Chapter 23: Waves

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Biting back a sigh, Weihan nodded and continued channelling Power into the scorched object in front of him. Billy hovered over his shoulder watching in awe as his Power Morpher slowly repowered itself. He had his doubts about allowing the Orange Ranger to infuse his Morpher with energy from his Ultra Grid, but he had been reassured that it would be safe. The energy would even last after they had left for their own dimension and, if need be, Billy was sketching out a way the transfer could be done through the dimensional barrier. Taking his eyes off the transfer, the Blue Ranger looked around the Command Tower. Eliza was busy talking to both Princess Celestia and Dimitria about similarities between dimensions and the other Rangers and Luna were listening intently.

His thoughts drifted to the gift Weihan had given him after his displeasure at seeing the Training Room wrecked. Apparently it was the results of a proposed automated Zord repair system he had discarded in his dimension. The nanobots were incredible and disassembling one of them had yielded a wealth of data that he could use to adapt the system for the Harmonyzords. They were also self-replicating and were slowly filling a large unused tank in the Zord Bay. The Orange Ranger had reassured him that the communication link between their dimensions could stay open if he left his communicator with them as it had something to do with anchoring the communication signal…something that was extremely technical even for him.

“Finished. You should have enough Morphin energy for a couple of morphs…just conserve your strength whenever you can.”

Billy nodded and was about to speak when the Orange Ranger shook his head.

“No new weapons, however I have implemented something in there for…future use.”

As Billy looked at him questioningly, Weihan shook his head. He was slightly exhausted from the power transfer, but it would fade within a few minutes. However, what he couldn’t shake from his mind were the images and feelings he had seen upon the first few second of energy transfer.

Flash

Billy held the crystal aloft, staring at it. Blackened Heart had done a number on him, but the magic of the Princesses had healed him nicely. He supposed it was also due to the Ultra Energy that had been infused into his Morpher but didn’t care. Holding his Morpher in one hand, he clicked it open and slid the round jewel into the centre depression. He nodded at Celestia’s voice.

“This is only half of your Powers. The other half…well, that is for you to discover on your own.”

Billy closed his Morpher and gazed at it. He would complete the Prophecy and bring light to the word once more.

End Flash

Whatever was going to happen would be happening in the future. He couldn’t help to wonder who this Blackened Heart was and what sort of monster it could possibly be to extinguish the light in Equestria; but at the same time, he didn’t want to know. Trying to work out Xonix’s true motives and intentions was scary enough. Extending the softly glowing Morpher to Billy, he opened his mouth to speak when the alarms went off. Turning around, he raced to the main scanners just as Spike finished pulling up the images near the Everfree Forest. Pinkie poked her head into his line of vision and let out a dismayed moan.

“Aw, ponyfeathers. We’re in trouble with AJ and Dashie gone. We’re only down to four Rangers.”

“Seven, actually.”

Weihan’s offhand comment made all eyes turn to him and he absentmindedly gestured to himself, Eliza and Billy as his eyes roved the crowd of grunts and monsters. One looked like a humanoid griffon, one was a bipedal Pegasus that was wearing a helmet with a bloody hole in the middle of it and there were two monsters in front of the throng. One was a bear-like creature with a hide that reflected the night sky and it had random saw blades sticking out of extremely random places. The other was a monster that honestly looked like a bipedal water heater with gaudy flame attachments dotted all over it. One of its hands looked like a vacuum cleaner nozzle while the other was what appeared to be a machine gun.

He made a move for his Ultra Crystal when a beeping from his communicator caught his attention. Squeezing out of the tightly pressed bodies, he moved to a relatively quiet place and hit the flashing button.

“Guys, can’t talk! Zedd just went all out on Ponyville and all of us are about to teleport down and head him off!”

“What? Is that…Zedd? With Discord and…Gilda?”

Turning at Twilight’s shout, Weihan saw the colour drain from Billy’s face and heard his morpher clatter to the floor as his fingers fell slack. Rushing back to the Scanning station, he pressed the dropped object into Billy’s hands and stared at the image on screen in shock. There was no doubt that the twisted horse-like creature on screen was Lord Zedd; even with the strange equine features he had somehow acquired. In one hoof-like hand, he grasped his signature Z staff and his brain pulsed in the afternoon sun. Biting back a curse, he turned to Celestia and began to speak when a very familiar voice washed over him.

“Lord Zedd appearance? How could Zedd be…oh, alternate dimension. Oops.”

As the ponies barely looked in his direction, he exchanged a wry glance with Eliza at AJ’s voice. He barked a short, strained chuckle and sighed in resignation. So AJ was in the Ultra Cavern and she had probably met Applejack and Rainbow Dash. He wondered what she thought of the Earth Pony; whatever it was, it was probably a good thing they were dimensional counterparts of each other.
“Nice to hear your voice, AJ. Hope you’re not too freaked out by what you see and from what I’ve heard about her, Applejack is your dimensional counterpart.”

He silently slid his Ultra Crystal out of his chest and – before his girlfriend could reply – he heard the alarms of the Ultra Cavern start ringing in the background. Exchanging worried glances with Eliza and Celestia, Weihan motioned to the others that they should go on ahead. Billy shook his head and spoke quietly so his voice wouldn’t be picked up by his communicator.

“We’ll all go together. We’ll show Zedd our full hand.”

“Oh God, is that an Iguanodon? Bec’s going to be pissed”

Letting out a light chuckle at Rachelle’s words, Eliza looked at the group in front of her. All in all, they had four Equestrian Rangers, a repowered Mighty Morphin Power Ranger and two Ultra Rangers against a large group of grunts; something called Discord, a humanoid griffon called Gilda, two monsters and Zedd. It was all pretty hilarious but they had to take action now unless they wanted Ponyville to be destroyed again.

“Rangers, come out and face me! Show me the strength of the Ultra Rangers!”

At the rough voice coming from the communicator, the Rangers blinked in surprise as Weihan clenched his teeth together and growled out a single word.

“Xonix.”

Eliza blinked. Her friends were going up against the being that had sent down countless monsters and launched dozens of attacks at them. Well, hopefully they would be getting support from the Turbo Rangers. Pushing herself away from the console, she reached up and pulled her Ultra Crystal out of her chest as Weihan continued speaking.

“All of you need to be very careful with him. He’s extremely dangerous. I have to go now and may the Power protect you.”

Weihan ended the communication with a sigh and looked around him. Gripping his Ultra Crystal in one hand, he shook his head at the situation in his home dimension. Xonix was on Earth again, three months or so after his first expedition. He guessed that the overlord wanted to see what it would be like fighting in the day but anything involving Xonix was like trying to hold a live fish in one hand. Glancing at Billy, he was extremely shocked to see the more experienced Ranger nod at him and he swallowed the lump that had somehow formed in his throat. He spoke in a low, dangerous voice.

“We go unmorphed and kick Zedd’s ass into next week!”

TBC…

Author's Note

Pretty self-explanatory here.