A/N: Here we go, let me know what you think :)
Chapter 3
Evie and Jayden were waiting outside the shop for Mia, and Evie was watching Jayden fail at using one of the sweet machines.
"Evie," he whines.
"Oh baby, is the evil sweet machine being mean to you?" she teases.
He looks at her pleadingly. "Evie."
"How can I love such an idiot?" snorts Evie as she pushes off the wall and shoves Jayden out of the way before twisting the handle at the same moment she hip checked it, and the red gumballs landed in her hand.
Rolling her eyes before popping a gumball in her mouth, "our fearless red ranger, beaten by a sweet machine."
Jayden goes to protest but Evie just shoves a gumball into his mouth and hands him the other ones.
Mia walks out of the shop at that moment.
"Can I take that for you?" offers Jayden when he sees the bag.
"Oh thanks," smiles Mia as she hands it to him.
Jayden looks inside it, Evie as well and they both share a concerned look.
"Ick, oysters, chocolate sauce, brussels sprouts. You sure you got everything you need for this recipe?" asks Jayden cautiously.
"Sure am," smiles Mia.
Evie immediately begins trying to think of ways to ditch the bag. "Uh that sounds interesting."
Mia smiles. "The secret is to mix the ingredients in just the right way."
"I'll be sure to explain that to the paramedics," nods Jayden.
"What?" asks Mia.
"Oh, um, nothing," he quickly puts a gumball into his mouth.
"Please let there be a Nighlok attack, please let there be a Nighlok attack," murmurs Evie sending a plea out to the universe.
Jayden looks at her and nods as they walk ahead, lacing his hand with hers.
Mia walking just behind them.
Evie drops her voice. "We've got to find a way to tell her".
"How? We can't without hurting her feelings."
"She's literally going to poison us all. Never mind the Nighloks, we'll have been done in by one of our own," hisses Evie.
"I know," agrees Jayden.
They continue walking when Jayden's samuraiser chirps and he flips it open.
"Got it," he nods before looking at Mia and Evie, "let's go," he says.
They nod and Jayden deliberately drops the bag as they go.
"Thank you universe," says Evie, she just hoped what they were about to face wasn't worse than Mia's cooking.
The three of them arrived in time to see a Nighlok with a huge shell on its back, chasing civilians.
"Nighlok, that's enough!" shouts Jayden to get its attention.
"How dare you talk to me like that. How dare you talk to me at all." snarls the Nighlok.
"No more talking is fine by me," retorts Jayden.
"Yeah, I've always been a fan of non-verbal communication," agrees Evie as all three pull out their swords.
"Maybe I'll have some fun with these losers before I take them down."
"You're the one who is going down," retorts Mia.
"Ha, you're nothing but a joke. Now let's see, what would be the funnest way to mash them into bits?" cackles the Nighlok.
"Enough of this," decides Jayden and the three of them launch forwards at the Nighlok.
"Wait, what you're actually going to attack me," laughs the Nighlok, "check this out," he snorts as he rolls up into his shell.
The swords land on the shell, completely ineffective.
"Huh?" asks Mia looking at it.
"Ha, your swords feel like pillows," he cackles before sending the three of them backwards.
They roll with coming up in defensive stances and continuing to attack, but nothing gets through and the Nighlok continues to repel them.
"Nothing penetrates his shell," realises Jayden.
"Its too damn hard," agrees Evie.
A moment later Jayden and Evie are sent flying, Evie landing hard on top of him, Mia soon joining them on the floor.
"Guys!" yells Kevin as they run up to them.
"Are you okay?" asks Emily.
"Better now you're here," answers Mia as they help them up.
"What's this guy's story?" asks Mike as they look at the Nighlok now in his shell completely.
"He's a ball?" asks Emily.
"Don't underestimate him, we can't even dent his shell," advises Jayden.
"I'll take a shot at it," says Kevin, "hydro bow!" he shouts and sends a shot at the Nighlok shell, and like all previous attacks it does nothing.
"Ha you new guys are even lamer."
"Damn it" swears Kevin.
"Don't worry Kev, I've got you," answers Mike as he sends a blast from his spear at the Nighlok, but it too has no effect.
"Don't you get it, I'm invincible," laughs the Nighlok.
"My turn," says Emily, "Earth slicer," she calls and sends it at the Nighlok, and it bounces off as if it were nothing.
"This is getting boring. Leave now or you'll need someone to carry you away," warns the Nighlok as he comes out of his shell.
"Not one of our attacks had worked," cries Mia.
Suddenly Bulk and Spike run onto the scene, "we're here" they beam.
"Oh shit," swears Evie.
The Nighlok turns and roars at the two of them and they let out a scream before turning and running away.
"What the hell was that about?" asks Mike.
"Ugh I'll tell you later," huffs Evie, the last thing they needed was the two idiots getting in the way.
"Go help them get to safety, we'll hold off the Nighlok," orders Jayden.
"Nothing's going to happen on my watch," assures Mike.
Jayden nods. "Good, but don't take too long, we're going to all need to be work together to beat this guy."
Mike and Emily turn and rush off.
"Speaking of where the hell is Antonio?" asks Evie.
"Hopefully he won't be long," says Jayden.
"How about I just mash you together?" cackles the Nighlok as he comes rolling at them, smashing into them and bouncing between each of them.
"Ha, my impenetrable shell triumphs again," he crows as all four of them find his shell is just as hard when its smashing into them, and they're completely powerless against it.
Mike and Emily had just got to the edge of the plaza when they see what's happening.
"Guys!" yells Emily as they start running back.
"Damn it, you got lucky, I'm drying out, but I'll finish you later," warns the Nighlok before racing off.
"Get back here!" shouts Mike but the Nighlok was already gone.
"How do we stop him if nothing we do even slows him down?" groans Kevin as he pushes himself up from the floor, the others doing the same.
They power down and head back to the house.
"Are you okay?" asks Evie when she notes Jayden rubbing his side.
"Yeah, while you might not weigh much normally, you pack a punch when you're thrown, but I'll be okay," assures Jayden.
She winces. "Sorry."
"Not your fault," repeats Jayden, "we've taken worse hits." He kisses the top of her head.
"Yeah but how many more can we take?" points out Mia.
"He only backed off because he was drying out" agrees Kevin.
"We didn't even dent him" huffs Emily.
They reach the house, "Nothing gets through his armour so how do we beat him?" asks Mike looking at Jayden, his annoyance clear.
"We'll find a way. He must have a weakness," replies Jayden.
"May I remind you that not one of our attacks damaged him at all?" counters Mike.
"Not one of them," murmurs Kevin an idea forming in his mind.
Jayden sits down on the stool and rubs his eyes, sometimes he really felt the weight of the others expecting him to have the answers.
Evie rested her hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"Like Jayden said, there must be some crack in his defences," agrees Ji.
Kevin suddenly straightens up. "That's it."
"What, do you have an idea?" asks Jayden as he comes to his feet and Kevin dashes up to them.
"Yeah, I think I cracked the code. We just need the right ranger, with the right attack, in the right order. We'll beat him as a team," he smiles.
The others nod and smile.
"Speaking of team, where is Antonio?" asks Emily.
"I couldn't reach him," explains Ji, "but I'll try him again." He pulls out his own communicator, unaware of course that Antonio's samuraiser was in the hands of Bulk and Spike, and he was totally oblivious to that fact.
It rings but Ji gets Antonio's voicemail, "you know me I'm probably out finishing. Holla back." Ji shakes his head, "Antonio please call us back," huffs Ji before hanging up. "I wonder what trouble he's gotten into this time," he sighs before walking out of the room.
Kevin shuts the book he was flipping through. "Seriously, that guy is a trouble magnet."
"Guys, he might be a jokester but he takes this stuff seriously," reminds Emily. "He wouldn't just ignore our calls. He could be in real trouble."
Suddenly the gap sensor blares through the house.
"We have to worry about him later. Right now, we have a Nighlok to stop, and a plan to put into action," says Jayden looking at Kevin.
The six of them race out of the house morphing as they do so. They just had to hope this plan worked, or this was not going to end well.
They raced through the city following the sounds of screams and terror and saw the Nighlok rolling after people, attacking them.
"There he is!" yells Mike.
"You fools again." The Nighlok cackles as he comes out of his shell.
"But this time, we're shutting you down, hard," retorts Mike.
"Ha, this just proves how foolish you are, thinking you could win," answers the Nighlok before rolling back into his shell and launching at them.
"Time for Kevin's plan, phase one" says Jayden calmly.
"Right," nods Emily.
"First we'll use his own speed against him," agrees Mike.
Evie smirks. "This is going to hurt."
"Symbol power, barricade," they activate, a wall of vines, earth and metal appearing in front of them.
"That's right you better hide," laughs the Nighlok, before he crashes into it, and was thrown backwards with a shout of pain, coming out his shell.
"That was stone cold rangers," he groans as the wall breaks on top of him.
Mike snorts. "Ha, us one, you nothing."
Jayden activates his spin sword. "Now phase two."
"You got it." Mia pulls out her sky fan.
"I'm still fine, I can't lose," points out the Nighlok.
"We're not done yet," retorts Mia as she sends a blast from her fan at him, "my wind."
"Makes my fire stronger," finishes Jayden as he sends a fire blast with Mia's wind.
"Oh woah," says the Nighlok as he spins letting his shell take a hit. "You're right it did make it stronger, that tickled."
Jayden smirks. "Phase three."
"On it," nods Kevin, "you still can't see the writing on the wall, can you Nighlok?"
He draws his symbol, "time to get you out of that shell, tidal wave!" he shouts and sends the almighty blast at the Nighlok.
"That should do it." He steps back.
They look at the Nighlok, who starts to laugh, "all you did was clean my indestructible shell," he smirks as he turns to face them. "Thanks for the wash," he laughs.
"You sure that's all we did?" asks Jayden unable to keep the smugness out of his voice.
"What? Oh, my shell, its cracking," cries the Nighlok as the sound of it breaking was audible.
Kevin smiles. "Your armour might be able to handle any single attack, but the right attacks, in the right order, even your armour isn't strong enough to take it all."
Evie smirks. "First we softened it, then we super-heated it, and then we cooled it."
"And now, we're going to deal with it permanently," finishes Jayden.
"Impossible!" cries the Nighlok.
"Time to get cracking," nods Kevin and the six of them charge at the Nighlok.
"Think again," retorts the Nighlok as he fends off their attacks and sends a blast, which knocks them aside.
"Your fancy combo attacks can't defeat me."
"Guys I think I can do this if I can get to his shell without him noticing, but Em I'm going to need you," says Kevin.
She nods. "Whatever it takes."
"And use this," adds Jayden handing over the black box.
"You sure?" asks Kevin.
Jayden nods. "Never been more sure."
"Do you thing, we'll keep this freak busy," agrees Evie as she turns and launches another attack, the others joining her, as they distract the Nighlok so Kevin can work his magic.
"So you've come back for more huh?" cackles the Nighlok as he continues to defend against their attacks, sending his own attack that Jayden blocks.
Kevin nods to Emily.
"Symbol power, hole!" It activates, "good luck," she adds as Kevin jumps in the hole allowing him to appear behind the Nighlok without him noticing.
Mia and Mike keep a hold of the Nighloks arms, Evie switching to her whip and flicking it out to loop around both his wrists as well.
"You should've hidden in that hole too," snaps the Nighlok.
Kevin activates the super samurai mode as he emerges behind the Nighlok, Mia and Mike releasing his arms and Evie pulling her whip back.
Kevin launches more attacks. "Super samurai mode makes me even more powerful."
"Nice try blue," cackles the Nighlok.
"I'm not done yet", retorts Kevin as he activates his super samurai attack, amping up his usual attack. Kicking him into the air he sends the attack and the Nighlok explodes into nothing.
"Way to go Kevin!" beams Mia as they close in on Kevin.
Jayden smiles as well. "Good job."
"White looks good on you" smiles Evie.
"You're the man," nods Mike.
"It is kind of awesome," admits Kevin looking at the black box.
"Too bad it's not over yet," replies Emily as the Nighlok grows into his second life.
"Time to take care of my little pest problem."
"Oh yeah, your problem is about to get a lot bigger," warns Kevin.
They activate their megamode power and form the mega zord.
Kevin plugging in the black box as well.
"Perks of super samurai mode, megablades." They activate.
The Nighlok laughs, but it doesn't deter them as they activate their disks.
"Katana power, samurai strike!" they yell and launch it at the Nighlok.
He turns and deflects it on his shell, "nice try," he laughs, "but my shell is healed, and I am invincible," he adds as he launches himself at them and they all feel the hits as their thrown around the cockpit.
"We know what we need to do, time for a shell shocking combo," urges Kevin.
"Right," nods Mike as he activates the beetle zord and combines it with the megazord.
"First hit him with heat," advises Kevin.
"Got it." Mike sends a blast at the Nighlok.
"Uh oh déjà vu," realises the Nighlok.
Kevin activates the swordfish zord next and sends a blast of water at the Nighlok.
Evie looks at Jayden, "finish it off."
"With pleasure," smirks Jayden as he activates the tiger zord and they use the drill attack.
"Damn it I'm invincible, stop it!" yells the Nighlok.
"Its still not enough," realises Mia.
"I never thought I'd say it, but we could really use a golden moment," admits Evie.
"Then we'll have to do it without him," decides Kevin, "the black box means we can." He activates the union disk, calling on the clawzord and merging it with megazord and sending a double katana strike at the Nighlok.
As it clears their eyes widen, "that wasn't enough?" asks Kevin in surprise.
"One thing left, and it better work," says Evie.
"Samurai artillery," activates Kevin.
"Battle canon blast!" they shout and send a blast at the Nighlok each one praying for it to be enough, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the Nighlok explodes.
"Samurai rangers, victory is ours." The relief evident in Jayden's voice.
"I am so having words with Antonio," mutters Evie as she leans against the console.
They shrink the zords and power down.
"Okay that might've been the toughest one yet," admits Mia with a sigh.
"I agree" nods Evie.
"Let's go home," says Kevin.
"We can't." Emily protests.
"Why not?" asks Evie.
"Antonio, we still don't know what happened to him," reminds Mike.
Evie huffs. "We just had to pilot his zords for him, I'm going home and taking a bath, I bet you the idiot just wasn't paying attention."
Kevin groans. "He is a trouble magnet."
"He'll be fine," agrees Jayden.
"Well I'm going to go and look for him, he said he was going fishing this morning so I'll check there," says Emily.
"I'll come too." Mike laces his hand with Emily's.
She smiles.
"When his inevitable idiocy is revealed, tell him the bathroom is out of use until I say so. And when I see him, he's getting a boot up his ass," answers Evie rubbing her back where she'd landed on Jayden earlier and jarred when she'd been thrown against her console.
The four of them start heading home while Emily and Mike walk towards the water front where they knew Antonio liked to fish and sure enough, when they arrived they see him with his headphones on, fishing like nothing had happened.
"There he is," says Emily.
"Oh good now I won't feel so bad about hitting him for making us worry," replies Mike as they walk towards him.
Emily suddenly stops and gasps, "is that Antonio's morpher?" she asks as she picks it up.
"Looks like we've got to bail him out again," says Mike.
"And I thought you were bad for losing things," smiles Emily fondly.
Mike turns to her affronted. "I'm not that bad."
"No, Antonio is definitely worse, I bet he doesn't even know it's gone." Emily leans up and pecks him on the lips before they walk over to Antonio.
Mike pats him on the shoulder and Antonio jumps and turns, "Oh hey," he smiles pulling his headphones off.
"I think you dropped something," says Emily handing over his morpher.
"Wow thanks, do you have any idea what Mentor would do to me if I lost this thing?" asks Antonio as he takes it.
"Yeah about that, you didn't check your messages today did you," smirks Mike.
Antonio's eyes widen and he flicks the morpher open, "34 missed calls," he reads, "what did I miss? Are you guys alright?" he asks.
"Should we make him sweat about it?" asks Mike with a smirk looking at Emily.
Emily smirks. "Definitely." She laces her hand with Mike's and they turn and start walking away. "Especially Evie's threat."
"Wait what, Evie's threat?" asks Antonio in a panic. "Guys!" he cries as he grabs his trolley and races after them. Using the word Evie and threat in the same sentence never meant anything good.
The group sat around the table as they ate a meal that all were thankful had not been cooked by Mia.
"I'm sorry the Nighlok made us drop the ingredients," apologises Mia.
Evie shakes her head. "It's alright Mia, fighting Nighloks comes first."
"Well I'll get some another time, and hopefully we won't get interrupted," replies Mia.
"Not if my prayers are answered," mutters Mike.
"What?" asks Mia.
Mike starts guiltily. "Oh nothing, just talking to myself."
They continue eating when Mike looks at Evie, "hey you never told us who those guys were that showed up?" asks Mike.
Evie lets out a snort of laughter. "Oh them, yeah that's Bulk and his nephew Spike. Bulk went to high school with Tommy, apparently, he and his friend Skull spent a good portion of the spare time trying to figure out the identity of the Angel Grove power rangers, Spike is Skull's son and Tommy seemed a little concerned he'd reproduced."
"Do you think they were trying to figure out who we were?" asks Kevin in concern.
"No they mentioned something about being samurai, I think they're trying to mimic us rather than unmask us." replies Evie, "though that Spike is a little creepy," she adds.
"Why?" asks Mike.
"He kept staring at me, its was unnerving, could've done with you there actually." She looks at Jayden.
Antonio scoffs. "Like you couldn't take him."
"Yeah but sometimes its much quicker and much simpler for your boyfriend to wrap his arm around you with a pointed look, makes them back off without bloodshed usually being required," replies Evie.
Antonio chuckles. "Especially when they look like Jayden I'd imagine."
"Exactly. Even if it might've hurt less if I'd landed on someone a little less in shape today," she teases.
Everyone just laughs and continues eating, despite the difficulty of the Nighlok and Antonio's spectacular blunder they were all home, safe and no one was seriously injured. And another Nighlok had been sent packing back to the Netherworld. All in all, a pretty good day as far as the ranger were concerned.