Chapter Two

The five of us raced through the empty black reaches of space, passing stars and asteroids and great holes in reality even gravity couldn't escape, travelling inconceivable distances in the blink of an eye and leaving light dawdling behind us. We were teleporting for considerably longer than any of our previous trips, due to the simple fact that our destination was so far away, and after several long minutes, we finally felt solid ground beneath our feet, and the world took shape around us.

"Everyone okay?" I asked, glancing back.

"We're all fine," replied Teresa.

"Yeah," said Scott, "but where are we?"

We'd landed on a lifeless, desolate mountain plateau. All around us were red and brown rocks and boulders, and the gravel that crunched beneath our feet was the same colour. The landscape was devoid of plants and animals, and there wasn't another living thing in sight. On all sides, the plateau led down to a countryside filled with canyons, cliffs and bluffs. It was much the same as the hill we now stood on - red, empty, and silent. Not to mention, slightly creepy.

"Welcome to Nerimos," I said, listening to my voice echo down across the landscape. "Nice place to visit..."

"But you wouldn't want to live here," finished Teresa. "Come to think of it, I don't think anything is living here. Or ever was."

"It's certainly not an ideal location for the next Club Med," added Aaron.

I turned back to Scott. "Still got the gizmo Alpha gave us?" I asked.

The Blue Ranger nodded. "Right here. It should come online any second, okay, there we go. And Torlus is somewhere..." and he paused, spinning around on the spot, "...that way," he finished triumphantly, pointing along a ridge towards the...well, I'd immediately thought east, but I'm not sure that really applied any more. The small yellow sun hanging above the horizon had either just risen or was about to set, and either way, Scott was pointing in the sun's direction.

"All right, weapons out," I said. "No telling what we'll run into here. Keep your eyes open, and let's go." With that, we began our trek down the plateau, across a wide open valley, and back up along the ridge. Scott, Teresa and I took the lead, navigating our path from the computer Alpha had given us, while Aaron and Sarah followed behind us.

As the team walked, Aaron turned to Sarah beside him, and found the Purple Ranger staring up into the blue-grey sky. Stepping closer, he tapped Sarah on the shoulder.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Just thinking," Sarah replied. "It's not every day you leave the entire planet behind, somewhere millions of miles away up there."

"It's definitely one for the books, that's for sure."

Sarah turned to him. "But it's not the fact that we're standing on another planet, you know?" she said. "It's more the fact that five minutes ago, we were just sitting in the Youth Centre on a rainy Saturday morning. And now we're here."

Aaron nodded. "The small things," he said.

"Yeah," Sarah replied with a smile. "The small things. All this for a single medallion, too. Hope we find it."

"Me too. I've got five bucks on it." Sarah stopped and turned to the Aqua Ranger. Aaron blushed and looked away. "Uh, nothing. C'mon, they're leaving us behind," and the two jogged forward to catch up with the rest of us.

We travelled quickly but carefully over the red terrain, keeping an eye out for anything that looked threatening or unusual. Eventually though, we were just keeping our eyes out for anything at all. The countryside was totally empty - we could've been making our way across the Sahara Desert, but without any sand dunes and with everything red. Every so often we passed crumbling stone ruins that gave the hint of an ancient civilisation long since destroyed, but they all lay empty and abandoned.

Eventually the ridge ended in a maze of deep canyons and steep hills. We hadn't been walking for long, it felt like only about an hour, but we'd covered a lot of ground. The sun slowly climbed higher as we travelled, so it had indeed been morning when we first arrived.

"Now which way?" I asked Scott. He and Sarah both glanced over the constantly-beeping device.

"Uh," started Scott, glancing down to the navigator and then back up to me. "That way," he said, pointing up towards a small dusty hill in the distance. "Should be just over that hill, I think."

"Not far at all," nodded Sarah.

Suddenly, gazing down over the terrain, Teresa froze. "Everyone get down," she said sharply.

We all immediately obeyed, dropping our blasters and falling flat to the dirt.

I turned to the White Ranger. "Teresa, what did you see?"

"That," she replied, pointing down to a hill far in the distance. We all saw what she had spotted - about fifty or so of Rita's putties, ambling up out of a valley in a loose procession. Leading them was a human-shaped figure, a woman, dressed in black, gold and red armour and carrying a long curving sword. After a few tense minutes, the entire troop crossed the plateau and disappeared down into another canyon, and we lost sight of them.

"That must've been Scorpina," said Sarah. "Wow, the picture back in the Command Centre didn't do her justice."

"I hope they didn't see us," said Scott.

I shook my head. "I doubt it. If they did, wouldn't they have attacked?"

"Do you think Rita's already found Torlus?" asked Aaron, turning to me.

I shook my head. "I don't know," I said. "If Torlus is as powerful as Zordon says, Rita probably would've led them herself. And if she isn't with them, I don't know where else she could be."

"I just hope we're not too late," said Teresa. "C'mon guys, we'd better keep moving."

With Rita leading the charge, the army of countless hundreds of putties had swarmed down over the red hills towards the wizard, sweeping across the circle like angry bees, surrounding Torlus on every side and immediately cutting off any path of escape. But as the putties began securing the wizard to one of the stone columns, Rita saw that the medallion, the source of Torlus's power, was not with him. Indeed, if it had been, the day would've turned out to be much more interesting...

The witch was just about to begin interrogating the mage when Scorpina arrived, leading her regiment of putties across the circle to where Goldar and Rita were standing.

"We searched the city," she said. "The medallion wasn't there. Also, they're here. I saw them while leading the putties here."

Rita turned away and looked out over the dozens of grey warriors around her. For a moment, Scorpina expected to be attacked again, so she raised her arms to defend himself. But Rita's reply surprised her.

"Excellent," she smiled. "Just one team, like I told you?"

Scorpina nodded. "Yes my queen. Just the Junior Team."

Rita's face lit up. "Perfect," she said. "I knew that one team would remain on Earth to battle my Crabitron. And Zordon sent the five Junior Rangers alone. Now, we get the chance to defeat them we didn't have last time." She raised her wand high above her. "Gluk!" she cried, her wand glowing with power, "I command you here now!"

In a flash of light, a puddle of mud flowed smoothly across the ground towards her, soon rising and molding itself into the mud creature that it was. The monster's body was unrecognisable, covered by a healthy amount of brown slime, and its head was only barely visible, two glowing red eyes peering out of the mud over jaws that were lined with jagged razor-sharp teeth.

"Gluk," she began, "the Junior Team of Power Rangers is here on Nerimos. They are heading in this direction - I want you to bring me their heads, attached to the rest of their bodies or not. Understand?"

Gluk nodded, although it was difficult to see through the mud, before turning and slithering away from the stone circle, a trail of slime marking the path he took.

Rita looked back to Goldar, noticing he was staring at her.

"Gluk?" he repeated slowly.

"What do you want?" she asked. "We're in a hurry, I don't have the time to think up a fancy name for every monster I send off."

She turned away from her two generals and walked back to where Torlus stood under guard.

"Torlus," she began, and the mage turned to her with a look of calm indifference, "my generals tell me the nearby settlement they searched was not only deserted, but also empty of gold medallions. I'm running out of patience old man. Tell me where the medallion is and it'll save us both a lot of pain."

Torlus shook his head with an unmistakable air of sad amusement. "So blinded by your own magnificence," he said softly, "you cannot conceive that there are some who will not bend to the will of you and your kind."

Rita sneered. "You should never have returned to this part of the galaxy, old man. Didn't you think we'd find you the second you stepped foot on this dead rock? I can't help but wonder what prompted you to risk so much?"

"There are forces at work shaping this Universe you couldn't hope to comprehend even if you knew of their existence," Torlus replied. Pausing, he smiled slightly. "And I doubt even the medallion could help you there."

"You're funny," Rita grunted. "I'll kill you."

The six Senior Rangers materialised on Nerimos in a blinding flash of light, touching down in a wide, empty valley between two red peaks. There was a brief moment of silence, broken only by the beep of the navigator Billy was holding, as everybody took in their surroundings.

"Billy," began Jason, "have we been on this planet before?"

"Negative."

"Hmm." The Red Ranger shook his head. "It just looks familiar."

Zac smiled. "Spot the old guys," he said. "We've been doing this for so long we're getting our planets confused."

Jason smiled, and turned to Billy. "So where are the Junior Team? Have you found them yet?"

"Probably off somewhere getting themselves killed, no doubt," said Tommy, glancing around the terrain.

Everybody looked at the Green Ranger.

"Way to show faith in the newbies, Tommy," said Zac.

Tommy shrugged. "I'm sorry," he said. "I know they're good, but I'm not sure I want to go into battle beside five eleven-year-olds who've been in barely one fight."

"I guess that's true," said Trini, "but Zordon wouldn't have okayed them if he thought they couldn't do it. It's not like we couldn't use their help, after all."

"And it isn't like we were a franchise anyway," added Zac. "Even if we were, the club's still pretty exclusive. And as for the rest, well, we'll just have to train them up. We learnt, didn't we? No big deal."

Kim nodded, placing a hand on Tommy's shoulder. "Have some faith in them, you might be totally surprised."

"I don't mean to interrupt," said Billy suddenly, looking up from his navigator and around the group, "but I've successfully located the Junior Team, and I think you should take a look at this..."

"Straight over these hills," said Scott, indicating the highest in a row of dusty slopes in the distance. "It's where the signal is coming from. That's where he'll be."

"You sure?" Aaron asked.

Scott nodded. "Positive. Well, sort of."

"Good enough for me," I said.

"But let's check it out first," said Teresa, glancing around the group. "No cavalry charge until we know what we're up against."

I nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Let's go."

But as we began to walk forward, Sarah tapped my arm. "Hold on a second," she said. "What's that down there?"

Down behind us, in the valley we'd just walked through, about six short creatures had surrounded a taller figure, hissing and grunting and steadily closing in as the figure tried to shoo them away. From a distance, the person appeared to be an old man, dressed in black robes and carrying a staff he was trying to defend himself with. I'm not sure what the creatures were - they were all pale yellow, some of the larger ones with orange and brown stripes. The best description I've got is they were moles the size of greyhounds, with sharp claws and mean sets of teeth.

"We have to go help," said Teresa. "It'll only take a few seconds, and we can't leave him."

"You're right," I nodded, gasping as one of the creatures leaped into the air and knocked the man to the ground before bouncing away.

"Part of the hero rap," added Aaron, as we began to jog back down the hill. "Helping little old ladies cross the street and feeding stray pets. Except for the fact that he's a little old man being attacked by stray pets."

"Do we even know how to fight those things off?" asked Sarah.

I reached down for my blaster. "I'm thinking we probably don't have to," I replied. "We can scare them away just fine..."

He scrambled back to his feet as the creatures growled and hissed around him. One leaped towards him, but while still in mid-air, he swung his staff towards it as hard as he could - an audible crack echoed through the valley and the beast flew backwards. The others froze for a second, and then attacked all at once. He struck two away and kicked another back, but the beasts rolled to their feet almost instantly.

"Fire!" came a voice, and five brightly-coloured laser beams smashed into the ground around him, sending up a shower of sparks and debris. None of the blasts actually hit any of the creatures, but the animals immediately froze on the spot and turned to see what had fired at them.

"Aim," I said, as the five of us stood in a line and balanced our blasters, "fire!" Again, nobody hit anything but the ground, but several blasts grazed the creatures, and the beasts whimpered and shrunk back.

"Aim, fire!" I shouted for the third time. This time, a blast actually hit one of the creatures' paws. It cried out in pain, and as one, the animals turned and fled the scene, whimpering and howling as they ran and soon disappearing over a ridge in the distance.

"Good work guys," I said.

"C'mon, he might need our help," said Teresa. We jogged down the slope towards him as he climbed to his feet, and Sarah picked up his staff and gave it back to him.

Dusting himself off, he turned to me and spoke. "Thank you," he said, in a soft and kindly voice. "I think I owe you my life."

"Don't mention it. But why were those things attacking you?" I asked. "And what were you doing out here in the middle of nowhere anyway?"

"They attack anyone too foolish to avoid their burrows," he replied. "And I was visiting my grandchildren in a neighbouring village."

"Village?" asked Aaron, looking around the barren landscape.

The man nodded. "Yes. They aren't visible, of course. The times have forced the people of the Ashkari plains to build underground, which protects us from the elements and supplies us with groundwater. And if you don't mind me asking," he continued, "what are you all doing out here?"

"We're looking for a man named Torlus," replied Sarah. "We think he might be in trouble."

"I thought so," replied the man. "Why else would you be on Nerimos, near the circle no less, if you weren't looking for him? I happen to know where Torlus resides, actually. Please, let me repay you and show you the way."

"Thanks," Teresa replied, "but that's okay, we know where we're going."

"Are you sure? You wouldn't want to get lost."

"It's kind of you, but we're fine, thank you," I replied. With that, we turned and began walking back up the hill, but before we'd gone five paces, the man was suddenly in front of us, almost literally materialising out of thin air.

"You don't want to go that way," he said, his voice low.

I nodded. "Yeah, look dude, go back and tell Rita the next time she sends a monster who likes giving directions, make him into a giant atlas or phone book or something."

The man grinned, his eyes growing darker. "Damn. It's my personality, isn't it? I could never get the hang of playing human..." and with that, his features began changing. Mud appeared from nowhere and began enveloping his clothes and body, and a thick layer of slime soon washed over his hair and beard. At the same time, his staff began melting down into his hand, and vanished soon after. Apart from two glowing red eyes and a mouth of wickedly sharp teeth, the monster now facing us looked like nothing more than an evil puddle of slime.

We immediately raised our fists into defensive stances. "Let me say ugh," said Scott. "Who are you?"

The monster took a step towards us. "Gluk's the name," he rumbled, "and slime happens to be my game."

"That is so old," Teresa replied.

But Gluk ignored her, and hesitating a second longer, raced towards us. It was amazing that something so bulky and slimy could move so fast - he reached us before we had a chance to defend ourselves, and immediately sent me stumbling with a slimy blow to the chest before spinning around, shooting blasts of mud out of his outstretched hands and throwing Teresa and Scott backwards in a shower of sparks. But when Gluk lunged for the Purple Ranger, Sarah nimbly leaped to safety, and while the monster was distracted, Aaron jumped forward with a high kick - his boot met Gluk's face, and although it was lost in a glob of slime, it hit something solid and knocked Gluk back.

"Great move," I said, as we regrouped.

"Yuck," he replied, shaking his foot. "I'll be cleaning my boot off for weeks."

Gluk soon recovered. It wasn't that he climbed or rolled to his feet, but merely that the bulk of his mass seemed to flow upwards and restored his shape. "Well played, but let's even the odds, shall we?" And he raised his arms. "Mud monsters, arise!"

From out of the ground suddenly rose about twelve more mud monsters, all resembling secondary versions of Gluk. Each one was shaped the same as their master, with globs of brown slime all over their bodies and glowing red eyes, but they were shorter and lacked some of his features.

"This was not in the job description," said Sarah.

"We can take these guys," I said, and with that, we all leapt at our attackers. Teresa dived over a mud-blast from the closest monster before rolling to her feet and pummeling his stomach with her fists. But with each hit, her fist was lost in globs of slime and mud. Dodging back around a wide swipe, she downed her opponent with a judo chop to his slimy neck, but not before her hands had become totally covered in slime.

"Yuck," she groaned, then immediately leaped to safety as two more monsters lurched towards her.

A few metres away, Aaron was dodging back and forth as two of the creatures attacked him simultaneously, swiping at the Aqua Ranger and showering him with mud blasts. Aaron stepped around a chest-high lunge, blocked a high swipe then backflipped over another mud blast. But as he landed, two stones on the ground beside him gave him an idea, and scooping them up, he launched them at the two monsters' heads - instead of bouncing off, the rocks stuck in place, held by the brown mud. With both opponents briefly blinded, Aaron raced forward, downed one with a solid blow to the gut before taking the other to the ground with a spinning roundhouse kick.

Scott was having a much harder time fighting his two opponents. Every kick and punch was avoided, while he had to continually dodge blasts of mud to even get close. As the monsters launched simultaneous high punches, Scott somersaulted back and up onto a boulder, then dived over the two monsters and down behind them. Grabbing hold of one with either hand, he smashed them against each other, hoping they'd knock each other out. But the monster on the left simply splattered, covering him in globs of slime, while the parts that didn't splatter were absorbed into the second, who now stood taller and growled ferociously.

"Not good," he said, as the monster attacked again.

Seeing that his monsters were taking care of the other four Rangers, Gluk charged towards me and sent me crashing with a mud blast. I instantly rolled back to my feet, and slashed my arms across Gluk's neck, removing large chunks of mud but nothing else.

"That's not very nice," he growled, slime drooling down his chin. He raised his right arm, and thinking he meant to attack, I somersaulted back quickly out of range. But the slimy arm began to mold itself into a long, thin blade, and before long, Gluk had a custom-made sword where his right hand should've been. Advancing towards me, he slashed the blade through the air.

"Power Sword!" I cried, as Gluk slashed his blade-arm down towards me. The weapon materialised in a flash of orange light, and I raised the sword and blocked Gluk's blade with a loud clang. He stepped back and swung low - I just managed to bat the blade away, but Gluk instantly recovered and went on the offensive, slashing again and again and forcing me back as I desperately tried to fend off the onslaught. Finally, as I blocked his blade he launched a mud-blast towards me with his free hand. It smashed into my helmet, blocking my visor - I quickly cleared the mud away but it was too late, a sudden blow to my shoulder forcing me to let go of the sword, and Gluk watched with a grin as the weapon fell to the ground.

He slashed again, slicing across my suit, and the blow threw me backwards into the side of a boulder. As I slumped to the ground, Gluk moved in for the kill. My mind was screaming at my body to move, to do something, anything, but still stunned from the attack, it wouldn't follow the command.

"It's been fun," the monster growled, and he and brought his blade-arm straight down towards me.