Mmmm...Tarzan. Part 5!

The doors slid apart, clunking softly as they opened fully. The pair in the lounge managed to ignore this noise. They managed to ignore the echo of the newcomers' feet on the polished floor. Then the intruders cleared their throats loudly. The couple finally had to acknowledge the others, though not politely.

"What!" Adam growled. Hidden in the shadows under his furrowed brows, his eyes glared at them. His hair was disheveled, face still smudged with grease. He was holding himself above his girlfriend in what looked like a protective gesture.

"You really don't make this any easier on yourself," Billy laughed.

Adam stood quickly, trying to compose himself. But all standing did was put him on a level where he could stare into the faces turning grotesque shades of red and purple as they tried not to laugh. Once again he retreated.

"You know," Melanie commented, still lying on the couch. "I've known you less than a day, and already you're way too good at spoiling my fun."

"Maybe you should go talk to him." Andy suggested sympathetically.

Billy sighed. "Where would he be?"

"The kitchen," Melanie told him.

"How do you know?"

"I'm good like that," she smirked. "I'll show you."

It had been her cousin's idea to add the small kitchen. And this was not simply because the greatest loves in Rocky's life went in the order of Family, Friends, and Food. When the suggestion came, his logic actually made sense. So frequently the Rangers were called away from their lives at unexpected times, that the Command Center needed to be made into a fully-functioning home. And when the Rangers considered how many times they were forced to remain there waiting for evil to attack, not one of them could argue against Rocky's suggestion.

So now the three entered Rocky's favorite part of the newly rebuilt Command Center. They found Adam sitting on a stool, sulking into a bowl of pretzels. Melanie entered first, pausing to rub the boy's back, and proceeded to the shining stainless steel refrigerator. Andrea poked at Billy, inching him further into the room. He waved her away, and moved to the stool facing Adam's.

"Listen," Billy began, but quickly realized he didn't know what he was going to say.

Adam was ignoring him anyway. As a scientist, Billy made his living with his skill of observation. Even now, when he was just a friend trying to apologize, he couldn't turn his brain off. He watched the Asian chewing on his bottom lip, his fingers rubbing at his neck--no doubt where Melanie had laid her lips.

"She gets under your skin that badly?" the scientist whispered.

"You have no idea."

"I think I can imagine…" Billy looked back over his shoulder at the blonde arguing with her sling.

"No…" Adam sighed. "You can't. She's like liquid fire to me. Any place she touches burns for hours…"

Glancing up at the fire goddess, Billy knew that she couldn't hear their hushed voices. He watched her as she searched in the refrigerator and produced a small red pepper. She passed the pepper under her nose, inhaling the scent, and then bit down. Billy could only imagine how spicy that little red devil must be, and the girl didn't even blink.

"Liquid fire…" Billy repeated slowly. "Your own Mexican hot pepper."

"Could we talk somewhere else?"

As Billy followed Adam into the Power Chamber, he questioned

whether or not he should give away the secret of Melanie's fire. He decided that was something better left to the couple, and kept his mouth shut.

There was no one else in the Power Chamber now. Tanya had taken the subatomic welder down to Tor. Kat, Tommy, and Jason were getting a gas chromatograph from the University. Aisha, Kimberly, Rocky, Zack, and Erin had been assigned the task of setting up sensors around the metropolitan area of Angel Grove--the most likely area to come under attack first. And Andrea and Melanie were in the kitchen; discussing things that would make the two men shudder.

Adam leaned against a panel, glowering at the viewing globe as it flashed images of Angel Grove. Billy opened his mouth a few times, trying to figure out just how to begin. But each time the articulate speech got lost on the way from his brain, and his lips kept forming the same words.

"I'm sorry."

"Andy swears that you won't say anything."

"I won't!" Billy assured him quickly, but Adam wasn't listening. All brooding cast aside, he stared at the viewing globe. The sphere glowed with images of a soccer team being attacked by--

"Piscelons."

"What are they?"

"Scientists on Aquitar have been developing a method of gene splicing. They've been trying to create the perfect foot soldiers so that they can save the Rangers for larger conquests."

"So those are fish-people?" The concept would have been laughable were they not seeing just how much damage the genetically engineered creatures were capable of doing.

"In the simplest sense, yes."

"We've got to stop them."

"Without your Ranger powers--"

"There's only six of them," Melanie said. She had been drawn by the warning alarm that was only now beginning to quiet. "That's three for the both of us."

"Fine. I'll set the coordinates. But remember to be careful. The piscelons are very good at their job, and you aren't a Ranger anymore…"

Before the teleporter energy had finished crackling around them, the pair was on the move. Billy had set the coordinates at a safe distance from the attack, but even from this distance they could hear the terrified screams. It seemed to take forever for them to reach the fight. They really needn't have rushed; the piscelons were just bidding their time with the park's occupants while they waited for some Rangers to arrive.

However ridiculous the fish-men looked from a distance, as they turned on the new arrivals, it was difficult not to find them at least a little frightening. Their skin shimmered with iridescent scales, while their eyes remained black, emotionless voids. The scientists on Aquitar had apparently developed the piscelons from the DNA of Barracuda, for their long narrow faces ended in a mouth erupting with dozens of needle-like teeth.

Blocking an attack from a webbed hand, Adam's eyes grew wide at the enormity of the pointed claws. He quickly set to work fighting off the piscelons; at least his skills as a martial artist hadn't abandoned him like the Ranger powers had. A few yards away, Melanie was luring the remaining foot soldiers from the soccer team, allowing the terrified teens to make their escape. Though she was never a Ranger, Melanie spent enough time with them to be a target, so Adam had made it a point of teaching her to fight. The lessons appeared to have been a wise decision; though nothing could prepare a fighter for the underhanded moves these evil fish were pulling.

While Melanie was distracted by one piscelon, another took the opportunity to make an attack. Catching the movement, she avoided having her throat slit; instead the talons raked across the side of her face. The girl let loose a long and colorful line of curses, which caused Andrea to blush as she watched the viewing globe.

As he attempted to run to his girlfriend's aid, Adam left himself open to an attack. It came swiftly, knocking him to the ground, where the barrage of kicks, punches, and scratches continued until it looked like the man was barely breathing.

Weaving an intricate line through the mid-day traffic, Tommy Oliver made his way skillfully across Angel Grove. His time as the Red Turbo Ranger had left the lasting impression of a speed demon on the man; he continually had to fight with his own leg to keep from exceeding the speed limit. The fight seemed an even greater struggle then usual. His mind was occupied with what the recent returned Billy had told them, and with his head distracted, his foot was taking over.

" Hey, man," Jason said, breaking the foot's control over the gas pedal.

"This is all too weird."

"I know," Jason nodded. "The Alien Rangers are evil. I don't want to believe it. But it's Billy, man. He's been with the Rangers from the start. I can't imagine that he would lie to us about this."

"Yeah. But why would the Aquitians be evil? They're so…." Tommy searched for the word. "Stoic."

"Gas chromatograph," the Australian said quietly from the backseat. She had drawn the short straw, and was chosen to remember the name of the instrument they had been sent to retrieve.

"But," Jason continued, thoughtfully. "Being stoic just means that you take a survey of what's happening around you without your emotions getting in the way. They probably saw which way the scale was tipping and decided it would be better not to fight the evil."

"So being stoic means it's easier to turn evil?" Tommy shot a quizzical look towards his friend.

"Gas chromatograph!" Kat said skeptically.

"Kat's right. That's bullshit." Tommy turned the white BMW onto the campus of Angel Grove University. "They're Rangers, same as we were. They're bound to the same oath as we were. It's their duty to fight evil."

"Gas chromatograph."

"Thank you," he smiled at the blonde.

"I'm not saying the decision was a good one." Jason held his hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying I can see how the decision was made."

"Gas chromatograph."

"Apology accepted," Jason smiled.

"But knowing the Aquitian Rangers are coming to destroy us doesn't help us figure out how to defeat them." Tommy pointed out as he parked the car.

"Well, that's why we're after the gas…. cartographer?" Jason looked to Kat for help. She smiled, and then replied.

"Gas chromatograph."

Erin bounced happily into the Power Chamber, eager to share the news that her sensor had been set up. But the flashing lights told her that her news was not all that important anymore. Andrea shouted to her:

"Hurry! They're losing! Morph!"

Not questioning what she was told, Erin threw her arms down to her sides. With a flick of her wrists the morphers appeared, and she yelled:

"Zeo Ranger VII: Silver!"

White hot sparks flew from her morphers and various control panels around the room; through the thin plumes of smoke they could see that Erin remained unchanged. The lights were dim now, all but the emergency lights were out; the viewing globe no longer displayed Adam's defeat.

"What happened?"

"System overload," Erin groaned. "I was afraid it might be too soon. We've been putting so much energy into all the diagnostics and repairs that it couldn't handle a morph."

"Do we have teleporters?"

"Negative," Billy punched more buttons.

Erin ran to join them at the panel. "Maybe by reversing the polarity…"

"That won't work."
"What about surging energy from the--"

"That won't work either."

"Well, you think of something!"

"I think," Andrea jumped in before the two started slapping one another. "The locators are still online. It might be a good idea to keep their coordinates locked in….for when the power comes back on…" Really it was just something to keep her hand busy, and it gave them all hope that there would be power back soon enough to save their friends.

"Good idea. Lock onto all of them. If the piscelons are here, they can attack any of us…" Billy trailed off as he realized this was not the thing to say at the moment.

"What if we were to bleed the system of all remaining power, THEN surge it with electricity from the back up system?"

"Shock the system back into nominal… That could work." And the two scientists were off. Andrea punched coordinates into the system, and watched the others run from one panel to another, yanking out and crossing wires, and rearranging data cards.

"Moment of truth…" They all clamped their eyes shut as Billy pulled down on a lever. Only a few sparks flew, but the Power Chamber was once again lit brilliantly.

"Andy, hurry up and tele--" Erin began, but flashes of colored light indicated that Andrea had already teleported everyone back to the Command Center. Most of them looked confused; Zack was tangled in the antenna that belonged in the sensor he and Kim were setting up; Jason was still arguing with Tommy over getting to drive. Melanie was on her side, halfway through a kick at the knees of a piscelon; now that she was at the Command Center, however, her foot landed on Rocky, knocking her cousin to the floor.

"I'm sorry! Rocko! You okay?"

"I'm so glad you didn't know how to do that when we were five."

She laughed, then remembered.

"Adam!" He lay on the floor, motionless and bleeding.