Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Dawn of Primacy: Dark Maelstrom

-11-

Goldar was suddenly flung from where he stood by an invisible force. From a nearby alleyway Zordon emerged, his staff pointed at Goldar. Around him his bodyguards were cutting down the invaders that still continued to pour in through the breech in the wall that hung open like a wound. Goldar slowly pushed himself to his feet as he starred down the wizard, the same wild look still in his eyes.

Zordon did not take his eyes off the Fear Cat for a moment, his steel gaze meeting the blood lust in Goldar's eyes. He knew his son was near death, but Goldar's enchanted armor was more than enough protection against his own wizardry, this was a battle he did not have time for.

"You've been defeated," Zordon said. "Take your brother and go."

Goldar made no response, but continued to stare with murderous intent at the wizard, his chest heaved with each snarling breath he took.

"Something has happened," Rita said in shock as the Dragon Zord vanished from the field of battle. She looked to see Goldar abandon Cyclopsis, leaving the powerful War Zord defenseless. "That fool," she muttered. "Spirit of Darkness,"

"Yes my Queen," came the echoing raspy voice as a shadow rose up against a tree. The form was barely visible in the twilight.

"Find Rito and bring him back," Rita said staring out into the burning wreckage within the city walls. "No matter what his condition,"

"At once my Queen," the spirit replied sinking into the ground. The dark form raced over the ground and vanished into the growing darkness within the city walls.

Rita looked around at her remaining forces. She still had Putties in vast numbers and many undead warriors. However, the armada in the skies had been reduced to a handful of airships and many of her war golems were now piles of rubble on the battle field. Scorpina had gone missing, and the Zords she possessed were now useless.

With a heavy sigh she raised the crystal sphere up before her. An image formed of a creature in black robes with a smiling ghoulish reptilian face. His eyes burned with a malevolent fire.

"Malacor, open the gate and recall our forces."

"Yes my Queen," Malacor replied, flames leaping from his mouth as he spoke adding a roar to his deep strong voice.

Rita looked around the field one more time surveying the damage her army had done. She glared at the Citadel of Iledion still cloaked in the radiant blue of the city's shields. She turned from the image of her contempt and began to walk back toward the blackened cloud that was forming beyond the trees.

Goldar could hear the fallback order as the crystal orb that was recessed into his gauntlet glowed a deep crimson. Around him Putties and the undead had halted their attack and were making a fighting fallback out of the city. With some reluctance Goldar's stance loosened. Staying focused on Zordon he walked slowly over to Cirth's body, securing the Sword of Darkness in Cirth's sheath he lifted his fallen brother into his arms. There was a look in Goldar's eyes that was unfamiliar to the Rangers, for a moment as he stared at Zordon it almost seemed his eyes were filled with a deep sadness. With a flap from his large dark wings Goldar rose into the air scattering dust out around him.

Zordon was quick to rush to his son's side. Two of his bodyguards moved to cover him as the last of the enemy warriors were falling back through the collapsed section of the wall.

"Jaelen, can you hear me?" Zordon asked.

"Ai-yi-yi, is he going to be okay?" A voice said from behind them. The words were familiar though the voice was not.

A smaller warrior stepped forward, his steps a little awkward. His armor was like the Eltarian design, but lighter in weight. The torso was mostly red with a glowing lighting insignia on the chest around which was written an 'A' in gold. The large shoulder plates were golden; one had lettering on it which the computer translated as 'Mark Four'. The armor over the arms and legs was a deep blue with gold trim. Red plating was visible over the hands as well. The golden head was somewhat saucer shaped, a deep purple light danced from side to side.

"Alpha," Billy whispered aloud.

"I don't know Alpha," Zordon replied. "We need to get him medical treatment right away."

"I'm contacting the Medical Core now," Alpha replied, his voice deeper than the one the Rangers had known, as he knelt down next to the fallen warrior. The left gauntlet plating opened as small surgical implements came out.

Some of the Rangers turned away as Alpha began sealing up the wound and reattaching arteries and bone as the tiny mechanical fingers and tools weaved through the cut.

"He's lost a lot of blood," Alpha reported. "Pulse is erratic."

"Please do your best," Zordon said, his eyes moistening as Alpha continued to work as quickly as he could closing the wound.

Several other Eltarian warriors emerged from the rubble deeper into the city. The two in front were holding a struggling Scorpina between them, her form now the human likeness that the Rangers were accustom too. Her hands were bound behind her, though by what means was not visible.

"Lord Commander, we found this one searching the wreckage of the Night Lord," one of the Eltarians reported.

"Place her in a holding cell," Zordon replied. "I'm in no condition to decide her fate at the moment,"

"Yes Lord Commander," The men replied escorting Scorpina away.

"Lord Commander," a member of the bodyguard began. "I understand your situation sir, but we are recovering from a massive battle we need you to focus on the task at hand."

"You're right," Zordon said looking at his son. Taking several deep breathes he looked to the sky gathering his thoughts. Placing his hand on the side of his helmet he activated his crystalline display looking over the damage reports and available forces. "Herigan," he said turning to the warrior who had just addressed him. "Get the Labor Drones and start replacing the shield pylons on the edge of the woods. The Terran Air Core will fly cover for you and you are authorized to commission the prototype Kalidens that are in storage to provide additional ground support. I will try to get you more forces as they become available. The rest of you will begin a sweep of the area of incursion for any dormant elements that might be waiting for us to lower our guard once the shield is reestablished."

"Yes Lord Commander," His warriors replied as they began to disperse.

"This is Lord Commander Zordon. You have all done well today, the enemy is in retreat, all available ground forces are to report to the barracks in their respective zones and begin sweeping the city for any residual enemy presence. The Terran Air Core will report to Captain Herigan in reestablishing the outer shield barrier. Crisis management teams should begin dealing with fires as sweeper teams secure their locations."

Zordon continued his commands as a lone craft descended on his location. The vehicle was primarily green, with an almond shape and fins toward the back, away from the pointed front. A door opened on the back as plating shifted out of the way forming into a ramp the vessel continuing to hover inches off the ground. Two men in green light armor plating ran out from the opening each carrying a black case, similar in appearance to a briefcase.

"We need to get him into stasis," Alpha said as the two approached.

"Right," one of the men replied. "Stand clear."

Alpha stepped back as the men placed their cases on the ground on opposite sides of Jaelen. The cases suddenly began to unfold in a mass of shifting pieces, strange tentacles like tubes began to slowly snake under Jaelen as others began to attach to the sides of his neck and arms. The plates began to slowly rise as they formed a flat surface under the body.

"Cardiotron is functioning," one of the men replied.

"Neoplasm infusion at thirty two percent." The other said checking a holographic display projecting from a device on his gauntlet. There was a brief pause. "Seventy four percent,"

"Is he going to be okay?" Zordon asked as he finished his communication.

"He'll live," One of the men said. "He may need some augmentation though."

"Neoplasm infusion is complete, he's in stasis." The other replied.

"We'll take good care of him Lord Commander," the man assured him as they escorted the hovering stretcher into the craft. The ramp retracted reforming the back of the vessel as the small ship rose into the sky and shot out of sight with incredible speed. The image rose above the burning sections of the city, fading to black and coming back in on the Lunar Palace on the spire before zooming in through the balcony.

Rita was standing at a table as a shadow slid over it leaving a burned body in green armor on the table. The blackened skull stared blankly at Rita.

"Is there anything I should prepare for you my Queen?" Finster asked.

"No," Rita said gravely. "This is beyond my power, only my Father is familiar enough with necromancy to bring Rito back now," She turned to the shadowy spirit that was barely visible against the wall. "Spirit of Darkness take him to my Father and tell him what has happened."

"As you command my Queen," the low hissing voice replied, the harmonics of its voice shifting constantly as it spoke. The darkness moved over the table once again consuming the body before vanishing from the room.

"What shall we do now my Queen?" Finster asked.

Before Rita could respond Goldar burst into the room kicking the doors open, his brother still in his arms. He brushed past Finster, knocking the small pale imp to the ground as he placed his brother on the empty table and proceeded to draw his sword pointing it at Rita.

"This is your doing witch!" Goldar roared. "My brother is dead because of you!"

"Don't talk down to me you gold baboon!" Rita shouted pointing her staff in Goldar's face.

The two stood there for a moment, their gazes locked. Finster slowly got to his feet and backed away from the two pressing himself against the wall. At that moment Squat and Baboo entered the room, Squat gave a startled cry. Goldar cast his gaze away toward him for a moment. In that second Rita fired a blast from her staff, the golden crescent sending forth a solid beam of energy that slammed Goldar into the wall causing him to drop his sword. Rita approached him continuing to push her strike against his body keeping him pinned.

"You will listen to me," Rita said scornfully. "Either swear allegiance to me, give me your word as a Fear Cat, or I will destroy you right now and you will lose all hope of ever seeing your brother alive again or your clowder freed."

"What's a clowder?" Ashley whispered to Billy.

"A group of cats,"

Goldar didn't answer but struggled against Rita's arcanum trying to get free from the torrent of energy that held him against the wall. Squat and Baboo ducked back out of the room, Finster followed after them.

"Make your choice!" Rita screamed.

"I swear allegiance to the Empire and the chain of command for as long as I draw breath, I give my oath as a Fear Cat." Goldar replied through gritted teeth.

"Good," Rita said releasing him. Goldar fell onto his knees gasping for air. "It's nice to know I can count on your support." She said turning toward Cirth's body.

"Until Lord Zedd returns witch," Goldar muttered under his breath. This apparently went unnoticed by Rita.

"Now to the matter of your departed brother," Rita said standing over the body of the dead Fear Cat. "Such a shame, he was a good warrior."

"That may be the first thing we have ever agreed upon," Goldar snarled as he rose to his feet.

"I can not restore his body to life, but I can bind his spirit to the Sword of Darkness," Rita said.

"And why would I allow that." Goldar said coldly.

"Besides the oath that you just swore, it will allow Cirth to possess the next wielder of the weapon, eventually, given enough time, the wielder would lose their own soul and Cirth would inhabit their body."

"And how would this new owner be chosen?" Goldar asked.

"Just like your brother, if a warrior shows promise they can fight in a trial of combat to earn it."

Goldar stood there for a moment looking at Cirth's body as if weighing the options in his mind. He removed the curved blade from its sheath and stared at the cold unforgiving metal of the arcane weapon as the light played off the blade. He looked up at Rita.

"Very well," he said handing her the sword.

Rita smiled as she laid the weapon down upon Cirth's chest plate. She raised her staff above the body holding it with both hands and began to move the staff head as if she were stirring with it. She started uttering some incantation as a dark swirl of energy slowly formed around the sword. Rita's eyes closed as she fell into some trance of rhythmic chanting.

Suddenly the witch's eyes snapped open as she pronounced the last word loudly and struck the sword with her staff. In a sudden implosion the black mist that was surrounding the sword was pulled into the weapon along with the body. For a moment Goldar thought he could see his brother's face reflected in the red glassy surface of the jewel. Rita lifted the weapon from the table and quietly left the room. Goldar fell to one knee and removed his helmet. His black main was flattened against his head by his helmet, the braided ends hung freely off his shoulders. His ears twitched slightly as he let out a sigh. Solemnly he bowed his head.

"Forgive me brother,"

The images faded out on Goldar and reopened on an obviously later time as Rita, Goldar, and Finster sat around a table. Squat and Baboo both entered and joined them, though for once they were strangely quiet.

"I could spend time explaining where each of you failed," Rita said looking around the table.

Baboo started to object but Goldar backhanded him in the face. Baboo held his face in shock, but Goldar only glared at him until he regained his composure.

"However, I have a plan on how we can finally be rid of Zordon." Rita paused for a moment. "We offer the Alliance a treaty of non-aggression."

"What?" Goldar roared.

"As a deception," Rita said condescendingly. "We will return this palace to the moon and send an offer of peace to the Alliance after a time of inactivity. It will not be too difficult to convince them considering the losses we have suffered. Then when Zordon arrives with his escort to accept our terms Malacor and I will banish him to the Astral Plane."

As she spoke Malacor stepped forward from the shadow where he had been hiding. His burning eyes were the first things to become visible as his robed form manifest from the darkness. In his hand he held an onyx staff with a polished skull at the top.

"Why not just kill him when he comes?" Goldar asked.

"He will be expecting that," Malacor replied. "I have battled against Zordon far longer than any of you and I know him to be very resourceful. He will undoubtedly expect a trap and will come prepared to destroy us all, we can only hope to take him by surprise if we act quickly and allow for no mistakes."

"Zordon defeated and imprisoned you once," Goldar said, his tone half mocking. "How can you be so certain we will prevail this time?"

"I learn from my mistakes," Malacor replied. "Something you should take to heart."

"This bickering is pointless," Rita said. "Your roles in all of this have already been decided, you will obey or you will perish."

"If I may my Queen," Finster began. "In our weakened state and with the loss of our Zords it will not be long before Zordon and the Alliance come to us to crush us anyway. Moving the palace to the moon also will allow us the luxury of being able to drop the atmospheric shield leaving Alliance forces without air should they come for us sooner than expected."

"How are we going to breathe then?" Squat asked.

"With these," Finster replied laying out several small stone orbs with runes carved all around the surface.

"And what do these do?" Goldar asked picking up one of the stones and looking over the symbols for any that he could recognize.

"These charms will create a small pocket of air around you." Finster replied. "They should give us enough air for a few minutes, which is more time than we will need."

"And what if Zordon comes prepared for this trap?" Goldar asked.

"Leave that part to me," Malacor said rolling a strange black coin in his fingers.

The view shifted to show the Lunar Palace above the spire. There was a sudden shaking as the palace began to break free of the forces of gravity and began to rise into the sky. Rocks tumbled down from the top of the spire smashing into the ground below. As the palace rose into the sky the image shifted again to show its arrival on the moon. The Rangers could see that foundation work was already present on the surface.

"So the palace started on the moon before coming to Earth?" Adam asked.

"Computer pause," Billy said. "Display any information on the Lunar Palace."

The computer switched from the current image to show a rotating view of the palace with schematics of each level running down the left side of the display.

"The Lunar Palace was previously a creation of the Lilarian built over a source of arcanum known as the caves of deception," the computer began, "A place of great power in which an individual's greatest fears were turned against them. When the Lilarian joined the Ath'zyn Alliance the Palace was used as a guard post for the planet Earth and was used to hide the 'record deleted'," the tone changed suddenly.

"That's weird." Billy said.

"At the beginning of the Sol Wars the palace was captured by Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. Several centuries later Zordon's Command Center on the Western fringe of the Alliance was destroyed by a new invention of Lord Zedd called a Zord. Just prior to the attack Lord Zedd departed leaving Rita Repulsa in command. After this Rita moved the Lilarian Palace to Earth placing it above the wreckage of the former Command Center. After Rita's defeat at the capital of Athellon near the end of the Sol War the palace was returned to its former location."

The image closed leaving the paused image of the palace settling back on its original foundations.

"So what I don't get is why is it that we use so much technology that was created by Zedd and Rita?" Jason asked.

"I'm sure it's been modified from the original concepts that they developed," Billy said. "But in reality that is a common trend, if your competition builds something you need to build the same things only better, war is no different."

"I guess I'm just having trouble with the idea that we're using technology devised by our enemies."

"The Power Coins weren't made by them though," Kimberly said. "So even if Rita figured out how to use it, the power itself is still good."

"That is true," Billy said. "It would be one thing if we were using the element of void, but our powers are from this source of elemental power and uses the good aspects."

"Do you really think these two beings they keep mentioning, the dragon and the phoenix, are real?" Adam asked.

"I'm not sure," Billy replied. "Maybe they're just names attributed to the various aspects of the power that these six unknown individuals discovered."

"But they said Jeor had seen them." Kimberly said.

"They said they thought he had seen them," Billy corrected. "What I don't understand is if the energy manifest in some form, or again if it's just an attribute. I can't quiet account for the dragon element, but a phoenix is essentially a fiery bird. Maybe the energy looks like that in some state. Of course it is equally possible that these really are two beings of immense power from another dimension. Nothing would surprise me at this point."

"Well we could debate this forever," Jason said. "But I would like to see the rest of this before Zedd makes his next move. Maybe we can find some useful information in here, or clues to what we should be looking for in all these files we now have access to."

"You're right," Billy agreed. "Computer resume playback."

The image began to move again showing the Palace settling back onto its foundation. A large dust cloud rose from the lunar surface drifting high into the sky. The image faded to black and opened back up on the terrain where the spire once stood. On a familiar looking mountain top several large machines appeared to be busy at work cleaning up large stone fragments that looked unnatural in shape and formation.

"That must be the debris of the first Command Center," Billy thought aloud.

The view raced over the mountains to the valley near the coast where several other machines were lowering the inactive Cyclopsis into a deep chasm. Out in the ocean a strange hovering ring was out over the water. Large tubes were running below the shifting surface, though what was occurring was not apparent. The camera panned back and went deep into the forest to the North of the spire before descending into the trees.

Scorpina stood wrapped in metal bands running from her shoulders to her ankles almost as if she was cocooned. Her feet were locked into a stone disc that sat on the ground. Around her several Eltarian warriors stood in a circle near the mouth of a large cave. Zordon stepped forward, his helmet removed, his staff in his hand. To his right and slightly behind him was Alpha.

"Scorpina," Zordon began. "In accordance with the will of the council you have been sentenced to imprisonment until such time that your powers can be stripped and your mind rehabilitated. Do you have anything you would like to say before your sentence is carried out?"

Scorpina glared at Zordon for a moment before a smile spread across her face. "When I do get out of here I'm going to kill you all," she threatened.

Zordon nodded to his men who stepped back from Scorpina as he raised his staff. Zordon stuck the ground with the base of the shaft. A white energy flowed out from the staff like a river winding across the ground to the stone base Scorpina was standing on. As it touched the stone the base began to glow with a white light that slowly moved up Scorpina's bonds turning them to stone. The warrior continued to gaze at Zordon with hatred in her eyes as her armor began to turn to stone before spreading to her flesh; her poise forever frozen in a look of defiance. Stone began to flow up from the ground encasing her body within a large bolder. The energy finally subsided leaving a crude stone on the ground where Scorpina had stood.

"Place it in the cave," Zordon ordered.

The other Eltarian soldiers moved in quickly and began to roll the large boulder into the cave. Considering the size of the rock they moved it with relative ease. As the Eltarians entered the cave Zordon turned to Alpha.

"How are the rest of our teams doing?" Zordon asked retuning his staff to his back.

"Cyclopsis is being buried as we speak, and the modifications to the Dragon Zord that the Masters ordered are nearly complete."

"And the Command Center?"

"It appears the damage was total. There is no evidence that the lower levels survived Rita's attack. It will take some time to rebuild. We also found many people locked in the caves below Rita's spire. The Terrans are making a thorough check of the tunnels before demolishing the spire. And if I may ask, how is Jaelen?"

"Well," Zordon replied. "He returned to Eltar to receive some cybernetic augmentation," Zordon laughed a little. "He was determined not to let his injuries hinder his abilities; though it will still be several months after the operation before he will be able to return to the front lines, by then I hope to see an end to this war."

"There has still been no activity from Rita or her minions?" Alpha asked.

"None," Zordon replied. "She even allowed many of her warlocks and sorcerers to disperse; it's odd, even for her."

A tone interrupted their conversation. Zordon raised his hand to the side of his helmet.

"This is Zordon,"

"Lord Commander," came a voice over the com channel. "An envoy has arrived at Athellon on behalf of Rita."

"An envoy?"

"Yes sir,"

"Who could she have possibly sent?" Zordon asked.

"It's Baboo along with a small detachment of Putties, the Masters would like you to return immediately it seems Rita has invited the Alliance to negotiate a non-aggression pact."

"I understand," Zordon replied looking over at Alpha. "I will be there within the hour."

"Rita wants to negotiate?" Alpha asked.

"It's likely a trap, but it is an opportunity to gain access to the Palace."

"So we are returning to Athellon?"

"No, I need you to stay here and carry out the Masters' orders, this shouldn't take long."

"I understand Zordon," Alpha replied.

Zordon turned and began to walk away as the image faded out. The image faded back showing Zordon coming out from the gates of Athellon. The outer wall of the city had been cleaned and various machines worked rapidly building up the damaged area. The gate appeared to be recently hung as drones worked around the inner hinging and others polished the massive doors.

Baboo tried to hold his poise as Zordon approached but was clearly shaking in the wizard's presence. Zordon realized Baboo would never take the initiative to address him.

"I was told you came with a proposal for me." Zordon said.

Baboo did not reply, but nervously reached out his hand extending a scroll bound with a cord and a small black coin. Zordon took the scroll from Baboo. The image zoomed in to show the small coin swing as the scroll was passed and touch against Zordon's armor. The view quickly shifted to the wizard's eyes which clouded with blackness for a moment and then dispersed. The image zoomed back out.

"Is there anything else?" Zordon asked, his tone a little less patient.

Baboo shook his head and nervously turned to depart. Zordon's eyes narrowed for a moment as he watched him go. Then he turned and reentered the city, the gates closing behind him. The image faded away into black.

As the image faded back in Zordon was standing in his full armor, behind him a vast expanse of star speckled space was visible through huge display windows. He appeared to be standing on a platform at the front of a bridge of some space bound vessel. Before him were rows of Eltarian soldiers in full armor, at least one hundred strong. Zordon began addressing his army.

"My brothers in moments we will be descending to the lunar surfaces where we have been invited to negotiate a pact of non-aggression with Rita Repulsa and her forces. It is likely that this is a trap, so I will say again, if any of you wishes to remain on the Summoner you may." Zordon paused for a moment, but the soldiers before him were unmoving. "It is also likely that even if her desire for this pact is genuine it will not be honored by the rest of Lord Zedd's Empire. If the witch shows any sign of treachery, no matter how small we have been granted authority by the Masters to capture her and retake the Palace. Because of the small passageways of the Lilarian Palace we will be unable to bring any Omegas, so each of you will be given a storage pod containing two Kaliden Mark Twos. These newer models have been keyed to you armor's battle system and will follow direct visual commands like the Omegas as well as verbal commands. In addition your armor has been upgraded with Rune Bane Plating which should offer considerably more protection against arcane attacks."

Behind Zordon a life size holographic image appeared of Rita.

"Rita Repulsa is our main concern, but her remaining forces, that we are aware of, are," the image shifted as he spoke. "Goldar, a Fear Cat, possibly the last of his race left in the universe, he has recently acquired wings allowing him sustained flight and may have gained possession of the Sword of Darkness with his brother's passing, and possibly the power of the Dragon Power Coin. He is a powerful warrior even without these things. Next is Malacor the Deceiver, a powerful wizard capable of bringing illusions to life, next to Rita his command of sorcery is unmatched. The Spirit of Darkness, while not a creature able to directly engage in combat, it has the ability to slip between dimensions and open temporary pathways. Squat the goblin, while his combat abilities are below average, he does possess great strength and a love for explosive devices. Baboo, an abomination of sorcery, part spider part vampire, along with Squat these two have made a habit on preying on the tribes of humanity, again his combat potential is small, but he is dangerous when it comes to stealth attacks. Finster, while having no combat abilities, that have been observed to date, is a genius when it comes to arcanum and inventing. However, his own magical abilities are relatively weak. Information concerning Rito's status is not available; it is unknown if he survived the attack on Athellon or if he is even still with his sister. Therefore we will assume that he is. Rito is an expert with a sword and also possess a degree of necromancy. It is therefore likely that we will face his undead warriors as well as Rita's Putties."

The display next to Zordon turned off.

"If there are no questions then report to your drop ships and prepare for departure." There was a moment of silence as he waited for any input from his men. "May the power protect you."

The soldiers began to file out of the room by squads departing for their drop ships. As the men left the room Zordon turned toward the forward window looking out toward the moon and the Lilarian Palace as the Eltarian craft approached. The image faded to an outside view of the vessel, the Summoner. The craft moved silently through the void cloaked in the darkness of space, the lance like body barely visible at it continued its approach.

Coming in closer to the moon the craft broke free of the Earth's shadow and its silver and gold frame shone with resplendent glory. The hull was covered in over lapping armor plates like massive feathers or scales. The prow of the ship came to a hooked point like the beak of a bird, with the rest of the ship expanding in a rough cone shape behind. Toward the back, weapons decks rose from the basic form giving the back end a higher profile. Behind this section a large ring rotated around the craft apparently suspended in place by some unseen force. Below, on either side of the craft were twin pods nearly a quarter the size of the main body housing multiple weapon batteries. No visible thrust was propelling the star ship as it continued to accelerate toward its target. Below the palace came into view, the massive battleship nearly the size of the Palace's main tower.

There was a sudden burst of light as ten small spheroid crafts launched from the forward belly of the Summoner and raced toward the palace. Within a minute of departure the drop ships had reached the palace gates hovering before them. Moments later the massive gates began to open and the ships landed within the main hall at the base of the palace. As the gate closed behind them the crafts spun, opening in the center allowing the men to immediately disembark while the pilot remained in the swiveling pod at the top of the crafts.

There was a clattering of armor as the soldiers quickly filed into rank creating two rows, each fifty strong. Zordon walked confidently through the soldiers taking his place at the front between the two rows.

"So this is how the Alliance comes to negotiate peace, in a show of armed force." A voice said from the far end of the corridor.

As Zordon looked out he could see a figure robed in black and at once recognized his old rival.

"When you are involved Malacor," Zordon said. "One can never be too careful."

"Why so bitter my old friend?" Malacor said as he proceeded across the hall toward Zordon and his men. "You're not still upset that you were always second best at the Academy are you? Or was it that time my illusions killed your dear Alithena?"

"The only thing I would have to be bitter about is if I allowed your infantile quest for power to cause me to take the same road you now travel Deceiver," Zordon replied.

"You always were the noble one," Malacor said with a grin. "I can see however, we really have nothing to discuss so if you and your men will accompany me we can get this formality out of the way. After all, I'm sure you're a busy man."

Malacor turned and began to walk back the way he came as Zordon and his men fell in behind him. Unseen to Zordon or his men, Malacor smiled with some sense of satisfaction as they left the main hall.

The group proceeded through a series of hallways and winding stairs until at last they came to the observation deck. Rita stood at the far end by the balcony. A table had been set out before Rita on which several pieces of parchment and a small shaft of white bone that was most likely some form of writing device rested. To her left stood Goldar who was holding Rita's staff and behind him were Finster, Squat, and Baboo. There was no sign of any Putties.

Zordon approached the table as Malacor took his place at Rita's right. Stopping at the foot of the table Zordon removed his helmet and placed it on the black stone slab. Goldar pulled Rita's chair out as the witch sat down. Zordon pulled his own chair out also taking a seat, keeping an eye on Rita.

"Your Palace seems rather empty," Zordon remarked.

"A show of good faith," Rita replied. "Forgive my brother for not being present, he was gravely wounded and was taken to my Father to ensure his survival."

"How convenient," Zordon replied.

"If you wish to search the palace before we begin you are certainly free too," Rita replied.

"That would be a waste of time, if you are sincere then my return to the Alliance with the treaty will be proof of that, but we both know you're too intelligent to leave any obvious evidence of a trap."

"That is true," Rita said. "My ways are often more subtle."

Zordon suddenly noticed that Goldar braced himself. The wizard pushed back from the table about to yell to his men as he reached for his staff. As he turned he could see his soldiers were already going for their weapons as they saw him leap up.

There was a sudden decompression as the atmospheric shield turned off. Bulkheads began to close off the observation deck, but for some reason the balcony remained open. The sudden burst of air was enough to throw the Eltarians off balance while Rita spun out of her chair and took her staff from Goldar.

The Eltarian soldiers were thrown into panic as they realized that there was no air left in the room. Some ran for the bulk head doors trying to pry them open while others looked about frantically for another way to escape. Malacor grinned and tapped his staff on the ground. Zordon shook his head as if something had been caught in his eye. Malacor's mouth moved, though no sound could be heard in the vacuum. A subtitle appeared across the bottom reading. 'Now you see how truly blinded you were'.

Rita and Malacor both began to swirl their staffs in the air, their mouths moving presumably reciting some incantation. Zordon slammed his staff on the ground generating a small pocket of air for him and his men; they all suddenly inhaled deeply. Sound returned as shouts of alarm could be heard accompanied by the sound of armor crashing into the heavy doors.

Rita and Malcor's words suddenly became audible as they continued to recite their incantation. Zordon stepped forward quickly as the last word was uttered. Malacor and Rita clashed their staffs together as Zordon took hold of Malacor and threw a small stone container overlaid in brass on the ground before Rita and her minions. The lid had a small round jewel embedded on the top with strange rune work engraved around the outer rim.

A swirl of dark mist formed around Zordon pulling him back as Malacor began to pull free from his grip. With a sudden burst he lunged forward with all his strength and locked his right arm around Malacor's neck. With the staff in his left hand Zordon struck the small container. Malacor struggled in Zordon's grasp, but found himself unable to get free of the wizard's crushing hold.

"Varithezyn!" he shouted as his staff made contact.

The container suddenly swelled in size as the jewel lit with a burning crimson light. Arcing bolts of red energy surged out wrapping around Rita, Goldar, Finster, Squat, and Baboo.

"You fool!" Malacor screamed as he thrashed about in a final attempt. "Your arcanum has unbalanced the portal, it could kill us both!"

Zordon ignored Malacor as both were pulled back violently as the mist seemed to tear away into a swirling vortex. Deep within the maelstrom were multiple points of purple light. As Zordon fell into the maw of the storm he and Malacor were separated by the raging torrents of energy and vanished into the darkness toward different points of light. Rita and her forces struggled against the arcane crimson web that pulled at them as the other Eltarians looked on in disbelief.

In a sudden burst of red light Rita and her minions vanished, the red light collapsing back in on the orb atop the jar. The runes lining the rim of the lid glowed a bright gold as a spark of energy raced around the lid once. Then all was silent. The soldiers stood at a loss for a moment unsure of what had just occurred. Then the silence was broken.

"We need to get this door open before this pocket of air vanishes," one of the men said. "Everyone deploy your Kalidens."

The image faded out as the small crystalline creatures began to bore through the armored bulkhead with considerable speed. When the image faded back in Alpha was standing before the Masters accompanied by several of the warriors that had been in Zordon's personal body guard.

"We have considered your request Alpha and we will construct the necessary equipment for you to search for Zordon, understand however that due to the limitations of dimensional transference the equipment will only allow him to return to our plane in a quantum state, he will become a being of pure energy never able to leave his stasis generator. Should you find him and are able to establish contact make him aware of the ramifications of this choice."

"I will," Alpha replied with a bow. "Thank you,"

The Masters looked to address the others who stood before them. "As some of you have heard, our time on this world has come to an end. We have labored here these many millennia to keep this world safe from the darkness that has threatened to swallow it. Now to protect Earth we must leave it. The members of the Terran Core will formally disband and Earth will no longer be part of the Ath'zyn Alliance, though some of their number who wish to remain shall be permitted. You all must understand, as we have, that their destiny lies on another path from ours.

Rita's prison has been buried on the moon where she will remain. However, one of our prophets has informed us that Lord Tiamat has spoken to him and told him that one day the Dragon Power Coin will rejoin the others.

In ten days, we will depart from Athellon and collapse the island into a dimensional pocket to protect its secrets for all time. We will not leave this world defenseless however; Master Jeor has agreed to train warriors for the continued defense of this planet. We feel however that once the six rings and this city have been removed from this world the armies of darkness will no longer seek out this planet in their quest for power.

We have also decided that the capital of the Ath'zyn Alliance will no longer reside on any planet lest we place another world in great danger."

"Masters," one of the soldiers began. "What is to become of the Lilarian Palace? Will we continue to use it as an outpost?"

"No," the six replied. "The palace has been searched and all useful material has been catalogued and persevered in our archives. Our mystics have devised a way to cloak the structure so that its secrets will be hidden from all who seek it. As we have said it is the power we six carry that the enemy desires. Once we are gone the Earth should be free from worry of invading powers. Only Alpha will remain behind at the Western Command Center to continue his search for Zordon and to guard the other five coins. The people of this planet have suffered long and fought hard to protect the power and have done much to honor the Alliance. Now we must step aside and allow humanity to reach its true potential."

"What if things change?" one of the men asked. "What if someday Zedd returns or Master Vile learns the location of the 'record deleted',"

"Huh," Billy said.

"Should a time of need arise born from our conflicts on this planet then Alpha or Zordon, should he be found, have been authorized to seek out warriors from Earth and provide them with any technology seen fit to resolve the conflict, but we will never again set foot on Terran soil to do battle until the end."

"What of the recovered designs for Zord technology and the device Rita created to use the sixth coin?" another soldier asked.

"In addition to being stored in the Command Center the information has been given to Master Jeor and sent to our allies on Aquatar. We are currently seeing if this technology can be improved upon and to research any weakness that may prove useful in the future."

"Are we going to use the technology that Master Jeor has created?" the soldier asked getting to the heart of his question.

"Like all great power it is not wise to become careless with this matter. We will consider it further. Now we have much work to do and little time left."

"Alright," Herigan said clapping his armored hands together. "We can worry about the details later, let's get everyone prepared to move."

"Yes Captain," The others replied quickly filing out of the room.

The images faded to a distant view of the island. Above the citadel a large Eltarian vessel could be seen hovering over the city. Moments later it departed, ascending rapidly into the sky.

Suddenly the island began to sink below the waters. Within seconds the entire island had vanished beneath the waves. Water rushed in filling the hole left by the island's disappearance. As the waves crashed in water shot upward in a huge column before smashing back down onto the surface below. The image drew back through the holo-display showing the inside of the Command Center as Alpha watched the city of Athellon disappear. As the waters calmed Alpha turned off the holo-display and turned toward the main computer. Before him was a tall cylinder, the center of which held his reflection in the deep blue crystal. The image faded to black as Alpha resumed running his dimensional scans.

"Wow," Adam said.

"Beta can you bring the lights back up," Billy said.

"Compliance," Beta replied as the light levels in the main chamber returned to normal.

"So where do you suppose these 'Masters' are now?" Kimberly asked.

"I wish I knew," Billy said. "It sounds like they have the technology to replace Zordon's stasis chamber and the other equipment that was destroyed."

"What do you think those six rings were?" Adam asked.

"And what's buried on the moon?" Ashley added.

"Hang on guys," Jason said. "I know we all have questions, but give Billy some time to figure them out."

"I can get started searching the records right away," Billy said.

Jason was oblivious to Billy's response as he continued to stare at the blank space that had held the images of the past only moments ago.

"Something on your mind?" Kimberly asked placing a hand on Jason's shoulder.

"Just thinking," Jason replied a little startled. "I was wondering what they meant by our destiny lying down another path."

Red sat on a bench in New York's central park watching the people walk past. He had reverted to his human form, and while he looked like one of these filthy mammals on the outside, inside he was still a triumph of bio-engineering. His light brown hair was cut short and was complimented by his hazel eyes. His features were strong, with a wide jaw and broad shoulders. He was wearing a pair of khaki cargo pants and a white shirt. He had arrived moments ago, materializing in an alleyway before walking into the park. When he felt he had sat there long enough to avoid looking suspicious he rose to his feet pulling a pair of sunglasses from his pocket; the rims were a silvery metal, while the lenses were a metallic red. Putting the glasses on he began to walk back toward the street.

Passing in front of an apartment complex he saw a girl break into tears as a car pulled away. Intrigued by her suffering Red approached her.

"So what's your problem?" Red asked.

"What?" the girl asked looking at him somewhat shocked at the brazenness.

"What is your problem?" Red repeated putting heavy emphasis on each word.

"Not that it's any of your business, but my boyfriend just broke up with me." she replied hostilely.

"And that's bad?" Red asked.

"I'm sorry who are you? And why are you so fascinated with my life?" the girl asked looking at Red, her anguish momentarily lost in the confusion of her present encounter.

"I'm Russell, and I'm not so much fascinated with your life, as I am your pain."

"What?"

"Well when I saw you have this sudden break down I thought something terrible must be happening, like maybe you had a day left to live, or something normal, but instead you're upset because some meat sack disassociated with you?"

The girl laughed a little, "You think having a terminal illness is normal?"

"I just don't see why you're so upset about this, now if your arm had just been devoured by a mutant squirrel or if you had just ingested a flesh eating virus I could understand that, it just seems a waste that this is all over some random person."

"You know you're right," the girl replied toughening up her attitude. "There are worse things that could have happened. Thank you."

"For what?" Red asked a little shocked.

"For taking the time to try and cheer me up, make sure I'm thinking clearly, there should be more people like you."

"Can't argue with that," Red replied with a grin.

"I'm Melody, by the way,"

Red nodded in acknowledgement as he began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Melody asked.

"Going to look for more misery," Red replied.

"Um, okay, bye," she replied a little confused.

"Good bye,"

Red walked away feeling slighted for the time she had wasted. He contemplated going back and killing her for the inconvenience, but it was too much work right now. He would have to lure her somewhere quiet and then dispose of the body. Maybe if he had time later he would come back to it, right now it would just waste more time. Of course if he had to come back it would mean more time lost and then there was all the time that was wasted now thinking about it. So really, she was wasting a lot of his time, how dare she aggravate him this much and then be such an inconvenience to kill!

Red turned around just in time to see her enter the apartment building they had been talking in front of. With focused determination he turned around locking onto her heat signature and walked quickly back entering the building. He came in a moment after the elevator doors closed and immediately went through a door on the left taking the stairs. He ran up the stairs keeping pace with the elevator car which finally came to a stop on the fifth floor. He opened the door from the stairwell after he saw Melody turn down the hall away from the door. He followed quickly after her seeing that no one else was present. Glancing around quickly he was able to determine there where three other people in his proximity within other apartments, two were watching television, and the other appeared to talking on the phone.

Melody arrived at her door and reached into her purse pulling out her keys. As she unlocked the door and opened it she caught sight of Red.

"Russell, hi,"

"Hi," Red replied with a smile. "Look, I'm sorry I just left like that,"

"It's okay," Melody replied. "Don't worry about it,"

"There's just something I need to get off my chest."

"What?" she asked with a nervous smile.

In a flash Red had grabbed the back of her head and slammed her face into the door frame, blood gushed from her broken nose and torn skin.

"It's not nice to waste people's time." Red said slamming her head against the door frame with each word.

Melody's skull caved in and teeth fell to the floor as Red brutally beat her head to a pulp. Satisfied, Red tossed her body into the room and began to shut the door before noticing a piece of gum stuck to the door frame amid all the blood. Red pulled the bloodied piece of gum off the door and put it in his mouth chewing it for a moment.

"Mm, minty," he said closing the door.

He began to calmly walk toward the elevator whistling the tune 'Don't worry, be happy'.

Blue was in a small bookstore with a stack of several books next to the chair in which he was sitting. His light blonde hair was spiked in a crude flat top offset by his deep blue eyes. His gray tank top and jean shorts hung loosely on his thin frame. He was rapidly thumbing through a book on quantum physics. Other books in the stack included one on World War II, a few books on myths and fairytales, and one about terrorism.

"Excuse me sir?" An older man replied approaching him.

Blue looked up from his reading.

"I don't mean to bother you,"

"Then you've failed miserably," Blue replied.

The man tried to keep his composure. "You've been reading for hours, gone through most of the books in the store and I was wondering if you were planning on buying anything?"

"Maybe this one," Blue said holding up the book on World War II. "It wasn't as funny as the others I read though,"

"And which were those?" the man asked confused by Blue's statement.

"The others that talked more about the holocaust. Oh!" Blue exclaimed suddenly as his eyes widened. "And that one about the witch trials in Salem, that was hilarious!"

The man recoiled at Blue's statement, but Blue apparently didn't notice, or didn't care.

"That was amazing, the way they would try and drowned the people and if that didn't work they'd burn them alive," Blue laughed as if recalling a funny joke. "Classic. Then there was something I read about an inquisition, I never realized people would admit to anything to stop being tortured, that information was invaluable."

The man walked away from Blue, but another man in the store seemed to have overheard the conversation. He was a younger man with a fair build.

"Excuse me," he said.

"What?" Blue asked obviously annoyed with this newest intrusion.

"You think the Holocaust and the Witch Trials were funny?"

"Incredibly," Blue replied. "People killing people for no good reason, it's hilarious. I didn't realize you people were so crazy."

"I can agree that people are messed up and do some sick things, but to find what they do funny is just depraved."

"Tomato, Tomato," Blue replied changing his emphasis between the two.

"You're a sick individual," the man replied walking away.

"And you are a crude and worthless sack of flesh who does not know when to shut up and mind his own business," Blue replied.

"What did you say?" The man asked turning back toward Blue.

"Do you suffer from poor hearing? You're less than two meters from me, there is a low probability that you didn't hear me if your hearing is unimpaired."

The man walked back and grabbed Blue by his shirt. "Alright listen freak!"

Blue rolled his eyes and grabbed the man's hand twisting it, the bone cracking and snapping as he did so. The man fell to his knees as Blue rose from the chair gripping the man's arm near the elbow and then with a quick thrust shoved his arm down his throat. There was a loud snap and a gurgling sound as blood began to rise up out of the mouth and flow down his face and neck. Blue let him fall to the floor, his eyes wide with shock.

"Neanderthal," he said as he turned to the store owner who was standing behind the counter shaking uncontrollably.

"Just go," he said weakly. "I won't tell the cops I saw you, just don't kill me."

Blue sighed. "See the problem with that is, based on the micro dilation of your pupils I know you're lying to me."

Blue took a step toward the man. Urine ran down the man's leg onto the floor as he pressed himself against the back wall. Then suddenly he clutched his chest and began struggling to breath. Blue watched for a moment analyzing his condition.

"Well that was anticlimactic," Blue said. "Looks like you're going into cardiac arrest and I don't think you'll survive it,"

Blue turned and walked toward the door grabbing the book on quantum physics and the other on World War II as he headed for the door. He flipped the sign to 'Closed' as he opened the door before turning the lock and shutting the door behind him. He looked around to find an empty bench at a bus stop across the street and walked over to finish his book.

Pink and Yellow were both walking around the appliance section of a large department store in a mall. Pink was a small brown eyed girl wearing a black skirt with a black baby tee with a red heart with horns on the chest. Her deep red hair was pulled back in a ponytail tied with a hot pink bow. Yellow was slightly taller with a light tan. Her dark brown hair hung around shoulder level with bangs that stopped just above her gray eyes. She was wearing a jean vest over a tan crop top with jean shorts.

"Why are you still looking at appliances?" Pink asked. "You already got your waffle iron."

"Yeah," Yellow replied. "But they aren't that sturdy, I'm worried it might break before I do any real damage to Black."

"Our bodies can take a direct hit from an ion cannon, I don't think a waffle iron is going to help much."

"Maybe I could ram it down his throat?" Yellow thought out loud.

"I think you need to let it go," Pink replied. "Red said we're suppose to be looking for human weakness so we can figure out some good ways to get at the Rangers,"

"You're always such a kiss up to Red," Yellow replied. "I think you like him."

"The only one I want right now is that little pink ranger." Pink said running her tongue over her upper lip. "I want to taste the fear on her, make her beg for her life before slowly killing her." Pink's eyes rolled up as her body shook with the ecstasy. "Oh, I can't stop fantasying about it."

"Do I need to hose you down?" Yellow said.

"Tell me you never dream about what it would be like to kill Ashley," Pink said giving her a knowing look.

"Okay," Yellow smiled seductively. "I do," she admitted with a giggle.

"So?"

"I'm not the kind to go sharing my fantasies," Yellow replied a little indignant.

"Whatever," Pink replied. She looked around for a moment. "I'm just not seeing anything here that is useful,"

"Just give me a second, I'm almost done." Yellow said looking through a few last appliances. "I guess they don't have anything better," she said with a pouty expression.

"I told you, now can we get out of here? Not being morphed is making my skin feel all itchy." Pink said scratching at her arm.

The two of them walked through the winding isles and out of the department store into the mall. Pink and Yellow wandered the mall for awhile casually observing others as they went about their business.

"Humans are so boring," Yellow said blowing air up at her bangs.

"They're fun to kill though," Pink said with a sadistic smile.

"Sorta,"

"What do you mean sorta?"

"They die too easy,"

"That's half the fun," Pink replied. "Seeing how long you can make it last."

"That's funny to hear coming from the impulsive one,"

"There's a difference between being impulsive and not holding back," Pink said. "You're problem is you attack with everything you have, so of course these meat bags aren't going to hold up against that."

"I suppose," Yellow replied.

"Ooo!" Pink exclaimed pointing at the food court.

"What?" Yellow asked turning to look. "So," she turned back toward Pink, but she had vanished. "Pink?"

Yellow sighed and went to sit down at a nearby bench. She spread her arms across the back of the bench and leaned back looking at the ceiling. The minutes passed slowly as Yellow struggled to maintain her composure. All around her she could hear the constant droning from people, all their stupid concerns and small talk. Why couldn't they just shut up? Her head suddenly snapped up as she heard some child screaming. She stood up quickly, whirling around trying to locate the source of the noise; finally some misery.

She managed to locate the child, a toddler, no more than four years of age, being pulled along behind his mother down the walkway about twenty meters away. While Yellow could not hear the mother she could read her lips. It seemed the child wanted something, candy? It was hard to make out the blurred cries of the child or to extrapolate any data from his blubbering mouth. The mother seemed annoyed that the child would not stop despite her best efforts.

Frustrated, Yellow plopped back down on the bench. What a stupid species. Why the mother did not simply beat the child until he was silent was beyond her. She contemplated for a moment going over and taking care of it herself, but it seemed that the child was unhappy because of the mother and mother was annoyed with the child, so it only was right they should both have to suffer. Besides the mall was crowded and she wasn't in the mood to grow a new skin for something this trivial. She laughed for a moment. If Pink was here, she'd have killed that little brat without giving it a second thought.

Suddenly the crying stopped, there was a terrified scream. Yellow jumped up and turned just in time to see the woman fall to the ground on top of the prone child. There was no sign of an attacker. People began to rush over to the spot where the lady had collapsed.

"Some people are so inconsiderate," Pink's voice came out of nowhere.

"You didn't." Yellow said turning toward the source of the sound.

"What?" Pink asked as she became visible, her body fading back into sight. "No one saw me do it."

Yellow only shook her head in response and grinned. The two turned and began to walk away heading for the door leading to the parking structure.

"By the way, where did you run off too?"

"Oh," Pink said with a big smile. "Was just giving Blue's new virus a good home."

Black was walking through a run down neighborhood. Around him the brick walls of the buildings were tagged with graffiti. He passed a condemned building. A homeless man was sitting next to the far corner near an opening in a chain link fence. Black watched him as he walked by. The man kept his head down not wanting to meet Black's gaze. Black was a dark haired man, he looked as if he was part Samoan. He was short and muscular with broad shoulders and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a gray tee shirt over which he had a blue plaid hoodie with a pair of black jeans.

As he passed the old homeless man a ball suddenly flew at him from his right. Black spun quickly and caught the ball with his hand.

"Wow," one of the teenagers exclaimed.

"That's awesome," another replied starring at the basketball still wrapped in Black's large grip.

Black stood there starring at them for a moment not sure what to make of them.

"Hey, sorry about that man," one of the youth said. "Can we have our ball back?"

Black dropped the ball allowing it to bounce in place as he turned and continued on his way. Black could hear one of the teens refer to him in a derogatory way, but it didn't matter, they weren't worth his time, not that it would take much time, but it wouldn't get him any closer to his goal. If he was going to get his shot at taking down Adam then he needed to find someway to do it that appealed to Red's sense of artistic violence. It wasn't enough for Red to just kill the Rangers, they had to have some scheme to do it. To Black it didn't really make sense. As far as he was concerned they should just kill them quickly and be done with it.

On the other hand Black wondered what they would do once the Rangers were dead. It was something that had been gnawing away at him since the restraining nodes had been removed. Before they had been restricted, unable to kill, and it was fun to try and push that boundary, to see what they could get away with, but now they were free to do as they pleased. And while he wanted to kill the Black Ranger more than anything in the world he had come to realize it was the only thing driving him, would he have a purpose after he was done? He thought about the other one that Astronema had locked away, his target was dead and he seemed to be going crazy, well crazier, without anything to do.

Something suddenly occurred to Black. The other one hadn't been locked away because he was useless, he was merely impossible to control, he would simply kill without thought. That was his purpose too, to kill, there was nothing more to it than that. Black smiled feeling better already. As long as there were people to kill he would have a purpose, and when everyone here was dead there were always more worlds. When everyone on every world was dead? Well he still had some time to figure out what to do after that.

Black passed by another man walking on the sidewalk in the opposite direction. No sooner had the man passed by than Black slammed his elbow into the back of his head near the base of the skull snapping the spine free. The man fell forward onto the concrete; his body convulsed for a moment and then was still. Black chuckled to himself as he continued to walk down the street; it was good to have a purpose.

Astronema was looking over information on the display in front of her. The charts were showing the breakdown of the Psycho Ranger's mental state. Even with their genetically superior bodies they were suffering the early stages of dementia caused by the break down of their brain tissue. This seemed to be caused by the intense amounts of energy that was being transferred to them through their Morphers. Drawing life force from Dark Specter was slowing the process and keeping their cellular regeneration rate up, but it seemed their baseline DNA was beginning to show signs of mutation. This problem was further compounded by the constant use of the Psycho Ranger's morphed state. She was going to have to find some way to stabilize it if they were going to continue to use the Psycho Rangers. She still had Psycho Green she could run some tests on. Of course subduing him in his more advanced state of mental decay could prove much more difficult.

"Ecliptor," Astronema said activating the com.

"Yes empress?"

"I want you to take a detachment to the holding cell where we've stored Psycho Green. I need him sedated and then placed into cold storage. I also need blood and tissue samples brought to the lab."

"It will be done Empress." Ecliptor responded as the communication was cut off.

She began to understand why Zordon's Morphers had such a low power output. Rita had been slightly less conservative, but the Power Coin had been the limiting factor. She had designed the Psycho's Morphers from the ground up and had more than tripled the power output that the Psychos were able to access, however it seemed that the decision had come with a price. Fortunately, since the Psycho's were little more than enhanced human clones hybridized with Eltarian DNA they were expendable. If these minor setbacks could be resolved it could mean an army of unstoppable killing machines. Before that she needed to figure out why their DNA was mutating, then she could work on enhancing their metabolic functions to cope with the burn out their cells were experiencing.

Ecliptor stood outside the holding cell for Psycho Green. Around him were several Quantrons. Each had a large pack on their back with an insulated hose running to a long cylinder with a cone shape toward the front end. Holes ran around the cone in rows all pointed forward to dispense a freezing agent. The handles where attached to the main cylinder by ridged arms that had been insulated from the rest of the weapon frame.

Behind him was a large force field in the form of a cylinder filled with a clear liquid along with medical equipment and a power supply.

As the series of doors that sealed Green's prison began to open Ecliptor began to set the primer on the small device in his hand. The weapon was a demorphing grenade developed when the Psycho Morphers had been designed. It was designed to disrupt the flow of energy through the crystalline matrix of the Morpher to force a demorph. It was unknown if this technology would work on the Rangers, or even if it would work on the Psychos without killing them outright from the sudden withdrawal of power.

Ecliptor switched to his enhanced targeting mode as the last door began to slide slowly open. Ecliptor forced a shut down of the last force field and pitched the grenade into the tiny opening; the grenade skimmed the narrow opening as it bounced into the cell. There was a detonation as a flash went off to show that the weapon had activated.

Quantrons immediately proceeded down the hallway in teams of two. The first reached the door and fired a spray of liquid helium into the opening. There was an enraged scream as an object moved through the mist and out of the entry way. The lead Quantrons tracked the target and fired another blast toward the right of the cell where the figured had vanished. Ecliptor could hear a thump as the target moved again. With the entryway clear the first two Quantrons stepped through while the second team formed up on the tunnel keeping their weapons set for a wide spray. Ecliptor heard one more discharge as the Quantrons disappeared around the corner. There was a moment of silence.

Then the two Quantrons emerged from the room. Their dispensers had been holstered on their backs; ice coated the cylinders. Between them they were carrying a balled up mass covered in ice and snow in some form of suspension field generated from two emitters on the back of which was a handle. The body appeared to be curled into the fetal position. Ecliptor stepped aside as the two brought the subject to the cylinder. Going to either side of the container the Quantrons passed their cargo through the cylinder and deactivated their own emitters.

Ecliptor activated the machine's filter system removing contaminants from the vessel. Monitoring equipment sprung to life indicating the target was still alive. The Psycho Ranger's bodies had been designed to survive extreme temperatures, their body fluids being resistance to boiling or freezing. As the ice and snow were removed Ecliptor began to clearly see the form of Psycho Green.

"Get this equipment back into the cell," Ecliptor ordered. As the Quantrons carried out his command Ecliptor activated his com link.

"This is Astronema,"

"Capture is complete," Ecliptor said. "I think you should come take a look at this."

"Is there a problem?" Astronema asked.

"I'm not sure," Ecliptor replied.

Red was in a foul mood; his attempts at finding some useful information on human suffering had gotten him nothing, other than a piece of gum that had now lost its flavor. At this rate it really was going to come down to just finding the Rangers and killing them.

Suddenly there was an incoming message from Blue. Red continued to walk along the street as he talked with Blue using his internal monologue.

"What is it Blue?" Red asked, his thoughts ringing with irritation.

"What's wrong Red, things not going well?" Blue asked half mocking.

"Shut up," Red said aloud.

Several people on the street glanced over at his sudden outburst, but then went back to their lives.

"So what do you want?" Red asked regaining his composure.

"I have a great idea on what to do to the Rangers," Blue announced.

"Really?" Red asked, again speaking out loud in his excitement. His expression immediately changed.

"I already contacted Pink and Yellow, we're going to meet in Central Park and I'll explain everything."

"I'll be there in a minute," Red replied as he turned off the street and ducked down an alley before teleporting.

"Billy, you should come see this," Jason called.

Billy rose from his workstation and began to walk toward the holo-display where the other Rangers were gathered. They had been watching the News when reports about a strange rash of murders spread throughout the country had caught Jason's attention. Homicide in major cities had spiked significantly for several days before abating only to rise in another city. Law Enforcement was convinced that it was the work of a single group or individual. What Jason saw as interesting was the short amount of time between incidents in other cities. While the media had noticed this and had suggested a terror campaign by Lord Zedd, officials had no comment except to say they were looking into the matter. More disturbing was the fact that none of the victims seemed to have anything in common. The killings had happened across a spectrum of ethnicity, age, sex, and occupation with no significant pattern. The only definite pattern was the large cities, Seattle, Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, and Chicago had all been targets of these bizarre killing sprees.

"So what's going on?" Billy asked.

"Strange murders," Kimberly said. "All over the U.S."

"Define strange," Billy said.

"We're talking about a high number of brutal killings for a few days, enough that the police definitely notice and then for no known reason it stops in one city and starts in another distant city almost immediately."

"Like the target or targets are teleporting," Billy said.

"That's what we were thinking," Adam said.

There was a sudden interruption as the Newscaster began to announce a new development. The Rangers paused for a moment and turned their attention to the display.

"It appears that New York City may be the latest target for the rash of unexplained killings. Today a woman and her child died mysteriously while in a shopping mall." He said.

The image cut to another new feed from a local station. An older man was standing out in front of a large building, presumably in the New York area.

"I was just walking down to the sporting goods store when I suddenly hear this scream, and I turn around and this lady is in a panic. Her kid was lying on the ground, and so I start heading over there to see what's going on and suddenly her head just jerks back and she falls to the floor."

"That has to be someone working for Zedd," Ashley said.

"Why kill off random people though?" Billy asked. "It doesn't make sense."

"What if it's tied to Hephaestus?" Jason asked. "He isn't exactly all there."

"While it does seem that Finster has suffered considerably from his imprisonment with the Machine Empire I doubt he is solely responsible. From this latest report it would appear that our assailant is one who can attack without being seen, though without actually having witnessed the attack myself I can't rule out something like a chemical agent that caused a sudden convulsion just prior to death. The account though suggests that the assailant was either invisible and attacked the person directly or that they were concealed and used some form of projectile weapon. But the later is unlikely as the report doesn't mention any weapon."

"Maybe that information is not being released?" Adam suggested.

"Possible," Billy replied.

"What about that Shadow Ranger?" Kimberly asked. "I mean, I know he never really demonstrated the ability to turn invisible, but he had some strange powers."

"It's not really a matter of abilities," Billy said. "It's the motive that has me concerned."

"You don't think it's an act of terrorism like the News suggested?" Rocky asked.

"If that were the case, you would expect it to be on a global scale. When you have a military force the size of Lord Zedd's, terror is generally a weapon you employ just prior to an attack so that the enemy is disorganized and scattered. It's possible that this is just the early stages of such a tactic, but given his vast military resources it seems unlikely that he would need to resort to such a thing. Nor would it fit with his previous plan of attack."

"What do you mean?" Aisha asked.

"Initially Lord Zedd arrived with a small force and occupied the Lunar Palace. His first order of business was to use the Green Ranger for a surgical strike to eliminate us and cripple the moral of Earth. From there he would have gone on to launch a massive invasion force to capture the planet and crush all resistance in a single day. However, when the Green Ranger was defeated and the Machine Empire attacked, his forces were greatly reduced. I think Zedd still plans to conquer Earth in one swift blow once he's dealt with us, but he seems to be waiting."

"Maybe he doesn't have the forces left after his war?" Aisha suggested.

"It's more likely that he is having to pull resources in from different fronts as they become available. Shortly after his defection the Green Ranger had explained to us that Zedd was fighting on multiple fronts throughout the universe. His Generals are handling these other fronts, but Earth was obviously of personal interest to him. So it is likely that Zedd's personal armada is heavily depleted and in that we may have bought more time for our world. But I digress."

"What if it isn't Zedd?" Adam asked.

"Maybe just a coincidence?" Jason added.

"What about a cult?" Ashley suggested.

"Now there's something I hadn't thought of," Billy replied pondering this idea for a moment. "It could even be a group of people that want to join Lord Zedd and are committing these acts of terror to gain his attention."

"You think there are people out there like that?" Shawna asked not hiding the disgust in her tone.

"I'd believe it," Rocky said.

"I'll have to forward the News reports to my terminal and look over the evidence before I make any real conclusions thou…"

"We're going live to a hostage situation in New York," the Newscaster said stopping Billy mid sentence. "Where it appears the Power Rangers have taken a bus full of people hostage… on the roof of… the World Trade Center?" the man added, seemingly confused.

The image shifted out to show a helicopter's view of the roof of the right tower of the World Trade Center. A Grey Hound bus was sitting motionless on the building, the front windshield was cracked outward and a tinge of red could be seen on the glass. Around the perimeter of the bus three individuals in pink, red, and black Ranger Armor were standing guard. Suddenly another in blue emerged from the bus carrying a struggling child, no more than ten, in his arms. He held him up for a moment over the ledge before tossing him off the side of the building; the boy disappeared as he fell out of frame to the plaza below.

"Guys," Jason said his teeth gritted.

The Rangers nodded, he didn't need to finish his sentence. They grabbed their Morphers.

Psycho Blue stood in front of the passengers of the bus, his armor transformed to look identical to his Ranger counterpart. Behind him, Yellow, also disguised, had just smashed the driver's head into the windshield. The people were cowering behind their seats. Blue looked around for a moment before grabbing a trembling man near the front and dragging him out of the bus while Yellow stood guard.

"Got a volunteer," Blue said walking out to the others.

Red smiled as the four Psycho Rangers walked toward the edge of the building.

"Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame." Red said taking the man from Blue and hefting him up onto the ledge.

"Well, you can enjoy the seven point seven two seconds of fame before the ground becomes an issue." Blue said pushing him forward.

"Wai…" the man started to say as he tumbled over the edge.

The Psychos were immediately drawn to the edge watching the man fall to his death. Seconds later he hit the ground cracking the concrete.

"Huh," Blue said walking back. "Only seven point three one seconds, must have forgotten to factor in wind resistance." Then he suddenly paused raising his index finger as if something just occurred to him. "Or the laws of physics no longer apply! Science has failed me!" he shouted falling on his knees.

"Get a grip on yourself," Black said.

"You're right," Blue replied jumping up. "No sense jumping to conclusions, I have a hypothesis, now I must collect some data!"

Blue quickly returned to the bus and emerged again dragging a woman behind him. The young lady was frantically screaming trying to get free of the Ranger's superhuman grip. Blue hoisted her to the edge to the building and put a hand over her mouth to muffle her screams.

"Now listen," Blue said. Finding he did not have the woman's attention he shook her and repeated his demand. "This is very important, I need you to stay as spread out as possible; it will slow your fall."

On saying this the woman went limp in his arms; tears running down her face.

"For science!" Blue declared pitching her over the side as he leaned over the ledge to watch the grisly conclusion. "Seven point eight two," Blue declared. "First one must have just been a fluke."

He walked away from the edge of the building returning to the other Psychos who were waiting outside the bus. Red stepped forward.

"So now what?" he asked.

"Now we wait until we get some News coverage." Blue replied.

"Won't the Rangers detect our presence first?" Black asked lowering his voice.

"Not as long as we have this." Blue said producing a small circular box from his belt.

"And what is that?" Pink asked.

"A jamming device, makes us completely invisible to the Ranger's tracking equipment with an effective radius of twenty-two meters." Blue replied.

The Psychos relaxed for a moment waiting for the Media to arrive and document their exploits. After several minutes of waiting the Psychos could hear the sound of helicopter blades beating in the distance. Red looked toward the direction of the sound, but found it was only an AH-1 Cobra, probably a military intercept.

"Where are the defiant Media groups when you need them," Red said annoyed.

"They're coming," Blue replied. "I already uploaded the information to several News Centers; one is already getting flight clearance."

"Then this guy will have to go," Red replied pulling his blaster and firing a single shot.

The bolt raced through the air toward the Cobra, a mere dot in the sky. Within a second the bolt had penetrated the cockpit burning through the pilots and went through to the engine. The helicopter exploded into flames and plummeted onto the streets of New York landing on several other vehicles.

"I've got a lock on the News Helicopter," Blue said. "Should be here in a few minutes."

Black suddenly noticed a man looking at him from the window of the bus. He turned toward him, the man sat up quickly facing forward, but Black was already on his way into the bus. He quickly brushed past Yellow and stormed down the isle causing the other passengers to cringe. Coming to the man he grabbed his shirt and hoisted him up as the man lost control of his bodily functions. Black ignored the urine that ran down onto his boots.

"When I was in Chicago there was this cat," he said looking straight at the man. "He was looking at me just like you did. I tried to shoot it, but it ran away. So I followed it into this neighborhood, burned down several houses trying to flush it out, but it got away."

The man continued to shake in his grip.

"Now I want to know one thing." Black said shaking him. "Do you know where that cat is?!"

"No," the man squeaked out.

Black let go dropping the man to the floor, "I hate that freaking cat," he said turning around and walking off the bus.

The man slowly pulled himself into his seat and brought his legs to his chest curling up against the frame of the bus.

"What was that all about?" Pink asked as Black came down out of the bus.

"Nothing," Black said. "Thought I might have had a lead."

"So Blue," Pink asked walking up to him and running her arm around his shoulder. "Does this plan of yours involve that lovely little device you created?"

"Unfortunately no," Blue said. "Whatever it does I'm sure no one around it would live, and we need witnesses right now." He produced a small little device that appeared to be a small squeak toy made up to look like a mouse. "This on the other hand we will be using." He said holding it up by the tail.

Blue's attention was suddenly redirected as he heard the beating of the helicopter blades coming in fast now.

"Looks like it's show time!" Blue said walking back onto the bus. He looked around the passengers for the prefect instrument for his plan. Finally his gaze fell on a young boy sitting with a man. Blue walked over and crouched down in front of the child.

"Well I hate to say it kid, but it has to be you." Blue said.

"Over my dead," the man replied.

Blue didn't let him finish and instead casually slammed his palm into the man's face killing him instantly. "It's really just an unfortunate twist of fate," Blue continued looking into the terrified child's eyes. "See people get more bent out of shape about violence against children, so if we're really going to do this right, this is just the way it has to be, and we appreciate your sacrifice."

"Hurry up!" Red shouted from outside; the whirl of rotor blades deafeningly close.

"You're not the Rangers," One lady said. "You're some horrible monsters."

"I like to think I've evolved beyond your antiquated ideas of right and wrong," Blue said with a smile. "I simply am what I am."

With that final statement he took hold of the child and dragged him from the bus kicking and screaming. He walked to the edge of the building and held the child out over the ledge.

"Maybe if you think a happy thought you can fly," Blue said as he pitched the child over. He watched for a moment to see if there was any truth to the children's story, but after a few seconds he concluded there wasn't.

"Pink, now that they have their top story for the evening, if you would be so unkind?" Blue said walking back toward the bus.

Pink smiled and manifested her bow. She abhorred the way her beautiful weapon looked shrouded in white and pink of her good twin. Taking quick aim she fired off five shots in rapid succession. The first two stuck through the heads of the pilot and copilot, the next two into the heads of the cameraman and reporter, the final shot pierced the engine locking it in a sudden stop, the helicopter dropped like a rock to the ground below.

Blue continued toward the bus and tossed in the small mouse toy as Yellow exited the vehicle.

"I would apologize for inconveniencing you all," Blue said with a smile. "But in about eight seconds you're going to be dead anyway, so it really doesn't matter."

With those words he shut the door and began walking away. The people immediately jumped from their seats trying to pry open the windows as Blue pulled a detonator from his belt and put his thumb on top of the button.