By N. E. Shaw
"Who was she?" Tommy whispered as he lay on the bed where Kat had been before. His voice was weak and a little hoarse, but he hadn't been injured badly.
"We don't know." said Kat. "She left no teleportation signature. Even something from the Machine Empire would've done that."
Tommy closed his eyes and thudded his head gently against the padded bed. Then he asked, "How's Rocky?"
Adam looked up from beside Rocky's bed on the other side of the room. He gave a frustrated shrug and a shake of his head.
"He'll be alright." Kat assured him, hoping she was correct.
Adam took up the small hand-held computer and ran it over Rocky's body for the dozenth time. He brushed a lock of curly black hair out of his face and peered into the readout.
Heart rate: elevated. Respiratory: elevated and shallow. BP: high. Brain electrical activity:...
Adam furrowed his brow. The readouts claimed that Rocky's brain was in REM sleep, the stage of sleep in which humans dream. Rocky seemed to be in a state of intense dreaming, but everything else his brain wasn't using had shut down. No speech, no motor control....it was like nothing Adam had ever seen. He looked past the computer at his friend.
Rocky lay quite still except for his eyes, which were rolled back in his head with the lids fluttering rapidly. There was also a tennis-ball sized burn mark on his chest from the electrical beam.
Adam sighed in frustration and went back to his computer. He had to find out what the Black Ranger had done to Rocky.
Tanya entered the room at that moment. She had something in her hand. She glanced at Tommy and Kat briefly and came up to Adam.
"Look at this." she said urgently. She held a test-tube with some powdery black stuff in the bottom of it.
"Dirt." Adam observed.
Tanya corrected him. "Ashes. They were scattered on the floor where she was standing."
Kat came over to them and looked at the tube. "Do you think they could help us find out who she is?"
"Well, that's what I was thinking. If they're from her skin they might contain DNA, but if they're from her suit or her glove or something they may not do us a thing."
"Well at least it's a start." Adam said. "Let's give it to Alpha and see what he can do." He took the test tube and left the room at a rapid clip.
Arriving in the Power Chamber, Adam was startled to see Zordon's column empty. He stopped in his tracks and stared. He had been so focused on Rocky after the incident that he hadn't given a thought to Zordon.
"Alpha...what happened to him?" he asked, concern in his voice.
The robot replied in a somber tone. "He is resting. The disruption in the power transfer caused him considerable damage and he cannot afford to waste energy maintaining the visual with us."
"Oh." Adam was slightly relieved. Then he remembered why he was there. "Alpha, did Tanya show you this?"
"Show me? Why no. I was just in the hangar bay."
"She says it's ashes, and we think they're from that Black Ranger. Is there a way you can analyze what they're made of?"
"Of course I can. Let me see it." Alpha took the tube and shuffled over to a computer bank. He set the tube in a round slot and touched a keypad. The tube glowed as it was scanned.
"Now, this screen should tell us what chemical components make up your sample. Hmmmm...."
"What?"
"Tri-fillium athorbinate, and-- now, that's interesting..."
"What!"
"Traces of dio-polymer alloy. Isn't that surpri-- well, well, well...."
"What!!" Adam shouted and the robot jumped. Then he explained.
"These ashes are compiled of almost the same components as your Zeo suits."
Adam blinked. She really was a Ranger? "What do you mean 'almost'."
"There is a trace of another, unfamiliar substance here."
"What kind of substance?"
"Well it contains sulphur, but as near as I can tell, it seems to be organic."
Adam's eyes widened. They finally had a clue! But then he stopped, the answer coming to him in the form of disappointment.
"It must be from the burn on Rocky's chest." He sighed, regretting the loss of a lead. Alpha looked at the readouts. "From Rocky? No, I don't think--"
Zordon appeared at that moment, cutting Alpha off.
"Alpha, Adam....what is the current state of affairs?" His voice sounded slightly weaker than normal, but those present pretended not to notice.
"The Power Chamber suffered no major damage as a result of the incident." Alpha reported. All equipment and computer systems are running at 98.7% efficiency at this time."
"What condition are Rocky and Tommy in?"
Adam fielded that one. "They're alive. Tommy's conscious and recovering from a moderate impact-- no concussion."
"And Rocky?" Zordon's voice was tinged with concern.
The Green Ranger sighed. "We honestly don't know. Unconscious, with half his systems running overtime and half of them shut down completely. I don't know what to do for him."
"Please do not worry, Adam." Now Zordon was reassuring. "We will find our answers soon. In the meantime, I have something to report myself."
Zordon explained the strange phenomenon he had detected while out-of-touch with the Power Chamber. He instructed Adam, Tanya and Kat to go investigate. Tommy, back on his feet, was to stay behind and rest some more. Zeo Ranger V scowled at this order but didn't argue.
Now the three Rangers were morphed and cautiously making their way to a decrepit warehouse in the Angel Grove industrial park. They weren't sure exactly what they were looking for, but Adam's computer had picked up a faint signal for them to follow.
"What's the deal, Adam?" Kat asked as they entered the huge, dark building.
Adam studied the screen and pointed without looking up. "There." he said. "On the other side of the building. In that office up there." Now he raised his head and they all turned up the resolution on their visors to take a look.
They stood in the huge open doorway at one end of the dark warehouse. On the far wall at the other end was a large window almost twenty-five feet up. It overlooked the giant building's interior from it's great height, and the Rangers assumed it was the supervisors office. A soft, slowly-throbbing blue light could be seen illuminating the inside.
"Come on..." Adam said, and they made for the other side of the room.
They crossed the dirty floor with silent, soft steps, and never took their eyes off the window and the glowing light. Soon they reached the other side, and headed for a door which seemed lost in the wide expanse of wall. Stepping protectively ahead of the others, Tanya reached out slowly and opened the door.
Beyond it, there was only a staircase leading upward.
It was harder to be quiet on the creaking wooden stairs but they did the best they could, and soon arrived at a landing and another door. They were at about the right height for the office that was their destination.
Adam moved to the door and rubbed the tarnished plate that was screwed into its surface.
"Supervisor's Office.'" he whispered, reading the plate. Kat nodded. "Can we call 'em or what?"
Readying themselves for what might lie ahead, the Rangers glanced at one another, took a deep breath, and burst through the door, dropping into fighting stances before they even saw where they were.
Fortunately, there was nothing there to fight.
The office contained only an old, bare desk with an even older lamp on it, a small wooden chair, a metal file cabinet and a large amount of dust. But the Rangers had only just finished taking inventory of those items when they spotted what they were looking for.
There was a pulsating, slimy green membrane stretched across a hole in the far corner, on the floor. It was the size of a large bicycle tire. It was lit from behind with the bluish glow they had seen, and as the Rangers moved closer, they saw that it was covered with a trembling, gelatinous substance. It seemed to breathe as it contracted and expanded in a slow, rhythmic fashion. There was a faint smell of rotten eggs.
The Rangers knelt before it, staring in fascination. Finally, one of them broke the silence.
"That," Adam declared. "is really disgusting..."
Tanya gulped. "I think I'm going to upchuck."
Kat chimed in, "What she said."
Adam nudged Kat with his elbow. "I dare you to touch it." the Green Ranger challenged.
"In your dreams, Kermit."
"Come on, you still owe me, remember?"
"Why don't you touch it?"
"Um..."
Kat's glove sounded at that moment with a familiar series of tones. "Saved by the bell..." she sighed. "Kat here. Go ahead."
"Kat, what's going on?" Tommy asked. "I can't get a visual of your position."
"Well, we've kinda found something...." Zeo Ranger One began, hesitating to define for Tommy what they were seeing. "It's..a...a...help me out guys?"
Tanya leaned over and spoke flatly into the speaker. "It's a glowing, throbbing, disgusting puddle of puke. What else do you need to know?"
Tommy was silent a moment. "That's good enough for me."
But then Zordon came on with urgency in his voice. "Rangers, I have just detected a life form in your area. Please be advised and prepare yourself." Again, the trio whirled around and snapped into ready postures, not knowing what to expect.
"Where?" Kat asked, uptight and puzzled. There was no sign of any movement in the office and no sound came from the stairwell outside.
"I am sorry, Rangers. It is gone now." Zordon apologized. Adam dropped his guard and blew out his breath in frustration.
"I must be experiencing a malfunction. Forgive me for alerting you unnecessarily."
"It's okay Zordon." said Tanya. "Come on, guys. There's nothing more to do here." And they all raised their communicators and teleported out.
The office grew silent. Then a new faint, bluish glow appeared outside the door. A smooth puddle of incandescent slime slithered under the crack and extended a tendril into the air, searching for any threats. Finding no danger, it oozed onto the desk and solidified into the form of a perfectly accurate telephone. It sat there a moment, then poured itself onto the floor and formed a garbage can. When that was done, it melted down again and slithered over to the corner, merging with the glowing mass. The mass glowed brighter and began to throb faster in response, and a strange hum filled the room.
The mass sat contentedly in the corner, happily pondering its next move.
Tommy was pacing the floor when they arrived.
"What did you find down there?" he asked. "Its energy emissions totally blocked the visual sensors."
Kat walked past him, removing her helmet. "You don't want to know." she said.
He furrowed his brow in puzzlement.
She took a deep breath. "It was a weird, glowing, throbbing mass of slimy stuff sitting in the corner, with a membrane stretched across it. It stank like rotten eggs, and looked like something Nickelodeon might try and sell to the nation's children."
Tommy whistled low. "That's bad." he said. "Anyways, I found something too. Come see this."
He beckoned them over to a computer and called up a screen. He tapped a few buttons and a graph appeared. The line was two thirds of the way up the scale, and relatively level, until it reached the "May" mark.
"Here." he said, pointing. "This graph shows the amount of power being emitted from the Machine Empire over the last three months."
"Wow." said Tanya. "For the last two, they've been running on nothing but the bare essentials."
"Right, and it started just after this happened." He changed the screen and they saw a sharp spike in an otherwise low, flat line. "This is the energy surge from a mid-sized meteor that fell in the desert just days before the power decrease."
Adam was puzzled. "What do they have to do with each other?"
Tommy set his jaw. "That's what we have to find out."
The computer beeped and Alpha looked up triumphantly. "Finally!" he said.
"What is it Alpha?"
"I've completed my analysis on the ashes Tanya found. The unknown substance is not made of Rocky's DNA. It's Morpheonic Fluid!"
"It's what?" everyone asked.
"Morpheonic Fluid." Alpha repeated.
Kat rolled her eyes. "We heard you the first time Alpha. What the hell is Morpheonic Fluid?"
"The stuff that makes up the race of shape-shifters on the planet Morpheon. They are of the same origin as Morphological beings such as Ivan Ooze, and they have the ability to alter their shape and appearance at will, like he could."
Adam shuddered. "Don't remind me. But what does have to do with Rocky, and a disgusting blob in somebody's office?"
Zordon cut in. "I cannot explain the link with Rocky, but the Morpheonites cannot survive without a special 'nest' that they return to at regular intervals."
"That sounds just revolting enough to be the thing we found." said Tanya.
Tommy's eyes shone with realization, and he began to think out loud. "Maybe the Black Ranger is this Morpheonic being. That would explain everything that was in the ashes Tanya found. The meteor could be how she arrived on Earth, and maybe she went to the abandoned building to set up housekeeping and build her nest..."
"Then what's up with King Mondo and the Machine Empire? Why did they take this as a cue to jump on the energy conservation bandwagon?" Adam asked.
Kat suggested the answer to that one. "Maybe they thought this Morpheonite had a better chance of icing us than they did, and decided to sit back and not interfere....but then again, it doesn't sound like King Mondo to let someone else hog all the glory."
"It does not matter." said Zordon. "What matters is that we locate the Morpheonite as soon as possible. They are not a violent or malicious race, but they can be brutal, and deadly, enemies."
Tommy nodded, his eyes flaming with determination. "Alpha, call up whatever information you can find on these Morpheonic beings, and any weaknesses they may have. We're going back to find that nest. If we can destroy it, the Black Ranger won't have any place to recharge her batteries and she might just leave."
Kat grabbed his arm. "Wait a minute. Are you sure you're up to a fight?"
"I'll be fine." he reassured her, "I've fought in worse condition than this."
"When the stakes were higher, sure."
He looked at her intensely. "What stakes are higher than Rocky's life?"
She blinked. Then closed her mouth and nodded.
Tommy morphed before their eyes, and then Zordon spoke to them one more time.
"I caution you to be careful, Rangers. A mature, skilled Morpheon can take on and maintain almost any shape imaginable. They will try to deceive you with this skill and you must be on your guard."
"We'll be ready." said Tommy, determinedly. "Let's move."