Chapter 8: A Bit of a Sticky Situation

Samuel and Wes were sitting at the Pummelo Party, talking about their experiences in school. They had discovered that they had more in common than they had thought.

"Wait, they did what?" asked Samuel with a huge grin on his face.

"They went and got a priest to perform an exorcism on me," laughed Wes, "I acted straight around them for about a week before I said that I had been 'converted' back into being gay!"

Laughing as hard as he could, Samuel tried to finish his drink but was unable to.

"Well when I told my parents they were fine with it, I mean they were a bit shocked as I expected them to be, but overall they were really supportive," said the pink ranger, "The real trouble was at school, everyone seemed to be scared of me or something, well they were until I met Alisha and Denise. After that everything seemed like it had gone back to normal."

"Well sounds like you had it lucky then," said the green ranger.


Centre of the Earth

"We need to do something to destroy those rangers!" cried out Mulch.

"You don't say," retorted Xynexia, "And here I thought that we needed to do something to pamper them."

Completely missing the sarcastic tone that Xynexia was speaking in, Mulch continued his little mini rant. The ice woman slapped her forehead before deciding to find Spector. She found the faceless man on the balcony, which seemed to be his favourite spot as of late.

"What do you want Xynexia?" asked Spector, in a deeply unsettling voice.

"I think that it might be time to send down another monster," replied Xynexia, "At the very least it will make Mulch shut up."

Spector nodded his head, "Fine, I'll also send down some Zuguys perhaps that will make it a little bit more interesting."


Pummelo Island

Samuel and Wes were still chatting away when they heard screaming from the streets. Rushing outside the youth centre, they saw a hoard of Zuguys, and what appeared to a strange mixture of an Ariados and Machamp. The monster had the head of and Ariados, with the body of a Machamp as well as having long spider leg-like protrusions coming from its back.

"What is that?" asked Wes, as the pair of them looked around for a place with no one of watch them morph.

To their surprise, there wasn't actually anyone around, them must have all ran off when the monster appeared.

"Well, I guess that this is a good as time as anything," said Samuel as he pulled out his morpher. "Orange Isles, Assemble!"

"Mikan Ranger!"

"Pummelo Ranger!"

"Hey you there!" called out the pink ranger, "What do you think you're doing?"

The monster turned towards them before screaming "Attack!" The Zuguys charged at the rangers, who were able to dispose of them one by one using their weapons. However, every time they killed one Zuguy, another one took its place.

"Uh, Thresh?" Wes asked. "We could use a little bit of help."

"The other rangers are on their way," came the reply.

As soon as he said that the three other rangers appeared, morphed of course. They summoned their weapons and ran into the battle, with Tim heading for the monster. The monster watched the ranger run up to him, and punched him in the stomach. Tim fell to the ground, clutching his stomach.

"Ha, you can't defeat me for I am the incredible Arachnichamp!" bragged the monster.

"Well I beg to differ," retorted Tim, holding his staff up. "Flamethrower!"

The head of the staff opened up and spewed forth a large plume of fire. The fire flickered against the monster's skin, but overall it did not do all that much.

"The fire should have hurt you," said Tim, "You're part bug type aren't you?"

"Yes, but I am also part rock type," replied Arachnichamp. "Spector knows better than to send me down with glaring weaknesses."

Before he could say anything else, Tim slammed his staff into the monster's stomach before proceeding to hit him in the head. Meanwhile the other rangers had to contend with the Zuguys, and they were starting to get tired. Blasting another couple of Zuguys away with a Thunderbolt, Denise was overwhelmed by the amount of Zubat monsters.

"Help!" she cried out.

Answering her call Samuel let loose with a Hyper Beam, destroying a large majority of the Zuguys. Alisha cocked her blasters and fired off several Hydro Pumps, also destroying many of the Zuguys. Nevertheless, more and more kept appearing.

"Where are they all coming from?" asked Wes.

"I imagine that Spector is somehow making more and more as we destroy them," replied Samuel. "And I find it quite very annoying."

"Seconded," commented Denise, getting up off the ground.

However, after destroying yet another round of Zuguys no more of them appeared. However, they immediately ran over to Tim and the Arachnichamp. The pair were currently parrying each other's blows, neither of them getting an advantage.

"Hey freakazoid!" Wes called out, "Catch!"

Throwing his shield as hard as he could, Wes was shocked when it merely rebounded off Arachnichamp's skin. Not giving up, he retrieved his shield and did it again, and again, and again. Finally, the monster started to growl in annoyance and knocked Tim away. Knocking the other three rangers away, Arachnichamp splayed his hand at the green ranger. A thread of silk shot out and started to wrap itself around Wes, who was unable to break free of it.

"Hel-" started to cry Wes before he was fully covered by the silk.

"Goodbye," said the monster before he and Wes disappeared.

"Wes!" Tim and Samuel cried out at the same time.

"Uh, Thresh," said Denise, "We have a bit of a situation."

And with that the four rangers disappeared in multicoloured flashes of light.


The Abyss

The rangers reappeared in the Abyss and immediately Samuel ran over Thresh.

"Tell me that you can find him!" pleaded Samuel. "Please, tell me that you can find where he is."

"I will try my best," replied the horned man, "It hopefully shouldn't take very long, so just wait here and I will do all I can."

Samuel nodded his head, demorphing as he did so. The other rangers followed suit, seeing that being morphed was not necessary.


Valencia Island

Wes frantically tried to break free from the thread that was keeping him in place, but they were incredibly strong. Arachnichamp laughed at the ranger's attempts to break free from the rock on which he was restrained.

"You can't break my thread," said the monster. "Not even a diamond drill can do that."

"I'll get out, and when I do I shall kick your butt," spat Wes, still struggling against the restraints.

Arachnichamp laughed at Wes' attitude, he knew that he would not break free.


The Abyss

Thresh was still searching for Wes, desperately scanning for the green ranger. He was about to give up his search when an alarm started to go off.

"What's that?" asked Alisha.

"Someone is sending us a message," replied Drake.

Suddenly an orb materialised, within it the face of Spector appeared.

"Why hello there rangers, and my dear old friend Thresh, oh and his assistant Drake," said the faceless man in a condescending tone. "As you are all aware, I have your beloved green ranger. I will give him back to you, but at a cost. I wish for nothing more than the morphers. And if you don't give them to me, well your friend may meet an unfortunate end."

With that, the orb disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

"What are we going to do?" asked Alisha, "Are we going to give up our powers?"

"We have to," replied Tim, "I can't let anything happen to Wes."

"Well there is one thing that we could do," said Denise.


Valencia Island

The four rangers appeared in front of Arachnichamp and Wes.

"What are you doing!" called out Wes, seeing that the rangers weren't morphed.

"We are giving over our morpher," said Samuel, "And you have to do the same thing as well."

Just as he was about to protest Thresh's voice burst into his helmet. "Just go along with it. The rangers have a plan and we are confident that it will work."

"Alright," said Wes, powering down. "You can have my morpher."

As soon as the ranger powered down, Arachnichamp was onto his morpher; but he kept Wes tied up.

"Now your morphers," ordered the monster, holding his hand out to the other rangers.

With a sad look on his face Tim walked forward and placed a bag in Arachnichamp's hand.

"Yes!" cried out Arachnichamp, "I have the morphers!"

With the morphers now in his possession, Arachnichamp let Wes out of his restraints. The moment that he hit the ground, the green ranger dashed over to the other rangers.

"Now what are we going to do?" asked Wes. "He has our morphers, we have no powers left."

"We still have one thing left," replied Denise. "Now Thresh!"

As soon as the words left Denise's mouth, both Wes and Arachnichamp were surprised to see the rangers' weapons materialise.

"What's going on here?" boomed Arachnichamp. "I have your morphers!"

"Just because you have our morphers doesn't mean you have our powers!" yelled Alisha, firing off several Hydro Pumps at Arachnichamp.

The monster merely stood there, unfazed by the attacks. "Do I need to remind you what happened last time."

"He does have a point," said Wes, "We can fight him all we want, but how are we going to beat him?"

"With the Isle Blade," said Tim.

"The what?"

"The Isle Blade," replied Tim, "Just say Isle Blade activate!"

"Um... okay," said Wes before he and the other rangers shouted out in unison.

"Isle Blade Activate!"

The rangers' weapons started to glow before they floated into the sky. The Doom Staff went upright, with the Miltank Prongs sticking to each side of the head. The Remoraid Blasters slotted on the front and back of the head, water spurting out of the mouths. The Vileplume Shield slotted down at the bottom of the staff and created a handle for the Blade. Finally the Ton gloves grabbed the bottom of the Blade, and sent electricity running through the Blade. The Blade then zoomed towards Arachnichamp, and in one swift swing, sliced right through the monster.

As the two pieces of Arachnichamp fell to the ground, he let go of the morphers. Quickly grabbing their morphers, each of the rangers retrieved their own and put them in their pockets.

"Well thankfully that is over with," said Wes, "That thread was starting to hurt my wrists."


Centre of the Earth

"Argh!" yelled Spector, "I was just about to get the morphers! Energy of the lost and forgotten, make my monsters grow!"


Valencia Island

The lightning zapped the two pieces of the monster, which merged before growing giant. Looking up at the giant monster, the rangers grabbed their morphers.

"Orange Isles, Assemble!"

"Mikan Ranger!"

"Navel Ranger!"

"Trovita Ranger!"

"Kumquat Ranger!"

"Pummelo Ranger!"

"We need Orange Isle Zords!"

The five mechanical Zords appeared and the rangers were teleported into them.

"Orange Isle Megazord, activate!" called out Tim.

First the Zords formed the Battle Tank, before they continued transforming into the Megazord. Arachnichamp laughed as the Megazord started to move towards him.

"Ha, you think that you can beat me with that hunk of metal!" laughed the monster. "Just you try."

"He does remember that we beat him with a flying sword right?" asked Alisha. "Oh well, it doesn't matter because we will beat him again."

The Megazord lurched forward and threw a punch at Arachnichamp. The monster grabbed onto the hand and started swinging the Megazord around. The rangers held onto their seats as the Megazord went around and around. Finally, Arachnichamp let go and sent the Megazord into a nearby forest.

"Time for the Vileplume Cannon?" asked Wes as the Megazord picked itself up.

"Let's do it," said Tim.

The Megazord lifted its right arm up and the Vileplume Zord started to charge up. A huge beam of energy burst from it and went straight through Arachnichamp. The monster looked down at the hole before exploding into a million pieces.


Pummelo Island

"Thanks for getting me back guys," said Wes.

"No probs, we wouldn't have let anything happen to you," said Tim, the others agreeing.

"Hey who wants another drink?" asked Wes, getting up to get another round of drinks

"Yeah, I'll have another one."

"Me too."

"I'll have one as well."

"I'll help you get them," said Samuel.

As the pair walked over to the counter Samuel asked Wes a question that had been troubling him for a long time.

"So you doing anything this weekend?" he asked.

"No, why?" Wes replied with a question of his own.

"Well, if you aren't doing anything I was wondering if you want to go and catch a movie," muttered Samuel.

"Sure, see you on Saturday at six."


AN: And that's the end of another chapter. Wes and Samuel's relationship has started to blossom, and soon another one shall as well. Remember R & R.