"TimeFire!" Eric commanded with rage, the V-Fire flaring to life and violently transforming him into the TimeFire again. He quickly drew the V-Defender, switching it to blade mode and raising it with intent to run Wes through.

"Chrono Morph!" Wes cried, time freezing and allowing him to be transformed into TimeRed. he took the moment before unlock to jump up and avoid Eric's weapon, landing behind TimeFire. He backed away while Eric turned around and tapped his Changer to call out a single Chrono Vector. "This is insane and pointless, Eric! If you wann'a prove yourself as TimeFire, work with us, don't make us have to take the V-Fire!"

"Get the clue, Collins!" Eric snapped as he spun and fired the rapidly converted to gun mode V-Defender at TimeRed. "I don't want your damn advice, so shove it!" He readied to attack again, then was stopped as the loud roar echoed through the city. Both TimeRed and TimeFire turned to see a twin blast fly over head and explode against a building, the source non-other than the V-Rex! "Ah, shit!"

"We're too late!"

Zigrath laughed as he tapped the controls on his staff, forcing the V-Rex to obey his every command. "That's it! Wipe them all out! Destroyed every last human in this pathetic place!"

Ransik stormed through the prison ship, having finally gotten news of Zigrath's rampage, and he was far from happy. "Frax!" he bellowed, looking through the various cell blocks for the robot. "Frax, we need to talk, now!"

"Ah, Ransik!" Frax answered as he appeared from the lab area. "Pleased with our progress? Zigrath is doing quite nicely in holding control of the V-Rex."

"This is not what I wanted!" Ransik snapped angrily as he glared at Frax. "I want to show these people of the horrors to come, not kill them in some twisted sick vengeance! What the hell were you thinking when you unfroze a bred killer?!"

Frax was speechless as Ransik turned and walked away, suddenly realizing something very different about Ransik's own motives. "He doesn't...wish to conquer, but to undo history as it was?"

Clash For Control
Part 2

The massive dinosaurian machine roared and began to fire down upon Silver Hills again, explosions erupting along the streets in succession while Eric and Wes continued to battle. The two were causing more damage to the surroundings than to each other, and neither combatant was gaining ground against the other.

"Eric, this is nuts!" TimeRed shouted, trying to make himself heard over the noise of V-Rex's weaponry and the resulting explosions. "This isn't about me, this is about the city!"

"It's always been about you!" Eric snapped back, slashing hard with the V-Defender and slashing Wes across the chest. TimeRed went down and held the damaged area of his armor before getting back up. "You just want the V-Fire for yourself! Its power, its weapons, and its machine!"

"What I want is to protect this city and its people!" came Wes' firm reply. He looked up to see the V-Rex firing away at the city, then turned back to Eric. "We don't have much time, Eric. Help me, please!"

TimeFire snorted as he reverted and holstered his weapon, then looked up at the V-Rex before sprinting off. "Stay out of my way, Collins! I can handle the V-Rex, and I will tame it!"

"Eric, no!" Wes growled and took off after his estranged former schoolmate, knowing that he had to get the man to see reason, to see that he was only making things worse by going off on his own.

In the meantime, several of the Guardian SUVs pulled up to where people were racing out of a building and set about to getting everyone out when the building was struck by a blast and came crashing down. Most of the Guardians managed to get back, but those inside were crushed in the collapse along with anyone else that had yet to escape.

"Get everyone out of the area!" the commander bellowed as he ran about and tried to keep order. "Radio for rescue workers as well, now! Move it, move it!"

Another round from V-Rex's cannons brought a second building crumbling violently, destruction all around while Wes continued to chase after Eric. The man was just about ready to get out his V-Cannon and shoot Okibi to get his attention, but Wes doubted even that would work. "Eric, wait! Listen to me!"

"You still trying?!" Eric scoffed as he slowed to a halt. He saw the four other Time Rangers and TimeShadow running toward his direction and smiled smugly, a bit sorry his helmet hid his face. "Looks like things worked out! Fall in line!"

Ignoring Eric, the five ran past him and to Wes, Okibi staring in surprise. "Wes-san, you alright?"

"I'm fine," Wes replied, blinking as he looked to Eric, then turned to TimeShadow. "I thought you guys-"

"You really think that they would ditch you for that pompous hot airbag?" TimeShadow remarked playfully. "You should have seen Yuuri, she told your father exactly where he could put his 'business proposal'."

"Right up his shaft, no less," Domon added with a laugh. "I wouldn't have put it past her to do it for him!"

"What the hell is going on?!" Eric yelled. "You four are supposed to listen to me!"

"Why would we listen to you?!" Lucas snapped as the six turned to face TimeFire. "You're stuck up, arrogant, got a huge ego, and that's just the icing of the cake! We like our team just the way it is, and we're not giving up Wes for anyone, got that?!"

"Thanks," Wes said as he looked at Eric. "Glad to know some people know what being a team is about."

Eric growled, knowing full well that Collins was directing that remark right at him. "You people are going to regret this! When I get the V-Rex, you'll all wish you hadn't turned us down!" He turned and ran, racing to get to the V-Rex and stop its rampage.

"Wes, we don't have much time," TimeShadow stated as he brought up his left arm and tapped at its computer pad. "If the V-Rex keeps on like this, the city will be destroyed in a matter of hours, we have to either get control of it, or destroy it!"

"Right," Wes replied. He tapped his Changer and activated the coms. "Circuit, send launch signal to Provider Base, we need the Time Jets!"

"Sending signal...launch confirmed! The Time Jets are back at full operation, repairs have been completed!"

As if prove Circuit's words, the Time Jets burst out into existence in the sky, flying about and distracting the V-Rex. The Rangers were quick to call out the Time Flyer and ride it up into the sky, where they leapt down into the Time Jets and landed in the cockpits.

"Alright, Gestalt Formation!" Wes called. "TimeMega Beta!"

Racing up into the sky, the Time Jets took formation. Jets 2 and 3 raced up to take flank about Jet 1, transforming into the bulkier arms and locking on into place. Jets 4 and 5 transformed into the thinner legs and rose to lock onto on the main body's waist. A panel swung down on Jet 1 to reveal the mouth plated Mode Beta face, the combination sequence complete.

The gestalt shot down the ground and landed, Time Flyer transforming into blaster mode and locking to the TimeMega's open hand. In an instant, it started firing at the V-Rex, explosions burst out from each impact and only serving to anger the battle machine. V-Rex let out another roar as it fired its own cannons, blasts ripping into the TimeMega.

"Power's down to sixty-five percent!" Syon reported. "We can't take the kind of damage the V-Rex inflicts, it's too powerful!"

"Why the hell didn't whoever built that thing install safe guards?!" Wes growled in anger. "We can't take much more of this!"

"Rangers, I may have a solution!" the voice of TimeShadow called over the coms. "The Shadow Winger is capable of combining with the TimeMega, it should give you more power and allow you to handle more damage. Prepare for Delta Formation Shadow Beta."

"On it!" Yuuri replied, tapping her controls. "Initiate Delta Formation, Shadow Beta!"

Shadow Winger racing through the sky, the machine began humanoid transformation, then swung down its leg sections, allowing the TimeMega to jump up and lock into place. The waist pieces of the Winger swung up to clamp down on the TimeMega's feet, cockpit and nose cone coming down to lock over the gestalt's chest. A golden yellow visor piece energized into being over the eyes of the TimeMega, completing transformation as the newly formed Shadow Beta came online.

Pulling the Rangers into the new cockpit, TimeShadow looked back to see the five arrive and nodded, returning to his own controls. "Welcome to my world. Let's get to work!" He tapped in a sequence on his controls, the green gem on the back of the six part gestalt flaring as a gunblade weapon phased out and into the hand of the Shadow Beta. The blade piece flipped down to convert into gun mode, and a blast fired out and slammed into the V-Rex.

Roaring, the V-Rex stomped over and bit down hard on the Shadow Beta's arm, sparks flying from the damage while the dinosaurian pulled on the limb. TimeShadow fought to keep control, but to no avail, the V-Rex firing its cannons at point blank range and sending the gestalt to the ground after letting go of its arm.

"This is nuts!" Wes exclaimed. "The V-Rex is just too powerful, we can't take it!"

"There's gott'a be a way to stop it!" Lucas replied as the Shadow Beta was shook violently from another blast. "If that idiot Okibi would just listen, we wouldn't be having this problem!"

TimeShadow quickly pulled hard on his controls, initiating a charge up and firing at the V-Rex to force it back. "We've got no choice but to pull back for now! Disengaging fusion, send an emergency retrieval signal to Provider Base and get the TimeMega out of here!"

Within moments, the Shadow Winger pulled away from the TimeMega and allowed it to vanish back into the time stream. A conversion to jet mode, and the Winger itself tore away from the scene, its six occupants able to only watch as the V-Rex began its rampage again. "Damnit!" Domon swore in dismay. "I can't believe that thing has us so on the run! We've never been this so outclassed before!"

"We've never faced anything like the V-Rex before," Yuuri replied solemnly. "Like I said, it and the V-Fire were found on an asteroid out in the Andromeda Galaxy, we don't know who or what built them."

"First things first," TimeShadow remarked as he piloted the Shadow Winger away from the battle zone. "We figure out how the hell we're going to break the control that alien has on the V-Rex, then we can worry about getting our own control over it."

Meanwhile, Ransik was busy arming whatever non-lethal weapons he could find in the prison ship, making sure he was ready before grabbing a personal shield generator and strapping it on. "Frax, let's go! I want this Zigrath back on ice before he kills the entire city!"

"Might I ask why you are upset?" Frax inquired. "Granted, this is not what you meant to do, but you cannot deny that the Time Rangers are helpless against the V-Rex. We should wait until Zigrath has eliminated the Rangers, then move to re-capture him."

"Now," came the cold reply. "We put him back now, Frax! I do whatever I can to avoid lives being lost, you should know that by now!"

"But why avoid such acts that will bring the attention of the world to us?!" The robots just couldn't understand; Ransik had a powerful army at his fingertips, and he didn't use it? "Why leave all this power locked away here?!"

Ransik turned to face Frax, the look in his uncovered eye one not of hate or anger, but one of worry. "Do you think the world will listen to my warning if we act no better than terrorists, Frax? Sometimes I wonder if you haven't taken damage to your logic." With a sigh, Ransik turned and walked away, leaving the robot to stand and begin to fume.

"Stupid human!" Frax spat in anger. "All of you organics, stupid idiots! I should have never saved your life that day, perhaps I wouldn't now know so much pain!" He turned down the corridor and walked to the door of Hell's Gate, opening it with the keycard. "It's obvious Zigrath will not be enough anymore...time to up the stakes, Ransik! Then, when the dust as settled, we shall see who's mind is superior!"

"The damage was bad, but not bad enough," Logan stated through the holo-communicator. "The Time Jets should be back in full operation in a few hours, try to hold out until then."

"Shimatta!" Domon swore, banging his fist against a post and cracking the beam. "In a few hours, the city could be leveled! TimeShadow can't head back to repair the Shadow Winger, it'll leave us helpless!"

"The Winger has self-repair systems," TimeShadow stated calmly. "But it'll be a while before she's ready for battle action again. We need to know just what is allowing that alien to control V-Rex. Circuit, what can you tell us from the Winger's flight data?"

The eagle turned and projected a screen on the wall, displaying a playback of the battle from the view of the Shadow Winger. "The Winger managed to isolate a jamming signal that's coming from the side of the V-Rex's head. It was unable to pinpoint the control dampener's exact location, but at least we have an idea of where to look."

"We still need to get the V-Fire," Lucas stated, his words a fact that they all knew. Without the V-Fire, they had no way of gaining control of the V-Rex, and that meant once they managed to break the hold Zigrath had on it, Eric could take over the machine and use it for himself. "That should be our main priority here, making sure we even have a way to control the V-Rex."

TimeShadow hung his head low, knowing exactly what Lucas, and most likely the other Time Rangers as well, was thinking. "It should be our first target of recovery, but the situation prevents us from taking control of the V-Fire. Eric seems to know it too well know, he's not about to let that power go without one hell of a fight. We're just going to have to take the chance that he won't turn on us, it's the only choice we have."

"I hate to cut this short," Circuit called. "But I'm picking up a new prisoner ID in the city, it's a Hell's Gate inmate!"

"What?!"

"I'm also picking up V-Rex and the other prisoner!" Circuit continued. "Rangers, this is getting out of control! We have to stop Ransik's assault before it does wipe out the city!"

"Let's go!" TimeShadow ordered, racing down the stairs and out of the tower, the Rangers right behind him. "Winger, deploy Shadow Runner!" He ran over to the Shadow Winger as it lowered a hold platform and revealed a sleek night black hover cycle, but it was different than the ones the Rangers used. A single cannon barrel was mounted on the belly of the machine, extra thrust ports marking afterburners. This vehicle was built for speed and surprise, pure and simple.

TimeShadow mounted his hovercycle, then nodded to the Rangers while starting it up. "The Winger should have its repairs done in less than half an hour. I'll try and track down our control man, you five stop the Hell's Gate inmate before he causes too many casualties." He tapped on the control console of the cycle, pushed hard on the throttle, and shot off down the street and away from the clock tower.

Yuuri sighed, then looked at the others behind her. "Well, you heard the man. Let's get to it. Time Ranger!"

"Chrono Morph!"

The scene was total chaos as Eric arrived in the city plaza. He had managed to jump the gun on a job from the city council to get people out of the plaza before there were losses, and he had been in the perfect place to get there and do his assignment solo.

"TimeFire!" he barked harshly, transforming into the powerful Ranger once more. His helmet scanners picked up a non-human signal, which instantly drew his attention to the stocky and horribly disfigured form that walked toward him. "Who the hell are you?! Change that, what the hell are you?!"

"If you were a Time Ranger," the mutant stated with a cold tone of acid, "I'd expect you to answer your own question. However, since you're not one of them, I'll enlighten you. I am called Kregix, and I'm a mutant, human like you...well, not exactly like you, but you get the idea."

"You're human?!" Eric stared at the man in shock; this being couldn't possibly be of the same race as him, it was so horrid, so warped, so...inhuman. "That's impossible, you look nothing like a human, let alone terran!"

The mutant merely raised a weapon that was in his hand and fired, Eric being flung back hard from the discharge impact. Kregix snorted a laugh while stepping toward the fallen TimeFire, readying his rifle again and aiming for Eric's helmeted head. "So naive and unable to comprehend. I'm a mutant, warped beyond humanity! Mankind shuns me, runs in fear from me, then I shall give true reason for them to do so!" He smiled viciously at Eric. "Give my regards to everyone else that has died by my hands, normal."

Eric's eyes filled with fear as he watched the mutant slowly squeeze the trigger of his rifle, then grabbed his own V-Defender and fired, cutting into the side of Kregix's arm. The wound forced the mutant to drop his rifle and gave Eric the chance to get to his feet, then bring the V-Defender up and level with the mutant's face. "No, freak. I think you can deliver your own regards to them yourself. Looks like we get to find out what a shot from this thing to your head does."

"Gra'taxa!" Kregix swore as he swung his unwounded arm forward and swatted Eric away. "You're a fly compared to me, twit!"

"FireBlaze mode, engage!"

Kregith's eyes went wide but for a moment as he fell back and narrowly dodged the deadly attack. He continued to back away from Eric as the man swung with the fiery blade of the V-Defender, managing to get out of the way of a strike that sliced through a power pole and cause it to erupt a part into a shower of splinters and wire. "Damnit, why the hell didn't the robot warn me about this?!"

"Eric!"

Both the TimeFire and the mutant looked to see the five Time Rangers pull up on their hovercycles. Wes quickly dismounted, then halted as he saw the scene between Eric and Kregix. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Handling a pest problem, what's it look like?!" Eric snapped just before he was kicked in the gut by the mutant. The V-Defender clattered to the ground and was shut down to normal blade-mode while Eric landed back first. "Damnit!" he swore, grabbing his weapon and converting it to gun mode while Kregix ran off. "Great timing you have, Wes, I almost had him!"

"Are you nuts?! It looked like you were about to blow his head off!"

Eric growled and turned away from TimeRed. "Guess you're not so blind then, that's exactly what I was going to do! That freak earned no less for the lives he just admitted to taking!" He sighed and started running to give chase after Kregix, ignoring Wes' calls to stop.

"Damnit!"

"Forget it, Wes-san," Yuuri muttered. "He's too thickheaded to get a clue right now. I just hope he doesn't go and get himself killed."

Kregix came to a stop as he ran into a darkened storage complex, laughing slightly and checking his weapon. "Lost that crazy son of a bitch. He finds me, big surprise he'll have."

"I think the one with a surprise will be you."

Kregix snapped around and fired blindly into the shadows at the sounds of the voice. It wasn't TimeFire's, it was too heavily distorted. The shots flashed brightly and revealed a silver armored form but a moment before darkness reclaimed the complex. "Who are you?!"

"Your worst nightmare."

In an instant, a silvery blur slammed across the mutant, sending him through a wall and landing outside just as Eric arrived. "Fleg!" Kregix swore, getting to his feet and firing at Eric to keep the man away. "What the hell was that?!"

As the dust from the crash through settled, both Eric and Kregix looked to see the mutant's assailant. Clad in a silver armor with golden sections across the chest, rimming the shoulders and lining boots and gloves, the figure shining in the sunlight. He raised a weapon that was hooked to his arm and fired at Kregix, barely missing as the mutant dropped down. "Now, where were we?"

"Hey!" Eric called as he aimed his own V-Defender. "Who the hell are you, and what do you think you're doing?!"

"I am called MegaSilver," the silver warrior stated coldly. For a moment, it seemed as if he was surprised to see the armor Eric wore, his gaze trained on Okibi hard before switching his weapon to a melee blade configuration. "We'll discuss how you have the V-Fire later, I have a job to do right now."

Faster than one can blink, MegaSilver rushed forwards and slammed hard into Kregix, then followed up with a hard slash. The mutant roared in pain and anger as he aimed his rifle and fired rapidly, but MegaSilver was faster than he could track. The lithe form seemed to literally bounce off the walls at such high speed, looking like a flash of light.

Just as suddenly as his incredible movement began, it ended when Kregix screamed out loud with pain. MegaSilver stood behind him, weapon poised as if it had already struck, and indeed it had. The mutant fell down and erupted, not into chunks of flesh and body parts, but into a blast of energy, something Eric hadn't seen happen since the days of the Power Rangers years ago.

Relaxing his stance, MegaSilver turned on his heel to face TimeFire, then suddenly vanished into a stream of light, the energy streaking away into the sky and no trace of the mysterious warrior remained.

"Holy shit," Eric whispered in shock. "I sure hope I don't piss that guy off..."

"Eric!"

Okibi turned and groaned as he saw the Time Rangers arrive on the scene, then looked back at the burn scorch where Kregix had been before his violent and explosive death. "Well, someone else saved me the trouble," he stated, making sure that the Rangers could hear him. "So don't blame me for this one."

"What the hell happened?!"

"Some guy calling himself MegaSilver showed up and wasted your freak 'friend'." Eric shook his head, still trying to believe everything he had seen himself. "Then just beamed away, never seen anything like it."

"Rangers, we got a problem!"

Yuuri turned away from the group and tapped her Changer com. "What is it, TimeShadow?"

"Well, I managed to find V-Rex and the guy controlling it, but they're headed toward your location! We gott'a disable his jamming now!"

"You leave that to me!" Eric stated sharply and readied the V-Defender before running off again. Wes moved to give chase, then stopped, knowing that it was pointless.

"I know," Domon muttered. "The guy doesn't have any idea of what he's getting into."

"We've gott'a stop the controller first, we can worry about Eric later!" Wes ran off toward where the V-Rex was rampaging, finding the machine locked in battle with the Shadow Winger. "Where's that alien?!"

"Wes, I've picked up the jammer, it's on V-Rex's left side, up near the eye port! Blow it out, and we can attempt control!"

"Got it!" Wes quickly brought out his V-Cannon and started scanning to pin-point the jammer. "Almost got it...shit!" he yelled, a burst firing down and forcing him and the other Time Rangers to scatter. "Who the hell fired that?!"

"Can't let you spoil my fun just yet!" Zigrath called from up high, jumping from his perch and injecting growth enzyme into his bloodstream to transform into a giant. "Time to have some fun myself! Ha!"

TimeShadow, already having his hands full trying to hold off the V-Rex alone, heard an alert as the Shadow Winger picked up Zigrath on its scanners. "Damnit, I've got enough problems already! Wes, anytime now!"

"Got a lock now!"

In an instant, a bright flash flew through the air and slammed into the side of the V-Rex's head, blowing out the jammer that Zigrath had mounted there. Mere seconds later, the V-Rex let out a roar and suddenly turned on the alien, slashing and biting as if in fury.

"Hey! What the Pit is going on?!"

"The V-Rex is self-sentient?!" TimeShadow realized, now understanding what had really happened. "That's it, that's why the Rex and the V-Fire were separated! It wanted to be free of Time Force's control!"

"Alert. Signal to V-Rex control protocols detected. Scan detects presence of V-Fire."

"What?!"

Indeed, standing on a rooftop was none other than TimeFire, holding the V-Fire to his mouth plate. "V-Fire, lock on command systems and engage remote control protocols! V-Rex is mine!"

"Eric!" Wes swore as he saw the man gaining control over the powerful dinosaurian battle machine. "Damnit, no! Don't do this!"

"Voice lock systems, engaged. V-Rex BattleZord, ready and online!"

The Rex growled deeply and flung Zigrath away, then let out a might roar of anger at the alien who had forced it to do so much destruction. Now was the time to pay back with a vengeance. The V-Rex fired its main cannons at near point-blank range, burning Zigrath's body with the twin beams. In an instant, something else happened; the V-Rex was transforming! Cannons and forearms swung about and converted into more powerful looking humanoid arms, massive green gems mounted in the large shoulder pieces. The entire mid body rose and rotated upwards so that the beats head faced the sky, then swung down to reveal a thin neck part that split open to reveal a mouthless humanoid face.

"V-Rex BattleZord, transformation to Warrior Mode complete."

"Whoa! Never told me it could do that!" Eric exclaimed in surprise, then brought the V-Fire back up to give commands. "V-Rex, full attack!"

"Inferno Missiles, firing."

Zigrath scream as he was assaulted with a barrage of fiery missiles, each warhead burning him with such pain like he had never know. This was no machine of Time Force, they didn't built their weapons for such brutal raw power. "What the hell is this thing?!"

"Engaging Max Storm."

The question of what this was soon was revealed to Eric as the V-Rex charged up power in its shoulder gems, then fired out a twin blast of emerald energy. The blast tore into Zigrath, causing him to scream out loud just moments before he erupted into flames, blood, and chunks of what remained of his body.

"Holy shit!"

"Good god," Lucas whispered, knowing well that the others weren't thinking much different. "That thing is a monster, it's worse that the TimeFire alone! Who built that thing to kill like this?!"

"I pray to god we don't find out," Yuuri replied, her voice filled with fear. Now, it was no long a question of just recapturing Ransik and the prison ship; it was a question of would they do their job in time before Eric killed every last prisoner.

"Phone calls are laxing off, but we've still got a large client base, so-"

"Sir!" Eric snapped sharply, interrupting a report being given to Jeremy Collins. "I need to speak with you."

"It can wait," Collins growled. It was obvious he was frustrated over the refusal from the Rangers to accept his deal. Having the one Ranger he did employ get a swelled head about it was the last thing he needed. "Now, before you were delayed..."

"I'm not so sure the big guy outside will be willing to wait for this," Eric continued, gesturing to the closed blinds of the nearby window. "If you would."

With a glare, Collins got out of his seat to give Okibi a good chew out, then heard a low growl; an animalistic growl, rather big, and rather unnatural. "Okibi, just what is out there?"

With a smile, Eric walked over to the window and gripped the cord. "Well, I could tell you, but perhaps you'd best see for yourself." With a dramatic pause, Eric pulled open the blinds, shocking everyone inside with the glowing yellow optic eye of the beast mode V-Rex. Okibi looked at his new machine with pride, then turned to meet Collins' eye. "Now, as I said earlier. If I could gain control of this thing, what would that be worth to you?"

Collins was speechless as he looked at the huge machine outside his office window, then looked at Eric, a faint smile forming on his lips. "I'll be damned. Looks like I'm not the only one around here with one hell of an ambition streak. Congratulations, Okibi. You're the new commander of the Silver Guardians."