Early one morning, Vulcan stood atop his tower. His overcoat fluttered in the breeze as he looked out the miles of ocean surrounding the island “The time is near…” he hissed to himself “After many battles and man failures; I may finally have what it takes to defeat the rangers.”

He teleported inside and yelled for his minions!

Bronc, Keto, and Marla all rushed to him. “You called, Master?” said Bronc. “Yes.” replied Vulcan “The time has come for me to unveil my work to you all. Come with me.”

The minions, intrigued, followed him to his private lab. “Behold, my masterpiece!” said Vulcan as he flicked on the lights and everyone saw it…!

…A large robot, coated in gold and silver armor, with four arms, and it was loaded with all kinds of weaponry; buzz-saws, small cannons, and a spiked-ball on a chain. The minions were in awe. “Whoa!” remarked Keto.

“It’s incredible!” whispered Bronc. Marla didn’t know what to saw or feel, but she impressed no doubt. Vulcan explained that using the remains of the volcanic and comet energies, he used it to create his robot which he named “Vulcano”!

“This will prove to be far greater than any prisoner we have sent.” he picked up a remote control, and a type of visor, revealing he would be controlling the Vulcano himself; almost as if he himself were actually going to be fighting the rangers. “Um, I hate to sound like a downer,” Marla cut in “But what it if doesn’t work?” Bronc and Keto urged her to be quiet so as not to upset Vulcan, but Vulcan actually snickered, “That’s just the point. You see, in business you can never be too certain your plan will succeed or not.

…I know this especially considering the the number of times you all failed in the past!”

“It wasn’t all our faults.” said Keto “The prisoners are the one who…”

“Never mind!” snapped Vulcan “The point is, in business before you do anything with a new machine or a plan, be sure to test it to see how it works.”

He pressed on the controller and Vulcano began to come to life, and it looked raring to go.

Vulcan laughed wickedly, and the minions laughed too.

(Que Intro)

Later that day, the rangers were visiting their friends in the hospital.

After all this time, they still showed no sign of awakening, but at least their bodies felt warmer, and their wounds had healed nicely, but it would’ve been so much nicer if they were awake. Sapphire tilted her head to the side, being that she never met them before, but her friends told her what transpired before they met her and she felt really bad for them. Lightning gazed down pitifully at Starla. “I can’t begin to think of all the stuff they’ve missed out on.”

Fluttershy looked as if she would cry, such thoughts broke her heart. All the picnics she and her friends had been on, all the activities and events at school, why even school itself. “What if they never wake up!” she cried.

Rhymey placed his hand upon her shoulder saying,

“They will awaken, I know they will.
But we must continue to be strong for them still.”

The others agreed, “And watch…” Rainbow joked as she stood near Pinkie Pie “They wake up and she’ll want to throw us the biggest party ever.”

The others all smiled and sniggered softly, except for Sunset. Everyone saw her by Artie’s bed. It had been really hard on her all this time, and she really wished he were awake. “I miss you so much.” she said softly to him as she held his hand.

She remembered all the wonderful times they had when they first became a couple. She thought it so magically that he could ever have feelings for her, but more magically when she discovered her true feelings for him.

All her life she hardly understood passion and true love, and thanks to him and to all her friends, now she knew, and it was all worth it.

“Please come back to us…” she whispered to Artie “…To me.” She didn’t even care that the others were watching, or whether if it was even allowed or not. She bent down gently pressing her lips against Artie’s. All the others thought that was a deep moment; like something in a fairy-tale, but of course her kiss didn’t wake Artie up. Tears flow down Sunset’s cheeks. Buddy came over and comforted her, holding her close. “Come on, maybe we should go. It won’t do you too good to stay here.”

Sunset tearfully agreed.

They all left the hospital where Twilight was outside with Spike. “How are they?” she asked, but the silence she received and the remains of Sunset’s tearful expression told her, “About the same, huh?”

The others all sighed. “I wish we knew how much longer we had to wait until they woke up.” said Buddy. The others all felt the same, but of course there wasn’t much they could do.

“By the way, how’s the status on the portal?” Rainbow asked Sunset. She shook her head, meaning the connection between the two worlds had not yet been repaired. “I even wrote to Commander Lightning, and he said it will still take time, that and he and his friends are up to their ears in danger tracking all the escaped prisoners.”

Spike shuddered, “Just the thought of that ruffles my fur. You guys only face a few monsters a week, but… imagine facing a few hundred at once!”

Fluttershy could actually see it before her eyes; Monsters! Everywhere she looked she could see monsters of many shapes and sizes, all of them laughing and growling at her.

She whimpered nervously as she quivered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W0pWaDrbe4

Even the others couldn’t help but find such a thought horrifying.

Meanwhile, Krysta was flying about, humming and singing softly as she, pretty, much patrolled around the island. The suburbs were quiet, the parks were clean, there didn’t seem to be anything bad happening in the city itself.

Krysta heard the sound of the town clock chiming. “Twelve-O-Clock and all is well.” she said as she stood on a roof ledge. Then he stomach gurgled, “Oh… right on que. Lunch time!” she said, and she was about to take off when suddenly she heard people screaming below. She looked down and saw Vulcan’s minions all in the street with a swarm of Lingos. All of them causing trouble; terrorizing the citizens and smashing things up causing a huge ruckus as they shouted out for the rangers to appear.

“Come on out, Rangers!” Marla shouted, and she ordered her Lingos to “Destroy!”

Bronc and Keto fired their blasts at the ground and buildings.

Krysta flew off in a heartbeat to warn the rangers on the other side of the city. She found them all walking down the street from the hospital.

“Lightning…! LIGHTNING…!!”

Lightning looked up “Krysta…?”

She soared down so fast she almost crashed onto the sidewalk. She was panting very heavily trying to catch her breath. Lightning scooped her up in his arms as she tried to explain. “Saw the… city… screaming… monst…”

“What is she saying?” asked Rainbow.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t speak bird, if that’s even what it is.” said Spike.

Krysta finally caught her breath, but as she was about to explain, Celesto called the rangers. “Red Alert…! Red Alert!” he said to them over their coms, “Vulcan’s minions are terrorizing downtown. Proceed at once!”

Lightning looked down at Krysta, “Let me guess… THAT’S what you were trying to say?”

“…Duh!” remarked Krysta.

Twilight took Krysta and Spike, “We’ll head to the base. You guys get going.”

The rangers agreed and Sunset called, “Come on guys… It’s Morphin’ Time!”

“STARFLEET MAGIC…!!”

“Cosmic Comet…!”

“… POWER ON!!”

Sapphire whistled and Snowflake and Striker came to her side.

The citizens continued to run in panic, but a little girl dropped her stuffed dog on the sidewalk and wrenched away from her mother to run and pick it up.

“No! Come back!” her mother shouted as she dashed to catch up to her daughter, only to run right into Keto and a few Lingos. “Hi there…” Keto teased, frightening the lady and child. Snowflake flew in and blasted Keto away and landed in front of the mother and child. This gave the mother and child their chance to escape.

Bronc snickered, “You certainly took your sweet time getting here.”

“Yeah…? Well it won’t take much time for us to get you OUT of here!” sneered Sunset. The other rangers all agreed.

“Get them!” Marla called to the Lingos.

The rangers and dragons all rushed forth! Striker wracked the Lingos easily with it's tail. Snowflake did the same thing and blasted some with her plasma blast. Rainbow gave a Lingo a huge soccer-kick to the chest sending it crashing into two more.

Sapphire barreled the Lingoes with her cheetah speed, slashing each one with her scepter. "I love this scepter!" she cried as she slashed the Lingos. Fluttershy was surrounded by several other Lingos, but as they all lunged for her at once, she leapt up high at the last moment causing them all crash into each other.

Lightning knocked one Lingo down, then another, and then he jumped and spilt kick another two. “I get a kick out of this.” he joked.

Buddy leapt in and attacked at Marla with his whip. “Hold still, will ya?!” he thundered as he kept swinging and Marla kept dodging. Suddenly, she caught his whip and yanked him towards her. “Why don’t you sit DOWN!” she thundered as she swiped him hard with her sharp nails making sparks fly. Just then, Sapphire came in and slashed Marla with her sharp lion claws, sending her flying. "Pesky cat!" Sapphire leaped onto her and clawed her while giving a cat hiss. Marla screamed in pain and horror. Buddy just stared, scared to leap in. That's the definition of Cat Fight.

Rhymey fought with Keto, staff against sword. “You didn’t think magic was my only forte, did you?” said Keto.

“So I see,
But you’re smaller than Me.” scoffed Rhymey

CLANG!! The two weapons met in a struggle, and while Rhymey seemed to have the upper-hand, Keto underhandedly cast a mugic on himself. “Song of Fury!” making him stronger, and able to knocked Rhymey back hard.

Sunset fought against Bronc, or rather was dodging and evading his huge fists. Suddenly, she was backed up against a wall. Bronc snickered as he cracked his huge knuckles.

“Uh, we could talk about this…” whimpered Sunset.

“Now where’s the fun in that?” remarked Bronc and he thrust his fists forth, but Sunset rolled to the side at the last moment, and Bronc’s fists went straight through the wall; he was stuck. Sunset saw this as her chance to attack, but Bronc turned his head and shot her with his eye-lasers.

“Sunset…!” Fluttershy cried as she and the others ran to her side and helped her up.

Bronc pulled himself out of the wall with ease and regrouped with his comrades. “You seem to be losing your touch, Rangers.” he teased.

Sunset clenched her fists, “Oh, yeah? We’ll show you!”

The rangers all agreed, but as they charged forth, Sapphire and the dragons stopped just as powerful shots bombarded them from out of nowhere, knocking them all down. “What was that?” snapped Rainbow.

“Look…!” cried Buddy as he pointed on ahead, and the rangers all saw a big hulking robot, Vulcano, stomping its way towards them.

At the base, the others saw it, but they could hardly believe it.

“Who or what is that?” snapped Spike, but much to everyone’s dismay, no matter how hard Twilight tried, “I can’t scan it!”

Celesto clenched his fists, “It must have a special coating! We’ll have no way of knowing how strong it is or what it can do.”

Krysta felt a chill run down her back, “That means the rangers will have to figure this out for themselves!”

The gang had their hopes for the rangers, but didn’t dare leave their stations and kept on working to do whatever they could in case of emergency.

Vulcano glared the rangers down. “That has got to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.” said Rainbow.

"Hey!" Sapphire cried, feeling insulted.

"Second weirdest." Rainbow changed and Sapphire smiled.

“Well take a good long look, Rangers…!” said a voice over a radio. “That voice!" cried Fluttershy. “…Vulcan!” growled Sunset. Vulcan laughed. Vulcan controlled Vulcano from the safety of the tower and viewed everything through the visor. He spoke into a small microphone, calling to the minions, “Return to the tower at once. I’ll handle things now.” The minions sighed; they were just getting warmed up, but complied with their master’s order, and they vanished out of sight.

“Now then…” Vulcan hissed as he glared at the rangers “…Who’d like to go first?”

The rangers all stood ready to go for it. “Go!” shouted Sunset, and she and the rangers charged forth, while Vulcano remained wear he was, not even moving.

“Attack!” shouted Sunset, and she and each of the rangers aimed powerful punches and kicks mercilessly at the robot’s armor, but of course such pitiful attacks didn’t even move the robot a single millimeter. Sapphire didn't even try to attack with her scepter. She knew something more powerful was needed to deal with the bot. "Snowflake, Striker, come." The dragons obeyed and followed her.
“How pitiful…” Vulcan hissed, and he hit the controls…

…Vulcano extended his strong arms and knocked all the rangers back hard, sending them sailing and crashing along the ground.

“Whoa!” Lightning groaned as he held his arm “This thing’s tough.”

“I guess we should’ve expected that.” agreed Sunset, “Everyone, get your weapons out!”

Once armed, the rangers dashed to attack, but they found that even their weapons weren’t good enough either. Rhymey slashed his sword as hard as he could and Buddy gave his whip a heck of a swipe. Sunset and Rainbow blasted him with their weapons charged high.

“Here I come!” said Lightning “Comet Trail… Fire!”

KAPOW!! All those attacks combined made a huge explosion. The rangers looked with excitement, “Did we get it?” asked Fluttershy “Please say we did.” But they all suddenly heard the sound of Vulcan laughing over the radio, and when the smoke cleared, Vulcano had not even a scratch on him.

“I don’t believe it!
He took every direct hit!” growled Rhymey.

“Now, let me show you some real weaponry!” hissed Vulcan “Engage cannons!”

Two cannons on Vulcano’s back took aim. “Watch out!” cried Sunset, and the rangers scattered about as the cannons fired small shots that made big explosions, and though the shots missed the rangers the force of the explosions still knocked them all back hard.

“Launch the buzz-saws!” Vulcan shouted as he hit the controls, and five circular saws were launched like flying discs. They flew furiously like boomerangs, actually curving and made comebacks forcing the rangers to dodge like crazy.

Lightning and Rainbow tried to blast the saws, Rainbow with her cannon, and Lightning with his Comet trail, but the saws took the hits like nothing and kept right on going forth, hitting them both hard.

Fluttershy held up her shield, catching two saws that buzzed furiously against the surface of the shield making showers of sparks, and the force of the push was actually shoving Fluttershy back softly.

“Help me!” she cried.

Rhymey, responding to his girlfriend’s cry came leaping in and took a big swing with his sword knocking the two blades away like baseballs and the two blades plopped onto the ground, having run out of speed, as did all the others.

While the rangers felt a slight relief, Vulcano blasted them with his cannons knocking them all over again. Then, Vulcan activated a special magnet that brought all the saws back to his robot, and launched them again.

Vulcan laughed as he watched the ranger dodge fruitlessly. “I haven’t had this much fun in five-hundred years!”

The minions watched the battle from the monitors in the main laboratory. “A right and a left! OOH, Chi Wawa!” cheered Keto.

“Chi Wawa…?” Marla asked in confusion “How does that even work?”

Keto shrugged.

“Quiet!” snapped Bronc “He’s coming around again!”

He then pressed on the controls and made Vulcano extend the balls on chains on two of his arms.

Swinging the balls wildly, Vulcano dove straight at the rangers. “Let’s move!” shouted Sunset, and she and the others all leapt up, up, up onto high rooftops. “This should give us some space to think of something.”

Buddy gawked ahead, “Uh… I don’t think so! Look…!” Everyone looked to their horrors as Vulcano was levitating, via rocket-boots. “You didn’t think you could lose me that easy, did you?” teased Vulcan.

Vulcano jumped onto the roof and fought like crazy, swinging his chains and hitting the rangers with the spike-balls and even punching the rangers with his two free arms, knocking them off the roof.

Budd skillfully lassoed his whip round a flagpole sticking out of the building and swung across grabbing his friends forming a human chain allowing them all to land safely in the street.

“Great job, Buddy.” said Sunset.

Buddy gave the team a high thumb, but Vulcano glared at them from above and leapt down “Ready or not, here it comes…!” Vulcan called as he launched the saws and fired the cannons, forcing the rangers to dodge about again.

From the base, the others were watching everything, powerless to help or even come up with a solution.

“They can’t last much longer like this!” cried Krysta.

Twilight continued to try and scan the robot and any possible weakness it had, but to no avail. “Ugh! This is ridiculous!” she groaned as she pounded the keyboard “I can’t come up with anything. Even the Able Boost won’t work against that thing.”

Spike pulled on his ears in frustration. “Man, how much bigger can our problems get!”

Celesto suddenly got an idea from hearing that. “Normally it’s against better principles, but the situation calls for it. Send out the Star Jets! We’re going to fight this machine-to-machine!”

"Wait, sir look!" Twilight cried pointing back at the screen.

Two of the saws struck Lightning and Sunset.

Vulcano then swung his chains, hitting Rhymey and Fluttershy with the spike-balls, and finally shot at Rainbow and Buddy with his cannons.

The rangers were starting to look and feel pretty beat. Their suits had scorch marks from the numerous attacks they had sustained, while Vulcano had hardly been scratched.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I can hardly take much more of this.” Lightning groaned as he stood.

“Me either.” added Rainbow.

Vulcan laughed, “Getting tired, are we? Well, you’ll all be taken a long rest soon enough!” Vulcano prepared to bash the rangers again when...

Snowflake and Striker blasted Vulcano. Then, Jaguin Zord bashed Vulcano away and Dire Wolf Zord slammed into it. "Snowflake, Striker, Jaguin and Dire Wolf Zord?!" Rainbow cried.

"Sapphire!" Sunset cheered.

"So you wanna take me on, Animal Ranger?" Vulcan challenged. , Vulcano, Jaguin and Dire Wolf Zord circled each other like predator and prey ready for battle. The Zords were crouched low to the ground while Vulcano towered over them.

"Bring it, creep!" Vulcan grinned widely and very wickedly.

The minions could hardly believe this; Vulcan being cool about it.

“I’ll make the robot grow.” said Keto, and he was about to cast his spell, “No…!” Vulcan thundered, causing Keto to slip off his footstool and fall to the floor. “But sir…”

“I said No!” snapped Vulcan “…That will not be necessary this time.”

Marla whispered to Bronc “Has he flipped his lid?”

Bronc shrugged as he didn’t know, but he and the others continued to watch.

Jaguin Zord roared and pounced onto Vulcano, latching onto the front of it's body and it dug it's calws into the armor. Vulcano jumped and leaped around trying to shake the Zord off and rocking Sapphire inside. "WOAH, YEOW, GAH! SNOWFLAKE, STRIKER, DIRE WOLF, HURRY!" The dragons charged forth and blasted the robot and Dire Wolf howled and leaped into the air, spinning quickly and curling up into the ball, at the last second Jaguin Zord detached itself and the Wolf Zord slammed into Vulcano, sending it crashing to the ground. "Awesome!" Lightning cried.

Vulcan growled and got up again. "Time to cut you down to size! and he launched the buzz saws. The Zords blasted beams from their mouths and the dragons combined it with their fire, actually deflecting the saws back and they reattached themselves to Vulcano. "Insolent pest!" Vulcan yelled. He fired the lasers at the Zord but Jaguin Zord and Dire Wolf Zord leaped into the air and dodged. Striker was beginning to pant. Using his high concentrated fire attacks took alot of out him. "Striker, here boy." Sapphire beamed Striker into the cockpit so he could rest.

Vulcano launched the cannons at the Zords. Jaguin Zord blasted the beam back with it's electric energy negating it. "Time to end this Vulcan!" Sapphire called.

"Same here!"

Vulcano glowed brightly with massive amounts of energy ready to charge the Zords. "Ready girls?" Sapphire said.

The Zord roared and howled charging up as well. Sapphire inserted her scepter into the console. The scepter glowed and the console glowed with power. It was increasing the Zords' powers by ten-fold! Sapphire beamed Snowflake into the Zord for safety.

The rangers below looked on in concern.

Twilight and Celesto had been monitoring the Zord's energy levels. They were off the charts! "Sapphire, that’s too dangerous.” Celesto said trying to discourage her, but it was no use. "The force of his charge may destroy you and the Zords!" Twilight added. “I'm not running away, Twilight! Ihave to do this!” she responded.

“Is she crazy?!” snapped Buddy.

“I’d say so.” said Rainbow. Vulcano finished charging up. "SAY GOODBYE, RANGER!" He rammed the controls and Vulcano charged the Zords. "ULTIMATE THUNDER AND LEAF!" The Zord roared with amazing power and charged head on towards Vulcano....

The three machines collided.

BOOM!

The explosion was so great it was seen and heard all over the island!

The smoke cleared and there was an ominous silence. "SAPPHIRE!"

There was a large figure standing... when the smoke was completely cleared it revealed to be...

...Jaguin and Dire Wolf Zord with Vulcano nothing more than pieces of scrap metal.

The rangers sighed in great relief while everyone at the base cheered with joy. "SHE DID IT! SHE DID IT!" Spike cried.

Jaguin and Dire Wolf roared and howled in victory.

Back at the tower, the controls and images in the visor had gone dead with the robot’s destruction.

The minions were all trembling with fear that Vulcan would start lashing out in fury at this loss. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to run!” whimpered Keto.

“Not before me you aren’t!” said Marla.

However, Vulcan didn’t seem angry at all; he was laughing rather hysterically as he pounded the wall like a madman.

“He doesn’t seem that mad to Me.” said Bronc.

The minions all approached their laughing master. He was laughing so hard he coughed and hacked a bit trying to catch his breath.

“Uh… sir…?” Keto asked trying to get Vulcan’s attention. At least he calmed down a bit and wasn’t laughing so hard.

“How can you be laughing? Your plan didn’t work!” said Marla.

“I’m quite aware of that…” Vulcan sneered.

“But sir…” Bronc try to inquire, but he was cut off when Vulcan held up his hand. “I told you all, didn’t… This was merely a test, and regardless of the failure, I now have all that I require.”

The minions were all confused.

“In business, you should always be sure to have a backup; cover your losses… and I have just the thing.”

He showed them all the blueprints of what was surely his ultimate plot, which the minions all took a shine too.

“Wow!” cried Marla.

“Cool!” said Keto.

“Magnificent!” Bronc said in astonishment “When do we begin…?”

Vulcan only snickered.

Meanwhile, the rangers, dragons and Sapphire made it back to base.

“Hail the conquering hero!” Spike sang, and he and Krysta acted like it was a big parade show, hoping around and throwing confetti. Sapphire smiled at the little, cute scene, but the rangers didn’t seem so optimistic, as was hinted by their deeply concerned looks.

Twilight and Celesto looked exactly the same way.

“Come on, what’s with you all?” asked Krysta “Sapphire sent that bucket of bolts to the scrap-heap.”

“Yeah, almost getting herself destroyed in the process…” said Rainbow. The rangers glared at her and she gave them and nervous smile. "Ehehehe."

"She took a huge risk and managed to survive, but that may be different the next time."

“I can hardly believe Vulcan would actually send a robot after us.” Lightning said. Sunset had a sickening feeling in her stomach, the way the battle had gone and how Vulcan nearly crushed them all if it wasn't for Sapphire, her dragons and her Zords, “…I think… he was just testing us.”

“It is very possible he was.” agreed Celesto “We have no way of knowing for sure what Vulcan has gained from this, or what he plans to do next, but rest assured… we must be ready for it.”

Everyone agreed, promising to train hard and be ready for whatever lay ahead.