Chapter 3
Betty, Chuck, Jason, Cheryl and Veronica slowly entered the spaceship. As soon as they were all inside the door closed behind them startling them.
"How is this place still running?" Chuck wondered.
"No idea," Betty replied. "But it's clearly some kind of alien technology."
"This place gives me the creeps," Cheryl commented.
"Not me," Jason said.
Jason began heading further into the ship and the others followed behind. Soon they came to a large dome shaped room. There were three other corridors leading off from the room, but it was impossible to see where they led.
"What is this place?" Veronica asked.
All of a sudden the ceiling of the room began shifting around, sort of like gears in a transmission. The five teens looked all around confused and a little frightened. Just then the doorway they had entered though slammed closed. Then a dim orange light appeared down the corridor to the left.
"Oh god run!" Cheryl shouted.
She started running towards the corridor to the right and the others soon followed after her, but they quickly found themselves at a dead end. They turned around to see something approaching, it looked as if it had two glowing orange eyes. However as it got closer they saw it was a shot little robot, only about four feet tall. With a wide flat head with two glowing orange lights on each side, and a red and black humanoid body.
"Rangers, Rangers, you have come!" the robot exclaimed excitedly.
"I'm sorry, Rangers?" Betty asked confused.
"Yes, yes, you are the Power Rangers," the robot replied. "Come, come, you must meet Zordon."
The teens were all very confused by all of this.
"Sorry, who's Zordon?" Jason asked.
"And what's a Power Ranger?" Chuck inquired.
"Come, come, follow me and all your questions will be answered," the robot replied.
The robot walked back towards the domed room as Betty, Chuck, Jason, Cheryl and Veronica all looked at each other trying to see if any of them had some sort of understanding of what was going on. Veronica simply shrugged and then followed after the robot and the others then followed after her.
The robot led the way down the final corridor coming to a room that had five pads around some strange alien machine in the middle. The far wall was a semi-circle and it sort of resembled a pin impression board.
"Zordon! Zordon!" the robot called out.
A loud deep voice suddenly rumbled speaking in a language that none of the teens understood. The robot replied and the voice and the robot seemed to be carrying on a conversation in the language. Suddenly the far wall began to move and an impression that vaguely resembled a face appeared.
"These are the ones that found the Power Coins?" the face asked.
"Yes Zordon, these are the new Power Rangers," the robot replied.
The face slid around the wall moving from one side to the other seemingly examining the teens.
"They look so young Alpha," Zordon commented.
"Well they're teenagers," the robot, who was apparently called Alpha, explained. "Older than children but not quite adults yet, it's the adolescent stage of the main life form on this planet."
Chuck, Cheryl, Jason and Veronica were all dumbfounded by everything that was going on. However Betty had questions.
"Excuse me, but could you please explain just what's going on?" Betty asked. "What exactly is a Power Ranger, what is this place?"
Zordon moved to be closer to Betty.
"You five have found the power coins, correct?" Zordon asked.
"You mean these things?" Jason asked holding up his stone.
The others all pulled out their own stones.
"What exactly are these?" Cheryl asked. "Are they responsible for saving our lives the other night?"
"Yes, the power coins are crystals of power. They improve all aspects of your physical body," Zordon replied.
"That explains these," Betty muttered to the others pointing at her breasts.
"Okay so these power coins as you call them make us Power Rangers, but what is that?" Chuck asked.
"The Power Rangers are the defenders of life," Zordon replied. "All planets with life in the galaxy have what is known as a Zeo Crystal buried beneath the surface. The Zeo Crystal is what sustains all life on your planet. As Rangers it is your duty to protect the Zeo Crystal."
"Well I've never heard of this Zeo Crystal before and I don't think anyone else has, and if it's buried underground what exactly do we need to protect it from?" Veronica asked.
"Tens of millions of years ago I came to this planet it my own Ranger team," Zordon replied. "We were here to stop Rita, who had previously been the sixth member of our team. Rita wanted to claim Earth's Zeo Crystal for herself. It would have given her complete power over life and death. Taking the crystal would have rendered all life on Earth extinct. Rita killed the rest of my team but I was able to stop Rita by having Alpha crash a meteor into the planet, but I lost my own life in the process. My conscience now lives on here on the ship thanks to my connection to the Morphing Grid."
The teens just looked at Zordon completely confused. None of this was making any sense. On top of that Zordon hadn't answered Veronica's question.
"Rita wasn't killed by the meteor like I was," Zordon explained. "Thanks to her own power coin she was able to survive although she was put into a sort of hibernation. However I can sense through this vessel's sensors that she has managed to begun to awaken."
"Wait, what?" Betty exclaimed.
"Rita has awakened and it won't be long until she regains her power," Alpha stated. "Once she does she'll begin creating Goldar to extract the Zeo Crystal for her."
"What the hell is Goldar?" Jason asked.
"Goldar is what you human would call a golem," Zordon replied. "He is a massive construct that Rita is able to create out of gold."
"Okay that doesn't sound good," Cheryl commented.
"Fortunately it will take Rita some time to gather the gold needed to reform Goldar," Alpha said.
"How long?" Chuck asked.
"Thirteen days," Alpha replied.
"Alright, I'm out," Veronica said as she turned and left.
"Me too," Cheryl said. "Come on Jason."
Cheryl and Jason turned and followed Veronica. Chuck looked between the three of them and at Zordon and Alpha; he then shrugged at Betty and followed as well. Betty then went to leave as well.
"Betty Cooper wait," Zordon called out.
Betty stopped and turned around slowly.
"How do you know my name?" Betty asked.
"You hold the red Power Coin," Zordon replied. "At one time that was also my own Power Coin, through it and the Morphing Grid you and I are linked. You know that what I have told you is true."
Betty said nothing but just stared at the disembodied head that was protruding from the wall that was Zordon.
"The only way that Rita will be stopped is if the five of you work together," Zordon said.
"You're telling me all of this, and I want believe you. The problem is that it's all so farfetched, even if I believe you need proof to convince the others," Betty said. "For starters what exactly is the Morphing Grid?"
"It is difficult to explain what the Morphing Grid is in your language," Zordon replied. "But it is a connection of all the Zeo Crystals in the galaxy. In a sense it is life itself."
"Okay so the other night the five of us got into an accident that should have killed us and our connection to this Morphing Grid through these Power Coins is what allowed us to survive?" Betty inquired.
"Yes," Zordon answered.
"So how come I don't remember almost 36 hours of what happened after?" Betty asked.
"Your accident would have rendered you unconscious," Alpha explained. "The Power Coins would have put you into a semi-conscious state sort of like sleep-walking to get you home. You then would have remained asleep for quite some time while your bodies adapted to the power of the Morphing Grid."
"And by adapted you mean like actual physical changes?" Betty asked.
"Yes, the Coin would use your own thoughts and the power of the Morphing Grid to help improve you," Alpha answered.
Betty looked down at her chest. She'd always been so self-conscious of having small breasts before and now she didn't.
"Hmm, okay," she said. "Alright, let me see if I can talk the others into coming back."
Betty hurried off to find the others. She found them back at the entrance to the cavern sitting around as if they were waiting for her.
"Didn't think you were coming," Veronica said when she saw Betty.
"Look I know all of that was a lot to take in, and it seems crazy," Betty said. "But I'm pretty that Zordon and Alpha are telling us the truth."
"What makes you so sure?" Cheryl asked sceptically.
"Call it a gut feeling," Betty answered. "But Zordon and Alpha explained, how we survived to me. And I still don't understand it; but we survived something that killed us thanks to these Power Coins which are connected to some crystal that creates life. Not only that, we're all faster and stronger than any normal person."
"If you believe it, I believe it," Jason said.
"Jason, what…?" Cheryl started to ask.
"Betty's one of the smartest people I know," Jason said. "And if she thinks that we're these Power Rangers or whatever then so do I."
"Okay but I didn't ask for this," Chuck said. "I mean I don't want to be a hero. And doesn't this bother you Betty? I mean didn't you melt down over other people making decisions for you?"
"This is different Chuck," Betty replied. "This isn't somebody else making a decision for me. I mean I was the one that found the Power Coins in the first place; and mine wasn't given to me by Alpha or Zordon. And the rest of you all chose to take one too. Yeah maybe if we had known what they were we would have made a different decision. But we all made a choice then and I think we've got to live with the consequences."
"She's right," Veronica agreed much to Betty's surprise.
"I am?" Betty asked in shock.
"Yeah, we've got to learn to live with our decisions," Veronica said.
Betty looked at Chuck and Cheryl who were the two holdouts.
"Okay, I'm in," Chuck agreed.
"Fine," Cheryl said with a sigh. "I guess I have to look after my little brother."
"Little brother? You're like twelve minutes older than me," Jason retorted.
"Come on guys let's go back and talk to Zordon," Betty said.
The five of them made their way back into the ship to where they had left Zordon and Alpha.
"Rangers, I am glad you have returned," Zordon said. "Now there are three rules to being a ranger that you must follow. Rule number one: never use your power for personal gain. Rule number two: do not escalate a fight unless your enemy forces you two. And finally rule number three: Always keep your identity a secret, no one else may know that you are a Power Ranger."
"Makes some sense I guess," Veronica commented. "That last one will be kind of trick."
"However to truly become Rangers you will first have to morph." Zordon stated.
"Morph?" Chuck asked.
"Will each of you step onto one of the five pads," Zordon said ignoring Chuck's question.
Each of them stepped onto one of the pads looking around at each other.
"Now focus on your coins and their connection to the Morphing Grid," Zordon said. "This will allow you to generate your armour to protect you in combat."
The five of them looked around not entirely sure what Zordon meant, however they tried to do as he asked as best as they could. However nothing was happening.
"Uh, I don't think it's working Zordon," Alpha said.
"They are not ready," Zordon declared. "Take them to training simulator, Alpha."
The new Rangers followed Alpha from Zordon's chamber to another section of the ship. It was a large white cube-shaped room with a dark blue grid pattern on the walls, floor and ceiling.
"This kind of looks like the holo deck on Star Trek," Chuck commented.
"Yes it's actually quite similar to that," Alpha agreed.
"You've watched Star Trek?" Betty asked in surprise.
"I've watched all your television programs since your species first began broadcasting," Alpha replied. "It has been a pleasant reprieve from the previous sixty five million years of nothing."
Suddenly the room changed into what seemed to be a rocky outcropping in the wilderness with a grey cloudy sky overhead. Then out of nowhere appeared a large humanoid thing that appeared to be composed of rock and dirt that was about eight feet tall.
"This is a Putty," Alpha said. "They are semi-sentient constructs that Rita is able to create from rock or dirt. They are the base of her army."
"How many of these things can she create?" Cheryl asked.
"A lot," Alpha replied. "It depends on Rita's power level. Even in small groups they should be no match at all for a ranger."
"Then with our new powers this should be a cake walk," Jason said.
Without waiting for Alpha's command Jason ran at the Putty to attack it only to get clotheslined down by the creature. Cheryl ran forward and helped her brother back up to his feet and back to where the others were.
"Putty's are not defenseless, and without morphing it will be hard to defeat them," Alpha said. "The key is to strike hard at their center mass."
Betty stepped forward and raised her fists. Slowly she approached the Putty and when it swung an arm at her Betty ducked before she stepped forward and drove her right fist as hard as she could into the Putty's chest. The Putty crumbled into rubble which then flickered and vanished.
"Very good," Alpha congratulated her. "Of course it's very unlikely you'll face off with a single Putty one on one like this, but it's a good start."
For the next several hours they trained each taking turns fight a Putty hologram before they moved on to all of them fighting five Putties together at once. It was tough and they all ended up with bumps and bruises, but they also found themselves becoming capable fighters.
Alpha then took them back to Zordon's chamber where they tried to morph for a second time. However once again nothing happened.
"You are not trying hard enough," Zordon said.
"We're trying as hard as we can," Veronica retorted. "But you're expecting us to do something we know nothing about."
"You know enough," Zordon snapped. "You just are not a team. Now go."
The Rangers left the chamber leaving Zordon and Alpha to converse in their strange alien language. They then made their way back to the underwater cavern and jumped up into the water, which was bizarre, and then swam up to the surface. The entire time nobody said anything.
"Do you guys want to come over to our place?" Jason asked as they got made their way out of the pit finally breaking the silence.
"Why?" Chuck asked.
"Well I was thinking about what Zordon said, about us not being a team," Jason said. "I mean maybe we need to bond a little."
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Betty agreed.
"Will there be food?" Chuck asked.
"Sure, we can order a pizza or something," Cheryl replied.
"Then I'm in," Chuck agreed.
Everyone then looked at Veronica.
"So, you in new girl?" Jason asked.
Veronica looked around at each of them, her face expressionless, "Sure why not," she said.
The Rangers were sitting around the poolside table in the Blossom's backyard eating pepperoni pizza.
"So this is fun and all," Chuck said. "But how does this make us a better team?"
"Well, maybe we should share something about ourselves with each other," Betty suggested. "Something that nobody else knows."
"That's a good idea," Cheryl said. "And since it was your idea why don't you go first?"
Betty looked around feeling a little awkward but then nodded.
"Okay," Betty said pausing to think. "Well I don't want to be lawyer, or a basketball player, or a physicist. For the longest time what I've wanted to be is a mechanic."
"Really, a mechanic?" Jason asked.
"I've loved cars since I was a little girl," Betty replied. "My dad used to have this old '57 Chevy Bel-Air that we would work on; until my mom made him sell it."
"That's interesting but, I think you need to say something a little more personal," Cheryl said. "How about you tell us what's with your boobs? Don't think I didn't notice that they got bigger, almost as big as mine."
Betty blushed.
"Come on, you've got to tell us," Jason prompted her.
"Alright…" Betty agreed. "I mean… it's kind of embarrassing. But I've always kind of been jealous of girls with bigger breasts. Part of the reason why I went along and did everything my mother told me to do was because I always felt like no boys were interested in me. That when they looked at me they thought, there's plain boring Betty."
"Well I never thought you were boring," Jason said.
That elicited laughs from everyone including Betty.
"Okay Chuck, you're next," Cheryl said.
"Hmm, okay," Chuck agreed as he thought about what to tell them. "Well I guess you all know I draw cartoons, but I also write fan fiction."
"What kind of fan fiction?" Betty inquired.
"I dabble in various sci-fi series and a few other things," Chuck replied.
"I think Betty meant what genre of stories," Veronica corrected.
"Oh, well sometimes actions and um, the occasional erotic fetish story," Chuck responded with an embarrassed smile.
"Oh now I'm interested," Cheryl said. "Got one for me to read? Do you do artwork for them?"
"I'll show you later," Chuck promised. "How about you Veronica?"
Everyone looked over at Veronica. Veronica looked down at the ground as she swirled around the can of Coke she had in her hand. There was a long awkward silence.
"You all know me as Veronica Smith," Veronica said.
"Actually, I had no idea what your last name was," Jason commented.
"Well it isn't Smith," Veronica said. "My real name is Veronica Lodge, and yes I am that Veronica Lodge."
The other four teens all stared at Veronica in stunned silence. About a year and a half ago New York billionaire Hiram Lodge had been killed, some said assassinated. It had turned out that the real estate mogul had been doing business with mob and had reneged on a deal he had with them. His wife and daughter had witnessed his killing and they had been put into witness protection not long afterwards.
"Get the fuck out!" Cheryl exclaimed finally breaking the silence.
"My mom and I have been in witness protection for more than a year now," Veronica replied. "We've had to move four times already because the marshals were worried that the mob had learned where we were."
"I'm so sorry," Betty said. "That's got to be so hard. I mean your dad's dead, you had this life where you had everything and now you're living here in Riverdale."
"I loved my dad, but he was an idiot for getting involved with the mob," Veronica said. "It was totally motivated by greed; in a way I think he got what he deserved. As far as being in Riverdale… it's not so bad. I mean okay we live in a trailer and my mom is working part time as a waitress which is a big step down. But this place is a lot better than when they had us living in Mississippi; be glad you don't live there Chuck."
"Believe me I am," Chuck agreed. "So which twin is going to spill their secret first?"
Chuck, Betty and Veronica looked back and forth from Cheryl to Jason. Jason then took a deep breath.
"Cheryl and I lost our virginity to each other," Jason said.
Jaws dropped open at the shocking revelation.
"We were 14," Cheryl tried to explain. "Our parents… they're never around, we pretty much have to take care of ourselves. There's the housekeepers who do some cooking and cleaning. But when it came to… sex, well we had nobody to ask about it."
"So of course what do we do we try and figure things out by doing a Google search," Jason continued the story. "Of course a Google search for sex… well I think we all know that wasn't a great idea. We watched some videos but we still had a lot questions."
"We figured the only way to answer those questions was to actually try it ourselves," Cheryl said. "Of course we didn't know that having sex with each other was wrong. That had never been explained to us, and we hadn't found incest in our web searches."
"And wouldn't you know it that is the one time that our parents actually decided to look in on us and see what we were doing," Jason said chuckling as he thought back. "I still remember the look on their faces."
"You'd think that after something like that they might have become more involved parents," Cheryl continued. "No, no about two days later it was back to the status quo; barely acknowledging our existence."
There was a long quiet.
"So we're all in agreement, we don't share any of this with anyone else?" Betty asked.
They all nodded in agreement.
Just then there was the sound of police sirens from the front of the house. They all got up wondering what was going on and went to the front. They saw two police officers searching Chuck's father's truck.
"Hey what are you guys doing?" Chuck demanded.
One of the officer pointed his weapon at Chuck. Chuck frightenedly put his hands up.
"Get down on the ground," the officer ordered him.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Betty said getting in between the officer and Chuck. "That's his father's truck."
"Well this vehicle has been reported stolen," the officer said.
"Look this is all just a misunderstanding," Chuck said.
"Well we can clear this up down at the police station," the officer said as he pulled out his handcuffs.
"You arrest him you have to arrest me too," Betty said.
"Have it your way," the officer said as he slapped the cuffs onto Betty.
The other officer came over and put hand cuffs on Chuck as the Cheryl, Jason and Veronica watched not sure what to do.
"Were you three involved in this?" the officer asked them.
"Um no sir," Jason replied. "I mean they're our friends we thought that Chuck had just borrowed his dad's truck."
The officer narrowed his eyes at Jason before he and his partner led Betty and Chuck to their squad car and put them in the back seat.
"Man I am in so much trouble," Chuck moaned.
"I don't know I think I might have you beat," Betty responded.
As the cop car pulled away from the Blossom house Betty and Chuck looked out the back window to see Cheryl, Jason and Veronica standing at the end of the driveway still looking stunned. They then turned back around and sat quietly wondering just what they were going to do themselves.
Betty and Chuck have been arrested? The Rangers can't morph? And those were some very revealing secrets! Find out what comes from all of this in Chapter 4! Please Review!