Chapter 2: Fighting?
"Valley Crest Shopping Mall. Sounds the like the perfect place to start. Humanity won't know that hit them." A figure rose from the dawn shadows. It molded itself into human form. The man looked around and grinned. The plan was underway, and there was nothing that could stop them. The Shadow Empire would begin here.
I woke up the next morning hoping that what happened the day before was just a dream. I really bad, gaudy, weird dream. Then I saw the Loungetech shirt thrown over my digital clock, and I realized that yesterday did happen. Well I wasn't sure about the whole talking wolf and super powers bit because if I remember correctly I took a sip of a weird tasting drink. I might have been high and delusional. I felt something lightly tap my chest as I got out of bed. I looked down, and there it was the Morphing Necklace. Damn it! I was a super hero thingy, or whatever that hot guy Zordon called it. Oh yeah! I am a "Power Ranger". Seriously, who thought up the name? Sounds like a cop primetime 70's melodrama gone stupider.
I made my way down stairs, and to the kitchen. I opened the fridge and pulled out some chocolate milk. As I drank from the carton, I noticed that there was a note on the refrigerator door. I read it over.
Great my mom was out for the day. Some big shot client of hers landed himself in the judicial system yet again. When will people understand embezzlement is not the way to go. I sighed. I pulled out the sugariest cereal, and I poured it into the biggest bowl we had. I dunked out the rest of the chocolate milk on it.
As I made my way to the breakfast nook, I noticed that my mom had left her credit card on the kitchen table (an expensive yet cheap way of making up for the fact that I barely ever saw her). I'm so going to splurge. I do have to add blue to my wardrobe after all. I devoured the bowl of cereal ravenously. Morphing sure did give me an appetite.
I looked at the bracelet. It wasn't that bad looking. I might have picked up something like this on my own. It was a simple silver chain with one charm on it. What I recognized to be the symbol for Pisces. Then I moved my attention to the necklace. On it was a plain silver chain with a single blue link that shimmered. I hit the charm against the chain, and the entire necklace started to shimmer, and I morphed. I deactivated. I couldn't begin to spin my head around this whole morphing thing. I sighed, and put the bowl in the sink. I made my way upstairs, and I went into the shower.
I came into my room, and started searching for something blue. Seriously hating that cute Zordon dude. I pulled out a nice blue T-shirt I got from Lucky. I pulled it over my head, and put on some light blue jeans, and white Reeboks to pull it all together. I'm good. I went back into my room, and I picked up my wallet and my keys. I picked up my cell phone, and headed towards the door.
My cellphone started ringing. I looked at it, and I didn't recognize the number. I didn't answer. It was probably a wrong number anyways. I noticed I had like a kajillion missed calls. All of them were from the same number that had just called. I checked my voicemail. I had about ten messages. All of them from… Gio! He had called to say he was sorry for last night, and that he hoped we could talk. Fat chance. I am well known for my cold shoulder techniques. But, after all it was Gio. Maybe I would talk to him, eventually. I turned my cell off, and my I made my way to the stairs.
All of a sudden, I hear this odd sound coming from one of the guest rooms. It was a deep rumbling. I went back to my room, and picked up the bat I used to have for little league (the only benefit, other than the hot guys). I crept slowly, and I opened the door to the guest room. It creaked. Need to get that fixed.
The rooms was dark, but I could still make out a figure still sleeping on the bed. I could see how it's breath came in and out. Then there it was again. The sound. A ground shaking snore. Whoever it was should get that checked out. I came up to the side of the bed. I slowly raised the bat over my head.
"Get up! Who are you?" I was hysterical. I should have called 911 back in the hallway. Too late now.
From underneath the blankets popped out a red streak of hair. It was an all too familiar shade of red. I lowered my bat, and I started poking and prodding the intruder. From underneath the covers rose Jared. He yawned, and looked at me strangely.
"Wha's the bat forr…" He yawned out this phrase. I had completely forgotten the fact that he had asked to crash here for the weekend. I was relieved. I took in a deep breath.
"Good morning Jared. Get dressed, we're going to the mall." I walked out of the room.
Jared came down the stair bleary eyed. He almost missed a few steps. That would have resulted in me having to call an ambulance, and such. Not something I was ready to deal with on a Saturday morning.
"What about Loungetech?" He could barely walk, and yet he was still worried about business.
"Well, since last night was such a success I guess, you can have some fun this weekend, and start hiring people later. The four of us can be like standard week staff. With Saturday and Sunday off." It made sense in my head.
"No, I will not have sex with you." He laughed. It was an ongoing joke that annoyed the heck out of me. He had been making it since the day I came out. It got stale pretty quickly.
"Seriously, that has to stop. How many times have I told you that I do not reflect the feelings you have for me." I chuckled, and he fumed. He was always bad at taking comebacks.
Jared and I made our way to the kitchen. He ate some bread and butter, and drank a soda.
"Should we call the girls?" I was thinking about Anna. I wonder how her father took it when she came in at 3 AM.
"Sure, why not? It wouldn't be fun without them."
I called the girls at home. Lyla had been awake for, according to her "hours". She was working on some fund raiser. I will no doubt be somehow involved in this plan. I always was. Anna said that her dad had worked all night, and that her older brother himself got in pretty late. They both said that they would be waiting for us to pick them up. My driving privileges had been revoked for the past two weeks, but everybody knew that today was when I got my keys back. I found them hanging from the kitchen key holder as my mother had promised.
Jared and I made our way to the garage. I hit the alarm, and the black range rover acknowledge it's master. I loved my car. Jared and I got in. I clicked the garage opening button. I started the ignition, and out we went.
We picked up Lyla first. She had to convince her younger sister to baby-sit her baby brother. I was glad I was an only child. Hassle free is the way to be. I felt bad for Jared, after seventeen years of being the only child, his parents decided to have another. It must hurt to have the throne taken away after so long. Divorced parents come in handy.
Anna was next on our list. She greeted us with a big smile. She said that she had left a note for her family. Her dad was knocked out in front of the TV from working the graveyard shift at his second job, and her brother had left again. The cousin that they lived with had been out grocery shopping. And we were off on our merry way.
Valley Crest Mall was like my fourth best friend. It was a limb. It was a necessity. I couldn't live without it. It had seen me through my happy times, and had seen me through the bad. Actually, it had helped me with the bad, especially when there was a sale at Lucky that one time, and I had broken up with my ex. I trust the mall. It is my happy place. I found a great spot under a tree not to far from Neiman Marcus. The mall has blessed me.
We got out and made our way into the store. The rest of the guys cringed at the prices. I started taking things off the racks left, and right. Serves Gio right for not coming out. This is how I coped with all my problems. Grr. Damn Zordon for making me have to wear blue. And this is for the A – Mr. Abel gave me on that English midterm And this $600 shirt is for the time Susie Cheridan pushed me in the mud in 2nd grade. And for Bobby Simmons, whom I showed him mine but he never showed me his. This was better than therapy. I was a machine. Grrr. I had vented enough. My friends stood back. Too scared to say anything. They knew how I got. They had seen this before, but it still freaked them out. All they could do is wince at the amount of money I had spent in five minutes.
When I was done we made our way to other stores. The others picked up a few things, and so did I but I was mainly done for the day. My stomach grumbled.
"I'm having a major sushi craving right now. Can we go to the food court?"
" I'm hungry too. My stomach is yelling for tacos." Lyla rubbed her stomach.
"I'd kill for some fries and a soda." Anna sat down on a nearby bench.
"Yeh, whatever." Jared was consumed. He was reading the directions he bought to some game in a video game store.
"Hey, I know you loserfaces. You work at the Loungetech dump, right?" We all turned around. It was that jerk nerd that had given Anna a hard time.
"Who the hell says loserface?" Jared was angered by the comment.
"I do, and by the way that game you bought, your not up to it." He smiled and started walking away.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Anna was furious.
He turned around with a huge grin.
"I am Javier Del Santos Ph.D in Physics." He walked away again.
"Yeah right." Lyla muttered under her breath.
"He's way to young to have Ph.D in anything." Jared was confused as usual.
"Actually that's not true. I've read about him. He's supposed to be crazy smart. He graduated from Princeton when he was twelve. By the time he was thirteen he was working for some company in Sweden. That jerk is a genius." I hated scientists.
After eating we headed to Border's. We spread out. I headed towards the magazine sections, but before I could even pick anything to heard a woman came crashing through the doors.
"Monsters! Shadows! Someone help! Help!" At this I felt a tug. My destiny reeling me in. It seemed that the others felt it too. All four of us rushed outside to see what was happening.
We found shadows that sprang from the ground. They were attacking the nearby people. We went into a run. I really hoped that my bags were okay. Thankfully, I was smart enough to put them back in the car after we went to the food court. Who would actually carry all those bags?
I felt pain. One of those things hit my shoulder. That's what I get for zoning out. Wait! I'm fighting? The kickboxing classes paid off! I dodged, and rolled. Punched and kicked the ugly shadow beings. The rest of the guys were doing the same. It was as if by instinct we knew what to do.
Then suddenly, they vanished. They became ordinary shadows again. I took in deep breaths. I'm glad that's over. A man started walking towards us. He seemed angry.
"Who are you?" he was fuming. "How are you?" he was screaming. He seemed to be filled with anguish. He was bursting.
"The power was lost long ago. You cannot be able to fight the Shadow Hordes. Only rangers can do that!"
"Well, to bad for you cause we are the Zodiac Rangers!" Anna stood in front of us as she proclaimed this. "You'll have to get through us in order to get to them." She pointed towards the mall, and took a defiant stance.
The man scowled, and started to walk to the shadows. Jared tried to get him, but with a smile, and a bow the man descended into the shadows made by the trees. I went cold.
"What the hell was that?" Jared was altered. My brain was going a mile a minute. I was trying to explain to myself what just happened. I spotted Alpha.
"I think it will all be explained pretty soon." I started towards the wolf.
"Zordon wants to talk to you." He led us to a door. His nose touched it gently. The door glowed. Anna opened the door, and there we were, in Zodiac Temple.
Zordon approached the four of us with a stern look on his face. "It is happening much faster than I predicted. Shadow and his underlings have already launched their attack. It is too soon!" He paced back and forth in front of the temple steps.
"What was that?" I needed an explanation.
"Those were Shadow Hordes." He was still pacing.
"They were pretty easy. This should be a piece of cake." Lyla was practically cheering.
"They are nothing compared to what lies ahead of you. I predict that now since Shadow knows I am on this plane again, the attack will be even fiercer." Zordon stopped pacing and he looked at us. "I was hoping that this day wouldn't come so soon." He walked up the temple steps, and we followed. He waved a hand, and from the floor arose a frozen pool of water. In it was an image of four robots. They looked like something out of an anime.
"These are your Zords. They are high-tech weaponry I have developed in order to fight Shadow. They are yours. Each one in balance with you element."
"Awesome! When do we get them!" Jared was amped up. He was treating this like one of his games.
Zordon pulled out an assortment small plastic pieces. Each one a different color. I counted twelve in all. Jared grabbed them out of his hands. Zordon looked a little bit annoyed.
"You look cute when you're angry." I blurted. I blushed. He blushed, and straighted up. He coughed a fake cough.
"So do I like take a stance, and yell something while holding a piece or whatever this is?" Jared was bouncing off the walls. Anna ripped the pieces out of his hands. Lyla shot him a glare.
"First, you must perform a task in order to prove you are worthy." Zordon looked sternly at all of us.
"Me and Cliff had this conversation before? I will not sl…" Jared stopped talking because he noticed that the joke would not have been well received.
"Thank you for controlling yourself. Well, you must put this puzzle together. It must shape a perfect sphere in order for you to be able to call upon the Zords."
Anna gave me all the pieces. "You're the smart one. So put it together." I looked at the pieces. Great puzzles without words. Not my thing. I started fiddling with the pieces.
About an hour later I had gotten nowhere. "Well since there is no eminent danger, why don't we go back home, and work on this over a Pizza?" The entire gang agreed.
"Do as you must in order to complete the puzzle." Zord motioned that we were free to go.
We walked back into reality, and went to Ned's Pizza. It was right off Lambert. I had been coming here since I moved to Hillbrook when I was nine because they had the best Sicilian pizza. I took my usual seat, and the others crowded around me. They were yelling out advice on how to place the pieces.
Javier walked in. What is with this dude? He's like everywhere we go! He came over and stared at what I was doing.
"Hey it's one of those cheap vending machine puzzles! Having trouble there?" He laughed and went to the counter. Lyla decided to go order for us because we were going to be here a while. Sweat started to glisten on my forehead.
Shadows rose and fell as dusk approached. A woman stepped forwards from the night. She pulled out a clay figurine. It was of a demon like figure. It had protruding horns and all. She set the figurine on the sidewalk.
"Here my voice and my plea. Let the evil within be set free." Her chant made the shadows dance. They consumed the figurine. Then there was darkness again, and from the shadows emerged the demon.
"Marvus. You have been summoned by Shadow! Wreak havoc on this stupid little town."
"I will do as you and Shadow wish, Eksanda." Marvus bowed to the enchantress. She made her way back into the shadows. She turned around abruptly, and looked through her pack.
"Oh yeah, take this for extra precaution." She threw a vial at Marvus' feet. Out sprang a purple miasma. It surrounded the creature entirely. Suddenly the creature started growing. And soon it reached the height of the tallest building in Hillbrook.
"Ah! Now I can have some fun!" The monster marveled at his height. He struck a nearby warehouse. Thankfully, it was empty.
About two hours after we got the puzzle, we still were nowhere. Then on the radio cam announcement, supposedly there was a creature thirty stories high terrorizing the people on the edge of town. The town was to be evacuated immediately.
Javier stood up and went to the little twenty five cent vending machine, and bought a little puzzle too. He mocked us from afar by putting it together in under a minute. He walked out with a smirk on his face.
"I would pay anything to wipe that smile off that face." Lyla screamed.
"I think you have more pressing matters." Alpha appeared out of nowhere. "You have to finish that puzzle before that monster destroys the city!"
I needed a bathroom break. Putting that puzzle thing together was impossible. And how were we supposed defeat a giant creature when it's pinky was probably bigger than us? We needed to get the Zords, and we needed them fast. I just wished that the puzzle Zordon gave us wasn't that hard.
I made my way out of the bathroom, and I noticed Alpha, Lyla, and Anna crowding around Jared. Oh no! He is touching the puzzle! We are screwed! I ran back to the group, and there I found Jared and his hands skillfully putting the pieces in one by one, and then he was done. How the heck? What the freak was that? It was impossible! Jared off all people completed the puzzle. It started glowing, and so did the pendants on our bracelets.
"Wow, my gaming skills are coming in handy." He smiled up at us.
"Hey kids! I think you should get outta here! The radio says that the monster is heading our way. I'm closing up." Ned the pizza place owner was aking his apron off. We all nodded. We got into my car, and put on the radio. The announcer said that the monster was near Ford street. We pulled a U-turn and headed to where the monster was.
We saw the monster in the horizon. He was looming over the smaller office buildings of the area. Alpha gave us a last bit of advice. "All I have to say is that trust your inner elements. When you need them they will come. Now get out there and make this old wolf proud!"
We all stepped out my range rover. I was unsure about leaving it in the middle of the street while a monster was heading directly towards it.
"Okay guys! It's morphing time!" Anna hit her bracelet against the necklace. If I'm not mistaken that was a cliché. There was a red flash. "Fire Zodiac Ranger!" Seriously, having super powers isn't a reason for being over dramatic. And what's with the theatrics? She looks like she's going into an epileptic shock.
Jared hit his bracelet against the necklace, and with a green flash he was morphed. "Earth Zodiac Ranger!" I think the random moves come from morphing, hopefully I don't look like an idiot when I morph.
Lyla hit her bracelet against the necklace. There was a yellow flash. "Air Zodiac Ranger!" More convulsions ending in a dignified pose.
Ugh. I hit my bracelet against the necklace. There was blue flashed. Within seconds I was in the skin tight suit, and the helmet. I started perspiring.
"We are the Zodiac Power Rangers! Stop at once or prepare to fall!" Anna took the lead. She started running towards the giant. She tried striking it, but was easily pummeled by a toe.
"Oh lookey it's some ickle little rangers. You can't do anything while you the size of a pea." The monster started to bring down his giant foot in order to step on Anna. Jared rushed in and saved her.
"Are you okay?" Jared was panting. Anna nodded. She stood up slowly she was trying to figure out what to do. I was mulling over the same I thing in my own head. I remembered Alpha's words.
I looked inside me, and started gathering my courage. "Water Zodiac Zord! Come forth!" I felt a rumble, as far away in a distant ocean rose a machine. Then I felt the ground shake as the machine made it's way towards me. I jumped out of instinct, and I landed inside a booth with lights and levers. I was inside the Zord. I could control it. So cool!
The others did the same. Their Zords rising from the earth of some ancient forest, emerging from a boiling volcano, and falling from the sky. They were not animals but human shaped representation of their elements. They stood erect, and waiting to fight.
"Whoa! This wasn't part of the plan." The monster backed up, and we headed in. There was a melee of kicks and punches, and soon the monster was down for the count.
Eksandra came from the shadows, and revoked the power she had given Marvus. They could not afford one of their prime falling so early on in battle. The monster started shrinking, and became a figurine once again. The enchantress took it from the ground, and stepped back into the shadow.
"Yes! We just kicked some monster butt!" Lyla was ecstatic. We jumped out of our Zords, and they went back into slumber we awoke them from. We all deactivated, and celebrated in our own way. Alpha came trotting towards us. Lyla ran towards him, and gave the wolf a hug.
"Sorry to disappoint you guys after doing some stand up work, but it isn't over Zordon wants to talk to all of you at Zodiac Temple tomorrow. He has important news that will help you. For now rest because…."
"…we need it. We know!" I finished his sentence. I was just getting off one of the biggest rushes I'd ever had in my life. I couldn't rest. I felt like running a mile or two, but then the adrenaline started to become scarce. I returned to normal. I took in a deep breath, and I walked to my car. The group piled in, and Alpha trotted out of sight.
I dropped all the guys off. Jared said he felt like sleeping in his own bed, so I left him at his house. I parked my car, and went into the kitchen. I picked up the phone and called for some take out. I went to check for the mail. At my front door was a red rose, and a note. I took them both in with the mail. The note was from Gio. He said he was sorry again. A romantic gesture. Maybe I would warm up to him and his European charms again.
When the take out came I went to the basement and ordered something off pay per view. I ate. All the food made my eye lids heavy. I dozed off in front of the TV while watching some Indie flick.
"Master! I had to withdraw Marvus. We cannot afford to … Ahhhh!" A shock passed through the enchantress. This was punishment for not going through with the masters plans. She deserved it.
"Eksanda. I made you, and very well can break you!" the shadows sent another wave of pain through her. Her screams grew louder, as the pain intensified. She would never go against the master's plans ever again.
The computer was doing a search on human metamorphosis. That was the only explanation for how those beings could be. Those chumps must be able to change! But how? He would figure it out. His glasses reflected the glow of the screen as it brought up details on another search. He could build his own robot. His own machine that could rival, what was their name, oh yes, the Zodiac Power Rangers. What a stupid name. He laughed while absorbing the still glow of the screen. The only light in so much darkness. In a room riddled with Shadows. Eyes for a greater being.