Another day and another day where our friends have to go to school. Ann and Sophia arrive at the same time which happens occasionally.
They greet each other with an embrace and chat a bit, while moving from the bus stop to their schoolyard. It has been a few days since the last battle and things have calmed down in the city. But the weather got worse. It has been cloudy the last day already and for today rain was predicted, hence why Ann and Sophia have their umbrellas with them.
They walk a bit, before they hear some commotion. It isn't hard to spot. As usual it is coming from the Watt Hauptschule, a school for lower secondary education. Unfortunately many students there are known to cause problems. Ann and Sophia spot a group of pupils standing opposed to each other. Sophia recognises three girls, especially the one with the red jacket she is wearing today too. They were at the beach. She hesitantly takes on a fighting stance, while surrounded by two boys around her age. One is visibly frozen in terror. While opposing is a group of four older boys.
"Should we do something?" Sophia asks Ann.
"I wouldn't do so, if I were you." A guy with red-ish blond hair addresses them. "You only get hurt."
"Leonard." Ann says. He is from her class. An athletic boy, good in sports, but also studies hard.
"Hey Ann." He greets Ann. "Unfortunately nothing we can really do. The teachers and that school should do something.
"Yeah, they are destroying their whole future, it is kinda sad."
Sophia nods.
"Isn't that guy from our school?" Ann means the oldest troublemaker.
"Yeah. He should be finishing school this year though, unless he fails." Leonard explains. "This year is his last chance."
"He didn't learn, huh?" With some guidance from Leonard they move on. But Sophia notices something. When they enter their schoolyard she turns to the others. "Hey, I think he had a knife."
"Wouldn't surprise me. I always have had the feeling that he smuggles a knife to school, but no evidence yet. Otherwise I would have made sure he gets expelled." Leonard replies with some bitterness in his voice.
"We should tell the director. I saw it." Sophia points out.
"I wouldn't try. You are not sure, are you? He will just hide it somewhere and then it is your word against him. It will only paint a cross on your back." Leonhard warns. " I would have tried otherwise already. Though since he is the son of the owner of my karate school I might get the beating in return there."
"Oh yeah you do martial arts." Ann remembers.
"Correct, I am a black belt." He proudly announces.
"I see." Ann's response is rather indifferent.
"Huh, not impressed. I see." Leonard shrugs.
"Oh absolutely interested." Ann replies sarcastically.
While walking through the yard they keep silent for a moment.
"Actually there is something I wanted to ask you?" Leonard breaks the silence. "You know when the city was attacked by that crazy undead army and we were saved by the Power Rangers ultimately. Were you there?"
Ann and Sophia exchange a skeptical glance. "Why?" Ann asks.
"I was at my karate school at that time. We let some people in so they could hide, but I thought I saw the four of you helping some kids and old folk getting away." He explains his interest. " I also saw you standing your ground when that woman fought back against those skeletons. I think it was you who used that drone, since you are a tech nerd."
"Yeah." Sophia rolls with her eyes. Not the first to call her that. It just gets annoying if some random person calls her that way. She prefers tech wiz.
"See. I knew it." Leonard celebrates himself for a bit. "To be honest I am really impressed. Of course the Rangers saved us all, but you are also heroes in my mind. If one of you ever needs help, you can rely on me." He moves a bit faster. "Gonna meet some guys. See you in class Ann, and nice talking to you." With that he moves on ahead.
After school Till and Mats meet up at the bus stop. Mats shares classes with Ann but Till and Sophia are in different ones. They plan to go ahead into the city today without the girls, since each of them has different plans for today. Leaving Mats and Till to their own device.
Before they can go though they see a group of three girls. One girl in a red jacket is holding her forearm, pressing a handkerchief against it, seemingly in pain.
"Hey do you need help?" Mats asks immediately. He pulls out a first aid kit from his backpack.
"You really have one with you all the time, huh? I always thought it was a joke." Till comments.
"You never know when you might need one."
"What do you want?" One of the girls with curly blond hair asks.
"Yeah, go away." She doesn't need your help." The other adds. "She only needs us."
"I could really need it." The girl in the red jacket wants to complain, but is cut short.
"Let's go. This is annoying." The one with curly hair says and starts moving away.
"But." One last try.
"You are our friend, aren't you?" The blond girl asks, her tone getting darker.
The two girls follow their leader. Leaving Till and Mats behind.
"I just wanted to help them." Mats laments.
"That didn't go well." Leonard approaches the two.
"Hey Leonard." Mats greets him.
"I already talked with Ann and Sophia about it. But I wanted to say how much I was impressed when you were helping some kids and old folk getting away during that attack."
"Well thank you?" Till responses.
"By the way, that girl in red is Amalia. I know a bit about her, since she used to go to the Wing Chun school in town but got exposed for causing too much trouble." Leonard lets them know. "Apparently she is a troublemaker not just at school here."
"Is she though?" Till casts doubt on that. "Looked more like she was bossed around by the other two."
"Ah don't mind that. Are you two heading somewhere without Ann and Sophia?" Leonard changes subject. "It is kinda unusual."
"Well they have plans for today." Mats replies.
"You mind, if I tag along? To be honest seeing how close you four are, kinda makes me jealous. I have friends, but nothing like yours."
Till and Mats look puzzled for a bit before nodding.
"Sure, I guess." Till answers for the two of them.
"Great, thank you."
On the moon Lord Krok and his two followers are still searching the place and removing rubble. The building is not just in disrepair, but also ancient.
"Lord Krok I found something."
The humanoid crab monster named Lord Krok comes looking. He finds another broken room, with things littered all over. He takes a closer look, since he was called here. "Pick that up." He points at something on the ground.
The mostly human looking monster picks it up, presenting it to her lord. "It looks like a head."
"Made out of clay." Lord Krok looks at it for a bit. "I now know how we get an army. We mold one."
"I don't quite understand." She admits.
"There was a machine to create monsters from clay."
"Oh, perfect idea, Lord Krok. Where do we get one?"
"Remove the rubble from this room." Lord Krok commands.
"As you wish." His followers do as he says and remove all the rubble from the room. They find nothing but clay unfortunately for them.
"There is nothing that looks like machinery to me."
"Then we need to find someone that can build one." Lord Krok says.
"We will get to it right now."
Ann has plans with her mother for today to make up for having to run off during dinner, Sophia on the other hand took the bus out of town. Her destination is the command center. She really wants to learn more about the systems and there is really only one person that can teach her that.
When she arrives at the building she sees Tobu outside. He seems to do martial arts movements, but in a more slow paced, peaceful way. It is almost like he is meditating through these movements.
"Hello." She approaches him.
Tobu stops. "Hello Sophia. Can I help you with anything?"
"I wanted to ask if I might be able to work here. I would like to learn more about everything, really."
Tobu pauses for a moment. "I guess Ann was right, if not kept in check you really dismantle stuff."
Sophia tilts her head a bid and raises her eyebrow, staring at Tobu.
"Okay, okay. I will show you everything." Tobu sighs but lets her in.
"Basically I use a mixture of different sensors. They scan for lifeforms that don't belong on this planet, while also reading energy signatures." He explains a bit later. They made their way into the central room, the actual command center. "Together with access to satellites that give me access to life footage I brought together the warning system we are using."
"You have access to reconnaissance satellites?"
"I can't tell you much about it. Trust me please, it is for your own good."
"Okay, I will not pry about it." Sophia promises.
"Thank you."
"I guess behind it is an algorithm analyzing all the information." Sophia presses on about the systems they can talk about, hopefully.
"Yes. But so it works fast, I need a strong mainframe that can run such calculations without big delays." Tobu confirms. Just then a screen lifens up. It shows a man in uniform moving around the laboratory part of the command center.
"Who is that?" Sophia asks.
"I need to deal with it, hopefully quickly." Tobu just replies. "It is best, if you stay out of sight."
Sophia plays along, but she doesn't understand what is happening right now.
Not after long though that man enters the central room. Sophia hides behind some consoles and tries to stay completely silent.
"Lieutenant-General Woodward." Tobu greets the man. "What brings you here?"
"I see you invested the money you got from us."
"I sure did, but I doubt you made the trip only to compliment my work here."
"Yes. I need you to remove the safety system." The general commands.
"That is not possible. If I do that, then we might lose access to the power completely." Tobu rejects it but is met with a stern gaze. Sophia glances around the corner to see what is going on. His uniform. He doesn't seem to be from germany. Unfortunately she doesn't see it clearly enough from this ankle.
"Don't mistake your position. I will do everything to make you lose everything you build."
"You are in no such position and we both know that." Tobu resists so far.
That general Woodward surely means bad news. Sophia is glad she is hiding. She doesn't want to have to deal with him. She retreats more behind the console, bumping her head in the process.
"Who is there?" The general asks loudly. "There is no use in hiding." He starts walking towards the console.
Defeated, Sophia comes out of hiding with an apologetic look towards Tobu.
"And who is that?" The military leader demands to know.
"I-I am." Sophia can't stand this man's gaze. He is too intimidating.
"She is a student that does part-time work here at this research institute by helping maintain the computer's hardware." Tobu jumps to her aid, positioning himself between her and the lieutenant-general. "Isn't that right?"
Sophia nods, hoping that she doesn't screw up.
"And her name?"
"I do not think that is any concern for you." Tobu opposes him.
"She heard confidential information." The general doesn't give in.
"Then do I have to remind you, that you were the one starting it without making sure that no one else was around." Tobu doesn't back down either. "I don't think that your higher ups will be happy about it."
They both stare at each other for a few moments while Sophia tries to make herself as invisible as possible hiding behind Tobu.
"I will make her sign a contract to not lose a word about what we said and we forget this happened." Tobu offers.
Woodward remains silent for another few seconds. "I will accept that. But if she slips up, I will make her pay."
"She won't." Then Tobu points at the door. "You will get the paper through secure means as usual but I need you to leave now."
He leaves. Tobu and Sophia use the internal surveillance to watch him actually leave the building before Tobu seals the entrance so that at least for now no one can enter.
"I am sorry to have put you through this." Tobu apologizes. "I need you to at best forget about this."
"I won't talk to anyone. I promise." Her heart is still racing.
"If you need a moment to calm down, please do so. But it would be best if you go. I will show you everything another time."
Sophia nods and being honest with herself she is kinda exhausted after that encounter anyway. She leaves the room and leans on a wall for a bit.
"I am sorry." Tobu mutters before using a console. He navigates to a folder in the system labeled candidates. He starts deleting different files, so long that only four remain. Each labeled after one of our four friends. Transferring them on a stick he then deletes them and puts the stick away revealing a hidden compartment in a wall.
After a minute or so Sophia starts heading home. She just wants to lay down for the rest of the day. But today nothing seems to go as planned. Her smartwatch-like communicator starts the alarm. Oh great. Exactly now. She immediately heads back inside, the door being unlocked again by Tobu.
Unknown to her, General Woodward is still around. He parked the car he is using nearby and managed to hear the sound and see Sophia heading back in when it rings. Now though he drives away.
"What is happening?" Sophia asks once she reaches the central room.
"Monster appeared at the park." Tobu answers.
On a screen they see that human-looking monster from before with a group of humanoid shaped monsters made out of rocks. Another monster is with them, that seems to be made out of crystals.
"They look tough." Sophia comments. Then spotting something. "There is Ann and her mother."
"I contacted the other two. They will arrive there shortly."
"We need to head out too."
Nobu agrees and holds up his Morpher. "It's Morphin' Time! "Tyrannosaurus!"
"Pterodactyl!"
"Come, I got a bike we can use." Heading to a hidden part of the subterranean garage there are five motorcycles each colored after one of the Rangers.
"I cannot drive." Sophia says.
"Then hop on." Tobu says while mounting his bike. With the Pink Ranger sitting behind him and holding on tight, they are on their move.
Ann cries in her thoughts. Why now? Can't they do their attack some other time? She needs to get her mother to safety while also finding a chance to slip away so she can help the others who surely will arrive soon. Soon as those monsters appeared everyone started running away.
"Ah good citizen, you are from this day under our control. Don't run away. That is rude." The monster says. "Stonies, get them." With that these humanoid rock monsters split up chasing after everyone in sight.
Ann and her mother are also running away. But Ann spots a small child that gets separated from their parents. "Mom keep running." Ann runs to the kid.
"That is too dangerous." Her mom shouts but can't go after her daughter since one of the monsters gets in between them. The crystal monster spits out a stream of white mist, freezing Ann's mother and others in place.
Ann manages to grab the child and carries him while running away from two of those Stonies. The parents come towards her and take over the child but the Stonies catch up. Trying to shield the child and his parents, Ann kicks at one of the Stonies immediately regretting it. They don't just look like being made out of stone, they are made out of rocks. It feels that way at least. The monster grabs Ann and throws her easily. She lands in a bush.
"Stop right there!" The Black Ranger demands grabbing all monsters' attention.
He isn't alone though since the Blue Ranger stands beside him.
"And who do you think you are?" The humanoid monster asks.
"We are the Power Rangers and gonna defeat you." Mats replies. "Release the people and retreat now."
"Ha. I am Tydalyn. Servant of the great Lord Krok." She introduces herself. "Stonies crush those Rangers." With that all of the stone humanoids are coming after the Rangers. Partly what they wanted to archive at least. They engage in battle with them.
Ann is partially happy that her friends appear. Especially since she isn't immediately threatened by those stone like monsters. For a moment she just wants to charge out and scream at them for freezing her mother, but announcing that just like this seems like a bad idea and paints a target on her mothers back. She rather searches a dense patch of undergrowth between some trees to hide behind, with a short check of her surroundings she holds up her Morpher transforming into the Yellow Ranger. Then she approaches the crystal monster by running full speed and jump-kicking it. It rolls on the ground and stands up again. "Unleash the people. Now!"
"Don't feel like it."
Tobu with Sophia sitting behind him drives full speed towards the park. Once they get close they see residents running away. They make way for the Rangers. But not for them alone. Just ahead of them the skeleton knight Lador appears. Too close for stopping safely.
"When I say jump, you jump off." Tobu says loudly.
"What, why?" Sophia thinks whatever it is, it's a crazy idea.
"Trust me, please." He hits the breaks and starts bending it. "Now."
Sophia decides to do as he says, better than directly crushing into the enemy. The bike gets turned around by Tobu and he jumps off of it, letting it slide on the road for a bit, before it lays still. Using his sidearm sword he jumps towards Lador, slashing at him. The knight parries with the hilt of his scythe, sliding it alongside the blade and hitting the Red Ranger in the back, turning him around and follows up with a kick to the back. Letting the ranger fly a bit.
"Are you alright?" Sophia runs at his side.
Tobu jumps right back on his feet. "Yes." He assures. "I will deal with him, you go to the park and help the others."
"You sure?"
"Yes. We need to protect and save the people. That is most important." Tobu strengthens his resolve.
"I am here for you today, Red Ranger. If the other wants to go fight over there go ahead. I won't stop you." Lador promises.
What choice do they even have? The Red Ranger strikes at Lador again, but his attack gets blocked. Sophia though starts running past them and true to his word, Lador doesn't bother her. Lador and Tobu encircle each other waiting for an opportunity to strike. Lador is eventually the one to make the first move. With a mighty swing of his scythe he comes at the Ranger, but he parries it to the side, his own attack gets blocked with the scythe.
They exchange a few other strikes before Tobu backs down a bit and they move in circles again, not letting the other one out of sight.
At the park the battle proceeds. Ann continues to fight the crystal monster, to no effect as of now. She kicks and punches but doesn't do any damage to it. While she has learned that the sharp edges of the crystal it's made of don't just look sharp. Blasting it is also not a good idea. She tried it with her blaster, but the shots got reflected. She keeps struggling. Even drawn out her daggers.
Mats and Till fight the Stonies and don't get anywhere either. They can keep up with them but their solid structure has as of yet to take any dent. They are kinda stuck at the moment. Tyladyr is currently only taking the role of an observer. At least that is good for them.
Just at the time Sophia gets there. She immediately shoots at two Stonies with her Power Bow. Actually defeating them. Seeing that Till and Mats back off a bit and bring out their own personal weapons and strike at the rock monsters. Now able to do something they keep fighting and actually dealing with those monsters called Stonies.
Ann struggles still. She attacks with her daggers once more, but gets blocked with one arm made out of crystals, while getting attacked in return with crystal claws, flinging her in the air. She lands right next to her mother, almost knocking her over. She quickly gets on her feet, catching her mother and stabilizing her stand. "Sorry, Mom. I will get you out of this."
"Yeah they are even more fragile in this state." The monster claims.
"You will pay for this." Ann screams and charges at the crystal monster. Just so she gets caught with the crystal claws, lifted and thrown in the other direction, luckily away from any frozen people. Then the monster spits out the same freezing wave, it did to said people. Sparks fly, as Ann gets protected by the suit and her power. She struggles to get up again.
Sophia sees that. "Get over there and help her, I'll deal with the rest." She says while shooting down the last Stonies.
It is at this time that Tydalyn decides to spring into action by blasting at the Black and Blue Ranger. They manage to dodge. "How about we play a bit." She says pointing the blasters on her forearms at them. Though just as she does so she needs to dodge an attack herself.
"We are kinda in a hurry." Sophia replies as she prepares to shoot at her again.
"And I have all the time." She fires two shots, just as Sophia shoots with her bow again. Both get hit and launched off their feets but it is Tydalyn who gets up first.
Till and Mats split up. Mats attacks Tydalyn trying to hit her with his lance. She dodges his thrusts with ease actually. Even managing to catch and grab it while using a kick to the leg to destabilize him. Then she lets a punch follow, bringing the Ranger to his knees. But cannot take advantage of this. The Pink Ranger charges at her trying to strike Tydalyn with her bow. Again she dodges, kicking Sophia in the side.
Till swings his ax with all his might, managing to fling the crystal monster a few feet, before rushing to Ann. "You okay?"
"Somehow." Ann struggles to keep standing. "I can continue." She adds as she finally finds her steady feet again.
Tobu's and Lador's fight also continues. Tobu blocks the scythe at the handle and steps in with a thrust, hitting Lador, but the blade is stopped by the armor. When Lador attacks, the Red Ranger parries and manages to push the scythe above his head and put Lador in a position where he can't immediately attack with the scythe's blade again. Tobu then follows with another sword strike, hitting Lador against the boney head. Lador jumps back with the impact.
"You are indeed the strongest of the Rangers." Lador comments. "I could try to capture you. But this fight might take a while and if the other Rangers fall, I will fail."
"We will never work for you."
"Let's see if you are still saying it after we captured all five of you." Lador steps back. "I look forward to our next duel." He then disappears.
Tobu doesn't want to lose any time and pushes onward.
Ann tries her best to parry the crystalized claws of the monster, but she has to learn that she is just not good enough. Without Till fighting alongside her, she wouldn't stand a chance.
Sophia and Mats also struggle to keep up with Tydalyn. Although any hit of her doesn't hurt as much as they expected. Allowing them to keep going. After a missed thrust Mats swings the other end of his lance at Tydalyn and hits her, actually flinging her into the air. She uses her boosters to fly away from them.
"Hey protect me", she shouts at the crystal monster.
Said monster manages to land a hit on both the Black and Yellow Ranger knocking them over. It then charges at Sophia and Mats, but gets intercepted as Tobu arrives. He swings his sword, but gets blocked. Still he manages to push it back a bit. The other Rangers rush to his side.
"That one is tough." Ann remarks.
"I will create an opening. You two hit it with everything you got." Tobu addresses Till and Mats.
"I want too." Ann wants to beat it.
"You to keep that one from interfering." Tobu points at Tydalyn with his head.
"We can do that." Sophia agrees.
Tobu goes in attacking and blocking, trying to lock it in place while Mats and Till charge in swing and thrust with all their might.
Tydalyn just floats in the air for now, not doing anything.
The crystal monster is knocked back by the attacks. Together the three hit it again, striking it down for good it seems. Only until Tydalyn drops something at the monster that first stings in its body, before getting absorbed and letting the monster grow in size. Tydalyn on the other side retreats.
"Uh Zords?" Ann asks.
"I don't think we can do anything otherwise." Til replies.
"Pterodactyl Dinozord Power!"
"Sabertooth Tiger Dinozord Power!"
"Triceratops Dinozord Power!"
"Mastodon Dinozord Power!"
"Tyrannosaurus Dinozord Power!"
All Zords appear, except the Tyrannosaurus. The four friends start piloting their Zords and engage with the monster.
"Tyrannosaurus Dinozord Power!" Still nothing. "Come on, please. We need your help." Tobu pleases for the Zord to appear and finally it answers the call. Tobu enters the cockpit.
"Okay, we can combine our Zords now."
Surrounding the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord they combine, pulled by the Triceratops and Sabertooth Tiger, the Pterodactyl rides on the back of the Tyrannosaurus while the Mastodon provides two cannons to the side of the Tyrannosaurus. Now combined they also have a shared cockpit.
"Okay that is even cooler." Sophia admits.
"Yeah but shots get reflected." Ann keeps the reminder up.
"Then we change into Battle Mode." Tobu announces.
"Megazord sequence has been initiated." A robotic sounding voice announces
Triceratops and Sabertooth form the legs, while the cannon barrels fold inwards and form fists. While the head of the Tyrannosaurus folds into the body revealing another more humanoid head. Pterodactyl sits on the chest.
"Megazord activated!" The robotic voice announcing the change of mode to be completed.
The Megazord is assembled and the Rangers pilot it against the crystal monster. They exchange some blows with the monster, punching it, while blocking its attacks. With every exchange the monster retreats more and more away from the city.
"Alright. Let's finish it. Power Sword!" Flying from the sky the Power Sword, their Megazord's weapon appears. The sword gets powered up and in one powerful blow they defeat the monster. Afterwards they bring the Zords back to their resting spot and Tobu gathers his motorcycle while still morphed.
Later then the Rangers are all gathered in the command center, finally demorphed.
"Uh, I am put." Ann whines while leaning on a wall. The wall is cool to the touch which she finds so relaxing right now.
"That was hard. I think we really need to train in some martial arts." Mats calls attention to them not having trained for fighting even once in their lives before.
"Uh. Not now." Ann says. "But you are right."
"I can teach you what I know, but I'm not sure how much of a teacher I am." Tobu proposes.
"You fight so well. We surely can learn a thing or two from you." Sophia agrees.
"Otherwise I am sure that Leonard can tell us where to learn what." Till chips in.
Back on the ship Lador approaches Jador in something akin to a control room. Surrounded by viewing portals and altar-like consoles the two commanders talk about today.
"Was that enough distraction for you? Lador asks.
"I was able to bring in a monster undetected, now it can mask his presence on his own. Now that ghostly monster can track the energy and hopefully find the whereabouts of the Rangers." Jador answers.
"From here you can't detect them precisely, you said."
"That is unfortunately correct, but if we go closer we might get detected more easily. Deception is a weapon." Jador explains, almost sounding happy. "Also you got a duel with the Red Ranger, yes?"
"Since that leader calling him Lord Krok had an attack going it was easy to distract them. So far only the Red Ranger's combat skills impress me. The others seem to be amateurs."
"Yes. That might be the case, but they possess some interesting power. Maybe this way, I can find out more about them."
"Well, anything to fulfill my duty." Lador says.
"For a first test run I would say this was a success." Lord Krok remarks on the Moonbase. They have cleared out the rubber and used some pillars to reinforce the structure so it won't break on them on its own. They even managed to create a machinery, thanks to their newest recruit, a rather furred little monster, only half in height as the others. But a skilled crafts monster.
"I had to use one of the seeds we brought from the Lost Galaxy." Tydalyn asks for forgiveness.
"That is fine." Lord Krok responds. "Once I have some of my might back, we don't need them anyways."
"I bet we will hear from Igneos soon." The lizard monster Skalizard trusts their companion.
"He is reliable." Lord Krok admits. "Well we were lucky to find a blueprint collecting monster that can form monsters out of stone and rock. This place is literally littered with that. Now I will come up with another plan. Prepare me some more patches of Stonies in the meantime. I will take revenge on that brat and conquer this planet."
"Y-Yes." The little monster seems to be intimidated by their presence and will do as ordered.