The first thing Kat noticed after stepping through the portal was the intense heat. It washed her in a wave, leaving her dry and uncomfortable.
"When Gosei said we were going to a different dimension I didn't expect a wholeass desert," Lauren muttered.
Kat looked around, seeing nothing but sand and abandoned cars. It looked like something ripped straight out of Mad Max.
Which was ironic, provided the fact that massive, seemingly homemade, cars raced past the two Rangers. The machines were amateurishly welded together, with monster truck wheels and chain guns on top
"Something tells me we should follow them," Lauren said.
"Already on it," Kat said as he began to run across the sandy wasteland.
Gia and Spike stepped through the portal and were instantly assaulted by a wave of freezing cold wind.
"Why does Goesi always have to make things difficult?" Gia asked as she crossed her arms and shivered.
"He's trying his best," Spike retorted. "He's a giant head stuck on a wall, he's not Tony Stark."
"Well he doesn't have to be a dick," Gia muttered.
"If you talk to him maybe you'd change your mind," Spike suggested.
"I can't talk to him if he dodges everything I say," Gia said.
She glared at Spike, the way he defended Gosei so adamantly was beyond annoying. He hadn't been there when Gosei persuaded them to be soldiers, he hadn't been there when Gosei sent them to war.
Her heart ached, thinking back to Jake. He didn't deserve what happened to him, but Gosei had decided that the Green Ranger's life wasn't as important as defeating the Armada.
She was going to say more, but before that could happen the two Rangers were suddenly flanked by three creatures. Each of them was clad head to toe in metal armor covered in glowing runes.
"State your reason for entering the limits of Gallis City," The center warrior barked through his helmet that resembled a knight's helm.
"We're here for… uh, can you please take that gun out of my face?" Spike asked. After several seconds of the knight leaving his rifle frozen Spike continued, "We're looking for a Power Ranger."
The three knights looked amongst each other. "For what reason are you looking for Power Rangers?" The middle knight asked.
"Well we need their help dealing with this bad dude named Drayven who's kidnapping Rangers from our world," Spike explained.
"Well too bad for you but our Rangers are currently off-world on a diplomatic mission," the middle knight responded. "So it would be best if you returned to wherever you came from."
"Now guards," a voice spoke from behind the knights. "That's no way to treat visitors."
The three knights turned towards a man dressed in a red cloak. The hood was pulled down to reveal a man with long primarily dirty blonde hair, though he did have a streak of cobalt that ran down the right side of his hair.
"Heckyl… with due respect these people are invaders," the middle knight replied nervously.
"They are Power Rangers," the man said, he turned his handsome face towards the Gosei Morpher on Gia's belt
"Come with me," the man said. "We can discuss things back at the temple."
Dimensions in Danger: Chapter two
Kat and Lauren followed the massive cars to a small town built in the middle of the wasteland. The village was honestly a bit of an exaggeration. It was closer to 3 dozen makeshift buildings and trailers scattered around the desert.
The car opened fire, destroying what Kat assumed to be a business in a rain of hellfire and lead.
From there a handful of gray and bronze creatures flooded out of the cars and descended upon the town.
"Finding the Ranger can wait," Lauren said and drew her samuarizer.
"Agreed," Kat said with her Master Morpher in hand.
"Samuraizer! Ready! Go! Go! Samurai!"
"Zeo Ranger One!"
Lauren and Kat both raised their swords and charged into battle. Kat couldn't help but marvel at the power of the Master Morpher for just a moment. It managed to perfectly mimic her original powers, emulating it so flawlessly she wouldn't even be able to tell she was using anything different.
"I'm glad to know I still have it," Kat said as she sliced open the chest of the machine and knocked it away as wires flew from its chest.
"That's easy for you to say," Lauren said as her weapon racked against the robot's shoulder and simply slid off. "Your weapons are actually working."
"Oh yeah," Kat said as she cut down the robot Lauren had struggled to even dent. "I guess it helps that my gear was designed to fight robots."
"I'll just have to heat things up," Lauren said and spun the disk in her spin sword. With her sword in its firesmasher mode, she struck the enemies with enough force to simply smash them into scrap metal.
Together the two made short work of the robotic invaders. But they still had the cars to worry about. The chain gun turned away from the village and pointed towards the two Rangers.
And if it wasn't for Kat's shield they'd have been blown to bits.
Kat struggled against the onslaught of hellfire. She turned towards Lauren as sparks flew from her shield and said, "if this goes for much longer we're screwed."
The grunts had been one thing, but they'd need an upset if they were going to stand any kind of a chance against the massive vehicles.
Cracks were slowly spreading across the shield, spiderwebbing from the center and growing at an uncomfortable rate. Finally, in a flash of magenta, it finally shattered.
But thankfully help arrived in the form of a black blur. The blur came between the Rangers and chaingun, revealing itself to be a black Power Ranger with a wolf motif.
A transparent shield appeared from his armor and began deflecting the oncoming bullets.
"We have five seconds," the Black Ranger barked. "Make it count."
Kat nodded and raised her Master Morpher. "Shift into Turbo!" She exclaimed. The shield dissipated and the Red and Black Rangers jumped separate directions, meanwhile the freshly morphed Turbo Ranger charged towards the vehicle at blinding speed. While speeding forward in a blur of pink she raised her Turbo Wind Fire bow and unleashed a blast of pink energy that reduced the chain gun to a metal stump.
She then jumped into the air and did an elegant flip that landed her on top of the car. She raised her bow and blasted a round hole in the car for her jump through. Once inside she, unsurprisingly, found one of the machinemen behind the steering wheel.
She couldn't help but feel a smile on her face as she obliterated the machine's head and threw it out of the seat.
Once behind the wheel herself, and feeling really nostalgic given her current attire, she whipped to the left and crashed the car into its closest companion. The two collided with a loud crunch and sound of metal forcibly bending. Her commandeered vehicle was sandwiched between the center of the other car which had folded from the force of the crash.
She crawled back out of the hole, just in time to see the Black Ranger crawling up the crashed vehicle and mimicking her earlier actions.
Meanwhile, Lauren took another approach, she jumped towards the other car as it sped towards her, but instead of leaping into it she slammed her sword into the sand and caused a massive explosion of flames that erupted under the car and caused it to flip over like an unfortunate turtle.
"Nice move," Kat said to the Red Samurai Ranger.
Moments later the mysterious Black Ranger popped out of the crashed car with the severed head of a robot that he kicked like a soccer ball off the edge of the vehicle before jumping back down to the Rangers.
"Thanks for the help," he said. "Those Grinder scouts are getting more and more annoying."
"No problem," Lauren said. "I'm glad we could help."
"Just one thing real quick though," The Black Ranger said. In a flash of violet light, a massive cannon appeared in his arms that he pointed at the two Rangers. "Who the hell are you guys and what do you want?"
"Woah there," Lauren said. "You're just gonna point that thing at us after we helped you?"
"Uh, yeah," he replied. "Until I know why you helped me."
Lauren's hand tightened around her spin sword, and the Black Ranger's finger twitched on his trigger.
Kat just sighed and spoke up before things could get out of hand. "We're from another dimension, one that's being threatened by someone named Lord Drayven. He's kidnapped all of the Rangers we can ask for help so we need Rangers from other dimensions."
"And why is that my problem?"
"Because if he takes over our dimension yours might be next," Lauren replied.
Damn, that was pretty good. Kat was suddenly glad the samurai was with her.
"Okay, fine," He replied. "I'll help you guys, but on one condition."
"Name it," Kat said.
"This village is one of about a dozen around here. They're all struggling. Food and water are in high demand, not to mention their under constant threat from raiders."
"So you want supplies," Kat said.
"And weapons," he added.
"Deal," Kat responded almost immediately.
"How are you gonna pull that off?" Lauren asked.
"Don't know yet," Kat replied, "But I have friends in high places, and I'm sure they'll be inclined to help when we aren't under the tyrannical rule of an intergalactic warlord."
"Well you already gave me your word," the man said. "So I expect you to keep it. By the way," he said and demorphed before extending his hand. "I'm Dillion."
"I'm Kat," she said and took his hand. "I don't go back on my word."
Gia and Spike followed the cloaked man down a stony trail and before long found themselves surrounded by a strange mix of a modern city and a renaissance fair. A centaur in a suit jacket strolled across the street as floating wheel-less carriages drifted down the cobblestone road.
The sight filled Gia was a childlike glee, getting to visit places like this was the silver lining of her occupation. It was like she was visiting somewhere taken straight out of her childhood fantasies.
It was almost enough to make her forget about the messy-haired former smoothie barista walking beside her.
"Welcome to Gallis, the shining gem of Sentai Six," the cloaked man said.
"This place is amazing," Spike said as he swung his head around and attempted to absorb as much of the place as possible.
Gia sighed, leave it to Spike to ruin this too…
They were led down the street towards a massive ivory-colored stone temple, with massive roman pillars supporting the roof engraved with more magic runes.
Sitting outside the temple was a statue of a humanoid bird creature. His wings were outstretched and his hands pressed together as if he was praying.
The three walked past the statue and the man opened the massive wooden doors to reveal a large room with a high, round ceiling covered in a painting of some grand battle.
"We built this temple after the defeat of Lord Arcanon," the man explained as if the two Rangers would understand the context. "So tell me," he said as he turned around and faced the Rangers. "What brings you here."
"Our dimension is in danger," Spike said. "A warlord named Drayven is kidnapping Rangers-"
"And bringing them to the Universe," Heckyl finished for the boy.
"Yeah," Spike said. "How did you know?"
"I have seen in my dreams," the man explained. "I have seen the chaos, the bloodshed, the dimensions burning…"
"Then why haven't you sent your planet's Rangers?" Gia asked.
"I was waiting," he said simply. "For both of you."
"Great," Spike said. "Let's go then."
"Not so fast," Heckyl said. "My aid does not come easily. You'll have to prove yourselves first."
"What do you mean?" Gia asked. "We don't have time for this."
Heckyl ignored her and raised a blue and red blaster that had a… dinosaur head built into the barrel. He then slipped a blueish crystal into the device and spun the barrel.
"Oh no," Gia muttered, already having an idea of what was about to happen.
The man's body exploded with navy light, transforming into a Power Ranger Gia had never seen before as motes of raw energy floated around him.
His armor was navy, with a gold and white sash that ran off-center horizontally across his chest. The white was broken into small triangular chunks and the last one yellow, showing a stylized spinosauas head. The arms of his suit were covered in red scales, which were outstretched with open palms as he summoned a curved blade and charged towards the two Rangers.
Gia and Spike both morphed into their Super Mega modes as they scrambled away from his attack.
"So this is what he meant," Spike said as he raised his flintlock and opened fire on the Ranger.
Gia frowned under her helmet. She knew that she couldn't trust Spike to get them out of this so she grit her teeth and raised another Ranger Key.
"Let's fight fire with fire," she said and slid the key into her morpher. "White Ranger, Dino Power!"
In a flash of white light, she transformed into the sixth (or technically fifth but whatever) Dino Ranger.
Her Draco Sword and parried the other Ranger's blade.
"Impressive morphing capabilities," Heckyl muttered. "But you'll need more than fancy tricks!" He kicked her back and swung his blade through the empty air, sending a charged wave of energy that smashed into her and sent her sliding across the floor of the temple.
Spike morphed into the Black Dino Ranger and tried to flank the navy Ranger from the side, but Heckyl spun on his heel and sliced into the Black Ranger's side.
"This isn't going to work," Spike said as smoke rose from his armor. "We need to work together."
Gia scoffed and raised another key, "Dragon Zord!"
As the original Green Ranger armor formed around her she was flooded with memories uploaded directly from the morphing grid. Their primary function was to give her the ability to understand each suit with the intimate familiarity of the veteran Rangers that wielded them. The only problem was that occasionally the memories weren't actually relevant to the functionality of the suit.
Like watching Kira die in Tommy's arms.
She shook the memory away or at least tried to, as she ran at the navy Ranger with her Dragon Dagger pulled back.
The enemy Ranger raised his pistol morpher and opened fire, peppering her suit with sparks as she was halted dead in her tracks.
She grits her teeth and fought the pain. They couldn't afford to lose, not with all the kidnapped Rangers on the line.
"Gia listen to me!" Spike exclaimed. "I have an idea!"
Leave me alone! She thought as she looked away from him. Just seeing Spike filled her with rage. He wasn't Jake, he could never be Jake. His powers would've been better off left alone. This was just downright disrespectful.
She attempted another charge but the navy Ranger swung his sword into her chest and knocked her back to her Super Mega mode.
"We need the old switcheroo!" Spike exclaimed.
Gia felt her guts turn to slush. "How the hell do you know about that?"
"I've seen it," Spike said. "Or the memories of it at least."
Rage flooded Gia's body, so much so she forgot about her pain, she was even struggling to stay focused on the battle. Her cutlass shook her hands as her vision grew red.
"Look, I know how you guys felt about each other," Spike said.
Gia shook her head. "Shut up! You have no right to talk about that."
"I'm sorry about what happened. But it wasn't my fault, I had nothing to do with it. I was recruited by Gosei the same as you."
The navy Ranger was getting closer but Gia held her ground. Dark energy poured like smoke from the opposing Ranger and for a split second, she wasn't even sure if Heckyl was in there anymore.
"I know I'm not Jake," Spike said. "I'm not trying to be him. I'm just trying to do what I can. And besides, Jake wouldn't want you to get killed because you're too stubborn to work with me!"
Dammit! Gia thought to herself. As much as she hated Spike she knew he was right.
"Fine!" She yelled to the Ranger who had since reverted back to Super Mega Force Green. "Just don't scuff it up!"
The two tossed their weapons into the air, Spike caught her flintlock, and Gia caught his cutlass. With both pistols in hand, Spike unleashed a barrage of energy blasts that struck the navy Ranger and sparked against his armor. Heckyl quickly whipped around and raised his sword to unleash another wave of navy energy, but Gia charged to flank his side. She swung her blades in an x motion, but Heckyl parried them both with his blade.
But puzzlingly Heckyl didn't offer a counter-attack, instead, he chuckled and demorphed. "That's what I needed to see."
"Wait, what?" Gia asked.
"I'll come with you guys," Heckyl decided.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything," Spike said. "But what changed?"
"It's simple," Heckyl said. "In my vision, we failed because the two of you couldn't cooperate. That's why you needed to come here, and that is why we needed to fight." Heckyl smiled, "Plus it's been a really long time since I've seen battle and I wanted to make sure I wasn't rusty."
The two Rangers looked at each other and demorphed. With nothing else to say Spike raised his transportal device and opened up a portal for them to return to the Command Center.
Author's Notes:
If anyone else is hyped to have Dark Ranger Heckyl in the story thank Blue Legends because the inspiration came during a conversation we had while I was working on the last chapter.
Michael78: Don't worry my guy I definitely plan to have Tommy shift into Turbo at least once in this story