Chapter 4
Flash let out a moan as his eyes began to open.
The first thing he noticed was that he was now un-morphed and laying on the ground. Said ground was rather rough and it was covered in dust, Flash's vision slowly turning from fuzzy to clear and allowing him to see where he was. He pushed himself up to his knees, looking around as his eyes went wide.
He was in some kind of city, but it was like no city he had ever seen. First the place appeared completely empty, with not a single human in sight. A few cars could be seen here and there, but they were all parked. Another thing he noticed was the place had been overrun by nature. Multiple trees had grown in the middle of the road and sidewalks, along with grass and moss that was growing up the sides of the buildings and on the cars. The building themselves all looked rundown, with shattered windows, rusted signs and other such situations.
Flash looked around and spotted all of his friends, the lot of them laid out on the ground like he had been. He forced himself to his feet and rushed over to them, groaning as he did so. "Guys!" He called out, shaking Lyra. "Guys, wake up." He rushed over to Heart and rolled him onto his back. "Come on!"
Heart let out a moan and opened his eyes, the other Rangers doing the same thing. "What happened?" The teen asked.
"Where are we?" Lyra asked as they pushed themselves up, the lot of them looking around and seeing the state of the city they were now in.
"I don't think we're in Canterlot anymore," Sweetie told them.
"I remember now," Soarin groaned. "That Mirage guy sucked us into a portal."
Sandal frowned, "that means we were sent to another world. But I'm guessing we're not in Equestria."
"Definitely not," Flash told him. "Less ponies and more...greenery." He frowned as he looked up at the sky, amazed when he spotted the moon in said sky. The moon appeared to be broken in half, with the other half ripped into several large chunks. "Wherever we are, I don't think things ended well here." The other Rangers frowned at this, but then a sound caught their attention.
It was the sound of footsteps, heavy ones that shoot the ground. Sandal looked over at a puddle on the ground and saw the water within it shake with every step. "Something's coming."
Flash pulled out a Magi-Charger and clicked it, throwing it into the air and summoning a motorbike with a dragon head on the front. The other Rangers did the same, summoning bikes of their colour with different animal heads on them. As they climbed on board, Heart getting on behind Flash, the footsteps got louder and they were able to tell that they were coming from up ahead.
And sure enough, from around a building came a large furry orange paw with finger-like appendages that each had a long black claw on the end. It extended towards the ground, revealing a large and muscular orange limb that cracked the pavement when it hit. Then, a second claw and arm appeared and did the same. They pulled the body out from behind the building and it was revealed.
It was the size of an elephant and had the body of a lion. But instead of a face in the center of the bright red mane, there was nothing but a massive mouth with razor sharp fangs and a pair of giant ears sticking out the side of the mane. The body was orange and muscular, with back legs that had claws just like the front ones. And instead of a tail, it had what looked like the arm of a scorpion with a snapping claw on the end of it.
The beast pulled itself around the building and stood in full view of the Rangers, then turned towards them before letting out a loud snarl. Somehow, despite not having eyes, it could see them. "MOVE!" Flash yelled, kicking his bike into action. The other Rangers did the same and soon the five of them were roaring down the street as fast as possible. The monster let out and roar and began rushing after them, its enormous weight and bulk shaking the ground as it did. It was catching up and the Rangers doubted it wanted to do anything nice when it finally caught them.
Twilight had just gotten up and was preparing breakfast for Star.
The young girl was still in bed, but would be up any minute. But as Twilight finished frying the bacon, throwing some to Spike and their other dog Springer so they could snack on it, there was a knock at the door. Twilight moved over to it and opened it up, only to frown when she saw who it was.
"Oh, hello Shock." The man in question smiled at her, then became serious.
"Twilight, can I come in?"
"I guess," she turned to head back to the kitchen. "Don't go expecting to have a long conversation. I need to get Star to school before my meeting at my old school."
"That's fine," Shock nodded. "But, I don't think you want Star to potentially walk it." Twilight turned to him with a raised eyebrow, "this is about Flash. He and his friends...broke into Mirage Corp last night." Twilight's eyes went wide, as Shock took out his phone and showed her a video. It was footage taken from last night, showing the Power Rangers in the building fighting the Peacekeepers.
It also showed Shock, looking very human, fighting against Flash until Heart slid passed and stole the key card. It then changed to the Rangers in the underground lab, where Mirage was also located looking just as human.
"They were messing with something they shouldn't have." The video showed Sandal grab Mirage and throw him towards one of the desks, accidently causing the machine behind them to switch on. The machine sparked several times as the Rangers backed away, only for it to completely explode and the video to end. "I'm...I'm sorry."
Twilight's eyes went wide, "no." Shock moved up to her, "no." He pulled her into a hug, "NO!" She screamed, trying to push Shock away but the man held her tightly and tried to comfort her. "This can't be happening."
"I now it's hard," he told her. "But...maybe this was for the best."
"NO!" Twilight cried.
"Flash...let's not remember him as the criminal he became. Let's remember him as the good man that tried his best to help others. Whatever made him turn away from being that person, we have to forget." Twilight continued crying as Shock held her tightly, Twilight completely unaware of the smile that appeared on his lips.
Back at Mirage Corp, Micro had just sent Shining Soul's cell back to the others as he finished work on the Magi-Charger he had made the previous night.
"Micro?" He turned to smile at his wife, Rarity walking into the room with a hand on her slight belly. "You've been working all night. Don't you think you should take a break."
"I'll be fine," he told her. "Once I've finished working on this bad boy, everything will be perfect." Rarity looked at the Charger and raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that the same battery devices Flash and the others have been using?" Micro nodded. "Why are you making one."
"Special request from Mirage," he explained. "Once we have all the Elements, we'll be able to use it to make the world perfect." He then turned to her, a smirk appearing on his lips. "In fact, do you wanna help me test it."
"Oh?" Rarity asked, "how?" She watched as Micro took the Charger over to another desk that was holding a case of some kind, the man opening it up and fiddling with whatever was inside until he was done.
"It's simple," he explained before spinning around. "Just hold still." He was carrying a Morphin Blaster that now had the Magi-Charger inside of it, which he fired right at Rarity. The woman screamed as the light overcame her, consuming her entire being.
The Rangers continued to cry out as they attempted to outrun the horrible monster that was trying to eat them. The beast got closer and closer with every step they leapt, the Rangers realising they couldn't escape this thing.
"Energise!" They spun the barrels of their guns along their legs to charge it up, Soarin leaning back on his bike to point his at it, then pointed them behind themselves before firing. "Unleash the Power!" They fired the Zord heads, which flew at the monster and collided with it before returning to the Rangers and morphing them into their suits.
The beast was stunned by the impact, slowing it down long enough for the Rangers to get a good distance away from it. But it quickly recovered and continued chasing the lot of them. "Split up!" Flash told them, the five bikes splitting apart and rolling down different streets.
The beast followed after Flash and Heart, the teen looking back and seeing this. "Great. Of course it follows us."
"Can you drive a bike?" Flash asked, getting a nod from Heart. "Good, take over." He then leapt off the bike, Heart quickly pulling himself forward as Flash landed behind him. He took out his Morphin Baster and after spinning the barrel several times, he fired an extra powerful blast.
The beast was slammed in the face by this, but the attack barely even seemed to phase them. "Oh, come on!"
"Flash!" Heart cried, making Flash look forward, "We're running out of road!" And sure enough, the street right ahead of them had a massive hole in the middle of it. It went from one building to another and was almost fifteen meters across, looking really deep.
They had a choice. Stop the bike and get eaten, or try to jump the gap. "Floor it!" Heart pumped the bike into full speed and shot forward, the beast also picking up speed. "There!" He pointed to a section of the ground that was curved upwards like a ramp, Heart pulling the bike in that direction.
They shot off the end of the road and flew into the air, the bike and its riders flying upwards as they did so. But when they were halfway across the hole, gravity took hold and the bike began to fall. "We're not gonna make it!"
Flash realised he was right and as the bike fell below the level of the street, he grabbed Heart around the waist and used all of his Ranger strength to leap them both off the bike. Heart cried out as they flew through the air, Flash reaching out and managing to just grab the other side of the hole.
"WOW!" Heart yelped as Flash grabbed his arm and stopped him from falling, whilst the bike continued to fall until it hit the bottom a good twenty meters down.
"You okay?" Heart nodded as Flash began swinging him back and forth, eventually managing to swing him around and up over the edge. Heart yelped as he flew through the air and hit the ground, rolling along until he came to a stop. Flash then pulled himself up and sighed in relief. "That was close." They heard a roar and turned to see the beast growling at them.
"Ha!" Heart cried as he got up, "you ain't snacking on us." He blew the beast a raspberry, the monster appearing to understand this and roaring louder. Heart didn't seem at all worried, until the beast leapt into the air and grabbed onto the side of the building besides the hole. "Huh?" They watched as the monster ripped its way across the building, its claws allowing it to move without any trouble. "Uh oh."
Flash grabbed his arm and pulled him along, as the beast leapt and landed on the other side of the hole. The impact was so strong it shook the ground and sent the pair flying, both crying out as they hit the ground and rolled around until they came to a stop.
Flash was the first to recover and looked up at the monster, who snarled and looked ready to gobble them both up. But before it could...
"BURST MODE!" Four streams of energy exploded into the street, "Power Strike!" They slammed into the monster with enough force that it was blasted backwards towards the edge of the hole. The streams then landed and raced back to Flash and Heart, the energy fading to reveal the four other Rangers in their bikes.
"Nice timing guys," Flash told them before getting an idea. "Let's end this thing." He took out a Magi-Charger. "Guardian Buster!" He clicked it before throwing the battery into the air, "activate." In a flash, the Charger transformed into a larger black version of their Morphin Blasters. Flash caught it and cocked the forend, causing four opening to appear on the side and one on the back.
"Magi-Chargers!" Everyone activated their Chargers, placing them in the compartments before shutting them. "Locked and loaded!" When Flash placed his into the compartment and shut it, the white streaks changed to red.
GUARDIAN BUSTER...RED CHARGE!
The weapon began to buzz as it charged up, and was ready to fire.
Flash aimed the weapon at the monster, as Lyra and Soarin placed their hands on his shoulders and Sandal and Sweetie did so to them. "Guardian Buster, Dragon Blast...FIRE!" Flash pulled the trigger and a single powerful blast shot out, which morphed into the shape of the Dragon Zord's head as it flew at the beast.
Slamming into the monster, it exploded and blasted the creature backwards. It tried to save itself, but it couldn't grab the sides of the hole before it fell in. It let out a mighty roar as it disappeared under the ground, the earth shaking ten seconds later as it crashed into the bottom.
The Rangers and Heart barely managed to keep their balance at the shaking, which eventually subsided and they sighed in relief. "That was too close," Flash told the others. "Whatever this place is, they need to seriously invest in animal control."
"I say we get out of here in case it's not dead," Lyra told him. "I don't wanna mess with it again, especially if it angry about being thrown in a hole." The others nodded and headed back to their bikes, Flash and Heart planning to ride with the others, but stopped when they heard the roar of the creature.
Only this roar wasn't coming from the hole. It came from down one of the streets. Then, another roar came from the opposite direction. And another followed from some place else.
"Oh no," Flash gulped as the ground shook again. And sure enough, three more of the creatures leapt out from between the buildings onto the street around them.
"Oh come on!" Soarin cried as they took out their weapons, "how many of these things are there!" The Rangers prepared for battle, but didn't think they could take these creatures. This was something a Zord was needed for.
Speak of the devil.
A mighty roar filled the air, the lot turning to see something flying towards them. A massive robotic Dragon coloured red. It let out another roar as it flew down and slammed into one of the beasts, knocking it backwards as Flash broke out into a smile beneath the helmet.
"DRAGO!" He cried happily, the dragon turning to roar happily at him before swiping a monster with its tail and jumping up to stomp on another one.
"But what's he doing here?" Lyra asked, but got their answer when someone rushed out of one of the streets.
"Rangers!" They spun around and were shocked to see an elderly man, wearing very dirty wizards clothing and a hat with a staff in hand. He had a long white and grey beard and a serious expression on his face.
"Starswirl?" Sweetie gasped, the others amazed to see him.
"Come on!" He told them. "Let Drago deal with them whilst we escape." They nodded and rushed after him, the wizard leading them all into an alleyway that was too small for the creatures to follow. As they did, Drago continued to battle the beasts. They attempted to slash and bite at him, but their fangs and claws were now match for his metal body.
Drago slammed two of them with a metal punch before grabbing the third and flying it into the air, dropping in down into the hole along with its friend. The other two seemed to see this and turned to run away, but the Zord flew after them and grabbed their claw tipped tails before flinging them towards the hole. Both landed on the ground and slid until they fell over the edge, both roaring as they disappeared into it.
Threat neutralised, Drago turned in the direction his friends had gone and flew after them.
Mirage was back in the portal room, typing away at the machine and checking to make sure it was working perfect.
"Excellent," he nodded, "but it's still only connecting to that world." He sighed, "I guess it doesn't matter. Why would I want to return to my world, when soon enough I'll have this one under my complete control." As he said that, the elevator dinged and opened to allow Shock to step out. "So," he smirked, "how'd it go."
"Twilight's still in shock," he smiled. "But she'll get over it and when she does, I'll make my move."
"It amazes me that you're willing to do all this just for a woman," Mirage shook his head. "I mean, she's a brilliant woman. Smart and I guess beautiful by human standards, but to betray the man who considered you a friend and once even saved your life. She really must be something special."
"You have no idea," Shock smirked. "She's smart, funny, caring and so many more things. Flash didn't deserve her. He didn't need her. He was so famous he could have had any woman he wanted, but he chose the one woman I fell in love with."
Mirage nodded. "Didn't you only meet her because of Sentry. You said you met at the policemen's ball."
"That might have been true, but I know we would have met even without knowing him. It was destiny and now that he's out of the way, we can be together forever."
"Only if he's actually dead," Mirage pointed out as he turned back to the portal. "But considering every single drone I've sent into that dimension has been utterly destroyed, I guess it's only a matter of time."
"Exactly," Shock nodded. "But I have to ask, haven't you shot yourself in the foot. You said you needed to Elements, but they're somewhere in that other world and probably gonna end up getting swallowed along with the Rangers. How do you intend to get them back?" Mirage turned to Shock and smiled, the man's eyes going wide. "You can't be serious."
"Deadly," Mirage told him. "Remember what we agreed upon when we first met." Shock frowned as he thought back to that day.
Two days after Flash became a fugitive.
Mirage was in his office working, when he got a message from his secretary. "Mr Mirage, there's a police officer that needs to talk to you" Mirage raised an eyebrow at this, but told her to send him up. A few minutes later, the elevator opened up and Shock Trooper stepped out. "Hello there officer. What can I do for you?"
Shock said nothing as he moved to the other side of the desk, then suddenly moved and in a flash Mirage had a gun pointed at it face. "What did you do to the city?"
Mirage raised an eyebrow at this, "what do you mean. I've done nothing to my city."
"Cut the crap. I know that you never ran this city until just a few days ago." Mirage's eyes went wide, "now what did you do. Why do people think you rush the place and why have they suddenly forgotten about Flash and the other Rangers saving the world."
Now Mirage was truly surprised. "You remember?"
"I seem to be the only one."
Mirage's surprised slowly faded, the man letting out a chuckle. "Well I must say this is a surprise. To think someone actually managed to be immune to my power. Impressive."
"Power?" Shock asked, "what are you-" He didn't get the chance to finish, as Mirage suddenly moved and knocked his gun away. It hit the ground and as Shock staggered back, Mirage stood up and suddenly transformed. In a flash, he was now a robot and raised his arm as a slot opened up before a gun barrel folded out. "Gyah!" Shock fell to the ground in terror. "You...you're..."
"The one who will soon rule this world." He pointed his gun at the cop, "and you're in my way. If you can see through my illusions, then you could be a possible threat and even help the Rangers."
Shock rolled his eyes, "why would I wanna help the Rangers. They've never done anything for me."
"Oh?" Mirage looked intrigued.
Shock looked down in anger, memories flashing at the forefront of his mind. "Ever since Flash became my partner, he's constantly overshadowed me. He's always put in charge of operations, all because he lucked into getting super powers and saved the world."
"I see," Mirage smiled under his metal mask. "Then you and I have a common interest. I'm sure there's something you want that I could give you. And all I'd ask in return would be utter obedience and help keeping the peace. Do that, and everything you ever wanted will be yours."
Shock thought about this and seemed to have an idea. He turned to Mirage, "you have the power to control people...correct?"
Mirage shrugged. "More like...influence a few people. It's how I was able to build this company. But now I'm able to alter the memories of this entire city. And in time, I'll be able to control the entire world's populace."
Shock smiled and stood up. "So if I help you, will you make it so the woman I love will fall in love with me. Make it so she thinks she's always loved me and that her child has always seen me as her father."
"Of course. Though you'll have to earn it." He retracted his gun and held out a hand, "do we have a deal?" Shock stared at him for a moment, then smiled and took the hand.
Present.
"You agreed to do whatever I ask and in return, you could have everything you've ever wanted." Mirage pointed to the portal, "gather the Elements. And when you return with them, I'll be able to make it so that Twilight and her entire family see you as the love of her life."
Shock smiled and turned to the portal, "alright then. But...you can't expect me to do this alone."
"Of course not," Mirage nodded. He then took the pen device out of his jacket and projected the screen, the man disguised robot tapping at it until he found what he was looking for. "Mirage Rangers, awaken."
Inside the cell block, the ones holding the four captured Power Rangers lit up.
Energy surged into the cells and struck the four, making them all begin to cry out despite still being unconscious. The energy then shot out of their chests and struck the Elements, flowing through the gem and out of the cell doors. It appeared in front of the doors and slowly, formed shapes. Within seconds, the Orange, Silver, Gold and Black Rangers stood tall.
The four turned towards the elevator and headed towards it.
Mirage smirked, "you'll take them and a couple of Peacekeepers. Find the Element and return to this place." He then took out a metal sphere with a button on top of it. "This device will be connected to the portal. Press the button and throw the device, which will explode into the portal back to this world. You'll only get once shot at it, so don't mess up."
"Fine," Shock nodded as he took the device. "I'll make preparation to head out."
Mirage nodded and turned to leave, heading into the elevator and flying up the shaft towards another laboratory. When the doors opened, he stepped out into Micro's lab. "So," he called out, "what developments have we made regarding our little immunity problem?" He waited, but there was no response. "Hello?"
"Mirage." He turned to see Micro step out of another room, Rarity stepping out behind him. Something about the way she moved was...strange, almost robotic. "Good, you're here."
"Hello Micro," Mirage focused on Rarity. "Enjoying some quality time with the misses?" Micro frowned at him, then took something out of his pocket.
"I've finished it," he threw Mirage the device and he caught it. It was the Magi-Charger Micro had used on Rarity before. "Anyone struck by this Charger's power will be instantly put under your complete control. Even those that appear immune to your power will be controlled."
"Excellent," Mirage smirked before turning to Rarity. "And who, might I ask, did you test it on." Micro frowned, "I see. Just shows how committed you are to science that you would test a device on the woman you love. Though I guess this'll make her the perfect wife for you. Maybe now she'll put her silly fashion love aside and stay at home where she belongs."
"Indeed," Micro nodded. "However, the Magi-Charger can only be used on one person at a time. The amount of power needed to spread its influence throughout the entire world..."
"Don't worry," Mirage assured him. "I'm looking into that. By this time tomorrow, the entire world will be under my control."
Back in the other dimension, Starswirl had brought the Rangers over to one of the few building in the city that didn't seem at all destroyed.
It was a large apartment building, Starswirl gesturing for them to follow him up the stairs. They did so and after what felt like an hour of climbing, they reached the very top of the building where the penthouse was located. "Here we are," Starswirl opened the door and they stepped into the room.
"Wow," Heart whispered at the sight of the place. It was probably the cleanest room in the entire city. "This place is awesome." They then heard a roar and looked towards the windows, where the Dragon Zord could be seen hovering over the building.
Starswirl and Flash stepped out onto the penthouse's open area, Starswirl taking a familiar battery out of his cloak before throwing it. It grew larger and slotted into the dragon's mouth, the Zord glowing as it shrunk down and fell towards him.
"Hahaa!" Flash cheered as he caught Drago and spun him around, "it's great to see you bud." Drago roared back happily, as the three returned to the penthouse.
"We should be safe here," Starswirl explained. "Those creatures can only hunt through a sense of smell and hearing. Up here, our scent is dispersed by the winds and they can't hear us this high up."
"I can't believe you're alive," Lyra told him. "We thought...we thought you were dead."
"What would make you think that?" Starswirl asked as Drago jumped down next to him.
"We saw footage," Sweetie explained. "You and Drago were fighting Mirage and blasted one another. The screen went black for a moment and when it came back on...you two were gone and Mirage was the only one standing."
"Mirage?" Starswirl hummed as he sat down and reached into his pocket to pull out a bunch of batteries, which he plugged into a device before inserting it into the Magi-Charger in Dragon's mouth. "So that's the name of the being that we met that day."
"What happened?" Soarin asked as the others sat down, "why'd you send us our Elements?" Starswirl looked worried.
"You still have them, right?" They nodded and took out the gems, but Flash sighed.
"Sunset, Shining, Dusk and my dad were all captured. Their Elements were taken as well." Starswirl frowned at this, "and Micro...what happened? We've been spending the last three months as fugitives because Mirage somehow turned the entire world against us."
Starswirl sighed and sat back, then reached into his cloak and took out a device. It was a strange looking device that looked like a remote control with a glass screen and a long antenna on it. "Princess Twilight Sparkle and a few others back in Equestria built this device. It allows me to open portals between the two worlds wherever I want, meaning I didn't need to use the mirror portal to travel to your world. It also has a scanning function, which meant I could detect when other spacial anomalies occur. And three months ago, it picked something up."
"Mirage's portal," Flash guessed.
Starswirl nodded. "The technology of your world, whilst quite amazing, still isn't to the point where it can open dimension doorways without issue. What's more, he was attempting to open a portal to a world not connected to the one he was in."
"What do you mean?" Starswirl turned to Heart, appearing curious about his appearance. But he quickly shook it off and grabbed a piece of paper off a stack along with a pen.
"This is your world," he drew a circle in the center of it. "And...this is my world," he drew a seconds circle next to the first. "Both of them are connected," he drew a line between them. "And there are other worlds that they're connected to as well." He drew multiple circles around the first two and started joining them up one after the other, then made more circles around that and so on until the entire page was covered in line connected rings. "However," he pointed to a circle that was no directly linked to the first one, "this is Mirage's world. As you can see, it has no connection to yours. Attempting to open a portal to it with no established connection is dangerous. World shatteringly dangerous to be precise."
Heart gulped, understanding now what he meant. "So...you tried to stop him?"
"Indeed," Starswirl nodded. "I didn't know who it was that was causing the dimensional stress, but I hoped they could be reasoned with. So I set the dimensional transporter to the location I detected the fracture and headed over there. But I soon found the one responsible was anything but reasonable."
Three months ago.
Starswirl appeared within the underground laboratory, the Elements and his staff in hand. As the portal vanished behind him, he turned to Mirage who looked at him warily. "Wait," the robot looking human stated, "you're...the one who helped the Power Rangers ten years ago."
Starswirl stared at him, as if seeing something that wasn't easily noticeable. "And you...are not of this earth."
Mirage smirk, "that obvious?"
Starswirl turned to the portal machine. "This device is not safe. It's every use is tearing the dimensional space of the world." He turned to him, "you must stop."
"Are you out of your mind?" Mirage asked him, looking upset. "This device is the only way I can get home."
"It's not safe. Even the tests you're doing on it are affecting the fabric of this dimension."
"And how is it any different from what you just did?" Mirage asked, "you just showed up from another world. Why do you get to hope between worlds and I can't?"
"If you were trying to go to Equestria then I wouldn't be trying to stop you," Starswirl told him. "There are many worlds out there that are safely connected to this one, but the world you're trying to open a gate to isn't one of them."
"I can create a safe connection between worlds," Mirage told him. "I just need a little time. With a few more tests-"
"You'll rip the very fabric of existence in this world to shreds." Starswirl reached out a hand, "come with me to Equestria. Maybe you world is connected to that one."
"And if it's not?" Mirage asked, "I've spent the last ten years building up resources and creating this company just so I can make this machine. You can't expect me to give up and start again just because you think it's dangerous."
"Please," Starswirl told him, "don't make me have to stop you." Mirage replied by summoning energy around his hands.
"Who says you could stop me." He unleashed a blast of energy, which Starswirl barely managed to block using his magic. The bolt flew off and struck the camera up in the corner. When Mirage's attack stopped, Starswirl acted fast and fired a blast of magic from his staff.
Mirage leapt to the side and fired a few more blasts, being sure not to hit his machine, which Starswirl deflected. The wizard then fired a chain of magic that struck Mirage and wrapped around him, making him flinch as he was lifted into the air. "It didn't have to be this way," Starswirl told him. "But you've forced my hand." He turned to the machine, "once you're out cold I'll destroy this device. Then you'll be coming to Equestria with me. If you refuse to see reason then, I'll have no choice but to place you in Tartarus. Cerberus has been rather bored since his main prisoner got turned to stone a while back."
Mirage growled and thought against the magic, his eyes shooting open as he glowed. "LET ME GO!" He screamed as his body morphed into his robot form and broke through the magic. He quickly fired at Starswirl with his arm blasters and struck Starswirl in the chest.
"Augh!" He cried as he was knocked backwards and slammed into the wall, the impact causing a certain somethings to go flying from his person.
Mirage panted and after a few seconds, he managed to retake his human form. He sighed in relief before turning to Starswirl, only to then notice the ten objects on the ground. "Are those..." He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He reached down and picked up one of the Elements, whilst Starswirl groaned and pushed himself up with his staff. "To think, Darklight never even bothered to give me a chance to take one of these." He glanced around the room at the Elements, "and I managed to get my hands on them without even trying." He grasped his fist around the gem, as Starswirl growled.
"I won't let you have them," he stated before raising his staff and slamming it into the ground. Doing so caused the Elements go glow and after a few seconds, they all shot into the air.
"What?" Mirage cried as they flew up and slammed into the ceiling, causing pieces of debris to fall down. "What's going on? Where are they going?"
"Back to their Guardians," Starswirl told him with a smirk. "All of them." Sure enough, the Element in Mirage's hand began to glow and tried to pull itself free from his fist. But he was able to keep it shut pull it back.
"I don't think so!" He cried, unleashing a burst that surged around his fist. After a few seconds, the energy died down and he smiled. "Perfect." Starswirl frowned, wondering what had just happened. "My power might not be much, but it was able to effect the Element. Now it thinks I'm its Guardian." Starswirl's eyes went wide hearing this. "And now," his other hand sparked. "Good bye!" He fired at the wizard, who barely managed to put up his shield in order to protect himself. He hissed at the force being thrown at him, his barrier slowing growing weaker. "You can't possible escape this unscathed."
"Augh!" Starswirl hissed, his magic flickering in and out of power.
But then, the ceiling exploded and something shot down into the lab. Both turned to see the tiny robotic dragon, which roared at them both. "Drago!" Starswirl gasped as the tiny Zord flew towards Mirage and started firing at him, making him hiss as he staggered backwards. "Did you sense the dimensional damage as well?" Drago roared as he landed next to him. "Good to see you my friend. Hopefully Flash will have his Element by now and can come lend a hand with the others."
"Not gonna happen!" Mirage cried as he stood tall, "I won't let you get in my way!" He began to summon as much power as possible, Starswirl and Drago doing the same. The three then unleashed their attacks and they all combined in the center of the room, building up energy until-
KABOOM!
The entire room was struck by a shockwave and they were sent flying backwards into the walls. Mirage hit his head and was knocked unconscious, whilst Starswirl and Drago managed to stay awake.
What none of them seemed to notice was that some of the energy struck Mirage's portal and caused it to spark and activate. The two began to pick themselves up and prepared to grab the Element from Mirage. But before they could, the portal formed and Starswirl turned to gasp at it.
"GYAH!" He cried as he was suddenly grabbed by a powerful sucking force, Drago too. Before either of them could stop themselves, they were pulled into the portal. Starswirl grabbed Drago and managed to grab the edge of the portal, "NOOOOOO!" He yelled, felling his grip loosening. And eventually, he lost his grip and they were both pulled into the portal.
Present.
"And that's the story. The next thing I knew, I was in this place and getting attacked by those monsters. If I hadn't had Drago with me, I'd have been lunch meat on the first day." Drago roared as he removed the wires from the battery.
"Why didn't you just use your transporter thing to go back home?" Heart asked, the others nodding their heads in agreement.
"I wanted to, but the device was damaged when we crashed here. I've managed to repair it, but the damage made it lose its magical charge. Normally I'd recharge it with my own magic, but this world is like how yours used to be before Sunset brought the Element of Magic into it." He lifted his staff, but the thing didn't even sparkle. "My magic is gone."
"So you need another form of magical power to charge it up?" Sandal asked, getting a nod from Starswirl. "Dude, we've got ya'h covered." They all took out their Elements and Starswirl smiled. He handed the device to Lyra and she got to work, opening up the back of it and connecting two wires to it and two the sides of the Element.
As she did, Flash thought about Starswirl's story and then realised something. "Wait, you said Mirage had one of the Elements. Right?" Starswirl nodded, "so which Element did he get?" Starswirl sighed and stated what Flash already knew.
Mirage once again returned to the room with his greatest creation.
He had originally built the amplifier in a hopes to boost his power and do exactly what he had done to the city, but that had only resulted in failure. He had left it forgotten, until he got his hands on his most precious of objects.
He stepped into the glass room and took something out of his pocket: The Element of Knowledge."
"That's it!" Flash cried, getting up and looking like christmas had come early. "That's it!"
"What's it?" Sweetie asked, Flash turning towards her with a smile on his face.
"Don't you get it? Micro never betrayed us." Their eyes all went wide hearing this, "he must have realised Mirage had his Element. So he started working for him to try and find a way to get it back."
"Yeah," Sandal smiled, "that's totally something Micro would do. He must have thought if he got close enough, he could summon his Element back to him."
"Well I'm afraid it's not that simple," Starswirl stated. "Whatever Mirage did to the Element, seemed to make it think he was its Guardian. If he's able to keep that up, then Micro won't be able to summon it to him no matter how close he gets."
Heart thought about what they were saying. "So if we can get his Element back, Mirage's spell on it will break."
"And then the city will be free," Sweetie realised. "He must be using the Element of Knowledge to boost his power and cast his spell over the entire city. If we can get it back-"
"He'll just use the other Elements," Soarin pointed out. "If we wanna end this, we have to save everyone. The other Rangers, the Elements and the people Mirage captured."
"Including your sister," Flash patted Heart on the shoulder. "But we can't do it all at once. We need to focus on what should be done first. And I think that should be getting Micro's Element back. If we do, we'll have another Ranger that can fight for us and help stop Mirage." The others nodded and wondered what Micro was doing right now. Hopefully, he and Rarity weren't in any danger.
At the Mirage Corporation, Rarity was robotically wandering through the company.
Nobody was even giving her a second look, used to seeing the pregnant woman walking around the place doing a variety of tasks. So nobody even noticed her as she stepped into one of the labs that was currently empty.
As soon as she closed and locked the door, her mannerisms changed. She appeared less like a zombie and gave a confident smirk. "Maybe I should have attempted an acting career before going into fashion."
Earlier that day.
"Oh?" Rarity asked, "how?" She watched as Micro took the Charger over to another desk that was holding a case of some kind, the man opening it up and fiddling with whatever was inside until he was done.
"It's simple," he explained before spinning around. "Just hold still." He was carrying a Morphin Blaster that now had the Magi-Charger inside of it, which he fired right at Rarity. The woman screamed as the light overcame her, consuming her entire being.
When the light faded, Rarity staggered but managed to stay upright and clutched her head. "Ow," she moaned before her eyes went wide. Memories flowed back into her head, through the false truth she had been promoting. "Oh my god!" She turned to Micro, "you're a Power Ranger." Micro nodded as Rarity looked close to tears, "our friends. I...I kept calling them criminals and villains."
"It's okay," Micro pulled her into a hug. "You were being controlled. But luckily, this new Magi-Charger has given you an immunity to Mirage's power."
"Oh Micro," she pulled away and placed a hand on his cheek. "The last few months...my feelings for you. I...I was falling out of love with you."
"I could tell," Micro nodded. "Us getting together was so ingrained with my Ranger past, Mirage's power sealed it away. Without that beginning..."
Rarity nodded and placed her hand on her stomach. "If it hadn't been for this little one, I probably would have divorced you already." Rarity looked furious, "Mirage is going to pay for this."
"You're right about that," Micro nodded. "And I need you to do something for me." He took a flash drive out of his pocket, "Mirage still doesn't trust me. But if you pretend that I brainwashed you with the Magi-Charger, you'll be able to sneak into a lab that's connected to the main server." He pointed at the flash drive, "load this in and activate the file inside it. That'll unleash a malware virus that will allow me to have access to the computers."
"Alright," Rarity nodded, "I don't know what you're planning but I trust you." They kissed one another as a voice from the next room caught their ears, making them realise Mirage was there. "Show time."
Present.
Rarity took out the flash drive and plugged it into the computer, the device activating and digging into the main server. The file came up and Rarity hit it, causing a download window to appear. The process was slow, Rarity waiting with both impatience and fear.
If someone came in, Rarity would have no way to explain why she was there. Being in this area of the building wasn't unusual for her, but being in a computer lab would certain stick up some red flags.
But eventually, the download was complete. "Alright," she took out the flash drive and switched the computer off. "Hopefully, Micro will have everything he needs."
Micro waited patiently in his lab, hoping Rarity hadn't run into any trouble.
The idea of sending her into a dangerous situation was one thing. But sending her into it whilst pregnant, made him hate himself more then he already did for all the stuff he had done over the last three months.
A beeping sound then came from his tablet, making him grab it and smile seeing Rarity had uploaded the virus. "Perfect." He now had full access to all the building's computer systems. He quickly got to work, using the security system to look at all the underground labs had hadn't been allowed to access.
He frowned when he saw the cells, which held all Mirage's prisoners and the other Rangers. "Hang on guys. I'll get you out of there. However, when he tried to find the controls for the cells he was stopped by a pass code requirement. "Great," he moaned, "I'll have to find out what it is first. Alright, what else do we have." He flipped through the cameras and stopped when he found himself looking at a feed showing Mirage, Shock Trooper and the other fake Rangers.
They were in a lab and Mirage pulled a leaver, causing a machine to activate. Shock, armed to the teeth with weapons, began to march forward and Micro frowned when he disappeared into the portal that had been created. The fake Rangers and Peacekeepers followed suit, Mirage deactivating the machine once they were gone.
"What are you up too?" It was clear Mirage was planning something and unless Micro found a way to free the others, things were gonna get problematic.
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Well this was interesting. Nice to see the Rangers finally reunited with Starswirl and Drago, and we learned what happened three months ago. I knew the two of them couldn’t have been dead, but nice that now the others know for themselves too.
I have to admit, Micro's plan to free Rarity and have her pretend to be brainwashed so she could upload a malware unnoticed was pure genius. Now, not only can he work on saving the rest of his friends, maybe he can also use this on the rest of the Mane 6 and Cadance to remind them of everything too and get some extra help.
I gotta say though, Shock's reason for turning on Flash is absolutely disgusting. Doing all this to try to steal Twilight from Flash, and have Mirage use his powers to make Twilight fall in love with him. This guy is going to deserve whatever fate he gets by the end of this.
WHAT?! I'm sorry, but WHATTT??!!!! That's what the whole betrayal was about? You wanted to steal another man's wife and child? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!
Oh, oh, and you do? You think you deserve her more because your life isn't as seemingly charmed as Flash's is? That is not love; that is entitlement. It never once crossed your mind that she was actually happy with the life she was sharing with Flash? Not once? You don't even care that you just broke her heart! If you really did love her, you'd feel terrible about that, but no! Her sadness and loss is just a small side effect for you to wait out and for her to get over. You make me sick!
Hopefully, Micro working against Mirage from the inside gives the other Rangers the leg up they need. Gosh, the sooner the Rangers beat this guy and get their lives back, the better.