Chapter One: Transformation Part I: Lost
The sun is high in the sky as the dry, hot winds of desert reshaped the scorched landscape. It is the middle of the day and the desert heat peaked. The only thing that could be seen for miles is a lone figure, dressed in red, walking. This person seemed to be of a medium complexion and stood at about 5'10". He had a look of exhaustion painted on his face and he seemed to be drenched in sweat as he wandered through the desert. Upon closer inspection, this person is the person known as James.
'This heat is unbearable and I do not know how long I can last out here.' James thought as he stopped and panted. 'How did I get here? What happened?'
James' mind begins to traverse through his short term memory to try to figure out how he actually got into this situation. He begins to have flashes of a battle and destruction. He sees five flashes of light and remembers fire.
'I wasn't here.' James thought. 'I was somewhere else. Somewhere that is different than this. I remember that there were more people and we were doing something very important. Dammit why can't I remember anything more than that?'
As he tries to remember more, the scorching heat plus walking most of the early morning exhausts him. Thinking has become too much of a task as well as standing. James collapses onto the hot sand and begins to feel the effects of heat stroke.
'I cannot believe that this is the end for me. I want to stay longer and try to figure this out but I am tired, hungry and thirsty. I can't have only been sent here to just die; I have to have some other purpose. ' James said as he started to close his eyes. 'I only wish I knew what I was doing here. I only wish that I knew my true purpose for being here.'
Before he passed out, he felt a familiar feeling over take him. He started feel his body begin to change. He felt his body begin to transform from a physical state to that of energy. He felt the hot sands beneath him disappear as his body disappeared. He knew he was being teleported before he passed out.
"James…" A male voice said. "James… are you okay?"
James began to groan as his mental facilities began to start anew. He slowly opened his eyes as a blurry figure stood before him. He blinked furiously as he regained consciousness and awareness. Soon the blurry figure came into clear view and he discovered that Justin was standing there.
"James, are you okay?" Justin reiterated.
"Justin!" James exclaimed groggily.
"Yes, it is me." Justin said giving James an odd look.
"Where am I?" James asked.
"You are at the Base of Operations in which the metamorphosis from Homo Sapiens to Superhuman energized beings of enforced authority occurs."
"What?" James asked.
"Was I unclear in my previous statement?" Justin asked with a frown.
"Never mind, what is going on here?" James asked.
"Well, we lost track of you when you were fighting Inferno." Justin began.
"What, who is Inferno?" James said confused.
"That was the newest threat which threatened the city of Manhattan." Justin replied. "It was lucky that we were able to acquire your approximate geographical location or else your biological osmotic functions would've been disrupted due to the lack of Dihydrogen Oxide atoms present in your body."
"Justin, what are you talking about?" James asked with confusion still apparent.
"What Justin is saying is that you would've died of dehydration if we had not found you." Keri said as she appeared from another part of the building.
"Keri!" James said. "What is going on here?"
"I do not understand why James keeps on asking that." Justin said. "I thought I just explicated the circumstances which have led him to arriving at this juncture."
"Keri, why is Justin talking like that and again what is going on here?" James asked.
"Well, Justin has always talked like that and you were transported by a monster named by Inferno to a desert." Keri said.
"I don't remember any of that." James said. "I remember a battle and us winning and needing something."
"In your narrative, you mentioned the plural. Whom were you indicating with such avowal?" Justin asked.
"What?" James asked.
"When you said 'us', who were you talking about?" Keri asked.
"Oh, you, me, Justin, Phil, Mike, and Wendy." James listed. "Why?"
"Who are Wendy and Phil?" Justin asked.
"What do you mean who are Wendy and Phil?" James said incredulously. "They are our friends."
"We don't know a Wendy or a Phil." Keri said.
"Well, we are all Rangers together." James said.
"That is impossible." Justin said.
"Why?" James asked.
"…because, you're the only one that is a Power Ranger." Keri said. "There is only one Power Ranger and that is you."
"What?" James exclaimed.
"Yes, you are the only individual imbibed with the power to transform into a Power Ranger." Keri replied.
'What the hell is going on here?' James thought.
Meanwhile…
The room is dark and devoid of most light sources. The only source of illumination in this room appears to be was an electronic clock. This clock sits on a small dresser next to a small lamp. The clock reads, '7:00 a.m.' on its face. There is a bed adjacent to this small dresser and it has a lump in the middle of it. The bed is dressed in inky black blankets and sheets. The lump appeared to be a person sleeping soundly through the morning. The room all around appeared to have an odd amount of black assortments and decorations adorned. Suddenly, there is a noise which echoes throughout the dark room.
"Michael, it's time to get up!" A female voice yelled. "You've got to go to school this morning!"
"No mom it's summer; remember?" Mike replied groggily. "We're finished with school for this year."
"No it's not and I swear to god if this is another joke…." His mother said from the doorway.
"No it's not." Mike said. "We already went through finals week and everything. I am just waiting for my grades and have time to chill."
"Michael!" His mother yelled. "I know you have school today because it is only March, so get up now and get ready. I am not telling you again!"
"Alright... alright, I am up." Mike said.
His mother moved from the doorway when she saw Mike rise to an upright position. She proceeded to go down the hall and wake up his brother.
"I could swear that it is the middle of June." Michael said. "We already had finals and are done with school for the semester.
Mike got up from his bed and looked at his clock. He moved over to the other side of the room and looked at his wall calendar. He saw that the date is March 27th 2009. He kept looking at the calendar to make sure that is correct.
"Well I guess my mother is right." Mike said to himself. "I still could swear that it's already summer.
Michael appears to be deep in thought as he begins his morning ritual. He gets his clothes out of his closet and lays them out on the bed. He goes to the bathroom, takes a shower and brushes his teeth. He comes back to his room and begins to get changed. He looks around at his room until he sees something on his other dresser. He sees his cell phone colored black. He suddenly has flashes of battles and of the Power Rangers. He remembers before his mother woke him up dreaming of being apart of the Power Rangers and saving the Earth. He wants to shrug it off but the images are so clear and vivid that it weighs down on his mind.
'Was that all just a dream? Did I just imagine everything that I saw?' Mike thought as he finished his morning rituals. 'Could if even be possible for me and my friends to really be Power Rangers? Did we fight against Blackborg and defeat him? This all seems too farfetched to be true, but the images are just so vivid and detailed. Can dreams be so clear? Could this all be possible?"
Mike continued to question this vivid dream as he finished getting ready. Once he was done, his brother appeared at his door.
"Are you ready to go Bro?" James asked as he stood in Mike's doorway. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing" Mike said as he grabbed his backpack. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" James said as he frowned at his brother.
"Yea, let's go." Mike said as he smiled at his brother and headed out. 'There is no way that we could've been Power Rangers; it's impossible. It had to have been a dream."
Mike and his Brother waited outside until Justin arrived in his Jeep. In the car already were Wendy and Phil. Mike opened the door and got in along with James.
"What's up guys?" Mike asked.
"Nothing much" Phil said.
"Same here can't believe we gotta go to school." Justin said.
"I thought you loved school brainiac." Mike chuckled.
"No, what are you talking about." Justin asked as they started driving.
"Yea, Justin's not a genius." Wendy said. "He is barely pulling C's here."
"You know, it's not nice to talk about someone who is sitting right here." Justin said. "And who is also your main ride to school."
"Well it's true." Wendy said.
"In any case, what happened to Keri?" Mike asked.
"Who?" Phil asked.
"Keri" Mike said.
"Oh, I think he is talking about that loser that sits by herself during lunch." Wendy said.
"Oh that girl…" Phil said. "Hahaha, she actually thought she had a chance when she asked me out last week."
"Hahaha" The group laughed.
"Wait, I thought that we're friends." Mike asked.
The group laughed again.
"Listen to Mike, always the jokester." Phil said.
"Yea, man you crack us up." James said.
"We're here guys." Justin said snickering.
'What is going on here?' Mike thought.
Elsewhere…
The sky was dark with deep gray colored clouds. Flashes of light blinked every so as crimson red lightning struck the deformed landscape. The air was thick with the smog of destruction which weighed heavily on the lungs of those that breathed it in. The area looked in shambles as if this place has only ever known is violence and destruction. A person was lying in the midst of this horror. This person appeared to be female and was dressed in a golden uniform which shimmered in the flashes of crimson lightning. The golden armor this person wore bore a striking resemblance to the gold Omega Ranger costume. Suddenly this figure began to move. Her movements were slow and looked as though she were regaining conscious. She began to groan as her eyes flickered opened. Beyond the helmet, one could identify this person as Keri
"Ugh… What happened? What is going on? I feel like I have been hit by an 18 wheeler that decided to pull in reverse and run me over again." Keri said as she woke up. "What is this? How did I get my powers back? That's impossible. I thought I lost these powers when the animal spirits were captured."
Keri looked down, stunned at the sight of her uniform and the power that she had return to her. She managed to rip her eyes away from her uniform and gasped in shock as she looked at the site before her. She saw the devastation of the ravaged planet around her and could not believe this to be real. It looked like Armageddon had taken place on the planet and she was the only things that appeared untouched by destruction.
"Hmm, if I have my powers I wonder if I still have my telepathic abilities." Keri asked to herself.
Keri closed her eyes and brought her gloved fingers to the temples of her helmet. She starts to concentrate as she tried to release her mind into the mindscape. After several minutes of intense concentration, she gave up. She soon started to contemplate the situation that she seemed to be in.
"How could this have happened? Before I blacked out, the world was alright; everything was normal." Keri asked as she started to walk around. "I thought that the defeat of Blackborg would've set things back to normal and would prevent the end of the world. Those figures in sky, they must've been responsible for this widespread destruction. But I thought those glowing orbs were going to help us defeat that new power. What happened?"
Then, as if to answer her question, a newspaper tumbled along in the breeze and hit Keri in the back of her leg. Keri picked up the newspaper and smoothed it out.
"Well that is pretty random..." Keri said. "…a newspaper just tumbling around here in the midst of this chaos."
She began to read the newsprint and her eyes widened.
"No" Keri said softly as tears rolled down her eyes. "This can't be true… it just can't be…"
Keri threw the paper to the ground and backed away slowly. The paper flattened on the ground and the headline of the newspaper read: "Earth Conquered While Power Rangers Die in Wake of Evil Rangers." At the bottom of the page, was a picture of six Power Rangers. They each appeared to be wearing a darker, more distorted form of the Omega uniforms. At the forefront of these rangers is the Gold Ranger; Keri.
"Yes it is true Keri." A voice said.
"What?" Keri said as she looked up. "Oh no"
The five distorted rangers were standing in front of her. They walked slowly towards her while talking. Keri was shaking as she was paralyzed in place.
"This is who you are Keri." The Red Ranger said.
"No, I am nothing like what this is." Keri said. "I just… can't be."
"You are Keri." The Blue Ranger said. "Your nature has been and will always be that of evil."
"No!" Keri yelled. "You don't even know me!"
"But we do, in fact you showed us the way." The Pink Ranger said.
"What are you talking about?" Keri asked. "Who are you?"
"Don't you remember us… me?" The Green Ranger asked stepping forward.
"What… no" Keri said softly.
"Let's show her guys." The Crimson said.
"Power Down" The Rangers yelled.
Keri's eyes widened with shock as the glow of energy scattered from the rangers. Standing before Keri were James, Mike, Wendy, Justin, and Phil. They looked dramatically different than they used to. The colors they are wearing are a darker hue than they normally are. Their eyes appear to have lost the distinguishing characteristics that made each ranger unique; James' courage, Wendy's compassion, Mike's lightheartedness, Justin's curiosity and Phil's selflessness. They seemed to be shells of the people they once were. The only thing Keri could see now from them all is coldness, indifference, cruelty, arrogance and pride.
"No, you guys… this can't be." Keri said sadly.
"Yes, you showed us the way." Phil said as he pulled her into his arms. "Now it is time to embrace your destiny."
Meanwhile…
The bright morning sun peaked through the open shades of a window of a laboratory. The walls of the lab were painted in a bright blue which filtered the incoming light to a degree. The lab floor and tables were a mess with gadgets and gizmos splayed everywhere. There were chalkboards and whiteboards all over filled with equations and formulas of advanced mathematics and physics. Amidst this mess was a person in a deep blue lab coat. He was dark skinned, clearly of African descent. He appeared to be resting comfortably on a desk which was covered with papers and forms. The person shifted a bit as the morning sun touched his face.
"Justin! Justin! Come quick!" A woman said loudly.
"Huh? Oh Wendy, where am I?" Justin asked confused.
"Ah, you fell asleep in the lab again didn't you?" Wendy said as she moved some papers.
"Again?" Justin asked. "Weren't we just…"
"Just what?" Wendy asked.
"I could've sworn that we were just wrapping up the battle of our lives." Justin replied.
"You must've been dreaming." Wendy said.
"But, it felt so real." Justin said. "We were all Power Rangers, fighting against Blackborg and then something happened."
"Are you okay Justin?" Wendy asked. "You seem flushed and you have been working long hours."
"I feel fine, but I can't seem to remember what is going on." Justin said. "All I keep thinking of is this dream of Power Rangers and…"
"Oh that reminds me, your most recent project is completed." Wendy said. "We finished our final test this morning and they are fully operational."
"What is fully operational?" Justin asked.
"What do you mean…" Wendy looked for a moment then smiled. "Oh you're such a kidder, now come on let's go."
Wendy grabbed Justin's sleeve and dragged him out of the lab.
"Wendy, I still do not understand the meaning of this." Justin said stopping her. "What is all of this?"
"Phil, Keri and Mike have finally finished applying the programs to your schematics…" Wendy began.
"Wait, slow down…" Justin said cutting Wendy off. "Phil, Keri, and Mike are here. Hold on, you have been working on programs and schematics of my design? Not to sound arrogant or egotistical, but how did you understand them? You guys could barely make heads or tails my lab notes when we took science classes together."
"Are you kidding?" Wendy laughed. "Everybody understands them."
"How?" Justin asked.
"Well you started the formulas with simple algorithms which gave us the foundation…" Wendy began.
"Wait, how do you know all of these things?" Justin asked.
"Justin you are just too funny today." Wendy said laughing. "Now come on."
"Oh my goodness!" Justin exclaimed.
Wendy opened the double doors which led to another bigger lab and before him stood six robotic Omega Rangers. They portrayed the every last detail of the Omega Rangers down to their Omega Weapons.
"That's us!" Justin exclaimed.
"No, these are the robot rangers that you developed." Phil said giving Wendy a strange look.
"I can't believe this…" Justin said to himself in amazement.
Justin moved around the Robot Rangers investigating every aspect of them. Mike, Wendy, Keri, and Phil looked at with confusion. They looked back each other wondering what is going on.
"Justin, are you feeling alright?" Keri said as she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"…Oh yea, sorry I just can't believe they are done." Justin said snapping back to reality.
"Yea, we've all been working so hard on this for so long." Mike said.
'I have no idea what is going on here, but I am going to figure it out.' Justin thought.
"Yea, I can't wait until we can give them a test run." Phil said.
"Well it looks like we might get our chance." Keri said. "There is a monster attacking downtown."
"Alright activating Omega protocol" Wendy said. "Justin imput command"
"What?" Justin asked.
"Imput verbal command component into the system to activate the robot rangers" Wendy said.
"Oh right, umm Red Cheetah, Blue Hawk, Crimson Wolf, Gold Sphinx, Green Bear, and Pink Deer, Omega, Delta, Chimera." Justin said.
"Voice confirmed: Dr. Justin Allen. Imput Command: Confirmed." The computer stated. "Activate Omega Ranger software 2.0."
Suddenly, the lifeless ranger uniforms began to move and gears began to whir to life. Each helmet illuminated to life with each representative color.
"Ranger Red, downloading danger parameters" The robotic Red Ranger said. "Danger confirmed; Rangers teleporting to lower Manhattan."
Upon its words, the Rangers were engulfed in light that was familiar to only one person there. Justin looked at them in astonishment.
Elsewhere…
The class was sitting through another boring lecture from the English teacher. She was talking about conjugation and verb components. If one were to look at the class they would see some students staring off into space, others texting on their cell phones to other people, and then there the few who could resist the warm embrace of slumber. One such person was a dark haired, Hispanic girl. This girl was dressed in a pink top, tight jeans, and pink sneakers. She was lightly snoring as the teacher attempted to teach the children. The girl began to stir until,
"Wendy!" The teacher yelled. "Am I disturbing you?"
"Huh, what?" Wendy said as she bolted upright.
"What indeed. Were you awake at any point during this lesson?" The teacher asked.
"Where am I?" Wendy asked.
"That is not cute, not stop fooling around and pay attention." The teacher scolded. "Now, when constructing a sentence…"
'What the heck is going on here?' Wendy thought.
Wendy looked around the room and saw a very familiar classroom. It all looks like the English classroom that her and other rangers had together.
'This isn't right, summer just began.' Wendy thought. 'Maybe one of the guys has a clue.'
Suddenly, the bell rang indicating the end of class. The teacher dismissed her students as they all got up and filed out of the room. Wendy got and grabbed her backpack. She looked around at the students to try and find her friends. She thought that they must've left and proceeded to look for her friends at their lockers. She went to all of them and they were not there. She tried to think of where they could be and the only other place which they could be and rushed to the lunchroom. When she got there, she could not believe what she saw. She looked over the room and in the midst of the nerd table was a boy wearing mostly blue and she knew to be Justin. Over a bit more were a couple of boys in mostly red and crimson sitting at the jock table which whom she knew to be James and Mike. Over a bit more was a boy dressed in all green sitting at what appeared to be a Hip-Hop table whom she knew was Phil. Over further was a girl wearing mostly dark gold and black and appeared to be sitting with the "emo" kids and she knew this person to be Keri. The nerd table being the closest, Wendy went over there to talk to Justin.
"Hey Justin, Why are you sitting with the others?" Wendy asked.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Justin asked.
"Justin, it's me Wendy." Wendy replied. "Remember"
"Oh you're that girl in my History class and English I think." Justin said as he thought for a moment. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to know why you aren't sitting with the others." Wendy asked.
"What others?" Justin asked impatiently.
"The others: Mike, Phil, James, Keri, you know." Wendy said returning the impatient tone.
"Why would I ever sit with the two Neanderthal jock brothers, the hip-hop wannabe and the dark and gloomy one?" Justin asked. "I am more intelligent than all of those people combined and I get enough mental stimulation here. So if that is all you want, then you may go."
"Fine" Wendy said angrily as she moved over the jock table.
Wendy angrily walked away from the nerd table and strode over to the jock table. She saw the group of guys laughing loudly about some sports story or something. Wendy walked over to Mike and James.
"Hey guys." Wendy said brightly.
"Hello beautiful." Mike said.
"Hey" James said.
"So what's up with Justin and the other guys?" Wendy asked.
"Why should we care about some nerd?" Mike asked.
"And what others are you talking about?" James asked.
"Not you guys too." Wendy said.
"What are you talking about girl?" Mike asked. "Sit down with us and chill out."
"No, I think that I am going to head out, I'm not feeling too well." Wendy said as she started to walk.
"You need someone to go with you gorgeous?" Mike asked.
"No thank you." Wendy said as she walked away.
"I don't know what you see in her bro, she ain't even all that fine anyway." James said as Wendy walked away.
Wendy walked quickly as tears flushed her eyes. She ran out of the cafeteria and kept running until she got to the girls bathroom. She started to cry.
"Wendy, are you alright?" A girl asked.
"Judy, everything is all wrong!" Wendy exclaimed.
"What do you mean? What happened?" Judy asked.
"They all acted like they didn't even know me and James…" Wendy began.
"Whoa wait a minute, who doesn't you and what did James do now?" Judy said.
"Justin treated me like I was a nobody; Mike and James acted like I was nothing. I was too upset to even find out what Phil and Keri thought of me." Wendy sobbed.
"Well of course they did, you don't hang out with any of them." Judy said.
"What do you mean, we're all best friends." Wendy said.
"No you guys aren't, they are all into their own thing." Judy said. "You guys have never been friends."
"What?" Wendy said.
"Yea, they're all into their own thing and you're into yours." Judy said as she hugged her cousin.
'It can't be true… it just can't be.' Wendy thought.
Elsewhere…
"And that is what we now need to do in order to defeat Blackborg." Justin said. "Phil… Phil are you okay?"
"Huh, what?" Phil said snapping back to reality.
"Justin was just going over a new strategy to defeat Blackborg." James said.
"Whoa! When did the Power Chamber get fixed?" Phil asked in shock.
"It's always been this way." Mike said.
"Are you okay honey?" Keri asked.
"I think so, didn't the Power Chamber get destroyed." Phil asked.
"No, it's been damaged here and there, but it hasn't been destroyed." Wendy said.
"I thought it was destroyed the day we defeated Blackborg." Phil said confused.
"We haven't defeated Blackborg yet." Keri said. "He's still attacking us."
"General Andromeda and General Vargas are attacking upper Manhattan." The computer said.
"Alright guys, its morphing time!" James said as the Rangers dialed 258 in their morphers.
The rangers teleported to upper Manhattan. General Vargas and Andromeda were terrorizing citizens along with around 10 Blackhearts. The rangers arrived quickly on the scene.
"Okay, Phil you can take care of Andromeda and Vargas, the rest of us will take care of the Blackhearts." James said. "Got it?"
"Got it" The Rangers said.
"What?" Phil yelled.
"Better get in there." Justin said as Andromeda and Vargas ran at him.
Phil ducked down to avoid Vargas' sword and managed to sweep kick him. However, he screamed in pain as whip slashed him across his back. He tried to recover but Vargas kicked him in the side. Andromeda transformed her whip into a sword as both her and Vargas brought their swords down. Phil managed to block both attacks with his Omega Staff.
"Wow this is retro." Phil said as he held off the attack. "Guys a little…"
He looked over he saw the blackhearts were down and the other Rangers were gone. In that split second of him looking, both Vargas and Andromeda power kicked in the chest. Phil went flying back into a building. Both Vargas and Andromeda charged up their swords and unleashed their attacks. Both attacks hit Phil dead center in his chest and instantly demorphed.
"Goodbye ranger." Vargas said.
"Some friends you've got." Andromeda said. "At least you won't have to protect them anymore.
Phil tried to get up but soon the world went dark.
Back on Earth…
"Zordon, I am concerned about the Rangers." Alpha 9 said as he handled more advanced circuitry.
"I am not." Zordon said.
"What?" Alpha 9 exclaimed.
"I am not, because they will come back with the power to defeat this new evil." Zordon said. "If I am correct, they are being tested by powers so ancient and primal; they were here at the very creation of this universe."
"What if they fail?" Alpha 9 asked.
"These teenagers were chosen by the animal spirits for their individual personalities and all of their capabilities. They will triumph." Zordon said. "Now we must keep working quickly, for we must be ready for their return and to protect this planet from its newest threat."
In Space, still with Earth orbit…
"Why haven't we attacked that pitiful mudball?" A voice said.
"Patience, we have just been released by that Red Ranger." Another voice said. "Our powers are not at their best."
"But the Rangers are no longer on Earth; there is nothing left to protect it." A feminine voice said.
"Are you mad?" The second voice said. "There are still other Rangers active on the morphing grid; we would be pummeled by them if we went on the offensive now. Besides, we still have the animal spirits. With them not on earth, the ecology will start to deteriorate slowly but surely as we sap their strength."
"Well then I guess we just sit back and wait." The first voice said.