Disclaimer: The Power Rangers belong to Saban and I am using them without his permission. Choujin Sentai Jet Man belongs to the Toei Company in Japan and I am also using them without their permission. I am not making any money off of this story; it's just for fun.
Author's note: For those of you who are unfamiliar with Sentai, they are the Japanese live action TV shows Saban used to help create Power Ranger. Jet Man was the show that aired one year before Zyu Ranger, thus never seen on US television, but it's still a great show. Even if you know absolutely nothing about Jet Man or the Sentai shows don't worry. All will be explained in the story. This is the first story in my "Origins of the Power" sage. I will eventually go through all of the Sentai shows that have been affiliated with Power Rangers with the exception of this story. But it's gonna take a while and I do have a life so please don't expect the next one any time soon. I would also like to thank Jillun for letting me use some the information found on her Jet Man page and for helping me edit this story. Check out Jillun's >Jetto Man Page The main purpose of these stories is to make Power Ranger fans more familiar with the original stories that helped to make the show as popular as it was. That's all for now, enjoy!
Little Lost Ranger
by: Kamen Ranger
e-mail: sarahjf@eden.rutgers.edu
She flew through the air not knowing where she would land. The strange vortex carrying her suddenly opened up, dropping the screaming girl towards the ground below. She landed flat on her face on the grassy ground. "YEEEOOO!" she yelled. She got to her feet and rubbed her bruised body. When she looked up at last, she realized she was in completely unfamiliar surroundings. "Wh... what... where... how did..?" But there was no one around to hear her cries of frustration. "WHERE THE HELL AM I!?!"
Billy was going over some routine system checks in the Power Chamber when he came across something unusual. "That's odd," he muttered.
"What's wrong Billy?" asked Alpha 5, coming to see just what his human friend had discovered.
"Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but according to this, there's been a disturbance in our dimensional barrier."
Alpha took a closer look at the readout and gasped in shock. "Ai yi yi, Billy, you're right. Someone or something from another dimension has come into ours."
As Zordon's face appeared in his green tube and his voice boomed across the room. "ALPHA, YOU AND BILLY MUST TRY AND DISCOVER WHAT HAS COME THROUGH, BEFORE KING MONDO. NO DOUBT HE WILL TRY TO OBTAIN IT FOR HIS OWN EVIL USE."
"What is it Klank?" roared King Mondo. "I don't have time for your little games, I need to think of a plan to defeat those accursed rangers!"
Klank cringed, then summoned up his courage to tell his master what he had learned. "Your majesty, it would appear that we have a little visitor... from another dimension."
The evil king looked with great interest at his chief servant. "Oh, and just who is this little visitor?" His mind was already at work formulating a plan about how to use whoever had come through to his advantage.
"Well I don't know just yet, but I intend to find him. Whoever it is, we may be able to use him to defeat the Rangers."
The evil king smiled at the thought. Soon, those pesky rangers will no longer be a thorn in my side.
"O.K. O.K... calm down," she told herself as she walked through the strange place she had just been dumped in. "There's got to be something around here I can recognize." But there was not, the city she was in looked a little like Tokyo, but the streets were too wide, the buildings too far apart. The air was dry and hot. She came to an open grassy area where a lot of foreigners were playing and laughing. "Looks like a park," she muttered. There was a large white sign in English. "A-n-ge-lu-gu-ro-vu-pa-ru-ku...Angel Grove Park... Angel Grove?!? Where on Earth is Angel Grove?!? Maybe... maybe I not on Earth any more... no don't be silly of course I'm on Earth. Why would signs on an alien planet be in English? Where else would I be?"
Stopping to take another look around she noticed that there did not seem to be any Japanese people in the small crowd. "Is there a world convention going on or something?" This idea was quickly dismissed. Everyone here looked like they were just taking a break from their every day lives. None of them looked much like businessmen and there were too many young people like herself there. Just then a strange thought crossed her mind. "Could... could I be in America? Could that blast have knocked me almost half way across the planet?!?" She sat down hard on the ground and tried to recap the events that brought her here. "O.K. let's see... the last thing I remember was fighting that monster, then the explosion, and the next thing I know I wind up here... in America of all places."
She sighed. "I always wanted to visit America, of course I always thought I'd be taking a plane. I wish Chokan was here, she'd know what to do." Suddenly she looked down at the bracelet on her left wrist and slapped herself in the head. "I'm so stupid! Why didn't I think of this sooner!" She opened the communication device and tried to contact her friends at the Sky Camp. "Chokan, come in... hello... can anyone hear me?" There was nothing but static. "Chokan... Ryu... Kaori... Lyta... Gai... any one?" Still nothing. Closing the device she stood up and walked into the park. "Guess I'm on my own."
Studying her surroundings, she pondered what to do next. "I guess since this thing doesn't seem to work across continents I should find out exactly where I am... and see if I can find someone who speaks my language." It wasn't long before she found something that looked promising. A man who had just finished reading a newspaper was leaving the park and had left it behind on the bench he had been sitting on. "Well, it's a start." She sat down on the bench and tried to make some sense out of the jumble of letters on the pages. She had taken English in school and was wishing she had paid more attention in class. She was able to determine that it was in fact an American newspaper, but there was something wrong with it. As best as she could tell the article she was struggling to understand was about the President, but the picture was of some man named Bill Clinton. "I thought the U.S. president was named George Bush, who's this guy?" This isn't getting me anywhere, she thought as she turned the page. If her eyes had opened any wider they would have fallen out of their sockets. She gasped as she stared down at the picture of a group of costumed people labeled, "POWER RANGERS ZEO!?!" She screamed it aloud, then she realized people were starting to stare. Putting the paper aside she tried to calm down.
"This can't be happening, this is just a bad dream. I'm going to pinch myself and wake up in my warm safe bed." She winced as she gave herself a hard pinch. "OUCH!" Sighing, she looked up at the warm blue sky, wishing she knew just what was going on here. "Toto, I don't think we're in Tokyo any more."
The other Rangers had been summoned to the Power Chamber and briefed on the situation. "So you're saying that something just fell into our dimension?" asked Tommy.
"THAT IS CORRECT, TOMMY. THERE IS AN INFINITE NUMBER OF DIMENSIONS IN EXISTENCES WHERE ANYTHING IS CONCEIVABLY POSSIBLE. BILLY, HAVE YOU LEARNED ANYTHING MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST?"
"Not yet, but I was able to isolate the energy waves from the dimensional tear. I'm going to try and listen in and see if I can find out just what came through." He placed set of headphones on his head as he instructed Alpha 5, "Go ahead Alpha, increase the volume."
"Right away Billy," chimed Alpha as he did as he was told. Billy started to hear the sound of the rip followed by something else.
"I think I hear something." Suddenly a very loud scream rang through the device and his ears. It was so loud he quickly yanked the headphones off and began to rub his ears.
Jason looked on with concern. "Billy, you alright?"
"Ya," he said, still rubbing his ears. "Well, I can tell you two things about our little guest. First, I'm pretty sure she's female, and second... she's got a healthy set lungs."
Calming down once more, she continued to struggle with the article on the Power Rangers. According to this they protected the planet from some enemy called the Machine Empire, and they all had secret identities. "Just great, I finally find some people who could actually help me and no one even knows who they really are. And just where did these... Power Rangers and this Machine Empire come from? Are there two sets of evil alien armies attacking the Earth? And if so, how come none of this was on the news back in Japan? You would think something like this would be newsworthy. Why isn't there any news on Jet Man, and the Vyram attacking Tokyo?" Studying the newspaper photo, she almost laughed out loud.
"Good grief, these guys' costumes look like pajamas. And what's with the stupid looking shapes on their helmets?" she chuckled. Even the name sounded like something out of a bad comic book story. The colors were weird, too. For one thing there was no white or black ranger, but there were green, pink and gold instead. The fact that the yellow and pink one both had skirts led her to believe they were girls. "Wait a minute. The yellow one's a... girl? And the blue one's a... boy? Man, is this team ever messed up." She closed the paper and placed it back on the bench, then she happened to glance at the date and nearly went into shock.
"No... NO, this can't be right!!! This says it's the year 1996!!! But that's impossible, it's only 1991!!! This must be a misprint, a joke paper, or something!!!" At this point she was too hysterical to notice that people were starting to run out of the park. "That blast couldn't have thrown me 5 years into the future!!!" She realized that the park was nearly deserted, and then she saw a group of weird looking robots coming right at her.
"Who are these guys? Why are they coming after me?" The robots were now attempting to grab her, but she was seriously angry and was not going to be taken without a fight. "So you want to play, do you? Well I've been having a day from hell and you're the ones I'm going to take it out on!" she yelled as she began to fight off her attackers.
Klank rushed into the throne room, very eager to tell his master what he had learned. "King Mondo, I have good news."
"Well spit it out, Klank, I don't have all day!"
"I have found our little guest and according to my scanner she possesses great power."
"Oh, and just what kind of power would that be?"
"I'm afraid I don't know. It's unlike anything I've ever seen."
"Excellent work, Klank, send the cogs to bring her here at once."
"I've already done so."
"Good work, keep this up and you'll be handsomely rewarded. In the meantime prepare something that will let me have total control over that little brat."
Klank rubbed his metal hands together, for this was one of his favorite jobs.
The rangers had gathered around the viewing globe waiting to see this new visitor. Billy was making the last of the calculations and the picture started to come in. "I've got her, now let's see what she looks like." He joined the other as a picture of a pretty, teenage Asian girl with short dark hair, wearing a pair of black shorts and a blue athletic jacket appeared on the screen. No sooner had the picture formed when she was attacked by a group of cogs, and putting up a pretty good fight at that.
"She's human... and she's in trouble," cried Tommy. "We've got to help her."
They were ready to go when Billy stopped them. "Guys, wait!"
The others stopped in their tracks and looked at him, confused. "But why? What's wrong?" asked Tanya.
"I've done a scan on her and I found a weird energy signature. It's unlike anything I've ever seen, I think she may have some sort of super-natural power or something." He paused for a moment. "The signature is almost bird-like."
"BILLY IS CORRECT, RANGERS. AND LET US NOT FORGET SHE COULD WORK FOR THE FORCES OF GOOD OR EVIL, WE HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING. PLEASE USE EXTREME CAUTION AND LET THE POWER PROTECT YOU." With those famous words of wisdom from Zordon, the six young heroes called forth the power from within them and transformed into the Power Rangers Zeo.
"It's morphing time!"
"ZEO RANGER ONE, PINK!"
"ZEO RANGER TWO, YELLOW!"
"ZEO RANGER THREE, BLUE!"
"ZEO RANGER FOUR, GREEN"
"ZEO RANDER FIVE, RED!"
"GOLD RANGER POWER!"
Klank was spying on the battle between the cogs and the young girl. "She's a much better fighter then I thought, I may need a monster to help bring her in," he thought to himself as she sent another cog flying.
"Why not use Mean Screen?" said Orbus, who perched on Klank's shoulder.
"But the Rangers destroyed him already."
"So use some of his old blueprints and recreate him."
"Not a bad idea, Orbus, let's go right away." The two vanished but by now the new girl was getting tired, and she was being pushed back to an area very close to a cliff edge.
"If anyone can hear me or understand me... HELP!!! HELP!!!" Just then six beams of brightly colored lights appeared in the middle of the battlefield only to fade away to reveal the Power Rangers that she had seen in the paper. "Someone out there likes me. Thanks for the assist!" she yelled at them as they started to help her fight off the cogs.
Adam looked at Tommy with concern. "Tommy, I don't think she speaks English, how do we know if she's on our side or not?"
"I don't know, let get these cogs out of here first and then we'll worry about that." They were able to get rid of most of the cogs when suddenly another batch appeared with a monster. The monster drove the girl to the edge of the cliff. It approached her and used a translator that Klank had installed to speak to her.
"You there, you're coming with me whether you like it or not."
She took a step forward, a little surprised to hear Japanese at last. "I'm not going anywhere with you!" she said, trying to sound brave.
"You either come with me now or you're going over that cliff."
She looked over the edge and it was a long way down. Feigning terror for just a moment, she then flashed him a coy little smile and said, "Then so be it." And with that she back-flipped off the edge. Both sides stopped fighting and looked on in shock.
"I can't believe it!" said Kat. "She jumped!!!"
As the mysterious girl was falling to what could be her doom, she reached for her right wrist and pushed a red triangle like button on her bracelet. "Clothes Changer!!!" she yelled as the device took the shape of a bird and she was surrounded by a strange blue light.
Mean Screen could not believe what he had just witnessed and looked over the cliff edge to see for himself. Then out of nowhere he was struck by a bluish blur. When he got to he feet he could not believe what he was looking at. There standing over him was a female... Blue Ranger?
Billy looked on, speechless at the appearance of a blue-costumed, obviously female person. "I don't believe this... another Blue Ranger?"
"Ai yi yi, how could there be two Blue Rangers at once, Zordon?"
"I SUSPECT THAT IN HER DIMENSION SOME OTHER FORCE CHOSE A DIFFERENT SET OF WARRIORS WITH A DIFFERENT FORM OF POWER TO HELP THEM FIGHT THE EVIL FORCES ATTACKING HER WORLD."
"If that's true, then there's a Ranger team out there somewhere that's short one Ranger. Zordon, Billy, good news! I've finally been able translate the new Ranger's language. She's speaking Japanese and I can now translate what she says into English." Alpha turned on the translator and at last they could understand the little lost Ranger.
Her Ranger costume looked very different from the ones any of them had ever worn. The outfit was mostly white but with blue sleeves and white gloves that came half way up to her elbow. She had wing-like shoulder pads trimmed with a yellow outline and a triangle shaped bird symbol on her chest. Her blue skirt came over her white legging and she had high blue boots over them. And to top it off her helmet was shaped like a bird's head, much like the dinosaur faces had been on their old helmets. She stood tall and proud as she taunted the monster that she had just knocked off his feet.
"You are obviously an evil being and attacking this place, where ever we really are. And what's worse... you've pissed me off big time!!! From the Bird Man Taskforce Jet Man team, I am Blue Swallow... prepare to meet your maker!!!" She giggled under her helmet as she moved into her fighting stance. Chokan would ring my neck for showing off like that, but since she's not here.... The monster got to his feet and rushed Blue Swallow, but with a whirl of acrobatic kicks she had him once again in a heap on the ground. "That's what you get for messing with a lady!" She turned around to find the Zeo Ranger up to their necks in cogs and quickly spread her arms. From under her arms to her waist appeared a set of blue wings trimmed with yellow and she took off. Gliding down she plowed through two rows of cogs smashing them to pieces, thus freeing the rangers.
"Hey thanks... who ever you are," Rocky shouted.
"I don't know what he said, but I think I heard 'sankusu', arigato in there," she said to herself. All of a sudden she was grabbed from behind by Mean Machine. "Hey let me go!"
"Do you think you can just humiliate me like that and get away with it? You've got another think coming, little girl!" He was about to take her away when the Zeo Rangers blasted him with their Zeo blasters and she quickly escaped his metal grip and joined the other Rangers.
"Looks like we're even, thanks."
"What did she say?" asked Adam as he and the others took out their blasters.
"We'll figure that out later. Let's finish him off!" said Tommy as Blue Swallow took the hint and pulled out her own gun. "Fire!" shouted Tommy, and Blue Swallow and the others obeyed at once. Mean Machine was hit hard with the combined strikes, but was not down yet.
"My turn! WING GAUNTLET!!!" shouted Blue Swallow. A white heavy glove appeared on her arm and she rammed it right through the monster. The Rangers were as shocked as Mean Machine as she finished him off herself. "WING BEAM!!!" She fired a laser beam from her gauntlet, and with that Mean Machine was gone once again.
Klank look on in utter shock. "How could one little Ranger do so much damage?" He was about to make the monster grow when King Mondo summoned him.
"KLANK!!! Get back here this instant!!!"
"Ye... yes, my lord." I'm really going to get it this time, he thought to himself as he teleported home.
Meanwhile, the Rangers were trying to figure out just what to do with their newfound friend, after all they still could not understand each other at all. "I think we should take her back to the power chamber," said Jason trying to break the silence.
"I don't know guys, I mean we still don't know much about her," said Tommy.
Tanya chimed in. "Well she is a Ranger, so that means she fights for the forces of good, right?"
"Hello, ever heard of the evil Green Ranger?" commented Adam.
Rocky put in his two cents. "Let's not forget, Mondo tried tricking us with a fake traitor once."
"Besides, Zordon said there were an infinite number of dimensions out there where anything's possible. For all we know the Rangers in her world could be evil," said Adam.
"But what if she's not? We just can't leave her here," said Kat as they continued to argue.
Meanwhile, Blue Swallow was getting a little impatient. What are they arguing about? Maybe they don't trust me. That's gratitude for you, I save their butts and they still don't trust me. Well, I never. At that moment she heard a strange beeping coming the red one's wrist. He started talking to someone on the other end and then looked up at her. He began to gesture for her to come closer. Maybe that guy at the other end finally talked some sense into them. Slowly she walked toward them and the one in red gently took her hand. Before she could react to his presumptive behavior she felt herself being transported somewhere.
Billy was preparing for the arrival of his old comrades and their newest find when seven colored lights appeared in the room. The new girl took a step back doing a double take as she caught a glimpse of her surroundings. Billy walked slowly to her and put his hand on her shoulder. The very humanity of the act seemed to reassure her. With that the Rangers took off their helmets but Blue Swallow was confused. She had always simply changed back after a battle, why were these guys only taking off their helmets?
Oh well , she thought. When in Rome... or wherever. She proceeded to take off her helmet just like the others, not realizing she was stepping backwards once more. The instant it was off she felt herself bump into something that let out an "OUCH!" She turned around to find she had knocked down a man-sized robot. Dropping her helmet in surprise she let out a small scream. Billy's attempt to once again calm her failed when she caught a glimpse of a giant floating head. With an ear-piercing scream of terror she did a back flip over one of the computer counsels and hid there, trembling.
"I think we scared her," said Rocky.
Tanya chimed in. "What was your first clue."
"Now I know what you meant by a healthy set of lungs, Billy," remarked Tommy.
Billy began moving over to the console where Blue Swallow was hiding. "Let me and try and communicate with her again."
"Calm down, calm down, there has to be a reasonable explanation for all of this. That couldn't have been a giant floating head I saw... could it?" Ako thought to herself as she pocked her head just above the counsel to see if it was still there. It was. She quickly ducked back down. "This can't be happening, what am I going to do, how am I going to get home?" Just as she thought she was going to lose her mind, the tall, blue eyed man with blond hair, the gentle one who had tried to befriend her upon arrival, peered around the corner at her. She did not know why, but he seemed like someone she could trust. He was not fighting with the others, but he seemed perfectly calm amongst everything that was going on around this crazy place. He must be their commander or something... he's kind of cute too... for a foreigner. Once he had her attention he pointed to himself and began repeating one word over and over again.
"Billy... Billy."
Could that be his name? She pointed at him and tried it, "Billy san?" He nodded happily and then pointed at her. That must be his name and now he wants to know mine... ah, what the heck. She pointed to herself and said her own name. "Ako... Ako." He smiled and shook her hand, at least now they knew her name. Reluctantly she let him escort her out of hiding.
He pointed to the giant floating head and appeared to be saying its name. "Zordon... Zordon." Whatever that thing is it must be on their side.
She shyly stepped back when the strange looking robot she had almost tripped over came up to her and extended its hand. "Alpha... Alpha," it repeated for her as she shook its hand. It had a strange, high-pitched machine voice.
The other Rangers looked on in amazement, once again good old Billy came to the rescue. Tommy was still unsure if they could properly communicate with her, but he had a feeling Billy already had something in mind. "Say, Billy, do you know if we could some how translate what she's saying?"
"As a matter of fact, Zordon had me construct a device to translate almost any language a while back, in order to help us communicate easier with our other interplanetary allies. It's still just a prototype but it should work fairly well on any Earth language." He walked over to one of the workbenches and picked up a combination ear and microphone headset.
"And this just happened to be lying around," commented Rocky.
Billy chuckled at Rocky's little joke as he set the device to translate Japanese into English and handed the headset to Ako. At first she was a little leery about putting this weird thing on her head, but one look at Billy's kind face put her fears to rest.
O.K. Now what? What's this thing supposed to do? she thought as she placed it on her head.
"Ako, can you understand me now?"
Her eyes widened in shock, for she understood exactly what Billy was saying even though he was still speaking English. "Yes, I understand you perfectly." She quickly slapped her hand over her mouth when she realized she had said it in English. "I'm speaking English... I'm speaking English?? How could I be speaking English; I always sleep through that class? Boy, will my teacher be surprised." After taking a few minutes to compose herself she was then introduced to the Rangers.
"I'm Tommy, and this is Adam, Tanya, Kat, Jason and Rocky. You've already met Zordon, Alpha 5, and Billy."
"I APOLOGIZE FOR SCARING YOU EARIER AKO. IT WAS NOT MY INTENTION. I WOULD LIKE TO FORMALLY WELCOME YOU TO THE POWER CHAMBER."
"Sorry I over reacted, but there aren't very many giant floating heads where I come from. By the way could someone finally tell me just where I am now? The paper I was trying to read said it was America, 1996. Is that true?"
"Why, yes it is," said Tommy as Ako fell into a sitting position.
"Boy when I get lost, I really get lost. The last time I checked it was 1991 and I was in Tokyo Japan. I was fighting a monster with my teammates when there was this explosion and I got sucked into this weird looking hole and I wound up here."
The Rangers looked at each other in shock. Not only was she from another dimension but also from another time. "Just where are you from?" asked Kat.
"Oh, sorry, I haven't really introduced myself. I'm Ako Hayasaka, the Blue Swallow of the Birdman Taskforce Jet Man team. We are sworn to protect the Earth from the evil forces of the Vyram."
Tommy snapped into his leader role and said, "We're the Power Rangers sworn to protect the Earth from the evil Machine Empire. Now, just how is it you got the power of a Ranger two years before we did? And another thing --"
"NOW HOLD ON ONE MINUTE!!!" Ako screamed, cutting off a very surprised Tommy. "I'm the one who just got flung into another universe smack in the middle of nowhere! Then I was attacked by a bunch of robots, and nearly scared to death by a giant floating head, I think I deserve an explanation first at the very least. Now, would you mind telling me a little bit about you and this crazy Earth of yours?" Tommy stood there dumbfounded. He was not used to having anyone speak to him in such harsh tones.
Billy stepped forward once more. "Uh, well, you see it all started a few years ago in the year 1993...." As Billy began the fabled tale of the Power Ranger, King Mondo was in a fit.
"KLANK!!! What in blazes happened down there? And why didn't you tell me that girl was a Ranger!?!"
Stammering for an answer Klank replied, "I... I had no idea, sire. I knew she held some kind of weird power within her, but there wasn't even a slight resemblance to the Zeo powers the other Rangers possess. In fact I may even go as far as to say that her powers may even exceed the Power Rangers themselves."
"You may have a point there, the way she just plowed through those cogs seemed like mere child's play to her. We must find away to capture that girl and make her work for us."
"Forget it, tin head. That girl is mine," snarled a strange, ice-ridden voice from behind him.
He turned around to see a group of four beings the likes of which he had never seen before. They were humanoid. The one who had spoken was clad in silver armor and a gray cloak. He had blue skin and a somewhat crazed gleam in his eyes. There was this metal spiral thing on his head and he had half a white mask seemingly made of bone over half of his face. Next to him was a very human-like Asian woman with long black hair, a white mushroom like hat and a red jeweled broach holding together the rest of her white and black, full body outfit. Behind her was a gunmetal gray robot with red eyes who was smoking a cigar. Beside the robot was a child with a pair of shades on his headdress, silver lips, and a black and white cape covering nearly his whole body.
"Who in blazes are you? How dare you enter my palace without my royal permission!?!" cried King Mondo.
The blue-skinned one took a step forward. "We are the Vyram. I am Radiege. We have come to take over this Earth, and you are no longer needed."
Mondo's oil presser went through the roof with outrage as he summoned the cogs to take care of the intruders. The Vyram made short work of them, and in the confusion the boy managed to place spider like bio-devices on King Mondo, his family and his charges.
"What do you think you're doing you little...." And with that they all shut down without a struggle.
"Well now, that was hardly a challenge," remarked the childlike Vyram, Toran. Bored already Gure kicked Mondo just for the heck of it.
"If these so-called Power Rangers can't even handle these morons they shall be no trouble for us."
The woman, Maria, stepped forward. "Let us not forget that annoying little Blue Swallow is still out there and has teamed up with the heroes of this world."
Radiege's face grew dark. It was not like he was worried about the little brat getting in his way, but by now Chokan must have found out about their little plot to take over a different Earth and return later to finish the job they started. Someday he would have to do something about that woman. But Blue Swallow just had to get caught in the vortex that their monster was supposed to be distracting the Jet Man team from. And to make matters worse she even got here ahead of them. No doubt Chokan was already searching for her missing charge and it would not surprise him if she succeeded in finding the vortex. Putting this thought out of his head, he announced with as much confidence as he could that the Vyram would be victorious. "Let us prepare for our glorious conquest of this world. We can handle the Jet Man team after we have won. Blue Swallow is all alone here, and she can't beat us all by herself. Both Earths are doomed!!! Ha ha ha...."
Billy had just completed the tale of the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers from day one to the present using only the major highlights for the sake of saving time. Ako stood bewildered at the amazing story of these... Rangers... as they were known.
"So, let me get this straight... Billy san was one of the first Rangers, you first used the power of dinosaurs, then thunder, you met some weird guy named Ninjor who made you all into super ninjas. Then your first HQ was blown to bits and you all became Power Rangers Zeo except Billy san, the gold ranger shows up, and through the years you've handed the power to other Rangers and had a slew of villains and no one's ever been killed or even seriously hurt?"
"That about sums it up," replied Billy as Ako began feeling her head.
"What are you doing?" asked Jason curiously.
"Seeing if I've sustained a head injury, I don't remember hitting my head, but I appeared to have landed in OZ and found a giant floating head as the wizard." The others couldn't help but chuckle a little, even Ako giggled somewhat. "By the way, just how did you give your power away?"
Tommy looked a little confused at the question. "We needed new Rangers when one or more left, so we just... gave it to another person to become a Ranger."
Ako was now wide eyed. "You mean they're not permanent?"
Now everyone was confused. "What do you mean? Are yours? Just how did you become a Ranger in the first place?" asked Adam.
Ako took a deep breath. "Well, it was sort of an accident."
"An accident?" Jason was more bewildered then ever. "Just how do you accidentally become a Ranger - er Jet Man - or whatever."
"Well, I guess it's my turn. You see it all started a few months ago.... I was just a normal teenager, going to normal high school, living a normal life. Although I didn't know it at the time my normal life was about to go flying out the window...
"Scientists in my world had discovered a fount of energy flowing across the dimensions, and they found a way to bond it with humans. They programmed their computers to bio-engineer five people with costumes and power, each costume based around a different bird-type. My commander, Chokan, selected the five people for the initial experiment of "J Project" (none of which were me). One of them was Ryu Tendo, who worked for the same organization that was running "J Project". Now this wasn't exactly wave a sword and bang you're a Ranger, this was a bit excruciating, (I know from experience.) No sooner had they finished with Ryu than the Vyram attacked the space station. The Vyram leader, Radiege, started broadcasting his image all over the place declaring that the Vyram were Earth's new masters. The space station was under heavy attack and everyone was scrambling to get off the base. Ryu and Chokan were the only ones to escape, and the machine with the birdnic energy inside was destroyed. They were barely clear of the base when it exploded. At first it seemed that "J Project", the one thing that may have been able to stop the Vyram's invasion, was lost. However, when they returned to Sky Camp, Chokan found the computers were monitoring Ryu and four other people, but there was no return signal as the others did not have any training or equipment.
The White Swan wave struck a rich heiress, Kaori Rokumekan, as she was standing on the balcony of her family mansion. The Yellow Owl wave hit Lyta Oishi, a farmer who was out in his field. The Black Condor wave took a hotshot biker named Gai Yuuki.
As for me, I was minding my own business walking home from school when out of the blue (so to speak) I was struck by what looked like a blue lightning bolt and I was nearly knocked unconscious. I didn't tell anyone about it because... well... it was a blue lightning bolt! It was the nicest day we'd had in a long while and without a cloud in the sky and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where it had come from. Everyone would have just made a big fuss and probably thought I was crazy. I was exhausted when I got home but when I woke up the next morning I felt... really great. I went to school like nothing had ever happened but as I was passing by the athletic field, I got this strange urge. I could see myself in my mind jumping over the high jump. It was strange because I've never been into sports and yet I knew I could do it even after no one else on the school team had been able to jump that high all day. My friends were giving me a weird look and asked if I was O.K. I asked them to hold my bag while try the high jump. Of course, they both thought I was nuts but I ran to the bar, leaped into the air, and landed like a cat on two feet. Needless to say my friends were shocked and so was the coach. He begged me to join the team and help them win the upcoming track meet. I accepted... for a fee of course. To make a long story short I won the meet after making them raise the bar a few centimeters so I could show off. And afterwards this black limousine pulled up next to the field. A young wealthy looking woman and a husky guy stepped out and said we needed to talk.
She told me all about the J project, the Vyram and about the Birdnic waves. That's when I remembered being hit by that weird blue lighting and they asked my to join Jet Man. I agreed, for money.... O.K. I was a greedy little teenager, so sue me. I gave the money back after the first fight. Anyway no sooner had they put the changer bracelet on my wrist than we were under attack. We transformed, fought off the bad guys, who weren't expecting any resistance, and met up with Red Hawk, and Black Condor. Gai had to transform in midair because a monster had grabbed him, carried him off and dropped him from a couple kilometers in the air. In the end we beat the monsters, won the day and became a team. And even though we've had some hairy differences we always come together in the end. And that should just about do it," said Ako as she finished up her story. The Rangers just stood there, dumbfounded.
"That was one heck of a story Ako," said Tommy, finally breaking the silence. "Does your team have Zords as well?"
"Have what? Oh, you mean giant robots. Yes, we each have bird jets know as jet machines. Mine's Jet Swallow and when we bring them all together they form the Jet-Icarus. We use it when the Vyram uses their bio changer to make their monsters grow."
"What's a bio changer?" asked Rocky.
"When the Vyram first attacked they used a monster to collect human energy, unfortunately killing the humans they got the energy from. The monster had a pod like thing that he detached from his body and from that pod they made the bio changers. They use them to make monsters by attaching them to an object, and it also makes them grow when they're in trouble or starting to lose."
All of the Rangers were looking horrified, even Tommy. "So you're saying for every monster they've created a human had to die?
She lowered her head solemnly. "Not for every monster, but I'm afraid so. Chokan already looked into the possibility that there might be a way to still save them, but they're already dead."
"How horrible," said Kat.
"That's why I have to get back. A lot of lives are in danger. I might not be the strongest member of the team, but we are a team and unlike you they just can't pick someone and give them my powers. We're really a bunch of amateurs, except for Ryu and he's kind of obsessive about our safety. If Chokan had her way we wouldn't have even gotten our powers in the first place. But we do, and right now we can't change that even if we wanted to, so I guess we're stuck."
Jason came up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll get you home, Billy here is our resident genius and he's never let us down before."
Billy, slightly blushing from Jason's complement, was already hard at work looking for a way to return Ako home. "I think I know a way to find Ako's home dimension."
"REALLY!?" she screamed, and rushed over to Billy practically jumping on him.
"Yes, now calm down."
"Sorry."
"I've fed your bio rhythms into the computer and I've set up a scan to try and match them to their point of origin."
"That's great!" She gave him a hug as a sign of her appreciation. Normally such behavior would be frowned upon, but since she was in America she jumped at the opportunity.
"You're welcome, but the scan may take a little while to complete."
She released him from the hug. "Then can we get something to eat? I missed lunch because of that stupid monster."
"Sure, go on I'll catch up with you later," said Billy, but Ako would not have it.
"Oh no you don't. You're coming with us."
"But...."
"You don't need to be here to run the scan, do you?"
"Well, no, but...."
"No buts, now come on."
"You know she's right, Billy," said Tommy as everyone demorphed, even Ako. "You need to get out more and we haven't been hanging out a lot lately, what do ya say?"
Billy thought for a moment, then gave in. It had been a while since they all just hung out, and now they had an interdimensional hitchhiker to show around. As they teleported to the youth center Billy thought to himself, This is going to be a really long day... but fun none the less.
Meanwhile back on the moon the former leaders of the Machine Empire lay in a heap on the floor. The Vyram were preparing for an attack on the new Earth. Gure was busy preparing their minions called the Gurinamu for battle when Maria walked in. "How much longer is this going to take?"
Gure turned to face her. "Are you that bored?"
"Hardly, I just don't want to face two sets of superhero wannabes."
"The Jet Man were not much of a challenge back in our own dimension, but the locals have never fought a real enemy, before."
"Gure, never underestimate your opponents. In case you haven't noticed, the Jet Man team has gotten a lot stronger than when we first encountered them."
"That only makes it more interesting, I do so hate an easy target."
"I still think we should have finished them off at the beginning, rather than letting them improve their skills just for the challenge."
"What's done is done," came Radiege's voice from the shadows. He emerged from the dark hallway with Toran. He touched the tiny scar on his face, a little reminder from when he and Red Hawk fought each other the first time. You got off a lucky shot and scarred my face. Wherever you are I swear to return some day and finish what I started. Until then, I intend to wreak my revenge on any and all humans I see, and you can't stop me if you're not even here. He almost regretted letting the Jet Man team become stronger just so their victory the Earth would mean something, but that was in the past and he knew that when they returned they would be stronger themselves, and then there would be no mercy. "We shall strike soon and lay this planet to ashes." He laughed and the other joined him, all consumed with the dream of ruling the Earth.
In another dimension, far, far away a group of men and women were in a frenzy looking for their missing comrade.
"I can't believe I let this happen, I'm suppose to be the leader and my youngest teammate is lost in another dimension somewhere," Ryu mourned.
Kaori tried to comfort the man she wanted to love her. "Ryu, you shouldn't blame yourself. I'm sure we'll find her."
"I don't know about that Kaori," Gai said. He glared at Ryu. "You shouldn't have led us into that useless fight."
"Do you mean we'll never find her?" asked Lyta.
"Of course we'll get Ako back, I meant that it was all this loser's fault. If he wasn't so obsessed with fighting every monster that appears, we would have seen that damned vortex and Ako wouldn't be gone."
Ryu snapped out of his depression to defend himself. "I can't let civilians be harmed by any monster! If you'd start thinking about someone other than yourself just once --"
Gai stalked close to Ryu and growled, "You want to start something, hot shot? I'm warning you, don't start something you can't finish."
"Oh I'll finish it alright...."
Chokan slammed her fists on the table in front of her. "THAT'S ENOUGH OUT OF BOTH OF YOU!!" The two men froze and eyed her respectfully. Despite their powers, she had several times shown them that her martial arts skills were superior to theirs. Getting beat up by Chokan was no ballgame. She glared at the two of them. "I am sick to death of you two always fighting with each other! Now is not the time, nor the place, you should be helping me find Ako not letting your personal quarrel consume you! After we get Ako back you can slaughter each other for all I care." Without another word she went back to the computer trying to find her lost charge.
Ryu and Gai exchanged rueful glances. Ryu felt terrible. Ever since his fiance, Rie Aoi had slipped from his fingers to die in the vacuum of space, he went into despair too easily. And it did not help that the Vyram woman Maria looked just like her. It kept distracting him in fights because he was afraid that there might a small chance that she might really be -- He shook his head as if to clear it. He looked down at his hands remembering the events of the day.
They had just defeated the Vyrams' latest monster and were ready to call it a day. It should have tipped him off that something was wrong when the monster did not even try to grow to its gigantic size after its defeat. That was when he heard Ako screaming. He quickly turned around to see a weird hole in the sky and Ako being pulled into it. He was able to grab onto her hands but whatever was pulling her into the hole was too strong. She slipped from his finger and that was the last they saw of her. Poor Ryu almost lost it when Ako disappeared while calling out his name. "RYYUUUU!!!"
He winced, it was the exact same way that he had lost Rie and he did not know if he could keep himself together if he had to lost someone else he cared about in the same fashion. He had not told the rest of his team about his deceased fiance, at least not yet. He knew he would have to someday. The fights with Gai helped him keep out of that dark hole, but they were rather self-serving. Great leader you turn out to be, fighting with Gai while Ako is in trouble. "Chokan, I'm... I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize to me, find Ako and apologize to her."
Shame-faced, Ryu joined Kaori and Lyta at the computer consoles, madly running programs to find their lost sheep.
Gai hung back before reluctantly joining them. Chokan's right. First things first. After we find Ako, Ryu and I are going to need to talk and hopefully it won't turn into a brawl. I've got to get some things off my chest, but first we've got to find her. Ryu may not have been paying much attention but neither had anyone else. He remembered how terrified Ako looked as she slipped through the huge vortex. This is as much my fault as it is his. I didn't see that weird hole opening up, either. He was even more worried when Chokan had said that she could have wound up anywhere but it was most likely she had wound up wherever the Vyram had gone as well. The thought of that poor kid all alone with the Vyram terrified him much more than he would ever let on. So help me if anything happens to her I'll.... Hang on kid, we'll find you and bring you home, that's a promise. He walked over to help, not daring to look at Ryu.
A few minutes later Chokan looked up and smiled. Kaori took this as a sign of good news. "Did you find her, Chokan?"
"Not quite, but I did find a faint trail of her bio rhythms and somehow there seems to be another scan coming from the other side."
Ryu stepped forward. "You mean she may be trying to get back to us?"
"It would appear so," commented Chokan.
Lyta looked at the data on the screen, not really understanding any of it. "Just how did you find it?"
She paused for a second after his question. "That's the strange part, I was looking in a whole other sector when suddenly something pulled me over to another path."
Gai looked suspiciously at the screen. "You mean someone wanted you to find the second path, trying to find us... but why, and are they friend or foe?"
"I honestly don't know, but if it helps us get any closer to finding Ako, I'd say we go for it." They nodded in agreement, with a newfound hope of finding their friend.
By now the Rangers, Billy and Ako were having a good time at the Youth Center. Ako was enjoying her meal as Ernie walked over. "Say, guys, who's your little friend with the big appetite?"
Billy already had a story in mind in order to cover Ako's sudden appearance. "This is Ako, she's an old friend of mine from Japan, she's in town for a little while so she stopped by for a visit."
Ako looked up and said, "You could just say that I just dropped in from out of nowhere." The others could not help but giggle a little.
"Was the food on the flight that bad? You've really been packing it away."
She gave him a little smile. "I feel like I haven't eaten anything since 1991." At this point Rocky started laughing out loud.
Ernie just shook his head. "Kids." He walked away, saying, "See you around, guys, have fun while you're in America, Ako."
"Thanks," she said as Rocky got himself under control. She looked at him with feigned innocence. "I don't see what's so funny. It was all true."
Just then two boys came into the building, one rather fat, and one startlingly skinny. "Skull, would you hurry up, we're late. We were supposed to meet Detective Stone here at... uh... we were supposed to meet him here." They looked around, seemed to decide to ignore most of the other kids, and wandered off.
"So Ako, what would you say was the weirdest monster you've had to face so far?" Rocky just had to know.
"That would have to have been the Spirit of Ramen."
Rocky exchanged glances with Adam and looked at Billy. "Maybe that translator isn't working so well. You mean like noodle stuff that comes in a cup?"
"The very same. What happened was the monster teamed up with this guy I knew and pretended to help him market his own brand of Ramen. Not only that but he put a cartoon version of me on the cover and named it, "Yoki no Ako-chan."
The others started to laugh. Rocky said through his chortles, "That must have been really embarrassing."
"You're not kidding. And my fellow teammates just couldn't resist buying some and they were even singing the stupid theme song."
"Did any of them eat the stuff?" asked Adam.
"As a matter of fact, Lyta did, and it didn't take long till we found out about the side effects."
Tommy stopped laughing and looked up. He was not certain he wanted to know. Convulsions? E-coli? The monsters Ako fought were vicious. "Side effects?"
"Turns out that anyone who ate some went nuts and got real violent. Lyta got all hyped up and wanted to fight the Vyram right then and there. Although he did give them a run for their money and started to wipe the floor with them when we went into battle. He got so riled up that we had to tie him up in Jet Icraus when we finally took that stupid monster down."
Kat smiled. "Another happy ending."
"You think so." The smile faded from her face.
"What do you mean?"
"You know the guy that got tricked by the monster in the first place? Well, he apologized to me for causing so much trouble. I was ready to forgive him until he announced that he was already making plans for "Ako-chan 2"! That's when I tried to kill him." Once again the table erupted with laughter. "So tell me. What's the weirdest monster you've had around here?"
A smirk appeared on Adam's face. "Have you ever heard of Pachinko?" Rocky suddenly went pale, knowing what was coming.
Innocent Ako said, "Oh, I love that game. We have Pachinko arcades back home and it's so much fun." Rocky was now wishing he had never brought up the subject.
Adam began, "Well, this monster named Pachinko Head...."
"Adam, don't you dare!" threatened Rocky as Billy and Tommy started to chuckle.
"Ah, come on. I told you mine, now tell me yours." Ako was more interested in watching Rocky's reaction than in hearing about the monster, as were Jason, Kat, and Tanya.
"Go on Adam," Tanya cocked her boyfriend.
"Adam, if you have one shred of compassion in your soul, you'll keep your mouth shut." Adam gave in, feeling a smidgen of pity for Rocky, who had to live with remembering when the monster had put a spell on him making him act like an idiot. Tanya just smiled at Rocky.
"I'm sure I can get Adam to tell me later... when we're all alone." Now it was Adam's turn to be embarrassed. He turned as red as Tommy's shirt. Before the situation could progress any further, Bulk and Skull came over to their table.
"Hey, any of you guys seen Detective Stone?" asked Bulk.
"Yea, Detective Stone," repeated Skull.
"Sorry guys, we haven't seen him," said Tommy
Bulk noticed the cute Asian girl with a weird set of headphones on her head. "Who's the new kid?"
Ako got up and extended her hand like an American. "I'm Ako Hayasaka. I'm here to visit some friends before I go back to Japan."
Bulk blew himself up, trying to make a good impression on the cute girl. "Japan, huh, cool. My name's Bulk and I'm a detective."
"And my name's Skull." Poor Skull tried to muscle in to meet the girl.
"Butt out, Skull," Bulk said casually as he continued to smile at Ako. "Is this your first time in this beautiful country of ours?"
"Yeah, but this trip's more business than pleasure and I'll be going home soon." I hope, she thought.
"Well, that's too bad. By the way, what's that thing on your head for?"
"Oh this?" It only took her a second to think up a good lie. "It's a radio, I just love American music." Before their conversation could go any further, there was a sudden explosion outside. Without even so much as a goodbye, Ako was out the door followed by the Rangers, while Bulk and Skull and the other people ducked under tables.
Once outside the teens were greeted with a horrific site. Dozens of black clad beings with orange blotches on their bodies were creating havoc. They were smashing cars and chasing terrified people. "What on Earth are those things?" Tommy said as he started to look for a place to hide and morph.
"The Gurinamu," Ako said, with a touch of fear in her voice. "They must have followed me, I hope that's all that came through."
The area was almost clear with everyone trying to get away from the battlefield as Billy assessed the situation. "I think it's more likely that you were pulled here by mistake."
"Well, they've got to be stopped now! Clothes --" She held her bracelet ready to transform when Tommy stopped her.
"Ako, wait! There are still people around!"
She looked at him in disbelief. "You've gotta be kidding me! This is an emergency!"
"We can't break the rules."
"Who's this 'we' crap, last time I checked I wasn't part of your team! I don't know much about the wimps you usually face, but these things can, and will hurt and kill anything around then! So screw you, I've got a job to do. CLOTHES CHANGER!!!" With a blinding flash of blue light Ako transformed into Blue Swallow. Other than the Rangers no one was around to see her change except two lost detectives. When the Rangers got out of sight they quickly morphed. Billy went back to the Power Chamber, Bulk and Skull just stood there about to go into shock.
"Um... Skull?"
"Yea."
"Did you just see what I think I just saw."
"Nope."
"What do mean no? Didn't you just see Ako turn into... a Blue Ranger?"
"Yep."
"Then why'd you say no?"
"Cause I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes."
"Which you did."
"And I still don't believe it."
Detective Stone suddenly came bursting out of the Youth Center. "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you?"
Bulk turned quickly, "Detective you're not going to believe this..."
"I probably won't."
"There's a new Ranger from Japan and we saw her change."
"A new Ranger?"
"A blue one."
"A female Blue Ranger?"
"Yea, ask Skull."
"Skull did you see this too?"
"Yep."
"So you know who this new Ranger is?"
"Nope."
"Wait a minute, did you see a new Ranger?"
"Yep."
"Did you see her change?"
"Yep."
"So you know who she is?"
"Yep."
"Who?"
"Nope."
Detective Stone scratched his head, trying to make sense out of all this. "Did you two get hit on the head or something."
"No," said Bulk.
"Yep," said Skull.
"That's it, I think you two need to get checked out by a doctor." As Detective Stone dragged the two teens off, Bulk was still trying to convince him about the new Ranger.
"But we saw her, we really did."
"We sure saw did, we didn't see a thing," babbled Skull. Bulk rolled his eyes. His partner was going through... actually he was not sure what he was going through, but he was sure of one thing. No one's ever gonna believe this one.
At the Power Chamber Billy was monitoring the fight and it was not going well. "Zordon, those things are everywhere. I don't know how long the Rangers can hold up even with Ako's help."
"Ai yi yi, Zordon, what do we do now?"
Before the ancient being could respond, a message came through over the communication channel. Billy quickly went to see what it was. "This message is coming from another dimension. I'll bet anything that it's the rest of Ako's team."
"BILLY, TRY AND ESTABLISH A COMUNICATION PATH WITH THEM. THEY MAY KNOW A WAY TO STOP THIS INVASION."
"Right Zordon." He quickly began to search for the correct path and turned on his translator. I doubt they can speak English any better then Ako could when she first arrived. The static on the screen slowly began to clear away and he could hear someone trying to get through. "Come in, come in can you hear me?" he repeated over and over again until he finally got a response.
"Hello, can anyone hear me. This is Commander Chokan of the Jet Man battle team... is anyone there?" The picture cleared to reveal a rather severe woman, probably in her thirties, dressed in a militaristic suit.
"I read you, this is Billy Cranston, assistant to the Power Ranger Zeo. I take it you're looking for Ako."
The picture on Chokan's screen cleared up to reveal a blond haired, blue eyed young man not much older than Ako, dressed in a black jacket over a white shirt. He seemed to be able to understand her, or was a least using some kind of translator. "Yes, is she alright?"
"For now, at least, but I believe enemies from your world have infiltrated ours and the Rangers from my world are trying to hold them at bay with the help of Ako."
"The Vyram are there too? This is bad, how is your team holding up?"
"Not too well, we could use some help."
"Perhaps we could find a way to bring the remainder of my team to your world the same way Ako ended up there."
"Sounds like a plan. We could use Ako's energy trail to retrace and recreate the original path."
"It could work but we're both going to have find the correct set of configurations on each side to make this work." As the two scientists chatted back and forth to each other in the same techno babble Billy had so often used, the Jet Man team was preparing to rescue their friend.
Gai grinned, listening to the near-incomprehensible conversation. "Looks like Chokan's finally found herself a man she can relate to." Even Ryu smiled at that.
Meanwhile, at the home of the former Machine Empire, the Vyram were preparing to launch their newest monster in to battle. Radiege was very pleased at the sight of the new super hero team failing to defeat a small batch of their minions.
"That little brat can't hold our forces off for much longer even with the help of her new friends. The war shall be over before it even starts." He turned to Gure and instructed him to ready the monster to attack. What they did not see was someone stealthily hiding in the shadows. Nor did they see the figure place a small device on the back of the monster so carefully that not even the monster noticed. As the hideous new monster made his way to down to Earth, the figure slipped out as stealthily as it had entered, never seen nor heard by anyone.
Tommy caught Rocky when he was tossed to the side like a rag doll. "You O.K. buddy?" He helped Rocky to his feet.
"I will be when my head stops spinning. Just how are we gonna beat these things?" Rocky asked as he pushed away another Gurinamu.
"I don't know but things can't get much worse."
Ako swatted a minion away from Tommy and pointed to a large creature behind him. "Uh, Tommy san? It just got worse." The rangers were all shocked to the core when they saw what looked like a really big and muscular cog.
Rocky shock his head as if to clear it. "What the hell is that, a cog on steroids?!?"
Adam and Tanya attempted a frontal assault but were smashed away like flies. They landed on the ground and were nearly fried as the super cog began firing at them. Kat and Rocky tried to distract it by firing at it only to have their firepower turned back at them. Not even the strength and power of the Red and Gold Ranger double attack made a dent in the monster's armor. Seeing how everyone was now in trouble Ako soared through the air to launch her attack.
"JETTO KICK!!!" The monster was knocked back but not very much. Furious he grabbed Ako in mid air by the neck. "GAG!!"
"You little pest I shall destroy you!"
The Rangers could not get near to help because of the minions. Ako watched as the monster pulled back his huge fist ready to strike. She shut her eyes tight, praying for a miracle. I never imagined dying like this. If anyone's out there who can hear me... "HELP!!!" Just as the blow was about to connect with her head she heard a sudden "zap" and the next thing she knew she was falling to the ground and landed hard. "Ouch! What hap...." She looked up. Only a meter away from her was the rest of her team. "Guys! I've never been so happy to see you!"
Ryu and Gai caught her hands and pulled her to her feet. She could not see inside their masks, but knew they were grinning as widely as she was. They whirled, the team forming together with Ako at their center. Each identified themselves.
"Red Hawk! Ryu!"
"Black Condor, Gai!"
"Yellow Owl, Lyta!"
"White Swan, Kaori!"
Ako, taking a page from Gai's book, kicked the monster with all of her strength right between the legs. She heard startled gasps from the Rangers and realized they would never have done such a thing. When the robot doubled over she snickered to herself. Guess even robots feel man pain.
"Blue Swallow, Ako!"
"Choujin Sentai Jetto Man!" They all shouted in unison. Experienced with the down and dirty fighting it took to defeat the minions, the Jet Man were making mincemeat of their enemies. Now the tides seemed to be turning in their favor, but then the Vyram came down to try and salvage the fight. The Rangers were now face to face with the dreaded beings they had heard so much about.
Maria went straight for Red Hawk, and to the Power Rangers it seemed he was having a lot of trouble fighting her. He seemed to be pulling his punches.
Tommy turned to Ako. "What's wrong with him."
"I don't know. Maybe it's cuz she's a woman." She paused a moment. Now that I think about it he's always acting strange around her. I wonder what that's about, she thought to herself as the fight continued.
"Think he's gonna need some help?"
"Is your world weird?"
"I'll take that as a yes."
As the battle continued, our mysterious stranger was watching, once again unnoticed. "I think these guys have had enough fun for one day." Taking a small remote control device from out a hidden compartment in the suit it was wearing, the stranger waited for the right moment to strike. "Not yet, not yet." Then all eleven heroes fired their blasters at the monster at once. "Now," the stranger whispered and pressed the big red button in the center. "Good bye... baby." As the blast hit the monster the device went off, and a giant vortex appeared behind it. The monster was destroyed and the Vyram began to get sucked in.
"What is the meaning of thisssss?!" Radiege hissed as he and the rest of his evil clan were dragged through the vortex back to their own world. The hole closed up and the heroes from both teams were high-fiving each other and congratulating themselves in both languages. They were not the only ones celebrating, however.
"KLANK!"
"Yes, sire?"
"What in blazes happened to us!?!"
The robot got to his feet and scratched his head. "I don't know, but I think that with the Vyram gone we've been set free from whatever they did to us."
"How long before we're back on line?"
"At least two days."
"Very well, I could use some rest and it will give me more time to figure out the perfect way destroy the Rangers once and for all!"
Cheers were coming from inside the power chamber as well. Alpha was high-fiving Billy as he turned back to the monitor. "From the sound of the cheering, I'd say we won," said Chokan from the other dimension. "I must admit I had doubts about working with someone about the same age as my youngest charge."
"We made a pretty good team back there."
"That we did." Just then both teams teleported into the Power Chamber. Powering down to their civilian clothes, the Jet Man all gasped at the site of Zordon. Ako had warned them before they left, but poor Kaori still looked as if she was going to faint.
"CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU AND LET US OFFER A WARM WELCOME TO OUR NEW FRIENDS AND COMRADES IN ARMS," said Zordon.
Ako quickly translated for her team. The sharp-faced man in the brown jacket said something to Ako that made the others start to laugh.
"What did he say?" inquired Billy.
"He said that when I get lost, I REALLY get lost."
Now the whole room broke into laughter. Rocky was the most excited of the lot. "Did you see the way we blasted that thing and everything else back into their own dimension! POW!!!"
The excitement in the room was broken as Billy stopped then. "That's the really weird thing, guys." Now all attention was on him as Ako translated to her teammates. "I was watching the fight and I determined that the combined firepower shouldn't have reopened the vortex."
Tommy walked over to his old friend. "What do you mean, Billy?"
"I think that thing was sabotaged. Someone was trying to help us back there."
"But who?" asked Ako.
"It may be the same party that lead Chokan to the Power Chamber in the first place," Billy answered thoughtfully.
Tommy nodded. "Well, whoever they are, we owe them a debt of gratitude. Provided we ever find out who they are."
Just as Ako was translating, two of the Japanese team suddenly started to argue about something. The husky man with the glasses simply folded his arm and gave a sigh of annoyance. Kaori, the woman with the long black hair and dimples rolled her eyes. Ako just threw her hands in the air, giving up on her quarrelling teammates.
"What's wrong with them?" Jason was ready to go in there and break up what ever they were fighting about.
"Oh, don't worry about them," Ako assured him. "They're always trying to wring each other's necks over one thing or another."
Chokan, however, had had enough. "KNOCK IT OFF NOW!!!!" Even with her voice coming through in English the two men immediately stopped fighting and stood at attention like soldiers. With a sigh, she turned to Billy. "Say, Billy?"
"Yes, Commander Chokan?"
"Want to trade teams?" Once again the room was filled with laughter.
When Ako caught her breath she muttered, "I don't believe it, Chokan actually made a joke. Maybe there's hope for her yet."
"What makes you think I'm joking?" Chokan snapped back into her typical serious business-like fashion to address her charges. "I hate to break up this little party, but I think it's time for you all to come home while Billy and I still can get you across."
Billy nodded. "She's right. It was nice meeting you all but you'd better get back before something else happens." Everyone was in agreement and started saying their good byes.
Ako came up to Billy and shook his hand. "We all want to thank you for everything, especially me."
"I'm sure you would have done the same thing for us."
"In a heartbeat."
After the others said good bye to the Rangers they went up to Billy thanking him as well. Gai patted him on the shoulder and said something to him in Japanese. He turned to Ako. "What did he say?"
"He said you're the coolest genius he's ever met and that you don't nag like Chokan."
From the computer console came Chokan's voice. "I heard that." Another round of snickers started up again as the Jet Man team lined up, ready for Billy to open his end of the vortex.
Ako went over to Billy one last time. She tapped the translator. "I think you're gonna need this in case another little lost Ranger drops by for a visit."
"Hopefully, that won't happen."
"Well, thanks again to all of you from all of us." She took off the headset and gave it back to Billy.
"You're well-mump." Everyone's jaw dropped as they watched Ako plant a big kiss on Billy, even Chokan was surprised. This was not appropriate behavior in Japan. Ako released Billy as quickly as she had grabbed him. "Arigato."
It took him a minute to compose himself. "Um... you're... you're welcome." She waved as she went back to join her friends, who were still a little stunned. Despite this, Billy managed to open the vortex and he waved good bye.
"Sayonara!" They jumped into the hole and they were gone.
They arrived, and for once landed on their feet. Chokan greeted them all and welcomed Ako home. "Nice to see you all back safe and sound."
Ako let out a yawn and stretched her arms. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted."
The others all agreed and were ready to leave the Sky-camp when Chokan stopped them. "Just where do you think you're going? You have an exercise rotation in a few minutes."
Everyone began whining, especially Ako. "Ahh, come on Chokan we just got back."
"No excuses."
As they marched off to the exercise room, Ako mumbled to herself, "Awe, man, she's such a nazi. Maybe I should have stayed with the giant floating head."
Billy and the others were still in the Power Chamber after the Jet Man left. Billy was putting some small devices into his knapsack, including the headset to take home for a little routine maintenance, when Rocky came up to him and patted him on the shoulder. "So what was it like, Casanova?"
"It was just a thank you kiss, Rocky," Billy said, blushing slightly.
"Well, it looks to me like she was very grateful."
Billy started to turn a little red in the face so he grabbed his knapsack ready to go back to his lab. "I'm heading home for a while guys, I'll meet you later." He was about to head out when he stopped. "Oh, and Rocky? Nothing's gonna happen between Ako and me. Besides, I've already got a girlfriend."
Rocky's head quickly spun around. "Wh-what, since when? Who is it?"
Tommy and the other were a little curious themselves. "So what's the big secret, come on tell us."
But before he could answer a giant vortex suddenly appeared right behind him and he was being dragged through. "Tommy, help!!!" Tommy grabbed his hand but could not hold it. Billy slipped from his grasp and was pulled into the vortex.
"Billy... NOOOOO!!!!" As quickly as it opened it closed and Billy was gone.
He did not know when he would land or where the vortex was taking him, but he knew it was not going to be his Earth. With a thud he landed on a grassy surface. He looked all around him and saw he was in a woody area a few miles away from a city... but which city? He tried his communicator but found it useless.
"Guess I'm on my own." He figured his safest course of action was to make his way to the city and at least find out where he was. "Now I know how Ako must have felt. I hope I can find someone there to help --" He froze as he heard a noise, a noise he had heard many times before but it was different somehow. He knew what it was... it was the song of the Dragon Dagger. High atop a cliff was the Green Ranger, playing its song summoning the Dragon Zord from the depths of the sea. "Tommy? Did I wind up in the past or something?" But then he heard the 'Green Ranger' call for his Zord. His voice was much different and, like Ako, he was not speaking English. The rest of a team of heroes quickly joined him on the mountain, and none of them sounded like the Ranger team Billy had once belonged to. The Blue Ranger did not even sound like him. Only the mysterious stranger and another curious figure in white heard his cry of frustration.
"WHERE THE HELL AM I?!?!"
The End... for now
Extra Sentai info: Sentai has been around for quite a while in Japan. The first show called Himitsu Sentai Go Ranger - Secret Taskforce 5 Ranger - aired way back in 1975. The first Sentai show to have giant robots aired in 1979, called Battle Fever J, which started the "Super Sentai" theme. Sentai have been on the air every year since then to this very day. This year's newest Sentai team is called Kyukyu Sentai GO GO Five but I'll have more info on that later.
As for Jetto Man, the show aired in 1991, one year before Zyu Ranger, pretty much as I just described in my story. However I think I should mention an interesting little fact. Later in the show a character appears by the name of Dan and it's the same actor who went on to play the real Blue Ranger Dan in Zyu Ranger. Jillun knows more about this than me, and any other Jetto Man questions should be forwarded there. That's all for now.
What's the deal with Goldar and Scorpina.
The REAL reason the Green Ranger went bad.
Why does the Pink Ranger have a skirt and not the Yellow ranger?
And... the origin of the power.