DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POWER RANGERS

Chapter 13 – Part 1: The Great Freeze

"I shall send a warrior into the city My Lord", Ammix bowed and turned on his heel, intent on seeing through his promise.

"No", Osirico held up a commanding hand to stop Ammix in his tracks; "I will do it myself this time". The serpentine Commander lifted a quizzical eyebrow at his master's suggestion, yet didn't dare to question his motives. "Fetch me a...cold...creature".

"Here we go again", Hayley sighed as she abandoned her latest system upgrade and contacted each of the Rangers' morphers.

"Guys? We've got trouble", she waited until each of the Rangers had acknowledged their receipt of the message; "Get yourselves down to the Harbor".

"I don't believe this", Tori cursed her luck from where she sat on her surfboard halfway out to sea. Taking one last, longing look at the huge swells that were forming nearby she caught the final one and rapidly made the return journey back to the beach. Quickly toweling off, she strapped her board to the roof of her van and gunned the engine.

Not far away, Adam and Xander were heaving several of Kira's large speakers through the back door of the Cyberspace as their morphers rang out and Hayley's voice drifted towards them.

"Did you guys hear that?" Kira's head poked around the corner towards the guys.

"Yep, we're all over it", the Black and Green Rangers set down the heavy speakers before joining Kira in dashing out the way they had come in.

"We're in for a chilling time!" the monster stretched a mottled, blue hand into the air and as if by magic, everything froze...the screaming civilians were suddenly silent as their bodies were encased in a thick layer of ice, the river that led to the sea froze over...as did the ocean itself and everything else within a large radius.

Skidding slightly on the glazed over ground, an unmorphed Tori was the first on scene, her hair still dripping wet from the waves, yet she wasted no time in summoning her ninja powers, sending a torrent of water towards the monster.

"Not today!" the creature thrust his hands forwards as he somehow not only repelled the water, but managed to send it flying back in the Blue Ranger's direction, completely drenching her. "I hope you like it cold!", he sneered before using his freezing powers, rapidly encasing Tori in a giant ice-cube.

"Hey! Let her go!"

The yell came from Xander as the remaining Rangers ran, still unmorphed, onto the scene.

"Erm...how about no?" the creature mocked, rather proud of his achievement.

"We'll do it the hard way then!" Adam retorted, reaching for his morpher; "Ready?"

"Ready!", Xander and Kira echoed.

"IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!"

"MAGICAL SOURCE, MYSTIC FORCE!"

"DINO THUNDER, POWER UP, HA!"

They managed to morph in the nick of time to avoid a vast number of ice shards that the creature had thrown in their direction. The Rangers rolled to the side before leaping to attack, one after the other.

Xander swung a fast-moving fist at the monster, but he caught his hand with relative ease before throwing it roughly backwards. Adam and Kira then followed up, in an attempt to double team, Adam went for the creature's torso whilst Kira aimed for his legs. However, the villain managed to grab onto both of Adam's arms and he twisted them painfully behind his back, holding on tight. He then proceeded to leap high into the air, with Adam still in tow, therefore rendering Kira's attacks useless before slamming the Black Ranger back into the ground and flipping his yellow-clad teammate into a nearby wall.

"Guys, you need to get Tori back to the lab before that thing does more damage". Tommy's voice filtered through the morphers towards the Rangers; "We can regroup later".

"It's cool Tommy, we've got this", Adam swiftly replied as he picked himself up, stealing a glance towards the ice-cube that was the Blue Ranger.

"You're not listening to-..."

"Yeah...we can take this guy", Xander interrupted, joining with Adam and Kira before pulling out his morpher and punching in the numbers 1 and 0, respectively; "Mystic Muscles!"

The beefed-up Green Ranger flung a fist the size of a small boulder towards the monster, but as before, it was caught without too much trouble; "What?" Xander wore a highly surprised expression under his visor, yet he pursued, throwing another series of punches before finishing off with a sneaky roundhouse...all of them blocked.

"Surprised?", the creature leered as it drew nearer, no longer looking like a pushover. "Hornets!" The evil footsoldiers appeared obediently, waiting for their next order. "You three...", he pointed at the chosen ones; "Stay here. The rest of you...attack!"

"You'd think they'd have realized by now that we smash up these guys in our sleep...", Xander commented cockily as his flexed his enhanced biceps.

"Let's go kick some butt!" the trio charged forwards, swatting aside the inferior creatures like annoying flies. The footsoldiers that Xander hadn't already pummeled into the ground, Adam and Kira had no trouble in sending to their fates.

However, the over-confident team moral had given the monster exactly the distraction he needed as he wordlessly signaled for the three 'chosen' Hornets that had held back from the fray to set to work.

"Come on you airheads!" Adam beckoned mockingly as he drove his heel into the head of one of the creatures whilst spinning to kick the one that approached from behind. Xander and Kira were at a similar position as they easily disposed of their enemies. Having finally defeated all the footsoldiers, the trio turned back to face their main rival.

"Well, I thank you for your company but I really must be going", the monster bowed mockingly before turning away on his heel; "Oh, and by the way...", his head flicked back towards them casually, nodding at something behind them. The Rangers followed his gaze in horror to see the frozen Tori disappearing in a flash of jet-black lightning, courtesy of the remaining Hornets; "...Thank you for the parting gift", and he disappeared.

"Tori!" The Rangers were powerless to help and they were left, alone, on the Harbor.

"So...", Tommy raised his eyebrows in expectation, knowing that there would have to be a phenomenally good explanation for why only three of the Ranger team stood before him.

As for the Rangers in question, they all wore a guilty look on their faces, reminiscent of school kids that were facing detention. Even though the team didn't need a mentor as such, there was still the necessity for someone to keep them in check...Tommy, for example.

"Sorry man, that's what I get for being stubborn", Adam apologized.

"Yeah, we should have listened to you guys", Xander added.

"It doesn't matter...what's done is done and now we need to refocus our priorities".

"Getting Tori back", Kira stated knowingly.

"Exactly. Now do you have any idea where they might have taken her?"

"Well, the obvious answer would be back to wherever Osirico and his goons hang out or at least somewhere close to there".

"Naturally...alright...I suggest that you all get back out there; we have no idea what they're up to and i'd hate to find out the hard way.

Xander raised his hand; "Does no-one else see the massive problem here?", he butted in, only to be greeted by a sea of blank faces; "Maybe that we have absolutely no idea where this freak's lair is".

"Ah".

TO BE CONTINUED...

Thanks to all you nice people who've left me a review, i'm glad to see that the story's going down well with you all :)

Standby for Part 2...