Johnathan Perry, Johnny to his friends, was a worker at the zoo in his home town of Savannah City, which was owned by his grandmother, a Native American-descended woman known as Rose Blackhawk (she had reverted to her maiden name after going through a rather messy divorce). Every Saturday, at 1PM, he would take the one break he allowed himself a week investigating the nearby woods for three hours. And that time had come once more. "I'll be back home later, Grandma.", he called out, heading for the door.

"Hopefully not after dark.", she called back as Johnny left the house.

Johnny soon found his way to the woods, once more continuing his project of mapping the whole area out. "This place seems larger and larger the more I cover.", he noted. Working his way through foliage, he soon found what appeared to be a large metal cube. "Was this always here?", he asked as he looked up in the sky for what might be some unusual Solar activity, but there was none that was immediately visible. He went over to the cube, deciding to reach out and touch it. He figured that it likely wasn't radioactive, given that none of the trees around them were at all sickly. But when he touched it, everything turned blue and he felt his elf being sucked into a vortex. Johnny screamed out in peril, but nobody came to help him before he vanished into the closing portal. Though the scene did not go unwitnessed, as a humanoid with a head resembling an eagle poked his head out through the bushes, before turning and leaving.

Thousands of light years away, there lies a box shaped planet similar in environment to Earth, known as Cubalia. The major difference were that rock formations and architecture bore more of a resemblance to cubes. And instead of evolving from apes, the inhabitants of this planet, known as Animen, had evolved from a variety of different animals, resulting in the world having multiple different types of inhabitants.

Among these inhabitants were Tora, who was a distant relative of the Arctic White Tiger, and Trunks, who shared a common ancestor with the Indian Elephant. Both were members of the Planetary Guardians, who existed to ensure that potential outside threats to their world were routed. But being junior members of the organisation, they were currently assigned to watch over a special glowing cube, a job that was taking its toll on Tora. "Hey, Trunks", she said, breaking the hours-long silence. "Do you ever think we weren't meant for something like this."

"As I've told you several times," Trunks began his usual speech whenever Tora asked this "being a Planetary Guardian is…"

"The highest honour that can be bestowed upon we Animen.", Tora sighed as she repeated him word-for-word. "I just mean, surely there's a more exciting avenue in life out there. It's not like this thing even does anything."

As if on cue, the cube began to glow blue, as a portal appeared within it. "You were saying-?", Trunks asked as something shot out of the portal and crashed into the wall. Trunks and Tora went over to examine the thing that had been spat out of the portal, and were shocked at what they saw. "I don't believe it."

"What? What is it?", Tora asked, being unfamiliar with the creature. "What do we do?"

"It's a human.", Trunks answered her. "Which means there's only one thing we can do. We need to inform her."

"Her" would be Marina, an Animan who bore the features of a great white shark, and the current leader of the Planetary Guardians. Now, along with her reliable second in command, a Lion-descended Animan by the name of Lenny, she was heading over to the portal in order to check out the latest report. "A human, here?", she asked. "How's that even possible?"

Lenny gave his answer. "They say he came through from the other side of a portal. A portal opened by that cube we're guarding."

"That cube?", Marina gasped. "Well, at least we can tell the Tribunal what it does. But first, we need to find out what his human is doing here." She and Lenny then went into the room, where they saw Trunks and Tora, standing over the human, who was slowly coming to.

"Urgh, my head.", the human said as his eyes opened, at which point all 4 Animen Planetary Guardians came into his line of sight. "Whoah, what was I doing last night?"

"Listen here, human." Marina began. "We are the Planetary Guardians of Cubalia. You will confess your intentions to us or face the consequences."

"Look, my name's Johnny, and I didn't come here by choice." The human - Johnny - answered her. "I was travelling through the woods and I found this weird cube. When I tried touching it, I ended up here."

"So, there's a cube much like this one on your planet?", Lenny asked. "That's-."

"Fachinating?", Trunks tried finishing.

"I was going to say 'unlikely'.", Lenny corrected him.

Tora decided to speak. "I think I believe him.", she said. "The story seems too fantastic to be made up."

"In that case, we'd better try and bring him to the Tribunal.", Marina suggested. "They might be able to agree to send him home." She had Trunks and Tora grab hold of them, before escorting the group out of the room.

Elsewhere on the planet, a different kind of visitor from off world made his entrance. This one resembled a creature born from a dead tree, that had been set on fire. Looking around, he took out his communicator to talk to his superior, a silver being with a pointed head and bright blue eyes. "Trunkrush reporting in, Lord Archris. Looks like that transport signal we detected proved fortuitous in finding our target planet."

"That is good to hear.", Archris responded. "After aeons of searching the cosmos, the ultimate prize is within my grasp. I advise you search for the largest energy mass on the planet, and that will lead you to the target."

"Understood.", Trunkrush nodded as he ended the call, before bringing up a scanner function, which pointed to a large red blip, which Trunkrush saw indicated an object in the distance. "Target located. Time to take this planet's rarest lifeforms." He started walking to his target, assured of his success.

And at the Planetary Guardians' headquarters, Johnny's escort to the Tribunal had turned into a guided tour, courtesy of Tora's absent-mindedness. "And in here, we keep our emergency power enhancers." She indicated a set of 5 cube-shaped objects, with a 6th podium that was empty. "We normally have 6 of them, but one of them went missing a few years back, and we haven't been able to recover it, or make a new one."

"Is this really necessary?", Marina sighed. "We are supposed to see what the Tribunal decree we do with him, not tell him all of our secrets."

"I'm sure he's harmless.", Tora assured her leader. "What's the harm in sharing a few small details of what we do?"

"I agree.", Johnny nodded. "Now then, what do these 'emergency power enhancers' do exactly?"

"They draw upon power from creatures native to our planet, known as 'Cubezords'.", Tora explained. "This generates a transformative suit which enhances the power of those who use the cubes, allowing them to fight off any threat that can't be taken down immediately."

"Oh, so it's like the Power Rangers.", Johnny realised.

Trunks was confused by this statement. "What?"

"Power Rangers. They're major heroes back on Earth.", Johnny explained. "They use things like this, called Morphers, to change into costumed warriors with incredible power."

"I suppose they could be related.", Trunks suggested. "After all, the origin of the enhancers, or as you suggest they are, Morphers, is unknown."

"All we know is that it was 2000 years ago, at the birth of our civilisation.", Marina explained. "An intergalactic empress known as Floriana, a plant-based lifeform, took umbrage at our planet, one inhabited by animal life, existing, and sent her enforcer Centitrax to our world to make an example of us. But then, a whale Animan named Jonas stepped forward, challenging Centitrax to a duel to determine our world's fate, which the destroyer accepted. Jonas was outmatched in the duel, but in his moment of need, a large whale like creature appeared and imbued him with a large cube, which transformed him into a more powerful warrior. With this new power, Jonas overpowered Centitrax, and fired a blast of water powerful enough to tear apart his foe's body as he was launched into space. Soon after, Jonas' power source was reverse engineered for the use of the newly formed Planetary Guardians, and his beneficiary soon gave birth to several more like him in order to empower them."

The group was then interrupted by the sound of an explosion, followed by an alarm siren blaring. "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!", a mechanical voice began echoing.

"What's that?", Johnny asked.

"It's an emergency.", Lenny explained. "We can handle it. You just stay here."

"Let's go, everyone.", Marina stated as the 4 Animen left the room, leaving Johnny alone.

"There's got to be something I can do to help.", Johnny said to himself, as he looked at the 5 power enhancers.

And elsewhere within the building, the 4 active Planetary Guardians came to the source of the destruction, a hole in the wall through which Trunkrush entered the building. "A plant alien?", Trunks asked. "Floriana really wanted another crack at us after 2000 years?"

"Floriana? Hah! Don't make me laugh.", was Trunkrush's answer. "That old weed wilted away long ago. I am a servant of the great Archris, here to take control of your most valuable lifeforms. Your Cubezords. Give them to me, and I may spare your lives."

"Not a chance, creep.", Tora said, defiantly.

"The Cubezords are not yours to take.", Marina stated, with more emphasis. "Not so long as we stand in your way." The 4 of them picked up wooden spears from nearby, charging forth to attack.

However, Trunkrush felt nothing from being hit by all 4 at once. "You fools! I was born of wood." He reached in and pulled out all 4 spears, throwing them to the ground.

"In that case," Lenny presented his claws and leapt forward to begin scratching the tree-like creature, who flinched from the damage. "We'll have to take you on Mano et Mano."

"I like that idea.", Trunks nodded, as he lowered his trunk into a nearby fountain, and absorbed the water, which he then sprayed at Trunkrush as Lenny moved out of the way. Following this attack, Marina and Tora moved forward to bite down on the alien's arms, pulling backwards to knock fragments of wood off him.

It was then that Trunkrush laughed. "Your pitiful attacks haven't so much as scratched me." He then unleashed an energy bolt from both of his arms, knocking the 4 back. "None of you ever had even a ghost of a chance for defeating me."

"Maybe not them." Johnny then came running forward, holding one of the power enhancers. "But maybe with this, I can."

"A human? You're a long way from home.", Trunkrush commented. "But I'm sure you'll be a curiosity when they sift their way through the wreckage and find your bodies."

"Johnny, don't!", Marina called out. "Those are supposed to enhance Animan abilities. There's no telling what it will do to a human."

"That's not important, right now.", came the reply from Johnny. "What's important is that all of you are in danger. And I can't just sit by and do nothing." As he said this, Johnny was surrounded by a red aura, which took the shape of a giant eagle.

"No way!", Trunks stated. "The only other person I've seen with that kind of resolve is…"

He was interrupted as the cube transformed into a black box, with several patterns on it. Johnny then opened it up to reveal several buttons, 10 of which had numbers from 1-9 and 0, and the other three of which were coloured red, blue and yellow. He pressed the red button and then the number 1. "It's Morphin Time!" Johnny then turned the top of the cube around, creating a pattern of five animals - an eagle, a shark, a lion, an elephant and a tiger - which glowed, before generating a red suit on Johnny, which had a helmet with a feathered crest motif and a golden mouth area, resembling a beak. He also bore a symbol resembling an eagle's face on his chest. He also bore white gloves and boots, with a black zigzag pattern

"No, it can't be!", Trunkrush gasped. "He's become a Power Ranger."

"That term again.", Tora noted. "Looks like Johnny was onto something."

Johnny then took a moment to look at his new suit. "Well, I should've expected this." He then turned back to Trunkrush. "Now then, let's rumble." He ran forward and delivered a punch to the alien, knocking him back. He then leapt up for a diving kick, coming back down to knock his foe back with his foot. "What are you after here?"

"I came here in search of the Cubezords.", Trunkrush repeated.

"Well, you're a few years too late.", Lenny remarked.

"Yeah, because they vanished along with our old leader and one of the power enhancers.", Tora blurted out.

"Is that so?", Trunkrush asked. "Do you know where he went?"

"I don't know.", Tora answered him. "His pass says he was entering the room with the big cube, the same one that transported Johnny here from Earth." Marina shattered her in the face. "Ow. Did I say something I shouldn't?"

"Earth, huh." Trunkrush laughed. "The most invaded planet in the universe. Archris's Space Hunters could do quite nicely there." He pressed a button on his scanner, teleporting out with an evil laugh.

"Nice going, motor mouth.", Trunks chided Tora. "Now we've got that guy going to attack a planet that might not contain what he's actually after." Johnny then chose that moment to power down. "And you. How did you use that to become a Power Ranger, or whatever? Only an Eagle Animan should've been able to use that power set of yours."

"Wait a minute.", Johnny realised. "An Eagle Animan… so that would be a humanoid eagle?" He had a flashback to his childhood, with the vision of such a being bearing over him, saying 'Don't be afraid. I'm not going to harm you' before leaving. "Because I've seen someone like that. Back on Earth, a long time ago."

"So you see, I wasn't lying to that nice tree man.", Tora insisted. "I just said a little too much."

"Regardless, this is bad.", Marina pointed out. "All of you get back inside. I'm going to report this incident to the Tribunal. I'll be back soon with their decision." She then set off.

And so, about an hour later, within the room containing the Wild Morphers, as Johnny had insisted on calling the power enhancers, the 4 were greeted by a returning Marina. "The Tribunal said that since Johnny here has bonded with the power enhancer -."

"Wild Morpher.", Johnny insisted. "It's less clunky."

Marina continued. "He is allowed to continue using it in order to defend his planet. But, since we were responsible for pushing Trunkrush towards Earth, not only are we to assist Johnny in helping defend his planet from harm, but we're forced to defer to him on all matters."

"So in short, he's our leader now.", Trunks sighed. "Great."

"In that case, my first order is for you to pick up these." He indicated the remaining power enhancers. "I'm not going into battle with that guy unless I have a whole team of Rangers behind me. After all, the Power Rangers are always at their strongest as a team."

"A noble sentiment.", Marina nodded as she picked up one of them, which shifted into a Wild Morpher identical to Johnny's. "I guess my last order is for the authorisation to use these." The other 3 picked up their Morphers from the table.

"But there's one small problem.", Johnny pointed out. "While you guys recognised me as a human, I'm not quite sure people on Earth would be accepting of a bunch of animal men. And I can't exactly explain why we all have black boxes."

"Don't worry about that.", Lenny assured him. "They're made of a material that regular humans can't perceive on their spectrum. And as for the face thing." He and the others took out a capsule each, which they then consumed, all of them transforming into a humanoid appearance.

"These are DNA cloaks.", Trunsk explained. "As long as we keep these on us at all time, like say, being lodged in our teeth, then we'll appear as a human both to naked eyes and DNA tests."

The now human Tora began feeling her face, and her back. "It feels so weird to not have my fur or tail. I hope this isn't permanent."

"As long as you don't swallow or remove it, it is.", Marina explained. "But regardless, is there water on your planet? Even transformed into a human, I'm gonna go crazy if I can't do my daily swim."

Johnny smiled. "Oh, you are gonna love Earth."

Out in space, Trunkrush returned to the Space Hunters' mothership, a vessel resembling a bow and arrow pointed at the planets it orbited. Whoever designed the ship obviously did not believe in subtlety. There, he was greeted by Ignoblia, a green alien in a black bodysuit with a silver face. "You had better have a good reason for coming back empty handed.", Ignoblia chided. "Archris does not take kindly to failure."

"I've come back without the Cubezords because they are no longer on Cubalia.", Trunkrush reported. "They were transported to Earth some time ago."

"Planet Earth?", Ignoblia noted with fascination. "I'm sure that Archris and his other generals will relish the chance to hunt on the same planet that ended the empires of Lord Zedd, Lothor, Moltor, Flurious, Kamdor, the Fearkats, Emperor Mavro and Galvanax. You really believe we can find the Cubezords there?"

"The inhabitants of Cubalia said as much.", was Trunkrush's answer. "And besides, the planet is only 20% land. There's little place they can hide from us."

"Very well then.", Ignoblia nodded as she went over to operate the ship's controls. "Coordinates are set. Let's hope that this planet proves fruitful for our plans."