Author's notes - Whitebeard, yes, Brendan and Xander were one of those unexpected delights that you find when putting a story together. They played off each other so well (I think because they have very similar personalities), that now I want to write more crossovers with the two of them interacting.

I think that's the reason I structured my own stories the way I did. In the official canon, we had to wait decades for the crazy team-ups to start happening (Forever Red, Once a Ranger, Grid Connection, etc), and it's much more fun condensing the timeline down a bit so that a lot of things happened together.

Part Eleven

Chapter Three

New York City's fabled skyline flashed beneath the Rangers as they streaked over Central Park before materialising on the roof of an apartment building a second later. The sun had just disappeared behind the skyscrapers and the city before them was busy in the twilight hours. Workers were heading home, parents were picking up children, people were heading out to clubs and restaurants, and the streets were bumper-to-bumper with traffic. There were yellow taxis as far as the eye could see.

"How is it that we've travelled all over the galaxy," Jason began, "but New York is still New York?"

Zac smiled. He loved the noise and excitement of the city. "So what's the deal?" he asked. "I missed the team meeting."

"That's what happens when you sleep in," Tommy said.

"At least he's wearing pants this time," Kim nodded, and Zac laughed.

"The Command Centre routinely sweeps the world for unusual energy signals," Trini began. "Early this morning, Alpha spotted a massive energy spike in this building. For some reason, the scanners couldn't take a closer look. So here we are."

Billy glanced to the apartment windows behind them, looking out over the rooftop. "This is definitely the location Alpha directed us to," he said.

"And it looks like," Trini continued, holding up the Command Centre's portable computer, "there were a number of 911 calls last night, reporting a meteor shower above the city. According to several witnesses, the meteors were shooting up, not down."

"Sounds like a teleport to me," nodded Tommy.

"Aliens in New York eh?" asked Zac. "I'm sure I've seen this movie."

"It makes sense though," Kim said. "This city is a melting pot of people from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures. If you wanted to fit in somewhere you didn't fit in, this'd be the place to do it."

"Let's head inside," Jason said. The door was unlocked, and the six Rangers stepped into the living area of the apartment and came to a stop. They'd all been Rangers long enough to recognise alien technology, and they suddenly found themselves surrounded by it. On nearly all the tables sat alien devices, all with blinking lights and tangled wiring. On the dining table was a rectangular device about the size of a television with two crooked antenna. A cloak of shimmering, unearthly fabric lay draped over one of the couches, while a plant with flower bulbs none of them recognised was standing by the front door.

"Are we sure this is the place?" Zac asked.

Billy stepped over to the dining table. "I'd have to analyse it," he began, "but I'm certain this was some kind of cloaking device. On a theory, when the occupants left, it had nobody left to shield and automatically powered down. All of this technology then immediately registered on the Command Centre's scanners."

The Rangers split up to explore the apartment, finding it similarly deserted as the main living space. In the bedrooms, only about half the clothes had been taken, the other half still hanging in the closets. The kitchen cupboards were full of food, while the office and children's rooms still held an assortment of toys and knick-knacks, all abandoned. The Rangers reunited in the living room a few minutes later.

"Place is empty," Jason said. "But we should get all this back to Zordon."

"Guys?" Zac asked. "Wasn't that plant on the other side of the doorway when we got here?"

Everyone turned to look at the plant. The plant turned to look at the Rangers, and everyone immediately took two steps away from it.

"What do we think happened here?" Trini asked. "I've seen no signs of violence and nothing's broken. If there was a fight, the neighbours would've heard."

"I don't think they were causing trouble," Tommy began, picking up a stack of papers off a nearby desk. "Whoever lived here, they were receiving pay slips from a four-star Manhattan hotel. Look at these receipts! Why pay all your bills if you're just gonna skip the planet?"

"The only thing this family was guilty of is messy packing," Kim added.

"But that's the point," Trini said, and swept her gaze around the apartment. "Whoever these people were, they left in a hurry," and the Yellow Ranger paused to let her words sink in. "I would very much like to know why."

The rest of us were gathered in the Command Centre when Brendan returned. Once he'd arrived, the senior team relayed everything they'd found in New York, before Brendan told us what he'd seen in Briarwood.

"I spoke to Madison and Clare back in the Rockporium," Brendan finished. "They said the same thing Xander had, that the door to the Mystic Realm had been locked and bolted shut from the inside, and nobody knew why."

"That doesn't make sense," Sarah said. "If someone was scary enough to do that, shouldn't we already know about them?"

"Zordon, do you think these two things are connected?" asked Tommy.

"There was nothing in the apartment that connected it to Briarwood," Kim began. "But it'd be an awfully-big coincidence if they weren't."

"I don't know about anyone else," Trini said, "but even hearing the word 'coincidence' makes me nervous these days."

"Maybe there is something bigger going on that we can't see," Jason spoke up. "I remember seeing something on the news a couple of nights ago. NASA was saying there's been a sharp rise in the number of UFO sightings in the last couple of weeks."

"Yeah, I saw that too," Brendan said. "It was on the morning news while I was having breakfast. The newsreader was talking about all these local UFO sightings, right before his face melted off."

Everyone froze. We all turned to each other, then looked to Brendan. But he didn't seem to notice. He looked distracted, his gaze unfocussed. Zac recognised the look on Brendan's face and rested a hand on the younger Ranger's shoulder.

"Hey Bren," he asked, "how much sleep have you been getting lately?"

Brendan laughed. "Not a lot," he said. "I've been having bad dreams again. I think it's the Shadow King case, it gets in my head."

"Zordon, what do you think?" Teresa asked. "Are we due for an unscheduled alien invasion?"

"It doesn't seem likely," Zordon replied. "There's been no warnings or signs. We've received no information from any of our agents on other planets. Indeed, most of them are strangely quiet. There's certainly been no indication of trouble from any of the aliens already on Earth."

"Wait," I said. "Rewind that. I feel like this is information we should already be across. How many aliens are there living on Earth?"

"More than a few," Zordon replied. "You'd be surprised. The vast majority are content to quietly live their lives in peace and harmony. Take the Traxians for example. An extended family who fled to Earth many years ago, as political refugees from a violent war on the planet Techthon. They settled on one of the Greek islands. I believe they run a successful tourism business. But their starship technology is advanced, even by galactic standards. If their engine cores ever fell into the wrong hands, it would be disastrous. Alpha and I keep an eye on them, for their safety and ours."

Jason couldn't help but grin. "And do they know we're keeping an eye on them?" he asked.

"No," Zordon replied. "It's simpler that way."

"Bren, before you got here," Sarah began, "we tried to contact Olympus. I know that ever since the impossible boy mission, they haven't been returning our calls. This time, they didn't even pick up."

"I can't blame them," Kim replied. "Every time we call them, it's because there's a disaster on our heels."

"But we don't even know what this is, yet," Zac said.

Scott raised his hand. "Permission to go AWOL?" he asked. "We have other sources we can ask. Let me try and track down a lead. I'll see what I can find."

"That sounds like a plan," Zordon nodded. "In the meantime Rangers? You should head back to the city and have a quiet afternoon. Alpha and I will do some digging into the Mystic Realm and investigate the UFO sightings to see if there's a link."

"Good idea," Brendan murmured. "I'm beat."

"You know what you should do?" Kim asked. "Put something lame on TV and shut your eyes."

A few feet away, I turned to Ian. "Go with him," I said softly.

Ian nodded. "C'mon Bren, let's get out of here," Ian said. With that, everyone reached for their communicators.

To be continued.