Forces from the Future
Minh blinked as her head stopped spinning.
"Where am I?" She asked, looking around. All around her were futuristic panels not unlike that of the Command Centre, holographic screens. She saw the others lying on the floor.
"No…" She panicked. She had no idea where she was and the others were unconscious.
"Uncle Zack, you need to wake up." She stooped to shake the black ranger.
"They won't. Not yet." She looked up at hearing the unfamiliar voice. A brunette in a white jumpsuit and a gold triangular badge pinned on her chest was standing nearby along with others. Some of them wore similar outfits while others wore variations with coloured stripes on their uniforms.
"Who are you all?" She asked.
"I am Director Jen Scotts of Time Force. We are rangers. Our job is to police the time stream and prevent time criminals from altering the timeline for their own benefit." The woman introduced herself coolly. "It is nice to meet you, Minh Kwan despite the circumstances."
"What… Where am I?"
"You are on our time ship. We teleported seconds before you were about to be vapourised by Rita's attack." A black man in blue uniform piped up from behind Jen. He wore glasses and had a bulky frame.
"Eddie, don't interrupt the director." A man with a similar uniform to Jen interrupted, rolling his eyes.
Jen gave a small smile. "It's alright, Lucas."
She turned towards Minh and gave her a kind smile. "I know everything must feel overwhelming but we are here to help."
She nodded to the others.
"Take the Mighty Morphin Team to the Med-Bay."
"On it, Director." A dark-skinned woman with a white bob, in a black uniform nodded. Her eyes flashed silver and several drones emerged from the walls and Minh yelped in shock.
"Don't be scared. They are on our side." The woman assured her. "Oh, I am Vesper by the way."
The drones hovered over the unconscious rangers emitting a blue ray that swept over their bodies and a transparent panel solidified out of thin air underneath each of the rangers. The panels detached from the floor and gracefully floated in the air before following the drones out of the hallway.
Minh scampered behind them, running past the officers.
"That's the legendary Minh Kwan?" Lucas asked sceptically.
"Must you always be condescending." A silver haired handsome man in a green uniform raised an eyebrow. "She is not even a ranger yet and already been through hell and back. Give her a break."
Lucas snorted. "And she might be the reason the timeline deviated from the original course of events. Rita was stopped before she even went through the portal."
"You really are dense for a ranger. We should try eliminating all possible reasons before accusing one of our own." Joe said forcefully.
"What did you say, you silver punk?" Lucas scowled. "I have been a ranger long before you were old enough to talk."
"And yet I outrank you." Joe smirked.
Lucas gritted his teeth. "I wonder what Nadira saw in you…"
"Well, it's clear why she left you." Joe retorted smugly.
Lucas clenched his fists and leapt at Joe, who easily sidestepped the attack before retaliating with a low spinning sweep kick that threw the blue ranger off balance and sent him stumbling backwards. He would have fallen if Katie hadn't caught him.
"Enough!" Jen barked and the two men stopped glaring at each other. Lucas shrugged, pulling away from Katie.
Katie and Trip shared concerned looks.
"We are facing a crisis. We cannot afford distractions. Is that clear?"
"Yes, madam." Joe said, standing up and smoothing his uniform.
"Lucas?" Jen looked at her long-time friend.
"Yes, Jen." He mumbled.
"Okay, we have faced crises like these before. We need to split up and fix this aberration before it becomes an omega level threat." Jen said. "The Ritas think Zordon teleported the rangers away. They don't know that we have set up a sub dimensional shield around Earth, which will block them from attacking the planet. We need to take out Robo Rita and erase the memories of Rita and her henchmen before they realise it."
Jen looked at one of the Hyper Force rangers, a woman of Indian descent, with flowing black hair that reached her waists, clad in a purple and black suit. "Uma, we will need you to cast the spell that will seal them back in the dumpster, even if it's for a couple of months before they are eventually freed again. The timeline should be preserved at all costs."
The director tilted her head towards her own team. "And there is the matter of Scrozzle. Alpha 55 detected his energy signature near the Alpha Centauri system, which is currently being attacked by Mondo's machine empire. We believe he is trying to ally himself with Mondo and his robotic minions. Katie, Lucas and Trip will intercept Scrozzle before he causes irreparable damage to the time stream. Jack and Matthias will stay behind to protect the ship and the morphin team. Everyone else, including myself, will capture the moon aliens and bring Robo Rita to justice. Everyone clear on the plan?"
There was a murmur of agreements.
"Good. We move out now." Jen said.
Billy laughed as Trini wrapped her arms around his neck. He pushed the door to his bedroom open as the former yellow ranger wrapped her legs around his waist. He could feel her soft breath on his face and it was only a moment before their lips met.
It was one of the most magical moments in his life. He felt loved and needed… something he felt would be impossible after Cestria's passing.
Billy couldn't tear his eyes away from Trini, her hair askew with a few strands falling over her face as they rolled away from each other. They were in Billy's bed, a thin film of sweat over their naked bodies, their clothes scattered all over the room.
"Hey," Trini said, her fingers running through Billy's hair before caressing his face. "You should come to visit more often."
"Yeah, about that…" Billy winced. "This might be the last time in a while I am on Earth. There are rumours of an army gathering in the far sectors of the galaxy."
Trini tried to hide her disappointment but failed to do so.
"Hey, I will be back." Billy said quickly.
"I know but maybe someone else can save the galaxy this time. It doesn't always have to be you." She said softly.
He bit his lips. "This army… this armada… It might be stronger than even the Alliance of Evil. It will take more than a single set of ranger powers to beat them this time. I have been corresponding with a being called Gosei, Zordon's successor to create a ranger team who can access all our powers."
"You are the best person for the job." She relented.
He nodded.
"I want to stay on Earth, with you and the others…"
"But duty calls." Trini sighed.
"You can come with me?" He offered. "We can see the universe, different planets-"
"I have seen my fair share of the universe, Billy." She smiled. "And I have spent years saving the world. Right now, I want to be home, with the people I care about."
"I understand." He said slowly.
"Hey…" Trini took his hand. "Let's worry about the future tomorrow. We do have each other today."
Billy nodded, pulling up the blankets as they snuggled under it, seeking comfort in each other's warm embrace.
Billy's eyes snapped open.
He felt pain all over his body and a headache that was slowly receding. Everything was too bright.
"You are awake!" A familiar face and a familiar voice.
It was Trini grinning at him.
Except it couldn't be her.
"Minh." He realised, as the sluggishness of the idyllic dream faded and he sat up. "I am so glad you are okay!"
He hugged the daughter of the love of his life.
"Me too, Uncle Billy." She smiled.
"You wouldn't believe what happened!" She said excitedly as they let go of each other. He looked around to see the other rangers lying on beds beside him, their bodies glowing as drones hovered over each of them, coating them with a layer of energy that flashed in various colours.
"The others…"
"They are safe." Billy turned sideways as two individuals in uniforms stepped towards them. One was wearing a white jumpsuit while the other was wearing a black suit with yellow highlights. Both looked oddly familiar and he blinked repeatedly as soon as he recognised the resemblance.
"Bulk? Skull?" He asked in surprise.
The two looked at each other, exchanging confused glances while Minh's eyes shot wide.
"Who are Bulk and Skull?" The man who looked like Bulk and even sounded a bit like him asked.
Billy squinted. Well, while the resemblance was uncanny, the last time he met his former bullies, Bulk did not have a beard or a mop of blond hair on his head and Skull certainly did not have a crystalline gem on his forehead.
"They are friends of my uncles and aunts." Minh explained. "But he is right. That's why you two looked so familiar!"
"Well, I guess after all this blows over, we will have to check the history records for this Bulk and Skull." The other man, who resembled Skull said.
"Well, if Wes can look like Alex and have similar DNA, despite there being a thousand years between them, anything can be possible!" Bulk's doppelganger said.
Alex… That name caught his attention. His eyes wandered over to the triangular badges on their uniforms and it became stark clear who they might be.
"You are Time Force." Billy deduced.
"How did you know?" Minh asked.
"I have crossed paths with Time Force before." Billy said.
"You have?" Not-Skull asked, confused. "There was nothing of that sort mentioned in the debrief but you are right. We are Time Force. I am Matthias of Edenoi, the Silver Time Force ranger and my buddy here is Jack Thomas, the Yellow Hyper Force ranger."
"Nice to meet fellow rangers." Billy nodded. "Pardon me for being so brash but what happened? The last thing I remember was Rita, or rather Ritas blasting us with their combined dark magic."
"You were rendered unconscious." Jack told him. "But we teleported you all here in our time ship before she could kill you. Our teams are taking care of Rita and Scrozzle as we speak."
"And my team?"
"The dark magic knocked you out of your morphs. Your powers protected you but it will take some time for you all to recover." Jack said.
"Don't worry." Matthias placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Our teams have faced Rita Repulsa before. You can rest assured we will stop her."
Billy gave a small smile at that, though he was still not at ease completely.
"Ay, ay, ay!" Another familiar voice echoed through the med-bay.
"Alpha?" Billy asked, turning towards the direction of the voice but it wasn't who he expected to see.
They were an Alpha Unit, no doubt, with the golden lightning bolt on their chest and the saucer shaped head, but they were painted black and they were bulkier than the one he remembered in his time.
"Greetings, Dr Cranston." The robot said. "I am Alpha 55."
"55…" Billy murmured softly. From what they knew from Wes Collins, the Time Force team was from 3001. It was peculiar how so many Alpha units had been built over a span of just a thousand years while only seven Alpha units had been forged in the last twenty thousand years.
"Ay, ay, ay… Rangers, the scanners picked up an attempted teleportation to Earth. Our shield blocked it…"
"That means Rita will be on to us." Jack said. "Have you alerted Jen and the others?"
"I have." Alpha nodded.
"What do you mean on to us?" Billy pressed.
"Our ship projected a sub dimensional barrier on the planet to prevent Rita from attacking Earth before she is supposed to and potentially creating a variant timeline or rewriting our current timeline." Matthias told him.
"So, the ship is the source of the barrier?" Billy asked.
"Yes, so?" Jack asked before Matthias' eyes widened, catching on to Billy's implication.
"They might try to attack the ship to disrupt the shield." He realised.
"Our ship is cloaked." Jack shrugged.
A sudden tremor rocked the ship as alarms started to blare.
"You were saying?" Billy snarked. "Our coins radiate energies which Rita can track with her magic."
"Okay, never mind that…" Matthias bit his lips just as a blast of red energy slammed against the two officers and Alpha 55, sending them skidding across the floor as Robo Rita appeared in the middle of the med-bay.
"Oh good! Not only are the rangers all in one place to be slaughtered, I get to kill two more pesky brats and get a time ship too! This is truly my day!" She cackled.
"Not so fast, you fashion reject!" Matthais grunted as he and Jack stood up and tapped their morphers.
"Time For Time Force!"
"It's Morphin Time!"
In a flash of silver and yellow lights, they stood morphed and drew their weapons.
"Time Force Silver, ready!"
"Hyper Force Yellow, ready! Power up!"
Rita clapped her hands.
"Fantastic show but two against one doesn't seem very fair, does it?" She sneered. "Let's even the odds, shall we?"
She tapped her staff on the floor and a group of putties appeared before her, except their stripes were crimson instead of plain black.
"Meet my new Super Putties, you power posers!" She screeched.
The henchmen launched themselves at the rangers except two, who creeped towards Minh and Billy.
Billy clenched his fists as he jumped in front of Minh and took out his morpher as well. He morphed in a flash of blue light and summoned his lance.
He yelled, jumping at the minions.
Rita's eyes drifted towards the other rangers who lay unconscious and defenceless. She raised her staff, only for an energy barrier to form in front of them.
"NO!" She turned to glare at Alpha 55, who staggered to his feet. "You will pay for that, you pesky robot!"
She fired a blast of energy from her staff, only for Alpha to create another forcefield around himself, dispelling the attack before raising his left palm at the witch, which instantly reconfigured into canons, that fired a blast of energy that threw the witch back.
"What! The bumbling robot servant knows how to fight in the future?" Rita spluttered.
"We have evolved in a thousand years to be equipped with the ability to defend both rangers and ourselves, if the need arises." Alpha 55 told her seriously. "You made a grave mistake attacking my ship and those under my protection."
If Rita still had her human body, she would be blinking repeatedly. She burst into laughter as she stood up with the help of her staff.
"Well, you still have your sense of humour, Alpha but I am afraid you will need more than that to best me!" She snarled, her eyes glowing crimson as tendrils of crimson energies shot out from her staff towards the android, only for Billy to step in between, deflecting the attacks with his lance.
"There is nothing wrong with loving more than one person, Kimberly."
Even as she heard Trini's voice, she found it hard to believe what she was hearing.
"It isn't?" Kim asked. "They are married, Trini. Both of them. I lost my chance with Tommy and never had one with Kat to begin with. And now, we are adults. I have a kid. They have a family of their own, their own kid. I can't just mess it up."
"Kimberly…"
"It's too weird, Trini." She shook her head. "I need to get over them."
"You love them." Her best friend told her.
"I don't know… I mean, the first time we hooked up was when all of us were very drunk but we kept on meeting up…"
"What are you really thinking, Kim?" Trini asked.
"What if they are just entertaining me to… you know, spice up their marriage or something?" She said, her voice wavering. "What if I don't mean anything to them!"
"Kimberly, you know that's not true." Trini said calmly. "The way they look at you, they care about you a lot. I can see it in their eyes. They do love you, Kim."
"But it is…"
"Kim, you know there are many polyamorous marriages and relationships. While it is not common on Earth, it is there and I have seen so many people thriving in relationships with multiple individuals on other planets. They make it work. And you can too. Heck, you don't even have to look that far. Andros, Carlos, Zhane and Ashley have been making it work for more than a decade!"
"What if it doesn't work out?" Kim asked.
"Kimberly, I don't believe that. You deserve people who love you as much as you love them. But in the off chance it doesn't, you know you can survive that. You owe it to yourself and to Kat and Tommy to at least try."
"I…" Kim broke into tears before pulling her best friend into a hug. "What would I do without you, Trini!"
Trini smiled, running circles over Kim's back. "I will always be there with you, Kim."
Just then, the surroundings changed from Kim's apartment to something she couldn't discern. Yellow flames lit up around them and Kim pulled back in concern.
"What the-" Kim said, letting go of her friend.
"Kimberly, you need to wake up." Trini shook her shoulder. "Now!"
"What…" Kim stuttered as Trini lit up in yellow flames and she screamed before consumed by an all-encompassing yellow light.
Kim gasped as she woke up.
She looked around to see Zack, Nancy, Jason and Tommy in similar states, sitting up on their beds.
"Minh!" Zack yelled, drawing their attention. They saw a forcefield in front of them and beyond that, a ferocious battle. Minh was holding her own against a putty. Two unfamiliar rangers and someone who looked a lot like Alpha being overwhelmed by squadron of putties.
"Billy…" Kim shouted as she saw the blue ranger pinned against the forcefield by Robo Rita.
They looked at each other and sprang to their feet but it was already too late.
"Oh Cranston!" Rita growled at the blue ranger. "I grow tired of you always coming between me and my plans!"
She raised her staff and let loose a barrage of lightning that threw Billy against the forcefield, forcing him to let go of his lance.
"NO!" Alpha 55 came to his defence, only for a couple of putties to restrain him from behind.
"It ends now, Billy!" She yelled, firing another wave of dark energy that knocked him out of his morph. Tendrils of crimson energies bound him, preventing him from moving as they smashed him against the floor repeatedly, making him cry out in pain. Blood trickled down a gash on his forehead.
"Uncle Billy!" Minh yelled, from where she was being held by a putty.
"What a waste! Trini died for you and now, you will share her fate!" She taunted, swirling her staff, and making the same motions she did to cast her infamous killing spell.
The bolt of red energy hurled towards him and he glared at Rita, his head held high. Even if there was no escape, he wouldn't let Rita have the satisfaction of seeing him give up,
"NO!" It wasn't just Minh screaming. It was the voices of his friends too.
Minh shook off the putty and dived in front of Billy, taking the brunt of the spell as she collided against the forcefield and then rolled over to the ground.
"NO!" Kim yelled.
"MINH!" Zack cried in anguish.
"NO!" Jason and Tommy yelled at the same time.
The super putties thrashing Jack, Matthias and Alpha 5 stopped as the two officers watched with wide eyes. Not only had they failed to protect the rangers, they had lost one of the most important figures in ranger history on their watch and on their own ship.
Alpha 55 closed his palm and the forcefield flickered away and the rangers ran over to where Minh lied.
A silver laser courtesy of Matthias cut through Billy's restraints and he fell to the floor, his face broken. He crawled over to Minh speechless, too shocked to even cry. His heart hammered in his chest.
"No…" Billy whispered, taking Minh's hand, and checking for a pulse, only to find none.
"No…" He pressed his fingers against her carotid, hoping for the faintest of pulsations and was disappointed once again. "No! No!"
"She can't be gone!" Zack yelled, stooping to cradle Minh in his lap. "Minh, you need to wake up! Please!"
"No, not again!" Kim wept, falling to her knees beside Billy and Zack. "Not Minh!"
Jason breathed rapidly, unable to believe what was happening.
Tommy clenched his fists, trying to remain calm, even as tears ran down his cheeks.
"Yes, this brings back memories!" Rita giggled, as the putties regrouped behind her, marvelling at the rangers' broken faces as they mourned the loss of one of their own, once again.
Hope this makes up for the late update and I am sure no one saw this coming!
I wanted to include the Hyper Force rangers because even though they were created for a RPG, Hyper Force was the first time Power Rangers created original designs for the entire team, which were not based on Sentai. On top of that, the show is amazing and the characters were played by talented actors/storytellers/gamers. I urge you all to check it out, if you haven't already. All the episodes are on YouTube as well as on Spotify (on audio format).
I want to thank my bestie Super Shadowhenshin for helping me find a way to include the Hyper Force/Time Force teams in a way that makes sense.
In Hyper Force, Nadira gets married to Joe Shih, the former Time Force Silver and current Hyper Force Green ranger (and portrayed by the amazing Yoshi Sudarso) instead of Lucas, though Lucas/Nadira was heavily shipped in the Time Force season. That led to brief conflict between them in the season finale and I am just expanding on that in here. Plus I am not a huge fan of Lucas so I am sorry for any fan who feels offended, though I would like to point out Lucas was a hothead and sort of a jerk in canon too.
Matthias is an OC made by me. I really wanted Bulk and Skull to show up in the special and when I decided to include Hyper Force in this story, which included a character portrayed by Paul, the idea to create another character who is portrayed by Jason Narvy (in my head) came naturally and the spot for Time Force Silver was open for him.
Other OCs are Uma and Priya, the Purple Hyper Force and Time Force rangers respectively.
Hope you like Billy and Kim's dream/memories with Trini. And yes, though I heavily hinted at it in previous chapters, I wanted to confirm that Kim is in a polyamorous marriage with Kat and Tommy.
Also, thank you everyone for supporting this story! This story got more than a 100 reviews, which is truly something amazing, especially in the PR fanfic community since very few readers take the time to review. So I wanted to thank all of you who have reviewed. It means a lot and honestly keeps me going!
And, kudos to Super Shadowhenshin for being the hundredth reviewer! Honestly, they are the best and our friendship means the world to me! Check out their amazing stories, if you haven't already! Currently, they are writing an awesome Dino Charge rewrite story, that has everything you would want in a fanfic - interesting characters, veteran rangers, legacy rangers, easter eggs and callbacks to previous seasons, compelling villains... It has everything! So go check it out ASAP!
On the note of reviews, I didn't respond earlier because I didn't want to spoil it but no, this is not going to lead to a separate timeline, though that would have been amazing too!
Hope you enjoyed the story and please review. :)
