Disclaimer: Should have noted this before, just in case it wasn't obvious. I do not own Descendants (2015) or Power Rangers as a whole, nor do I own any of the characters from the movie/show. The concept for the powers and the villains are mine though. Unless needed to be done otherwise, such as a monster that I did not make or the appearance of an OC, this will be the only such reminder.
Thunder crashed, but the five Auradon Rangers didn't even notice as they were working through the soldiers. They had only a half dozen to go through when all of a sudden they backed up. "Come on guys, we're just getting warmed up." Jay taunted them.
"Then perhaps we can find something more to your speed, boy." They heard from the bleachers. The five of them turned and at first it seemed as if it was simply a disembodied voice but a moment later appeared a man who looked to be grayish and muscular, green hair flowing around him. One eye glowed the same color as the soldiers themselves while the other glowed a light blue. Beside him was an older, almost grizzled, old woman in a cloak, her features almost obscured. They had a dozen more soldiers with them.
"These are our enemies?" Audrey couldn't help but ask incredulously. Mal couldn't help but agree in all honesty.
"You should watch your tongue little girl." The woman said. "The last time someone had such an attitude with me they came to regret it for a long, long time." She laughed. "In fact, let me show you a product of that regret right now."
"What does she mean by that?" Carlos questioned apprehensively.
Lighting seemed to strike right between the five rangers and the two villains and it drew smoke briefly. When that cleared there stood a figure in full bodied dark armor, holding a large sword and an ornately crafted shield. "You have summoned me, state your desire." The masculine voice stated from the armor.
The woman pointed toward the five colorful clad warriors. "Destroy them so that we can take this world." She ordered.
"It shall be done." The knight stated and then charged right at the Rangers. Jay moved to intercept him with his scimitar with Mal only a step behind him with her longer range staff and the two of them swung at knight. He brought up his shield and blocked both strikes, then he swiped his sword and slashed both rangers across the chest, sending them spiraling backwards.
"That's encouraging." Audrey noted dryly and looked to the blue ranger. "Evie do you think you can reflect his attack like you did those minion things?" She asked.
Evie bit her lip nervously. "I don't know, but we'll find out." She declared as she started toward the knight. He seemed to chuckle slightly as she approached and then unleashed a sword slash on her. Before the blue ranger could react it seemed to encircle all around her and encircle all around her, giving no way to try to deflect it.
"That is not a good sign for us." Carlos said and took a deep breath. "Okay, here I go." He leapt toward the knight and tried to attack him but he blocked the downward strike with his shield and then slashed Carlos across the chest hard.
He then looked toward Audrey. "Last one standing girl." He declared in his booming voice. It wasn't quite true as both Mal and Jay were starting to get up already.
Already though Audrey knew she didn't want to try to get up close and she raised the bow up, wishing she knew how to get arrows and was in fact about to ask Jane over the helmet intercom how do to do so as she pulled the string back only to find an arrow shimmer into existence into the bow. "That's convenient." She noted. "Let's try it out."
"You think an arrow can do anything to me after your little friends failed to do anything to me?" He questioned the red ranger amused as he started to walk toward her. "Take your best shot." Audrey was afraid he was right about that one as she shot the arrow at him, which he easily deflected with his own shield.
Jay struck the knight with his scimitar from behind and as the knight turned to try to slash the black ranger with his sword he had already anticipated the shot and had dodged under it as Mal came in from the side and used her staff to tangle his right leg up in it and made him trip backwards.
From the his front and from his back both Carlos and Audrey came forward, the red ranger striking her bow across his back as the yellow ranger leapt on top of him and slashed his daggers across his chest. The four combined attacks forced him to the ground as the four of them gathered around Evie now.
"That was some good work here guys." Evie said to the four rangers. "Now let's see what we can do to finish this knight off for good." She raised her mirror shield as if waiting for the knight's next attack.
"You've already tried that once and failed ranger." The knight reminded her with a laugh. "How do you think that will save you now?"
"Because she won't be alone." Audrey announced. "She'll have us."
"That's not a bad idea actually." Mal agreed. She looked to the guys. "Channel your energies into Evie and let's see if all of our powers combined can help deflect his energies."
"Alright." Carlos agreed and Jay added his own, "It's worth a shot."
"If that is your foolish attempt at protection than so be it." The knight stated and started forward with his mega slash attack again. Mal put one of her staff's ends on of Evie's shoulder with Audrey placing one of her bow's end on Evie's other shoulder. Jay placed his scimitar on top of Audrey's bow while Carlos placed his clawed daggers on the other end of Mal's staff. When the knight's slash attack struck at Evie, and consequently ricocheted around her team mates the power was absorbed into their weapons and then channeled into the mirror shield, which reflected back at the knight and caused a huge explosion.
Carlos and Jay were the first to hit the ground, feeling the air rushing out of their lungs. The yellow ranger's luck landing got a little worse when he felt Mal's head land onto his stomach hard, to which she got out, "My bad Carlos." Audrey meanwhile landed next to the black ranger and had her breath knocked out of her lungs too. Evie landed hard in between both girls, also trying to catch her breath.
The upside was the knight was sent crashing down too; his sword having been thrown from his hand and his shield was nowhere to be found at that moment. His landing seemed to be a bit harder as well since he was surrounded by hard metal armor.
Paradias laughed. "Impressive, rangers." He conceded. A few of the warriors stepped aside as he descended the bleachers. "But do you really think you can make that work against me?"
"He has got to be kidding." Carlos said as he rose shakily to his feet. He was bordering exhaustion and was pretty sure Jay and the girls were too. "What are we supposed to do now?"
"We have to try to fight." Jay declared as he stood up, helping Audrey to her feet as well. Mal was already on her feet as well as she helped Evie to stand.
Privately Audrey had to admire their courage, something she hadn't expected when they first showed up Auradon. Even this went beyond what she had heard about them standing up to Maleficent when she had crashed the coronation. Even still, these odds were even more abysmal. "Great idea, but how do we do that without dying in that process?"
"That is a darn good question." Evie had to agree.
"We'll figure this out." Mal said with more confidence than she felt. "We have no choice in the matter." She looked to Carlos, Evie and Jay. "Remember; the strength of evil is as good as none when four..." She stopped as she glanced at Audrey. She had shown almost as much courage as the four of them had and quickly amended, "When five hearts stand as one."
Paradias laughed. "That has to be the lamest thing I have ever heard." He mocked.
The five rangers each took a battle stance and got ready to fight. Then something zipped right between Carlos and Mal. They saw Dude jump up and snatch the scepter that Nerissa had been holding, and as one of the soldier leapt for it he released the scepter. It rolled and tapped against Paradias. He looked down and that moment of distraction was enough for Mal to step up and ram her staff right into his chest, sending him a few steps backwards. Mal gasped a bit, surprised to feel some of his power…it felt familiar somehow.
With a growl the knight stepped up from behind Carlos and Evie and tried to bring his sword down on the blue ranger. In a flash Jay was in front and barely blocked the swing. Audrey took a step back before jumping up, leaping off the black ranger's scimitar and then kicking the knight in the chest enough to send him stumbling back from the four rangers.
"Thanks guys." Carlos said as he high fived Jay. "And great teamwork." Evie added.
"Mal." Audrey realized they had left the half fairy girl alone against Paradias and they all turned to their leader. They needn't have worried as Paradias had just recovered and retrieved Nerissa's staff. The leader of the soldier's glanced around and then raised his arm, snapping his fingers.
From a portal emerged a large red bird that released fire from its. "Garunx, destroy them." Paradias ordered right before he and Nerissa vanished. In response the demonic looking bird spewed fire and Dude quickly went far away from the monster.
Evie turned around quickly to see some better news for them…the knight had disappeared with them. "Looks like it's just the soldiers and the bird." She told them.
"Great, who wants chicken for dinner tonight?" Jay asked with a laugh.
"I think eating that would give us heartburn." Audrey answered with a slightly disgusted tone to her voice. "Assuming we even want to take that chance."
"Fair enough." Mal agreed. "We'll skip the meal and move straight to the check." She raised her staff. "Are you with me?"
"Yes, ma'am." Evie said as she stepped up to Mal's left.
"You know it." Jay said as stepped up to Mal's right.
"I'm game." Carlos said as he stepped up next to Evie.
Audrey hesitated only a second before nodding and stepping up next to Jay. "Let's do it guys." She agreed.
Garunx had the purplish skinned soldiers flanking him now. "Attack, bring me their heads." Garunx commanded. The soldiers started forward with the bird monster behind him. The purple and black rangers found themselves engaging the monster while Carlos and the other two girls were fighting the soldiers yet again.
Garunx shot flames at Mal and she back flipped out of the way. Jay tackled the monster, which interrupted the flame burst, and flipped it around his body. As the monster rose Jay brought the scimitar down, slashing him hard, and Mal followed up with one of the staff's ends bashing into its chest.
Carlos was slashing through the soldiers, having picked up the pace on how do so. Audrey was using her bow as she had earlier, using the sharp edges on her weapon to take soldiers out. Both were moving in a yellow and red blur respectively. Evie didn't need to worry about moving around as much as she was starting to get used to her mirror shield's powers and using what she was quickly thinking of as her mirror force. The results against the soldiers was still the same.
That was a good thing since Garunx was proving to be a bit harder. He had risen immediately and had slashed at both Jay and Mal, knocking them down hard. He had tried to proceed with frying the two rangers but they were able to at least roll out of the way. "You can't run forever kiddies." He taunted.
"That is one rude bird." Jay noted with a dry laugh. "In another lifetime he would have been kind of cool."
"Yes he would have." Mal agreed grimly. It was a bit of irony to her that what might have once been a great ally not even more than a couple of months ago would be an annoying opponent that they had to face down now.
"Now the only cooling will have to be us putting him on ice." Carlos joked with a small laugh.
The look of shared incredulity on Audrey and Evie's faces would have been rather comical if it had been seen through the helmets. "Really, you had to try that one out?" The red ranger questioned.
Mal laughed a little bit. "Yeah, hate to say it Carlos but that was pretty lame." She agreed.
"Which, when you think about it is kind of par for the course." Jay now mocked good naturedly.
"Guys, the chicken." Carlos insisted as he gestured toward the monster.
Garunx growled at them as if annoyed he had basically been put to the side and then shot a burst of fire at the rangers. Evie used her mirror shield to again deflect the attack but it didn't do anything against the fire bird creature. "Okay, that won't work." Evie noted grimly.
"Then we'll make something else work." Mal said. She looked to Jay and then looked to Audrey and made a shooting motion with thumb and forefinger. The two of the nodded and then the purple and black rangers went straight for Garunx. The winged beast flew up away from the attacks. "You won't be getting me that easily." He mocked.
But that was the response Mal was hoping for as Audrey took a step back and raised her bow. Again as she pulled back the silky feeling bow she released not one, but two arrows, back to back and each of them pierced into either of his wings. The monster screeched in pain and crashed to his ground.
"Wow, you can really shoot. That first one wasn't a coincidence." Carlos said impressively.
Audrey nodded. "Yeah, I grew up with archery." She answered. "Didn't think I'd be applying what I learned in those lessons that way but at least it's working."
"No one can argue that one." Evie agreed.
While that conversation had gone on Mal and Jay had moved in and struck the monster in both shoulders. "Follow up please." Mal called out to her team mates.
"You got it M." Evie responded and then jumped at the monster herself, slamming the edge of the mirror shield against the monsters head. Audrey and Carlos came from either side of Evie and jammed their weapons into the Garunx and sent him flying again.
"Looks like you guys are getting the hang of things." Jane said to them from the helmet intercom. "My mother wanted to me to emphasize the getting the team work thing too. We have another surprise for you, and it should help you finish that weird bird thing off." As she spoke from their command center she pressed a couple of buttons and on each of their hips materialized blasters. Each of the five teens let their weapons fade as they drew their lasers. "Combining the five of your energies should allow you to take him out."
As Garunx was getting to his feet, still reeling over the double team the rangers had done to him, the three girls stood facing him; Evil, Mal and Audrey. Carlos and Jay jumped up to land on the girl's shoulders, which truthfully wasn't as hard to maintain as they thought it would be but they didn't want to hold that position for all that long. They didn't need to though as they brought their blasters up to the middle and shot their lasers together. The beams intersected and twirled. "That's what I like to call the Auradon Triangle Blast." They heard Jane tell them. With no better ideas the rangers didn't dispute it and shot it right at Garunx. He exploded into embers.
The guys were quickly off the girls shoulders. "We did it!" Carlos exclaimed happily.
"Yeah, we did." Audrey said softly. "But only barely." As the five rangers demorphed the princess turned toward the isle kids. "That was very nearly an unmitigated disaster."
"I know we weren't exactly a well-oiled machine but give us some credit." Jay replied.
"Credit where credit is due." Mal agreed but looked at Audrey and then her adopted family. "But Audrey is right, that was really a skin of our teeth victory and we're going to change that if we want to stop Paradias and whatever he throws at us in the future." They started back to their command center as the skies started to lighten up.
Jane breathed a sigh of relief as the first battle was brought to a conclusion. "They won." She breathed.
"Just barely." Fairy Godmother reminded her daughter, echoing what Audrey had just said. "But this was just the warm up match. We're going to have to make sure we're more prepared in the future, at least if we want to make sure we have a future for the United States of Auradon."
"That was an awesome sight to see though." They heard Ben say from behind them. Jane jumped slightly, knowing he wasn't there only a moment earlier but it seemed as if her mother hadn't even noticed he had gone missing during the fight.
It was only another ten minutes before the five rangers showed up and Ben was already going to them, exchanging high fives with Jay before lifting Mal into his arms and twirling her around as he had after Mal had defeated Maleficent at the coronation. He set her down on the ground, pecked her on the cheek and then looked to Carlos and the other two girls. "That was great you guys." He said.
Jane had to hold back a frown as she watched everyone. She was still confused how Ben could know that when he wasn't around for most of the fight.
"We do have a long way to go." Mal said to Ben but she laughed a bit. "But we are so on the right path guys."
"You all each have a taste of what's ahead for you." Fairy Godmother spoke seriously as she looked to the five rangers. "If you want to back out of this now, I would fully understand."
"Are you kidding?" Jay asked with a laugh of his own. "I am so in. This is great." He looked to Evie and Ben and mocked, "As Chad says, I do like to hurt others after all." That resulted in chuckles from each of them, even Audrey.
"Man, if Jay is in then so am I." Carlos said. "We're team mates after all." Jay nodded his approval and the two of them fist bumped.
"I'm in too." Mal replied. "I said I wanted to be good, and this is the highest thing I can think of that to prove that to everyone," She looked at Audrey for just a moment before adding a bit shyly, "Including to myself."
Ben rubbed her back gently. "I told you you were a good person." Ben said softly.
"Count me in too." Evie said. "We're a family, and we're going to need all the support we can get."
The isle kids and Ben looked to Audrey, who turned her back and paced a moment before turning to face them. "So let me get this straight. I get to put my life in danger on a near constant basis, work with four people who I barely know and only semi trust, and on top of it all wear a helmet that totally ruins my hair." She stated.
"Yep, sounds about right." Mal replied deadpan. She offered her former rival her hand.
Audrey laughed. "Yeah, it does." She stepped forward and clasped her former rival's hand in her own. "Count me in too." She looked to Fairy Godmother.
Fairy Godmother smiled at them all. She found it somewhat fitting that Auradon's hope rested in four villain kids and a girl that as Queen Belle had said (and she couldn't argue) was rather self-absorbed and one could even say selfish. "I'm very pleased to hear all of you say that." She said. "I know we have a lot of work ahead of us and we have a lot of things to iron out but we can do this. We can save the world."
Jane set the command center on standby, having linked the ranger's iPhones to the system as well as her phone and her mother's phone. She glanced at Ben. "I didn't see you for a while during the fight, your majesty." She noted. "Where did you go off to?"
"I went to check on some of the people in the school." Ben answered simply. "If I couldn't be out there fighting the evil I could at least make sure no one was panicking too much."
"How very noble." Mal said drawly as she smiled and squeezed one of his hands in hers.
They headed up the stairs, out of the classroom to see some of the students coming out. It wasn't long before Lonnie found them. "Are you guys okay? What's going on?" She asked them.
They each exchanged brief glances before Audrey said. "We're just fine Lonnie. Fairy Godmother just needed their help with a few broken windows." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I just had to tag along, and now I'm even more soaked for my efforts." She tried to act indignant.
"As long as everything is okay." Lonnie said. "I'll see you in classes tomorrow." And with that she was off.
"Wow." Evie said, slightly impressed. "I thought it would have to be one of us who would have to come up with the lie."
"I don't really like to lie." Audrey replied. "But the truth is that I'm going to have to get used to it, considering no one is really supposed to know about this."
"Hey, I get it." Ben reminded Audrey. He had after all grown up pretty much the same way as his ex had. Lying, cheating and stealing were not exactly apropos in Auradon after all. "But this does seem to be for the greater good."
Mal laughed a little. "Greater good. That's something I never would have even considered not too long ago." She mused.
Ben kissed her on the cheek. "Change is the only constant thing in this world." He told her. "Get used to it." He looked to Audrey and his friends. "All of you…of us better get used to it."
Far above in the night sky was a ship in orbit. From what had to be the bridge area a door opened and out stepped out Paradias and Nerissa. At several of the consoles were soldiers working to keep the ship running. In the center was a large throne that Paradias ascended to immediately as Nerissa stayed by the stairs.
"Whoever organized these rangers must think they have one pulled out over us." Paradias said and then laughed. "But they already made their fatal mistake." He held out his hand as one of the soldiers held out a padd to him and he took it and looked at it. "It will be their undoing as we take them apart one at a time. Starting with the red ranger."