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Tommy Oliver cleared his throat, as he stepped forwards, taking centre stage on the podium.
He stood alongside several other senior rangers who doubled as representatives of various organisations they had been affiliated to over the years, and in front of him were a legion of rangers and other heroes of Earth. Some were morphed, others in their uniforms, while few were in their civilian attires.
He felt all their eyes fall on him, and despite being used to large groups of people looking at him due to years of being a teacher as well as the former director of Hexagon, he felt a faint tinge of nervousness. This was different than anything he had ever done before. Sure, he had led many rangers during the Legendary Battle and other missions, however this was an unprecedented endeavour for not only their planet, but the entire galaxy, and beyond.
SPA, Bandora Protocols and most recently Hexagon had served their purpose in easily uniting rangers across the planet, but with Earth becoming the new center of galactic politics, it had attracted the unwanted attention of even more warlords, mercenaries, and intergalactic criminals than ever before, and not to mention, the homegrown threats of human criminals who were trying to be part of the bigger leagues with the help of alien technologies and dark magic.
Hexagon's strategies of supporting ranger teams with the combined resources and staff of scientists, medics, combat instructors, security personnel, GSA soldiers, SPD officers and Silver Guardians weren't enough anymore. They needed more rangers than the currently active teams, SPD and SPA affiliated rangers and semi-active ones.
To stop these growing threats, all heroes needed to be a united force of good. It was not easy to ask retired rangers to come back to active duty, but to his surprise, nearly everyone had answered the call and gathered in the newly constructed orbital Command Center, a massive hexagonal spaceship orbiting the planet.
"Each of you bring something different to the table. Strength…" His eyes wavered on Mack of the Operation Overdrive team.
"Speed…" He looked at Conner.
"Stealth." The Phantom Ranger gave him a curt nod when he saw him looking at his direction. All these years, and he remained an enigma. No one knew who he was or where he came from.
"Magic…" He glanced at the Mystic Force rangers. When he had first heard of a team of magic users, especially one who was linked to Rita Repulsa, he had been sceptical, but the Mystics as well as Rita had proved themselves time and time again.
"Whatever..." He continued. If he continued listing all the unique attributes of the rangers gathered here, they would be stuck here for days. "But we are all equal in at least one way. Each of us is willing to make the sacrifices a hero needs to make, even the ultimate one."
"Since there are so many of us, we have a chance to do more than just fight off the occasional bad guy or pop up to help when there is a global crisis. We can be proactive, use our powers and other resources at our disposal to help in rescue and relief operations, de-escalate situations before they turn into a crisis, and so much more to keep the galaxy truly safe. We can do some real good out there, but we will have to be organized. The Mission Control personnel will be up here, keeping an eye on everything. They will be the ones to decide who is going where and when. I know a lot of you are used to making decisions for yourself but from now on, we must be more coordinated than that. We can't leave things up to chance any more. We are bigger than ourselves or our teams now."
Resounding cheer greeted his ears, and his lips curved into a grateful smile.
"Nice speech, bro." Jason said from beside him. Tommy was glad to have his friend by his side. They hadn't seen eye to eye over several key decisions regarding Hexagon the last few years, but despite his reservations, Jason had decided to show his support after seeing the myriads of threats they were facing. It wasn't like how it was back when they were kids. Earth and frankly the galaxy needed more than one ranger team as its protectors. It needed all of them.
"Thanks." He nodded. "I am just happy so many of us showed up."
"Of course they did." A more sombre voice said. Tommy turned around to see his successor as the Director of Hexagon coming up to him from behind, where the representatives of the founding organisations were communing. "It is as you all say… Once a ranger…"
"Always a ranger." Tommy finished with a smile, looking at the blue scaled anthropomorphic canine alien, clad in a navy peacoat over a black uniform with a golden hexagonal shaped badge with a lightning bolt engraved within, pinned to his chest. "Being the director suits you, Doggie."
"I am honoured you thought of me, Tommy, and quite frankly, it feels good to do some actual work out here." His voice was laced with a tinge of bitterness, which Tommy traced back to whatever had caused him to leave SPD. Whatever the reason, Tommy was relieved the sirian had obliged his request of taking over for him.
Between Wes and Eric both being too tied up in setting up Silver Guardians outposts globally to deal with the upsurge in mutant riots, Adam still stuck in the Sirius System, TJ off with the other astro rangers on some mission, and Nancy presiding over Grid Battleforce, there wasn't a lot of people he could trust with his former position.
The duties of being the director did not come without its share of burdens. Paperwork was the least of it. He had to negotiate between the various splintered groups within the ranger community, GSA, and the United Nations to get even the simplest thing rolling. Tommy was a fighter in heart. He had itched to be in the field the whole time he held the mantle, instead of in the sidelines.
Doggie had more expertise dealing with internal politics and galactic affairs than anyone he knew, and when he heard he had retired from his station in SPD, he had reached out to his fellow ranger, who had graciously agreed to taking over for him.
Not everyone had agreed with his choice.
Tommy had been a veteran ranger of Earth, having served as part of numerous teams… And most importantly, he was a human of Earth.
Doggie Cruger on the other hand, was not only an alien, but also had been an SPD officer prior to being a ranger instead of the other way around. Despite SPD being their allies in the fight against injustice, there was a reason SPA was created as an intermediary organisation between the space cops and rangers.
However, Tommy had seen Cruger act. Unlike other SPD commanders with ranger programs, who had just handed out morphers to the best officers, Cruger had chosen those with the right hearts to be rangers. Jack Landors, Z Delgado, and Mavis Neramani were unconventional choices as part of an SPD squad, but they fit in right amongst the rangers.
Cruger had chosen to follow the code of the rangers over whatever regulations SPD had laid down. He had respected the legacy of the Morphin Grid, and that had earned him Tommy's approval.
Besides, if he was being truly honest, in many ways, Doggie reminded him of his old mentor, Zordon, a man who had no stake in protecting Earth, but still gave his all for a planet that wasn't his own.
"This is just the start." Doggie said. "Something like this is truly spectacular."
"So many rangers… Zordon always warned us about escalating the battle." Jason sighed.
"This is necessary, Jason." Another voice said. It was feminine with some warbling effect… something definitely not human in origin but something Tommy instantly associated with a sense of ease and comfort.
It belonged to Delphine of Aquitar, the legendary white 'alien' ranger and one of the strongest supporters of Earth in the Galactic Council.
"We have seen reports from all over the galaxy. There is a marked upsurge of monsters, mercenaries and warlords attacking unsuspecting worlds. Lord Zedd's return and the Troobian War contributed to this, but we haven't seen activities like these since Zordon's sacrifice." She said gravely. "However, there have been reappearances of villains who were confirmed to be destroyed by the wave. If we don't end this now, we might have to deal with another United Alliance of Evil, and I am not sure our galaxy can survive that again."
"Besides, the Morphin Grid is all about maintaining the balance. The forces of evil are amassing, so should we." Tommy said decisively.
"I am still not sure if all this is truly necessary just yet. We don't have a Legendary Battle on our hands or some galaxy wide conflict." Jason wavered, before clasping Tommy's shoulders and smiling at him. "But I trust you bro. I always have. You are the best of us, and if there is anyone worthy of leading us into this new age, it's you."
Tommy's eyes watered. He promptly wrapped his arms around Jason, pulling him into a warm hug.
They looked down to see the gathering of nearly two hundred heroes talking amongst themselves, some of them catching up after years, others making introductions.
It was what Jason had started so many years ago, when he had extended a helping hand towards him and brought him into their circle of friendship… accepted him as a ranger even after what he had done… given him a second chance.
They weren't just superpowered individuals operating as part of distinct teams anymore. They were one big family… a community striving to protect all that's good.
So, this is something I have been planning for some time. While this story takes place in the "Guardians of Earth" continuity alongside my "Once and Always" rewrite, nearly every storyline is planned in such a way that the general Power Rangers fan can appreciate it without needing to read the previous instalments of this universe (especially since some of these haven't been written yet, and because the Guardians!verse is basically canon with some additional OCs.) Any OC or event that happens exclusively in this continuity will be explained in the story itself or in the Author's notes.
Nancy Shah is an OC who appears in my stories. She is the Saffron Mighty Morphin Ranger and General (previously Commander) Shah of Grid Battleforce and mother of Ravi Shah. A small difference from canon is the name change of Shah from Shaw.
Mavis Neramani is another OC who will appear in my SPD rewrite fic.
In this timeline, after the events of Cosmic Fury, Tommy became the director of Hexagon, but he has since passed the mantle to Doggie, so he can be on the field again.
Tommy's speech was heavily modelled after Superman's speech in the first episode of the animated show "Justice League Unlimited," which was an inspiration for not only the title of this fic, but also the premise. Every episode (I will be breaking them into chapters for my benefit) will have a rotating cast of characters, both heroes and villains, to enable fun character interactions as this story delves into the lore of Power Rangers.
Hope you guys stick around for this. :)