Not the Only Heroes in Town
The war with Venjix had come to an end and humanity had persevered, thanks to the power rangers beating insurmountable odds in their quest to save humanity.
However, from the reports Colonel Truman was getting, it seemed that the rangers were not only the heroes the city had to thank for its survival. When Venjix hijacked the minds of the sleeper agents within Corinth Defence Force, people who didn't even realise that they were hybrids themselves, including Vasquez and Hicks, who were two of his trusted agents, the robot overlord led a siege on the entire city and captured as many civilians he could to be converted into hybrids, except the statistics said not even half the city's population had been captured.
Eye witnesses are saying that a purple ranger saved them.
They had pulled up footage from the surveillance cameras, and saw this ranger fight off the grinders with punches and kicks, clearly some form of advanced martial arts and occasionally some energy attacks.
It all happened in Stations 18 and 19, areas which are under the stronghold of the Cartels.
"Who is he?" Dr K asked.
"I was hoping you could answer that." Colonel asked her, turning towards her and the rangers. "Is he some guy you handed a morpher to as some sort of failsafe?"
"I wish I had thought of that but my faith in the rangers had been absolute and I did not have the necessary resources to create a new morpher not without putting a strain on the Universal Bio Field and risk the team's overall connection to it." Dr K answered curtly, peering at the screen showing the ranger. "But he does seem familiar."
"How so?" Scott asked.
"Wait, I know this dude!" Ziggy yelled excitedly.
"You do?" Dillion asked surprised.
"Hey!" Ziggy said offended. "I can know stuff."
"And I wear sundresses and dance in the rain." Dr K said offhandedly and the rangers stifled their laughter. "Don't keep us waiting, Ranger Operator Series Green."
"Well, he is the Jungle Fury Purple ranger… Oh wait, he went by the name Wolf Ranger, I think." Ziggy scratched his head. "They were the last team active before the Venjix attacks."
"Yes, I remember." Dr K nodded. "They were based in a city called Ocean Bluff and used some form of kung fu and energy attacks. Their zords and gear were based on animals but their team kept their identities secret. I had assumed all ranger teams had died in the attacks."
Ziggy cleared his throat.
Dr K sighed.
"Yes, you did a good job, Ranger Operator Series Green." She relented.
"Can you find who he is?" Colonel asked.
Dr K raised an eyebrow.
"I don't think we should." She answered. "He saved lives and acted when my team couldn't. If anything, we should thank him by respecting his privacy."
"He is a man with a morpher." Colonel said.
"So, you are scared that there is a man out there, who has power and does not answer to the military?" She snapped.
"Anyway, why didn't he join us?" Flynn asked.
"I suppose for the same reason many army veterans in Corinth did not join Corinth Defence Force." Summer shrugged. "I agree with Dr K. Our fight is over. Venjix is gone and who cares if there is another ranger out there. If anything, this is a good thing and we should just let it be."
The others agreed.
"Well, I am seeing this is going nowhere." Colonel shrugged.
"Dad, relax." Scott said, placing an arm over his shoulder. "The war is over. We won."
"I guess you are right." Colonel said. "Maybe it is the military man in me, but I don't like leaving loose ends."
He gave the rangers a nod and walked out of the garage.
"There is someone else we know who doesn't like loose ends." Gem said, as the rangers turned to Dr K, who rolled her eyes.
"And I don't believe you didn't remember that ranger. During our research into the Biofield, we did in depth research on the other ranger teams." Gemma added.
"Wait, you three knew who this was and didn't say anything?" Flynn asked.
"Yes." Gem and Gemma nodded. "Obviously we didn't want the Colonel to harass a fellow ranger but we didn't think Dr K would fake being ignorant."
"Yes, yes…" Dr K heaved a sigh. "I knew who he was."
"So, I didn't know more than you." Ziggy pouted.
"Ranger Operator Series Green, there is nothing you can know more than me, except maybe how to make people laugh and make ridiculous shadow puppets that somehow manage to be endearing." She informed.
"Is it me or did it almost sound like a compliment?" Summer whispered to Nini, who giggled.
"I guess she is finally warming up to you." The orange ranger elbowed Ziggy, who blushed.
Dr K cleared her throat and glared at the two girls.
"Yes, I know him and he wasn't the only one responsible for protecting the city while we were indisposed. Colonel merely got to the footage before I could clear it." Dr K said, pressing a few keys as the computer screens started showing footage of five other rangers protecting the city- A pink ranger with a car themed helmet firing at grinders with a bow. A yellow ranger with a rhomboid visor and white bands across her torso that crisscrossed one another in a star like fashion and a golden badge pinned on her belt buckle herd a group of civilians away from attack bots. A red ranger with a zig zagged visor and a golden claw shaped emblem on his chest fighting off grinders with a staff with a tyrannosaurus head on its end. A blue ranger with a cape and a visor modelled after the tail end of a fish summon waves with her staff that drenched the grinders and caused them to dysfunction, sparks flying out of their machinery. A white ranger with a black vest armour accentuated with gold slashing at an attack bot with his sabre, which had a tiger head on it's top.
"There were other rangers all this time in Corinth?" Scott gaped.
"And you knew about it! Why didn't you tell us about them?" Dillion asked.
"The same reason I didn't tell the Colonel." Dr K said. "They have fought their battles and lost much. They lost their teams because of Venjix… because of me. I couldn't drag them back to fight another war."
"They are rangers… They are heroes." Nini said.
"And the fact they chose not to fight in this war doesn't make them any less of a hero." D K snapped. "Some of them wanted to fight with us but their powers, their connections to the Biofield are transient. Unlike your powers, theirs was not created specifically to fight Venjix."
"Right." Summer nodded. "We should just be grateful they chose to help Corinth when we needed them."
"They were your backup, weren't they?" Scott asked.
Dr K nodded.
"I figured in the unlikely event of us failing, they could figure out a way to stop Venjix." She said to them. "Anyway, that is all I am willing to talk about them. Those rangers deserve to live out the rest of their lives in peace and anonymity."
The rangers nodded, before dispersing from the lab and heading out to their rooms. Dr K pressed a key and deleted the recordings of the other rangers.
Hope you liked this short one-shot and please review.
Before Samurai aired, many of us entertained the grim headcanon that Venjix's attacks doomed many of the rangers we knew. It was supported by the brief glimpses we had of JKP in Corinth and the red Operation Overdrive helmet in the ruins of Alphabet Soup.
Nini is an OC and will feature in some of my upcoming stories, which might share continuity with this one-shot.