Chapter Four
"Zordon!" I cried, raising my communicator to my mouth, "Zordon, what do we do now? He's massive!"
"Rangers," Zordon replied, "in situations like this, you have the ability to call on your zords, a fleet of colossal assault vehicles modelled after each of your dinosaurs. Your zords are for use when a battle grows beyond your control and an opponent becomes too powerful to defeat on the ground."
"Okay," I nodded, searching for the right words and raising my right arm to the sky. "Okay, I call upon the power of the Stegosaurus dinozord!"
Far out of town, in an out-of-the-way place that history had so far left alone, the ground began to tremble and violently shake. Within seconds, the Earth itself had split open, and the mighty Stegozord leaped forth with a roar. It was the first time sunlight had danced off the zord's armoured skin in thousands of years, and as it thundered towards us, it looked truly magnificent - a titan awoken from eternal slumber. The zord stood as tall as a five storey building, and was wider than a suburban street. Orange with black and silver armoured panels, the mechanised beast raced along the ground on two smaller front legs and two larger back legs. Along the zord's back were a dozen five-sided metal plates, and the end of its tail featured four silver spikes.
"Wow," said Aaron, raising his own arm. "Parasaurolophus..."
"And Brontosaurus dinozord power!" finished Scott. Behind the Stegozord, two more giant fighting machines rose from the depths of the Earth to greet the new age. The Parasaurolophus zord stood as tall as Monitar, with two short front limbs and two powerful hind legs. Aqua armour-plating covered the zord, with black and silver panels along either side. Charging towards the coast, the Parazord threw back its head and bellowed, the cry echoing across half the state.
Beside it was the Brontosaurus - like the Stegozord, it moved along on four thick, sturdy legs, pounding across the terrain impossibly fast for something so utterly enormous. The zord's head peered down through green eyes from atop its long neck, and the zord's wide and heavy-set body ended in a long, tapering tail.
"Velociraptor..." began Teresa.
"And Rhamphorynchus dinozord power!" cried Sarah. Answering the call of their Rangers, the two final zords rose from their ancient hiding places. Nimble and graceful, the Velociraptor zord was white with black and silver stripes, and had a long tail and two wicked metal claws on its hind legs. It raced towards us with its head held low and golden eyes shining, darting around the obstacles that lay in its path. Behind it, the Rhamphorynchus zord shot straight up into the air, its purple body and long tail gleaming in the sunlight.
"Let's go!" I cried, and we teleported into the rapidly-approaching zords, soon materialising in the cockpits. I landed in a comfortable grey chair that immediately pushed me forward to the controls. The wall behind me carried the same symbol as my Power Coin, while the control panel before me carried dozens of switches and flashing lights, as well as a single keyboard below the major viewscreen.
"Rangers," Zordon's voice echoed down through the zords from hidden speakers. "I am sending your zords directly into Megazord sequence. Observe."
There was an instant flash of light, and the Stegozord began to change. Both sets of legs folded up against the body and the zord came to a stop, folding forward until the whole zord was resting on its chin. The Brontozord drew side-by-side with my zord and began transforming in a similar manner, the zord's front legs locking together and remaining on the ground. Behind us, the Parazord leaped into the air, its legs folding back out of sight. The zord's arms and head dropped down into its body, and the zord descended down onto the Stegozord and Brontozord, giving the Megazord legs. The approaching Velociraptor split in half and provided each of the Megazord's arms, and finally, the Rhamphorynchus flew down and wrapped around the Megazord, providing a head and chestplate. We were all suddenly teleported into the control room - I guessed correctly that we were in the Megazord's head - with Scott on my right and Aaron on my left, while Sarah was behind Scott and Teresa sat behind Aaron.
"Whoa," I murmured. The Megazord now stood in the field across the road from the school, and from our vantage point, we could see across the entire suburb of Currimundi. We were lucky, in a way - with the field, road, oval and then the beach, we had a perfect battleground.
Looking down at the controls, everybody realised we had no idea what any of the controls did or how they affected the Megazord.
"I don't suppose anybody's found the instruction manual?" asked Aaron.
Glaring at the Megazord and tired of waiting, Monitar lowered his head and charged, shaking the ground with every titanic step. None of us moved, but the Megazord raised its fists and stepped forward to meet its opponent regardless.
"They've still got us under remote control," said Sarah.
I nodded. "Everybody sit tight and keep your eye on these controls."
Reaching the Megazord, Monitar immediately lashed out with his claws. The Megazord blocked the attack and countered with a low punch to the beast's stomach, before smashing its left fist into the monster's jaw. Monitar stumbled backwards, crushing abandoned cars like aluminium cans and leaving huge footprints in the oval, and the Megazord quickly followed after him to continue the assault.
Monitar soon recovered and leaped back at us, slashing across the chest- plate with his claws and leaving huge gashes in the Megazord's armour. He slashed again but the Megazord blocked one fist and stepped back around the other, throwing Monitar to the side. The monster spun back around and struck out with his claws, forcing us back before aiming a swipe at the Megazord's head. The Megazord's hand shot up and batted away the monster's fist, before slamming its left fist back into the monster's ribs. Sparks exploded from the blow, and as the monster stumbled backwards the Megazord swung again, slamming the monster to the ground with a right roundhouse punch.
I glanced back to the others, and saw that everyone was keeping close watch on the controls in front of them. Every movement the Megazord made registered in the cockpit, and we were all slowly learning what all the controls before us actually did.
"You guys okay?" I asked.
"Awesome," nodded Scott.
"I'll say," agreed Teresa. "I think I'm starting to get the idea of how everything works."
"Same," I replied, as across from us, Monitar rolled to his feet. The monster's tenuous grip on its great triumph - taking down an entire team of Power Rangers - was slipping away, and Monitar wasn't giving that up without one hell of a fight.
"You'll pay for that!" he screamed angrily, his voice echoing over half the city. "I demolished one team of Rangers and I will leave you in ruins as well!" And he raised his claws and charged towards us.
The Megazord stepped forward onto the oval, but as we approached, Monitar blasted us with a barrage of laser fire - sparks and smoke erupted from the zord's chest-plate, freezing the Megazord and giving Monitar enough time to grab hold of the zord's chest-plate and begin frying the zord with a massive electrical surge. The surge of power crackled through the mechanised warrior - explosions rocked the Megazord as alarms began to sound, and various systems within the Megazord began shutting down.
Inside the control room, debris fell from the ceiling and explosions of sparks lit up the cockpit. I wondered why Zordon or Alpha couldn't just send the Megazord into reverse or something, then realised that they simply couldn't. Suddenly, the Megazord's left leg - the Stegozord - gave out, and the whole Megazord dropped sharply, throwing us all to one side.
"What do we do?" asked Scott, glancing around desperately.
I grit my teeth. "Kick his reptilian butt," I said, my confidence surprising even me. Glancing over the dials and switches before me, a large red button caught my attention. I didn't care what it did so long as it did something, and reaching over as another shower of sparks lit up the control room, I slammed my fist against it.
A powerful blast of energy exploded from the zord's chest-plate, instantly breaking Monitar's grip and throwing him away in an blaze of sparks and fire. He stumbled back over the oval, regaining his footing on the swamp, but before he could attack I hit the button again - the monster was lifted clean off his feet, clearing the swamp and crashing to the ground on the beach, rolling to a stop amid a billowing cloud of sand.
We were ready for it. I hit the switch marked 'radio' and spoke. "Zordon, can you give us manual control?"
"Certainly," Zordon's voice boomed through the cabin. "Good luck Rangers."
With that, Aaron and Scott grabbed the walking controls and the Megazord took its first shaky steps under our control. The Megazord's movements grew smoother as we steadily gained confidence, and we easily crossed the swamp and over to the beach. By now, Monitar had climbed to his feet and charged again, but as he approached to attack, the Megazord batted away his fists and struck him back with a powerful blow to his chest. The monster stumbled backwards and the Megazord followed after him, landing blow after blow with every step. A final roundhouse punch spun Monitar away from us, and he fell backwards to the beach where he hissed spitefully at us but made no move to attack again.
Reading a line that appeared on the monitor in front of me, I raised my right arm skyward. "Let's finish this," I said. "We call on the Power Sword, now!"
Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, and a huge gleaming sword descended from a suddenly-cloudy sky, falling towards the Earth and embedding in the beach only a step away from the Megazord. The sword was massive - the shining blade was over a hundred feet in length, with a long grey hilt.
"Wow," Teresa said, but couldn't help glancing up and wondering aloud, "but where do they keep it?"
The Megazord stepped forward, and pulled the sword out of the ground. Holding it high, we advanced towards the monster.
"Nice knowing you Monitar," I said, as the five of us raised our arms and then brought them down in a slashing motion. "Hi-YAH!"
Lightning danced around us as the Megazord raised the sword high into the air. Its eyes flashed, and a huge surge of power struck the sword and travelled down the blade. Hesitating only a second longer, the Megazord slashed the weapon down through the air. The energy exploded from the sword's slice, scorching through the air and smashing into Monitar, instantly destroying the monster in a massive explosion that shook the city, rained debris down over the beach and sent a huge fireball roaring skyward.
It took a few seconds for us to realise what had just happened, but once we did, we all found ourselves cheering and yelling.
"Yes!" I cried. "We did it!"
"We won!" shouted Aaron.
And in the Command Centre far away, six voices instantly rose in jubilation.
"I don't believe it," said Kim. "They... I just..."
"They did it!" cried Jason. "They did it!"
Zac grinned. "Way to go newbies."
Only Zordon remained silent - anything else would've been too much.
"Of course they did," he said, and then in spite of himself, he smiled.
After a few minutes, the five of us teleported back to the Command Centre, and the zords were all returned to their underground hiding places by Alpha. Celebrating a victory that none of us could believe had actually happened, we arrived back in the Central Chamber and demorphed. Although the other Senior Rangers were happy we'd won, Jason was ecstatic, jumping around and cheering.
"You did it!" he cried, grinning widely and giving me a bone-crushing bear- hug. "That was legendary!"
I smiled and laughed. "Thanks."
"Many congratulations," smiled Billy. "That was indeed an extraordinary victory."
"Yeah, you guys were terrific," said Zac. "When you smashed the diamond, and Aaron, when you brained him with the chair, that was awesome!"
"And Teresa," added Kim, "that tornado kick of yours was unreal."
Teresa nodded, still smiling. It seemed like everyone was smiling today.
"Well done Rangers," said Zordon. Everyone turned and looked up at him. "You performed excellently."
"I don't quite think it's sunk in yet," said Sarah.
It was Zordon's turn to smile. "When it does, Billy is correct. Congratulations."
Aaron held out his Power Coin and looked up to Zordon, a look of realisation dawning on his face. "But since we killed the monster and saved the day, I guess you're gonna want these back now, right?"
Zordon paused for a second, while the rest of us held our breaths, and then smiled and shook his head. "Not quite yet," he replied. "You all fought admirably today, and I believe that expanding the team will only make the Power Rangers a stronger, more effective force. The coins are yours to keep.
"Now, it will take time," he continued, his voice becoming serious, "for you to come to terms with your powers and responsibilities. But I promise you it will not always be so easy. The threats we face will only grow more potent, the traps will become harder, and I cannot promise every victory will be ours to celebrate. Knowing this, do you still wish to retain your duties as Power Rangers?"
I turned to see the others all looking at me, I guess waiting to see my decision, but I was still thinking about what we'd done. We'd saved the world. We'd helped the Power Rangers. We'd become Power Rangers. Maybe I was still running on adrenaline, but there was something here before me - the rest of my life, the future, destiny, whatever the heck that was - and it was powerful. For maybe the first time in my life, I felt like I was where I should've been. And then when I looked up to Jason and saw him smiling, any doubts I had vanished, and I knew the answer.
"Yes," I replied. "We're all part of something special, and I couldn't give that up if I wanted to. The world is different because of the Power Rangers. And so are we," and I placed my fist down in the centre of the group. Teresa's and Scott's hands joined mine almost immediately. Aaron's came down next, and Sarah's after that. Trini, Zac and Billy all placed their hands on top of ours too - Kim was next, followed quickly by Tommy. Finally, Jason's hand came down to cement the group, and while raising our hands we jumped into the air and shouted at the top of our lungs, "POWER RANGERS!"