He willed himself to look smug as he glared down on the five teens. "I'm not falling for this! I don't know how you escaped the island, or how you got your oversized BMX bikes to work again, but you do not have your powers back." He crossed his arms as he spoke. "I'm impressed by one thing, though. That any costume store would be carrying these suits already when it's still two months until Halloween!"
"Our suits are as real as our recovered powers," Dustin cried. "And you're gonna get a taste of those right now!"
"So it's come down to this, eh?" the evil space ninja snarled. "Face to face, mano a mano. Just you Rangers and me..." Lothor leapt into the air in the midst of his sentence and somersaulted, yelling while still airborne, "...and my drones! Kelzaks! ATTACK!"
Promptly, faithful drones were swarming over the assembled Wind and Thunder Rangers from behind them like a herd of locusts.
Lothor landed sure-footedly next to the Crimson Ranger's Tsunami Cycle. Hunter reached for his Thunderstaff, but before he could unsheathe it the evil space ninja grabbed the front of his suit with iron fingers, lifting him right out of his seat. An instant later, Hunter found himself sailing through the air. Upon his descent, the Crimson Ranger instinctively rolled off his shoulder, but Lothor was already on him again. A fist with the force of raw evil behind it connected with his chest, forcing the air from his lungs. Then suddenly, Lothor was behind him and a leather-wrapped arm forced its way under Hunter's helmet and around his throat.
"One down, five more to go," the masked ninja's voice sounded snidely.
Cam watched in dismay as the megazord containing the five Time Force Rangers was hit hard and collapsed. He could only hope they were all right... Eric's TF Eagle appeared in another instant, narrowly avoided being swatted, and then zoomed back into the city as the Time Shadow moved in. Now it was up to him and Alex to continue the fight against an opponent that had just proved how strong and fast it was.
As he hesitated, the Shadow Megazord moved closer, stopped, and fired a rocket at point-blank range. It hit Doomtron, the force of the explosion driving both machines apart. Shadow then raised a large, double-edged sword and attacked, bringing it down. Doomtron blocked, almost knocking the weapon out of its hand.
"Hold on, Alex!" Cam shouted. He triggered a spider power sphere, sending it out to entangle Doomtron's powerful arms, pinning them down and dragging the robot back a step. But then he faced the danger himself as it turned, raised its clawed hands, and cut the bonds.
"I must destroy," came Frax's flat, robotic voice again.
"No good!" he heard Alex call. "We're not strong enough on our own. Can that thing combine?"
"With the Storm and Thunder megazords, yeah, but..."
"Let's try it!"
"We'll need a minute!"
"You've got it! Mode Blue!" he heard Wes shout from the Time Force Megazord. It was back up, and changing again, this time to a lighter, more agile-looking form. It took a running step and lifted into a kick, heading off Doomtron's attack as his and Alex's megazords moved closer together. He reached for the combination triggers... No telling if this would work, but if it did... They would gain new weapons from the hybrid machinery that would result, hopefully stronger ones.
Hunter fought against the surge of panic as his air supply was abruptly cut off. He tried to get a grip on the suffocating arm while attempting to land some backward kicks and punches - anything to get some air back into his already fuzzying brain. It was to no avail; the pressure against his windpipe was relentless. Hunter wished he could call out to Blake, but his brother as well as everyone else was fighting an unabating tide of robots and drones at least thirty yards away. They would not reach him in time...
Then, out of nowhere, Lothor stumbled forward with a cry of pain and the chokehold around Hunter's throat loosened just enough for him to wrestle free and stagger away from the evil ninja's grasp. He coughed as the air rushed back into his lungs, clearing his vision enough to see Lothor trading kicks and punches with a red-clad figure. Eric.
Hunter looked up; the Time Force Eagle was circling overhead. Eric must have leapt right from his flyer and literally onto Lothor's back.
The Quantum Ranger landed a kick that had the masked villain stumbling back a few paces and suddenly he was beside Hunter. "You okay, man?"
Hunter nodded. "Yeah, thanks, but I was just getting ready to finish him off," he croaked.
Eric's helmeted head turned. "Uh...huh, yeah, sure, kid."
Hunter pulled his Thunderstaff. "Well, now that you're here, I guess you can pitch in," he said, taking pains to sound dignified before he charged the evil space ninja. Eric shook his head, chuckled and pulled his Quantum Defender, converting it to blade mode as he rushed after the Crimson Ranger.
But Lothor was strong. Even with two Rangers tag-teaming on him, he still managed to dish out a fair share of painful hits. Eric went sailing through the air after a vicious punch, the evil ninja immediately following up with a series of purple energy discharges from his wrist which would have struck the Quantum Ranger dead on if Hunter hadn't converted his Thunderstaff to shield mode in a lightning-quick move to deflect the beams.
Eric scrambled back to his feet to watch Lothor dodge his own reflected energy shots. "Looks like you do know how to use that stick of yours after all."
The comment was half-approving, half-cynical, and Hunter couldn't help himself. He turned to his red counterpart. "Yeah, and mine's bigger than yours." He nodded at Eric's blade, then dashed off for another attack on Lothor.
Eric decided to let that one slide for now, turning instead to check on the status of the rest of the team. The four Ninja Rangers were braving the army of mechanical enemies, but Eric could see from their body language that they were tiring. Clearly, the kids needed help.
His eyes went to the low-flying aircraft circling on auto-pilot overhead and he raised his morpher. "TF Eagle," he called out, "concentrate firepower on all non-human life forms!"
Immediately, the sleek little flyer's weapons deployed, sending a spray of laser fire into the sea of mechanical bodies below. Satisfied, Eric clutched his Defender a little tighter and went to help Hunter pound on Lothor.
"We can't hold on much longer..." Lucas' voice was strained, almost as if it was his own body that was being battered by Doomtron's swinging hooks and blasting cannon.
"Look out!" Wes couldn't tell who had screamed it as they were all thrown violently out of their places to crash against one wall, bounce, and fly into the opposite side in a bright burst of forced demorphs. Dazed, he realized the megazord had fallen again. The control room was rapidly filling with smoke. As he tried vainly to untangle himself from wreckage and his teammates, Wes looked up at the displays showing the monster looming over them, preparing to finish them off... until another giant lumbered into view.
"Look! They combined!" Jen said. "Look at that thing!"
They watched as the combined Time Shadow and Samurai Star megazords - 'Shadow Star' was the name that sprang into Wes's mind - stepped in to take over the fight. Wes felt his heart pound as it raised a heavy sword and spun it with surprising speed into Doomtron's bronze side. The giant robot staggered, sparks showering from a gash, but then it charged again, plowing into the new megazord and driving it back relentlessly.
"Alex, watch out!" Jen cried.
"Destroy. I must destroy," they heard Frax repeat.
"Man, can't he say anything else?" Wes muttered. "But he'll do it if they can't stop him..."
Faintly, he heard more voices over the communications link: both Alex and Cam, in unison. "Time Strike Power Sphere!"
Breathlessly, they watched as the Shadow Star's chest hinged open and a brightly gleaming green and black metallic sphere shot out. It hung in the air, spinning, for a moment, before its surface opened and released a stream of translucent globes, like soap bubbles. They flew at Doomtron, bursting as they struck in multicolored flashes, more and more of them, faster and faster, until their target was blanketed in destruction. Now frozen in place and helpless, the robot disappeared in a blaze of explosions.
"Wow, it's-" Wes was cut off as a fireball roared out from Doomtron, so bright he had to shield his eyes. He felt a wave of heat as the megazord rocked with the impact. And then it was over, the silence that followed seeming to echo with the violent conflict that had just ended.
The brilliant white light came a second before the ear-shattering explosion from the several blocks away, and Lothor knew instinctively that Frax was no more. The incandescent flare of Doomtron's destruction halted the battle between him and the two Rangers for a moment as all three reflexively held up their hands to shield their eyes. With his ally gone, Lothor made up his mind in an instant and used the brief moment of distraction to yank his remote control out of his coat pocket. He depressed the button � and depressed it again. Eyes widening in surprise and apprehension, he stabbed the button a few more times until Hunter's voice made him look up.
"Oh, did we forget to tell you that your transporter is busted?" The grin in the Crimson Ranger's voice was evident.
"Actually, the whole island is busted," the Quantum Ranger chimed in.
"ARGH!" Lothor threw the remote aside. "That's it; I'm going to finish you pesky..."
His words were cut off by the sudden appearance of the Red and Yellow Rangers at the Quantum Ranger's shoulder at the same time as Navy and Blue emerged next to Crimson. Lothor all of a sudden found himself with three Ninja Swords, two Thunderstaffs and a Quantum Defender pointed straight at him. Behind the multi-colored ensemble, heaps of smoldering mechanical parts attested to the fact that there was no more backup to rely on. He was alone.
"Time to wrap this party up," the Red Ranger's voice said and they all took one step forward.
Lothor held up his hands and let out a heavy sigh before he let them fall to his sides again. He rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Gods, I hate it when they win."
By the time Wes and his team had climbed out of the damaged Time Force Megazord, Alex and Cam had separated theirs and converted them back into their Winger and helicopter forms. They all walked slowly and cautiously between the bits of rubble that had been Frax's creation, and collected into a weary group.
"Any sign of Frax?" Alex asked.
"Just this. Just pieces. He must have been completely blown apart." Lucas nudged a scrap of golden metal with a booted foot.
"I feel kind of bad," Katie said. "From what Nadira told us, he wasn't really evil. He only acted that way because of what Ransik did to him."
"Whatever this Frax was, he wasn't Dr. Fericks," Trip said. He was staring at the readout of a handheld scanner. "There's no trace of human tissue. Only machinery. This was only a robot."
"Where do you think it came from?" Wes asked. "Was it the robot part of the old Frax? Or did someone build a new one?"
Jen sighed. "My guess is that someone - maybe even some leftover cyclobots - rebuilt him without the human parts. Time Force will investigate, but I suspect we'll never know for sure. Either way - he's gone, this time hopefully for good."
Eric was the first one to spot Wes, Cam and the five white-clad Time Force officers approaching them through the rubble of the hundreds of destroyed cyclobots and kelzaks. Without taking the Defender's aim from his masked captive, he raised an arm and waved.
There was a lot of cheering, congratulating and back-slapping as the two teams met. Hunter introduced his brother and the Wind Rangers to the Time Force Rangers, but not before he enveloped Cam in a bear hug. Wes and Eric settled for a touch on the shoulder and an exchange of relieved nods.
"So what are we going to do with him?" Shane jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at Lothor. At that question, the masked villain suddenly straightened up, folding his arms, a smirk beginning at the corners of his mouth. He had obviously come to the same conclusion the Rangers undoubtedly had; that there was no prison on Earth that could safely hold him.
"Cast him back into the Abyss of Evil?" Tori suggested, but Cam shook his head.
"Can't. The new seal is too powerful to be broken. No one can get out - but no one can get in, either."
"Bummer," was Dustin's dejected comment. The others nodded in bleak agreement.
Blake snapped his fingers at Cam. "Shoot him back into space!"
"Too risky. He might find a way to get back here, no matter what backwater planet we banish him to."
Hunter turned towards the Black Time Force Ranger. "Can't you guys take him with you?" The look on the young Thunder Ranger's face behind his open visor all but screamed, Please!
Alex sighed; as much as he wanted to take this criminal off the Ninja Rangers' hands, he had to decline their request. "Unfortunately, since he is from this time period, we can neither detain nor bring him to trial in the year 3004. Time Force regulations. I'm sorry."
Perplexed silence fell among the assembled Rangers. It was Jen who finally spoke up.
"We may not be able to take him with us, but that doesn't mean that we can't prep him for long-term detainment here," she said, catching Alex' eye. The Time Force leader held her gaze for a long moment, obviously weighing the possible consequences of her unspoken suggestion, but then he nodded.
"I think in the interest of public safety, it would be justifiable for us to assist the local Ranger team in the detention of this criminal." He cast a stern look at Lothor whose face had taken on a worried expression behind his mask.
"Wait a minute, what are you going..."
But Alex had already whipped out his Time Force badge, pointing it in the direction of the masked ninja. Before he could activate the cryogenic beam, however, Cam held up his hand. "Whoa, what are you getting ready to do?"
Without lowering the badge, Alex replied, "First I'm going to shrink him to miniature size, then I'm going to put him into cryogenic stasis inside a cryo-capsule for long-term storage."
"You're going to freeze him?" Cam said, an incredulous look spreading across his features.
Lothor flinched visibly. "Hold on there, I really don't think there's any need to go to such extreme measures," he spluttered, and Cam surprised everyone by nodding solemnly.
"I hate to say it, but I agree," he said. "That does seem like an unnecessarily cruel punishment. Besides, wouldn't that still be considered a Time Force penalty?"
"Well, that's a point, since we technically don't have any jurisdiction here..." Lucas began.
"Is there any way to just leave him powerless, so he can be locked up safely?" Cam wanted to know.
Alex's brows furrowed in contemplation. "Well, if we shrink him, all of his special abilities would be gone. As long as someone in this time would be willing to be responsible for him, it would be safe enough to leave him unfrozen," he concluded.
Cam nodded, obviously more pleased with that option. "Then let's do that."
Alex depressed a button on his badge and an instant later Lothor was engulfed in a bright blue beam that gradually contracted in size until it was no larger than a can of soda. And when the beam finally ceased altogether, so was Lothor.
The evil space ninja looked down on his shrunken self with a look of utter horror. "NO, not that again! You can't do this to me. Not again!"
Cam crouched down beside his miniature uncle. "At least you're not worse off than you were before," he said, not even hiding his grin as he picked up the little ninja by the back of his leather coat. Feet pedaling, cursing and punching the air with his tiny fists, Lothor could do nothing but glare at the grinning faces of the dozen Rangers inspecting him from all sides.
Hunter elbowed Cam playfully. "Dude, he makes the perfect pet for your dad."
"You're right," Cam smirked, "It's a good thing I kept his old habitat."
To Be Continued...