Chapter 6

Amazon Part 1

"NO!" the Red Energy Ranger tried to strike the girl again with his Lightning Saber. But she was just too skillfull and too strong and struck him in the stomach with some sort of power from her chest. The pain was unlike anything he'd ever felt. In front of him, he could see his teammates, demorphed and passed out and screamed desperately. Even more ahead, he could see some sort of monstorous human holding a helpless Dr. Sparks in his arms.

"Now," the creature laughed evily "the Sports Energy will be MINE! MINE! And I will be unstopable!"

The girl walked up to the Red Energy Ranger and stuck out her hand, ready to drain his energy away and he screamed again . . .

"Callum! Wake up!"

He felt a sharp pain sting into his cheek and didn't need to look up to see who it was who had slapped him.

"Oh . . . hi Zoe," he moaned, opening his eyes and rubbing his cheek.

Zoe had abandoned her beloved training to see what the problem was. There was a concerned look on her face. Callum stared at her in surprise. Out of Dr. Sparks and the other three Rangers, he never thought that it would be ZOE who'd be the one to check on him when he'd freaked out during his afternoon nap.

"You were screaming," she said. "Have you been having more nightmares?

"Callum nodded. "It's been happening for a while now. Every time I fall asleep."

"I'll go get Dr. Sparks," said Zoe quickly.

"No, you don't have to do that. I'm fine," Callum protested.

"I think I should," said Zoe and her face immediately turned from concerned to determined. Callum sighed and lay back down on the couch. "Fine. Bring him in then."

Zoe smiled weakly and ran off. A little while later, Dr. Sparks came in, looking just as concerned as Zoe.

"These nightmares have been happening for quite a while now, haven't they?" he said.

The red rangee nodded. Dr. Sparks nodded too. "So tell me Callum, what types of nightmares have you been having?"

Callum groaned. "I'm not sure . . ."

"I need to know. It'll help me find answers."

"Answers? What do you mean?"

"There must be a reason why you're having these nightmares, Callum. After all, you are the leader of the Power Rangers. Nightmares always have meaning behind them," said Dr. Sparks.

Callum hesitated for a moment before finally explaining: "Most of them involve . . . this girl . . ."

Dr. Sparks was writing something in a notepad. "Go on . . ."

"Anyway . . . I keep on dreaming that she beats us in every battle . . . and that she always steals the Sports Energy and uses it for herself . . . it's just scary, you know?"

"I see . . ." said Dr. Sparks. "Callum, I think you have a fear of being powerless. Am I right?"

"Sort of." Callum looked down at his feet as the scientist stood up, writing more things in his notepad. "That's all I need to know. Just don't think about it for now. It'll only affect you in battle."

With that, he turned around and walked out of the chill-out room.

"Oh Master Paine . . . Please have mercy!" Ernestine squeaked, backing creature growled and approached her menacingly.

"I warned you . . . now I am going to do something that will either satisfy me or fill me with regret."

Ernestine whimpered but found herself pinned between a wall and Master Paine. She was cornered.

Paine growled again. "Do not make me sorry."

With that he grabbed Ernestine by the heart, draining her energy power away from her. Ernestine screamed as she felt her body weaken, her legs no longer able to support her. She collapsed, clutching the area where Master Paine had grabbed her.

Master Paine stood there smugly and Ernestine watched as he gathered her energy power together. Then he did something she never thought he'd do: he blasted some of HIS own dark energy power into hers before thrusting the entire ball of energy back into her heart. Ernestine let out a yelp as she felt her heart sting before the dark evil energy took over her entire body. She managed to climb back onto her feet.

"How do you feel?" snarled Master Paine.

Ernestine hesitated for a few secconds. She took a few deep breaths before an evil grin finally spread across her face. "Wonderful," she chuckled as she realised that she had new powers, not just the ability to create new creatures.

"Rangers! I need you in the lab immediately!" called Dr. Sparks. "It's urgent!" he added as the teens raced into the lab.

"What is it?" said Zoe, noticing how focused the scientist was on the computer screen- he looked as if he was unable to believe his own eyes.

"I'm picking up crazy energy signals on my computer, all negatively charged! I've never seen anything like it!" he exclaimed.

"Let's see," said Alex and the Rangers walked up to take a look. Sure enough there were energy signals appearing and disappearing all over the screen.

Most signals almost seemed to explode every now and again.

"What do you think it is?" asked Olivia.

Dr. Sparks thought for a moment before replying "I think Master Paine may have something to do with this. But I'm not a hundred per cent sure yet. I'd like you to check it out and tell me what you see. I've charged your morphers with teleportation energy so if things get really bad, I'll be able to transport you back here."

zoe, Olivia, Alex and Jason nodded and raced off. Callum stayed where he was.

"Dr. Sparks?""Yes, Callum?"

"Do you think that the nightmares I'm having might have something to do with this?

"The scientist sighed. "To be honest . . . I'm not too sure. You're going have to find that out for yourself."

Callum sighed too but raced off to catch up with his teammates.

"You alright?" asked Zoe when he had caught up on red ranger nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

The teens walked on in silence. Olivia, Alex and Jason didn't even say anything to tease Zoe for being concerned about Callum. They were all feeling pretty worried about him right now.

some time later, the teens reached the town square. This was where the most energy activity had been going on and the Rangers had decided that it would be a good idea to search first.

"Hey, check this out!" Olivia called after a short time of investigating. She was kneeling over and examining what seemed to be a pothole in the ground filled with hot ash. Steam was rising out and some parts of the ash were glowing red as if it were on fire.

"What is it?" asked Jason as Olivia reached out to touch the ash.

"Don't touch it!" shouted Alex quickly. "It could burn you."

"I agree. We don't know what exactly that stuff is. We ought to be careful," said Callum.

For a while, the Rangers peered at the ash more closely, wondering whether to call Dr. Sparks or to just leave it alone. Zoe opened her mouth and was about to suggest an idea when the ash suddenly started really steaming up and forming red smoke. The Rangers jumped out of the way as the smoke rose to form a shape.

When it eventually cleared away, a young girl was standing in it's place. She was about twenty with greyish-white skin, long golden hair that was tied into a tight plait and red snake-like eyes. She was wearing a black and red catsuit that had some sort of jewel in the centre that was glowing violently as if it were containing some sort of energy thing that the Rangers noticed was the fact that she was very pretty and looked as delicate as a Chinese vase, one touch could shatter her. But the thing that really caught Callum's attention was that she looked almost exactly like the girl from his nightmares . . .

"Who are you?" Zoe snapped eventually.

The girl just stood there.

"I said who are you?" Zoe demanded.

The delicate-looking girl chuckled. "My name is Ernestine, a warrior sent from Master Paine to claim your Sports Energy Power and use it for our own deeds. I will not hurt you if you give me the energy power . . . but if you refuse then Master Paine will make your lives a misery for as long as you live."

Callum hesitated. "Ernestine . . . we don't want to hurt you . . . but we can't let you use the Sports Energy Power for evil."

"I knew you'd refuse," Ernestine growled. "Stubborn little Power Rangers, aren't you?"

"Can't we just talk about this?" Callum gulped as Ernestine approached them menacingly.

Suddenly impatient, she let out a roar and charged at the Rangers, front flipping into them. Alex, Olivia and Zoe dodged quickly while Callum and Jason ran at her and tried to attack her from each side but she performed a split jump, kicking them away. Alex and Olivia both tried to perform a similar attack method. Ernestine went to kick Olivia in the stomach and Olivia grabbed her ankle and held on tight, falling into Ernestine's trap. She swung her leg around, causing Olivia to crash into Alex, knocking the siblings charged at Ernestine and threw some combat punches at her. But Ernestine blocked them off as if she knew exactly where Zoe was trying to throw them before grabbing her arm and squeezing hard. Zoe winced at the sudden use of strength Ernestine used and she threw Zoe flying on top of the others.

"Okay, negotiation clearly isn't working," panted Callum. "Time for Plan B: It's Morhpin' Time!"The teens stood in their positions and pulled out their Energy Morphers.

"Ready?" Callum hoped his teammates didn't notice the shakiness in his voice.

"Ready!" A wave of relief washed over him as they replied with no hesitation.

"Sports Energy, Suit Up!"

"You really think that a costume change is really going to defeat me?" laughed Ernestine as the Energy Rangers stood their ground, ready to fight.

"I've got a little touch to my outfit as well!"

And she smacked her fist into the jewel in her catsuit. The jewel glowed violently and the red lining of her catsuit began to shine bright as the energy spread across her. A black helmet appeared on her head, covering her head completely.

"Behold the Amazon Ranger!"

"What?!" cried Callum, staring at her. "That's impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible when you have dark energy in you," snarled Ernestine. "Now let me show you what I can do!"

"Not a chance!" yelled the Red Energy Ranger as he and the others charged at her. Again, almost exactly like last time, she managed to knock them onto their backs as they attempted to attack her.

"Okay. This is getting annoying!" Zoe groaned loudly and jumped back to her feet.

"Ice Blade!"

The Blue Energy Ranger charged at Ernestine with her sword. But Ernestine backflipped out of the way gracefully but speedily. Using her feet, she knocked Zoe's sword out of her hand before grabbing it and striking Zoe with her own weapon. Zoe shrieked and tumbled backwards.

"Energy Vault!"

The Pink Energy Ranger was about to use her pole to launch into the air but Ernestine saw it coming and grabbed it and twisted it around in Olivia's hands. Olivia let out a scream as she was flipped around with her pole and realised that she'd have to let go to avoid having her arms twisted off. Doing this gave Ernestine the chance to power kick her in the stomach and send her flying backwards and tumbling onto the ground.

"Livvy!" Alex cried before whipping round to face Ernestine."Hock Hammer!"He used his weapon to smack the ground and hopefully knock Ernestine onto her back. But once again, the Amazon Ranger was expecting it and leapt into the air, flying at the Yellow Energy Ranger. Alex tried to back away but Ernestine was too speedy and threw speed punches at him, knocking him over next to the girls.

"Racket Blaster!"The Green Energy Ranger tried to strike Ernestine with bullets but she ran through the explosions and up to Jason who tried to dodge but was too late; she grabbed his arm and squeezed it hard before thrusting him over to the other Rangera.

Callum watched on in horror. On one hand he didn't want to fight Ernestine. But he didn't want his teammates to get hurt either. And he certainly didn't want Ernestine to steal the Sports Energy Power from them!

"Lightning Saber!"The Red Energy Ranger ran at Ernestine, trying to figure out the safest attack method he could think of. He tried to slash the Amazon Ranger with his weapon but she whipped around and grabbed the Lighting Saber, not bothered by it's electric feel. She yanked it so she and Callum were almost nose-to-nose.

"I will give you one last chance," she hissed. "Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"Ernestine, I already told you, I don't want to hurt you!" exclaimed Callum. "Why are you even doing this?"

She responded by growling and swinging him around, sending him tumbling into his teammates."I warned you!" Ernestine shouted. "Now you lot will suffer!" She stood very straight and the jewel on her catsuit began to glow hard. The Energy Rangers jumped to their feet and were about to charge at her when a beam shot out of the jewel and surrounded the Rangers. Pain stung it's way into their bodies and they collapsed onto their knees, clutching themselves.

"Now . . . give me the Sports Energy Power!" ordered Ernestine.

"You can't do this!" cried Callum, trying to get up but the pain was too growled. "Fine." She jerked out her hands hard and the Rangers found themselves being knocked backwards by some sudden force, almost like a hurricane or an explosion but there was no wind and no smoke, just energy. They all crashed into a wall.

"Master Paine will have to deal with you," Ernestine sneered, approaching them.

"She's too strong!" said Callum, pulling out into his Red Energy Morpher. "Dr. Sparks, now would be a really good time to use that teleportation energy!" he shouted into it.

"Right! I'm sending you back!"

Ernestine chuckled and was just about to strike the Rangers when they all suddenly disappeared in front of her.

In Dr. Sparks' lab, the Rangers reappeared helmetless in front of the computer."

That was too close," gasped Olivia.

"Who was that girl?" asked Callum."I knew you'd ask that," said Dr. Sparks.

"Her name is Ernestine and she's Master Paine's faithful servant and warrior. Always trying to please him without success."

"How can we defeat her?" said Zoe.

Dr. Sparks shook his head. "I don't know. But it's going have to take a lot more energy than you already have."

"More?!" Callum stared at him

The scientist sighed. "I'm afraid so. You're going have to somehow take control of the situation. But I have no idea how."

"Well if we need more energy than we have," said Callum "then we'll stop at nothing to find it and defeat Ernestine and Master Paine with it."