Chapter One: The Oncoming Storm

The sky burned red and the oceans boiled. The invasion was fast and brutal, devastating the planet and leaving the civilians panicked and hopeless as their world collapsed around them.

Billy Cranston looked past the panicked mob around him and towards the massive warship. His hands pulled tightly into fists.

Aquatar, a place that had become his home, was burning to ash.

Billy looked towards his assistant, a young Aquitian female with a bald head and purple eyes.

"The morphers are ready," he breathed softly.

"That's great!" She exclaimed. "We need to get them to Earth immediately. Tommy Oliver already has the candidates ready."

"I'm sorry Thetis," Billy said. "But you're going alone."

He looked down at his Power Morpher and felt a shiver creep down his spine.

Her frontal cartilage turned a dark violent. "What are you saying? You have to come with me! The Galactic Alliance needs you." She grabbed hold of his hand desperately. "Nobody knows the morphing grid like you do."

Billy shook her hand away. "I've taught you everything I could. It'll be up to you to see the rest of the project through."

The Aquitian looked up at her mentor with a shocked and quickly saddening expression. Billy just smiled as he reached into his coat pocket and turned to Thetis. "These are Hagonni flower seeds," he explained. "When you get to Earth I have a special place I want you to plant them." He placed the cloth bag into her hand. "Any of my old friends will know where."

Thetis nodded numbly, then just stared at Billy for several seconds.

"Go to the ship," Billy said coldly. "You've gotta get off-world while there's still time." His grip on the morpher tightened. "But for me... It's Morphin Time…"

In a flash, the Blue Ranger appeared and charged towards the army.

Reese hit the ground running. His rubber soles smacked the rooftop as he continued the chase.

The other man in the red hoodie looked back for a brief moment before pumping his legs even harder and jumping off the rooftop onto the next.

"It's always hard to get," Reese said with a smirk and followed suit. He lunged forward, clearing the six-foot gap between the buildings easily before meeting his target where he stood trapped on the last building.

Reese took a second to savor the moment before pulling his fist back and throwing it at the man.

The man dodged the punch and kicked Reese in the ribs, causing him to buckle to the ground.

"Gotta try harder than that," the man in the hoodie said with a smile.

Then in a puff of smoke, a girl with long brown hair appeared behind the man in the hoodie and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Got you," she said with a triumphant expression.

"That's no fair Camryn," Reese muttered from the ground. "You used your ninja skills."

The man in the hoodie laughed. "Never said that wasn't allowed."

"You're just mad you couldn't catch him," Camryn said and wrapped her arm around the man.

"I would've had him if he hadn't bruised my ribs," Reese groaned.

"Hey don't stress it," The man said. "You'll be good as new in a few days."

"You say that now," a voice echoed around the three.

Reese quickly stood up and regrouped with the others, ignoring the pain in his side as the figure materialized in a bolt of red lightning.

"But you won't be very good when I'm done with you!" Lord Zedd howled as a posse of putty patrollers appeared alongside him.

"You guys take those dancing freaks," the man in the red hoodie said as he turned away from the strange stony automations. "I'll get Zedd."

"Right," Camryn said and sprang into action. Performing a combo of kicks and punches that seemed relatively effective against the warbling masses

Reese joined her, ducking under a swinging hand before landing his fist under its chin, uppercutting it backward.

Meanwhile, the man in red dodged Zedd's lightning and spin kicked the warlord back.

Zed growled in frustration and swung his Z-Staff like a battle-ax. But the man jumped back as his body began to glow in a halo of crimson energy.

He lunged forward and punched Lord Zedd in the face. The warlord stumbled backward and as his foot met empty air and he began to tumble backward.

Lord Zedd merely laughed and used the opportunity to grab the man by the arm, attempting to use the leverage to toss them both off the building.

"Ace!" Reese exclaimed and rushed to the man's aid.

But a stray Putty used the opportunity to knock him upside the head and send Reese back to the ground.

"You idiot!" Camryn exclaimed before all the remaining putties surged towards her.

Reese watched helplessly as Ace and Zedd fell from the roof, and Camryn was swallowed by the mass of twitching bodies.

"Alright, that's enough." The voice boomed and everything was enveloped in light.

The world melted away, leaving the three sprawled out on the ground.

Tommy Oliver sighed. "Everybody rest up, we'll try it again tomorrow."

Ace dusted himself off. "I'm sorry sir, I should've been stronger."

"Strength had nothing to do with it," Tommy said. "That Simudeck projection of Zedd was barely even a tenth of his real strength. The test was to see how well the three of you could work together."

"Then why did you tell the others to chase me?"

"Because you're the best," Tommy said plainly. "But the objective wasn't to become their opponent, it was to become their teacher."

Tommy then turned around and walked away.

"That was a little harsh," Reese said as he stepped up to Ace.

"Doesn't mean he's wrong," Ace muttered with a frown.

"Oh relax," Camryn said. "He's probably just grumpy about something else. You remember how he got when I asked him about Commander Hillard."

"Dude he made us run like six miles," Ace said with a slight grin.

"See?" Camryn asked. "Don't sweat it. Just come chill at Ernie's with us for a bit."

"Okay," Ace said. Then he looked at Reese and smiled. "Sure."

The Ernie's Brain Freeze and Juice Bar of Angel Grove was the largest in the nation. It had started as a simple juice bar and youth center and before evolving into a staple of nearly every suburban town.

Ace had loved it there ever since his first time as seeing it as a kid. Back then his brother and him practically lived there. Even when their foster parents changed the Juice Bar had remained a sort of home for them, a place where they could belong.

Because of that, it remained a pivotal part of his daily routine and after he'd been acquainted with Camryn and Reese it had become their go-to spot as well.

"I don't know," Reese said as he took a sip of his veggie blend juice. "I just feel like Tommy was being rough on you."

"I don't know," Ace lied, "I just don't see it."

He took a sip of his pomegranate drink and swallowed the rising guilt. In truth, he knew that Tommy had been singling him out since the very beginning. Since before the training, since even before the recruitment. Tommy had been there, watching Ace from a distance.

And it took him years to figure out why…

"One day the world will be in danger again," Tommy had explained to Ace the night that he showed up to Ace's apartment. "We need to be ready."

That was the day he asked Ace to join Hexagon.

To save the world…

"How did I know I'd find you here?" Gia Moran asked as she sat down at their table.

"I don't know," Camryn said with a smirk. "Maybe you're psychic."

"I am and you should be ashamed," Gia said with a wink.

Camryn chuckled as her face flushed red. It was an unstated fact that Camryn had a crush on the former Ranger. When Gia had been chosen to be their unofficial ambassador/mentor Reese and Ace had joked endlessly about Camryn's sudden luck.

Even Gia decided to playfully lean into the teasing. Partially, Ace figured, because she was trying to get in with their group, and partially because she enjoyed the attention.

"I heard Tommy was kinda rough this morning," Gia said.

"Who told you that?" Ace asked.

"Camryn's Twitter."

"Dude, what we're doing is beyond top secret," Ace said.

"Dude joining Hexagon has revolutionized my social media presence," Camryn plied. "Plus I know nobody cares because Wes likes all my tweets."

Gia's phone buzzed and she frowned as she checked the notification. "I'd get your next round of drinks to go," Gia said darkly. "Tommy said we're having an emergency meeting in an hour."

The rather large conference room felt weirdly claustrophobic as everyone crowded around Tommy Oliver and his assistant Hayley Ziktor.

"So here's everything we know," Tommy said after a heavy sigh. "Aquatar was invaded by a still unknown force. The entire planet was lost and the few that managed to survive went to KO-35 for the time being."

Disbelief and fear covered the faces of everyone in the meeting. There hadn't been anything more than a few pirate rings to disband since the Armada fell a decade ago.

Everyone had secretly fallen into the belief that the war was finally over, and true peace was on the horizon.

And in mere moments that illusion was shattered, leaving the crew silent.

Justin Stwart, Hayley Ziktor's apprentice, was the first to speak up after Tommy dropped the news.

"Did the morphers make it off the planet though?" He asked.

Tommy nodded, "Billy made sure that they did. Though I'm told he's currently MIA. His assistant is on route to Earth as we speak."

More silence followed Tommy's words.

"Who could've done this though?" Gia asked.

"We don't know," Tommy admitted. Then the center of the table began to project shaky footage of the ship as it appeared over the sky of Aquatar.

"Hey, I know that ship!" A voice that virtually none of them expected to hear, say those words spoke up excitedly. All eyes fell on Camryn as she continued.

"It's a Lairship," she concluded.

"Uhhh excuse me?" Eric Myers asked with a raised eyebrow from the other end of the table.

She sighed, "Like Lothor used?"

Everyone just nodded numbly.

"Let me guess," Camryn said with a frown. "He's not in your system."

"He's in the backlog somewhere," Justin said. "I saw him when I reorganized it."

"Okay whatever," Camryn snapped, "Point is we know that isn't his ship because it got destroyed. But we know that Lairships are mass-produced for bounty hunters and wannabe conquerors."

"So that might mean that we aren't dealing with a larger threat," Justin suggested.

"What kinda bounty hunter has the resources to destroy a planet?" Eric retorted.

"So what you're saying," Gia said before the silence could settle. "Is that we're just as much in the dark as we were before the meeting."

"What I'm saying is that something is coming," Tommy replied. "Ace, Reese, and Camryn. As soon as the ship arrives here from Aquatar you're officially promoted to active status."

"Woah…" Reese muttered with a smile. "I mean… don't get me wrong I know that's not a good thing. But I never really thought it would happen. Or if it did not so soon."

"So what time are they supposed to arrive?" Gia asked.

"A few hours," Tommy replied. "Which is fortunate because it gives us time to prepare for a potential attack on Ear-" Tommy Oliver was then ironically interrupted by a barrage of sirens.

Everyone looked amongst themselves in panic. The alarm had only ever sounded during drills previously.

While everyone else was in a fluster Hayley took charge of the holo-table. Rerouting it to funnel all available information.

"The attack is here," she breathed. "We have clusters of assailants in nearly every wing."

If there was ever a time for people to be thankful that Hexagon employed so many past Rangers it would be that exact moment. Eric Myers, T.J Johnson, Dana Mitchell, Gia Moran, and Justin Stewart all sprang up immediately.

"Those are Krybots," Gia said. "They're Troobian."

"But we're galaxies apart from the nearest Troobian settlement," Justin said.

"Do we really have time to question that?" Tommy asked. "Everyone morph and split up. We don't know what they're after but we need to make sure they don't get it."

The Rangers all filed out, leaving Tommy, Hayley, and a handful of assistants and other employees.

"What about us?" Ace asked with Reese and Camryn beside him.

Tommy sighed, "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this," he said. "But there are one-time use prototype morphers in the south lab. We just have to get there."

"How hard is that gonna be?" Camryn asked.

"There doesn't appear to be any Krybots in between here and there," Hayley observed.

"So we gotta move fast," Ace said. "Got it!"

Tommy led the three out of the Command Chamber and into down the brightly lit hall. The alarms continued as all of the unarmed employees fled to safety.

Meanwhile, the four headed right into the thick of it.

Ace could feel the excitement pumping adrenaline through his blood. He was terrified but he never felt more alive.

The group turned down several more halls that were thankfully empty. Each one bringing them closer to the lab.

But then Hayley's voice came through the coms with a panicked tone.

"I'm detecting a strange energy reading down the hall… but the cameras aren't working."

"We'll be careful," Tommy said darkly as they turned down the next hall.

And met the person standing in their way.

"She doesn't look that tough," Camryn muttered as she sized up the blonde-haired girl who stood alone. She was dressed in a black skin-tight suit with metal armor on top of it.

"I love when people say that about me," the girl said with a smirk. "It makes destroying them that much more satisfying."

"Who are you?" Ace asked. "And how did you get in here?"

"I'm not dumb enough to answer the second question, but I suppose you have a right to know who's going to crush your skulls."

"I'm Galaxia," the girl said as her body began to glow with purple energy. "Servant of Dark Infinus."

Her body then exploded with color, transforming her into something that Ace had seen in enough Ranger textbooks to feel a shiver of panic.

Her armor was nearly identical to a Psycho Ranger, only purple. Her voice took on a synthetic tone as she laughed and drew her weapon, a staff made of twisted black metal.

She pointed the staff and it barfed a violet light that would've vaporized the group had they not jumped away from it.

Tommy rolled into a defensive stance and drew his Master Morpher. "Dino Thunder, Power Up!" In a flash, Tommy became the Black Dino Ranger and raised his Brancho Staff. He charged the villain and she parried his attacks with her staff.

"Go!" He howled.

Camryn and Reese gave him a confused look, but Ace took the cue and charged forward. Thankfully his team followed suit, sneaking past the two armored warriors as they dueled.

"Today can't get any weirder," Reese muttered.

"When you say it like that it sounds like a challenge," Camryn replied as they finally reached the lab.

The trio stepped inside and found it relatively unaffected by the chaos around it. With not even any delicate equipment being harmed.

"Well, whatever they wanted wasn't here," Reese muttered.

"Or they haven't gotten this far yet," Ace replied.

"So what do we do now?" Camryn asked.

It was a fair question, but thankfully Ace had the answer. His eyes scanned the room, looking for the small safe that had been described to him in the past. Ace swallowed the panic that was making it impossible for his eyes to focus. He knew time was quickly dissolving and it was only a matter of moments before something happened.

"We find the morphers and we save Tommy," Ace muttered as he continued searching.

"I wouldn't worry about Tommy," the digitized voice said mockingly as she entered the room.

The three took defensive stances as the purple warrior stalked closer. But thankfully Ace's eyes fell on the inconspicuous metal safe next to one of the work tables. It even had a half-drunken soda resting on top of it as if it were just a small table.

"So uh Dark Infinus," Reese said. "Seems like a pretty interesting guy."

"Dark Infinus single-handedly reunited the Alliance of Evil. He will conquer the entire universe."

Ace realized what Reese was doing and hoped it would work for as long as he needed it to.

"I'm not entirely convinced," Reese said. "I've seen like a dozen warlords from space come to Earth thinking that they're the next Monarch of Evil. Then they get shot down by another team of Rangers."

"Dark Infinus is no petty warlord," the purple psycho wannabe said as her staff began to glow with raw energy.

You're supposed to distract her, Ace's thoughts screamed as he punched the numbers into the safe's pin pad. Not coax her into murdering us faster.

She pointed her glowing weapon at Reese as purple arced from its tip. "All those who refuse to bow to my master will be reduced to ash."

The realization of his actions hit Reese several moments too late. His eyes widened as he stared at the powerful weapon. A preverbal loaded shotgun.

Pointed between his eyes.

But before the enemy could obliterate him in a bright explosion of magical energy, sparks flew from the psycho's back and she fell forward.

Revealing the Yellow Megaforce Ranger with her claw weapon in hand.

"Sorry I'm late," Gia Moran said from under her tiger inspired helmet.

"Better late than never," Reese said.

The victory was short-lived as the warrior quickly recovered from Gia's attack and swung her staff into the Yellow Ranger's chest. Sparks rained from Gia and she fell against the wall as the purple warrior moved in for another attack.

Meanwhile, Ace stuck his hand in the safe and felt his fingers curl around the cold metal. He drew the first morpher and marveled at it. The design was crude and resembled a wirst version of the original Power Morphers. The coins that rested inside were blanks, simple mockups that were designed to disintegrate after a single-use.

Gia was still distracting the purple villain, the two morphed warriors danced around each other, swinging and parrying. So far Gia was holding her at bay, but if Psycho could get past Tommy Ace suspected it the situation wouldn't last.

Ace tossed the morphers to Reese and Camryn who followed suit alongside Ace as they strapped them on.

The enemy jabbed the staff into Gia's chest and unleashed enough raw purple energy to send it arcing across Gia's armor alongside a massive wave of sparks.

Thankfully the three stood together and clasped their left hands over their morphers. "It's Morphin Time!"

The Psycho turned away from the fallen Mega Ranger and uttered a synthetic growl as the world around Ace erupted into a galaxy of crimson light.

It had started with a vortex of energy that erupted from the pseudo coins, turning them to colorful dust as the power wrapped itself around the three Rangers.

For a moment the world ceased to exist around Ace, revealing an endless expanse of darkness.

In the darkness, for only a fractal of a second, Ace saw red eyes pierce the darkness.

And a voice, practically a whisper, said, "Your fate has been sealed."

Then the world returned to Ace and he looked down at his hands. His gloved hands.

During the training process, they had been shown a mock-up of the suits they would potentially use. They were fairly basic, almost entirely their primary color, a shimmering metallic tone that evolved from the metallic armor of the original Power Rangers. Along their right side was a shimmering galaxy design that formed a lighting bolt that extended to the center of their chests. Their helmets had a curved visor and a flat metal mouthpiece. On their belts was a buckle reminiscent of a power morpher, though the morpher sat with an empty hexagon-shaped slot.

The Black Ranger, Reese, raised his twin hatchets, and Camryn as the Blue Ranger armed her staff. Meanwhile Ace drew his two-handed broadsword, holding it close to his chest as he put one foot in front of the other.

"Go!" He commanded his squad and sprang into action.

The power of the grid propelled him forward as he drew his sword back and rapidly approached the enemy. Unfortunately, the Psycho Ranger saw it coming and when Ace swung downward she parried easily with her staff.

"Cute suits," She muttered, "Maybe I'll feel bad about tearing them to pieces." She used the leverage of her staff to throw Ace back then pulled it back in an attempt to stab it through his chest. Thankfully the suit provided him with reflexes sharp enough to turn mid-air and the staff missed him by mere inches.

Unfortunately, the maneuver put him in the perfect position to get swatted out of the air. The staff slapped his chest and knocked the air out of his lungs as he hit the wall and slid next to the Yellow Megaforce Ranger.

But before the purple warrior could take advantage of the Red Ranger's situation a hatchet flew through the air and struck her in the shoulder. She turned towards where the weapon had lodged itself in her armor as the Black and Blue Rangers dashed towards her.

The Psycho Ranger parried the staff with a vertical swing as well, which put her at the perfect angle to shoot a bolt of purple lightning that struck the Black Ranger in the chest. Then while Camryn turned towards the Black Ranger the Psycho Ranger kicked the Blue Ranger back as well.

Meanwhile Ace turned to Gia, who was crawling to her feet.

"We move together," the Yellow Ranger breathed. "I go low you go high."

Ace nodded.

The two Rangers rushed the Psycho. Gia swung her clawed weapon but Galaxia raised her staff in retaliation.

Fortunately, that was what Gia wanted. With the weapon between Gia's metal claws, she twisted the staff out of the villain's hand.

Giving Ace the perfect opportunity to jump clear over the enemy's head and land behind her, swinging his sword diagonally across her back.

The Psycho recovered from the attack but quickly realized she was surrounded by the four Rangers.

She scuffed and threw hands forward, ejecting a wave of energy that threw the Rangers away before teleporting away in a bright purple light.

Her desperate attack was strong enough to finally knock the three Rangers from their armor, though Gia's form proved strong enough to withstand the damage.

The three unmorphed Rangers struggled to stand, but the strain on their bodies proved to be too much, and they all fell back to the ground.

"Just stay here," Gia said before leaving to aid the other Rangers elsewhere. "Not that you have much of a choice."

Reese then looked at Ace, sweat pouring down his face. "How did you decide what morphers to hand us?"

Ace just laughed, "I didn't think about it."

Camryn laughed back, "At least I look good in blue."

It didn't take much longer for the other Rangers to defeat the Krybots, and they even managed it with little damage being done to the base.

Still, everyone was tired and shaken. Especially Tommy who had underestimated Galaxia and paid the price.

"We're still trying to figure out how they got here," Hayley explained. "But those Krybots had to have been previously planted here."

"How?" Gia asked. "Security is airtight."

"Smells like a rat," Eric replied dryly.

"Nevertheless," Tommy continued. "Thankfully we were able to stop them."

"While I agree," T.J said. "We still don't know who attacked or even why."

"Isn't it obvious?" Tommy asked. "They were trying to destabilize us before their ship arrived."

"That… doesn't sound right to me," Gia said with a frown. "I mean don't get me wrong, we have every reason to assume whoever attacked us was working with whoever attacked Aquatar. But something about the attack just seemed off. Why would a force with enough power to devastate Aquatar plan such a guerilla attack?"

"And stranger still, the reports from the ship on route from Aquatar said that they don't believe the Lairship has even left Aquatar," Hayley said.

"Uh, hey guys," Justin said. "Not to interrupt the banter but our satellites are picking up an energy signature and it's… uh…. Big."

Hayley instantly sprang into action and tapped a few keys to project the satellite feed onto the holo-table.

The room became seemingly electrified as the projection materialized in front of their eyes. A massive circular structure that everyone in the room instantly recognized.

"How'd we miss that thing coming?" Gia asked.

"It must've teleported in while we were fighting the Krybots," Justin said darkly.

For several tense moments nobody spoke, instead, they all gawked with horrified eyes as they watched the Dark Fortress loom over the planet.

Author's Notes:

So here we are, the first chapter of this story. If anyone is following my other stories I want to clarify that this is in a continuity of its own. This has been a story I've been wanting to write for YEARS. I think every PR fanfiction writer at least flirts with the idea of a Hexagon inspired story. This combines that with various other ideas that have been floating around my head. I don't have the most experience designing suits so I just collected elements from other suits I like and I tried to organically blend them together. My biggest inspiration was the Solar Ranger suits, the metallic color was inspired by the Max Ryusoul Red while the lightning bolt integration was inspired by the Hyperforce Ranger designs. I chose a design without a particular motif for a reason that'll make more sense next chapter (hint hint).

What are some Rangers you'd like to see cameo in this series? Your responses might influence where the Rangers go :)

-Shadowhenshin