Author's Notes: Four years since Freyja and I got back into Power Rangers. Four years since the idea for this fic began to percolate, and over three thousand reviews and five hundred thousand words later, we're finally on Chapter 100. We wanted it to be something special and we figured that since the other ninety-nine chapters have been devoted almost exclusively to the Mighty Morphin and Dino Thunder Rangers, it was time to check in on everyone else. Oh, and by the way, we're trying to spread the word about an awesome band called Seasons After; check my profile for more info.

Chapter One Hundred

Legacy of Power

"Finally," said the cheerful little boy who'd been sitting next to Kat during the whole flight to Maui. "I can't wait to start my vacation. Of course, Hawaii doesn't sound nearly as cool as where you're going."

Kat smiled at him. Ever since she'd told him that she was heading to Angel Grove to Power Rangers Day, the boy had been peppering her with questions, his awe growing exponentially as she explained about going to Angel Grove High when the Zeo Rangers were around. "It's a nice place," she said. "I can't wait to see the Rangers again."

He sighed. "I wish I could meet them, too."

"Who knows? Maybe you will, one day," Kat said, struggling not to laugh. He grinned up at her. She'd forgotten how much fun it was to mentor a child; ever since take-off they'd been chatting up a storm. She'd even given him her window seat so that he could see the breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean.

"Hey," the boy said, peering out the window once again. "I think I see your next flight. Isn't that it, over there?"

Kat leaned over him to look. Her connecting flight was quite close by—but it was getting further away by the moment. "Yes, that's… uh-oh." Kat's stomach began to plummet as her connecting flight began to rise—and head for California without her.

"Where's it going?" he asked curiously.

"Hopefully, not Los Angeles," Kat sighed.

"It can't go there. You're not on it yet!"

Kat bit her lip, staring at the plane's retreating form. "Our plane was delayed three hours, remember?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So maybe they didn't delay that plane three hours."

"Oh." The boy thought this over. "But then how will you get to California?"

Kat narrowed her eyes. "Oh, don't worry. I'm sure the nice people at the airline are going to fix this." She swallowed. "I hope."

"That's everything, I believe," Anton said as he set his suitcase down in the hall.

"The hotel reservation?" Elsa asked.

"Yes, I… I think I left it in the study."

"I'll go check," she said.

Anton gave her a grateful smile and turned back to Bob, his butler. "Now, I should be back Sunday morning. If there are any problems with the café, make sure you call me, in addition to Hayley."

"Of course, Dr. Mercer," Bob replied dutifully.

"Thank you. I—"

Anton was interrupted by a scream from the study. "Elsa!" he exclaimed, rushing down the hall with Bob on his heels.

He stopped dead the moment he rounded the corner into the study, staring in shock. Elsa had apparently only been startled, rather than injured or frightened; she was now glaring over Anton's writing desk at the cause of the commotion.

In the center of Anton's study stood three Chinese teenagers, two boys and a girl, all of them clad in blue China Express aprons. They were dirty, bruised… and armed. All three of them had swords strapped to their waists. The taller boy carried a crossbow and a quiver of crossbow bolts, the shorter boy another sword, and the girl a mace.

"Good heavens," Bob said, gaping in amazement. "We simply must find a better security company, Dr. Mercer."

"Hey," Elsa exclaimed indignantly. "That's my bullwhip!" She pointed at the taller boy's belt, where he'd stashed her whip.

The three turned to stare at her for a long moment. Then the girl asked, "Is this… Reefside?"

"Yes," Anton said, and their attention turned to him in unison. "You're safe now. I don't know what—"

"You're Elizabeth Randall," interrupted the shorter boy, turning back to Elsa. "The chick who was Mesogog's minion."

"Yes," Elsa said uncomfortably.

"I told you guys!" he shouted. "We were in Mesogog's island fortress!"

"Shut up, Wang," the girl said wearily.

The taller boy went over to the desk, dropped the crossbow unceremoniously on top of it, yanked the bullwhip from his belt, and tossed it on the crossbow. "You can have it, lady," he said. "And do me a favor—the next time you're in the China Express on Hanover Street, tell them I quit."

"We quit," the girl added. As one, she and the taller boy looked questioningly at Wang.

"What, like you have to ask?" Wang demanded, somewhat wounded. "Don't get me wrong, that was cool and all, but no way am I working for a restaurant with mystical portals in the ceiling. One trip to a deserted island full of monsters was enough."

"See, Brad? I told you he wasn't completely crazy," the girl said to the taller boy as she dropped her mace on the desk with Brad's crossbow. "Here. Take your weapons. We're going job-hunting."

Elsa winced, feeling a tad apologetic now that the shock had worn off. "Um… you're welcome to keep the swords. Those were all Zeltrax's."

"Hey, thanks, lady," Wang said happily.

The three of them began divesting themselves of their other weapons. Anton was a little startled to see just how many weapons they had tucked into their belts and pockets and shoes and aprons. The girl even pulled a few throwing knives out of her bra.

"Um, Bob—do me a favor and call these nice young people a cab," Anton said. Bob nodded and headed for the phone. "Elsa—hand me the box in the bottom drawer."

"I can't really afford a cab," Brad said absently as he pulled the quiver off his shoulder. "Thanks anyway, Mister."

"No, no, my treat," Anton said, opening the box Elsa handed him. "I keep a little emergency cash in here in case my son needs anything… here. Take it." He pulled out a wad of bills and held it out to him.

"Oh, we couldn't take your money," the girl said.

"I could," Brad muttered.

"No, no, it's the least I can do. After all, I… I feel bad, you poor kids, stranded out here and everything…"

"The cab will be here shortly," Bob announced, returning to the room.

"Bob, get these poor kids some breakfast, and see that they get home okay, would you? Thanks."

"That's not necessary—" the girl began.

"Oh, come on, Lin, I'm starving," Wang said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her along as he and Brad followed Bob to the kitchen.

Anton kept the reassuring smile plastered on his face until they vanished from view, then turned back to Elsa, who was inspecting the weapons. "Good lord, I'd forgotten entirely about this crossbow," she said fondly. "You're right, Anton. There's simply too much on that island going to waste."

Anton sighed. "I agree. However, before we start discussing reconstruction of the laboratory, I think we had better see what we can do to repair this glitch in the invisiportals."

Elsa nodded. "We'd better start before the China Express opens for business, too. I'll call the hotel, and let them know that we'll be late arriving."

"You do that. I'll get to work."

~*~

Carmen had been Tanya Sloan's maid for almost three years now, and they had been some of the best years of her life. Tanya was an amazingly sweet person, and her live-in boyfriend, Adam Park, was just as nice. They gave Carmen a great salary and full run of the guest house and authority over anyone else they hired, like the gardener or the pool man. However, despite the great job description and the great bosses, Carmen couldn't help but notice that Adam and Tanya had one fatal flaw.

Adam and Tanya were weird as hell.

Carmen had worked for several eccentric rich people before, and before that she'd worked for a large corporation full of colorful characters. Yet no one she had ever met was quite so colorful as Adam and Tanya.

For one thing, Tanya's parents were beyond strange. They were some sort of treasure hunters or something, wealthy and dangerously adventurous, and even though they'd spent several years of Tanya's childhood "missing in action," whatever that meant, they were still forever running around the globe, often getting into bizarre situations and occasionally requiring Adam or Tanya to run off to some remote location and "rescue" them, though Carmen wasn't sure what that entailed. The Sloans had taken a liking to Carmen, and they would sometimes give her salvaged artifacts that always came with instructions like, "Don't ever touch its tail" or "Let us know if it starts speaking to you." She'd thought they were joking at first, until she realized the ornately carved jaguar figurine was always in a different place come morning than where she'd left it the night before; she'd mentioned it to Adam in passing, and he'd panicked and hastily removed the jaguar from the premises and instructed her to inform him if she started having violent thoughts, moving at a preternatural speed, or developed stronger night vision. Carmen had decided to pawn every subsequent gift from the Sloans on eBay—which probably wasn't a very nice thing to do, but it had bought her a very nice car and stopped the nightmares about an army of killer jaguar figurines.

It wasn't hard to see where Tanya's personality had come from. Like her parents, she was sweet, tough, and always doing inexplicable things. Adam seemed a perfect match for her, as far as Carmen could tell. They even had similar interests—like incredibly fast vehicles and martial arts. And things always seemed to happen to them, bizarre things that would have seemed unbelievable if Carmen hadn't witnessed half of them. On occasion one or both of them would leave suddenly on "business trips," at which point the people who were in business with Adam and Tanya would call the house and frantically question Carmen about their whereabouts until they returned, at which point they would refuse to tell anyone about whatever "business" they'd been conducting. Yet the way they ran their household was even weirder.

Despite hiring her as a maid, they always seemed eager to minimize Carmen's exposure to the main house. They picked up after themselves often enough that it kept Carmen from doing enough work to feel justified in asking for a raise. Large sections of the house were off-limits entirely. They had a very good alarm system, but absolutely no cameras to speak of, save the one at the main gate to identify approaching vehicles. They decorated the house in an odd mixture of styles, but the color scheme was always predominately green, black and yellow. They never hosted wild shindigs or any sort of parties, save for small, casual get-togethers of old friends from Angel Grove, during which Carmen was politely asked to make herself scarce.

Thus she was quite surprised to find herself decorating for a last-minute gay pride party with an unusually large guest list. Adam and Tanya were fairly liberal, but most of their previous charity causes had revolved around underprivileged youth or third-world countries. The guest list included the names of several people she'd never seen come by the house before, though many of the old friends from Angel Grove were on the list as well.

Adam hadn't had time to go into much detail about the party. He'd said "standard party platters" would be fine and when she asked about decorations he'd just muttered something about rainbows. Then he'd told her he'd be back first thing in the morning and rushed off to go drag his crazy friend Rocky out of a teashop.

He still hadn't come home, and Carmen was slowly beginning to panic. She'd already managed to pack away everything that was extremely breakable or expensive, as instructed, but she hadn't been able to reach Adam or Tanya and on second inspection of Adam's hastily scrawled lists she hadn't been able to read a word of his writing and she had no idea if "standard party platters" meant pâté or buffalo wings. It was hard to tell with contradictory people like Adam and Tanya—one minute they seemed like nice, refined, wine-drinking millionaires, and the next they were inviting her to go bungee jumping.

The buzzer for the main gate went off just as she finished hanging a rainbow flag in the entryway. Carmen hurried over to the monitor and turned it on, revealing T.J. Johnson, beaming up at her from his flashy red sports car.

"Hello, hello," he called cheerfully. "Carlos is right behind me with the party supplies—open up!"

Carmen sighed in relief and opened the gate, allowing the red sports car and the black-and-green van behind it to enter the drive and begin the trek to the front door. She knew Carlos and T.J. well; they were two of Adam's closest friends, and Cassie was very tight with Tanya.

"Hey, Carmen," Carlos called. "Where's Adam?"

"I have no idea," Carmen said, trying not to sound as frustrated as she felt. "He left yesterday with Rocky and he said he'd be back early today, but it's almost noon…"

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure he'll turn up," T.J. said. "Meanwhile, we'll help set up for the party."

"Help me with the keg," Carlos told him, opening the rear doors of his van.

"Keg?" Carmen repeated. "Adam didn't even tell me to get alcohol, let alone a keg."

"Well, the keg was my idea," T.J. admitted.

"Also the liquor," Carlos added wryly. "We brought some food, too—"

"Thank god. Adam didn't tell me what type of food to get, and Tanya's plane won't be in until five…"

"That doesn't sound like Adam. He's usually so organized," Carlos remarked as he and T.J. carefully lifted down the keg.

"Eh, he'll turn up. Think you could grab that box, Carmen?" T.J. asked as he and Carlos turned to carry the keg inside.

Carmen grabbed a large cardboard box from the van and went inside to find them standing in the foyer, staring around in confusion at the few decorations she'd scrounged up this morning.

"Um… correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those gay pride flags?" Carlos asked in confusion.

She nodded. "Adam said that if I had the time, he wanted rainbows…"

T.J. and Carlos looked at each other, then burst out laughing. "No, no," T.J. chortled, "that's not what he meant. See, uh, the other Space Rangers are coming, and our pals the Lost Galaxy Rangers are coming in all the way from Mirinoi and Lightspeed Rescue managed to get the time off, so the color thing was supposed to be about Power Rangers, not…"

"Oh!" Carmen exclaimed, smacking her forehead. "My god, I'm an idiot. I couldn't think what else a gathering of adults would want rainbow decorations for…"

"Power Rangers Day is tomorrow, in Angel Grove," Carlos said. "This is sort of a pre-ceremony mixer, us and a bunch of Adam's old friends…"

"I didn't even think about that," she groaned. "Great. Now I'm gonna need all-new decorations."

"Oh, I brought some," T.J. said. "Box you're holding should have some. I always have tons of Ranger merchandise lying around, given the whole first-team-to-be-exposed thing. Why don't you see what you can do with it, and we'll go set this in the kitchen and start unloading the rest?"

"Sure," she said, cracking open the box and pulling out a large stack of children's party plates covered with pictures of the Wild Force Rangers. The box was full of Power Ranger party decorations—most of them designed for the under-twelve crowd, but covering a variety of teams. Even if she couldn't see Adam in a Pink Space Ranger party hat, at least these would save her from having to run to the store.

T.J. and Carlos wandered back through on their way to the van, looking up in amusement at the flags. "We could paint the orange stripe white, and the purple stripe pink," T.J. joked. "It could still work."

"We don't have any paint. Besides, there are only six colors, and we need seven—red, yellow, blue, pink, black, green and white."

"Oh, yeah."

"Not to mention the people like Zhane."

"True, true."

Carmen shook her head, wondering why Adam hadn't mentioned that the party was supposed to be Ranger-oriented; he and Tanya were always so secretive. Oh, well. At least she had T.J. and Carlos to help. Just another weird thing to add to the very long list.

She set the box down and went out to the van, where T.J. and Carlos were unloading. "Hey—what kind of food should I be ordering? Fancy or—"

"No," they interrupted in unison. "Keep it simple," T.J. added. "Buffalo wings, potato chips—and plenty of it. Most of these people can eat. Pizza's probably a good idea."

"Thanks. And—"

T.J.'s cell phone went off. "Hold that thought," he said, flipping the phone open. "It's Cassie. Hello?" He paused, listening. His eyes began to widen, and Carlos tensed at his expression. Carmen watched them curiously.

"No, I haven't heard from him. Any of them. And Adam's late getting home, hasn't even started setting up for his own party… Oh, man. Are you serious? Anyone else we can call? The whole city?" T.J. exclaimed. Carlos groaned. "Okay, okay. We'll meet you there. Any chance Andros will be here soon? Okay. Call Lightspeed. Me and Carlos will get there as fast as we can." Carmen's spirits sank as T.J. hung up and looked at Carlos. "Apparently big green balls of light are spitting minions all over the city of Reefside and no one's seen the Dino Rangers in weeks."

Carlos groaned again. "You're kidding."

"Nope. And Reefside's pretty far from here."

"Guess that means the Galaxy Gliders. How many minions are we talking about here?"

"Cassie didn't say, but she did use the word 'overrun.'"

Carlos swore. "So we're gonna be there a while."

"Well, the Megaship's not far out now and Lightspeed should be able to help. Hey, Carmen, we might be a little late getting back, all right?"

"But… but…" Carmen sighed. "Leave me your keys, in case I need to move your cars."

They nodded and did so. A few moments later, Carmen was treated to the interesting sight of the Space Rangers morphing, summoning their Galaxy Gliders, and flying off, but the awe wore off quickly when she realized that once again she had a party to plan and less than seven hours left in which to do it.

"I can't believe you told them," Taylor grumbled for the fourteenth time as she sped along the interstate.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me you hadn't told them," Eric shot back yet again.

"I can't believe how cool Albuquerque was," Wes piped up from the back seat, grinning cheerfully as he sorted through the bag of souvenirs he'd picked up.

"Does the word 'secret identity' mean anything to you?" Taylor demanded, ignoring Wes.

"'Secret identity' isn't a word. It's a phrase," Eric retorted.

"Oh, come on, guys," Wes said, leaning forward between the two front seats. "We make our own destinies, and sometimes—"

"I didn't make the part of my destiny where Eric told my mother that he was startled to realize I was the Yellow Wild Force Ranger!" Taylor snapped.

"You're the one who told them how we met!"

"Yes, that you gave me a speeding ticket! Not that we hooked up later to save the planet together!"

"Um, speaking of speeding," Wes began, glancing down at the dashboard, but Taylor and Eric ignored him.

"You spent ages prepping me to meet your parents. You told me not to argue with your father and to tell your mother that I was a Baptist Republican—"

"You're a Baptist Republican?" Wes asked Eric, startled.

"No, but that's what Taylor told me to say during the three-hour pep talk that failed to mention the fact that her parents didn't know she was a Power Ranger!"

"It was implied! Secret identity, Eric! Secret!"

"Taylor, you know you're going almost fifteen over the speed limit, right?" Wes asked worriedly.

"You told them I was a Power Ranger!" Eric pointed out.

"Yes, because I was trying to impress my parents! Look at my boyfriend, isn't he tall, dark and handsome, he has a great job, and he's a superhero! Way better than the Goth boys I used to bring home back in high school!"

"You dated Goth boys?" Wes asked with interest.

"I figured if they could know about me, they must know about you!"

"Your identity isn't secret! Why wouldn't I tell them about yours?"

"I'm sure they won't tell anyone!"

"You don't know my parents! They love bragging to all their friends about me!"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Wes said. "Plenty of people claim they know Power Rangers. There was this kid back in school who used to swear up and down that the Red Zeo Ranger was his cousin—"

Wes broke off as blue and red lights suddenly washed over them. Taylor tapped the breaks, then glowered at Eric as she pulled over. "Now look. You made me get another ticket."

"Maybe you should watch your speed," Eric retorted.

"Maybe I could concentrate better if I wasn't worried about what my mom was telling her book club about how I'm a superhero!"

"Right. Because you're such a careful driver otherwise."

"Guys? Can we concentrate on the speeding ticket?"

"Where's the registration for this thing?" Taylor demanded as she rolled down her window and killed the engine.

"I'm getting it," Eric replied, popping the glove box.

"Don't worry, guys," Wes whispered as he watched the cop get out of his cruiser. "We can probably play the Silver Guardians card."

"I'm not a Silver Guardian," Taylor pointed out. "I'm not even sure I'm allowed to be driving this thing."

"You're the one who wanted to drive," Eric said.

"I wanted to drive my car. You invited Wes so we had to take the SUV."

"What was I supposed to do? He wouldn't shut up about how he always wanted to see Albuquerque."

"I can't believe you don't listen to Weird Al," Wes complained.

"Quiet," Taylor snapped, snatching the registration from Eric and turning toward the window, pasting a smile on her face. "What seems to be the problem, officer?" she asked, handing him the documentation.

"You were going eighty-seven in a seventy-five zone."

"Oh, really? I'm so sorry. I was just having an argument with my friend here." She jerked her thumb at Eric.

"Friend?" Eric repeated indignantly.

"Where you headed?" the officer asked.

"Silver Hills."

"It says here this vehicle is registered to the Silver Guardians?"

"Yes."

"What is that, some kind of band?"

"A police task force," Eric said proudly. "We protect the city of Silver Hills in the Time Force Rangers' absence."

"Time Force Rangers? As in Power Rangers?" The officer snorted. "Yeah, sure. And my car's registered to the Easter Bunny."

Eric, Taylor and Wes stared at the cop blankly. "You mean… um… you really don't believe in Power Rangers?" Wes asked, torn between fascination, amusement, and indignation.

"My nine-year-old boy doesn't even believe in Power Rangers." The officer bent down a bit and peered suspiciously at each of them in turn.

"Well, that's nice, because we happen to be Power Rangers," Eric growled.

"They happen to be Power Rangers," Taylor corrected hastily. "I'm a normal human girl. Honest."

The officer glowered at her, then stepped back. "Step out of the car, please."

"Monday?" Justin repeated, horrified. "No, no—I have to get to California by tomorrow. I have to. You have no idea how important—"

"Look, kid," the mechanic interrupted sympathetically, "I'm sorry. But I can't get the part before then. The warehouse doesn't have it in stock and to be honest, I'll be lucky if I can get it before Wednesday. Monday's the soonest I can get your car back on the road. Tough break, I know, but you're spending the weekend in Indiana."

"But… but… this is the opportunity of a lifetime," Justin protested.

"Tell it to your radiator, kid."

Justin sighed heavily and headed for the door. Great. His car had died in the Middle of Nowhere, Indiana, last night. Just waiting for the shop to open on Friday morning meant he wasn't going to make the Rangers-only shindig… and now, it looked like he wasn't going to even make it to Power Rangers Day at all. Stupid school, making him cut it so damned close. The nearest airport was in Indianapolis, the nearest bus station was twenty miles, and he knew better than to expect there to be an open seat on any form of public transportation heading to Angel Grove on the eve of Power Rangers Day.

He kicked idly at bits of gravel in the parking lot as he tried to plot his next move. If he was going to be here all weekend, he couldn't really afford a hotel better than the one he'd crashed in last night, which he was never ever going back to because the bugs there were the sort of bugs that other bugs tell horror stories about, so he was going to have to dip into the merchandise fund T.J. had set up for all the ex-Rangers with secret identities… wait.

Duh.

Yanking his backpack off his shoulder, Justin rummaged around for a moment until his fingers closed over his Turbo morpher and key. Storm Blaster could make it to Angel Grove in a fraction of the time. Any luck, and he'd still make it to the party with time to spare.

T.J. and Carlos weren't sure what to expect when they arrived at Reefside. It turned out to be a good thing that they hadn't formulated any opinions ahead of time, as that would have made the shock all the worse.

The city was overrun, but by the time the two Space Rangers arrived, most of the citizens of Reefside had figured out that if they didn't attack the Tyrannodrones and Triptoids, the minions wouldn't attack them. Without someone to order them about, the mindless creations were simply bouncing around the town, sometimes wandering right past cowering civilians. Here and there, a person would throw a punch, kick, or projectile weapon at a Tyrannodrone, and it would turn and attack, but only if actually struck, and never in large numbers, allowing small clusters of humans to beat the crap out of them one or two at a time. Here and there civilians were waging small battles, ramming them with cars, shooting at them with ordinary handguns, or finding some other method of picking off the invading creatures one by one. A gang of aging bikers was going at it with a group of Triptoids, a couple of kids were busy duct-taping a Tyrannodrone to a phone pole, firefighters were hosing any non-human entity that came too close to the firehouse, a pack of dogs followed their dog-walker's instruction to take out a single Triptoid… but all in all, most of the Tyrannodrones and Triptoids were simply heading towards the center of town.

The town square was a different story. It was packed with the creatures, who were following the orders of a monster. It was a good ten feet tall, built like a grizzly bear with six limbs instead of four and a carnivorous dinosaur skull for a head. Cassie was busy doing battle with a two-headed lizard-man with wicked claws, dive-bombing it on her Galaxy Glider and firing away while two civilians—a man and a woman, both in their thirties, the woman dressed all in black leather and armed to the teeth, the man empty-handed—attacked the skull-headed grizzly.

In the very center of town was a large fountain, which was gently spouting water over a cluster of soaking wet civilians huddled together in the center of the pool. Around the edges of the pool were four people, spread out to cover it from all angles, their backs to the civilians. Three sides of the fountain were covered by Chinese teenagers in blue aprons with apparently mystical swords capable of firing giant energy blasts. The fourth was covered by an elderly man in a tuxedo, armed with a shotgun. The four of them kept the Tyrannodrones and Triptoids at bay.

"Hey, look—it's Anton Mercer," T.J. told Carlos as they zoomed towards the city. "I met him years ago, when he and Tommy were working together. The woman must be the reformed general of Mesogog's… uh… Elizabeth Randall, I think her name is."

"Who are the Asian kids and the old man?"

"No idea. If I didn't know better, I'd guess they were the Dino Rangers," T.J. joked. "As for the old man… no idea. James Bond, out of retirement?"

"Tux isn't that nice. More like a waiter."

"Mercer's butler!" T.J. exclaimed in sudden recognition. "Uh… Bob, I think his name is. Real Old World snobby type, if I remember correctly."

"Bob?"

"I guess not all butlers are named Jeeves."

"I was just about to make a Batman joke," Carlos laughed.

T.J. snorted. "Looks like the kids and Alfred have the drones pretty well. You help Cassie. I'll take dino-bear."

They swooped towards their individual targets and prepared to save the city of Reefside.

Carter warily scanned the faces of the zoo attendants in the monkey house, who were all watching Cole without the slightest trace of disbelief or suspicion. Carter knew this was dangerous to Cole's identity—bringing in a Wild Force Ranger to help Angel Grove alleviate the zoo's supposedly Ranger-related woes—but the zoo director had been desperate and Lightspeed Rescue wasn't in the habit of turning away those in need (even if their needs included restoring order to a large number of cranky exotic animals).

However, not a single one of the weary zoo employees had shown anything but gratitude for their assistance. There was no questioning of how Cole convinced the giraffes to calm down, what Cole did that got the penguins to march themselves out of the dolphin tank, or why Cole could understand animals' thoughts. They all just sort of took it in stride. When Carter had mentioned it to Kat during their phone call earlier, Kat had only said something vague about the remarkable levels of resilience in Angel Grove civilians before asking him if he had any idea how to get her off the island of Maui.

His morpher beeped again, and he sighed. Cole's slow but steady restoration of the zoo was the only thing going smoothly today. Apparently Reefside was under attack, no one could actually reach any of the Dino Rangers, and the rest of Lightspeed Rescue was headed towards Reefside to fight off several thousand mindless minions that were cavorting around the city with a couple of low-grade monsters. His first instinct had been to leave Carter alone at the zoo and go join them, but Mitchell had pointed out that if something went horribly wrong it might be a good idea to have other active Rangers outside the city who could be called in later. As it was, the situation wasn't too terribly dangerous; there might be an enormous swarm of minions, but they were still just minions, and T.J., Carlos and Cassie were already helping out.

"Yes?" Carter asked in a low tone.

"Sir, you have another call from the Pink Zeo Ranger," came the voice of one of the countless technicians manning the rebuilt Aquabase.

"Patch her through."

"Carter?" came Kat's voice a moment later. She sounded a tad hysterical. "Carter, you have to call the Hawaiian military. Tell them to stop!"

"Tell them to stop what?"

"They're firing at the Lost Galaxy Rangers!"

"What? Why?"

"I don't know! I would imagine they're not used to unidentified flying objects! They got the Yellow one… Maya, is that her name?"

"Got her? What do you mean, 'got' her?"

"They fired a pretty heavy bit of artillery at her. She fell off her Jet Jammer into a forest and—"

"Was she in morph?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then she's fine. The suit will protect her from the fall and Maya grew up in a forest or jungle or something, from what I understand. Are you okay?"

"Yes. For the moment. I'm running out of options, though. If I show myself, it could be traced back to me. I'm one of only three people heading to California who missed the connecting flight and the other two were businessmen in their fifties. If the Pink Zeo Ranger starts walking around, especially after all the fuss I made in the airport about trying to get home to Angel Grove…"

"Right. Well, perhaps if you approach the military installation itself…"

"How? They're not just going to let me walk up to an army base, are you kidding? Even in morph I doubt it would work. Hawaii doesn't have Power Rangers."

"If they're firing on the Lost Galaxy Rangers, I'm not sure they'll listen to me."

"Well, to be fair, if I didn't know what they were, and I had a rocket launcher, I might start shooting myself if they started swooping down on my island. I'm sure they'll listen to you."

"Maybe, but I'm not sure they'll allow the Lost Galaxy Rangers to land. And if they don't…"

"I won't have any way out of Maui. I know. To be honest, I'm not sure how I'm going to get out of here now, anyway. I figured they would land discretely and I'd be able to run out to them and hop on before I got spotted. I really don't want anyone to know that I'm here. It won't look good."

"Can you get to where Maya is? If they have to dive into a forest to get to her…"

"I'd never find her in that forest. I'm a Power Ranger, not a park ranger." Kat sighed. "Look, there's another flight leaving in time to get me to San Diego by five in the morning. I'll miss the party at Adam's, but at least I can rent a car to get me to Angel Grove from there. I appreciate your help, and the Lost Galaxy Rangers were really sweet to offer to pick me up on their way in from the moon, but maybe it's best if I just hang here and hope for the best."

"Maybe I can talk to Joel, see if he knows anyone out that way with a private plane…"

"At this point it really won't matter, I suppose. If I'm taking a normal airplane I doubt I'll make it in time for the party even if I left right this second," Kat said with a touch of misery in her voice. "Just… get the Hawaiian military to call off their assault so the Lost Galaxy Rangers can get Maya and head on off to Angel Grove. I'll be fine."

Carter sighed. "Okay. We could really use their help anyway. Reefside's under attack."

"What? Is To… the team okay?"

"We're not sure. Every last one of the Dino Rangers is offline, plus all of Mighty Morphin. You're the only one we've got contact with from before the power transfer during Turbo. We really need to work on creating communicators that work with more than one team."

"I can't believe I forgot my communicator in Australia," she moaned. "Everything was just so hectic…"

"It sounds like everything's hectic everywhere," Carter told her. "Angel Grove's had a rough couple of days. A secret identity hoax, the Black Ranger's been running around at random, there was some sort of evil villain's plot to raise an army of monkeys… you should see the zoo. And now Reefside… but it's mostly minions."

"Sir?" came a technician's voice through the connection. "We just got a call from the Silver Guardians. Eric and Wes from Time Force are in a holding cell in Arizona, along with—"

"What?" Carter interrupted in disbelief.

"They've been arrested, sir. And Wes says there might be some sort of issue regarding the press doing a story on the Quantum Ranger taking a field sobriety test…"

Carter sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. Behind him, Cole stopped listening to the recently-returned monkey and started translating for the monkey trainer.

"Thomas here," Cole said, gesturing at the morose chimpanzee behind the bars, "would like you all to call him Farky now. Don't worry. His peculiar behavior is not the result of trauma. He is simply mourning his two dear friends, Farcus Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch, who freed him from the zoo temporarily and showed him the joy of artistic expression. Perhaps if they could be allowed to visit him, he might recover from his depression."

"Uh-huh," the trainer said, rolling his eyes. "Well, if they promise not to go busting any more chimpanzees out of the monkey house and then trying to say they did it because of evil spells and Power Rangers, maybe we can arrange that."

Cole turned eagerly back to the cage. "Do you hear that, Farky? They intend to bring your friends to visit! Perhaps in time, they'll even warm up to the idea of letting you paint again."

"You know," Kat said, having heard everything Carter had, "I think maybe I'll stay here in Maui a little longer, where it's…"

"Safe?" Carter suggested.

"Normal," Kat said. "I'll let you get to work and just… I think I'll wait and make sure the military backs off without hurting anyone, and then I'll grab some dinner and find out when the next plane leaves."

"Right," Carter said dryly. "Godspeed." Kat hung up, and Carter addressed the technicians monitoring the morpher. "Okay. Someone call the Hawaiian military and explain to them that the Lost Galaxy Power Rangers were just looking to make a pit stop on their way to Angel Grove and please allow them to collect the fallen Yellow Ranger and go on about their business unmolested. Meanwhile, someone call the Arizona governor for me and—"

"Captain Mitchell's already on it, sir," the technician said.

"Right. Oh, and someone ask the Silver Guardians if they can spare anybody to help out with the Reefside attacks. Is there anything else to report?"

"Storm Blaster was spotted stuck in traffic in St. Louis."

Carter frowned. "Storm Blaster… Storm Blaster…"

"The Blue Turbo Ranger's vehicle, sir. We have no method of contacting a morphed Turbo Ranger, considering the fact that the Space Rangers—"

"Are busy in Reefside," Carter finished. "What about the rest of Wild Force? And Ninja Storm? Any contact yet?"

"No, but no catastrophe, either."

"Well, that's something, I suppose," Carter said with a sigh, and hung up.

"Nice place," Kat Manx remarked as they approached the security gate at Adam and Tanya's property. "Are you sure about this?"

"History says that we attend the party here," Jen replied. "Here we begin the recruiting process."

"And we get to meet all the living legends that were dead long before any of us were born," said Marcus. He was annoyingly talkative, and in the short time Kat had been with the Time Force Rangers, she'd learned that he was a relatively recent addition to the team. Alex, the Red Ranger of Time Force in 3003, had remained in the future with a new team of Pink, Yellow, Blue and Green Rangers, and sent Marcus back to accompany the others. From what she gathered, the five Time Force Rangers would not be returning to the future permanently, or at least not anytime soon.

Lucas, who was driving the battered van the Time Force Rangers had gotten their hands on, pulled up to the callbox at the side of the gate and pushed the button. It took a few moments before the speaker crackled to life. "Hello?" came the harassed-sounding voice of a young woman.

"We're here for the party."

"Ah. Right. Where'd I put the stupid list…?" There was pause broken only by the occasional mutter. "Names?" the woman asked finally.

"Lucas Kendall, Jen Scotts, Katie Walker, Trip Regis, Marcus Barstow, and Katherine Manx."

"Kat," Kat grumbled.

There was another pause from the woman at the speaker. Finally, she said, "You're not on the guest list."

"That's understandable," Jen called, leaning across Lucas to shout out his window. "We're the Time Force Rangers. They weren't expecting us to come."

"Ah. Well, um, look. I can't just let you in because you're pretty sure Adam and Tanya would want you here."

"Then go get them," Lucas said. "They'll be thrilled to see us. Just you wait."

"They're not home."

"Well, when are they getting home?" Jen asked.

"Adam was supposed to be back hours ago. Tanya's not due for a few more hours. I suggest you try back later."

"Look, I tell you what. I'm gonna get out of the car and stand in front of this monitor. Then, when I morph into the Blue Time Force Ranger, you let me in, okay?"

"I can't do that. You're not on the list," the woman insisted. "Without Adam or Tanya to verify that you're friends of theirs, I'm not letting you in." The speaker crackled again and went dead. Lucas jabbed at the button in annoyance a few times, but got no response.

"Well, now what?" Lucas asked Jen.

"Did history happen to mention at what time we'd be permitted to join the party?" Kat asked.

"No, now that you mention it," Marcus said worriedly.

"Jen?" Lucas asked.

"We wait," she said decisively. "When Wes and Eric get here, they'll make the woman let us in."

"Are you sure they're coming?" Katie asked eagerly.

Jen nodded. "Yes."

"Like you were sure we'd be given admittance to the party?" Kat asked.

Jen gave her a cold look. "We will get into this party, even if we have to storm the house. Don't worry. We've met plenty of Rangers who might be able to vouch for us, and after all, Wes and Eric are destined to be here."

"I can't believe you got us arrested," Wes said, still sounding mystified.

"Oh, shut up already," Eric said wearily.

"We were speeding. Hell, we weren't even speeding. Taylor was speeding. You got us arrested."

"The Silver Guardians or… I don't know, someone… will come bail us out. Don't worry."

"That's not the point. The point is we're arrested, Eric. We are so totally the only Power Rangers ever to get arrested before. I'm going to ask Jen to look it up when we get out of this."

"Oh, please. I seriously doubt we're the only ones. Would you stop freaking out, please?"

"I'm sorry. I'm just not sure how to behave when my best friend gets me arrested."

"For crying out loud, I thought morphing in front of him would make him believe us. I didn't think he'd start shooting at me and then lock himself in his car and sob and call for backup. What a wuss."

"Eric, we're in the middle of nowhere. You're lucky he didn't have us burned at the stake."

"Wes? We're Power Rangers. No one would be able to burn us at the stake. Now would you calm down? Trust me, this is no big deal. We didn't even do anything wrong. I doubt making a police officer wet himself is a crime."

"We're in a jail cell, Eric. A jail cell! Right before Power Rangers Day, too. How can you be so calm?"

"Look on the bright side."

"You're looking on the bright side? You?"

Eric smiled dryly and said, "As long as we're in here, we're safe from Taylor."

Wes's eyes widened and he turned to look around the holding cell in a whole new light. "You know, I could learn to like jail."

"Ooh, look!" Dustin called. "Reefside, forty miles. That means we're only… what? Four hours from Angel Grove?"

"Yeah, tops," Hunter said.

"Provided we don't get lost again," Tori teased.

"Dude, that was so not my fault," Dustin said. "Hey, too bad the Dino Rangers are already in Angel Grove. I could go for a pit stop."

"Hey, somebody wake Cam up," Tori called over her shoulder. "Maybe Hayley's still in town or something."

"Cam," Shane said, jerking his shoulder, upon which Cam had rested his head after passing out.

"Come on, Cousin, rise and shine," Kapri called.

"I can't believe he didn't put up a fight about me and Kapri coming along," Marah said.

"How'd you convince him, anyway?" Hunter asked.

"We didn't. We just asked him again this morning, and he said yes," Marah replied. "It was like he'd done a total one-eighty."

"I know," Dustin said. "He almost never sleeps on road trips, either. He keeps freaking out whenever someone else is driving."

"Come on, Cam, wake up," Shane said, reaching out to shake him.

"Five more minutes, Mom," Cam mumbled sleepily.

"Mom?" Blake said, frowning. "Why would Cam be saying 'Five more minutes, Mom'?"

"Haven't you ever forgotten where you were first thing in the morning?" Kapri asked.

Tori's eyes widened in realization. "Yeah, but Cam never had a mom. She died when he was a baby, remember?"

With the exception of Tori, who was driving, everyone turned to glare suspiciously at Cam.

"He was pretty insistent that Marah and Kapri should stay behind with the other trainees," Shane said.

"And he hasn't even complained at all the whole trip," Blake added.

"No, wait, if it was Cyber Cam, why is he sleeping?" Dustin asked. "Does Cyber Cam even need sleep?"

"No… but he can't go an entire weekend without recharging at Ninja Ops," Tori said.

"He's saving his energy," Hunter said. "Remember how he was begging to come?"

"And Cam said he couldn't because he wouldn't last the whole weekend," Tori said.

"Tori, get off at the next exit," Shane called. "We've got to turn around and go back for the real Cam."

"Shouldn't we check and make sure it's really him first?" Marah asked.

"Cam. Cam! Get up, now!" Shane shouted.

Cam—or possibly Cam's electronic replica—jolted awake and blinked around at the staring ninjas. "Um… hey, guys. How's it going?"

"Cam?" Hunter asked suspiciously.

"Yeah?"

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Dustin called.

"Three," Cam replied blankly.

"Not Cam," Dustin reported.

"Dustin, Cyber Cam knows how to count," Tori pointed out.

"Yeah, okay, but if it was really Cam, he would have said something sarcastic. He wouldn't have just said three."

The others looked from Cam to Dustin suspiciously. Dustin had a point, but his logic was so often flawed that it usually didn't hurt to get supplemental proof.

"Are you Cyber Cam?" Blake demanded.

"Who, me? Of course not. Nope."

"If you're lying, I'll make sure Cam deactivates you," Hunter threatened.

"Or at least makes you look like someone else," Dustin said. "Kapri, maybe."

"Hey!" Kapri complained.

"Guys, don't be silly," Cam said, but he sounded worried.

"All right," Shane said, looking maybe-Cam in the eye. "Which is easier to pull off, a kickflip or a heelflip?"

Cam snorted. "Come on. They're both easy."

"So not Cam," Shane announced. "Tori—"

"Next exit's in a half mile. I'll get us turned around."

"Oh, great," Dustin complained. "Now we're gonna have to add… what? Another four hours to our trip?"

"Ten," Blake said. "It's five hours back to Ninja Ops. One-way."

"Well, hey," Kapri said brightly, "at least that gives us time to figure out what did with the real Cam, right?"

"Oh, man," Shane groaned. "Cam's gonna be pissed."

"Magic Fireball Attack!" Wang shouted gleefully.

"Do you have to shout that every time?" Lin demanded.

"It's the only thing I've found that the sword always responds to," Wang told her. "Magic Fireball Attack!"

"It's not voice-activated," Brad said. "Mine works on thought."

"Yeah, well, yours also shoots lightning, not fire," Wang retorted. "Magic Fireball Attack!"

Another giant orb of flame emerged from the tip of his sword and struck a Tyrannodrone squarely in the chest. It flew back into several of its fellows, setting a few more on fire, but more pressed in.

"Mine only works if I make this one motion," Lin said. "We never should have given back those other weapons."

"I wonder what they could do," Wang mused.

"Doesn't really matter now," Brad pointed out. "Hey, Jeeves! You all right?"

"My n-n-n-name," the elderly butler growled through chattering teeth, "is Bob."

Things were slowly getting worse. The Lightspeed Rangers were busy taking care of all the renegade drones all over the rest of town, and while Cassie and T.J. had managed to eliminate the lizard-man monster, the dino-grizzly was proving to be something of a problem. Cassie, Carlos, T.J. and Anton and Elsa were still battling it, and Bob had run out of ammunition some time ago, nearly getting killed before the civilians in the fountain had rushed forward to beat the Tyrannodrones off of him until Brad could drive them back a little further. Brad, Lin and Wang had spread out a little more to cover Bob's section, but they were all getting tired and the miserable civilians huddled in the water weren't able to do much but call out warnings. They were all soaked to the bone, so they didn't even have a good chance of running anymore, not in waterlogged clothing. Once or twice, a couple of civilians had offered to take Brad, Lin and Wang's swords and fire off the energy blasts for a while to let them rest, but none of the three were anxious to relinquish their weapons.

"I think the bleeding's stopped," said a guy who was holding his shirt against a gash on Bob's forehead. "It's not half as bad as it looks."

Bob sighed and continued to shiver. "I'm s-seventy-eight years old, boy. Standing around in c-c-cold water for hours on end is bad, never mind a head wound gained wh-wh-while battling a legion of prehistoric monsters."

"My name's Chris," the guy offered. "And if it makes you feel any better, I was on my way to a second date with the most awesome girl I've ever met when the attacks started. And hiding in the fountain totally fried my cell phone."

"It d-does help, some," Bob admitted.

Chris sighed and surveyed the army of monsters. "And I thought those guys in the café the other day were a problem."

"DUCK!" shouted one of the other civilians. Chris shoved Bob out of the way just as a figure clad in black came flying over the heads of the mob of minions. She landed hard in the fountain with a tremendous splash, and Chris and Bob hurried to help her up.

"Are you all right?" Chris demanded, carefully easing her into a sitting position.

"Miss Randall! Miss Randall!" Bob shrieked.

"Elsa Randall?" Chris asked curiously, recognizing the name.

"Unh," she groaned. To Bob, she added, "I'm all right. Thank god I still had some of my old outfits lying around. This stuff still works." She sat up and surveyed the Tyrannodrones and Triptoids. "Great. I'll never fight my way back over to the monster from here."

"Good," Brad called over his shoulder. "We could use a little help."

"I'm out of ammunition, Miss Randall," Bob told her apologetically. "And I'm afraid I'm not as spry as I used to be."

"Don't worry about it, Bob," Elsa told him, climbing slowly to her feet. She looked appraisingly at Chris, more specifically at the muscles he no longer had a shirt to cover. "I don't suppose you can swordfight?"

He gave her a sheepish grin. "Not unless you count spending all those hours as a kid pretending to be the Blue Ranger."

Elsa sighed and drew her sword from the scabbard at her hip, then held it out to him. "Wave it in an X shape and you'll produce a kinetic blast."

"What's that?"

"An explosion," Elsa said distractedly, already moving towards the crowd of cold, wet and miserable people huddled in the fountain. "Anyone else want to help? I've got a few extra weapons, here."

Three civilians stepped forward. Elsa gave one a pair of daggers that shot small arc-shaped blasts when the hilts were crossed, another a sharp boomerang that would unerringly return to whoever threw it, and the third a sword that didn't do much of anything, but the guy who took it said he'd spent a little time doing fencing reenactments for the Renaissance Fair. Meanwhile, Chris hopped out of the fountain next to Brad and waved the sword in an X. Four Triptoids were promptly knocked on their butts.

"Hell, yeah," Chris breathed, quickly moving to do it again. "I just might make it to the restaurant before Melissa thinks I've stood her up."

"These things are great, aren't they?" Wang asked cheerfully. "Magic Fireball Attack!"

"This is ridiculous," Lucas complained. "I say we storm the gate."

"We're not damaging Adam and Tanya's property," Jen insisted.

"I think they would have recorded something about us storming the gate," Marcus added. "I mean, that's a pretty important thing to leave out, don't you think?"

"It's hot out here," Lucas whined. "And I'm tired. And it smells like Meow Mix."

Kat grinned at him around the bag of Meow Mix she was cradling in her lap. "You sure you don't want some?"

Lucas made a disgusted noise and plopped down on the grass outside Adam and Tanya's. They'd moved their van out of the way of any approaching vehicles and taken to loitering outside the van. The summer heat and their own frustration were making everyone tense and annoyed.

"I'm sure I could break the gate," Katie offered. "I don't think Tanya would mind too terribly much."

"I think the maid would mind," Jen said. "I think she'd panic and call the police if we started breaking in there."

A blue Saturn coupe suddenly turned into the drive, but instead of pulling up to the gate, it screeched to a halt. The passenger window rolled down and Danny Delgado leaned his head out and called, "Guys? What are you doing here?"

"Danny!" Trip shouted, hopping up. Danny got out of the car, and a moment later, Max Cooper came bounding out of the driver's seat.

Kat and Marcus hung back while the others greeted the Blue and Black Wild Force Rangers and explained the situation with Carmen the maid. Kat rolled the top of the Meow Mix closed and stuffed it in her shoulder bag, then turned to Marcus. "That's one of them, right?" she whispered.

Marcus nodded. "One down. Eight to go."