A/N: Just a quick thought, if you read these please take a moment to review. As I understandably do not get paid to do this, reviews are a big motivator to keep this going.
Over the next twenty minutes the rest of the team also got up with similar reactions to Evie and Mal's. Donnie actually had to subdue Jay long enough for Kendall to assure him they were all friends even if they didn't remember it right now. Now the team sat pretty much by themselves as they waited for further information. Some minor things came back to them; Mal and Amy were able to very quickly realize they were sisters though right now that same closeness they usually exhibited wasn't present.
Fairy Godmother was talking to Jane but it seemed as if the younger girl was having a hard time believing that this woman was her mother. Enough similarities could be seen between Ellie and Alex that they drew the conclusion they were related too, Aquiella told them they were cousins just like her and Melody were.
"Alright," Rose announced a couple hours later. "I think we've got some answers here." Everyone turned to look at her, Kendall and Doug.
"All three examples have a toxin in their bloodstream." Doug said to them. "That seems to be blocking memories, making those affected almost like a blank state."
"This toxin is set up to affect those that live in Auradon only." Kendall said now as she looked to Donnie. "That's why you weren't affected by the stinger from Brain Crusher in that way." She added, using the name that April had tagged it with, also asking that no one mention that to Mikey.
"But Aquiella and I weren't affected." Melody replied. "And we're from Auradon."
"That was the weird thing at first." Rose agreed with a small nod. "But we took a closer look at the toxin. It enters the bloodstream and integrates itself into the circulatory system so that way it constantly refreshes and recycles itself. The circulatory system travels through the entire body, including to the brain. That's when it targets a specific neuron and essentially impede's a massive block over it."
"The original idea seems to have been to block out all of your memories of being power rangers." Doug said to the Auradon team, which drew looks of confusion and doubt from them all except for Melody and Aquiella. Never the less there was proof around them back that claim up. "But it seems like it's tied so heavily into what all of you have become that it blocked out everything else."
"And the part where we're immune?" Melody asked.
"Your minds are not like the others." Dr. Rockwell now supplied. It was still slightly odd to see a talking monkey levitating around what would be their new command center but of course they had all seen stranger things. "At first I didn't quite understand it but we believe it all comes back to your origins."
"What do you mean?" Aquiella asked in confusion.
"You guys are mermaids." Kendall reminded them simply. That felt a bit weird to say too though Angela could easily remind them that the blue lightspeed ranger Chad Lee, not to be confused with the Dark Knight Chad 'Charming' that was opposing the rangers and stalking Audrey, had in fact fallen in love with a mermaid named Marina. "Your lives as mermaids are so drastically different, from having a tail to swim with instead of legs to walk on to the ability to naturally breathe underwater and communicate effortlessly with sea animals the way that we communicate with each other, that when the toxin entered your systems and tried to attack your brains it didn't know which 'persona' to attack and it wore itself out."
"It's almost the equivalent of multiple personalities." April realized. "Only, with one person just two different ways of living."
"That's all nice and grand." Ruby interrupted. In truth a lot of this seemed to be going over her head, and in many ways the two mermaid girls felt the same way. "But here's the big question here; how do we get this toxin out of their system and regain our friends?"
"I'm afraid that's the million dollar question here." Billy agreed with a small nod. "You see, as it's already been explained the toxin is keeping refreshed and made stronger by working through their circulatory systems. We're trying to find an antidote for it as we speak but we're just not sure we can make something strong enough without it resulting in permanent damage."
"But it might work similar enough to the manticore we fought so long ago." Fairy Godmother replied. Only she and Doug could really recall that time though. It was the second monster that Audrey and four isle kids had fought. Paradias's general Nerissa concocted a vemon that paralyzed the four isle kids and forced Audrey to fight it alone, at least until Jane had recruited Lonnie. It had been much easier for the two Auradon princesses to destroy the tail and free the others than it was to find an alternate cure. "If we can kill this Brain Crusher it should rid the toxin from their systems and restore their memories."
Ruby looked to the rangers already here. "Can you guys do it?" She wondered.
"Sorry to say probably not." Cam answered with a frown. "You see, we're all from different groups and there is only so much synchronicity between our powers."
"Luckily I've already made some arrangements to compensate for that." Billy said. The alarm sounded and they saw Brain Crusher again, this time attacking one of the marketplaces. "And perhaps with fortuitous timing." He added.
"That thing is disgusting looking." Audrey said, the first time any of the affected team members had spoken up since the explanations had started.
"So gross." Amy echoed as she instinctively reached to cling to Mal, who displayed the patented older sister look of slight annoyance and calming influence. She didn't really remember how close they were.
"Cam, Rose, give me a hand here." Doug said to them. "Let's see what we can do about getting Melody and Aquiella hooked up to our systems again and get their powers restored." The two of them followed Doug as the two mermaids exchanged glances. Until this was resolved they were the only two Auradon rangers who could be active and aware.
Through all the commotion no one saw Ben lean against the wall and rub his forehead as if fighting a headache.
The insect monster, unknowingly dubbed Brain Crusher by April O'Neil after what he did to the Auradon Rangers, was enjoying the destruction that he was bringing down upon the market place. He expected that at some point Maleficent would send in others to help bring about Auradon's end, but for now this was a good start. Hungry people made for sloppy people after all.
Two of marketplace security tried to apprehend him and the wings slapped them in the face hard, forcing them to the ground. "Isn't there anyone around here who can challenge me?" He demanded to know. Part of him wanted to face off against the six miscellaneous rangers and the purple masked turtle that had forced him to let Maleficent's estranged daughters and their friends live.
"Brain Crusher, you want a challenge? Well now you've got one." He heard called out to him. He turned to see eight people walking toward him in light gray uniforms, except one which was more white. It was Andros, Ashley, Cassie, TJ, Carlos, Amber, Zhane and Karone. It was Andros who had spoken.
"The space rangers." The monster growled.
"We heard you might have taken something that doesn't belong to you." Cassie started.
"And we're here to return them to their rightful owners." Ashley finished.
"That will be easier said than done." He promised the rangers with glare. He didn't seem to have problem with the name they had called him.
"Let's rocket!" Andros called out, and the rest of the space rangers followed suit as they transformed.
"Good idea Billy." Melody said. "Calling in the space rangers to help us out."
"I actually called for any one of the rangers who wanted to help out." Billy clarified. "But the Space Rangers know you guys the best, so of course it was only natural that they would volunteer."
They were so engrossed in the fight that they didn't notice someone take Audrey's hand, shush her quietly and lead her out of the command center area.
Brain Crusher had taken to the air and dove down rapidly at the space rangers, intending to ram into them now the way he had the Auradon rangers on the tourney field, but this time they dove out of the way, the boys rolling to the right and the girls rolling to the left.
The insectoid monster swung around again and aimed again for a group of rangers, in this case the guys. Amber unleashed a large peal of lightning that struck their adversary head on and caused him to crash to the ground.
"Great work." Andros said to her.
Amber shrugged. "What can I say, I hate flyers." She responded. The first monster she had ever fought had in fact been a flyer, a falcon creature that also wielded the power of lightning, and very well at that. That was why Zordon had made sure she could the same with her own powers when she had become the original purple ranger.
"What do you think of this then ranger?" Brain Crusher questioned as he lashed out with his long mantis like scythes and struck them all with far better speed than a creature of his size should normally display.
"I can't say I liked that all that much." Zhane remarked as he stood and helped Karone to her feet as well.
Carlos summoned his lunar lance and leapt out at the insectoid monster. He raised his mantis arms to block the attack and then slapped the black ranger with a wing that looked harder than any of the rangers would have expected.
Ashley and Cassie pulled out their weapons and fired at the monster. He growled and then rose up to unleash stingers at the space rangers, striking them all back.
"Hurry up." Aquiella said to Doug with urgency. "They need Melody and I out there. They need our magic. This thing is going to take more than physical powers to beat." She was sure it was going to need a combination of both, and since neither twin, Arendelle children, Jane or Jordan were in any condition to help it would have to be them.
"I'm working on it." Doug promised. "Almost done." He had Kendall helping him to get their iPhones back online.
At that moment Rose happened to glance around. "Hey, where is Audrey?" She asked.
"Wait what?" Ruby asked and looked around. "Oh come on."
"I'll find her." April said.
Billy stopped her. "No need, someone else is on it." He promised.
"Where are we going? Who are you?" Audrey asked the guy dragging her toward the forest.
"You don't remember me?" Chad asked her with a small smile. "They really messed with your head. I'm Chad, your boyfriend."
Audrey frowned. "I don't remember that." She replied.
Chad tried not to laugh. He intended to take advantage of this spell's memory loss to finally make Audrey his own. He was even hoping to take her back to the island that he, Maleficent and the remainder of the army was using as their home.
Audrey frowned. "Chad, stop a minute." She said to him. "This, this feels wrong, to just run off like this. The others…" She really didn't know what to say, she wasn't even sure who they were or why it mattered except for one thing; they all had been found together and those who had come to them had all but insisted something was wrong. She tried to pull away and return to that weird underground structure.
Chad held on slammed Audrey against a tree so hard that she felt the air pushed from her lungs roughly. "You're not going back there." He said in a dangerous tone of voice that she didn't like. He held her arms tightly and she flinched in pain. "You're coming with me."
"Chad, stop." Audrey protested as she tried to free herself.
"Shut up." He hissed at her angrily and kneed her hard. She let out a gasp of pain. He pressed himself against her hard, his right hand reaching down to start pulling up Audrey's top. She reached out to try to stop him but he ignored her resistance. "I'm going to take from you what is rightfully mine." He said to her harshly before forcing a kiss on her lips.
Something solid connected with the side of his head and he lost his grip on Audrey. Then he felt impact to his right side and he fell back away from her. When he looked up Kat, as the pink Zeo ranger, stood in front of Audrey protectively with her zeo shield raised. "Trying to take advantage of her, it's just pathetic." She said to him.
Chad glared at her. "What I do with her is not your business." He spat at her and then formed Maledict's blade and summoned some Mamluk's that Marcellus had had standing by. "I'll make sure you pay for interfering in my business."
"Don't worry Audrey, I'll keep you safe." Kat promised as she took a fighting stance.
"You know me?" Audre questioned. She was confused. She didn't understand why so many people were trying to keep all of them safe.
"You're our friend." Kat said to her as she kicked a Mamluk hard. "All of you are."
"If you're all her friends, why did you come alone?" Chad asked with a laugh as he charged her with his sword. She blocked it but he lashed out and tripped her hard.
He was kicked hard in the chest then. "She didn't." Said a voice. Chad looked to see the original red ranger and the black dino ranger in front of him. It was Tommy, her ex-boyfriend and friend who had spoken.
Jason took out the dragon dagger and combined it with his power sword, unleashing energy at the Mamluk's and taking them out. From out of nowhere the Praeleanthor sword appeared in Tommy's hands and the black dino ranger turned to face Chad.
"Are you okay Kat?" Jason asked her as he looked to the pink zeo ranger.
"Yes." She answered as she came to Audrey's side. "Let's get rid of Chad and get her back to the others."
"With pleasure." Tommy assured Kat as he and Jason turned to the dark knight.
"Why do you people keep doing this?" Chad demanded to know angrily. "Protecting the likes of her," He pointed his blade toward Audrey. "Protecting scum like Mal and the isle brats?"
"Whatever you claim you had on that part is gone." Jason snapped at him angrily. "Whatever you hold Mal and the others accountable for, you've passed that line long ago when you took on those powers."
"And that's a line I'm not sure you can even come back from if you wanted too." Tommy added. He knew a thing or two about that since he had started his career as the green ranger in service to Rita Repulsa. "As far as Audrey goes, whatever problems she may have had with them, in the end she didn't lose who she was and is still an innocent."
"What's more she gained from this, something that in her right mind she would gladly acknowledge." Kat added and Audrey had a feeling she could admit to that now. If so many people were here to protect her and those she had woken with, then there had to be a good reason for it.
Chad looked as if he wanted to fight but it was really three on one odds, and he knew these three were more experienced than he was. "When our monster destroys all of you rangers I'll just come back for Audrey then." He vowed and vanished.
"Let's get you back to your friends." Kat said to Audrey as she placed her hand gently around her arm. "None of you might realize it now but they'd all be very worried under normal circumstances. Actually, Melody and Aquiella probably are worried." They had been briefed on what Billy knew, including the immunity of the two mermaid girls.
They brought Audrey back to the command center and indeed Melody and Aquiella were happy to see she was okay. They were in no way surprised that Chad had tried to take advantage of the situation and in fact were kind of angry at themselves for not having seen it coming sooner.
"That's why I called them here." Billy explained. "With all of us working on this crisis I figured we needed a few people who could keep an eye on all of our wayward friends."
"Unfortunately it doesn't seem like Amber and the others are having much luck." Kat noted softly as she saw them getting struck with Brain Crusher's stingers. "Is there anything we can do to help them?" She asked.
Billy was about to let them down gently when Hayley exclaimed, "We got it!" She looked up from her place in between Rose and Doug. "We have Melody and Aquiella's powers up and running again into the system beside Mal and her team mates."
"Great." Melody said. "We're back." She and her cousin exchanged small smiles as they reached for their iPhones. Like Ben and the original five rangers they could feel the power's reconnection with them. "Let's help the space rangers take out that overgrown bug."
"Hold on." Tommy said and handed the Praeleanthor sword to Aquiella since Melody would need the trident to transform. "Ben can't use this right now, but it can still be helpful. Use it yourself, or give it to Amber, something like that. Let it help us take back your friends."
Aquiella nodded. They all knew the sword would respond to them if Ben was unable to use it, and his memories as a ranger being drained certainly qualified as a good reason. She took the sword in her hand. "We'll make sure we get our friend's back." She vowed. Then the two mermaid girls headed out of the command center.
"That's enough out of you." Zhane stated as he extended his super silverizer. With Andros by his side the two longtime friends charged at Brain Crusher. They both tried to bring their weapons down but were blocked by his mantis like arms.
TJ and Carlos moved in with their astral axe and lunar lance respectively and jabbed the monster in the chest hard, though his skin was thick enough to take the heat despite the strikes.
Karone took out a recursive crossbow from a holster on her right leg, a unique design compared to the other space rangers, and with Ashley and Cassie on either side of her they unleashed blasts at him just after Andros and Zhane moved out of the way.
Amber brought her solar sais together and unleashed a stream of solar energy at Brain Crusher. It made him stumble back with an annoyed roar. The bug creature than unleashed a stream of acid at them but the eight rangers rolled out of the way of the attack, which as far as Cassie was concerned was probably a good thing.
"You know I must admit that I thought the hard part was supposed to be over." Brain Crusher lamented. "Taking out the memories of the Auradon rangers should have been the end of it. Even the two mermaids were nothing without their powers. You've made our job much harder."
"Glad to hear it." TJ remarked.
"I guess that means you don't have any back up coming then." Zhane half mocked.
"I wouldn't say that." Brain Crusher replied gleefully. From the acid small flying wasp like creatures started to emerge. "Meet my sky insect soldiers." He said. "And let's shake things up a bit here."
The sky insect soldiers charged right at the rangers and the space rangers drew their weapons and met them head on. They were quick and rather slippery but the rangers were still managing to take some of them out. Then Brain Crusher moved in and slammed hard into TJ and Ashley.
"Everyone be careful." Andros said. "That thing really hurts."
"We've noticed." Cassie promised.
Amber tried to attack him with her sais only for one of the wings to come out and hit her backwards, then turned around and slash the other five rangers with his large stinger.
"Man, we should be able to squash this bug no problem." Carlos groused. "What's going on here?"
Karone folded in her crossbow to take out her own sword to defend herself against the flying insects buzzing around them. Zhane was now back to back with his girlfriend.
The two mermaid girls showed up and saw the fight was not going well. As Melody took out the trident, glad to feel the power of her gem again, Aquiella took her iPhone and input her numbers 9999 to transform.
The newly restored aqua and orange ranger landed in front of the space rangers. Brain Crusher let out a hiss in response. "You two again, and this time with your powers."
"Sorry to disappoint you." Melody deadpanned though in truth she was not at all disappointed to be causing this freak problems. As the flying insects he summoned started toward them she brought her trident down to protect them.
Aquiella unleashed a tidal wave that came crashing down on almost a dozen of them. She jumped slightly upon hearing Use Us in her mind though of course intellectually she knew what it was; the Praeleanthor sword. She tossed the slightly warm sword at the large insect monster.
Brain Crusher tried to bring his large right arm down on the weapon but it angled away from the strike and then tore a huge gash into the monster's chest. He let out a very angry and even somewhat painful roar even as the sword swung back toward the rangers.
"Amber, get ready." Aquiella said to the purple space ranger. She looked up to see the Praeleanthor sword coming her way and as she let her solar sais vanish she reached out to take the Praeleanthor sword in her grip.
"Now let's see what we can do to turn this around further." Andros said to his team mates and their two guest partners.
Kat kept close to the entrance with Jason, neither of them really wanting Chad to try and make another appearance. Tommy kept closer to the others just in case something happened further on in. Billy and the rest of the original group were working on the consoles so they could try to get the command center online.
With Amy not being herself she had no idea what to make of the empathic feelings she was getting and was forcing those feelings to the back. It was why she had no idea how to interpret the strange feelings that were coming from Ben.
Unlike the other rangers Ben had more working against him than mere memory loss. When Ben had been born it was with a genetic disposition from his father due to him spending half of his life as a beast creature due to Nerissa's spell before Belle entered his life.
Nerissa had in fact used that as a way to force Ben to unconsciously fight Mal and her (at the time) five team mates in several fights as the original dark knight before being freed and then the powers diverging into the Auradon Knight powers he used now and the Dark Knight powers used by Chad. It was also that reason that Audrey became the red ranger when in fact that was originally meant for the young king himself.
It was also a unique point that Sermaya had sensed too and had used his own pheromones to bring that instinct out in him as a borderline possessive feeling for Mal, which worked coincidentally well when a potion forced Mal to fall in love with Chad. But then Ben still was pretty much himself.
That was not the case now. There was almost nothing of the young king inside of him and because of Amy's memory loss and Aquiella's loss of powers until recently they had not sensed the beast within him stirring again, and finding almost no resistance.
So they were not expecting any problems. When Ben stood the others looked at him curiously before Doug stepped forward, "Ben, are you okay?" He asked him.
When Ben looked at him only then did April realize something was very wrong. "Doug." She started.
Ben, or the beast that now seemed to have control over Ben, lashed out and struck Doug hard in the face and sent him crashing into Donnie and Kendall. April moved to check on the purple dino charge ranger and her purple masked boyfriend even though it would have been smarter to try to restrain him.
Cam moved to react next with Rose and Billy behind him when he took a hold of a startled Carlos and tossed him into Cam, where they were knocked over by the amnesiac yellow ranger.
Rockwell tried to restrain him but was distracted as the Beast Ben grabbed Grant and performed the same trick with him. He dodged past Tommy as the black dino ranger tried to get a hold of him and then shoved past the pink zeo ranger and the red ranger before running up the stairs and vanishing.
"What just happened?" Rose questioned as they all started to get up. "Why did Ben just do that?"
"There was something primal in Ben's mind, I felt it come to the surface." April answered as she helped Donnie up to his feet. "But I don't know where it came from or what it means."
"I'm afraid we do know." Fairy Godmother said to them. "I wish we had thought of it sooner." She looked to the rangers of Earth. "The part of Ben that has the beast inside him that he got from his dad has taken over his mind."