Disclaimer: Power Rangers and all its related logos are property of Saban and/or Disney Entertainment. I am using them without permission, but I do not intend to make a profit. I mean it, I don't. If I do happen to make some quick cash from it, I promise to sponsor a child for seventy-five cents a day with the money I made. Possibly even two of them.

A/N: This fic takes place with the assumption that power rangers is and always were real, though the secret identities of the rangers have remained secret over the years. You may see cameos from other rangers, but this will deal primarily with original characters. It is set some time after Dino Thunder, but before SPD.

Thursday March 3rd, 2005 5:59pm ... Reefside, California

"We are ready?" Cassidy asked.

Devin scurried over the opposite end of the café, adjusting the camera on the tripod in an attempt to get the best possible shot of Cassidy. His goal was to fit in as much of the café as possible as well, and allow room for Cassidy to interview her guest. While he'd grown accustomed to working as Cassidy's cameraman over the years, things were changing for them. Thy were no longer high school reporters, they were working full time at channel six news, and often times they weren't given assignments together. Cassidy had become a rather popular field reporter, and Devin was demoted to editor and forced to stay in studio most of the time, clipping and editing for the news aired.

For this assignment, however, Cassidy convinced Mr. Cormier that Devin was perfect for the job. The two of them had history in that café, making them the ideal team to cover the story.

"Just about Cas," he paused, getting the camera in focus. "You look great," he admitted.

Cassidy couldn't help but blush. "Thank you."

"Alright, everything is set, we're on in four, three, two…" he allowed his sentence to trail off, and then pointed to her, letting her know she was live on the air. A small red light on the camera blinked on to confirm it.

"This is Cassidy Cornell with channel six news, reporting to you from Hayley's Cyber Space. Today marks a landmark in our cities' history, the release of the very first power rangers video game, created by Reefside's own, Ethan James," she paused as Ethan approached her. "Ethan, the power rangers have tirelessly defended not just our city, but the world from unspeakable evils. Why a video game?" she asked him.

"There is no denying what the power rangers have done for us over the years, and lets face it, what little kid didn't want to be a power ranger when they were growing up? I know I did, especially that blue ranger, there was something about him…" he caught himself from going overboard. "What I've done is with the help of a lot of dedicated people is gather as much information about the power rangers as possible, and incorporated that into a next generation virtual reality video game. Now, players will be able to live out the life of their favorite ranger and fight the forces of evil," he told her.

"What about their secret identities? Will this game reveal those?"

"No, our research did not lead us to their identities, and we don't want to reveal them anyway. They're heroes, and they deserve their privacy now that they're job is done. This game is more or less a way to honor what they've done. In the game, you'll be able to pick any ranger from any point in history, use special powers and in some cases, even call for the zords to defend the city. Each ranger will have a unique ability, something that no other ranger can do. The co-op play will allow for five people to play in one area at once, all of them working together to defeat evil. For true gamers who are able to beat the game, there is a special treat in store for you, but believe me when I say that this game is nearly impossible to beat. I designed the game and it took me six tries to get through it all," he confessed.

"So when can people expect to this their hands on this game?"

"The game is in stores now and available for PC. Tonight there will be a special game launch here at Hayley's Cyber Space with a full 3D virtual simulator of the game available for play. Everyone is welcomed to come down and participate. Its tonight at 8pm, but the doors will open at seven, so get here early," Ethan said.

"Thank you for your time Mr. James. For channel six this has been Cassidy Cornell reporting…"

"Oh my GOD!" Jen screamed, spitting out her soda and almost falling off the couch as she heard the announcement. "A power ranger video game! Awesome!"

She got back to her feet, regaining her composure and rushing down the hall, around the corner and into her parent's room. Her mother was standing near the bed folding clothes.

"Hey mom!"

"What is it Jennifer?" she asked in a monotone voice.

"Can I go down to Hayley's Cyber Space tonight for the power rangers video game debut?" she asked her.

Her mother stopped what she was doing, going around and looking at her daughter. "Honestly Jennifer, I don't understand why you're not into more feminine things. You're fourteen now, and power rangers are for boys" she said.

"That's not true, there are girl power rangers."

"That's besides the point. I'm grateful for what the rangers have done for us, but that's not something I want you to be a part of."

"I'm not saying I want to be a power ranger, I just want to go play the game."

"It's a good thing, we both know you wouldn't fit into those spandex uniform," he mother mocked.

"Awww mom, I…"

"Don't you awww mom me, it's a school night. You have homework, chores, and responsibilities around the house. There is no way you're wandering off into the bad part of town on your own for some convention where the men dress up in spandex," she told her.

"You'd let Markus go, wouldn't you?"

"Markus is three years older than you. Yes, I'd let him go."

"This doesn't have anything to do with how old he is, its because he's a boy. If I were a boy, you'd let me go," Jen pointed out.

"You know what? You're right. Your brother could go, but you can't. Its time for you to start acting less like a ninja and more like a girl. You spend hours at a time on that blasted computer doing God knows what, and when you're not on there you're at one of those karate classes you insisted on signing up for. Its not healthy Jennifer, and I want more for you than that," she explained.

"Mom please, tonight is the debut of the game. I'll go and promise to be home in time for…"

"I've made my mind up on this Jennifer, and the answer is no," she told her.

"Dad would have let me go," she pointed out.

"Your father isn't here, now is he?" she paused. "Now go wash your hands and get ready for dinner. Its meatloaf night," her mother told her.

Jen stormed into her room, slamming the door behind her, and immediately sitting down in front of the computer. A push of a button turned her computer on, and within seconds, she was online.

Maybe her mother was right, maybe it was time to do more feminine things. She was developing into a young woman now, in high school now, finally realizing that it was okay to have warm, fuzzy feelings for boys. Power rangers were the protectors of the city, and for as long as she could remember, she wanted to be just like them. She wanted to do good, to help people, to defend the city. 'A lot of good I'll do if I can't even get out the house. Sorry guys, can't help you save the world tonight, I have a test to study for,' she grumbled inwardly.

Just then, a screen popped up on her monitor.

Zetagreen: Have you heard the news?
RevolutionChick: About the game, yeah
Zetagreen: So we're going 2nite, right?
RevolutionChick: (face-sad) no
RevolutionChick: Mom says I can't go
Zetagreen: R U serious? That's lame

RevolutionChick: Yeah, it is
Zetagreen: Are you at least getting' the game?
RevolutionChick: Mom isn't going to give me
any money to buy it. Guess I'm out of luck
Zetagreen: A friend of mine works at the game
store, I'll get it, burn it and send it 2 you as
an attatchment. That way you can at least
get online and play it with me
RevolutionChick: Thanks Zeta. U're the best!
RevolutionChick: (face-kisses)
Zetagreen: I know. No worries. G2G.
RevolutionChick: kk. Ttyl

Zetagreen was one of her closest friends. Oddly enough, she'd never met him. The two of them corresponded via an internet web site for power rangers, and became fast friends. Both of them had an interest in the rangers. In fact, one of the people who belonged to the website shared the same feelings about the rangers as they did. The board itself, Power Rangers Universe, was an online community with people from all over the world, all of them discussing various aspects of the rangers, including their identities.

It was at that moment that Jen decided that regardless to what her mother said, she was going to be there. She was going to Hayley's Cyber Space and she would be in the tournament, even if it meant being grounded for a month. 'Small price to pay,' she thought to herself. With that in mind, she hurried over to her bedroom window, opening it as quietly as she could, then climbed out, closing it behind herself.

Ethan sat at the bar in the café, doing over readouts on his laptop. He was so involved in his work that he didn't hear Hayley walk up behind him, setting down a drink down next to him.

"Everything okay?" she asked him.

He nodded. "Yeah, kinda. It looks like a lot of people have hacked into the game's subroutines," he said.

"You can tell how many people hacked into your game?"

"I incorporated a trace imprint on every game. Its like a silent alarm. When certain files are accessed, a warning goes off. I designed it so I'd know if the demonites were up to no good again, but it doubles as a great way to keep up with hackers," he told her.

"So people are hacking the game. Does that mean they'll be using cheat codes to make their rangers even stronger?"

"I hope so, we're going to need all the power we can get for this," he sighed.

"But it'll only be in a the game, right? When the time comes, will you be able to compensate for all these new powers they create?"

"I have a direct link to the Morphin Grid thanks to this disc Dr. O gave me, I should be able to calibrate it to compensate. I only hope that the hackers are smart enough to put their mods into a flash stick so they can be uploaded into the main game," Ethan said.

"I hope you know what you're doing Ethan."

"Me too. This is the only chance we have, that the city has, that Rick has," he sighed.

The gold ranger, power staff in hand, surveyed his surroundings. The city itself had been all but destroyed; buildings that were still standing were on fire and on the verge of collapse, ash and soot trickled down from the sky like black snow. Slain enemies surrounded the ranger; some of them were Quantrons, others were Tyranodrones, there were even a few putties in the mix. All of them motionless as the ranger walked through the wreckage of the city, hoping to find any signs of life.

The battle had been an intense one, one that the gold ranger didn't expect to survive. The foot soldiers came in waves of 50, all of them hell bent on destroying him. With no sign of any comrades, no one to assist in the battle, the gold ranger was alone. To make things worse, power levels were drastically low, and another wave of foot soldiers would surely deplete any remaining power.

"Is anyone here?" the gold ranger called out, hoping to come across someone, anyone.

But there was no one to be found… at least no one alive. He stumbled across the lifeless corpse of a ranger, who was laying face down on the ground. He put his weapon down, tending to the fallen ranger. The gold ranger rolled him over, only to reveal it was…

"It's the white ranger," he sighed. "Hey, man, are you okay?"

Before he had a chance to wait for the response, he felt a riffle pressed up against his back. "You should have known better to drop your weapon. Now you'll share the same fate as your friend here," a voice said.

The gold ranger paused slightly, spinning around and hitting a sweep on his would be attacked. As the assailant fell to the ground, the gold ranger grabbed his weapon and aimed.

"Damn it Patrick, don't sneak up on me like that," he said, reaching out his hand to the green lightspeed ranger, helping him back to his feet.

"Sorry man, I was just getting a good at the place. This is awesome; did you know this is a totally free roaming environment? I must have traveled through three cities before I headed back here, and most of California is reproduced perfectly. I even went by my house!" he said with excitement.

"Yeah, it's pretty good, but while you were out exploring, I've been kicking ass. I just made chop sewey out of a wave of Tyranodrons, but my power level is at four and I won't survive another wave. I could use some help."

"I got your back Carl," Patrick told him as he walked around getting a good look at the place. "Wow, you really did a number on this place, didn't you? There isn't a building left standing."

"There were four waves, I'm surprised I'm still standing."

"Four waves? Wow. Keep it up and you'll get your level up in no time."

"That was the plan."

"I don't see how the rangers did this all the time. Fighting the baddies day in and day out, it must have been tiring," he said.

"Actually, I have a theory on that."

"I bet you do."

"No, I'm serious, I…" he paused as, from out of nowhere, a group of Putrids appeared. "Hold that thought, its go time."

Two of the putrids rushed at him, but the green ranger called for his saber, slicing one ad that came towards him. The other knocked the saber out his hand, and then shoved him up against a wall. The wall collapsed, and the ranger fell backwards into the building. As he hit the floor, it cracked, giving him an idea.

"Come and get me clay for brains!" he taunted.

As the group of putrids came through the hole in the wall, the floor collapsed under the weight of the group, sending down for a floor below. A few of the purtrids stepped around the hole in the floor, charging at the green ranger again. One of them had his saber, swinging and slicing him across the chest, forcing him to fall back. It swung again, but this time the green ranger stepped aside, hitting a sabat kick to one of the putrids, knocking it back and sending it tumbling through the hole in the floor. Next, a roundhouse kick knocked the saber out the putrids hand. The green ranger did a back flip, and, in mid air, caught the saber. On the way down, he sliced the only remaining putrid in half, sending them falling to opposite sides.

"Your time is up!" he proclaimed, standing proudly.

"Actually, that's a time force ranger expression, not lightspeed," the gold ranger said as he walked into the building, admiring the damage his friend had done.

"I never can keep those straight."

"But that goes into my theory. I don't think the rangers did this day in and day out; I think that every few years new rangers were selected. Someone chose new rangers to battle new evils. Otherwise, the rangers would be in their mid forties trying out here flipping around in spandex," Carl mentioned.

"That's ridiculous. Who would be put in charge at that? Who would decide who gets ranger powers?"

"I don't know, but it makes perfect sense. Think of it this way; the rangers identities are always kept a secret, except for a few times. Once during an alien invasion where the rangers revealed themselves, and the lightspeed organization in Marnier Bay, but if you recall, they were completely different rangers. It seems more likely that once a big bad is defeated, the rangers step down and new rangers are chosen," he said.

"Maybe, but I…" they stopped as they stumbled across what looked like a portal of some kind. It was an orange swirling vortex, but it didn't look like the rest of the environment.

"This isn't part of the programming for the game," the gold ranger said.

"How do you know?"

"The game engine uses a polygon count of about 25,000 per ranger, and a little lower count for the locations, but whatever this is, its much more intricate. Look at the colors, the composition of it, this isn't…" he was interrupted as something came through the portal.

The entity itself appeared to me more like a ghost than anything else, transparent enough for them to see through, but coherent enough for them to see it. It had no discernable arms or legs, but it began to float towards them.

"What the hell?"

"Shoot now, ask questions later," the gold ranger said, pointing his staff at it and releasing an energy beam. The beam itself was enough to make the entity move back a little, but it was still coming.

"Could this be a glitch?"

"I don't know, but either way, I'm logging out. I'll take a look at the game codes, see what I can find out about it," he told him.

"Yeah, me too. Besides, we need to get down to Hayley's Cyber Space anyway."

As the entity came closer, both the green ranger and gold ranger disappeared.

"Soon…" the entity growled, then floated back through the vortex.

"Wow, that was… incredible," Patrick said, removing the helmet like head piece and setting it down next to the computer. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the light, but the disorientation quickly passed, and Patrick found himself in his friend Carl's room.

"We need to find out what the hell that was."

"How?" he asked, picking up his sketchpad and pencil, going back to his drawings.

"I'm going to go into the subroutines and see what I can find."

"You know thats cheating, right Carl?" he mentioned as he leaned up against the wall, never taking his eyes off his sketchpad.

"It's not cheating, it's manipulating the system. Think of it more like a hot coffee mod," his friend assured him, putting the disk into the computer and waiting for it to load up. Within seconds, the screen blinked on, and he held down a series of buttons on the screen, allowing a small bar to appear. He typed in a code, and moments later, a long list of commands popped up on the screen.

"I still say it ain't right, but if you want to screw around with the game, go for it."

He paused, reviewing the lines of code. "This game is amazing. The algorithms involved in this game are so complex, so intricate, I wouldn't be able to change the codes in this game if I wanted it, but I can make additions to the program," Carl said.

"Additions?"

"Yep. I bet you I could scan one of your drawings, adjust it to the right algorithm and make him a fully rendered 3D playable character in the game," Carl told him.

"Really? Do it!" he handed him his sketchpad. "Oh, and do the ranger on the 3rd page too."

Carl flipped through the pages, getting a good look at each picture. "Who is this chick suppose to be? Oh wait, let me guess, RevolutionChick, right? I'll never understand how you can have the hots for someone you've never met," he said.

"I don't have the hots for her, she's my friend. That's all."

"Whatever man. I'll scan them both and imprint them into flash sticks, but tonight when we get back, you're going to draw me a bad ass ranger too," Carl said.

"You got it. Where did you learn to do all this stuff anyway?"

"It's the upside to having no life whatsoever, gives you plenty of time to toy around with these things." he turned around, going over the codes in the game again. "I've access the subroutines in the game that control player functions, I should be able to change the color scheme and configurations of the rangers," Carl told him.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I should be to create my own ranger and give him an infinite supply of power. When I do, the losers at that contest won't stand a chance."

"That's cheating," Patrick said.

"Cheating is such a harsh word. I prefer to call it system manipulation. It's all a code, a complex series of commands. Altering those codes isn't cheating, its just customizing your character," he said.

"I came over here so you could upload the game to the web so I could send a copy to RC, but for you to start messing around with features in the game," he said.

"Will you relax Captain stick up his ass? I'm almost done," he paused, inserting two flash sticks into his computer, then pressing a button. Moments later, the computer beeped, signaling it was done. He then removed them and handed them to Patrick. "One for you, one for your little girlfriend. When we get down to Cyber Space, there should be a port for you to plug this in. Find it and stick these in, it will make your character a selectable ranger in the game," Carl explained.

"Thanks Carl," he glanced down at his watch. "We need to get going."

"Lets get moving, we'll take my sister's car," Carl said as he put on his hat, following Patrick out the room.

When the door closed, the entity appeared on his computer monitor, almost as if it were watching them.

"Soon…" it groaned, and then disappeared.