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 are 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. Gaby appears courtesy of Cmar.
This
is the end of our fic. There will be one final chapter to tie up all
loose ends. Thank you to all of you who made this series the success it
has been. Oh, by the way, the people are fanfiction are being real funky with the editing tools, so bare with us.
--
Saturday March 5th, 2005 10:21 pm
--
"SPD has operatives in almost every organization on this planet, including Operation Lightspeed and the Silver Guardians. Its important that we're aware of what goes on and how much the general population knows about what we do here, but none of that is important right now. What is important is saving your rangers once they manage to trap Thoron. My superior officer, Commander Cruger, has authorized me to grant you use of the temporal enhancer to save your rangers as long as we also use it to save Officer Cambridge," she said.
"Cambridge? Are you talking about Vanessa Cambridge?" Dana asked.
"Yes."
"You know her?" Ethan asked.
Dana nodded. "I selected her for the project. Her husband was against it, considering they had a daughter to look after, and we never understood why she accepted that mission knowing she might not ever come back or see her daughter or husband again," she said.
"We ordered her to go," Dr. Manx said.
"If you can find your missing officer and help our rangers at the same time, you're more than welcome here," Ethan said.
"Excellent. I will be there shortly," she said, and the screen blinked off.
Dr. Manx turned around, taking one final look at the temporal enhanser. When Officer Cambridge was officially announced as missing, she immediately began work on ways to find her and bring her home. The temporal enhancer would be able to create a stable vortex between their dimension and the demon dimension, which she was sure Vanessa was trapped. While she worked on it, she forced herself to prepare for the possibility that Officer Cambridge was already dead, or worse, possessed by non-corporeal demons and turned into one of them. Still, Vanessa Cambridge was one of SPD's finest officers, and she owed it to her to at least try.
She picked up the device and headed towards the exit, but before she could, the doors slid open and in walked a young girl. While she looked much older than she was, her was only nine years old.
"Hello Dr. Kitty," she said cheerfully.
Dr. Manx set the device down, bending down to eye level with the young girl. "Hello Charlie," she looked around. "You know Commander Cruger doesn't like children in this area," she reminded her.
"I know, but Boom said that you were working on ways to find my mom, is that true?" she asked with an eager tone in her voice.
Dr. Manx nodded. "I am. I'm on my way to Marnier Bay now to work with some friends on finding her," she paused. "But, there is a chance that we can't find her, you know?" she mentioned.
"Yeah, but I know you can do it Dr. Kitty. We're SPD, we can do anything," she said.
She couldn't help but smile. "I'll do my best."
"Ya know, when I grow up, I'm going to be a power ranger too. I'll be able to fight the bad guys just like my mom and dad did," Charlie said.
"I have no doubt you will make a great ranger one day," she stood back up, putting her hand gently on Charlies' head. "I have to go, but I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?"
"Okay, I'll go home and wait for mommy," she said cheerfully, skipping out the room.
Dr. Manx sighed. The thought of disappointing that little girl brought a tear to her eye, but it also gave her a new found determination. She was going to do her best to find Vanessa and bring her home. She took a deep breath, then made her way out the room as well.
--
Patrick took a moment to get a good look at the fourth eye. There was nothing special about it, nothing unique. In fact, as he recalled, it looked much like the first three, with the only exception being it was slightly bigger. As he examined it a little closer, he found small openings in it. He speculated that the other three eyes must have fit into the fourth one, but still wasn't sure how it would work or why it was necessary.
'Magic is stupid anyway, never does anything but get us into trouble,' he thought, chuckling inwardly at the thought of power rangers based only in magic. 'Oh yeah, like that would ever happen.'
His thoughts were interrupted as a light on the control panel in front of him began to flash. He set the eye down, getting a closer look at the readings. "A meteor shower? Great, just great," he sighed.
Before he had a chance to do anything, a meteor collided with the zord, knocking Patrick out of his seat. He quickly regained his composure, but another one hit the zord. Patrick fell back, hitting his head on one of the control panels.
"Okay, this is not good at all."
--
"Still no word from Patrick, and I'm starting to get worried," Ethan said as he leaned back in his chair in front of the control panel in the Aqua Base.
Ms. Fairweather walked over to him, reading the instruments over his shoulder. "He isn't even in communication range yet," she paused. "Something may be wrong," she sighed.
"The Aqua Base doesn't have any ships that can within deep space travel, and I can't exactly send another one of the rangers after him. I'm afraid he's on his own out there," he said.
"What about Andros and the astro rangers? Maybe they can intercept him, see if everything is…" she was cut short.
"I thought of that, but the Megaship is lightyears out of communications range. Whatever he's going to do, he'll have to do it on his own," Ethan sighed.
--
"I'm running out of ideas here," Predator ranger confessed.
"How about we hit him from all sides?" Spectra ranger suggested.
"Good thinking."
The five of them positioned their zords on either side of Thoron, all of them preparing to fire. The blue manta ray zord shot a thin layer of ice at Thoron's feet, and at the exact same moment, the fox zord sprayed the ice with water, making it slippery. Both Panther zord and Liger zord shot rockets at Thoron while the black leopard zord emitted a burst of dark energy, connectly directly in his chest. It was enough to knock Thoron off his feet and over the side of the cliff, sending him falling over 30 feet down and to the bottom of the rock quarry.
"Who was talkin' all that junk about shit creek?" Allumier asked.
"That was you," Aqua Tech pointed out.
"Oh yeah."
"It's not time to celebrate yet rangers, I don't think that was enough to finish him off," Predator said.
Spectra sighed. "I guess I'll cancel that reservation I had at Chuck E Cheese then."
"You still go there?"
"Come on now, it's the place where a kid can be a kid," she defended.
"Fine, when this is over, we're all going to Chuck E. Cheese and the pizza is on me!" Blizzard ranger announced.
Just then, the ground began to shake, and before they could figure out what was going on, Thoron climbed up over the cliff, making it back to his feet.
"What is it gonna take to beat this guy?" Spectra asked.
"You could throw a smoothie in his face, that just might work," Aqua Tech said.
"I would, but he doesn't owe me two dollars."
"Anyone else with any bright ideas?" Allumier asked.
"I have one, but I don't think you're going to like it," Predator said.
"What is it?"
"Allumier and I will use our powers to phase through Thoron, and half way inside, we'll stop, eject from the zords and initiate the auto destruct sequence," he said.
"You're right, I don't like that plan."
"I can't think of anything else. Without Patrick here we can't form the megazord. If he isn't back by now, we have to assume he isn't coming. This could be our only chance," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but…"
"No buts, it has to be done."
"What is it with you guys in red and this sense of having to kill yourself to look like the big hero? Patrick will be here, and until he gets here, we wait," Spectra told them.
"I say we should…" he was cut short.
"No, don't count him out. He'll be here," she insisted.
"We'll wait for him five more minutes. If he doesn't make it in time, we go with my plan," Predator said.
--
"Wait, I see something," Ethan moved forward, getting another look at the screen. "It looks like it could be the Pegasus zord, but there's no way to be sure," he said.
Ms. Fairweather walked over to the screen, getting a closer look. "It matches the zord's original configuration, but we still can't open a channel to him. There's no way to know if its him or not."
"I may be able to help you with that," they heard a voice say.
The two of them turned around as Dr. Kat Manx walked into the room. She set a device down on the table in the middle of the room, then hurried over to the control panel. "It looks like I can boost your sensor ranger by tapping tapping directly into the main deflector of the base. That should give you about thirty percent more ranger for communications," she said.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Ms. Fairweather sighed oddly.
She paused. "Okay, there you go. You should be able to make contact now," she said.
"Okay, here goes nothing," Ethan said.
--
"Hull breach in aft section," the computer announced.
"What? There's a hole in my zord? Damn, I just got this thing," Patrick sighed, managing to make it back to his seat and get a grip on the controls.
"Ethan and Tempest Ranger, come in," a voice said.
Patrick reached over, opening a channel. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice Mr. James. I could really use a hand out here," he said.
"What's the problem?"
"There's a hull breach," he said.
"How'd you do that?"
"I swear that meteor came from out of nowhere," he said.
"Their aren't any trees out there, are there?"
"Very funny, I could use some help."
"Set the emergency force fields to seal the breach," he said.
"I don't have enough power for that."
"Divert power from any other system, even life support if you have to."
"Life support? Don't I need that to… you know, support life?"
"The emergency backups should keep you stable until you get back, you'll be fine," he paused. "Do you have the fourth eye?"
"Sure do. You didn't tell me Lerigot would be a little fluffy puppy."
"Just get back here as soon as you can, the others need you. When you're in teleportation range, I'm going to teleport the eye directly to the Aqua Base, you just get to the others," he instructed.
"You got it Mr. James!"
--
"So how is this suppose to work?" Ms. Fairweather asked.
"When the three eyes are combined with the fourth and the ritual is performed, it will open a stable gateway from the demon world to our world. When that happens, there is only a small window before it seals itself again. The temporal enhancer will not only allow to keep it open even longer, but it will let us scan inside the demon dimension for any human life signs. When they're detected, we should be able to lock onto them and transport them out safely," Dr. Manx explained.
"What kind of tests have you run with this?"
"I've done various simulations on the SPD Sim-U-Deck, and all of them worked within expected parameters. I don't foresee any problems when its put to the test," she said.
"Don't we run the risk of letting something else out?" Ethan asked.
"There is a small chance that something would get passed out initial scans, but it seems highly unlikely," she told him.
"Is there anyway to prevent non-humans from coming through?"
"No, not without compromising the strength of the original teleportation beam. But again, it should be fine," Kat assured him.
"Okay, so what do you need from us?"
"When you perform the ritual, I'll need to be within 10 meters of you so I can activate the enhancer. Once its active, it will take anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds to scan the interior of the dimension and find any humanoids," she said.
"Sounds good to me."
Just then, a light flashed on the control panel. "Its Patrick, he's in teleportation range," Ethan said, turning to the controls. "Preparing teleportation now."
Within seconds, Ethan locked onto the eye and teleported it directly to the Aqua Base. There was a flash of light, and the eye materialized on the table in front of them.
"Okay, lets get to work."
--
Thoron grabbed the Liger zord, picking it up and throwing it half way across the rock quarry. The Lepord zord used its powers, forming an energy field around Liger zord, allowing it to land safely on the ground.
"Thanks," Allumier said.
"Gimme a few tokens at Chuck E Cheese and we'll call it even," she said.
"Deal."
Panther zord shot rockets at Thoron, but this time, they had no effect on him at all. "Okay, its been almost ten minutes. I think its time to go with…"
"No, no one is risking their life here if they don't have to. Patrick will be here!" Spectra insisted.
"We can't wait for your boyfriend forever, we have to…"
"Whoa, wait a sec. I never said he was my…" she was cut short.
"Oh please, its obvious," Aqua Tech pointed out.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Of course not. Listen, I don't want anyone to die here either, but this may be our only chance of stopping this big stony bastard," Blizzard ranger said.
Spectra sighed. "Fine, kill yourself if you want. That just means more pizza for me when this is over."
"Okay, wish me luck," Predator said, ready to make his move.
But, before he could…
"Hey, who said you guys could start the party without me?" a voice said.
Spectra recognized it right away. "Tempest Ranger!" she squealed.
"Its about time. But don't worry, we saved you a party hat," Allumier said.
"Did anyone bring chips and dip?"
"No, but theres pin the tail on the donkey later," Aqua Tech mentioned.
"Listen rangers, this is serious," a voice said over the com system. "We're in possession of all four eyes, but its going to take some time for us to do the ritual and set everything up. Form the megazord and hold Thoron off as long as you can. Remember, for this to work, there must be four of you on the other side of the vortex so it can be sealed. I can't decide which four of you it will be, but it is a must that someone be in place. It's a tough call, but it has to be done," Ethan explained.
"We know what we have to do," Allumier said.
"You are, without a doubt, some of the finest rangers I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Good luck, and may the power protect you," he said.
"Okay, you heard the man, its megazord time!"
"RED PANTHER ZORD, online and ready to rock!" Predator Ranger called out.
"WHITE FOX ZORD, ready for action!" Blizzard Ranger called out.
"PURPLE LIGER ZORD, all systems go!" Allumier Ranger announced.
"BLACK LEPORD ZORD," she paused. "Do I really have to say some corny phrase?" Spectra Ranger asked.
"BLUE MANTA RAY ZORD, lets get it done!" Aqua Tech Ranger exclaimed.
"GREEN PEGASUS ZORD," paused. "Um, insert clever action phrase here!" Tempest Ranger exclaimed. "What? It was short notice."
Each of them watched on in amazement as the zords began to transform, taking shape. Soon, the back of each zord seemed to fold away, and the chairs they were sitting in were pulled into another chamber. Now, each of them were sitting next to one another inside a cockpit of sorts.
"Whoa!"
"This is amazing," Spectra said.
"Yeah, its cool, but still no TV," Blizzard sighed.
"Okay you guys, lets give Ethan and Ms. F the time they need!" Predator said.
"Right!" they all said in unison.
--
Ethan, Ms. Fairweather and Dr. Manx arrived at the rock quarry, standing near the edge of the highest cliff as the rangers battled with Thoron.
"Your megazord is impressive," Dr. Manx commented.
"Thank you."
Ms. Fairweather took the first three eyes, inserting them into the fourth. As soon as she did, it began to glow, and within seconds, began to levitate off the ground.
As it floated in front of them, Dr. Manx sat the Temporal Enhancer down, activating it. A beam of light connected with the Eye.
"Okay, I'm ready here."
"Okay, here goes nothing," he sighed. " Illic ero a series ut is serius. Unus of rangers mos reverto , tamen ero vilicus ut is does. Etiam , EGO said is. Ut est a corrumpo. Verum , totus illae est a corrumpo. Utor," he chanted.
But nothing happened…
"What went wrong?" Ms. Fairweather asked.
"The eyes have been dormant for centuries, it will take time for them to work," a voice said. The three of them turned around as Anthony and Myriah approached them. "Do not be alarmed, I am here to help you."
"Who are you?"
"Its Anthony Coulbourne, Predator X ranger," Ms. Fairweather said.
"Join hands and do the ritual again," Myriah suggested.
"Hold hands? What will that…"
"Just trust me," she sighed.
Ethan sighed, but reached out for Ms. Fairweather's hand, then to Myriah for hers. Anthony and Myriah held hands as well, and Ethan began the chant again. "Illic ero a series ut is serius. Unus of rangers mos reverto , tamen ero vilicus ut is does. Etiam , EGO said is. Ut est a corrumpo. Verum , totus illae est a corrumpo. Utor," he repeated.
This time, the eye began to glow even brighter, and a rift in subspace began to form.
"Okay, this is it!"
--
The megazord stood its ground, hammering away on Thoron with lefts and rights. With each blow, Thoron was forced to take a step back.
"It looks like we've got him now," Blizzard said.
They swung a right hand, but Thoron caught the zord's fist, and then picked up the entire zord, throwing it across the quarry. As the zord fell to the ground, Thoron came running at them, kicking. The megazord caught Thoron's foot and tripped him, knocking him to the ground.
"WE NEED THE MEGAZORD LIGHTNING SABER!" Predator called out.
Within seconds, the sword materialized in the zord's hand, and it rushed at Thoron, cocking back and stabbing him in the chest. Before Thoron could move, the rangers caught a glimpse of the subspace rift forming a few feet away from them.
"Okay guys, its decision time," Tempest pointed out. "Four of us are going to have to go in with Thoron and close the rift from the inside."
"Allumier and I will go. We're the most experienced here, and with our powers, we have the best chance to making it back," Predator said.
"Count me in too," Blizzard added.
The others remained silent.
"There has to be another way," Spectra said.
"Mr. James said something about a temporal enhancer. He may be able to pull us out when this is over. Maybe no one will have to risk their lives," Tempest brought up.
"We all knew what we were getting into when we signed up for this. I say we ALL go, and whatever happens… happens," Aqua Tech said.
"Agreed," Allumier said.
"Agreed," Blizard said.
"Agreed," Spectra said.
"Agreed," Tempest said.
"So it's settled," Predator sighed. "Ethan was right, you are a fine group of rangers. Lets go!"
The zord picked Thoron up, pushing him towards the rift. Soon, both the zord and Thoron were inside the rift, but continued to battle.
--
"They're inside. Can you get a lock on them?" Ethan asked.
"There is a lot of temporal displacement waves interfering with the signal, but…" she paused. "Yes, I have a positive lock on two… no wait, two," she said.
"Only two?"
"My initial scans show that none of them are Officer Cambridge, but they do have a ranger signature. I should be able to teleport them out," she said.
"What do we have to do on this end?" Ms. Fairweather asked.
"We'll have to perform the ritual again and hope the energy field produced by the rangers is enough," Anthony said.
"What about the zords? We will be able to save them too?"
"They're mechanical, so that won't be a problem. Its human life signs that will be tricky; especially Allumier and Predator. They can phase in and out of this continuum, so a lock is close to impossible. I have a confirmed lock on two, but the third seems to be in some kind of temporal flux," Dr. Manx said.
"Who is it?"
"I can't tell," she said.
"We must finish the ritual now," Anthony repeated.
"Do what you can Dr. Manx," he turned to the others, holding their hands. "Illic ero a series ut is serius. Unus of rangers mos reverto , tamen ero vilicus ut is does. Etiam , EGO said is. Ut est a corrumpo. Verum , totus illae est a corrumpo. Utor," he chanted.
"Again!" Myriah sighed.
"Illic ero a series ut is serius. Unus of rangers mos reverto , tamen ero vilicus ut is does. Etiam , EGO said is. Ut est a corrumpo. Verum , totus illae est a corrumpo. Utor," they all said in unison.
They all watched on as the rift began to close.
"It's working!"
--
"Its working, its time for us to do our part," Predator said. "Concentrate, focus all your energy into one controlled burst. It should be enough to close the rift from this end."
The six of them closed their eyes as the zord itself began to glow. There was an energy buildup around the zord as all of them focused their energy on the rift.
--
"I'm reading a one thousand percent increase in energy on the other side of the rift," Dr. Manx said.
"It's the rangers, they're sealing the rift."
"Yes, but they're also scrambling their DNA on a cellular level. The human body wasn't meant to produce that kind of energy, there is no telling what kind of side effects there will be," she said.
"Can you still lock onto them?"
"Yes, preparing teleportation… NOW!"
At that moment, there was a flash of light, and the rift was gone. Each of the zords were spread out across the quarry, and there was a cloud of smoke surrounding them. Soon, the smoke settled, and there were two bodies laying face down in the quarry. Ethan and Ms. Fairweather rushed over to them as quickly as they could, helping them out.
"Is it over?" Patrick groaned, looking up at Ms. Fairweather. He had powered down and was no longer in ranger form, his clothes were torn, the exhausted look on his face made it clear that he'd drained himself of all his energy.
"Yes, you did," she sighed.
Ethan helped up the other ranger, getting her to her feet. "Jennifer, are you alright?" he asked.
"H-How many times do I have to tell you people, its just Jen. J-E-N!" she snarled, also falling over.
"Okay, Jen it is!"
"Wait, what about the others… did they…" he was cut short.
"We did everything we could to get them out, but…" he allowed his sentence to trail off.
"Oh no," Jen sighed.
"Crank up the temporal enhancer, we have to go back for them," Patrick said.
"Neither of you are in any condition to go back. If there is a way to find them and bring them home, we will. I promise you. For now, its over. The world… no, the universe owes you a debt that can never be repaid. Thank you rangers," Ethan said.
"All in a day's work," Jen sighed.
--
to be concluded...