Pink Crisis Addendum: The Gathering
"What is this place?" Kim asked, looking around at the flying cars and all types of living beings walking around in the streets, including humans with attires from ancient civilizations, and aliens that looked more alien than anything she had ever seen.
She followed Billy, moving out of the way as a gelatinous glob slithered past them.
"We call it the Chrono City, but technically this is Outpost One of the Time Force, and what remains of the Thirty First Century of your timeline." Billy explained. "After the Dusting, Vanishing, Snap, Blip or whatever your world calls it, timelines were in a massive state of flux, and Time Force was able to teleport most of its personnel, offices and surrounding structures to its outpost in this place, a dimension outside of time and space, and consequently, they have been using their technology to rescue other withering timelines and doomed worlds, hence leading to the formation of the Chrono City."
"You live here? Does that mean your world is gone too…" Kim asked him tenderly.
"I do." Billy chuckled, his voice, absent of mirth. "But my world survives, no thanks to me."
Kim looked at him shocked.
"Why are you living here then, without your friends and family?" She asked accusingly.
"I made lots of mistakes." Billy said depreciatingly.
"Nothing you can't come back from." Kim placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know you, Billy. I know whatever you did or rather whatever you think you did, your friends still love you and miss you."
"Thank you… But I can't go back till I fix things." He said, as they continued their walk towards the big citadel in the center of the city. "I wrecked the entire timeline of my universe, distorted it beyond repair, and not just that, I fear my actions might have damaged an infinitude of timelines. Just like your Billy is responsible for the loss of your Trini, my actions caused the disappearance of a Trini from a world different from my own, but a friend nonetheless, as well as other beings."
"Billy, I don't blame my Billy for my Trini's death. It was an accident. The only person responsible was Robo Rita." Kim said patiently. "And I know you wouldn't have done the things you did, unless you had a good reason."
"I thought I did." Billy sighed. "And look how that turned out."
"Hey, we all make mistakes, and sometimes, all we can do is shots in the dark. Sometimes, they work out. Other times, they don't, but we can't beat ourselves over it." Kim said gently. "Your universe still exists."
"But it is broken because of me."
"Just because it is broken, doesn't mean it is not worth anything. Be thankful for everything and everyone you have saved, instead of mourning those you have lost."
"You really mean that?" Billy paused, turning to look at her. It broke her heart to see tears fall from his eyes. She really did not understand the intricacies of timelines or whatever Billy said, but she knew he was a victim of some terrible war a long time ago… a war whose horrors still haunted him.
"I do." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a hug. "You are a good person, Billy. Don't ever doubt that."
She heard him sniff, as he hugged her back.
"Thank you." He said after a while, pulling away from her.
"Promise me one thing Billy. After this mission to save the universe-"
"Multiverse." Billy corrected.
"Fine." Kim rolled her eyes. "After we save the multiverse, promise me you will return to your world… to your friends and family."
Billy nodded, smiling.
"I think I am ready to face them again… Thanks to you." He said gratefully.
"Good." Kim smiled. "And I am sure other me will hit you for being silly."
"Of that, I have no doubt!" He laughed.
Just then, they felt themselves being teleported.
"What the-" Kim cursed, as they reappeared in the middle of an auditorium sized room, surrounded by people, including aliens of varying species, in grey uniforms with triangular badges pinned to their chests.
"Time Force HQ must have been able to recognize our energy signatures." Billy said.
"Why couldn't you just portal us directly in here then?" Kim asked.
"Security reasons." Another voice said. She looked up to see a brunette wearing a dark pink uniform with a golden badge. The woman nodded at Billy. "Good job, Agent Cranston."
The woman turned to her, and Kim wondered if she had met her before.
"A pleasure to meet you, Kimberly Ann Hart. You are a legend to us all. My name is Director Jen Scotts of Time Force."
Kim smiled. She remembered why she found this woman so familiar. She had seen her in Tommy's video dairy once.
"The Pink Time Force ranger." Kim remembered.
"Yes." She nodded. "I am sorry for bringing you to this mess, but your analysts deduced that our mission has the highest chance of success if you are the one leading us."
"Me leading?" Kim asked. She was no Jason or Tommy. Sure, she had taken charge once or twice back in their early days, but she was never the official leader. She preferred to work from the sidelines.
"Yes." Jen said. "You are the Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger… THE pink ranger."
Kim smiled. She had seen this fanfare from some younger rangers during the various ranger reunions, but never expected herself to be remembered a thousand years into the future.
"Just because I am the first publicly known pink ranger, doesn't mean I am better than those who succeeded us, Jen. We are all rangers." She found herself saying. It was true though. Some of their successors had faced threats and averted crises, that they never could have imagined handling. Full on invasions and wars.
"I know, but you served as inspiration for all of us." Jen said. "However, that is not the reason you were selected to be the leader. Our analysts run all possible scenarios of every timeline in every universe through a complex algorithm to decide the best course of action, and you… this particular version of you from this particular time is the only hope our multiverse has of combating this Pink Crisis."
"A Pink Crisis?" Kim laughed, only to see neither Billy nor Jen was laughing. "Wait, you are serious? That is the mission? A pink crisis?"
"Yes, though I am afraid you don't grasp the entirety of what we are facing." Jen sighed. "The Pink Crisis has thrown the multiverse in array, and unless we stop it soon, the Morphin Grid itself will be destabilized beyond repair, and cause havoc across space and time."
"That is serious." Kim sighed.
"Circuit!" Jen called, and a robotic blue owl flew up.
"He is so cute!" Kim couldn't help but exclaim.
The owl squawked indignantly, before parting its beaks, and projecting a hologram in front of them, showing various individuals across the multiverse randomly morphing into pink rangers. Some looked exactly like her. Other wore suits which were bit different than hers with slight modifications, or resembled suits from different teams, and few were brand new pink ranger suits with designs she couldn't match with any ranger team she recognized.
"More rangers? Isn't that a good thing?" Kim asked.
"If only." Billy sighed. "This is a response to a massive threat. We can't isolate which threat it is, but we think it has something to do with this group."
The hologram shifted to show a group of what appeared to be plague doctors in black robes.
"The Church of Black Cross." Jen said gravely. "A group that kidnaps individuals across timelines and universes, and enslaves them."
Kim felt disgust. She hated mind control, not only for what Rita put Tommy and Kat through, but also for what she herself endured because of Maligore. Someone robbing others of their free wills was the worst kind of people and needed to be stopped, and apparently, there was an entire cult full of creeps like them.
"What do we do?" Kim asked.
"First, lets meet your team." Jen said, as Circuit stopped the hologram. She motioned Kim and Billy to follow her, as she exited the auditorium and made their way to another room.
As soon as she entered, she saw several familiar faces talking to each other, sitting across a round table.
Katherine Hillard, but clearly not her Kat, since this version was in her teens, reminding her of the time she first met her old friend.
Cassie Chan.
Dana Mitchell, and others.
Kim paused as they all stopped to look at her.
"So, my team is an army of all pink rangers?" She asked Jen, before turning to Billy. "Zordon once told me too much Pink energy is dangerous."
"He is correct in normal circumstances, but what we are facing is not normal. The grid is already destabilized, and we can't risk destabilizing it even more by recruiting entire ranger teams to this mission and pulling them out from their timelines, but there is already a surplus of pink energy and an interdimensional gathering of pink rangers wont even make a blip in the Morphin Grid." He explained, and Kim turned towards Jen in confusion.
"What he means to say is that we are fighting fire with fire." She said simply.
"Great!" Kim smiled. "Let's show them what we pink rangers are made of!"
The room erupted in enthusiastic cheers, as Kim listened to Jen making plans and sharing strategies, while getting to know her team.
Earth 923
Santa Prisca
Carol Ferris, the Star Sapphire of Earth had never seen herself as a superhero. She just used her power ring to occasionally help the real heroes whenever she could, except now… things were different. She had been made a full-time member of the newest iteration of the Justice League and while she was initially hesitant, she decided to accept and take on this new role in stride. After all, with recent events of the mysterious mass disappearances and reappearances shortly after and everything since then, the world needed as many heroes it can get.
Her husband, Hal Jordan, one of the many Green Lanterns of Earth flew alongside her, as they used their rings in conjunction to extinguish the flames from the crashing airplane as well as create a platform to safely hold it while they slowly lowered it to the nearest airport.
"Crisis averted." Hal said to the coms, as they flew back to Coast City.
"You know I could have handled this on my own." Carol said to him with a frown.
"I know, but sue me for wanting to spend a bit more time with my beautiful wife." He flashed her a smile, but she was not convinced.
"What's going on?" She stressed.
"The Oans have assigned me a new mission off planet."
"Hal." She sighed. "How long?"
"I don't know." He relented. "It is in a distant sector in some place called the Lion Galaxy…"
Carol chortled.
"What? Are all the people there some kind of lion humanoids?"
"Oddly, no. They appear to be human, but the entire galaxy is in a civil war. Have been for centuries. The Guardians think it is time to resolve the crisis and bring it into Guardian space."
"They can't just send one of these rings to find a native lantern from there."
"The Guardians think our entry there will be more well received and look impartial if we are from outside, instead of the ring choosing someone from within the system. Last thing the Guardians want is for either party to think we are choosing a side."
"That's a load of crap."
"That's what I said." Hal chuckled.
"So, when are you leaving?" Carol asked.
"Tomorrow."
"Hal! I told you to not spring these on me last second!"
"I wanted to wait for the perfect time to tell you."
"There isn't a perfect time to tell someone that their husband is going to a hostile galaxy several lightyears away!" Carol admonished. "But fine. I guess, we should just make the most of today."
Hal smirked. "That, I can arrange, milady."
Just then, a bolt of black lightning blazed through the clouds, towards them, like a dark comet.
"Look out!" Hal cried, creating a green forcefield with his ring, but the bolt shattered it and struck him.
"Hal!" Carol screamed as his lantern suit flickered out. His clothes and jacket were tattered and his body was badly burnt. He was not responding to her, as he fell. She quickly flew towards him and caught him over her shoulders, and gently landed on the ground. Somewhere in the middle of a deserted park or something with no people around.
"Hal!" She said again, checking for his pulse. It was still there, though very feeble.
"I hope this works…" She sighed, pointing her ring at him, and focusing on everything Hal meant to her. Their happiest memories… the time they first met as kids. Their first kiss. Hal being the first person to believe in her when she opened her own company. Hal's faith in her breaking whatever compulsion the Zamarons had instilled within her brain. Their wedding day surrounded by friends and family.
Her ring glowed in a faint purple light, before it expanded outwards, increasing in intensity, forcing her to close her eyes.
When she opened it, Hal was in her arms, the burns gone.
"Carol…" He murmured weakly.
"I am here, Hal." She said, tearing up. "You are okay!"
She had used the healing power of her ring to save lives before, but the experiences hadn't been personal. This was.
Something or someone had attacked them, because of which she had almost lost the one person who meant the most to her.
"Come on, we need to get you somewhere safe." She gulped.
"Not so fast, pink lantern." A gravelly voice commanded. "You are coming with us."
She looked up to see a winged creature in silver armour hovering over them, wielding a sword with an ebony blade. Their face was feline, covered in blue fur. An alien species unlike anything she had encountered before.
"It's violet, and I go by Star Sapphire." She snorted, her ring glowing with pink light. She looked down at Hal. "You have to sit this one, babe."
She closed her eyes and concentrated and a pink crystalline dome erupted from the ground and encased Hal. It was not a power she preferred to use, considering the Star Sapphires had used this same technique in the past to imprison their loved ones, in a mistaken belief to ensure that they stay together forever, but whatever magical alien mojo went into this crystal made it one of the strongest substances in the universe, and guaranteed the safety of whoever was encased within it.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Carol asked, rising to meet him in the air. "And why did you attack us?"
"To see if you were worthy of joining our cause…" He grunted.
Carol squinted, seeing a collar around his neck. It was grey in colour, that almost matched his silver armour but not quite. Something about it felt wrong.
"Sorry buddy, but after the stunt you just pulled, I am not interested in joining anything." She snarked. "Besides attacking someone is not a good recruitment strategy."
"My master doesn't take no for an answer." The creature said, charging at her.
"Here we go then." Carol sighed in resignation, flying at her opponent, the violet energies of her ring leaving a trail behind her.
A/N: Hope you all liked this chapter, which sets the stage for my part of the challenge, which will probably be out later this month or by Valentine's Day.
There are references to the Darkest Hour storyline of the 2016 PR comics, though Chrono City is my own creation, though influenced by Omnipotence City from Marvel Comics. I wanted to give some closure to the Billy variant from the comics and conversation with Kim was perfect for that.
The Green Lantern universe is a variant one, where Carol and Hal are both active heroes.
Kudos to anyone who can recognize who attacked Carol and Hal.
The pink crystal is from GL:TAS and Carol's healing powers are from the first JLU issue, though I am fairly certain that at least the later is a longtime power of the Star Sapphire Corps.