Mal, Audrey, Ally, Lonnie and Evie sat around at one of the tables before classes. "So how was your date Lonnie?" Mal asked the Asian princess teasingly.
Lonnie rolled her eyes. "It wasn't a date Mal, we just had a milkshake. Each." She emphasized the last word before her friends could suggest that she and Will had shared a milkshake. Not that the idea of going on a real date or sharing a milkshake with Will was unappealing in the slightest. "What about you Mal?" She asked. "How was your date with Ben?"
"At least I can admit I was on a date." Mal commented with a laugh. Then she sighed a bit. "It went well, we each had a milkshake. Ben changed his mind and wanted a vanilla shake but that was okay with me." She shrugged. "More strawberries for me after all." She looked to Ally. "I heard Lonnie and I aren't the only ones who had milkshakes."
"Aziz and I each had one of our own too." Ally replied. "I had a mint chocolate chip one, while Aziz had a cherry one." She didn't really address rather or not they had been on a date themselves. Technically they hadn't been of course.
"How about you?" Mal asked her chosen sister. "What did you do?"
"Doug and I went to one of the chemistry labs to get some of lab work done." Evie answered. "I know, I know. Not necessarily a situation that evokes romance, but we had fun." Evie laughed a little bit. "And the chocolate fondue break a couple hours in sure didn't hurt either." Mal laughed too, reflecting how interesting it was that they all had their particular ideas of fun.
"How about you Audrey?" Lonnie asked. "Did you and Jay eat anything appetizing?"
"No we didn't." Audrey answered. "But we spent a couple of hours walking around the campus, just hanging out." She looked now specifically to Mal and Evie. "Jay really is a very great guy. I feel so safe around him, which might be a bit ironic considering." She ran her hands through her hair. "Truth be told, I feel safer with him than I ever have with a guy, even Ben."
Mal patted the brunette princesses' arm gently. "I'm glad that you're so happy with Jay." She replied earnestly. "And if it helps any, I can tell without a problem that you're making him very happy too." Her second in command seemed to perk up at that information.
"So how is your research on Sermaya and that history coming?" Evie asked Lonnie and Ally.
"Slowly." Lonnie answered. "We can't rely on most of the well-known recorded history of Auradon. We're working on trying to track down some of the more obscures books and other items." She looked to Mal. "Ben asked his parents to see if they could find something that could be in his mother's library that she might have come across."
"I hope she has some kind of system." Mal noted with a laugh. "Belle has more books than Dragon Hall, our school on the Isle of the Lost, ever had."
"There's a lot of things we've had more of here than we ever had there." Evie pointed out as she smiled at Ally, Lonnie and Audrey. Friendship was a bit of an anomaly on the Isle of the Lost, though as Mal and her chosen siblings proved it wasn't impossible. But they could never have formed the huge support they'd had since they'd chosen to be good.
They saw Ben coming toward them with another of the new students, a boy named Gregory. Lonnie again remembered how both he and Will had said they weren't really friends despite them both coming from the same school. She also remembered Fairy Godmother saying only the most gifted or most troubled had been transferred mid-year. She was only aware of a few students but Gregory didn't seem troubled, but then again aside from some apparent 'robin hood' tendencies Will hadn't shown any signs of being troubled either.
"Hey." Ben said, setting his hands on Mal's shoulder and kissing the top of her head before sitting down next to her. He kept his arm around her and Mal giggled a little. "Hey yourself." She whispered invitingly into his ear.
Gregory squeezed in between Audrey and Lonnie. Evie noticed that Audrey tried as subtly as possible to get some distance between her and the boy she didn't really know that well, and the blue haired girl was willing to bet that Chad's recent assaults on her had a big part of that.
"What are you guys up to?" Ally asked them.
"My first day for government class on this campus." Gregory said. "I hope it's not as dull as it was at my old school." He looked to Ben. "You mentioned extracurricular research, what is that for?" He asked.
Ben hesitated. "Just some archaeological records, that kind of thing." He said half vaguely.
Jay, Aziz, Will and Carlos showed up next. Jay already saw the tension radiating off of the brunette princess and he squeezed in between her and Gregory. Evie was glad that seemed to make Audrey feel better. She meanwhile felt Carlos squeeze in next to her as Aziz stood behind Ally.
Mal noticed that Will and Gregory almost seemed to hesitate before he finally sat on Lonnie's other side.
"If Jordan, Jane and Doug were to show up we would need to get a bigger table." Carlos joked.
"Do we need a bigger table?" Gregory asked him seriously.
Carlos shook his head. "Nah, Jane and Doug like to get an early start on school work most of the time. I texted with Jane when I got up and found out this is one of those days." He answered.
Evie nodded a little. "Yeah, Doug texted me the same thing." She revealed. "I would have joined him if I could have but it's in the cybernetics class, which I take during our swimming class." She indicated Mal and the two isle boys. In reality it was a way for the two of them to get some extra ranger work done during school; right now it was extending the holding area in the mountains for the new Auradon Battlezord.
"I've never heard of swimming classes at this late stage." Gregory noted. Most Auradon students took swimming classes in their first year of what would normally be middle school.
"That's what we get for showing up late." Mal said with a shrug. It was kind of an inside comment about the fact that swimming wasn't a big priority on the Isle of the Lost since despite it being surrounded by water it was also encompassed in a barrier.
"Hey Lonnie, I don't suppose I can convince you to skip your research class?" Will asked her.
"I doubt that one." Gregory said.
Will ignored him. "I need some help gathering some samples in the woods for my biology class." He said.
"I'd be okay with that, but I should check with Fairy Godmother first." Lonnie replied.
Ben gave it a dismissive wave. "Go ahead and help Will Lonnie." He told her. "I'll tell Fairy Godmother what you're doing, I'm sure she'll the exception since you're helping a student with their work." And the reality was that right now not having Lonnie around wasn't going to slow their lack of progress down.
Lonnie smiled at Will. "Alright, I'll meet you at up front at eleven." She said.
"I look forward to that." Will replied to her sincerely.
The five minute bell rang and everyone got up to get to their classes. Mal caught Ben's arm. "Is Fairy Godmother really going to be okay with that?" She asked.
Ben nodded. "Yeah, probably." He answered. "We're not going to find a reservoir of information today that would make it horrible that we were short a person." He took Mal's hand in his own. "Besides, it will give Lonnie and Will some time to get to know each other. I think they like each other."
Mal laughed. "You are so intuitive." She said with a smile. "Not that some of us haven't figured it out days ago." She added teasingly with an exaggerated eye roll. "Really though, that's a very nice thing you did for them." He walked her to class and they exchanged a brief kiss on the lips before parting ways.
The only thing that Chad disliked more than one of his former friends starting a new relationship was Audrey dating Jay. There didn't seem to be much he could do about that but he wanted to mess up Lonnie's chances with Will. He said as much to Nerissa.
"You know I'm in the process of trying to restore your powers." She reminded him. So far the sorceress hadn't figured out the best way to do so. She didn't want to repair the original sword but rather find a way to upgrade it. "I don't really have much time to cause them trouble."
"We can't just leave them alone either." Chad replied. "That's why Dark Mist was sent down after all. In case Maleficent's plan fails." His tone of voice made it clear that despite the fact he had to work with one of the most well-known villains in Auradon history it didn't mean he had to like it.
Nerissa sighed but knew Chad was right. Anything they could do to combat the rangers could only help in the long run. "You have the soldiers at your disposal and I will leave Chakra at your disposal as well."
"I think I can work with that." Chad said with a malicious grin.
Lonnie met Will at the gates, where he was leaning against the wall holding a small plastic case. When she saw him he held it up. "Got to bring in a few insects." He informed her. "Hope you're not squeamish about them."
"I've seen worse." Lonnie promised as she thought about some of the monsters the rangers had encountered.
The two teens made their way into the woods and started to explore the area for what he needed. It was a nice day, slightly breezy and it made Lonnie's hair move around her shoulders as they walked. "So you and Gregory aren't really don't like each other it seems." She said.
Will shrugged. "Not really." He replied. "We've never really seen eye to eye. He's clearly a royal or at least thinks he is."
"He isn't?" Lonnie asked surprised.
Will chuckled dryly. "He probably is, but he's never really said who his parents are. The records are there somewhere in all of the school's records but I've never been able to see them." He answered.
"Sounds a bit weird to me." Lonnie confessed. "But then again most student records are sealed to the other students." She cocked her head. "So who are your parents anyway?" She asked him. "Some royal I would think." She realized she blushed a little after saying that one.
"Not so much so." Will replied. "Actually my father died while my mother was pregnant. To be honest I never even really bothered to learn his name. As for my mother, her name is Wendy."
Lonnie had to think a moment before she realized. "Wendy, as in Wendy Darling, the girl who had a few adventures in Neverland with her two younger brothers." She said.
Will nodded. "That's her. Not exactly royal but still pretty famous in her own right." He said.
Will got over a fallen log and turned to help Lonnie but saw it was needed as she got over it on her own just fine. It evoked a smile on his face.
They stopped near a tree stump and Will took out a water bottle and handed it to Lonnie before taking one for himself. Each of them drank a little and then recapped it. Then Will pointed to a small bush where on top of it they could see what looked like a ladybug half the size of a pop can. "That's one of them." He announced.
"We're going to have to sneak up on it then." Lonnie said as she lowered her voice. "If it hears us it's going to bolt." The two of them started to stealthily move up on it but then a large monster that seemed to be crustacean in appearance appeared in between them and their target. It had thee long claws on either of its arms instead of pincers and almost seemed to float, though Lonnie could see it actually had one long blade like protrusion for feet. The mega ladybug flew away.
"That's not on my list." Will said as he stood up.
"No surprise there." Lonnie said as she stood up.
"Lost your way?" The monster asked with a chuckle. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Chakra and I am going to take you all out."
"I don't think so." Lonnie stated. She hesitated, not sure what to do. She could transform but then she would be exposing her identity to Will. She looked toward him. "You go right, I'll go left. We need to get to the school for safety." She said.
Will nodded and they both took off. As Lonnie expected Chakra came after her, but without Will around she could now transform. She pulled out her iPhone and got ready to input her numbers but a soldier came from out of nowhere and kicked it out of her hands, where she saw it sail into the grass behind the approaching monster.
"Looks like you have a problem pink ranger." Chakra noted with amusement.
All of the rangers (except Lonnie) met at the entrance to the school as soon as they got the monster alert on their iPhones. Mal found herself adjusting her long purple shirt a bit awkwardly when she saw Ben, as under the shirt all she had on was her bikini and for some reason the idea of him seeing her like that made her embarrassed. Evie was likewise in the same situation except for her shirt was blue and she didn't have to worry about embarrassment since Doug would not be there. That didn't extend to Jay or Carlos, who had no problem walking out in their swim trunks. The four isle teens made sure to grab their iPhones before leaving the swimming pool area.
"It looks like some weird monster is in the forest where Lonnie went with Will." Jane said to them. "Lonnie might be hesitating to transform since she's with him."
"Then we better go and change that situation." Mal said as she remembered Lonnie being the first ranger to be able to freely oppose Dark Mist when he attacked the school commons. They started out but quickly found themselves running into a dilemma; they were ambushed by more soldiers.
"There sure are a lot of them." Jordan noted. "I think they're trying to keep us away from Lonnie."
"Which means that we have to make sure that they don't succeed." Mal said. She looked to her friends. "Let's get to work." Ben summoned his sword and shield to transform, Jane used the magic want to transform and the rest of the rangers input their numbers into their iPhones and transformed.
"Everyone get ready." Mal said as she raised her dragon's eye staff. "We have to cut through these guys as quickly as possible so that we can get to Lonnie." She saw her friends draw their weapons and then they started to engage the soldiers.
Lonnie lashed out and kicked the soldier in the gut and then grabbed a hold of his wrist and twisted him around to the ground. Then she turned to the monster, which she knew would be much harder to deal with.
"Try out your impressive moves with me pink ranger." Chakra taunted her as he raised his clawed appendages and got ready to fight.
Lonnie didn't want to but she had to get by Chakra in order to get a hold of her iPhone. She charged the monster, jumping up and kicking it in the chest with both of her feet but it did little more than faze him. She tried to move past him and his left arm lashed out and slammed into her hard, forcing her back again.
"Without your friends and your powers you're defenseless." Chakra said with amusement.
"Don't rule me out just yet Chakra." Lonnie said and channeled her horse spirit. She then moved rapidly and almost made it to her iPhone before Chakra shot around her and tripped her up. She hit the ground hard, feeling the breath rush out of her lungs.
"You've been ruled out girl." Chakra said as he approached her. He raised one of his arms and prepared to stab her.
"Lonnie!" They heard from behind them. They turned to see Will running toward them, a thick tree branch in hand. He jumped up and slammed the tree branch right into the things chest, forcing him away from her. Then he kicked the thing, for what good that did them. He still turned away to look at her. "Are you okay?" he asked her.
Lonnie had to fight several urges; the urge to snap at him for coming back to a dangerous situation, the urge to thank and hug him for the rescue, and even the urge to cry at the shock that someone that wasn't one of her powered up friends would face the good possibility of death for her. "I'm fine." She told him. "Keep him busy just a moment longer."
He heard a sound and ducked just as Chakra tried to take off his head with one of the razor sharp claws. He lashed out and with his leg hooked around what passed for the monster's leg and tripped it up.
That was all the time Lonnie needed to recover her iPhone. Now despite Will looking right at her, there was still a monster bearing down on them and no help in sight, she didn't see a choice but to transform despite the fact that it would expose her identity to him. Besides, after saving her life she figured he had earned it. She input her numbers 4363 and transformed into the pink ranger.
To say that Will was stunned might have been a bit of an understatement. Lonnie formed her hurricane tessens and jumped over him to attack Chakra as he stood up again. She slashed the monster with both of her weapons, but as she tried to draw energy into the tessens Chakra leapt out and slashed her hard.
"Are you okay?" Will asked the pink ranger as he came up beside her. "What can I do to help?"
"I'm fine." Lonnie assured him as she got up and watched the monster. "What I really need now are my friends, I can't defeat this thing alone."
Will was able to read in between the lines. He figured that except for probably Gregory the people he had seen her interact with were power rangers themselves, or at least knew how to contact them. "I'll get the school and find Mal and the others." He promised and very reluctantly dashed off.
"So your boyfriend was smart enough to quit the scene huh?" Chakra asked and laughed. "He shouldn't run, he already provoked me and I'll get rid of him later on. But you're first pink ranger." With that the monster moved in again to clash with Lonnie.
"These things may be horrible fighters but they more than make up for it in numbers." Aziz noted as he took out two only to be accosted by another.
Mal wanted to agree with his assessment but she could still remember the first time she, her surrogate siblings and Audrey, who at that point had been little more than a reluctant friend, first fought these soldiers and had very nearly been defeated.
"I wish we knew how Lonnie was doing. "Audrey said worriedly as she released a few arrows at some incoming soldiers. "She could be in a lot of trouble."
"Hey, hang on a sec." Evie said. "Watch my back." Carlos and Jane already moved in to do so as Mal realized what her chosen sister was doing; she was going to consult her magic mirror. "Mirror, mirror in my palm, show me Lonnie." The purple ranger assumed her weapon/magic item did as she was asked because a moment later she revealed, "Lonnie is fighting this crustacean thing with claws instead of pincers and a really unsturdy looking leg thing. She could be doing worse but I still think she really needs our help."
Mal remembered not too long ago that they had focused all of their efforts on stopping Sermaya and his Guard beasts that he had been able to temporarily take control over a village before they and the Jungle Fury Rangers had sent them packing. In fact it made her wonder how the village was recovering and if some of their transfers had come from there. But right now it wasn't important, right now she realized if this was another situation like that a failure would be more costly at least on a personal level. "Ben, Jordan, Aziz, Ally, Jane." She called out. "You guys stay here and deal with the soldiers." She looked to those who started out as rangers with her. "We're going to help Lonnie."
The teens nodded in agreement and then Mal's chosen siblings cut a swath through the soldiers to get into the forest as the Ben and the other rangers stayed behind to deal with the soldiers.
In a matter of minutes they ran into Will. "I'm glad I ran into you." Will said. "Your friend's in trouble."
"We know." The purple ranger promised him. "We're going to help her now. Get back to Auradon Prep." The five rangers then ran past him, but Will couldn't just hope it all worked out and started to follow them.
Chakra blocked Lonnie's attacks again and then slashed her hard, this time disarming her. "You're starting to bore me pink ranger." He said. "Now I'm going to end this game." He got ready to leap at her, intending to bring his claws down on her when a shower of arrows struck him from all sides. He looked up to see the other rangers now at her side, with Audrey lowering her silver bow.
"Are you okay?" Evie asked her.
"Yeah." Lonnie answered as she stood up. "Watch it, this guy is more trouble than he looks to be."
Jay formed his soul scimitar. "Let's show this guy a thing or two." He said and together with Carlos they attacked Chakra. The monster ended up blocking claw to claw with the yellow ranger only to get struck by the black ranger.
"Let's end this guy." Mal said. "With the Auradon Triangle Spark." Audrey, Lonnie, and Evie stood together, and then Jay and Carlos jumped onto their shoulders. Mal jumped up to land on the boys shoulders. Then they drew their blasters and shot in the middle, forming a triangle of energy and unleashing it on Chakra, who exploded upon impact.
"Another one bites the dust, for real this time." Carlos gloated happily. This time there was no trace of a body and the explosion usually meant the monster was killed.
They turned to see Will coming out of the forest. "You got rid of him." He stated as if it were to be expected. He started toward them and Lonnie noticed the other ranger's seemed ready to try to leave.
She turned to her friends. "Forget it guys, he already knows. He saw me transform to fight Chakra." She replied and then powered down. "He saved my life." That sounded almost like a plea of understanding to Mal.
"Alright then." The purple haired girl decided. It wasn't a hard leap of logic to figure out all their identities when you knew who one of them was. And putting one's life on the line to save one of her friends meant a lot to her too. "Power down." The other four rangers followed suit.
"You saved Lonnie from that monster?" Jay asked. When Will nodded the black ranger offered his hand out. "That's cool man, thanks a lot." The two boys smiled and exchanged hand shakes and then fist bumped.
Carlos received a text that told them they had defeated the soldiers and were on their way back to help them and he texted Jane not to worry, they had defeated Chakra and Lonnie was fine. He also cautioned her that Will knew who they were now.
The seven teens returned to the school. Ben and the other Auradon rangers were waiting for them. "So do we need to erase his mind?" Jordan asked them.
"No." Mal replied. "He's fine." She wasn't entirely sure about that but wanted to trust Lonnie's instincts.
"Did you get what you needed for your project?" Ally asked Will.
"Afraid not. The first sample we found flew away when that monster showed up." He answered and shrugged a bit. "Not much to be done about it now I'm afraid."
"We better get back to class then." Mal said. "Before Fairy Godmother thinks something really bad happened to us." She went to kiss Ben and then got a bit embarrassed again as she realized what she was wearing, in this case not much, and she failed to fight the urge to blush.
Ben laughed softly. "Don't worry about it Mal, you look good in everything." He said sincerely and then kissed her on the cheek. "Go learn to swim." He said to her and looked at Evie, Jay and Carlos.
"As long as you know now everything, we could use some help with our special project." Lonnie said to Will. "I can explain everything to you on the way to the library."
"Sounds good." Will said with a smile. "I'll meet you there, I have to go disappoint someone first." He headed off to the science labs.
Jane said her goodbyes as well so she could finally meet up with Doug at the command center and so she could let him know that Will knew about them now as well.
Maleficent waited in her chambers aboard Paradias's ship. A holographic form appeared in the corner of the room. She gave a wicked smile. "Ah, I assume since you contacted me you have some good news."
The holographic figure bowed slightly. "Yes, Maleficent." The voice was clearly that of a young man. "I have just discovered the ranger's identities and will soon find myself in their crowd."
Maleficent laughed wickedly. "Excellent. Find out there secrets and then we shall figure out how to use that against them. When the time is right I will have you betray them and then we will take down Mal and her little group of power rangers once and for all." She said and then let out another evil and wicked laugh.