CHAPTER TWO
Over in France, the city of Paris was proving most accommodating to its latest dose of lifeblood.
Eugene Skullovitch and Francis Bulkmyer, known to their stateside friends as Bulk and Skull, two detectives who had carved a nice niche for themselves in Angel Grove and were given a better offer to move their occupation to Paris, took the time to admire their brand new mint condition Paris office, most notably the artwork positioned in the centre.
It was a charming illustration of a child next to the Eiffel tower, playing small violin, in front of him were a youthful couple clutching one another's hands depositing a couple of coins in the open violin case beside him.
"That picture sure says it all doesn't it?" said Bulk, placing his hand on Skull's shoulder.
"I didn't know paintings could talk back to you in real life, just the one from that follow-up to Ghostbusters" Skull replied.
Bulk slapped Skull hard on the back.
"Paintings can communicate with you in different ways; it doesn't need a speech bubble in that fancy French language to let you know this place is the city where life and opportunity bloom"
"Good, because I still don't know any French" Skull said.
"You didn't watch all those Muzzy tapes I gave you?" asked Bulk, slightly annoyed.
Skull shook his head.
Bulk clipped him on the ears and sighed.
"You need to focus a bit more" he said "The point is, life and opportunity go hand in hand here, the chief inspector promised us that our assignment here would involve people in great standing within society. Power, influence, [U]wealth[/U]" Bulk told him, emphasising the last part.
Skull's eyes lit up.
The office door bell rang, Bulk hastily raced over to open it while Skull continued to examine the painting.
"Cute chick" Skull observed, poking the features of the girl in the painting with the tip of his finger, but when he pulled back, he suddenly froze as he noticed he had smudged the painting ever so slightly.
He looked over at Bulk, who was trying to pick apart the multitude of locks on the door so he could welcome in his guests.
Quickly, Skull took the painting down and tried hastily to cover the smudge by placing one finger in his mouth and moistening it slightly with his own saliva, hoping that by spreading a bit of the paint to the side that was smeared he could conceal the damage.
However, to his alarm, he found by doing that, he had smudged it even more so.
Bulk finally opened the door and invited in his guests, Chief Inspector Gustone.
"I trust you have made yourself right at home" he said.
"We're right at home and ready to serve sir" said Bulk.
"Then we shall waste little time, we will commence with your assignment. Your client is outside, I shall fetch her"
Bulk beamed and ran out of the office.
Her.
He had hit the mother load. He was certain of it.
As he dashed out of the door to greet his client, Gustone walked over to Skull, who hastily placed the painting behind his back.
"Ah, examining the fine work of our city" Gustone replied, "You know that illustration was made when I was but a small lad trying to make ends meet on the streets. Truth be told, I wasn't the most gifted musician, but I knew my city would reward me for injecting it with more of what it provided, energy, love, something to add to that spirit. The couple in that picture actually gave me my first earnings; I shall never forget the kindness in their faces"
Skull began to sweat ever so slightly, "Yeah, so long as you remember the face, nothing can truly erase it right?"
"Oh I have a fleeting memory these days, this job ages you terribly, makes you prioritize other people and places in Paris, only the painting reminds me of those simpler times, awakening so many memories long dormant and complicated by all the wrong-doing and incompetence I deal with day to day. I despair at the notion the visual reminder could fade from view"
Gustone walked away to interact further with Bulk outside of the office, Skull sighed, walked behind the desk, took a pen out from the drawer, and hastily went to work on trying to fix the damage he had caused as only he knew.
Outside the office, Bulk's enthusiasm had diminished at the sight of his client, a frail elderly woman in a mink white coat, holding up a photograph of a pink poodle.
"Could you please help me find my precious Sanford?" she asked, "He went missing some weeks ago"
"Surely, ma'am, this is a job for the city pound" said Bulk.
Gustone walked over to him, "While the poodle is a concern for Ms. Tasman, it is within the national interest it is located, for attached to its collar is an exquisite emerald, and there is a high price attached to its recovery"
Bulk reminded himself of what he had told Skull of the kind of opportunities life in Paris would provide.
While beauty was what he desired, the temptation of wealth and high standing was just as powerful.
It called to him.
And he and Skull would answer.
On a coach heading down the desert mountain junction leading into Angel Grove, a Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson, otherwise known as T.J to his friends, had been assigned a task by some of the passengers.
The task in question was to get a young woman seated to the right of him to stop singing along to the music coming from her walkman.
T.J didn't mind the noise personally, if one could call it noise, as the girl's singing voice was quite harmonious and soothing to his ears, but these passengers, mostly older folk, were too wound up in their own everyday stresses and problems to consider being kind to any sort of disruption. They liked long, quiet rides back and forth through town.
T.J had always been taught how to respect his elders, and so walked over to the girl to speak on their behalf.
He hoped she wouldn't be too cross at him for making the trouble.
"Excuse me? Miss?" he asked.
The girl persisted with her singing, her eyes were firmly shut, and she had surrendered to the music.
With the eyes of the onlookers of the coach piercing into the back of him, T.J knew he had to be a bit more assertive; he had to be seen and heard.
He was unsure what his next action could potentially lead to, but he knew he had to risk it for the sake of the inner peace of the coach. He took the earphones attached to the walkman off of the lady.
With her music cut off from her, her eyes snapped open and she turned around to face him.
"What was that for?" she said.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude, but your singing was a bit too loud" T.J replied, handing the earphones back to her.
The girl sighed, "I'm sorry" she said, "I can get pretty carried away when I'm immersed in the moment, I just let that stuff carry me into a different world and I don't pay the real one any attention"
"Hey, no need to apologize; if it's any consolation, I really enjoyed your singing. You've got talent, why don't you try and put that voice to good use?"
"That's why I'm here; I've got an appointment with a big time record producer over in Angel Grove today.
I'm coming in all the way from Stone Canyon to see him. This could well be my big break" she explained.
"Great, so you were just keeping up the practise for when you have to let out a belter at the audition, that's great" said T.J.
He turned around to acknowledge the back of the coach.
"Hey, show of hands, how many of you actually enjoyed how she sounded?" T. J surveyed.
A couple of hands went up, while the others remained indifferent or outright dismissive and kept their opinions to themselves.
"See? Some people liked it" T.J said, giving her approving thumbs up.
"I appreciate that, I probably should conserve my energies anyway, so I'm actually capable of a clear voice when I audition" the lady noted
"Good idea, I'm sure with that sort of plan and confidence, the next time you're on one of these rides, you won't have to worry so much about how others want you to behave, you'll probably be riding in your own private coach going from town to town"
The girl admired T.J's boundless sense of optimism.
"You sure know how to make someone causing a racket feel like they deserve to tear the whole house down Mister" she said.
"Call me T.J" he said
"Cassie" the lady said, revealing her name and extending her hand to shake his.
"Just a couple of miles before we stop at the tourist shop folks" revealed the coach driver.
"Great, a rest stop, that ought to give us time to talk some more" T.J said.
"I'd like that" said Cassie, "It's not like anything exciting ever happens on this stretch of road anyway"
"Don't be too sure about that, we all know what kind of chaos happens in this city. Who knows? Maybe we'll get to see who protects it in action"
"I doubt our lives are ever going to get that interesting" remarked Cassie.
Back at the Lunar Palace, Zedd sat anxiously at the table, awaiting the arrival of his wife.
To celebrate their New found wealth, they had arranged a luxury dinner date just between the two of them, Goldar and Rito, both wearing tuxedos, were on hand tending to Zedd's requirements, which included Rito having to straighten out a tie on Zedd's person.
"Don't budge Edd, I've almost got this" Rito said as he tightened the tie, Zedd could feel it gaining a greater grip on his neck and began to gag.
"You look a little red there Edd, is this little evening out making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?" said Rito.
Goldar realized what was going on and shoved Rito out of the way, loosening the tie, enabling Zedd to breath better.
"You clumsy fool, you could have suffocated him" snapped Goldar.
Rito scratched his head, "Really? I thought it was marriage that did that to him"
It was at this moment that Rita barged in, carrying two shopping bags, having spent some quality time at the shopping mall at the edge of her homestead, the M-51 galaxy.
"You will not believe how much the prices have risen in the years I've been away, not that money is any obstacle where we come from now" she said.
"Ah my pet, sit down, let us not discuss the mundane deeds of the day, not when we have all our tomorrows to come" Zedd replied, beckoning Goldar over.
Rita made herself comfortable at the opposite end of the table; Rito served her a plate of hot and tangy slug devils as a starter meal.
Rita noticed Goldar placing a bunch of scented candles on the table. As he lit each other, they glowed brightly, emitting the familiar colours of Red, Yellow, Black, Blue and Pink.
"Do you appreciate my gift for this fine occasion Rita?" Zedd asked, "When we destroyed the Rangers power coins all those months ago, I took the time to store the lingering final vestiges of their energies within the candles you used to strip their accursed leader of his original powers. It was a trick I too attempted with the rest of them in the days before we were married, I failed then, but, as with plenty of our monsters of old, I'm always one to recycle an old method to further our madness"
"I'd much rather feast on the Rangers current abilities, not settle for more of the same" Rita replied.
"Are you implying my gifts to you are wearing a bit thin my sweet?" asked Zedd.
"Not at all Zeddy, it's just you can more than afford to spring a little surprise on me once in a while" Rita added.
Suddenly, a loud and thunderous commotion could be heard from outside, Zedd and Rita scrambled out of their seats and headed to the balcony of the palace, looking down as they pinpointed the source of the noise.
Outside, there was a sizeable hoard of creatures, each trying to argue their case over the other as to why they should be the ones to take on the Power Rangers.
"Would this kind of surprise suffice my sweet?" asked Zedd.
Rita smiled.
As the noise intensified, Zedd was forced to bring the maddening crowd to order with a string of energy blasts from his staff, leaving small craters in the only portions of the moon that didn't have any.
"Lord Zedd" came the voice of Rygog, commander of the Piranatron forces, "The might of my armada is more than a match for the Power Rangers. To claim your bounty, tell us where they are, and we will crush them in one fell swoop"
Elgar was not one to let his rival have the floor for long.
"I don't want to 'that guy', but I have to be so you don't go ahead with 'that plan', I say so long as the Rangers have someone leading the charge, they'll charge right back at us. We should cut off the head of the snake before it uses its tail to whip all of ours. I say go after the leader of the Power Rangers"
"He speaks my kind of language Zeddy" said Rita, "Tommy is always the key to every victory, he should be the catalyst for their destruction"
"At least this will give us something to discuss over dinner" replied Zedd.
After several minutes of fine creepy crawler cosine and debate between the two of them, which Zedd and Rita eventually returned to the balcony to address the impatient bounty hunters.
"Your plans are daring, and it is only fitting that fate has provided us with a unique opportunity to try out both stratagems" Zedd replied, "We will see which yields the best results. Attack the A.G 5000 rally; capture Tommy, whichever route we go, just make sure the Rangers lose"
