"Gather 'round, Rangers," Udonna called, bringing all six rangers to the table. After yesterday's battle against Koragg and his mysterious black steed, Udonna felt that it was time her students knew the legend behind the creature called Catastros.
Kali folded her arms as she leaned forward, propping herself up on the table's surface. Storytime had never been her forte, even has a young child. She grew bored easily, and besides, the stories were usually full of princess depending on handsome princes' to save them.
"The legend of the beast stallion is known across the land for its impeccable strength. Many have tried to tame the mightiest creature of them all. But Catastros was stronger than a hundred men, and no one was able to harness his fearsome power," Udonna told them. "During the Great Battle of good and evil, Catastros fled into the forest. But before the seal was closed, evil reached up and dragged Catastros down to the lowest depths of the pit."
Thunder crashed outside Root core and the Rangers jumped, tearing their gazes away from the crystal ball where Udonna's story had been showing as if recorded on camera.
"That was the scariest story I have ever heard," said Chip. He suddenly grinned and looked up at Udonna. "Tell it again."
Maddie rubbed his arm gently.
"Even I'm a little freaked out," Vida admitted. She paused and looked around at her friends as they offered her surprised looks. "Just a little," she defended.
Xander chuckled. "Well, I'm not scared," he said.
The lights flickered and dimmed and thunder crashed outside. When the lights came back on, Xander was in Vida's arms. Kali laughed.
"Just making sure you're safe, V," said Xander, patting her shoulder.
"I'm fine, thanks!" said Vida, promptly dropping him on his ass.
"Uhh!" Xander yelped.
Udonna chuckled.
"You guys are so lame," Kali said. "Who'd be afraid of a silly horse?"
"Make no mistake," said Udonna, walking away from the Xenotome and over to the Rangers. "Catastros is a force to be reckoned with, Kali."
"I respect that," said Kali. "But it's still only a horse."
"But Koragg must've tamed him since he has control over him," said Maddie.
Udonna nodded. "Yes, for Catastros remains loyal to Koragg to this day," she confirmed.
"So, how did Koragg manage to tame an untameable creature?" Kali asked
"That's a good question," said Udonna. "Unfortunately, I don't have an answer."
With story time over, Udonna left the Rangers and started to retire to her sleeping quarters. She stopped as Claire arrived, donning a head of whipped cream.
"Don't you just love a good brainstorm?" Claire asked. "Washes away the stress of the day."
Kali covered her mouth and tried to quell the laughter as it bubbled up inside her.
"Claire, y-you're steaming," said Maddie.
"Oh, yeah, I crossed a hot-cocoa spell with a spell of protection - keeps me warm on these cold, stormy nights," Claire explained. She laughed along with the rangers.
Vida shook her head and took a deep breath, trying her hardest to calm down. "Your hair," she said, before doubling up with laughter again.
"Huh?" Claire asked, confused.
"Your hair," Kali repeated.
Claire run a finger down the side of her face and pulled it back to reveal a smudge of cream. She popped it in her mouth and panicked. "Oh. I forgot to omit the part about the toppings," she said. "I'm allergic to whipped cream!"
Vida and Maddie backed up as Claire started to hyperventilate. She turned away and sneezed, splattering Udonna with cream.
With an annoyed scowl, Udonna left.
"Quick, Nick," said Claire, turning back to the Rangers. "Point your wand at me and say 'Finishio' - Ah-choo! It'll make it disappear. Hurry!"
Nick removed his Morpher and opened it. He pointed the wand part at Claire and uttered the word Finishio. The cream and steam disappeared.
"Thanks, Nick," Claire said as she returned to normal. "Well, I, uh, better go." She left, clearly embarrassed but also a little upset that she had failed again.
~X~
The next morning, Kali arrived at the Rock Porium in time for her shift and found the others already there. "I'm not late, am I?" she asked, checking her phone for the time.
"Nope. You're right on time," said Toby. "Where's Nick?"
"He was still sleeping when I left," said Kali. "I don't think he slept much last night."
"Why? Did the scary thunder keep him awake?" Vida taunted.
Kali smiled and shrugged. "Couldn't tell whether it was the thunderstorm or a nightmare, to be honest," she said. "But, I woke up about 3am to use the bathroom, and he was tossing and turning in his bed."
"You guy's a share a room?" Chip asked.
"His sister lives in a two-bedroom apartment," Kali explained. "It's either we share a room or one of us sleeps on the couch. I am not couch surfing."
Xander laughed. Their Morpher's chimed and the team gravitated towards the door, just as Nick was arriving for his shift. He looked exhausted.
"You're going the wrong way, mate," said Xander, slipping past Nick.
"Yeah, no rest for the weary," said Maddie.
Nick exhaled heavily and followed Kali as she run past him.
~X~
Reaching the city, the rangers looked around for the source of the problem, according to their Morphers they were right on top of it, but there was nothing to be seen for miles.
At least not until Maddie looked up and gasped. "Look!" she said, pointing into the air.
"Usay Mijor Catastros!" Koragg chanted, jumping through a purple seal and summoning the legendary beast from the depths of the underworld.
"Let's ranger up," said Nick, reaching for his Morpher.
The others followed suit.
"Magical Source, Mystic Force!" they chanted.
"Usay Rejor Contestuous!" said Koragg. He combined with Catastros to form his wolf Megazord and towered over the Rangers and the city. "Prepare to be defeated!"
"How can we fight him without our Megazord power?" Vida asked.
"Good question," Maddie agreed.
"Come on, guys, we can do this," said Kali. "Don't let him scare you. It's what he wants."
"Kali's right," said Nick. "Besides, we don't have a choice."
"We can still form a dragon," said Chip. "We just can't combine into a Megazord."
Xander nodded. "Yeah, let's titan up," he said.
Maddie and Vida, although nervous, took out their morphers and held them into the air.
"Dragon formation!" they chanted.
As the others formed his trusty flying stead, Nick transformed into his titan form and then mounted the dragon's back. He held on tightly and rolled his sword in his hand as the dragon took to the skies.
"Fire it up!" Nick called.
The dragon spat a fireball at Koragg. They flew overhead and swooped back, landing on the ground opposite the wolf warrior.
"You don't have all our powers, Koragg," said Nick.
"That was nothing," said Koragg. He created his dark spell seal and slashed through it, trailing purple energy behind and sending it at the Rangers.
The rangers cried out as the blast disengaged them from Dragon form and back into their regular titan's mode. They struggled to stand as Koragg stalked towards them, his hand clenched into a fist.
"Get up and fight!" Koragg demanded.
Catastros whinnied as he was struck in the back.
Kali looked around Koragg and spotted Necrolai standing on a nearby building. She was holding a crossbow at her side.
"That's what you get for lying to Morticon," said Necrolai.
Koragg turned and growled. "I will crush you, hag," he threatened.
"Ha. You'll have to catch me first," said Necrolai. She then flew off into the distance.
"My allies are turning against me," Koragg muttered as Necrolai disappeared. "I must deal with this." He turned back to the Rangers and opened a spell seal.
Unwilling for Koragg to just leave, Nick pushed himself up and lunged forward. He caught the wolf warrior by the shoulder. Suddenly, Koragg disengaged from Catastros, and the spell seal sucked both the horse and Nick down into its' depths.
~X~
"Udonna!"
Udonna looked around as the Rangers run into Root core. She noted that they were one short, and could only guess that their panic was because Nick was not there. "What is it?" she asked, trying to calm their agitation.
"Nick's gone," Chip said while trying to catch his breath.
"We tried to contact him on his Morpher, but he didn't answer," added Vida.
Udonna looked around at them all. "What happened?" she asked.
"Well, we were battling Koragg. Then - poof - Nick gets sucked into a seal with Catastros," Xander explained.
"Nick must've disrupted an evil spell and warped the dark seal," said Udonna.
"That's great and everything, but how do we go about bringing him back?" Kali asked.
Udonna sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Kali, but since we do not know what dimension Nick is in, I can't transport you there," she said.
"That's helpful," Kali growled. She took a deep breath and sighed. "Sorry."
"It's quite alright," said Udonna. She could understand Kali's frustration.
"We have to do something," said Chip. "Come on, guys. Let's try the crystal ball."
The others followed Chip over to the table. But the crystal ball remained empty and silent.
"This is bad," said Vida.
Angry, scared and frustrated, Kali stormed out of Root core.
~X~
"Hey, Kali, wait up," Vida called.
Kali slowed her angry walk and waited for the others catch up. When they did, Vida wrapped her arms around the black ranger and hugged her, tightly.
This was the first time any of them had seen Kali lose it. They knew she was protective and had seen her confront LeeLee after she had accused her of stealing from the Rock Porium - it had been scary. But, this was different. Kali wasn't just angry, she was frightened, and her mask was starting to fall.
"I just can't wrap my head around the fact that Nick's gone," said Kali, pulling away from Vida. "And not just as in 'he'll be back soon gone' but gone as in gone."
"Well, technically he's just gone from this dimension," said Chip, hoping to be uplifting.
Vida shot him a look. "You're not helping," she said.
"There's got to be something we can do to get him back," said Maddie.
"But even Udonna didn't have an answer," said Xander. "Nick's in real trouble this time."
Kali sighed and wrapped her arms around her torso. "This is all my fault," she said. "I was the one who convinced him to give magic another try. If I had just let him leave..." she rubbed a hand over her face, cutting herself off.
Maddie shrieked as something dropped out of the tree in front of her. Kali rolled her eyes as she realised it was only Phineas.
"What's that?" Phineas asked. "Nick's in trouble?"
"Who are you?" Xander asked.
"More like what are you?" Vida asked.
Kali looked at the others. "This is Phineas," she said. "The troblin that Nick and I told you about, remember?"
"You didn't tell us he was so, well, freaky," said Chip.
Phineas grinned. "Oh, stop it. I'm blushing," he said. He opened his arms wide and wrapped them around Chip. "Come on, come on, hug me. Okay, too soon," he added, as Chip tried to push him away.
"Phineas!" Kali sighed in annoyance. "We don't have time for this. We have enough going on as it is."
"Wait, you said something about Nick leaving," said Phineas turning quickly to Kali. "Where's he going? Why's he going? What happened?"
Kali pressed her fingers against her temple. She wasn't in the mood for so many questions at once.
"He isn't leaving," said Xander, as Vida made sure Kali was alright. "He's gone."
"Gone? Gone where?"
"He got sucked into an evil dimension," said Maddie. "And there's nothing we can do to get him out."
"Oh, yeah, well, I guess giving up is the right thing to do," said Phineas, nodding. "Hey, no point in getting up just to fall back on your face again, I always say."
"Well, hold on," interrupted Xander. "We didn't say we're giving up."
"Oh. Oh, my mistake," said Phineas, holding his hands up in defence. "So, you're moping around here with the, uh, long faces is helping Nick. Yeah, I get things wrong sometimes."
Kali rolled her eyes and looked back at her friends. "He's got a point," she said. "Feeling sorry for ourselves isn't helping anybody. It's just causing more anger and frustration."
"Feeling helpless isn't going to bring Nick back, either," Vida agreed.
"Yeah," said Maddie.
"I agree. We got to at least try," said Xander.
"After all, we're the Power Rangers," said Chip, punching his fist into his hand.
Kali and Vida bumped fists and ran back towards Root core with the others. They were more determined now to find Nick and return him home.
~X~
Xander waved his wand at the crystal ball. "Nominiminimi...nous Rox!" he said, winking.
"Did it work?" Chip asked, hurrying over with a book in his hand.
"No, and I even winked," said Xander with a frustrated sigh.
"All right, let's try this one," said Chip, pointing at a spell in his book. He snapped open his Morpher and pointed the wand tip at the crystal ball. "It's supposed to contact lost loved ones. Colingo Trebanage!"
Nothing happened.
"This is stupid!" Kali said, throwing the book she had been reading away from her.
Maddie placed a soothing hand on Kali's shoulder. "Hey, come on, don't get frustrated," she said. "Just keep trying."
"We've tried nearly every spell in Root core," said Kali.
"Hey, guys," Vida called. "I may have found something."
Abandoning their stations, the other Rangers gathered around Vida.
"It says here, 'A spell of transport is a one-way deal unless a source can reverse the seal'," said Vida.
"Ooh, goody - a riddle," said Maddie.
"How is that a good thing?" Kali asked. "How do we reverse Koragg's seal?"
Chip glanced her way. "Well, you managed to reverse his seal when he brought Morticon to this world," he said. "How did you do that?"
"You know I don't know," said Kali. "I already told you. One minute I was watching Morticon almost obliterate my best friend, the next he was gone."
"You did howl," said Xander. "Maybe that has something to do with it?"
Kali shrugged. "I'm not going out there and howling like an idiot to see if an evil spell seal will open and spit Nick back out," she said.
"There may be another way," said Vida. "Remember that record that came out last year? I used it all the time for scratching because if you play it backwards, it has different lyrics."
"So you think if we say the spell backwards, it might release Nick?" Maddie asked.
Vida shrugged. "It's worth a shot," she said. "But can anyone remember Koragg's spell?"
The team shared hopeless looks.
"Oh, it was something like, 'Fettuccine Alfredo'!" said Chip, earning himself strange looks from his friends. "It was!"
Kali couldn't help a small smile but it disappeared as the crystal ball chimed and showed a new monster downtown.
"Looks like we'll have to deal with him first," said Xander, reaching for his Morpher.
"Then let's make this quick," said Kali.
Maddie turned to Chip. "Keep thinking, you have to remember that spell," she encouraged him.
"Uh... 'Pepperchini All Day-O'," Chip said. He hesitated and then shook his head as the others cast him another round of confused looks. "Never mind. Ready."
"Ready!"
"Magical Source, Mystic Force!"
~X~
The monster roared as he spotted the Rangers arriving on scene. "Let's make this interesting!" he said. He held up his hands and a bright golden ball of energy glowed between them.
"He has our Megazord power!" said Maddie.
The monster absorbed the energy and morphed into its Megazord form.
"No way!" the team yelled, backing up.
Kali clenched her hands into fists. "We can't combine without our powers or Nick, but we can still even up the playing field," she said, unclipping her Morpher from her belt. "Ready?"
"Ready!"
"Ancient Power, Mystic Titans!"
The monster roared and summoned several boulders from the ground and fired them at the Rangers. The team tried to avoid being hit by ducking behind Kali's flank, but even the hellhound's steel armour wasn't enough to keep the boulder's at bay.
Kali whined as her body was pummelled left, right and centre. "I can't take much more of this," she said. "Chip, did you remember that spell, yet?"
The monster roared and raised his club above his head.
"Hey, I remembered the spell," said Chip, excitedly. "It was 'Basalichi Infrado!"
"Then what are you waiting for?" Vida asked. "Say it backwards. Quickly!"
"Odarfni Ichilasab?" Chip recited.
A spell seal opened up between the monster and the Rangers and Nick burst through. He was fully morphed in his titan form and was riding on the back of Catastros.
"Look - It's Nick!" Vida cheered.
"And he's tamed Catastros!" Kali said, impressed.
"I can't believe it worked," Chip admitted.
Catastros whinnied and stomped the ground.
"Hey, guys, need a little help?" Nick asked. "Centaurus Phoenix Megazord!"
The team watched in astonishment as Nick combined with Catastros, just like Koragg did, to form a new Megazord combination.
"How did he do that?" Xander asked.
"I don't care how," said Kali. "But if he can get our Megazord power back, then brilliant."
The others murmured their agreement.
"This is how it's done red ranger style," said Nick, waving his sword around. Both ends were encased in fire and burned brightly as the monster attacked.
"Boulder Blast!" the monster roared, sending several boulders in Nick's direction. He cut through them easily. Whipping the firetail around, Nick raked it across the monster's body, causing him to explode.
As the monster was destroyed, the golden ball that had given him his powers hovered in the air above the rangers. It split into six multiple parts, each one a different colour which corresponded with each Ranger. The individual strand returned to its respective ranger and disappeared.
"Our combing power," said Chip.
"We got them back," said Xander.
"Now we can kick some evil butt," Vida cheered.
Nick patted Catastros' mane. "Thanks, Catastros," he said, before losing his balance and toppling off the horse as it reared up onto his hind legs.
"Whoa, Nick!" Kali called, running over to her friend. She knelt beside him and watched as Catastros returned to Koragg's side. He transformed and combined with the wolf warrior.
"Catastros rides with me," Koragg said, facing the Rangers.
"No! I thought he had changed!" Nick said, getting back to his feet.
"I don't know how you were able to combine with my might Catastros, but I promise you I will find out," said Koragg. "Something about you is troubling." He cast a look behind Nick and caught Kali's gaze. He still hadn't forgotten how she had managed to send Morticon back to the Underworld by simply howling. "You, too, Black Ranger."
Kali shifted her weight. "What are you talking about?" she asked.
"We will meet again, Rangers," said Koragg. He stepped back and disappeared through a spell seal.
Nick sighed and turned to Kali. "I don't understand," he said, shaking his head.
"I hate to say this," said Kali. "But I'm kind of scared about what he sees in us, and why he feels he needs to find out more about it."