"What have you done?" Mal questioned in shock as she looked to Sermaya. "You just allowed one of your own people to sacrifice himself, and for what?"
"For this." Sermaya said gleefully. "I suppose it should have occurred to me long before now that the heart of what was my civilization would be buried very near the heart of yours." The ground started to shake. "All it took was a massive burst of magical power, provided by Chiron, to generate what was needed to bring it to the surface."
"Then what?" Will asked. "It's still you against all of us."
"With the heart of my civilization restored, so too will my people." Sermaya stated. The trees around the area started to split and crash as a huge temple, very similar in shape and size as a Mayan temple from Earth started to rise up. It quickly became clear though the base of the temple tapered off to be very similar to a pyramid.
"That is one massive pile of stone." Aziz noted.
Then the oxen warriors started to appear in waves, very quickly turning the ranger's numbers advantage into a huge disadvantage. "Mal." Amy started.
"Oh this is so not good." Carlos noted.
"They're only his version of soldiers." Jay said as he raised his soul scimitar. "We can take them."
Then from the front of the temple that Chiron had raised they could see a door that started to open. And behind it were uncountable amounts of beast creatures behind it. They could see Gottomas the weapons master, Simorgh the bird monster that had wanted to eat the mermaid girls, both forest baboons, both the swamp and lava guards and several other creatures they had not noticed before.
"That could be bit more problematic." Melody pointed out fearfully.
"Hold on a moment." Aquiella said to her cousin. "I can see some sort of membrane like barrier in front of the door." They could all kind of make it out now as Simorgh pressed his beak against it as if trying to cut through it and get to the mermaid girls. "They can't come out yet."
"No they cannot." Sermaya agreed. "But this can." From the darkened skies some of the dark clouds parted and a large creature started to descend down. They could see the upper body of Sphinx Andro combined with the wings and lower body of Sphinx Telia. "Meet my guardian; Great Sphinx Thenien. He will be my emissary as he destroys you all and welcomes my people back to this world."
Then to their horrors they saw a huge group of oxen warriors heading toward the school and the rest of Auradon. They moved out to try to intercept them only to have more of the oxen warriors in their path, and even worse Great Sphinx Thenien hit the ground as well.
"This isn't looking good." Ally noted.
"Mal?" Evie questioned softly.
The purple haired purple ranger hated the odds as well. Ally saying it wasn't looking good was an understatement in her opinion. But she didn't see any choices in the matter. "Let's get to work." She declared, and the Auradon team dove right into the oxen warriors.
Guards surged around Auradon as they did their best to fight off the oxen warriors that were invading their kingdom. They did their best to keep the people safe. It didn't seem to be enough as they started to try to invade homes and castles.
Several oxen warriors invaded Belle's library where she was with Cinderella and Wendy. They forced the two queens and Will's mother to stand near the window until they received further instructions. The plan was to use the parents as bait.
"I guess that weird temple thing belongs to Sermaya." Cinderella noted softly. "Belle, are the others okay?"
"I don't know." Belle answered softly. She feared for Ben and her surrogate daughters. She hoped her husband Adam was safe wherever he was.
One of the oxen warriors growled at the three women as if warning them to be quiet. Belle gave him what she hoped was a menacing look in return but he didn't seem perturbed in the least.
Then several plates flew out of nowhere and slammed into them. They turned to see a little girl standing there, Cinderella recognized her as Callie. "No, don't hurt my daughter." She called out.
Two of them started toward her and Callie shoved the door as hard as she could, slamming it into the body of the nearest one. It sent him reeling backwards hard, out of the fight.
Two others moved in toward her and then the other door was moved aside as Whitney appeared. In her hands she held a broomstick and she hit one of them in the stomach hard, as it gasped in pain she knocked it out by smacking him in the back of the head. She moved to the next and shot the wooden handle into the shin and then to the chest for another knockout.
"Impressive." Belle said with a small smile as she thought of her own children out there and probably fighting at this moment for their survival.
Whitney gave a glorious smile to her mother Wendy. "Told you it was a good idea that I start learning martial arts." She said. "Can I learn anbo-jitsu now?" She was referring to the blind fighting martial arts that her brother Will the green ranger knew.
"We'll discuss it after we know everyone is safe." Wendy said as she placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders.
Cinderella embraced her own daughter and complimented her on her bravery.
Then several more oxen warrior showed up but before they could do anything more they were attacked by more palace guards, these ones lead by Adam. After that was done he embraced his wife and then looked to their friend's and their daughters. "Come with me, we need to get you someplace safer." He said.
Phillip and the guards fought bravely but in the end were overpowered by the oxen warriors. He now sat by his wife Aurora, both of them fearful about Audrey's fate, who they were sure had to be at the heart of the invaders. In one corner was shattered porcelain, the tea set that had been set out for the guests Aurora had been waiting for before the attack. She now feared for them as well.
Then something seemed to change among the oxen as if they were becoming more irritated. Phillip took Aurora's hand softly, ready to protect her if need be. A few of them started to turn toward them but at that moment Aurora glimpsed a figure clinging to a curtain a moment before using it to swing down and kick two of them aside.
"Aurora! Phillip!" Mulan called out as she landed and reached for one of the oxen's swords. "Are you alright?"
"Look out!" Aurora called out as more of them started to approach her.
The door was kicked open and Shen entered. He picked up one of the battle axes and started to help as well. "It's not over yet." Shen said. "We can't give up fighting any more than our children will."
"He's right." Phillip agreed, ramming into another oxen soldier hard and taking his sword away from him. He turned to face another oxen warrior. "I fought Maleficent to keep you safe, and I will fight whoever I need to in order to maintain your safety, as well as that of our daughter." He declared.
Mulan laughed a little as she used her smaller size to flip over an oxen warrior. "If your daughter has picked up half of your determination, they'll all be fine." She said. She was glad she had taught Lonnie so well.
"And she has Jay with her." Aurora said. "He loves her as fiercely as you love me." She started to stand as well but not sure what to do to help out.
The point became even more moot as more palace guards showed up, being led by Rapunzel the mother of Ruby. The oxen were taken down easily after that. "Are you guys alright?" Rapunzel asked.
"Yes." Mulan said. She had not dropped the sword she had appropriated.
"I'm glad you three are okay." Aurora said to the two girls and Shen. "I was afraid that you guys would have been injured or killed out there. I didn't expect this to happen on the day I invited you all for tea."
"Not your fault." Rapunzel promised Aurora. "But what do we do now?"
"We should find King Adam and Queen Belle. Or Fairy Godmother." Phillip suggested. "See if we can find out what we can do to help our children, who are undoubtfully at the heart of this invasion."
Any of the Auradon Rangers with families in town had reasons to worry about those they loved. Out of all of them though Grant was the one who had to the least to worry about, after all his mother Rose Red had raised him on Schadel island and made sure they both survived, most of what he knew ab out survival and fighting came from her.
It was a lucky thing for both her sister Snow White and Alice Liddell, the mother of Ally that they were both with her when the battle oxen entered the store they were at. Some of the guards started to defend the people but there were a lot of them. When they started to lose the lines Rose Red snapped her booted foot out at a long wooden railing to create a short staff she could use.
One of them approached her and she shot the palm of her hand out and smashed it in the snout, making it recoil automatically. She then leaned down and lashed out her leg to trip up the oxen and to pick up the staff. She then was up and slapping aside the oxen as they were coming toward the three girls and the some of the children.
"Wow, she is good." Alice said to Snow White. She looked a bit uncertainly at her. "Um, how exactly did she…get pregnant with that skill?" She asked reluctantly. It wasn't exactly a widely discussed topic but it was obvious to those who were close to her or her son that Rose Red had not been planning to have a child when she did.
Snow White shook her head. "I don't know." She admitted softly. She didn't want to imagine the kind of guy that could take advantage of a girl like her older sister. In a way it made her that more worried about Audrey's situation with Chad.
Rose Red slammed the makeshift staff into the chest of an oxen and then twirled around to slap another one in the snout. A third dove right by her and headed toward Snow and Alice. With a shriek of shock Snow picked up a glass jar and threw it. It hit him right in the head and he glared at her angrily.
Alice picked up a piece of the shattered glass from a window and tossed it blindly at the oxen warrior. To her surprise as much as anyone else's it struck him in the chest and he disappeared.
"I didn't know you could do that." Rose Red said, sounding impressed even as she took out another oxen with the staff's end to the face.
"That…that makes two of us." Alice admitted.
Before Snow realized it the guards and Rose Red had forced the oxen warriors to retreat. "I hope Evie is okay." She said softly. She knew their step-sister, her nephew and their friends had to be in the heart of the proverbial storm. She looked to her sister and her friend and knew they were thinking about their children.
"I know one way we can find out." Rose Red said to her. "Let's get to that command center place."
The oxen were trying to swarm the command center. Doug had an experimental blaster out and was shooting them as they tried to come down the stairs. Only Fairy Godmother was with him and he was sure he had to protect her and the command center. Then one of them appeared with a shield that blocked the shot from the blaster. "Oh, not good."
"We'll find a way Doug." Fairy Godmother promised him.
"We will." Doug agreed as he dropped the blaster and headed over to fight him. The oxen swung the shield at him and he moved away from it before grabbing his arm and tossing him onto the ground as hard as he could. His work with Will, Ben and Jay served him well at that point.
Fairy Godmother recovered the blaster and fired at another one coming down the steps. She took out two others as another got past the blaster attacks and got taken out with a kick to the stomach and an elbow from Doug.
Yet more appeared, as if they knew this was the center of power for the ranger team, and the blaster's energy ran out. Doug was on the verge of getting overwhelmed when what seemed like a long yellow whip lashed out and struck them hard. But it was no whip as Doug learned.
Ruby slipped under several of the oxen, knocking them aside. "Coming through." She called out. She stopped in front of Doug and gathered her long blonde hair as a weapon. "Glad I decided to come find out what was going on after all."
"You and me both." Doug said. "Sermaya's raised some sort of temple, probably the heart of his once thriving culture. Now they're invading. Evie and the other rangers are fighting more of these guys and some large lion sphinx thing." He explained.
Ruby couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Grand." She remarked. She tossed her hair out and slammed several of them back like they were bowling pins. "I can't keep these guys back forever."
"Just another moment then." Fairy Godmother called out as she went over to one of the consoles and activated it. A large metal looking door slammed down in front of the oxen.
"Can we call for help?" Ruby asked though she had a feeling she knew the answer.
"Auradon has been isolated by some mystical energy from that temple that showed up outside." Fairy Godmother said. "We're on our own here." She turned to another one of the consoles though. "We do have an emergency backup plan though. I had hoped not to pull this off as there may be no way to ever do it again but I don't see that we have a choice."
"What do we need to do?" Ruby asked.
"There is nothing you can do right now child." Fairy Godmother said to her. "Except to use that console to help find the others." She looked to Doug. "Meanwhile, you know what we have to do for this to work."
"On it" Doug said. He just hoped with so many of these factors being experimental that it this would work the way they wanted it to.
With a flap of Thenien's mighty wings the team almost lost their footing. It made it easier for the monster to unleash a huge blast of energy straight at them, scattering them in all directions. As they started to get up the oxen warriors descended upon them.
"I think it's time to jump directly to the neon armor." Carlos suggested.
"No arguments here." Mal agreed. "Let's do it." The ranger team activated their neon armor upgrades and formed their weapons, then moved in to engage the oxen warriors. The combined powers of their weapons and the increased speed and strength of the neon armor allowed them to take out the oxen warriors as they came forward.
"Anyone else noticing that for each one we take down it's like two more seem to take their place?" Lonnie asked as she took out an oxen warrior with dual slashes of her hurricane tessens.
"Yeah, I've noticed that too." Evie replied as she blocked an axe attack from one of them with her mirror force shield and then shot in with her own blaster. "That's why I haven't used any of my attacks, I don't want to take out twenty of them and end up with forty."
"I don't know if it would even matter." Aziz noted as he took out one with his spiral spear strike and then knelt down to flip another of the oxen creatures over his back. "We're already getting swamped. They're invading Auradon right now."
"I hope the guards are up to the task." Ally noted worriedly as she unleashed several crystal cards on some of the warriors. On their own they weren't enough to take any of them down but it was a great distraction for Audrey and Jay to finish the job.
"This doesn't add up." Melody reflected as she struck down two with the trident. "No minions can just self-replicate like this." She didn't know that Rita Repulsa had once used Super Putties that did just that without a special blaster. One of them grabbed her by the arm and twisted hard and the aqua ranger let out a gasp of pain before kicking it in the shins and then flipping it onto its back. "And we can't keep this up forever."
"She's right, at least as a rule." Jordan agreed as she tried to dodge an axe strike from an oxen. "Hey, watch the edges. That is still my home." The gold ranger snapped at the oxen for all the good that it would do. She then remembered what Sermaya said. "They're not replicating, they're coming from that temple. It's bringing them back as quickly as we can take them out." She realized.
"So we take out the temple and we end the horde then?" Audrey asked.
"That's my thought on it." Jordan answered.
"How do we take something that big out?" Grant asked.
"We need the zords." Ellie concluded simply.
"Then let's make it so." Mal said and raised her hand where the crystalline dragon that right now was her zord resided. She was about ready to summon it when Thenien lashed out and slammed one of its paws hard into the purple ranger. She fell back hard and to her horror the crystalline dragon disappeared into the brush. "No!"
Ben was about ready to summon his own zord but Krona slammed into the young king hard and like Mal's zord his was lost among the brush near the forest. "Not today brother." Krona said to him mockingly.
"It's up to all of you." Mal called out to Audrey. The red ranger nodded and was about to summon the Auradon Megazord but one of the oxen slammed into her. She rolled to a hard stop by Jay.
"I don't think we're going to get the chance here M." Evie cried out in alarm. "We need to come up with a plan b."
Ellie powered up an ice beam and lashed out at Thenien, but to her annoyance the large sphinx monster basically brushed aside the attack and then slashed her across the chest, sending her landing next to Aquiella and Alex.
"Mal!" Amy called out in alarm as she saw Simorgh's beak push against the barrier and pop out. The monster itself was not able to come out just yet but it proved the barrier was weakening. "We're running out of time here!"
"I know." Mal responded. She looked to Jane. "Can we shore that barrier up with our own magic?" She asked the white ranger.
Jane bit her lip in thought even as she dodged what seemed to be a sloppy clothesline from one of the oxen. "Maybe, I don't know enough about that temple to know what kind of effect our magic would have on it. But even if we do, that means its less people we have fighting out here." She finally answered.
"No offense, but is it even worth it?" Grant now questioned. He wasn't sure Mal, Amy, Jordan and Jane could stop it. Jordan notwithstanding they were all still novice magic users and Evie still refused to work much in the way of magic despite it being in her blood, and the elemental magic that Aquiella, Ellie and Alex used weren't going to be much help in that situation. Melody might be able to help with the trident but wouldn't be able contribute much beyond that.
"If it gives us even a few minutes to turn the tide…" Amy started. But she wasn't even sure that would be enough.
"Mal, if there is any chance, we have to take it." Ben said to his purple haired beloved. "Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Lonnie, and Will have to try to handle Thenien so we can try to put this to an end." Although in general he wasn't sure if ignoring her magical background was a good thing or not, in this case Ben thought it might be a good thing that Evie wouldn't be helping to stop the barrier since there were only so many ways that they could improvise the base team.
"I'll help you guys too." Aquiella said to Audrey and then looked to Melody. "Use the trident to try to help them from the magical end." She looked to Ben. "That means the rest of you will have to do all that you can to deal with the oxen warriors."
"Will do." Melody said.
"Then we'll do our best too." Ally added.
"Then let me start by clearing a way." Jordan announced as she aimed her lamp cannon at several of the oxen warriors blocking the way. She unleashed a huge burst of energy that took them down and then said, " Go." Audrey, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Lonnie, Will and Aquiella did as she instructed.
Ben tossed his Praeleanthor sword toward oxen emerging from the temple area and then said, "You're up." Mal, Jane, Amy, and Jordan then started toward the temple as the sword returned to the Auradon Knight.
Thenien leapt up into the air, aiming to come down on the four magic wielding rangers but that was a mistake on his part. Evie raised her mirror force shield and unleashed the storming mirror force attack on Thenien, knocking him out of the skies and onto the ground.
"Quick, while it's down." Audrey said to them. "We have to destroy that monster."
Jay and Carlos leapt out and struck the lion sphinx monster in the chest. This was followed immediately by Lonnie and Audrey. Aquiella was the last with her tidal boomerangs. It fell back but still stood.
"Too bad we can't use the Auradon blaster." Jay noted. Without Mal and her dragon's eye staff there was no way to form either version of the Auradon blaster.
"Then we'll have to go with the next best thing." Audrey replied. "Let's use the Auradon Triangle Spark." There just wasn't enough room for the cannon, it was a miracle that the oxen warriors were being kept at bay.
Mal, Amy, Jane and Jordan touched the force field, as far away from the monsters pressing against it as they could. "This magic feels so strange." The purple ranger reflected. She didn't know if they could contain it.
"I sure don't recognize it." Jordan admitted. Coming from the genie girl that said something as she was the most magically adept of the team. "But we're going to have to try to infuse our magic into it." She laughed though it lacked humor. "Hey genie magic, evil fairy magic, light fairy magic and the trident's magic combining with unknown magic. That should go over really well."
"Yeah, let's bring Evie over here and add witch magic for an even bigger bang." Melody lamented with the same lack of humor. "Possibly literally."
"Let's see what we can do." Mal said. The four of them started to focus their magic on the barrier that kept the monsters in the temple, the aqua ranger keeping a good distance away from the Simorgh's beak which already seemed ready to snap at her.
Lonnie, Evie and Aquiella lined up side by side. Jay and Carlos jumped on the girl's shoulders and then Audrey jumped on the boy's shoulders. They drew their blasters and aimed the Auradon Triangle Spark at Thenien and fired. It struck him back but he roared as he moved out of the ensuing smoke.
"Oh come on." Carlos said.
"No way." Lonnie gasped.
Ben didn't like the looks of this fight at all. Thenien was strong enough that the triangle spark didn't work, they didn't have the room for the Auradon cannon and they couldn't form the blaster without Mal. They couldn't spare the purple ranger if they wanted to try to keep the barrier up. And the oxen just kept coming, they would all become exhausted.
"If you have any ideas now would be a good time." Grant said to Ben. The young king figured that might have been directed more at the semi sentient Praeleanthor sword that sometimes seemed to pull off miracles than it was at him.
"What do we do now?" Ally asked them. The oxen warriors seemed content to close around the gray, Highlands, gold, silver, crystal ranger and the Auradon, Fire and Ice Knight/Dame.
"We have to keep fighting." Melody said. "We can't give up." She wished she could offer more than encouraging words, but the truth was what they needed was what it seemed they didn't have; more help. She was sure those who weren't hiding scared were already trying to fight the oxen warriors that were invading Auradon and were in no position to try to help them even if it was a good idea to do so.
Thenien started toward the five rangers again even as the oxen warriors seemed to have yet another surge of numbers. Melody gasped just a bit as Simorgh's beak tried to snap at her.
"This is over rangers." Sermaya gloated. "You've lost. I will accomplish what both Paradias and even your own mother could not. You have no allies coming to help you win this fight." He remembered hearing about Maleficent casting a spell to strip the rangers of their power only to have the spell backfire and get back up from the Power Rangers, Zeo Rangers and Space Rangers and draining magic and powers from Auradon only to run afoul of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their allies.
"This isn't over as long as any of us are still standing." Evie warned him. So far they hadn't been defeated yet, just put at a serious disadvantage. She hated to admit though that in the long run he could be right.
"I wouldn't say that they don't have any allies coming to help them either." A man said. They turned to see the last people they expected coming from the woods; it was their families. "Mom, dad." Both Ben and Audrey said as they saw Belle, Adam, Aurora and Phillip. Audrey also heard Aquiella gasp, "Aunt Ariel."
"How'd they get here?" Ellie asked as she looked between her mother Queen Elsa and her aunt Princess Anna.
"I'd like to know that too." Miranda said in shock as she saw her mother Merida with them as well. She hadn't seen her mother since she had come to Auradon; her home wasn't exactly close after all.
"That's what I want to know." Aziz said as he saw his parents Sultan Aladdin and Queen Jasmine. Then he thought he knew when he saw Jordan's father Genie. "Magic."
"What kind of foolishness is this?" Sermaya questioned as they had ultimately found themselves joined by Cinderella and her daughter Callie, Rose Red, Snow white, Phillip, Belle, Mulan, Wendy, Whitney, Doug, Merida, Aurora, Aladdin, Jasmine, Alice, Adam, Anna, Elsa and Ariel.
"It's time to end this." Mulan said to Sermaya. "You've put our world and our children in enough danger.' She looked to the ones she came with. "Ready?" She asked and they all nodded.
"And what can all of you do?" Sermaya asked with amusement. Each of the rangers hated to admit it but they were wondering the same thing.