Chapter Three

In two bright flashes of light, Tommy and Zac teleported into the centre of the great hall, materialising a few feet away from the remains of the shattered marble statue. Zac turned to Tommy to speak, but the two Rangers suddenly took notice of their surroundings and stepped back in shock, their boots crunching shattered metal robot pieces and twisted, sparking wires underfoot. Glancing around from the burning tapestries along the walls and the shattered treasures on all sides to the army of broken robots littering the ground around them, the two Rangers turned to each other with raised brows.

"We missed something," said Tommy.

"Yeah, I'm gettin' that vibe," Zac nodded.

"Hey guys!" called Scott, and the two Rangers turned to find the rest of the team at the edge of the room, standing beside several darkened doorways. "Over here!"

The two Rangers jogged over and joined the rest of us, noticing that Billy and Trini were missing.

"How'd you guys go?" asked Kim.

"Pretty good," Zac replied. "We were just beating him when he turned and ran. Hate it when they do that."

"Makes sense," I said. "They didn't need to distract us anymore. Ultramarine got what he came for," and I nodded over to the empty stone platform.

Tommy frowned. "Not good," he said. "What about Billy and Trini?"

"Don't worry, they're okay," Sarah replied. "Just inside, checking out this place's computer system."

The two Rangers nodded, and a few metres away, Jason emerged from one of the doorways, speaking into his communicator. "Still nothing, Zordon?"

"No, I'm afraid not," came Zordon's voice. "There are numerous listings in our archives for magical prisms, but Alpha and I have found nothing matching the description of this 'rainbow prism'."

Jason nodded. "It's a safe bet that wasn't what Ultramarine wanted anyway."

"You mean the light inside the prism?"

"Yeah," Jason replied. "Whatever it was, there was definitely something inside that prism, something powerful."

Listening to the conversation, Teresa nodded. "It was glowing so brightly, it was practically humming."

"I have no doubt you are correct Rangers," Zordon said. "You soundly defeated Ultramarine last time - it makes sense that he wouldn't risk another direct confrontation until he's given himself more power."

"But if we still don't know anything about this power..." I began.

"Then we need to find out, fast," Zordon replied.

"Billy and Trini are looking now," Jason said. "We'll let you know if they find anything."

"Excellent," Zordon replied, and the communicator fell silent.

"So big blue got himself a power-up?" asked Zac.

Jason nodded. "Power we don't know anything about," he said. "So yeah, I'm worried."

Glancing around at all the destroyed treasures, Tommy's gaze fell over a decidedly-human shape lying beneath a blanket on the ground a few metres away. His expression fell, and the Green Ranger looked back to the group.

"What happened?" he asked, nodding over to where the blanket lay. "Who were they?"

"He owned this place, we think," I said.

Kim nodded. "We got here too late - Ultramarine had already attacked by the time we got inside. He managed to tell us what Ultramarine was after, but then just kind of... slipped away. We couldn't do anything to save him."

"Damn," breathed Zac softly. "Poor guy."

Teresa nodded. "I wonder who he was, what the deal is with this place."

"According to the files we found," came a voice, and we all turned to see Trini and Billy step out of the nearest doorway and walk over to join us, "the entire island is basically a private museum, all for the one man," Trini continued. "He was a collector, specialising in all things magical and mystical, and going by what we found, a fairly unscrupulous one at that."

Billy nodded. "Ironically enough, every artifact on the island all belonged to someone else prior," he said, "and they were all taken from their original owners with a great deal of force."

Kimberly looked over to the man's body. "I hate to say it," she said, "but I still kinda feel sorry for him." She shrugged. "Even if he was major badguy material."

Tommy nodded. "I guess when life catches up to you, there's not much you can do about it."

Jason looked over to the Blue and Yellow Rangers. "What did you guys find?" he asked.

"A lot of his files were just too well protected to read," Billy replied, "at least not without a week of decrypting. At any rate, we suspected right - the Prism does seem to contain a powerful energy source, which is undoubtedly what Ultramarine came here for."

"That's something," said Teresa. "Anything else?"

Trini shook her head. "There was nothing else on the power source itself, but we did find out where he got it - Sydney, Australia."

"Sweet," nodded Zac. "Home town advantage. Kind of."

Billy nodded. "The files contain reference to a confrontation of some kind - our collector seemed to have successfully fought two other heroes for this power, only a year or so ago."

There was a moment of silence. "Hold that thought a second," began Brendan. "Two other heroes? As in, not-us heroes?"

"From what we found, evidently," Billy replied.

"Cool," Brendan replied.

"Okay," said Jason, "it's not much but it's something. Billy, Trini and Kim," and he turned to each Ranger in turn, "take what you found, track down those two heroes and find out everything you can about the power Ultramarine stole. It's a longshot, but if we're going to stand a chance against him, we need to know what we're dealing with."

"You got it," said Kim.

"The rest of us can head back to the Command Centre," Jason continued, "and tell Zordon everything we found. Ultramarine's already a step ahead of us, so we need to be ready."

Everyone nodded, reaching for our communicators. "Good luck guys," I said to the Yellow, Blue and Pink Rangers beside me.

"Thanks," Trini replied. "You too," and tapping the top buttons on our communicators, we all teleported from the scene.

The eleven of us shot through the sky over the blue ocean beneath us, all heading towards the Australian mainland that appeared on the horizon and rapidly grew closer. But as we approached, the blue, yellow and pink trails shot away from the rest of us, following the eastern seaboard south. Coastal villages and fishing towns flashed by underneath, and soon, Australia's most recognisable cityscape rose to meet them. Reaching the city, the Rangers shot down through the Sydney skyline, and materialised between two skyscrapers seconds later.

Glancing around, the three Rangers took in their new surroundings. It was still mid-morning, and with the sun still low in the sky, the alleyway the Rangers had arrived in was cool and dark. Mist rose from various vents along the ground, several dumpsters sat further down the street, and rubbish covered the ground on all sides. Turning, the Rangers saw that one end of the side-street opened out into the bright city beyond, while the other end vanished into shadow around the side of a building.

"Hmm," said Kim. "Inner-city living. Nothing beats it."

Trini smiled. "Billy, is this the place?"

The Blue Ranger nodded. "Affirmative," he replied. "I mean, these are the coordinates in the collector's files, at least, the ones I could decipher."

Kimberly stepped forward to peer around a corner and down another side-street. "So do we even know who we're looking for?"

"Unfortunately no," Billy shrugged. "The collector provided no description of the heroes he fought or even any names. Just a reference to two heroes with extraordinary abilities."

"We're better off sticking to the backstreets," Trini nodded, glancing to the city street in the distance. "I don't think we'll find them out there, and keeping a low profile ourselves would be a good plan."

Kimberly nodded, but something on the wall suddenly caught her attention. "Hey guys, check it out!"

The other two Rangers immediately jogged over to find Kimberly staring at a picture somebody had spraypainted onto the side of the building. Despite the style of the artist, they could clearly make out two figures, although rain had long since washed away the words beneath them. The one on the left was wearing red and black, had a black full-face mask and appeared to be carrying a skateboard, while the figure on the right had long red hair and wore green.

"Good work Kim," Trini said. "I guess these are our heroes."

Billy nodded. "They must be."

Kimberly glanced to the words beneath the picture, but couldn't decipher them. "At least we're on the right track."

Trini nodded. "Let's look around," she said, and the three Rangers headed further down into the alley.

While Billy, Trini and Kimberly continued to explore the dark city backstreets for clues to the whereabouts of their quarry, the eight of us arrived back in the Command Centre, and we quickly relayed what Billy and Trini had found on to Zordon and Alpha, the two listening patiently to our story.

"So you still haven't been able to find anything on whatever was inside that prism?" asked Sarah.

Zordon shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he replied. "The collector you spoke of guarded his secrets well. I'm sorry to report that Alpha and I have no information on either him or his collection."

"What's going to happen to the island anyway?" asked Teresa. "I mean, we can't just leave him there, can we?"

Zordon shook his head. "No outside connection exists to the island's data system," he replied. "With enough time, Alpha should be able to gain access, and once that happens, hopefully we'll be able to learn the collector's name and whether he has any friends or relatives, and then begin returning the artifacts on the island to their rightful owners." Zordon paused. "But I'm sorry to say at the moment, the collector's fate is the very least of our problems."

I nodded. "I can't believe Ultramarine beat us," I said. "I mean, what now? We sit and wait until he attacks?"

Jason turned to me. "He might have gotten to the power he wanted, but we're not beaten yet," he said. "Billy, Trini and Kim will find what they're looking for, and in the meantime, I don't know, we can go back over everything we know. There has to be something we've missed, some small clue..."

Across the room, Tommy looked up. "Why don't we start with the obvious?" he asked. "Zordon, Ultramarine's never been to Earth before, right?"

The sage shook his head. "No, not that I'm aware of," he replied.

"So how would Ultramarine have even known about this collector in the first place?" Tommy asked.

"Rita must've told him about it," said Scott. "She's just using him to destroy us, like she did last time."

The Green Ranger shook his head. "Fair enough, but I don't buy it," he replied. "She just casually dropped the prism into conversation? I mean if she knew about it and we didn't..."

"That's true," said Zac. "Rita's gotten a lot sneakier lately."

"Tommy is correct, but I have to admit, I find something else unusual regarding Ultramarine's actions this morning," said Zordon, and we all looked up to him. "If Ultramarine was merely looking to grant himself more power, there are dozens if not hundreds of magical artifacts on Earth alone that he could've pursued, most of which would be far less-guarded than the prism. Which begs a fairly important question."

At the back of the room, Brendan nodded. "Yeah," he said. "So why did he go after this one?"

Stepping out of the sun and into the cool shadow, Ultramarine followed the tunnel deeper under the mountain, his footsteps echoing down into darkness. Glancing around as he walked, the warrior couldn't help but notice the figures watching him on all sides, carved and painted into the rocky walls. Soon enough, the tunnel opened out into a large natural cavern lit by burning torches that lined the walls, the light flickering over the army of putties spread throughout the cave. But as Ultramarine entered the cave, Rita immediately approached from the far side, meeting him in the centre of the cavern. And even despite the shadows cloaking them both, Ultramarine could clearly see the delight in Rita's eyes.

"You have it?" she asked, barely containing the excitement in her voice.

Ultramarine reached down into the velvet pouch hanging by his belt and pulled the shimmering glass cube free, lightly resting it in Rita's outstretched hand. "Does this answer your question, witch?"

Rita's face literally lit up as she held the prism high, before placing it carefully down onto a small stone platform beside her.

"Finster!" she called, and Rita's master scientist scurried across the join them.

"Yes my queen?" Finster asked.

"There it is," she said. "Get to work," and she turned back to Ultramarine. "This is perfect. The Rangers have no clue what's about to happen."

Ultramarine nodded, smiling with evil delight beneath his helmet. "I wanted them broken, and this will totally crush them. All we need to do now is lure them out into the open..."

The Command Centre alarm suddenly began to flash, and all eight of us glanced around to Zordon and Alpha.

"Rangers!" cried Alpha. "The sensors have just detected several powerful energy signals, at three different points in the city - one in the northern suburbs, one west in the industrial district, and one in the centre of town."

"We have to check them out," said Sarah. "Whatever they could be."

"It's a set-up," said Teresa. "It has to be."

"But that makes even less sense," said Scott. "Ultramarine already has the prism, what does he need to split us up for? Wouldn't he just attack and be done with it?"

"He most certainly would," Zordon said. "As I'm sure you can imagine, subtlety is an art lost on Ultramarine. We have no choice but to investigate these signals, but until we've figured out whatever game Ultramarine is playing, be very careful Rangers."

Jason nodded, and glanced around the group. "Peter and I will head into the northern suburbs," he said. "Tommy, you go with Scott and Sarah into the industrial district, and Zac, Teresa and Brendan, you guys head into the centre of town. Zordon's right - they're laying a trap, so be on your guard. Let's go," and we all reached for our communicators.