POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 5: Prodigy
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: Thanks for the reviews thus far. Keep 'em coming.

---

Two months have passed since space pirate Divatox leads an army to attack the Power Chamber after discovering its location. Despite valiant efforts by the Turbo Rangers led by T.J. Johnson, Divatox succeeded in destroying the Power Chamber and stripping the Turbo Rangers of their powers. Just as she was about lay claim to planet Earth, she is sent away by a messenger of Dark Specter to attend a gathering to celebrate the capture of Zordon. With Divatox gone, the Turbo Rangers decide to utilize a NASADA space shuttle to pursue her and hopefully save Zordon. Justin Stewart, Blue Turbo Ranger, did not join them because he wants to stay with his dad.

Today, Justin is focused on school, part-time karate classes, and the occasional hang-out with his friends, but while he hasn't regretted the decision he made, he still longs for the thrill of being a Power Ranger. He had never felt so helpless and useless before as he did now.

I can't be here while they're out there, he thought, I've got to do something.

Waiting until the night hours, Justin slipped on a jacket and crawled out of his bedroom window, being careful as to not make a sound. Sleeping down the nearby tree, Justin ran from home as quickly as he could.

---

The small, compact Aquitian air fighter landed about three miles from the smoke clouds forming the mountain base that used to house an alien structure. Settling on the ground as the engines caused dust to be blown, the fighter powers down and the cockpit slowly opened up. Out crawled William Cranston, the former Blue Ranger and one of Zordon's first chosen.

All he wanted was a walk to the former location of the Power Chamber, recently destroyed. At first, he was in a bit of shock as he absorbed his surroundings, but soon it became a sense of expectancy and disappointment. In his heart, he knew that those rookies, regardless of how good they were, wouldn't be able to handle the onslaught. Perhaps if...

Billy's thoughts were interrupted as he heard the sounds of small rocks falling nearby, followed by audibly heavy breathing. Not one to leave home unprepared, Billy pulled out a palm-sized blaster weapon from his inner jacket pocket, holding it firmly in his hands as he searched for the source of the noise. When he heard feet shuffling, he quickly twisted his body fluidly and fired a laser burst from the direction the shuffling came from. The shuffling stopped and Billy got a half-good look at his 'leech.'

"Don't move!" Billy called out, pointing the blaster at the intruder who was emerging from some rubble.

"Don't shoot!" the person cried, "I'm innocent!"

The intruder, a boy no more than twelve years of age, raised his hands to cover his face, trying to hide either the sweats of fear or the embarrassed grin on his face. Billy, managing a sigh of relief and disappointment, lowered his weapon away from the boy, but keeping it firmly in his hand. Despite having never met the kid, he was quite familiar with him.

"Shouldn't you be in bed, Justin?" he grimaced, "Even your status as a former Power Ranger doesn't change that."

Justin Stewart, child genius and former Blue Turbo Ranger, stepped forward. "Aren't you supposed to be on some alien planet?"

Finally the original Blue Ranger nodded. "That joke's so last year, kid."

He put away the blaster and approached the boy, extending his hand as he went along. Justin accepted it and shook it firmly, which almost surprised Billy, but not by much. For a minute, they both stood there without uttering a sudden word. Although Justin was star-struck in meeting a former Ranger, let alone an original Power Ranger, Billy felt rather awkward. Whether it was because this kid was also a former Ranger or because he wanted to get this kid to go away without hurting his feelings, he wasn't quite sure.

Justin broke the silence. "Sorry your homecoming didn't turn out as much as you hoped."

Billy merely shrugged. "I haven't been here in over a year." he said, "You would think that the Power Chamber would have been more durable and more protected than the Command Center, considering it's underground." Billy twitched slightly in realization. "I forgot, the new Chamber replaced the old command space when we upgraded it."

Justin stood there as Billy surveyed the wreckage. In the night air, he couldn't make out the facial expressions of this veteran Ranger, who he had heard many stories about from his time with Tommy. Out of all of the old Rangers, Billy had been the most reclusive, not having been seen in some time.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Billy asked, not facing Justin.

Justin didn't hesitate. "I was looking for ways to help T.J. and the others."

"A lot of help that's going to do you searching in rubble." Billy said coolly.

"I know." the former Turbo Ranger replied, "But I remember Tommy mentioning a secret passageway he and the others uncovered shortly after the old Command Center blew up."

"Oh yeah. When we got the Zeo Crystal." Billy said, who noticed a look of surprise on the young Justin's face. "I was there."

"Oh" was all Justin could muster.

"Like I said," Billy said, "a lot of help that's going to do you searching in rubble. The passageway can be only be accessed through here with a key item, but you don't have one, do you?"

Justin shook his head.

"So we need to get there through the side entrance in the mountains." Billy said. "It leads to a network of tunnels underground. We might be able to uncover something."

"Do you remember where?"

Billy nodded. "I'm pretty sure."

Billy turned to walk away from the rubble, but stopped and quickly glanced back to Justin, who was feeling somewhat dejected as he sulked. It went against his better judgment, but it was worth a shot.

"I'm just going to check if it's possible to get in through another entrance." Billy said, "Though I would rather you've returned home and get some sleep, I guess you could tag along."

Justin's eyes lit up as he ran towards Billy, who reluctantly waited before moving on. After a good half-hour of trekking through the pillars and rock formations of the desert, the two Rangers managed to find a strange rock formation where a cave entrance situated.

"What?"

"See that cave over there, Justin? That's the hidden entrance to the underground alcove." Billy paused for a moment as he noticed the younger Ranger's bewildered expression upon mention of the alcove. Smiling, he explained, "The alcove is an auxiliary area that contains many parts for the Command structure, such as replacement consoles, Alpha body parts, and the like. But it contains its own power source so it's essentially an emergency back-up chamber."

Justin stared at the older Ranger, dumbfounded. "I thought the Power Chamber was the 'back-up' command center."

"True, but it was only ONE back-up chamber." Billy said as the two began towards the cave, "In reality, when Zordon first made his way to Earth, he had established four command chambers in this perimeter, including the main Command Center, the Power Chamber, and the underground alcove. The alcove isn't essentially as well equipped as the others, but it has what I need to

The two made their way down the slope as Billy continued.

"Billy," Justin spoke in realization, "you said there were four chambers. What about the fourth one?"

"Admittingly, I have very little information on it." Billy explained, "Any files concerning the fourth chamber were classified. Zordon sealed the information concerned the forth chamber to protect its existence. Not even Alpha has access to the files; they're part of a locked memory cache that is nigh impossible for me to access."

Justin huffed. "Impossible for you? Yeah, right."

Billy shrugged. "Hey. Even we smart guys get stuck sometimes."

The two eventually made their way to the cave entryway, but were dumbstruck when they noticed the pile of rocks that blocked the way. Billy motioned his hand at Justin for him to stand clear and Justin took a couple steps back as Billy began tossing aside stones. However, after tossing five stones, Billy stopped, seeing that there was no purpose.

"It's blocked." Billy declared dejectedly, "We can't get it."

Justin wanted to reply, but didn't. He just lowered his head.

Billy noticed the kid's disappointment and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Justin. We'll find a way in eventually, but not today."

"There you are!" a voice from behind called out.

"Rocky?" Justin assumed, "Is that you?"

Indeed, Rocky DeSantos emerged from the blackness of the night. His frown grew wider when he noticed his 12-year old replacement. "Justin?!"

"Wow," Billy mused, "A meeting of former Blue Rangers. How coincidental."

Rocky ignored Billy's quip and gave out a relieved sigh. "I'm so glad I found you, man. For a second, I thought you had disappeared too."

Billy smile faded. "Did you hear anything from Tommy?"

Rocky shook his head. "No word. I'm getting the feeling that Tommy doesn't want to be noticed."

"He must be taking this Kat thing pretty hard." he said, referring to the former Pink Zeo Ranger, who had mysteriously disappeared some time ago. "I can understand that he'd be gone for a few weeks, but two months? Without any indication or referral to any of us?" He tilted his head slightly downward. "This is more like me than it is Tommy."

"Yeah, but we know where you are most of the time." Rocky chimed in, "Anyway, Adam is still trying to reach the rookie Rangers with your gizmo."

"What about Jason?" Billy inquired, "How's he doing?"

"He's depressed somewhat, but he'll live," Rocky said, "By the way, Kimberly told us what you were planning to do. This Project Prodigy thing is important if things start to go real bad."

Billy nodded. "Yeah, well. Project Prodigy isn't going to be in effect anytime soon because we can't get through the damned entryway." He furthered his frustration by kicking a random rock off the pile, which didn't hit anything but the ground.

"Our old power coins, maybe?" Rocky suggested, "It should be at full charge by now and chances are you could pull off a morph."

Billy shot his idea down with a glare. "The coin has unique properties that I'm just discovering and none of us have a functioning power morpher. Besides, the rocks are wedged in a way that you'll need a cannon to blast it all away."

"What about the Turbo RAM?" Rocky suggested to Justin, but Justin shook his head.

"No Turbo powers, no Turbo RAM." Justin said. A similar idea sprung to mind. "What about the old Power Cannon? It's still good enough and you don't need to be in a Ranger state to use because of the recent changes done."

Billy looked at Justin for a moment. "Why were you a Ranger again?"

"Last minute replacement." Justin admitted.

Billy merely awed. "Could have fooled me." The response earned a wide grin from Justin.

Rocky seemed even more confused than before. "Since when didn't you need a morphed state to summon the cannon?"

Billy scratched his head. "Long horrible process that I'd rather not be reliving again. I've brought it home, tweaked it, and made it so it could be used by anyone that needed it. It's got considerable power that still makes it a viable weapon despite its age. The problem is I still have some stuff to fix up, looking to be a projected two, maybe three months more work before we can even test the stupid thing." Billy stared at Justin for a moment. "Now that I think about it, I haven't a clue as to how you knew about those changes. I didn't tell anybody."

Justin shrugged as his face turned pink in embarrassment.

"Three months?" Rocky said, concerned, "Could we wait that long?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure." Billy said, "No one knows that the alcove exists because it looks like a regular storage room."

Rocky smiled. He realized it now.

"So now what?" Justin asked.

Billy shrugged. "Now we go home and get on with our lives. Nothing we can do at the moment but let the cycle of things run through..."

---

The beach was uncharacteristically quiet as far as Scorpina knew, but it was night and most people would not be spending time at the beach around this time. For the past month she had made some searches throughout the state with little success, until two gray masses caught her eye. She slowly travesed the sands towards the two and immediately recognized their forms: it was two of Rita's old putties, laying there unconsciously. In each putty's hand was a circular clay object with five blinking lights.

"Two putties holding two badges of darkness." Scorpina observed, smiling, "Looks like I found them."

Scorpina picked up the two putties and slung them over each of her shoulders. Soon enough, she teleported back to the interior of the clone's ship, who was working with some documents and hadn't noticed her until she had coughed. When the clone turned to see her and saw the two putties, he smiled.

"You've found them." the clone mused, "Put them in the back so I can work on them later."

Scorpina brought the two unconscious putties to the back room as the clone produced a thin digital pad. A minute later, Scorpina emerged from the backroom of the ship as the clone turned to face her.

"This should be sufficient for the initial payment." he said as he handed her the pad. "In credits, as you said you wanted."

"Good for the moment," she said, making the pad disappear with a flash of golden light, "but this last job on your list will be... time consuming."

The clone nodded. "I trust you. Take as long as you need, but get it done."

Scorpina nodded and vanished in gold light. The clone stared into the space she once stood in for a moment before standing up and walking to the pilot's seat. He inserted a set of co-ordinates that took him to the moon.

---

A year of events is a long time for Zedd to have missed, but in his personal chambers, through his special database which is constantly updated with recent news, was able to learn what has happened during his personal hiatus. Curious as if Divatox's claims of destroying the Rangers were true despite the presence of news, he looked for the appropriate articles that included visual references of the five Turbo Rangers involved in the Power Chamber's demise. He grinned behind his mask when he saw five faces he hardly recognized, knowing that these aren't Rangers; they were amateurs.

With that being completed, Zedd walked to his chamber of command and approached the balcony to take one long look at Earth, with his telescopic vision. He then focused his vision towards central-Angel Grove, where the new Rangers were fighting two monsters. From all indications, their Megazord was taking a beating badly. Zedd felt a presence behind him for a moment and slowly turned to see a human male wearing a heavy trenchcoat, with long graying hair and a beard. The fleshman knew that despite his initial appearance, this was not the man he had declared a personal war on so long ago.

"Surprised to see me, Zedd?" the clone asked.

"I know all about your special genes, fake." Zedd stated bluntly, "Although I've got to admit, you showing up here takes real guts. But I want you gone from here now."

The clone shook his head, walking towards the balcony. "Not until we've talked."

"About what?"

"An alliance."

Zedd shook his head in disbelief. "With you?"

The clone nodded, his eyes showing no signs of deceit. Zedd stared at this mirror image of his arch-rival much more closely and realized he was serious on this alliance. He didn't understand the reasoning behind this move, but had to admit this was

"So you want to be my... partner." Zedd said, to which the clone nodded again, "What is the point of this?"

Now was the time for the clone to pitch the idea. "You and I both have a common goal, Zedd. Both our common goals involve a certain retired Power Ranger from which I was created. It's clear to me that we both want him dead so our common desires are gained."

"What common desire?" Zedd scoffed.

"Kill Thomas Oliver and I will gain a right of living. I will not have to worry about living in shadows or in hiding, because only one of us is alive." He leaned closer to Zedd as he spoke the following words in a deep voice, "Kill Thomas Oliver and you get to remove that white stain on your cursed soul. You will not be seen by the masses as a joke, a has-been... a merciful coward."

Zedd took angered steps towards the clone to the point they were nose to iron mask. Zedd's body began to glow brightly as did his throne room, something that had not happened.

"Touched a nerve, have I?" the clone asked, a smirk creeping on his face, "I guess it must hurt your ego to have to remember that time you had him down for the kill and you let him go. It must be painful that you didn't have the balls to kill your mortal enemy, but some bimbo space pirate doesn't hesitate to kill off a bunch of kids."

"Which she failed to do so," Zedd interrupted, "Be truthful."

The clone's grin grew wider. "What do you say, Zedd? Join me and we'll see to it the white stain on your soul is removed by destroying the very source of our emotional anguish." He soon extended his hand towards Zedd. "Join me and reclaim your rightful title as the emperor of all you seek."

Zedd thought long and hard for a moment. On the one hand, he would gain an ally who shared as much animosity as he does for the former Green, White, and Red Ranger. An ally who would know all his secrets and vulnerabilities. An ally like that, he couldn't find anywhere else. But on the other than, could he really trust this clone, who was a pale imitation of his mortal enemy? In the end, it wouldn't matter, because there is no doubt the clone doesn't trust Zedd, yet he is offering the proposal of an alliance.

After a long time of thought and some hesitation, Zedd accepted the clone's hand.

An alliance was formed.

To be continued...