Episode 5

"Hobbies and Powers"

To pass the time between missions, the team decides to do some hobbies that they enjoy doing. Jet takes on skateboarding, Soarin attempts parkour, and Fleetfoot tries on Meanwhile, the others are trying to figure out what they should be doing in their free time. While Wave is helping out with machine maintenance, the others do not have an idea on what they want to do.

In the middle of their hobbies, they are suddenly attacked by Starscream and his Mini Cons, along with a fleet of attacking plane minions. As they fight against the wave of Mini-Cons, they soon discover that they have gained special abilities that grants them additional moves during battle. When the battle then gets taken to the skies, the team applies their new abilities to their Sky Machines. Can they throw off the enemy with these unexpected arrivals?

[Beginning of Episode]

After a lot of searching, Jet has finally found a skateboarding park. He's having a lot of fun riding around and showing off his skills for all to see.

"Wee!" Jet exclaimed as he leaps off a ramp. He lands down and goes for the grind rails. "Yahoo!" Sparks fly off the bottom of his skateboard as he grinds. He lands on the ground once again. "Ha! I knew that this would be so much fun!"

As Jet is enjoying some free time outside his ranger duties, Spitfire and Wave are sitting at a bench, with Spitfire watching her ally fly around the park on a board and Wave at her computer as usual.

"I'm glad that we are able to find a local skateboarding park for Jet to have fun on," Spitfire said.

Wave took a quick glance away from her computer screen. "Yeah," she agreed. "Jet is so crazy when he's bored. He wants something stimulating all the time. No, I'm not talking about those mind puzzles we have back at base. This is what he's looking for."

Jet went up high into the air, spinning around in circles. He landed back on the ramp after doing three and a half rotations on his board while in the air. "Nailed it once again!" he cheered in celebration. "Good thing I practice in my free time!"

"Wooo!" Spitfire cheered. "Go, Jet!"

Wave looked at Spitfire, seeing her look so enthusiastic and passionate. "Oh, Spitfire," she begins to remark. "You're so hot, your blood is boiling."

Spitfire stopped cheering and looked at Wave. "Oh, I was?" she asks as she sat back down. For some reason, Wave's remark about her being hot gives the chills. It's as if there is some truth to that remark.

While Jet is flying around on his skateboard, he is stopped by some other skaters when one of them threw himself in front of him. "Hey! Jet!" he calls.

"Wha!" Jet yelped as he slowed down, got off his skateboard, and kicked it up for him to grab it. He stumbles for a while before stopping in front of the skater, stumbling from his momentum. "What is it?"

"I just want to know because your last names are identical," the skater asks.

Jet was initially confused about what this boy is talking about. "Who?" he asks. "Who are you talking about?"

"Have you ever heard of a pro skater with the last name Hawk?" one of the fans asks. "Do you have any relation to him? Like...familial?"

Jet knows another famous skater that shares his surname. While they both have that similarity, there is no familial relationship as he knows. "That person who you are referring to does not live in this place or my hometown," he told them. "Therefore, we share no familial relations. It's just a coincidence that our last names are Hawk."

"Just because two people share the same last names doesn't mean that they are closely related," Wave shouted, drawing their attention to her. "Just to let you know."

"Aww," the fans groaned, disappointed. "I was wondering if your skills were inherited."

"Did you ever learn about inheritance in biology?" Wave asks the fans, who are probably attending the sixth or seventh grade, maybe early into high school. "Well, let me tell you this. Inheritance doesn't work like that. You can't inherit skills from birth. Those skills have to come from somewhere."

"Okay, would you please leave me alone?" Jet asks, telling everyone with his arm to back off. "I have some tricks to show you. You don't want to miss out on this, would you?"

Suddenly, everyone gets excited. Jet hops back on his skateboard and rides off towards the ramps.

While they are watching Jet perform his hobby, Spitfire turns to Wave. "So, how is my friend Soarin doing?" she asks. "What's he up to?"

"Okay, so I looked at the district's database on every student that ever walks in one of it's schools," Wave explains. "I looked up Sonic and-"

"How does that have anything to do with Soarin?" Spitfire asks, interrupting Wave. "I know that they are blood related, but still."

Wave got a bit annoyed by Spitfire for halting her in the middle of what she was saying. Taking a deep breath, she continues as if nothing had happened. "I looked up the notes on Sonic, and I found that he occasionally practices parkour, an agility based sport. That may have influenced Soarin to follow in his brother's footsteps. I know. Interesting, isn't it?"

"So he's practicing parkour now, right?" Spitfire asks.

"Yep," Wave confirms. "And it turns out, his mentor happens to be his brother."

Spitfire is quite surprised to hear that Sonic is teaching his biological brother parkour lessons during his free time.

On another part of Sapphire Shores, Soarin is faced with a gap between two buildings. At the bottom is a safety mat to catch anyone that falls. It's not a far drop, only about three floors down. There's a ladder nearby for anyone to get back up without having to go through the building and up the stairs.

Soarin takes a deep breath as he readies himself to jump. He has warmed himself up for this one. Taking a couple steps back, he then dashes forward towards the gap. Just as he reaches the end, he leaps, flinging his body over the gap. He soars through the air, feeling the wind blowing in his face. He was expecting to clear the gap, but he was just short of clearing it. He slams onto the side of the building and falls down to the cushion down below.

"Okay, this is getting frustrating," Sonic groans, shaking his head in disappointment. "It was funny the first few times he missed that jump, but now it looks like he couldn't get his timing right. Or, he isn't pushing on the ground with enough force to propel him over that gap."

Next to Sonic is Rainbow Dash, who is also tutoring Soarin about parkour. She too is getting frustrated.

"Should we leave Soarin to practice on his own for this point onwards?" Rainbow asks. Then she checks her watch. "Our schedule is kind of busy and this is how far we are willing to stretch it."

"I'm checking on Soarin," Sonic said as he goes for the ladder. He slides down the ladder and walks up to Soarin, where he helps him get back up. "You okay, brother?"

"Man, my feet must be really strained from trying to jump that gap," Soarin responds, his voice sounding a little strained.

"Oh. That's the reason?" Sonic reacts upon hearing that."

"Yeah," Soarin replies, rubbing his legs. "My legs aren't exactly fit to jump such a gap."

Rainbow is seen sliding down the ladder staring at Soarin. "Oh. Our expectations for you were a little bit too high," she admits as she walks up to the blue boys. "Maybe we should make it a little easier for him just to get him started."

"Okay. If you insist," Sonic sighed. Then he focuses back on Soarin. "Here's the plan. You train another day, but make sure that this gap is 1.5 meters wide." He pulls out a tape measure from his pocket and measures the gap. "The previous was 2 meters wide. I'm guessing that even with a running start, your legs still couldn't make you clear the gap." He then rolls up the tape measure and stuffs it back into his coat pocket.

Soarin frowns and slumps. He feels that he will never be as amazing as Sonic.

Rainbow walks up to Soarin to comfort him. "Take a break for now, Soarin," she tells him. "Someday, you will be as great as Sonic. Give or take a few more weeks of practicing. Hey, it's not fast, but that's how it works. See you later when we have free time."

Sonic is then seen deflating the air cushion to bring back to base. He stops for a moment to look at Soarin. "Oh, and tell our parents that their children tried to train you," he reminds the rookie. "A veteran training a rookie...in a field separate from ranger work." He then continues to deflate the cushion.

Soarin feels a bit unsatisfied with that training session. He feels that he is not doing his best at the moment, which disappointed the children of his team's mentors. He looks up the buildings that he was training on, and thinks that he can do better next time.

Fleetfoot is a swimmer. Back at Canterlot High School, she is part of the swimming team that practices at the local pool which isn't a long walk from the main campus. Once Canterlot High is destroyed, she and her friends were transferred to Pegasus High, where she joined the swim team for a few days before being exiled due to the threat their main enemies have in the school. No one wants a repeat of what happened to both Canterlot High and Emerald High.

She has recently found a swimming pool within Sapphire Shores and has joined the swim team for a swimming meeting once every week. In her first week here, she decided to bring in her teammate Storm along, who she signed up along at the same time as her.

They are at the long pool for swimming races. Swimmers go to each side of the pool and back in the shortest time possible. Fleetfoot and Storm are next to each other, going across two different lanes.

Storm took one look at the water and starts to feel discomfort in his stomach. Fleetfoot takes note.

"What? So you are afraid of the water?" Fleetfoot asks.

Storm looks at Fleetfoot, stuttering with his voice. "J-just looking at the w-water just makes me feel u-uncomfortable," he said.

"Wait? So are you implying that you can't swim?" Fleetfoot asks. "You pilot the Yellow Albatross. You are the Yellow Albatross. Your helmet is modeled after the albatross! And you know what albatrosses are know for, do you?"

"Uh..." Storm said, unwilling to answer.

"They're found near the sea!" Fleetfoot explains. "Which is full of water! So it makes since that you like to swim, don't you? You kind of look like a surfer dude."

"No thanks," Storm replies. "I prefer wakeboarding."

Fleetfoot is getting annoyed with Storm's insistent that he can't swim. "Well, if you look like a surfer dude, then try and swim like one!" she shouted. Then she shoves Storm into the water, and Storm screams as he falls. The splash sparked exclaimed from their colleagues upon seeing something rude happen to one of them.

The instructor tweets his whistle. "Fleetfoot! Don't push your colleagues into the water!" he scolded. "That's just rude."

Fleetfoot took one look at Storm and realizes that he is correct. He slams his hands against the water and barely goes anywhere. "Whoops! Sorry, Storm," she said.

The instructor walks up to where Storm once was and notices that he is getting some distance. "Hmm...he seems to have potential to be a decent swimmer," he observes, "but I don't think he should take swimming lessons."

Across several areas of Sapphire Shores, near where the Sky Rangers are at, spy drones watch and observe their actions without anyone noticing.

In his lair, Megatron watches as the rangers he's facing against are doing things that he deems unnecessary for their role.

"All this potential, wasted on silly things like these," Megatron said. "Why couldn't they use this time to train up? This is only going to get them more easily defeated the next time I have an encounter with them." As sounds of engineers upgrading his troops fill the air, Megatron glances off in the direction the sounds are coming from. "Meanwhile, my best engineers are working on upgrades to better ourselves against these enemies."

It is taking quite a while for these upgrades to finish, and Megatron is getting impatient. With each passing day, their enemies will be preparing for their attacks more and more. It's not even a few days since the previous attack, yet the urge to keep on attacking is getting too big to resist.

"Hmm, maybe it's time to unleash my minor sky forces," Megatron said to himself. "Thus urge...I find it hard to resist. Maybe I should attack them in the middle of their hobbies. Let's see, who is available?" He then pulls up a list of candidates as the leader of his next attack. He reads through the list, only to discover that all of them are getting their upgrades. Only him and Starscream are available. "Crud. I'm not liking this."

Conflicted thoughts went through his head. Should he wait until someone is finished? Or maybe send them out now under the supervision of his least trusted ally. This urge to attack his enemies is becoming too strong. He chose the latter option.

"Starscream!" Megatron called. "Send out the sky forces!" He waits for a moment for his ally to respond, only to get nothing. He looks around, trying to look for right hand man. "Starscream?"

Megatron soon realizes that he's been watching drone footage for hours, watching the rangers as they go through their lives and trying to come up with an opportunity for an attack. Starscream probably got bored and went out anyway. Panicking, Megatron started with looking though the video footage, trying to find a time where he spotted his right hand man.

Back at the skating park, Jet was about to finish his session of free time. He sets himself up to do one more jump, and then it's back to the airbase.

As they watch Jet, Spitfire and Wave had a chat with each other. "So what are you planning to do, Wave?" Spitfire asked, relaxing on the bench. "What do you want to do in your free time?"

Wave pondered for a moment as she gets to her response. "Maybe I'll help with the maintaining of our Zords and weapons," she answered. "I am a engineering genius after all. Here. My constant focus on my computer proves it."

Spitfire looks at Wave's laptop and wonders how typing on that has anything to do with engineering. "Doesn't that make you a computer scientist?" she questioned.

Wave looks back at her laptop, then back at Spitfire with a bewildered look. Clearly, this girl doesn't know everyone on the team. But then she replies, "Trust me, when you see me working on the Sky Machines, you'll see that I'm an engineer. Got it?"

The two girls exchanged glances just as Jet performs his stunt. He does some spins and flips in the air, only to not land properly. He lands on his chest and slides on the floor, prompting groans from the spectators.

Back at the airbase, Firefly is busy doing her job making sure everything is running smoothly at this base. She expected today to go smoothly without any attacks on the nearby city, when the radar operators sent her a alert.

"Firefly!" Blackbird yelled. "We've got enemies flying over Sapphire Shores! They're coming towards the rangers!"

Firefly immediately knew what to do. "I'll warn them so they can react," she responded. She calls to the maintenance engineers. "Guys, get the Sky Machines ready for takeoff. They may use them during their battle."

Chuck then comes in with the latest report. "Firefly, Project Bird Powers is finished," he said.

"Good," Firefly replied, nodding upon hearing that the project is complete. "Now, our rangers have special abilities assigned to them. This is going to be so fun for their enemies." She then reaches for the button that allows her to communicate with the rangers.

"You okay, Jet?" Wave asked as she and Spitfire helped Jet get back up to his feet. "We didn't catch that."

"I'm fine," Jet replied. "I just landed at a bad angle."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Spitfire assured. "Once we get back to our base, your injuries will be treated."

Jet was thankful that he can get rid of this aching feeling on his chest. "Thanks," he said. "I appreciate it."

Just when Spitfire was about to reply, their Sky Morphers send out an alert sound.

"What?" Spitfire gasped.

Wave looks up and sees what caused the alarms to go off: A fleet of planes flying close to the ground. Well, they are flying dangerously close to the buildings, that is. They looked like they're barely clearing the highest of the buildings. Falling from the passing planes are several waves of Mini-Cons, which they'll have to fight much to their chagrin. "Aww, we were about to leave," she groaned.

People suddenly went into a panic at the sight of the Mini-Cons, knowing that this cannot be a good sign.

"Guys," Firefly spoke. "Hold off those Mini-Cons while you're at it. I'll summon the rest to your location."

"Well guys," Spitfire said. "Let's do as our mentor says. Ready?"

The trio presents their Sky Morpher forward as they bring their hand to the bottom button.

"Go! Skyranger!" they shouted as they got into their ranger forms.

Somewhere in Sapphire Shores, Soarin is getting frustrated over his inept skills in this terrestrial sport. He gets back up to the rooftop, readying himself to jump again.

"Oh, Sonic," Soarin said, shaking his head. "You know I don't have the patience to wait an entire day between practices. I'm doing another attempt right now!" He then gets running towards the edge of the building. He is about to jump, when his morpher sends out an alarm suddenly, interrupting him and causing him to trip over the ledge. "Waa" he screams before landing on the cushion, injuring himself. "Ow! Grr...who dares to interrupt my attempt at doing parkour?" He gets up a grumbling boy and replies back.

"Soarin!" Firefly shouted. "Your friends are in danger! Get to the skatepark and help them out! I'm sending you the coordinates."

Suddenly, Mini-Cons drop in next to Soarin, freaking him out.

"Oh, and watch out for the planes that are probably after you," Firefly warned.

Soarin hurried to get up and activated his Sky Morpher as he runs. "Go! Skyranger!" he shouted. He transforms into his ranger form and immediately flies off, leaving the Mini-Cons behind.

After that swim meet, Fleetfoot and Storm were booted out early because one of them forced the other into the water. They were now on their way back to the base.

However, Fleetfoot still didn't get the memo. "Come on, Storm," she said. "Why are you so scared of the water? You look like some surfer dude from the tropics."

Storm was angry at Fleetfoot for doing that to him. He may look like a typical surfer, but he's not anything like that. "Just because I look like someone who surfs doesn't mean that I really surf," he said. Or swims for that matter. I much prefer wakeboarding."

"Isn't that kind of the same thing, except you're being towed by a boat?" Fleetfoot asks.

"I prefer getting to water with some assurance," Storm replies.

Suddenly, their communicators go off. They were not expecting the call, but they answered it anyways since they were curious about who is calling them. The voice reveals that it's their mentor that called them.

"Fleetfoot! Storm!" Firefly spoke. "Are you there?"

"Uh, we're listening, ma'am," Fleetfoot responded.

"Good," Firefly replied back. "Now, I want you to meet up with the others at the local skatepark. The others are under attack!"

"What?" Storm reacts.

Several planes fly in above their heads and drop down a handful of Mini-Cons.

Fleetfoot was surprised to see Mini-Cons (or any foot soldier) to arrive at her location. She was initially worried about this since not all six of them are present at the same place.

"If you encounter any Mini-Cons, ignore them," Firefly advises. "The more important thing that you should worry about is getting to your friends. Come on, you two. Morph now!"

Fleetfoot and Storm activated their Sky Morphers, transforming them into their respective ranger forms. As soon as they do that, they fly off.

The Mini-Cons were disappointed that their targets got away before any of them can attack them. But they weren't about to give up just yet. They opted instead to chase those rangers down since the fight hasn't even started.

Apparently, Starscream didn't even bother to listen to his master. he decided to go out on his own without Megatron's orders. Sure, his master might be intend to do this, but he got away too early. But he doesn't mind that.

Starscream analyzes his radar signals and paid attention to the dots that are coming towards a single point. "Hehe," he chuckled. "This is going to be fun."

Down on the ground, chaos is ensuing in the skate park. People are running around panicking as the Mini-Cons threatened to attack them. Meanwhile, the rangers are dealing with the provoked Mini-Cons, using everything they have to take them down.

A woman is cornered with her child by a Mini-Con. It points its weapon towards the woman and the two cling on to each other for dear life. Just as when they thought it was all going to be over, Spitfire shoots out the Mini-Con with a laser blast. She rushes over to the woman.

"Go now!" Spitfire ordered the woman, waving her arm towards the exit. "Evacuate!"

Whimpering, the woman picked up her child and sprinted her way out of the park. Midway through, she is intercepted by a Mini-Con who also threatened to shoot them. She and her child cower in fear. Just like before, Jet jumps in and smacks them out of the way, setting the Mini-Con up for Wave to finish it off.

Jet calmed down the woman and her child. They were terrified by this experience. "Don't worry," he assured the woman. "We're here to protect you, like every other ranger team. Now go!"

The woman thanked the rangers for saving her. She escorted her child into one of the exits.

With all civilians out of the way of danger, the rangers can focus on defeating the army of Mini-Cons. One by one, they came to them with their guns pointed at them. One shoots at Spitfire, but she rolls out of the way only to counter with a barrage of laser blasts. She downed several Mini-Cons by this.

Nearby, Jet is kicking and smacking his way through the horde. When one of them pointed their gun to him, he ducks at the last moment leaving the Mini-Con to defeat one of its own. While the other Mini-Cons are shaming their comrade for accidentally destroying one of their own, Jet sweeps kick to knock them out of their feet. He finishes them off with a couple slaps with a fan.

In the sky, the rest of the team has regrouped and is finding their way towards the skatepark.

"Okay, so we're supposed to find a skatepark, right?" Storm recalled. "So, where is it?"

Soarin squinted to get a better look of the ground below. While serveying the area, he found a stakepark. But it's not just any random stakepark that is scattered around the city. On that specific skatepark, they could see a big fight going on.

"There! That's the skatepark!" Soarin shouted, pointing down. "I can tell that this is the right location because I can see my friends and our enemies from here."

Storm prepares to dive straight down. "Let's descend now!" he said. Just when everyone else is about to desend, a laser beam came from seemingly nowhere and struck Storm, sending him into a freefall. "Ahh!" he screamed.

"Storm!" Fleetfoot cried. Then she and Soarin began to dive down.

During the fight, Wave heard something strange in the air. It sounds like someone's falling. Upon looking up, she notices that it's Storm that's screaming. "Look out!" she alerted. "Storm is falling!"

Jet kicks back another Mini-Con before looking up to se Storm about to fall fight on top of him. "I'll get him!" he said. He leans back towards Storm, spreading his arms wide so that he can catch him. Just when Storm was about to crash, Jet brings his arms together. His timing was a bit early, as Storm was still above him. Mysteriously, a gust of wind blew form Jet's fans, which slowed Storm down enough for him to land safely.

Storm was baffled by what had just happened. "Whoa! What?" he asked.

Jet swore that something must've been wrong with his brain. He seemed to have brought his arms together a bit earlier than he antisipated. More importantly, he is not sure at what he just did. He looked at his fans. "Huh? What did I just do?" he asked.

"Jet...did you really?" Spitfire asked as she walks up to him just as the others landed.

"I don't know what happened," Jet replied. "I was going in to save an ally when my instincts kicked in and made my flap my fans, generating a powerful gale that slowed Storm's descent."

"Yeah," Fleetfoot agreed. "Weird."

Spitfire heard something land near someone. She sees who did it and notices that there's a Mini-Con right behind Fleetfoot. "Fleetfoot!" she yelled. "Look behind you!"

Fleetfoot turns around only to find that a Mini-Con that was about to attack her. "Whoa!" she yelped as she leap.

Instinctively, Spitfire began to attack the MIni-Con. "Stay away!" she said as she lit herself on fire and performed a charged boost, slamming into the MIni-Con and destroying it.

The others are astonished by this feat. "You too, Spitfire?"Jet asked.

Spitfire swore that she felt the air around her getting hotter, to the point that it feels burning. When she checked her suit, there were no burn marks to be found. She looks down at her feet, noticing a recently downed Min-Con. "Uhh...did I just lit myself on fire, then charged right in?" she asked, wondering how'd she did it?

"What is going on?" Wave asked. "Why are we getting these strange new abilities?" The others didn't give an answer, as they also have no idea why this is happening. She turns to the mentors for answers, turning on her communicator. "Firefly! Do you have any explanations about this?" she asked. No responce comes out. She tries again. "Firefly, are you listening? Firefly?"

Soarin dashes into a Mini-Con, knocking it down. He takes a moment to pay attention at Wave. "I think she's in the middle of something," he replied. "Best not to bother her. Or Chuck. By the way, did you catch me zipping through the area at high speed?"

Everyone glances over at Soarin, not catching what he is doing. "Hmm?" they all said.

"I was going ridiculously fast," Soarin explained. "Like, quite as fast as a diving falcon, which my suit was designed after. Wonder if I can dive down at high speeds. Hmm..." He looks off in the distance as he ponders. He glances over at the others for a moment, only to notice another Mini-Con that is right behind someone. His attention quickly shifts over. "Wave! Look out!" he alerted.

Wave glances behind her and notices another Mini-Con that was about to attack her. "I don't think so!" she said as she grabs her wrench and swings it at the foolish robot. Upon impact, there is an explosion of electrcity" that sends sparks everywhere. "Gah!" she exclaimed as she protected herself. "Unexpected bursts of electricity are the last thing in my mind."

They continued on with the fight testing out their new abilities. As they fight, two of them discovered their new abilities.

"Wee!" Fleetfoot said as she rides around a spray of water, ramming into the Mini-Cons. "I'm riding the waters!" The Mini-Cons that were struck then got short-circuited and fall.

Meanwhile, Storm is lifting up one of the Mini-Cons effortlessly. The Mini-Con flails its limbs as it was raised into the air. Storm focuses on one of the nearby Mini-Cons and tosses the Mini-Con he's holding onto them. They both got smashed to pieces. Storm glances at the pile of scrap parts as he wipes his hands clean. "My muscle training has been put into good use," he remarked. "Now, who's next?"

A plane then flies over the skatepark. Starscream takes a brief glance at the fighting rangers and notices that they are acting differently than usual. They appear to have gotten special powers. "What? They've gotten special abilities?" he gasped. "I wasn't told that the rangers will be getting special abilities. Grr...I must report this to Megatron."

Back on the ground, Spitfire flares up once again and rams herself into a Mini-Con, destroying it. She takes a moment to call back to the base. "Hey, this is great!" she reported. "Say, why are we getting these new powers?"

Firefly giggled from the other side. "Oh, I see that you've gotten some new powers," she remarked. "And, you seem to be having fun playing around with them. You know, I have a feeling that this is no accident."

Spitfire raised an eyebrow towards the statement. "Uh...what?" she asked, thinking that Firefly is implying that someone added these to their ranger powers.

"Hey guys!" Fleetfoot shouted, grabbing Spitfire's attention. "Watch what we can do!"

Spitfire turns around and witnesses Fleetfoot surfing on a platform of water, raining it down on some unfortunate Mini-Cons. This was followed by Wave charging in with an electrified wrench, who then passes the electricity to the water. This combination electrocuted the soaked Mini-Cons who soon fall from the attack.

"Haha!" Fleetfoot cheered. "That felt awesome to do!" She then celebrates the feat with Wave.

After the fight is finished, Soarin zips around the park to search for any remaining Mini-Cons that they might've missed. He returns to the rest of the team.

"That's the last of them," Soarin reported. "We did it guys."

The entire team celebrates another victory.

"Well, mission accomplished," Spitfire said. "That's another victory added to our list. Well, time to head back to the base."

Spitfire didn't even took one step before she is interrupted.

"I wouldn't celebrate right now, rangers," Firefly advised.

Everyone looked at their communicators in surprise. "Firefly?" they gasped.

"But...what are you talking about?" Jet asked. "We defeated all of the Mini-Cons that were attacking us. That must be enough to warrant a victory, right?"

Firefly disagrees. "If these Mini-Cons showed up, then surely there must be a Decepticon nearby as well," she said.

"Hey! We're not Sherly!" Soarin complained.

Everyone stared at Soarin after he made that strange comment.

"You're just waiting to use that joke, didn't you?" Spitfire asked as she stared at the embarrassed Soarin. "Well, no more fooling around! We've got a Deceptcon to capture." She then calls to the base through her morpher. "Sky Machines! Launch!"

The six Sky Machines fly over the buildings of Sapphire Shores as the rangers get on board and starts piloting them.

"See anything yet?" Firefly asked as the rangers patrolled the skies.

Spitfire gazes out towards the front. "Front view, nothing," she reported. Then, she turns to her left and sees nothing but the open skies. Well, there is something flying in the distance, but its not heading towards them. "Port view, still nothing," she reported again. Spitfire starts to get sweaty. These signs point to either one of two things. Either the Decepticon they are searching for has escaped or it is heading towards them in a different direction. With only one option left, she turns to her right and looks outside. "Starboard view, incoming!" As soon as she saw a fighter jet heading towards her, she yanks on her control wheel.

The Sky Machines break formation and go out in many directions. The pilots make sure that their target is visible from the canopy.

"Whoa! A fighter jet!" Soarin yelped. "Is it manned?"

Jet got a lifeform analysis on the fighter jet, and he sees that there is no organic lifeforms inside. "No signs of a pilot detected," he reported. "It must be a Decepticon!"

"Attack it!" Spitfire ordered.

The Red Eagle and the Green Hawk planes chase after the fighter jet and attempts to shoot it down with some laser bullets.

Starscream felt himself getting hit by enemy fire. He checks the rearview and notices that there are two planes that are pursuing him. An unsettling feeling went down his circuits. "Gah! Preky little teenagers," he grumbled. "Wiped out my entire Mini-Con crew. But I still some squadrons of planes!"

Spitfire was determined to take the enemy down. She presses hard on the weapons button, maintaining continuous fire on the enemy plane. Suddenly, she gets a notification from one of her ranger friends. "Incoming enemy planes," Soarin alerted. "Port side!"

The fighter jet suddenly lifts up, much to the confusion of both Jet and Spitfire. They've been focusing their fire on that enemy plane for so long that they didn't notice that the enemy has reinforcements coming in. The big fighter jet they were after was soon replaced by several smaller planes.

"Dang it!" Jet yelled, pounding on the control panel in frustration. "How many of these reinforcements do they have?"

"Rangers!" Chuck shouted. "Take out the reinforcement planes as fast as you can, then focus fire on the main enemy plane."

"Roger that," Spitfire replied.

The group of reinforcement planes split up, prompting Spitfire and Jet to do the same. As more and more reinforcement planes arrive at the scene, the others spit apart and deal with a small number of them each.

Spitfire is chasing after a couple of the reinforcement planes, attempting to shoot them down. The enemy planes maneuver out of the way of her shots, which infuriated her at every miss. She growled as she tightens her grip on her control stick. "Grr...pesky planes," she grumbled. "You won't like it when I'm angry!" She then pushed the control stick forward, boosting herself up and ramming them into the reinforcement planes.

In another part of the sky, Jet is focusing on two enemy planes, attempting to shoot them down. He grumbles as they dodge his shots. Then, he hears something coming from far away, somewhere to his right. He glances over and sees the Red Eagle on fire, with two planes plummeting behind it. "What?" he said in disbelief. "Spitfire, what did you just do?"

Spitfire glances behind her plane, watching the enemy planes plummeting to the ground. "Whoa!" she said in surprise. "Did I really do that? It seems like the Red Eagle is sharing my powers."

"Sharing my powers?" Jet replied. "Well, if that's true...hmm..." He glances at his controls for a moment, getting an idea in his head. He pushes hard on his control stick, seeing what would happen. Suddenly, the Green Hark accelerated.

The two reinforcement planes were having a laugh over how they allowed their enemy to waste their shots on misses. They thought that they were so clever. Then, suddenly, the Green Hawk passes from behind them, going in between the planes. They then suddenly feel a gust of wind blowing hard on them, which eventually sends them plummeting down.

"Whoa!" Jet gasped. "That was crazy!"

"This is fun!" Spitfire remarked. "Hey guys, you should try using your abilities on your planes. You share them with your planes."

"Whoa! Seriously?" Soarin asked. "That's really cool. I should try it out! Here, watch me!"

Soarin continued to chase after a pair of enemy planes, getting closer at every second. He then zips quickly in the air, with his path intersecting the enemy planes. This knocks them out of the sky. Soarin celebrates this little feat.

Meanwhile Starscream watches as his minion planes are being taken down in various ways. "What the-?" he said. "What are they doing? Are they taking out my enemy planes in unusual ways? Nobody told me about them using special abilities in their planes!"

Meanwhile, Wave finds herself being pursued by a group of enemy planes, who seem eager to shoot her down. She looks behind her at her pursuers, then back at her control panel. On it is a large button with a storm loud symbol on it. "Hey, my pursuers!" she began, talking to the enemy planes behind her. "Do you know what's the worst situation that a pilot could possibly experience?" She presses the button and sends out a storm cloud behind her, which electrocutes the planes and sends them plummeting down. "Encountering a storm cloud!"

"Did someone mention my name?" Storm asked, having heard his name being called.

"She's not referring to you, my friend," Jet reminded.

Fleetfoot is chasing after some more enemy planes, this time being higher than the enemy planes instead of being level with them. She catches up and hovers above them. She reaches for a button on her control panel. "Aerial Wave Surf!" she called as she races ahead while dropping some water behind her. The water collides with the enemy planes below, knocking them down.

Spitfire groans after she heard her friend calling out a move name that sound ridiculous. "Ugg...seriously Fleetfoot?" she asked.

"Sorry," Fleetfoot apologizes. "I had to."

Storm finds himself being chased by enemy planes. He glances at the control panel, wondering what button to push. One button catches his eyes, and it a large button with a clutched fist on it. "What's with this button?" he asked himself. "What does it do?" He then presses it. At the back of the Yellow Albatross, a boxing fist springs out, striking the enemy planes and sending them down. Storm looks behind him and sees plummeting planes with their fronts crumbled up. "Oh. I see."

Starscream watched as his entire squadron of planes was as being knocked out by unconventional means. He gets frustrated over this. "Gah!" he cried. "You're pulling tricks from nowhere! You'll pay for this!"

Spitfire checks outside and sees that there is only one more plane remaining to take out. "Alright guys," she announces. "We've got one more plane to defeat, and that's the main one right there. Let's do it!"

Starscream is nearly overheating his parts from anger. "I'm so mad, I could grow into a giant!" he proclaimed. "I'll shoot you guys right out of the sky!" He activated the embiggening serum and grew into a giant, transforming into his robot form. He lands on the runway of the base.

Spitfire notices that there's a giant robot standing near the base, and she feels that it's the same one that they're after. "Oh dear!" she yelped. "He's gone giant! Quick! Initiating Sky Icarus formation!"

The six Sky Machines got into formation and combined together to create the Sky Icarus once again. It pulls out its sword and shield and gets ready to fight.

Starscream looked at the giant robot he's facing against, feeling the rangers piloting it from inside. "Your giant robot won't stand a chance against the mighty Starscream!" he claimed.

"That's your name?" Jet asked the transforming giant robot. "Well, prepare to go supernova and wail out as you perish!"

The Sky Icarus swings its sword down at Starscream, and he takes the hit. Then, Starscream counters by sending out a barrage of missiles at the Sky Icarus. The Sky Icarus holds up its shield, blocking out the missiles before resuming its fight. It then blunted Starscream with the pommel of its sword, while Starscream countered with a punch and a kick.

Starscream then rams into the Sky Icarus, sending it stumbling back. The rangers brace themselves as the cockpit shakes.

"Man, this giant is powerful and persistent," Jet remarked. "What should we do?"

Spitfire gritted her teeth as she grips tighter on the controls. "Either we outlast him or we defeat him," she answered.

"But can we even outlast him?" Soarin asked. "We're only, what? One month into this at this point?"

"Doesn't matter," Wave replied, "because we have this!"

The Sky Icarus charges up its sword, performing a Sky Strike on Starscream. He gets knocked down to the ground with a scar on his chest. He covers it with his hand.

"There! We have him down!" Spitfire announces. "Now, let's finish him!" The Sky Icarus lifted its sword up to strike Starscream.

Starscream sits there covering the scar on his chest with his hand. He feels immense pain in his chest. He looks up and sees that he's about to get finished off. He waved his hand in mercy. "Wait! Stop!" he cried. "Don't hurt me! I swear! This is just a test to see if you are capable of defeating Megatron!"

The Sky Icarus stopped in the middle of its attack as the rangers looked down at their enemy.

"Huh? What's he saying?" Fleetfoot asked.

"Please, if you spared me, I will tell you the secrets into defeating him," Starscream said in a begging pose. "Promise!" He looked up at the rangers as if he's tearing up.

"Should we trust him?" Storm asked.

"Knowing Starscream, I think we shouldn't," Spitfire answered. "Let's finish him!" The Sky Icarus then resumes its attack.

"No!" Starscream cried. "What are you doing?"

The Sky Icarus was about to finish off Starscream, only to be interrupted by a call back at the base.

"Rangers! We've got more enemies heading towards you!" Firefly alerted.

"What?" Spitfire asked.

Suddenly, shots flew from out of the sky, hitting the Sky Icarus. It then gets knocked to the ground, taking the rangers with it. The rangers scream as they fell. After they crashed, they looked outside and see a bunch of planes circling Starscream, who seems to be back to his normal size.

"Starscream!" Megatron shouted as he looked down at his right hand man. "Do you really think you can get away with acting without my permission?"

"Megatron!" Starscream responded. "But-"

Megatron picked the delinquent partner by the scar. "Listen you slimy disgrace," he said. "We're going to have a huge talk when we get back to base. Got it? Here. I'm dragging you back to base!" He then hoists Starscream up some wires and flew away, taking Starscream with him.

"Wait!" Starscream cried. "I'm not finished yet! LET ME GOOOOO!"

The rangers watched as Starscream was taken away.

"Well, that was something," Spitfire remarked.

"Indeed," Firefly agreed. "It appears that there is some internal conflict with your enemies."

"So, what should we do?" Jet asked.

"Leave them alone," Firefly replied. "Call this mission accomplished. At least you tested out your new powers. Alright, back to base. It's about time I reveal the truth to you."

"Wait, what?" Spitfire spitted out.

Firefly and Chuck explained how the rangers got their powers as they stand there in the office.

"So, this was an experiment?" Spitfire asked.

Firefly and Chuck nodded. "We had a science project going on during your active days as rangers," Chuck explained. "It's to grant the Sky Rangers, you guys, special powers that can be used to enhance your fighting skills and abilities."

"We choose these powers based on what we thing would suit you best," Firefly continued. "That means that we looked at your names, personality, skills, and physical traits to see which powers would suit you best."

"Yeah!" Storm agreed as he punched the air. "Muscle power for the win!"

"Wait..." Spitfire began to ask. "I thought I was named after a famous plane."

Soarin leans on Spitfire. "You know, you do have the word 'fire' integrated into your name," he said, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh, quit being a tease!" Jet shouted as he pulls Soarin away. The two then got into a slapping fight.

"Hey!" Firefly shouted. "No fighting! You're a team! You are allies!" The two continued to fight, much to the dismay of the mentors. Firefly slumps on her chair, sighing. "Oh, who am I kidding?"

This fight goes on for quite a while.

[End of Episode]

From the Author:

Another episode is done, with many more to come in the future. (This took way longer than it should. A few weeks between updates? Man, I am questioning my time management skills.) I can't say much about this episode, but here's what I can talk about.

Spitfire's ability and Soarin's ability are both based on moves used by Fox and Falco in the Super Smash Bros. franchise, with Spitfire getting the fire charge while Soarin gets the flash step ability. The other's special powers are nothing new, which is why I won't point out exactly where they came from because they're just basic powers.

That's all for this episode. Now it's time to wait for the next episode to arrive...if it ever does.

Written by TheAPPstore

Sonic the Hedgehog characters property of Sega

My Little Pony and Transformers characters property of Hasbro

Series inspired by Super Sentai/Power Rangers by Toei Company/Saban Brands

Spiritual successor of Jetman (Super Sentai Season 15)