Chapter 2: Broken Hart

The three new rangers stood in a triangular formation around the knight. Each of them wore armor more akin to a uniform, with their main color primarily on the suit and numbers across the side that splashed black over to their right arms.

Red wore the number one, and he stood ready while wielding twin pistols.

Green was branded with the number three and had a singular blaster in his hand.

Pink wore the number five and had a long, thin, baton in her grip.

"Alright team," The red officer proclaimed, "Delta formation!"

"Hey-uh- which one is that?" The green officer asked as his two companions leaped forward.

The pink officer parried the swinging blade of Nasty Knight, while the red officer moved in to flank its side with blaster fire.

"Oh yeah, it's that one!" The green officer said and jumped into the battle.

The green officer slid to Red's side and joined the firing squad. Sparks exploded from all around the monster until it was overwhelmed. That was when Green folded his thin gun into a sort of brass knuckles and charged the creature, delivering a powerful punch that threw Nasty Knight backward with a tidal wave of sparks.

"It's time to face your trial," The red officer said in a cold voice. He drew his morpher and it unfolded to reveal two panels, a green O, and a red X.

It began to flash, red, green, red green. Growing more intense with each flash. "You have been accused of arson, interfering with interplanetary politics, and planetary annihilation."

Suddenly the flashing stopped, revealing the big red X.

"Guilty!" The officer said. Suddenly the device ignited with light, enveloping the stunned monster. The light subsided, and a small metal card stood in its place.

The green officer lifted the card and slid it into a large metal cylinder. "Criminal contained."

"Let's bring him back to the ship for now," Red said. "We can worry about shipping him off-world once we have our intended target." He looked back towards the Rangers.

Jason couldn't see his eyes, but he could feel the heat of his gaze.

"We're here to find Zordon of Eltar," The red officer said. "And if we discover you have anything to do with him we'll be after you next."

Jason was left with only one question. Who the hell was Zordon?

The Command Center hadn't ever seemed so dark to Jason before. He had never really noticed how dim the blue lights were, or how ominous the blipping buttons were as they danced across the room.

Maybe that was because he had always been distracted by the fresh excitement of being a hero, or maybe it was because he wasn't looking down at one of his best friends on a stone slab.

The "bio-bed" as it was called, was carefully monitoring Kimberly, scanning every molecule in her body and testing everything imaginable.

Jason bit his lip, looking down at her unconscious form. She hadn't shown any signs of improvement since they arrived.

Jason took her hand, holding onto it, trying to ignore how limp it was.

His grip tightened…

Suddenly her eyes shot open, they were alert and afraid. She shot up, attempted to land on her feet.

And crashing to the ground.

Jason caught her in his arms. "It's okay. We're at the Command Center."

"What happened?" She asked, looking around, "The last thing I remember was getting the perfect shot at that medieval freakshow." She pushed Jason away and fell back onto the chair. "My legs…" She whispered, kicking them up and down. "I-I can't feel them."

Jason frowned, seeing as the panic began to blossom on her face.

"I'm sorry," A voice said from the corner of the room.

The two turned towards its source, a man draped in a red cloak.

"What the hell happened?" Jason asked, his veins flaring with heat.

The man's singular organic eye blinked, while its red companion looked hard into Jason.

"The energy attack did significant damage to your nervous system," He said cooly.

"W-what do you mean by damage?" She asked with ice in her voice.

"It means that you might never reclaim full feeling in your legs," the man said.

Jason suddenly snapped, he lunged forward, grabbing hold of the silky cloth of the cloak. "You better not be saying what I think you're saying." He barked.

"I'm sorry," the figure said. "Such calamities are commonplace in this environment."

"Well, you're the one that signed us up!" Jason screamed, pulling on his enhanced strength to throw the man backward.

The man looked up at Jason, his face obscured by the silver and gold mask that he wore. "In time there may be some recovery, but I can't be sure. There's nothing that can be done now and I'm deeply sorry."

In a rush of bright light, both Rangers were suddenly thrown from the Command Center.

Deviot's feet hit hard against the stone floor. He walked softly, past the various stone pillars, past the ancient tapestries, and across the halls. He was silent, chewing over his thoughts.

He looked over at Squatt and Baboo, two of Rita's most useless warriors. They were both locked into a game of chess, though the vampire was basically controlling both sides.

He then looked at Goldar, the brooding titan sat alone, cleaning his golden blade with a dirty cloth.

And then there was him, someone Deviot had originally glossed over.

The creature sat peacefully at his workbench, countless clay figures stood like soldiers, and Deviot was smart enough to know how accurate that metaphor was.

"I can see that you're a real creature of your craft," Deviot said.

"Well…" Finster mused, "I do suppose so."

"I'm sure your empress takes great pride in your skills."

"Well…" Finster said in a soft voice. "I don't know if I would go that far…"

"What?" Deviot asked. "Well, that's a complete and utter tragedy."

He leaned in, close enough that only the pale creature before him could understand.

"You're much better than this my friend… why don't we show them."

The room was filled with so much tension Jason could practically taste it on his breath.

The three other rangers stood in silence. A blanket of dread hanging over their heads.

He had just dropped the bombshell, and nobody knew exactly what to say.

"I don't understand," Aisha said. Her eyes were wide and she was shaking. "He said we were safe…."

"No," Billy said in a little voice. "He said we were protected. He just never elaborated as to what degree."

"So he tricked us," Adam said with a clenched fist. "Just so we would fight his battles for him."

"Calm down guys…" Jason breathed. He understood where their anger came from. It was the same anger that he felt himself. But they couldn't become overwhelmed by it.

"Kim isn't going to need all this aggression. She's going to need friends," Jason said.

There was still anger in their gazes, but they had softened just as well.

"I know this is scary," Jason continued. "But as long as we still have our Morphers we have to fight. Not for that cyborg, but for everyone we love."

Jason knew how quickly raw emotions could destroy a team, and they needed to stay cohesive, the world depended on it.

Suddenly the teens all heard the familiar alarm. Everyone else stood up and began to rush towards the shelter that had been constructed out of the Youth Center's boiler room.

The four youths looked amongst themselves and headed the opposite direction.

The creature, later dubbed the Mighty Minotaur tore through the city. He was enraged, a mindless puppet of aggression and malice. He flipped abandoned cars and smashed benches, leaving nothing but ruin in his wake.

The red ranger aimed his blaster and fired a few potshots, most of which landed around the creature, but still managed to capture his attention.

The black ranger flanked the creature from the side, using his ax to slash into the creature's side.

Its eyes flared red, looking down at the small scratch that now leaked crumbling clay.

That was when Adam remembered that Kimberly wouldn't be there to deliver any sort of kill blow.

The yellow ranger rushed to his aid. She jumped in front of the brown beast's flying fist and deflected it with her twin daggers.

The black ranger then turned the ax over and converted it to its cannon mode, blasting a small crater into the creature's massive chest.

The blue ranger slid in behind the creature, using his Power Lance to carve an ugly gash into the monster's back.

"This monster is certainly durable…" Blue muttered right before the Mighty Minotaur whipped around and tossed him away like a doll.

Jason gritted his teeth from under his helmet. This creature was tough, but not nearly as formidable as Nasty Knight. It seemed like this guy was just some sort of meat shield.

Jason could sense something was afoot… but he couldn't place what.

He watched from behind a nearby food cart. The smell of freshly cooked hot dogs drifted up to his nose, but that wasn't what he hungered for.

Only a successful mission could curb his appetite.

He peaked up when he was sure the rangers weren't looking in his direction and tossed a camo colored Kuni. It punched the black ranger's back before dissolving into energy.

He then laughed to himself before teleporting away.

"Ow!" The black ranger screamed out.

"What's wrong?" Jason asked. "The monster hasn't even hit you."

"I don't know what it was…" He said, trying to reach the pained point on his back. "Maybe a bug bite…"

"I'm not sure how that would work…" Jason began but was cut short by the minotaur's swinging fist.

At this rate, Jason knew that the creature would merely wear down the team's morale until it could easily crush them. What it didn't have in strength it made up for in patience. He needed to find a way to end the creature swiftly before things could drag on.

And that was when he spotted the crater left in the creature's side from Adam's attack.

Jason drew his Blade Blaster and fired several shots into it, growing the hole by several inches. Then he rushed forward, past its grappling hands, and sunk his Power Sword deep into it.

The creature struggled around the blade, trying to pull the shiny metal from its clay body. Jason could see the cracks forming in the body of the monster that ran from the sword.

"Now!" Jason screamed, "Everyone hit him at once!"

The three rangers all drew their blade blasters and opened fire. The creature ignited with energy as it pulsed against him, causing his clay to burn bright before he exploded.

"Good work Jase," the black ranger said, patting Jason on the back.

Of course, that was when Rita's staff punched into the ground, breaking the earth below it and summoning a giant version of the monster from the carnage.

"It's been a while since she's done that," The black ranger said, "I was starting to wonder if she forgot how."

"We need Dinozord power, now!" Jason called out.

The four rangers all held their hands to the sky as they began to glow with their respective colors.

And their dinosaur robots appeared behind them.

The ranger's then teleported inside, each of them finding themselves in rather comfortable chairs that sat behind a blinking console of buttons, twin joysticks, and a display monitor.

The Tyrannosaurus Zord slapped the bulky beast with its tail, echoing a loud thump and knocking the creature backward.

Adam charged forward in his Mastodon Zord, using its gigantic form to slam into the creature and push it through a highrise building.

"Would you mind keeping the collateral damage to a minimal?" Billy asked from his Triceratops Zord. "Our parents pay for that with their taxes."

"Yeah," Aisha said as she darted through the street with her Saber-Tooth Tiger Zord. "If my parents host one more charity drive I'm gonna scream." Her machine jumped into the air, slashing at the beast with its razor-sharp claws.

Jason gritted his teeth, pulling as much energy from his body into the Zord as he could.

"We may not be able to form the full Megazord," Jason said, "But we can still combine."

The Saber-Tooth Tiger Zord folded up its legs and deployed caterpillar wheels while joining up next to the Triceratops Zord. The Tyrannosaurus Zord folded down and connected with the yellow and the blue zords, with the Mastodon Zord splitting in half and opening up, forming two cannons and resting its head between the other three zords.

The Minotaur screamed at the mecha, its eyes wide and primal.

The cannons fired, punching several holes through its clay chest. The monster fell backward and exploded.

"Nice work," Rita Repulsa said to the cyborg among her servants. "Good to see that the master sent me a real strategist."

"Just wait," Deviot said simply, his arms folded across his chest.

In a puff of smoke, a figure appeared before Rita. He was clad head to toe in shinobi garb, though it was colored in green camo. He reached into his robe and pulled out a small tablet. "The tracker that I placed into the black ranger's spirit is projecting his location right now."

Rita yawned, "And?"

"It is telling me that he's currently in the middle of the desert...presumably at their base of operations," The ninja replied.

Rita's face blossomed into a horrid Cheshire smile. "Well, then why don't we pay them a visit."

"This is bullshit!" Adam screamed into the robed cyborg's face.

"I'm sorry," He repeated for the hundredth time. "I've already explained that there's nothing that can be done."

"You made suits that give us superpowers, robots the size of buildings, and you can't fix this?" He asked, his face flush with color.

Jason knew that he needed to step in, letting Adam go all out would only damage things further.

Though that didn't matter because everything stopped when the large purple portal opened in the middle of the Command Center.

"Wonderful place, terrible lighting," A soft, slick voice proclaimed.

Though Jason had never seen her before, he knew that the voice belonged to Rita Repulsa.

She stepped into the Command Center, Goldar and two knew minions at her side. One was a cyborg with red eyes while the other was a ninja dressed in camo garb.

"Hello Power Rangers," She said with a sneer, "Now if you don't mind I'd like for you to take me to Zordon."

"I'm sorry," The robed figure said as he stepped past the rangers. "But that won't be happening."

Rita frowned, "And who are you?"

"I'm Gosei, and unfortunately Zordon of Eltar is dead."

Rita laughed, "Do you honestly expect me to believe such a blatant lie? Zordon is one of the most powerful beings in the universe. What could possibly kill him?"

"You are oblivious to the stakes of the Great War," Gosei said. "Zordon sacrificed his life so that he could end Lord Zedd's."

Rita seemed taken aback for a few second, then her smile grew far more sinister. "And look at what that has gotten us, a galaxy ruled by tyranny. Neither Zedd nor Zordon would approve of the way things have gone."

"While I do agree," Gosei said, his hands ignited with red energy. "I believe that you have overstayed your welcome."

"Oh pardon me," Rita said and took a step back. "My deepest apologies." She said and turned towards the portal. "Besides, without Zordon, you're nothing to me."