Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.
Chapter 33 – Samurai Forever
Kira and Connor immediately teleported to the Command Centre and called in the family who arrived swiftly at hearing the urgency in their voices. Tommy and Kim were naturally the first to teleport in along with Eric who, at eight years old once again, though he did not remember the first time, was starting to be annoyed at being dragged along every time his parents got called in instead of being allowed to stay at home. He wasn't a kid anymore after all, a fact that he was very vocal about when they arrived.
"Why can't I stay home alone?" He asked. "I'm not a baby, I'm-"
"You're certainly acting like one." Kim scolded her son. "You're eight, Eric, you're still a kid."
"Kira was four when she fought in her first battle!" He argued. "If she can fight at age four, why can't I stay home for an hour or two alone at age eight?"
"Because that was different-"
"Yes, yes, we all know she's The Child of Power." Eric muttered. He'd been informed recently of the prophecy, and the part his sister and brother played in it. Eric had always thought of Connor as his brother, and he'd acted as a brother since Eric was born so it wasn't really a surprise; though the reminder that Connor would one day be Eric's brother-in-law annoyed Tommy and Kira's uncles to no end. Eric by no means resented his sister, nor the key part she had to play when he had none, but he felt that his parents coddled him more because they couldn't have with Kira, and it frustrated him. "But she's not invincible-"
"Actually I am." Kira interrupted her brother, as she and Connor came up beside him. "I have an ultimate power that no one can beat, but that's beside the point. Eric you have to understand that with me, mom and dad didn't have a choice. If they could have protected me more they would have, and they're not protecting you more because they think you can't handle yourself, they're doing it for them, because they can protect you and because they couldn't bear it if anything happened to you. And neither could I. I only have one brother. Do you know how much it would tear us all apart if anything happened to you?" She wasn't above using emotional blackmail sometimes.
"Do you always have to be right?" He grumbled, unable to fight any longer when his sister put it like that. Eric hadn't achieved Kira's level of maturity at that age, largely because no one would let him lose his childhood where Kira had, Kira especially, but that didn't mean he was an immature spoiled brat, far from it actually.
"Yep." Kira quipped, bending slightly to give her brother a kiss on the cheek, much to his chagrin, though the slight bend was to Kira's chagrin for it looked like her brother would reach five feet in but a few years while Kira hadn't reached that height till she was fully grown, and hadn't grown since. "But…no matter how right I am, you may get your wish." Kira turned to look at her parents and aunts and uncles who had arrived as they talked. "That's why we called you here. Thrax has returned, and he's declared war."
"Crap." Jason muttered, the others were of similar sentiments, though kept their more colourful words to themselves for there were children present, each of the Rangers who could not find instant child care having brought their kids with them.
"But that's not all." Added Connor. "He's resurrected all our past enemies."
"What?!" Kim snapped.
"We don't know how, but all our past enemies are back. And until we find out more we have to assume that those who were turned evil, and not created…have been turned evil once more." Kira said. "Or," She motioned to Karone who'd gone ashen faced at her last sentence. "Are marked to be turned again." Karone covered her mouth as she fought tears, at the thought of becoming Astronema once more. Zhane wrapped an arm around his wife as he passed their baby daughter, their second child, to her, letting her draw comfort from them.
"I won't let them touch you Karone." He vowed.
"We all won't." Andros added. The others all quickly agreed, standing up beside their family. The Originals also stood up beside Tommy, knowing Kira's words had made him fear that Thrax would come after him as well; his time as the Evil Green Ranger being well known across the universe thanks to Rita's bragging.
"We won't let them touch you either." Kim said.
"So what do we do now?" Tommy asked, acknowledging her momentarily, but moving on quickly.
"We're calling in everyone." Said Connor. "The enemy they fought will appear eventually and we're gonna need their help."
"And we need your help, Alpha, to contact some of them." Kira added. "Or really one of them. We've met everyone else but not the Samurai Rangers."
"I believe your Uncle Bulk, and cousin Spike, and help you with that one."
-C/K-
When Kira and Connor returned to the Megaforce Rangers, they had faced their enemy twice, but Thrax himself had not returned; though it did appear that their arch-enemy Vekar was working for Thrax, or at least with him.
"Where were you? You were gone for almost three days!" Cried Gia, seeing the two walk back into their command centre.
"We had to contact every team of Rangers and explain the situation." Said Connor.
"That certainly took some time." Kira added. "Then there were a few people we had to make arrangements for to try and keep Thrax's hands off them."
"There's people he'd go after specifically?" Emma asked. Kira nodded.
"There's some of us who were turned evil in the past. Thrax has resurrected some evil and he's gonna try to bring back the rest. We want to protect them, try and see that they don't get turned evil again."
"Oh…" Noah muttered.
"Yeah, oh." Connor agreed.
"Now that you're back though, what's the plan?" Asked Jake.
"The plan is simply wait for an attack." Said Kira. "The other Rangers are on standby so when it comes Alpha will know and inform the correct team and they'll get here, or wherever the attack is, pretty fast."
"So we're really expecting a full out war?" Troy asked. "And all this past evil to return?"
"Sadly yes." Connor answered.
"Then as we wait," Gosei spoke up. "Might you explain why the Rangers should not be using their Legendary Ranger powers? Surely they could only be of use at a time like this."
"You'd be right if they were actually using other Ranger's powers." Said Kira.
"But-" Started Noah, but Kira interrupted.
"Let me explain. Your Ranger Keys give you access to the suits, and the weapons, and possibly even the Zords, in some cases not all, but not access to the powers themselves."
"But why not?" Gia asked. "Why wouldn't we have their powers? We're supposed to."
"You don't have the actual powers for a number of reasons." Said Connor. "One of them is that two sets of the same powers aren't supposed to exist at the same time. We learned that one the hard way." He referred, of course, to their trip to 2025 when their Dino Gems, and the Dino Gems of their futures selves, cancelled out the Gems' power, leaving them powerless until Kira had stepped in. "And don't ask how, too long of a story that we're not getting into right now. So if you did have the actual powers, then you'd probably be using their Ranger powers, taking the Ranger powers from them when you're using them, and The Power would never let that happen, would never let Rangers go powerless without any warning."
"Other reasons would include the fact that there are many Ranger powers that are taken from an external source." Kira continued. "The Jungle Fury Rangers you turned into the other day for example, our Ranger powers are powered by our Animal Spirits. Our Morphers may turn us into Power Rangers but if we didn't have Animal Spirits the Morphers wouldn't work. As far as I know, none of you have Animal Spirits." The Megaforce Rangers shook their head no, not even knowing what Animal Spirits were. "That would be why the Claw Cannon didn't work for you. You can access the weapon, but it's powered by Animal Spirits."
"Any other reasons?" Troy asked, a little disheartened that the ultimate power Gosei had told them about wasn't actually ultimate.
"I'm sure there's others, but those are the big ones." Said Connor.
"I am sorry Rangers." Gosei said to his team. "I did not know. When Zordon told me of this power I assumed where I shouldn't have."
"Zordon probably didn't know either." Said Kira, trying to reassure him. "When he created the Original Ranger powers they weren't powered by something the Original Rangers had outside of being Rangers. Those kind of powers are pretty transferable, and though he lived in a time warp, he'd never dealt with time travel, at least according to Alpha, so he's never had to deal with two sets of powers in the same place in time."
"In other words he probably thought it would have worked like you said it would." Connor finished.
"Ok, so there's no point to using those powers then." Said Jake. With a slightly awkward smile, Kira and Connor shook their heads.
"So what now?" Asked Emma. "Do we just wait here until someone attacks?"
"We can, or we can go into town or something. Kira and I are gonna stick around till this is over, or we're called in somewhere else. Chances are the villains will go back to the city they originally attacked, so we might have to leave. Either way, there's no point going back to our regularly scheduled lives if we're just gonna have to leave at a moment's notice."
"Well I could go for a smoothie." Said Gia. "Anyone else?"
"Ernie's?" Jake asked his fellow Rangers.
"Ernie's." They agreed, heading to the entranceway and beckoning Kira and Connor to follow.
"Ernie's?" They questioned with a confused look; they couldn't be talking about the Angel Grove Youth Centre. The Megaforce Rangers took them to Harwood County Mall, giving them a name for this place, and into the local teen hangout, Ernie's BrainFreeze.
"Hey Ernie!" The Megaforce Rangers called, waving to the man behind the counter.
"Ok, this is so weird." Kira muttered as they took a seat at an empty table.
"What's weird?" Emma asked.
"In Angel Grove where I was born, there's a teen hangout called Ernie's Gym and Juice Bar. It's more commonly known as the Youth Centre, but two juice bars both owned by guys named Ernie that is a favourite hangout for a team of Rangers? That's a big coincidence."
"Thought you didn't believe in coincidences?" Connor teased with a gentle nudge.
"As a rule no." She agreed with her own nudge. "But I doubt there's some nefarious plan in two juice bars being owned by guys named Ernie."
"So are you two, like, a thing?" Gia asked, smiling conspiratorially with Emma.
"You could say that." Kira said with her own smile, though hers was from not having to hide it anymore. She was nineteen and had had more then a year of not having to hide it, but she still smiled whenever she could say it out loud.
"Isn't there, like, an age difference though?" Emma asked. "Not that I want to be rude or anything…"
"Seven and a half years." Connor admitted, he and Kira quickly deciding how much they'd tell these guys. "We've been together since Kira was ten. I was a student of her father's at Reefside High."
"Wow…"
"Been together? You've loved each other since then?" Noah asked a little hesitantly.
"Yes, but not in that way." Kira said, she and Connor having decided to reveal they were mates and a bit about Animal Spirits, but nothing more. "We're mates, you see."
"Mates?" Asked Jake, that word not really having a meaning in the context of humans, save the British term for friends.
"Yep. Our Animal Spirits are mates, so we're mates." Connor explained. "With Animal Spirits, there are those who have mates, your other half, and your Animal Spirit will recognize that person when you first meet, no matter how old they are. Kira and I met during a detention I served with her dad. Our Animal Spirits recognized each other for what we were and the rest was history."
"Nothing happened though, nothing could happen, our Animal Spirits wouldn't allow it, until I was grown up." Kira finished. "Though that's about all we're gonna say on the matter." The Megaforce Rangers let it drop, having felt overwhelmed since they met these two and certainly not feeling any less overwhelmed now. Everyone had a good time at the Harwood County juice bar, though it did remind Kira and Connor that they were long overdue for a visit to their Ernie's juice bar. A few hours later was when the expected attack arrived. All the Rangers' communicators went off and they hastily made an exit, running back into the woods and answering the call on the way; Kira and Connor assuring Alpha that they'd head over with the Megaforce Rangers. They returned to Gosei's command centre where the ancient being informed them that unknown beings were attacking. The screens around the room lit up to reveal a bunch of red headed and yellow bodied monsters wearing some kind of armour that could be nothing else but foot soldiers, who's foot soldiers, however, was the question.
"Alpha is feeding me information and he tells me they are called Moogers." Gosei informed them. "They are the foot soldiers of Master Xandred, the arch-villain of the Samurai Power Rangers."
"Let's go hold them off till the Samurai Rangers arrive." Said Kira. No one could find fault with her plan and so they all fell into line to morph.
"Go Go Megaforce!"
"Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleashed!" Both Kira and Connor morphed into their stronger Ranger forms.
"You're a Jungle Fury Ranger too?" Troy asked his fellow Red as they teleported downtown and began taking on the Moogers.
"Not really. I helped out with the final battle cause it was needed, but beyond that I think I morphed one other time into a Jungle Fury Ranger. Until now. This is a stronger form and it was decided for this battle we could use all the strength we could get so, we made my powers permanent."
"Cool. And we could definitely use all the help we can get." Troy added when the Moogers were joined by some more powerful monsters.
"Looks like we got here just in time then." A voice called, and the Rangers turned to see seven people standing in a line, facing the monsters with determined looks, meaning they could be only one thing.
"Not you again!" One of the monsters cried, also having spotted the group.
"Better believe it Dayu!" The taller of the two blondes, and one of three girls, said.
"Let's do it guys!" The man in the middle called. "Samuraizers!
"Ready!" The others called back.
"Go Go Samurai!" They all called together, then used their Morphers like paint brushes, writing some Japanese symbol in the air before swiping at them and making them spin really fast as the standard beams of colour coded light engulfed the Rangers. When the light dissipated there was one surprise where they hadn't expected one: there were two Red Rangers, and one of them as a girl.
"There's definitely a story there we gotta hear." Kira muttered, exceedingly pleased that there was a female Red Ranger at last, though curious how there were two Red Rangers at the same time. Her musings were cut short, however, as the Rangers broke into their roll call.
"Gold Samurai Ranger, Ready!"
"Yellow Samurai Ranger, Ready!"
"Green Samurai Ranger, Ready!"
"Pink Samurai Ranger, Ready!"
"Blue Samurai Ranger, Ready!"
"Red Samurai Ranger, Ready!"
"Red Samurai Ranger, Ready!"
"Rangers together, Samurai forever!" After striking their final pose, the Rangers launched on the attack, the added power of seven more Rangers, as well as the fact that the Samurai powers were created to fight these monsters, saw to the end of the foot soldiers and the relatively quick defeat of the other monsters, though the one who they had called Dayu got away.
"She'll be back." The male Red Ranger muttered, the other Samurais quickly agreeing.
"Power down!" Every Ranger called at once when their enemies were gone. Kira and Connor were the first to approach the Samurai Rangers, Kira unashamedly showing her delight in a female Red Ranger.
"This is one for the history books." She said with a smile. The woman smiled back, though slightly embarrassed.
"Thanks." She muttered. "I'm Lauren Shiba."
"Kira Oliver. Nice to meet you."
"This is my brother, Jayden." Lauren introduced the other Red Ranger, and Kira could hear the pride in her voice at calling him her brother.
"Hi." He said.
"Hey, I'm Connor." The Lion Ranger introduced.
"This is our team," Jayden continued. "Mia, Antonio, Emily, Mike and Kevin."
"We're the Megaforce Rangers." Troy said, and introduced his team.
"We better get back." Kira said and the Megaforce Rangers led the way to their command centre.
"Welcome friends. I am Gosei." The ancient being had the Samurai Rangers stopping in their tracks with shocked expressions. Kira and Connor patted the two nearest Rangers on the shoulder with sympathetic looks.
"You get used to it." They said, to which they met with hesitant nods.
"So, what do we need to know about this Dayu?" Connor asked.
"Oh, Dayu's not the arch-enemy." Said Emily. "That would be Master Xandred."
"So what's his story?" Kira asked.
"Master Xandred is the leader of the Nighloks who comes from the Netherworld." Jayden explained. "His goal is to bring the Netherworld to Earth by flooding the Sanzu River."
"The Sanzu River's water level depends on the negative emotions of humans." Lauren continued. "The more sadness, pain and misery there is the higher the River's water level gets. If it floods Earth, it not only unleashes all the Nighloks, instead of Master Xandred just sending one or two, but it means a never ending supply of misery for humans."
"During our final battle, the River flooded Panorama City." Mia said. "We were able to use our powers to contain it until Master Xandred was destroyed. Then we used our powers again to send all the positive emotions of humans to it, and the River receded back to the Netherworld."
"One of the toughest things about all our enemies being back is that their ultimate goal will be to complete whatever their goal was whenever they were first alive." Kira said.
"The only good news is that they're not gonna focus on their goal until we're destroyed. Which we're not gonna let happen." Connor added. Jayden looked to these two with curious expressions.
"Two of the Original Rangers, a Tommy and Kimberly, came and told us of Xandred's resurrection." He said. "I understand that you two are Rangers, but-"
"Why are we kinda leading this?" Kira asked. Jayden nodded. "There's a reason for that…which unfortunately we can't tell you right now."
"Can't? Or won't?" Mike asked.
"Both." Connor admitted. "Suffice it to say that we possess a power above and beyond being a Ranger that's gonna come in very handy in the near future, but if Thrax, or any of our enemies, were to find out specifics of this power…it could end very badly for Earth."
"It's not that we think you're gonna go running off and telling anyone and everyone the minute you know the specifics, but we can't take the risk of it leaking out some how. Our enemies are tricky, they've been known to fool even the best of them, and while normally that doesn't matter too much, it does in this case." Kira added. "We're asking you to trust us. And trust you'll find out when the time is right." All the Rangers, both Megaforce and Samurai, had been looking at them, studying them and taking them in. Finally, Lauren smiled making a decision.
"I trust you." She said. Kira smiled back and clasped her hand in thanks.
"Well, if the head of my family trusts you, I guess I have to as well." Said Jayden, earning sniggers and outright laughs from his teammates.
"I'm still not used to you cracking jokes, Jayden." Said Kevin. "Even though they're more funny because it's you saying it rather then the actual joke being funny."
"Jayden's been overly serious his entire life." Antonio explained to the others. "He's only started to let up a bit since Master Xandred's been destroyed."
"But we're so glad he hasn't tensed up again now that Xandred's back." Added Mia.
"I never thought of it that way…" Said Jayden, gaining a serious expression.
"Then don't." Lauren said. "That's an order from the head of your family."
"Lauren's new to the whole joking and fun thing too." Emily staged whispered. "But she's a faster study."
"Well better late then never." Said Gia.
"So, how do you exist?" Kira asked Lauren after a moment, before realizing exactly what she said. "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way, I meant how is there a female Red Ranger? It's just, I've been a part of the Ranger universe since I was born, and in nineteen years, nine of which I've been a Ranger myself, I've never heard of a female Red Ranger. Or two Red Rangers using the same powers at the same time."
"Yeah I thought you said that was impossible." Jake said.
"I did, cause it's supposed to be. So either we're the exception or they are, cause two sets of the same powers in the same time, creates a time paradox. Or is supposed to."
"It's a bit of a long story." Jayden said.
"Not really." Kevin disagreed. "You see, for centuries the Shiba family have been fighting Xandred for they possess the Sealing Power to seal him away. It's always the head of the family that possesses this power."
"Which we thought was Jayden when we fist became Rangers." Emily continued. "He was our Red Ranger, you see."
"But then we learned that he had an older sister Lauren, who was the real 18th head of the Shiba family. Jayden had just been pretending to draw Xandred's attention away from Lauren while she mastered the Sealing Symbol." Said Mike.
"So when she'd mastered it, Lauren returned and took over as Red Ranger. But when the time came to seal Xandred away, the Symbol didn't work cause Xandred had done something to become part human, not just a Nighlok, and the Sealing Power only works on Nighloks." Antonio said.
"So Jayden came back as Red Ranger when the power only Lauren had didn't work, but Lauren returned again during the final battle to help out and we've all been friends ever since." Mia finished
"And that's not a long story?" Jayden asked Kevin with a straight face.
"Not really." Kevin said.
"Ok, but how are you both Red Rangers at the same time?" Kira asked.
"We're not using the exact same powers." Said Lauren. "My powers belonged to our father, the 17th head of the Shiba Clan, and Jayden's are just his own. It's our own powers that power up our Morphers, so although there are two Red Samuraizers,"
"The source of power behind them isn't exactly the same." Connor concluded. "That makes sense then."
"I'm still a little lost on all this." Noah said. "And I'm the smart one." Connor and Kira laughed, the older man wrapping an arm around the younger one.
"A teammate of ours is exactly like you and he didn't get it right away either. We promise though that you will one day."
"So, you became a Ranger when you were ten?" Emily asked Kira, having caught her rushed words from a minute ago.
"Yeah." Kira said. "I'm the Yellow Dino Thunder Ranger. Then I became the Yellow Jungle Fury Ranger."
"And you?"
"I was seventeen. I was, am, the Red Dino Thunder Ranger. Then more recently became the Jungle Fury Lion Ranger."
"Lion Ranger?" Mike asked. "What colour's that?"
"A dark red."
"So why not call it the Dark Red Ranger?" Kira had to laugh at that.
"It started when our fourth Ranger called himself the Wolf Ranger. His suit's purple, you see, and he's the first Purple Ranger ever. Of course he goes by Wolf Ranger and if he ever learns I called him the Purple Ranger I'll be running practice drills for the rest of my life…"
"Every Ranger after that just went with their Animal Spirits, long story, much longer then yours." Connor directed to Jayden.
"Ok, and how did you get into the Ranger world from birth?" Asked Mia. She and the others wanting to know more of the Rangers, and not just these two, but all of them; they'd never met other Rangers before.
"Tommy and Kimberly who you met, they're Tommy and Kimberly Oliver, my parents."
"That would explain it then." Said Antonio. The Rangers lapsed into silence for a moment, before Jayden spoke up once more.
"So do we need to stick around?" He asked. "Not that we're against it, it's just if Xandred's really back we should be training. And you should be practicing the Sealing Symbol." He directed to his sister.
"It didn't work, Jayden, remember?"
"Last time. It might this time, and as hard as the Sealing Symbol is, it's easier then trying to defeat him another way, so if it works…"
"He's got a point." Kira said. "All bets are off this time. We don't know how Thrax revived them, if they're the same or different. If there's a way to defeat him that could possibly work don't discount it just yet."
"Alright, I'll practice. But I'm not leaving to do it!" Lauren insisted, clearly telling this to her brother. "I'm not going away again."
"I wouldn't ask you to." He responded. "I missed my sister. Besides if Dayu recognized you then can bet Xandred does so there's no point in you hiding anyways."
"Good. So I guess we should get back. Mentor Ji will have training for us to do."
"You'll be notified if there's an attack." Connor said. "If your own alarms don't already do that."
"Thanks." They all said.
"It was nice meeting you." Emily gave Kira a hug in goodbye, clearly the affectionate one in their group. "You all should come visit some time. And you can tell us all about your cousin Spike. He's got a crush on Mia." The Yellow Samurai sent a smirk at her Pink counterpart who sent her a glare in return.
"We're not related by blood, I assure you." Kira told Mia, though it was obvious in her tone that she loved her cousin.
"I'm sure we'll see you again. The final battle is coming…again." Said Jayden, as they walked towards the entranceway.
"But like I said it doesn't have to be all work and no play." Lauren scolded her brother. "And you should definitely visit." She told the others.
"Yeah, I'll cook for you!" Mia said.
"NO!" The Samurai Rangers cried together, looking pleadingly at Mia, all save for one.
"I still don't get what's wrong with her cooking." Lauren said. "It's delicious."
"Thank you Lauren." Mia said, coming up and hooking an arm through hers, leading the way outside. "The others just don't appreciate fine cuisine like you."
"Or food poisoning." Mike muttered as he brought up the rear, leaving Kira, Connor, and the Megaforce team laughing in their wake.
A/N - Not my best chapter, I'm not thrilled with it. This is technically the tribute to Samurai, even if it doesn't really seem like it, but I didn't want to do too much cause like I said I don't know the season at all, and given I've always tried to keep characters in character, I didn't want to screw anything up. Lame and weak excuse, but there it is.
This will not, however, be the last time you see the Samurai Rangers. They will appear at least twice more, and I think the next time you see them we'll get a little below the surface with them.
I'm going in reverse chronological order, which would become obvious pretty fast even if I didn't tell you, so RPM is next!
Review please