Power Rangers 1. Episode 1: The Fire Burns

It was a calm night as a sole figure waited in the darkness only broken by the headlights of his blue Jeep and the stars. He looked to his wrist then muttering when he realized he had checked the wrong one and was now staring at his communicator. He raised his other arm to see that they were a few minutes late already, He reclined his chair and set his feet on the dash board. He leant his head against his hand while staring off into the sky while his patience slowly began to fade. The lights of Storm Blaster flashed on and off to get his attention and the young man lowered his gaze from the skies above.

"They'll be here soon enough," He muttered as he took his feet down from the dashboard. He petted it gently with his hand like one would stroke the fur on a dog.

Suddenly Storm Blaster jerked forward and the young man stared at the vehicle in confusion. A gurgling sound started to drone out from behind the vehicle and splashing erupted from the ground in front of them. The sight was familiar and the young man instantly recognised the figures. They were two Piranhatrons. Justin glanced behind him to see three more of its kind creeping up behind and getting ready to pounce. His car reversed into the three behind them managing to run over two of them before the third gripped the back and began pulling itself up onto the Jeep. The unmorphed man then turned to face the minion holding onto his wheeled ally. Balancing as best that could while using the chair to hold himself up and then stomping down on its hands sending it under Storm Blaster. The Piranhatron narrowly avoided the wheels of the car and was brought back to its feet by its two remaining allies. Justin turned back to face the three and summoned his morpher and his activation key. The sudden jerk from the sentient car stopping forced the key from his hand. It clanked against the door of the car and went flying outside before he could catch it. Soon after though Justin followed suit and slammed his head against the ground. His vision blurred for a few moments as he tried to find his Turbo Key. One of the drones legs collided into his chest and knocked the wind out of him. He forced himself to his feet and blocked the next kick from the drone. He threw a clumsy strike at the first one in his confusion. One of them grabbed his throat and pinned him to the ground, squeezing the life out of him. Justin wrestled with the drone trying to break its grip. He was running out of air. Vision was blurring even more. Then he felt the heat from a blaster close by him and he could breathe again. He dragged his body away using the grass to pull himself along.

He had been careless. It'd been so long. Years since they'd appeared. Why were they here? Why now? His mind was racing. He hadn't been expecting to be attacked. He then remembered that there should have still been two more. He flipped his body around just in time to see them run over by his Jeep. He let out a sigh of relief. He couldn't believe how he'd messed up so much in that one fight. He dusted himself down but before he could work out why anything happened the splashing started again. Droves of them began seeping into the world around him and his head was still throbbing. He spotted his turbo key and dove for it with his arm out stretched. He just managed to grab it while turning to face the forces. Some of them had begun hooking and chaining up Storm Blaster.

"Right, now it's my time to shine!" A smirk appeared on his face

"Shift in Turbo!" He raised his hands and did the motions before slamming the turbo key into his Morpher.

"Mountain Blaster Turbo Power," A bright blue light consumed the young man as his suit formed around him. Finally the energy exploded outwards as the sequence ended and forced the advancing enemies back.

The young adult from before was no longer standing before them. In his place stood the Blue Turbo Ranger. A confidant grin was hidden behind the helmet of his suit as he jumped and kicked one of the drones down. He gave a right hook to one knocking it into another. Justin summoned his blaster and began shooting down the advancing troops with ease. He watched as the melted back into the ground and he used the chance to check his vehicular friend. He didn't let down his guard however and waited for the next wave of aggressors. Blotches of colours sparked around him and Storm Blaster but they weren't surrounded by Piranhatrons. It was Chromites. The ones near Storm Blaster had already begun throwing nets around its forms and chaining it the ground. The Jeep tried in vain to fire off blasts but it was just absorbed by the net and redirected to weaken it. A net was thrown over Justin and he could feel it begin to drain away his strength, quickly he summoned his Turbo Blade and cut through it. He slashed through two of the Chromites and turned face the others. They were swaying from side to side until they finally rushed forward with their clubs. He raised his sword and blocked the first and quickly grabbed another with his free hand. Another two clubs struck into his back but he stood his ground and threw the two others in front of him away. He span around and slashed the ones behind him causing them to fade into flashes of light. He withdrew his sword back into his suit and then gripped his blaster.

He had to keep them all in front of him, If he got surrounded he would be overwhelmed. He started firing wildly to keep them at a safe enough distance. One of the drones span the chain and slamming it into Justin's chest. It wrapped around his chest and left arm forcing him to drop his blaster. He grabbed the chain with his free hand ripped the Chromite from its feet. As he tried to force off the chain from around his torso another around wrapped around his throat. Then a third chain wrapped across his legs forcing him to the ground with his blaster just out of reach. He summoned his sword again and tried to cut through the chains but they held together under the pressure of his attack. The leader of the drones whacked down on his helmet forcing Justin to release his grasp on the weapon. It stood on his free hand with its foot. The lead Chromite slowly lifted his sword and raised it above it head, Justin could only stare up as it prepared to strike.

Blaster fire saved Justin for a second time the night but he knew it couldn't have been Storm Blaster this time. Justin looked to the skies as he heard a cheer of triumph from familiar voices. It was the Galaxy Gliders with the Space Rangers flying on top of them. They were blasting the waves of Chromites before jumping from their boards next to Justin. The black suited ranger ripped the chains off Justin's body and helped him back to his feet. He was a little embarrassed with just out of practice he had gotten and how easily these mere foot soldiers could take him out. The other three who had come down to assist him had begun finishing off the waves of troops. They finally turned to face Justin as the last of the threats faded away into light.

"Looks like we got here just in time," Rang out the voice of TJ behind the blue helmet of his armour.

Lights of different colours absorbed the gathered heroes and they powered down and Justin turned to see the smiling face of Carlos still helping him up. Carlos gave him a pat on the back before letting go and allowing him to stand on his own.

"You okay Buddy? Things were looking rough there," His voice was filled with concern over his old friend.

"Yeah… I'm fine I just wasn't expecting that. Guessing that's something do to with why you contacted me," A faint smile appeared on Justin's face. It had been so long since he had seen them last but he did wish that it was under better circumstances.

"Yep, Now come on and let us get you inside, You look like you could use a warm drink." Ashley piped up giving Justin a quick hug before she and Cassie grabbed his hands.

"You mean the Megaship?!" He failed to hide his boyish excitement as just in the distance he could see the shape of the Space Rangers ship begin to land.

Justin was lead in by his unmorphed old friends to the Bridge of the Megaship were they were greeted by Andros and Zane. Andros gave Justin a small friendly nood and shook his hand while Zane merely grinned at him from his seat. He didn't know them very well but they had met during the few times his friends had come home to visit him. They were good people and Justin had respect for them. The Turbo Ranger felt like a kid in a candy shop with all the advanced technology in this room. All of the consoles and controls flashed interesting information as he inspected them. He couldn't help but have his hover over all over the buttons and looked up to see the others smiling at his enthusiasm.

"Guessing I can't have a go?" He inquired hopefully.

"We have a few things to talk about Justin," Andros cut in at this point. Justin knew he just wanted to avoid disappointing him.

"Right yeah, Sorry." He pointed towards the chair before being told he could sit down.

TJ came forward and the display screen changed from the view of the outside to images of a spaceship in deep space. It was one that brought up old memories for Justin from his time as a Ranger. It was a strange sphere like construct with metal sections poking out in different areas.

"Divatox's ship?" He blurted out.

"General Havoc's actually. We've been getting images from around the Galaxy and we've been attacked by Chromites," TJ clicked images past of the images of the drones running through the halls of the ship. He finally showed them attempting to steal a crate before be stopped by the Space Rangers.

"What were they trying to take?"

"Ah, Well Justin that's where you come in," TJ, Carlos, Ashley and Cassie reached into their jackets and set down four silver boxes followed by four keys.

"The Turbo Morphers?"

"We think that Havoc is back and he wants the Turbo Morphers. We've gotten some word from the Phantom Ranger that he needs them for something. He wouldn't tell us what," TJ seemed as though he wanted to add something. Justin knew him well enough to tell that he thought the Phantom Ranger was keeping something important from them.

"So wait-wait-wait. General Havoc is back. How is that possible?!"

"We don't know," TJ shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. They had obviously been stressing out over the return of an old villain.

Ashley stepped forward to help TJ explain things.

"We've tried to track him but we've had no luck. We aren't sure how but we think he's been gathering an army but for some reason he wants these morphers,"

"So we're giving them to you buddy, we couldn't think of anyone better," Carlos slapped his young friends arm fixing him with a proud brotherly stare.

"We've have a few leads and we're hoping to find and stop him. If we fail we want you to protect the Turbo Powers," The Blue Space Ranger was still heading the discussion. He needed to make sure Justin understood the gravity of the situation.

"Why me?" Was all Justin could think to say. He was overjoyed at the idea of being entrusted with the turbo powers and being their protector. He did however know that they could have and probably should have gone to one of the other older Rangers.

Carlos was the first to answer. "You were a Turbo Ranger longer than anyone and most importantly we know you can handle it. You're our friend and the best man for the job. So what do you say Buddy? Are you in?"

Silence filled the room as they waited to Justin's response. The younger man looked to the smiling and confidant faces of his old comrades in arms. Justin could feel himself welling up a little inside from how proud he felt. It was reassuring for him to know that even though he rarely got to see them as they flew around the cosmos his old friends still cared for him and respected him. They gave him more words of encouragement and each handed over their Turbo Morphers to their younger friend. Cassie gripped his shoulder tightly and calmingly as she handed hers over.

"Come on, we'll get you something to eat and we'll all catch up,"

* * *

That night had been one of joy between the gathered heroes but the Elephant in the room still remained. The Space Rangers were planning to search the stars for General Havoc and engage him before he had a chance to amass a larger army. With the Turbo Morphers in his possession it made him the last line of defense if they failed. He was not vain enough to assume that he could do it on his own however and knew who we needed to contact. It had taken nearly a month to get in contact with them all; their lives had changed a lot since their time together. Eventually he had managed to get in contact with them and arrange a meeting point so that they could discuss things in person further. However they all had lives and adventures of their own so a few weeks passed before they were able to set a date for this meet up. At first there had been no rush. The Space Rangers could only send him short messages to let him know of their progress and even then it was delayed by a few hours. They kept him updated on their progress, day to day lives and the problems that they were encountering.

It had been around 2 weeks ago when the messages stopped.

There was silence from the far reaches of space.

Justin checked the device that he and the others had concocted for sharing information. Repaired it over and over just to be sure but there appeared to be no fault. The Sensors were work correctly. The Dish could pick up other signals from the vacuum of space, They were in strange unknown languages.

The last message he had received from them had seemed simple enough. The trail for Havoc seemed to be going cold and they were planning to re-examine some of the leads that they had. The only thing that gave him hope was the fact that he had received no beacon of SOS. He tried to use this to convince himself that maybe they were just unable to contact him. Space disturbances and other things could have blocked the signal. Two weeks was still a very long time to wait...

With no other option in his mind Justin bid farewell to his father and set off for somewhere he might be safer. It would be a few days drive if he limited the amount of stops he made along the way. He hadn't wanted to go this early and it would be a while before the others flew in to meet with them. It sort of seemed like a strange idea to not give them the morphers all at once. A horn blasted to wake him from his slumber and Justin shook his drowsy head to snap himself out of it. He had been sleeping in Storm Blaster and just allowing the car to drive him around while he was unconscious. It would save him time in the long run but it left his muscles tight, sore and gave him all kinds of cramps. He glances over to the passenger seat of his car were the signalling device remained. He began the process of checking for new messages but as expected there was still no word from his comrades. He finally saw the reason that his Jeep had woken him from his sleep.

It was a sign that read "Welcome to Reefside," He had made it to his destination. Now all he had to do was track down Tommy Oliver one of the greatest Rangers of all time.

It wasn't too hard for him to believe that Tommy had managed to get a PHD and become a teacher quickly. Justin had been pushed forward a number of years already himself plus they had all managed to get a few strings pulled for them after the Space Rangers saved world. Justin stopped for a second as he thought back to his friends. He had to delude himself into believing that they were okay. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to go on. It took him some time to get his bearings as he entered the city but soon enough he had located the school, Justin checked his phone and saw that it was still within school hours. He bit his thumb while he debated to himself whether he should just wait till the end of the school day and a cramp in his leg seemed to be the deciding factor. He slowly forced himself from the truck while he massaged the sore area of his leg. He gave the vehicle a slight tap and it flashed its lights at him before he started to limp off. He peeked up the slight hill that he had parked next to and spotted a student in an old beaten up leather jacket. Justin decided that he needed to ask someone where he would be able to find Tommy and this kid would be as good as anyone. He trudged his way up the bank and waved to get his attention. The teen didn't respond and Justin called up to him. "Hey. Sorry to bother you but do you know where Doctor Thomas Oliver is?" He still said nothing and continued walking on away from the school.

"Sorry!? I said I was looking for Doctor Oliver, Can you point me in his direction,"

"Do I look like the receptionist?" The young man appeared to be of Asian descent, He seemed to be of an Athletic build but this was hidden under a baggy clothes. His long scruffy hair added to the over all messy appearance that he had. His red shirt and blue jeans both seemed faded from age. His eyes looked just as tired as Justin's and there were heavy bags under them. Justin was taken aback by how confrontation the kid was being towards him from just a simple question.

"Just tell me where he is," Justin responded not wanting to back down.

"Nice car," The teen retorted looking down at the blue Jeep parked at the foot of the hill. He was still avoiding the question Justin was so desperate to have answered. Seemed like the Ranger would have to use a different tactic to get the information from this student.

"I'll let you see it if you give me a hand,"

The Student eyed Justin up and down. He considered the proposition and finally shrugged.

"Right, Whatever just keep up,"

"Whats your name?"

"Kenji,"

"I'm Justin,"

Kenji nodded at him. He didn't seem to want to chat and the walk into the school was a quiet experience for them. The halls of Reefside brought Justin back to his days in Angel Grove with the gang. He watched as groups of students wandered past in their little groups, Things didn't really change in High schools. A young black girl in a cheerleader outfit was passing by and forced a flyer into Kenji's hands, She had a beaming and brilliantly white smile on her face. She was very pretty and her black hair was left to hang loose down to her shoulders. It flicked gently as she moved around handing out the posters. Her brown chocolatey eyes fixed on the Blue Ranger. She gave one to Justin not really noticing that he wasn't a student here and Justin didn't feel the need to correct her. Kenji glanced at the flyer and then scrunched it up and forced it into his bag. "You should consider voting Kenji. Take part in school stuff a bit more. Make a few more friends," Her sweet tone hid a sharper edge to it. It was obvious that she didn't like Kenji and well Justin had to admit that he didn't seem to make it easy to like him. Kenji brushed his long greasy hair away from his face and just glared at her. He didn't even want to acknowledge her presence and tried to push past but she held up her hand to stop him.

"Back off Pom Pom," Kenji said removing her hand from his chest forcefully. Justin was about to break the two kids apart but Kenji just moved on and signalled for Justin to follow him. Justin smiled briefly at the girl who returned the smile though it did seemed a bit forced. Justin glanced at the flyer. It read "Vote Madeline for School Counsel President," It had a little slogan and few promises written on it if she won. In the corner there was a little lip stick mark printed onto it. He folded it up and placed it in his coat before speeding up to catch up with Kenji.

"So you not like school?"

"Who does?" Justin didn't feel like answering and the angry teen continued. "No I can't wait to get out of here. Place is filled with the worse kinds of people and I don't want to have to put up with them,"

"Well what do you want to do after?"

"I dunno. I'll figure that out later,"

They continued along the hallway until they made their way to a classroom. It said it was the science room on the door.

"He'll be here after lunch, I'm gonna head out and check out your car,"

"Hey wait a sec. couldn't you just take me to the staff room?"

A voice called out to Kenji from down the hall before he could answer Justin back. A jockish individual strolled down the hallway towards them. He had a footballers build and he was tall making him tower over Kenji and Justin. His hair was blonde but shaved very close to his head and his eyes were blue. He had a very stereotypically handsome face but an intimating presence that seemed to rile Kenji up just from being there. He stepped up to confront the clean cut student. They both looked like they wanted to knock the other one around. The newcomer spoke up first.

"Didn't expect to see you here. This mean you're actually showing up for class today,"

"Back off Drake, Shouldn't you be off washing the teacher's cars for extra credit or something"

"Yeah right, least I'll have a future. Waste your life and see if I care."

Kenji was about to talk back when Justin stopped them.

"Hey sorry I still need to be shown where the staff room is. It's important,"

Drake took notice of Justin and became a lot more respectful and loosened up a bit.

"Oh sorry Sir, I didn't realize that you were a guest. You should have just gone to reception. Kenji here can be a bit difficult. I can help you if you need,"

"Yeah thanks, Sorry I just really need to meet up with Tomm… Sorry I mean Doctor Oliver," Justin had almost called him Tommy in front of his students, that wouldn't have helped him to keep things professional. Kenji tried to walk away but Drake grabbed his arm and Kenji looked like he was about to punch him for a second. Kenji was forced to follow along with them by Drake and the tension in the air prevented Justin's conversation with Drake from reaching anything more than pleasantries. Reefside was a lot less harmonious than he remembered Angel Grove being but then he had a strong group of friends to make things easier and apart from a few instances of bullying he enjoyed his time there. Almost by fate as he thought back to his time being the victim of bullies a pile of books and folders were thrown over the ground. Justin looked up to see a group of kids laughing at the expense of some poor nervous looking girl. Kenji suddenly broke away from the group to confront these bullies, their leader was still laughing when Kenji made it over to him.

"Back off her Daniel!" Kenji spat.

"Or what?! You gonna get your minder to come give me a stern talking to?" Daniel motioned towards Drake who sighed and apologized to Justin. He strolled over the arguing students with the intention of breaking off their verbal confrontation.

"Back off now or I'll smack the smile right off your face,"

"Yeah right you lazy piece of-" Daniel was cut off as Kenji fulfilled his promise. He smacked the bully so hard that he was knocked right on his ass. At once the rest of the group stopped laughing, The nervous young girl backed away as the Leader of the bullies forced himself to his feet. He spat blood on the ground and it was obvious that Kenji had busted his lip. Drake sighed and then made his way in between them all trying to break up the fight. Justin started to picked up the girls stuff but then the delinquents strode up to Drake. They wanted a fight and there was nothing that would stop them now. Drake and Kenji were outnumbered. There were eight against the two of them. Justin wanted to help but he knew he couldn't touch any of these students without getting into legal trouble.

One of the delinquents punched Drake in face however the broad student held his ground and lifted his attacker right off his feet before throwing them right into two of his friends. Kenji moved a lot quicker and was much more focused on the leader keeping up his assault. The bully kept pulling himself off the ground but Kenji wasn't getting tired of knocking him straight back down again. It was apparent that this was another person that Kenji had bad blood with. Two of his friends grabbed Kenji's arms and Justin's guide couldn't force his arms free. Their boss cracked his fingers threateningly and started to get a little pay back. He struck Kenji over and over and was only interrupted when the girl that they had been bullying started smacking him with her now mostly empty bag. The trouble maker looked mostly annoyed before pushing her off, She kept trying to whack him with the bag which eventually drew his attention. Justin was forced to step in. He couldn't hit them but he could defend himself and others. He stepped in between the trouble maker and girl. He blocked his strikes, pushed his punches away and just moved out of the way letting the young teen smash his hand against the wall. He clutched at his hand and was wailing in pain. Justin turned to the girl to see if she was okay. She seemed to be quite nerdy and seemed to be going with that Emo teen look which had become very popular these days. Wearing all black expect for some odd gold pattern over her shirt a couple of colourful armbands to match. Her hair was quite short and black with some highlighted blonde streaks to highlight her face.

"Whats your name?"

"Claire," She was obviously spooked and wasn't sure if she should talk to Justin.

"Right Claire. Go get a teacher. Get Doctor Oliver, get anyone. Quick!"

The girl ran off to go and get help without having to be told twice. Justin felt a fist connect with the back of his head. His entire body shook and he slammed into the wall. He could hardly keep on his feet. The room was spinning and he turned to see that his foe had gotten back up and smacked him with his other hand. Kenji was still trying to wrestle himself free from his friends, It might have been the smack to the head but Justin thought Kenji almost looked concerned for him. Justin started to dodge again but he was more sluggish and less focused and now the Teen was getting a few more shots in on the unmorphed Ranger.

Drake was fairing a bit better than Justin or Kenji however he was getting overwhelmed by the four of them and they were trying to force him to the ground. Drake was built like a brick wall though and it took them a lot of them effort before they got him to the floor. As soon as they had however started to lay into them. Drake was saved when one of them received a swinging kick to their face which knocked them off his chest. Then another received the same treatment until Drake got his second wind and threw the others off him. He turned to meet his saviour and it was none other than Madeline the cheerleader they had met earlier. She smiled at Drake and he became a lot more withdrawn. However before they could continue their little chat the dazed Justin was thrown at them. Drake caught him and held the Ranger up to make sure that he was okay. Justin nodded but he knew he needed a few seconds to catch his breath.

They led him to a wall so that he could lean against it as they were dragged back into the fight when Kenji started yelling in pain as most of the gang had decided to take our their frustrations on him. As Justin sat back he made note of how the others fought. Madeline seemed to focus on kicks and there was elegance to the way that she moved that suggested that she had trained in more than just cheer leading. Her kicks moved fluidly into each other and she never seemed to stop, she forced one of the gang members to let go on Kenji. Drake focused heavily on the use of his great strength and added some of his own football experience into the way he fought. He tackled well, easily knocking people off their feet. His punches were untrained but powerful and he smacked one of the students so hard that he was knocked unconscious. Kenji managed to wrestle himself free and made a B-line for the leader again. Kenji was the most ferocious with his attacks and his grunts made him sound almost animal like. There was a lot of pent up anger in this young man that he seemed to be unleashing. His attacks were wild but still there was a strange sort of rhyme to them that suggested that he may have had some formal training in combat.

Kenji gave a left hook followed by a right to the face of this Daniel person. Then followed it up with a roundhouse kick to side and finally finished him off with an uppercut that took them both of their feet. Only Kenji stood back up again. He swung round and delivered a blow square to the nose of one of the one of Daniel's lackies members that wanted to help their fallen friend. They too were knocked down and seemed to be playing possum for the moment. Madeline and Drake backed closer to Kenji. It was 3 against 5 now and it looked like they could win this fight until a loud booming female voice rang out across the hall.

"Stop this now!"

It was the schools principle with a face like thunder going red from barely restrained fury. She stormed down the hall with a nervous looking Claire beside her. The brawling students all realized that they had been caught in the act. They were getting an ear full when Justin spotted the familiar figure of Thomas Oliver hurrying down the hall. He spotted Justin and made his way over to him. Justin tried to meet him but he was still a little bit dizzy from being hit in the back of the head.

"Justin are you alright?"

"Yeah, a couple of those kids were bullying that Claire girl. Kenji smacked one and then it all went crazy,"

"Don't worry, we'll get this all sorted out. I'll bring you to my room and you can sit down for a sec while we handle this,"

Justin nodded as he was lead down the hallway back to Tommy's classroom. He gave a quick look behind him to see that the students were being taken away. Claire seemed to be checking up on Kenji, she was thankful for his help and for the first time since they met he saw the angry young man smile. Drake and Madeline were standing together however they both seemed distant from the other. It seemed to Justin that there was a bit of history between the two but he shrugged it off and just accepted that this was something he just wouldn't know.

Justin sat alone in the science room staring at all of the empty chairs and he awaited the return of Tommy Oliver. Back when he was younger Tommy had been a bit of a mentor towards him. He was the leader of the team and had served as a Power Ranger for the longest time while Justin was the Rookie and good deal younger than the rest of them. Even now there was a part of him that still got a little nervous working with the older rangers. Most of them had more experience than he did and their times as the lead team of Ranger hadn't ended with the Command Center being taken over and destroyed. Justin tapped his fingers on the desks and found his eyes being drawn out to look at the school grounds. He got a few flashes of the Command Center's destruction and they day that Earth was invaded by the Alliance of Evil. The waves of enemies attacking and overcoming them on both occasions as he failed to save the day. The ruins of the Center and the buildings around him. He shook them out of his head trying not to obsess. It was a tough thing to witness as a kid, He'd barely gotten out alive. He hadn't been able to talk to the others about it much as they had rush off into space to find Zordon. It wasn't something he could talk to his father about either. He had nightmares about it. Only in his nightmares it didn't stop with the Command Center. Angel Grove was destroyed to and all his friends lay broken and defeated in front of him. In his nightmares he was the only one left, Alone and fighting an Army he could never hope to beat. He then remembered that he had already lost contact with the Space Rangers, Four of his closest friends were already captured or lost forever. A cold chill encompassed his body and he realized that he was one step closer to living out that nightmare.

He was snapped free from his thoughts by the sound of the door opening and the return of Tommy. He looked a bit stressed out and he was rubbing his temples which gave Justin to wiped his eyes clear. He didn't want his old mentor to see him like this.

"You're lucky there was so much confusion there Justin. If you had hit any of the students there'd have been trouble,"

Tommy pulled a chair up beside Justin and there was silence between the two. Finally the elder patted Justin on the back and they gave each other a smile. They hadn't kept in the best of touch since their days together as rangers but that was to be expected. There was always an age gap and when Justin moved away it put a bit of distance between them all. This was one of the few times they had met in person in all of these years. They had worked together during one troubled time in earth's history but neither of them liked to bring it up. There was a lot of bad memories attached to it and Justin hadn't quite forgiven himself for his failures during that incident.

"Okay, so the others are getting here later this week. Then we'll need to make preparations."

Justin and Tommy spent the next few minutes sorting out things. Justin would be staying with Tommy while he was in Reefside and they would be working from the lab under his house. They needed to get started restoring some of the broken down Turbo technology. They also did a little bit of catching up. Tommy spoke of his recent adventures with the Dino Thunder Rangers and how they had lost their powers and his students had moved on from Reefside. Justin had informed him about his time in college, things with his dad and finally explained how he had eventually lost contact with the Space Rangers. Their conversation was interrupted by the sounds of Thunder rumbling nearby. They stopped and looked outside to see that the weather was calm and the sky was clear, It didn't add up. Another rumble however this time the earth shook slightly. The third and final time it happened a bolt of red lighting struck the grounds outside the window causing the whole school to shake violently and smashing the windows. Justin and Tommy were sent off their feet by the blast and they slowly got back up to see General Havoc standing the courtyard with his sword drawn and a squad of Chromites around him. His eyes scanned around until he spotted the classroom that they were in. Dark purple energy gathered around his hand and he blasted a hole right through the wall.

Justin found himself lying on the ground a few moments later. There was deadly ringing in his ears and his vision was strained. He could barely make anything out at first but soon it became clearer. Havoc was striding towards them and his Chromites were already in the room. Four of them were picking up the limp body of Tommy Oliver who was hopefully just out cold. Adrenaline forced Justin up and he quickly grabbed a chair and fought the Chromites off Tommy. Grabbing his friend's body and dragging him toward the exit. A second and less powerful blast narrowly avoided Justin but it put a whole in the wall helping him out into the hallway. Justin still had the other morphers in his bag but Tommy was out for the count. It was taking so much effort to move Tommy and he heard his enemies getting closer. He wished he could have teleported but his communicator wasn't linked to anywhere since the destruction of the Command Centre. He rounded the corner and tried to think of somewhere to hide Tommy so he was out of the way. He spotted Drake and the others rushing out from the Principles office to see what was going on. He made his way to them as the Monsters rounded the Corner. He handed Tommy to Drake and Kenji.

"Get him out of here quickly. I'll hold them off as long as I can,"

They group looked confused but agreed dragging the weak form of their teacher away from the danger zone. Justin was blasted of his feet as Havoc took a shot at the ground, The young man went spinning through the air until he slammed into the lockers. His bag had been ripped off his shoulders and lay behind him. He was the only thing between it and Havoc. Justin's body was bruised and weak but he knew he had to stand up once more. He got to his feet and summoned his morpher.

"Shift into Turbo,"

"Mountain Blaster Turbo Power,"

He summoned his Turbo Blade. Havoc reached him and raised his blade, A laugh escaped him.

"Ah so the little boy blue has grown up now? Such a shame that your adult life has to end so early for you,"

Havoc let out a short battle cry as he rushed forwards. Justin cartwheeled back to avoid the attack of Havoc's rapier and the Blue Ranger used this chance to grab his bag and throw it over his shoulder. He dodged a second slash from Havoc and retaliated with a low strike of his own that the General easily blocked this attempt and slashed Justin's chest with his blade. Sparks flew out from his armour like blood gushing from a wound. Justin's body twisted awkwardly and Havoc struck again. Justin raised his sword and managed to block however the General was stronger than him and forced his blade to the ground.

"Come now, is that really all you have? Your fellow fought much harder than you did,"

Anger rushed through Justin and he gave Havoc a swift head butt that dazed his enemy for a moment and made him step back. Justin slashed at his chest and electricty flew causing Havoc to fly back farther. He laughed which annoyed Justin more and then dusted off his chest. He signalled with his hands and the Chromites came rushing in again. They ran in two lines at Justin with their clubs at the Ready. Justin dodged and blocked at many shots as he could but a few of them managed to get him. They had him surrounded and continued to pummel him while he tried to knock his way through the crowd of them.

* * *

Drake, Kenji, Madeline, Claire and the Principle had made it out of the school along with the bullies. However the four teens quickly got themselves separated from the others in the large crowd. Suddenly Claire stopped in her tracks and turned to look back at the school. This caught the attention of Kenji who stopped as well forcing Drake to follow suit while still holding up their teacher.

"We can't just leave him in there!" The young girl squealed.

"Well what do you expect us to do?" Drake asked

"We need to go help him, He tried to help me before just like the rest of you!"

"There's no point. He's probably gone already. We need to get to safety and let the authorities deal with this,"

Madeline piped in suddenly "Yeah like they've ever been able to deal with these sorts of problems. Way I see it the only people who can deal with that sort of problem is the Power Rangers and it's been months since they've been about,"

Kenji looked into Claire's eyes. He could see her concern for Justin and he had to admit that there was a part of him that didn't feel right about leaving him behind. Justin had only been their visiting Doctor Oliver and he wasn't like all the jerks that made his life a living hell. He'd even been willing to try and help knock some sense into the bullies alongside Kenji. He didn't seem like a bad guy and as much as he tried to convince himself to do the smart thing he knew exactly what he was going to do. Kenji took Doctor Oliver's arm from around his shoulder. Drake readjusted himself so he didn't drop his teacher.

"No, she's right, we can't leave him. I'm going back,"

Drake attempted to grab Kenji with his free hand but he missed and within seconds the young man had forced his way through the sea of people and back into the school. Claire turned back to her fellow students.

"Well if you're not going then I have to!"

"And what are you going to do? You weren't able to deal with bullies before." Sneered the cheerleader.

"I don't know. But I can't just leave him," She yelled as she followed Kenji back into the school. A silence hung between the two that were left until finally Madeline sighed and began running back however she was stopped by Drake grabbing her hand.

"They're gone we have to get out of here,"

"That's cold Drake even for you, You only live once you know so I might as well see where this takes me,"

Madeline wrenched her hand free from the burly footballer and soon he was left holding Doctor Oliver alone. People kept pushing past him trying to get away and he got a cold sting in the back of his throat. He grabbed one of the people trying to evacuate and handed them Doctor Oliver. He told them to run and they didn't argue. Drake soon found himself heading into the danger zone against his better judgement to save a guy he'd known for 5 minutes and some people he didn't really like. He had to admit that this wouldn't be making his top ten smartest choices list but he knew he'd not forgive himself if the worst happened.

* * *

Justin had not fared well while the teens had been deciding whether they would help him. He had been beaten badly by the squad of Chromites while forced to dodge the occasional energy wave from Havoc. He charged some of his power through the turbo blade and slashed through a few of the Chromites to get a bit more space. He grabbed the club of the nearest one and spun it into its allies knocking down a few more. However he got blind sighted by another dark energy wave and he was forced to his knees as his suit sparked all over. The sparks were caused by certain sections of the suit overloading or having dangerous power fluxes. Justin was picking himself of the ground when Havoc slashed his chest causing him to fall back on his back. Havoc grabbed him by the neck and lifted him from the ground. Justin gasped for air as his feet hovered off the ground.

"I tire of this game,"

The Chromites appeared behind and began trying to rip the bag off Justin's back. The blue form continued to struggle until he had a flash of inspiration. The Turbo blade faded in a flash of light and was replaced by the Turbo Hand Blasters. Justin began firing widely at close range into Havoc's chest forcing the General back. Seeing his opportunity the young ranger kept up his assault. He couldn't be sure that he would get another. He felt a tug as he tried to move forward and realized that the Chromites were still trying to get into his bag. He flipped around and blasted the Chromites until they melted into a puddle and faded into the ground. The Blue ranger didn't have time to celebrate though as crescent shaped wave of energy slashed its way through his back and into his bag sending him toppling through the air. He landed several meters away. Justin's body twitched in pain as a huge surge shattered his suits and forced him to demorph. His bag had been torn completely open and Justin could see the Turbo Morphers further down the hall. He crawled towards them as quickly as he could however four pairs of feet had already reached the morphers. The defeated Ranger looked up to see that it was the four teens from earlier. They'd come back for him even when he had told them to run. Part of him was glad but another part was cursing the group for putting themselves in dangers. Claire and Kenji had already grabbed the Morphers that had been at their feet and were trying to help Justin back to his feet. Drake and Madeline were keeping the Chromites off them. They knew they needed to move fast as Havoc was closing in on them again.

The hallways were empty as they ran. Justin was lagging behind the rest of them because of his injuries but Claire and Kenji were making sure that he didn't fall too far behind. They ducked into a classroom waiting for the wave of Chromites to pass by them. They made their way to the window as they heard Havoc approaching and just about made it outside and into cover when he slammed open the door looking for them.

"I want every room searched! Find them!"

The Chromites broke apart and the group could hear the slamming of more doors. Havoc raised a small device to the area were face.

"Fixenstein I want another squad of Chromites down here now!"

"Yes my General!" Rang out a shrill voice from the communicator.

The group made their way to a large patch of bushes out of view from the school. Kenji had to help Justin across while he tried to recuperate. His whole body ached and he felt like he had been spent the last few hours being smashed in the chest with a sledgehammer. He couldn't be certain but he was pretty convinced that Havoc had managed to crack one of his ribs. They ducked beside the bushes and he leant against it to keep his body up while he examined his ribs. He looked at the teens that all appeared to be in a state of shock until finally it was Madeline who broke the silence.

"So you're a Power Ranger?"

Justin just nodded in reply as he gasped for air and considered his options. Each of the teens had one of the Turbo Morphers and Keys in their hands. Justin was out of alternatives. Havoc would find them and Justin was too battered and outmatched to have a hope of winning this fight on his own. Getting to Storm Blaster would require moving around the school into the enemies line of sight and the Jeep coming to meet them would be too conspicuous. Claire was attempting to check up on his wounds but he grabbed her hand and signalled for her to back away.

"I wouldn't ask this if things hadn't gotten so nuts but I need your help,"

"What do you need?" Claire asked

Justin held up the Morpher that was strapped to his wrist and the key that he was holding in his other hand.

"This is my morpher. Its is how I transform myself into a Power Ranger. Those things you're all holding are morphers."

Drake cut in at this stage. "Wooh wooh wooh. No. No way. We need to just get out of here,"

"We aren't going to make it far. I'm injured and they'll be swarming all over the place,"

Drake peeked over the bushes and could already see that a bunch of Chromites were coming out to search the area. He ducked back behind the bushes and narrowly avoided being spotted.

"We don't know how to use it though," Drake added.

"Oh Drake you never just take chances do you?" Madeline Moaned.

"I'm gonna give you all a crash course on how to use them, Now listen up. Turn the Morphers and Keys around."

The teens did as they were commanded and they saw that coloured strips had been added to the bottom of each of the morphers. Justin had done this to ensure that he could tell them apart if they ever got mixed up together.

"Alright switch them around so that you're holding a morpher and key with the same colour strip on the back,"

The teens fumbled for a bit before they managed to sort out the Morphers and keys.

"Okay to Morph you need to do a few things. First off-,"

Justin winced in pain as he moved away from the bush so he could more easily move his arms. He slowly went through the process of explaining how to morph while keeping an eye on the Chromites that were steadily making their way towards the bushes. He explained the key phrases need for each of them to Morph and did a mock demonstration of arm movements. He had to keep his voice down to avoid being heard but after a minute or so they seemed to understand.

"It's now or never guys. Are you ready?"

However before they could gather themselves and morph they were discovered and forced out of cover. They formed a protective circle around Justin in the hopes of protecting the more experience ranger from any more harm. They were outnumbered again but these things were no common gang of bullies. They were trained for battle and easily outmatched the group. They were forced into the open where they could be seen by the whole school and they already heard the sounds of more approaching Chromites. Drake had pulled the club away from one of them as was trying to beat his way through the crowd but more and more grabbed onto him. Madeline's swooping and spinning kicks were proving to be more useful and she even managed to work in some gymnastics by spinning and back flipping out of the way. However eventually one of the Chromites grabbed her leg mid kick and she couldn't break herself free. Kenji's barrage of punches kept most of them off his back but it was clear that he was already starting to tire from the huge amount of energy needed to maintain his strength and speed. Claire was obviously having the worst time out of all of them as she seemed to lack the training or strength that the others had. She slammed into a few of the Chromites and even managed to knock some down but soon one had grabbed her. Justin tried to pull them all off her but in this state he could barely manage to keep himself free. The Chromites were trying to rip the morphers straight from their wrists but the struggling fighters weren't making it easy. A flash of energy struck again sending the crowd of young adults and Chromites flying through the air. The team barely managed to hold onto their turbo keys as they hit the ground. Justin let out a very audible shriek of pain as he landed face down on the hard ground. He looked up to see Havoc striding confidently towards them.

"Get up! Get up!"

The teens followed suit after some strained effort. Kenji and Claire were to the left of him while Drake and Madeline were to his right. He nodded at both pairs and they replied with a quick nod in return. The Justin entered his Morphing stance and he heard Claire say 'Oops' from behind him. He glanced around to see that they had all started off their stance in the opposite direction to him and were now fixing their mistake. The Turbo Ranger got an odd sense of Déjà vu at this but he knew he didn't have time to think about it.

"Alright Shift into Turbo!"

"I think not!" Exclaimed Havoc as he fired a blast of dark energy that began coursing through their bodies like electricity. They had just managed to force the key into the slot before the energy had hit but now they had contorted in agony as the electric like force flowed through their bodies. The Morphers were being charged with this energy to and they began to glow a dark purple. They needed to finish the sequence. Justin forced himself forward removing the key from the slot and letting his arms reach his side. The light around the morpher and key began to change from a dark purple to to its familiar azure. A thin strand of energy connected the two orbs that had engulfed Justin's hand. The energy coursed through his body and he was beginning to glow blue all over but Havoc's blast was slowing the Morphing process down.

"Mountain Blaster Turbo Power"

Drake's almost hulking frame stepped forward and for a second it appeared that he was going to fall under the pressure before he regained his balance. The jockish young man was tough but even he let out a number of painful winces as he walked. Even now he thought that this idea was foolish and he was pretty sure that they would all be killed trying to be heroes. There weren't any other options though so he knew he would have to work with the cards he had been dealt.

"Desert Thunder Turbo Power!"

Claire was next up and she repeated Justin's and Drake's actions and the energy surrounding her morphing components changed a brilliantly shining Yellow. She wasn't doing well under this blast and the already pale girl seemed to have lost a lot more colour. She looked like she was about to pass out and there was an air of fear and nervousness that she didn't seem to be able to shake off. She wailed in pain as the Yellow energy struggled to overtake all of the dark energy coursing through her body.

"Dune Star Turbo Power!"

Madeline had barely waited for Claire to finish before she had stepped forward to take her place. She wasn't backing down and refused to scream or moan in pain like Claire had. A burning pink energy completely outshined the dark purple of energy of Havoc's. She even managed to crack a wicked smile at the General while her powers fought to activate.

"Wind Chaser Turbo Power!"

Finally it was Kenji's turn and he was screaming not just with pain but with determination right at Havoc. He was tired of this high school life and he was going to be a hero if killed him. He removed his key and brought his hand to his side like the others. Havoc attempted to add more of his dark energy to stop him but it was already too late.

"Red Lighting Turbo Power!"

Havoc kept trying to pour more energy into stopping or disrupting their morph sequence but finally he ran out of steam and the group was consumed in a brilliant mixed coloured lightshow. Havoc shielded his eyes until finally it faded and the team finally stood forward fully morphed.

"Holy… This is… I mean…" Kenji said as he admired the suit that had formed around his body. He felt around his helmet with his gloved hands.

"This is amazing" Madeline and she stretched out in her suit. Justin glanced back at the team to see the Claire and Drake appear to be dumbfounded. Then Blue Ranger returned his focus to their enemy who appeared to be clutching his chest in pain. It almost seemed to him like Havoc was winded and trying to catch his breath.

"You can all have fun with this later but first we've got a planet to save!"

Another flash of Blue light surrounded Justin's hand and he summoned his Turbo Blade once more.

"Wait how do we do that?" Drake inquired

"Just think of the sword and focus,"

They did as they were told and soon the process repeated and they all managed to summon their Turbo Blades. Justin led the charge as they made their way straight for Havoc. He blocked Justin's first strike and a kick knocked him out of the way so he could slash the newly morphed Yellow Ranger in the same direction. He caught Madeline's Blade in his hand and blocked strike of the Green and Red Rangers. Havoc danced around all three of them with ease and knocked them all back with a wide thrust of his rapier. He snapped his fingers and the Chromites circled around him. He clutched at his chest again and he seemed to be feeling drained from all the energy he had been throwing around.

"Quickly summon your auto blasters,"

Justin's Blaster appeared in his free hand first but soon each of the Rangers had a firearm at the ready. The blasters opened up and they began cutting through the crowd of Chromites with ease. Any one that got up too close to be blasted was cut down by the Turbo blades instead. They were barely touched as they made their way towards the recovering General Havoc. Eventually all of the Chromites had faded into the ground leaving only their leader. However he had seemed to have caught his second wind and was back on the offensive. He moved much quicker than the Turbo Rangers and knocked them back quicker than they could react. A double slash across his chest sent pain rippling through Justin's body. The suit helped to dull the pain but it could only protect them from so much. He wanted to rest but they were forced to keep on going. Justin ran towards Havoc but suddenly he was grabbed by the neck and lifted off the ground. Havoc swung his body around and used it as a shield as the Kenji and Madeline had struck out again. As soon as they were done with their attack Havoc threw the Blue Rangers body into them before turning round and blasting the Yellow and Green Rangers down with his energy. Justin picked himself up and started firing at Havoc's back with Kenji and Madeline following his lead. Energy rebounded from Havoc's back but he seemed barely phased by the attack. Drake and Claire's body contorted in pain until they screamed in agony, their morphed forms barely held under the force of the attack. Havoc chuckled mockingly and held up his sword to the sky readying to attack.

Kenji was the one who ran forward to fight Havoc's sword with the turbo blade. Kenji's speed allowed him to keep up with Havoc. He was comfortable with a sword and it was obvious to Justin and the General that he had been trained in sword fighting. He was experience but Havoc was a master and he danced around his blade and forced it from his hand. A kick to the square of Kenji's back forced him farther away from Havoc. The Red Ranger span around and fired on Havoc but it was blocked by the turbo blade that was stolen from Kenji. Justin and Madeline used this opportunity to fire on Havoc. He responded by blasting them back with a wave of energy before. Havoc took the Turbo blade and snapped it in half in front of Kenji allowing both halves of the blade to tumble to the grass.

"Worried I was going to beat you?" Kenji sarcastically enquired as he shuffled forward and grabbed the tip of the blade. Kenji struck with as much force as he could muster with the blade directly at Havoc's face. It shattered on contact and the pieces cascaded down Havoc's body.

"Let me show you how it's done" Havoc stabbed his sword into Kenji's chest and sent the young man flying back. The suit had saved him from it piercing his body but with the pain he felt he might as well have. Havoc strode over to where Justin lay and set his foot on his helmet pressing down on it. Harder and harder as Justin struggled trying to force his boot off him and Madeline tried to reach her gun which she had lost grip of while soaring through the air. Justin could hear the sounds of glass cracking and he opened his eyes again to see that his visor was starting to fracture under the pressure. The sound of the visor cracking echoed through his helmet but in the distance he could hear the faint sound of a car approaching. Havoc heard it too and turned too late to see that Storm Blaster had made its way to the battle field. It fired a full powered blast directly at the warrior forcing him off his owner's head. It fired again forcing Havoc back farther and farther. Storm Blaster gathered more speed with each blast closing the distance between them. Finally the Jeep rammed into him knocking the General into the air. It looped back to where Justin was lying and opened its driver side door drawing a laugh from the eldest Ranger as he grabbed onto the door and got into the seat. Madeline got herself into the passenger seat and they were joined by Drake and Claire who jumped up onto the back grabbing the railings with their free hands. Each of them had recovered their fire arms but Justin handed his Auto blaster to Madeline before summoning his personalized weapons. The Jeep sped off and swerved to continue its attack.

"Fire!" Justin yelled. This was all the instruction the other three Rangers and Jeep needed. They began pouring on the blasts on the General causing a minor explosion of energy. He landed on his feet this time but Storm Blaster slammed into him but the General grabbed the onto Storm's hood. He started to drag himself closer to the rangers and they tried to blast him off but he held firm. He raised the rapier to the sky then stabbed his blade down through Storm Blaster. The car made a screeching sound as energy poured through it and the vehicle was forced to stop. He pulled his blade from the Jeep and took a swing at Justin's head which he narrowly dodged. Drake leapt from his space tackling his enemy and trying to wrestle him to the ground. The girls jumped next followed by Justin and finally Kenji threw himself into the mix all of them tried to pummel Havoc down. They were making progress until he started to just swat them away. He freed himself and that was when something strange happened. General Havoc's sword holding hand was fading.

"Am I the only one who sees that?" Kenji asked.

"No… he's fading…" Madeline exclaimed.

His's sword fell from his fading hand and cluttered to the ground. The General clutched at his phantom like appendage and he stumbled back. The dissolving was spreading through his body and appeared to be leaking his dark energy. He raised his communicator to his face with his unfaded hand.

"Fixenstein. Teleport me out now!"

"Not a chance Havoc!" Justin screamed as he rushed forward and shot at Havoc. The blasts passed straight through Havoc's body without doing him any damage. The weakened General shook his head in amusement of Justin's vain efforts as the young Ranger fired repeated at the fading monstrosity.

"Nice try little boy blue,"

Energy surrounded his enemy and Justin could only continue futile his assault on Havoc until he had been teleported away. The Blue Ranger fell to one knee and his breath was rapid and horse. He looked up to the sky and watched as Havoc's energy trail got farther and farther away until it blinked out of existence.

* * *

Havoc dragged himself through the bridge of his ship his body was weak and failing him fast. His eye scanned around the ship in search of Fixenstein his technical genius and the machine that had created most of his latest War Machines.

"Fixenstein! Fixenstein I need you!" Havoc leant against a wall as Fixenstein lowered himself down from the darkness above his General's head. Fixenstein's was a machine with his upper body appearing skeletal in its design, Its limbs were long and thin and its head bared a resemblance to a skull with glowing red eyes. A huge set of wires trained down its spine and the cables mixed in with the lower have of Fixenstein's body which was made up with ciols and robotic retracting crane mechanisms that linked into the wall. Fixenstein was linked to the ship and railings were built into the roof and walls to allow him to travel all over the vessel. Fixenstein's cold metal fingers wrapped around his General's arms as he lifted him from the wall.

"You said I would be fine now! You said I would need no more treatments!"

"I'm sorry my General. I believed that a jolt from the morphers we added to the Regenerator would be enough to stabilize your form,"

"Obviously not, prepare the machine. I need another dose of energy,"

"Yes sir"

Fixenstein's eyes changed to a dark blue as he sent a signal through the ship to prepare the Regenerator. The machine lit up and Havoc was placed in the chamber of the device. The Regenerator was a huge construct that took up a section of Havoc's ship. It had been fixed into his ship so that Havoc could always get an extra dose of power when he needed to be stabilized. He had much to thank this device and Fixenstein for but things were not perfect. It reached up through the chamber like a grand church organ mixed with a Giant computer bank. A large metal set of doors allowed entry and exit from the strange device

"The treatment will take some time my lord. You have wasted much of your strength,"

"How long?" Havoc asked bitterly.

"A few hours,"

The General grabbed his engineer by the neck. "That is too long" His voice appeared calm but there was a quiet anger to it that worried Fixenstein.

"I'm sorry but without this treatment you will dissipate into nothingness," The General released Fixenstein's neck and the Engineer swooped back as the doors to the chamber closed. The General watched his tech expert with a cold glare. He had been promised that the extra connection the Space Rangers morphers gave would finally stabilize his form. He had felt strong again and he had let that go to his head, A General should not have to take to the battlefield himself. He would signal for a Squadron to ready themselves he would have those morphers one way or another.

* * *

It was about an hour and a half before Justin and his temporary team had found Doctor Tommy Oliver. He had been taken to the hospital to treat his head wound but after a few examinations they concluded there was no serious threat to his health and discharged him. He was in no state to drive so Justin drove Tommy's car back with him in the passenger seat. Claire and Kenji were in the back seats but they had remained silent for most of the journey so far. Kenji stolen the occasional glance at the clueless Claire as she stared out the window at the forest. It had taken them a bit of coaxing but Justin convinced Madeline and Drake to follow in Storm Blaster. The Jeep was in control and it obviously was a little unnerving even after all they had seen today. Justin glanced back at the Passengers.

"How you feeling Tommy," He enquired.

"I'll let you know when the car stops spinning," Tommy dryly replied.

"How about you Kenji and…" There was an awkward silence as Justin blanked on her name. It wasn't a great sign that he couldn't remember the name of one of the people he had been fighting beside a few moments ago.

"Claire… My names Claire," She meekly responded.

"Well how are you both?"

"I'm good. Sore all over from the beating Captain Killcrazy gave me but good. So when did the school upgrade from hall monitors to Power Rangers," Kenji asked. Justin chuckled a bit but felt a sharp pain edge through his chest when he did. His rib still felt like it was on fire. He had gotten it checked out in the hospital along with the others and his chest was bandaged under his clothes. His rib wasn't broken like he had expected just very badly bruised but the same could be said for the rest of his body. The four younger teens had gotten roughed up as well but were in a better state than Justin or Tommy.

"So… are we super heroes now?" Claire mused aloud.

"I guess, are the Power Rangers counted as super heroes…?" Kenji joined in.

"Do we have powers outside the suit things?!"

"No… No you don't have powers outside your suits," Justin cut in at this point. He didn't need them trying to lift his car later and getting themselves hurt.

"Why not?" Claire asked somewhat deflated.

"Yeah shouldn't our DNA or something be muddled up," Kenji added

"Well you guys don't have powers outside the suits," Tommy slipped in.

"Not now Tommy, Look the morpher is connected to this thing called the Morphing Grid. The morpher is linked to it and Channels it into forming the suit. Can this wait, explaining exactly how it works could take a while," The questions were beginning to get on Justin's nerves. Explaining it all was very complex and it had taken him a while to fully understand it.

"So we're like Iron man?" Kenji asked

"No… I think it's more like Green Lantern. With the ring linked to the power battery creating shapes based on the users imagination. The morphing grid bases our suits on the template that the morpher has coded within it or something like that."

Justin glanced back in the rear view mirror at Claire. "That's actually a really good analogy. That's actually quite close to it,"

Kenji gave Claire a blank expression and she laughed nervously before breaking eye contact with him. She looked at the rear view mirror and saw that Justin still had an impressed look on his face.

The group arrived at Doctor Oliver's house a few minutes later. The occupants Dr Oliver's car seemed to be in much better spirits than Drake and Madeline. They had apparently not spoken to each much on the journey over. This continued into the house as they clearly avoided engaging in conversation with each other and sat at opposite ends of any room they ended up in. Doctor Oliver had taken them to the lab hidden under his house which had been the main command center for the Dino Thunder rangers not too long ago. His students seems shocked that their teacher had this place hidden but Justin was just impressed and admired all the tech especially the large computer that was available. He didn't have much stuff to play around with back home so he already saw the opportunity to create things. Eventually the others pestered Justin and Tommy into talking about their careers as Rangers. Tommy had forced the teens to promise that this information would never leave this room and for now they had no choice but to trust them at their word. They summarised greatly but Tommy's tale still took a while longer than Justin's giving him time to play around with the computer database. He scanned through the designs of the Dino morphers and was impressed on the level of engineering that went into it. Justin occasionally listened in to see what part of the story Tommy was on but spent most of his time eagerly absorbing information from the computer. He was in his element which was comforting.

* * *

Back on his ship Havoc stumbled out of his Regenerator. His strength had returned for the most part but he would need time to settle down. He called Fixenstein who rushed to his General's side to check his conditions with many forms of scanning equipment. Havoc swatted him away barely containing his frustration with the failings of his chief engineer. His body had stopped fading and leaking energy like it always did after treatments. He couldn't help but be relieved each time it succeeded. He grabbed Fixenstein by the shoulder and pulled him close.

"What is the location of the Rangers?"

"We… don't know,"

"How can you not know?"

"I lost track of them while setting up the Regenerator,"

"Create a monster for me then, Attack the city and smoke them out. I need their morphers," Havoc let go of his assistant and made his way to the bridge of his ship.

"Sir the machine is low on Strength. We need to give it time to recharge,"

"Fixenstein push the machine and produce me a monster. This is a war man and these morphers will ensure my complete and total domination,"

"Yes my lord," Fixenstein mumbled as he got ready to power up his machine. He selected the first few energy residue signatures that the machine picked up and jumbled them together to create something new. It drained more power from the ship causing lights to flicker wildly. The Space morphers linked to the machine gave a dull glow as more of their strength was sapped. It was dangerous to drain power from the main ships cells so quickly and a panel of the Regenerator blew up and began to blaze madly. Fixenstein swung over and attempted to repair it but most of the damage was already done. The chamber doors opened and a new monster stepped out, It was not as powerful as he hopped but it was the best he could do. The machine was drained of strength and forcefully recharging it too quickly would be too dangerous now. He could risk completely destroying all the ships systems so this monster would have to do. It was a bulky creature that seemed to move slowly but what it lacked in speed it made up for in fire power. One hand and lower arm was a Gatling gun with most of its upper torso filled with missiles that it could shoot out at will. Its face appeared to be an emotionless metal mask and the rest of its body seemed too modelled after a tank and was green and silver.

"I am Tankatron,"

"Yes, yes, yes. You'll do for now," Fixenstein opened communications with the bridge. Havoc had made it to the bridge by the time that Fixenstein had contacted him, He had tried to search for the rangers himself but didn't have much luck. He needed more information and if this attempt at capturing the Rangers failed he would have to gather intelligence. He'd have to consider bringing in some of his top men.

"Is it finished?"

"Yes sir, however the machine is drained of strength and now damaged by surges from unsafely boosting power. I think it might have damaged some of the ships other systems. I can't promise you any more monsters for a while,"

"Fix it as soon as you can,"

Havoc sat down at the command chair staring out at the Earth. He had let his frustration over victory being snatched away get the better of him. That would cost him time but that was something to think about later. He could see which of his Warriors he could call from the front lines later if he needed to. He heard the shrill voice of Fixenstein asking him what he wanted to do next.

"Send it down then. Let us see how good the enemy really is,"

* * *

Tommy's story was interrupted by the sounds of an Alarm ringing out through the lab. Justin jumped slightly as a video feed showing Tankatron wandering through the streets firing rockets at people. The crowd was running in every direction to get away from them. It was complete anarchy as the other rushed over to see what was going on. Justin got up from his seat.

"Alright that's not good. Break time's over I guess. Kenji give your morpher to Tommy,"

"Hey wait?! Why, Was I not good enough or something?" Kenji was obviously feeling a little offended that he had been asked to give up his morpher so soon.

"No. Tommy's got a lot more experience that you,"

"You can have mine if you want. I just want to get out of here," Drake muttered to himself.

"Tommy do you think you and I could handle this one alone?"

"Maybe but it could be handy to have some extra hands along,"

Justin looked back to the group and sighed to himself. He didn't want to be mean but they weren't exactly the best candidates that they could have gotten. They had proved that some of them could fight but they all seemed to have personal disagreements that could get in the way. Tommy seemed to understand what this look meant and spoke up again.

"Alright, I want you all to keep an eye on the video footage. If it seems like we're struggling too much then you can work out between yourselves who will come and help. For now Justin and I will try and handle this. You ready Justin?"

Justin let out a sigh of relief as he got ready to morph. He had avoided being the bad guy with the group and also kept them away from the battlefield. A win/win situation in his mind. He heard Tommy cry out the familiar phrase that started off their morphing sequence and performed the rest. His body was surrounded in energy and his Blue Ranger form stood there once more. He turned to Tommy and was surprised to find him still in his civilian mode.

"Something wrong?"

"Not sure hold on let me try again," Tommy said. "Shift into Turbo!" Tommy preformed the stance as normal and went through the motions as though he had never stopped using the Turbo Powers. He inserted the key into the morpher and turned it before returning his hands to his sides. Justin noted the strange lack of Red energy that flowed from his hands.

"Red Lighting Turbo Power!"

Still nothing happened and Justin and Tommy exchanged confused words as the students looked on bemused. Justin asked Drake for his Morpher and they repeated the process but still nothing happened. Kenji then tried with Drake's Morpher but he didn't have any more luck than Tommy. The girls handed over their morphers as well allowing the elder to try them all in turn. For some reason none of them appeared to work for the Veteran Ranger. Justin began theorising that the other Morphers must have been damaged somehow. Following that line of thinking Tommy tested out an idea. He handed the morphers back to each of the teens in turn, He made sure to give them the morpher they had used in the fight against Havoc. Tommy lined the Teens up and stood in front of them.

"I want you all to try to morph again,"

The teens seemed a perplexed at this request but Kenji stood forward somewhat gingerly.

"Ready?" He asked the others. The slowly nodded in return.

"Shift into Turbo!" Immediately there was a huge difference as the morphers glowed with their colours briefly. The four went through the morph and things surprisingly happened as they should. They were all morphed again only adding questions to the pile. The sounds of explosions coming from the live recording brought them back to reality.

"Right, there's no time to sort this out now. Justin looks like you've got a new team for now. You're in charge."

Justin wanted to object but Tommy cut him off. There was no time to argue. "Get out there. Take Storm Blaster. Won't be a lot of space but it's the best option you got," He turned to the gathered teens. "I'm sorry to say this but we'll need your help for a bit longer," Everyone but Drake agreed right away to help but even he gave in after he stared at the computer and seen people in danger running for their lives. Justin led the team out as Tommy watched. He stood in silence for a second before sitting down on his chair to monitor events; He would just have to hope that they could pull things together and destroy the monster. It was a horrible experience to be sat at the side lines feeling like there was nothing you could do to help.

* * *

The drive had been uncomfortable but after a few minutes they made their way into the city centre. From there it had taken them only a few seconds to work out where the monster was. It wasn't trying to keep quiet and it was obvious to Justin at least that they were being led out into a confrontation. Justin spotted the monster and floored the gas petal of Storm Blaster making a mad charge to it. Tankatron spotted them too early and fired out a barrage of missiles that blasted Storm Blaster through the air. The Rangers were forced to leap from the Jeep before it broke through a wall. The regrouped and Justin took the lead summoning his Auto Blaster and returning fire. They followed his example and they made a charge at Tankatron. They needed to get closer so that it couldn't hit them with its rockets without damaging itself. The Rangers didn't get very far before the monsters Gatling arm was raised and they were riddled with energy blasts knocking them down. They didn't have a lot of time so they forced themselves back up. Storm Blaster however was tipped over and had been covered in rubble preventing the Rangers from accessing it.

"Alright plan A is out. Rangers Scramble," Justin ordered. They all took off in different directions making it more difficult for Tankatron to hit the Team. Justin ran to a nearby wall jumping into the air and then kicking off it to launch himself at the creature. He fired his blaster but when he got to close the monster simply slapped him away with its free hand. Claire was caught by another strike of its Gatling gun when she instinctively tried to rescue him. Drake grabbed a piece of concrete debris that had once been part of a wall and flung it right at its head. The creature backed up away while Drake grabbed whatever else he could find and started flinging them at it. He then spotted a metal beam and with effort lifted it from the ground he tried to slam into the creatures side but it blocked it and fired a missile regardless of the danger to itself. Drake was violently thrown through the air until he collided with the ground causing a heavy thud. Kenji had used this opportunity to get in close and was now punching into the side of the Monster with his fists. Its side were hard and every punch hurt but he kept it up and it started to let out gasps of pain. Justin by this stage had gotten back into the fray and the two of them dodged the wild swings of the monster while kicking and punching any area they could reach. Tankatron leapt up trying to get away from them when it received a kick to the back from Madeline. It then tried to focus its attack on her but she gave it a quick succession of swing kicks that knocked it back into Justin and Kenji.

"There's a present for you boys!" She gleefully quipped after she knocked the tank like monster back to them.

They forced the monster to turn around and started pummelling its chest as while Madeline gave a jump kick to its back. This slammed the Monster into their fists harder, knocking the creature down. It took this opportunity and fired a quick spray of blasts at the three forcing them to give the creature some space. However its onslaught of bullet like blasts was cut short as Claire slashed down on its arm with her Turbo Blade. Claire struck the arm again and again as hard as she could before slashing the beasts face. It clutched at its face which had now received a massive scar and tried to fire again. It realized however that its Gatling arm had been damaged beyond use and was forced to take another wave of slashes from the Yellow Ranger. Claire herself let out little whelps of surprised every time she slashed the monster and occasionally hesitated expecting the monster to take a shot at her. The other took this chance to check on Drake and pull him off the ground. Kenji grabbed him by the shoulder but his hand was roughly thrown off by Green Ranger.

"I don't need your help you waster," He bitterly hissed as he got to his feet. Kenji felt his face heat up and his temper flared for a second before he pushed Drake back up against the wall.1

"Hey! You want to do this? I'll show you how much you need my help if you keep calling me a waster" Drake pushed him back and laughed in his face. Madeline shook her head their immature little ego bashing was getting too much for her too take.

"Drake you could start a fight over anything. He was helping you jerk,"

"Hey keep out of this Pom Pom. This is between me and your lover boy,"

"What did you say!?" That had hit a nerve and gotten a big reaction. Now Madeline was pushing up against Kenji and Justin had to get between them all and push them apart.

"Quiet the lot of you! Argue about this later,"

"He started it," Kenji said punching Drake's chest almost starting the brawl all over.

"I don't care who started it! Stop it now we have a job to do and…" Justin was cut off though by the sounds of Claire yelling in pain. She toppled through the air towards them and landed at the arguing group's feet. Justin and Kenji lifted her back to her usual upright position but it wasn't long before they saw Tankatron prepare for its next attack. It fired out a wave of missiles and the team didn't have enough time to dodge taking the full brunt of the attack. They tried to force themselves up but another wave hit them and knocked the wall down on top of them.

"Ha ha! These punks were no match for my array of weapons,"

With enormous strain they started freeing themselves from the rubble. The concrete hit the ground with a heavy thud but they steeled themselves for the next barrage. The Monster needed to reload and soon a new set of missiles slid out of the slots that made up most of the monsters chest. This was when Justin was struck with a flash of inspiration that could save their lives. He summoned his Hand Blasters.

"Shoot the missiles!"

"What?" A slightly dazed Claire asked

"Shoot the missiles before he fires them, Do it!"

The team finally caught on to what Justin was saying and resummoned their fire arms. Each of them focused taking aim on a different missile and began firing as many shots as they could. It fired out its rockets but this time the Rangers blasts caused them to detonate far too early and blow up in their owner's face. A huge section of its body was blown open but it wouldn't give up yet. It charged at the rangers giving a more physical attempt a try. The Rangers pelted forward to meet it. They had the numbers to their advantage and even though they weren't all working well with each other they were winning. Kenji spotted Claire's Turbo Blade which had been knocked from her hand earlier and lifted for it. He stabbed the blade into its large open wound and forced it in deep. Tankatron backed away and weakly summoned a Rocket from the one slot that was still in a decent condition. The Rangers spotted this from a mile off and all focused their blasts on this sole rocket. The creature let out a huge no of defeat as this final explosion sealed its fate and started a chain reaction throughout its body. It fell to the ground and at the very moment it made contact it exploded as the Turbo Rangers watched on. They waited for a moment to make sure that it was really gone and when the smoke and fire cleared they saw that its body had been totally destroyed. They turned to see citizens starting to come out of their hiding spots to see the Rangers. Justin gave them all a small wave and looked back to see that the others were a little surprised to being openly praised by the people they protected. They awkwardly waved at the crowd before Justin pulled them away to help get Storm Blaster from the rumble. They'd first have to search for anyone that may have been trapped and then they had to get back to base with Tommy. Their day wasn't quite over yet.

* * *

It was a few hours before the team managed to return to Tommy's home. The monster had caused a lot of mayhem in its short existence and the Rangers had found themselves enlisted in the search for missing civilians. Luckily there were no major causalities from the battle and the news reports featuring the Rangers heroics had been very favourable. They had seemed to miss the part were four of the Rangers had stopped mid fight to bicker and almost gotten killed. Doctor Oliver had noticed it but kept quiet, from the looks of the team as they came in it would do nothing to help the underlining tension between certain members of the group.

"Hey Tommy, We're home." Justin seemed the most optimistic of the group but it was hard to tell how much of that was fake.

The team sat down around their little command center and at first no one said a word. However the silence was finally broke by Drake.

"So what does this mean?"

"It means were Power Rangers, Guardians of the Planet… you know all that stuff." Kenji was the most happy about this turn of events. His anger seemed to have subsided a lot just from getting the chance to be a Ranger.

"So we're stuck like this?" Drake asked turning to Justin and Tommy, Seemingly ignoring Kenji.

Justin turned to Tommy hoping for an explanation but the Veteran had none to give. "It seems that way Drake. Look I know for a lot of you this isn't ideal but the world is in danger. General Havoc wants these morphers and he'll be willing to do anything to get his hands on them."

"Well why don't we just give them to him. He'll leave if he gets them right?" Drake cut in aggressively.

"We don't know what exactly Havoc wants these morphers for but we know it's bad news. He won't stop once he has them. He'll keep going until he has conquered the entire universe or someone stops him. For whatever reason you four are now the only people that can use these morphers and that means we need you."

A quiet little voice spoke up from the corner unexpectedly. "What do you need us to do?" It was Claire who was hugging her legs to her chest defensively as she sat on the floor.

"We need you to become the New Turbo Rangers and fight to stop Havoc. It'll be tough, it'll be hard and gruelling but the World needs you… So what do you say?"

"You know I'll always have your back Tommy." Justin said standing tall next to his friend. He felt bad for letting Tommy handle the speech on his own entirely and felt like he should have said something. It was difficult though he'd spent so much time looking up to people like Tommy, TJ or his Dad. He always deferred to someone in times of stress and he'd never really had to deal with being in charge of a group of people. He had always been the youngest and always relied on a certain degree of the strength from his older friends. Justin looked at the other in turn hoping that they'd make the right choices.

Kenji was the first to react standing up with a strangely confidant look in his eyes. "So you're saying I'll get to fight stuff like that again…" When the two senior Rangers responded in affirmative he continued. "Then heck Yeah I'm in. I'm ready to Rock."

Madeline made a musical hum to herself before finally shrugging. "My heart is still pounding against my chest, I haven't felt excitement like this in a long time… Sure. You want me, you got me. Now you better hope you can handle me." There was a mischievous glint in her eyes and she winked at Justin for a second. From the corner of her eye she noticed that Claire had glared at her for it for just a second.

Claire didn't get up from her seat but her darted from person to person erratically as she tried to work out what to say. Finally her eyes settled on Justin who gave her an encouraging smile. She nodded gently. "Yes… I mean yes I'll help." She paused for a brief second and then added "In any way I can."

"Oh finally got your tongue back?"

"Pom Pom leave her be." Kenji rushed to defend Claire who didn't seem to be able to find her voice against Madeline.

"Enough," Tommy cut in before turning his attention to Drake.

The final young man met the gaze of each of them in turn. His gaze was strong and cold but there were signs that there was an internal struggle going on within. Finally after a few moments he spoke up. "No… No…" He looked harshly at Tommy and Justin. "I'm not going to join your privately little army and throw away my life! If you lot want to do it FINE!" He said as he stormed off towards the door. Justin was about to stop him before Tommy grabbed his arm. Justin turned to see Tommy shaking his head and motioned to let Drake leave. The door slammed and left an echo in the now dead silent room.

"What a team, what a team. Barely holding it together." Madeline commented seemingly amused by Drake outburst. "Well I better get moving, this isn't really my crowd to hang with. Call me if you need any help but don't think this means we're all besties now." She says with a faked smile slipping out of the room not long after Drake. Silence returned to the people left in the room.

"Give them time." Tommy suddenly said. "Not every group gels together right away."

"Yeah…" Justin says weakly looking for strength in his friend's fatherly gaze. A hand was set on his shoulder firmly. "You're their leader now Justin. You'll need to pull them together. You'll just need to give Drake some time to rethink things. Throw me over your morpher. We'll see whats what and then we can work on a way of fixing it." The Blue Ranger merely nodded in response. Summoning his morpher and handing it to Tommy who went to work. Kenji and Claire still remained in the hideout looking a bit awkward and out of place. Justin approached them cautiously and tried to seem a little more confident than he really was. "You two did well out there."

"Really?" Kenji inquired almost innocently.

"Yeah, bit of room to improve but that's the same for everyone. Seems like I'm going to be in charge of you guys, I hope I can count on your support."

"Hey I thought the Red Guy was supposed to be in charge." He sounded a little disappointed.

"Usually is. But I've got the most experience here by a few years."

"Pulling Rank on me so soon?" Kenji replied with cocky defiance.

"Hey, give it time. Who knows maybe you will become the leader." The instance after he said that Justin regretted it. It had made him sound weak and gave away that he already doubted his own ability to lead.

"I think either of you would do fine…Maybe Kenji you could be like your second in command." Claire finally piped up. The two others turned to look at her, which made her eyes widen a little from surprise. "You could be the Spock to his Kirk… Well Kenji gets on more like Kirk so maybe the Riker to Justin's Picard. The Wolverine to his Cyclops. The Ironman to his Captain America… the colours even match in that case." She stopped when she realised that she had started to ramble and beamed at the two.

"Yeah." Kenji paused for a second as he thought. "I can work with that for now"

"Awesome." Justin extended a hand to them both. "Welcome aboard. I hope we'll become good friends."

Claire took his hand gently and shook it. Doing her best to hide her embarrassment at shaking his hand. Kenji took his hand more forcefully. "Don't push it just yet." He said jokingly. "And don't worry about Drake. He's a jerk, We won't need him."

"I'm not so sure. I think we'll need everyone we can get… I just hope I can get through to them." Justin mused quietly.

* * *

Drake continued to storm off down the road. It was a long walk before he'd make it back home but he couldn't stick being around those maniacs any longer. They wanted him to risk his life fighting their battle? It was ridiculous, all because this stupid thing had gotten itself damaged. He looked down at this wrist to see the communicator that replaced the clunky box of a morpher whenever it was hidden. Justin had told them all the function of the device and for a brief moment he considered throwing it into the bushes. They wouldn't be able to ring him up to try and rope him into their battles. It wouldn't be his problem then and General Whatever and his forced could do whatever they wanted with it. He wasn't going to end up like his brother. Being dragged into other people's problems and schemes until there was no escape from all the trouble that was caused. His train of thoughts where scattered when someone ran up and slapped the back of his head. He turned ready to hit whoever it was until he recognized Madeline's face.

"Oh what do you want? Hasn't today already been bad enough?" He asked going back to blazing down the road.

"Still the same old Drake then. Running away whenever any problems rears their ugly head."

Drake remained silent as he continued to walk down the road.

"So that's it then. Not even going to really try and talk to me?"

"Nothing to say after this long, you and I are over and that's it. Don't think this ridiculous situation is going to change that."

"Wouldn't dream of it, we'll be walking for a while but I'll still rather hang out with your cold self than with the Weirdo Brigade. I'll help them but only because I'm pretty sure they can't handle it without me." She continued the thought after pondering. "I'd probably do better fighting on my own anyways."

Drake didn't respond to her comment and just kept his pace. He didn't even look at her as he walked getting an exasperated groan from Madeline in response. "Well this is gonna be a fun walk."

* * *

High above the infighting of this new team of Rangers sat the silent figure of Havoc who tapped impatiently on the arm of his chair. He waited for Fixenstein to give him a report on how long repairs to the ship would take. It seemed as though the damage was more extreme than they first suspected and the surges had spread through a number of the ships major functions. They had been unable to patch the Regenerator into the ships laser canons to enlarge their monster and attempting to just caused more system failures. Their observations units were out too, forcing them to rely on the CCTV footage from the city to witness the battle between the Rangers and his latest soldier. The results had been less than satisfactory and this Rookie team with an incompetent leader had dispatched his warrior. Havoc didn't consider this the worse loss as this soldier obviously wasn't to his Armies standard. It did however mean that they had lost sight of the Rangers after the battle allowing them to slink back under whatever rock they called home. Finally there was distortion from the radio as Fixenstein turned it on.

"Report." Havoc said coldly to his engineer. Obviously in no mood to hear more bad news, unfortunately that was all Fixenstein had to give him.

"The Damage to the Regenerator sir is severe. We won't be able to enlarge any monsters for a while and you'll have to go without treatment for a few weeks."

"So that means I am confined to the ship." He added, His fury hidden under a cool tone.

"Yes my General. Any direct confrontation between you and the Rangers is not advised. It would excite your condition more and we wouldn't be able to restore you safely but I will be able to create monsters for you..." There was silence between the two and Fixenstein took this as a sign to continue his report.

"The Observation equipment is also down sir. It will make it much more difficult to track the progress of the Rangers and will make Intel harder to come by."

"How long before you can fix it."

"The damage was severe my General. It will be weeks before I can have this ship running at full capacity again… I did however manage to get through to your forces Sir. They'll be sending through reinforcements. Waves of Chromites, and more powerful soldiers whenever we can get our teleporter calibrated for the long distance"

"Well that is something. What of my Majors?"

"Their assaults are going as planned. They will return to your side as soon as their missions are completed."

"Good. Good. This is a setback but not one we won't recover from. I have made an impression upon these Rangers even if it was somewhat diminished by this blasted condition of mine playing up. We do not have the element of surprise. There are however many other tactics I can use to break these Rangers. Their union is weak, their trust can be broken. I will have their Morphers and I shall obtain my prize…"

Havoc got up and began pacing around his bridge. "I believe my condition may have more side effects that we originally anticipated. My anger is becoming more difficult to control. I do not want this becoming my downfall. Look into it. That will be all Fixenstein"

"Yes my General."

Havoc went back to pacing the bridge of his ship before striding over to look at the planet below him. Soon this planet and all others would kneel before his might. He didn't care how long it took, he was a military minded man. He could wait as long as it took, plan as much as he needed to until everything fell to his army. He took out his sword and sat back down on his chair.

"Yes… soon it shall all be mine."


	2. Episode 2: The Way of the Ranger

It had barely been 24 hours since Havoc had attacked. Justin and four teens had managed to hold off Havoc at Reefside while their Teacher and Veteran Ranger Thomas Oliver had been unconscious. Everything had seemed well until Tommy had attempted to use the Red Turbo Morpher and found it unresponsive. It seemed that for some reason the morphers could now only be used by the five who had fought Havoc at Reefside School. Justin theorised that the morphers had been damaged by the huge influx of dark energy that Havoc had fired at them while they were morphing. Further investigation by himself and Tommy had revealed that at least his morpher had received some damage from the influx of energy. It was difficult to tell exactly how extensive the damage to the Morpher was but certain sections appeared blackened and burnt out. He had spent most of the day working on the Morpher hoping to find some way of restoring it full working order. He had gotten nowhere due to the lack of the devices schematics coupled with the fact that he lacked the technology of the Command Center. He attempted to Map out what he believed the functions of Morpher to get a clearer picture in his mind of what to do. He had always wanted to take apart his Morpher but had shied away from it from fear. He hadn't wanted to damage the Turbo Morpher in some way and lose his powers. It had been bad enough for him losing them the first time, Feeling so helpless while his best friends rocketed into the sky in search of Zordon. Justin shook his head roughly he had been working too long and was starting to get distracted. With a sigh he admitted that he would need another break from working on the Morpher or anything else technological.

He thought of his Veteran Ranger friends. Tommy, Adam, Tanya and Katherine who he had wanted to take up the morphers again. They were the original Turbo Team with years of experience under their belts and in Justin's mind the perfect choices to help protect the morphers. It had been difficult for him to contact the others with Tommy and explain what happened. They'd put their lives on hold to try and make it out here only to be told that they wouldn't be able to take up the powers. None of them seemed too annoyed but worried about Justin and these new Rangers. They put their trips over off until they were needed and all the group would have to do was call and ask.

Then Justin had drifted onto thinking about these new Rangers that had been trapped in this situation with him. He could already tell that some of them were going to be trouble and silently wondered if he would be up to the task of leading them. He thought about Kenji the new Red Turbo Ranger. He hadn't made the greatest first impression on Justin when they had first met. He seemed like an angry young man with a lot of problems bubbling underneath the surface. Kenji had stuck his neck out to protect Claire from bullies and stepped up to fight Havoc. He also seemed to take great joy from the idea of being a Ranger and superhero. He and Claire were the two that seemed to most interested in learning more about the Ranger lifestyle.

After a while Justin drifted onto Claire the new Yellow Ranger. She was the quietest and least aggressive of this new group. She seemed to have a very nervous nature but also had this strange supply of bravery that had gotten her to come back to help Justin. She seemed to have the least fighting experience out of everyone but like Kenji on some level she appeared to enjoy being a Ranger. She had also impressed Justin with her summery of the Morphing Grid and seemed eager to study more about it.

Justin suddenly got a flash in his mind of Madeline winking at him as he looked around the room. This new Pink Ranger seemed friendly for the most part but Justin couldn't help but feel that some of that was faked. She had shown off that she was no slough in the fighting department though which made her an asset at the moment. There were some definite tensions between her and the rest of the group. She and Kenji had gotten into a few verbal disagreements, Drake's body language became much tenser around her and even Claire had shot off a few glares her direction. She was willing to work with them though and that was good enough for now.

That final thought brought Justin to the last member of his new little team who had proven to be the most troublesome. Drake the new Green Turbo Ranger had made a good first impression on Justin but later events had soured it somewhat, the complete reverse of Kenji. He had been polite and kind to begin with but when things started to heat up he changed completely. He didn't want to get involved which was understandable but he was the only person currently who could use that Morpher which presented a problem. Justin didn't want to have to force him to fight but without him they would be making their already severe disadvantage worse. His storming off had been a dramatic way to end their first adventure as a team and it didn't exactly sooth Justin's already shaky nerves.

Before he could get too deep into his musings he was interrupted by the sound of the secret chamber opening and footsteps. Justin swung round in his chair and winced as he felt a slight twinge of pain through his bandaged ribs. He rubbed the bandages gently with his hand and began to button up his shirt. It was Tommy Oliver and following close behind was Kenji and Claire. Doctor Oliver seemed a little exasperated and Kenji was pestering him trying to hear some stories from Tommy's time as a ranger. Claire also seemed interested but didn't want to annoy her Teacher.

"You know Kenji I think this is the most you've ever paid attention to what I've had to say." He nodded to Justin as he closed up the Entrance to his underground hideout.

"Well being a Rangers a little more interesting than your usual stuff."

"Thanks for that. How're you feeling Justin?"

Justin got to his feet and let out another pitiful wince. "Better, not great but better." He waved slightly at Kenji and Claire. He was surprised to see them but it was a pleasant surprise. Claire had a nervous glance towards her feet for a second but waved back and smiled. Kenji was too fascinated by the hideout to notice Justin pleasantries.

"Any luck with your Morpher?" Tommy inquired as Justin began cleaning up all the tools and equipment that he had been working with.

"No. I've been trying to map out the Morpher functions. It's taking a lot longer than I hoped. Been years since I saw the schematics for them or opened up the Morpher's casing"

"Well there's no rush for that is there? I think I could get used to this being a Ranger thing." Kenji interjected sitting down on top of the desk. A smug smile had appeared on his face as he looked between the two Veterans who had more serious expressions on their faces. "What?" Kenji asked looking a little surprised and he was obviously now on the defensive. "Hey I don't think I'm the only one who wants to be a Ranger, isn't that right Claire?" She let out a little surprised squeak when she was suddenly added into the conversation.

"Well… I- I like being a Ranger but… Well I-I'm not sure I'm good enough." She stuttered shying away into herself as everyone had turned to look at her.

"Course ya are!" Kenji said quickly. "We got this!" He gave her an affectionate pat that shook her slightly.

An unpleasant silence fell and Tommy wisely decided to change the subject. "So from the looks of my desk that wasn't the only thing that you worked on today." Justin nodded in reply and pulled out the device that he had been using to keep in contact with the Space Rangers while they voyaged through the cosmos.

"I took a break from the Morpher at one stage and linked this up to your work station. I added a number of safe guards though. Was starting to suspect that Havoc tracked this. It would explain how they found us so quickly." The two looked over Justin's work for a moment and even Claire popped her head over. She seemed interested in the set up and was listening intently as the Justin rattled off what sounded to Kenji like complete technobabble. "But I've managed to make this the network connection for our communicators so…" Justin hit a few buttons on the device and in a few moments his communicators along with Kenji and Claire's beeped into life. Kenji gingerly pressed the button on his communicator and leaned into it. "Hello." He recoiled slightly as he heard his voice echo out from the speakers of the work station.

"I don't have the equipment to work out even a short ranged teleportation system yet though so Storm Blaster will have to do."

"Oh this is awesome!" Kenji said his voice still echoing as he had yet to actually take his hand off the button. Everyone looked at him until he laughed and let the button go cutting the communications.

"So what about Madeline and Drake?" Justin asked quietly to the group.

"Madeline was in today but she stayed after school to run her campaign for the Student Counsel. Drake wasn't in. The School rang but his parents said he was sick."

"Ah." Justin said quietly. He looked away and pretended to work on the wiring for the communication device.

"He'll come around Justin, Give him some time and space to get his head together." Tommy set his hand on Justin's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

* * *

Havoc prowled around his ship like a predator hunting its prey. He watched as his Chromites slowly worked to repair the damage done by the power surges. He wanted his ship back to full capacity so that he could destroy these Rangers and take their morphers. They were the key to his total domination of the universe they would ensure his victory for all of time. He rounded the corner to enter the lab of his Engineer Fixenstein who was tirelessly working on repairs while coordinating his workforce of Chromites.

"Fixenstein, status report."

The metallic frame of the engineer twitched slightly in surprise. To absorbed in his work to notice the General enter. "We are progressing swiftly my General. However we will need more time and supplies."

"What do you need? I'll send some of my forces to acquire it by whatever means needed."

"I shall formulate a list my General. There are several locations within this city that the Rangers live where you could acquire the needed technology."

"Ah yes, Good. I believe I can use this to my advantage. Several coordinated attacks in different locations to test these Rangers. Keep them separated."

Fixenstein gave his General a digitized list of locations and resources. General Havoc made his way to the Refrigeration unit housed deep within his ship. The freezing air barely seemed to affect the General as he searched through the lockers. He snapped his fingers and the Chromites that guarded these units began taking out large containers and opening them up for their leader. After a few moments huge dark pulsating green eggs were unveiled from the shelves. Havoc let out a dark chuckle as his loyal Chromites began unloading the pods like diligent ants working for their ruler. He left his soldiers to their work as he opened another locker this time filled with thin metal cases. He took a few cases out and began checking them over. They appeared to be filled with trays and trays of ice cubes. He sealed them up and tapped the chest affectionately. His sister had been very fond of these creatures and he did feel what could be thought of as affection for them due to that fact. "Take these cases and pods and gather a squad of Chromites and wait for my orders." Havoc said to his forces. He made his way towards the bridge of his ship. There was something missing. He really wanted to push these Rangers to see where their limits laid. He thought back to their fighting styles and one in particular sprung to mind. The new Red Ranger while young seemed to be talented with a sword even though he was nowhere near his level it had left an impression on the General. This boy fought with a lot of passion however it was untamed and with the right influence Havoc could spiral it out of control. Make it something to destroy the Red Ranger. Havoc activated the intercom system in his ship.

"Fixenstein how long before you can create another monster for me."

"It will be a few hours yet my General."

"That will be fine. Let me know when it is ready. I have a few ideas in mind…" Havoc said as he cut the intercom link and sat down upon his command chair. He looked back down upon the Earth that seemed to be mocking him merely by existing. He felt the rage bubbling up from his core again but with great effort restrained it. He would not allow it to trip him up again.

* * *

Outside the house of Doctor Oliver the team had gathered to look under the hood of Storm Blaster. They surveyed the condition of the jeeps engine after Havoc had stabbed his sword through it in their previous encounter. Storm Blaster's own self repairing systems had taken care of most of the damage however the dark energy had spread over the engine like an infection. It slowed the process of self-repair so Justin was forced to give it an extra blast of power straight from his Turbo Morpher. Justin wiped his hand clean of the fluids from the Alien Machines engine. He closed up the hood and tapped it gently.

"There you go Buddy, Consider it a thank you."

"So what is it?" Kenji asked curiously looking at the Jeep. It revved its engine as though it was growling and reversed away from Kenji.

"HE is a super intelligent sentient car from another world and one of my best friends. So don't talk about him like he's not here." Justin responded.

"Your cute in a weird way." Claire said. The Jeep flashed its lights in appreciation to her statement and she patted its hood.

"Ugh, this is great and everything but when can we get to the exciting stuff? Fighting Monsters, saving the World and all that stuff. I don't care bout all this tech stuff…" Kenji moaned.

"You could always do a bit of training." Tommy said

"Training. Don't start with that. Get enough of that from my Grandpa."

"Sounds like a smart man. Practice can make all the difference in a fight."

They went inside and Justin got the other two to give him their Turbo Morphers so he could compare the damage to his. Tommy threw on his glasses and was watching from over Justin's shoulder as he was working. The Micro circuitries within the devices were damaged in very similar ways to his. However the slight differences in the damage allowed him to rule out certain pieces of the Morpher as being the problem. Justin sighed as he leaned back in his chair. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

Kenji was behind him and had given into Tommy suggestion and was practicing his fighting moves. He was even showing a few to Claire after she had bashfully asked him for some pointers. She messed up the footing on one of her moves and tripped into him. He caught her and the two laughed it off however it was clear to their teacher that Kenji was going red. They went back to their training as Justin appeared to summon a Turbo Blade from thin air. It had a red glow around it and it eventually distracted the two from their work. It was hovering in the air in front of him and eventually Kenji reached out to grab it feeling the metal under his hands. "It's a Turbo Blade."

"Gold Star for you Claire." Justin said playful as he continued his work. "I remembered that your Turbo Blade got damaged in our fight with Havoc and I came across the section of programing that deals with weapons… Easy enough to repair the damage. It's programing within the grid is quite simple. The cool thing is that I found this…"

Justin pressed a few buttons on the workstation and the sword in Kenji's hand transformed into something new.

"Ohhhh man… What is it?"

"That my friend is the Turbo Lightning Sword. It's the personalised weapon for the Red Turbo Ranger like my Turbo Hand Blasters are for me. Each Ranger has their own weapon but they were destroyed in a battle with a monster. Storm Blaster restored my weapon using its power and I guess Lightning Cruiser must have done the same for you."

"Lightning Cruiser? What the heck is that?"

"Oh um… it's another super intelligent super car that worked for the last Red Ranger." The Blue Ranger made a vague motion with his hands as he explained.

"You mean I get a car like that?!"

"Well maybe. He decides who he works with and I don't even know where he is right now."

Claire suddenly came forward. "So do I have a weapon?"

Justin booted up an image of the Turbo Star Chargers on Tommy's computer screen however they appeared to be corrupted. It was almost as if they weren't fully formed and pixels of the design were darkened or broken off from the device. "I'm working on restoring it I'll need more time though. The Individual weapons are more complex and require a lot of attention." Claire nodded and actually began asking a lot more questions on the work that Justin was doing, Leaving Kenji alone to practice. He muttered under his breath somewhat annoyed to have been passed over for Justin and his technology. The afternoon continued much like this for the team though Justin's progress was hampered by trying to explain everything that he was doing to his newly acquired student.

* * *

Havoc was back down with Fixenstein in his lab. It was finally time to design the latest addition to his Army. Fixenstein's body slowly trailed its ways along the wall until it was beside his leader. Havoc examined the machine noting that there was still obvious damage to it however it appeared to be operational for now.

"So my General you said you had some ideas on what to create?"

"Yes. I want an impressive swordsman. One that can best this new Red Ranger, not only destroy him but make a fool of him and deal a huge blow to the morale of his team."

Fixenstein let out a squeaky chortle. "Well my General I'm sure we can handle that. The monster won't be anywhere close to your level but should be more than a match for that pitiful Ranger."

The two moved over to the control panel and started searching through the energy signals that were bled into the Earth below them. They cycled through the auras that they had on file and took aspects of some to create a new being, programming it to be loyal to General Havoc. Soon both of them were happy with the new creature and flipped the final switch to bring this soldier to life. Power began charging through the device, The Space Morphers attached to it glowed darkly and had more of their essence drained. Blasts of energy fired out and struck the top of the lab illuminating the two ominously. Finally after the chambers doors opened up and smoke poured out over the floor of the lab. Silently a figure stepped out to greet his creators and Masters. He bowed to them. The creature's body appeared to be made from warped ancient Japanese armour. Its head shaped like a helmet with two large Horns coming from the top of it. Its face a twisted mockery of an Oni Mask and its skin was a dark blood red colour. Black lines cascaded down his armour and his baggy legs matched those shadowy lines.

"Greetings my Master. I am Oni-Kai."

"We know my Soldier, now I have a mission for you…"

Havoc chuckled leading his new warrior to the squads of Soldiers he would be leading into battle against the rangers. Explaining in detail who would be his target and the objectives of his mission.

* * *

It had gotten pretty late at the Oliver Residence and Justin was just about to leave the two new Rangers back to their homes when an alarm began ringing out. The three Turbo Rangers looked around at this noise before recognizing it as the system that would alert them about any attacks from Havoc. They all rushed over to Tommy who was sitting by the Computer bringing up three separate security feeds of Chromites who appeared to be gathering computers and other pieces of technology.

"Three different feeds does that mean what I think it means?"

"Yep, Three Squads of Chromites."

Kenji looked at the three video streams with confusion. "What are they doing?"

"Looks like they want new computers." Claire said letting out a little laugh to herself. "Supply run if I was to guess." Justin muses aloud and tried his hardest to work out how to run this situation. He raised his communicator to his lips and activated it. "Madeline are you there?" There is a moment of silence before finally they get a response.

"Yeah what do you want College Boy, Was kinda in the middle of something." She replied not even trying to hide her impatience.

"Well we need you to put that on hold for a while. We've got trouble. Chromites are raiding science labs and factories for supplies. Three Groups and we need you for one."

"A Solo fight for me. Killer."

"Hold on. I'm going to try and get Drake to help you."

"Oh Joy, I get the wet blanket." With that Justin cut off his connection to Madeline and after a second he pressed down the button on his communicator.

"Drake? Are you there? Come in. We need your help."

* * *

Meanwhile at his home Drake was just drying his hair off from the shower when suddenly the wrist communicator on his desk started to beep. The voice of Justin rang out and the tone of his voice sounded desperate to Drake's ears. He stared at it for a moment unsure if he should answer. He hadn't gone into school today in hopes of avoiding the other Rangers. It was all still far too much for him to handle at the moment and he didn't need them trying to convince him to join their little team. The beeping continued for a while and he gingerly reached over for it and gave into his curiosity. He pressed down on the button and took a calming breath. "What?" He said simply. Not wanting to get into too long a conversation. Justin explained the situation to Drake who just stood there quietly as he did so. Finally there was an awkward pause between the two as Justin finished.

"So what do you want me to do?"

"I want you and Madeline to deal with one of the groups. Kenji and Claire will take another while me and Storm Blaster clean up the third. Try and stop them from taking the supplies."  
Drake again fell silent as he internally debated with him over what to do. "Fine. Where do I go?"

* * *

With that the team was in motion and things were looking up in Justin's mind. He would take one squadron of Chromites with Storm Blaster for back up and the remaining Rangers would do their jobs. He'd dropped Claire and Kenji fully morphed on the way to his target and was speeding now to stop the raid. It didn't take him long before he'd found the hub of activity. He had reached the coordinates and could see with a quick scan the creatures loading up cases with technology. The fleeing screaming civilians had been a bit of a giveaway as well. Screeching to a halt to avoid careening into the innocent bystanders Storm Blaster reeved its engines and flashes its lights to get the attention of the drones. They turned startled to be interrupted from their work but already they jerked into action like the soldiers they were trained to be. A line of Chromites broke off from the main body their clubs raised and charged at car. Justin reversed back with Storm Blaster before slamming down the accelerator speeding directly at the middle of the line. At the last possible second Justin yanked the wheel hard causing the jeep to skid and swipe the group with its tail end. Before Justin could start congratulating himself though a handful of brownish ice cubes were thrown into Storm Blaster. He picked up one of the cubes confused and they began to glow followed by a strangely familiar splash. Piranhatrons suddenly appeared from the cubes grabbing at the Blue Ranger and the wheel of Storm Blaster trying to wrestle control from him. The Turbo Ranger desperately attempted to kick himself free as the Piranhatron grabbed at his throat. The pressure was already making it difficult to breath.

* * *

Drake arrived to discover Madeline fully morphed and already engaged with the enemies within this factory. She was making quite the show of it expertly kicking and spinning circles around the Piranhatrons. She cartwheeled over one of them using its shoulders for support before giving it a good hard kick to the creatures when she landed. Her head shot round to where Drake was standing. She yelled at him to watch his back which snapped him back to reality just in time to dodge out of the way of a Chromite club. He punched it and one its fellows square in their strange faces. He shook his hands after he cut them on their strange mask like section of their head.

"Get your head in the game Drake! I don't want to have to do all the work!" Madeline screamed. Her distain was obvious in her tone as she kicked a Chromite square in the groin. Drake looked down at the communicator and twisted his arm instinctively to summon it and the Turbo Key.

"Shift into Turbo, Desert Thunder Turbo Power." Drake yelled and he was engulfed by that strange emerald light which transformed him into the Green Turbo Ranger. He lifted one of the Chromites and slammed its body hard into the ground. He lifted the next by its legs and start swinging it around wildly as a weapon. He knocked a few around with their brethren before it burst into multi coloured liquid. Drake looked down at his hands cleaning off some of the gloop nervously before getting back to the fight. Madeline was gracefully leaping around the factory. Kicking off machinery and using the environment to her advantage. She threw Chromites and Piranhatron into the instruments causing many of them to explode with loud liquid pops. She winded her leg up for a roundhouse kick but she felt a strong hand grab her leg. She was tugged off her feet and found herself confronted by an ugly reptilian face with a mouth full of sharp fangs. She could see a line of spikes behind the head and with great effort she used her free leg to kick its face. It squawked before dropping her right on her helmet with a loud thud. Madeline groaned as she got back to her feet and the room span for a bit. She felt like she was seeing double but when her eyes finally adjusted she realised with horror that there were more of these strange new creatures. One rammed into her knocking Madeline flying back awkwardly, she attempted to get up but was struck by the next one that charged at her as well. Madeline peeped over at Drake who hadn't noticed her troubles.

"Drake you moron! Give me a hand."

The Green Turbo Ranger turned at this exclamation and nodded rushing the bulky creatures bursting through them using his momentum. He booted another before offering Madeline a hand which she refused to accept it before getting to her feet again. She looked over at the bulky and awkward creatures before slapping Drakes chest. "You take the big ones and I take the little ones. Deal?" Before Drake could respond however Madeline was already pelting away towards the remaining Chromites. Drake groaned and turned back to the creatures that looked almost vaguely like humanoid stegosaurs. He balled his hands into fists and re-entered battle. He could take out more of his aggression on whatever these creatures were.

* * *

In the Mercer industries science lab there were lines of Chromites dragging heavy equipment. Nearby them was the brightly coloured figures of the Red and Yellow Turbo Rangers engaged with the Chromite's allies the Piranhatrons. Kenji was doing most of the work in the fight. He had grabbed a chair and had begun smacking the Piranhatrons down with them. They smash into glass cases and through beakers covering them in strange liquid. Claire kept picking up whatever looked safe enough and started throwing them at their faces. She avoided picking up anything that looked dangerous suddenly a chain wrapped around her throat and she was roughly tugged over one of the tables. She choked weakly as she tried to free herself from it, the metal tightened but out of instinct she jerked forward kneeing the Piranhatron in its groin. Its grip loosened slightly and her head jerked forward head butting the dazed monster forcing it to let go of the chain. She ripped it off and leaned against the table catching her breath. Kenji leapt over the table blasting right through the Chromite that was about to strike down on her with its club. He summoned his Turbo Lightning Sword slashing it in half destroying it with one swift movement. "Sorry to cut in." He nodded at Claire who gave him a thumbs up in response. "Thanks… but that joke was awful." They laughed before they looked around to see that the Chromites seemed to have led the last of the equipment outside.

"Come on! We can't let them get away." Kenji said chasing after them followed by a rather winded Claire. The Chromites were gathering the varying pieces of equipment in a large pile while some of the other Piranhatrons works on setting up strange tube like devices in a circle around the stolen goods. One of the Piranhatrons looked up just in time to see Kenji slash through it and liquefy in one shot. The Red Turbo Ranger continued to slash his way through the enemies like a man possessed. Claire finally caught up to him but didn't jump right into the battle as the devices that the monsters had set up caught her attention. She knelt down next to the device and attempted to lift it but give the girl an electric shock through her suit. She shook off the pain and raised her communicator to her mouth.

"Come in Justin, Come in this is Claire." She called. There was silence from the communicator for a brief few moments causing her heart to pound that little bit faster. "Justin?" She repeated, panic evident in her voice. Finally the communicator sparked into life again.

"Yeah-Claire! I'm here!" Justin grunts obviously still in the middle of his fight. The engine of Storm Blaster could be heard reeving in the background and energy blasts being fired. The yelps of the Piranhatrons could just about be heard over the noise. "What's. The. Problem?!" He yelled emphasizing each word with what sounded like a kick or a punch to Claire.

"Kenji and I are dealing with the Chrom-Things and the Fish men, well Kenji's mostly handling that, but they've set up these devices around the all the stuff they took. It's weird. Cylindrical and they've been set up in a circle."

"Yeah- Got them here. Think there some sort of Teleportation system. Take them out!" He yelled taking a few more shots on his end. The communication cut out and Claire stood back up. She glanced over to Kenji who was having the time of his life fighting the drones before she focused her mind to summon her Turbo Blaster. She fired off a few shots till the devices exploded in a shower of sparks and quickly moved onto the next shooting her path clear.

* * *

On the Bridge of his ship General Havoc silently watched the feeds of the different Rangers fighting. He was attempting to learn their different fighting styles, knowing your enemy was an important aspect of warfare and it was already giving him inspiration on other Monsters should Oni-Kai fail. The General's faithful servant Fixenstein slid across the walls onto the Bridge, he wheezed uncomfortably as he entered alerting Havoc to his presence.

"General, The Rangers have begun damaging the teleportation devices."

"Of course they have. We expected nothing less." The General replied coolly. "I believe the time approaches. Transport Oni-Kai to the Red Ranger's location on my mark." He raised one arm into the air but kept his gaze fixed on the feed of Kenji as he cut his way through Havoc's loyal soldiers. He was going to enjoy this. There was something so satisfying about crushing an opponent's confidence and breaking them down. He dropped his hand dramatically and uttered a signal word. "Fire."

* * *

Kenji slashed through some of the last of the Chromites with breakneck speed. He dropped to one knee and took deep pants of breath. He needed to go and help Claire with what she was doing however there was suddenly an odd pressure in the air and a strange dark red glow. He turned looking skyward as he heard something approaching the earth with such force the windows of nearby buildings were shaking. A red beam of energy impacted into the ground quaking it beneath their feet. Kenji and Claire desperately waved their arms around trying to keep on their balance while the foot soldiers fell around them. They had their eyes locked on the impact point as the dust settled and the figure of Oni-Kai strode out making his way directly for Kenji. Its hand fixed on its blades handle while Kenji held his laxly from shock. It stopped only a few steps away from the Turbo Ranger and it pointed with its free hand. Gesturing theatrically as it spoke with its deep and gravelly voice.

"Red Ranger. I am Oni-Kai. I am here to challenge you to battle."

Kenji looked between Oni-Kai and Claire. The remaining foot soldiers around them were staring from their positions on the ground seemingly from awe. However all Kenji could do was laugh before turning to Claire. "Should I be insulted?"

"What?" She asked looking back nervously at the Monster who just patiently waited. It hasn't even acknowledged her yet but she could live without this things attention. "Oh come on. I'm Japanese and he sends a Samurai monster after me. Called Oni-Kai. As in like an Oni…" He waved his sword in front of the creature as he half ranted and half laughed at the situation.

Claire heard the laugh before she realised that she was laughing as well. It was pretty funny in a weird way. Did Havoc realise he had done that, was that supposed to mean something or was it just a really weird coincidence. "Is that Racist?" She found herself asking while she laughed.

"I know right?! Its-" Kenji's response was cut out of the air when suddenly his sword was struck and Oni-Kai's blade was placed at his throat. He tensed uo as he turned his head apprehensively back to the creature he had been mocking before. Its face was almost expressionless as it stared him down. He could feel himself burning under the gaze even behind the visor of his helmet. Oni-Kai leaned its head in gently. "Shall I take that as your acceptance of my challenge?"

"Kenji!" However Claire's protests were stopped by a simple motion of the Red Rangers hand. "Alright you want a fight, you got it." Oni-Kai lifted the blade from his neck and took a few steps back from him. Kenji steeled his nerves and tightened the grip on his blade waiting for Oni-Kai to turn but strangely it did not. It stood there for a few moments and he risked a glance over to Claire who just shrugged in confusion. The remaining foot soldiers slowly got to their feet as they waited. Finally Kenji lost his patience and charged forward with a loud battle cry. Oni-Kai held still till the last possible second before stepping out of the way of Kenji's blade and following up with its attack that hit directly on his chest. Kenji stumbled back barely blocking the next slash with his blade. He retreated back guarding under the assault of heavy blows. Claire noticing this raised her blaster and fired a barrage of shots at Oni-Kai. It blocked it them without even turning to face the girl. It simply responded by raising its hands and signalling for the Piranhatrons to attack. The swarmed at her and she squealed firing wildly at the group clipping some of them from pure luck. Kenji instinctively stepped out to try and assist her but his path was blocked by Oni-Kai's blade. The blade struck the Red Ranger again before he could raise his sword in retaliation and sparks flew from the suit as the energy pulsed between armour and edge. Kenji gritted his teeth before roaring in frustration and slicing at the demon like creature. The first slash connected sending the Oni back slightly but it parried the next and used its opening to strike the Red Ranger again several times. Kenji tumbled head over heels back a number of steps. He desperately tried to get to his feet using his sword to hold himself up. Claire was not fairing much better and was running out of breathing room fast with her blaster and was desperately swatting them away with her gun. She had panicked and completely forgotten about her own sword and was just trying not to be overcome by the numerous soldiers. Kenji and the Oni continued to match blades with each other. The Red Rangers strikes were becoming less focused and more untamed allowing Oni-Kai to exploit every little mistake he made. Kenji's heart was pounding uncontrollably in his chest. It was getting harder for him to stay up and finally his last vestiges of restraint were used up. He punched the ground in fury. His Turbo blade blasted into existence in his free hand and leapt at the demon with the duel blades. Oni-Kai however just continued to dodge them like water slipping through his fingertips. He couldn't land a single hit and it just burned Kenji up from the inside.

"Stand still!" He screamed but he was suddenly winded by a quick punch to the gut. His swords were ripped from his grasp with one fluid motion of the monsters sword. The Red Ranger collapsed to the ground gasping desperately for air. Claire screamed his name before being thrown down by the Chromites. Grunting from the hard impact she fired a few more shots to keep herself safe before using the communicator. "Help! Justin! Anyone help! There's this new monster it's going to kill Kenji." She got to her feet and tried to get over to her downed ally. A Chromite wall blocked her path and she could just helplessly watch as the demon picked up Kenji by the neck throwing him through the window and back into the lab. It picked up the Turbo Lightning Sword as it strode calmly into the lab with him. Claire kicked and slapped her way through the group and chased after them. Only a few followed her while the rest returned to their original objective of securing the supplies. She could hear the panicked voice of Justin but she wasn't listening at the moment. She fired a few shots behind her as she ran after them

Inside the lab Kenji gripped a table to get back to his feet. His communicator rang out it was the Blue Ranger who desperately pleaded for him to get out of the fight to run. Kenji hit down on his wrist to respond nearly cracking the metal in his rage. "No I've got this. This freak is mine." He rushed at Oni-Kai swinging wildly with his fists. They hit and knocked the monster back a little. His anger was fuelling each punch and they packed quite a wallop. The Demon struck out Kenji dipped out of the way of Oni-Kai's blade but got a nasty surprise when his own sword was used against him. He was knocked sparking over the tables again into a wall. He climbed up it so that he could face the monster on his own two feet but Oni-Kai blocked every attack with the swords. He could only watch helplessly as the Monster approached wielding his own blade. The monster remained cold and controlled as he approached. "You have a fire inside you Ranger. A powerful inferno at that. That fire can be used to forge a true warrior but you let the fire control you rather than controlling it. That is why you have failed. That is your flaw… that is why you will die now for the Glory of my Master. By your own Blade." The Turbo Lightning sword glowed within his grasp as he prepared to strike Kenji tried to run but there was nowhere to go. He was in a corner and all he could do was try and shield himself from the attack. Oni-Kai stepped forward as it was about to begin its final attack.

"Kenji!" A voice screamed just as an energy wave discharged from the blade and flew straight for the Red Ranger. His head turned to the source of the noise allowing him to see a yellow figure as they leapt in front of him. Sparks flew everywhere and they exploded in golden light. The limp form of Claire unmorphed crashed into him. He had been knocked clean off his feet from the force of the attack and hurtled right into the wall. He checked over Claire who was unconscious and breathing weakly. He held her petite form and shook her gently trying to get her to wake up. For one brief and terrifying moment he thought she had died but he calmed himself realising that she was still breathing. The wall behind them crumbled and buckled under it owns weight as the energy slash has cut almost straight through. The monster let out a low chuckle the first real sign of emotion it had shown. "She has spirit for such a weak warrior." It turned and walked off out of the lab. Kenji confused and completely enraged sets down his friend as gently as he could before chasing Oni-Kai to the entrance. The Oni turned to face him and Kenji realised what was going on. It had charged the sword for a second attack but Kenji wasn't his target. It was the front of the building. He was going to force it to collapse and cave in onto of the two Rangers. Kenji was about to leap out of the building until he remembered Claire was still in the lab. He rushed back to her and reached her just in time to hear Oni-Kai grunt firing off its second attack. Kenji heard the sounds of the walls caving in around him and did his best to shield Claire from the roof that was hurtling towards them both. The last thing he saw was the helpless form of the yellow ranger laid sprawl on the floor as the darkness closed in around them.

Outside of the Lab Oni-Kai stepped away from the battle. It stabbed its enemy's blade straight into the ground and calmly joined Havoc's minions by the collection of technology. It was only born today and it had seemingly killed two Rangers in its first outing. It was sure that its Master would be pleased by this outcome. It raised a hand to its head and began communication with the floating Space Base. "Oni-Kai to General Havoc. Mission Accomplished. Red AND Yellow Ranger have been neutralised. You should send a crew to retrieve their morphers." It placed heavy emphasis on the word and. It wanted to show how much it had gone beyond the call of duty and the role it was given by its Master. With that the area around Oni-Kai and the technology glowed and were replaced by a new squad of Chromites that began digging in the rubble of the multi-storey lab.

* * *

"Come on! Come on! Come on!" Justin repeated hurriedly as he floored the accelerator of the Storm Blaster. He was driving fast and dangerously but doing his best to avoid hitting anyone. He needed to get to Kenji and Claire and he needed to get there soon. Tommy had filled him on a little of what happened and they were currently buried underneath an entire building. Every second mattered and if he didn't get there in time, well it didn't even bare thinking about. He slapped the wheel futilely hoping that would somehow make Storm Blaster go faster. He rounded the corner and Storm Blaster's brakes screaked into life burning the ground under the wheels from the force. He could now see the rumble of the lab with Dozens of Chromites digging. Justin's mind clicked at this and he realised that Havoc was trying to steal the morphers from the rubble with Kenji and Claire possibly near death below. Justin stood up balancing himself with a foot on the dashboard and summoning his Hand Blasters. He and Storm Blaster charged up their weapons and fired at the scurrying enemies. Rubble was blown away by the repeated fire as the blue duo approached.

* * *

It was pitch black. Complete darkness had overcome them both. For a second Kenji was left thinking he had died but he'd realised that heaven wouldn't be so heavy and he wouldn't still be morphed in hell. He tried to lift himself up but the pressure was too much. He was crouched down on his knees with his hands firmly on the ground. The rubble from the buildings floors had him pinned down completely. He couldn't move his hands at all or he'd fall. Damn it was dark if only he had some sort of light. As that thought emerged in his mind a strong burst of light shot out from his helmet. He blinked a few times allowing his eyes to adjust to the strong beams of light. That was better. Now he could actually see… Claire. He'd forgotten about her but he could now see her clearly under the beams coming from his helmet. She seemed to be alright, badly beaten but she would live. Worryingly the light shining down so brightly on her wasn't stirring her from slumber. He attempted to move his hands to check on her but the rubble above him shook from the motion. He couldn't risk moving without collapsing the rubble on Claire and himself. He couldn't even move his arms to activate his communicator. "Claire can you hear me?" He was trying to keep calm. If she woke up then maybe together they could lift all this stuff weighing down and escape. "Come on Claire… I really need your help." He yelled but still she wasn't waking up. Guess he was on his own for now. He'd have to think his way out of this problem. Kenji's eyes darted around the area they were trapped in. How much air did they have in here? Did his suit have some sort of air supply of its own? Could Claire suffocate in here? He needed to get them out of here but he couldn't move at all. There was no natural light getting in at all just the illumination from his helmets headlights. Damn it all. He knew there was no chance of him coming up with some ingenious plan to save them both. He'd really done it this time. Only their second day as Rangers and he'd got them nice and entombed for Havoc. No. He couldn't let himself think like that. It's not over till it's over. He had to risk it. He had to try and move this debris or they would just die anyway. He wasn't going to let her die. Finding renewed strength from deep within him Kenji pushed upwards with all his might. He felt like Atlas of myth holding up the sky from the earth below. He pushed with all the strength he could muster and the rubble shook around him. He pressed on higher and higher. His muscles were on fire from the strain. He kept going trying to power on through but the roof just got heavier over time. It seemed intent on crushing them down here. Finally he could move it no more and took in deep rasping breaths of air. It was very hot in here. They were still pinned. Kenji tried moving his arms again but the makeshift roof above them shook. He sighed and with no other option restored to only thing he could do. Scream as loud as he could for help.

* * *

Meanwhile a few miles away at a factory in Reefside Madeline and Drake were fighting for their lives. Things had briefly brightened for them when they had defeated the last of the foot soldiers and destroyed most of the Teleport Ring. It had taken only a few seconds for that to completely change. Pressure built in the area around them before a dark pulsing energy beam connected with the ground. Both had barely held their ground from the force of the impact. It was Oni-Kai sent after the two Rangers by his Master and it attacked them with the same vigour and skill that it had used to defeat Kenji. This worked perfectly for the Oni. He had destroyed the Red and Yellow Rangers and would get to eliminate the rest of their team. After getting thrown straight through a window Madeline picked herself up shakily. She raised her wrist to her mouth.

"College Boy, We could use some help here."

There was no response. From outside Madeline heard the sounds of Drake being thrown around. Grunts as he impacted hard with the ground.

"Come on Harvard!"

"Busy!" A response had finally erupted from her communicator. Justin sounded like he was in the middle of a fight.

"We've got a big one here. Ugly thing dressed like a Samurai. Its kicking are a-"

"Just get out of there. Retreat. Look I can't talk right now. Just run. I'm trying to find Claire and Kenji." He yelled over the communicator before going to back to whatever he was doing. Madeline tried to get him back but he wouldn't answer. Suddenly Drake came in through the other window. He was demorphed from the impact. Madeline ran over to Drake and helped to pick him up from the ground. Drake offered no compliant as they ran out of the building. They hit the floor just in time to avoid the energy wave coming from Oni-Kai's blade. They looked towards the monster before Drake turned to Madeline. "Thanks. But now what?" He asked taking out his Turbo Key. Madeline grabbed his arm.

"We have to run. You go one way and I'll go the other." She was already running before Drake had time to object. Oni-Kai turned to him and Drake just groaned before running at full speed.

* * *

Justin was desperately digging as fast as he could through the rubble. He had been for a while. He wasn't exactly sure where they were under all this debris. How he wished he had the foresight to rebuild the Turbo Navigators. That was next on his list right after finding these two and fixing the morphers. He needed to find them. He couldn't let them down. He couldn't let them die. He ripped more and more pieces from the pile hoping to find any signs of life. Almost in answer to his prayer he heard the sounds of a weak voice coming from nearby. It sounded like Kenji. He quickly leapt over to where he could hear the voice and started yanking more slabs of concrete from them. Eventually he could hear that the voice was getting closer. He was nearly there and with one final heave from both sides Kenji appeared. He lifted Claire and scrambled out of their hole. His legs shook with every step and he could barely keep them up. Justin begun checking her over while helping Kenji to walk. Kenji and Justin's morphers both powered down. They were both soaked with sweat. Clothes clung tight to their bodies. Kenji kept moving trying to get them away from the remains of the building. He set Claire in the passenger seat before turning back. Justin grabbed his arm.

"The Building was empty. You two were the only ones inside. Come one I need to get you both to the Hospital." He sounded angry but the junior Ranger was barely conscious at this stage so didn't question it. He nodded in response and weakly climbed into the back seat. Before Justin had even managed to hop the driver's seat he had passed out completely. Justin took a final look at the building before casting his gaze over the two Rangers who were passed out in the car. He took a deep calming breath and drove to the hospital.

* * *

When Kenji awoke he found himself in a hospital bed. He sat up and winced from a stabbing pain in his back and shoulders. The curtain that had been drawn around his bed was flung open at this noise. A Doctor followed by Justin and Tommy entered. She closed up the curtain behind them and gave Kenji a friendly smile.

"How are you feeling?" She asked him politely.

"Alright… well sore all over." Kenji mumbled back still trying to process everything that was happening. "How did I get here?"

"I brought you in." Justin replied shortly which earned him a stern look from both the Doctor and Tommy. He however just kept his stare fixed on Kenji. Finally the Doctor spoke to break the silence.

"Well. Its seems that there's no serious damage done. Strained a few muscles and a lot of bruising but otherwise fine. It's a miracle you didn't break anything." She said consulting her chart and flipping through some of the results.

"What bout Claire?" He inquired trying to see if he could see her anywhere through the curtain around his bed. The Doctor took a sharp intake of breath and she rhythmically tapped her board. She was trying to find the right words. "Your friend took quite the knock to the head. She's stable but she hasn't regained consciousness yet. Head injuries can be tricky. We can't be sure if or when she'll wake up." The silent tension returned until the Doctor explained that Kenji could be discharged today. They gathered his things together and Kenji changed out of his hospital gown. He threw back the curtain and finally spotted Claire in a bed not too far from him. Justin and Tommy stood around her bed. They were having a heated discussion which stopped when Doctor Oliver spotted Kenji. She looked peaceful and still. It was kind of freaky seeing her like this. He noticed that her communicator was missing and he checked his wrist to find that his was gone as well.

"Our Morphers are gone."

"Yeah. I took them to make sure they didn't get lost." Justin replied. He took out the morphers to show him. Kenji reached out to take his back but Justin slipped it back into his pocket. Kenji shot an inquisitive look at Justin who met the glance and stared him down. Kenji found himself staring at his own feet just to avoid looking him in the eye.

"Kenji you are a comp-"

"Justin." Tommy cut in. The Younger Ranger turned in surprise. "Save it for when we get back, this is a hospital and people are rest." Justin stewed to himself for a moment before agreeing. Tommy spoke to the Doctors before they left. Justin didn't say a word. Kenji tried to get a conversation started. He asked about Drake and Madeline, the Monster and if they succeeded in their mission. Justin just repeated that they would talk about it later. The drive back was even worse. Complete silence in Storm Blaster on the way to Dr. Oliver's taking multiple roads to make sure they weren't be followed or monitored. Finally they arrived and entered Tommy's underground base. Drake and Madeline were waiting impatiently sitting on the opposite sides of the room. They could feel the tension as the three entered from the hospital. Justin rounded on him the moment the labs entrance closed.

"What the heck where you doing?!"

Kenji was too startled to respond at first. He took a step back and raised his hands defensively. "Justin you-"

"No Tommy. He screwed up and he nearly got himself and Claire killed! They were buried under a building! I was screaming at you two to get out of there. You two weren't ready!"

"We tried… I tried. I didn't mean for Claire to get hurt. I was just trying to be a Power Ranger. Fighting the Monster, saving the day!"

"Yeah you were trying. But you're obviously not a Ranger." Kenji tried to respond but he kept on stuttering. Justin's words had shocked him and he couldn't figure out what to say. The final blow came with Justin's next statement and he felt the world collapsing around him.

"Just get out. Leave. I can't even stand to look at you."

The silence lasted uncomfortably long before Kenji turned around and stormed out of the lab. Tommy looked over at Justin and just shook his head silently before following Kenji out. Justin walked over to the computer and set the Morphers on the desk quietly beginning his work on them. Madeline and Drake exchanged confused looks.

"Well can't say I'll miss him." Drake muttered.

"Whatever Drake," Madeline cut in. She may not have been Kenji's biggest fan but she had to admit things seemed a lot bleaker. "Harvard we're two people down. Least the greasy dork could fight. What are we going to do now?" Justin didn't say anything and just concentrated on working on the Morphers. He didn't have an answer for her and he doubted that he would have one for quite some time.

* * *

Kenji's breathing was very heavy. He screamed in frustration and punched a tree as his felt the rage taking over. He couldn't stop himself and he punched it again and again until he gripped his hand from the pain. He'd been so stupid. He gotten Claire hurt and he'd let the monster get away. He needed to fix this in any way possible. He couldn't lose this or her. They'd been on the road to developing a proper friendship. They'd been hitting it off and it was nice. He felt like he had let her down in a big way and Justin as well. Now he'd lost it all. Becoming a Ranger was the greatest that had ever happened to him. He dreamed of it when he was a kid and it had happened and now it was just being snatched away so soon. He had to get that demon. He had to kill it for Claire at least. He wasn't going to let it get away with nearly killing her like that after she's risked her life for him. He whacked the tree again as the anger overtook him. He sat down at the base of his temporary punching bag and looked up to see that Doctor Oliver had followed him out. He bit back the tears waiting to get chewed out but another proper Ranger. Tommy didn't say a word though and just sat down with him. He lifted up the hand that Kenji had used to punch the tree and checked it over. It was badly cut with visible splinters stuck within it. Tommy slowly removed them one by one from the skin. Kenji winced but stayed mostly silent. "That wasn't very smart Kenji."

"Yeah. I hear that a lot." He looked to the sky. He didn't want to cry and especially not in front of his teacher. This was all just getting too much. If Claire never woke up he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. Tommy slapped Kenji chest getting to his feet. "Follow me." Kenji watched him for a moment half expecting him to take him to his car or back to the underground lab. However Dr. Oliver turned and walked around to the back of his house. Kenji watched him as he went inside for a minute before returning with two wooden practice swords. He handed one to Kenji who just stared at him confused at the whole situation. Tommy took a few steps away from him and took up his stance.

"But… Justin took away my morpher."

"That doesn't mean you can't earn it back. Justin is in charge of your team but it doesn't mean I can't help train a student who's having difficulties."

"So we're training…"

"Yes, I was a Ranger for years. I've a lot experience with a sword."

Kenji hesitated thinking that he should just leave after all the trouble he had caused but then he thought about Claire and matched Doctor Oliver's stance. They stood their ground for a minute until Kenji lowered his guard to ask whether they had started. Tommy struck out with his sword tapping it against Kenji's head.

"You have to be constantly focused when you're in a fight. Because it can and often will be a fight for your live. They'll take any chance they can get and most of them won't fight fair."

Kenji nodded and re-entered his stance and the true fight began. They paced around each other sizing up their opponents trying to detect a weak point or a wrong step. It was Kenji who broke first taking a swing at his teacher but, like Oni-Kai, Tommy dodged with a simple motion. Kenji was about to strike again when he found Tommy's sword pressed against his chest. His brow furrowed and he backed away. His eyes were on Tommy as he circled around Kenji like a tiger or a falcon about to pounce on its prey. He jerked forward with a strike that Kenji just about managed to deflect. Seizing the opportunity Kenji moved to the offensive catching the Veteran off guard and landing the new Ranger his first successful hit. A smirk cracked onto Kenji's face but he had no time to gloat. Knocking the practice blade away with ease Tommy switched onto the attack. Kenji stepped back as quickly as he could muster blocking the slashes with a certain amount of clumsiness. He was losing his footing and a clean strike from Tommy made him lose balance completely and fall straight on his backside. He ripped grass from the ground and spat in anger as he threw himself up. He mustered as much strength and force as he could, ignored the pain he felt in his arms, and flew at his teacher. He leapt and struck at him. Then rolled and slashed. Before running at him and swinging like a mad man. Thomas Oliver moved with experience though and waited for the right moment then with one of his trademark yells maneuverer around Kenji and used his momentum to knock his student face first into the ground.

"What's with those stupid sounds you make when you fight." He spat

"You're just lashing out because you're losing. You lost to Oni-Kai because you lost to your anger." Tommy said helping the young man off the ground before retaking his starting position. Kenji took a little longer to get back to his position. He needed a minute to clear his head so that he wouldn't just rush back in.

"Yeah. Oni-Kai said something similar."

"It was right. You have a lot of will. That's a good thing to have in a fight and something you need as a Ranger. But don't let the anger control you. Cause you'll get sloppy and make mistakes. A skilled fighter can pick them out and make the most of it." For a moment Kenji found himself back with his Grandfather back when they used to train together. His grandfather's stern gaze and criticisms of the way he walked, how he didn't stand up straight and how he couldn't stay focused. He was brought back to the present by Tommy whacking him in the head with his sword.

"Head in the game Kenji." He said simply. Kenji gritted his teeth and continued but the thoughts of his Grandfather were doing nothing to help keep that anger down. This was going to be a long practice but he was ready for whatever Tommy could throw at him or at least that was what he thought.

* * *

Thousands of miles away, both in the figurative and literal sense, General Havoc sat within the bridge of his floating space station. In front of him stood Oni-Kai his latest creation that had defeated two Rangers and buried them under a building. For a time it had seemed that they had been killed but he was disappointed to discover that both had survived mostly intact. His loyal soldiers had been fought off by the Blue Turbo Ranger with embarrassingly little fight. They were a substandard batch of warriors and he had liquefied them and fed them into his machine to generate new forces that would hopefully meet his high standards. However it was not all a loss. It seemed that the Yellow Ranger had been hospitalised. That meant that at least one of his problems were dealt with for the time being and he could always send some forces to finish the job. However he could consider that move later. Currently he had time to admire his latest warrior and give him a few pointers for next time.

"Very well done Oni-Kai. You have impressed me greatly with your skill."

"I live to serve Master,"

"Oh I know. That was quite the show you made. I can't wait to see the encore." Oni-Kai shifted a little uncomfortably at this comment but Havoc just laughed in response however there was an obvious seriousness behind it. "Oh don't worry yourself. I'm still pleased with your efforts. Just next time make sure that the Ranger is completely and utter destroyed and lift the Morpher from him yourself when you're finished."

"Yes my Lord." Oni-Kai bowed proudly in front of his General who relieved him. The General looked down at the Earth again and allowed himself a small laugh as he replayed the footage of the Red Ranger's fight. Oni-Kai took himself to a quiet hanger within the ship and began meditating quietly. He was tired from his battle. He had used up quite a lot of energy in his fights and was glad to have the chance to recharge before the next assault. The Red Ranger was made of tougher stuff that he had thought but he would destroy him. That was his purpose in life. That was why he was created and he would see him fall. Nothing would stop him.

* * *

Kenji hit the ground hard. Again. He was panting like a dog trying his best to cool down. Tommy on the other hand had barely worked up a sweat yet. Kenji dragged himself to his feet. He couldn't let himself be beaten like this. This was his science teacher. That weird teacher who talked about dinosaurs and fossils. That man that bored Kenji to sleep most days with his lectures on science. Kenji roared attacking again and Tommy struck his arm hard allowing him to snatch Kenji's weapon straight from his hand. The boring dinosaur loving science teacher placed both practice blades to either side of Kenji's throat. The rookie fell to his knees desperately gasping as the veteran set the sword on the ground for him to take in his own time. Kenji took chance and caught his breath before finally asking the question that had been in the back of his mind. "How are you still going? You're old. Shouldn't you be… you know exhausted."

Tommy looked almost wounded at that comment. "I'm not that old. I just look older. The reason I'm still going and your barely able to stand is because I paced myself. I let you waste energy and kept my movements simple and controlled." Tommy did some clean motions with his sword. Kenji tried to get to his feet but he felt them buckling under his own weight. He steadied himself and attacked. Tommy blocked his shots but this time Kenji seemed to be making more progress. The student was focusing his mind trying to hone in on the right moments to attack. His teacher was only just managing to block each of the shots this time. Kenji was about to land one final shot when finally exhaustion got the better of him and he collapsed on the ground in a heap. Tommy sighed and handed him a water bottle. Kenji groaned but couldn't find the energy to hit anything or to snap the sword in half. He needed to lie down for a bit and maybe sleep. Yeah. Sleep sounded nice right about now.

"This is all about control. You need a lot more if you want to be a good Ranger. You need to control your temper and fighting style or you won't last long." Kenji muttered a curse and Tommy whacked him with the sword. He again found himself flashing back to the lessons that he used to have with his Grandfather. He bit down on his tongue to avoid saying anything that would have awarded him another slap from Tommy. They sat there for a while before Kenji managed to sit up. He took the moment to think about everything that had happened today. Things were still bad but they didn't look as bad. Maybe, just maybe he could fix this and if he was really lucky Claire would be alright. "Thanks Tommy. This helped… a lot." The older man just smiled as Kenji got back up on his wobbly feet. "Starting to get dark. Better start walking."

"Yeah. I'm going to let you wander in the woods on your own. Great teacher I'd be then." Tommy picked up the practice weapons and left them in his house. They were handy to have and allowed him to keep his skills refined encase he ever found himself needed again. He looked over at Kenji who had parked himself next to his car and was waiting for Tommy. He hoped he hadn't pushed him too far but they didn't have much time. It wouldn't be long before Havoc tried another assault with that monster. He unlocked the car from a distance and Kenji sat down. Tommy was just about to leave when he spotted Justin in his kitchen. Justin glanced past him and seen Kenji in the car.

"I was giving him a few pointers." Tommy explained simply. Justin seemed to think this over before he responded.

"Alright. That's fine. I think I've made some progress with the Morphers so hopefully one way or another this won't be an issue for much longer."

"I think you're being too hard on him. He messed up and badly but you might have to just deal with that. You could be stuck with this team for a while." With that Tommy bid farewell to his young friend and began walking to his car. Justin sat in the kitchen questioning whether he had overreacted or whether he was right to take the Morpher away from Kenji. This being a leader thing was a lot more complicated than he imagined. How he wished that he had Tommy or TJ's experience.

* * *

It was early the next day when Fixenstein came to his General. Havoc had been communicating with one of his Majors in charge of the invasion of a world. They had been debating the best plans of attack. He had the final say of course as this was his army and all his men were loyal to the core to him. The General had ensured of that. He would not be interrupted until he had finished this discussion. After all he was at war and this conflict with the Rangers was just one battlefield that his forces must fight on. Finally the he finished his communication and turned to greet his head Engineer.

"Ah Fixenstein. How goes the repairs. I am very pleased to see the coms running at full efficiency again."

"Thank you Sir. The Repairs are well underway but I'm afraid we didn't obtain all the needed supplies in our original raids."

Havoc laughed in reply before turning to the engineer and pointing his blade at him. "Fear not. I had expected this and I have ensured that Oni-Kai will be ready for battle. Write a more detailed list and I shall make sure he gets it one way or another." With this Fixenstein nodded and got back to work. He left the General just as he called Oni-Kai up to speak with him. The engineer was pleased and decided he could use this as a chance to get some desired technology on the side. Things he could use to improve his standard of living. He could slip it onto the lists and who was to know the difference.

* * *

Justin was working away in Tommy's lab. He hadn't slept well the night before. There was too much on his mind still. Claire was still in the hospital. He was still unsure whether he'd made the right choice benching Kenji from Ranger duties. Things weren't any better with the remaining Rangers that he had. He still didn't feel like he could rely on Drake at all or trust Madeline all that much. Even Tommy didn't seem to agree with him at the minute. He was losing control of the situation fast and it was bringing up all sorts of roadblocks when it came to the morpher repair. He kept staring at the map he had made out but it was all started to get muddled up in his head. He finally began looking over the damaged code for the Dune Star Weapon. He brought up the repaired versions of the Turbo Hand Blasters and that of the Turbo Lightning Sword and began working on it. He had managed to get around the Morphers security systems to allow him summon the Star Chargers and Lightning Sword. Despite that he still hadn't managed to work out how to get the Morphers working properly and even trying to use Storm Blaster to restore them had failed. The damage must have been too specific and the repairs too delicate for his old friend to fix. Justin opened up the casing for the Star Chargers and began using the equipment and spare parts that he had to hand to repair some of the damage. It helped to get his mind off some of his woes. He yawned gently as his bad night of sleep started to get to him. Justin rubbed his eyes trying to shake some of the tiredness away. He turned around to see Tommy entering the lab, two cups of coffee in hand. He set one down beside his friend and brought up a chair to sit with to them. Justin took a big swig of the coffee before grimacing.

"God, Your coffee is awful." They shared a laugh and then Justin got back to his work cycling through the maps of the Morphers while repairing the Star Chargers. He didn't really want to get into an argument at the minute.

"So how's your Dad?" Tommy was obviously making small talk to try and get the ball rolling but it was a fair question.

"He's fine, working hard still. Haven't seen him as much since I started college but that's normal. Both so busy y'know. He was worried about me coming back to the whole Ranger thing but he knew he couldn't really stop me." Justin attached two wires together in the Chargers. They sparked burning his hand. He grunted and shook it before accessing the damage. He'd had worse. His ribs still hurt a lot more than this. Tommy opened up a drawer and handed him a plaster.

"So how's Kat?" Justin hadn't seen her in a while and had only gotten to talk to her a few times over the phone and through e-mails when trying to reorganize the team.

"She's still in Australia. Working hard and trying to help out with her family. She might be coming back later in the year. Permanently again." He took another mouthful of his coffee. Justin was right this was an awful patch that he had made. Far too bitter. He didn't really want to get more into his relationship and the strains of long distance right now. They had something more important to talk about. Fate of the world not the fate of his marriage. This stuff came easier to him. "So have you thought anymore about Kenji?"

"I dunno…" He leaned back in his chair it was clear that he wasn't going to escape from this conversation. He pondered on the angry young Ranger. "He messed up big time Tommy. He almost got Claire killed. They both charged in when I was screaming at them to get out of there."

"She is the one that jumped in front of the attack for him. It was her choice and you shouldn't take that away from her. She's survived and despite how she acts I think she has the strength to come back from this."

"But what if she doesn't wake up?"

"Trust me. People like us have a way of coming back from stuff like this." There was a pregnant pause as Justin tried to gather his thoughts. He knew that Tommy was talking about his close call from his year with the Dino Thunder Rangers.

"It's just… I… Claire and Kenji were the two I kinda thought I could trust most. Drakes desperate to stay distant and there something weird about Madeline that makes me nervous… What if he screws up like that again?"

"Maybe you should talk to Kenji. Get you both back on the same page. He wasn't in school today but I have a feeling I know where he is." Justin was about to turn and say something when the lab's alarm started sounding. Justin brought up the security feeds to reveal Oni-Kai and a squad of Chromites and Piranhatrons raiding one of the city's remaining science labs. Justin span out of his chair quickly to get to his feet. "Sorry Tommy, we'll have to save this for when I get back." He summoned his morpher and key with the usual twist of his wrist. "Shift into Turbo!" He screamed doing the motions that was second nature to him at this point.

"Mountain Blaster, Turbo Power." Justin was blocked from view by the blinding blue light of his morphing sequence. When it finished he nodded to Tommy who responded in kind and turned to the computer bank. "Alright. Get moving. I'll contact Madeline and Drake." And with that Justin was off. Running out of the base and jumping into the driver's seat of Storm Blaster who reeved into action. Tommy was left in his base contacting the two remaining active Turbo Rangers. Drake had taken some more convincing but he'd managed it in the end. Tommy gathered everything he needed and set out. There was somewhere he needed to be if his hunch was right.

* * *

Hospitals had always made Kenji nervous. He spent a little too much time in them over his life with his Grandfather and his Mother. All the people and Doctors rushing around just gave him shivers and seeing Claire in one of these beds wasn't doing anything to calm his nerves. She looked peaceful but that sort of made it worse. Made him think of fairy tales where beautiful princesses were cursed by evil witches to sleep for hundreds of years. Well that wasn't all bad a thought. They usually woke up when a handsome prince kissed them. He stared at Claire from his seat. Where had that thought come from? This was weird and far too creepy. He slapped himself a little getting a earning him a weird look from an old man passing by. Why did she make him think like this? Why had she thrown herself in front of him? It shouldn't be her in this bed. It should have been him. He had been the one fighting that monster and he was the one that had lost. He was the one that couldn't keep his cool when he needed to. He stretched back in his chair. He'd skipped school today to come and see how she was doing. No better from yesterday but no worse either. She still hadn't woken up but it was good that at least one of them was sleeping alright. He looked around to see any signs of other visitors but it seemed that he was alone. He'd asked one of the nurses if she'd had any more guests after they had left yesterday. Apparently a man had turned up and asked a few questions and even sat with her for hours. He apparently had stayed up the whole night and the nurses had finally convinced him to leave not too long before the younger man had got here. Kenji got to his feet and searched for the spare change in his pocket. He turned to her. "I'm going to go get something to eat. You want anything?" He joked though his heart dropped slightly when no response came. "I'll grab you a coke just on the off chance you wake up." He walked down the hallways hoping to find some sort of vending machine.

* * *

The Chromites dragged the medical scanner out with all their might. They did their best not to damage it while the Piranhatrons were placed on watch as they had proved too clumsy for such delicate work. Oni-Kai observed the proceedings with mild interest. He would not sully his hands with so trivial a task. He was waiting for the Rangers. The Red Ranger in particular. So that he might crush him beneath his boot in service to his commanding officer. He fell so easily to temptation and allure of his own rage. One of the Piranhatrons yelped as it was shot down next to Oni-Kai. It seemed that the Rangers had arrived. He turned to find three Rangers with that strange vehicle his Master had warned him about. No Red Ranger. Blast. He must have been too much of a coward to face him again. He would have to make do with these three for now. The Blue Ranger was at the front clearly the leader or at the very least trying to look like he was. The Green Ranger to his right was clearly nervous he could almost be seen visibly twitching through the suit with his blaster pointed right at Oni-Kai. The Pink Ranger was more interesting however. She held her posture calmly. She felt like she was in control. She could be first then. Well second. Oni-Kai knew that he would have to take out this Storm Blaster first. His Master had mentioned how pest like it became in fights. Before they began he decided to ask the biggest question in his mind.

"Where is the Red Ranger? Has he lost the will to fight? Or is he too afraid to face me?"

"He's not your problem now, we are!" Now that was amusing. He avoided answering the question. Obviously the Red Ranger was a bit of a touchy subject. He raised his sheathed sword in his hand before grabbing the handle and slowly revealing the blade to them. It glimmered in the light as he did so. The Green Ranger fired a shot but with a simple twist of the wrist he blocked it. He fired a few more shots but all met the same fate. Oni-Kai let out a short chortle before dropping the sheath to the ground. His allies knew that this was their signal to attack and those not focused on the scanner strode forth into battle with the Rangers. Oni-Kai stood there sizing up each of them and working out their combat styles. The Piranhatrons were embarrassing warriors in his opinion and not even worth fighting on the same side with him. Disgusting creatures but his Master seemed to like them for some reason. Cannon fodder he assumed. The Rangers were having little issue with them. Finishing his assessment Oni-Kai began pounding forward with energetic strides. He appeared to be barrelling straight for the Blue Ranger and his enemy even prepared for the hit with a feeble attempt at a guard. However he was not the target of this attack. This was meant for the four wheeled weapon. Oni-Kai charged power through its blade and with one upward slash he cut through the hood of the car. A shockwave blasted the jeep into a wall with great force. Its headlights dimmed as the engine slowly cut out. The Samurai took a moment to regain his strength. A lot of power had been channelled into the blade. He knew he would only realistically get one clear shot at it before it really got moving. From behind him he could hear the anguished cries of the Blue Ranger. Desperate shots were fired along with the sounds of footsteps. Oni-Kai just stood his ground letting the volley of blasts hit him. Sparks rained from his back with each successful hit. He waited for the volley to stop before he suddenly dodged out of the path of a kick that had been aimed at him. The boy wasn't thinking clearly. He wanted to check on his pet's condition and forgot all about getting too close to Oni-Kai. However it was still not time for him to feel his blade yet. So he returned with his own kick directly into the Blue Rangers chest before he snapped his fingers at one group of Soldiers. The squad that had been attacking the Pink Ranger stopped suddenly and swarmed the Blue instead. The monster turned to her and raised its blade to make clear its intentions before rushing towards her. It murderously slashed causing another torrent of sparks to erupt and sending the Pink Ranger flying. Her cohorts had seen this and tried to make their way to her but the swarming foot soldiers were blocking their path.

The Pink Ranger got to her feet. She was ready for this fight. Oni-Kai could hear her fellow Rangers trying to convince her not to do battle with him alone but it was for naught. This Madeline as they called her had already made up her mind. She wanted this fight just as much as Oni-Kai and nothing they said would deter her from it now. She slid down at him with a low kick that impressively caused him to lose his balance. He was knocked back further with a follow up kick to the other leg but he held his ground. He would not fall so easily to his knees for this girl. She laughed though at this minor victory. "This is rematch time. I won't lose to you twice." With that she leapt again kicking him square in the face. This was all according to plan though and he used the opportunity to grab her as she was landing. He span her around and struck her twice with two clean slices. She hit the ground for the second time. Her suit blackened slightly in two lines forming an X where the sword had struck. She clutched her chest as she got to her feet. "It seems that you shall fall as easily as the Red Ranger. You should meet me with a blade or not at all!" Oni-Kai responded lashing out at her. Madeline had expected this though and stepped out of the way of the blade. She summoned her Turbo Blade and struck the samurai hard. He stepped back as she roundhouse kicked him in the chest. This was more like it. Now he could really begin to enjoy this combat. Their blades meant and sparks flew as they were grinded off each other. This girl was obviously talented in the art of combat but swords were clearly not her area of expertise. Her form lacked the refinement that her kicks had but there was still a certain air of grace to her movements. This was a dance for her almost as much as it was a battle. Oni-Kai could appreciate the artistry that she brought to her fight but it was easy for him to take advantage of it. There was a rhyme to it like the beating of a drum or the strokes of a paintbrush. It was lovely but utterly predictable. He knew just when her final strike would be and how to deflect it. This had left the Ranger completely open and the Samurai laughed as it struck her again. She fell to one knee and her shot up in surprise raising her blade barely in time to block a second strike. She span back before flipping back onto her feet. She was a graceful one, he granted her that but she was already boring him with her swordplay. Channelling his strength within his blade again they charged at each other. The area around them exploded in powerful red and pink light forcing the other to shield their eyes. When the light finally faded they were at the opposite ends of their battle. All was still for a moment until Oni-Kai tapped his monstrous sword on the ground. Madeline's blade cracked and shattered as she collapsed for the third and seemingly final time. Her form overcome with the familiar magenta aura as she was left demorphed and dazed on the ground. The two remaining Rangers had been stunned on the spot and into silence however were forced out of it by the attacks of Havoc's soldiers. Oni-Kai looked between the two before sitting down crossed legged next to the confused Madeline who was trying to crawl her way out of the situation. He caught her shirt on his blade to hamper her progress and examined the two remaining fighters. Which one would meet this sword next? These were the hardest choices in his rather short existence. He still wished that the Red Ranger was here so that he could have made a show of demolishing him in front of allies.

* * *

Kenji had almost given up his search entirely when he had come across vending machine. On the trip back he passed by a number of beds. He was still catching little moments of people's lives. Some happy and some sad but that was to be expected in a hospital. He'd seen it before more than enough and he quickened his steps keeping his eyes focused on where he was going. He didn't need to see any more of it. Up ahead somewhere near Claire's room he could hear the sounds of life. It seemed rather excited but he broke into a run when the first screams began. He turned the corner into the area and found the source of the disturbance. Chromites were tearing up the place. They ripped down beds and threw them to the ground before one of them spotted their prize. Claire, but Kenji wouldn't stand idly by and let her get hurt in this vulnerable condition. He kicked one of them into a wall hard, ripping the club from its grasp and causing it to tumble away from them. "Hey Uglies over here!" He charged the ones nearest to her sleeping form. He smacked them hard with his full fists knocking them further and further away from the bed. They looked between each other obviously not expecting to have this much resistance in their mission. However like the dutiful soldiers they were they leapt right into battle. Kenji noticed the shaken up soft drink bottles in his hands and then ripped off their caps causing drinks to explode in the Chromite's faces. They toppled back and Kenji followed it up by picked up the dropped club. He knocked a few more clear of Claire's comatose form.

Kenji grabbed the chair he had been sitting on next and started swatting the Chromites away with it. He then threw it at one of the leaders which knocked it flat on the ground as it continued to make its strange alien noises. They tried to swarm Kenji but he did his best to keep them back with his stolen club and his training. Kenji was focused. He kept dodging the Chromites and struck when he saw openings. Each shot was deliberate and each one hit its mark. These creatures were strong but he was tougher. He kicked one hard in its groin before he knocked into onto the ground with a hard swing of his stolen club. He heard disturbances behind him and whipped around just in time to see one of the Chromites about to attack Claire. He vaulted over the bed and kicked it straight through the window. The glass shattered and a slap was heard as the Chromite liquefied on impact. A grin appeared on Kenji's face. Now that was fun. He felt a tug suddenly and found himself being yanked over the bed by his hair. He felt the Chromites pulling him with all their might. There was too many to break away from and he was dragged over the bed. He knew he should have got his hair cut. It was too long and it was too easy to grab. They started stomping on him and thrashing his body with their clubs. Kenji could feel his vision darkening but before he fell into unconsciousness he heard the sounds of the Chromites be flung away from him. They stopped attacking their downed enemy and looked around confused. Kenji was seeing stars but he could swear he could see the air shimmering around them as the Chromites were thrown about.

Kenji stumbled to his feet grabbing at the sheet that covered Claire in her bed. One of the Chromites turned and attacked. He used what was to hand and threw the covers over it. He wrapped it up as tightly as he could before he slammed its head into the wall next to her. The rookie Ranger turned to re-join the brawl only to see them being beaten by some invisible force. Kenji just watched in confusion as they seemed to fight the air around them. Had he actually been knocked out? What the heck was going on? What were all those grunts about? Why did they sound familiar?

His questions were answered when one of the Chromites managed to land a lucky shot. The air shimmered and Tommy Oliver faded into sight clutching his nose. He groaned before returning fire with a strong kick to the knee. "Kenji. If you're not too busy I could use a hand." That was all Kenji needed to hear and he charged into the fight alongside his teacher. They ended up with their backs to each other fighting off the waves of Chromites as they tried to close in on them.

* * *

Back with the other Rangers things weren't looking pretty. Madeline was desperately trying to keep the Piranhatrons from stealing her morpher. Her body ached all over still and it was becoming difficult to keep her Morpher and Key. Oni-Kai looked between the two remaining Rangers. The Samurai had made its choice on who it had would face. He removed his blade from its position keeping the Pink Ranger pinned to the ground. The drones grabbed at Madeline as she did her best to keep them at arm's length. Justin readied himself but the creature turned and raised its katana at Drake. The soldiers around the Green Ranger all broke off before splitting into two groups and attacking the others.

He would test this one's mettle. See how much it would take it break this Ranger. Drake raised his blaster and set it to its secondary mode to rapid fire. The shots were deflected before he charged up the blade slicing straight through the gun. Drake surveyed the destroyed blaster before throwing it down. Well that threw out plan A at least. It looked like there was no other choice but to get stuck into this fight. He charged Oni-Kai tackling into the armoured monstrously like a bullet train managing to rip the Samurai off its feet. He moved him a few inches before Oni-Kai got his boots back on the ground and grinded to a stop. It held strong against Drake's continued attempts to move him. He cracked the unsuspecting Ranger on the back of the head with the hilt of his sword. The Green Ranger collided into the ground hard from the impact. Dazed he moved like a drunken man returning from a night on the town as he picked himself up. The sword hit him full in the chest and he resisted the urge to throw up in his helmet. He tried to ram his shoulder into Oni-Kai but he still unsteady on his feet. He went flying past creature arms flapping desperately as he tried to grab on to the monsters body. It left him wide open for Oni-Kai's multiple strikes to his back and he slipped to the ground. Oni-Kai was not finished with him yet though. He let the Green Ranger regain some of his strength and get back to an upright position. He pointed his blade at the wobbling form of Drake. He got the message and summoned his Turbo Blade even though it was clear that he didn't want to. He sped forward hoping in vain to catch the sword master off guard but it was ineffective. This Ranger swung with a great deal of strength but lacked the precision or refinement needed to be a threat. It was child's play for the Oni to slip around his attacks. With each move Drake missed Oni-Kai landed one in return. The hits blackened his suit in firm lines. He was bored already of this match and decided to end it with one final powerful strike cracking Drake's sword in half. He demorphed after hitting the ground with a resounding thud seemingly out of the fight for now.

* * *

From outside the hospital many spectators could see numerous brightly coloured figures being flung from a high window. They exploded with a wet pop on impact and seemed to be absorbed into the earth within seconds. Many stood there completely baffled by what they seen, some were recording this sight with their phones while others still moved on with their daily business knowing not to get involved with this. Inside the Hospital room there was a much more hectic scene with Kenji and Tommy working together to take out the remaining Chromites. They did their best to protect Claire from the attack attempts. Doctors and Nurses had evacuated some of the patients out of the ward to prevent them getting caught in the crossfire. With one final effort they threw the last of the Chromites through the broken window sending them to their oblivion. Kenji took this chance to rest against Claire's bed while Tommy tried to clean up some of the mess that they had caused when a Doctor popped his head in to see what had happened. "I had a feeling you'd be here," Doctor Oliver said picking up some of the bigger shards of glass and throwing them into one the medical waste bins. "We gonna have to pay for this? Cause I'm gonna be upfront. I ain't got much money." Kenji asked still breathless looking around at all the broken glass and furniture. "Don't worry, I know some people." Tommy replied as reassuringly as he could manage. He reached into his pockets while fixing a serious look at Kenji. The young man swished back his hair from his face. "Hey. How did you do that… you know thing you did."

"It's a little leftover ability from my last set of Powers. But look the others are fighting Oni-Kai now. I have a feeling they'll need your help."

"But my Morpher. Justin took away my-" He was shocked into silence as Tommy handed him the small box and key that he needed. Kenji held them timidly. "But I don't-" His teacher simply grabbed his shoulder to reassure him.

"You messed up Kenji but this is your chance to make up for it. Come on." The Veteran Ranger left the room past a number of confused Hospital Staff. Kenji chanced a glance over to Claire. She will still sound asleep despite the full scale fight that had gone on all around her. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He knew she wasn't going to respond but it made him feel better about leaving her like this. He really hoped that she didn't wake up when no one was around to greet her. Duty called though and he wanted to atone for how he'd screwed up. He caught up with Doctor Oliver as they ran to his car.

* * *

Oni-Kai's final challenger from this trio of Rangers was at least proving to be more interesting than the previous. He was obviously more experienced in this lifestyle than Drake and surer of his fighting skills as well. Sadly though for Oni-Kai he was clearly not a natural swordsman either. The Blue Ranger kept his distance in the fight and had the mark of someone who was more comfortable with ranged weapons than melee. It was apparent to the master of the blades that this Justin knew he couldn't win this fight. He'd already seen two of his allies defeated and no doubt heard the tale of how he'd nearly killed the other two. No this Justin wanted to rescue his young charges that were now being restrained by the Chromites and Piranhatrons. Their Morphers and Keys had been forced from them with great effort. Drake had accepted defeat and was now wallowing while waiting for his fate. Madeline still tried to rip herself free even though she lacked the strength. Justin struck out wildly rolling under Oni-Kai's blade before slashing one of the Chromites holding the Pink Turbo Ranger. She ripped her arm free with a great deal of effort and then smacked its ally that had been restraining her other arm. Using this opportunity she reached out in vain for her morpher but failed. Pulled back by the mass of arm and being trapped back into place as a helpless spectator. "Kill it Harvard!" She spat even trying to bite one of the Chromite's hands just so that she was doing something, anything at all, to help.

"I'm trying!" He yelled back, fed up of this commentary over his fight. The blades clinked off each other again before Oni-Kai's travelled the whole length of Justin's and struck him. The Veteran Ranger went slipping over towards his restrained allies. Oni-Kai came at him as he tried to use this opportunity to free them slashing and destroying Justin's weapon. Before grabbing him by the neck and flinging the blue figure away. Even Madeline was starting to look defeated now and she seemed to give up entirely with her feeble escape attempts. Justin clutched at his ribs from the fall. The pain was burning from within him as Oni-Kai approached. To the Rangers surprise a figure appeared in front of him.

"You know I'm still trying to work out if you're supposed to be some sort of joke." It was Kenji and he had arrived just in the nick of time. He gesticulated wildly as he spoke to the monster to mock its theatrical moments. Oni-Kai just looked at him laughing. Yes finally the Red Ranger had come. Now he could fulfil his mission in life. "The only things here that I would call a joke are you Rangers. Not a proper warrior among you." Kenji stepped forward at this. Justin grabbed his leg frantically trying to keep him away from the fight but the teen had no trouble freeing himself with Justin so beaten up. He smirked down at his injured team leader giving him the thumbs up to reveal his Morpher strapped back on his wrist. In Kenji's head a part of him thought that it was right back where it belonged. This was his chance to prove that. "Don't worry I got this." He said approaching the thing he considered a mockery of Japanese culture. "This Joke here's all washed up anyway. He got lucky before." Oni-Kai snorted at this. How dare he speak this way to him after he had so easily bested all of these so called heroes. Behind him the Chromites were receiving a nasty shock. The ones holding the Morphers and Keys had them stolen violently from their hands by some unseen force. Then one by one that same power chopped, punched and kicked them away from the captive Rangers. The Chromites all desperately swatted the air but many just ended up hitting each other adding to the confusion. Madeline and Drake were just as bewildered but they felt their morphers being forced back into their hands. Their teacher began blurring into their sight and they watched mouth agape as he easily kept up with the Chromites and Piranhatrons. They were seeing years of experience at work and it was an impressive sight to be sure.

Kenji's mocking held the attention of Oni-Kai who had forgotten about the other Rangers for the time being. He would beat the foolish bravado out of him again if needed. He wanted to get that smile off his annoying human's face. His sword reached out wanting to taste the blood of this unmorphed Ranger but this time it was Oni-Kai who found himself easily dodged. Kenji side stepped a little leading the monster away from Justin so that he could recuperate. On the outside he was cool and collected but on the inside he was restraining the urge to lash out. He focused on dodging Oni-Kai's strikes until the swordsman finally lowered his katana to regain his strength. The creature was mentally cursing itself for playing so long with the other prey. It had worn itself out too much and this was going so much more difficult than it needed to be. "Oh what's the matter? You need a little breather Twinkle toes?" Kenji's narrowly dodged the majority of its katana but it managed to nick his cheek. He touched the cut seeing the small spattering of blood. Alright that was enough playing around with him. It was getting too reckless. He had his attention he didn't need to push it any more. "Alright then if that's how you want to play it…" He raised his morpher into view. Oni-Kai considered cutting it in half but then remembered that his Master wanted these devices intact.

"Shift Into Turbo." Kenji went through the usual motion before the tell-tale crimson energy began erupting from his hand. "Red Lightning Turbo Power." And in a flash he was the Red Turbo Ranger again. He recalled his specialised sword and locked into position. Oni-Kai expected the Red Ranger to dive right into the battle however this time he waited. The Samurai realised that he was trying to use its own methods against him. He wouldn't fall into the same traps. He charged power through his sword and slammed it straight into the ground. The energy cracked through the concrete below forging a direct path for Kenji. His eyes widened in surprise. He hadn't seen this attack before and he narrowly managed to dodge it by rolling off to the side. He jumped forward while Oni-Kai was reeling from the stress of his own attack and landed a clear strike. The fiend returned fire and Kenji narrowly ducked out of the road of the attack. The Red Ranger had improved since their last fight. He wasn't falling into the obvious traps that Oni-Kai laid for him in the fight. The monster tried everything it could to frustrate him into breaking stride but the Ranger kept his calm. Oni-Kai's strikes became gradually more sluggish and clumsy. He had already expended so much energy battling other Rangers.

No this could not happen and he would not let it happen. He was created for this purpose and he would eliminate this Ranger. He knew he needed to end this fight soon one way or another. Before he could charge up his strike Kenji had struck again almost forcing Oni-Kai's blade from his hands. Sparks flew as the monster bounced back pointing its steel at Kenji. "That all you got?" The Red Ranger jeered. Oni-Kai roared and was about to attack when he caught a glimpse of the other Rangers besting the Chromites. The demonic Samurai cut at the air to keep some distance between him and Kenji as he ran over to the teleportation Ring. He swatted the Rangers away and the ring began to glow as it powered up. Justin noted this and took his chance. He beckoned his weapons back and started firing at the ring and some of the equipment. Madeline realised what he was doing and followed suit. The teleportation became more unstable from all this distortion and some of the Chromites popped from the energy rippling. Oni-Kai and pieces of equipment sparked from the energy but it just kept staring at his rival. "We shall meet again Red Ranger. Only one of us will survive." And with that they were gone leaving the Rangers with some broken pieces of technology. They powered down and regrouped.

* * *

Oni-Kai crashed into the hanger of Havoc's space station. He looked around to see that he was the only living thing that had survived the teleport after the Rangers had destabilised it. Some of the equipment was intact however lots of it had received major scorching and some unfortunate pieces had been teleported only partial. Fixenstein's body slide along the railings fixed to the wall before it jerked forward. He looked over the haul. His eyes shifted colours from blue to yellow then green and finally red before he let out a wail of despair. "No!" He repeated it over and over as he searched through the technology. This was bad. This was very bad. So much of the technology had been destroyed and barely any of the parts he needed for ship repair had survived intact. The fully formed pieces had almost all been for Fixenstein's private matters for easing his pains. If the General learned that he had gone around his back then the engineer would be at his mercy. His commander did not take matters like this lightly. The Engineer reared up from the parts to look at the creature that he helped to create. Oni-Kai barely noticed him however he was just thinking over the disgrace and dishonour that the Red Ranger had just made him feel. That sniffling human did not have the right to do this to him. He was created to do this. He would not allow his objective in life be snatched away. His angry reflection was interrupted by Fixenstein's shrill voice. "You must go back! This equipment is little more the scrap!" He wheezed as Oni-Kai grabbed him by the throat.

"I will not play your message boy any longer. I have my own matters to attend to." Fixenstein tried lamely to free himself from the other Monsters grip. There was little chance of escape but it was making his already difficult breathing harder. "Take me to the Regenerator!" Oni-Kai demanded tightening its grip further. Left with little other choice the wheezing skeletal monster agreed and was finally let go. Fixenstein clutched at his own approximation of a throat and began massaging it as he shepherded the creature out of the Hanger. The brute was led along the long dark metallic corridors until they reached the Regenerator's room. The machine that gave birth to him seemed to stare down at Oni-Kai as he entered its womb once more. He would be reborn with the strength that he needed to finally rid the world of that red pest. Fixenstein was already receiving demands for a status update from Havoc but he pretended not to notice as he punched in the codes to fire up the Regenerator. It coursed with dark energy which began to seep into every pour of Oni-Kai's body. His blade crackled in his hand as he pictured the moment when the Ranger would last draw breath. He would be ready for his final confrontation with the Red Ranger. He would not let it end like this.

* * *

Back in Tommy's lab things were getting heated. Drake was frustrated after their latest defeat and it wasn't helped with the knowledge that Kenji had saved him. "I thought he was done with this." He was acting as though Kenji wasn't even in the room. Tommy stopped the long haired teen from getting more involved allowing Justin to handle the situation. "I'm the one that took Kenji off the team, so I can just as easily put him back on it and…" He looked back at Kenji and gave a nod of approval which made the younger man smile. "While he messed up big time…I made a messed up to. I shouldn't have just kicked him off the team. I should have worked with him to prevent this from happening again." Drake was still not happy with it but he didn't have a lot of room to argue. "At least until I can get the morphers fixed." Justin added the last part almost as an afterthought but Kenji wasn't going to complain. He helped make up a little for messing up with Claire before but her injury was still weighing on his conscious. He hoped she would wake up soon. Justin clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention before pulling up the feeds from their fights against Oni-Kai. "Alright, we need to get ready for Oni-Kai's next attack. Now clearly myself, Madeline nor Drake can't quite match the thing in swordplay but if we can weaken him down enough Kenji should be able to take him down."

"Hold on wait! I am not putting my life on the line just to tire out a monster so Kenji has a chance of beating it." Drake exploded. Madeline was clearly also not pleased by this idea but she knew that Justin had a point. "Oh sit down and shut up Drake, no one cares about your drama right now. Bigger things to deal with." This caught the large student off guard and the momentary pause allowed Justin the time to pull up Drake's fight and place it on the big screen. "If you want to try and fight our mean old samurai more power to you but if this is anything to go by you're not gonna win that fight" The footage played on repeat and Drake was silenced. God Drake hated having to do all this. He got roped into helping a perfect stranger once and now he was expected to put his life on the line until this guy got his act together and fixed the damn Morpher things. This was all getting far too much for him. He didn't ask to be a Ranger and he didn't want to be one either. He sat down and seethed in the corner for a minute leaving the other rangers to discuss the battle plan. He caught little bits and pieces but the final icing on the cake came when Justin got onto the topic of Storm Blaster. "His internal components have been too badly damaged by Havoc and now Oni-Kai. Stormie is gonna have sit fights for a while." Oh great that was the cherry on top. Now they'd lost the super smart car that could ram into the creatures and kill them. Just peachy.

"Stormie?" Madeline laughed making baby noises and pinching Justin's cheek. The blue rangers face burned red as he coughed to clear his throat. "It's quicker to say that Storm Blaster…" He avoided making eye contact with her and she smiled. Oh how she loved to get people like this. It was always so fun to see them ramble while they were flustered. She played with his hair a little just to make things a little worse for him. Justin was thankful when Tommy suggested that he and Kenji go outside for a little bit of sparring. "Yes that sounds like a good idea! Madeline why don't you go with them!" Aw now that was going to spoil all her fun. Though she supposed this would be a good chance to get a proper look at Doctor Oliver. He had become a lot more attractive in her eyes after she had learned that he had saved the world on a regular basis. She followed them outside leaving Drake and Justin alone in their command centre. Drake was obviously still fuming over the way that he had been treated but he couldn't seem to find the right words to express those feelings.

* * *

Back aboard Havoc's space station the General had decided to check up on his unresponsive engineer personally. He arrived just in time to see Oni-Kai stepping out of the Regenerator sparking with dark energy. Havoc stepped in commanding both of their attentions the moment his foot had touched the floor. Fixenstein instinctively tightened against the wall as his commanding officer stared daggers over at him. "He made me do it! The Rangers damaged so much equipment that we needed another raid and-" Havoc raised a hand to stop his engineer who had almost become a jabbering wreck within seconds. Oni-Kai was clearly nervous but wasn't backing down from his master.

"My Master. My honour has been stained by the Red Ranger and I plan to win it back. I will kill him that is my mission that is the reason for which you created me." Havoc seemed to think his statement over for a moment. He circled round his creation surveying him before he gave it a forceful pat on the back. "Yes you will have your final showdown with the Red Ranger… now report to the hanger," He said coolly. His subordinate was shocked by this seemingly passive attitude that the General had taken on, but his assistant knew better it was simply the calm before the storm. Oni-Kai strode out of the room unaware however. He would have his revenge now and there was nothing that the Red Ranger could do to stop him. Havoc glared down on his engineer who winced waiting for the pain to begin. Nothing happened at first and the tension built between the two as he just stood there quietly and coolly. When he finally left he took a simple device from his belt and pushed down a button on it. An electrical shock coursed through Fixenstein's body until it collapsed in a heap on the floor. The General didn't say a word until he was standing outside the door. "Send a squad of my best Chromites down to get the supplies, Send Oni-Kai down first in a different location to draw their attention." He pressed down hard on the button again electing another shriek of pain from Fixenstein. "I hope you now understand more clearly my feelings on insubordination. You know there are worse things that I can do to you." He said before disappearing down the metal corridor. Fixenstein was left alone to slowly raise himself up alone. The General was a fierce individual. It would be wise not to try and hide anything more from him lest he face the consequences.

* * *

"Go Grease Lightning!" Madeline called sitting upon a branch above the ground as Tommy and Kenji fought. She had been making jokes at his expense the entire fight for her own amusement and she was still coming up with one-liners now. Kenji turned to shout back only to have the legendary Ranger smack the sword against the back of his head. The rookie let out a groan of pain as Madeline laughed high above him.

"Don't lose your focus. Remember."

"Yeah yeah, I know. Every fight can and will be a fight for my life." He parroted getting back to his practice with his partner. Tommy wasn't willing to accept the tone though and smacked him again harder to help make his point.

"It's not only just your life. If the Rangers fall to Havoc then this whole world, even the universe could go with them. Every fight you have as a Ranger has this planet, everyone you care about and every living soul hanging in the balance." Tommy let his words sink in. The affect was obvious from Kenji's face and even Madeline had stopped with her jokes. It seemed the part of the seriousness of their Ranger duties was hitting them. He knew the feeling well. That chance you had to step back and really think about what you had done. It boggled the mind. Kenji thought about Claire and how he had let her down and realised that if he kept this up he could end up hurting a lot more people. His mother, the team and even his jerk of a Grandfather were depending on him to come through.

"Alright. I got you." Kenji said a more serious look falling over his face as he re-entered the combat with his teacher. He tried his best to absorb as much information as he could while they fought. Every little bit could be important after all. He had learned quickly and when he kept his temper under control he was clearly a better fighter. There was still a lot for him to master but his history with kendo had made it come more naturally to him. He was still having issues pacing himself in the combat but Doctor Oliver continued to give him pointers. He had to make sure that Kenji was ready for his next fight. They couldn't afford to keep letting it slip away especially after what it had done. It would be bad for the team morale. Kenji finally needed to rest so camped down next to Madeline who had come down from the tree to sit on the grass. She slid sideways a little to avoid being too close to his sweaty body. There was a bit of ripe smell coming from him. He splashed the water bottle over himself to cool down. "Ew, Kenji you're just so gross." She muttered unsure how much of the liquid she was sprayed with was sweat or water. She cleaned her arm on the ground. "Ah shut up Pom Poms. I worked up a proper sweat." She got up and grabbed Tommy's arm before he could sit down. "Come on Doctor Oliver. It's my turn now for a private lesson." Tommy was about to explain how inappropriate that sounded when Justin ran out from the house.

"Kenji! Madeline! Its time!"

* * *

Civilians ran, screamed and practically scrambled over each other to get away from Oni-Kai after he had touched down. This was good. He needed to create true chaos if he wanted to lure in his prize. He swung his blade around carelessly cracking walls and fragmenting the ground around him. He roared into the air. He felt so powerful. The Regenerator had done its work and he now felt ready for the battle. He heard the sounds of Rangers approaching in their pet jeep before he saw them. It's strained form almost limping forward still recovering from the damage that he had inflicted earlier. The Blue Ranger affectionately patted the dashboard before they leapt out. The vehicle was about to flee from his presence when Oni-Kai raised a finger in the air. "This battle is for myself and the Red Ranger alone. I will not tolerate interruption or interference." Their leader called his blasters into life and pointed them at Oni-Kai. "You think we're gonna follow your rules you have another thing coming!" With that the Rangers all entered their fighting poses. They were interrupted rudely before they could begin their attack. Oni-Kai was having none of this and this would be the final battle between him and his rival alone. It was time to play his trump card. "My Master has prepared final raids in hopes of gaining the supplies necessary to repair his base." Oni-Kai had the Chromites being mobilised before he was shot back down to earth. The three junior Rangers turned to look at their senior as he mulled over what was said. He was on the fence. It seemed that Oni-Kai would have to give him the last push to get them moving. "If my Master's base is restored to full capacity then he will be able to track you constantly, Use weapons and even produce more monsters." That was the final straw and Justin ordered Drake and Madeline into the jeep. He was about to join Kenji in the fight when the Red Ranger stopped him. "Go. I got this. Just make sure you stop them." He was about to argue when right on cue his communicator signalled. Tommy had tracked the location of the Chromites. "Alright. Good luck Kenji." The Red Ranger just nodded and made his way over to the challenger. "I don't need luck. I've got this thing beat. This'll be for all the pain it's caused…" With that Justin jumped back into the driver's seat of Storm Blaster and they were off leaving the two to their duel. The Turbo Lightning sword appeared in Kenji's hand as the jeep vanished into the distance.

No pleasantries were exchanged before the battle commenced. Their blades rebounded off each other as each of their strikes met. Kenji was determined to win. It didn't get to hospitalise his friend and walk away from it. Just thinking about Claire made his blood boil his train of thought was derailed by Oni-Kai managing to make the first shot of the fight. The Demon's obnoxious laugh could be heard. Kenji was about to lash forward but stopped. He couldn't risk letting his rage get to him. Not while he was fighting this monster. He focused his mind and found himself back to his lessons with Tommy. He remembered all of the moves and carried them out almost as if in a trance. He moved onto the offensive managing to keep up with Oni-Kai's skill. Dark energy was crackling from his blade and body as it connected with the Red Rangers sword. All this power coursing through him felt so wonderful and yet burned so much at the same time. The Red Ranger's edge slashed through his armour and the demon looked down to judge the damage. Where one would normally expect to see blood there was only dark energy leaking from him. Why was this happening? Had be absorbed too much strength? The Red Ranger spotted this too and redoubled his efforts. He had seen a chink in Oni-Kai's armour and he was going to exploit its maximum. His span his Lightning blade switching it from one hand to the next before he hacked down upon the already profusely leaking wound. More of the dark energy erupted from it as Oni-Kai did his best to hold it all in. Inspiration struck him as he felt the power pooling between his fingers. He focused and sure enough it obeyed his mental commands. He threw the energy which blasted ranger back until he crashed into a building's wall. It cracked on impact.

Kenji used his weapon to spring himself up. The dark energy had almost stained the suit before it was burned off. Oni-Kai charged more of the power through the metal. It was warped from the energy and even when Kenji blocked the sword he was blasted back from the force. One missed shot hit the wall and furthered the crack through some of floors. This was bad how was he meant to keep up under this assault? He could feel his weapon shaking from the each connection. He fell from the exertion and narrowly dodged the follow up strike which cracked the ground where had been laying moments earlier. He chose his moments wisely and continued to chip away at Oni-Kai. The dark cloud of power was almost shrouding the creature from view as Kenji was hit by his pulsing dark blade. His Turbo powers almost gave out from this single hit.

As he looked towards the laughing monster he had a flash back to his Grandfather from years ago. He visualised when his Grandfather used to train him and how little room for failure he was allowed. His unsympathetic face was looking down on Kenji in place of the samurai. He tried to shake the image from his mind as he leapt forward and struck the creature. His grandfather was such a slave driver. The old man never cut him any slack. He looked down on him and thought he was a waste of space. Tried to make him practice every day while his mum was working to 'build character'. He was old yes but he was stronger and better trained than Kenji. He was pretty sure he was just using training as excuse to knock Kenji around. He was such a sadist when he wanted to be. Always worked him harder and harder till on day Kenji just snapped during one of their sessions. He flashed back to it now grabbing the second shinai from the rack before he had turned to face his grandfather. He flashed between their fight years ago with his current battle of Oni-Kai. His rage bubbled below the surface but he focused it to fuel him on through the fight. He may have hated the old man but he was family and Kenji was fighting to protect him as much as everyone else. It didn't matter that most of them would never know, this was the right thing to do. He summoned his Turbo blade and found himself mirroring the techniques he used on that day against his grandfather.

Oni-Kai had great difficulty keeping up with the twin bladed assault this time. It seemed at first as though he'd lost himself to the rage again however this was more controlled and he kept catching the samurai in all the right places. The monster's defences had been lowered momentarily thinking that Kenji had lost control again. It wasn't going to let him be victorious so easily. He needed to get one of those blades out of his hand. Oni-Kai screamed out a war cry as it heaved its sword wildly at the Turbo Blade. It over powered the twin blades with that mountainous swing. The Turbo blade was knocked widely off course and away from the two duelling swordsmen. Both dropped to their knees before backing away for more room.

"I shall not be defeated by you Ranger…" Oni-Kai howled in-between gasps for air.

"Oh play a different tune." Kenji muttered in response. He struck out with slash but it was deflected.

"Mock me not Ranger. I have risked everything to face you here and now." His blade caught Kenji in the shoulder causing it to rain sparks everywhere. "I have disobeyed my master. Broken the chains of command. If I do not destroy you now I have nowhere to go. I am a Ronin. A Samurai with no lord. I was created for one purpose and that was to embarrass and destroy you." His blades energy hissed for emphasise on each sentence with Kenji deftly dodging attacks.

"Yeah well you beat me once, even dishonoured me but I've come back and this time I'm going to take you down." The slash hit Oni-Kai in the face cutting through its mask like features. It yelled in agony the sight from one eye being completely obscured by the dark energy gushing from it.

"I will cut the life from you Ranger and earn my place back in The General's graces if it is the last thing this body does." He struck out catching Kenji's helmet and cracking his visor in retaliation for hero's blow.

Their blades met again both trying to outdo the other but for now they seemed evenly matched. It was Kenji that spoke up next. "Alright then let's end this now. One final strike," Oni-Kai pushed him away roughly before pointing the tip of his katana at him. "What are you rambling about now?" It spat getting ready for its next attack. "I mean let's go all in. We both charge all our power into our swords. We fight till one falls and that'll settle the score." Oni-Kai considered this option. "Very well Ranger. Let us end this." He directed all of his strength into his demonic blade and watched as it glowed a mixture of dark red and purple. Kenji focused as well channelling all of his power into the sword. His morphed form fluxed in and out of existence briefly from how much of the power was imparted to the blade. This was it. One way or another whoever landed a hit with one of these two swords first would be the winner. He knew he was playing a dangerous game but this seemed like his best chance. He'd likely tire before the demon and this challenge could give him the opening that he needed. The blades met and caused a huge shock wave that blasted them back. They both exchanged surprised looks between themselves and the weapons before coming to their senses. They ducked and dived over each other attempts expertly. The latest shockwave sent them both flying to opposite ends of their makeshift battlefield. The effort taking was toll on both warriors with their bodies' heavy from swinging their blades.

This was it. This would be the decider. They ran to each other screaming out their own personal battle cries. Kenji counted the heavy sounds from their footsteps as they bridged the gap between them. He would only get one chance for this. As Oni-Kai swung his mighty sword Kenji arched his body back as far as he could bend. The blade managed to narrowly sail above his body and head. Then he dived and grabbed the Turbo Blade that had been knocked away before. He slashed with it striking Oni-Kai's blade hand forcing the monster to drop its prized possession. Time seemed to slowed around Kenji as he reached forward locating the hilt of the blade. With Oni-Kai's sword held underhanded he heaved with all his might first with it and then finally with his Turbo Lightning blade. A visible X of energy was left as Kenji turned around. "No… I… Must fulfil… my mission." Oni-Kai grasped weakly around before falling back and exploding into a thousand pieces. Before the impact the he could hear it screaming for its master. The Turbo Ranger took a few steps away from the blast before stabbing the Demons blade into the ground. His form demorphed from the strain of the fight as he walked away. The blade faded from existence with the dark energy as he collapsed onto his back. "Hey guys come in, it's Kenji. I did it. I took him down." He lowered his communicator as he looked over the place that had been his battlefield. "Yeah… I'm just gonna stay here a while… and catch my breath." He said to himself trying his best not to past out.

* * *

From miles above Havoc watched. He hummed ponderously for a moment as he replayed the moment of Oni-Kai's death over and over. Fixenstein hung low and weakly next to him watching again his creation being killed by the Red Ranger. He nervously risked glances over to his commanding officer as he tried desperately to work out what was going on behind those eyes. Suddenly electrically coursed through the engineer again and he saw the General raise that same device into sight again. He nervously flinched as Havoc jerked his finger forward but the General stopped just short of pressing it down. If Fixenstein could sweat he would have been doing so profusely. The seated officer cleared his throat dramatically mockingly as if he still needed to get his servants attention.

"I hope this clearly illustrates what happens to the disloyal in this army."

"But-"

"Even if Oni-Kai had defeated the Ranger I would have killed him to make the point." The General tapped his fingers on his chair as he watched over the footage. "Now get back to work on the repairs." With that Fixenstein left the bridge of the ship. His body dragged along the railings and internally he cursed being a part of this ship, as dependant on it as it was on him. He fidgeted with his iron rib cage trying not to think about the devices the General used to ensure his enteral loyalty.

Havoc sat on his bridge. This monster was a failure and he would have to ensure that his followers were more intelligent. They needed to obey all orders he gave them and not just the first one to such a religious degree. It would have to been more thoroughly engrained within them. Soldiers had to obey their commanders even if they ordered them to their deaths. That was the natural order of things. He sat quietly to himself thinking of the next step of his campaign against the Rangers. This was already proving to me much more trouble than he expected but his usual methods should be more than enough. Soon he would conquer this world and them. Then nothing could stand in his way.

* * *

Hours had passed when the team had come together at the hospital. Justin and his group had managed to stop Havoc's raid before any of the technology could be stolen and he had seemingly stopped for now. They were an exhausted but had come to check on Claire's progress. The hallways had been cleaned up after Kenji and Tommy's little rumble with the Chromites had happened. Tommy was there now as well speaking with some of the Doctors and giving them a card for some reason. He looked rather busy so the group made their way to Claire's room. They were greeted with an unexpected but pleasant surprise. She was seated upright in her bed a weak smile plastered on her face. One of the nurses was checking up on her but the young patient tried not to bother her.

"Claire!" Kenji said ecstatically. He was about to hug her when the nurse stopped him. He was warned that she was still sore all and he sheepishly took the seat next to the bed. He yelped and got back up lifting a thin shard of glass that had been missed in the clean-up from the cushion. Claire laughed and he completely embarrassed sat back down. Justin held down his laughter for Kenji's sake and stood beside the bed.

"How you feeling?"

"Good… Sore but good. I hear I was out for a while."

"Yeah, you had us worried." He said. She smiled shyly before looking between them all. "So did I miss much?"

"Yeah half the fun," Madeline smiled carefree and Claire was a little taken aback with how friendly she was being. The Pink Ranger wasn't going to admit it any time soon but she had been a little worried about Claire and was glad to see she was okay. "We had to pick up the slack with you gone." She added in hopes of saving face.

"I don't know how you all can be so calm." Drake was being the downer as usual the teens thought but Justin had to admit he had a point. This could have had a tragic end just as easily as the happy one they had got. However that didn't mean he could take the easy way out and not address the problems. If he couldn't fix the morphers then he'd have to work with them through these troublesome early stages so that had a chance in hell of defeating Havoc. Kenji and Drake were starting to get in a heated argument over the formers actions. Claire was desperately trying to get them to stop worrying about it because things had turned out alright. Justin managed to quiet them down when Tommy called him off to one side.

"So what's the word?" Tommy glanced back into the room before he answered.

"Well Claire recovered a little while ago but the Doctors want to keep her for a few nights for observation."

"Understandable. What about the damages to hospital they being sorted by the usual?"

"Yes, The hospital already got called from them. Explained it away in their usual manner."

The two discussed Claire's recovery for a while before Tommy moved on the team. "How do you think the teams coming together?"

"Alright. I'm still holding out hope I can repair the morphers but well… Kenji seems a bit calmer. Think he's matured." As soon as the words had left his mouth Drake came rushing out the door looking for a Doctor. He was covering his nose but Tommy and Justin could both see that it was busted by the droplets of blood hitting of his green jacket. Justin flabbergasted tried to get Drake to explain what had happened but he just ran off muttering some things that sounded offensive and at one point vaguely racist. Madeline strolled out after him. She leaned daintily on Justin's shoulder and gave his arm a little squeeze. "Kenji punched him… but Drake sort of deserved it. He made poor Claire Bear cry." She made a pouty face before practically skipping off. "Laters Harvard," She called back to the confused Justin.

"Well matured a little… He still has a while yet to go before he's a proper Ranger... They all kinda do…" He trailed off before dashing after Drake doing his best to manage the damage control. "I better get back to work on those morphers." Justin called back. Tommy exhaled loudly from the hallway before going into check on Kenji and Claire. This wasn't going to be easy for them but they'd have to make the best of it while they could.


End file.
