Chapter 18

Step It Up Part 6

"How did your lecture go?" Callum asked when Jason walked out.

Jason groaned in frustration. "That scientist wouldn't shut up! He thought I was gonna quit!" He grabbed Callum by the shoulders. "I swear, I would never quit in a million years! You gotta believe me, man! It's that turtle's camera!"

Callum nodded. "I agree. That camera is definetaly spreading those rumours. We need to destroy it before it spreads more rumours and gets us into more trouble. Dr. Sparks is already mad at us as it is."

As if on queue, the sound of the alarm filled the room. The boys rushed over to the screen and Zoe quickly followed.

"Any luck getting through to Olivia?" Callum asked her.

Zoe shook her head. "Afraid not. I've lost Alex's signal too."

"Okay, let's go. We've got no time to waste. Tattle Turtle's on the loose again," said Callum, pointing.

"Hang on a minute." The three Rangers groaned at the sound of Dr. Sparks' voice.

"What is it now?" muttered Zoe.

Dr. Sparks' face was stern. "Can I trust you three? I'm hearing too many of these rumours."

"Dr. Sparks, we're the only three Rangers left! Besides these rumours aren't even true! You have to trust us!" Callum begged.

The scientist sighed. "Fine," he said reluctantly. "But if I hear one more bad story, I'll be taking those morphers off you. Do you understand?"

Callum, Zoe and Jason nodded in frustration before racing off.

"YAAAAAAAAAA!"

Alex finally managed to leap over Tattle Turtle and grab his Yellow Energy Morpher. He sighed with relief. It was about time.

"Sports Energy, Suit Up!" he shouted at last.

Tattle Turtle growled as the Yellow Energy Ranger charged at him. He quickly bent over and Alex flipped over him. Despite the surprise, Alex was able to land neatly on his feet and turn around to face Tattle Turtle. He threw a punch at the alien who blocked it off before kicking him hard in the stomach, sending Alex flying.

Alex crashed into a building and landed hard on the ground. He looked up to see Tattle Turtle aiming another shot at him with his camera. Luckily, the Yellow Energy Ranger was able to backflip out of the way as Tattle Turtle clicked the camera a fraction too late, causing the area Alex had been lying a moment ago to explode.

"Hock Hammer!" Alex charged at Tattle Turtle with his weapon. Tattle Turtle tried to strike him with those spikes from his back but Alex whacked them away with his hammer.

"Oh no!" Tattle Turtle cried as Alex pummelled the ground hard with his Hock Hammer. The ground trembled, knocking Tattle Turtle over. The Yellow Energy Ranger jumped up, ready for another shot.

"Hey!"

Alex looked up to see the Red, Blue and Green Energy Rangers running in his direction and smiled slightly.

"You okay?" Jason asked him, slapping his on the shoulder.

"Never been better," Alex replied. He looked down a little sadly. "Too bad I can't say the same for Olivia . . ."

"Don't worry Alex. We'll get your sister back," Callum said encouragingly. "First things first, we need to destroy Tattle Turtle and his camera."

The others nodded and prepared themselves to fight Tattle Turtle who was heaving himself to his feet.

"Let's do this!" Alex shouted. "FOR LIVVY!"

Tattle Turtle was back on his feet. His face dropped when he saw the Energy Rangers preparing to attack him.

Suddenly, he let out a scream. Then sparks came flying out of him from behind and he collapsed again. Next thing, the Pink Energy Ranger had leapt over him and in front of her teammates!

"Livvy!" Alex exclaimed, a wave of relief washing over him. "How did you-"

"You can thank Rachel for making me overdress," Olivia replied. "And by the way," she smiled, "I can defend and represent myself just fine."

Alex smiled too. "Good to see you're okay, Livvy."

Olivia nodded. "By the way, you might wanna check your morpher. Mine told me that both of us have new powers."

"YOU!" screeched Tattle Turtle. He was back on his feet and pointing a sharp finger at the Pink Energy Ranger. "How did you escape?! I saw the FlunkBots kidnap you!"

"Well you didn't see what I'm really made of," said Olivia as she and the other Rangers prepared to fight.

Tattle Turtle growled before taking out a silver ball. He threw it into the air. The ball opened and an army of FlunkBots appeared out of it.

"Really?" muttered Zoe, unimpressed.

"You guys deal with this lot," said Olivia. "I'll take care of Tattle Turtle."

"Right," the others nodded, charging at the FlunkBots and beginning to fight while Olivia flipped over the entire army and in front of Tattle Turtle.

"Let's finish what we started," she grinned. "Energy Vault!"

The Pink Energy Ranger charged at Tattle Turtle with her pole, hitting him in different areas, trying to find a weak point in him. Tattle Turtle turned his hands into snappers and grabbed Olivia's pole and yanked hard. Olivia grunted, refusing to let go. She leapt into the air and kicked Tattle Turtle hard in the stomach, causing him to let go and stumble over as Olivia flipped back onto her feet.

She swiped her pole underneath Tattle Turtle's feet in an attempt to knock him over but he was able to flip over it onto his feet. He then bent over, shooting those spikes at her, which she knocked off with her pole. But while she was distracted, Tattle Turtle charged at her and struch Olivia with his snappers. Her Ranger costume sparked and it was her turn to stumble over.

"Is that all you got?" Tattle Turtle laughed as Olivia fell down to her knees.

Olivia growled and climbed to her feet, clenching her fists. "Not all. It's time to test this new power my morpher gave me!"

She stood up straight and shouted out "Pink Energy Air Twister!"

The Pink Energy Ranger leapt into the air and Tattle Turtle pulled out his camera. "Pink Ranger In A Spin?" he chuckled. "That will make a good story!"

But Olivia wasn't intimidated. She was now a few metres in the air and flipped over with her her head facing the ground before beginning to spin in mid-air, collecting pink energy out of nowhere.

"No! Stay still!" Tattle Turtle snarled, trying to take a picture. But he couldn't because Olivia was spinning too fast- she had to be in complete focus for the camera to work. She was still collecting the energy and some of it even began to shoot at Tattle Turtle.

Tattle Turtle screamed as even more energy beams shot at him. Every time he moved, he was struck by another beam. Sparks were really flying out of him now and he was finding it hard to stand. Finally, the Pink Energy Ranger shot one last gigantic beam at him. His camera went flying into the army of Flunk Bots.

"Alex!" Olivia called, seeing that the camera was nearest to him.

The Yellow Energy Ranger looked up and saw the camera. He pulled out his Hock Hammer and swung it in the air.

"NO!" Tattle Turtle screeched. He was lying helplessly on the ground.

Alex whacked his hammer down hard on the camera. Tattle Turtle watched on in horror as his precious camera sparked and exploded.

"My camera! Now I can't take pictures! Or spread rumours about anyone!" Tattle Turtle jumped to his feet and made a grab for Olivia but she had already joined in the fight with the Flunk Bots.

Meanwhile the Red Energy Ranger knocked out another FlunkBot with his Lightning Saber, failing to notice a seccond FlunkBot aiming a sneak attack at him with a laser gun.

"Ice Blade!"

The Blue Energy Ranger slashed the FlunkBot with her sword, knocking him out and taking Callum by surprise. He whipped around when he heard the noise. "Whoa! Thanks, Zoe!"

"I owed you one," Zoe replied. She was examining the army of FlunkBots in front of them. "How many of these guys ARE there?"

"I don't know," said Callum. "How about a combo Energy attack?" he sugested hesitantly.
Zoe frowned slightly but she nodded. "Okay then."

Callum knelt down in front of Zoe who stood behind him, both Rangers ready to strike the FlunkBots.

"Laser Boost!"

"Chill Attack!"

The Red and Blue Energy Rangers shot energy from their hands at the FlunkBots. Callum's speedy laser and Zoe's icy wind created a speedy icy torndao which froze the FlunkBots solid before shattering them completely.
The remaining FlunkBots shot at the Green Energy Ranger with laser blasters that exploded all around him. Jason fearlessly backflipped his way through the explosions. He then leapt to his feet over the FlunkBots.

"Racket Blaster!"

The Green Energy Ranger shot bullets from his weapon, wiping out the last of the FlunkBots before he and the other Rangers gathered together. "That's the last of them!"

"Yeah but you haven't seen that last of me!" Tattle Turtle roared.

"I don't think the Sports Energy Striker will be strong enough to defeat him," said Olivia. She turned to face her brother. "Alex, you have a new power too! You do the honours!"

"Yeah, show him what you got!" Callum smiled.

Alex nodded. "Thanks, guys."

"It takes more than your combo skills to defeat me you know!" Tattle Turtle yelled, charging at them.

The Yellow Energy Ranger grinned. "Good! Cause I've got more!" Check this out." He took a step forward. "Yellow Energy Enforce Strike!"

He charged up yellow energy in his hands, one pile of energy forming the shape of a hockey stick, the other pile of energy forming the shape of a giant puc. As Tattle Turtle charged at him, Alex grabbed the energy hocket stick and whacked the energy puc hard with it. The puc went flying into Tattle Turtle like a Frisbee and cut right through him. Alex then ran at Tattle Turtle with the energy hockey stick and struck him with the hockey stick.

Tattle Turtle let out one last scream as the last few sparks shot out of him.

"New Story!" he gasped as he collapsed. "Tattle . . . Turtle . . . Has Blown It!"

And Tattle Turtle finally exploded.

"Thank goodness he's gone," Olivia grinned, running up to her brother. "We better get back to Rachel. She's probably worried sick!"

Alex nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

"Good luck on getting on Rachel's good side!" Callum called after them as they demorphed and ran off.

"Alex! Olivia!"

Rachel looked frantically around for her step-children. Where where they? "ALEX! OLIVIA!"
"Rachel!"

A relieved smile spread across Rachel's face as she turned around and saw Alex and Olivia running towards her. "Where were you two?! I've been so scared!"

"That turtle thing chased us," lied Olivia. "But we're fine now." She suddenly remembered that rose hair clip. "Oh no! Rachel, I'm so sorry about the hair clip! I-"

"It's okay, Olivia. I understand," Rachel smiled. She cocked her head, examining Olivia closely. "Actually . . . now that I think about it, you look prettier without it. Much more natural."

Olivia's eyes widened. "Really? Thanks!"

Rachel nodded and smiled pleasantly. "We've still got a few more minutes in town. Why don't you two run off and look for something you like?"

Alex and Olivia exchanged excited glances, unable to believe their ears.

"You serious?" gasped Alex.

Rachel nodded again. "Of course! Why wouldn't I be? You two are well able to take care of yourselves! After all-" Her pleasant smile grew wider. "You two were able to defend yourselves when an alien turtle attacked the city, right?"

The two siblings beamed and raced off. Rachel smiled and murmured happily to herself "They grow up so fast."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'SHE TRICKED YOU?!' YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!" Master Paine roared at the FlunkBots. He collapsed to the ground in frustration and threw Olivia's rose hair clip across the room.

"Master, it's okay," Ernestine tried to reassure him.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Master Paine snapped.

Ernestine squeaked. Then she obediently left the room, leaving her master alone. Master Paine sighed angrily.

"So . . . close . . ."