"Something has obviously gone very wrong my love." Archerinna observed as she approached Gasket, newly crowned king of the remnants of the Machine Empire. His father, mother and younger brother Sprocket had been destroyed by Zordon's wave many years ago but the two of them had been out of the time stream at the time and were immune to the wave.
He turned to look to his wife, the new queen of the Machine Empire. "So it would seem." He agreed. "We were assured the Triceratons would destroy the Earth, which is why we waited on the moon in the old palace of Rita and Zedd. But whatever has gone wrong, we will endure and survive." He looked to several Cogs. "That being said, have the six former Zeo rangers brought to us. It is time for them to serve the Machine Empire."
The new Machine Empire had converted a factory in Washington to serve their purposes. They saw their newly reinstated general Bladerunner overseeing the final preparations that they would require. "One has to wonder how these 21st century humans could possibly have access to the technology I desired." Gasket commented. "But we will take whatever advantage we can get." He approached is new general. "Is it ready?"
Bladerunner turned to Gasket. Affixed to his arms were the zeonizers, three on each arm that were used to morph, along with the golden power staff. "It is ready. We can convert the rangers when you're ready." He said.
"If this works, we can do that to all of the other rangers on this pathetic planet." Archerinna stated happily. "Perhaps even the entire population. The Earth would be ours."
"And perhaps more." Gasket added enigmatically. "But first, we must test this out to make sure it will work." They could hear the sounds of protests and the mechanical movements of their Cogs. "And here comes our test subjects."
The Cogs brought in four girls and three guys; the second red zeo ranger Emily, Kat the pink zeo ranger, Tanya the yellow zeo ranger, Rocky the blue zeo ranger, Adam the green zeo ranger, and Trey the gold zeo ranger. The last girl was named Jennifer and in fact looked very similar to Raphael's girlfriend except she had the build of a long time martial artist which made sense since she was another childhood friend of Amber's and had in fact been selected by current space ranger to replace her on the zeo team.
"Let us go right now." Tanya demanded even as she tried to pull away from the Cogs holding her.
"Not likely." Gasket stated simply. "I have plans for all of you."
"If only I could destroy you right now pink ranger." Archerinna said as she glared over at Kat. When the two had shown she had developed an intense dislike of the pink zeo ranger, something that no one quite ever understood aside from the obvious being a power ranger thing.
"Isn't that just too bad for you." Jennifer commented icily as she tried to struggle. "Whatever you have in mind won't work Gasket." She vowed.
"That is where you are wrong." Gasket told her simply. From the floor seven surgical tables were raised up. They all saw a large robotic monster coming out of the shadows to stand by the tables. "This is the Collective Overmind; he will be your new master."
"Yeah, right." Adam commented.
"Once we've given you these," Bladerunner indicated seven small vials of some moving gray material. "These nanites will take over your higher brain functions, effectively reducing you all too mindless shells that will only to as we order."
"You're crazy." Emily stated, though it was kind of a contradiction since as machines they should be immune to dementia and the like. "This will never work."
"I believe it will." Gasket said. "And when it does, we will use you to apprehend your other ranger companions and do the same thing to them. We will have our own ranger army to conquer this planet and the universe."
"Strap them down." Archerinna ordered the Cogs. They moved to do just that despite the Zeo rangers struggling. "It's time to start this out."
"I believe the proper phrase would be; you will be assimilated." Bladerunner supplied with an evil chuckle.
Four Cogs landed in between the Machine Empire rulers and the bound rangers. They were sparking and frizzing from the landing and they all looked up. Standing on a platform on the top of the warehouse were Jason, Aisha, Kimberly, Zack, Billy, Alexis, Richie and Amy. "What?" Gasket growled.
"The Power Rangers." Bladerunner stated. "How did they get here?"
"Let our friends go Gasket, right now." Jason ordered. "Otherwise you're going to regret it."
"I think not. Apparently the Triceratons were not the only ones to fail." Gasket retorted, knowing that Goldar, Scorpina and Lokar were supposed to deal with the power rangers. "Get them." The Cogs seemed to sprout jetpacks and fly up toward the eight of them even as Bladerunner too started up toward them, using his speed to ricochet up the walls toward them.
For a moment the Cogs seemed to be overwhelming in number and Gasket wondered why the eight rangers seemed to be so confident. Then from the sides emerged other rangers he had never seen before. Even as the red ranger released multiple electric arrows and the blue ranger opened up a large compact mirror and unleashed a huge burst of energy, the others withdrew their side arms and blasted as many Cogs as they could.
"Who are they?" Archerinna wondered.
"Oh my gosh guys." Tanya gasped. "The Auradon rangers."
"When did they get here?" Kat wondered.
"I'm just glad they're here." Rocky admitted.
"By order of King Gasket of the Machine Empire, you are ordered to surrender right now." Bladerunner said as he landed in front of Mal, Evie, Audrey and Lonnie.
"Well I guess you aren't the only one who got a royal promotion E." Mal noted sarcastically as she placed her blaster back in the holster on her hip to form her dragon's eye staff.
"At least she's not ordering surrenders." Audrey noted with a roll of her eyes though of course no one could see the brunette princess's movement.
Bladerunner charged forward to attack and Mal got in the way, blocking the two descending blades with her dragon's eye staff. Lonnie came forward and kicked the general backwards.
"We have to stop Gasket and Archerinna from whatever their plans are." Aisha noted as more Cogs started to appear and the monster that the new machine king had called Collective Overmind.
Mal looked to Jordan. "Take Ruby, Melody, Will, Miranda, Amy and Grant. Stop that robotic freak." She commanded. The gold ranger genie girl nodded and looked to the six of her team mates, who nodded in agreement though Amy hesitated a moment as she hated to be separated from Mal.
"Alexis and I will go with them to help down there." Jason said. He looked to Zack. "Keep things going up here."
"You got it man." Zack confirmed as the Cogs got within striking range.
Even as the red and purple ranger landed in front of Gasket and Archerinna, Jordan and her improvised team of rangers landed in front of the monster and the bound rangers. Collective Overmind was just reaching for one of the vials to inject Kat with when Will and Grant slammed into the monster and forced him backwards.
"Amy, free our friends." Jordan instructed. "We'll take keep this freak out of your way."
"Got." Amy said and stared to work on freeing Kat. She found the restraints were impossible to remove normally but since she had the power of fire to back her up she simply started to weld through them.
"Amy, Bladerunner has our zeonizers and the staff that Trey needs to morph." Kat told the rose haired rose ranger even as the bindings from across her arms and chest was welded off.
"That figures somehow." Amy said. "I'll tell Mal." It wasn't hard to focus her mind on her twin's and send out the message. Mal. Kat says that Bladerunner has what they need to morph. We have to get that back from him if we want the zeo rangers to help us.
Mal had wondered what the objects on his arms were. We'll take care of it Amy. She promised her little sister and really the only one she could have a mental conversation with. She was already forming a plan in her mind though it had one unknown factor that she had to consult Audrey about as well. "Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, Evie. Keep blade boy distracted." She ordered. Lonnie and her chose siblings nodded in agreement.
"Mal, what's going on?" Audrey asked her.
"Bladerunner has what the zeo ranger need." Mal explained to her. "We need to get them back. Audrey, can you make some kind of magnetic arrows to get the zeonizers attached to his arms?" She now asked her second in command.
Audrey bit her lip. She had never attempted such a thing. She was sure she could hit them and free them from the general but ordinarily they would simply hit the ground and with the fight going on the objects might get crushed. She knew intellectually the purple haired girl was hoping the magnetic arrows would instead draw the zeonizers toward her arrows so they could be recovered. "Well, I think if I reduce the electrical flow in the arrows it would do the trick." The brunette princess finally said. "I'm sure Evie, Jane or Carlos could give us a techie version of why I think it will work."
"We don't need to see the math." Mal said.
"But Mal." Audrey now said. "That won't work with the golden power staff."
"Do it." Ben said to his best friend as he raised the Praeleanthor sword. "I'll take a few Cogs out and then get the staff back."
Both girls exchanged glances and then looked at Ben. Then they both nodded. "Make it so." Mal said to her boyfriend. "And we'll get to work." With that she moved in to help her friends deal with Bladerunner, who had already slashed Lonnie and Carlos away from him and was currently working on Evie, whose mirror force shield was proving itself again to be tough as a defensive weapon.
Ben moved in and easily helped Kimberly take out some Cogs until he heard the familiar voice of the sentient sword. Use us. It implored the young king.
Audrey meanwhile formed six arrows into her elemental bow. She took a moment to thank her mother Aurora for giving her the necklace that allowed her the elemental control, though it was speculated Zordon had given them what they needed to boost their weapons. She was glad it was mostly mental on her part without the need to understand it because as she had told Mal she wasn't sure how to explain it scientifically. Six arrows formed in the bow and she took aim at Bladerunner as Mal kicked him away from Evie and held her arm up to stop Jay from advancing on the monster.
Audrey took aim and fired at her arrows. They soared out and split up as they grew closer to Bladerunner. They cut his arms and the metal of the zeonizers became attracted to the spark of electricity in the arrows, attaching themselves to the tips as they fell off.
"The Zeonizers." Bladerunner growled as he turned to the red Auradon ranger.
But by then Ben had moved in toward the machine general, the Auradon Knight's sword gleaming with the contained power of the fallen enemies imbued within. He unleashed the weapon's energy and it slashed Bladerunner hard, including the strap that held the golden power staff.
Even as Evie and Lonnie recovered the zeonizers from Audrey's arrows Mal ran forward and kicked Bladerunner in the back as she snatched the golden power staff from him and landed beside the Asian princess and her chosen sister, who she supposed was now an Auradon princess as well. "Jordan, we could use some help." Mal called out as she waved the staff.
Collective Overmind had slashed his way past the green and gray Auradon rangers and had advanced on Miranda, but he had discovered the Highlands ranger was indeed a challenging opponent as all of her predecessors were. After seeing that Ruby had moved on to help Amy free the zeo rangers.
Jordan had been trying to help Miranda fight but found herself kind of in the way. That came to an end though when she heard her leader call out. She looked up to see Mal with the staff, Evie and Lonnie with the zeonizers. She waved her arm almost absently and the items disappeared, only to appear on the floor in front of the seven zeo rangers.
"Our zeonizers." Jennifer gasped happily as she reached for the purple zeonizer. "Thank heavens."
"And they're undamaged." Adam added happily.
Emily attached the zeonizers to her wrists and her five earth bound team mates followed. "Guys," The blonde started. "It's morphin' time."
The five rangers connected their zeonizers together. "Zeo ranger one, pink." Kat called out. "Zeo ranger two, yellow." Tanya called out. "Zeo ranger three, blue." Rocky called out. "Zeo ranger four, green." Adam called out. "Zeo ranger five, red." Emily called out. "Zeo ranger six, purple." Jennifer called out. They appeared transformed, Jennifer looking like a zeo ranger except in her own purple with a six sided star in the center of her helmet.
Trey held up his staff and called out, "Gold ranger power." Then he transformed into the gold zeo ranger.
"Where did these fools come from?" Gasket demanded to know even as he clashed sword to sword with Jason. "We had everything covered. All of the rangers were removed from the picture and the Triceratons were supposed to destroy the Earth with that black hole generator to stop anymore resistance."
"I guess your boss should have done his homework better." Jason retorted as he kicked Gasket back. "Or else he would have known there were power rangers outside of this realm." He drew his blaster and shot it at Gasket, who dodged. "In fact if you want to point us in his direction, we'll be more than happy to say that ourselves."
"Dream on red ranger." Gasket said.
"So glad to be back in business." Tanya said. "Now let's help our friends take out that collective wannabe." The six zeo rangers joined the six Auradon rangers.
Jennifer leapt and called out, "Zeo six power kick." She impacted against Collective Overmind's back hard and then came up next to Miranda.
"Glad to see that ye're back in form." Miranda said to Jennifer. "That all of ye are in fact."
"You can't be any happier than us." Jennifer said. "Now let's finish this."
The seven Zeo rangers and the seven Auradon Rangers surrounded Collective Overmind. His hands turned into blasters and shot at the team, knocking them backwards. "Zeo three power axes." Rocky called. He then moved in with Grant to try to attack the monster and he blocked both attacks and round housed kicked them back.
"Zeo four power hatchets." Adam now called out. He moved in now with Will and the two moved in to attack but Collective Overmind flipped over their attacks and then blasted both of them in the back, sending them sprawling forward and into Rocky and Grant, who were just recovering.
Kat and Amy moved in next and tried to kick the monster in the chest only for him to take a step back and then slam the blasters into their chests hard.
"Let's try something else." Trey suggested as the chamber on the top of his golden power staff opened. "It's time for a gold rush."
"Good idea." Jordan said as she summoned her lamp cannon. "I think I can help out with that one." Together the two gold rangers unleashed a barrage of attacks on Collective Overmind but he dodged past the attacks and rose into the air.
"Resistance is futile Power Rangers." Collective Overmind spoke his first words as he aimed and fired at the two gold rangers, sending them falling back hard. "You are all irrelevant. You will be eliminated." He landed back on the ground.
Ruby lashed her hair out intending to wrap the mechanical monsters arms around his body but he proved stronger than she had thought and swung around to send her flying against a wall. Emily got in the way with her sword as he approached. She swung at him but he blocked it and then tossed her to the other side of the room, where she landed in an ungraceful heap.
"I don't think this is working quite as well as we would've liked." Miranda noted as she and Jennifer moved in to attack.
"Your resistance is futile." Collective Overmind repeated as he turned and shot at the two purple rangers, forcing them to land hand on their sides.
Jordan was starting to wonder what Mal was thinking here. None of them could be considered the cohesive unit that the purple haired girl was with Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay and Lonnie. It was even done in such a way that Will and Amy were also of that. She wasn't sure what they had.
Amy could kind of understand what Jordan was feeling too but she also knew her sister, and their arsenal.
"We have to get rid of those blasters." Amy said.
"I think I can give that thing a real jolt." Melody said. "But it might not be enough to do the job."
"If you can do that, we'll worry about the blasters." Emily said to the aqua ranger.
As Collective Overmind started again toward the rangers Melody raised the trident and unleashed a burst of magical energy directly at him. It did seem to deliver a bit of a paralyzing shock to the machine monster but it didn't do much else; Jordan suspected it had some kind of resistance to magic.
Emily and Kat headed toward the monster and powered up the zeo power punch, shattering the lasers into pieces.
"I think it's time for the Zeo cannon." Emily announced. She looked to Ruby. "Got anything that can go along side that?" She asked.
"Uh, I don't know." Ruby admitted a bit embarrassed. The truth however was that she had been in more fights on Earth than she had in Auradon and hadn't really learned what they could all do.
"We can use the Auradon Launcher." Amy filled in, looking between Jordan and Emily. "It might not be quite as strong as normal with only seven of us, but in concert with the Zeo cannon it should still do the job."
"It's going te have te be six." Miranda pointed out. "Someone needs to keep the monster busy."
"It can still work I bet." Jordan said.
"Then the two of us will keep the monster busy while you guys form your weapons." Trey said to the two teams of rangers. They all nodded in agreement and then the gold ranger and the Highlands ranger moved in again to attack Collective Overmind.
Meanwhile on the top section of the warehouse the Cogs were starting be worn down and Bladerunner found himself surrounded by the Auradon Rangers. "Hey Mal, I think we should introduce Bladerunner to our blaster." Jay said to her.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Carlos agreed.
"You guys go right ahead." Richie said as he stepped up to them with Amy at his side. "We've got you covered." Together the white ranger and the green ranger charged Bladerunner. The white ranger attacked with Saba and as the general blocked the attack the green ranger slid under and slashed him with the dragon dagger.
Mal placed her dragon's eye staff, followed by Audrey's elemental bow. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind, with the compact around it opening up. Jay placed his soul scimitar in the center. On either side Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers and Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens. Amy pulled Richie to the side with her as the Auradon rangers unleashed a blast from their combined weapon. Bladerunner was blasted off and sent down spiraling toward the floor.
The zeo rangers formed the Zeo cannon while Jordan and her improvised team formed the Auradon Launcher. Together the two teams took aim and fired at Collective Overmind, destroying him.
"Your plans are over Gasket." Jason said as he faced off against the Machine King. Beside him was Alexis as she faced off against the new Machine Queen. As if to prove that point Bladerunner landed roughly, but none the less on his feet, between the two. The red ranger and the purple ranger were joined by their team and the Auradon team that had been there.
Mal and Jay still held the Auradon blaster and the rest of the team joined her, with Will adding his recursive sword under Audrey's elemental bow and Amy adding the two pieces of her rose lance on the top to form, as it had been coined, the Auradon blaster 2.0. "I think it's time we send all three of these guys back to the scrap heap." Mal said.
Ben and Miranda were able to take Will and Amy's place with the Auradon Launcher.
"I agree." Jason said. Together the power rangers formed their Power Cannon with the seven rangers taking positions to use the weapon though in this case Richie didn't have a position within the formation. Together the three teams with their four weapons unleashed their energies at the three monsters.
The wall and part of the ceiling collapsed around the three machine monsters, making it almost impossible to tell if they were destroyed. None the less when the smoke cleared there was no sign of movement aside from the three ranger teams.
"I'm glad you guys got here in time." Emily said as she gave Jason a quick hug. "But what are you doing here? Last I knew before we got defeated by the Gasket and his minions all the ranger teams were out and the Triceratons were invading New York."
"Not all of the ranger teams were out, thank you very much." Jordan countered.
"It was Renet." Kimberly explained to her. "I don't know what was supposed to happen but I guess it wasn't good because she went to Auradon and brought Mal and the others here to help. They repelled the Triceratons and now we're all working to get all of us back in power."
"Well I have to say that was very well done." Rocky said. "Another moment and we would have been…whatever."
"I think the term that weird freak used was assimilated, whatever that means." Lonnie said.
With what little Evie had heard she had a few vague ideas of what they might have been attempting , none that were good. She was glad they had put that down before it really got started.
Amy went over and hugged her friend. "I'm glad you're okay Jennifer." The blonde white ranger said.
"I'm glad you're okay too." Jennifer said but then her voice turned softer. "Any word on Amber?" The white ranger shook her head softly.
"The Turtles, along with the rest of our team, are on the Megaship right now looking for signs of the other rangers." Evie revealed. "We had only just found you guys recently after Kimberly had told us about what happened with her friends." It brought a moment of silence as the zeo rangers realized she was talking about Trini and David.
"Come on." Mal said now. "Let's go see if our friends have found any of the other ranger teams." They all nodded in agreement and teleported out of the factory.
It was then that the rubble began to stir…
"Good thing you just finished up, we were just about to call you." Jane said as the Auradon rangers entered the bridge with Jason and Emily. The rest the power rangers were escorting the zeo rangers to their quarters so they too could clean up before the next time they were needed.
"Who did you find?" Mal asked.
"We're actually going to have to leave Earth for a while." Donnie said as he turned around to face them. "We're going to have to journey to KO-35."
"Wait, what?" Audrey asked confused.
"Andros, Zhane and Karone are from KO-35." Leo supplied to them all. "A human space colony. I Darkonda decided to take it back to a more familiar territory."
Lonnie nodded a bit. "I remember Karone saying that he abducted her from her home on KO-35 when she was younger, and that Darkonda would later confront Andros several times on that world, as well as Ecliptor."
"It was also one of the first worlds that Dark Specter had the United Alliance of Evil attack." Aziz added.
"We can't all just go though." Karai said. "We can't leave the Earth defenseless."
"Agreed." Leo, Mal and Jason said at the same time. Audrey. Amy and Evie laughed a little at that. "Okay," Mal said. "Jason, can you guys stay with the Mutanimals and watch over Earth while we go to KO-35 and help the space rangers."
"We can do that." Jason said.
"Mal, Amy will want to go with so she can make sure Amber is okay." Amy reminded her twin sister softly.
"No problem." Emily replied. "I'm sure Trey will be willing to stay behind to help out while Amy is with us."
"Alright." Jason said. "Let's get these plans confirmed and then get ready to move out."