Off of Lakewood Blvd and Arbor Road

Nick looked patiently up at the red light shining above him, hoping that it would change soon. After he told Steve about the incident at the beach he headed straight towards the Mall to meet up with Li and the others. He hoped that helping them would keep him calm about what happened to Amika, unfortunately it did the opposite. All that was on his mind was getting her back and taking out the thing that attacked him. Then maybe he would be able to tell her some of the things that ran through his head.

It just made no sense to him that they would take her, but what really made sense about a creature that had faceless minions dressed in tuxedos come after him like that. A couple of weeks ago, he was just an ordinary surfer boy who was happier chasing the waves on the coast, until the moment he got involved with this whole hero business. He initially wanted to say no to it all, but something deep down inside of his soul told him that he needed to stay on this path and see it through. He just did not expect that it would begin this suddenly.

He heard the horn of the car behind him beginning to honk for him to go, slowly he moved past the light and continued towards the Mall. He had not heard anything from Steve or their new allies, Li or Nancy for about the past ten minutes. Was the surveillance going well? Or was there something else going on? The answer to his question did not take long to answer when he heard the sound of cars crashing a few meters in front of him.

His stomach jolted when he saw a Honda Accord station wagon crash into the back of a 53 foot trailer, the front of the vehicle crumpled into the trailer and the driver of the car and his passenger flew through the windshield and into the back of the trailer while the three children in the back were smashed into the back seat from the kinetic force of the impact. Nick immediately got out of his car, his eyes wide from the carnage that was in front of him. Unfortunately that was only the beginning as other cars began to crash in the opposite lane. Vehicles were flying into each other and some losing control and landing into local shops and pedestrians too slow to avoid.

He took one more look at the traffic in front of him and noticed the rush of traffic leaving from the direction of the Mall. The uneasy feeling in his stomach began to grow when he realized that something was already happening over there. He looked at his Aura Spader and moved it towards his mouth and activated the communicator.

"Steve!" Nick screamed, "What the hell is going on over there?"

"I'm a little busy at the moment!" Steve screamed, "The Gorma are here…"

The commlink went silent and suddenly from the direction of the Mall was the sound of a large explosion. Quietly, he looked on at the explosion and felt the need to swallow knowing that things were about to get a lot worse before they would get any better.

Lakewood Mall

East side of the mall

Ten minutes earlier

The yellow clad warrior known as the Kirin Ranger charged through the ranks of Copotros in order to make a path for the small group of children that were depending on him for help. With the precise movement of a killer, he blocked, punched and kicked his way through the Gorma minions with everything that he had. He took a second to look back at Angela and saw that she was doing everything she could to keep the children safe from harm.

"Hey!" Angela screamed to the Kirin Ranger while he was still fighting off their attackers, "We got to get moving!"

The Kirin Ranger grabbed one more Copotros by its neck and proceeded to lunge its face into his knee, "I am doing the best that I can here, if you want to fight these guys then be my guest!"

Three of these creatures charged towards Angela and tried to attack her, but she moved herself back a couple of inches and grabbed one by the arm and threw it down. Another came towards her and she moved out of the way and used her left leg to kick it into a couple more of those creatures. She continued to fight her way out of the situation managing to keep her own in this small battle.

Angela heard a rip of her shirt as one of them tried to grab on to her and moved herself back and let the article of clothing come off of her to reveal the white sports bra she was wearing and jumped into the air sending the thing falling to the ground and redressed herself in the middle of the action.

Moving herself into a tiger fighting stance, she took another look at the Copotros and saw that more were coming. That was when the Kirin Ranger jumped into the middle of the fight taking out more Copotros as possible while Angela motioned for Lola to bring the children through the fight while she pushed the rest of them back and took the rear while their yellow clad protector continued to keep them back.

Underneath his helmet, the man known as Tommy Xiao Li smiled at what he had just seen. He was totally amazed that Angela Steele, a woman he considered one of his closest friends, was able to fight her way through some of the Gorma like he was able to. He had been gone for so long, but never in a million years did he think that he would come back to find her to be capable of the things that he had seen.

He continued on towards the group and realized that things were definitely going to be interesting.

On the Other Side of the Mall

Mishelle turned back towards where the mysterious multi colored fighters were dealing with whatever that thing was that tried to attack the other shoppers. She knew she wanted to help them, but there was no real way for her to fight it. Deep inside of her she felt a need to do something to help with the situation,

Instead she decided to do the next best thing, and that was to aid the Mall security help the other shoppers who were nearby to safety. Without hesitation she motioned for everyone else towards the Mall exit guiding them out towards safety. She heard more screams coming from nearby, the remaining people trying to flee were being chased by a group of Copotros chasing them with their swords in their hands. Without hesitation, she raced through the crowds of people towards the new threat in front of them and prepared herself for what happened next. She did not know if she was going to win or if she was going to die, all she knew was that she needed to buy some time.

Immediately, she crashed into the first Copotros and a few others fell down into the ground behind them. Without a thought for the situation she was in her first reaction was to grab one of the weapons on the ground and jumped up into the air, her eyes narrowed knowing that this was the moment she was waiting for, a chance to prove that she could be like all the female fighters that she read throughout history. She started swinging the black weapon at the foot soldiers, hitting some of them while the others were trying to keep back and wait for an opening for them to either kill or capture her. Before they could make their next move, a loud crash was heard from nearby and more of the Gorma foot soldiers were seen being thrust into the air from that direction. Mishelle ducked down for a second from the debris of the blast and waited until she felt the blast subsided and saw two fighters dressed in colored suits fighting against the assailant who started the trouble. She was immersed in the fighting that was going on in front of her, watching these two fighters move swiftly while their enemy tried to keep up with them.

The blue warrior was known as the Tenma Ranger continued to fight on the offensive while his companion dressed in pink known as the Hou-ou Ranger, stood coiled like a viper ready to strike while Dansaku stood before them calculating his next move against these two warriors.

The Gorma Warrior felt his heart racing at the thought of going against two people of the Dai Tribe, it had been so long since he had a chance to go up against warriors of this caliber. His eyes glimmered with bloodlust, waiting to see who would make the first move.

"Are you gonna stand there like a reject from a kids show or are you gonna do something?" Tenma Ranger barked before moving into a fighting stance.

Dansaku arms stretched forward as their flesh color began to slowly change into brown and white tentacles and continued to head towards the two Rangers. Immediately, the Hou-ou and Tenma Ranger jumped out of the way as the tentacles watching the two appendages smashed into some of the nearby kiosks. Merchandise from the damaged booths flew in different directions and headed back towards the two Rangers.

Immediately, the two warriors picked themselves up and charged back towards their opponent and prepared to go on the offensive. Hou-Ou Ranger was the first to charge forth, reaching for the devices that were hooked on the holsters on her sides and combined them to make a blaster called a Daibuster and immediately aimed and shot at Dansaku. The discharge from the blaster hit its target and pushed him back from his spot.

Inside the May Company

West Side of the Mall.

The warrior in yellow, also known as the Kirin Ranger scanned the area inside the empty department store in case more of the Gorma appeared to attack. This was the last thing that the man under the costume, Li wanted. He tried his best to keep Angela out of the fighting, but that failed miserably. He did not blame himself for that, in fact he was more impressed with the way that she was able to hold her own against the enemy. He took a deep breath underneath his helmet before he moved on and continued to walk through before taking a look back towards the others, ready for anything to happen.

Angela, however, was not fazed from the fight, instead she was more worried about her previous encounter with Li. She wondered where did he disappear to and was he able to make it out of the Mall or was he trying to find her and make sure she was safe and sound? The words that Steve said to her before the attack played in the back of her mind about how Li was still trying to cope with the things he saw back in Japan. All she wanted was to see him one more time and just tell him that she understood the reasons for him not wanting to hurt her.

Instead, she just remained silent following the yellow clad hero in front of her, she noticed the way he moved and walked in front of them like a soldier on patrol. She thought that was odd given that most people saw heroes as people who would walk into danger like it was a stroll into a park. Not this man, he was cautious and she always noticed that he took a moment to check on her like he knew her. She did admit that there was something about the way he turned back towards her that was familiar and

"I wanted to say thank you for saving us back there." Angela started.

The Kirin Ranger only looked forward, still keeping his eyes focused on the path in front of him, "I deserve no thanks for doing what is expected."

She heard something familiar from the man's voice, right now she could not place it but the words reminded her of Li, "That sounds like something a friend of mine would say."

Immediately without thinking the Kirin Ranger answered in his, "When it comes to you, Angela, you know that you would never have to say thank you."

An alarm went off in Angela's head at the mention of her name, "How do you know who I am?"

Li cursed under his breath realizing that he pretty much revealed himself to her and decided to just honest, "It's me, Angela, Li."

It took a moment for Angela to let the revelation sink in before she decided to move closer towards him, her green eyes began to burn into his visor., "Thomas?! What the hell are you doing in that thing?"

"Trying to save everyone here." Li said bluntly, "I promised you that I would not let anything happen to you."

"I didn't expect to see you dressed as some kind of Power Ranger knockoff." Angela's voice rose slightly, "But as you can see I can take care of myself!"

"I'm not saying you can't!" Li snapped back, "But this is not a game here!"

"Do you expect me to take you seriously looking like that?" Angela smirked.

Li sighed, "Sometimes gotta do things you never thought you would do in order to fight, in my case I have to use this in order to kick some ass. I don't mind it, especially since I have been doing this for a year."

"A year?" Angela almost screamed, but remembered the situation at hand, "When this is over you and I are gonna have a long talk."

"Why are you the one upset?! It's not like we are dating." Li whispered back and continued to look ahead towards the other side of the store towards the store's exit, He could feel Angela's gaze burning into his back, and that just made him shiver underneath his suit. For the moment, he decided to let that be.

Lola noticed the argument that was going on, especially the way that Angela was perturbed after the conversation, but decided to let it go since she was making sure the children that were with them were all right. Instead she looked towards the Kirin Ranger and asked, "Hey, you in the yellow? Do you think we will make it out of this alive?"

The Kirin Ranger rolled his eyes under his helmet and stared back at Lola, "You have nothing to worry about."

"That's reassuring." Lola smirked.

Angela still upset by Li's comment turned back towards her friend and replied, "Will you ever give it a rest? It's bad enough that we're stuck in this situation but do you have to make it worse with your commentary?"

"Sorry." Lola answered.

The Kirin Ranger smiled underneath his helmet, since he kind of felt the same way about Lola's remarks; He continued to scan the area making sure everything was all right; and he was ready to give the go ahead until he felt a few flying projectiles hitting against his uniform. He fell down to the ground writhing in pain as the attack left him a little dazed. He looked up in front of him and saw that he was greeted by a group of Copotros; the revelation surprised him given that he did not think that there would be a small group of them this far away from the fight. Immediately, the Kirin Ranger picked himself up and prepared to charge forth, but remembered that he had the group of civilians to worry about and could not rush out and do something careless. No, he had to be cautious about all of this and make sure everyone got out of this in one piece.

Angela rushed to Li's side and helped him up; at first he wanted to say something but knew that this was neither the time nor the place to begin more idle conversation. He moved into a drunken fist stance and prepared to fight.

"I need to keep these guys busy." The Kirin Ranger said coolly towards Angela, "Do you think you can get these people out of here?"

Angela cracked her knuckles and her demeanor changed from being the ROTC cadet that she usually was to a battle hardened fighter, surprising Li immediately, "I'm not the same girl you last saw all those years ago. You take care of what you need to do; and I will get them out of here. Just remember, when this is over, your ass is mine."

"I am looking forward to it." Li said sarcastically and went into a defensive stance, "Now get out of here!"

"You heard him, let's go!" Lola said watching Angela take the lead and start to move the children to safety.

"All right you bastards, let's do this!" Kirin Ranger screamed rushing into battle sliding down onto the ground past the small squad of Copotros and turned his body around until he was on his stomach and pushed himself back up and stood as a buffer between the civilians and the enemy.

Angela took a look back to see Li charge forth into battle, wishing that there was something she could do to help. Instead she said a silent prayer for his protection and ran off to join Lola in protecting the children.