It was early morning but there was a lot to discuss. Jordan using her magic to set up a buffet was a nice bonus though. Everyone gathered food and drink before sitting down with Amy remarking, "Sometimes I can't imagine a day without caffeine." She had Pepsi open before her, as did Mal.
"Or sugar." Jay added before he bit into a donut. He had an orange juice beside him.
All they were missing was Alex and Ellie, a thought that made Amy a little sad even though she knew they were gone for a good reason, and they would come back as soon as they could. Still Ellie was one of her closer friends (after the two mermaid girls anyway) and Alex...well she wasn't sure what to call it but she really liked him.
They had just finished telling their tale in Enchancia and everyone they had met. Jordan found it very amusing to hear about Audrey beating down the guard Pierce who was so much like Chad and just wished that the Auradon Princess could do the same thing as easily to him.
"We have an update ready for the iPhone's." Jane said, sitting beside Carlos and a plate of scrambled eggs and sausage before her. "It'll make it so if something like that happens again you'll have your powers with you."
"When," Mal replied, "Something happens again. I have a feeling Princess Elena and her friends will be needing us again." With the demons it was a sure bet. "We never got a chance to mention it, but Princess Elena said something about orbs they have at the castle in Avalor..." She started.
Will interjected. "Wasn't something said about an orb when Ice Queen tried to take over Arendelle?" He asked. "That the mighty morphin' rangers used to help defeat her?"
Mal pointed the piece of bacon she had picked up to eat at their green ranger. "Give the boy a prize. That's exactly what I was thinking." She confirmed. "I don't know if the two are actually related or not, and we didn't get a chance to see these orbs since they're in Avalor and not Enchancia, but if they are the same that might be an issue."
Evie swallowed the apple juice she had been drinking. "And even if it's not," She added as she set her glass down. "Those demons are sure the same thing. And Shuriki or not, if the demons are interested in Avalor then they may need our help if they ever launch a full invasion. Not to mention the other rangers."
"It's a shame Shuriki got away." Fairy Godmother noted. She stood slightly apart from her daughter and her friend's, drinking a cup of coffee. She however could silently relate to the rose haired girl's praise for caffeine. "While our records are sparse, we know enough about her to know she is a danger even without demonic assistance."
"Something that mother will now have with whatever her next evil scheme is." Mal noted. "How long until we find out what she took from the library Fairy Godmother?"
Fairy Godmother sighed. "Unfortunately it will be days at best, child." She replied. "There's a lot in the archives to go through. And that won't tell us what she learned about but left the physical evidence behind."
"Somehow I feel like if we weren't here then maybe it wouldn't have happened." Evie admitted. "But if we had been here, then a whole world would have fallen to the demons."
"We do the best we can E." Mal said. "And deal with whatever comes about. I'd rather take my chances dealing with whatever mother found to unleash upon us than letting a world fall to those demons."
"What she said." Jay agreed.
"I must admit I'm very interested to start looking into these Maruvian items you mentioned." Fairy Godmother said. "There must be something about them in our records, even if they are small mentions. And I do wish you had been able to get a look at this Encicliopedia Daemonica they had mentioned."
"I wish we had too." Lonnie admitted. "Maybe it'd help us deal with these demons, especially if Chad can command them all against us."
"I find it interesting that your sword restores energy your majesty." Jane said. "None of us have ever noticed it because our ranger powers stop us from really getting drained, be it psychically or magically or however. But it restored Princess Elena after using her own energy. Is that unique to her or is it just some effect we haven't ever had to worry about before?"
Ben shrugged as he put down his glass of orange juice. "Good question. I'm hoping to ask one of the rangers about that. The Praeleanthor sword isn't exactly a great conversationalist." Even some of the more psychically inclined like Amy or Aquiella couldn't have a real conversation with the remnants of the alien civilization that was rumored to power it.
"So you were really offered a job huh?" Aziz teased Jay. "With the royal guard?"
"Yep." Jay confirmed. "Gabe Nunez, the head of the guard, offered himself. I bet the rest of us could do that though. After what we did back there."
"It's so ironic in a way." Audrey mused. "We're to them that...well the other rangers are to us."
Mal smiled a bit. "Yep, I had that thought too when Princess Elena asked us to stick around for the tri-kingdom picnic finale." She confirmed. "Even cooler, and at least in a small way bizarre to those of us still learning the way of the AK, the other rangers would back us up no questions asked if Avalor needed us all."
"That's the legacy of the powers Mal." Miranda said. "I think we've all learned that by now. It's actually kind of cool when ye think about it."
Amy nodded. She agreed completely. It was something however very much unheard of in the isle of the lost where she, her sister, Evie, Jay and Carlos had grown up on. She knew it still threw the rest of them for a loop sometimes, even without her empathic powers.
The alarms went off and with small sighs, each knowing what it meant, they stood up as Jane activated the screen to reveal a large mechanical monster having just landed in Auradon. It was weird since the head itself seemed more like two cannons rather than an actual head of any kind but in its mechanical arms it held a large javelin. The seemingly overly large feet stamped down on several buildings, which thankfully were empty at this early time in the day. The gears that were part of its upper arms rotated as if charging...and if those cannon like heads were capable of actually discharging energy or something else perhaps it was.
"I guess we're going to the big leagues right off today." Grant said.
"At least it means we should have the numbers advantage." Carlos pointed out. "We have seven zords to one."
"Assuming it really came alone." Lonnie reminded him. There were instances of monsters making other monsters, like the Scarlet Nimrod having two monsters named AC and DC to help it against Tommy when he first became the white ranger. Or when Rito had ambushed the thunderzord with the help of four other monsters that had been lying in wait.
Mal had that thought too. "We'll take in the Auradon Champion Megazord and test the waters." She said as the purple haired girl looked to her chosen siblings, both AK and VK. "Once we've been able to figure that out we can call in the rest of you if needed." The other's weren't thrilled to be waiting but saw the wisdom. "Let's get to work." They all took out their morphing item and transformed into the Auradon Rangers.
As Mal summoned her dragonzord her other friends summoned the Auradon Megazord before combining to form the Auradon Champion Megazord and approaching the monster, who was starting to rampage toward the inner part of the town where there would be people in danger.
The dragonzord unleashed a beam of energy from its mouth right the monster to divert its attention. In response the heads unleashed energy that struck the megazord, causing it to rock and briefly lose stability. "That thing packs a punch." Carlos said. "But I guess what do we expect from something that has two cannons for heads."
"I don't think those are heads Carlos." Evie said. "Look at the chest. There's almost a bull like head on its chest. I think that's the head of the monster. Those cannons really are just that."
"Great." Jay brushed it off. He sure didn't care what they looked like as long as they all were destroyed the same. "Can we worry about monster anatomy later?"
The monster raised its large halberd weapon and slashed the megazord across the chest, but when it then tried to bring it down on them the dragonzord used its tail to block the attack. "Okay I think we could use the help against Halberd Cannon here." Carlos commented.
"Halberd Cannon? Isn't that just a bit too much on the nose?" Audrey gaped a bit. "Are you taking naming lessons from Michelangelo now?" She recalled the orange masked ninja turtle had a habit of naming what they fought. Something about a Wingnut 2.0 came to her mind, which his orange masked brother named Donnie vehemently opposed for reasons they never got the chance to get a story on.
"With names like that I don't want to hear anymore criticism about my spells Carlos." Mal warned him and then tapped her console. "Okay guys Carlos is still right, we could use some help here."
"Take in the Auradon Warzord." Miranda said with a look at Amy, Will and Melody. "It's our strongest individual zord. If nothing else it'll give us a distraction for the Battlezord if we need it."
"Okay." Amy agreed as she looked at Will and Melody. "Let's do it." The three of them teleported to their zord, Amy recalling when Gregory had stolen the zord and the gray ranger powers which allowed him, Marcellus, Chad and later Undine to use the warzord against them for a while before they had finally taken the warzord back.
Blades extended the Auradon Warzord lashed out at the monster, Amy wasn't sure what else to call it but what Carlos did, and she didn't want to worry about coming up with something else anyway. Halberd Cannon blocked it with the large halberd and struck. The Warzord fell back a little but was better armored so it was easier to tank the attack.
"Okay that makes things a little better." Lonnie said. But it would take more than that to deal with the monster in front of them.
The Auradon Warzord released a barrage of missiles at the Halberd Cannon and it stumbled back itself now, making the already crushed buildings into more rubble. Then the two cannons on the top of the body where the head should be unleashed beams that struck the warzord. Those were powerful enough to make the warzord fall back as the Auradon Champion Megazord was getting ready to move in again.
And then the last thing they wanted to happen did; the skies grew darker and the loud demonic laughter resonated so strongly that no one in Auradon could have possibly missed it. A large goat headed like demon in armor appeared beside Halberd Cannon. It had goat like legs and hands similar to a bats. Several of its bones were visible, mainly its ribs and shoulder blades. It is had a very muscular in build, and several red markings could be seen across its body, at least the parts not covered in bone white like armor.
"Now I really wish we had gotten a look at that Demon Encyclopedia Mateo spoke of." Audrey said fearfully. This was an entirely new demon. With a raising of its arms the demon brought down meteor strikes, almost like that of Mal's dragonzord, that struck the two zords. A burst of fire from its palms followed suit, striking the zords while they were down.
"Ben?" Jane looked worriedly at the king of Auradon. He was the closest thing they seemed to have to a demon expert thanks to his bond with the Praeleanthor sword.
Ben shook his head. "I have no idea you guys." He admitted. "But the sword isn't reacting, almost like it's something that it can't handle. Which, given it's size..."
"No more games." Miranda said to the rest of the rangers. "We're all going now, before that...that thing takes down our friends."
On the horizon they saw the Auradon Battlebear, the Auradon Falconzord, Ben's Auradon Steed, and the Auradon Battlezord coming toward the battle ready to help their friends recovering zords. This only caused the large demon to laugh out loud again as Halberd Cannon raised his own arms and shot out a beam that seemed to create ethereal chains and snag up the approaching zords, binding them in their spots.
"Oh that is not good." Lonnie said. "Guys, is there anyway to break out of that?"
"I don't know." Jordan said. The energy from the demon was actually starting to give her a bit of a headache. "It's really strong. I have no idea if it's drawing energy from the demon or not. But if that energy in itself...I don't know what it is."
"We can't identify it either." Doug said to them from the comms. "I'm working on trying to break those ethereal chains now."
With the other zords seemingly out of commission for the moment Halberd Cannon blasted the Auradon Champion Megazord and the Auradon Warzord as they stood only to see the large demon coming toward them and slamming both of its fists into the chests of the two zords.
"Let's give them another target to worry about." Mal said to her friends. "Disengaging the dragonzord now."
"Be careful M." Evie said. While providing more targets it also made them more vulnerable, especially Mal.
Mal discovered however that the halberd the mechanical monster wielded was large enough to strike even while the dragonzord took to the air in order to try to launch its own meteor strike. The dragonzord fumbled a bit from the hit even as the large demon shot fireballs into both the Auradon Warzord and the Auradon Megazord.
"When we get out of these things that freak is so going to pay." Aziz vowed even as he struggled uselessly at the controls. Allie didn't point out that was a major if they got out.
"Is it me or is it getting hot?" Grant asked now.
"It's not you." Ruby realized. "When that large demon thing attacked with those meteors it left fire all around the impact zones. It's still burning and they aren't small impacts zones either." Their suits were heat resistant to a degree, as were their zords. But for how much longer? Not that it would matter if these two creatures defeated them beforehand.
Mal tried to have her dragonzord wrap around the halberd in an attempt to disarm the mechanical monster but underestimated its strength as it took the extra bulk and used it to strike at the two zords as the large demon took a step back.
"Doug, what about the energy attack from Mal's megazord?" Evie asked over the comms. "Can that disrupt the ethereal chains? Maybe enough for us to pull them out of it?"
"Maybe. But you'd leave yourselves vulnerable in the meantime. And it might drain the dragonzord, which this would be a really bad time for." Doug answered.
"What choice do we have?" Melody asked. "Without the other zords we might be beaten here anyway. We launch another missile barrage and hope that it's enough of a distraction to free the other zords."
Mal too didn't see any other options. "Let's do it." The Auradon Warzord turned around to face Halberd Cannon and the demon (ironic, Mal mused, that Carlos didn't want to try to name this thing. Its appearance had shaken all of them) while the Auradon Megazord and the dragonzord headed toward the zords. While the mechanical monster got ready to attack the Warzord unleashed a barrage that struck the two creatures.
Mal's dragonzord unleashed the energy beam from its mouth on around the ethereal chains and the two zords moved in and tried to get a grip on the chains, neither of them even sure how that worked with ethereal items, and started to pull.
As the dragonzord angled around again the purple haired purple ranger saw the two creatures emerging from the dust. Some of the armor on the demon's head had cracked. Even as it appeared freeing the other zords would work the demon launched an energy attack from its cracked head armor and struck all of the zords in a massive sweep. They all hit the ground, rattling the rangers in their tracks.
"Systems are down." Aziz said.
"It'll reboot in a couple of minutes." Doug promised. He was already working on it from the command center.
"I don't think we have a couple of minutes." Jordan pointed out.
Mal was channeling her magic into the controls, hoping to try to revive her semi-sentient dragonzord sooner as the two monsters were coming toward the downed zords when the ground between them erupted and she heard Jay sigh, "What now?"
As the dust...no wait they were steam clouds cleared they found a large quadrupedal zord standing there. It had what they would have almost called pointed ears of sorts, glowing blue eyes. It had two cannons on either side of its body, those cannons were surrounded on four sides by spikes. "What is this?" They all heard the demonic voice booming.
And they were all glad to hear a familiar voice from inside. "Trying to pick on our friends are we?" Ellie questioned. Amy was glad to hear the follow up from Alex, also inside the new zord. "We can't have that one." And the two cannons powered up and unleashed two ice beams straight at the creatures, momentarily freezing them in place.
"Alex." Amy beamed. "That's you and Ellie right?"
"It's us." Alex confirmed with a laugh. "Meet our new zord...uh name pending."
"It was found in a lake near the waterfall that froze over when the Ice Barrier freaks tried to take over Arendelle." Ellie added. "Uncle Kristoff just happened to see one of those cannons peaking out of the water and told mom, who couldn't wait to get it out. I take it you all missed us?"
"Right at the moment, more than ye could ever know." Miranda replied. "But I don't know how long that demon will stay frozen."
"It had to be one of those didn't it?" The Ice Dame sighed. "Chad?"
"We haven't seen him so far." Audrey said, relieved now that she thought about it.
"Okay, but the mechanical monster doesn't seem like a demon, so that's first on our hit list." Alex declared.
"Carlos is calling it Halberd Cannon." Jay told him, "Hence sealing his fate as a horrible name creator."
"Halberd Cannon is cool." Carlos interrupted. "And I don't see any of you doing any better anyway."
"Some of us could care less what these things want to call themselves as long as they go away as quickly as possible." Audrey reminded him.
"Time to focus guys." Ellie said as she saw the ice cracking around the demon and, thanks to the demon, the mechanical monster that Carlos was calling Halberd Cannon. "Power up those freeze flame cannons Alex, I'm taking us underground so we can try to get the drop on that cannon monster."
"On it." Alex said and a moment later as the cannons were starting to glow the zord seemed to flip into the hole it emerged from.
The two creatures were looking around for their newest adversary, but while her friends had been talking Mal had enough energy channeled into her dragon as it rose up and slammed its tail into the demon, sending it sprawling backwards.
"Consoles are coming online." Jane said happily even as the newest zord rose and, fire blazing around it, unleashed two bursts of flame right before letting that fire encircle it and slamming right into the monster. It fell backwards, losing its halberd finally.
The zords were recovering and as Aziz launched feather stingers from his falconzord's wings the Auradon Warzord unleashed a missile barrage that struck the mechanical creature.
Not to forget the demon, Miranda's battlebear launched itself at the demon and slammed into it, making it sprawl to the ground. That would keep it out of action for a few moments, so they could finish the Halberd Cannon monster off, at least hopefully.
"Doug, I know we just found out this thing even exists, but I don't suppose that our newest zord is compatible with everyone else." Mal wondered.
"I did the scans Mal." The son of Dopey replied. "It is."
"Aquiella, bring in your zord. Let's show both of these things real power." Mal said.
"Ultrazord online and on the way." Aquiella answered.
Ben's zord leapt up and twirled around, slamming the rear hooves into the cannons of the mechanical monster and busting up the cannons, making it so that those would never be a threat, for however long the monster was still standing.
The demon rose now and started to power up another meteor strike but multiple lasers blasted it back, damaging even more armor as the Clam zord showed up. "Auradon Ultarzord, power up." Mal called out. Somehow the large clam zord was able to encompass all of the the zords together inside of it like a protective bay, absorbing all of the zords power into its own cannons.
The demon launched another energy beam at the Auradon Ultrazord, a move which had originally sent all of the zords reeling. But the Ultrazord had the armoring to protect it from the attack even as all lasers and cannons were focused on the two creatures. "Locked on targets." Aquiella revealed.
"Then let's finish this. Fire." Mal said. The cannons and lasers struck Halberd Cannon and it was destroyed in the blaze of explosions that the rangers had come to enjoy seeing.
"Now let's give that ugly demonic thing the same treatment." Jay said. But as the Ultrazord turned toward the demon it disappeared in a blaze of fire. "Or, uh, not."
"I wouldn't worry too much Jay." Ben said with horrible certainty in his voice. "That thing will be back." And Mal had a feeling her boyfriend was right.
The entire team appeared on the ground, letting their zords head off. "Your new zord will have a space in the mountains for now." Doug said from the comms. "If something else needs to be arranged we'll take care of it."
"Welcome back." Amy said as she went over and hugged Alex. "Was your trip...uh fun I guess?" She asked.
Alex laughed. "Fun might be a generous term. But we obviously got something important out of it...whatever we end up calling it."
"I'm going with freeze flame until you find something better." Ruby commented idly. "So when do I get my own zord again?"
"When ye least expect it most likely." Miranda replied.
"So what did we miss?" Ellie asked as she came to stand by Amy and Miranda, giving the feisty red head a small smile.
"Join us for our now cold breakfast and we'll tell you all about it." Audrey said.
Returning to the command center they told the two elemental warriors about the two adventures; the one Mal and her half had in Enchancia and the one Aziz and his half of the team had had while that was going on. "Maybe our screwing up Shuriki and the demon's plans in Enchancia is why they sent big and ugly to get rid of us." Lonnie speculated.
"I've sent a message to the astro megaship. Perhaps they are aware what kind of demon it is we just narrowly avoided losing it all to." Evie remarked.
"It just makes me wonder what it is that Maleficent got a hold of." Ellie said. "She's proven to be quite a pain in the neck, especially when she wants to be."
Undine returned from her trip to the isle. "I found a couple of people that we might persuade to help us out." She told Maleficent. "But we're going to have to offer something in return. I don't know what to do with one of them, but the other will want her mother's staff."
"What staff?" Chad asked.
"The staff of Queen La." Undine answered. "I would guess it is locked up in the Auradon museum. It won't necessarily be easy to retrieve, but I'm sure we can do so."
"Noted." Maleficent assured the elder daughter of the sea witch. "We'll grab it soon enough. I need you to pay a visit to your mother and see if you can retrieve something for me..."