They sat around the command center debating what the next move should be. "Can we even handle this ourselves?" Audrey asked, reflecting what Mal had wondered moments before. "I mean there are eleven of us and all but we saw all those oxen things we don't even know what they're capable of."
"Not to mention the fact that we have those other two large baboon creatures." Ally pointed out.
"I can try to send a message out to Alpha and see if we can get any help from them." Fairy Godmother suggested. "But I don't know when we can expect to hear from them if they have something going on themselves."
"We can't afford to wait." Mal said. "We have to over and kick those freaks out of the Sevii village and rescue those people." She looked at her team mates. "Why would they even worry about people anyway?"
"Sacrifices?" Carlos suggested.
"Bait?" Jay suggested.
"Insurance against us?" Lonnie suggested then.
Audrey had to admit each of those were likely reasons and was sure there had to be other reasons they had not thought of if those weren't it. "So we need to get going before they settle in too much in that village." She stated.
"We have to remember that by this point Sermaya will probably have gotten there too." Ben reminded the rangers. "So we'll have to fight him too."
"Are you guys even ready for this?" Doug asked them worriedly. "You just got off a fight with Sermaya and two of his monsters."
Evie was touched by his concern and she reached out to place her hand on his. "Thanks for the concern Doug, but we don't have a choice. We're the only ones who have a chance of freeing all of those people in Sevii village and letting them all return to their homes." She said softly.
"You are quiet correct." Fairy Godmother had to admit. "But you all must be careful not to over exhaust yourselves." She placed her hand on Jane's shoulder. "I don't want any of you guys to become sick."
Jane laid her head on her mother's hand, reveling in the gesture. "We'll be okay, mom. We have to be." She said.
"Wait until tomorrow." Fairy Godmother said to them. "Rest up before you go out."
Each of the teens exchanged glances. They knew it was the best idea, they just suspected it wouldn't be a restful night. Then they all finally agreed.
It was as they suspected, the night was not all that restful and they set out as soon as the sun had risen. Each of them felt guilty for what had happened; convinced that they should not all have gone to confront Sermaya when they had a whole world to worry about.
"We should have stayed behind." Ally said as she looked to Aziz and Jordan. "Played back up if needed but other than that been ready for another crisis like this."
"We had no way of knowing." Jane tried to reason.
"And why not?" Jordan wondered. "Why didn't we have a way of knowing? The sensors should have told us something. I should develop something like that." She mused.
"Maybe if Lonnie and I hadn't gotten side tracked in that vision or whatever." Carlos said.
"I think we're more at fault." Evie replied. "Mal, Audrey and I, I mean. We were the ones who got side tracked with our families." She thought of her bonding with Snow White, Mal bonding with Belle and Audrey confessing to her mother. It was all needed but at the same time it could have been timed better.
"Yeah, you're right." Audrey said softly. "We got truly side tracked, not delusioanlly side tracked."
"I feel as we've been dissed somehow." Jay said to his two friends with a grim humor.
"We can't start second guessing ourselves." Mal said somewhat dubiously. She hoped she was inspiring more confidence than she herself felt. "If we do that all the time we'll end up having a very short career, not to mention lifespan."
It seemed all too quiet as they got closer to the village that Sermaya's minions had commandeered. Still they were sure that the oxen creatures had to be around somewhere. "Stay close." Ben said to his friends, even taking a hold of Mal's hand.
They continued on to find no signs of life within, either human or beast. Jane rationalized that the oxen creatures had probably rounded the people up and put them someplace they could be more easily guarded, but it didn't explain where Sermaya, Chiron, and his goons had ended up at.
"I wish they'd just show up already." Audrey murmured softly. "It would be better to get them off the village already instead of going with all of this subterfuge."
The group made their way to the center of the village, where beyond that was the city hall for the local village. It was halfway to the building that lights flashed, blinding the team momentarily. When the could get their bearings again they were surrounded by the oxen creatures. And in front of them was Sermaya, Chiron, the baboon creatures and yet another beast creature in some armor and wielding a sword.
"Welcome to the first of my new villages, Power Rangers." Sermaya said with a chuckle.
"Funny, I could have sworn this place wasn't yours." Mal retorted. "In fact we've come to serve you evictions papers."
"You are more than welcome to try, daughter of Maleficent." Sermaya replied grandly. "If you can." He gestured to his the three new monsters. "I'd like you to meet my Forest Defender and Archer Defender." He indicated the two baboon monsters. The first had green in its fur while the second had yellow in its fur. "And this is Gottams, my sword master."
"Another freak." Jay muttered.
"Goody for you." Audrey said to the beast king. "We're going to take you and yours down right now."
Mal agreed wholeheartedly with her second in commands assessment. "Let's get to work." She stated. As Ben summoned his sword and shield and combined them to transform, as Jane took out the magic wand to morph, the rest of the team took out their iPhones, input their numbers and then morphed themselves.
Mal noticed Gottams get ready to strike and she looked at her team. "Time to weapon up guys." She said. The team followed their leader's orders and summoned their weapons. The purple ranger herself had her dragon's eye staff, Audrey her elemental bow, Evie her mirror force shield, Jay his soul scimitar, Lonnie her hurricane tessens and Carlos his earthquake claw daggers and Jane the magic wand. Jordan had her lamp cannon ready as Aziz summoned his spiral spear and Ally unsheathed her crystalline cards.
"Excellent." Sermaya said with a laugh. "It's time to show you just how much we have learned in our time. One of them was the ability to take away the powers of an army. Now I can do nothing about these powers you so casually wield." He had been in hibernation after all when Zordon helped establish the Auradon Ranger powers. "But as for your weapons, my sword master will deal with those."
"What are you talking about?" Jay asked. "What can he do to stop these?"
Gottams laughed and leapt into the air. As he passed over the team it seemed as if something from the armor that encompassed his upper section and stole the weapons away from each of the rangers, as well as the shield and sword from Ben. The young king considered it a small miracle that losing his weapons didn't' force him to lose his powers. The sword master landed on a roof across from them and grinned down maliciously at them.
"Now that you have no weapons to protect you, let's see how you deal with my army now." Sermaya said with glee and then pointed to the rangers. "Get them my battle oxen." He commanded. All of the minions surged forward.
"M?" Evie asked a bit worried. "What are we supposed to do now?"
Mal understood her friend's weariness. "We do what we can to take them down E." She said.
"What was it that voice said to us?" Carlos asked Lonnie as he got ready to fight without his claw daggers. "The ethereal one?"
Lonnie had to think a moment. "Let the power protect us." She answered. "We're going to need that now."
The oxen attacked. Mal, Ben, Jay, Aziz and Lonnie were able to go blow for blow with one of them but more than one was a bit of a problem. Sadly they still fared better than Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jordan, Ally and Jane were without their weapons.
"What are we doing wrong here?" Audrey wondered as she dodged one of the their ram attacks only to get punched hard by another. "We deal with the soldiers without a problem now."
"These things are stronger." Jay answered for her. He was unable to get by the three in front of him to help the girl he was falling in love with despite himself. "Faster too."
"I told you that you should have joined with me Ben." Sermaya said. "Now you will die and I will rule the world that you call Auradon. Perhaps you could have protected the people of this world in some fashion, but now when the time comes their lives will most assuredly be forfeit."
The oxen were starting to get at the edge over the eleven warriors. They even made sure to make sure that Jordan did not have the time to cast any spells that might save them, and without the wand Jane's magic wasn't strong enough to help. Mal likewise was covered well enough that if she ever stopped fighting to try to cast a spell they would take her down.
One lifted Audrey and tossed her hard into Jay. He tried to catch her but the impact forced them both to the ground. The others gathered around them. "This is not looking good." Ally said.
Aziz looked up at Gottams on the roof. "Why don't we just take our weapons back from that creep?" he demanded to know.
"How do you suggest we do that?" Lonnie asked. "We can't even beat these things without our weapons. How are we supposed to deal with that?"
"It's over rangers." Sermaya gloated. "You've lost."
The Defender baboon landed in front of them and raised his axe, ready to bring it down on one of them, whichever he could. Each of them were trying to protect the others and there was no way to know who would take the blow.
The point became moot however, when there was a loud yelling noise and the baboon was kicked back hard. The eleven warriors looked up to see five people in front of them. They had no way of knowing who they were at that moment. If the Space Rangers had been there however they would have been able to tell them that they were also a group of Rangers.
"This battle isn't over yet." Lily Chilman promised as she stepped forward.
Her fiancée stepped forward too. "Count on it." Theo Martin agreed.
"We'll help take you down and restore this village." Dominic Hargan added.
"That's a promise." RJ assured.
Sermaya let out a small primal growl. "Who are you?" he asked.
"We," Casey Rhodes told him with confidence. "Are the Jungle Fury Power Rangers."
"More Power Rangers?" Sermaya roared in fury. Mal couldn't have agreed more, except it wasn't fury she felt but elation. She hoped that meant they could stand a chance.
"It's morphin' time." Casey said three of them placed sunglasses over their eyes while Dominic and RJ used their morphers. "Jungle Beasts, Spirits Unleashed." Then between the beast arm and the Auradon Rangers stood the red, blue, yellow, white and violet rangers.
"Very well then." Sermaya said with a faux amused smile. "Bring out your weapons and let the battle commence."
"No." Evie called out. "No weapons or else that beast on the roof will take them from you."
"No problem then." Casey said. "We've got a backup plan."
Lily nodded. "Time to use our spirit animals." She said.
"Spirit animals?" Evie questioned, kind of intrigued.
"Casey, Lily, Theo." RJ said. "Summon the Spirit Rangers so that they can help Dominic and I. You three give them a crash course on spirit animals."
Lily and Theo looked a bit uncertain about that but Casey felt a bit more confident since he had helped Emma and Jake, two of the Megaforce Rangers, to find their animals. But their teaching conditions were a bit more accommodating. Never the less the three rangers complied; Casey summoned the blue shark ranger, Theo summoned the black bat ranger and Lily summoned the green elephant ranger.
"How are we supposed to receive a 'crash course' on spirit animals?" Jane asked. There were two thing she didn't have much faith in. The first was that anything truly worth understanding and/or learning could be done as a crash course. The second was that people were truly capable to utilizing something like that; a bit ironic perhaps considering the world they lived in.
"The same way we get to suddenly accept that fairy tales are real." Theo replied, making an interesting point about the realities between the world of Auradon and their world.
"None of that matters right now." Lily said, who secretly would have loved to be a fairy tale princess when she had been much younger. "Right now we have to figure out how to do this before RJ and Dominic get tired out."
"Which goes back to Jane said, how do we crash course this?" Carlo asked.
Casey thought a moment. He had been the first to help others outside of their school find their spirit animals. "Maybe there's some kind of spell that you could use on me that would help me identify your spirit animals quicker?" He suggested.
Mal bit her lip in thought as an idea came to her. "A second sight kind of spell." She supplied. "I think I can handle that one." She took a deep breath. "In our hour of need, give this man the view, to help us get our groove."
Carlos raised his eyebrow at the spell but by now knew better than to comment on his view of the spell. As long as it worked it was all that mattered, he had to reluctantly concede.
Casey opened his eyes and was kind of shocked at what he saw in front of him. He had read in the past that some people who had close spiritual connections might find that spirit hanging around them and this seemed to be similar to what he would have expected.
He looked to Mal. "You have the spirit of the dragon, full of fire and nobility." That didn't surprise her too much, given her zord and the bond she had formed with it. It didn't surprise Ben that much either given what drew her to him in the first place.
Next he looked to Audrey. "The cheetah spirit guides you just as it guides my friend Lily, quick and adaptable." He told the brunette princess. She almost wondered how to perceive that until she was one of the most resistant to Mal and her friends but almost like magic had learned to live with and even come to care for them, especially most recently Jay.
He looked to Evie. "The intelligent and all seeing spirit of the owl watches over and protects you." He said. That didn't surprise Mal given how much her intellectual nature had shined ever since they had become students at Auradon Prep, from chemistry to urban sustainability.
He looked to Jay now. "The strong and protective spirit of the ape guides you in your actions." Audrey wasn't surprised at all to hear that one based on how he fought and how much he had worked to keep her safe since Chad's sadistic intentions had started to become clear.
"You have the frog spirit in your corner." Casey said to Carlos, and when the yellow ranger seemed to balk a little and echo that in disbelief he explained, "It means that you should not be underestimated or taken lightly as there is more to you than meets the eye."
Casey looked at Lonnie. "The spirit of the horse guides you in your life." He told the Asian princess. "Strong willed and wise." That surprised her since she assumed that would be Ben's spirit animal as that was his zord. Meanwhile Jane certainly remembered some of the knowledge she had brought into their circle, particularly where the seemingly unassuming Torii fell.
Now Casey looked to the young king, and the only one of the warriors not to really be a power ranger in the strictest sense. "You're spirit animal is the lion, brave and loyal." Mal certainly couldn't argue those, especially when she recalled Ben wanting to help them out even before becoming the Auradon Knight regardless of the dangers to himself.
Now he looked at Jane. "You're ranger color is very apropos to your spirit animal, the spirit of the dove, who represents peace and knowledge." He said. Every one of the rangers, particularly the first six, could remember a time in their careers that Jane's knowledge had helped them to in the day, and by her very nature even now was traditionally a peaceful one.
Casey looked at Jordan. "The ever changing, sometimes mysterious chameleon spirit serves as your guide and advisor." In some ways that spirit animal baffled the red ranger but made perfect sense to Jordan. She was after all a genie, one of the most mysterious life forms in the world.
Now he looked to Aziz. "The might and dexterous falcon is your spirit animal." Casey revealed to the silver ranger.
Finally he looked to Ally. "The deer spirit seems to represent you, delicate and yet very resilient." He told the blonde. It was something that everyone would have agreed she had proven in spades during their adventure in Wonderland.
Casey's gaze now encompassed all of Auradon Rangers. "Call upon your spirit animals and channel them in this fight. The best way to put an end to beast warriors like these is to fight them on their own turf." He said.
Beneath her helmet Mal's eye glowed green as she felt the power of her dragon, and perhaps some of her own power from being the daughter of Maleficent as well. She remembered her mother telling her stories of transforming into a black dragon to face Audrey's father prince Phillip. Of course it was years before she realized that he would come out on top of that confrontation. "Let's see how well this works everyone." She said.
For Jay it was definitely a natural fit. He felt as if his own strength were combining with that of the ape, one of the strongest primates in history. Taking out the oxen was pretty simple.
Jane found that her spirit animal gave her a unique advantage. Because of her small white wings she was able to use that in order to glide around a bit, almost simulating flight. She used that to turn one of her opponents greatest advantages into a disadvantage, as their massive strength and bulky build made it more likely for them to strike each other rather than her while evading.
That was a tactic that Carlos soon adapted to his own needs as well. What he lacked in glide ability he made up for with his own speed and short stature, dodging and weaving to avoid the oxen and making them strike each other.
The approach was working well, and the oxen minions were finding themselves on the losing end of the fight against both the eleven Auradon Rangers and the eight Jungle Fury Rangers, though Jordan could feel the blue, black and green rangers weren't really people in the same sense as the rest of them were. It made her think it would be an interesting experiment to try on her own someday.
Mal however knew there was a difference between the minions and the big boys. Sermaya, Chiron, and the twin baboon defenders would need a bit more than spirit power fists and feet to be taken down. She used the power she perceived as a dragon to leap up onto the roof top and land in front of Gottamas. "You have something that belongs to us." She said, her voice sounding just a bit gravely, an echo of the dragon spirit she supposed. "I want those back."
Gottamas didn't hesitate to use his own weapon, a long sword, in combat despite the disadvantage he had thought he had brought to his master's opposition. "If you think you can take your weapons back then bring it on." With that he slashed at Mal, who dodged to the side and came up with a good kick to his jaw.
Mal was not alone in her assertion as Ben followed suit and slammed into Gottamas hard, his heavier metal armor in itself making a decent weapon over the more skintight suits that his friend wore while morphed. "You're not alone in this Mal." Ben said. "We'll take him together."
"It will take more than just two of you to free your weapons from my grasp." Gottamas sneered at them.
Jordan realized that he was of course probably right. Thankfully so did Lily. "Those of you who started with her need to go up there and combine your spirit animals with hers. You might be able to defeat him that way and get your weapons back." Lily suggested.
"Go ahead guys." Jordan said. "We'll cover the Jungle Fury Rangers." She indicated herself, Jane, Aziz and Ally. Audrey, Evie, Carlos and Jay leaped up to the roof and after a moment Lonnie realized she was supposed to go with despite the fact that she had not technically started with them but might as well have and followed them.
Audrey however had one idea that Lily had not been aware of. "Let's activate the neon armor." She suggested.
"Good idea Audrey." Mal said. "That's another thing he can't take away from us." The six of them activated their neon armor, something that drew a breath of amazement from Lily.
"Okay, that's kind of cool." Theo had to admit.
"Spirit animals of Auradon, unleash the fury!" The six teens called out, and through it they could see the images of their spirit animals in their colors as it struck Gottamas down hard. The weapons flew out of him, the sword and shield automatically being directed back to Ben. Jordan used her magic to make sure the rest of her friends got their weapons back to them.
"Resilient, huh?" Ally asked with a small smile on her lips. "Well this deer also has some teeth." With that she unleashed all of her crystallized cards to mow down through the oxen. Her cards recollected in her right hand as the rest of the rangers, Auradon and Jungle, came to stand by the crystal ranger.
That still left Seramaya, Chiron and his two baboon guardians to contend with. Sermaya knew that he could summon more oxen creatures but he also knew that it wouldn't really make a difference here. "You still have to deal with us rangers, and it won't be so easy." The beast king vowed.
"Let's bring our weapons together." Mal said. "Channel both our spirits and our neon armor into the blast and see what happens." Each of her team mates nodded.
"Us too." Jordan said to Ally and Aziz.
"We'll help too." Casey said. "With the Claw Cannon."
Mal, Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos and Lonnie formed the Auradon blaster. They could already feel the power of the blaster had been enhanced, not just by their spirit animals or by their armor but also from the power of their weapon upgrades.
Jordan, Aziz and Ally formed their own Lamp blaster and stood to the right of the other rangers.
Casey, Lily and Theo formed their Claw Cannon and stood on the left of the rangers.
Together the three of them unleashed their attacks on the four beast warriors. Chiron brought his staff up as the green baboon, the defender one, moved up to protect the other three. There was an explosion but when the smoke cleared the four of them were still standing there though it seemed as if the defender was weakened.
"That didn't go quiet as planned." RJ noted. "Good thing we have other ranger teams on their way." It was actually a bit of a bluff as they had only figured they would need one team but they had no way of knowing that and in truth it wasn't that much of a stretch. All it took was a text from here to Fairy Godmother and then to Alpha for other rangers after all.
Jay caught onto what he was trying to do here. "We also have squads of guards on their way too." He said. "We just have to hold out a little bit longer." In truth ideally they probably should have but they hadn't wanted to take that chance. He just hoped that Sermaya and his freaks didn't know that.
Rather he knew or not, the odds were not necessarily in their favor. Sermaya gave them a glare. "You may have won this one rangers, with some outside help." He added pointedly. "But I promise that we will have our revenge." Chiron waved the staff and the four vanished. They also saw that Gottomas had disappeared as well.
A quick search revealed the population that had not escaped were being held in the governor's building. They were set free and Jane told her mother that they had cleared Sermaya and his goons out, and learned that she had indeed contacted Alpha just in case. It had been Alpha's idea to send the Jungle Fury rangers and see if they could help unlock the animal spirits for the team.
"Does this make you guys feel any better?" Lily asked the eleven warriors. "About Sermaya tricking you guys for this invasion?"
Each of them looked uncertain. "We never should have fallen for it in the first place." Mal finally said. "We screwed up and it was just a lucky break that it didn't cost the citizens of the land more than it already did."
"Being a ranger isn't all fun and games, and even without the loss of people, just the destruction of property alone isn't always pretty or harmless." RJ told them, trying to be consoling but perhaps missing the mark just a little. "Look the point is that mistakes happen in this line of work just as it does every other line of work. What matters is being able to correct those mistakes and hopefully learn a little something along the way."
"He's right." Casey agreed. "Making mistakes is just part of the job, it's part of life. It's how one deals with those mistakes that makes all the difference."
"And don't forget about your friends, who are always willing to help you if you need it." Lily said with a small smile. "Just as we did."
"Thank you." Mal said to them. "Not just for helping us now but for helping us unlock something that I think will help us in the future as well."
"Anytime guys." Casey said.
"I think at the next meeting I'll have to bring up ways to help defend smaller villages and other locations that may not necessarily fall under the normal patrol routes." Ben remarked. "That way we can try to prevent anything like this happening again."
The Auradon teens escorted the Jungle Fury rangers to their entry point into their world which they learned hadn't been that far away thanks to the same technology that the Space Rangers had used to show up to help them against the Psycho Rangers. Then they made their way back to Auradon, ready to face the challenges ahead, which for the isle kids meant swimming classes.
"That Sermaya is starting to become a rather big pain in our necks." Nerissa noted with some annoyance. "At this rate he may very well become as much of a challenge to us as the Power Rangers."
"We are almost prepared to unleash out strongest monsters." Paradias said. "All we need is a little bit more time."
"And it shall be had." Reviveslime promised.
"Indeed it shall." Maleficent agreed. "And with some help from an old friend or two I already have a plan set in motion. With luck it will give us the key we need to put Mal and her little friends down once and for all."