There was the loud boom of thunder followed by a strong flash of lightning and Audrey couldn't help but flinch a little. "I'm really starting to hate those sounds." She revealed to the group at large. At large was a bigger term than usual as right now they were hanging out indoors in what many people called the commons since most students crossed her several times a day to get to classes. It was also where students ate lunch if they wanted to be indoors or if they had to be, like today. The weather had been bad since early morning.
The group at large was bigger right now too. Audrey sat in between Jay and Ben. Mal sat beside Ben as well as Evie, with Doug on her side. On Jay's side was Lonnie, Carlos, and Jane. What was somewhat a change was that Jordan sat next to Jane, and beside her sat Ally; daughter of Alice Liddell and Aziz; son of Aladdin and Jasmine.
"No argument from me." Evie agreed tersely. It kind of reminded her of her mother the Evil Queen when she screamed.
"I guess tourney practice is cancelled for today." Aziz guessed as thunder rumbled again.
"I don't think anyone wants to get struck by lightning." Carlos replied, doing a mental count. At the count of three lightning followed.
"It's rather odd." Ally noted in her British lilt. "I don't quiet recall the weather forecast as predicted to be like this."
"It wasn't." Jane said. "But so far there's been no other explanation for it." It was code to the six rangers and Ben that so far sensors hadn't revealed the presence of any monsters in the vicinity that could be causing it. Not that that meant there wasn't one, just that it hadn't been found if one was involved.
Mal thought a moment and looked to Jane. "What happens if the power goes out in Auradon?" She asked. It was kind of a double meaning, as in what would it do to the command center and their powers.
"Then we'd be sitting here in the dark." Aziz said with a shrug and a laugh, not realizing the double meaning behind the purple haired girl's inquiry.
"Some of the more critical places have back up power for about four hours." Jane replied, subtly hinting that the command center was one of those places. Ally seemed to not really notice the subtle hidden conversation but Aziz was starting to wonder what they were talking about.
Thunder crashed, lightning followed and then one of the windows in the commons shattered. This drew even more shocked reactions from everyone there. The seven warriors and their three companions looked at each other in alarm. They all knew clearly something was up.
"Maybe it's time to see if magic can shed a little light on what technology can't." Carlos suggested quietly to Evie.
The blue haired girl nodded. She knew what that meant. Consult her magic hand mirror to see if it could identify a monster. For some reason if there was one the sensors were missing it.
"I don't remember the weather ever being this bad in Auradon." Ally noted with concern. "Even our storms are never this…this climatic."
"It doesn't normally get this bad on the island either." Jay admitted. "Not natural at all."
There was another loud clap of thunder and the skylight broke now. The students ducked under tables or dodged out of the way to other secured areas. Jordan used a magical barrier to stop the glass from falling on their little group as made their way to safety.
Evie quickly ducked behind a stone pillar attached to the ceiling and whispered, "Mirror, mirror in my hand, show me what quakes the land." She was surprised to find nothing but a humanoid skull looking back at her for a moment. "Must be jammed." She concluded. She made her way back to the others and said. "Nothing is coming now."
"I think it's time to get to the command center." Ben whispered to Jane and Mal. Both girls nodded in agreement.
"You guys go." Jordan said softly. "Doug and I will stay here so as not to alert Ally and Aziz that we're all in some mass type of conspiracy…not that in a way we aren't."
"Cute." Audrey said with a roll of her eyes. Then the seven warriors and Jane headed toward a side door as Jordan and Doug worked to move their two in the dark friends more towards a bigger crowd.
Thunder and lightning rattled the school twice more before they reached the command center. A third followed that when they were down there, loud enough to rattle even that location. "This is bordering on madness." Lonnie noted. "Nothing should be striking like that."
"The sensors haven't revealed a monster; my magic mirror didn't reveal a monster." Evie said. "I don't understand what it could be."
"Did your mirror give you anything?" Jane asked.
"I guess it was a misread or something." Evie answered with a shrug. "All I got was a skull."
Jay laughed a little bit. "Out of order, or toxic." He joked.
Thunder shook the building, including the command center, again and it was followed by a strike of lightning that was only really known about because for an instant power was lost in the command center. When it came back on Audrey shook her head. "There has to be some way we can find this monster."
"We don't even know there is a monster." Lonnie reminded her.
"Somehow I'd bet my magic that there is one involved in this." Mal said. "But how do we find it?"
"All this electricity could be disrupting the sensors." Jane speculated. "I have an idea. I'm going to try to triangulate the storm."
"Triangle what?" Jay asked.
"Triangulate." Evie repeated. "Jane is going to try to track the center of the storm. It might tell us where this theoretical monster is."
"I don't understand." Mal said. "The storm is in the skies." She was glad her dragon zord was not out soaring the skies at this very moment. "How will that help when the sky is everywhere?"
"The skies are everywhere." Jane agreed as she worked, pressing a few buttons and twisting a couple of knobs. "But the triangulation's angle is what I'm looking for. Odds are any monster generating this storm would not be in the skies doing so. If that angle is coming from land then we know its location."
"What if it is in the skies?" Carlos asked, being sure that there had to be some kind of flying monsters that could do this somewhere.
Jane frowned as she thought of that. "Well, we can still check it out. Even if it's a flying monster it will still triangulate the same direction." She worked a switch this time. "But something tells me we're not dealing with a flyer here."
"I hope you're right." Lonnie said. "Otherwise I don't know how we'd even get up there."
After another moment of button pushing map of Auradon appeared on the screen. Moments later something, presumably a representation of Jane's triangulation search, overlapped the area and started to focus on one point near the edges of Auradon before the mountains.
"That figures." Audrey said.
"What figures?" Evie asked her.
"Those coordinates point to a desert spot that have been nicknamed the Badlands." Ben supplied. "Very few people actually get out there, there's nothing out there as far as anyone knows but sand. No water, no vegetation. Nothing."
Mal nodded a bit. They had something like that on the Isle of the Lost but not nearly as large of an area and it certainly wasn't called the Badlands. "No one would ever look for a monster there." She agreed. "Until now, let's head over there."
"It'll take almost an hour to get there." Audrey warned. "If this thing gets worse or doesn't let up it's not going to be a comfortable journey, even morphed."
"You're probably right." Mal agreed. "But we don't have a choice." The brunette princess couldn't argue that point. Jane promised to try to keep an eye on them and they slipped outside, the six rangers taking out their iPhones and putting in their numbers to transform. Ben summoned the sword and shield to transform into the Auradon Knight and then they were off.
The journey wasn't the easiest one, although there was no rain to go with the storm it was windy and half a dozen times they were afraid they would get struck by thunder. Mal was particularly worried about Ben, who basically wore a suit of shiny silver metal armor, but either by luck or design her boyfriend was never struck by lightning.
The ranger's first indication that they had gotten there was the crunch of sand underneath their boots. "I don't see anything." Jay said.
"I don't see anything either." Evie agreed as she looked up into the skies. Aside from the clouds that were generating the storm it was clear too. There was no way that a monster could be hiding up anywhere then up in the clouds.
The rangers and the knight started to look around and were starting to get discouraged. Then from the sand both Carlos and Lonnie were struck. They all turned and went to their team mates just as a large skeletal thing emerged from the sands. Evie gasped as she realized that the face of the monster was exactly like the skull she had seen in her mirror. "That's it." She said. "That's the monster face that was in my mirror."
"I guess you owe your mirror an apology." Jay said with a smirk.
"Greetings Rangers, I am the Lightning Skull." The skeletal thing said with what could almost be called a courteous bow. "And I welcome you to your doom." Then he unleashed a huge burst of lighting right at all seven warriors, sending them flailing to the ground.
"I think we found the monster." Mal noted dryly.
Audrey looked over at her. "What was your first clue, the lightning blast?" She questioned sarcastically.
As the seven warriors got up Lightning Skull was already coming over toward them. Mal moved over first and blocked the first strike he tried to make at Lonnie with her staff.
"We better follow suit." Jay said as he raised his hands.
"Hold on a minute." Lonnie interrupted. "We can't use our metal weapons in a lightning storm."
"She's right." Ben agreed. "Metal weapons against a monster that uses lightning is literally a metal rod. An invitation for trouble. Mal's weapon isn't really metal so she's safe." He looked to Evie. "As are you. It's glass and plexiplastic."
"But can Mal and Evie defeat that thing on their own?" Audrey questioned.
Mal was trying to strike at their opponent with her staff but was being met with good resistance, especially since she was literally striking at bones intermingled with some weird purple flesh.
Evie took her mirror shield and started toward the fight. "Our only hope is to deflect his own powers against him." She declared.
Mal saw her blue haired friend coming and kicked him back. "Come on bone head; try to give me a shock to my system." She taunted him.
"Gladly." Lightning Skull replied and shot a huge bolt of energy at the purple ranger, but the blue ranger swooped in and reflected that electrical energy right back at him.
"How do you like a taste of your own medicine?" Evie asked.
Her expression changed to one of surprise to see him unaffected. "Did you really think I'd be damaged by the very power that I generate?" He asked her. "Sorry to spoil your plan blue ranger but I'm still standing, not a scratch."
"Lonnie," The pink ranger heard from Jane call from her helmet intercom. "I know how you can stop this monster."
"I'm listening." Lonnie said. "Go ahead."
"That wind you were encountering on your way there isn't present at your current location." Jane told her. "I think that's because it needs to see its target to hit with the lightning. Combine your neon armor with your tessens and stir up a sandstorm. If Ben can keep that thing distracted long enough, everyone else can use the Auradon Triangle Spark to take him out."
"You're a miracle worker Jane." Lonnie said enthusiastically. "We'll get right on it."
Since having been rescued from Chiron's control the seven warriors had the small dragon scale the contained the activation for their neon armor placed on the upper part of their shoulders for quick and easy access, with an adhesive that had been made by Doug. Now she reached up and activated it, making her ranger suit appear neon pink.
"What's the plan?" Jay asked.
"I hope you guys can see through a sandstorm." Lonnie started.
Carlos nodded. "Sure, we've got a few vision modes installed into our helmets after all." He looked to Jay and Audrey. "The second vision mode should do it, and we're going to have to make sure that Mal and Evie know that too."
"Right." Audrey said. Then she looked to the pink ranger. "Go on."
"Jane thinks if Ben distracts Lightning Skull and I create a sandstorm then you five should be able to use the Auradon Triangle Spark to defeat him." Lonnie explained.
Ben nodded. "Okay, I'll go and fight him hand to hand as well as send Mal and Evie over." The young king declared. "Just let me know before you blast that bag of bones to dust." He then headed over to where he was fighting two on one with Mal and Evie.
Ben kicked Lightning Skull from behind and then said, "Go to the others." He then turned toward the monster. "Let's dance." He said and started to attack him.
When Mal and Evie came to the team Lonnie explained the plan with Carlos giving his additional tidbit for remodulating the view for the helmets. The purple ranger agreed with the plan and she, Audrey and Evie stood in front of the two boys.
With that done, and Lightning Skull shooting what they considered a huge amount of lighting at the metal armor clad king, they quickly got to work. Although it was hard to find a good purchase, the speed increase with the neon armor never the less gave Lonnie the foot hold she needed to start one of her hip hop twirls and stir up a sandstorm.
"What is this?" Lightning Skull questioned as the sand started to buffet him. His bones didn't care about the granules of sand but his vision, already rather dim, was going to practically nothing. "I can't see." He blurted out.
"Glad to hear that." Ben said and formed his sword, striking the skeletal monster in the chest as hard as he could.
Carlos and Jay were on the girl's shoulders and they took out their blasters, then they released a burst of energy that converged into a triangle. Before releasing it Mal called out, "Ben, now!" and then released it, hoping Ben would respond in enough time to avoid the attack while hoping the monster did not.
Ben rolled up next to Lonnie just as an explosion followed. It blew the pink ranger off of her feet but the knight in silver armor caught her before she hit the sand. "Did it work?" Lonnie asked, trying to regain her equilibrium.
"It worked." Ben assured her. "You did great, and Jane's idea was brilliant."
But the thunder and lightning storm did not go away. "Guys." Carlos interrupted as the green energy circle appeared and made Lightning Skull grow.
He looked down on the rangers. "Now taking you all out should be a piece of cake." He said.
"Won't our zords conduct his electricity as well as any of the weapons?" Audrey asked.
"We don't have a choice but to try." Mal answered grimly. "At that size he doesn't need a huge storm to crush Auradon, he can do it on his own."
Ben of course still didn't have a zord. "Good luck guys. Take him down." He said.
The five rangers summoned the Auradon Megazord while Mal brought out her dragon zord and broke the spell holding it in the crystalline form. The five rangers immediately boarded the megazord's cockpit and placed their iPhones into the slots on their consoles. Lightning Skull shot out a huge burst of electrical energy straight at the battle zord and struck it down.
"We definitely can't take another hit like that." Carlos reported. "That just did a massive amount of damage to our system. It's already being repaired but we can't take a mass strike like that again."
"It's this storm." Evie said. "It's making his abilities stronger than they would be without it."
"Is there any way we can dissipate this things storm?" Audrey asked the blue ranger.
"Not that I know of." She answered.
"Hang on guys, I'm coming." Mal told her friends as she landed on her dragon zords head. With her there the dragon zord shifted form to look more like a Chinese dragon. There was also an unexpected side effect as something about the alternate form also caused the clouds to suddenly disperse and the sun started to shine down on the area, perhaps a little too brightly. Mal was impressed as she got into the cockpit of her zord and slid her iPhone into the right slot. "That was unexpected."
"But welcome." Lonnie added. "That should make sure our zords can actually stand up to this lightning wielding skeleton monster."
"Then let's get this over with." Audrey announced. She and Evie exchanged looks, followed by her looks to Jay and Lonnie. Evie placed her mirror shield into the slot to make the shield. Lonnie and Jay combined their weapons in their console to make the sword.
"This isn't over yet rangers." Lightning Skull stated and shot another streak of lightning at the two zords. While the Auradon Megazord blocked the strike and deflected it against the sand Mal's dragon zord swerved rather elegantly to dodge the strike. It then unleashed several fire balls that struck the monster head on.
"Let's bring them together." Mal stated. "Let's do it." Audrey agreed. The Auradon Megazord got on the back of the dragon zord, the tail entwining the battle zord and merging them. In the megazord room was made in between Audrey and Carlos for Mal to join the formation. "Auradon Champion Megazord ready."
Lightning Skull again released a stream of electricity at the battle zord but with the dragon's flight speed they were able to easily dodge the assault. The path continued and the struck the monster head on. Then they took to the skies.
"It's time to bring this to a close." Mal decided. "With the Auradon sword strike." The battle zord descended and struck the skeleton monster, shattering it into pieces and as the battle zord flew away from it that was followed by the explosion.
"Great job guys." Ben called out. This time they could see it was real as the skies beyond the immediate battle area cleared up. The six rangers left the zords, the Auradon Megazord returning to its resting place in the mountains.
Mal's dragon zord settled in by her and the purple ranger reached up to stroke its side. "And here's our ride home." She stated. "Unless of course you would like to walk all the way back."
"Hey, I want to fly on this thing." Jay said with a laugh. He noticed Audrey looked a little uncertain and he smiled at her. "Hey, if you're worried I'll make sure you don't fall." If they had powered down they all would have seen her blush a little.
Mal, the most comfortable riding the dragon's back, was already on. "Alright boys and girls, the last flight to Auradon is about to take off." She laughed. Ben sat behind her, followed by Audrey, Jay, Carlos and Evie and Lonnie.
"I just wish that we knew rather this was a random monster like Sermaya and Chiron or if Paradias sent him." Audrey mused as they took off. She felt a bit shaky as she placed her hands on the scales. She felt Jay wrap his arms around her waist to keep her stable.
But after the dragon zord soared into the skies, from the sand blue ooze started to emerge and out came the form of Reviveslime. He took a few steps forward before finding what he wanted. A bone from the Lighting Skull.
He left the badlands and formed in front of Paradias. "Lightning Skull failed my lord." Reviveslime reported. "But I have found a bone fragment."
"Excellent." Paradias responded. From the side came a couple of his soldiers and one of them held up a black scale.
From his side Nerissa took the black scale and the bone fragment. "When I'm done with these, the rangers will be in for one shocking surprise." She said and then laughed.
After arriving back at Auradon Prep the seven warriors powered down and Mal let her dragon zord go take some time to soar in the now clear skies. They started to make their way back to the command center but were intercepted by Jane, Doug, and Jordan.
Evie hugged Jane quickly. "That was a great idea. Talk about a life saver." She said.
"I do what I can." Jane said with a small smile.
"Is everyone okay?" Ben asked.
"Some minor injuries but everyone should be okay." Doug told him. "You must have stopped Lightning Skull."
"Thanks to Jane's idea." Mal said happily.
"We'll have to work out some coating for your weapons." Jane said. "In case Paradias decides to use another electrical based monster."
"Should be easy enough." Evie said and Doug agreed. They decided they would get on it.
They found Aziz and Ally coming toward them a moment later. "We were worried about you guys after you disappeared. What happened?" Ally asked them.
"We wanted to go and make sure the others were okay." Lonnie said. "There are a lot more students and faculty then just the ones in the commons."
"You guys sure took a risk." Aziz noted with some pride.
As the group continued back to the commons for their stuff Audrey moved a little closer to Jay. "Thanks for…keeping me grounded, pardon the pun." She said softly. "It's not exactly common knowledge but I kind of have a mild fear of heights."
"It's okay." Jay said and shrugged. "Everyone has their hang ups."
"Even a big tough guy like you?" She teased.
"Sure." Jay replied easily enough. He looked up ahead to where the others were having their own conversations. "If you tell anyone else this, I'll deny it but I have a bit of snake phobia." He confided.
"I'll take it to my grave." Audrey said, trying to sound as serious as possible.
They could hear Mal say to Ben as she took his hand. "I just hope that we don't have to deal with anything the likes of that again."