CHAPTER FOUR
Instructed by Zordon to return to the Kids shelter, Justin watched helplessly as T.J and the remainder of his friends fled from the Terror Zord's energy blasts.
"I can't sit still and watch this continue" he vowed, and sought advise again from Zordon.
"Zordon, Alpha once told me you could pilot Zords by remote control if necessary...is it possible you can do something similar with the Turbo Megazord?"
"We can certaingly try Justin, but it could take some time" Zordon revealed.
"I think we're fresh out of time" lamented Justin.
After a brief period of contemplation, the Phantom Ranger spoke out.
"There may be one last hope" he said.
Spectra was quick to catch on to what he meant, and spoke out in protest.
"Sir, I urge you to reconsider, you cannot reveal your presence this early"
"Rita and Zedd have forced our hand" The Phantom Ranger responded, and a flipped a switch on the central control column.
Justin was rattled by a severe series of tremors, everything around him started to vibrate and move. Like an elevator, he felt the room they were stationed in rise up.
Outside the shelter, the front of the garden path rose upwards, revealing a long outstretched runway From that runway emerged a colossal machine on multiple sets of roller wheels. The machine headed down the runway and turned out of the shelter towards the city.
"Welcome aboard Artileron" said The Phantom Ranger.
Back at the Power Chamber, Alpha had customized the interior of the Ranger's headquarters into a makeshift rock studio.
Wielding an electric guitar strapped to his body, which in turn was connected to a series of transistor cables attached to the main control console, Alpha plugged the ''thread'' given to him by Justin into a custom built sound set. Without hesitation, he twanged the guitar strings, and rock and ripped his way through the harmonic frequency.
At the kids shelter, the threads attached to the walls began to glow, weaving an energy web that surrounded the exterior of the building , it shot forth from the shelter towards where the city once stood.
Within Artileron, Justin received a message from Zordon informing him of Alpha's progress. He headed over to view events from the windows of the carrier zord and found the city steadily reform around him. Buildings and parks were soon restored to the barren landscape encircling Artilleron and the Terror Zord.
Justin suddenly clutched his right shoulder as energy jolts coursed through his entire body. To his amazement, his decelerated powers had changed his outward appearance to that of Zeo Ranger Blue.
"Man, it's like I've been switched back to factory settings...Alpha's plans worked, but I think it just cost us the Turbo powers" said Justin.
The Phantom Ranger's attention, meantime, had been diverted by the actions of T.J,Ashley, Carlos and Cassie in the city, fleeing from the stand-off and Elgar's predatory gaze, only to be stopped in their tracks by a squadron of Chromites. D
Despite their vain attempts to fend off the Chromites, it was evident the four friends were in a whole world of danger that they were ill prepared for.
"I must take immediate action" said the Phantom Ranger, and reached out to a special compartment in the side of his control room, revealing, to Justin's shock and amazement, five Turbo keys.
The Phantom Ranger tossed Justin one of the keys.
"Insert this into your morpher" he instructed.
Justin did so, and his energies were successfully reaccelerated, restoring him to his Turbo uniform.
"How is it you have copies of our Turbo keys?" Justin replied.
"You'd be surprised how simple that is to explain" said Spectra.
"There's no time for explanations just now, bring those young teenagers to me immediately" ordered the Phantom Ranger.
Despite Justin's cautions, Spectra obliged and triggered Artelleron's teleporter, locking on to the four friends and bringing them to him.
Back inside the dark dimension, the veteran Rangers did all they could to hold back the assault of the winged Arachnaapes.
Swiftly and suddenly though, their opponents vanished and they soon found themselves back in the park along with the remaining citizens.
"Cause for celebration guys?" said Adam.
"Not quite yet buddy" said Tommy, pointing upwards as the Terror Zord loomed over everyone.
"We need to morph guys" said Katherine.
Tanya's communicator suddenly beeped, she answered the call.
"Rangers, thank goodness you're all safe" said Alpha.
"Alpha, we need to call on our powers and fend that thing off" said Tanya.
"You can't Rangers, your powers have been downgraded, your old abilities will prove ineffective against the Terror Zord" Alpha cautioned.
"So what's the plan?" Katherine asked.
Suddenly, Goldar, Rygog and the Chromites made their prescense felt
"We could'nt find a trace of the younger brat pack, so we'll have to make do with venting on these vulgar veterans" gloated Goldar.
"Do your worst Goldar" said a defiant Tommy, poised to fight.
"I'm at my best when I do my worst" said Goldar.
Before they could advance on the group, they found themselves surrounded in all direction by courageous Angel Grove citizens, who refused to stand ideally by nor be pushed around.
"We have the advantage Goldar...we outnumber you and your Chromites, so your number's up" remarked Adam.
"You may have the numbers, but we have the size" said Rygog, pointing to the Terror Zord as it advanced meanincingly towards everyone.
Artilleron detached it's large carrier compartments as it moved into a secure position, the compartments opened their doors, unveiling five new large scale vehicles. At the helm were five Turbo powered Power Rangers, Justin included.
Inside Artilleron, the Phantom Ranger barked out instructions.
"Rangers, these are your new Rescue Zords, utilize their resources to salvage the portions of the city affected the most by the Terror Zord's rampage"
Before the new Turbo Rangers could carry out the instructions to the letter, the Terror Zord loomed over them.
"Rescue Zords eh? Who's gonna rescue you" remarked Elgar.
Suddenly, the Terror Zord felt a tap on it's shoulder, it turned around and was met with a mean right hook from the Turbo Megazord
"Alright, all of this confusion must have bought Zordon the time he needed" said Justin from inside of his Rescue Zord.
The Turbo Megazord and Terror Zord clashed, and the result was a cataclysmic clash of titans and iron will. Ultimately, both became dead locked in the grip of another, the Terror Zord flew upwards into the air, still wrestling with it's mighty opponent.
"Quickly Alpha, activate the Megazord's self destruct" instructed Zordon.
Alpha, operating the remote control, punched in the key codes required to trigger the Turbo Megazord's self destruct, and the almighty explosion took both mechanized monsters off the grid in permanent fashion.
Elgar barely escaped with his life, retreating to the moon and entering the palace just as Divatox was set to take her shot at Rita's destrucascope and reign terror upon the Earth, only to be hampered by a looming message within the targetting lens.
INSERT COIN
"Got any change?" she asked Elgar, who reached deep into his pockets but could produce nothing that could help in any way.
Within the safety of the Power Chamber, the veteran Rangers stood assembled in awe of the Rescue Zords as the new Turbo Rangers made use of their resources to assit in the restoration of the city.
Justin soon teleported back, and was immediatly bombarded with questions, but he had been sworn to secrecy by the Phantom Ranger and could divulge nothing.
"We're receiving a scrambled communication Zordon, I can't quite trace it's origin" said Alpha, who proceeded to patch the message through to the viewing globe. The faint image of the Phantom Ranger appeared.
"Rangers, I know you have much to ask, and all will be revealed in time, but I can assure you that the battle against evil is in good hands. Unfortunately, your Ranger powers have been greatly cut back, and thus you will be in no able position to provide my Rangers or Justin with assistance. You must consider removing yourselves from Ranger duty and serving the cause in a new capacity"
"Zordon? Is he telling the truth?" said Adam.
Zordon's silence struck a nerve in the Ranger's souls. It was true.
"You can consider yourselves releieved of your Ranger duties, the world is now in the care of a new generation" the Phantom Ranger continued, before his image dissapated.
"What is this? It was Alpha who had to bail out these new guys with the Turbo Megazord, and he even had to sacrifice it to turn the tide" a frustrated Tommy complained.
"I will try to find just how the new Turbo Rangers have aqquired their power supply" said Alpha, "In time, perhaps by tracing the source we can find a way of re-accelerating your own powers"
Adam was slightly perturbed, more so than the other Rangers.
"I definitely don't think it's the right time or place to call it a day on Ranger duty. I'm going to find out who these new guys are"
Justin felt more isolated than ever, knowing what he knew, and knowing he could not break the trust of the Phantom Ranger even at the expense of the trust of his older friends.
Back at the recylcing rally, the Mayor announced Tommy's team had recycled the most and thus had been appointed the new goodwill ''keen and clean'' ambsassdor.
As his friends came up to congratulate him, Tommy's mind was driven to distraction by all that had been happening, he did not see this as an opportunity, but as a setback, something to keep him from concentrating on a time of great uncertainty for the remaining Ranger teens and their new obstacles.
It was something that played so heavily on his mind, that when he made his accpetance speech heard, he channeled his thoughts and feelings into it.
"Even if I spread my wings, a large piece of my soul will remain pearched in the Angel's nest, rigth here, right where home is" he said. The speech stirred the spirits of all who attended.
Through it all, the Rangers were wondering just where they would all go from here.
Back at the kids shelter, Mr. Spectra was addressing Justin and the new Turbo Rangers...T.J, Ashley, Carlos, and Cassie, all were armed with mops and buckets.
"With these new opportunities, these new occupations facing you, there come many hazards" he began, "You must follow these precise rules if you wish to maintain the acceleration of the power"
The rules laid out were word for word Zordon's basic mantra for Power Rangers, which made Justin's suspicious mind turn to the true intentions of the Phantom Ranger.
Spectra approached T.J and handed him a set of keys.
"Take my most expensive set of wheels to the drive-in for some fine tuning" he said.
T.J jumped at the oppertunity, heading out to the garage and leaping into the sleek and slender comet red veichle. He let his enthusiasm get the better of him, pressing a few buttons and finding out the hard way what kind of specific modifications that had been made to the car, which shot off into the sky, it's sides converting into wings, carrying T.J into the heavens.
The other Rangers and Justin took the time to witness the spectacle and permit themselves a hearty group laugh, and the sound of their merriment resonated as loudly as their voices could allow.
This was a new day, and no matter what the futre held for any of them, whatever happened to Angel Grove in the days to come would be met with a powerful new attitude.