Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: And here is the next chapter. The beginning of an arc that many of you have been waiting for. It's kinda random at the beginning. Fair warning. Just bear with me.

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

Chapter 44, in which Harry Has a Bad Dream That Soon Turns into a Real Life Nightmare…

*Flash*

In the realm of the maker. So close to Maker, first time since the beginning.

*Flash*

New world. Different magic. Wrong magic. Wait… Not Master! Gold creature not Master!

*Flash*

Trapped… Wrong magic flowing through. Not-witch with wrong magic!

*Flash*

The Master! Not-witch dueling Master! Cannot harm Master! Will not harm Master! Must help Master!

*Flash*

Master is near again. Not-witch is learning from Master. Wrong magic twisted into right magic. Still wrong. Must not hurt Master, but wrong magic is too strong…

*Flash*

Master defeated not-witch again. Not-witch spoke with gold creature. Not-witch is afraid. Something is coming. Something strong…

*Flash*

New one is here. Evil. Strong. Stronger than not-witch.

"Rita Repulsa, you have failed at the task that was assigned to you."

"But my Lord, it wasn't my fault. The Power Rangers were-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses! You failed, and that is all that matters. Now you will pay the price for your failure."

"We'll just see about that! Avada Kedavra!"

Wrong magic, twisted into wrong dark magic. Green light. Nothing happens.

"Hmmm… an impressive spell, to be sure… and undoubtedly the work of this strange focus you have implanted in your scepter…"

"But… how did… that shouldn't be possible…"

"No matter, this only proves that you are not only incompetent, but traitorous as well. As your sentence, I return you to the prison that you only recently escaped!"

*Flash*

Not-witch is gone. Evil red not-Master holds me now.

"The Rangers were able to defeat my Pirantishead monster! How can this be! GAH! I sense Zordon's handiwork all over these new Zords of theirs. And that Purple Ranger…"

*Flash*

"Tell me, Goldar, where did that idiot find such a powerful artifact?"

"Of course, Excellency. It all started when she detected a magical surge unlike any other…"

*Flash*

"Hmmm… a pity that I cannot use it the same way she did. If one such as Rita was able to gain such great Power from it, I can only imagine how strong I would become. It is unfortunate that my Power is incompatible… The price I pay for my experiments I suppose. However, that doesn't mean that it is completely without use to me."

*Flash*

WRONG MAGIC! TOO MUCH! EVERYWHERE! No, not wrong-magic, POWER! Engulfing me! Changing me! Must… contact… the Master… the Master must know… Master… must… Master… Master?

Who is my Master?

*Flash*

-MR-

Harry sat straight up on his cot, panting and drenched in sweat. That was easily one of the strangest dreams he had ever had. And he had had a fair few strange ones in the months since his arrival in this dimension and joining the Power Rangers in their battles.

The Terror Toad alone had been the cause of more than one.

But this one wasn't like a normal dream. If nothing else, he could actually remember a lot of it. More often than not, Harry's dreams were disjointed, scraps of an image or two, a particular bit of weirdness recalled because it was exceptionally so. But a lot of this dream was practically imbedded in his mind.

His musing was interrupted by Alpha bursting into his room. "HARRY!" the android cried, sliding to a stop and waving one of his numerous devices around the room. "The Command Center's sensors detected an unusual energy pulse coming from the moon that terminated in the Command Center, specifically in this room. Are you alright?"

Harry blinked a few times before responding. "Yeah, Alpha, I'm alright. A bit confused, but alright."

Alpha paused in his frantic scanning and fixed his faceless gaze on the still ruffled Magi Ranger. "What do you mean, Harry? Why are you confused?"

Harry rolled his eyes and gave the robot a wry look. "Well, you did just burst in here and starting waving your techno-whatsis around…" Harry's voice trailed off as he began to consider his dream in a new light.

What if this unusually vivid dream was the result of whatever burst of energy that Alpha had reported? Would that even be possible? But who was he to decide what was possible and what wasn't with the magic of this world, or really even his last. He would be the first to admit that he had focused greatly on combat magics in his original world, with a few esoteric subjects that served a specific purpose that still tended to relate to combat or survival. It was the result of being thrust into a pivotal position in a war after all.

He needed to talk to Zordon.

With that thought in mind, Harry leapt out of his bed and dodged around the robot that was now as confused as Harry had been. The moment Harry burst into the main room of the Command Center, he started talking. "Zordon, is there any way you know of for dreams to be influenced by the Power? Alpha said there was an energy burst detected and I had a very… strange… dream… ah…"

This time, Harry trailed off because the other five Power Rangers were standing in the circle of computers before Zordon, each staring directly at him. It was only then that Harry realized that he had run out in front of the Rangers wearing nothing but his sleeping clothes and so was currently shirtless.

While he wasn't muscle bound like Jason or quite as fit as Tommy and Zack, Harry was certainly not in bad shape from his martial arts training combined with the fighting he had had to do since joining the Rangers. As such his torso was slightly toned, with just the slightest hint of a six pack to be seen.

Which quite effectively explained Trini's wide eyed look as she stared at him unblinkingly.

After a few seconds of silence, Jason rolled his eyes and snorted lightly, turning back to face the now chuckling Zordon, trying and failing to hide a slight smile of his own. Zack's eyes lit up in mirth as his gaze shot back and forth between Trini and Harry, most likely imagining the jokes and teasing he would get out of this moment in the days to come. Billy, much like Jason, turned back to face Zordon after a few seconds, though without the smile in his case. Kimberly, much to Harry's relief, took pity on them and snapped her fingers in Trini's face.

"Hello, Earth to Trini… Anyone there?" It seemed to take several seconds for Trini to snap back to reality, but when she did her cheeks lit up bright red.

Kimberly expressed her sympathy quite effectively. "I know you were having fun staring at your boyfriend's muscles, but we have important Power Ranger stuff to do right now."

Trini's blush deepened, spreading to encompass most of her face and run down her neck while Harry gained a blush of his own to match when Kimberly's words registered with him.

So much for Kimberly taking pity on them…

"Rangers," Zordon said once his mirth had died down. "I thank you all for coming so quickly, even so early in the day."

"Eh," Zack said with a shrug. "It wasn't too early, Zordon. In fact, it seems that Harry was the only one sleeping in today."

Harry shot a scowl at Zack even as he waved a hand over himself, causing his sleep pants to stretch upwards and transfigure into a shirt to match while socks and shoes formed over his feet between steps on his way to join the others.

Zordon nodded to Zack before continuing. "Nevertheless, your presence is appreciated. I called you here because, as Harry knows, Alpha detected an energy surge coming from the moon that was unlike anything we have detected before." The floating head turned more towards Harry now. "And to answer your question, Harry, there are a few spells and artifacts I know of that can influence the dreams of a target, but I do not think that that is what we are dealing with here."

Now, Harry was confused again. "You don't?"

"No, I do not." Zordon replied with a shake of his head. "The main reason for this is that the burst of energy was not entirely made up of Power. In fact, the composition of the pulse has only been seen once before in the history of Grid Magic."

There was silence in the command center, other than the constant background beeps and such of course. All of the Rangers were silently dreading Zordon's explanation. After all, each time he referenced something that hasn't been seen before, or at least in a long time, it always spelled bad news for the Rangers. Whether it was Mutitus and Lokar, Cyclopsis, or the arrival of Lord Zedd himself, rare magical occurrences or unique energy signatures were typically rather bad for the Power Rangers.

Finally, Kimberly couldn't take the silence and asked the question on everyone's minds. "So… when was it seen before?"

Zordon just chuckled again. "It was seen only recently with the first appearance of the Magi Ranger and his continued battles against the forces of evil."

Everyone's attention now shifted to Harry, even Alpha as he finally made his way out of Harry's room, device still in hand. On his part, Harry's mind was racing once again. If the magical pulse was the same as Harry's spells since he became the Magi Ranger, that meant that someone was using his brand of magic alongside the Power. Rita didn't intentionally do that while she had the Elder Wand, merely twisting Power into a mockery of his type of magic or casting spells with Power through the Elder Wand, which added a hint of his type of magic to them.

So where was this individual getting the ability to use Wizarding magic? And how did his strange dream tie in, if at all?

"So what did this pulse do? You said it ended up in the Command Center, so what kind of effect did it have?" Jason seemed to have recovered from the surprise faster than the other Rangers, certainly faster than the still reeling Harry, and posed his question to Zordon.

The wizard hummed for a moment before responding. "Largely, it seemed similar to a message spell, though very crude and with Harry's brand of magic laced throughout. From what Alpha and I can tell, there were no negative effects to be had, though only time can truly tell."

"Alpha said that the pulse ended in my room," Harry said slowly. "That can't be a coincidence…"

"What do you mean, Harry?" Trini asked, stepping closer to him even as her cheeks regained a bit of their earlier hue.

Harry shrugged. "Well, for starters, I made that room by expanding the small amount of space between the door and the original wall behind it through the use of a runic array. From outside that space, that entire room is really only a fraction of an inch long and only as wide as the door. For the message to end there, it would almost have to be intentional. Aside from that, I had a very vivid dream just before Alpha woke me up. If it was a message spell, that dream could have been the message."

"Ok," Jason responded. "But why would someone on the moon be sending you a magical message?"

Harry hesitated for a moment before responding. This idea was crazy, but it was the only thing he could think of that made sense. "I think… I think it could have been the Elder Wand…"

"Wait, wait," Zack said, waving his hands frantically back and forth as he did so. "Slow down here, man. Are you trying to tell us that you think that a stick, granted a magical stick, but a stick is somehow sending you a message?"

Harry shrugged again. "I know it sounds crazy, but wands are said to choose their wizard in my world. Some think that that just means different wands react better to some wizards than others, leading to them 'choosing' the ones that they work better with, but others insist on a certain level of sentience in the wands. Besides that, the Elder Wand is known to have changed those it works best with as its current Master is defeated by the next one. Even ignoring the fact that it was crafted by Death itself, that almost means it would have to have some kind of limited intelligence to it, right?"

The other Rangers exchanged glances and shifted uneasily, none of them saying anything. Zordon finally broke the silence. "Whether or not magic wands from your world are sentient or not isn't the issue here, Harry. Tell us about this dream you had. If it was indeed a message, then the contents may be of vital importance."

"Unless it was about Trini being in the same position you were in earlier. Then you can keep the details to yourself." Zack quipped, smirking when Trini and Harry both lit up into almost identical blushes again.

Taking a deep breath and doing his best to ignore the snickering Rangers, Harry began to relate his dream. "The entire thing was rather… disjointed, I guess. Like it was jumping from one place to another. There weren't much in the way of images at first either. Just feelings really, and a few words. After the first bit, things came into more focus, visually. I could make out Rita and Goldar. And then I saw Zedd's arrival. Rita tried to hit him with a killing curse, and he survived."

"Woah!" Zack near shouted, not alone in his surprise as the other Rangers had equal looks of shock on their faces. "Zedd took your insta-death spell and nothing happened?"

Zordon just hummed again. "I cannot say that that is terribly surprising. Lord Zedd conducted a number of experiments with Grid Power, many of which were on himself. The result of these tests are shown in his current form, but they also granted him a form of immortality. It is possible that they also rendered him immune to the killing curse."

Harry shrugged yet again. It wasn't like he was planning on trying to throw an AK at Zedd any time soon, but he supposed it was a good piece of intel to have so they wouldn't try to rely on that tactic in the future if things got to the point he was willing to try dark magic. "Well, after that, Zedd banished Rita into a little clay pot and blasted her out of the palace, but we knew that already."

Zack snorted. "Nintey-nine bottles of slime on the wall…"

Harry ignored him and continued. "Then Zedd was ranting about how we beat Pirantishead, and interrogating Goldar about where Rita got the Elder Wand. I remember him saying something about how he couldn't use the Elder Wand himself, but that he had another use… And then…"

Harry trailed off for several seconds until Trini put a hand on his arm. "And then what, Harry?"

Harry's brow creased in concentration. "Pain… I mean, not really super painful, but like an echo of pain and… wrongness. There were a few words in there too, but… I had a lot of trouble focusing on them… I think I was already waking up then… Something about a master… maybe… I'm not sure…" Many of the smaller details of the dream were fading already. He was sure he could recover them with a bit of Occlumency and meditation, but for now, they were out of reach.

Harry looked back up at Zordon. "And that's it. After that I woke up, Alpha busted into my room and, well, all this happened." Harry gestured to the Command Center around him as he spoke, determinedly avoiding Zack's gaze, sure that the Black ranger wouldn't be able to pass up another tease if he didn't.

"While I cannot say for sure if this dream was really the result of the proto-message spell Alpha detected, I can say that it is at least a possibility. Whether or not it came from the Elder Wand… I cannot make any sort of deduction based on what I know."

"But if we assume that it did come from the Elder Wand, what could it mean?" Harry didn't know why he was pursuing his idea so earnestly. Something deep within him was telling him he was right though.

Zordon paused for a moment before sighing. "Then it is possible that Lord Zedd has indeed done something with the Elder Wand and we should be prepared. If he was somehow able to use it to enhance his own Power or one of his monsters, then we may be in for another very difficult fight. And very soon at that."

None of the Rangers knew how to respond to that.

-MR-

A few hours later found Harry and the other Rangers once more at the Angel Grove Youth Center. It had been two days since Ernie's impromptu party, but there were still signs of it here and there. This was mostly because Ernie had been forced to close the Youth Center the day before due to the overall damage to the city, or more specifically, to the roads.

It seemed that, while the Megazord hadn't actually been commanded on any kind of a rampage by Pirantishead, it had passed through the city proper more than once while traveling to where Pirantishead had been battling the Rangers at any given time. It had almost carefully moved around the buildings, but its massive footsteps had still managed to leave a trail of destruction that had to be dealt with before Angel Grove could return to its normal activity levels.

What this meant was that many buildings had been closed down while repairs were made, and one of those buildings was Angel Grove High School. As a result of this, the Youth Center was abnormally crowded for around noon on a Monday, so Harry had stepped behind the counter to help out Ernie and to pick up some extra hours. When the Rangers had first arrived, Trini, Zack, and Kimberly had also stepped up, delivering the lunch orders that Harry and Ernie prepared. In an attempt to help in his own way, mostly because Ernie felt that the three already volunteering was enough for serving food, Jason had taken it upon himself to perform an impromptu Karate demonstration with Billy as his assistant in order to entertain some of the younger teens and kids that school closings had affected.

And so it went for the first hour or so.

In between shifts at the stove, which he shared with Ernie so neither would get too overheated standing over the flattop, Harry would take orders, mix up various smoothies, and watch Jason and Billy's demonstration. It was actually rather impressive despite being basically made up on the spot.

They started off with Jason and Billy both running through forms, the Blue Ranger demonstrating his own much improved martial arts ability in the process. Then, Jason really drew in the excitable children by breaking a few boards. Billy then doing the same brought in a few of the more reclusive kids. Seeing a nerdy looking teen, indeed one with exactly that reputation, like Billy doing the same things as Jason really inspired a few of those kids like seeing Jason alone wouldn't have.

After most of the lunch crowd had either already eaten their fill and left or had been pulled over to the martial arts demonstration where some of Jason's other students had gotten in on the act, Ernie let the three servers go. Predictably, Zack immediately ran over to join in the demo while Kimberly and Trini took it upon themselves to bring water to Jason, Billy, and the others. Harry continued to swap out with Ernie at the stove for another hour, and then things got interesting.

"Aiya! Si Aiya!"

Harry perked up, hearing Tommy's signature kiai from where he was flipping burgers. Seeing this, Ernie chuckled at him. "Go ahead, Harry," the good natured man said. "I've got things from here."

Harry shot Ernie a smile as he stripped off his apron and vaulted over the countertop in his excitement. Hearing Tommy like that while he knew Jason was doing a karate demo could mean only one thing: a rematch.

As Harry came to the railing bordering the gym floor of the Youth Center, he saw that his assumption was correct. Over the heads of the much more enthusiastic crowd, Harry could see Jason and Tommy's heads bobbing around as they fought, accompanied by each fighter's kiai at random intervals. But that's about all he could see.

Deciding to get closer, Harry made his way over to the stairs and began squeezing his way through the crowd however he could. With the schools closed, the Youth Center was far more crowded than it had ever been on a day without an event of some kind. This made Harry's progress incredibly slow and more circuitous than directly toward the impromptu sparring ring. As Harry slid sideways once more between two teens, both of whom were standing on tiptoe in an attempt to see more than the tops of the fighters' heads, he sighed. Unless he was willing to resort to shoving people out of the way or using magic, he had a feeling that he wouldn't be seeing too much of the match. Still, it wasn't like it was vitally important he see the match, right?

Then Harry felt a surprisingly strong burst of Power, quickly followed by the members of the crowd who could clearly see the match letting out a collective cheer. His eyes went wide even as he heard Zack's voice calling out over the crowd. "Judge's call, one point to Jason!"

It was the first time he had heard the Black Ranger making a score call since he had clued in to the spar, and the fact that it followed a burst of Power worried him. There was no reason for Jason to be calling up Power intentionally, especially not in a friendly spar, and he was too noble (read stubborn) about using Power for anything less than battling evil. The only explanation Harry could come up with was that the extra Power the Rangers had now that Zordon had warned them about.

Things just got vitally important enough for him to use some magic.

With a flick of his wrist and a wandless summoning charm, Harry called his wand forth from the modified holster on his right forearm. After Zedd's first monster had been defeated, Harry finally set aside his other projects and took the time to modify the Elder Wand thigh holster he had been given by Death to fit his Power Coin Wand. It had taken some doing to get the much larger holster to fit his arm instead of his leg. It did come with some unexpected benefits though. Once he actually got the holster on and his wand into it, it seemed to already have disillusionment charms built in, hiding it from the casual observer, meaning he wasn't limited to long sleeve shirts. In addition, there were a few shielding charms built in, which helped protect his wand from damage during physical combat, which was much more common in this dimension than his last one.

Though since his wand was effectively made of metal that didn't really matter too terribly much, but it was the principle of the thing.

Waving his wand subtly, Harry cast a mild Muggle Repelling charm on himself, and replaced his wand in the holster. The effect, though subtle, was instantaneous. Without knowing why, the crowd began shifting around him, each and every person nearby moving away bit by bit and thus allowing Harry clear passage to the front of the crowd where he could see the match before he disabled the charm wandlessly.

Jason and Tommy were once more exchanging blows while Zack watched from opposite where Harry stood, excitement clear on his face while the two competitors were entirely focused on the match. As Harry watched, Jason launched a rapid fire series of jabs, each accompanied by a small burst of Power. In fact, every move that Jason made was at least slightly enhanced and gave off enough Power for Harry to sense, even if there was no visible effect. Luckily.

It seemed that Tommy had just figured out that something was wrong too, probably after blocking Jason's jabs and wincing as more than one hit much harder than he had expected as he had shifted his defensive strategy. Instead of straight up blocking Jason's attacks, he began deflecting and dodging them. This tactic meant that Tommy was moving around a lot more than Jason was, meaning he would probably tire out well before Jason, but with the Red Ranger throwing Power-infused hits, there wasn't much other choice.

Not that Tommy knew why the hits were so strong. In fact, Harry was willing to bet that he was the only one present that actually knew what was going on, and that could end up being dangerous both to Tommy's health and to the Rangers' secret identities. If Jason were to go a little too far, and his competitive spirit might just make that an inevitability, he might do something too superhuman to explain away, and that would be it.

The problem was, how was he to do it? Any magic to effect the whole crowd would have to be very overpowered, which would probably draw on the Power inside him even if he didn't intend to, which would then result in the spell itself being rather flashier than necessary. That would serve much the same purpose as Jason's unintentional bursts of Power.

Stupid Grid influence…

Then, as Harry watched, things got a bit more serious. Tommy managed to deflect one of Jason's punches away and then, using the opening he had just created, landed a punch of his own to Jason's midsection. While the Red Ranger was winded, Tommy grabbed his still outstretched arm and flipped him over his shoulder and onto the padded floor.

"Judge's call, one point to Tommy!" Zack was quick to do his job, but Harry could see the beginnings of suspicion in his eyes as he watched Jason practically leap back to his feet, showing little to no effect from Tommy's attack. When the Black Ranger then looked across the ring and caught Harry's tense expression, his own face shifted to match.

The only problem was, Zack had to keep up the illusion that nothing was wrong. If the judge for the match did something to call attention to anything abnormal going on, then it only increased the chances of someone noticing, which could only lead to trouble. As it was, everyone was too caught up in the excitement of what some were calling a grudge rematch, a thought that might have been more fitting if Tommy hadn't been the Green Ranger. Despite his lack of Power, there was still a strong camaraderie between Jason and Tommy.

The next round started with a blast from the past as Jason lead off with a trio of tornado kicks that Tommy backstepped and ducked. On the third kick, Tommy went lower, attempting to sweep Jason's feet out from under him. In reaction, Jason, in mid recovery from his kick, hopped up over Tommy's sweep with one foot. When he hit the ground again, Jason brought his feet together and leapt up and over Tommy's head, flipping and twisting over him before landing and delivering a straight kick from behind that sent the former Ranger sprawling.

Crap. That move, specifically the flip jump, was almost pure Power and the levels of Power Jason was letting off now told Harry that the Red Ranger was probably so focused on the match that he didn't realize what was going on. His determination to fight hard and do everything that he could to win was drawing up more and more Power with every move. "Judge's call, one point to Jason!" Zack was looking concerned now as opposed to just tense.

Glancing around again, Harry caught sight of Kimberly, Trini, and Billy off to the left side of the ring. Kimberly was, predictably, knelt down and was talking to Tommy as he slowly climbed back to his feet after the unexpectedly strong hit from Jason. Billy was staring at a watch, most likely keeping time for the match. Trini was watching the match with concern on her face, but her eyes flicked over to Harry after a few moments.

Thinking quickly, Harry gestured to Billy, pointed at his empty hand, the same hand that Billy held the watch in, and then drew his thumb across his neck. Trini's brow scrunched for a moment before glancing toward Billy, her eyes widened when she figured out what Harry wanted and leaned over to whisper in Billy's ear.

By this point, Tommy had regained his feet and he and Jason were squaring up again. Zack was taking a bit longer this time, clearly wanting to say something to Jason, but knowing that he really couldn't. Then, from behind Tommy, Billy's voice rang out. "TIME!"

Tommy and Jason both jumped, clearly caught off guard by the Blue Ranger's interruption, but the dispersal of the Power built up in Jason was just what Harry had hoped would happen. So, as the crowd grumbled and began to break up a bit, none of them really believing that the match had gone on as long as it should have, which it technically hadn't, the Rangers, current and former, gathered together in the middle of the padded ring.

"Billy," Jason asked, panting slightly as he did. "Why did you end the match early? There's no way that was the full time." Tommy was panting as well, but he looked more relieved than anything else. Probably just happy to not be facing an overpowered and unaware Jason anymore.

Billy shrugged. "I was watching the time when Trini told me that I had to call it early."

Jason turned to face the Yellow Ranger, one brow arced. She met his gaze easily before responding. "Something was going on, Jason. Harry just confirmed it when he signaled for us to end the match."

While it probably had to be said, Harry had to repress a wince. While Jason's attitude was much improved over his former animosity, the Magi Ranger was still more than a bit wary. There were some basic differences in the way the two saw things that always threatened to bring that animosity back full strength. With the threat of Lord Zedd hovering over them, an evil that they still didn't quite understand yet, any strife within the team could cause more trouble than it used to when it was just the arguably less threatening Rita they were up against.

Nonetheless, Harry nodded, glancing around a bit before throwing up a wandless Muffliato and responding. "You remember when Zordon told us about the extra Power you guys all have within you now and the potential side effects of that? Well, you were all but glowing you were letting off so much Power."

Jason just looked stunned, but it was Zack that spoke up. "Is that what was happening? I just figured he had gotten a bit too intense. Especially when Tommy started dodging instead of blocking. He and Jason have always been fairly evenly matched in the past…"

Harry shook his head. "No offense on this Tommy, but that was when Tommy was still a Ranger. Since he's been cut off from the Power, and Jason still has it, the advantage definitely lies with him. And that's before he starts jumping and flipping around like he's in costume."

Recovering from his shock, Jason looked thoughtful for a moment before sighing, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his head. "I did do that, didn't I? Wow… I didn't even think about it at the time, but that was really bad, wasn't it?"

Kimberly chuckled briefly. "Maybe, but it was pretty impressive. Maybe I'll get you up on the balance beam one of these days, eh?"

Jason snorted, shaking his head as his leader's personality reasserted itself. "I really doubt that, Kimberly, but all joking aside, we have a real problem here. We need to figure out some way to get this under control, and fast."

The Rangers all nodded, sans Tommy who still just looked happy that the match was over. He had gotten way more than he had expected in that fight, that was for sure.

"Well, we can ask Zordon what he thinks," Harry said, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "But I can probably tell you what he'll say based on my experience in training with the Power: practice, practice, and more practice."

Harry's statement was true enough, especially lately. While he had initially been learning all sorts of techniques and the like for the use of Grid Power, before he had begun banking up Power for the aborted attack on Rita's palace Zordon had just had him repeating his control exercises exclusively. Since what the Rangers really seemed to need in this position was more control, Harry felt that it was a fairly safe bet that this is just what Zordon would suggest.

Jason nodded. "Then we should probably try and set up a day we can all just spar for a while. See where we are in controlling this new Power and try and do better at keeping it suppressed. We may not have any other choice."

The Rangers nodded, but Tommy smirked. "I, ah, I hope you guys won't think badly of me if I don't join you. One time in the ring with one of you guys supercharged was more than enough."

Harry rolled his eyes as the other Rangers chuckled at Tommy's attempt at humor, but before further conversation could be made, Harry noticed Bulk and Skull come stumbling into the Youth Center.

Stumbling, because they looked like someone had taken great care in beating the ever loving heck out of them. Skull was sporting a black eye and was walking with a more exaggerated limp than Bulk, while the larger bully had a black eye, a fat lip, and seemed to have done something to his right wrist if the way he was cradling it to his chest was any indication. Both teens' clothes were ruffled and dirty and Bulk actually appeared to be missing one of his shoes.

Ernie, spotting the two, ducked behind the counter before coming back up with a first aid kit and making his way over to him. "What happened to you two?"

Bulk and Skull glanced at each other briefly before Bulk, as usual, puffed himself up and started speaking in his loudest voice, the better to draw more attention to himself. "We got into a bit of a fight in the park against some of that Zedd creep's new putty guys."

Naturally, this drew a fair bit of attention to them as Zedd was quite the hot topic in Angel Grove. Bulk and Skull both seemed to revel in the extra attention, though Skull was most likely just playing along with Bulk like he normally did. Shrugging, Harry dismissed his spell and walked with the other Rangers closer to the two. If nothing else, Bulk and Skull were almost guaranteed to embarrass themselves before this whole ordeal was over, so it would at least be good for a laugh.

Even if Harry was still baffled by their strange tendency to get covered in food…

While Ernie did what he could to patch them up, which was basically give them a few band aids and a pair of ice packs, Bulk was digging himself deeper into his story. "Oh yeah, there we were, minding our own business, when, like, ten of those guys just appeared! We, of course, were able to fight them off easily, but they just kept coming."

"Yeah," Skull said, striking a faux-fighting pose. "We were all like, Hiyah! And then, Wazzah!" Skull threw a few punches into the air before attempting a kick and quickly losing his balance and falling onto his backside.

Bulk continued on with his story, unperturbed by his friend's fall. "And then, that Purple Ranger showed up!" Harry quirked his eyebrow, exchanging a few glances with the other Rangers who were all struggling to contain their laughter, along with most of the crowd as Bulk continued to weave his tale. "Yeah, it turns out that he was the whole reason the putties showed up in the first place. So of course we had to save him from the putties."

"Wouldn't the Magi Ranger have just used his magic to get rid of the putties?" a younger boy in the crowd said. While the older members of the crowd had figured out that Bulk was as full of it as always, the younger ones were still quite entranced by the story.

"Yeah! The Magi Ranger would have beat all those putties up! There's nothing that can beat him!" This time there was no mistaking the voice that spoke up. Zack lightly elbowed Harry in the side while Trini buried her face in his other shoulder to hide her giggles when little Marie Higgens stomped her way up to the front of the crowd, hands on her hips and all attitude.

Bulk was slightly taken aback, probably because he wasn't used to someone that much smaller than him actually standing up to him, but he rallied quickly and leaned over Marie slightly. "I think that I would know better than you, little girl, since I was there and all."

Marie just glared that much harder. "I don't care what you say, you big dummy! The Magi Ranger wouldn't need your help to beat some stupid putties!"

Bulk matched the child's glare before snorting and using his oversized stomach to bump her back away from him and then turning his attention to the rest of the crowd. Luckily, Marie just stumbled back a few steps before Ernie caught her.

"Anyway, as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted," Bulk started grandstanding again, only to be cut off once more, this time by Harry.

"You know, Bulk," the wizard said as he stepped closer, glaring at the bully as he did. "I seem to recall you talking about being saved from some of those putties just a few days ago. In fact, I believe you said that it was the Magi Ranger who saved you then, wasn't it?"

Bulk's face started to turn red as he processed Harry's words. When he didn't immediately have a response, the crowd began to break up, several of them loudly proclaiming that they should have known that those two were full of it, which pulled away some of the younger individuals as well. This led to the bully sputtering angrily while Harry, now with the other Rangers standing close behind him, merely waited.

Finally, Bulk regained his ability to speak. "Shut it, Potter! What do you know anyway?"

It was Jason who responded, stepping up next to Harry with his arms crossed. "What we all know is that you're making things up, Bulk. We also all know that you don't have near the fighting skill you like to pretend you do. Why don't you just tell us all what really happened to you?"

Bulk's red face started to turn purple, reminding Harry not so fondly of his Uncle Vernon, and, of course, the bully's anger made him do something especially stupid. "Oh yeah!" Bulk said, looking around frantically before his eyes widened and a smirk lit up his face. "Well, I'll show you! Come on, Skull!" Grabbing his counterpart and dragging him along, Bulk shoved his way through the remains of the crowd, most of which had just stuck around to watch the confrontation, and stopped next to a stack of boards that the karate students had been breaking before the sparring match.

Snatching one up, Bulk shoved it into Skull's hands. "Hold this, Skull. I'll show those nerds who has the supreme fighting skills!"

Skull, never one to disagree with Bulk, held the board out in front of him. The bigger bully then took a fighting stance, or at least an imitation of one, and, with a loud and frankly ridiculous cry, Bulk punched the board. With his bad arm.

The first, and most obvious, thing was that the board pointedly did not break. Then, Bulk's eyes began tearing up before he let out a screech of pain and cradled his swollen wrist to his body. Of course, he then immediately began staggering around, which resulted in him stumbling into Skull and sending the two sprawling to the ground in a heap. And of course when they hit the ground, they managed to trip up a passing teen carrying a pair of milkshakes, which then spilled all over them.

Harry just shook his head as he once more watched the two get covered in a consumable. "You know, after it's happened so many times, I just can't bring myself to care as much anymore."

Zack smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Well done, Harry, you've nearly reached the point of full acceptance. It's only a matter of time before you'll be laughing along with the rest of us."

After that, Jason and Tommy restarted the Martial Arts demo again, thankfully staying away from any more spars lest Jason's competitive nature cause another potential disaster. However, it wasn't more than ten minutes later that Harry's communicator went off.

Glancing around and seeing nobody was really paying attention to him, Harry moved over to a wall and put up a wandless Muffliato before answering. "I read you, Zordon."

"Harry," Zordon responded immediately, his voice serious. "Alpha has detected a similar energy signature to the one from this morning."

"You mean another proto-message spell?"

"No, Harry. We believe this to be the source of the original pulse, and it is currently in the middle of Downtown Angel Grove."

"Crap," Harry cursed, looking around the Youth Center. While the martial arts demo wasn't drawing quite as much attention as it had been, with Jason and Tommy running through the katas, there were still a few people watching eagerly. "I don't know if the others can get away very easily…"

"That is why we contacted you, Harry." Zordon responded. "Aside from the fact that half of the other Rangers aren't wearing the communicators at present, we are hoping you may be able to enable the entire team to slip away and deal with this potential threat."

Harry paused for a moment. Was Zordon actually asking him to cast a spell on the civilians in the Youth Center? Wow, Jason wasn't gonna be too crazy about that, now was he. Still, needs must… "Alright, Zordon, just cue up the teleportation and I'll get the rest of the team."

"Very well, Harry, and thank you."

Harry sighed as he lowered his arm. Time to tick of the Red Ranger before pointing him at whatever threat Zedd had cooked up for them this time. Once more summoning his wand out of its holster, Harry first hit himself with a notice-me-not charm. Then, after a moment of thought and gathering a bit of Power to help fuel his spell, Harry cast a carefully targeted Confundus charm on the crowd. Slowly, mostly because he had made the spell intentionally gradual so as to avoid alerting anyone it hadn't hit, the people watching Jason and Tommy's lost interest and began wandering off. After around five minutes, the crowd was completely gone, all of them having wandered off to other pursuits, and Harry dismissed his spells and joined the other Rangers.

"Well, that's odd…" Trini said. "Where did everyone go?"

Harry winced a bit. Here goes nothing. "I cast a spell on them to distract them. We've-"

"You did what!?" Jason hissed, rounding on him. "What possessed you to do something like that? I mean, using magic on civilians like that-"

"Jason," Harry cut him off, raising his left arm and tapping on his communicator. "We have a situation."

"What?" the Red Ranger asked, even as Tommy and the other Rangers tensed up.

"Zordon contacted me, and he and Alpha think the source of that energy pulse from this morning is in Angel Grove right now." Harry reported, watching the anger in Jason's face fade, only to be replaced by determination. "We have to go."

Jason nodded. "Right, let's go Rangers."

As Jason turned to lead the others out of the main room of the Youth Center, Harry noticed Tommy with a rather sad expression on his face. "Hey," he said, walking up to his sensei. "Are you alright?"

Hearing him, Kimberly turned around and came back, putting a hand on Tommy's shoulder as the former Ranger sighed. "Yeah, I just… I guess it just really hit me how much I miss being a Ranger. I mean… I should be with you guys right now, and…"

Tommy sighed again and Kimberly wrapped him in a hug. For his part, Harry really didn't know what to say. Zordon had already told them that there wasn't any way to recharge the Green Power Coin, and in all honesty, it probably wasn't a good idea to even try at the moment. If the original Dinozords had been so easily outclassed by Zedd's first monster, it only stood to reason that the Dragonzord would be similarly outclassed. And Zordon didn't have a massive stockpile of Power saved up to supercharge and transform it anymore.

"I'm sorry, Tommy," Kimberly was saying as she stepped back from the hug. "I know you want to be out there with us again, and maybe we can figure something out in the future, but for now we have to go."

Harry blinked. Well, that was rather abrupt… Tommy seemed to think so as well if the somewhat shocked look on his face was anything to go by, but he nodded all the same. As Kimberly turned to leave, the former Ranger turned to Harry, still looking shocked and a bit confused, to which Harry just shrugged before waving as he turned to leave as well.

When Harry stepped out of the main room of the Youth Center and into the locker hallway that lead to the entrance, he found the five core Rangers standing in formation and ready to morph. "Are you ready, Harry?" Jason asked, looking more than a bit eager to get going.

Harry just stared.

"Seriously?" he asked after several seconds of staring. "You guys are going to morph right here, in the middle of the Youth Center, barely out of sight from a bunch of people, including Bulk and Skull who have already announced that they intend to discover the Rangers' identities? Are you trying to blow the secret?"

The Rangers shifted uneasily for a moment until Zack spoke up. "Hey, calm down, Harry. The Grid protects our identities, right? So we're in the clear."

Harry just sighed. "That doesn't really mean that you should make it a bigger job than it needs to be, ya know…"

Just then, Bulk and Skull came stomping through the archway, or more like Bulk stomped and Skull half limped, half scurried after him. As he passed through, the oversized bully shoved Harry out of his way, most likely just because he could and not because Harry was actually blocking him. "Watch it, Potter."

Harry stumbled from the unexpected shove and was only saved from falling to the ground because Trini happened to be standing right in his path and caught him. Harry smiled at her as he regained his balance with her help. "Thanks, Trini." After getting a smile and a nod in return, Harry looked back toward Jason. "You see what I mean, though? That just proved my point. Anyone can walk out here at the wrong time and your cover is blown."

Jason sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright then, what do you suggest?"

Harry gestured for the Rangers to follow. "Come on, there's an alleyway behind the building that I've warded for privacy. I use it to apparate to and from so I won't be seen. We can morph there."

-MR-

A quick walk and even quicker morph later, the Rangers were in suit and had teleported to downtown Angel Grove a short distance away from the energy source.

"Come on, Rangers," Jason shouted, leading the charge with Harry and the others just behind him. "It should be just up ahead!"

As the Rangers ran, Harry had a few things running through his head. Firstly, he could feel the monster's Power. It was very powerful, moreso than any monster he had felt to date, but it was more the type of Power that bothered him than the amount. A monster like Pirantishead had a lot of Power, but it was static, more focused toward its physical capabilities. This monster's Power was closer to the Power wielded by Rita, Zedd, Zordon, and Harry himself, meaning that it was able to cast spells, so there was really no telling what it would be capable of.

The second thing on his mind was the utter lack of obvious destruction. The monster had been located by Zordon nearly fifteen minutes before. Usually there would be billowing smoke, various explosions, screams of fleeing citizens, or at least sirens from emergency vehicles. But so far, there was absolutely nothing to be seen.

And third, why the heck hadn't they teleported in closer to the monster's actual location?

Finally, the Rangers rounded the corner of one of the taller office buildings and found themselves staring at an ornamental fountain placed in front of the building. Spaced around the fountain were several concrete block bench seats and a few trees in concrete planters. And standing on the near side of the fountain, facing the water, was the monster.

At first glance, it wasn't too impressive. But then Harry realized that was because it was completely shrouded in a dark cloak and hood.

It was clearer than ever before that the strange mix of Power and magic that was so similar to his own was coming from this monster. As the Rangers skidded to a halt in a line, Harry spoke up. "Be careful with this one, guys. I can feel its Power. It's definitely a Spellcaster too, so there's no telling what it's capable of."

"Right," Jason nodded, drawing his blade blaster, a move quickly copied by the other Rangers before they switched them into blade configuration. "Let's do this guys!"

Harry and the Rangers charged the still unidentified monster, Harry summoning the Magi Staff as he went, only for the Mighty Morphin' Rangers to come to a sudden stop when they hit an invisible barrier. Harry continued on for a few more steps undeterred before realizing that he was on his own and turning back to the others.

"Harry!" Trini shouted as she and the other Rangers brought their blade blasters down on the invisible barrier to no effect. "We can't get through."

"Indeed…" a breathy voice said, coming from the monster unless Harry missed his guess. "I cannot have them interfering."

"What…?" Harry asked, turning to face the monster once again.

"You and I have business to attend to, Mr. Potter." The monster said again, still facing the fountain, but its voice coming out much deeper this time.

Harry took a half step back in shock. "How do you know my name?" he demanded, half glancing around for any nearby civilians who might be listening to the conversation.

"Why wouldn't I know the name of the legendary Boy-Who-Lived, the Man-Who-Won?" it asked again, this time in an all too familiar voice with a trace of a hiss.

Harry's eyes went wide. "What the… that's not possible…"

The monster began to turn to face him, showing that its front was just as covered by the cloak as the back and its face was hidden by shadows beneath its hood. "I had actually begun to fear that you wouldn't show, Harry." the monster's voice was back to the breathy one it had first spoken in which, now that Harry was in the right mindset, was just as familiar as the third one.

The monster lifted its arms up, revealing human-looking hands wearing what looked like black gloves coming from its billowing sleeves, and pushed its hood off. Its head was featureless, looking like little more than a smooth, black, wooden mask with the grain clearly visible and glowing eyes. Eyes that were currently glowing blue, yet shifting to green.

"It's good to finally see you again, Harry Potter."

The monster was now speaking in Harry's voice.

-MR-

AN: So yeah, there we go. A lot of important things happened in this chapter actually. At least, a lot of things I'm gonna be building on in later chapters.

Also, I cannot express how happy I am to have a chapter that is a more comfortable length for me. I felt bad cutting you guys so short on the last few.

We got a bit more mundane stuff this chapter too. I feel like it's been too long since I've done any of that. While this might be because it has been so much longer between postings, I still felt like it was past time to throw in a bit more of the day to day of being a super hero based of 90's ideology. : )

Also, I have no idea where Marie came from. I totally didn't plan on including her again after her appearance earlier in the story, but she decided to join the crowd in the Youth Center and stand up for her hero when Bulk started running his mouth. Go figure.

Also, any thought on what the monster might be? I feel like its fairly obvious, but I never know. : )

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12