Mark caught up to the monster near a bridge by the river, calling on his Jet Blaster he fired a few warning shots that hit the faucet themed monster in the back. In retaliation, the monster shot another couple of hoses from its back. Another volleys of laser blasts flew past Mark and intercepted the attack, the red ranger turned his head as Harley limped into sight, "How you holding up?" he asked the black ranger.
"Peachy," Harley replied whilst rolling his shoulder, "if I can't take my anger out on that thieving punk, this thing will do."
He was about to charge towards the monster but Mark stopped him, "Wait, you were beaten by that thief because we didn't work as a team."
"I thought it was because of his mad ninja skills personally," Harley said briskly.
Mark chuckled softly, "That too but if we'd taken him together, I bet we could've won," he allowed the black ranger a couple of moments to think about it, "what do you say, partners?" he offered a hand to Harley.
The black ranger looked at Mark's hand, "I really don't play well with others," he sighed deeply, "let's deal with this thing and see what happens." Mark slowly lowered his hand, at least Harley wasn't rejecting the team anymore, "Now, how about we kick this monster's ass," the black ranger added with a wicked smirk.
"Finally we agree on something," Mark replied and called on his morpher. He offered a small smile when Harley did the same, "Jet Force, Take Flight," they called together and morphed into their suits, "How's your swordsmanship?" he asked the black ranger, summoning his Jet Sword.
"I'm more of a point and shoot kinda guy," Harley replied whilst twirling his blaster around his finger, "I'll lay down some fire, keep him off your back for a while." Mark nodded but to Harley surprise, the red ranger spread his arms to allow a set of gliding wings to deploy. Gripping his sword, Mark jumped high into the air, "Well would you look at that," Harley whistled as Mark literally flew into the sky.
The monster was distracted by the airborne red ranger which allowed Harley to fire off a series of rapid fire shots at the monster. Occasionally it would try to counter with a hose whip attack but Harley managed to dodge, "Come on, you can do better than that," he teased the monster. The creature responded by twisting its faucet attachment so it pointed directly at him. A steaming jet of water crashed into Harley, knocking him off his feet, "Don't taunt the monster," he spluttered, "duly noted."
The black ranger had done his job though, the monster had forgotten all about Mark. The red ranger soared close to the ground and struck the monster with his blade. Twisting gracefully when he reached a bridge support, he pushed off the concrete structure to launch another attack. The moment his blade impacted, he turned sharply upwards before spiralling towards the ground again. This time he landed several hits with his blade, enough to knock the monster down.
Landing gracefully next to the soaking wet Harley, Mark once again offered his hand to the black ranger, "Show off," Harley snorted but this time accepted Mark's help, "I did the hard work, keeping him off your back," he added as he was pulled to his feet.
"That's what team work is all about," Mark replied, smiling under his helmet.
Just then the pair spotted the other three Rangers, running towards them already morphed for battle, "What kept you?" Harley grumbled.
"Traffic," Stevie shrugged, "and I'm being serious by the way, we need a better way to get to a battle than driving." The blue ranger spotted the faucet monster struggling to get to his feet, "What's with the Bed, Bath and Beyond reject?" she asked.
"Looks like it got you pretty good," Rachel sniggered at the soaking wet black ranger.
Harley looked sharply through his visor at the red ranger, "This is why I don't like working with other people, can we just blow it up and I can dry off."
"I suppose," Mark chuckled, "Jet Cannon's everyone," the red ranger called. The team aimed their weapons at the monster, "Fire," he called as five blasts of energy struck the monster. With a hiss of steam and water, it crashed to the ground in a blaze of defeat.
The team quickly demorphed and to his surprise, Harley noticed he was bone dry, "Huh, ain't that a thing," he commented whilst patting himself down. Once satisfied he was dry and that he still had his wallet he continued, "Look I won't lie, I'm a pain in the ass."
"Really? I hadn't noticed," Stevie commented dryly.
"My point is," Harley hissed mainly at the blue ranger, "that I'm probably going to piss you all off again. It ain't nothing personal, it's just my way."
"Fine," Mark nodded, "but don't expect us not to call you out, like it or not, you're part of this team now."
"Very touching," a cold voice called, "allow me to introduce myself, I am Prince Reise," the ghostly image of the young Price continued, "I hereby stake claim to the Earth in the name of the Vyglass Empire."
Harley snorted, "Over my dead body," he called out, "shouldn't you be in school little man," he added.
"Over your dead body," Prince Reise replied neutrally, "that can be arranged." As he finished speaking, he raised a hand and shot a blast of lightning from his palm. The blast knocked Harley off his feet and he slid along the damp concrete for several feet.
Ricky and Rachel rushed to check on the black ranger but he was already scrambling back to his feet, "Alright, someone really needs a time out," Harley spat, pointing a shaky finger at Prince Reise.
Instead of attacking though, the young Prince merely smirked, "I admire your spirit, perhaps this conquest will be more fun." The Rangers glared hard at the Vyglass monarch, "We have eliminated dozens of planet Earth across the multiverse but few have survived the initial attack. In fact, I believe your Earth has lasted longer than any other."
"And we're not done yet," Stevie interrupted the Prince, "we're just getting started so you'll need to do better than a overgrown bathroom faucet."
The Prince glared through his visor at the blue ranger, "Be careful what you wish for girl," he spat, almost sounding angry, "this was just the beginning of our plans, you won't be so lucky next time." With that parting shot, the image slowly faded away.
"I think you touched a nerve," Rachel said to the blue ranger.
"I'll touch more than a nerve if I get my hands on him," Harley groaned, "looks like I have to go change after all," he added whilst indicating at his damp jeans. The remaining Rangers allowed a small chuckle at the black rangers expense but all of them kept thinking about Prince Reise words long into the night.
Later that evening, Taylor was back in her apartment finishing off her report to General Harkness. The former yellow ranger was picking idly at a salad when there was a knock at her door. Closing her laptop, she crossed the short distance to the door, "Eric," she greeted her ex-husband with a half smile, "good to see you again."
The Quantum Ranger silently entered the apartment, "Looks a little bare," he commented on the lack of furnishings beyond a small sofa, table, television and the kitchen in the far corner, "need some help unpacking?" he pointed at the pile of boxes.
"Not tonight," Taylor sighed, "I've got the basics sorted, everything else can wait for another day." She spotted Eric favouring his side, "Are you ribs still bothering you?" Eric waived her off but Taylor didn't give him a chance to speak, "You can cut out that macho nonsense, I went to the store and brought something to help."
The blonde when into the kitchen area, opened her fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer, "My favourite," the Quantum Ranger smiled, "just a couple of painkillers away from perfection." Taylor smiled and dropped a couple of tablets into his hand, "Remind me why we got divorced again?" he asked with a smile.
"Because we're two career minded, alpha personality types. I'm amazed we lasted as long as we did to be honest," Taylor replied with a small shrug.
"Yeah but we had some good times though," Eric carefully lowered himself onto the sofa, "remember that time at Wes's wedding when we rigged some of the cupcakes with tiny detonators."
Taylor laughed, "Frosting went everywhere, I've never seen Jen look so furious in her life," she let out a low sigh, "how are they doing these days?"
"As well as you can when you live in different millennia from each other," Eric replied after taking a drink from his bottle.
"Time Force still hasn't allowed them to live together?" Taylor asked.
Eric shook his head, "It would disrupt the flow of time or some crap like that," he took another drink, "they sneak off and spend time together in a space station that sits outside the space-time continuum but they return to their own time eventually." A long silence followed whilst the former couple drank their beers, "So, back in the Ranger game again," Eric asked, "how did that come about?"
"Oh you know, get summoned by the General to a secret base, get attacked by the bad guys and default into the job because everyone else was killed." Taylor took another long drink before continuing, "All they wanted me to do was train them on the flight simulators, now I'm in charge of the whole project. Really makes me appreciate what Princess Shayla used to do for us."
"Well they know how to hit," Eric snorted, "as least the red and black rangers do."
Taylor snorted, "You wouldn't say that if you'd been training the other three rangers for the last few days."
"That's bad," Eric grinned.
"Put it this way, when I found Max and Danny they were pretty bad but they were ninja masters in comparison," Taylor sighed, "I shouldn't be so hard on them, they're civilians with no prior knowledge of the project."
"Now they need to save the world," Eric finished for her, "I could stick around if you want, impart some words of wisdom with the rookies."
Taylor picked at the label of her beer bottle, "Tempting," she began, "but I'm not sure the General would be too happy bringing in a civilian consultant."
"I'm hardly a civilian," Eric snorted, "the Silver Guardians are amongst the best trained independent contractors in the business. Who do you think worked his ass off to earn that reputation?"
"Hey, you don't have to sell yourself to me," Taylor held up her hands defensively, "plus, I'd really like to see this through on my own, as much as I can anyway."
Eric grinned broadly, "Must've really eaten you up inside to ask me for help then," Taylor shot him a death glare in response, "come on Taylor, I've known you for nearly twenty years, I know how you think." He took another drink of his beer, "Why did you call me anyway? What made you think I could help?"
"Well, I was dealing with a stubborn man who liked to work alone and I'm talking obsessively working alone." She leaned a little closer, "Someone who literally has to be shown they are not the big dog in the yard and will only accept help if physically beaten in a fight," she then flashed Eric a broad smile, "oh and I was dealing with Harley too."
Eric shook his head, "Very funny," he said dryly, "you know, your plan would've failed if he had managed to beat me."
"I trusted your abilities," Taylor shrugged, "very few people have beaten you in a fight, only Tommy Oliver if I recall."
"Don't bring that up," Eric warned his ex-wife, "it's bad enough the other red rangers bring it up every chance they get." He shifted slightly in his chair, "You can't butter me up with compliments either, you said I would get a reward for helping you."
"I did, didn't I," Taylor put her bottle on the table, stood up slowly and leaned towards Eric, "I trust you can find the bedroom," she said with a husky voice.
The Quantum Ranger was stunned into silence for a moment, "Oh no, I've travelled through several states at short notice and had my internal organs rearranged, you can't buy with off with sex."
"Really?" Taylor leaned in and whispered something into Eric's ear that nearly made him drop his bottle, "that's just the first thing I want you to do to me, she added whilst slowly backing away and unbuttoning her yellow blouse.
"No," Eric managed to stammer out as Taylor disappeared into her bedroom, "I'm not a cheap date Taylor, I can't be bought off this easily." Moments later Taylor's blouse flew out the door, followed swiftly by her trousers, and underwear. Eric fiddled with his bottle for a moment before downing the contents, "Ah, who am I kidding," he grinned, leaving the bottle on the table and practically bounding across the floor, slamming the door behind him.