Episode 11, Chapter 3 – Bill
Still disguised by Zordon's powers, Bill sprinted through downtown Cedar Grove to his last destination: the Youth Center. Between him and Alpha, they had delivered nine of the twelve freeze guns, and the weird thing was, Bill knew most of the recipients. There was Jason, of course, and Police Officer Stone, who Zordon said had helped the Blue Ranger escape a dangerous situation earlier tonight. Then there was a pretty Australian woman Bill didn't know, named Kat. Then, inexplicably, he had given a gun to Bulk and Skull. Thankfully Zordon wasn't delusional enough to give each of them a gun, but the decision still made Bill wonder: what did Zordon see in other people that he couldn't?
A flash of gray light, and Alpha was sprinting along beside him. "One left," said the robot.
"I have two."
"All three are up ahead. You know them. But first we have to conduct some field tests with these bad boys."
Bill nodded. "I think I'm ready."
"You 'think'? Here, let me take one of those. Maybe with your four eyes trained on one gun you might actually hit something."
Bill wasn't about to argue. He handed one of his two guns to Alpha. Even though Zordon's illusion over him was also giving him the stamina to race through town, he didn't want to press his luck and expect the same kind of treatment for his reflexes. But could Alpha shoot? Bill had figured him to mostly be a maintenance robot for the Command Center. Janitors usually weren't the stars of action films.
They sloshed through a flooded street, and the Youth Center loomed in the darkness before them.
"Shield your eyes," said Alpha. Then louder he called, "Hey! Mud-fucks!"
Bill didn't look away in time. Light flooded from Alpha's face and blinded both Bill and the horde of mudmen in the Youth Center parking lot. Bill lost his balance and toppled over into the water. The sound of Alpha's freeze guns screeched through the air.
"God damn," muttered Alpha a moment later. A hand pulled Bill to his feet, brushed him off, and thrust his wet gun into his stomach. "Some help you were. Hop along, Trickshot."
Bill shielded his face. Alpha's headlight was positively blinding after fumbling around in firelight for so long, but slowly Bill grew accustomed to it.
When his eyes adjusted, his jaw dropped: over three dozen mudmen stood frozen around them. "I do not recall lying submerged for a lengthy duration," he said.
"There's a reason Zordon only needs one of me," said Alpha. He pushed a mudman over as they walked past. It shattered on the ground and disintegrated into golden dust. "Duck, won't you?" This time Bill acted quickly. He hit the deck, and a thin laser erupted from Alpha's head and sliced a wide arc through the parking lot. All the frozen mudmen split in two and disintegrated.
The Youth Center's front doors were shattered beyond repair, and the makeshift barricade behind them was almost gone as well. Bill and Alpha had arrived just in time.
Bill peaked through one of the many holes. "Hello?" he called. "Is anyone alive in there?"
Whispers, a long pause, a shadowed face behind the barricade. "Who are you?" he asked.
Bill sighed in relief. He knew that voice: it was Zack, his tenth target. "We're here to help you," said Bill. He explained the situation – about the Rangers, Zordon, Rita, mudmen, the freeze guns. After this many times, he had gotten pretty good at it. There were more whispers behind the barricade. Alpha tapped his foot in the water. Bill just wanted to get inside and wipe some of the water off his glasses.
Zack returned to the barricade. "We won't let you inside," he said at last, "but we'll take the guns." He moved a few things around to make the hole in the barricade a little wider.
"Like fuck you will," offered Alpha, "we just wiped out every mudman here and you still don't trust us? You fucking pri—"
"That will be fine," said Bill. He elbowed Alpha where his ribs would be, though it probably hurt Bill more than the robot. Bill offered his gun handle-first to Zack. "This one is yours, and yours alone," Bill said. "It will disappear when the crisis is over. We have two more out here, but they are for others inside."
"Who?" Zack asked.
"Rocky," said Bill, "and Adam."
Zack frowned, but nodded. He turned and called for each man. Rocky was first – Bill was still surprised at how fat he had gotten. He took his gun with a sincere "thank you". Adam was next – their last gun to give. He was wincing in pain, but he took the gun anyway.
"You know," said Adam, "all this talk of 'guardian angels', these Power Rangers… Some of us still remember when this city was called Angel Grove."
Bill smiled. He had never been one for sentiments, but tonight had changed him. He fought for Trini, and maybe, just maybe, she was an angel guarding him. "You are all guardian angels now."
"But we can't fight those things, can we?"
"Not head-on. Leave that to the Rangers. Your job is to get out of downtown. The army is gathering outside the city, but their weapons won't do anything. Shoot anything you see that isn't human. Never travel alone. And above all—"
But Bill would never finish that sentence. Gray flooded his vision, and suddenly he was teleporting away, across oceans and continents and islands and lights and ships and ice.
