Chapter Six

Nobody moved, nobody spoke, nobody could even breath at the sight of millions of tonnes of solid granite moving through the air like a cloud soaring on a gentle breeze. Everyone suddenly fell into shadow as the mountain briefly passed in front of the sun, before continuing down towards the distant coast.

Jason took a step back in shock, totally at a loss. He's gonna wipe out the entire city. He turned to the rest of the team, his mind racing, and a desperate plan came together.

"Brendan, Zac!" he shouted. "Get up onto that mountain, find Tibrogargan and stop him!"

Brendan looked to the Black Ranger uncertainly, but Zac grabbed the younger Ranger's shoulder and the two raced away.

Jason turned to me. "Peter, form your Megazord and follow Tibrogargan into the city. If Brendan and Zac can't do it, you'll have to save Caloundra."

"But is the Megazord strong enough to hold up a mountain?" I asked.

Jason hoped the conviction in his voice would be enough. "It has to be. Go!"

I nodded, and turned to the four other Junior Rangers. "C'mon guys," I said, "let's move!" And in that split-second, with everyone staring at me in helpless shock, for the first time I felt like the team's leader - coming up with an idea was easy, but making it work would be something else entirely. "We need dinozord power, now!"

Far to the west in an out-of-the-way place, the ground began to shake, and as the Earth split apart, our five dinozords rose to the surface in a blaze of fire and smoke, thundering across the countryside towards us. The orange Stegozord led the charge, shaking the ground with every titanic step, while the Velociraptor and Brontozord followed close behind. Behind them was the massive Parazord, its aqua armour shining in the morning sun, while the purple Rhamphorynchus zord cruised through the sky high above.

The zords reached the field and continued past us towards the city, and the five of us reached for our morphers and shot into the air as five streaks of energy. The zords flashed past beneath us, and we shot down towards them, materialising in our cockpits a few seconds later.

"Okay guys," I began, as I was pushed forward to the control panel, "let's bring 'em together!"

The Stegozord and Brontozord immediately transformed, their legs and tails folding against their bodies as they both slowed to connect with the Parazord, Aaron's zord immediately standing upright and continuing to pursue the mountain. A second later, the Velociraptor had leaped into the air and split in half, and as the Rhamphorynchus dropped down out of the sky, both zords combined with the Parazord. Now the Megazord had arms and a chest shield, the five of us were automatically teleported into the control room - with yellow eyes flashing under a three-tiered crownpiece, the Megazord was fully formed, continuing to power into the city and gaining ground on Tibrogargan with every step.

Even as the zords thundered towards them, Zac and Brendan raced down after the mountain.

Zac glanced up and across to the younger Ranger. "Can you teleport? Do you know how to?"

Brendan nodded. "I, uh, guess so. I think."

The Black Ranger nodded. "Then grab on," he replied, grabbing Brendan's arm and putting his gloved hand on his shoulder. With that, the Black Ranger reached for his communicator, and the two of them vanished in twin trails of light, one violet and one silver. The countryside flashed under them, and the two Rangers shot up and around the side of the mountain, materialising seconds later in a clearing at the very top of the peak. Behind them, a path between moss-covered boulders seemed to lead back down the mountain, while ahead, the clearing led to the long edge of a cliff, giving a wide vista of the coast.

"Wow," said Brendan, looking around. There was at least a few hundred feet between the base of the mountain and the ground far below, and standing at the very peak they could see for kilometres in all directions - directly to the east, the city of Caloundra was fast approaching.

"C'mon," said Zac, and the two Rangers jogged towards the cliff-edge, "we don't have a lot of time."

"Why the very peak?" asked Brendan.

The Black Ranger shrugged. "Where else?" he asked, then raised his hand and brought them to a stop.

Standing on the edge of the cliff at the end of the clearing was a human-shaped figure, his outline clearly visible against the morning sky. It couldn't have been anybody but Tibrogargan himself - six feet tall, Tibrogargan's body was composed entirely of rock that nonetheless seemed to be alive, streaked with veins of grey and black. Moss covered his head, and a long mossy beard flowed from the mountain's chin down to his stomach.

"What now?" asked Brendan.

Zac shrugged. "No clue," he whispered. "I gotta tell ya, I'm not so good at this whole leading thing."

"That's okay," Brendan replied. "This is not what I'd expected on my first day."

"With ya there," Zac nodded. What could they do? "Why don't we give violence a shot and see where that gets us?"

"Can't hurt," nodded Brendan, and hesitating a second longer, the two Rangers charged across the clearing towards their opponent.

Hearing them approach, Tibrogargan turned and stepped back from the cliff-edge just as the Rangers attacked. Reaching the mountain giant, Zac kicked high while Brendan spun his sai and aimed low with the blunt handles of the weapons for the mountain's stomach. Both attacks found their target, but Tibrogargan barely blinked in annoyance - Zac dropped to the ground and threw all his strength into a roundhouse punch, while Brendan continued to pound the mountain's body with lightning-fast blows. Zac's fist bounced off Tibrogargan's chin, and moving with surprising speed for something appearing to weigh several tonnes, Tibrogargan caught Brendan's wrists with fingers of stone and threw the Junior Ranger away.

Tibrogargan watched the Rangers roll to their feet with an expression of idle annoyance. "Leave me," he rumbled.

By now the mountain was approaching the city limits, and an apartment building on the edge of town lost its television antennas as Mount Tibrogargan scraped past centimetres above. In the streets below, the approaching mountain was catching the attention of more and more people who were turning to watch in horror, evidenced by the growing number of cars and trucks ramming into each other and running off the road.

"Not a chance," Zac replied. "Brendan, take him!" The Black Ranger leaped forward, raising his Power Axe and carving the weapon through the air. The blade bounced off Tibrogargan's chest in a shower of sparks, but as Zac fell back, Brendan raced past him and slashed his sai across Tibrogargan's body, the blades leaving smoke and fire in their wake. Regaining his footing, Zac stepped forward and swung in a wide overarm arc, catching Tibrogargan's shoulder before swinging again - as the blade fell, Tibrogargan caught the weapon and struck the Black Ranger away with a blow to the chest, before swiping low for Brendan. Ducking back out of danger, Brendan spun around Tibrogargan's arm, but as he leaped forward to attack again, the Silver Ranger was launched off his feet as Tibrogargan casually swept him away.

Far beneath them, the entire city was watching in terrified shock as the mountain slowly moved over Caloundra's central business district. Thousands of citizens lined the streets frozen in terror, while still more turned and ran, trying desperately to get away from the city centre, the streets choked with hordes of screaming panicked people. As far above as they were, Brendan and Zac could still hear the chaos being uncorked down below, and as they recovered, Tibrogargan turned away from the two Rangers and crossed back to the edge of the cliff, staring down to the city with an expression the Rangers couldn't quite read.

"You can't do this," said Zac, "and we're going to stop you, whatever it takes."

The mountain giant looked back to them, his rocky brow lowering in confusion, half his attention still with the city below.

"When time was young, I was ancient," Tibrogargan said. It didn't sound like a boast or even a threat, merely a statement of simple fact. "I have stood witness to the fall of entire civilisations, yet you invade this mountain and believe you can sway me with naught but your fists?"

Zac raised his Power Axe. "Yeah, we're crazy like that," he replied, and glanced down to Brendan at his side. "Whatever it takes. Brendan, get ready, aim high this time..."

This seemed to freeze Tibrogargan. The mountain giant paused for a second and looked back to the Rangers. The fury in his voice so audible when he'd spoken earlier from the side of the mountain was now gone, replaced with genuine curiosity. "You would fight when you have not a single chance of victory. Why? Answer."

"Well we have to do something," said Brendan. "There are thousands of people down there! You actually expect us to just stand here and do nothing?"

Tibrogargan looked back to the city. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the mountain shook his head. "No," Tibrogargan replied, "no, you are right. I would not."

Looking out towards the eastern horizon, the giant's eyes focused on a point far beyond the horizon, and neither of the Rangers could tell where he was looking nor what he was thinking. For the longest time, the three of them stood there, Brendan and Zac holding their breath in anticipation. Finally, the mountain spoke.

"You must forgive me, both of you," he said, his voice softer, and for the first time, Tibrogargan actually looked and sounded like a mountain. "I am old, and very tired. And I may have just made a grave error in judgement."

The Megazord continued following the mountain into the city, and as we caught up to Tibrogargan, there was a brief second when the Megazord fell into shadow and passed entirely under the mountain, and the five hearts beating rapidly in the control room all skipped a beat. All around us, screaming citizens were fleeing the city by foot or by vehicle, moving however they could. But still thousands more were fenced in by chaos on all sides.

"Scott," I began, "talk to me. Where do we need to be?"

The Blue Ranger pointed up to the underside of Mount Tibrogargan. "Right under the very centre of the mountain," he replied, "otherwise when it comes down we'll overbalance."

I nodded. "Not good, yeah. Anybody know how much this thing is gonna weigh?"

"Computer's working on it now," said Teresa, then paused. "Peter... I don't even know how to pronounce this many zeroes."

"Okay," I said. "Great. Every drop of juice in the Megazord I want converted to upper body strength, and we'll need to stabilise the zord's legs somehow as well."

"On it," nodded Aaron, furiously punching commands into the computer before him.

I looked back out across the panicked city. A school bus full of our classmates stood stuck in a traffic gridlock a few streets away, while the Megazord was just now passing a retirement village and the city's major hospital.

"C'mon Brendan and Zac," I said softly, looking back up to the mountain hanging over our heads. "Don't let us down now."

Standing a centimetre from the cliff, Tibrogargan waved his stony arm, and suddenly it was all gone. Every building, every road and park, every house and farm, and even the railways and power-lines - the entire Sunshine Coast had ceased to exist, replaced by nothing but hills, streams, bushland and eucalyptus forests. Zac and Brendan glanced to each other in disbelief and stepped forward, joining Tibrogargan by the edge of the cliff. But gazing down over the land, Zac could see large shapes moving through the trees, and realised what had happened

Brendan turned to Tibrogargan. "What did you do?" he asked.

"Chill dude," said Zac, putting his hand on Brendan's shoulder. "Look closer." The Black Ranger turned back to Tibrogargan, who was gazing down over the landscape. "This is how it used to be, right?"

Looking back down to the land beneath them, Brendan realised what Zac had meant - the coastline had changed, curving a different way around the natural headland that Caloundra occupied. The trees covering the land were tall and ancient, their grey gums wreathed in mist. Huge animals making their way through the forest were just visible through the forest roof - kangaroos as tall as houses and other giant marsupials the world would never know emerged from the trees, while goannas as long as trucks hid in the depths of the forest waiting for prey to innocently stumble past.

"We're looking at, well, prehistory," said Zac. "I'm guessing hundreds of thousands of years in the past."

Tibrogargan nodded. "When I was young, this was the land. New, green, savage and wild. Time is not something that passes when you possess a form as mine," he explained, his gravelly voice to Zac's ears almost kind. "It is... simply there, I suppose."

Zac nodded, and Tibrogargan looked back to the coastline beneath them. As Zac and Brendan watched, the landscape began changing, as if Tibrogargan had hit a giant 'fast forward' button - the large animals began to disappear, soon vanishing from the landscape entirely. The coastline steadily receded, the Pacific Ocean reclaiming much of the open beaches, and many of the lighter patches of forest gave way to grassy clearings until only the darkest of greens remained. And then, glancing to the south, Brendan saw a trail of smoke rising into the air from a fire in the undergrowth.

"Your people," he said.

The mountain giant nodded. "Small tribes, always moving, never taking more than they needed, respecting the land and all the life it held. Even though I slept for a long time, I knew they were there, I could feel them. And then," and both Rangers heard the distinct change in the mountain's voice, "I felt when it all changed."

Down below, a sailing ship streaming banners of European kings and queens was passing the coast, and looking closely, the two Rangers could make out the wide-eyed expressions of those onboard. Time seemed to jump, and now a whole fleet of ships was sailing directly towards the coast. A century passed in a second - the forest retreated even further as the clearings became larger and larger. Beneath them where Caloundra would eventually be, a small hut appeared beside the beach, followed by another and another. Further north, buildings began to appear and multiply, marking the beginning of the Sunshine Coast's northern cities - the structures grew wider, larger, the number doubling every second, the cities steadily spreading faster than either Zac or Brendan could keep up with.

As they watched, roads began to appear, great black scars across the land, while telegraph poles and powerlines began to cross the countryside like a great spider-web. Development moved along the roads and railway lines, entire suburbs and townships rising in the blink of an eye, civilisation spreading like nothing so much as a virus running amok. Finally, the forest retreated and vanished entirely, there were houses and factories as far as the eye could see, and the coastline returned to something more familiar. Caloundra lay before them, the screams of the panicked reaching those on top of the mountain - time had caught back up.

Tibrogargan stepped back from the cliff-edge and walked away, and Zac and Brendan turned to each other, totally lost for words.

"Tell me," the mountain began, "why should I spare them? Why should I do as you ask? You've seen what they have done, what it was when they were not yet here, the power of my people before their intrusion. Is this not the way of all things?"

Zac stepped forward. "I know that right now there's not much we could do to change your mind," he began, "but that's not the problem. The person who woke you up, the girl you talked to, she's using you. She's a power-hungry witch who doesn't care for you or your people. You can't trust what she said."

Brendan joined Zac before Tibrogargan. "Yeah dude, like we said, we're not the badguys here. She is."

Tibrogargan nodded, and looked away. "I do not doubt that you two speak the truth," he said, then turned back to them. "But was she wrong? Tell me that, to convince me, this witch lied to me. Tell me the land is not overburdened nor poisoned. Tell me my people are still free. Tell me that my people are happy, and I will stand down every force at my call."

Zac glanced to Brendan and shrugged helplessly. There was nothing that could beat that trump card. Not a single damn thing.

Brendan shook his head, and approached Tibrogargan. "No, she told you the truth," he said. "But think about it - this is how you're going to avenge your people, by taking thousands of innocent lives? The people down there had nothing to do with what happened two hundred years ago. Could you honestly live with this? Okay, so maybe a lot of bad things happened in the past, but this isn't going to make any of it right. And we will stop you if we have to."

Tibrogargan lowered his gaze, deep in thought for a few seconds, before turning to Zac. "And you, what do you believe?"

Zac held the mountain's gaze. "You know what? People are stupid," he said. "They do stupid things and make really bad decisions, and have every day for centuries. But you're a mountain. You have forever to figure things out, and we don't. People do what they think is right, and occasionally screw up royally. It's just how it happens. Look, I'm not excusing what happened to our people, but you can't take it out on those people down there. They've got their whole lives to make stupid decisions - don't take that all away from them."

Brendan nodded. "Exactly," he said, looking deep into the mountain's eyes and suddenly noticing how human they were. "Ignore everything the witch told you - heck, ignore everything we've just said. Decide for yourself, figure this out for yourself," and he swept his arm out over the city, "is this really who you want to be?"

The words hung in the crisp morning air and Tibrogargan looked away. Zac glanced over to Brendan, and couldn't help but smile beneath his visor. The newbie was good, no mistake.

Finally, after a few long minutes, Tibrogargan spoke.

"I have witnessed enough bloodshed," the mountain said, with a slow nod. "I see the truth in both of you, bright and clear as the sun. You are both right, this is not the way, and I believe you." With that, the mountain turned to them and they both stepped back - Tibrogargan's eyes were suddenly glowing a volcanic red, shining with the fury of the Earth, and when he spoke next, they could hear the molten lava roaring through his veins. "And if I have been manipulated as you suggest, then I will be very, very angry."