"The Ninjetti Tribe"

Jason looked up at the women who held the sword to his neck. On closer look he saw that the primate features were confined to the golden symbol on the beast plate of her armour, the rest was strangely ninja like, with no features on the helmet that would show her animal. Obviously the third alien, Momochi, had a different style than that of Barza or Kaku. Her black hair was curled and her skin complexation was exotic, tanned white.

"Your temple?" He finally asked, restricting movement of his jaw so as not to impale it.

"Yes our temple. How did you get inside?" She pushed her sword in.

Jason sighed and reached down to his belt buckled, removing his coin from his morpher and holding it up to her, watching the sunlight gleam off of it.

"With this" he said.

She frowned as she looked at it in confusion for a moment "where did you steal that from?"
"We didn't. We are working for an alien called Zordon and the man that told us he helped build this temple Kaku" Jason replied.

"Kaku?" She frowned "of the Dai Warriors? That is not possible. Our scripts tell us...."
"He frooze himself back when this place was built. But now he's alive and has given his set of coins to people we work with" Jason said.

"Work with? Doing what?" She continued to grill.

"You obviously don't have TV's out here. Fighting off a full scale alien invasion of Earth, thats what!"

"The Gorma have returned?"
"Worse. A new Empire, one that will stop at nothing until he gets our power" Jason tried to look her in the eye so that he might convince her he was telling the truth.

She finally retracted the sword and held out her hand to help him up.

"Then we are allies" she replied "but what about these militant men?"
"They're with us" Jason said.

"I see" she did not seem convinced.

"What about you? How did you get your coins?" Jason asked.

"All in good time" she responded "for now we will take you to our village where we can speak alone with you."
"Lead the way" Jason gestured with his hand.

She didn't seem to touch anything on her person, however her armour seemed to just vanish, her coin now appearing in her hand.

"This way" she gestured and began to walk.

"Jason" he said as he followed behind her.

"Diana" she turned and nodded.

***

The village was small but was indeed a sight to be hold. They gathered around wooden camp fires as night fell upon the island but above their heads was not material or wood but metal. The tribe also seemed to have some technology. It was a strange mix between the simple tribal life and that of modern society, more advanced in some cases. The people seemed fearful as the large group passed them toward the largest metal structure beyond. Once there the five men and women leading them turned and spoke.

"Military remain here. Warriors please enter" Diana spoke.

Jason turned to Moore "Stay here. We don't want to start anything."

Moore begrudgingly agreed as Jason, Kimberly, Trini, Billy and Zack entered through the metal door that one of them had pulled upon.

Inside the room was lit by candle light and yet in the far corner they noticed a beeping and whirling computer, the likes of which they had only seen at the Command Centre. They stopped as they gathered around the centre of the room and was welcomed to sit as the five others did so opposite, forming a perfect circled around the centre piece statue at the centre of the interior. The statue was engraved with various depictions and symbols that for the most part they couldn't make out. One of the males stepped forward and used what looked like a lighter to light a fire in the hollowed curve in the centre of the statue.

"First let us introduce ourselves" Diana sat cross legged "I am Diana, the Red Warrior and leader of our tribe. This is Grayson the White Warrior and my right hand, Amelia the Blue Warrior, Darios the Black Warrior and Yui the Yellow Warrior."
The Rangers looked at each. Grayson had mid length dark brown hair and cobalt blue eyes, Amelia was red headed which complemented her green eyes perfectly, Darios had brown hair and eyes while the last, the male Yui seemed to be Japanese in origin with both black hair and eyes.

"And you?" She asked them.

"As I said I'm Jason" Jason nodded and gestured around himself at the others "this is Kimberly, Zack, Trini and Billy."
"Greetings" she nodded to them "so you came for the temple?"
"Yes, Master Kaku said we would find it here" Billy said.

"I see. If he did indeed preserve himself and is now alive again I assume he told you the story of the old war?" She asked them.

"Yeah" Jason confirmed.

"The story is passed down from generation to generation here. It has been the bases of our tribe since the beginning" Grayson spoke.

"Well Kaku didn't know you had the coins so mind tellin' us how you got 'em and what the hell this tribe is?" Zack cut in.

"Oh course. Just before his death Master Momochi returned to our ancestors and used his personal key to enter the temple. He brought out with him the five medallions and gave them to our ancestors stating that one day we would need them to defend the Earth" she looked like she had told this story a thousand times "he said Master Barza and Kaku were gone and that our people would soon be the only people remaining that knew of them or the war. He was right. He said we could use parts of his ship to supplement our village and so our ancestors did. As generations have gone by we have remained separated from the rest of humanity on this island, occasionally sending scouts every half century to bring back updates on the progress of man. Our lasts shouts brought back the information that helped us identify your allies out there as militant men, that is why I can not trust them. In any case the medallions were passed down to first child of the last holder, we discovered long ago that they responded to the blood of its previous hosts. And so we have remained here, only using the power to hunt or to protect ourselves from the outside world. Now you bring us news of a new threat and you carry the medallions of Barza's tribes to the east."
"We were told that the third set of warriors were in Africa" Trini spoke.

"Originally some of our ancestors came from there. 'But a worldwide war requires worldwide movement' or at least thats what our ancestors were told. We are from all over this world. And our power; thats based off of the ninjas of east where your powers were created. We have studied the temple whenever we can, as I said it is basis for everything we are" Diana responded.

"So you would be willing to leave all this and join us against the Zedorian's?" Billy asked.

"We would" she nodded.

"What about your Zords?" Kimberly was next to speak.

"Our ancestors were given maps to find them. At least the original five" Amelia replied.

"I will speak to our allies" Jason said and stood to leave.

They all rose with him as he did.

"You may stay here for the evening, but their kind are not welcome" Diana told them.

"I see. We will inform them of that also" Jason nodded to her "thank you."
Jason nodded to them, turned and left. The others did the same as they followed, each of the other team returning it in kind.

"What the hell was that Jason?" Zack asked as they came out into the open.

"Not now!" Jason snapped back at him and walked off toward where Lieutenant Moore was standing.

The others watched in confusion as he reached and spoke to him, pulling him away from the other soldiers.

"Whats up with him?" Asked Billy from behind Zack.

"I wish I knew" Zack replied.

***

Adam fell from the blast clutching his chest. Aisha rolled toward him, stopping to withdraw her blaster and fire, hitting the Zedorian at point blank range.

"Adam!" She exclaimed, rushing to his side "you alright?"

"I think so" he groaned as he got to his feet with her aide.

"Withdraw to safe positions!" They heard Rocky call.

Ahead was the Zedorian army they had engaged. They had attacked and destroyed several smaller French towns and had now begun their assault on Paris itself. When the Thunder Rangers had arrived they found themselves neck deep against the single largest force they had yet to face. They did not have battle suits but instead had rolling tanks that fired several high yield blasts with each shot. The ground troops were better than those they had faced before too, far better trained on the field. They had pinned them in using advanced battle tactics as they each ran behind an upturned bus for shelter from the blasts, explosions and weapons fire sounding around them.
Adam and Aisha were the last to run behind the bus and press up against it, taking a moment.

"We need to call the Zords. We can squash them like bugs" Joey said and he leaned over and fired a couple of shots before returning to a hidden position.

"No! I won't take life unless we have to" Rocky shot back.

"I understand but we don't have much choice" Katherine responded "they have us pinned down. Besides you know that Jason and his group won't keep prisoners. Look what they did with the last set."
"That doesn't make it right! I'm in command now!" Rocky shouted back.

Joey was about to saying something when they heard it, the whinnying as several high yield blast headed toward them, getting louder.

"Get down!" Rocky shouted and jumped forward.

As they lept the bus behind them exploded, throwing them forward and filling their background and vision with orange and yellow. Black smoke filled the sky as they tried to push themselves back up. The whole area behind them was a mess.

"We can't wait any longer!" Joey shouted over to Rocky as they stood.

"Alright" Rocky nodded "call your Zords!"

***

Jason now had the group assembled in the metallic hub they had been given. They each looked at him in disbelief at the words he had just said.

"You can't be serious" Trini shot a look of anger at him "their Ninjetti coins have been handed down to them for generations and now they are ready to join us, die for our cause without even knowing it because thats whats their parents told them to do and now your going to screw them over!"

"Jason you can't do this!" Kimberly added.

"Yes and can!" Jason shot back, each of them stared back at him in shock "I am doing it to protect these people. This alliance is paramount and if we even think of betraying that, these soldiers will start killing people to get what they want. I won't have their blood on my hands!"
"We don't know that" Zack countered "their still human for Gods sake."
"Exactly!" Jason threw down his hand "their human and they are paranoid and afraid. At least if we let them have a part of what we are doing they will let us do it, have a investment in it. They have just as much right to defend this planet as we do."
"And what about the Ninjetti tribes rights?" Trini countered "these people live and breath off what we only learned about a few days ago and you want to just take that away from them!"
"I have made my decision! We have to do this! I decided before we entered that temple that giving them the coins is the right thing to do. This is just another means to that end" Jason replied.

"Jason you don't understand. I have been doing research into our coins. They are connected to us in every way" Billy told Jason "if you take theirs away from them it would be like taking away a limb or a sense. This is wrong."
"Says who? Who choose these people?" Jason looked at each of them.

"The creator of their coins thats who!" Kimberly shouted back at him "they have just as much right to have them as Rocky, Joey, Adam, Aisha and Kat have to have theirs."
"Hell they have more right than us even" Zack added and turned back to Jason.

"I said my decision is final!" Jason snapped.

"Then I won't be any part of it" Kimberly said and walked out of the metal doorway.

The others looked at each other, at Jason and followed.

Jason was left alone with his thoughts. He was torn, tormented by the decision he had to make. It was simple really; betray the military and end up fighting a full on war on two fronts or take away a cultures foundations and betray the wishes of the coins creators. 'Why do I have to make this decision?' he asked himself 'what gives me the right? Why me! What makes me so special as to be this God dam leader!'

He walked over, his lip quivering, his body shaking from his inner rage. But was it at them? Or Himself? All he knew is how it was surfacing.

"They don't understand" he said quietly at first "they don't understand!"

He threw his fist against the metal slamming it hard and then walked over and turned over the table at the right side of the room. He let out a cry as the worn metal was overturned and crashed to ground with a loud clatter. He slammed his fist back against the wall and placed his forehead on top of it.

"Zordon I'm sorry" he muttered quietly to himself "I'm making a mistake."

***

Jason walked over to where the others were stood talking.

"If we are going to do this their is only one way to make sure we get a head start" he told them.

They all looked at each other, they were glad Jason had come around but this would be the hard way.

***

The Thunder Megazord reeled from the blasts, Rocky brought its hands up, trying to shield the cockpit located within the chest and the head where the central systems were located. Systems beneath the damage to the outer hull sparked from the blasts. The Zedorian's had positioned all four of the tanks to be aimed in the direction of the oncoming Zord. The initial attack had taken its toll on the enemy forces but now they had regrouped and with the aid of the tanks had begun to fight back. Hard.

"I need more power!" Rocky called back to Adam at the controls.

"I haven't got any to give you!" Adam replied back.

"Incoming!" Joey called.

They looked out seeing the discharges heading for them. Rocky tried to move the Zord out of the way as best he could but it was too late. Several shots collided with the main body of the Megazord. The cockpit shook from the impact, sparks shot out as consoles blew out and when dark. Panels, metal and wiring coming lose around them.

"Ten direct hits!" Katherine called as she looked at her flashing monitor.

Rocky tried to bring the Zord around as they prepared for the next volley, he moved his feet trying to step it to the side of their previous position and move in.
"There reloading" Joey reported.

They braced for impact, expecting that it would come and then....nothing. Ahead they saw two explosions shoot up into the sky. The volley never came.

"Report!" Rocky ordered.

"Rocky, theres another Zord out their. Its destroyed two of the tanks and is attacking the others along with the ground troops" Joey reported.

"Jason's team?" Rocky turned to him.

Joey looked up, his face beneath his mask that of confusion "no."

Beneath them a Zord resembling a white tiger shot out two blast from the centre of its mouth, destroying the tanks below. The troops ran in retreat. The tiger was rimmed with black and gold and seemed to be of the same technology as the Thunder Zords. It walked forward, its feet hitting hard on the pavement below, and fired again, blasts erupting and taking out sections of the retreating troops below.

Rocky looked on in confusion as the last of them were destroyed. Inside he felt something churn, they were dead, in part thanks to him.

"Call that Zord. Who the hell is that?" Rocky said.

"I got it" Aisha replied and put it through.

"This is the Red Thunder Ranger. Who the hell are you?" Rocky called over to the White Tiger Zord.

A voice came on the speaker, it spoke in confident tone, and simply said "A friend."

With that the Zord retracted its legs, withdrew thrusters and shot off into the sky above. The last they saw of it was as it flew overhead the Eiffle Tower.

"Kaku never said he gave the sixth coin to anyone" Adam said with a frown.

"No" Rocky agreed "he didn't."

***

The soldiers ran as in the distance they saw flame shooting up from the direction of the beach. People of the village had told them that their planes and equipment down there were under attack by enemy forces. Moore ran ahead with all his might, his assault rifle raised with its safety off. He passed by many familiar trees from the trek they had made up through the forest only hours before.

He let his boots come to halt as they touched the now cold sands of the beach on which they had landed, breathing heavily from the long sprint. He looked on in horror seeing the drop ship and the two fighters jets in flames ahead, the embers shooting up and lighting the dark sky with their orange glow.

"Shit!" He cursed and threw his rifle to the sand below.

He turned his head hearing the humming of engines in the distance. As he looked up into the distant sky he saw five strange craft take to air, the Zords of the five Rangers.

"Those bastards!" He sneered through clenched teeth and turned toward the others "do with still have radio?"
"Yes sir, with the equipment we took with us up to the temple" a flabbergast private replied.

"Then radio to the base to get someone here to get us" he ordered.

"Yes sir" the private nodded and raised his personal radio to call it back to where they had set up camp not far from the village.

"And have them tell them" Moore added "the deal is of. The 'Power Rangers' are now enemies of the state."

***

Master Kaku sat in deep meditation, his hands raised and pressed together to a point. He let let a deep breath which steadily blustered the candle in front of him.

Behind him the cell door un-latched, he could hear them talking on the other side. He heard them clearer as they entered, several American soldiers with assault rifles raised. They moved forward keeping their weapons pointed toward Kaku.

"Stand up alien!" One shouted out.

He sighed and opened his eyes, not moving from his cross legged position on top of of the red cushion with fine golden detail. He simply picked up the candle snuffer and brought it up, putting out the light. He excepted the symbolism of that and would not be put through the humiliation of being dragged through their halls and taken to a place where they could do it their way. No, he would not let them have that. He finally opened his eyes and let out another breath.

"I will pray for your people" he said softly.

In the halls outside the loud sound echoed as the shots fired.

END

Next: As Lord Zedd goes to meet with the noble council he recalls his early years and how he got to be the Lord Zedd the universe knows and fears.