"Alright, men, on my mark," Stephanie instructed. When her men nodded, she kicked down the door. As one would expect, several of the crooks pulled out guns, queuing to open fire and mow them down. After a few seconds, the gunfire stopped and Stephanie and her team to start arresting whoever had had the good grace to duck down.
As she walked around to gather evidence, the red werewolf found something that made her freeze up.
Another member of the squad walked up beside her. "Something wrong, Sarge? I-oh," the guy paused as he saw the body lying on the floor. "Guys? We've got a kid here!"
Stephanie's eyes shot open, and she sat up from her bed. After taking a few seconds to collect herself, she got out of bed and began exercising. First pushups, then crunches, then shadowboxing, then-
"Not to interrupt, but do you want to join us for breakfast?"
Pausing, Stephanie looked to her right to see Denzel standing in her doorway. "How long have you been there?"
"Not very long," the pink werewolf shrugged. "Now, let's go eat. Clawthon has something he wants to show us today."
"Sure, now get out," Stephanie growled. Once her teammate left, she got changed into her street clothes and joined everyone else in an underground layer of the tower.
The floor had an obstacle course, a rock-climbing wall, and a mini arena for sparring.
Rodrigo whistled, "Now this is a basement."
"I have a lot of questions about all this," Stephanie muttered as she looked around.
"Is one of them how I built all this?" Clawthon guessed, to which Stephanie nodded. "Well, the one really deserving of credit is my friend."
The older werewolf clapped his hands, signaling another wolf to enter the room. This one was wearing a lab coat bare-chested, along with a pair of sweatpants. Despite looking younger than Clawthon by at least a decade, he had a longer beard that reached down to his waistband.
"This is Wolfgang, a former student of mine and a genius with machinery," Clawthon introduced.
Wolfgang smiled and put his hands in his pockets, "Nice to meet you all. If you think this level is impressive, you should see what else I've built over the years."
"I'm sorry but, didn't we come here to train?" Denzel pointed out as he morphed. "I'd be happy to spar with anyone who doesn't know how to fight."
Lupe moved away a step when he saw the Pink Ranger summon his saber, "Uh, the obstacle course I get, but why do we need to train? Don't we get guidance from the Morphing Grid?"
"A true warrior should not rely on a crutch. You must learn to fight with your own skills," Clawthon explained.
"I'll face you, Denzel," Selene offered as she morphed.
"And that leaves the rest of us to try the obstacle course," Stephanie commented. Let's go everyone!"
And so, the three werewolves began. They climbed, crawled, ran, they jumped and in no time, they cleared the course. Well, Stephanie did at least. She turned around to see Lupe and Rodrigo dragging themselves past the finish line. "Is that the best you can do?" she asked, disappointed.
"I may be a werewolf, but I'm also a lounge lizard," Lupe panted, rolling onto his back.
"I don't think any amount of boxing could've prepared me for this," Rodrigo added, putting his hands on his knees to avoid falling over.
Stephanie sighed, "We've got a long way to go."
Meanwhile, Denzel was facing a disappointment of his own. "I don't mean to be rude but, you're sloppy."
"I'm! Trying! My! Best!" Selene growled as she swung her skateboard. On her next swing, Denzel sidestepped her and tripped her, making her stumble. Turning around, she saw the Pink Ranger ready to slash her. Acting on impulse, she threw a right punch. While the punch was too far to connect, the action triggered the wolf had on her right hand, causing it to fire a green laser blast.
The blast struck Denzel in the chest, knocking him to the ground. "Ugh, you can do that? Can we all do that too?" he wondered aloud. To test it, he held out his fist and fired a blast of his own into the air.
Selene looked at her morpher in amazement, "I guess we can."
"I think that's enough for now," Denzel groaned as Selene helped him up. The two Rangers regrouped with the Stephanie. "How are things going with you?"
"Our two friends are gonna need some conditioning," Stephanie answered without looking away from the obstacle course. "What about you two?"
"I found out our morpher can shoot lasers," Selene informed her.
"Those suited-up warriors could pose a problem," the Smilodon commented as he reviewed the footage from the battle. "Should we target a different city?"
"I'm not afraid of those idiots, and none of you should be either," the grey cat man answered, tenting his hands. "This shouldn't be too hard. We just need to pick them off one by one, and I know exactly who can pull something like that off."
Stephanie ignored all the looks she was getting as she made her way through the streets. Knowing she couldn't just show herself as she was, she'd thrown on a baggy hoody and sweatpants to hide her snout and tail.
Soon enough, she spotted a pub, but before she could enter-
"Ah, there she is."
The red werewolf looked to her left to see two new cats.
They looked Siamese and were dressed in ragged clothing as if they were homeless. The main difference between them was that one of them had a grey scarf while the other had a tattered jacket. The one in the scarf spoke first, "Good day, Power Ranger. We're here to make you suffer."
Stephanie didn't waste any time and morphed. "Everyone, run!" she called out to all the bystanders.
As the humans fled the scene, the scarfed cat chuckled, "That was noble, Red Ranger, but we didn't come for any of them. We came for you."
"You'll wish you didn't." Stephanie summoned her gun and, using what she'd learned from her teammates, fired both it and the head on her gauntlet simultaneously.
The cat in the scarf dodged with almost no effort while the cat in the jacket just stood in place. To Stephanie's shock, the shots just passed right through him.
Shaking off her surprise, the Red Ranger decided to focus her fire on the cat who was actually trying to dodge. Unfortunately, her luck was no better there, as he evaded every shot.
"The next words from your mouth will be 'How can you dodge my shots so easily?'" the scarfed cat guessed with a smile.
"How can you dodge my shots so easily?!" Stephanie shouted. She paused for a second as she realized what just happened. "How did you-"
"Now, Camo!" the scarfed cat yelled.
Before Stephanie could react, the other cat, now named, Camo appeared in front of her and gave her an uppercut. She recovered quickly and pistol-whipped him across the face.
As Camo stumbled back, he called out, "Forget this! Jector, give me the key words!"
"Gunfire. Human child. Dead," Jector said, still grinning.
Camo gathered blue energy around his hands and flicked his wrists at Stephanie.
Next thing the werewolf knew, the world around her warped and she found herself in a very familiar setting. "This is just like…that day." she muttered nervously. The sound of dripping made her turn around to a horrifying sight.
It was the boy from her raid. There were two bullet holes in his chest that had blood streaming out of them.
"I had a family," he said.
The words pierced right through Stephanie. "I-I didn't know a kid would be there," she began. "I-"
An alarm blared in the training level, startling the other Rangers.
"What happened? Is there a fire somewhere?" Rodrigo asked as he covered his ears.
Wolfgang pulled out a tablet device from his lab coat. "It seems our Red Ranger is engaged in battle with two new enemies."
"I guess the thing to do is help her," Denzel shrugged.
"Agreed!" Lupe raised a hand.
"Then go, my team," Clawthon smiled.
The four werewolves ran through the streets, already morphed, and in no time, they arrived. What they found surprised them.
Stephanie was there, breathing rapidly and backing away from what looked like nothing at all.
Spotting the two cats close by, Denzel summoned his saber, "Are you two behind this?"
The Siamese twins glanced at each other then back at the team. "What would you do if we were?" Jector asked, his tone dripping with sadism.
"Then we would do this!" Selene raised her right and fired a blast at Camo. But like with Stephanie before her, her shots phased right through him. "What?"
"The yellow one will guess 'What is that, an illusion?'" Jector guessed.
"What is that, an illusion?" Lupe guessed, scratching his head. "Wait, how did you-"
"Will you ever get tired of that?" Camo asked his brother.
"Never."
Denzel looked over his enemies and then Stephanie as he weighed his options.
Jector crossed his arms, "Go ahead and take your friend. We won't stop you."
Camo leaned over to his brother's side and whispered to him, "Is that a good idea? I thought we were sent here to just get rid of 'em."
As the Rangers collected their ally and left, Jector shook his head, "They'll be back. Especially after what we did to their friend."
"Stephanie, what can you tell us about those two guys?" Rodrigo asked. He got no answer.
Lupe waved a hand in front of the red werewolf's face but she simply stayed sitting against the wall, hugging her legs to her chest. "I thought bringing her to the penthouse would help her relax. What do we do now?"
Clawthon frowned, "Company is always nice, but sometimes quality is better than quantity."
"Are you saying we're bad company?" Denzel glared, obviously taking offense.
"I think he's saying that just one or two of us should try and talk to her," Selene clarified.
"Then he should've just said that," Lupe growled.
Denzel sighed, "Alright, I'll stay with her. Everyone else clear out."
All the other wolves nodded and made their way out of the room. Once they were gone, the pink werewolf sat down beside Stephanie. Going over what he knew in his head, he broke the ice, "When we met, you said there were some sorrows you wanted to drown. Does this have anything to do with that?" Getting no response, he changed tactics, he asked, "You want a drink?"
"I want a drink," Stephnie muttered.
Denzel smiled at this new sign of progress, "I'll get something strong." He got up and returned moments later with a bottle of vodka. Waiting until she'd finished half the bottle, he asked again, "You wanna talk about what happened now?"
"Alright. But it's not a short story, so you may want a drink too," Stephanie suggested.
After carving an X onto a tree, Stephanie stepped back and began throwing rocks at it. Most of her throws were close, and some of them even hit dead-on. After half a dozen throws, she stopped and sniffed the air.
"Well, I'll be damned."
Turning around, she saw a human man looking at her. The two stared each other down for a few seconds before the man broke the silence.
"Nice aim."
"Is this the part where you run?" the red werewolf deadpanned.
"No, it's where I offer you a job," the man replied.
Stephanie's eyes widened, "…Wait, what?"
The man smiled, "You heard me. You've got a great aim, and since you're a wolf, I bet you'd be great at tracking. You could be perfect for my squad."
"You're joking, right?" Stephanie was understandably caught off guard. "You find a werewolf in the forest and your first thought is to offer it a job?"
"Is that a 'no?'" the man asked.
"Before I knew it, he talked me into it."
We're treated to shots of Stephanie awkwardly introducing herself to the rest of the squad, of her learning how to aim a gun at target practice and, her trying on her new tactical gear.
"It took some getting used to from both sides, but the more I helped out, the more I fit in."
We then get shots of Stephanie and the squad having a shootout with a street gang, then her pointing out a hidden drug stash with her keen nose.
"The squad kept my involvement off the books. I don't blame them. It would've been a headache to try and explain to bringing a werewolf onto the team to anyone. After a few years, I was unofficially promoted to sergeant. Right after that, I got to lead a raid on a drug lab we'd gotten intel about. It wasn't the first time we'd done something like that, so I figured everything would go smoothly. But after it was done…"
Stephanie stepped back, her breath quickening.
"Sergeant!"
She managed to snap out of it when one of her fellow officers shook her by the shoulder. "I just killed a kid," the wolf muttered.
"What was a kid even doing in a place like that anyway?" Denzel wondered aloud.
Stephanie shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe they were using him as a drug mule, or maybe it was some weird 'take your kid to work day.' Either way, he's dead now and I've had to live with it for weeks now. The squad suggested I take a vacation somewhere nice, and now here I am."
"So the cats reminded you of that?" Denzel guessed, "How could they know to do that?"
The red werewolf chugged the rest of her vodka before answering, "I think one of them can read minds. The other one can definitely make illusions. They had everything they needed to mess with my head."
"After what they put you through, I guess I can't ask you to just shrug it off and help us," Denzel commented, staring off into space.
"You do, and I'll break this bottle over your head," Stephanie growled.
Denzel held up his hands defensively as he got to his feet, "Alright, no need to be so testy. I'll fill in the team about our enemies' powers and leave it at that."
"Go ahead. In the meantime, I'm gonna get as drunk as I can," Stephanie got up to look for more alcohol.
Shaking his head, Denzel walked out of the room to talk to the rest of the team.
"How did it do?" Rodrigo asked.
"She told me about the cats' powers. One's a telepath, the other casts illusions," Denzel reported.
"Is that why one of them didn't get hurt by our shots?" Selene wondered, scratching her head.
Denzel nodded, "Seems like it. That means one of them can predict our moves and the other plays tricks on our eyes. Any ideas?"
Selene raised a hand, "Maybe we could wear blindfolds so the illusions won't fool us, and then we can just smell them out."
"That wouldn't help us against the other one," Lupe pointed out.
"What do we do against someone like that?" Rodrigo wondered.
Furrowing her brows, Selene thought hard, "Maybe one of us could stall the illusion guy. That way, the rest of us can try and overwhelm the mind reader."
Clawthon nodded, "A decent plan. But you'd best hurry, Rangers. Most villains will not wait for their enemies to be ready for them." To prove his point, he gestured to Wolfgang, who pulled up a live feed of the two cats hunting down some humans.
"Crap. Let's go, everyone," Selene made to leave and beckoned for everyone to follow. "Clawthon, can you maybe try to get Stephanie to help us."
"I will do my best,"Clawthon nodded. "Good luck to all of you.
The four Rangers found the two cats on a street corner. "Hey!" Selene called out, "This all ends now!"
Jector didn't say anything. Instead, he simply took a moment to look each Ranger over. "The pink one will say 'Guys, he's reading our thoughts! Let's go now!'"
"Guys, he's reading our thoughts! Let's go now!" Denzel repeated. He growled, "And stop doing that!"
And so, the team charged in. Denzel moved in on Camo while everyone else ganged up on Jector.
Rodrigo threw jabs, uppercuts, and everything in between, but Jector dodged every single blow. He threw a wide hook at the same time Selene swung her skateboard at Jector's feet.
Jector dodged both blows by jumping straight up. However, in mid-air, he had no way to dodge as Lupe shot him with his morpher. In spite of this, he still managed to land on his feet. "Alright, I guess I should get serious."
The Siamese cat made sure to land in the midst of the Rangers so that they couldn't shoot without the risk of hitting each other. To make things worse, he was actually going on the attack now.
Lupe swung his clawed hand at the cat, but Jector redirected his strike and made him hit Rodrigo instead. Jector punched Lupe in the face and then spun around to elbow Selene.
Denzel wasn't faring any better. As far as he could see, he was on the surface of Mars. Camo was invisible to him and striking him from random angles. Not knowing what to do, he took Selene's advice and tried sniffing out his opponent. To his surprise, he didn't pick up anything.
"I know my own weakness, you idiot." The Pink Ranger looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. "The clothes I wear are specially designed to cover up my scent."
Growling, Denzel held his sword in reverse grip. He waited for another hit from behind and thrust it backward. To his frustration, he felt nothing, meaning he'd missed.
"Nice try," Camo taunted as he struck again.
Stephanie was about to pour herself another drink when Clawthon lightly grabbed her wrist.
"I understand you're in, but this won't make it better and you know that," he pointed out.
"He's right, you know," Wolfgang agreed.
The red werewolf rolled her eyes, "You sound like my squad. Let me guess, next you're gonna say 'you can't let bad days keep you down' or something generic?"
Wolfgang leaned in next to Clawthon, "She's got us there." His reward for that comment was a light elbow to the gut.
"Whatever is eating away at you, you must remember, it is okay to bend as long you don't break," Clawthon said. "Wolfgang?"
"Right," Wolfgang whistled, "Clawmadeus, come here."
A gray wolf walked into the room and started nuzzling Wolfgang. When it noticed Stephanie, it started jumping at her affectionately.
Stephanie was incredulous, "You're a werewolf and your pet is an actual wolf? That's…redundant."
"This fellow has helped me when I've felt down. I thought maybe he'd make you feel better," Wolfgang said as he petted the wolf.
Despite her uncertainty, Stephanie held out her hand for Clawmadeus to sniff. The wolf quickly started snuggling up to her, making her smile.
"As troubled as I'm sure you are, just know that your team can help you through it," Clawthon pointed out with a smile.
Stephanie began walking to the door, but just as she was opening the door, she looked back at them, "I'm not quite over this but, thanks for putting me in a good mood." With that, she left to assist her team.
Denzel panted as his eyes darted around. 'Aaaaaand NOW!' Sensing the time was right, he spun around, hoping to slash Camo. Unfortunately, the lack of pained screams told him he'd missed. He received two more punches to the face, causing him to fall to one knee. Before any other blows could be landed, though, a red energy bullet hit the space in front of him.
The hit made Camo's illusion fail as he clutched his chest.
Realizing what was going on, Denzel breathed a sigh of relief, "It's about time you showed up."
"Sory about that," Stephanie shrugged as she walked up. "You want me to handle this guy?"
"Yes please," Denzel nodded before running off.
The Red Ranger grinned, "Now, time for some payback."
Instead of answering, Camo recast his illusions.
Stephanie growled as the illusion of the boy she'd killed appeared once again. "You can say what you want. I know you're not real."
The boy's eyes glowed red as he mutated into a bloody zombie.
"You can play whatever tricks you like but I know you're nearby," Stephanie said, transferring her gun to her left hand. She spun around, firing from her pistol and her morpher.
There were too many shots to dodge, so Camo ended up getting hit again, dispelling his illusions once more.
Stephanie could've simply kept shooting him from a distance, but she moved in close. She brought the butt of her gun down on his head then punched him in the gut. "You don't mess-" She grabbed him by the head and pulled his face into her knee, "-WITH OTHER PEOPLE's HEADS!"
Suddenly, Camo disappeared and was replaced by Denzel. Stephanie didn't stop for even a second, though, and kicked him in the thigh, making him stagger.
"You can change how you look, but you don't smell like anyone on my team," the werewolf pointed out. She squeezed her gun's trigger, making red energy collect at the tip of the barrel. Releasing the trigger made the gun fire a solid beam of energy which hit Camo and destroyed him easily.
Meanwhile, Lupe and Rodrigo slashed, punched, and kicked, only for Jector to dodge or parry every move they made.
Selene went next, hopping over the boys. She swung her skateboard, only to miss like her teammates had. Fortunately for her, while she attacked, Lupe got behind her and cranked her up with his tire iron. This quickened her movements and allowed her to land numerous hits.
At this moment, Denzel joined up with the Blue and Yellow Rangers, "You two want to help me land the finishing blows?"
Soon enough, Selene's speed boost wore off before she could finish Jector off, allowing him to regain the upper hand. Just as he kicked her away, though, Lupe and Denzel dashed past her and swung their weapons.
To dodge, Jector jumped into the air, but this left him vulnerable to Rodrigo, who'd leapt in the air with him. The Blue Ranger's gauntlet glowed and he threw a haymaker, knocking the cat out of the sky, where he exploded upon hitting the ground.
"We did it!" Selene cheered. She paused as she realized, "Wait, Denzel, weren't you dealing with the other one?"
"She bailed me out," Denzel pointed. The others followed his finger to see Stephanie rejoining them.
"Hey, you came back!" Selene noted, "You feeling better now?"
"For the moment," Stephanie nodded.
Suddenly, a buzzing noise came from their morphers, followed by Clawthon's voice. 'Be on your guard, Rangers. There may be more to come.'
"More? Does he mean reinforcements?" Rodrigo asked.
The grey cat tented his hands," I guess we'd better start getting serious. Someone deploy the satellite drones."
"Yes, sir," the snow leopard nodded as he pushed some buttons.
Outside their ship, several drones detached from the ship and arranged themselves in a square formation.
"Now," the grey cat pointed, "Supersize them!"
The satellites fired a combined beam down to the surface of the Earth.
Next thing the Rangers knew, a large blue beam of energy struck the ground in front of them.
"I can't believe we were beaten by mere dogs," Jector complained with Camo by his side.
Lupe gawked, "How are we supposed to fight them now? They're gigantic!"
'Don't worry everyone!' This time, it was Wolfgang's voice that came from their morphers. 'I had an idea in case a threat like this ever came about. Have any of you heard of Voltron?'
Heroes and villains alike looked around as they heard a howling noise.
"Uh, guys?" Stephanie pointed.
To the others' shock, five giant, robotic wolves were running onto the scene. Each one of them was a color matching one of the Rangers.
"I think this might be a good time to let the Morphing Grid guide us," Selene guessed.
The other Rangers nodded and leapt up into the wolves' heads where they found cockpits for them to operate in.
"Everyone, fire on my command," Stephanie instructed, "Fire!"
The werewolves all hit buttons in their cockpits, causing their bots to fire lasers from their mouths.
Camo let the laser pass through him, revealing he was just another illusion. Jector, on the other hand, put noticeably more effort into dodging this time around.
After several more shots, Selene got an idea. "Everyone, you know how Clawthon has talked about us working together?"
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Stephanie asked.
"Look for a button to combine our bots!" Selene instructed.
'I call them Wolf Zords!' Wolfgang pointed out. 'And the button you're looking for is in the top right corner of your consoles!'
The Rangers did as he told them. Upon hitting their buttons, their Zords leapt into formation. Selene's Zord unfolded and became an upper torso. Rodrigo and Lupe's Zords folded up and became the legs. Finally, Stephanie and Denzel's Zords became the arms, though as a result, the mech had wolf heads instead of proper hands. Once everything was in its proper place, the Rangers' chairs detached from their cockpits and slid around until they entered a central control room.
'Congratulations, Rangers, you've formed the Rising Moon Megazord!' Wolfgang cheered.
"Let's put it to use, guys," Selene ordered.
"Right!" her teammates agreed.
The Megazord advanced and threw a punch to its left, hitting what looked like thin air, only to reveal Camo had been hiding in that spot.
"You can fool our eyes and even our noses, but you can't fool our sensors!" Denzel boasted.
Jector took the chance to attack the Megazord from behind, scratching it with his claws.
"Let's try this!" Selene said, pulling a lever.
This made a shining broad sword materialize in the Megazord's "hand." The mecha spun in a circle, slashing the Siamese twins. The team followed things up by punching Jector in the face.
The cat held his face as he growled, "Why can't I read ahead now?"
"Looks like you can't read our minds through our Megazord's armor," Lupe guessed. "Time to end things."
The Megazord's sword glowed, and it threw one final slash. Both the cats took the hit, making them explode on impact.
'Excellent work, Rangers,' Clawthon congratulated. 'Simply exit the Megazord and Wolfgang will engage the return protocol.'
As the Rangers leapt back down to the ground, they were once again met with applause. Denzel and Stephanie stayed distant while their other three teammates were openly friendly with the citizens.
Eventually, the team got away from the public so they could de-morph. After that, they snuck back to Nocturn Tower. While they expected to find Clawthon and Wolfgang, what they didn't expect was a cloaked figure conversing with them.
"And who are you?" Denzel asked.
The cloaked figure began walking out the door, "Don't mind me. I'm just an old friend saying 'hello.'"
Once he left, Rodrigo asked, "Seriously, who was that?"
"Oh, don't mind him. He was just an old friend saying 'hello,'" Clawthon explained.
The pink, blue, and yellow werewolves all glared at him before Selene whispered to them, "Just let it go. He'll tell us when he's ready."
"Thank you, Selene," Clawthon nodded, "Moving on, I have a proposition for you all."
"What is it?" Stephanie asked.
"I am inviting you all to stay in Nocturn Tower for the foreseeable future," the bearded werewolf offered. "This will give you easier access to our equipment, and the shared space will help you bond as a team. What do you say?"
The colorful werewolves looked around the large, luxurious building they stood in.
"I'm in." "Me too." "Well, since you're offering."
The male wolves were quick to take Clawthon up on his offer and began discussing which rooms they'd be staying in.
Selene, on the other hand, looked a bit hesitant, "I don't know. My parents already picked out a nice place for me in town and-"
"Don't be a child," Stephanie scolded. "If you want to be a leader, then learn to make a sacrifice or two."
As the red wolf joined her teammates, Selene thought about her words before sighing and entered the discussion, "Okay."