Sam had never been good at limbo, but he had enough intuition to throw his upper body back as a fist flew over head. Ten steps away, Bridge was attacking one of three monsters on the ground level. Another was laying on the ground trying not to be noticed by Sunstrike as her blades cut into the third monster. The final monster stood as tall as the Ranger's base and was enjoying cutting into it with a large sword. Blackstone was attempting to get a response from the base with no luck.

The Omega Ranger defeated the last robot and turned to the other Rangers. "We need to do something," he called running up to Blackstone as the Ranger fettled with a computer device. "It's going to destroy the base."

The dark Ranger replied, "I am well aware of that and am working on a solution. Please do something else away from me."

Sam immediately felt thankful that he had not been allow to attend the training with the others. Turning back to Bridge, the Omega Ranger joined in his fight against one of their foes. The noise of their base powering up distracted him. "Fend it off!" Bridge demanded of Sam pointing up to the gigantic monster.

Switching to glow form, he zoomed into the eyes of the monster forcing it to stumble and swat at the annoying bug. Blackstone ran up to Bridge just in time to land a good kick to the grounded monster's leg. "I've only been able to restore partial power," the darker said evenly. "And from here, that's all I can do. Your team better be a good as they think they are."

Inside the base, Sydney and Sky moved as quickly as they could the second partial power was available. Sky felt the need to complete his mission, but the greater need was to get the Zords up and running. They had not done a good job of freeing civilians and he had a feeling many would not return to the base after today.

"Sydney," Sky called out. "You need to divert some of the power to the zord bay. Enough to get the doors open. There will be power generators in the bay we can use to power the zords, but we need to get the doors open."

Sydney went through the systems in front of her until finally she found something useful. "How about all the doors?" she asked.

Sky stopped typing at the computer station he was at long enough to turn to face her in the black swivel chair. "Every door in the base?" he asked.

"Exactly," she confirmed. "That's the best I can do. The emergency procedures don't allow for much else."

"Remind me to log a formal complaint," Sky said very seriously while turning back to the station. "Do it, Syd."

The Pink Ranger nodded at him and started the task of forcing every door in the base to open. There was going to be panic, but if the people in the base stuck to their training, everything would be fine. "It's done," she announced.

"I'll be finished in a moment," Sky informed her. "Get to the Zord bay. Tell anyone you see to stay calm. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Syd wanted to object, but she knew this was the best way. If she could get power to the zords, they could form the Megazord and the Rangers would stand a chance. Running out of the room, she was a little distracted by the open doors. Running down the hall, she shouted for the people to remember their training and stay calm. By the time she reached the zord bay, twenty men and women were already working on bringing the zords to power.

"Pink Ranger!" one man called out near her zord. "We're ready for you. Where is the rest of your team?"

While Syd tried inot/i to tell them they were all about to die, Z and Jack were still attempting to shut off the self destruct. "This is poorly designed," Z stated again.

"Intentionally," Jack reminded her.

"Ok, we're having no luck," Z said frustratedly. "What else can shut down this system?"

Jack thought about it for a second. "Honestly, I have no idea," he said truthfully. "The only reason I even know about it was Sky and I were forced to go through a class. This was about the only thing I remember. I was hoping once I got down here, the rest would come to me."

"Wait," Z said alarmed. "You don't know how to deactivate the self destruct?" Jack wouldn't look at her. "Why didn't you send Sky!?"

"He didn't remember either," Jack told her. "The whole idea was so far fetched. No one thought this was actually going to happen."

Z glared at him and stated loudly, "Well, someone did."

Before Jack could retort, the doors to the room opened. "What happened?" asked Jack as Z stood and stepped out into the hall.

"All the doors on this level are open," Z stated. "Do you think it was Sky?"

"Must have been," agreed Jack. "We need to hurry. It's starting to warm up."

Outside the base, the Pink Ranger's zord had joined in the fight. Bridge abandoned the ground battle to claim his zord while Sunstrike and Blackstone kept the monsters occupied. "Bridge," Sydney exclaimed through their helmet communication system. "What is going on?"

"Syd," Bridge shouted back. "Focus!"

"Right," Syd said refocusing. She wished the others would hurry and join them. They still had a lot of people trapped in the base. The blue zord joined a couple minutes later. "Did you finish?" she asked.

"I diverted all the power I could away from the bomb," he confirmed. "But it's still drawing power. Jack has maybe another ten minutes."

The zord battle was sloppy. The Rangers had so much on their minds that small hits were becoming gaping holes in the armor. Sunstrike send her last opponent flying twenty feet. A fireball went up when he fit the ground. "What are they doing?" she demanded watching the team.

"I don't know," Blackstone stated disappointed. "But I think I'm done here. After this battle, I'm returning to Eltare."

Suntrike frowned at him. "Why? I still need your help," she said. "And they really need our help."

Blackstone thought about her words, but found himself shaking his head in disagreement. "If they survive this, they won't need us." He was confident in his words. This was a far greater test than anything they could have thought up.

His sister glared at him. "You're ignoring the obvious," she told him. "This isn't over. More monsters are on the way. We did this. We need to fix it."

"How?" demanded Blackstone. "How do we fix this?! You're transmitting a signal that's screaming to the universe 'come attack Earth!' and now, there is going to be another one somewhere else."

An explosion called them to duck and regroup. The pink zord was on its side and blue zord was in front of it defending it. Before another hit could be made, the Red and Yellow zords came from no where and pushed the monster back. Within a minute, they formed the Megazord and preceded to defeate their foe.

The team regrouped just outside the doors of the base. Shuttles were arriving to take their people back into the city. The base had to remain where it was until it was repaired. "You did it," Sky exclaimed happily to Jack.

Both had the helmets removed and were wearing a worn smile. "Actually, it was thanks to you," Jack stated. "I couldn't get the self destruct to shut down, but since you got the doors open, Commander Cruger got down to us. He saved the day. Not me."

"Nice work, Syd," Sky said pulling her into a hug when she got close enough. She took off her helmet when he released her enough.

"Just doing my job," she stated.

The Rangers laughed as the last three removed this headpieces. "We were lucky," Bridge stated. "It was close."

"Agreed," Jack said. "First priority, Bridge, is for you to turn off that emergency procedure. We can rewrite new ones, but nothing that happened today made any sense."

The Rangers all started talking to each other, happy to be alive. All but Sam. "You ok?" Bridge asked him getting closer.

"No," he stated folding his arms over his chest. "I know who is behind the attacks."

Bridge couldn't hide his panic fast enough. "Who?" he asked gaining so control.

"Them," Sam pointed as Sunstrike and Blackstone walked up.

Jack held out his hand to the man, not having heard Sam. "Thank you for being nearby. Earth would have been lost if not for you," the Red Ranger stated.

"Happy to help," Blackstone returned without making a move to touch the outstretched hand.

"Ha," Sam said. Sky glanced at him, but Bridge pulled him away. "What is wrong with you?"

"Give them a minute to explain," Bridge begged.

"Why?" asked Sam.

"Cause this isn't what you think it is," Bridge told him.

"Wait, you know why this happened?" asked Sam surprised, and then angry.

"Bridge," Sky called. "Sam, we're heading into the city to get some food before we work on repairs. Are you in?"

Sam moved to say something, but Bridge grabbed his shoulder to silence him. "No, we need to start work immediately."

"Ok if you're sure. Suntrike and Blackstone were going to stay too," Sky told them before turning back to the others.

Sam's moments were upset, but Bridge said, "I promise, we'll explain everything." Sam gave in as the Rangers boarded the shuttle. The two members of the Elite Four walked up to the boys.

"Rangers," Suntrike acknowledged them with a nod.

Sam couldn't take it any longer. "Cut the crap," he said. "I heard you talking about the transmission. What is going on here?"

"Power down," Blackstone called out, relieving a man with long, dark hair wearing a black, leather-type armor with a long flowing cape. Sunstrike followed suit. Her blond hair was pinned up and her white clothes had threads of gold layered in. "Bridge, why don't you introduce us."

Bridge was taken back. Never once had he introduced the real Elite Four to anyone. Moving to be in the middle between the omega ranger and duo, he stated as best he could, "Sam, meet Blade and Cinnamon, my brother and sister."

TBC