Chapter 28 – Revelations

March 25 1998 – Angel Grove Park

The last few days had been hectic for the Turbo Rangers. Divatox had upped her number of attacks on the city. The rangers felt like they were out fighting a monster or some footsoliders every few hours and they were reaching the point of exhaustion. Meanwhile Billy had been scanning for the Muranthias dimension ever since Zonnette had donated her dimensional drive. So far he hadn't had much success but the former blue ranger felt he was getting closer.

It was early in the morning and the sun had barely risen but already the rangers were chasing a monster through the park. This particular monster, Translucitor, could make object disappear with a blast from his staff. Due to the time of day, his disappearing act had been limited to a few parked cars and park benches but the rangers still needed to deal with him before the morning rush hour.

Unfortunately the monster also came armed with his own fleet of Maligore's Wumpers. The rangers had been briefed on the intel about Maligore and they didn't like what they read. He could naturally grow to a size bigger than their Megazords and he had the power to incinerate anything just by looking at it. According to the data he was still considered a youngster by his species. Legend had it that his adult older brother had imprisoned him on Muranthias as a punishment.

The rangers ducked a vanishing beam from Translucitor and it struck a tree behind them. The unfortunate tree disappeared completely from view. "I wonder where all the stuff he's vanishing goes to?" Ashley asked the team.

"Don't think I want to find out", Cassie replied as she dodged a blow from a Wumper. She drove her Turbo Blade into the creature's midsection, causing it to dissolve. Carlos jumped in to assist the two girls and blasted a few more creatures from existence with his Thunder Cannon. Over the other side of the park, TJ and Charlotte had their own batch of Wumpers to deal with. The red ranger slashed a couple of footsoldiers before stabbing a third through the chest. He had a couple more trying to sneak up on him but they were eliminated by a blast of blue energy from Charlotte.

Still the footsoldiers kept coming, it seemed like for each one destroyed another two came back in their place, "Alright this is just getting ridiculous", TJ complained.

Suddenly the air shimmered in front of him and the Phantom Ranger appeared, "Need a hand", it replied and blasted a few more Wumpers away from the rangers.

"You do like your dramatic entrances", Charlotte called over to the Phantom as she shot a few more Wumpers herself. The Phantom leapt into battle by flipping over a couple of footsoldiers. The teens were slightly surprised as the Phantom was moving much more gracefully than usual. In fact the Phantom seemed to have a different fighting style every time he appeared. With an extra hand the rangers soon had the last of the Wumpers defeated.

The rangers stepped over the inky remains of the Wumpers and marched towards Translucitor, "Now it's your turn", the Phantom Ranger called out to the monster.

"So you're the one who can turn themselves invisible", the monster snorted, "that's my power".

"We'll see about that", the Phantom replied and charged the monster. The first two attacks were blocked by the creature before a punch to the torso found its target. The monster snarled and jabbed its staff into the Phantoms ribs, knocking the ranger onto their back. The other rangers jumped in to defend their occasional team mate with a round of fire from their Turbo Blasters. Translucitor held his lower body in pain before repelling the teens with a swung from his staff that caught of the rangers in the ribs. They were thrown back with smoke and sparks pouring off their suits.

"Don't back down now guys", TJ said to rally his team, "activate Turbo Mode". The rangers zipped towards the monster at high speed but he was ready for them. Crouching down and taking a step forward, he swung his staff in the direction of the ranger's legs. At the speed they were moving they didn't have a chance to avoid the staff and were tripped up, skidding to a halt safely behind the monster.

"Ok this is probably the smartest monster we've come up against", Cassie groaned.

"I'll take that as a compliment", Translucitor said, "shame I'm still going to destroy you". He raised his staff but he was struck in the back by a round of laser fire. The Phantom Ranger was back on their feet and on the attack. Slamming the butt of his blaster into the monsters head caused the creature to recoil in pain. The Phantom followed this up with another round of laser fire from point blank range.

By now Translucitor was furious and spun his staff at incredibly high speed. He knocked the Phantom Ranger's blaster from their hand before jamming the staff into the ruby on the Phantom's chest. The ranger gasped for breath and held their chest before sparks poured of the suit. The box holding the ruby exploded and catapulted the Phantom Ranger across the park.

"Phantom!" Cassie cried as she watched the lifeless form of the Phantom Ranger slam into a tree. Seething with rage at the defeat of someone she cared about, the pink ranger called on her Turbo Blade and charged at the monster. Fuelled with righteous anger she slashed repeatedly at the back and sides of the monster. One of her furious attacks smashed the staff in Translucitor's hand and the magical recoil blasted the two apart. Cassie landed graciously on her feet but the monster was knocked flat on his back.

"Alright Cass save some for us", Charlotte said to the pink ranger, slightly in fear of the onslaught Cassie had unleashed on the monster.

"Let's just call on the RAM Cannon and get this over with", she snapped back. The other rangers shrugged and combined their weapons together. The blast from the cannon hit the monster and he exploded in defeat. The teens powered down and immediately rushed to the aid of the fallen Phantom Ranger.

Cassie was first on the scene, "Phantom Ranger please speak to us", she pleaded.

The Phantom groaned and slowly raised his head, "I'm alright rangers", they muttered before clutching their chest, "my control ruby's been damaged, I won't be able to hold this form much longer". The rangers looked at each other in apprehension and also confusion with the Phantom's statement. The ranger winced in pain as they sat up, "Rangers", they groaned as they tried to sit up, "don't freak out". A flash of black energy temporarily blinded the rangers but when their vision cleared, their jaws dropped.

Cassie caught sight of the figure under the Phantom Ranger's helmet and immediately dropped their hand. "Kat?" the pink ranger gasped.

"Surprise", Kat grinned sheepishly.

"Ok I wasn't expecting that", TJ said in shock and surprise.

Pegasus Garage

The ranger's teleported back to the garage, looking for answers from Billy and Kat. The former blue ranger held up the charred remains of the Phantom Ranger's control ruby before letting it drop onto a nearby table. "When I cleared out Zordon's archives after he left for Eltar I found the plans for a the Phantom Ranger, or the Eltarian Ranger as it's actually known". He put an image of the Phantom Ranger up on the screen, "The suit originally belonged to Zordon over ten thousand years ago and he used it personally to fight the forces of evil".

Billy picked up the ruby before continuing, "Fortunately the day he was imprisoned in his time warp he wasn't morphed and the powers were mothballed. Due to the powerful nature of the ruby it could only be used by someone of Eltarian descent, however, Zordon thought he found a loop hole. As the ranger powers were created using his own Eltarian powers, he thought that someone who had previously been a Power Ranger could use the control ruby".

"So you recreated the Phantom Ranger powers and gave them to Kat?" Ashley asked.

"Not just me", Kat replied, "Billy didn't think it would be safe for just one of us to regularly use the powers, so Billy, Rocky, Adam and myself took it in turns. Trini did as well until she decided to permanently retire from the ranger business".

"So every time the Phantom Ranger showed up it was a different person", Carlos asked.

"I'm afraid so", Billy began, "I used the powers first when I saved you from the giant pizza, Trini was the Phantom when you fought the Creeps and it was Kat at the amusement park when the Blue Senturion officially joined the team. Rocky and Adam shared it between themselves a couple of times and finally it was Kat again today".

"Are you alright with this Cass?" TJ asked.

She eyed the red ranger with confusion, "Yeah why'd you ask?" she replied hesitantly.

"Well I just thought you liked the Phantom Ranger", he began, "you know liked him".

Cassie's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance before she jumped up off the bench and sprinted for the garage door, slamming it behind her. The boys all looked really confused but the girls sighed in sympathy, "What was that all about", TJ asked.

Charlotte slapped him on the arm, "TJ you idiot, don't you get it?" TJ's face was completely blank. He looked around for support but none was forthcoming. Charlotte groaned loudly and threw her hands in the air in frustration.

"It's alright Charlie, boys are dense", Ashley added.

"Hey", Carlos protested

"Anyway", Kat began using her best teacher's voice to silence the younger teens, "can we get back to the subject in hand".

"Why didn't you tell us about this straight away", TJ asked.

"Because the control ruby is unstable", Billy replied, "we didn't want you to get too attached to the Phantom Ranger as we didn't know when its powers could be used. That's what led me to create the Blue Senturion so he could be a more reliable sixth ranger". Billy paused and ran his hands through his hair.

"Is there something else Billy?" Charlotte asked.

"I'm afraid so", Billy replied and pulled up a map of the Angel Grove area. "I've been able to locate the Muranthias dimension and I've confirmed that Divatox's sub is present there".

"That's great news", Ashley said but Billy wasn't smiling, "isn't it".

"I've also discovered when the next full moon on Muranthias is", Billy replied gravely, "it's tomorrow".

"Tomorrow?" TJ exclaimed, "but that doesn't give us much time to prepare".

"We know that's why I've used my authority with the school to grant you a leave of absence for the rest of the week", Kat said to the rangers.

"And I'm afraid it'll just be the five of you that can go", Billy added, "the Blue Senturion will remain here to protect Angel Grove". He then picked up the control ruby for the Phantom Ranger, "And unfortunately the ruby's fired, I won't be able to get the Phantom Ranger's powers working again in time".

The ranger nodded and looked determined to fight, "Come on let's tell Cassie, she needs to be prepared too", TJ stated.

"Yeah then you can apologise", Ashley muttered as they were heading for the elevator but it was ignored by the red ranger.

"I'd better be off as well, I'm due at the school in half an hour", the Australian added, leaving Billy and Alpha alone in the garage. Billy rubbed his eyes and sat down in front of the computer, preparing the attack on Muranthias.

A couple of hours of later, Billy had nodded off at the computer. He hadn't slept much in the last few days but he was used to catching forty winks when he could. He was woken from his nap by a buzzing sound from the computer. Groggily he gazed at the computer and saw a warning light blinking on the map. Zooming in he found that the dot was centered right on top of the garage.

He tapped a few buttons but found that he was locked out of the system. He tried again but someone had hacked into the security systems and blocked his access. He cursed that the mysterious mole had struck again but he wasn't beaten yet. Locating a spare laptop he plugged it directly into the mainframe computer and began tracing their hacker. After bouncing around the world a few times, the trace signal found the breach, from Agency Headquarters itself.

Suddenly the alarms blared throughout the garage and a message flashed up on the screen:

"Self Destruct Initiated, 1 minute to self destruct"

Billy slammed the laptop closed and immediately disconnected it from the mainframe, "Alpha", he bellowed, "someone's initiated the self destruct sequence and I can't stop it".

"Ay yi yi Billy what can we do", Alpha cried.

"Shut the blast doors to protect the zords and evacuate everything essential to the Power Chamber, including yourself", Billy replied as he gathered some supplies and dashed to the elevator.

"30 seconds to self destruct"

"Oh shut up", Billy shouted at the computer. The ride to the surface seemed to take forever but finally it reached the garage showroom above. Kicking the door open Billy sprinted out of the manager's office and smashed a fire alarm, "Everyone out this is an emergency", he shouted. People were screaming and pushing to get to the exit but fortunately the showroom wasn't too busy today. When the last person was safely out, Billy ran out of the building as fast as he could.

Suddenly a massive explosion knocked everyone off their feet. Glass and debris was propelled away from the garage, slamming into a couple of cars that were innocently passing by. A second explosion erupted with a giant fireball and gutted what was left standing of the garage.

Billy's ears were ringing from the explosion but he could make out the sound of screaming from injured bystanders. He looked over and saw a couple of bodies lying face down in the street and another a few feet away from him. He felt something warm dripping down his face and reached up to touch his head. He winced as he felt a huge cut caused by a piece of flying glass. The skin on his left arm had been scrapped raw where he had slid across the street and his knees weren't in great shape either.

His body cried out in pain as he forced himself to his feet and saw the smoking ruin that was once the Pegasus Garage. Almost on autopilot, he realised that the hacker that caused this could still be in Agency Headquarters next door. He tried to use his cell phone but it had been smashed in his tumble following the explosion. Instead he fumbled with his communicator on his wrist. The skin around the device was bleeding but fortunately he built the communicators to survive virtually anything, "Guys we've got trouble, Divatox is launching her final attack". He didn't say anything further as he stumbled into a nearby wall and slumped to the ground, the darkness of unconsciousness consuming him.

A/N – A very explosive ending (if you pardon the pun), will Billy be ok? So this is my take on the Phantom Ranger. Initially I thought about doing something like Shurikenger from Hurricanger (where his morphed form is his true form) but I changed my mind and went down this route. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed recently, please keep them coming. Next time out the mysterious mole is revealed.