Chapter 9
Jason enters his home and sees his parents sitting in the kitchen. "I'm home." He shouts, closing the door behind him. He walks into the kitchen and sits down.
"Just in time for dinner." His mom says. "I knew he wouldn't miss a meal." She says looking at the dad.
"You were right, like always." Jason's dad says. "So where were this time? Swimming in shark infested waters?" He asks Jason.
"Something like that." Jason says. "What's for dinner? I'm starved."
"Your mother is making an oven roasted chicken." His dad says. "It looks delicious. I was almost hoping you wouldn't be home so I could have more of it." He says jokingly. His mom gets up and walks over to the oven.
Jason laughs. "I actually won't be home very long." He says.
"Oh?" His mother says, pulling the chicken out of the oven. "Why's that?" She asks.
"Well, you see, I'm going over to Billy's tonight." Jason says. "He told me he would help me with my math homework."
"You're a senior in high school and you still need help with your math?" His dad asks. "Why didn't you just ask me for help? You always used to come me for help."
"It's pre-calculous." Jason says. "Billy's took the class last year and got an A. I was just hoping I could understand it a little better."
"What time are you going over there?" His mom asks.
"I was planning on going right after dinner." Jason says.
"Alright, well just be safe." his mom says. "Ever since that Earthquake a few days ago, this city's gone crazy. Monster attacks, Military involvement. It's nuts."
"I'll be safe." Jason says. "Don't worry about me."
"I always worry about you." His mom says. "You're my son, and I love you."
"Ah, mom." Jason says. "You know what I meant. I'll be fine."
"I'm sure you will." she says.
"Yeah, you're a good kid." His dad says. "Now let's eat before this food gets cold."
The 3 of them sit down at the table and begin eating.
Kim walks into her house. "Dad, I'm home." she shouts.
"Huh, what?" Her dad says. She walks into the living room and sees him lying on the couch.
"I said, I'm home dad." Kim says.
"Oh, right." He says, sitting up. "How was school?"
"Fine." Kim says. Her dad lies back down on the couch.
"That's good." He says. "Can you grab me a beer?"
"Why can't you do it?" She asks him.
"Because I'm lying down, and there is no beer within reach." her dad says. Kim just shakes her head.
"I think you've had enough today." She says looking at 7 empty beer cans lying on the floor. "Besides, I was just checking in. I've got a group project that I need to go work on."
"Alright." Her dad says. "Let me know when you get back."
"OK." Kim says. She turns around and walks back out the door. She looks around to make sure no one is around, then reaches for her communicator. She is just about to teleport when Tommy's car pulls into the driveway next door. He gets out of the car and looks over at Kim. He sees her messing with her wrist.
"What are you doing, Kim?" he asks.
"Oh…" Kim says, caught off guard. She quickly tries to think of an explanation. "My, um, watch stopped working. I was just trying to fix it."
"Why don't you let me take a look at it?" Tommy says.
"Oh, no it's fine." Kim says. "It's working now. Don't know what was wrong with it, but whatever it was, it's fixed now."
"Well, that's good." Tommy says.
"I hate to run, Tommy, but I really have to go." Kim says.
"Do you need a ride?" Tommy asks. "I'm not doing anything tonight and I know you don't have a car."
Kim grimaces she doesn't know how to explain to Tommy she doesn't need a ride. She says the first thing that comes to her mind. "Um… nah, it's such a nice night out. I think I'll walk."
"Mind if I come with you?" Tommy asks. "I'd rather go walking with you than sitting at home doing nothing."
Kim is frozen. She has no idea how to respond. "Um… well, you see. That could kind of be awkward. It's a, um…" She says, then pauses for a few seconds. Suddenly she thinks of a possible excuse. "It's a family thing, and if I showed up with a guy, they'd never let me hear the end of it. My little cousins would make fun of me to no end. Any other night, I'd love to go on a walk with you, but you understand."
"Yeah, sure. I understand." Tommy says. "I'll see you later, I guess."
"Bye, and sorry I couldn't hang out." Kim says. She turns and walks down the block and around the corner.
"Everytime I ask to do anything with her she makes some excuse no to do it. I'm going to figure out what's going on." Tommy thinks to himself. He walks over to his car and gets back in it. He drives down to where Kim turned the corner. He turns and looks around. "Where did she go?" He says out loud. He keeps driving looking for her, but can't seem to find her. After about driving a few miles, he finds himself nearly the edge of the city. "Man there's nothing over here." He says to himself. "Maybe I should go home."
Tommy is just about ready to turn around when he spots an unmarked semi-truck driving further out of town, into an area he's never been. "That's odd." He thinks to himself. "Why would there be an unmarked semi headed over there? There's nothing there, is there?"
At this time, Tommy's brain shoots back to an article he read online. He read about how some people use unmarked vehicles to kidnap people. Tommy begins to feel guilty, realizing he let Kim walk by herself. "I'm probably wrong, but if Kim turns up to be missing, I'll never forgive myself if don't follow this truck." He says out loud. He decides to follow the vehicle.
The truck continues on the road. Tommy is watching it closely, but also maintains a far enough distance that the driver of the truck would not be suspicious about the vehicle following him.
Suddenly, Goldar appears in front of the semi truck. He shoots laser beams out of his eye at the truck. It attempts to stop but skids and the trailer attached to the back of the truck tips over. Tommy's eyes widen. He can't believe what he is seeing. "Did a gold monkey really just attack that truck?" he wonders to himself.
"Putties, find the Power Coin!" Goldar shouts. A large group of putties appear around him and start attacking the truck. The Driver of the truck and 2 D.E.T.A. employees exit out of the cab. About 10 soldiers climb out of the trailer. They fire guns at the putties, but it is not very effective. Goldar slowly walks up to the two D.E.T.A employees. He grabs one of them by the throat. "Where is the Green Ranger power coin!?" He shouts. The man tries to speak but is unable to. "Where is the coin?" Goldar asks again. He throws the man in the side of the truck and falls the ground.
Tommy has seen enough. He gets out his car and charges toward the battle. He leans up against the side of the cab and listens to what is happening on the other side.
Goldar does not notice Tommy. Instead, Goldar walks towards the other man. "Stop, please." The man says. "Don't hurt me!"
"Tell me where the coin is!" Goldar shouts, pulling out his sword.
"It's in the trailer." The man says. "Please spare me!"
"Thank you for the information." Goldar says. "You're no longer of any use to me." He then stabs the man in the chest. He pulls the sword out the chest and the man falls the ground.
Tommy heard this entire conversation and darts for the trailer. He climbs inside and begins looking for the coin.
At this time, the putties are defeating the soldiers with relative ease. The guns are not having any effect on the putties. 5 of the soldiers are knocked to the ground by the putties. Goldar walks towards the battle that is going on and fires lasers out his eyes at the remaining soldiers, and they fall to the ground.
"Those humans can be such an annoyance." Goldar says. "The coin is somewhere in the trailer."
"Hey monkey brain!" Tommy yells. "Looking for this?" Tommy holds up a box and opens it to reveal the Green Ranger power coin.
"What!?" Goldar yells. "Give me the coin, foolish human, and I will spare your live."
"Why would I give the coin to you?" Tommy says. "I don't know what it does, but I'm pretty sure whatever it does, I don't want you to have it."
"As you wish; Putties attack!" Goldar yells. The putties charge at Tommy. They surround him. Tommy looks at all of them.
"Come on!" Tommy yells. "Who wants to be first." One of the putties tries to kick him in the chest, but Tommy grabs his legs and flips him backwards. Tommy does a drop kick on the putty. Another putty comes in from behind and kicks him, knocking Tommy to the ground, and he drops the box with the Green Ranger coin. Tommy rolls over quickly and grabs the box. He hops up quickly and does a spinning kick into the putty that kicked him. Another putty comes in and tries to punch him, but he leans back out of the way. He grabs the putties fist and throws him back.
"Who's next?" Tommy says. Two of them charge at him from different sides but he jumps up and basically does the splits in the air as he kicks both of them back. Now only one putty remains. He runs at the last one, rolls over the putty's back and lands on the other side. He does a sliding kick along the ground taking out the putty's legs. He turns to Goldar.
"It looks like your the only one left, goldilocks." Tommy says.
"It would appear so." Goldar says, almost in awe that Tommy was able to defeat the putties. "You are skilled, human, but not even you are a match for me."
"We'll see about that." Tommy charges at Goldar and tries to kick him in the chest. Goldar grabs the kick and throws Tommy back. Goldar steps on Tommy's chest and then holds his sword up to Tommy's throat. He grabs the box from Tommy's hand.
"Are you gonna kill me?" Tommy asks, defiantly.
"No." Goldar says. "I have a better idea." He grabs Tommy and pulls him to his feet. Then he pulls his sword across his chest and both of them disappear.
Jason teleports into the command center and finds Zack and Trini already there.
"Welcome, Jason." Zordon says.
"Zordon, they took our morphers." Jason says.
"I am aware, Jason." Zordon says. "Once you are all here, we will try to come up with a solution."
"This is bad." Alpha says. "This is terrible."
"Calm down, Alpha." Zordon says. "Rita has not won, yet."
"Yeah, but without our powers…" Trini says.
"I am aware of the situation, Trini." Zordon says. "Things do not look good at the moment, but remember that it is always darkest right before the dawn."
"Yeah, yeah." Trini says. At that point Kim teleports in.
"Sorry, I took so long." Kim says. "I was just about to teleport, but I ran into Tommy. I couldn't teleport in front of him."
"It's fine, Kim." Trini says.
"Yeah, Billy's not even here yet." Jason says.
"Oh." Kim says. "That's not like him to be late."
"No, it's not." Zack says. "I wonder what's up."
"Well, it's not like we established a time." Trini says. "We just said check in and then come here. Maybe it's taking him longer to establish an excuse with his parents."
"Maybe…" Jason says. At that time Trini's phone starts to ring. Jason looks at her. "Who's calling you?" He asks.
"It's Billy…" Trini says. "Hello?"
On the other end Billy responds. "Hey Trini, are you at the command center?" He asks.
"Yeah… We were just wondering where you were." Trini says.
"Well, I forgot that those goons grabbed my communicator. Can you have them teleport me in?" Billy responds.
"Yeah, no problem." Trini says. She turns to Alpha. "Billy's communicator was taken along with his morpher. He can't teleport in. Can you do it?" She asks.
"I'm on it, Trini." Alpha says enthusiastically. "Teleporting, now."
Billy teleports in. "Thanks." He says to Alpha and Trini.
"Is it really a good idea to be discussing this stuff over the phone?" Jason asks. "You know they can listen in on those."
"Yes, I know." Billy says. "But remember, the government already knows who we are. Besides, the only thing I said that might raise some heads is the word teleport."
"I guess you're right." Jason says. He turns to Zordon. "OK, so, now we're all here. What's our next move?" He asks.
"This is a terrible situation." Zordon says. "Without your powers, the Earth will not be able to defend itself against Rita's attacks."
"Yeah, we know." Zack says. "The question is what are we going to do about it."
"Can't we just, like, teleport the morphers out?" Kim asks.
"I wish it was that simple." Zordon says. "The exact location of the morphers cannot be pinpointed. This was a defense mechanism installed into so that no one would be able to find them if they were not supposed to."
"Well, that seems like a poor design right about now." Zack says.
"Why did you let it get to this point?" Kim asks. "Couldn't you have teleported us out or something?"
"Yes, I could have." Zordon says. "However, I was not alerted to the danger until it was too late. The alarm is set up to sound when one of Rita's monsters attacks. By the time I knew you were in any sort of danger, you had already surrendered you morphers. Though it may not seem like it, I believe you made the right decision. It is better to have the team together without your powers then to have lost one of the rangers."
"OK… But what do we do know?" Jason says.
"Our most important objective is to retrieve your morphers." Zordon says.
"But how are we going to do that?" Trini asks. "We know there in that facility somewhere, but that place was huge. There's no way we would find them."
"I think I have an idea." Billy says. "Zordon, can your pinpoint the exact location of my communicator?"
"An excellent idea, Billy." Alpha says. "The morphers may have that defense mechanism, but the communicators do not."
"It's not a guarantee, but there's a good chance that my communicator is in the same spot as the morphers." Bills says.
"Alpha, beginning scanning for Billy's communicator." Zordon says.
"Scanning, now." Alpha says. Alpha presses a few buttons on the comunicator. After a few seconds of the other congratulating Billy on his idea, the alarms in the Command Center start to go off.
"What's going on?" Kim shouts.
"The alarms are sounding!" Billy says.
"There is a monster attack in Angel Grove." Zordon says. "Observe the viewing globe."
"That's Goldar!" Jason shouts. "What's he doing?"
"I don't know, but he's attacking the abandoned warehouse district." Zack says. "What he want down there?"
"It might be a trap to draw us out." Trini says. "They may not know we don't have our powers."
"I don't think so, Trini." Billy says. "If he wanted to draw us out, why would he attack an area with such a low population? It would seem much more likely there is something down there he wants."
"Well, what do we do about it?" Kim asks. "We can't really fight him without our powers."
"We have to!" Jason shouts. "It doesn't matter if we have our powers or not, we're still rangers, and there are people in danger down there."
"Look we're wasting our time talking about it." Zack says. "Are we going or not?"
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going." Jason says. "I don't care if we don't have any powers."
"I'm in, too." Billy says.
"Count me in." Trini says.
"Fine, I'll come, too." Kim says.
"If you need them, Alpha can send the zords." Zordon says. "But be warned, if you use the zords without your powers, any damage the zords take will be much more dangerous to you."
Jason looks at Alpha. "Alpha, can you teleport us down there?"
"I will." Alpha says. "Please be careful, rangers."
"We will." Jason says. Alpha presses a few buttons on the computer and the rangers teleport away.
The rangers land next to the truck that Goldar had attacked. They look around.
"Looks like we missed the fight." Zack says.
"These look like D.E.T.A. soldiers." Jason says.
"What would D.E.T.A. soldiers be doing here?" Trini asks. "There's nothing down here."
"Unless they were the ones brining it." Billy says. "Think about it. There is nothing down here, yet there's a truck, a crew of D.E.T.A. soldiers, and Goldar attacked down here."
"Billy's right." Jason says. "D.E.T.A. definitely was transporting something down here. The question is what."
Kim looks around and spots the two D.E.T.A. employees who had ridden in the cab of the truck. "Look over there!" She says pointing to the guys. The teens run over to the guys.
"Oh man." Trini says. "Look at this." She points to the guys chest, where Goldar had stabbed him. "Is he…?" She asks.
Billy feels his throat for a pulse. "He's gone." Billy says. "Goldar must have got him."
Jason check on the other guy. "Hey, this guy's still alive!" He shouts. The others run to his side. The man is passed out, but alive. "Hey man, are you alright." Jason asks. The guy is still unconscious. Jason gives him a few gentle slaps on either side of his face. The guy begins to come to.
"What… what happened?" The D.E.T.A. employee says. "Who are you? The coin!" He shouts. He runs to the back of the truck and climbs in the trailer.
"Hold on, man." Jason says. "Slow down, and tell us what is going on."
The D.E.T.A. employee climbs out of the trailer. "It's gone." The man says almost defeated. He leans up against the truck and slides down to the ground, where he is now sitting.
"What's gone?" Zack asks. "What's going on here?"
The man turns away from him, but he grabs his shoulder in pain. He cries out loudly in agony.
"Are you alright?" Trini asks.
"I'm… Fine." The man says. He tries to stand up, but is unable to and falls back to the ground. He shouts again in agony.
"You need medical attention." Billy says. "I'm calling for an ambulance." Billy walks away from the group.
"You're clearly hurt." Jason says. "What happened to you."
"You kids would never believe me." The man says. "I'm not even sure I believe it myself."
Billy walks back to the group. "There's an ambulance on the way."
The man sighs. "Thanks…" The man says.
"Tell us what happened, please." Jason says. "We've seen our fair share of things that we would have thought were unbelievable not too long ago."
"Well, here's what I think happened." The man says. "We were transporting… something… and out of a nowhere a Gold Monkey appeared. I'd never seen anything like it. We had a lot of soldiers in the back guarding the cargo and we had two employees up front here. We were supposed to check in when the truck arrived, but that never happened. The gold monkey shot lasers out of his eyes, which hit our truck and caused it to crash. We were all able to escape. I tried to stand up to the monkey, but he picked me up and tossed me like a ragdoll. That's all I remember."
"What were you carrying?" Trini asks.
'I don't think I'm authorized to tell you that." The man says.
"Look, man,I know you don't know if you can trust us or not, but believe me, it's important." Zack says.
"I am not supposed to tell anyone about this project." The employee says.
"Is it about the super ranger project?" Billy asks.
"How… How do you know about that?" The man asks.
"Let's just say we have a relationship with Commander Harrison." Billy says. "So was that what you were carrying?"
"Yeah, it's power source." The man says. At that time, an ambulance pulls in. A couple of paramedics jump out of the back.
Billy runs over to them. "Thanks for coming so fast." He says. "He's right over here."
The paramedics help him to his feet. They take a look at him. "What happened to you?" One of them asks.
"There was a monster attack." Billy says. "We were in the area and heard something, so we thought we check it out and make sure everyone was alright."
"Monster attack?" One of the paramedics asks. "You kids are lucky the monster wasn't still around. Coming down here was very brave of you."
The paramedics and teens help the man into the ambulance. The man looks at the teens. "Thanks again." The teens nod and smiles. The back of the ambulance closes and they drive away.
Zack turns to the rest of the teens. "This is bad." He says. "Now Rita has a power coin."
"Great." Kim says. "The situation goes from bad to worse."
"Don't panic guys." Jason says. "We now know the situation."
"So what's our next move?" Trini asks. "We can't just do nothing."
The rangers communicators go off. "This is Jason. Go ahead." Jason says.
"We have located Billy's communicator." Alpha says. "Teleport back to the command center."
"Will do." Jason says. "You heard him. Let's go." Trini grabs Billy's hand, and the rangers teleport away.
End Chapter 9