The morphed Auradon ranger team stood on the docks. "I sure hope you know what you're doing Mal." Audrey noted with a glance at their team leader.
"I hope I do too." Mal admitted reluctantly. There were times it sucked to be the team leader...now, for one. Seeing the soldiers of Dun Broch dealing with the demons they could see was already drawing up nerves. "My team, stay back until we get a bit of clearance. Miranda, take your team out at your discretion."
Miranda nodded. "Let's do it then." She said as she raised her grizzly blades and leapt into the fray. She already felt Will beside her with his recursive sword drawn up to come down on an Imp. On her other side Melody struck with her trident.
One of the Hell Knights turned toward them and tossed a fireball but Ellie used her ice powers to bring up a shield to protect them. Then Aquiella and Aziz jumped over the ice barrier and brought the tidal boomerang and spiral spear down to slash the larger demon backwards.
Miranda was slightly annoyed, if not all that surprised, to see her mother Merida on the front lines with a sword in hand but her own trusty bow across her shoulders with a quiver of arrows. "What are ye doing here mom?" The Highlands ranger still couldn't help but ask as she cleaved through a random Imp in the way.
"I wasn't about te let these things any closer to the castle then they already were sweetheart." Merida reminded her. "We left a contingent of guards to keep the castle and your grandmother safe, but the rest of us had to come out here." Miranda knew that meant somewhere on the battlefield were her triplet uncles Harris, Hubert and Hamish were also out there fighting.
Miranda couldn't exactly argue plus if her mother really wanted to put her foot down on it she could have probably could have put a stop to her daughter being a ranger. "Still, wouldn't you leading from the back make more sense?" She wondered.
Merida laughed a bit. "Yeah, probably. But ye've heard your grandmother and uncle's stories. Ye know I don't like bein' on the side lines." She replied. Which was fair, like mother like daughter. And so the two kept fighting.
"So where are we going?" Carlos asked as he cleaved an Imp out of the way. For the fun of it Jay had jumped up and landed on a Revenant, using his soul scimitar to chop off not only the missile launchers on either side of the head, but the head as well. It wasn't often decapitation was a workable solution.
"Hang on a second." Mal said as she raised her dragon's eye staff. For this though no complex spell was needed, this was her weapon and hers alone. "Guide us to my mother." She requested, more specifically the magical crystal ball on the top of the staff that she had received from Belle what seemed like a long time ago. The jewel glowed and she almost swore she saw a light green string heading past the battlefield and into the forest.
"Didn't Miranda once say her mother Merida found Mor'du in that forest?" Evie asked her chosen sister.
"Yeah, yeah she did." Mal confirmed as she looked to her blue haired chosen sister. "But she also said Merida set him free. So my mother and whoever she brought with her is all we have to worry about."
"I'm pretty sure Chad is with her too." Ben added from behind the two girls. "My sword is pulsing, and that's been getting stronger the closer we get to the forest." There was still a lot they didn't know about the Praeleanthor sword. In fact all they knew was that it was a relic from an ancient civilization which in fact had lost to the demons who knows how long ago and that it seemed to be auto demon killer after taking out five other demons. Princess Elena of Avalor had even mentioned using that power restored energy, but they had never felt that as their powers didn't really drain them, unlike the crown princess who lost energy whenever she used her scepter of light's blaze attack.
"Well I don't know what mom wants, but we better stop her from getting it." Amy decided. She didn't really like her mother anymore than her mother cared for her younger rose haired daughter but somehow to call her anything other than that or 'mother' as her purple haired twin sister did somehow came off as wrong, she mused it must be the whole respect thing that made her inherently good despite being raised on the isle of the lost.
"Lead the way honey." Ben said and Mal felt herself smile underneath her helmet before doing just that. The few Imps that got in their way were taken out by Jay, Lonnie and Ben respectively.
"They're leaving?" A soldier questioned incredulously.
"They're tracking the perpetrators of this invasion." Ruby corrected as she whipped her hair around and slapped a Revenant hard enough to slam into the ground, which then got finished off by Jordan and her lamp cannon. "Totally different things."
"Though it is too bad we couldn't get Ben to stay." Jane noted as dodged a large fist from a Hell Knight. "That sword of his would really help against these bigger demons." She then unleashed a magical blast to force the demon backwards with a roar of annoyance.
"True, but we'll make it work." Ellie replied as she tossed her ice chakram at an Imp, taking it out. "We only need to hold off until Mal and everyone drives Maleficent and whoever is with her away. I bet when that happens these demons will run." Though she knew much like the creatures of the ice barrier that had attacked her home of Arendelle that a lot of damage had already been done regardless.
From behind her another glow emerged and this time a large horned demon appeared behind the ice dame. This one was tan in color, with long curving black horns and two small, beady golden eyes set very far apart from each other and had a flat face with flush nostrils and sharp teeth with two large upward-facing tusks as the lower canines. The creature's pelvis and entire right leg were cybernetic in nature, while the left leg has a cybernetic upper section but is mostly organic. Its left arm has been replaced with a rocket launcher like weapon. The abdomen was exposed, revealing a mixture of wires and gore inside the body. With a massive swing of the rocket launcher it clocked Ellie and sent her sprawling backwards.
"Ellie!" Miranda gasped as she cleaved the two Imps in front of her and started to run toward her new girlfriend. She was barely aware of the large demon raising its left arm as it started letting loose a three rocket barrage.
"Oh snap." Jordan said. "That's gonna be a problem." Soldiers were already moving as fast as they could to avoid the attacks though even the splash damage from the rockets was causing issues, one of them sending two guards flying only to land roughly and the genie girl was sure they had broken at least one rib, probably more. If the direct attack had connected there would be almost nothing left.
"I think we could really use Ben and that sword now." Grant deadpanned. How in heaven's name were they going to deal with that? He then had to move to dodge a rocket, and the splash damage still sent him flying a bit, though his ranger suit protected him from even major damage like most of the soldiers would incur. He also noticed something else; the demons were not immune to this large demon's splash damage as it had inadvertently taken out two Imps that had been too close to him.
"If we survive this, we're definitely making some time to see that Demon Encyclopedia that Mateo was talking about." Allie decided. They could only hope this thing was unique, they weren't even sure how to deal with this one.
Aziz started toward the large demon, barely dodging a rocket and rolling with the now associated splash damage as he moved in and stabbed the large demon in the organic leg. It growled and swiped at him, "Nope." The silver ranger decided as he barely dodged it. Alex was moving in from behind though they weren't sure something as large as this demon could truly be flanked.
"Ellie are ye alright love?" Miranda asked as she knelt beside the Ice Dame and moved to gently help her up.
"My head is ringing a bit but I'm okay sweetie." Ellie replied. Though she had no doubt without these powers she probably would have had every bone in her body shattered. "Damn that thing hits hard though. And I think the only demon we've seen worse than that is the large one we fought not long ago." She recovered her ice chakram and with help from her girlfriend she stood up. "We have to take that thing down, before it does more damage."
"Agreed, but I don't know how we're gonna do that." Miranda said. They moved to join Alex and Aziz to confront the large cybernetic monster. To make it more interesting Alex used a fire attack on the monster which did hurt it but also showed that it had metal like bones underneath the skin as well. That would make it even harder to kill.
"At this point I'd settle for Mal or Audrey being here with their battlizer." Melody admitted. "Because even that might be stronger against this thing." Luckily with four rangers surrounding it and striking it was at least stopping the demon from using its deadly rockets at everyone.
"Does anyone know what kind of demon that thing is?" Merida questioned.
"No, ma'am." Aquiella replied. "This one is new on us too." This demon hadn't been used by Shuriki when she had crashed the Tri-Kingdom picnic in Enchancia. Which was just as well because there was no way they could have destroyed that without their powers, there was debate on rather it could be done with their powers right now. She wasn't even sure she could take off that rocket launcher with her powered up aqua boomerangs.
And now matters got worse as the right hand projected a red energy blade and swung, connecting with the four close combat rangers and striking them backwards. Again if it weren't for the ranger powers that probably would have killed all four of them. "Well that's just peachy." Aziz sighed. "It can defend against us in close too."
Ellie bit her lip in thought. It hit hard and had both short and long range offense. But it had also take it a moment to actually strike the four of them. It had even taken a moment to react to being surrounded by the four of them. The fact it had smacked her hard not withstanding, the thing itself seemed relatively slow even if it was very intimidating and seemed powerful. "That's it." She gasped to herself softly. "I know how we defeat this thing."
"Anyone else worried about the fact this is too easy?" Audrey questioned even as she had her silver bow drawn and ready to summon her energy arrows if needed. But so far there had been demons, no Chad, no Jabberwock, no nothing. The only creepy thing they had seen (depending on who one asked) was the snake slithering up a tree.
Carlos shrugged. "Never look a gift horse in the mouth...whatever a gift horse is." He concluded.
"Normally I'd love to agree with you Carlos." Lonnie replied. "But outside of the forest is a huge demon invasion going on. How did none of them follow us? How is it they didn't leave any guards just in case someone stumbled in here after them?"
"She has access to Heartless." Amy sighed. It was almost amusing to see her run with the rose lance since in truth the weapon was almost as big as the rose haired rose ranger was herself. "And none of them were there invading. Mom's either getting overconfident or she wants to be followed for some reason." Because Maleficent had to know they would show up as soon as possible.
"Why would your mother want that though?" Ben wondered. It just didn't make sense though Amy had to take a moment to be amazed that the young king of Auradon could keep up easily with the knight armor he wore.
They quickly found their way to a ruin, more specifically Mal recalled the ruin that Merida ultimately defeated Mor'du at. And whoever was with her evil fairy mother had started to dig underground. "Looks like we're taking a detour." She mused.
"Great." Audrey sighed. "I hate going underground. At least the helmet protects my hair from the dirt."
Carlos smirked. "Yeah, because that's the most important thing." He poked fun at her.
Lonnie ignored the conversation. "I don't get it. Why go underground? Some sort of burial chamber?" She posited.
"Maybe." Mal said. "And there is only one way we can find out. It'd be nice to have that scepter of light's glow power right now." They had no real way to light their way but they thought it would be okay as they started to slip into the hole.
"We're all ears Ellie." Aziz assured her. "How do we get rid of big, strong and ugly?"
"Alex, go get Allie and Jordan and send them our way." Ellie instructed her cousin. He nodded and headed off to grab the gold and crystal rangers. "Miranda, Aziz, move in and attack close up."
Aziz had to gape a little. "Didn't we just establish the whole strong thing to go with ugly?" He wondered as he raised his spiral spear.
"It's also slow, stay on the move and it'll be hard for it to get a good strike back." Ellie told him. "On top of that I'm gonna stay at this range and attack, that way it'll have to vary between dealing with you two or trying to deal with me. All we have to do is hold up for Allie and Jordan."
"Yeah, that's all we have to do." Aziz drawled. "Okay let's get to it." The Highlands ranger nodded and they headed toward the tall demon. Miranda jumped up, landed hard on the demon's shoulder and then used her grizzly blades to glide down the tall demon's back. It tried to turn even as Aziz moved in to attack while it was turning around.
Ellie tossed her ice chakram's at the large demon, further distracting it as it was trying to turn toward her girlfriend. That allowed Aziz to strike at its arm, revealing more of the mechanical structure underneath it. It'd be quite an interesting thing to reverse engineer if it weren't for the whole evil demon thing.
Allie and Jordan rushed over to stand beside Ellie now. "Okay so how are we gonna take out big, ugly and gruesome over there?" Jordan asked.
"Get with Jay and form your Auradon Cannon." Ellie instructed the two girls. "Miranda can keep that thing busy for another few moments."
Allie looked nervous. "I may be somewhat mistaken but unless I'm wrong that large demon will get an attack off on us before we get our weapon fully together." She pointed out. "Miranda can't change that."
"Nope, that's on me." Ellie admitted. "If this works you'll see. If it doesn't...I have no follow up response that will sound good." Jordan rolled her eyes but grabbed Allie's arm and started toward their silver ranger.
"About time." Aziz said as he saw the two girls. "So I'm guessing we're using the Auradon Cannon. How are we gonna do this without getting blasted by big ugly?" He questioned.
Jordan shook her head. "Ellie says she has a plan. And Miranda will keep him distracted a bit too." She replied, sounding just slightly dubious. No one could blame the genie girl for that, this thing seemed almost unbeatable. "Well, nothing we can do but give it a shot."
Even as Jordan raised her lamp cannon so that Aziz could hook his spiral spear underneath it the large demon was turning toward the three rangers. Miranda reacted by trying to slash at its leg but unfortunately she was hitting the cybernetic leg so it wasn't feeling much in the way of those impacts. The launcher was aimed at the three rangers as Allie was placing her crystal cards in the spout of the lamp cannon. Before the demon could attack though Ellie let her ice chakram's fall to the ground so that she could unleash the strongest beam of ice she could at it. Luckily it was strong enough to freeze the demon solid.
"Great plan." Jordan realized. "Frozen it can't attack us. And hopefully our attack will be strong enough to shatter the thing into yucky demon pieces, assuming it doesn't vaporize like its brethren do."
Miranda backed off so that she wouldn't have to worry about any impact from her friend's weapons, tensing a bit when she saw her girlfriend fall to her knees in exhaustion. It was at that moment that a Revenant decided to dive at her to try and attack but before the highlands ranger could let out a scream of warning her mother dropped her sword to raise her bow, nocked an arrow rapidly, and fire it. The arrow struck the jet pack and the skeletal demon spiraled out of control and crashed, only to get taken out permanently by Will. Miranda breathed a sigh of relief at her girlfriend being rescued.
With the Auradon cannon ready the three of them fired at the large frozen demon, thankfully making it explode. Jordan wasn't sure if she was disappointed or not that there didn't seem to be any demony chunks among the ruins, just mostly ice...and some metal pieces.
Ruby was slightly dismayed by the fact the demons didn't seem the least bit affected by the destruction of their big and ugly friend. She knew just enough about conflict to know most troops would experience some kind of demoralization with a heavy hitter or advantage taken out (her friends could attest to that) and yet it was like they hadn't just accomplished something major. But the fight had to continue on.
Lonnie couldn't really blame Audrey for being dubious about going underground. She wasn't fond of it herself, if this narrow and hastily built tunnel decided to come down on them they would be buried and while it was hard to tell if they would suffocate as a result, what with wearing helmets and all, the fact was they could still die from dehydration in days if no one found them. She took small comfort in the fact that Amy's intangibility would allow her to escape and hopefully find help...if their friends and the people of DunBroch survived the demon assault.
"I wish this spell came with a distance counter." Amy admitted. She would have loved to know how deep underground they were going to have to travel. Combine that with the fact if worse came to worse she had never tested how long she could be intangible. She couldn't be sure that becoming tangible in solid ground would be a bad thing or not and she had no real desire to test that out.
"Well we have only been traveling a few minutes." Evie reminded her reasonably. "So we can't be that far underground at the moment." She too hoped they didn't have to go too much further though. After all fighting became more problematic the further they went down. But perhaps that was what her chosen sister's mother wanted.
"I think we're getting closer." Ben told them all. "Your spell may not have a distance counter, and while I'm not sure I would call my sword an accurate distance tracker but the feeling I get from it is getting stronger."
And it only took a moment longer for them to find a larger chamber had been opened. Mal was sure that meant they had reached their destination. The next problem was now in front of them; what trouble was her and Amy's mother getting them into now?
As they approached the chamber they found some mounds to hide behind as they scoped the scene out. It was certainly not what they were expecting at all though. Naturally Maleficent was present and she seemed to be using her scepter to search for something from the ground. That much was predictable. As was the presence of Chad (hence all the demons in the first place), Marcellus the son of Mozenwrath, Zevon the son of Yzma and Undine the elder daughter of Ursula.
What they hadn't entirely expected was to see Gregory there as well, though perhaps they shouldn't have been surprised after the information they had received before the Dun Broch invasion. And what they hadn't really expected to see where the two new arrivals.
The first was a white haired, dark skinned girl in scantily clad leopard fur clothing, as if she spent all of her time in the jungle. Which Mal in fact knew she did, as the grey eyed girl was Lala, the daughter of Queen La. The only thing to mar her skin (and they could see a lot of that) was a harsh looking scar on her left shoulder and the remnants of claw marks on her left leg. She wore necklace made of some kind of animal tooth around her slender neck. Which made all the more sense why she held the stolen leopard headed staff that Gregory had stolen in her hands. She stood stiffly and Mal wasn't sure why that was; she also couldn't exactly understand why it was that she was even here. While Lala was certainly more evil than Amy (that wasn't hard) she was nowhere near even the realistic level of evil that she and her chosen siblings had displayed on the isle of the lost.
The other girl was an even bigger shock to Jay, for he knew her well, or at least as well as he could given how anything worked on the isle...even family. Only a foot away from Lala stood a girl a little younger than him in an emerald tank top and blue jean shorts, her long dark hair in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. "Jade...what is she doing here?" He mused softly. Why would his cousin agree to join Maleficent?
"We have some company." Chad stated and Amy flinched a bit. That connection of course worked two ways. The Maledict blade was 'tuning' to the Praeleanthor sword as well. "Come on out Audrey, give us a kiss."
"Gross." Audrey shuddered and Mal placed a comforting hand on her second in command's shoulder before they all stepped out to face them.
"Well it figures you all would show up here." Maleficent glared. "You're all like moths to a flame. Too bad the demons didn't burn you in the process."
"Not all of them made it." Marcellus noted. Some of them were missing including his self-proclaimed rival Aziz and the genie girl. "Hopefully the demons got some of them at least."
"Dream on." Evie retorted.
"I feel like this is a repeat." Mal sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest, although this time her dragon's eye staff was in her right hand. "What are you up to now mother?" The purple haired purple ranger questioned.
"Just uncovering some artifacts, one would think you'd be proud of your dear mother for doing something so 'good and noble'." Maleficent taunted.
"We all know whatever your intentions are, they aren't noble." Amy reminded her. Their mother's actions would never fall into that category.
"What about you?" Evie questioned Lala. "What are you doing here? How you even off the isle?" The VK's knew that LaLa was not the most vocal VK on the isle, but they were all very surprised that the jungle girl didn't even respond to what one could easily consider a challenge.
"What about you Jade?" Jay questioned his cousin. "What do you get out of this?"
"A chance Jay." Jade stated simply. "A chance for a real life. And for revenge. Auradon has to pay for what it's done to us. And the four of you used to know that before you got brainwashed by people like him," She motioned to Ben. "And to the...what did you once call them Mal...pretty pink princesses."
"Jade, it's not quite as simple as we were taught." Mal started.
"Isn't it?" Jade questioned. "Or is it simple and you've just lost your way. Either way, I won't lose mine."
"That doesn't do you much good." Audrey commented. "You're on the losing side, you have no real powers and we've beaten all of these guys before...well except for your jungle buddy but I can't see how she's going to overpower us."
Maleficent laughed. "Overconfident aren't you? Let's see how that plays out." She remarked and then ordered, "Attack them, until I get what we came for." Undine, Chad, Marcellus and to their slight surprise Lala stepped forward and then headed toward the rangers.
"Since when did the queen of the jungle take orders?" Carlos asked as they braced for impact. Lala was no fool, she knew Maleficent had more power than her. But she had also never really showed any interest in conflict that didn't result in something beneficial to her.
Marcellus shot out a beam of energy from his glove and the rangers dodged out of the way of it. They were limited in what kind of response they could give if they didn't want to bring this cavern down on them all...something however it seemed their opponents had no compunction over.
Carlos moved in to stop him from shooting anything more than he already had. "Are you trying to take us all down?" The yellow ranger asked. "Because blast enough and that's exactly what you're going to do."
"How little you understand," Marcellus smirked as he wrapped Carlos in magic. "I just needed to bait the trap."
"Your mistake." Evie said as she stood in front of her friend to block the magic. "Getting in close is not your friend."
Mal intercepted Lala, her dragon's eye staff clashing with the leopard staff. "What is you're getting out of this Lala?" She questioned the jungle girl. "You don't want power, or control, or anything like that."
For the first time she spoke, her voice almost husky. "You talk too much." And with that the scantily clad girl deflected the dragon's eye staff to the side and delivered a savage kick to Mal, if the purple haired girl were not morphed it probably would have broken a rib or two.
"So we meet again little one." Undine almost purred to Amy, if such a sound could be emitted by a sea creature like witch like her. "Care to play a little game?"
"The only game I want to play is keep away." Amy answered as she took a couple of steps back and raised her rose lance, ready to strike at the demented sea witch if a tentacle so much as moved toward her.
"I always kind of liked duck, duck, goose myself." Lonnie revealed as she leapt over Amy and delivered a kick into Undine's chest. "Really there was a lot less running to be done in the long run."
"Speaking of running, do you plan on running again little princess?" Chad taunted Audrey as he drew close to the red ranger he was obsessing over.
"You're really accusing me of running?" Audrey gaped a little. "You ran to evil because you couldn't handle the changes that Jay and the other VK's were bringing to the isle Chad."
"No, I'm doing what they didn't have the guts to do." Chad said as he swung at Audrey. She barely rolled out of the way but got kicked in the chest as a result and that made him laugh. "That would have been better if you weren't morphed, but I think I can change that." He moved in for another attack.
Ben moved in and blocked the attack as Jay kicked him backwards. "You need a new hobby." Jay told him. "Because this hobby has run its course."
The Auradon Knight and future king moved in to attack his former friend now. "He's right Chad. I don't know if it's even possible right now as it is, but you're crossing a line you can't come back from." Ben said.
"You already crossed that line when you brought those VK's from the isle and then decided you wanted to make one of them your queen." Chad retorted as they clashed.
Gregory and Jade did share one thing in common at that moment; the desire to be doing something more than just standing around. Neither of them could stand up against the power of the power rangers. But Jade hoped Maleficent kept her word; she had agreed to work with them to make herself stronger.
Mal recovered from the hit and stood up. She had never fought Lala before this and she had to give her credit, she fought well. But she wasn't a ranger. She used her dragon's eye staff to blast a surge of energy at Lala. To her credit she did try to block it but the power of the dragon was stronger and knocked her backwards.
Lonnie and Amy double slashed Undine, Ben and Jay double slashed Chad, while Carlos vaulted over Evie's shoulders to slash Marcellus with his claws and the four villains stumbled back closer to where the two non combatants and Maleficent was. The evil fairy looked slightly annoyed to have seen this demonstration of team work from her brat daughters and their friends. "It's over mother." Mal stated. "Have your little lapdog," She glared at Chad. "Send the demons back to the pit they came from and leave Dun Broch in peace."
At that moment some of the dirt shifted and Maleficent laughed as a large bear claw rose to the surface. She grabbed at it and laughed. "At last, I found it." She said and looked at her eldest daughter. "It seems like it's not over after all."
"You found a bear claw." Jay smirked. "We're so scared."
Marcellus saw a gold object and picked it up now. Jay recognized it as a lamp and had a strange sense of nostalgia at the memories of his father seeing lamps and rubbing each one in the hopes that one of those would contain a genie that would change his misfortune. It never panned out of course. And seeing Marcellus rub this lamp himself was almost comical...
...until smoke started to emerge from the lamp, admittedly surprising all of them. When that smoke cleared a very well developed, very beautiful blonde stood there wearing a silky white top, more like a bra than anything else with her right shoulder bare and a silky semi-transparent white skirt with a huge slit up the side of her left leg. Her ocean blue eyes looked around very confused, as she glanced around a gold necklace with an emerald bobbed against her chest. Finally her eyes settled on Marcellus and with a soft voice asked, "How may I serve you master?"
"No way." Jay sighed even as Marcellus's mouth split into something between a smile and a leer, and Amy could tell what his thoughts about the beautiful genie girl were. They were not pleasant.
Gregory recognized what he saw on her necklace. "Give me that." He snapped and grabbed at her necklace, also scratching some of her skin, rather it was intentional or not was hard to tell, as he tore the emerald away. "At last..."
But the emerald flew out of his hand and before Jade could react slipped into her palm. She remained unsure of what to do with it until it glowed a moment later and enveloped her body. She couldn't see the immediate effect but her 'allies' and the Auradon rangers could. They witnessed as a dark green ranger costume encompassed her body.
"You've got to be kidding me." Mal sighed. The last thing her mother needed was a power ranger on their side, just as she once had with Gregory back when he had stolen the gray ranger powers after they made the mistake of trusting him.
"Well, this is an interesting development." Jade remarked as she glanced down at herself and then back at the other rangers. "Very interesting indeed."