I don't own Power Rangers. Rick, Rebecca, Louis, Zara, Alex, Joe and Jin were created by Jetman21, Thewhatzupwriter26, RushQuake, GoseiShinkenPink, decode9, TimmayIsAwesome and Gadget the Critic, respectively. Ted, Cronos and the Professor were created by me.

...

Ted stood there for a moment, dumbstruck by the sight in front of him. As he took in the image of the Professor stood there, conversing with a holographic representation of his Father, the shock turned to irritation and finally, anger.

"What the hell?!" Ted said, moving between the Professor and the Hologram "What the hell is going on here!"

"Theodore, take a breath, calm yourself, let me explain." The Professor said "Cronos contacted me a few minutes ago. He has something he wants to talk about."

"What's that?" Ted said, turning to the hologram and adding sarcastically "How you're planning on taking us down? Well, tell you what, let's put our money where our mouths are. One hour. The old quarry. Your guys and mine."

Ted didn't let Cronos reply, instead slamming his fist down on the shutdown control. He turned and barged past the Professor, pulling his morpher out of his pocket as he did.

"We'll talk about it later." Ted said to the Professor, before hitting the comm. button on the morpher "We've got a lead guys. Get to the quarry within the hour. We're ending this metallic menace."

...

Ted pulled up to the quarry on his Rev cycle. He looked around, letting the HUD in his helmet analyse the area. No signs of traps. As he kept looking around, the other five Rangers teleported in, unmorphed. Rick cocked an eyebrow as he looked at Ted.

"Reason for the bike?" He asked "Or were you just trying to look cool?"

"Wasn't sure the Professor would actually teleport me here." Ted responded simply "He was talking to Cronos when I went into the lab."

The other five looked taken aback. Finally, Louis spoke up.

"Don't be an idiot, Ted." He said "Stop goofing around."

"He's not." Came a voice from behind one of the rocks as Cronos walked out, his hands in the air "Sorry to disappoint you, son, but I came alone. Not that I had much choice..."

"What do you mean?" Ted asked as he pulled the blaster from his belt, aiming at his father "Stay there. What's going on?"

"Ted..." Rebecca said "Is that really necessary?"

"Yeah, seriously." Zara said "He's outmanned and outgunned. You don't need to try taking a shot at him."

"He's not going to." Cronos said "He would've already done it. Please son, I just want to talk."

"Damn." Ted said, holstering the blaster before hitting a control on his morpher "Power down. You get two minutes. Talk."

Cronos moved over to one of the other rocks, leaning up against it. He pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lighting it and beginning to speak.

"There's an imbalance in the control matrices."Cronos said "Their morphers contain control matrices designed entirely to keep them under control. It works through low level EM frequencies. It's not quite working."

"It's making them aggressive." Alex said "You tried to control them and it's backfiring. They're completely out of control."

"What do you want?" Louis asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I need your help."Cronos said, pausing "I need you to hack into those control matrices, and either fix them or shut them down for good."

"Well, we're not going to fix them for you!" Ted scoffed, sighing as he said "Come on. We'll take you back to the Command Centre. You can work with the Professor, me and Alex. And just remember, me and Alex can both morph too, so no funny business."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Cronos said sardonically, as Ted hit a control on his morpher and the seven of them were teleported away.

...

Rektax sat in his command chair. He'd been holding off on the attacks recently, what with the conflict between the three metallic coloured Power Rangers and the other six. However, now he was beginning to get concerned; the silver one had gone to the others, asked them to help him get the bronze and gold ones under control.

As he was about to call for Camella, there was a beep from the console on the arm of his chair. He pressed a control, being greeted by the visage of a large, imposing figure in golden metallic armour, green eyes glowing beneath the visor, a long, red cape clasped to his shoulders, with a crown containing multiple red and blue gems on it's head.

"Emperor Prothiak!" Rektax said, quickly going down on one knee "I'm honoured you've seen fit to contact me in person, my liege! What can I do for you?"

"Relinquish command." Protiak said, his voice modulated "My emissary should have just arrived."

"Your emissary?" Rektax asked "Who is-"

"That would be me." Came a deep voice from behind Rektax, causing him to turn, seeing only a pair of glowing red eyes in the shadows "You are relieved, Commander."

...

Ted and Alex stood in the corner of the lab, whilst Cronos and the Professor discussed some calculations in hushed tones.

"What do you think they've got there?" Alex asked quietly.

"I don't know." Ted said with a scowl "But I'm going to find out."

He walked over, pushing through the two older men and looking at the displays. There were readouts of both the Bronze Ranger and the Gold Ranger, their movements being tracked. He smirked to himself.

"Got 'em. Alex, you stay here and keep an eye on Cronos." He said, pressing a control on the console "Guys, we've got a fix on the Bronze and Gold Rangers. Prepare to teleport."

He stood up, moving away from the console. As he did, Cronos moved up beside him.

"I'm coming too." Cronos said "I know their strengths and weaknesses, you need that. The Professor has all the information on them in the databanks now."

"Why should I trust you?" Ted asked coldly "And please, no 'because I'm your father' BS."

"Because I never meant for them to get out of hand." Cronos said, pausing "The plan was always to bring the five of you to your fullest potential."

"Five?" Alex asked "Where did you learn to count?"

"You weren't in the original plan as I was told." Cronos said, looking to the Professor "He's known for years this was coming. My role was to make sure things worked out, that you were all ready for the next stage."

"You knew?" Ted said, looking at the Professor in disbelief "He's been gone for sixteen years... And you orchestrated that? Why?"

"We don't have time for this." The Professor said "Alexandra, go with him."

"Not without answers." Alex said, standing to the other side of Ted "What's going on?"

"He's right. We don't have time." Cronos said "But we're going to need a plan."

...

Ted and Cronos walked through the abandoned warehouse. They'd teleported into that side of the building alone to provide basic recon.

"Can we talk?" Cronos asked, Ted remaining silent "Ted?"

"Not now." Ted said quietly "And keep your voice down! I don't want them to know we're coming!"

"Too late for that, Red Ranger." Came a modulated voice from above.

"We've already found you." Came another.

The Gold and Bronze Rangers leapt down from above, grabbing Cronos and ted before they had time to react.

"We'll be taking those." The Bronze Ranger said, pulling the morpher from Cronos' wrist, whilst the Gold Ranger relieved Ted of his "Don't want you morphing on us now, do we?"

"Shame." The Gold Ranger said sarcastically "I was hoping for the green one. She's much cuter than you. More fun too."

"Charming." Ted replied with the same sarcasm, struggling against the Gold Ranger's grip "How about you let me go and give me back my morpher, I'll show you how fun I can be!"

"Don't rise to it." The Bronze Ranger said just as Ted felt the grip of the Gold Ranger slacken slightly "It's a ploy. You give him his morpher, he suckers you then gets Cronos' morpher from me."

"Was worth a shot..." Ted said quietly.

"You've got one chance to surrender." Cronos said, looking to the Bronze and Gold Rangers "Jin, Joe, please, stop this. There's an imbalance and-"

"And whose fault is that?" The Bronze Ranger laughed, removing his helmet to reveal a young man of Asian descent "I like being bad. It makes me happy. I get to wipe the floor with those chump Rangers and can take the fight to the Kaltax when I'm done."

"What?!" Cronos said "Jin, you stand no chance against the Kaltax on your own! It's suicide to try it just the two of you! Is that what your friends would want for you?"

"Shut up!" Jin said, his metal gauntlets appearing on his hands before he punched Cronos in the gut "You know what you are? You're Dr. Frankenstein. And we're your monsters..."

"What was that?" Joe said as ted muttered something quietly, whispering it to Joe "What do you mean 'now'?"

In response to Joe's question, a blue blast and a green blast fired down from above, hitting Jin and Joe, causing them to release Ted and Cronos, their morphers clattering away from Joe and Jin's grips. As they did, Alex, Rick, Rebecca, Zara and Louis all jumped down from above, fully morphed, with the core four in Over Rev mode.

"Is this a private party, or can anyone crash?" Rick asked, holding his Engine Blaster in his hands.

"I think we just answered that!" Louis said as his Street Smasher materialised in his hands.

"Yeah, so let's deal with these two!" Zara said as her Kama appeared in her hands.

"Or just, you know, stop giving speeches and do this?" Rebecca questioned as her staff materialised in her hands.

"Let's go with the last one." Ted said as he moved for the morpher on the ground, grabbing his father's and tossing it to him "You ready, uhm, Dad?"

"Yes I am." Cronos said as he strapped his morpher on and hit the control on it "Rev Max, Chrono Power!"

"Rev Max, Power Up!" Ted called as he engaged his own morpher, the two of them morphing in a flash of brilliant light, Ted's Transport Sabre materialising in his hand as he called "Over Rev mode!"

There was another flash of red light as Ted transformed into Over Rev mode. The seven Rangers faced down the Bronze and Gold Rangers, the two metallic Rangers pausing for a moment before charging their opponents.

"I hoped they'd do that. Everyone, co-ordinate like planned." Ted said as he, Rick, Rebecca, Zara and Louis put their weapons together "Rev Max Cannon!"

"Chrono Defender." Cronus called as he pulled his blaster "Blaster mode!"

"Rev Shot!" Alex called as she pulled her swords from her belt and combined them into their blaster configuration.

"Ready." Said Rick.

"Aim." Rebecca added.

"Fire!" Ted yelled, pulling the trigger and firing a large blast at Jin and Joe, while Cronus fired on Jin and Alex fired on Joe, the three blasts making contact and causing a large explosion "And that, Rangers, is how we rev-"

Before he could finish his closing call, a large blast of energy hit the seven Rangers from behind. As they scrambled to their feet, their assailant emerged. It was a figure that resembled a black knight, with a green trim and glowing, red eyes. In it's left hand was a sword, whilst it's left hand had a shield with some form of blaster sticking out of it. The figure was surrounded by Buzzers.

"And there was me hoping those guys were done..." Ted said as he took aim with the cannon "Fire!"

Ted pulled the trigger, firing a blast at the new enemy that had emerged. Seconds before the blast made contact, the figure swung it's sword, causing the blast to reflect back at the Rangers, sending them all to the floor, Ted, Rick, Rebecca, Zara and Louis being reverted back to their base form. They began to struggle to their feet, before falling back down.

"Who are you..?" Cronus said weakly, the figure beginning to advance.

"I am Knighterror." The figure said in a deep voice "General Knighterror, senior military commander of the Kaltax Alliance. I have to question how Rektax ever considered you a threat. I came down expecting a challenge during my first mission of my new command. Consider me disappointed."

As Knighterror began to advance, blasts of Golden yellow and golden red hit him in the chest, causing him to look round. Stood facing him down was Jin and Joe, panting slightly.

"Hey ugly," Joe said "you're going down!"

...

So, this is the penultimate chapter of the Metallic Menace arc. Hope you enjoyed it. R&R, please, no flames. B.