Chapter 11 – Brief Connection
Dr. K threw the doors open, causing the room of Rangers reach for their missing weapons. Most of them noticed who it was and didn't seem at all surprised. "I didn't say you could leave Mighty Morphin Blue!"
Billy blushed, "But Jen said…"
"I don't care what Time Force Pink said! I need at least one of the original Power Rangers to research how to reconnect to the Morphing Grid, find the weapons and things taken from us and return us home! And you are the ideal candidate seeing as you might actually understand the process!" Dr. K started to pull Billy away when Jen intervened.
"Dr. K," Jen said, trying to calm the storm before it reached a thunderhead. "I know that you believe the Morphing Grid is the only way to get us back but if we can find out how the Enemy used the Morphing Grid to trap us, we can reverse the path and send everyone back to their proper times."
"It is pointless to discover how, if we cannot access the Morphing Grid and find the parts of us stolen. If we leave now, we'll be incomplete people. I'm not even sure we would survive the trip." Dr. K tugged on Billy again, "I need Mighty Morphing Blue to assist me. You have plenty of other intelligent Rangers, you can spare this one."
Jen thought about it, she knew Trip had hoped to work with the legendary Billy Cranston but if Dr. K was right, they needed the Morphing Grid. She couldn't take the chance that she was wrong. She relented, "All right." She smiled sadly at Billy, "Sorry Billy. When you two finally figure it out, would you come work with us?"
Billy nodded, "Of course."
Jen waved as Dr. K dragged Billy behind her, out through the doors. That poor kid didn't know what he was getting into.
Dr. K led Billy into a tall, poorly lit, circular room.
"Welcome Billy," a booming voice said, "I am glad you are ok."
Billy squinted, "Zordon?"
Spotlights, made from tiny, focused lights, lit up the far area of the room. Zordon, still in his tube, glowed in the center of the room. His elongated face blue smiled at Billy. To his left was a woman, white mask covering her face and body. Her eyes sparkled in welcome. To Zordon's right was another lady in white. One who seemed eerily familiar.
Billy jumped back, "Is that Rita?"
"No," Zordon boomed. "This is the Mystic Mother. She is what Rita becomes after she has turned from the ways of evil."
Billy eyed her, she sure looked like Rita. He decided to ask her right out, "Are you Rita Repulsa?"
The woman nodded, "I was, I am, I will be. But I no longer fight for the forces of the dark. I have become the guardian of all users of good magic." A small smile flickered across her face, "And Power Rangers."
"So you protect Power Rangers now?"
"Yes."
Billy stared at her, remembering all the times Rita had sent monsters against them, disrupted their lives, injured them. But Tommy was once evil too. Of course, he was evil because of Rita. He sighed, who was he to say that anybody was beyond redemption. "Very well." He nodded at the other lady, "I'm sorry. I have not had the pleasure of making your acquaintance."
"Isn't a name just a designation? Can you truly know who I am beyond the symbols used to represent me?"
Billy stared at her, "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
Dr. K rolled her eyes, "Her name is Dimitria. And she likes to talk in questions. Although I've heard her talk with the normal speech patterns used by people of Earth so I believe it to be merely a mental defect."
Dimitria's glared at her, "Do you have the right to judge me?"
"Yes," Dr. K said simply, "I do." She marched to the center of the room and motioned for Billy to join her. When he had she gestured again and the lights lit up the rest of the room, a stylized lightning bolt was carved into the carpet removed, concrete floor. On the wall, above the door they'd entered through was a series of circular, triangular and x symbols connected by both a confusing combination of wavy and straight lines.
"Do you know what this is Billy," Zordon asked.
"I am afraid that I do not," he answered truthfully. He didn't know but he was fascinated by it. There seemed to be some kind of pattern to the symbols, a purpose to the mass of lines. And if they had taken the time to draw it here, it must be important.
"This is the hyper-dimensional psyco-graphical representation of the Morphing Grid, it's connections to Power Rangers and the paths through out time and space that it weaves."
Billy's jaw fell to the floor, he looked at Dr. K who nodded, "It took me many years before I accidently tapped into its power to fuel my Ranger Series of combat suits. Once I knew what I was working with, I was curious as to how it worked. And with the help of Zordon, Dimitria and the Mystic Mother, I was able to map it out. With acceptable tolerances for errors of course."
"And what were you wanting to do with this knowledge?"
"Well Billy," the Mystic Mother said, "we were hoping you could find some way to reconnect the Rangers to it. The link has somehow been severed. I can no longer feel the magic source, Zordon, while still trapped in his time warp, can no longer access his abilities. You and the other Mighty Morphin Rangers are the first that Zordon bestowed the Powers upon. Time wise, there were others who came before you, yes. But without your actions, their powers, and those of all Rangers who followed you, would be nonexistent. Therefore, you are the first links in the Power Chain."
"And you wish me to reestablish my link and then, through me, connect all other Rangers?"
"Indeed," Zordon boomed. "Your intelligence serves you well Billy. We have great hope for your ability to resolve this situation quickly."
"But you will not have to do it alone," the Mystic Mother said with a smile that looked so strange on Rita's face, "You may ask the assistance of any Ranger, any mentor and, if they agree, any of the ones still struggling in the darkness."
"I will also be assisting you every step of the way, Mighty Morphing Blue," Dr. K said. "If there is anything that you do not understand or cannot comprehend, come to me and I will explain it to the best of my ability."
Billy looked back at her, he had been distracted. All ready working on deciphering the drawing in front of him. "So from what I can figure out, these circles are world?" He pointed at the largest one in the center, "And this represents Earth?"
Again Dr. K reevaluated her assessment of Mighty Morphing Blue, "…yes. How did you decipher that so quickly?"
"Well, once I knew what I was looking out, the rest just sort of made sense. And those little triangles, are those individual Rangers? I noticed how most of them group around Earth."
"Again, correct. And if you look closely enough, you see how those lines loop back around, connecting a few of the circles to the exes? I have hypothesized that those are timelines…"
"So what you're saying," Dr. K clarified," is that by taking that dimensional slip and looping it through the time stream, it will reset your connection to the Morphing Grid?"
The Yellow Mystic Force Ranger grinned, "Kind of like jumping a stalled car?"
"Exactly," Billy said. It had taken many hours, they had skipped the evening meal, or at least the two giant Jelly Beans that Dr. K thought was a appropriate meal, but Billy was sure he had stumbled upon a solution. If he knew dimensional physics for anything, it should work.
"And you need a jolt of lightning to do it?"
"A lot more than a jolt but will you help us Chip?"
"Of course! It's my duty as a superhero!" Chip was nearly dancing around in excitement. He could help save generations of Power Rangers! He loved his job.
Billy directed Chip to stand in the center of the room, on top of the now ironic lightning bolt. "Ok. Dimitria and the Mystic Mother will attempt to connect to the aura around you. Once you feel their presence, gather the lightning and hold it. It will take a few minutes to build up enough charge and it will probably start to hurt to hold on to it. Once you have the most, I mean the very most, that you can hold, raise your arms into the air. Dimitria and the Mystic Mother will divide the power between them, once you feel it being taken, don't fight them, let them have it. They will then hold the charge between them, doubling it beyond what you could have. Together, they will send that power directly into Zordon's warp tube where he will very carefully follow my tether to the Power Grid. He is out of sync with our universe, not only in space but in time as well. He should be able divert the power into his space. Once he does, Dr. K and I will tell him a set of coordinates that we believe to be the center point of the Morphing Grid. He will direct the now passive power at that point, slipping it though the gates of dimensions and time and reconnecting the source to the Grid."
Chip blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to understand even a sentence of what Billy had just said. He gave up and asked simply, "And this will give us back our powers?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Let's rocket!" He grinned nervously, "The Space Rangers would kill me if they knew I was using their call. But I couldn't think of anything better." Then he closed his eyes, "Here I go."
The Mystic Mother held her staff in front of her. Dimitria closed her eyes.
"Now, that is a weird feeling," Chip mumbled as he felt their presence settle over him. He held his hands a few inches apart. A single spark jumped between them. He grimaced, "It's harder to call to the elements now. Let me try again." He gritted his teeth and bolts of lightning four inches in diameter leapt from his hands, collecting it in the air between them.
An entire hour passed before Chip slowly raised his shaking hands. The ball of lightning was now wider than his arms could stretch, he held it out in front of him, sweating, his legs were locked into place. He wanted to fall to the floor but couldn't. He had never held this much power before. It was glorious and terrifying. Even with his eyes closed, he could see the lightning, feel the heat on his face. He wanted to simply take the lighting into himself, become one with the power. The lightning writhed in his hands, wanting the freedom to lash out at the one who dared to try and tame it. He struggled to raise his hands, almost dropping the ball multiple times. "That's all," he gasped. Then, just as he had been told to expect, he felt someone begin to take away the lightning. Stealing away the light that had become his whole world. Billy's words came back to him, 'Don't fight them.' He breathed deeply, pushing aside the desire. When the last flicker was taken, he collapsed on the ground, unconscious.
The Mystic Mother and Dimitria shared similar looks of pain. "It is so much," Dimitria whispered, forgetting to talk in questions in her awe. "So much Power!"
They held the lightning for thirty additional minutes before the Mystic Mother cried out, "Enough! I can't take it anymore!"
"I am ready," Zordon boomed.
Dimitria and the Mystic Mother began to glow. Dr. K and Billy watched as the lightning floated from the two on the sides, into Zordon in the middle. The light now emitting from the center tube made it impossible to look even indirectly near him. A few seconds passed and it zipped along an invisible line to Billy where it then faded, along with Zordon, the instant it touched him.
"It's up to him now," Dr. K said softly. She hated it when things were out of her hands but she was learning to trust other people. Surely Zordon, renowned and celebrated, could be trusted to finish the task.
Zordon drifted in the multi-colored space between dimensions. It felt so good to have his own body back. Hands and fingers, feet and toes. He wished he could feel the wind again, or the warmth of the sun. What he would trade to be back on Eltar right now.
The power he had been given, no longer made of matter, floated as a general blob beside him. It dwarfed him in size but he handled it as easily as if it were a baseball. The blue thread he had been following ended in front of him. It was no longer connected to the Source, it had merely pointed out the general direction.
"Space: 7-4-9," a soft voice echoed into the void. It was Dr. K, telling him where the energy should go. "Delta 34- Yipper 2- Racoon 942- 3-4-0. Time: Star-46-5- Happy- 3-1- Gold- 7-7-7. End."
Zordon obediently shoved the energy in the appropriate direction. A short skip though space and a jump through time later, Zordon noticed a distinctive change in the space around him. Dueling light replaced the range of colors before. The Source of the Morphing Grid. On one side the all consuming darkness, tore and ripped at its foe, the pure, white light. But the white seemed muted and the darkness more gray. Their dance was slow, both sides had suffered from the loss of their surrogate fighters, the Rangers and their foes, but nether side was willing to surrender. Zordon readied the energy blob and with one great toss, threw it into the heart of the storm.
"Something's happening," Billy noted as they watched Zordon's tube flickered to life and fade again.
"I don't think we will be filling the effects of the transfer this quickly," Dr. K corrected him.
Her words were proven wrong within the next second. Sound filled the room, a roaring like they had never heard before. A large creature stood towering over them, it's skeleton face cackling.
Billy felt the Power fill him again, the knowledge of the Rangers, the innate understanding of everything he needed to know. His Power Lance forced his hand apart. Feeling better than he had all day, he leapt at the boney monster, determined to protect both Dr. K and the still unconscious Chip.
*AN*
So…any guesses? Which monster is it?
*AN2*
I'm going to be extraordinarily busy next week and most likely won't have time to update so I'm going ahead and putting up next weeks chapter today. This also means that there won't be an update next week.
Next time on Power Rangers: The Skelton Dance
*CL*
Dr. K – Mentor RPM
Billy – Blue Mighty Morphin
Jen – Pink Time Force
Zordon – Mentor Mighty Morphing through In Space
Mystic Mother – Mentor Mystic Force
Dimitria – Mentor Turbo
Chip – Yellow Mystic Force Ranger