Author's Notes: I hit a bit of a snag with this story which caused me to write down the outline for it in its' entirety. Hopefully, that'll keep me on track but if it ever takes too long between updates, send me a message yelling at me. Seriously. I deserve it. And now we get to the fun part. I'd like to remind everyone that this is an AU which means that timelines, characters, words & general plot has been changed to suit the story. All will be explained in due time, my friends.

DISCLAIMER: ME NO OWN POWER RANGERS.

Chapter Seven:

Alpha hovered over Tommy's battered form, running the scanner over and over the still young man. His face was a mottled blue of bruises, one eye was completely swollen shut and an angry red with bright red cuts underneath from the cracked helmet. Alpha ran his machine over, watching worriedly as the machine knit the skin back together until all that was left was a red line. The boy's left hand was lying down on the bed with its own private down surrounding it with healing energies, bathing it in a warm golden glow from the machine. Every inch of the body had been bruised and battered with little cuts that had to be individually cleaned. Alpha kept glancing up to see if was causing his young friend any harm but Tommy's face was still tense even within sleep.

"ALPHA. HOW IS HE?" Zordon's voice boomed through the silent cabin.

"His energy levels are low, his breathing laboured even after I repaired the damage to his throat. His ribs are bruised only and his left hand was broken. He will make a full recovery. But Zordon…his power coin is completely destroyed. The contact between the Power Coin and the Ranger is missing and its' causing some damage to the boy's natural healing abilities," Alpha said, turning toward his friend and leader with a nervous twitter.

"I AM AWARE, ALPHA," Zordon said, sadly.

"And Goldar's still out there, wreaking destruction on Angel Grove and there are no Rangers to stop him. Tommy can't go out there even if he could morph! Ayiyiyiyi Zordon, what are we going to do?"Alpha said in hopeless panic.

"WE MUST DO WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. WE WILL CALL NEW RANGERS TO DEFEND EARTH," Zordon commanded. Tommy twitched in his sleep but otherwise didn't move anymore.

"But how Zordon? All the Power Coins were destroyed when the Rangers confronted Zedd the last time! We only have the Pterodactyl and Triceratops coins left and those are severely damaged and losing power fast without the grid to keep them energized!" Alpha wondered, throwing his mechanic hands into the air.

"WE MUST UNLOCK THE ULTIMATE POWER, ALPHA; IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE THE EARTH. CAN YOU USE THE PYRAMIND TO CREATE NEW POWER COINS?" Zordon asked, looking down at Alpha.

"Yes," Alpha nodded. "But Zordon, it'll take a lot of time. What do we do until then?"

"CREATE THE COINS AND MORPHERS, ALPHA. I MUST CALL THE NEW RANGERS TO THEIR DESTINY."

"Ayiyiyiyi, Zordon," Alpha said, moving over to his station with the pyramid clasped tightly in his mechanical hand. In the background, the carnage Goldar was wreaking was playing on the viewing globe as the Elder from Eltar gazed upon with impassive eyes.

Kim's hair whipped around her face as she crouched down behind the rubble of what used to be her favourite shoe store on Holly Ave. Instead, there were screams and bodies littering the ground along with the cracked and scuffed shoes that had been on display. Outside, fire and electricity crashed as the alien known as Goldar and one of Rita's monsters called Claymen wreaked destruction. Kim coughed, clearing the dirt and smoke out of her lungs as she tried to see through the dust for Trini. Her friend had turned away just for a second when the explosion hit.

"Trini!" Kim shouted, breaking into fits of coughing as she shakily got to her feet. Her knees were scratched and bleeding from when she had fallen, her hands stinging with scrapes from when she tried to catch herself from face planting into the ground.

"Kim!" A voice shouted, coughing hoarsely. Kim ran, tripping on the stones and rubble as she followed the voice. It lead her behind the glass cabinet and the shards crunched under her running shoes. Trini was huddled behind the remains of the counter, a little girl in blue overalls shielded by her arms, a gash on the little girl's freckled forehead. Trini's eyes were clear when she looked up at Kim's approach and Kim let out a inward sigh of relief that her friend was unhurt.

"Are you okay?" Trini asked before Kim could. Kim nodded, crouching down.

"Yeah. Is she alright?" Kim asked, gesturing to the little girl who stared up at her with unfocused and frightened eyes.

"Its okay, Melanie. This is my friend, Kim." Trini said in a soothing voice.

"Nice to meet you, Melanie," Kim said softly giving the girl a kind smile.

"Hi," Melanie said quietly, burying her face in Trini's shoulder shyly.

"Kim and I are going to help you up and then we'll take you to get your head looked at," Trini told the little girl who shook her head.

"I want my daddy," she said, tears in her voice.

"I know, sweetie," Trini shushed her gently. "But first we need to get you to a doctor okay? They'll fix up your cut and your daddy will be so proud that you were so brave with the doctor, yeah?"

"Your daddy will go straight to the doctors when he can't find you. So if you're there then it'll be easy for him to come get you, alright?" Kim put in.

"…Okay," Melanie said a bit hesitantly but she allowed Kim to pick her up for Trini to stand up, stretching out sore and aching limbs. Once Melanie was settled on Trini's hip, chubby arms wrapped around her neck as the child's face remained buried in her shoulder, the group started off, slipping through the open doorway and carefully over glass. Kim checked to see if there were any survivors but the shop was empty and she could hear the sound of the ambulance. 'Although that could be the ringing in my ears' Kim thought wryly.

The street was cracked and ruined, whole sections rose up from the ground while others were dug so far deep it was like a giant stepped on it to make the indent needed. The stores were either on fire or smoldering, smoke in the air along with the far off screams and pained groans as people ran, some broken and bleeding but all terrified. She spotted a familiar red tank top pulling a young woman out of a smoldering convertible; it's front end crushed into the side of another van, although the doors were open as if the passengers were in a haste to get out.

"Jason!" Kim called in panicked relief. Jason's head popped up, dirty with soot and hair sticking up oddly but otherwise okay. His jeans were torn at the knees and red whether by blood or scrape, Kim couldn't tell. But he was walking on his own and helping the young woman to her feet, supporting her with a strong arm around her waist.

"Are you guys alright?" Jason asked anxiously, looking over them both.

Kim nodded, "yeah we're okay. Is she alright?"

"She's out of it. I think she hit her head when she crashed. What about the little girl?" Jason asked, gesturing to the child in Trini's arms.

"Her name's Melanie. We found her in the shop. Do you know where the ambulances are?" Trini explained, holding the girl tighter in reassurance as Melanie let out a pained whimper. Kim brushed the little girl's hair gently to calm her down.

"Staying outside of the war zone. One came in and got blasted, that's it there," Jason said tersely, pointing to the charred heap that used to be Angel Grove's paramedics. "Anyone who could move already left, helping some of those who couldn't. But nobody's paying much attention to those trapped."

Kim covered her mouth in horror. She could see why Jason was upset. Everyone was just leaving each other to live or die. It was horrible.

"We'll have to take them ourselves. Have you seen Zack or Billy?" Trini asked, worriedly.

"No," Jason shook his head. "They were in Sports Universe. I don't know if they got out beforehand, or if they're still there. We were supposed to meet up at Francisco's for pizza but-"

"We'll find them," Kim assured him, placing a hand on his arm and squeezing it. "Sports Universe is on our way out of downtown. They didn't go near the highway and so they probably went towards the paramedics, just in case."

"Yeah," Jason said, sounding confident even though his eyes were still worried. "Let's go."

"Right," Trini nodded. The group picked their way through the ruins of their town. They encountered a few other people but nobody stopped to talk.

"You need to look at my friend! He's bleeding! I mean, the ceiling practically fell on his head!" A voice shouted as they grew nearer. Kim could make out the red tents and white vans of the ambulances. People were on stretchers, most of them rolled away through the wailing as the paramedics rushed those in most need to the hospital. It was on one of the benches that Kim spotted Zack gesturing wildly to Billy who was holding a white handkerchief to his forehead while the paramedics dealt with more serious cases.

"He could be dying! Bleeding inside his brain for all you know!" Zack shouted again, a bit dramatically in Kim's opinion. Billy seemed to try to calm the frantic boy by tugging on his sleeve but Zack ignored him, grabbing onto a passing paramedic who looked a bit frazzled.

"He's bleeding in his brain! There's blood coming out of his ears! Look!" Zack gesticulated at Billy who was turning pink in embarrassment. The paramedic just looked a bit resigned.

"Zack, I highly doubt that there is internal bleeding in my head as you seem to think. There are no swollen or inflamed areas along my skull, from what I can determine. The ceiling did fall, yes but it was prevented from striking me by the metal shelves that housed the equipment for soccer. The cut on my brow is simply a slash and no cause for any serious concern. I feel no pain anywhere but a slight headache. Really your worry is unfounded and beginning to distress me. Perhaps, it is you who are suffering from a serious head wound and should be looked over by the paramedic since you clearly cannot hear me tell you that 'I. Am. Fine.'" Billy said, beginning to lose patience. The paramedic just glanced between the two boys a bit helplessly.

"How should I know what he said? I don't speak Billy and his translator's missing!" Zack said to the paramedic.

"Zack, shut up." Jason said tiredly with the gruff fondness that only he seemed to perfect.

"Jase! Guys!" Zack said with a wide smile as he noticed his friends.

"Billy, are you alright?" Trini asked.

Billy nodded, "affirmative. Although I could do with a little less people worrying about my miniscule cut."

"He said he just has a bit of a headache," Trini told the paramedic.

"The cut's really small. Doesn't even need stitches," the paramedic said, dabbing at the cut with the clean side of the handkerchief. "Can't even really put a bandage on it."

"Glad he's okay but we got two more for you to look at," Jason said, gesturing to the girl sagging in his hold. The paramedic rushed over, barking out orders as Jason laid the woman on the stretcher. She was taken into the back of a waiting ambulance, the paramedic assuring them that the woman would be taken care of.

"We need to find Melanie's dad," Trini said to the others, still holding the child in her arms. The girl gave a little sniffle but didn't lift her head from where it was buried in Trini's neck.

"What happened?" A tired looking paramedic came over to ask Trini, gesturing to the little girl.

"She hit her head on the ground when the store collapsed. Her name's Melanie," Trini explained.

"Melanie?" The paramedic asked with a smile. "There's someone who's been looking for you. Can I look you over to make sure your head's okay?"

Melanie blinked up at her with unfocused eyes and said, "Will you take me to my daddy? I want my daddy."

"Sure, I'll take you to your daddy but I need to check your head first, okay?" The paramedic said. Melanie gave a shallow nod and let the gloved hands probe the cut on her forehead. The woman taped a piece of gauze over the wound after cleaning it with antiseptic and then shined a light, tracking Melanie's eye movement. Finally, Trini carried Melanie over to the back of an ambulance where an older man with grey hair sat huddled underneath a blanket; staring down at his dirty shoes as a another EMT spoke softly to him. His head rose and his eyes widened, face breaking out into a relieved smile that pulled at the stitches on his face as he took in the sight of the little girl. He ran over, arms lifting her out of Trini's and into his own, whispering her name over and over again.

"DADDY!" Melanie cried in happiness, tears falling down her chubby cheeks. He rocked her gently in his arms, tears of relief pouring down his own face.

"Melanie, oh baby, you're okay. Melanie," the man cried into his daughter's hair. Trini felt her smile grow as she watched the touching reunion.

"Is she alright? Is she okay?" The man asked, turning to the EMT and Trini. The woman nodded.

"She's got a concussion and she'll need stitches but the wound didn't bleed as much as it should've. She needs to go to the hospital and we've got an ambulance waiting to take you both to Angel Grove General." The EMT gestured to the waiting ambulance. The father nodded, kissing the top of his daughter's head and turning to Trini.

"You found her? You took care of her?" He asked.

Trini nodded, "I promised that we'd bring her back to you. She was really brave. I'm Trini."

"Thank you. Thank you, Trini, for looking after my daughter," the father said effusively.

"You're welcome," Trini smiled. He gave her a grateful hug with one arm before following the EMT into the back of the ambulance. Trini waited until the doors closed before moving back over to her friends.

"This is crazy," Zack said, glancing around at all the injured people, the smell of dust and blood was thick in the air along with the screams and cries of the wounded and grief-stricken pleas by those still missing loved ones.

"I know. Does anyone know which monster attacked downtown?" Kim asked, glancing around.

"I only caught a glimpse of it," Jason admitted. "It looked like a giant bomb. It wasn't even that big but I remember it getting really hot and hard to breathe, like all the air had been sucked out of the room and then kaboom!"

"I think I saw something, too," Trini said.

"That means there's more than one," Kim whispered in shock.

"Where the hell is the White Ranger?" Zack demanded angrily. "He's supposed to deal with the monsters. He's supposed to save people and instead he just lets the monsters run wild!"

"Zack, man," Jason said, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder in sympathy and to calm him. "I'm sure the White Ranger's doing the best he can."

"It's not enough," Zack muttered darkly, turning his head away.

"I hate feeling helpless," Trini said quietly, frustration leaking into her voice. Jason nodded his own agreement.

"Does anyone else feel that? It's like tingling, like my whole body's fallen asleep." Kim asked, looking down at her hands. Her friends glanced at her, watching in shock as her body was enveloped in bright pink energy. One second she was there and the next she was gone. Jason reached out in horror, hands grasping at Kim and he got the sensation of his stomach jumping into his throat, trying to warn the others before he too was gone. It was only a split-second and in the chaos of the medical area, no one noticed the five teens disappearing in a flash of coloured lights.