Everyone was bewildered. The entire place became silent.
They were shocked not because of the ambush, but because of who—or what—delivered it.
Connor staggered up on shaky legs, his battered ranger suit flickering from accumulated damage. Under the visor, his eyes widened in disbelief as he stared forward. Standing before them was a kaiju-sized green monster, its grotesque body wrapped in crude metallic armor. Thick green mist leaked out of its joints and skin like toxic vapor. Its bloodlust was palpable—eyes swirling with a cocktail of madness and animalistic ferocity.
Yes… it was the Green Goblin. The very same creature the Dino Rangers thought they had already destroyed.
Normally, monsters they defeated would immediately enter a second phase—reviving and growing into giant calamities right after their supposed death. But this one had stayed down. No twitch. No signal. No energy surge. Nothing. That's why they had assumed it was permanently done for.
So why… why was it back now?
"Why is it attacking Trent?" Ethan asked, utterly confused.
Why would a villain attack a villain? Weren't they supposed to be in cahoots? Teammates? At least mutual enemies of the Rangers?
Nothing made sense.
Green Goblin did not slow down. He smashed his enormous fists into the pit where Trent had fallen.
"Surrender… to MESOGOG…" his hoarse, distorted voice growled, echoing across the destroyed battlefield.
Bang!
The punch connected, shaking the entire block. The Rangers were too far and too slow to intercept. They didn't want Trent dead—well… except Kira, who was currently one emotional nudge away from letting him rot—but they all still knew their friend was in there somewhere. If Trent died, everything about his corruption would be irreversible.
BOOM!
The ground cracked open under the impact, debris flying, buildings trembling. The city took yet another catastrophic hit.
Peter and Gwen—watching from the rooftops—swallowed hard. A blow like that, directly to Trent's face at point-blank range with Goblin's new monstrous strength… that should've killed him.
Everyone believed he was dead.
But then—
"Who's ugly spawn is this?"
That arrogant, infuriating voice echoed out of the dust cloud.
He was not dead.
They all gasped.
Trent—White Dino Ranger—stood holding the giant monster's fist with one hand, completely unbothered. His visor glowed coldly.
With his free hand he stretched outward.
Fwoosh!
His white dagger shot across the battlefield, flying to his palm faster than sound.
He didn't hesitate.
He conjured several glowing white missiles with a flick of his dagger and swung it downward.
Zwoosh!
The projectiles slammed straight into the Goblin's armored chest.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Green Goblin stumbled back violently, nearly falling. His roar shook the ground.
ROAR!!!
Thick green gamma-mutated blood spilled from the wound—burning holes into the ground as it landed.
Peter was the first to notice.
His eyes sharpened. "Damn… it's corrosive."
His mind raced.
"If that stuff keeps melting the ground like that, the city's underground bunkers are done for. At this rate, it'll eat right into them."
He rubbed his masked chin, horrified.
Gwen placed a hand on his shoulder. "Peter… what's wrong?"
He quickly explained everything. Gwen's eyes widened behind her mask. Her fists clenched.
Fights of this scale were monstrous, devastating—Rangers vs Rangers, Zords vs mutated titans—civilians always paid the price. Like the saying went: When gods fight, mortals suffer.
They needed to act.
"Let's tell the Rangers," Peter said. "Before something worse happens."
Gwen agreed immediately.
They swung across the ruined city, landing near the Dino Thunder Rangers. When they explained the situation, the Rangers paled.
Even Kira—who'd been silent, guilt-ridden, and bitter over losing Ankylo—turned sharply, her eyes widening beneath the mask. She wanted to scream. She wanted to crumble. But those people underground… they needed saving.
Before any of them could move, though, they felt it.
A pressure.
A surge of dread from across the battlefield.
It made their bodies tense instinctively.
Something terrible was happening.
—
On the battlefield…
After blasting Green Goblin away, the White Dino Ranger wasted no time. His hand slammed onto his morpher as he shouted:
"DRAGO-ZORD!!"
"ANKYLO-ZORD!!"
"COMBINE!!!"
A brilliant flash illuminated the war-torn city.
The two zords shifted into a completely new fusion sequence—pieces rearranging, parts locking together, power surging as their compatibility neared a terrifying ninety percent.
A new megazord stood tall beneath the scorching sun.
White armor gleamed, its entire frame pulsing with raw grid energy. One arm spun like a colossal drill, its rotation slicing the air. The other arm remained clenched in a massive fist, flexing with destructive potential.
The pressure pouring from it was overwhelming.
The Rangers shivered.
Peter and Gwen instinctively stepped back.
Even the deranged Goblin—already mutated into a giant monster—felt fear. He roared and retreated, sensing dominance radiating from the new megazord.
In the cockpit, Trent—no, the White Dino Ranger with the corrupted presence inside him—threw his head back and laughed.
An unhinged, victorious, menacing laugh.
"This power… HAHAHAHA! It's all mine. If I can seize all their zords… I'll become unstoppable."
His voice deepened. Twisted. More malevolent.
"It won't be long before I take everything. Then I'll fuse completely with this body… and erase that useless brat's soul. Sharing a body with a low-level life-form… disgusting."
His eyes narrowed behind the visor as he turned toward the wounded Goblin.
"Let's deal with this goblin first."
He raised his Megazord's drill arm.
A quick execution was about to commence.
--- ✦ ---
Zayne's eyes narrowed as he watched the battle unfold on the holographic projection inside the base. The curved display wrapped around half the room, giving him a front-row seat to the chaos unfolding miles away.
Trent's rampage.The Green Goblin's grotesque mutation.The Rangers struggling, losing ground.The desperate transformation of the White Dino Megazord.And Kira—breaking down silently inside her ranger suit as she lost Ankylo's power.
Zayne absorbed every second.
The Omni-Ranger stood with his arms folded, leaning slightly to the side as the light from the hologram reflected off his armor in it's exquisite form. His expression remained composed, but his eyes betrayed something else—
A flicker of pain, buried beneath discipline.
He closed his eyes for a moment. He could feel Kira's sorrow. Not through any psychic connection, but through experience. He had been where she was—losing something that felt like a part of yourself. Something you thought would never be taken. Just like he did with his parents. That was a past he might never heal from, at least not now.
The hologram paused as he lifted his hand and tapped the side console.
But then, he was somewhat shocked at how much destruction Trent caused.
Moreover, the giant goblin battling Trent instead of the rangers was comical. It seems the white morpher was hard to take control of. So they might as well do it with force. This gave the rangers ample time to heal. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, after all.
The civilians were also in danger. He could see how Peter and Gwen looked helpless as the creature's corrosive blood melted through the ground, threatening the bunkers below.
He could go.He could intervene.He could end the fight in minutes.
But he didn't.
He exhaled slowly, the breath steady and deliberate. "They have to grow," he murmured, voice low. "I can't always save heroes whose mission was to save people in the first place."
The Rangers needed to learn to stand on their own—especially now, with powers shifting unpredictably and new cosmic threats stirring. Zayne being involved in everything would only stunt them. Worse, it would make people question how he always appeared at the right moment. Suspicion was the enemy he didn't need right now.
His gaze softened—not with romanticism, but human empathy—as the projection showed Kira wiping her visor, trying to hold back tears.
"Kira…" he whispered.
Watching her lose her zord wasn't easy. The bond between a Ranger and their zord wasn't just mechanical—it was spiritual. When one suffered, the other felt it. Kira had just experienced a soul-deep wound.
But this was a necessary scar.
She would come out stronger.
He let the hologram play for a few more seconds, observing Trent's growing madness and the unstable aura around him.
Then he shut it down entirely with a tap.
The room dimmed, leaving only the soft hum of machinery.
Zayne straightened, rolled his shoulders slightly, and turned toward the exit. "Time to move."
--- ✦ ---
Outside, his Omni-Cycle waited—sleek, red, glowing faintly with shifting grid energy lines along its frame. A hybrid of Power Ranger tech and the Omniversal Grid's gift. Zayne swung a leg over the seat and revved the engine.
The cycle roared with a deep, smooth vibration that echoed through the underground base.
As he rode up the exit ramp, sunlight burst across the visor of his helmet.
The moment he hit the open road, he activated the projected HUD. The holographic map flickered into view above the handlebars.
One screen displayed a large purple mark, pulsing with unstable energy.
The second screen displayed a big yellow mark—and a cluster of smaller blue dots trailing behind it.
Zayne studied them with a neutral expression at first.
Then his brow lowered slightly.
Blue dots meant… someone was tracking that yellow mark.
The yellow wasn't moving fast—someone was driving.The blue marks were steady, methodical.
A tail.
A shadow squad.
Or worse—Mesogog's agents.
"Of course," Zayne muttered.
He sighed, annoyed and thoughtful at the same time. His tone carried dry irritation that only someone exhausted from today's chaos could muster.
"A portal, huh? Let's find out what you're planning, Mesogog."
His visor displayed the readings again.
The purple mark wasn't natural. It was ripping open slowly—micro dimensional tears caused by corrupted Dino Grid energy. Dangerous. Volatile. Capable of swallowing entire areas if left unchecked.
"Great," he muttered. "I've had enough chaos for the day. Let's get this mission done."
He leaned forward. The Omni-Cycle flared blue and shot forward, leaving a streak of light behind it as Zayne vanished into the forest roads outside the city.
--- ✦ ---
The mountains were quiet.
Wind rustled through tall trees as a black jeep barreled down a narrow dirt road, bouncing violently over stones and uneven terrain. Inside, gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were white, sat Dr. Anton Mercer.
Sweat dripped down his forehead.
Not from exhaustion.
But fear.
He muttered to himself under his breath—not calmly, not rationally, but like a man fighting a war inside his mind.
"It's expanding… it wasn't supposed to grow this fast… no, no, this is wrong… the calculations were perfect, so why—why is it doing this?"
His eyes flicked between the road and the glowing device on the passenger seat. It displayed readings—energy spikes so high the bars were maxed out.
"Mesogog… damn you… this wasn't part of the equation…"
He only wanted human evolution, not this obsessed form of salvation. He now realized Mesogog was who he was, except twisted to the extreme.
Branches scraped the sides of the jeep as he sped deeper into the wilderness, far away from New York, far away from Angel Grove. He needed isolation. Secrecy. Time.
Because if this went wrong—
The world wouldn't survive the fallout.
Minutes later, his jeep screeched to a stop. Gravel flew. Dust rose.
Anton stumbled out of the vehicle, breathing hard.
He looked forward…
And froze.
A small rift hovered in the air, barely the size of a basketball, but constantly pulsing—expanding a millimeter at a time. Purple energy crackled around it, twisting like living electricity.
But it wasn't the size that terrified him.
It was the sound.
A deep, low hum… like a beast breathing from another dimension.
Anton's face twisted in horror. His voice cracked as he whispered to himself:
"Oh no… no, no, no… this is my fault. I did this. Calm down, Anton. It's just the end of the world, right?" (A/N: 😑🙄)
He swallowed hard.
"No, no, I have to fix this, fast."
Determination replaced fear. His trembling hands steadied. He rushed to the back of his jeep, opened the trunk hatch, and pulled out a metallic case.
Inside were several strange instruments—parts of a machine he'd been building secretly for months.
Although he shared souls and memories with Mesogog. He could actively block those memories from being read by him. That's why he was still alive till now. If not, he would have been six-feet under, without a tale to tell.
He assembled them quickly, snapping pieces together with practiced skill, forming something that looked halfway between a ray cannon and a high-powered energy stabilizer.
The device hummed loudly as it activated.
Anton dragged it across the dirt, positioning it directly in front of the expanding rift.
He adjusted a dial. The machine emitted a thin beam of stabilizing energy, locking onto the rift.
"Come on… come on… hold—just hold—"
He wiped his brow.
"Let's stop Mesogog."
A voice suddenly spoke behind him.
Calm. Firm. In control.
"Hello, Dr. Mercer. How about a chat?"
Anton froze.
Every instinct screamed danger.
He turned slowly…
His face went pale.
"Fury!"
--- ✦ ---
This one is a large chapter and also covers some plot holes. I hope you guys are enjoying my novel. I'm a new author. Still learning. I'm open to criticism.