Darkest Hour

*One fateful day, the evil sorceress Rita Repulsa escaped her Space Dumpster prison and attacked Earth.*

*Five teenagers with attitude had their lives changed forever when Zordon chose them to defend the planet.*

*In the decades since, many more heroes have continued their legacy.*

*The people of Earth rest easy, knowing their home is protected by the Power Rangers.*

Billy winced in pain, his body rolling to a stop. The grass had softened his fall but even then, everything hurt. It had been years since he had been in a fight. He tightened his fists and looked up, his eyes narrowing at his attackers as he wiped the blood from his cracked lips.

"Any last words?" Rita cackled as he forced himself up from the ground and glared at the resurrected sorceress. Her robotic face made her look like a demon incarnate, exposing the insanity her former human body had thinly veiled.

"It's Morphin Time! Triceratops!" A rush of grid energies reinvigorated him as he embraced the familiar blue armor.

He took up as a fighting stance, daring any of the putties to come forward.

"Putties, grid him into blue dust!" Rita drawled, pointing her staff at him and the clay golems left her side to charge at him.

He met them head fast, taking them out with punches and kicks. Same as the last time he fought them, nearly thirty years ago. He dodged a putty's swinging punches, putting the minion in an arm lock and using them as a shield for other attacks,

What he didn't expect was Rita to enter the battle. He leaned back just in time to avoid getting his head slammed by her staff, only for a putty to kick him in the chest sending him staggering back. Before he could recuperate, a putty punched him in the face hard and he spun in mid air before crashing on the ground.

He heaved a sigh, struggling to his feet just as Rita let loose a volley of crimson energy that sent him crashing backwards once again.

"Why did you lead me here?" Rita asked, her screeching voice pestering him more than the flaring pain. "Was it your grand plan just to die outside in the fresh sea breeze?"

Just then, six teleportation beams slammed in between the witch and the ranger, the light subsiding to reveal the red, yellow, black, saffron, green, and pink mighty morphin rangers.

"Oh, you brought friends?" Rita drawled. "Now, it is a reunion!"

"Rita!" Tommy snarled, the dragon dagger appearing in his hand.

Zack and Kim rushed to Billy, helping him up to his feet.

"Got your distress call and zipped here as fast as we could." Zack told him.

"Thanks, guys." He said gratefully.

"Man, that's Rita?" Zack said. "The robot look's not for her."

"She'll look better on a junk heap." Kim quipped, folding her arms.

"Why, you miserable brats!" Rita's eyes flashed red as she raised her staff. "Destroy them all!"

The putties charged at them as the rangers leapt into action, all seven running at the nefarious witch and her cronies even as the ground behind them was consumed in a huge explosion thanks to Rita's blasts.

Trini flipped backwards, dodging the putties' attacks with unparalleled grace before taking them down with precise attacks.

Kim blocked a putty's punch before flipping backwards and tearing through the encroaching golems with a flurry of kicks.

Zack punched his way through a horde of putties, using the brute strength of the mastodon to augment his attacks.

Jason found himself surrounded by putties on all sides. He blocked the incoming punches and kicks, before retaliating with his own.

Nancy, Billy and Tommy found themselves facing the diabolical witch herself.

"My, my… Tommy, how you have grown!" Rita taunted as the green ranger lunged at her with his dagger, which she blocked with her staff. Sparks flew as Tommy pushed her back before slashing her diagonally.

Nancy followed, jumping over Tommy's shoulders, and striking the sorceress with her whip.

"Enough!" Rita yelled, slamming her staff to the ground and letting loose a wave of power that threw Nancy and Tommy back, forcing them out of their armour and the putties surrounded them.

Billy yelled, charging in. Rita blocked his punches with her staff before she tried to knock him off his feet by striking at his legs. The blue ranger leapt to avoid it, spinning in the air and smashed his elbow against Rita's metallic face as he fell.

"My face!" Rita wailed, clutching her damaged face with exposed wires and blue sparks coming out of it.

"I was having fun. But you want to get serious?" She turned around to look directly at the blue ranger.

"Come on, let's get deadly serious!" She snarled, unleashing a bolt of crimson energy at Billy, sending him rolling across the dirt. He coughed, trying to get back on his feet as his morph failed. Rita tightened her wrists and wisps of dark energies hoisted the genius up in the air.

"You know, I love my face just like I love all the power in my new robot body, thanks to my lovely husband, but I will gladly give up some of that energy for a spell that kills!"

Trini knocked out her fair share of putties and turned towards the battle with the witch, her eyes widening behind her helmet as she saw Rita rotate her staff, arcane symbols glowing behind her as she conjured a swirling crimson cloud of dark energies. The witch flung it towards Billy, who struggled to move but was restrained by Rita's enchantments. His eyes widened as he saw the cloud move towards him, lightning cackling out of it.

"Billy!" Trini screamed, leaping to push Billy out of the way, taking full brunt of the attack.

"Trini!" He yelled. "NO!"

He watched helplessly as the crimson lightning cackled over the yellow ranger's form, thrashing her body as her screams echoed through the battlefield before throwing her off the cliff in a huge explosion that devoured her completely, releasing a shock wave that threw everyone back and dispersing a cloud of black smoke in the air.

Everything seemed to stop and her body moved on auto pilot, pushing away the putties and running at Trini and Billy, but Nancy already knew it was too late. The crimson blast of chaos energy collided with Trini as she pushed Billy out of the way.

"NO!" She yelled. She wasn't the only one. Billy, Kim, Tommy, Zack and Jason's screams of anguish joined her own as Rita's laughter cackled in the background, relishing in their despair.

The yellow ranger was thrown off the cliff, the cursed magic devouring through her armour and body, till there was nothing left of her but the sabre-toothed power coin which fell to the terrain below, the sunlight glinting off the golden surface.

The other rangers ran over to Billy, who was frozen in shock.

Jason and Zack looked down in horror. Kimberly fell to her knees. Tommy turned around to glare at the witch.

"Goodbye, Trini Kwan!" She drawled.

"You will pay for this, Rita!" Kim banged her fists on the ground before rising to face Rita. Tommy, Nancy, and Billy morphed into their armor, without uttering a word.

"Hardly!" Rita scoffed, raising her staff, summoning arcane energies that charged the air around them. "It's your turn now, rangers!"

"Enough!" A bolt of lightning hit the witch, dispelling her powers and cutting through the remaining putties as the Mystic Mother appeared before them, her eyes blazing with fury.

"You!" Rita scoffed scathingly. "You are too late, imposter!"

"This ends now!" The Mystic Mother aimed her wand at her evil half.

"Fat chance!" The dark witch snarked. "You may have survived this battle, rangers but I have won! And soon, I will be coming for you, all of you and everything you love, when you least expect it! This is just the start of my revenge!"

With one last cackle, she vanished in a swirl of purple smoke.