Even the sunsets started to look dull in Africa. Aisha watched as the sky
shifted from blue to a dirty yellow color as night began to draw nearer.
Outside of the village, the sky would have been a breathtaking sight, but
the fog and grime that hung in the air gave everything a sickly look. What
little color did manage to seep through was unpleasant, bloody reds and
moody purples. The fiery colors made Aisha think of the home and her other
power rangers, and she was doing quite enough of that as it was.
"Aren't you going to come and eat supper Ashala?" asked a small voice.
Aisha looked down. She was sitting on the top of one of the tall rocks, hoping that the relatively fresh and cool air might help her brain processes a little - they needed all the help they could get right now. She had been there most of the day, lost in thought, and it seemed her friend in the village were getting worried about her.
"Sure, I might as well," she sighed, beginning his descent. "I wasn't doing much good up there, anyway."
She picked her way down the side of the hill, searching for secure footholds amid the jumble of broken rock. Halfway down the slope, a stone slipped out from under her foot and sent her bumping painfully to the ground. With angry exclamations, she spat the dirt and dust from her mouth and began berating the world in general, while Yaffy looked on unhappily. She couldn't have known the definitions of half the words she was using, but the tone of his voice was clear enough.
"Are you all right?" Yaffy asked.
Aisha sighed. "Yeah. Sorry. I'm just so frustrated, you know?"
"You've had a bad day. Come inside and rest a while. Think about something else,"
Yaffy encouraged. "You can't think when you're upset."
"I can't think at all," Aisha muttered. "Man, I feel like such an idiot. What kind of a hero's lets her so-called friend leave all that she knows and then forgets all about them?"
"Is that all you've been thinking about?" asked Yaffy.
"Mostly. Why?"
"How do you expect to think of an answer if that's all you think about?"
Aisha blushed. "Good point. I guess it would be a good idea to come in for a while. If
I stayed out here past dark and someone found me out here, we'd be in more trouble than we are already."
They went back inside the underground cavern, which was known as the Cavern of the Elders. It was pitch black for the first few dozen yards, but that didn't make any difference. Aisha was still so rapped up in her problems that she probably wouldn't have noticed if someone had been shooting off fireworks. Despite Yaffy's scolding, she couldn't help but berate herself for her failure. One day, she thought she had everything under control, and now everything was suddenly falling apart. As a matter of fact, they were worse than they had been before she had came.
"I knew I'd be no good at this job," she thought, "I wish it had been someone else. Someone else would have done better. Even if they hadn't, I still wouldn't be in this mess right now. It wouldn't hurt me so much. I wish I had someone here who knew what they were doing - the Power Ranger or something, some real friends. Better yet, I wish I could back up and make it so none of this ever happened..."
Those last two thoughts rattled around in her head until they crashed into each other, and an idea exploded out. Aisha was mildly amazed. Yaffy must have sensed her shock, because she turned and looked at her expectantly.
"Did you think of something?" Yaffy asked.
"I might have," Aisha replied. "Yaffy, how does that crystal of yours work, exactly?"
"Who knows?" Yaffy answered. "It is magic, after all. Can't say how it works. It just does what I tell it."
"Could anyone use it?" Aisha asked.
"If they wanted to," said Yaffy, after a second of thought. "Takes some concentration, and you have to be careful. It will do exactly what you tell it, not what you want it to do. You have to think about what you're going to ask first. Why?"
"Could I use it?" Aisha asked.
"Maybe... Do you really want to use it? It might be bad idea," Yaffy warned. "It takes a lot of practice to learn how to ask it right. Might make a mistake if you tried to use it, and this is bad place for mistakes. Would be better if you let me use it."
"Oh, I don't want to do anything dangerous," Aisha assured her. "I just wanted to check something. Would you mind if I borrowed it?"
"If you make a mistake and send yourself somewhere, I won't be able to bring you back," Yaffy warned. "What are you up to?"
"Nothing much," Aisha replied. "If you don't want me to try, I won't."
Yaffy studied her face for a moment, trying to get some sense of what she was thinking, but whatever expression was behind her eyes was too complex for her to read. She looked away again.
"I'll trust you," she said.
Aisha nodded. "I won't let you down."
And that should have been the end of the experiment... but it wasn't.
That night, Aisha found herself unable to sleep. Her accommodations were better than they had been the previous night - actually quite comfortable, if you didn't mind sleeping underground. Yaffy didn't seem bothered by it, and she had fallen asleep almost at once, curled up in a ball of feathers. Aisha watched her from her own bunk on the other side of the room, sitting cross-legged with her chin propped on his hands like some kind of frustrated guru. She spent a full day in the African Plaines, and the only thing she managed to change was to bring her enemy some dangerous friends and her powers. She could tell herself that she wasn't the forgotten ranger anymore, but her heart refused to believe it, and the thought of one of Adler's sleazy minions putting their slimy paws all over Yaffy's amulet made her grit her teeth in revulsion. Again, her thoughts went wistfully back to her Power Ranger days. They would have known how to handle a situation like this - they could do anything, couldn't they? If only she could get to them to come help her, or at least give her some advice.
"But I can't get to them without the Crystal, or Yaffy's help," she thought, "I can't exactly make them come when I call, so that's out, and I don't know if Yaffy understands. She really believes I'm up to this... I don't want to disappoint her, but she's wrong. If I'm going to look for help, I'll have to do it without her."
That wasn't a very settling idea. The last time she tried to do something without Yaffy's help, it had ended rather messily, and it had taken a great deal of effort to straighten everything out.
"But that was the village elder trying to make life difficult for me. I knew it was the wrong thing to do. This is different. I've got to try, anyway." Still thinking
Moving carefully, quietly, Aisha tiptoed over to where Yaffy slept, the amber pendant still hanging at her throat. She gently undid the clasp and slipped it off. The stone was dark when she first picked it up, but when she touched it, it glowed softly and warmed her hands. Yaffy stirred a little and murmured something.
"Don't worry, Yaffy. I'll bring it back safe," Aisha promised. She stood a moment, feeling suddenly awkward. Impulsively, she leaned over and gently held he hand and thanked her for everything.
"That's a promise," she whispered. Then she slipped back to her side of the room, hiding herself in the deepest shadows of the room.
Aisha turned her attention back to the crystal. Yaffy had said that it would take her wherever and whenever she wanted to be, if she just asked the right way. Now was her time to find out.
"I need help," she told it, and the stone's light seemed to shift in response to his words. "Bring me to someone who can help me. Take me to the Power Rangers!"
The light seemed to explode, filling her world, driving off all the shadows and slipping under her closed eyelids to burn her eyes. The floor fell away, the walls disappeared, and everything around her was spinning in amber fire. There was a nauseating sensation of spinning wildly across the universe as something tried to pull her in a million directions at once. She tried to scream, but there was no air, only fire and light and herself spinning, spinning, spinning....
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Tommy and Jason did their early morning spar before their first meeting, at Kimberly's dojo in town. They had the radio on as they sparred to the music.
"Great spar man," Tommy said.
"You too," Jason replied.
Just then the music was halted on the radio for a special news report. Chad and Jason stopped to listen.
"After many years of peace, Angel grove has been paged with evil once again, we don't have many details, but there was a sighting of a monster and many Power Rangers coming to help." The woman said on the radio.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Aisha came around an indeterminate time later, suffering from the worst headache she ever had. Every muscle ached, as if she had been rolled down a Kimberly hill in a barrel. She seemed to be lying on his back, resting on something prickly, and beyond that, she had no idea what was going on. After a few minutes, she managed to pry her eyes open and look around.
The first thing she saw was an expanse of blue, streaked with wispy clouds. A few spiky green things were on the fringes of her vision. Her brain still felt like someone had run it through a blender, but she was eventually able to realize that they were trees. Encouraged, she pulled herself into a sitting position and took a more thorough look around. She seemed to be in a meadow or perhaps a park of some sort, lying on the grass. In the distance, she could make out buildings of red brick and white stone built into graceful geometric shapes, but there was evidence that they had been badly damaged in the recent past. A chill crept over Aisha as she realized that she never seen anything like those buildings - not in Africa.
"Stupid!" she scolded herself aloud.
She was still sitting the ground wondering what to do with herself, when she became aware that she wasn't alone. Someone was back in the bushes, watching her with a gaze that made her back prickle. She turned and saw a flash of movement as her observer headed for safer territory.
"Hey, come back!" Aisha called. "I need some help!"
The eyes reappeared, two bright glints attached to a vaguer shape in the shadows.
"Who are you?" asked a cold voice. "I'm warning you, if you're one of that Adler's minion, you'll wish you never set foot on this planet!"
"Adler?" Aisha repeated, momentarily perplexed. "I thought earth was safe from evil?"
She called back to the suspicious stranger, "You got it all wrong! I'm just lost. I don't want any trouble." On an inspiration, she added, "When I fight for anyone, I fight on Zordon's side. See?"
"Zordon, huh?" he said thoughtfully. "How do you know about Zordon?" the strange man said.
"Well I'm not aloud to tell you, but what I can tell you is that I was close to him." Aisha said.
She fished around in her jeans pocket and pulled out the medal Zordon had given Aisha after her battle with her fellow rangers, against Lord Zedd. The ribbon was a little crinkled from being stuffed in his pocket a few days, but the gold still glittered in the sunlight. The owner of the eyes looked impressed.
"I was given this by Zordon." Aisha said to them.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
At the Commansion, Wes and Ashley sat on the railing of the balcony, with its beautiful view of Angel Grove below. Wes fanned out his deck . "Pick a card, Ashley, and let's hope it has more intelligence than the last one." Wes asked.
Ashley smirked and pulled a card from the deck in Wes's hand. She separated it from the deck and held it in the air, showing it to Wes, it was the face of a Minotaur. Wes looked in his book and found the meaning of the Minotaur head.
"The Minotaur represents the dark, devouring side of matriarchy which must be encountered and transformed - with the help of the 'clew' (origin of 'clue'), the thread of self-observation showing the way out. The word labyrinth is derived from 'labrys', a double-headed axe - shaped like a butterfly, and thus representing transformation, but also linked to 'labia'. Encountering one's personal Minotaur in the passageways of the unconscious leads to psychic transformation."
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Adler played his flute; the card vanished from Wes's deck of cards and in to Adler's hands he had an idea, he summoned the destructive Minotaur three to comer to earth to defeat the rangers.
"Minotaur!" Adler yelled, "I call upon you for help."
The skies turned dark and the weather went cold, Lighting struck and in Adler's Lab, three figures appeared.
"You called upon us?" Magnus asked.
Adler told them his plan to take earth and destroy the rangers, and he needed there help to defeat them. "You have to be kidding me, we don't work for anyone" Artamous told Adler. Before they had a chance to leave Adler put them behind a containment barrier, until they decide to do as Adler asks.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
The strange man went back to the bushes and was out of sight. There was a rustling in the bushes, as if someone was running through the underbrush, and then two young men stepped into view. In the lead came the one Aisha had first spoken to, a dark- eyed, serious faced boy with long hair banded in brown and gold. His face was graceful and soft-lined, but his expression was fixed in stony serious. His companion was in direct contrast, being muscular and grinning where his companion was slender and solemn. His hair was blonde, but it glittered like metal where the sun touched it, and his clothing was made of something that gave off a muted silver gleam, whereas his friend was dressed in something plainer and sturdier, a simple suit of bright red trimmed in black.
"I'm Danny," he said
And the other man in Blue and black said, "I'm Chad."
Aisha looked at them more sharply. "How do you know Zordon?"
"He was the ranger that shattered his tube!" said his friend, "since you know who and what we are, who are you. Our identities are no secret among our friends."
"Maybe," Aisha replied, "but I still live by the oath I was given year ago."
Danny turned and faced Aisha. "Well? Can you explain yourself?"
"Well since you guy's are fellow rangers, I guess it would be ok, I'm Ashala, the Yellow Mighty Morphin Power Ranger"," Aisha muttered, but kept it quiet so any other suspicious people couldn't hear her.
It seemed the Crystal had delivered her to the rangers, after all, even if not the precise ones she been thinking of. It surprised her to realize that she was actually older than them by a few years. Not only that, but there only seemed to be two of them - not quite what she'd been hoping for. Then again, she also asked them to bring her somewhere where she could get help, and it must have known what it was doing.
"You can call me... Aisha," she said.
She wasn't entirely sure they'd be willing to trust a stranger who called herself Aisha, but she wasn't worried that she was in danger from them. If she had never told them, they'd probably never recognize her. Anyway, she liked the name of her African ancestor, and she had gotten used to Yaffy calling her Ashala.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Alder took his staff and waved in the air and said, "With the Minotaur behind my bar's, teleport to me Wesley's mystical card's" He held his hands out and there they were, he put the Minotaur card back in the deck and set them on his throne chair. Adler walked in the room that had monsters from Emperor Graganus's army, and saw that there was a wizard looking figure in the corner, with a wave of his staff he became real. "I have set you spirit free to serve me, what shall you be called?" Adler said.
"I am known as, Reb-rog, the holder of the sprit cards." He said.
Adler brought him in the lab were he had the three Minotaur held. Adler asked Reb-rog if he could get them to be under his control. Reb-rog opened the pouch at his side, and pulled out a book of spells.
"Ahhh yes, here it is" Reb-rog said to Adler, "if your in a doubting find, make this spell make you change your mind, and if your people want to be free, control them by saying fiddle-di-dee"
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
"You're Power Rangers, aren't you?" said Aisha. "I'm sort of a hero myself... or I was up until I went to Africa to help a village," she added dejectedly. "That's why I came out here. I was trying to find some help, and I guess I got lost."
"You're a hero?" asked Chad doubtfully.
"I was," Aisha replied. "Things sort of got out of hand after a while, but... I used to be the yellow ranger like I said."
There was an, "Ahhh!" of understanding from both boys, and Aisha tried to read the
expression that lit up behind their eyes.
"You've heard of me?" he asked, without much enthusiasm.
"Of course! Everyone around here knows about the original rangers," said Chad. "You and the others original's are in the history books and everything."
Aisha thought of if she made a mistake telling these others her identity.
"What if they were evil, or looking for the real rangers" Aisha thought, as Chad continued.
"What happened to the others?" asked Aisha.
"Well, since you left, there have been many other rangers, and villains. Jason from the original team, founded the NRA, and has transformed the old command centers in to the new Commansion, and all the past rangers live there."
"I see," Aisha, said, " can you guys do me a favor?"
Chad says, "Sure."
"Well I really would like to surprise the others, but you probably wont want to." Aisha said.
"Hey, we didn't say that!" said Chad. "What good is a Power Ranger if they can't help
out a friend once in a while? "
"It sounds like a great idea to me," said Danny.
"Thanks. I'll owe you one for that," replied Aisha.
"Think of it as a favor between friends," said Chad.
Aisha trotted obediently along behind the Silver Ranger, feeling a dizzy sense of disbelief: the Power Rangers were treating her as an equal, as if she was still one of them.
Aisha felt a chill run down his spine as she was suddenly flooded by a sense of deja vu. She glanced over her shoulder as she caught an orange glimmer out of the corner of her eye.
"Did you see that?" Danny asked.
"See what?" asked Chad, looking around. "I didn't see anything."
"Must have been my imagination," said Danny with an uneasy shrug. "All this excitement's got me jumping at shadows. I've never been entirely comfortable in this park, anyway."
He continued walking, but not without a few suspicious looks behind him.
"All right, all right," Danny replied, despite his words to Chad, he knew he was right. He had seen something. Someone had been spying on them.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
In Angel Grove Park, three figures made their way through, destroying everything in their way. Every now and then they had to stop as Artamous would laugh too hard, she would stop walking. When she did manage to move, it was often a step off to one side, invariably hitting her male companions. As the only female Minotaur, she got away with all she did.
The three Minotaur were covered in chocolate brown fur, with the legs and long horns of a bull, but the remainders of their bodies were that of well- proportioned warrior's.
Adler appeared and told them "All right. I want you to find the rangers and bring them here. Do you understand?"
"Yes my lord!!" said the Minotaur.
Adler vanished, and the three went on their search for any power rangers
The Minotaur wondered the park and came upon three young adults; the three rangers stood up and got in their fighting stance ready to defend themselves. This had been the first monster Kimberly had faced since before she went away for the Olympic trials, and she was a little scared.
"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Kimberly asked.
"We're Power Rangers. We get a chance to help people," Danny explained.
"Why don't we use our Ranger Powers?"
Chad and Danny looked at Kimberly, then at each other. "Why don't we?" The Minotaur appeared in front of the three. "Minotaur!"
"Well, here's our chance! Rangers Unite!" Kimberly was immediately morphed, and in the fighting stance.
Chad and Danny both grinned. "It worked!"
***BREET-DEE-DIT-DA-DEET-DEE***
Kimberly answered the summons.
"Umm, yeah, Billy?" Kimberly answered!
The Minotaur crossed her arms, and waited for the rangers to straighten themselves out.
"What are you doing? You're supposed to call the Board when the monster attacks." Billy said
"Yeah, we were, but they tried to attacked." Kimberly said.
"Never mind, your teammates are now on their way." Billy told her.
Billy had no sooner closed the connection, than the other rangers arrived on the scene, unmorphed. Kimberly looked at the monster. "Wow, it's a big one!"
"I am Sadius, leader of the Minotaur" he said, "This is my brother Malei, and sister Artamous, now it is time for your destruction"
Ashley and Wes Morphed right away to help in the battle.
The Rangers were all morphed. In Angel Grove Park, where the Minotaur were attacking, the rangers looking for the one thing they came to get.
"Hey Kiddies stop what your doing and fight like a whatever you are, and give me the crystal." Sadius yelled.
"I think you mistaken, we don't have any crystal" said Wes, "so go back where you came from and don't return you freaky horse mutants".
"Right" replied the others
Aisha went to go hide behind some bushes, when up came behind her, the female Minotaur, Malei.
"You must be the one with the stone." Malei said
Aisha replied, "yeah, but you and you friends are not getting it"
She ran from the brush and was surrounded by Troc's.
"Guy's help!!" Aisha said as she tried to fend off the Troc soldiers
"Damn it" growled Sadius, "Power Rangers! No matter whom I'm working for, I can't stand it any more, Troc's, attack these pesky Rangers. Dead or alive I will get that crystal for "
As they all started to attack, Sadius and Malei disappeared, in gold flames, and reappeared to capture Aisha and take her to his master, leaving Artamous to battle the rangers
Adler was in the dungeon of his castle With a very pissed off look on his face. Sadius and Malei soon appeared in the attic,
"Master we have a gift for you." Sadius said
"Give me this Power Rangers friend," Adler yelled
"Now what about the others, master" asked Malei "how could we destroy them, they are such good warriors"
"Silence do not talk to me in such disrespect" yelled Adler "Reb-rog come in here, I have all the evil in universe, Reb-rog, create something to increase the Minotaur power."
Reb-rog waved his hand and a demon card appeared, "Master, here is a boost for the Minotaur." Reb-rog said
He threw the card on the ground in front of Adler, then Adler threw his staff down to ground right on the card. It started to glow, and then it disappeared. Moments later the Minotaur started to glow.
Back in angel grove park where the morphed rangers battle the Troc's, see Artamous start to glow as well, they went to attack him, but were flung to the side as if they were hit with a stone statue.
"Rangers, we need to regroup, let get him out of the park." Wes says.
Before the rangers all charged the Minotaur disappeared from the park and back to the others in the castle in Death Valley.
Back at the Commansion.
"Guy's you did well, but next time they will come back harder, for now they are prepared, and w will be too next time they come around." said Billy,
The next few hours went by pretty fast, some the Rangers were hanging out together at the Youth Center, and Ashley convince Adele to give Danny a job, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong going on, but just as they were sitting down to eat burgers, when they heard something, breet-dit-deet- da-dee-dee. Their communicators went.
"Come on guys," said Wes. They walked out of the Youth Center,
"What's up Billy?" asked Kimberly talking into her communicator.
"Rangers come to the Commansion immediately," said Billy.
The Rangers got out of site and had Billy teleport them to the Commansion, were Alpha 7 was running around panicking and Alpha 8 was trying to look important,
"What's wrong Billy" Danny asked.
"Rangers observe the viewing globe, Adler's Spirit Master, Reb-rog has sent back the monsters along with some Troc's loose on Angel Grove" said a worried Billy.
"Why are you so worried, we will get them."
The Rangers looked in the viewing globe and saw a human looking yelling and tied to a tree,
Kimberly steps closer and puts her hands over her mouth, "that can't be." she muttered.
Billy stepped over to her and confirmed Kimberly's fear,
"It is." Billy said.
"Is who?" Wes asked.
Billy walked back to the controls and brought up the Mighty Morphin Power Ranger file, and went to the stats of the second yellow ranger of the team.
"This is Aisha, she was the Yellow ranger that succeeded Trini when she went to the youth summit years ago, she then during the quest for the Zeo crystal, she sent back Tanya and stayed back to help the village in Africa."
"It seems she was kidnapped in the park when the Minotaur attacked." Billy said.
Danny and Chad looked at each other, Chad stepped forward and told Billy that he and Danny saw her and was asked to keep the secret of her return as a secret.
"We need to save her, she is my best friend!" Kimberly said.
"You guys need to be careful, nothing can happen to her." Angela told everyone
"Were on it Mrs. Fairweather" they all said. "Good, hurry up Rangers and may the Power Protect you."
The five rangers stood in the middle of the lab, and called,
"Rangers Unite," yelled all the rangers.
"Lightspeed Blue," Chad yelled.
"Wild Force Black," Danny said.
"Mighty Morphin Pink Kimberly called
"Galaxy Yellow Ashley yelled.
"Red Ranger of Time," Wes called.
They teleported to where the Malei and Artamous were rampaging, and started attacking the Troc's which they wiped half of them out, and Sadius started to join in when he saw the Troc's losing,
"Don't worry rangers once she gives the crystal to us she is yours" Sadius said as he threw the black ranger on the ground. Malei threw some Spikes at them, they took out their blasters, and started shooting, at the moving spikes.
"Billy we need help" Chad yelled into his communicator. Billy replied, "Rangers summon your weapons, and make the Power blaster."
"Dueling Daggers!" Chad called out
"Whirling whip," Kimberly said next.
"Beta Blasters" Danny yelled.
"Power Daggers" Ashley said.
"Sonic Sword," Wes called out.
The Rangers Put their weapons together, and formed the Power blaster, and shot it at the Minotaur. And sent them backwards.
Meanwhile Adler's appears, Adler throwing his Staff above his head and yelling,
"Let the power within me flow, make my fallen monsters grow." And back at the battle the Minotaur started to grow to gigantic proportions. As they grew, they merged in to one ultimate Minotaur
"Rangers you must call you Zords," said Mrs. Fairweather through their communicators."
"Red Commando 1, power up!" Wes called.
"Pink Commando 2, power up!" Kimberly called.
"Blue Commando 3, power up!" Chad called.
"Yellow Commando 4, power up!" Maya called.
"Green Commando 5, power up!" Adam called.
"All Star Megazord, power up!" they called in unison.
The Zords came together to form the Megazord, and Wes called for the "Mega Power Sword."
"You destroyed my armor now you'll get it," said the Minotaur, pulling a sword out of his chest. The Megazord and the Minotaur started going at it in a sword fight and eventually the Megazord knocked the sword out the hand of the Minotaur, and with one slash the rest of the armor was gone, and then on the second slash, the Minotaur separated and exploded.
The rangers all teleported to the park, and searched for Aisha, when they came to Adler and some Troc's around her.
"Get your hands off her Adler," Kimberly said.
"Troc's attack!" Adler yelled as he ran off with Aisha's crystal in hand. Aisha yelled to the rangers but they didn't get back to him in time to get the crystal before her disappeared to his lair.
Kimberly de-morphed and freed Aisha. They both were so happy to see each other that Kimberly forgot about eh others and her and Aisha walked back to the Youth Center.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Meanwhile Adler was watching in anger as Kim and Aisha united, he walked over to a table and pulled out a box, and opened it revealing a group Power Coins, he set the crystal in the blank spot that seemed to be made for the crystal and looked at the last empty spot in the box and cringed, then said "NEXT TIME RANGERS, I HAVE SOMETHING PLANNED FOR YOU JUST WAIT, AND YOU WONT DEFEAT ME THEN."
To be continued.
Next Time on Power Rangers All-Stars, Adler has the Sand Snake monster copy the rangers Data, so he can infuse the teens he recruited to become his dark Phantom Rangers, with the city blacking out, and experiencing many trembles, how will the rangers ever defeat the new dark rangers, all this and more and the next Power rangers All-Stars.
"Aren't you going to come and eat supper Ashala?" asked a small voice.
Aisha looked down. She was sitting on the top of one of the tall rocks, hoping that the relatively fresh and cool air might help her brain processes a little - they needed all the help they could get right now. She had been there most of the day, lost in thought, and it seemed her friend in the village were getting worried about her.
"Sure, I might as well," she sighed, beginning his descent. "I wasn't doing much good up there, anyway."
She picked her way down the side of the hill, searching for secure footholds amid the jumble of broken rock. Halfway down the slope, a stone slipped out from under her foot and sent her bumping painfully to the ground. With angry exclamations, she spat the dirt and dust from her mouth and began berating the world in general, while Yaffy looked on unhappily. She couldn't have known the definitions of half the words she was using, but the tone of his voice was clear enough.
"Are you all right?" Yaffy asked.
Aisha sighed. "Yeah. Sorry. I'm just so frustrated, you know?"
"You've had a bad day. Come inside and rest a while. Think about something else,"
Yaffy encouraged. "You can't think when you're upset."
"I can't think at all," Aisha muttered. "Man, I feel like such an idiot. What kind of a hero's lets her so-called friend leave all that she knows and then forgets all about them?"
"Is that all you've been thinking about?" asked Yaffy.
"Mostly. Why?"
"How do you expect to think of an answer if that's all you think about?"
Aisha blushed. "Good point. I guess it would be a good idea to come in for a while. If
I stayed out here past dark and someone found me out here, we'd be in more trouble than we are already."
They went back inside the underground cavern, which was known as the Cavern of the Elders. It was pitch black for the first few dozen yards, but that didn't make any difference. Aisha was still so rapped up in her problems that she probably wouldn't have noticed if someone had been shooting off fireworks. Despite Yaffy's scolding, she couldn't help but berate herself for her failure. One day, she thought she had everything under control, and now everything was suddenly falling apart. As a matter of fact, they were worse than they had been before she had came.
"I knew I'd be no good at this job," she thought, "I wish it had been someone else. Someone else would have done better. Even if they hadn't, I still wouldn't be in this mess right now. It wouldn't hurt me so much. I wish I had someone here who knew what they were doing - the Power Ranger or something, some real friends. Better yet, I wish I could back up and make it so none of this ever happened..."
Those last two thoughts rattled around in her head until they crashed into each other, and an idea exploded out. Aisha was mildly amazed. Yaffy must have sensed her shock, because she turned and looked at her expectantly.
"Did you think of something?" Yaffy asked.
"I might have," Aisha replied. "Yaffy, how does that crystal of yours work, exactly?"
"Who knows?" Yaffy answered. "It is magic, after all. Can't say how it works. It just does what I tell it."
"Could anyone use it?" Aisha asked.
"If they wanted to," said Yaffy, after a second of thought. "Takes some concentration, and you have to be careful. It will do exactly what you tell it, not what you want it to do. You have to think about what you're going to ask first. Why?"
"Could I use it?" Aisha asked.
"Maybe... Do you really want to use it? It might be bad idea," Yaffy warned. "It takes a lot of practice to learn how to ask it right. Might make a mistake if you tried to use it, and this is bad place for mistakes. Would be better if you let me use it."
"Oh, I don't want to do anything dangerous," Aisha assured her. "I just wanted to check something. Would you mind if I borrowed it?"
"If you make a mistake and send yourself somewhere, I won't be able to bring you back," Yaffy warned. "What are you up to?"
"Nothing much," Aisha replied. "If you don't want me to try, I won't."
Yaffy studied her face for a moment, trying to get some sense of what she was thinking, but whatever expression was behind her eyes was too complex for her to read. She looked away again.
"I'll trust you," she said.
Aisha nodded. "I won't let you down."
And that should have been the end of the experiment... but it wasn't.
That night, Aisha found herself unable to sleep. Her accommodations were better than they had been the previous night - actually quite comfortable, if you didn't mind sleeping underground. Yaffy didn't seem bothered by it, and she had fallen asleep almost at once, curled up in a ball of feathers. Aisha watched her from her own bunk on the other side of the room, sitting cross-legged with her chin propped on his hands like some kind of frustrated guru. She spent a full day in the African Plaines, and the only thing she managed to change was to bring her enemy some dangerous friends and her powers. She could tell herself that she wasn't the forgotten ranger anymore, but her heart refused to believe it, and the thought of one of Adler's sleazy minions putting their slimy paws all over Yaffy's amulet made her grit her teeth in revulsion. Again, her thoughts went wistfully back to her Power Ranger days. They would have known how to handle a situation like this - they could do anything, couldn't they? If only she could get to them to come help her, or at least give her some advice.
"But I can't get to them without the Crystal, or Yaffy's help," she thought, "I can't exactly make them come when I call, so that's out, and I don't know if Yaffy understands. She really believes I'm up to this... I don't want to disappoint her, but she's wrong. If I'm going to look for help, I'll have to do it without her."
That wasn't a very settling idea. The last time she tried to do something without Yaffy's help, it had ended rather messily, and it had taken a great deal of effort to straighten everything out.
"But that was the village elder trying to make life difficult for me. I knew it was the wrong thing to do. This is different. I've got to try, anyway." Still thinking
Moving carefully, quietly, Aisha tiptoed over to where Yaffy slept, the amber pendant still hanging at her throat. She gently undid the clasp and slipped it off. The stone was dark when she first picked it up, but when she touched it, it glowed softly and warmed her hands. Yaffy stirred a little and murmured something.
"Don't worry, Yaffy. I'll bring it back safe," Aisha promised. She stood a moment, feeling suddenly awkward. Impulsively, she leaned over and gently held he hand and thanked her for everything.
"That's a promise," she whispered. Then she slipped back to her side of the room, hiding herself in the deepest shadows of the room.
Aisha turned her attention back to the crystal. Yaffy had said that it would take her wherever and whenever she wanted to be, if she just asked the right way. Now was her time to find out.
"I need help," she told it, and the stone's light seemed to shift in response to his words. "Bring me to someone who can help me. Take me to the Power Rangers!"
The light seemed to explode, filling her world, driving off all the shadows and slipping under her closed eyelids to burn her eyes. The floor fell away, the walls disappeared, and everything around her was spinning in amber fire. There was a nauseating sensation of spinning wildly across the universe as something tried to pull her in a million directions at once. She tried to scream, but there was no air, only fire and light and herself spinning, spinning, spinning....
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Tommy and Jason did their early morning spar before their first meeting, at Kimberly's dojo in town. They had the radio on as they sparred to the music.
"Great spar man," Tommy said.
"You too," Jason replied.
Just then the music was halted on the radio for a special news report. Chad and Jason stopped to listen.
"After many years of peace, Angel grove has been paged with evil once again, we don't have many details, but there was a sighting of a monster and many Power Rangers coming to help." The woman said on the radio.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Aisha came around an indeterminate time later, suffering from the worst headache she ever had. Every muscle ached, as if she had been rolled down a Kimberly hill in a barrel. She seemed to be lying on his back, resting on something prickly, and beyond that, she had no idea what was going on. After a few minutes, she managed to pry her eyes open and look around.
The first thing she saw was an expanse of blue, streaked with wispy clouds. A few spiky green things were on the fringes of her vision. Her brain still felt like someone had run it through a blender, but she was eventually able to realize that they were trees. Encouraged, she pulled herself into a sitting position and took a more thorough look around. She seemed to be in a meadow or perhaps a park of some sort, lying on the grass. In the distance, she could make out buildings of red brick and white stone built into graceful geometric shapes, but there was evidence that they had been badly damaged in the recent past. A chill crept over Aisha as she realized that she never seen anything like those buildings - not in Africa.
"Stupid!" she scolded herself aloud.
She was still sitting the ground wondering what to do with herself, when she became aware that she wasn't alone. Someone was back in the bushes, watching her with a gaze that made her back prickle. She turned and saw a flash of movement as her observer headed for safer territory.
"Hey, come back!" Aisha called. "I need some help!"
The eyes reappeared, two bright glints attached to a vaguer shape in the shadows.
"Who are you?" asked a cold voice. "I'm warning you, if you're one of that Adler's minion, you'll wish you never set foot on this planet!"
"Adler?" Aisha repeated, momentarily perplexed. "I thought earth was safe from evil?"
She called back to the suspicious stranger, "You got it all wrong! I'm just lost. I don't want any trouble." On an inspiration, she added, "When I fight for anyone, I fight on Zordon's side. See?"
"Zordon, huh?" he said thoughtfully. "How do you know about Zordon?" the strange man said.
"Well I'm not aloud to tell you, but what I can tell you is that I was close to him." Aisha said.
She fished around in her jeans pocket and pulled out the medal Zordon had given Aisha after her battle with her fellow rangers, against Lord Zedd. The ribbon was a little crinkled from being stuffed in his pocket a few days, but the gold still glittered in the sunlight. The owner of the eyes looked impressed.
"I was given this by Zordon." Aisha said to them.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
At the Commansion, Wes and Ashley sat on the railing of the balcony, with its beautiful view of Angel Grove below. Wes fanned out his deck . "Pick a card, Ashley, and let's hope it has more intelligence than the last one." Wes asked.
Ashley smirked and pulled a card from the deck in Wes's hand. She separated it from the deck and held it in the air, showing it to Wes, it was the face of a Minotaur. Wes looked in his book and found the meaning of the Minotaur head.
"The Minotaur represents the dark, devouring side of matriarchy which must be encountered and transformed - with the help of the 'clew' (origin of 'clue'), the thread of self-observation showing the way out. The word labyrinth is derived from 'labrys', a double-headed axe - shaped like a butterfly, and thus representing transformation, but also linked to 'labia'. Encountering one's personal Minotaur in the passageways of the unconscious leads to psychic transformation."
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Adler played his flute; the card vanished from Wes's deck of cards and in to Adler's hands he had an idea, he summoned the destructive Minotaur three to comer to earth to defeat the rangers.
"Minotaur!" Adler yelled, "I call upon you for help."
The skies turned dark and the weather went cold, Lighting struck and in Adler's Lab, three figures appeared.
"You called upon us?" Magnus asked.
Adler told them his plan to take earth and destroy the rangers, and he needed there help to defeat them. "You have to be kidding me, we don't work for anyone" Artamous told Adler. Before they had a chance to leave Adler put them behind a containment barrier, until they decide to do as Adler asks.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
The strange man went back to the bushes and was out of sight. There was a rustling in the bushes, as if someone was running through the underbrush, and then two young men stepped into view. In the lead came the one Aisha had first spoken to, a dark- eyed, serious faced boy with long hair banded in brown and gold. His face was graceful and soft-lined, but his expression was fixed in stony serious. His companion was in direct contrast, being muscular and grinning where his companion was slender and solemn. His hair was blonde, but it glittered like metal where the sun touched it, and his clothing was made of something that gave off a muted silver gleam, whereas his friend was dressed in something plainer and sturdier, a simple suit of bright red trimmed in black.
"I'm Danny," he said
And the other man in Blue and black said, "I'm Chad."
Aisha looked at them more sharply. "How do you know Zordon?"
"He was the ranger that shattered his tube!" said his friend, "since you know who and what we are, who are you. Our identities are no secret among our friends."
"Maybe," Aisha replied, "but I still live by the oath I was given year ago."
Danny turned and faced Aisha. "Well? Can you explain yourself?"
"Well since you guy's are fellow rangers, I guess it would be ok, I'm Ashala, the Yellow Mighty Morphin Power Ranger"," Aisha muttered, but kept it quiet so any other suspicious people couldn't hear her.
It seemed the Crystal had delivered her to the rangers, after all, even if not the precise ones she been thinking of. It surprised her to realize that she was actually older than them by a few years. Not only that, but there only seemed to be two of them - not quite what she'd been hoping for. Then again, she also asked them to bring her somewhere where she could get help, and it must have known what it was doing.
"You can call me... Aisha," she said.
She wasn't entirely sure they'd be willing to trust a stranger who called herself Aisha, but she wasn't worried that she was in danger from them. If she had never told them, they'd probably never recognize her. Anyway, she liked the name of her African ancestor, and she had gotten used to Yaffy calling her Ashala.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Alder took his staff and waved in the air and said, "With the Minotaur behind my bar's, teleport to me Wesley's mystical card's" He held his hands out and there they were, he put the Minotaur card back in the deck and set them on his throne chair. Adler walked in the room that had monsters from Emperor Graganus's army, and saw that there was a wizard looking figure in the corner, with a wave of his staff he became real. "I have set you spirit free to serve me, what shall you be called?" Adler said.
"I am known as, Reb-rog, the holder of the sprit cards." He said.
Adler brought him in the lab were he had the three Minotaur held. Adler asked Reb-rog if he could get them to be under his control. Reb-rog opened the pouch at his side, and pulled out a book of spells.
"Ahhh yes, here it is" Reb-rog said to Adler, "if your in a doubting find, make this spell make you change your mind, and if your people want to be free, control them by saying fiddle-di-dee"
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
"You're Power Rangers, aren't you?" said Aisha. "I'm sort of a hero myself... or I was up until I went to Africa to help a village," she added dejectedly. "That's why I came out here. I was trying to find some help, and I guess I got lost."
"You're a hero?" asked Chad doubtfully.
"I was," Aisha replied. "Things sort of got out of hand after a while, but... I used to be the yellow ranger like I said."
There was an, "Ahhh!" of understanding from both boys, and Aisha tried to read the
expression that lit up behind their eyes.
"You've heard of me?" he asked, without much enthusiasm.
"Of course! Everyone around here knows about the original rangers," said Chad. "You and the others original's are in the history books and everything."
Aisha thought of if she made a mistake telling these others her identity.
"What if they were evil, or looking for the real rangers" Aisha thought, as Chad continued.
"What happened to the others?" asked Aisha.
"Well, since you left, there have been many other rangers, and villains. Jason from the original team, founded the NRA, and has transformed the old command centers in to the new Commansion, and all the past rangers live there."
"I see," Aisha, said, " can you guys do me a favor?"
Chad says, "Sure."
"Well I really would like to surprise the others, but you probably wont want to." Aisha said.
"Hey, we didn't say that!" said Chad. "What good is a Power Ranger if they can't help
out a friend once in a while? "
"It sounds like a great idea to me," said Danny.
"Thanks. I'll owe you one for that," replied Aisha.
"Think of it as a favor between friends," said Chad.
Aisha trotted obediently along behind the Silver Ranger, feeling a dizzy sense of disbelief: the Power Rangers were treating her as an equal, as if she was still one of them.
Aisha felt a chill run down his spine as she was suddenly flooded by a sense of deja vu. She glanced over her shoulder as she caught an orange glimmer out of the corner of her eye.
"Did you see that?" Danny asked.
"See what?" asked Chad, looking around. "I didn't see anything."
"Must have been my imagination," said Danny with an uneasy shrug. "All this excitement's got me jumping at shadows. I've never been entirely comfortable in this park, anyway."
He continued walking, but not without a few suspicious looks behind him.
"All right, all right," Danny replied, despite his words to Chad, he knew he was right. He had seen something. Someone had been spying on them.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*
In Angel Grove Park, three figures made their way through, destroying everything in their way. Every now and then they had to stop as Artamous would laugh too hard, she would stop walking. When she did manage to move, it was often a step off to one side, invariably hitting her male companions. As the only female Minotaur, she got away with all she did.
The three Minotaur were covered in chocolate brown fur, with the legs and long horns of a bull, but the remainders of their bodies were that of well- proportioned warrior's.
Adler appeared and told them "All right. I want you to find the rangers and bring them here. Do you understand?"
"Yes my lord!!" said the Minotaur.
Adler vanished, and the three went on their search for any power rangers
The Minotaur wondered the park and came upon three young adults; the three rangers stood up and got in their fighting stance ready to defend themselves. This had been the first monster Kimberly had faced since before she went away for the Olympic trials, and she was a little scared.
"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Kimberly asked.
"We're Power Rangers. We get a chance to help people," Danny explained.
"Why don't we use our Ranger Powers?"
Chad and Danny looked at Kimberly, then at each other. "Why don't we?" The Minotaur appeared in front of the three. "Minotaur!"
"Well, here's our chance! Rangers Unite!" Kimberly was immediately morphed, and in the fighting stance.
Chad and Danny both grinned. "It worked!"
***BREET-DEE-DIT-DA-DEET-DEE***
Kimberly answered the summons.
"Umm, yeah, Billy?" Kimberly answered!
The Minotaur crossed her arms, and waited for the rangers to straighten themselves out.
"What are you doing? You're supposed to call the Board when the monster attacks." Billy said
"Yeah, we were, but they tried to attacked." Kimberly said.
"Never mind, your teammates are now on their way." Billy told her.
Billy had no sooner closed the connection, than the other rangers arrived on the scene, unmorphed. Kimberly looked at the monster. "Wow, it's a big one!"
"I am Sadius, leader of the Minotaur" he said, "This is my brother Malei, and sister Artamous, now it is time for your destruction"
Ashley and Wes Morphed right away to help in the battle.
The Rangers were all morphed. In Angel Grove Park, where the Minotaur were attacking, the rangers looking for the one thing they came to get.
"Hey Kiddies stop what your doing and fight like a whatever you are, and give me the crystal." Sadius yelled.
"I think you mistaken, we don't have any crystal" said Wes, "so go back where you came from and don't return you freaky horse mutants".
"Right" replied the others
Aisha went to go hide behind some bushes, when up came behind her, the female Minotaur, Malei.
"You must be the one with the stone." Malei said
Aisha replied, "yeah, but you and you friends are not getting it"
She ran from the brush and was surrounded by Troc's.
"Guy's help!!" Aisha said as she tried to fend off the Troc soldiers
"Damn it" growled Sadius, "Power Rangers! No matter whom I'm working for, I can't stand it any more, Troc's, attack these pesky Rangers. Dead or alive I will get that crystal for "
As they all started to attack, Sadius and Malei disappeared, in gold flames, and reappeared to capture Aisha and take her to his master, leaving Artamous to battle the rangers
Adler was in the dungeon of his castle With a very pissed off look on his face. Sadius and Malei soon appeared in the attic,
"Master we have a gift for you." Sadius said
"Give me this Power Rangers friend," Adler yelled
"Now what about the others, master" asked Malei "how could we destroy them, they are such good warriors"
"Silence do not talk to me in such disrespect" yelled Adler "Reb-rog come in here, I have all the evil in universe, Reb-rog, create something to increase the Minotaur power."
Reb-rog waved his hand and a demon card appeared, "Master, here is a boost for the Minotaur." Reb-rog said
He threw the card on the ground in front of Adler, then Adler threw his staff down to ground right on the card. It started to glow, and then it disappeared. Moments later the Minotaur started to glow.
Back in angel grove park where the morphed rangers battle the Troc's, see Artamous start to glow as well, they went to attack him, but were flung to the side as if they were hit with a stone statue.
"Rangers, we need to regroup, let get him out of the park." Wes says.
Before the rangers all charged the Minotaur disappeared from the park and back to the others in the castle in Death Valley.
Back at the Commansion.
"Guy's you did well, but next time they will come back harder, for now they are prepared, and w will be too next time they come around." said Billy,
The next few hours went by pretty fast, some the Rangers were hanging out together at the Youth Center, and Ashley convince Adele to give Danny a job, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong going on, but just as they were sitting down to eat burgers, when they heard something, breet-dit-deet- da-dee-dee. Their communicators went.
"Come on guys," said Wes. They walked out of the Youth Center,
"What's up Billy?" asked Kimberly talking into her communicator.
"Rangers come to the Commansion immediately," said Billy.
The Rangers got out of site and had Billy teleport them to the Commansion, were Alpha 7 was running around panicking and Alpha 8 was trying to look important,
"What's wrong Billy" Danny asked.
"Rangers observe the viewing globe, Adler's Spirit Master, Reb-rog has sent back the monsters along with some Troc's loose on Angel Grove" said a worried Billy.
"Why are you so worried, we will get them."
The Rangers looked in the viewing globe and saw a human looking yelling and tied to a tree,
Kimberly steps closer and puts her hands over her mouth, "that can't be." she muttered.
Billy stepped over to her and confirmed Kimberly's fear,
"It is." Billy said.
"Is who?" Wes asked.
Billy walked back to the controls and brought up the Mighty Morphin Power Ranger file, and went to the stats of the second yellow ranger of the team.
"This is Aisha, she was the Yellow ranger that succeeded Trini when she went to the youth summit years ago, she then during the quest for the Zeo crystal, she sent back Tanya and stayed back to help the village in Africa."
"It seems she was kidnapped in the park when the Minotaur attacked." Billy said.
Danny and Chad looked at each other, Chad stepped forward and told Billy that he and Danny saw her and was asked to keep the secret of her return as a secret.
"We need to save her, she is my best friend!" Kimberly said.
"You guys need to be careful, nothing can happen to her." Angela told everyone
"Were on it Mrs. Fairweather" they all said. "Good, hurry up Rangers and may the Power Protect you."
The five rangers stood in the middle of the lab, and called,
"Rangers Unite," yelled all the rangers.
"Lightspeed Blue," Chad yelled.
"Wild Force Black," Danny said.
"Mighty Morphin Pink Kimberly called
"Galaxy Yellow Ashley yelled.
"Red Ranger of Time," Wes called.
They teleported to where the Malei and Artamous were rampaging, and started attacking the Troc's which they wiped half of them out, and Sadius started to join in when he saw the Troc's losing,
"Don't worry rangers once she gives the crystal to us she is yours" Sadius said as he threw the black ranger on the ground. Malei threw some Spikes at them, they took out their blasters, and started shooting, at the moving spikes.
"Billy we need help" Chad yelled into his communicator. Billy replied, "Rangers summon your weapons, and make the Power blaster."
"Dueling Daggers!" Chad called out
"Whirling whip," Kimberly said next.
"Beta Blasters" Danny yelled.
"Power Daggers" Ashley said.
"Sonic Sword," Wes called out.
The Rangers Put their weapons together, and formed the Power blaster, and shot it at the Minotaur. And sent them backwards.
Meanwhile Adler's appears, Adler throwing his Staff above his head and yelling,
"Let the power within me flow, make my fallen monsters grow." And back at the battle the Minotaur started to grow to gigantic proportions. As they grew, they merged in to one ultimate Minotaur
"Rangers you must call you Zords," said Mrs. Fairweather through their communicators."
"Red Commando 1, power up!" Wes called.
"Pink Commando 2, power up!" Kimberly called.
"Blue Commando 3, power up!" Chad called.
"Yellow Commando 4, power up!" Maya called.
"Green Commando 5, power up!" Adam called.
"All Star Megazord, power up!" they called in unison.
The Zords came together to form the Megazord, and Wes called for the "Mega Power Sword."
"You destroyed my armor now you'll get it," said the Minotaur, pulling a sword out of his chest. The Megazord and the Minotaur started going at it in a sword fight and eventually the Megazord knocked the sword out the hand of the Minotaur, and with one slash the rest of the armor was gone, and then on the second slash, the Minotaur separated and exploded.
The rangers all teleported to the park, and searched for Aisha, when they came to Adler and some Troc's around her.
"Get your hands off her Adler," Kimberly said.
"Troc's attack!" Adler yelled as he ran off with Aisha's crystal in hand. Aisha yelled to the rangers but they didn't get back to him in time to get the crystal before her disappeared to his lair.
Kimberly de-morphed and freed Aisha. They both were so happy to see each other that Kimberly forgot about eh others and her and Aisha walked back to the Youth Center.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Meanwhile Adler was watching in anger as Kim and Aisha united, he walked over to a table and pulled out a box, and opened it revealing a group Power Coins, he set the crystal in the blank spot that seemed to be made for the crystal and looked at the last empty spot in the box and cringed, then said "NEXT TIME RANGERS, I HAVE SOMETHING PLANNED FOR YOU JUST WAIT, AND YOU WONT DEFEAT ME THEN."
To be continued.
Next Time on Power Rangers All-Stars, Adler has the Sand Snake monster copy the rangers Data, so he can infuse the teens he recruited to become his dark Phantom Rangers, with the city blacking out, and experiencing many trembles, how will the rangers ever defeat the new dark rangers, all this and more and the next Power rangers All-Stars.