Underheard

Fandom: Power Rangers (MMPR to Zeo, 1993-96)
Title: Earthsiege by Rain Fletcher (alternative link to fic, without illustrations)
Pairing/Character Focus: Billy Cranston (called "Mitchell" in that story; the canon last name was unknown at the time of writing)/Katherine Hillard (background Kimberly Hart/Tommy Oliver, others)
Author: Rain Fletcher (also on LJ as rainfletcher, but the account has been inactive since 2014)
What makes this a gem: "Earthsiege", written in 1998 or thereabouts, is widely considered one of THE classic stories in the fandom, created in the wake of general outrage when Billy got kicked off of the Ranger team with the introduction of the Zeo crystals and relegated to a supporting role -- quite literally. It's a great character study, dealing mainly with his frustration of not being able to fight the good fight anymore.

It's also a crossover with Voltron, more specifically the 3rd series, LionForce.

King Mondo's Machine Empire has joined forces with Voltron's archenemy, the witch Haggar, and is attacking Earth more ferociously than ever -- and it's bad news for the Rangers. With one Ranger as well as Zordon and Alpha temporarily out of commission, it is up to Billy to run things from the Command Center. Then a gigantic blue fighting machine crashes near their base -- one of Voltron's Lions. Billy manages to repair the Blue Lion and with her help goes off-planet to retrieve the rest of Voltron's parts.

With the Zeo team on the brink of physical and mental collapse, he decides to call back all the former Rangers -- Jason, Trini, Zack and Aisha -- to take over Earth's defenses until the threat is finally eliminated.

There are lots of space battles in this fic; all the lovely character developments are nicely offset with how a group of teenagers steps up to the plate and literally saves the planet, albeit with help from alien mecha. It's rather obvious in this fic that both "Voltron" and "Power Rangers" were created as entertaining vehicles to sell interconnective toys, but it's also the connective factor which makes this crossover work. There's some humor, some romance (Billy and Kat, the beginning of which is told in the prequel, "Snowbound" (same link as above on the Wayback Machine, and just click the "Home" button at the second and scroll down to the author's name) as well as a rather realistic depiction of how a protracted fight against alien forces might actually go down.

Every character gets their moment to shine, but for once it's not the obvious heros who stand in the spotlight. If you like Power Rangers for the fights and action coupled with character focus and good writing, "Earthsiege" is the fic for you -- and I think it's easy to see why it's become a classic. It's also a nice touch that the author has made the effort to include pictures from both shows (not at Paladar's, 2nd link); you may have to refresh the page at the Wayback Machine if you get broken links at first). :-)

Fandom: Power Rangers (original TV series, 1993 - 1996)

Title: Forged in Flames (on Fanfiction.net)

Alternate links to fic: at Paladar's World of Fanfic or at Jenga's Library (THE fandom archive to post at back in the day)

Pairing/Character Focus: no pairings, focusses on the first team: Jason Scott, Kimberly Hart, Trini Kwan, Zack Taylor and Billy Cranston

Author: Mele (Ffnet profile)

What makes this a gem: I suppose every fandom with a team of central characters has an "alternate beginning" trope; it wasn't different for the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and this is one of the earliest three. The show gave us a motley crew of five teenagers who ostensibly had very little in common, yet seemed to be close friends when they were made Rangers. "Forged in Flames" is an attempt to explain how this friendship might have come to be.

The main plot -- a group of children up in the mountains on a fun outing -- takes place over just a day, and while all the choreographed fighting the show was (in)famous for is missing, there's plenty of suspense regardless when the kids get caught in a forest fire. What's best, IMO, is that in this fic ten-year-olds truly act as children; the tone is just right. The scenario is plausible as the setting for the original series was somewhere in contemporary California, and the characterization, even though it draws a lot on events in later episodes, is spot-on. The parents in this fic are all OCs; we were only given one brief glimpse of them, but they still seem consistent with what we've seen of the future Power Rangers when they were a few years older. In any case, all characters appear human and real, no matter whether they were canonical or not. If you're looking for warm, true-sounding stories with a lot of heart throughout, you're in good hands here.

IIRC, this was one of Mele's earliest fics, if not the very first, originally written about twenty years ago, in 1996/7. At that time, she had no Beta, but there are few gaffes and her style stayed plain and direct, making her a BNF during MMPR's heyday. It's also the first instalment of what would become the "Before and After" series; please be sure to check out the other two, "That Which Doesn't Kill You" and "Elemental Bonds" on the respective websites.

Final Note: Sadly, Mele lost her battle with cancer in October 2016. Even though she had branched out into other fandoms in later years, she still cared enough to post ALL of her completed work to Fanfiction.net. Fandom not only lost a good writer and great person with a wicked sense of humor, I also lost a close personal friend. Rest in peace, L'il Lady!