August 29, 2025
"WHAT THE FU-"
Lucy Sparks didn't have time to finish her sentence as the monster bashed a chair into her head. To her surprise, the impact splintered the chair into three pieces, leaving the Green Ranger relatively unharmed. It still hurt, though.
"OW! That hurt!" she complained, stating the obvious. On an impulse, Lucy retaliated with a swift punch to the monster's gut, sending them tumbling a few feet away.
Unfortunately, this only enraged the beast, and they began roaring and flailing around aimlessly.
"Eep!" Lucy recoiled, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
The monster let out a low, guttural growl, its four arms uncoiling into what could have been thousands of extended wires, all tipped with crackling electrical sparks, and they were all pointing at Lucy.
"Um… I don't suppose we could talk about this?" Lucy took a cautious step back before tripping on an inconveniently placed chair leg.
"Figures."
The avalanche of wires danced in the air as they began chasing Lucy, resembling tendrils ferociously hunting their prey. She could barely feel her heart, a faint rhythm in her chest matching the sounds of a steam train letting out its final puff of air. The wires pierced her skin, time slowing and leaving her with lasting burns. As the Ranger cried in pain, multiple wires converged near her left chest, aiming for the heart. With one more swoop, they went for the kill-
— POOF —
-And a gaseous cloud of smoke materialized around the room. This smoke cloud differentiated itself from the previous one, as it looked like something directly out of Naruto?! The smoke eventually cleared, and in the place where Lucy once stood was a straw scarecrow, the words "何てことだ" written on a note attached to it.
The monster scanned the empty classroom to the best of its ability (How is it doing that? It doesn't have eyes). But wherever Lucy had disappeared to, she had left no trace of her appearance. Frustrated at a smoke cloud interrupting an extremely hearty meal, they smashed through a window, hoping to find more power to consume.
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Meanwhile, 500 feet above Stone Canyon
"I'm out? I'm out. I'M OUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTT…"
Lucy began plummeting toward the smooth, ever-so-crashable pavement right in the center of Fillmore Plaza. The view took her breath away. It was all so beautiful yet terrifying, very terrifying. The skyscrapers glistened in the afternoon light. The multiple stores and plazas are all bustling with life. Even the abnormally large flag pole looked…" Her eyes widened, "Wait. Flag Pole? Flag pole!
Suddenly, a way to not become the World's Flattest Girl (not that way, I swear) embedded itself into Lucy's mind, downloading into her subconscious. As if she had been practicing for years, her mind thought of the word "There." the green ribbons wrapped around her arms stretched around the flagpole in her vision, shifting her trajectory from diving awkwardly through the city to swinging gracefully across the afternoon air.
"Woah! How did I do that?" she yelled, clutching the ribbons.
The wind breezed across her face as she softly landed in an intersection, cars blaring their horns as she tumbled for a while. Her body ached, and the constant noise definitely wasn't helping.
"I want to go to bed," she thought, grasping her probably broken ribcage. She pushed herself up and looked at her hands, black and green gloves still outfitting them, and the gravity of what had just transpired finally set in.
"I'm a Power Ranger. Oh my god. I'm a Power Ranger," she mumbled in between gasps of air. Underneath her helmet, her expression turned grim. But before she could say anything more, her exhaustion gave way, and she promptly passed out.
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"Hey," greeted a voice from the shadows.
Lucy's head shot up as she awoke from a deep sleep, frantically hugging her ribcage. She grabbed a drill-like weapon thingy from beside her bed and pointed it towards the direction the voice had come from.
"WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?! She screamed, filled with determination and panic.
"Woah. Woah. Hold on. Is this how you say hi to all your friends?" replied the voice. Exiting the shadows, Lucy met with a familiar face and a more familiar red and white jacket.
"BEN?!"
"Yep, that's my name." Ben stepped toward the bed, sitting on a nearby office chair and grabbing the drill thingy from Lucy's grip, "Please don't touch my Drill Crusher. I just got it delivered from Buyee, and shipping costs soooo much these days."
"Oh, sorry…," Lucy's sentence trailed off as she noticed where she was for the first time. Her outfit had reverted to her green hoodie and jeans, and she sprawled across a bed that wasn't hers. It was far too messy and had too much red, the walls lined with hundreds of posters and merchandising of superheroes that Lucy just couldn't quite place what they were, and there was a dusty workbench holding a bunch of random machine parts and a few computer monitors.
As she finished examining the area, her eyes fell back to Benjamin, specifically his wrist and the white vambrace resting on it. It looked precisely like whatever thing Lucy had on hers.
"It's still there," she realized.
Then, like a wild tornado plowing through Michigan, memories began pouring into Lucy's mind, recalling what had just transpired. As quickly as it had fallen, her guard went back up as she went back into a fighting stance, grabbing the boy with a smile far too smug to be genuine by the collar.
"Wait! No! Not sorry!" she screamed, "What's going on?! Where am I?! Why does your watch thingy look like my watch thingy?! WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE MONSTER ATTACKS?! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"
"I know you probably have a ton of questions... and unfortunately, I don't have all the answers—"
Lucy's grip tightened.
"But I've got a friend who can explain everything! Now, can you please let me go?" Ben whimpered, his hands put up in surrender.
Lucy sighed. Unnecessary violence wasn't going to get her anywhere. After letting go of Ben, she pressed her forehead, "Sorry. It's been a really long day."
"S'okay," Ben remarked, rubbing his neck, "I know a thing or two about getting superpowers out of nowhere."
"Ah-ha! So, you DO know something about those monster attacks!" accused Lucy, her index finger pointing directly toward Ben's face.
Ben swatted Lucy's finger away as dramatically as he could. "Of course I do. I'm awesome like that. It's just…a little complicated. I'll tell you everything when my friend shows up."
"And how long is that gonna take?"
"Hard to say. Time is a tricky thing for him. It could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few—"
Vibrant colors illuminated Ben's room as Lucy turned her head, and what she saw was absolutely astonishing. A swirling portal, which had not been there previously, danced with otherworldly energy. And from its hypnotic gaze, a man with a white goatee stepped out, exuding an aura of intelligence, as if the knowledge of thousands of ancient civilizations was at his fingertips.
"HELLO, Miss Lucy! I have been anticipating your arrival." boomed the man,
"And I do apologize for my late arrival. Time is a very tricky thing for me."
"I already said that one, Professor," Ben sweatdropped (Power Rangers is Toku, and Toku is anime-adjacent. So he can do anime things), rolling his eyes.
"Oh? I must have overshot this time." mused the man, scratching his chin thoughtfully.
Ben shot Lucy a playful look, one that said, 'See? I told you he was crazy,' before continuing. "Lucy, meet Professor Walker. He's kind of a time traveler/space guy. I don't think I know what he is, actually. He kind of just…" he racked his brain for an answer, "...shows up."
"I… sure, why not? If I can fight a monster with anime powers, why can't time travel suddenly be real? Not like this day can get any weirder anyways," Lucy spat, rubbing her jade-green pendant.
The Professor leaned on his cane and turned to meet Lucy's eyes, his twinkling like stars in the distant cosmos. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he gently said, "I know you have questions, but rest assured, I do want to help you. It's just going to take some time. So, how about YOU tell us what's been happening, and we can understand the situation better?"
And with a resigned exhale, Lucy did just that. Every aspect of Lucy's bizarre adventure was recounted from the moment her day began to when she woke up in Ben's room. She told the two about the creepy fuse box monster in science class, the weird box that turned her into a Power Ranger, and the instincts that saved her from becoming a human pancake.
The two listened intently, with Ben occasionally helping Lucy find words to describe the weirder parts of the story. The Professor, however, stared in silence, leaning toward her with every last word she spoke.
"…and then the portal closed, and… that's all of it, I think. Whew, I didn't know it'd feel that good to get off my chest." finished Lucy, wiping drops of sweat off her forehead.
"So it finally happened." the Professor muttered, stroking his goatee's more wispy hairs.
Ben and Lucy glanced up at the Professor's cryptic words, but he continued speaking without concern.
"Miss Lucy, what you have experienced is a phenomenon like no other. But before we continue, you'll need to brush up on some history. Tell me, have you ever heard of the Morphin' Grid?"
Lucy racked her brain for an answer, eventually coming up short, "No. I'm sorry. I can't say that I have."
"The Morphin Grid connects every Power Ranger in the multiverse, like a power plant but for spandex," piped Benjamin, uncrossing his arms.
"Not just Power Rangers, dear boy," remarked the Professor, "The Morphin Grid connects everything in every dimension, every universe, and every timeline in our multiverse."
"...and? Why is this 'Morphin Grid' thing so important?" questioned Lucy.
"Recently, there's been some leaks in the Grid…," exposited Ben, "...raw energy pouring into Stone Canyon, OUR city, and mutating anybody who lives here. When a host has too much of an intense emotion, they transform into—"
"Power-hungry monster?"
Ben nodded, confirming her suspicions, "We call them Megamorphs. They take the shape of their host's greatest desire and have only one goal: to destroy everything in sight. The only way to stop them is to wait for a transformation and take them down. We hoped the Grid would eventually fix itself and the Megamorphs would stop appearing. But lately, the monster attacks have been getting more frequent, so much so that even someone as incredible as I am—"
"Master Benjamin, I believe we talked about this..." the Professor interrupted, shaking his head disapprovingly.
"Right, sorry," Ben nodded, "Even someone as MORPHENOMINAL as I am can't take them down alone."
Professor Walker disappointedly facepalmed while Lucy slowly connected the dots in her head.
"Alone… You mean, you're a—"
"Red Rising Power Ranger, at your service," stated Ben, curtsying mock-politely, "though my suit is a bit different than whatever mummy theme you got going on."
"Ninja," corrected Lucy, "I don't know how I know that, but I was definitely a ninja."
"Indeed," the Professor interjected, "You are a Power Ranger, and your destiny has forever intertwined with the Morphin Grid. Lucielle Margaret Sparks, we need your help to restore the balance."
"But why me? I'm just…me."
"Why it happened isn't important." Ben proclaimed. Walking over to Lucy, he reached out a hand, "But right here, right now, the whole world's depending on us, and we can't afford to let them down. You with me?"
The soft fabric of Lucy's hoodie softly nudged her skin as she pondered the situation. It was crazy, she knew. But if the last thirty or so years were anything to go by, it was all true. Even still, why would she be the one to get superpowers? Furthermore, could someone like her even save the world? The thought made her body go stiff. The Professor was staring at her, awaiting her answer. With a massive sigh, she spoke.
"Nope."
"Excuse me?" uttered the Professor, a mix of surprise and disbelief in his eyes.
"I said no," Lucy repeated unsteadily, her gaze steady. "Look, I'm trying to get it. I really am, but I'm not the person you think I am. I'm just a regular gal trying to make it through high school with passing grades, not some swashbuckling superhero. So drop it."
Ben's hopeful expression slightly withered, but the Professor remained composed, "I understand you may be scared–"
"Of course, I'm scared! A couple of hours ago, a fuse box tried to eat me!" Lucy cut him off.
The Professor raised an eyebrow, "We both know that's not what you're afraid of."
The room went silent after that. Lucy looked at Ben for help, but he constantly avoided her gaze, standing in silence. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, her frustration growing.
"Fine," she spat, "Be that way. But I'm leaving."
Lucy turned to head for the door, her frustration boiling over. As the door slammed shut, the Professor and Benjamin were left alone, staring at each other with concern and disappointment.
Benjamin broke the tension, "I'll – uh – I'll go after her."
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Jamie Fenric didn't know where she was. She had woken up in a dumpster with her clothes ragged and torn. Her breath was heavy, weighing more with every stumbling step. Leaning against a wall, she spotted a loose power cable sparking with electricity and a switch turned on in her brain.
She was hungry. POWER-Hungry.
And like before, a blue ring of light encased her, re-mutating into what we now know as a Megamorph.
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Lucy's quiet steps echoed through 5th Street, mindlessly scrolling through Chatterbox as she walked. Power Rangers, Megamorphs, The Morphin Grid, it was a lot to digest. She wanted to get home and lie on her bed, but it wouldn't be that simple.
"Hey! Wait up!" shouted Benjamin, bounding around the corner. The kid was persistent. She'd give him that much.
Lucy turned to face him, frustration growing with every step, "Why are you following me? I thought I told you to leave me alone."
Benjamin caught his breath before continuing, "You can't just pretend none of this is happening."
Lucy crossed her arms, "I'm not. I'm ignoring it."
"But the world's depending on us to–"
"Don't say that." Lucy briskly interrupted. "Don't EVER say that."
Benjamin's volume increased, "Why? What the hell are you afraid of?"
"You wouldn't get it!" Lucy said. The whole neighborhood could probably hear them now.
"So then help me get it!" Benjamin insisted.
"No!" Lucy pleaded, "I mean, seriously, how can you possibly be okay with having your life taken by this?!"
"...I didn't really have a life before this."
The words hung in the air, an uncomfortable silence washing over them. Lucy looked up at Benjamin, and what she saw shocked her. Instead of his usual happy one, a sad expression laced his face. A lot of the anger washed out of her, replaced with pity.
"Fine. You wanna know why I don't wanna fight?" Lucy sighed, ready to reveal something she hoped would've stayed locked in her grave, "Because I know I'm not good enough."
"Then we can train you." Benjamin persisted.
"But what if I fail?" Lucy quivered, staring at her open palms, "I'm so clumsy that I fall on my face at least once a day. What if that happens during a fight? If I make a mistake, it'll be my fault when someone dies. I'm not good enough for this and never will be."
"Yeah. You're probably right," Benjamin shrugged.
Lucy coughed, taken aback by Benjamin's words, "What?"
"You said it yourself, right? If you lose, people die."
"Well, now you're just making me feel bad."
"BUT," Benjamin continued, "people will still die if you do nothing. Do you think you're useless? You've got the power to make a difference. Wasting it would be a sin." He paused, then shook his head, "Fine. Whatever, don't fight. I don't care anymore. But do something. Anything."
And he took off, leaving Lucy Sparks alone in the middle of 5th Street. She sighed, rubbing her emerald necklace as she continued her journey home.
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David Sparks had spent hours pacing the kitchen floor, his phone glued to his hand. Anxiety gnawed at him with each unanswered call to the police. The monster attack had turned his world upside down, and the uncertainty about Lucy's safety weighed heavily on him. He was not about to lose her, too.
Then, as if by a miracle, the door swung open, revealing the daughter he had been so frantically searching for. Her usually bright eyes looked dull and tired, and her clothes were disheveled. But she was home, safe.
"Hi, Dad," whispered Lucy.
"Stringbean…"
David enveloped her in a tight and desperate hug, holding her as if he would never let her go. Lucy returned with equal, if not stronger, force, and their shared warmth spread throughout the household. Tears fell from both of their faces, neither being able to express their emotions.
The weight of the world seemed to disappear. It was just father and daughter in a moment they wished could last forever. But as the story goes, the two eventually let go.
David cupped Lucy's face in his hands and saw the little girl he had raised all those years ago. "How— What—" he started, struggling to find the correct words, finally settling on, "I thought I lost you."
Lucy smiled to the best of her ability, putting her face into her father's shoulder, "I know. It's a long story, but stuff happened. Someone saved me, and I'm here. I'm home."
"Well, whoever they are, they must be a very nice person."
Lucy's mind drifted to Ben, and his words echoed through her. Do something. Thoughts began accumulating in her mind as she scratched her necklace, and she nodded her head.
"Yeah," Lucy replied, "he is."
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The POWER-Hungry Megamorph slithered through Fillmore Plaza like a sinister serpent, its wires sizzling with a vicious hunger, sapping the very life from anything that dared emit an electrical pulse. Crowds of civilians scrambled to get away, their faces etched with fear as the Megamorph's menacing presence grew.
A family of three: a father, a mother, and a teenage girl with a pink streak in her hair tried to hide behind a gray, worn-down minivan. The word "tried" is used because the poor parents had to keep the pink-streaked girl from recklessly charging in with her electric guitar. They had varying amounts of success.
"C'mon, lemme go! I can take 'em," she shouted.
In response, POWER-Hungry roared, and since the pink-streaked girl had kindly given out their location, it slithered toward the family, its wires sparking miniature embers. The three of them cowered in fear, the Megamorph crawling closer. Its wires extended fully, shot toward them, and—
"RISING MORPHER BLAST!"
Two glowing hexagonal red disks made of energy shot out of Ben's morpher as he sprinted toward POWER-Hungry. The disks collided with the POWER-Hungry's wires, knocking them away from their desired targets.
The Megamorph cocked its head in the direction of the blast, only to be met with a dynamically extravagant kick to the face.
"A monster attacking the city. What a shock," Benjamin said, laughing at his own pun. He looked to the family, hoping for a similar reaction. Expressions as cold as an open fridge in Antarctica turned to face him.
"Come on. That was funny, right?" Ben lamented. They shook their heads disapprovingly, "Screw you guys, I'm hilarious."
"BBRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
"Oh, Gaim! It's still alive!" Ben swiftly waved his arms like a crossing guard, signaling the family to book it.
As they made their retreat, POWER-Hungry had fully recovered. It coiled its stance, and Ben readied himself for an attack, but it never came. Instead, a rhythmic mechanical churring came from its box, almost human-like in how it sounded like clearing a throat. That whirring halted after a few seconds, replaced with a constant low hum, forming words.
"WHO…ARE…YOU?!"
It had trouble annunciating its speech, but venom still dripped with every word. Ben, however, was unfazed.
"Who am I?" he grinned, striking a pose, "Y'know, just your average passing-through Power Ranger."
The Megamorph's wires tingled with confusion, "PASSING…THROUGH? YOU INVISIBLE?!"
"What? No, no. It's a reference. Y'know how in like Masked Rider Decade, he says that, and…" He stopped to think, "...and now, I'm trying to explain the concept of television to a circuit board. Wow. That's weird, even for me…," Ben reflected.
He then scratched his chin in thought, flashbacking to all the strange things that had happened in the three weeks he'd been a Ranger. Ultimately, he concluded that, no, it was not quite as weird as the things he'd seen.
"... Y'know what? Forget it," he decided, "Who I am isn't important. All you need to know is that I'm going to Kick. Your. Ass."
Then, Ben threw himself toward the Megamorph with a flying kick, the resulting collision shaking the plaza to its core.
The Megamorph grunted in pain, uncoiling its wires again and shooting them toward Ben. He failed to dodge and fell into the wall of Luigi's Pizzeria.
"Tch," he muttered, crawling out of some rubble. With the wind whipping up a red streak behind his super speed, he charged forward and punched the Megamorph square in the gut.
The two exchanged blows, Ben's fleshy fists crashing into the Megamorph's mechanical cable-y ones. When the Megamorph struck, Ben blocked. When Ben retaliated, the Megamorph jumped. The two came to a stalemate, eventually swapping from punching to pushing their hands against each other.
The heat from the Megamorph's circuit board radiated immensely, the air around Ben getting warmer. It was distracting, so much so that Ben slipped up. He stopped pushing for just one second, but that was enough. The Megamorph snaked its wires around Ben's body. He tried to shimmy his way out, but it was no use. The Megamorph had clenched him in its firm grasp.
Ben tried to quip, "Hey, I know I'm attractive, but we're not close enough for a HUG!"
BZZZZAPP!
Ben felt his skin boil as the Megamorph lit its wires, sending an electrical surge down his spine. It hurt like hell.
BZZZZAPP!
Ben clenched his teeth in pain. He tried screaming for help, but no sound came out.
BZZZZAPP!
The walls around his eyes started to close as he felt his mind drifting off to sleep. And wouldn't that be nice? Just a little rest from it all. Saving the city alone is tiring, after all.
Ka-Ching! Ka-Ching!
But he wasn't alone. Lucy Sparks slashed through the Megamorph's wiry clasp with a silver, clear-cut katana in her right hand, tears stinging her eyes.
"Ben? BEN!" she cried, running toward the passed-out boy. She slapped his face a few times and breathed a sigh of relief when his eyes gradually fluttered open.
"...Lucy?" Ben questioned. Despite the danger, Ben's face melted at the sight of the Jewish blond-haired girl, "Hey."
"Hi," Lucy returned with equal softness.
"How did you get here so fast?" Ben bluntly asked, ruining whatever vibe had been present.
"Uh…ninja teleportation, I think? How did YOU get here so fast?" she hesitantly responded.
Ben replied without skipping a beat, "I've got super speed. What are you doing here anyways?"
Lucy paused and stared toward the sky. A serene silence graced the perilous battlefield as Lucy contemplated an answer. Eventually, she offered Ben her left hand, the blade in her right having dissipated into energy.
"Something, I guess."
Ben softly smiled and grabbed onto Lucy's hand, rising up. The two tilted their heads to face the Megamorph, who stood with an untamed hunch.
Ben eyed Lucy closely, "You want to call it out?"
Lucy answered with a small smile of her own, "Yeah."
The two held out their left arms, revealing the Rising Morphers bound to them. Ben reached into his hammerspace and produced a hexagonal white and red disk. Lucy did the same but with a white and green one. It was a Power Medal, Lucy somehow knew.
The two shared a glance, and with a sigh of exhilaration, fatigue, and some other third thing, Lucy declared a phrase that had echoed for generations.
"IT'S MORPHIN TIME!"
The two inserted their respective medals into the silver disk above their Morpher's white base. A stylized projection emerged at each of their sides, with Ben's looking mechanical while Lucy's was more traditional, like something you would read on a scroll.
[ IgKnightion! ]
[ HeartAndBlade! ]
Thousands of black nanites began crawling up Ben and Lucy's skin from the Morpher. It felt like a million ants creeping everywhere all at once. A black undersuit emerged from the experience, hugging their exteriors sans the cranium.
"Woah…" Lucy gently exhaled, staring down at her spandex-covered hands with eyes that had become a glistening green.
For some reason, she had a strong compulsion to quickly perform all nine Kuji-Kiri hand signs, which she did as Ben raised his right hand to the sky and snapped two fingers.
Lucy brought her hand to the back of the Morpher, gently gliding her fingers across its metallic surface. Her hand landed on an opaque black ripcord behind the sleekly oversized white fins. She launched the cord with vim, vigor, and vitality as she shouted.
"GO! RISING!"
The very fabric of reality folded in on itself, shattering into trillions of miniature-sized fragments, all grouping around the lustrous green essence placed upon a silver dial.
Oceans of ancient faded black wrappings tightly embraced Lucy's body, shaping a torso extending into a skirt. A green sash detailed with a shuriken-like emblem diagonally wrote itself into its center. Green pauldrons were attached to her legs, and some green wrappings covered her limbs. A helmet with a rhombohedral visor and a vertical white stripe molded against her head, and as the wrappings slithered up her body, they eventually covered the helmet in a ninja mask-like structure with two long ties draping against her back. Finally, a white lightning bolt struck her right side, forcing asymmetry.
[ SHINOBI PAINTED IN GREEN! RANGER READY! RISE! ]
Lucy Sparks inhaled deeply, and, for the first time, she felt no need to touch her pendant. She turned to Ben and did a double-take when she realized he was not a ninja.
Ben smirked underneath his helmet, "Told you I looked different."
"What are you then?" Lucy stared at his suit up and down.
"I dunno. It's either some sort of mix between a knight and a motorcycle or a reference to Masked Rider Geats (Ace with us)…"
That description was probably an accurate one. Ben was garbed with knight-like vambraces and greaves made of red steel and silver drag pipes one would usually see on a motorcycle on his elbows and calves. His torso was covered in two red mechanical chest pieces. His helmet comprised three sections: Two rhombuses covering both sides, a vertical white stripe going down the middle, and a knight's visor placed over the previously mentioned fragments. There were two white slits covered by the visor, looking like tears. The only similarity between Ben's suit and Lucy's was the white lightning bolt above most of the torso's right side.
"But if you want a more official description, I'm…" Ben continued, stretching in preparation for an intoxicating pose. He always loved this part, "...The Hero of Heroes! Red Rising Ranger!"
A red explosion went up behind him as he put his claw-shaped hand into the sky, giving the air a more visually stunning atmosphere.
Lucy golf-clapped, half mockingly and half impressed.
Ben nodded to himself smugly as if saying, "Yes, I am impressive. Look at me in glorious splendor." After patting himself on the back, he turned to Lucy, expecting her to announce herself.
"Come on, seriously?" she grumbled. Ben nodded intensely, and Lucy's shoulders sagged.
"Fine," she submitted, sighing in defeat, "I guess I'm The Soul of the Shinobi! Green Rising Ranger!"
Lucy crouched and touched her forehead as a green explosion erupted behind her, to which she cringed in pain and confusion.
Eventually, the flames dissipated, becoming nothing but the air in the wind. Yet a sulfurous stench made its way into Lucy's nose. It smelled like burning as some lingering fire had made its way onto Lucy's hood bandages and was burning.
"OW! OW! OW!" she yelped, trying to stamp out the embers rapidly.
Ben grinned, none the wiser of his teammate's lack of fire safety. He addressed POWER-Hungry with a hearty laugh, pointing at it rudely, "If you think you can beat my sidekick and me, you've got another thing coming. Cuz we are the Power R—"
"Hold on. Why am I YOUR sidekick?" Lucy interrupted, no longer panicked as she had stomped out the last of the blazes, "You said we were gonna be teammates."
"Oh, come on, dude. I'm clearly the hero in this situation," Ben replied smugly, a cocky grin underneath his helmet, "This is your first fight. You'll have to beat up a lot of monsters to even be almost as great as me."
"Well, that seems like an arbitrary system you made up on the spot," retorted Lucy, her hands firmly on her hips.
"Actually, I—"
"BUUUUUUUUURRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" POWER-Hungry bellowed with rage, unhappy that it had been ignored for some pages.
"We'll be with you shortly! Just give us ONE SECOND, dude!" Ben lukewarmly shooed his hand in POWER-Hungry's general direction before returning his attention to Lucy.
"I just feel that I'm worth more than just a sidekick, y'know?" Lucy reasoned.
"Hey, don't demean yourself. Sidekicks are imperative to every good superhero team. Without them, who would make the hero look good?" Ben argued.
Lucy rolled her eyes, not that anyone could see that, of course, "Yeah, but I just think that labeling it that way carries a negative connotation that would make you much more important than me."
"Well, I am better than you. Not to mention stronger, faster, cooler, faster…"
"...Y'know, Ben, you're kind of a jerk."
"Yeah, I know. It's what makes me so lovable."
As the two argued, the Megamorph stood in astonishment, shocked that the Red Ranger had the gall to treat them like a dog waiting to be fed. It would be very offended if it could feel any emotion other than rage. Well, they'd show him.
They unraveled their hands, each cable charged with energy, and plunged them into the coarse, rough dirt beneath them. Blue light expelled from their body into the roots of the soil, and multi-colored ooze began to sprout from the ashes.
Meanwhile, Ben and Lucy were still ignoring the immediate threat before them.
"…Can we please talk about this after we're done wiping the floor with this guy?" Ben asked, exasperated, "I'm getting hungry for some action."
"Fine," Lucy answered, "But we are not done with this conversation."
The two finally turned their faces to the Megamorph, but whatever fear lost in conversation was quickly regained once they fully understood what was standing before them.
In the middle of the plaza, hundreds of identical combatants encircled POWER-Hungry in the act of protection.
Their designs were simple. Their bodies were viscous in how they moved, almost like they were made of putty. Their multicolored exterior looked like someone had poured different paint buckets on them, but each color led back to the same place — a circular eye in the center of their head. In addition, a sharp golden dagger was placed in each of their right hands.
The two quickly huddled back up.
"Woah! Why didn't you tell me there was a 'Buy one monster, get an army of mooks free' going on? I would've jumped at that deal!" Lucy remarked.
"This is the first time it's happened. I have no clue who those guys are," Ben snapped back, pointing toward the horde of troopers.
"Yeah, well, now our problems have multiplied by…about a thousand. So, are we going to do this or what?"
"Yeah, yeah. God, I'm going to need an aspirin after this," Ben gently rubbed where his temples would be and took a deep breath in before addressing the problem.
"The two of us are the greatest heroes you'll ever see! Power Rangers Rising Forces!"
As they posed, a gigantic explosion erupted behind the two Power Rangers, their bright spandex shining through the fire and the flames. The two were finally together, united, a TEAM.
When the dust settled, Ben finished his declaration of power with a little flourish.
"Just watch us."
POWER-Hungry charged forward, their minions coming along for the ride. They had one mission and one mission only: to destroy everything, and right now, that meant annihilating the Power Rangers.
Ben yawned, unfazed by the ridiculously oversized army coming straight toward him. "You guys are taking far too long. How about we speed things up?"
Then, in a blinding flash, he launched ahead, landing on the eye of an unfortunately positioned mook. The drag pipes on his right knee ignited with passionate flames, forcing his leg to come down in a powerful kick to the face.
"Who's next?" Ben taunted, his rapid, drag pipe-boosted punches moving through multiple heads. He blocked a stab from one mook with his Morpher and retaliated by throwing a chair from a nearby patio in their face.
"Rising Morpher Blast!" he shouted, firing multiple Power Medal-shaped disks out of his Morpher.
[ Wailing Sabre ]
Ben generated a weapon of that same name, a glittering blue broadsword with a red and black handle, and started cutting through the cluster of blob-like creatures. Each one trembled at the blinding light hitting the sword, knowing it would be the last thing their one eye would see.
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"Um, a little help here!" Lucy screamed, entangled in combat with POWER-Hungry.
More accurately, she struggled to block the pressure of POWER-Hungry's repeated strikes with nothing but her crossed arms.
"You're a ninja, right? Do Ninja things!" shouted Ben, a couple of feet away. Unfortunately, that was the only advice he could give because he had to slice and dice more enemies.
"Well, that's helpful," Lucy sarcastically remarked, jumping backward to avoid a strike.
"Ninja things, huh? Sure, why not? I've seen like three episodes of Naruto. I've got this," she muttered, trying to reassure herself.
"DESTROY…YOU…NOW!" POWER-Hungry blared. They leaped forward in an attempt to attack, but nothing was there.
— POP! —
"Huh?" questioned a confused Lucy, perplexed but thankful that POWER-Hungry did not attack her.
While POWER-Hungry was aimlessly looking around for a person right in front of them, Lucy paused to stare down at herself, just to make sure everything was fine…and she didn't see anything at all.
"Oh, I get it," Lucy realized, "I'm invisible. Do ninjas go invisible?"
"YOU!" POWER-Hungry shouted, lashing a cable in the direction of Lucy's voice.
"Hey!" Lucy winced, recoiling from the attack, "Oh right, you can still hear."
Then Lucy's instincts kicked in, and she hastily began loosely unraveling some of her arm bandages into tendrils, their movements as fluid as they were precise.
"That's weird, but I like it," said Lucy, looking at her ribbons' mesmerizing movements.
The Megamorph continued to whip its coils, forcing Lucy to dodge multiple strikes. She retaliated by repeatedly lashing her ribbons at POWER-Hungry, burning bruises into the Megamorph's mechanical machinery.
Those thrashes quickly turned into sliding as Lucy wrapped her bandages around POWER-Hungry, grasping them into a clutch of her design.
"Not so fun when it happens to you, is it now?" Lucy quipped before realizing the predicament she caught herself in, "...So, what do I do now?"
"GJRAK!" POWER-Hungry snarled, shimmying in Lucy's hold. They expelled electricity from their body, hoping to shock their opponent into breaking them free.
BZZZZAPP!
Yeah, nothing happened. It was a trend with most of POWER-Hungry's attacks. The electricity was absorbed into Lucy's suit, the wrappings acting as insulators.
"Huh, neat," Lucy noted. She stored away the fact that she was immune to electricity in her head. It would probably come up later.
"Okay, back to you," Lucy muttered, staring into POWER-Hungry's…uh…well, it didn't really have eyes, "How do I get rid of you while keeping you nice and safe in my arms, er, bandages."
"CRACKLE GLAKC!" POWER-Hungry unhelpfully shrieked from Lucy's clutches.
"Ugh. If only there were two of me." Lucy complained.
A lightbulb dinged in the Green Ranger's head.
Channeling her inner Ben, Lucy Sparks reached deep within the corridors of her throat, searching for the correct words. Eventually, she found them.
"NINJA CLONE TECHNIQUE!"
— POOF —
2-dimensional smoke surrounded the area, and Lucy was still there when it cleared. Well, both of them.
"Well, this is freaky," said the first Lucy, tapping on the other's helmet.
"Yeah, but it's kind of cool too, right?" stated the second Lucy. She wanted her shadow clone to stop but could not do anything. For her hands were still trying to keep POWER-Hungry tightly held.
The two nodded in understanding, no need for words. They were the same person, after all. Plans were quickly created, and now it was time for them to be executed.
The second Lucy began swinging her arms around in a circle, taking POWER-Hungry along for the ride.
While the Megamorph was in a nauseous loop, the first Lucy gathered bits of green energy and materialized twin katanas from them. The handles were black, detailed with green diamonds. One had the Japanese kanji for heart (心) etched on its habaki, while the other had the kanji for blade (刃). Both surprisingly had triggers outside their hilts.
[ Peerless Blades ]
In due time, the second Lucy stopped spinning, casting POWER-Hungry to the ground. Dazed and confused, the Megamorph could not see the other one dashing through the smoke.
"I'm going to slice you into fruit!" Lucy hollered, her katanas gleaming in the mid-afternoon light.
POWER-Hungry's circuit board buzzed with a sound reminiscent of the scream of a prepubescent child.
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[ ONE: FINISHER! ]
"SHOOTING SLASH!"
Ben pierced the air and fired a curved aurora of red from his blade, finishing the remaining soldiers in a blazing eruption.
Casually wiping the dust off his sword, Ben decided this was the best time for a quip.
"And that, as they say, is that. Right, Lucy?"
"…Lucy?"
Ben stopped to take in his surroundings. The birds were chirping. Destroyed car alarms were blaring. And this was definitely not Fillmore Plaza.
"Ugh. Must have gotten distracted while slicing up the baddies," Ben groaned, rubbing his temples.
He continued talking to himself, "Those guys need a name, right? I can't just keep calling them mooks. Though, they don't really look like anything in particular. Kind of anonymous, actually."
A lightbulb dinged in the Red Ranger's head.
"I've got it. Anonymooks! I can't wait to tell Lucy."
He then slapped himself in the face, coming to an important realization.
"Wait! Lucy's all alone! She must be getting her ass kicked! I'M COMING, BUDDYYYY!"
The wind whipped into a cyclone as he sped off, searching for his fellow Ranger.
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Lucy was, in fact, not getting her ass kicked—quite the opposite.
There were about 20 Lucys on the battlefield, a product of her newly mastered clone technique. Each brandished their own set of Peerless Blades.
"YAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" they all cried in unison, jumping POWER-Hungry from all sides. The goal was to get multiple hits in, each slashing the monster at a different angle.
POWER-Hungry was widely disoriented. It was trapped in a twister of green spandex, constantly feeling the torment of 20 or so teenagers kicking them in the face. Every brat it destroyed just evaporated into a puff of smoke, only to have another strike back even harder.
The Lucys halted their assault and produced a new Power Medal with the silhouette of a finishing strike on its green and white base. They slammed them into their respective Rising Morphers.
[ SHINOBI: RISING SCRAMBLE! ]
Every shadow clone cracked into wafting smoke until only one Lucy remained. The wrappings on her limbs unraveled longer than ever as she charged one last time.
Her steps were lighter than feathers, her feet barely touching the dirt. And right here, right now, she felt like she could do anything.
Daughter of David and Anabelle Sparks, average 16-year-old girl, clumsier than a sack of potatoes, a friend of Benjamin, struggling artist trying to make her mark on the world, Soul of the Shinobi, Green Rising Ranger, Lucielle Margaret Sparks threw her arms back as she cried from the bottom of her heart,
"RISING WHIP!"
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Somewhere in the far reaches of space and time, a stranger pinned a green string to a bulletin board.
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"This one's for you, mom."
Hell rained upon Fillmore Plaza. Well, if you consider hell a bunch of green athletic tape.
Lucy's attack seared into the Megamorph, each strike crackling like lightning. It burned so deep into their soul that it combusted, unleashing one of the many explosions that had erupted that day.
Sparks fluttered near Lucy as she struck a beautiful pose. If nothing else, it looked cool.
The fire died down eventually, as it had the day before, the week earlier, and all the other 30 years before her transformation.
Jamie Fenric was passed out on the pavement, but she'd be fine after a little power nap.
The Power Ranger simply sat, staring at nothing in particular. Energy dispersed from her body, de-morphing her back into her comfortable hoodie and skirt. It was a comfortable silence, but it wouldn't last forever.
"I'M HERE! I'm here!" panted Ben, clumsily tripping over his feet as he arrived on the scene. He stopped to catch his breath before continuing,
"Alright, let's give 'em a beating to remem—Where'd the monster go?"
"I did something," shrugged Lucy.
"Oh," nodded Ben, "How'd it feel?"
Lucy looked toward the sky and softly touched her chest, reaching for her pendant. She rubbed the emerald jade, content with herself.
"Like a total rush."
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"And so, thanks to a new team of Power Rangers, it looks like Stone Canyon will be safe for another day…"
A waitress wearing a yellow skirt clicked the TV remote, swapping the channel to something more cartoonish and silly. Considering the equivalent of a terrorist attack just happened in the middle of the city, trying to remind everyone that anyone could become a monster at any moment was probably not a good idea.
Besides, this was a restaurant. If the Snack Shed couldn't make people feel at home, nothing could.
"You got an order at table 5," a different employee yelled.
The waitress nodded and calmly strolled across the diner.
As far as the health inspector knew, it was a primarily clean place. Sure, it had the occasional broken light, but that was just part of its charm. The family running the place was lovely and was trying their best to make this place great for everyone. The chairs weren't that musty today, so that was a plus, at least.
Most of the customers were conversing about the events that had transpired. No one knew what to make of it, so they all gossiped like middle schoolers on a playground.
"I heard it could suck your soul out with its eyes," one of them chattered.
"You dummy. It didn't have eyes. Clearly, it sucked out the soul with its ears," replied another.
"Did you see those Power Rangers, though? Those guys are so honkin' cool."
"Don't say it like that."
The waitress drowned out the noise. It was a monster attack. California had one every week. It was bound to happen to Stone Canyon eventually.
In due time, she made it to her designated stand, where two people engaged in an argument. One was draped in a white and red leather jacket, while the other was covered in a green and white hoodie.
"So, you're saying you could build an entire motorcycle in four days?" Lucy had to keep herself from laughing.
"Three days," Ben corrected, "two if I feel ambitious. I am a genius, after all."
Lucy rolled her eyes but changed the subject to avoid a shouting match regarding Ben's supposed intelligence, "Is that why you live in a junkyard? To fiddle around all day?"
"No…," Ben pouted, crossing his arms like a baby, "...I live in a junkyard because I'm an orphan and can't afford anything else."
"Trauma dumping in a casual conversation? How Ben of you," Lucy dryly said.
"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!"
Lucy couldn't help it anymore. She burst out laughing. You'd think that the other restaurant guests would hear her, but they were caught up in the rumors and mysteries of the Power Rangers, which no one can blame them for. Power Rangers are pretty awesome.
Ben silently stared at Lucy while she laughed it up, stifling a grin of his own.
"What?" Lucy questioned.
"Nothing. I just like seeing my friend smile." Yeah. Friend, that was right.
"Ahem," the waitress coughed, interrupting their moment, "Welcome to the Snack Shed. Can I take your order?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry," apologized Ben, skimming the menu before realizing it was useless. He always got the same thing every time, "Can I get a large order of chili fries with extra chili?"
Lucy squinted at the waitress, thinking she recognized her somewhere, specifically her skirt.
Ben kind of elbowed her in the chest.
"I'll just have a lime smoothie," she instinctively said.
"Alright, your food will be out in a bit. Have a good lunch, I guess."
The waitress turned and left.
"Thank you," shouted Ben from his seat. When he turned back to Lucy, she was eyeing him suspiciously.
"So…we gonna talk about it or what?" she said.
"What."
"I said, are we gonna—"
"—I heard what you said." Ben cut her off.
"Come on," Lucy whined, "I beat the monster all by myself. Admit that I'm not your sidekick already."
"We've been over this. I'm totally cool and awesome, and you're also cool and awesome, but not as much."
Lucy slapped him. It was a faint slap, but a slap nonetheless.
"Fine," complained Ben, "But we've got to call ourselves something."
The two put their thinking caps on, combing through potential duo names until Lucy spoke up.
"I've got it," she said, "We're partners."
"C'mon, seriously? That seems kind of childish, doesn't it?"
"Says the guy who spends most of his time watching children's TV shows."
"Hey, we just met. You don't know how obsessed I am with Masked Rider."
"That's not a denial."
"...Partners, it is."
Lucy giggled while Ben rolled his eyes, holding out a fist.
Instead of fist-bumping him back, the girl placed an open palm against Ben's closed hand, mischievously sticking out her tongue.
The two smiled, and everything felt right.
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Professor Walker stood outside the Snack Shed, smiling and gazing at the two Power Rangers through a window. His smile was filled with sadness, melancholy, and regret. He shed a single tear and whispered into the wind.
"For what it's worth, I am so, so sorry."