"We'll see whose end has come." Mal responded to Scorpina's threat as she, Audrey and Ben stood in front of Jason and his team. "We came here to set things right and that's exactly what we're going to do."
"Right." The voice they hadn't heard before came from the creature that both Jason and Amy had referred to as Nemesis. "What an interesting concept coming from the daughter of Maleficent."
"How does it know that?" Zack asked.
"I didn't think anyone here knew about that." April agreed. The Triceratons and the Foot Clan certainly hadn't known who they were.
"It doesn't matter what you think." Mal said to them all.
"That's right." Jason agreed. "But one thing I do know," He looked to his teammates, regardless of whether they were long term like Kimberly and Zack or new ones like Richie and Alexis. "It's morphin' time." Together the eight rangers extended their coin enabled morphers and made the call.
"White ranger power!" The blonde Amy called out. She could recall long ago when Amber had been the purple ranger that she instead had been the orange ranger and had used a different morphing call, but for reasons no one understood the orange ranger powers had not been reformed with the others.
"Purple ranger power!" Alexis called out.
"Green ranger power!" Richie called out.
"Black ranger power!" Zack called out, though he was still getting used to that since he had primarily used the Mastodon call to morph during his initial stint as a power ranger.
"Pink ranger power!" Kimberly called out. Unlike Zack she, Billy and Aisha had been around for the alternate morphing call, courtesy of the upgrade to ninja rangers after seeking out Ninjor's temple when Rito Revolto had first arrived, and had gotten used to it.
"Blue ranger power!" Billy called out.
"Yellow ranger power!" Aisha called out.
"Red ranger power!" Jason called out. While he had not been red ranger when the initial morphing call had changed, he had temporarily taken the gold ranger mantle from Trey and had gotten used to having more than one morphing call.
Goldar let out an involuntary growl. He had quite a few memories of confronting both the white ranger, though the holder had been Tommy at the time, and the red ranger as both Jason and Rocky though the former had always been the one that rankled him up every time.
"We took those powers once and we can take them again." Scorpina said to them. Then she lifted her sword and aimed at them. "It's time to finish this, get them."
"Let's do it rangers." Jason said. He looked to Mal. "Let's get to work."
Goldar leapt out at Jason, the red ranger immediately summoned his power sword to block the attack. The two riposted for a moment before he stepped back. Leo jumped over his shoulders and kicked Goldar in the chest, then leaned down so that Jason could roll over the blue masked turtle's shell and slashed him back.
"Let's start plucking some wings." Kimberly said as she summoned her power bow.
"Sounds like a good idea to me." Audrey replied as she summoned her elemental bow. Together the two archers began to release arrow after arrow at the Tenga's as they tried to come into the warehouse. It was impossible to stop them all but even cutting down the ones they managed reduced what the rest of their friends had to face.
"Booyakabunga!" Mikey exclaimed as he leapt into the fray with the Tengas, tripping one up before turning and slapping his nunchuck into the face of another approaching one.
"What?" Carlos questioned as he slid under a Tenga and kicked it in the back. He then got up and twirled around to slash two other Tengas.
"He combined his own catchphrase with that of Mondo Gecko." Zack explained as he kicked a Tenga in the chest and then dodged another only to basically clothesline the bird minion. Carlos remembered the skateboarding gecko that had been part of the Mutanimals when they met them while stopping the Triceraton invasion.
The yellow Auradon ranger laughed. "Man, he comes up with some the strangest things. I bet he even named Mondo Gecko." He flipped over a Tenga and brought his feet down on his shoulder.
"Of course I did." Mikey replied. "No one names like them like Doctor Prankenstein."
"I thought your name was Michelangelo." Amy said a bit confused as she used her rose lance to trip up two Tengas and then dropped down to allow one to literally sail over her head.
"Just one of his nicknames for himself." Zack replied. He decided not to confuse anyone further by mentioning his 'secret identity' as Turfyltle.
Scorpina found herself going up against Mal and Alexis. Mal herself found it a weird matchup since she had never met Alexis before now and didn't know her fighting style. By the time she and Amber had fought together she had at least seen her in action.
Scorpina swiped at Alexis and she dodged under the attack, and then tried to kick Scorpina but their opponent dodged out of the way. Mal moved in and tried to strike with her dragon's eye staff to be blocked by her blade and then slashed back hard.
"Careful." Alexis advised Mal. "She's not easy to get a hit on."
"Yeah I noticed." Mal replied.
The metallic tentacles around Nemesis twirled around and blasted out at the rangers, striking at several of the rangers who had to dodge out of the way. "That sure is a strange looking monster." Jane commented. "And considering some of the ones we've seen that's saying something."
"We couldn't agree more." Zack replied.
The tentacles withdrew and rose up to blast at them all. They all fell back hard even as Scorpina and Goldar came to stand beside their monster and more Tenga's showed up.
"I think it's time for a plan b." Mal said to Jason and Leo.
"I agree." Jason said. He looked to Kim, Aisha, Alexis, Zack and Billy. "You guys come with me. Mal, choose who you want to come with us. We'll be going after Nemesis." He looked to Richie and Will. "You guys distract Goldar." He looked to the Turtles. "You guys go after Scorpina. The rest of you, deal with the Tengas."
"Audrey, Carlos, Evie, Jay, Lonnie, with us." Mal said. "Let's show this fairy scorpion hybrid thing what we're all about."
Nemesis raised his tentacles again and fired at the approaching team of rangers. They did their best to dodge abut it ended up striking most of them hard. Jason and Audrey just barely managed to move ahead of it and brought their weapons down on the monster though to little effect.
"Another too big for us but too small for the zords." Carlos said. "Why do they do that to us?"
"I figure amusement." Evie guessed sarcastically. As the tail struck the two red rangers hard Nemesis then turned and fired again at the other rangers. Evie raised her mirror force shield and reflected it back at him though he didn't seem to be as effected as she would have liked.
"I think it's time for the Supreme Bomb Attack." Alexis called out to Jason.
"Good plan." Carlos said absently.
Kimberly on the other hand didn't react that way at all. "No way. We have to find another solution." She said.
"Kim's right." Jason agreed as he looked to the purple ranger. "We'll find another way."
"What is a Supreme Bomb Attack?" Lonnie now asked. She of course knew what a bomb was and was already leaning toward agreeing with the pink ranger.
"It's an attack that might be strong enough to hurt Nemesis." Alexis answered simply. "It does kind of have recoil though."
"Which basically means that it'll hurt you too." Evie supplied. "I can see why they don't really like this idea."
"I don't see that we have much choice." Audrey voiced, sounding resolute but reluctant.
Mal hesitated as well. She thought about what it would be like if one of her own team mates had such a devastating but self-damaging attack like that. How often would she be willing to take that risk? Even worse, what if that belonged to Ben or Amy?
"Jason, I get it." Zack now said. "But Nemesis is kind of being a real pain in the neck here."
"He is." Mal agreed. "But no. I agree with Jason. We will find another way." She understood fully, but she couldn't help the sudden feeling that letting someone hurt themselves to accomplish a goal would be exactly what her mother Maleficent would do and she found she could not do so.
"But Mal…" Billy started. He hated it too but logically he could see the need for the attempt. They had had to use the bomb attack on a few occasions when nothing was available.
Despite admitting she didn't see other choice moments ago it was Audrey who now said, "You heard Mal. We find another way." The brunette princess couldn't be sure that Mal was right but backing up her leader unless absolutely necessary was part of a second in command's job as far as she was concerned.
"So what's plan b?" Alexis asked her with a bit of an understandable challenge in her voice.
Mal looked to Jason. "We use our armor and see if that helps. If that doesn't work we have our blasters. Audrey and I have battlizers too." She said.
The red ranger nodded. He looked to his team as Mal looked to hers. "Metallic armor and Neon armor time." Jason declared.
As the power rangers activated their metallic armor the Auradon rangers activated their neon armor. It was enough to blind Nemesis for a moment. Aisha and Carlos moved in with their small dual bladed weapons and slashed him hard. A tentacle slapped the two yellow rangers back.
"Mal, I'm thinking Cybertech Overhydra." Jay suddenly called out.
"Say what?" Zack questioned.
But the purple Auradon ranger got it. "Forget the monster for a second everyone. We need to take out the tentacles." She announced.
"Of course." Billy exclaimed. "That's Nemesis's main offense. If we take that out then we limit its ability to strike out at us. The armors should give us the physical presence to back up our attacks."
"Great suggestion guys." Jason said. "Audrey, Kim, give us cover." The two bow wielding girls nodded. He looked toward the two black rangers, the two yellow rangers, the two purple rangers, then to Lonnie to indicate the Asian princess should work with him.
The two bow wielders unleashed arrows, not at the scorpion portion of the monster but at the green fairy monster at the center. The tentacles moved as if trying to defend the core of the monster instead of attacking the rangers, which was their intent.
The four teams of two rangers moved in. It took a moment of hacking but the yellow rangers easily took out a tentacle. The two black rangers required less hacking to do the same thing. Lonnie tangled the tentacle in between her tessens so that Jason could take it out at the center. Mal did the same thing, tangling up the tentacle in her dragon's eye staff so that Alexis could use her blade to take it out at the center as well.
"Great job guys." Evie said.
"I told you all, there is always another way." Mal said with a small laugh.
"That you did." Zack relented. "But this fight isn't over just yet."
"No it's not." Jason agreed. "So let's finish this. Rangers, let's bring them together." Zack flipped his axe over and it formed the basis of the cannon. Kim's power bow was placed under. Billy's power lance and Aisha's power daggers were placed on top with the under sides as part of the cannon. Jason's power sword was placed in the middle and they formed their power blaster.
Mal placed her dragon's eye staff with Audrey's elemental bow underneath it. Evie's mirror shield was placed behind it, the compacts unfolding. On top was placed on either side Carlos's earthquake claw daggers, Lonnie's hurricane tessens and in the middle Jay's soul scimitar to form the Auradon blaster.
"Ready." Mal said. "Aim." Jason said. Then both leaders called out, "Lock and fire." The two of them unleashed their blasts and destroyed Nemesis.
"Booyakasha!" They heard Mikey call out and Kimberly laughed.
"Not so fast rangers." Scorpina said. "You wanted bigger; you're going to get it." With that Lokar appeared in the skies and grew Nemesis, reformed tentacles and all.
"Um, is that Supreme Bomb Attack still an option?" Carlos asked half-jokingly.
"Nope, that option is gone." Billy answered seriously.
"M, we have no zords here." Evie said. "What do we do now?"
"We got you covered." Jason said. He looked to his team. "Richie, you have the Dragonzord. Amy, White Tigerzord. We'll use the Thunder Megazord." He looked to Aziz. "Use the Falconzord; I think you can handle it. Mal, take your team and use the Shogun Megazord. April, you and the Turtles take the Ninja Megazord."
"Dude, it's like my Super Robo Mechaforce Five Team Five dreams has gotten a revival." Mikey said happily.
Mal and Amy took the white shogun zord, almost paralleling Tommy when he shared the zord with Kim or Kat. Audrey actually shared her zord with Ben. Evie shared her zord with Lonnie while Carlos shared with Jane. Together with her team they formed the Shogun Megazord. Together four megazords, along with the Dragonzord and Falconzord were ready for battle.
"Wretched rangers." Nemesis growled and unleashed a barrage at them from the newly restored tentacles. It struck the zords hard except for the Falconzord which soared past the attacks.
"One good attack deserves a good response." Aziz stated and folded the wings of the Falconzord back to unleash a barrage of missiles at the fairy scorpion monster. Then Lokar was there and unleashed his own barrage, striking the Falconzord hard.
"Isn't Lokar one of those monsters that were never defeated?" Evie questioned her chosen sister.
"Yes, it is." Mal answered. "And I don't quite know how we're going to change that."
"Can we use the same strategy we did beforehand?" Kimberly now questioned.
"Affirmative." Billy answered. "If Richie and Aziz unleash another missile barrage at Nemesis, the rest of us should be able to use our swords to take off those tentacles."
"Then let's do it then." Aziz said as he reached for the controls of the Falconzord.
"Sounds like a plan man." Richie said as the green power ranger raised the dragon dagger to his lips and played a tune on his weapon. The two zords unleashed their missile barrage but this time it was intercepted by a strike from Lokar.
"Shoot, we forgot about the big dude with the bad hair century." Mikey said.
"We'll have to figure out how to distract Lokar too." April agreed. She just wished she knew how.
Mal bit her lip. Then she had an idea. She touched Amy's arm briefly and her twin sister nodded. "One more time boys." She declared.
"Jason?" Richie questioned. He was barely sure about his own team sometimes, let alone the new rangers he had only just met.
Jason was sure Mal had a plan and he hoped it paid off. "You heard her; Aziz, Richie, send another barrage Nemesis's way." He said.
Again a tune of the dragon dagger prompted the Dragonzord to unleash missiles from the paws while Falconzord did so from the wings. Again Lokar got ready to use his own energy to stop the attack when the monster head was blasted by none other than the carrier zord Titanus. And on top of the white brachiozord's head was Aquiella. "One carrier zord is just as good as another." She said, referring to what was essentially her Clamzord, used to form the Auradon Ultrazord. And behind Titanus was the Shuttlezord Tor.
Amy easily cut one of the tentacles with the Tiger Megazord. The Shogun Megazord took out another, followed by the Thunder Megazord and the Ninja Megazord.
"Leo, Richie; keep Lokar busy. See if somehow you can finish him off." Jason instructed.
"Easier said than done." Raph reminded him from the cockpit of the Ninja Megazord.
The Ninja Megazord moved in with the sword. Lokar responded by unleashing energy which Donnie moved the sword to block. A playing of the dragon dagger caused the Dragonzord to turn around with its tail and drill right across him.
"Mal, it's time for you to form the Shogun Ultrazord. We're going to form the Thunder Ultrazord." Jason instructed as the Tiger Megazord moved toward Tor, the Thunder Megazord coming apart in the process to into the Red Thunderzord and the Thunderzord Assault mode.
The arms of the Shogun Megazord split to allow the merging with the Falconzord and then to merge with Titanus to form the Shogun Ultrazord. "I think we should aim for that fairy freak." Mal suggested.
"Agreed." Jason said. "You start it and we'll finish it up." The Red Thunderzord rotated its weapon and started to float up in the air.
"Oh, that is going to hurt coming down." Carlos noted.
"He's going to have other concerns." Mal said. "Shogun Ultrazord, lock on and fire."
The Shogun Ultrazord unleashed its arsenal on the Nemesis monster, and even as the creature fell back the Thunder Ultrazord came down on the monster with a blaze of destruction. Meanwhile the Ninja Megazord reflected the collected energy directly at Lokar, and there was a flash before Lokar was gone though it was impossible to tell whether he was gone or had retreated yet again.
It was enough though as the Ninja Megazord came to stand by the Shogun Ultrazord and the Dragonzord stood by the Thunder Ultrazord. Together it seemed as if the four zord combinations looked down at the remaining two generals and the Tengas.
"The master will not like this." Goldar noted with annoyance as the field surrounding the warehouse district faded away.
"This isn't over rangers." Scorpina vowed as the two warriors disappeared and the Tenga took off.
As the zords retreated back to their hiding spaces the power rangers, the Auradon rangers, and Team Turtles convened on the roof. "I have to give that a big fat BOOYAKASHA!" Mikey exclaimed enthusiastically as he high fived with Zack and then Carlos.
"And we were wrong." Zack said now. "There was a way to win without Alexis using her attack."
"We could have been wrong." Mal admitted now. "If push came to shove…"
"But it didn't." Ben said as he took his girlfriend's hand and squeezed gently.
"Again thank you so much." Kimberly said as she gave Mal and Amy a hug. "I don't know if we would have gotten out of this without you." She then grew somber. "But, if you're here…then I guess that means Kat, that Tommy, that all of the rangers are in trouble too."
Mal nodded somberly. "They are." She confirmed.
"We worked together though to restore the Astro Megaship." Donnie now said. "And together we can save the rest of our friends."
"You've got our support." Jason promised. He was just as concerned for Tommy as Kimberly was. Plus, the zeo rangers and Amber were his friends too.
"One hundred percent." Richie agreed.
The three teams returned to the Megaship where they found the rest of the Auradon rangers, Venus and the Mutanimals on the final repairs of the ship. "I am glad to see that you are well." Venus said with a small bow.
"Thank you." Aisha said. "We're here and ready to help."
"We believe we have tracked the Zeo rangers now." Rockwell said. "Interestingly enough by time standards it appears they have wound up where Corinth would be if this were the RPM rangers time."
"It would make sense." Billy agreed with a frown. "Venjix was everything that the Machine Empire hoped to be. One of the generals even shared the same name as the computer virus."
"You guys should get cleaned up while Donnie and Doug confirm those readings." Leo said to the rangers. "Who knows when the next chance will come up again." They all nodded in agreement. "We should also determine if somehow they have the same type of defense that Lokar provided for Scorpina. We may need a magical workaround for it."
A half hour later Kimberly, freshly showered and neatly dressed in a uniform similar to Cassie's now, entered the mess hall and saw Lonnie and Audrey talking by one of the windows. She watched for a moment and then felt a sudden rush of sadness.
"Are you okay?" The pink ranger turned to see Amy, Melody and Aquiella looking at her from the table. The orange ranger had felt her pain easily, especially since she was munching on a bowl of watermelon.
"Yeah, sure." Kim said as she realized she felt tears building in her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her left hand as she walked toward them. "It's just Audrey and Lonnie…well, remind me of me and my best friend."
"What do you mean?" Amy asked her.
Kimberly took the seat Melody offered. "Aisha joined the team about a year after we became power rangers. My best friend growing up was the first yellow ranger, Trini Kwan." She explained. The girls picked up the point then.
"They remind you of what you and Trini had." Aquiella realized.
Kim nodded. "Yeah. Even after all this time I miss her so much." She said.
"What happened to her?" Amy asked softly.
"She died…no, that's not right. She was murdered." Kim replied, trying to catch the lump forming in her throat before it blocked her voice. She took a deep breath. "This job is pretty dangerous." She now said, which confused the girls. They of course knew that but didn't understand why it mattered now. "Kat said Tanya replaced Aisha when she chose to stay in Africa during the quest for the zeo crystals. So when we first reformed the team we asked Trini to come back so that we didn't take Aisha from what she wanted to do."
"That was thoughtful." Amy noted with a small smile.
"Richie was also not our first choice to be the green ranger." Kim added. "It's nothing against him, it's just he didn't know our identities at that time. We wanted someone who wasn't going to be shocked and so Tommy asked his brother David to take over his mantle as the green ranger." They could see tears forming in her eyes but this time Kimberly did not wipe them away. "So not long after we get our powers back we were attacked by a returning monster; his name is Thrax and he's the son of Rita and Zedd. We knew him because Adam and Tommy's friend Kira helped the Overdrive rangers take him down. He probably came back because of whoever set this whole thing up."
"So anyway, Thrax attacks and we respond to it. He didn't come alone, but we weren't sure what the monster was that was with him. It was way powerful though. It overwhelmed us. It broke Jason's arm, it broke Zack's legs, it shattered several of my ribs…and it killed both Trini and David." They saw her flinch and wondered what she was hearing as she relieved that memory for them. "The monster itself was destroyed by Alexis's Supreme Bomb Attack but it put her in a coma for a few days as a result."
"Guess Mal was right to not want to use that option." Amy mused softly. Kimberly could only nod in agreement.
"What happened to Thrax?" Melody now asked her.
"Tommy went after him. Alone, at first." Kimberly explained. "He nearly killed him too but he was saved by his team mates; Connor, Kira, Ethan, Trent and Lindsey. It was that day that Lindsey discovered her secret elemental powers. Earth, like Carlos."
"Renet said that Richie used to have a thing for Trini." Aquiella remembered.
Kimberly nodded. "Yeah. Obviously it was hard to explain to the general world what happened to Trini and David. Richie was at the funeral and Tommy decided in her memory that Richie should know the truth and be offered the chance to avenge her murder."
"Is Thrax still alive?" Amy asked now.
"I'd like to say no." Kim answered. "I'd like to say that the combined powers of my team, the zeo rangers, the space rangers and the dino thunder rangers were enough to destroy him. But right now I'm not so sure."
Silence reigned for a few moments as the three processed what Kimberly said. Then Mal walked in with Evie and the Amy of that world, and the twin bond struck. The purple haired girl walked over and sat by her sister, who threw her arms around Mal's neck and held her tightly. Amy wrapped her arms gently around Kimberly's shoulders, offering as much comfort as she was getting.
"Hey." Audrey said as she and Lonnie came over to them. She quickly noticed the solemn look around the table. "Um, what'd we miss?"
"We're not actually sure." Evie admitted.
Kimberly smiled sadly at Audrey and Lonnie. "Be glad for what you two have." She said. Then she included her glances to Evie and Mal. "For your chosen sisters, for your friends and family, all of them." And with that Kimberly began to talk.