Power Rangers 1. Episode 1: The Hoax

Well, this is a work in progress... I had the idea and it wouldn't leave me alone. It's somehow turned into a comedy... where Zordon makes a huge mistake, the Rangers know more about what's going on than their mentor seems to, and Alpha has anger management issues. Maybe one day I'll re-work it, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I appologise for the title, I couldn't think of anything else at the time. If anyone has a better idea, feel free to put it forward.  
For now, be warned I am a sporadic writer, you might get five chapters in a few days and then nothing for months. blushes Sorry in advance.  
I do have several other stories I've started though. I tend to create more characters than I know what to do with. I've got over ten OC Power Ranger teams, I just have to write all their stories. Let me know if you'd like to see those too.

And now... presenting: _Power Rangers Real Earth._  
When Zordon somehow shows up in our universe, along with a crazy space warrior woman hell-bent on destruction, five average teens must come together and save the world... but Zordon faces a problem... Power Rangers are a kids TV show. Can he find five teens who have enough faith and skill to help? Is there more to this than meets the eye?

_"What could be trickier than a TV show come to life because of an inter-dimensional accident?!"_

----

**Power Rangers Real Earth:  
**Episode 1: The Hoax

It was a quiet afternoon in Tydale, the holidays had just begun, and everyone was engaged in leisurely activities. However, elsewhere in the country there was trouble brewing, and a strange being was setting his hastily-made plans into action.

"It's time to bring them in."

----

Tristan Banner and Sean Hogan were bored. The term break had just begun, and Sean was visiting his friend. While channel surfing was entertaining for a short time, that time was now up.

"So… what now?" asked Tristan with a yawn.

"Well Triz, we could… WHAT THE…?!" Sean trailed off as he stopped flicking channels. 

"Dude, why are we watching Power Rangers? I know we loved it ages ago, but isn't it a kids show?" Tristan was puzzled.

"Because that's not Power Rangers… that's the news channel!" breathed Sean, eyes wide. Tristan stared for a moment. His friend was right! It was the news channel, but it was showing something that would easily have fit into the old kids show… apparently there was a woman dressed in an outlandish green, blue and black outfit attacking an important building in New York with lasers and a small army of lumpy grey and black things that looked slightly robotic. The woman's clothes almost resembled a tracksuit, but she had black armor over her lower arms and legs, her shoulders and her middle. Her hair was a shock of short spikes going everywhere, and was a vibrant purple color. At her side was a wickedly jagged blade. She was cackling madly and shooting what looked like laser bolts from two small jagged black guns.

Her army seemed to be made up of humanoid creatures, but they had a few wires here and there, some going into their heads, hands and feet, more around a slight gap in their armor at the waist. One arm was much larger than the other, and seemed to end in a huge claw. Their helmets had several large spikes pointing upwards, and a black visor which seemed more like a huge, irregular crack.

"Holy Crap!" exclaimed Tristan.

"Whoa, suddenly I don't feel so bad about being such a Power Ranger fan…" added Sean.

"Yeah, but if that's the bad guy, where are the good guys?"

Sean had no time to answer as the two of them were suddenly transported somewhere in colored light.

----

"Yes Ma'am, would you like anything else?" Elizabeth Duncan was scribbling furiously in her small notepad. She paused to brush a stray strand of dark blonde hair behind one ear.

The woman in front of her shook her head.

"Okay, I'll be right back." Lizzy headed back to the counter and gave the page of scribbles to the man behind it.

"I'm just going out for a break, okay Uncle Charlie?" she smiled at him. Charlie Duncan nodded absently.

"Fine, take your time. It's not that busy today."

On her way out, Lizzy caught a glimpse of what appeared to be the news, but on second glance, a bizarre woman and a pack of robots were attacking somewhere.

'Power Rangers.' she thought to herself immediately. She'd never dream of telling anyone, but even at eighteen, she still enjoyed the kids show. She made it out the door and was just wondering why her uncle was playing Power Rangers on the TV in his café, when she was whisked off in a colored light.

----

Ian O'Neil was behind the shed in his backyard, quietly practicing his martial arts. When he was little, his favorite show had martial arts in it, and he'd begged his parents to let him learn. They had agreed, and Ian was now very, very good at several forms, and had almost developed one of his own by combining various moves from movies, books, TV shows and the like. 

He was just going to start his next kata, when his little brother came racing out of the house, waving his arms. Drew raced right up to Ian, and started blabbering about Power Rangers on the news. Ian didn't understand any of it.

"What?" 

Drew grabbed his brother's arm and dragged him inside, pointing at the television.

"SEE?!" the nine year old almost shrieked.

"Cute. If you wanted me to watch Power Rangers with you, you just had to ask. Maybe tomorrow, I need to finish my kata." Ian patted his dumbstruck brother on the shoulder and headed back out into the yard. Almost as soon as he turned the corner around the shed, he was gone in a flash of colored light.

----

Ruth Brooks looked up at the kids playing tag in the park. She was sitting underneath a tree with a sketchbook, carefully catching the children on paper. When she was sure no-one was looking, she pulled a different sketchbook out of her bag and set to work. She was trying to turn all the old Power Ranger shows into comics, but she hadn't got far. She liked drawing comics, but even better was just being able to draw whatever came to mind. Today, that was Andros and Ashley from Power Rangers in Space. She kept her ranger sketchbooks secret, because even when she was thirteen; she'd been mocked for still watching the show. If anyone found out the seventeen year old still watched them, she'd be picked on forever. Without putting down her pencil for a moment, she deftly twisted her long dark hair out of the way and clipped it in place, then went back to work.

The kids playing tag kept going, towards the other end of the park, and Ruth put away her sketching and stretched her arms.

Luckily, there was no-one around to see her disappear in a stream of colored light.

---

In a strange and eerie chamber, five colored lights suddenly appeared and revealed five teenagers in the middle of the room. Unfortunately, all was not well. A girl with long dark hair was dropped to the floor from a sitting position three feet in the air. She hit the ankles of a dark skinned boy, who fell into the tall dark haired boy and the blonde girl, who clutched at the arm of the red haired boy. With a series of yelps they all tumbled to the floor.

"Ai-yi-yi. This is not a good start." grumbled a brightly shining robot from one side of the chamber. From the tangle of limbs five heads whipped up, eyes wide with disbelief.

"Alpha?!" they asked as one, obviously expecting a joke.

"They know me!" squeaked the robot happily, doing a strange dance. "Hold on, how they know me?" it stopped dancing, and looked at them, its head on one side.

The five teens were slowly disentangling themselves and standing up.

"But… how… what…" stuttered the blonde girl, eyes darting everywhere, but soon settling on a back wall. She gave a shriek.

"YOU… YOU'RE…"

The other teens turned, almost as one, and gasped, all but the dark haired boy, who smiled triumphantly. 

"Zordon, I presume?"

Indeed, there was a disembodied head floating in a tube of blue light. The head blinked.

"Yes. I believe you know why you are here." spoke Zordon, his voice oddly distorted.

"ALRIGHT!" exclaimed the red haired boy and the dark skinned boy together, giving each other a high five.

"No way!" gasped the blonde girl.

"Wow…" breathed the dark haired boy. 

The dark haired girl just smiled and politely dipped her head at Zordon in thanks.

"I believe introductions are in order, but we must move fast, Ziva Osith is attacking New York." said Zordon. "Alpha, the Discs…" The robot came forward with a box. Inside the box were five small colored discs, glowing. 

"I have not yet set forms to the powers, I have not had time. These powers are raw, and only constrained by their colors." explained Zordon. "Now hurry. Ian, strong and wise, a leader, you are the Red Ranger."

The robot, Alpha, handed the glowing red disc to Ian.

"Elizabeth, cheerful and outgoing, you are the Pink Ranger." announced Zordon, and kept going even as Alpha handed her the pink disc.

"Tristan, level headed and smart, you are the Blue Ranger." Alpha gave him the blue disc.

"Ruth, kind hearted and gentle, you are the Yellow Ranger." Alpha handed over the yellow disc.

"Sean, mischievous and fair, you are the Black Ranger." finished Zordon as Alpha gave out the last disc.

"There isn't time now; I shall explain more when you return. Now, listen to the Power, and follow it."

The five teens closed their hands around the Discs, which reappeared around their necks on plain leather necklaces. They raised their left hands to hold the necklaces, and took balanced stances. Reaching out with their right hand beside of them they yelled 'Power…" they punched their right hands above their heads. "Rangers…" with a final gesture, they swept their right arms down to end in front of them, hands spread wide. "GO!"

With a flash of light, they had new uniforms, which appeared to be a mixture of many other Ranger uniforms.

"Now hurry. You must stop Ziva Osith. Alpha will teleport you there, and may the Power protect you."

Ruth fought back a giggle as Zordon's words brought up a mental image of Yoda. The others looked at her strangely, but had no time to comment as Alpha activated the teleport and the five of them were gone in beams of colored light.

----

Ziva Osith, last warrior of the defeated Laarindae Clan of the planet Nerron, was very happy. She had no idea where she was or how she had got there, but she liked it. This planet was weak, and she would conquer it and make herself Queen in the memory of her people. Best of all, her powers worked better here, she had created an entire unit of LarrBots with hardly any effort.

The purple-haired warrior laughed evilly as she shot anything that moved with her custom blasters. These people wouldn't even stand up for themselves!

----

Trent Burke was a reporter for one of the local TV stations, and was seriously considering handing in his resignation after this assignment. Some whacko was attacking New York with sci-fi weapons, and the police hadn't been able to stop her. They'd even tried to shoot her, but their shots had been stopped by some kind of shield around the woman. Trent had hardly believed his eyes when the woman had created a bunch of robots out of thin air, but here they were. The police had set up barricades and were still trying to shoot the villain and the robots, but their shots seemed to be absorbed about five inches from impact. To make matters worse, the intruder's weapons seemed to be very high powered. The reporter ducked as more debris went flying over his head.

----

When the newly chosen Rangers appeared, there was silence. The reporter stared dumbstruck, as did the police and the robots, while Ziva had a strange expression halfway between rage and curiosity.

The Rangers stood in a shallow V-shaped formation, having unconsciously drawn on their memories of the TV show.

"Who are you?!" she demanded with a snarl.

"We're the Power Rangers, and we're going to stop you." said the Red one, stepping forward. Everyone kept staring for a moment.

"Are you getting this?! Please tell me you're getting this!" Trent muttered to his cameraman. The cameraman nodded feverishly.

"You?! Stop ME?! We'll see about that." snapped Ziva. "LarrBots, GET THEM!"

As the LarrBots moved in, the Rangers exploded into action.

The Red one moved first, by a fraction of a second. The first blow was a simple knife hand strike to the throat, but it landed with enough power to snap off the robot's head. He kept going with a flying kick to the next one, then a sweep kick to the right. His moves blurred into a flurry of punches and kicks so fast it was difficult to separate them.

The Blue Ranger ran forward a few steps and jumped, landing right in the centre of the fray. He clothes-lined a robot to his left, and used the momentum to follow around and punch one on his right. He seemed to have no idea what he was doing, but somehow it worked. His moves were a strange mix of very simple and outlandishly creative.

The Pink Ranger was a deadly windmill of arms and legs. It didn't seem to matter where she was, or even which way up, she always hit something. She began with a series of front flips, kicking anything she could on the way past. When she bounced to her feet she flung her fists out and spun, catching three robots on their chests, she then flipped into a handstand and repeated the action upside down, kicking them in their heads.

The Black one seemed to be almost playing games with them. Planting his hands on the shoulders of one robot, he flipped over it, forcing it to the ground and kicking one behind it in the face on the way over. He then engaged in a bizarre boxing match with another robot, landing light punches all over its chest, then tornado kicking it when it was confused.

The Yellow Ranger moved like lightning, one moment she was there, the next she was on the other side of the battle. She darted forward, not stopping for the robots she somehow ran up the front of one and kicked it in the head, then jumped from its shoulders as it fell. She managed to land with one foot on another robots' shoulder, kicking it soundly with her other foot. Again she jumped from her perch as it fell, and then landed both feet on the next one's head. Landing with a roll she was off once more, landing blows before her opponent even knew she was there.

----

The police watched with their jaws hanging open. There weren't supposed to be any Power Rangers, that was a kids TV show, yet here they were, beating the crap out of things that had somehow managed to block bullets.

Trent Burke the Reporter was ecstatic. This was brilliant, it would make him rich. He watched avidly, not willing to tear his eyes from the scene, even when a piece of flying debris came his way. It hit him in the side of the head, and he slumped against the barrier. He would later find that the cameraman was rich.

Ziva Osith watched in mounting anger as the five colored upstarts tore through her LarrBots. She quietly holstered her blasters and drew her sword, charging it with energy, waiting.

As the last LarrBot fell to a right cross from the Black Ranger, the policemen broke into weary cheers. Ziva scowled.

"So, you can beat foot soldiers, let's see how you do against the real thing!" Ziva cackled, throwing out the arm holding the sword, she pointed it at the Rangers and let the energy loose. It hit them and exploded, throwing the five fighters to the ground. The police had to duck behind the barricades as the heat blasted over them.

Ziva Osith smiled.

"Is that the best you can do? Pathetic." she turned to leave.

She didn't see the Red one clench his fists, the Black one snap his head in her direction, the Pink one narrow her eyes behind her helmet, the Blue one shake with anger, or the Yellow one push herself up.

"Hold it Ziva," yelled the Red Ranger harshly once the team was on their feet again. "You're not getting rid of us that easily!" he must have given a signal, because suddenly the five of them had blasters in their hands, pointed at the space warrior.

"FIRE!" he roared. Five beams of colored energy hit Ziva and sent her flying through the air, halting with a crash into the wall behind.

The Rangers kept their blasters aimed, waiting. Sure enough, Ziva coughed and pushed herself up, her armor covered in dust.

"I'll be back, just you wait." she snarled. Raising her right arm, she made a fist and quickly faded from view.

The Rangers lowered their blasters slowly, still wary.

"Who's got a scanner?" asked Red.

"I do, she's gone." said the Pink Ranger.

"For now." muttered Black.

"Ow." moaned the Blue Ranger, rubbing his left shoulder where it had hit the ground. "I really hope she doesn't do that again." 

The Yellow Ranger turned to the bystanders. "Are you all okay?" she asked.

"This guy's out of it." called the cameraman, still holding the camera with one hand, pointing at the unconscious reporter with the other.

Yellow ran over to check, while the rest of her team followed at a more leisurely pace. She turned the reporter over and examined his head. 

"Just a concussion, he'll need rest, but he'll be fine in a day or two."

"That was amazing! I thought Power Rangers was a kids TV show!" exclaimed the cameraman, letting loose his excitement now that he knew his partner was alright and most of the action seemed over.

"To be honest, so did we." said the Blue Ranger quietly. "Hey!" he added, as he was elbowed in the ribs by the Black Ranger.

"I guess no-one ever needed Power Rangers before." shrugged Red. The police were slowly coming over from their barricades, still staring in disbelief.

"Thank you… thank you! Wow, how did you… where did you… how can we ever thank you enough?!" stammered a sergeant.

"We're fine thanks." said the Black Ranger happily.

"Getting rid of the weirdo was enough for us." grinned Blue.

"Yeah, glad to be of service and all that." nodded Yellow.

"I'd really like a hot bath though." joked Pink.

"I'm sure we'd love to stay and chat, but we really should be going." interrupted Red with a slight gesture to his teammates. They nodded and stepped back a pace, then disappeared in flashes of colored light.

----

As the five new Power Rangers landed back in… headquarters, Alpha welcomed them with a cheerful 'Well done, Rangers!'

"Power Down." said the teens, reverting to their normal selves again, save the few small bruises and their new necklaces.

"So, how 'bout an explanation now?" Ian said, turning to Zordon.

"Yeah, like something about how you're real?" chirped Lizzy.

"And where you and Alpha came from?" added Tristan.

"And where we are…" continued Ruth.

"And who the hell was that?" asked Sean, referring to the apparently evil 'Ziva' character they had just faced.

"Very well then, gather 'round and get comfortable. This may take some explaining."

The five teens sat on the floor and tried to get comfortable. Ruth made a mental note to get the place some cushions at the first opportunity. 

----

"I trust you are familiar with the TV shows?" began Zordon, but he didn't wait for anything more that a nod. "Of course you are. That was part of the reason I chose you. I needed people who would not be too skeptical, and who would already be familiar with some of the things Power Rangers must face. It was hard to find five suitable people who lived relatively close to each other and still liked a children's TV show, whether they showed it or not."

"That's great, but _how_?!" interrupted Tristan.

"Patience, I was getting there. If you are familiar with the TV shows, you know something about me then."

"Like how you're a millennia old wizard?" asked Ian, a slightly bored look on his face.

"And how you're stuck in that tube." added Sean helpfully.

"And how you're supposed to be DEAD!" exclaimed Ruth.

Zordon smiled at her.

"I am dead."

The five teens gaped at him.

"In that universe, I am dead, but in this one I am not. I am a sort of trans-dimensional reflection of that Zordon."

Five blank stares met this proclamation, until Ruth leaned over to Lizzy and whispered 'Billy-speak.'

Zordon smiled at her.

"In simple terms, for some reason when I 'died' I came here, to an entirely different universe. This universe had no Zordon, and didn't need one, until now. I believe that is why I'm here."

Again he was met with confused stares. Finally Tristan beamed. "So you're here because she's here." 

"In a way, yes. She was never supposed to find this planet, but the excess energy of my 'dying' appears to have affected more than my old universe. What I helped set in motion, I must help fix."

The teens blinked for a moment.

"Okay, in a severely weird way that kinda makes sense, but where are we? And how is Alpha here?! I KNOW earth doesn't have the technology for this kind of thing yet." said Ian, waving a hand around the chamber. 

"I can help with that!" said Alpha happily. "You are in the Command Center, and I am Alpha-C, or Alpha-Copy. Zordon might not be able to do a lot stuck in a tube, but he managed to copy me and the Command Center and drag us along with him." giggled Alpha. Zordon gave a slight frown and decided to have a talk to the robot later about manners.

"Okay, but where exactly is the Command Center?" asked Tristan. "Teleportation can be blocked, I'd just a soon know where to go."

"It's several miles into the plains north of Tydale, which is apparently somewhere near the old location of Angel Grove. We figured that was easiest. It's fully cloaked and shielded, so no-one will find it without a Disc, an invitation, or an awful lot of power." said Alpha. Sean had to fight the urge to punch the robot. It was annoyingly cheerful.

"So… Zordon is here to fix an inter-dimensional accident, so is copy-Alpha. A copy of the Command Center is in the plains near Tydale, where we're all from, and we were chosen because we still liked Power Rangers." Lizzy recapped, ticking off the points on her fingers. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, but he still hasn't told us who that Ziva character is." answered Tristan.

Zordon almost sighed. "That part is a bit trickier."

"What could be trickier than a TV show come to life because of an inter-dimensional accident?!" questioned an incredulous Ian. 

"Well, I copied the old Command Center and Alpha because I had a feeling I would need them. In doing so, the tear between this dimension and my old one was widened. I don't know if Ziva was the only one to get pulled through, but I hope so.

"Ziva Osith is the last warrior of the defeated Laarindae Clan of the planet Nerron. The Laarindae ruled the planet dictatorship style for many centuries, gradually getting crueler. Finally the people of Nerron revolted, and the Laarindae were wiped out.

"This was happening as I was pulled into the tear. Ziva was caught in the edge of the tear and would have been dumped on this universe's equivalent of Nerron. How she got here is easier.

"Laarindae posses a small amount of battle magic, usually things like transporting and creating troops, although they can sometimes use pure energy in battle. Coincidentally, those troops you fought are called LarrBots. She must have tried to transport herself to the nearest life and found herself here.

"The rest you know, but you will have to be careful, it looks as if her magic works easier here, and even without it she is a formidable warrior."

"Okaaay, so she's a space warrior, her people just got destroyed and she has no idea where she is? Sounds like she needs counseling to me." quipped Sean.

"I can't believe you brought the whole Command Center!" said a bemused Lizzy, staring around the central room.

"Hold on, you brought the Command Centre because you thought it might be useful?! You didn't bring anything else did you? Like maybe some Zords, or the Astro Megaship or something?" asked Ruth, a faint edge of sarcasm in her voice.

Zordon looked almost embarrassed.

Ruth gaped at him. "What did you _DO_?!"

"Well, I might have copied a lot of things…" hedged Zordon.

"Dude! Dibs on the Ninja Storm stuff!" exclaimed Sean happily. Lizzy choked on a giggle.

"Zordon, that was dangerous." said Alpha. If the little robot could scowl, then it was.

"Well I was very close to dying Alpha! I just copied everything I could, from anywhere, any time, with even a trace of the Power!" Zordon protested.

"I call the Megaship." stated Ruth happily.

"Lightspeed!" chimed Lizzy, her hand shooting in the air automatically.

"Dino Thunder for me." said Tristan with a lazy smile.

"Er… does that mean we have another Earth out there somewhere?!" asked Ian carefully. Zordon thought for a moment.

"I don't think so, but there might be a few people here and there who are confused right now… oh dear. Alpha, how good is our scanning equipment?!" If the situation wasn't so serious it would have been comical. Zordon's eyes were darting around in a panicked manner, and his voice held an edge of slight hysteria.

"Better than you'd think." answered Alpha in a reprimanding tone. "I've already started. In an hour or so you can expect results."

"So, not only are we Power Rangers, we can apparently be whatever type of Rangers we like?" asked Lizzy. "And somewhere out there are all the bases and equipment of each team?!"

"And a few Rangers, it would seem." was Alpha's blandly delivered answer.

----

**Coming up in Episode Two: Mighty Morphin' Mistake...**  
Who has been copied into our world? Why is Alpha close to exploding? Will Tommy Oliver finally snap and punch the annoying little kid who somehow knows his secret identity?

_Tommy whirled on Zordon. "You'd better be glad I have no powers at the moment, or I'd break that damn tube of yours!" he yelled angrily. "What the hell were you thinking?!"_

Next time, on Power Rangers Real Earth.


	2. Episode 2: Mighty Morphin' Mistake

Chapter Note: I am aware everyone would want to stay and help, but I don't know _all_ of the characters well enough to get them right, even the ones I know seem to have twisted a bit. Anyway, here it is…

----

**Power Rangers Real Earth:  
**Episode 2: Mighty Morphin' Mistake

Dr. Tommy Oliver was confused. One minute he was in Reefside, and the next… well, he wasn't sure what had happened, but he didn't like it one bit. He liked it even less when he saw a crowd of people outside an electronics store watching the TVs in the window display what appeared to be the latest evil overlord attacking a city. Tommy automatically reached for his left wrist, only to remember there was nothing there but his watch. He frowned slightly. What was going on here?

Continuing down the street warily, his eyes darting everywhere, he was surprised when a child approached him.

"Wow! Can I have your autograph?!" asked the excited ten year old.

Tommy stared in dazed confusion. "I guess… why do you want it though?"

"Because you're a Power Ranger!" exclaimed the kid. Tommy's eyes widened and he pulled the kid around the nearest corner and down behind a fence.

"How do you know that?!" he asked, his eyes narrowed dangerously, but the kid was irrepressible.

"The TV show, duh." said the kid, like that explained everything. Tommy's expression became even more confused.

"You're staying in character and everything!" gushed the kid. "Please?" he held out a scrap of paper and a pen, and Tommy hastily scrawled his name on it, his left eye twitching dangerously.

"Cool!" yelled the kid as he jumped up to run off. Tommy caught him easily.

"Hang on a sec, kiddo. Where are we?"

"Tydale… where did you think you were?!" the kid looked at him funny.

"And what year is it?" asked Tommy.

"2007…" the look multiplied.

"Listen, can you not tell anyone about this?" asked Tommy urgently. The kid beamed.

"Sure! No-one would believe me anyway, but I've got your autograph!" he happily waved it.

Tommy let go of the boy's wrist and the kid shot off like a rocket. Tommy closed his eyes to count to ten slowly, then carefully looked around and sprinted for the nearest cover, which happened to be a public telephone booth. He shut the door and pulled a small silver object out of his back pocket. He always carried his old communicator around, as a kind of souvenir. Now he held it up and pressed the call button.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" he asked in a strangled voice.

"Yes? What's the problem?" came a voice he instantly recognized.

"JASE! Is that you?!" Tommy could have cried with relief.

"Yeah, who… Tommy?"

"Got it in one, bro. What's going on?!"

"I have no idea, but I'd say it's not good." answered Jason.

"Where are you?" asked Tommy.

"I think some place called Tydale, that's what the big 'Welcome To' sign on the highway says, anyway."

"You have a car?"

"Yep… Where are you?"

"Same place. Seems to be the main street."

"Stay there bro, I'm coming."

Tommy let go of the call button and stepped out of the phone booth, looking around suspiciously. He immediately strapped on the communicator. Something fishy was going on here…

----

Alpha came trundling into the main chamber of the Command Center with a large printout. The five teens from Tydale had gone home quickly to make excuses, and come back to find out what was going on. Ruth had brought some old cushions and folding chairs.

"Results?" asked Zordon hopefully.

Alpha appeared to be steaming.

"Results? RESULTS?! LOOK AT THIS LIST!" Alpha unfurled the list which fell to the floor with a soft whoosh.

"Oh." said Zordon.

"Oh? OH?! EVERYONE IS HERE! EVEN THE AQUITIANS!" yelled the robot. "EVEN THE TIME FORCE TEAM FROM 3000! What are we going to _DO_?"

"Erm, Well, I suppose we'd best contact them all." mumbled Zordon.

"AND start looking for a way to UN-copy them!" ordered Alpha, waving a finger threateningly, before moving over to the teleport controls.

----

Jason Lee Scott drove slowly down the main street of Tydale, looking for his friend. Something strange was afoot. He didn't recall any town called Tydale near Angel Grove, or anywhere else for that matter. His thoughts were interrupted as he slowed to a halt at an intersection, and someone vaulted into the passenger seat. Jason jumped and swung out with his fist, only to have it blocked expertly.

"That glad to see me, huh?" greeted the smiling but worried face of Tommy Oliver.

"Next time, just use the door." grinned Jason. The two of them then turned serious.

"So, any idea what's going on?" asked Jason as he steered the car out towards the highway once again.

"Not a clue." sighed Tommy. "But I did see a monster attack on a TV in a shop window."

"And…?" prodded Jason.

"And… some random kid ran up and wanted my autograph. He knew I was a Power Ranger."

"How?" exclaimed Jason, eyes wide with shock.

"That's not even the half of it." growled Tommy. "Apparently, wherever we are, the Power Rangers are a TV show for kids."

"WHAT?!" exploded Jason, loosing control of the car momentarily, then swerving to avoid an ornamental tree. He brought the car to a screeching halt at the side of the road, earning some very dirty looks from passing drivers. He turned to Tommy, confusion and anger in his eyes.

"What the hell is going on here?!"

"I don't know, but it can't be good…" said Tommy quietly, eyes still checking everywhere. The two men stared at their surroundings for a moment, taking stock of the situation. They had no idea where they were. All they had was a car. It seemed everyone knew they were Power Rangers.

Then their communicators chimed an alarm, and they shared a look of shocked hope.

----

Alpha was trying to get the locations of the first team, but was having very little luck, so he decided to try their communicators.

Punching the old alert sequence into the transmitter, Alpha waited to see if anyone responded. Almost immediately there were voices.

"Hello?" "Who's there?" "Salutations." "Yes?" and two deep growls of "What the hell is going on?!" that echoed on each other's lines. It appeared Tommy and Jason had already found each other.

"Hang on a moment Rangers, I'll teleport you in." replied the robot. He was met with a deafening cacophony of "ALPHA?!"

Tracing the communicator signals was fairly easy, and as Alpha pushed another button, six streaks of colored light appeared in the centre of the chamber. The five new Rangers hastily got out of the way as the original Power Ranger team materialized on the platform. They looked around in confusion and shock for a moment, before noticing their extra member.

"TRINI!" shrieked a tearful Kimberly, embracing the small Asian girl with a huge sob.

"What?" asked the confused Yellow Ranger.

"You… you're dead!" gasped Jason around the lump in his throat. He'd thought his team would never be whole again, but here they all were, even the interstellar traveler and the dead one.

"I am?" confused, Trini checked her arms and touched her face. "I don't feel dead."

"But you were." interjected Zordon, calling attention to himself.

"Zordon?" whispered Tommy, almost to himself. "But… you died too!"

"What's going on? Are we all dead or something?" asked a very confused Zach.

"The probability of that being factual is very slight." said Billy thoughtfully, staring around the chamber.

Ian stepped forwards, his team just behind him. "You're not dead, any of you. Zordon made a huge, trans-dimensional mistake." he announced with a slight smirk. It seemed no-one was infallible, not even Zordon.

"Zordon?" gaped Kimberly, still clutching Trini's arm.

Zordon blushed, if heads in tubes can blush.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" roared Tommy and Jason together. Alpha came forward.

"It seems he copied you into this universe."

"Copied us…" Billy seemed incapable of speech.

Tommy whirled on Zordon. "You'd better be glad I have no powers at the moment, or I'd break that damn tube of yours!" he yelled angrily. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

Zordon decided it would be a bad idea to tell them their old powers worked here.

Jason cracked his knuckles. "Powers or not, I can still punch him."

Billy's eyes were narrowed. "If you'll allow me to calculate the correct angle and application of force, you could actually do substantial damage."

"Calculate away Billy, he's not going anywhere." growled Zach.

Trini and Kimberly watched in amusement, but they too were angry.

It seemed the dimensionally challenged wizard had some serious explaining to do.

----

As it turned out, there was very little to explain, and almost everyone elected to be un-copied, or disappear, or whatever the technical term Billy had used meant.

The unused morphers were collected by Alpha and placed in a vault, while the former Rangers were dissolved by Zordon.

Tommy and Jason wanted to stay. Perhaps it was their adventurous streaks, perhaps that they'd still be able to use their old powers here if they needed to, perhaps even that they could just be themselves without fear of evil seeking them out. Whatever it was, they didn't want to go with the others.

Zordon and Alpha thought that was fine, because they'd need people to look after the various Ranger bases that were scattered all over the place… once the bases were found, anyway.

So Tommy and Jason grabbed their own folding chairs and began asking the new team how their world was different.

Alpha brought in the next lot of former Rangers, and again, they were very upset and demanded to be un-copied. It seemed that the first few teams had bad experiences with cloning. All the way through to the Turbo team, Adam Park was the only other Ranger who elected to stay.

The Astro or Space team were the last team who used the original model communicators, and after Andros, Ashley and Zhane elected to stay, Alpha had to start scanning manually for each team.

Once the Lost Galaxy team were found, there was a surprise. While Karone wanted to come and stay with her brother and the remaining Space team, the others were quite happy to stay on the Mirinoi of this universe, which had no colonists and remained unspoiled. They would guard their planet and help Earth when needed.

The Lightspeed team were shocked and puzzled, and after a heated debate amongst themselves, they all gave up their morphers and dissipated.

The Time Force team was also shocked, but in a good way, and only Alex wanted out. Being too much of a stickler for rules to realize this was out of his jurisdiction, he tried to order the others away too. Eric took exception to his attitude and punched out the pompous former Red Ranger, adding with a smile that he'd always wanted to do that.

After Zordon had got rid of the unconscious Alex, the rest decided to stay because now there was no Mr. Collins or Time Force Headquarters to bother them. They could be a team in peace.

Ian got the distinct impression that Eric was looking forward to squashing things with the Q-rex.

The Wild Force team didn't want to stay, and Cam was the only one from Ninja Storm, but the Dino Thunder team refused to go. The four younger members of the team wanted to help, especially since their gems were now active, and their base was once again operational. Though Trent was slightly worried about being a copy, he too wanted to help, even when Zordon pointed out that there wasn't really anyone for them to fight at the moment.

The SPD team were comical. Zordon didn't even wait for comments after his short explanation before removing Doggie Cruger, which shocked a few people but left those who knew the dog-like alien chuckling, as he would no doubt have tried to arrest or fight the old wizard. The core team of five wanted to stay, especially once the situation was properly explained.

The last team was Mystic Force, and while all the older rangers wanted out (apparently this sort of thing was against the laws of the universe), the five teens wanted to stay. They had no record shop here, so they could throw themselves into their magic and their hobbies. As Nick put it, "We're here, why not do something? We can always learn more."

So with the Rangers sorted out, Alpha began scanning for bases. Andros and his new mix-and-match team of four had already gone to the Megaship via teleport, but the others either had nowhere to go or didn't know where their base was at present.

The Lightspeed Aquabase was found just off the coast near Tydale, and was taken by the SPD team, whose base was in the future and currently inaccessible. Connor took quite a while to recover from the idea of an underwater Ranger Base.

While Time Force would have loved their clock tower back, it didn't appear to exist anymore. Since their equipment was with them, they decided to settle at the Ninja Storm base with Cam, who was going to help Alpha and be a technician for all the new teams.

The Dino Thunder base was still under Tommy's house, which was found somewhere on the very southern outskirts of Tydale, and Tommy told his team they could just crash at his place because it was plenty big enough. Jason and Adam were going to stay with them as well.

The Mystic Force team was fine, because their 'base' was an entire alternate dimension, which Zordon anchored to the woods near Tommy's house.

Alpha then got to work setting up communication links for all of them, still muttering darkly at Zordon.

----

Before leaving for home, Tommy wanted to know a bit more about this place he had to live in. Most of the other teams were fine, because their bases were hidden or very remote. One team was in space somewhere, and yet another on a different planet. That newest team even had their own dimension!

Tommy's new troop of Rangers had questions too, but their quiz session didn't quite go as planned.

"So, what exactly is this place like?" asked Tommy, still recovering from his ordeal with the nine-year-old. His right eye still twitched occasionally, and he silently promised himself to never ever teach junior kids.

Ian gave a half-smile and a shrug.

"It's just like your world I think, except that almost everyone here knows or has heard of Power Rangers, which isn't, or wasn't real, and is a TV show for kids, and has been for the last fifteen years. Just assume that if anyone recognizes you, they'll know all about you."

"And he means _ALL_." added Lizzy.

"All?" asked Jason carefully, looking almost timid.

"Pretty much." confirmed Tristan. "Anything that happened while you were a Ranger, anyway."

Tommy had a sour look.

"Dr. O? At least they won't know too much about us then… they've only seen a year or so…" Connor trailed off as Tommy glared at him with a look that would have sent Mesagog running for the hills.

"Six years for Tommy." said Ruth absently, "Three years of Mighty Morphin', then Zeo and Turbo, he reappeared briefly in Wild Force; Forever Red, and then came Dino Thunder, and the second team-up mission with SPD." she ticked them all off on her fingers, absently ignoring Tommy's glare of death.

"SPD? We've never teamed up with them, they come from a whole different time!" exclaimed Kira.

"Uh… they kind of erased your memories." said Sean awkwardly.

"They WHAT?!" roared Tommy, jumping to his feet, fists clenched, completely drowning out the protests of the other Dino Rangers. The Earth Rangers shared a worried look.

"WHERE'S THE AQUABASE? I'LL SWIM THERE MYSELF IF I HAVE TO! HOW DARE THEY..." Tommy continued to rage. Connor paled slightly at the words 'aquabase' and 'swim'. Ethan chuckled gleefully. Kira ignored them, trying to calm down her senior team member.

"Dr. O, calm down, I'm sure they had a reason, maybe you should think about it first…" she gave up as Tommy sent her an expert death glare without breaking his tirade. He kept going, now getting stuck into every villain who had ever messed with his memory.

Trent wanted no part of a fight whatsoever, and Adam watched in silent disbelief. It was as if whatever held Tommy's temper in check had snapped. Even before this outburst he'd been edgy.

It was Jason who solved the problem momentarily. He calmly strode up to his friend and stared at him for a moment. When Tommy kept yelling at anything and everything from Goldar to Anubis Cruger to the mushrooms in the park at Angel Grove, Jason let fly with the strongest punch he could muster. Tommy fell to the ground and lay there blinking for a moment. He sat up slowly, staring at Jason.

"Get a hold of yourself, bro." said Jason sternly, still standing over him.

Tommy didn't quite know what was going on any more, and he didn't like it. He was fuming about having his memory erased and everyone on the planet knowing his history. This had brought up a host of other things, and he had worked himself into a fine temper. When Jason punched him, he took a few moments to recover and then punched Jason back. It wasn't his best punch, but it connected, and in less than a second the two were a blur of fists and feet.

The rest of the Rangers watched in amazement. When the two combatants showed no sign of slowing after five minutes, Ruth ran to Alpha.

"Have you got communications up yet?" she asked the robot, who was also staring at Tommy and Jason.

"Yes… only audio, but…"

"That's fine! Which one gets Time Force? And the Megaship?"

"That one, and that panel over there…" Alpha had hardly finished as Ruth dove for the controls, calling the Megaship first.

"Andros! Can you get down here please? Urgently? Tommy's lost it." she didn't wait for a reply before moving to the Time Force controls.

"Eric, Wes, we need help here, fast!"

----

Andros arrived first, along with the other three Rangers from the Megaship. He took one look at what was going on and paled. Ruth ran up to him.

"I've called Eric and Wes, but…" she yelped and dove out of the way as the whole Time Force team appeared. Eric had a grim smile, while Wes looked at Andros and nodded.

The three of them ran towards the brawl and grabbed at Tommy. Eric held his arms back while Wes and Andros clamped onto a leg each, holding him out like a rag doll.

Jason nodded thanks at them.

"What is going on here?!" Andros asked sternly, but Tommy was still going, now about the awful food at his first school's cafeteria, the teacher who had ignored him, and the annoying little girl who'd kept trying to kiss him in third grade.

The Dino Thunder team was gaping, the Earth team seemed torn between amused and concerned, and the Time Force and Space teams looked like someone had just smacked them with a fish.

All except Jen.

Jen strode over to the yelling man with a glare that would melt steel. She motioned for Wes and Andros to let go of Tommy's feet, and Eric dragged him up, still holding his arms from behind. Jen scowled at Tommy for a moment, then slapped him.

Tommy paused for a moment in shock, and that was all Jen needed. She ripped into him, louder than an air raid siren and almost as shrill.

"TOMMY OLIVER, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A BABY! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A MENTOR! AN EXAMPLE! SOME GREAT RANGER YOU ARE! YOU…"

Wes was wincing, Andros took a few steps back and Jason leaned away. Eric was as stony faced as ever.

Tommy stared, slowly calming down as his eardrums demanded more attention than his rage. His face had a nice red handprint, but he didn't notice.

"What say we send Tommy out next time there's a monster?" said Sean quietly. "I think he needs it."

Ian nodded a fraction. "Still, I can understand it. He wants to help, but his whole world's just been turned over."

Jen showed no signs of slowing, and the five Earth Rangers slowly stepped away, nodding at the few people who noticed. They needed to get home. It was after five o'clock as five streams of colored light flew over Tydale.

----

Lizzy spent a long time in a bathtub full of bubbles, her muscles still aching from the fight earlier in the day. When she came down for dinner her family was glued to the television, watching the news showing the Power Rangers fighting Ziva. Then it switched to a view of the President.

"As thanks for their outstanding efforts," he was saying, "I have decided to thank them by honoring the Pink Ranger's wish."

Lizzy stared. What had she wanted? She couldn't even remember now.

The President continued with a tiny grin. "The price of an average bathtub's worth of water will be deducted from the water bill of every household."

Lizzy's parents never understood what had made their daughter laugh so hard.

----

**Coming up in Episode Three: The Monster Mash…**

Our five new heroes get to know each other a bit better, and discover that the population has suddenly gone Power Ranger crazy. Can they get the town to realise the danger before things get out of control?

"_Aren't those things supposed to be hard to beat?" asked Sean in shock._

"_I think they get harder as the villain gets more desperate. Plus, I don't recall a whole town ever jumping on one…" said Ruth, still staring around the park in disbelief._

Next time, on Power Rangers Real Earth.


	3. Episode 3: The Monster Mash

And here comes…

**Episode 3: The Monster Mash**

Ian, Lizzy, Sean, Tristan and Ruth were huddled in a corner of Lizzy's uncle Charlie's Café, carefully nursing milkshakes.

"I didn't realize that 'Charlie's Café' was run by your uncle." said Ian, who had been there before, but hadn't connected the cheerful and chubby café owner with his bouncy blonde classmate.

The five teens were slowly getting to know each other, since while they shared many of the same classes, besides Sean and Tristan they had rarely spoken to each other.

Elizabeth Duncan had decided to begin, being one of the more outspoken people on the team.

"Yep. So, I work for uncle Charlie whenever he needs me, but the hours are really flexible and I get heaps of breaks and stuff, which is good now, because it means I can run off…" she trailed off with a shrug, and the team all grinned. It still hadn't quite sunk in yet that they were superheroes.

"I liked Power Rangers when I was little, and I just kept watching it. Even though some of the newer ideas are strange, I think they grow on you. I also like gymnastics, maybe it's a pink thing." added Lizzy.

"So who's next?" she asked happily, smiling around the circle.

"I'll go." said Ian. "I'm Ian O'Neil, I was about seven when I got into Power Rangers stuff, and ever since then I wanted to do martial arts. When I was ten, my parents let me start Karate, and I've kept going. I also picked up a few other forms. When my little brother Drew got into Power Rangers, he made me watch it with him and I started practicing some of the more creative moves they use in the show. I've just about made my own style." he gave a lopsided half-smile. "That's about it."

"Me next!" chirped Sean. "I'm Sean Hogan, Tristan's been my best friend since kindergarten, and we used to watch Power Rangers together all the time. Tristan's a typical Blue really, into science and fixing stuff. I'm more of a joker. When we were fourteen, our parents decided that it really wasn't healthy to watch a kids show so much, and stopped us. When we were fifteen, we found a website that had most of the shows online, so we'd organize a time and watch it with msn running off to one side. Man that was fun." he laughed, remembering. Tristan poked him.

"Yes, except what am I supposed to tell?"

"Your sister." smiled Sean. Tristan rolled his eyes with a grin, and began the tale.

"I'm Tristan Banner. Sean told most of my account but this story is amusing, while largely irrelevant. When we were sixteen, my younger sister Gracie decided she was going to spy on us, and discovered we were still watching Power Rangers. She also found us practicing a few martial arts moves from the show. Nothing professional, we were just playing about, but she determined she was going to blackmail us. We had to teach her how to fight like a Power Ranger, or she'd tell our parents we still watched the show. So we did. Some time later there was a dress up day for school. She dressed as the Pink Time Force Ranger and kicked the rear of every bully in the entire school. It was so hilarious, watching this little Pink Ranger beat up these sixth grade bullies dressed as monsters! Moreover, she hadn't told anyone who she was. She'd find somewhere secluded to change at break times, and pretended she'd forgotten to bring a costume the remainder of the time." Tristan decided to end it there, mainly because he was laughing too hard to continue. Sean was doubled over gasping for breath, and the others were drawing stares with their laughter and giggles.

When they'd finally calmed down, they turned to Ruth. She gave a shy smile and began quietly.

"I'm Ruth Brooks. I started late on the whole Power Ranger craze, because my parents thought it was a bit violent. I started watching it when I was twelve, and saw two seasons before giving it up. Then early last year I discovered a website that had a lot of them up for viewing, and I was enthralled again, realized how much I'd missed out on. I haven't looked back since." she looked around the group carefully. "I like to draw, and make things, and I'm a bit science-ish myself."

"Wahoo! A Billy-speak interpreter!" cheered Lizzy, pumping a fist in the air and drawing stares from the other customers.

"I'm not that bad." frowned Tristan.

"Just in case, dude. Sometimes you're awful." said Sean, clapping a hand on his friend's shoulder.

The five teens finished their milkshakes and stacked the glasses.

"So, now what?" asked Sean.

"We probably should practice." said Ian. "Get used to fighting as a team, learn each-other's styles, that kind of thing."

"At least it's the holidays." added Ruth. "We'll have time."

"How about the park?" asked Tristan. The others nodded agreement and they headed out.

----

When they arrived at the park, they were met with a very strange scene. It seemed that everyone who was under the age of twenty five (and even a few who were over it) had come to the park… and they were all trying to do martial arts, most of them failing miserably.

The newest Ranger team shared a bemused look.

"At least we'll fit in." snorted Ian, leading the team to a relatively quiet spot by an ornamental pond.

"What do they think they're doing?" asked Tristan, staring around the park with a look of confusion. Ruth tapped his arm.

"Where did the first few Rangers teams hang out when they weren't at 'their' shop or café?" she asked him. Tristan's eyes widened.

"But, they… we…" he gave up, instead turning to Sean. "Come on, I think I need to hit something."

Ruth and Lizzy paired up, while Ian started one of his more complex katas on his own. He wondered if he ought to call one of the other Rangers to help him practice… they'd probably go unnoticed too.

----

As it happened, Adam was walking past the park. (No pun intended)

He'd got a haircut, and was hoping he'd go unrecognized by most people. As he neared the park, there were a lot of shouts, and he walked a little faster, wondering what was going on. When he turned into the road the park was on, he stopped for a moment and stared, as many other pedestrians were doing. It seemed the entire youth of Tydale had decided to pretend they were Rangers and practice in the park. Smiling to himself, Adam cautiously skirted the mob until he spotted five familiar faces.

"Hiding in plain sight?" he called to the red dressed teen as he got closer. Ian spun around, dropping into a combat stance, but relaxed when he saw Adam.

"I guess we are." sighed Ian, straightening. "Please don't do that, not here."

Surveying the chaos, Adam grinned. "At least no-one will notice you."

"That was the idea." smirked Ian. "I have no clue what they think they're doing."

The other Rangers had noticed the visitor and had begun to exchange greetings when the shouting in the park took on a slightly hysterical note.

Sean looked to Ian briefly and the two of them took off, the rest of the team and Adam not far behind.

When they reached the scene, it was all it took for them to keep in their laughter. Ziva had apparently teleported in some LarrBots and a monster, obviously thinking the Rangers were somewhere amongst the people pretending.

The monster was fairly stupid looking, something like a cross between a shrimp and a dog. It was growling in a very canine manner, waving its four antennae-like arms about. The LarrBots were advancing on the civilians.

Adam suddenly had an idea, and nudged Ian.

"Back me up guys." he whispered, then ran forwards.

"HEY!" he roared over the chaos. People turned to stare at him. "COME ON! WE'VE BEEN PRACTICING ALL MORNING! WE CAN TAKE THEM!" he yelled above the growling monster. Some of the older kids began to crack their knuckles, and many narrowed their eyes. Adam grinned.

"ATTACK!" bellowed Ian, diving past Adam at the LarrBots, his team only a split second behind him. Adam joined in, and a few seconds later, most of the people in the park added themselves to the fight. It took only a few moments to defeat the LarrBots, and the mob now circled the monster menacingly.

"ANYONE GOT A POCKETKNIFE?" called Lizzy, her smirk looking decidedly sinister. "IF YOU DO, WE'LL HOLD 'EM DOWN, YOU STAB IT!"

"READY?" yelled Ruth. "STACKS ON!" the crowd swarmed the monster, pinning it to the ground as others began to stab and hack at it with whatever they could find, a few even bashing it with tree branches. The monster gave a series of gurgling shrieks as it was dismembered, and though it tried valiantly to fight them off, there was just no room for it to move.

The horde of people didn't let up until the monster was in small pieces, and the pieces were flung across the park, many filling garbage cans. The Rangers had ducked out halfway through and watched in amusement and horror as the bloodthirsty townsfolk diced the creature.

"Y'know, I almost feel sorry for it." sighed Ruth as the frenzy began to wind down.

"Aren't those things supposed to be harder to beat?" asked Sean in shock.

"I think they get harder as the villain gets more desperate. Plus, I don't recall a whole town ever jumping on one…" said Lizzy, still staring around the park in disbelief.

"Amusing as this is, we need to find a means to discontinue their behavior. If they disrupt every fight, someone will eventually be impaired." said Tristan, eyes still glued to the carnage.

Ian was staring open-mouthed, but Adam was laughing as hard as he could.

"Oh, wait until I tell the guys!" he gasped between bouts of hysterics. "That was amazing!"

"We'd better be off before someone thinks to look for the people who started this." muttered Ian. The Rangers made their way around the corner and into an alleyway, then teleported away.

----

The Rangers did what all Rangers seem to do when they face a large problem, they holed up in their base, in this case the Command Center.

The five teens had slowly gained composure, and thankfully they didn't have to explain themselves to Zordon and Alpha.

Alpha was giggling to himself in a very creepy manner, replaying the whole bizarre fight over and over on one of the smaller monitor screens, while Zordon looked stuck between laughing fits and stern anger.

Adam was still having trouble controlling outbreaks of laughter, but nevertheless, the first thing he had done was to call Tommy and Jason.

"They did WHAT?!" yelled the two of them through the video link when Adam had finished his barely understandable recount. "Stand by, we're coming through!"

Everyone jumped out of the way as two teleport beams materialized in the center. One was red, but the other made everyone fall about laughing again. It was green, white, red and black, all mixed together like a giant jar of sprinkles.

Tommy and Jason stared at them.

Ian was nearly bent double, as was Adam, pointing weakly at Tommy. Sean and Tristan were leaning on each other to stay upright, while Lizzy had given up and sat down. Ruth was swaying slightly, and even Alpha's sinister giggles became louder. Zordon looked like he was about to burst a vein.

"What?!" Tommy stared at them, totally confused. Jason was smiling in a 'something-must-be-funny-but-I've-no-idea-what' kind of way. This started everyone trying to explain, and failing miserably due to their hysterics. Tommy and Jason only caught snatches of explanation.

"Tommy…"

"Teleport…"

"Christmas tree…" and finally one which put it all in perspective,

"Captain Technicolor."

Zordon seemed to have composed himself enough to explain a little better.

"Your teleportation beam was quite colorful, Tommy."

Jason roared with laughter, and Tommy scowled.

Eventually when everyone had clamed down again, they settled in to discuss the latest Ranger problem. This of course, meant that Alpha showed them the footage of 'the massacre', as the five teens had dubbed the incident. It took a further five minutes for Tommy, Jason, Adam and Alpha to stop laughing again.

"Yes, funny as this is, it IS a problem guys." cut in Ian finally.

"Sorry, I haven't laughed so hard for ages!" gasped Tommy.

"You have no idea how many times we wished that would happen. It would have made everything so much easier if they didn't all scream and run." Jason added, wiping his eyes.

"Yes, as supportive as it was in such a predicament, we are obliged to convince them to cease, or there _will_ be major injuries. It's only a question of time." said Tristan earnestly, so focused and worried that he forgot to speak normally. Everyone blinked for a moment except Ruth, who jumped in hurriedly.

"They helped, but they have to stop or they'll get hurt."

"Must be a 'first Blue and Yellow' thing." Jason whispered to Tommy, but everyone caught the comment. Tristan blushed, and Ruth ducked her head.

"First?! We're not…" Sean was cut off by Adam.

"You are in this universe."

"But what can we _do_?" asked Lizzy, trying to drag everyone back on topic.

"You must tell someone of importance to stop them. Or tell them yourselves. Tristan is right, there will be casualties if they continue." said Zordon sternly.

"Maybe if we talk to some reporters…" suggested Ian with a grimace which was echoed by the others.

"Or you could try and talk to them… hold a conference or something." shrugged Adam.

"If all else fails, I could have a chat to the president." snorted Lizzy. "He seems to have taken a shine to me." This sent everyone into gales of laughter again.

"How about we try those then… not necessarily in that order though." said Sean, nodding decisively.

----

That was how it came about that the five uniformed heroes walked purposefully down the main street at a brisk pace, collecting a large crowd as they went. When they reached the park, they turned to survey their chattering followers, Ian noting smugly that there were indeed a lot of reporters and even a few TV cameras.

"We have an announcement." he said in a very loud, clear voice. "A very serious one."

The other Rangers all nodded decisively from just behind him.

"It has come to our attention that citizens have joined our fight." Ian tried desperately to make himself sound serious and imposing, all the while wanting to laugh at the dumbstruck faces before him. Thankfully, the other Rangers seemed to sense this, and Sean jumped in with the next part.

"While it's great that you aren't all running around like headless chickens, it isn't exactly safe." he said, waving an arm for emphasis.

"By all means, fight the robots if you must, but PLEASE do not jump into the fight if there is a monster!" continued Lizzy, a pleading tone in her voice.

"If you persist in engaging enemy forces there will indubitably be casualties," nodded Tristan solemnly. The crowd's attentive stares took on a decidedly blank and glassy look, and Ruth jumped in immediately.

"If you keep trying to fight the monsters, you will be hurt eventually." she translated. By this time Ian was composed enough to conclude.

"If you could please spread the word, we'd greatly appreciate it. We really don't want anyone getting injured." with a final nod, the team took a step back and teleported out before anyone could start thinking again… specifically the reporters.

----

It was not too long before the Rangers had a chance to see if their impromptu conference had worked. Later that afternoon, Ziva decided it was too quiet and sent down another monster.

Alpha was the first to notice.

"Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi… there's a catfish monster attacking the park!"

It was indeed a catfish but not in the normal sense. The creature had furry arms and legs and a feline tail, but the rest of it was covered in silvery fish scales.

"Whoa, now that's ugly!" exclaimed Sean.

"It probably smells, too, but we have to go." said Lizzy miserably.

"Yep, come on guys, it's morphin' time." grinned Ian.

With simultaneous shouts of "Power Rangers, GO!" the five of them teleported out.

----

When they got to the park, Tristan groaned. "Not again!" About fifty people had ganged up on the twenty Larrbots that had accompanied the monster, and were tearing them to shreds.

"Well, we did tell them they could have at the robots…" said Ian carefully. "Let's just hope they leave the monster to us."

"You mean me?" Cat-fish jumped at the Rangers, knocking Ruth and Sean aside.

"That'd be right." Lizzy rolled her eyes, pulling Ruth to her feet while Tristan pulled Sean up.

"Okay guys, how about some blaster power?" called Ian, drawing his blaster on the monster. The others followed suit.

"FIRE!" snapped Ruth, annoyed at being ambushed. Five colored beams blew the monster backwards into a tree.

"Ooh my head…" the Cat-fish swayed a little.

"Hiya!" yelled Sean, jumping forward and landing a stunning punch. "You're so going down!"

"Oh yeah, hee-yah!" Ruth ran in with a high kick, then she and Sean grabbed Cat-fish's arms.

"My turn!" called Lizzy. "Aiya!" She flipped forwards and landed a double strike, closely followed by Tristan, who clocked it in the side of the head with a loud cry of "Yah!"

"HYA!" roared Ian as he delivered a smashing tornado kick. "Goodbye…"

The monster gurgled a little and fell over backwards, exploding in a shower of sparks and flame.

"Woohoo!" cheered Lizzy, jumping up and down. The others stared at her. "What?"

"Never mind." Tristan shook his head.

Ian turned to look at the crowd. The Larrbots lay in pieces, and the mob had drawn back to the edge of the park. Ian grinned.

"Thanks everyone!" he yelled at them. "Just remember to be careful!"

A thunderous cheer answered him, Sean and Tristan shared a high five while Lizzy hugged a surprised Ruth.

Ian just smiled.

----

**Coming up in Episode Four: The Excuses of SPD…**

Tommy Oliver might have calmed down, but he still isn't happy. The SPD team better think of some really good explanations… and fast…

"_Well, technically it wasn't even us, I mean, Commander Cruger was the one who…" Bridge trailed off as Sky elbowed him in the ribs and looked pointedly in Tommy's direction. From the look on the veteran's face, it was quite easy to believe he'd been evil… and not quite so easy to believe that he wasn't anymore…_

Next time, on Power Rangers Real Earth.


	4. Eposode 4: The Excuses of SPD

Sorry it took so long, but wow, this chapter is huge! (For me, at least)

It just ran away from me… and the SPD Rangers started doing their own thing… anyway, here it is.

**Episode 4: The Excuses of SPD**

"I wish Hayley was here." sighed Ethan. He, Conner and Kira were sitting in Charlie's Café, trying to look inconspicuous. They'd already been mugged by a group of preschoolers wanting autographs, and were beginning to draw stares from some of the café's younger occupants.

"This is ridiculous." hissed Kira. "How are we supposed to do anything?"

"At least we're out of Dr O's way." mumbled Conner with a shudder.

The three teens grimaced. Ever since his temper tantrum several days before, Tommy had been on edge. Jason and Adam seemed to be able to calm him down, but unfortunately Conner had a way of making anything worse.

"Hey, where's Trent?" asked Ethan quietly.

"He said he was going to go and visit Cam, I think he just needed to get out." answered Kira, the two boys nodded knowingly.

"Want any more shakes, guys?" Lizzy greeted them happily, as she and her teammates entered the café and sat at the table next to their new friends.

"Not unless you have one that can turn us invisible." sighed Conner. "Why did Dr O have to get that power? He never even uses it."

"Hey, at least with your power, you can run away." grumbled Ethan. "Seriously, what does mine do?"

"Well, I guess I could always knock 'em down for a quick getaway." snorted Kira.

"Cheer up, hopefully it will all blow over soon." Ian smiled at them.

"Sure." drawled Conner. "And Dr O will take up ballet."

"Ew. Bad mental image." Ethan shook his head.

"He's still freaked out, huh?" asked Ruth, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah. Let's just say I'm really glad I'm not connected to SPD." Kira rolled her eyes.

----

"Isn't this great?" smiled Bridge, looking out one of the Aquabase windows. "I mean, it's underwater, and waterproof, although it might not be, I mean I'm glad it is, but 'underwater' doesn't necessarily mean 'waterproof', and there's a great view, although it probably doesn't change much, and…"

"Bridge!" snapped an exasperated Sydney. Z snickered quietly, and Sky let out a loud sigh.

Jack ignored them. "It's not bad." he nodded to himself. "But where are the dorms? And the food?"

"And the Zords." smirked Sky.

"Looks like it's time to explore." grinned Z, poking Syd in the arm. "Are you coming?" Syd frowned at the oblivious Bridge once more, and flounced out the door, the rest of the team following behind.

"Do you think they have toasters?"

"BRIDGE!" yelled four annoyed voices.

----

"I really don't think that's a good idea…" Jason looked sharply at Tommy. "I mean, you aren't exactly… yourself at the moment."

"I don't care. Someone needs to talk to them." snapped Tommy. "They can't just go around messing with people's brains."

"But what if you loose your temper again?" asked Adam. "I know you wouldn't mean to, but you might hurt them." Tommy sighed.

"I give up. I'll be in the lab if you need me." he frowned at them one last time and disappeared down the stairs.

"That went better than I expected." said Adam quietly. Jason raised an eyebrow.

"Let's just hope he calms down before he sees them."

Once he was down the stairs, Tommy smirked to himself. Getting away had been easier than he'd thought. Now all he had to do was find the SPD Rangers and teleport… and they'd better have a good explanation or two.

----

"Are they _train_ Zords?!" the SPD Rangers had finally found Lightspeed Rescue's Zord bay. Bridge was happily examining the schematics and Syd was cooing over the lovely shade of the pink Zord but Jack, Sky and Z were staring at the huge machines in disbelief.

"Train Zords." Sky's voice was expressionless.

"Don't trains need tracks?" asked Z, a bemused look on her face.

"Well, they're certainly big." Jack was craning his neck, trying to see the roof.

"Guys, they're some kind of Carrierzords." called Bridge, not looking up from the screen he was playing with. "The actual Zords are inside them."

"So how do they get out?" asked Jack.

"Um… well, there's not much room in here, I mean there is, there's heaps of room, but not enough to fit all the Zords, maybe if I…" Bridge entered a series of commands into the computer, and the Zord bay shook.

"What did you _do_?" shrieked Syd, falling to the floor as the room began to rise.

"I'm not really sure…"

"It's moving!" yelled Jack, grabbing hold of the nearest railing.

"Really? I would never have noticed." Sky shot back.

"Uh, guys? We seem to be surfacing…" Z was studying one of the display screens on the wall next to her seat on the floor.

"Maybe we should test drive them." smirked Jack.

"That's not a bad idea" Sky was leaning against the wall in an attempt to stay upright. "But we have no idea how they work."

"We'll just have to find out how then." smiled Z.

"Yeah!" squeaked Syd, still sitting on the floor by the pink Carrierzord.

"All right then, you know what to do."

As soon as the Zord bay stopped moving, five yells of "SPD, Emergency!" echoed to the ceiling, and the Rangers each ran to the Zord of their color.

"I think they're actually called Rail Rescues." came Jack's voice over the intercom.

"How'd you figure that?" drawled Sky.

"Maybe it was the words 'Rail Rescues, on track' on the screen..."

"Guys, could you give it a rest?" Z sounded annoyed.

"Yeah, I want to see what these can do." agreed Syd.

"Where are we, anyway?" asked Bridge. "I don't want to crash into anything…"

----

As it turned out, the train bay had surfaced near the harbor, just missing a tug boat, and it was drawing a lot of attention.

"PLEASE IDENTIFY YOUSELF." called the closet coast guard patrol boat, pulling as close the pylons as it could. The train bay doors opened slowly, and one at a time the Rail Rescues pulled out onto the tracks in front of them.

"These are great!" called Syd happily as all the Rail Rescues connected to form a very large train.

"PLEASE IDENTIFY!" the coast guard repeated.

"Hey Jack? The coast guard is calling us…" Bridge was having a hard time trying not to laugh.

"We've got a bigger problem!" yelled Jack, "The track ends!"

"WHAT? It can't just end, there must be something…" panicked Z.

"There's a bridge!" called Sky.

"It's not moving fast enough!" wailed Syd, but just as their train reached the edge, the bridge swung into place, and the train thundered across.

"_IDENTIFY!_" wailed the coast guard.

"Apparently it has its own tracks, Z!" laughed Jack as the Rail Rescues barreled down the line next to the harbor, passing a regular train with ease.

"The coast guard is still yelling at us, Jack." Bridge called. Jack pulled the brakes, and the train skidded to an abrupt halt.

"Ow." moaned Z.

"A little warning next time?" growled Sky.

"Yeah." Syd frowned.

"Sorry guys…" Jack examined the controls for a moment. "Bridge? Any idea how we separate the Zords?"

"Try something near the joystick." answered Bridge.

"Here goes nothing…" mumbled Jack. With a jolt, each carriage opened to reveal a smaller Zord.

"A fire truck? I guess it's not _that_ different." smiled Jack.

"I'm not sure what mine is…" Sky sounded a little confused.

"Same here… it's definitely yellow, but beyond that, I have no idea what it is." Z shrugged.

"Mine's an ambulance." Syd was secretly rather smug about recognizing what her new Zord was. "And it has speakers!"

"Great, Syd. Tell the coast guard to shut up." ordered Jack.

"I'm on it." grinned Syd, driving her Zord back towards the harbor edge.

"Oh no." squeaked Bridge.

"What is it?" questioned Sky.

"Mine flies. I'm not that good at flying…"

"Just calm down. You did fine in the S.W.A.T. fliers."

"But I didn't really have to control them, I mean I did, but they were programmed, so I didn't have to really fly much, and we didn't use them in flier mode very often, and I… ARGH! IT'S TAKING OFF!" The green Zord rose from the train, hanging in the air like an overweight bird.

"Bridge! Get a grip!" snapped Sky.

"Sorry, but it's a lot more sensitive than my S.W.A.T. flier. Can we swap Zords Sky?"

"No." said Sky at once.

"But…"

"_No_." repeated Sky, in a very stern voice.

"Syd's in position." grinned Z, just as the pink Zord pulled up near the coast guard and turned on its speakers.

"SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE." Syd's voice boomed across the bay and echoed down the streets. "WE'RE JUST TEST DRIVING THE ZORDS."

----

Tommy Oliver was sitting in front of the main computer in his basement, trying to decide whether to laugh or growl. He'd found the SPD rangers easily, and they appeared to be having some major Zord troubles. With a dark smile, he pulled out an old morpher.

No-one was there to see his eyes flash green…

"Dragonzord!"

----

The SPD Rangers were just beginning to get familiar with their new Zords when a loud, trumpeting call floated across the water of the bay, and the waves began to part as a large dark shape rose from the deep.

Sky was the first to recover. "What is that?"

"I have no idea." was Jack's answer as a head came out of the roiling sea.

"Is that a Zord?" Syd stared out the front of her own Zord as a dragon crawled out of the sea.

"PLEASE IDENTIFY…" the coast guard was cut off as the Dragonzord smashed it's tail straight through the small boat. It turned towards the Rescue Zords and roared.

"RUN!" yelled Jack, as the Dragonzord charged. The Rescue Zords scattered. From the top of the train bay, evil laughter rang out across the water.

----

"Ai-yi-yi, this is terrible!" Alpha ran across the Command Centre as the alarm went off, and the viewing globe lit up to show the Dragonzord chasing the Rescue Zords.

"Alpha, contact Jason immediately." ordered Zordon. The robot quickly tapped into Jason's communicator… and waited.

"Try again Alpha!" but again, there was no answer.

"What will we do?" wailed Alpha, throwing his hands in the air.

"Try contacting the Dino Thunder team." suggested Zordon.

----

Unfortunately, Jason was walking cautiously through the park on his way to the shops, trying to blend in, when his communicator beeped loudly. Jason looked around wildly, as did most of the nearby teenagers.

"Oh no…" Jason frantically looked for somewhere to hide, but it was too late.

"Hey, that guy looks like Jason!" yelled a twelve year old. As his communicator beeped again and the kids in the park started to come closer, Jason did the only thing he could think of, and set off at a sprint. Holding his communicator in front of him, he tried to activate it. Behind him, at least a dozen teenagers set out in pursuit.

After several minutes, Jason managed to get through.

"Alpha! Get me out of here!"

----

Conner, Kira and Ethan jumped nervously when their communicators went off, as did the new team. Several people in the café looked around suspiciously.

"What is it?" hissed Conner, setting his wrist in the middle of the table so they could all hear.

"Please come to the command center! It's an emergency!" pleaded Alpha.

"Give us a moment." said Conner quietly. He looked at Ian.

"We'll be right behind you." nodded the newest Red Ranger. As the eight teenagers left the café, Jason ran down the other side of the street, now followed by a small mob.

"Is that Jason?!" Sean stared at the running man.

"JASE!" Tristan waved his arms.

"Shh! They might come after us!" hissed Ruth.

"No time… let's go." Conner led them into the alley beside the café, and they teleported to the Command Center.

----

"Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi!" wailed Alpha as the eight teenagers landed. "Where is Jason?!"

"He's being chased by a mob." grimaced Lizzy.

"Can you teleport a running person?" asked Ruth.

"I don't know, but we can try." Alpha nodded decisively.

"_ALPHA!_" Jason was yelling into his communicator. "_DO_ something! _Please!_"

"Hold on Jason, I'm trying." said Alpha, fiddling with the teleport controls. A streak of red light split the middle of the room and Jason appeared, still running. He smashed into a bank of controls and flipped over them.

"Ouch." he moaned from the floor.

"That is why we do not teleport moving people." said Zordon sternly.

"What's the big emergency?" asked Kira, as Ian and Conner helped Jason to his feet.

"The Dragonzord is attacking the Rescue Zords." said Zordon gravely. "The SPD Rangers are not familiar with their Zords, and Tommy could seriously damage them."

"Oh no…" breathed Lizzy.

"But he was still at his house!" Jason stared at the viewing globe in disbelief. The Dragonzord was trying to bat Aero Rescue Three out of the air, and the flying Zord was wobbling dangerously.

"We need all the Tyrannosaur Zords..." Ruth winced as the Dragonzord's tail scraped across the side of Med Rescue Five, throwing the ambulance onto two wheels for a moment. "Conner, Jason, _please_ go help them."

Tristan dashed for the communications controls, setting them on a wide band.

"ERIC! We need the Q-Rex, immediately!"

"He's already on his way." Wes' voice came through. "Cam's been monitoring things from this end."

"What's going on?" asked Nick in a confused voice.

"Major problems..." answered Tristan.

"Hey, your team has a dragon Zord, don't they?" interrupted Sean.

"Sure do, and a real dragon. Fireheart has been a little edgy today."

"Do you think you could help? Tommy's set the Dragonzord on the SPD Rangers, and we're trying to distract it and get the Rescue Zords out of the way."

"We'll be there." Nick signed out.

"I hope they're alright…" said Ruth quietly, staring at the viewing globe. "…all of them…"

----

The Dragonzord had managed to grab hold of Aero Rescue Three and was shaking the green Zord back and forth like a maraca, to the tune of Bridge's terrified yells.

Jason and Conner appeared near the edge of the harbor.

"Conner, try and hold off the Dragonzord, I'll see if I can get through to Tommy."

"You got it." nodded Conner. "Tyrannozord!" The red Dinozord charged the Dragonzord, but had to veer away as the Dragonzord's tail swung around. Conner dodged to the right and tried again, but the Dragonzord followed his every move. After dodging the Dragonzord's tail for the third time, Conner got angry.

"Two can play that game!" he yelled at the other Zord. "Tyranno-drill!" The Dragonzord was unprepared for its quarry to copy its moves, and Conner's attack caught the large Zord in the side, jolting Aero Rescue Three from its grasp. The green Zord went soaring in an uncontrolled arc towards the harbor, only to be caught by the ladder-arms of Pyro Rescue One.

"Gotcha!" exclaimed Jack as he set Bridge's Zord on the pavement.

"I hate flying, I hate flying, I hate flying…" Bridge was muttering to himself, eyes clamped firmly shut.

The Dragonzord now turned all its attention on Conner, and the Tyrannozord staggered as the Dragonzord fired its missiles, hitting the Red Zord dead center.

"Ouch!" complained Conner.

"Here comes the cavalry! Q-Rex, attack!" called a voice as another dinosaur Zord charged the Dragonzord from behind.

"Am I glad to see you." sighed a relieved Conner.

"I've always thought my Q-Rex was better than some crummy Dragonzord." smirked Eric. His grin faded as the Dragonzord spun around and tossed the Q-Rex off its feet. "Hey! Watch it!"

"Geronimo!" yelled someone else, as two more dragons flew from the sky, herding the Dragonzord away from the downed Q-Rex. Nick waved at Conner from the back of Fireheart, while the rest of his team turned their Titan form around for another dive.

"JACK!" yelled Eric through the chaos, "Get out of here!"

"Rodger that." nodded Jack, loading his Rescue Runner back into the train. "Come on guys!"

As the Rail Rescue train headed back to the train bay, Jason finally managed to reach Tommy.

"Tommy, what are you doing?!" he yelled at the Green Ranger standing on top of the train bay.

"They will pay!" roared Tommy with an evil laugh.

"Tommy, snap out of it, man!" Jason edged towards the Green Ranger. "I don't think using the Green powers was a good idea…" he murmured.

"My powers are fine!" growled Tommy. "In fact, they're better than yours!" With a furious yell, the Green Ranger launched himself at Jason.

"Tommy! Stop it! Look at what you're doing!" pleaded Jason, blocking a flurry of punches, and returning a few of his own. The Rail Rescues pulled into the train bay beneath their feet, and the whole structure shook slightly as it began to sink beneath the waves. The two battling Rangers staggered for a moment.

"Get out of my way!" hissed Tommy. "I'll teach those idiots not to mess with me…"

Jason decided to change tactics. "Wouldn't you rather beat them without your powers?" he suggested, "Show them just how much better you are?" The Green Ranger paused for a moment, as if thinking.

"That is a good plan. I could beat them with my bare hands!"

Jason smiled to himself. "Can I watch?"

"If you behave…" the Green Ranger powered down, but his eyes stayed green for a moment. When the color cleared, Tommy fell to his knees, breathing heavily.

"Why me?" he groaned.

"Maybe we should lock up the green coin, too." Jason demorphed as well, kneeling next to his friend.

"I was just so mad at them, I still am, but I never meant…"

"I know." Jason put a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder, "But we really have to go…"

The two of them teleported out just as the train bay sank back underwater.

----

Tommy and Jason reappeared in the Command Center, and Tommy immediately began to pace.

"Why is it always me? Did I do something terrible when I was a kid?"

"How about we go apologize?" asked Jason, giving the younger Rangers in the shadows a look that said clearly 'leave this to me.'

"What if I loose it again?"

"Leave the green coin here, Zordon can lock it up with the others. It's not like you don't have any other powers…" Jason struggled to keep the smirk off his face.

"I guess…" Tommy sighed. "…but you're coming with me."

"Sure bro, but first we get rid of that coin."

----

Jack led the SPD Rangers back into the train bay, but Bridge was so badly shaken that Z and Sky had to team up to work out how to get it back to the Aquabase. Thankfully it hadn't taken long. While Syd was trying to comfort Bridge, who was still mumbling "I hate flying…" to himself, Jack looked over the Zords. They didn't appear too badly damaged, but he was unsure about Aero Rescue Three.

As the train bay rejoined the Aquabase with a slight jolt, Syd and Sky helped Bridge to his feet.

"How are we going to snap him out of this?" asked Jack, staring at the Green Ranger. While the rest of the team had demorphed, Bridge seemed frozen.

"How about toast?" asked Z with a shrug. Jack and Sky both glanced at her with the sort of look that a parent gives a child who has just said something very strange. "What? It was all I could think of..."

"Can we just go, please?" growled Syd. "We can argue later."

She and Sky led Bridge down the hall towards the lounge area they'd found earlier. Jack and Z followed along behind, quietly debating just how buttery the toast would have to be.

They sat Bridge in a corner, propped against the walls. Thankfully, he had stopped mumbling, but he wasn't answering Syd as she prattled on about joining SPD, how they'd met, and several of the funny things that had happened back when they were cadets.

Sky had immediately left claiming he was going to buy bread and butter, but as Syd recounted the story of a very young Sky with a pet mouse which he set loose in the girl's dormitories, Jack had to wonder if he was really just looking for an excuse to get away from Syd.

Z snickered quietly as she hunted through the cupboards on the other side of the room. She had already managed to find a plate, a knife, and the required electrical outlet, but there was still no sign of a toaster.

----

While Sky walked along the side of the bay vainly searching for a grocery store, getting several strange looks along the way, he began to think that perhaps he should have changed first. As he turned down a side street and finally found a small corner store, he suddenly realized that the shopkeeper probably wouldn't take the kind of money he had.

He decided to ask anyway, so he took a deep breath and bravely pushed open the door.

When the young girl behind the counter squealed happily, it took all of his mental discipline to keep from running out again.

"Can I help you?" the girl smiled widely, her eyes glinting in a most peculiar way.

"Um, yes… I don't think I've got the correct money, but I need a loaf of bread and some butter." Sky tried to sound as unconcerned as possible.

"Would that be for Bridge?" asked the shop girl, leaning forward in an almost predatory manner. Sky swallowed nervously, and decided not to answer that.

"I don't suppose I could trade for it or something…"

"Could I have your autograph?" asked the girl. Sky blinked in surprise.

"I guess so… we could trade then?"

"Sure!" the girl chirped, and suddenly dashed about the store, grabbing two loaves of bread (one white, one brown) and the largest package of butter that Sky had ever seen. She had all of it back on the counter in less than thirty seconds, still smiling at him in a most unnerving manner.

"Here…" she held out a piece of paper and a pen towards him. Sky took it gingerly and looked both items over carefully before signing his name and handing it back.

"Thanks…" the girl began, but Sky's morpher interrupted, beeping an alarm. If it was possible, the girl was grinning even wider. Sky flicked open the morpher, and Jack's voice filtered through the little store.

"Sky, we need you to get a toaster as well. Z and I have looked everywhere, can you believe this place doesn't have a toaster?!"

Sky frowned at the device in his hand. The shop girl stared with starry eyes.

"Sky? You okay?" came Jack's voice again. Sky shook his head.

"Sorry, yeah, I'll see what I can do…." he snapped the morpher shut as quickly as he could and snatched the items from the counter. He was just about to leave when the girl called after him.

"I have a toaster…" Sky turned around slowly, one eyebrow shooting towards the ceiling.

"This is a corner store." he said flatly. The girl blushed slightly.

"Yes, well, we have one out back, for the employees. I might be persuaded to let you have it…" The girl slowly stepped around the counter. Sky had a bad feeling about this, and he continued to edge towards the door as slowly as he could.

"I'll give you the toaster…" said the girl softly, "…if you kiss me." She moved closer and closed her eyes, which meant she never saw Sky as he dove out the door in a panic.

----

"Did you find a toaster?" demanded Jack as soon as Sky poked his head in the doorway of the lounge. Sky's face paled dramatically, and he almost threw the bread and butter at Jack.

"No. You're lucky I got this."

"What happened?" asked Z, pausing in her second search through the cupboards. Sky froze for a moment.

"Nothing. Nothing happened." he snapped hurriedly. Syd looked up at him.

"Someone stalked you again, huh?"

"What? No! No-one is stalking me…" he trailed off as Syd frowned at him.

"Okay, perhaps, but there was just no way I was going to kiss her for the toaster…"

"Whoa, what?" Jack held up his hands in an attempt to stall Sky's ranting. "Kiss for the toaster? What kind of shop did you go to?!" Sky glared at him.

"Did you ever think that our money might not be valid in the year 2007? Or that an SPD uniform stands out quite a bit?"

"So how did you manage to get the food?" asked Jack with a knowing smirk.

"Anyway guys, the point is, how do we make toast without a toaster?" interrupted Z loudly. Jack and Sky traded puzzled looks, but it was Syd who solved the problem.

"We make a fire!"

----

That was how it came to be that when Jason and Tommy teleported to the Aquabase, the corridors were full of smoke and water. The smoke detectors were blaring and the sprinkler systems had gone off.

"What in the world…" Jason lifted one foot out of the water that covered the floor and shook it.

"They get into more trouble than me." remarked Tommy dryly. "Do we follow the smoke?"

"I guess…" Jason waded slowly down the hallway, Tommy squelching along behind.

It didn't take long to find the SPD team, the first thing they heard was laughter. As the two of them came to the door of the break room, they were greeted with the sight of the Green Ranger holding onto a chair, doubled over with laughter. After all, being doused in water will tend to wake people, whatever their state of mind.

The Blue and Yellow Rangers were scowling at a smoldering pile of paper and cardboard, the Pink Ranger was wringing out her hair, and the Red Ranger was sitting off to one side as if trying to pretend he didn't know these people.

It was he who spotted the visitors first.

Jack jumped from his seat and settled in an attack position facing the door, frowning.

"Haven't you done enough for one day?" he growled. Tommy ground his teeth together, and Jason choked back his laughter. The other Rangers turned towards the door, all but the Green Ranger immediately stiffening and preparing for an attack.

Bridge continued to laugh.

"Whoa! Calm down." Jason held his hands up in surrender. "We're here to apologize."

"And to get some answers." frowned Tommy.

"Answers about what? You just attacked us!" snapped Jack.

"With a Zord, no less." Z was not amused.

"Yeah, we'd like some answers ourselves." Sky frowned.

"Answers about erasing memories." Tommy's expression was guarded, as if he expected them to wipe his memories at any moment. Jack pulled a confused face, Sky blinked, Syd pouted angrily, Z rolled her eyes, and Bridge continued chuckling quietly to himself.

"Erasing memories?" Sky repeated, giving Tommy a searching look. Tommy simply nodded.

"And why would we do that… come to think of it, I can't remember doing that…" Jack trailed off, his face a picture of intense concentration.

"I bet it was that Cruger guy." Jason interrupted the staring match between Tommy and Sky.

"If it was," drawled Jack carefully, "then he must have erased ours too, because I don't remember seeing you before, do you guys?"

The whole SPD team shook their heads, expressions ranging from confused, to thoughtful, to angry.

"Commander Cruger wouldn't do that to us… would he?" Syd sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than her team mates.

"He would." Sky, Jack and Z were quick to chorus.

"The fact remains, you did it, and messing with people's brains is downright dangerous." Tommy stared at them through narrowed eyes.

"Well, technically it wasn't even us, I mean, it might have been, but even if it was then Commander Cruger was the one who really…" Bridge trailed off as Sky elbowed him in the ribs and looked pointedly in Tommy's direction. From the look on the veteran's face, it was quite easy to believe he'd been evil… and not quite so easy to believe that he wasn't anymore.

"Look, if we did, we're sorry." said Jack, arms wide in an effort to placate Tommy. "Although it seems to me like we all have the same problem."

"Maybe." Tommy didn't seem convinced. "But if anything like this happens again, I'll sic the Time Force team on you for messing about with time travel." he spun around and tried to stomp out the door, but the effect was ruined by the splashing of the floor, still covered in at least an inch of water. Jason shrugged apologetically at the SPD Rangers and followed Tommy down the hallway. As the two of them turned the corner and teleported out, the last thing they heard was Bridge's voice…

"So, has anyone found a toaster around here?"

----

**Coming up in Episode Five: The Great Zord Lesson…**

After the debacle with the Lightspeed Zords, the Earth Rangers begin to wonder if they have Zords… and if they do, can they get them to work?

"_Because the Powers aren't constrained to a specific pattern, they draw on our perceptions, so all of our Powers and uniforms are substantially diverse, and if the Zords are also mismatched, it could create huge problems when trying to combine them effectively." _

_Everyone stared at Tristan for a moment, then turned to Ruth. _

"_The trouble is that the Powers aren't fixed, they form to thought, that's why our uniforms are so different. If the Zords are too different, we might not be able to make a Megazord…"_

Next time, on Power Ranger Real Earth…


End file.

Power Rangers, Adventure, Humor