"Nick, Nick, I need you to wake up."
Nick groaned rolling over and pulling his pillow up over his head, "Five more minutes Dad," he insisted.
"Nicholas Russel Oliver, get up this minute."
"I'm sleepy."
Tommy groaned, teenagers, was his sisters ever this bad at his age. Worse, they were worse, he could remember a couple of fist fights between the two of them. "Red Ranger, your team is in trouble," he announced.
Nick sprang out of bed as if it had just bit him, "What are you talking about? What happened, I've only been gone what twelve hours?"
"Fifteen," Tommy insisted, "I don't know what they did, or what happened but this morning there was a news bulletin about the seize on Briarwood, and speculations on why the power rangers haven't done anything about it yet."
"What seize?"
""Apparently, Briarwood was overtaken ten weeks ago by forces of evil, they took over the whole place, and I can't get ahold of Udonna."
"But, but what happened?"
"I don't know, this kind of thing has never happened before. If a team becomes disabled for one reason or another then usually I'm able to get a hold of them and send in reinforcements, but in this case they didn't even call in their red ranger. Something is wrong. The portals to the enchanted forest isn't working. You'll have to ride your bike, which for some reason is in the driveway. Get going, and good luck. Call me in if you have to."
…
The road into Briarwood was totally blocked off. Nick pulled over, hiding his motorcycle in some bushes, before making his way to the Rockporuim. The Music Store was in utter shambles, completely destroyed. All color was gone, everything was black and white. He shivered, his Keeper Protection was burning as hot as it could possibly be.
"Yeah, I know," Nick muttered, "I'm walking into a town that's been overran by monsters, thanks for the warning, but I'm kind of a power ranger." He paused reaching into his pocket for his morpher, only to discover it wasn't there, "Great, whatever is going on is effecting our ability to morph. I better call Dad in… except my morpher was my phone, great…."
"You know, if you keep talking to yourself like that, people are going to think you're crazy," a familiar voice said slowly.
"What the heck happened here Chip!" Nick shouted, whirling around to face his teammate, "I wasn't even gone a full day! How in the world did they take over so completely?"
"It's not our fault," Chip insisted, "They got Jenji."
Nick pinched the bridge of his nose, was this how his father felt dealing with Kira and her team, or Uncle Zack and Rocky? No wonder he struggled with his blood pressure, "And how exactly did they get Jenji?"
"Well, we were fighting this dude and we weren't doing so well, so we called Jenji in," Vida announced stepping up behind Chip.
"And why in the world didn't you call me in! I'm your teammate, I'm team leader, calling Jenji in should be my call."
"So what exactly did happen here?" Xander asked, "I mean one moment it's all colorful and sunny and the next," he gestured to the rockporium, "That happened."
"I don't know for sure," Nick confessed, "According to Dad, this morning it appears that something happened two months ago, which of course if you remember, was when I first came to Briarwood and we became power rangers. It's as if we never formed our team."
"This is bad right?" Chip asked.
"It's terrible," Nick insisted, "Something happened and for one reason or another, we never became the power rangers."
"So what do we do?" Vida asked.
"I don't know," Nick confessed, "I really don't know," he sighed, "I need to contact Mom and Dad and tell them what's going on, maybe they can send a team over to help us. The problem is, I don't have a cell phone. Not now that my morpher's gone."
"You don't have a cell phone?" Vida asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Udonna merged our wands with our phones when we first became power rangers, remember?" Nick pointed out, "When, whatever happened here, happened we lost our morphers and therefore we lost our phones as well."
"The Rockporuim looks like a bomb went off in it," Maddy pointed out, "I doubt that we can find a phone we can use there."
"I kind of doubt that we can find a phone we can use to contact Dad in town. Briarwood is completely consumed by the darkness and cut off from the world at the moment."
"So what are we going to do?" Xander asked, "We don't have our wands or phones, and we're completely cut off from the outside world."
"We head into the forest and try to find Udonna," Nick insisted, "Maybe she'll know what to do. If that fails then we will have to find a way to contact Dad. I have my motorcycle hidden just outside of town. Worse comes to worse, I can always head back to Reefside and fetch help."
…
Maddy looked at the trees, it was hard to believe that not even three hours ago they had been green healthy trees. "These are the trees they have in horror movies," she announced.
"Cool," Chip exclaimed.
"Maybe that's because we are in a horror movie right now," Vida pointed out, "Our town's been over ran by monsters."
"Come on we're nearly at…" Nick paused, checking his bearings, "This can't be right," he insisted, "We should be at Rootcore by now."
"Are you sure," Xander asked, "Because nothing here looks familiar."
"I think so," Nick insisted, fiddling with the chain that his Keeper Protection was on, "Guys I think we need to be on guard, something is about to happen… Or at least I think something is about to happen, my Keeper Protection has been acting up since I entered Briarwood."
"Um, guys," Maddy called out, "Look."
Everyone rushed over to where Maddy stood, following her shaky pointing finger to what had once been Rootcore. The mouth of the dragon was open and it seemed to be dead, not living.
"What happened here?" Xander asked, scooping down and picking up the remains of the Xenotome.
"What happened everywhere," Nick asked, pushing a broken broom around with his toe.
"Get away from here!" a new voice called out, as a scraggly woman appeared through the trees, shaking a broom at them, "My home, get away! Mine! Go! Go!"
Maddy frowned, tipping her head to one side, it couldn't be, "Udonna don't you remember us?" she took a step closer, "You taught us everything we know, we're the power rangers. The Mystic Force."
"Lies, the Legendary ones never came," Udonna insisted, "I waited for them but they never came, only the darkness. Only the Darkness."
Suddenly another bedraggled woman appeared, grabbing onto Udonna's arm, "There you are, I've been looking for…" the woman trailed off noticing the five rangers, "Who are you?" she demanded.
Nick took a deep breath, "I am Nick, the adopted son of Thomas and Kimberly Oliver, the legendary power couple, and these are my friends and teammates."
"You better not try to harm us," Clare declared.
"Clare, we will never harm you," Xander insisted.
"You know my name, you must be one of them!" the way she spat out them made Nick know exactly what she thought. She thought that they were the enemy.
Nick frowned, he had to do something quick but what?
Only a true Keeper will be insane enough to claim Keeper blood, a voice spoke gently into Nick's head.
Isn't it against the rules to meddle with Power Ranger affairs, Aunt Star?
Maybe, Nick could almost picture his aunt shrugging, But you are in a Magical Sanctuary, that's my domain. The only reason you rangers are even there is because California is Power Ranger Territory. Besides, Power rangers are more likely to fight magical creatures than Masked knights. There are more of you than there are of us.
"Um, Nick, what are we suppose to do now?" Xander asked.
Nick nodded, pulling out his chain with his Keeper Protection on it, "I know that you don't trust me, and I understand your concerns, but I am a member of the Keeper Family."
"How do I know that you aren't here to betray us?"
Should of thought of that, backstabbing is very rampant in our family. I mean that is how your father became an Oliver.
Not helping Star!
"Look, I'm adopted into the Story Keeper branch of the Keeper Family, you are of the Gate Keeper Branch, just as our ancestors could not steal each other's powers, nor can I steal yours. Betraying you will do me no good. So tell me for Zordon's sake, what in the world is going on here!"
You should have used Holy Pen of Power, that's a Story Keeper expression, Zordon's sake is a power ranger expression.
"Holy Pen of Power Aunt Star, I don't care if you are the legendary Story Keeper, get out of my head and do something useful, like figure out what I need to do around here!" Nick snapped, unknowingly speaking out loud.
"Holy Pen of Power? Zordon's Sake?" Udonna repeated, looking at Nick in confusion, "You obviously know the Story Keeper line of the family and the power rangers. But you are too late, the good magic is gone in this world."
…
"Let's see," Chip said, "We lost Jenji, we are no longer power rangers, we don't have any magic, in fact there is no magic in all of the world. This can't get any worse."
Vida opened her mouth to tell Chip off for jinxing them when Koragg appeared out of thin air, sword drawn.
"I've been looking for you," he announced, pointing his sword at them.
"You were saying Chip," Vida asked.
Koragg swung his sword over his head, before burying it deep into the earth in front of him, "We need to talk."
"We don't talk to the likes of you," Nick insisted.
I think you should listen to him.
Shut up!
Has it ever occurred to you that if all good magic was gone that I wouldn't be able to communicate with you? There is no such thing as Good and Bad Magic, there is just Magic being used by Good or Bad people. And not all people are just Good or just bad. There's something about Koragg that I can't quite put my finger on. It's super important. Whatever it is.
Nick sighed, putting the sword back, "Fine we'll talk."
"Our world has changed, why is that?"
"I don't know but it has something to do with the capture of Jenji," Nick said.
"Yeah, he was taken by a bulldog and a Yeti."
"Solarius Knight's genie, yes, that makes sense, he lost his genie and Imperius made him grant a wish that the power rangers never existed."
"Okay," Xander said slowly, "What about the Bulldog and Yeti?"
"Fido and Fifty Below," Koragg explained, "They work for Imperius, and are as much my enemy as yours."