Chapter Four

"And Brendan, this is Teresa, Scott, Sarah and Aaron," I said, introducing each Ranger in turn.

Brendan smiled and waved. "Hi," he said. "It's great to meet you all."

"Welcome to Currimundi," smiled Sarah. "So how have your first couple of days been?"

"Pretty cool," replied Brendan. "My last school was in the middle of Brisbane, so yeah, like I told Peter, Currimundi's definitely an improvement." He paused. "Except for the whole almost being killed on my second day thing, of course."

Aaron nodded. "You first monster attack, huh?" he asked. "It'll stick with you."

"Yeah," Brendan replied. "I mean, I expected something like that, moving to Caloundra, but never so close. Does that happen a lot?"

"It's pretty regular," said Teresa, then smiled. "Don't worry. As scary as it sounds, you actually do get used to it."

Scott nodded. "The school has a monster drill we practice once a week or so. One time the monster attacked while we were having the drill," he added, with probably a little too much enthusiasm, "so it saved everyone a bit of time."

"I guess that would've been helpful," Brendan smiled, then shook his head. "You know the worst part? I just hated feeling so small, ironically enough," he added with a grin. "Like, all we were supposed to do was run and hide. I guess I'm just not much of a 'run and hide' kinda guy."

Sarah smiled. "I don't think anybody is," she said. "Anyway, what are you doing right now? We all usually head up to the Youth Centre after school and hang out. I think we've all got a karate lesson this afternoon..."

"Wait a sec..." he began, glancing around the group, "you guys are into martial arts?"

"Yeah," I replied. "We're good friends with all our teachers, and we've all got belts of varying colours. What about you, I mean, have you studied karate or anything?"

Brendan looked away. "Sort of," he replied with a smile. "When I lived down in Brisbane, my family was right next door to this tiny video shop that only had those old kung-fu flicks. My sister and I must've watched every single movie like a dozen times."

Teresa smiled. "And you really learnt discipline, self-control and inner strength from them?"

He shook his head. "No," he replied. "Mostly just how to kick butt."

I laughed. "Well, since we're on our way up there now, I don't suppose you'd like to come?"

"I can't," he replied. "I would actually love to hang out with you guys some more, but I've gotta get home and help my mother finish unpacking. It'll have to be tomorrow."

Scott nodded. "That's cool. It was great meeting you."

"You too," Brendan replied, and he turned to me. "Catch you tomorrow?"

"I'll be here," I replied.

Brendan grinned. "Awesome," and with a final wave, Brendan turned and wandered away.

Aaron looked over to me, as the five of us turned and left the empty sixth grade classroom. "He seems pretty cool," he said.

I nodded. "Yeah, he's great. And really funny too," I said. "Class isn't such a scary place anymore, you know? I'm too busy laughing most of the time," but all of a sudden, our communicators all chimed. Everyone automatically looked around to check we were alone, but it was about three thirty and the school had a tendency of emptying as quickly after three as possible.

I raised my communicator. "We're all here, go ahead."

"Peter," crackled Zordon's voice. "Alpha and I have just picked up an energy signal in the old abandoned rock quarry that looks to be the Doolagahl creature. We've already contacted Jason and the Senior Team, so if you could morph and meet up with them as soon as possible?"

"Not a problem," I replied. "We'll suit up and head out there."

"Excellent. I'll inform the Senior Rangers that you're on your way," and with that, the communicator fell silent.

Sarah glanced around the group. "Everybody set for round two?"

Scott shook his head. "I still haven't recovered from round one."

"Still beats homework though," said Aaron.

I nodded. "Can't argue there. C'mon guys," and we all reached for our back pockets. "It's morphin' time!"

"Parasaurolophus!"

"Rhamphorynchus!"

"Brontosaurus!"

"Velociraptor!"

"Stegosaurus!"

Caloundra's old rock quarry, affectionately called 'monster central' by the locals and officially listed as that on several tourist guides, lay west of the city connected to the highway by an overgrown dirt track. The countryside flashed under the five of us as we teleported to the scene, and finding the Seniors already waiting for us by the quarry entrance, we summoned our weapons and moved slowly down into the area, on the lookout for any signs of danger.

"So," I said to Jason, as we steadily moved towards the rock wall facing us, "this is a trap to lure us out, right?"

Jason smiled beneath his visor. "It couldn't be anything but," he replied. "Nicely picked."

I looked over to the Red Ranger. "I don't suppose you've got a plan to beat this thing yet?"

He shook his head. "Still working on it," and he turned to the rest of the team. "Keep your eyes open guys, he's around here somewhere."

On the other side of the Red Ranger, Zac nodded, about to point out how difficult it would be to miss a seven-foot pile of red fur when he glanced up to the top of the cliff and suddenly caught sight of the Doolagahl, standing by the edge of the rock wall and casting a long shadow down over the team.

"Heads up guys!" he cried. "Bad guy, twelve o'clock!"

Everybody instantly spun around, looking up and catching sight of the monster as he took a step towards the edge of the cliff.

"I have looked forward to this," the monster said, his deep voice booming down over us. And with that, he stepped off the edge of the cliff - sailing down to the ground, the Doolagahl landed with a crash that shook the quarry, the sound echoing off the walls of rock, before calmly continuing towards us, as if nothing had interrupted his stroll. "I underestimated you earlier," he growled, "but that will not happen again."

"You can do what you like," said Tommy. "But we did force you to back off this morning and we might just be able to beat you."

Aaron nodded. "Like you said, different battle. We know what we're up against this time."

The Doolagahl's lips curled into an evil predatory grin. "I know. That's why I brought a friend."

Without warning, lightning flashed down a few feet away from the beast, and as the smoke cloud cleared, there was suddenly a second figure standing in the quarry facing us down.

"Great," Tommy muttered. "Another one."

Kim nodded. "And it's even uglier."

The second monster looked to be nothing more than a serpent given human form. Almost as tall as the Doolagahl, the beast was covered in shiny copper scales with a pale yellow underbelly, while its three-clawed hands and two-toed feet all ended in sharp yellow claws. The monster glared at the team through narrow serpentine eyes under a smooth scalp, and the creature's forked tongue flashed between jagged yellow fangs. The creature stepped towards us, his movements jerky and sharp, and turning his head slowly to taste the air, he darted back to the side of the Doolagahl.

The snake turned back to the line of Rangers. "Thessse are our opponentsss?" it hissed.

The Doolagahl nodded. "Believe me, they're not much."

The snake grinned a horrible smile, and the gleam in his eyes reminded me exactly what it felt like to be a small defenseless woodland creature. "Then I will enjoy finding out." The beast hissed and charged towards the team, rapidly covering the distance between us.

The five of us turned and ran over to where the snake creature was approaching the Senior Team, only to come to a halt as the Doolagahl lightly dropped down in front of us. Summoning his Power Staff with a thought, Scott swung the staff high, but the beast wrapped his fist around the weapon, catching the other end when Scott swung again. The beast knocked the weapon aside and sent Scott flying with a low kick, throwing the staff away behind him. The beast turned as Teresa summoned her Power Whip, reached out and grabbed the White Ranger's wrist, the trailing end of the whip falling behind her. Teresa immediately struck out with her left fist, but the beast ducked under a high punch, dodged around a judo chop and blocked a chest-high swipe, before twisting her arm and throwing her away. Behind them, Sarah raised her mace and charged - the beast spun around and raised his arm, flooring the Purple Ranger with a blow to the neck.

The Doolagahl stepped towards Sarah when I dropped down between them, immediately slashing my sword for the beast. The Doolagahl ducked back out of danger as I continued forward, slashing my blade through the air after him. I raised the sword for a wide diagonal slash, but the beast spun around and caught my arm, before lifting me off the ground and throwing me away. Even as I crashed to the ground, Aaron charged forward and threw all his strength into a single right hook - the Doolagahl caught his fist without flinching, catching his other fist when the Aqua Ranger swung again. Something inside his glove made an unhealthy 'crack' noise, and Aaron grunted in pain as the Doolagahl steadily forced him down to his knees before grinning triumphantly and sweeping him away.

Across the quarry, the Senior Team was having no more success with their adversary. The snake creature had shot towards them like a brown bolt of lightning, slashing out the Rangers as he approached. Billy, the closest Ranger, ducked under the beast's claws and swung high with his lance, but the snake dodged the weapon, ducking low and circling the Blue Ranger. Billy turned to follow after him but the snake was too fast, coming back around and carving his claws up across the Blue Ranger's chest, sending his opponent crashing in a cloud of sparks. The beast spun around as Kimberly dropped down before him, and ducked back out of danger as she slashed with her bow. Following after the creature, Kim leaped up and kicked forward, but the snake spun around to the side and lashed out at her as she landed - Kim blocked a high swipe, jumped over the beast's tail and aimed a judo chop to the creature's stomach, but the beast caught her wrist and struck her back with a high kick.

Turning to face the rest of the team, the beast came face-to-face with the Black Ranger, aiming the barrel of his axe towards the creature.

"So let's see how fast you really are," he said.

But the creature hissed in fury, its eyes narrowing. "Traitor!" it cried, and leaped towards him. Zac pulled the trigger but the beast was already in front of him. He swung his axe towards the creature, but the beast spun under the blade, caught his wrist and sent him stumbling backwards with a blow to the chest. Even as Zac fell, the three remaining Rangers closed in around the creature - moving almost too fast to follow, the snake dodged a slice from Jason's sword, blocked both of Trini's daggers and lashed out at Tommy's helmet, forcing the Green Ranger back. Jason slashed his blade for the creature while the beast's attention was on Tommy, but the snake spun around and blocked the blow, sending him crashing with a high kick before spinning backwards through the air and dropping Tommy with a heel to the chest. Finding its footing, the creature raced back towards Trini - the Yellow Ranger immediately somersaulted to safety as the creature raked his claws through the air where she'd been standing a second ago.

All eleven Rangers regrouped as the two monsters stood watching us back away.

"You know," said Zac, "maybe somebody should've told them that we're the good guys."

Teresa nodded, and glanced across to Jason and I. "Yeah, this isn't going so well," she said. "Any ideas?"

Across from us, the two monsters sneered. "Watch them cower in terror," said the Doolagahl. "To think, these are this city's great defenders."

The snake's lips curled back into an evil grin. "Yesss," it hissed. "Now I think it isss time to show them jussst who they're dealing with."

The Doolagahl nodded, and turned back to us. "Did you not wonder why you were lured to this particular place?" the beast sneered, before holding his arms wide and raising his voice. "Kwinkan, arise!"

Shadow fell across the quarry, and I glanced up as the sky suddenly turned dark. "Great," I said, tightening my grip on my sword. "What now?"

"You shouldn't have asked," said Sarah - on every side, whispy black shapes had begun to emerge from the rocks of the quarry, and the entire cliff face before us now looked to be almost alive, as the dark things flowed down across the rocks towards us, all fighting to free themselves from some ancient entanglement. The shapes seemed to be nothing but listless, formless shadows that rose around us, flowing into each other with the impression of solid mass but moving as if weightless, silent but for a soft malevolent murmur. It was as if we were surrounded by a steadily tightening circle of black, and as the team all backed together to form a tight defensive circle, the shadow creatures closed in.

"Well," said Aaron, glancing back to the group. "At least we know why the quarry was abandoned."

Watching the black circle of shadow encircle the team, the Doolagahl grinned wickedly. "Kwinkan," he cried, "tear them apart!"

Like nothing more than a tidal wave of shadow, the creatures surged towards us. On either side, I saw the Rangers disappear into the rolling black mass, and I raised my sword as two distinct shapes flowed free and roared towards me - I slashed my sword furiously through the air as they approached, but while the blade cleaved through one of the creatures, it did nothing. I felt a solid blow to my ribs and another to my shoulder, and I staggered back in a blaze of sparks. Still dazed, I spun to the side, slashing out at anything that moved, but while the blade carved through several - they were packed together so tightly I couldn't have missed - they ignored me, struck back and sent me to the ground. It was literally like trying to fight a shadow.

A few metres away, Teresa had charged her whip as the creatures surrounded her, and cracking the shimmering weapon back and forth, was able to at least keep the creatures a short distance away. Across from the White Ranger, Billy and Trini were slashing at anything that came within striking range, while Kim was launching volley after volley of arrows into the oncoming tide, but shapeless and immaterial, the shadows ignored the Rangers' weapons and continued to land very solid blows with every attack.

Fighting back to back, Jason and Zac soon found that actually fighting the creatures was impossible - the best they could manage was to dodge and avoid any incoming shadows. Zac leaped high over a shadowy swipe, sending a blast of energy into the mass of shadows and forcing them back. "You get the feeling we should've called in sick today?"

Jason nodded, dodging incoming shadows and dropping low as something dark swept over his head. "Wouldn't have been a bad idea," he grunted, swinging his Power Sword at opponent after opponent, all with little effect, and he was sent flying backwards in a shower of sparks. The Red Ranger rolled to his feet and raised his sword as the shadows swarmed around him. There had to be something, some way of fighting these things. Something to hit. He looked up to the two monsters in the distance, and nodded. If they were controlling this army, then that was a good place to start.

Jason turned, readying himself to leap past the shadows and attack the two monsters - when suddenly the shadows began pulling back. Like water running out of a basin, an unseen force pulled the tide of shadows away from the team, and the creatures had soon withdrawn beyond the Doolagahl and the snake creature and vanished back into the cliff face, leaving the quarry empty.

With the shadows gone, everybody regrouped, bruised and beaten but at least still in one piece.

Leaning on my sword, I glanced over to the Junior Team. "You guys okay?"

Teresa nodded. "Yeah," she replied, "but what was that about?

Panting from the battle, Aaron shrugged. "At least they're gone," he puffed. "Let's not ask why."

"For now at least," boomed the Doolagahl, as he and the snake creature approached.

Jason raised his sword. "You pulled back, which means you want something," he said. "No more games."

The snake creature smiled. "Clever," it hissed. "We are impressssed."

"Although we do not agree," the Doolagahl growled, "we have been told to spare you this afternoon, to show you the mercy your people never showed ours. You defend their city, and they will listen to you before they listen to us." He glanced over to his reptilian companion and continued. "By tomorrow morning, you tribe must be gone, the city emptied and the land returned to its rightful inhabitants."

"And if it isn't?" asked Tommy.

The Doolagahl grinned. "Then we will wipe this land clean ourselves. You have seen our power, so do not treat this as an empty threat. The choice is yours - but defy us and I promise you that we will bury you." And with that, the two monsters turned to each other, and in a flash of lightning, vanished from the scene.

"The Kwinkan," boomed Zordon, once we'd all teleported back to the Command Centre to recover from our defeat, "an army of, essentially, sentient shadows. The Aboriginal peoples believed them to be the physical embodiment of evil, a manifestation of all man's crimes. They have no shape or form, and were said to hide within rocks awaiting prey."

"Which is why the Doolagahl lured us to the quarry," said Sarah.

"Neither shape nor form," repeated Jason, then looked up to Zordon. "In other words, badguys we can't actually fight?"

Zordon nodded. "The Kwinkan cannot be fought, at least not physically," he said. "This is very ancient, very powerful magic."

Tommy looked up to the sage. "But what about the snake? At least him we could fight." He paused. "Sort of."

"The creature is a Liru," Zordon replied. "In the Dreamtime, Australia belonged to the animal tribes, and the Liru were a race of poisonous snake warriors. One particular legend tells of a great battle fought at Uluru, where the Kuniya, the Rock Python people, were ambushed and attacked by the Liru. But according to the story, the Liru were defeated and retreated to the east."

Zac nodded. "I guess this one made it all the way to the coast."

Billy looked around. "But those are all just mythological tales, legends. There can't be any actual historical truth to them."

"Our opponents are drawing inspiration from them, legend or not," replied Zordon.

I glanced over to the Blue Ranger. "And even so, it's our only lead."

"So what now?" asked Kimberly softly. "We can't hand over the city, but if we don't they're gonna totally flatten us. Again. We've gotten stomped twice so far, and now we're up against badguys we can't even fight." Kim paused, running a hand through her hair. "So what can we do?"

Aaron shrugged. "Try to come up with something by the morning, right?"

"But we already have something," said Jason, and everybody turned to him. "The ultimatum. They gave us time, after completely wiping us out. If Rita was running this show, we wouldn't have made it out of that quarry. You guys heard what the Doolagahl said, they were under orders to hold back."

"My thoughts exactly," said Zordon. "We cannot rule out Rita's involvement, but there is another power at work here that has not yet revealed itself."

"So that's what we can use?" asked Trini.

Jason nodded. "If there is somebody else pulling the strings here, we just have to find them. Who knows? We might be able to talk with them, reason with them." He paused. "If worse comes to worse, we can hit them."

Scott glanced around the group, and turned to Zac. "But that's not all," he said, suddenly aware of his voice as everybody turned to him. "Remember how... the, uh..." He shook his head, and sank back against the control panel. "Never mind."

"Scott?" I asked.

He waved his hand, his gaze downcast. "Nothing. Just thinking aloud."

Standing beside her brother, Teresa's brow lowered, but she shook her head and looked up to Zordon. "Like Kim said, what now? There's gotta be something we can do, even up against an army of shadows."

"For the moment," Zordon began, "the only thing you can do is return home, get some rest and recover from the battle today. We will print out all the information we have on the Doolagahl, the Liru and the Kwinkan, and Alpha and I will continue to search through the archives. Rest assured Rangers, a solution will present itself."

"Last minute miracle kind of thing?" sighed Tommy, as Alpha began handing print-outs to everyone.

Zordon smiled and continued. "Take heart Rangers. This situation looks dire, but times such as these are rarely as bleak as they appear. Do not give up hope."

Trini nodded. "Thanks Zordon," she said.

Jason nodded. "C'mon guys, let's head home," and we all reached down for our communicators, lightly tapped the top button and disappeared in eleven bright flashes of light, leaving Zordon and Alpha alone in the Central Chamber. But a second after we'd disappeared, Zordon looked down to Alpha.

"Alpha," he began, "I believe the time has come. The Rangers see this as our darkest hour, so some much-needed light would be appreciated."

"But, ayeyiyi Zordon..."

The sage shook his head. "I understand your reservations Alpha, but we no longer have a choice. The Kwinkan pose a unique problem, but we already have the solution. Alpha, if you could go and get the twelfth Power Coin." Zordon paused, and nodded. "We have work to do."

"Okay," said Jason, brushing hair out of his eyes, "I see where you're going wrong. You need to keep your arm up more, and angle your sword more like this, see?" I nodded vaguely, glancing around the almost-empty Youth Centre, and Jason smiled. "Earth to Pete, I think I'm losin' ya."

Hearing my name I looked back to Jason, but glancing from his expression down to the sword he was holding, I realised I'd just missed something important. "Sorry," I said quickly. "I was just... sorry."

"That's cool," he said with a small smile, then nodded over to where our backpacks sat against the wall. "Let's take a break anyway."

We wandered over to the side of the room, turned to face the rest of the Youth Centre and sat down, Jason pulling a water bottle free of his backpack. Outside, the sky was still grey and overcast. The sun had made a valiant effort but looked to have given up, and the Youth Centre was dark, silent and empty - it was like the building had picked up on the despondent feelings of the people inside. Trini and Zac sat at one of the tables overlooking the training area and a couple of kids were over by the pinball machines, but apart from them the place was deserted.

I watched Ernie wiping down the Juice bar, and Jason turned to me. "You know, including the two of us, there's at least a dozen people trying to figure this out, right now."

I turned to him. "You really think we can beat this?"

"You think we can't?"

"But what if we can't?" I asked. "Okay we can't give up, but what happens if tomorrow gets here and we're still battin' zero? What do we do then?"

"Then we don't fall until we've tried absolutely everything," Jason nodded. "Up to and including strangling them with our bare hands if we have to."

I shook my head, and looked away. "How do you do it man? How do you always know what to do? I'm supposed to be the leader of the Junior Team, right? So far the only things I've done is watch the team get beaten and need to be rescued a lot."

"Hey, don't sweat it," Jason replied. "You guys have only been doing this for two weeks. I bluffed my way through a lot of our early victories as well. Get some wins under your belt and this'll all get easier, I promise. I mean, it took us all a while, but we eventually found our feet. You will too. Orange?" he asked, reaching into his bag.

"No thanks, I'm more of an apple fan," I replied. "I just don't know where I fit into the team, that's all."

Jason nodded. "Well, before I forget, I just wanted to say that was good work this morning, using the zords to scare away that flock of birds. That was really awesome."

"Thanks. It was more Aaron's idea than mine, we just didn't know what else to do." I paused, and smiled. "Brendan sure picked a great time to move to the coast."

"Is he the new kid in your class?" Jason asked. "I heard Teresa and Scott talking about him before."

I nodded. "Yeah, he's really cool. He said he learnt martial arts from watching old kung-fu movies."

Jason laughed. "I love those old films," he smiled. "It's a little unorthodox, but I guess if it works it works. You'll have to introduce him to the group."

Across the Youth Centre, Ernie rounded the counter with a tray of drinks, heading for Zac and Trini.

"Geez," he said, sliding the tray onto the table. "You guys are all down today."

"We've just got a lot to think about," said Zac. "Thanks dude."

"No prob," Ernie smiled. "You want anything else, gimme a yell," and he turned and went back to the counter.

Zac glanced down to the history books in front of him. "Man," he said, shaking his head. "I'm so freaked out about everything else I must've done three hundred words of my history assignment without even thinking about it."

Trini smiled. "At least that's something we're making headway with."

"For all the good it'll do," Zac replied, throwing the book aside. "I know what they're all expecting."

"But does that really matter?" Trini asked. "This history essay isn't about what everyone else wants you to write, this is about your perspectives and what you want to say. You don't have to be someone else for anybody, Zac." She paused. "We like you too much the way you are."

Zac grinned, looking away. "Thanks."

"Well, you know, it's what I'm here for," she replied with a smile.

"Hey guys," said Jason, as the two of us made our way up from the training area and joined them around the table. "Any progress?"

"Well, not really," said Zac, "but for what it's worth I've finally got an angle for my history assignment."

Jason nodded. "That's something," he said. "So all we've got to do now is figure out how to save the city from something we don't know and badguys we can't physically fight, all by tomorrow morning."

"Not to mention," I added, "figure out who's behind all this anyway."

Trini nodded, and glanced to her watch. "We've still got about twelve hours guys, we shouldn't give up yet."

Across the table, Zac glanced down to his history textbook, thinking about the team's two earlier battles, when all of a sudden something went click in the back of his mind, a memory long-since shelved suddenly resurfacing. Quickly shoving his books into his backpack, the Black Ranger pushed back his chair and stood up.

"Hey, I just remembered something," he said. "I'm not sure if it'll be any help, but I gotta go track somebody down. I'll catch you guys later."

Jason nodded. "Good luck," he said, and Zac jogged away and left the Youth Centre.

"Grandpa?" asked Zac, knocking lightly on the door and listening for any sounds from within. His grandmother had said to just go straight in, but Grandpa Taylor's study had always been seriously off-limits when Zac and his cousins had been growing up, and even now he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Zachary?" came the reply from the other side of the door. "Zachary, is that you? Come in."

Zac smiled, and pushed the door open to see Grandpa Taylor sitting in the corner by the window, his white smile flashing out of the shadows. "Hey Grandpa," he said.

"It's wonderful to see you Zachary," the elder Taylor smiled, then added in a quiet voice. "I'm glad you made it past your grandmother."

Zac sat down on a footstool beside his grandfather's chair and grinned. "She made me promise to bring my folks around for breakfast before she let me in the door."

Grandpa Taylor chuckled. "That's my Doris," he replied. "So what brings you here on this grey and miserable night?"

Zac leaned forward. "I realise I don't see you often, but I need to ask for your help on something."

"Oh, well, I'd be happy to help if I could. What did you need?"

"You remember how you took us all camping, years back when I was like seven or eight?" His grandfather glanced out the window for a second, then nodded and turned back. "Well, remember how we all sat around the campfire that night, me and Curtis and all the other kids, and you told us all those stories about the Dreamtime? I was wondering if I could hear them again, if that was okay."

Grandpa Taylor sat back, smiling. "Certainly. But aren't you a bit old for those stories now? By this stage normally you'd be the one telling them."

Zac shook his head. "I always figured those stories were important, I just never realised how important until a couple of hours ago. Do you remember them all?"

His grandfather leaned forward, something flashing in his eyes. "Some things, Zachary, are such a part of us that they do not need to be kept in our memory." Grandpa Taylor sat back and glanced around the room. "We'll have to make do with hot chocolate instead of a campfire, but I think we'll get by. Is there anything in particular you wanted to hear?"

Zac nodded. "Yeah," he began, "as a matter of fact, there is."