Chapter 6 - Playing Chicken

Palace on the Moon

Widow and Roki were married in a quiet ceremony with Roki's uncle Rito Revolto presiding. Widow's parents and younger siblings had come all the way from Rachnemaere, her mother's home world. They were so proud to welcome Roki into the family.

The army green skeleton warrior that was Rito Revolto announced them man and wife and after a week of frustration and teasing, Roki finally managed to get his lips on her. They didn't come up for air until Rito loudly cleared his throat. Roki was gratified to see, if only briefly, she was as stunned as he was at the power of a single kiss.

"I give you Roki and Widow Repulsa," Rito announced. A smattering of applause from their audience of family, Finster and Putties erupted.

Scorpina came forward. She was tall woman in golden armor and had Oriental features. Her skin even glowed with a gold-ish hue. "Congratulations, my dears," she said and hugged her daughter and kissed her new son-in-law on the cheek.

"Thank you, Mother," Widow said with a faint smile.

Goldarr, a blue skinned warrior in golden armor strode forward and hugged his daughter. He shook Roki's hand vigorously. "The people your parents used to be would be so pleased," he stated.

Roki's face tightened slightly. "Yes," he agreed.

Rito came up behind them and wrapped his bony arms around both their shoulders and squeezed. "Give ol' Uncle Rito a hug," he said jocularly. "This is a celebration, where's the food?" he asked and looked around expectantly.

Zita, who had a soft spot for the Uncle who'd practically raised her brothers and herself, smiled. "We arranged for food in the kitchen," she said.

"All right. C'mon, Goldy. Let's get our grub on," he invited Goldarr.

"Go on, I'll be there with the children soon," Scorpina said.

As Rito and Goldarr walked off, Zita approached the two small children. They both had the golden hued skin of their mother, though the son was definitely darker than the daughter. They appeared to be around four, but she knew the time lapse wasn't that long. They grew at a rate twice that of a human until they came to the equivalence of a ten year old human, then things leveled out for another twenty years or so before slowing to near agelessness.

"They're sickeningly adorable," she declared.

The little boy had a mulish expression on his face. He had dark eyes and hair like his mother. The little girl hung behind him shyly while she sucked on her thumb. She had sparkly blue eyes and golden blond hair. "What did you say their names were?" she queried.

"Grifforzer and Lammy," Scorpina answered proudly.

"They've grown a bit since I last saw them. How long will you be staying?" Widow asked, hoping she could keep torturing Tarantules without her parents interfering.

"Awhile. I'm going to make sure you leave your brother be," Scorpina said sternly.

Widow's expression suddenly mirrored Grifforzer's. "Mother," she started.

"Don't 'Mother' me. Do what you will to the other Power Rangers but don't directly interfere with him again. It's not his fault he was caught in that despicable wave," she declared and gathered her babies to her and strode off to the kitchen.

Roki had been watching silently. Perhaps, in some respects, they were lucky they didn't have parents telling them what to do. He glanced at his sister. He could tell she was thinking the same thing. He approached Widow and placed a hand on the small of her back. "My dear, I believe we have wedding gifts to exchange. Remember, I am your husband now. Your battles are mine. I don't have to leave him be," he said.

Widow looked up at him in wicked glee and something not quite definable. A puff of black smoke made her black wedding dress vanish and replaced it with her black lab coat and glasses. "To Finster's lab," she said and led the way.

"Coming?" Roki asked his sister.

"Oh, absolutely," she agreed and followed the couple.

Roki had been busy while Widow was making wedding preparations. He'd designed three new monsters and had Finster begin their construction. Zita had helped by doing surveillance. He believed he'd come up with a collaboration that would benefit them all.

Three clay figures were on Finster's work table. They all looked like strange, random amalgamations of women and birds with some horns thrown in for good measure.

"What are they to be?" Widow asked as she studied them with keen interest.

"I call them the Harphuries," he answered. "My gifts if you will?" he reminded her.

Widow smirked and made the box appear. She presented it to him with a flourishing bow. "For my lord husband," she said.

Roki grinned and took the box. "You see, my sister's snarky remark about sculpting a woman made me think," he said. He picked up the first Harphury and set her in Finster's kiln. He pulled out the Blue, White and Pink orbs and set them at the figures feet. He activated the kiln. The figure and orbs moved through the kiln and came out the other end.

The Harphury reflected the colors of the orbs. They were clearly visible in her tall forehead. "Vivexia!" she announced.

As Widow and Zita watched curiously, Roki repeated the process with the Orange, Green and Gray orbs. The monster announced herself as Sedulinia. Finally, with the Yellow, Black and Violet orbs the Harphury known as Minxinia appeared.

"They're rather ugly," Zita remarked.

Roki just grinned. "My dears, if you would," he said.

Vivexia spread her arms and her shape began to change. She now more resembled a young Asian girl with dark eyes, long dark hair and a shapely figure. Sedulinia changed her shape to a girl with warm skin, red hair and light blue eyes. Minxinia changed her shape to an athletic looking blond with a killer figure.

Widow raised her brows and looked at her new husband. "Explain," she said.

"Worry not, my lady. They aren't for me. They're gifts for the Power Rangers," he assured her. She nodded thoughtfully as a smile began to tug at her lips.

"What about the other one?" Zita asked, seeing that he had kept the Red orb.

Roki produced a staff. It was a simple staff really. He attached the Red orb to it. "It belongs to me now," he declared.

"Indeed, it does," Widow agreed. "Dispatch your fiends, my lord. I suddenly feel the need to celebrate our nuptials," she said and pressed herself against his side.

With a broad smile, Roki looked at the monsters. "You know what to do. Be gone," he ordered them. He glanced at his sister. "What will you be doing?"

Zita shrugged. "Suppose I can mess with Sora some more," she answered without much conviction. He was still resisting her control, but it was still fun to jerk him around. She wandered off from the newlyweds to attempt to find another spell to try on him.

Roki looked down at Widow. He supposed this arrangement could be worse. She glanced up at him, raising her brow at him. "Let's go celebrate," he said and led her out of the lab.

-x-

Sora felt like he was being watched. He didn't know if he was paranoid, if it was a good watching or a bad watching. He'd gone to the Youth Center everyday and waited. The Power Rangers still hadn't contacted him as promised. He was beginning to wonder if they suspected him of being the Skeleton Ranger. He hoped not. He needed to explain himself before they judged him. He paused as he was about to enter the Youth Center. Had he heard something?

He looked around and didn't see anything so he entered the Youth Center. As he moved to the counter he blinked. He was seeing two Autumns?

Serving customers were two younger girls, about fifteen. They both had red hair and brown eyes. They were definitely Bakers. "Hi! What can I get you?" one with short choppy hair asked.

"Chai tea," Sora answered.

The other one, with slightly browner, longer hair said something to her sister and they both giggled as they parted. The first one went about making his tea.

"Surreal, right?" Sora blinked and looked at Taran Goldsmith. "They've been visiting their parents from what I gathered," he explained. The two whispered together again and glanced at them and began giggling again.

"I'll have an espresso," Taran said to them with a slight smile.

"Coming right up," said the punky one as she served Sora his tea. The quieter one started making the espresso.

Taran looked at his watch then around at the patrons. Where the devil were Tori and the other Reavers? He hadn't called this little meeting for his health.

Autumn appeared from the back office. "Spring, phone call," she said. "You have five minutes," she said sternly.

"Whatever," said the punky one as she passed her older sister, but it was said in a good-natured way.

Autumn sighed. She smiled when she saw her sparkly boys. "Hi," she greeted them.

"Hi," Sora murmured. He glanced around to see if Rei was near. As much as she unnerved him, he also felt a strange comfort in her presence.

"So, did Billie clone you or something?" Taran couldn't help asking.

Autumn giggled. "No. They just now got here. They were visiting our parents," she said in a slightly tight, annoyed voice even as she tried to hide it. When she looked passed him, he turned and saw Hayden, Fey and Ros come in. Straggling in behind them were two tall twins with black hair and laughing blue eyes, a lanky guy with brown hair, a small Asian girl with a tight expression and asymmetrical bob, and a willowy Latina.

"Please tell me only three people walked in here," he said and downed his espresso in one go, ignoring the fact that it was scalding hot. He heard Autumn gasp. He stiffened and quickly left the bar, leaving her watching in surprise. He didn't usually forget so easily not to do things like that.

Autumn grimaced. "Summer, I think the espresso machine's internal thermometer is off," she said, thinking on her feet slightly, but sheesh, that had shocked her. There was a lot she didn't know about her new teammate it seemed.

Winter came up behind the bar. "What's going on?" he asked curiously.

Autumn passed on her concerns about the espresso maker.

She didn't realize all her subterfuge was for naught. Sora wasn't paying attention. Pressure was building behind his eyes. He fumbled in his pocket and paid for his tea and left without a word. Not that he could really speak around the building pressure.

He passed Tori, Wood and a third person without acknowledging them.

Wood frowned and glanced behind him. "I hope the Blues get that containment field done soon. We need to talk with that guy. Like seriously," he declared.

Tori nodded. She groaned when she saw the table of Reavers. "Oh, sheesh. They're all here," she muttered under her breath.

Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson followed his little brother in the Youth Center wearing a pair of dark glasses and a baseball cap. He wasn't just famous because he was the Blue Astro Ranger. He was also a famous baseball player. He was in town to visit his parents and little brother. It'd been a bit of a shock to learn freckled little Wood was a Power Ranger. He curiously glanced at the table they were looking at. He cocked his head. "Ifeteyo?" he asked thoughtfully.

At the sound of her name, the regal woman glanced up. She didn't recognize the man in the baseball cap. "Yes?" she asked curiously, grateful for the distraction from Taran reading them the riot act for gathering in one place.

Tori and Wood looked at TJ. "You know Fey, TJ?" she asked.

"TJ?" Fey asked. Connections fell into place in her head. "Oh yes! I should have guessed. Theodore Jay!" she said and bustled over. They hugged. "I haven't seen you since we were six," she remarked.

TJ nodded. "Yeah, well, mom still refuses to speak about Aunt LaTonya," he remarked. Laughing at the expression on Wood's face, he explained that Fey and her brother Nyo were their cousins. Their mothers were sisters that fell out over twenty years earlier, before Wood was even born.

"Now you're in for it," Tori told Wood and went to talk to Taran and his bunch.

Flabbergasted, Wood stayed with TJ and Fey to hear the story about their moms.

-x-

Lani sat on a blanket in the park with her friends Manny and Holly. They hadn't spent much time together lately. Lani knew it was mostly her fault. Between her duties, training with her family and even band practice, she was stretched thin. Even yoga wasn't much time lately. Holly was still helping her dad and Manny was still helping her Abby.

"This was a fantastic idea," Manny detailed as she nibbled on some cheesecake. "This is going straight to my hips but I don't care," she declared with a smile.

Lani snickered. "We need a girls day every now and then," she agreed. Even though she was getting to know Chloe, Tori and Autumn and even Billie a little better, they weren't her best friends.

Holly nodded. "We do indeed. Love my dad and all but sheesh," she complained and studied the pattern the strawberry sauce made on top of her cheesecake, or seemed to. Neither Manny nor Lani paid her any mind when she got that faraway look in her eyes.

"Oh, my gosh, girl. Look at that," Manny suddenly jostled Lani's arm, making her bite of cheesecake go astray and smear across her cheek.

Muttering under her breath, Lani wiped her cheek and looked to see what got Manny all excited. "Oh, my gosh," she echoed.

Late August was still rather warm for Angel Grove so the two young men engaged in mortal combat with wooden shinai eventually had to go shirtless. They were also covered in sweat. Even Holly came out of whatever deep thoughts she was having to watch Tai and Rex.

Lani knew enough about kendo to know they weren't following any rules. This was out and out combat. Somehow, Rex managed to disarm Tai. Heedless of that fact that if they used real swords, his hands would be massacred, Tai grabbed his opponent's weapon, twisted it and tossed Rex over his shoulder. He poke him in the ribs with his stolen weapon. "I win," he announced with a big grin.

"You cheated. Your ungainly crane-like structure gives you an unfair advantage," Rex declared as he hopped to his feet. He took around. "Where did we leave our stuff?" he asked, realizing they'd come halfway across the park from where they started.

"Geeze, I think I'm starting to see what you see in Tai," Manny teased her friend.

Lani blushed and started to get to her feet when a young woman ran over to the two boys.

"Forgive me, but I grabbed these when I noticed the two of you leaving the vicinity," she said in a soft husky sort of voice. She held out their bags. She gave Tai a glance over and smiled. "I couldn't help watching the match. Congratulations," she said.

Tai nodded mutely and took his bag.

"He says thank you very much. His name is Tai and would like to know yours," Rex said with a grin.

"My name is Ami. It's nice to meet you, Tai," she said with a giggle. "I hope I'll be seeing you around," she said and gave him another appreciative look before sauntering off.

Almost helplessly, Tai stared after her while Rex chuckled at him. "We really have to work on that. You'd think I'd have rubbed off you more after all these years," he said. "Oh, hey, more pretty girls," he said as he noticed the trio watching them. He gave them a wave.

Tai turned to see Manny and Holly return the wave, but Lani wasn't looking at them. She was packing up their dishes and didn't seem to be paying them any attention at all. He sighed. He gave a halfhearted wave as well. "Well at least we got our stuff back," he said and he dug through his bag to make sure that too-pretty girl hadn't taken anything.

Rex raised his eyes skyward.

-x-

Danny was digging through his garage. His mom really hated that most of it was overrun with his computer junk, but he made sure to give her enough room to put her car. He argued that if she got him a car, he would gladly move all his stuff out of the garage. This earned him a hard look and an admonishment to keep everything orderly.

He tried. He really did. He was having trouble locating a specific part. They'd completely built a neoplutonium skeleton for Beta Z. Billie was working hard on the brain, which she was building from new agey stuff from Nodroz Corp that looked like brain matter but actually functioned as a processor, much like a human brain.

So the mundane getting her knees to bend correctly was up to him. "Dang. Guess I ain't got one after all," he grumbled. He straightened up and lifted his mountain bike down from where it was hanging. He had a few options. He knew people who get what he needed.

He rolled his bike out into the street and hopped on. Sometimes he wished his mom had taken him up on his bargain. At the very least he should have gotten a motorcycle or something.

His mind turning to the task at hand, he pedaled down the street. He slowed to a halt as a pretty girl stepped onto the street in front of him. He stopped short. "Whoa. 'Ey, that was a pretty dangerous," he stated.

The girl, a lush redhead blinked big blue eyes at him. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were coming. I can be so flighty sometimes," she tittered.

Danny blinked. Ok. Brainless beauty. "Yeah, well. Be more careful next time," he said and backed up, preparing to go around her.

She pouted and frowned. "Don't you like me?" she asked in a petulant voice.

Danny frowned and backed up some more. Warning bells were going off in his head. "Ah, look. I don't even know you," he said.

"I'm Catriona. You can call me Cat," she said pleasantly with a flirty smile.

"Sure...but I really have to go. I'm in a hurry," he stated and prepared to speed away.

"You don't like me!" she shrieked and hurled an energy blast. It hit his bike and sent him flying. He hit the concrete hard and skidded. Winded and woozy, Danny looked up. The hot babe was beginning to change forms. She was no longer such a hot babe. She was a grotesque monster with horns, feathers and balls in her forehead.

He scrambled to make his communicator appear. "Guys, I'm in a bit of trouble here," he said as he scrambled to his feet.

Sedulinia hurled another energy blast at him. "I'll teach you to reject me!" She shouted.

Danny only just had time to erect a force field, but he was still knocked back a few feet. "Look, lady, tell your masters to do their research! I'm not into the brain-dead kind no matter how nice the wrappings," he said and twisted his wrists making his Morpher appear. "It's Morphin' Time! Triceratops! Power Lance!"

He morphed and made his weapon appear and ran at the monster.

-x-

Manny Diaz had enjoyed her day chilling in the park eating cheesecake with her besties. However, all good things had to come to an end. She was dragging her feet on the way to her abuela’s building. She cocked her head when she saw a motorcycle parked in the space for their apartment. Abuela didn't own a car. She looked closer at the motorcycle and realized it was strange. It looked a lot like a police cycle, yet not quite.

A sudden realization struck her and she began hurrying toward the entrance of the building with renewed vigor. She stopped short when she spotted a scary figure standing in front of the building flexing his fingers and looking around. "Eek," she gasped.

The Skeleton Ranger spotted her. He began walking toward her.

"Before you start trouble," she said as she backed up, "I'll warn you now, as far fetched as it may, sound, there is a Galactic Policeman in that building behind you right now," she found her voice.

He paused, he glanced at the building then spotted the motorcycle. "Well, that could be fun," he said and began running toward her. He perhaps thought to frighten her. He did, that. She managed to surprise him by ducking down and sweeping his feet out from under him as he neared.

She whirled out of the way as he fell. "Oh, snap! That wasn't good!" she squeaked and began running.

Skeleton Ranger regained his feet and gave chase, just plain ticked off now.

-x-

Billy and Beez got the distress call from Danny as well as detecting the Skeleton Ranger's presence. "Is he chasing that girl?" Billy asked, flabbergasted.

"Ay yi yi! Danny, I'm sending reinforcements now," Beez responded and contacted Tai.

-x-

Rex and Tai were heading to the Youth Center after their practice when their communicators began beeping. When Beez filled them in on the situation, Tai made the decision. "Send Wood, Lani, Tori and Taran after the Skeleton Ranger. Rex will meet them there. The rest of us will handle the monster," Tai said.

Rex glanced at him. "You sure you don't want to handle the Skeleton Ranger?" he asked.

"Did you see that huge honking mace Taran has? I'll leave it to him," Tai declared. "Ready?" Rex nodded. "It's Morphin' Time! Tyrannosaurus!"

"Mastodon!"

-x-

Blue Ranger found himself being knocked back again. Sedulinia laughed. "I've had girl trouble before, but this is ridiculous," he remarked to himself.

"New girlfriend?" the male Pink Ranger asked as he fired on Sedulinia. She knocked aside his bolt and threw a blast of energy at him. He jumped, hovered and fired several bolts in a row.

"Ain't she a peach? Can't wait to take him home to meet Ma," the male Blue Ranger drawled as he got back to his feet.

"She's actually an improvement on your last one. Talk about a monster," the female Black Ranger said. She rushed forward with her Axe to slash at the monster while she distracted by male Pink.

"Oh, yeah, that one," the female Blue Ranger said, distaste evident in her voice. She tapped her helmet and made her computer appear. "Cover me," she said and began her analysis.

"Always," the male Pink Ranger assured her.

The male Red Ranger and the Green Rangers arrived and were engaging the monster with weapons drawn.

The female Green Ranger whirled in with her staff, but Sedulinia was easily able to deflect and knock her back. The male Green Ranger went in close with his dagger but one chicken leg knocked him back. She scoffed at them. Until she lost an arm. With a slice of his blade, the male Red Ranger disarmed her.

"You cut off my arm?" she squawked. She ran around aimlessly, screeching and shouting. She stopped suddenly when the arm glowed, disappeared and grew out of her body again. "Oh, there it is," she said idly. "You Rangers will have to do better than that," she said. She let out a blast of energy that knocked them all from their feet.

-x-

Manny shrieked and pitched herself forward in a sprawl just as Skeleton Ranger swung an energy blast from his sword. She heard a car explode nearby.

"That's truly pathetic. Picking on a girl half your size and without any powers?" the male Black Ranger remarked as he and the other Rangers appeared.

Skeleton Ranger gripped his sword. "Tell them what you did," he ordered Manny.

"I may have knocked him down with a sweep kick," Manny admitted from her hiding place. She'd hurried out of the way when the Rangers arrived.

The male Yellow Ranger looked at her admiringly. "Seriously? That's so awesome!" He felt the other half of his coin appear in hand. "Yes!" He ran over to her.

Skeleton made a move to stop him, but Gold rushed forward with shocking speed. His mace smashed into Skeleton's chest.

"Oooh, I think I even felt that," male Black winced. He actually stood back and watched them trade blows. "That Tai," he said, shaking his head, marveling over his friend's leadering instincts.

The female Pink Ranger nodded. "Taran might slightly not be human," she admitted.

"This is my surprised face," he said and pointed at his helmet front. She giggled.

Female Red ran over to Manny as well. "Are you ok?" she asked as she helped her to her feet.

Manny dusted herself off. "I'm fine," she said and suddenly looked at the female Red. "La--"

"Did you really sweep kick the Skeleton Ranger?" the male Yellow interrupted. Manny barely managed to nod before he was shoving a shard of metal into her hand. "Say Saber-toothed Tiger," he said. He was stoked to finally find a partner, and she had the stacks to take on the Skeleton Ranger by herself.

"Saber-toothed Tiger?" she repeated, confused. Yellow electricity crackled as the coin dissolved into her hand. It formed yellow cuffs and then a female version of his power suit. She gasped. "No way!" she said.

"Yes!" female Red said and hugged her. "Welcome to the team!"

"You got your partner!" female Pink said and clapped her hands together for Yellow Ranger. He gave her both thumbs up.

Gold stumbled back. "I don't need any help or anything," he grunted.

"You looked like you had it handled," the male Black said. "Power Blasters!" he said. The Rangers, even the newest, drew their blasters and fired on the Skeleton Ranger.

He jerked back with each hit and the ground exploded around him. When the smoke cleared, he was crackling and smoking but still standing. "It'll take more than that," he said.

The Rangers were about to fire on him again when a slim figure in a tattered hood ran between them. "Enough!" she said with authority. She faced the Skeleton Ranger.

"Who're you?" he demanded just before he was hit with a blast of white energy. He crumpled to the ground his Morph beginning to fizzle. She threw something on the ground that obscured the Rangers' vision. When the haze cleared, the Skeleton Ranger and the figure were gone.

"That was odd," the male Black remarked.

"Par for the course, I'd say," the female Red said.

"We have to go help the others," Gold said.

"We what? There's more?" the female Yellow asked.

"We'll explain everything soon, I promise," the female Red said. She reached out and grabbed her. The six of them teleported.

-x-

Sedulinia was clearly winning. And to make things worse, she'd summoned a troop of Z-Putties. The other Rangers appeared in chaos. They jumped into the fray.

"Am I seeing that right? Is that another Yellow Ranger?" the male Red asked the male Black.

"Yep."

"Good. Glitch! You got a weak point yet?" he asked her.

"No, but those three orbs on her head are her centers of power," the female Blue answered.

"Then that's where we aim," he said. "Mega Power Cannon!" he called. The cannon charged, beginning to glow.

Six Rangers came in close. They combined their weapons, all of them, to form a rather large, multi-barreled cannon.

Sedulinia looked at them warily. "What's that?" she demanded.

"Fire!" the male Red pulled the trigger. Six points of energy swirled and swept through her. She exploded but almost immediately she grew to enormous proportions. She began trying to stomp on the male Blue.

"Oh, this is not good," female Red said.

"As far as I know, we're still Zordless," male Red said.

"On the contrary. Awaken your Zords," Beez said. "Both of you must do it the first time," she instructed.

The female red reached out and took the male Red's hand. She didn't care if it wasn't totally necessary. "Awaken the Tyrannosaurus-Rex!"

The male Blue ducked behind a tree and grabbed onto the female Blue. "Awaken the Triceratops!"

The Black Rangers bumped fists. "Awaken the Mastodon!"

"Awaken the Pterodactyl!"

"Awaken the Saber-toothed Tiger!"

"Awaken the Stygimoloch!"

The Zords began appearing from various hidden placed around the city. They were bulky yet eerily realistic. The Zords teleported their chosen pilots into their cockpits. The male Red, male Blue, male Black, female Pink, male Yellow and female Green.

"I take it this doesn't include me," Gold Ranger remarked. There were still more than enough Putties to keep him and the grounded Rangers busy.

"Not yet," Beez answered.

Sedulinia laughed at the Zords. "What are they supposed to be?" she asked threw and energy blast at them. Each in turn returned volleys of laser blasts at her.

"Megazord time, people. Activating Megazord configuration," the male red hit a rather large button in his cockpit. The Zords began assembling together. The Saber-toothed Tiger Zord and the Mastodon Zord formed legs and feet. The T-Rex Zord formed a torso while the Pterodactyl and Triceratops Zords formed arms. A helmeted head turned out of the T-Rex Zord. The Stygimoloch Zord came apart and formed a larger helmet, a body shield and a long sword. The Rangers appeared in a large cockpit.

"Alpha Megazord! Horned Spin Sword Strike!" The Sword formed from the StygiZord began spinning and glowing. The Megazord sped forward rammed the StygiSword into the monster's forehead. The orbs exploded in a three different shockwaves of released power before Sedulinia exploded.

"That was amazing," the male Yellow said in quiet awe.

"I'm just glad it's over," the male Blue declared. "That was just creepy," he said and shuddered.

"Looks like they cleared the Putty Patrol. I think we're done for the day," the male Red said, looking down to where the Rangers on the ground were waving and cheering up at them.

-x-

Moon Palace

"Ugh. That was a disaster," Widow remarked as she and Roki watched the scene through one of her portals from the comfort of their bed.

Roki grunted. "That one jumped the gun too quickly. The next one will have more cunning. What happened to the orbs?" he asked.

"They were destroyed, the power dispersed. Now no one can use them," she answered. She waved away the portal, sick of the scene.

Roki pulled her close to him and kissed her shoulder. "Let's forget about monsters and Power Rangers for the moment," he suggested.

"Hmm. That, my husband, is a wonderful idea," she agreed and turned toward him. She kissed him and they proceeded to forget about monsters and Power Rangers for quite a time.

-x-

Zita growled to herself as she looked around the scene of the Skeleton Ranger's last known location. There had been magic done there. Powerful magic. "Whoever you are, you can interfere all you want. He's still my cursed little puppet," she shouted. She turned on her heel and vanished in a puff of purplish smoke.

-x-

Manny Diaz, the newest Power Ranger, looked around the faces of her team mates, one of them one of her best friends. It explained a bit of Lani's behavior recently. They'd explained everything to her. She still felt faintly overwhelmed.

"Those were Reaver powers," Taran explained to them. Tori nodded.

Tai frowned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "So, your evil sister stole your people's powers and gave them to Roki and Zita to put in pretty girl monsters?" he asked, not really expecting an answer, just working through the pieces himself.

"So now we have to be wary of hot girls?" Rex asked. "Bummer," he complained.

"Better hide that pretty face of yours," Chloe told him.

Taran nodded. "If Widow has hooked up with those two, it ain't good for us. Course I'd rather the powers be destroyed than used for more evil," he added.

Tai nodded. "There were ten, right? So, we should be expecting at least two more monsters," he said.

"More than likely," Taran nodded.

"Well, if anyone is interested in good news," Billy interjected, "I have a containment field," he announced.

"Great. Who thinks they can get a bit of Sora's DNA?" Tai asked.

"We can. He drinks from our cups," Win answered.

Tai nodded. "Then we'll talk to him as soon as we can program him into the computers. I'm ready to find out why he needs to talk to the Power Rangers," he said.

"We'll get on that ASAP," Autumn assured him.

"Well, for now, you can all go, I guess," he said. People began clearing out of the Command Center until no one was left but the Blues and him and Rex.

"Come on. Let's go," Rex said, giving him a push. "Being all serious Leader Boy all the time will give you wrinkles," he drawled.

"Go suck yourself," Tai said and pushed him back but teleported out of the CC with Rex on his heels.

x-The End Chapter 06-x           

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment