Chapter Four. Lock Up And Catch Up.

For the Lost Zone Rangers, the teleportation had been easy, the seven of them reappearing almost immediately at their destination.

"You know," Julia remarked, stretching out her arms. "That wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it'd be."

"Heh, I thought we were going to end up in a wall or something," said Naomi. "Typical movie cliché, right?"
"It's not likely though," Claire replied. "I mean, I managed to build a passable teleportation system for the morphers, to be used in an emergency. If I could do that back then, what are the odds that it's improved by the point whenever that strange guy comes from?"
"Sorry, are you giving someone else credit for being great at inventing stuff?" David wondered.

"Can it, Big Mouth," Claire said sweetly. "Sarcasm doesn't suit you."

"She's right," Emma remarked. "That's Dice's job."

"Hey!" Dice exclaimed. "I resent that remark."

"No doubt you'll get over it," Riku laughed. "Now, I guess we just need to see where we are and…"

The seven of them turned around and then immediately froze as they realised where they were; astride a platform in a huge coliseum-like building full of other platforms. And, not all of them were empty. Some of them were filled with various aliens all resembling Pokémon. In the middle, an Alakazam-like alien turned to look at them with anger on his face, a swarm of Deoxys-like commandos already swarming down towards them.

"Uh oh!" Emma said. "What gives?"

"Anyone else think this looks like something from Star Wars?" Julia wondered.

"Seize them!" the Alakazam roared. "Intruders!"
"Damn that guy!" David exclaimed. "He could have dropped us off somewhere else."

As the group of Syodians advanced down upon them, Claire stepped forward.

"I guess there's only one thing to do," she said serenely.

"What, surrender?" wondered Dice. "And go quietly?"
"Hell no!" she yelled, grabbing up a chair and beating one of the Syodians with it. "Take that you damn alien freak!"

"Can't take her anywhere, can I?" David asked, watching as the Syodians began to glow with a bright purple energy, a warning that they were ready to unleash their attacks. "It always ends like this?"

"Really?" Riku asked. "I'd never have worked that out."

Crane had heard her. Almost in slow motion, he turned, his jaw falling as he saw Paige.

"What the…!" he exclaimed. "That's impossible!"

Duo let out a short sound of understanding. "Ah, I guess we know what he was keeping secret all those years then," he said. "That makes sense. Because…"

Already, Crane was coming towards them, shock engraved on his face. At the same time, Paige still looked like she wanted to kill him.

"Somebody want to hold her back?" Luke asked. "Those guys have ranger powers. I don't particularly want to get into a turf war with them."
"Turf war?" Ryan wondered. "You really think that's going to happen?"

"How can you think it won't?" Luke shot back.

"Guys, calm it down," Katie said. "Nobody's going to hit anything. Or anyone. Right, Paige?"

"Do you mind?" Paige asked, glancing back at her. "I'm steaming with righteous anger here."

She was cut off as Crane grabbed her from behind in a crushing hug. A hug that quickly ended as she activated her ability to turn incorporeal and break out of it.

"Hey, what the…?" Crane exclaimed. "What's that for?"

"You truth avoiding jerk!"
"Huh?" he asked, giving her a strange look. "What? You're alive? I thought you were dead."

"Dead?" she replied. "Who's dead? I was never dead."

"You know, she's taking the whole dumb blond thing to a new level," Xavier remarked.

All at once, Katie, Luke, Ryan and Paige each gave him a dirty look.

"What?" he asked. "If you look at him, he's clearly not the same guy as we left in the past. He looks about fifteen years younger… Holy crap."

"Crane," Duo asked. "When was the last time you saw us?"
"The last time…?" the Solar Ranger asked. "It'll have been… After you pulled the rescue mission against the Coppingers. Although you all looked a lot younger then than you do now. Take it you won and are living to a ripe old age."

"Yeah," Paige said. "I didn't die. I was reborn as a ghost and eventually became corporeal again, then gaining the powers of the white ranger."

"Well, you did always look good in white," Crane said, unable to stop grinning.

Away from them, Nick nudged Sandy in the ribs.

"Still think you've got a chance with him now?" he quipped. "Spurned for some blond."

"I'm going to punch you in the nose if you carry on," she warned. "It's probably not what it looks like…"

Ahead of them, Crane hugged Paige again.

"There there," Max said, patting the blue Cosmo Ranger on the shoulder. "Plenty more stars in the sky."

"Think he knows them, or he's just talking to random strangers?" Nick wondered. "Fancy seeing what they're like."

"Doing nothing else," Max said. "Let's go."

They started the walk over, each of them feeling incredibly out of place, until Max cleared his throat to get Crane's attention.

"Remember us?" he quipped.

"Ah yeah, right," the Solar Ranger said. "This is… Let me get this straight." He gestured to Max, to Nick and to Sandy. "Guys, this is Max Redwood, Sandy Garcia and Nick Miele. You might have guessed it, but they're rangers as well. Guys, this is Duo Roronoa, Luke Sunderland, Paige Martinez, Katie Myers…"

"Roronoa," she interrupted.

"… Didn't catch your name," Crane said, looking at Ryan. "And Nahir Moon."

"Sunderland," she insisted. "And that's Ryan."

"Ah, so… What'd I miss?" Crane asked. "A lot by the look of it. And, yeah, you guys were rangers I take it."

"Brought out of retirement and tossed here," Katie said. "Remember Clarence?"

"How can I forget?" Crane replied. "How is he?"
"Probably a whole lot worse than when he woke up this morning," Luke said. "He's… Well, he was mortally wounded. If he's still alive, I'd be surprise."

"Oh and Dorlinda died as well," Nahir piped up. "Just in case you were wondering."

"So great being dropped into a conversation you have no idea about," Max muttered. "Err… Hi. If you say you were brought out of retirement to come here, does that mean there's a problem?"

"Yeah, a big one," Ryan said. "You're rangers as well, right? You want to tag along and help out."

"Depends," Nick replied sarcastically. "You sure there's room for us when you get your ego in there. We ain't rookies. We'll do it, you can back us up."

Max quickly kicked him. "What he's trying to say, I'm sure, is that we've got kind of a huge problem and…"

"Believe me, if we don't stop this," Katie said. "You're going to have an even bigger problem."

"Right," Sandy said. "Rather than having this discussion in the street, maybe we should go somewhere more private."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Nick said. "Night Hawk? I mean, if Crane says they're okay then…"

"We'll go," Max said. "Get on the radio and tell Lily and Diana to meet us there."

Had they looked back, they would have seen the remains of the monsters they had fought had vanished from sight.

"I can't believe this!" Dice complained. "Twenty minutes into the future and we've been locked up."

As he'd said, the seven of them had ended up in a prison cell, charged with trespassing, resisting arrest, assaulting a Syodian Commando and yelling threats at diplomats.

"Ah, don't worry," Claire said. "To get a reputation, you need to break a few windows every now and then."

"I just want a reputation as a best-selling author and a decent Pokémon trainer," Dice complained. "I don't want to become Legendary Troublemaker C."

Away from the rest of the group, Naomi and Riku were trying to work out if they could get the door open, Riku trying to locate the control panel with his aura abilities and Naomi ready to try and bypass it.

"I'm not worried," Claire said. "It's not like this is the first time I've been in trouble with the law."
"I imagine it's the first time you've been in trouble with this brand of law enforcement," Naomi commented. "And, he does have a point. Twenty minutes is a ridiculously short time."

"How we going to save the galaxy if we're locked in here?" Julia wondered. "I mean… Unless we're about to stop each other from hanging one another from the ceiling."

"I'll go last," David said. "If we're going to do that."

"Nobody's hanging anyone," Emma interrupted. "Something'll come up."

On cue, the door opened up, revealing a pair of women in Cosmo Force uniforms. One had gelatinous pink skin and long brown hair, the other…

"Holy crap!" Dice exclaimed. "Something you don't see every day."

… Resembled a humanoid Mightyena with long blond hair and purple scales under her jaw, moving across to her back.

"Greetings," the brown haired woman said. "I'm Cadet Camerons, this is Cadet Yushaa."

"Hi, I'm Riku," Riku said. "Listen, there's been a huge misunderstanding here. We just got lost. Teleporter malfunction, or something to that effect."
"If it was just the trespassing charge, we'd let you off," Cadet Camerons said. "Well, I would. She wouldn't. But, there's the problem of the other stuff, so here's the suggestion. Pay the fines, we'll let you go on your way."

"Sorry," Claire said. "I'm a little short at the moment, but… Wait a second. You think all my money's still accumulating interest?"
"Is that an attempt to bribe us?" Cadet Yushaa demanded. "Because…"

Interrupting her, the radio at her belt buzzed. Rolling her eyes, she picked it up and turned it on. "Go for Lily. This important, we're terrifying some filthy law breaking criminal scum."

"Hey!" Julia protested.

"Okay, okay," Lily said. "We'll meet you back on the Night Hawk when we've got the stuff off these guys. Damn humans coming here and breaking our laws."
The radio crackled.

"Oh really?" she asked. "You got a bunch of them too? What are the odds."

It crackled again.

"Okay, I'll do that," she said, looking around to the Lost Zone Rangers. "Any of you got unusual names?"
"Julia," Julia offered. "That any good?"

"Claire."

"Emma."

"Dice."

"Okay, got a Dice here, a Claire, an Emma and…" Lily paused as the radio crackled. "That any good? I see."

She put it away and looked around at them.

"Change of plan. Think I just got you community service."

"Yay!" said a less than enthusiastic David. "Can't wait for this."

Less than an hour later, they found the Night Hawk, the Pidgeot designed ship capable of deep intergalactic travel.

"This is our base of operations," Diana said. "You've been summoned here. Can't imagine why. Most of the guys who we lock up get a kicking in the cells and then a fine. Which we then squander on the Christmas party."

"Anyone else tiring of the irresponsible cop thing?" Dice wondered. In response, Lily poked him hard with a Cosmo Baton in the back, almost pushing him over. "Hey!"

Emma almost rounded on her, an angry look on her face. "Don't do that to him again, or I will kick your ass."

"Love to see you try," Lily said smugly. "Melt that pretty face off you if you try."

"What?"

"Just get inside," Diana interrupted. "Ignore her. She's… You know, I'd love to think of an excuse for her, but I can't. It just comes off bitchy."

"What's this really?" Julia wondered. "A prison ship?"

"Go inside, you'll find out," Lily retorted.

Once inside, they were immediately directed through the numerous corridors into an office where they saw the captain of the ship sat behind a desk. He was a Pidgeot-like Poké Alien, humanoid for the most part but with the face of a Pidgeot. He had a pair of arms, but his legs, despite being covered in silver battle armour,ended in talons. His body was covered in red and cream coloured feathers, the red being where the brown colour would normally be on a Pidgeot, while the crest on his head was a silver colour. At his back, he had a pair of huge wings folded up behind him, both in the same dark red colour as the rest of his feathers.

"Commandant Peregrine Griote," Diana said. "Remember the name. Sir, these are…"

Behind them, the Lost Zone Rangers heard a bark of laughter, immediately turning to see the Genesis Rangers stood behind them, the laugh having come from Luke.

"What are the odds?" he exclaimed. "It's you guys."

"Not much gets past him, huh?" David said sarcastically.

Author's Notes.

Yep, it'll all start to mix together now.

Not much happens really, not after the last chapter, but it's a glue chapter. Holds things together nicely.

Would thank for the reviews, but they weren't any. So instead you get a sad face.

The series might have been finished, but I still do intend to do the second movie of Forever Blue after this. And then I'll see about doing Dragon Strike. Despite still not having a blue ranger for it.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.

Don't forget to review! Please!