A quick thanks to pinksakura271 for the monster ideas, it was instrumental to the construction of this plot ;)
It started out as a normal school day, culminating in tourney and cheerleading practice. Audrey was running the squad, including Evie and a semi reluctant Mal through routines. Lonnie had privately wondered if Mal would be okay with Audrey as cheer captain when she was leader of their ranger team, pending zord uses. But that concern quickly proved to be moot as Mal followed her without a problem bar some of the typical Mal sarcasm that often came naturally. Sometimes that drew responses from Audrey, and it resulted in what was becoming their normal friendly bickering. She and Evie even joked sometimes it was their way of keeping the other girl on their toes.
The tourney team was likewise practicing. From the bleachers where Jane and Doug were half studying and half watching practice they could make out the teams. Ben, Jay and Carlos had there plays pretty much figured during practices. In actual games there were some areas that had to be expanded.
The other side of the team was led by Chad. Jane flinched just a bit as Chad moved on the field and slammed into Carlos hard. She actually wanted to check on him but knew it was better to stay off the field. "Hey!" Jay called out just as their coach called a foul on the move.
"And you used to like that guy?" Mal questioned Audrey.
The brunette princess rolled her eyes. "Emphasis on used to." She reminded the purple haired girl. In truth she had never really liked Chad, at least in that way, but she had wanted to try to make Ben feel some of the emotions she had been feeling when he had declared his love for Mal at that time. She was actually kind of glad she was getting over those feelings of anger and envy.
"Got to watch where you're going bro." Chad said to Carlos as Ben helped him up.
"I'll make you watch where you're going." Jay snapped at him. The coach quickly told them to break it up.
While this was going on Nerissa appeared behind the bleachers. She made her way over to the girl's bags and took out a purple water bottle, putting something into the water and then closing it up. She then slipped away into the trees as she watched.
Chad started back to his side of the field and Audrey couldn't help but call out to him, "That's really uncool of you Chad. We're all still on the same side."
"Shut up, Audrey." He snapped at her. "We don't need to hear your opinions."
"Hey." Jay replied testily. "Watch your mouth, in case you forgot your speaking to a girl."
"Alright guys." Ben tried to intervene diplomatically. "Let's just try this again. And let's get it right." He added looking to the guy that was quickly becoming a former friend.
Audrey sighed irritably. "Alright girls, take five." She said to them.
"I'm getting some water." Mal said to both Audrey and Evie before taking off toward their packs.
Evie glanced over at Audrey. "Are you okay?" She asked concerned. She knew that Chad was at least supposed to be her and Ben's friend and that was not the kind of attitude one gave their friends, at least that was what the blue haired girl assumed.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Audrey replied. She tried her best not to let that irritation out on Evie as since she knew the girl was only concerned for her, something that surprised her a bit even now. In fact all of the isle kids' easy acceptance of her still surprised her a little, Ben's voucher for her in the command center notwithstanding. "Thanks."
What no one even saw was that Mal went over and picked up a black water bottle and opened it. She sighed. "Great, I forgot to fill mine up before we came out here." She realized.
"You can have some of mine." Lonnie said to Mal. "It's the purple water bottle next to Audrey's bag."
"Thanks." Mal said as she reached for the purple water bottle and then turned to the field to watch the tourney practice.
The guys were going at their routine again. As far as the girls and Doug could tell Chad tried again to ram into Carlos as he had before, but the smaller boy managed to evade it and even shot the ball out from his stick.
Chad gave out a small growl of annoyance and then stole the ball back from another guy. Mal felt a bit of annoyance at the boy as she opened up Lonnie's water bottle and took a drink of water as she watched Chad slide under Ben and before Jay could intercept him he shot the ball straight into the next. He raised his arms in victory and shouted, "That's right boys. Better than you!"
What confused Jane was she glanced back as this occurred and noticed the look on the purple haired girls face go from annoyance to what she almost swore was adoration.
"Can you believe that guy?" Audrey asked with a roll of her eyes. She found it increasingly hard to believe she had ever thought she could even like him.
"You're telling me." Evie agreed with a sigh. "How ridiculous, don't you think M?" She asked her best friend as all of the boys started toward the bleachers.
"I know." Mal said. "That was…" She dropped the water bottle and ran out to the field. Ben was ready to take her into his arms but she brushed right past him, right past both Jay and Carlos and right up to Chad. "Amazing. You are such a great player." She boasted as she leaned up next to him.
"What…what are you doing?" Chad asked her, sounding slightly disgusted.
"Um…did I miss something?" Doug asked Jane as he glanced at her.
Jane had to shake her head a bit to get past the shock. "If you missed something, then I really missed something too." She replied.
Jay and Carlos shared a look of shock from not two feet away. From the bleachers Audrey and Evie glanced at each other with shocked faces and they turned just enough to see the exact same look on Lonnie's face as well.
"Mal?" Ben asked as he came closer. "Did…did I miss something here?"
Mal looked up over at him, a picture of innocence. "What do you mean Ben?" She asked simply.
Ben noticed that she was still wearing his ring and was even more confused. "Aren't we…I mean shouldn't you be…what's going on?" He asked her.
Mal still seemed lost too. "I was just congratulating my Chaddie kins." She replied simply.
"Chaddie kins?" Jay questioned. "Since when has he been anything other than price jerk face?"
"All of you are such freak." Chad spat as he looked from Mal and then to Jay. "What game you trying to play here?"
From the trees Nerissa cursed. "Damn it, that wasn't what was supposed to happen." She looked at the three ranger girls, specifically Audrey and Lonnie and then looked at Jay. "Not at all." Then from in her head she heard Paradias, This was not what you were sent here for. He agreed but then she heard his laugh in her head. But this could be just as interesting.
While a lot of the cheerleading and tourney team looked on shocked, trying to figure out what joke they were missing out on Jane frowned and then got off the bleachers and picked up the water bottle that Mal had just drunk from and then looked to them. "It can't be…could it be something in the water?" She mused.
"What about the water?" Doug asked.
"I…I don't know." She answered uncertainly. She bit her lip. "Doug, do you think you could do me a favor and analyze the water?" She asked and added. "I don't think Evie is really going to want to do that right now."
Doug took the water bottle. "Sure, Jane." He answered. "Tell Evie I'll catch up with her later." Then he was started to move toward the school.
Then there was a loud crashing through the forest that drew everyone's attention, it was making as much sound as a bulldozer. A red looking creature that seemed to be look like an ape except for it had the snout, main and tail of a lion landed hard in front of the them.
"What is that?" Lonnie asked.
"Sarmeya?" Doug questioned in shock. "I thought that was a myth…"
Mal got in front of Chad. "Don't worry Chaddie kins, I'll protect you." She promised.
Ben had to shake off his hurt and confusion in face of a slightly more important situation. "What is that?"
The lion ape creature looked around and laughed. "Ah, there we go." He breathed. He then started toward the cheerleaders and tourney players.
Jane and Doug started running over to them and Jane called out, "Your highness, we have to start getting everyone out of harm's way."
The creature barreled right through the three female rangers and they landed hard. Jay and Carlos moved as one to try to block the thing but barely in his way before being brushed aside. Ben now moved in his way to keep Mal safe, trying to ignore the fact that his purple haired girlfriend was trying to protect the one guy that had given them the most trouble since their arrival, excluding of course Audrey who was coming around to them quicker than the young king could have ever expected.
He stopped just short of the three of them and the roared back and unleashed what many could only be considered a burst of fire but it didn't burn either Mal or the two boys. Instead when the fire dissipated he only stated, "Soon, my brother."
"Mal." Jane said as she now caught up to them. "You and the others know what you need to do." She looked to Ben. "Help Doug and I get everyone to safety."
Ben nodded, feeling the desire to stay behind and protect Mal. "Y…yeah. Let's do it." He said reluctantly.
"Protect Chad." Mal ordered simply as she slipped around to her friends, who were getting up.
The three civilians in the know managed to get the people out of sight just as the six teens pulled out their iPhones, input their codes, and morphed. The beast creature laughed at them. "Do you really think you color coded kiddies can stand up to my ancient fury?" He questioned and then ran straight at them.
"I'll do whatever it takes to protect my Chaddie kins." Mal said.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Jay murmured.
"Lose your lunch later." Audrey said to the black ranger. "Let's take care of this ugly monkey thing now."
He jumped up and intended to land on some of the rangers but they dodged out of the way. He swung and his solid fist connected hard with both Evie and Carlos. They took a hard landing to the ground.
He turned around and struck Lonnie and Audrey as they tried to double team him. They flew hard as well and that left Jay and Mal still standing for the moment. Then they heard an odd roaring sound, one that was still vaguely familiar to Mal. For reasons she could barely remember she recalled it belonged to Ben, he had let it out at the enchanted lake before diving into the water.
"Ben, no!" Audrey exclaimed. But the young king didn't listen as he came back out of the forest and did his best to attack the beast creature in what one could awkwardly call a spear. It stumbled back a bit and then tried to hit Ben though he dodged it.
"What are you doing?" Mal asked him. The rangers were briefly relieved until the purple ranger added, "You're supposed to be helping keep my Chaddie kins safe."
"Oh, Mal. Barf." Carlos said.
"Let's try a double team Mal." Jay suggested.
"Sure." She agreed. She raised her staff above her head, holding one end in each. Jay took a couple of steps back and the black ranger was about to run up to her and then jump over the staff for leverage.
But they were all shocked when Ben saw it and he reached out and tripped Jay, making him sprawl hard on the ground. "Stay away from Mal, don't touch her." He warned his team mate.
Jay blinked in shock through his helmet. "Wait, what?" He wanted to know.
"What is going on here?" Carlos asked.
The beast laughed and then jumped backwards twice before taking hold of a tree branch and disappearing into the forest.
As if knowing the battle was over they each received a text from Jane:
Meet me in the chemistry room, now
"We better see what's up with this." Audrey said as she powered down. She was already sure something was going on.
"No." Mal said with a shake of her head as she powered down as well. The other four followed suit. "I have to find my Chaddie kins."
"Oh come on Mal." Audrey said. "I don't know what's going on but this has gone from being puzzling to downright ridiculous." She was now all but in Mal's face, and what surprised Evie the most is she found herself siding with the princess. "He hates you all, he accused Evie of being a gold digger and he accused Jay of liking to hurt people. He's not even worth your time even if I thought for one moment that anything was genuine."
"Back off." Ben said as he tried to get in Audrey's way now but Lonnie stopped him by grabbing his arm. She thought it safer for her to do so then Jay and knew whatever was happening right now between the girls was at least not real.
Mal gave her the kind of glare that in truth convinced the red ranger that in the starting days she was right to think they were all evil. Whatever the purple haired girl would have responded back with was interrupted by another text from Jane.
I need you guys in the chemistry room. Right. Now. That includes you, Mal. I have Chad here with us.
Like that the dark look in Mal's eyes passed. "Oh, my Chaddie kins is waiting for me." She said happily and added in a semi sing song voice, "To the chemistry room." Before all but skipping off.
Evie was by Audrey's side and the two girls exchanged looks. "I hope Jane has some kind of answer here because this is getting out of hand." The blue haired girl remarked as Ben ran off to catch up with Mal and the other teens fell into step behind them.
From the trees Nerissa had watched this all. "Did you send that beast thing?" She asked. Paradias responded instantly in her mind. No, that isn't one of ours.
Nerissa took the bottle that contained the potion and set it on the ground. Then she raised her scepter. "From the ether of the shadows, I make thee real." She intoned. The potion bottle rose up and then grew to six times in size before sprouting arms and legs. It had a heart shaped hilted sword attached to its back and small cannons on its arms. "Heartwrecker, the rangers will come looking for a cure. Your job is to stop them."
"Your wish is my command Nerissa." The monster promised.
The rangers entered the chemistry lab. Mal almost seemed to coo happily, a sound that Evie and the boys had never heard from her before, and then she tried to go sit by Chad. Two things happened at once; the first was Ben tried to get in between them, the second was Chad trying to move away from them both. "What the hell is going on here?" He demanded to know.
"Never thought I'd agree with prince non-charming here, but I want to know the same thing." Jay said as they sat down. Then he realized Doug was here too. "No offense, but what is he doing here?"
"First off, Doug knows about all of this." Jane said as she looked at them all. "He helped my mother and I with this entire project." She shrugged sheepishly. "This…just wasn't how we intended for this reveal to go."
"What project? What's going on around here?" Chad demanded to know.
"Can someone shut him up already?" Jay asked annoyed. "Unless he knows too."
"Calm down Jay." Evie said soothingly and then gave Doug an encouraging smile. "A lot is going on and we're just hoping for some good clarification." She said to him gently.
Jane frowned a bit. "But Jay is right about this one." She conceded.
"I got it." Jay said and started to get up to punch Chad in the face. Mal was already ready to defend him and Ben was already ready to stop Jay from getting near Mal but Evie held up her hand.
"I got it Jay." She said. The blue haired girl took out the perfume bottle, complete with knock out gas she had used on Chad during parent's day and sprayed him in the face before he could do much more than start a protest. Mal caught him and laid him on the floor gently.
"Alright, what's going on Jane?" Audrey wanted.
"I'm not entirely sure." The girl answered shyly. "As far as I can ascertain this all started with your water bottle Lonnie."
"I don't get it." Lonnie said.
"I think I do." Doug said. They all looked to him. "I think your drink was laced with a love potion." He looked to Evie. "Can you verify that please?" He was pretty sure of his findings but knew not only would they trust her word a bit more but also that a true scientist would want their findings verified anyway.
Evie stepped up and took a look. It wasn't hard and she nodded. "Doug's right. I don't know where it came from but the water in Lonnie's water bottle was laced with a love potion." She verified.
"Someone was trying to spell me?" Lonnie seemed surprised.
"Makes sense." Mal pointed out. She vaguely remembered using a love potion herself on Ben but found for whatever reason she couldn't remember why. "Should have been Chad." She added to herself.
"For what?" Ben asked, sounding a bit defensive.
"Never mind." Audrey interrupted them both. "Okay, so we find the idiot who decided to do this and make them reverse it."
"Hold up a minute." Doug said as he passed a notepad over to Evie. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" He asked her.
Evie took a look at it, surprised that her knack for chemistry was paying off here as well. She also saw the problem, or more accurately the mystery, immediately. "A lot of these are basic components for love spells, but I don't recognize these two ingredients."
Lonnie thought she understood. "Paradias set this up, trying to play cupid." She said. When both Doug and Evie nodded in confirmation she sighed a bit. "Why do they care who I fall in love with? Or who Mal is in love with?"
"You mean why do they care if I'm with Chad?" Mal asked. That got a look of annoyance from both boys but the other rangers basically ignored them right now.
"I don't think Mal was the target." Jane now said. "I wish I knew why but something tells me that it had to have been Lonnie."
"So what do we do to reverse it?" Carlos asked.
"Obviously it's like the venom thing that the manticore was using." Audrey deduced. "We need to destroy the monster."
"I'm afraid it's not that simple." Doug said somewhat quietly. Calling the often haughty princess wrong was not something the son of Dopey the dwarf was used to doing. But in this case he had to because they had to realize this was not one but two separate problems. "Sarmeya is not one of Pardias's monsters."
"Okay, now I'm lost." Evie said to Doug. "What do you mean? What's going on?"
"Sarmeya is…well, was a legend that I grew up hearing about from Uncle Doc." Doug answered, referring of course to the oldest of the seven dwarves that had once helped shelter Evie's step sister Snow White a long time ago. Their connection was pretty ironic in Lonnie's opinion, much like Mal and Audrey working together considering the fact the former's mother basically tried to get rid of the latter's mother. "It's an ancient creature, one of many that existed on this planet before people were around."
"I thought that was demons." Jay interrupted. His father Jafar had talked about that kind of thing sometimes too.
"The demons were first." Doug corrected. "And for whatever reasons were either banished or went into hiding." He looked around. "But there was time in between the banishment of demons from the world and the rise of people. Creatures like Sarmeya are one of those."
"So his people died out at some point I presume." Audrey said, trying to rush things along, trying to get things settled.
Doug nodded. "Yes." He confirmed. "After talking with Jane I've surmised that Sarmeya was buried in the mountains where you retrieved your megazord. It must have gotten disturbed by you guys, those weird soldier things or both."
"So why would it use a love potion on any of us?" Audrey asked with a slight edge of annoyance.
"He didn't." Evie realized. "Whatever it's doing was separate from what Paradias is planning."
"Swell." Jay sighed. "So what do we do now? How does that help us?"
"For what it's worth, I think this Sarmeya thing is linked to how Ben is behaving." Jane said.
"You mean all jealous and possessive." Audrey clarified as she pointed to the barely concealed hostile looks that Ben was shooting at Chad while Mal was hovering over him. The princess suspected that only the fact Chad was unconscious right now was the only reason he wasn't acting any stranger. He was sure keeping an eye on Jay, Carlos and Doug. "But how did he do that?"
Fortunately Doug was about as far away from them as he could get and still be in the group, and also standing by Evie. Jay was with Carlos and his other two female team members. Carlos was the furthest away as he was sitting next to Jane.
"I think it's pheromone related." Doug said. "Jane and I saw him make some kind of attack on Ben, Mal and Chad. That's when this behavior started up."
"I think I'm still lost." Carlos admitted sheepishly.
"It's because of his dad." Audrey submitted. "He was turned into that beast form of his for like half of his life. Some lingering effect of that must have been genetically passed onto Ben." She looked to Doug and Evie for confirmation. "When he did what he did it must have reactivated some dormant gene."
"At least in some part." Doug clarified with an approving nod. "We haven't seen his appearance change physically but he is responding to as if Mal were his mate and he's trying to protect what he sees as his own."
"Such an outdated concept." Audrey drawled with a roll of her eyes. "Okay, so we have two separate problems that's being one big thorn in our sides. What do we about them?"
"The six of us need to go out there and kick some beast butt." Jay declared.
"You mean five." Audrey corrected. "Mal's not going, she needs to stay here."
"No, I mean six." Jay challenged as he looked at Audrey. "Mal is our leader and she's coming with us."
"She's under a spell. She doesn't even want to leave Chad's side. Ben's under some kind of influence and he already threw himself into harm's way out there." Audrey reminded him. "He also became possessive enough that he stopped you from attacking that Sarmeya thing just because you had to be close to Mal. As long as this is going on she has to stay here."
For just a moment Evie was surprised to hear Audrey say that. Then it occurred to her that not only was Audrey right but in her right mind, her best friend would be making that objection too. The fact she was more worried about Chad than this conversation proved that their second in command was completely right in her assessment.
Jay was about to accuse of her of trying to take control of Mal's group, a comment he would probably regret if things got taken care of and tempers had settled down but Evie interrupted, "Jay. Audrey is right. Right now the best place for Mal is here. She won't leave Mr. 'Charming' down there and Ben will go wherever Mal goes regardless of the danger and that includes to us if he feels like you or Carlos are a threat to her."
Jay stopped ,took a deep breath and thought about what had transpired. He realized that Audrey was right and that it was a good thing Evie seemed to be having some kind of rational thought. "Okay, fine." He conceded. "What do the five us do? Go hunting for the lion ape thing or find a cure for this potion?"
Carlos had been messing with his iPhone through the entire thing and he looked up. "Hey guys." He called. The four rangers looked toward him. "We have another problem. Jane and I recently developed an app that links the command center's sensors to the iPhone and we've detected a monster."
The four of them took out their iPhones to find the sensor app and then activated it to find what had attracted Carlos's attention. It was the same Heartwrecker monster that Nerissa summoned moments ago.
"Odds are that thing is responsible for the love spell Mal is under." Jane said. "Destroying that monster might release the hold on her." She looked to five rangers. "Try to take care of it. At the least we can't let that thing to that to anyone else."
"What about us?" Carlos asked. He thought he might like Jane but didn't want a monster trying to make a relationship happen before he or she were ready for it.
"Your suits should protect you guys from its influence." Doug assured him. He didn't want Evie to worry about that either. "We're going to try to work on an antidote in case you guys can't kill that monster or our theory about destroying it setting Mal free is wrong."
Audrey nodded. "Okay guys." She said. "Let's get to work."
Evie reached down and squeezed Doug's hand gently as she got up. Carlos gave Jane a smile that he hoped would convey they would be alright and then the five rangers left the room to find the monster.
Jane sighed and shook her head. "Mal's in love with Chad because of a love potion. Some pheromone thing is taking Ben's love for Mal into a possessive direction." She looked over at Chad. "And he's going to hate us even more when this is all over." She sighed. "What else could possible go wrong?"