"I'm afraid I have some bad news." Ben said to Mal as he sat down that morning with her to have breakfast. That statement stopped the purple haired girl from reaching over to grab a strawberry to look at the king of Auradon. "I received word late last night that Zevon never made it to the isle."
Mal sighed. "Mother might have been impressed enough by his scheme to take over Auradon to draft him into her little band of misfits." She surmised. So far that included friend (to some) enemy Chad Charming Son of Cinderella and Charming as well as older brother to Whitney, Marcellus the son of Mozenwrath, Undine the elder daughter of Ursula and the monster Jabberwock that had come after them from Wonderland.
"I was also informed that there was another break in at the Auradon Museum." Ben started.
"Okay, I keep saying that place needs its security massively upgraded. I broke in and stole Jafar's staff for Zevon, to say nothing about our break in the night Evie, Jay, Carlos and broke in to try to steal Fairy Godmother's wand." Mal noted.
"We didn't have this problem until recently." Ben laughed a little and Mal had to be just a bit embarrassed considering he was right; none of that had happened before Villain kids from the isle started showing up. "The item that was stolen was the staff of Queen La. And cameras show the thief was none other than our 'old teammate' Gregory."
Mal frowned. Was that connected to Zevon's not making it to isle? Or did they have a rogue on their hands? Still he knew the ranger team well enough that even without powers he'd still be useful to her mother. "We need to be careful then." The purple haired girl decided. "We can't be sure rather he's working with my mother again or if he's decided to strike out on his own but either way he could cause us a few problems."
Ben reached for a piece of toast to spread jelly on it. "We'll deal with it. We always do." He said simply. "I just thought you should know. And we'll have to make sure everyone else knows if they don't know already." He suspected many of them would, many of their friends like Audrey, Lonnie, Melody and Miranda would be told due to their royal status and their other friend's would then be told by those who knew. By the time they got together for tourney or cheer practice that afternoon they would all know.
"If only it were that easy to find out what mother had taken from the public library while most of us was dealing with Shuriki in Avalor." Mal lamented. That was the main problem right now. So far investigations had revealed nothing, but Auradon had a rich history and it might be impossible to find out until the evil fairy chose to act.
"So, what is your sister doing right now?" Ben asked Mal. He knew how much she liked to talk about Amy, and he was also curious. She was very much unlike any of the VK's they had brought over from the isle so far.
Mal bit her lip in thought as she reached for a strawberry now. "Probably either swimming with Aquiella and Melody or having breakfast with Alex." She guessed. She was just waiting for her twin sister and the Arendelle prince to start a romance like she and Ben had, but she was a usually a lot shyer than her purple haired twin. "I have to say sometimes I'm surprised how many of you don't actually have siblings. Is there like some royal decree about that or something?"
"Of course not." Ben replied with a laugh. "I guess it just never came up for my parents and their generation. They had a lot of work to do to get Auradon where it is now. We know of course it didn't stop Wendy or Cinderella, but since Wendy isn't a royal she didn't have as much to worry about when it came to organizing things in our world. And Cinderella...well maybe she just wanted a daughter too."
"Which seems to be the right choice there." Mal noted and grimaced. "Sorry, I know you and Chad used to be like best friends. And Audrey's friend too."
Now the young king sighed. "Yeah, we were. But at this point I don't know how he could come back from what he's done, even if he wanted to." Neither acknowledged the fact that he didn't seem inclined at all to come back. The purple haired girl knew how seductive evil could be, but she doubted anyone on the isle except maybe her own mother truly understood the real power that was being offered by the demons that Chad had essentially become emissary to.
Any further conversation was interrupted by incoming texts for both of them. And both were almost inclined to ignore them, as it could have been anything from their friend's simply saying good morning to (at least in Ben's case) some kind of royal inquiry that he thought could wait. But since there was always that possibility Mal checked anyway and her eyes widened, nearly dropping her strawberry. "Oh my gosh. We have to get to the command center Ben." She looked up at him worried. "It's something called a code red." And she couldn't recall ever seeing a code red and that included Paradias's final attack on the school. They didn't even bother cleaning up before heading out.
They were heading toward the command center and saw Evie and Audrey coming down the stairs. "What is a code red Ben?" Audrey asked him as the two girls joined them. "I've never heard of it."
"Mal and I were just saying that." Ben noted.
"Even when Paradias or Sermaya were doing their huge attacks this never happened." Evie said. "I can't imagine what would be bigger." As they continued several of their other teammates were showing up.
"A code red." Jane mused. When they glanced at her she answered, "One of the kingdoms have been invaded."
"Does anyone else remember when Arendelle was invaded and there was no code red?" Carlos asked as he raised his hand a bit, as if they were in a classroom and not walking rapidly down the hall.
"Given how the Ice Barrier guys and the Ice Queen covertly infiltrated beforehand that's not a surprise." Aquiella reminded him. "I'm guessing we're not talking an infiltration. We have to be talking about an attack. But there are no alarms which means it's not Auradon under attack."
Finally they all entered the command center and Fairy Godmother looked grim. "As Jane may have already told you a code red means a kingdom was just invaded. You all would have heard momentarily anyway as it is getting news coverage as we speak." She revealed.
"Which kingdom? By who?" Will asked.
Fairy Godmother looked to Miranda. "It's Dun Broch. And there have already been multiple demon sightings." She revealed and the red headed girl let out a gasp. "It was Harris himself that sent out the code red to the other kingdoms." That was one of her uncle's.
"We have to get over there now." Miranda declared. "I already know mom will be leading our forces against the demons but those may not be enough."
"Is this a bad time to point out that we're nowhere near Dun Broch?" Jay asked sheepishly.
Jordan shook her head. "Forget that. I'll just pop us over there with my magic." She declared. "They're going to need us."
Fairy Godmother shook her head. "I'm sorry Jordan but that isn't possible." She informed her and the genie girl was about to tell their mentor exactly what she thought about the 'no magic' rule that seemed to go around Auradon for all of their lives but before she could Fairy Godmother continued on, "I already ran a scan and there is some magic barrier preventing magical teleportation. It's not like what we have around the Isle of the Lost, I don't recognize the energy source."
"Fine then." Mal said. "We'll enchant a royal yacht or something for maximum speed and we'll get over there as soon as we can. I don't care if mother is behind this or if the demons are pulling one over on her, we're not going to just stand by and let them attack Auradon."
"Can that be done?" Lonnie asked. "The enchantment thing I mean." All the royals had boats after all. Rumor had it the royal cotillion would be held on one of their boats this year.
Jordan nodded. '"Yeah. It's gonna be a bit draining but, I'll have time to recover before we get there. Getting there is certainly more important." She replied. "And if you all want we can even get live feeds, to make sure things don't get too bad before we get there." No one wanted to point out that if the demons were fast and efficient the invasion would be over and done before they even got there.
"Then let's do it." Ben said. Even though the sword was not present at the moment he could already feel the energy of the Praeleanthor sword.
"I'll come with all of you." Doug said as he placed his hand on Evie's shoulder. "Fairy Godmother can stay here and relay information to me as it comes in. No doubt our sensors will find things that aren't going to be reported on the news."
"What will the other kingdoms responses to this invasion be anyway?" Evie asked as she patted Doug's hand gently with her own.
"They'll no doubt send reinforcements but they'll be hours, at the very least, behind all of us." Audrey replied. "And at the same time all of the other kingdoms are going to be going into a ready status of their own in case the demons decide to attack them. Nothing will change the fact that we'll be the first on the scene one way or another." She already had her iPhone out and was texting her father to ready their yacht.
"We need to get a move on then." Miranda said. "The longer we stand around the longer it will be before we get to Dun Broch." The others nodded in agreement and headed out of the command center and out the school doors. Turned out Belle had sent a limo for them and Audrey directed the driver to the docks, telling him to keep an eye out for her family boat.
"Are you alright?" Ellie asked Miranda as they drove toe the docks.
Miranda nodded. "My mother and my uncle's will keep the demon's busy until we get there to change the tide." She replied. Still Ellie had her doubts that Miranda was as confident as she sounded; this was her family in danger and she remembered when it was her injured aunt Anna showing up at the school talking to them about not knowing the condition of her mother Elsa. She'd press later, in circumstances that weren't so close quartered.
They made it to the docks in what Allie was sure was record time and boarded the yacht, taking off a few minutes later. Jordan went below the decks to magically enchant the engine with Aziz and Grant going with her, the gold ranger holding her lamp where she would go to recover.
"Is Miranda alright?" Allie asked Ellie as the yacht was picking up speed. "This was before your time with us, but I recall rather vividly the terror I was experiencing when my mother Alice disappeared while in Wonderland thanks to Maleficent and the Red Queen."
"She says she is." Ellie sighed as she happened to notice Miranda also going below deck. The yacht likely had an exercise room and suspected that was where the highlands ranger was heading. "But I'm gonna go check on her in a minute." She looked around to see the others talking, but their body language indicated their stress level was high.
"If only we could make this yacht move faster." Melody grimaced as she looked to Aquiella. But the cousins knew that being mermaids didn't mean the yacht could move any faster. "I sure hope there aren't any underwater demons in their ranks."
"Considering some of us are lousy swimmers, or can't swim at all, I'm kinda hoping the same thing." Carlos lamented as he paced. Jane was currently checking for updates, trying to take note of the demons that were appearing. So far nothing seemed worse than the Hell Knights but they all remembered the large demon that had appeared to try to destroy them not too long ago, when Ellie and Alex had came back with the Freezeflame zord.
Amy glanced out at the sea, trying to open up her senses. If anything could help now, she would take it gladly. She was enacting every mental trick she had learned from...sometimes she didn't even know where though she had realized some of those lessons had come all the way from Earth from the Ninja Turtle's rat master Splinter, taught through astral projection.
As she expanded her senses though she found herself receiving something else; Two girls who looked to be about thirteen. The first girl had long, thick hair in a high ponytail started out in the middle of her hair's length with a jeweled jaguar like creature with wings hair comb that seemed to be holding it in place. She was wearing a dress that had no split in the skirt like which was bright purple with the shoulders bared, the bodice had a floral pattern like the top and the skirt had two floral stripes with the same pattern near the bottom. She also looked terrified. The second girl had the same long, thick hair like the other girl but it was in a side ponytail with a green ribbon hanging from it. She wore a flower comb. She had a winged jaguar like bracelet on her left wrist and her aqua colored dress also had no split skirt with colors of dark blue and light blue, she also wore a gray and silver belt. She looked scared as well but nearly as much as the other girl. Multiple six legged spider looking creatures that seemed more like inverted heads with fingers as legs started to emerge behind them. Their heads looked almost human like with the features upside down, though the eyes were clusters rather than two human eyes, each of them releasing sharp, throaty roars. Some however looked more insect like and even released high pitch chirps like a cricket.
Amy shook her head. What was that? There was no way those girls could have been from Dun Broch. But what was that vision from? What did it mean? So far neither Jane nor the news had reported attacks anywhere else in Auradon and yet that vision...She started toward her sister and Ben.
Mal saw her approaching and the expression on her face. "What's wrong?" The purple haired girl asked her rose haired twin sister.
Amy told them her vision. "I have no idea what it means though." She sighed. "But if the demons are attacking anywhere else in Auradon..." There was nothing they could do though.
"According to mom there are no other demon attacks going on." Jane said. "Our sensors are confirming that again. And if they appear like past demons have it'll light up our sensors like a Christmas tree."
Audrey was standing by Jay, his arm around her shoulders. "I hate to say this but should we have Fairy Godmother ask the Earth rangers to stand by?" She asked. "In case we or Auradon need them." They did have experience with the demons already. They may even have known what it was that had gotten away the last fight.
Mal nodded. "I hate to do it too but you're right Audrey." The purple haired girl said. "Jane, ask your mother to alert the megaship and have them stand by." The white ranger nodded and contacted her mother.
Ellie headed below deck, seeing Grant and Aziz heading toward them. "How's Jordan?" She asked the boys.
"Exhausted." Grant said, holding Jordan's lamp. "She hopes to be alright by the time we get to Dun Broch but let's hope she doesn't have to use much magic when we get there. I don't know how much she can do before it brings her down to the point of not being able to fight."
"We'll make sure she doesn't need to do that." Ellie promised. The two boys headed up as Ellie continued down the hall to the workout room. She sure enough found the red head working out punches and kicks on a punching bag that didn't look like it got much attention before now.
After a moment the red head saw the ice wielding blonde. "Ellie, I told you," She delivered a hard right to the punching bag. "Am just," She delivered a left swinging rear punch. "Fine." She emphasized that last word as delivered an explosive round house kick that almost snapped it off the ceiling.
"Yeah, I see." Ellie said as she grabbed two water bottles, using her powers to make one chilly for Miranda. "I know you like being the tough girl and all, but it's okay to tell us how worried you are when your kingdom and your parents are in grave danger. We've all been there, even the VK's by unofficial adoption." She offered the water bottle to the pretty red head.
Miranda took it with a small nod of thanks and took a drink. After she swallowed she sighed, "Yeah...yeah I'm worried. I meant it when I said they could handle things. At least normally. But the demons...we've seen what they can do. We've heard the stories. So yeah, I'm worried." It was weird as she was worried they would all think of less of her. She'd always been one of the most balanced of their team.
Ellie came up behind her and placed her hand on Miranda's shoulder, though she ended up playing with a strand of her curly red hair. "Then you know they can at least hold up until we get there. And they'll keep the casualties light. It's the best we can hope for." She knew it was only so much comfort and understood that. She wrapped her arms around Miranda's waist in a hug.
Miranda reached her free hand down to place it over Ellie's right hand, the one on top. After a minute she turned to look at the future queen of Arendelle, which made the blonde release her hold on her waist. "I appreciate it. I appreciate everything ye've done for me since we met." She admitted.
"You were there for me when Arendelle was in crisis. You specifically ran out to help us." Ellie reminded her. "I owe you...we owe you the same thing."
"Ye owe me nothing Ellie." Miranda told her with a small smile. Ellie smiled back at her and then the red head, caught in the moment, leaned down and pressed her lips against the blonde's lips in a soft kiss. Miranda almost expected her to pull back..
But Ellie did not, instead raising her arms to wrap them around Miranda's neck as she deepened the kiss a little. Both got so lost that they jumped when they heard a throat clearing and moved apart slightly to see Alex at the door with Amy. "Are we interrupting anything?" He questioned with a mischievous smile.
"Not at all." Ellie said with a blush.
Amy only giggled now. "Yeah, that's not what it looked like to me. You two are so in lo-ove." She gushed with more giggles of joy. Miranda only gave the rose haired girl a mock glare as Ellie's blush deepened but laughed a little.
"Did ye two come here for a reason?" Miranda asked curiously now.
"We wanted to make sure you were okay." Alex said. "But I guess Ellie beat us to it...and then some."
"I can feel you weren't. Still aren't." Amy reminded her before the red head could protest. "But that's okay, we'll make it right. But I'm really glad that you found something else to at least think about. And I don't mean beating up the poor defenseless punching bag."
"Aren't you supposed to be doing something else? Anything else?" Ellie teased her rose hair colored friend. That only made her laugh and shake her head no.
Miranda took a deep breath and then asked what she dreaded, "Has anything changed since we left?" Ellie took the red haired girl's hand and squeezed it softly in comfort.
"No." Amy replied. "You're right, your mother's army is holding their own though I think they've avoided combat with the Hell Knights. Mostly the Imps, a few Revenant's...apparently they learned to gum up the rockets with arrows, even if they aren't magical. Mal thinks either they're holding back, waiting for a bigger battle, i.e. us or..."
"Or this is one dangerous diversion." Alex finished.
Ellie looked to her apparently new girlfriend. "What would they want in Dun Broch if not to conquer or destroy?" She asked.
Miranda bit her lip in thought a moment but shook her head. "I can't think of anything they would want in Dun Broch." She confessed to them. "Aside from the obvious conquer or destroy. We're not exactly known for having the rare magical items like Auradon is, we certainly don't have a museum. None of our ruins are that impressive, at least as far as I know."
"But we still have no idea what it was that Maleficent and Chad found at the library while we were in Avalor or being distracted by Marcellus, Chad and Jabberwock." Alex reminded them. "They could have found something."
"And the only we will know is when we get there, unless our command center's sensors tell us anything different." Miranda sighed. She couldn't wait to get there. "I guess we best join our friends, we need to try to make some kind of plan before we get there." The four of them headed out of the gym but Amy did note one thing; Miranda and Ellie did not let go of each other's hands.
They came on deck and Amy could see most of her friend''s could see the difference. She heard Audrey lean over to Lonnie and whisper, "It's about time." And she found she couldn't have agreed more with the Auradon princess at that moment.
Mal noticed, gave them both small smiles which lasted a little longer on Miranda as her 'counterpart' and then had to ask the obvious, "You going to hold up okay Miranda? We're gonna need your help big time with this."
Miranda gave their leader and her friend a small smile. "I'll make it." She promised.
Jane took a small breath. "A few Pain Elementals showed up not long ago, and they're doing their spitting out Lost Souls bit." She informed them. "But we all know the Lost Souls are easily dealt with and without those things the Pain Elementals aren't much of a threat."
"Not much in the way of upping up the ante." Grant noted dryly.
"You can say that again." Ruby said. "Some stuff I read while we were helping the Power Rangers in their world suggests Pain Elementals can only, uh, generate a certain number of Lost Souls at a time. The more of those things they use at a time the less effective they actually are. To say nothing of the major uselessness of the flaming skulls themselves."
Which Lonnie knew was an advantage in itself though, the term cannon fodder existed for a reason. "They probably have something more powerful, if that giant demon thing we fought not so long ago is any indication." She agreed. "Maybe they have some kind of hidden agenda."
"We discussed that." Miranda revealed. "But I cannae think of anything in Dun Broch that would be worth their time."
"Was that before or after your make out session?" Carlos asked with a smirk and got hit by a large strand of hair from Ruby. "Ow." He deadpanned. Amy tsked at him.
"Serves you right." Audrey gloated.
"There's also been no sign of anything except demons." Jane added, saving Carlos any more potential harassment over his attempt to poke fun at the two girls. "No sign of Undine, no sign of Marcellus, no sign of Chad." She glanced at the twins. "No sign of Maleficent."
"Maybe they aren't there." Amy suggested.
Mal thought a second. "Or maybe they avoided individual detection by coming in with the demons." She surmised.
"Is that even possible?" Will asked.
Jane, Carlos and Doug exchanged glances. It was the son of Dopey that finally answered, "It's possible. Our sensors record when demons show up, but they don't really record who comes in. They could have shown up with any number of invading Imps."
"Why haven't any of Queen Merida's people seen them though?" Allie wondered now. "They don't really blend in and aren't exactly subtle, if you know what I mean."
"If they aren't on the front lines then they wouldn't be seen." Evie pointed out reasonably. "Though I can't imagine why Maleficent, if she's involved in this at all, would keep any of them off the front lines if they are trying to conquer Dun Broch."
"I think we might have to divide our forces for this one Mal." Ben said.
Mal frowned but nodded. "Yep, I think you're right." The purple haired girl sighed. "When we dock I'll take Audrey, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Ben, Lonnie and Amy and we'll see if we can get further inland." She wished she could have taken Miranda with them as it was her kingdom and she would know it best, but she would want to be on the front lines with her family. "Miranda, you'll take everyone else and help your family and people deal with the demons."
Miranda took a deep breath. "I should be with your team. It's my terrain." She noted. But you didn't have to be newly minted girlfriend Ellie or empath Amy to know how much that took out of her to say.
"No, you need to be with your people." Mal said to her. "You need to defend your kingdom. If our mother did sneak in without our sensors knowing, Amy and I will be able to follow her magical essence to her."
"And if Chad is there, he'll have that Maledict blade." Ben reminded the highlands ranger. "Even with all the demonic energy flying around from the invasion my Praeleanthor sword will still be able to track it like a magnet."
"See, it may not be our territory but we have our own ways of finding out if we have other things we need to worry about." Audrey chimed in now. "We'll do our job, you do yours. Your parents, your kingdom, your family, and you yourself have to do this."
"She's right honey." Ellie said.
Miranda knew she wasn't going to win this one, not that she really wanted to when all was said and done. "Alright then, I'll lead everyone else and we'll deal with the demons."
"Hey." They turned to see Jordan had appeared out of her lamp at some point. "I'm glad we got this sorted out, and I'm glad you two finally decided to give it a shot," She looked to Ellie and Miranda with a small smile. "But it's time. We're almost there."
And they were indeed getting ready to dock. They all stood side by side, Ben formed his sword and shield, Jane her wand. Everyone else raised their iPhone's. Mal took a deep breath. "Let's get to work." She declared as they morphed.