Chapter 16

Step It Up Part 4

Olivia blinked, only to realise that she was in some sort of cave, very similar to the one she had been in when Ernestine and Master Paine had captured them. The time she took to absorb her new surroundings gave the FlunkBots to drag her over to the wall. Despite Olivia's furious struggling, they managed trap her wrists in two handcuffs which were attatched to chains that were hammered in the wall, leaving the pink ranger anchored to the wall. Her Pink Energy Morpher fell out of her pocket and a FlunkBot grabbed it and placed it on a nearby table.

One of the FlunkBots pulled out what seemed to be some sort of communication device. Olivia watched him as he made a few zombie-like bleeping noises into it. The voice that replied made Olivia cringe.

It was Master Paine.

"Captured the Pink Power Ranger? Excellent! Not the best of the Rangers but still a Power Ranger! Capture the rest of them as soon as possible. I'll drain their energy then."

Olivia frowned. 'How many people are underestimating me?' she thought to herself. She yanked her hands in the chained cuffs, feeling angry and ridiculous, she was still wearing the ridiculous pink dress and white jeans and rose hair clip. A FlunkBot noticed her struggling and slapped her face, causing the rose hair clip to fall out of her hair. It landed on her lap. Olivia glanced down at it and an idea came to her head. She just needed to find a way to get rid of the FlunkBots . . .

"Tittle, tattle, you can't escape the Tattle Turtle!" the alien hollered, taking pictures
of the panicked citizens.

He caught sight of a little girl huddled up next to a wall and was about to take a picture of her when something blasted the camera out of his hands. He looked up to see the Red, Blue and Green Energy Rangers running in his direction.

"Don't you ever run out of film?" Jason teased, striking Tattle Turtle with more bullets from his Racket Blaster. Tattle Turtle let out a few yelps and stumbled backwards as the bullets pummelled into him. He fell onto his back next to the camera. Seeing that the camera was very close to him, he stretched out his arm, trying to grab him.

"Guys! We need to get that camera before he does!" Callum exclaimed. "It's probably what's causing all those rumours!"

"I'm on it!" Zoe replied. "Blue Energy Chill Attack!"

With that, the ground surrounding Tattle Turtle and the Rangers turned into ice. Tattle Turle who had just climbed to his feet slipped back onto his stomach, allowing the Blue Energy Ranger to skate over and grab the camera.

"NO!" Tattle Turtle screeched as the Red and Green Energy Rangers ran up to Zoe who was holding the camera in her hands.

"Nice one!" Callum smiled.

Zoe grinned proudly behind her blue helmet. "It's called talent." She examined the camera in her hands. "Time to destroy this snapper!" she shouted, pulling out her Ice Blade sword, about to slice the camera in half.

"Oh no you don't!" The three Rangers looked up. Tattle Turtle was back on his feet and glaring at Callum, Zoe and Jason. The alien seized the chance to attack by flipping over and standing on his hands so his shell was facing the Rangers. Before they could react, spikes appeared out of it and shot at the Rangers. Some spikes shot into the Red, Blue and Green Energy Rangers and most of the spikes exploded behind them, sending them flying.
Zoe dropped the camera and it skidded over to Tattle Turtle who chuckled and picked it up. "I've missed you, sweetheart!"

"NO!" Zoe yelled, immediately jumping to her feet, her Ice Blade out ready to strike.

Tattle Turtle went to snap a picture of her but the Blue Energy was too speedy and knocked the camera out of his hands with her Ice Blade. In secconds, the Red Energy Ranger had speeded up to the camera and picked it up.

"I've got it!"

"Not so fast!" Tattle Turtle ran up to Callum and turned his hands into a pair of snappers. Before the Red Energy Ranger could reactm, he struck Callum with these snappers, causing sparks to fly out of Callum's Ranger Coustume and he dropped the camera and fell onto his back.

"Callum!"

As Zoe ran over to Callum to help him up, Jason leapt into action. He charged at Tattle Turtle and leapt into the air, ready to strike him with bullets from his Racket Blaster.

SNAP!

Too late, Tattle Turtle had caught the picture of the Green Energy Ranger. The flash took Jason by surprise and might have even struck him with some sort of beam. If it had then it was a very painful beam. Sparks shot out of his Ranger Costume and he lost control of his landing. He crashed onto his back, and demorphed on the spot clutching his body in pain.

"JASON!" Callum and Zoe exclaimed at the same time, running to their teammate to help him up.

"Turtle!" Jason warned, pointing.

The Red and Blue Energy Rangers glanced up only to see Tattle Turtle aiming his camera at them. Luckily both of them managed to cartwheel out of the way just in time.

"Alright, now I'm getting mad!" growled Callum.

Zoe nodded. "I agree with you for once!"

The two Rangers charged at Tattle Turtle when the camera flashed and he was gone.

"Hey! Where'd he go?" asked Zoe as she and Callum skidded to a halt, looking around them in confusion.

"Yoo-hoo!"

Callum and Zoe looked up to see Tattle Turtle standing on the top of a very tall apartment building with his camera out ready to strike.

At first Callum was going to suggest he used his Red Energy Laser Boost to get up there but then he realised that he'd have to carry Zoe up there too and blushed at the thought.

Zoe would never agree anyway, she seemed to be thinking the same thought and was shifting uncomfortably.

"Let's use the energy from our morphers," Callum suggested quickly.

Zoe nodded. "Good idea."

Standing from the colossal building, Tattle Turtle chuckled as he watched and Red and Blue Energy Rangers disappear from below.

"So long!" he hollered before turning his attention to his camera, browsing his photos.

He stopped when he saw the picture of the Green Energy Ranger trying to attack him while the Red and Blue Energy Rangers had been distracted. Tattle Turtle chuckled again and pressed a few keys while muttering "Green . . . Ranger . . . Going . . . Solo . . ."

"Hold it right there!"

Tattle Turtle jumped and whipped around to see the Red and Blue Energy Rangers standing in front of him, ready to fight.

"What the- How did you-"

"Morphers," said Callum. "They're handy to have around."

"Let's get him!" Zoe shouted and the two Rangers charged at Tattle Turtle, trying to grab the camera. But Tattle Turtle performed yet another one of his crafty tricks by rolling up into a ball with spikes shooting out and rolling at Callum and Zoe. Once again, the spikes caused sparks to fly out of their Ranger costumes and they stumbled dangerously close to the edge of the building.

Callum who had been running faster than Zoe lost his footing and fell over the building! Luckily he was able to grab hold of the roof just in time but was left dangling in a dangerous position.

"Callum!" Zoe exclaimed, immediately distracted. She bent down with her arm outstretched. "Take my hand!"

The Red Energy Ranger reached out, relieved that the Blue Energy Ranger didn't hate him enough to leave him dangle. Then he caught sight of Tattle Turtle aiming a spike attack at them.

"Zoe, look out!"

She whipped around a fraction too late. Tattle Turtle shot the spikes at her and they exploded into her Ranger Costume. Zoe let out a shriek as she too lost her balance and fell off the building. Realising that she had nothing to grab onto, Callum reached out and caught her by the wrist just in time. Zoe jerked downwards but Callum held on tight, saving her from a nasty fall.

Looking down at the ground, seeing how high up they were, Zoe breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Callum who had an iron grip on her wrist. And she gave him a warm smile. But her smile immediately turned into a frown when both of them spotted Tattle Turtle aiming his camera at both of them. Both Callum and Zoe cringed, preparing themselves for the flash . . .

"Ngah. Bor-ing," he muttered. "I need new Rangers to find!"

And he disappeared in a flash.

"That was too close," Callum muttered before looking down at Zoe. "You okay?"

"I'd be more okay if you'd pull us both up instead of leaving us dangle here all day!"

Callum nodded and slowly began to pull himself onto the rooftop while Zoe watched him, secretly admiring the strength of the Red Energy Ranger.

'Okay so I admit it,' she thought to herself. 'I like Callum.' Her face dropped. 'But I still need to act like I don't. I didn't become a Ranger to get a boyfriend. I became a Ranger to save the world. I can't let romance get in the way and ruin my tough girl appearance.'

Just as she was thinking, Callum had pulled her up and for once Zoe actually let him do so without complaining. Her mind was too occupied for that. Before she knew it she was back standing on the rooftop and Callum was still holding onto her wrist. Embarassed, Zoe quickly shook it away.

"Let's teleport back down to Jason," Callum said after a few moments.

"Y- yeah," Zoe mumbled.

The two Rangers pulled out their Energy Morphers and used them to teleport back to ground. As soon as they teleported back down to ground where Jason was running up to them.

"Power Down," Callum and Zoe chanted at the same time, demorphing back to their normal selves.

"You two okay?" Jason asked them in a concerned tone. "I saw what happened on that building. You could've been killed!"

"Well . . . " Callum hesitated, not wanting to brag about saving Zoe.

"We were just . . . lucky," murmured Zoe.

"Super lucky," Jason agreed. "I sent a call to Alex. He's going to try and find this
Tattle Turtle. But he says that Olivia hasn't returned in five minutes. He's really worried that she might have been captured but he can't do anything about it because his "evil step mom" is watching him like a hawk!"

"So what'll we do?" asked Zoe.

"I'm guessing we should go and find Olivia before anything happens to her," said Callum. "Who knows what nasty stuff Master Paine and his FlunkBots could have done to her?"

"I sure hope she's okay," said Jason as he, Callum and Zoe raced off.

Beep! Beep!

It was Callum's Red Energy Morpher. He pulled it out, wondering who the call was from.

"It's Dr. Sparks!"

"What does he want?" said Zoe.

Callum lowered his eyebrows. "He wants us to return to the lab . . . and he needs to have an important conversation with Jason?"

"What have I done?" asked Jason, even more confused than his teammates.

Callum sighed. "I don't know. I guess we'll find out when we get there. I just hope it won't be too long."

"Or too serious," Zoe muttered