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Conquest of Evil Classic Part 3

by shadowranger

MMPR

Chapter 1: Day of the Dumpster

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers, they belong to their respective copyright owners and are used here without permission. No money is being made from this fic. This is a partial rewrite of the episode Day of the Dumpster and has been altered with regards to Rita and Lokar, which will prove important later in the storyline.

Although Earth does have a moon named Cruithne, discovered in 1986 and orbiting the Earth in a horse shoe orbit that brings it close every 385 years or so, it is actually a great deal smaller than implied in this story.

Day of the Dumpster

“And in other news, representatives of Storm Enterprises announced that the recent launch of their experimental space explorer has been a success. The project which promised the possibility of transporting vessels between two points in a matter of hours succeeded in placing a research facility within meters of its destination.

So far there have been no problems with the mission to learn more about the planetoid that scientists believe could contain valuable information about the formation of the galaxy. Sources close to the company have speculated that this is a make or break effort to turn around the company’s fortunes following a series of problems and the threat by government officials to cut funding afterâ€¦”

The news reports were incorrect. Funding had already been withdrawn and Storm Enterprises was on the brink of bankruptcy. With only a small grant from the Latverian government, which for reasons unknown had continued to fund the organisation long after the other foreign governments had withdrawn, had kept it solvent enough to make the attempt.

The experiment had started a few years earlier with the launch of four satellites that would act as markers. It had taken them that long to reach the correct position and following final adjustments they were in place. The final stage would be would take only a few minutes, but was also the most expensive and potentially risk part of the operation as technicians planned to transport a prefabricated space station and two space shuttles with crew into the space between the satellites.

It had been a rushed few days and results were essential. With Franklin Storm’s two children on board, the risks were even greater. But a successful mission meant that future research grants were guaranteed. And the opportunity to not only transport through space, but to then visit an alien world – for their destination would be close to the orbit of the planetoid that had been discovered several years earlier and proclaimed as Earth’s second Moon. Although its strange orbit meant that it came close to the Earth only once every three hundred and eighty five years, the distance it travelled made it important to scientists around the globe. Of course they would have to wait as the Latverian Government had first refusal on any finds and the US Government would likely claim anything left over to repay the loans they had provided.

The space station had been equipped with scanning equipment and computers to learn more about the cosmos. The extra-orbital research centre that had been partially responsible for the survival of Storm’s research company following the disaster Richards and Domashev had caused eighteen months earlier. Some of the profits had been used to further finance the development of the stations as a staging ground for longer journeys. It was the place where Domashev, Richards and their assistants would observe and command the missions while trained personnel took care of the important work.

Each shuttle was flown by two trained pilot. One carried ten additional crewmen made up of astronauts and soldiers trained for unknown environments. The other held the equipment they would need and storage for the samples they retrieved. Much of the equipment would be left on the planetoid for continued monitoring as it moved on its journey. All would be accomplished under the guidance of the command crew on the space station.

At twenty-one, Reed Richards was a certified genius whose interest in the planetoid was secondary to his desire to learn more about the strange energy field on the edge of the planetoid’s orbit. He believed that the cosmic energy he and his team of assistants had been researching for years could provide the answer to genetic disorders. His crew would split their activities between the collection of dust samples and a multitude of other experiments. They would also set up the long range monitoring equipment that would record data about the cosmic energy during the planetoid’s next orbit.

Despite observing the strange storms that made for a turbulent landing, the explorers were not deterred from setting foot upon the planetoid and beginning their work. The second shuttle landed close to the first ready to unload. While the pilots prepared the shuttles for their return flight, the passengers disembarked ready to conduct their exploration.

“Get those lights set up,” was the first instruction as the team moved to position lighting rigs. While the planetoid was partially lit by the sun, the landing area was in the shade. “Everybody check their camera feeds and audio equipment.”

“Atmosphere is breathable,” somebody announced as they conducted their initial experiments.

“That is impossible Captain Sharpe,” Reed said over the comm link. “The size and environment of the planetoid, the lack of plant life and water make it impossible for the air to be breathable.”

“Yeah well someone forgot to tell that to the planetoid,” the captain answered as he double-checked his findings.

“Temperature is higher than expected,” came a second report. In the shade they expected the temperature to be well below freezing. Instead the thermometer showed it was a cool thirty degrees Celsius.

“I think your equipment might be malfunctioning,” Reed told them.

“And I think maybe you should let them do their job pencil neck,” came another voice.

The explorers allowed themselves a smile. Richard’s ‘assistant’, a man named Grimm, was a very honest if slightly conceited man. And despite the scientist’s best efforts to explain the scientific impossibility of the planetoid being able to sustain life, Grimm would simply point to the instrument panel that mimicked their readings and ask him to explain it. Of course when Reed Richards failed to have an answer, and tried to point out the many possibilities, Grimm lost interest and walked off muttering something about longwinded brainiacs. Nobody was fooled into believing that Grimm was there for any other reason than to act as Richard’s bodyguard.

As the two astronauts wandered over the surface, confirming as they did so that some of the soil samples they collected resembled ash, other crew members unpacked a travel vehicle. Two of the astronauts drove off to make a distance survey while the others turned to mapping the geophysical nature of the landing area. And while they did so the soldiers continued to unpack the equipment, set up monitoring equipment and provided security.

“Hey, look at that!” they heard the driver ask as he pointed something out to his partner.

“Let’s go!” was the reply.

“Be careful gentlemen,” Reed warned.

“I would appreciate it, Dr Richards, if you would concern yourself with your part of the mission and allow me to deal with mine.”

“I was merely saying Victor that they have a limited battery supply.”

“They are experienced in this environment Reed,” Domashev answered. They could almost hear him add, “unlike some,” a reminder that Reed and his three companions were only allowed to join the expedition because he had promised to watch over them.

With a sigh Reed returned to organising his team, admitting to himself that their task was so simple that they likely could have completed it without his supervision, hence the reason he had been so keen to watch the other team in action. After they had completed their tasks, he instructed them to take photos of the landing site and return to the shuttles.

“Remember we need all excess materials removed from the shuttles before launch,” Reed warned. “They have a long journey back.”

The transportation system they had used only functioned in one direction. It was great for getting to a location, but getting back meant a long space trip. As a result both shuttles needed to be light enough to carry their crews, the command crew on the station and and samples they took back with them.

While Reed Richards continued to give his instructions, Domashev had managed to shift one of the satellites so that it could provide a long distance picture of events taking place on the planetoid. He was able to follow their progress and guide them toward an unusual structure he had noticed. The two men space-walked to what they realised were the remains of a small castle. And inside, through the ruined walls, they could make out a strangely carved container with a flashing red jewel on the top.

“What do you think it is?”

The first one shrugged. “It looks like a giant urn!” was all he could come up with, and indeed he was right. Had they stumbled upon a burial site? The price of the jewel alone on the top was worth more than anything the two of them could think of, who knew what might be inside?

“Stop!” Domashev ordered. He wanted to know what was inside but he also realised that everything needed to be done properly. “Go back to the rover and collect something to carry it in. The jewel promised wealth and power, there was no way they were going to leave it behind.

Eagerly they did so and when they returned, reached out to touch the ruby, which easily lifted off the top of the urn and was quickly placed in the waiting sack. Four beams of light exploded from within, flying a short distance away and transforming into four roughly humanoid beings, all of whom seemed to have no trouble existing without air.

“What’s going on?” the second astronaut moaned, terrified by what they’d unleashed already.

“Who cares?” his partner cried. “Let’s get out of here!”

Even though they didn’t realise it, the two men had been doomed they moment they had opened the urn. In doing so they had inadvertently placed the entire expedition in danger. The space urn as one astronaut had so crudely described it, was in fact a prison cell designed to hold those inside in a state of eternal incarceration. The jewel on the top of the lid was intended to resist any attempt to open the cell from the inside. Only when the jewel was damaged or shifted out of alignment, could the occupants escape.

The planetoid held many more cells, all containing prisoners deemed too dangerous to hold in regular prisons. Originally the planetoid had been sent into deep space, but it had somehow been drawn back to Earth. Over time the security spells had failed, restoring the canister to its full size. And now the astronauts had unleashed the occupants.

The four creatures glanced at each other as the astronauts scurried a few feet away. One was tall, burly, covered in golden armour, and with a sword. The second was smaller, with white fur and spectacles, as well as a burn-spotted apron. The third resembled a giant blueberry, being small and round and blue, while the fourth was somewhat taller, with tattered wings and blunt claws. All bore the same glint of evil in their eyes.

“All right, we’re out!” the small and blue one declared with joy. He ran over to the cell and peered back inside. “Rita, wake up, wake up, we’re free!”

Grey hair wrapped up into a conical style emerged, followed by a woman dressed in a brown and gold gown decorated with even more cones. She threw her arms out wide and yawned deeply as Squatt, the one who had called her forth, fumbled in his pouch for something. “Uh-oh, morning breath!” he declared. “Let me get you a mint!”

The others were gathering around Rita as she got her bearings back. Finster, the one with the apron and glasses, stated firmly, “Oh, it’s good to be free after ten thousand years!”

Baboo of the tattered wings came over to help her out of the prison. “Here, your Evilness, let me help you! Walk with me, talk with me,” he sang off-key. She growled harshly and glared at him and he promptly shut up.

“Oh mighty Lokar, I am free once more,” she cried, ignoring her underling. “For ten thousand years they have kept me from here; they will pay for denying me for so long.”

Rita glanced around, and saw the two astronauts backing away as fast as they could. She laughed wickedly. “Don’t leave!” she told them, a bolt of energy leaving her wand, encasing their retreating forms in crystal. “You’ll miss our coming out party! That’s where we destroy the nearest planet!”

The five of them looked up to where Earth floated over them, and evil laughter sounded that had not been heard in ten thousand years. It was time for some conquest.

It was Saturday in Angel Grove, California, warm, sunny, and delicious as so many days in that peaceful town were. In one of the most popular business establishments in town, the Angel Grove Gym and Juice Bar, kids had gathered as they did every day to work out, play, and just have fun together. The Youth Center, as it was also known, was known for its safety, it’s popularity, and the fabulous fruit shakes provided by the portly owner, Ernie.

One thing the town was known for, other than near-complete peace, was an abundance of people into the martial arts. Two of them were working out on the practice mats that morning, one a tall, well-muscled fifteen-year-old in a red tank top and black workout pants, his short hair held back by a red headband, his partner a young black man of the same age, in black jeans and shirt. The two of them sparred back and forth easily; it was obvious they’d done this before.

As they pulled apart, the one in red grinned to his friend. “Nice recovery, Zack!”

“Hey, thanks for teaching me, Jason!” Zack Taylor responding, clasping his hand warmly. Zack preferred his own Hip-Hop Kedo for martial arts, but he didn’t mind a few karate lessons, not from Jason, the acknowledged best martial artist in Angel Grove.

Not too far away, a young Chinese girl in bright yellow workout clothes was practicing a kung fu routine, her eyes flashing occasionally to a perky girl in pink on the balance beam a few feet from her. As she leaped off the bar, the girl in yellow came over and patted her on the back. “That was awesome, Kimberly!”

“Thanks, Trini!” the gymnast grinned.

They looked up as the final member of their small clique entered the main room of the Youth Center dressed in a white gi and white belt the young man also wore glasses. He headed over to Zack and Jason, who examined his outfit with critical eyes.

“Hey, fellas!” the blue head-banded guy smiled as he got closer.

“Yo, Billy!” Zack waved. “What’s up?” he asked.

“Well, I think I’m mentally and physically prepared for my first karate class,” Billy Cranston stated enthusiastically as he smiled at each of his friends.

As the small group continued to chat, Kim and Trini glanced up at the sound of footsteps, and groaned in unison. Two figures had entered the Youth Center, two very familiar, and unwanted, figures, clad in black leather and chains, one huge, the other skinny. “Oh, no,” Trini whispered to her friend. “Look who’s here!”

“Bulk and Skull,” Kim sighed. These two had been doing their level best to ‘date’ the two of them for as far back as they could remember, and were also Angel Grove High’s resident bullies, idiots, and ever present pains in the posterior. Bulk, the larger and supposedly the ‘brains’ of the two, grinned at them.

“Hi, girls!” he tried what he apparently thought was a charming look at them. “How about that double date we talked about?”

“Yeah!” Skull issued a hyena-like laugh as he leaned on Bulk’s shoulder. “What about it?”

Trini shook her head. “Sorry, guys!” Skull shrugged and was about to walk off, when Bulk dragged him back, shaking his head. It was hard for him to take ‘no’ for an answer as he looked back at the girls.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. “We’re not good enough for you?” he was almost taunting in what he said.

“Leave us alone, Bulk!” Trini insisted.

Bulk grinned, leaning a bit closer to them. “Oh, yeah? Make me!”

“Yeah!” Skull nodded. “Make me!” he wilted a bit as Zack and Jason came up behind the two girls. “Him!” Skull pointed to Bulk quickly. “Make him!”

“Hey, you heard what she said!” Zack grinned a little.

Jason nodded. “Didn’t you hear the ladies? They said no!”

Bulk rolled his shoulders aggressively and glared. “Oh, what do you know? The dancer wants to be a fighter! How sweet!”

Kim smiled at them both. “It’s okay, guys,” she said. “We can handle these two.”

As Zack and Jason stepped aside, Bulk looked incredulously at Skull.

“Oh, really?” he laughed. “Let’s show them some karate moves, Skull!” with wild parodies of karate yells, the two of them charged the girls. Kim and Trini moved in identical blurring motions, seizing Bulk and Skull by the arms and twisting, letting their own momentum drag them to the floor. The two bullies lay on the mats, trying to figure out what had happened to them, as Kim giggled a little.

“You guys should definitely join Jason’s karate class!” she declared. Bulk and Skull just looked at each other. How had it gone wrong?

The humans had put up a fight and provided Rita with some fun following her release. The two that had opened the prison had been dealt with; they had attempted to steal from her and that had sealed their fate. The shuttles had been attempting to take off when Goldar had found them. The first shuttle had been disabled when his sword had sliced its engines off. The crew had tried to fight but he had quickly dispatched them.

The other shuttle managed to take off and was on its way back to the space station when Rita’s forces had caught them. One of them, a short blueberry fired a pistol in their direction. The shuttle exploded, killing all on board. Parts of the shuttle crashed into the space station resulting in severe system failure as the impact started it drifting away.

Having dealt with the annoying bugs, Rita had decided to follow through on her threat to destroy the planet Earth. She left Cruithne with her henchmen and chose the Earth’s first moon as her new home. There she found an abandoned temple, which she rapidly reshaped into her new Lunar Palace. It would make the perfect staging ground for their attacks, and be a pleasantly depressing home to live in until they’d conquered the Earth; based on the humans that had released her it would not take long.

Rita stared at the Earth through her Repulsa-scope “Ah, I like it!” Rita smiled, examining what seemed to be a large concentration of magical energy in a small California city.

The servants, Finster, Squatt, Baboo, and Goldar, nodded quickly and thankfully. It was good to know they wouldn’t be travelling; this place was perfect just as it was. Rita looked to Finster, the monster-maker, and snapped out, “Finster! Start making Putty Patrollers!”

“I’ll take them down and make the Earth yours, Empress!” Goldar declared, raising his sword.

Rita laughed softly. “You sound anxious for battle Goldar, could it be your imprisonment has made you even more aggressive?” Goldar grunted in response. Rita nodded. “So be it, I can’t fault you for that. Take the Putties and conquer this planet for my greatness!”

Goldar growled, the bloodlust taking control of him for the first time in over ten thousand years. He had a need to kill, to shed the blood of the powerless and his mistress had just given him leave to do so.

Back in the Youth Center, Jason’s karate class had begun already. It was a beginner’s class, for which Billy was extremely grateful as he struggled to learn the basics of the martial art. As Jason guided the class through the movements, it was plain Billy was having problems beyond the norm. The teacher finally halted them and came over to the young man.

“Try this,” Jason said, demonstrating the move in much slower motion. Billy imitated it to the best of his ability, then Jason went on to the next, going through each slowly and carefully. Billy did what he could, but it was obvious he just wasn’t getting it. He sighed.

“I’m just not good at this,” he sighed. Zack laid a hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

“It takes time, Billy,” Trini reassured him from the sidelines. “Nothing worth doing is easy.” She understood Billy better than any of the others and could guess what he was feeling. He had mastered everything else in life that required science and technique so easily he’d almost thought he’d do this as well.

Jason nodded. “Billy, don’t worry,” he told his friend. “Even I was a beginner once!” it was rather hard to believe, seeing how good Jason was now. But Billy knew inside it was true. Jason moved to the front of the class, and looked at them all. “All right, class, what is it martial arts helps us to develop?”

Billy raised his hand quickly. “Courage, kindness, fitness, integrity, loyalty, and discipline,” he replied at Jason’s nod. The teacher smiled at him, and then frowned briefly as he saw Bulk and Skull making their way through the class.

“Hey! Geek!” Bulk grunted. “Teach us how to beat people up!”

Jason shook his head, and groaned almost audibly. He’d repeated many times of how a true martial artist only used their skills to defend themselves or someone who needed it. “Martial arts were not developed to hurt others!” he reminded them all.

“We did not sign up for a geeky karate class!” Bulk declared. Jason smiled a little.

“Okay, Bulk!” he decided. “Maybe you’re ready for some more advanced training techniques!” Bulk nodded his eager agreement, and Jason did a smooth sidekick. “There. Side kick.”

“Anything you can do, I can do better, baby!” Bulk challenged the martial arts teacher. Jason gestured for him to demonstrate, and Bulk puffed out onto the practice mat. With a sound that was more like a whine than a karate yell, he did a semi-passable sidekick. Skull applauded loudly, while Jason only smiled, and did another move.

“Tornado kick,” he told them. Bulk grinned foolishly, and attempted this more difficult move. This time, however, he collapsed full on his face on the mat. Jason managed to keep himself from laughing, and looked at the students, who were cracking up over the bully’s foolishness.

“Class dismissed!” he declared, sending them to the showers. He didn’t make fools of people who bothered him, he let their own stupidity make fools of themselves.

Once Billy was showered and back in regular clothing, they gathered at the usual table the five of them sat at.

“Billy, I’m telling you,” Jason reminded their friend, “For your first lesson, you did really well.”

Billy blushed a little bit. “I did?” he couldn’t believe just what Jason was saying. This was the master of karate, telling him he was doing well?

Kim grinned. “Yeah, we were watching!” she told him.

“You’re going to be a great martial artist one day,” Jason told his friend. “Just give yourself some time to work at it, and don’t lose hope. Some things don’t happen overnight.”

“I don’t know if I’ve got what it takes,” Billy said pessimistically, shrugging. Trini reached out to pat his hand gently.

“It’s all a state of mind, Billy,” she reminded him. “You don’t need to be strong for martial arts!”

Zack nodded and touched his head. “Yeah, man, it’s all up here!” as the others nodded, Ernie, the owner and runner of the Youth Center, came over with a plate of drinks.

“Hey, guys!” he grinned, waving to them all. “Who ordered the spinach juice?”

As Billy raised his hand, the entire Youth Center began to shake uncontrollably. “Oh, no, it’s an earthquake!” Ernie cried out. As he tried to regain his balance, the plate of drinks he held suddenly splashed all over Bulk. “Sorry!” he apologized as they began to make their way out of the Youth Center.

“Oh, man, what’s going on?” Zack cried out as the five of them slowly got to their feet, trying to find a way out and keep upright at the same time. Billy looked around, a strange sense of fate coming to him.

“Something tells me this is no earthquake!” he said, holding on to the table for support it wasn’t providing. Something was going on, something that went beyond weird in the same way the sun goes beyond a candle flame.

Something was going to happen.

Outside of Angel Grove, in the middle of the desert, there was a small range of rocky hills leading up to the mountains. Near the top of one hill there stood a stone structure, centuries old and shielded from detection by humans. It was a strategic command post, one of many scattered throughout the galaxy and the main observation point within the Sol system.

It had been built, as part of the ongoing war between good and evil, allowing the forces of light a base of operations should war break out. The Command Center on Earth was there purely as a precautionary measure. Nobody ever expected an attack to come.

Inside the Command Center, there was some activity. The sudden earthquake had activated Alpha Five, the Command Center’s maintenance droid. Unlike the other Alpha units found in other command areas, this one was prone to panic.

“Danger! Danger! It’s the big one, I know it, and we’ll all be destroyed!”

“Alpha Five, calm down at once,” a booming voice ordered. Now Alpha had reason to be scared.

This was Zordon, an Eltarian Wizard and hero of the last Grid War. He was also the final victim of the last battle, having been assaulted while his back was turned and forced into a dimensional void. His body had perished there when the witch Rita Repulsa had detonated a bomb, but his mind and spirit had remained intact. Although he no longer had the ability to touch or feel, he could appear at designated places as a being of light and magic. Normally he preferred to communicate through a plasma tube while Alpha Five served as his hands.

“Ai-yi-yi, I’m sorry Zordon, but the earthquake could destroy us.”

“Nonsense Alpha, this is not an earthquake, the planet is reacting to a sudden surge in evil energy.” He paused. “Stand by Alpha, I am coming through.”

It took a great deal of concentration for Zordon to transfer his ethereal body into the Command Center and in truth it was only the high levels of magic that ran through the building that allowed him to do so. While he couldn’t actually touch anything, his mental discipline allowed him to wield a weak form of tactile telekinesis.

Apart from a slight shimmer as he moved, it was difficult to tell that he was little more than a ghost. His form came from his memory of what he had looked like before he had fallen. Residual self-image some called it; he sometimes wished he could remember having hair. He appeared to be wearing white robes and carried a carved wooden staff.

“Initiate a scan of the solar system and find the cause of the alarm,” he instructed.

Alpha did as he was told while Zordon reached out with his mental powers to find the cause of the disruption.

“It is as I feared, Alpha,” Zordon told him finally, checking that the computer was detecting the same energy he himself had found. “It’s Rita. She’s escaped and is attacking the planet.”

“Ay-yi-yi!” Alpha was even more nervous now. “What do we do?” he vividly remembered how Zordon had tricked the evil sorceress, and her servants into the urn and cast it into space with an orbit that would take it through the solar system. The last report conducted before the Command Center had closed down a decade before had mentioned the canister had crashed onto a distant moon. At the time he hadn’t realised the moon in question had other containment units and would come closer to the Earth.

“We have no choice Alpha,” he said finally. “Rita’s magic is still weak at this point and she will no doubt use the destruction of Earth to fuel her powers and summon Lokar to this dimension. To do so would require a great deal of negative energy, which will take Rita time to obtain.” He paused. “At least we have a chance of stopping her if we act now. Teleport the Power Coins to the Command Center.” There was another pause as he wished that his chosen warrior had been there to stop Goldar.

Earth was in need and he had no choice. “Find and teleport here, five of this planet’s natives who are best suited to face Rita.”

Could this happen, would normal humans be suitable for what he had in mind? Would they be able to see past their selfish natures to do what was right for the planet or would the Power corrupt them? The answers were unknown and he seriously considered calling for help from another planet. No, the Earth needed its own protectors. Lives had already been lost defending the world from the invasion. It was only fair the humans should assume part of the risk.

“Right away Zordon,” Alpha said as he started entering commands into the super computer. “Searching now.”

There was a sudden tremor; dust fell from the ceiling as Alpha stumbled around. Zordon stood perfectly still, his astral body immune to the shaking.

“Oh no, Zordon, the computer lost its lock in the tremor!” Alpha stated. “It’s locked onto the wrong group.”

“Teleport them here at once,” Zordon instructed. “We are out of time.”

Alpha would have shivered if he had been human. “But Zordon, they’re teenagers!” He shook his head, wanting it to be a mistake.

“That is correct, Alpha. I am afraid that repeating the search will only yield the same results since the computer has been damaged. And calling in outside help now will waste precious time.”

Alpha shuddered regardless of not being alive. “I was afraid of that!” Could teenagers really do what they were going to be asked to do? Even as he denied it, he was starting the teleport system and bringing the five candidates from Angel Grove. He just hoped that despite their young age, they possessed the mental and emotional requirements.

He found them.

In the Youth Center, the teens were still trying to find a way out, and still couldn’t get to the door because the shaking was too great. As the last of the other patrons ran out, Kim shrieked, “Oh my gosh, what’s happening?” they could all feel something taking a hold of them, wrapping around them in a way nothing ever had before.

“I don’t know, but I think I like it!” Zack felt a thrill running throughout his entire body, something he couldn’t explain, something he doubted even Billy could explain. It was just right!

“This is too weird!” Trini shuddered.

Jason took a deep breath; something was tugging at them all. “Hold on!” he ordered instinctively. Suddenly, they dissolved into balls of coloured light: red, yellow, pink, blue and black and flew from the Youth Center.

As they landed on the floor, they transformed back to humans, and found themselves staring at most unfamiliar surroundings. It looked like the most high-tech place in the entire planet, if not the universe, and it was obvious Billy was in love. Kim, however, wasn’t taking it quite that well. “This isn’t exactly the mall, is it?” Kim whispered, staring around.

“This place is magnificent!” Billy exclaimed, in purest heaven at the technology that could be seen everywhere.

Jason frowned. “I don’t get it,” he said finally. “How’d we end up here?”

“I just want to know where here is!” Trini insisted.

“This is justâ€¦ unimaginable!” was all Zack could find to say.

Billy reached out to a control console, starting to flip things. “Maybe the answers in these controls!” he said hopefully. Suddenly a voice came from behind them all.

“No, no, don’t touch that!” they all turned at a noise to see a small robot falling as he tried to interrupt Billy’s fascinated examination of things. Billy slowly helped him to his feet, staring.

“Whoa!” he whispered. “A fully sentient multi functional automaton! I’ve never seen anything like this!”

The kids stared at Alpha in shock and surprised and wonder all merged. Suddenly, a deeper, richer voice spoke from above and behind, pulling their attention. “Welcome, humans.”

Jason’s eyes widened as they saw a face appearing in a tube set in the wall. “So who are you?” he asked.

“Like, what are you? ” Kim wanted to know, staring wide-eyed.

He chuckled a little. “I am Zordon, an inter-dimensional being caught in a time warp.”

The robot stepped forward. “And I am Alpha Five!” he declared.

“Would like, someone come back to Earth and pick me up?” Kim requested. “Cause I am totally confused!”

Zordon smiled a little. “It’s quite simple, my dear,” he told her. “This planet is under attack and I have brought you here to save it.”

“Oh, yeah, right!” Zack laughed, shaking his head and laughing. This was tooâ€¦ too silly!

“Ah, a nonbelieiver!” Zordon wasn’t surprised; there was one in every group. It was almost necessary, someone who could give some practicality to the team. “Look behind you at the viewing globe. Your doubts will be answered in the images you see there.”

The five of them turned around to see the large crystal ball on the floor, then peered into it. The image of Rita appeared in it for a moment. “This is Rita Repulsa, an intergalactic sorceress bent on controlling the universe. With her henchmen and Putty Patrollers, she plans to conquer Earth.”

“I have but one question,” Trini said quietly, “What does all of this have to do with us?” she gestured to include their group.

Zordon had been expecting that. “You’ve been chosen to form an elite team to battle Rita. Each of you will be given access to extraordinary powers drawn from the ancient creatures you call dinosaurs.”

Kim laughed in disbelief. “Dinosaurs?”

Five flashes of light suddenly appeared at their waists, and they looked down to see each of them now wore a strange belt, with a device on it that bore a coin. “Behold! The keys to your power!”

“Whoa!” Zack pulled his off and stared at the symbol of the Mastodon on it. “What are these?”

“Those are your Power Morphers. When in danger, raise them to the sky calling the name of your dinosaur, and you will morph into a powerful fighting force known to one and all as the Power Rangers.”

As Zordon spoke, each of them felt a jump in their soul, thought they knew not why. “Morph?” Kim frowned in confusion, almost wishing she’d spent more time studying her English.

“Metamorphosis,” Billy tried to explain.

Trini translated, “That means to change!” Kim grinned a little, now understanding.

“As Power Rangers, you will have access to a universe of power, and will command a fleet of fighting machines called Zords,” Zordon went on to explain.

“I don’t get it,” Trini said. This was very confusing for her even though she was one of the most intelligent members of their little group. In fact with her physical activities and capacity to understand things when explained to her, she was buffer between Jason’s full on physical approach to life and Billy’s more reserved desire to analyse and understand everything.

Zordon looked to Jason. “Jason, bold and powerful, you shall command the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord, and be the Red Ranger, the field leader of the team.

Zack, you are clever and brave. You shall command the Mastodon Dinozord, and be the Black Ranger.

Kimberly, graceful and smart, the Pterodactyl Dinozord shall be yours as the Pink Ranger.

Billy, patient and wise, you shall command the powerful Triceratops Dinozord, and be the Blue Ranger.

Trini, fearless and agile, the Sabre-Tooth Tiger Dinozord shall be under your command as the Yellow Ranger.

The five of them looked at each other for a moment, then Zordon continued. “Observe the Viewing Globe.” As they did, he showed them how five of the Zords could come together. “As the five of you work together, so do your Zords. When you need help, you need only to turn to the power of the Dinozords, which will come together to form the mighty Megazord.”

The teens looked at each other, then Zack shook his head. “Power Morphers? Megazord? This is just too weird for me!”

Kimberly nodded briefly. “It’s been real, but we’ve got to go!” she declared. It drew her, she admitted it, but this just couldn’t be happening, and even if it was, she was only a kid! What did she know about trying to save the world? What did any of them know?

Jason stood for a few moments, staring at Zordon, until Zack called out his name.

“Yo, Jason, you coming?”

The tall youth in red closed his eyes briefly, and wondered why he felt like he was turning his back on destiny as he followed his friends and girlfriend out. “Very well then, let the Power protect you!” Zordon declared as they left. Alpha shook his head.

“Well, that didn’t go very well, did it? Ay-yi-yi!” they heard Kim’s voice from outside complaining bitterly, “Great! They could have sent us back into town!”

~If I had, Kimberly, then you would have regretted it,~ Zordon thought. ~I can only hope it all works out.~

On the moon, Baboo was using Rita’s scope to spy on Goldar’s progress when the spell Rita had cast kicked in and the Repulsa-scope turned to focus in on a group of beings of high magical energy.

“Hey Rita!” he shouted, drawing the witch’s attention.

Rita shoved the henchman out of her way and grabbed her Repulsa-scope. “Zordon, I’m surprised!” she laughed. “Teenagers? You’d think he’d recruit some real warriors, not children!” she shook her head. “So, they think they can stop me, huh? Finster! Hurry up with those Putty Patrollers!”

Finster nodded as he shoved rolls of clay into the Monster-Matic shaping trays. “Yes, your Evil Badness, I’m moulding the last ones now!” as they went into the machine that would give them life, Squatt laughed.

“Those putties’ll make space dust out of those kids!” he declared.

Finster shrugged. “And the beauty is if they don’t, we can always make more!” he said pragmatically. He preferred to look on the darker side of things. He wasn’t disappointed like that as much. “Now, into the Monster-Matic they go! Ten seconds should do it!”

As the putties came out, full sized and ready to fight, Rita laughed. “Now, my putties, prepare to get those teenagers!” she ordered. Goldar rolled his eyes, Rita was a glory hog and he was starting to suspect that when all was said and done, she was as much a servant as he was. One day the Emperor would return, then she would learn her place the hard way.

“Guys, we shouldn’t have left!” Jason insisted as they made their way home through the desert. “I mean, he chose us to save the world! I say we do it!”

“Do you really think we can?” she wondered.

“Guys!” Zack interrupted. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about, we were talking to a giant floating head!”

Suddenly, an explosion came from just ahead of them.

“Whoa, what was that?” Trini stared in shock as suddenly grey warriors, Putties such as they had seen in the Viewing Globe, were flipping all around them, surrounding them. Kim shrieked as one reached for her arm, pulling her away from the others along with one of its companions.

“Let go of me!” she cried out, trying to get away from it.

“Zack, Trini!” Jason cried out, gesturing for them to spread out a bit. The two of them nodded, drawing away some of the Putties.

Zack grinned a little. “These two are mine!” he declared, getting two of them away from the others. He started in on his hip hop Kedo, working to take the creatures down as fast as he could.

Jason and Trini worked back to back, fighting, while Billy, as the weakest, was having the hardest time dealing with the Putties. Kim managed to squirm away from the grey things, and was doing her best to fight, kicking and punching and flipping with all her strength, as they all were.

It was a lost cause, though, as one by one, from Billy, Kim, Zack, Trini, to Jason, they were defeated and thrown into a pile under an overhanging ledge. The putties gathered around them, burbling and gloating it seemed in their senseless manner.

“This day is too weird!” Kim moaned.

“What do we do now?” Trini wondered.

Jason pulled the Power Morpher from his belt and looked at it. “Zordon said these Power Morphers would give us power,” he said finally. “Let’s do it!”

The five of them got to their feet, reaching for the Morphers. The putties looked at each other, too stupid to realize what was going on.

And then it happened.

“Mastodon!”

“Pterodactyl”

“Triceratops!”

“Sabre-tooth Tiger!”

“Tyrannosaurus!”

In multicolored flashes of light, where five teens had stood, now were a group of mighty warriors. In unison, they cried out, “Power Rangers!” Black Ranger, Pink Ranger, Yellow Ranger, Blue Ranger, Yellow Ranger, and Red Ranger all stood there, covered in armour of some strange material, with laser pistols by their sides, and a confidence flowing through them like nothing they had ever imagined before.

Back in the Command Center, Alpha suddenly went into an overload of joy. “Zordon, they’ve done it, they’ve made the metamorphosis!”

“Good. Teleport them to Angel Grove City, Rita just sent down Goldar.”

“Right away, Zordon!” Alpha punched a couple of buttons, sending the newly made Rangers to where they were needed.

“We’re teleporting again!” Billy shouted as they flew through the air. They’d discovered quickly they could speak while this was happening.

Kim was still a little afraid. “Where are we going?”

Jason had an answer for her though. “We’re going to save the world!”

As they arrived on a rooftop in Angel Grove, Jason threw out an arm commandingly. “All right, let’s do it!”

Goldar appeared, a full army of putties at his command. “Get them!” he ordered the clay warriors. The Putties rushed towards them, and this time, the Power Rangers got the best of the fight, as filled with their new strength and powers, they fought back.

The battle raged all over the tops of the buildings, as Rangers and putties flipped everywhere. The forces of good had just gained five powerful new allies, and the forces of evil were hard-pressed to stop them.

“Finster!” Rita screamed as she stormed into her servant’s workshop. “Those stupid putties are being beaten by a bunch of pimple-faced meatheads! They’re pathetic!”

As Finster huddled away from her wrath, Squatt piped up, “Why don’t you make Goldar big with your wand?”

Rita glared at him, then marched back to the balcony she was watching the events unfold from. “I always have to do everything myself!” she grumbled. “Finster, I’ll deal with you later!” as the little monster maker cowered in a corner, she raised her wand and threw it to Earth, calling out, “Magic wand, make my warrior grow!”

On Earth, Goldar suddenly expanded to immense proportions.

“Oh, YES!” Goldar cackled, stomping towards the Rangers.

“Man, that dude’s huge!” Jason declared, backing away a bit. “Back off, fang-face!” he growled, glaring at the monster.

“The good guys are here!” Zack agreed from next to him.

Billy nodded harshly. “Get off our planet!”

“Cause we’re the Power Rangers!” Trini announced proudly.

“And we’re not backing down!” Kim finished.

Jason nodded. “Dinozord Power!” he ordered. From their secret hiding places came the five Zords, rising up at the command of the Power Rangers. The Rangers each leaped to the Zord’s cockpits, and Jason commanded, “Log on!” he wanted to make sure all of his friends were handling this as well as he was.

Zack was first. “Zack here, this is kicking!”

“This is Billy, all systems go!”

“Trini here, ready to rock!”

“Hey, nice stereo!” that could only have come from Kimberly.

Jason nodded. “Megazord power, on!” as they started to come together, he listened in to what they were saying.

“Trini here, this is amazing!” the Yellow Ranger was excited! “I seem to know how to drive this thing!”

Billy giggled. “Affirmative, I can too! It’s almost like second nature to me!” ~It must be a side effect of these powers. I must look into this.~

The five Zords united into the Megazord, and then started to fight with Goldar. The monster put up a great performance, knocking the huge robot to the ground with a drop kick. But ultimately the Megazord’s Power Sword knocked Goldar back.

“This isn’t over!” Goldar declared as he teleported away in a burst of flames.

“We did it!” Kimberly cried ecstatically.

“Yeah,” Zack agreed, looking at the area where the battle had taken place. Falling rubble and Goldar’s needless destruction had hurt many innocents. “But if victory is so costly, remind me never to lose.”

Slightly sobered at the thought, the Rangers teleported away.

“I can’t believe this!” Rita roared as they appeared on the palace. “You failed! How dare you fail! Goldar, you’re supposed to be a great warrior. Pride of the Titans, and you screwed it up! How could you?” Rita growled and almost kicked at her underling. “This better does not happen again! I’ve got a headache!”

“No, IT HAD BETTER NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!” a voice boomed from the depths of space. Rita trembled while Goldar looked gleeful.

“Master, you have returned!” the warrior growled.

The voice ignored Goldar, keeping his attention solely of Rita. “YOU ARE FREE AGAIN, RITA REPULSA, TO CONTINUE WITH YOUR MISSION. BUT FIRST, I ORDER YOU TO REDEEM YOURSELF BY CONQUERING THE EARTH AND CRUSHING THOSE THAT HAVE HUMILIATED YOU THIS DAY. I COMMAND YOU TO CRUSH ZORDON ONCE AND FOR ALL. DO NOT FAIL ME.”

Rita mumbled something and curtsied, but her superior was long gone, leaving her to conduct her mission in her own way. She rushed from the room, more desperate than ever for a lie down.

Glad, cheerful, and surprised voices filled the Command Center as the newly made Rangers talked among themselves. Zordon’s voice cut through it all. “Congratulations on a job well done,” he told them. “Now that you have become Power Rangers, you must follow three basic rules, or lose the protection of the Power. First, never use your power for personal gain. Second, never escalate a battle unless Rita forces you. Finally, keep your identities secret. No one may know you are a Power Ranger.”

Zack stepped forward. “Wait a second,” he said, a bit nervously.

“Yes, Zack? What is it?”

He took a deep breath. “I’m not sure we’re all up to this,” he said. “I mean, we got pretty lucky this time!”

Zordon shook his head, though. “Luck had nothing to do with it. The five of you have come together to form as fine a group of super heroes as there has ever been.”

“No way,” Kim said. “Really?”

“You have been through an extraordinary experience together, “Zordon reminded them. “You need each other now, and the world needs YOU!”

Jason nodded sharply. “Yeah! All right, I’m in!”

“Me too!” Zack declared.

“Affirmative!” Billy decided.

“You can count on me!” Trini told them.

Kim shrugged. “I dunno, you guys,” she pulled out a strand of brownish hair. “My hair gets all tangled up under the helmetâ€¦ I don’t think I can do it.”

Everyone stared at her in shock. “Kimberly!” came from five different voices, as even Alpha tried to persuade her not to do this. She grinned at them all suddenly, and laughed.

“Not!” she’d only been joking! Alpha spun around a bit, smoke coming from his helmet as he tried to deal with what was going on.

“Illogical, illogical!” he cried out, “Circuit overload, circuit overload!” he whined until Kim explained what a joke was to him. “Humour,” he shook his head. “What a concept!”

Jason laughed. “Let’s do it!” he declared, holding out his hand. The others all piled their hands on top, and for a moment, they stood looking at each other. Jason, Kim, Zack, Trini and Billy. The Power Rangers. A team. A family.

In one mighty voice, they shouted out, “Power Rangers!”

End

Chapter 2: No Clowning Around

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers, they belong to their respective copyright owners and are used here without permission. No money is being made from this fic. This story actually takes place just before No Clowning Around in Season One of Power Rangers. This chapter does not replace the events in that episode.

No Clowning Around

It was an ordinary day in Angel Grove. The Rangers were enjoying a brief respite from their seemingly never-ending battle with Rita Repulsa. Since the defeat of her Nasty Knight almost a week before, she had ceased her activities. The Rangers of course being teenagers had embraced the free time and were sitting around in the Youth Center discussing what they wanted to do.

“Hey Jase, check that out,” Zack said, directing his friend’s attention to the counter where Ernie was in deep discussion with two black suited men. “Feds, here?”

“I doubt Rita would attract the attention of the FBI,” Billy commented. All the Rangers had been disappointed to learn that while a Galactic crime, conquering the world was not actually illegal on Earth.

“They’re looking for someone though,” Zack argued as he watched the two men handed Ernie a small flyer.

“Hey guys, guess what?” Kimberly said as she and Trini joined their friends, the latter picking up that something was worrying them. Kim waited for them to ask what she was referring to and then showed them a flyer, similar to the one the Feds as Zack had labelled them were pointing out to Ernie. “There’s a circus in town,” she announced, showing them the advert for Jolly Jack’s Circus featuring a show that was guaranteed to be a killer.

“That’s the same flyer they’re showing Ernie,” Zack pointed out.

“Maybe they’re worried about a crime spree linked to the circus,” Trini suggested after pondering the scenario.

Ernie chose that moment to look over in their direction. Hey guys, come here a minute,” he called to them. The teens exchanged nervous glances and then shrugging, walked over to see what he wanted. “I need a favour from you five. This is Special Agent Johnson and- Special Agent Johnson.”

“No relation,” the older one remarked. Although his voice remained serious, it made the teens grin and removed some of the tension.

“FBI,” the other one, a younger black man told them, showing his id badge as he did so.

“We need you guys to get the word out to your friends and families,” the older one told them.

“About what?” Billy asked.

“Look guys, they can’t tell you too much, but we need you to warn your friends to stay away from the circus for the next few days while it’s being set up. We don’t want anybody getting hurt.”

“Okay, we’ll spread the word,” Jason agreed.

“Thanks guys, this is why they came here, to get me to warn as many people as possible.”

“Okay Ernie,” Trini said softly as the teens filed away.

“Did you guys buy any of that?” Zack asked as they returned to their seats.

“Negative,” Billy answered. “A circus does not take days to set up. They were obviously worried about something and wanted to ensure the minimum chance of civilian injuries by warning people off.”

“Yeah, but what are they really looking for?” Zack mused.

“Um you guys, I know this is really strange, but Jolly Jack’s Circus was a front for the Joker in Gotham City,” Kim pointed out. She saw the surprised looks on their faces and blushed slightly. “My Uncle Steve has had an unhealthy interest in super heroes for years. He has clippings on all of them; Batman, Green Lantern, Hornetâ€¦ even the Power Rangers.”

“So do you think they could be after Joker?” Trini asked, feeling a shiver as she said the name.

The Rangers had been fighting Rita Repulsa for several months now, but it seemed that no matter what scheme she managed, she had yet to kill anybody just for the fun of it. The Joker was another matter entirely, although not old enough to remember some of the atrocities he had committed, the Rangers could recall some of his more recent crimes; the Joker had a way of making headline news whenever he escaped.

“It would make sense,” Jason answered.

“Can they even touch him now?” Zack asked. “I read somewhere he had diplomatic immunity.”

“I don’t think he’s an ambassador anymore,” Trini told him.

Their conversation came to a halt when Ernie walked over to their table, accompanied by a tall, handsome man who looked to be in his mid to late thirties.

“Thanks for helping out guys, we just need people to stay away and let the professionals do their work without being too obvious about it.”

“Not a problem Ernie,” Trini replied.

“Yeah we’ll let our classes know that the site is unsafe at the moment and they should stay away.”

“Maybe we should add in a warning about not going off with strange clowns,” Zack half-joked. He didn’t fail to notice the grimace that passed across Ernie’s face. His companion’s expression remained the same although his eyes did narrow slightly.

“That’s a good idea Zack. Repeating the messages never hurts,” Ernie said. “Anyway, I’d like you to meet a friend of mine who’s in town for a few days. Jason, Billy, Trini, Zack, Kim, this is Bruce Wayne, an old friend of mine.”

“The Bruce Wayne?” Zack said, “As in the owner of Wayne Industries? As in one of the richest men, if not the richest man, in the world?”

“That’s right,” Bruce said, smiling politely at the inquisitive teenager. “Nice to meet you all.” He extended his hand and shook each of theirs.

“Care to join us, Mr. Wayne?” Jason asked politely.

“No thanks,” Bruce said, “I just came in to see how Ernie’s doing. The Wayne Foundation has some shares in the Youth Center as part of its Outreach Program. This is just the yearly check.”

Kim looked over at the entrance and saw two young men standing there. “Hey,” she said, “Who’re they?” She motioned over to the young men.

“Oh, that’s Timothy Drake,” Bruce said, “My ward, in a manner of speaking. And that’s Wesley Collin, his cousin. Wesley’s father and I do business together, so I said I’d bring the boys out for the day. Hey, Tim, Wes.” He waved to the young men, who came over. Both Kim and Trini gave them the once over unconsciously. Zack shook his head and tried to hide a grin as he thought about the teasing he could do later.

“Hi, Bruce,” Tim said, “What’s up?” He noticed the gang sitting at the table, his eyes drifting to Kim. “Hi, I’m Timothy Drake. People like to call me Tim.”

“Hi, Tim,” Jason said, “I’m Jason.” They shook hands. Jason nodded to each of his friends in turn. “This is Kimberly, Trini, Billy, and Zack.”

“And I’m Wesley Collins, although only my father and school friends insist on calling me that; I prefer to be called Wes.” There seemed to be some bitterness in the preppy teen’s tone and they saw Tim offer him a sympathetic look.

“I’m sure your father will come around eventually,” Bruce promised the upset teen. “Just remember he’s only doing his best.”

Bruce didn’t add that Wes’s father’s best efforts left a great deal to be desired. Still, his lifestyle didn’t win him any father of the year awards.

“Well, We’ve got to be going,” Bruce said, “I have to check over the paperwork for a business deal and the boys have a meeting with some old teachers of mine. It was nice meeting you all.”

“You too, Mr. Wayne,” Trini said politely.

“And, please, call me Bruce,” Bruce said, “Being called Mr. Wayne makes me feel old.” They all laughed. “I’ll probably be by later, Ernie. You know me, can’t keep my nose out of the Center’s business.”

The two boys said goodbye and followed the adult out of the building.

Ernie shook his head as he watched them go. “That is one of the most confusing men I’ve ever met. He takes no interest in the books or receipts, but notices the punching bag is a little worn. I bet you anything that I’ll walk in next week and find he’s replaced all the equipment.”

“Tim’s so cute,” Kim said wistfully. The guys shook their heads and as Ernie walked away, the conversation turned to other things.

Most people would have been shocked, surprised or even terrified if they were whisked away from what they were doing and teleported to the Moon. Then to be confronted by a wand-waving witch with a painfully loud voice would have caused them to question their sanity. Not the Joker though. He was not like most people because, as he had stated on more than one occasion, he was quite certifiably insane. Oh sure he was a genius when it came to chemistry and psychology, but the fact remained that he was easily a few cards short of a pack.

Currently he was laughing at Baboo, who had stupidly taken the criminal’s hand only to discover the fifty thousand volt joy buzzer he kept there.

“Smile,” he taunted Rita. “All fun and no play makes Rita a very dull witch. And I hate dull people; they remind me too much of Batboy.”

“You hate him?” Rita asked, trying to learn more about the man she intended to use against the Rangers. Fear was not going to be enough; she could tell he didn’t have the sense to be afraid of her. And a mind control spell required a shred of sanity to stick to. All things considered, that left negotiation. “I can get rid of him for you.”

That made Joker laugh even harder. “You, kill him?” He made a show of hiding his head in the crook of his arm while leaning on Goldar. The whole time he continued laughing although he was actually studying the alien for weak points. Then abruptly, the laughter stopped and mirth was replaced by anger. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to kill the Bat? I’ve tried, many times. I even killed his little partner once, but he came back; I have no idea how that kid came back. Perhaps I didn’t kill him enough. And you think that you can handle him?”

“You destroy the Power Rangers for me, and I’ll destroy Batman,” Rita promised.

“If these Power Rangers are such a threat,” Joker asked, his voice edged by suspicion. “What makes you think little old me could succeed where an all-powerful witch like you failed?” He was enjoying the chance to mock Rita’s failure even though somewhere in the back of his mind, a little voice was screaming at him to be cautious.

“Silence!” Goldar bellowed, brandishing his sword and positioning it so the edge was rest just under Joker’s neck. A nervous laugh and slight shifting of the criminal’s collar rewarded him.

“Easy there big guy,” Joker protested, back-stepping. “Somebody might get hurt, namely me.”

“Goldar, put him down,” Rita ordered as the armoured monkey grabbed the Clown Prince of Crime around his throat.

“Yes Empress,” Goldar responded immediately.

“Yes Empress,” Joker mimicked in the voice he reserved for times when he wanted to agitate Batman by sounding like a child, earning himself a look from Goldar in the process. That made him cringe; one thing he had decided about Goldar was that the giant monkey was as mean as he was ugly.

“And you,” Rita screeched, pointing her wand at Rita.

“Hey, be careful!” Joker complained. “You could have somebody’s eye out with that.”

“Be quiet,” Rita snapped, ignoring his attempt at humour. “The Earth is mine and I will rule over it.”

“Geez, like I haven’t heard that before. You should meet some of my friends; you have so much in common. You all want to rule the Earth and you’re all nuts!”

Rita sighed. Normally she would have disposed of such an annoying person by now, but she needed his services and that meant being just a little more lenient than usual. “If you don’t stop, I’ll dump you into space.”

“Ew, sounds nasty,” Joker said, adding a few forced chuckles. “Okay, okay, I’ll behave,” he promised, mopping his forehead with an oversized handkerchief.

“Good, now listen carefully,” Rita replied, pleased that she had made some progress, “Normally your sort of filth is beneath me. I am evil and proud of it. You’re an overrated criminal. You do however have quite the reputation and the Power Rangers require your – special touch.”

“And if I get rid of these Power Rangers, you’ll put an end to Batman?” Joker asked, pressing the issue. The Power Rangers were little more than a nuisance as far as he was concerned. Rather like the Gotham police force or the army. Batman however was a real menace.

“Batman!” Rita screeched, somehow transforming the name into an insult. “Batman is nothing compared to my power. I could crush him as easily as I could destroy the planet.”

“Yet five little teenagers bother you. Are they wearing Spandex? Pink looks kind of cute, maybe I could have some fun with her.” He heard Goldar grunt an agreement while Rita rolled her eyes in disgust.

“The Power Rangers are more likely to survive my power than their planet is,” she admitted. The Morphin energies that the teens used to transform protected them from a great deal of physical damage. She didn’t know if they could withstand the outright destruction of their world, but if anything could it would be either cockroaches or the Power Rangers.

“By golly, I’ll do it,” the Joker said, flashing her his trademark grin. “I’ll pulverize them, the varmints are in for the whooping of a lifetime.”

“They’re at the Youth Center right now. Strike them while they’re in their civilian forms and you’re sure to win.” She looked at him critically. “Do you have to wear that stuff?”

“Nope,” the Joker said, his grin spreading as he sensed her annoyance. “It’s all part of the image. Plus it intimidates the public and annoys the hell out of Batman.”

“Good,” Rita said, satisfied. “Those brats will never know what hit them!” She pointed her wand at the Joker and teleported him back down to Earth, near the Youth Center.

“How will you dispose of Batman, Empress?” Goldar asked.

“Batman, who cares about Batman?” Rita replied. “Once Joker is done with the Rangers, I’ll terminate both him and our bargain.”

“Do you think he really can destroy the Rangers?” Finster asked.

Rita thought about it for a moment. In all likelihood the Rangers would succeed, but that would leave them open to attack. She looked down at the Earth and spotted Trini with her cousin Sylvia. A plan started to form.

“Finster, make me a monster!”

Finster bowed and hurried off to obey, pleased that his queen had not forsaken his sound monster making skills in favour of hired help.

“This should be interesting,” Joker chuckled as he watched the Rangers from a safe distance.

Oh Rita had been very precise when giving him orders. And he had been equally thorough in ignoring them. He was the Joker; he didn’t work to other people’s agendas. He was doing this more out of boredom than in hope that Rita would destroy Batman. Personally if she did kill him, she would not survive long to gloat about it.

He reached into his ridiculously deep pockets and pulled out a few of his special sponges, the ones he had been planning to use on the Boy Blunder the next time they met. ~Maybe they’ll work where a crowbar and a bomb failed.~ He placed the small sponges under a nearby fire hydrant and walked away. He had always tried to be dramatic.

He pulled a small mechanical dog from his pocket and hummed a small tune as he cheerfully wound it up and set it on the sidewalk. When it reached the hydrant, it cocked its rear leg and exploded, breaking the pipe and releasing a torrent of water. “What did you expect,” he asked a passing couple who started running to avoid the shower, “Tiddling Tiddles?”

As the sponges he had placed there earlier were hit by water, they started to expand, inflating to monstrous size.

“If this doesn’t get their attention,” Joker mused as he pulled out a remote control, “I’ll have to start blowing things up.”

When he pressed the button on the remote, the foam started moving forward in a slow and uncoordinated fashion. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but the screams from the people told him he had the desired effect. Now he just needed to wait for the guests of honour to show up.

“We interrupt this program for an important announcementâ€¦” Trini frowned when she heard the announcement. For one thing, interruptions to regular broadcasts in Angel Grove had recently involved Rita and her crew. More importantly, she had yet to see a newscaster wearing a red and black harlequin outfit. “Giant monsters sighted in Angel Grove and if the Power Rangers don’t get their butts there this instant, Mister Jay has promised some special fireworks.”

“Guys,” she called, turning to where the others were sparring or in Kim’s case, exercising.

“What’s up Trini?” Zack asked as the others joined their friend.

She gestured to the television as the camera turned to show the inflatable monsters terrorising Angel Grove.

“Oh man,” Zack moaned. “Does he think we’re that stupid?”

“We don’t have a choice,” Jason reminded him.

“She said if we didn’t show, Joker will cause an explosion,” Trini told them.

“We cannot use our powers against a human,” Kimberly said.

“I don’t think Zordon would condone our forbearance if it costs others their lives,” Billy pointed out.

“We’ll face the consequences later,” Jason decided, leading the teens over to the alcove they used to teleport. “It’s Morphin Time!”

“Mastodon!”

“Pterodactyl!”

“Triceratops!”

“Saber-toothed Tiger!”

“Tyrannosaurus!”

At the Command Center the situation had not gone unnoticed. Nor had the Rangers’ response to the threat, which caused Zordon problems he could have done without. For ten thousand years he had watched the race of man evolve and grow. He had seen their proudest achievements and witnessed the terrible acts they had committed. It had left him with a great sense of confidence in the humans of Earth.

But, there had still been doubts about whether they could handle the responsibilities of becoming Power Rangers. The program Alpha had used to make the selection had been extremely complex, searching many candidates for a variety of key attributes. In the end he was certain he had made the right selection. Still, that didn’t make it any easier to trust them with the responsibility. Even the most noble of races had been tempted to misuse their ability.

So unable to decide between his hope that the Rangers would not disappoint him and his fear that they would, Zordon had cheated. The powers he had given them did come through the Morphin Grid, but not directly. And while the Power Coins were genuine and had belonged to a previous team that had been the basis for his judgement of the current team, the Power Morphers had been manufactured by Alpha and linked into the Command Center’s computer core. Zordon had been able to use the computer to regulate the team’s power and could in an emergency strip them of their powers at short notice. In effect he had created a localised Morphin Grid.

At least that had been the original idea. Zordon had hoped that while granting the humans the status of heroes, he would be able to maintain control of both their arsenal and their powers. His plan had failed; he had underestimated the link that all Rangers developed with the Power and its way of creating new conduits for more efficient usage. First Billy had somehow discovered a way to tap into the Morphin Grid to allow teleportation. Communication had soon followed. Now the Rangers were capable of contacting him at their convenience and not when he summoned them.

It made sense when he thought about it though. Billy was a natural choice for Blue Ranger. He was intellectually gifted in his own right and the Power had helped apply discipline to those creative thoughts. And now it seemed that Jason – without doubt a born leader and a natural Red Ranger – was starting to feel comfortable in his role as commander. To the extent it seemed, where Jason had taken to acting without prompting from Zordon.

~They are growing beyond my control,~ he thought solemnly.

With any other team he would have been pleased that they felt confident enough to do so, but in this case the nagging doubts remained. He wanted to believe that Jason had chosen to morph because of the ultimatum, not just because there had been a threat to the city. He had given the Rangers their powers to fight Rita, nothing more.

“Ai-yi-yi, the Joker registers the residual effects of Rita’s magic,” Alpha reported.

That made Zordon feel better.

“Very well Alpha, continue to monitor the situation but do not interfere.”

“Ai-yi-yi-yi, yes Zordon.”

When the Power Rangers had arrived, the sponges had been easily dealt with. A few blasts from their Blade Blasters had been enough to disintegrate the waterlogged foam.

“Rangers!” Joker exclaimed, flashing them his trademark grin as he stepped over the body of a police officer that had tried to arrest him. “Such an honour, really. Costumed freaks are ten-a-dozen, you to see you so youngâ€¦ it makes me cry.” He blew his nose in his oversized handkerchief.

“What do you want Joker?” Jason demanded.

“Did Batman scare you out of Gotham?” Kim asked.

“Oh you’re a feisty one, Pink Ranger. You remind me of Batgirlâ€¦ before I put a bullet in her back and turned her into an even more worthless cripple.” His eyes glazed over as he remembered how much fun that had been, right up until Batman had poked his nose in and used the Joker as a punching bag. “Forgive me,” he said as he tried to reach for the Pink Ranger’s hand, only for Black Ranger to block him. “Such a beautiful lady. Please, accept this rose as a sign of our love. Beauty and his beast so to speak.”

“Look out!” Billy cried as a jet of toxic foam sprayed from the flower.

“What is that?” Joker asked, genuinely confused. He had expected a fine spray of acid, which would have eaten through their suits in a matter of minutes. Instead he managed to make the Yellow Ranger spark a little.

“You’re going down Joker,” Jason warned.

“It’s not over until the fat lady sings,” Joker quipped, tossing the Red Ranger and oversized doll dressed like a fat opera singer. The Red Ranger tried to throw it away, only to find it stuck to his hand. And during that time the Joker had made a show of putting his fingers in his ears.

“Guys, cover your ears!” Billy warned as the doll started singing, its high-pitched vocals deafening the Rangers and causing the buildings around them to spray glass into the street.

“Now that wasn’t supposed to happen,” Joker commented. He was starting to get nervous. That doll was supposed to explode, not sing.

“Zordon, isolate our helmets’ audio pathways,” Billy groaned as he clutched at his helmet.

Zordon must have done so for the next moment, the noise had ceased. But Joker was no longer alone. Putties wearing clown faces had joined him.

“Get them boys!” Joker ordered, vowing to kill Rita the next time he met her.

The Putties did as they were ordered, charging the Rangers with the usual success. It did give Joker time to sneak up behind Red Ranger and pull out his oversize mallet. He swiped at the Ranger only to miss; Jason had sensed him sneaking up from behind and ducked.

“You can’t fight me, Ranger,” Joker gloated. “I’m powerless.”

“He has a point,” Black Ranger commented.

Red Ranger was silent or so it seemed. In fact he was using his helmet’s communicator to talk to Zordon, making arrangements.

“Zack,” Jason called, passing his Power Coin to the black clad hero. His costume flicked, but remained in place. “Problem solved, now we can fight without powers.”

“Sounds good to me, Blunder Ranger,” Joker remarked, lifting the mallet for another try.

Jason was young and in excellent shape. He was also trained in karate. Unfortunately, that still placed him at a disadvantage against an enemy who was clearly armed and by reputation extremely dangerous. He was playing a dangerous game and he knew it. Rita had railroaded them into a no win situation; fight without powers or run away situation and Jason didn’t like it.

“What’s the matter boy?” Joker asked as Jason narrowly blocked one of the blows. “Feeling hammered?”

Jason didn’t reply, his eyes were locked on the mallet. When it was in just the right position, he grabbed it and twisted his body to throw Joker across his back. Now he held the weapon.

“Hey, no fair!” Joker protested before a sinister grin crossed his face. He reached into his coat and pulled out a gun. “Oh well, guess we’ll have to play a new game.”

He never had a chance to fire the weapon. Had the beam from Zack’s Blade Blaster not superheated the weapon, causing Joker to yell, caused him to drop the gun, then the sharp tip of a Batarang thrown from the shadows did.

“Oh no, not you two. You’re supposed to be in Gotham!” He protested as first Batman and then Robin made an appearance, the latter emerging from just behind Billy. “You couldn’t stay away, could you? You just had to follow little old me all the way to Angel Grove.”

Batman grabbed the menacing jester before he could draw any more weapons, lifting him by the throat only to dump him violently on the bonnet of a nearby car.

“Chill out Batsy, you wouldn’t want to give these kids a bad impression, would you?”

The response was a firm right to the side of the jaw that he responded to by blowing a raspberry.

“There’s some Feds I know who really want to speak to you,” Robin commented as Batman slapped a pair of heavy manacles on the criminal’s wrists.

Before they could take him away though he vanished in a stream of teleportation.

“Oh man, I guess Rita did send him after all,” Zack commented.

“Affirmative,” Billy added.

“What were you kids thinking, taking on the Joker?” Batman demanded, turning to Jason.

“We were thinking that if we didn’t turn up he was going to destroy the city,” Kimberly replied.

“He could have killed you, all of you,” Batman pointed out.

“We know,” Yellow Ranger told him. Her voice was quiet, but her stance showed that she would not be intimidated.

“Where’d he go?” Robin asked, eager to move the conversation back onto important matters.

“If Rita was involved, probably the Moon,” Billy answered. The look Batman gave him suggested that he found that a very unlikely answer.

“You’re more of a fool than Goldar!” Rita screeched, poking Joker with the end of her wand.

“You never told me Batman would be there,” Joker fired back. “I had the little punk right where I wanted him until Batdork showed up.”

“How was I supposed to know?” Rita demanded. “You said he was in Gotham City.”

“That’s it, I’m gone,” Joker said, “maybe I can get home before the Dynamic Duo and get a head start on them.”

“We had a deal!” Rita protested.

“Forget it. If those Rangers didn’t kill me, your voice would! I’ll take my chances with Batman and Robin; they’re more fun to play with anyway. Maybe I can kill the Boy Blunder a second time. Take this, as a memento of little old me.” He threw Rita a box.

“You shouldn’t have,” Rita said sarcastically.

“Now, if you’d be kind enough to teleport me back to Gotham,” Joker said, giving her a maniac’s idea of what puppy eyes were supposed to be.

Rita raised her staff and did as the Joker requested, teleported him to Gotham City. She laughed as he discovered that while he was definitely in the city, Rita had teleported him five thousand feet above the ground. Then, she opened up the box. Zordon was detecting the explosion for the next few hours, during which time the Dynamic Duo were flying home.

End

Chapter 3: Heroes and Legends

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They belong to their respective copyright owners. MMPR is owned by Disney, JLA characters belong to DC Comics. The original concept and version of this story belong to Carl Turner.

Power Rangers Timeline: Post Doomsday/ Pre-Mutiny

JLA Timeline: This timeline runs closest to the current television series, except Hawk and Dove joined the team shortly after their formation. Should be considered Pre-Justice League Unlimited.

Note: This is a fic set in a universe that is neither the Power Rangers universe nor an established DC universe.

Heroes and Legends

Based and adapted from the work of Carl Turner

The alarms in the Command Center sounded, bringing the formidable citadel to full alert as Alpha Five, the Command Center’s controller shifted from one position to the next, trying to find the source of the problem.

“Zordon!” the android sputtered, “where are you? We’ve got real trouble now! A group of Puttiesâ€¦”

“Calm down Alpha, this is not the first time Rita has attacked although I had hoped the loss of Lokar’s power would make her think twice before resuming her wicked ways.”

In the past Zordon would have materialised inside the citadel, his spiritual body acting as a comfort to Alpha while he worked. But those days were gone thanks to the Green Ranger’s attack on the Command Center. With the precious focus crystals destroyed, Zordon could only appear in the building’s Plasma Tube; the feedback from the loss of one set of crystals had destroyed the others meaning Zordon was truly isolated within his timewarp.

“It’s not Rita!” Alpha explained.

That caught Zordon’s attention. If Rita wasn’t in charge, who was?

“Alpha, identify the Putties’ leader,” he instructed.

“Ai-yi-yi, they’re humans!” Alpha exclaimed. “The computer identifies them as common criminals known as the Cheetah, the Riddler, Two-Face, Brainiac, Felix Faust, Major Force, Doctor Lightâ€¦”

“I believe you will find these are more than common criminals,” Zordon warned. “I have been monitoring Earth transmissions for a while and those criminals are among some of the most dangerous people on this planet.”

“But Zordon, how did they get control of the Putties?”

Zordon looked grimmer than usual. “I do not know Alpha, but I suspect that Rita has formed some sort of allegiance with these humans. This is a very dangerous situation; contact the Power Rangers immediately!”

“But the Rangers are on a field trip.”

At that moment, Zack Taylor and Kimberly Hart were helping their tutor for the day move some books into her office. When the school had suggested the visit to Angel Grove College of Science and Dentistry, some of the students had grumbled. The Power Rangers though had embraced the opportunity, relishing the opportunity to do normal school activities rather than fighting evil space aliens.

“So moving here was only a short-term assignment, but I must admit it is a major change from Lockspur,” Andrea Thomas explained to the two students.

“Man, I heard the science here totally jammed, but this year it sounds awesome!” Zack commented. He wasn’t an academic like Billy, but he appreciated that science was more than difficult equations and could, with the right teacher, be fun.

“I think in a few years I will have to come back,” Andrea commented. When she saw their confused looks, she explained. “I think your friend Billy has a real knack for this subject and I hope I get to the opportunity to have him in my class.”

She was about to say something else when the two teens’ alarms went off, signalling that the Power Rangers were needed.

“Sorry, but we better be going, Ms. Thomas. Prior commitment,” Kimberly told her.

“Go ahead, I’ll see you later,” Andrea told them. With that, Zack and Kimberly raced down the hall into a deserted lobby. Andrea watched them go, she knew the signs all to well. In the past it might have been her hurrying away. But those days were over. “Good luck kids.”

“We read you Zordon, go ahead,” Kimberly whispered.

Zordon’s voice boomed, “Rangers, teleport to the Command Center right away. This is vital.”

Zack whispered, “We’re on it, Zordon.” Soon, he and Kimberly faded into black and pink light and shot out of the school.

Soon, the two Rangers were joined by Jason Lee Scott, Trini Kwan, and Billy Cranston.

Zordon spoke, “Rangers, behold the viewing globe. The world’s worst villains have joined forces with Rita. Whatever they have planned, it can be no good for the world.”

Trini spoke up, “We have to stop them now, but why have they come together like this?”

“Yeah, after Rita got done with Joker you’d have thought they’d tell her where to go.”

“That’s something we have to find out as soon as possible,” Jason told her. “Guys, It’s Morphin Time!”

“Mastodon!”

“Pterodactyl!”

“Saber-toothed Tiger!”

“Triceratops!”

“Tyrannosaurus!”

In a flash, the Rangers teleported into downtown Angel Grove. The Cheetah and another villain, Felix Faust, were about to lay waste to the entire area.

In his guise as the Black Ranger, Zack bellowed, “Hey, grandpa! Drop it! Don’t make this any harder on you than it already is!”

Faust sneered, “Well, if it isn’t the next generation of Teen Titans! Sorry, kiddies, you may defeat stupid monsters, but we’re too much for you to handle. You can’t beat us. You’ve already lost!”

Red Ranger snorted, “Wanna bet, has-beens?”

The Black Ranger yelled, “Come on guys, let’s put these geezers back in the ‘Old Villains’ Home, where they belong!”

“Oh really?” Cheetah snarled. “Putties, attack!”

The Rangers made short work of the creatures. The Yellow Ranger spoke up, “You’re next, kitty! Behave, and you may even get a saucer of milk!”

“Sorry, kid, I prefer mice. Ranger mice, to be precise. Shall we, Felix, hmm,” Cheetah growled as she and Faust attacked the Rangers. Unfortunately, the creeps had the Rangers at their mercy. “So long, kiddies,” Cheetah started.

“Oh really? We don’t think so!” a voice behind her called.

Cheetah and Faust turned to see who they were facing, and both said the same two words before getting a right to the jaw. “Oh no!”

Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl looked at the villains in disgust. “Picking on children, what’s next, kicking kittens?” one of them asked.

The evil twosome had six words to speak in reply: “Who the hell invited you two?!”

“No one,” Wonder Woman smiled. “We decided to crash. Oh, and speaking of crashesâ€¦” She promptly threw the Cheetah into a tree. Meanwhile, Hawkgirl showed Faust that there were some things his sorcery could not effect, such as her mace. Her blow to the chin shot him into the air like a cannon. Joining him, she grabbed his leg, and sent him screaming back into the ground, as Wonder Woman sent the Cheetah into orbit. The two fiends collided in midair and crashed to the ground, unconscious.

Wonder Woman walked over to the teens. “Are you all right?”

Jason was the first to recover from the attack. Looking at the two sleeping villains and glanced around, his eyes finally falling on Isis. “I know we didn’t do that.”

Her attention was drawn by the Pink Ranger asking, “What were those two creepozoids doing here?”

“They, along with several other super criminals, every one too dangerous to be allowed to run amuck, have joined forces with the one you call Rita Repulsa. Our sources told us they’re planning to destroy several cities throughout the United States, causing chaos that Rita can use to her advantage.”

“What do they get out of it?” Trini asked.

“Rita made contact with an intermediary, someone who could bankroll the whole operation. She offered him what he wanted and he promised them what they wanted. I don’t think they realise what she has in mind, but f their plans succeed, the future of America, maybe the world, is in severe jeopardy.”

“We need your help, Power Rangers. Will you join forces with us?” Wonder Woman asked.

The Rangers looked to their leader, knowing that he would make the decision. Jason for his part wished that he could talk to Zordon. Still he was the Red Ranger and the others looked to him for guidance. “You’ve got it,” he said; the others nodded in agreement.

Hours later and the Rangers found themselves at the JLA’s satellite headquarters, a facility that had somehow escaped Rita’s attention during her attack on the planet. Now, after interfering in her plans, they would no longer evade her wrath.

Batman, one of the founding members of the organisation briefed the group on what he had discovered in his investigation. Unfortunately he was a hero the Rangers had had the misfortune to run into during the early days of their careers.

â€¦ Flashback

“Hey Jase, check that out,” Zack said, directing his friend’s attention to the counter where Ernie was in deep discussion with two black suited men. “Feds, here?”

“I doubt Rita would attract the attention of the FBI,” Billy commented. All the Rangers had been disappointed to learn that while a Galactic crime, conquering the world was not actually illegal.

“They’re looking for someone though,” Zack argued as he watched the two men handed Ernie a small flyer.

“That’s the same flyer they’re showing Ernie,” Zack pointed out.

“Maybe they’re worried about a crime spree linked to the circus,” Trini suggested after pondering the scenario.

“No relation,” the older one remarked. Although his voice remained serious, it made the teens grin and removed some of the tension.

“FBI,” the other one, a younger black man told them, showing his id badge as he did so.

“We need you guys to get the word out to your friends and families,” the older one told them.

“About what?” Billy asked.

“Okay, we’ll spread the word,” Jason agreed.

“Thanks guys, this is why they came here, to get me to warn as many people as possible.”

“Okay Ernie,” Trini said softly as the teens filed away.

“Did you guys buy any of that?” Zack asked as they returned to their seats.

“Yeah, but what are they really looking for?” Zack mused.

“So do you think they could be after Joker?” Trini asked, feeling a shiver as she said the name.

“It would make sense,” Jason answered.

“Can they even touch him now?” Zack asked. “I read somewhere he had diplomatic immunity.”

“I don’t think he’s an ambassador anymore,” Trini told him.

Their conversation came to a halt when Ernie walked over to their table, accompanied by a tall, handsome man who looked to be in his mid to late thirties.

“Thanks for helping out guys, we just need people to stay away and let the professionals do their work without being too obvious about it.”

“Not a problem Ernie,” Trini replied.

“Yeah we’ll let our classes know that the site is unsafe at the moment and they should stay away.”

“The Bruce Wayne?” Zack said, “As in the owner of Wayne Industries? As in one of the richest men, if not the richest man, in the world?”

“That’s right,” Bruce said, smiling politely at the inquisitive teenager. “Nice to meet you all.” He extended his hand and shook each of theirs.

“Care to join us, Mr. Wayne?” Jason asked politely.

“No thanks,” Bruce said, “I just came in to see how Ernie’s doing. The Wayne Foundation has some shares in the Youth Center as part of its Outreach Program. This is just the yearly check.”

Kim looked over at the entrance and saw two young men standing there. “Hey,” she said, “Who’re they?” She motioned over to the young men.

“Hi, Bruce,” Tim said, “What’s up?” He noticed the gang sitting at the table, his eyes drifting to Kim. “Hi, I’m Timothy Drake. People like to call me Tim.”

“Hi, Tim,” Jason said, “I’m Jason.” They shook hands. Jason nodded to each of his friends in turn. “This is Kimberly, Trini, Billy, and Zack.”

“I’m sure your father will come around eventually,” Bruce promised the upset teen. “Just remember he’s only doing his best.”

Bruce didn’t add that Wes’s father’s best efforts left a great deal to be desired. Still, his lifestyle didn’t win him any father of the year awards.

“Well, We’ve got to be going,” Bruce said, “I have to check over the paperwork for a business deal and the boys have a meeting with some old teachers of mine. It was nice meeting you all.”

“You too, Mr. Wayne,” Trini said politely.

The two boys said goodbye and followed the adult out of the building.

Ernie shook his head as he watched them go. “That is one of the most confusing men I’ve ever met. He takes no interest in the books or receipts, but notices the punching bag is a little worn. I bet you anything I’ll walk in next week and find he’s replaced all the equipment.”

“Tim’s so cute,” Kim said wistfully. The guys shook their heads and as Ernie walked away, the conversation turned to other things.

Currently he was laughing at Baboo, who had stupidly taken the criminal’s hand only to discover the fifty thousand volt joy buzzer he kept there.

“Smile,” he taunted Rita. “All fun and no play makes Rita a very dull witch. And I hate dull people; they remind me too much of Batboy.”

“You hate him?” Rita queried, trying to learn more about the man she intended to use against the Rangers. Fear was not going to be enough; she could tell he didn’t have the sense to be afraid of her. And a mind control spell required a shred of sanity to adhere to. All things considered, that left negotiation. “I can get rid of him for you.”

“You destroy the Power Rangers for me, and I’ll destroy Batman,” Rita promised.

“If these Power Rangers are such a threat,” Joker asked, his voice edged by suspicion, “what make you think little old me could succeed where an all powerful witch like yourself failed?” He was enjoying the chance to mock Rita’s failure even though somewhere in the back of his mind, a little voice was screaming at him to be cautious.

“Silence!” Goldar bellowed, brandishing his sword and positioning it so the edge was rest just under Joker’s neck. A nervous laugh and slight shifting of the criminal’s collar rewarded him.

“Easy there big guy,” Joker protested, back-stepping. “Somebody might get hurt, namely me.”

“Goldar, put him down,” Rita ordered as the armoured monkey grabbed the Clown Prince of Crime around his throat.

“Yes Empress,” Goldar responded immediately.

“And you,” Rita screeched, pointing her wand at Rita.

“Hey, be careful!” Joker complained. “You could have somebody’s eye out with that.”

“Be quiet,” Rita snapped, ignoring his attempts at humour. “The Earth is mine and I will rule over it.”

“Geez, like I haven’t heard that before. You should meet some of my friends; you have so much in common. You all want to rule the Earth and you’re all nuts!”

“Ew, sounds nasty,” Joker said, adding a few forced chuckles. “Okay, okay, I’ll behave,” he promised, mopping his forehead with an oversized handkerchief.

“Batman!” Rita screeched, somehow transforming the name into an insult. “Batman is nothing compared to my power. I could crush him as easily as I could destroy the planet.”

“By golly, I’ll do it,” the Joker said, flashing her his trademark grin. “I’ll pulverize them, the varmints are in for the whooping of a lifetime.”

“They’re at the Youth Center right now. Strike them while they’re in their civilian forms and you’re sure to win.” She looked at him critically. “Do you have to wear that stuff?”

“Nope,” the Joker said, his grin spreading as he sensed her annoyance. “It’s all part of the image. Plus it intimidates the public and annoys the hell out of Batman.”

“Good,” Rita said, satisfied. “Those brats will never know what hit them!” She pointed her wand at the Joker and teleported him back down to Earth, near the Youth Center.

“How will you dispose of Batman, Empress?” Goldar asked.

“Batman, who cares about Batman?” Rita replied. “Once Joker is done with the Rangers, I’ll terminate both him and our bargain.”

“Do you think he really can destroy the Rangers?” Finster asked.

“Finster, make me a monster!”

Finster bowed and hurried off to obey, pleased that his queen had not forsaken his sound monster making skills in favour of hired help.

“This should be interesting,” Joker chuckled as he watched the Rangers from a safe distance.

As the sponges he had placed there earlier were hit by water, they started to expand, inflating to monstrous size.

“If this doesn’t get their attention,” Joker mused as he pulled out a remote control, “I’ll have to start blowing things up.”

“Guys,” she called, turning to where the others were sparring or in Kim’s case, exercising.

“What’s up Trini?” Zack asked as the others joined their friend.

She gestured to the television as the camera turned to show the inflatable monsters terrorising Angel Grove.

“Oh man,” Zack moaned. “Does he think we’re that stupid?”

“We don’t have a choice,” Jason reminded him.

“She said if we didn’t show, Joker will cause an explosion,” Trini told them.

“We cannot use our powers against a human,” Kimberly said.

“I don’t think Zordon would condone our forbearance if it costs others their lives,” Billy pointed out.

“We’ll face the consequences later,” Jason decided, leading the teens over to the alcove they used to teleport. “It’s Morphin Time!”

“Mastodon!”

“Pterodactyl!”

“Triceratops!”

“Saber-toothed Tiger!”

“Tyrannosaurus!”

At the Command Center, the situation had not gone unnoticed. Nor had the Rangers’ response to the threat, which caused Zordon problems he could have done without. For ten thousand years he had watched the race of man evolve and grow. He had seen their proudest achievements and witnessed the terrible acts they had committed. It had left him with a great sense of confidence in the humans of Earth.

It made sense when he thought about it though. Billy was a natural choice for Blue Ranger. He was intellectually gifted in his own right and the Power had helped apply discipline to those creative thoughts. And now it seemed Jason – without doubt a born leader and a natural Red Ranger – was starting to feel comfortable in his role as commander. To the extent it seemed, where Jason had taken to acting without prompting from Zordon.

~They are growing beyond my control,~ he thought solemnly.

“Ai-yi-yi, the Joker registers the residual effects of Rita’s magic,” Alpha reported.

That made Zordon feel better.

“Very well Alpha, continue to monitor the situation but do not interfere.”

“Ai-yi-yi-yi, yes Zordon.”

When the Power Rangers had arrived, the sponges had been easily dealt with. A few blasts from their Blade Blasters had been enough to disintegrate the waterlogged foam.

“What do you want Joker?” Jason demanded.

“Did Batman scare you out of Gotham?” Kim asked.

“Look out!” Billy cried as a jet of toxic foam sprayed from the flower.

“What is that?” Joker asked, genuinely confused. He had expected a fine spray of acid, which would have eaten through their suits in a matter of minutes. Instead he managed to make Yellow Ranger spark a little.

“You’re going down Joker,” Jason warned.

“Guys, cover your ears!” Billy warned as the doll started singing, its high-pitched vocals deafening the Rangers and causing the buildings around them to spray glass into the street.

“Now that wasn’t supposed to happen,” Joker commented. He was starting to get nervous. That doll was supposed to explode, not sing.

“Zordon, isolate our helmets’ audio pathways,” Billy groaned as he clutched at his helmet.

Zordon must have done so for the next moment, the noise had ceased. But Joker was no longer alone. Putties wearing clown faces had joined him.

“Get them boys!” Joker ordered, vowing to kill Rita the next time he met her.

“You can’t fight me Ranger,” Joker gloated. “I’m powerless.”

“He has a point,” Black Ranger commented.

Red Ranger was silent or so it seemed. In fact he was using his helmet’s communicator to talk to Zordon, making arrangements.

“Zack,” Jason called, passing his Power Coin to the black clad hero. His costume flicked, but remained in place. “Problem solved. Now we can fight without powers.”

“Sounds good to me, Blunder Ranger,” Joker remarked, lifting the mallet for another try.

“What’s the matter boy?” Joker asked as Jason narrowly blocked one of the blows. “Feeling hammered?”

Jason didn’t reply, his eyes were locked on the mallet. When it was in just the right position, he grabbed it and twisted his body to throw Joker across his back. Now he held the weapon.

“Hey, no fair!” Joker protested before a sinister grin crossed his face. He reached into his coat and pulled out a gun. “Oh well, guess we’ll have to play a new game.”

“Oh no, not you two. You’re supposed to be in Gotham!” He protested as first Batman and then Robin made an appearance, the latter emerging from just behind Billy. “You couldn’t stay away could you, followed little old me all the way to Angel Grove.”

Batman grabbed the menacing jester before he could draw any more weapons, lifting him by the throat only to dump him violently on the bonnet of a nearby car.

“Chill out Batsy, you wouldn’t want to give these kids a bad impression, would you?”

The response was a firm right to the side of the jaw that he responded to by blowing a raspberry.

“There’s some Feds I know who really want to speak to you,” Robin commented as Batman slapped a pair of heavy manacles on the criminal’s wrists.

Before they could take him away though he vanished in a stream of teleportation.

“Oh man, I guess Rita did send him after all,” Zack commented.

“Affirmative,” Billy added.

“What were you kids thinking, taking on the Joker?” Batman demanded, turning to Jason.

“We were thinking that if we didn’t turn up he was going to destroy the city,” Kimberly replied.

“He could have killed you, all of you,” Batman pointed out.

“We know,” Yellow Ranger told him. Her voice was quiet, but her stance showed that she would not be intimidated.

“Where’d he go?” Robin asked, eager to move the conversation back onto important matters.

“If Rita was involved, probably the Moon,” Billy answered. The look Batman gave him suggested that he found that a very unlikely answer.

“You’re more of a fool than Goldar!” Rita screeched, poking Joker with the end of her wand.

“You never told me Batman would be there,” joker fired back. “I had the little punk right where I wanted him until Batdork showed up.”

“How was I supposed to know?” Rita demanded. “You said he was in Gotham City.”

“That’s it, I’m gone,” Joker said, “maybe I can get home before the Dynamic Duo and get a head start on them.”

“We had a deal!” Rita protested.

“Forget it. If those Ranger didn’t kill me, your voice would! I’ll take my chances with Batman and Robin; they’re more fun to play with anyway. Maybe I can kill the Boy Blunder a second time. Take this, as a memento of little old me.” He threw Rita a box.

“You shouldn’t have,” Rita said sarcastically.

“Now, if you’d be kind enough to teleport me back to Gotham,” Joker said, giving her a maniac’s idea of what puppy eyes were supposed to be.

End Flashbackâ€¦

Batman waited until he had the Rangers’ attention. He remembered his encounter with the heroes of Angel Grove, and he remembered his first opinion of their capabilities. He had been surprised when he had heard that they had succeeded and had to admit that when it came to fighting demons they were more than capable. Against the twisted evil of the human mind though he wasn’t so sure. There was a good chance that the teenagers would soon find themselves out of their depth, but he hoped for their sakes they were as strong as their costumes made them appear.

“None of those criminals we have seen so far have the financial resources, brainpower or the leadership to pull this off. And we know they’re not acting alone. Fortunately some of them have never heard of covering their tracks and we managed to track the money back to its source. Five guesses who is funding this whole cataclysmic endeavour?”

The Flash mused, “That of course beingâ€¦”

“Lex Luthor. He is the only one with the money to pull something like this off, and pull together this type of talent. Needless to say, he’s the brains behind this,” Batman told everyone.

The Rangers were understandably puzzled. In their minds Lex Luthor was a humanitarian, a benefactor to various organizations that were in place solely to help people. There again they knew that appearances and impressions were not always true. And once Batman showed them the evidence, it was clear that Lex had been fooling people for a long time.

“But why would Luthor get involved?” Zack asked. He saw the looks on the JLA’s faces and quickly explained his question. “I mean crime I can understand, but why let somebody take over the world. What does he gain?”

“He probably has some double cross in mind,” Batman countered. “At the least he has buildings with hefty insurance figures in each of the targeted cities. So long as the plans get to the destruction stage, he stands to make a fortune.”

Hawkgirl then told everyone, “We have less than 29 hours to stop this plan from becoming a reality.”

“If we’re going to be truly effective in stopping their plans, we’d best split into smaller teams,” Wonder Woman told them. “The Pink Ranger and J’Onn are with me in Boston.”

“Red Ranger, you’re with myself and Hawkgirl in Gotham,” Batman told him.

“Yellow Ranger, you come with me and that geek over there,” Hawk said, pointing at his brother Dove.

“Flash, Black Ranger, and myself will take Angel Grove,” John Stewart, the current Green Lantern told them plainly.

“That leaves Metropolis for the Blue Ranger and myself,” Steel mused. “Let’s get going kid.”

Boston had a history of important events. The Boston Tea Party was remembered as one of the key events in America’s road to independence. More recently though it had been a city that Wonder Woman had called home for the first six years of her life in man’s world.

Now after moving away, she had returned along with her companions to save the city from the perilous duo of Poison Ivy and Bloodsport.

“Ooooooh, where do we start, what do we do first?” Poison Ivy snickered.

“How about ‘Surrender peacefully,’ how’s that for an option?”

The criminals turned, surprised that they had been interrupted. Surprise turned to annoyance when they noticed that it was Wonder Woman accompanied by the Martian Manhunter and another hero. ~This must be one of those Power Rangers.~

“Hello, Ivy. Anything to say before we put an end to this?” Wonder Woman asked. “You know you can give it up and go back to jail, or we can knock you two into next week?”

Poison Ivy growled, “You really know how to kill a party, don’t you Wonder Woman?”

Bloodsport shouted, “Let’s just blast them to hell! All three of them!”

He started blasting away with the mega-cannon he had transported from somewhere. Wonder was ready for such a move. She promptly deflected each shot right back at him with her bracelets while Pink Ranger using her Power Bow, aimed at the creep’s weapon and launched an arrow. Bloodsport promptly dropped the death-dealing item. Another shot destroyed his transportation belt, taking away any weapon access he had. She paused before firing a third time, allowing him to notice where her arrow was pointing. He wisely chose to surrender.

Meanwhile J’Onn was having problems with Poison Ivy.

“Hey there tall, green and handsome,” the seductive killer said as she blew some of her pheromone dust into the alien’s face. “How about you and me finish off these pesky heroes and head back to my garden for a little – weeding?”

J’Onn was an alien, but he was also male. And while the dust did not have its usual effect on him, he was torn between obeying her wishes and doing nothing. With a huge effort he turned himself intangible, allowing the pheromones to leave his system.

Kimberly meanwhile had left Wonder Woman to deal with a now very compliant Bloodsport while she went to help J’Onn. As the Martian struggled to shake the temptress’s influence, Kimberly moved in to subdue her. She skilfully avoided any and all of Poison Ivy’s attacks, be they chemical, or whatever, simply by ducking and avoiding the botanical vixen until the time was right. Then she grabbed her by the wrist and slammed into the base of the Paul Revere statue, revealing the hefty mass of plastique.

“Wonder Woman, J’Onn, the bomb’s here!” Pink Ranger shouted.

In seconds, the amazing Amazon was there, wrapping the statue with her magic lasso. Then, with the use of her super strength, she hurled it up into the stratosphere. There it exploded safely where it could harm no one. A later search would reveal the real statute, hidden in a storage chamber, with so many items covering it, no one would be the wiser.

“All right, we did it!” Kimberly cheered.

Wonder Woman was more cautious. “Let’s hope our friends are just as successful in their efforts.”

Gotham was, and always had been, a city that had seen better days. Caught in the grip of constant crime, violence, terror and despair, it was no wonder that hope was a truly rare commodity in the city. It is this reason that only Gotham City could have given birth to the Batman. Now he, Hawkgirl, and the Red Ranger, had to find the Scarecrow, the Riddler, and sixty canisters of deadly fear gas.

“I never thought I’d actually be in here,” Jason marvelled. Compared to the Command Center it was nothing special, but to actually stand in the fabled Batcaveâ€¦ the novelty didn’t last long.

“Knowing the Scarecrow’s insane desire to put everyone in a state of total fear, it’s most likely they would want to disperse the gas at an extremely large gathering, but where? That’s what we have to find out, and soon,” Batman spoke.

“Plenty of targets,” Hawkgirl observed, flicking through a list. Let’s seeâ€¦ Rock concertâ€¦ Electronics and computer exhibitâ€¦ boat showâ€¦ football gameâ€¦ , it could be anywhere?”

“Wait a minute, isn’t there supposed to be a major Martial Arts exhibition here in Gotham today?” Jason asked. Batman nodded but Hawkgirl looked puzzled. “If Rita’s behind this then that’s where they’ll target.”

Batman nodded, “Every martial arts school in the country will be sending representatives, plus some of the more obscure masters are invited.”

“That has to be it!” Jason announced with certainty.

Hawkgirl accessed the internet, bringing up the advert for the exhibition. “We need to get to – got it, Mazzuchelli Auditorium!”

Chicago had many names although the Windy City was perhaps the one most used. Although not as bad as Gotham, Chicago was still loaded with crime, bigotry, and strife. The city gained two guardian angels by the names of Hawk and Dove, two argumentative brothers who somehow managed to work together long enough to protect the citizens that looked up to them. Today, they had extra help in the form of the Yellow Ranger against the threat of Major Force and Two-Face.

“Sounds like they’re arguing,” Hawk said. “Two of them want to blow the city up, the other is demanding forty-five thousand dollars in unmarked bills not to blow it up.”

“Yeah, but there’s only two of them in there,” Dove pointed out.

“They’re dreaming. No way are we going to pay that,” Hawk said. “Let’s just go in there and kick some butt.”

“You know we don’t always have to go in there guns blazing,” Dove argued. “Maybe if we offer them the chance they’ll surrender.”

Hawk looked at the Yellow Ranger. “Can you stand this guy, all he talks about is peace?”

“Yeah well that’s better thanâ€¦”

“That’s enough,” Trini said. She’d realised soon after meeting them that dealing with Hawk and Dove was like dealing with argumentative toddlers. “We need to stop them.”

“Right!” Hawk agreed, obviously taking her interruption as support for his argument. “I’ll go high, you go low and tackle those Putties.” He looked at his brother. “You, see if you can keep out of trouble long enough to find that bomb.”

As Hawk shot into the sky, Dove gave Trini an apologetic look before heading after the Putties, leaving her with Two-face.

The dual demon taunted, “Looky, looky. A little lady come to play. Let’s put the dear woman out of her misery, shall we?” He flipped a coin and while he was awaiting the outcome, Yellow Ranger attacked.

Dove meanwhile was trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Putties, all the time skilfully avoiding their blows with his nonaggressive fighting style.

Yellow Ranger caught Two-face with a flying kick to the jaw, causing him to whirl around. She tied him to a chair securely, then went to check the hostages, to make sure they were okay.

Hawk meanwhile, soared down onto Major Force on the roof of City Hall. He swooped down low and took out the Putties who were unprepared for such a direct assault, leaving only six left to aid Major Force. The villain whirled to discover Hawk swooping down upon him, but he really couldn’t do anything; It was too late for him.

“Yeah, we did it!” he yelled. Then he sobered. “Speak to me little brother, how did you do?”

“All accounted for,” came the reply as Dove flew Trini up to join him.

Fifteen minutes after discovering the location of the attack, they had arrived at the auditorium.

“Spread out, and most importantly, find those canisters!” Batman instructed.

Jason teleported into the rafters above the seating area, and discovered the Riddler attaching twenty canisters to the ventilation systems.

“Put you hands up, NOW!” Red Ranger yelled.

“So, Red Ranger, is it? I’ve got one for you. Why are you like a baby carp?” Jason was confused. “Because you’re small fry!” He swung his cane at the Ranger, who fortunately ducked out of the way and used his Power Sword to cut the pipes connecting the canisters to the ventilation system.

“Hey, Riddler, I’ve got one for you,” Red Ranger said as he moved to block the criminal’s escape. “What’s the difference between a lawyer and you?”

Riddler asked, “What?”

Jason slugged him in the jaw, straining to prevent too much power from entering the blow. Regardless, he succeeded in knocking the criminal out.

“A lawyer goes before the bars of Justiceâ€¦ and you’re going behind them.”

Meanwhile, Hawkgirl encountered several Putties at the ticket booth, along with twenty more canisters of fear gas. After kicking her way into the booth, she decided to see what effect her mace had on the foot-soldiers. She waded into the putties, mace swinging, taking them out with ease, then simply disconnected the canisters.

Batman found the remaining twenty canisters under the stage. After disconnecting the valves, he confronted the Scarecrow, who chose to taunt the Dark Knight instead of escaping.

“A little present from me to you, Batman!” he sneered, tossing a plastic skull at him.

As always, Batman was prepared, snatching the skull out of the air and throwing it back at the Master of Fear. Emitting fumes, the skull had soon enveloped Scarecrow, who began to hallucinate images of bats, and tyrannosauruses, ripping him apart. The images ended when Batman knocked him out.

“That’s my present, Scarecrow!”

Hawkgirl and Jason joined him with news that they had stopped their foes, and that Wonder Woman, J’Onn, and Kimberly had been successful with their mission. Batman said, “That’s good to know. I wonder how the others are doing.”

If Gotham was a city of crime, struggle and general unhappiness, then Angel Grove was it’s exact opposite. Crime was low, the economy was strong and the only kind of trouble it usually received came in the form of Rita Repulsa. Of course to the citizens, that was more than enough.

Today wasn’t much different except that Rita had attacked while the other Rangers were away. Luckily with Flash and Green Lantern as his allies, Zack was more than confident that he could handle Doctor Light, even if he was aided by a few Putties.

“Man, we need to deal with Doctor Light,” Zack said.

“Leave that to me,” Flash said, winking before taking off toward the criminal.

As Light continued to darken the city, potentially disabling the Rangers’ Megazord, Flash burst through the door, scattering Putties in his wake.

Doctor Light was furious. “So, the little super hero wants to try to stop me, does he? Wellâ€¦” But before he could do anything, Flash sped out of his vision field, changed direction and snatched his gadget-laden belt, returning Angel Grove’s light and power in the processes.

“Hi!” Flash snorted and gave him a quick right hook. Quickly recovering, and having no stomach for physical confrontation, the cowardly crook began to run, crying for mercy. Flash simply ran in front of him and yelled, “BOO!”

Some distance away, the Putties were being taken out one by one.

“Noâ€¦ don’t worry about the Rangersâ€¦ the other one” Light bellowed as Green Lantern swiped the foot-soldiers aside with a large mallet he had created with his ring.

“Rita, I need help!” Light cried.

He was answered by the appearance of Rita’s wand and the power to grow.

“Oh man, we don’t have the other Rangers to make the Megazord,” Zack groaned.

“Megazord eh,” John answered. “Hey Flash, I have a job for you.”

Using his ring, John summoned a green replica of the Megazord with a ramp extending from its back to the ground and directed it to fight the henchman. While this was happening Zack summoned his Cosmic Cannon and after Flash took his hand, the pair sped up the ramp towards the giant crook’s head. Bursting through the chest of the green Megazord, Zack fired the Cosmic Cannon at his chest. The villain fell and having decided enough was enough, surrendered.

Metropolis was thriving in any and all aspects. Although it too had its fair share of crime, unrest, poverty, and other social ills, these were significantly lower than those of Gotham City, due to the efforts of her number citizens and a little help from heroes like Steel. Today, Superman, as some in the media had tried to call him, and the Blue Ranger were there to stop Mr Freeze from putting the downtown business district on ice, and put a permanent end to the architect of the entire scheme, Lex Luthor.

“So far, I’ve stopped at least ten executives from jumping to their deaths, but how in theâ€¦” He noticed Doctor Mesmerio talking to one executive. “Of course, mind control.”

Steel frowned; Luthor’s plan was diabolical. Doctor Mesmerio would command the executives to give Luthor power of attorney, giving him control of their companies, then they would leap to their deaths. And the entire scheme would be concealed by the flash freezing of the area.

“We’re putting a stop to this, right now!” Steel shouted. He used the strength granted by his armour to bind the diminutive hypnotist before he returned to the task at hand.

Steel went to deal with Mister Freeze while Billy was left with Copperhead and the Shade, both of whom Luthor had hired as bodyguards.

“I don’t understand Freeze,” Steel said as he used his heat emitting Thermo Goggles against the wicked snowman’s icy touch. “Why are you involved in all this?”

“Luthor promised me the biggest diamond in the world to help him,” Freeze answered. “My research requires a lot of ice to keep it going.”

It was a sad state of affairs. Like Two-face, Mister Freeze was as much a victim as he was a criminal. In this case the crimes he committed were out of love and not from an illness of the mind. But it didn’t really matter since his crimes were about to cost hundreds of lives.

With a ferocity rarely seen, Steel tore the ice man’s suit apart, leaving him exposed to the atmosphere. As a show of mercy, Steel used a few of his Rapid Freeze sprays, which he had been developing to assist plumbers, to keep the criminal stable until he could be shifted back to Gotham Prison. He turned around to find that Billy had dealt with his adversaries; it was time to get Luthor.

Lex Luthor knew that his plan had failed. He was a realist and had always assumed that there was a likelihood the criminals he had gathered would fail. But there were other schemes and the Just-sick League could not be everywhere; next time, no one would stop his schemes.

“Wait, you two can’t go in thereâ€¦” he heard his secretary shout.

Seconds later the heavy, oaken doors were broken down and Steel and Billy strode into his office. Lex made sure he had a weapon close by, just in case, but outwardly gave no indication that their arrival had concerned him.

“Most people knock,” he remarked.

“We’ve finally got you, Luthor! You’re going to be in jail for a long time,” Steel announced.

“For what exactly?” Lex asked.

“Conspiracy to destroy several cities across the United States, for starters.”

“I’m sorry, there must be some confusion,” Lex answered. “I’m sure if there was such a conspiracy that I have no part in it.”

“We have funding records Luthor, transfers from your accounts to dummy corporationsâ€¦”

“Lex Corp is always on the lookout for new investments, if those businesses are illegalâ€¦ I’ll need to speak to my lawyers forthwith. In future they’ll have to double-check all investments; you can’t trust anybody these days.”

“That’s not all, we have your co-conspiratorsâ€¦”

“You expect the police to take the word of a few thugs over that of a legitimate businessman?” Luthor asked. “Who are these felons?” He smiled as Steel listed off the captured criminals. “All known super criminals known for among other things lying to the courts. Their word will never be enough to convict me.”

“By the time we’re done we’ll have much more than that,” Billy said. “Computer records for example.”

“Hold it there young man,” Luthor warned as the Blue Ranger moved toward the terminal. “Despite his belief to the contrary, Steel here is not a police officer and nor are you. I am not under arrest and you have no right to access any of my personal files. Now, if there is nothing else, I suggest you gentlemen leave.”

Steel turned and stalked out of the office, followed by the Blue Ranger. Lex smiled to himself as he watched them go. His accomplices had been well paid and would not talk willingly, and now they were in police custody the Justice League would not be allowed access to them. As he watched the two heroes walk away, he couldn’t resist a parting shot.

“Oh and Steel, where do I send the bill for that door?”

Rita Repulsa was not a happy witch. Lokar was gone and that meant a great deal of her power had been taken away. Worse still she had exhausted the power she had stolen from the former Green Ranger. So when the human Luthor had approached her, she had welcomed the opportunity to have someone else take care of the Rangers in return for a few Putties. His scheme had been doomed to failure from the start, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get some measure of revenge.

She looked at the JLA’s satellite and laughed; they couldn’t reach her on the Moon, but soon they would remember the name Rita Repulsa.

One week later, the Power Rangers were teleported to the JLA satellite.

“We never gave you a tour last time you were here,” J’Onn said. “We figured now would be a good time to show you around; you’ll need to be able to navigate around here, especially if you accept our invitation.”

Zack as the first to react, “Invitation? For whatâ€¦ Oh my god, you’re joking, right?”

“I never Joke,” Batman replied.

“Yeah Batman has no sense of humour,” Flash remarked, earning him a death glare.

“What Batman and Flash meant to say is we would like you to join the JLA,” Green Lantern said.

Hawk asked, “Well, how about it?”

“Jammin! This is a major groove!” Zack said.

“This is so totally awesome!” Kimberly cheered.

“Count me in!” Trini said quietly.

“All right, I’m in!” Jason agreed.

“This is most prodigious!” Billy chimed.

“Zordon told us of the three rules that you must follow as Power Rangers. We’ll uphold these as well, and provide all of you access to any and all JLA files as well. Your primary responsibility will remain Rita. The League isn’t really suited for her attacks. Kimberly, Zack, Trini, Jason and Billy, welcome to the JLA!” Steel smiled.

As the other Rangers got accustomed to the headquarters, Jason was deep in thought about this new situation they were in. Were they ready for this, could they handle such a responsibility? ~We will be,~ he thought. ~It might take a while, but we’ll be an asset to the Justice League.~

End

Chapter 4: Warrior Rangers

Disclaimer: If I said that the Rangers were mine, Saban would have me killed. The same goes for Wonder Woman, JLA, and DC Comics, as well as Xena, Gabrielle, and MCA/Universal. TIME TRAVEL WARNING! There is definitely time travel involved in this tale, and before you ask, no, the Rangers and Wonder Woman do NOT go back in time. Possibility of culture shock for Xena and Gabrielle.

Warrior Rangers

Angel Grove Museum of Ancient History was known for its exhibitions and had once again attracted a huge crowd with its latest display piece: the Xena scrolls. Of course the tales of the heroic warrior princess, who had supposedly turned from a ruthless follower of Ares to noble protector of the innocent, had captured the interest of Kimberly Hart, Zack Taylor and Trini Kwan, all heroes in their own rights. Today they were accompanied by Wonder Woman in her guise as Diana Prince; the Amazing Amazon had expressed a keen interest in learning more about the scrolls, especially given her heritage.

“I can’t believe how packed this place is. You almost have to make a reservation just to get in the door!” Trini commented after noticing how long the line was.

“Yeah, I’m really bummin’ about it! My cousin went to see the exhibition in LA and said it was awesome. I really wanted to check ’em out for myself!” Zack frowned.

Diana was optimistic about the situation. “You know, we’ve still got two more days before they leave Angel Grove. Maybe tomorrow there won’t be so many crowds.”

Any reply was cut short by the unexpected arrival of some of Rita’s clay-brained soldiers.

Kimberly snarled, “Putties! I knew this day was gonna go from bad to worse! Well, let’s take these potheads out!”

After months of fighting Rita’s forces the three Rangers were more than capable of putting her foot soldiers out of commission, and Wonder Woman while not as experienced, could throw them around like a professional athlete.

As the four continued to fight, Trini noticed that one of them took out a strange jewel and threw it away from the fight. “Careful, gang! Looks like we may be getting more grief!” The jewel started to glow, then exploded into a weird doorway of light.

Zack had a pretty appropriate response. “What the hell was that?”

Greece

Circa 2000 Years Ago

Two women were grousing about their most recent adventure.

“I don’t care if the result is total warfare! I will never, I mean NEVER, EVER AGAIN go undercover in a beauty contest! NEVER!” Xena snarled.

“Well, you gotta admit, it was a lot different than our usual tales of danger and catastrophe,” Gabrielle told her.

“True. I usually don’t dress like a tramp or act like a total IDIOT! I HATE pageants! Four days watched pigheaded warlords and a bunch of underdressed overdeveloped BIMBOS in a BEAUTY CONTEST?! NEVER! NEVER AGAIN!”

“Uh, Xena? What is that glow in front of us?” Gabrielle whispered.

“I’m not sure. It looks like a passageway of some sort.”

“It’s – it’s moving towards us,” Gabrielle pointed out.

“Run!”

The two women took off in the direction they had just come. In a world where the Gods of Mount Olympus were known to send monsters after people, they were not foolish enough to stick around a strange doorway, at least until they knew what it was and who had sent it. Unfortunately they were too slow as the doorway caught up to them.

Kimberly had her hands full with three putties whenâ€¦

SYEEEEEYAH!

When she looked up, a woman in a brown leather outfit with an odd-looking breastplate was making short work of the clay warriors.

“What sort of creatures are these things?” the woman’s companion asked as she batted the Putties away with her staff. Although it was obvious that she was the weaker of the two, she was capable of defending herself.

“They’re called Putties,” Zack told her. “Just keep hitting them until they run away.”

“I think the more important question, where are we?” the brown haired woman asked, surprising a Putty when she pulled a dagger from some concealed part of her armour.

“You’re in Angel Grove. Where did you think you were?” Kimberly asked, unable to really pay attention to the fact the two women had just appeared from nowhere.

“Celaphoniaâ€¦ wait? What is ‘California?'” the blonde woman replied.

Kimberly was amazed that her companion didn’t seem to know about her surroundings. In fact, she seemed to be downright out of place. On a hunch, she asked, “What year do you think this is?” The answer she gotâ€¦

“Fourteen.”

“Actually, you’re way off, and at a guess you just travelled through time, probably through that portal thing over there,” Trini surmised as best as she could.

“Persistent creeps, aren’t they?” Gabrielle asked.

“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet. For brainless creatures, they can really test your patience,” Kimberly told her.

Meanwhile, Zack and Diana were slamming putties together. “Man, we’re gonna have to recycle way too much clay after this!” Zack grumbled.

“Getting back to the issue at hand, I believe our two new allies came from that portal, or gateway, or whatever that is, probably intended to send us somewhere. Three guesses as to who sent it,” Diana quipped.

“Easy. Rita. Odds are, it would have been a one-way trip, knowing those two. Now what?” Zack asked.

Gabrielle spoke up then. “Xena, it looks like we went through some kind of time portal and wound up in the future! Now, how are we supposed to get back home to our own time?”

A stunned Trini gasped, “Xena?”

“I was when I woke up this morning. You?”

“Trini Kwan. It’s an honour toâ€¦ HEADS UP! MORE PUTTIES!”

Zack bellowed, “THAT’S IT! I’VE HAD IT! Let’s finish these things! Kim, Trini, shall we go to work?”

“Let’s do it!”

“Let’s kick some putty!”

“It’s Morphin Time!”

“Mastodon!”

“Pterodactyl!”

“Saber-toothed Tiger!”

“On that note, time I got into my working clothes,” Diana shouted, ripping off her clothes to expose her regular costume underneath. “Time to finish this. Black Ranger?”

“In the groove, ready to move!”

“Pink Ranger?”

“Let’s smash these clay pots!”

“Yellow Ranger?”

“Powered up and ready!”

The six warriors quickly went to work, Xena quickly kicking and punching as skilfully as any of the Rangers. Trini noticed that she could probably give both Jason and Tommy a run for their money, maybe even give Batman a real workout. Xena noticed that all of her new friends were very adapt at fighting, especially Trini. In almost record time, the putties were completely trashed.

“Now that those are out of the way, let’s see about getting you home to your own time frame,” Trini said. “I assume that the portal is still overâ€¦”

“Uh, guys?” Kimberly interrupted. “The portal is gone.”

“I guess they did intend for us to have a one way trip,” Wonder Woman finished.

“Our one way home is GONE? I do NOT believe this! There must be a certain group of gods who have it in for us!” Gabrielle shouted.

By this time, the Rangers had demorphed. Trini suggested, “Maybe Zordon could create a time portal that could get you back to your own time. We’ll need this though,” as she picked up the diamond-like substance.

“Well, it’s worth a try, anyway,” Wonder Woman added.

“Useless creatures,” Felix Faust growled as he looked at the few remaining Putties. The only thing working in his favour at the moment was that the Rangers and Wonder Woman believed Rita responsible for their problems.

He had sent the Putties simple instructions to use to the jewel to tap into the past and bring him a warrior capable of defeating the Power Rangers and JLA. They had been under strict instructions to find the legendary Xena, the warrior queen who had terrorised Greece.

What Faust had failed to specify was for them to retrieve the Warrior Princess before she turned away from evil. As a result the world was now stuck with two extra heroes.

He briefly considered contacting the gods and maybe using their animosity toward Xena, it had taken them two thousand years to recover from the damage she caused, to destroy all the heroes. The Greek Gods were nowhere near as powerful as they had been before Xena had almost destroyed them – an event that had yet to occur in her timeline – but they would still prove difficult foes.

At the Command Center, Alpha 5 was examining the jewel while Zordon told them, “Rita is not responsible for Xena and Gabrielle’s appearance. While she has no doubt agreed to aid the villain, the magic used to charge the Chronogem does not match her known signature.”

“Rita seems to be doing that a lot recently,” Trini observed.

“Zordon, can you help Xena?” Kimberly asked.

” I can recharge its energy to full, but it will take quite a while, however, given the temporal distance than the two of you have crossed to get here.”

“What do Gabrielle and I do in the meantime?” Xena asked.

“Well, since you both won’t remember anything about this little time trip except us, it really won’t do any harm for them to explore our world,” Zordon spoke up.

By now, Gabrielle was totally confused. “How different could your world be from ours?”

Trini told her, “You’d be surprised. A lot can and has changed.”

Within thirty minutes, Xena and Gabrielle discovered just how much different the world was from what they knew. Neither were used to the ideas of electricity, indoor plumbing, cable and satellite TV, clothing stores, music stores, telephones, restaurants, and just about everything else. Kimberly tried to explain the notion of shopping malls.

“You mean people actually build places for trading and selling? What a world this is!” Xena marvelled.

Kimberly was dumbfounded. “Maybe this isn’t the time to explain credit cards just yet.”

“Credit cards?” Gabrielle asked.

“Never mind. Maybe later.” It was at this point that Kimberly noticed something about Xena’s armour, mostly the design and texture, reminding her of a family heirloom. “My family has this item I think dates back to your era. Maybe you can tell me all about it.”

“My mom said it was almost two thousand years old,” Kimberly told Xena. They were now at Kim’s house, examining a ring that was ancient in design. “She said it found its way into the family from descendants of a girl who was saved byâ€¦ NO WAY! She was about to become a sacrifice of some weird deity.”

“â€¦ Of Fertility. A couple of days ago, Gabrielle and I rescued a young woman from some tribal priest, who also seemed to get a form of sick joy out of the whole thing,” Xena replied.

“By the way, what is a ‘Power Ranger?'” Gabrielle asked.

“Power Rangers protect the Earth from Rita Repulsa and lately, some earthbound scum. As for how we became Power Rangers, wellâ€¦” Kimberly started, when Diana, Zack, and Trini came in, along with Tommy Oliver, who had just heard been catching up with his friends’ adventures since he had left the team. This was the first time he had spoken to them since they had joined the JLA and he had jumped at the opportunity to meet Wonder Woman and Xena.

After being brought up to date by Kimberly, Tommy asked, “How long do you think you’ll be here in this time frame?”

Xena truthfully answered, “I wish I knew. To tell you the truth, it depends on your friend Zordon. As for your world, it moves a little too fast for me.”

“Too fast for you? Shall we talk truly ironic here? We don’t exactly live the quiet life ourselves, either,” Gabrielle smirked.

“Kimberly was telling us all about the Power Rangers. How did you become these super teens?” Xena asked.

“It all started when an evil witch named Rita Repulsa, escaped from her prison and started her plans to destroy the planet,” Kimberly told her.

“That was when Zordon first chose Trini, Kim, me, Jason, and Billy to become Rangers. Rita’s kept us hopping ever since,” Zack finished.

“A while after that, Rita captured me, and made me her evil Green Ranger. The Rangers were able to break the spell, and I’ve been their friend ever since. I was the Green Ranger for a while, but Rita found a way to take them away from me,” Tommy added.

“And few weeks ago, the Rangers helped the JLA crush a major scheme by Lex Luthor, and a seemingly reformed Legion of Doom. After that, they became the newest and youngest members of the Justice League of America,” Diana added.”

Right then, the communicators went off. Zordon’s voice rang out, “Rangers, Goldar and a team of Tengas and Putties are giving Jason and Hawkgirl trouble in the park. They need your help. Hurry there at once, and may the Power protect you all!”

Zack shouted, “You got it, Zordon. IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!”

“MASTODON!”

“PTERODACTYL!”

“SABER-TOOTH TIGER!”

Diana also transformed into Wonder Woman once more. “Tommy, it was nice to meet you. Now, if you guys don’t mind me saying it this time, BACK TO ACTION!”

In seconds, the warriors were at their fellow Leaguer’s side. Rita had decided to take advantage of the confusion Faust has caused, sending Putties, and Goldar, her right-hand monster.

Soon, Hawkgirl and Goldar were going at it tooth and nail, while Kimberly, Zack, and Trini kept slamming Putties into the ground, trees, playground rides, passing busses, and at one point, even into a portable barbecue grill.

Scorpina had just arrived and tried to attack Jason from behind, when she was caught completely off-guard by Wonder Woman. The Avenging Amazon walked right up to her, tapped her on the shoulder, and said, “Hi, there,” very smugly before knocking her into dreamland.

Hawkgirl, however, wasn’t fairing well against Goldar. He was a better warrior than she was used to fighting. In fact, Goldar had her cornered and at a disadvantage, his sword holding her mace out of the way, allowing him to punch her in the gut. Goldar was about to use his sword to deliver the final, killing blow, grinning, when a deadly, razor-sharp disc-weapon flew through the air, aimed at Goldar. It smashed into his sword, knocking it from his hand before deflecting back to its owner. Xena threw it a second time and hit him in the forehead, leaving a nasty gash. Before he could recover, he saw both Xena flying at him, fists armed and ready.

“The chronogem is fully charged and working again. Xena, Gabrielle, we thank you for your help. I do regret that you won’t remember anything else about this time frame, outside of us,” Zordon spoke.

Gabrielle smiled, “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”

Xena agreed. “I will always be proud to have known you. It was nice meeting all of you. Take care.”

“We will, and you take care, too,” Zack grinned.

“You both be careful, too,” Kimberly cheered.

Wonder Woman, Jason, and Hawkgirl smiled and waved goodbye.

The time portal opened. “Good luck, and may the Power protect you both!” Zordon spoke.

“Give Rita no mercy! Good luck, my young friends!” Xena shouted as she and Gabrielle jumped back through the portal. In seconds, the portal disappeared.

“Man, awesome! Simply awesome!” Zack smiled. He then looked at Jason’s hurt expression. “What’s up, bro?”

The Red Ranger frowned and said, “You guys actually met Xena and didn’t think to call me and let me know!”

“We didn’t call you because you would be drooling all over the place!” Kimberly smirked.

“You’d have your tongue hanging out!” Zack added. “And basically making a damn fool of yourself!”

“Me?”

“Yeah, YOU!”

Trini and Diana just sat back and enjoyed the show.

In the past, Xena and Gabrielle had returned to the very point where the last adventure had begun.

“I don’t remember much about our little trip, but I get the feeling that the future is definitely in good hands. Gabrielle, are you going to write about this?”

“You bet. I was thinking about calling itâ€¦ ‘Xena’s Mighty Morphin Power Warriors.’ How about that?”

“Gabrielle.”

“How about ‘Wonder Rangers?'”

“Gabrielle!”

“‘Super Friends?'”

“GABRIELLE!”

“OK, OK!”

The End

Chapter 5: When Heroes Fall

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, they belong to Disney. I do not own the JLA, they belong to DC. Namor belongs to Marvel Comics, if you like him you are better off not reading this. This fanfic was originally written by Carl Turner and was reworked by me as part of a team up project.

Author’s note: I don’t hate Aquaman, Namor or any other comic character. I don’t have a season of Power Rangers I truly despised, but admit there are a few times I have thought to myself: what would happen if they’d done this?

The result is that this story is not an attempt to bash Aquaman. I do consider his version of the Justice League to be a mistake, however there was an underlying reason as Dove attempts to reveal. Nor is this an attempt to compare Aquaman to Namor or to lynch Namor for that matter; the latter’s character is a cross between the character’s portrayal in Marvel, his revision in the Marvel Mangaverse and my attempt to place Namor and Aquaman in the same universe. Should he ever resurface it will be clear that this Namor is not the same man.

Note: This story takes place after Warrior Rangers

When Heroes Fall

Trini Kwan felt a sense of longing as Dove took both her and Jason Lee Scott on a tour of the JLA’s Hall of Heroes. It was a museum built by the League to pay homage to those members that had either retired from active duty or chosen to work outside of the group. Longing, because she wished she could have been a part of those cases. The weeks that she and the other Rangers had spent in the League seemed insignificant given its long history and roster.

Jason was soon standing in front of a portrait of an earlier team; each incarnation had its own portrait, some had smaller pictures from periods when a member had joined, but the team had not changed enough to warrant a new picture.

“Wow they’re all here,” he whispered, awed at the number of heroes present. “How was it back then I wonder, back when the original Flash and Green Lantern were moreâ€¦ human?”

“John and Wally are just as human as the rest of us,” Dove told him, “having super powers doesn’t make them less than human.”

“I know,” Jason said, “I meant they were more vulnerable, I suppose.”

“Powers have a way of evolving,” Trini said as she stopped to look at one particular picture. The plague underneath told her this incarnation had been led by Aquaman with J’Onn as his second. Other members had included Zatanna, the Elongated Man, Vixen, Gypsy, Vibe and Steel. The portrait was not in the same condition as the others and she had heard very few stories from this incarnation. “What happened to these guys?” she asked curiously.

Dove looked sad. “There are some wounds that don’t heal, some decisions that will always have us questioning why we didn’t do something to avoid it. That picture is a reminder of what happens when communications break down.

Aquaman was a difficult member to deal with, being a king in his own right made him stubborn and difficult to get along with. He was also dedicated, more so in his opinion than some of the other members of the League. There was an emergency and very few members turned up, they were all so caught up in their own problems they didn’t see the bigger picture. So Aquaman decided to disband the League and assemble a new organisation.”

“I’ve never heard of half these guys,” Jason admitted.

“Very few people had,” Dove told him. “That’s why Aquaman chose them: they were young, eager and dedicated if inexperienced. They messed up more often than the previous members and some people thought they were a joke, mostly because they appeared to be just powers and attitude; some went so far as to blame Aquaman, but I think he was only doing what he thought needed to be done.”

“So what happened?”

“His League wasn’t up to the job and eventually disbanded. Aquaman decided to go back to his kingdom where he was needed and another League was formed, this time under Batman’s guidance.”

“Has he ever returned?” Trini asked.

“Once or twice,” Dove answered. “That was when I got to meet him and heard his story. A criminal from his kingdom called Namor, blamed the entire surface world for disasters affecting the kingdom. While Aquaman tried to find peaceful solutions, Namor tried to raise an army against the surface world.

The thing is, while Aquaman and Batman might disagree on things, and I know he and Flash have had many heated arguments, Aquaman always cared about his people. Namor only cared about power and invading the surface. He thought Aquaman was weak for siding with humans and his actions soon reflected his murderous attitude when he started attacking the city and blaming it on the surface world. He even tried to have Aquaman imprisoned for treason.”

“Did the rest of you get involved?”

“We had to,” Dove explained. “When Namor went after waterfront cities and destroying lives it was our job to intervene. And when he initiated an assault on an underwater farming project, something Aquaman had helped to set up in the first place, his army rebelled against him and freed their king. Sadly we couldn’t get to him before he destroyed ten years of work which would have helped ease world hunger. He also crippled and nearly killed some of the personnel assigned to the project.”

“Man that’s bad,” Trini said finally.

“It was,” Dove agreed. “Trouble is we never caught Namor, and Aquaman was too busy rebuilding his kingdom to track him down. Every now and then Namor appears again with a new attack and each time he seems to get worse. In fact, just one month before you and the other Rangers joined, he used his powers to demolish the waterfront district of Gateway City, and would have tried to trash the entire city, if Wonder Woman wasn’t there. I’m happy to say that she stopped his rampage although I think she was fighting a losing battle once he took the fight underwater again. And as hard as she fought, he was still able to escape.”

“Is there any chance he is under a spell or something?”

“I don’t think so Trini, I really wish he was. Aquaman once told me that Namor had been found in the city when he was a child and had been allowed to stay there. His villainous side didn’t show itself until his late teens and by then he had already set himself on the path he now follows. I don’t think Namor’s ever shown any sign that he wants to reform.”

At that moment their signal devices went off. The Flash, who was the communication officer of the day, was clearly disgusted as he spoke. “We have a Code Nineteen people. Namor’s been sighted andâ€¦ it’s not pretty. He’s done it folks, take down is authorised; he’s gone beyond the point of no return.”

“Understood,” Batman could be heard answering, his voice emotionless as it was, helped to calm the situation. “Assemble at the Watchtower.”

It was a rare occurrence for the entire JLA to gather. Since the Rangers had been members there had been few occasions when the entire roster was present and a meeting that included former members was almost unheard of; mostly because such meetings led to personality clashes that nobody wanted to deal with. This was an emergency though, a threat so great that it warranted calling in as many heroes as they could find. For the Rangers it was a chance to meet the likes of Black Canary and Sentinel, heroes who under normal circumstances kept their distance. And then there was the last and most controversial arrival: Aquaman.

Batman was even grimmer than usual as he addressed the assembled council. “We don’t do this often and we all know why. The government is already twitchy about this large an assembly taking place without a representative on hand. Oracle?”

Barbara Gordon, formerly Batgirl and now known as Oracle following an incident that had left her paralysed, wheeled forward.

“Namor has been sighted heading along the California coastline. Based on his more volatile behaviour recently and his attack on the Gateway project, we believe that he intends to destroy Angel Grove and all of its population. There have been no ransom demands, all attempts at negotiation have failed. Intelligence reports he had a meeting with Rita Repulsa two days ago and that she offered him something that led to this action.”

“Once he does away with Angel Grove, he’ll probably go after the rest of the continent,” John Stewart, Earth’s official Green Lantern surmised.

“Probably,” Barbara agreed. “Rita was seen to give an object, possibly a book of spells that he can use.”

“Can he use magic?” Hawkgirl asked.

“If the book is charged with magic and he just needs to say the words then yes he can use them,” Barbara answered.

“Oh, man, it sounds like Namor was enough of a problem without help,” Zack said.

“We should contact Zordon, he knows more about Rita’s magic and could probably tell us what spells he could use,” Billy said.

“Agreed,” Batman said. “In the meantime we have to be ready to put him down if necessary. Remember only Arthur can match him in the water, so we need to keep him out of the water. John, Wally, let’s get things organised.”

The hours passed as the various heroes organised themselves into teams. Some had broken out their full arsenal while Batman went over a more in depth plan with Aquaman, Wonder Woman and Steel, the only heroes truly capable of standing up to Namor should he escape into the sea.

“Guys, we have a problem,” Kimberly announced as she teleported in. “I just asked Zordon about the book, he checked his satellite network and managed to find the footage. Um, this is like totally freaky guys, the book Namor was given was created for warlock in the H-20 Galaxy just before it was destroyed. It contains the means to give Namor an army of sea monsters and enhance his physical powers.”

The alarm sounded, Hawk listened to a report as it came in, his face darkening in anger. “That’s done it, I’m gonna cream the little punk!” he snarled.

“Are you gonna share with the rest of us or just stand there threatening revenge?” Dove asked. He had seen his brother angry often enough that the sight no longer phased him like it had when they were children.

“Namor just attack the Angel Grove docks,” Hawk announced. “Thirty are missing, two injured and five were killed; reports say he killed one man with his bare hands.”

“That’s it then,” Wonder Woman announced. “He’s actually committed murder, not manslaughter or accidental killing, but cold blooded murder.”

“The question is whether we go for Maximum Takedown or Maximum Capture,” John Stewart announced, the no nonsense approach that had gotten him through life showing through again.

“Maximum Takedown,” Guy Gardner, formerly a Green Lantern now named Warrior called, officially proposing the harshest sanction available, an option that was one step short of kill on sight.

“Seconded,” Hawkgirl agreed, “this guy has been allowed to run free for too long. If we can’t contain him, we must stop him.”

“Is there any objection?”

“We don’t have a choice in the matter,” Dove said, “he’s killed for the sake of killing and shows no sign of stopping. He’s proven he won’t come peacefully and we have the lives of the citizens of Angel Grove to consider. I don’t want to do this, but if we can’t talk him downâ€¦”

“What the squirt is trying to say,” Hawk interrupted before his brother could force himself to continue, “is that if he won’t surrender, we have to put him down.”

Had anybody else said it the confirmations would have continued. Maximum Takedown was a no holds barred approach to an enemy that while allowing for mercy upon surrender, authorised members to kill if needed. It was an approach the League rarely used. When the order had been confirmed by Dove, the most pacifistic member of the JLA though, it was clear that Namor was dangerous enough to warrant such an approach.

“In favour?”

It was unanimous if reluctant.

“Approved, Maximum Takedown is authorised for this operation. You will stop if Namor surrenders. This is not a vendetta people.” Steel looked at Batman as he said that. Like Dove, he was strongly opposed to killing.

“Are you guys okay with this?” Zack asked his fellow Rangers. “We took an oath when we defeated Rita and decided to pursue other criminals, never to take a life.”

“No man, I’m not,” Jason admitted. “When we go out there, I want you guys to do everything possible to take this guy down short of killing him. If somebody’s life is in danger that’s your call, but right now we treat this guy like he’s Goldar.”

“You guys really think you can take him in, there isn’t a prison that can hold him?”

“I don’t know,” Jason admitted, “but if we have a chance to take him in then that’s what we’ll do. And if we have to find a way to imprison him afterwards, we’ll find a way.”

“Enough talk,” Hawk said, “We need to get to Angel Grove now or there won’t be anything left to save.”

“Okay, let’s do it,” John Stewart yelled. “Move out!”

Angel Grove had been flooded. It wasn’t covered by water, but the six-inch river that now covered the city’s streets allowed all manner of sea monsters to make their way through the city, causing pandemonium. People ran in blind panic as law enforcement tried to keep the invading creatures at bay. And in some parts the waters had turned red with blood.

“Spread out and try to keep those things from advancing further,” John ordered, sending the majority of the JLA’s reserves into battle. “Rangers, get your Megazord into position and try to keep those bigger ones from moving beyond the docks.”

“I’ll see if I can do something about the water,” Steel offered, already planning how to create a channel to drain off some of the water. He had just the invention for the job.

“I’ll help,” Wonder Woman offered.

“As soon as you’re done, get back here,” John told them, “we’ll need all the help we can get if Namor shows up. Arthurâ€¦ where is he?”

“Old fish breath went that way,” Flash said, pointing to where the King of the Seas was battling a giant serpent.

John was about to reply when he noticed that Batman was attacking the same creature. Between them they had managed to restrain the massive beast before moving on to the next.

“Hawkgirl, get airborne and shout if you see Namor. The rest of us need to start shifting civilians away from here. J’Onn, can you teleport them?”

The Martian Manhunter, still on board the Watchtower, answered affirmatively.

“Shift them to the mountains outside the city,” Hawkgirl cried from her position above them. “They should be safe there as long as Steel completes his trench.”

“Twenty miles inland, any direction,” John ordered instead. “It doesn’t pay to gamble on what might stop the next wave.”

At the Angel Grove Docks, while the various heroes fought his little pets, Namor was working on summoning new and more powerful creatures to devastate the city. The Rangers’ Megazord had already taken out his giant eel, but his dark squid was proving a more formidable foe.

“I’ll take that!” Flash called out as he raced by, grabbing the spell book as he did so.

Namor, much fast than the red suited hero when in water gave chase, not realising that he was being led to where Steel and Wonder Woman were waiting. The JLA’s current membership and the villain that had caused them so much trouble clashed, the latter proving that he had already used some of Rita’s spells to increase his resistance. He was a slippery fighter, difficult to hold long enough to hit and strong enough to throw all but the strongest members of the team around.

In the end it was Aquaman who managed to land the blow while Batman had distracted him. Striking the criminal in the back had not worried the King of the Seas, although he had made certain that the blow wouldn’t prove fatal unless left untreated.

Namor was not about to stay down though, shaking off his opponents he raised his arms over his head and cried out for Rita to help him.

“Oh no,” Trini gasped, realising what was about to happen. “If he grows, we might not be able to stop him.”

“I have an idea,” Zack said even as they heard the sound of Rita’s wand descending. “We need some of those lamp posts we knock over earlier and some cable.”

“You are not thinking what I think you’re thinking,” Kimberly protested as the wand connected, causing Namor to grow and mutate into a large green creature with pronounced amphibian features.

“We don’t have time for this,” Jason interrupted, “Zack, what do we do?”

“Join the cables to the posts and load the posts into the Thunder Cannons,” Zack told him, referring to the two large cannons on the back of the Megazord.

Catching on to what the Rangers were doing, the other members of the JLA joined in; while most kept the now giant Namor busy, Batman and Aquaman attached the other end of the cable to one of the creatures they had defeated.

“Fire!” Jason ordered.

The two posts were launched at the monstrous villain, both managing to pierce his skin.

“Steel, Wonder Woman, you’re on!” John told them as the pair twisted the posts where they emerged from the other side of Namor’s body and wielded them together.

“Bring me on board,” Aquaman ordered. The Rangers quickly complied as he directed them to seat the Megazord on the sea monster’s back. “Hawkgirl, get it moving!”

The winged detective was quick to respond, striking the sea monster with her mace, forcing it to move out to sea in a bid to escape the pain. As it did so it dragged Namor behind it. The villain cried out as the Megazord used its strength to guide the sea monster through the ocean, dragging Namor out to sea.

“Now dive!” Aquaman ordered.

The Rangers obeyed and the Megazord forced the creature down into the depths of the ocean, the cockpit straining under the pressure as they dragged the villain lower and lower until they were below the point where Aquaman believed he could not ascend under his own power. The Megazord was on the point of collapsing by now, but they dove deeper, looking for a place where they could trap Namor.

“This will do,” Aquaman said at last. after the monster had been driven into a cave.

“Power Sword!” the Rangers called.

A quick swing and the cave collapsed on the villain, trapping him under the sea. As the Rangers teleported away, knowing that while helpless their foe would at least survive in his new prison, they couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief at not having to kill him.

Had they won or had they lost? The jury was still out on that one. The combined might of the JLA and the Power Rangers had ended the threat of Namor for the time being, but there were many that thought the Rangers should have put an end to the villain while they had the chance. Even inside the League there was some discussion about whether or not they should have dealt the killing blow.

Batman had taken the Rangers aside after the team had returned to the JLA’s headquarters. He and the rest of the League’s senior members at least agreed with their decision and had only expressed a small amount of surprise to learn that Aquaman had gone along with the plan.

“What if he comes back?” they had heard Hawk complain half-heartedly. Even a volatile person like Hank could agree that while he wanted to slap Namor around a bit, he didn’t want to take a life.

“Then we’ll deal with him just as we did today,” Dove told him.

The repairs to Angel Grove were underway, the government had offered tax exemption for businesses helping in the recovery efforts; the Wayne Foundation had made a generous payment to the city to issue emergency help. The teens had joined the clean up crews while several other heroes had made special guest appearances to help in the repairs; Flash racing from street to street with a mop was a common sight for the next day or so.

The funerals for those that had died were held the following week. For the Rangers it was a reminder that not everybody survived a monster attack. It also served to show the citizens of Earth that sometimes the greatest threats did not come from space or another dimension, but rather from their own planet.

And on the Moon a celebration was in progress. Rita hadn’t won this round, but she hadn’t lost either. Angel Grove had come close to destruction and the next time her plan would be perfect. She just needed more time. The problem was that for Rita, time was running out.

The End

Chapter 6: What’s Tomato You?

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.

Author’s note: This story is set in the Conquest of Evil Universe and takes place during the period when Lord Zedd had replaced Rita Repulsa and was focussed on destroying the Green Ranger.

What’s Tomato You?

The Power Rangers were tired. Lord Zedd had been relentless in his attacks, determined it seemed to continuingly draw them into battle, knowing that such exertion increased the strain on the powers. Zordon had had to recharge Tommy’s Power Coin several times in recent weeks and there was no denying that with each charge the coin was losing more and more power. They had tried to keep Tommy in reserve to save his strength, but Zedd it seemed would not be denied and had simply increased the ferocity of his attacks until Tommy was forced to step in.

The villain’s most recent creations had not even shown the thought that he had put into previous monsters. Zedd had just found something he could transform with his wand, cast a spell and pointed the result in the Rangers’ direction. It was crude had held little chance of conquering the planet. But they could not deny that Zedd was winning when it came to his ultimate goal of destroying the Green Ranger.

Zedd’s latest monster had been created from a pincushion and had attacked the Rangers with its pointed swords. It would have been a joke, except the pin swords were extremely sharp and the Rangers’ weapons had been unable to pierce its defences due to its thimble shield.

It had been Kimberly who had found a way around its defences, nailing the monster with arrows, which had allowed the others to move in close and break the thimble shield. After that it had been the now familiar scenario of Zedd growing his monster and the Rangers taking it down with their Megazord. It was almost lazy and easy to assume that Zedd had gone softâ€¦ until they remembered that the villain had succeeded the moment that Tommy had been forced to morph and enter the battle.

Then there was the damage that the battles were doing to Tommy himself. Although Zordon and Alpha had tried to keep it to themselves, at Tommy’s request, the constant fluctuations in his Morphin energy was starting to take a physical toll on his body. Rangers were supposed to be either morphed, unmorphed or in standby mode. The brown outs caused by his coin’s damaged connection meant Tommy’s body was sometimes trapped between those states. It was of serious concern for the Rangers and more so for Zordon who had confided to Tommy that even if there were a way to fix his coin, the damage to his health would make it far too dangerous.

In short, the Green Ranger was operating on borrowed time. Zordon and Alpha knew it, the Rangers knew it and of course Tommy understood his next battle could be his last. Most importantly though Lord Zedd was aware of how close to victory he was growing and would likely continue to step up his attacks until he got his way.

Even Bulk and Skull’s antics failed to put a smile on their faces. The two were engaged in some sort of experiment to find the identities of the Power Rangers. Exactly why they wanted to expose the secrets of those that had saved their lives on numerous occasions was unclear, but most days it provided a small distraction.

“Ladies and gentlemen behold,” Bulk proclaimed as he held up a twig. “With these dowsing rods we are going to track down and reveal the secret identities ofâ€¦ the POWER RANGERS!”

There followed a typical Bulk and Skull demonstration of their new equipment during which they were drawn to Ernie’s milkshake machine, the water fountain and Billy. They rapidly dismissed that last one as a false reading, declaring in the process that there was no way a geek like Billy could ever be a Power Ranger. And then they were drawn out of the door and away from the Youth Center on their newest adventure.

“Man, those guys never learn,” Zack smiled. Their antics had helped lighten the mood a little after all.

The others shared a laugh before getting down to business. Even though the fate of the world was in their hands and their friend was losing his powers, some things could not be ignored. Such as their science projects for school the next day.

“I’ve been working on a new fertiliser formulation that can help tomato plants to adapt to harsh soils,” Billy announced. “I thought maybe we could submit it as a group project.”

He didn’t mention that his first attempts had created a super-efficient weed killer that destroyed any plant it happened to touch.

The others nodded and discussed the plan. They would not be working on the formula but providing the scientific testing and documenting the results. It would be mostly a case of transferring Billy’s test plants into individual pots and keeping the control group separate from those treated with his formula.

“Good idea Billy,” Trini praised.

“We should take a look at the seedlings before we head home,” Billy urged. “”We need to have the proposals for the project in tomorrow.”

The others nodded and finished their drinks before leaving.

On the Moon, Lord Zedd alternated between being pleased that his plans were progressing and anger that despite his eventual triumph the Rangers dared to continue as if nothing was wrong. There should have been no escaping the conclusion that their friend Tommy would soon be rendered powerless and their number would be reduced to five. They should have been cowering in the knowledge that once he had finished with the embarrassment that was the Green Ranger, he would turn his attention to each of them in turn, tipping their team apart one Ranger at a time.

And how did they demonstrate this fear and understanding? They went to Billy’s garage and potted a few plants.

“If they are so interested in tomato plants then let’s see how they deal with the more aggressive variety,” he growled.

“Brilliant master,” Goldar cheered in the background.

Zeroing on the science room where Billy had left his plant alongside the remains of those that had died when he had gotten the formula wrong, and the plants that grew there, Zedd unleashed a bolt of magical energy, transforming the plants on the counter top into his newest monster: the Killer Tomato.

“Wow Billy-man, I know you said that formula was strong, but I didn’t expect this,” Zack commented as the Rangers arrived outside of the classroom.

Billy had gained special permission to use the classroom to ready his project. But the thin green roots could be seen extending under the door and up the sides of the walls had not been there when he had visited earlier.

“I don’t understand,” Billy protested. “I haven’t applied the formulation yet.”

“Guys I think we need to be careful,” Trini urged.

“Yeah I don’t like this,” Kimberly added.

Jason cautiously reached for the door handle and after opening it, pulled the door open.

“Look out!” Kimberly warned as the Rangers found themselves under attack from rotten tomatoes.

Then Tommy let out a yell as a vine wrapped itself around his foot and started to drag him into the classroom.

“Tommy!” Kimberly cried as the other Rangers raced to assist their friend, pummelling the vine with anything they could find until it let go.

Suddenly the vines stopped fighting them and retreated into the classroom, along with the other roots that had been growing up the wall.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Zack commented, sparing a glance to where the previously thrown tomatoes had landed, corroding a hole in the walls.

The others could only nod in agreement as something growled.

“Enough playing games,” Zedd growled. “I created you to destroy those Rangers, not play with them. Now get on with it!”

He unleashed a bolt of energy that teleported his creation away from the school and into the middle of Angel Grove Park.

After checking the coast was clear, the Power Rangers decided to contact Zordon.

“Rangers, Lord Zedd’s monster has reappeared in Angel Grove Park,” Zordon told them after they filled him in on what had transpired.

“We’re on it Zordon,” Jason promised. “We need to be careful guys. I’m sure this thing can do more than just throw rotten fruit.” The others agreed with the need for caution, but it was time for action. “It’s Morphin Time!”

“Dragonzord!”

“Mastodon!”

“Pterodactyl!”

“Triceratops!”

“Sabre-toothed Tiger!”

“Tyrannosaurus!”

“Ahhh fresh water and plenty of space to grow,” Killer Tomato sighed. “What more could a growing monster need?”

He was about to find out as the Power Rangers arrived in their customary fashion. Fortunately, Lord Zedd had seen fit to send some of his Z-Putties to assist.

“Hey!” Black Ranger shouted when the team arrived, “Does Pumpkin Rapper know that you’re stealing his look?”

Killer Tomato was a humanoid monster with a large tomato for a head that looked as if the fearsome face had been carved into it. It wore a red cape and had vines trailing down the back of its head like dreadlocks.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Killer Tomato shot back. “Let’s see whose laughing after this!”

A large tomato appeared in each hand and he threw them at the Rangers. Instinctively the Rangers dodge, but the tomatoes exploded on the ground, knocking the young heroes off their feet. As they picked themselves up and resumed battling the Z-Putties, Killer Tomato lashed out with his vines, striking at the Rangers and causing their suits to spark.

“Power Axe!” Black Ranger cried before leaping at the monster.

Killer Tomato responded by spraying the incoming Ranger with tomato juice, knocking the Black Ranger away and leaving him smoking on the ground.

“Zack!” Green Ranger cried as he disposed of a Z-putty and hurried to his friend’s side. “You okay buddy?”

“That stuff is nasty,” Zack replied, looking down at the still smoking area where the juice had connected.

Red Ranger and Yellow Ranger had teamed together to fight the monster, their Power Weapons cutting through its vines. Blue and Pink Rangers had finished off the Z-Putties and were hurrying over to help. But if anything, the monster appeared to be growing stronger.

“Hey, what’s that?” Green Ranger asked, spotting a bottle on the ground. He recognised Billy’s handwriting on the label and realised this was the formula his friend had been working on. “Aw man!”

Killer Tomato threw more of his tomato bombs, knocking the Rangers down and prepared to dose them all with his corrosive tomato juice. Before he could do so, the Rangers were teleported away.

Power Chamber

“Thanks, Zordon,” Jason gasped as the Rangers started to recover. “That monster is stronger than I thought.”

“Guys, I found this in the park,” Tommy stated, showing them the empty bottle of growth formula.

“That would explain it,” Zack commented.

“Affirmative,” Billy added.

“So, what do we do now?” Kimberly asked.

On the Viewing Globe they could see Killer Tomato walking through the park, using his powers to trap innocent civilians inside giant tomatoes.

“Alpha and I have scanned those tomatoes and have found they are similar to the bombs he used against you,” Zordon warned.

“He’s going to blow them up,” Trini realised.

While the others were watching the events unfolding, Billy was thinking of what to do. He almost wished his formula had been a failureâ€¦

“Guys, I have an idea, but I need to go back to the classroom to get something,” he told them.

“We’ll hold him off for you,” Jason promised. “Back to Action!”

Angel Grove High

“Let’s see it should be in here somewhere,” Blue Ranger remarked as he made his way into the science room and over to the remains of the desk where his tomato experiment had been. After searching through some of the various concoctions, he located the one he wanted. “This should do it.”

“I’ll be taking that Blue Ranger.” Billy looked up and groaned when he saw Goldar blocking the entrance, flanked by several Z-Putties.

In desperation Blue Ranger licked the switch on the rooms lighting rid, blinding the villains with the sudden glare. It wasn’t much but proved enough for Blue Ranger to escape.

Angel Grove Park

The battle was on once more as the five Rangers engaged with Zedd’s monster. Green and Black Ranger held him, allowing Yellow and Red Rangers to attack with their weapons before jumping clear to give Pink Ranger a shot with her Power Bow. Working together they managed to keep the monster distracted although it was too powerful to be held down and soon sent Green Ranger tumbling away.

Blue Ranger appeared in a column of light, avoiding an incoming vine as he did so.

“Guys, I’ve got it!” he proclaimed.

“All right Billy!” Red Ranger cheered, landing a boot in the monster’s midsection.

“Oh, I’m soooo scared,” Killer Tomato mocked.

“You’d better be,” Blue Ranger responded before jumping to attack, only to find himself tangled in one of Killer Tomato’s vines. “Hey, no fair!”

The other Rangers quickly found themselves in similar predicaments as Killer Tomato ensnared them with his excessive foliage.

“Oh no!” Blue Ranger called as the container he had been holding slipped from his grasp. “Guys, we need to destroy that bottle.”

“Trini!” Red Ranger cried, drawing his side arm.

Yellow Ranger looked up, realised what he had in mind and nodded her agreement. Red Ranger fired, breaking the vine that had been holding his team-mate in place. Yellow Ranger flipped free, firing her own weapon, but missing the container. Before she could try again, she was recaptured by Killer Tomato’s vines.

“Well that was a waste,” the monster remarked.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Pink Ranger commented from where she had landed after Yellow Ranger’s shots had freed her. She held the container in her hand and as the monster moved to stop her, she held it up. “Zack!”

Black Ranger did not miss. The shot from his Blade Blaster shattered the container right as Killer Tomato moved in front of it. The result was the monster took as full face of Billy’s earlier attempt at growth formula, which had turned out to be an overly effective weed killer.

“Noooo I’m melting, I’m melting!” Killer Tomato wailed as the weed killer destroyed his super powered body.

“Okay guys, let’s finish this with the Power Blaster!” Red Ranger called.

“Power Axe!” Black Ranger called, shifting the end of the weapon into position.

“Power Bow!” Pink Ranger added as she laid her bow across the end of the Power Axe.

“Power Daggers!” Yellow Ranger cried, retracting the blades and throwing the weapons so they attached to the underside of the bow.

“Power Lance!” Blue Ranger called as he split his weapon in half and then threw both halved into position next to the daggers.

“Power Sword!” Red Ranger cried as he slipped the sword on top of the Power Axe, forming the familiar giant crossbow that was the Power Blaster.

“Dragon Dagger!” Green Ranger called, adding his own weapon to the mix as the Rangers formed the lesser used variant of the weapon. The Dragon Dagger attached below the barrel formed by the end of the Power Axe, giving the weapon a bayonet.

“Fire!” the six Rangers cried in unison, unleashing their power at the monster who exploded.

“Damn those Rangers,” Zedd fumed.

“I am sorry for your failure, my Emperor,” Goldar grovelled.

“It was not my failure you imbecile!” Zedd bellowed, causing Goldar to cower in fear. “Although my monster has been destroyed, the Green Ranger was forced into battle once more, weakening his powers. Soon his luck will run out and the embarrassment of Rita’s mistake will be erased.”

“Yes, my Emperor!” Goldar cheered.

With Killer Tomato destroyed, everything was restored to how it had been before the incident. Those trapped inside the giant tomato prisons were released unharmed and the school science room was repaired. The Rangers had managed to visit long enough to divide the plants into their test groups, although it had taken some work to come up with a replacement for Billy’s growth formula.

There was no doubt that they had gotten lucky again. Tommy’s powers had held steady during the battle and the modified Power Blaster had prevented the need for a Zord battle. But there was no doubt the Lord Zedd’s monster were growing in power and that the Rangers were finding it increasingly difficult to destroy them.

Sooner or later something would have to give. They just hoped that when it did, they would be up to the challenge.

End of Part

MMPR

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