Desert of Despair

With high rock formations surrounding the rangers and extremely high temperatures, the Desert of Despair certainly lived up to its name. Behind them the teens could see nothing but sand, which was being swirled around by gusty winds. They could see the hill mentioned on the map in the distance but there was no telling how long it would take them to reach it with the current conditions.

After 25 minutes of travelling, the rangers were hot and exhausted and they didn't appear to be any closer to the temple. Worse of all they had lost contact with their friends back in the Thunderclap Monastery.

"I think it's this way", Zang announced and pointed at their objective, "but I think we're getting closer".

"It's hard to tell", Pigsy said, "these rocks all look the same".

"Well I sure could do with a break", Wukong said.

"Everyone get down", Zang cried out as he sensed impending danger. The rangers threw themselves to the ground just as the rock exploded, sending debris flying across the desert.

The rangers slowly got to their feet and checked themselves over for any damage. Pigsy had a few small cuts to their forearms but nothing too serious, the others appeared to be fine.

"That was a close one", Wukong commented, "looks like this desert is booby trapped".

"Agreed", Pigsy replied as he wiped some blood off his arm, "I suggest we keep going and watch our where we go".

The others all agreed and carried on. The rest of the journey was largely uneventful apart from a moment where they had to rescue Sandy from quicksand. When they reached the hill, the wind had dropped significantly and they were able to get a good look at the map. Based on the journey they had taken this was the correct place, however, there wasn't an obvious entrance to the temple.

"Did you find an opening?" Zang asked Wukong and Pigsy who were returning from further up the cliff face.

"Nothing, no gaps or secret buttons", Pigsy replied, "maybe this is the wrong place".

"The rock formation matches the map Gotama gave us though", Zang added.

"Maybe we should call Quan Ling", Sandy suggested, "maybe they know something we don't"

Zang nodded and activated his communicator, "Quan Ling do you read me?"

After a few moments Quan Ling's voice responded through the device, "Zang? Is that you".

"Yes Quan Ling", Zang replied, "we're at the hill Gotama's map mentioned but we can't find a way in. Do you know if there's a way in?"

There was silence for a couple of minutes Quan Ling replied " Your in the right place".

Their conversation was cut off by the arrival of a squadron of Putties along with Goldar. "So nice of you rangers to lead me to the temple, now prepare to meet your doom".

"We won't let you harm Ninjor", Zang responded.

" Isnt that Goldar?" Wukong asked.

Zang joined his team mates in battle. He swiftly disposed of two putties immediately in front of him with a couple of well placed kicks. Pigsy and Sandy had teamed up and were using the gymnastics skills on a group of five putties. Pigsy flipped over two of them and took down the one behind them with a punch. He continued his run in the opposite direction from the two putties and used the cliff face to spring board off and into a backflip. He connected with both of the putties in mid air and they fell to pieces.

Sandy meanwhile and taken one out at the start of a backflip and then the second one was eliminated on his way back down from a second flip. The blue and gold rangers looked at their handiwork and high fived each other.

Zang jumped and took out two more putties with a split leg kick.

Wukong was facing off against Goldar, he was being extremely cautious. He quickly ducked a swing from Goldar's sword and punched the warrior twice in the stomach. As he stumbled away, Wukong following this up with a spin kick to Goldar's head, knocking the armoured villain to the ground.

"Lucky shot white ranger", Goldar growled and aimed an energy blast from his sword as Wukong. He jumped out the way but this was enough of a distraction for Goldar to take another swing. Fortunately it had missed his torso.

Goldar took a swing at the white ranger but found that his sword was blocked by another one. He looked at his attacker who was a bulbous blue figure with a golden "N" on his chest.

P

"Who do you think you are?" Goldar shouted, "don't you know who I am".

"You should be asking who I am, for I am Ninjor", the legendary warrior replied with an excitable voice, "and I see you haven't changed in the last few thousand years Goldar"

Ninjor when on the offensive against Goldar with lightning fast attacks from his sword. Goldar was barely able to block Ninjor's sword and soon found himself backed against a cliff face. Deciding to live to fight another day, Goldar teleported away in a flash of light.

Ninjor slowly placed his sword back in its sheath on his back and walked back towards the temple entrance which had suddenly appeared in the cliff face.

"You should not have come to this place", he commented as he walked past the rangers.

"Ninjor wait", Zang exclaimed, "we are sentai. Gotama sent us in the hope you could help us locate the stolen scrolls".

"Well Gotama can do his own work, I was enjoying a peaceful slumber until you lot showed up", Ninjor grumbled.

"Ninjor", Sandy replied. Ninjor stopped walking but didn't turn around, Sandy decided to continue, "please help us Ninjor, you're our only hope".

Ninjor didn't say anything and carried on walking toward the temple. The rangers couldn't believe that he was refusing to help them, "Come on guys", Pigsy said to the group, "let's go, he doesn't want to help".

The rangers turned around and started to walk back into the desert. They were stopped by a call from Ninjor, "Wait", he called out to them, "I suppose you proved your worthiness by crossing the desert. Come into the temple and I'll see what I can do".

The rangers were overjoyed by this news and followed Ninjor inside.