Belle had one of the castle servants bring a small glass of water and a cloth to them. Amy had then taken it to try to keep Mal's temperature down. It was kind of hard as the rose haired girl kept having to blink back her tears of worry. Ben paced restlessly as the rest of the group was around, lost in their own thoughts.
"I'm sorry that your library became such a mess." Amy said to Belle softly as she came to check on Mal herself.
Belle gave a small but humorless laugh. "Oh, sweetie. Don't worry about it." She replied as she stroked her hair. "This wasn't any of your faults."
Evie became so restless that she started to pick up some of the books on the floor and try to organize them out. Her hands were shaking the entire time, making it pretty hard to do.
Whitney sat on her brother's lap. She looked up to Will. "Will your friend be okay?" She asked quietly.
"I hope so." Will answered softly. No one even knew how much time she had before the poison killed her. He glanced over to see that the Highlands ranger was cleaning up the glass from her entrance into the castle. He knew though that if she hadn't made that mess to get in then Chad would have killed Cinderella, Callie and probably his sister as well.
"Got it." Jane announced. On screen appeared Jason and Tommy.
The two veteran rangers immediately took in the scene. "What happened?" Tommy asked them.
"Mal's been poisoned." Ben told them as he faced the view screen. "By this big scorpion monster with two tails. Chad summoned it with that blade of his."
"The Maledict blade." Jordan added.
"We could barely scratch it." Evie also said as she turned to face them. "The only way I destroyed it was to reflect its own energy back at it."
Jason sighed. "I was afraid of this." He said with a shake of his head. "Chad using the Maledict's blade affords him the ability to summon demons."
"Demons?" Carlos couldn't help but ask skeptically. "You have got to be kidding me."
"I wish we were." Tommy told him grimly. "We have some familiarity with the kind of demons that come from there but I've never heard about one poisoning. I guess they weren't satisfied with what they had."
"Someone spent some late nights with coffee and nachos then." Will joked grimly. "How do we help Mal if its poison you're not familiar with?" He then asked.
"Could you send someone through your gateway device to get a sample of the poison from Mal's bloodstream?" Jane asked them.
"Analyzing the sample could take hours." Tommy said with a shake of his head. "Time we can't be sure that Mal even has."
"Wait couldn't we do it?" Jay asked now.
Jane frowned. "We can extract a sample from Mal's bloodstream easily enough." She answered and even reflected that it might not be a bad idea in case it happened again or if the demon were to appear to the other rangers. "We should even do so now."
Belle again arranged with one of the servants to make it happen.
"The problem is the equipment in the command center has as much experience with these things as we do, it will take even longer to find out what we need to do about it, assuming it can at all." Jane finished.
"It sounds like what we all need is some kind of fix all hands solution." The Highlands ranger said as she finished getting the glass together.
"That's it." Jason said. "They could try the Healing Hands technique."
"The what?" Ben asked.
"It's called Healing Hands." Tommy said. "It's an incantation that might be able to expedite the toxins from Mal's body." He took a deep breath. "Normally it's only used by expert martial artists. Jason, Amber and I have been learning it from a friend of ours named Leo but we haven't been able to actually make it work yet."
Lonnie frowned a bit. "None of us are exactly expert martial artists." She reflected softly. She looked to Will. "Maybe you could do it, you do know Anbo-jitsu." It was the martial arts that Will was trying to teach her if they ever got the chance.
"I could try." Will agreed. "But it's debatable whether I'm a master or not. Like you said none of us are exact experts."
"That's not entirely true." The Highlands ranger said now. "I am. I've spent most of my life learning for moments like what we've seen."
"Two of you will be more than sufficient." Tommy agreed. "Hopefully it'll work."
"Not be negative, but what if it doesn't work?" Aziz asked even as one of the castle nurses came in and Belle instructed her to take two vials of blood with the poison in it. One would be looked at by their own doctors while another would be sent to the rangers of Earth.
Jason and Tommy didn't really have an answer to that. They didn't need to elaborate why. "We'll teach you two the hand gestures and the incantation you need and then you can use it on Mal."
Their iPhones went off again and they all recognized it as the sensor app that detected monsters. "This is the fifth time today." Carlos muttered in frusturation. "Can't they just give us a break?" He pulled out his iPhone.
"Breaks aren't part of the job description." Lonnie reminded him grimly as she took hers out. The rest of the team followed suit and found on their screen was a lean and seemingly muscular creature. The slightly disgusting part was that it seemed skinless so the muscles could be seen on its body.
"Paradias can't ever send down any cute and fluffy monsters, can he?" Audrey couldn't help but ask. They both glanced over at Mal, her head still on Amy's lap as Will and the Highlands ranger had approached the screen to listen to Tommy and Jason. Jane was still maintaining the connection. "We have to stop it." She said.
"Do we take Jane and Amy with us?" Carlos asked.
Audrey shook her head. "Amy needs to be here for her sister." She decided. She knew that they all wanted to stay but someone had to fight the monster before it caused any trouble. "Jane can join us when she gets the chance." She looked to rest of the team; Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Jordan, Ally and Aziz. "Let's get to work."
The team left the castle and as they did so they removed their iPhones and transformed. Finding the monster was not that hard at all as he had already been headed toward the castle. "How do they always seem to know where to look for us?" Ally wondered.
"They must have some kind of ranger radar." Aziz speculated.
"I see you've come to your end like moths are drawn to flame." The monster said with amusement. "I am Garzett and if it makes you feel any better I'll make sure you are all there to welcome your leader at your final destination when the poison kills her."
"That's where you're wrong." Jay said and leapt at him, summoning his soul scimitar as he tried to descend upon the monster. He raised his overly muscled and apparently armor coated arm to block the attack, receiving not a single mark from the scimitar in the process. He then slashed him backwards hard.
Ally let a stream of her crystal cards fly right at Garzett. He knocked many of them aside even as he seemed to ignore the ones that managed to strike at him. Granted she knew her weapon was not the strongest but a part of her still wished that he would show some kind of reaction to it.
Aziz moved in with spiral spear and Lonnie moved in with her hurricane tessen's, each trying to strike him. He raised his arms and blocked both attacks, then moved with surprising grace with a roundhouse kick, the claws on his feet were sharp enough to cause the same amount of damage as the claws did.
Carlos slammed his earthquake claw daggers into the ground, sending a tremor his way only for Garzett jumped straight over the attack and aimed his claws right at the yellow ranger. He was able to raise his own claws to block the attack but he forgot that the monster was still stronger and taller than he was and Garzett lifted him up and tossed him into Jay hard.
Jordan raised her lamp cannon, Evie raised her mirror force shield to prepare a Storming attack as Audrey raised her elemental bow and prepared a hail of arrows. Together the three rangers unleashed their attacks at Garzett, which might have done him damage if he didn't display the agility he had already did and brought his clawed feet down hard on Audrey's chest before twirling around and slashing both Jordan and Evie.
"How much longer do you think it will take?" Amy asked softly as she wiped Mal's forehead with the wet cloth. "I don't know how much longer she has."
"It should be anytime now." Belle said to her soothingly. "Remember that they want to make sure they have this right. They might not get a second chance if it this is done wrong." She stroked Amy's hair gently. "Do what you can for your sister, and let them make sure they're ready to do what they can for her." She could hear them reciting the incantation yet again, she was sure by the look on Tommy and Jason's faces they must have had had it down.
Will, Jane and their mystery friend were walking toward them now. Jane pulled out the magic wand. "We're ready." She announced. She looked to Ben. "You might want to take Amy's place by Mal."
Amy thought Jane wanted her to go with to help fight the monster, and intellectually she knew that was the right thing to do. But as a frightened little sister she couldn't get herself to do that. "I won't leave Mal." She said.
"We're not leaving." Jane told her. "You and I have to help the incantation along with our magic." She held her hand out to Amy. Ben sat beside her and the rose haired girl laid her sister's head on her boyfriend's lap and then let Jane help her up. "We're going to reinforce this incantation."
Amy nodded. "Okay. Let's try that." She said as she wiped some of the tears out of her eyes so she could see easier.
Will and the Highlands ranger got on their knees and started to repeat the hand movements that the two Earth rangers had taught them. Belle thought the language sounded Japanese. Jane and Amy started moving around them, Jane releasing burst of magic from the wand while Amy just tried to copy the gestures and add prayers of her own.
"How do we know if this works?" Cinderella asked Belle softly as she came to stand by her friend even as she kept her eye on her daughter Callie and her friend Whitney.
Belle frowned softly. "I don't know." She admitted. "I feel as if the only way we'll know is when Mal wakes up." She bit her lip a bit. "I wish there was an easier way to know."
"Come on Mal." Ben whispered to his beloved. "You have to pull through, we all need you."
"Any other ideas?" Carlos asked Audrey as they tried to regroup.
"The neon armor." Lonnie suggested. "We can use that to give us an edge since he doesn't seem to use our own strength against us."
Audrey nodded. "Okay, let's do it." They activated the neon armor and then started to move in on the monster. Carlos slashed at him and he blocked with an arm, getting a couple of cuts in before his hand connected with the yellow ranger's chest hard and sent him sprawling.
Audrey tried to stab one of the sharp ends of her bow into the monster only to receive proof of why she didn't do that too often as he Garzett caught her bow and slammed it back into her hard. She landed hard and was at least glad that she hadn't been gutted.
He then swung and Lonnie dodged the attack before kicking him in the chest hard, making him stumble back a little. Aziz and Jay moved in with their weapons and brought them down hard on the monster before he could recover and sent him flying back.
"Most of his defensive power is in his arms." Evie realized. "That's why he's blocking with those. If we can get by that we can damage him."
Ally released another stream of cards at him, slashing him. He raised his arms to absorb most of the blows and Carlos used that opportunity to unleash another tremor at him, unbalancing him. Then Audrey raised her bow and unleashed a stream of arrows at him. Garzett went flying back and rolling to a stop.
"Looks like our greetings will have to stay on this side of the fence Garzett." Jay said to the monster.
"Don't get too confident power rangers." Garzett said as he rose and then raised his arms and unleashed a massive stream of energy from each of his fingers, lashing out and striking the ranger's hard.
Amy was trying so hard not to lose her focus but she was starting to think this idea wasn't going to work. She was so close to panicing that she jumped just a little when Mal let out a gasp like she was trying to regain her breath after being underwater for a long time. She coughed and sat up.
"What? What happened?" Mal asked as Ben hugged her and Amy dove to the floor to hug her too.
"That scorpion monster demon thing poisoned you." Amy said as she wrapped her arms around you. "Jordan didn't know how to cure it and we had to contact the other rangers."
"I'm glad to see it worked." Mal heard and turned to the screen in the library that she didn't even know was there. It was Tommy and Jason. "We weren't sure it would work because the method used is only useable to martial arts masters, it's something that Jason, Amber and I haven't even mastered yet."
"Whoever you did learn it from should have my gratitude expressed to them." Mal said as she hugged her little sister back with one hand and placed her other hand on Ben's arm, rubbing it gently.
"We'll pass that onto Leo and his teacher." Jason promised.
"What happened to the monster?" Mal asked.
"Destroyed." Will answered her gently. It was only then that she realized it must have been him and the mystery ranger who had used whatever method Tommy and Jason had given them. "Evie used her mirror weapon to reflect his own attack power back at it, the only thing that could destroy it."
"Thanks guys." Mal said to the two of them as Amy released her and Ben helped her to stand up. "Where is everyone else?" She asked now.
"Another monster attack, bringing us up to six in a day." Ben told her as he placed his hands on her arms. Mal leaned up and pressed her lips against his gently, so glad that she was able to do that again.
She pulled back after a moment. "Then we have to go help them out." She said.
"Are you sure you're up for that Mal?" Belle asked her.
Mal nodded though she was only partially sure about it. "We don't have a choice anyway." She replied as she reached down now to pick up her iPhone. "We'll be back Ben." She promised him. Amy pulled out her iPhone and the four rangers left; the two sisters transforming with their iPhones and Jane transforming with the magic wand.
Garzett started to approach the recovering rangers. He raised his claws as he got ready to take out the closest ranger, which happened to be Lonnie. He started to bring his strike down on the pink ranger but Will intercepted him, raising his recursive blade to take the attack. The green ranger then kicked him away from the rangers hard.
As Garzett stumbled back Mal leapt out with him with her dragon's eye staff and Amy leapt out at him with her rose lance and they both struck him hard. They both then delivered a kick to his chest and got ready for his next attack.
"M!" Evie gasped and ran to her side. Only the monster across from them stopped her from hugging her chosen sister. "You're okay."
"Thanks to our friends." Mal said to her. "And you defeating that freaky scorpion demon thing." She glanced at the blue ranger. "So thanks for that E."
"Anytime." Evie said as the other rangers came over to them. "So let's add this muscle bound freak to our list."
"Maybe it's time to bring your weapons together again?" The Highlands ranger suggested to them. "I'll keep him distracted while ye do so."
"Great idea." Mal said though she felt a little sad at the fact that was something Ben would usually do. She hoped that he would be able to do so again soon. In the meantime she said, "Let's bring them together guys. Both sides." She looked to Ally, Aziz, Jordan and Jane who nodded in understanding.
The Highlands ranger moved in and started to fight Garzett. She didn't care that he spent a lot of time blocking since she was merely trying to stall him out.
Mal placed her dragon's eye staff, followed by Audrey's elemental bow underneath. Behind Evie placed her mirror force shield, the compact expanding around it. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the center, followed on either side by Lonnie' hurricane tessen's, Carlos's earthquake claw daggers and Amy's rose lances.
Jordan held up her lamp cannon so that Ally could place her crystal cards in the spout. In the top went the magic wand and that was followed by the spiral spear around the lamp.
"It's time!" Will called out to their mystery friend. She ducked under his grasping arms and then rolled to the side just as the Auradon blaster and the Lamp Blaster unleashed their attacks on the monster. It exploded in a shower of flames.
Before they could celebrate though the green rays of light shined down on the area and Garzett was back in economy size. "You all look so crushable now." He gloated.
"This is not good." Lonnie said. "We don't have our zords."
"I guess this one is on me then." The Highlands ranger stated. With a roar the large bear zord emerged from the forest to stand toe to toe with the enlarged monster as she jumped into the cockpit, placing her gem on the console in lieu of the iPhone slot.
"One on one then." Garzett said happily and then lashed his arms out at the bear zord. The bear zord tried to bite down on one of the arms but he simply used the grip to toss the zord hard. She had to keep her hand on the gem in order to stop it from flying off the console.
"Alright then, let's see how ye like this one." She said. "Activating battle bear mode now." The zord shifted from the bear mode to its battle mode. She launched out with the zord's claws but Garzett blocked it. He then knocked the hands away and struck with his own clawed hands.
"There has to be something we can do." Audrey said.
"What would that be?" Jordan asked her. "We don't have any of our zords repaired. We have no Auradon Megazord, no Auradon Battlezord, no Auradon Falcon, Ben couldn't access his horse zord even if it were repaired and no…"
There was a disturbance in the skies as Mal's dragonzord burst through the clouds and unleashed a stream of energy from its mouth, striking all around Garzett and sending him sprawling backwards.
"Wait, what?" Carlos sputtered out in shock.
"The incantation must have healed up the dragon zord too." Lonnie realized.
"How is that possible?" Amy asked.
It was Mal who answered with a smile on her face and even felt tears in her eyes. "The dragon zord and I share a unique bond only matched by Ben and his horse zord." She revealed to her little sister. "When that technique was used to remove the poison from my system it must have removed the degradation from the dragon zord that our zords have been suffering from."
"Great, now we all have to be poisoned to repair our zords." Audrey said sarcastically and then looked to Mal. "You're the only one who can help her fight off Garzett the bulky." She said.
"You're right." Mal said simply. "Keep Amy safe just in case." She told her second in command, imagining a slightly aghast look on her little sister's face as she took out her iPhone and jumped onto the dragon zord's muzzle. "Hello old friend." She said softly.
The dragon zord roared even as it settled by the Battlebear Megazord."A dragon and bear?" Garzett questioned. "What can you do with that?"
"He seems to have a point." The Highlands ranger said to Mal, who was technically her counterpart as much as Lonnie was Amy's. "Any ideas?"
It was Jane who spoke, thinking quickly. "Mal, you could link with the Auradon Megazord to form the Auradon Champion Megazord. Maybe you can link with the Battlebear Megazord to form a new configuration, assuming that all our zords are designed the same." She said.
"It's worth a shot." Mal said.
"Agreed." The Highlands ranger said. "What do I need to do?"
Mal got into her dragon zord and placed her iPhone in the appropriate slot. It altered its form to resemble a Chinese dragon. "Hop on board and let's see if we get a response." The Highlands ranger did as the purple ranger said and to both their surprises they found the two zords interlocked as easily as the Auradon Megazord did and in much the same way. Mal found herself side by side with their mystery ranger.
"Welcome to the Auradon Dragonbear Battlezord." Mal said. She knew the name technically left something to be desire but now wasn't the time to worry about that.
Garzett lashed out and struck the new battle zord, forcing it back a moment before lashing out with the tail and sending him rolling back. They then proceeded to unleash a stream of meteors on the monster and he was sent recoiling back.
The Auraodon Dragonbear Battlezord soared in the skies and then both the claws of the dragon claws and the bear claws aimed right at the monster as it increased speed. Striking with what Amy privately dubbed the driller claws right into the monster and with a quick maneuver they escaped the explosion of the monster's end.
"They did it!" Amy exclaimed as she jumped up in celebration.
"Awesome." Jay said with a laugh.
As the two zords separated and returned to the wild the two purple rangers landed in front of the team. But the attack was fresh on their minds and they immediately rushed back to the castle to make sure that Ben and the girls were okay.
They made it to find that thankfully they were. Ben was talking to his mother and Cinderella about some of what had happened and that he felt kind of helpless without his powers, that he hated to be back with Mal and his friends fighting and him being stuck on the sidelines again.
They all powered down except for the Highlands ranger. "We hope that won't be long." Mal promised him now as she came to sit by him and laid her head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her waist. Belle let Amy sit by her.
Whitney came over to again greet her brother, glad that he was okay. The screen was blank again.
"Before Jason and Tommy cut the line he said that the space rangers had a lead on a way to restore Ben's powers." Belle revealed to the Auradon Rangers. "They just couldn't be sure how long it would take to find it."
"Hopefully not too long." Jay said. "We need all of the help we can get."
"Speaking of all the help we can get." Mal said as they turned to look at the Highlands Ranger. Her team followed their leaders gaze. "Maybe it's time we find out who you are." She shrugged. "As cool as it is to get help showing up out of nowhere, we kind of like to know who our friends are."
She sighed a bit but nodded. "Aye, I suppose you're right." She agreed. With that she lifted her arms to her helmet and they heard the buckles that kept the helmet secure unsnap and then she began to lower the helmet off of her head…