"We did it, Zeddy! We did it!" Rita Repulsa was giddy as she entered her old home on Earth's moon. "We blew the Machine Empire out of existence! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Zedd would have smiled, had he a mouth. Instead, he just cackled and sat in his throne. "Where's Finster, Goldar, and Cheeto?" snapped Zedd. "Rito!" snarled Rita, angry at his disparagement of her brother. "He calls me Ed." Zedd snapped. "They went to the Machine Skybase to pick up the server there for the Quadrafighters and Cogs. Soon, the resources of the Empire will be ours!" Zedd sighed contentedly as he relaxed in the abode he had vacated for so long. He rested peacefully...for about two seconds, before Rita snapped at him to clear up the cobwebs in the palace that had builders that had taken up residence in Rita and Zedd's absence.

"Well, Prince Trey. I have your staff. You will be executed in two days." Ex-Prince Trey of Triforia smiled. "Right." he snapped. "No one so evil as you, Zolkan, could EVER use that staff!" Emperor Zolkan snarled. "I think I'll try it out on you, Trey!" He pressed the button to call forth the full power of the Golden Power Staff...and nothing happened. The hand guard on the staff slipped up to its highest point, instead of the staff's bottom. "Well, Trey. You will tell me how to use this." Trey snorted. "One man per hour." said Zolkan. "What?" Zolkan smiled. "One man per hour...killed until you tell me how to use this." Trey's eyes widened. "MY LORD!" yelled a guard. "THERE'S A..." A ball, with two smaller ones on the bottom of it, enveloped Trey and took him away. "teleport beam locked on Trey." the guard finished lamely. Zolkan laughed. "Put a field around the planet for five days. Make sure no one gets past it. Kill one being from the lower caste and one being from the higher per hour for the five days. Kill lower-class women and children. Preferably cute ones, although I may want to...use the women first. Kill higher-class, loyalist males. And make sure that the people know it is the proud hero Trey, fleeing the planet, that is responsible for these deaths." The guard gulped and went to tell his superiors.

Trey materialized in a dome surrounded with water. A fish- like black man and woman came in, along with a human. "Trey!" said the human. "BASTARD!" Trey punched the human in the face. "How could you do that? Zolkan will kill one person per hour for every one I'm gone now!" The human was speechless. "I...I'm...sorry." Trey sighed. "You were just trying to help me. I'm sorry for hitting you, Billy." The fish-woman gave him a glass of green fluid. "What is THAT, Cestria?" Billy said. "A mixture of Aquitian plants. He looks a bit tired from the battle with the Barox. Its not scientifically proven to do anything, but my mother recommends it for illness." said Cestria. "Oh, like chicken soup." "WHAT soup?" said the black fish-man. "Something that's kind-of a cure all on Earth, at least psychologically." said Billy. "We know Trey can't take Aquitar well. We'll get him to Earth as soon as we can."

"STEEEE-RIKE!" Adam Park yelled as he knocked the pins down. The green-clad Korean-American high-fived the long-haired teen in red, Tommy Oliver. "We rock!" Tanya Sloan and Katherine Hillard chuckled. "We'll see." said Tanya. Tommy and Adam had won the first game, but Kat and Tanya were ready to turn the tables on them. Tommy suddenly heard an instantly recognizable beeping. "Come on, guys." Tommy and Adam went to the men's restroom and pressed their watch-like communicators. "Yes, Zordon?" asked Tommy. "You must come to the Power Chamber immediately. Trey is here." Tommy and Adam pressed their communicators, and were enveloped in green and red teleportation beams. The beams flew from the bowling alley's men's restroom, followed closely by pink and yellow beams from the women's restroom.

Prince Gasket sat in his personal Skybase and moped around. His wife, Archerina, came up to him. "Prince?" Gasket looked up at the attractive robot. "Yes, dear?" said Gasket. "There's a message here from Klanke." Gasket took the message board Archerina gave him and activated it. A robot with pink and gold face sides looked at him. "Sir, I regret to tell you your father is dead, along with your mother and brother." the robot said in a soft feminine voice. "WHAT?!" Gasket yelled. "My father... dead?" "Yes, sir. He died in a large explosion about two days ago." Gasket turned off the message board and whooped for joy. "Let's go, my love! To the moon of Earth!"

Finster detached the last wires from the Machine Empire's main server. Rito and Goldar sat there, sleeping. The Cogs surrounding the trio were simply standing. Finster looked the server over. "Fully operable! My queen will thank me!" Finster had screwed up royally about a month ago, on the occasion of the first destruction of the Machine King, Mondo. He had created a powerful robot to control the Empire from a distance. Unfortunately, the robot, Louie Kaboom, had gone out of control, and was finally destroyed by the Rangers when he battled them for the magically induced love of Mondo's (married) daughter in law, Archerina. Finster knew that he was at fault for making the robot so uncontrollable, even though, true to form, Zedd and Rita blamed the other one at fault, Rito, who'd lost the remote control meant to control Louie in the first place. Finster knew that it could be only a matter of time until Rita and Zedd got around to punishing him. He got the server out of the Machine Skybase and teleported Rito and Goldar back to the palace.

"What will you do when you reach Earth, my darling?" Gasket growled softly. "I will rebuild my mother, Klank, and Orbus, and destroy my father and...that thing that I'm supposed to call a brother." Archerina would have frowned, but her face was fixed in a position. "Well, actually, Sprocket seemed like a sweet boy when I talked to him. He reminds me of you in your younger years." Gasket smashed his fist on metal. "He IS me in my younger years! He's not a brother, he's a replacement. HE IS ME!" Gasket was screaming now. "I WAS REJECTED! REPLACED! Other siblings to Machine Empire denizens have been built, but never the same as their brothers or sisters! He was meant to replace me. There's also the fact that they constructed him right after I married you. I can't let that..thing live. I don't care if it was his fault or not, I just can't live in the same universe with him."

"Rangers," Trey said, "my staff has been taken by the Emperor of Triforia, Zolkan." "But, Trey," said Tommy, "I thought that your father was the Emperor." Trey shook his head. "A few months ago, a ruler of the southern province of Triforia rebelled and assassinated my father. I took the Golden Power Staff and Pyramidas and came here." Adam frowned. "Didn't you go to Triforia to try to rejoin your three selves?" Trey nodded. "The far north province has people who are loyal to my father, and harbored me. Besides, Zolkan only wants the Golden Power Staff. I had given it to Jason, so he did not target me, assuming he noticed me at all." "We have to get a means of using the power of the staff." said Kat. "Well," Alpha said, "we built a Gold Zeonizer for Jason, but he never got a chance to use it. Maybe we could find a way to adjust it to draw the staff's power." Trey smiled. "Great, Alpha!"

Mondo's half-dead sensors noticed a slight quivering in the ground, denoting footsteps. "Help! Help! In the name of the Machine Emp...um, hi Gasket." Prince Gasket chuckled. "Well, Dad, it seems one of us is badly damaged. YOU!" Gasket laughed and raised his sword. Energy was absorbed by the weapon, and Gasket brought it down on Mondo's head, smashing it open. Hysterically, he chopped the rest of Mondo's body into sparking bits. He then turned his sword on Sprocket, completely destroying him past any hope of repair, laughing the whole time. Archerina picked up Klank, Orbus, and Machina and teleported to Gasket's Machine Skybase.

"Rita! Zedd!" Finster cried as he entered the throne room. "Gasket and Archerina are on the moon!" Rita laughed. "Well, that little freak thinks he can outsmart me? I will destroy him! Send a Sky Fortress and destroy him!"

Archerina entered her quarters and looked at the pitiful figure of her husband. His head was in his hands, and fluid leaked from his eyes in imitation of tears. "I killed them, Archerina. I killed them. I'm...just like my father." Archerina put her arm around Gasket. "Calm down, dear..." She could think of nothing more to say. "I don't deserve to rule the Empire, even if I am the rightful heir." "GASKET!?!?!" "Maybe evil is just not in my programming....perhaps..." Gasket stopped speaking. Just then, blasts rocked the base.

"HA HA HA HA! I LOVE THIS!" Rito yelled. He aimed the energy blasters at Gasket's ship and fired. "Now," said Rito, "what's this?" He pushed a large red button on the control panel, shutting down the weapons. Gasket's ship mortally damaged Rito's. Rito flew the ship into Gasket's, mortally damaging it. Rito ran to a Quadra-Fighter and flew it away. A beam from the ships fired to Earth, and both ships then exploded.

"A transmission from the Varox is coming, sir." Finster told Zedd. Zedd turned on a communication device. "Yes, V-1?" The rusted Varox spoke. "We captured the Gold Ranger and delivered him to Triforia. He is currently on Earth. We thought you would like to know." The transmission shut down. Zedd threw down the communication device and turned his sight on. The red beam missed Earth, but saw something else. Clearly, Zedd saw a huge fleet of ships, each with three wings, their holds loaded with fighters.

The Imperial Fleet was coming to Earth.....