Volume III – The Zeta Arc

Chapter 22—A Rock and a Hard Place

Beth

It honestly felt like everything that had been normal—or at least known—for so long was being turned inside out.

In my first few weeks as a Ranger, I think my mind was in a dream state. I seemed to float through the days as reality blurred around me. But now that I was in my second month of rangering, it was becoming clear that this wasn't a dream.

It was real.

People were dying.

Patrick's mom was only the second victim. Doc had spoken with me in secret about how he didn't think her death was accidental. Especially after Aaron told him that Rheas had been at the hospital, trying to kidnap Patrick.

It was like the drama had warped into overdrive. And my mind was finally catching up to it.

Gabriel was dead. He was the first to die, but he wouldn't be the last. And that fact was slowly starting to sink in.

To everyone else, Gabriel and I were a "one night stand." But it was more than that. It was so much more.

We'd started seeing each other over the summer. I was always at the school for cheerleading camp, and Aaron was in Angel Grove for football camp. Gabriel was at the school for summer school, because he had just transferred to Reefside and was trying to graduate early. He was the school's only 16-year-old senior, and the only 16-year-old I knew with a sports car as incredible as his.

That's how we met.

My mom had taken my car into the shop to get something done to it, and I was left waiting at school for her to pick me up. Gabriel just happened to be leaving the school for the day, and offered me a ride.

Normally, I would have said no. But he had this bad boy flair and a really fast car…

Already a bad scenario.

Not to mention the fact that Aaron and I didn't really click. Honestly, it felt more like we were dating because people expected us to; head cheerleader + football team captain = destined. And…well…I was kind of caught up on status.

But to be honest, Gabriel was more my type. He was slightly weird, like me, and sarcastic as hell. And he had this incredibly sweet side to him that he kept hidden in all of his witty retorts. And physically, he wasn't going to be an underwear model, but he had a lean, solid physique. And it wasn't half as intimidating as Aaron's.

Instead of taking me straight home, he bought me lunch. He didn't freak out when I told him I didn't want to eat at restaurant, even though he knew it was because I didn't want to be seen with him. He said he understood how high school worked. He said he wasn't trying to mess up the social hierarchy. He told me he could keep a secret.

And we kept the secret for months.

He literally took the secret to the grave.

And while I was trying to cope with his loss without showing how much it hurt me, I was subjected to Aaron and his boyfriend marching around all the time. And I had to be around my old best friend-turned-rival, Grace Eden.

And I hated being around her.

But not for the obvious reasons. Not only was being around her miserable for me, it was twenty-times weirder after finding out Doc Ol was her biological dad. It was like being stuck in the middle of a bad sci-fi soap opera.

Meanwhile, I was waiting for more drama to rear its head at any given time; but things stayed relatively calm in my personal world. I adjusted easily to school at Reefside Central while Reefside High was being rebuilt—thanks to the Rangers' first zord battle, before I'd joined the team. When I wasn't at school, I spent most of my free time at Doc Ol's training.

It wasn't until right after Grace started living with Doc Ol that I stopped wanting to be there. I didn't have any other place to go, so when the other Rangers went to the lake…I tagged along. And surprisingly, I started bonding with them.

Jay and I bonded first. I confided in him about missing Gabriel, and the Yellow Ranger just caved. We took a walk around the lake, and he balled his eyes out about how he'd been having nightmares ever since Gabriel's death. Jay was the only one who was actually there when Gabriel first died. And the way Jay described it broke my heart even more. But as the tears dried and the tone turned less depressing, I asked Jay how I could make things right with the team. I felt like he hated me for cheating on Aaron with Gabriel. But he didn't. He was more willing to be pissed at Aaron, which I nipped in the bud. I took equal responsibility and found myself defending Aaron and Patrick's relationship.

Weird, I know.

But I found that once I got in tight with Jay, the others fell into place. Amy started talking to me more. She confided in me about liking Jay, saying she was afraid to tell Grace or Patrick because of their feelings of resentment toward him. And she was terrified of telling of Aaron, since the two were best friends.

I made a joke about them all playing musical chairs with their partners. I mean, seriously. Amy had dated Aaron. And then Patrick. And now she liked Jay. I guess Aaron was a common denominator for all of us. Except maybe Matt.

Matt was a tough guy to get to know. He was super laidback, and seemed civil enough. But he never tried at conversation with me.

At least, not until today.

Earlier this morning, at school, he caught me on my way to physics class. We made small talk and briefly talked about Ranger stuff before he finally cut to the chase.

"When you and Grace were friends…did she ever say anything about me?"

I was slightly caught off guard. I mean, no one in the entire school really talked about when Grace and I were friends. It was so long ago that we just sort of pretended like it never happened.

"Uh…I mean…she said you were her best friend," I responded, stopping at my locker to change my books. "Why?"

He sighed and I could tell he had a lot on his mind. Which, for Matt, was weird.

"It's nothing," he finally said.

The old me would have left it at that. I wouldn't have cared and I would've shooed him off so I could get my schoolbooks in peace. But the new me cared about my teammates. Especially if it was going to affect our performance on the battlefield. Rangering was my only distraction from life. It helped me pretend like I didn't have to face the reality of Gabriel being dead. And being at school on made that reality clearer and clearer.

"Matt," I said, prying my locker open and sparing him a glance, "I'm gonna try this one more time—what's wrong?"

He nervously looked around the hallway, probably making sure no one could hear about whatever top-secret Ranger stuff he was about to tell me.

"I'm in love with Grace."

I about dropped my giant English Literature book.

"Are you serious?"

He nodded anxiously.

"That's your big secret problem?" I repeated, somewhat irritated at his need for secrecy. "Dude, I hate to break it to you, but everyone pretty much knows that."

"Nu-uh!" he denied defensively.

"Yeah-huh," I replied with a small smile. "It's cute, though."

He rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks. I shoulda known better than to ask you."

"Hey!" I called after him as he pulled away to leave. "Wait a minute."

He stopped, turning to look at me with careless eyes.

"Look," I started over, "Grace will come around. You guys are best friends, right?"

"Not anymore," he said sadly, turning on his heel and disappearing down the hall.

—22—

"Where the hell are the others?" I roared, pushing myself up with my Alpha Gun-Saber as I glared at the gloating Zeta ranger.

"ETA 5 minutes, Beth," I heard Jay report in my commlink.

"Five minutes too late," Zeta ranger laughed.

I looked over at the Black Ranger, my old best friend Grace, and could practically see the worry behind her visor.

We'd responded to a disturbance in a suburban area not too far from Aaron's house. Grace and I were the only ones who didn't have an 8th period class, so we both tried to head Zeta off until the others could find ways to get out of class.

I didn't think it was going to take another 10 minutes.

"We've gotta do something," Grace panted, splitting her Psi Lance in half to form a pair sais.

"Yeah," I said, "but how? This guy is just too strong!"

"Look," Zeta interrupted, "I'm in a good mood today. So if you leave, I won't try to kill you. Get in my way, and you're as good as dead."

Doc broke through on our commlinks. "Beth, you have to keep him busy. The others are on their way. I'm about to leave the school and head to The Basement now."

"We're all out of tricks, Doc," I reported.

Grace leveled her Gauntlet Guard at Zeta's helmet. "I don't like threats."

"And I don't like empty promises," he spat, pulling his feet together and obviously preparing for something.

He pushed himself off the ground and flipped into the air, screaming "Lightning Tornado!" His body was covered with electricity and spirals of silver wind as he dove toward the ground like an Olympic diver.

Grace and I jumped backward, but it was no good. When Zeta impacted the ground, I felt the earth cave in beneath my feet as it crumbled inward.

"I got it!" I shouted at Grace, trying to pull stones from the ground to keep us level. But I looked up and saw Zeta staring at me coldly. Quietly.

"No," he finally said, "you don't."

He held out his hand and I saw several orbs of green energy fly toward me. It was either take the brunt of his attack, or fall.

Seconds later, we were plummeting hundreds of feet into the ground, our powers flickering back and forth between functional and non.

I felt like we were falling for hours before we slammed into a steel flooring of sorts. I gasped for air as I coughed out dust, feeling my ranger armor disappear in a harsh flash.

A few moments later, I heard Grace suck in a breath, and judging by the suffocated way she did it, I could tell she'd had the wind knocked out of her.

"You okay?" she coughed, her voice strained.

"For the most part, yeah," I replied, clearing my throat. I took a few seconds to squint into the darkness before asking, "Where are we?"

"No idea," she said, looking up through the hole we'd fallen through. "We're sealed in, though."

"What?" I exclaimed, also observing our falling point.

It was true; a metal plate, formed from the pieces of destroyed Gigadroids, had been placed over the large area of ground missing.

I immediately attempted to contact Doc Ol, but got nothing but static.

"There's too much subterranean interference," Grace said, shaking her head. "Can you try shifting things around?"

I cracked my knuckles. "He tried to trap the wrong ranger." I focused my attention on moving the earth, but once I started, the entire underground cave began to quake threateningly.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Grace shouted above the calamity. "It's too unstable down here. It must've been hollowed out previously. We should try to find out where we are and see if these tunnels lead anywhere."

"Can't you just shadow glide up there and break through the seal?"

"It's called Shadow Gliding, not Shadow Flying. I can only hover from however high I jump; and since I can't jump 300 feet without morphing, and our Morpher energies are all but depleted..."

I nodded, exhaling deeply and pulling back my hair into a ponytail. "Right. You're right."

With that, we started off through the tunnels.

—22—

"Let's take a break, these tunnels go on forever," Grace finally said as she plopped down against a cave wall.

"I wonder what this place is," I said after minutes of silence. "There's a steel floor, and these cave walls are way too smooth and perfectly formed for it to just be random."

"Yeah, I was wondering that, too. Do you think maybe this served as a base of operations at one point in time?"

"It's possible," I agreed, "but I feel like we'd have a better signal if that were the case; this place is a complete techno dead zone."

"That's true."

We were quiet for some time after that before I finally ventured deeper. "So what's it like? Having ranger parents?"

Grace grinned. "It's no different than having regular parents; I just don't have to come up with excuses to randomly leave and go squash a 20 story monster."

I chuckled, "This is true."

"How are your parents doing?"

"They're good. My mom asked about you a while ago; before we became rangers, that is."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"What'd she ask?"

"Just how you were doing…and if we still talked."

"What'd you say?"

I blushed slightly and looked away. "I said we didn't talk anymore."

Her voice became contemptuous. "Did you say why?"

"I told her you were jealous that I dated Aaron."

She began to refute me, but I cut her off.

"BUT, she sided with you, because she remembered you've always liked him."

"Oh. Wow."

"Grace…listen," I started, "I…I never meant for us to turn into this."

"What'd you think would happen? You told people I was bulimic! And you went behind my back and told all my secrets! And you tried to get me kicked off the cheerleading squad by telling people I did drugs!"

I cringed as she threw my past sins in my face. I knew I deserved it. I knew I was a bitch. I was worse. I was a horrible, backstabbing, conniving bitch. And it was all because I was jealous. It was all because she excelled at everything. She was better than me. And I hated it.

"I know," I finally mumbled. "I…I dunno why I did it."

"Seriously?" she demanded, skeptical. "You know why you did it."

"Okay!" I snapped. "Fine! You're right! I was jealous. I hated the fact that you made varsity when I made JV. I hated the fact that you made friends just by looking at them. And I hated that you could study for hours without getting distracted, and you could juggle all your clubs and societies, and that you were fucking perfect!"

She blinked, caught off guard by my sudden outburst.

"I always felt like second best," I continued, now much quieter due to the tears I felt pulling at my eyes. "Hell, even after you quit cheerleading—even after I pretty much ruined your life—I still felt like shit. Everything I had set out to do, I accomplished. But it wasn't anything like I expected. I captained varsity cheerleading this year—it sucked. I cheated on Aaron because he never paid attention to me and because I never really liked him. I got all wrapped up in the glamor of high school that I didn't even know what I was becoming."

Grace's green eyes seemed to never leave my face as I talked, like she was analyzing every word I said. Like she was looking for some sort of lie in my confession.

I couldn't blame her, though.

"I never wanted to make you feel like second best," she said, breaking her silent streak. "I…I wanted to be friends. I didn't care about what grades you got or if you made varsity or JV. I just wanted to push you to constantly try to be better. I…I dunno. I've gotten so used to having to be perfect that I never realized it rubbed off on other people."

My eyebrows furrowed.

"What do you mean?"

She took a second to reply, like she was debating whether or not it was a good idea to say anything to me. "Well, I'm sure you heard my blowup with my mom when I found out Doc was my dad."

I nodded.

"Her husband, Terrance, is a prick, to say the least. He basically turned me into a perfectionist by making sure the consequences of failure were too harsh to ignore. Not that it mattered, because nothing I ever did was good enough anyway. But in a sick and twisted way, it was motivation enough to keep me going. To keep trying to be the best. That's why I am the way I am. I…I don't wanna be this way by choice." She laughed bitterly and added, "but I mean…it's too late now."

A few minutes passed before I spoke again.

"God," I said, shaking my head, "I was sucha terrible excuse for a friend. I…I never had any idea your home life was so hard."

She shrugged. "Not a lot of people do. Matt's the only one who does." Then she seemed to think about something before she corrected herself. "Or I guess he did. I dunno."

I remembered my conversation with Matt this morning and everything seemed to fall into place. "He told you, didn't he?"

"What?" she wondered, genuinely confused.

"Matt told you he loved you, didn't he?"

She blinked. "H-how did you know that?"

"Well, everyone at the school kinda knows."

Even though it was hard to see her face in the dark, I could tell she was frowning. It was like I could hear her anger or something.

"Not because of me," I said quickly. "He's just kind of obvious, I guess. Or maybe people just assume, I dunno. Either way, he came and talked to me about it this morning."

She groaned. "Oh, God. What'd he say?"

"Nothing, really. He just…I dunno, I think he thinks you hate him now."

"What? No! I don't hate him. He probably hates me."

"I don't think so," I said, trying not to laugh at their ironic situation. "You think just because you turned him down he's gonna hate you?"

She shook her head. "You don't understand. I didn't just turn him down. He just…he told me all this stuff and I just…I just asked him to leave. And of course, he did."

I chewed my lip in thought. "Maybe you should just talk to him? Don't make any promises, but at least tell him what's on your mind."

Her eyes narrowed. "How, exactly, do I know this isn't just you being you?"

I guess I deserved that one.

"Look," I said, sitting cross-legged, "I…I'm really trying, here. I don't expect you to believe me—I know I've fucked up a lot in the past—but I have no one. I have no friends. The Rangers are all I have now. And Gabe…Gabe was…" I fell short of completing my sentence. Suddenly, talking about Gabriel was impossible. Or wait. Had I not talked about him at all?

I think it hit both Grace and me at the same time that high school just wasn't important anymore. That all of our past drama was just that: past. And I think we both realized we needed to forge a future.

"I'm sorry," she said through the silence of the tunnels, her echo rebounding off the smooth walls. "I…I can't imagine how hard that must be."

I sniffed and wiped at my eyes. Was I crying?

"I-I'll be fine," I lied, standing. "You ready to go?"

She stood slowly and met my eyes. "I don't know if we'll ever be able to get back to how we used to be," she said, "but I think I can manage to make a friendship out of what we have now."

The smile started somewhere deep inside me, like a bubbling joy that had been suppressed for so long I had forgotten it. It spread up through my body before tugging at my lips and flexing my cheek muscles. I felt my arms spring to life as they wrapped around Grace thankfully.

I couldn't hold back the tears.

—22—

For the next hour, we talked. About Gabriel, about Matt, about Aaron, and about our families. We let down the walls we'd kept up for so long and let our friendship rekindle. I couldn't tell Grace how indebted to her I was. To have a friend—a real friend—was a feeling I'd long since forgotten. Ever since Gabriel had died.

In the hour we spent walking and talking, though, we still felt no closer to finding a way out of our underground prison.

Not until we came to the end of the tunnels.

A massive wall with its own lights stood before us—a strange symbol carved into its face. It was at least 30 feet high and about another 30 feet wide.

It wasn't until I stepped back that I realized what the symbol was.

"Isn't that the same shape as our belt buckles on our Ranger suits?" I asked grace as we stared in amazement.

"You're right, it is! What do you think it means?"

"I have no idea…"

I rubbed my hand along it until it slid across an indented panel.

"It looks like some sort of keyhole," Grace said, stepping up to examine it. "Maybe Doc will know more about it?"

"If only we could contact him," I muttered.

"We must be cut off from the Morphing Grid down here; it's probably so heavily protected from all outside energies that nothing works."

"You're probably right," I agreed, giving up on communicating or morphing. "The only thing I can think of doing is shifting this whole area…but I'd need a way to make sure we weren't crushed."

"Do you trust me?"

I blinked at her several times. "What do you mean?"

"I've been practicing my intangibility…and…well, my dad helped me train some, and I've learned how to make other people intangible with me. The only problem is that you have to absolutely feel like nothing can touch you. So I need you to trust me indefinitely."

I'm sure my eyes expanded way beyond their natural size. I mean, she was talking about trusting her to keep me from being splattered by tons of solid rock.

But I caved.

"It's our only ticket out of here, I guess."

She extended her hand toward me as she began to focus. Seconds later, I felt a cool sensation wrap around my body and felt the confidence flowing off her in reassuring waves. I did feel untouchable!

Now it was my turn.

I began to focus on the rocks around me: every mineral of soil and sand, and every pebble and stone until I felt the earth latch onto me. Immediately, I thrust forward, forcing ground away from our direction for at least a good ten feet of clearance. Mounds of hardened and sedentary rocks flew toward us, but each one passed through us seamlessly.

I could sense our arrival near the surface, but felt my strength fading fast.

"We're almost there!" I heard Grace's distant voice rally me.

But my vision began to cloud as my body exhausted all its reserve energy. We still had a good ten or fifteen feet to go, but I was spent. I felt us teeter threateningly.

"We're getting out of here!" Grace thundered as she enveloped us in a flame of black shadow energy. She pushed herself off the side of the narrow tunnel I'd created, like she was rock repelling or something, and then flawlessly executed her Shadow Glide.

Seconds later, we were on the other side of the pavement, the sun burning our sensitive eyes.

We both coughed and gasped for air, our elemental powers exhausted from our emergency use of them. I could hardly remember hearing the whoosh of teleportation before I woke up in Doc Ol's basement.

"What happened?" I jumped up with a start.

Amy's voice shushed me softly. "It's okay. You're safe."

"Shit…my head is throbbing."

"You guys took a huge risk getting out of there," Grace's newly discovered father said. "I was worried sick…I couldn't find a signal anywhere in the world. I thought you'd been captured."

"We were trapped in some weird series of underground tunnels" Grace said, a hint of annoyance present in her voice. "We found this weird door with a panel in it that had the same shape on it as our belt buckles."

"You found the Altar?"

I looked up to see Aaron standing from the planning table at the front of the room.

"The what?" I asked, confused.

"The Altar of Eltar," Doc Ol explained. "It's the place where the Fury Rangers locked away what was left of their Ranger Powers at the end of the Titanomachy II. Each of the 14 Rangers combined their stones with another of similar powers—for example, thunder and lightning—and then sealed the gate with the power of King Hunter. Or Aaron's Dyn."

"The Fury Rangers?" Matt wondered. "Those are the Rangers that the government tried to cover up, right?"

"Yes," Doc Ol said slowly, "through a secret global contract called the Temporal Protection Act. By law, I'm really not allowed to tell you what happened."

"Well what's this Altar for? I mean, could we use it to finally take out this Green Ranger guy?" Jay asked, entering the room with two large glasses of water for Grace and me.

"Theoretically speaking, yes," Doc Ol answered. "The problem is that even in their diminished state, the Cronus Stone shards are way too powerful to be passed on to anyone but the Fury Chosen. Unfortunately, without the powers locked behind the gate, even they can't handle them."

"Could we?" Matt asked.

Doc Ol was silent. "There are seven 'Super Stones,' and I don't think anyone, even Aaron, could handle more than one. With only six of you, I don't see how you could unlock it."

"Unless we got the Green Ranger to open the gate for us," Amy ventured.

We all looked at her like she'd gone insane.

"Are you crazy?" Aaron half-shouted. "That guy tries to rip us apart every time we see him; what the hell makes you think we can march up to him and say 'hey, would you unlock a mystical gate to help us defeat you?'"

Amy frowned. "I'm not saying we ask him."

"Hey, I have to get to work, guys, I'd love to stay and help but…kinda running late."

We hardly acknowledged Patrick's departure since we were used to him working full-time. He'd all but dropped out of high school to get things together and was planning on taking a GED test to get his diploma, so he had a lot more time to work and help us out. I think staying busy helped him heal faster from his mother's untimely death only months ago. I knew the feeling.

"We're going to need all the power we can get now that Mesomorph is sending out the Cosmics. We can hardly even keep up with Guardian Resh as it is, even when Zeta Ranger decides to lend us a hand," Grace stated evenly. "And we barely beat Guardian Ayin until he stepped in."

"I'm not about to try to forge some alliance with this guy," Aaron refuted firmly. "I'm the leader of the team, and if something gets all fucked up, I don't want to be responsible for another tragedy."

"We don't have much else of a choice, Aaron," I added.

He gazed at me somewhat surprised.

"Well, here's our chance to ask him," Matt interrupted, pointing at the screen. "Looks like he's back from his trip."

"His trip?" Grace and I asked.

"After he trapped you two, he high-tailed it to Angel Grove and hasn't been seen since."

"What do you think he went to get?" I wondered.

"I think we're about to find out," Doc Ol said solemnly, a look of dread smeared on his face. "Look at his Zeta Dragon Fang. It's different."

I cocked my head as I looked closer at the screen. "Is that…?"

"Go and stop him," he cut me off.

We never even asked as we jumped into Morphing formation.

With a "Cyber Digitize—Energize," we were on the scene.

But we were too late.

I tried not to let fear overcome my body, but staring up at Zeta on the rooftops and seeing the skies darken, I couldn't help it.

Zeta was holding his Zeta Dragon Fang—an extendable blade that could also be turned into a laser rifle—in his right hand with the cross-guard near his mouth piece.

"Don't do it!" Aaron shouted to him.

The musical tones we heard were the only answers we got from him. I didn't quite know how to describe the sound. It was like every woodwind instrument I could think of with an electronic undertone that seemed to bring chills to my spine.

Before I knew it, the "song" was over. But I knew it was just the opening act.

"Say hello to my Cyber Dragonzord, Rangers!" Zeta laughed manically, pointing to the skies.

From the darkest clouds that tolled above like thunderous bells, an enormous dragon unlike anything I'd ever seen before descended upon us with silver-and-green wings blotting out what rays of sunlight were left. Lightning forked across the skies as the beast roared, a metallic imitation of a thunderclap that made my bones vibrate.

"That…is impossible," Grace mumbled. "I…I thought that thing was destroyed!"

Doc Ol's voice rang through our commlinks, regret heavy in his words. "No, it wasn't. It stayed at the bottom of Angel Grove Harbor. Without a power source, it seemed harmless. During the Titanomachy II, it was re-summoned one last time and then sent to Eltar to be repaired and upgraded. In case of emergency, that is."

"So how the hell did he get it?" Aaron demanded.

Doc sighed. "When Patrick and I programmed the Zeta Battleizer, I was in correspondence with the Eltarian Zord specialists and had the Dragonzord retrofitted to work in tandem with it. I didn't think Zeta Ranger would be able to summon the Dragonzord from Eltar, though, because he didn't have the Dragon Dagger." He paused and pieced Zeta's plan together. "That must be why he went to Angel Grove. Whoever the hell this guy is…he definitely knows his stuff."

"Why didn't you or Patrick bother to tell me any of this?" Doc was silent, and I was sure I heard Aaron grumble something along the lines of "This is just fucking peachy."

I couldn't tell if he was more hostile lately or if I was just imagining things, but it seemed the honeymoon phase for him and Patrick was coming to an end. The tension bubbling between them wasn't completely unhidden to the rest of us; and with Patrick working all the time, and Aaron studying or fighting the rest of the time, it was apparent they weren't getting to see each other much except when they went to bed.

"Cyber Zords, Mobilize!" I called out for us.

The Cyber Warrior, Cyber Dove, Cyber Osprey, Cyber Cheetah, and Cyber Unicorn all digitized onto the scene, their colors shining brilliantly in the fading sunlight.

"Cyber Tigerzord, Mobilize!" Aaron growled out, tele-jumping to his cockpit. We followed suit, boarding our Zords immediately. "Be careful, everyone; we have no idea what that thing's capable of, so let's go straight to Tetra-Cyber Megazord formation."

"Tetra-Cyber Megazord, Mobilize!" we chorused, our zords mashing together in perfect sync. Moments later, we all rejoined each other in the cockpit of our massive combination Megazord.

"Impressive, Rangers," Zeta commended us, "but what you gained in size, you now lack in speed."

From atop the Cyber Dragonzord's head, he played another tune on his Dragon Fang and instructed it to fire its notorious finger missiles. Unfortunately for us, we didn't know about any of the Dragonzord's upgrades. These Claw Cannons were nothing like the finger missiles, and we didn't find that out until we were blasted by beams of electrical energy from each of the Dragonzord's 5 talons.

"That…was not what I expected," Jay groaned as our giant robot shuddered under the impact.

"Switch power to main defenses; build reserve fuel for final cannons, and keep shields at pivotal points—do not activate them unless I tell you to," Aaron commanded from his center seat.

"Fire Photon Blaster," I suggested.

"Ignore that; build reserve fuel for final attacks and stay on the defensive…something seems fishy here."

I bit my tongue and followed Aaron's orders, flipping switches and entering commands on my holo-keyboard.

"Ready for more?" Zeta baited as the Cyber Dragonzord swung its newly remodeled drill tail at us.

"Grab it!" Amy called out.

Instantly, our zord reacted as Matt shifted arm control and clutched the tail.

"No!" Aaron reprimanded.

Too little, too late, sadly, as the tail began spinning and ripped wildly at our centerpiece armor.

"It's time to really show you what this new Dragonzord can do," the green ranger was saying. He disappeared into the cockpit of his zord before it began to quiver. A green, form-fitting barrier surrounded the entire Dragonzord as its arms and legs began to transform.

"What's it doing?" Grace half-shouted.

"Cyber Dragonzord: Battle Mode!" Zeta's icy voice bellowed as a humanoid Dragonzord stared us down., its transformation complete.

"You gave it a Battle Mode?" Aaron all but shouted at Doc Ol.

"I told you we upgraded it," Doc said, his voice barely above a whisper in our commlinks.

Zeta's Dragonzord: Battle Mode ripped us to shreds. Even with all the power of the Tetra-Cyber Megazord, we couldn't manage to get a single good hit in. And our Megazord wasn't immovably huge—it was just that the Dragonzord was too fast.

"Good news," Doc chirped through the commlinks.

"About time," Jay said, "what is it?"

"I finally got a reading on the Dragonzord's power cells. It should be running low because of the amount of energy it took to get here from Eltar—not to mention, it hasn't been used since it was upgraded." Doc let his words sink in. "In other words: Zeta's test drive is about to come to an end."

No sooner had Doc's words entered my ear did the Dragonzord seem to come to a complete stop. I could practically hear Zeta's frustration as he resurfaced, standing on top of his Zord's head again.

"Fortunately for you," he growled out, "my Zord needs a power nap. What do you say we finish this on the ground, eh?"

"Doc?" I wondered. "Do we fight him on the ground?"

"We should just stomp on him," Matt grumbled.

"No," Doc said sharply. "This may be just the opportunity we need to unlock the Altar of Eltar."

"But our Powers don't work down there," Grace reminded him.

"Then neither will his."

We were all silent as we exchanged looks with one another.

"Do you really think we can trick him into following us?" Aaron asked our mentor.

"It's worth a shot," Doc sighed. "Something tells me Zeta was looking for the Altar earlier today, but realized he'd need more power—hence him calling the Dragonzord and stealing the Dragon Dagger."

"If we can get him demorphed, we can jump him and take his morpher," I suggested. "We'd not only be rid of the Zeta Ranger, but we'd have the Super Stones to power our upgrades just in time to wipe Mesomorph out for good!"

"Beth's right," Grace backed me up, much to the confusion of the other Rangers.

"Alright," Aaron agreed, "follow my lead."

Seconds later, we were jumping from our Megazord cockpit to the ground, Zeta taking the bait easily.

"Head for the underground bunker!" Aaron shouted, just loud enough for

We took off full sprint toward the nearby hole made earlier by Grace and me.

"We're going to have to power down and let him think he's beaten us," I said as we gathered around the hole.

I focused and threw my arms up. The metal plate Zeta had forged crumbled as I squeezed the hole around it like a fist of stone. We all looked over the edge of the cavernous hole anxiously, listing to the clatter and clang of the Gigadroid-scrap-panel.

"Ladies first," Jay joked.

I rolled my eyes behind my visor as I powered down in a flash of Red. Zeta rounded the corner seconds later.

"Hide and seek, eh?" the Green Ranger taunted.

"Who's hiding?" Aaron retorted, stepping back and falling back-first into the hole.

Our plan worked for the most part.

Once in the tunnel, our powers flickered on and off, but the tunnel had darkened considerably after the near cave-in I caused earlier.

With a thud, we all landed, waiting for Zeta to follow. I could hear his metallic voice taunting us as he dove after us. He was saying something about how we were like rats in a trap now.

I could hardly catch a glimpse of him when he landed, but I could definitely hear him freak once he realized his powers were fading.

"What the hell?" he screamed.

Aaron charged him, their bodies clashing angrily. I heard growling and grunting as they tussled, a few sparks of electricity blazing through the air but bouncing harmlessly off Aaron's light barrier.

"Let's go!" Jay shouted.

"No!" Aaron barked. "I got this!"

"No—you—don't!" Zeta roared, another flash of lightning filling the room.

The frequent shifting from light to dark kept us from being able to see much of anything, and every time I thought I caught a glimpse of Zeta's human identity, Aaron got in the way.

We waited anxiously, obeying our leaders commands but hating every second of it. This was it. This was the deciding moment. If Aaron could get his Morpher, we'd be fine. We could win this.

At last, I heard a scream of outrage from someone who wasn't Aaron. It had to have been Zeta's human form.

"I will be back."

In a flash of green lightning and a crack like thunder, he was gone.

"He's…he's gone," Matt noticed.

Aaron turned to us, panting. He flexed his open hand a ball of light burst forth, illuminating us all.

"Yeah," he said, "but I got a souvenir." He opened his other hand and held up a complex looking necklace of sorts, a long, technological tooth of sorts hanging from the middle of black leather strap. "His morpher."