At the battle site in downtown Aaronsdale, the Road Warrior was easily handling the four Rangers. The Franklin Drive and Washington Avenue area was the primary entertainment district of Aaronsdale. Unfortunately for the Rangers, that meant plenty of electronics for the Road Warrior to siphon off energy and disappear in a flash of light. Still reeling from it's latest attack, the team struggled to their feet, still with smoke pouring from their suits, "If tech girl has a plan, she'd better come through soon," Harley grumbled, "this son bitch is gettin' on my last nerve."
"She said keep it busy," Mark replied, "so let's keep it busy," pulling out his Jet Blaster and unleashing a barrage of shots. The Road Warrior pulled a stop sign from his body and used it as a shield to deflect the bolts harmlessly away.
Once the last shot was blocked, the monster threw the sign at the Rangers, slicing each of them across the chest and sending them back to hard concrete, "Now I know what it feels like to fight Captain America," Ricky hissed through the pain in his ribs.
"Guys, sorry I took so long," the Rangers suddenly heard Rachel call from the other side of the street.
"What are you doing here?" Mark managed to grunt out, "you're not medically cleared for battle."
"You hardly look in peak shape yourself," Rachel countered, "I have an idea, try and lure the monster to the sidewalk outside the Grand Hotel."
Harley snorted, "What do you think we've been doin' for the last ten minutes sweetheart?"
"Just trust me," without further comment, Rachel extended her wings and took to the sky.
"Just great," Harley slowly got to his feet, "there she goes, leavin' us alone again."
Ricky grabbed Harley by the shoulder, "I trust her, she won't let us down," Harley's helmet looked down to the yellow ranger's hand on his shoulder then glared directly at Ricky who quickly released his grasp on the black ranger.
"Well since you don't have a better idea," Stevie jumped up and down and frantically waived her hands, "hey ugly, look at me," the Road Warrior's attention shifted to the blue ranger, "yeah you, betcha can't catch me," Stevie turned quickly and sprinted towards the hotel with the monster following close behind.
"She's nuts," Harley said but he was ignored by Mark and Ricky who joined Stevie in a dash towards the Grand Hotel, "you're all nuts," after a brief pause, the black ranger sighed and joined the others.
Once the four rangers were in position they looked to the sky but couldn't see the white ranger, "Alright Rachel, now would be a good time," Ricky muttered nervously to himself. The Road Warrior slowly advanced towards the Rangers, his hands crackling with electrical energy.
Suddenly a torrent of water fell onto the monster and it cried in pain. The Road Warrior thrashed around but the more it struggled, the more it's electrically charged body was overloaded by the water. After several moments, it stopped moving and fell face first into the road.
Moments later, Rachel landed gracefully in front of the other Rangers, "How did you do that?" Stevie asked in awe.
The white ranger pointed up, "This hotel has one of those invisible pools on its roof, one where there's a glass panel where the wall should. All it took was one slice," she twirled her Jet Sword whilst accepting the congratulations of the team, "to bring the water down onto the street."
"Very clever, white ranger," the Rangers spun instantly to face the mysterious voice, Rachel instantly recognised the woman as Princess Lena who was standing near the fallen Road Warrior, "I underestimated you, saw you as a pretty face and nothing more."
Rachel sunk into a defensive pose with her sword at the ready, "Yeah, you wouldn't be the first to make that mistake."
Princess Lena arched an eyebrow, "I will admit that you surprised me but now I have a surprise for you." The black and white clad woman began to move away from the fallen monster as dark green spark crackled over its body. It rose to it feet and began to grow until towered above the building in downtown Aaronsdale, "You outsmarted us once," Lena sneered, "but let's see if you can do it again."
The Rangers quickly shuffled away from the giant monster who was now stomped towards them, "How the hell did it do that?" Ricky asked, "I know Major Earhardt warned us about this but I never thought it possible."
"We'll worry about that later," Mark said to the yellow ranger as her raised his communicator, "Jazz, are the Jet Zords ready to go?" he asked.
"Fuelled up and ready to fly," the Scot replied, "Zords launched and homing in on your position. Just try and bring them back in one piece."
A sonic boom echoed across the sky, even capturing the attention of the giant Road Warrior, "Sounds like our ride," Harley jumped, extended his wings and flew towards the Condor Zord. He landed heavily on the head of his zord before climbing inside.
"Could he at least wait for the order," Mark sighed and shook his head. He followed Harley into the sky with Ricky, Stevie and Rachel close behind. The quartet flew in unison until they touched down on their respective zord with a little more grace than the black ranger did. "Alright team just remember your training in the simulator, this is no different," the red ranger said over the radio.
"Apart from the big, ugly monster stomping through the city," Stevie replied hotly, "I've got a lock, I'm going in." Banking the Swallow Zord sharply, she fired the craft's Wing Cutter. The Road Warrior pulled out a road sign and swatted the wings away, "Damn he's strong," Stevie flashed over the monsters head, dodging a wild swing in the process, "at least the Wing Cutter is still intact," she added whilst manoeuvring her craft to pick up the projectile.
"You took out one of his shields," Mark attempted to reassure the blue ranger, "this is going to be tougher than I thought," he added quietly.
A flash of the Condor Zord zipping past disrupted his thoughts, "Time for some brute force and ignorance then," Harley called out. Using the hard head of the Condor Zord and the covering fire from the Swan Zord, he attempted to ram the Road Warrior to the ground.
The blow managed to stagger the monster but he remained upright, "I'm not sure who has the harder head, Harley or his zord," Ricky quipped. The Road Warrior counter attacked against the Owl Zord, flipping another projectile towards the yellow ranger's jet. He managed to dodge the attack but the giant road sign lodged in the side of the Grand Hotel, "I hope we don't get billed for the damage," Ricky sighed.
"This isn't working," Rachel cried as her laser barely made a scratch on the Road Warrior. Even the Hawk Zord was struggling to stop the rampaging monster, "When I was training last night, I saw a configuration where all our Zords could combine," she added across the open radio frequency.
"The Jet Force Megazord hasn't been fully tested," Jazz replied to the white ranger, "we haven't even finished it's warrior mode yet."
"But it has a Jet mode, am I right?" Mark asked.
There was a loud sigh over the radio, "Yes and theoretically it's functional but again, we haven't tested it yet."
"Sometimes the best tests aren't on a simulator, they're in the field," Mark began, "can you tell us how it works?"
"And quickly," Harley added whilst avoid another projectile from the Road Warrior, "this critter's startin' to get his eye in."
"Fine," Jazz began, "firstly you need to fly in a tight formation, Hawk Zord at the front, followed by the Swallow and Owl zords in the next row and finally the Condor Zord and Swan Zord at the back. Once you begin the sequence, the Zords will transform to fit, all you have to do is fly level and keep your airspeed steady."
"You heard Jazz," Mark said over the radio," Jet Force, into formation." The five zord flashed over the city steadily manoeuvring into the correct position. Once Mark was happy everyone was in position, he added, "Initiate Jet Force Megazord, Jet Mode."
The Hawk Zord flattened it's wings, allowing the Swallow and Owl Zords to flatten and connect with the left and right sides respectively of the Hawk Zord. The Condor and Swan Zord slotted onto the middle, between the gap left by the other by the Swallow and Owl Zords. The Megazord's Jet Mode was essentially triangular in shape, except for small parts of the Condor and Swan Zords that acted like rudders for the giant machine.
The five Rangers were moved in their seats to a much larger shared cockpit, "That went better than I thought it would," Ricky commented as the seats locked into place.
"That's all down to the hard work you've put in during training," he tilted his head slightly to look at the white ranger, "all of you," he added.
"I had a good teacher," Rachel shrugged, "isn't that right Jazz?"
"What can I say, I have my uses," the Scotswoman replied through the radio, "Jet mode is very agile but it's not as robust as it's Warrior form. I recommend bringing that monster down hard and fast."
"Couldn't have put it any better myself," Mark tapped a few buttons on the console, "charging outer hull, preparing to engage the Phoenix Blast." He grabbed the yoke, taking careful aim at the monster, "Everyone, hold onto something this could get rough," he added.
The Megazord accelerated towards the Road Warrior, the outer skin of the craft practically glowing. As it approached, the entire hull suddenly flashed with in a blaze and seemed to disappear in a burst of light. A split second later, the monster was hit with a fiery burst of light and the Megazord reappeared at it's back. As the Megazord decelerated, the monster stumbled back before falling mercifully falling into a deserted area of the city, disappearing in a blaze.
On the ground, Princess Lena could only stare at the defeated monster, clenching her fists tightly at the sight. Moments later the Jet Force Megazord appeared overhead and the five rangers jumped down. Rachel slowly walked forward, "So, how was that for a surprise?" she asked the Vyglass Princess. Lena glared fiercely, her gaze aimed at Rachel but also lingering on the red ranger for a moment. With a crackle of energy, she retreated to the safety of her ship.
Suddenly Rachel's suit flashed and disappeared, leaving the white ranger rubber legged in the street. Both Harley and Mark jumped forward to stop the white ranger from falling, "Maybe I'm still not one hundred percent," she smiled weakly.
"What gave it away," Mark replied lightly before turning to Ricky and Stevie, "can I trust you two to get her home?" The blue and yellow ranger's nodded in the affirmative.
Around an hour later, one of the Air Force's jeeps pulled into Rachel's driveway, braking sharply in the process. Moments later Ricky stepped out, looking a little green, "Are you sure you know how to drive Stevie?"
The blue ranger jumped out the driver's side door, "At least I have a licence," she snapped hotly, "how did you fail driver's ed?"
"Guys could we not do this now," Rachel sighed as she shakily got out from the back, "look, I'm home, you can tell Mark and the Major that you've gotten me back safely."
"Yeah, just about," Ricky snorted under his breath, "at least let us see you inside, TMZ would have a field day if you passed out on your driveway."
Rachel sighed, "Fine but I really need to sleep so I can spend the afternoon working on the latest upload."
Letting her fellow rangers into her house and upstairs towards her bedroom. When they arrived she found someone sitting on her bed, "Jazz," Rachel gasped, "what are you doing here?"
The Scotswoman was sitting crosslegged on the bed with a laptop open, "You left your stuff at my place," she answered nonchalantly, "thought I'd bring it over."
"Yeah but how did you get in?" the white ranger asked.
"Oh I have my ways," Jazz said but when everyone started to look nervous, she added, "your keys were in your bag, I left myself in," she jingled a bunch of keys at the same time.
Rachel grabbed the keys from Jazz, "I know we're a team but we need to have a talk about boundaries." She spotted footage from one of her unpublished videos on Jazz's laptop, "Where did you get this from?"
"The Hub really need to update their firewall," Jazz shrugged, "you said that you've got a deadline, I was just trying to help with the edit, that's all," she added defensively.
The white ranger chewed her lip, physically biting back an angry retort. A couple of deep breaths allowed her anger to dissipate slightly, despite her questionable way of going about it, Jazz was only trying to help, "Thank you," she began slowly, "but I really like to do these things myself, it really allows my passion to come out."
"Are you passionate about this," Jazz pointed at the silent footage of Rachel demonstrating a new make up product, "forgive me for saying it but from what I've seen, it seems like you're phoning it in a bit."
"I've been a little preoccupied lately," Rachel said defensively, "I'll admit this isn't my best work-"
"It's not just recently though," Stevie interrupted the white ranger, "your uploads have been a little flat for a while." A firm glare from Rachel stopped further comment from the blue ranger, "Better you here it from a friend than some troll in the comments section."
"You did say earlier that you wouldn't mind jacking it all in," Ricky chipped into the conversation.
"Alright I get it," Rachel threw her hands up, she turned away from the group for a moment to gather her thoughts, "I know you all mean well and thank you for bringing me home but I'd like to be alone for bit."
"Oh," Jazz replied, "yeah you've had a long couple of days," she stood from the bed and grabbed her sneakers, "we should leave you alone to rest."
As the trio went to leave, Rachel added, "I know you're all voicing what I've been thinking but it's still hard to hear," she let out a deep sigh, "Martin and his team wouldn't dare talk to me like that, only friends would."
The trio brightened at the use of 'friends', "Does that mean we get a cut of your next project?" Stevie asked brightly.
"Don't push your luck," Rachel replied with a small smile, "maybe we'll catch up later, I could use some more work on Ricky's simulator."
"Sounds like a plan," Jazz began, "and that's just as much my simulator as it is Ricky's," the group shared a quick laugh, "we'll leave you to it, come on guys," with that, Stevie, Ricky and Jazz left.
Now alone in her room, Rachel was finally able to relax. Out of curiosity she watched the footage that Jazz edited and she had to admit, the Scot had done a good job. She also had to admit what Jazz and Stevie said, there was something soulless about the footage. There was no real passion behind the words she was speaking. Then something Ricky said earlier that morning came back to her, maybe it was time for a change.
Before she could change her mind, she snapped the laptop shut, walked across her room and sat down at a desk. After checking that she looked presentable, she turned on the camera that was permanently mounded on the desk.
Clearing her throat, she began to speak, "Hello friends and welcome to an important update from Zee TV," she paused before adding, "this will be the final upload to the channel in its current format. The truth is friends, that I've been unhappy with my content for a while and it's time to make a change." After speaking those words into the camera, a sense of relief washed over the white ranger and for the first time in a long time, her camera captured her genuine smile