DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POWER RANGERS
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Tori padded down the stairs as she stifled a yawn and wrenched the paper out of the mailbox. The first thing to catch her eye was the large picture that was emblazoned on the front page; of a scene she remembered all too well...
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Kira casually walked into the kitchen and sat down opposite her father at the breakfast table; "Morning dad".
"Morning sweetie", the man in question replied after quickly swallowing a mouthful of toast. Brushing away a few crumbs, he raised his morning paper in front of his face once more and began to read.
Kira feigned interest as she read the headline..."Uhm", she quickly forged an excuse for her parents; "I'm going upstairs for a shower".
"Okay", it was her mother who replied this time as she washed the previous nights dishes.
The Yellow Ranger flew back up the stairs and into the bathroom where she hastily set the shower running and locked the door. Satisfied that she couldn't be heard, Kira sat on the edge of the bathtub and tapped into her morpher; "Okay, are you guys reading the same stupid story as me?"
"Oh yeah".
"This is a joke".
"'Endangered bird rescued by local fireman'...I don't und-...ah...", the TV on the other side of the room answered Xander's confusion as the newsreader gave out the story.
"...And yesterday, we received disturbing news from the Reefside Mall where one of the Power Rangers attempted to kidnap a six year old child...our reporter from the scene managed to get these photos". The newsreader turned towards a large screen where, on cue, the same pictures that adorned the papers flashed up onscreen.
"I don't believe this", Tori still stared at the image of herself on the newspaper, where she was mid-run and carrying the young boy to safety. "If that reporter was there, then it should've been pretty obvious that I saved him", the Blue Ranger stated matter-of-factly.
"Well, you know what journalists are like", Adam sighed; "They'll make a story out of anything if it means that they get money in their pockets".
"It'll blow over", Tori convinced herself; "Since when were the Power Rangers the enemy anyway?"
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"Now then...", Rachel Park stood on the street outside her son's apartment block, fully laden with various bags; "...Keep out of trouble, okay?"
"You know I can't keep that promise mom", Adam reminded her as she kissed him goodbye.
"I'm only saying...if anymore of those reporters give you hassle then show them what you're made of..."
"Mom, I can't attack the reporters!" he almost laughed at her comment; "That'll just make them hate us even more".
"Well, all the same, make sure you call me", Rachel picked up her bags and threw them into the back of the newly-arrived taxi.
Adam sighed and rolled his eyes; "Don't worry, i'll call", he shut the door once his mother was inside.
"Bye!", she mouthed through the glass as the cab pulled off down the street. Adam waved in response...just as his communicator sounded.
"I read you Hayley, what's up?"
"We've got a new friend, down at the plaza".
"No problem, i'm on my way", stepping out of sight down the side of the building, it was safe to morph; "IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!"
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Being a warm and sunny spring afternoon, no-one was remotely surprised that the many outdoor cafés that lined the plaza were full to bursting as people lounged in the sunshine.
All four Rangers arrived on the scene within a minute of each other and were extremely surprised to see their target sat casually on a bench; so casually in fact that no-one had even noticed he was there, or at least they presumed it was a costume.
"Perfect", was all it sneered and before the Ranger even had time to speak, a hoard of Hornets appeared in front of them.
"They just don't get it do they?", Adam balled his fists at his sides as the quartet swung into action. The monster let out a huge, yet unnecessary roar that made their ongoing battle well-known to the nearby civilians.
The large group of Hornets were edging closer and closer to the innocent bystanders as one of the footsoldiers hurled a plastic chair in Xander's general direction. The Green Ranger had to react fast as he swiftly kicked the chair away to avoid it hitting the flustered looking man behind him; "You'd better get to safety", he gestured, putting a hand on the man's shoulder.
"Yeah, away from you!", the civilian brushed Xander's hand off sharply and continued on his way.
His strange behavior puzzled the Green Ranger until he thought back to the news headline, briefly wondering if the normally kind citizens of Reefside really were turning against them.
As a hornet came face-to-face with the wrong end of the Power Axe, Adam could hear the unmistakable taunts and jibes coming from the crowds around them.
"They really are against us aren't they?", Kira's question was more of a statement, but it voiced Adam's thoughts exactly.
The Black Ranger nodded as he fought away more Hornets and watched a couple get slashed by the deadly Ptera Grips. "We protect the world though, they should support us, not fight us".
Tori stormed vigorously through the remaining footsoldiers, the Ninja Sword in its element as it sliced through the air towards its prey.
"...I will strengthen the signal Sir, those Rangers won't last for long with no-one on their side". Tori looked towards the monster as Ammix stood by his side and disappeared within seconds, but that sentence was all she needed to hear...
"It's not looking good", the rest of the team joined the Blue Ranger as the last of the Hornets vanished and Xander indicated to the crowd of unhappy people as they charged the Rangers down, before walking towards them menacingly.
The Rangers backed up as the angry civilians surrounded them, some even attempting to fight them as a torrent of abuse came their way.
"We've got to get away from here", Kira's muffled voice sounded out.
"Well we can't exactly blast our way out can we?", Xander replied cockily as he finally pulled out his morpher inbetween all the pushing and shoving coming his way; 1...2...9...Galwit Mysto Aerotan!
"Raptor Cycle!"
"Tsunami Cycle!"
"Shark Cycle!"
Managing to break free from the tangle of angry civilians trying to grab a hold of them, the Rangers each performed a hurried leap high into the air in the direction of the waiting rides to safety.
Hastily gunning the engines, each bike – or in Xander's case, the Racer, sped off until both them and their riders were safely out of sight.
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"They hate us Dr. O".
"She's right Tommy", Adam agreed.
"So you really think that the entire town turned their backs on you overnight?", the Doctor questioned disbelievingly.
"Yeah".
"Yep".
"Yes".
"No..."
Tommy looked gratefully towards the only member of the team that appeared to be using their brain; "Thankyou Tori...", he rubbed his forehead thankfully; "...I was going to ask if anyone had considered that there may be more than willpower at work here?"
Adam frowned as the stark realization of the truth hit him like a ton of bricks.
"But it makes sense though...", Xander failed to see the point; "If we're running around with people's kids at the scene of a battle – people are going to be suspicious".
"Yeah, but it's happened loads of times before; why would they make a big deal of it now?", Adam pointed out.
"That's what I was about to tell you guys", Tori began; "I saw that monster stood talking with Ammix about 'strengthening the signal' and they sure as hell didn't seem surprised about all of this".
"Like I said, they're up to something, and we need to find out what".
"And that's the easy part", Hayley interrupted casually, causing everyone else in the room to turn and raise their eyebrows at her as if to suggest that she couldn't possibly know what was going on here. "Well think about it", she continued; "The first report of this to be shown on the TV was at 6pm yesterday, but it wasn't printed in the newspapers until 6am today".
"And?", Xander questioned, wondering where this was going.
"They had plenty of time to get the story into the evening paper, so why didn't they? Unless it wasn't their story to start with..."
"You mean they copied the TV report?"
"Bingo", a quick press of the keyboard and the computer brought up two photos – one from the paper and one from the TV report. "Exactly the same", Hayley explained.
"Ah...okay, but what's this to do with our monster?", Adam asked.
"It's only manipulating one source – the TV", Tommy concluded as his mind fitted the pieces into place.
"Exactly", Hayley grinned; "And they can't have physically taken over the press office or anything because we'd have heard about it by now".
"And?", Xander asked again.
"What do all TV shows get transmitted through?"
"The signal tower?"
"The signal tower".
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"Right then, we need to get to that tower", Adam took the lead as he made his way to the room that housed the Rangers' arsenal.
"That's really not a good idea", Tommy interjected.
"Why not?"
"You really think the bikes will make it up there?"
Adam's eyes flicked to the onscreen image of their target, which stood proudly atop a small mountain of exceedingly rocky terrain. The Black Ranger frowned before turning back; "Okay, so Xander can take the Racer up there", he amended.
"Uh huh, I don't think Osirico could fail to miss a bright green flying machine traveling that high above the ground – he'll be shot down within five minutes.
"Okay...so what do you suggest?", Adam sighed defeatedly.
"I say that-..."
"Hate to interrupt the master plan, but we've got a freak on the loose", Hayley butted in once more as she watched the surveillance cameras.
"Right then – straight to Plan B", the doctor amended.
"Woah, woah, woah, what was Plan A?", Adam eyed him up.
"To walk", Tommy shrugged nonchalantly; "But under the circumstances...Kira?"
"Yeah?"
"I got someone to see ya...", the vehicle bay door hissed open at his command to reveal a familiar ally.
"Alright!", Kira grinned wildly.
"Err, Tommy?..What is that?", Adam eyed the rather menacing-looking Velociraptor warily.
"This is a Raptor Rider – kinda like a prehistoric version of the Raptor Cycle, it might not be as fast; but it doesn't have a problem with rough terrain".
"That's actually pretty cool", Xander remarked as he reached out his hand...
The Raptor snapped playfully at his outstretched fingers with razor-sharp teeth and the Green Ranger's hand quickly recoiled.
"Yeah, you'd better leave the handling to its owner", Tommy laughed.
"I'll keep in touch...call if you need me", Kira stood ready beside the feisty dinosaur. "DINO THUNDER, POWER UP!"
The three remaining Rangers watched as Kira jumped onto the Raptor's back and it sprinted off through the back portal and into the forest.
"And that leaves us to trash this guy...IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!"
"NINJA STORM, RANGER FORM!"
"MAGICAL SOURCE, MYSTIC FORCE!"
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Upon closer inspection at the battle scene, the creature that the Rangers were fighting was unmistakeably the same one from the plaza.
"Hey, knucklehead!"
The snarling beast stopped its terrorizing tactics long enough to whirl at the sound of the Blue Ranger's voice.
"You come back for more?", Adam added.
"As a matter of fact I have, and it involves you!" Thrusting its over-sized fists forwards into an awkward pose, it thundered towards the Rangers with surprising speed and batted each of them aside like flecks of dust. Striding purposefully back towards them, the creature slammed its foot straight down into the chest of his nearest victim – Xander.
The 'strong as a tree' Mystic Ranger was powerless to resist as he thudded back the short way into the hard ground.
Scrambling to his rescue, Adam and Tori picked themselves up and attempted to throw the monster away from Xander, only to be met by the rock hard fists once again as Xander still tried in vain to free himself.
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Meanwhile, having negotiated the forest, Kira now found herself in the extremely dense woodland that covered the hillside; not to mention the rocky terrain the they had been warned about.
The closeness of her surroundings unnerved the Yellow Ranger slightly; along with the sounds of snapping twigs and rustling leaves and the occasional snarl from the Raptor, Kira got the unsettling feeling that she was being watched...
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Xander panted heavily as the creature retained the pressure on his chest whilst also fighting off Adam and Tori. The Green Ranger wriggled to reach his belt and once within good distance, he snapped up his Magistaff.
The monster let out a howl of pain as the weapon made contact with his leg and Xander leapt up, gasping for air. With the enemy momentarily distracted, the Black and Blue Rangers deftly performed identical roundhouse kicks into its back, sending it staggering.
However, their joy was short lived as a single powerful swipe from the boulder-like fists made sure that the Rangers found their way back to hard concrete.
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"Woah...easy", Kira held onto the reins as the Raptor growled and jumped slightly. Glancing around, the Yellow Ranger cursed the strong winds as the trees swayed as if to taunt her. Another crunching of a twig made the Raptor increasingly nervous as it screeched loudly.
"Hey buddy, keep it calm okay?" Kira kept her eyes fixed on the surrounding woodland, now in no doubt that she wasn't alone...She tapped her morpher discreetly; "Hayley?"
"How's it going Kira?"
"I'm not far away from the tower, but I think Osirico knows i'm here".
"Hang on, i'm running a thermal scan on your coordinates" Kira heard the sound of fingers on the keyboard and the beep of the computer; "Oh..."
"What can you see?"
"You're surrounded", Hayley replied bluntly.
"Ah, thought so", the Yellow Ranger silently drew her blaster at the ready. "So much for discretion", she thought wistfully.
"You alright to take care of this?"
"Not a problem...i'll be back as soon as I can".
"Alright, you be careful"
As Hayley signed out, Kira's focus returned to her surroundings; "Come on, where are you?", she muttered to herself, training the blaster on nothing in particular...and no more than five seconds later her question was answered as about forty flaming Hornets burst through the trees. The Raptor growled menacingly, snapping its jaws towards them as Kira smirked slightly; "FIRE!"
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"All we need is some more firepower and this guy'll be history!" Adam slammed his fist into the ground in frustration, the Rangers still failing to cause significant injury to the monster with Xander's elemental attack proving as futile as the great powers of the two Ninjas. New tactics and varying weapons coming to unhelpful conclusions as the creature roared defiantly before snapping Tori and Xander from the ground like irritating flies and flinging them both in the direction of the unfortunate Adam, resulting in a Ranger-shaped pile up.
"Too easy!", the monster leered, striding purposefully towards them...
"Uh Tommy?", Adam called somewhat nervously; "Any ideas?"
"Funny you should ask...me and Hayley got kinda bored last weekend, so we grabbed Alpha and had a play around with your weapons..."
"Great! But you're gonna have to quit the smalltalk, we're kinda in trouble here".
"Well, you see the only problem is that for full power, you'll need Kira".
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Back on the hillside, only ten or so Hornets remained standing after some nifty work courtesy of a Thundermax Blaster and an enraged dinosaur. Quickly converting the Blaster into a saber, Kira struck down the stragglers before turning the Raptor in the direction of the signal tower and racing towards it at top speed.
"Hayley, are you there?"
"I read you Kira, are you okay?"
"Yeah, the bad guys are sorted, but i'm at the tower and I haven't got a clue what i'm looking for..."
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"What? She's miles away..." Adam groaned.
"Did someone call?", a familiar voice with a victorious edge to it sounded towards the group, accompanied by the missing Ranger.
"Couldn't have timed it better myself!", Tommy laughed through the communicator.
"I'm still here!", the monster snarled confidently at the Rangers, who were now back on their feet.
"Well we can easily change that", Adam retorted as they maintained safe distance; "What's this master plan of yours Tommy?"
"Adam – take Xander's axe and Tori – take the Ptera Grips...i'm sure you'll figure out what to do".
The Black and Blue Rangers held the designated weapons beside their own in front of them until they noticed the ever so slight modifications to each of them.
With Kira and Xander having already taken the liberty of battling the impatient monster, Adam slowly drew close the two axes and suddenly they fused together in a flash of light and enlarged themselves slightly to form one huge, double-headed axe. Likewise, the Ptera Grips molded themselves into the blade of the unsheathed Ninja Sword to create what could have resembled a vicious-looking trident.
"Now that's cool!"
"Double the power, double the fun", came Tommy's voice through the morpher once more.
"I bet", Tori swept the new weapon expertly through the air.
As Kira and Xander slowly backed up to join their teammates, Adam addressed the group; "This guy needs to be hit as hard as we've got, or he's not going down".
"'As hard as we've got' huh?", the Green Ranger released his morpher and punched in a spell code.
"Galwit Neramax!"
In an instant, Xander looked like he had spent a lifetime in the gym, eating health foods; "Mystic Muscle!"
"Bring it on!", the monster snarled.
The Rangers charged, their tactics in place as Kira leapt towards the monster as a distraction, firing her blaster and vaulting high over his head and out of reach to leave the way clear for Xander to follow up with a monster of a punch straight in the creature's face making it howl loudly as it thudded to the ground.
"Shall we?" Adam inclined his head suggestively and the remaining pair surged forwards, their new weapons finding their target with deadly accuracy. Flaming red slashed appeared on the monster's body as it roared in anguish before its strength failed and it finally exploded in a shower of sparks.
"I'll put twenty dollars on what's gonna happen next", Tori sighed as she returned the Ptera Grips to their rightful owner.
"Likewise", Xander muttered, just as the familiar eerie voice filled the skies.
"By the power of the demons, arise!"
A giant tornado whirled around the charred remains of the monster before dying away to reveal a giant in their place. Without another word to each other, the Rangers called on their respective Zords and launched themselves into the cockpits.
"Adam, you and Kira should be able to combine if i've worked this right", Hayley's voice filtered through the comms systems.
"No problem!"
"How about a double-team Xander?" Tori proposed as the Dolphin Zord bobbed around next to the Minotaur.
"It would be my pleasure", he replied as he drew his axe.
"Here goes!", Tori shot the Zord forwards and took the enraged monster by surprise by swiping it across the legs with its tail for a successful debalancing act. The Dolphin then proceeded to toss the creature up and down on the end of its nose repeatedly; "Take your shot Xander!"
The enlarged Green Ranger stomped up and waited for the opportune moment before slamming the axe straight into the monster, sending it hurtling through the air, severely weakened.
"How about that combo?", Adam looked to the Zord that hovered beside him.
"You got it", and using the mental command system, the Ptera Zord split into two; the head and shoulders twisting around the Shogun's head to form a solid helmet as it would've in the Dino Thunder days. The wings however, remained in the form of the Ptera Rang and were now gripped in the other Zord's hand.
The new 'mini Megazord' as they had christened it; stood before the monster; "Time to say goodbye!"
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"Why didn't we get a cool combo?", Xander huffed jokingly as he gave the puppy-dog eyes to Tommy.
"Because, the whole thing's only half finished, Hayley and Alpha had to do a few makeshift configurations just to get the Shogun and Ptera Zord to combine".
"Oh okay, maybe we'll let you off this time...right Tor?"
"I'll just agree so I don't have to argue with you", Tori muttered as she studied the evening news report, blaring from one of the many screens in the Dino Lab; "Well at least we're back to normal with the media", she gestured to the screen, which now showed a much more positive headline.
"Technicolor heroes triumph again!"
"Technicolor?", Xander frowned slightly as if pondering the word; "How about 'brilliant' or 'fantastic'?"
The team rolled their eyes as was normal during these 'Xander moments' and proceeded as if he hadn't said anything. "So anyway, what's everyone up to tomorrow? I thought maybe we could go see a movie or something", Adam asked casually.
"Sorry mate, I got myself a job interview down at some new music store in the mall, figured i've got the experience to land it", Xander replied.
"Yeah sorry Adam, I seriously need to get some practice in for the surf competition, it's only a few weeks away", Tori sighed.
"And i've got a hell of a long recording session tomorrow for the next album", Kira frowned; "And I'm not looking forward to it".
Adam sighed defeatedly; "Alpha? How'd you like to come to the movies with me?"
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Well the good news is that the next chapter is already written and ready to go after it's had a proof-read so it'll be up within a couple of days. So thanks for the kind comments and i'll see ya later! :)