A/N: Plot's beginning to come together now. There's just one more thing we need.
Chapter 7
Dark Specter's heir did not normally consider herself a scientist. Which was why Ecliptor found it odd to find her in one of Finster's old moon laboratories, apparently making something in a giant vat, "Does something troubles you, my Princess?"
Astronema turned away from the cauldron to face her mentor, "Not something but someone: Divatox."
Ecliptor's expression was unreadable, "What about her?"
His charge's expression turned to disgust, "She is an incompetent fool. Wasting our resources, our money, and our monsters and accomplishing nothing to show for her efforts. As I recall, she was never to have engaged the Power Rangers at all. It was Havoc who insisted that she was the right one for the job."
"No doubt he wanted to exploit her failings for when he engaged them himself."
"Indeed he did. Those scans he sent us of the Turbo Megazord have proved invaluable for upgrading our weaponry. Yet for some reason, he refuses to engage them a third time. Even if our armies manage to capture Zordon's home-world of Eltar, we'd be no closer to ruling the universe until the Power Rangers are extinguished forever."
"What are you planning to do?"
"Recognize this?" She held up a palm-sized green crystal, "When Lord Zedd destroyed the Green Ranger powers, he transferred their energy into this crystal to be used by his Dark Rangers. Before he could however, it was shattered by Thomas Oliver, the first traitor to the Alliance. But despite being broken, the crystal's power was not lost. During the Machine Empire's time on Earth, they discovered the fragments of the broken crystal and reassembled it, hoping that its power would allow them to combat the Zeo Crystal. When that failed, rather than throw it away, King Mondo was wise enough to send it to me for analysis. Now, I shall use the power that remains to create a new monster, fused from the remains of two old ones. The first will be the Machine Empire's Midas Hound, a dog-like creature made of solid gold that could turn other objects into gold as well. The second will be Rita and Zedd's Pudgy Pig, a creature designed to eat just about anything and convert it into energy for its attacks." As she spoke, she placed the crystal into the vat. Its energy caused the mixture to quickly heat up and expand.
Sensing danger, Ecliptor grabbed her arm, "It's getting too large."
"No," she didn't react at all, "It's working. All of my efforts are finally nearing completion."
How long had she been down here? Had she lost her mind? "Please Astronema, your safety is at risk!"
The sound of her name brought her out of her daze, and they fled the palace. The instant they made it through the exit, the vat exploded, flinging the two of them to the ground. Then the whole castle began to quake, crack, and fall apart. When it was over, Rita and Zedd's palace had been reduced to rubble.
"What have you done?"
Astronema grinned wickedly, "My experiment succeeded. Behold my unstoppable creation. Behold Goldgoyle!"
Knowing that Divatox would be completely useless, the Princess of evil sent the beast to Earth to engage the Rangers, while she sent a platoon of Quantrons to back up General Havoc. Despite his incredible power, Goldgoyle fell to the Turbo Rangers, but not before he had destroyed both their Megazords and their weapons. Before they could recover, Havoc attacked; quickly forcing the Rangers to retreat. Astronema saw it all. She saw the Quantrons break down the door, she saw the General arm detonators around the building's foundation, and she saw Zordon's command center burn to the ground. Once the flames had died, she turned to Ecliptor.
"Call them off."
"But my Princess, the Rangers still live."
"Yes, and if they die, others will replace them. I want them to stay here, to know that their destruction is complete. That way, no heroes will rise to defend Earth ever again."
"As you wish."
"Havoc told me that he wants Divatox to take the credit for this victory. I'm sure he has his reasons, and it's better that no one knows we were involved anyway. Let the rest of the Alliance keep underestimating us for a little longer."
"Very well."
"It's time for us to go."
(Present day)
"You know, Thomas, you're being awfully calm about this." Katherine Oliver hurriedly paced back and forth over their living room rug. "One of your students has been kidnapped, and you're just sitting at the computer."
Her husband narrowed his eyes, "I'm not just sitting at the computer; I'm tracing the frequency of her Dino Gem. The signal is faint, so I'm having a hard time pinpointing it. Panicking will not solve anything. She's missing; we find her; we rescue her."
"Okay, okay, I'm just worried about her. My sense to the Power isn't as attune as yours, but last night…" She gave a small shudder.
"I know, sweetie, I felt it too. The last time a Ranger was in that much pain was when Kendrix…" He couldn't finish either. They both were silent for a few minutes, and both let out sighs of relief when the phone rang a few minutes later.
Kat picked it up, "Hello? Oh, hi Andros. What was that about Karone? Oh. Oh no. Is she okay? All right. I'll tell him. Yeah, tell Ashley we said hi. Bye Andros."
"Hey, I got something!"
"Great, where is she?"
"She's in Mariner Bay. But I still can't find her exact location."
"Let's gather the rest of the team."
"Hey, what did Andros want?"
His wife's face turned serious, "Karone has been removed from active service as a Ranger. Andros told me that she's also in Mariner Bay with the Lightspeed Rangers, and she's asking to see you."
"Me? Why me?"
"He doesn't know."
"Well, we're on our way there anyway; I suppose I could see her."
"This is all so bizarre. Triptoids attack then leave, Kira gets kidnapped, some of our friends' Items are missing. I may have to book another therapy session with Demetria after this."
Tommy grinned, "You do that, and you'll come home talking in questions again."
"Shall I pretend I didn't hear that?"
(End of Chapter)
A/N: This a little bit longer than normal, but that's because school's about to start for me. Because of that, I wanted to leave you guys with something to chew on until I can write again. So, one of Power Rangers' mysteries has been solved. What always bothered me about "Chase into Space" was how Goldgoyle just seemed to come out of nowhere. He wasn't mentioned in the episodes before then or afterward. Having Astronema as his creator served to tie the seasons in even further. To that end, having Havoc attack the command center instead of Divatox using Quantrons instead of Piranhatrons was my own personal input. I felt that he was far more worthy of that honor than she, and I don't think anyone would disagree with me. Now then, a twist. Karone and Tommy have some history together. How will that affect the story's future? Will Kira ever be saved? What sort of plan does The Syndicate have in store for our heroes? And most importantly, when the smoke clears away, will it be Karone or Astronema who stands triumphant?
