Chapter Seven
"A New Team Forged"
Richie stared at the spinning force field around in front of him, no longer gawking. There has to be a way in, he mused.
"Trini, is that you?" called a voice in the distance.
Richie turned his head. Zack the Silver Rangers was running towards him.
"Sorry, Zack, wrong gender," Richie replied. "But she sent me."
"You are you then?"
"Zack, it's me, Richie—from high school."
Zack gawked.
"I'll fill you in on the details later. How do we break into this thing?"
Zack moved glanced at it. "I was wondering the same thing myself.
Just then Billy teleported in front of them on the opposite side of the force field. Sean you were always saying how fate had a sense of humor, he murmured. "It's a relief to see you guys," he said. "We need to stop the rotation of these streams. Unfortunately, they're at different intervals so it'd be next to impossible to brace something between them."
"What about just stopping one of them?" Richie supplied. "And then we can teleport inside."
Surprised by Richie's voice, Billy did a double take at Richie. "Who are you?"
"Richie, Billy; Billy, Richie," Zack introduced.
"Can we cut to the chase?" Richie asked, impatience getting the best of him. "Billy, would that work?"
Putting two and two together, Billy nodded. "It could. But then we'd be back to square one and Rocky, Adam, and Tommy are tired already. I wonder…" He extended his hand toward a space between the energy streams. Electricity fizzled as he touched the invisible barrier.
"What does that mean?" Richie asked.
"Half of the force field is invisible," Billy explained.
"Sorry man," Richie sighed.
"Don't feel bad; it was a good suggestion." Billy tapped his communicator. "Haley, what if we fired a concentrated energy beam at the force field, halting some of its velocity."
"The only thing I can think of to use would be the zords, but two wouldn't be enough."
"Hey, we've never seen my zord; we don't know what it can do," Zack interjected.
"True, but we don't get that force field down soon, Tommy and the others won't last longer. You need to encompass the entire height of it—if not all of it."
"Hmm," Billy hummed, staring at the field. He looked around. No putties were within sight of him. Perfect. "We're going to have to knock it down then," he finally said.
"Billy can you do that?" Zack asked, remembering what Billy had said about the limits of his telekinesis yesterday.
"I'll have to," Billy met his eyes, in a way only an experienced morphed ranger could to another morphed ranger. "You guys might want to step back.
"Sure," Richie said. He and Zack moved back a few feet.
Exhaling a deep breath, Billy stared at line in the force field in front of him. The mind does not move matter, he recited. It is the energy through the direction of the mind that does it. Through this even energy can be manipulated. Billy recalled the months of beginning metaphysical training with Sean—the frustration and uncertainty. Now, he saw the piece of force field for what it was, a piece of energy. "Guys, keep your blade blasters ready. I might need your help."
Silently, his friends readied their side arms, waiting with patience. Anxiety crept up Richie's arms, unsure of what he was going to see or how he would react to it.
Billy sank into an open eyed meditation, focusing his attention and energy on one stream of the force field. Letting go of cognitive thought, he yielded to instinct. Neither time nor impatience swayed him. Instead he waited as if to prance, surrendering to the will of his sacred animal—being more than its avatar: its partner. As he sank deeper into this power, blue energy glowed from underneath his suit, dazzling the other's eyes yet Billy ignored it, not actually aware of it. Soon the rapid passing energy streams did not daunt him. Billy's vision quickened, watching them sleek by. However those were not his targets. The entire force field was. Opening himself up to that reality, he reached out both forward and behind him with his hands, capturing the entire force field in his grasp. It stopped. Billy lurched in both directions, his arm muscles almost ripping form their ligaments and tendons. He dug into the ground with his feet, anchoring himself in position, but the strain nearly tore him upward into a violent cyclone of human tissue.
Meanwhile, Richie gaped at Billy and the force field, doubt of his vision and awe of the reality battling within him. He froze in shock incapable of independent movement. Even after living in Angel Grove for eleven years, this stretched his comprehensibility.
Even Zack was surprised.
"It's still active!" Billy yelled through gritted teeth. "I can't… do… more!"
"We need to help him," Zack said.
"How?" Richie asked, swinging his attention to Zack.
"Richie, we're a team," Zack said, looking at him.
And with that, Richie's brain shifted back into geared. Team. Teamwork. No 'I' in team. "Right," he said, staring back at the force field, his position grounded.
Surrendering to instinct, they touched each other's nearest hands, stretching out with their outer ones toward Billy. Power rose within them, they glowed: Richie, yellow, and Zack, silver; neither one cancelling the other out. Instead they both shined, casting a heavenly glow on the grass and nearby trees. And somehow, their powers reached Billy as he fought to stay together. Jolts of electricity shot up his legs to his hands and head, empowering his body. The added energy filled him, obscuring his body with a cerulean corona. His psychic grip tightened, halting the force field's rebellious crawling. Suddenly, the energy shining from within them transformed into gold as if they had transformed into angels from Heaven. Remotely, Billy and Richie smiled within, as pure benevolence washed through them.
In that instant, the doorway to Billy's talent laid wide open. Gasping hold of that power, radiant with benevolence, his power and being bloomed. He reached his hands upwards, the strain no longer affecting him. Anything was possible in this moment. In the name of the Ninjetti, break down this force field! he chanted.
Heaving his hands down, the entire force field splintered and crashed around him, cancelling into nothing.
Sighing and then gasping for breath, Billy collapsed to his knees, utterly winded. "Morphinaminal!" he uttered. Falling forward, he caught himself with his hands.
"Billy!" Zack exclaimed as he and Richie rushing to him. "That was incredible!"
"Are you okay?" Richie asked, helping Billy up. "How did we do that?"
"All things are possible to those who are Ninjetti," Billy said, smiling. "Tell the others."
Nodding, Zack brought his communicator to his mouth piece. "Guys, the force field is destroyed."
"Good to hear, Zack! But these putties are whipping our buts." Tommy reported.
"Then we should retreat," Billy responded, standing up.
"Agreed. Meet back at— Hey, they disappeared."
"Finally!" Billy sighed.
"Unfortunately, I have some more bad news," Haley chimed in through their communicators. "Sean's in major trouble. He's fighting Zedd and losing. Goldar, Scorpina, and Rita are there also but a bit winded. Billy, can you handle one more fight?"
"Sure," Billy said, gathering his breath. Restoration flowed back through him.
"Oh, by the way, guys," Zack mentioned, "we have a surprise. The good kind this time."
Back in Virginia, Zedd swung his staff left and right which Sean parried with the Dragon Dagger. Seeing an opening, Zedd kicked Sean into the ground and swung the bladed end of his staff toward Sean's stomach. Fortunately, Sean immediately blasted Zedd backward with an energy discharge from his Dagger. Recovering almost instantly, Zedd stabbed at the ground. However, Sean had rolled out of the way at the last second.
"Your luck is over, Sean!" Zedd roared, wheeling his staff around for another assault. "Sooner or later, you'll give out."
Knowing the truth in this, Sean did not surrender.
"Very well," Zedd seethed, raising his staff again.
All of a sudden the rest of the power rangers teleported in a ring around them. Instantly seeing what was happening, Tommy intercepted Zedd's attack with Saba.
"What!?" Zedd snarled. And then he saw the Yellow Ranger, thinking it was Trini. "NO!!!!"
"Not good odds, Zedd," Tommy smirked. Looks like your trap failed.
"Why you pathetic—" Zedd roared, torn from clawing Tommy in half or impaling him.
Immediately, Jason materialized five yards outside of the ring. "Enough, Zedd!" he yelled.
Zedd halted. The rangers looked at Jason, even Richie. Worry grew within the rangers.
"I refuse!" Zedd declared, maintaining his grip. "Not when we're this close!"
"You're close to dying!" Jason added.
Seething with shame and annoyance, Zedd turned away from Tommy and stabbed the ground with his staff.
"Return to the Chamber of Command!" Jason ordered his minions. "This battle is over." Reluctantly, Zedd, Rita, Goldar, and Scorpina obeyed. Jason stared at Richie, peering at him.
Inside his helmet, surprise possessed Richie. Sweat built up upon his brow.
"The battle is won. Congratulations, Richie, Zack, Billy." Without another word, he vanished.
No sooner had Jason materialized within the Chamber of Command, Zedd marched toward him, getting Jason's face. "I could have finished him!" Zedd snapped at Jason, fury boiling within him.
"That battle was pointless when you lost your advantage," Jason responded in a calmer fury. "You would have lost or been destroyed if I hadn't helped you."
"I wanted that power ranger dead!" Zedd roared.
"He will die!" Jason bit back. "All of them will."
"All of those years planning for this, and we lost!" Zedd growled. Furious, he struck the floor with his staff, sending four lightning bolts across it.
Unfazed, Jason merely looked at Zedd. "Trini was never there," he simply said.
Zedd paused, forgetting his fury. All eyes in the Chamber turned to Jason, curious to this new piece of news. Even Rita's interest perked up. "What do you mean?" asked Zedd.
"Look at the Earth."
"Out of my way, Goldar!" she shrieked, heading for her telescope. Zedd turned around and fired his supervision at earth. "My Lord, why did you allow this?" Rita asked.
"I… was curious," Jason replied. "Now, because of that hesitation, we have a full ranger team to deal with."
"We can still crush them!" Goldar shouted.
"Be silent, Goldar," Jason ordered. "Today's battle has tired all of us. Continuing would have been pointless. And there's more."
Even Zedd forgot his anger at this statement.
"We must change out tactics," Jason said. "But not after some rest and you hear what just happened."
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Billy helped Sean up, putting Sean's arm over his shoulder.
The rest of the rangers gaped at the new Yellow Ranger. "Richie, is that you?" Kimberly asked.
"Yes, Kimberly," Richie said, nodding.
"Let us see each other through equal eyes," Sean semi slurred. "Everyone morph back." They did.
Richie stared at them with widened eyes of honor. Even though Trini had told him who they were, seeing their faces tore them from the abstract and sculpted them in reality. "I meant it when I said Trini sent me," he said. "She's staying at my place. She's safe."
Some of them looked down, sad at this outcome.
"She's not ready for this, is she?" Zack asked.
"Perhaps it is time for you to hear hers and Jason's tale," Sean supplied.
"That's an understatement," Zack responded.
"We'll hear it," Tommy said. Like the rest of his friends, he was winded and tired. "But not now. With Richie joining us, everything's changed—something Jason may not have expected. For now, let's get some rest. All of us deserve it after today."
Each of them nodded, murmuring agreements.
"We'll meet again tomorrow—after your tests," Tommy added to Rocky and Adam.
Rocky sighed. "Oh, yeah. Those."
"Until then…" he placed his fist in the center. Kimberly, Zack, and Billy, Rocky, and Adam placed their hands over it. Sean laid his over the others'. Richie hesitated. "You're a part of this team also, Richie." Tommy added, looking at him. Each of the others smiled at him, welcoming him. Gratified at this reception, Richie placed his hand over their hands.
"Power Rangers!" All of them chorused, jumping in unison.
The End.