"Things have gone beyond what they should. Wesley Collins has defied his fate, and the timestream is birthing a new continuum."

Logan nodded slowly before looking back at the main screen behind him. "It all has to do with his father. So long as Jeremy Collins continues his ways, Wesley Collins will not go back, and we have the new factors to blame for this."

"How did these factors get introduced, Logan? I want not excuses, but explanations!"

"I'm afraid I have none as of this time," the man replied. "However, events are in place to cause Wesley Collins' fate to resume. Once that happens, we will have control again."

A low growl game from the faint glowing being that hid in the shadows. "You had best be right, Logan. If we cannot force time back into our plan, we will have to use the Trigger."

Logan merely nodded before turning back to face the main screen. "The will of Fate shall be, and I have just the way to do it."

2006.246

It was dark in the sewers beneath Silver Hills. Despite this, there was still activity within an old abandoned subway. Robots of various design and appearence were working to maintain the clandestine base that had been constructed there. One of the Replicants, a large human styled machine, walked about with a look of disgust on his face. "Now the Time Rangers are involved!" he spat angrily to a bald human looking Replicant. "If that's not bad enough, we've also got the attention of Matthew Corbett! Could the universe be anymore against us?!"

A flash, and he stopped while a rift tore open before him and his companion. A dark form stepped out of the temporal gate, then looked to the Replicants. "Maverick Ares, I come from the year 3000. We have need of your services."

"Humans?" the Maverick leader Ares snapped. "We don't serve humans, we kill them! What make you think-"

He stopped when the form revealed what was definitely a mechanical arm, bulky and pure metal. The figure lifted back the hood covering its face to show glowing red optics, which then gave the Maverick reason to smile. "I believe," the shrouded figure said as it brought the hood back down, "that we have something much in common. As for what you are to do, let it be said that you are at last going to fulfill your fate."

Tiger's Rebirth

The night was filled with a breeze, the stars shining high above in the sky, and the moon lit the cloudless evening perfectly. So perfect in fact, that two members of the Time Rangers were out and about having their own time to themselves.

"How often was it that you've been able to just let loose and have some fun?" Wes remarked. All evening, Yuuri had seemed so different from her usual 'all business' attitude, actually acting like she was, for once, enjoying herself. "Didn't Alex ever take you out on a date?"

"Neither of us got much free time with Ransik's consortium around," the woman replied. She let out a sigh, then broke out in smile again. "But, you've been able to help with that point. Ever since you became TimeRed, it seems like things have become a lot easier."

Wes chuckled as they passed by a shop on their way back to the clock tower. "Well, I actually have to say Matt's the one to thank. Whatever he did has gotten Ransik thinking or something." He went silent as they walked by the spot where they had fought Taurus Bull only a few days before, the scorched remains of the battle still there. "But, if these Mavericks attack again, it may be that we've only gone on to fight something worse."

Yuuri only nodded in agreement. The truth was, she was starting to severely doubt the mission of recapturing Ransik. For weeks, there had been nothing from him, and even when the Mavericks attacked, he had not taken the chance to make his own assault. From all indications, he wasn't seeking to destroy the past like Time Force had said he would. In fact, if what Matt found in Ransik's mind was the truth, he was here to prevent the problems that plagued the mutants in the future.

"Yuuri, Wes, come in!" came the call over their Changers. "We've got a situation in the downtown area, the Mavericks are back!"

"Shimatte!" Yuuri swore, then tapped her Changer's com switch. "We're on our way there now, get us our hovercycles, and we'll rendezvous at the hot zone." She sighed and glanced to Wes. "Looks like we gott'a go to work."

"When don't we?" Wes replied. "Let's do it."

"Chrono Morph!"

Explosions ripped through downtown Silver Hills. People screamed while a single Maverick caused all this destruction. None other than the Maverick leader Ares himself, he fired a massive blast that tore through several fleeing civilians and incinerated them into nothing. "About time we made some bloody progress around here!" he shouted, then fired another blast right into one of the nearby buildings. Even as people ran to escape, Ares only fired and killed who he could. All his years of being hunted, all his anger, it was finally finding release.

"Hold it!"

Ares turned, expecting the Time Rangers, but not the black armored figure that stood before him. This was not the Time Rangers, nor even the TimeThunder who had made herself known. "Who the fleg are you?!"

"The Enforcer of Time, Maverick," he replied, pulling his beamsaber from its place on his back and bringing the weapon forward even as it ignited. "I am the TimeShadow!"

"And I suppose you're here to terminate me."

TimeShadow tilted his head down slightly. "Dead or alive," he spat. "You're coming with me!"

Ares froze as he heard those words. That phrase, even to the Mavericks, was infamous. And there was only one person who had used those words, but for that person to be here now was impossible; he was dead. "No, you are the one who will die!"

He raced toward TimeShadow, Ares raising up a long handle that ignited at the end into a massive energy axe. With a fell swing, he made his attack, but the saber of the TimeShadow found its mark and deflected the blow, then swept around and cut into the Maverick's skin. Ares roared in pain before backing away. If the TimeShadow was human, he was on par with a veteran Hunter at their peak, which made his echoing Alex Murphy's own words all that more frightening.

"You're quite skilled for a human," Ares at last said while circling his foe. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were Murphy, but he's dead!"

"Perhaps then Alex Murphy lives up to his name," TimeShadow replied, then shot forward, saber blazing. In a flash, Ares' own weapon was sliced in half, causing the axe blade to fizzle out of existence. With a roar, the Maverick threw the remains of his axe at the TimeShadow, then vanished in a brilliant burst of light that streamed away. TimeShadow shut down his saber before locking it back in place, then turned to see the Time Rangers and the Silver Ranger arrive. "So sorry I didn't leave left overs," he cracked. "The Maverick ran, but I have no doubt he'll be back. Only sorry I didn't get here sooner."

"Hey," Eric remarked as he walked over to the mysterious soldier. "Any help is better than none. So long as there are survivors to save, that's all that matters."

TimeShadow looked to be gazing at Eric in confusion, as if something the man had said surprised him greatly. "We've still got other concerns though," he continued while turning his visor toward the devastated plaza. "If the Mavericks are making their bid for the future again, it means the stakes have gone up. What's the situation with Ransik?"

No one said anything. TimeShadow looked at the group of seven, trying to get an answer, but there was none. Yuuri finally sighed and spoke up. "There's been nothing from Ransik, not for weeks since the incident with Cinix. I haven't reported it to Time Force yet, but I don't think he's going to make any more attacks, not now."

"His purpose has never been to conquer," Matt added. Even as the black armored figure turn to him, Matt could feel the mind behind the armor. Something suddenly slammed into him, a mind he knew, but so much wiser than it should be. His eyes shifted toward Wes, knowing who it was he was sensing, but it was impossible. Matt shook it off as best he could, but something told him that the TimeShadow knew that their minds had touched. "He came here to stop the prejudice that will befall mutants. The trouble is, he didn't go back far enough, it's already happening."

TimeShadow gave no reply to that, instead turning around. There was a long silence before he finally faced the group again. "Ransik's motives have been less than clear in the past, but I think now that's it's safe to say that Time Force has never admitted his real purpose. His crimes still stand though. However, with the evidence that has been surfacing, I have no doubt that the courts will be more forgiving toward him."

Bringing up his arm, TimeShadow flipped up a panel on the gauntlet and tapped on a keypad. Within moments, a jet black hovercycle appeared from subspace. Just by looking at it, the group could tell it was heavily modified, from the thrust port on the back end to the high grade cannon that was slung under the front "wheel" spot. He nodded to them and mounted the cycle before riding off.

"We should get back to the tower," Matt remarked. His eyes locked back on Wes, but with his visor covering, no one else could know such. "We have a lot of planning to do."

It was bright the next day. Few clouds were in the sky, allowing the sun to shine down without restrain. Even on such a perfect day, however, it was business as usual at Bio-Synth's main office complex. Inside, four people occupied Jeremy Collins' office; Collins himself, Jennifer Edwards, and two other men in business suits.

"It's clear that profits have sky rocketed due to the vaccine," one of the men reported, showing off a marketing record of money gained from the enzyme that had been supplied by Ransik, the same one that had stopped Dagra's plague. "It's possible Matthew Corbett giving us that serum for making the the vaccine was the best thing he could do."

"Excellent," Collins replied. Indeed, he had to agree, on more than one reason. True, he had lost the TimeFire, but in place of Eric, he had Jennifer, the TimeThunder, his own Ranger. Added to that was the fact because of Corbett's "donation", he had been able to bypass the normal FDA testing and approval procedures, allowing a massive break back into the medical market. "What about the Guardians?"

The other man nodded as he held out a folder. "Cliental has doubled since we showed off the TimeThunder. I recommend we raised prices, and expand the force by a hundred men."

Collins paused, then glanced over to where Jennifer stood in silence. "Well, I think perhaps then we should hear just what the commander of the Guardians thinks," he replied with a smile. "Jen, your thoughts?"

She hesitated. It wasn't often that Jen was asked her opinion. "Well, I agree on expanding the force," she began, then glanced to the second accountant. "But not by so many, it'll put a strain on our training program. As for service charges, while I'm no money counter, I think they're fine the way they are. Raising prices only narrows our client base that much less, which in turn could discourage both new clients and possible recruits."

Both accountants said nothing in reply to her words. Collins, however, nodded with a smile. "It seems that Commander Edwards can handle any decisions regarding the Guardians. I trust her in that completely. Excuse me gentlemen." He got up and nodded before walking out of the office, leaving the two men with Jen.

"It seems," the older of the two said with a tone of acid in his voice, "that you've become his right-hand woman, as it were."

Jen afforded herself a smile, even if there was hostility in the man's voice. "I'm just doing my job," she replied calmly. "Speaking of which, I believe I have some things to do with the Guardians. If we'll all be on our way."

"Damnit!"

The yell echoed through the Maverick base. Ares bellowed in rage, not calming down despite words of encouragement from Borgan. He snapped about, glaring at the human style Replicant. "I have spent several hours trying to develop a plan to get rid of those Rangers, and in all simulations, they fail because of three simple factors; that Red Ranger, TimeFire, and the Silver Ranger. What is so damn important about them that they cause this every time?!"

The cloaked form appeared at that moment, stepping toward Ares and nodding a greeting. "The answer is this," it stated, gesturing to the most recent failed holo simulation. "Wesley Collins has defied his fate as dictated by our history. Because of this, the TimeFire is so, and the Silver Ranger has made his presence here an undeniable one. The key, Ares, is in forcing Collins back into his fate."

Ares growled. Aiding a human in what they were fated to do was against his convictions. "Why can't I just kill him when he's in the open?" the Maverick asked. "Why must he live to fulfill this fate of his?!"

"Because without him, your backers will cease to be," the cloaked form snapped in reply. "Time must flow as it did before the changing of events. Even with the new elements, out timeline can be preserved, but Wesley Collins must not change his fate."

He turned away from the cloaked being. Ares growled in contemplation, pondering on how he could accomplish his goals. "How," he hissed angrily, "do I go about forcing him back into his fate?"

The figure, for once, laughed softly. "That, Ares, is where we come in."

High up in the clock tower, Yuuri knitted her brow while looking at something on the holo-screen computer. "Minna-san," she called, getting everyone to gather around. "We may have a major problem."

"What is it?" Lucas asked, looking at the screen. "Hey, isn't that the enzyme Bio-Synth made for the plague?"

Yuuri nodded, then brought up another screen which displayed several points of data. "I've been going over the vaccine's properties, and I found that, not only does it fight out Dagra's plague, it's also able to be a cure for two dozen other major diseases, most of which haven't even been discovered on Earth yet."

"So Ransik gave us the ultimate cure?" Matt cracked with a smile. "What's the problem then? Medical science has been looking for something like this for years, it's about time we found it."

"Think about who is the only source of this vaccine."

That caused a long silence in the room. Yuuri could only nod, knowing that now the group realized the problem. "Not only is this vaccine something from our time, it's in the hands of Jeremy Collins. I have no doubt he's going to exploit it for all he can, which in turn could seriously harm the timeline we know." She sighed heavily. "It's possible that the continuum has already been irreversibly altered from everything we've done here."

"Consider the real source," Matt added. "Ransik has that stuff for a reason. If he's a victim as well, there may be some difference between how the plague affects normal humans and the mutants of your time. He may depend on it to live."

"That brings up another point," Domon said, speaking up. "We all saw the report this morning on activists in the capital of the country." He paused, knowing that Matt of all of them knew very well what it meant. "The prejudice against mutants in this time are getting out of hand, we're seeing exactly what is going to lead to the massacre of 2543."

Lucas nodded. "We can change that," he began, getting up from his seat. "We could head it off here, stop that entire holocaust from happening. We could..."

"Iiya," Yuuri stated. "As much as I hate to do it, we have to leave these events alone. Changing them could cause even more damage to the continuum."

There was a resound silence. None of the Rangers from the future could deny that Yuuri's statement had truth, but the chance to prevent a disaster that had yet to come was too much.

"Maverick detected!" Circuit exclaimed, flying up form his perch and over to the window. The group raced from the computer to join the robot, then saw the fireball erupt into the sky. It meant only one thing; Ares was back.

"We can worry about mutant kind's problems later," Matt stated, jumping onto the windowsill. "We have a maniac to stop." He glanced back, winked at the Rangers, then dropped down from the window. In a flash, light burst around him to form his armor, and with a cry, his Galaxy Glider shot out of subspace and came under him to redirect his descent into flight. "Get moving!" he called, then shot off toward the rising fireball.

Yuuri couldn't help but smile. "Well, you heard him," she remarked, backing away from the window. "Let's get going." She snapped her arms together across her chest as the others moved in synch with her, Eric bringing his own V-Fire clad left arm back. "Time Ranger..."

"Chrono Morph!"

"TimeFire!"

Where Ares was attacking couldn't have been more of a shock to anyone. It wasn't the city plaza or some other highly populated area; it was Bio-Synth's main lab complex. People ran in terror while Ares proceeded with his rampage. He tore through the building and into the lab area, firing shots and trying to kill as many as he could.

"Where's Collins?!" he screamed, then fired just as a group of Guardians came around the corner. "Where is he?! I want that old man now!"

Elsewhere, in the upper office levels of the building, Jeremy Collins was now well aware that someone was attacking Bio-Synth. Jen came around the corner just as he was headed for the stairs and stopped him. "Bad idea," she stated, then pulled him along down another corridor. "That thing looks to be headed upwards from that direction, we need to go through the labs and get you out of here!"

"What about you?" he asked. His voice, surprising to perhaps some, actually held concern. Jen paused, then gave her employer a smile.

"I'm a Ranger," she replied, then flashed the V-Thunder that Bio-Synth had created. "You made me this way, so let's keep it that way!"

Ares continued his search, and despite the Guardians' predictions, he headed right down into the main labs were the enzyme was being made. He looked around, fired at the lab workers, then stopped at a case of the vaccine and pulled a tube out to scan the contents. "What is this, I wonder," he muttered while his eyes glowed. Data flowed through his computer mind, and once it was all compiled, he gave a look of disgust and anger before throwing the vile down.

"They have the ultimate cure!" he roared, then turned and fired at one of the refrigeration units that stored masses of the vaccine. "They can cure almost any disease on this planet, how?! Even in the future, we don't have this, how do they have it?!"

He continued to bellow in anger, now knowing that the past had created something even his fellow Replicants could not; they had found a cure to almost every virus, disease, and infection to ever exist on Earth. But how was what angered him. Even in his rage, his mind found that there was strands of DNA code was contained in the enzyme, and his fury only grew. It had been made using the immune system of a mutant, none other than Matthew Corbett himself.

To know that a mutant, an organic being, was the source of the ultimate cure caused Ares to nearly explode with anger. He had his own new mission now here; destroy every last drop of the enzyme and all data that allowed its creation.

And then, as he turned, he saw the massive storage unit where all the enzyme was kept cold. Ares grinned and slowly stepped toward it, then found a small human form standing before him. "Out of my way!"

"You can't destroy this!" the man, Doctor Raimi himself, exclaimed. "This vaccine could save so many lives!"

"Exactly why it must be eliminated!" the Maverick yelled. He grabbed Raimi and flung the human aside, then stepped into the storage cooler. Here was the source of this enzyme for the lab, and once it was gone, he could continue his task. "Let humanity be plagued," he hissed, then fired into the racks of containers, causing them to shatter and vaporize.

As Collins arrived down in the labs, he couldn't help but stare in horror. Everything was ruined, computers in shambles and the storages of the enzyme destroyed. "My god," he whispered, now taking more note of the bodies that were scattered about. "Who could have done this?"

"Mister Collins?" came a weak voice. He ran over to find that Doctor Raimi was still alive, even if badly bruised. "Thank god you're alright, sir."

Collins shook his head. "No, thank god you're alright," he replied. "What happened here, who did this?" He stopped when a massive robotic form stepped out of the main storage cooler, eyes going wide. "What in god's name..."

"So," the machine hissed with a smile. "You're Jeremy Collins, father to TimeRed." He sized the human up, then snorted. "I have to wonder if your god even cares about you after what you did."

Collins narrowed his eyes. "I know who you are," he whispered, standing up and moving to block Ares. "You're one of the people my son is fighting to stop."

Ares chuckled as this display of bravery from the elder Collins. "I'm not exactly Ransik and his prison ship morons," the Maverick replied. "But yes, your son is now on my list of people I absolutely hate, right up there with that whore spawn Corbett!"

Collins felt anger burning in him. Despite that he had personal reasons to not like Matthew Corbett, he did have a tremendous amount of respect for the boy. That paired with the fact that this being was an enemy of his own son...that made the man feel a courage he hadn't used in a long time. "No one talks about my son and his friends like that," Collins spat angrily. "You want him, you go through me!"

That statement forced Ares to pause. He hadn't expected this, not from Collins. "Oh, now you would try and protect that waste of life you call your son?" the Maverick taunted. "Please, give it up! I know you threw him out of your life, don't try and play the loving father now!"

"I tried to control his life," Collins snapped back. "But I didn't throw him out, I let him go to live his own life, and I'm damn proud of him for it! He made his own fate, and I was a damn fool for not encouraging him when I had the chance!"

Ares snarled. "Then die for your beloved offspring!" he roared. Before Collins could react, Ares fired, sending him flying back and crashing to the ground. The Maverick laughed even as he saw that the man was still alive. "Painful, isn't it," he hissed. "It seems that the future doesn't like people changing fate, so they got me to do the job for them. Be glad that your impending death will birth my kind, who will rule this planet as a world of metal, not of flesh!"

And he left. Raimi winced at the pain in his side, but despite that made his way to Collins' side before grabbing a still working phone and calling for help.

Ares laughed as he walked out of the Bio-Synth building, his own forces keeping the Guardians quite busy. "We did what we came to do!" he called. As he moved to leave, a bright silver beam exploded before him. Ares stopped, then looked up to see the Silver Ranger leaping down from his Galaxy Glider to land with Cybernizer raised. "Corbett."

"I don't know who you are," Matt said with a cold tone. "But you're a threat to the world, even more than Time Force said Ransik is!"

With a laugh, the Replicant moved to continue, then stopped when the Time Rangers and TimeFire arrived, weapons drawn and ready. "I have other things to do!" he spat, raising his weapon arm up. "Unless you wish to die now, get out of my way!"

"Up your shaft," Matt replied.

Ares then grinned. "Have it your way then," he hissed before tapping a switch on his weapon arm and becoming engulfed in energy. Even as his body began to increase in mass, he stepped forward, taking a swing at the Rangers in attempt to swat them back. "You think only Ransik's minions can grow?!" he bellowed, his growth stopping once he had doubled in size. "Unlike them, my change can be controlled!"

"Hey!"

Ares looked up and behind the Rangers to see the black suited form of Jennifer Edwards racing toward the fight. "You," he hissed. "You killed Bull!"

Jen stopped as she reached the group of Rangers and flashed out the changer on her right wrist. "And guess what," she replied harshly. "I'm gonn'a do the same to your sorry ass!"

Bringing her arm up, Jen placed a leg forward even as the device neared her lips. "TimeThunder...engage!" she cried, then stepped forward and swung her arms up, then back down to parallel her sides just as a burst of energy exploded out of the device and swarmed out in a brilliant cascade of lightning. Sections of armor blazed into being over her body, claps of unnatural thunder accenting each formation. Her helmet formed in a blaze of lightning-like energy, locking around her head and slamming shut with both face-plate and visor.

Energy crackled forth from her left hand and transformed into the blade weapon she had wielded against Taurus Bull. The transformed TimeThunder, shifting her right foot forward, took stance and seemed to be glaring at Ares. "Now," came her metallic tinged voice. "Your ass is mine!"

Ares growled and fired down at the cluster of eight Rangers, but all save TimeThunder returned fire. He yelled as one of the shots from the Time Rangers pierced his shoulder, forcing him to back away slightly. "The stakes go up then," he muttered, tapping his arm again and becoming charged with bolts of energy. Again, he grew, this time reaching the size of a full giant. "Try me now, humans!"

"We need the Time Jets!" Syon exclaimed, then tapped the com on his Changer. "Circuit, get Provider Base on the line!"

"I'm trying, but the signal's not getting through! It's like they're ignoring us!"

Wes turned toward TimeGreen. "What's going on, why isn't Time Force sending the Time Jets?!"

"They won't respond to Circuit's hails!" Syon exclaimed in horror. "We can't get their help!"

Jen turned to the panicked group and snorted. "Your own machines not working?" she spat in taunt, then looked back up at Ares. "Looks like I get to shine here, Rangers." Bringing her changer to the mouth area of her helmet, Jen tapped a switch. "ThunderCat!" she called into the device. "Engage systems!"

Matt froze when he heard the massive tiger-like roar echo in the air. He knew that cry, or rather, had heard it in data he studied while he was with the Astro Rangers. The machine that made that roar had been rubble by the time he first became the Silver Ranger, but he knew it was could only be that construct.

As the massive black and silver battle machine bounded to the scene, Matt stared in horror. All the modifications made by Bio-Synth could not hide the fact of what this machine had been. The design, just the feeling he had from this machine told him that it had been done. Even as Jen leapt up high to man the machine, Matt knew where this mecha had come from.

"They found him," he whispered. "They found him and rebuilt him."

Jen, meanwhile, took the opportunity to fire the ThunderCat's shoulder mounted cannons at Ares, then turned the machine around and ran to lead him away from the lab complex. "Come on, you overgrown tincan!" she called into the external com system. "You want me, come and get me!"

The Maverick bellowed in rage and followed, ignoring the Rangers below as he chased after the ThunderCat. "Get back here!" he ordered, only to get ignored by the mech. "Damn humans!"

Jen, grinning beneath her helmet, brought the mechanical tiger about once she had drawn her enemy to a safe area and fired, impacting Ares with a barrage of missiles and energy blasts. "Yeah, suck it up, 'bot! You're not messing with any Time Rangers now, you're messing with the TimeThunder!" She tapped a console, then pulled on the main controls. "ThunderCat, transform!"

The machine roared out at Ares, then rose up on hind legs, taking a more humanoid form in this new mode. The front legs swung down as the massive paws retracted up and back to reveal fists. The tiger's head now rested as the main torso piece while a humanoid head rose up to complete the transformation, and as the tail swiveled about, the machine gripped it and pulled forward to reveal the tail's own change into a curved golden sword.

"Time to rumble!" TimeThunder exclaimed, then pushed on her controls to send her machine racing forward. Even as Ares moved to dodge, the ThunderCat swung its sword and struck him across the side, causing sparks and electrical bolts to explode out. Jen brought the mech about to fire from the cannons that swung down to aim at Ares, the energy blasts impacting on the Maverick and causing a massive shower of debris and flames to erupt from his chest.

Ares, as he stumbled back, could only widen his optics as he realized that he had been bested. Not by the Hunters, not by the human that Blade had become powers to, but by the technology of this era, by technology that, by his time, was completely obsolete. "This can't be happening," he gasped. "I...can't..."

"You have served your purpose," echoed a transmission in his mind. "Your use is done, Ares, thank you so much for your service."

And then, he realized who had been manipulating him and the Mavericks the whole time, who was behind the pain that Replicants had suffered, and possibility that of even the mutants. He finally saw who was behind everything. "It's Ti-"

He never finished those words. Just as he began, the ThunderCat slashed hard through his torso. Energy exploded all over his metal body, and even as Ares screamed in pain, he knew that he had failed, not because of who he fought, but because of who he had, in the end, had been serving. He had been betrayed.

And he was gone. Vaporized in the massive detonation that rocked the area like an earthquake. Pieces of metal and debris rained down from above, landing violently on the ground, some still on fire. The ThunderCat simply transformed back to beast mode, then came to a halt before the Rangers. Then, it bounded off back toward Bio-Synth, leaving Matt to stare in shock at what he had seen.

"Move it, move it! We gott'a get him to the ER stat!"

Even as Jen returned to the main complex, she was horrified to see the medical personal swarming out of the building with a stretcher in tow. It was the person on the stretcher that shocked her though. There lay Jeremy Collins, skin burned and blood oozing from wounds. "Oh god," she whispered, then pulled her helmet off and ran over to the rushing paramedics. "What happened?!"

"He got shot by one of those robots that was attacking," a paramedic stated, then glanced back to some of the surviving Guardians. "That's what your boys say. Supposed to be some big guy, looked human in design."

Jen looked over to her men, but she knew that it was Ares who had done this. Glancing back to the paramedics that were racing to get her employer to a nearby ambulance, she ran over just in time to help hoist him up. Pausing for a moment to look at her troops, Jen climbed into the back of the ambulance, not willing now to leave her employer's side.

The group stared at the remains of Ares. Only Yuuri and her group from the future knew how much this meant, but they all knew that the threat they had been facing was over, at least from him. There were still other Mavericks out there, meaning that the threat from them was not over.

"I can't believe it," she whispered. "Something from this era was able to destroy him. I never thought..."

Lucas held her shoulder and nodded. "The past has thrown a lot of surprised at us, Yuuri. Where the V-Fire and V-Rex came from, the capability that this era has...it's been something no one in our time could expect."

"We still have a problem," Matt called, walking over to the rest of the group. "That mech that Jen used, it's not terran made, it was made by Zordon." He sighed when everyone stared at him in shock, then began to explain. "Like the V-Rex, it was designed by Zordon, it's called the Tigerzord. I don't know how Bio-Synth got their hands on him, but they did, and they rebuilt him, possibly better than he was before."

Domon groaned, knowing what it meant. "The timeline's changed way too much," he stated, pacing about nervously. "We have to do something to fix this, before the future is warped beyond what we can predict."

"It's too late for that!"

The group turned to see a pair of figures walking toward them, both in what appeared to be the uniforms of Time Force. From the distance, one could be seen to be a woman with dark skin and black hair. The other, a short haired pale skinned man, walked ahead of her, and as they neared, it was obvious to the four officers from the future who he was.

"The future has already changed," he continued, then glanced to Matt and Eric. "And we're here to fix that."

To Be Continued...