Hey beautiful people :). Welcome to 'Powerless', the point-of-view story for Aaron, the first Aqua Ranger. The story of how Aaron lost his powers can be found in 'Divided We Fall'. As for the continuity references (and if you look closely, you'll find references to Ninja Storm and Overdrive as well)... my series doesn't quite follow the show's continuity. Everything still happened, the same way it happened on the show... it's just the timeline is different, with things happening in a different order, and sometimes all at once (with the MMPR team being involved). My advice to budding authors is simple – don't let continuity get in the way of telling a really awesome story. If you've got a great idea – go nuts with it, and have fun. That's the important part.
The story takes place about 5 years after the events of 'The New Team', which means the Junior Team are all about 16 or so. So they're a bit more mature. And just recently, they survived the MMPR/Zeo jump. Now that I've thoroughly confused everybody... enjoy!
Chapter One
Becoming a Power Ranger was one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Losing my powers? That one ranks considerably lower.
When I was eleven, I was chosen alongside four of my best friends by an interdimensional sage named Zordon to become a superhero, and battle the forces of evil. I was so excited. But a short time later, my Power Coin was destroyed, and I was left powerless. The team survived, though. To this day, there are still twelve Rangers defending the Earth from all kinds of alien and demonic threats, and they're all pretty good at what they do. In the meantime, Aaron Gee became the ex-Aqua Ranger, and my family moved away. Yeah, that was not a good month.
I think my biggest fear was that my friends would move on and forget about me. I read the newspapers and see them on TV all the time, doing some pretty amazing things. But I should've trusted them. Whenever they're up north visiting Blue Bay Harbour or Springfield, they always stop by to pass on the news. Every six months, my family holidays back down on the coast, and I always look forward to catching up with them, to see what's changed and hear about their latest fleet of giant robots. But trouble seems to follow the Rangers around, and whenever we hang out, I somehow always get swept up into crazy Ranger business.
Like today.
It's late December. Christmas is only a few days away. I'd been spending time with Peter and Teresa, the Orange and White Rangers respectively, when Zordon had called them into action. Pete's the team leader, tall and inspiring, and I think he still feels bad about what happened to me all those years ago. Teresa is fierce and kind, the big sister I never had, and I knew this was her favourite time of the year. The mission was to stop a monster from disrupting the Earth's magnetic north pole, and I'd gone with the Rangers as they'd teleported into the Arctic. But once the day had been saved, we found that our communicators had been fried by stray magnetic pulses, so we headed back towards civilisation and found ourselves in Bodø, a city perched on the windswept coast overlooking the Norwegian Sea.
There was a heavy layer of thick white snow over the city streets, and I turned up my collar to keep out the wind as Peter and Teresa stepped down from the city's railway station and made their way towards me. Waiting on the street, I realised how close the two of them had become, a lot closer than I remembered from my last trip. Maybe they'd finally figured out what the rest of us had known all along?
Teresa nodded to my wrist as they approached. "Communicator still not working?" she asked.
I shook my head. "Zordon did say we'd have trouble this close to the North Pole," I said. "And I'll bet neither the monster nor the snow-storm this morning helped much. What about the trains?"
"The next train south doesn't leave until tomorrow morning," Peter replied. If there was one thing Pete knew, it was trains. I loved him for it. "We missed it by an hour," and he tapped the communicator under his thick orange coat. "By the time we hit Oslo, I think we'll be right. But either way we're stuck here until the morning. No zords and no Command Centre."
"Sounds like a nice holiday," I said.
"So," Teresa began, "how do we kill time in Norway at Christmas?"
"I'm thinking some hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire," Pete replied.
With that, we turned and headed back towards the city centre. Bodø had all the features of a large city, but was actually quite compact. Everything was only a short walk away from everything else, which would definitely help us find a place to stay for the night. It was dark out, and the sky high above was a deep midnight blue. I kept thinking it was later than it was, forgetting that the sun had set this afternoon at about one o'clock. Checking my watch, it was only three thirty. Regardless, the city around us was lit up as its residents shopped, dined and celebrated the holiday. On all sides were families walking together and children holding hands. Thick coats and colourful scarves protected everyone from the cold.
A biting breeze swept in off the ocean as we walked, slicing us to the bone.
"That wind has some kick to it," Teresa said, her teeth chattering.
"We're still north of the Arctic Circle, aren't we?" I asked.
"Before we left, I read that it's usually not that cold in Bodø this time of year," Pete said. "Traditionally at Christmas, it rains more than it snows."
"They must've turned it on just for us," Teresa said.
"It's probably cold to us because we grew up in Australia," I said. I get that snow is a nightmare for people who have to deal with it everyday, but for those of us from the tropics, snow is as much a fantasy as aliens and giant robots, and I've always thought it was the most wonderful thing.
Reaching the main street, we gazed along the rows of glowing neon signs. "I hope you guys didn't forget to pack your universal translators," I said.
"I have so many pockets," Teresa began, indicating her jacket, "I don't think I'd be able to find it even if we did."
Peter smiled, and pointed to a small café a few doors down the road. One side of the menu board was written in English. "I think that'd be a good place to start."
"Good spotting," Teresa said.
"I always come through on the first date," Peter replied. "Second date's on you."
"A second date, eh? That's wishful thinking."
"Always plan ahead."
I stepped between them. "Save it for the mistletoe," I said, and they laughed. Offering my arms, the three of us linked up, and side-by-side, we stepped off the street and into the restaurant.
The café had a modern bar and an espresso machine that looked like it had been designed by NASA, with an eclectic mix of new and old furniture scattered around the room. Full of customers, the restaurant was busy and warm, a wonderful retreat from the wind outside. After we hung our coats by the door, the waitress ushered us over to a pair of worn couches looking out over the street. Paying for our drinks, I returned to Peter and Teresa, finding them curled up together on one of the couches, with Teresa resting her head on Pete's shoulder.
I slid the drinks onto the table and took a sip from mine. It was soft and velvety, and I felt warmth returning to my face and hands.
"Any good?" Pete asked.
"Brilliant," I replied, and turned to Teresa. "I remembered you like extra marshmallows. Honestly, I'd have thought you'd want to get home as soon as possible."
"The others can handle the world-saving for the moment," Teresa said, reaching for her mug. "We get holidays so rarely. Plus this is the closest we're likely to get to a white Christmas. It's nice." But glancing out the window to the crowd of Christmas shoppers, her face fell.
"What's wrong?" Pete asked.
Teresa pointed to a couple of people standing on the street. "Pete, is that who I think it is?" she asked.
We both turned to look. Out on the street were a young man and woman about the same age as the three of us, both rugged up against the cold and carrying large backpacks. Walking side-by-side, their arms and hands were intertwined, the picture of a young couple in love. The woman was wearing so many layers that it looked like if she tripped, she'd roll down the street. She had dark curly hair and thick glasses, with a warm, crooked smile. The man was taller and solidly built. Even through his clothes, I could tell from the way he moved that he was a fighter. Wearing a black coat with a white beanie, he had short blond hair and heavy-set features.
I turned to Pete as recognition flashed across his face. "It is too," he said, and I could hear the excitement in his voice. "That's Dominic and Fran!"
"I'll go get them," Teresa said, and dashed outside.
"Who are Dominic and Fran?" I asked.
"You wouldn't have met them," Pete explained. "Dominic is the White Rhino Ranger. We all fought DaiShi a few months back."
"Oh. Yeah, I heard all about that through the Ranger grape-vine," I said. "It was that Jungle Fury business last year, wasn't it?"
Pete nodded. "Once everything was sorted out, Dominic and Fran left to go backpack around Europe. I guess they're still here."
Outside, we watched as Teresa greeted the two backpackers. They both hugged Teresa excitedly, before following her back into the café. Seeing Pete, Dominic's face lit up, and Pete climbed to his feet to greet them both.
"It's great to see you guys!" Pete said, as everyone squeezed onto the couches.
Fran turned to me. "But who's your friend?"
"This is Aaron, the first Aqua Ranger," Teresa replied.
Dominic's eyes grew wide. "Aaron?" he repeated, then shook my hand. "Whoa. We've heard a lot about you."
"My time as a Ranger was pretty short," I smiled.
"But well-remembered," Dom said.
"So what are you all doing in Norway?" Fran asked.
"We were on a mission," Pete replied. "But being this close to the North Pole is messing with your communicators so we're stuck here until the morning."
"How's everyone back in Ocean Bluff?" Teresa asked.
"We check in a couple of times a week," Dom began. "The pizzeria is doing great. Casey splits his time between helping RJ with the restaurant, and teaching at the academy. Jarrod's lion-style classes are pretty popular, and he and Camille are doing okay too."
"I'm glad that worked out," Peter said.
"Lily and Theo?" Teresa asked.
Fran lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Just taking their time to figure things out," she replied. "But RJ says it's going well."
I couldn't help but glance over to Pete and Teresa with a wry smile. "Sometimes it takes a while," I said. "So how's Europe been treating you?"
"Amazing," Fran grinned. "We started in Istanbul, then made our way west through Italy, Spain and France. There are so many incredible places that I've only ever read about, and now I'm actually seeing them. It's hard to get used to."
"We recently spent a month in England, and then travelled through Scotland and Ireland," Dominic continued. "But we've been working our way north ever since, since I've got family in Moscow and I wanted them to meet Fran." He paused as Fran blushed. "We decided to come west through Finland and Norway, and here we are."
Fran turned to me. "So do you often come with the Rangers when they have to do something crazy and incredible?" she asked.
"Back home I live up north," I said, "so I only get to thwart one or two alien invasions a year. It's terrible. But my family always visits for the holidays, and I was hanging out with Peter and Teresa when Zordon called."
"We weren't gonna leave him behind," Peter added. "And Aaron usually doesn't give us much of a choice."
"It's not like I do anything anyway," I said. "They always leave me holding the fort while they go do all the punching."
Fran nodded. "I know what you mean," she said. "Dom and I stumbled onto a gang of art thieves while we were in Paris."
"What happened?" Teresa asked.
"Dom took care of it," Fran replied.
Dom grinned. "It was my first solo mission. I was so proud."
I saw Fran's face fall and instinctively knew why. But nobody else noticed. "Did anything specific bring you to Bodø?" I asked quickly.
Fran immediately bounced back. "There was a massive rock-slide in a valley just on the other side of Bodø back before the second world war. Half a mountain came down, but nobody knows why. It flattened a whole village, although most everybody escaped."
"I think we're a bit late to help the survivors," I said.
Fran giggled. "No silly. But local archaeologists recently found caves full of Viking weapons and treasures that had been hidden thanks to the avalanche. They're displaying it all in the Nordlands Museum here in Bodø. It thought it would be interesting."
"That does sound cool," Peter said. I had to take a drink of hot chocolate to hide my smile. Always the history student.
Teresa glanced over to the clock above the bar. "We still have time to go check it out. It's only four o'clock."
"I say let's go and make a night of it," I said.
Fran looked around excitedly. "We can go? Great!" and finishing our hot chocolate, we grabbed our scarves and coats, and headed outside.
In a dark mountain cave high above Bodø, littered with the bones of birds and animals who'd strayed too close, figures darted through the shadows, the light from burning torches flickering off their blue skin.
"My liege! My prince! We've found it!" came an urgent voice.
"You can't be serious."
"Absolutely we are! The eye was dug out of the ground by mortals only a week ago, and…"
"You're only reporting back to me now, Melkor?"
"Yes, um, well, we wanted to make sure!"
A third voice echoed out of the shadows. "Oh I'm sure you did."
"Enough insolence, Tomar. Let Melkor speak."
"The eye is in a building called a museum, prince Antimus. It seems to be a place where humans keep old things that have sentimental value. I don't understand it myself."
"This pleases your prince greatly. Tomar, go and tell Chakrin of our discovery! This may even break him from his vow of silence. Tonight we reclaim the eye, and this pathetic world will be ours!"
To be continued.