"Magic still exists in this plane." Paradias stated as he watched the surface scroll by. "Except for the Isle of the Lost apparently." He laughed a bit. "They wouldn't want their prisoners to revolt after all." He stood now from where he sat at the throne at the center of the bridge. "But it also seems like it's been all but forgotten as they've made way for more 'modern' beliefs."
"Then it is to their detriment." Nerissa said dismissively. "It takes more than modern beliefs to deal with the ancient magic's we wield."
Again Paradias chuckled. "They wouldn't know how to deal with the magic I wield even if they had embraced magic, as my magic is over ten thousand years old." He mused. "Still, in such a limited society as theirs even a moderate magic user may be able to test their boundaries and even decimate them…even the power rangers."
"And that is what you're hoping to prove right now." Nerissa guessed with a cruel smile.
"Precisely what I intend to do." The leader agreed with a laugh. "Let's see what they can do with this."
On the nice Sunday morning they were all hoping to just hang out and do normal teenage things. At least as far as things went for them. They had chosen a nice big tree to spend the afternoon under, equipped with a large picnic basket.
Mal was eating chocolate covered strawberries with Ben beside her. He was making a ham sandwich. Evie sat across from them, dividing her time with trying her hand at eating a jelly donut and pointing out a few things to Doug as he worked on some theories to help keep any chance of Sermaya's pheormonal influences from effecting Ben or anyone else. They hadn't been able to figure out if Ben was specially targeted and if so what made him susceptible, and if that were the case who else could be just as easily targeted. They couldn't even eliminate the possibility that it was only limited to men who could affected.
Not far from them Audrey and Jane were talking as they were making sandwiches for themselves as well. Dude was lying beside her and watching them make the sandwiches, hoping for some food to fall. Every now and again the princess would glance over where Lonnie was going through a few basic offensive moves with Jay and Carlos for the next time combat would be necessary. It personally amused Jane a little though she couldn't help but glance back too.
Finally Jane looked over at her. "You could go join them you know, if you wanted." She reminded her. "I mean technically you do need to know how to fight too." She realized what she said and some old habits kicked in. "Not that you can't fight, you've proven you can, especially recently and…"
"I get it Jane." Audrey promised her with a laugh. "But no, actually I'm hoping to avoid any physical altercations today." She replied as she finished the sandwich. Her left hand reached up to rub her shoulder gently. "For some reason my right shoulder kind of aches today."
"That would be because of Chad." Jane felt the need to point out. "That's like the second time in a day that he basically attacked you."
"He didn't attack me, at least not the second time." Audrey reminded Jane. "It was an accident." The first time was more intentional and while she normally would have made sure that he paid for that she had agreed with Ben that given the circumstances surrounding the love potion and Sermaya's weird effect that cracking under the situation made sense, especially when one didn't even know the situation as a whole like they did.
"Yeah, that's one way of putting it." Jane replied. "Look, I know it wasn't exactly a premeditated assault but he knew you were there and still smashed into you. It wasn't exactly an accident either."
"We just have to give him time and some distance." Audrey said. "He'll come around."
"If you say so." Jane sighed.
Not too far away Mal had just finished telling Evie how their last encounter with Chad had went. "Can you believe that jerk?" Mal asked her friend. "I mean I know he hates us, but for crying out loud he seems willing to throw away years of friendship with Ben, Audrey and Lonnie over a simple disagreement."
"I don't know if it's a simple disagreement to him M." Evie reminded her friend. Not that she couldn't see both sides of it. The fact is that when they were growing up on the island, for the longest time Mal had despised the blue haired girl while Evie had been kind of afraid of the purple haired girl. They had learned to overcome those feelings and accept each other as friends, even sisters, but only because they had been willing to overcome those years of disagreement beforehand.
"He has to get used to the idea no matter how much he disagrees with it." Ben said reasonably as he patted Mal's hand gently. "There's already talk of trying a second round of pulling kids from the island."
"Is that even going to work?" Doug asked. When Mal and Evie looked at him kind of funny he hastened to elaborate, "I mean I know it can work, just look at you two and the guys. What I mean is would any of the island's parents really allow them to come here after what happened with all of you."
Evie bit her lip in thought a moment. "Actually I hate to say it but Doug might be right there." She seemed to continue on a bit shyly even though what she was about to say was common knowledge, at least among the group. "I mean our parents only sent us here so that we could bring back Fairy Godmother's wand for your mom so all the villains could escape the island."
Mal had been eating a strawberry while her blue haired friend was talking. She swallowed the fruit and looked to Ben. "Evie's right. That's something that will have to be watched out for, rather we have any personal input in this or not." She confirmed.
Ben smiled at the girls as he reached up to stroke Mal's hair. "Why don't we worry about that later." He suggested. "Let's just enjoy the day."
"Sounds like a good idea to me, you highness." Evie said with a small laugh.
Lonnie and the two boys finished up and started back toward the blankets. Jay sat in between Audrey and Lonnie while Carlos sat next to Jane. As Lonnie reached for a bottle of water the black ranger looked to Audrey. "You make a sandwich for me?" He teased.
Audrey rolled her eyes. "Do I look like Cinderella's daughter to you?" She questioned though in truth she had made a few sandwiches and had no problem giving one of those to Jay. "Don't say I never did anything for you."
Jay laughed as he took it. "Why thank you." He said, giving a mock bow. That only caused the princess to roll her eyes at him again as she handed another of the sandwiches to Lonnie, who again resisted the impulse to tease them for what looked like flirting to her.
Jane handed one to Carlos and then set aside a piece of ham for Dude to start eating.
They had only gotten a few bites of their food when the apps on the phone went off signaling that another monster had just arrived on the surface. They all stood quickly and made their way to the command center, only moments after Fairy Godmother had gotten there. Together they all saw what was onscreen.
Walking into the other side of Auradon was a male looking monster who in what one could only describe as the kind of robes that one expected Merlin to wear in the days of King Arthur, but the attire held no stars and comets and was not blue but was in fact a really dark red, Audrey would have guessed burgundy if asked but figured no one except possibly Lonnie would care about that sort of detail.
"That guy looks kind of mean." Lonnie remarked as they noticed the evil smirk crossing his face.
"Is this another random monster of the day kind or an ancient unearthed kind of monster?" Carlos asked as he remembered Sermaya was not sent by Paradias but had instead unintentionally been awakened, possibly by both sides, when they had been trying to get their megazord.
Jane and Doug were already at the consoles. "It's hard to say for sure." Fairy Godmother responded. "But I've never heard of anything like this." She looked to Doug, the only one to have known about the ancient beast king.
He shook his head. "I've got nothing; it would seem to suggest that he's never been from around here." He replied.
"That doesn't necessarily mean anything." Ben reminded them all. "Don't forget we have a lot of cultures here in the United States of Auradon. Including things that could be from the Isle of the Lost." He looked to the four former residents of said island.
Mal stepped up next to Jane to look at the readings she was collecting. "Not from our neck of the woods." She declared immediately. "Ignoring the fact I think we'd have seen this guy walking around before, from what these reading our showing he would have given my mother a run for her money."
"One of Paradias' monsters then." Fairy Godmother concluded.
"We can't be too sure of that yet." Ben said though he had a feeling their headmistress was right. As Mal came back to stand beside her team mates he looked to the six rangers. "You guys better not approach this one morphed until we know his intentions for sure."
Carlos laughed dryly. "Easy for you to say Ben. You're not the one who has to stare this guy down face to face." He remarked.
"You can always hide behind me." Jay said somewhat mockingly.
"Enough you two." Mal interrupted the boys before they could start. "We have bigger things to worry about." She looked to Ben. "We'll try it your way but something tells me that Carlos is right and we won't be sitting down at the negotiation tables with sparkling cider and cheesecake." The latter was yet another favorite she and Evie shared, though the purple haired girl liked strawberry topping with it while her blue haired friend preferred a chocolate topping.
"Actually for negotiations we'd more likely be serving brie or…" Audrey started but stopped when Mal gave her a look that asked if they were seriously discussing diplomatic protocol right now. The princess rolled her eyes. "Okay, forget the lesson in class even though you sometimes seem to desperately need it. Let's go."
With another eye roll Mal waved her hand and the team started up the stairs and toward the rear gates of Auradon. Carlos was just a little behind as he motioned for Dude to stay with Jane.
As Fairy Godmother and Doug were at one console, starting to discuss what the readings could mean Jane glanced over at Ben. "Are you sticking around this time?" She asked. She hadn't forgotten that he had disappeared that first time the ranger's had fought and while his reasoning for doing so was perfectly plausible and kingly, well something about it just seemed off to her.
"Wouldn't miss it." Ben promised her.
Clearly many of the citizens of Auradon had to agree with Carlos's assessment because they were fleeing in the opposite direction of the approaching red clad figure. One girl tried to ask Audrey if she was crazy to be going in the same direction, how could the princess tell her that as a ranger she had no choice even if she wanted to be going anywhere but there.
The area was clear by the time the six teens showed up and even more disturbing was that his grin grew even more malicious. "Ah, the Power Rangers. I am the Red Magi. It's so nice to make your final acquaintances." He introduced.
"I guess we know who sent him down now." Lonnie said. Sermaya hadn't known who they were but Paradias would make sure his monsters knew their prime targets.
"So much for the brie at the negotiation table." Mal teased Audrey.
"Too bad to, it goes really great with whole grain crackers." Audrey retorted with a small smile.
The two girls shook off their bantering as Mal took another step forward. "Alright guys, let's get to work." They took out their iPhones, input their numbers and transformed.
"Is that your best magic trick?" Red Magi asked them with amusement. "If so then you'll never be able to beat my act."
"Does this look like an act to you?" Jay retorted.
"Only time will tell, and not a great deal of it." Red Magi answered. "Bring it on Rangers if you have what it takes."
The six of them formed their weapons at the same time that he formed a staff similar to Maleficent's. First Jay tried to bring his scimitar down but the monster blocked it with his own staff and then shot his hand out, smashing into the black ranger's chest hard.
Lonnie moved in next and started swinging with her tessen's. He started to evade them easily. He hovered back a few feet and sent a sparkling black ball of energy straight at the pink ranger, sending her sprawling next to the black ranger.
"Alright Red." Evie said as she brought her mirror shield up to her chest. "Why don't you try using some of that magic on me?"
He cocked his head. "Confident, aren't you?" He questioned and nodded. "Alright then, let's see who has the better magic trick?" With that he flung that same black energy ball at the blue ranger who promptly caught it with her mirror shield and reflected it back right at him. This seemed to amuse the monster, and in his free hand a top hat appeared. He brought it up and caught the doubly powered energy ball in it before tossing it right back at Evie with quadruple the power. The blue ranger got ready to try to deflect it again when it split into four and struck all around her, sending her flying back with a rough landing.
"Okay, back to being up close." Carlos decided as he charged toward Red Magi with his clawed daggers ready to go. He tried to swing at the monster but he dodged the attack. Another swing resulted in another dodge. The monster tried to bring his staff down but Carlos caught it in between his daggers.
The monster laughed. "Clever. Time for another magic trick." He stated and then a curtain seemed to envelope him. Carlos fell forward a moment before turning to the curtain. He figured the monster had to be in there and so he drove his weapons straight into the cloth, only to be struck from behind by his own weapons. He landed hard next to Evie as Red Magi reappeared. "Thanks for playing Yellow ranger."
"This guy is full of tricks." Audrey noted with annoyance. She wondered if the tip of his staff held the key to his power and raised her silver bow up, summoning an arrow and let it go with full intention of shattering the small glass looking object on the tip of the staff.
Red Magi heard it coming however and turned around. He raised his staff and froze it. "Such exquisite craftsmanship." He noted with seeming delight. "It'd be such a waste not to take advantage of it." With a flick of his wrist he shot it right back at Audrey. The red ranger prepared to dodge it when the monster snapped his fingers and suddenly one arrow became a hail of arrows, many of which struck her and sent her landing hard to the ground.
"Okay, I think you could teach my mother a thing or two." Mal allowed. "Pending that whole tuning into a black dragon kind of thing." She then raised her staff and swung at Red Magi. He blocked it and the two took a moment to assess each other's skills, drawing even.
"Well done." Red Magi acknowledged. "But you're forgetting who you're dealing with." And with another wave of his hand a hail of knives came out from underground and struck Mal several times, allowing him to take his staff and strike Mal in the chest hard. She rolled uncomfortably for a moment before stopping.
"This isn't going good at all." Doug noted apprehensively. "How can they defeat magic like that?"
Fairy Godmother frowned. "Mal was right, even her mother would be hard pressed to match him. I don't think even with my wand I could do it." She said.
Jane bit her lip and then exclaimed, "The book."
"What?" Ben asked her.
"Mal's magic book that she brought with her from the Island of the Lost." Jane elaborated. She had actually learned recently she had some kind of magic ability as well, unintentionally botching up a spell to redo Audrey's hair and hadn't really messed with it since. "It has strong magic's in it and maybe that combined with the ranger powers might be just enough to stop that monster."
"It's worth a shot." Fairy Godmother agreed. "Do you know where in Mal's room it is my dear?"
Jane nodded. "I think so. I'll go get it and take it to her." She answered.
"Wait." Doug said. He reached over and grabbed a small item that looked like a coin and gave it to her. "When you get the book place the coin on top of it. It should teleport the book right to Mal."
"Got it." Jane said and then was off.
Mal was starting to get up as her team mates came to her side. Evie helped her to sit up. "What do we now M?" She asked. "Everything we've tried so far he's only shrugged off."
Mal shook her head. "Working on it." She answered simply.
That was when Fairy Godmother's voice came over the helmet intercom. "Jane is going to get your spell book Mal. Maybe something in there will help you to overcome this monster, but in the meantime you have to hang in there." She announced.
"That's easier said than done." Lonnie said. She looked to Mal. "How do we keep him busy without getting killed in the process?"
"Why don't we try the triangle spark?" Mal suggested.
"Can we even do one of those?" Jay asked her. The first time it had been Mal, Evie and Audrey on the ground while Jay and Carlos were on their shoulders. The second simply replaced Mal with Lonnie. It both instances it had involved five of them.
"Sure." Audrey answered for the purple ranger. "Same formation as we used except this time Mal will have to be on your shoulders." She looked to Jay and Carlos and then to Mal. "Looks like joining the Auradon cheerleading squad is going to come in handy for you again."
"Okay, okay. I get it." Mal said with a roll of her eyes to both the red ranger and her best friend, both of who had teased her about her reluctance to do so now. "Let's do it guys."
Lonnie, Audrey and Evie stood side by side. Jay and Carlos jumped on their shoulders, not the most comfortable position but easy enough to hold for a couple minutes, long enough to make their attack. Mal then jumped up herself and just managed to stick the landing, a feat she was sure wouldn't have worked if she had not been morphed right now. They all formed their blasters and then unleashed the modified Auradon Triangle Spark at Red Magi.
The monster didn't look like he had quiet expected that one. He tried to brace for the impact but it still sent him rolling backwards. "Clever, but it will take more than that to defeat me."
Jane all but burst into Mal's dorm room and hurried over to the nightstand where the book was normally kept and saw it wasn't there. "Oh, no. Come on." She whispered frantically before noticing it on the round study table in the center of the room. She went over and set the coin like object on the book, where it immediately vanished.
"Wow." Jay gasped as the book appeared from out of nowhere. He barely caught it and handed it to Mal. "I believe this is for you."
"Thanks Jay." The purple ranger said as she took the book.
"You should have had your magic tricks ready to go before the act even started." Red Magi chastised her. "It's a little late be studying now young lady."
"I'm a quick study, unfortunately for you." Mal replied briskly.
"Not quick enough I'd bet." Red Magi stated and then sent a black ball of energy their way.
Mal found what she needed. "Rings, come to me and bring forth the boom." She recited.
Audrey snickered a bit. "That sounds intimidating." She noted.
The black energy bolt went in one the left ring and out the right ring and straight toward Red Magi. He just sidestepped it with a laugh, not realizing that the spell didn't summon two rings but four. The other two were right behind him and performed the same loop as the ones in front of the rangers but since he wasn't expecting it his own attack struck him from behind.
"Sweet." Carlos said.
"That's not all this baby's got." Mal said triumphantly.
"No more study time for you." Red Magi growled irritably. "Time to cut this class short." With that he unleashed another stream of knives toward them.
"Evie, get ready." Mal announced. With a simple page flip the purple ranger recited, "Sharp as eyes, small as scones, take the slice and send it home." The hail of knives seemed to be condensed in a cone, but with another gesture it was directed to the blue ranger who collected in her mirror shield and directed it right at him. While Red Magi tried to dodge it yet another simple gesture caused it to move with him and explode on impact, leaving little crystalline shards in its wake that dissipated when hitting the ground.
"That was cool." Audrey admitted. "And really pretty."
"You think that was cool, get ready for the penultimate finale." Mal said with a smile. "Let's play a little guessing game big red." She said and with a simple page flip she recited; "Time to play, time to guess, which door determines your fate." With that the ranger's except for Evie and Mal disappeared and four doors appeared around Red Magi.
"Childish and simple." Red Magi spat and tried to simply levitate over the doors but they floated up with him.
"Nope, the only way out is through one of those doors." Mal said with a smirk. "But one of them has my friends ready to strike. As for the other two…" She gave her own evil smile, something that she had spent years learning under the tutelage of her mother Maleficent. "You don't want to know."
Red Magi glared angrily at her. Then the magic curtain enveloped him before he appeared in front of the two visible rangers. "I'm not going to be caught playing your games, little girl." He stated impatiently.
While Evie got ready to fight Mal only snickered. "You just have." She announced simply as one of the doors silently sat on the ground as it rotated. "Welcome to what's called a bluff." And with that the door opened and her four team mates were there. He barely had enough time to turn before Lonnie slashed him with her tessen, Audrey with the end of her bow, and Carlos with his clawed daggers. Jay had a different target in mind as he brought his scimitar down on his staff, effectively splitting it down the middle.
"A warning next time before we just disappear." Audrey snapped at Mal. "That wasn't nearly as much fun."
Mal shrugged. "Sorry about that, didn't really know what to expect. The finale will be more appealing." And with that a page was flipped. "The monster's might, seemingly not found, with this circle, tighten his bounds." With that a large circle of energy wrapped around Red Magi and he found he could not move, though he struggled as hard as he could.
"Tighten his bounds?" Carlos asked, not sure that made much sense.
"It's magic, all it has to do is work, not make sense." Mal said. "Now let's finish this with the Auradon Blaster." First came her staff, then Audrey's bow underneath it. That was followed by Evie's shield behind it, Jay's scimitar in the center flanked on either side by Lonnie's tessen and Carlos's clawed daggers. Then they took their positions; Mal and Audrey in the center with Evie and Carlos to Mal's right and Jay and Lonnie to Audrey's left. They fired on Red Magi and an explosion followed.
When it was all clear all that was left was the top of the monsters staff, which disappeared.
Jane made it just in time for the finale. Ben excitedly told her about the magic spells that Mal used to turn the tide against the Red Magi monster. It wasn't long before the six rangers returned, Dude greeting Carlos happily.
"So are you glad you stuck around for the show this time Ben?" Mal asked with a teasing smile.
"It was so worth the price of admission." Ben promised her as he took her in his arms and the two kissed for a moment.
After they had parted Fairy Godmother gave them all an encompassing look. "Well done, all of you." She said with a smile. "And that includes you too Jane. That was very quick thinking on your part."
Mal actually had a memory of Jane ordering a possessive Ben and irate Chad to sit down and shut up during the love potion incident. Come to think of it, Jane may have matured even more than Audrey since we took up this mission, and she's certainly shown she's as brave as Audrey. She realized. She found herself thinking somewhere in the near future, if the opportunity ever presented itself, their friend would make an excellent ranger herself.
"Hey, so much for your day off." Lonnie teased Audrey.
The auburn haired princess shrugged. "Something tells me I shouldn't be expecting any days off for a long time." She lamented, only half-jokingly.
"So at least one of the rangers has access to magic after all." Paradias noted dryly. He focused on Mal's spell book. "And of all of them it was her. With that magic."
"Should we be worried?" Nerissa asked her master.
"Not really." Paradias answered. "She is strong but not nearly at the level of the one who truly mastered that magic, long ago." He looked to Nerissa. "It's been ages, I wonder…tell your knight he has a mission, I want him to find out the location of someone for me…"
Suprisingly the group found their picnic still intact. They settled down to try to try to enjoy what was left of the afternoon, though Mal now found herself focusing on something else; her spell book. She looked up suddenly. "You know what the toughest part of that fight was?" She asked.
"His annoying commentary." Audrey suggested as she reached for bottle of grape juice. Jay snickered.
"His multiple tricks." Lonnie supplied. She wasn't far off from Mal's point.
"That's just it." The purple haired girl said. "His tricks were magic, something that not only doesn't come through on the Island of the Lost but has even been all but forgotten about here." She looked to Jane. "You once told me that your mom said that the magic was in the history books, but she was wrong. That wasn't what saved us today."
"True." Jane admitted. "But this could have been a one off thing."
"But what if it wasn't?" Evie asked.
"I think we already know that it wasn't." Ben interjected as he rubbed Mal's shoulders gently. "It was a love potion that caused Mal to 'fall' for Chad and that was a product of magic. Even the Heartwrecker was made from magic."
"As was the spell that made the knight grow." Carlos added. "Even our powers and the megazord seem to be a combination of magic and technology." He looked to Jane. "Your mother even mentioned that Zordon was a wizard of some sort."
Audrey frowned a bit. "This Zordon used magic of some sort, Paradias is using magic that we don't understand at all. Our powers have some kind of magical basis. That Red Magi guy was certainly strong magically and barely got defeated by Mal's magic." She reiterated. She sighed just a bit. "I hate to say it but I'm wondering if all of our parents might have been too quick to discard magic."
Mal thought about what she had learned from her mother in her life. There were easily things she could say about her mother that those in Auradon would not have approved. But one thing her mother had certainly done for her was to make her as up on history as she could, and something confused her. "When exactly did this world stop being…you know, so magic heavy?"
Lonnie, Jane, Doug, Ben and Audrey exchanged looks as they tried to answer Mal's question and realized something perhaps a bit odd. None of them could. As Audrey had pointed out Jane was in fact born by a person of great magical power and even Fairy Godmother could quiet know when that happened.
"I think this is something that might warrant a little more investigation." Ben said simply.