PR: Freedom Fighters (some of you may remember it) returns!

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Present Day Egypt, near the Sphinx; a bar called “ Scorpion’s Lounge”


“ Hey! Mintaka! Hurry up!” someone shouted from the doorway. Mintaka looked up from washing the glass she held to see her best friend, Isis Sakhar, standing in the doorway.

“ Come on!” she said, flitting back outside again. Mintaka rolled her eyes and told her father that she was leaving for the day.

“ Okay, daughter. Today is your seventeenth birthday, so I will excuse you from your work,” the bar man said with an affectionate smile. Mintaka pecked him on the cheek and darted after her friend.

Isis was waiting impatiently with an umbrella to shade their heads. “ Come on! You promised that today we’d explore the pyramids to look for that mysterious power you dreamed about!” Isis said enthusiastically.

“ Calm down, friend. It is my birthday. I must say a prayer before we enter the pyramids. You know as well as I do that the gods would not be pleased with me if I did not thank them for giving me life and allowing me to practice their ways,” Mintaka replied.

The two girls stooped and said a quick prayer to the gods before continuing on. Mintaka sprinkled a bit of herbs along the pathway as she and Isis neared the pyramid closest to the Sphinx.

When no one was looking, they sneaked around the sleeping guards and went to the base of the pyramid facing the east.

Mintaka prodded the stone with her digging stick. All at once, a large space of the wall opened up.

Is was just big enough for two people to walk through, so the two girls hurried inside. The door slammed shut after them, leaving them in total darkness.

Mintaka said a quick prayer to the mother goddess before turning on the flashlight and hurrying down a dank and musty hallway.

The more she walked and moved along, the more her dream came back to her. Finally she stood before a section of cobweb-covered stone.

Her mind took her back in time to when the Pharaoh’s ruled the land. As her hand moved over the wall, she was remembering a time in a past life when she’d been here, before it was old.

Her fingers came to rest on the emblem of a snake fighting a scorpion near her head. She pressed a little too hard on the scorpion’s tale, causing a rumbling sound – and a cloud of dust – to fill the small hallway.

When the dust cleared, Mintaka cautiously glanced around the doorway. Her mouth dropped open in shock; before her lay two sarcophagi, both as clean as the day they’d been place there.

One was smaller than the other, so Mintaka knew this had to be the tomb of the father and son she’d dreamt about before.

Behind her, Isis was standing stock still as a flood of memories came back to her. “ Naja. Seti. Nefretiri,” she whispered, her gaze coming to rest on Mintaka.

“ Nefretiri,” she whispered again, falling on her knees in supplication.
Memories were also coming back to Mintaka.

She remembered how she’d lived as Nefretiri, how she’d wed Seti and gave birth to Naja, how she’d buried them here in this tomb when they died so suddenly.

She found a scroll at the head of Seti’s sarcophagus, so she carefully unrolled it. A gust of chilling wind swirled through the tomb, causing both girls to shiver. The batteries in the flashlight suddenly died.



i'm reposting the entire thing, starting at the beginning here, so feel free to comment on it. at least two eps every day or every two days for at least twenty days or so.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Before Isis could begin to get scared, a blazing torch suddenly appeared in front of her and Mintaka.

A figure clad in the clothes of Ancient Egypt stood holding the torch. “ My wife, you have returned after all these years to reclaim the power,” the man whispered, his face golden in the torchlight’s glow.

Mintaka gasped when she recognized the figure. “ Seti, my undying love never wavered for you each time I was reborn,” Mintaka whispered in Ancient Egyptian.

The man smiled and took her hand. Isis was not one bit surprised when Naja appeared and took her hand.

The two men guided the two women to a section of the wall behind the sarcophagi. With a whispered Egyptian phrase, the wall opened for Seti.

A small hole was revealed. “ My lovely wife, you are so radiant. The gods were kind enough to let Naja and I come back and say goodbye to you. I will see you again someday, of that they have assured me. Our souls will be together again, as they once were,” Seti whispered as he and Naja disappeared.

Trying not to shed the tears that came to her eyes, Mintaka reached into the little hole and took out two small objects.

One was shaped much like scorpion, with a star in the middle of its back; the other was shaped like a camel, with a star on its head.

The two girls hurriedly left the tomb, sealing it back behind them. When they got back outside, a dark gathering of clouds had formed over the horizon.

They bolted back for the bar and Mintaka’s home, just as the clouds let loose with a furious crackle of lightning and thunder.

They dived inside the doorway of the bar and slammed it shut to keep out the wind. Mintaka’s father looked up as she and Isis walked behind the bar.

“ Where’ve you two been? Looks like you were inside a tomb or something,” Taita said with a laugh. He handed them both towels to dust themselves of with.

As he turned back around to go into the room where he kept all the food, he noticed the little objects that each girl held.

All other thoughts went out of his head as he ordered the girls to sit down.

“ Where did you get those?” he demanded to know, his brow drawn together in a tight frown.

“ We found them in a tomb, father. I’ve been having dreams for many a night. Seti and Naja appeared to me. Seti showed me where these were, and told me he knew I’d come back to reclaim the power source I’d left there so long ago,” Mintaka replied.

She’d never lied to Taita, and she wasn’t about to start now. “ Ye gods. The legacy is coming true,” he whispered. “ What does that mean, father? What legacy?” Mintaka wanted to know.

Taita sat down and told them the legend of the lady Nefretiri and the guardian of the power, his ancestor, Ishtar.

He told them how Nefretiri and her slave girl had harnessed the power, found it too dangerous, and buried it in the tomb.

He told them that they now were to be the ones who harnessed the powers, as the times were modern and could handle more power than the ancients might’ve been used to.

Taita told them how to harness the power if they were in great need or had to help somebody. He sent them into the back room as he greeted the arrival of some of the bar regulars.

Mintaka and Isis were amazed at the story.

“ Do you think this power will actually work?” Isis asked Mintaka.

“ There’s only one way to find out,” Mintaka replied. She held the little scorpion over her head and shouted: “ Silver Star, Morph!” A star of liquid silver surrounded her before becoming the suit for her body.

The gloves and boots were formed next, followed by the helmet, with the design of a scorpion’s tail on the top.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

“ Gold Star, Morph!” Isis shouted as she held the little camel high above her head. A star of liquid gold surrounded her, becoming the suit for her body.

Then came the gloves and boots, followed by the helmet, the design of the sun on the top.

When the transformation was complete, both girls were standing there astonished, looking at each other through the visors on their helmets.

“ Wow. We look like a version of the American Power Rangers!” Isis exclaimed, twirling around and showing off.

“ That is exactly what you are. You and Mintaka are the Gold and Silver Star Rangers,” Taita said from the doorway. He came in the room and shut the door.

“ You were chosen when you were born to become the warriors whose powers you now possess. Someday soon, unfortunately, evil armies will begin to attack the Earth,” he told them. Something hit him on the head from behind, knocking him out cold.

Both girls glanced up to see a fiendish-looking warrior standing there.

“ Unfortunately for you, you won’t be able to help stop it,” the warrior said as he leveled his scythe-like weapon at Taita’s neck.

Mintaka reached to her side. “ Star Beam!” she shouted as she withdrew her sidearm and aimed it at the warrior.

Isis did the same, and together they blasted the warrior with energy beams until they got Taita behind a stack of flour.

“ Rangers. The legacy has been fulfilled!” the warrior shouted, glaring at the two Rangers.

“ Yes, it has. We are the Star Rangers, and will fight in the name of justice!” Mintaka shouted, leveling her sidearm once more at the warrior. He snarled in fury and ran away.

Mintaka fired a warning blast after him before turning to her father.

She was aghast to see him bleeding from his head. He woke up for a little bit. “ Nefretiri. I have served you all these millenia. I am going to join your husband and son in the spirit world,” Taita whispered.

He gave out a choked cough and was dead. Mintaka cried tears of bitter anger under helmet. “ You were a loyal servant then, and a loyal father now. I shall entomb you with my son and husband as recognition to your honorable deeds,” she whispered.

She surrounded his body with light, then sent it to rest in the tomb with her long-lost son and husband. Mintaka and Isis demorphed and went back out into the bar.

It was surprisingly empty, so Mintaka just shut off the electricity and locked the door behind her as she and Isis left.

They went to the small trailer where Isis currently lived. It had air conditioning, thank goodness, and a phone.

Mintaka called the American people her father had told about when he was telling the legacy of the morphers.

She told them that her father was dead, and that the evil armies were now surfacing.

The four American men thanked her. Just before she put the phone back in its cradle, she told the last man that she was bringing help with her when she came to the States.

The minutes she hung the phone up, she had Isis call the airport in Cairo and find out when the next flight left. She was aghast that the next – and last – flight of the day would leave in two hours.

She had Isis book two seats in first class, then hang up and call her uncle.
Isis’ actual uncle, a rather caring man, had been wanting to run a bar for quite some time.

Isis informed him of Taita’s death, told him that she and Mintaka were leaving for the States, and told him he was now the owner of the “ Scorpion Lounge.”

Before her uncle could plague her with questions, Isis once again hung the phone up and hurriedly packed her belongings.

[the_purple_stranger]

Totally Awesome, Kali! KIU!

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Mintaka helped her, as she had no belongings that she really cared about.

The only things she brought along were her receipts for the trust funds she had in the main bank in Washington D.C., some jewelry she’d owned for a long time, and a picture of her with Taita at the Nile River.

Packing took ten minutes, so they threw the packs over their backs and went outside to the back of the trailer.

An old motorcycle was parked there, one that Isis used when she needed to travel long distances.

It worked like a charm, though, so despite its rusty appearance she refused to give it up. Both girls hopped on the bike and sped off into the dripping rain.

It took nearly an hour and forty minutes to reach the airport, so they had to slip through the customs officials onto the plane.

As soon as they were seated, the seat-belt sign flashed on. Mintaka glanced out her window as they flew over the Sphinx and the pyramids.

As she did she could’ve sworn she saw a giant scorpion and a giant camel standing atop the Sphinx.



Washington D.C.;

Julian Jackson laughed as he dodged around Lloyd Flynn and dunked the basketball through the hoop. “ Two points! Ten to five, I win!” he shouted with glee, doing a funny little dance right in front of Lloyd.

As his best friend, Lloyd disregarded his petty remarks, picked up the ball, and chunked it at his chest. Julian ducked out of the way and the ball bounced down the alley.

The two guys ran after it. Julian got there first and picked it up out of a pile of broken crates.

When he straightened back up, he saw Lloyd staring at a section of the wall in front of them.

The ball had hit some kind of door in the wall, jarring it open an inch. Julian reached forward and pulled the door all the way open.

He and Lloyd stared at what lay inside. Two little pendant-shaped things were lying on a pad of black velvet. It was a little dirty, so the two guys reached inside and picked the things up.

Julian was holding the red pendant shaped like an eagle, and Lloyd was holding the black pendant shaped like a spider.

A tingly sensation went through them both. “ Whoa. I think we’d better get back to the apartment. I’m pretty sure these things aren’t just random pieces of jewelry,” Julian said.

Lloyd agreed. They left the alley and the basketball court behind as they jogged back to their apartment.

It wasn’t in the richest neighborhood in D.C., but it was decent and affordable, with plenty of room.

They tipped the doorman a dollar as they took the stairs to the apartment. When they got there, Lloyd ditched the basketball in his room and headed for the bathroom to take a shower.

Julian stripped down to the shorts he had on under his sweats, then sat at his IBM laptop computer.

He set the little eagle pendant beside the laptop and went into the White House search engine. He typed in the description of the pendant and clicked search.

Almost immediately a report came back about an organization creating a team known as the Freedom Fighters.

Unfortunately, however, the report was labeled as classified without the proper identification codes.

Sighing in frustration but refusing to give up, Julian picked up the eagle pendant and held it over his scanner, letting the computer scan the picture into the sources database.

He nearly fell over backwards when he was automatically allowed access to the files after the picture was confirmed.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

He quickly read over the reports about the supposed organization.

Several people had given accounts about the antics of the people that were cerating the Freedom Fighters, important people including Kennedy, before he was shot and killed.

Then he scrolled over to another report, and his blood nearly stopped cold.

This report held valid accounts of the pendants he and Lloyd had discovered.

Then his mouth dropped open when he saw the pendants were reputed by most in the organization to be able to turn the wielder into a Power Ranger.

He couldn’t help himself – he laughed out loud at the rather ridiculous statement.

When his laughing spree was over, he saw that the files were tagged. He only noticed that because a small advertisement in the top corner of the screen was no longer there.

Just as he shut the computer down, Lloyd came out of the bathroom with nothing more on than a bath towel.

“ Say, bro. Why do you look so serious all of a sudden?” he asked with a cheerful smile.

Julian told Lloyd what he’d read on the computer. “ Whoa. That is so cool. I wonder why the government is sending over people to bring us in,” he muttered just as the doorbell rang.

Shooting a questioning glance at his friend, Julian got up and went to the door, peering through the little peephole in the door.

Five men in black suits – all five carrying automatic .45mm pistols – were standing in front of the door.

“ Mr. Jackson! Open up! U.S government!” one of the men shouted.

Without hesitating, for he knew it would be folly to do so, he opened the door and allowed the men to come in.

They ushered him to the couch, two of the burlier men taking up seats on either side of him.

“ Mr. Jackson, we are here because we know you and a friend of yours found two – pendants – in an alley while you were playing basketball."

" We also know that you then came back here and got into classified files from the Kennedy era. We request that you and your friend come with us to a meeting house so we can discuss what to do with the two of you,” the leader said.

Julian looked stunned.

“ You want to arrest me? For being near an alley playing basketball?” he asked in shock.

“ No, for hacking into government files,” the leader replied.

“ I didn’t hack into them. I used a red eagle pendant. I scanned it into the computer, and the files opened for me to read the reports,” Julian replied, confused as to why the government would care about a bunch of pendants.

“ Where is your friend?” the man on his right suddenly asked, glancing around the apartment.

“ Glad you finally asked about me. Mind if I drop in?” Lloyd asked as he climbed down from atop the doorway.

The five guys were obviously now more uncomfortable than ever.

“ We cannot waste anymore time. If the two of you would get dressed, we can be on our way,” the leader said.

“ Uh-uh. I know the government has rights over the people, but one they definitely don’t have is to watch a bunch of innocent civilians get dressed,” Julian said.

The leader sighed in annoyance and motioned for his men to turn their backs as Julian and Lloyd slipped into jeans and shirts.

They tossed on sneakers and joined the government men, who took them outside to a dark black limo.

[sbb1513]

this is cool.
~mag~ :007:

[Kali_WolfChilde]

They got in and were driven to some location still in D.C.

They had no idea where they were as they got out of the limo and followed the government guys into some kind of underground building.

President Banks was sitting at a desk across the room.

“ Gentlemen, I know that the two of you have no idea why you’re here,” the President began.

Lloyd laughed aloud, drawing all the attention to him.

“ Sorry. It’s just that my spider-sense is telling me that you have some sort of silly mission that we’re supposed to go,” he muttered, a big silly grin on his face.

“ Yes, that is exactly what we want to discuss. When Kennedy was president, he supervised the creation of a force known as the Freedom Fighters."

" He was shot and killed before he could tell most of his ideas to the government, thereby leaving a great hole in the organization."

" Presidents since then have tried and failed to come up with a way to finish the creation of the Freedom Fighters."

" We just got a phone call from across the sea. Evil armies are about to begin their attacks on our country, forces that can’t be controlled by mere military force.”

“ We’ve had the Freedom Fighter files tagged for a long time, in hopes that someone really would find the missing pieces of the puzzle."

" Then the two of you came along. Gentlemen, the U.S. government needs your help,” President Banks said as he calmly stared at the two men before him.

Julian stared at him. “ When I was reading the classified files on the Freedom Fighters, it said that when certain people took control of these pendants, they would become Power Rangers."

" It also showed how to morph. Do you think it would be all right if we tried it before we decided what to do?” he asked the President.

“ Be my guest,” the President said, sitting back in his chair.

Julian stood up, the eagle pendant clutched in one fist. Then he held the pendant in front of him and shouted, “ Red Destiny, Morph!”

A flash of red light surrounded him. The light confirmed to his body forming the suit.

The gloves and boots appeared right after that, throwing off red sparks for a tenth of a second. Lastly came the helmet, which was like an eagle’s head.

The transformation took only three seconds, though it seemed much longer.

When the transformation was over, Julian stood in front of the President.

“ Red Destiny Ranger reporting for duty,” he said, touching his hand to his forehead.

At that minute, Lloyd shouted: “ Black Destiny, Morph!” As with Julian, a black flash surrounded him, which conformed to his body forming the suit.

The gloves and boots appeared at the same time. Lastly his helmet appeared, which had a web-like design on the top.

“ Black Destiny Ranger, reporting for duty, too, sir!” he said to the President.

The government men in black were obviously stunned; even they weren’t expecting this.

The phone on the desk rang, bringing them back to reality. “ Gentlemen, we are under attack near the citadel. A group of Dark Warriors are randomly attacking innocent civilians,” he said in angry tone.

“ Right on it, chief,” Julian replied. They held their hands over their belt buckles and teleported straight to the Citadel.

“ It’s time to rock and roll,” Julian muttered.

“ You’re right. Destiny Daggers!” Lloyd shouted.

A pair of black daggers appeared in his hands.

He grinned underneath his helmet and ran straight at the nearest group of dark warriors.

He grinned to himself and shouted: “ Destiny Saber!” The saber appeared in his hand.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

He let out a loud battle cry and charged into the fight, swinging the saber left and right.

The Dark Warriors were a little slow by the appearance of Power Rangers, so Julian used that to his advantage.

He shouted: “ Destiny Blaster!” which appeared in his left hand.

He used both weapons at the same time, slashing with one and firing with the other.

Several of the Dark Warriors turned to dust under this assault.

Then he was forced to sheath the blaster, lest it get taken away from him.

From his vantage point, Julian could see Lloyd fighting a group of the Dark Warriors at the foot of the Citadel.

While he watched, his friend climbed up the flat side of the monument until he was nearly thirty feet out of reach of the warriors’ scythe weapons.

With a half-mad cry, Lloyd withdrew his blaster, attached it to one of his daggers, and turned the whole group beneath him to dust with just one blast.

He detached the two weapons and sheathed his blaster.

Meanwhile, Julian was again busy fighting his own monsters.

He held his arms to his sides and called out: “ Pyro Spin!” He began spinning in swift, rapid circles.

As he did, fire leapt out from his saber and suit, incinerating the nearest warriors, badly burning the others. When he stopped spinning, there weren’t any more warriors left.

Lloyd leapt down from the Citadel and landed beside Julian. “ Gee, that was more fun than losing to you at basketball!” he quipped, drawing a smile from Julian.

“ Yeah. But we need to get back to our apartment. I’m supposed to record a movie for Kisha, and if I don’t you know yourself she’ll have my head,” Julian replied with a smile under his helmet.

The two Rangers turned around as they heard three guys coming up behind them.

When they turned around, they saw three of the government guys from earlier.

“ The President thanks you for your help. He would request that you come back to his office for a debriefing of your new duties,” the leader told them.

“ Sorry, Winston. I’ve gotta get back to my apartment to record a movie for my girlfriend,” Julian replied.

He held his hands over his belt buckle and teleported back to the apartment; Lloyd soon followed.

They demorphed and stared at the morphers in their hands. “ Who’d have thought that we’d be Power Rangers,” Julian mused as he got the movie ready to record.

“ Yeah. And who’d have thought I’d be climbing up the side of the Citadel like Spider-Man,” Lloyd said with another of his silly grins.

The two guys sat down on the couch and watched as the film credits started to roll.

Julian rolled his eyes. “ I knew it had to be this one. She’s been wanting to see it for a long time,” he told Lloyd as the film title flashed across the screen.

“ Pirates of the Caribbean” was also of Julian’s own favorite movies, as he’d seen it twice already.

The two guys sat there as the film played out.

When it was finished nearly two hours later, Julian cut the TV off and went into the bathroom to take the shower he’d not had a chance to take earlier.

He scrubbed his chest hard to get the sweaty smell out of his skin; funny, he’d not been able to smell it before he morphed.

Shrugging his shoulders, he finished the shower and climbed out – coming face-to-face with a slightly perturbed Kisha.

“ I thought we were supposed to go to dinner after you recorded that movie for me,” she pouted.

Julian grabbed the nearby towel and wrapped it around his waist, a little embarrassed that Kisha had seen him naked.

[sbb1513]

thats funny.
~mag~ :007:

[Kali_WolfChilde]

“ Sorry, Kisha. The – uh – this government guy wanted me to do something for him, so I didn’t get to take a shower after I played b-ball with Lloyd,” Julian stuttered.

This appeared to please Kisha, who quickly smiled at him.

“ The government, hmmm? If they’re interested in you then they definitely have good taste,” she murmured.

“ Yeah, well, the movie’s sitting on top of the TV. And I hate to cancel our dinner plans, but I really need to do some research for this government guy,” he said as Kisha started to kiss him. Anger glinted in her eyes.

“ Well, if that’s going to be your top priority,” she muttered, flouncing out of the bathroom and then the apartment.

Julian sighed deeply and dressed again in a pair of red shorts, a red shirt, and a black and red pair of shoes. Then he went back to the living room.

He’d taken no more than two steps inside the living room when he heard terrified screams coming from outside the building.

Thinking that some of the Dark Warriors from earlier had tracked him down, he raced to the window and looked out.

A young woman was standing on the ground staring up at the fire escape on the fourth floor, and she was hysterically crying rivers of tears.

A young boy and a little puppy were trapped on the ledge part of the escape. The ladder to the ground had rusted and broken off, leaving them with no way to get down.

To make matters worse, the ledge was swaying a little, creaking on rusted bolts.

As Julian watched, the ledge gave another lurch, causing the little boy to cry out in fear as the mother let out another fearful shout.

“ My god. If that ledge falls the boy won’t have a chance!” Julian said to himself.

As he was on the sixth – and top – floor of the building, and the escape was directly under his window, he quickly opened the window and leaned out.

“ Don’t worry! I’m coming down!” he called out to the frightened mother, who was being held back by a few of her neighbors that’d gathered around her.

Lloyd stepped up beside Julian. “ I’ll go down and get the boy. I can easily climb down the side of the wall. You get the puppy,” he said as he just jumped out the window and clung to the wall.

He went down so quickly that Julian could’ve sworn his friend was a real spider.

When he reached the ledge, Lloyd quickly grabbed the boy and told him to cling to his back.

Then he made his way down to the ground, where his mother grabbed him in a fierce bear hug.

Julian was just climbing out the window when the ledge gave another lurch, and the puppy started slipping towards the edge.

Faster than he thought he could, Julian leapt out the window and grabbed the puppy just as it slipped over the edge of the ledge.

The two fell through the air and landed in patch of nearby bushes. Saying a few choice words at the twig that was poking his ass, he quickly got to his feet with the puppy in his arms.

The mother and little boy ran over to him, the little boy reaching out his arms for the puppy. Lloyd jogged up to them.

“ Thank you for saving Jared and J.C.,” the woman said with tears in her eyes.

“ No problem. That’s our duty as law-abiding citizens,” Julian replied as he brushed the dirt from his clothes.

The woman smiled again and went back to her neighbors.

Julian and Lloyd waited until all the onlookers had left before they teleported back up to their apartment.

Julian went directly to the kitchen area and fixed himself a sandwich.

Lloyd went to the computer to do some research on morphers that he and Julian had discovered.

He went to the same files Julian had visited, clicking through the ones he’d already read. When he came to the part about their powers, he laughed aloud.

“ So, ol’ Julian gets to turn around and burn bad guys to a crisp, and I get to act like Spider-Man. This is cooler than I thought,” he said to himself.

He read through the rest of the reports. It made a vague reference to some kind of motorcycles for the Rangers, but other than that there were no more clues.

Puzzled over what that meant, he didn’t see the two girls streak into the apartment until one of them spoke up.

“ Are you Lloyd or Julian?” the dark-skinned girl asked.

Lloyd fell over backwards before leaping to his feet and taking on a defensive stance.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

“ I’m Lloyd. Who in the world are you and how did you get in here?” he asked them.

“ We are the Silver and Gold Star Rangers. Mintaka Sekhmet and Isis Sakhar. We are here to help you and Julian fight the dark warriors,” the dark-skinned one spoke up again.

“ Two Egyptian Rangers, huh? Sounds pretty cool,” Julian said as he brought a platter of finger sandwiches to the coffee table.

“ Would you like a sandwich?” he asked the two girls.

“ Yes, please. The plane food was really quite awful,” Isis said as she down on the couch beside Lloyd.

She picked up one of the ham sandwiches and took a tentative bite. “ This is quite good. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything quite this tasty. What you call it?” she asked Lloyd as she finished the rest in one large bite.

“ It’s a ham finger sandwich with mayonnaise,” Lloyd replied, his gaze taking in Isis’ tanned skin and no-sleeve shirt.

His gaze traveled lower to her shorts and her long legs.

“ They’re quite good. I think I’ll make it a habit to try more new American foods,” Isis murmured as she devoured another sandwich and hiccuped.

Lloyd got up and got her a glass of cold milk.

She drank a swallow and set the glass on the table.

Mintaka turned to Julian. “ I saw it when you saved that boy and the puppy a few minutes ago. Very heroic of you. Your girlfriend will be very proud when she hears what you did,” Mintaka told him.

“ Yes, I’m sure she will be. I know I’m impressed,” Isis said with a wink at Lloyd, who promptly blushed and looked away.

“ Thanks. You look good for – for a Ranger. I’m sure I’ll enjoy working with you on the job,” Lloyd replied.

At that moment the phone rang, making Julian get up to answer it.

“ Julian speaking. Who’s calling?” Julian said when he picked it up.

“ Mr. Jackson, this is Winston. The President requests that you and Mr. Flynn come to his office immediately. There’s been a threat on his life,” the government said.

“ Why can’t you guys handle that area?” Julian asked, curious.

“ The threat was made by a Egyptian that called himself Nefer. Says that he’s the leader of those monster that attacked you at the Citadel,” Winston replied.

“ Be there in a minute,” Julian replied and hung the phone up. He went back to the living room and told the other three what’d happened.

Isis and Mintaka stood up with Lloyd.

“ We’re going with you. My father, Taita, told me of this evil man before one of the Dark Warriors killed him. We could be of some help to you,” Mintaka told the two Destiny Rangers.

They nodded their heads; all four teleported to the underground office they’d been in less than an hour before.

The President stared at them, a bandaged hand held in front of him on the desk.

“ Rangers, I would like you to search out this menace to the free world and eliminate him. He said that if I refused to cooperate with his plans and hand over the government to him, then he’d kill all the people standing in his way, including innocent women and children civilians. We must not let that happen,” President Banks said.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

“ With all due respect to your status, sir, I believe we are better equipped to deal with him than the average citizen."

" If you would grant us permission to stay in your country legally, we could stay and help fight the dark warriors alongside these two Rangers,” Isis spoke up.

“ Consider it done. We need all the Ranger power we can muster for project Freedom Fighters,” the President replied, dismissing them with a wave of his hand.

The four Rangers bowed and quietly went into the next room, where Winston was waiting with four other guys in black suits.

“ We have taken some of the technology from the project they started on so many years ago. We have created a set of six telephones, one for each of you."

" You will use them to communicate with each other and with us. They cannot be traced, even by the most expert hacker, alien or human."

" These other two are for the two remaining Destiny Rangers, ones yet to be found,” Winston said as he passed out the telephones.

“ Cool. So, do we have set times to report in? Or are you just going to call us when there’s been an attack?” Lloyd asked the man.

“ We will call you when we have to. As you are now technically officers of the government, you shall be provided with a weekly paycheck."

" Starting now, each of you will receive three hundred dollars per week, plus room and board at the Marriott Inn. Room service will be covered, but if you eat out you will use the money each of you is given."

" If everything suits you, you may leave and return to your apartment to pack your things,” Winston said as he turned to his associates.

Julian was about to protest when Lloyd let out an excited shout.

“ Oh yeah. We get paid to be super-heroes! Man, I’d never have dreamed it could get this good. Being a Power Ranger rocks!” he exclaimed.

“ I don’t know, Lloyd. What’ll I tell Kisha when she finds out I’m having to move to a hotel? What if she breaks up with me?” Julian said with a sad frown.

“ Being a Ranger comes first above all things, Mr. Jackson,” Winston said before he went back to the President’s office.

The four Rangers were left all alone in the room.

“ I will not give Kisha up. I refuse to let being a Ranger cause me to lose my girlfriend,” Julian said with an angry set to his mouth. Then he teleported away leaving Lloyd with Mintaka and Isis.

“ I think the two of us should go out and patrol the town,” Isis said. Lloyd laughed.

“ You two need to take a break. Why don’t we go check out our accommodations at the hotel? That’d be fun. Besides, it would take you guys days to cover the whole district of D.C.,” Lloyd replied with a slight smirk.

“ That’s fine by me. I would love to see an American hotel up close. I have never been to the States before, but now that I am a Ranger I must help protect it,” Isis said as she took Lloyd’s hand.

The two teleported to the Marriott Inn.

Mintaka shook her head and teleported to the grass surrounding the Citadel.

It was rather peaceful after that attack on the two Destiny Rangers earlier, so she was able to just lay back on the grass and relax; unfortunately enough, her mini-nap didn’t last long.

The cell phone Winston had given her started ringing.

Groaning in frustration, she sat up and took it out of her pocket.

Flipping it open, she said hello. “ Mintaka! There’s a group of Dark Warriors headed your way. You must find a place to morph! Start getting the people as far away from the Citadel as you can!” Isis shouted before disconnecting.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Mintaka leapt to her feet and put the cell phone in her vest pocket. She ran behind the Citadel and took the little scorpion pendant from her pocket.

Holding it high above her head, she shouted: “ Silver Star, Morph!” The transformation took about three seconds, as usual, so she ran back to the front of the Citadel.

She could see a group of Dark Warriors coming down the street, so she ran to the nearest pair of police officers and told them to evacuate everyone from around the Citadel.

They ran off to do as she said, just as the Dark Warriors reached the grass in front of her.

“ Moon Staff!” she shouted; the weapon appeared in her hands.

“ Ready to get your butts beaten?” she asked in Ancient Egyptian.

The Warriors paused just long enough for her to ready her staff and kill one of the Warriors in front of her.

A flash of gold crossed the sky; Isis was soon standing beside her.

“ Ready to combine our weapons?” she asked.

“ Right!” Mintaka shouted back. They put their staffs together, Mintaka’s Moon Staff and Isis’ Sun Staff.

They stood on either side of the weapon. “ Crescent Star Staff! Fire!” they shouted together.

Twenty of the Dark Warriors in front of them were turned to dust, leaving twelve more to contend with.

Lloyd soon appeared, evening the odds.

“ Looks like I get to boogie with the bad boys!” he quipped readying his daggers for an attack.

The Dark Warriors surged towards them, brandishing their scythe weapons.

The three Rangers let out battle cries of their own and leapt forward, slashing and swinging through their enemies.




The “Wonderful Wildlife Zoo”; the food court section


Quinton Smith fished a crumpled dollar-bill out of his back pocket and handed it to the hot dog vendor.

“ Here ya’ go, Mr. Smith. Have a nice day at the zoo!” the vendor called out as Quinton walked away with his foot-long hot dog and chili.

His father co-owned the zoo because of a rather daring rescue he’d done to help save the owner’s daughter.

As a result of this, Quinton only had to pay for the food he wanted; everything else, including the wildlife rides, was completely free.

He sat down on a nearby park bench and hungrily bit into the delicious meat.

He’d not eaten all day, and it was nearly two o’clock in the afternoon.

Just as he was about to chunk the wrapper into the nearest trash bin, a man dressed in beige overalls and a beige shirt ran up to him.

“ Come quick, Mister Smith! Jody’s delivering, and something’s wrong with the cub!” the man shouted.

Quinton darted after the old man, weaving in between startled families and gawking teens.

They finally arrived at the wolf preserve. Instead of taking the elevator down to the feeding section of the preserve, Quinton jumped over the five-foot railing and landed on the grassy ground inside the fence some twenty feet below.

Dusting his blue shirt off, he ran off towards the left side of the habitat, where he could hear two women trying to coax the wolf, Jody.

When he arrived, he was appalled to see Jody lying on a pile of blankets; the poor wolf was loosing a lot of blood, and there was no sign of her cub.

The two women – one of them a worker and the other the daughter of the zoo’s owner – moved aside as he knelt down beside the wolf.

Jody snarled at him in pain, her head not even moving up from the blankets.

Ignoring the worried glances of the two women, and the old man who’d caught up, Quinton checked the wolf’s vital signs.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

“ The twins are turned around the wrong way,” he gasped. When the female worker burst into tears, he had the owner’s daughter take her away.

Putting on a pair of long plastic gloves, Quinton screwed up his courage and reached inside the wolf’s womb.

He felt around until he had the cub by the neck, and gently began to turn it.

He did the same for the other cub then sat back on his heels to watch the birth progress. It was only a minute or two before both cubs came out.

Jody tried her best to get up, but her strength failed and she fell back to the ground. Quinton picked up a clean blanket and began to clean the cubs off.

There was a bowl of water nearby, so he soaked a wet rag in it and used it to clean away the excess blood from the cubs’ nostrils.

Then he set them down on the blanket and started cleaning Jody up.

When he tried again to get her to rise almost ten minutes later, she barely even moved her head.

With a sad sigh, Quinton called for the owner’s daughter, who was waiting in the shadows.

“ I’m afraid Jody isn’t going to make it. Call your father and inform him that she’ll have to be put to sleep. The cubs will have to bottle-nursed until they’re old enough to be weaned,” he told her as he got to his feet.

“ We don’t have enough time to bottle-feed a bunch of cubs,” the woman protested, then shut up when Quinton shot an angry glare at her.

“ Fine. If your father will refuse to bottle-feed them and help them survive, I’ll personally take over their care, and keep them in my own care. Let me know what your father says,” he replied in a terse voice as he walked away.

Not wanting to climb back up the wall, he went towards the elevator in the back of the habitat.

He was suddenly overwhelmed with a strange sense.

Not knowing why or what caused the sensation, he walked towards a solid section of rock and placed his hand on a small chip in it.

The wall in front of him slowly shifter, admitting him inside some kind of strange room.

He stared at the table in the middle of the room; on the table – inside a glass-enclosed box – sat some kind of strange blue wolf pendant.

Intrigued by how it looked, he walked forward, opened the door to the glass box, and took the pendant out.

It sparked with blue energy before returning to normal.

“ The blue Destiny Ranger. Kennedy told me I was personally to watch out for him,” a voice said from the darkness.

Quinton whirled around to see the old man who tended the wolves.

“ What do you mean? Kennedy who?” he demanded to know.

“ JFK, organizer of the Freedom Fighters. The organization never took off for lack of intelligence, so it was scrapped, or so we led people to think."

" Kennedy directed for the blue Destiny morpher to be hidden here, in hopes that someday the Freedom Fighters would eventually be recognized.”

“ I was assigned to search for the blue Destiny Ranger, a person who could harness this Power Ranger’s powers and help defeat the evil he knew existed."

" I have now found you, Mr. Smith. Behold, the blue Destiny morpher. It is yours, in recognition of your affinity for wolves."

" Whenever you need to harness the power of your morpher, simply shout, ‘Blue Destiny, Morph!’ while holding the morpher in front of you. And you will be transformed,” the old man said.

He disappeared, leaving Quinton alone in the room. Shaking his head, he put the pendant in his pocket and left the room behind.

When he got to the elevators, he discovered that they were broken.

“ Great. Now I’ll have to go back up the wall to get out,” he muttered to himself.

He passed back through the vines, ferns, and trees until he got back to the metal wall.

Above his head, he could see curious tourists staring through the five-foot fence railing.

“ Are you a zoo worker?” one of the women asked.

“ No ma’am. I’m the son of the co-owner,” he replied as he got directly up against the wall.

There were toe- and handholds built into the wall in case of emergency, so he started up the sheer wall.

He’d gotten halfway before someone came flying over the wall and landed on the ground under him.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

When he glanced down, he saw the woman who’d asked him who he was lying on the ground, unconscious. Above him, he could hear startled screams and panicked feet as they ran in all directions.

“ Human! Freeze where you are! I am taking over this zoo. I will use it for my evil fortress to defeat the Power Rangers. None of them shall get inside the barriers I have erected. If you do not obey me, I will feed you to the wild animals here!” a voice boomed out.

Quinton scrambled up the last feet to the edge and chanced a quick peek over. A man clad in alien armor and Egyptian clothing stood with his back to the wolf habitat.

Silently swearing to himself, he pushed back from the wall and landed on the ground beside the unconscious woman.

Trying not to make a sound, he picked the woman up and slowly made his way back through the forest part of the habitat until he came once again to the strange room.

The old man was waiting there, and took the woman as Quinton set her down on the couch.

“ There’s an alien attack happening. Keep her safe here until I come back for her. Don’t let her out of your sight, and don’t let her leave,” he added as he took out the little wolf pendant. He held it in front of him and shouted: “ Blue Destiny, Morph!”

A blue flash surrounded him, conforming to his body and forming the suit.

Then the gloves and boots appeared, letting off blue sparks of energy. Lastly came the helmet, which was in the shape of a wolf’s head.

He turned back to face the old man. With a silent nod, Quinton turned back around and quietly sneaked through the jungle until he came back to the wall at the front of the habitat.

“ Here goes nothing,” he said to himself under his helmet as he bent his knees and jumped.

Surprisingly, he went right over the top of the fence and landed behind the Egyptian-alien guy.

“ Destiny Blaster!” he shouted, unsheathing it from his side.

Before the guy could turn around, Quinton blasted him eight times in the back, knocking him forward onto the ground. Quinton stood there as the alien guy got to his feet.

Quinton nearly laughed at the startled expression on the guy’s face.

“ This is not possible! A Ranger could not have gotten past the barrier I created!” the guy shrieked.

“ Uh, yeah. About that. I don’t think it works if a Ranger is already inside the barrier when it’s built,” he retorted. The alien guy glared at him.

“ You’ve ruined my plans! The barrier will never hold if a Ranger is on the inside and lets the others in!” he shrieked again. Quinton grimaced under his helmet.

“ I don’t know about other Rangers, but I do know one thing. That wolf over there doesn’t look too happy that you’re insulting her owner,” Quinton quipped, pointing behind him to a bunch of moss-covered trees.

The alien turned around, staring at where Quinton had pointed, giving him a shot at the unprotected part of his body.

The alien went down, screeching and shouting. “ You cannot do that to Nefer and get away with it!” he shouted, scrambling back to his feet.

A rather nasty, jagged sword appeared in Nefer’s hands, sparking evil energy.
“ You will regret the day you transformed for the first time, Ranger,” he hissed. Quinton held up his hand for silence.

“ You know, this my very first time morphing, and I don’t regret it one bit,” he said aloud as Nefer’s face clouded with anger.

Quinton could feel the power building in him but didn’t let it show.

“ In fact,” he added with a smiled as he called for his Destiny Bow, “ I rather enjoy it,” he finished, pointing the bow at the invisible barrier dome that covered the zoo.

“ Thunder Strike!” he called out, firing a bolt of energy at the barrier.

Thunderbolts came from nowhere and seemed to power up the bolt as it struck the barrier and shattered it.

“ NO!” Nefer screeched, pointing his sword at Nefer and firing. The energy bomb caught him in the chest, knocking backwards against the fence.

Because of his momentum – and the fact that he had so pouch power roaring through him – he went right through the fence.

Quinton got his feet under him a millisecond before he hit the ground, then used the same momentum to shoot back up over the fence. Nefer was thoroughly outraged.

“ What sort of Ranger are you!” he roared.

Before Quinton could reply, a streak of red flashed across the sky, struck Nefer in the chest five times, then landed beside him. Quinton stared in shock at Julian, who also stared at him.

“ The red Destiny Ranger, am I right?” he asked under his helmet.

“ Yes. You are the blue Destiny Ranger?” Julian asked.

“ Yep. And this alien is Nefer. What do you say to having cooked alien tonight?” Quinton quipped.

“ Nah. I think I’ll settle for a hot dog. But I’d still like a side of toasted alien butt,” he added, taking out his Destiny Saber.

“ Pyro Spin!” Julian shouted, beginning to spin in fast, furious circle. Flames leapt out from his suit and saber, badly burning Nefer.

“ I’ll be – back – Rangers!” he shouted. Then he was gone.

Ignoring Julian’s questioning glance – one he knew the Ranger was giving him – Quinton walked over to a nearby tourist family, who were cowering beneath a bunch of trees.

“ Are you all right?” he asked them.

“ That alien threw momma into the wolf habitat!” the little girl shrieked as the dad tried to comfort her.

Quinton turned around and pressed a button on his blaster.

The child’s mother was instantly teleported to where he stood. He picked her up before she hit the ground and handed her to her husband.

[wildranger]

sweet

[Kali_WolfChilde]

“ Take good care of her, and don’t let her do anything major for the next few days,” he told the grateful man as he sheathed his blaster and went back to the wolf habitat.

The old man was still in the strange room, so he demorphed and sat down to talk to him.

Before he even got two words out, the red Ranger – unmorphed – came strolling into the room.
“ So, now we have an addition to the team. That’s good. It’ll help out a lot,” he said as he sat beside Quinton.

“ I never said I’d join your team in the first place. I will help fight alongside you as a Ranger, but when I’m not fighting I’ll be living here. And I don’t care what the government says."

" If they want my help, they can take it as I offer it or leave me alone,” Quinton told Julian with a decided shake to his head.

“ Fine by me. I’ll be living at the Marriott Inn with the three other members of our team. Here is your cell phone, in case you need to call us in an emergency, or you need to call the government to warn of an attack. It’s standard issue,” he added as he teleported away.

Quinton threw his head back and sighed.

“ Wait’ll my parents hear about this. They’ll not take too kindly to me wanting to live with the wolves here in the zoo,” he told the old man.

The old man was about to reply when a thunderous boom exploded outside.

Quinton shot to his feet and bolted outside.

He stared up through the trees in horror; a dark ship loomed above him.

“ Ranger! I told you that you would pay. And behold, everyone dear to you is now dead!” a voice screamed as the ship flew away.

Four bodies dropped from the sky, landing in a line in at Quinton’s feet.

He screamed when he saw that the bodies were his mother, father, the owner of the zoo, and the owner’s daughter.

He let out a heart-wrenching sob and fell on his knees beside his mother’s body, his shoulders shaking with pain.

The old man picked up his cell phone and dialed the government number he’d kept all these years.

A few minutes later, a chopper lit on the ground in the clear part of the habitat.

A whole group of guys poured from the little chopper, coming towards the old man and Quinton.

The Ranger stayed quite as the guys picked up the four bodies and carried them back to the chopper.

Then they were gone as quickly as they’d come, leaving a deep hole in Quinton’s heart.

“ Those bastards will pay for killing my family!” he suddenly shouted, getting to his feet. Before the old man could stop him, Quinton had morphed again and was streaking after the ship.

The old man dialed his phone again.

“ Red Ranger? You’d better stop Quinton. He’s headed after Nefer’s ship, and he’s hell-bent on destroying him for killing his family,” the old man warned the Ranger before he hung up.

From the shadows, a stranger watched everything that was going on.

I’d better be getting back home, he said to himself as he teleported away.

He arrived in the Marriott Inn, in a suite not far from the ones he knew the red and black, and silver and gold Rangers occupied.

Setting his backpack on the bed, he pulled out his laptop and hooked it into the wall.

He went to his email and started typing: I think you’d better stay informed on the new situation in D.C. There’s a new group of Rangers, and a new villain in town. I’m not going to do anything, but I think we should both keep our eyes and ears open.

He hit send and turned everything off.

“ I only hope these Rangers can fight against the evil brewing here,” he muttered as he headed to the shower.

In Lloyd’s suite, he was currently surfing through channel on cable while a woman was giving him a back massage.

He sighed and sat still. He was more than mad when Julian barged in the door and told him to get dressed.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Lloyd dismissed the woman and slipped into a pair of black shorts and black pair of Adidas.

“ We’ve got to prepare ourselves. A young man is going after Nefer for killing his father. His name is Quinton, and he plans on destroying the monster or being destroyed,” Julian told his friend.

“ What’s the catch? I know there’s a catch,” Lloyd protested.

“ He’s the blue Destiny Ranger,” Julian replied and quickly morphed.

Lloyd followed his example, and they used their scanning equipment to locate Quinton.

He was currently battling a dozen Dark Warriors in front of the Citadel, while Nefer sat there and watched.

“ What is that place? An evil free-for-all party ground?” Lloyd exclaimed as he and Julian teleported to the Citadel.

Julian landed on the ground behind the circle of Dark Warriors; Lloyd, however, had opted to land on the side of the Citadel, his feet clinging to the surface as he calmly walked down the side towards an unsuspecting Nefer sitting directly below him.

When he was about ten feet above the villain’s head, Lloyd simply let go of his hold on the building and fell on top of Nefer, knocking him to the ground.

He smiled when the alien cursed and tried to push himself up.

He was still hurt from Julian’s attack earlier, and parts of his skin were still burnt badly.

Lloyd was up in a flash and withdrew his daggers and his blaster.

He attached the blaster to one of the daggers, and squeezed the trigger.

An enormous energy wave swept forth and knocked Nefer off his knees to the ground; it also knocked him unconscious.

He smiled and sheathed his daggers, aiming his blaster at the Dark Warriors.

It hit two before finishing one of ’em off.

Shaking his head, he leapt forward onto one of the Dark Warrior’s backs, and twisted its weapon from its hands.

He leapt away and sent the blade whistling for the thing’s head.

In a cloud of dust, the thing was instantly dead.

As the last of the Dark Warriors was vanquished, a lone stranger walked deeper into the shadows.

He went back to his apartment building, the exact same building Julian would be moving out of.

He went to his own apartment, straight to the bedroom and his computer.

He hurriedly logged onto his email.

When he saw the message from his friend, he typed a reply: I saw three of the Rangers in action.

They seem to do pretty well for themselves.

I will continue to keep an eye on them, though, as you suggested in your email.

The stranger pressed send and logged off the email.

Then he left his apartment to go to dinner.

In Isis’ and Mintaka’s suite, they were putting away the few things thing they’d brought from Egypt.

Isis was busy trying to set up her model of the Sphinx on the little table in the corner.

It started to get rather hot in the room, so she went to open the windows.

The minute she did, a chilly breeze swept into the room.

She gasped and turned around to find Taita and Seti standing there, clad in Egyptian garments.

Mintaka also stilled when she saw her former husband’s ghost and her former father’s ghost standing there.

“ We have come to inform you, daughter, that there is a new power in town, other than the evil one plaguing it."

" We know not if this power be good or evil, only that it is watching your friends. Be careful."

" Seti and I have been in contact with many spirits, and have decided to help you and your friends when the time is right,” Taita’s ghost replied.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Seti walked towards Mintaka a short way and laid something down on the bed.

“ This will help you if you find yourself weak or missing me,” his ghost whispered before both the ghosts disappeared.

Mintaka turned to the bed and picked the object up; she promptly gasped in surprise.

“ Ye gods! The staff of Isis with the Eye of Horus engraved on it!” she exclaimed as she held the object up to the light. Isis put her hand over her mouth as something came back to her.

“ For all who dare to try and possess this, they must be of the blood of the gods themselves. Whoever wields this staff shall never die, nor shall she ever be aching or weak,” she muttered, her eyes on the staff.

Mintaka ran loving hands over the seemingly delicate staff.

“ I remember when Seti presented this to me on our wedding. There were many more expensive objects on the wedding table, but this meant more to me than anything because it was from him."

" When it was stolen from me, I searched for it, but after a year I presumed it forever lost to me. He knew how much I loved it, and vowed he’d spend an eternity to find it if he had to,” she whispered.

She held the staff directly over her heart.

“ Thank ye, Mother Isis, for allowing my love to return to me. I shall forever be grateful that this was returned to me,” she said to the skies.

As it was now nearly four in the afternoon, she put the compact little staff inside her pocketbook, slung that over her shoulder to keep it safe, and ordered room service.

Back at the sight of the battle, the three Rangers had demorphed.

Quinton was facing Julian and Lloyd, a slightly angry look on his face. “ I can’t believe you did that,” he accused them.

“ We did it to save your life. If you’d gotten, hurt, Nefer could easily have taken you hostage and killed you."

" You must remain a strong Ranger if you wish to find an alternate plan to get back at him. To do that you must fight alongside us, and not go after him again,” Julian said.

Quinton hung his head.

“ I apologize. If you’ll excuse me, I must be going back to my home at the zoo,” he said as he teleported away.

The other two Rangers walked off down the sidewalk.

Unbeknownst to either of them, someone was watching them. A young man with brown skin and curly brown hair stayed in the shadows of a group of trees as he watched them leave.

The stranger didn’t know of the other two people who’d been keeping tabs on the Destiny and Star Rangers, so he just went back to his suite at the Marriott Inn.

He had a suite on the ninth floor, whereas the first stranger had a suite on the eleventh floor with the Rangers.

He shrugged out of his blue jacket and went to take a shower.




Back at the zoo; in the wildcat habitats

Foxworth Moore strolled down the pathway to the tiger habitat.

He was humming a Celtic tune when he heard blood-curdling screams coming from the direction he was headed. Disregarding the stares of passers-by, Fox bolted down the rest of the path until he came to the tigers.

When he glanced down where a frantic father was pointing, his blood ran cold.

A young six year old boy was sitting inside the fence nearly fifteen feet below, on the ground, in front of an angry tiger.

The tiger was hissing and spitting at the boy, although he kept stock-still.

Fox threw his jacket to the boy’s father and turned back to the terrible scene unfolding below.

The tiger began pacing in front of the boy, making his father even more terrified. He turned to the father, and man he’d seen several times.

“ Don’t worry,” he said, just before he took a dive over the railing.

Instead of landing in the ferns near the tiger, he landed directly on top of it.

Before it could recover from the blow, Fox grabbed the crying boy and shoved him towards the wall.

“ Use the toeholds and handholds to pull yourself up,” he told the boy as he once again faced the tiger.

It just stared at him; after a minute of the staring contest, the tiger shook its head and walked towards the back of the habitat.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

When it turned around, Fox understood that it wanted him to follow it.

Shrugging his shoulders, he followed in its path. The tiger disappeared into the underbrush just as its feeder appeared.

“ Follow me,” the woman – a retired army veteran – told him.

They wound up in a closet-sized room in the back wall of the habitat. Ms. Rosalyn handed him a strange tiger pendant.

“ All I can tell you, Fox, is all that I know. I was part of a secret government organization when Kennedy was in office."

" He hired four people to watch over these pendants, to make sure that they never fell into the wrong hands. They have the ability to turn you into a Power Ranger.”

“ I know you may not believe me, but its true,” she told him, then proceeded to give him a detailed description of how to use the powers he’d inherit.

By the time she was finished, it was nearly five.

“ I thank you, Ms. Rosalyn. But why did you choose me?” he asked her, his gaze skimming over the pendant.

“ I didn’t. The spirit of the tiger did. You were brave and agile when you saved young Jordan out there."

" The tiger saw this, and chose you to be the green Destiny Ranger. It is as it should be. I know that I will not live much longer on this earth. I am old, and I accept that."

" But now I won’t have to worry about guarding the pendant anymore. It has chosen its rightful owner,” she whispered as she closed her eyes and sighed.

Fox gave her a hug before he went to the elevator. It took him back up to ground level.

Picking up his jacket from where Jordan’s father had dropped it, he made his way back towards the parking lot.

Climbing into his 1999 green convertible, he revved up the engine and turned the car towards his home.

When he neared his home, he noticed that he was being followed.

Deciding not to show the apparent culprit where he lived, Fox took a back road around his apartment, then quickly pulled into his garage.

The door slammed shut after the car was through, keeping the pursuer from seeing just where he lived.

Sighing in frustration at the changing world, Fox locked the car and went through the door to the kitchen.

His parents weren’t the richest folks in the world, but they owned a nice apartment.

He stayed with them, and really enjoyed his mother’s home-cooked dinners.

An aroma of smells assaulted his nostrils as he strode through the door into the kitchen.

One glance at the stove told him his mother had fixed lasagna, tacos, and ordered a pizza – which could only mean one thing.

He went into the living room, where Quinton was sitting with his mother and father. All three looked a bit sad.

Fox was sad, too, when he found out the news. “ Don’t worry, man. You can stay here tonight. And for as long as you like,” he added when Quinton let a half-smile show.

“ Thanks. To all three of you. My friends said that the government would pay for us to live in the Marriott Inn, but I’d rather live here with you guys. Especially with all this good cooking,” he said with a bigger smile.

Fox’s mother laughed, and all four people trudged into the kitchen.

For the next hour, all they did was eat and talk about what they’d done that day.

Fox was intrigued by Quinton’s description of his fight with the alien people.
He was definitely curious when Quinton mentioned a wolf pendant.

Putting his napkin down and standing up, he took his tiger pendant out of his pocket and held it up for Quinton to see.

“ Did it look anything like this?” he asked his friend.

“ Yeah. Guess we’re both working for the same people now,” Quinton replied in a casual manner.

Mrs. Moore suddenly spoke up.

“ I know we’ve only been in this country for 21 years, but I do have something to tell you both. You need not keep your Ranger identities from me."

" I knew both Rosalyn and Tony. And I knew they guarded those pendants that you now have. And that can only mean that you two are Power Rangers. So you can talk around me, as well as your father, Fox.”

With that, Mrs. Moore got up to wash the dishes.

Her husband got up to help her, leaving the two boys to fight over the remote for the TV. They finally agreed to watch the news, and hurriedly turned it to the D.C. station.

The event from the zoo, as well as the attacks at the Citadel, were being shot on the screen.

As the footage rolled, Fox noticed a man in red was at the zoo scene, and the one where Quinton, Julian, and Lloyd were morphed and fighting the Dark Warriors.

Quinton noticed just as much, and voiced his opinion.

“ Plus, I think one of those people looked familiar. I know I’ve seen him somewhere. The one at the zoo scene looks very familiar."

" I can’t place him yet, but I’ll figure it out sooner or later,” he muttered as the news went off and “ Whoopi ” came on.

Fox stood up to stretch – just as something came flying through the window.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Quinton leapt to his feet beside him as the Dark Warrior got to its feet. “ Me master says that you’re to stop fighting him or die,” the creature rasped out in Egyptian.

Surprisingly, it was Mrs. Moore who appeared and answered him.

“ Tell your master that the Rangers – and myself – don’t take kindly to threats,” she retorted.

She moved forward with the butcher knife and stabbed the Dark Warrior through the heart, reducing it to a pile of dust that blew out the open window.

“ Now that he’s gone, I suggest the two of you contact the other Rangers and tell them that you’re moving into the Marriott Inn with them. I will brook no argument."

" If I must, I’ll move in there with you. Fox, go ahead with Quinton. Your father and I shall pack our belongings and move in when we’re finished,” she told the two guys, bustling into her bedroom.

Fox went to his bedroom. It was small but cozy.

He packed all his clothes, pictures, trophies, and other personal things into the suitcases he owned.

Since the car he’d driven was his own, he piled all the trunks into the back seat of the car, and the trunk.

The largest one didn’t fit anywhere else, so he just lodged it into the passenger seat.

After making sure that Quinton had already teleported to the Inn, he drove the car away from his home.

The traffic was a little thinner this time on the road, so he drove to the Inn in only a half-hour.

A group of bellboys were already waiting outside with a luggage cart.

They loaded it with his trunks and rolled it inside the hotel.

He followed them all the way up to the eleventh floor. They set the trunks down in the room he’d be sharing with the red Ranger.

Just as he was putting the last of his things away in his closet, the red Ranger himself came walking in the room and sat on his bed.

“ Looks like I get to room with the green Ranger. Hi, I’m Julian Jackson. The red Destiny Ranger,” the Ranger said as he held out his hand.

Fox shook it and gave him a smile.

“ So, since it’s nearly seven, you wanna go grab a drink or something?” Julian asked him.

“ No thanks. I don’t drink. Besides, I have to help my parents move into their suite. They already know about us and the other Rangers."

" And a Dark Warrior came to our home, so we kinda have to move in here with the rest of you,” Fox replied as he shoved the last of his trunks into a storage closet beside the clothes closet.

When he shut the door and turned around, his mother was standing in the doorway.

“ We’ve gotten everything into our suite, Fox. We’re right next to the two Star Rangers,” she told him before she left. Julian stared after her.

“ That’s your mother?” he questioned.

“ Yeah. Why?” Fox wanted to know.

“ Man, she looks good for a mother. I bet she cooks great too.”

“ She sure does. For dinner tonight, she fixed tacos, lasagna, and ordered us a pizza. That’s mine and Quinton’s favorite meal. It was one of the best ones, too.”

The two rangers sat in silence for a while. Then Fox seemed to remember something.

“ Say, when Quinton and I were watching the news earlier, we saw the fights at the Citadel and the zoo. He saw someone that he recognized on the footage from the zoo scene. It’s probably nothing, but I thought you should know,” Fox told Julian as he headed for the shower.

Back in the girls’ room, Mintaka was busy slurping on her pina colada slushie. Isis was singing to herself in the shower.

A knock sounded on the door; Mintaka got up to answer it. Lloyd was standing there, a bouquet of flowers in his hand.

“ I – uh – bought these flowers for Isis. Is she still in the shower?” he stuttered.

“ Yes. I’ll tell her you stopped by, but unfortunately when she comes out she will be naked. And I cannot have a stranger – even a fellow Ranger, and especially one of the opposite sex – to see her without clothes on,” Mintaka said as she took the flowers and politely but firmly closed the door.

Lloyd went back to the room he would be sharing with Quinton.

Behind a potted plant at the opposite end of the hall, the stranger from the zoo stared at him as he went back to his room.

Unbeknownst to this stranger – and Lloyd – the stranger form the ninth floor was observing them both with a pair of binoculars on the corner opposite the hall the rooms were on.

The brown-haired, brown-skinned stranger put away his binoculars and leaned back against the wall.

“ I don’t believe it. One of the greatest legends in our history is spying on the new Rangers, just like I am,” he muttered to himself.

Before anyone would think him a spy, the stranger went back to his room on the ninth floor, at the same time the stranger behind the potted plant retired to his.

The brown-haired man in blue got inside his room, shut the door, and went to his computer.

The minute he went online, he logged onto his email and started to send one: Billy, I know you’re in L.A., man, but I thought I should let you know.

There’s a new team of Rangers out there; rather here, in D.C. I think you should know one of your old teammates is also spying on them, though he knows not that I am here.

I have also sensed another’s presence, one just as powerful as you, me, or your teammate. I have yet to pinpoint his location, but I shall let you know.

We may not know each other, and may not have met, except for that one occasion on the beach, but since you are one of the legends in our history, I felt it my duty to tell you.

As with every generation of Rangers, the demons and monsters seem to get stronger, causing us to upgrade or pass on our powers. This monster that leads his group is known as Nefer.

His minions are the Dark Warriors, a rather tough group of people. As a fellow boy in blue, I know you still keep watch on these things. Let me know your response.

The brown-haired man in blue sent the email and sat back in his chair. Ten minutes later, he received a reply from his friend: Max, thanks for the report.

You were a very good Ranger during your duty to Earth. The teammate you spoke of is currently residing on the eleventh floor, not far from the new Rangers.

I think it wise to announce your presence to him, for he was very good guy, and fought many hard battles. As for the source of power you talked about, I have also pinpointed it.

The source resides in the apartment building where the Red Destiny Ranger used to live. He is also a former teammate, and a legend like myself and the one you spoke of.

The teammate in your hotel has been keeping in contact with him. I’ve tracked several of their emails, so I know. He would also be a good person to go ahead and align yourself with.

There is one other thing I must tell you. A teammate of mine that I worked with has just recently contacted me to ask me about the new Rangers.

I am sending him an email to ask him to go ahead and join you and the other teammates in D.C. He knows them well, for he worked with them as I did.

I am going now, so I suggest you go up to the eleventh floor and talk to him.
The email ended there, so the brown-haired man cut his computer off, unplugged it, and went back up to the eleventh floor.

He went to the suite he’d seen the dark-haired man enter and knocked on the door. The sound of shuffling came towards the door before it opened.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

The brown-skinned man’s mouth dropped open when he saw the two people standing there.

“ Hey, Tommy. Hey, Jason,” the man said as he went inside the suite.

“ Hey, Max,” Tommy replied as he closed the door.

At the same time, two men – one in red and one in blue – were climbing off a bus in front of the hotel.

The two men knew each other from reports from their respective Ranger teams, and gladly shook hands as the bellboys took their luggage away on a luggage cart.

“ Hey, man. You’re practically a legend. Why are you back here?” the one in red wanted to know.

“ Same reason you are, Wild Force Ranger. I felt the presence of evil and some of my friends, so I decided to join the party."

" Besides, I’m pretty sure the new Rangers are going to need our help. It sounds like this Nefer guy is one bad dude,” the one in blue replied.

They took the elevator up to the eleventh floor to surprise their friends.

The one in red knocked on the suite door.

It opened and an astonished Max peered out.

“ Cole? You’re here, too?” he asked as he let both people in.

The two red Rangers sitting on the bed jumped to their feet and ran over to the man in blue.

“ Rocky, man, how’s it going?” Tommy asked his old friend.

“ Pretty good. I guess we’re all here for the same reasons, aren’t we?” he asked the other Rangers.

“ Yes, we are,” said another person as he stepped out from a ring of light.

Every single Ranger in the room turned towards him.

“ Billy. I just don’t believe it,” Tommy muttered as he grasped his friend’s arm.

“ It looks like all the legends are gathering here to help these new Rangers. And I’m more than ready for that. I haven’t fought anyone good in years,” Cole muttered as he stretched his tired arms above his head.

“ I know this may sound typical of me, but I think we should somehow align ourselves with the Rangers."

" Like I’m blue, as are Max and Rocky. And you, Jason, and Cole are red. I think we should talk to Quinton and Julian, let them know we’re here in case they need help,” Billy said to Tommy.

“ I don’t know, Billy. They might not know what to think with all these ex-Rangers around them. I think it’s best we kept quiet,” Tommy said.

Cole and Billy would take a room on one side of Tommy and Jason’s room; Max and Rocky would stay in the room Max had first rented.

After these arrangements were made, the exhausted former Rangers went to their separate rooms and fell asleep.



The Marriott Inn; 5:00 A.M. the next day

Two jeeps pulled up into the parking lot side by side. Four men got out; two in blue, two in red.

The two men in the white jeep got out to great the two from the black jeep.

“ Looks like we are once again going to have to help protect the Earth,” the red-clad one from the black jeep said.

“ Yeah. It looks like it’s going to be a heck of a lot harder, too. From what information I was able to gather from my people on Mirinoi and Earth, these new demons and minions are planning something big,” the red-clad one from the white jeep said.

“ We must make a pact. From here on out, no one, not even the new Rangers, must know of our presence. Agreed?” the blue-clad one from the white jeep said. Each man agreed.

They picked up their luggage and went to the registration desk.

“ Rooms for T.J. and Kai, please,” the red one from the black jeep told the clerk.

Without a word she handed the blue-clad men the keys and told them what floor they were on.

Luck was with them, for their rooms were on the ninth floor, and side by side.

The two former Galaxy Rangers went to one room; the two former Space Rangers to the other.

Not bothering to unpack, they fell fast asleep on their respective beds.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

The Inn; 7:30 A.M.

Mintaka sat up in bed as her alarm clock went off. “ I’ll never get used to this American thing,” she muttered as she hit the off button and climbed out of bed.

She walked over to Isis’ bed and unceremoniously dumped her off the mattress.

“ Come on, Isis. We have to get dressed. If you don’t remember, we promised the guys we’d go for an early breakfast and morning swim,” she told the grumbling girl. Isis got to her feet and shook the sleep from her eyes.

“ Ye didn’t have to get me up that way,” she grumbled as she went into the bathroom to fix her hair and change into her clothes.

She put a bathing suit on under it, plaited her hair into one thick braid down her back, brushed on her makeup, and stepped back into the bedroom.

Mintaka went past her to take care of her own business as Isis sat down on a chair and started thumbing through a magazine.

Startled screams from outside stopped her. She threw down the magazine and went to the window, looking for the source of the scream.

Three guards were busy trying to protect a woman with her baby as eight Dark Warriors relentlessly swarmed against them.

She pulled her camel pendant from her vest and shouted:“ Gold Star, Morph!”

The second she was morphed, she withdrew her blaster and teleported to the ground behind the Warriors.

“ Hey! I thought I you knew! No bad guys allowed!” she shouted to get their attention.

It worked, just long enough for the three guards to get the woman and baby inside the hotel and secure the doors.

The Warriors let out grunt-like cries and charged her. She shot the first two with her blaster, then sheathed it and pulled out her Moon Staff.

At that moment, twelve more Warriors appeared. “ Oh boy,” Isis muttered under her helmet.

Mintaka appeared directly beside her, already morphed.

They combined their staffs to form the Crescent Star Staff and fired it at the Warriors.

Ten were destroyed, taking the total down to ten; unfortunately for the two Star Rangers, fourteen more appeared to take their places.

“ Crap! The guys’re asleep while we’re out here risking our asses! I tell you this, if they don’t appear in the next three seconds I swear I’d drown all four of ’em!” Isis shouted. As if on cue, all four Destiny Rangers appeared.

“ Isis! Mintaka! We just got a call from Winston! They’ve somehow managed to create vehicles for us. Just call out ‘Dune Buggy!’” Julian said.

The four Destiny Rangers fended off the Warriors while the two Star Rangers stood side by side. “ Gold Star Dune Buggy!” Isis shouted.

“ Silver Star Dune Buggy!” Mintaka shouted. Their vehicles appeared beside them.

The two Rangers eagerly hopped in; the four Destiny Rangers called for their vehicles.

A red, blue, black, and green motorcycle appeared beside the Ranger of that color.

“ Rangers! Meet your new vehicles. They are called the Freedom Cycles. Make good use of them!” a voice called out over the Destiny Rangers’ helmet communicators.

Now that all six Rangers were in or on their respective vehicles, they revved them towards the Warriors.

With twenty-four Warriors, each Ranger singled out four and went after them.

Mintaka aimed her Dune Buggy at her group of Warriors and fired the lasers system. Three were instantly turned to dust, leaving just one.

Mintaka hopped out of her Dune Buggy and took out her Staff, facing down the Warrior.

“ I think I’ll just take you down by myself,” she said as she leapt forward.

She feinted a left and a right hook, then kicked the Warrior down to the ground.

“ Scorpion Sting!” she shouted.

A scorpion tail appeared from the tip of her Moon Staff and struck the Warriors chest.

Now that she’d destroyed her Warriors, she turned to check on the progress of the other Rangers. There were only twelve Warriors left.

They’d all somehow gotten into a tight-knit circle, and used their scythe weapons to form a barrier around and above them, making them oblivious to all the energy and lasers aimed at them.

Fox hopped off his cycle and strode up to without five feet of the Warriors.

“ See ya’ in a few!” he shouted with a happy laugh. He threw some kind of powdery substance on the ground and disappeared.

The other five Rangers stood together, wondering where their friend had gone.

All of a sudden, the ground in the very midst of the barred Warriors spewed open.

Fox came flying through the air and delivered a powerful karate kick to one of the Warrior’s backs.

Their protective barrier was instantly broken, allowing Fox to withdraw his lance.

Isis, Julian, Lloyd, and Quinton withdrew their respective Ranger Weapons and pointed them to the sky.

“ Pyro Spin!” Julian shouted as he began to spin in tight circles where he stood.

“ Sand Storm!” Isis shouted, causing a blinding storm of sand to suddenly spring up from nowhere.

“ Thunder Strike!” Quinton shouted as he took aim with his Destiny Bow and fired it at the Warriors.

“ Super Slash!” Lloyd shouted, energizing his daggers and slashing them towards the Warriors.

With all their forces combined together, the remaining Warriors were instantly turned to dust.

The six Rangers congratulated themselves and teleported back to their rooms.

As they did, six men left their rooms and headed for the Rangers rooms.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Little did the new Rangers know who they’d be seeing in a few minutes.

As Isis and Mintaka were redoing their hair, a loud knock sounded on their door.

Thinking that it was one of the Destiny Rangers, Mintaka went ahead and opened it.

A black man in blue clothes and a white man in blue clothes were standing there.

“ May I ask who the heck are you?” Mintaka demanded in a strong voice, her suspicious nature coming to the surface.

The black man came forward.

“ Miss, my friend and I know you are the Silver Star Ranger, and that your friend is the Gold Star Ranger. We have come to let you know of our presence,” the black man said.

Startled, Mintaka started to close the door.

The white man stopped her.

“ We need to talk to you,” he said.

Keeping her hand on the purse with the staff of Isis in it, Mintaka grudgingly allowed them to come inside the room.

“ What do you want with us? And how could you possibly know of our Ranger identities?” she demanded to know, glaring suspiciously at both men.

The black man stepped forward.

“ I am Max, and this is Rocky. We have come to properly introduce ourselves. I’ve been keeping track of you and your friends, and a group of us have gotten together here at the Inn,” the black man said.

“ Why would you have gathered here? Is it because of us? Wait’ll the others find out,” Isis threatened the two men.

“ We have not gathered here to harm you. Au contraire, we’ve come to help you. We know from our past experiences with demons and aliens that this gathering is going to be major."

" Aliens from the past are going to join up with this new threat. We don’t know when; we only know that it is going to happen. We have come to help prevent that,” Max said to Mintaka.

“ How would you know?” Isis asked, her eyes glaring at both men.

They bowed their heads and lifted them back up to stare at the two Star Rangers.

“ Have you never heard of the Zeo Rangers? Or the Wild Force Rangers? I am from the latter. I was the blue Wild Force Ranger. Rocky was the blue Zeo Ranger."

" Some of our comrades are speaking to your friends while we speak to you. The teammates that have gathered here include us, Jason, Tommy, Cole, and Billy,” Max explained.

“ Whoa. This is major,” Mintaka whispered as another knock came on the door.

In walked the Destiny Rangers and the other four former Rangers.

“ Looks like we’ll helping you guys out. And I can guarantee you that you’ll need it. As Max may have told you, former aliens have begun to come back and ally themselves with Nefer."

" I have done more research than you all know. The returning aliens include: Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd from Billy’s era; Divatox from the Turbo era; Dark Specter from the Space era; Furio from the Lost Galaxy era; Master Org and Toxica from the Wild Force era; and Vexacus and Motodrone from the Ninja Storm era,” Tommy told the group.

All the Rangers let out groans of annoyance.

“ Great. Just great. Without the Ninja Storm Rangers, or the Lost Galaxy and Space Rangers, how are we supposed to beat the villains from their era’s?” Max said, pounding his fist into his palm.

“ Well, I can pull up the files they had on those villains. It will take quite a while, so I’d better get on it,” Billy said, and disappeared to his room.

The Destiny Rangers stayed to chat with the Star Rangers as the former Rangers teleported to their various rooms.

Meanwhile, in an abandoned building downtown, a few of the aforementioned villains were already there.

Nefer was pacing back and forth in front of Rita and Toxica, the only two who’d shown up so far.

The two villainess’ were glaring at each other.

“ How can you expect me to work with this creature? She’s obviously lost her touch over the years,” Toxica sneered at Rita.

“ Oh yeah? Well at least I don’t look like something your master threw into the garbage,” Rita retorted in her scratchy, high voice.

“ That’s up for debate,” Toxica replied.

Nefer whirled around and blasted both with his staff.

“ Enough of your pathetic squabbling! I ordered you two here to help me take down the Rangers! And you’d better listen!” he screamed at them.

In a flash of evil energy, Dark Specter – in his human size – appeared beside Toxica.

“ My Master, I received your summons. Thank you for bringing me back to life,” Dark Specter hissed as he bowed to Nefer.

“ Excellent! Now we can beat those pathetic Freedom Fighter Rangers. Luckily the other Rangers from your eras have long since lost their powers. Some have gathered here in hopes to stop me, but they shall never succeed. Toxica!” Nefer shouted.

She stepped forward and bowed.

“ Yes, Master?”

“ Go downtown. Take twelve of my new armored Dark Warriors. They will be twice as hard for the Rangers to defeat. If any get destroyed, I want them turned into giants!” he bellowed at her.

She disappeared in a puff of blue smoke.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

Then she reappeared near Julian’s old building.

“ Little does Master know that I can summon more than just his Warriors,” she muttered with an evil smile.

She held her dark staff to the sky. “ Let this teach those meddling Rangers. Dark Warriors! Putrids! Putties! Kelzacks! Sting Wingers! Kelzack Furies! Psycho Rangers!” she shouted at the sky.

Dark clouds swarmed in overhead as a dozen of each of the minions she mentioned appeared.

The Psycho Rangers appeared last. She walked up to them.

“ Psycho’s Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink, Black, and Silver. You will now serve me. I have brought all of you back from the dead, as my new master brought me."

" All of you shall serve under our reign. This will known as the year that we obliterate the Rangers once and for all!” she screamed in happen fury.

The minions gathered around her as she began to give out instructions to them.

“ Psycho Yellow, you command the Putties; Psycho Pink, you command the Sting Wingers; Psycho Black, you take control of the Putrids; Psycho Blue, you will command the Kelzacks; Psycho Red, you will command the Kelzack Furies; and Psycho Silver, you will take control of the Dark Warriors. You all will report back to me. I want you to take on one Ranger, and destroy that Ranger. As for Psycho Pink and Yellow, you two will take on the green and gold Rangers. Beat them up, but don’t destroy them until I say so,” Toxica said.

Then she held her staff back up the dark blue-black sky.

“ Now go! Beat them up until they beg for mercy! Hurt them bad!” Toxica screamed as each group of minions and Psycho Rangers appeared.

Back at the hotel, the Freedom Fighter Rangers were gathered with the former Rangers in Billy’s and Cole’s room.

They were watching the surveillance cameras positioned around town.

They watched in horror as the minions appeared in six different places in town.

The Rangers – save Billy – started talking amongst themselves as to what they should do.

“ Uh, guys? Looks like the Psycho’s are back again,” Billy said as each Ranger took control of their minions.

“ Man. I wish we had our powers back right now. I’d love to get into a fight with those Putrids again,” Max muttered.

“ It looks like we’ll have to help out. Pair up with a Ranger, and fight the best you can. We may not have our powers as we used to, but we’ve got to stop these evil beings from taking over the planet,” Tommy said.

The Destiny and Star Rangers morphed and split up: Tommy and Mintaka went after the Dark Warriors; Jason and Julian went after the Kelzack Furies; Billy and Quinton went after the Kelzacks; Rocky and Lloyd went after the Putrids; Max and Fox went after the Sting Wingers; and Cole and Isis went after the Putties.

Toxica watched from the rooftop of a nearby building as the Rangers took on the minions.

She was watching the fight of Jason and Julian with the Kelzack Furies.

Even with his weapons and his cycle, Julian was losing.

She checked her viewing globe and discovered the same was everywhere.

The Rangers just weren’t good enough without their friends.

She watched with an evil grin as each Ranger – and former Ranger – was thrown to the ground and forced to demorph.

All, that is, except Julian.

He was still bravely fighting his losing battle with Psycho Red.

Finally, Psycho Red put his hands together and blasted the red Destiny Ranger with everything he had.

This not only caused the Ranger to demorph, but it made him disappear altogether from Toxica’s viewing globe.

Her sensors showed that he was no longer even on the planet.

Screeching in fury that the Psycho Ranger had disobeyed her, Toxica teleported back to Nefer’s building.

The minions and the Psycho Rangers were there waiting, as were Nefer and the other two villains.

Toxica was instantly blasted backwards against the wall.

“ Foolish woman. It looks like I will have to reprimand you for your deeds. Now that we can no longer find the red Destiny Ranger, we cannot fully destroy him and his friends,” Nefer said as he blasted Toxica again.

The aliens sat down and started having an impromptu conference.

In Billy’s and Cole’s hotel room, the other Rangers had already regrouped.

Lloyd was devastated at the loss of his friend.

“ He’s alive. I know he is,” he cried out as Isis helped bandage his head wound.

“ Yes, we know that much. This was very unexpected. I did not know Toxica was capable of such power. Seems like her period of goodness only succeeded in fueling the power she already held,” Billy mused as he scanned the Earth for signs of Julian.

“ Look, I know this may sound cruel, but this will give us a break. I know evil, and they usually want to destroy a group all at one time. So I am sure Nefer will wait until Julian returns to try attacking again,” Tommy said.

Max and Cole suddenly leap to their feet, despite their own bruises and scrapes.

“ What is it?” Billy asked them.

“ I know where he is,” Cole told them.

“ Where?” everyone wanted to know.

“ When I was a Ranger, I had three different zords. Red Lion was my greatest friend, except for the other Rangers. When our era was over, we had to give back our morphers and leave the Animarium. That’s where our headquarters were, over Turtle Cove” Cole said.

“ So what? That doesn’t tell us where Julian is!” Lloyd shouted, trying his best to remain calm.

“ It does. I’ve never lost my mental link with Red Lion, even when I gave up my powers. He just showed me a rather vivid picture. Julian is now on the Animarium,” Cole whispered in awe.

“ With Princess Shayla?” Max asked, his eyes also round with amazement.

“ Yeah. And that’s not all. From what little Red Lion told me, there are also two other beings there with her. People with great power.”

“ Who?” Lloyd asked.

“ A wizard named Lerigot and a robot named Alpha 5.”

Cole’s announcement brought the former Rangers to a stand still.

“ Oh my God,” Tommy whispered, just before he fainted.




The Animarium over Turtle Cove; the Wild Force Ranger’s former home

Lerigot, Shayla, and Alpha fussed over the unconscious Ranger.

“ He is very badly hurt indeed. Those Kelzack aliens injured him more than I thought when he first dropped from the sky,” Shayla whispered as she dabbed at some of Julian’s cuts.

“ Ay-yi-yi!” Alpha said, busying himself with making sure there enough things to help Shayla cure the Ranger.

Lerigot seemed to speak to Alpha in his native language.

Apparently Shayla didn’t understand.

“ Princess, he says that he can heal this Ranger,” Alpha said. Both he and Shayla stood back as Lerigot held his wand over the fallen Ranger.

He said something in his native tongue and white crystal sparkles covered Julian’s body and disappeared. The Ranger sat up suddenly.

“ Where am I?” he asked. Shayla came up to him and bowed.

“ Destiny Ranger, you are on the Animarium, former home to the Wild Force Rangers, above Turtle Cove,” she explained to him.

Julian slid off the makeshift bed he was on and stood up. “ I’ve got to get back to my home,” he muttered as he tried to teleport away. When it didn’t work, he stared at Alpha and the others.

“ Because you are here, and you were injured so badly, you are not currently able to leave. While you are here, I might suggest that you visit the statue of the sacred animals. They may be able to help you on your journey,” she said in her pretty voice.

A sound from the distance alerted Shayla. Julian glanced around her to a pool that was bubbling up near them.

Lerigot had sought safety from the sun in a small building, so Alpha had gone with him.

Shayla leaned over the pool and sprinkled something into it. The rumbling sound grew louder as Julian made his way over to where Shayla was.

“ Oh no. This cannot be!” she cried out as she stared into the waters.

It showed some kind of monster near an animal statue. As they watched, the monster blasted the statue.

A ripple of pain went through Shayla’s mind, and she slumped to the ground.

“ The sacred animals. I must protect them from him,” she whispered.

Julian didn’t know this Princess, or the land where he was, but he knew he had to somehow protect it. He knelt beside Shayla.

“ Tell me what to do,” he told her. She whispered something and placed her hand on Julian’s face.

He was instantly teleported to the sight of the animal statue. The monster was still blasting it. As he did, even Julian could feel and hear the painful cries of the sacred animals that Shayla spoke of.

Julian morphed and withdrew his saber and blaster.

He used the Pyro Spin to make the monster fall to the ground. It was almost unaffected, and turned to face him.

“ A Ranger back on the Animarium? My newest Master will be pleased to know of your destruction,” the monster growled. It blasted Julian once again, then disappeared.

When Julian regained his feet, he saw that the statue had been reduced to a small thing the size of TV.

Even as he watched, it was teleported away. Now he heard every animal spirit on the Animarium crying out in pain and anger.

Julian was taken back to the Animarium, where Lerigot and Alpha had revived Shayla.

“ He’s taken the statue and hurt many of the animals. If he destroys it he’ll destroy all the animals and their home!” she cried out. Julian was still in morph.

He went over to the viewing pool and put his hand into the water.

He could now see the monster standing in an empty parking lot in the town below the Animarium.

Knowing what he had to do, Julian closed his eyes and let the power take him down to the lot.

He kicked the monster out of the way and stood protectively in front of the statue.

“ If you want to destroy these ancient Wild Zords, you’ll have to go through me!” Julian declared loudly.

The monster laughed and blasted him.

Julian gritted his teeth as the pain hit him, but he stayed on his feet. The monster blasted him twice more; still, he remained standing.

The pain was almost unbearable, but his duty came first.

He held his saber and blaster together as the monster blasted him three more times in rapid succession.

With an anguished cry, Julian was knocked to the ground.

He grabbed the statue and wrapped his body around it, refusing to let it go despite the fact that the monster was about to blast him again.

“ You’ll – never – get – this – statue!” he shouted through gritted teeth.

“ I am Master Org. I always get want I want, one way or the other,” the monster said as he bent forward.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

A sudden flash of light from the small statue knocked the monster back thirty feet.

It surrounded Julian and allowed him to get up.

He and the statue were taken back to the green pasture on the Animarium.

Shayla was waiting on them and quickly set the statue in its proper place.

Lerigot said a few words, restoring the statue to its original size and strength.

Julian demorphed and fell to his knees.

“ Thank you for your service, red one,” she said, leading him back to a hammock where he could rest.

He didn’t wake up until two days later.

And what he saw made him bolt up from his hammock in amazement.

Staring him in the face was Lerigot’s wife and child.

They went back to stand beside Lerigot as Shayla and Alpha came forward.

“ You served the Animarium well, red one. You protected the ancient animals from being destroyed. You are not even one of the Wild Force Rangers, yet you defended this place as if it were your home. For that, we can never thank you. We will repay you someday for your service. In the meadow near the animal statue awaits a new model of the Astro Megaship.”

“ It contains the red and blue Wild Force Morphers, along with the red Turbo morpher. The zords are in the holding bay. You and Alpha 5 are to take the ship to Mirinoi, to gather the red and blue Quasar sabers and those zords. The Astro morphers are also there. You must take the ship into space to get these things, and bring them back to your home.”

“ The morphers for Billy, Jason, and Rocky are located on the ship as well. You must do this in order to defeat this new evil. Old evil beings are coming to join him, so it will take older powers to help get rid of them once and for all,” Shayla explained.

Julian was instantly morphed into the red Destiny Ranger.

He removed his helmet as he and Alpha 5 were teleported to the Megaship.

Alpha 5 told him where the sleeping chambers where, then went to the control room.

Julian tagged along as the Megaship lifted up and took off into space.




D.C.; the Marriott Inn; Billy’s room; 3:00 P.M.; five days later


Billy was entering some codes on the computer when a sudden image filled the screen.

“ Hey guys!” he called out, motioning for Jason, Rocky, and Tommy to gather around him.

“ Looks like someone decided to power up a new Megaship. And it’s headed right for Earth. When it enters the atmosphere, it’ll probably turn on its cloaking device,” he told his friends.

Sure enough, that’s what the ship did as it passed through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Tommy opened his mouth to say something when they all felt something landing on the roof.

Thinking it was more of Nefer’s forces, all the Rangers and former Rangers ran for the stairs and ran up the two flights of stairs to the roof.

The door was barred and locked, but they just broke the lock and rushed out onto the roof.

The Megaship’s cloaking system went offline for a while, revealing the ship in all its glory.

As the Rangers and the former ones watched, the off ramp came out, and Alpha 5 walked out.

“ Rangers. Friends. We have come back to Earth,” Alpha announced as he stood aside.

Julian, helmet in hand, came down the ramp.

His team gave out shouts of happiness and ran up to him, hugging him and shaking his hand

[Kali_WolfChilde]

When they’d said their hello’s, Julian turned to the former Rangers.

He noticed that Andros, T.J., Leo, and Kai were also standing in the crowd.

“ It seems that the red and blue Space and Galaxy Rangers have finally joined us. Good. All of you, follow me onto the ship,” Julian said as he turned around and went back inside.

Everybody followed him to the holding bay.

Once there, Julian had them line up according to their fighting eras.

Then he took out two morphers and handed them to Billy and Jason. “ For this new fight against evil you regain the powers of the Tyrannosaurus and the Triceratops,” he said.

Then he took out two more morphers, handing them to Rocky and Tommy.

“ The blue Zeo Powers and red Turbo Powers shall be returned to you once again.”

Two more morphers appeared in his hands.

“ To Andros and T.J., the red and blue Space powers.”

When he took out the two Quasar sabers, Leo and Kai eagerly took them in their hands.

Finally, it came down to Cole and Max. Julian took their cell phones out of the chest.

“ The red and blue Wild Force Rangers. May you also fight with the savagery of the wild animals who protect you.”

Julian stepped back in order to view all the Rangers.

“ Shayla, Lerigot, and Alpha 5 helped you to regain your powers. There will be a day in the future when you’ll have to use those powers to defend Earth. May I say that Quinton and I, as well as our team, have been honored to have met you all,” Julian said.

Flashes of thunder split the sky, followed by a streak of red and blue.

Four more Rangers appeared directly behind Julian and Alpha 5.

“ Don’t tell me he forgot about us,” the red Ninja Ranger quipped under his helmet.

“ Yeah. A girl’s touch is often needed when dealing with evil,” the blue Ninja Ranger retorted.

“ Yeah. And brothers always fight best together,” the blue Thunder Ranger quipped.

All the other Rangers watched as the Ninja and Thunder Rangers demorphed to reveal Tori, Blake, Hunter, and Shane.

“ Well, looks like we arrived before the party got started. Guess that means we’re too early, huh bro?” Hunter asked Julian with a smile.

“ No you’re just on time. Thank you for coming.”

Terrified shouts and screams brought Julian’s thank you speech to a halt.

When he tuned his hearing so that he could make out the screams, he heard them coming from his old apartment building.

He heard the specific scream of the little boy he’d saved, and the mother trying to save him from the Putties and the Sting Wingers attacks.

He put his helmet back on and withdrew his Blaster.

“ Team, the rest of you morph and follow me. The rest of you guys come along to help clear out civilians,” Julian ordered as the Destiny and Star Rangers streaked to the victim’s rescues.

On the scene, Psycho Pink and Psycho Yellow were having fun torturing a dog they’d found hiding in the building.

That fun ended when the six Freedom Fighter Rangers appeared on the scene.

They automatically began blasting and fighting the Rangers.

Deciding it to be an easier decision, the Rangers split up; Isis and Mintaka took on Psycho Pink, Lloyd and Fox took on Pyscho Yellow, Quinton took on all twelve Putties, and Julian took on all twelve Sting Wingers.

[Kali_WolfChilde]

The fight was tough and brutal. By the time the Putties had been defeated – and Psycho Yellow had disappeared – Lloyd, Fox, and Quinton were demorphed and exhausted. Pyscho Pink stayed on the scene, still fighting Isis and Mintaka.

With a final flourish, Julian dispatched the last of the Sting Wingers – just as Psycho Pink hit Isis and Mintaka with a major blast, causing them to demorph and fall to the ground.

Before Julian could think, the other five Pyscho Rangers joined Psycho Pink.

“ Well, Destiny Ranger, Nefer will be pleased with your capture,” Psycho Red said as he reached forward to put a headlock on Julian.

With an angry shout, Julian shoved him out the way and vaulted over his head.

“ I’ll never surrender to Nefer! I didn’t surrender to Master Org on the Animarium, or in Turtle Cove when he attacked me, and I certainly won’t surrender now!” he loudly proclaimed.

“ Then you will be destroyed,” Psycho Red sneered.

All six Pyscho Rangers got together. They pooled their energy into one big ball and launched it at him.

The energy sphere caught him in the chest and knocked him up against the apartment building.

A cloud of dust and dirt rained down on him as the last remaining part of the fire escape on the fourth floor came loose and fell on top of the bricks and dirt covering him.

The Psycho’s laughed and sneered at the other Freedom Fighter Rangers trying to get to his aide.

“ Nefer will praise our skills. We have obliterated the red Destiny Ranger!” Pyscho Red boasted loudly.

The red and blue Rangers gathered on the roof of a nearby building could do nothing but sit by and watch.

Julian had given them orders, and as the current red Ranger they had to obey him.

From her position on the ground with the others, Mintaka pointed at the rubble that buried Julian.

“ Look!” she whispered hoarsely.

Every eye – evil and good – turned in the direction of the rubble. A bright red light was burning under the rubble heap.

All of a sudden, a red gloved hand shot out from the rubble.

The pile of rubble suddenly explo