Welcome to the Neighborhood

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers or anything familiar.

xxx

It was a bright and beautiful day. The usual cliché descriptions to describe a wonderful day- the sun was shining, the pretty blue birds in the tree were singing their melodious songs, and there were little clouds in the sky shaped like different sorts of objects. Adults took the opportunity to take their kids out for walks or for a swim or simply just for a picnic and some family bonding time. It was a perfect day to head to the beach to relax and just unwind.

Perfect, that is for anyone who wasn't worrying about their kinda brother who was still held captive by a possibly mentally unstable girl, who had other worldly powers and a split personality that could change with a drop of a dime. And unfortunately, Z, Jack, Sam, Sky and Syd fell under the 'worrying about their friend, mentally unstable, under worldly powers girl' category.

"So did you guys come up with a plan?" asked Z, immediately when she spotted the group of four arriving. She had reached there early, really early- and unluckily, so was Sam. His sister had dragged him out of bed in the wee hours of the morning and made him come with her first. Though Sam had insisted that he knew how to get to the meeting point himself and wanted to sleep in, Z still stubbornly brought him along with her.

"Where's Sam?" asked Sky. Z motioned towards the bench. Sam was lying down on it, sleeping deeply. "Is he really that tired?"

Z nodded affirmative. "I kinda asked him to come along with me first, just a little earlier," she said, feeling slightly guilty. Jack gave her a disbelieving look. "Okay, fine. A hell lot earlier happy? So anyone come up with anything, any plan? Cause I didn't manage to think of one."

"Well…" Jack paused dramatically. "Nope, nothing, zilch. Couldn't think of anything. How about the rest of you guys?"

"Nope."

"Nothing."

"Uh uh," said Sam, now awake, shaking his head. He glared at Sky for waking him up.

"So what do we do now?"

xxx

"The time is now," said Mora, gleefully. She had been looking forward to the morning. There was a major fight in store, or something like a major fight. "Go get them tiger," she said, as if cheering on her brother in a competition. She snapped her fingers and with a flash of bright light, Bridge disappeared.

Mora picked up the abandoned Cindy Sunshine. "Cindy, look! We have something to watch today, a fighting show. Won't this be the most fun thing ever?" she asked, happily. She manipulated her dolly's head to nod. "That's right Cindy. I'll go get something to snack on!" Running quickly to the 'Kitchen' quarters of the ship, she grabbed a packet of chips and ran back to the room, afraid of missing out on anything that might have happened during her absence. Nothing did. "This is going to be fun," she said to herself, smiling. Who cares if Emperor Grummy missed out on this? As long as she could watch it. After all, this was her plan. And it was coming into action...

xxx

"This is hopeless," moaned Sam. They had ran through a couple of ideas. All resulted in inevitable death for all of them, and sometimes even including Bridge. "It's impossible to save Bridge without getting killed. Unless…" An idea occurred to him. Who was supposed to save the day? Who was supposed to protect the people of New Tech City, and even sometimes the world? The answer was simple. "We could ask the people in SPD to help us. I mean they would help right? They are suppose be the people to help the people who need help. And we need help. And we are people."

"That would be a good idea," said Jack, thoughtfully. "If we didn't know that the staff of SPD have more important things to do than to locate a missing friend. Plus would they even listen to us? If we just show up and tell them that some weird girl just naps us all with weird robot things and that she let us all go except for Bridge because she wants to have tea with Bridge? I think they'll throw us into the mental hospital, lock the door and throw away the key. Or they might lock us in an experiment lab when they find out that we have powers, cause I don't think that they met anyone else with powers before. Mental hospital, experiment lab, or left to our own devices? I vote the third option."

There was a moment of pause, when they thought about what Jack said. Then Sky broke the silence. "You know Jack. You think too much." Jack gave a short bow. "That wasn't a compliment," informed Sky wryly.

"I know," replied Jack. "So shifting the topic from the wonderful, fabulous, awesome, incredible me and my too much thinking problem back to the lost Bridge. Basically, we have no idea how to save Br-"

There was a flash of light. "Jack… We don't need a plan anymore," said Z, softly, but still loud enough for the group to hear. "He's here…" She pointed to where the flash of light appeared, and they turned to the direction.

It was Bridge. But he looked different. Not psychically though. It was a feeling. He seemed darker and oddly enough… Sinister. The playful gleam in his chocolate brown eyes was replaced by dull, cold, blank orbs that seemed lifeless. But that couldn't be right, right? Maybe it was just the trick of the light. Or the experience in the place with that girl had just shaken him up badly.

There was a moment of hesitation. No one dared to approach Bridge, because of the new vibes that surrounded him. Then he smiled. It was eerie, vampire like, not like Bridge at all. "Aren't you going to welcome me back?" he asked, his voice (was it?) with a hint of malice. His voice sounded different too. Colder, and more distant. It sounded like there was hatred in his voice. They were unsure of how to respond. All knew that this wasn't the Bridge they unwillingly left behind. "What's wrong?"

"Who are you?" asked Jack. "You're not Bridge."

He smirked. "Don't you recognize me? I'm Bridge. After one day and you can't even recognize your own friend?" he replied. His smirk grew bigger. "Here's something I got for you aboard the ship." A few seconds passed. They seemed like eternity. They felt a sense of dread, a sick feeling in their stomachs as they waited for their 'gifts'. A similar flash of light appeared and in it's wake was a bunch of the robots, Krybots, and another robot with a blue 'X' head, a Blue Head. "Hope you like them," he said.

"What's going on? Bridge, what are you doing?" asked Z, afraid. What was Bridge doing? She balled her fists up, preparing to fight if need be. Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw the others doing the same. Sky took a step in front of Sam, a sign of protection.

A doll appeared along with the robots. Cindy Sunshine. From it, that scary girl's voice emerged from it. "Hello. I think you realize something wrong with your friend." She sounded awfully happy for someone about to tell a group of people that she had brainwashed their friend and had ordered him to destroy or capture them. "That's because I did it!" she squealed enthusiastically. "I made your friend my dolly! So now I have two dollies to play with! Cindy and this boy. I said I'd let him come back to Earth, but I didn't say if he was going to be himself. I love loop holes!" Then as sudden as Cindy appeared, it disappeared, with Mora's shrill giggling.

"I hate loop homes," grumbled Jack. "So what are we supposed to do? We can't fight Bridge, cause he's still Bridge but he is just brainwashed so he doesn't know what he's doing or that he's Bridge. And if we don't fight, how are we suppose to defend ourselves? This is stupid. It's like no matter what we do we are still screwed..."

"We can't hurt Bridge, but we can hurt them," replied Z, talking about the Krybots and the Blue Head. "Then when they're out, we'd just figure out a way to help Bridge…"

"Blah, blah, blah, blah," mimicked Bridge, he made his hand like a chatterbox. "Are you guys going to stand around and talk all day? Cause I don't want to. And they don't want to either. Go get them," he said, ordering the Krybots and the Blue Head. "Time to play."

"Uh oh…. We lost to them once. Who says we won't loose to them again?" said Syd, a few days in the neighborhood and already neck deep in trouble. What else would go wrong?

"Cause this time I'm awake?" suggested Z, her eyes glowed. A duplicate appeared beside her.

"Sam I think you should-" Before Sky could finish ordering Sam to leave the place, he was interrupted by an attacking Krybot.

"No! I can take care of myself," replied Sam, hotly. He teleported a garbage bin and made it land on top of a Krybot.

"Guys, just use your powers," instructed Jack, receiving eye rolls in return for his obvious instructions. He phased through the ground, causing the two Krybots that were attacking from the sides to crash head first into each other. A classic move he saw he most action movies. As he phased out of the ground, he was met with the Blue Head. "Bring it on," he said, through gritted teeth.

Sky was getting a few good hits too. Letting out a karate yell, he roundhoused a Krybot then flipped back to create a force field, blasting a few Krybots away. Then he spun around and kicked the robot that was trying to sneak up behind him.

Things were disappearing and re-appearing on top of the offending robot's heads at Sam's end. His knowledge of martial arts was not as wide as the others but he still had a few tricks up his sleeves. Imitating Jack, he waited for two robots to attack him from both sides. Then he teleported himself away, and the two robots smashed into each other.

"Fist of Iron!" cried Syd. With her newly iron-ized fist, she was armed and ready to take on the Krybots. She cart wheeled away and punched a few of the Krybots. They buzzed and fell to the ground, holes in their 'chests' and wires peeking out.

However things weren't going as smoothly for Z as it were for the others. She was against Bridge. "Bridge, stop, please," said Z, desperate for her friend to come to his senses and help them against the robots and not trying to destroy them. "C'mon, it's me! Z!" But it was futile, she couldn't override the mind wipe. "Guys! Any ideas?" she cried, as she ducked a jab that Bridge gave her. She was answered with negative replies.

"Wait! I know!" said Sky, suddenly as he destroyed another Krybot with his force field. "Let him read your memories. Get his glove off and-"

"And let him read my memories! God, Sky I love you!" replied Z. "Plan for getting it off?" She flipped away as Bridge tried to land a blow on her. She couldn't bring herself to attack him. Though evil, he was still her friend, her brother.

Then he stopped and the robots stopped fighting and fell to the ground, except for the Blue Head. "Mora wants to be fair. And she wants to have a nicer show to watch. She says she's going to give you five minutes to come up with a plan to 'save yourselves'," said Bridge.

"Really?" asked Sam, wary of Mora's loop holes.

"No. Not really." Three dozen Krybots appeared, all fully functioning and not spoilt. "She's lying." A group of ten Krybots appeared. "Just give up, you'll never win," said Bridge. Another group of Krybots appeared. There were fifty-six Krybots already gathered. "Good luck."

xxx

OK, done with this chapter. Yay it crossed my word limit :D

Blackie Frogz

p.s.: I'm getting a little stuck on the next chapter. Just a question, what do you think Jack and Sky are afraid of?