Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to power rangers.
Author's note: this story is a slight alternate universe, so the time-line of the show is slightly different from what is in this story.
Chapter One: A Sign of Danger
The desert was dry and hot as normal. Little patches of grass sprouted up here and there in this lifeless plane.
It was nightfall so the temperatures were starting to drop down to freezing as the moon casted its glow on the sparkling desert sands. The looming hazy shadow of the Command center could be seen on the darkening horizon.
The heat that the sands retained was the only form of warmth for any animal not adapted to live out in this barren land.
Everything was still and quiet, except for the croaking of the frogs, and the far off cry of the desert wolves.
A cloud of dust began to appear on the horizon, sweeping toward this peaceful scene.
As the dust-cloud approached the area, a blur of white flashed by the cactus where a frog hid among the patches of dying grass.
In a few seconds, the dust cloud caught up with the object that had just dashed past. It revealed itself as being the dust being stirred up by the pounding feet of several monsters.
The white blur was soon caught in the teeth of one of the giant monsters. The blurry figure had been outrun at last, and was now to provide a meal for one of the monsters.
The blurry figure let out a howl of pain as it was being torn limb-from limb, blood spattering all over the cactus and staining the sand red.
The other monsters began to sniff around the area for a possible next target to become their meal to fill their stomachs with.
They approached the cactus, the scent of the frog hiding among the grass coming to their noses. That would be a good meal...
Adam awoke with a cold sweat. He breathed a sigh of relief as he slowly began to take in his surroundings.
He had been having that same dream for the last few nights. He had been a frog in the desert in this dream, everything seemed to have been going peaceful, until the blurry figure of white dashed past where he stood, and then everything went to hell. He watched the blur get caught by one of the monsters and brutally torn apart. Before he'd wake up the monsters would always almost catch him.
As he sat up, he looked down at his hands. It was weird in the fact that he wasn't even himself in this dream. He picked up his morpher which lay beside him; he looked at the power-coin inside of it.
It had once been the Mastodon but ever since he and the other rangers had received their ninja powers, it had become the frog.
Adam found it almost ironic that in his dream he had been a frog. It was almost as if he was trying to be told something through this dream.
From what he had been able to draw conclusions from, he assumed it meant danger. He recognized a lot of those monsters as ones that Rita and Lord Zedd had sent down to face the Rangers long ago.
He wasn't too clear on everything else, but for now he was going with the conclusion, that something was going to happen to Tommy, in which he was probably going to be killed. (Adam only drew this conclusion from the fact that in his dream he had been a black-frog...which was an obvious symbol of him being the black power ranger, with the Ninja spirit of the frog...and the blurry figure that he had seen had been white, which was Tommy's color, so he assumed that it had been the falcon he had seen being torn to bits.)
Of course, he didn't tell the others about it. He wasn't confident that this dream was anything more than a dream at this point anyhow, nor was he even confident if what he had drawn as the meaning of this dream was correct.
He didn't want to alert the others of anything possibly dangerous happening to their leader, when he probably wasn't even in danger in the first place. After all, he couldn't be sure that Tommy was in any danger until he could confirm that the blurry animal that he saw in his dream was indeed a falcon or not.
As he got up and dressed for the morning, he considered telling the others about his dream.
Maybe if they knew then they could finally figure out what, if anything this dream meant.
But, then again...Adam thought as he grabbed his gym-bag from beside the door and headed out they wouldn't take it as anything other than a weird dream. After all, it didn't seem like anything important.
On his way to the youth-center, he debated with himself on whether or not he should tell them or not.
Of course, when he finally reached the youth center and saw the other rangers around the room, he decided against it. He knew, as a ranger it was already stressful enough wondering when Rita and Zedd were going to cook up some hare-brained scheme to try to tear them apart, or destroy Angel Grove in their attempts to rule the world.
Alerting them of the potential of new danger through a dream he wasn't even certain about would add more stress to everything else that they had to worry about. After all it was his problem, not theirs.
"Hey! Adam! Over here!"
Adam casted a brief smile and nod in the direction of where Aisha and Billy sat before heading over to them.
"Wow, Adam, you look like hell. Is something bothering you?" Aisha asked as soon as Adam sat down, resting his head on his hands.
Adam shook his head, lying. "Nothing, really. Just been awake later than normal doing a little research for a paper I have to do." He stated, telling the partial truth. (He had been staying up a little later doing research for a paper that he had to do for one of his classes, but he had finished that paper weeks ago.)
"Well, don't be doing that too often, it's not healthy for your body." Billy stated adjusting his glasses as he closed the book he had been studying from.
Sleep, Adam thought, was not the problem. He could sleep; it was the fact that he kept having those dreams which turned his sleep restless that was the problem.
Aisha looked over at where Rocky and Tommy were sparring with one another, and sighed briefly looking down at her communicator.
"You know, I kinda like that it's been pretty quiet these last few days, we've actually had a chance to relax, without Rita and Zedd trying to find some way to wreck Angel Grove." She stated with a laugh as she took a sip from the smoothie she had been drinking whenever Adam had shown up.
"Zordon's actually kind of worried about how calm things have been. Rita and Zedd not attacking in such a long time, when before it seemed like they couldn't wait to come up with a plan to terrorize the town." Billy whispered leaning over the table, toward them.
"I don't blame him being worried. You know that if Rita and Zedd have been this silent, for this long that it can only mean they're plotting something big." Adam stated crossing his arms and giving a glance toward Tommy and Rocky sparring.
He couldn't help but feel that it had something to do with his dream though. Was what Rita and Zedd possibly plotting, killing the power rangers through an ambush?
If that was it then what had happened to the others, had they already gone down before he had watched what he guessed to be the animal representing Tommy in this dream being murdered?
No, he didn't guess that was the case. He had heard wolves in the distance near the command center's shadow. Maybe, if it meant anything, then at least Billy was still alive, but for how long after he had been 'killed' in this dream Adam didn't know.
Adam sighed, as he looked around the room.
"Well, whatever it is that those two are planning, I doubt it's going to be anything too much for the power rangers." Aisha stated smiling, and leaning back in her chair slightly.
I hope you're right, Aisha. Adam thought as he got up and headed over to the locker-room to change into his work-out clothes, he hoped that maybe a good workout would help him relieve some of the stress that this dream was causing.
Silence fell among the castle on the moon, an uncommon thing. Usually the air was disturbed by the shrieking voice of one of its two masters, Queen Rita Repulsa, as she argued and/or nagged her husband Lord Zedd.
Today, and for the last few days, all the inhabitants of the evil base had put their heads to the grind-stone trying to come up with a plan of action against the power-rangers.
Every time they tried one plan, it always ended up being foiled in some way or another by the Power-rangers, sometimes those meddling teenagers and Zordon were too smart for their own good.
If they were finally going to rule the world, they'd have to think of some way to get the power-rangers out of their hair for good. Some way that was completely unable to be foiled easily. This time, they would definitely need to be putting a lot of hard thought into it if they wanted to come up with a decent plan.
It was easy to come up with plans, but harder to decide what plans were actually useful for them.
This brainstorming silence had already produced a whole gigantic chalk-board of plans, none of which had been crossed out, but had merely been put up there for consideration. Several of them were old plans that the power-rangers had foiled, mainly suggested for the idea of improving on them in one way or another, as if that would actually work.
All this thinking was giving Rita the hugest headache she had ever had. For once she was being forced to think out her ideas, and think out every possibly way for the rangers to ruin it, until she either discarded the idea or come up with a way that she was pretty sure the rangers couldn't discard.
Squatt and Baboo had left days ago, on Finster's request to retrieve someone who he had believed could be of some help to them in coming up with, and carrying out, a plan to destroy the power-rangers. They had yet to come back.
Both Rita and Zedd, and even Finster were starting to wonder what was taking those two so long to return. It was really starting to wear Finster's patients down, and he normally was a very patient creature, after having to work under Rita's rule for so many years.
"By my calculations, those two should have returned with our guest by now. I wonder what is taking them so long." Finster asked himself as he started to pace the fog-covered floor of the castle.
Rita stood up and put her hands on her hips. "Those two buffoons probably haven't even left the moon, and probably fell into a crater!" She shouted
"What, or who, did you send them out to go and retrieve? Are you sure that this person will be able to help us take down the rangers?" Zedd asked as he tapped his metallic fingers against the cold stone of his throne.
As Finster nodded in reply, an earthquake began to shake the castle.
"Ah, that should be them now!"
"...Your Highness! We're back!" Baboo's voice shouted cheerily as appeared out of nowhere.
"..And we've brought that person who you wanted us to go and get!" Squatt added as he appeared up near Baboo.
Rita stepped forward and squinted into the darkness, it didn't appear that there was anyone else with them.
"Well, who is it?" She demanded.
Two shadows began to emerge from the space in between where Rita's two henchmen stood.
As the shadows began to form, Rita's jaw fell open. She could see the snake-skin boots on one of the figures beginning to take shape, building upward from a super-model like body, dressed in very decorative cloth and snake scales. As the head of one of the figures began to take shape, a snake helmet appeared over long dark hair, the fangs of the helmet framed the face which appeared last.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Queen Minerva."
"Oh! Rita Darling! It's so good to see my little girl all grown up!" A snake-like voice sounded as the woman took a few graceful steps towards Rita and embraced her briefly.
Zedd turned to Finster and began to speak with angered voice. "You actually think bringing Rita's mother is going to help us defeat the Power-rangers?! If Master Vile couldn't even defeat the Power-rangers, what makes you think that Minerva is going to do any better?!"
Minerva turned toward Zedd and then looked at Rita. "Hm. I had heard from your father that you had married. But, he didn't mention how incredibly handsome and charming he was." She stated with a flirtatious voice as she looked back at Zedd.
"Oh, Rita hun, how many times to do I have to tell you? Just because you can see a man's brains doesn't mean that he has them, or knows how to use them." She sighed touching her long claw-like nails to her cheek.
"Seriously comparing me to that snot-rag, to think I actually liked him at one time."
Zedd looked at Finster with, what only appeared to be an annoyed look. After all it was hard for Zedd to do any expressions, with his face being nothing but metal anyhow.
"While, Queen Minerva has extraordinary powers and will be a great asset to this mission to take down the power rangers, she is merely a tag-along. When these two monkeys showed up mentioning my mistress's daughter, she decided to come with me."
At the sound of this quiet voice everyone's attention turned to the other person who had appeared with Minerva. A young woman stood there. Her hair was pure white, despite her youthful appearance.
She smiled at Finster, revealing her vampire sharp teeth as the two bowed respectfully to one another.
"Ah, Lady Beelzalea, Queen Minerva's Chief Scholar and Magi how nice it is to see you." Finster said with a smile as he approached the girl.
"Finster, you look just like you did the day that you completed your studies, that last day that I saw you." She stated with a gentle voice.
Zedd crossed his arms. He appeared to have a lot of things to say about the recent appearance of Minerva and Beelzalea. For as far as he was concerned they didn't seem like they would be any use in their plans.
"I don't get it, how exactly is she going to help us destroy the power-rangers?" Rito asked looking at Beelzalea, scratching his head.
Beelzalea smiled and tilted her head to the side as she glided over to the balcony over-looking the Earth.
She was silent for several minutes just looking intently out at Earth, as if she were looking at something on the surface. Her white eyes had changed to match the color of the oceans that she saw.
"To know what to do, a frog's nightmares is the key about where to start..." She stated dreamily turning toward the others and gliding across the room gracefully. The color from her eyes turned back to white and her mouth curved into an evil smile.
"Send down the Tengu warriors and a few Putties. I think that the Rangers have had enough of a time off don't you think?"
So far the work-out had not worked. Adam had moved on from the punching bag to sparring. Tommy was sparring against him, while Rocky had joined Aisha and Billy and Kat, who had arrived not too long ago, to cool off.
Adam realized, as he was knocked to the mat once more, by a kick he could have avoided and countered, that he just couldn't concentrate. Every time when he should have been focused his mind was starting to wander back to the dream, wondering what it all meant, if anything.
"You alright man? You didn't seem like yourself today." Tommy stated as he helped Adam to his feet and over to the table where the others were.
Once more, Adam used the lie that he was doing just fine; it was probably just the lack of sleep getting to him.
They all seemed to buy that lie, even though he hated lying to his friends like this, he just didn't want to bother them with his troubles.
After awhile, they had all decided to do a little skating at the Angel Grove Park.
While the others chatted and laughed as they enjoyed the skate through the park on this nice clear day, Adam stayed silent, which was nothing new for him, he was usually a quiet person, and he had been ever since he was a kid.
Sure, he laughed, usually it was a genuine laugh, but today he was just so out of it, that he didn't find the jokes that Rocky cracked half as funny as they once had been.
After they had skated around the park for awhile, they were suddenly stopped. Billy and Kat were looking up at the top of a nearby hill, where a lot of shadows stood.
As the other's attention was drawn to these figures, expressions of shock began to dawn across their faces.
"Is that what I think it is?" Aisha asked curiously squinting as the figures moved down the hill quickly.
"Putties?" Billy asked adjusting his glasses.
"...and Tengu?" Rocky added in a little more confusion.
Suddenly the rangers were swarmed by the group that had just arrived.
Everyone spread out as they battled the Tengu and the Putties.
Aisha leapt into the air to avoid the low-kick of a putty while landing a kick right to a Tengu's head. As soon as the Tengu had been knocked back, she heel-kicked the putty behind her, before dodging the swinging arms of a nearby Tengu.
"Well, so much for the peaceful days!" She shouted.
Rocky grabbed onto a low hanging tree-branch and swung from it, taking out two Putties with one hit. As they crumbled to pieces, he jumped off the branch in just enough time to duck an attack from some Tengu.
"Rita and Zedd must have thought that we actually missed fighting these guys."
Kat and Tommy were back to back, fighting off the swarm of enemies as they came at them.
"Something's gotta be up, Rita and Zedd have never sent both the Tengu and the putties after us." Tommy shouted as he ducked an attack, and countered.
Billy was recovering from being knocked back by a Tengu and then pushed forward by a Putty.
"Guys, I don't think we're going to be able to fight them all off like this. We're going to need Ninja Ranger power!"
They all nodded, in one quick motion they summoned the Ninja-power to their bodies, and morphed into their Ninja outfits.
With this new change of outfit they had gained some new strength that they had not had before.
"Alright, let's do it!" Aisha called out as they all began to pummel the Tengu and Putties into the ground.
Rita and Zedd sure picked a great day to launch an attack, Adam thought as he tried to fight off the Tengu who had begun to circle him. The one day that he was totally out of it, that's when they decided to attack.
In a matter of seconds, Two Tengu had his arms behind his back, while another was kicking the living daylights out of him. He attempted to block the Tengu's attacks and break free, but the two who restrained him had such a tight grip on him that even in his Ninja form he couldn't escape.
"Adam!!" He heard the others shout as they saw their friend in danger.
One Tengu, who appeared to be the leader of these Tengu and Putties approached him, as he drew closer to him he withdrew an object from a pouch that had been at his side. When the Tengu at arm's length of Adam, as he tried to fight back. He noticed that the object appeared to be a dart of some type. Whatever it was for, Adam didn't want to find out.
Before he knew it though, a pain hit him in the shoulder. It felt like knife had been driven into his shoulder, followed up by the what felt like blood coming from the wound
The pain only lasted for a few seconds; Adam soon realized that he was starting to lose all feeling in his body. His mind had begun to descend into a haze, and he was finding it difficult to keep his eyes open, much less keep-himself standing up on his own in the grasp of the Tengu who restrained him.
After several seconds, Adam's head lulled forward on his chest, as his consciousness had slipped entirely. He collapsed to the ground as the Tengu that restrained him let go of him.
"Adam!"
The Tengu knew that the other rangers were pissed off now and were ready to kick all of the Tengu and Putties butts. It was time to retreat.
As they took off flying/disappearing, the Rangers looked around in confusion. They didn't get why they had taken off so quickly, even when they seemed to have the upper-hand on the battle.
It took them a few seconds, once the confusion to wear off to remember Adam. He was still lying on the ground, motionless.
Quickly they rushed over to him, as soon as they reached him; his Ninja-power disappeared, returning to his power-coin. Of course, when the power left him, he didn't awake or show any signs of life. This began to really worry the other rangers.
"Is he?" Kat began, unable to say the word that was needed to finish that sentence. She didn't want to think that it was even possible that one of the team could possibly be dead.
Before, they had any time to discuss anything further, their communicators went off. It had been the first time in the last few days, and it had almost taken them all by surprise.
"Come in Zordon. What's up?"
"Rangers, Teleport to the command center quickly. I have urgent news."
Rocky glanced over at Tommy and then down to Adam, as the two of them helped get Adam's unconscious form to his feet. "It can't be any more urgent than this." His eyes seemed to say for him.
With a little difficulty, they all managed to teleport to the command center.
As soon as they landed, Tommy and Rocky, both stumbled foreword, trying to keep Adam on his feet.
"Ayaiyai! Rangers what's happened?" Alpha stated in shock as he turned from the computer console to see the rangers, worried faces as they looked at Adam, being supported by Tommy and Rocky.
"We were attacked in the park, by Tengu and Putties." Aisha stated with a frown as she looked up at Zordon.
Alpha pushed a few buttons on the control panel and chair appeared in the dark space, a little off to the side of the area where the Rangers stood.
Knowing, why this had been summoned Tommy and Rocky slowly helped their unconscious friend over there and gently sat him down, before returning to the others.
"One of the Tengu stabbed Adam with some sort of syringe, although I'm not sure what was inside the syringe, whatever it was it got in Adam. Hopefully it didn't kill him." Billy stated glancing over at Adam.
Alpha had begun to apply some bandages to the wound on Adam's shoulder, as he ran a scan of the unconscious teenager.
"Rita and Zedd must really be plotting something evil, if they sent out Putties and Tengu after us." Kat stated.
Alpha turned toward the others as he approached them, with the results of the scan that he had run on Adam.
"It appears that Adam is heavily sedated, caused by a sleeping potion that had enough strength to put an elephant to sleep for a few minutes. Aside from being asleep for quite a while, Adam will be just fine, as soon as the sleeping potion wears off."
A sigh of relief rang through the air of the command center as the rangers received the news.
"Zordon, what was so urgent that you had to call us here?" Tommy asked, as soon as he remembered that Zordon had summoned them there for some urgent news.
"Behold the viewing globe..." Zordon began, as a flicker of light appeared behind them coming from the viewing globe, producing an image that Zordon had wanted the rangers to see.
The sight that was on the viewing globe was not pretty. A very snake-like woman was glaring back at them with the most sinister of looks. It was someone that none of the rangers recognized, but if Zordon was worried about it had had called them there to see this creature, then this person was probably someone they should be worried about.
"This is Minerva Repulsa...A powerful Queen from a plant deep beyond the reaches of this galaxy." Zordon began.
Minerva's last name had sounded a little odd, and rather familiar to all of them. Kat was the first one to ask about it.
"Wait. Repulsa? You mean like in Rita?" She asked curiously.
Alpha nodded, "Indeed. Minerva is Rita's mother."
Rocky sighed and put his hands on his hips. "Well, obviously Rita got her ugly looks from her parents." He joked.
"Queen Minerva is not our greatest concern." Zordon stated,
Billy adjusted his glasses and raised his eyebrow, while Aisha spoke the question that he was about to ask.
"What do you mean Zordon? Wouldn't Rita's mother be a concern, I mean if she's anything like Rita, shouldn't we be worried?"
The image on the viewing globe changed once more. This time, a white-haired, woman appeared. She wore flowing robes, the same color as her hair and eyes. She wore a rather dreamy and peaceful look on her face, as her image looked back at the Rangers from the viewing globe.
"Who's she?"
"This is Beelzalea. Minerva's Chief Scholar and Magi. Don't let her peaceful demeanor fool you she has powers comparable to that of a sorceress. She has been summoned to Rita and Lord Zedd's aide, to help destroy you."
"Undoubtedly Beelzalea, teamed up with Rita and Zedd's powers, will be enough to destroy you all." Alpha stated.
The others turned toward Alpha. None of them liked the news that the robot had just given them.
"But, if together they're as strong as you're saying they are, what chance do we have against them?" Kat asked in a worried tone of voice, obviously she was uneasy about what seemed to be the inevitable fate of the Power-rangers.
Tommy put his hand on Kat's shoulder. "Don't worry about it Kat. I'm sure whatever it comes down to we'll be fine, as long as we stay together as a team." He stated trying to calm her down and reassure her, even though it was pretty clear he was worrying the same things and needed reassuring as well.
"The battle ahead of you is difficult, but there is still hope rangers." Zordon stated with a reassuring voice.
"Yes. When Zordon and I came to Earth, we brought with us the power-coins, which give you all your Ranger powers, when you received your Ninja powers all of the power-coins changed to become similar to the coins that you now carry."
Billy adjusted his glasses. "By saying that they all changed to become like ours, are you meaning to say that there are more than six power-coins?"
Zordon nodded. "Precisely Billy. In addition to Rita once possessing the Dragon Power-coin, four other power-coins existed alongside the Power-coins you all now have."
Rocky seemed hopeful, as well as the others.
"As of late, the Green-Dragon Power Coin had re-generated its power. Alpha and I have always known that one day we would have to call on the power of the other coins. However only three power coins and the Dragon Coin are in our possession." Zordon continued.
Aisha put her hands on her hips. "But if, we need the help of these new rangers... won't we need all the new coins? That last power coin could be anywhere! They could get to it before we can, and if that power falls into their hands, who knows what they'll do with it. "she sighed exasperated, showing that she was starting to lose hope.
"Due to this most recent, I fear that we haven't much time in finding the missing power-coin." Zordon continued.
Tommy gave a confused look as he looked around at the group and then to Zordon. The look that he gave Zordon told Zordon to go on, because he like the rest didn't understand.
"It appears that Beelzalea must already be searching for the missing power-coin."
"You mean, she sent down the Tengu and the Putties to keep us distracted, to give her a head start?" Rocky asked.
Zordon nodded. "Not only that, but to obtain information on the location of the missing power-coin."
Everyone looked at one another trying to understand what information could have been obtained in the recent Tengu attack.
"Adam got attacked for a reason. He had information that contained the whereabouts of the missing power-coin. Beelzalea wanted that information for her own." Alpha responded, "...and it appears that in a way she got what she wanted."
Aisha raised an eyebrow as she looked over toward where Adam was sleeping.
"But if Adam already knew where the missing power-coin was, then why didn't they just kidnap him? I mean, if Beelzalea needed information from him, then why did she send the Tengu down to knock him out?" She asked curiously.
Billy crossed his arms as he began to think about it."I don't think that Adam consciously knew that he knew the location of the missing power-coin, much less that these other power-coins existed. If he knew, you think he would have mentioned something about it to us before."
"But how is that possible?" Kat asked curiously, glancing toward Adam.
"...It's possibly that he could have been sent this information through some-sort of coded message, subconsciously." Billy continued.
"You mean like a reoccurring dream?" Rocky asked putting his hands behind his head and looking curiously at Billy.
"Precisely. Now, if Beelzalea is really as powerful as it is said she is, then isn't it possible that when she sent down the Tengu to sedate Adam, that she also wanted the tengu to retrieve some of his blood, so that she can use it in some way to keep a monitor on his thoughts and dreams, while he is asleep?"
Zordon nodded. "Exactly Billy. While Adam sleeps, Beelzalea can monitor his dreams, decoding them. While the location of the missing power-coin is still hidden in the dream, as soon as she decodes the dream, she will undoubtedly begin to search."
Billy paced around the command center for a few brief moments while Zordon talked, it seemed that he was coming up with some sort of plan of action that might be useful.
"I doubt that there is anything that we can do, as far as making sure that Adam's dreams aren't being monitored. But, I think it may be possible to do the same, obtain the same information that Beelzalea is getting and try to decode it before she does and possibly beat her to finding the power-coin."
"But how are we supposed to see something that's going on in Adam's head? In case you haven't noticed, none of us have any power to do that." Rocky stated crossing his arms.
"I know that." Billy stated. "But, I have a theory."
"Each of our powers is tied to us through our Power-coins and vice-versa. If we can some-how use Adam's power-coin and the morphing grid, then possibly we can project the dream onto the viewing globe...and see what he's seeing. With that we can possibly decode it, and hopefully beat Rita and Zedd to the missing power-coin." He continued as he paced around the room.
Alpha nodded and began to push buttons on the control panel. "Alright, Rangers, cross your fingers and hope this works."
A loud buzzing was heard all around the room, as the whole process had started. Flashes of light went off every few seconds. They noticed that Adam had been encased in black glow, as his Power-coin began to react.
"Almost there..." Alpha stated as he pushed a few more buttons and turned a few dials. In response to this the viewing globe lit, up. It as well was surrounded by a black glow around the edges.
As the Rangers watched the dream unfold before them, they were a little bit confused at first. It didn't seem like anything interesting, or meaningful.
Until they saw the attack, and watched the dream cut off abruptly before they ever found out what had happened.
As soon as the dream was over, the command center returned to normal, and the lights went away, and Adam was left still peacefully sleeping.
"...That's terrible! Poor Adam, he's been having a nightmare like this all along and hasn't told anyone." Kat stated gently looking toward Adam's resting form.
"He didn't want to worry us about something that he probably didn't understand himself." Tommy stated crossing his arms.
Billy watched the dream, once more, (since Alpha had recorded it while it had played the first time.) He squinted at the blur of white that had gone by and had been ripped up by the monsters.
Soon. She thought as she intently watched the snake as it rested on a rock. She readied the spear as she slowly inched forward in her crouching position, being careful not to make a sound.
When she was close enough, she quickly bounded into the air, the snake detected the sudden movement, but it was too late. She had already driven her spear into its body, and was wriggling the last of its life out pinned against a rock and a spear.
She smiled triumphantly as the snake died; she withdrew her spear and plucked the snake from the end of it, delicately placing it onto the bag at her hip. She opened the bag, while taking a seat on the rock that she had just killed the snake on.
Two snakes, and several frogs, and some cactuses. That seemed like a good dinner, once she got a fire started, she thought closing the bag.
She stretched and yawned. She had spent most of the afternoon hunting, and it was getting rather tiring. She wiped sweat from her forehead as she reached for a fragment of a nearby cactus, ignoring the sharp needles as she ripped it off, drinking some of the water that was retained in it.
Well, she thought. I'd better be getting back to the camp.
As she got to her feet, something caught her attention standing next to one of the taller cactuses a couple of feet from her.
She recognized the figure to be very similar to her reflection, the same basic body structure that is. Two arms, two legs, a chest, a neck, a head. Five fingers, two eyes and a mouth. Although the general appearance of the person that she saw looked nothing like her, except maybe for the shape of the eyes, and the color of the hair.
He didn't appear to be solid though. He had something of a ghostly appearance to her.
She smelt a frog nearby; it seemed to be from this person that looked back at her. Even though it was impossible. It was almost as if he were the frog. This was impossible, because he looked nothing like a frog to her. A Monster perhaps?
Quickly she drew out her spear, and fell into an attacking position. Her free hand felt the smaller pouch at her side withdrawing a golden coin, snarling like the wild beast she was at this ghost.
Who or what is this? She thought as she slowly circled the ghost that stood before her.
Almost as if reading her thoughts, the image turned to her and spoke. "I am the Black Ninja Frog Ranger. I appear to you as a human, much like yourself." The ghost started to calmly say.
The girl that he spoke to's eyes narrowed upon him. Human? What did he mean human, much like myself? She thought angrily, he had to be lying in calling her human.
"That coin you posses is one of the powers apart of the great power of the Ninjetti that I am a part of." He stated calmly.
She growled and eyed the coin in her hand. She didn't trust what this ghost was saying. How was she supposed to believe him?
"There is an evil force that is looking for that coin you have, and they will stop at nothing to take it from you."
The girl continued to glare, and wrapped her fingers tighter around the coin. He might be talking calmly, but he was really starting to creep her out. She didn't trust him, appearing in front of her like a ghost, talking about the coin she had, it all seemed pretty fishy.
After all, how can I trust something that has the scent of something that I eat for dinner? She thought creeping foreword slowly.
"In the next few days, you and I will meet again. Of course, I will not recognize you, or have any conscious memory that this conversation took place, since the person you will meet, will actually be the person that I am appearing to you as."
"When you meet again, you must return with him, to unite the missing power with the others, in order to stand against an evil that wants to take over the world, destroying you and the others who possess the powers of the Ninjetti."
Why should I have to help these people? I don't know them, and I don't trust you. How do I know that you're not the monsters that you're warning me about? How can I know that you're not trying to lead me into a trap?
"I understand that you don't believe me, but you must trust me. The fate of the world depends upon it. If the others who have the powers of the Ninjetti die, your power-coin will lose its power as well."
She looked down at the golden coin that she clasped in her hand. Was this coin really that special? She hadn't ever used it before; she mainly just carried it around for luck. Wad what this ghost was telling her true? Could this coin really be in possession of some sort of special power?
"I must go now. I have another message to deliver. But please, keep what I have told you in mind, for the next time you see me again."
Wait! she thought, rushing at the ghost. He couldn't leave just yet. She wanted to know more about why he had thought that the coin she had was so important, and what it really was.
As she reached the ghost, she lunged forward to get a grasp on the ghost's shoulders. Maybe she could stop him from leaving, and demand the answers from him that she wanted to know.
However, she passed right through him, grasping air, falling flat on her face on the other side of him. When she looked over her shoulder as she got back to her feet she found that the ghost was completely gone.
"From these images, I think our safest bet is to say that the Power-coin is in the desert, not too far from us. I think I see the Command Center off in the distance." Billy pointed out as he stopped the recording of the dream on the part where they could see the command center.
"That's...exactly where it is. However, it is already in someone's hands." A voice stated from other side of the command center.
The rangers turned immediately to the source of the voice. A ghostly image of Adam stood there on the other side. This ghost was wearing the Black Ninja Ranger's outfit.
"Adam? H-how are you there, when you're...but you're there and you're still over there..." Rocky started, but eventually confused himself entirely that he had to stop and try to get things sorted out in his mind.
The ghostly image of Adam approached the Rangers, as he began to answer the question for them. "I am the Black Frog Ninja Ranger power. I have taken the appearance of the human who possesses my power, you know him better as Adam. So while I may appear to look like Adam, I am not."
"You said that the missing power-coin was already in someone else's hands? What do you mean?" Tommy asked approaching the ghostly image of Adam that stood before them.
The ghost of Adam nodded. "Several years ago, a scientist studying Angel Grove's natural landscape stumbled across the oasis in the desert where the Power-coin was hidden. Soon the power coin came into his possession."
"This scientist was fascinated with the object that he had found, although unaware of what it actually was. To better understand the object that he had found, he moved into the desert, to do more research of the object."
"With him he took his wife and their young child. They lived there in the desert for awhile, until one day; When Three Monsters appeared, in search of the power-coin. They kidnapped the child, holding it hostage in exchange for the power-coin."
"The researcher gave up the coin, hoping that the Monsters would keep to their promise..."
Aisha sighed, "Great, so it's in the hands of some monsters..." She stated slumping her shoulders in defeat.
The ghost-image of Adam briefly smiled as he shook his head. "No, not exactly. You see the researcher made the mistake of trusting a monster, and the monsters took the child as well, escaping into the desert."
"What they didn't count on was the child escaping from their grasp, protected by the power of the coin. The monsters were sealed away in a cave, and the child was later taken in by a herd of wild desert rabbits...as unbelievable as that is."
"So we're looking for a person who has been raised by rabbits, who lives in the desert." Rocky stated raising his eyebrow. The whole thing seemed a little too incredulous to be true. It was hard to believe that the power coin was in the hand of a desert dwelling person, raised by rabbits.
"Correction. Adam is looking for the person that you described. That person is expecting to meet me, as Adam, again whenever Adam goes into the desert to retrieve them. Any other Ranger and they would undoubtedly attack."
There was a silence among the rangers, mixed with looks of protest and worry. What this person, claiming to be the embodiment of Adam's powers was trying to say was that Adam has to go out on this dangerous mission alone to retrieve the power coin.
"Are you sure that..." Tommy began.
Adam's ghost image nodded. "Yes. Retrieving the person who possesses the missing power-coin is a mission that Adam must do alone. "
"I must go, for I must speak to Adam myself about this mission. To alert him of the dangers that he will be facing." The ghostly image stated as he stepped backward into the darkness, vanishing.
The Rangers looked around at one another with looks of worry and uneasiness. Every once in awhile they would cast a look to their resting friend. Sending Adam out into the desert alone, knowing that Beelzalea may or may not have already deciphered the location of the missing power-coin was almost certain death.
But...It apparently had to be done, and Adam was the only one who could do it. If this new ranger was expecting to meet Adam, that must have meant that they already knew what he looked like and would know whether it was him or not.
"...Well...Now what?" Rocky asked leaning against the one of the control-panels.
"Now, we wait...until the sleeping potion wears off and Adam returns to full strength." Billy stated with a sigh.