Forever Part of the Team
The rational side of Kimberly Hart kept wondering why she was making her way through the great mountain passages of an alien world. Here she was, a twice Olympic gold medalist and she now was passing through endless ice formed arches, dodging deadly black ice and roots, and falling ice rocks and pebbles in a cold, inhospitable, and foreign alien place. Why after all this time was she risking her life again?
Kimberly thought all of her days fighting weird alien monsters, sent by insane would be dictators, were over. But in the last forty-eight hours, she learned that was not the case. Once again, the galaxy and the Earth were in danger, and her life and the lives of her friends hung in the balance. Only this time she had been drawn back into that life. It was an incredible forty-eight hour period that had led her to Zordon's home planet of Eltar.
It all began in her dreams. Memories that replayed before her eyes but then came to life, they almost seemed to possess her. It would turn out they were not memories of times of old, but messages from the here and now. But when they first manifested themselves, Kimberly attempted to ignore them completely. She chalked it up to an unexplained question in her mind, one that would never be answered. Or maybe they were just bad dreams that refused to go away?
That was until Billy showed up at her door. He explained he had been having the exact same dreams, down to the last detail. In the dreams he saw himself in his blue uniform and she in her pink. Both of them being called, or rather summoned.
Billy told her he was going back to Angel Grove, back to where it all started and that he wanted her to come with him. Kimberly naturally refused. She had a life and responsibilities, to her family and husband. (Since her first Olympics, she had become quite popular and in demand in the sports world. She was not about to give that up.
Things did not end on a good note between them. Exasperated, Billy left but not before he told her that her first responsibility was to her friends, to the promise- the pact they made long ago when they were "teenagers with attitude." Teenagers in a big, big galaxy.
Kimberly told Billy to stop living in the past; that she wanted to forget what had happened to them - the monsters, the giant fighting robots, and especially all the battles. That was behind her, behind all of them. It never should have happened. They were children! And they fought a war. Wars were not for children.
Two days later, she received an out of the blue phone call from Trini, saying the exact same thing about the dreams, about being called. Kimberly did not want to have the same conversation with Trini and did not want to relive the same thing as she had with Billy. So she hung up the phone on her best friend from once upon a time. And she continued to try and put everything out of her mind.
Three days later, she woke in a cold sweat, her body seemingly electrified with power, a strength she had not felt since-since…and then it was gone. She was sick for a whole day after that. More visions flooded her mind and her sleep, literally with waking dreams. Visions filled with images of long ago- of battles, technology and magic. And there was the calling she could no longer deny.
She left as soon as she was better, leaving inextricably. Kimberly simply left a note that she needed to visit some old friends, just a two day holiday. She took an overnight bag and drove all the way to Angel Grove.
The small city had not changed much since she was a teenager. She didn't drive there to sight see. Instead she drove out of the city limits and into the desert, the seemingly endless desert.
New roads had been constructed to drive through, but halfway she stopped on the side of the road and got out of her car and walked out into the sand, beaten down with the hot sun. It seemed such a vast journey, she had run this trek of dead space once before, but she ignored her surroundings and kept walking until she came to a high mountain, and started to climb.
Reaching the summit, Kimberly's eyes met the decayed remains of a building that had been destroyed a long time ago. She remembered the five of them never could agree on a name for the place. Most of them just settled for calling it "The Command Center," while Billy came up with the lamest name of "The Power Dome." She remembered she mockingly put her finger down her throat when he first suggested it. Luckily she did it behind his back.
Now all that was left of it was twisted and rusted out girders, while weeds and other small creatures made the burned out hole their home. Zordon and everything he built was dead. Tumbleweed blew by as Kimberly said "dead" in her mind.
A bright flash of light blinded her next and the sound of massive rockets filled her ears. The bright flash caused her to turn her head in an attempt to shield her eyes. The entire area became illuminated. The light moved off her, allowing her vision to readjust. What she did not know was that the light was actually one of many search lights, and the search light belonged to a massive ship.
In an instant, the bright light was gone and the sounds of engines had been replaced with silence. She didn't know where she was at first, but her mind remembered what it felt like to be teleported. I'm aboard a spaceship, Kimberly said to herself.
"Greetings, Pink Ranger." Came a voice, she looked up and saw a man, younger than herself.
"Who are you?" Kimberly asked.
"I am Andros and you are aboard my ship."
A nauseating feeling came over Kimberley's stomach and began to grow. She started to breath heavily. No doubt it was the after effects of not being teleported for a very long time.
"And you have nothing to be afraid of, Kim," came the sound of a familiar voice. Two men entered the room.
"Tommy? Jason?" Kimberly said incredulously. Both of them were dressed in their old uniforms - Tommy in white and Jason in red.
A sudden surge of vomit erupted out of Kimberly, her stomach no longer able to contain its contents and bile. Everything faded to black after that.
"HART!" Yelled the booming voice of a deadly woman. Kimberly looked behind her on the path, hot air rising from her mouth in a sudden gasp. She heard it before she saw it and ducked. The large iced over tree on the path beside her exploded, ice chunks falling everywhere. The projectile that struck bounced back, flying like a boomerang and returned to its assassin.
"I'm coming for you, pink ranger!" Kimberly looked every which way, trying to locate her assailant. After all this time, she could not believe that creature was still alive.
"Scorpina!" Kimberly said to herself, using it as motivation to ward off her surprise and fear; instead using it to keep herself moving, to keep herself ahead and alive. How much longer she had until Scorpina caught up with her, before she could get her powers back, was the more pressing question.
Kimberly ran in a zigzag pattern, jumping down over small holes and down a small ice bank to get further way. She narrowly avoided twisting her ankle on a patch of black ice. "Stay close to the path! Stay close!" She yelled at herself. The sound of energy crackled in the air and once again, Scorpina's boomerang blade was in the air, looming ever closer to toward her. Kimberly somersaulted through the air as the blade came crashing down just feet behind her.
Kimberly landed on her feet hard, but the ground was cracking underneath her and the ground beneath her gave way, causing her to collapse down into the rubble of frozen ice rocks.
"Pink! I smell you!" Scorpina roared.
The voice was loud, but closer. Scorpina was gaining ground! And Kimberly had enough to worry about already. The creature was making it difficult enough to concentrate. And she needed to focus.
But Kimberly was not about to not give that Rita goon a fight. Dusting the dirt and pebbles off her jacket, Kim pulled off her bag and retrieved the one weapon she was glad to have brought along.
"Thank you, Jason, for talking some sense into me." Kimberly said to herself. She transformed the tool, moving the parts and it became the familiar blaster that she used to carry. She checked and found the cartridge charged, full and ready. Kimberly heard movement, turned and fired. It was just some more falling ice rocks. But at least the blaster worked.
Kimberly shoved the blaster into her pocket, climbed out of the small hole and made her way down the path faster and faster. Just keep going. Just keep going. Don't look back.
The path opened into a larger network of snowy hills that began to rise higher. She had no words to describe it. It wasn't like anything she had seen on Earth. It was like the buildup climbers would take as they were about to ascend a mountain like Mount Everest. The hills were naturally steep. She would need a rope to scale it.
Kimberly breathed hard, and listened, feeling for something, reaching out with her heart. A soft wind blew in the north east direction. That's where I have to go. She said to herself affirmatively. Kimberly picked up her pace, knowing she would have to climb and needed power and strength as she began ascending a hill that would connect her to her path. The importance of the path echoed in her mind. It was an important road that had been covered over by ice. At first she had walked for a day across a slope of ground that was easy to cross. But now she was rising up and she could look down and see the vastness of the mountain range she was hiking through.
"Hart!" Scorpina blasted. In one motion, Kimberly grabbed hold of her blaster, turned, went to one knee, and fired several shots down at her pursuer.
Scorpina threw her powerful blade above her at the rock face above Kimberly Hart. Kimberly dove out of the way of falling ice debris, firing three shots as she jumped. Boulders and ice chunks crashed down where she had been and down the hill. One of the blasts from Kimberly's gun neared Scorpina's heart, but she blocked it with her armored arm.
"Is that all you have powerless ranger?!" Scorpina mocked.
Kimberly responded with several more blasts from her gun.
"I will feed on your heart and drink your blood once I get my stinger into you, Hart!" Scorpina threatened.
"Better bitches than you have tried!" Kimberly shot back and fired a blast that caught Scorpina in the shoulder.
"You'll pay for that, powerless one!" Scorpina roared.
"Try entering a gymnastics completion, you evil bitch!" Kimberly fired more blasts as she ran up the path, hot air escaped her mouth and sweat began to build on her forehead, under her climbing hat, inside her gloves and on the wrists of her jacket.
Kimberly heard a great yell of effort and then strong legs landing behind her. Crap! I made her mad Kimberly cursed. Scorpina charged with her blade, Kimberly turned and fired her weapon at Scorpina. Next she ran and barrel rolled past Scorpina as she swung her blade, missing Kimberly and burying it into the ice wall.
Kimberly jumped up, and transformed the gun back into its sword mode and extended the blade.
Scorpina pulled her sword blade out and swung it around, trying to take off Kimberly's head.
Kimberly ducked and moved to stab Scorpina, but she quickly blocked the strike. Kimberly ducked again as Scorpina brought the blade back left. Kimberly grabbed and blocked Scorpina's arm to prevent her sword arm from swinging back. She punched Scorpina in the face with the butt of her sword, breaking the creature's nose, and causing her helmet to fall off.
Kimberly stood ready, the blade diagonal to her left forearm while, while the base of the weapon hovered in front of the palm of her right hand. Her muscles tensed. She moved to attack Scorpina again, but the creature moved out of her way. Kimberly somersaulted and turned, ready for another attack.
The two stood for a moment, sizing one another up. Kimberly had only seen Scorpina in battle. To see her now without her helmet was truly horrifying. To see what a life of service of evil had done to her, to see what kind of a humanoid hybrid Scorpina truly was. Her head was a mixture of hair and hardened protective scorpion like skin. It was horrifying to look at.
What are you doing, Hart!? You have no powers! Kimberly yelled to herself. Kimberly switched her blade back into its blaster mode and fired a succession of blasts as she retreated and ran.
"Run you coward!" Scorpina roared. Kimberly ran, sliding down a hill, running as fast as her feet would carry her. Little good that would do against an alien being that could jump great distances, said a nagging doubt that began to creep into Kimberly's brain.
"You will DIE powerless ranger!" Scorpina's super charged her blade weapon and with great strength hurled it into the air toward the ground Kimberly was running on. The ground exploded around Kimberly, ice dust and pebbles flew up into her eyes and the bed rock underneath weakened, caved and crumbled. Kimberly felt the ground give way, felt the security of the hard surface leave her feet, and she began to fall. Fall powerlessly and screaming into darkness.