Author's Note: More fun fanficing. I apologize if my writing is terrible or my plots are ridiculous.
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers or any related media or characters. The story idea is my own but the rest isn't. Everything is copyrighted to its respective owners. Except Lord Zygon – he's mine. Sorta.
I love reviews and I do respond to emails so feel free to send questions.
WARNING!: This fic will contain slash, femslash and possibly even some het (le gasp). No porn or anything like that, but there will be some unresolved sexual tension, some resolved sexual tension, and some romance.. Please keep this in mind. Main pairings are Diggy and Kenaya. Also, this is an AU fic with some possible series spoilers. Thanks for your time, and enjoy!
Being a Power Ranger isn't really a glamorous job. Sure, sometimes events or parties were thrown for the team, children sometimes got to come and meet the team, asking them questions as well as giving praise, and hell, they even got to play with the coolest, most high tech things available in Corinth. But really, the team's life mostly seemed to consist of fighting. Some days, it was almost as if they did nothing but get up at odd hours to deal with yet another damn Attackbot, yet another swarm of grinders, yet more of the city getting destroyed.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, sometimes their tech just went haywire for no reason or one of their teammates would get turned evil. Dillon had had the Venjix virus slowly taking him over for a while till Dr. K had managed to synthesize a temporary cure for it. He was still without memories and still looking for his sister, but at least he wasn't turning evil all the time right? Provided everyone's suits worked and didn't require putting engine cells in backwards to not freeze them in time, things were okay till new Attackbots they couldn't handle showed up.
Presently, Ziggy Grover, Ranger Operator Series Green, was suffering a lot from his suit. He already hadn't been the ideal choice for it – having had to bond with the morpher only so it wouldn't fall into the hands of the evil Tenaya 7, Venjix Human Infiltration Attackbot. The young man really had never wanted to be a Power Ranger, knowing with all his heart that'd be one of the worst things in the world for him. Firstly, because he was a wimpy little coward who no one really could look up to or admire, but also because he knew he couldn't handle the technology's power or all the fighting. The team practically hating him from the get-go was also a drawback (and they'd hated him before he'd even been a ranger) but eventually, they'd grown as a family, so that was okay.
Locked in the bathroom he usually shared with Series Black (each team member had a bathroom with shower attached to their room, apparently for efficiency of cleaning and getting to work), Ziggy was grimacing at his reflection. It was pretty hard to get noticed when you were the dorky kid in a group of beautiful, strong and powerful fighters, but he didn't exactly want to get noticed for how he looked right then. His thin and small figure was covered in bruises and swollen red marks from their most recent battles. Ziggy's suit wasn't holding up very well and instead of just getting the crap kicked out of him unmorphed, he was getting beaten up even more while in the Ranger attire as well. With a large amount of makeup he'd had to go on errands for Summer and Gemma to get (because what male Power Ranger went shopping for makeup for himself?) the young male had to cover up each of the bruises and hope they didn't leave him looking like a girl who was trying to hide when her boyfriend got rough.
Really, people did somewhat expect a group that fought that much to be a bit banged up. But none of the team bruised as easily as Ziggy did and looking nervous and sad and beaten up while standing next to the others at an event when they looked perfect was an insult to the team. Plus, if he let on how beaten up he was, the group might say he wasn't able to handle things and try to boot him off the team. Ziggy may not have wanted to join but he was a member and proud to help people. Whether or not those people liked him or cared that he helped them.
Telling Dr. K that there was something wrong with the Series Green suit was like talking to a wall – a very insulting wall. She often claimed that any errors came from having a sub-par Operator, not due to any flaw in the mechanics. But he knew K hadn't even been looking, or if she had, she didn't want to worry him and explain that his suit was not going to last much longer, both admitting she had screwed up and that he might be doomed and had no choice in the matter. Ziggy only knew this because he'd actually taken a peak at his scans over her shoulder and knew they were way different from how they were supposed to look. Most wrote him off at stupid, but the young ex-con was actually smart enough to know when stuff was wrong with him.
He was halfway through getting the makeup prepared and on when the alarms started ringing, signaling an attack. Quickly, he pulled on his clothes and team leather jacket, only really able to grab a bit of the makeup to cover any marks on his face before he dashed downstairs to join the others. The fact that he could dress and get his face looking normal so far as a tribute to how well he was learning – before he'd joined the team, something like this took him a good several minutes. The marks on the rest of his body would have to wait, but Ziggy was covered up enough to not worry about that.
Dillon gave his friend a funny look when he came down and climbed into the passenger's seat of the fury. What he first noticed was that Ziggy was wearing makeup – the color was off in a few patches on his face – but his friend had been upstairs for a while before they'd been called out. Maybe he'd had a date that day? Despite how it caused a knot to form in the older Ranger's chest, Operator Series Black decided he might as well ask, since the breach was a pretty long drive away and the blotchy parts were not going to stop bugging him.
"Had plans tonight, or did you just not feel pretty enough, Princess?" the older man joked with a smirk, taking the lollipop Ziggy pulled out for him. They were getting way too used to this job, and it was showing. Being able to not panic and just chill on the way to a shield breach? That was not something that was normally habitual.
The younger man blinked, the dorky grin he'd had on when he came down faltering for a moment, "Wha?" It was apparently a very surprising question. What, did Ziggy think he wouldn't notice a bunch of off color patches?
"You're wearing makeup." The Black Ranger pointed out, eyebrow raised in confusion.
Surprise and fear were visible for a second in Ziggy's eyes before the youngest ranger leaned over to look at one of the mirrors in the car to see what his friend was talking about, "Ooooooh, that. No that's nothing, just trying out a new skin cream!" The lie was obvious, particularly from how quickly he tried to fix the blotchy patches where a bit too much was smeared on a little too fast. Well now Ziggy's complexion looked right but it was kind of annoying to Dillon that his friend wouldn't even give him a straight answer to a question like that. He didn't dwell on it much longer though – they were almost to the battle and Ziggy was a bit shy about serious romantic subjects. And the older man couldn't help but chuckle at the cute way his companion looked at the car mirrors to fix his appearance, almost preening but not quite.
When they finally arrived at the source of the shield breach, the whole team assembled, ready to fight Tenaya 7, a whole ton of grinders and the usual big, ugly Attackbot. But as he exited the car, Ziggy couldn't help but think this one was going to be different, a feeling he was pretty sure the rest of the team shared as he glanced over towards them. Gem and Gemma were looking ready to blow something up – a sure sign that they already didn't have a good feeling about this fight and they wanted it to go their way instead; Flynn looked torn between getting ready to attack and being ready to tackle Gem and Gemma to hold them back; Scott was tenser than usual and kept looking to the others; Summer was shaking a tad; And Dillon? He looked ready to murder that huge cobbled together mess that was this week's Attackbot.
The fight was a blur of metal and trouble and loud grunts from the team fighting. Ziggy's suit was acting up yet again and he could barely dodge attacks, choosing to stick to the background with the grinders since they tended to be a little easier on him than Tenaya or the Attackbots were. However, sometime during the confusion, he'd ended up de-morphed and on the ground at Tenaya 7's feet. She looked somewhere between curb-stomping him and blasting him when her face screwed up in confusion.
"Are you...wearing makeup?" she asked, looking at him for a good few moments in an attempt to figure it out.
This gave Ziggy the time to stand up and stagger a little away. "Yes I am, I wish people would stop asking." he grumbled, not bothering to fix it since his morph was due to phase back in soon.
Tenaya's lips curved into a smirk that would have brought a glint to her eyes had they not been concealed under her visor. "You should know, you look pretty just the way you are, Ranger Green." the smirk turned colder and more cruel in a moment and she took a few steps away, "But what you'll be next is a charred mark on the ground when Venjix's new Gatebot gets finished with you!"
Turning around, the newly remorphed Ziggy stared in horror as he saw the Gatebot readying an attack. The ranger tried to move his feet but to no avail – his suit was screwed – and had Dillon not dived forward and put up his invincibility shield, the younger male was sure he'd be dead. The team clustered around him quickly, none seeming to understand the real problem – why Ziggy hadn't moved. They'd all been too distracted to see him demorph behind some boxes and remorph again a bit later, and had merely thought he hadn't moved because he was surprised or too scared.
"Come on, Ziggy, no time to turn coward on us now!" Scott called, motioning for the group to combine weapons and blast the Attackbot. It took him a few moments to force his suit into action, but Ziggy managed to make things work in time for them all to fire at the bot. Sadly, it was firing back at them too by that point and the blasts met in mid-air. In another version of the very same world, a similar fight was taking place, and as the smoke of the attack cleared, the Gatebot was laying on the ground, broken, and a new group of Power Rangers stood before them.
The whole group reacted in shock, and Ziggy could vaguely distinguish different 'huh?'s from his friends at the appearance of the very similar team of Rangers – looking just like them, just with upgraded suits. However, with his fading consciousness, and from his position on the ground where the backlash had thrown the whole team, the male was only able to pick out one major thing – this team lacked a Series Green.
Tenaya 7 stared in shock at the new team of rangers. Okay that had NOT been in the plan! But knowing her boss, now was not the time to think of that as she dashed off to return to base. Venjix would be giving the order to Begin the Download soon and she didn't want to be underfoot during a megazord fight, particularly not if a new team of rangers had shown up. The only thing about this she could be thankful for was that it was not, in any way, her own fault – this was definitely the doing of Venjix and his 'new, improved, and soon to be tested technology' in the Gatebot. And unknown to Tenaya, as she scurried back to base, a dark shadow followed her, preparing to bring Venjix even more trouble than the other team of Rangers would.
Ziggy sat up, de-morphed fully, and noticing something very strange. There was a zord fight going on with the Gatebot...but his friends were all de-morphed on the ground near him, and this was definitely not the RPM Ultrazord...or any of their zords, really. The young man was pretty sure he'd remember if they had a large purple cat-like zord that combined with slightly more improved looking versions of the normal zords to make this new Ultrazord. However, he was a bit too tired from his suit troubles to stay conscious much longer and passed out once more to the whoops and cheers of his teammates, all watching the fight and none of them really noticing him, assuming he was right with them.
His second return to consciousness in a short while was done with the help of a very pretty young woman with long dark hair and a very pretty purple shirt. Ziggy blinked a bit, "Tenaya?" he asked, a bit confused out of his mind at the nice looking young woman who helped him.
She smiled somewhat, shaking her head, "Close. I'm Aya. Nice to meet you." she greeted and seemed to easily heft him off the ground and carry his weight, one of the weakened male's arms hanging over her shoulder and one of her arms around his waist. Ziggy was too out of it by this point to try and act macho or force a grin and tell her he'd be fine, or make some cocky comment about how he could so have handled that Attackbot if she and her team hadn't rescued it from the hurt it was going to receive. The young man didn't seriously believe those things, but it was the only way to keep himself distracted from how crappy he felt some days or being too nervous to speak to someone.
"Come on, we have to get back to the Garage. If we're in some alternate version of our world, then so is he and that won't be good for anyone here." the woman told Ziggy with haunted eyes, hurrying him towards the Fury, which Dillon and...well, Dillon, were arguing over. The green ranger's brain was just about to wrap around this concept when he once again blacked out, much to the annoyance of the young woman carrying him. This guy was either the most easily shocked person she had ever met, or he really was not fit to be on ranger duty at present. And neither boded well for this alternate version of the team.
Back at the Palace, Venjix was FURIOUS. A second team of Rangers, and one apparently WAY stronger than the current group? One was annoying enough! Needless to say, Tenaya was avoiding going in to report back. Now would probably be a dumb time for that, she thought, after observing a very blown up Crunch being swept up by Grinders. Very dumb.
"Going to stand around here all night?" came an eerily familiar voice from behind the female, a voice she couldn't quite place. Spinning around she pointed her blaster into the face of...who the hell was that? The person behind her definitely didn't look like most of Venjix's machines, thinner and with more light muscle than bulky techno-parts that tended to weigh down most of his Attackbots. His face was hidden by a visor similar to her own that seemed to have a side shield as well as one from the top, and his clothes were black, as opposed to the burgundy shade hers seemed to be.
She hissed a bit, pressing her blaster right under his chin, "Who are you?" the female growled at him, made a tad nervous by how unperturbed he was.
"Better question is who are YOU, little lady?" that smile of his was getting on her nerves quickly.
Tossing her hair, the Attackbot gave her full designation, "I am Tenaya, Generation 7, Venjix Human Infiltration Attackbot. I am your thoughts and minds. I am mankind's unconscious being. I am the final evolution of the-hey wait a moment! I asked you first! Out with it! Who are you and how dare you enter this place?" she snapped, actually annoyed that she'd gone back on the habit of stating her lengthy title. After the first two times of getting cut off during it, she had given up on the damn speech, but this intruder seemed interested in hearing it.
The newcomer seemed perfectly willing to listen to her speech and was almost disappointed when she cut off. However, that smirk returned and he stretched a bit, preparing his own title, "Lord Zygon, Generation 23. Venjix Human Infiltration blah blah blah yada yada same spiel different day you get my point." His hand waved a few times as he said this and it was pretty clear that at least his wasn't detachable – too many similarities and this would get even freakier.
Tenaya paled when he stated his generation number, "What? That can't be! We aren't even at generation 19 yet!" she snapped, horrified. This person was either a very good liar...or he had come from wherever those powered-up rangers did.
"You're very smart. Do you want a gold star for your troubles?" he cooed, leaning forward to pat Tenaya's head as if she were a child, a gesture she shook off rather forcefully, "Of course you're nowhere close to my generation just yet. That's why I'm taking over NOW, while I can." And with that the pompous ass stalked into the throne room to inform Venjix of this, leaving a very horrified and confused Tenaya 7 to stand there and watch him before deciding she'd rather not see how this went down and heading back to bed.