Chapter Two

As promised the evening before, at exactly six the next morning the camp staff went around to all the dorms and began pounding on doors to wake everyone up. They needn't have bothered with us, though, as everyone in the cabin was already wide awake. Petey and Luke had woken up first, while surprisingly enough Scott had woken up after them (I guess there's a first time for everything) and was talking to Jarred about how great it was to be on camp. I woke to the sound of everybody laughing at something Petey and Luke had been saying, while Ian and Lochlan, too, were awake - living in Goondiwindi all his life, Lochlan had never actually seen the ocean before, and despite trying to convince everybody otherwise, he was pretty excited about the morning run. The last to wake up was Matthew, and only because his snoring was so loud that Tom threw a shoe at him and woke him with such a start that even Grant laughed.

There were two loud thumps on the door, before it swung open and one of the camp staff I recognised from last night, a young man named Mr Potter, bounded in.

"C'mon fellas," he called, smiling, "rise and shine, up and at 'em. Beach run in ten minutes, be outside!" And with that, the overly enthusiastic camp instructor bounced out the door.

"Well, that was cheerful," said Scott, as he rolled out of his sleeping bag, dropped to the floor and went to his bag, stored on one of the spare bunks nearby.

I smiled, rolled back my own sleeping bag and sat up on the edge of the bunk, smashing my head against the top bunk and sinking back against the wall. "Argh..."

Across the room, sitting on the floor and putting his shoes on, Ian smiled as Lochlan dropped down beside him. "Let me guess, not a morning person?"

I laughed and stood up. "Only after midday," I grinned. "I guess where you guys come from, being a morning person is a prerequisite?"

Ian smiled. "Well, most of my family lives on cattle properties, so yeah, kind of," he replied. "But it's not like Goondiwindi is outback central, or even the middle of nowhere."

Lochlan nodded. "Yeah. We're more the outskirts of nowhere," he said. Behind them, Petey and Luke stepped out of the cabin, and Lochlan immediately turned to the sea breeze drifting in through the open doorway.

Ian smiled. "I don't think I can hold him back any longer," he said.

I nodded. "That's cool. We'll catch up," and the two guys nodded and headed outside. I went over to my duffel bag and pulled out a warm jumper and long pants - the cold hadn't quite left yet, and I remembered what Jason had told me yesterday morning. I briefly considered putting on shoes, and noticed Scott contemplating the same decision.

"Do you think we need to?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Nah, it's only like about twenty metres down to the beach. We'll be right."

We went outside and joined the large group gathered on the grass, listening to the teachers address us. Mr Chamberlain (Currimundi's Physical Education teacher who'd come with us for the week) as well as Mr Di Certo, Mrs Larson, and a tall older teacher from Goondiwindi who's name I could never remember would accompany Mr Potter and another young camp instructor, Ms Moule, on all our forced marches, uh, I mean, beach runs every morning. Signaling us to follow them, the teachers and camp instructors turned and led everybody between the line of cabins and the shower block, across a small grassed area and over the dunes - the beach lay before us, empty and serene in the early morning.

The Goondiwindi students surged forward with a sudden burst of speed, nearly trampling the rest of us in the process. Trailing at the back of the crowd, Scott and I followed, taking one footstep off the grass onto the sand - and immediately regretting our earlier decision about our shoes.

I yelped and jumped about a foot into the air. "This sand is cold!"

"Yeow," murmured Scott, treading lightly. "You're right there. The ground is freezing." Although certainly not painful, the white sand was icy cold, a seriously refreshing shock. Back home, sand was usually too hot to walk on.

We continued down the beach and turned near the water's edge. Catching sight of the others nearby, we jogged over.

"Morning," I said, as Scott and I caught up.

"Hey guys," replied Teresa with a smile, noticing that I was shivering as I fell into step beside her. "Not too cold for you, is it Peter?"

"I can handle the breeze, but the sand's a little too much," I said. "Something's gone wrong somewhere in the world. Sand is supposed to be hot."

Sarah nodded. "We thought the camp people iced down the sand to keep us moving."

I nodded. "That could work."

"What are you talking about?" asked Scott with a grin. "It's not cold, it's... it's nice and refreshing."

Brendan glanced to Teresa and I. "Is he gonna be like this all week?"

Scott laughed and playfully jabbed Brendan with his elbow. Across the beach from us, the Goondiwindi kids were playing in the water and kicking up foam, amazingly unfazed by the cold. Sarah watched them for a moment before turning back to the rest of us and shaking her head. "I'd always thought the beach was just, you know, the beach," she said.

Teresa nodded. "We'd probably be just as stumped by cattle stations bigger than the entire Sunshine Coast."

I smiled. "I think they've got the right idea, though. This could be shaping up to be a really cool week."

"Now you come on board," said Scott. "Seriously, this is gonna be great! A week away from everything we normally have to deal with. Chores, homework, crazed monsters destroying downtown. This is, well, us, on our own for the week, with no help but no responsibility either. And to top it off, we're on the Gold Coast. It can't get any cooler." He paused, glancing over to Brendan and I and nodding. "Even if the weather happens to be out of synch with the geography," he conceded.

The five of us jogged on in silence for a few minutes, until Teresa turned to see Brendan looking from her to the water and back again with a sly grin on his face.

"Say," he began innocently, "the water looks awfully nice this morning."

Teresa rolled her eyes, trying her best to look unamused. "Don't even think about it."

"Think about what?"

"Just don't."

We turned around and made it back to the campsite soon enough. Splitting up, we returned to our cabins and changed to slightly cooler clothes, before heading over and joining everybody waiting outside the dining hall. When the camp staff opened the doors, everyone went in for breakfast. Along the counter were boxes of cereal, sugar, honey and syrup, milk, juice and pieces of toast. We quickly grabbed what we wanted, and headed over for a spare table.

Once breakfast was over, everybody gathered in the main hall to hear the day's activities. We all eagerly made our way over and sat in line, and Mr Burgess stood up in front of the large mural. I began to suspect that he slept wearing those sunglasses.

"Okay," he announced, "we're running a little behind, so this'll have to be fast. First of all, the group that comprises cabin number seven and dorm one," and at this, Scott and I looked up, as this was the group that Teresa, Sarah and Brendan were in, "because there aren't as many in your dorms as in the others, you'll combine with the Muddies to form one big group."

Everyone clapped and cheered at this, and Scott pumped his fist in the air.

"Secondly, because the bus is about to leave, you guys will be leaving first," he continued. "Your group will be the first one to head to SeaWorld this week, and since we're already late, you'd better get moving. Follow Mrs Manderson to the bus..." but whatever else he was saying was drowned out by the sudden roar of cheers, as everyone in the Muddies leapt to their feet. SeaWorld, one of the three major theme parks on the Gold Coast as well as a major tourist attraction, and we were heading there first. I turned to Scott, and saw him smiling a thousand-watt grin.

"Awesome," we said in unison, and we joined the mass of students racing out of the hall towards where Mrs Manderson stood beside the camp's own minibus.

We'd missed the morning rush hour, and the bus trip across the Gold Coast only took about fifteen minutes, everyone happy when the bus finally pulled under SeaWorld's overhead monorail track and into the massive carpark. Primarily built as a wild-life sanctuary, SeaWorld later grew into a tourist attraction as well as a five star resort. Covering several dozen square kilometres, the park has dozens of artificial lagoons, some of which are the largest in the world, that house numerous injured and recovering animals all in need of a home. One section of the park features roller coasters, rides and attractions, while another holds the Nara Resort, a first-class hotel, with all sections linked by SeaWorld's monorail system.

Mrs Manderson and Mr Di Certo led us through the front gates and we were greeted by several smiling SeaWorld staff members who took us on a guided tour of the theme park. They led us across concrete pathways, past enormous aquariums containing brightly-coloured fish and coral, into a low grey building where we all sat in a large amphitheatre and watched divers hand-feed sharks and rays, and finally towards 'Dolphin Cove', a huge lagoon where dolphins swam back and forth around an anchored pirate ship.

Time passed quickly and it was soon midday. We were all gathered together in the section of the park devoted to sideshow rides, with towering roller coasters on either side of us, a flume ride twisting around a Viking castle up ahead, and a huge artificial volcano nearby cheerfully titled 'The Bermuda Triangle' with corresponding surprises inside. It was there that Mr Di Certo announced the good news - we had an hour to ourselves and lunch would be at one. Everyone cheered happily, and the group split up, everyone charging off to try all the respective rides.

I know it sounds silly, but I cannot stomach theme park rides, and always do my best to avoid them. I put it down to residual angst from when I once travelled to Disneyland, Los Angeles, and was scared out of my mind by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - granted I was three years old at the time. But it was embarrassing, particularly since my best friends have all seen me face down far more dangerous threats than side-show attractions, and I wandered off on my own for the following hour, exploring the park before finding a seat in the shade near the group's original

meeting place.

Eventually, everyone began slowly drifting back in twos and threes. Luke and Petey came into sight, Petey threatening his best friend with all sorts of horrible things if Luke forced him onto the roller coaster one more time, while Lochlan and Ian were behind them.

"Hey," came a voice, and I turned around. "Where did you disappear to?" asked Teresa, as she and the others walked over. "You missed all the cool stuff."

"I was just looking around," I said, which was technically the truth.

Scott sat down beside me, the only person with a pretty good idea why I'd been absent. "That's cool," he said. "Anything important?" he asked, lightly tapping his communicator.

I shook my head. "I'm still nowhere near solving that particular problem. Heck, I hadn't even thought about it."

"Don't worry too much. We've still got time," said Sarah. "We're at our best when we're up against the clock, right?"

Teresa nodded. "Exactly."

Behind us, Mr Di Certo and Mrs Manderson walked up to the group of kids, having spent the last hour as guests in an air-conditioned staff lounge, and called us all together.

"Well," began Mr Di Certo, as everyone began to mill around the two teachers, "I see everybody's enjoyed themselves. How about lunch?"

Rita Repulsa knew something was going on. Goldar, Scorpina, and even Squatt and Baboo, all knew that something was happening. But try as they might, none of them could figure out what. They'd been watching the eleven Power Rangers closely for days now, ever since that late-night trip to the Command Centre last week, and now listened in confusion to what the five younger Rangers were talking about.

"Maybe Zordon has a cold or something?" ventured Squatt helpfully.

Rita rolled her eyes. "Whatever it is, I hate being left out of the loop."

Goldar stepped forward. "Empress," he began, "perhaps now is not the time to worry. After all, the five Junior Rangers are alone, and Finster has just finished a series of several powerful new monsters..."

The witch turned to him and snapped her fingers. "Goldar, that's it! Just what I need to cheer myself up. Oh, Finster...?"

With the promise of lunch by the artificial lake near the park's entrance driving us on, we followed the guides back towards the front of the park. As the concrete path passed between the dolphin lagoon and the 'corkscrew' roller coaster, one of the Currimundi girls, a bubbly friend of ours named Jane Noonan, began telling us about several Japanese tourists who'd cornered her and began taking pictures, fascinated by her pale complexion and blond hair. Everyone laughed, and she was about to continue when suddenly an alarm began to sound, echoing through SeaWorld's exterior PA system.

Having lived through enough emergency situations to last several lifetimes, Mr Di Certo took charge, automatically turning back to us and motioning for everyone to stop.

"What's happening?" asked Scott, glancing around.

The teacher turned from Mrs Manderson to the SeaWorld guides but received only blank looks. He shrugged, and was about to reply when something in the distance caught his attention, and a look of terror began to cross his face. Now both curious and slightly afraid, we turned around to look, only to be met with the sight of a horde of screaming tourists, racing down the path towards us. And something else.

"Oh no," said Teresa.

A tall creature was advancing quickly along the pathway towards the group of students, paying no attention to the fleeing tourists and park staff around it. Anything but human, the six-foot-tall animal was deep blue with purple stripes, and several large purple fins were visible along its backbone, the same fins on the back of its arms and legs. A fish-shaped head with two beady yellow eyes sat behind long jaws of jagged, yellow teeth, and long wicked-looking claws were visible on both its grasping arms and powerful hind legs.

"Was it too much to ask for just one week's holiday?" asked Sarah, to no-one in particular.

Everyone but the five of us took a step back and turned to the guides for help. Mr Di Certo didn't waste another second.

"C'mon kids, let's go, let's go!" he shouted, and guides and students alike turned and ran for their lives away from the approaching monster.

The five of us automatically turned to each other. I glanced around the area and pointed to a small brown shed up ahead. "Over there."

"Right," everyone responded.

Racing over, we ducked around to the back of the wooden structure, finding ourselves facing a chainlink fence. We looked around to make sure we were alone, but needn't have worried - the area had long since become abandoned.

"Okay guys," I said. "It's morphin' time!"

Advancing along the pathway, the monster made no attempt to chase down the fleeing crowd. Instead, coming to a stop with his lips curling into an evil grin, the beast held his arms out and two fin-shaped blasters materialised in his palms. Leveling the weapons, the monster took slow, deliberate aim, and his fingers tightened around the triggers.

"Fish in a barrel," he murmured.

Without warning, five shapes suddenly somersaulted over the monster's head in a blur of colour and motion, landing side-by-side ahead of him.

"Hold it right there," I said.

"Yeah," nodded Sarah. "One more step and you're lunch."

The monster growled, the ancient look of predatory cunning in its eyes. "I'll call when I'm afraid," he sneered. "The name's Barracuda, and I'm here on a mission."

"Good for you," I replied, as we slowly closed in towards the monster. "We're here on holiday, and we don't appreciate the interruption."

"Then maybe you'll appreciate this!" he yelled and raising his blasters, he began firing. Everyone dived forward to safety, and rolled to our feet as the blasts smashed harmlessly into the ground behind us.

"Nice try," began Scott, his Power Staff forming in a flash of blue light, "but no cigar."

The monster was unfazed by his miss at point blank range. "All right then," Barracuda replied, "how about a school of putties?" With that, he held his arms wide, and the air around us was suddenly filled with dozens of the grey warriors, appearing out of nowhere, touching down and closing in. "Putty patrol, attack the Rangers, get the kids, destroy them all!"

About a dozen grey warriors immediately turned, sprang past the five of us and raced away along the pathway.

Teresa glanced from the fleeing putties to the other half of the army closing in. "Not good."

I nodded. "Teresa, we'll chase after 'em. You guys stay here."

"Right!" everyone replied, and the Blue, Purple and Aqua Rangers immediately launched themselves at the grey warriors, dropping opponents with kicks, punches and judo chops and quickly clearing a path for Teresa and I. Dodging and avoiding attacks from all sides, Teresa and I somersaulted over a wall of the grey warriors, rolled to our feet and raced away. We had to catch up to the putties, and they'd already gained a consider advantage.

The putties soon caught up with the group of fleeing students and quickly overtook them, cutting of their escape path and fencing them into a corner between two of the park's maintenance sheds. Everyone shrank back and huddled together in fear, whimpering helplessly as the line of silent, grim warriors steadily closed in.

Standing at the front of the crowd, Ian glanced desperately from the putties to Lochlan at his side and the other students behind him. The putties were advancing, and it looked like the Power Rangers were still back fighting the monster. With no other options and the knowledge that somebody had to do something, Ian reached over and tapped Lochlan on the shoulder.

"Lochie," he whispered, "you do remember that karate course, right?"

Lochlan nodded, and was about to ask Ian what that had to with anything when he realized what Ian was thinking. Of course - he thought about the Rangers enough, so obviously he'd think like one.

"No," he said firmly. "No way. We are so not..."

Ian glanced to him. "We have to do something," he said, "until the Rangers get here. And what else have we got?"

Lochlan shook his head, not at Ian's question but at the sheer insanity of it in the first place. Ian was right, but still. "Fine. But if we die, I'm never talking to you again," he hissed, but Ian smiled anyway.

The grey warriors advanced without fear towards the kids, the need for caution non-existent as the Rangers were busy far away. And so they were caught completely by surprise when Lochlan suddenly sprang forward and sent a putty crashing to the ground with a powerful spinning kick. The warriors froze, surprised, and Ian took the opportunity to attack, leaping forward and jump-kicking two enemies before sending a third stumbling with a blow to the chest.

"Ian! Lochlan!" cried Mr Di Certo. "What are you doing? Get back here!"

Spurred on by adrenaline, they either didn't hear the shout or ignored it, even though the putties had now recovered and were starting to fight back. Ian ducked under a roundhouse punch before grabbing the putty's arm and spinning him away, before a low foot sweep took another adversary to the ground. Beside him, Lochlan had grabbed the closest thing to a weapon within reach, a trash can lid, and was using it as a shield to block and attack, batting aside opponents and smashing them away. Sidestepping a high kick, he spun around to attack, but one of the putties yanked the weapon away from him and struck him to the ground. He rolled to his feet but backed away as two more putties closed in - when suddenly, a gloved hand grabbed each of the warrior's shoulders, spun them both around and dropped them both with a blow to their chests.

Lochlan watched them fall, and looked up in shock - the White Ranger stood before him, a pile of unconscious putties around her.

"Good work," Teresa nodded. "Well done."

Behind them both, Ian had been holding off several opponents at once when a fourth had attacked from the side. Caught off-guard, he'd turned to block but was thrown backwards by two of his opponents and then pinned to a wall as the other two closed in. Suddenly, the two facing him were launched into the air as the Orange Ranger grabbed their shoulders and threw them aside. The two on either side of Ian froze, and he watched as I dropped the putty on his right with a high kick before a palm-strike launched the fourth and back through the wall behind him.

Ian froze, his mouth hanging open in silent shock. Joking with Lochlan aside, he hadn't actually expected to meet any of the Rangers during the course of the week, but now, the Orange Ranger was standing before him, larger than life. It was one of those moments where nothing else seemed to matter, apart from an overwhelming here and now.

Seeing I'd have to initiate any conversation, I stepped forward and placed my hand on his shoulder. "Thank you," I said, before turning to where Mr Di Certo stood waiting anxiously. "You'll be okay," I called, disguising my voice as best as I could. "Lead everyone to the front of the park, and we'll take it from here."

The teacher nodded. "Thank you Rangers," he replied, before turning back to the rest of the group. "Okay kids, let's go!"

After congratulating Lochlan, Teresa walked over to me as we watched the group leave the area.

"Did you just see what I just saw?" I asked.

The White Ranger nodded. "You know, I actually think I did," she replied. "But c'mon, we have to go back and help the others."

"Fight you claybrains, fight!" cried Barracuda, enraged at how easily the three Rangers were defeating his army of putties. Scott was dropping several at a time with every swing of his staff, while Sarah and Brendan were fighting back to back, kicking and punching in unison as a pile of crumpled opponents formed around them. Finally, a spinning high kick from Sarah over a low foot sweep from Brendan sent their final few adversaries opponents to the ground, and the three Rangers turned to Barracuda.

"Your turn," said Sarah.

"Fine by me," the monster growled, and immediately raised his blasters and began firing. Bolts of energy smashed into both Sarah and Brendan and sent them crashing, but Scott dodged the blasts, somersaulted into the air and slammed his staff down onto the twin laser weapons, instantly destroying them both, before ramming his Power Weapon into the beast's jaw and sending the monster stumbling with a blow to the ribs. Barracuda was soon back to his feet, but by now, the Purple and Aqua Rangers had recovered, and they raced forward to aid Scott.

Brendan took to the air, smashing the monster back with a spinning heel to the jaw, before dropping to the ground and aiming a high kick - Barracuda struck away his boot, jumped back over a low sweep and raked his claws for Brendan's chest. The Aqua Ranger blocked the move, striking away another lunge before landing a rapid blow to the monster's neck and a low punch to the beast's gut. Sarah followed after him as the creature stumbled backwards, but Barracuda recovered quickly, blocking a low kick and striking Sarah back with a roundhouse punch before turning and finding Scott nearby - the Blue Ranger ducked under the monster's claws but was sent stumbling with a kick to the stomach.

Gazing around the battlefield, Barracuda turned back to Brendan and charged towards him, but the Aqua Ranger quickly avoided the monster's blows and somersaulted backwards out of danger, racing over to his team-mates and helping them to their feet as Barracuda advanced. Without warning, Teresa and I dropped down in front of the monster, and we spun on the spot and rammed our boots into his scaly chest, the double-kick sending him crashing.

"You guys okay?" I asked.

"Never better," replied Sarah, as the three of them joined Teresa and I.

"There's five of us now guys," said Scott. "Let's get him!"

"Right!" And everyone charged back towards the monster.

I charged towards Barracuda, leaping over a low swipe and kicking forward, before landing and smashing his jaw with a powerful right backhand. The monster brushed my fist away and aimed high, but Teresa and Scott somersaulted down between us, Scott batting the beast's claws away with his staff and Teresa landing several judo chops to his elongated neck, before a low punch sent him stumbling. Barracuda roared and spun towards the White Ranger, but even as Teresa blocked and batted away his attacks, Scott spun around and slammed his right boot in the monster's torso. Barracuda staggered backwards, stunned from the assault, and Sarah struck him back with a roundhouse right punch, stepping back and allowing Brendan to send the monster to the ground with a powerful scissor kick.

"Good job guys," I nodded. "Let's finish him. Blasters ready!" With that, everyone reached for their side blasters, and aimed for the body of the fallen monster. "Fire!"

Five simultaneous laser blasts exploded from our weapons and smashed into Barracuda, the force of the combined blast instantly tearing him apart in a huge explosion that lit up the area with a blinding glare and echoed through the park. Everyone instinctively stepped back from the fireball and raised our arms, before turning away and reholstering our blasters.

"Well," said Brendan cheerfully. "That was fun."

"Like surgery without anesthetic," Sarah said. "So much for the week off."

Scott laughed. "Shall we go and find everybody? I hope they haven't counted the roll yet..."

"Wait a second you guys," said Teresa, and everybody turned to her. "Before when Peter and I went back to help the others, well..." And with that, Teresa and I related the earlier fight to the other three Rangers, telling them about how both Ian and Lochlan had confronted the putties and had even taken numerous opponents down. Finally, we stopped, and there was an awed silence.

"Wow," said Scott.

Sarah nodded. "Yeah, I'll second that."

"You guys remember what Zordon said?" asked Brendan.

"About how, we'd know who we were looking for only when we found him?" Teresa said.

The Aqua Ranger nodded. "Yeah, that," he replied, glancing to me. "From the sounds of it, we just did. Wow. They really took on a whole troop of putties?"

I nodded. "Yeah, our thoughts exactly. I'll tell Zordon tonight, and we can move on it tomorrow," I said, smiling beneath my visor. "Talk about a weight off our shoulders, huh? Now let's go find the others."

The five of us found an empty building, demorphed and quickly slipped back into the crowd, tracking down our classmates and rejoining the group when Mr Di Certo wasn't looking. Sadly, the battle had shot our afternoon plans apart. Less than five minutes after the fight, SeaWorld shut down. All the rides and attractions had to be thoroughly checked by a team of technicians and engineers, aquariums had to be inspected to see if they were still structurally sound, and all of the animals had to be cared for. It didn't affect us, though - the water-skiing show we watched during lunch went on regardless.

We returned early that afternoon to camp, travelling at a time when traffic on Gold Coast roads was practically non-existent. Thanks to the forced closure of the park, we had several hours of free time before any of the other groups made it back, and we all spent the afternoon playing sport on the oval opposite the campsite. Ian and Lochlan were both simultaneously reprimanded for trying to take on the alien warriors and congratulated for their bravery, and the two both blushed, shrugged and said it had been nothing. Everyone eventually returned by about five thirty and dinner was served an hour later, fish and chips oddly enough. When supper was served, everybody made sure to drink plenty of chocolate milk.

Finally, late that night when the rest of the cabin was deep in slumber, I got out of my bunk (having dressed earlier), climbed out through the window and slipped around behind the cabin before any of the security guards noticed. Then, with the touch of a button, I was a thousand kilometres elsewhere.

I materialised in the Central Chamber and looked up to Zordon. Neither of us bothered with pleasantries, not out of rudeness but because we knew what this was about. And Zordon's look of anxiety turned to relief when I quickly said four simple words.

"Zordon, we found him."