Power Rangers: Galactic Onslaught
Chapter 2
Adam felt the tingling sensation of teleportation consume him, black light whisking him away to an unknown location.
He opened his eyes to see himself surrounded by familiar faces of his old teammates.
"Adam!" Tanya smiled happily.
"Hey guys! It's been a while." He replied, hugging the yellow ranger and noted his surroundings. It was more spacious than the Command Center but still equipped with futuristic technology. Holograms and digital coding far too advanced for him to interpret hovered around the walls.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"We don't know. All of us were teleported here a few minutes ago." Tommy informed. "We tried to find a way out but no luck yet."
"Is it Rita or Zedd?" he asked. "Or Divatox?"
"We don't know. Sure, hope not. We retired from all this." Tanya grumbled.
"Nothing to do but wait." Tommy said. "The moment anyone comes in, we attack."
"By the way, how's Hollywood treating you, man?" Rocky asked, pulling him in a bear hug.
"Good. Everything is in a rush but it's good." Adam grinned. "My next film is with Carolyn Pickets and Johnny Cardenas!"
"No way! That's incredible!" Rocky exclaimed.
"I'm so happy for you, Adam!" Tanya said, giving him a one armed hug.
"That's great!" Tommy applauded.
"Yeah. Don't forget us when you get all rich and famous!" Kat joked.
"Never!" Adam promised. "So, what are you doing, Tommy? Still racing?"
"No, bro. I quit. I'm going to MIT this fall." He smirked.
Everyone whipped their heads to look at him. All of them knew Tommy was intelligent in spite of being always late and a bit laidback, but this was honestly unexpected.
"Don't look so surprised. They started a new course on palaeontology and guess what I qualified and with a full scholarship too!" he said.
"That's awesome, Tommy!" Kat congratulated, hugging him.
"Yeah, next time you're in Angel Grove, its your treat, man!" Rocky grinned.
"Sure." Tommy smiled. "What about you, Kat?"
"London is amazing!" She smiled.
Just then, the wall reeled back and all of them dropped to fighting stances as two people entered the room.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." The elderly woman in a green business suit said. "My name is Grace Sterling and welcome to Promethea."
"Why are we here?" Tommy asked.
"I am an old friend of Zordon. Earth is under attack again. We need you to save us again."
"Prove it." Adam demanded. "Forgive us for not trusting someone who had us teleported without warning from our homes."
"No need, rangers. She's an ally." The rangers narrowed their eyes as another individual entered before the wall closed in on itself. "Aie aie aie! It's good to see you all again."
"Alpha Five!" Tommy exclaimed hugging him, followed by rest of the rangers. "We thought you left for Eltar!"
"Rangers, Eltar has fallen and the forces of evil have captured Zordon. Your successors are searching for him across space and I retreated to Earth four months ago and helped Promethea to prepare for the inevitable invasion by the United Alliance of Evil. But a greater threat has infiltrated the planet and we must act now."
"1993, the year Rita Repulsa attacked Earth, several international defence organisations collaborated together to form a united front. Earth Guard League is a covert organisation aiming to neutralize all paranormal, extra-terrestrial and interdimensional threats." The other woman said. "My name is Melanie Sheers, the deputy director of EAGLE. An alien with shape shifting capabilities calling itself Ivan Ooze infiltrated our organisation a month ago. Yesterday he utterly decimated us and took over our headquarters, the Hellcarrier. It is a highly weaponised sky ship, not unlike some of your zords. Aside from holding several superpowered convicts, the mainframe of our ship's computer holds the access codes to every missile on the planet. With press of a single button, he can turn the entire planet into a wasteland."
"Then why hasn't he till now?" Kat asked.
"Because I had all my scientists hacking the mainframe and cutting it from the internet." Grace informed. "I have also alerted the Plumbers and they will join us in retrieving the Hellcarrier and saving the survivors."
"I may be missing out here but did you just say some plumbers will help us save the world?" Rocky asked incredulously.
Another person entered the room and the rangers instinctively fell back to their fighting stances. It was a great blue humanoid dog in a white armoured suit with a circular badge decorated with a green hourglass on his chest.
"Aie aie aie!" Alpha waved his arms. "Rangers, it's a friend. This is Magister Anubis Kruger from the planet Sirius. He's one of the best plumbers in the universe."
"I know aliens are like us but it's kind of weird to know that they need plumbers too." Adam quipped looking over Kruger hesitantly. He was never that fond of dogs, especially since one wild dog tried to bite him when he was a kid.
"My mistake." Grace chuckled. "Magister Kruger is part of an intergalactic peace keeping organisation known as Space Patrol Delta, basically space police. Plumber is a rather colloquial term that has become rather trendy."
"It's a funny story really. Blame Max for that." Kruger said offhandedly before turning towards the rangers. "So, these are Zordon's rangers. They are children."
"So?" Tommy asked coldly, an edge to his voice.
"I'm not one to argue with Zordon's decisions but we don't send untrained civilians, let alone teenagers to apprehend galaxy's most notorious criminals." Kruger replied curtly. "However, you have defeated evil time and time again... What you have done is extraordinary and while I wish that you didn't have to be here, I do respect you and your accomplishments over the years. On behalf of SPD, I thank you for assisting us."
"You're welcome." Tanya said. "I speak for all of us when I say we'd like nothing more to help but we don't have any powers anymore. We passed on the turbo powers."
"Try calling on your zeo crystals." Alpha instructed.
"Alpha, we don't have our morphers. We gave them up for the turbo powers, remember?" Kat reminded gently.
"Focus on the crystals and try to morph." Alpha instructed. "Trust in the grid."
Tommy looked at the others warily before slapping his wrists together. "It's Morphin Time – Zeo Ranger Five, Red!"
With a spark of red light, he morphed into the red ranger. The others looked at him, amazed.
"The crystal is forever bound to you, rangers with or without your morphers." Alpha said.
"That'd have been nice to know before I almost killed myself trying to morph with my old power coin." Adam retorted looking at the robot dryly.
"You what?" The other four exclaimed in unison.
"Why the hell would you try to that?" Rocky yelled.
"You could have died!" Tanya slapped his shoulder hard.
"I was trying to help Car-" He looked at the other non-rangers in the room before continuing, "the astro rangers. They were in a tight spot and needed help. You guys would have done the same. Why didn't Zordon tell us this?"
"Aie aie aie, Adam! He really wanted you to live normal lives after passing on your turbo powers. He thought if you don't know about the powers, you wouldn't try to help."
Tommy demorphed and looked at Alpha. "Is there anything else we should know?"
"Aie aie aie, Tommy. Zordon had many secrets but they were only meant to protect you."
"Secrets drive us apart and make us weak." Grace said derisively. "Zordon chose kids to fight his battle. At least with my team, we knew what we were getting into."
"Your team?" Tommy asked.
"Another thing Zordon didn't tell you all. Me and my team … we were the team before you, selected by Zordon from across the globe to stop Rita from escaping in 1969. I barely survived. That mission changed my life and I've been preparing for war ever since." Grace said sadly. "I created Promethea to advance technology and pioneer energy weapons effective against monsters and hostile extra-terrestrials."
"We never knew there were others before us." He said. "We are sorry."
"That was a long time ago and I've worked together with Zordon on many occasions after handing in my power coin. I never forgave him for what he put my team through but he has Earth's best interests at heart. He helped me come in contact with organisations like SPD and SHIELD and get the resources to fund Promethea." She said. "We need to stop Ooze. After what Alpha told us, he is no normal shapeshifter."
A hologram of a purple skinned alien in his 'wizard' robes appeared before them. Kat recoiled on seeing the cruel smirk on the hologram's face. "He is scary!"
"Aie aie aie! Ivan Ooze is one of the universe's oldest beings. He has been pillaging worlds and destroying galaxies for millennia. Thousands of years ago, Zordon helped the Morphin Masters trap him in a containment chamber and locked it in the Eltarian vaults. During the invasion, he was accidentally freed."
"Within the last few months, he was singlehandedly responsible for destroying seven solar systems and countless civilizations." Kruger informed. "I'm assigned with arresting him and bringing him to justice. I followed him to Earth but I was too late."
"His entire body is gelatinous and he can control other biological life forms if they touch him or the purple gel, he's made of. He can also replicate to form foot soldiers or regenerate from a single cell. That's how he crippled EAGLE within days." Melanie said. "I have contacted the other branches of EAGLE. They are sending in reinforcements. We are going to be joined by Kruger's team and some of the most skilled field agents I know. With your help, we can take him."
"Your ranger armour makes you immune to his mind control and so does my plumber suit. Grace has created armour that should do the same for the other EAGLE agents. We have to strike before he realizes that they are blocked from accessing the nuclear codes. The normal decryption procedure takes four days without the approval from the World Council. Make no mistakes. This is the most dangerous enemy any of us have ever faced and he'll use brainwashed EAGLE agents against us, knowing we will hesitate to hurt them." Kruger growled. "My team will be joining us in two hours and we'll head out tomorrow morning sharp. I suggest you all rest before that, whatever suits you."
"Follow me, rangers. I will show you to your quarters. Aie aie aie, rangers! Thank you for helping us again. Zordon would be so proud of you all." The android said leading them out of the hall.
Adam touched the wall as it split to make an exit for them. "Wow, what is this wall made of?"
"Nanites equipped with memory alloy. Billy invented them while trying to make an artificial ranger suit." Alpha said.
"How did Billy's inventions come to Promethea?" Tanya asked.
"He worked with Promethea before leaving for Aquatar." The robot informed leading them to a huge dormitory, equipped with five colour coded separate rooms each with an attached washroom, a sparring mat, several couches, a dinner table and other accessories.
Rocky's eyes fell out as he saw a delicious feast laid on the table.
"Grace thought you all might be hungry."
In a blink of an eye, Rocky was in his chair and putting food on his plate. The others burst out laughing.
"Glad to know somethings never change." Adam smirked as they joined the blue ranger.
Tommy looked wistfully at Kat while she chatted with Tanya. He hadn't expected to see her so soon again, but it only reaffirmed that they had taken the right choice by going their separate ways.
4 months ago,
Tommy looked at Kat, his eyes tearing up. The blonde shuffled her feet, not able to meet his eyes.
"I am sorry, Tommy." She repeated. "I can't marry you."
Tommy rose up and tucked the small ornate box back in his pockets. "I thought we were doing fine. Is something wrong? Did I do something wrong?"
"No. Never! You were the perfect partner. I'm just not ready for marriage yet. And neither are you." She said, taking his hands. "I just want to make sure we are not rushing into this."
"We are not." Tommy said. "I love you. You are my rock. I can't imagine my life without you."
"I love you too. You are the first person I really opened my heart to. But I'm not ready, Tommy. Not yet, at least." She said, leading him to the couch. "Also, there is something I needed to tell you. I'm going to London next month. My parents are there and I got accepted to the Royal Ballet."
"That's great!" he asked. "We can try a long-distance relationship. We can work out the dates and visits."
"I was actually thinking we should take a break." She said slowly. "We have our whole lives ahead and our careers. Me with my ballet and you with your racing. We are going in different directions and I don't think our relationship can survive that. I had a crush on you ever since I saw you but you never look at me the way you looked at her."
"Katherine, my feelings for you are real." He said sharply.
"I'm not saying they aren't but the only reason we got together was because she left you. And soon after that, we got together. It was so fast and I was happy that you finally noticed me… You were looking for a release and I just happened to be there for you." She replied sadly. "And I am more than just a replacement or a rebound. What we had was passionate and amazing but was it genuine? Or were you just looking for someone to replace Kimberly?"
Tommy glared at her. "Where's all this coming from, Kat? I love you."
"I don't doubt that but we have is nothing compared to what you felt for Kim. And you'll find someone again, who you love truly with all your heart but that's not me." Kat sniffed, tears streaming from her eyes. "You know its true and asking me to marry you won't make you happy or make you forget about her."
"I don't…" he looked away. "You're right. I loved Kim and maybe I always will. But I love you too. And yes, maybe I wasn't the perfect boyfriend but-"
"You were perfect but you tried too hard to make every date flawless. God, you even arrived early for every single date! Not that I don't appreciate that. I do. Its not your fault things didn't work out with her. All I wanted from you was you to be yourself. Maybe we can try this again but we need to be separate people now."
"I get it. Man, I feel like a douchebag for getting that ring."
"Don't. It was sweet but your heart wasn't in it. You wanted for us to work out and that may have spurred it. Saying no to it was the hardest thing I ever did but we both deserve better than to tie ourselves to a premature marriage." She said. "We're still best friends, Tommy. We're family and that'll never change."
"I know." He replied as she enveloped him in a hug.