"See anything, Xander?" Chip asked anxiously.
"No," Xander said, shaking his head. "No traces of dark magic anywhere in the city."
Chip sighed and turned away. After leaving the park, they'd headed straight back to Rootcore to try and track down Gnatu and Spydex. Chip was desperate to get back the stolen life-force.
"Madison?" Chip said hopefully.
She sighed, closing the book she'd been looking through.
"No spells that can help restore those peoples' life-force," she said.
"Keep looking," Chip said.
"Yeah," Madison nodded, grabbing another book.
"Chip, we're doing everything we can to help those people," Daggeron said, walking over. "This isn't your fault."
"Yes it is," Chip said shortly. "I was supposed to protect them, and I blew it! And Jason got hurt again and the only reason those creeps didn't get the little girl was because Tommy got in the way. I didn't do anything for them…"
He sighed, staring down at his feet.
"Whoa!" Jenji interrupted, laughing. "Want another one? Oh. There you go. And another one? What a chowhound! He's cute. I like him."
He was feeding Fire Heart, who was enjoying the attention.
"He sure is hungry," Vida grinned, watching.
"Maybe you're feeding him too much," Nick said.
Udonna came walking in, shaking her head.
"Well, I've always found it pays to give a dragon all he wants to eat," she said. "Before he wants to eat you."
Jenji jumped.
"Yikes!" he exclaimed. "Uh, open wide!"
He tossed the rest of the food he was holding to Fire Heart as the others laughed. Then Nick suddenly cried out in pain, clutching his head as he stumbled back against the wall.
"The time has come for me to battle Solaris Knight," Koragg spoke into his mind.
Nick panted, leaning against the wall behind him.
"What's wrong?" Daggeron said, looking at Nick in concern.
"It's Koragg," Nick answered slowly. "He wants to fight you."
"Fight Koragg?" Jenji exclaimed.
But Daggeron just nodded in acceptance.
"Very well," he said. "Tell him to meet me in the twilight dimension."
Udonna placed a hand on his arm.
"Be careful," she cautioned. "Koragg is a fierce warrior."
"I'll say," said Jenji.
"I can handle him," Daggeron said. "Remember, I was taught by the best."
Calling his train, Daggeron left Rootcore. But he hadn't been gone for more than a few moments when Xander caught everyone's attention.
"Guys, we got action, too," he said.
As Xander leapt up from the computer, they all turned and headed out of Rootcore.
"Hey, over there!" exclaimed Chip as they landed, looking around.
They were already morphed and ready for battle. Taking the coordinates from the computer, they'd headed straight for the signal's location. But they didn't see anything immediately.
"The dark magic's signal was right around here," Xander said, looking around.
As they all looked around, Spydex dropped down from above.
"Whoa!" the all exclaimed, stumbling out of the way.
"I'll get you this time!" Chip shouted, charging the monster.
The rest of the rangers followed. While Chip distracted Spydex, Nick took action.
"I'll get the life-force!" he said, pulling out his wand. "Magi staff!"
He hit Spydex on the back, the place where the souls were being gathered. His attack released the souls in a white orb. Chip leapt to snatch it up.
"It's mine!" he shouted in triumph. "Good one, Nick!"
But his excitement was short lived as Gnatu suddenly snatched the orb away.
"Hey!" Chip cried, looking around to see where it had gone.
"Up here, ranger," Gnatu laughed. "You snooze, you lose! Spydex?"
Both Gnatu and Spydex took off.
"No!" Chip cried.
Determined to stop them, the rangers gave chase.
"You know, you're supposed to be staying off that ankle, bro," Tommy said, glancing over at Jason.
Jason shot a glare at him, but continued to limp down the street. They'd left the park a short time before. Emergency responders were still trying to decide what to do with the people who'd had their souls taken. But, despite one of the responders urging them to stay, Tommy and Jason had taken off. They knew there was no point in sticking around, because the only way to help those people was to defeat the monster.
"Yeah, well, how else am I supposed to get anywhere?" Jason grumbled. "I'm not about to let you carry me."
Tommy snorted.
"Who said I would anyways?" he retorted. "You're too fat."
Jason shot a glare at him, wincing again.
"Shut up," he snapped. "I can still move faster than you can right now with those ribs of yours, so don't make me hurt you."
"Fair point," Tommy said, still smirking. "But if you really wanted to hurt me, you'd have already done it."
Jason growled, but Tommy just chuckled, reaching out to catch Jason as he stumbled. Grimacing, Jason leaned against the wall of a building for a moment. Tommy waited patiently for him, one arm carefully holding his ribs.
"How bad are they bothering you?" Jason asked, catching the brief look of pain that flashed across Tommy's face.
"Bad enough," Tommy answered. "I'll be fine."
"You know I don't believe that for a second, Falcon," Jason snorted. "You've been saying that since high school—and it usually means you aren't."
Tommy shrugged, trying to hide another wince from the movement.
"I'll survive," he said. "Let's keep moving."
Nodding, Jason straightened up again and started limping down the sidewalk. Tommy stuck close by, just in case Jason's ankle gave out again.
The rangers finally caught up to Gnatu and Spydex, who spun a giant web stretched between several buildings. Halting at the edge of the rooftop, they looked out at Spydex in the center.
"You up for this, Xander?" Chip asked, glancing at his friend.
"Yeah!" Xander answered.
"Come on guys! We can do this!" Nick said, stepping toward the web.
"I'm ready!" Vida nodded.
"Come on!" said Madison.
"I'll protect the web," Chip said.
The other four rangers nodded and started slowly out onto the strands of the web.
"All right," Nick said, taking careful steps. "Easy now."
They hadn't made it more than a few steps out onto the web when Spydex started firing blasts at them. The web shook and Xander slipped, barely catching hold.
"Hang on, Xander!" Madison cried.
Another blast hit the strands the girls were on, knocking them off the web with a cry. They plummeted toward the cement stories below.
"Mystic muscles!" Xander cried, using one of his spells.
Swinging down on a piece of the web, he caught both Vida and Madison. He landed on his feet, holding both girls.
"Gotcha," he said, looking at them as they landed. "You all right?"
"Yeah, thanks," Madison said gratefully.
"We owe you one," Vida agreed.
They looked up to see Nick fall after another blast, watching in horror as he plummeted toward the ground.
"Magi staff!" Nick cried, casting a spell.
The tables he was falling toward suddenly turned into giant pillows. Nick hit them, bouncing a few times before flipping off and landing on his feet.
"That was close," he said, breathing a sigh of relief as the girls and Xander ran over to him.
Up on the rooftop, Chip was left alone to face Spydex.
"Mystic force fighters!" he shouted, casting the spell. "You're going down!"
He attacked Spydex, hitting the monster at full strength. The attack punched through the web and drove Spydex toward the ground.
"Hope you like the taste of concrete!" Chip cried, smashing the monster into the ground below.
The other rangers shouted in triumph as Chip got to his feet.
"Think it's over?" Gnatu mocked. "Think again."
There was a flash of light and suddenly Spydex began to grow.
"Destroy them all," Gnatu ordered.
Tommy and Jason had just turned down a side street when they heard the shouting and felt the ground shaking. Looking around, they saw the monster from earlier looming over the buildings.
"There!" Jason exclaimed, turning and moving as quickly as he could toward the monster.
"Jason!" Tommy said, turning to follow. "We're supposed to stay away from zord battles! Getting stepped on is not on my list of things to do today."
But Jason ignored him. Sighing, Tommy continued to follow him.
"Hey, nice work!" Nick said to Chip.
"Thanks!" Chip answered as they turned to fight the quickly growing Spydex.
"It's megazord time!" Xander shouted.
Calling the megazord, the rangers fought back against the giant monster. After a short time, they managed to knock the orb away from Spydex again.
"Look!" Chip cried.
Dropping out of their megazord form, the rangers hit the ground running. But they couldn't get there fast enough.
"Yes, I'll take that," Gnatu mocked. "Spydex!"
Before any of the rangers could move to stop them, Gnatu and Spydex disappeared.
"Great, we lost them again," Xander sighed.
Tommy and Jason saw the ranger's megazord disband as they approached the scene of the fight. The monster disappeared as they rounded the corner. A short distance away, they could see the rangers shaking their heads. They weren't morphed anymore. Instead, they were dressed in uniforms, cloaks and all. Both Tommy and Jason slowed down, not intending to let the kids know they were there.
"What's this?" they heard Chip ask as the group started to turn around.
His voice carried over the empty space between the rangers and the two men. Tommy and Jason watched in shock as Chip reached down to pick up an odd black bottle sitting alone on the ground. Both of them knew it was never a good idea to pick up something suspicious like that—it never ended well.
"Oh, no," Tommy muttered. "Don't touch that Chip!"
He shouted as he darted away, his form blurring as he tapped into his ninjetti powers. Jason groaned and chased after him as best he could on his injured ankle.
"Wait, Chip," Madison was saying, covering up Tommy's warning shout. "I don't think you should—"
But Chip had already opened the bottle. As he pulled the top off, Tommy grabbed his wrist to try and stop him, but it was too late. Chip released what was inside. A black mist burst from the bottle, striking out at the forms closest to it—Chip and Tommy. Surprised by the sudden attack, and moving too quickly, Tommy wasn't able to stop immediately and stumbled away, falling to the ground a short distance away. None of the rangers had noticed his appearance. They were all focused on Chip and Tommy had been moving too quickly for them to follow.
"Chip!" Nick cried as Chip collapsed to the ground.
"Chip!" Xander echoed.
The rangers all rushed to him as he convulsed in pain on the cement. Laughter caught their attention. They spun to see Necrolai watching them.
"It's a soul specter," she smirked. "Bye-bye, yellow ranger."
Jason had watched in horror as Tommy tried to stop Chip from opening the bottle. When he saw the black mist hit Chip and Tommy, Jason put on an extra burst of speed, ignoring the pain in his ankle. The kids, all still completely focused on Chip and the vampire that appeared behind them, didn't notice Jason reaching Tommy just after he hit the ground.
"Tommy!" Jason exclaimed, dropping down next to him. "You just have to be the hero, don't you, Falcon? Can't stay out of trouble for a minute, can you?"
Tommy grimaced, trying to push himself up. He couldn't, collapsing back down to the pavement. Jason rolled him over in concern, grimacing at the sight of the vortex eating into Tommy. Tense, and clearly in pain, Tommy winced at the movement. With the vampire gone, he turned to the kids. They were hovering over Chip and still hadn't seen them. Jason took a deep breath.
"Hey, rookie," Jason snapped. "You need to learn to watch your surroundings. You've got more problems than you realize. And you had better tell me how to fix this real quick."
Nick, Madison, Vida, and Xander all froze in shock, slowly lifting their heads to look at Jason. None of them spoke, as they were too surprised to see him crouched there with Tommy to react.
"What are you going to do about this?" Jason growled, looking at them expectantly.
"What?" Madison finally managed to choke out.
"Drop the act," Jason said shortly. "I've known about you all being the power rangers since before my first visit. Not the issue right now."
All of them looked at him with wide eyes. Nick was the first to snap out of it.
"What do you know?" he asked suspiciously, straightening up and moving to stand between Jason and Chip.
"I know everything," Jason snapped back.
He stood, too, carefully pulling Tommy up with him. Tommy swayed, shaking as he leaned heavily on Jason. His shirt shifted slightly as he stood, revealing the same swirling vortex that was attacking Chip. Madison and Vida gasped in shock.
"Tommy!" they exclaimed.
"Yeah," Jason said grimly. "Now what are you going to do about it?"
Nick glared at Jason.
"Come on," he snapped, turning to help Chip up. "We'll take them with us—not that we have much of a choice right now. We need to get back to Rootcore fast."
"Great," Jason growled. "Lead the way."
Nodding tersely, Nick took off with the others following. Xander and Vida were supporting Chip, who was having trouble keeping his feet under him. Madison hurried to help Jason, still limping, with Tommy.
"But how—how did the specter get Tommy?" Madison asked, looking at Jason as they walked. "We didn't see him anywhere until after…"
He shook his head, blatantly not answering the question.
"Not now, Maddy," he said.
She bit her lip, but didn't push for an answer, recognizing the tone in Jason's voice. He wasn't in a mood to explain anything. With Chip and Tommy moving so slowly, it took longer than normal to get back to Rootcore. Once they'd reached relative safety, Nick rushed on ahead, calling Udonna as they went. Udonna rushed out of Rootcore to meet them as they approached the entrance. Nick stopped her as the others were catching up to him.
"We have a problem," he said grimly.
She frowned, but turned her attention to the approaching group. Though she was a shocked to see Tommy and Jason with the rangers, she didn't let it throw her.
"Udonna, what's happening to them?" Madison cried when she saw the sorceress.
"Let me see," Udonna said gently, stepping up to Chip. "A soul specter…"
She sighed, shaking her head.
"The specter is devouring his soul from the inside," Udonna said in way of explanation.
The rangers eyes widened, but Jason just grimaced, looking at Tommy. With Madison's focus on what Udonna was saying, he pulled Tommy a little off to the side, allowing him to sink down to the ground.
"Hang on, Falcon," he said quietly. "We'll figure this out."
Tommy just nodded, leaning against the tree behind him as Jason hovered protectively.
"There's got to be a way to get that thing out of them," Vida exclaimed.
"The staff of topaz is the only thing that can draw out a soul specter," said Daggeron, rushing to join them.
He'd heard what Udonna had said as he approached.
"Where is it?" Xander asked urgently.
"Let's go get it," Nick said in agreement.
"No," Daggeron said firmly, shaking his head. "Briarwood is under attack. You need to stay here. I'll take Chip to the staff."
"And Tommy, too," Vida insisted, glancing over her shoulder.
Daggeron, not having seen the other two men behind the rangers, frowned.
"Who?" he asked.
"Tommy," Madison said as the rangers shifted so Daggeron could see them. "The specter caught him, too…"
Daggeron looked at Tommy and Jason in surprise, but Jason just crossed his arms and returned the stare without flinching.
"Daggeron," Udonna said quietly. "The staff is at the top of Mount Isis. You know what a treacherous journey that is."
He nodded.
"I know," he said. "But it's the only way. And we'll have to hurry. Tommy, you'll have to trust me to get you there."
Pulling out a card, he summoned his train as Jason pulled Tommy back to his feet.
"What is this?" Jason muttered. "Lightspeed?"
"Shut up, Jase," Tommy hissed, grimacing in pain again.
"Let's go," Daggeron said, taking Chip from Xander and Vida.
Getting him on the train, he turned to help Tommy.
"I'm going with you," Jason said firmly, not letting Daggeron take Tommy from him.
"No you're not, Jason," Tommy retorted. "You'll just slow us down with that ankle. I'll be fine."
Jason glared at him, crossing his arms. But Tommy just returned the look, not backing down.
"You'd better be," Jason growled, reluctantly relenting. "Because I am not explaining to Hayley why I didn't bring you home with me."
He knew he didn't have time to argue right now. But he did help Tommy over to the train himself.
"If you don't come back," he grumbled to Tommy. "I will come find you and bring you back to life just so I can kill you."
"Get in line," Tommy muttered. "Behind Hayley, Kim, and the rest of the girls—not to mention the kids."
Jason snorted as Tommy paused on the steps of the train. Daggeron was waiting to help him to a seat.
"Those things are still out there, bro," Tommy said quietly, trying to take a deep breath and wincing again. "And they aren't going to stop attacking people."
"I know," Jason nodded grimly. "And you know I'm not just going to sit this one out."
"I know," Tommy sighed. "Just—be careful, Rex. I don't want to have to call Trini on this one…"
"Just worry about yourself, Falcon," Jason said. "And I'll see you when you get back."
Tommy turned and disappeared onto the train. A moment later, it took off. When Jason turned back to the rangers, they weren't paying attention to him. They were making plans for their next move. Shaking his head, Jason stalked away, once again ignoring the pain in his ankle. He was involved, now, and determined to make sure no one else was hurt.
"Jason, you should stay here," Vida said a few minutes later, turning to look at him. "Jason?"
She frowned, looking around. But Jason was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh no…" Madison sighed, looking at Vida with a worried look. "You don't think—?"
"Oh, he did," Vida answered, shaking her head. "You know big brother—he doesn't like to sit around and watch people get hurt. Never has."
"Great," Nick snapped. "And now we're going to have to go after him. Come on."
Waving the others after him, he started running back toward town.