"Melody, Aquiella." Amy murmured softly as she stared into the depths of the ocean in front of them. She felt Ellie take her right hand as Alex placed his hands over her shoulders comfortingly. She heard her twin sister say they were going to go after them and get them back from Undine together when Doug interrupted.
"I think we just found out what Sermaya sent out." Carlos noted as he looked at the screen on his iPhone. Most of the others followed suit, Amy glancing at Ellie's screen as the Arendelle princess rose her own iPhone up. This newest monster didn't look even remotely human, unlike Sphinx Telia who had had a vaguely feminine face. This one seemed like a large lion. And he was heading toward Auradon Prep.
Miranda looked to Mal. "We have to stop that thing, but we can't leave Aquiella and Melody either." She said to the purple haired purple ranger. "We're going to have to split up our forces."
Mal knew she was right. They had to stop the monster and they had to save their friends. They couldn't do together now though, they would have to split up and count on the fact they could still do their jobs.
She went to Ben and took his hands into hers. "Ben, I know Krona is your problem more than anyone else here." She said to her boyfriend softly, speaking of the clone of him that Sermaya had made. "But I need Audrey with me to fight that monster, and that means I need you to lead the team that goes after Aquiella and Melody." She knew she could to it herself but she suspected they would need as full of a team as they could get. And Amy would no doubt want to go after her friends, no matter what she would say to Mal.
"But if Sermaya can be believed, he'll be with that monster, as well as the last forest baboon and Krona." Ben tried to protest gently.
Mal nodded. "I know." She replied. "And we'll have to deal with it. But someone needs to lead the rescue mission, and you're the best candidate since I can't do it myself." Ben gave off a soft but resigned sigh as he nodded in agreement.
"Mal, what do we do?" Jay asked her now.
The purple haired purple ranger turned to look at her team. It hit her just a bit that two of their people were gone. She hadn't realized how much she had come to rely on having her entire team with her; despite they had only just gotten everyone up and running again after Paradias had destroyed the command center during his final stand.
"Audrey, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Will, Miranda, and Jane." Mal said. "You guys are with me. The rest of you go with Ben and find Aquiella and Melody."
"But, but don't you need me?" Amy asked her softly. "And what about Krona? Without Ben he might not be defeatable."
Mal touched her sister's arm gently. The truth was that she pretty much figured it would be easier to have her younger twin sister there. But the flip side was that she might be too distracted worrying for her friends. "You need to worry about your friends Amy." She said to her instead.
"You're all my friends too." Amy reminded her. She looked to Audrey. "Even you are." They all laughed just a little.
"We're all friends. We're all a team. We're all family." Mal promised her. "But I also know that Melody, Aquiella, Ellie and Alex are special to you in ways that are different than we are. And you need to be focused on how to help them, not divided like it would be if you were with us."
"Hey look at it this way." Alex said to Amy cheerfully. "We could be two time heroes. We can rescue Melody and Aquiella and make it back in enough time to rescue Mal and the others."
"Don't count on it." Will warned him with a chuckle.
Mal was about to tell her sister to go but the rose haired girl nodded. "Okay." She said. "We'll see you back in Auradon, with our friends."
"Ye might need this then." Miranda said as she handed the trident to Ally. "This is Melody's and on top of that it might help all of ye out." The blonde crystal ranger nodded in thanks.
Mal nodded softly and with that Mal's half of the team went off toward Auradon. Amy looked toward her part of the team. Whatever her older sister was going to ask Jane about no longer mattered since they were both headed toward Auradon. "So, um, how do we find Undine out in the ocean?" She asked.
"Getting out there is simple enough." Jordan answered. She summoned speed boat; no one was sure if she had conjured it out of nowhere or if someone was now lacking a speed boat of their own. No one thought to press it.
"Can we track them with this?" Ally asked as she held up the trident.
Jordan reached out and took the trident from Ally. It was no surprise to Jordan that she could feel the power from the trident, certainly one of the most powerful objects in Auradon and undoubtfully the most power item in Atlantica. But Melody had also been using the trident since her appearance as the aqua ranger and some of her essence was intermixed within that power.
"Can you use the trident to track the girls?" Grant asked the genie girl.
The gold ranger nodded. "Yeah, pretty sure I can. Everyone aboard." They followed Jordan onto the boat where the genie girl proceeded to place the trident next to the helm and started to take off in what seemed to be a random direction.
Alex took Amy's hand softly. "We have to trust that Jordan knows what she's doing. We'll find Aquiella and Melody." He said to her gently.
Mal's team found their way to Auradon and saw the monster starting to attack the walls of Auradon Prep. It wouldn't take long at all for it to break through. They drew their blasters and fired at the monster. The attack drew its attention.
"Remind me again why that was a good idea." Carlos commented.
"Its focus is off of the school, that's what matters." Evie replied.
The monster started toward the ranger team. "Yeah, its focus is on us." Carlos said.
Sermaya, Krona, Chiron and the defender baboon now appeared behind the newest monster. "A little light right now aren't we?" Sermaya questioned. "Did the rest of your team actually gain some common sense?"
"Not likely." Krona noted. It was somewhat disturbing to both Mal and Audrey how much he looked like Ben, the boyfriend and best friend respectively. "I of all people know how much sense Ben lacks and yet he isn't here."
"You only say that because Ben didn't give up to your will." Mal said with a glare at the clone. "Ben and I so took you down." The end result of course was that they weren't going to tell these guys that two of their team had been abducted by one of their other enemies.
"I'll take you down once and for all girl." Sermaya vowed to Miranda. He looked to the defender baboon. "Take out the brat daughter." Now he called out, "Sphinx Andro. End the rest of these power rangers."
The purple ranger didn't like the fact that Sermaya had Krona stay behind, but none of them had the time to worry about it since the attack was now starting.
Melody felt a sharp pain slap her cheek. She finally woke up to find Undine towering over her. It was dark enough that she suspected they were in a cave in the middle of the coast. She was bound, ironically enough, in sea weed. It was much stronger than most people thought especially when backed up by magical energy. She could barely see Aquiella next to her, also bound but still unconscious.
"Glad to see you're awake brat." Undine said contemptuously. "This wouldn't be nearly as much fun if I were alone." She slithered around the two girls, making Melody just a bit nervous. "If only my mother could see what I've accomplished. And if your mother could see how much you've failed."
"This isn't over Undine." Melody promised her. "It's barely started. Our friends will come after us and take you down."
The sea witch laughed. "You think they'll choose you over Auradon?" She questioned. "Yes, I know that beast thing likely sent another monster to attack. In fact if he's doing what I think he's doing you should hope your friends lose that battle before the final assault takes place." Now Melody was sure Undine was behind her now. "Even if they did choose you two first, I'll still take them down."
Melody started to struggle against the sea weed wrap and Undine slapped one of her tentacles against the side of her head, making her flinch in pain and it hurt a lot. She was almost sure Undine could have broken her neck.
"We're far enough away from water that you and Aquiella's control over water will be useless." Undine taunted her with a laugh. She was now back in Melody's line of sight. "The trident was left at the beach; you can't morph even if you were freed. Your cousin is bound and can't get free. And the next step will be showing Amy and the rest of your friends your broken bodies." One of her tentacles shot out, suddenly looking sharper than it had any right to be and jabbed Melody in the shoulder hard, eliciting a scream of pain from the mermaid girl.
"Melody." Aquiella whispered. The scream had started to wake her up.
"Patience orange ranger." Undine said with cruel amusement in her voice. "First her, then you."
One of the cave walls shattered and they could feel a cool breeze along with it. Then Amy and Ben came through and kicked Undine in the chest hard enough to send her sprawling off of Melody. The sea witch looked up to see Ellie, Alex, Grant, Jordan, Ally and Aziz coming in with them.
"Oh my pink! Melody!" Amy gasped as she leaned down toward her friend.
"What happened to her?" Ally asked now.
Before Melody or Aquiella could respond the rose ranger replied, "She stabbed her with one of those tentacles. She can make them pretty sharp when she wants too." She then added softly, "I learned that one from personal experience."
"Nasty little witch." Ellie said through what sounded like gritted teeth.
Ally threw out two crystal cards, one of which freed Melody and the other of which freed Aquiella. Alex handed the daughter of Ariel the trident that her grandfather bestowed upon her. "Can you fight?" Alex asked her.
Melody was clearly in pain and Jordan stopped her. "Let me get you something to drink." She instructed her, which went back to the healing potions she made.
Aquiella had no such compunctions and now that she was free she input her numbers, 9999 and transformed into the orange ranger. "You hurt my cousin." She said coldly as she summoned her tidal boomerangs. "I will make you pay for that."
Amy saw where this was going. "Aquiella, wait." The rose ranger called out.
She didn't listen. She leapt out at Undine and slashed her with the tidal boomerangs. Undine growled in anger at the attack and then slapped the weapons out of her hands. The sea witch then tried to wrap the orange ranger up but she kicked two of them away and then slapped another two away.
"Aquiella." Amy tried again. She didn't want her to get injured or killed because she was blinded by the protective emotion she had for her cousin.
"Time to lend a hand." Aziz declared. He was about to go forward with Ally but Alex stopped him.
"No." He said. "She has to do this."
Ellie understood too. Ellie then looked to Ben. "She has to do this on her own. But she doesn't have to do this alone."
Ben immediately understood. "Aquiella, take it!" The young king called out and tossed the Praeleanthor sword toward her.
Sermaya tried to slam his fists down on Miranda hard but the Highlands ranger dodged out of the way, long expecting that kind of tactic from him and his beasts.
Defender baboon swung at Mal and the purple ranger dodged under the attack. She didn't like this turn of events as she thought the other members of her team would need her to take out this newest sphinx wannabe.
Sphinx Andro shot out a massive beam from his mouth and it struck all of them backwards. Just as Jay and Audrey were about to stand up the monster sprung up and clawed the two of them hard. Jay rolled into Carlos as Audrey rolled into Evie.
Lonnie, Will and Jane moved in and tried to attack and the monster brought up one of its huge arms to block the attack. He then let out a horrendous roar, but to Evie's surprise it wasn't just horrendous to the ears but it seemed to damage the three of them, forcing them away with a burst of power.
"Lonnie, spark time." Audrey called out.
"You got it." Lonnie said as she got up to join the Audrey and the three isle kids. Jane and Will were up as well. The white ranger placed the magic wand on top of Will's recursive sword and they unleashed a blast of energy that did little more than annoy Sphinx Andro.
As Lonnie stood in between Evie and Audrey, Carlos and Jay jumped onto their shoulders. They combined their blasters to unleash the Auradon Triangle Spark against Sphinx Andro. Unlike his counterpart Sphinx Telia, this monster didn't even flinch.
"You guys just aren't strong enough." Jane said to them. "I don't even know if Mal would be enough to help you out here."
Evie glanced at her chosen sister to see that she was holding her own against Forest Defender, but wasn't getting anywhere else in that fight. "I hope Amy and the others rescue Melody and Aquiella and get back here soon. We need their help after all." She remarked.
Aquiella did a couple of cartwheels backwards and as she got her balance back she caught the Praeleanthor sword in her right hands and brought it around to face Undine. At the moment all she could see was Undine's tentacle stabbing into the flesh of her cousin's shoulder.
Undine seemed to realize that too. She loved nothing more than to get under her opponents skin. She raised the tentacle that she had stabbed Melody with; it was still dripping blood. "Your cousin has a bit more bulk, more room to aim for than the last time my tentacle wore blood. More precisely the blood of your rose haired friend." She looked to Amy. "You remember that, don't you?"
Amy flinched just a bit. She did indeed remember it. She had stabbed Amy in the shoulder too but had also managed to get near her heart. If it hadn't been for Evie she probably would have died. Even then Mal had had to spend a few days taking care of her. "I remember." She confessed softly.
"You really are a witch." Aquiella said coldly. She ran toward Undine. The sea witch lashed out her tentacles again. The orange ranger dodged the first two, kicked the third one aside and as a special form of justice she used the Praeleanthor sword to take off the tentacle that wore Melody's blood, and had at one point worn Amy's.
Even as Aziz commented, "Ooh, that must have hurt." Undine let out a growl of pain. She tried to slap Aquiella away and the orange ranger dodged it.
Melody had finished the healing potion Jordan formed for her and transformed again into the aqua ranger. It was good timing as Undine finally landed a tentacle hard against Aquiella's chest. As her cousin fell backwards the sea witch wrapped a tentacle around each of her legs. "I'll teach you to injure me." She threatened. The one remaining tentacle descended toward her.
Melody blocked it with the trident, entangling it within the points of the trident. "I don't think so." She said simply. She kicked Undine hard and then brought the trident down on the sea witch as hard as she could, forcing her toward the hole in the cave the Ellie had made. "That's for what you did to me." She said. Then she powered up a blast of energy in the trident. "And this is for what you did to my friend." With that she unleashed that blast of power that sent Undine flying out of the cave and into the ocean.
"Wow." Aquiella gasped. "That was impressive."
"Very." Amy agreed.
The orange ranger handed Ben his sword back, though she reflected wryly that it seemed like it was starting to become a team weapon almost as much. "We need to go back to Mal and the others." Ben said to them. "They're facing something else from Sermaya and if it's even half as bad as Sphinx Telia they'll need all the help they can get."
"Then let's do it." Melody replied.
"Luckily getting back to the others will be a bit more of a snap than finding you two were." Jordan joked wryly. "And by that, I mean it quite literally." With a snap of her fingers she used magic to disappear.
Sphinx Andro unleashed another beam of energy at them. This time it struck all seven rangers and they slammed into the ground. He then started to charge right toward them. Will and Jay were up first and moved in to attack with their bladed weapons but he saw it coming quickly enough to jump back from the attack.
"Maybe we could all try to combine our powers." Carlos suggested, indicating Will and Jane as well even though the magic wand couldn't combine with the rest of their weapons.
"We can't form the Auradon blaster without Mal." Lonnie reminded him.
"You're very good at the dodging game aren't you?" Sermaya questioned Miranda as he now paced her. "Let's see how you do with a change of plans." With that he moved in as if he were going to bring his fists against either side of her head, but when the red head moved to dodge it he swept one of his legs out and slammed into Miranda's shins hard.
She fell to the ground. As she tried to roll back up he placed one of massive hands down on her chest and abdomen. "Now let's see how long it takes for me to apply enough pressure to crush your body." Sermaya said with glee.
Miranda placed both of her hands on his foot and tried to use her strength to pry him off. She was the strongest girl on the team but not strong enough to force him off. "Even if ye…kill me, ye…ye won't win…my friend's will stop you." She got out through gasps.
"Miranda!" Ellie yelled out in horror. She then powered up one of her ice chakram and tossed it straight toward Sermaya. It twirled round and round, even sparkling a bit in the sunlight as it struck the leader of the beast monsters hard in the chest. He was then kicked off of Miranda fully by Ben and Grant.
"I knew you didn't have the sense to stay away." Krona commented as he stood in front of Ben now. "Looks like I can finish what I started now." He shifted again to the strange beast form that reminded the young king a bit of a shaved gorilla.
"Feel free to deal with him." Aziz said to Ben. "We'll deal with the rest of these clowns."
Ally couldn't help but again wonder, "Where is Chiron? Why does he keep staying behind?"
"We'll have to worry about that later." Melody replied.
"She's right." Aquiella agreed. "Aziz, Ally, Jordan. Get that baboon off of Mal so that she can help the others." She said and the three nodded. "We'll deal with Sermaya."
Ellie helped Miranda to sit up though at the moment she wasn't sure that the red headed Scotts girl should be standing. "Are you alright?" She asked her.
"I'll will be." Miranda assured her. "Thanks for the help Ellie." She reminded herself to thank Ben and Grant too.
Aziz struck the defender baboon with his spiral spear as Ally unleashed a crystal card barrage on him. Mal took a breath of relief and then turned into Amy's embrace. She hugged her little sister back and said, "Guess you got your friends back safely."
"Not entirely." Amy replied. "But I can tell you about that later. Right now let's go help the others."
Mal nodded in agreement and the twin daughters of Maleficent headed over there even as Jordan unleashed a burst of energy from her lamp cannon at the Defender baboon.
"Glad to see you're okay Amy." Evie said happily as they approached. "And I'm glad that you found Melody and Aquiella alive and well." She and Amy hugged each other. She then looked to Mal. "We have to finish this off M."
"We do." The purple haired purple ranger agreed. She looked to Jane. "Go help Jordan, Aziz and Ally deal with the Defender Baboon." The white ranger nodded in agreement and headed off. "Remember our earlier conversation about the Auradon blaster?" She asked them now.
"Yeah." Carlos said. "What about it?"
"I think it's time to see if we can make the Auradon blaster 3.0." Mal said with amusement.
"What's that?" Amy asked her sister.
"If it works you'll see." Mal said to her. "Just get ready to place your rose lance when we place the rest of the weapons." She looked to Will. "And of course Will, place yours after Audrey."
Sphinx Andro blasted at the rangers again. Evie brought up her mirror force shield and barely managed to reflect it away from them but he was strong enough that the blue haired blue ranger was unable to control where it reflected too.
Sphinx Andro immediately moved in to try to attack them directly. Carlos slammed his earthquake claw daggers into the ground even as Evie unleashed a quaking mirror force attack. It unbalanced him just slightly.
The slight unbalance was enough. Mal and Amy attacked him with the dragon's eye staff and rose lance respectively. That was followed by Jay and Will with their soul scimitar and recursive blade. Audrey and Lonnie were behind them with their elemental bow and hurricane tessen's. Sphinx Andro hit the ground hard and rolled a moment.
"Let's bring them together." Mal called out.
Mal set her dragon's eye staff. This was followed by Audrey's elemental bow underneath and Will's recursive sword with the four bladed edges pointing outward. Evie placed her mirror force shield behind them and the compacts folded outwards. In the center Jay placed his soul scimitar and then on either side Carlos placed his earthquake claw daggers, Lonnie placed her hurricane tessens and Amy placed her rose lances.
"Oh my pink, it really worked." Amy noted in awe. She could feel the strong power coming from their newly assembled Auradon blaster and she was sure her friends could feel the same power.
"I know Doug, Jane and I didn't have plans for this one." Carlos commented in shock. "But still it is totally awesome."
"And let's put this power to good use." Jay said to them. "By taking out this sphinx freak."
Together the eight rangers aimed the Auradon blaster at Sphinx Andro as he had gotten up and roared at them before charging again. This time though the rangers were too quick for him and fired. The combined firepower was enough to overwhelm and destroy the newest sphinx.
Defender Baboon swung at Aziz and he was barely able to block it with his spiral spear. Then Jane came in like a comet with the magic wand and forced him away from the silver ranger hard.
"It's time to finish this guy off too." Jane said to Aziz and the two girls.
"Any ideas?" Aziz asked her. "We have less people and I don't see any upgraded weapons around for us." They had noticed the Auradon blaster 3.0 in action after all.
"I do have an idea." Jane said. "With only one modification we can have the power we need to finish this fight." She looked to Jordan. "You're up first, then Aziz. Ally and I will be the final pieces of course."
"Sounds like a regular strategy to me." Jordan noted simply but shrugged, deciding to trust the 'genius' people as Audrey had once noted about Jane, Evie, Doug and even Carlos. She formed her lamp cannon and took aim. "Whenever you're ready guys."
Aziz was just as uncertain about this new idea of Jane's that had apparently come from out of the blue and was about to place his spiral spear where he normally would but Jane said, "Oh, wait. Aziz I need you to place the spiral spear where I normally place the magic wand." She looked to Jordan. "You can reform the lamp to allow it to come through the other side right."
"What are you trying to make a top now?" Jordan asked only half-jokingly as she never the less did as Jane requested so that Aziz could then follow through as well. "You are so lucky this is a house and not a prison."
"So what are you going to do?" Aziz asked Jane.
"Ally, place some of your cards around the magic wand after I get it into the lamps spout." Jane told the crystal ranger who nodded in agreement. The white ranger placed the magic wand in the spout, as much in the middle as she possibly could. Ally followed through with the cards which were magically enchanted enough to slip around automatically.
"Taking aim." Jordan announced. She saw Aziz and the two girls place their hands on the lamp cannon to help steady it and power it up. "And firing." She fired her weapon. The magic wand shot out like Mal's dragon's eye arrow would from Audrey's elemental bow when they were using their battlizers and it was surrounded on all sides by the launched crystal cards. They drew together into what could easily be called a ball of light and struck the Defender baboon, destroying him as well.
Sermaya growled as he took a step back and glared at the rangers. His fight against Alex, Ellie, Miranda and Grant had not been going the best, in part because of the two mystical power wielders. "Murderers!" He spat angrily. "Seeking to destroy my family, my people."
"Excuse me?" Audrey questioned. "You were the one who woke up and decided to destroy our civilization to restore yours."
"She's right." Lonnie said now. "We could have worked together, we could have helped you to restore your people and rebuild a place you could call your own. Instead you insisted on trying to conquer villages." They now knew that Will, Wendy and Whitney had been in that invaded village before transferring to Auradon Prep. "You tried to get rid of us and turn Ben against us."
"You brought this on yourselves." Jay agreed simply. "You started this fight, we're just ending it."
"So you say now." Sermaya said. "We'll see if that is your belief when this world as you know it is finished and my empire flourishes once more. When all of my brothers that you have killed rise from the ashes and bring your people to their knees."
"And just how do you plan on doing that one?" Grant asked dubiously as he twirled his axe in front of him. Aside from Ben who was dealing with Krona the rest of the team had the beast general surrounded. "You have no one left to help you."
"Guys." Evie interrupted. They noticed that the mane of the Sphinx Andro floated up into the air just as the claw of Sphinx Telia had. Then before them in the forest Chiron appeared.
"It's time." Chiron said. "It has been an honor to serve you Lord Sermaya."
"You will return in short order my brother." Sermaya said. "A noble sacrifice and rebirth is no death at all."
"What are you going on about?" Jordan questioned.
With that Chiron turned his staff on himself. "The last magical ingredient needed to do what needs to be done." Then a burst of energy blew himself up, leaving nothing but vapor. For just a moment the rangers were stunned as to why he would do that, and then the skies started to darken…