Magi Ranger

by Tenstar12

Betrayed by the world he had given his all to save, Harry finds himself cast into the void. With some help Harry ends up in another dimension, but in classic Harry Potter fashion gets himself into trouble almost immediately. Can he make his way in this strange world he finds himself in where giant monster attacks are a daily occurrence and hardly anything is familiar? AU Harry, MOD

14. Chapter 14

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

Chapter 14, In Which Rita Plots and Magics Clash

As the Rangers and putties charged each other and began their battle, Harry and Scorpina stood behind, staring across at one another. Harry himself was staying back because he knew there wasn't much he could do against the putties up close. His initial plan was to say back and take a few pot shots at targets of opportunity, but with Scorpina staying out of the melee as she was that wasn't really an option.

Just as he finished his thought, he saw a quick flash of movement as Scorpina brought her armored feet together before leaping into the air, her crescent blade extended before her as she flew toward the stunned wizard. At the last moment, Harry whipped his wand up. "Reducto!" The curse rocketed from his wand and slammed into the chest of the surprised Scorpina, sending off a shower of sparks and negating her momentum.

Flailing slightly, she fell from the air and landed harshly on her back a mere ten feet away from Harry, between him and the Rangers' battle with the putties. Snapping off a quick Incarcerous and wrapping the downed woman up in the conjured ropes, Harry backed up slowly with his wand still trained on her struggling form.

"So, Mageling." Scorpina practically purred from her position on the ground. "I see Goldar was right about you. You do indeed have a rather strange and powerful brand of magic at your disposal. So different from Empress Rita's, yet formidable in its own right."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Thanks… I guess…"

"Yes, quite formidable magic, but it doesn't help if the magic user is as stupid as you are." As Scorpina spoke, she shifted her arms slightly, bringing the razor's edge of her weapon into contact with the ropes around her and slicing them cleanly.

Cursing himself for his inattentiveness, Harry whipped his wand up and began firing curses at Scorpina again, but she demonstrated a level of speed that Harry had yet to face from one of Rita's minions as she almost casually flipped to her feet and away from his spells.

Harry paused in his spellcasting and watched the warrior woman. Scorpina was standing a short distance from Harry, 15 feet or so, and still between him and the Rangers' battle with the horde of putties. A battle that the Rangers were slowly winning as far as he could see.

Shifting into a dueling stance again, Harry spoke, deciding to try a new tactic. "You would do well not to underestimate me, Scorpina."

The armored woman gave off a superior. "Well I certainly haven't seen much to be impressed with and I am one of Empress Rita's most powerful generals."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Goldar probably thinks the same thing, but he hasn't been able to beat me yet either." He flicked his wand slightly, deciding to go with an old standby and transfigured and animated several arms from the concrete they were standing on. The woman seemed rather surprised for a moment before swinging her blade down once more, severing one of the arms like a hot knife through butter, only for one on her other side to grab her ankle and yank her off her feet.

Scorpina's weapon slid along the ground away from her as another arm ripped it away before restraining her along with the others, leaving Rita's general lying on the ground unable to escape. "You know," Harry commented as he slowly walked toward Scorpina, staying as alert as he could for any more tricks or sudden escapes like her last one. "I probably shouldn't complain about winning most of the fights I've gotten into since arriving here, but I'm really getting sick of you people underestimating me all the time."

The woman glared up at him from her position on her back, anger clearly surpassing any other emotion in her eyes, but she remained silent. After a few seconds without a response of any kind, Harry shrugged and lifted his wand again. "It's clear that you are a skilled fighter though. Perhaps a bit more speed and acrobatically inclined than Goldar as he was able to power his way out of similar restraints in the past. If you had taken me seriously then this probably wouldn't have happened. Oh, well. Reduc-"

"MAGELING!"

Harry's attempt at finishing off the restrained Scorpina was cut off by Goldar's shout. The already giant sized monster's voice making his head ring even as he and the Rangers looked up in time to see the armored simian stomping over, one arm reaching toward Harry and Scorpina.

With only moments to spare, Harry vanished with a sharp crack, reappearing next to the regrouped Rangers who had just defeated the last of the putty patrol and were staring up at Goldar as he ripped up the chunk of concrete where Scorpina was trapped. With a grunt of effort, Goldar broke the main body of the concrete to pieces, freeing Scorpina who then leapt up onto his shoulder.

With a glance from the corner of his eye, Goldar spoke in a surprisingly calm tone for the perpetually enraged sounding creature. "SCORPINA, RETURN TO EMPRESS RITA'S SIDE. I SHALL DEAL WITH THE POWER RANGERS AND THE MAGELING."

Scorpina said nothing, though she did send one last scathing glare toward Harry before vanishing in a flash of yellow light.

His passenger now gone, Goldar summoned his sword to his hand. "Now Rangers, let's settle this once and for all!" With a powerful thrust, Goldar stabbed his weapon toward his comparatively tiny opponents. Harry quickly apparated away again, but the Rangers were unable to fully escape the resulting eruption of concrete as the surface easily ruptured under the force.

Protected by their suits, the Rangers were able to regroup quickly and Harry appeared by their sides again with a crack in time to hear Billy speak. "Jason, I suggest we try a new tactic."

"Right!" Jason responded, clenching his fist dramatically before him.

Harry just stared at them blankly. "I have an idea… How about you CALL YOUR ZORDS AND FIGHT HIM THAT WAY!?"

The Rangers froze, looking toward Harry as if they were confused before Jason nodded. "Alright guys, let's do it!" The five shifted their stances as one, feet shoulder width apart, their left hands tucked down by their waists and their right arms extended into the air with their hands spread out. "We need Dinozord Po-!"

Jason's triumphant shout, and consequently the summoning of their Zords, was cut off as Goldar attacked them again, his foot coming down right next to them as the Rangers and Harry dove out of the way. Harry rose slowly, feeling somewhat battered after the shockwave from Goldar's stomp threw him an extra dozen feet and scraped him up a bit. Once again, the Ranger's suits protected them enough to allow them to recover faster and they regrouped around Harry while Billy helped him up.

"It's no good man," Zack spoke up. "Every time we try to call the Zords, Goldar is just gonna hit us again.

"Well we have to do something!" Jason near-shouted again. Harry had certainly noticed that the Red Ranger seemed to talk much louder while he was morphed than normally, though he hadn't yet figured out if it was another consequence of the Morphing Grid or just a quirk of the Ranger himself.

Their sort-of planning was cut short as Goldar once more stomped in their general vicinity. Once they had regrouped in a location out of his sight, the Rangers' suits looking a bit scorched from the latest close call, Kimberly spoke first. "We can't keep this up much longer before he flattens us!"

"I don't suppose it would do much good to hit him with your blade blasters, would it?" Harry mused. "Or maybe the Power Blaster?"

Billy took a thoughtful pose for a moment. "The blade blasters probably wouldn't be very effective, but the Power Blaster has potential."

Zack was quick to add his own input. "Yeah, but I bet that the moment we try to form it Goldar will attack again just like when we tried to call the Zords."

Harry cursed internally at the ridiculous amount of time that the Rangers had to take to call out any of their bigger guns. Stupid Morphing Grid and its stupid limitations and requirements.

"What if we split up?" Trini suggested after another moment. "If we move around more then he won't be able to keep all of us from summoning our Zords and once we get a few of them out it will be easier to distract him long enough for the others to get called."

Jason was the detractor this time. "It's no good. Goldar is too powerful for any one of our Zords to hold him back for long. And if he's able to take one of them out of the fight on its own we'd be in even deeper trouble."

Then Harry had an idea. "What if I apparate to the top of one of the buildings and start cursing him from there. I know a few spells that should be able to distract him enough for him to lose track of you guys long enough to call your Zords."

The Rangers exchanged a few quick glances before Jason nodded. "Alright, if you think it'll work then give it a shot."

"But be careful, Harry," Trini insisted. "If things get bad up there don't hesitate to fall back. We can figure something else out."

Harry nodded to her in acknowledgement. "Not a problem, Trini. If worst comes to worst I'll just pop over to another building. He can't track my apparition so that should work. Just make sure you get your Zords as quickly as you can. My magic probably won't be able to do much more than annoy him at that size."

The Rangers nodded to him as one and Harry twisted in place, vanishing with a pop and reappearing on top of the building they had been hiding behind. With a quick glance around, Harry caught sight of Goldar stomping a few blocks away with his head down, apparently searching for the Rangers as he caused more random destruction around him. With another nod to himself, Harry apparated again to a building ahead of Goldar and aimed carefully before letting off a conjuntivitus curse that splashed over one side of the giant simian's face.

Goldar reared his head back and slapped his free hand over his left eye as he shouted his rage and pain to the world. With a small smile, Harry took aim once more, hoping to catch Goldar's other eye this time. His casting was interrupted, however, when a bolt of fire exploded next to him, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"So, little wizard, we meet again."

Harry whipped his head up to catch sight of Rita Repulsa floating a short distance away from him on some kind of flying bicycle, her staff clenched in her right hand and pointed toward him as she pedaled.

He climbed to his feet, checking himself over as he stood to make sure his robes hadn't caught fire, and glared at her. "So it would seem."

The silence between the two grew for several moments as they glared across the relatively short distance between them. Finally, Harry spoke again. "You know, you still have something of mine."

Rita's face twisted into something resembling a smile. "Oh, you mean your old focus? Well I don't really see how you need it any more since you have another, and I have grown quite attached to it. It is quite the powerful artifact after all."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm quite aware. Oddly enough, that's part of the reason I want it back. I'm not quite sure what kind of wand-lore you have around here, but where I'm from the wand chooses the wizard and that wand chose me. I'm sure you noticed that it doesn't quite work well for you."

Rita's smile only grew. "Oh, so the wand is sentient is it? That would certainly explain some of the troubles I had with it initially, though none of those have applied since I fused it with my scepter. Now it only serves to amplify my own power. A power you cannot possibly hope to stand against."

Without another word, Rita thrust her scepter forward, the red orb lighting up before the energy seemed to flow into the mounted Elder Wand, arcing to the tip before a burst of magical lightning flew out toward Harry, forcing him to dive to the side to avoid it. Scrambling back to his feet, Harry spun around and fired off a quick reducto, but with her flying bicycle Rita was easily able to drift to one side and avoid it.

Taking a moment, Harry summoned a silver shield with his wand before once more anchoring it to his offhand just in time to use it to intercept another ball of fire. Their magical exchange continued for several minutes with Harry mostly dodging Rita's spells while occasionally using his shield to block or deflect them and Rita almost casually flying out of the way of any of Harry's own attacks.

Finally, both of them panting slightly, though Harry was convinced that most of Rita's lack of breath was from her near-constant cackling laughter, Rita spoke again. "Just face it, you cannot possibly hope to defeat me! I am Rita Repulsa, the Empress of Evil, and you are nothing but a little pet wizard that the Power Rangers took pity on."

Harry growled under his breath. "You know, I am really getting sick of none of you people ever using my name! It's always, 'Mageling' or 'Little Wizard' or 'Pet Wizard.' Is it too much to ask for a little recognition around here?"

Rita's wicked smile grew again. "When you finally manage to do something to prove you are a threat to me I may decide to learn your name, but that sadly won't be possible." With another loud screeching cackle, Rita jabbed her staff forward and released a pulse of magic. It was only then that Harry realized that his feet were stuck, engulfed in concrete from the roof that Rita must have animated while he was having his rant.

Now Harry was stuck, literally and figuratively. In a desperate attempt at survival, Harry ducked down and hid as much of himself as he could behind the shield mere moments before Rita's spell hit its mark. It only lasted a moment, but Harry would have sworn it was longer as his shield almost immediately buckled and then gave way, the spell breaking down before the sheer force Rita hit it with, causing the shield to dissolve. On the plus side, when the shield gave way, there was enough force left to knock him free of his entrapment. On the down side, Harry himself was more than a bit scorched from that same excess spell power.

Rita floated slightly closer as Harry slowly pulled himself upright, clenching his wand tightly as he did so. "Just give in now, Wizard, and I might make your end painless."

Harry refused to respond, merely leveling his best glare at her as he tried to catch his breath.

Rita gave a satisfied smile once more. "Very well then, Mageling." Once again, the dark sorceress began channeling her magic into her scepter in preparation for a magical lightning blast. Harry recognized the spell as it was one of her more frequently used attacks, next to her fireball spells. It was one thing that he had noticed about Rita's brand of magic: it destroyed things very, very well. Her brand of magic felt decidedly dark in nature, even on the monster fragments as he had once mentioned to the Rangers, but it was almost uniquely spun to destruction and death.

Putting his musings aside, he thrust his wand forward just as Rita unleashed her magical lightning, casting a point-shield between them barely large enough to block the bolt from hitting him. Rita, seeing Harry's last resistance, merely cackled again and renewed her assault.

Harry felt himself faltering almost immediately. Rita's power was indeed far greater than any he had faced before as far as pure strength went. But if he really thought about it, the magics of this dimension were very different from anything he had ever experienced before so there was no telling how she would have matched up to the likes of Voldemort in a head to head contest. If Harry still had the Elder Wand, or even his old Holly and Phoenix feather, he felt he would have been able to fight her on a much more even level, but with the unstable hodgepodge wand he had he knew he was outmatched.

Even now Harry could feel his wand shuddering under the strain of the magic he was pouring through it to feed his shield. The wand simply wasn't suited to much other than offensive magics if he were honest, and even then it was an inefficient focus at best of times with its unstable nature.

As his wand continued to shudder in his grip, Harry found himself having to focus further and further on his magic to keep the flow as smooth as possible so the wand's instability wouldn't kick in and knock his shield out. It was as he sank deeper and deeper into the magical flow, his awareness of all else dwindling, that he felt the spark of the familiar within Rita's attack where it was raking along the surface of his shield.

He had already identified his own brand of magical energies as a sort of residual trace left behind in the monster pieces he had collected, but it wasn't till this moment that he really realized what it could mean for him. Rita had stolen the Elder Wand, a wand that he was the once and forever master of. A wand that could not typically do anything to hurt its true master. The most likely reason for Rita's spells working on him so far was because of the minimal amounts of Elder Wand magic in each of her spells.

Harry came out of his light trance with a gleam of determination even as his reduced focus made his shield falter slightly. The traces of the Elder Wand's magics were incredibly faint within Rita's, but now that he knew what to look for they were as clear as day to his senses. With an almost carefree smile that would remind those in the know of James Potter or Sirius Black in one of their more Gryffindorish moments, Harry let his shield drop before thrusting the point of his wand once more and meeting the arc of Rita's lightning with it.

In an instant, Harry flooded his wand with as much of his magical energies as it could hold and linked it to the traces of wand-magic at the core of Rita's attack. The connection caught immediately and held strong so that when Harry jerked his wand to the side, the lightning bolt followed it, trailing after Harry's wand and being diverted around the wizard to impact behind him with a small explosion.

Rita almost immediately stopped casting, her face now showing shock for the first time in the fight.

Harry just smiled as his chest heaved with every heavy breath he took, reveling in the fury that overcame Rita as she stared.

Finally, with a screech, Rita once more started casting at Harry, leading off with another of her lightning spells and following up with a pair of fireballs. Harry straightened as she began casting, once more catching her first spell with his wand and redirecting it to one side before almost casually doing the same to the first fireball. The second he caught on his wand, interfaced with the magic in its core briefly, and made a small pirouette, sure he looked rather stupid as he did it, before releasing the fireball to fly right back toward Rita.

The look on her face was rather priceless in Harry's opinion. The Sorceress was so stunned by Harry's sudden counterattack, and with her own spell at that, that she failed to move her bike in time to dodge. The resulting explosion was enough to knock Rita off her flying bicycle, sending both her and it falling to the rooftop a dozen feet in front of Harry.

"How…" Rita demanded as she quickly pulled herself to her feet, relying heavily on her scepter to do so. "How did you deflect my spells like that!?"

Harry smiled as he straightened himself again, a faux-casual air about him. "You know it's rather nice of you to join me here on a solid surface. I'll admit it was rather demeaning to be dueling you while you were merrily pedaling away in the air like that."

"Don't ignore me, Mageling!" Rita screeched, releasing another bolt of magic which Harry almost casually redirected.

"Oh believe me, Rita," Harry spoke, ice creeping into his voice now. "I'm not. Reducto!"

Now it was Rita's turn to shield as Harry let loose with a barrage of offensive curses and hexes. Mixing reductos in with the occasional exploding curse, cutting curse, or knockback jinx. The sorceress stood strong throughout the onslaught with no clear sign of tiring, eventually forcing Harry to slow down himself lest he exhaust his magic and leave himself vulnerable.

"It seems we are at an impasse, Mageling." Rita spoke smoothly, a false smile once more on her face. "You cannot break through my magical defenses and I cannot seem to hit you with any of my spells anymore either."

Harry narrowed his eyes before nodding. "That would seem to be a fair statement, doesn't mean that I'm willing to sit here and play nice with you though."

Rita's smile just grew even wider. "Oh, I wouldn't expect that from a goody-goody like you in the first place, Mageling." At this point, Harry was sure she was just calling him that out of spite and because she knew it annoyed him. "But I have another advantage over you, I think."

Harry took a cautious half step back out of reflex only to inwardly curse himself when Rita's face began to look eager. "Oh? And what's that?"

In response, Rita lifted her left hand up, heavily bedecked with over-sized rings that were glowing with an internal light. "I have more than one focus and can hold up my shield with one while I attack you with the other!"

Rita immediately put actions to her words as she thrust her scepter forward and unleashed another bolt of lightning. Harry, relying on his earlier success, spun with the spell again, sending it crashing back into Rita's shield where it seemed to ground itself out and fizzle away without doing any damage.

"And now you are once more without options…" Rita's false sympathy sickened him, but Harry had to admit that she had a point. There was nothing more he could do to her with his current resources. Any Transfigurations he tried would probably just get blasted by her if she didn't blast him before he could complete them. Most of his other spells weren't nearly powerful enough to get past that shield of hers if his earlier barrage was anything to go by, and even her own redirected spells seemed mostly ineffective.

Then Harry got another idea. This one based off his last duel with someone else using the Elder Wand. It was a long shot, but if it paid off it would be worth it. If not, well he probably wouldn't be allowed to teleport away this time…

Rita, ignorant of Harry's thoughts, spoke once more. "It's too bad, really. If you had just decided to join me you wouldn't be facing your own destruction now."

Harry gave her a long suffering look. "Has anyone in the history of existence ever gone for those corny lines? It's bad enough that I have to deal with the Rangers saying stuff like that on occasion, but you too? Honestly!"

The sorceress's face twisted back into anger, making Harry rethink the idea of being cheeky at a time like this. "So be it." With yet another screech which seemed to be almost a calling card for her offensive spells Rita let loose with another lightning blast.

Using reflexes honed throughout his years of Quidditch training and fighting against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, Harry snapped his wand up and pointed it at Rita. "Expelliarmus!"

The two spells met each other with a bright flash of light, temporarily blinding the two magic users. When their eyesight returned Harry was pleased to see his gamble had paid off. Their two foci, Harry's wand and the tip of the Elder Wand protruding from the top of Rita's staff, were connected by their two spells fighting against each other between them.

"What is this?!" Rita demanded, leaning forward slightly behind her scepter even as Harry felt the pressure on his own spell increase.

The wizard just smirked and redoubled his own efforts, reaching out to the Elder Wand's magic within Rita's attack and tweaking it slightly as he did. Harry's efforts began showing fruit immediately as Rita's spell began losing power, slowly shifting the junction between their spell-lock stalemate closer to the dark sorceress.

As her spell continued to fail despite her efforts, Harry could see the panic on Rita's face grow as she placed her free hand on her scepter, consequently dropping her shield as she did so. Finally, she snapped at him. "How are you doing all this?! It isn't possible for you to be this powerful!"

Harry took a physical step forward, his proximity adding to the force behind his spell. High on his seemingly inevitable triumph, Harry spoke. "You made this possible through your actions, Rita. I told you before, the wand chooses the wizard, and that wand chose me!" With one last push, Harry's spell broke through Rita's and slammed into her, knocking the sorceress to the ground and wrenching her scepter from her hands.

With an almost casual motion, Harry swapped his wand to his off-hand and caught the scepter easily. He took a moment to examine the Elder Wand, trying to find some way to remove it, but his attention was quickly drawn to Rita's shout. "GOLDAR!"

The echoes of Rita's most likely magically enhanced shout had barely faded when the building shook violently and Goldar's giant head rose into sight, his left eye still squinting slightly from the effects of Harry's earlier spell. "YOU SUMMONED ME MY QUEEN?"

Harry was paralyzed in shock at the monster's proximity and so was unable to react even as Rita spoke. "Recover my scepter and remove this annoyance!"

"AS YOU COMMAND, EMPRESS!" Goldar's eyes lit up as he spoke and Harry instinctively cast a protego, not immediately noticing that he had channeled through Rita's scepter as he did so. The Elder Wand enhanced shield was really all that saved his life as Goldar's optic blasts destroyed the roof of the building below him and sent the wizard flying backward and off the edge of the building, losing his grip on the scepter as it clipped the building just before he went over.

Harry had always enjoyed flying and the freedom of being up in the air, but he found that getting into the air by being suddenly blasted off the top of a building wasn't quite as appealing. Before he could fully descend into panic though, his fall was cut short when he felt a hard impact and a pair of arms wrapped around him in midair. Moments later, Harry once again found himself on solid ground, Trini's helmet close to his face as she lightly shook one of his shoulders. "Harry… Harry, are you alright?"

Harry glanced around, wide eyed to see the other Rangers all standing nearby, their suits considerably more scorched than when last he saw them, and shooting glances at him between cautious sweeps of their surroundings. Finally turning back to Trini, Harry nodded once and placed one of his hands over hers still on his shoulder. "Yeah… yeah, I think I'm alright. Hey, you know how I once complained about you guys saving me at the last second all the time? Yeah, never again…" Harry let himself collapse as he felt the adrenaline drain from his system.

Harry heard Zack give out a light chuckle. "Good to see you're still with us man. What happened up there?"

Harry took a few deep breaths before pulling himself to a sitting position as best he could, having to rely on Trini's help in the end when a few muscles protested his sudden movement. "Rita showed up just after I cursed Goldar the first time. We dueled. I disarmed her. Then Goldar showed up again and blasted me."

"You fought Rita?" Kimberly exclaimed, shock coloring her voice. "And managed to disarm her?"

"Did you manage to reacquire your original focus?" Billy asked, his voice sounding eager.

Harry glanced around for a moment before shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure I lost the scepter when I got blasted off the building." He turned to Trini, feeling a bit of Marauder mischief coming on due to the euphoria from his adrenaline rush. "And as soon as we are out of danger I am going to hug the heck out of you for catching me by the way." He followed it up with a bright smile that didn't falter even as Trini jerked slightly before freezing.

"Don- Don't mention it…" Trini nearly squeaked. Harry chuckled inwardly. He swore he could almost feel the heat of her blush even from within her helmet.

"We don't have time to mess around, guys." Jason interrupted the moment, redirecting everyone's attention to him. "We need to stop Goldar from destroying the city!"

"Yeah," Harry interjected. "Why haven't you guys called the Zords yet? What went wrong?"

Jason looked down and clenched his fist in frustration. "Goldar just wouldn't let up. No matter where we went, any time we tried to call the Zords or form the Power Blaster, he was right on top of us and we had to scatter. It's like he knew where we were the entire time!"

Harry gave a thoughtful hum. "Well, since he's not on top of us right now, I would have to assume that he was somehow sensing the buildup of Morphing Grid energy that gets let off each time you guys try to do something big like that. And that begs the question that if he could find you so easily, why hasn't he done much of anything to you yet?"

"Hey now, it's not like we got away unscathed each time, you know?" Zack commented, indignantly.

"I'm not saying that you did," Harry retorted calmly as he stood, once again with Trini's help. "What I am saying is that your earlier trap theory that I initially doubted and then agreed with is becoming more and more likely in my mind. Some of the stories you've told me about Rita from before I got here and some of what I've experienced since have lead me to believe that she is one for sometimes drawn out and occasionally nonsensical plans, and this situation really feels like a delay tactic for a big set up to attempt to defeat you guys in a big way."

While the Rangers pondered his comments, Harry took a few moments to do what he could about the minor burns and scrapes he had from his short battle with Rita. A few healing spells later, and an internal agreement with Jason's statement from the previous day about his healing magic stinging a LOT more than it probably should, Harry felt well enough to continue as needed. His magical reserves were still sitting above half and his body didn't hurt too badly now that he had dealt with his most prominent injuries. What little soreness and fatigue he had accumulated so far was manageable as long as nobody expected him to run a marathon any time soon.

"I guess we'll just have to stay on guard as best we can, Rangers." Jason finally spoke up again. "The situation hasn't changed. We still need to protect the city, so let's get to it!"

"RIGHT!" The other four chorused while Harry merely rolled his eyes internally. That was Jason, ever the team leader/font of inspiration.

Their team-moment was interrupted by the familiar cackling of Rita Repulsa as she swooped down from behind Harry and pivoted to face them from atop her flying bicycle once more and with her scepter in hand. Harry was happy to note, however, that the bike looked a bit worse for wear after he had managed to blast it earlier.

"So," Rita simpered in her falsely kind tone once more. She seemed to have already put her defeat at Harry's hands, temporary though it had been, behind her. "Are you stupid Power Geeks ready to give up?"

Jason, ever the eloquent speaker, shouted their response. "NEVER!"

"Jason, you… are a fool…" Rita drawled, her smile not leaving her face.

The Red Ranger paused for only a second before firing back. "You're the fool if you think we'll surrender to you!"

At this point Harry was musing internally on the unfairness of Rita calling Jason by name and so nearly missed Goldar's surprise attack, which was surprising all on its own with the monster's size. "SILENCE!" the giant simian shouted before thrusting his sword at them. It was once again easily dodged by Harry and the Ranger, however, only building Harry's paranoia as they regrouped.

"You can't win Rita!" Jason's shout was promptly ignored as Rita merely started laughing again.

"And now it's time to complete my evil plan!" the cycling sorceress looked especially gleeful as she turned to her oversized minion. "Goldar! Do it!"

Harry and the Rangers watched dumbfounded as Goldar nodded to Rita before stepping back and looking around himself for a moment. Finally, with an exclamation, the armored giant reached around behind a building and came up with a bus in hand. As he stomped closer once more, Harry and the Rangers caught sight of a few figures running back and forth within the bus with their arms flailing about.

"NO!" Jason cried out, one hand stretched out dramatically. "There are civilians in there!"

Goldar merely sneered as he examined the bus closely. "YES, I KNOW!" He seemed to squint a bit before letting out a booming laugh. "ACTUALLY THEY'RE FRIENDS OF YOURS. I BELIEVE YOU CALL THEM BULK AND SKULL!"

"Ah bollocks…" Harry mumbled before glancing up at where Rita was still floating, her attention on Goldar as he continued to turn the bus in his oversized hands. Snapping his wand up, Harry tried to take advantage of the Sorceress's lack of focus. "Bombarda!"

Harry's sudden exclamation and the flash of light from his spell caught everyone's attention as his attack raced toward Rita only to slam into a shield several feet from her and explode harmlessly.

Rita turned back toward Harry and the Rangers with a pitying expression. "As if it would be that easy, Mageling. Now, Goldar! Take them to the beach!"

Goldar nodded as he turned away. "AS YOU WISH, EMPRESS RITA!"

Jason and the other Rangers almost immediately began running after him. "Come on guys, we've gotta save them!"

Harry sighed before glancing back up and seeing Rita had vanished again. With an internal groan Harry started jogging after the Rangers, seriously missing his Firebolt about now. Still, even as he ran he couldn't help but feel they were playing right into Rita's hands. In fact, she had straight up admitted to having an "Evil Plan," so it would follow that this was all a part of it.

Harry again reflected on the Gryffindors charge ahead mentality that he had developed over his lifetime. It really did put him in some difficult situations and getting mixed in with a bunch of Gryffindor like heroes didn't help. But Jason had a point. They really didn't have a choice, especially with civilian innocents involved. Even if they were Bulk and Skull.

And Harry got the feeling that that was exactly what Rita was shooting for. The trap was prepared and the bait identified. Now it was time to see what happened when they set it off.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12