By N. E. Shaw
It was night time now. The four Zeo Rangers made their way across the floor of the warehouse with Tommy in the lead. They kept an eye on the office window up ahead and padded cautiously toward it.
Tanya kept all her senses on high alert as she moved along. All of a sudden she didn't even trust the stray crates that were scattered here and there, collecting dust. Through her helmet visor, she glanced at Kat and Adam who were walking alongside her. They appeared as they would with the naked eye, except for a vibrant colored streak pulsing inside them. All of them had set their visors on HeatSeek in the hopes that it would help them see the Morpheonite even if she was masquerading as something else.
Tanya saw Adam glance her way and intuitively knew what expression he wore.
They were all thinking the same thing, in fact. They were thinking about Tommy and this drive he was feeling to rectify the whole situation. It was characteristic of him to feel responsible for their safety, and they knew that once Tommy Oliver had a problem, nothing short of incapacitation would get him off solving it. But now he was about to go hurtling into an incredibly dangerous situation without having fully recovered from his last injury. It was reckless, and Adam, Kat and Tanya all agreed to keep an eye on their leader over the next few hours.
Now they had almost reached the door. When they were just ten feet away, Tommy motioned for them to stop, eyeing the door and glancing briefly up at the window.
"Wait here..." he said.
Adam snorted. "Are you nuts? No way are we letting you go up there alone."
Tommy looked back over his shoulder at the Green Ranger. "One of us should go up and try to destroy the nest, while the others watch out for things down here." he insisted. Adam shook his head, about to protest, but his communicator beeped, cutting him off.
"Go ahead." he responded.
"Rangers, I have information for you on the Morpheonite." Zordon said. "Tommy's guesses were right. She did travel to earth via the meteor which Alpha is now examining here in the Power Chamber."
"You brought it there?" Kat marveled.
"Yes, what is left of it at least. Much of it was burned away upon entry into this atmosphere."
Zordon was not finished. "There is something else. Over the last few weeks, the Angel Grove Police Department has recorded numerous Suspicious Persons incidents, as well as other miscellaneous events that could be the responsibility of our visitor."
Kat and Tanya locked eyes, both thinking the same thought.
"The dance..." they said in unison.
Zordon confirmed, "Yes, I believe there was an incident in which the high-school dance committee complained of mischief at one of their events."
"Mischief, alright." Tommy murmured, discreetly glancing at the girls. "Anything else?"
"Only that I seem to be experiencing technical difficulties, and I cannot reliably use the sensors to alert you of danger. You are, in effect, on your own."
"No problem, Zordon." he said. "Thanks for the update. Tommy out."
He turned to the others. "You heard what he said. The Morpheonite has been out making trouble, and the sensors are malfunctioning. I need as many people as possible standing guard down here, making sure she doesn't come back."
"But Tommy, come on..." Kat tried to reason, but he shook his head.
"Just keep your visors peeled. I'll be back down soon."
With that, he turned and left them, deliberately not giving them a moment more of his attention.
Tommy slipped through the door and found himself in a dim stairwell. The whitewashed walls were dirty and bare, and gave him nothing to work with, strategically. He stared upward as he began to climb the steps, moving slowly and keeping on the alert.
When he arrived at the landing, he saw the door and the plaque, just as Kat had described to him. With a quick look around, he took hold of the knob and began to run through, in his mind, as many different attack situations as he could in just a few moments--but he realized the possibilities were endless. She could fight him as any being in the universe, including one a thousand times as powerful as he was.
There was no more time to waste. He took a step back, and then thrust his foot out, kicking the door off it's hinges.
Down on the warehouse floor, Kat threw up her hands and turned away from the others.
"Great! This is just wonderful!" she lamented angrily.
Tanya put her hand on her hip and chucked a thumb at the door where Tommy had gone. "Am I the only one who thinks we let him get away with way too much?"
Adam leaned close and patted her arm reassuringly. She wasn't alone.
Then his glove beeped. "This is Adam, go ahead."
It was Tommy. "Guys, I'm in the office. I can see the... the whatever it is, but there's no sign of anybody up here."
"Are you sure?" Tanya asked, meaningfully.
"Positive. There's only the desk, the lamp, the chair, the file box, and the teletype machine."
"Teletype machine?" all three repeated.
There was no response.
"Tommy...?"
All at once, they heard a piercing shattering sound, and Tommy's body smashed through the window high above them. He plummeted down from the office in a sparkling hail of broken glass.
The Rangers instantly shielded themselves from the rain of shards, and a few meters away, the Red Ranger slammed into the ground with a sickening thud. Looking up, they saw the Black Ranger standing in the window, unmasked to reveal a lovely young face, cold blue eyes, and long, flowing white hair. She stared down at them emotionlessly.
Kat jumped up and rushed to Tommy's side. She gingerly removed his helmet, trying not to move him too much, and asked, "How bad?"
Through gritted teeth, he said, "Told'ya I'd be right back down." Then he stiffened as a wave of pain overtook him.
The low, genderless voice of the Morpheonite echoed down to them.
"Zeo Rangers, I am Gh'ess Piah, Bounty Hunter. I have come to destroy you and collect the reward on your heads." Her words were flat and matter-of-fact. "Please oblige and allow me to complete my task without undue inconvenience."
But Katherine rose slowly from her crouch with fury in her voice. "Not on your life. If you want us dead," she challenged, "..you're going to have to work for it!"
Taking a defensive position around Tommy, Adam, Kat and Tanya watched as the bounty hunter leaped from the high window and landed effortlessly on the warehouse floor. Slowly, she straightened and stretched out her left hand.
Before the Rangers eyes, her forearm liquefied and formed a long, sharp, solid sword-blade. In addition, Piah's skin hardened and became cement-like armor. She then began to advance on them confidently.
Standing at point, Kat dropped her stance and raised her guard, preparing to defend a complicated bit of swordplay. Instead, when Piah got within range, she simply raised her sword-arm and swung it swiftly down at the Pink Ranger's shoulder.
Surprised, Kat ducked and rolled backward, avoiding her arm being severed. She came up a few feet away. It can't be that simple, can it? she thought.
Taking advantage of an awkward moment, Adam leaped in to counter-attack. He exchanged a string of swift, powerful blows with the enemy before finally catching a knee in the ribs and being forced to retreat. Then Tanya stepped in.
She kept Piah busy with rapid, agile attacks while Adam and Kat reconstructed their barrier in front of Tommy.
The battle had begun.
Tommy had felt something snap in his lower back, after the sickening drop from the office window. Now, even the slightest movement of his head caused severe, stabbing pain and he was afraid he had taken permanent damage.
He listened, in mental anguish, to the sounds of the battle. Every once in a while, he caught glimpses of his friends out of the corner of his eye. He couldn't see much, but he could tell the Rangers weren't going to be able to hold out much longer.
Gritting his teeth again, he began to lift his left arm towards his head. Pain shot through him like icy arrows, but he kept trying. When his wrist was close enough to his face, he shouted into the open communicator channel.
"Power Chamber! Zordon...can you hear me?"
"We read you Tommy. What is happening down there?"
"The Morpheonite attacked! I'm hurt and the others need help fast!"
There was no answer.
"Zordon--!" He was cut off by another stab of pain in his back.
"Acknowledged, Red Ranger." Zordon finally answered. "Alpha was just about to contact you with a possible vulnerability in the alien that you can take advantage of. Do not fear. We still have an ace up our sleeve."
"Alright, just hurry....they need you!"
Nearby, Tanya took a blow to the kidneys and retaliated with a disabling foot-sweep that put the Bounty Hunter on the floor. But Piah simply got up again, totally unfazed by the setback. Up until now, she had been softening the blows she took by literally softening the area that got hit. It had kept her from suffering any real damage whatsoever.
Tanya groaned. "Don't you ever quit?"
Flatly, Piah replied "No," and kicked at the Yellow Ranger's shin with her cement-like foot.
Tanya skipped backwards and then stopped a wide hook-punch coming at her head from the left. But before she could think again, she glimpsed the blade-arm slicing horizontally towards her from the right. She cringed, waiting to feel her right arm being severed at the deltoid.
But instead, she felt only a swift slap as the flat of the blade smacked into her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see that Adam had grabbed Piah's arm from behind and twisted it just in time.
But now Gh'ess's attention focused on him.
She threw Tanya aside like a toy, and let her sword-arm and shoulder melt, trapping Adam's hands. Then she brutally sunk her rock-hard shin into the side of his thigh.
With a yelp, Adam dropped to the ground, clutching his leg in agony.
From a few meters away, Kat cringed as she saw this. Adam had taken the hit square on the lateral femoral nerve, which ran down the outer thigh. She knew that when a blow is sunk into this nerve, it causes a total motor dysfunction in the limb. Adam's leg literally wouldn't work for a while--not to mention how much pain he was in now.
Angrily, Kat charged at Piah from behind. The bounty hunter was just resolidifying herself when the Pink Ranger's boot slammed into her back. Piah reeled and stumbled forward, hitting the floor and smashing into a dozen pieces.
Tanya and Kat quickly turned and rushed over to Adam. He lay on his side, still clutching his leg with both hands.
Tanya removed his helmet. His eyes were squeezed shut and he was holding his breath against the pain. "Adam, are you--" she began, but Kat glared at her.
"Okay, stupid question. Just hang in there, ok...?" she looked back over her shoulder to see all the chunks of Gh'ess Piah liquefying again, and sliding toward a central point where they became one again.
"What do we do now?" Kat asked, taking the moment to catch her breath.
"I don't know." Tanya panted. They were between the bounty hunter and their two fallen friends, but they knew they didn't constitute much of a barrier. Adam was finally able to relax his body enough to breathe, and he commented, "I wish the Terminator was here. He'd know what to do."
They rose as Piah finished pulling herself together, and the Green Ranger began to drag himself back toward where Tommy lay.
Kat and Tanya waited for Piah to speak.
"You are formidable opponents." she said. "I underestimated your strength and endurance by a surprising margin."
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Kat growled.
Piah ignored her. "I had assumed I was working for easy money, but this challenge has a pleasant surprise."
Tanya snapped, "Yeah, it was our pleasure too."
"But now I fear this must come to an end. I regret we were destined to meet on these terms, for I would have greatly enjoyed fighting with you on the same side."
She took a step forward and Kat and Tanya dropped into stances again.
However, one step was all the bounty hunter would have time for.
In a familiar burst of energy, a figure appeared right behind Piah. It was Rocky.
He looked drained, and was in no condition to fight, but he held a threatening hypodermic needle in his hand. It was filled with the thin, grey hangover remedy.
"Excuse me," he said to Piah. "but you have a chip on your shoulder. Lemme help." And he stuck the needle into the side of her neck. Apparently, it was the right spot because the shape-shifter then let out a deafening, unearthly roar of surprise. Right away, she began to melt. Screaming, she rapidly liquefied until nothing was left but a dull puddle of dark blue slime at Rocky's feet.
Tanya and Kat stared in mouth-open astonishment. So did Adam, and Tommy looked like he wanted to. Gh'ess Piah was no more, and it was all because of Rocky and one dose of hangover medicine.
Now Rocky met their looks. His eyes were tired, but they glinted with humour.
"What? I've saved all your butts before, haven't I?" and with those words, he fell to his knees in exhaustion. Tanya and Kat dashed over to him.
"Rocky! My god! How did--" Kat started to say.
"What are you doing here? Are you--" Tanya began, but they were both cut off by a low groan from the puddle.
Gh'ess's head had re-emerged, and now it sat in the sticky muck as though her body was in a deep hole beneath it.
"Zeo Rangers..." she gurgled. "..you have defeated me....how is that possible?"
Rocky found himself on-the-spot. Everyone in the room wanted to know the answer to that one.
"Well...we didn't, actually. We defeated the alcohol-induced hangover."
Gh'ess showed understanding. "Ah, of course. You realized that the Morpheonic fluid I am made of consists largely of alcohol; just as your carbon-based bodies contain a large amount of H2O. Brilliant thinking."
A sheen appeared on her face and they realized she was on her "last legs".
"Wait a minute...." said Tanya. "who was offering the reward you wanted?"
"A race known as the Tivanik." Gh'ess said, without hesitation. "They are a weak-willed and feeble species, who hire others to fight their battles for them."
"What do they have against us?"
"They do not believe any small group has the right to possess the amount of power you do. Even though there are many evil groups in the universe with just as much, you fight for good and, in theory, should have been easiest to defeat. Their theory was wrong."
Kat shook her head in puzzlement. "But if they're just a bunch of simpering hypocrites, why did you agree to work for them?"
Gh'ess deadpanned. "They are extremely wealthy hypocrites."
She began to slip away. Tanya had one more question. "What did you do to the Machine Empire?"
As she faded into nothing, the bounty hunter whispered, "..they were in my way....so I removed them..."
Then she was gone, leaving them to wonder what on Earth that could mean.
"Guys...?" Tommy called weakly. They looked back to where he and Adam were waiting, and helped Rocky over. Right away, Kat knelt and placed both hands on the sides of Tommy's head to hold him still.
"Don't move." she ordered softly. He looked at her, amused. "Not a problem." Then he turned his eyes to Rocky.
"Rocky, man. How'd you do it?"
"I didn't do anything. Alpha put all the pieces together before I even woke up, and when you guys finally got in trouble, he sent me with the needle. We'll fill you in later. The important thing is that we get you two back to the MedLab."
The others agreed, and prepared to teleport.
Rocky glanced back over his shoulder just before he disappeared. What was left of Gh'ess Piah lay in a thick, spreading pool ten feet away.
With a somewhat less grim look than the others wore, he sent a silent farewell out to the creature whom he had just destroyed.