Double Act

Chapter 9: Ranger Thunder

Part III

A/N: Last time, the orange and white rangers unleashed two new zords, one a pterodactyl and the other a drago zord. The rangers were surprised to see another pterodactyl, and they got a new zord to help them as well. The rangers were left in a battle against a recently destroyed monster and the two evil rangers. What'll happen now?

Oh, and I have some relatives of Kira and Kennedi's making visits throughout the story.

Disclaimer: I only own things not originally in the show.

The rangers stood at the ready, waiting for the white ranger to make the first move. The Drago zord and orange pterodactyl zord had just come to life, and no one was sure on what to do. Both zords faced each other as Tommy watched from the ground, wondering what was going to happen. The fight could go either way, but based on the way they had been fighting against the orange and white rangers since they showed up, odds were not in their favor. "Dragozord," White ordered. "Show these fools what you can do." He jumped onto the ground.

"Ptera zord, follow him," Orange added. She joined her partner.

The zords flapped their wings, blowing numerous pieces of debris at the rangers. The wind gusts were strong enough to destroy quite a few things in its path. Nothing was safe at the moment, and the rangers were knocked down before they could be hit by anything else but the wind gust that was being created.

"Hey," Conner called. "No need to get crazy." The drago and ptera zords took off from the building it was perched on and flew toward the rangers. Just like the evil rangers did when they fought on the ground, the drago and ptera zords streaked by the megazord, doing the same.

"They need help," Tommy realized. "Stegozord, activate!" The Brachio zord walked in to drop off the stegozord.

"I was hoping you'd do that," White grinned beneath his helmet. He waved his sword around, creating something to capture the zord with. "Stegozord, you are under my command." He and Orange hopped into their zords.

"Dino stegozord formation!"

"He stole the stego!" Ethan went wide eyed with shock.

The orange ranger smirked. "Not bad for the new guys, eh?"

"Man!" Tommy groaned. "Now they've got their own megazord!"

"Why are you doing this?" Kira wondered. "You're losing it!"

"No," White corrected. "You're losing it. And you're losing it to us." Using their weapons, they struck the rangers a couple times, causing their megazord to shake a bit. They tried defending themselves, only that plan didn't work out so well.

"I say we go at them full on," Ethan suggested. "Tricera fist!" He managed to knock the two rangers back a bit. They detached the parasaurzord so Conner could use the tyranno drill. However, the white ranger intercepted it by using the dino stegozord's stinger. The collision caused the megazord to spark and shake, and fall apart. The four rangers fell on the ground near Tommy the older ranger helping them up.

Kira huffed. "Brutal."

"You're telling me," Ethan snorted.

"Are you guys all right?" Tommy wondered.

"Yeah," Conner groaned. "But our zords are seriously tweaked."

Tommy glared up at the orange and white rangers. "That was just low."

"Since when do they have bad power rangers?" Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"Now we'll take the rest of the zords," Orange stated.

"Not on my watch," Tommy growled, raising his arm. With the push of a few buttons on it, he concentrated.

Kira frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to break the stegozord away," he answered, waiting for the connection to hold. After a few more seconds, the dino stegozord fell apart, giving Tommy control of the stegozord. "Yes! Got it!"

"You'll pay for that!" White vowed before flying off, Orange following.

"Well," Conner sighed as all of them were in the dino lab, going over the fight. "That was like, the worst day ever." They weren't any closer to figuring out who the two rangers were. Kira was beginning to get ideas of who one of them was, but she didn't want to say anything until it was definite.

"Brutal," Ethan nodded his agreement.

"There's gonna be a lot of days like this guys," Tommy stated.

Kira frowned. "Uh, whatever happened to the glass is half full?"

"Sometimes it's not," Tommy answered. "Sometimes it's empty. But that's when you gotta dig deep. That's when the qualities that made you guys rangers become most important."

"You're right," Ethan realized. "What can we do?"

"Go have a little fun," Tommy suggested. "Ethan, isn't there a new video game you want to check out?"

Ethan shook his head disbelievingly. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I have no desire to go near a computer."

"I know what you mean," Kira agreed. "I haven't picked up my guitar in days."

"Go on," Tommy ordered. "Teacher's orders." No one moved. "Go."

Everyone stood and slowly walked out of the room.

Kennedi was sitting in Ninja Ops, her fellow teammates around her. Blake and Hunter were missing, their jobs keeping them from being at the team meeting. Cam had run a few more tests on the dino gem Kennedi had found. She told them what she did remember, and how she remembered more that morning. This was news to Sensei, Dustin, and Shane, but they figured as long as she didn't try to hurt them, it was safe to be around her.

"Dude this is so messed up," Dustin commented.

"Tell me about it," Kennedi huffed. "I don't even know why there's a portal in Blue Bay. It's not like attacks are coming here anymore."

"So what can we do?" Shane wondered, hoping Sensei or Cam had an idea.

"For now," Sensei began. "It is probably best to keep this quiet until we figure out a way to reverse the effects."

Kennedi's eyes widened as she realized what he was saying. "But I can't keep this from my sister. We don't keep any secrets from each other. And she has to know that I'm one of the ones she's fighting. Especially since I nearly killed her."

"I'm afraid that until we know more," Sensei sighed. "This is one secret you'll have to keep. However, if your sister should figure it out on her own, that is a different case."

Kennedi was not happy about that.

Instead of going for her guitar like everyone thought, Kira headed for the woods in search of the Ember Academy. She had an idea about the orange ranger's identity based on the dream she had, but she wanted to talk to Kennedi's sensei before making assumptions. Though it was Kennedi who was the ninja, Kira was given permission to visit the academy whenever she needed advice about something. Figuring this was one of those times, she set her sights on the academy.

It was silent in the woods and all she could hear were her footsteps. Something about this seemed very off to her, and she couldn't tell what. She continued along the path she knew well and didn't plan on taking a detour. Out of nowhere, she heard another set of footsteps. They sounded as if they were coming toward her and not moving away. Kira knew she wasn't near the academy yet, or at least as near as she'd like, so she figured something was wrong.

Before she could call out, the orange ranger, completely morphed, appeared before her.

"What do you want?" Kira called out.

"Didn't I already answer that question?" Orange wondered. "I figured it'd be obvious."

"I'm not going to let that happen," Kira declared.

"Then prove it," Orange challenged.

Kira growled. "Dino Thunder, Power Up!"

Over in the dino lab, Tommy and Hayley were still trying to figure out everything they could about the evil rangers. They hoped the teens were off doing something to keep their mind off the fighting, but Tommy knew that was a long shot. He knew it was only going to get worse before it began to get better, and he was hoping the worst of it would come soon so they could get it done and over with. As Hayley brought up another image, Ethan walked into the lab and up behind the two.

"Ethan," Tommy greeted.

"That whole have fun thing?" he raised an eyebrow. "Kind of tough when the fate of the world is hanging in the balance."

"I should've known you were gonna have a tough time with that," Tommy sighed.

"And it's only going to get tougher," Hayley spoke as the alarms went off. Two images appeared, one showing Kira fighting off the orange ranger, the other showing Conner fighting off the white one. A third screen popped up, showing a revised Angor at megazord size.

"Hey Dr. O," Conner called. "I'm in trouble here."

"Ditto," Kira added, avoiding another hit.

Hayley turned to the boys. "You two try and hold off the alien. I'll keep an eye on Conner and Kira." The boys nodded, morphed, and left. "Conner, Kira, just try and hang in there a little while longer. I'll send back up as soon as I can."

Kira could not believe what was happening. It was just her fighting the orange ranger, one on one. The ranger seemed to know her every move and was able to block everything Kira threw her way. While she did manage to land a few hits herself, nothing was enough to make the orange ranger back down or retreat. Orange kept attacking, and Kira kept trying to do her best to fight her off. Kira kicked her opponent back a bit.

"Let's kick it up a notch," Orange smirked. Kira lunged, aiming to hit her. Before she knew it, Orange vanished. When she looked down, she saw the suit, but no body.

"Oh shit," Kira muttered. She recognized this trick, and seeing it only helped confirm her suspicions. She looked up in time to see a giant foot heading down to stomp on her. Luckily, the singer managed to roll out of the way before she got injured too badly. When she looked up, she saw not one, but two orange rangers. "Dammit."

"What's the matter?" they taunted. "Seeing double?" They charged and began attacking her, ninja streaking while doing so. Kira attempted to fight back, but they were moving too fast for her to see or do anything. With one good hit, she was knocked down onto the ground, her suit fading away.

"Ow," she groaned. She pushed herself up slightly, just in time to see the orange ranger move her arms in a circle, an orange glow forming between them.

"Time to finish you off," she spoke.

Kira shielded herself with her hands as the orange ranger fired a huge ball of fire at her. However, the impact never came. The sound of a sword clashing with it and sending it back caused her to look up and find her uncle standing there, morphed as the original red ranger. Jason stood and faced the orange ranger, who had just ducked under her fire ball. "Stay away from my niece!"

"This isn't over, ranger!" Orange huffed before ninja streaking off. Jason dropped his morph and quickly moved to Kira's side to help her up.

"Kira, are you alright?" he asked. He helped her get to her feet. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"Just a little bruised and confused," she groaned. "What are you doing out here?"

"Hayley sent me in for backup, seeing you were having trouble fighting off whoever that was," Jason stated. Hayley had seen Kira needed help, and she knew Jason lived in the area and still had powers. Him just happening to be Kira's uncle was a bonus. "Come on, let's get you back to your base."

"Thanks," Kira breathed.

Jason simply nodded and led the way back to the lab.

After arriving at the lab, Hayley checked over Kira to make sure she was fine. Jason remained down there, wanting to hear the results as well and see what would happen to the other rangers. It wasn't long before the three boys returned. Conner and Ethan were a bit surprised to see Jason there, since they didn't recall him being Kira's uncle. Tommy and Jason gave each other their own version of a hug before getting down to business.

"I don't get it," Kira stated. "One minute, the evil rangers are fighting us. The next, both of them are taking down Mesogog's goons."

"Whoever they are," Ethan added. "They could definitely use an anger management course."

Conner decided to change the subject. "So…Dr. O, what was with that whole super dino power thing?"

"Look, you guys only began to access your full potential," Tommy explained.

"I like the sound of that," Ethan grinned.

"I'm going to the warehouse to get that fossil finder that we left," Conner declared.

"No," Tommy denied. "You guys head home and get some rest. I'll get the fossil finder." Conner thanked him and the three rangers made their way out.

When they were gone, Hayley walked over to Tommy and Jason and handed the black ranger a bag. "Here you go, Tommy."

"Thanks," Tommy thanked. "We'll be back."

"Be careful," Hayley warned. "The last thing we need is your girlfriend or wife killing you two for doing something stupid."

"We'll be fine," Jason assured.

The two men took off and Hayley rolled her eyes.

A/N: Sorry it took so long for this chapter to get out. I've been trying to plan out my stories so I'm a little more organized, but I've also kind of lost my will to write stories. Things are becoming hectic for me right now between having to work and fill out scholarships (which means tons of essays), and I have very little free time. I do write when I can and I haven't forgotten about my stories, but it may be a while before I have a lot of free time and get around to updating more frequently.

Thank you all for your patience and reading/reviewing and whatnot.