Chapter 1: It's Morphin Time! Pt. 1

In loving memory of Jason David Frank. The original Tommy Oliver. He will be missed. Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger.

In the slipstreams of the eternal cosmos that was the Morphin Grid, a time warp had been held open for millenia to keep it from falling apart after it'd been torn open.

Inside this warped refraction of space-time, which stretched through infinitesimal variations of the same quantum picture… stood a man. A man who at long last had stabilized the rift he was marooned in, and could now leave.

"At long last…" The man sighed as he began to move away from the rift.

Light, bright to the point of blinding even the strongest of eyes shone in the man's wake as he stepped through the Morphin Grid as it opened to him, allowing him to exit its cosmic coils like walking through an open door.

The man's skin was hidden behind an ornate looking helmet that was colored bronze and white. The colors were shared by his armor as well. He also looked to be 5'8" in height.

As the light consumed him, the rift closed again, leaving the Grid to recover what it had lost, to rebuild what had fallen.

(Elsewhere)

-United Socialist Republic of Russia Lunar Base: Yadviga, Phobos Mars moon-

On a lunar base run by the Russian government, specifically the Martian moon of Phobos, scientists, military soldiers and other such people were going about their tasks in the sunless day of outer space.

Well, at least they were.

Now? Now there was a strange phenomenon happening inside the base, a phenomenon that was causing strange yet frightening creatures to swarm it.

One such soldier was running as rift-like holes were tearing themselves through the walls, floor and ceilings all around him, strange and guttural roars could be heard as he ran–until a white ball of whispering energy suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Mine." A voice rasped before energy streams latched onto the soldier, causing him to panic and scream before he was pulled into it, vanishing from reality.

As this utter chaos was going on, the same blinding light from the Morphin Grid appeared again as the man from before was spat out onto the surface of Phobos to witness the chaos in question.

This man was Zordon. Original mentor to the first Power Rangers, Vanquisher of the first Evil, intergalactic sorcerer, former companion of Rita Repulsa, Harnesser of the Grid and the First Power Ranger.

"I think this place will be an adequate resting place for now." He said to himself as he began walking forward.

As he did, he spotted ships fleeing the moon, much to his confusion. Rounding a corner, he saw the Russian base right as a massive explosion occurred from somewhere inside it.

"What the devil? What's going on?" The old wizard questioned as he went to investigate before his communicator flickered to life.

"Ai ai ai ai ai, come on you stupid thing, work!" A voice yelled on the other end, much to the man's surprise.

"ALPHA? ALPHA-5? Is that you, old friend?" Zordon questioned, his voice sounding like Zavala from Destiny.

"Zordon! Thank the Grid I was able to get through to you!" The droid sighed in relief. "Listen, there's something happening on Phobos, and it's bad. I need you to investigate since you're in the area." He told the first Ranger.

"I just came to the base's perimeter. The humans here are evacuating with extreme prejudice. Something is very wrong." Zordon replied as he looked around, seeing debris all over the place along with dead bodies.

"Sounds like we're missing a party." Another voice added, causing Zordon to nearly double back.

"Tommy?" He gasped as he continued to make his way through the base.

"Been a while, Zordon." The original green ranger chuckled in reply. "We're still trying to figure out what's going on here, but ALPHA-5's reading levels of energy that's off the charts." He added.

"I'm not seeing anything so far." Zordon replied… right before he saw a ball of light that dashed around a corner. "Scratch that! I just saw something!" He amended as he chased after it around the corner, finding a pair of starry rifts on the surface of the corridor with one enveloping a human corpse.

"These readings… Could it be…?" ALPHA muttered before the same white orb appeared and then disappeared again.

"What the hell was that?" Zordon questioned as he ducked behind a crate, picking up a discarded auto rifle and held it.

"We got a clear reading of sterile neutrino scattering." Tommy replied, sounding a bit unnerved. "That stuff is nasty. Be careful." He warned.

"I've seen these readings before… they're attached to something–a word, maybe? A name?" The Android said as Zordon came into a more open area, only armed with the rifle he found.

Then…

"HE'S HERE!" Alpha yelled in horror as a spectral image of a being's face appeared.

"INFERIORS! Give your will… TO ME!" The being intoned as vortexes appeared in front of Zordon, dispensing twisted perversions of humans who opened fire on him.

"Now I recognize these creatures!" The wizard cursed as he began shooting at them. "They're Taken! Mindless creatures corrupted by darkness!"

"Zordon, get out of there! NOW!" Tommy yelled in alarm.

"Do as he says! We can't afford to lose you there!" Alpha yelled in agreement as the last Taken human fell.

"I do not like the idea of retreating, but when you're correct, you are." The wizard nodded as he ran. And so he did, fighting his way out of the base through squads of Taken until he reached the open–right as something appeared in the sky.

It was a massive ship with two intakes at the front that were probably high power cannons.

And as Zordon made his way to the highest level of the moon, he saw that the Taken were being held over by an effigy of a humanoid figure that floated over them.

The figure was humanoid with glowing white eyes but had no discernable features, it looked down at the Taken, which caused them all to bow, a certain few of them splitting into copies.

(Elsewhere)

Meanwhile, on the deck of the ship, a figure with a cape draped over one of his armored shoulders slowly turned awake as the effigy disappeared from the scene below.

Said figure rolled his shoulders as he tightly gripped the shaft of a large glaive he was supporting himself with.

He had dark skin, spiky white hair and when his eyes opened, it was revealed that they were golden with slitted irises.

As this young man opened his eyes and straightened up–revealing that he was five-seven–a rather large and stockily built monster walked up behind him.

Said Monster seemed to be a fire giant straight out of Norse mythology, with a body composed of stone and hardened magma, veins of lava pulsing with hot lava under said body down to his eyes.

The creature stabbed its giant cleaver in the floor as he stood behind his master. "They're leaders belong to you." He began. "The rest await extermination." He added.

"No… Gather them." The obvious leader told his subordinate, his skin tight armor moving in sync with them. "I will Take them all." He added as he looked down upon the moon.

As he did so, he caught sight a white and bronze armored figure on the ground, one he recognized.

"There you are." The young man said before he leapt from his ship a dove towards the surface of Phobos. After landing with a loud crash that went unheard in the vacuum of space, he faced his target. "Zordon." He said neutrally.

"Zedidiah Repulsa." Zordon responded just as neutrally. "I thought I recognized that ship. You certainly are your father's son." He added.

"And you don't seem to not have aged a day, considering." Zedidiah nodded as he turned his glaive in his hand, drawing Zordon's attention to it.

"Hm. So you chose to take up the use of a glaive." The first Power Ranger noted. "Curious, indeed." He mused.

The glaive itself had a crescent edged blade and seemed to be made out of continuously moving parts. Like Lubrae's Ruin.

"A gift from my benefactor…" The boy nodded, twirling the weapon. "Excuse me–former benefactor." He added darkly.

"What is it you want, Zedidiah? Why come here? Why now?" The wizard questioned as he summoned his Ranger weapon: the sword of Everlasting Light.

The sword had a black handle, a golden hilt and a blade that was a bit angular near the hilt. The pommel seemed tiger-like.

"Oh come now, Zordon. You of all people should know why I've come." Zedidiah scoffed, before his eyebrows narrowed, his face angry. "I've come here because I'm going to finish what my parents started, and avenge their deaths by destroying those responsible." He continued as he let his glaive stand on its own whilst he raised his arm up–revealing that there was a morpher on his wrist. "Starting with you." He added.

The morphed looked similar to the ones used by the Dino Thunder Rangers, only it was in the shape of a dragon's head with three horns. It was red in color and the sight of it shocked Zordon.

"What?! How did you acquire a morpher?!" He gasped.

"You can die not knowing." Zedidiah shot back before he pressed the activation button. "It's Morphin Time." He continued with a sadistic smirk. "Embrace the Darkness. Chaos Reigns!" He yelled as he suddenly started glowing.

Then he jumped in the air and spun, turning up a tornado that formed an armor around him. Seconds later, he was suddenly wearing black, red and gold armor, and a second later he had a helmet with a silver mouth of a skull, a black visor and gold accents. There were even three horns on his head that looked reminiscent of a dragon's horns.

"Dark Grid Red Ranger. Ready to conquer." Zedidiah intoned as he grabbed his glaive and readied himself to fight the first Ranger.

"Zordon, what's going on?" Tommy questioned as the man took up his sword.

"Zedidiah has acquired a morpher through unknown means!" The wizard replied, his body tense. "I am unsure of his strength level, but I must do my best to defeat him! He added as he got ready to fight.

"What?! Are you insane?!" Tommy shouted in shock. "Don't be stupid! Get out of there!" He pleaded.

"I must, Tommy! If he's allowed to continue then Earth will surely fall!" Zordon told him before he charged at Zedidiah, sword clashing with glaive as they traded blows.

"You'll die here you worthless old buzzard, I'll make sure of that." The villain growled, pushing against the old sorcerer.

"No! I will ensure you can never harm Earth!" Zordon growled as he pushed back. He then managed to feign being pushed back before he shoved a surprised Zedidiah back, causing him to stagger.

"Gah! Damned old fool!" The Dark Ranger growled angrily as he charged again. The two struck each other again and disarmed themselves–causing the fight to become one of hand to hand combat.

They exchanged all sorts of martial arts moves from Jujitsu to Muay Thai moves, each sustaining significant damage in the fight as it progressed.

This all culminated in the two throwing punches at the same time and hitting each other in the face, causing them both to be blown back by a shockwave–and turn back to normal. This also revealed what Zordon looked like sans armor.

He was bald, had blue skin not all that different from the Awoken of Destiny (sans the slight glow they had) and had blue eyes. The only thing he had for clothes was a black skin tight jumpsuit.

The two males groaned as they slowly tried to get up, Zedidiah chuckling to himself as he got up, slowly growing into laughter.

"What are you laughing at?" Zordon questioned as he stood. "You've been beaten." He added.

"Oh no, I haven't, Zordon." The boy retorted as he slid his palms across each other, black and white energy flaming in them. "I haven't even started yet." He continued, hands up. "Doxology." He intoned before he clapped once… And Zordon was sent flying at Mach 25 to the Martian surface–the entire moon of Phobos being decimated in the process.

The wizard groaned in pain as he lay in the center of a crater that matched the size of India. His body was durable, but even a crash at the speed he was just at was pushing it.

Zedidiah floated above him as he pointed his glaive at the man. "Any last words, wizard?" He questioned as Zordon wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Alpha…" The wizard groaned as he sat up. "Now." He added, right as a bronze colored light surrounded him–and he disappeared.

"Damn it all!" The Chaos Ranger cursed as he reverted back to normal. After reigning in his temper, he sighed. "No matter. I can deal with him at my leisure." He sighed. "You can run, you can hide. But I will find you." He growled, going back to his ship.

(Elsewhere)

-Angel Cove, California. Mighty Morphin Citadel-

Zordon gasped as he hit the ground of the newly built citadel, ALPHA-5 and Tommy Oliver quickly ran to the wizard's aid.

Tommy was now in his thirties and had retired from the Ranger scene after the Megaforce Rangers ended their conflict, deciding to help ALPHA prepare for Zordon's return as well as find and teach new generations of Rangers.

ALPHA-5, meanwhile, had been rebuilt in an updated version of his original body with upgrades given to him by Tommy and his friend Billy Benson. Now he is better than ever.

"What happened?!" Tommy asked in concern.

"The son of our old enemies did this to me…" Zordon groaned, holding his right side. "He used an attack that decimated Phobos, and sent me flying to the surface of Mars. Everything hurts." He added with another groan.

"That's not all, that impact forced Mars off its axis!" Alpha exclaimed in panic.

"WHAT?!" Tommy and Zordon yelled in alarm.

"Yes, I've done an analysis!" The droid said as he displayed the data on screen. "If these calculations are precise, then Mars will collide with Earth in approximately two years!" He added frantically.

"Then we need to stop it." The wizard stated as he seated himself in a chair, looking at the original Green Ranger, who nodded in response. "Alpha, we need to find a new group of teens with attitude." He told the Android.

"What kind of attitude are we even looking for this time?" The droid wondered.

"The kind that I thought I'd never seek." The man sighed. "The Renegade Prysms." He added, causing the two to look at him.

"The what?" Tommy asked in confusion, having never heard of these Renegade Prysms.

"The Renegade Pysms are the type of Prysm that go to those with intimidating or otherwise violent attitudes." Zordon explained with a sigh. "Their powers are at the border of light and dark, a part of the power I'd hoped I'd never use." He added.

"But now the circumstances have forced your hand, and we need them." The former green Ranger deduced with a sigh. "Great." He lamented.

"I can only hope that they at least understand why I'm rallying them, whoever they may be." The wizard sighed.

Ain't this whole situation just a son of a bitch…

(Elsewhere)

-Angel Cove, California-

In a canyon that was rather far from the citadel, a boy was scaling down the wall of the cliff, digging tools in hand.

Said boy was a young man of average height with short, blue hair, and had a heredity that gave him sanpaku eyes (eyes make him look like an intimidating delinquent). He also had fair skin and was fairly well built for his age.

Attire wise he wore a blue and black striped shirt, black jack, jeans and white sneakers. Lastly he had a dragon totem necklace around his neck.

This was Ryuuji Shirogane, he was a geology major who went to the Angel Cove University, his age, 20.

Currently he was chipping away at the cliff face to get to a Fossil that he'd found traces of.

"Come on, little fella. I know you wanna see the sun again." He grunted as he kept chipping away at the rock. After a few minutes, he found what he was looking for.

The fossil was definitely not that of a dinosaur. Rather, it looked like a fossilized dragon, judging by the skull.

"Wow. This is very different." Ryuji whistled. However as he looked the fossil over, he noticed that there was something in its jaws. "What the…?" He gasped as he pried the thing loose.

The object looked like a gold medallion with a black center, and the faint image of a dragon on it. What's more, the object held something… captivating.

It began to glow purple as soon as he touched it, and almost immediately–he saw a vision of a powerful black scaled dragon being bonded with this coin, before it ended abruptly.

Ryuji jerked his head back with a grunt, taking a moment to collect himself before shaking the cobwebs out of his head.

"What the hell…?" He whispered to himself as he looked at the amulet. Deciding to put it away for the time being, he stuck a tracker in the cliff wall and started climbing back up.

(Elsewhere)

Meanwhile, in another section of Angel Cove, another boy was skateboarding in a nearby abandoned skatepark that wasn't far from the canyon Ryuuji was at.

He was a tan skinned boy with black hair that reached his shoulders, had onyx eyes and was around 5'4" in height. He wore a black shirt under a black, white and yellow jacket, black jeans, a belt with two satchels on either side, and a pair of black, white and red boots. He looked to be in his late teens, possibly seventeen or so.

This was Keith Grey, a skateboarder with a rebellious streak. The boy was busy doing different tricks on the walls of the bowl of the park, when his wheels clipped the edge and sent him flying onto the dusty ground away from the park.

"Agh! Fuck!" He cursed, grunting before he got back up and looked at what made him fall over. Then he saw an amulet in the mouth of a fossilized fox… Let that sink in. "An amulet in the mouth of a fossilized fox… That sounds so weird when I say it aloud." He mused as he went to pick it up.

Seconds later he saw a vision of a nine tailed fox getting bonded to the element, which made him gasp as he snapped back.

"The hell was that?!" He gasped. Realizing that he found something with high value, he took the amulet and left, reminding himself to come back for the fox fossil at a later time.

He figured that he might make some money out of it.

(Elsewhere)

Meanwhile, in the Angel Cove museum of natural history, a young man was currently leaning against the front desk smooth-talking a fairly cute receptionist, his tactics seemingly working for him.

He had tan skin, brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing a white shirt under a dark green jacket with orange rings on the arms, blue jeans and a pair of gray sneakers. He was also 5'6" in terms of height. Age wise, he looked at least nineteen.

"So, would a knowledgeable pretty thing like you happen to know where a guy can find a good part of this museum for a date?" He asked, a smooth smile spread across his face.

This was Lancelot "Lance" McClain, and as you may have guessed, he was a suave and smooth talking playboy who used his charm to get what he wanted.

Though as he was flirting with the receptionist, he spotted something new in the exhibit to his right. It was of a wolf fossil, and it had a blue and gold amulet in its jaws. Deciding to check it out and see what he could learn, he turned to the receptionist.

"Sweetie, I'm curious. What's the story behind the wolf fossil with the amulet?" He inquired.

"Amulet?" The woman questioned as she approached the skeleton in question indeed had a medallion in its jaws. Taking the thing out, the woman looked it over. "This isn't a part of the exhibit." She explained, which made Lance get an idea.

"Would there be any objections if I decided to take it based on that detail?" He asked.

"Not really." The receptionist shrugged in reply. Taking the gem in hand, Lance put it in his pocket before walking away, and going out of the museum–and then he was hit by the same vision as the two other boys.

But this one was of a wolf who was bonded to the medallion, who howled as blue energy rushed into it.

Jerking his head back a bit, Lance took out the medallion and looked at it with a cautious eye.

"What are you…?" He whispered to himself. Pocketing it again, he continued on his way, wondering what he'd seen.

(Elsewhere)

Meanwhile, back inside the museum, another kid was looking around by herself and generally enjoying herself in the halls of the place of knowledge.

She had long brown hair, brown eyes and looked to be around eighteen years old. She had a C-cup bust to go with her pear shaped figure, and had a heart shaped ass.

Attire wise, she had a green and white long sleeved jacket, a white shirt, gray shorts and a pair of orange and white sneakers. She also had a pair of glasses on her face.

This was Paige Holt, she was a smart, sweet and overall snarky girl who was a technical genius, being able to understand most tech in a matter of minutes if given the ability to do so. Though her usual demeanor would typically get her mistaken for a boy if it weren't for her decently developed assets.

But right now, she was busy examining the various specimens on display in the reptilian wildlife display, when she came across something.

Specifically it was a hanging skeleton of an Archelon, a giant prehistoric Turtle–and it had a gold disc in its beak. Said disk having a green gem in it.

"What is that?" She wondered, and as if fate was giving her an opportunity, the disc fell out of the skeleton's beak, prompting her to catch it on instinct.

This made her experience a vision of energy being bound to a living Archelon as it swam through the ocean. When it was over, Paige blinked and shook her head, wondering if what she'd just seen was some kind of dream.

"Okay… That was weird." She noted, scratching her head as she put the coin in her pocket.

(Elsewhere)

In a junkyard across from a quarry, a Samoan-African man was doing his rounds.

He was around nineteen or so, shoulder length black hair and green eyes. Attire wise, he wore a long sleeved yellow shirt, a vest in three different shades of green, brown trousers and a pair of black and white boots with orange straps. He also had a belt with a pair of satchels on it.

This man was Heath Mamoa, or Hunk, simply put. The boy was currently in the process of moving some scrap metal that had been brought over from the quarry to be disposed of.

Rusted old mine cars, drill bits, shovel heads broken in two, busted jackhammers, etc.

Though when he was pushing one of the carts through, he noticed that there was something at the bottom. Something fossilized and something shiny.

It looked like the fossilized remains of a big cat that Hunk couldn't identify. But he could identify the amulet in its mouth.

"What is that?" He muttered to himself as he removed the medallion from the fossil's mouth.

Immediately, he was assailed by visions of a tiger roaring as energies were bound to it. A second later, it ended, causing him to hold his head.

"What did I just see…?" He wondered before shrugging and pocketing his find. Deciding that the big cat fossil was also worth something, he brought it into his on-site house.

However, as each of these children found the strange Renegade Prysms of the Grid between Grids, strange creatures of various shapes that looked similar to Taken, but were of other life forms appeared where they were, and they were not in the least bit friendly.

One can only hope that our ragtag gang of Renegades can survive long enough to help Zordon save Earth from total annihilation…

Dragon Emperor0: And here it is guys, my first Power Rangers story: Power Rangers: Renegades. A story that takes inspiration from the original Power Rangers shows, the deconstruction comedy anime "Love After World Domination", and Voltron to create a completely original concept for a new incarnation of the color coded spandex wearing, martial arts using, crime fighting teens we love to watch win.

ThermalsniperN7: And it's going full gear right out of the starting line. First we get our big bad, Zedidiah, who has the powers of Oryx, the Taken King and managed to literally clap Phobos out of existence and fold Zordon in one go… And has also knocked Mars off its rotation axis and sent it on a collision course with Earth. Definitely a crisis.

Dragon Emperor0: That's another thing, this story is first and foremost a deconstruction of the typical Power Rangers tropes we see in the show. We wanna see what these guys would be like if our "overbearing, over emotional, teens with attitude" weren't also strictly speaking unconditionally good paragons of virtue and were instead like–ya know, teenagers. Like in the movie basically. Not that there's anything wrong about the original model, but this is a re-examination, not a one to one retelling so we're allowed a few concessions here and there.

ThermalsniperN7: This is also just an introduction chapter, so we'll be getting into the rangers fighting next chapter. And see their powers and Zords. See you guys then.