Bandora Protocol

"It all happened so fast!" Zack vented to Billy as they stood in the front porch of the Kwan-Taylor home, with Nancy and Minh tending to Kim inside. "That machine that Rita's building, what does it do?"

"Honestly? Something that uses our power made by Rita? That's a bad mix and if we don't put a stop to it, I… I don't think Tommy or Jase will make it." Billy sighed.

"Then we got to destroy her!" Both turned around to see Minh walk towards them.

"We?" Billy blinked.

"Yeah!" Minh said, oblivious to the scepticism in the blue ranger's voice.

"This is Ranger business, Minh. You are a teenager who has homework due." Zack told her firmly.

"What- She killed Mom!" She exclaimed indignantly. "This is personal!"

Zack sighed, unsure of what to say.

"You know how hard I have trained!" Minh continued, flinging her arms in frustration.

"What you don't understand is-"

"Let me finish!" She shouted. "If mom could do it… if all of you could do it as teenagers, so can I!"

Minh turned to Billy. "This is her legacy. I can help!"

"Minh, I am really sorry but you can't." Billy said empathically. "You are not a ranger."

"Those monsters would overpower you in a second." Zack added.

"And we can't risk losing you too." Kim's voice came from the door as she leaned on Nancy for support.

"Mom's morpher is there. I can use it and be a ranger. Fight alongside you guys!" Minh suggested.

"No!" Zack shouted firmly. "We are not putting you in harm's way!"

Minh shot him a betrayed look.

"Besides, it doesn't work like that." Nancy sighed. "You don't choose the power, it chooses you. The morphers … the power coins, they are not just tools. They are sentient to an extent. There is no guarantee that your mom's morpher will work for you."

"Look, the best thing you can do for everyone is to stay out of trouble and let us sort this out." Billy said softly.

Minh turned to him, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Says the guy who caused all of this!"

"Minh!" Kim shot the young girl a glare.

"We all know that if it wasn't for you trying to Frankenstein a dead alien, my mom would still be here!" She yelled at him, before storming back to the house.

"Minh, you come back here!" Kim shouted after her. "That's no way to talk to your uncle!"

"Kim, it's okay." Billy started.

"It's not and she is better than this!" Kim looked at him. "She doesn't mean it-"

"I know." He shook his head. "We need to go to Cranston Tech. It has the scanners we need!"

"Let's go." Zack sighed as the four pressed their communicators, teleporting away in streaks of colored lights.

Rita let out a gleeful cackle as she slammed her staff on the lunar surface and the ruins of her old home glowed with dark power before the Bandora Castle stood in all it's glory, as if it was never forsaken in the first place.

She appeared inside the throne room alongside her squadron of putties, Minotaur, Snizzard and her device which held the two captive rangers.

"Ah, this place brings back memories!" She sighed. "I wish my Zeddy was here with me but those accursed morphin masters trapped him in a crystal prison! Nevertheless, I will get him back and so much more!"

Her robotic eyes gleamed with crimson energies as she peered at the device. "Drip by drip, your delicious ranger powers ebb away. Let's see how much I have stolen from you!"

She tapped a console as the tubes showed a rise in the purple energies and the sphere in the centre of the device sparked with wisps of blue energies.

"How disappointing!" She groaned, turning around, and walking over to the terrace, her generals following behind her. "This process is too slow! Should have known better than to trust this contraption by Scrozzle! Where is that rusty bucket of bolts anyway?"

She slammed her staff on the floor. "Scrozzle!"

The sound of hasty steps across the palace reminded her of her old subject, Finster but it was the robotic refuge instead.

"Yes, my queen?" He asked. Ever since Zedd's capture, he had been in the servitude of the dark witch, carrying out her plans. He was the one who created Snizzard and Minotaur this time around, with his new and improved version of Finster's old Monster-Matic, enabling him to empower Rita's monsters with cyborg technology.

"Your device is slow and I need results fast!" The witch growled.

The robot shivered, scurrying over to the machine and giving it a look-over. "The machine was designed to drain the grid energies from rangers but the rangers are resisting the process."

"How do I speed this up?" Rita asked impatiently.

"Maybe if you had more rangers? There must be nearly a hundred of them on Earth only…" Scrozzle suggested meekly.

"Excellent idea... I see why I keep you around!" Rita said appraisingly.

"I aim to please my queen!" The robot bowed.

"I can round the lambs up for slaughter!" Snizzard offered, his crimson eyes glowing in the shadows of the dimly lit palace.

"Not unless we can find them." Scozzle scoffed, before turning towards Minotaur. "But maybe with some adjustments, it will be your time to shine!"

"Explain, tinkerer." Minotaur huffed.

"I can augment you with scanners to detect spikes in grid energy." He explained. "Once the rangers morph, you will be able to zone in on their location and sneak in on them."

"Why not me?" Snizzard hissed.

"You already have the dual purpose of paralysing the rangers and keeping them in their current state, enabling the machine to drain their powers. Any more adjustments and we risk compromising your primary objectives." He said dismissively, approaching Minotaur with his wrench.

"There is still the question of making the rangers morph." He said offhandedly, taking apart Minotaur's arm and inserting a green chip into it before putting it back.

"Good thing I know exactly what draws out a power ranger!" Rita smirked.

"No T-Rex or Dragonzord power! Ay, ay, ay, ay!" Alpha 5 wailed, flinging his arms as he looked at the sensors. "We will have to scan for something else if we want to find our friends!"

"Thanks, Alpha." Hayley Ziktor gave a small smile. "It was a long shot anyway."

They turned around as four teleportation beams appeared in front of them, revealing the rangers.

"Ay, ay, ay! Rangers, you are here!" He said, flinging his arms. "Greetings!"

Zack grinned at the android. While they had aged a lot over the decades, Alpha looked the same and acted the same way as well.

"If the people upstairs only knew they had the world's smartest robot right beneath their feet."

"Still such a charmer. It's good to see you again! Been a while!" The android said, his voice full of joy as he high-fived his old friend. "I guess life is busy when you are raising a teenager with attitude."

"You got that right." Kim stepped in, embracing the android.

"Raising a kid… not easy." Nancy agreed.

"Minh definitely has attitude, right Billy?" Zack looked towards the blue ranger, where he was staring blankly at the computer screens.

"You alright, Billy?" Hayley asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah." He nodded, giving his friend a small smile. "It's just we haven't been in a mess like this since…"

He trailed off, turning to look at the others. "Minh is right. It really is all my fault that we lost Trini."

"Oh, Billy…" Hayley grimaced.

"Come on, man. You were trying to do something good." Zack took his hand.

"And look what happened." Billy said harshly, looking up at the scorched energy tube.

"Billy, Minh didn't mean all of that. You know how much she looks up to you… to all of us." Kim told him softly.

"But she was right. If I hadn't tried to bring back Zordon-"

"I didn't say this before because I thought we should be fully focused on finding Rita wherever she is, but think about this. She went through all the effort to thwart your attempt to bring him back." Nancy said slowly. "It means you were onto something… something that scared Rita and Zedd enough for them to show their hand."

"I…" Billy's eyes widened.

"Look, we can figure this out later but let's focus on the now." Nancy told him firmly.

"She is right. Robo Rita is a force to be reckoned with and we must make sure she doesn't hurt anybody else." Zack agreed.

The alarms started to blare and they turned towards the Viewing Globe.

"The Monster Scanner has found something." Alpha pointed as the image cleared to show putties attacking civilians. "It's not Rita, it's putties!"

"It's more than that." Hayley said, looking at the other monitors. "Angel Grove is not her only target this time. It's the entire world!"

The rangers looked at each other gravely.

"Guess the time to activate Bandora Protocol came sooner than we planned." Kim quipped.

"Ay, ay, ay…" Alpha muttered, pressing a console as a hologram appeared before them, showing a symbol that resembled Rita's staff, what appeared to be a red sun in the centre of a golden crescent moon.

Names of various cities popped up.

*Coral Harbor*

*Reefside*

*Turtle Cove*

*Harwood County*

*Panorama City*

*Briarwood*

*Osaka*

And many others…

"Attention, all power ranger teams. Bandora Protocol Initiated. Get to your assigned stations NOW." Alpha announced boldly.

They had decided to name the protocol after Bandora, the witch coven Rita was part of. It meant an indomitable force and something Billy felt was suited for a situation that necessitated the union of all ranger teams.

"I should probably head over to Reefside and help my team." Hayley gave the others a small nod.

"Be safe." Billy said.

"You too." The red head smiled at him before teleporting away.

"If I remember the plan correctly, visitors in three, two, one." Zack counted just as three teleportation beams cackled beside them, revealing Tanya, Katherine and Rocky, all of them in their SPA uniforms.

"We got your distress call." Tanya told them. "Bandora Protocol is happening."

"Robo Rita is back?" Rocky asked.

Zack nodded.

"So, Tommy and Jason are fighting her?" Kat asked.

"No." Billy said, not meeting her eyes. "Unfortunately, they have been captured and we need all the help we can get."

Kat pursed her lips even as the others shot her concerned looks. Tanya gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.

"We will get them back, Kat." Kim reassured her.

Kat nodded, taking a deep breath, and looking at Billy as he filled them in on everything that happened the past few hours.