Chapter 33- Doomsday

Grumm sat on his chair, contemplating recent events. If they had proven something, it was that even his most trusted allies were unpredictable. Pandora's careless and reckless behavior over the last few days led him to believe that maybe she had a secret agenda of her own. He laughed it off. It couldn't be; the girl was practically his slave. While Black Crystal brought out the evil in her, it also brought out other traits, such as her rebelliousness and loud-mouthing. He sighed. I should have used those robot parts Broodwing suggested, he thought to himself.

That brought him to the other alien. He couldn't rely on him either. Broodwing had his own business and secret agenda, making him a liability. While he provided Grumm with expensive technology, he also gave him the biggest headaches. He made business with almost any alien that offered him money. The Emperor despised when he did so. It wasn't long ago that Broodwing had taken a bow and pledged loyalty to the Troobian Empire. All lies. He wasn't thrilled about his side business either. Those other aliens couldn't be relied on either. Lowlifes and scum from all over the galaxy came to Broodwing, desperate to either sell him something or buy a weapon for their own purposes. Some of them were even SPD officers. It had been Broodwing's fault to bring the once deadly Dream Catcher above The Terror. When Grumm found out who she really was, she got killed in the most brutal manner. He slid those thought aside, afraid of what His Magnificence could have heard in his thoughts. If He found out…

No, He wouldn't find out. He had made it his personal mission to keep quiet about the incident.

A female presence in the room interrupted his thoughts. "You requested me?"

"Yes, Mora." He sneered. Inspecting her from head to toe, he grabbed his staff and pointed it at her, a bright light emerging from its tip. "What are you…"

Her cries were muffled by a huge cocoon that was now tightly wrapped around her body. When the cocoon fell to pieces at her feet, she groaned and shrieked, "No! I'm old again!"

"Quiet!" He glared at a crying Morgana. "You've failed me more times than I can count. It's time for you to do something to call yourself worthy of belonging to the Troobian Empire."

She stayed silent and clutched Cyndy Sunshine tightly in her arms. Feeling uneasy, she took a few steps back and almost tripped over the train of her own dress. Her words were cut short by Grumm.

"I don't think I made myself clear." He stated. "You do something or you'll go back to where I found you."

Morgana swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, rushing out of the room as quickly as she could. She was going to need help.

Her eyes shifted to Pandora's door.

SPD Academy

The Rangers sat around a table in the Rec Room in silence. Bridge ate some toast, Z flipped through a magazine and Jack read a comic book. Sky hadn't shown his face yet. He hadn't even been at training in the mud course. Cruger would sure punish him later. They couldn't blame him, though. After rescuing Pandora from the darkness, he was wiped out. His heroic stunt had almost cost him his life. The Rangers had to help him walk all the way to the Cruiser. He's probably just tired, Bridge told himself. He was worried about his best friend.

Seconds later, he stepped inside, impeccably dressed in his uniform. The other three let out an audible sigh. "You had us worried."

"I'm fine, Jack. I just needed some rest; making all those force fields exhausted me more than I thought." He admitted as he sat down next to Jack. He took a bite out of a protein bar Z had gotten for him. He was amazed by how quickly the dynamics had changed between them. A few months ago, they could barely see each other without wanting to punch each other. They were anything but teammates or friends. Now, they were a solid team and the best of friends.

Seeing as Z and Bridge sat next to each other, his constant loud munching had to get to the girl at some point. She closed her magazine and stared at him. "As much as I enjoy hearing you chew on your food, I would rather have you do it someplace else."

"You enjoy it?" He asked genuine surprise in his voice. "I thought it was annoying."

"No, it isn't. It is a lovely sound." Z murmured sarcastically. Jack and Sky shared a look and snickered silently.

"You want some? It's buttery." He wiggled his fingers. She regarded this as one of his strange quirks, such as standing on his head to get ideas. She kindly declined the offer and put her eyes on the magazine, not really paying attention to any of the pictures.

The alarm went off.

The Cadets made their way to the Command Center. Kat turned away from the computers and simply said, "She's back and she's got reinforcements this time."

"Let me guess, Orange Heads," Said Jack.

"Worse." She stated grimly and pointed to the computer. "Morgana is back as well. And she's not alone."

"She brought friends. Lovely." Z crossed her arms. By simply looking at the aliens in the screen, she could tell they wouldn't be easy to take down. Jack was the first to morph. The others followed suit.

Kat nodded to the Commander, assuring him that she would take care of everything around the base. Agreeing with her, he also morphed.

Upon seeing the Rangers, the smug smile on Morgana's face became a Cheshire grin. Her plan wouldn't fail, not this time. "Welcome to the party, Rangers."

Two aliens appeared by her side. They were polar opposites of each other. One was rather bulky and with its mane, bizarrely resembled a lion. His counterpart, leaner, seemed to be some type of warrior. He carried a thunder-shaped sword. Morgana donned her battle suit as well.

Setting eyes on her target, the villain put on her helmet and sprinted towards the Yellow Ranger. Slashing her with one of her blades, the Ranger fell easily. The older girl scoffed. So easy, she thought to herself. Both the aliens began attacking the other Rangers.

Getting up slowly, the Yellow Ranger took her blaster and fired a direct shot at Morgana. It barely did any damage. Morgana's suit had been reinforced with Troobian magic and protective spells, making it less prone to damage. She soon fell prey to one of the villain's deadly energy waves. Z gripped the blaster tightly in her hands and fired once again, completely missing the target. The villain hit her once again and knocked the weapon out of her hands.

When she looked up, Morgana had the striker in her hands. It was pointing at her chest. Being unable to do anything, Z simply closed her eyes and bit her lower lip to muffle her scream. Thankfully, her Ranger suit had suppressed most of the blast. When she opened her brown eyes again, she discovered her suit and Morgana were gone. She had Z's Deltamax Striker.

Thinking the Yellow Ranger had been dealt with, the raven-haired girl walked into an abandoned warehouse nearby. A cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows. "I assume phase one is completed."

"As if you didn't already know," Morgana replied with a smirk on her face.

Upon hearing another one of their enemies screaming, the cloaked one chuckled lightly. "Let phase two commence."

"Are you sure this will work?" The girl asked. "This is my last chance or Grumm will kill me."

The cloaked one turned away from Morgana. "He won't kill you. That fool needs all the help he can get." The figure hissed. After handing her a key, it began walking away. "Protecting the device is your main priority."

Those were its last words before disappearing.

She called upon Broodwing's latest creation, a massive robot kindly referred to as Destructor. Equipped with highly-powerful blasters, the Delta Squad Megazord would be taken down easily, otherwise leaving the city free of heroes to protect them. She assured herself once SPD fell they would take over, first NewTech, and then the entire world. Today was the day SPD would fall.

Before jumping inside Destructor, Morgana disposed of the Ranger's weapon. She had never piloted a robot but from what she'd been told, it was easy as riding a car. If only she knew how to do the latter. After placing the keys in the ignition, she slowly learned her way through the controls. She placed her hands one the ones that controlled movement and maneuvered them skillfully.

Back on the ground, B-Squad and Cruger had fallen. Weak and unmorphed, they were no threat to the two aliens. Clutching his chest tightly, Sky raised a force field to protect him and the others from upcoming blasts. Ever since he's been exposed to the darkness, he'd noticed a significant increase of power. He just hoped this wouldn't make him end up inside a vortex.

Bridge regained consciousness. He had hit his head hard against a wall while unmorphed. He spotted a Zord moving through the streets. On closer inspection, he noticed it wasn't one of theirs. Taking his morpher out, Bridge scanned the robot. "Kat, did you release a big red Zord by any chance?"

"No," she replied over the intercom. Walking over to a computer, she ran a scan on it. The pilot was none other than Morgana.

"I'm sending out the Delta Runners."

"What about Delta Runner 5? We need it to form the Megazord." Sky said sadly. Kat knew what he meant. She sighed and simply replied, "I'll pilot it from here. I've installed a device that allows me to do so."

Sky nodded and slowly got up with the rest of the team. They may have been defeated once, but it wasn't going to happen again. "Ready?"

"Ready!" Jack, Bridge, Z and the Commander replied.

"SPD Emergency!" They exclaimed in unison.

They got inside their respective Delta Runners' cabins and maneuvered their way through the streets until they got to the giant red war machine. They knew who was behind its creation. Forming the Megazord, the Rangers accessed a shared cabin. "Identify yourself."

The robot blasted the Blue Ranger's vehicle. "Does that count as identification?"

Ranger Blue groaned and fired back, leaving only small dents in its armor. Z recognized the voice immediately and began a scan. After correctly identifying the pilot, Yellow said, "Morgana, surrender or we'll have to do this the violent way."

"You read my mind." Morgana snickered. Raising left blaster, she hit Delta Runner 4. They braised themselves for the hit that came along with it. The shaking ceased quickly. Raising both blasters, Destructor began hitting the Megazord mercilessly. Blast after blast, the Rangers felt themselves getting weaker. They had already been beaten once today. It seemed like defeat number two wasn't too far ahead for them. Kat, back at the SPD base, commanded Delta Runner 5 to take out the police blaster. With each blast fired, she lost more control over it. They had a way of messing up the equipment she had installed.

Cruger wasn't having an easy time down on the ground either. He had been battling Krybots for the last hour, trying to get at least get an inch close to Morgana's alien friends. The quantity was seemingly without end. The endless army closed in on him. He looked back at the rest of his team. He started to wonder about A-Squad. Maybe if they weren't missing in action, they would have already stopped Grumm.

He sighed. Doggie refrained himself from ever thinking like that again. This was his team now. The team he had become Shadow Ranger for. Gripping the Shadow Saber tightly, he slashed his way through. Raising his morpher, he called out the aliens.

"Haven't you ever heard the expression 'two is better than one?' ," Said the bulkier one. All through the judgment, both laughed. The Commander replied smugly, "If I were you, I wouldn't be laughing. You were both found guilty on serious charges."

He summoned RIC. After not showing, he paged Kat. "I need RIC, where is he?"

"He's still being repaired."

Cruger let out a frustrated sigh. His morpher was knocked out of his hands before he could react. He looked back to the pair. The leaner one was holding up its spear, pointing it straight at his chest. When the blast came, Cruger was ready. He put his Sabre before him, making the blast bounce off directly into its attacker. The alien growled.

Cruger may have gotten close to defeating them, but he couldn't let his hopes get high. The Rangers' battle against Morgana wasn't going as smoothly as he predicted it would be.

Ranger Red blasted the robot a few times, making nothing but a dent in its shiny surface. They wouldn't hold on much longer. The inner cabin was already beginning to collapse and the exteriors had already withstood plenty of damage. They noticed the energy levels on the Zord were the lowest they had ever been. Green checked out the damage level. 60%. He grimaced. This wasn't good. With each blast, the number increased.

"Abort the mission." It wasn't a warning, it was an order. "I repeat, abort the mission."

"We can't." The Blue Ranger stated. "We'll take it down."

"It's too risky, Cadet Tate. Abort the mission!" She ordered once again.

He wasn't going to give up. Charging the blaster at its fullest, Sky aimed directly at the chest. Target locked. He blasted it. It left a small hole on the opposing robot. "We are down ten percent more." The Yellow Ranger pointed to their energy levels.

Kat groaned. The Blue Ranger would get some type of punishment when he got back. He had defied a direct order. The worst part was, his teammates could have gotten hurt out there, not to mention the Delta Runners could be destroyed. Something on one of the security cameras caught her eye.

One of the aerial cameras that took a picture every five minutes had captured the image of a dark hooded figure standing on the roof of one the many buildings the red robot had its back to. The image had also captured something else. She zoomed and noticed a needle similar to the one that Benaag had planted behind Destructor. "This is a direct order! Abort the mission!"

"All right." Said the Yellow Ranger.

Delta Runner 4 was the fist one to disengage itself from the Megazord and return safely to the garage. At least someone had the decency of listening to her. She removed Delta Runner 5 as well. Armless, the Megazord wasn't much of a threat. Red and Green's Runners soon arrived in a less than optimal condition. "Cadet Tate! If your Delta Runner isn't here this minute, I'll give you window-cleaning duty for a month."

"I still have 60 seconds, don't I?" He replied smugly.

He wasn't even sure himself of how much damage he could make. Hovering just before the robot, Sky pressed down on the controls of his blasters and began firing inaccurately, leaving it all to luck for a total of 57 seconds. 3, 2, 1… he ejected himself and sent it back to the base.

Kat sighed and hissed. You're dead, Cadet Tate.

Landing on the ground safely, he looked at the others. And even though he couldn't see their expressions, he simply knew that they weren't happy with him. His ego always had a way of getting him into trouble. Now that he looked back on that last minute aboard the Delta Runner, he realized he's made a stupid mistake. Not only could his vehicle have been destroyed by the monstrous robot, he could have gotten hurt as well. He had jeopardized himself for nothing. Destructor was still up and running, even with a hole the size of a boulder right in the chest.

Just as they would catch a break, an energy wave made them hit the ground. A little laugh was all it took for them to recognize the source. "I thought you would be harder to beat."

There was a hint of disappointment in her voice. Z, unmorphed and exhausted, didn't stand a chance against the villain. Grabbing hold of her morpher, she held it up. "Morgana, you are being tried on the counts of various intergalactic crimes such as murder, conspiracy…"

"How nice of you." The villain interrupted, sending an energy wave her way. Z hit the floor on her back and groaned as she tried to reach for her morpher. A heel pressed over her wrist frustrated any further attempts. Morgana snickered down at her. The joy was short-lived.

Someone fired a balst at her from behind. She groaned and turned to see the Green Ranger holding his Deltamax Striker. "Get away from her!"

Z sighed and grinned with tears in her eyes. Bridge had saved her. She wiped the tears away with her free hand. Morgana got three direct shots total. He had meant the attack as a provocation. He would not let harm come to any of his teammates, especially Z. He wanted the villain to come after him, he could take the blast.

"How brave of you." She smirked and walked up to him. Jack stopped her from getting one step closer by sending a blast her way. Sky smiled and grabbed his morpher when he heard Kat's voice. "Head to the rooftop of the Sunflower Corporation. There might be trouble."

"Might be?" He asked.

"Don't fight me, Cadet Tate." She ordered.

"I'll check it out." He stood up and quickly got inside the building and into an elevator. As expected, the roof wasn't desolate. Two Krybots guarded the door. Taking them out with ease, he opened the door and glared at the cloaked figure.

"Show yourself!"

The figure turned around and lowered its hood. It was none other than Pandora. Only this time, she was different. Her facial features had become sharper. She looked meaner and more evil.

"What is with you and your friends always messing with my plans?" She crossed her arms and flipped her blonde hair back. She turned and giggled lightly. "None of it will matter soon, though. Your attempts at stopping me will have been in vain."

"What are you talking about?" Ripping the cloak off her body, she lunged at him with great speed. As much as Sky hated hurting his own friend, it was necessary at the moment. He was torn but ended up blasting her. She fell for a few seconds but got up again, determination written all over her face. He began noticing that each time she fought; she moved closer the ledge of the building. He wondered if Pandora had been experiencing suicidal thought as of lately. Blasting her one more time, she fell again. She groaned and threw a dark energy ball at her enemy, making Sky unmorph and land next to her on the floor.

She looked down at her shirt and put a hand over her wound. Standing up would be too painful, she'd have to crawl. She put her arms on the floor and began making her way to the other side of the rooftop, leaving a small red trace behind. She looked back and saw the Ranger slowly coming after her. He was hurt as well and couldn't do much in his condition. Snickering, she crawled in long strides, as much as it hurt. The faster she got there the better.

Outstretching one of her arms, she opened a console and somehow found herself being pulled back. The Blue Ranger was pulling on her ankle with great strength. Stretch it out a bit more. So close.

She wiggled her foot slightly, loosening his hold slightly. She stretched her arm and smiled when she felt the button under her fingers. She pressed it and smiled when she felt herself being pulled back. This would be a great spot to watch the destruction of SPD. She decided not to shoot the Ranger to death just so he could observe too.

A bright blast shot out of the needle and into the sky. Soon, a thick dome-shaped force field surrounded the city. Pandora's evil cackle filled his ears. She had a mischievous smile on her face. "What are you planning?"

"I think you already know the answer." She replied as she stood up, still clutching her stomach. She unleashed a pair of Orange heads. Before she said anything, she put her heel over his hand and grabbed his morpher. "You won't be needing this."

Pandora snapped her fingers. Almost on cue, the soldiers grabbed him and cuffed his hands. "I suggest you don't try using your powers. I had those cuffs especially made to give you a small shock every time you try to do so."

"It's a lovely gift." He muttered sarcastically.

She put a finger to her chin and smiled, "I thought Rangers didn't do sarcasm."

"You'd be surprised."

She gestured with her hand to take him away. Opening the morpher, Pandora smirked when she heard the voice of Doctor Manx on the speaker. "Sky?"

"Wrong." Relishing every minute of inflicting fear on others, she went on, "Doctor Manx, you already who this is. As you can see, the city is now being covered by a force field. That means no one gets in or out."

"That last part is, of course, your choice."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm proposing a trade, Dr. Manx." She put the morpher closer to her mouth. "I have the Blue Ranger."

The doctor gasped but tried to keep calm. "Who do you want?"

"It's not what I want." She answered. "It's who I want. Bring me Dru Harrington."

She shut the morpher and turned to look at the city. Soon, it would fall to her feet. With no one to protect it, it would be hers in no time.

"Today is the day SPD falls."