Phillipe came into the main entrance lobby after getting showered and changed. He was in the process of sorting his collar, his tie hanging around his neck as he came into the room. Margaret was just hanging up the phone with one of his security detail that had gone to pick up Mr Watkins and his clients.
"They're just on their way." She told him. "They should be here any minute."
"Excellent. Perhaps I can mend some fences with the local movers and shakers." Phillipe stated, trying to do his tie. He was fumbling it a little in his hurry to be presentable by the time his guests arrived, causing Margaret to just let out a frustrated sigh and approach, doing it for him.
"He runs a factory that makes ice cream bars. He's not exactly fortune 500." She responded. "Why would you choose today of all days not to wear a clip-on?"
"I liked this pattern." Phillipe responded with a smirk. "Besides, you're here. You can always do it."
She just swatted his arm as she pulled out a palm-pilot.
"Kenneth Watkins, owner of Watkins' Ice Cream bars." She told him. "His factory employs approximately 354 people, and distributes ice-cream bars nationwide. The company's net worth is about 679,000 dollars a year, but word is he's already looking at expansion."
"Not bad for a man who started with an ice-cream truck." Phillipe responded. Margaret just looked up at him a little surprised. "You're not the only one that did a background check on Mr Watkins."
"I'm sure mine was a little more thorough though." She responded with a little snark in her tone. "No prior convictions, not even any traffic violations. Graduated Valedictorian from Amber Beach High, and then from Amber Beach Business and Finance College, also top of his class."
"So he's a born and raised local." Phillipe commented. "Even more reason to appease him as the new neighbour."
"Married only once, to Rebecca Watkins, he has one daughter named..."
"Your Highness, your guests are here." One of the security guards stated as he entered the room.
"Well, let's not keep them waiting then shall we?" He said, fixing his collar as Margaret finished with his tie. They headed to the doors, opening them to allow the men in.
One of them was a tall man, dark skinned, with a bald head. He was wearing an expensive suit, one that was clearly more for show than anything else. It was certainly more expensive than one would expect a man owning one small factory to wear, and he was carrying a dark cane with a large, golden figurine at the top of the handle. He was a large man, with a girth that suggested he might just have sampled a little too much of his own product in his time.
"Mr Watkins I presume." Phillipe greeted him, shaking his hand. "So glad you accepted my invitation."
"I'm pleased to accept your Highness." He responded. "These are my guests, Mikhail Ulyanov and his associate Afansy Kuklinski."
"Ah, welcome, so glad to have you." He said, approaching one of them. He was a smaller man, shorter than Phillipe, and quite slender with it. He was greying, and wore a non-descript, grey suit.
"Thank you for having us Your Highness." He said in a thickly accented voice. "It isn't every day I receive a Royal invitation."
"Well, I'm only too happy to invite international co-operation." Phillipe assured him. "Your accent...You're Russian?"
The other man said something under his breath. The first man just smiled.
"My associate Afansy can be a little sarcastic." Mikhail said, gesturing to the other man. This one was a true monster of a man. His shadow alone easily engulfed both Mikhail and Phillipe. His suit was custom made to cover his large frame, and he had short, dark hair. Phillipe offered him his hand, which Afansy took with a surprisingly gentle grip, like he didn't really want to take it.
"My Grandfather fought in Great War." Afansy stated.
"Well, that's a coincidence because my..."
"He was Nazi was he not?" Afansy asked him. The whole room went quiet for a minute. Phillipe just smiled.
"He was a double-agent." He responded with pride. "Now, would you like a tour of the Embassy before we retire for dinner?"
There was a little exchange between the men, before they looked back to him.
"That would be most welcome." Afansy replied. "Mr Watkins, perhaps we could have a rain-check on that opera you booked for tonight?"
"I'll call the theatre now." Mr Watkins replied, pulling out his phone as they began their tour.
Back in New Zealand, the Rangers arrived in downtown Auckland, finding a scene of utter chaos. Normally when monsters were sent into the city, they seemed to have at least SOME form of direction, an objective or mission. Looking at the random explosions and the sheer volume of people fleeing for their lives, it looked like this mission had no real objective whatsoever, other than carnage.
"Time for a cold snap!" Ice Age declared as he cast forth a chilling wind, freezing several people solid on the spot. A police cruiser was coming towards him, but Stingrage fired some powerful stings straight through the windshield, causing the vehicle to veer off the road and slam into a nearby wall. The Rangers could hardly believe their eyes when they saw them.
"These guys?" Chase asked. "But...we've already dealt with these guys!"
"That bad one that sting Ankylozord!" Koda pointed out, pointing to Sting Rage. The memory was still fresh in his mind how Stingrage had managed to turn a Zord, and also a whole team of Rangers against them. They had barely managed to escape the battle with the Corsairs with their lives. "He make us fight friends!"
"It looks like Fury has added Necromancy to his bag of tricks." Riley commented.
"Ew...he does it with dead things?" Chase asked. Riley just sighed.
"I said, Necromancy, not Necro...oh never mind." Riley muttered, shaking his head. "Necromancy is magic that deals with bringing the dead back to life."
"Oh, it's nothing like that, trust me on that part." Wrench said as he appeared with a swarm of Viviks. "I've been working on cloning for quite some time. Now I can bring back any of our creatures you destroyed, as long as we have a sample."
"Ew, gross!" Shelby said, starting to gag at the thought.
"It's just good business!" Wrench responded. "Dead prisoners are easier to arrest and transport, but they have a much lower reward. This way, we have the ease of transporting dead prisoners, but we can claim the reward for living prisoners once we get them back."
"I have to say, it's a solid business model." Chase commented. "You know, if most of your contract holders hadn't died off millions of years ago."
"Well, I would stand and discuss the finer points of finance with you, but I have somewhere else to be. I have bigger fish to fry." Wrench told them. "I'll just leave you in their capable hands. Stingrage, Ice Age, turn this city into a desert!"
"Follow what we do." Koda said to Albert. The older man just nodded, taking his Energem in his hand and holding it out like the others did with their Dino Chargers.
"Ready!" They all called out together, summoning their morphers. Albert found his morpher appearing in his hand. He looked a little confused. Why would his gun appear when he wasn't morphed? He watched the Rangers loading their Dino Chargers into the barrels of their Dino Morphers.
"Wait...I have to do what?" Albert asked, staring at the blaster. He had never actually used it to morph before. Until now, he'd only summoned the weapon once by accident. He had also seen what it could do. Loading down the barrel of a gun capable of taking down brick walls didn't really seem like such a good idea to him. He had ten fingers and he very much planned on keeping it that way! Koda could see him struggling, and leaned in, hitting a switch that opened it out slightly.
"Weapon not fire when open like that." He assured him. Albert just nodded and shoved the Energem into the breach. He slammed it shut just like the others, taking great care to make sure the barrel was pointing nowhere near any of them.
"UNLEASH THE POWER!" They chorused together. With a bright flash of light, the Rangers all charged forward, rushing into battle, summoning up their weapons. Albert was the only one who hung back. He called up his Dino Sabre, but looking at the two hideous beasts fighting the Rangers, surrounded by a sea of Viviks, his blood started to run cold. He could remember the power shown by the creatures he had faced before. He could tell that they were easily as strong as the ones that had almost destroyed him and sent him running so many times before! He heard a scream and turned to see Riley hitting the ground as Sting Rage raked his claws across him, sending sparks flying in all directions, far brighter than Albert was used to seeing! Ivan got involved, holding Ice Age off him, but seeing Riley struggling on the ground, starting to pull himself up, Albert could not find it in himself to act.
"I'm sorry." He whispered, before turning and running, taking cover behind a building. These Rangers were younger, stronger than him, and they had been fighting these monsters for a lot longer. If the monsters could do that to them, what chance did he have?
Back in the states, Allison was busy clearing up in the cafe, when Alessandra came in. She didn't normally work at the Dino Bite, but there were some shifts going begging, and Allison had convinced her that a few shifts here or there could be a good thing to keep her going between bookings. She looked around a little surprised.
"Where everyone?" She asked. Allison just looked to her.
"They're on that dig..."
"No, where other staff?" Alessandra clarified. She was determined to ask Allison about the dig, particularly since her cell phone company had now told her that apparently Koda was in New Zealand! But right now, she was a little surprised to find Allison here by herself.
"Claire called to say she was held up at college, she'll be about 20 minutes late." Allison began. "Erica left early because there was a sale she just HAD to check out, and Brad...God only knows, he just kind of disappeared."
"Brad and Erica leave before next shift here?" Alessandra asked her. Allison just nodded.
"It's fine, I can handle it." Allison told her. Alessandra seemed a little sceptical about this.
"They should not leave alone." Alessandra stated as she went to get ready. "If someone leave gym early, Carl..."
"Well, we're not wrestlers, and I have only been a supervisor one day!" Allison interrupted her. Alessandra could tell that Allison wasn't happy about this, so she decided to change the subject.
"You miss Chase?" She asked.
"Sure I miss him." Allison responded. "I was hoping to go out of town with him soon, but this dig came up, and now with this promotion...I guess it'll have to go on the back burner for a while."
"I miss Koda. I call him." Alessandra told her. "I run out of credit."
"Spend a long time on the phone did you?" Allison asked her with a smile. Alessandra just shook her head.
"No, only few minutes." She replied. "Credit run out quickly calling New Zealand."
Allison realised there was a potential issue here. She was on a network that had a lot of free minutes, and that had low international rates. She had missed the fact Alessandra had referred to 'credit' and not minutes. She was on a pre-paid credit plan. She didn't have the steady income that would support a contract.
"Oh, wow!" Allison commented, stammering slightly to try and think of a way to explain that. No one had told her where the dig actually was, to hear it was on the opposite side of the world had to be more than a little bit of a surprise. "Koda didn't say he was heading out there? Sorry, it was kind of sudden..."
"I surprise he get there so fast." Alessandra continued. "Check flight times, most take whole day..."
"That's only uh...commercial airlines." Allison responded. "Phillipe was kind enough to lend them his private jet. It's much faster."
Alessandra didn't look especially convinced by this answer, but she just pulled on an apron, at which Allison handed her the mop.
"If you'll excuse me, I just have to...talk to Ms Morgan about...some figures." Allison told her. "Can you finish this?"
Alessandra just shrugged and got to work, while Allison headed into the back.
Back at the site of the battle, the Rangers were battling fiercely to save Auckland, which now as far as they knew had nothing left that Fury would be interested in. Tyler swung around, sweeping the legs out from under several Viviks.
"You're all grounded!" He said, looking around. "Get it?"
As he looked around though, he couldn't help noticing something. Albert was noticeably absent from the battlefield. Tyler knew that some of the others had reservations about him, but he had hoped that once he had a chance to prove himself, the others would come around. Not only did he have faith that the Energems didn't make mistakes picking the brave and heroic to lend their powers, but he genuinely felt something about Albert that gave him faith in the man.
"Albert?" He called out, before running around. "Albert!"
He checked quickly, seeing that the Rangers were finally starting to turn the tide, and he could tell that they didn't really need him there anymore. He started to run off, looking for the old man. He found him sitting behind a building a short way off, sitting on the ground, unmorphed and his head buried in his arms. He could hear him sobbing.
"Albert, there you are!" Tyler said as he knelt down with him. "Why didn't you tell us you were afraid?"
"I'm not just scared, I'm terrified!" He sobbed, unable to even bring himself to look at Tyler. "It's easy to catch purse snatchers or bike thieves, but those monsters want to destroy me!"
"Albert, we're all scared. It's natural; it's what keeps us safe! Any fight you get into can go badly!" Tyler said, trying to reassure him. "But you can get past your fear. Like...when you wrestled that giant squid!"
"Giant squid? Are you daft lad? I've never wrestled a giant squid! I can't even swim!" Albert told him. Tyler shifted a little. He knew that some of Albert's tales were a little wild, and that there was a good chance some of them weren't true. He'd obviously picked badly. "I've never caught a bigfoot, or a unicorn. I bought that dragon egg off EBay, it's a movie prop!"
"Albert..."
"Everything about me is a FRAUD!" Albert sniffed as he pulled off his eyepatch, revealing he did indeed have two eyes. "I've sold my business on lies and tall tales for years, and now it seems I've even managed to fool an Energem."
"No, I don't believe that." Tyler stated flatly. He was surprised. Well...not TERRIBLY surprised that a lot of Albert's tales were exactly that, just amazing stories, but he couldn't just abandon his faith in him. Tyler always considered himself to be a good judge of people's hearts. He might have had doubts about some people's eccentricities, but he always could feel it when he met someone who were the ones that were likely to run away at the first sign of hard times, and who would stand when they needed to. Sometimes, the ones that ran at first were the ones who would show the greatest courage when it mattered. He had never doubted any of the Rangers' courage, and he had never doubted Keeper or the Energems in their judgement. "The Energems CAN'T be fooled! They never make mistakes!"
"But I'm a..."
"I don't CARE if you've never wrestled a giant squid!" Tyler interrupted him. "You know what I remember? Ever since you got that Energem you've been using it to do good!"
"But that was just..."
"Did you know it would protect you from that bank robber? I don't think HE had any good intentions!" Tyler continued. "What about that little girl you saved? You didn't even have the Energem then. You knew men much younger than you were scared for their lives and you went and saved her anyway!"
"I...I...I couldn't leave her." Albert told him.
"Just like you can't abandon your city now!" Tyler told him. "Those monsters won't care who they hurt! You have to stop them!"
"You aren't going to stop ANYONE!" Ice Age responded as he appeared before them. Before Tyler could react, he had launched a blast at Tyler that de-morphed him and froze his leg solid. He was crying out in pain as he could feel the cold setting in.
"Stay back!" Albert said with as much authority as he could under the circumstances.
"Or you'll do what? Run away again?" Stingrage mocked him. Albert looked up, seeing a couple of Vivimonsters in the background, locked in battle with the Ptera Zord. Obviously in a desperate effort, some of them had joined up to create a distraction. Ivan was forced to deal with them, while the others were on the ground still dealing with more Viviks. Albert just grabbed Tyler, lifting him up off the ground.
"Albert, what are you doing?" Tyler asked. "You have to..."
"I know what I'm doing!" Albert told him. "Trust me!"
Tyler didn't have much choice in the matter, but as the old man dragged him away, the monsters in hot pursuit, he noticed a change in the old man. While they were running, this wasn't the same cowering, terrified old man that he had seen moments before. Something in his face, in his strength as he dragged the barely-mobile Red Ranger gave him a feeling that caused him to believe in the old man.
Back in Amber Beach, Alessandra had finished setting up the restaurant, but she couldn't open for the evening rush by herself. Checking her watch, she could see it was already an hour into her shift and Claire still hadn't arrived! Allison had gone to speak to Ms Morgan, but that had been a while ago. Thinking she must have lost track of time, Alessandra went looking for her.
"Allison?" She asked, getting to Ms Morgan's office. However, she found that it was empty. Not only that, but it looked like Ms Morgan hadn't been there in a couple of days. The computer was off, there were no papers on the desk, and the coffee maker wasn't just off, but it was empty. She continued her search into the storage area.
"Ms Morgan?" She called out. "Allison?" She didn't get an answer though. As she continued to look around, she pulled out her cell phone and started dialling. All she got was a message saying that the signal was blocked, much like it had been when she tried to call Koda while he was travelling. Muttering in her native tongue, she continued to look for Allison.
She found her hat hung up near a display of a T-Rex head. She couldn't tell why it was in the back, where no one could see it. As she got closer, picking up the hat, she could see that the back of the mouth was made of wood, more than a little unusual since the display was apparently fibreglass. There was a sign warning that it was fragile, telling people to stay away, but she approached it anyway.
She looked more closely and noticed that one of the teeth was crooked. She knew Ms Morgan was a perfectionist, but it seemed silly that this was why the display wasn't out the front, especially when it could be fixed easily. Ignoring the warning from the sign, figuring if it did break off a simple matter of superglue would fix it, she grabbed the tooth and turned it, finding to her surprise that the hatch at the back opened. She looked down, seeing a slide heading down. She smiled a little as curiosity overcame her, and she slid down.
She landed at the bottom with a bump, expecting there to be a pad or something, but there wasn't. She looked up, seeing the Dino Lab. The bright lights and the computers were unlike anything she had seen outside of a movie. She could also see Ms Morgan and Allison standing a little way off, staring at her. She just looked to them completely confused.
"Ms Morgan, you have GOT to get a better lock on that thing." Allison commented.
"I did have." Kendall stated, approaching Alessandra. "But your boyfriend kept losing the keys."
