A/N: Much of the next couple of chapters is going to take place in and around Paris, so there will be some necessity, obviously, for characters to speak French. While I DID study French, it has been many years since I did so, and so I am far from fluent, and I have had some mixed success with translation sites. Since I know at least one of my regular leaders IS fluent in French, and suspect more probably are, rather than embarrass myself I'm opting to instead write in English...though for ease of reference, if a line of speech is written in italics Then it is to be presumed the speaker is speaking in French.
The streets of Paris were starting to become quiet as it proceeded towards midday. Much like a large part of Europe, it was still relatively common in this part of the world for the midday period to be a time of rest. At one time especially, it wasn't uncommon for the average lunch break to last up to two hours! The midday sun was so hot in parts of the continent that a lot of people would go home from work to eat, have a short sleep, shower and change before returning to work for the rest of the day to avoid the warmest part of the day. In modern times it was less common, but on the whole, a lot of locals did avoid the streets whenever they could to avoid the worst of the midday heat.
The traffic was beginning to dissipate at the Champs-Elysees, aided by a police officer directing them for expediency. As he was waving on a line of traffic, he turned, just in time to see something in the sky. He strained his eyes to get a better look.
At first, it looked a little like a jet stream, only it seemed a little lower than he was used to seeing planes flying overhead. It also looked like the stream was darker, and a lot less even than a typical jet stream. If anything, it seemed to be billowing outwards instead of leaving a simple stream. He started to see an orange glow. He started to back up as he realised something else. It was coming closer...in fact...it was coming down straight for him!
"Shit!" He screamed as he realised what was happening, wildly gesturing to pedestrians and motorists. "Everybody Run! It's coming this way!"
Motorists abandoned their vehicles and ran screaming from the street, heading for cover. In his ship, the Silver Ranger struggled with his controls. He had piloted ships before, but rarely did he have to try and land a ship this badly damaged. He was coming in fast, and his controls were struggling to hold a good angle of descent. He was using all his strength just to try and level out.
By now, every alarm in the ship was blaring at him. He was going way to fast, his angle of descent was far too sharp, just about every system was starting to fail. All things considered, it was a lot like trying to steer a brick at over two hundred miles an hour. Sparks flew past him as he struggled with the controls.
"Damn it!" He growled. "Come on, I've made it this far!"
The ship streaked down, at which the proximity sensors added to the cacophonous choir of squealing alarms. He pulled up the nose just enough that by the time his burning ship hit the ground, it hit more like a stone skipping across water than a rock slamming into it and sinking. Metal screeched on concrete as his ship, the Free Joker skidded along the street, slamming through several cars as it headed towards the Arc de Triomphe. Fortunately for one of France's most famous monuments, friction finally got the better of momentum, and the ship came to a halt a few feet from the monument.
The police officers on duty started to break cover as they realised the destruction had come to an end. They approached the smoking wreckage of the ship. Its paint was scorched and scratched in many places, and it had a few dents, but for the most part it had remained intact. It didn't look anything like any plane they had ever seen. They had seen more than enough news reports to recognise an Armada ship, even if it had been repainted a different colour, and bore a different emblem.
"Do you think any of them survived?" One of the cops asked another.
"It's still intact." The other reminded him, pulling out his gun. The others did likewise as they approached the ship cautiously. "Who knows what those aliens are capable of?"
As they approached cautiously, keeping their guns at the ready, there was a jet of steam from the ship, and the hatch slid open. They all jumped in fright, taking up cover. As he hid behind a wrecked car, one of the cops could swear he saw a dark shape through the steam, something that looked vaguely like someone running away. Unable to risk firing though, in case he accidentally shot some unfortunate, panicking citizen, he had to let it go. Eventually the steam dissipated and he was able to see the ship, with the hatch lying open.
They approached slowly, cautiously getting to the entrance, and headed inside, covering the ship with his gun, only to find that it was empty.
"Shit!" He exclaimed. "Whoever was in this ship must have run!"
"So what do we do?" One of the other cops asked him. It wasn't as though France had seen much Ranger action over the years. While cities like Angel Grove, Ocean Bluff and Silver Hills all pretty much had a standing SOP for monster attacks, Paris really hadn't had any need to develop such a contingency.
"I guess we call it a downed aircraft." The other replied. The first just stared at him. "Well? If you can think of something better, I'm all ears!"
"Alright, a downed aircraft it is." He sighed, getting on the radio. "Cordon off the area, and have a fire and ambulance crew sent to the Champs-Elysées."
"Better call NASADA while you're at it." The first cop told him. "Something tells me air traffic control isn't exactly equipped to deal with something like this."
Meanwhile, in an alley not far from the area, the wild-haired stranger watched the cops starting to gesture citizens away. He saw them start to put up cordons around the Free Joker, and assumed they were law enforcement. Considering the fact that he had basically crash landed in the middle of a city, he could hardly blame them for being cautious. He knew his ship was out of commission anyway, so it wasn't as though it was any great loss. For now, he had to just let them take it.
He made his way out of the street, heading into a nearby shopping mall, looking around. It looked like he was fortunate. The people on this planet didn't seem to look too dissimilar to him. In fact, with the exception of a few looks he got from some, which he imagined was more down to his unkempt appearance than anything else; hardly anyone seemed to notice him at all. This would only make things easier.
He got to a news stand, and as he got there, he saw a glossy magazine with a picture on the cover that interested him. It was a group of warriors, all wearing outfits similar to his own morphed form, but in different colours, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow and Pink. Since he had gotten his powers, he had a feeling that very little about his journey had been coincidental. His mission of revenge had taken a detour, one that he was sure was part of some larger plan he didn't yet understand.
He saw the words on the cover...Power Rangers. He had heard this term before, when he had receive his powers, and had them explained to him. He had heard there were others with similar powers. It seemed that he had found himself on the same planet as these others.
"Hey, you've got to pay for that sir." The man behind the counter said. The Silver Ranger just stared at him blankly. "You pay for the magazine; you can read it all you want! Until then, put it back!"
"I'm sorry, I don't understand." The Silver Ranger said in his heavily accented voice. The guy behind the counter rolled his eyes as he snatched the magazine off him.
"Tourists." He grunted in disdain. It wasn't as though he objected to tourists in his country, but he, like many, found it more than a little rude when people came to his country and didn't even attempt to speak his native language. There were, unfortunately, a lot of ignorant tourists who seemed to think that the whole world should accommodate them, change the way they did things just so they wouldn't have to learn even a few new phrases. "This magazine is for sale. If you want it, you have to buy it!"
"I don't want it." The Silver Ranger told him honestly. "I only want to know where I can find these Power Rangers."
"What, have you been living under a rock?" The man behind the counter asked him.
"On a spaceship actually." The Silver Ranger corrected him. The man just snorted, thinking that the stranger was just being sarcastic. "Now, where do I find them?"
"They're Power Rangers!" He responded. "If you find some of those Armada freaks, you can bet it won't be long before they show up."
"Thank you." The Silver Ranger stated, before turning and walking away. The newsagent just shook his head in disbelief.
"I thought I'd seen it all." He grunted.
Meanwhile, the Rangers had just gotten to Paris, cloaking the Red Galleon before making their way into the streets in their civilian clothing to avoid attracting too much attention. It didn't take them too long before they found what they were looking for. It wasn't every day that an alien craft crash-landed on one of the world's most famous landmarks. By the time they got there, the scene was a huge crowd already. Between media and random citizens trying to get a glimpse of the spaceship, it looked like half the city was skipping the rest of their day at work or school in the hopes of catching any of the story.
The police cordon was up, and there were many emergency crews keeping people away as they made the area secure. Fire and ambulance crews were packing up, preparing to go back to base, the area no longer needing their assistance, but there were other vans there, and men in strange suits, and others in lab coats in the area.
"What gives?" Gia asked. "Who are...?"
"Emma, lend me your camera." Noah interrupted Gia. Emma handed him the camera, at which Noah used the zoom lens to focus on one of the guy in a has-mat suit. He saw the logo on the back. "NASADA."
"The Space Agency?" Jake asked. Noah just nodded. "Damn, they move fast!"
"It's not every day they get their hands on almost a complete ship." Troy answered with a shrug. "Normally there's not much left after we're through with the Armada's ships."
"That ship...it's got Lafitte's logo on it." Noah told them, catching a glimpse of it through the crowd. Jake rolled his eyes.
"Lafitte?" He grumbled. "Great, I thought that guy had gotten the message and left!"
"It's not the same ship, but it's his logo alright." Noah told them. "The message says it's...the Free Joker."
"Great, that's all we need, Lafitte coming back." Jake muttered. Just then, a man came across to Noah.
"The Camera!" He snapped. Noah just stared at him blankly, realising he was gesturing to the camera.
"Excuse me, but that's..." Emma started to say, before realising there were cops starting to pay attention.
"National Security." The man stated.
"World's most wanted, remember." Troy whispered to Noah. He just sighed and handed over the camera regretfully. He figured it was better to just go along with it than to risk drawing too much attention to themselves. Nobody had recognised them so far, and it was probably for the best that it stayed that way. He watched as the man deleted everything on the memory card and threw the camera back to Noah. He handed it back to Emma.
"I'm sorry..."
"It's alright, I download my pictures regularly." She told him. "He only deleted a few shots of Paris. Nothing I can't replace."
Just then, they heard their morphers bleeping. Troy pulled his out, thankful that their new morphers looked upon a cursory inspection like a cell phone. Their old morphers were hardly inconspicuous, and caused them a few headaches back in the day with the secret identity issue.
"Uncle?" Troy asked, using the code they used for Tensou.
"Rangers, there's been an attack a few streets from your location!" Tensou told them.
"It looks like we're not the only ones looking for this thing." Troy told the others. "Send us the co-ordinates Tensou, we're on our way!"
With that, they all headed off, figuring there wasn't much more they could learn here. They doubted NASADA were going to open the cordon for them any time soon. Maybe they would get some answers from the source.
A little way away, in a shopping centre, citizens screamed as a legion of X-borgs ransacked the place. They knew that the ship that had almost hit the command ship was somewhere nearby. As an X-borg grabbed a human, raising its weapon to strike, there was a sudden flash of energy, following which its arm spun away from it, carrying its weapon with it. The robot looked to its arm as it clattered to the ground, then up, seeing the Silver Ranger, holding his trident weapon standing a little way off.
"Let him go." The Silver Ranger stated abruptly. The X-borgs immediately abandoned what they were doing, and rounded on the new arrival. The Silver Ranger gripped his trident tightly.
"Everyone out of here!" He yelled as they levelled their weapons at him. The X-borgs fired, hitting nothing but air as a silver streak flashed away. The Silver Ranger opened fire with his blaster mode, taking down almost half of them before converting it back into a trident, launching himself into one of them, impaling it aggressively, throwing the wreckage aside dismissively.
He started to circle back and forth, finding himself surrounded by the last of the X-borgs. As they came for him, he swung around, bringing his trident around in massive, destructive arcs, energy flashing through the air. All of the X-borgs stopped in their tracks as he finally came to rest, his trident resting over his shoulder. The whole scene was deathly silent and still for a moment, before one-by-one, the X-borgs all fell to the ground, neatly sliced into pieces. He stood upright, and looked around. He could see a few of the citizens who, despite his instructions, had stuck around for the battle, hiding in terror. He did one last sweep of the area, before just throwing his hands up in frustration.
"So much for that idea!" He said in a frustrated tone. He stormed away from the scene, de-morphing as he went. It was only after he had gone that the other Rangers arrived.
Troy was the first on the scene, followed closely by the others, but as they got there, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. By the time they got there, the mall was clear, and all the X-borgs were already defeated. There were pieces of broken machinery lying all over the place.
"What the hell?" Jake asked. "Who...who did this?"
"It looks like they ran into a blender!" Emma agreed.
One of the X-borgs started sparking, at which Noah went to its side, just as it powered down. He looked to them.
"Whoever did this, it can't have been long ago." He told them. "The power cell in this one only just died."
"Over there!" Gia announced, seeing someone hiding. She went over, gesturing her out. It was a girl, around their age, wearing a uniform that reminded her a little of the Brainfreeze uniforms. It looked like she worked in one of the nearby coffee shops.
"What happened here?" Gia asked.
"I...I don't know...those things...they came from everywhere!" The girl rushed out. Gia furrowed her brows and shook her head.
"I can't understand you, can you speak more slowly?" Gia asked. "What happened? Who did this?"
"I don't know...I haven't seen him before." The woman told her. "It was...It was like a Power Ranger...only he was silver."
"A Silver Ranger did this?" Emma asked for clarification. The waitress just nodded to confirm the detail.
"Thank you." Gia told her. "Do you want us to call someone? An ambulance?"
The girl didn't answer, instead just running off. Gia shrugged.
"I guess not." She stated, unable to stop herself from smiling. "Well guys, we know one thing at least."
"What's that?" Jake asked. They all stared at him. "What? I didn't do French! All the hottest girls were in the Spanish class!"
"She said a Silver Ranger did this!" Emma told him. "Guys...Jordan's back!"
"So where is he now?" Noah asked. Troy just sighed and looked to his team.
"I guess that's what we have to find out." He told them. Just then, his morpher bleeped. He answered it.
"Yes Uncle?" He asked.
"Rangers, there's another attack!" He told them. "I'm sending you the co-ordinates!"
"We're on it Tensou!" Troy told him. He smiled as he gestured to the others. "Come on guys, another attack!"
"And that's a good thing?" Jake asked him.
"It is if we get there in time." Troy told him. "We might have missed him this time, but you've got to believe after this length of time in the Library..."
"Jordan always was fond of a little action." Gia interrupted him as they ran off, heading for the next attack.