Chapter 1 – Brave New World

October 12 1997

The waters of the ocean were choppy today and a dark sky made for a sombre atmosphere. However this was not body of water on the planet Earth, this was the dreaded Forbidden Zone. A place between universes which only the brave or stupid would use to cross from one reality to another. It was once believed that travelling between parallel worlds was impossible. The strong inter dimensional barriers would stop the majority of people from even attempting a crossing. Those that did succeed in breaking through the walls of reality would find themselves in the Forbidden Zone. The waters in this area should have made traversing between dimensions impossible but in recent centuries the dark waters had calmed significantly. Due to this dimensional piracy, plundering a universe for its riches before retreating to the Forbidden Zone, was on the rise.

Out on the surface of the water, a submarine cruised steadily through the everlasting night. The sub belong to the most notorious of all dimensional pirates, someone who's name struck fear into the hearts of many planetary defenders. Inside the craft a lone figure sat in the command chair, her legs bouncing up and down in frustration. Dressed in a PVC corset top, short red skirt, black over the elbow leather gloves and over the knee high heeled boots, the female didn't look like one of the most feared women in the multiverse. A gold half mask and a long purple ponytail didn't add much to her image but this was the legendary dimensional pirate, Divatox.

"Urgh I can't believe those insects from Earth Prime found a way to push me back into the void", the pirate whined. She cracked a small smile as she placed her hand into a chest full of gold coins, "Still it wasn't a total loss". Her previous plundering mission had only been a partial success. Divatox and her crew had raided a number of gold deposits until a small team of scientists had pushed her back into the Forbidden Zone.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed one of her Piranhatrons, her fish like foot soldiers, snigger to itself. She opened her mouth and a purple lizard tongue shot out and hit the Piranhatron in the neck. The helpless creature was dead before it could hit the ground.

The doors of the sub opened and onto the bridge stepped one of Divatox's henchmen, Porto. The squat creature was her chief scientist and weapon's designer. He wasn't overly intelligent but he had a knack of coming through for the dimensional pirate at the right time. "This better be good news Porto", Divatox growled.

"Erm sort of", Porto stammered nervously, "I can't find a way back to Earth Prime". He ducked as a golden goblet thrown by Divatox narrowly missed his head, "But I've come up with an alternative".

He waddled past the captain's chair and toward the main screen. It took a few moments to find the screen he wanted, during this time Divatox had become bored, "Get on with it Porto I can feel myself getting older by the second", she called out as she swung her legs over the side of her chair.

Porto loaded up an image of a planet, "Now we know that all of the Earth's across the dimensions have been stocked full of riches. I recall that you really enjoyed looting Earth 327", this memory brought a small smile to Divatox's face. "Well I've found this version of Earth", Porto continued.

Divatox leant forward in her chair to get a better look, "Looks the same as all the stinking rocks we've invaded in the past".

"But this one is different my queen", Porto replied, "this one is just designated as Earth"

A board grin spread over Divatox's face, "Which means it uncharted"

"Exactly now if someone's gone to all that effort to keep it off the map, it must be full of treasure".

Divatox leaped out of her seat, "Porto set course for Earth, these Earthlings are about to get a visit from a diva". Porto as the dimensional pirate laughed manically to herself.

Agency Headquarters, Angel Grove

A nervous Trini Kwan pushed at the revolving door into an office building in the financial district of Angel Grove. Dressed in her smartest outfit, a black skirt suit complete with yellow blouse, she was here for her first day at work. When she was a small child she had dreamed of opening a small business with her best friend, Kimberly Hart. She had never dreamed in a million years that her first job would be for a top secret government agency.

Trini nervously approached the reception desk, "Hi I'm Trini Kwan, here for my first day", she held up an ID badge that she had been given.

"Take a seat over there Miss Kwan", the receptionist pointed to a leather chair, "I'll let someone know you're here", she nodded and took a seat. As the minutes ticked by she thought about the last few months since graduation. Most of the former Zeo rangers had left the city and started the next phase of their lives. Tommy had his racing career, Tanya had gone to Los Angeles to pursue a singing career and Rocky had left to join his girlfriend Yuri as a student at the Wind Ninja Academy in Blue Bay Harbor. As for the former gold ranger, no one had heard from Jason since the final battle with the Machine Empire, he had simply dropped off the map.

"Hi Trini", she heard a voice interrupting her thoughts. She looked up and saw Angela Fairweather standing over her. She looked slightly different than the last time she saw her in Egypt during the chase after Pyramidas and the gold ranger powers. Dressed in a smart skirt, blouse and a white lab coat, she looked every inch the scientist.

"Hey Angela good to see you again", the former yellow ranger replied as she shook her hand. As Angela led her through the door, Trini was surprised to see a large room with a map of the world on a computer screen at the far end. Between her end of the room and the screen, several banks of desks were lined up in perfectly straight lines. Each desk had a person talking furiously into a headset sitting at it.

"Captain Mitchell moved the agency's headquarters out of DC and into Angel Grove", Angela began. "The guided tour will have to wait though, we've got trouble brewing".

"Already?" Trini asked.

"Afraid so, looks like you'll be learning on the job". Miss Fairweather led Trini through a maze of corridors until they reached a conference room. Inside the room were a small round table and a television screen. There were also a few familiar faces present, "Ah Miss Kwan good to see you", Captain Mitchell greeted.

"Thanks Captain, and please it's Trini", she replied.

Captain Mitchell nodded, "I believe you're already very well acquainted with Aimi and Xander here". The pair gave Trini a warm smile and a wave, "Aimi is going to be the lead field agent on this assignment with Xander as her second in command".

"Just the way is should be right Trini", Aimi said with a smile, bringing a cry of protest from her boyfriend.

"You'll be joining her team as a probationary agent", Mitchell continued before turning to the last person in the room, "and I believe you know this young man very well".

Trini smiled, "Yes this looks like my boyfriend, except I haven't seen him in a while because he's been working on something", she replied sarcastically.

"Sorry about that Tri", Billy Cranston said apologetically, "but this assignment is really important".

"You keep saying assignment", Trini began, "what's so urgent that you moved my start date forward by two weeks".

Captain Mitchell sighed and moved up to the television screen, "Yesterday our scientists noticed a rippled in the dimensional wall protecting our universe. It could only mean that someone is trying to break into our universe from the outside".

Billy stood and took the pointer from Captain Mitchell, "In the notes that Zordon left behind, he predicted that it would only be a matter of time before someone would try and do this", he clicked a button and an image of Divatox appeared on the screen.

Trini recoiled slightly at the overtly provocative attire of the pirate, "Yeah I know looks like someone would should be walking the streets after dark", Xander called over to the former yellow ranger.

"Be that as it may", Mitchell continued, "she is an extremely dangerous pirate. According to Zordon's journals she has devastated nearly a hundred worlds and a dozen different versions of Earth".

"So what can we do to stop her", Aimi asked, she had been briefed about Divatox but not what measures the agency had come up with to stop her.

"After seeing the gold ranger in action I had an idea", Angela began, "what if I could create our own team of rangers. Unfortunately all attempts to create my own morphers failed as I didn't have the expertise to complete the job. That's where Billy came in", she pointed over to the former blue ranger.

"Using Zordon's notes and Angela's designs, I was able to come up with these", Billy picked a briefcase up off the floor and placed it on the table. He opened it up to reveal five keys and five boxes that looked like gear shifts on a car, "These are the Turbo morphers and they should allow our candidates the ability to morph into the Turbo rangers".

"Should?" Xander said as he picked up on Billy's choice of words.

"The morphers are DNA coded", Billy replied, "as soon as the chosen ranger morphs for the first time, only that person or someone with similar DNA could use them again".

Trini inspected the morphers almost instinctively picking up the yellow ranger's morpher, "But how are we going to find and train five new rangers in such a short space of time?" she asked before looking nervously around the room, "Unless you mean.."

Billy vigorously shook his head, "Oh no, I don't know about you but I think my morphing days are behind me, at least on a full time basis".

"I think that's where I come in", Angela began, "as part of my work on the morphers I also branched out into some research on encoded images. Using this research I was able to create a program to implant advanced fighting and tactical knowledge into anyone". She paused before continuing, "there was a problem though, only a small percentage of humans would successfully be able to use what I christened Turbo technology".

She walked over to the screen and took the pointers from Billy, "I created a test program and sent it out to sample the market so to speak". She clicked onto the next image to reveal a familiar looking device.

"Hey that's the arcade game that was delivered to the Youth Center", Aimi cried out. She then looked at Angela and her eyes narrowed, "You put my customers and a large number of teenagers at risk?"

Angela shook her head, "I was one hundred percent certain that it wouldn't have any lasting effects on the subjects".

"It was a little morally corrupt though", Xander said icily, catching his long time friend unawares.

"I know and I'm sorry but I couldn't think of any other way to get a sample quickly", Angela protested, "we didn't know when the next threat would rise up".

"All right I think we could argue about this for hours", Trini called out, "but perhaps we should view the candidates for the morphers. I assume you've found some appropriate rangers".

The agency's chief scientist nodded and brought up the profile on her five proposed rangers. Immediately thought Aimi wasn't happy, "No no no no", she began as she pointed at the chosen pink ranger, "I forbid this".

"She's a good choice and you know it Aimi", Angela began, "she's already highly trained and would barely need a boost from the Turbo tech to get her ready to be a ranger".

Aimi's mouth flapped open and closed a few times but a reluctant nod from the rest of the group told her that they all agreed with Angela's assessment so she sat down in her chair in a huff.

"Are you sure about the blue ranger?" Trini asked, "I just don't see them as ranger material".

"They scored one of the highest on reactions, timing and critical thinking", Angela began, "I was surprised too when Billy gave me a quick background on this person but the numbers don't lie".

"Being a ranger isn't just about numbers on a chart", Trini replied, "you need to have the courage and confidence to go with it".

"They may surprise you", Angela protested.

Captain Mitchell moved between the two women to prevent a prolonged argument, "Perhaps we should let them decide for themselves". He then closed the briefcase and pulled out five manila folders, "You're first assignment it to track down the five chosen rangers and bring them to explain the situation". He dished out the folders to everyone in the room, he gave the blue one to Trini, the yellow to Aimi, the green to Xander and the pink one to Billy. He kept the red ranger to himself.

"With respect sir but don't you think that me or Xander should take the pink one?" Aimi asked.

"I don't think that's wise Aimi", Mitchell replied, "do you think that the revelation of what the two of you have been up to for the last few years is going to go down well?" For the second time in the last few minutes, Aimi had no immediate response to challenge to her opinion.

"Alright you all have your nominated ranger", Mitchell said to everyone, "according to Billy we have about three hours until Divatox breaks through into our universe".

Billy and Trini nodded and immediately used their old communicators to teleport away. The other two agents were about to do the same thing before they remembered, "We've left the communicators at home", Xander said as he slapped his head.

Aimi sighed before reaching into his jeans pockets and pulling out some keys, "Shotgun driving", she called out before running out of the conference room. Xander sprinted off after, much to the dismay and exasperation of Captain Mitchell.

A/N – Welcome to Fuel, my reworking of Power Rangers Turbo and story four of the Chronicles of Power series. I'll warn any fans of the Turbo season, you probably won't recognise too much in this story. That being said I hope everyone enjoys it. The introduction to the series takes place over three chapters so any initial questions about the new team should be answers by the end of chapter 3.