Disclaimer: I do no own the Power Rangers. I do not own anything associated with the Power Rangers. Anything that is borrowed is done so without permission of the owner. However I'm certain Saban is willing to share. I here by swear to return all his toys when I am done playing with them.

Timeline: A little less than two months After Fading Light

Warning: I don't think there is any swearing in this one... hmm, must be slipping. There is still violence in one form or another. Don't say I didn't warn you. ; )

Notes: Any and all typographical errors are intentional and meant for your enjoyment. Any and all resemblances to other stories are purely coincidental (I think ; p )

Alright, this is number four in 'The Gathering' series. This story is more of a prelude for the up coming stories. I would like to thank everyone who has, or will be reading these stories. Especially those who have sent E-Mail hint, hint... Randelm@hotmail.com.

Mutual Malice
By: Randel

Lord Zedd lay in bed staring at the ceiling. He winced slightly at the retching noise coming from the restroom nearby. After a while his wife, Rita, tottered into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed next to her husband.

"I can't believe you did this to me," she muttered.

Zedd chuckled softly. "And Finster is certain that there is no way to speed up the process?"

Rita nodded miserably. "Hey, maybe he could think of a way to put it in your belly!"

"Umm, I don't think so Rita" Zedd replied a bit hastily.

"But Zedd, I don't want to swell up!"

"It'll be alright, I promise."

"Yeah right!" She spat back. "I'm never letting you touch me again!" with that the evil empress stormed out of the room.

Zedd sighed again. She was only about two months pregnant, they had been too preoccupied with the idea of a coming baby that they hadn't even been able to mount decent attacks against the Rangers. Rangers, there were seven of them now. Five Zeo Rangers, and two Grid Warriors. That blasted Jason had survived one of his most powerful blasts, otherwise there would only have been one Grid Warrior.

Standing up, Zedd resolved that today he would mount an attack, after all it'd been almost two weeks since there had been any attack at all. "I wonder what's got Mondo so preoccupied... surely Machina isn't pregnant." He laughed at the thought.

"So, what shall I attack with..." Zedd mused aloud. "A mix of Putties and Tengas of course, and... hmm... Finster!"

"Yes m'lord?" asked the furry white scientist as Lord Zedd entered the lab.

"Finster, Neither I nor Mondo has mounted a decent attack for almost two weeks. I'm going to send down a troop of Putties and Tengas. I need a monster to help mix things up."

"Well now, let me see here m'lord." Finster produced a large clump of clay and set it on his workbench. Quickly his hands smoothed and shaped it. In very little time he was putting the final details on the beast. It was a lithe female in shape, she had two sets of arms, and held a blade in each hand.

"This is Kary, Seductive Mistress of Fire. Her skin is a light reddish color and her hair is yellow. She can hypnotize, especially men, and she can manipulate fire."

"Excellent, send her to me when she is ready." Replied Lord Zedd.

Finster nodded, started up his machine, and began to mix the chemicals and magic that would give Kary her power.

~*~

For over two months now King Mondo had had his Cogs working on the construction of a kieroo, a sentient building. After capturing Tanya those two months ago he had 'borrowed' her Zeonizer and used it to make a sort of blueprint for a Kieroo. The large construction was finally finished. It was a tower, as most Kieroo were, it had sleek metallic sides. On each side there were large arm like limbs, each tipped with three blunt fingers. Between it's heavy shoulders there was a dome, mounted on each side of the dome were laser cannons, and on the top of the dome was mounted a large plasma cannon. Two glowing, red, eye-like slits provided the creature with all the sensory input it needed.

"An evil Kieroo of my very own... Yes, this will be very good indeed. Klank!"

"Yes my king?" The faintly Scottish sounding robot appeared by his master's side.

"We are going to take my Kieroo for a test run today. I need a monster to send down with some cogs to warm the Rangers up."

"Yes yer Majesty, I've been working on a machine called the WarMech"

"Wonderful, Send it and a troop of Cogs down immediately."

"Yes yer majesty."

~*~

"Hey Fred, heads up." Justin Stewart, a fourteen-year-old boy threw the red frisbee across the park to his friend Fred Kelman. The other boy jumped into the air and caught it, no problem.

"Hey guys!" The boys turned to see two identical twins, Candace and Casey Secore walking towards them. "How's it going?" The girls were petite with smooth faces and slim figures. Casey, wearing a green shirt and worn blue jeans had her hair held back in a ponytail, while Candace was wearing a yellow shirt, khaki shorts and wore her hair down.

"Hey girls." Answered Fred. "It's going good, what are you guys doing here?"

"Just came to hang out," replied Candace as she stretched out beneath a tree.

"We saw you two and decided to come say hi." Added Casey doing the same as her sister.

Fred and Justin sat down as well and the four talked for a while, about how Freshman year at AG High was going to be so cool, and about Martial arts, and shopping and nothing in particular.

"Hey," said Justin suddenly, "Who's that?" He pointed to a girl sitting on the grass by herself. She was wearing a pink dress and had long red hair. She was sitting with her back to them, but Casey was still able to identify her.

"That's Angela Hopkins, she moved here just last month. I don't really know her, but I've seen her around."

"I don't suppose she has many friends yet," commented Candace.

"Why don't we go introduce ourselves?" The others nodded at Justin's suggestion and as a group they stood up and walked over to Angela.

"Hey, uh... Angela?" The red headed girl turned around to reveal very pale skin and bright green eyes.

"Yes?" she asked a bit warily. "Can I help you?"

"We noticed you're new around here, and we were wondering if you might like to hang out or something."

Angela narrowed her eyes at Justin. "What's the gag?"

"What?" Justin looked a bit taken aback.

"We just saw you by yourself and we wanted to know if you would like to hang out," affirmed Candace.

"Really?" The others saw that she wanted to believe them but was having trouble trusting.

"Really. Look why don't we all go over to Ernie's Juice bar and get something to eat. It'll be my treat," continued the yellow clad girl.

"Sounds good to me, what do you say Angela?" Asked Justin.

Angela looked at each of them in turn. They seemed honest enough, but she had known people who looked honest before. "Thanks. But I'll pass." With that she stood up and began to walk away.

"Geeze... that was kinda' harsh," muttered Casey.

"She just needs time to get used to it here." Justin defended her.

"Yeah you're probably..." Casey stopped in mid sentence as they heard a shrill scream.

"Angela!" Justin was off like a shot running towards where Angela was standing still, terrified by the robotic Cogs that were slowly marching towards her. Justin grabbed the smaller girl's arm and started dragging her away. Finally Angela began to run on her own and Justin let go of her arm.

"What are those things?" gasped out Angela as she and Justin caught up with the others. They slowed to a walk while still checking over their shoulders for pursuing creatures.

"Those," replied Candace, "Are Cogs." Suddenly a loud wailing siren began. "Monster sirens. They're to tell us that monsters are attacking and to get to one of the shelters."

"And those," Fred stopped and pointed straight ahead of him "are Tengas, and Putties."

"Oh shit..." muttered Casey as they began to run again, this time further into the park and hopefully away from all the monsters that had begun to roam it.

"I'd heard stories about this place, even seen it on the news," said Angela as they again slowed, "but I thought all the stuff about evil monsters from other planets was totally bogus."

"No," said Candace, "it's totally true. Even the weirdest stuff you've heard is probably true."

"A giant purse monster?" Angela cocked an eyebrow unbelievingly.

"Yup." Said a slightly accented voice from behind them.

The young teens turned around to see the Pink Zeo Ranger standing there. "Don't you think you five ought to be heading to one of the shelters?"

"We were trying to Pink Ranger, but Cogs are at one end of the park and Tengas and Putties are at the other." Explained Justin.

The Pink Ranger nodded. "I'll have you teleported to Ernie's" She pushed a button on her communicator and spoke into it. "Alpha, teleport these five to the Juice Bar."

The five looked on in awe as they were suddenly enveloped in an Ivory column of light. When the light cleared they were standing in the Juice Bar, all eyes on them.

"Uh... hi." Was all Fred had time to say as the others taking refuge in the Juice Bar began to pelt them with questions.

~*~

Tommy, Katherine, and Billy were facing off against a troop of Tengas and Putties. A tiger stripped Puttie swung at the leader of the Rangers. Red Zeo quickly ducked, and answered with a flurry of punches and a devastating kick that knocked the villain into its comrades. The purple and gray creatures attacked the three Rangers, and chaos was the result.

Katherine blocked a blow from a Tenga only to be hit from behind by a 'Z' Putty. Instantly Billy was there, thrusting with his Power Lance, keeping the Putty off her. Billy reached down to help her up when a flying red object crashed into them knocking them both to the ground.

"Ouch..." Tommy groaned and slowly stood up. "Guys, we're fighting a loosing battle."

"What else can we do?" Asked Kat. "The others are fighting off Cogs on the other side of the park, and Jason's still recovering."

"I know, but... Damn!" Tommy dodged some more attacks and countered, all the while backing up with his teammates. "Wait a sec... I've got an idea. Follow me." With that he was off, Kat and Billy close behind.

"Wow, Tommy's got an idea, this ought to be interesting."

"Be nice Billy, he is the leader after all, he's supposed to have ideas."

"I can hear you two." Said Tommy without looking back.

"I should certainly hope so." Responded Billy. Katherine just giggled.

Tommy looked back over his shoulder to make sure the Putties and Tengas were still following them, just as the other Rangers came into view fighting off Cogs.

"Rangers! Form up!" At the command the Rangers gathered behind Tommy. The atmosphere in that area of the park was tense. A three way face-off between the evil forces of Zedd and of Mondo, and the Power Rangers.

The Cogs were the first to make a move. At an unseen signal half of the robotic warriors attacked the Rangers, and the other half attacked Rita and Zedd's forces.

The three-way melee came to a halt when a powerful blast destroyed Tenga, Puttie and Cog alike. A bipedal, mechanical creature stepped forward. It's legs connected directly to its head and it had no arms. A small turret rotated on the top of its dome-like head. "I am WarMech." It announced in an electronic voice.

WarMech's blast was answered with a blast of fire. The fire connected squarely with the WarMech, but it merely stood there and looked at the creature that had attacked it. "I am Kary, Seductive Mistress of Fire." The two squared off, not even looking at the Rangers.

"Sheesh, are we out of the loop here, or what..." muttered Rocky leaning against a tree.

"Well what do we do?" Tanya asked, a bit confused.

"Well we ah... we... Well we certainly can't let them just keep fighting each other." Said Tommy.

"Why not?" Asked Rocky.

"They are causing a lot of property damage." Pointed out Billy.

The two creatures were trading blasts. WarMech's legs granted spectacular jumping abilities, while Kary's speed allowed her to dash in and attack with one of her four blades. The resulting clashes and explosions were putting deep scars in the park's turf.

"Maybe we should contact Zordon." Suggested Tanya.

Kat nodded and brought her communicator to her lips. "Zordon..." Just then Kary and WarMech fired at the same time. The resulting explosion knocked the Rangers to the ground. When the smoke had cleared no trace of the two monsters could be found.

"Well... that was interesting. Let's go back to the Power Chamber and see what Zordon has to say." Tommy looked around to the others who nodded.

In six columns of light the Rangers were gone.

~*~

"In an interesting development the two monsters began to fight each other paying no attention to the Power Rangers. It has been rumored that King Mondo of the Machine Empire has a great rivalry with Lord Zedd of the United Alliance of Evil. As the Rangers watched, doing nothing, the evil beings fought until there was a mighty explosion, apparently destroying the monsters. The city was lucky this time. Two forces clashed while the Rangers did nothing. If the fight had gotten close to civilians it could have been disastrous. This is April Conther, signing off."

"Hey! That's totally bogus!" Shouted Fred Kelman

"Yeah, the Rangers can't just attack, besides if the fight'd gotten close to civilians the Rangers would have protected them," added Justin.

"You guys are right." Said Ernie from behind the counter. "April Conther is just sore because she can't get an interview with the Rangers."

Fred nodded. "Hey Ernie, can I get five smoothies please."

"Sure thing Fred."

"Wow, Fred's paying, this is a first." Candace said as she walked over to the counter. She and Casey had been talking with Angela at one of the tables. Fred and Justin had been with them until April Conther's report had come on.

"Here you are." Said Ernie delivering a tray of smoothies to Fred. Fred paid him and carried the drinks over to the table where his friends were sitting. The five relaxed and drank their smoothies, and talked. Angela joined in the conversation, becoming less and less suspicious.

The door opened and five soon-to-be Seniors at AGH walked in. Among them were some of the best martial artists in the City, probably in the state.

"Hey Ernie, how's it going?"

"Hey Rocky. You guys want the usual?" They all nodded and Ernie spoke again. "Tommy. I need to talk to you, in private."

Tommy looked surprised. "Uh... sure Ernie, be right there."

Tommy walked behind the counter and into the back room where Ernie had gone. The portly man was cooking up some fries when the red clad teen walked in.

"Interesting fight today huh?" Commented Ernie.

"Wha- What are you talking about Ernie?"

"Come on Tommy, give me some credit huh?" Said Ernie cracking a smile. "I've been watching you kids since your freshman year."

"Oh... So you know?" Ernie just nodded. "Ok... so is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

Ernie scooped the fries out of the fryer, and set them down to dry. "No... Like I said I've been watching you guys for a while now, and I've noticed a trend with soon-to-be Rangers."

Tommy was interested now. Grabbing one of the plastic baskets he put wax paper in the bottom and dumped the cooling fries in, while Ernie started on making the smoothies.

"About a week before the Power Rangers showed up, Jason, Kim, Zack, Trini and Billy started hanging out here a lot, more than usual. And they were all wearing distinct colors." Tommy nodded, signaling for Ernie to continue. "Then you showed up. You were wearing green. I wasn't too sure about you until the Green Ranger showed up and you started getting weird on us. And so on, I noticed when Rocky, Adam and Aisha showed up, and when Katherine and the Tanya arrived, and finally when Jason returned."

"So I guess it was kinda' obvious huh?'

"Not really, I'm just more observant than most. The point is, Tommy, that four kids, who will be entering their freshman year next week, have been hanging out here more and more, and they're all wearing specific colors each time. Today those four were teleported here by one of you guys. And they had a new friend wearing pink with them."

"So you're saying there is a new team of Rangers coming."

"It's just a hunch." Admitted Ernie, "But yeah, I'd say there will be a new team of Rangers before the start of the school year."

Tommy nodded. "Thanks for the info man." The two carried out the fries and drinks and delivered them to the table next to the one they usually sat at. Two of the occupants of the Ranger's usual table were talking with Rocky and Adam animatedly about Martial Arts.

"Sure, we got time to spar." Said Rocky as Tommy and Ernie set down the food. Rocky grabbed a handful of fries before walking out on the mats with Fred, Justin and Adam. Tommy raised an eyebrow, but Ernie just smiled in response and headed back to the counter.

Katherine and Tanya had begun to talk to Angela, Candace and Casey so Tommy snatched a few fries and walked down to the mats with smoothie in hand. He'd tell his friends about the future Rangers later.

~*~

In the desert outside Angle Grove, in a structure known as the Power Chamber, Six people stood looking up at the mentor of the Power Rangers of Earth.

"Alpha, what do the scans say?"

"Jason has completely recovered Zordon. He is in prime condition."

Zordon smiled. "Good, thank you Alpha." Then he looked down at the assembled. "As you know both Zedd and Mondo attacked today. The Zeo Rangers had difficulty fighting both attacks at once. Mondo and Zedd's hatred for each other was the only thing that saved us from them." Zordon paused.

"And..." prompted Zack with a grin.

"And we need another team of Rangers if we are going to be able to deal with another such dual attack."

"Yes!" Zack jumped into the air and pumped his fist.

"Now Zachary, I know you still have responsibilities at the Peace Conference..."

Trini began to laugh lightly at Zack's antics. "Zordon, when Zack and I decided to come home, we thought it time we stayed. We've been gone a long time after all. We informed the Peace Council of our decision before we left."

"I see..." Zordon seemed a bit startled. "Well then, Kimberly, I don't want to keep you from..." He stopped when he saw the look on Kim's face.

"Actually Zordon. Gunther told me he didn't expect me back. He practically said I should stay here."

Zordon nodded silently.

"And you Aisha? Certainly they still need your help finding a cure in Kenya?"

"Yeah, but can't I still become a Ranger? I can stay in Africa and you guys can call me in an emergency."

Zordon paused for a minute. "Yes, that would be acceptable. Jason, Billy you two have already visited some of your Spirit Guides. After further study of your Powers I discovered something missing from each of you. Most Humans have four Spirit Guides, for the Body, Mind, Soul, and Self. I realized that you two only met the Spirits you were already familiar with. To truly find yourself and your guides you must be placed in a deep sleep. Alpha and I will put you into this sleep and monitor you. The rest is up to you. Are you ready?"

The six teens nodded.

"Good. Good luck Rangers, and May the Power protect you..." Zordon cast the deep sleep spell and the Rangers immediately slumped to the ground. "...even from your dreams." Alpha, teleport them to their prepared quarters."

"Yes Zordon. Do you think they will be able to acquire their Amalgam Powers?" Asked Alpha as he pushed a few buttons sending the sleeping Rangers to the living quarters beneath the Power Chamber.

"I do not know Alpha, the Grid Warrior Power is still an unknown. I have been studying Billy and Jason, but there is nothing conclusive."

"Yes, well I have to say Zordon, this is the most powerful and tightly knit group of Rangers you've ever had."

"I agree, and thank you Alpha. They're all back home now. I didn't realize how much I'd miss them. And even though Aisha will be living in Kenya, she'll still be on call."

"Aye yi yi. You're getting sentimental Zordon."

Zordon smiled down at his friend. "I'm only human Alpha. So... how is our project coming along?"

"Steadily Zordon. It should be entirely finished before the beginning of the school year."

"Excellent. I think I will rest now, please tell me if anything happens."

"Yes Zordon."

And with that, Zordon's image faded from his ion tube, and he entered his meditative dimension.

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