Ranger Tales

Chapter 5: Red and Gold's Bad Day

A/N: This story is set in an alternate universe where the Alien Rangers arc never happened, although the Alien Rangers do exist. I'll find another way to explain to eventual Zeo Crystal search. Carri Hillard and all things relating to Carri belong to KJ with many thanks. I used Phaedos as the source of the Ninjetti Powers, but Ninjor exists and is the acknowledged creator of Ninjetti. Also, this story has nothing to do with my previous two. This fic takes place before "Good as Gold ", also, the episodes in which Billy went to Aquitar did not happen in this fic. In this fic, Tommy and Kim have not broken up.

Also, let me know what you think, I appreciate the feedback. Thank you for reading.

The Rangers had enjoyed their Thanksgiving break, and now Christmas was just around the corner. They had a week left before their vacation started and they were all excited. Carri and Rocky were flying to New York for a little while, then coming back and spending Christmas with his family. Carri couldn't wait for Rocky to meet her parents, well her dad and brother anyway. She couldn't care less what her mother thought about him, or thier relationship. Rocky on the other hand, was nervous as hell.

"What if they don't like me?" he asked as they entered the Youth Center, their usual hang out spot.

"Quit worrying," she said as she playfully slapped his arm. "They are going to love you."

Rocky sighed and pressed on. "How can you be so sure? I mean you said yourself your mom won't think too highly of me."

"My mother doesn't think too highly of anyone, except maybe her peers. But I doubt she even thinks highly of them, so don't worry."

"If you say so," Rocky breathed, still not convinced. Carri glanced over at the mats and smiled.

"I know what'll make you feel better," she said with a gleam in her eye.

"What?"

"Seeing Oliver get his butt handed to him by a girl, I think I'm ready for that match I told you about." Rocky laughed, it would take his mind off of things for a bit if he could watch some sparring, or better yet be a part of the sparring. But for right now he's settle for watching, especially if it was his girlfriend. "Hey Oliver," Carri called over to the mats where he and Adam were sparring.

"What?" he asked as he ducked a kick from Adam, following through with a jab.

"You and me. On the mats. Fifteen minutes," she challenged.

Tommy lost concentration for just a second as he thought about that, unfortunately that second cost him the match as Adam pinne dhim down when he saw his opportunity. "Alright," he said as he got up, "you're on. I owe you one now." He indicated to his recent loss.

"We'll see if you can take me," she flashed him an innocent grin before turning to Rocky and whispering "I've been preparing for this." Rocky let a slight chuckle escape him.

A few minutes later Carri was changed and Tommy was well rested and prepared and the match began. Carri ducked a punch, following up with one of her own. Tommy blocked it and countered with a kick, which she caught and flipped him over. Before he could get up she quickly jumped on top of him, pinning him. "Well that was easy," she said sweetly.

"I was off my game today, that's all." Tommy said, not wanting to admit true defeat.

"Yeah, yeah, I beat you fair and square," she said as she waved him off.

"That was great baby," Rocky said as she came over and reclaimed her seat next to him.

"Tommy's just full of losses today," Adam pointed out. A few minutes went by of the trio giving the Red Ranger a hard time before a man in black and woman in pink walked in.

"Hey guys," Kat said as she sat down next to Adam, "what's so funny?"

"Tommy got his ass handed to him by Carri," Rocky said with a goofy grin on his face.

Jason, who was drinking a soda at the time, neary spat his drank out as he started laughing. "No shittin'? Carri? Pint sized little Carri here took the great Tommy Oliver down?"

"Hey," Carri said in mock offense, "what do you mean pint sized? You want a piece of me Jase? Cause if I took Tommy down, then I know I can take you down," she joked. Luckily Jason could tell she was joking and didn't let that comment bother him.

Tommy was sitting off to the side, ignoring everyone's comments. He wasn't mad, his pride was just hurt. It didn't matter to him that he was beat by a girl, it was the fact that he had been beaten twice in a row that bugged, once by Adam and once by Carri. "Yeah, she beat me," he sighed.

"How long did the fight last?" Jason questioned, eager to obtain any information he could use to mess with his bro.

"All of about five seconds," Carri beamed from her seat. She was quite proud of herself for defeating the great Tommy Oliver.

Up in space King Mondo was plotting his next move, it hadn't been long since he'd returned to the Machine Empire, chasing his son Prince Gasket away. "So, the Red Ranger is having an off day is he? We may be able to use this to our advantage. Klank!"

Klank came running in at the sound of his name. "Yes your highness?" he asked in his Scottish accent.

"I want you get me a monster capable of defeating the Red Ranger. As for the others, I want another monster to capture them."

"Yes sir, right away sire," Klank said as he scurried off.

"The day has finally come for the wretched Rangers defeat, they have foiled my plans for the last time." Mondo thought about how nice it would be to have those Rangers out of the way, and for a moment he felt like jumping around like his son, Prince Sprocket. But decided against it.

Unknown to Mondo or the forces of good, Lord Zedd had his own plan in mind. He could feel a certain Rangers Power beginning to leave him, and decided it was time to strike if he wanted to claim that Rangers Power as his own. "Goldar, Rito!" he called.

The two lackeys came running up, eager for the chance to attack. It had been so long since they had, that they began fighting one another just to remember how. "Whaddya need Ed?"

"It's Zedd! Imbacile. I want the two of you to go down and attack the Gold Ranger, his Power is dwindling little by little. Seize that Power for me, now go!"

"Of course my Lord," Goldar said as he took his leave, along with Rito.

The Rangers were enjoying their afternoon out on the beach. Carri and Kat were laying out getting a tan, while the four boys were getting ready to play volleyball. "Angel Grove vs. former Stone Canyon?" Tommy questioned.

"You're on," Adam agreed, followed by Rocky.

Jason and Tommy ran to their side of the net. "Let's teach these Stone Canyon punks how to play," Jason joked.

"Yeah, you got it," Tommy agreed and they began. Adam did the first serve and Jason was quick to knock it back. Rocky jumped up and spiked it down.

Not long into the game two monsters appeared, followed by Goldar and Rito. "Mondo and Zedd join forces?" Jason questioned as the four enemies bickered amongst themselves.

"Let's hope not," Adam said. He looked over at the girls, they had fallen asleep and were oblivious to the four enemies around them. "Kat, Carri wake up!" The two female Rangers groaned a little, then once they saw one of the monsters standing there they quickly jumped up.

"They just had to ruin our day at the beach of course," Carri said as she glanced around. "It's morphin' time!"

"Zeo Ranger I, Pink!"

"Zeo Ranger II, Yellow!"

"Zeo Ranger III, Blue!"

"Zeo Ranger IV, Green!"

"Zeo Ranger V, Red!"

"Gold Rang-" Jason was cut off by and small army of Tenga's grabbing him.

"Jason!" Tommy called as the Tenga's, along with Goldar and Rito, vanished. Carri jumped up and attacked one of the monsters, he looked like a cross between a gun and a dog.

"Where's my friend?" she demanded as she kicked him.

"How should I know? They're not with us!" the monster replied, firing a beam out of his barrel that when it hit, Carri disappeared.

"Carri!" Rocky yelled as he ran over to where she once stood. Before he could say or do anything he was hit as well, also disappearing.

"Three down, two to go!" the other monster, a cross between a cat and a frog laughed.

"Two? Try three!" Tommy yelled as he attacked the cat-frog monster with his Zeo Power Sword, knocking it back. Adam and Kat took on the gun-dog monster and before either knew what was happening they disappeared. "No!" Tommy yelled as he saw what happened. With his job done, the gun-dog monster left the battle to report his success to Mondo.

Tommy had had enough, he took his sword and attacked the monster. To his surprise nothing happened. He was just about to get hit by the monsters claw when he was teleported out and into the Power Chamber.

Meanwhile the four Rangers that Mondo kidnapped found themselves trapped in some sort of a cage. "Where are we?" Kat asked as she walked towards the edge.

"I have no idea," Rocky said as he leaned against the bars, immediately flying forward.

"Rocky are you okay?" Carri asked as she ran to his side, he had flown halfway across the cage and was laying face down in the dirt. "Are you hurt?"

"Just my pride, I should've known the bars would be electrified or something," he graoned as he picked himself up.

"And apparently our Powers don't work in here," Adam pointed out, everyone had automatically powered down once they landed, and no one had been able to morph back.

"I wonder how Tommy and Jason are," Kat said absently. Though she no longer felt the same way she had about Tommy, she still worried about him, he was still a friend.

"I'm sure they're fine, they are the senior Rangers compared to all four of us," Adam said, trying to comfort her. It was true, Jason and Tommy had been Rangers long before anyone else that was trapped there.

"But even senior Rangers can have spells put on them, or worse," she said, remembering Tommy's stint as the king of the Machine Empire.

"That may be true, but I still say that they'll be fine," Adam said soothingly, embracing Kat in a hug.

"What we need to do now is find a way out of here," Rocky said, standing up to take the role of temporary leader. He had been second in command before Jason came back into the picture, he missed that, but he understood why Jason was second in command now.

"Rocky's right," Carri agreed "we can't worry about they others, we need to get out."

Up in space Mondo was delighted to hear that four of the five Rangers had been captured. He did however wonder where the Gold Ranger had run off to. "Splendid darling," Queen Machina said as she walked up, followed by Sprocket. "But now what are we going to do with those pesky Rangers?"

Mondo thought for a moment then said "We will send in Gunnerog to destroy them, Klank!"

"Yes your highness?" Klank asked as he came scurrying in.

"I want you to send Gunnerog to the cave where the Rangers are being held, have him kill them."

"Right away sire."

Mondo looked out at the Earth, finally this war would be over and he would be left standing as the victor.

Tommy landed in the Power Chamber, not expecting to be teleported. He hit the floor with a slight thud. "What happened?" he asked as he stood up.

"That monster is too powerful for you to handle by yourself, you have to save the others first," Billy answered him.

"Have you got a fix on their location?" Tommy asked, hopeful.

"Yes, I believe so, see these four dots?" Tommy nodded. "I believe that is them, I tracked the energy from their Zeo shards, and that's what came up. Whether that's them or just their shards though I am unsure."

"Can you not get a fix on their communicators?" Billy shook his head no. "So we can't teleport them. Alright, teleport me to them, and begin a scan for Jason. Goldar and Rito took him."

"Already on it," Billy said and in a flash of red light Tommy was gone.

Up on the moon Zedd and Rita were gloating like never before. They had the Gold Ranger held captive, and Zedd held the Golden Power Staff in his hands. "We did it my dear!" Zedd laughed as he danced around with Rita.

"Yay! We finally beat a Power Ranger!" Rita cackled, she was loving this, and the fact that it was Jason made it all the better.

Jason was stuck in a forcefield, forced to watch the evil duo dance around with his Powers. How the Tenga's had snuck up on him like that he had no idea, all he knew at the moment was that he had to get free and get his, get Trey's, Powers back. He examined the forcefield, if he could just get the Golden Power Staff close enough, then he should be able to negate the effects of the forcefield. "Hey Ed!" he called.

"It's Zedd!" Zedd shouted, losing his happy mood for the moment and walking slightly closer to the Gold Ranger.

"Whatever. Come here a moment, I wanna speak with you." Reluctantly Zedd walked over to Jason.

Tommy landed just outside the cave, and not to his surprise the same two monsters were standing outside guarding the entrance. The gun-dog monster was starting to go inside though, this was his chance. He quickly, and quietly, morphed and managed to slip by the cat-frog monster and grab the other. He held his sword at it, he didn't think Zordon would approve but at the moment all he cared about was saving his friends.

"What the?" the monster asked as Tommy grabbed him.

"Take me to my friends. Now," he growled. He wasn't in the mood for any games, he wanted to get his friends and get out.

"Why should I?" the monster asked. That was when Tommy spotted the edge of the cage, and a idea hit him. He ran in front of the monster and towards the cage. Just as he hoped, the monster followed him.

"Tommy!" Carri exclaimed, she had never been so happy to see the Red Ranger. "Wait, what're you doing?" she shouted as she saw a blast of energy shoot out of the monsters gun barrel and towards them as Tommy jumped out of the way. Also as he had hoped, the blast destroyed their cage, releasing the other Rangers who proceeded to quickly morph.

"Hey what's going on in there?" the other monster asked as he walked in t find the five Rangers battling his ally. He quickly jumped into the fight, hoping to either re-capture or destroy the Rangers.

"We're getting nowhere fast," Rocky pointed out.

"He's right," Tommy agreed. "We need Zeo Cannon Power now!" the Zeo Cannon fell into the five Rangers hands, and they quickly destroyed both monsters, only to have them go through the caves ceiling. "We need Super Zeo Zord Power, now!"

After the Super Zeo MegaZord was assembled Tommy called on the Red BattleZord to make it an even fight. Before either monster knew what happened they were both destroyed by the Zords.

Mondo was furious, what he had thought to be a brilliant plan had ended in failure, much like all the others. It was then he spotted someone running down on Earth. "Klank, send the Cogs down, now!"

"Yes sire!"

The Rangers teleported to the Power Chamber, eager to hear of any news regarding Jason. Billy informed them that he hadn't found anything, he didn't know where Rita and Zedd were holding him or why he couldn't get a lock on him anywhere. But he promised to keep trying. Sighing, the Rangers decided to head to the Youth Center.

When they arrived Jason's girlfriend, Emily, asked if they had seen him anywhere. "No, we haven't. Sorry," Carri told her. Emily and Carri had hung out once or twice without the boys, but they didn't have a solid friendship.

"Oh, okay. It's just that he was supposed to meet me half an hour ago, and I'm beginning to worry..."

Tommy saw the saddened expression on her face and said "I'm sure he's fine, he probably just had car trouble."

"Wouldn't he have called though?" she asked, hoping that Tommy was right. With all the monster fights going on in Angel Grove, you never knew who could get hurt, or killed.

"His phone probably died, he doesn't charge it until the last second," Tommy said, still trying to comfort her. He knew that she didn't know he was a Ranger, and they weren't allowed to tell her either. Tommy hated lying to her as much as he hated lying to everyone else who didn't know, but it had to be done.

"Yeah, you're probably right," she said, giving him a weak smile before returning to work.

"Poor kid," Ernie said as he brought their food out, "she doesn't know..." The five teens turned to look at him, he knew something. Ernie took note of the expressions across their faces and just smiled as he walked back to the bar.

"Well that was strange," Carri commented after he left.

"Do you think he knows?" Kat questioned.

"We'll deal with that after we find Jase," Tommy said, then looked over at Carri. "In the mean time, until we hear anything, you and I have a rematch." Tommy was feeling more confident now, his drive to save his friends had seemed to help him overcome his losses for the day. "Followed by you and me," he looked at Adam. Both of them nodded.

"Ready to get your butt handed to you again?" Carri asked as she grinned mischieviously.

"That won't happen," he assured her.

He was running through the forest, heart pounding. He had managed to teleport off the moon, but he didn't know where exactly he teleported too. He did know that he was in a dead zone, he couldn't contact the Power Chamber, Rangers, or even teleport until he was out of the dead zone. Having Cogs and Tenga's on his tail, and unstable Powers didn't help any either. He didn't know how much longer he could make it. His body felt like it could give out at any second, which was not a good sign. It was as if the Powers were claiming his life.

Gotta keep running, he told himself, come on Jason, you've survived worse. He ran until his legs started to give out, he quickly darted behind a tree and closed his eyes. he felt the Powers fluctuate again, then heard a very familiar voice. He didn't pay it much attention though, until he heard another voice screech "Personally, I always thought you looked better in red." He opened his eyes at that voice. Shit.

A/N: and everyone knows how Good As Gold turns out. The next chapter will be set after that episode and will dive into a completely seperate one from Turbo. Thank you for reading!