In room 203 Fairy Godmother stood upon the small podium area where she not so long ago taught the four kids from the Isle of the Lost in Remedial Goodness 101. In those same desks sat the four kids, but they were not alone. They had their fellow rangers Audrey and Jane with them. Ben was also there since he was in the know as well, as he was supposed to be the red ranger but that fell to Audrey when the bonding failed. She still wasn't sure what went wrong there. Rounding it out was her daughter Jane, who was helping her in the command center. "I'm afraid we're still falling short of where we need to be right now." She revealed to the teens.
"What?" Mal asked in surprise as she and Ben held hands. It was a surprise the two weren't more distracted. "We have weapons, we have lasers, and we even have six rangers now instead of five."
"We've had a few rough starts, but I think Mal is right." Audrey agreed. "We are so on the right track here."
"We are on the right track but we have one problem." Fairy Godmother reiterated as she looked at the six rangers. "You see, we've actually lucked out that neither the manticore nor Garunx have ended up growing."
That attracted all of their attention. "Growing?" Questioned Carlos.
"It was something else Zordon mentioned could happen a lot." Fairy Godmother answered. "Through various means monsters will grow to gigantic size. At least as tall as the castles in Auradon."
"Seriously?" Evie asked in shock.
Fairy Godmother nodded and Audrey sighed. "How are we supposed to fight that?" She asked.
"With the megazord." Jane answered as she now got up. "It's a giant…what did you say it was called mom?" She looked to Fairy Godmother.
"It's like a robot." Fairy Godmother filled in for her daughter and then looked toward the rangers. "It's usually controlled by Power Rangers to fight giant monsters. There can be different combinations of them."
"Do we have to design them?" Carlos asked eagerly.
Jane laughed a little and smiled at him. "No, in theory they're around somewhere." She answered. "But we discovered that we couldn't unlock it without five core rangers." She looked to Lonnie now. "It was one of the reasons we were so eager to get your powers up and running."
"Wait a minute." Evie interrupted. "We already started out with five rangers. I mean not that I have a problem with Lonnie being here but if all we needed was rive rangers why didn't we do this beforehand?"
"It's somewhat hard to explain." Fairy Godmother warned them. "But Mal is the purple ranger and despite the fact that she started out with you she's not really a core ranger."
"Yeah, I don't get it." Jay said.
"Our understanding is that the 'core' rangers," Jane started and air quoted core since she wasn't sure how some of that worked herself. "Are red, blue, yellow, pink and either black or green." She glanced at Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Lonnie and Jay as she said it. "Sometimes colors tend to vary as the last we knew only two teams that had both green and black and only of those teams had both colors starting out at basically the same time."
A/N: Since RPM is technically not considered part of the prime universe Auradon is unaware of that.
"Other variations have occurred too. Several have either not had pink rangers or had a position like that but not in that color. We even have an instance of a team with no yellow ranger." Fairy Godmother continued to explain.
In truth the rangers were mostly able to keep up with the explanation if not the reason behind it but really only Evie showed any interest in the history behind their legacy. The others seemed impatient and Mal interrupted with, "Okay, so back to this. You need the others to get this megazord but not me."
"You have a zord out there." Fairy Godmother corrected the daughter of Maleficent. "We just don't know where."
"So what do they have to do to get this megazord?" Ben asked as he squeezed Mal's hand gently as if to reassure her this new development didn't make her useless.
"We actually did trace it to the mountains not far from the school, just after the forest." Jane told her. "All you five have to do is go out there and use your morphers to activate it."
"With a USB cable no doubt." Audrey commented sarcastically, a subtle comment at the fact there morphers were just really unique iPhones. It did draw some chuckles from Jay and Mal though while Lonnie and Evie did smile too.
"Actually judging by the look of these it's probably not a cable but a direct connection from the morphers to a connection on the top of our places in the zord's piloting area." Carlos ventured as he examined the bottom of his morpher.
Jane laughed a bit and smiled at Carlos, having no way to know his breath just fell a little short at that moment. "Precisely." She confirmed.
"Alright." Ben said. "Then you guys should go out and get your zords before Paradias strikes again and this time decides to make them fun sized."
"Fun sized?" Mal asked.
"I think you mean king sized." Lonnie corrected. "That's what they call the bigger than normal packaging for candy."
"Yeah, my bad." Ben acknowledged with a slight grimace. "Anyway, my point still stands."
"It does." Mal agreed as they all stood up. "How do we get there?"
Jane walked over and took Carlos' iPhone, their fingers brushing and both averted their gazes and not seeing the slight blush in either's cheeks. "I…I'm going to install a track, I mean an app on the iPhone so that you six can go get your megazord." She worked quickly as she spoke and then handed the phone to Carlos again, both again averting their gazes even as fingers brushed together.
"Wait, why is Mal coming with us if we don't need her to activate the megazord?" Audrey asked genuinely confused. She had no real problem with it but she felt they must be missing something.
"Protection." Fairy Godmother answered simply. "There's a good chance that Paradias will realize what we're doing, if he hasn't already figured out what's going on, and try to stop it."
"In which case the only we can really spare is Mal." Said Evie a bit unhappily. The other rangers, including Audrey much to her surprise, felt that same bit of unhappiness.
"I wish I could go with you." Ben admitted. "But of course I have that council meeting today." He thought a moment. "I could send some guards with you guys."
"What do we say when the giant megazord comes out of the mountain top?" Lonnie questioned innocently. Ben had to grant that one.
"I'll be fine." Mal said. "Let's get this show on the road and try to get this thing done before Paradias notices." She kissed Ben softly on the lips and joked, "A council meeting huh? I feel like you might be in more danger than me."
"I sure hope so." Ben answered softly as he gently stroked her hair. "I sure hope so."
With that the six rangers headed out, Carlos in the lead with the others behind as they headed toward the mountains where the megazord was supposed to be lying in wait.
"It appears the rangers are going after the megazord as you suspected." Nerissa said to Paradias. "Fortunately we have our soldiers already in wait with the psycho crystals. If they can beat them to the megazord we can take control of it and end the rangers."
"Their biggest weapon turned against them." Paradias mused and laughed. "It will be pleasure. We have the extra ranger, the purple one. Are we able to separate her?"
"Yes." Nerissa answered. "We have that set up as well. He has been looking forward to getting his revenge on the rangers no doubt, and he can start with her."
It seemed like hours for the journey to the mountain area but in reality it was only about two hours, as evidenced by the clock on Carlos' iPhone. The weather was thankfully warm enough to not be unpleasant but cool enough so as to not make the walk miserable. The wind was also mercifully not existent, a fact that both Audrey and Evie spent a few moments gushing about. The ranger suits tending to ruin their hair was at least one of the complaints the princess and the daughter of the Evil Queen could agree on, much to the amusement of the guys and to a lesser extent Mal.
The first indication that their fears were real was when they ran across two of the soldiers. They let out a grunt of recognition before Jay and Lonnie were able to take them out in a puff of ash. "Alright guys, we need to be careful." Mal said then. "We can't assume those were the only ones and we also have to assume there's something worse out here than those guys."
They found a couple other larger groups of the soldiers but chose for the moment not to engage them. Carlos looked down at the map and then said in a small voice, "I hope we can use these readings to help us start to keep track of any movements these guys make in the future. It would help us stay one step ahead of them."
"Yeah, that'd be great." Jay agreed and shoved Carlos lightly. "You can discuss it with your girlfriend when we get back." He added teasingly, talking about Jane.
Any other teasing was forestalled by the approach of heavy footsteps. They turned to see none other than the knight that Nerissa had summoned that first day. "We meet again Auradon Rangers." He stated grimly.
"We don't have time for him at all." Audrey said.
"We don't have far to go either." Carlos added as he looked down at the app.
"Go." Mal said as she took out her iPhone. "I'll keep him busy until you guys get back." With only a slight hesitation from the rest of her friends they went off toward the mountain. "If you want them you have to go through me."
"So be it purple ranger." The knight said. This time he formed a lance in his hands. "Prepare yourself."
Mal input her code 6319 and morphed. She immediately summoned her staff and then both she and the knight started to pace each other. The purple girl hated the fact that she knew this knight had an advantage over her but she was determined to make sure it wouldn't stop her from keeping him away from her friends until they found the megazord.
The two of them broke pace and clashed almost immediately, staff to lance. They exchanged several clashes, each one which made Mal feel…she wasn't sure exactly but the truth was something about it struck her as very wrong, not just the fight itself here but the entire situation with the knight. "Who are you anyway?" Mal questioned him.
"I am going to be the end of you and your friends. I will lead Master Paradias and Nerissa to victory over Auradon and the world." The knight responded simply.
Needless to say that wasn't really the response Mal was hoping for but all of her years half listening to her mother's speeches about evil and discord and blah blah made it so that the purple haired girl wasn't too surprised that was the response she got. "Yeah well good luck with that. I don't intend to fall that easily, or to let them fall that easy." She said.
Without Mal around they hadn't really decided who should be second in command but Evie had heard something about the red ranger often being second in command if they weren't the leader to start with, furthermore in the long run she was only aware of three teams where the red ranger wasn't the leader to start with. So it was with that in mind that she didn't really say much when they arrived at the mountain and Audrey looked to Carlos. "Okay, where do we go from here? Will the app even work in the mountain?" She asked.
"Looks like inside the mountain." Carlos told her. "Probably as far in as we can get." He looked to her. "As for rather it will work or not, well I think the truth is that it should pretty much work but there is no guarantee about it."
Audrey sighed a bit. "That's technology for you." She mused and then shook her head. "Alright, let's give it a shot. Lead the way." Carlos started to lead them up the mountain but they didn't get very far before two soldiers jumped down from the ceiling and landed on both Evie and Jay.
Jay responded by automatically slamming the palms of his hands into the soldier's jaw, ignoring the slight gash on his right shoulder from the bladed part of the opponents arm. He rose quickly and jump kicked the thing hard into the cave wall, taking it out.
Evie gasped a bit in surprise as she hit the ground hard, briefly seeing stars as her head hit the rocky floor. Lonnie was there in a heartbeat and kicked the soldier in the side. It turned to her and slashed at her with the bladed arm but she dodged under it, brought her left leg out to trip it. As the soldier fell her foot connected solidly with its face and it slammed into the wall before also going out.
Audrey was now by Evie's side and gently took her hand to help her stand up. "Are you okay Evie?" She asked the blue haired girl.
Evie shook her head a bit, trying to stop the slight ringing in her ears and the slight dizzy feeling. "Yeah, I'll be okay." She said to Audrey. "Thanks."
Audrey nodded. "Sure." She looked to Lonnie and the two guys. "We better morph guys. We don't want to be caught unaware like that again." She decided.
Lonnie wouldn't have argued with her, both because she agreed and she didn't see any reason not to argue about her trying to fill the role of second in command. Jay could have argued it but he figured if Evie wasn't then it probably wasn't worth making an issue of it. Carlos decided if Jay wasn't going to fight it then he wasn't either. The five teens pulled out their iPhones and morphed. Evie was glad that it made her feel a little less out of it.
"Okay, lead the way." Audrey said to the yellow ranger. Carlos nodded and they started off again. He stopped them only moments later.
"There are a couple more of those soldier things." He whispered.
"I got them." Jay said as he drew his scimitar.
"Wait." Audrey replied as her hand came up on his chest to stop his movement. "Let's try a bit more subtle approach, the less attention we draw right now the better."
"What do you want to do?" Lonnie asked her.
Audrey peaked over Carlos's shoulder to get a lay of the land, sort to speak and then leaned back. "Okay, we have a small crevice opposite us and here. Lonnie, on my signal you throw your tessen at one of them while I take the other one out with an arrow." She answered.
Carlos took a step back so the red ranger could take his place as the pink ranger stealthily made her way to the crevice opposite the other ranger's positions. "I was hoping to hurt something." Jay said in a whisper.
"Don't worry; you'll probably still get your chance." Evie said consolingly.
Audrey drew her bow back, making the arrow magically form. Lonnie unfurled one of her tessen and readied it to throw. She glanced back at the red ranger and after another moment of watching their movements the second in command gave her signal and the two of them released their projectiles, taking out their targets.
"Nice shooting." Carlos said.
"Thanks." Lonnie replied.
"Okay, let's move out." Audrey said. Lonnie joined them at the five rangers continued on for another few minutes before Carlos stopped them again. "More soldiers?" Audrey asked, sounding slightly irritated. She knew that wasn't Carlos's fault, really if anything it was for a reason she found herself hesitating to admit; like the others she was worried about leaving Mal alone to face the knight.
"Well, yeah." Carlos replied simply. "But it's not that, I can't actually see any right now. It's these other readings." He offered the iPhone to the others to see. They could see a strong indicator of powers.
"The megazord?" Jay asked.
Evie shook her head. "The megazord won't give off any power readings until we activate it." The blue ranger answered.
"There's five of them whatever they are." Lonnie remarked. "And if these readings of the area are right they're heading in the same direction as the megazord."
Audrey grimaced, though no one could see it through the helmet. "Paradias not only knows we're here but he must have some way of activating the megazord. We have to get there quickly before he does." She stated. With that the five rangers were off again, in more of a hurry now than they had been only moments before.
Despite Mal's brave words she felt as if she were exhausting quicker than the knight was. Of course it could be a simple matter that her opponent just didn't show his exhaustion. She didn't think she was showing it either but she could certainly feel it.
"Okay, maybe you missed this, but you do remember we're the good guys, right?" Mal said jokingly.
"You, the blue ranger, yellow ranger and the black ranger weren't good until recently." The knight replied evenly.
"You seem to know and awful lot about us." Mal stated. "Why is that?"
"You seriously don't think that what you've done since coming to Auradon hasn't been known about by all in the land." The knight replied.
In truth Mal hadn't entirely thought about it, but still something about it seemed off. Then her opponent cut off all attempts at talking as he renewed his attack by trying to bring the lance down on her but she knocked it off course with her staff and then brought it square against the knights face hard, enough to dent the armor just the tiniest bit. It wasn't much of a victory but just to dent the armor meant the person inside it had to feel something from the impact.
"Admirable." The knight praised simply. "But it will take more than a pyrrhic victory to save your lives this day."
"We'll just see who has the victory this day." Mal promised. Inside though she thought Hurry up guys, I don't know how much longer I can fight this guy on my own.
Along the way they ran into a few more soldiers but Audrey decided to ditch the stealth attack and took one out of while Jay got one and Lonnie got the other. Carlos had the iPhone to track their progress and wasn't able to help much. Evie meanwhile found herself not being able to help much because her mirror shield was more a defensive weapon than an offensive one and right now there wasn't much defense being put up.
They had started up an incline. "This should take us all the way up to the top of the mountain where the megazord should be waiting for activation." Carlos told his friends. He didn't want to mention that it might not be them who activates it.
Jay looked to Audrey. "Who knows how much lead Paradias or whoever he sent has on us." He reminded the red ranger simply.
She nodded in agreement. "All we can do is try." She said. "Our first goal has to be to get the megazord but we can't guarantee where they are on this incline. I think we should make a mad run toward it." She glanced at the black ranger. "I know you can do that, I've seen you on the tourney field after all." She added with a smile to her voice that made Jay laugh a little too. "You take the lead Jay, Lonnie will be right behind you. Carlos, you stay behind them and make sure to let them know if we're wrong about the straight shot. Evie, you guard Carlos and I'll take the rear and guard all of you with my bow."
"Got it." Jay and Lonnie said while Carlos and Evie replied, "Yes ma'am."
Audrey nodded. "Let's move out." She again was worried for Mal and was sure they were as well.
Just as he would on the tourney field Jay ran for all he was worth, crashing or slashing into whatever soldiers got in his way. Some started to rain from above but those that weren't taken out by Audrey's arrows where then taken out by Jay or Lonnie. Even Evie managed to strike out against a few of them. For reasons that none of them would ever fully get they got to a ledge to just barely see the megazord.
It was indeed a massive machine that was that one could say was vaguely humanoid shaped. They could see their ranger colors built in around it, from the red on the chest and back to the black and blue metallic colored arms and yellow and pink metallic legs. As they moved just a bit they could also see the school's logo on it, which was a bit bizarre all things considered but they didn't really think much of it, especially if Zordon had worked alongside them at any point with them.
Carlos was the first to make them out. "Guys, I see five soldiers over there." He said. They were just out of visual range and the five of them ran to catch up with them. Carlos also realized one other problem; these were the ones that had the weird signatures. It was enforced when the soldiers turned around and they could see in their non-bladed hands were five crystals, each matching their colors.
"They must want to use those to activate the zords in our places." Evie stated.
Carlos wasn't sure those would actually work that way but also knew they couldn't take that chance. "We can't let them do that." He remarked.
"Already on it." Jay stated as he moved to engage them with his scimitar. Audrey and Lonnie were right behind him. Carlos was finally able to pocket his iPhone and then he and Evie brought up the rear of the attack.
For a moment it seemed as if these soldiers might be a bigger challenge but taking them out was still easier than expected. Lonnie had hoped to grab those weird crystals just in case but as the soldiers were destroyed the crystals vanished into thin air. "Damn." She mused.
Audrey was sure she knew what her friend was thinking but shook her head. "They're either not here or we have to waste time looking for them here, time we don't have." She stated and gestured toward the megazord. "Everyone inside, let's finish this mission."
Mal made a mental note to find someone who could teach her how to use a staff more efficiently than she was doing so now, but that didn't matter now as she did her best to combat the knight. He kept trying to stab her with the lance and she kept deflecting them, but knew she had to take the offensive here soon.
The knight moved in, not to stab her but to try to take her head off with the sharpest edge of the lance, and the purple ranger saw her chance as she rolled under the strike and brought the staff up to connect with the knight's chin again. Then she swung around and connected her staff with the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground. She lashed out with her foot and snapped the lance in two pieces, and the brought her staff into solid connection with his chest.
He rolled heavily but only laughed when he stopped moving. "Well done, purple ranger." He said.
"You've lost." Mal said. She wasn't sure rather she should even destroy this knight or what should happen now.
Then she heard Paradias's voice. "The first phase of this battle is over and you have won, daughter of Maleficent." He stated, making her grimace just a little. She knew it was true and she did love her mother but somehow the comparison didn't make her feel better. "But this is far from over." Then a large green circle enveloped, with the shape of a six pointed star inside of it, enveloped the knight and it glowed green. In the blink of an eye the knight grew, just as Fairy Godmother had warned them. "But the war is now over and you have lost."
"No." Mal breathed, afraid that something had happened to her team mates…to her friends. That they hadn't been able to retrieve the megazord and had been lost or killed and she was the last one standing. She had no way to stop this knight on her own now.
The knight moved to try to step on Mal and she barely dodged it. "What do I do now?" She asked herself, near panic.
Then from the top of the mountain there was an explosion almost as loud as a volcano and out of the explosion the megazord that the other rangers had seen emerged. Mal had not seen it before and let out a small gasp, "Wow. That is huge…and kind of cool too. I hope mine is just as neat when we find it."
From the cockpit in the head of the megazord the five rangers stood; first Lonnie, then Jay, then Audrey, then Evie and then Carlos. In front of each of them was a console and in center a place for their iPhones. Evie waved and shouted, "We've got it M! Enjoy the show!"
Mal had to laugh. "That's some confidence there, E." She noted lightly. "I hope that doesn't come back to bite you all. Go get him guys!"
"So you recovered the megazord." The knight noted with a small nod. "But let's see you use it."
"Let the test begin then." Carlos replied. They had already figured out they needed teamwork to make the megazord work and got it to move forward, lashing out with the right fist and slamming into the knight hard.
He laughed. "Next stage rangers." And then formed the sword they had seen him use the first time they had encountered him, though that was before Lonnie had gotten her powers. In fact this was her first time fighting him. He jumped up and brought the sword down on the megazord hard, causing it to fall backwards. The five rangers had to grab ahold of their consoles in order to remain on their feet.
"We have to have some sort of defenses somewhere." Carlos noted.
"Don't we have shields of some kind?" Evie asked.
"This is a megazord Evie, not a starship." Carlos replied a bit snappishly.
"Okay so we won't be deflecting any asteroids." Lonnie concluded. "But there has to be something we can use."
Evie glanced down at her own console and groaned. "Oh my gosh. It's so obvious, I answered my own question." She took out her own mirror shield and fit it into the hole in the console that was meant to connect with her own weapon.
The megazord formed its own shield in its left hand just as the knight swung again and collided with it. They quickly discovered that while it was certain sturdy and could take a hit it wasn't on the same reflective level that Evie's personal weapon gave them.
"We need to go on the offensive now." Audrey said. "What else is on the consoles that we can use?"
Carlos didn't see much on his console to use for weapons and guessed most of it was based more on the zord's status, which was holding up alright right now.
The answer was more obvious for Jay and Lonnie. In addition to their spaces for their iPhones/morphers their consoles connected and there was enough room to place both Jay's scimitar and Lonnie's tessens. With only a slight nod between them the pink and black rangers placed their weapons in the slots. That formed a sword in the megazords right hand. "We really look like a knight of old now." Audrey joked. "Except for the horse."
"You may look like a warrior now." The knight noted. "But let's see if you're able to do more than simply look the part." He then swung his sword at the megazord again. The sword was used to block the knight's attack and then the shield was slammed into the knight hard, sending him backwards.
"Hey guys." Carlos said. "I think we can collect energy from our surroundings, channel it into the sword and then use it finish our opponent off." He laughed. "It's so like a video game."
"Except for the lack of reset button if we fail." Lonnie added dryly.
"Let's give it a shot." Audrey decided. It was actually one her console that the energy drawing was implemented and she activated the function. Even through the megazords structure they could feel the energy being collected. Once that was complete they raised the sword high and then brought it straight down toward the knight.
Only a last minute reaction from him, namely drawing his own shield to take the brunt of the impact, saved him. The two were thrown back. "Well done." The knight said. "This fight is yours, but this is only the beginning." With that the knight vanished.
"That was great guys." Mal stated. "And I am so glad that you're all okay."
"Glad to see you're alright too." Audrey said, surprised again that she actually meant that.
For the first time since this started they heard Fairy Godmother over the helmet intercom. "I knew you guys could do it. Now that you've activated the megazord Paradias can no longer take control of it. It'll be safe in its hiding spot in the mountains. When we need it in the future all you have to do is call out for it and implement the code 0001 on your iPhones." She told them.
As the five rangers joined Mal the megazord returned to its place in the mountains. They were all glad to see none of them were worse for the wear and started back toward Auradon Prep, the rangers pressing Mal for details on her solo fight and the purple haired girl pressing for information on how the team worked without her to lead them.
"They have the megazord now." Paradias lamented. "What could have been our crowning achievement in this conflict has now become a thorn in our side in this long coming war."
"They may have the megazord, but not all of them." Nerissa reminded her master. "We can find them and use them against the power rangers. In the meantime not only do I have a new plan to keep the rangers off balance but we still have these." She held up the psycho crystals that Lonnie had thought it best to retrieve that she was unable to do. "And when the time is right these will shake the rangers up."
Jane found Ben walking toward the forest just as she was to meet their friends. Even though the girl had to run a bit to catch up to the king she noticed one thing even then; he was limping a little. "Ben, are you okay?" She asked in concern.
Ben nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was so anxious to get out of that meeting and make sure Mal and the others were okay I just sat up and slammed my knees into the oak table we were around." He answered and laughed nervously. "Can you believe how clumsy that was?"
"Yeah, sounds like something I should do, not something you should do." Jane agreed. Still, something about it just seemed odd to her, but the teen girl just chocked it up to nervousness.
The team arrived back at Auradon Prep they found Ben and Jane waiting for them. "Who would have thought you would actually make an effective leader?" Mal teased her former rival.
Audrey laughed in return. "Me?" She questioned good naturedly. "You were handed the team, I was so tempted to say the Earth is doomed." She shook her head. "Oh, it's a good thing we're both wrong, huh?"
Mal nodded as she placed her hand over her heart. "Yeah, totally. Looks like you'll be leading the megazord battles until we find mine." She agreed and after a moment's thought added, "Assuming of course that our zords can even combine."
"Why don't we worry about that one after we find it?" Audrey suggested.
"Agreed, one headache at a time." Mal replied as she went over and sat next to Ben, taking his hand and laying her head on his shoulder. "And speaking of headaches how was your council meeting sweetie?"
Ben shook his head. "All a big blur." He admitted and shook his head wearily. "I don't know how dad even did that kind of thing. I barely even remember what was discussed."
"Well have we got a story for you." Carlos said as they all sat at the table and began to recount their adventure.
In one of the broken up caves that the minions had been excavating, one of the cracked walls moved a little. Then it moved a little more before a furry fist shot out, shattering the wall. Behind the crevice in the darkness was a pair of menacing yellow eyes.