Day of the Thunder

Day of the Thunder is the first episode of the first season of Power Rangers Thunderstorm and the series premiere of the Power Rangers fanfiction franchise created by Runwaygirl20. This episode and the first season takes place in 1996.

Summary
Following the accidental release of long-imprisoned evil space-sorceress Vita, a benevolent sage known as Telexa drafts a group of five teenagers to help protect the planet as dino powered warriors of goodness.

Plot
Somewhere in the Solar System, two astronauts are surveying the landscape when they find what looks like a dumpster. When they open the dumpster, the astronauts are knocked to their feet as Evil Space Aliens come out of it. Goldonna, Squatt, Baboo, Finster, and their leader, the evil sorceress Vita, exclaim their gratitude to the astronauts for freeing them after 10,000 years of imprisonment and announce their plans to celebrate by conquering the nearest planet -- Earth!

In the city of Riverside, California, five teenage kids named Max, Carmen, Nicole, Rico, and Drew are at the local Youth Center. High school juniors Nicole and Max are sparring in front of a karate class, and the less-than-athletic Drew, a freshman is among the students. Sophomore Carmen is practicing skating and her fellow sophomore Rico is demonstrating breathing exercises, but they are interrupted by a pair of rude snobbish twin sisters named Brittany and Brianna Chandler, eighth graders at Winwood Junior High, who try to hit both Max and Rico up for a date. When Carmen and Nicole start getting physical, the girls flip the snobby twins to the floor and leave them out cold.

High above Riverside on Earth's moon, Vita and her monstrous allies have taken over an ancient Moon Palace as their lair, where Rita sets up her telescope and eagerly anticipates her conquest of the blue, defenseless planet as she observes its beauty. To facilitate her conquest, her loyal servant Finster has established a laboratory where he is at work molding clay into humanoid dolls called Putty Patrollers. By running them through his Monster-Matic machine, the dolls come to life as human-sized soldiers.

Back in Riverside, Brittany is cutting into Nicole's karate class and demanding that she be taught how to beat people up. Nicole explains that karate is not about violence, but she nonetheless demonstrates to Brittany and lands her on the mat again. The class over, Nicole meets up with her friends at the adjoining Juice Bar. Suddenly, a large earthquake rocks the Youth Center and everybody panics. Before any of the five friends can react, they are teleported out of the Youth Center in beams of light.

As their vision recovers, the five teens find themselves in a high-tech facility unlike anything they've seen. A strange humanoid robot comes out, which amazes Drew at how technologically advanced she is, but their attention is then turned to a booming voice coming from a glowing head in a nearby tube. She introduces himself as Telexa and his robot aide as Gamma 5, then explains to her guests of Vita and her plans to conquer Earth. Though Telexa had defeated Vita long ago, she is no longer able to fight due to imprisoned in an tube and thus has chosen five "overbearing and overemotional humans" (teenagers, in other words) to becomes Earth's defenders in his stead. The teens are incredibly skeptical at this information, but Telexa grants them Thunder Morphers that will allow them to summon the incredible power of Thunder and fight Vita's forces.

Leaving the Command Center, the teens are still unable to fully believe what they had just seen, but their attitudes change when Vita's Putties arrive to destroy them. Though they are able to hold their own with their fighting talents, the clay creatures prove too much and they are forced to gamble their lives on their Thunder Morphers. As this power is summoned, the teens are given colored costumes and helmets, and their strength increases, allowing them to defeat the Putties.

They are then teleported back to Riverside, where Vita's warrior Goldonna awaits them with more Putties. As the Putties fall, Vita throws her magic wand down to Earth and uses its power to make Goldonna grow to colossal size. Driven by inherent instincts granted through their powers, the young heroes summon giant robots in the shape of the dinosaurs, the Dinozords, and use them to fight Goldonna. They eventually join their Dinozords together into a single robot, the Thunder Megazord, which overpowers Goldonna and forces her to retreat. On the moon, Vita comes down with a sudden headache over her loss and blames Goldonna for it.

Back in the Command Center, the teens have now fully accepted Telexa's request to protect Earth from Vita's evil plans. As per Telexa's rules, they are required to never use their powers for personal gain, to never escalate a battle with them unless forced, and to keep their identities a secret from all. With Telexa and Gamma guiding them, a new team of superheroes is born -- the Power Rangers Thunderstorm!

Cast

 * Mercedes McNab - Nicole Holden (Thunderstorm Pink)
 * Roberto Romero - Rico Lopez (Thunderstorm Red)
 * Ben Easter - Max Collins (Thunderstorm Black)
 * Genevieve Cortese - Carmen Rodriguez (Thunderstorm Yellow)
 * Eric Lively - Drew Hale (Thunderstorm Blue)
 * Kelly Aldridge - Brittany Chandler
 * Sabrina Aldridge - Brianna Chandler