Reminder: The ranger powers were conceived by me, the characters using the powers are part of Descendants and I do not own that.
"How much longer before we're ready to implement this plan?" Paradias asked Nerissa.
She smiled eagerly. "We're almost ready to begin." She revealed. "A matter of moments." A soldier came up to her and handed her a small vial of light blue liquid which she had manufactured. "Once given to our targets we will ensure they remain out of the fight as long as our monster is standing."
Paradias took it from her and glanced at it. "I see." He said. "How interesting." He gave it back to her. "Send our monster down as soon as it's ready. Let's see how they handle this little game."
Audrey and Ben had gotten out of their Negotiations 102 class early and sat down one of the benches by the tourney field as they waited for Jane and the isle kids to get out of their classes. "Are you sure you're not disappointed at the fact you weren't able to become a ranger Bennie-boo?" Audrey asked as she flipped some of her hair behind her back. The nickname was still around despite them not being together anymore, but what only the two of them knew was that nickname had originated from before they started dating. When they were five for Halloween Ben had dressed up as a ghost, which was just a long white sheet with eyeholes and the world Boo! printed on the chest and that had made Audrey laugh when she saw it.
"A little." Ben confided as he took out one of his notebooks which contained some information he needed to try to know before the next state heads meeting. "I mean, not that I exactly have the time for it but just the idea of doing something for the United States of Auradon like that…well, it would have been great." He cocked his head. "Are you regretting doing it? Especially since, well…I know you're not exactly fond of Mal and the others."
Audrey shook her head. "Not regretting it. It's just…I sometimes feel…kind of alone." She replied.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked her.
"Well, it's just that there's so much history between them since they grew up on the island." Audrey tried to elaborate. "And I got the impression from Lonnie that maybe their growing up wasn't ideal, even for villain's kids." She sighed a bit. "I guess I feel like no matter what happens, no matter what kind of strides I try to make, that I'll always be an outsider in the team."
Ben thought for a moment and then nodded. "I think I get it." Ben replied. "I mean, Mal says she doesn't know what love is. She's still struggling to understand it I think. She's okay with affection and all but she still seems to be trying to get comfortable with it."
"And it's so funny the things they do that they don't see." Audrey continued on. "I mean when we were fighting that knight and he sent us flying that first time." She leaned forward toward Ben as she was talking in an attempt to keep the conversation from being overheard by the few students that were now out and about. "I mean Mal apologized to Carlos for a landing that wasn't her fault. And Jay didn't even think twice…about anything really. He was the first to try to stop them every time; even Mal took a few moments before she did that one. And he didn't even hesitate to help me up either."
Ben laughed a little. "Jay does certainly like to face his problems head on." The young king agreed. "And you have to admit the way he stood up for Evie against Chad during parent's day was kind of noble."
At the time Audrey hadn't thought so of course. The incident being past, her new tenuous friendship with the isle kids, and now being Power Rangers with them brought some new perspective to that though. "Yeah, it was." She had to agree. "I mean if possible Chad was an even bigger jerk about them being here than I was."
"He's certainly being a bigger jerk about it now." Ben replied. Unlike his ex, who had started to accept the island kids, Chad seemed to go out of the way to make them feel unwelcome. Doug had told him only yesterday that he and Evie had taken a table farther in the back in their chemistry class because of his attitude toward the blue haired girl who had ironically recently become the blue ranger.
"Hey guys." They heard Jay call. He jumped over the railing and landed on the grass. He strolled over, exchanged high fives with Ben before sitting down next to Audrey. The young king almost swore he saw a faint blush on the red ranger's cheeks but if it was there it was gone as quickly and he chalked it up to the warm weather.
"How'd class go?" Ben asked.
Jay shrugged. "Man, I don't think I'm ever going to truly understand algebra." He admitted.
"Don't worry." Audrey said. "Most kids around here would say that. Except for those like Evie, Jane and Doug." She rolled her eyes in amusement. "You know, the 'genius' kids."
"That's how we're thought of around here?" Evie questioned with laughter as she sat down and placed her books on the table. She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and let out a breath. "It's really warm today. Is that because of the storm that accompanied our newest problem last night?"
"You tell us, you're the science girl." Audrey commented.
"Probably is." Ben said. "The rain had to have made it rather humid."
Carlos now came over and sat down, Dude trailing right behind him. "Man, I have to say I love Programming 101." He told Ben. "Mr. Barclay even says I might be able to transfer to the advanced class soon."
"That's great." Ben said with a smile.
"Soon you might be able to start giving Jane a hand in the command center." Jay said half-jokingly to his friend, not realizing that was actually part of what the smaller guy was hoping for.
Last but not least to stroll over to the table was Mal. She looked to Ben as she sat down next to him. "Okay, you win." She told him as she laid her head on his shoulder, seemingly a little worn out. "Let's get me into one of those art classes you were going on about."
Ben laughed and wrapped his arm around her. "That's my girl." She turned her head and the two exchanged a gentle kiss on the lips. "I'll make it happen."
"Hard day?" Audrey asked Mal.
The purple haired girl shrugged. "Not hard exactly, it's just one of those days that I have to remind myself that I want to be a good person." She answered.
"Chad?" Jay asked.
Mal shook her head. "No, just the kind of test that makes me want nothing more than to toss it up in the air and incinerate it." She replied. "Like the identification one that your dad tried to make us take." The four isle kids shared a laugh at the memory and Ben and Audrey exchanged a look, both feeling a little out of the loop of that inside joke.
Evie was the first to take notice and stop. "It's nothing big really." She tried to tell the two Auradon kids. "It's just this thing Jafar had us do, he wanted us to train to identify magic objects so he had Maleficent try to freeze them in the same place that Mal's spell book was hoping that the magical residue would rub off on it." She started.
"Which it didn't." Carlos added in between giggles. "But he was so convinced that it did, and he was snapping at us griping and finally Mal just takes a few of the items and tosses halfway across the room and right into the fire we had going, and boom it's up in flames and ashes before we can get them out."
Jay laughed as well. "Man my dad was pissed. It came right from his shop too." He added, not elaborating that it was stuff he had stolen from others at one point. Those were very different times for all of them.
"I guess it's nice to know you have some memories that could be called pleasant with your parents." Audrey tried, sounding a little lame even to her ears. Her memories more fell upon years of archery lessons and chocolate cake with her father and years of nature walks and picnics with her mother Aurora.
Jane came up to them then. "Sorry to interrupt guys, but we have a problem." She said quietly. "Mom says the command center's sensors just detected something coming through the atmosphere. It's going to hit in the forest in about five minutes."
Each of the five rangers nodded. "Okay." Mal said. "We'll take care of it…but what about classes?"
"Mom has excused you, sighting off site studies." Jane assured her. "I've also been excused and I'm going over to the command center to help mom and monitor your fight in case you need…well whatever we can do." Each of the rangers remembered Jane did guide them through the use of their powers, the calling of their weapons and the activation of their lasers.
"I'll help cover you guys too." Ben promised. "Get your notes and everything." Between his royal status and his likeable personality most of the students were friendly with him and were more than willing to help out where needed.
"Great." Mal said and gave him a kiss on the lips for a moment before all five teens headed toward the forested area near Auradon prep, being shadowed closely by Dude.
They had only just entered the forest when about the last thing they expected tried to attack them; a large Manticore. Both Audrey and Evie let out little screams of equal shock and horror and even Carlos got out, "Now there's an animal to be scared of."
"I thought manticores were fake." Jay noted. It was an ironic thing to say considering their world was one where they would be considered nothing more than fairy tales to those who didn't know better and on top of that his own father had at one point been an all-powerful wish granting genie.
"That's what I thought too." Mal agreed. "My mom always said if they had been real she would have had one guarding her castle." She had to wonder though rather or not what, if anything, their parents had told them was true and what was fake. It a rather unpleasant realization she did her best to try to ignore. "But is that what we're supposed to be looking for?"
Then their next surprise came. "If you're the rangers I've been sent to find, then yes I'd say I'm what you're looking for." The manticore replied as he then stood up on hind legs, something else Jay and Mal hadn't thought possible from what little they had been told. "But yes, you must be. I can smell the island of the lost on you four brats."
"That's him." Carlos decided. The five teens pulled out their iPhones and entered their codes to morph. They stood ready for battle, though the monster didn't seem to be the least bit impressed.
Each of the rangers formed their weapons and the manticore laughed deeply. "Yes, come at me." He taunted.
"What's his game?" Evie wanted to know. "He seems almost thrilled about this."
"Maybe it's just how manticores are?" Audrey wondered dubiously. She had never even heard of this creature before. Monster mythology was not exactly a big educational draw at Auradon Prep though she was wondering if it should start to be at this rate.
"Around the world then guys." Mal ordered. It was a simple code they had decided on which was basically short for surrounding the target. In order to do that both she and Jay made a feint attack at the manticore, allowing Carlos and the two girls to get around the monster so that Audrey was behind him while Evie and Carlos were on either side. That left the purple and black ranger up front.
Sometimes leaders make great calls. Sometimes they make not so great ones. And sometimes even the best leaders unknowingly play right into the enemies hands; most of them are only human after all. Add that it to the fact you can't always know what your enemies' strategy is and well…even a stopped watch is right twice a day after all. The manticore laughed again and shot out its scorpion tail lightning quick, slashing all five of the rangers hard and sending them sprawling backwards.
Audrey coughed just a bit and bit out, "Great plan Mal." She started to stand up only to see two things. The first seemed to be a relief as the manticore monster had moved away from the group. The second was that her team mates were not getting up. "Mal? Jay?" She repeated.
"What's going on?" Jane asked Fairy Godmother from one of the consoles. She had noticed a change in four of the five life readings. Audrey's was the only one that seemed to be okay.
"I'm not sure, I…" Fairy Godmother started but then her thoughts caught up to her. "Oh my." She gasped.
"Mom?" Jane asked worriedly.
"That scorpion tale the manticore has. It must contain some sort of venom that paralyzed them." Fairy Godmother revealed. "It must have been tailored so that it only affects those from the Isle of the Lost."
Audrey overheard enough of the conversation to catch the gist of it. "Which means I'm the only one functioning right now?" She questioned nervously. She then took a deep breath. "Okay, then. How do I help the others?"
"Normally I would suspect we would need an antidote of some kind." Fairy Godmother answered the young princess. "But from what little I've ever read about manticores they don't usually function that way." She thought a moment and then came up with the only idea she had. "I'm going to see if I can find anything to help us, in the meantime Audrey the only thing I can suggest is try to destroy the tail off of that monster. Maybe the loss of it will negate the venom."
They could hear Audrey's nervous breathing as she processed that she had to fight that thing all on her own. "Okay." She finally said nervously. "I'll see what I can do."
Jane watched her mother head upstairs and then glanced around a bit before an idea struck her. It was a long shot but she didn't see any other options. She took out her cell phone and dialed a number. When it was answered she immediately got out with, "I need you to meet me in room 203. It's really important."
Audrey took a moment more to check on her team mates and was more relieved than she honestly expected to find them breathing. She wished she could make them more comfortable but figured the best way to help them would be to reverse their paralysis. First she looked to Dude, who seemed to be watching with concern. "Watch over them…somehow." She added as she realized she was talking to a dog. Then she looked around at her friends. "I'll beat that thing and free you guys, I promise." The young princess told them and then went after the slowly retreating manticore.
As she started closer, her bow at the ready, she saw the manticore waiting for her. "All on your own." He taunted. "Culling the herd is such a fun activity. The weakest goes first."
"Weak nothing." Audrey retorted. "I know you were able to paralyze them because they were born on the Isle of the Lost." She thought a moment about what she had retained from her science classes though she readily knew that was more Evie's thing. "It's something in your venom; it has to isolate something in their DNA that isn't here in Auradon."
"Clever girl you may be." The manticore acknowledged. "But knowing what is going on and being able to change it are two entirely different things." With that he gave a roar and leapt right at the red ranger. She barely dodged out of the way and it skidded to a stop. The young princess tried to get an arrow off at its tail but the monster dodged it.
Calm down. Audrey scolded herself. You can do it, you've got years of training hitting objects smaller than that and that move quicker than that. Besides, they need you to do this…you're friends need you to do this. She fired off another arrow and he dodged it again, proving it wasn't going to be as easy as she had hoped it would be.
The manticore leapt at her and this time connected hard with her body, sending her sprawling back painfully. He tried to bring his jaws down on her head but Audrey brought her bow up to block it. She was spared the killing blow but felt one of his teeth scrape her hand. She brought her legs up under its belly and pushed out hard, sending it away from her. It was a contrast though as he seemed to be enjoying this game whereas she was not.
"Come on then girl." The manticore taunted. "Let's see if you have what it takes to save your friends or not." He started to circle her, more like stalk her, again. Audrey drew her bow back as she paced the monster as well.
Audrey took a deep breath as she remembered everything she had ever learned about archery. She watched the way the manticore's tail moved as he stalked her and did her best to learn this things pattern.
"How alone you must feel." The manticore said as cocked his head to glare at his prey. "Your friends are down and will remain so as long as I live, as long as my venom flows through their system. Whoever your mentor is will not be able to find a cure before I end your lives, and subsequently theirs." He laughed a bit. "Then again, what a fatal flaw. Five of you and only one of you not from the Isle. Such an obvious mistake to make, if one such as my master knew to exploit it. You were all doomed from the start."
Audrey would never admit but now that it was, as the saying went plain as the nose on the face, she had to agree that was a fatal flaw to the very makeup of the team. She wondered briefly if Ben would have been able to use any of the other morphers but quickly dismissed it. It didn't matter now.
"Of course you are used to being so isolated and alone." The manticore continued. "Those four grew up together and you barely know them, not to mention vice versa." He laughed. "My understanding is that you don't seem to have a lot of close friends, as self-absorbed as you seem to be."
Okay, where the heck did he get that? Audrey wondered as she flinched internally. It did somewhat resembled the conversation she had with Ben only half an hour ago, but unless somehow Paradias had either overheard the conversation or read her mind there was no way he could have known that. "You don't know anything about me." She said, not nearly as confident as she wanted to be. "And considering who your master is I'm not sure you should be giving me advice on life." She pulled back on her bow string and released a slew of arrows right over and around him.
The manticore gave off a growl of frustration as he did his best to evade the arrow storm but it struck him several times anyway. The red ranger could have sworn that included several hits on his tail but it still remained attached.
"ENOUGH!" The Manticore roared. "No more games, girl. Your arrows don't have the strength they need to disconnect my tail anyway. You're wasting your time." He leapt at her and she barely dodged to the right and then tried to use one of the sharp ends on her bow to cut the tail off that way but it barely penetrated before the weapon struck.
The manticore lashed out a hind leg and shot it into Audrey's chest hard enough that she was surprised she didn't feel any of her ribs break. Then the monster towered over her, that same foot slamming into her chest hard. "This is over, you and your friends have lost."
The sound of feet on dried leaves got both of their attentions, though it was not enough for the monster to release the pressure he had on Audrey. From the trees stepped out a young woman, whom neither of them had expected. "Leave Audre y alone." She demanded.
The red ranger gasped. "Lonnie! Get out of here, now!" She ordered the Asian princess. She hadn't stopped to think how she could have possibly known who was under the helmet.
The manticore laughed. "Yes, little girl. Run quickly and perhaps I won't pursue you for my dessert." He mocked.
Lonnie shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere. You on the other hand have an appointment to keep." She took her right hand from behind her back to reveal that she now held an iPhone with a pink glow of its own. She input the numbers 4363 on the screen and then morphed into a ranger, looking just like the rest of her team mates but in the color of pink.
"Another ranger?" The manticore questioned amused.
"What a relief." Audrey said.
"It doesn't matter." The manticore declared as it increased the pressure on Audrey for a moment before sending her flying hard against a tree. "I'll tear you apart as easily as I tore apart this princess."
Unlike Audrey and the four isle kids, thanks to a brief but illuminating briefing, Lonnie knew what she had to do. She held out her hands and in them appeared small folded objects that the pink ranger flicked out to reveal them as tessen's; a bladed weapon designed to look like folding fans.
The manticore and pink ranger ran toward each other, but as the monster tried to leap down on her she got onto her knees and slid under the manticore. Then Lonnie heard Audrey call out, "Chop that scorpion tail off." She didn't have time to explain why but it didn't matter. Lonnie got to her feet quickly, crossed her arms together and then rapidly tossed the two tessens.
As if finding the small chink in the tail that Audrey's bow had already started in on, the two tessen slashes effortlessly cut right through the manticore's tail. He let out a large roar and then tried to slap Lonnie with his massive paw but the girl managed to back flip out of the way and then easily caught her tessens.
Audrey came over to her. "Great throw." She said. "I just hope Jay and the others recover quickly."
Jane heard her mother come down the stairs with a sigh. "I don't know what to do. We first need a sample of that venom. Maybe you and Ben could go out and get one of the rangers…" She started.
A beeping of one of the consoles caught their attention. Jane looked down and smiled. "No need to mom." She announced. "My idea worked. Lonnie did it." She took a breath. "I just hope they all get together before that manticore gets one of them killed."
The manticore leapt at the two girls but while Audrey went to the left, Lonnie went to the right. The scattering of the two rangers confused the manticore momentarily. Audrey let an arrow fly and it got him right in the face, making him flinch. Lonnie came up from the side and struck the manticore backwards with a flurry of sparks.
"Audrey!" She heard Jay yell as he started toward them. Right behind him was Carlos and the two girls, with Dude trailing just behind them. They seemed to take a moment to process the appearance of a pink ranger before shoving that to the side. "Are you okay?" He asked her.
Audrey nodded though in truth her sides hurt a lot right now. She looked to the black ranger. "I'm fine, thanks." She said.
"You're going to regret trying to keep us down you overgrown freak." Evie said to the manticore. She already had her mirror shield up and ready to go.
"No one keeps us down." Jay agreed.
The manticore roared. "Let's see if you can defeat me then rangers." He leapt right toward now six rangers.
"Move." Mal ordered. She, Audrey and Carlos dove to the right while Lonnie, Jay and Evie dove to the left. The manticore moved in with a savage paw to the left but the blue ranger let her mirror shield take the impact and force it back against him, sending him flying backwards hard.
"Guys," Came Jane's voice over the helmet intercom. "Now that Lonnie's joined you as the Pink Ranger you have a new weapon at your disposal, the Auradon blaster." The four isle kids took a moment to be impressed at the identity of their newest companion and then let it go to the back. "Combine your weapons, first Mal's staff. Audrey's bow needs to be underneath and Evie's shield needs to be in the back but the rest of you can go in any order."
"You heard her." Mal said as she looked at her team mates. "Let's bring them together." She was unaware of a red ranger from long ago that would say the same thing to his team mates about their own similar blaster of course. She then leveled up her staff to chest level.
"You got it Mal." Jay said as he placed his scimitar dead center.
"Right behind you." Lonnie said as she placed her still open tessen's on either side of the scimitar, open toward the manticore.
"I hope this turns out really cool." Carlos commented as he placed his tri clawed daggers, points toward the manticore and on either side of Lonnie's weapons.
"Let's show this side show freak who's boss." Audrey declared as she slid her bow under Mal's staff, the edges of the bow pointing toward the manticore.
Now Evie placed her shield in between bow string and the staff. "Let's finish this." She said.
Mal placed her right hand on the shield's bottom and her left hand on the staff. Audrey stood next to the purple haired purple ranger and took opposite holds on the other side. Beside Mal was Evie and Carlos. Beside Audrey was Lonnie and Jay. "Auradon Blaster, lock on and fire." The six teens intoned as the mirror took aim at the rising manticore and then fired a huge wave of energy at the manticore. It struck the monster and forced it to explode into ashes.
The rangers separated their weapons and let out whoops of joy. "We did it." Evie declared. "That's showing that manticore thing who's boss."
"Yeah." Mal said with a laugh. She looked to Lonnie. "Thanks for the rescue." She said to the pink ranger. She then looked to Audrey. "And thank you, you were really brave to try to stand up to that manticore on your own, despite all of the odds against you."
Audrey tried to wave it off. "Whatever, it wasn't a big deal, Mal. You all would have done the same thing." She replied. She would never reveal how happy she was that destroying the tail had neutralized the venom in her team mates…her friends system.
"Yeah we would have." Jay agreed as he placed his hand gently on her shoulder. "But you're the one who actually had to do it."
"That took some guts." Carlos agreed as Dude came over and he picked his pet up.
"Let's get back to the school." Mal said as she powered down. "Before someone sends a search party out for us." The others quickly followed suit.
"Now we have a sixth color coded child to add to our roadblock." Paradias said darkly. "Where did they even find these kinds of powers?" He wondered as he sat back in his throne. Last he had known only a couple universes had any powers like this running around. He didn't stop to think Zordon could have left them prepared from their confrontation of long ago.
"What is our next step sire?" Nerissa asked.
Paradias was about to admit he wasn't sure when one of the soldiers approached him. Though the language was unfamiliar to the sorceress he seemed to know exactly what was said. "Very good. We know what the rangers will do now that the pink one has been added. Prepare to stop them at once."
Jane and Fairy Godmother had left the command center with the monster destroyed. They found Ben leaving class and together they started to leave the school to find the others. They hadn't gotten far before they saw the six teens coming out of the forest. "Hey, how did the fi…" Ben started but then saw Lonnie and was unaware she was a ranger now too. "The forest walk go? Any…um, problems?" He asked.
Mal laughed as she came over and hugged him. Lonnie laughed too. "The 'forest walk' went just great." Lonnie revealed to him. "Except for the big old manticore in the forest who decided to try to make us lunch. Luckily we used our ranger powers to stop it."
"Whew, great." Ben said automatically. After a second to process what she had said he gasped, "Wait a minute. When…how…?" Mal burst out laughing again as she remembered having a similar reaction when she tried to break the love spell she had placed on Ben without realizing it washed away during their first date in the enchanted river and he had guessed the brownie had the anti-love potion in it. She was glad though that it hadn't been necessary, that he had loved her for real. She hoped one day soon to say that to him.
"She knows." Audrey told Ben. It was only then he saw that she had been leaning on Jay for support. After powering down she had discovered it was a bit hard to breathe and she had pulled a muscle in her left leg that was only now getting better.
"I guess that manticore really did a number on you." Ben surmised worriedly. Audrey may not have been his girlfriend anymore but she was still his friend, possibly one of his closest friends and he wasn't sure that would ever change.
"I'll be fine." Audrey promised. She tried to laugh a little bit. "You should see the other guy."
"He closely resembled a volcano." Carlos added. "Or a part of it."
"So how did you find out about all of this?" Ben asked.
"That was my doing." Jane said. "We've been working on other powers from the basics that Zordon left our parents, after all we know five people against an army isn't actually good odds. The pink one was in development but wasn't done at the time."
"We were hoping to have a bit more time to prepare." Fairy Godmother sighed. "In fact we were hoping we wouldn't have to do this at all."
"We'd only just finished it when the manticore showed up. I realized through what it said to Audrey that it was right, we needed a ranger who was also from Auradon Prep to shore up the weakness it exploited." Jane continued. "And Lonnie was a good candidate for it, in fact she probably would have been selected already if you guys hadn't been here."
"Sorry about lying to you." Audrey said to Lonnie. "It's just the whole secret identity thing and all."
"It's fine." Lonnie promised. "Jane explained that to me, and I can see why. We don't want the whole school, or worse, knowing who we are and what we do."
"Or Paradias using anyone else we care about as a weapon against us." Evie added.
"And I think he'll think of that sooner or later." Fairy Godmother said. "It's only a matter of time."