Fairy Godmother had her daughter Jane call the remaining members of the team who were either not in Arendelle or having used the magic mirror to follow Mal, Audrey, Lonnie and Evie to Avalor. Jane reflected that it actually left the command center kind of cavernous now. It simply left her, Jordan, Aziz, Ally, Ruby, Grant and Miranda. And Doug of course but he wasn't a ranger.
"Well we're not so much a force now are we?" Jordan questioned sarcastically. Out of the twenty one members of the team they were down by two thirds. "Hope nothing bad happens."
"I hope not either." Jane agreed. "I can't reach Carlos, Mal and the others. We can only hope that Princess Sofia is able to return them here when they've finished helping out."
Will frowned just a little bit. "I just hope that Lonnie and everyone will be okay." He admitted. This was technically the first time he had been separated from the Asian princess since they had decided to pursue their relationship despite his reluctant betrayal of the team. Also left unspoken were the items on the table; the iPhone's used by the other rangers to morph into rangers, for whatever reason they were unable to follow their owners. Also sitting there was Ben's shield, as they didn't want the young king to be too weighted down (lacking as much strength as a normal human as he would a ranger). Only Melody could technically morph, but it was unlikely she would do so if the rest of the team couldn't.
Jane and Doug were going to work on making sure that wouldn't happen in the future if this were to happen again. But that didn't help their friends now.
"It still seems a bit weird, despite everything we've been through, to think that the stories some of our mother's told us about being summoned by a powerful amulet is true." Miranda added now, unaware that their red ranger Audrey had mentioned a feeling similar. "I suppose wonders will never cease."
"In any event, if push comes to shove we can have Alex and Ellie return to Auradon." Fairy Godmother reminded them. "And if these demons are indeed enmeshed in whatever our friends are dealing with we can at least be relatively certain that they will not attack here in that time."
"Sure but it won't stop Maleficent from attacking if she knows we're so shorthanded." Aziz countered. "And she won't be alone since she has Chad, Marcellus, Undine and the Jabberwock with her."
"Well if it comes down to it we do have the pastel powers." Ally pointed out. "And our parents would be willing to come to assist us if need be."
"And we can contact the Earth rangers." Doug added. "If we're lucky though perhaps their presence away from Auradon will go unnoticed."
Maleficent however knew what was going on, at least enough to know that many of the Auradon rangers including her ungrateful daughters Mal and Amy were not around to cause her problems. Chad had told her as much, though whatever demonic connection existed between the fallen Charming prince and the ancient forces of darkness was somewhat shrouded, he knew enough to know they were on their own mission right now.
Which worked well for her. Her newest scheme involved information; information she had no choice but to find from the Auradon Library. And taking that information would be much more difficult if she had twenty one rangers to contend with. Instead it pleased her to know she instead only had seven to worry about. If she kept things to a minimum she would never have to worry about drawing out the temporary rangers or their Earth allies (that was another sore spot for her, she was going to make sure those rangers paid for their interference with her time warping spell sooner rather than later) and yet not draw too much suspicion from those who would be left behind.
"Marcellus, you and Jabberwock will attack the city to lure out the remaining rangers." The evil fairy instructed the two VK's. "I trust you can summon some Mamluk's to aid you?" She asked the son of Mozenwrath and when he nodded she smirked, "Good. We won't be able to rely on the demons this time around."
"The Imps are all but endless." Chad pointed out. "I can summon them easily."
"Yes, but they are also easily dispatched." Maleficent reminded him. "None the less the main reason they won't be able to be relied on is because as the only here who has spent any time in Auradon I need you to take me to your library and get me inside the archive area so I can find information to further my plans."
"What do you plan?" Undine asked. She wanted Mal dead, and while she wasn't sure what to do with Amy and the mermaids yet they were never the less on her radar. It was the only reason she stuck around to assist rather than strike out on her own. The elder daughter of Ursula would have liked to know she was not wasting her time.
"I'm following up on some old rumors that, if true, will allow us access to something more powerful than even the genie that the rangers are relying on to help them fight." Maleficent said. "And the location's of some very powerful artifacts." She also had a date to check up on, she may have one more way she could make Mal suffer for her betrayal.
"And what am I supposed to do while all of you are having fun or learning stuff?" Undine questioned now. She had noticed so far Maleficent had not given her a task. Back on the isle it was no secret that there was a certain amount of oneupmanship between her evil sea witch mother, the evil fairy and Grimhilde the evil queen despite the fact that the latter two had ended up working together to help send their daughters to Auradon for the magic wand...the first failed scheme.
"You are the only one of us who come and go from the isle at your convenience." Maleficent reminded her. "So this task I can only give to you; I need you to stealth-fully make you way back to the isle and find a few potential recruits so we can expand our options."
"I see." Undine mused. There were always those on the isle willing to lend them a hand. No doubt she could have convinced her little sister Uma and her rag tag band of 'pirates' to assist them, but something told her that Maleficent was looking for more subtle approaches. "I'll be on my way then." She waved to the mechanical creature from Wonderland and the two guys. "Have fun dealing with the remnant rangers boys." With that she vanished.
"Time to go pay those pesky rangers a visit then." Marcellus snickered. "Time to see if Aziz has what it takes to beat me without his little friends backing him up." He and Jabberwock vanished now, knowing the evil fairy and the former prince would be behind them once everyone was distracted.
Jane sat with Dude beside her, stroking his fur as she tried in vain to study. "You're worried about Carlos too huh?" She asked the campus mutt who had all been adopted by the son of Cruella DeVil, which was quite an irony. Maybe she should have gone with them to help...maybe she should have insisted they all go. Or...well it didn't matter now did it.
Will came over and sat down across from her. "You're worried about Carlos." He surmised. It was easy to do since he had already voiced his worry for Lonnie. And they all knew the demons were no joke.
"Just as much as you're worried about Lonnie." Jane said. "Odd right? I'm not even dating Carlos like you are Lonnie." Will hid his smirk. While that was true the fact is they might as well be dating. But now wasn't the time to mention that.
"And those demons aren't to be taken lightly." Will mused. "It takes all of the power we can muster to beat them. If they didn't have a history of losing to ranger teams I'd be a lot more worried about the fact they seem to have Auradon in their sights right now." Let alone the fact that right now some of them didn't have ranger powers to be used.
Both of their iPhone's went off and Will reached his first. Doug's image popped up on the screen. "Sorry to interrupt but Marcellus and Jabberwock have just appeared in the city." The son of Dopey told them. No doubt the remaining five were hearing this as well. "So far they seem to be alone but they're not hesitating to attack."
Before Will responded he heard Aziz beat him to it, proving at least one other ranger was listening in. "We're on our way." With with one last pat on the back for Dude, Jane stood up beside Will and summoned her magic wand while Will disconnected his iPhone and the two morphed.
The seven rangers showed up in front of Marcellus and the mechanical monster of Wonderland. He only smirked. "A little bare bones today aren't we?" Marcellus asked. "Sucks to be the second string doesn't it?"
"Only thing that sucks is bad scheduling." Jordan retorted. "But that's okay. Our friend's can have their hardships, we'll have our fun kicking your ugly face in."
Marcellus laughed at her. "Overconfidence is a horrendous trait, but not a surprise coming from a genie. I look forward to one day wiping that smug look off of your face." He promised.
"That won't be happening anytime soon." Ruby made her promise as she had one end of her hair in hands, twirling it like a rope. "Why don't we get on with your beating already? I have a dinner appointment with my parents and I'd hate to miss it."
Jabberwock unleashed a meteor like storm, almost reminiscent of the attack Mal used with her battlizer or her dragon zord used, and the seven rangers were forced to scatter into different directions. Ally briefly noticed Marcellus laughing as he waved his hand. She rose and drew her cards, ready to attack when she felt two hands try to grab at her. The crystal ranger knocked the hands away and turned only to find herself face to face with two very ugly looking green faced creatures.
Ruby rose and felt a grip on her hair. She grabbed an end and tossed it, sending another green faced creature flying. "Mamluk's. I forgot that he could do that." She commented.
Aziz formed his spiral spear. "I'll deal with Marcellus. If he we can get him to run those Mamluk's will go with him." He stated. "Just...keep knocking their empty heads around and try to be careful with Jabberwock." They still weren't sure how to beat this new, improved, and just as ugly version of this monster.
"And who put you in charge exactly?" Jordan teased her...well technically her cousin from a different family or however that worked. "You be careful too."
"I didn't hear anyone else volunteering." Will admitted as she used his recursive blade to cut down the Mamluk that tried to reach for him before going to help Ally deal with the two in front of her
Jane was very tempted to ask her mother to summon some kind of backup but so far they didn't exactly need it. She just hoped that didn't change as she raised her magic wand and unleashed a magical stream at an approaching Mamluk, causing it to combust into little parts. "So gross." She drawled.
Two security guards were sent flying through the doors of the library, smashing it into a few different pieces, and Chad stepped through, decked in his armor, and behind him was the evil fairy herself as Maleficent glanced around the library. She saw people scrambling to get out of sight and out of the building and as much as it would have amused her to send something to pursue them she had to stick to her original purpose. "Lead me to archives." Maleficent instructed the fallen prince. "We can't be sure how much time we actually have."
"Right this way." Chad said as he started the walk to the back of the library. He took a moment to draw his sword and chop a table in half just because he could, making Maleficent smirk in amusement as this man was far different than the boy who had tried to stand with Audrey against the arrival of the VK's what seemed like so long ago. But of course the Auradon princess had also been a far different, and one could almost say more palatable, person back then as well before becoming a goody goody ranger.
In a matter of minutes he lead her to where she needed to be and with a practiced eye she found the first thing she needed; a book about the long history of Dun Broch, only a handful of these existed to her knowledge and she only knew the specific location of three of them; one in the Dun Broch castle library, one in Queen Belle's library and the one here.
A commotion was heard coming toward them, it was a retinue of guards. "I'll keep them distracted." Chad promised as he drew his sword. He then headed toward them as Maleficent continued her search.
"Think you can really beat us without your purple haired pest?" Marcellus asked as Aziz approached him. "She makes all the tough calls. She and that prissy red ranger princess are the ones with those battlizer things. You're just a guy who uses a spear."
"Pretty condescending aren't you?" Aziz retorted as he tried to stab at the sorcerer. He used the magic of his father's glove to block it but then dodged a return magical fire. The silver ranger knew that a lot of the power lied with Audrey and Mal, but it didn't make the rest of them defenseless and he hoped to prove that. "Just out of curiosity, are you here of your own volition or were you sent here as bait?"
"If you're lucky you won't live long enough to find out." Marcellus replied and sent another magical blast at Aziz which the silver ranger barely dodged.
Ally found herself the prime target of Jabberwock, which didn't surprise her much considering it was her mother Alice Liddell that had put the monster down the first time. It meant it was easier for the others to deal with the Mamluk's but harder for the crystal ranger to keep herself alive. Even unleashing a stream of crystal cards at the monster didn't faze it.
"So what are the chances that if I attack that Jabberwock thing, his fire power won't burn my hair to a crisp thanks to the morphing grid?" Ruby asked as she used her hair as a whip to slap around some Mamluk's.
"I don't know for sure, but unless you want to go with the bald look or at least have an extreme desire to visit the hair salon I'd avoid trying it out." Jordan answered as she used her lamp cannon to take down a couple more of the zombie like creatures. "But hey, worse comes to worse Audrey would have to stop complaining about split ends."
"Maybe save that appointment for another time." Miranda suggested as she cut through two Mamluk's. "I for one have had enough of this thing." She ran toward Jabberwock. The creature tried to attack her with one of his huge clawed arms but she jumped to the side, planted her feet on a building and then launched herself on top of the massive appendage before running up it, avoiding being shaken off in the process.
"Look at her go." Jane had to give the highlands ranger credit. She was probably the fastest of the rangers there, she may have even been the fastest of the entire team. Of course she had trained to be able to do this sort of thing, most of them had not.
Will and Grant moved in to attack a couple of Mamluk's, but they both knew they all would get tired before the zombie creatures did...they probably didn't even get tired.
Miranda jumped up, drawing energy into her blades, and bringing them down on the armored chest of the Jabberwock creature. The armor was strong enough to take most of the attack but it caused cracks to form in the armor. When it tried to snap her in half with its powerful mechanical jaws she let herself fall, rolling as she hit the ground to minimize the impact.
"Did that seem rather pointless to anyone else?" Ally asked as she used her crystal cards on some more Mamluk's. The good news was that when it shifted its focus to the highlands ranger the crystal ranger got some distance.
"She had to have done that for a reason." Grant pointed out as he threw his magical ax at one of the approaching Mamluk's, also cleaving through one of the zombie creatures behind.
By the time Chad had taken down the guards (Maleficent didn't know if he had killed them or merely knocked them out nor did she re Ally care) the evil fairy had found the next item she sought; this was parchment that had a listing of all of the magical items in the world divided between rather they were good or bad in origin and their current location if known. "Perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone." She mused. "And now to satisfy my curiosity." With that she moved to the records that contained everyone's birth's and traditions.
Chad had no idea what she could possibly be looking for as he sheathed his sword for the moment. It wouldn't be too much longer before more guards would show up, and in greater numbers. He could only take out so many at a time, powers or no. "We're running out of time." He reminded her.
"Yes, yes." She acknowledged with a brush off of her hand as she took a look at the upcoming events. "I see...so it is that time soon enough...my daughter will be in for a very rude awakening." She laughed a little bit. "Don't worry Mal, you'll soon learn your true purpose in all of this." With that she turned to Chad. "Let's be off then before any of the rangers manage to break off and pay us a visit."
Jordan had a thought as she saw the cracks in Jabberwock's armor. But for it to work she needed Ally and Aziz. Which meant her 'cousin' had to not be fighting the son of his father's former nemesis. "Grant, think you can go take Aziz's place against the sorcerer inferior over there?" The gold ranger asked.
"Sure." Grant replied as he headed toward the two of them.
Aziz was dodging magical strikes but his spiral spear had more than enough reach behind it for the sorcerer to dodge his attacks. It was for all intents and purposes a stalemate. The gray ranger approached him and interrupted, "Jordan has an idea but needs your help."
The gold ranger repressed a small sigh but nodded. "Getting these clowns out of here is more important than trying to to show up this guy." He conceded. But he already knew in the long run this wouldn't be over until he could show Marcellus that history would repeat itself with the sons as it transpired with the father's. So the two rangers traded places, much to Marcellus's annoyance.
Aziz went over to Jordan. "Alright I'm here. What's the plan?" He asked.
The gold genie ranger pointed to Jabberwock. "Miranda was kind enough to get a crack in that ugly thing's armor. Let's try the lamp cannon and aim for that crack. If we can't outright destroy the thing maybe we can at least damage it enough to get him and Jafar Jr. Jr, over there to retreat." She explained. Aziz smirked just a bit, recalling that his father mentioning the bird Iago used to call call Marcellus's father Mozenwrath Jafar Jr. due to how similar in personality they were despite having no actual familial connection.
Ally had overheard their conversation and was nodding along in agreement. "It sounds like a plan. I suggest we implement it before Jabberwock takes his focus off of Miranda and turns it back onto me." She said. After all the monster had taken to wanting her dead for the 'sins' of her mother defeating it so long ago in Wonderland.
Jordan raised her lamp cannon as Aziz placed his spiral spear underneath it, giving it a bit more support and he suspected channeling power into the the weapon. The spout of the lamp had Ally's crystal cards inserted into it, essentially acting as the ammo of the cannon. "Hey Jabberwock." The crystal ranger called out to the beast that had spent the better part of the fight hounding her.
The monster turned toward her just as Miranda rolled a bit further from safety to avoid any splash damage from the cannon that might happen. Jordan fired at the Jabberwock, the fifty two cards of All's deck spreading out with energy and slamming into the monster and sending it crashing backwards. Unsurprisingly it was still alive but the cracks were now bigger.
Distraction or not Marcellus knew that Maleficent would be furious if this resulted in the loss of one of their fighters. "Time to go Jabberwock. We'll finish this later." The two vanished in smoke, and the Mamluk's faded with them.
"So what was the point to all of that again?" Jordan asked as their weapons disappeared and she tried to sweep imaginary dust off of her hands. "Were they just looking for a beat down?"
Jane frowned. Something did seem off and she couldn't figure out what. And where had Undine been? "We better go back to the command center and see if we've missed something." She decided as the rangers powered down and headed in that direction.
"I hope whatever you found was worth it." Marcellus said to Chad as he and the Jabberwock returned to the dark island they were using as their base. It was not a surprise that lightning flashed, followed by the sound of crashing thunder, while all through it rain pounded on the castle they had taken.
Chad merely shrugged. "Don't ask me, ask Maleficent." He replied. "Though she seemed to have been satisfied by whatever it was she found, so to me it seems like at least she thought it was worth it." He saw Jabberwock going off to do whatever it was he had to do to repair the cracked armor. "How'd that happen?"
"The Highlands ranger." Marcellus stated. Sometimes they tended to underestimate her when compared to some of their more magically inclined or battlizer enabled companions, forgetting she was the only one who actually trained for any of this.
"Yes Marcellus, it was quite worth it." Maleficent now stated. "I have some research to conduct before our next major action but just know that soon enough we're going to have a long trip ahead of us."
"We can't just let those losers sit around idle." Marcellus pointed out.
Chad raised his sword. "We won't. I've learned that the demons are free again. Whatever plans they had that prevented me from summoning them failed." He said. "Their full wrath next time will be directed at the rangers."
"And meanwhile we'll keep them distracted." Maleficent added. "But if I know my daughter the way I do, she'll be onto something very soon. And she'll become the very distraction we need to keep those Auradon power pests busy."
When they came into the command center Fairy Godmother turned from them as Jane saw Doug downloading video feeds. "It appears while Marcellus and Jabberwock were busy with all of you Chad and Maleficent attacked the public library." She told them all.
"Why would they do such a thing?" Will questioned.
"We're not entirely sure yet." Doug answered. "According some video footage Maleficent stole a few items but we're not sure which ones yet. We're gonna run the video footage back a few times and see if we can narrow our choices down."
"Our many choices." Jordan drawled, knowing only Queen Belle's library was bigger than the Auradon public library. "But it does look like they were at the back of the library, so records and ancient history. That might narrow things down a bit already."
"Was anyone hurt?" Ally asked now.
"No fatalities thankfully but Chad did injure almost a dozen of soldiers when they tried to remove the two of them." Fairy Godmother replied. "No civilians were injured though, a small blessing."
"If we can't figure it out from the video footage Flora, Fauna and Merryweather will go over the books in that section one by one and do an inventory check to see what was stolen." Fairy Godmother said and then sighed. "I hope nothing too valuable was stolen. There are works that are only in select libraries and it would be impossible to replace."
"Yeah, I guess that would be a bummer." Aziz said. H appreciated their history well enough but as long as some other books were found it escaped him why another copy's loss would matter. He was more concerned about what Maleficent gained from it.
"In any event I suggest you all rest up for now." Fairy Godmother declared. "With no concrete idea when the others may return and no idea how to contact them, we may short handed for a while."
"I'll stay here and help look over the footage." Jane said as she sat down at one of the tables to bring up the feeds. Her mother didn't argue with her as the others bid their good night's and headed out. Jane only stopped for a quick dinner before returning to work, but once the footage proved useless she turned to her homework, Dude eventually joining her, much like she had been at the start of the day after the meeting.
After a few more hours Jane had fallen into a not very restful sleep and she swore she heard some conversation and worked to tune it out to try to fall back asleep, for whatever that was worth, despite having fallen asleep at the table.
It had almost worked when she heard Dude bark followed by a familiar voice say, "Wake up sleeping beauty, let's get you back to your dorm room." She opened her eyes to see Carlos sitting beside her while stroking Dude on the head.
"Carlos, you're back." Jane said happily as she sat up and wrapped her arms around him, all trace of weariness gone for a moment. He was a bit surprised but wrapped his free arm around her to return to the hug, then got a bit shyer when she realized Mal, Evie and Audrey were watching in amusement. "I mean, it's great to have all of you back..." She stuttered.
The purple haired girl brushed it off with a small laugh. "Great to see you to Jane, it's nice to be back."
"I'm overhearing the fact it seems like we missed a little bit of action." Jay remarked.
"Yes, but I would imagine you'll have quite a tale of your own to tell." Fairy Godmother replied. It was clear their mission to help Princess Sofia and her friends had been successful. "We can share stories in the morning."
"Carlos was right about one thing, we should get you to your room so you can sleep comfortably." Lonnie said. "We'll worry about tomorrow...well tomorrow."
And Mal was definitely worried about that as she glanced at the image Fairy Godmother had been looking at before they returned thanks to the magic of both Evie's magic mirror and the Secret Library; her mother in the archives section with some book that had clearly delighted her to find.