It was a lovely Saturday morning and the group decided to go on for a picnic on the beach. Mal and Evie were the first ones there. They set out the some blankets and umbrellas as each of them discussed how their dinners went. "It was pretty neat." Mal said to her blue haired best friend. She wore a purple tank top with black leggings. "Belle told me about her first dinner in the castle; back when all of the inhabitants were turned into the objects of the castle." She smoothed out one of the blankets. "Including the fact they all sang the same song then that Ben and the others sang at the start of Parent's day."
Evie in a pair of hip hugging jean shorts and a blue halter, couldn't help but laugh at the image of dancing silverware and such. "That must have been hilarious to see." She said.
"Yeah." Mal agreed as she moved some purple hair out of her eyes. "So after we had dessert, a delicious strawberry shortcake, Ben and I took a walk in the gardens for a while, just talking. He was telling me stories of how he grew up." She looked at the water a little. "It made me a little sad about how we grew up, but I guess we're making up for it now." She looked to Evie. "How was dinner with Snow White?" She asked.
"Awkward." Evie said with a shrug.
"I'm sorry that you're having a hard time getting to know her." Mal said sympathetically.
"What?" Evie asked and then laughed. "Oh, no. Not because of her and I. Since Doug was coming with me we decided that his family should join us too." She propped up an umbrella and then leaned it to block the sun. "I finally have firsthand experience on why one of his uncle's names is literally Grumpy." She laughed. "And then his other uncle Bashful and his father were trying to serve dinner and they ran right into each other, spilling the mashed potatoes...all over Grumpy too. He spent half of the remaining night ranting about the mess and the dry cleaning bills."
Now Mal laughed. "That would make anyone grumpy." She said between giggles.
Evie nodded. "Yeah. Next time we're just going to have dinner, the two of us. In Auradon." She concluded. "Maybe wait on the extended family stuff a little bit first."
They saw Ben, Lonnie and Carlos joining them. "What, no crown trunks?" Mal asked teasingly to her boyfriend as they came up and she kissed him on the cheek and took his hand.
"Nah, they're in the wash today." Ben answered with a slightly shy shrug as he stroked her hair and cheek gently. He was instead dressed in a blue tank and blue shorts, though it was interlaced with silver. "No purple dress?" He asked.
"Nope." Mal said. "If I have to run into the water to save you again I'd rather be wearing something a little more reasonable." They both exchanged smiles at the memory of their first date by the enchanted lake.
"You can't even swim." Carlos pointed out as he set down two bags. One had waters in it while the other held Dude, the school mascot and his unofficial pet. The small dog got out of the bag and began to look around excitedly.
Lonnie clearly had no plans to go near the ocean today, she wore a simple pink summer dress and had a book with her as well. "I didn't think you could swim either Carlos." She noted.
"I can't." He answered with a shrug. "But I wasn't the one who took a dip in the enchanted lake or who fell into a stream."
"That was not intentional." Evie reminded him with a mock glare.
"So where are Doug and Jane anyway?" Lonnie asked as she looked to their potential beaus.
"They said they wanted to spend some time working on a new weapon." Evie answered. "We offered to join them but they insisted it should be a surprise to some of us."
Carlos sat down and started to pet Dude. "Yeah. Doug said that Jane wouldn't have even been a part of it if he hadn't needed her expertise." He added.
"I'm sorry to say Jordan won't be joining us either." Ally said as she approached in a light blue sports bra and light blue shorts.
Aziz wore a black tank top and black shorts. "She said she wanted some time to herself." He added. "I think that there's only so much group activities she can take at a time." Ally sat down as he took one of the umbrellas and placed it in the sand.
"Genies are usually pretty solitary." Ben noted. "And Jordan is pretty high up in that regard."
Jay ran up to them in a get up almost similar to Aziz's. He stopped just in front of the group, barely avoiding kicking up a flurry of sand. "Hey guys." He said. He fist bumped with Ben and Aziz before sitting next to Carlos and Evie. Then he realized something. "Hey, where's Audrey?" He asked.
Lonnie and Mal exchanged glances of amusement. The two of them might be in active denial as far as anyone could tell, but they might as well be start dating; all the signs were there. "She'll be along in a minute or two." The Asian girl told her. "She was still messing with her hair."
"Audrey's always been big on her looks." Ben said with a shrug as he placed an arm over Mal's shoulder. "But lately it seems she's been working on that a bit more." He exchanged looks with his girlfriend, who had put him onto the fact that she seemed to like Jay.
Ally frowned just a bit. She too had noticed an attraction between Audrey and Jay but she thought there was something else going on there. All it had taken for her to grow worried was the one shot she had seen Chad take at her.
Audrey had a towel over her shoulder as she was getting closer to the beach. She wore a silky looking red skirt and a red sleeveless top. She had never been a big fan of red originally but being the red ranger, and Jay saying she looked good in that color, had changed her outlook on it quite a lot. She even had tied a red bow in her hair to keep it out of her eyes.
I wonder if Jay will like this look? She couldn't help but ask herself. She was no stranger on dressing to impress but somehow this seemed more important, even more so than it had when she was with Ben.
She was moving over what she thought was a branch when it rose up and slapped her ankle, forcing her to land on the ground hard. She saw her iPhone fly out of her bag and land a foot away. She started to stand up and felt some pain in her leg. She saw it had been skinned open, it reminded her of the first time she had fallen off of her bike.
"Having a little trouble Audrey?" She heard Chad asked. Panic shot through her body a moment. She looked up to see him standing there "And I see you're still dressing to impress." He added with a cruel edge to his voice.
"I don't have time for you today." Audrey said and then leapt toward her iPhone.
Chad anticipated it and shot his knee right into her chin hard. As the brunette princess landed hard he picked up her iPhone. "Trying to call your little friends?" He asked her. "Don't worry, Bennie-Boo and the others will be here soon enough."
"What sick little game are you playing this time?" Audrey asked as she got ready to try to fight him.
"You'll find out soon enough." Chad promised her. With a nod she suddenly felt her arms and legs entangled in the same logs that had tripped her, but this time she noticed a detail that she had not been able to notice before hand. They were metal and shiny, not branch like at all.
Chad approached her and smiled at her wickedly. "Fell right into my trap. We could have used any of your little friends honestly." He confessed and then reached out to stroke her cheek almost lovingly, though it made the brunette's skin crawl. "But I was hoping it would be you." Then he slapped her across the face again, hard.
"You can play with your new toy later." Reviveslime said from behind him now. "Right now, it's time to bring in the other power pests."
Jay, Aziz, Ben and Carlos were tossing around a Frisbee in the sand, Dude following the object as it passed around. Evie and Ally were throwing together some sandwiches. Mal was enjoying the slight breeze that was currently ruffling her hair. Then she looked to Lonnie. "Shouldn't Audrey be here by now?" She asked. "It would suck if she missed this."
Lonnie reached over for her iPhone. "She should be here by now." She agreed. "And I don't have any texts from her saying she would be late or anything."
"Maybe someone should go find her." Ally volunteered as she set down her knife. "I'll go."
"Not alone you won't." Mal said. "I'm coming with you." She waved the two boys over. "Ally and I are going to go make sure Audrey didn't get lost, or anything like that."
"You want anymore company?" Ben asked Mal. Jay looked ready to volunteer too.
Mal waved it away. "It's fine, probably just a fashion crisis." She replied. She couldn't help but say jokingly, "And unless she has some outfit with crowns on it, I doubt you're going to be able to provide much fashion sense."
"Yeah, okay." Ben said with a good natured roll of his eyes. "Just keep her out of the semi-goth side of fashion, alright?" The two laughed and then the girls were about to start off when they heard a beeping on their iPhones.
For an instant they thought it might have been another monster alert but quickly noticed it was a video message being sent to them instead. "Maybe it's Audrey." Aziz noted.
Carlos noticed something a bit odd. "Guys, this has been directed to all of our iPhones and the command center." He told them. "Audrey knew that Jane and Doug wouldn't be here."
"And she wouldn't call the command center, she knows that Jane has an iPhone too." Mal said as they all exchanged worried looks before opening up the video message.
On screen they saw Chad. It was clear he was holding Audrey's iPhone. "Hello old friend." Chad said with a small smirk that had obviously been directed to Ben. "I hope this finds you and your other friends well rested and energized." He shrugged. "Just can't catch a break." He started to walk. "Don't worry, none of you can."
Mal wanted to snap at him to get to the point and tell them were Audrey was but had to remind herself that it was a message and it wouldn't help to try to rush it.
"Reviveslime and I have a bit of a challenge for you." Chad continued on as he talked. "In the forest on the opposite side of the school. Come to us and fight." He laughed just a bit. "I'm sure you could ask why you should do so, not counting the fact it's your 'civic duty'." He then panned back to show Audrey being bound by her wrists, ankles and chest by silver tentacles. "If you want your little friend basically unharmed, that would be another good reason." They all couldn't help but notice that again she had a split lip.
"This guy is getting on my last nerves." Jay said dangerously.
"No argument there." Mal agreed.
"See you soon, rangers." Chad said. He walked closer to Audrey and brushed his lips against her cheek, making her flinch. His hand moved up to her shoulder and started to trail down her arm. "Or not. It's no skin off of my nose, but it might be something else off of Audrey." The video ended.
"I'm going to kill him." Jay said.
"Carlos, have Jordan get Dude back to the dorm with her magic and then tell her to meet us there. We have to get to Chad before he hurts Audrey…or hurts or more at any rate." Mal said to them. "Remember though this has to be a trap."
"Those tentacles holding Audrey are probably part of it." Evie said. "They're…they're too mechanical to be natural."
"Only one way to find out." Mal said. She saw Carlos had finished texting Jordan and as Dude vanished away, they saw their section of the beach was clear and she announced, "Time to get to work." Ben summoned his sword and shield as the rangers took out their iPhones and input their numbers. Then they all transformed and started toward the next battle sight.
"And they should be on their way right now." Chad said with a laugh. "Judging by your..." He looked at Audrey with a look mixed with disgust and another kind that she didn't want to think about. "Looks, I 'd say that you were trying to get someone's attention. Jay perhaps?"
"My personal life is none of your business." Audrey said bluntly. "It never has been."
"Well if you don't mind some advice from a friend," Chad said with a small snicker. "I feel you should realize that Jay will never feel for you what you think you feel for him."
Audrey shook her head. "You don't know what you're talking about." She replied.
"On the contrary, I understand Jay, Mal and their two little friends better now than I did before." He looked at her and smiled. "I understand the appeal of the dark, the appeal of evil and cruelty." He moved over to her and slammed his fist just to the side of Audrey's head, involuntarily making her flinch. "A weak girl like you could never hold his interests for anything more than the obvious." His eyes trailed down her body.
"Jay isn't you. None of them were ever in the same league as you." Audrey said with narrowed eyes.
"If that were true and he was so captivated by your charm, beauty and wit then why hasn't he asked you out yet?" Chad asked derisively. "Why hasn't he swept you into his arms and declared his love for you?" He hit the palm of his hand against the side of her head hard. "Face it Audrey, someone like Jay would never show any true interest in a weak and pathetic princess like you."
"You know we're going to beat you down for this right?" Audrey asked with a glare at Chad. She still couldn't help the feeling of revulsion she felt at his touch now, especially as he had kissed her cheek. She had never been that attracted to Chad in the first place but now he was creeping her out.
"They'll try won't they?" Chad agreed nonchalantly. "As will you if you ever get set free." He came over and gripped her by the chin hard. "Not that I intend for you to get free. You can watch your friends die, and then we'll go from there."
Audrey narrowed her eyes a bit, hoping her bravado covered up her fear. "We'll handle whatever you have in store for us Chad. And one day you'll pay for what you've been doing." She promised.
"I doubt it." He said with a shrug. "But if I do it won't be today." He pulled his hand back only to slap her again hard. When she looked at him again she now had blood leaking from her nose. "I never thought it'd be so much fun to see someone bleed, but with you…" He started.
"I can only imagine Audrey is tired being slapped around by you." Chad heard Mal say from behind him. He turned to find her, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Aziz, Ally and Ben behind him. "I know I'm getting tired of seeing you do that."
"I intend to make you pay for that." Jay promised Chad.
"So nice of you to show up Rangers." Reviveslime said. "Now let the game commence." He shot energy at the team and sent them scattering. Reviveslime leapt at them.
"Maybe Jay might find it better to focus if we were to get closer." Chad said as he brushed Audrey's cheek again, making her shudder yet again. He leaned in to kiss her again but this time got hit in the side hard, and it sent him rolling.
"That sounds absurdly disgusting." Jordan, in gold ranger mode, said to Chad venomously before turning to Audrey. She reached down to pick up Audrey's iPhone, which he had dropped upon the impact. "And this doesn't belong to you." She turned to Audrey. "What have you gotten yourself into?" She asked half-jokingly. "This is not the time to lay on the job." She moved to free her friend when the coils unfurled on their own. Audrey fell on top of Jordan and then rolled off of her as they both looked up to see a large mutli headed cybernetic hydra like creature looking up at them. "Oh, come on." The genie girl groaned as she let Audrey take her iPhone.
"Wow." Jane said as she had shown up. "What is that?"
"Meet our newest friend, the Cybertech Overhydra." Reviveslime said gleefully as he waved his free hand at the monster. "In this case the numbers are not as one sided as the might seem to be." The Overhydra went from three heads to nine.
"This is not cool." Carlos said. "What do we do about that thing?"
"We have to fight it." Mal said.
Ben nodded. "I'll deal with Ch…" He started.
Jay shook his head. "No way Ben. I'm going to deal with Chad." He said resolutely. "I've had it up to here with the way he's been abusing Audrey."
Ben wasn't entirely sure that the black ranger could stand up against the dark knight but he knew how he would feel if Chad was beating up on Mal. Or really if he had been doing that when and Audrey had been dating. "Go get him, I'll deal with Reviveslime."
"Be careful Ben." Mal said to him as she touched his arm gently. Then she looked to her ranger team, minus Jay. "We'll deal with Cybertech Overhydra…man what a complicated name." She added musingly. She looked to Audrey. "Time to get to work."
Audrey wiped the blood from her mouth. "Time to get to work." She agreed. She input her numbers, 3432, and transformed. Once she was morphed as the red ranger they turned to face the Overhydra.
Chad had transformed into the dark knight now. "So you want to battle me Jay?" He asked him. "You must be feeling really sorry for the prissy pink princess."
Jay had his scimitar out. "What I might feel for Audrey isn't the pity you think it is." He told him as he paced the dark knight. "Certainly not the disgust that you seem to be showing her, not to mention your other old friends."
Chad jumped up and brought his sword down toward Jay, but the black ranger used his scimitar to block the slash. The shield bash was another matter entirely and it sent him sprawling backwards. "There seems to be one sort of feeling we can agree that Audrey brings us." He said cruelly.
"Your is based on cruelty, on domination." Jay retorted with disgust at him as he stood up. "I think she's stronger and braver than anyone gave her credit for prior too, even myself or herself." He moved into attack but was blocked by the shield. "You can't understand her true depths Chad. You don't have the brains, the heart or the soul for it."
Mal used her dragon staff and channeled energy into it and then unleashed it on one of the heads. It destroyed the head but was almost immediately reassembled. "This thing regenerates on a massive rate." The purple ranger noted.
Evie took out her mirror shield, releasing the compact on top of it. "I'm glad I can finally be more offensive." She revealed as she turned toward one of the heads and activated the blazing effect on her shield. She quickly saw the monsters regenerative properties first hand.
Jordan's lamp cannon and Aziz's spiral spear when powered up also allowed them to destroy the Overhydra's heads though they saw the same massive regeneration. The others were having a more difficult time.
Chad and Jay clashed for another few moments before Jay kicked the shield arm away and then slashed the dark knight multiple times. "I told you that you don't have what it takes to get rid of us." Jay said. "And I told you you'd regret lying a hand on Audrey."
Chad laughed. "So you said." He replied and then gathered up energy in his blade and then moved in to stab Jay in the chest. Audrey turned in enough time to see it and let out a scream of horror and despair at what she was seeing.
Her scream got the others attention and each of them saw what looked to be Jay's final stand. "Dude, no." Carlos gasped. Ben knocked Reviveslime back to try to go help his friend even though he would never make it.
One moment Jay swore that he was about to be taken down. He thought he would never see Audrey, or Carlos, or Mal, or any of his friends again. He even spared a moment for his father Jafar despite the fact that he was sure his father had disowned him as Maleficent had disowned Mal.
The next thing he knew he was surrounded by white light. "Am I dead?" He asked and was startled that he could talk. Not exactly the afterlife he had imagine when he let himself dwell on it.
"You're not dead kid." Said a thick accent that he couldn't identify but sounded like a New York one. "And trust me when I say you're not like your father at all. You're much better than him." He could only make out a figure that was bipedal and seemed to have a rather broad back…was that a ribbon or something he saw around the head?
He could make out the sillouttes of four more figures like that as well as the those of other figures. He recognized some of them as Power Rangers, in this case he recognized TJ and Carlos of the Space Rangers. "What the…" He started.
"Welcome Jay." Said a strong ethereal voice that couldn't have belonged to any of them. "Like your leader and your blue ranger, you too have proven yourself to be of strength, integrity and honor. Unlike your two friends, I realize you have no one in Auradon to give you your gift."
Jay wasn't worried about that. He was worried about Audrey and his friends. "Will this help me stop Chad and save my friends?" He asked.
"It should help you stop Chad." The ethereal voice said. "As for saving your friends, it will assist with that as well but it will take more than just that for the win."
"Hey, kid." The voice said again. He held up a shining object, was that green skin Jay was seeing, no it looked more like scales. "Catch." As the shining object was thrown he heard, "You've got a soul, don't lose it. And don't lose sight of what you have, accept it. Don't lose sight of what's important." Then he caught it and white light enveloped him again.
"Mal!" Evie screamed, the terror in her voice almost matching the red ranger's. She wasn't even sure what her chosen sister could do about it.
Then there was a shining burst and Chad's energy slash that should have by all rights connected and killed the black ranger was deflected away. At first it seemed as if had been done by his body but it was clear a moment later that the scimitar had shifted in his hand and had blocked the attack.
"How did you do that?" Chad asked. "Your weapon wasn't even in the right position for that."
Truth be told Jay wondered the same thing. The black ranger had been sure that hit would end him. But he wouldn't let Chad see that uncertainty. "Never underestimate the Power Rangers." Jay declared as the glow finished on the scimitar. It now seemed slightly bigger and he could feel more power radiating from it. "Remember when I said you didn't have the soul, well now it's time to see how you fare against the Soul Scimitar."
Chad swiped at Jay with his sword and he dodged it and then brought his scimitar down on his opponent's weapon and shattered it into two. He leapt up and kicked him in the chest hard. Then he called out, "Guys, I'm fine. Worry about your opponents."
As if to remind them Cybertech Overhydra released a spread of energy to send the other rangers flying. Reviveslime was in front of Ben and tried to attack him but the knight blocked with his shield.
Jay jumped past Chad and slashed him hard, sending him flying backwards. "I told you I'd make you pay for what you've done to Audrey." He said.
"We don't have the strength to defeat this thing Mal." Aziz said. "What do we do?"
"Fight fire with fire." Mal stated. "It wants to go big, then I'll go bigger." She took out her crystalline dragon and released it. "Help us deal with this cybernetic freak." She requested.
The dragon zord roared and unleashed a stream of fire at the monster. It struck hard but it still started to regenerate the heads. The dragon zord flew up into the air and then released its meteor strike down onto the head and body of the monster. That caused the heads to again get destroyed and the remnants of the body to fall lifeless.
Jay moved into to try to bring the scimitar down on Chad but something made him hesitate. He hated this guy so much, not just because of the trouble he had been causing him and his three friends since arriving in Auradon but for tormenting Audrey the way he had. But something about killing him this way just didn't feel right.
The moral debate on how to handle Chad quickly became irrelevant as Reviveslime flew up past Ben and dove in front of Jay, slashing him to the side and knocking him to the ground hard. Then he looked to Chad. "It seems as if we've overstayed our welcome." He looked to the rangers. "We'll be back though." With that he vanished with Chad.
The group powered down. "What's going on?" Carlos asked. "Usually the monster goes kaboom and leaves us with cinders." He pointed out as they looked to the portion of Cybertech Overhydra that had not been destroyed.
Jane frowned. "That's a good question." She admitted. "I think we've got a bit of a mystery on our hands." She approached it and checked it out with her iPhone, sending the scans to the command center. A moment later she looked back at them. "According to Doug the thing is inactive."
"We'll deal with it later then." Mal said. "We better go collect our things from the beach." She thought a moment. "Or maybe we should try to enjoy what's left of our day."
"After that I think I'll join you after all." Jordan said. "That's the kind of thing that really ruins your original plans."
Audrey couldn't agree more but for different reasons. "I think I'm going to go back to Auradon Prep with Jane." She told the rest of the team. "I don't feel so well." Her hand touched her cheek where Chad had hit her. Again.
"You want someone to go back with you?" Lonnie asked her friend, her voice full of concern.
"No, it's fine." Audrey replied. "Go enjoy your day at the beach."
Jay waited a second and then took Audrey's arm gently. "Hey, hang on a sec." She turned to look at him. "Hey, you want to…I don't know…grab something to eat tonight or something?" He asked and then after a moment added, "You know, like a date?" He couldn't believe he was having trouble asking a girl out.
For a moment Audrey wanted to give him a very emphatic yes. Then she hesitated as she remembered what Chad had told her. Some part of her knew that she shouldn't entertain anything Chad had said. And yet, some part of her still felt bothered by it. "I…I don't think so Jay." She answered softly. "It would never work out." With that she pulled away and made a quick dash back to the school.
Jay took a step forward and then stopped, unable to figure out what to do. He looked to the ground a moment to see the red ribbon Audrey had worn in her hair. He leaned down to pick it up and then stared off after her.
Mal, Evie and Lonnie had seen the rejection and exchanged looks of concern. They knew Jay liked Audrey. They knew Audrey liked Jay. They couldn't exactly figure out what the problem was.