Power Rangers
“New Beginnings”
Carri Hillard and Kimberly Heart stood outside in the Angel Grove desert watching everything they knew collapse to the ground. Their powers were gone, the Power Chamber had been destroyed, and the three men that meant the most to them in the world had gone down with it. Standing outside the Power Chamber’s ruins were the newest foe to cross their path. They needed to try and destroy them but neither of them were sure if their Ninjetti powers would be enough.
“We... we have to do something.”, Carri said as she took a deep breath. As horrifying as this was to both of them there would be time for grieving later. If they didn’t embrace their ranger duties, they wouldn’t be the only people on the planet with something to grieve for that day.
Kim slowly nodded her head yes. “I don’t know what to do though. Trey is the only ranger left with powers and he obviously isn’t around at the moment or he would have been here by now.”
“We need to head back to Angel Grove and try to contact Billy. He may be able to contact rangers elsewhere in the galaxy.”, Carri suggested
“What about them?”, Kim said as she pointed towards the Quantrons. “We’re ok if they stay in the desert, but if they attack the city...”
“If they attack the city we’ll have to use our Ninjetti powers and prey for the best.”, Carri said finishing her thought. She looked over at Kim, who wholeheartedly agreed with her, but looked to be as skeptical about the fight as she was.
The girls turned to try and slip out onto the main road, and hopefully catch a ride back into the city. As they turned, something in the sky caught Kim’s eye. “Wait.”, she said spinning Carri back around. “What’s that?”
Carri turned her attention to the figure fast approaching. “It looks like.... someone on a flying surfboard....”
“It looks like a red ranger on a flying surfboard.”, Kim clarified as he got closer. They watched as the figure jumped off of his board and called for some sort of weapon, then started attacking the Quantrons.
“It is a ranger.”, Carri said in awe. “I don’t know what kind, but it’s a ranger nonetheless.”
“Then we have to help him.”, Kim said as she turned towards her friend. Carri nodded. Now was a good a time as any to see if their Ninjetti powers would be effective at all against the Quantrons. “Ninjetti, crane!”
“Panther!”
The two girls transformed and ran towards the fight. The red ranger glanced at them and acknowledged them, then went back to what he was doing. Carri and Kim quickly started fighting off the Quantrons. They soon discovered that although they weren’t the easiest of foe’s, they were definitely manageable as Ninjetti’s. At one point they stood side by side with the red ranger, facing off with the Quantrons that were left. It didn’t take long before they had gotten rid of all of them.
Before they had a chance to breath a sigh of relief, a voice spoke behind them indicating that this wasn’t over yet. “You can’t stop me red ranger.”
The trio spun around to see who spoke. “That must be Astronema.”, Carri said, although apparently the red ranger was well aware of this already. She was standing there with a two figures that the girls assumed were Ecliptor and Darkonda.
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”, the red ranger replied
She laughed and as she did more Quantrons appeared. “Darkonda I want you and Ecliptor to take the Quantrons and finish him.”, she said with a smile as she disappeared
Kim and Carri glanced at each other. They were in no way prepared for this fight. Some Quantrons they could handle, but not Ecliptor and Darkonda. The red ranger looked at the girls. He was well aware of this. He also knew that he would need their help to defeat the small army standing before them. He wasn’t thrilled about what was about to do, but he knew it had to be done. “Galaxy glider, hang ten!”, he yelled
Kim and Carri watched as the red ranger jumped on his galaxy glider and took off. “Um... Kim?”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
“Yeah.”, she replied again as suddenly the two Ninjetti’s stood their facing Astronema’s army. They looked at each other and nodded as they ran to attack. The Quantrons were no different than before. It’s when they approached Darkonda and Ecliptor that they found themselves in trouble.
The duo easily slung the two female rangers across the desert. As they started to stand up, Darkonda and Ecliptor attacked them knocking them back once more. Before they could even think about standing up again, they were covered in Quantrons. Neither of them thought they were going to make it out of this predicament alive.
As they thought they were coming to an end, someone came and started beating the Quantrons off of them. All the sudden the red ranger stood there helping the two Ninjetti up. “Here.”, he said as he handed each of them something. He turned back towards Darkonda and Eclilptor. “Your time is up.”, he said as he called for his Spiral Saber and attacked
The girls looked down at what the red ranger gave them. It was two morphers. They each put them on their wrists and stood their while the power started flowing through them again. There was nothing in this world that compared with the sensation of receiving powers. Once the powers finished bonding with them, and giving them all the necessary knowledge, they knew exactly what to do.
“Let’s rocket!”, yelled Kim as the girls looked down at the keypad on their wrists, entering the code 3-3-5.
Suddenly ranger suits once again took them over, and the Pink and Yellow Astro rangers stood strong beside the red ranger. Kim and Carri looked down at their new uniforms and smiled for the first time in a while. “Now you’re in trouble.”, Carri said as she called on her Star Slinger while Kim called for her Satellite Stunner.
Both the girls rushed into the fight along with the red ranger as a new wave of energy rushed over them. A fight that was helpless moments ago now looked like it was going to be won by the trio. The Astro Rangers were quickly able to run through the Quantrons and get face to face with Darkonda and Ecliptor.
“So you gave the girls power? No matter, we will still defeat you.”, Darkonda said as he and Ecliptor sized up their opponents
“You bad guys are all the same.”, Kim said as she held her weapon high. “Running your mouths off but in the end we’re the ones standing.” With that, the red ranger ran at Darkonda while Kim and Carri attacked Ecliptor.
Kim and Carri found Ecliptor more challenging than Rito or Goldar had ever been. However, their powers were stronger than anything either of them had before. Their new Astro powers were helping them fight with ease. Although Ecliptor was a tough opponent, they finally got to him hard enough to cause him to stumble backwards.
Ecliptor slipped back several feet, and looked over to see Darkonda not faring much better. With three rangers with Astro powers, they would have to regroup before they could finish them off. Astronema hadn’t accounted for this at all. “We’ll be back rangers.”, Ecliptor said as he took off. Darkonda was furious that Ecliptor had left him with the three rangers then he took off as well.
The girls, who were excited by the victory, turned to face the demolished Power Chamber. Their excitement quickly turned to sorrow as they remembered what had gone on earlier. “Galaxy glider, hang ten!”, they heard from behind them. They turned just in time to see the red ranger take off.
“Is he leaving us?”, asked Carri as she and Kim powered down
“I would hope not. He just gave us these powers. And we’re going to need each other if we’re going to fight this.”, Kim pointed out as they both looked to the sky. A few seconds later, a ship approached the Earth’s surface. It landed close to them, then the outer doors opened up.
They slowly approached the ship as a man walked out wearing a grey uniform with a red shirt underneath. They could only assume it was the red ranger. They walked over to him and Kim was the first to speak. “Thank you for the powers we”
The ranger was quick to cut them off. “There’s no time for that. If you want to help me then come on.”
The girls exchanged a glance before following him onto his ship. “Wait.”, Carri said as he started to close the outer doors. The red ranger looked at her. “The Power Chamber- is there any way to scan and see if anyone is alive in there?”
“I was getting ready to scan.”, the red ranger replied as he closed the ship up. He led them up to the bridge and started working on the control panels. “Zordon’s gone.”, he said simply. That was not the result he wanted to find, but with Divatox distracting him he had a feeling he was too late. “There is something mechanical still working in the area, but no human life signs.”
“So they’re...”, Kim said holding in her breath unable to speak the words
“No human life signs dead or alive.”, he clarified
“Then Callisto must have taken them.”, Carri said. “We have to find them. Who knows what she’ll do.”
The red ranger thought for a moment. He was reluctant to go on a mission in search of former rangers who were probably already dead. But they were the last ones with Zordon, and if he could find them alive, maybe he could find a clue to where they had taken him. “Alright. There’s a planet that she’s been known to hide on. But first let’s find out what electrical is still working in the Power Chamber.”
The girls nodded in compliance. The red rangers grabbed a device and clipped it to his belt, then opened the outer doors again. He didn’t ask for the girls to follow, but they did anyway. They walked up to the ruins of the Power Chamber as the red ranger used his device to scan for whatever he was looking for. He sighed and clipped the scanner back to his belt. “Galaxy glider, hang ten!”, he yelled as his glider appeared in front of him. He jumped onto it and hovered over the Power Chamber, using the scanner once again. A few seconds later, the glider dipped out of sight than reappeared.
Kim and Carri smiled as they saw what the ranger had found. “Alpha!”, Kim exclaimed as the ranger set his glider down and they ran over to him. The first thing they noticed was that the little robot seemed to be fried.
“Do you think he’s fixable?”, asked Carri
Kim nodded. “Maybe we can take him onto the ship and fix him later.”, she replied as she looked over at the red ranger
The red ranger nodded. If they could get him fixed, it would be nice having an Alpha unit around. He quickly led them back onto the ship and closed the outer doors. They went back up to the bridge and he immediately sent the ship back into space. The red ranger sighed. He was starting to rethink chasing after Callisto. After all, he had confronted her before and it hadn’t turned out as well as he would have liked. “Are you sure that Callisto would have taken your friends?”
“Positive. She would love to get her hands on them and torture them to death.”, Carri replied. Kim cringed as she spoke. She hadn’t had as much experience with Callisto as Carri had, but from what she had pieced together she was not someone that you wanted to mess with, and she was definitely not someone you wanted capturing your friends.
“Look, like I said before, I know where she hangs out, where she probably took your friends. But I just don’t think it’s a good idea to go down there with just the three of us. I”
Carri spoke, cutting the red ranger off as he shot her a look. “Fine if you’re too afraid to go, get me close enough and I’ll go rescue them.”
The red ranger couldn’t help but laugh at her as she shot him an annoyed look. “Not that I am doubting your ranger abilities, but what makes you think you can fight someone of Callisto’s caliber alone?”
“Because,” she as she flashed a somewhat smile, “I’ve done it before, she thinks I’m dead, she hates me more than any other ranger in the galaxy, I can get to her better than any other ranger in the galaxy, so I can fight her again.”
The red ranger sighed. He still wasn’t sure this was such a good idea, but he had heard of a ranger on Earth that Callisto had taken a personal interest in, one that she could let get to her enough to foil her plans. If this girl was claiming to be that ranger, then they might stand a chance. “Fine. I’ll set a course.”
“How long is it going to take to get there?”, Kim asked. She couldn’t bare the thought of the man she loved most in the world being hurt and tortured by Callisto.
“About an hour.”, the red ranger replied
“An hour!”, Carri exclaimed and Kim echoed. “They could be dead by then she’s well ahead of us.”
The red ranger chuckled. He couldn’t expect the rangers of Earth to know much about space travel. “Goddess or not, she was carrying three prisoners and was probably responsible for Zordon. She had a head start on us, and she’ll move faster, but she still had to travel.”
The girls stood there for a moment and tried to get a handle on the situation as the red ranger finished setting in the coordinates and the ship blasted off. Kim thought for a moment before she spoke. “So.”, she said as the red ranger turned giving her his attention. “If we’re going to work together, we should at least try and get to know each other. I’m Kim, this is Carri.”
Carri smiled and waved at the red ranger, who gave the girls a half smile. “Andros.”, he said as he pushed past them and continued on. Kim glanced at Carri, who shrugged as they both turned to follow him.
“Obviously we’re from Earth. California girls to be exact.”, Carri said as he stopped and they caught up to him. Andros didn’t say anything in reply. “We’ve got friends on Aquitar and Triforia. Are you from either of those planets?”
Andros paused for a moment before answering. “I’m from KO-35.”
“Where’s that?”, asked Kim
“It is... was a space colony in another galaxy.”, he replied. He hardly knew these girls and didn’t know why he was sharing anything with them. Or why he was working with them for that matter. But they were handpicked by Zordon, a figure who he had a lot of respect for. And with attacks in full force, he was going to need extra hands in order to figure out where Zordon was.
“Was? What happened to it?”, asked Carri
“Two years ago Darkonda attacked.”, he said pausing as he recalled what happened. He tried to shake off the memories, and he certainly didn’t want to go into that much detail with these strangers. “We were forced to abandon the colony.”
Kim and Carri looked at each other. They couldn’t help but feel sympathetic toward Andros. “So....”, Carri said letting the word drag out while she thought of a way to change topics. “When we find Callisto, we can rescue the boys and Zordon?”
“You can probably rescue the rangers. But Zordon.... they’ve had this planned for a long time. I think they’re going to keep moving him and I doubt they would start with a place that they knew I knew of.”, Andros explained. He looked over at the girls who had confused looks on their faces. “I was able to eavesdrop on their plan. They were going to attack your Power Chamber and capture Zordon so they could fill his tube with lava. Once it’s full it will extinguish the power forever leaving the universe free to be conquered.”
“All power?”, Kim whispered unable to grasp what Andros was saying. She watched as he nodded his head yes. “And you knew about this and you couldn’t bother to tell us?”
“I tried.”, Andros snapped. “I was distracted by Divatox, who is probably on her way to your home planet right now to destroy everything along with Rita and Zedd.”
“Then we’ll have to get the boys and get back.”, Carri said as Kim nodded. Carri wasn’t sure how they could juggle between defending Earth against Divatox and Rita and Zedd, and fighting Astronema while searching for Zordon, but they would figure something out.
There was silence as the three rangers thought for a moment. Kim was the first to think of a question. “So do we have a plan for rescuing the boys?”
Andros frowned. He had actually been thinking the same thing. “Well.... I won’t be able to land the ship on the planet. She’ll know we’re there. The best thing would be to take the Galaxy Gliders down and surround her complex, then move in and surprise her.”
“And how, exactly, do we work these Galaxy Gliders?”, asked Carri
“Simple. Follow me.”, Andros replied. The girls looked at each other then looked back at him as they took off behind him. He led them through a series of doors before finally stopping. “This is the workbay.”, he said as he paused. He went over to the wall and opened a compartment, pulling out his Galaxy Glider. He stuck it on a cart and wheeled it over to the girls. “And this is my Galaxy Glider.”, he said. “I keep it in the launch bay, and that way when I go into the jump tube it’s ready for me.”
The two female rangers nodded, although they weren’t completely sure of what he was talking about. They paused and got a good look at the Galaxy Glider. “This is awesome. How do we work it?”, Carri asked
“You accelerate by leaning forward, and slow down by leaning back. Other than that, just use your feet to maneuver directions.”, Andros explained
“So it’s kind of like surfing in space.”, Carri said. She was excited to try one of these, she grew up surfing and to be able to “surf” in space was awesome.
Andros looked at her curiously. “Surfing?”
“Or skateboarding.”, Kim chimed in. Not that she had ever been, but she imagined it was the same concept, minus the acceleration and deceleration.
“It’s a Galaxy Glider. You use it to ride in the galaxy.”, Andros replied as he took it and put it back in the launch bay
Carri couldn’t help but giggle. “You didn’t have surfing or skateboarding on KO-35 did you?”
“We had Galaxy Gliders.”, Andros said simply as he brushed past the girls and walked off
Kim and Carri looked at each other and smiled. It was wild to think that things that were so popular on Earth were unheard of on other planets. They quickly went after Andros so they could continue formulating their plan. “So what do we do when we surround her?”, asked Kim
“First,” Andros started as he looked at the two of them. They weren’t going to want to hear this part but it had to be said, “I am going to scan the building to make sure that there are live humans in there. If she’s killed them already, there’s no point in going in and getting ourselves killed.”
Carri and Kim nodded. They hadn’t thought about the possibility that they were dead. At least not since the Power Chamber collapse. They assumed that since Callisto had taken them, she would have kept them alive somewhere to torture them, and that they would still be alive when they arrived for the rescue. But Andros was right, it was a strong possibility that they were dead already. And even Carri had to admit that storming in with a fit of rage to attack her wasn’t going to get them anywhere but possibly dead. And if they died, well the universe would be left to Dark Specter and his minions.
“Fair enough.”, Carri said. She thought about a plan for a moment. “But if they are alive, let me go in first. I can distract her so you guys can go in and attack from behind. Besides, when I see her I want to make sure her full attention is on me so I can see the look on her face when she realizes I’m alive and coming after her.”
Andros glanced over at Kim. He was actually going to volunteer himself as the distraction, as he felt he was the senior ranger here. But Kim seemed not to have any problems with the idea so he had to assume she knew what she was doing. “Fine. You distract her, we’ll attack from behind. Then we will have to try and quickly get the boys out of there and back to the Megaship before she has a chance to regroup and kill us.”
The two girls nodded. Neither wanted to face the wrath of Callisto, at least not any more than they had to.
The rest of the hour past fairly quickly. The rangers had taken a seat at the a table and were anxiously waiting to arrive at Callisto’s base. “The planet is coming up.”, spoke a voice
“What was that?”, Kim asked as she and Carri jumped
“Thank you DECA.”, Andros replied. “That was DECA, the ships computer.” Andros took a moment to look at the two female rangers. “Are you ready to do this?”
The look in their eyes said it all. They were more than ready to go on this rescue mission. Andros got up and went to grab his scanner, which he had reconfigured to locate live human bodies. He looked at the girls and nodded, then they got up and followed him. Andros led the rangers back to the workbay and over towards the jump tubes. They watched his movements as he leaped into the tube, then they followed suite.
Both girls were so intent on completing the mission that neither stopped to reflect on the fact that they had morphed in the jump tubes and were now flying on the Galaxy Gliders. Andros pointed toward a building, and each of the girls picked a spot on opposite ends. Andros took the scanner and went around the building. He picked up on three life signatures. They were faint, but they were there. He flew past Carri and gave her a signal to go ahead, then went and positioned himself near Kim.
Carri lowered her glider to a near by window, then pulled her blaster out and shot through it, leaping in and on top of some sort of catwalk. As she flew in, Callisto turned hissed, then immediately threw a fireball in her direction. Carri jumped off the catwalk and landed on the floor in front of the goddess, then stood up smiling under her helmet.
“So I see Andros found some help. It doesn’t matter I will easily destroy you.”, she said looking at the ranger. Callisto figured it was a novice ranger, and that it wouldn’t take much of her time to take this ranger out.
Carri laughed. “Come on now Calli, is that any way to treat an old friend?”
For Callisto time stood still for a moment as she recognized the voice. “You,” she spat, “I watched you die.”
“Eh.”, Carri said shrugging her shoulders. “Sorry to disappoint.”
Callisto couldn’t contain her anger as she threw fireball after fireball at the ranger, eventually losing sight of where she was. By the time she heard her, she couldn’t avoid the blast. “Star slinger!”, Carri yelled as Callisto spun around and saw her firing at her
Callisto flew back and hit the ground hard. Before she got a chance to recover, two more figures were on top of her firing weapons as well. As she stood up, she saw the Red Astro Ranger standing strong along with Yellow and Pink rangers. “You.”, she said eying Andros. “I should have killed you when you had the chance.”
“And now I’m going to make you regret it.”, he said, leaping up with his Lunar Lance in hand and quickly attacking her. The girls were quick to follow, issuing blows with the Star Slinger and Satellite Stunner. As they rolled off of her and turned around, quickly taking out their blasters and combining them with their main weapons, then firing at her once again.
Callisto fell back and looked at the rangers. In her entire existence she had never been this angry. The goddess found herself not being able to think straight. She knew she had to regroup before she could finish them, so she took off.
“Is that it?”, Andros asked as she left
“I’m alive. You guys are alive. We all have powers. We came to her base to kick her ass... I’d say she got pissed and left.”, Carri replied
The second Callisto left Kim started scanning the room. “Tommy!”, she exclaimed as she rushed over to where the boys had been chained to a wall. She fell to her knees when she got over there and put a gloved hand on his face. He didn’t look so good, none of them did.
“Kim?”, he whispered as he opened his eyes enough to realize there was some sort of pink ranger standing over him
“I’m here.”, she replied smiling at him through her helmet. She looked over and saw that Carri was by Rocky’s side and Andros was checking on Jason. She turned back toward Tommy. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
Andros stood up and looked at the two female rangers. “Let’s get these guys back to the infirmary.”
They nodded, and all three called for their Galaxy Gliders and headed back to the Megaship.
Callisto was still furious as she appeared on the bridge of the Dark Fortress. Astronema looked at her. “What’s going on? I thought you were torturing those male rangers?”
“And I thought Divatox was going to destroy the red ranger.”, she hissed
Astronema laughed. “Destroy? More like distract. Please do you think she could actually destroy a power ranger?”
“Well he gave powers to the two female zeo rangers.”, she informed her
“I know.”, Astronema replied. Darkonda and Ecliptor had filled her in on the two other rangers when they had returned. She wasn’t thrilled about it, but she wasn’t worried about space rangers either. She could step it up and take them out.
“He gave powers to Carri.”, Callisto said trying to get a reaction out of the Princess of Evil
“Oh?”, Astronema asked raising an eyebrow. That was a piece of information she didn’t have. “I thought she was dead.”
Callisto shot her a look. “Yes well me too.”
“Well I wouldn’t worry too much about her right now. We have to take care of Zordon first. Once he falls, she and the rest of her ranger friends will fall. Until then, feel free to go distract her whenever you want.”
Callisto made a face. That wasn’t exactly the answer she was hoping for out of Astronema, but it would have to do.
The female rangers sat in the infirmary. Andros had gone to set a course for Earth. The girls were concerned about the safety of their home planet, and he thought there still may be some clue in the Power Chamber ruins. After he started the healing process on the male rangers, he decided to head back. The girls sat anxiously as the Red Astro Ranger returned from setting a course from Earth.
“Are we going back?”, Carri asked. She almost didn’t care as all she wanted to know was the status of the male rangers. But her ranger duty got the best of her, and she knew she needed to be more concerned with the future attacks on Earth.
Andros nodded in response. “Hopefully they haven’t started attacking. And hopefully we can find some sort of record in the Power Chamber ruins, something that can help us track Zordon.”
Kim looked like she had just snapped out of some sort of daze as she glanced up at the red ranger. “What about them?”
“They’ll be fine.”, he replied. The girls were lucky that they had made it out without any more serious injuries. There were few if any that could say they escaped Callisto’s wrath alive. Not that they were all fine and dandy, but they would be alright once they were healed. He looked at the girls. It had been a long day, and it was approaching six thirty their time. “Let’s go get something to eat.”, he suggested
“Not hungry.”, Carri replied and Kim nodded
Andros sighed. “Look I know you have a lot on your minds but if you don’t keep your energy up you will never be able to handle the mess that awaits you back on Earth.”
Now it was Kim’s turn to sigh. “You’re right.”, she said softly looking over at Carri. She watched as Carri stood reluctantly, and Kim followed. The two girls allowed Andros to lead them off.
Andros led the girls back towards the workbay and showed them the Synthetron. He taught them how it worked and got them to make meals. The three of them sat down and started to eat. The meal started of silently. Not that Andros was one to make small talk, but there were some things that needed to be discussed on the way to Earth, some strategy things.
Andros cleared his throat and the two females looked up at him. “We have to think about what we’re going to do when we get back.”
“We need to get to the Power Chamber. See if there’s anything left we can use.”, Carri pointed out. Finding Zordon was going to be a top priority.
“That’s the first place we’ll go.”, Andros replied. He paused for a second then looked at them. “Assuming, of course, that Rita, Zedd and Divatox haven’t already combined to take over Earth. We may be in for a battle when we get back, or it may be a lost cause. We are only three rangers against two armies.”
“It’s never a lost cause.”, Kim said eying him. Andros shot her an angry look, he had taken Kim’s comment too personally. She frowned, as she had forgotten that his people had to abandon their home because of attacks. She prayed it wouldn’t come to that. “What about the boys? Can we give them morphers? And can we call in reinforcements?”
“Even if I wanted to give them morphers,” Andros started as he really didn’t. He didn’t want any help in the first place although he knew he was going to have to give in, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for them to rush into battle after what they’ve been through. And as far as reinforcements go, if we get back to the planet and have to rush into battle, they’d never get there in time.”
“So what?”, Carri asked, her irritation showing in her voice. “We just fly back and hope for the best?”
Andros frowned. He understood where she was coming from. This was their home he was suggesting might have to be left to fate. Where their families and their friends lived. But three rangers couldn’t take on everyone. He wasn’t too sure five would do the trick either. “Well we’re no good to the universe dead.”
Carri took a deep breath and thought about what he had said. He was right, of course, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Being a ranger had made her realize that there were more planets around, more important things that needed to be protected than Earth. Besides, Rita and Zedd only ever wanted to rule the planet, not kill everyone. They could always come back later with a plan to run them out.
They ate in silence for a few moments as everyone thought about the scene that they might be facing when they arrived back on Earth. Their silence was only broken by DECA, who had some news for them.
“The male rangers have awakened in the infirmary.”, DECA said
The two girls bolted up. “Thank you DECA.”, Andros said as he stood up as well. He led them back to the infirmary. They arrived just in time to see the boys sitting up and looking around.
“Where are we? What happened? Is Earth safe?”, Tommy said as his leadership duties kicked in and he started to worry about everything
Kim walked over to him and put her arms around him. “Don’t worry, everything is going to be ok.”, she said as he cringed a little. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sore everywhere.”, Tommy replied
“You’re going to be sore for a while.”. Andros said as all eyes turned toward him
“Who are you?”, Rocky asked as he draped his arm around his girlfriend, who had come to sit next to him. He pulled her close and laid his chin on the top of her head as he waited for a reply.
“Andros.”, he replied simply. The boys looked at him indicating that just a name wasn’t enough. “Red Astro Ranger from KO-35.”, he supplied. That was about all he was willing to give out at the moment.
“Alright then Andros.”, Jason started as he eyed him down. “Tell us what’s been going on.”
“Astronema attacked your Power Chamber.”, he started as the boys gave him a look. They were well aware of that fact already. “And I got there too late to warn you thanks to Divatox.”
“Who’s Divatox?”, asked Tommy
“Only another evil being who’s joining forces with Rita and Zedd as we speak to take over your planet.”, Andros said simply, leaving out most of the details of who she was
The boys were surprised and worried to hear that the attacks back home were going to worsen. “We have to get back to Earth.”, Rocky stated the obvious
“Don’t worry.”, Carri replied. “We’re on our way back now.”
“If they weren’t so adamant about seeing if we could rescue you, we would have stayed. We may have a lead on Zordon by now.”, Andros said as he glanced in the girls direction. Although he did agree to go, he will still stand by his initial fears that they could have died and the boys could have already been dead by the time they got there. But now he could at least ask them questions to see if it was all worth it.
“What happened to Zordon?”, Jason asked
“Callisto’s army was going to capture him. Dark Specter plans on using him to get rid of the power forever so he can rule the universe without any rangers to stop him.”, Andros explained. “And I need to know if you heard anything about where they might have taken him.”
“No. She didn’t,” Tommy started looking down at Kim. He really didn’t want her to know the details of what they went through so he thought carefully before speaking again. “Callisto didn’t give us a chance to figure out what was going on.”
“So how are we going to fight?”, Rocky asked. He thought that he had seen rangers rescue them, and if the girls had powers he hoped they could get some too. They needed powers in order to not only save Earth, but the universe as well.
“If it comes down to it, the girls and I will handle it.”, Andros said. He didn’t think they were ready for battle yet. He saw Tommy move his lips and he assumed he was going to protest, but to Andros’s delight DECA interrupted their moment.
“We are approaching Earth.”, DECA said
Andros looked over at the former Zeo rangers before turning to walk for the bridge. The five Zeo rangers were quick to follow. As Andros approached he quickly started running scans on the planet. After a few minutes he smiled and turned toward the others. “If Divatox is here, she hasn’t collaborated with Rita and Zedd yet because the Earth is safe.”, he said. That meant that Andros could land the megaship by the Power Chamber’s remains and they could search for clues.
The other rangers were thrilled to hear the news that their home planet hadn’t been conquered in their absence. They watched as Andros took over the controls and guided the ship into the Angel Grove desert. A few seconds later the ship had landed. Andros opened the hatch and let them out. They stepped out and waited a moment for the dust to clear. The rangers stood there in awe as they realized what they saw before them.
“It can’t be.”, Carri whispered as they looked at the building that stood where the Power Chamber once was. It was similar in structure to both the Power Chamber and the Command Center but yet was completely new.
The rangers started to approach it but before they could get far they were teleported off. When they hit land again, they realized they were standing inside the new command post. They looked around in awe of what they saw. It was similar to the Power Chamber’s layout, only bigger. With more technology than before. The main room was lined on one wall with a huge viewing screen. In the middle were two rows of consoles, and along the back wall were tubes similar to the ones that held the original mighty morphin ranger suits, but were now holding the zeo suits. Along the side wall was another set of consoles, and the other side wall held two silver doors, one labeled infirmary and one labeled as the exit.
“So what do you guys think?”, Billy Cranston asked as he approached the group of rangers
“It’s amazing.”, Kim said in a half whisper
“Did Zordon and Alpha design this too?”, asked Tommy
Billy blushed slightly before he answered. “Actually I designed this. There have been rumblings for a long time of things that Dark Specter wanted to do, so I thought it would be a good idea for us to have a backup. I created this place to be stronger, with better technology, and more efficient than any place the rangers have had before.”
“What do you call it?”, asked Jason
“Well,” Billy started as he smiled, “As a tribute that everything we have been I decided to call it the Command Chamber.”
“Billy, this is...”. Carri started as her voice trailed off. “I mean...”, she paused as the words escaped her. With a lack of anything to say she walked over and gave Billy a hug. “Thank you.”
Billy smiled and returned her hug as his cheeks got red. “It was nothing really.”
“Nothing?”, Rocky repeated with a smile. This was more than nothing. It was more amazing than when the Power Chamber rebuilt itself the last time. “So now that we have this place, what are we going to do about powers? Be Astro rangers?”, he asked as his thoughts shifted to more important things
The others turned to Andros. “I do have two more morphers....”, he said his voice trailing off
“Well two of us can join the team and we’ll have to protect the Earth and find Zordon.”, Tommy said trying to take charge
“Actually that’s going to be quite impossible.”, Billy said as he glanced at the other rangers. “We’re going to need two teams of rangers. One in space searching for Zordon and fighting Astronema. The other here on Earth protecting us against Divatox, Rita and Zedd.”
“So what should we do?”, asked Kim. She wanted to search for Zordon. But on the other hand, the fight on Earth was going to be a tough one and they would need strong, experienced rangers to stay behind.
“First I’d say you find some new rangers. Then we can sort out who goes where.”, Billy suggested
“I have an idea.”, Carri said as she smiled. She knew the perfect girl to be a ranger.
“Me too.”, Rocky added. He remembered a guy he met that he always thought would make a good ranger.
Tommy thought for a moment. He had an idea as well and was excited to pursue it.
“Good.”, Billy replied. “Let me see if I can help you find these people and you can bring them here.”
The rangers nodded and they went to converse with Billy as he started scans on Earth.
Carri found herself sitting on a bench outside of Angel Grove park near the local college. There was a girl that was a year younger than her who she had a gym class with in high school. They had become friends once Carri found out she was the captain of the cheerleading squad, and shared with her that she had been a captain back at her old high school. Carri always thought she had the qualities of a ranger, and she proved it when the girls were attacked by cogs one day and she stood and fought.
Billy told Carri where this girl was and where the best place to be to cross paths with her was. And as usual, he was right. Carri smiled as she saw the girl walking her way. “Ashley!”, she yelled
Ashley Hammond stopped and spun around to see an old friend sitting on a bench. “Hey!”, she called out, waving as she and her friend made her way over there. “Carri it’s so good to see you. How are you?”
“I’m doing good.”, Carri said with a smile as she glanced at Ashley’s friend
“Oh, sorry, this is my friend Cassie Chan.”, Ashley said doing the introductions. Cassie smiled and said hello and Carri returned her greeting.
Carri was trying to figure out how to shoo Ashley’s friend away without being rude when they were interrupted. “So you’re not dead.”, a voice growled from behind. “Don’t worry that will change soon.”
Ashley and Cassie stood there frozen as Carri leaped up and spun around, standing on the park bench. “Always so cocky. Don’t worry, that will change soon.”, she replied as she jumped over the bench, attacking Goldar.
Carri looked around and noticed the tengas, and the warriors that must have belonged to Divatox standing there too. She started to fight and was thrown back, only to be helped up by two females.
“Why is it that every time you’re around I get attacked by something?”, Ashley asked
Carri chuckled. “As soon as we send them packing I’ll have an explanation for that.”
The three girls took on the small army before them. Carri did most of the work, but she was surprised by the contributions that both Ashley and Cassie were making. They would need two female rangers, and it was during the fight that she decided that Cassie would make an excellent choice as well.
The fight was hard, especially since there were no morphed rangers in the battle. But the girls fought fiercely, and soon enough Carri stood face to face with Goldar, while Ashley and Cassie stood behind her. She smiled at him. “You still want a piece of me?”, she asked as she moved into fighting stance
Goldar looked at her and growled for a moment. He did want a piece of her, there was no question. But Zedd had sent him down with tengas and piranhatrons to survey the scene and he had. There were still protectors on Earth. If they had powers or not was debatable, but he knew they were working on a plan to find that out. In one swift motion, Goldar disappeared.
“That’s what I thought.”, Carri said with a satisfied smile on her face
Ashley and Cassie looked at her as she turned back around. “Strange. That’s when the power rangers are supposed to show up and protect us.”, Ashley remarked
“Well,” Carri started as she smiled at her, “what if I were to tell you that the power rangers were protecting you. At least, a power ranger.”
Cassie’s eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. “Wait a minute, you’re a ranger?”
“Honestly.... yeah.”, she answered. “Actually that’s why I came to find Ashley.”
“What the power rangers need my help?”, Ashley asked in disbelief
“Well we need both of you to help. Actually not as much help as be rangers...”, Carri explained letting her voice trail off. She held her breath waiting for their response.
Cassie and Ashley looked back and forth between each other, neither knowing exactly what to say. “So what are you guys quitting or something?”, Cassie asked
Carri let out a small laugh. “Not hardly. You see.... well it’s like this. Long story short, Dark Specter, the master of all evil, has devised a plan to rid the universe of all power rangers power, basically leaving it open to conquer. He’s sent his right hand Astronema to see to it that his plan succeeds. Meanwhile he’s left Zedd, Rita and Divatox here on Earth to try and take it over. So our dilemma is this. We need two teams of rangers to save the universe, and we only have one. Which is why we’re recruiting.”
Cassie looked from Carri to Ashley as she thought about what Carri was saying. This was the chance of a lifetime. And she certainly wasn’t going to pass it up. “I’m in.”, she said as she smiled
Carri looked over at Ashley, who was who she was trying to recruit in the first place. Ashley thought for a moment before she smiled over at Cassie. “Well I can’t let her have all the fun.”
Relieved, Carri held out her hands to the two new female rangers. Cassie and Ashley each took a hand, and she teleported them off to the Command Chamber.
Rocky was teleported just outside of the local baseball field. He chuckled, he should have known that’s where he was going to end up finding him. He was looking for someone who he played pick up baseball with the summer before. A lot of his old teammates would go to the ballpark in the summer to play. This particular person had attended Angel Grove High the year after he graduated and played on the baseball team, then joined some of the past and present high school ball players in the summer to practice.
Rocky jogged down to the field. He saw the man he was looking for hitting some balls from a small pitching machine that he had set up. He smiled as he saw him, he knew he would make a great ranger. He had attacked tengas with his baseball bat once when they were ambushed on the ball field. “T.J.!”, he yelled calling out his name
T.J. Johnson turned and spun around. “Rocky, hey man what’s up? Come to play some ball?”
“Maybe some other time.”, he said as he jogged out onto the field and stood beside him. “Actually I was coming down to talk to you about something.”
“Sure man what’s up?”, T.J. asked as he stepped away from the batter’s box, allowing the pitching machine to throw the last few balls at the fence
“You see...”, Rocky started. He wanted to jump right into the explanation, but was rudely interrupted.
“Poor ranger out here all alone. Eh. Too bad.”, a voice said
Rocky spun to see who it was. There were tengas, and someone he assumed to be Divatox’s warrior and her army. “Who are you?”, he asked
“The name’s Elgar. I’d remember that if I was you, so you can tell your friends who kicked your butt.”
Rocky couldn’t help but laugh as he ran and attacked him. T.J. wasn’t completely sure what was going on, but he elected to help Rocky. As Rocky saw him jump in to help, he smiled satisfied that he had made the right choice. A little while later, they had defeated the bad guys and Elgar shrugged his shoulders and left.
“Man that was awesome.”, T.J. exclaimed looking over at Rocky and smiling. “So you’re a ranger?”, he asked. Rocky nodded his head yes. “Man I’ve always thought it would be awesome to be a ranger.”
“Really?”, Rocky asked. T.J. nodded his head yes. “Good. Because that’s kind of what I came down here for.”
“What?”, T.J. questioned not sure if he believed what was going on
“We’re going to need two teams of rangers to protect the Earth. And we’re recruiting new rangers. And I was kind of hoping you would be one of them.”, Rocky explained
“Absolutely.”, T.J. said as he smiled at him
With that, Rocky took T.J. and the duo teleported off to the Command Chamber.
Tommy walked through the park. He didn’t know the man he was looking for very well. Adam was the one who knew him, Adam had been his soccer coach. But he did know that Adam said nothing but good things about this guy. And Adam said he has even helped him fight a monster once when that attacked during a practice.
As he walked through the park, he found the man he was looking for practicing soccer. He walked over to him and smiled. “Hey Carlos.”, he said
Carlos looked up from what he was doing and glanced over at Tommy. He was surprised to see him there. He knew him as Adam’s friend, and had seen him around a few times, but other than that he hardly knew the man. “Tommy. What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to come talk.”, Tommy said. Which was mostly true. He wasn’t sure if Carlos was going to be willing to be a ranger but he had sure hoped he could convince him.
“They’ll be time for talking later. Right now, you’re getting your butt kicked.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Tommy caught Rito running his mouth and waving his sword. He was surrounded by some tengas and what he assumed had to be some of Divatox’s army. Tommy turned and smiled as he ran to attack.
Carlos wasn’t sure of what to do, but he quickly decided that he needed to help Tommy. The duo picked off the bad guys one by one until finally only Rito was left standing.
“So who was getting their butt kicked?”, Tommy asked as he stood in fighting stance, ready to square off with Rito
“Well you see... aw never mind. I did what Ed wanted anyway.”, he said as he took off
Tommy couldn’t help but think that the attack was a little weird, but he shrugged it off as he turned back to Carlos. “What was that about?”, Carlos asked
“The attacks on Earth are getting worse.”, Tommy replied
“How would you know? Unless...”, Carlos said as the realization hit him. “You’re a ranger aren’t you?”
Tommy slowly nodded. “And I need your help.”
“Me? What could I possibly do to help you?”, Carlos asked
“Join the rangers.”, Tommy replied. “We’re going to need two teams to fight this, and I would like for you to be on one of them.”
Carlos stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say next. “I... I’d be honored.”, he finally said, agreeing to be a ranger
Tommy wasted no time in taking him and teleporting him back so that his team could figure out what to do next.
There were eleven people standing around the new Command Chamber. Some of them knew each other, others didn’t. Cassie, Carlos, T.J. and Ashley had all graduated from Angel Grove High together. They weren’t best of friends, but they knew each other. Ashley and Carlos had gone to Angel Grove High for a while, and knew Tommy, Carri, Jason and Rocky as well. Everyone else was all strangers.
Billy stood in the center of the group of rangers. “First, thank you for volunteering to be rangers. According to them,” he said gesturing to the former zeo rangers, “you all have all of the qualities it takes. And they were hand picked by Zordon, and you were hand picked by them.”
“You should all be honored.”, Andros spoke. He didn’t even notice as Ashley looked over at him and smiled, then Cassie gave her a light elbow.
“Now, we have to decide how we are going to handle this. We’ll need one group to join Andros in space, searching for Zordon and fighting Astronema.”, Billy explained as he gestured to the Astro Ranger. “In space doesn’t mean that you’ll never see Earth again, it just means that you’ll be dividing your time between the Megaship and your home. The other rangers will stay here on Earth, fighting the combined forces of Divatox and Rita and Zedd.”
Ashley thought for a moment. She found the red Astro ranger to be kind of interesting. And as she had never been a ranger before, she didn’t want to say there and face all those bad guys. And it wasn’t like they were leaving Earth forever. She would still be able to come home, shop, see her other friends and family. She smiled, she had made up her mind. “I’ll go.”, she said
“I’ll stay.”, Carri said as she called on her Asto Morpher, handing it over to Ashley. Not that being an Astro Ranger wasn’t an awesome experience, and she did want to help find Zordon and kick Astronema’s ass. But Divatox, Rita and Zedd were not going to be easy and they would need more experienced rangers to deal with them. Not to mention Callisto would be chasing her, and she’d rather have her finding her on Earth than interrupting the search for Zordon.
Ashley put the Astro Morpher on her wrist and gasped as the power flowed through her. “That was amazing.”, she said as she smiled
“I’ll go too.”, Cassie spoke up, although she wasn’t sure why besides the fact that Ashley had already volunteered for it
Kim quickly gave Cassie her Astro Morpher and watched as she took over the power. Not that Kim wouldn’t have liked to go up into space on occasion, but she would feel safer with more experienced rangers here protecting Earth.
Rocky was the next to speak up. “I’ll stay.”, he said. He had too many obligations on Earth to be leaving to prance around the galaxy when needed.
T.J. looked at Andros and smiled. This was going to be the greatest opportunity of his life and he wasn’t about to pass it up. “I’m going.”, he said and Andros nodded, pulling out a morpher and handing it to him
“I’m going to stay here.”, Jason said as he looked over at Tommy. He had thought long and hard about it. He would have loved to go look for Zordon, but he felt like his first obligation was Earth. And Emily, who would be devastated if he was gone all the time. It was hard enough with him being a ranger, let alone him going into space and her not knowing what was going on.
Tommy and Carlos exchanged glances. Tommy wanted to stay and help the mission on Earth, but he wanted Carlos to have his choice since he was the inexperienced ranger. Carlos looked at the two almost completed teams. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. But he knew one team better than the other, and that ultimately made his decision. “I’ll go.”, he said holding his hands out and accepting the last morpher from Andros
Tommy turned to Billy. “So what about us? Obviously the Zeo powers are useless now.”
“Well,” Billy started as he couldn’t help but smile. He was thrilled that these five had stayed to protect Earth. The battle for the planet was going to be harder than the quest to find Zordon. With all the evil forces teaming up, it would be better to have experienced rangers. Not to mention the powers he created would bond best with them and use their maximum power potential, making this ranger team stronger than ever. Billy walked over and picked up a box then opened it, showing its contents to the rangers.
“That... that’s impossible. We watched them get destroyed.”, Rocky stammered as he looked at the power coins in the box
“We thought they were destroyed.”, Billy replied. “In all actuality Rita and Zedd sent them to the far reaches of the galaxy, fooling even Zordon. When we thought they had vaporized the coins, they had only captured them, replacing them with gold dust to make it look like they were gone. When I was on Aquitar, because of Zedd and Rita’s sudden departure a few months earlier, the coins turned up. The only power coin that is worthless is the blue coin, and that was due to my miscalculation with the regenerator.”
“So what, we’re getting our old powers back?”, Kim asked in disbelief
“Not quite.”, Billy told her. “The morphin grid as we knew it doesn’t exist. There is another grid that we can draw our powers from. But even those powers alone aren’t strong enough. I’ve combined the power coins with the zeo crystal’s power to make new rangers.”
“So how does this work?”, Jason asked
“First,” Billy said as he handed a coin to each of the rangers, watching as the rangers gave of an electric glow of the color of the coin as the coin joined with them, “you get your old coins back,” he explained. The coins were already wired to the rangers DNA, with the exception of Carri and Jason. The red and white coins were connected to Tommy and Rocky, and Kat had never held the pink coin long enough for her to overcome it’s connection with Kim.
Carri looked down at the coin in her hand and watched as it formed the shape of a panther. “Wait, are our ninjetti powers attached to the coins? I thought they were separate?”
“Don’t worry, your ninjetti powers are still completely separate from your morphin powers. But much like your ninjetti powers, your power coins are drawing energy from your spirit animals.”, Billy explained
“So how do we morph?”, Tommy asked trying to get straight to the point. If this new force was going to attack soon, he wanted to be ready.
“You’ll need these.”, Billy said as he went out and grabbed another box and handed the rangers out devices that looked similar to their zeonizers.
“Coins and zeonizers?”, Rocky asked skeptically
Billy smiled as he walked over to Carri and took her power coin, placing it on top of one of her new zeonizers. Then he strapped the zeonizers to her wrists and watched as the full effect of her new power took over. She could feel the new energy flowing through her, and it was greater than anything she had ever felt before. “Damn.”, she whispered as a smile spread across her face
“Go ahead, morph.”, Billy encouraged
She nodded as she now knew what to do thanks to the power. “It’s morphin time!”, she yelled as she thrust her wrists to her side. The power coin slid up off of one of the zeonizers and in similar fashion to her old morph she attached the coin to her other zeonizer. The zeonizers blended with her power coin, forming the new yellow ranger.
The rest of the rangers watched in awe as her uniform took over. It was a blend of uniforms past. The helmet still held the yellow balance symbol. The uniform itself was completely different. On Carri’s white belt sat her power coin. The collar of her uniform had changed. There was a gold band around her neck with the same symbols that had been on the zeo uniforms. Underneath the collar, across the chest, was a diamond pattern like the one on the original uniforms. From her belt down on the outside of her legs on both sides there was a white diamond pattern. She wore white gloves and white boots, both with thin gold banding at the top and yellow diamonds around them. Her uniform had a yellow skirt, similar to the one her zeo uniform had.
Carri looked herself over in amazement. “You guys have to try this.”, she said as she looked over at her friends
The other rangers quickly put their new morphers together and put them to use. Billy smiled as he saw the team of rangers he created standing there for the first time together. The rangers looked around at each other to see what the differences were. All the uniforms looked the same as Carri’s with Kim in pink, Jason in black, Rocky in red and Tommy in white. There were some minor differences. Kim’s was the only other uniform to have the skirt on it, like her old zeo uniform did. On Tommy’s uniform, where there had been white on Carri’s, was a black pattern. Tommy’s boots and gloves were black with the gold banding and white diamonds.
Each of the rangers took their helmet off and put it to the side. “So we’re wearing our old colors?”, Rocky asked as he looked at himself and Tommy, then down to Jason
“For this to work, the power coins had to bond with your DNA first, and the coins dictated what color your uniforms would be.”, Billy explained
“What’s this new team called?”, asked Kim. Not that it was a big deal, but every team had to have a name.
“Well,” Billy started as he smiled at her. He had thought long and hard about what kind of rangers these were. And really they were a blend of two teams, which is why he named them what he did. “I was thinking Ninja Zeo. Ninja representing the ninjetti and the last team that the power coins were used for, and zeo for the zeo crystal.”
The others thought about their new team name for a few moments before they started formulating other questions about their new powers. “So what about weapons and zords?”, asked Jason
Billy smiled. “Well for now you can still use your Super Zeo Zords. The Zeo Zords were too damaged when the Power Chamber was destroyed. But I am working on some zords specifically for your new powers, they’re just going to take some time to finish developing. As for your weapons, I am working on some new things for you guys. You still have your pistols. But as far as individual weapons, well you can call on them and check them out.”
The rangers looked at each other and nodded, each knowing what they had to say.
“Power lance!”
“Power bow!”
“Power axe!”
“Power daggers!”
“Power sword!”
The rangers looked in amazement at the weapons in their hands. Even the original mighty morphin rangers were amazed with what they saw, because they were similar but not the same weapons as they originally had. Billy smiled and approached each ranger one by one to show off their new weapons. He first picked up Kim’s bow. It was sleeker than before, and in the center held the Zeo I symbol. “This bow shoots three arrows at one time. Each arrow is twice as strong as one arrow was out of your original bow and carries quite a blast. You can also shoot each arrow at a different opponent.”, he explained as he handed it back to her
Kim nodded as Billy walked over and picked up Carri’s daggers. The daggers had smaller handles, with the balance symbol on the top of each handle. The daggers were slightly longer and thinner, but stronger than they ever were before. “These are pretty self explanatory. Their strength comes in fighting with both of them. But if you need to stun an enemy quickly, put the two daggers together,” Billy explained as he put them together and Carri heard them click, “then slash them at your enemy. It will cause a small burst of energy and it should knock any enemy down. Then you can pull them back apart quickly for hand to hand combat.”, Billy explained as he pulled them back apart and handed them too her
She held them in her hands and looked them over as Billy went over to share the new features of the power axe with Jason. He picked up the axe and looked at it. The handle was smaller than before, and the double sided axe was bigger. It also held Jason’s zeo symbol on the middle of the head of the axe. “Your axe is strongest in this form. It can shoot a beam of energy out of the top, temporarily paralyzing enemies. If you’re surrounded, you can break the axe apart,” he said one again demonstrating, “And use the two smaller single sided axe’s to fight with. They’re not as strong as the axe combined, but they will get the job done.”, he explained, putting the axe back together and handing it back to Jason.
Billy then moved on to Rocky. “Although you and Tommy both have your original power coins, you are operating off of your old zeo crystals. Which is why you have the blue ranger weapon and Tommy has the red ranger weapon.”, Billy explained as he held out his hand for Rocky’s lance. Billy took the red lance in his hands. The lance was slightly longer, and had weapons on each end, with one end of the lance having Rocky’s zeo symbol and the other end blank. “You can twirl this around and use both ends, but this end packs a bit of a punch.”, Billy explained pointing toward the end with the zeo symbol. “Anything you hit with it gets a bit of a jolt. And if you slam it down on the ground, it will radiate energy, knocking back anything within a five foot radius.”
“Including my teammates?”, Rocky asked with a smile
Billy laughed. “Just be careful when you use it.”, he said as he handed it back and moved on to Tommy, taking the sword out of his hand. His sword was also longer and more efficient than the power sword of the past and had his zeo star on both sides of the handle. “I don’t think I need to explain to you how to use this. But you might want to know that if you take your fingers and hit both zeo stars at the same time, the sword will release a burst of energy on any opponent that you hit.”
Tommy smiled as he took the sword back. New powers and old colors, this was all going to be exciting. “Can we combine our weapons?”, Tommy asked
“If you combine them, they’ll issue a nasty blow which should knock any monster off its feet.”, Billy explained
“What about us?”, T.J. pipped up from the back. “What about our uniforms and weapons and zords?”
“I can explain the uniforms and weapons. However, we don’t have any zords.”, Andros replied
“Actually, that’s not entirely true.”, Billy replied. “Zordon thought we might need the Astro powers some day. He left me with the knowledge to put together the final components of the Astro Megazord. Once we get settled, I’ll get that set up for you.”
Andros smiled and nodded. This might work out after all.
Kim’s eyes suddenly got wide and she turned to Carri. “Oh!”, she exclaimed. “We forgot about Alpha!”
“Don’t worry he’s still on the Megaship.”, Andros replied
“Yeah but he needs a little work.”, Carri reminded him as she turned to Billy. “We think he got a little fried in the collapse. Can you fix him?”
“Yes that shouldn’t be a problem. I can fix him and we’ll let him stay on the ship to help DECA and the rangers.”, Billy replied
The rangers looked at him curiously. Alpha had always been with them to help. “So if he’s going to help DECA, who’s going to help you?”, asked Rocky
The smile that spread across Billy’s face lit up the room. “I was hoping you’d ask that.”, he said, and with a few buttons teleported someone to the Command Chamber
Everyone watched as the white beam of light gave away to a woman. “Trini?”, Kim questioned as they realized who it was. “But what about your new job?”
“Oh I’m still working in Europe. But they only need us part time. Zack is trying to find other things to fill the void, and Billy asked me to help him out here. So I’ll be teleporting back and forth for now.”, Trini explained as she smiled at her friends
“I can’t wait to get to try out these new powers.”, Kim said. As she spoke the alarms went off. All the rangers turned first to the alarm, then to the screen.
“Ask and ye shall receive.”, Carri said with a smile
“So what have we got?”, Jason asked
Billy and Trini both worked to find the disturbances. “I’ve got a monster that looks to be one of Divatox’s creations outside of the USC campus, with Goldar and some tengas and piranhatrons.”
Before the rangers could react, Trini spoke as well. “And it looks like Ecliptor and the Quantrons are out looking for Andros in Angel Grove.”
Both disturbances were brought on screen, allowing the ten rangers to see what was going on. “Ready?”, Tommy asked looking over at his team, who nodded at him. “Back to action!”, Tommy yelled
The Astro rangers watched as the Ninja Zeo rangers took off. “What about Astronema?”, asked Carlos
“Well it looks like we won’t be limited to just fighting her in space.”, Andros said as she had just demonstrated that she would hunt him down anywhere. “Are we ready?”
The Astro rangers looked at their leader, as they were all both excited and scared. Andros smiled at them. If the Zeo’s had picked them, they would do fine. “Let’s rocket!”, he yelled as the team pulled out their morphers and quickly typed in their code, allowing them to morph into the Astro team before teleporting off.
The Astro rangers arrived on the scene, with Andros quickly stepping in front and taking the lead. “Alright Ecliptor. Leave Angel Grove alone.”
“It’s not Angel Grove I want it’s you. Astronema can’t have you following her around in space.”, Ecliptor said. The last thing the princess of evil wanted was a team of Astro rangers on her trail. And apparently the Zeo’s ability to regroup and reorganize was greatly underestimated, as word had reached the evil realm that they were forming two teams of rangers. Now they would have these Astro rangers to fight Astronema and look for Zordon.
Andros took that as a challenge as he called for his Spiral Saber and attacked Ecliptor. The other four rangers looked at each other as the Quantrons started to charge them. “So what do we do now?”, asked Ashley
“Let’s try out our own weapons.”, T.J. suggested as he smiled underneath his helmet.“Astro axe!”
The other rangers were quick to follow. “Lunar lance!”, yelled Carlos
“Star slinger!”
“Satellite stunner!”
The four new rangers stood for the first time with weapons in hand, ready to attack the enemy. As the Quantrons rushed at them, they quickly leaped up into the air and fired. “I could get used to this.”, Cassie commented as she hit the ground
Once they fired initially, they turned and started hand to hand combat with the Quantrons. The rangers could feel the rush of the power as they fought. Between their weapons and their hand to hand combat skills that the power provided, they quickly breezed through the Quantrons and stood four strong as they watched Andros battle Ecliptor.
Ecliptor looked and saw that the other four rangers had defeated the Quantrons. They were fast learners. Astronema wasn’t going to be happy to hear that. He threw Andros back and glared at the space team. “This isn’t over rangers.”, he said as he disappeared
Andros stood up and looked at his new team. “Good job.”, he said sharing his approval
“So you think we can help save the universe?”, asked Carlos
“I think we’ll make it.”, Andros said. He was determined to save the universe, to save Zordon. To have these four backing him was going to make his task easier. Andros looked at the other rangers as they were teleported back to the Command Chamber.
Miles away as the Astro Rangers were completing their first battle, the Ninja Zeo rangers were getting their first chances to see what their new powers could do.
“Your new powers won’t help you rangers.”, Goldar said as he motioned for the tenga piranhatron army to attack.
“We’ll see about that.”, Tommy replied as he jumped in the air towards Goldar, power sword in hand
As they attacked, the monster stood behind them firing beams at the rangers. Kim quickly took her power bow and shot arrows at the monster, sending it flying backwards and giving them a moment to concentrate on what was approaching.
Each of the rangers stood with their weapon ready to go. And quickly they were covered in both tengas and piranhatrons. The rangers used their new weapons to fight them. Kim was able to shoot bows at multiple tengas at one time, while Carri was using her daggers to fight piranhatrons off of both sides of her. Jason and briefly split his axe to fight the enemy that was surrounding him. Rocky was swirling around his lance as he fought them off. At one point they were closing in on him. He took his lance and slammed it to the ground, knocking the enemy off its feet. Rocky let out a small laugh. “That was pretty cool.”, he said as he ran to find some more tengas and piranhatrons to fight
While the other four rangers had their hands full with tengas and piranhatrons, Tommy was busying himself with Goldar. He fought well with his sword, and was anxious to see what its true power was. He quickly leaped into the air, grabbing the stars on the sword and attacking Goldar. His attack knocked Goldar back and Tommy smiled. “I think I’m going to like that.”
Goldar looked around to see Tommy standing triumphantly with the other rangers falling in behind. They had defeated the tenga and piranhatron army and were now ready for Goldar and the monster. “You’ll never defeat us.”, Goldar said waving his sword in the air
“Don’t you get tired of making empty promises?”, Carri asked as she stood gripping her daggers. She was ready to see what this using them together thing was all about. The tengas and piranhatrons didn’t seem worthy enough for her to even try.
Goldar looked at the monster. “Finish them!”, he growled as he took off. Zedd and Rita were not going to be happy about this. They would have to work better with Divatox if they were going to defeat the rangers with their new powers.
“I think we scared him away.”, Kim commented
“Yeah and now its his turn.”, Carri said referencing the monster as she quickly jumped high into the air, putting her daggers together and slashing the monster across it’s chest.
The monster flew back and the team didn’t give it a chance to recover as Jason jumped over Carri, hitting it with an energy beam from his axe. The monster stood up and fired his own circular energy beams at the rangers, flinging them backwards and knocking them off of their feet. As they started to stand up, the monster fired again, not letting any of the rangers close to him.
Kim looked at her team. She was the only one with a weapon that could reach long range. As she got up from the second hit, she quickly fired her arrows. He fell back and Tommy and Rocky wasted no time as both jumped up to attack, Rocky hitting him with the powerful end of his lance and Tommy using his sword at full power.
The monster fell back to his feet as the rangers regrouped. “Let’s see what these can do combined.”, Tommy said as he looked over at his teammates, who nodded in agreement.
The five rangers brought their new weapons together for the first time. The weapons together formed a new more powerful Power Blaster, with all the energy from the individual weapons attacks flowing into one shot, which came from the power axe, the blasters central weapon. As the team yelled fire, they could see all the weapons charging and sending their power directly into the axe, as it fired one giant energy beam on the monster.
The monster fell down and appeared to be defeated, but as almost any fight the rangers had ever been in the monster was soon city wrecking size. “We need Super Zeo Zord power now!”, Tommy cried as the five Super Zeo Zords came barreling towards them
The Ninja Zeo’s wasted no time creating the megazord and bringing the monster down for good.
All ten rangers found themselves back in the Command Chamber with Billy and Trini. Billy looked at the rangers and smiled. “Well?”, he asked
“That was awesome.”, Ashley said with a huge smile on her face
“Those weapons we have were ten times more powerful than anything we’ve held before.”, Jason said, his excitement for their upgraded powers showing
T.J. smiled at him. “Yeah man but you should have seen our weapons they were killer.”
“This is going to be great.”, Carri started as she smiled. “And I hope we gave Divatox a quick lesson in who not to mess with.”
“Actually I think we just showed them what we have, which means they know to step it up a notch.”, Tommy said, unintentional crushing her enthusiasm
“You just had to ruin the moment didn’t you?”, Carri asked as she looked over at Kim, who smiled at her
“He’s just being Tommy.”, she pointed out
“Yeah but he’s right. Now that they know what we have, they know what they need to do to take us down.”, Rocky chimed in
“We’ve only shown them a portion of your powers. When I get everything up and running, they’ll be surprised.”, Billy informed them
Carlos looked around the group. They had fought the bad guys and won, and it felt pretty good. It also left him wondering where they went from here. “So now what?”, he asked as he looked at his leader
“Now I have an idea of where to start looking. We’ll leave soon.”, Andros informed him
“But first let’s get the megazord up and running.”, Billy suggested. “You never know what could happen and it’s better to be prepared.”
Andros nodded in agreement. That would be good for his team, it would give them some time to go home. “Alright. While we work on that, you guys should go back to Angel Grove for a while.”
“Yeah I should pack some clothes.”, Ashley said thoughtfully
“You won’t need much clothes.”, Andros replied
Ashley cocked her head and looked at him strangely. “But I have to have enough outfits. Just because I’m stuck on the megaship doesn’t mean I don’t want to look my best.”
Andros thought for a moment but declined to reply. She would find out soon enough about what they would be wearing on the megaship.
“Can we help?”, asked Cassie as she stood there full of energy. “I mean I want to get on the ship and figure everything out and go on our missions and”
“And find Astronema. We have battles to fight out there and we need to be fighting them. I can’t wait for the chance to morph again.”, T.J. said sharing her enthusiasm
The senior rangers in the room tried hard not to laugh. After a while they wouldn’t be so excited about running into multiple battles. Of course each one of them could remember their first fights as rangers, and how the power changes you. All of them almost looked forward to fighting again at first. Things change as time goes on. Not that they still weren’t excited to rush out and fight the good fight and take down the bad guy, but they didn’t go to bed at night hoping that Zedd would send someone down that they could fight against the next day.
“So,” Carlos started as he looked around, “how exactly do we get out of here?”
“Simple.”, Billy replied. He went over and grabbed communicators from a box. He passed one out to each of the Astro Rangers, including Andros. After giving them a quick tutorial on how they worked, he sent them on their way. “Shall we go get started on the megaship?”
Andros nodded. He was ready to get this together and start the search. He followed Billy towards the exit. Billy paused for a second and turned back. “What about you guys?”, he asked
“I think I’m heading back to Europe for now.”, Trini said
“I think I’m heading home. To my bed. To get some much needed sleep”, Carri replied
Rocky came up behind his girlfriend and wrapped his arms around her. “I think that sounds like a fabulous idea.”
“I may just have to join you guys.”, Kim said
A mischievous smile spread across Carri’s face. “In my bed?”
“It might be fun.”, Tommy chimed in
“Is there room for one more?”, Jason joked
“We’ll all just jump on in.”, Carri said looking over at her four friends. They all laughed and got ready to teleport back to the apartment so everyone could get in their own beds when Kim suddenly stopped them.
“Wait. I almost forgot. Happy New Year guys.”, she said towards Billy and Trini. The other rangers chimed in with their own wishes for a happy New Year.
“Happy New Year.”, Trini said
Billy smiled. They had all almost forgotten how this day had started. Parades and bowl games, New Year’s Eve parties and resolutions, all that became trivial when the universe had become endangered. But that was part of being a ranger. Save the world, worry about the rest later. “Happy New Year guys.”, Billy said.
Billy stood in the doorway of the exit and watched as Trini smiled at him then teleported out. The other five rangers waved goodbye before they left as well. He looked around at the Command Chamber which he had built. He was hoping they wouldn’t have to use it, but he was glad they did as it was going to make the team stronger between the new things that came with the Command Chamber and the new powers he created to go with it. And even with everything that had happened that day, he had a feeling it was going to be a good year after all.
“Are you coming?”, Andros asked interrupting his thoughts
“Yeah.”, Billy said. He turned and gave the control room one last glance as the metal doors shut behind him, leaving the Command Chamber’s control room quiet.
The End