Disclaimer: If you saw the character on TV then Haim Saban owns it. If the only place you saw it was in a fanfic by Robert Gutheim or Mistri Xades then guess what: We own it! This is a new International Writing Collaboration which covers a lot of territory and several time zones since Robert lives on the East coast of the United States and Mistri.... well he lives all the way over in Australia, so as you can see it even covers two different hemispheres. This comes after Taming The Equinox. It takes place middle March 97. However, since the Equinox Rangers are jumping through time, when text looks like this: We'll be with the Equinox Rangers Mistri, Adam, Andrew, Kim Hart, Chad, Maya, and Andros, and when it is normal, we'll be with the remaining Resistance. Mistri of course owns the Equinox Powers. Mistri owns Vadaei, [that's pronounced VAY-di-I,] the Phaedos Powers and their bearers, Mistri, Geneva, Calcia, Edy, Asharani, Karei, Vedi, Dalila and Bambi. These nine characters cannot be borrowed, as Mistri is using them in a story for publication. They are protected under international copyright law.

Failing Phaedos
by Robert and Mistri

Last time on Viva La Resistance.....

"We got the Power!"

Taurus became the torso. Hydro Rescue 2 and the Wolf GalactaZord flashed, in blue and yellow light, and became the legs of the MegaZord. Pteradactyl DinoZord flashed pink, and became the arms. Next, the HawkZord flared, and landed on the back, forming optional flight mode.

The bay of the NMS opened, and out flew a shuttle. It zoomed up and formed the head, completing the Equinox MegaZord.

~*~

"Professor, soon as we get this figured out I'm officially requesting permission to contact Xades and the others and recall them from their mission. With most of Phaedos down we need everyone we can get."

"Carter it sounds as if their mission is key to the entire war," Professor Damon reminded him while Dana, Alpha, Leo, and Kelsey worked to get the Phaedosian Rangers tied into every monitor Dana could think of. After about an hours work Dana had the worst of the wounds cleaned up and bandaged. Kelsey and Alpha did most of the work assisting her with the cleaning and bandaging. Leo meanwhile was in charge of monitoring vital signs.

~*~

March 10th, 1997.

A day later, Carter stood at the consoles. Carefully he inputted the commands and then pressed send.

A few minutes passed, while the other Rangers stood by , nervously waiting. Finally, a voice came through.

"Name. Rank. Planet of Origin."

"Carter Grayson. Red LightSpeed Ranger. Earth."

The screen switched to reveal Mistri. "Carter, what is it?" he snapped.

"We need you to come home. Phaedos is injured, and we have no friggin clue why!"

"What is the date?"

"March 10th."

"No chances of a crossed wire," muttered Mistri. "Okay. Look, we were on our way home anyway. When did this happen, anyway?"

"Yesterday," said Carter. "Do you know why?"

"I have some suspicions.. Have they healed any?"

"No.." said Dana, slowly. "In fact, they seem to be getting worse. I don't know why."

Mistri paled. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes. In fact, I have to go relieve Kelsey. She's watching over them." She left the room.

"Dana.." She turned. "I know what I know. And this has happened before. I.. we could heal them.. Not now.. Not without rewriting history.. And we can't do that.. We knew it would happen.. but we forgot other things. And now.. they can't be healed. They're going to die. Like Rachi. We could have avoided it, but we thought.. it wouldn't be fair. And now.. we've paid the highest price."

"I'm coming home. If they were hurt yesterday.. then they don't have much time. It will take a long time to get home."

The transmission ended. Everyone looked at each other. And Kelsey came silently in. Carter hugged Dana, likewise Sue and Sean, Barakus and Sasha, Jason and Kat, Billy and Trini, Kendrix and Leo, TJ and Cassie, Tyra and Zack, Ryan and Kim Coltran, Brianca and Carlos. Tanya wept into David's shoulder. Ashley was clutching at Zhane. Joel had gone to Kelsey's side. And Janet, Tommy, Kai, Damon, and Rocky stood in a fivesome hug.

"I see.. he told you," came a weak voice. They turned to Vedi.

"Why aren't you in bed?" said Dana sharply.

"Did he tell you?"

"Yes.." Dana said. Then medical profession kicked in. "You should be in bed."

"Damn the bed, Dana Mitchell! If I'm going to die, I'm damn well going to do it by his side!"

"How do you propose on getting there?" asked Carter. Vedi was about to answer, but she flared red, and collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness. Dana took her back to the sickbay, trying to lose herself in her work.

~*~

March 9th, 1997.

The new team of Equinox Rangers looked proudly at their new MegaZord. It then dissolved into the separate Zords and the Zords formed into light, and streamed into the Power Suits.

Mistri waved a hand, and a glowing white light enveloped the ship.

"What's happening?" asked Andrew.

"Ever wonder why we weren't told what had defeated the UAE at those locations back in February?"

"Yeah?" said Adam.

"Because they didn't know. That can only be the Equinox Power Rangers. We're hardly ever in existence, plus, the suits are your old ones glitzed up, so you don't usually look like a team, and so no one knows."

"Where are we going?" asked Kim.

"Aquitar. But a better question might be: When are we going?"

"When are we going?" asked Maya.

"January 1st, 1996."

~*~

January 1st, 1996.

"You see, the UAE is stupid, in that in all their conquered planets there is barely enough guards to prevent an uprising. But everyone is too scared to uprise. So it's okay for them. Aquitar, Triforia, Edenoi, Inquirius and Eltar are the only ones who haven't really been conquered. Earth has, but only forty-six out of six billion are resisting. Everyone on these planets are resisting," said Mistri.

"Okay... what are we here to do?" asked Chad.

"Make contact with the Aquitian Rangers, kill Cestria, she's allied with the UAE, and enlist aid and support."

Bringing his right hand fingers together in the two finger gun look Mistri ran them throught the Equinox Call. He did the same to his left hand, and placed his hands so that the tips were touching the wrist. Then in a fast move, his left arm was pointing straight out, and his right hand was on the side of his face. Then he mouthed the words, "White Equinox - Space/Time!" Finally, he brought his arms crossed at the wrists in an x, at chest level.

"We call the Equinox!"

"White Equinox - Space/Time!"
"Green Equinox - Star!"
"Black Equinox - Black Hole!"
"Pink Equinox - Nebulae!"
"Blue Equinox - Galaxy!"
"Yellow Equinox - Lunae!"
"Red Equinox - Solar!"

They ran through their Equinox Call, each seeing before they channelled their power by speaking, the representation of their last part of speech.

And they came down to Aquitar.

~*~

Mistri had better luck than he probably ever had. He landed in Cestria's apartment. Cestria was talking to Scorpina.

Without hesitating, he fired two bursts of light at them, and they dropped dead. Then he walked out, and joined the others, who by now, had found where the Aquitian Rangers were. Without a word, they headed towards the place.

They got there, and Andrew ducked a blow from Delphine, threw one at Cestro, and heard the others trying to hurriedly explain.

Delphine bowed. "We thank you."

"What have you been doing to defeat the UAE?" asked Maya.

"We had been trying all the plans we knew. However, no matter what we came up with, our plans were always successfully counteracted. We have one last plan."

And silently, they discussed the plan.

~*~

The Equinox MegaZord was in place. And a great shout came from Aquitar, as they began to fire upon the UAE.

Aquitar was actually winning, for once. And then within a green star, Andrew placed a positively charged black hole, and then Adam placed it in the middle of the UAE ships and fighters.

No one noticed it. Until Andrew activated it, and suddenly, all the UAE was dragged to it and destroyed. Only a handful, but the most powerful, unfortunately, escaped.

And then, the Equinox Rangers were gone, mysteriously vanished.

~*~

March 10th, 1997.

Back on Earth...

Communications were being monitored by Kendrix, and Tyra while they were trying to get over the news of what Mistri had told them. Suddenly a beep came over the Communications network. Kendrix called it up. IT was a typed message that made no sense.

RIXEIVJ
Z VEUV FK VJV YKV FTELZTC ZIYXK NRPR CGRVVJ VDKV VD EZ YKV RDEZ FSCZIV FIDF WF YKV RTIIVZI FUVD EZ ZJO FYILJ the last line reading simply R IWZVUE.

"It's gotta be a code of some kind," Tyra said. "It bet it won't be easy to crack either."

"Awful lotta z's in there almost makes me want to think about sleep."

"Lotta V's as well. I think we should show this message to the council," Tyra said.

They then convinced Carter to convene a council meeting.

"Here's the situation. Five minutes ago a strange Kendrix and I believe coded message was received. It was my theory and Kendrix agrees that it won't be easy to crack. Here is the message," She said handing it to Carter. He looked at it before handing it to Leo who examined it and handed it to Kai, After a few passes it reached Sue who then began writing a bunch of things down. She then handed it back towards Carter.

"Sue, any chance those of us down here will get to see it?" Kim Coltran wondered.

"Yeah Sue," David agreed.

"You sure of this Sue?" Carter wondered. "This is what the message really is?"

"Yeah I recognized a couple of the words. It's a pretty secure code but that doesn't mean the UAE couldn't figure it out on their own. In fact I'm sort of banking that they might be using it to set a trap. I don't think all of us should go."

"Not all of us can go as it is. Mistri, Andrew, and Adam won't be back in time, Karei is in no shape to go and Dana needs to stay close by to monitor the situation with Karei and the others."

"Tommy, David, Jason, Kim Coltran, and Sue will go. Please be careful and make sure you aren't seen. We're supposed to be underground after all."

After the meeting got over Kim walked up to her leader.

"Sue, what was the message?"

"It was a request from the sender for the council to meet him or her in the main boiler room of a particular stadium in at this point roughly five and a half hours. Pass word to the guys that we go in morphed."

Shortly before that time the Rangers met up.

"OK in order to sneak in the best we'll go in morphed. That way if it is a trap we will be prepared."

"IT'S MORPHIN TIME!"

"DRAGONZORD!"
TYRANNOSAURUS!"

"ZEONIZE!"
"ZEO RANGER FIVE, RED!"

"DEMONA RANGER POWER!"

The five rangers then teleported to the stadium. In the background you could hear chants of 'Let's Go Orange Let's Go Orange Let's Go Orange.'

"Anyone know what we just teleported into. Sounds like some religious cult meeting nearby ."

"Actually SU is playing a game in the arena portion. You can safely demorph," a familiar and truly friendly voice said. He was standing in the shadows though.

"What's with all the chanting Let's Go Orange then?" Kim wondered.

"The home team is the Syracuse University Orangemen."

"Oh," Kim said. "Why did you send the message in code?"

"Easy I didn't want the UAE to read it. Where is the rest of the council?"

"Let's see, three members are on a secret mission, one is badly injured, another is monitoring the eight badly injured rangers, the others are fine but we were worried it might be a trap so we didn't feel it safe to bring the entire council."

"At least Sue came."

End