Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo was uncharacteristically at a loss for words as he watched the battle unfolding down on Earth. He had sent in Forcefear, a monster that despite powerful defences had yet to win himself any battles of real distinction, planning to feed him to the Rangers to prepare the season finale for Galvanax. He didn't expect anyone else to show up, he most certainly didn't expect one that had almost destroyed Forcefear with dismissive ease and was currently applying that same savagery to the Rangers.
It wasn't even meant to be a real battle. It was just a preview. He had every intention of pulling Forcefear out of the fight to save the battle for the normal broadcast time. Wrench came running onto the stage, hobbling as he still had one spare kudabot leg to replace the one he was still waiting on Cosmo getting finished.
"Cosmo, Forcefear just arrived at the infirmary." He rushed out. "He's in a bad way, but they think they should be able to…"
"Yes, yes, whatever! Who in the universe is THAT?" Cosmo asked. Wrench just looked to the screen, just in time to see the new warrior taking Preston to task. The Blue Ranger didn't look like he was getting up any time within the next few hours as he rag-dolled to the ground after the new monster smashed him right in the face with an elbow that the helmet barely protected him from.
"I…I…don't know." Wrench said honestly. Although he had been around much longer than Cosmo, having served on Sledge's ship for well over 65,000,000 years, much of that time had been spent drifting in the far reaches of space or limping back towards the Milky Way on an assortment of rides hitched on asteroids and parts they could take from ships unfortunate enough to cross their path. "I've never seen him before! I'm not even certain it's a 'him'."
"I want this footage Wrench." Cosmo told him. "I want this footage run through every search, every database, legal and illegal! I want to know who this is and I want him on my finale!"
"You…you want WHAT?" Wrench shrieked.
"Imagine it Wrench, everyone's been waiting for a battle between the Rangers and this stranger all season. While it's building beautifully people already have expectations." Cosmo said with an evil smirk. "But, my dear boy, nothing rewards our loyal viewers more than giving them something they've never seen before!"
A little way off, Odious was listening. She just nodded.
"Now this is an interesting development." She commented. "While they're chasing this new challenger, no one will be paying attention to me."
Meanwhile, down in the Industrial District, the Rangers were struggling against their new enemy. They had no idea who it was, none of them had ever seen anything like it. Sarah felt her heart run cold as she watched Preston hit the ground and stop moving. He glowed for a second, but then his suit disappeared, leaving the Blue Ranger face-down on the ground.
She ran to his side, crouching over him protectively. He was breathing, but it looked like a close thing. He definitely wasn't getting back up any time soon.
"We can't let up!" Brody called out as he and Levi brought forth their weapons, rushing him.
Trevor instinctively brought his forearms up, blocking the incoming attacks as he could, and yet to his astonishment, the blows felt like little more than standard punches. The armour was protecting him from attacks he had seen fell monsters on news reels all year! He had his own training, but that was becoming exhausted quickly by what the Rangers could do. It seemed whoever the Rangers were, they had very impressive combat skills, rivalling that of the units he trained with when he served.
That was when something happened, his body started reacting in ways he didn't recall ever being trained. He was performing moves that he didn't even know he could! The power in his moves was unmatched, unlike anything he had ever felt in his life! He could already see one of the Rangers was down, and the way he felt right now, he was starting to wonder if it wouldn't be long before the others were joining him.
The curved green dagger appeared in his hand, giving him another tool at his disposal in his battle with the Red and Gold Rangers. He hooked Brody's sword with his dagger, ripping it from his hand, before spinning around with a harsh attack that send him flying. The Lion Fire Armour disappeared, likely saving Brody's life because when he hit the ground, even though he was conscious and still morphed, he could tell he was on his last legs.
"BRODY!" Levi yelled, his instincts kicking in as he threw himself at his brother's attacker. The stranger in green said something back, but it was garbled, nonsensical. Levi didn't claim to be a linguist, but having been on tour he had been to a lot of places and heard a lot of dialects. What he heard from the stranger in green didn't sound like any language he had ever heard. The monster spun around with a backfist that hit him so hard he was certain his helmet was about to shatter, and quickly joined his brother on the ground.
"This guy's a beast!" Calvin gulped. "Is anyone else wishing that he and Galvanax could just go off somewhere and destroy each other?"
"I'm not sure that would help much." Sarah said in a panic, keeping her eye on Preston as she stood over him in a guard. "It kind of feels like whichever one of them won, we'd still be screwed!"
"We can't think like that, not yet!" Hayley rushed out. "We're still breathing so we've still got a chance!"
Trevor could see the Rangers standing before him, and could just feel in his bones that they were on their final stand. He felt energy powering up within him and swung the dagger in a wide arc. A bright green energy wave hit them, knocking them all to the ground and destroying much of the area behind them. This new power, it was far greater than he could ever have imagined, he had completely overdone what he was intending. He had been around weapons long enough to know of the dangers of over penetration. It wasn't the first time he'd responded to a shooting only to find out that the shot came from outside the apartment where the victim was. People buying powerful weapons like a Colt Python because of the intimidation factor without realising it was so powerful that when fired, it would go through the wall of an apartment with little effort putting everyone on the opposite side in danger. The gun owner, of course, was still legally liable for any bullet he fired even if he didn't realise it wouldn't stop inside his own apartment.
He regretted the damage he'd caused, but seeing the Rangers struggling, he started to advance. This was it! This was what he was hoping for!
"This doesn't have to end this way!" He called out. "Throw down your weapons and turn yourselves over to the authorities!"
Brody, Levi and Sarah though didn't hear that. All they heard was the same garbled nonsense.
"What's he saying?" Brody asked. "Hayley?"
"Uh…I don't think she's going to be hearing much of anything for a while!" Sarah said regretfully, looking to her best friend. "She's out of it!"
"We have to get the hell out of here!" Levi told him.
"And leave this guy running around?" Brody asked. "We can't…"
"We also can't do much if we're dead!" Sarah yelled back. Brody's mind raced, trying to think of what to do. They had a responsibility to the city, one that was more important than their own lives. Every one of them was willing to lay down their lives if they needed to. Of course, dying in senseless battle was not really the best strategy either. Running away and coming back when they had a better grasp of the situation, perhaps knowing who in the hell they were even fighting was sound strategy even if it did mean sacrificing some gains. For the first time, Brody was blanking hard.
A little distance away, the SWAT unit were watching on in amazement.
"Did you see what that guy just did?" One of them asked. "This is exactly what Marx was talking about! The Rangers' battles wreck everything around them!"
"Well what do you propose we do about it?" Another asked.
"Well, that thing looks kind of like a Ranger don't you think?" One of them asked, cocking his assault rifle. "I say we treat him like one!"
"Alright, you heard him! LIGHT EM UP!" Another called out. With that, they all opened fire.
Trevor was advancing on the Rangers when he felt himself getting hit from behind. The armour stopped them, but it wasn't enough to stop them giving him pause. He turned to see his own colleagues firing on him! The other Rangers kept their heads down as rounds went off all around them.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Trevor screamed at his colleagues. "I'm on YOUR side! I've taken the Rangers down!"
Unfortunately no one could understand him. All they could hear was the same garbled speech that none of them recognised. One of them fired a grenade launcher which hit him square in the chest, detonating and sending Trevor tumbling through the air. The armour seemed to go into autopilot, reacting completely on its own. He sent out a pulse that sent cops flying and overturned a couple of the trucks. Seeing what he had done, Trevor was horrified. The suit gave him power, but clearly he didn't fully understand or have control of that power. He crouched down, before launching himself into the air, where he turned into a green lightning bolt and disappeared into the clouds. The Rangers and the cops all watched him go.
"Well, that was…unexpected." Sarah stated. "He kind of had us down and out!"
"Yeah, where I come from, we have a little saying about gift horses." Levi replied. Brody just nodded his head. With that, he summoned up a cloud of smoke. By the time it dissipated, the Rangers were gone.
Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo just sat with his mouth hanging wide open. He looked to Wrench and whispered.
"I don't care what it costs." He told him. "I want that man found and I want him on this show one way or another!"
Over at the Maxwell House, Dave Maxwell, Calvin's dad, stopped by the house. He had some time during his lunch break and when he could, he liked to drop in on Ava. He was a bit of a sappy guy by his own admission, he wasn't just in love with his wife, he was in awe of her. He had been ever since they met in college. While so many of his colleagues at the office always joked about liking the time to get away from their wives and families, for Dave if he could have spent all day every day with them, he would.
He had stopped by a supermarket for some sushi, which he knew she loved, and came into the driveway. He was a little surprised that the garage door was shut. Normally it would be open to let Ava get natural light into the garage. He couldn't hear tools either, which he thought was a bit odd. He just shrugged, figuring Ava must have finished her work on Mrs Fletcher's car a little earlier than she expected.
"Honey, I'm home!" He called out, with a cheesy smile. He loved things like that, even though everyone always ripped on him for how cliché he was. He was the kind of guy that still used to like leaving his wife notes. Buying flowers, remembering anniversaries that even she forgot about years ago like their first date. He didn't get an answer though. As he made his way to the living room, he found Ava on the couch. She sat bolt upright as he walked in, looking away from him and wiping her face.
"Oh, Dave, I'm sorry…I didn't hear you come in." She rushed out. "I…I must have dozed off."
"Well, I'm sorry I woke you, I just thought you might like a little lunch." He told her. He noticed that she wasn't looking at him.
"I'm sorry, I was just…I should go and wash up." She told him. Dave could sense something was wrong. Ava was rarely unable to face someone. Whether it was facing down some of the guys that used to make fun of her for liking engines up until she schooled them on things they couldn't hope to understand about them or walking into a room and befriending someone within seconds of meeting them.
"Ava, is everything alright?" He asked her.
"It's nothing it's just…" She tried to find something to say. "I forgot to go to the store and get spark plugs. It just completely went out of my head."
"Is that all?" He asked. He thought about it for a second. "Wait, did Mrs Fletcher say something to you about it?"
"Dave, I…"
"Does she know how much another garage would charge her for the work you do?" He asked, becoming more than a little irritated. He wasn't by any means a forceful person, but he did let it be known when someone had upset his family. "I have a good mind to call her right now and tell her if she doesn't like it she can call a tow truck and take her car somewhere else! You don't have to take…"
"Dave, Mrs Fletcher was fine about the car. If anything she was happy because I told her I wouldn't charge because of the delay." Ava told him.
"Then what is it?" He asked her.
"Just forget about it." She told him. "I'll wash up…"
"Ava." He said a little more directly. As she turned towards him, he could see she had been crying. He let out a disappointed sigh. Ava was such an easy going person, only one person he could think of could get to her like that. He came across, holding her tenderly to him. "What did he do?"
Back at the Ranger Base, the team arrived back, some of them a lot worse off than others. Hayley and Preston had regained consciousness on the way back, but neither of them were really what anyone could call compos mentis. The others helped them into chairs as Redbot and Mick readied the first aid supplies that they could tell they would need.
"OK, that was brutal!" Calvin stated as he held onto Hayley, holding her upright. "First that boglin thing shrugged off everything we could throw at it, and then that…green guy came along and wiped the floor with everyone!"
"Forcefear's definitely a tough customer…literally." Mick told them. "I've seen him fight in a lot of bouts. He tends to get thrown in against hard-hitters because…well…because they know that they'll get a fight of a decent length out of him. It's not like they'll get a bout that'll end inside the first minute with a guy who can withstand a planet exploding. The problem he's faced is he doesn't tend to be able to dish it back."
"I'd agree with you if my ears weren't still ringing." Levi muttered. "Do they really hire guys like that?"
"Well, kind of like your MMA or boxing there are some hard hitters that have a habit of ending bouts quickly." Mick explained. "Of course like your boxing or MMA people only find one-minute matches entertaining a few times, then they just want their money's worth."
"OK, so that explains who he is." Sarah stated, placing a damp towel on a large bump on Preston's head. "So what about the green guy?"
"That…that's more of a mystery." Mick told her. "I've never seen him before. I have absolutely no idea who he is."
"You don't know?" Hayley asked.
"I've been on the Warrior Dome for twenty years and I've never seen the guy on a single show!" Mick protested. "I haven't heard anything about him on the independents, frankly, as far as I know, this guy has literally appeared from nowhere!"
"Well that's helpful." Sarah said sarcastically. "Whoever he is though, he has serious moves."
"Not to mention some serious power!" Levi chipped in.
"Whoever he is, I think the one thing we can safely say is that he isn't a friend." Brody answered. "Which means we have to be prepared for him coming back. Unfortunately we have no idea what he can do and no way to research him…"
"We have the footage of that fight!" Sarah said, grabbing her tablet. "Well, more accurately Cosmo does, but since I still have pirated access to his broadcasts…"
"You still have that on there?" Preston asked. She just looked sheepish.
"I…couldn't figure out how to cancel." She replied a little self-consciously. "It turns out it's a lot easier to subscribe than it is to cancel. This guy could give our streaming services lessons!"
"OK, well get all the footage we can and we'll figure out all we can about how to take this guy down." Brody told her.
"Well, that's going to have to wait I'm afraid." Mick replied, sucking his teeth. "You all have to get back to class."
"CLASS?" They all chorused.
"It was your lunch break." Mick reminded them. Levi just sighed.
"You think you have it bad, I have the freshman class this afternoon, otherwise known as the tone deaf teens." He complained. "I already have a headache and that is NOT going to help!"
"Man, sometimes this superhero stuff really sucks." Preston muttered as Sarah helped him up and he started limping to class.
"Yeah, I mean this was our lunch break! Not only did we just get our asses handed to us, but I'm still starving!" Calvin complained. "Man my day cannot get any worse!"