Power Rangers: A Legend Retold

"The Others part 1"

It had been hard at first, to remember his new name. To forget his past life and become someone else in the eyes and ears of the system. But Zordon had been right, there was no way that the deaths of their families and the sudden disappearance of Tommy would not allow the government, the FBI and anyone else trying to find out that they were indeed connected to the attacks in some way. Jason wondered how many homicide detectives were out there right now looking for Jason Lee Scott. He figured many, paranoia and distrust always followed acts of genocide that brought the nation, the planet, to its knees. But non of that mattered now, Zordon had hacked into the system and given them new last names and moved them to New York. Jason knew that the others preferred California, but not him. Coming from Detroit he felt more at home with sirens walling at all hours, gun shots being fired and beggars on every sidewalk. It was strange, he had always hated Detroit for those reasons and more and yet now all the people in that life were gone he found himself missing it. It was home. He done his best to become Jason Connor, even grown his hair out some, but sooner or later the system would find them. He had to laugh at the fact that the people who were responsible for saving every humans life was so hated by the masses. At least before the case of their families were open, before they were considered missing and then later fugitives, they though the "others" were aliens in it for their own agenda. It kept them looking skyward instead of across at their own people.

Jason now sat on a bench on the high school ground, the grass he was used to at Angel Groove high now cold concrete, as he ate an apple and watched the other students as they congregated and cared about their own little lives. In the background the gaping holes and burnt out frames that were once buildings showed the danger the Earth was still in but after a mere three months they had all but forgotten the attacks. While politicians and remaining military personnel squabbled over using nuclear missiles to protect the planet from the invaders the little people return to their lives as best they could.

He looked over a saw Kimberly sat with a group of girls. When they moved most of them had grown closer, all but Kim who had almost completely distanced herself from them. She joined them if she was needed in battle but if not they rarely saw her. They did hear her however, she had become somewhat of a school bicycle and on the nights she returned home to their apartment at all they often heard her moans as her headboard banged against their walls. She looked up, stopping her giggling as she noticed him looking at her. She quickly turned her head away, pretending not to notice. He sighed and threw the remaining core of the apple into the trash bin beside him, most here rarely even did that.

***

Jason looked up as he heard the door open and watched as Billy and Trini returned home. They had become quite close now and often would go out together trying to have a normal life.

"Hey" Jason nodded to them as they walked behind the sofa.

"Hey Jason" Billy replied with a smile.

"Hey" Trini called his way as she passed.

"No calls for over a month now" Jason said to them "you think we got them all?"
"I doubt it. They have probably been watching the news and noticed that attacking civilians and spoiling for a fight may not be the best strategy" Trini replied as she threw herself onto the sofa to the side of Jason.

"Yeah. Maybe they are waiting till Zedd returns to make their move" Billy shrugged as he sat beside her.

"Maybe" Jason replied "but I find it hard to believe they landed on our planet and kept us busy for nearly two months with constant attacks and then suddenly decide to go into hiding."

"Well maybe they are undercover like that man I saw" Trini suggested.

"Oh god, again with the Asian guy" Billy rolled his eyes.

"Trini we have been over this" Jason told her.

"Hey. I don't care what you guys say. I saw a middle aged Chinese guy in Australia on the day of Tommy's death and then again when we were fighting back the forces in LA" Trini sounded convinced of her theory "what are the chances the same guy turned up on two continents, watching us as we battled Zedorian troops?"

"Trini. It was just two different guys, people can look similar you know" Jason said.

"Yeah" added Billy "plus you were fighting, you didn't have chance to really look at him."
"I did and I'm telling you it was the same guy" Trini told them both.

"Alright" Billy held up his hands in submission.

Jason chuckled and picked up the remote, turning the TV to the news. It was the president giving a speech, not strange, but the fact that when Jason changed the channel he was also on it was. In fact the speech was being announced as a priority broadcast and was on every channel now.

"..Which brings us to why I am making this announcement. For some time our intelligence has been convinced that the others, the ones who opposed the invading fleet are in fact human and not alien as we first thought" The President spoke and was greeted with a shocked outburst from the press who were quickly silenced "this conclusion was realized when an autopsy report on several homicides were undertaken. Six families were slaughtered on the same day at around the same time, strange enough, however on that same day the only surviving members of those families disappeared. The autopsy report tells us that they were not killed by knifes or gun shots as were evident on the bodies, but by unknown energy beams similar to residue left over from the multiple alien attacks on our planet. We have finally decided to go public with this because we believe these six men and women to be extremely dangerous. They are to be considered fugitives and should you see them you are to report it to the authorities at once."
On the screen his image was replaced with that of six pictures, pictures of the six Rangers.

"Questions."
"Yes, Mr President" said one after being selected "are you saying that these kids are the six people who have been using those giant machines to engage the aliens?"

"We are yes" the President nodded.

He was immediately flooded with an outburst of chatter saying such things as "thats crazy" and "their just kids." As they quieted down another member of the press was selected.

"Mr President. Who are you protecting by letting this kids take the fall? I mean you don't honestly believe that these kids are responsible for the attack of Tokyo. Thats ridiculous."

"When aliens land on our Planet and kill our people, when giant robots looking like dinosaurs fight them like some dam Japanese cartoon then we are living in ridiculous times sir. I don't know how or why but these kids are somehow connected to this, they know things that are vital to the survival of this planet and as we saw with Tokyo they can not be trusted" the President responded.

"Mr President what do you say to the theory that these six are simply US military personel with classified weaponry?" Spoke up another member of the press.

"I would say people need to stop worrying about area 51 crap."

He was about to go to another question when behind him a suited man walked up behind him and whispered something into his ear.

"If thats all, more information will be avaliable on your way out. Thank you" he quickly cut it short and walked off. The press erupted but it was no use, something else had gotten his attention.

Jason looked over at Trini and Billy who simply swallowed and stared back at him.

"Thats it" Billy said nervously "games over. We have to get to the Command Centre."
"What do you mean its over?" Trini exclaimed "it can't be. This is our lives we are talking about."
"But it is Trini" Jason looked over at her "our lives are over. Sooner of later the moment we step out of that door we will be arrested."

"Sorry to interrupt normal programming again" an anchors voice got their attention again "we are told that the city of Toronto is under attack from alien forces as we speak. Once again we are told now craft have been sighed, rumours of alien settlement appear to be true. We take you now to Kelly Ransom who is at the scene."

The Rangers watched as the reporter told of the attack, behind her smoke was evident, as was blast fire.

"Lets worry about this later" Jason stood "we have to get to Toronto."
He was about to walk out of the flat when he heard the women's tone change, the sounds heard change, even the crowd seemed different. Some sounded like they were cheering.

"Wait" the reporter exclaimed "if you will look behind me it appears the 'others' the Government believes to be human fighters have arrived."

Behind her the camera zoomed in and focused on five warriors, each clad in different colours, just like the Rangers. They had armour, helmets, fighting moves and even weapons similar to their own. The armour however was different, the torso was white and the helmets were styled in gold. There was no Black one, instead a Green Ranger was present, fighting along side the others.

"It looks like we're already there" Billy stated and looked over at Jason.

***

There voices echoed loudly as each of them, now gathered, tried to talk to each other, over each other. Some of spoke of how they could never return to having normal lives again, but the most prevalent topic was the "others."

"Zordon" Jason finally hushed the others and looked up at their mentor's virtual face "how can their be another set of Rangers?"

"The logs we found on the Tyrannosaurus indicated there were another set of coins that must of remained here on Earth" Zordon replied.

"But who gave these new guys their coins?" Zack asked.

"That I do not know. For all we know they could have simply been found" Zordon responded.

"Great. Let them do this and just go shoot ourselves now" Kim commented.

"Kim!" Jason snapped.

"Well what else can we do?" Kimberly stood from her leaning position upon the consoles and walked toward the centre where Jason stood "our lives are practically over. The moment we step one foot in a civilised area we will be locked up."
"I can not speak to that end Kimberly. However I can assure you that you are needed here and that you are welcome to remain here with us" Zordon spoke to her.

"Great" Kim said and went back to her seated position on the console.

"Well looks like we got replacements" Zack said.

"On the contrary" Zordon spoke "I feel the human phase 'strength in numbers' applies. Doubling our team only increases Earth's defence."

"And what if these new guys don't want to be friends? What if they want to take our jobs from us?" Trini asked.

They all stopped in conversation as behind them the main double doors opened. Behind it stood the middle aged man and the five other rainbow clad warriors.

"I can assure you my dear. That is not my intent" the man spoke.

"Thats him!" Trini exclaimed wide eyed "thats the guy I saw when Tommy died!"

The Rangers all now stood looking up the ramp at these other Rangers and their apparent leader.

"My name is Master Dōi Kaku of the country you now call China. How I am here is a long story but for now I am here to offer peace to our allies. You use the medallions of Zyu and any Zyu Warrior is an ally of my Dai Warriors" the man told them "otherwise known in your terms as the Thunder Warriors."

"We have come to call out team Rangers" Zordon told him "Power Rangers."
"Then these will be the Thunder Rangers. You are the first of the new generation, the leaders of the human resistance against the Zedorian Empire. For that and for many reasons we are destined allies and will follow you in kind" Kaku said.

"Do you always talk like this?" Zack spoke up.

"I am curious as to how you entered Master Dōi Kaku" Zordon ignored Zack and said firmly.

"Your shield allows only those with the power to pass and since I have the origin of power on my person...you see what I mean" he replied and turned to Thunder Rangers "remove your armour. We are among friends."

The five Rangers looked at each other, finally to the Red Ranger who nodded to them. They each reached down to their belts and pressed what appeared to be their morphers. In a shimmer of multicoloured light the five Thunder Rangers became five humans of similar age the original Rangers. Two females and three males, just like them.

The Rangers stepped forward and looked up in wonder at their new allies, some smiled back while others simply stared.

"This my friends is Rocky the Red Dragon Ranger and leader of our team, Adam the Green Lion Ranger, Joey the Blue Pegasus Ranger, Aisha the Yellow Griffin Ranger and Katherine the Pink Phoenix Ranger" Kaku went down the line "and you must be Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Trini and Billy the new Warriors that have been protecting this planet while I assembled this team."

"Thats right" Jason nodded.

"Your the Master Kaku from thousands of years ago?" Billy asked in disbelief.

"Has it been that long?" Kaku muttered to himself before straightening and answering "yes I am."
"We have a lot of questions" Jason looked on in awe.

"Indeed, and they will be answered. But for now let us enjoy this moment. Finally the two tribes of warriors have come together. The Ancient Warriors, the Power Rangers are now ten."