Notes:  This is it, the end.  I’d like to thank Prinzessin, melly, CamFan4Ever, SuRfgUrL1, andrea, Taynna, Freed Kyes, Shi-no-Nezumi, Hikaru Kosuzaku, Angel Spirit, Veronica, HyDrOmAtIc, Jean, garnetred, Silver Death Kitsune, Jenihenpen, and Andrea.  You guys are v. cool.  Enjoy the conclusion!

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“Zurgane!” Lothor barked. “Why aren’t those cameras working! It’s been hours since they got away!”

“I… I don’t know!” Zurgane turned towards Chuubo, but Chuubo only shrugged. “Maybe they found them, sir.”

“They’d better not have,” Lothor grumbled. “Send – what’s its name again? Oh, it doesn’t matter.” He waved a hand irritably. “Send it down.”

“Is this really going to work?” Marah hissed to Kapri. “We let him get away!”

“Of course we did. Idiot.” Kapri rolled her eyes. “Once they see what we did to the Navy Ranger, they’ll be too scared to fight.”

“Oh.” Marah thought for a moment. “Um… what exactly did we do?”

“If you were any dumber, you’d have roots. Honestly,” Kapri huffed. “We screwed up his brain, something you’d realize if you actually had one. It’ll work fine.”

“Won’t they fix him?” Marah asked doubtfully.

Kapri sighed loudly and turned to the viewscreen. “Did we send the monster yet, Uncle?”

“Yes, yes.” Lothor leaned forward to watch the screen. “Aren’t those cameras working yet, Zurgane?”

“Er…”

“Why do I even bother,” Lothor muttered. On the screen, the monster touched down inside Blue Bay Harbor for the third time in two days. “Ah, now we’ll see something fun,” he said, brightening.

The Crimson Ranger showed up on screen, alone. He faced the monster, radiating anger in every line of his spandex-clad body. “I’m going to take you down, once and for all!”

“So predictable,” Lothor said. “He could come up with a more original line.”

The monster didn’t answer, just charged forward. It crossed its arms as it had before to send out an energy blast. The Crimson Ranger dodged, just like he had before. He rolled forwards, already positioning himself to deliver a hit to the monster’s ribcage.

The monster was ready and waiting. It grabbed the Crimson Ranger’s wrist as his hand shot out and used his momentum to flip him over. Quicker than it should have been able to move, it slammed a foot down on his chest and ground him into the street. The Crimson Ranger grabbed at the monster’s ankle, but he was clearly already weakened and his grappling was ineffective. Sparks flew from the point of contact, and the Crimson Ranger writhed in pain.

Lothor laughed delightedly. “It’s so nice when a plan comes together.”

“Oh yes, Uncle,” Kapri said.

“Yeah,” Marah echoed. Her gaze darted to the sides of the screen, where she thought she’d seen the other Rangers a few seconds earlier. But no one else looked like they’d seen them. “Should I tell them?” she whispered to herself.

“What are you muttering about?” Lothor snapped.

“Nothing, Uncle,” Marah gasped, surprised.

“All right, then.” Lothor returned his attention to the battle. The monster had the Crimson Ranger by the throat now, and was throwing him into a nearby building. “The rest of them won’t even show up!” Lothor cackled.

He was proved wrong only a few seconds later, as the smoke from the Crimson Ranger’s impact with the building cleared and all that was left on the ground was a singed uniform. “What?”

The monster looked around in confusion. As it turned, a blast from seemingly out of nowhere hit it on the side, sending it skidding. The Green Ranger and the Crimson Ranger stood together, each holding a weapon. The Green Ranger nodded once, and they split up, one running on each side of the monster. At the same time, each attacked. The monster, unable to deal with a double-sided attack, was left floored.

“Bah,” Lothor snarled. “That’s still only two of them. They can’t defeat it alone.”

The monster was indeed climbing to its feet, little if any damage done. It stretched, flexing what passed for muscle on its distorted form. Spinning around suddenly, it fired off several energy bursts in different directions. Smoke once again obscured the screen, but the Green Ranger clearly took a direct hit and went straight down.

The smoke didn’t clear, though. Lothor frowned and edged closer to the screen. Flashes of light were visible from the center of the growing cloud, blue and red and yellow. Without warning, the monster was suddenly flung backwards, impacting a pole and sliding down it.

The Wind Rangers, accompanied by the Crimson Ranger, stepped proudly out of the smoke. “You’re going down,” the Blue Wind Ranger said cockily.

“Let’s bring ‘em together, guys!” the Red Ranger added. “Hawk Mode!”

The three Wind Rangers locked their weapons together and pointed it at the staggering monster. The Crimson Ranger stood back, arms folded arrogantly across his chest.

“This is ridiculous.” Lothor glared around at his underlings. “They’re not supposed to do this!”

As he turned back to the screen, the monster was exploding. Ashes rained down as the Rangers struck ridiculously victorious poses. “Bah,” Lothor muttered again. “Let’s see how they handle this. Kapri! Where’s the PAM?”

“Ooh, lemme do it, Uncle, lemme do it!” Kapri rushed forward.

“No, I want to!” Marah tried to shoulder her sister out of the way, but Kapri had been expecting it, and stepped aside so that Marah tripped and fell.

“Just give it to me.” Lothor eyed them. Kapri gulped and fell silent, handing him the PAM without further protest. “Scroll of empowerment, descend!”

The monster grew, its initially formless mass stretching into the sky and redefining itself into its new body. Lothor’s burgeoning smirk was wiped off his face by the almost immediate advent of not one but both of the Zords belonging to the Thunder Rangers. Within seconds, the Zords had combined to form the Thunder Megazord.

Lothor growled in disgust and threw himself back into his seat. He scowled further when the Storm Megazord showed up on the battlefield as well. Between the two of them, the Zords managed to thoroughly trounce his monster. Lothor even distinctly heard the Navy Ranger give the order for the final blast.

“Uh… Lothor?” Chuubo shuffled forward hesitantly, having been shoved towards him by one of the other generals.

“What is it now?” The brilliant plan to destabilize the Rangers had failed. Perhaps he should have kept the Navy Ranger instead of allowing the Green Ranger to steal him back.

“The cameras? The ones that you put into the Navy Ranger’s uniform while he was still here? They’re working.” “Are they now. Let’s see what they have to show us, then.” Lothor rubbed his hands together. Perhaps this wouldn’t turn out to be such a complete loss after all.

The viewscreen flickered a few times, the static slowly clearing away. Once it did, the inside of the Rangers’ secret base was clearly visible.

“Ah, good, good.”

Only one out of the four tiny cameras he’d planted appeared to be online, though. Each of the four should have sought shelter somewhere within the Rangers’ base in order to transmit video and audio information to him. It had been a brilliant, scheming plan within a plan. Still, one camera was better than no cameras. But no one was visible, and the camera appeared to be pointing at the doorway to the base rather than at the computer systems or other sensitive equipment.

As Lothor stared, baffled, the Wind Rangers filed through the door and stood in a line. They were off to the side of the camera, but they were looking straight at it, faces sober. The Crimson Ranger followed them a few seconds later, holding some sort of device in one hand. He stood directly in front of the lens, glaring for all he was worth.

“Lothor.” The voice was the Navy Ranger’s, and it was coming out of the camera’s audio feed. The Navy Ranger walked slowly into the room, shooting his brother a hard look when the Crimson Ranger moved toward him. The Crimson Ranger subsided and moved off to give the Navy Ranger the spot in front of the lens.

“You can’t break me that easily, Lothor.” The Navy Ranger straightened and lifted his chin proudly. “No matter what you do to us, we’ll stick together. That won’t ever change. We’re gonna take you down.” He nodded to the Crimson Ranger.

The Crimson Ranger smirked, lifted the device in his hand, and pressed the single red button in the center. The picture dissolved instantly into static. Lothor slammed a hand down on the arm of his chair. “Whose idea was this, anyway?” He glared at each of his generals in turn, none of whom would meet his eyes, and at his nieces for good measure. “I want you all back here tomorrow with new ideas on how to defeat the Rangers. Got it?”

A chorus of assents sounded, and a general stampede to get off the bridge ensued. Lothor watched the static on the screen and drummed his fingers restlessly. It had been such a good idea, too. “The life of an evil genius is never easy.”

-----

Blake doubled over as soon as the camera exploded. Hunter rushed forward, catching him and supporting his weight. “You didn’t have to do that, bro,” he said worriedly.

“Yeah, I did,” Blake gritted out.

Tori came up on Blake’s other side, draping his arm across her shoulders. “Take it easy until your ribs heal, Blake.”

Blake just looked at her.

“It’ll be okay, Blake,” Hunter assured him. What had come to pass for a first-aid room was just a few steps away. Cam was already inside; he’d taken a nasty hit during the fight on the ground, but he’d be fine.

It had taken Hunter a very long time to convince Blake that he wasn’t still dreaming. From what Blake had said, Lothor had subjected him to some all-too-convincing scenarios, each one building on the last. In the end, it was Cam who had had the final say; he had found the cameras in Blake’s uniform and he had come directly to Hunter with them.

An intense look of relief had crossed Blake’s face at that small exchange. Hunter didn’t know why it was that the short discussion of what to do with the cameras should reassure Blake so much, but it had. Especially when Cam had made a comment regarding Hunter’s propensity for destruction of property, and suggested that he be the one to actually get rid of the cameras. Blake had actually laughed a little at that, and then clutched at his ribs.

Hunter had then remembered that the monster had broken Blake’s ribs the day before, and had wanted to get it taken care of immediately. Blake had insisted that he be able to use the cameras to tell Lothor he wouldn’t be beaten like that, and Sensei had backed him on the issue. Blake needed closure, he’d said. So while Hunter had waited for Cam to make some sort of trigger to blow up one camera, he’d smashed the other three into unrecognizable pieces.

Before they could activate it and send Lothor a message, the monster had shown up. They’d gone off to fight; Hunter and Cam had gone first. Blake had once again insisted on being involved; there was no way he could participate in the initial fight, he’d argued, but he could very well pilot his Zord. The Winds had helped him to it before joining in the fight on the ground.

Both battles had gone quickly, although Cam was left injured in the wake of the first. CyberCam had assured Hunter that his counterpart would be back on his feet in no time. “Since when do you know first aid?” Hunter had asked. CyberCam had just smirked. Hunter found him more annoying when Cam wasn’t around – or at least conscious – for some reason.

“You all right?” he asked Blake, once they’d gotten Blake lying down and Tori had carefully checked to make sure he hadn’t done any more damage.

“Fine,” Blake answered, with what was obviously an attempt at a reassuring smile.

“Hey, it’s my job to cheer you up, bro,” Hunter told him. “Get some rest, okay?”

Blake nodded, and Hunter turned away. Preoccupied with Cam, he didn’t see the expression of doubt that still shadowed Blake’s features, and because Tori didn’t know Blake well enough, she didn’t see it either.

“Tori, please join the others.” Tori looked up, surprised to see Sensei in the doorway. He scurried up to stand near Blake.

“Okay,” she said with a slightly puzzled look.

Sensei smiled at Blake, insofar as a guinea pig was capable of smiling. “If he were not my son, I would know it in my heart,” he said, nodding towards Cam. “Just as you would know if Hunter were not your brother.”

“I did know, didn’t I.” Blake smiled at that, his first real smile since Cam had pulled him out of Lothor’s ship.

“Now I suggest you follow your brother’s advice.” Sensei gracefully flipped back down to the floor. “Hunter.” He raised his voice. “Join us outside, please.”

“Thanks, Sensei,” Blake said suddenly.

Sensei nodded. “Welcome home, Blake.”

end