Zeo: Gold Still Sizzling!

Jason Lee Scott returns—powerful, defiant, and driven by hope. The battlefield is lost, but he believes something can still be saved. Even as monstrous forces rise to crush him, he holds on to the belief that strength and loyalty still matter. Even when the ground breaks beneath him.

Is it still a rescue… if the only thing pulled from the fire is something to serve?

Special thanks to my loyal and royal patron friends:

A

Matthew Thom

fumitsu

kasa41

俊介 星野

にとり 河城

Russell shuey

Bayu Pramana

clanna

park jong

Dominic Kohtz

George Hellerman

Flutterheart10480

brkfstinamerica

darkrai1986

시우 성

Nathaniel Grayson

's 쭌

John Barten

Eddie Hauck

Ken K

Ty smith

Robert Terwillger

snb

Daniel K

Mike020578

Sizzling good!

The fair's lights blinked like a dying heartbeat, casting oily shadows across the broken pavement. Cracked stalls spilled buckets of congealed sauces, and the once-bright banners now fluttered with grease-soaked edges. The fun had long since died. What remained was only horror—raw, loud, and alive.

At the center of the grounds stood two grotesque masses. The monsters had once resembled novelty mascots—oversized bouncing burgers with flapping buns and cartoonish grins. Now they were twisted giants, each nearly two stories tall, their buns warped into leathery, veined domes, pulsing with unnatural life. Their patties churned, not ground beef, but flesh fused with fabric and bone, the twitching, screaming remains of Rangers who had once stood as Earth’s protectors.

The meat moaned.

Their helmeted faces stretched and convulsed within the patties, pushing against the greasy surface like bodies under plastic wrap. Eyes bulged. Visors warped. Their mouths opened to scream—but no air escaped. Only a muffled wailing, vibrating through the sizzling tissue, echoed across the hushed grounds.

"NNNNGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" Rocky's broken roar was muffled. His helmet was half-embedded, his body crushed in layers of fused meat, and his delivery was utterly pained with madness.

"I CAN STILL THINK! I CAN STILL THINK—PLEASE—" Kat’s panicked sobs echoed behind the patty’s thick skin, her limbs jerking, fused to tendrils of cheese-like sinew, her tone crackling between gurgled wails. “LET ME DIE! LET ME OUT! I’M—NOT—FOOD!”

The bun above her pulsed, pressing downward slightly, squeezing her deeper.

“IT’S MELTING ME! IT’S MELTING ME!!” Tanya’s scream came next, her visor long gone, her eyes wide and bloodshot, twitching in a paste of sauce, nerves, and synthetic armor fibers. Her gloved hand clawed out briefly, morpher mutilated and fused into the pulpy meat, before being yanked back in with a sickening squelch.

“TOMMYYYYYY!” Adam’s voice got devastated violently, his mouth barely visible behind a layer of seared tissue. “IT’S INSIDE ME—IT’S GRINDING ME—AGAIN AND AGAIN—OH GOD, IT WON’T—” His sentence snapped into a blood-rattling scream as his lower face warped into the churning plating, silenced by flesh.

The burger monstrosities bounced once, then settled, their massive forms shuddering with glee and digestion. From within, the Rangers’ distorted screams looped like a torture track, their utterances blurred between pleas, madness, and rage, never allowed to stop.

From a speaker embedded deep within the first monstrosity’s lettuce-choked throat, a new voice slithered out—a mockery of what used to be Tanya’s:

“Welcome to the sizzle, babies… you’re all gonna be well done.”

It cackled. So did the second burger.

The patty twisted again, Tanya’s back arched inside it—her silhouette visible through the greasy plating as her spine was crushed loud enough to echo, her cry cutting out in a choking gasp before returning in a scream far more animal than human. "HAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHH—NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

“Kat, where are you? Where ARE YOU?!” Rocky’s tone sounded next, lost in disorientation, then rising in pitch. “I CAN’T SEE—MY EYES—I CAN FEEL MY TEETH FALLING OUT, WHY CAN I FEEL MY TEETH FALLING OUT—!!”

Kat’s reply was sobbed through gnashing, syrup-thick meat. “We’re in the same piece, Rocky! I can feel your arm in mine—I can feel your fingers in my stomach, OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!”

“I’M SORRY! I’M SORRY!” Rocky wailed, his cries muffled by sizzling juices.

The buns of the first burger flopped once, oozing a fresh ribbon of yellow fluid, soaking the base of its form. A new section of the patty opened, and Adam’s helmeted head lurched free, steaming, twitching violently.

His screaming didn’t stop, even as a tongue of meat wrapped around his neck, pulling him back in. “NO! NOT AGAIN! NOT AGAIN—TOMMY—TOMMY PLEASE—I’LL DO ANYTHING, GET ME OUT, YOU’RE THE LEADER! YOU’RE THE LEADER, TOMMY—”

Slap. Crunch. Silence.

Only Tanya’s howl remained above the hiss now, her words broken with choking sauce: “THEY’RE NOT LETTING US DIE. THEY WANT US TO FEEL IT.”

Silence followed for three seconds. Then—

"FOREVER!”

The Red Zeoranger’s arms limp at his sides. Tommy’s fingers shuddered. His visor cracked, the red of his suit dulled by thick smoke and spattered filth. He barely flinched now when the patty screamed, when Adam sobbed through bubbling flesh, or when Tanya cried out his name like she still believed there was someone left inside him.

There wasn’t as the grease never cooled. “No more… no more… I can’t keep flipping them, I can’t—I can’t hear them scream again—I can’t—I CAN’T—”

Kat’s warped, buried words burst upward from the patty, shrill and loud enough to rattle the metal plating: “BUT YOU ARE, TOMMY!! YOU’RE BURNING US OVER AND OVER! YOU WON’T STOP! WHY WON’T YOU STOP!?”

“YOU HEAR ME!? I’M STILL IN HERE—MY ARMS WON’T MOVE—MY FACE IS MELTING!” Adam screamed, his tone full of choking grease. “YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE STRONGEST! YOU LEFT US IN THIS!!”

Tommy reeled back like he'd been slapped. His back slammed against the side of a sauce-slicked stall. “I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!” he shrieked. “I—I TRIED TO SAVE US! I TRIED TO—”

Rocky’s utterance shrieked through the burning slab. “AND YOU FAILED!! WE’RE STILL SCREAMING, TOMMY—CAN YOU HEAR ME?! YOU FAILED US!!”

“OUR SOULS ARE ON THE GRILL!!” Tanya cried. “AND YOU KEEP FLIPPING US!! STOP COOKING US—STOP COOKING US, TOMMY!!”

Tommy let out a warbling shriek and dropped to his knees, slamming both fists to the ground with a sick, wet smack. “GET ME OUT!! GET ME OUT OF THIS!!” he screamed, punching his own chest plate. “GET THIS OFF ME—GET IT OFF!!”

He reached for his helmet, clawing at the base like a madman. “I DON’T WANT TO BE HIM! I DON’T WANT TO BE RED ANYMORE!!”

The burger monsters roared in laughter, the sound echoing like industrial grinders. "GO AHEAD, CHEF—SLICE UP THE TRUTH! YOU’RE JUST OUR LITTLE SERVER NOW!"

Tommy scratched at his helmet violently, sparks flying as his gauntlet scraped across the shattered visor. “I HEAR YOUR VOICES—I HEAR THEM IN THE METAL—I HEAR YOUR BONES POP—I HEAR YOUR BREATHS IN THE PATTY—AAAAAAAARGH!!”

He slammed his helmeted head against the pavement—once, twice—each crack sending ripples of pain and splintering memory.

Kat screamed again, her tone muffled and wet: “I CAN FEEL YOU WHEN YOU PRESS DOWN, TOMMY—EVERY TIME! I CAN FEEL MY RIBS BEND—I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!”

“PLEASE JUST KILL US! FINISH IT!! FINISH IT!!!”

“BUT YOU WON’T, WILL YOU!?” Rocky spat. “YOU’D RATHER COOK US THAN JOIN US!!”

“YOU COWARD! YOU TRAITOR! YOU—”

Tommy let out a final, lung-ripping scream, a primal sound no longer even language. His hands shredded across his chest armor, ripping at the seams, raking the front of his suit like an animal, his legs spasming as he dropped to the ground in full collapse.

“I CAN’T HEAR MYSELF THINK ANYMORE!! I CAN’T HEAR ME—I CAN ONLY HEAR YOU—SCREAMING—ALWAYS SCREAMING!!”

No matter how many screams echoed out of the meat. No matter how many times the Rangers’ still-living faces bulged and twisted from the patty’s sweating plating. No matter how many broken sobs or cracks of bone bubbled through the griddle’s sizzle—the heat stayed constant. Endless. Starving. It didn’t cook for doneness. It cooked for dominance. And it demanded a chef.

Tommy lay motionless for minutes—or hours, time didn’t matter anymore—his body twitching in slow spasms against the oil-slick ground. The stench of burnt flesh and sauce curled into his nostrils through the shattered holes in his helmet. He had screamed himself hoarse, but the voices never went away. His hands trembled at his sides, fingers twitching to rhythms he couldn’t control anymore. He knew them all. Each one. The way Adam’s utterance hiccupped between sobs. The gasp Kat gave every time she melted into the fat. The way Rocky kept whispering his name, like it would undo it all.

But it wouldn’t. He knew it wouldn’t.

Above him, the burger monstrosities swelled further, bouncing grotesquely on the ruined soil of the fairground, their bodies now too big to resemble anything but gods of gluttony. Their lettuce-spined limbs jiggled, their sesame-seeded backs cracked open like insect shells, leaking steam and laughter. They no longer moved to attack. They didn’t need to. They were full. And yet, still hungry. "WHAT A MEAL YOU’VE MADE, CHEF!" the first burger bellowed, its howl layered with dozens of overlapping screams. “BUT THE ORDERS KEEP COMING IN, AND THIS GRILL’S STILL HOT!”

Tommy didn’t reply. He crawled. Not walked. Not stood. Crawled. Back to the station. The grill flared in his reflection. He could barely see himself through the grease-smeared visor, but he could hear them.

“I—I CAN SEE YOUR HAND, TOMMY—DON’T TOUCH ME AGAIN—PLEASE DON’T FLIP ME AGAIN—” Kat's courage was demolished. “I DON’T WANT TO FEEL MY BODY TURN OVER ANYMORE—I DON’T—OH NO—NO NO NO NO NO—”

Tanya’s howl layered over hers, pitch rising, language dissolving:  “IT’S HISSING THROUGH MY EARS—I CAN FEEL THE GREASE INSIDE MY EYES—TOMMY STOP—PLEASE—TOMMY I’M MELTING AGAIN I’M MELTING AGAIIIIIN—”

Tommy reached for the spatula. Slowly. Like a man picking up the knife that killed his family, only to do it again. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” he whispered. “You don’t stop. You don’t ever stop… and they’ll hurt me worse if I don’t…”

The spatula was in his hand now. The grill flared.

He flipped.

A single chunk of twitching meat peeled up, shriveled and shaking with some muscle memory of resistance. Adam’s tone screamed so loudly it pierced the fryer’s roar. “TOMMY!! NO!! NO!! YOU’RE KILLING ME OVER AND OVER!! LET ME STAY ON ONE SIDE—LET ME STICK—LET ME BURN!!”

Tommy dropped the spatula and pressed both hands to his ears, wailing. "YOU THINK I WANT THIS!?" he shouted, head jerking. “I DIDN’T CHOOSE THIS—I DIDN’T ASK TO SURVIVE!!”

The burgers laughed harder, their stomachs expanding with every sob. “OH, BUT YOU DID, LITTLE CHEF!” the second one howled. “WE OFFERED YOU A WAY OUT. AND YOU TOOK IT. FLIP OR FRY. AND LOOK—YOU CHOSE THE HANDLE. NOT THE BUN.”

Another piece twitched. He saw it. Pink-streaked. Kat’s voice groaned wetly from inside. “YOU LEFT ME. YOU LEFT ME… TOMMY… I THOUGHT YOU LOVED US—”

He screamed until his utterance was mutilated again. And still, he flipped. With each turn, each sear, each tear of rubberized flesh from the grill, his teammates screamed—his friends, his family, the people he had sworn to protect—now plated, pressed, and served.

And behind him—they came.

The crowd.

Dozens. Hundreds. They poured into the field like rats into a burning building, eyes glassy, limbs twitching. The air reeked of oil, smoke, and addiction. These weren’t citizens anymore. They were eaters. They licked their lips and reached for trays, biting into patties that wept with muffled tones. The screams of Kat. The moans of Adam. The shivering panic of Tanya and Rocky.

“Mmmm, it still moves!” one child laughed, chewing something that blinked once before disappearing down their throat.

“I CAN FEEL THEM SCREAM IN MY TEETH!!” another gurgled joyfully, sauce running down his chin.

Behind Tommy, the burger gods loomed larger than ever—not just monsters, but cathedrals of consumption, their greasy bodies pulsing with every heartbeat stolen from the Zeo Rangers.

The monsters spoke together and loud, echoing through the fairground, shaking the earth's bones. "THE CHEF STILL BREATHES. PITIFUL LITTLE MAN."

"YOU SLICE. YOU SERVE. BUT YOU KNOW YOUR TURN COMES."

Tommy’s body stiffened with dread.

The monsters bounced with mocking delight, their massive patties dripping with power, their eyes blazing. "YOU THINK YOU ESCAPED? YOU THINK YOU’RE SAFE?" The first sneered, words thick with molten laughter. "EVERY BURGER NEEDS A LAST BITE. AND YOU—CHEF—YOU’RE THE DESSERT."

Tommy turned slowly, trembling, tone breaking. “I did what you asked… I did everything…”

The second monster leaned forward, its sesame-seed bun creaking with bloated hunger.

"AND YOU DID IT SO WELL! THE LITTLE COWARD WHO COOKED HIS FRIENDS!" it roared. "BUT EVEN COWARDS HAVE FLAVOR, RED. ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY'RE MARINATED IN REGRET."

“Please…” Tommy whispered.

"NO, CHEF. NOT YET. WE'LL SAVE YOU FOR THE FINAL COURSE."

"LET THE GUILT TENDERIZE YOU. LET THE SIZZLE SOAK INTO YOUR BONES. WE WANT YOU TO FEEL IT ALL."

Their laughter was thunder. Their breath, steam. Their presence crushed him.

Tommy dropped to his knees again, arms limp, spatula falling to the ground.

The burger gods rumbled in unison.

"KNOW THIS, TOMMY OLIVER—YOU ARE OURS. YOU AREN’T SPARING YOURSELF. YOU’RE STORING YOURSELF. YOU ARE NOT FREE—YOU’RE JUST FERMENTING."

"WE OWN YOU. AND YOU WILL BEG TO BE EATEN BEFORE THE END."

***

His hands shuddered. His lips moved, but no words came—just broken syllables, half-formed sobs, breath caught between denial and surrender. Then he looked up at the swaying colossi, and his soul's last scrap of pride snapped like cartilage under a cleaver.

“I did what you wanted,” he whispered, low and hoarse. “I flipped them. I… I pressed them. I listened.”

The burgers pulsed, steam rolling out from their gaping maws like hungry breath. Their eyes, made of melting red onions and pickled glare, bore into him without blinking.

Tommy rose to his knees, voice rising with madness. “You said if I did this, I’d be spared. You said if I served, I wouldn’t burn like them!”

No answer.

Just the gurgle of oil and the wet churn of grinding meat behind him—the still-screaming souls of his team being reheated in torment.

“ISN’T THAT ENOUGH?!” Tommy shouted, his courage long gone to pieces. “ISN’T THAT ENOUGH!?”

The first burger opened its mouth wide, the maw slick with sauce and grease. The agony that rolled out was deeper than thunder and thicker than lard.

“YOU ARE AN INGREDIENT, TOMMY. NOT AN EXCEPTION.”

He backed away, hands raised like a man facing execution.

“No… no, you need me! I make the orders! I keep the feast going! I—I can get you more!”

The burgers chuckled in sync—low, slapping, awful.

“AND WHAT CAN THE COWARD OFFER?” the second hissed. “HE WHO FLIPS HIS FRIENDS LIKE PANCAKES? WHO SLICES THE CRIES FROM THEIR SPINES?”

“I can get you the others!” Tommy screamed. “I know where they are—Zack, Trini, Kimberly, Billy… Jason…”

He laughed suddenly. Mad. Hollow.

“Jason… big, golden hero. You’d like him, wouldn’t you? So proud, so clean. But I can dirty him. I can bring him to you. Just let me keep my skin.”

The monsters drooled in delight.

“YESSSS... MORE RANGERS. MORE MEAT.”

“DOES HE OFFER THE ZORDS, TOO? THE POWER?”

“Yes!” Tommy gasped. “Everything! I’ll give you my Zeo powers—just rip them out, I don’t care. Take the sword. The helmet. JUST LEAVE ME OUT OF THE PATTY. PLEASE!”

He collapsed to his elbows, body shaking with every sob. “I don’t want to feel the melt. Not like them. Not like Kat. Not like Adam. I can still hear them screaming inside my eyes—when I close them, it’s like they’re pressing into my brain.”

Behind him, the grill gave a long hiss as a patty convulsed.

A scream rang out—Rocky’s agonized outcry mangled beyond comprehension.

“YOU’RE STILL COOKING US!!”

“WE TRUSTED YOU!!” Tanya sobbed. “YOU COULD HAVE SAVED US—YOU LED US—”

Kat’s words cracked from the depths, barely audible but seething: “AND NOW YOU SERVE THEM… YOU’RE THE CHEF OF OUR HELL...”

Tommy grabbed the sides of his head and slammed his helmetless skull against the grill table once. Twice. He didn’t even flinch at the pain. The burns. The sizzle. It was quieter than the voices.

“I didn’t want this… I didn’t want this…” he whimpered, curling into a ball, smearing grease across his face. “I just didn’t want to die.”

The burger monsters loomed over him like gods drunk on sacrilege.

“YOU ARE NO LONGER A RANGER.”

“YOU ARE OUR SERF. OUR SLICER. OUR CLOWN.”

“WE’LL TASTE YOUR MIND BEFORE YOUR MEAT.”

Tommy turned and crawled back to the spatula, like a penitent disciple seeking forgiveness at a blood-soaked altar.

“I’ll work. I’ll serve. I’ll get more. Just don’t throw me in. Please. PLEASE.”

The grill sizzled endlessly. No longer just hot—it was breathing, alive with the blood of a team once proud. Tommy stood alone, shoulders hunched, spatula trembling in his hand. Grease coated his gauntlets, armor scuffed and darkened. He hadn't spoken in minutes. He just listened. Listened to the grill, screams, and bubbling howls that would not die.

A muffled sob came from the patty. Then a scream. Then—words. “YOU GAVE UP!” Rocky’s words erupted from the patty, shrill and cracking. His helmet, half-embedded in the churning flesh, quivered violently. “YOU GAVE UP ON US! WE FOUGHT TO THE LAST BREATH AND YOU—YOU TURNED COOK!”

“Tommy, what did you do…?” Kat’s agonized outcry shuddered with horror, barely human. “You sold us out… You sold out them too… Kimberly… Jason… you’re sending them here?”

“I HAD TO!” Tommy shrieked and spun, eyes wide and bloodshot. “I CAN’T BECOME THIS! I CAN’T SCREAM FOREVER LIKE YOU! I—” He dropped to his knees, slapping the spatula against the grill with a sickening hiss. “You don’t know what it feels like! To press you down… and still hear your bones move!”

“WE FEEL EVERYTHING, TOMMY!” Tanya screamed, distorted through sizzling fat. “EVERY SECOND! EVERY FLIP! EVERY PRESS! YOU DO THIS TO US—YOU KNEW WHAT THIS MEANT AND YOU DID IT ANYWAY!”

Adam’s utterance came next—low, rasping, broken. “You were our captain… You were supposed to lead us out, not drag others in…”

“I DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE!” Tommy screamed. He clawed at his own chest plate. “They said it was me or all of us! It was already too late!”

“IT’S STILL US!” Kat wailed. “WE’RE STILL HERE, TOMMY! SCREAMING! FEELING! YOUR CHOICE DIDN’T SAVE YOU—IT CONDEMNED US TO LIVE THIS!”

The burgers pulsed with glee, the meat shifting like waves across the patties. One leaned low, sauce bubbling around its jaws.

“TASTE THAT, CHEF? REGRET. SIZZLING. DELICIOUS.”

Tommy stumbled backward, falling against the edge of the grill. The heat burned through his suit, but he barely noticed.

“I’ll give you more…” he murmured.  I’LL GIVE YOU ALL RANGERS! AND WHEN THEY DO…”

His voice broke into a wheeze. A laugh. A sob. “…THEY’LL TAKE MY PLACE.”

“W-WE THOUGHT Y-YOU… C-COULD D-D-DO IT… LEAD US…” Kat’s voice hissed, mangled by fat and fire. “W-WE… WE WERE SO SURE…”

Tommy flinched. His head snapped to the meat. “Don’t…”

“I-I F-FELT STRONG… WHEN YOU SAID GO…” Tanya’s utterance followed, high and raw. “I… I FOLLOWED YOU… N-NOT EVEN A DOUBT…”

“I… I SH-SOULD’VE K-KNOWN…” Rocky’s cry bubbled through half-cooked sinew. “T-TOO BRIGHT… T-TOO PROUD… W-WE WERE NEVER UNTOUCHABLE…”

Tommy dropped the spatula with a clatter.

His breath came in shudders. He reached up, gripping his helmet, pulling it off like it weighed a thousand pounds. Grease stuck to his hair. He could barely see.

“I believed it too…” he whispered, shaking. “I thought we were... invincible. I thought I could fight forever.”

The burgers behind him pulsed. They said nothing now.

They didn’t need to.

The grill sizzled.

Adam’s howl was next. Barely there. Barely a person anymore. “W-WE WERE J-JUST KIDS… T-TRYING TO S-SAVE A W-WORLD THAT DOESN’T WANT US…”

Tommy collapsed to his knees. “I thought if I never hesitated… we’d never fall. I was wrong.”

He pressed his hands to the grill. Grease hissed around his palms.

Kat’s words moaned again. “I R-R-REMEMBER M-MY LAST STEP… I FOLLOWED YOU T-TILL THE END…”

“W-WE D-DIDN’T BLAME YOU,” Tanya sobbed. “H-H-HOW C-COULD WE? WE CHOSE THIS… W-WE TRUSTED… A-A-AND STILL…”

“STILL W-WE BURN,” Rocky croaked. “AND SCREAM. A-A-AND YOU HEAR US, DON’T YOU…?”

Tommy clenched his teeth, shaking violently. “Every second.”

Adam groaned through the patty. “W-WE D-DON’T H-HATE YOU… WE H-HATE WHAT H-HAPPENED…”

“WE W-WISH YOU D-DIDN’T H-HEAR US…” Kat wept. “B-BUT… WE’RE G-GLAD YOU D-DO.”

Tommy screamed—high, wild, broken.

“WHY DID I BELIEVE I COULD SAVE ANYONE!? WHY—WHY DID I THINK A SWORD WAS ENOUGH!?”

The grill crackled louder now, as if in answer. The burgers behind him chuckled again—but they didn’t interrupt.

Not yet.

Tommy looked up, sweat and oil dripping from his brow.

“I was cocky. Arrogant. Blind. I told you to charge forward. I told you to fight. I told you—we’d win.”

He clawed at his chestplate, armor snapping. “I LIED!!”

“W-WE L-LIED TO OURSELVES…” Tanya replied, soft and shrieking. “B-BECAUSE Y-YOU MADE US BELIEVE.”

“Y-YOU G-GAVE US H-HOPE…” Rocky sobbed. “W-WE DIDN’T CARE IF IT WAS REAL… WE FOLLOWED YOU.”

Kat moaned. “I W-WOULD DO IT A-AGAIN…”

Adam joined her. “M-ME TOO.”

The burgers whispered now, like devils at a sermon.

“ALL THAT FLAVOR… WASTED ON HOPE.”

“AND STILL YOU SIMMER. STILL YOU SERVE. WHAT GOOD WAS HONOR?”

Tommy stared into the flames.

“I… I should’ve burned with you.”

The spatula hissed as it was pressed flat.

And the feast raged on.

***

The funfair was wrong. Jason knew it the moment he teleported in. The morphing stream spat him out onto destroyed concrete that once was a thoroughfare for joy and sugar-coated chaos. Now, it was choked in silence and the rancid stench of grease. Every color was faded, every surface stained. The Ferris wheel stood still, its rusted joints groaning like the bones of something ancient. Tattered banners fluttered in stale wind. The music—no, not music—warbled somewhere in the distance, like a lullaby played through a dying speaker.

Jason Lee Scott, the Gold Ranger, stood tall despite the dread coiling in his gut. His armor gleamed with fading pride, though it felt heavier than usual. This was supposed to be a rescue mission. Tanya’s signal had flared weakly three hours ago, followed by bursts from Kat and Adam—then silence. The others had gone missing during a recon op in Angel Grove’s outskirts. They’d tracked strange emissions to this abandoned amusement park, now twisted into something much worse.

“Tommy?” Jason called out, voice amplified through his golden helmet. No answer. Only the slow drip of something wet nearby. He moved, boots crunching across sugar shards and fractured popcorn buckets. “Rocky? Tanya? Where the hell are you?”

Then he saw him.

Tommy Oliver—his teammate, his brother—sat slumped beneath a collapsed signage arch that once read “MEATY MIRACLE MEALS.” The arch now hung by a single bolt, groaning in protest above his head. His armor was gone. His undersuit was torn, stained with black grease and dried vomit. His eyes were hollow, lips harmed and trembling. His face... it didn’t even look like Tommy anymore.

“Tommy!” Jason rushed forward, kneeling beside him, grabbing his shoulder. “You’re alive—are you okay? Where’s the team? What happened?”

Tommy didn’t answer right away. His head shook ever so slightly. Then came a wheezing laugh, more despair than humor. “You came. You actually came.”

“I followed Tanya’s signal—what the hell is this place?”

“I told them you’d come,” Tommy whispered, not meeting his gaze.

Jason frowned. “What are you saying?”

“I made a deal. I couldn’t... I couldn’t take it anymore. I said your name. I told them you were strong. I told them you’d be better.”

Jason’s grip tightened, armored fingers trembling. “Tommy—what the hell did you do?”

A wet squelch echoed through the air. The ground shook.

Jason turned, just as they emerged—two towering monstrosities that had once resembled food, now bloated abominations of meat and sentient bread. Burger monsters. Each stood nearly twenty feet tall, their buns oozing sauce and grease like sweat from infected pores. Their patties writhed—flesh pressed against the surface in spasms, human shapes fused and twitching just beneath. Eyes blinked from within the meat. Fingers clawed against the inner walls. And worst of all, they spoke.

“Jaaaason...” moaned a howl from the left patty—Rocky’s agonized words, distorted, thick with grease and agony. “HURRRTS... EVERYTHING HURRRRTS…!”

From the right, Tanya’s whimper, slow and broken, sobbed through layers of meat and cheese. “We’re still here... Jason... we can feel it... we can taste ourselves...”

A third voice emerged, muffled and desperate—Adam, his tone filled with shame. “It’s in me. It’s inside me. I’m still me. Jason, get out. GET OUT!”

Then came a quiet, trembling whisper—Kat. “I... I don’t want to be eaten anymore... please... I taste so good... I can’t stop...”

Jason staggered backward, horrified. “No... no, no, this is just a nightmare. This isn’t my reality!”

“OHHH, BUT IT ISSS,” gurgled one of the burger monsters, its bellow a chorus of drowned children and sizzling oil. Its bun lifted slightly as if to smile, revealing a gaping maw of human teeth and cheese tendrils. “THEY SIZZLED SOOO WELL, YOUR LITTLE RANGERS. WE FLIPPED THEM NICE AND SLOW!”

“Four for the grill,” rumbled the second, sauce dripping like blood from its swollen tomato slices. “But the fifth... the gold one... HE’S THE PRIME CUT.”

Jason shook his head in disbelief, his breath quickening. “Tommy, tell me this is a trick. Tell me you were forced—brainwashed—anything!”

Tommy looked up at last. “I was tired. They broke us, Jason! WE COULDN’T SUMMON ANYTHING! WE COULDN’T EVEN THINK! I GAVE THEM YOUR NAME! I SAID YOU’D COME! I WAS RIGHT!”

“No,” Jason growled, stepping forward. “No. I’m taking them back. I’m ending this. YOU SHOULD’VE TRUSTED ME!”

He summoned his Golden Power Staff in a burst of light and charged.

“HOH!” he roared, leaping into the air, slamming the staff directly into one of the monster’s kneecaps. The abomination roared in pain, stumbling—but it didn’t fall. Grease burst from the wound, searing the ground like acid. Jason flipped, landed hard, and jabbed again—this time aiming for the eyes that squirmed in the cheese. “Let them GO!”

But the creature only laughed with an echo. “THEY BEGGED, GOLDY. THEY CRIED. YOU THINK WE LET GO OF FLAVOR?”

The second monster lunged, swinging an oversized arm of grilled lettuce and bone. Jason tried to dodge, but the slap landed—a greasy explosion that sent him tumbling into a cotton candy stall, splinters embedding into his suit. He groaned, pushing himself up.

Then came Rocky’s utterance again, broken, sobbing. “I told them you’d come. I told them you’d save us. I didn’t want to be a burger, Jason. I didn’t—I didn’t know I’d still be AWAKE!”

“Jason,” Kat whispered, “don’t... don’t get cooked... like us...”

Tanya screamed as the patties pulsed. “They keep chewing! I can feel their teeth! I CAN FEEL MYSELF BEING SERVED!”

The monster’s laugh deepened. “PRIME CUT’S HERE. PRIME CUT’S READY!”

Jason stood. Blood dripped from his visor. His fists clenched. His heart was broken.

He didn’t care what Tommy had done. He would fight anyway. Even if he had to tear every mouthful of his friends from these hellish patties one piece at a time.