War of the Hidden
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A/N: Please give me some kind of comment so I won't keep posting if no one likes it.
Ch. 10
"What?!" Maxi cried so loud that the Cullens (with their sensitive hearing) and any one sitting near her cringed.
"The vampires can grow," Conner told her again, wondering how she didn't understand it the first time. "You know, up to 40-feet-tall?"
"It was a rhetorical question," Ethan told Conner, shaking his head.
"Carlisle?" The little girl turned to the oldest vampire for help. The doctor just shook his head.
"Never has a vampire grown like that in the history of the Earth," he told her.
"The vampires must not be alone. I bet there's someone backing up Atirddez," Shane said.
"Who can it be?" Tori asked her leader. "Every villain in the past has been destroyed by their team of Power Rangers."
"That's not entirely true," Maxi said, pouncing on any chance of getting a straight answer instead of riddle ones. "When Andros shattered Zordon's energy tube, the so-called 'Z-Waves' reverted Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, and Divatox back to human form."
"And Ransik turned himself over after some persuasion from his daughter, Nardira," Wes added.
"We never knew what happened to Lothor after he failed to destroy Reefside," Dustin said.
"Didn't Dr. O tell you?" Kira asked. The Ninja Storm teens shook their heads. "He was turned into a collectable action figure by Mesogog."
"My dad and I found him in Mesogog's Lab after the last battle," Trent added. "Hmm…Dr. O must've forgotten."
"That's Tommy for you," Jason muttered. Some of the Rangers chuckled.
"Let's focus here," Kim said.
"That leaves us four evil villains that could be helping Atirddez," Carter said.
"Ex," TJ said. "Our four candidates are all ex-evil villains. Zordon's energy turned them good, the first three anyways."
"Supposedly," Max said. "What's to say that those villains actually stayed good?"
"I don't doubt Zordon ability," Maxi replied. The Rangers up to the Space team (who had known Zordon) nodded in agreement.
"And Rita Repulsa did stay good," Madison pointed out. "She became the Mystic Mother."
"I think that's really fishy though," Hunter said. "She was evil up until 1999 an then she suddenly becomes the Empress of all Good Magic for a team as ancient as Mystic Force? Doesn't sound right. It's almost like the Choobo thing."
"But she did help us defeat the Master," Nick said.
"And she made Clare a full sorceress," Vida added.
"There could always be a new villain," Adam pointed out.
"He's right," Chad agreed. "Every time we defeat a villain, there's always another to take its place."
"And there's always another team of Rangers to fight them," Joel added
"Maybe Atirddez is the new villain," Cam said.
"That would explain why he could make his vampires grow," Ethan nodded.
"No, that wouldn't make any sense," Justin said, shaking his head.
"Why not?" Danny asked.
"Because," Justin explained. "Every villain the Power Rangers have faced in the past have one thing in similar."
"What's that?" Alyssa asked. Maxi answered for her best friend.
"They always have idiotic, always-failing henchmen, an endless amount of disposable monsters, and their own, one-of-a-kind foot-soldiers. Without those, they can't make a name for themselves in the villain world," Maxi added sarcastically.
"And Atirddez has none of those," Jasper said, nodding as he understood. "All he has are vampires, same as himself."
"Exactly," Maxi nodded. "And besides, there hasn't been a new team of Rangers yet," she added, smiling grimly at Joel. He smiled sheepishly back.
"What about Ransik?" Blake asked.
"Ransik is currently in the custody of Time Force in the 31st century," Eric answered, "sitting in a jail cell in the distant future."
"Ransik's also had a change in heart," Wes reminded some and informed others.
"How do you know if he didn't change back?" Conner asked. "He wasn't affected by Zordon's energy waves."
"No, but Ransik did help us defeat the Mut-Orgs," Taylor said.
"But--" Maxi cut off Conner before he could argue.
"Forget Ransik. If there was any problem with the future, the future teams would've come back to help us. The fact that none of the remaining Time Force Rangers has arrived from the future, means that we're going to win this one." Maxi sighed. "We just have to figure out how."
The Rangers and allies were quiet for a moment before Kira broke the silence. She was sitting on the wooden table, staring wide-eyed at the Crystal Ball set in the center.
"You better think fast, 'cause we've got 20 40-foot-tall vampires attacking the city."
Everyone rushed over to see. Maxi was the first to get there.
"How many Megazords do we have?" she asked. Each Red Ranger answered with their team's Megazord while the sixth-Rangers called out their own personal Zords. In the end, the Astro Megazord (Mark II), the Mega Winger, the Galaxy Megazord, the Supertrain Megazord, the Q-Rex, the Wild Force Megazord, the Predazord, the Samurai Star Megazord, the Centaurus Wolf Megazord, the Solar Streak Megazord, and Manticore Megazord were up for battle. Maxi sent them and their pilots/commanders out immediately.
Jason was able to send Auric the Conqueror to help. With Tommy out, the Zeo Rangers couldn't summon the Zeo Megazord and the Dino Rangers had to sacrifice all of their Zords to defeat Mesogog. With so many Zords destroyed during the final battles against their time's evil villain and not being able to find a big enough energy source to revive them all, 19 active Rangers and the seven Cullens had to remain behind, much to their dismay. Udonna was able to make herself grow into a giant White Ranger and joined the battle, despite the others telling her that it was too dangerous.
"This isn't good, you guys," Aisha said as she and her friends crowded around the Crystal Ball. "There's too many of them!"
"We need help," Kat agreed and as soon as those words left her mouth, help came.
"Look!" Dustin cried, pointing.
"The Aquitian Battle Borgs!" Adam exclaimed.
"The Pyramidas!" Jason recognized.
"Ninjor!" Rocky added.
"The Robo Racer!" Tanya shouted.
"The Artillatron!" Justin yelled.
"And the Rescue Megazord," Maxi whispered in disbelief. Justin saw and his jaw dropped.
"No way!" he breathed.
"What is that?" Tori asked, not understanding why it came to such a shock to the two buddies.
"One of the Turbo Rangers' Megazords," Maxi answered without moving her eyes away from the sight, "a gift from the Phantom Ranger. His personal Zord, the Artillatron is also the Carrierzord for the Rescuezords."
"But I thought the Turbo powers were destroyed," Kira said.
"They were," Justin told him.
"Even if they weren't," Adam said. "Who's piloting them? TJ, Carlos, Ashley, and Cassie are in the Astro Megazord and Justin's right here."
"That's what I want to know," Justin said. Then suddenly, Lexian's words came back to Maxi: Think Maximilian, there are others who can help…She gasped, gripping her best friend's arm. They remembered at the same time.
"The Robot Rangers!" they shouted simultaneously.
"Who are the Robot Rangers?" Kira asked.
"There are robot Power Rangers?" Dustin asked at the same time.
"The Robot Rangers were created by Zordon and Alpha 5 to assist the Rangers and protect Eltar. They were robotic clones of the second team of Turbo Rangers," Maxi explained absently. Her own mind was thinking about what how what this part of what King Lexian said was true. But if this was true, then what about the part where she was supposedly "the Sage"? What exactly can "the Sage" do to help the Rangers in their current situation?
"With ten more Megazords, looks like the Rangers are fairing better," Clare said.
"But with ten more Megazords tromping around, plus the fact that there are 20 giant vampires, and the 13 Megazords already out there, Briarwood is as good as crushed," Hunter said.
"He's right," Maxi nodded. With 23 Megazords battling 20 vampires, all 40-feet-tall, and the city would be squashed in no time. Even if they did manage to defeat Atirddez and his army, they would be left with no city at all, just a place full of debris. Yes, the citizens were safe and were—for now—living in the villages of the Mystic Forest, but they still didn't want to destroy their homes, right? Maxi made some quick calculations in her head as her eyes flitted from Megazord to Megazord on the battle field.
"Guys, split up," Maxi told the fighting Rangers. "The Mystic Force will stay behind in Briarwood, everyone else, make a break for it, and make sure they follow you. Take them to the mountains, the desert, anywhere where you can fight without worry of stepping on someone or destroying a city."
"Right," came several replies. The Megazords broke apart. Some took flight and as expected, their opponents jumped and grabbed hold of them. Maxi grinned at this, as did the Cullens.
"Andros, Zhane, head for space. Vampires may not need to breath, but they're not used to zero-gravity," Allice said.
"You got it," Zhane said, rather more cheerfully than he should be. "Mega Winger, transform!" The Mega Winger changed back to its spaceship mode as the Astro Megazord became the Astro Megaship. They flew, with their stowaways out of the Earth's orbit, taking them as far as possible before blowing them up with their lasers. Maxi had to admit, she was glad those vampires grew, the Megazords' weapons were much more powerful than the Rangers' regular ones. Hopefully, Atirddez wouldn't realize that too, and hopefully, the team technicians would invent a stronger weapon, but Maxi knew how hard that can be and made sure not to count on that.
"Wow, it's a good thing those ships were strong enough to pull three 40-feet-tall vampires into space," Bella said. Some of her friends chuckled while others nodded in agreement.
"Mike, can you keep an eye on the others?" Maxi asked.
"I'm on it," the original owner of the Red Quasar Saber said, and began typing at the Time Force computer. The former Magna Defender had worked on Terra Venture and was pretty good with technology. Since he no longer had the ability to battle, he sorta filled in the role of Alpha, while Clare, now a full-fledged sorceress was more of an assistant mentor, half and half, Maxi was the Zordon on this mission. Trini, also good with computers, and Wes, the owner of the computer, went over to help him.
Jason was shaking his head at the Crystal Ball. Being the first Red Power Ranger and the first leader, he was the most experienced of them all, (except maybe for Tommy). And while the "Technicolor Ranger", as his friends liked to tease him, was out, Jason automatically filled in his shoes to lead the Rangers. It killed him that he wasn't able to be out there in the battle field where he was the most useful. Yes, he was a good leader, but he was so out there, where the fighting took place. In here, at the command center, it was Maxi who was the most useful. And the poor girl was straining herself so hard she looked like she was about to collapse, yet at the same time, Jason could sense a strong fighting spirit from her. He smiled at his goddaughter. She was so much like Tommy it was hard to believe that his best friend didn't actually father her. But that didn't make him love her any less.
"Splitting them up was a good idea," Edward said, staring at the holographic computer screen over Mike and Trini's shouldes, "but it's not enough."
"What do you mean?" Zack asked. "We outnumber them, 23 to 20."
"Not for long," Alice replied and by the sound of her voice, Maxi knew she just had a vision.
"How many more?" the little girl demanded without looked at her.
"Enough," the impish vampire replied.
"You have to give her a number to work with, Alice," Jasper said to his wife. Being one of the youngest majors from the Civil War, Jasper knew about battling strategies.
"There will be enough to outnumber the Megazords," Edward answered for his adoptive sister.
"Aaaarrrg!" Maxi roared in frustration, slamming her fist on the table. She was ready to pull her hair out.
"I hate to be the bearer of more bad news," Trini called over, "but--"
"Please don't tell me one of the Megazords is off-line," Maxi interrupted.
"No…" Maxi almost sighed in relief, but then she saw the look on Trini's face and knew that it was something much worse. "It's the Alien Rangers, they're dehydrating!"
PS
Thanks to those of you who do review. Appreciate it.
Oh, and I have some stories sitting on my computer. None of them are done, but should I post them anyways? Tell me what you think.
