Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers
(Thanks ShivaVixen, and my sis Lilith Twin for helpping me decide on what to Animal Spirit to give Tanya! I really appreciate it!)
Chapter Ten: The Forgotten Dimension- Part I
"My name is Alone. Ninjor has sent me, not only to give the final power-coin to Ms. Sloane in order to complete the great Power, but to assist you in the trouble you are facing." Alone began as he looked around at the Rangers.
Crossing his arms, Alone looked over towards the viewing globe. "Ninjor would have come to Earth to deliver the final Power Coin himself, but he is preoccupied at the moment with other matters. So, in his place he has sent me, until he has taken care of these other matters."
"The additions of Ms. Lain and Ms. Sloane as Rangers, unites the 12 Spirits of the Ninjetti, thus completing the Great Power. As for what this means as far as the future of this battle it is uncertain. But, you must know that I am here to assist you in any way that I am possibly able to, if extra power is needed."
Billy crossed his arms. He found it odd that there would be exactly 12 parts of the Great Power.
Sensing Billy's curiosity, Alone spoke up. "The Ninjetti powers were created to work upon a basis of harmony and balance. So, an even number had to be chosen. Harmony and balance usually is the intention of most Ranger Power, especially of the Ninjetti Ranger Power. It falls sort of along the ideas of opposing forces in the universe working in harmony. The Ninjetti power is composed of two halves, working in harmony."
Turning toward the Rangers, Alone smiled. "The Falcon, The Crane, the Wolf, The Bear, the Frog, and The Ape, make up one half of the power." He stated as he looked at each of the five rangers who were present in the room as he spoke their name.
"The Owl, the Hawk, the Turtle, the Tiger, the Lion, and the Rabbit make up the other half."
"So, essentially the way that the Ninjetti power was divided, in mirror halves, yet opposite?" Trini asked curiously.
Looking at the group, she had noticed that the group that composed the first half of the power, there were only two birds, The Falcon and the Crane, like it was with the other half, where there were only two birds, the Hawk and the Owl. As well, the first half of the Power, Trini noticed that there were Four guys and Two girls, which was opposite from the other side, where there were Four girls and Two guys.
Alone nodded, "Looking among your group, it would almost appear as if the Ninjetti power were divided that way. Although that, I'm sure, was not the original intent of the Ninjetti power, since you were paired with your sacred animal, based solely upon the qualities of your personality, and soul that were most compatible with the traits of the sacred animal. Meaning that any of you could have ended up with any of the Ninjetti powers."
Giving a slight chuckle Adam looked towards the others. He couldn't imagine how the Ranger team would be if they didn't have the Ranger-power that they had now. He had thought he had been pretty bummed out whenever they had received the Ninjetti Powers for the first time when they had travelled to Phaedos. He couldn't imagine how bummed out he would have been if he had ended up with the Animal spirit that Kimberly had received!
"Individually, you have in your possession separate power-coins, and separate powers. Your power is unique to you. With this the Ninjetti powers are separate powers, within one half of the Power. Like the Power-coins, though they may be separate, they are a piece of a greater power. As the Tiger has pointed out, you are divided equally in half. Six males, and six females, thus, composing the two halves of a power. However, together all 12 powers are a piece of a Greater Power, collectively. A Power which you all share. You are a team, and therefore your power-coins are united in power, though clearly separate. So is the Power of the Ninjetti." Alone continued.
Giving a slight glance to his wrist, Alone nodded. "The Great power was divided into 12 parts, aside from the fact of creating a team that has variety of skills they could contribute to the team; it was mainly for a safety purpose. That way, if one were to die, the power would not be reduced greatly if the power were distributed say, among two, three, or four individuals."
Tanya couldn't help but feel, that the look that Alone gave to his wrist, was a signal that there was something that he was not telling them.
"Damn." Mr. Oliver stated angrily as he punched the wall. Over the last few minutes things were getting way too out of hand for him. The last thing that he remembered was seeing some horrible monster appear, falling unconscious, and waking up here.
"Face it, we're all stuck here." Mrs. Hart stated with a disdainful sigh as she paced around the area. One minute she had been in Paris with her husband, wondering how her daughter was doing, and now here she was with her daughter's friend's parents in the middle of only god knows where.
Mrs. Campbell sat down next to her husband. She didn't like this one bit. all around them was a high stone wall.
This place was just terrible. There was barely any light, and the whole area had a sickening damp feel too it, not to mention the smell was enough to suffocate someone after awhile. There was only one door here, but they had found out quickly that on the other side of it was a monster.
"The most we can do it keep up our hope that maybe the Power Rangers will save us." Mr. Cranston said, trying to keep the other parents from going insane. Although his optimism wasn't exactly helping them.
Mrs. Oliver sighed. "I doubt the Power Rangers even know if we're here. Besides we've got to be realistic about it. They're probably much more concerned about other things than some missing adults. Even then, they would have to find us." She stated crossing her arms.
"I wonder what they're planning on doing with us...." Mrs. Campbell wondered as she looked at the door.
"What I want to know is why we're the only ones who got abducted." Mrs. Desantos stated as she stood up, and began pacing the room.
It was odd that their children happened to be friends, and the majority of them (including her son) had gone mysteriously missing earlier that day, and then the next thing that they knew was that they had gotten abducted, and taken to this weird place. There had to be some sort of connection between their children's disappearances earlier this evening, and why it seemed like they had been specifically targeted by that monster they had seen before ending up here.
All of the parents wondered if there was a possibility that these monsters had kidnapped their children and were holding them hostage somewhere in this place. But still even if that was the case, why? Surely this all couldn't have just been a whole random abduction, not when they all knew each other and had at least one thing in common.
"Hello Rangers."
To the sound of this soft voice all of the attention suddenly turned to the viewing globe. Beelzalea's image was projected on the screen, her eyes a pure white.
"Beelzalea!" Jason growled angrily as he saw her there. He was shocked that she still had the nerve to show her face to the Rangers, after what she had done to Rocky, and to all of them.
With a small laugh, Beelzalea titled her head to the side. "Well, it is good to see you too, Hawk." She stated in a mock tone of kindness. Her eyes flashing a brief golden color.
Shaking her head she continued on. "It is good to see all of you alive and well. I congratulate you for having once more proven to be a worthy match to my mistress Rita, my Queen Minerva, and my powers, and you have my deepest sympathy about what has happened to Rocky. He fought like a brave warrior until the end, and I do hope he does make a full recovery." She stated softly.
Kimberly crossed her arms. Like Beelzalea was really sorry for what she did to Rocky. It was her fault that he had almost died, and she had the nerve to pretend to feel sorry for what happened, as if she hadn't any part in the whole thing in the first place.
"Enough of the bullshit Beelzalea get to the point. What do you want?" Tommy stated harshly as he put his hand on his hip and looked at Beelzalea with narrowed eyes.
"I do not want anything from you, Falcon. I am merely a messenger this time. My Future Lord Ivan Ooze---" Beelzalea began.
Hearing this name, caused Kimberly, Billy, Adam, Aisha, and Tommy to stare in open mouthed shock and disbelief. Had she just said the name Ivan Ooze? They could have sworn that they had destroyed him a long time ago. He had been blown to smithereens by Ryan's comet! There couldn't possibly be any way for him to be alive!
....And what was with all this "Future Lord" stuff?
"So Ivan Ooze has returned. I suspect that this is your doing Beelzalea." Zordon stated calmly.
Beelzalea nodded slightly, "Yes. It was a rather complicated task, with all the mixing and crafting...and then having to hunt down a decent piece of his energy core, which managed to survive that blast. Even with that, I know, that my Future Lord Ivan isn't exactly what he used to be. But I figure that the work was all worth it. I mean---"
"Why don't you just get to the point already?" Kimberly demanded. She was getting tired of Beelzalea wasting time by talking. Surely their enemy had contacted them for more than a friendly little chat.
Giving a slight bow, Beelzalea smirked. "There is no need to be so hasty Crane. I was about to reach my point."
With this, The screen flickered over to a scene of a dungeon cell. The sight that they saw, made the rangers gasp in surprise and terror.
"As you can see, my Future Lord Ivan, has taken your parents hostage...."
"....Well....actually. he's taken The Falcon, The Frog, The Ape, The Wolf, The Bear, and The Crane's parents hostage. Of course, that was to be expected. My Lord Ivan did this before his arrival at the castle...and only kidnapped the parents of those that he remembered. So, Turtle, Lion, Hawk, Owl, Tiger, and Rabbit...all of your parents are safe and sound."
Tommy clenched his fist. Of all the dirty tricks that their enemies could pull! Sending down monsters to terrorize them, and devising plots aimed at them was one thing. Kidnapping their parents? Well that was a completely different story. It was plainly just crossing the line.
"They are being held in the Forgotten Dimension.. You have a choice Rangers, either you can surrender now, and your parents will be released. Or you can try to go and retrieve them yourself...in which you are giving all rights for a difficult challenge.." Beelzalea began as she smiled at the Rangers.
Looking at each other, the Rangers exchanged looks wondering which option was best. Of course, like it even had to be decided. After all, they knew that they couldn't just trust a bunch of villains to just easily let their parents go if they surrendered. Plus, on top of that, surrendering wasn't something that any of them were exactly willing to do immediately.
"We're not surrendering." Tommy stated stepping in front of the rest of the group.
Beelzalea smirked, and clasped her hands together, as if she were enjoying what she was hearing.
"I figured as much. Only Six of you will be allowed to enter into the dimension. Once in the dimension, you should be warned, that you will have Twelve hours to retrieve your parents and to get out of the realm. Otherwise, they will become mindless Zombies under my Future Lord Ivan's control." She stated as she crossed her arms.
Biting her lip, Aisha looked back at the others. They all knew that if their parents were to end up under Ivan's mind control that they would undoubtedly have to face them in battle, which would mean taking the risk of killing them, or being killed by them.
Neither situation was the best in their opinions.
"I can already figure who is going to be entering the dimension, after all, it's the least the child will protect the parent from danger, just like the parent protected the child from danger. So Falcon, Frog, Wolf Crane, and Bear. You all will be entering the dimension."
"As seeing how, The Ape, is unable to come to his parents' rescue....you will be allowed to send in another Ranger in his place."
Almost immediately, Jason stepped towards the viewing Globe. "I'll go, in his place."
With a small smile, Beelzalea nodded. "I would have expected nothing else from you, Hawk."
Glancing over her shoulder briefly Beelzalea looked into the darkness of the hallway behind her. Her eyes flickered to a different color briefly, before she nodded and turned back to the Rangers. "But, seeing how you just came from one fight, and I am fairly merciful, I am going to give you until 6:00 tomorrow morning, to prepare. So say your goodbyes and rest up while you can." She stated.
With this the viewing globe went blank.
Jason took a deep breath and turned towards Alone. The look in his eyes seemed to say everything that he wanted to ask Alone. He wanted to talk to Rocky. Even though, Jason was sure that in Rocky's current condition there was no way in hell he would actually be hearing anything that he had to say to him, Jason felt the least he could do was promise him that he was going to bring his parents back. Even if it wasn't for Rocky's benefit, that he would make such a promise, it would be for his own.
Alone nodded, understanding. "You wish to speak with the Red Ranger. I understand. Although it might not be any use at the current time...I will take you to see him." He stated quietly.
As he started to lead Jason from the room, Aisha and Adam both spoke up. They were going to see Rocky with him. He was there friend after all. Of course, It didn't take too much longer afterward, for Jason and Alone, to soon be accompanied by all of the Rangers, minus Tanya and Kylie. (The both of them had decided that since they barely knew him in the first place, it wouldn't make much sense to be there with the others, and they could use the time to begin to be taught about their Ranger powers.)
"Queen Minerva's Chief Scholar and Magi has arrived." One of the monsters guarding the door announced from the other side of the door.
The door opened to the cell, causing the parents of the Rangers to jump, after the silence that had started to fall among them in the last few minutes, the sudden creaking of the door as it came open startled them.
A person entered the cell. They were all surprised by her appearance. Her white hair, fell around her shoulders, reaching almost to the middle of her back. Her eyes were pure-white. But that wasn't what really surprised them. What really surprised them wasn't her hair color, or her eyes, or her manner of dress.
"Wait...You're just a kid." Mr. Desantos spoke up in confusion as he looked at the girl who had just entered.
It was a shocking thing to see. All of them had figured that a "Chief Scholar" and such as the monster had claimed her to be, would have been a lot older than them. Instead the girl who stood in front of them didn't look to be any older than their children.
Beelzalea turned and looked at Mr. Desantos and his wife curiously. Her eyes flashed red as she looked at the both of them. Giving a small grunt, she looked down at the ground for a few minutes. Finally she shook her head and turned away from the both of them, her eyes becoming pure-white again.
"What do you want with us? Why are you here?" Mrs. Oliver asked backing up from Beelzalea as she took another step into the cell.
Beelzalea gave a small smile, as she looked at Mrs. Oliver, Her eyes becoming a slightly off-white color. "Please, Ma'am, I mean you no harm right now. Possibly by 6:00 in the evening tomorrow...I may mean harm. That is if my Future Lord Ivan decides that I will be the one to carry out his plans..but for now, I merely have come with some news."
Mr. Cranston stood up and took a step towards Beelzalea, "What news?" He asked. Although he could already tell that it was not going to be good, he already had a feeling that whatever news this girl had to give them, it couldn't be good.
"I have news of your children."
"What about Kimberly?" Mrs. Hart asked in a slight panic. What had this witch done to her daughter? She better not have harmed her.
".....They are going to be here soon." Beelzalea stated calmly as she turned from the room. Turning from the room, she gave a brief look to Rocky's parents. The brief look in her eyes seemed to show sympathy, and pity, and a slight sorrow, almost as if she were apologizing to them for something.
With out a further word She left the room.
The Rangers parents looked from one another with worried looks. They had been right that there wasn't any good news coming from that lady. Now, not only were they in danger, but their children had been dragged into this whole thing too!
It took a few minutes for the Rangers to reach the room where Rocky was. When they got there, they were greeted by a most unusual sight. This room, looked almost like a rather high-tech hospital room in itself. Computers and monitors, each with different purposes were all around the room. Some were monitoring Rocky's heart-beat, while others were monitoring his brain activity.
The only light in this room came from the blue- white glow of the monitors' screens.
After looking around the room for a few minutes, the Rangers finally caught sight of Rocky. He was lying upon a bed, The wounds that he had received from the battle, had healed, just like the wounds that the others had received during the battle had healed. All his wounds had healed, except for wounds that had been a little too severe for the teleportation to heal. Although, these were bandaged up, and were now nowhere near as severe as they had once been.
He was really a rather pathetic sight to behold. It actually made Adam feel rather sorry for his friend. He could barely stand seeing his friend hooked up to all these computers, with an oxygen mask assisting him to breathe. Things shouldn't have been this way. He shouldn't even be seeing the scene before him. Instead, he, Rocky, and the others should have been back in the main room of the Command Center, laughing the whole incident off, and preparing for the next mission.
Another question, which Adam wondered was what were they going to tell Rocky's parents?
After all they couldn't just make up a lie about where Rocky really was, because after awhile, Adam knew that Rocky's mother and father would start to get suspicious and go looking for their son, and if he wasn't where they had told them he was, then they would be angry. Of course, they just couldn't tell them the truth.
Adam could only imagine how that conversation would have gone. He wondered how they would react if they were to find out that their son was a Power Ranger. In fact, he wondered how all of their parents would have reacted if they found out that their children were super-heroes.
Jason slowly approached Rocky. Looking down he frowned and crossed his arms. Although he remained silent the look in his eyes were enough to show that everything thing he wanted to say, he was saying in his head.
It felt like a funeral. All of them standing around Rocky's bedside, with their heads hung in silence. A few tears clinging to some of their eyelashes, while tears rolled freely down the faces of others. It was actually, kind of depressing, Billy thought, as he looked at the scene before him.
This depressing silence hung among the Rangers for several minutes, before anyone spoke.
"We should start preparing for tomorrow." Jason finally said opening his eyes and turning towards the others, who all nodded.
"I was thinking, that there is no telling where the portal will land us in this dimension, so we should have the shark-cycles on standby, in case we might need them to save a little time." Tommy stated as he crossed his arms.
Nodding in agreement, the others looked towards one another. The shark-cycles would be useful. Sure, since their creation, they really hadn't gotten much use, but they figured that now would be a good time to have them on standby, in case they were needed.
Of course, getting back, might have been a little difficult, if simple teleportation didn't work, but they would come to that problem when they got to it, if it even happened in the first place. There wasn't much use to try to figure out a problem before it arose.
"Kat, Zack, Tanya, Kylie, and I will be in touch with the command center tomorrow, and keeping an eye out for any monsters that they might send down, while you guys are gone." Trini stated as she crossed her arms.
For several minutes afterward, there was a silence among the Rangers. They weren't sure how to even depart to allow themselves to get some rest for tomorrow. After all it was getting late, and they had quite a long day tomorrow. After all that they had just been through that day, they were hungry and exhausted. If they were going to be successful in this mission they would need their strength, and need to be rested enough to think things through with a clear and rested mind.
"I guess the five of us can stay over at my place for tonight." Aisha offered after a few minutes. She felt that the others probably weren't very willing to return back home that night, knowing that their parents weren't there. Kimberly could stay in her old bedroom there, since they had been using it as a guest bedroom since she had left. Tommy could sleep in her parent's room, she was sure that they wouldn't really mind since they wouldn't be there, Billy could crash on the pull-out mattress/sofa in the living room, if he was okay with that. If he wasn't then Aisha didn't mind sleeping there, and offering Billy her bed for the night. Of course, finding a place for Adam to sleep would be pretty difficult, that was if he minded sleeping in the recliner in the living room.
"Just one question. What are we going to do about Kylie tonight? It's not exactly like she has any family that we can just send her to." Adam asked after a few minutes of thought.
The others looked to each other curiously. They weren't really sure. Adam did have a point. They might have known where her parents were from, and their names, but that didn't guarantee that they were going to find them, and not within one night. On top of that there was no telling if her parents were still alive, after knowing about the accident that had caused Kylie to be separated from her parents in the first place.
"If you were to speak to Zordon, I am sure that he would be alright with Ms. Lain taking up a temporary residence here at the Command Center, until we can locate her parents and reunite her with her family." Alone stated giving a polite bow to them. They had almost forgotten that he was there, until he had spoken up.
Agreeing that that would be a good idea, the group turned to Rocky, giving him one last look as if to tell him that they would be seeing him later.
After that they returned to the main room of the Command Center, to speak with Zordon. Once the arrangements were made for Kylie to stay at the Command Center, all 10 Rangers left the Command Center.
Kylie had been left pretty much alone in the company of people that she didn't even know, and only had gotten introduced to a short time ago. This whole situation was making her nervous. Although, she had seemed to be able to do pretty well in a large group, in this small group, of just her, Alone, Zordon, and Alpha, she seemed at a total loss for words, and just felt plain awkward.
Maybe it was because a little while ago, with the larger group, she had at least one person there whom she had gotten used to. Now, she was just standing in a room with people she didn't even know at all. To make things more uncomfortable, none of them were actually human.
Alpha, Kylie had come to find out, was a robot, which was probably why she couldn't pick up a scent on him. Zordon, was a giant blue head floating in a tube, which Kylie knew couldn't be a quality that would exactly mark one as being human. Besides, Adam had already explained to her that neither of them were human.
Now, Alone, on the other hand. Kylie thought as she cast a look towards the red-haired man from across the room. His appearance would classify him as human, however, there was just something about him that made her wonder. He had a scent attached to him that was rather peculiar. It was like the other Rangers, she could smell two scents, an animal scent, and the human scent. For Alone, the animal scent was never a stationary scent.
One minute, she could smell a scent that she identified with the Falcon, the next she could smell a bear, and the next it was an Owl, or it could be a Hawk, or any other animal. It was odd really. Could he have had several different Guardian Animal spirits? Is that why this scent was so curious?
Well, it doesn't really matter, she thought.
She wondered if things would be this awkward for her tomorrow. After all, Adam and a few of the others were going off on a Ranger mission, and Kat, Trini, Tanya, and Zack had said that they were going to take her shopping for some decent clothing tomorrow. Aisha had even agreed to give her an old pair of clothes for her to wear while out at the mall. since as Kimberly had put it, her clothes weren't really acceptable to be wearing out in public.
"Ms. Lain, I would think that, knowing of the plans that you have for tomorrow, you would like to go and wash up, and please understand that I mean no insult by saying this, but after several years of living out in the desert, I would expect that you might need a little bit of assistance in cleaning up and making yourself look decent." Alone stated quietly, cutting into Kylie's thoughts as he approached her.
With a nod, showing that she was not offended by what had been said.
Alpha walked up to her. "If you'll follow me Kylie, I will help you get cleaned up. Now, come on." He said as he led her out of the Main Chamber of the Command Center.
Blushing slightly, Kylie followed.
Things just seemed so quiet in the house, Aisha thought as she rummaged through the refrigerator for something to cook up. Sure, the house was pretty crowded as it was, but they had barely said anything to one another since they had gotten there.
She guessed there was just so much that they didn't understand about this whole situation, that they were trying to figure out on their own. She had those questions floating through her mind as well.
Why was Ivan Ooze back? Had Beelzalea brought him back for the mere purpose of torturing them, by giving them one more problem to worry about. Plus, if she was able to bring Ivan Ooze back from the dead like that, Aisha hated to think of who else she could bring back from the dead to fight them.
They knew that Beelzalea was capable of killing, or at least almost killing, and she was capable of bringing back people from the dead.
Aisha shivered at the whole idea. What if Rocky didn't get better and died? Beelzalea could probably bring him back, only as their enemy. Aisha knew she didn't want to fight Rocky again. She just didn't think that she would be able to do it, not again.
Of course, why had Ivan wanted their parents? Other than turning them against them.
Did it matter why he kidnapped their parents? He wanted to use them for evil! Also, there was the fact that even though it seemed that Beelzalea was giving them some time to prepare, how did they know that she wasn't going to pull some underhanded trick, like she had done before which had led them all into this situation with Rocky, and so that it would turn out that they had no possible way of making it to their parents and out of the dimension before time ran out.
Man, Aisha just wanted to get her hands on Beelzalea and wring her neck!
With a sigh as she took a deep breath. Listen to me! she thought as she shook her head and looked down at the food she was cooking. Thinking like that isn't any way that I should be thinking! I've never thought about killing enemies like that.
She gave a slight glance over to the other two rangers who were in the kitchen with her. Ever since this whole thing had begun, they were all starting to act a little different. When Minerva had told them that she had killed Adam, (which Aisha was completely glad was a lie.) Zack had started showing some signs of unusual anger.
He had actually started talking of wanting to kill Minerva, and get revenge for Adam's death. In the short time that Aisha had come to know Zack, before he went to the peace-conference, and after he returned, she knew that Zack wasn't the type of person who would actually want to kill someone.
The thought of killing never really bothered Aisha before. After all they had just been killing off monsters, in order to defend the city. They never really had to face Rita and Zedd before, but what if they had to?
They would have to kill them. Which, wouldn't that be destroying a family? I mean sure they were evil, but they were still a family none the less. If they had to kill Rita, then Minerva and Master Vile, wherever he was, would be losing a Daughter, Rito would be losing his sister, and Zedd would be losing his wife.
If they had to kill Minerva, well then they would be killing Rita's mother. (Aisha highly doubted that Rito was related to Minerva.)
Then, if they had to fight, Goldar and all of the other henchmen around the castle, including Beelzalea, they wouldn't be any better than any of them, by killing them, they would almost be like monsters themselves.
These thoughts, these had to have been the thoughts that Ivan Ooze had wanted them to have by kidnapping their parents like this. Aisha wasn't sure, but somehow she just knew.
All of these thoughts were causing Aisha's head to hurt. She didn't want to think about them, but she just couldn't help it. It was hard not to think about, especially after all that had happened.
Tommy could see the look on Aisha's face. It was one that he didn't see often on the Yellow Ranger's face. It was one of troubled thoughts. He really didn't like seeing his friends starting to have troubled thoughts like this, especially not the night before a big mission like this.
"Hey, Adam, would you mind going and helping Billy and Kim out with setting up sleeping arrangements, and getting everything ready for tomorrow? I think Aisha and I have got it in here." He said turning towards Adam, and giving a stern expression that seemed to clearly say to the Black Ranger that he wanted to talk to Aisha alone.
Giving a look towards Aisha, and then to Tommy, Adam nodded and left the room. Before he left, he put his hand on Aisha's shoulder, and gave her a reassuring look, trying to tell her that he was there for her, and understood what she was going through, even if she hadn't said it aloud to anyone.
"Aish. You alright?" Tommy asked the minute that Adam left the kitchen.
Sighing, Aisha nodded. It was a lie, both she and Tommy knew it.
Well, he couldn't force her to tell him exactly what was wrong. If he knew anything about Aisha, it was that she was very honest, and couldn't stick to a lie for very long, unless she had to (which is the whole reason why her parents hadn't found out that she was a Ranger at this point.)
If something was bothering her she would tell them in the matter of time.
After a few seconds, Aisha finally just gave up. Turning towards Tommy she shook her head. She just wanted to talk about her problems, just one thing at a time, and with a level head, but the minute that she opened her mouth, she just couldn't help it, it all just came out at once in just a panicked rush.
"No, no, I---I'm not alright! I just don't know what's going on anymore. I mean with all that has been going on, I mean with all that happened to Rocky....and If Beelzalea can bring people back from the dead, who's to say that.....I just don't think I can do that again, Then, I start thinking about our parents...and who's to say that we'll make it in time? I mean, what if giving us time is a trick? With all that.....well I just feel like killing Beelzalea. But, that's not like me at all, and then I started thinking, well, what if we do have to kill someone? Sure, they're our enemies, but if we have to kill them, then we'd be breaking up families. I mean, I can handle the possibility of dying, but I know that my parents won't be able to. I mean look at Adam's parents......and when I starting thinking about it...."
Tears had begun to pour from her eyes as she started to talk.
Tommy hadn't seen this sort of emotion from Aisha, ever, usually Aisha was the one who was cheerful, and wouldn't cry if things were completely stressful for her. This whole situation must have really been bothering her. If all of her thoughts were starting to run together into an almost incomprehensible train of thought.
"Aisha, calm down...what are you trying to say?" He stated, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking down at her.
"I just...when I became a Ranger, I didn't ever think that things were going to end up like this."
So, that was it. All this stuff that was going on was really starting stress her out. Well, Tommy could relate to the whole situation. He was sure that most of the team could relate to how she was feeling.
However, in this situation, Tommy just couldn't think of what to say. Normally he could think of the perfect thing to say, at just the right time, usually it never failed him. However, today it seemed as if for the first time, it was failing him.
Everything that he could say, seemed to come to his mind, and just as he was about to say them he found that they got caught in his throat, and he just couldn't say anything.
It took several minutes, but finally, Tommy found something to say. Although he knew that it wasn't going to be helpful, it was something.
"Look, Aisha. I know how your feeling. All of us do. It's not like we exactly could have predicted that things would get like this. Zordon chose us to be Power Rangers--Well, Trini, Zack, Jason, and Kimberly chose you, Rocky, Adam, and Kat to be Power-rangers, but Zordon agreed to the decision---anyhow my point is, Zordon wouldn't have chosen us or allowed the others to choose you guys, if he didn't think that in some way we would be able to handle whatever situation we ended up in, and maybe this is one of the things that we're just going to have to work through."
Biting her lip, Aisha looked over. She wasn't so sure about what Tommy was saying, but she appreciated the fact that he was trying to make her feel better. After giving him a small smile and telling him that she appreciated what he was doing, she turned her attention back to the food.
Something was really odd about this whole situation, Adam thought as he helped Kimberly and Billy make up the bed in the living room. It wasn't just that Ivan Ooze was back, and had kidnapped their parents, something else was bothering him.
When Beelzalea had contacted them to tell them that their parents were kidnapped, something had been rather odd about what she had said. He just couldn't figure out what was wrong with what had been said.
He kept thinking about the whole transmission, trying to pick out what wasn't right about what was said.
You....have my deepest sympathy.....about what happened to Rocky.....
....Rocky? Adam thought curiously, as the phrase was repeated in his head for the fifth time.
"She called him by his name...." He found himself saying aloud.
The suddenness of this outburst, caused Both Kimberly and Billy to look at Adam curiously. What did he mean by "she called him by his name?" Who called who by their name?
Noticing the confused looks, Adam began to explain.
"I thought something was a little off about what Beelzalea had said when she was telling us about what happened. Whenever she addressed us, or even mentioned us, she would call us by our Animal spirits. I didn't realize it until now, there was at least one time, which she didn't. When she was talking about what happened to Rocky.....she called him by his name. Of course, after this time she went back to calling him by his animal spirit."
Billy crossed his arms and looked down at the floor as he pondered over this.
There didn't seem to be any real importance of it. Other than the fact that Beelzalea had slipped, when talking. It wasn't like Beelzalea might actually have been showing hints of sincerity when she had said that she felt bad for what she had done to Rocky? Or in the fact that she was acting as if that she had no part in it? After all why would she?
"I doubt it's really important, maybe it was just a slip-up."
"I dunno, It kind of just made me wonder. It's a little suspicious to me at least."
"Well, I don't know so much about her, but you want to know who I think is suspicious? Alone, that's who. I mean.....this guy shows up out of nowhere, and claims to have been sent by Ninjor to help us, but if he knows Ninjor, how come we've never seen him, or even heard of him before this point? I mean, sure he's polite and kind, but that makes me all the more suspicious....I mean we know nothing about him!" Kimberly spoke up.
Billy and Adam nodded in agreement. Alone was quiet a mystery to them as well. Even though they had only known him a short time, they were rather suspicious of him already.
Alone, Kimberly remembered, referred to them by their animal spirits sometimes, when he wasn't calling them Mr. or Ms., or using their names.
She had the feeling, that there was something that Alone was going to have to tell them eventually. Something about his own origins that the Rangers needed to know, which she hoped that they would come to find out before they got to be in more of an alliance with Alone, and then whatever he had to tell them, might end up making things ten million times more difficult than things were already.
Even though, Alone hadn't told them anything much about himself, other than that he was in an alliance with Ninjor and the Rangers, Kimberly had the feeling that there was, in a way a connection between Alone and their enemy. She wasn't so sure, but it just felt as if she had a sixth sense, like a Ranger-ability, that just made her believe that there had to have been some link between Alone and their enemies.
Whatever it was, Kimberly was sure, that Alone probably didn't know about it. If he did, then he was probably hoping for things to get seriously complicated before he told the Rangers.
Beelzalea was walking down the hallway back to the servants quarters, a frown upon her face as she thought. Her Mistress Rita wasn't taking so kindly to Ivan Ooze as quickly as she was hoping, of course not that she really expected it, after what he had done the first time that he and Rita had met.
What she needed was a love potion, and a rather strong one at that. One that would be difficult to find an antidote for, After all she didn't want Zedd to be able to just simply pick up any type of antidote for the potion, and reverse it.
But, she thought, A strong love-potion such as the one that I need to make, could be dangerous. If a love potion is too strong, it will become a rather potent poison, and claim my Mistress's life.
As she continued to walk down the hall, she found her way to the Servants' quarters blocked by Finster. He looked as if he wanted to speak to her about something. Beelzalea already knew what he wanted to talk to her about.
"Ah, Finster! How pleasant to see you."
"Resurrecting the dead, is that why you sent the Tengu down to attack the Black-Ranger not soon after you had arrived?"
"I haven't a clue of what you are talking about. I merely sent the Tengu and Putty down to knock out the Frog, so that I could monitor his dreams, and figure out what needed to be done in order to locate the Purple Rabbit Power-coin. Although, that fell through, I wasn't quiet counting on the Frog having back-up." Beelzalea stated with a mock-tone of innocence in her voice.
Finster crossed his arms, as he looked down his nose at The white-haired Magi.
"Blood of an enemy....Beelzalea. You of all Magi, would know that there are only a few uses of it. You could have monitored the Black Ranger's dreams without his blood. You instead collected it for the potion that you used to bring Ivan Ooze back from the dead."
With a smile, Beelzalea held her hands up slightly, "Alright, fine, I shall admit to such a crime. Yes. That is why I had the Tengu collect some of the Frog's blood."
"Beelzalea, You realize that what you've done is dangerous, and not to mention highly illegal according to the law of the Magi?"
Nodding, Beelzalea turned away from Finster. Of course she was aware of how dangerous it was, but it had worked, and had been worth it. She needed Ivan Ooze as part of her plans to get Rita and Zedd apart. Sure, he wasn't exactly the same person that he had been before, but she figured that was because of the way that Ivan had died, there hadn't exactly been much of a decent energy core left.
Shrugging she, turned back towards Finster. "It's not like any of the authorities are going to find out about it. Plus, if they do, I could tell them the truth; that I resurrected Ivan, for the purpose of helping take down the Power Rangers. they'll understand." She stated with a smile.
Finster shook his head. " Beelzalea, If the Magi-council finds out that you even made the attempt to bring someone back from the dead, they'll put you on trial! If they put you on trial, they'll force you to take a potion in which, you'll be forced to tell them everything, and when they find out the truth...you could be sentenced to exile, you will no longer be able to serve Queen Minerva as her Magi. They could take away your power. Or worse, you could be sentenced to death." He stated gravely as his dark eyes looked at Beelzalea.
He hoped that all that he said of what would happen, had scared her into trying to make some effort of correcting what she had done before the Magi-council found out about it. He really didn't want to see her going into exile, or even end up dead.
After all, he had known her since she had begun her training. He could remember the whole situation that had brought Beelzalea to become one of Minerva's servants, and eventually to become Minerva's Chief Scholar and Magi.
"I am not afraid of what the Council might say or do, if they find out. They, like many Magi, listen to what may be reasonable, and if they are to exhale me, and attempt take away a power that is not even in their authority to take away from me, then so be it. But let it be known I will not simply stand by and submit to the Magi-council's will." Beelzalea stated as she crossed her arms.
Shaking his head, Finster frowned. There Beelzalea went again, being stubborn. She acted as if she didn't care what might happen to her. Unwilling to further this conversation with her, He turned and left.
"Beelzalea, Sometimes you have to think of the consequences of your actions before you even take action." He stated before he left.
With a frown, Beelzalea crossed her arms and turned and walked down the stair-way to the servants' quarters.
Don't speak to me about consequences Finster, I know what consequences my actions produce, perhaps if anyone were to think of consequences, it would be you.
Morning had come almost too slowly for the Rangers. They had barely gotten any sleep during the night, worrying about what might happen.
But, soon there they were, all of them in the Command Center, just awaiting Beelzalea's next transmission to open the portal for them to enter the dimension.
Once, Beelzalea had opened the portal for them, nervousness began to go through the ranger's hearts. They had no idea what was on the other side of this portal. The only thing that was certain was that somewhere in the land beyond that portal, their parents were there. Anxiously awaiting their rescue.
"Good luck you guys." Zack stated giving each of the Rangers a brief hug, or pat on the shoulder. Honestly he was worried for them. There was no telling what they would run into in that dimension, knowing that Beelzalea was capable of pretty much killing someone if she wanted to. He hoped that this all wasn't some trick to trap his friends in another dimension forever.
He hoped that in twelve hours he would be getting to see his friends again, and their parents would be safe. He just hoped that once they passed through that portal, which had just appeared in the middle of the Command Center; that would not be the last time that he would ever see them.
"Keep in touch." Jason stated as he looked at the group of Rangers who were going to be staying behind. Even though he knew that he should be one of the ones who were staying behind, only hoping that his friends return safely, he had made a promise to Rocky (Even if Rocky wasn't currently aware of it) that he would bring back his parents at all costs.
With a smile, Trini nodded, telling her friends that she would do just that. As well, she told them to stay safe.
"Well, remember Kylie as she is now, because once Kat, Tanya, and Trini are done with her today, you won't be able to recognize her!" Zack joked as he looked over at Kylie, who was playing with the sleeves of the sweat-shirt that she had changed into earlier.
The Rangers, all gave a small laugh, and bid each other goodbye one last time, before stepping through the portal. Once the last Ranger had passed through the portal, it closed quickly. Obviously, Beelzalea had set the portal up to know whenever the six Rangers were going through the portal, so that it would shut immediately, not allowing any tag-along.
A cold sigh rang through the Command Center as the Rangers who were left behind quietly hoped that their friends would return.
"We'd better stay on watch today...With Six Rangers gone, I almost feel that Rita and them are going to be looking for any chance to strike. " Zack stated as he turned towards the others, who all nodded in agreement.
"I shall go with you today, If any trouble is to arise." Alone stated as he stepped towards the Rangers, giving a slight smile.
Zack could tell that part of the reason that Alone had even decided that he should come along, would be so that Zack wasn't the only guy in the group that day, so that way, whenever they had to wait around for the girls Zack wouldn't feel so awkward.
While Zack appreciated what Alone was doing, he knew that it was going to get incredibly uncomfortable if he had to spend even five minutes alone, with Alone. After all he barely knew the guy, what could they talk about? Alone probably didn't know that much of Earth, so Zack guessed that he could explain things to him if he asked. But, other than that?
"Well, Kylie," Kat stated with a sigh, and a smile, "We'd better get going, it's a two hour drive to the Turtle Cove Mall; we decided to go there instead of to the one here in Angel Grove, because we were hoping to find something out about your parents. Since your mother was from Turtle Cove, there might be some sort of record there, or something about her. We decided to go to Turtle Cove, since it is closer to Angel Grove than Arizona is."
With a smile, Kylie looked towards Kat and the others. She was grateful that it seemed that they were willing to go out of their way to help her out, by taking her and treating her like a friend, and helping her make attempts to reunite with her family.
"While you are out in Turtle Cove, keep close to your communicators, in case there is any trouble in Angel Grove that we would need to alert you of." Zordon stated as the Rangers were turning to leave.
The Rangers nodded, promising Zordon that they would.
"However, while we are gone, I think that Angel Grove will be safe. If an attack were to be launched, I would assume that it would be launched directly at us. I doubt that Rita and Zedd would want to mess with Angel Grove, Like most evil beings they are preoccupied on getting rid of their enemy." Alone stated as he crossed his arms and looked towards the other Rangers and then towards Zordon.
The portal had landed the Rangers up in the most unusual of places. It was what appeared to be a glass tunnel, which was under water. They could see the sun, distorted by the water over their heads, casting a beautiful distorted blue light all around them.
The light shown down through the barrier which protected them from the water, onto the road on which they stood on. It appeared almost to be made of crystal of some type. Fog, the color of an aurora hung around their ankles, occasionally a wisp or two would break away and be carried by the gentle breeze which blew through the tunnel and would brush up against the closest Ranger's gloved hand. giving whomever it touch a sudden, yet temporarily feeling of serenity.
It was a wonder why this dimension was called the "Forgotten Dimension" since it appeared that at one time there had to have been a civilization here that could have built the barrier above their heads, or the dungeons that they had remembered seeing their parents in. Why anyone would have just abandoned this place, none of them could understand.
However, they knew there had to be a reason behind it. Each of them had the feeling that even though this place was beautiful, it had to be deadly or dangerous in some fashion or another, that was probably the reason why it was called what it was.
According to the MPVGs, there were readings of a city just up the tunnel from them.
That was where, they all agreed, their parents must be.
"Alright you guys, We'd better get going. It doesn't look to be too much of a long drive to the city, But there isn't much telling on how large the city is, or if it's even the right place, and we've only got 12 hours to find our parents and get out of here." Tommy stated as he gripped the handle bars of the Shark-cycle and looked down the road.
The others took a deep breath as they looked towards one another, nodding.
"Alright, stick close, who knows what kind of traps this tunnel has on it." Tommy added as they sped down the road.
Billy felt uneasy about driving down this tunnel. As they drove, something just didn't seem right to him. He could feel his old fear of fish starting to come to him. It felt as if all the fish that they were seeing as they sped down the tunnel were looking at him, as if they were plotting to attack the barrier, destroy it, and drown him right there.
Odd flashes of the tunnel being flooded with water, kept coming to his mind as he drove. He could hear it's loud roar in his ears, almost as if it were roaring his name.
These visions were on and off, yet they distracted Billy. He had the worst feeling that these weren't just images created by his fear. He had a feeling that these things were going to happen, and they were going to happen soon.
Several minutes passed as Billy kept having these mental flashes.
The roaring was getting louder in his ears every time that these flashes occurred.
After a few seconds, and almost crashing into Aisha, Billy realized that the whole group had stopped in the middle of the road, and were staring down the tunnel. Even though they all had their Ranger helmets on Billy could almost tell that they were all looking curiously down the road, as if they could hear something, or saw something coming.
Looking around the area, Billy took a note that the fog that was on the road seemed to have evaporated entirely, Almost as if it had retreated in the presence of on-coming danger.
"Please tell me that I'm the only one who hears that." Adam stated looking towards the others. The tone in his voice, signaled that the noise that he heard was a source of worry.
Billy could hear it, it was the horrible squeak of an immense amount of pressure building up on glass. The air of the area was heavy, he could feel the pressure of the water above them starting to build up in the chamber where they were; the whole place had become something of a vacuum.
Thankfully, Billy thought, they were wearing their helmets and their Ranger suits, which provided oxygen in an environment where Oxygen was otherwise not present. Sort of like Billy imagine was the situation with this tunnel as of the present time.
The Squeaking was getting louder, grating to the ears like nails on a chalkboard. Following it, Billy could hear a crunch like glass shattering, being muffled by water. A low rumbling could be heard off in the distance.
Ahead of them, Billy saw the vision that he had ever since they had gotten there starting to come into reality. A wall of blackish-blue water was rushing towards them pouring into the tunnel through a large crack that was starting to open up along the roof of the barrier.
Without much hesitation, the Rangers quickly spun their shark-cycles around and took off speeding down the opposite end of the road. The wall of water was gaining on them at a rapid pace.
"This must be one of the traps that Beelzalea had set for us!" Aisha called to the others as she looked over her shoulder.
Billy had to agree with Aisha. The glass seemed to have been supportable enough when they had gotten there, until they had started to travel in this particular direction. This had to have been one of Beelzalea's traps. It was one of the only plausible explanations that he could come up with.
Ahead of them they could see the tunnel take a sharp turn, and go off into a steep uphill climb. At the end of this slope, the Rangers could see what appeared to be the gate-way to some sort of city. If they were going to get out of this, they would have to take this path, and they would have to do it quickly.
He could feel his heart beating in a panic in his chest as he saw his friends all ahead of him. Something told Billy that he wasn't going to make it to the city with the others. He wasn't going to get out of this tunnel.
The gate-way was closing, and his friends were far ahead of him, they would pass through the gate-way just fine, and if he kept driving he would make it too, but something told him that he just wasn't going to make it.
His thoughts were right, the second that they had left his head, something came flying at him passing through the glass beside him that had not shattered. It struck him in the side, causing him to veer out of the way, and be knocked off the Shark-cycle. The loud, yet muffled roar of water was the last thing that Billy remembered hearing as he hit the water with enough force to render him unconscious.
"Billy!!" Aisha shouted as she looked back towards the gate which had just closed. Billy hadn't been with them, she had seen the whole thing out of the corner of her eyes. Although she didn't know what it was that had struck Billy. She knew that it had hit him pretty hard that he had been knocked off of the Shark-cycle.
Where either one had gone from there, Aisha didn't know. All she hoped was that he survived and would make it back to them before they got to where their parents were being held. She didn't think she would be able to face Mr. and Mrs. Cranston if Billy wasn't there with the other Rangers.
They already had to figure out a cover-story to tell Mr. and Mrs. Desantos whenever they got back home and realized that their son was missing.
Having to make up an excuse for why both Rocky and Billy were missing? They could make something up, if they really tried.
However, Aisha thought as she looked back towards the gate, as the others continued on, deciding that it would be best to move on, since they didn't have time to waste, if they lost any more on the way, then they might as well just give up on trying to make up an excuse to tell their parents and just tell them the whole truth.
"How long have we been here?" Mrs. Hart asked as she stared up at the ceiling above them. Her head hurt, and she felt like she was about to go insane.
Mr. Oliver looked down at his watch and sighed, leaning up against the wall.
"Well, it was around 10:00 at night when we ended up here....and it's 6:15 in the morning now..you do the math." He stated rather irritably. It wasn't that he meant to act as he did, especially not towards his son's friend's mother. It was just that he was frustrated about being there. He had barely gotten any sleep last night, none of them had really, since the room was rather cramped so there wasn't decent room to move.
"Seven hours and fift--sixteen minutes." Mr. Cranston stated as he stood up and looked at the wall.
"It's felt more like an eternity." Mr. Park stated as he crossed his arms.
"...and if we don't get out of here soon, it's going to be an eternity before we know it." Mr. Campbell stated with a sigh.
"That is if we don't end up trying to kill each other first." Mr. Desantos said crossing his arms
"Honey!" Mrs. Desantos said in shock, that her husband had even said something like that. How could her husband even make mention of killing someone?
"I'm just saying. If we're in here for too long, I'm sure that there might be a point where we'll end up getting on everyone else's nerves...and we'll try to kill each other." Mr. Desantos replied offhandedly shrugging.
Crossing her arms, Mrs. Park shook her head. He was right. It would only be a matter of time before this irritating silence and captivity would eventually wear them all down, and cause them to go insane. When that time came, there was a good chance that they would end up snapping and make an attempt to kill each other. That was probably what had been in mind when they had gotten kidnapped, and placed in this cell in the first place.
It was terrible really, if that's why those monsters had kidnapped them, just to slowly torture them to the point of snapping, and then just sitting back and watching them fight it out. Monsters that's what they were dealing with. Monsters with the intent of making torturing them until they became monsters themselves.
That was the last thing that she wanted to happen. After all, they were all parents. What would they say to their children if word got around to them about this whole incident. If someone ended up dead by the end of this, what would they say to them?
I'm sorry your mother or father is dead because we ended up psychotic and bored and we just attacked them?
It was hard enough for her to lose her son, she imagined how hard it must have been on his friends when they had found out about his death. After all, her son and his friends were close, she could tell when they had been told the news they had taken it pretty hard.
She couldn't imagine how they would take the news of the death of one of their parents, especially when they would find out that it was their friend's parents who killed their mother or father. She could almost see how it would go when they found out news such as that. Well, whoever's parent ended up dead, they would hate the parents of their friends, which then would end up as hate by association, which would then cause distrust among them.
This distrust, would ultimately end up leading to their friendship falling apart.
But, it wasn't going to be like that. Mrs. Park thought as she looked around the room. Even if it took everything she had, she wasn't going to let something like that happen. She was going to try her best to keep everyone there sane.
The whole ride up to the Turtle Cove mall had been rather uneventful, except in the fact that Kylie kept looking out the window like an excited puppy dog, looking at everything that passed by with wide and curious eyes, asking questions.
If it weren't for the fact that they had known a little bit of Kylie's history prior to that day, they would have found Kylie's behavior to have been completely odd. Of course, knowing that Kylie had probably not seen anything of the world outside of the Angel Grove Desert, so her reaction the trip up to Turtle Cove was rather logical.
The first place that they had gone when they had reached the Turtle Cove Mall was the salon. Kat told Kylie that they were going to get her hair cut. It wasn't because her hair wasn't pretty, Kat explained, but it was mainly because at the current time Kylie's hair, having not been cut in her entire life, was long enough that it reached to her knees. Kat explained that Kylie's long hair, might end up getting in the way, during some of the unmorphed fights that they might have ended up doing.
Tanya and Trini had gone off to go and pick out some clothes for Kylie to wear.
Zack and Alone were standing in the food court. They had agreed to get breakfast for everyone, since they hadn't had anything to eat for breakfast that morning, since they had gotten up pretty early to see the others off. The girls weren't going to be out of the salon for awhile, so they figured that they had a little time before having to go up and order.
A silence had fallen between Alone and Zack, a silence which Zack sort of blamed himself for. After all, he was sure that Alone was the type of person who didn't usually start a casual conversation unless he was spoken to first.
"So...Alone....what's with the outfit? I mean aside from the Trench-coat you look like you're a member of some military organization." Zack asked uncertainly, not exactly knowing how to start up a conversation. Talking about Alone's outfit was at least an attempt at the start of a conversation.
Alone gave a small smile. "I picked up my uniform during my travels. You may not believe this, but I've worked for at least two military organizations before I began working for Ninjor.." He said as he crossed his arms.
Zack was surprised. Alone looked to be about his age, or at least not too terribly much older. To hear that he already worked for at least two military organizations in his life up to this point he was shocked. But it certainly explained a lot about Alone's personality. Alone had probably gotten used to having to follow the orders of his commander.
Alone nodded to show Zack that he could see his surprise.
"When I was much younger, I worked for a Special Military Organization on my home planet. We were sort of the Jack-of all trades Organization for the Planet's military. Which, is how we ended up with our Operation name Mechanical Intelligence Defense and Assault Squadron, otherwise known as MIDAS. All members of this squad were required to wear the uniform that I am wearing. " He explained.
"Unfortunately my work for MIDAS, was short lived, according to Earthling time, which would make it equal to about 10 years, although according to my planets time...it would amount up to roughly 1,000 years."
Zack crossed his arms and looked around the crowded food-court. So, Alone was older than he looked, at least according to his planet's time. Well, it did seem to make sense especially in the case of Alone having previous military experience, even though he looked so young.
"After MIDAS ended, me and a few friends of mine began an independent Organization, We had made the intent of this organization to primarily be based upon researching...." At this point, Alone hesitated, as if he were trying to find the words for what he was wanting to say, so that he would still be withholding information. "..a shared interest."
"However, somewhere along the way, of that Organization...we ended up as a Military Organization....which didn't last too terribly long. After that attack----" Alone began, closing his eyes, as if he were remembering the old days, back when he worked for that organization.
A brief silence had begun to set in between Zack and Alone once more. Obviously, the memory of this Organization gave Alone some pretty painful memories. Ones that Zack could tell, that even though they had occurred a long time ago, were still painful for Alone to even think about.
"We never actually wore Uniforms in that Organization, but, the trench-coat...it used to belong to an old friend of mine, from back when I was working for MIDAS and for the other Organization. However, I'd rather not discuss him, since doing so would only bring back a memory that I do not wish to shed light on at this current time." He stated in a rather stiff tone, as if he realized that Zack had actually gotten him to go into a slight depth about his own past, rather than just answer a question in a short brief statement.
Whatever had happened to Alone's friend, and to the Organization, Zack could tell that it would be pointless trying to get Alone to talk more about it, unless he was absolutely ready to do so. Which from the looks of things it would be a long time before Alone would ever be ready to talk about anything.
Billy took a deep breath as he came back around to consciousness. He was surprised to see himself still morphed, after the hit that he had taken, he was almost sure that he had sustained enough damage that he would have came out of morph.
He could feel sand beneath him, and he could smell the salty stench of the ocean, as it drifted on the air, and clung to his nose, like the sand clung to his hands.
At least he knew he was alive.
Getting to his feet, he found himself on a beautiful sunlit beach. Pristine blue Ocean stretched out before him for as far as his eyes could see. Behind him was a rather thick forested jungle. Looking around, Billy guessed that he had washed up pretty far from where the others were at.
Looking over, he was surprised to see that his Shark-Cycle had washed up on shore close to him. At least that should make things easier, as far as getting around. Even though there was no telling how far from the others he was at the moment.
"Hullo there stranger!" A voice called out to Billy, causing him to jump and turn around.
Approaching him was a couple of people.
As they drew closer, Billy noticed that they were dressed like pirates. All the way down to the eye patches and the strange hats. One of them even had a peg-leg.
"Carried in by the tide are you?" One of the people, a female, asked as she crossed her arms.
Billy nodded hesitantly, not sure if he should trust these people.
"Thems migh' strange clothes you've got on there, From what port did your ship hail from?" The man of the group asked putting his hands on his hips.
"I'm from Earth.....My name's Billy." He stated, rather hesitantly. He was getting freaked out by these people already, and he barely understood what they were saying. It felt to him as if he had just stepped into a pirate- adventure novel.
"Earth. Must be a port on the Kirin Sea, further than I've ever sailed, and Trust me I've sail most of the waters in this realm." The female pirate states shaking her head.
"No, Earth is in another dimension..." Billy began. He began to explain the whole situation to them from how his and his friend's parents had been kidnapped and were being held prisoner there, to having to go through the portal, and about how he had ended up there.
At the end of his story, both of the Pirates were looking at him in wide-eyed shock.
It seemed as if they found his whole story to be completely insane, and unbelievable. After a few seconds, they looked at each other, and started whispering. Although Billy couldn't hear a word of what was being said, he had the feeling that they were talking about him.
Probably debating on whether they should believe his story or not. If they didn't believe his story, he wondered what they were going to do. They didn't look to be very dangerous people. Of course, Billy had never actually met any pirates before in his life-time. Most of the Pirates that he had ever seen were just characters in a book, nothing more than text on a page. Those types of pirates wouldn't pose any threat to him, but these guys were for real, so there was no telling what they were going to be like.
"Well, Mr. Billy sir. It looks like you've got yourself quiet a situation, and we completely understand. A pirate ain' nothing without his crew. So, we've decided, We're going to help you reunite with your friends." The female pirate stated as she held out her hand towards Billy.
Taking her hand and shaking it, Billy came to the conclusion that with the offer that they were giving him, he might as well trust them. They didn't seem like they were meaning any harm, and had the intention of helping him. Who knows, he might actually be able to make a few new friends in this dimension.
"Th' name's Silver. Former Captain of the Marine-Maiden and this is my husband Roan, Former captain of the Icarus, We're the Captains of the Red Rose. Ruler of the Seas in this area. Nice to be in acquaintance with you Mr. Billy. Now, I suppose that since you say that you are on a time-limit, we'd better get a move-on on locating your crew." The female pirate said as she started off back down the beach.
Roan sighed and shrugged as he cast a look to Billy. He explained to him that Silver was always very impatient, especially since the crew of her last ship decided to mutiny against her and left her in one of the Port-towns that they had stopped in. He figured that her impatienceness was due to the fact of just wanting to get back out on to the Sea and get into another Adventure.
"So, When you were tellin' the story, You mentioned a Great Glass tunnel? Well, at least that gives us an idea on where we need to be heading. Only one place I know of that has a glass tunnel running through the water. a couple of miles off the shore, Won't take us but an hour to reach it." Roan stated as he looked towards Billy.
As Billy headed to the ship with the two pirates, he found that he had mixed feelings about what he was doing. Part of him was certain that these two could help him reach his friends, but part of him was uncertain on whether or not he should trust them. After all, after what had happened so far, who was to say, that they weren't working for Ivan Ooze, or Beelzalea and had been ordered try to keep him from reuniting with the others.
So far, things had not been going so well for the other Rangers. They had spent quite a bit of time, driving through the city, but had found nothing. No sign of their parents, or the place where they were being held or anything at all, which might provide even the slightest hope in the universe that they were on the right track.
Plus, the City just seemed to stretch out for miles, Their parents could be anywhere in this place.
Kimberly sighed, crossing her arms. It just didn't feel like there was any hope in this. Time would run out before they were ever going to find their parents.
"I think we should split up. We can cover more ground that way. If one of us finds the place we need to be, just get in contact with us through the communicator. Do the same if your run into any trouble." Jason stated as he looked towards the others.
Agreeing with Jason's idea, they all started to decide which way they should be going, and how they should split up.
"Aisha, you and Adam take the East and West sectors. you can go together if you want, or split up, whatever you guys want to do. Jason, Kim and I will go search the North Sector." Tommy stated as he looked towards the others.
With a nod, they divided up into separate teams and started to search the town.
Kimberly followed close behind Jason and Tommy on her shark-cycle as they took off down the road. Personally, she thought that this was all a hopeless cause, and just spreading out was only going to be a waste of time.
Although, she didn't' dare to tell that to either Jason or Tommy.
She knew that if she told them how she really felt about it, she already knew what they were going to say to her. They were going to tell her that it wasn't hopeless and that she had to keep a positive attitude about things. They would also tell her that the decision to split up was so that they could cover more ground and save more time, and make the whole process quicker.
How did they know that their parents were even in this dimension? For all they know, their parents could be in an entirely different dimension.
Kimberly found that she was torn in-between feelings. Part of her wanted to believe that their parents were here, but part of her believed that this was all a trick, and there just was no way for them to come to their parent's rescue, when they were running around a totally different dimension like chickens with their heads cut off.
She just didn't know which part of her she wanted to believe and follow at this point. If she believed the part that wanted her to believe that they were on the right track, and it turned out that her worst suspicion was right, then she would have just been building up her hope, and would be watching it get crushed, and then have to face the horrible realization that she might one day have to end up fighting her own mother, (if not her mother, then she knew that she would have to end up fighting her friends' parents.)
The whole idea was terrible. It was hard enough for her to fight her own friend, (even though now she knew that it hadn't exactly been Rocky that she was fighting.) she couldn't imagine how it would have been for her to be fighting her own mother.
Then again, if she followed the part of her that was saying this was a waste of time, and that their parents were else-where at the time and this was a trick, and they did find their parents here, then Kimberly knew she was going to end up feeling like a jerk for having even doubted herself.
Right now she didn't want to see either one of the situations happen. (Well, she did want to see them find their parents, but she didn't want to feel like a complete jerk because of it.)
She kind of wished that none of this was happening right now. She wished that she knew that her mom was in Paris and all her friend's parents were either at home or work, or wherever they would be during the day.
If none of this was happening, she knew she would totally be at the mall with Trini and the others. Right about now she would be in the make-up department trying to decide what would go better, a "Passion Pink" lipstick with "Frosted Cherry Blossom" Nail Polish and Light Pink Eye shadow and blush, or a "Starlight Pink" Glitter Lipstick with Metallic Pink Nail Polish and Pink Glitter Eye shadow, and blush. Either that or she would be in the clothing department looking for a cute outfit.
Personally she was kind of envious of them. They got to basically relax today and they didn't have to worry about their parents, they weren't having to deal with the issues that she had begun to think about while running around this place.
Of course, they didn't know Ivan Ooze, and that is why their parents were safe. If they had been Rangers back when they faced Ivan, then maybe they would be there with them right then.
With a sigh, Kimberly looked ahead. She shouldn't have even really been thinking about all this. Right now they had a mission, and she needed to keep positive and focused on the mission that they were on. It would only distract her if she got her hopes down, or started to think about what she could be doing right then instead.
Ivan looked down at Earth from the balcony of his room in the palace. Zedd and Rita, out of orders from Minerva had arranged for him to take residence up in one of the guest rooms.
Beelzalea had brought him back, He thought as he turned and looked towards the Mirror that was in the room.
The reflection that looked back at him was still a strange sight to him. This body appeared more human than his former body had, and it was something that he wasn't exactly too fond of. Of course, it wasn't exactly like he had been able to stand over Beelzalea's shoulder and tell her how to re-make his former body.
She had told him that the reason that she had brought him back from the dead, to destroy Zedd's marriage, by stealing his wife, by doing whatever was necessary.
Personally, he didn't wish to be married to someone that he absolutely loathed, such as Rita Repulsa. She was an annoyance to him. Her voice was grating to the ears, and she more than just unpleasant. On top of that she wasn't much to look at, and Ivan couldn't imagine waking up to her face every morning.
However, He understood that once Rita and Zedd were apart, and he was married to her, and once the Power Rangers had been destroyed, then it would mean that he would get to rule the world.
When that time came, He already had plans. When that time came, He would simply just get rid of Rita. Once he was married, he would be the king of this Castle and when the Earth was taken, he would be the King of it.
He would not need a Queen helping him rule. Rita would no longer be necessary, and so he could simply toss her aside. Which because their marriage would be final. He would own possession of all the worlds that she had conquered previously. With her out of the picture after their marriage, everything she owned would go to him. With it, he could work on rebuilding his empire.
...and Beelzalea? She was loyal to her "Mistress Rita" and definitely would not stand for him getting rid of her. The minute that he would try anything to get rid of Rita, she would definitely step in. Since she had brought him back from the dead, she probably knew just how to reverse what she had done.
There had to be something that he could do to keep her out of the way.
For now he would play along with what she was planning.
All the while, she would be none the wiser that the closer that he came to fulfilling her plans, the closer that she would come to meeting her demise at his hands.
After all, no one gave orders to the Great Ivan Ooze. Especially not a lowly Magi.
Silence had hung in the air between Adam and Aisha as they drove through the city.
A lingering silence, just waiting to be broken, It was something that Aisha noticed seemed to be occurring a lot when they were out on missions. It wasn't that there wasn't anything to talk about, or that any of the Rangers were finding it hard to talk to any of the others, it was just that whatever they ended up talking about, it would somehow end up on a conversation that by the time they started talking about it, (Whatever "it" was at the current time.) would only create an atmosphere of depression.
Right now, Aisha knew that no matter what conversation they started, it would end up in one of two places.
Either the conversation would somehow, find itself at the situation with their parents, and their current mission, about Ivan Ooze being back, and all that could mean.
If not there, then the conversation would work itself into a subject that Aisha really didn't want to go into right then, or ever. She didn't want to talk about what had happened to Rocky, not when the memory of what she had witnessed back there was still fresh in her mind.
Personally she'd rather be left alone with her thoughts of the situation, rather than sharing them with someone else.
Of course, it was driving her crazy that she wasn't talking to someone about it.
"I know your thinking about Rocky." Adam stated as he looked ahead.
Looking over briefly at Adam, Aisha let out a sigh. Even with her helmet on, hiding all expression on her face, it must have been obvious what she was thinking about.
Adam gave a slight grunt and shook his head. "Aisha, Rocky is my friend too, and what happened to him is something that we're all having to deal with. I know none of us really want to talk about what really happened, but if I know anything about this group, we're going to end up discussing it eventually. Just remember when you want to talk about it, I'm willing to listen and talk about it."
With a nodded Aisha looked forward silently. While she understood what Adam was saying, and appreciated the fact that he was reminding her that she wasn't alone in this situation, and could always come talk to him about things that were bothering her, she wasn't sure she really sure where to begin to talk about the whole incident.
"He's not going to make it....." Aisha stated after several seconds. It was a harsh thing to believe, but that's how she felt about it. Plain and simple, she just didn't believe that Rocky was going to ever wake up from his coma. No matter what things Zordon an Alpha were trying to make sure that he had a chance, Aisha simply believed it wouldn't be of any help.
It wasn't that she didn't want to believe that Rocky had a chance, but all the odds were against him in this situation. It was a billion to one chance that he was ever going to wake up, and if he did wake up, it was a one in a million chance that he was even going to be the same person.
After all there was no telling what damage Rocky had done to himself when he had defeated Sleep-walker.
Rocky was probably just going to end up slipping further and further into his coma, until eventually one day, he would die.
"Aisha, you might be right. But I also know that Rocky is tough, and I know that he'll try to pull through this, You know how Rocky likes tough battles."
Shaking her head Aisha frowned. Adam had a point. Rocky liked tough battles, and this was just one of those battles that he was going to have to fight. But she wasn't sure that Rocky still had any energy left in him to even make the attempt to fight the odds. He had already fought one tough battle, Aisha wasn't sure that Rocky had any fight left in him to pull through.
Biting her lip Aisha looked towards the sky briefly.
"You weren't there Adam. You didn't see the look in his eyes, when he fought Sleep-walker. He gave it everything he had to destroy Sleep-walker, and knew he wasn't going to be fighting another battle with the team. That was his last battle, I know it and I could see by the look he gave us, that he knew it too! He knew that the Red Ranger was history."
Adam frowned. He knew that he hadn't been there when all that had happened, and he knew that he should have been. Like Alone had told them, if they had all been present and fought against Sleep-walker, then Rocky would have had more of a chance. But, he couldn't be there, and he felt terrible that he hadn't been. Aisha didn't have to remind him of the fact.
"Trust me Aisha. Neither the Red Ranger nor Rocky are history. Not as long as we're alive. As long as we all still have a belief that Rocky is strong enough to pull through this challenge, Rocky will be with us all in spirit. He's one of the Rangers, and he's one of our friends. As long as we keep that in mind, and believe that he has a chance of making a recovery, He'll have a chance." Adam stated as he looked over at Aisha.
With a smile, Aisha looked over at Adam. He was right. Rocky still had a chance. The odds were against him and Aisha knew, that's just how Rocky would have wanted it. A tough battle was ahead of him, just like a tough battle was ahead of them, but as long as they kept believing that he had a fighting chance, then he would.
"Rocky is with all us in spirit.
It would probably only be a matter of time before Rocky was back and ready to fight alongside them.
Suddenly a beeping noise filled the air, causing both of the Rangers to stop their shark-cycles, and begin to look around for the source of the noise.
It took a few minutes, for them to realize that it was the MPVG that belonged to Adam that was the source of the noise. It was odd to Aisha to know that the MPVG had started beeping. Billy had said nothing about equipping the devices with alarms!
On top of that, usually the MPVG wouldn't just come on by themselves, at least they hadn't done so in the time that Aisha had used the device since she had received it.
When Adam flipped open the screen of the device, both him and Aisha were surprised to see that there was nothing but static. The beeping stopped immediately, but the screen was nothing but static.
".....Must be some faulty wiring." Adam suggested as he looked over at Aisha, who nodded in agreement.
"Let's ignore it. We can see if we can get Alpha to work with it when we get back." Aisha stated as she looked at Adam.
She was about to suggest that they have Billy take a look at it, but there was no telling if Billy was still alive, or if they ever run into him again, so the only person left that might know the slightest thing about the device, would have been Alpha.
Nodding, Adam was about to shut the device, when suddenly the screen came on. This screen caught the two Ranger's interest.
"That....that's us..." Aisha stated as she looked at the picture that came up on the screen.
Turning Adam looked around. If they could see themselves on this screen, it meant that one of the others had to be around, and were using the MPVG.
Looking towards where whoever was watching them, had to have been. Adam couldn't see anybody. Judging from the angle of this picture. Whoever was watching them had to be close, almost standing right beside them.
"This thing is really messed up.." Aisha stated as she took the MPVG from Adam and looked at it.
As she looked at the picture, She noticed that the picture on the screen showed the MPVG in her hands, almost as if the person who was watching them, was standing right beside her. She felt a cold breeze brush the side of her hand suddenly, causing her to jump and drop the MPVG.
Luckily Adam caught it before it hit the ground and shattered.
"Aisha, what happened, why'd you drop it?"
Looking over her shoulder, Aisha shivered. "Someone is definitely there. They just touched my hand..." She stated, although her voice was caught in her throat, and only escaping in a partially terrified squeak.
Adam looked down at the screen that the MPVG had switched to. It was showing a map of the area that they were in, It was showing their location, indicated by Black and Yellow dots that were close to one another.
With it, Adam took note that there was a third energy signal. One that he didn't expect to see there.
A red dot was flashing upon the screen right near them.
In a few seconds Adam watched the dot leap from being right next to them, to being in front of the street right beside them. It started moving down the street as if to tell them to come on and follow him.
"When you said Rocky was here with us in spirit....you weren't kidding were you?" Aisha asked, jokingly as she looked over at Adam, who was looking down the alleyway where the MPVG was saying Rocky's signal was heading.
Personally, neither one of them knew if they should trust this signal or not. They knew it was almost impossible that Rocky could really be sending them help, in spirit, and could possibly be leading them to the place where their parents were being held hostage. There was the chance that this could be another trap planted by Beelzalea, to lure them even further from where they were supposed to be, and could be leading them into certain danger.
But then again, they were Rangers, and had to deal with the almost absolutely paranormal every day, apart from evil space-aliens, monsters, and other magical beings, they couldn't exactly rule out events such as ghosts, or whatever this whole situation that was going on might possibly be.
Looking at each other, they wondered if they should trust this signal, it seemed to have stopped in the alleyway and was waiting for them to catch up.
Finally, Aisha got on the Shark-cycle and turned towards the alley-way. There was only one way to find out, if it was a trap set by an enemy, or spiritual help from a friend. They had to follow the signal and see where it led.
Wherever it led, they knew that they should stay close to their communicators, so that they could contact the others to tell them to get over to their location as quick as possible.
"Ready?" Adam asked as he looked over at his friend.
Aisha nodded and took a deep breath, and the both of them drove down the alleyway after the Red-Ranger's energy signal.
They both found it rather odd, the whole situation. usually, in a situation where they were unsure of what was happening, they would both have a bad feeling about what was going to happen. But this time, something told them they had made the right choice in trusting that they weren't headed for a trap.
But, for how long was that good feeling going to last? The whole thing could still turn out to be a trap, by the time they got to the end destination.
For now, they both agreed to believe the positive, although creepy, reason for this strange occurrence, and believe that Rocky was offering them help.
Maybe he'll lead them to the place where their parents were being held...
Just maybe...