On the road back to school, Calvin was getting a little agitated. He and Hayley had headed out to the Ribbon Tree to have lunch and celebrate their anniversary, but they had stayed a little longer than they had intended. They'd managed to lose track of time a little once they had tied their ribbon to the tree, but it really hadn't helped when Kody had started chasing a squirrel, forcing them to go and find him. Calvin was drumming his fingers nervously on the dash.
"Can't you go a little faster?" He asked her. Hayley just glared at him.
"Cal, there are speed limits you know." She reminded him.
"I know, but...no one's around." Calvin answered. "Afternoon classes start pretty soon, and we don't want to be late."
"You know Calvin, you don't get to have a personal chauffeur AND complain about how they drive." Hayley responded. Calvin just started looking a little nervous. He'd had virtually perfect attendance his whole life. He'd only missed classes once in his life when he'd been taken into hospital with appendicitis. He didn't like the thought of having a tardy slip to take home to his parents. Hayley just groaned and checked to make sure no cops were around, before relenting and putting down the accelerator a little harder. Unfortunately not long after she did, there was a loud bang, and smoke started billowing out from under the hood.
"What...what just happened?" Hayley asked.
"Nitro!" Calvin called out. "No, no, no, no! This isn't good, pull over!"
"What do you think I'm doing? I can't see through smoke Calvin!" She reprimanded him as she pulled slowly to the side of the road and turned off the engine. Calvin got out and went to the hood, opening it up and starting to choke on the smoke, waving it away to try and see what it was doing. His attention was ripped away though as with a loud crash a metal sphere slammed into the ground a little way off, sending tarmac flying. Soon more debris started to hit.
"Calvin, get in!" Hayley screamed at him.
"But..."
"Calvin, it's a truck, it can be repaired!" She yelled at her boyfriend, grabbing him and dragging him into the cab. They both sheltered in each other's arms as debris rained down from the skies, both hoping and praying that none of it would hit them.
In the forest on the outskirts of the city, Brody was just coming to. He had entered a Prana state while they were free-falling, and held it as long as he could, but somewhere on the descent he had to have passed out. He still hadn't mastered it, and so he didn't know too much about what happened when they fell. He pulled himself to his knees as he tried to piece together what had happened.
"Mick?" He asked. "Redbot?"
He started to look around, hoping to find signs of his friends. He couldn't see much debris, so he assumed that Redbot had cleared the rest of the debris to prevent them being hit by it. Redbot's rocket boots weren't ever designed for long flights, more like assisted jumping. He could only fire them for short periods and didn't have much fuel in reserve for them, meaning he could only fire them in short bursts to direct them and try to slow their descent as much as possible. Since Brody had survived the fall, Redbot had to have carried him as he promised, and so he knew he had to be nearby.
"Master Brody, I require assistance!" He heard Redbot's voice calling out. He went over, finding Redbot imbedded in the ground a little way off. He assumed Redbot had tossed him into soft foliage before impact, but paid the heavy price of taking the harder landing himself. Brody grabbed him, starting to help right him.
"Redbot, are you OK buddy?" Brody asked him.
"You are, and that's what matters." Redbot answered.
"Redbot, can you...?"
"Rebooting." Redbot said, before slumping to the ground, completely inert.
"Redbot, this isn't a good time for a nap!" Brody yelled at him. "REDBOT!"
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. Redbot had taken a pretty hard impact and he was sure he had to have damaged some systems. He'd need a while to reboot his primary systems. It would be a while until he came back online, so Brody took the time to size up his situation. He was now in some woods, he didn't know exactly where. He was young when he was taken but even then he knew the world was a big place. Looking around, he couldn't see any signs of Mick. That was when he remembered Mick had taken the free-fall himself. He had to have fallen with the rest of the debris, meaning they had now been separated.
He checked his wrist, looking to his Datacomm. It was a device worn by everyone that worked on the maintenance crew of the Warrior Dome. It was used primarily for communicating between parts of the ship, but it had other functions too, namely being connected to the ship's mainframe, allowing the prisoners to access information vital to their work. He turned it on, and seemed thankful that it seemed to be working.
"Mick, can you read me?" Brody asked. "Mick?"
He didn't get an answer, that was worrying. He didn't know if that meant that Mick's Datacomm was damaged, if Mick had been hurt or recaptured or...it was an option, one that Brody didn't like to think about, but he couldn't rule out as a possibility that Mick hadn't survived the fall. He started to look around to see if there was anything useful in the wreckage. It was junk, stuff that was no longer considered worth keeping on the ship, but Brody knew from long ago that virtually anything with an inventive mind could be a valuable tool or weapon. He smile as he saw something glowing a little way off. The Nexus Prism had come down only a few feet from where he had!
"Galvanax is not going to be happy that you're missing!" Brody said with a satisfied grin. "Now, I just need to hide you until I figure out what to do."
"Too late!" He heard someone shrieking. It was Korvaka, the latest victor of Galaxy Warriors. He seemed to appear from nowhere and rushed at Brody, kicking him away. Brody tumbled away as Korvaka pulled out his blade. "You've taken something that doesn't belong to you! Now I get to bring it back!"
"How about I put you back in the infirmary instead?" Brody replied as he threw some dirt into Korvaka's face, before grabbing the nearest solid object to hand and swinging it for him with all the strength he could.
Back on the road a little way from town, Calvin and Hayley finally started to release each other as the sounds of falling debris stopped.
"I...I think it's stopped." Hayley said.
"I'll see if I can fix the truck." Calvin said as he disentangled himself from her and got out of the truck. They were both relieved to see that the debris had missed the truck completely. Kody had gotten out and already seemed to be sniffing around, looking a little wary.
"What is all this stuff?" Hayley asked as Calvin got to work on the truck. "It doesn't look like parts from an aeroplane...maybe they're parts of a satellite?"
"They do say that satellites fall from orbit all the time." Calvin agreed, looking around. "I've never actually SEEN it happen, but I've heard about it."
"Just concentrate on patching Nitro up so we can get out of here." Hayley told him. "I'll start clearing the road, make sure we can get back once you've finished."
She noticed Kody hanging around a large metal sphere that had hit the road, damaging it. She also saw some goop around a lot of the parts that she really didn't like the look of. She knew enough about chemistry to know that it was wise to stay away from unfamiliar chemicals.
"Kody, come away from there." She said as her dog nudged the metal sphere. "Kody, leave it alone!"
The dog started barking at the metal sphere, at which Hayley just slapped her leg repeatedly.
"Kody, leave it alone!" She called to the dog, but he seemed to be ignoring her. Kody always did as he was told, unless he somehow thought that something was a threat to his owner. Suddenly, she saw the metal sphere start to shift, and change form. Calvin was quickly at her side holding her, grabbing a steel bar from the wreckage as it changed shape. Before long, it seemed to take the form of a wild-haired man, who was clutching his hands to his ears as he curled into a ball defensively.
"Call him off, call him off!" Mick begged them. Hayley whistled to her loyal dog, who ran back to her, but quickly took up position in her defence, growling at the stranger. Mick started to get up. "Thank you. You know, that thing can really give someone quite a scare! You should be careful!"
"Um...who or...what are you?" Calvin asked, unable to really think of a good answer to the assertions of a man who just moments ago had been a ball of steel that a dog was threatening. Mick waved enthusiastically.
"Um...Hi, I'm Mick." He told them. "Head mechanic of the Warrior Dome!"
Calvin and Hayley looked blankly at him.
"You know, where they film Galaxy Warriors? THE number one show in the universe?"
"Um...OK?" Calvin asked. He then started to put some pieces together. This man seemed to have fallen from the sky as a ball of steel, and then changed into a person, things that were not humanly possible. He was also talking about a show broadcasting to the universe. "Wait...are you saying you're an alien?"
"Well, interesting thing, define alien. Alien just means different, and so to me, YOU'RE alien." Mick stated. They both just seemed to get defensive as he started to walk towards them. With Kody growling in warning, Mick just took the hint and stopped moving. "OK, we've got off on the wrong foot. I seem to have been separated from my friend Brody and..."
Mick paused as he thought of something.
"He's from here! He's from Earth! You know, BRODY!" He said. Calvin just looked totally bemused by this whole conversation.
"Um...who's Brody?" He asked.
"Oh come on, he's from here!" Mick reminded them. "You must know him! He's from Earth!"
"So are about seven billion other people!" Hayley answered. Mick suddenly realised his error.
"Um...yes...that's a good point." He answered. "You ever notice how people do that? They hear your from somewhere and automatically assume you know every other person from there and...wait, I have an idea."
Mick got onto his Datacomm and hit the communications link.
"Brody, this is Mick, come in." He stated. "Brody? Damn, it looks like this thing was broken in the fall."
"The fall from...your spaceship?" Calvin asked.
"Not exactly MY spaceship, but yes." Mick told them. "Listen, I'm in a little trouble here, I need to be able to fix this thing to find my friend Brody, can you take me somewhere I can fix it?"
"We can't take anyone anywhere right now." Hayley told him. "The truck broke down."
"Is that an internal combustion engine?" Mick asked, pushing past both of them to look inside the hood. "Where I come from, we give these things to kids to play with. I can have this thing fixed up in a jiffy!"
"Hey, that's my..."
"Calvin!" Hayley said, pulling him away.
"Hayley, he's messing with Nitro!" Calvin told her.
"Yes, but he seems to know what he's doing!" She told him. "Not to mention we don't seem to have much in the way of parts out here."
"Oh, we have parts." Mick told her, picking up a piece of debris from the road. He considered it for a moment, before turning one of his hands into an angle-grinder and starting to grind it down in size for use.
"You're going to put that thing in my...my...NITRO!" Calvin said, starting to freak out. Hayley just grabbed her boyfriend.
"Calvin, try to think about this. We're miles from town, and if we call AAA we'll be waiting at LEAST an hour!" Hayley told him. She looked to Mick. "Um...listen...Mick was it?"
"Yeah?" He asked.
"If we promise to take you somewhere you can fix your wrist thing, can you fix this?" She asked him.
"Sure!" Mick told her, beginning to pull engine parts out of the truck. Calvin looked like he was ready to explode watching Mick manhandle his beloved Nitro. "Could you two clear the road? Once I'm finished here, we'll need the road clear."
"You...you got it Mick." Hayley said, grabbing Calvin who could only point and mouth words, unable to speak as Mick started to tinker with his engine.
Back in the woods, Brody's battle with Korvaka was not going well at all. After surprising him at the beginning, the alien took control of the fight, throwing him around with rather dismissive ease.
Even injured, Korvaka seemed to be a tough opponent. No matter what Brody tried, he seemed to have an answer for pretty much everything Brody knew. His skills, while impressive, were no match for a creature powerful enough to compete on the Warrior Dome.
As he hit the ground again, Brody looked to his Datacomm. In the absence of an answer, he did what he instinctively always did, look for a tool to help him.
"Computer." He called out.
"Ready!" It responded. The Datacomms provided a direct link for the slaves to the ship's computer, allowing them to access information they would need to perform their duties. It was a stroke of luck that the link was still up and running.
"Computer, how do I defeat Korvaka?" Brody asked it.
"You cannot defeat him on your own." The computer said rather anti-climactically. "No human has the power to defeat him."
"Then...give me options!" Brody said as he rolled to avoid one of his attacks.
"Options most likely to result in survival. Find a source of power. Find allies with more power. Surrender. Run. Of all these options, the option most likely to result in survival is surrender."
"That is NOT an option!" Brody said, trying desperately to keep one step ahead of the alien. He knew it was right, there was no way he could defeat Korvaka on his own.
"Hey ugly!" He heard someone shouting. Before he, or Korvaka knew what was happening, someone crashed straight into him at high speed. Two other humans, a guy in a suit and a girl wearing pink landed on the ground in a crumpled heap, while Korvaka was knocked back about thirty feet. He clutched at his side, where his injury had re-opened because of the impact.
"See, I told you that wasn't a guy in a costume!" Sarah said to Preston as they got up. She couldn't believe that a monster would show up here in Summer Cove. She was sure that once the threat ended in Amber Beach, her days of seeing monsters were over, but she had seen enough to know a monster when she saw one.
"What in the world is it?" Preston asked her.
"I don't think it's from this world!" She replied. She remembered that when Sledge had been destroyed, there were still other monsters aboard his ship. She could only wonder if some of them had perhaps opted not to leave Earth with the others. Most of them didn't really have a whole lot to go home for having been prisoners for millions of years.
"Thanks, you guys really saved my skin!" Brody stated, coming to their side.
"Sure, but who are you and why is that thing chasing you?" Sarah asked him. Brody was about to answer, but his attention was drawn to the Nexus Prism.
"Both excellent questions, but..." His words tailed off as he went to the Nexus Prism. Three of the Power Stars were glowing, the Red, Blue and Pink Stars. On them, they depicted images of helmets.
"What are those things?" Sarah asked him.
"They're called the Ninja Power Stars." Brody stated. "They're glowing, like the Nexus Star did ten years ago before my dad pulled it out!"
Brody reached his hand inside, taking the Red Power Star. He stared at it in disbelief.
"I...I don't believe it! It's chosen me!" He gasped. "It's chosen me to give its power!"
"Chosen...power...?" Sarah asked, thinking this all sounded eerily familiar. A huge grin split her face as she reached in, plucking out the Pink Power Star. The second she touched it, she could feel power racing through her, filling her and energising her. "No, FREAKING WAY!"
"What...what does all this mean?" Preston asked as he took the Blue Ninja Power Star from the Nexus Prism.
"I guess it's better to show you than to explain." Brody answered. "Do what I do!"
A star-shaped device appeared in his left hand, at which he clicked his Ninja Power Star into the centre of it. Sarah and Preston both found similar devices appearing in their hands.
"Whoa, it's like magic!" Preston exclaimed.
"Oh my God, Oh my God, I can't believe it, this is really happening!" Sarah rushed out.
Korvaka let out a huge cry and fired a blast their way. All three teenagers held up their morphers to block the blast. Korvaka just steadied himself on his feet.
"Ha, they couldn't have survived that!" He said, but quickly realised he had spoken a little too soon. As the smoke cleared, three Power Rangers were standing before him. Brody, Preston and Sarah all inspected their new suits with awe.
"YES!" She screamed, becoming giddy with delight at her newfound power. After her adventures in Amber Beach, after watching her friends do amazing things and wishing that she could do more to help them, it seemed like now she was finally her chance to be the superhero!