Disclaimer: You know the drill, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers Zeo, the Alien Rangers, all related subjects are the property of Saban. I haven't asked permission, so thanks Mr Saban!
Author note: Ranger HQ, Ultima, Kraegor and Crush, the Samurai Rangers and their Zords are all my own design. I apologise for any likenesses that may occur to anyone else's stories, but I promise they are all purely accidental. If for some bizarre reason, anyone wishes to use any of my characters or ideas, please contact me first. I won't refuse permission(not that I can actually stop anyone anyway) but new ideas for my plots are always appreciated. Thank You and May the Power Protect Us (from Ourselves!)
Time Scale: Okay, common sense time. This is part five so it takes place after parts one to four. I'd advise reading them before you read this, just so you know the storyline!
Way Down Under
By Matt
The Rangers had spent the rest of the previous day training. They were all eager to get back into action and fight Ultima, but they knew they couldn't rush things. None of this was the same as before, no they were fighting an entire world, and being outnumbered a billion to one can make things a bit harder. They had taken the captured Drone back to where they had got it and left it there. It would have been easier to just destroy it, but that didn't feel right. They all knew thanks to Tommy's mission that the things weren't human any more, but that didn't make it any easier. Tommy had already been conferring with Zordon for an hour before all the others arrived for that day's briefing.
One by one, the Rangers all made their way into the section of Ranger HQ that resembled the Power Chamber. TJ was still in the med. lab, nobody had seen him yet that morning. Again the Alien Rangers were the last to arrive. Re-hydration really took quite a while. Once they were all there, Tommy addressed the crowd. He was still finding it hard adjusting back into the role of leader, but he didn't let it show, he knew better than that. He had felt exactly the same when he became leader as the White Ranger, so he knew the feeling would pass.
"Okay guys, we're going for Rita and Zedd's fortress in Canberra today." Tommy started. "From the information Alpha's scans have shown, they seem to have the weakest defence of the four remaining fortresses."
They all mumbled in agreement. "So what's the plan this time?" Tanya asked.
"Hopefully, this one's going to be over a lot quicker than Gasket's. We're going to go in, storm the fortress and rescue the Samurai's. We're all going in this time! We're hoping they'll be so disoriented from so may of us that they won't have much of a chance to put up a fight!" Tommy explained. "Everyone okay with that?"
"How about the Zords? Are we taking them again?" Jason asked.
"There will be no need for that, Rangers." Alpha Five said. "You had to take them physically before, because the teleporters were too weak to teleport them to you if you needed them. The teleporter energy cells have had a couple of days to recharge and the drain from bringing you all here is out of the system."
"That's great news Alpha. We've got them if we need them then!" Tommy said. "We'd better get ready, we leave in one hour!"
Inside Rita and Zedd's fortress, Rita and Zedd are standing in the throne room, talking to Ultima on the communication screen.
"I suggest you prepare for an attack!" Ultima advised.
"Why? We've detected no Ranger activity. They've probably ran on home with their tails between their legs!" Zedd laughed.
"And that's exactly why I succeeded in doing what you could not!" Ultima exclaimed. "If you wait for them to act, it will probably be too late to do anything about it! We have been tracing the sensor sweeps, they have been concentrating most of them in your area. They're getting ready to attack, remember, knowledge is power!"
"Very well!" Zedd said, cutting off the comm. link very abruptly.
"Rito, Goldar, get in here!" Rita screeched.
The two henchmen walked in. Both of them were carrying their swords as usual. Rito was wearing a T-shirt with the words 'My boss took over Australia and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!' written on it.
"What is that!" Rita shouted at Rito.
"Oh, this! The Tengas are handing them out down in the dungeon! Good fit, isn't it!" Rito said goofily.
"Aaaaaaah!" Rit squealed, pointing her staff at the T-shirt. An energy beam struck the T-shirt and it disappeared in a flash. "We're trying to defend ourselves from an army of Rangers and you're down there buying novelty T-shirts!"
"Calm down sis. Hey Edd, what's up with her?" Rito asked Zedd, he had never quite got the grasp of calling Zedd, Zedd!
"Goldar, please, take Rito out of here and go prepare the prisoners." Zedd shouted.
"I'm on my way!" Goldar said. He left the room, dragging Rito away before on of them blasted him.
"Euugh! Why do we even keep him around?" Zedd growled.
"He makes good cannon fodder! Haaaa ha ha ha!" Rita cackled.
"Niko, wake up, there's someone coming!" Michelle said, shaking her friend carefully so she didn't touch his wounds.
Niko opened his eyes and looked around, yet another morning of disappointments. Every night he would imagine it was all a bad dream and when he woke up he'd be back in his own bed. Then every morning he would have to wake up and face the truth. He sat up and waited for the person to arrive. They always waited expectantly, hoping it was someone coming to the rescue, and every day it was just Goldar.
He came up to the bars of their cell and glared at them. "It's that time again. I love the morning, don't you?" Goldar commented malisciously.
"Go to hell Goldar!" Niko snapped at him.
"I thought you already knew, this is hell!" Goldar laughed as the Rangers realised how close to the truth he really was.
"Just get it over with!" Michelle said weakly.
Goldar opened the door and grabbed them. he started to lead them down the usual passageways. They knew them well, they went back and forth usually at least twice a day every day. Niko glanced at Michelle as they passed the room where their morphers were kept. He wanted to go for it, but she just shook her head slightly. She had lost all hope, she didn't want to risk making things any worse. They were soon at the chamber Zedd always used to interrogate them. Interrogate – that was putting it very mildly.
Zedd was already in the room. He was sitting in a throne similar to his one in the throne room. Considering his face was a metal mask, and his eyes covered by a red visor, they could imagine the evil grin that formed across his face when he saw them.
"Aah, good morning Rangers, did you sleep well?" Zedd asked, doing his best to sound sincere, but falling a long way short.
"Just get on with it Zedd, we're not in the mood!" Niko snapped, his notoriously short fuse had burnt out ages ago. He wasn't going to humour Zedd with pleasentries.
"Oh I'm disappointed!" Zedd said calmly. "You didn't even try to beg for mercy. I've heard your allies are all begging for their lives!" Zedd laughed maniacally.
Niko tried to charge at Zedd but Goldar held him down. They both laughed at his weak attempt. "Go on Zedd, start on me, get it over and done with!" Niko challenged him.
"I wouldn't be that merciful, I've got a better idea." Zedd said. He stood up and pointed his staff forward. A energy beam shot from it and hit Michelle. She screamed in pain as the energy hit her. Zedd did it again, but kept the energy flowing this time. She continued to scream. It was the most excrutiating agony she had ever felt, she had never even imagined that much pain. It felt like every cell in her body was trying to rip itself away from the others. She felt she was being ripped into a million pieces.
"Stop it!" Niko shouted, "She didn't say anything!"
"She pays for your insolence!" Zedd snapped, not even attempting to sound civil any more.
"Please, stop! I'm begging for mercy, that's what you want isn't it? Please, just stop, you're killing her!" Niko pleaded. The sound of his friend screaming brought tears to his eyes.
Zedd stopped the beam and Michelle fell to the floor. Niko leant down to check she was okay. She didn't seem injured, it appeared the pain dissipated when the beam stopped.
"Are you alright?" Niko asked.
"Oh don't be so pathetic! She's fine! Now it's yourself you should be worried about!" Zedd sneered. Niko knew this was trouble.
The Rangers all stood morphed and ready to go. Each group stood together, Zeo, Alien, Turbo etc. There were only four Turbo Rangers though.
"Isn't TJ coming?" Justin asked, noticing the Turbo leader was still not there.
"No. He still needs to rest." Billy replied. They all accepted that and got ready to go. Alpha six was busily rushing round, he looked like he was onto something.
"Okay Alpha, teleport us as close to the fortress as you can get!" Tommy requested.
"I'll try Tommy, but I can't guarentee how close you'll be!" Alpha Five said.
"Yo, Alpha, I just managed to lock on to their exact shield frequency. Remodulate the teleporter frequency to eight-five-seven mark four-two. That should be able to get them through the shields and right up to Zedd's front door. " Alpha Six said.
"Ay-yai-yai! You're right. That's incredible!" Alpha Five replied. "Teleporting now!"
The light was almost blinding. Two dozen different coloured flashes of light appeared and flew off through to the target sight. "Where would those Rangers be without us?" Alpha Six asked.
"I don't know!" Alpha Five replied, "But I don't know how they ever managed with only one of us!"
The Rangers appeared, as Alpha Six had said, right outside the main entrance to the fortress. They all waited to see if an alarm was going to sound and signal their presence, but it appeared they hadn't been detected – yet! The fortress looked just like their old one on the moon. It looked a bit different though. They had always seen it in the cold darkness of space, now they saw it in the full glory of the burning Australian Sun.
"Do we knock, or just go straight in?" Kim asked.
"I say we let ourselves in!" Rocky said.
"What, and they've just left a key under the matt?" Kim asked sarcastically.
"Who needs a key! Guys, let's do it!" Tommy said to the other Zeo's. They knew what he meant.
"ZEO POWER CANNON!" they commanded. As the five of them stood in position, the large cannon appeared. They loaded in the five Power Cells and prepared to fire.
"Stand back everyone! Okay, FIRE!" Tommy ordered.
The Cannon fired it's energy straight into the door. At near point blank range, the door simply vaporised. A few suprised looking Tengas turned to where the door used to be, saw the army of Rangers and ran away squawking.
"Well that's one way to make an entrance!" Kim said.
"Okay, they'll be onto us any second. Split up, search for the Samurai's and keep in contact!" Tommy said. They all went into six groups, the original six Rangers in one, the Zeo's, the Turbo's, the Aliens, the Samurai's and in the sixth group was Auric, Ninjor, Blue Senturion and the Gold Ranger. They had all disappeared in different directions when the Tenga's came back with reinforcements. They also split up to search for the Rangers.
The Zeo's went from room to room on the ground floor, seeing if they could find the Samurai's or anything that could tell them where they were. As they hadn't gone too far from the main entrance, the Tengas took only a few minutes to find them. The Tengas were hardly stealthy at the best of times, but being on the home ground and with the element of suprise on their side, they got the drop on the Zeo's. The advantage didn't last long. It had been a while since they'd ruffled the Tengas' feathers, but they hadn't forgotten how. It was like riding a bike, you never forget. They were much easier to handle than Cogs, and they were nothing compared to the Drones. They'd hardly even worked up a sweat before they were flying off in a flurry of feathers.
"Was it just me, or are they getting worse?" Rocky asked.
"Let's not get over confident!" Tommy said. "We still need to find the Samurai's."
They resumed their search and moved onto the next room.
The Turbo Rangers and the Aliens moved up onto the next floor, the Zeo's and Ninjor's group were busy on the ground floor. They came to a long passageway, with plenty of doors either way. It didn't exactly look like the sort of place you'd have a prison, but then Rita and Zedd had never been the most orthodox villains the Rangers had faced. Everywhere needed to be searched.
"We will search this way Turbo Rangers!" Delphine said, leading her Rangers down the right hand passageway.
The four Turbo Rangers proceeded down to the left. It seemed strange not having TJ with them. They were used to fighting as a team, they didn't feel too confident being one man down. They hadn't got more than a few steps along when panels slid aside on the walls and laser weapons emerged. Before any of them could even see them, they had fired a few shots at each of them. They flew to the floor as the lasers hit them. Instinctively, they all ran back the other way, but the same thing happened there. Laser turrets emerged from the wall and drove them back the other way. They were trapped between the two groups of weapons. They seemed to detect motion, because when they stopped, they didn't fire. Carlos pulled out his Turbo Blaster, but before he even had it pointed at anything, the lasers shot at him and knocked it out of his hand. They couldn't move, and worst of all, there was an army of Tengas approaching from down the passage.
The two Samurai's were on floor three. There was no sign of Tenga's, or monsters, or weapons of any sort. They walked round, at the moment, it only seemed like long hallways, no doors! They came to a T-junction, one path leading straight ahead, the other to the right. They decided to go straight ahead.
"Ouch!" Samurai Gold said, stepping back as he hit something. He put his hand forward and touched something, it glowed slightly where he touched it. "Great, a force field!"
"Stand back!" Lucy said. "Scorpion Stinger!" As she called for it, her weapon appeared. It was a long curved blade, the inside edge serrated while the ouetr was smooth. She held it back above her shoulder and let the power build within it. When it was glowing bright yellow, she swiped it at the force field. The wall of invisible energy shimmered for a minuts, shook slightly, then returned to normal.
"Looks like we're not going this way!" Lucy said. She turned to go back the way they had come. "Ouch!" She said, walking into another force field. "And not this way either, apparently!"
Sean put his hand forward down the path to the right to feel for a force field. He felt nothing, so they walked down there. They came to another crossroad. The paths ahead and to the right were both blocked by force fields, as was the way they had come when they reached back to it.
"I think someone's trying to lead us somewhere!" Lucy said.
"Now, kiddys, can we all say 'TRAP!'" Sean said sarcastically. They took the left path – not that they had much choice in it.
As they went round a corner, they came to a dead end. "Well this is good!" Sean said. They went back round the corner, but another force field had blocked their path. They were stuck in the dead end, it was about six foot wide, eight foot tall and twenty or so foot long.
"Let's teleport out!" Lucy suggested. They activated their teleporters and disappeared into bright flashes of light. They flew up, but came straight back down and re-materialised.
"What happened?" Sean asked.
"I guess the force field surrounds the entire passageway!" Lucy said. She walked down to the end of the passage to look round the corner, but got a bit of a shock. She couldn't get that far down the passage, she soon realised what was happening.
"Er… Sean!" Lucy said.
"Yeah!" Sean replied.
"I don't mean to alarm you, but this force field is closing in on us!" Lucy commented.
The Aquitian Rangers were unaware that the others were in trouble, so they just carried on the way they were going. There didn't seem to be any ways out of the passage, so they continued to follow it. It went for quite a while, but then came to a dead end.
"Doesn't look like the Samurai Rangers are down this way Delphine!" Cestro said.
"Yes, let us proceed back to the stairway. If the Turbo Rangers have been unable to find anything, we will move on to the next floor. I was expecting some resistance by now!" Delphine commented.
They started to walk back along, but stopped when they saw what was in their way. A wall had moved in to block the passage. There was no way out.
"This was not here before!" Tideus commented.
"It must be, some kind of a trap!" Aurico added.
They started searching around for a way out, but before they'd really even started looking, the floor started to glow bright red.
"Is it getting hot in here?" Cestro asked.
"It is the floor, it is heating the room, and it is getting hotter!" Corcus answered him.
"This will start to effect our hydration levels if we do not get out of here soon!" Delphine said desperately.
They could already feel their hydration levels lowering and it was still getting hotter. They could see a heat haze all around them. They continued searching for a way out while they still could.
The White Ranger led his group up a few floors to floor four. No particular reason why, just because nobody else was searching it. Lady Luck was obviously on their side. The first room they came to was marked 'CONTROL ROOM'. They went inside. There were a couple of Tengas, but getting them by suprise, they made short work of them, all that remained was a pile of feathers.
"Billy, see if you can find the Samurai's." White said, ordering Billy to the controls.
He went and sat down in the seat and started pressing buttons. The others waited in case anyone else came along. They had got the Tengas by suprise, they didn't want the same thing to happen to them.
"Guys, look at this!" Billy said, finding something on the computer.
"What is it Billy?" Jason asked. They all gathered round Billy.
"I've gained access to the security cameras, I'll put it up on the screens." Billy said. he pressed some buttons and the wall of monitors flicked on. They could see several empty areas, and some not so empty! They could see the Turbo Rangers pinned down by the lasers, the Samurai's trapped in their shrinking prison, the Aliens being fried, and Ninjor's group was losing to an army of nearly sixty Tengas.
"We've got to help them!" Kim said.
"I'll see what I can do!" Billy replied. He quickly went back to playing about with the computer. He definitely managed to do something, but it wasn't what they had planned. A large metal door slid across and blocked their only exit, then gas started to fill the room. They tried to hold their breath's as long as they could, but they didn't stand a chance. One by one, they dropped unconscious to the floor. So much for Lady Luck!
Tommy and the other Zeo Rangers hadn't found anything so they decided to check in with the others. "This is Tommy, anyone found anything?" Tommy asked through his communicator.
There came no replies.
"This is Tommy, can anyone hear me?" Tommy said again.
Again, no reply.
"This is Tommy, anyone who can hear me, please acknowledge." Tommy said firmly, just hoping they had all missed his first two, but he soon realised the truth when he got no answer again. "Guys, I think we're the only ones left, they need our help."
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Tanya said, leading them out of the room. They went back down the hallway to the stairs.
They were about to start up the stairs when Adam stopped them all. "Can you hear that?" he asked. They all listened, but they didn't hear it in time, only Adam had. He grabbed them all and pulled them away from the stairs. They exploded and took half the walls around it out with it. Adam had only just managed to get them all clear.
"Erm, shall we take the elevator?" Rocky suggested, making light of the situation. If Adam hadn't heard that, if they'd been caught in the explosion…..
"That would seem the sensible option!" Kat said. "Nice save Adam!"
"Yeah, good thing you heard that!" Tommy said. "We owe you one man."
They all knew he was probably blushing under the helmet. He was never really able to take compliments too well without being embarrassed. He went over to the elevator and pressed the button to open the door without saying anything.
The doors slid aside and they went in. Tommy pressed the button and the doors closed, but instead of moving, the floor opened up. The five Rangers fell before they even knew it was happening. They hit a smooth slope and kept sliding until they all fell into a pile at the bottom. They heard something slam above them.
They looked round and saw they were in a giant sphere. The slamming noise had been the top of the sphere shutting, they were completely closed in.
"Where in the hell are we?" Tanya asked. It was more of a comment than a question. She knew none of them knew where they were, but it seemed the most obvious thing to say.
The ball was about ten feet round, made of some clear material, probably a plastic alloy of some sort. They wouldn't be stupid enough to try and trap them in a glass ball or something they could break that easily. The room was enormous, it was amazing that they hadn't been injured in the fall. It was about three hundred feet high and further than they could see either way. They were understandably worried.
"Hey, toy Rangers!" Rito shouted, walking up to the ball, but there was slight difference between him and the Rangers. He was at his biggest size, and the ball the Rangers were in was about the size of a soccer ball to him. "Hey Tenga's"
In a massive flurry of feathers and squawking, a group of enormous Tengas appeared.
"Who's up for soccer?" Rito asked. "You wanna play, Rangers?"
"Hey, I like Soccer!" Adam commented, somehow managing to cheer up.
"Erm… Adam. Look around! Of course we're playing. WE'RE IN THE BALL!" Rocky shouted at Adam, realising what was happening quicker than his green counterpart.
Rito kicked the ball and it flew up into the air and hit the ground a few hundred yards down what appeared to be the pitch. The Rangers tumbled about in the ball. Hitting the sides of the ball didn't really hurt so much, it was hitting each other that really hurt.
A Tenga kicked them back to Rito. Back and forth they flew, not staying still long enough to think of a way out, let alone to act upon it!
Zedd was still in the chamber with Niko and Michelle, he was doing nothing to them at the moment, just sitting watching them collapsed on the floor. They hardly had the energy to move. A Tenga ran in and whispered something to Zedd. He told him that all the Rangers had been contained, but he made sure the others couldn't hear it. Zedd wanted the pleasure of telling them himself. He stood up and walked over to them.
"It seems your 'rescuers' are in need of rescuing themselves!" Zedd sneered.
"What do you mean?" Niko asked.
"Zordon's pitiful attempt to free you seems to have failed as dismally as your attempts to defeat Ultima. Ha haaaa ha ha ha ha!" Zedd laughed maniacally. He could see they were taking the news quite hard. He had planned to dishearten them , but he actually had the opposite effect.
"Return them to their cells! I tire of this!" Zedd ordered Goldar who had remained towering over them from behind the whole time. He dragged them up onto their feet and lead them out of the room. Niko looked at Michelle as they neared the room their morphers were in again. This time, she didn't disagree. She glared back at him and grinned. They were gonna do it. Goldar was their only guard, Zedd thought they were too weak to put up any fight so he was getting sloppy.
"NOW!" Niko shouted to her. Together they pulled away from Goldar. He hardly knew what was going on before they began the attack. A left and a right to his stomach from Niko followed instantly by a kick to his chest from Michelle and a flying spin kick to the side of his head. They continued the assault and Goldar soon fell. They knew he wouldn't be down long so they rushed into the room and slammed the door. Michelle ran off to get their morphers while Niko held the door shut. he could fell Goldar ramming it to get it open, but he wasn't going to give an inch. He was leaning with his back on the door.
Suddenly, Goldar's sword burst through the door, mere inches from Niko's head. It pulled back through then the same again on the other side.
"Erm, Michelle, PLEASE, Hurry up!" Niko pleaded, terrified that the next time it came through the door it was going to hit him.
Michelle was looking around all the displays. They knew it was somewhere in there, but they were'nt sure which one. She came to the only one left and looked inside – there they were.
"Why is it always in the last place you look!" Michelle joked. She took out the two morphers, put hers on and threw the other to Niko. "Heads up!" she shouted as she threw it.
He caught it and put it straight on. Without hesitation, he shouted, "Let's Samurize!"
"Samurai Pink!" Michelle called out, putting her morphers together.
"Samurai Silver!" Niko shouted. In the usual flash of energy, they transformed into the Samurai Rangers. Just as the sequence completed, the door flew off of its hinges and to the floor. Goldar ran in, ready to fight – well sort of.
The Pink and Silver Samurai Rangers stood in front of Goldar. They didn't look quite so easy to handle now!
"Hi Goldar! Looking for us?" Niko asked. Winning – there was no better feeling in the world, well not to Niko anyway. He was no longer the underdog, he was top of lot and ready to fight!
"Erm… I think I hear Rita calling!" Goldar stuttered, trying to justify his retreat.
"Storm Bow!" Pink said.
"Star Laser!" Niko added.
A large bow appeared in hand of the Pink Samurai and a massive, mean-looking laser weapon in the hands of Samurai Silver. There was no string on the bow, but as Michelle put her hand in place, a string of glowing pink energy formed along with an energy arrow.
Just as Goldar turned to run, they opened fire and got in several good shots before he got away. Michelle turned to Niko. "We've got to help the others!" she said. She wasn't quite sure who the others were, but if they'd come to rescue them, it was time to return the favour. They ran off to find them.
White woke up and looked round, last thing he remembered was the gas filling the room and he started to feel really drowsy. He was chained to a wall in a weird room. The other five were there, as were Ninjor and his group. None of the other five were awake yet, but all of the other group on the opposite wall were.
"Ninjor, what happened?" White asked.
"We were ambushed by Tengas. There was more than we could handle and they brought us down here. Shortly after, they brought you all down here. We haven't seen anyone since then." Ninjor explained. He was still in battle mode, obviously he'd had no chance to change back since the fight.
"Have you heard from any of the others?" White asked. He looked round impatiently, waiting for the others to wake.
"Before you were brought in here, Tommy called on the communicator. We couldn't reply and neither did anyone else. I think they've got them all." Ninjor answered.
"This doesn't look good!" White said. He turned back to the others once again and just waited for them to wake.
The other Rangers had woken up not soon after. They hadn't been waiting long after that when the door to the room slammed open and a few Tengas flew in and landed on the floor, their feathers singed. After them came in two Rangers they had never seen before. They looked similar to Lucy and Sean. One was Pink, the other, Silver.
"Samurai Rangers I assume!" White said, gladly.
"Yeah, I'm Niko, this is Michelle. Who are you guys?" Niko asked.
"We'll save the introductions for later. Zordon sent us to rescue you!" White said.
"Well that was a good rescue!" Niko said sarcastically.
"Just get us out of here!" White said, "We've got to help the others!"
"There's more of you!" Michelle exclaimed.
"Yeah, about fifteen more of us!" White replied.
"We'd better get going then!" Niko said. He fired his Star Laser all around the room, melting away the chains that restrained them all.
They all ran out of the room in search of the others.
The Turbo Rangers were still trapped by the laser weapons. The Tengas didn't seem to attract their attention – they stayed aimed at the Rangers. The Tengas started throwing things at them. Every time they were hit, they moved slightly and the lasers opened fire. They were all drastically weakened and couldn't take many more hits.
"We've gotta get out of here!" Justin said.
"Maybe we can teleport!" Ashley suggested. She went to activate the teleporter, but as soon as she even moved a millimeter, she was fired at. She fell onto her back and stayed exactly where she was, she didn't want another hit.
Another Tenga threw something at Carlos, but he managed to stay still. "Man, when we get out of this, there's going to be some serious bird hunting!" Carlos said angrily.
"Face it guys, we're just going to have to wait for the others to help us. we can't do anything!" Justin replied.
Suddenly, the lasers turned and opened fire on the Tengas. Within mere seconds, they were running off down the hallway, half of them singed or on fire, the rest showing large bald spots where the lasers had burnt through to the skin.
"What's going on?" Cassie asked. they all stood up and the lasers didn't even respond. They all disappeared in a flash of teleporter energy.
The large ball came to a stop for the first time since Rito started kicking it. The Zeo Rangers were relieved, and they probably would have tried to escape if they hadn't been so worn out and battered.
"Oh man!" Adam said. "Now I know how a soccer ball feels, I'll never kick one again!"
"We have to get out of here!" Tommy said. He pulled his blaster from his belt and fired at the wall of the ball. It just bounced off, hit a few more sides and bounced back into Tommy.
"Teleport?!" Tanya suggested.
"It's no good, our communicator signal's been cut off, so we can't teleport either!" Kat said, checking her communicator.
"Who wants another game?" Rito asked getting ready to kick the ball again.
"Get ready guys!" Tommy exclaimed. They couldn't really prepare, but at least they had some warning this time.
They bounced along the ground like before. When it got back to Rito, instead of kicking it again, he picked it up and looked inside.
"He he he, having fun Rangers, don't you just love this game!" Rito joked. Before they could respond, they suddenly teleported out. "What? Where did they go?" Rito stuttered, believing there had been no way to escape the trap.
Sean and Lucy were desperately pushing on the wall of the force field that was closing in. They were pushing as hard as they could manage, and although they were slowing it, they hadn't managed to quite stop it. They only had a few feet of room left.
"Come on, one last push!" Sean said. Together, they got ready and pushed harder than they ever had in their lives. They were expecting the force field to really push back, but they didn't even touch it. They both stumbled forward – the field was gone.
"What the…." Sean started, but before he could even finish the question, they were teleported out too.
All the Rangers appeared in a large empty room. White Ranger's and Ninjor's groups were already there with two other Rangers. They all looked around, startled as they teleported in. They didn't know what was happening. The Alien Rangers all collapsed to the floor, dehydrated almost to lethal levels.
"What's going on?" Tommy asked. Nobody answered yet, they were all concerned for thw Alien Rangers.
"Zordon, this is Billy." Billy said into his communicator. "Teleport the Alien rangers back to HQ They need immediate hydration."
"Stand by!" Zordon replied. "I'll teleport them directly to the hydration chamber." The five Aquitian Rangers teleported away to safety.
"Now what's going on?" Tommy asked.
"Tommy, everyone, this is Niko and Michelle, Samurai Pink and Samurai Yellow. They rescued us and helped us bring you all here!" Jason explained.
"Hey, shouldn't we be rescuing you?" Tommy asked.
"It's the thought that counts!" Michelle replied.
"If we're all here, let's go!" Tommy said.
Billy was using a nearby computer console when he turned to the others. "Sorry guys, Zedd just changed their Shield frequency and I can't detect what it is. We're going to need to get outside of the fortresses shield range before we can teleport out!" Billy explained, still watching the computer rather than the Rangers while he spoke to them. "I'm trying to find the quickest way out."
"I know the quickest way out!" Niko said. "Star Laser!" Once again, his enormous weapon appeared. He pulled the trigger and held it. Power started to build up in it and he pointed it at the wall. As he released the trigger, a massive Power beam shot from it and blew away the wall. It revealed the next room. Niko ran towards it, already charging the weapon for another shot. He fired at the next wall.
"Well let's go then!" Tommy said. They followed him room to room until Niko finally blew away an outer wall. They were only a few floors up so they all jumped down.
Tommy waited for them all to get down before giving the order to leave. They all started running for the outer boundaries of the fortress grounds – all except for Niko and Michelle.
"We'll wait here!" they said.
"What for?" Tommy asked, calling back.
No sooner had he said it when Zedd appeared and shouted, "You're not going anywhere!"
"Predictable as ever!" Niko said.
"Come on guys!" Tommy said, ordering everyone back.
"No need Tommy. Me and Niko can take care of him!" Michelle replied.
"Yeah, this is personal!" Niko added.
"Okay!" Tommy said. "Meet you back at HQ." Tommy normally would have insisted on staying to help, especially against someone as powerful as Zedd. Not this time though. He had seen the power of the other two Samurai's, so he knew they could handle it. They all carried on towards the outside of the shields reach. Once there, they all teleported back to HQ. Now it was down to Niko and Michelle.
"Come on Zedd, do you really think you can beat us?" Niko asked strongly. He felt much better now. The Power was already healing his wounds.
"Not like this I can't!" Zedd said. He held out his staff and the enrgy from it flowed through his arm and engulfed his entire body. As the energy coccoon disappeared, Zedd was revealed wearing an exo-suit similar to the Ranger's Samurai Armour. He looked incredible, and he had the power to match.
"We really can't be bothered with this Zedd, let's cut to the chase!" Niko said.
"I'm with you!" Michelle said. "Samurai Storm Zord, Power Up."
"Samurai Star Zord Power Up!" Niko commanded.
The two massive Samurai Zords appeared. The Storm Zord was a four-legged, winged Dragon. It had large sharp claws and a mouth full of teeth to match. Michelle teleported into it and it flapped it's wings, taking off into the air. The Star Zord was a large ship. It was as big as the Storm Zord. It was mounted with dozens of weapons. Niko teleported into the cockpit and flew around with Michelle for a moment, preparing to attack.
"You think that scares me!" Zedd exclaimed. He lifted his left arm and a panel opened up, revealing several buttons. He punched a few buttons and the exo-suit began to grow. It got bigger and bigger until it was just larger than the Samurai Zords. "Now fight!"
Zedd started by firing some missiles from a shoulder mounted rocket launcher at the Dragon. A lightning fast back-loop and the Storm Zord was out of the way of the explosion. Zedd fired a few more at the Star Zord. they hit, but made no effect on the ship's strong armour plating. Niko responded with a few laser shots. They hit Zedd but also had little effect. Samurai Storm was next to attack. It flew near to Zedd and hovered. It flapped it's wings forward rapidly and started a small hurricane that lifted Zedd into the air. Samurai Star fired another salvo of shots at Zedd before Michelle stopped the wings of her Zord flapping and let Zedd fall to the ground. The Exo-suit soon got Zedd back up.
"This isn't working too well!" Niko said.
"Remember, it is still Zedd inside that armour. If we can get it off of him, we can get at him!" Michelle said.
"What we need is a giant can opener!" Niko said, joking.
"You just gave me a great idea. Get ready to open fire as soon as I say!" Michelle said, excitedly. She flew past Zedd so fast he hardly even saw her, then back again. back and forth she flew, each time using the Dragon's razor sharp claws to tear off a bit more of Zedd's armour. It was all so fast Zedd didn't even have time to retaliate. Pretty soon, most of his front was exposed.
"NOW!" Michelle shouted.
"All weapons, fire!" Niko commanded. Every weapon on the large ship opened fire and hit Zedd. Without the armour to protect him, every shot hit Zedd. He collapsed to the floor and shrunk back down to size, while the exo-suit exploded.
"Yes!" Niko cheered.
"We did it. Let's go home!" Michelle suggested.
"Great idea!" Niko agreed. They flew off towards home. Their Zords were so fast, it was almost the same speed as teleporting.
They were all waiting for Niko and Michelle in the Power Chamber. When they got there, they got a cheer from everyone.
"Congratulations, Niko, Michelle, you did very well this day!" Zordon congratulated them.
"Guess you didn't even need us there!" Lucy said to her friends, she walked over and hugged them. They hadn't seen each other for ages and they hadn't had a chance to say hi back at the fortress.
"Actually we did!" Michelle replied. "I was just about ready to give up. It was only the thought of rescuing all of you that gave me the strength to escape!"
"We'd better get you two fixed up. The Power may heal well, but it doesn't work miracles!" Billy said, heading towards the medical bay. They followed him in.
"Hey, how's TJ? Can we see him?" Justin asked.
"NO!" Billy, Alpha Five and Alpha Six all shouted at once. They hadn't meant to be so abrupt, but it just came out that way.
"Er, he's resting still!" Billy said quickly not to make it sound at all suspicious!
"Okay!" Justin said timidly. He didnt know what to make of that, none of them really did.
"I say we go back to our quarters to rest. That beating we took really wore me out!" Tommy said. Everyone agreed and started heading back to their quarters. Tommy stayed behind a minute to talk to Zordon.
Once they were all gone, Tommy asked, "Zordon, what's going on with TJ?"
"Yes, I think it is time you should know!" Zordon replied.