The sounds of thunder and lightning woke Lonnie up from her already light sleep. She got out of her bed and went to the window to see rain falling in giant sheets that if she didn't know better looked to be sharp enough to cut through anything. She wished she knew why this felt so ominous.
She jumped slightly as her iPhone went off and it took her a minute to realize it wasn't a monster call but simply a regular call from Audrey. She picked it up. "Audrey?" She asked, feeling wide awake.
The response from the other princess seemed just as aware. "Lonnie…I…don't know exactly why I'm even awake, let alone calling you at this ungodly hour but…" Audrey was kind of babbling, a rarity in itself.
"Something feels wrong." Lonnie said simply. "Maybe we're imagining things though because…" She was cut off when she realized someone else was trying to join the conversation. "Hang on." She added them in, having a feeling who it was. "Hello?"
"Is this normal in Auradon?" They heard Mal ask. "I haven't felt this way ever, and I lived on the Isle of the lost after all." They also heard from Evie, who must have been right next to her. "This feels so strange. I don't like it."
"It's not normal Mal." Audrey answered for her. "It's downright wrong. And normally I'm not even awake now but…"
"Calm down Audrey." Evie said to her. "I know it's odd. Take a deep breath."
The three girls swore they heard Audrey doing just that. "Okay. What do we do?" She asked them.
Silence followed for a few moments before Lonnie was the one to voice it. "Want to come over to my room? We'll kind of have an impromptu sleepover." She suggested.
"We'll pick you up on the way Audrey." Mal said. She was sure there would be no objections. Normally the purple haired girl might even poke fun a bit at the auburn haired princess but wasn't feeling it really.
The phone disconnected and Lonnie stood up and went to the door. "Don't take too long." She whispered to no one.
Their fear wasn't misplaced at all. Deeper in the forest was a clearing that was rarely even seen by most of the populace; let alone by anyone who knew what to do with the place. The area was now currently surrounded by the soldiers except for one area. This was where Paradias appeared with Nerissa on one side and the knight on the other. They approached the middle of the clearing.
"This should be very interesting." Nerissa said gleefully. "It will be interesting to see how the power rangers deal with this."
Paradias raised his hands to the sky and a green glow emitted from the sky and slowly something descended from the sky in a green light. It landed right in the middle of the area and several of the soldiers surrounded it and knelt before it. He then began a chant that neither the knight nor Nerissa understood the language of, or even the dialect.
After a few minutes the egg was settled down, they could all feel the intense dark energy and power radiating from it.
"The creature inside of this egg should have more than enough power to take down the rangers and even their megazord once and for all." Paradias stated with amusement. "And even if somehow they manage to take out this creature they still won't be out of the woods just yet."
Paradias, Nerissa, and the soldiers disappeared. The knight turned and walked back into the forest, heading straight for the town. The egg was left there, glowing in the dark.
Lonnie jumped when there was a knocking on the door but felt better to find her three friends there. They came in just as quickly and then she shut the door, locking it.
"So, scary stories?" Mal tried to ask teasingly.
"So, not." Audrey answered.
The four girls sat around the study table and talked; about their favorite foods, about their classes, about some of their impressions from their budding ranger careers. They munched on cookies and drank juice. The idea of sleep never crossed their minds. They were so distracted they never saw the glowing green that descended from the sky.
Morning came and the girls eagerly left to look around campus, afraid that something drastic had changed. But everyone they encountered and talked to agreed that while the storm was more intense than normal otherwise nothing was unusual about it. They were starting to feel like they might be losing it when Jay and Carlos ran up to them. Carlos was holding Dude pretty tightly and Jay practically wrapped each of the girls in a brief hug.
"What was that about?" Jay asked as he pulled away from Audrey, the last girl he hugged. "That storm last night was…" He didn't even know how to finish that sentence.
"Intense." Audrey supplied. For once Lonnie didn't even acknowledge that it could have sounded like flirting. She had no doubt this time it wasn't meant that way.
"If you two weren't so macho you could have joined us." Evie tried to joke. "We spent half the night in Lonnie's room."
"I talked to some of the guys on the tourney team." Jay said. "But they weren't seeing things the way we did."
"Have you talked to Ben?" Mal asked him and he shook his head no.
"We've been asking that too." Audrey said. "And got the same results. Until you two showed up we were wondering if something was wrong with us."
Under other circumstances a few of them might have tried to poke fun at their red ranger but they couldn't find the spirit to do so. "I think we should find Fairy Godmother, Jane, Doug and Ben and see what they say." Carlos said.
"You can't be that out of it." Evie said as she poked Carlos in the arm gently. She then pulled out her iPhone and sent a text to the three of them asking to meet in the command center, with an additional request for Jane to ask her mother to be with them. Then they headed toward the command center.
They arrived minutes later and were somewhat impatient. When Doug arrived Evie immediately asked, "Do you feel…I don't know…okay?" She asked.
Doug looked at his blue haired crush oddly. "Yeah. Why?" He asked.
"Dang it." Lonnie said. That only made Doug look at her oddly and wonder what was going on.
Jane came in next and Audrey was there first. "Jane, have you felt as if something odd is going on?" She asked her.
Jane frowned. For an instant she wanted to say yes but felt as if what was worrying her was different from whatever was now worrying the rangers. "Kind of, what do you mean?" She asked.
"Whatever are you talking about?" Fairy Godmother asked from behind her daughter. "I know the rain storm was rather intense but now it's nice outside." She lightly brushed by the two teens to go check out the consoles. "Maybe we're missing something."
Ben was the last down and Mal hugged him tightly. "Hey, where's the fire?" He asked his girlfriend.
"Ben, have you felt something odd since really early this morning?" The purple haired girl asked as she pulled back slightly to look into his eyes.
Ben shook his head a little. "I feel a little tired, but otherwise no." He answered her honestly. He reached over and stroked her hair. "What's wrong?" He asked.
Mal sighed. "I wish I knew." She admitted.
"You're all feeling this way?" Fairy Godmother asked as Jane came to stand beside her.
"Yes." Audrey said. "And we don't know why."
"Could it be something we're the only ones feeling because we're power rangers?" Lonnie asked.
"Anything is possible." Fairy Godmother answered. "We all have to remember this is all new territory for every single one of us."
"I'm going to start running sensor scans." Doug promised them, with more of a comforting glance toward Evie than anyone else. "Maybe we'll run into something that will shed some light on your feelings."
"Thanks." Evie said softly and tried to smile at him.
Ben continued to stroke Mal's hair gently. "Don't worry. Whatever it is we'll figure out what's going on and then we..." The young king stopped himself as he remembered that Mal didn't want him in these fight since he could easily get hurt or killed. "You'll take care of it." He finished a little despondently.
Mal laughed lightly despite how she felt right now. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." She replied. She squeezed his hands gently.
Audrey felt a little bad, knowing that Ben really did want to be a bigger part of this but something was dictating otherwise.
"I found something odd." Jane reported. "It was in the news; apparently there was a large fracture in the mountains on the far eastern side." She looked up. "Odd, but do you think that would be what's got you guys so on edge?"
Each of the six rangers took a moment to think about it and then Mal answered for all of them. "I don't think so. That could be anything. Or nothing."
"Including when Sermaya was released?" Fairy Godmother reminded them all.
"We didn't feel this way when he got released and except for Mal we were all really close to that area." Audrey reminded him. "I don't think this is related, though it does seem kind of disturbing anyway."
The monster alarm sounded and they turned to the screen to see an extremely muscled dragon with black skin hatching out of an egg. Even through the screen each of the rangers shuddered at the sight, something that Ben felt through Mal as they were still holding hands. Carlos gulped out, "That's it. That's the problem."
"Certainly intimidating I'll grant." Doug agreed.
"Paradias sent that." Mal said. "There's no question." She took a deep breath and looked at her team. "And we have to meet it, no question."
"But if that thing is what's got you all freaked out now, how will you feel when facing that dragon down?" Jane asked them all worriedly.
"I don't know." Carlos answered for her. "But we don't have a choice." With that he handed Dude to Jane and the six rangers descended the steps and were heading into the forest to intercept the dragon before he found his way into the city proper.
Finding the dragon was easy enough. It was like he was waiting for them. "Welcome rangers." He said in a deep booming voice. "Your end has come." His body started pulsing; red veiny like bulges appearing all over its body.
It reminded Carlos of something he and Jane had watched in the sky recently. "It's like a meteor." He noted with apprehension. "I hope this thing didn't come from a meteor."
"Just what I wanted to face in my career, a Meteor Dragon." Audrey said sarcastically.
The dragon roared and leapt at them, wings expanding. It very nearly took them all down but they barely dodged out of the way. "Time to get to work guys." Mal stated and they took out their iPhones, input their numbers and then morphed.
"You call it work, I call it fun." The Meteor Dragon stated with amusement and then released flaming balls of fire from its mouth. It was fast and strong and it sent the rangers reeling back.
"Why don't you try that again?" Evie challenge as she drew her mirror shield.
"And have it reflected back at me?" He asked with amusement. "I think I'll wait on that one ranger."
The other five rangers drew their weapons and together they were all getting ready to figure out how to wage their next attack. They charged toward him and tried to attack him but found their weapons seemed to bounce off of his skin.
He simply laughed and then lashed out with his powerful arms, slashing them all hard and they were sent flying back again. "They just keep getting tougher." Audrey said. "We have to find a way to keep up with them."
"Any spells that could be helpful to us?" Jay asked Mal.
"I don't know; try to cover me for a minute and I'll find out." The purple ranger responded. Since her spell book had proven so instrumental in their last fight against Red Magi Jane and Doug had given a way for her to access her spell book instantly, Doug had called it something similar to a pocket dimension but the details were more than Mal cared to understand.
"We'll do what we can." Lonnie replied. "Just please make it quick." With that the five rangers got up to engage the dragon again while Mal looked through her spell book. The dragon monster seemed very amused b this and easily fought them back.
Luckily that was all Mal needed. After flipping through a few pages she found a spell. It was supposed to be for a person's skin but thought it should work on the weapons too with a bit of word play. "The body is willing but the weapons are dry, take the case and give it great shape."
The weapons seemed to take on a glow of their own as Mal rejoined her team. "Don't suppose this is permanent?" Jay asked their leader.
"Somehow I doubt it." Mal said sympathetically "So let's do what we can with these enhanced versions in the meantime."
The monster that Audrey had inadvertently coined Meteor Dragon roared and charged at the rangers. Lonnie tossed her tessen's and knocked him off course. "At least our weapons are penetrating his armor now, that's something." The pink ranger noted brightly.
Jay and Carlos followed in as the monster recovered and double slashed him. Mal and Audrey were behind them with their own double team attack. The monster powered up another strike and launched it at Mal but Evie was there, absorbing the attack in the mirror and causing it to be shot right back at it.
"Let's finish this off." Mal declared. "Time for the Auradon blaster." First the staff, then the bow underneath it, the shield behind it and the scimitar, daggers and tessen's to finish the blaster. They take their positions and then fire at the monster, destroying it.
"Awesome, they're getting better and better." Ben said happily. "And it looks as if they had nothing to worry about after all."
"It'd be helpful to them if we could figure out how to make that dragon soul coating a permanent edition." Doug added and looked to Jane. "Maybe you and Mal can figure out how to do that."
"That'd be nice." Jane agreed skeptically. Dude was lying on a console watching them all work. "But that was too easy."
"And you guys were freaked over that?" Jay asked happily as they separated their weapons. "That was nothing."
"Hey, you were freaked too." Mal reminded her friend quickly.
"That was too easy." Audrey said dubiously now, just as Jane had. "I feel like we should be waiting for the other glass slipper to drop."
Their words were proven right when again that green circular light, same as what grew the knight the day they uncovered the megazord, came descending from the sky and circling the dragon. Then to their horror they saw the Meteor Dragon grow.
"Okay, too easy." Evie agreed. "I think it's time for the megazord." She looked sheepishly at their purple ranger. "Sorry, M."
"Not your fault." Mal reminded her friend. "Go, get in the megazord and kick that dragon back to the mountains."
As Mal took a step back the other five rangers called out, "Auradon Megazord, power up."
From the mountains came a roar like that of a volcano erupting but all that came out of the top of the mountain was the Auradon Megazord as it soared toward the ranger's location. The five of them were teleported into the cockpit and they placed their iPhone morphers in their proper place.
Meteor Dragon saw them coming and shot the black balls from its mouth. They barely dodged the attacks and landed on the ground. Evie immediately inserted her mirror shield into her console while Jay and Lonnie inserted their weapons into their consoles. That gave the Auradon Megazord its sword and shield.
"A nice offense your friends are presenting, at least in theory." Mal heard Paradias from behind her. She turned to face the very reason they were in this situation. "But how will it work in practice I wonder?"
"It won't matter if I can take you down here and now." Mal decided. She jumped at him with her staff, fully intending to attack him but the same green light that enveloped the monsters when they grew but this did not grow Paradias. Instead it acted as a barrier as the purple ranger slammed into it hard and sent her flying awkwardly.
"I came to enjoy the show, not deal with you girl." Paradias said to her sternly. "I can't wait to see how this turns out."
Meteor Dragon leapt out to strike the Auradon Megazord. The shield was raised and took the brunt of the impact but it still sent them stumbling back. The dragon monster followed up by a swing of its tail that caught the megazord on the side and sent it sprawling backwards.
"That thing hits hard." Carlos said as he looked up from his console. "I wish Mal could cast her spell on the megazord."
"Here it comes again." Evie interrupted as Meteor Dragon charged toward the megazord. They moved quickly to bring the sword down on the monster and it recoiled just a bit but when they tried to do a follow up attack he caught the arm and bit right into it.
"Argh, we have to get him to let our arm go." Jay stated. They in fact tried to punch the monster in the face with the other arm but it seemed to have little effect.
"How hard this must be for you." Paradias said to Mal mockingly. "Your friends are up there fighting but you have no zord and cannot help them out in these sort of fights."
"At least I fight." Mal snapped back. "What do you do besides hide where you are or around some force shield?" She shook her head. "We wouldn't even have to be fighting if it weren't for you."
Paradias laughed. "You act as if we haven't done you any sort of favors." He said simply.
Mal was about to give a very harsh retort but caught herself. Hadn't she just thought this had made Jane a much more confident woman? Hadn't this bonded Lonnie and even Audrey with her and her adopted siblings better than they ever would have had normally? Still she would never give their arch nemesis the benefit of that knowledge. "Whatever you think you've done is nothing compared to the destruction and chaos you've caused since you arrived." She said instead.
Meteor Dragon tossed the Auradon Megazord in the air and then rushed up to slam into it hard. They fell to the ground hard.
"We're starting to lose power." Carlos said. "Trying to get back up power up."
"Make it quick." Audrey said. "It's already coming toward us."
Meteor Dragon jumped up and basically performed a body slam against the megazord, causing it more damage. Evie's console all but blew up in her face as the megazord lost its shield. The blue ranger rushed to catch her mirror shield.
"I'm putting your zord back in the rock where it belongs." Meteor Dragon stated. "I'm going to give you a meteor crush that you will never forget…if you live." He shot a huge black energy ball in the air and its size started to increase as it descended down toward the Auradon Megazord.
"We have to get up." Audrey stated. "Now."
And they did get up, but not in enough time before the large meteor like object slammed into the Auradon Megazord and sent it sprawling backwards. They lost all power.
Paradias laughed. "Finish them my dragon." He ordered.
"Get out of there!" Mal called out desperately. She couldn't stand to lose her friends any more than she could stand to lose Ben. "Evie! Audrey!"
Meteor Dragon began to power up another final attack when there was a roar from the sky and everyone looked up to see a purple and black dragon descending from the sky. It unleashed a torrent of energy balls and struck around the monster dragon. It fell back hard.
"What is this?" Paradias questioned. Mal almost wished she had an answer for their nemesis, because then she wouldn't seem as clueless as they all really were right now. Still she almost had a theory about what it was.
Meteor Dragon launched another attack, this at the large dragon. It swirled around hit the attack back with its own tail. It struck hard and even as the dragon monster rose the long purple dragon was already rushing at extreme speed toward the monster and slammed hard into him. It then rose high in the air and as the Meteor Dragon rose again the purple dragon descended from the skies with flames surrounding its body and slammed into him, destroying him on impact. From the fire came the purple dragon, which ascended back into the sky.
"Looks like you lost Paradias." Mal stated
"Lost?" He questioned with amusement. "Oh no, my dear. This is only getting started." And with a laugh he disappeared.
Mal heard her friends land beside her. "I don't suppose that was a spell you just did?" Lonnie asked her.
The purple ranger shook her head. "Nope, wasn't me." She answered. She looked to her friends. "Let's get back to the command center and see someone there can tell us anything." They powered down and started back to the command center. One other thing nagged at the back of their minds; despite the fact Meteor Dragon had been destroyed by the mysterious purple dragon the weird feeling that had been plaguing them since early that morning had not faded.
They made it back and Jane, Doug and Fairy Godmother working at the consoles. Ben was standing around, not being able to contribute much right now, though he was glad to see Mal as they hugged each other.
"Mal, you and Jane will have to see if you can use take that spell you just used and apply it to your weapons permanently." Doug said to her excitedly. "That would go a long way to help you guys out."
"Yeah, it would." Mal agreed. "But what about that dragon?"
"We think that was what came out of the large fracture in the mountains." Jane told her excitedly. "And furthermore we think it might be your zord Mal."
"Her zord?" Carlos echoed.
Mal thought about it and realized that, though it might have been a coincidence, it did seem to have appeared at just as she was calling for her friends, fearful that the monster would kill them.
Which lead to another question, this time from Evie. "What about the Auradon Megazord? How long before it's repaired?" She asked.
At that Carlos went up to where Jane was. He saw she was working on that right now and started to do help her. So it was him that answered the blue haired girl's question. "Looks like it's going to take at least six hours to do so."
"Do we have to go into the mountains?" Audrey asked. Not that she was exactly a mechanical genius but she did want to do whatever she could to help.
"We shouldn't have too." Jane said. "I don't know what it has in its structure but something inside is working to repair it rapidly."
"Okay, so I have a question." Mal said and they all turned toward her. "If that dragon is supposed to be my zord, but it's acting independently, then how am I supposed to get control over that?"