Smoke and fire

Adam and Aisha were sat at a table in Ernie's gym and juice bar, waiting for Rocky's martial arts class to finish, the three of them were meant to be looking over a house Billy and Kat found while they visited the collage the whole group would soon be attending. Kat had already taken Tommy and Eddy and now she was playing tour guide for the others. She would have taken them all together, but this trio had tactfully refused to accompany them, they could sense something in the air, they also wanted to give Tommy some quiet time with Kim. At the moment Tommy was making the most of his last chance to be with Kim before she heads back to Florida in the morning. Eddy had gone to see off his good friend Spencer, who was heading back to England, he had decided that life in Angel Grove was just too dangerous for him. Rocky finished his class steadily, giving them a chance to warm down, before heading for a shower. Billy entered the juice bar, Bulk and Skull behind him, he went across to his friends and team-mates, Bulk and Skull, who have been doing well so far at the academy, go to the bar.

"A bit of bad news guys," Billy told them after the general greetings that are past around, "Kat is snowed under preparing to start her teacher training course." There was a sense of disappointment in the group, "but the good news is I'm going to show you round the house instead." The disappointment quickly evaporated.

As they leave the youth centre and head across to Billy's supped-up car, Rocky noticed something out the corner of his eye, he thought it was one of his pupils. Telling his friends that he will join them in a minute, he went to investigate, and what he found he is not happy about. A couple of his students were hiding in a small cut away at the side of the building, the reason for it was they were smoking.

In the juice bar Ernie was telling the Angel Grove police academies finest that he had lately been smelling smoke when he is in the kitchen, he wondered if they would look into it for him. To begin with Bulk and Skull were rather reluctant to take part, but then Ernie offered them a free bar, all you can eat, if they succeed.

Bulks eyes almost lit up, "all you can eat." After the offer settled in for a moment he told the café owner, "of course we can help you citizen, it will be our pleasure to get to the bottom of this."

"So what did you think you were doing," Rocky scolded the two fourteen year olds, "firstly smoking is seriously bad for your health, it reduces your breathing, kills off brain cells, coats your insides in tar, and secondly smoking at fourteen is illegal." The youngsters stared at their feet as the generally easygoing jokester Rocky became more and more enraged. He asked them how they got their hands on a pack of cigarettes at their age and one of them admitted that he had taken it from his sister's boyfriend's bag. Rocky takes the rest of the packet from them and put them in the bin after pouring some water from the drinking fountain on them. He told them to think about what they had done, they rush off embarrassed by what had happened, Rocky rejoined his friends and they went to visit the house they may be living in for the next three years.

Bulk and Skull had decided that the best way to catch the smoker was to hide in the bush opposite the little alcove, they were determined to spring out and catch the perpetrator in the act. Unfortunately this led to them springing out on a couple of passers by and Ernie, twice, their luck went from bad to worse the next time they sprang out. To their credit they found someone smoking there this time, it's just not someone they can arrest. It seems that Lord Zedd had taken a liking to the concept of smoking, turning one of the cigarette butts into a monster. The creature was a human sized cigarette, with white legs and arms it was as yet not lit, it begins to chase off the representatives of the police force.

The Rangers had finished looking at the house they will be living in once they begin collage and they liked it, they were impressed by its location, the size, and the price, it will be completely covered by the combined scholarships and grants. They were about to go back to the juice bar to have a quick work out before they head for something to eat, before they could go anywhere however Rocky's communicator went off. The call was answered and Zordon told his team that a cigarette monster was chasing Bulk and Skull near the juice bar.

"No problem," Rocky responded, "we've got it covered, don't contact the others unless we get in trouble."

"As you wish Rocky," Zordon answered agreeing with his chosen champion's decision.

Rocky turned back to the others, "okay guys, looks like we've got another monster to beat so, it's morphing time."

Bulk and Skull had made it out of the car park into a grassy area next to the road, but the monster was close behind, suddenly Skull lost his footing going down hard, Bulk straight away was at his friends side trying to help him back to his feet. As the creature stalked them and was about to strike, an energy beam hit it in the back of the head. Turning the cigarette saw that it was a shot from Rocky's blaster that had hit it, it scoffed at the Rangers telling them that it had been waiting for them. Opening its mouth, the creature released a gas that began to choke the heroes. Moving towards them the monster stubbed his fists into each of their chests, releasing an energy shock that stunned each Ranger.

Bulk and Skull had sneaked away a little into the bushes near by, but all they had seen so far was how the Rangers were struggling. Bulk wanted to help them in someway, but wasn't quiet sure as to how, until an idea dawned on him. They slipped away towards the juice bar to collect what they needed to help the Rangers.

While Bulk and Skull were away the Rangers are subjected to a beating from the creature, they were down and look like they were about to be defeated when the two trainee policemen returned carrying a bucket of water each. They tried to sneak up on the monster but it heard them and caught them before they are close enough to strike. When he saw them the monster tried it's stubbing fist attack on them, failing only because as he reached them they threw the water over the top of the creature. It staggered back and collapses, void of all powers and completely beaten, Bulk and Skull exchanged shocked looks. Zedd was even more shocked then the duo that beat the monster, but responded by recharging the monster and making it grow.

"I guess I'm now king sized," the monster laughed.

Rocky turned to Bulk and Skull and told them, "thanks guys, you're a credit to the force, but I think we'd better handle it from here." They scurried off and the quartet called on their Hero Zords, Rocky then got Zordon to call Kat, in order to complete the docking sequence and create the Hero Megazord.

It was a fairly even fight between the two behemoths, the filters in the Zord prevent the exhaled smoke reaching the Rangers, and the Blue Wing Shield protected them from attacks, on the other hand any attacks the Rangers tried failed to stop the aggressive creature. This was when the Rangers called on the Hero Mace, a weapon derived from the tail of Rocky's Hero Zord. A few swings with this mighty weapon sent the monster reeling, raising the weapon above the Zord's head made it glow red, surrounding it with a glimmer of a flame. Swinging the weapon down onto the monsters head, tearing through it and turning it into ash, when the attack is finished the monster exploded.

Not long after this all eight of the gang were sat in the juice bar, enjoying a little downtime. Aisha, Adam and Rocky were saying how much they liked the house they visited, Billy told them that he has signed a deed that guaranteed that the Rangers will get the house. With this good news a young lad came up to the table and addressed Rocky.

"I'm sorry for what happened Rocky," he told him, "you were right I shouldn't have been smoking. My sisters boyfriend has gone into hospital for an operation because of the smoking."

"Hey man," Tommy reassured, "we're sorry for you and your sister."

As the youngster explained to the Rangers what had happened and got it off his chest Bulk and Skull wandered in boldly. They walked up to the counter and tell Ernie that they were there to collect the free meal they had been promised. Ernie was reluctant, saying that it was the Power Rangers that had beaten the monster, but Bulk and Skull reassured him that they had help the Rangers. Ernie is still reluctant until Aisha moved across to them and told them that she had heard a rumour that they were quiet the heroes, and that the Power Rangers wanted to thank them personally for what they had done. Ernie gives in, in the end and asked how they had helped the Rangers.

Skull picked up a bucket and told Ernie, "we got buckets full of water like this and throw them over the monster and it melted." Skull looked as if he was about to throw the full bucket load over his friend, until Bulk took the bucket from him. Lieutenant Stone then entered to congratulate his charges on a job well done, asking how they had managed to defeat a monster prompted Bulk to demonstrate, unfortunately he didn't have Skull's control and covered Stone in water.