To the far west of the city were the mountains, terrain marked by several towering cliffs and seemingly ever-flowing sandstorms. On top of one of the cliffs, there was nothing, at least to the normal naked eye. Hidden from view was a massive, sandstone, temple-like edifice with a huge open cylindrical column in the center marked with ornate designs. And five beams of light flew from the west and straight into the column.
Inside, Alpha 5 was busying himself at the Command Center's advanced computer terminals. As he moved from one to the other, the beams of light descended upon him, materializing into Ash, Misty, Brock, Tracey, and Lia.
"Ooof… That landing could have been softer…" Brock grumbled as the five staggered to get up.
"Oh… Ay yi yi…" Alpha droned, still reeling from the collision.
"Alpha!" Tracey cried, going to help him up.
"You okay, buddy?" Lia asked, brushing the robot off.
"Just a momentary rattling of my servos, dudes and dudettes," Alpha chirped.
The five Rangers chuckled, but not for long.
"Welcome back, Power Rangers," a deep voice called out.
The group turned to face Zordon, their intergalactic sage who was sealed in a time warp energy tube, the image of his large face a radiant blue.
"Zordon," Ash began, "There was a big explosion in town. Something seems up."
"Your premonition is correct, Ashton," Zordon said in a collected voice. "We already have an analysis on the Viewing Globe."
The teens turned to face the raised-up sphere in the corner, which showed a visage of the monster in question moving about town and setting off explosives, blowing apart several walls and empty cars and cackling maniacally.
"This is Shrapnelhead, Rita's newest monster and a master bomb maker," the wizard continued. "He has been setting smaller, less dangerous explosives around the city, but his most dangerous goal is to set off several large blasts that level Feron Grove in one attack."
"Where is he now?" Misty asked. "We've got to stop him!"
"Unfortunately, Shrapnelhead is not only exponentially faster than Rita's last monster, but he prefers to vanish as soon as he plants his weapons," Zordon replied.
"But what about him detonating the larger bombs?" Ash interrupted. "We have to take him out before he does."
"Wait," Tracey said, studying the villain's movements. "Notice that he isn't trying to strike any places that have a lot of people in them yet. He must be trying to distract us and split us up."
"So he can corner each of us, defeat us, and be free to set the other bombs…" Ash realized.
"That's right!" Lia exclaimed. "But how do we trap him?"
Suddenly, the Monster Alarm blared with fury, stopping Lia's train of thought and sending Alpha into crisis mode.
"The radar's picking up a squad of Putty Patrollers moving in near the warehouses at the docks!" he squeaked.
The Viewing Globe picked up the images of six gray foot soldiers ambling toward one of the open buildings. Two of them were carrying a square steel case about four feet high.
"Aw great…more trouble," Brock said. "We're going to need to split up after all."
"Maybe not," Zordon boomed. "My sensors indicate that the Putty Patrollers are carrying something with a massive amount of potential energy."
"Then they must be guarding the main explosives," Misty said. "Shrapnelhead probably didn't want to risk them fighting us."
"Correct," Zordon acknowledged. "I will teleport you to the docks at once. Secure the explosives, and then you will be able to engage Shrapnelhead. Alpha and I will continue to monitor his movements."
"Alright then. Let's move!" Ash yelled. And with that, the group dematerialized and teleported once more.