Chapter 5

Chuck was walking to school, his father had refused to give him a ride, when he heard the sound of a vehicle behind him. He glanced back over his shoulder to see one of those hippy vans slowly driving along behind him. Chuck turned back around and continued on as the van went past him. However the van then came to a stop and a moment later the passenger side door opened and Betty popped her head out.

"Want a ride?" Betty asked.

"When did you get this?" Chuck asked as he climbed in the passenger seat.

"My dad gave it to me last night," Betty replied.

"You get yourself arrested and your dad gives you a car?" Chuck asked in disbelief. "What the hell? I get grounded and have to walk to school."

"My father was a lot more understanding I guess," Betty explained. "I mean my mom doesn't know I have it and I have to park it in this alley two blocks from my house."

"Ah, so there is a catch," Chuck said. "Now I feel a little better."

They made their way to school. As they arrived they saw that a lot of students were gathered outside the front of the school. Betty went and parked her van and as she and Chuck got out they were met by Jason and Cheryl.

"Nice ride," Jason commented.

"Thanks, so what's going on?" Betty asked.

"Kevin Keller's dad was killed last night," Cheryl replied.

"Oh shit, and he's a detective," Chuck commented. "What happened?"

"No idea, but he was found with another dead body down near the docks," Jason replied.

"The docks?" Betty asked surprised.

"Yeah why?" Cheryl answered.

"When we were at the police station yesterday we saw the cops bring in this guy from down at the docks who just kept repeating something to himself about a woman that took a man's gold teeth," Chuck replied.

"Oh fuck," Jason said. "You don't think…?"

"That it was Rita who killed Kevin's father?" Betty finished for him. "Three people dead in less than twenty-four hours; I mean we don't know if any gold was taken from Kevin's dad, but I've got a feeling that there was."

"We should go check it out," Cheryl suggested.

"No, no I can't be caught skipping school again," Chuck said.

"Well then you can stay here, we'll check it out without you," Jason said. "You in Betty?"

Betty considered for a moment, if she skipped class again she would definitely be in trouble. But conversely if it was Rita killing people than any trouble Betty got into wouldn't matter, at least not for too long.

"Well, we go down there and check it out and then what?" Betty asked. "I doubt Rita will be hanging around. She probably has moved on, there's nothing we can do at this point."

"Do you think maybe we should go see Zordon?" Chuck suggested.

"We can do that after school," Betty replied.

"Well then what exactly are we supposed to do?" Cheryl asked.

"We go to class," Betty answered as if that should have been obvious. "One of us can maybe talk to Kevin, see what he knows."

"I can do that," Jason volunteered. "He sits near me in chemistry, when I go to class."

"Just try and be tactful," Betty said.

"What are you saying I have no tact?" Jason asked with mock hurt.

"Sometimes you don't," Cheryl said.

"Fair enough," Jason admitted. "How can I argue with my twin sister who knows me best?"

Veronica was making her way to school. After skipping the day before she'd gotten an earful from both her mother and the US Marshalls assigned to keep an eye on them. Veronica wanted to tell them what she had been up to but unfortunately Zordon had said that one of the rules of being a Ranger was that she could not.

Veronica was hurrying along, she was a running a bit late because she'd ended up sleeping in. However as she jogged along she wasn't feeling at all fatigued; in fact she felt as if she could run a marathon with ease.

She reached an intersection and stopped to check for traffic. As she did a black cargo van came to a screeching stop next to her having almost pulled out into the intersection and run the stop sign. Veronica rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief at the carelessness of the driving.

She was about to continue on when the passenger door and the sliding door both opened and two men jumped out. Veronica didn't know who they were but she could tell almost immediately by their dress and haircuts that they were Mafia. Veronica was so caught off guard that she barely reacted as one of them put a black sack over her head and the other grabbed her and pulled her into the van.

Veronica squirmed as she felt the van peel away from the intersection.

"Hurry up Gino," Veronica heard one of the men say. "This bitch is a fighter."

"Why can't we just off her in the van?" Veronica heard the driver, Gino, ask. "Just put two in the head?"

"The boss said we have to make it look like an accident," the third man said. "Two bullets to the head ain't accident dummy, now drive."

Veronica realized that they intended to kill her. She could feel that her arms being held but both her legs were free. Veronica wasn't sure where she was but she just kicked out as hard as she could and felt her foot connect with the chest of one of the men in the back with her and she heard him thump against the side of the van and groan.

"Tony, you alright?" the man holding her asked.

Veronica could tell that he was holding her from behind and she snapped her head back smashing the back of her head into his face.

"Fuck my nose!" the man cried out in pain as he grabbed his face.

With nobody holding her anymore Veronica pulled the sack off of her head. She saw Tony trying to get up and she kicked him in the face. His head bounced off the van and he slumped to the floor unconscious.

She then turned around and saw the third man reaching into his waist to pull out a pistol. Reacting quickly Veronica lunged and grabbed his wrist and twisted forcing him to drop the gun. He tried to pull his arm away from her but Veronica was stronger than him.

"What the…?" he started to ask surprised that a teenage girl was over powering him with seeming ease.

He never finished as Veronica drove her fist into his left temple causing him to crumple to the floor of the van in a heap. Veronica then grabbed the pistol and pointed at the back of the driver, Gino's, head.

"Pull over now," Veronica ordered.

Gino slowed down and pulled over. Veronica then pistol whipped him in the back of the head causing him to slump forward onto the steering wheel causing the horn to go off. Veronica pulled him back and searched him and found a cell phone. She pulled it out and called 911.

"Hello, I'd like to report a crime," Veronica said. "Yes three men just tried to abduct a girl. Their van is at the intersection of… Angel Grove and Fifth."

Veronica then tossed the phone onto the floor of the van and got out.

"Thanks a lot guys; now I'm really going to be late," Veronica complained as she continued on to school.

Jason arrived at chemistry class.

"Mister Blossom, how nice of you to come to class," said the teacher Professor Flutesnoot.

Jason ignored the comment and made his way to his seat at the back of the classroom. In the seat in front of his was Kevin Keller who was sitting at his lab table with his head down in his hands. Jason stopped beside Kevin.

"Hey, are you doing alright?" Jason asked.

"No," Kevin replied.

"You know I'm pretty sure they'd let you go home," Jason said. "I mean why are you even here?"

"I just… I'm trying to do anything to get my mind off of what happened," Kevin answered.

"Okay well I understand that," Jason said. "Do you mind if I ask what happened?"

"I have no idea," Kevin replied. "I haven't been told anything yet. The only thing I know is that my dad was staking out the docks last night for some killer he's been calling the Gold Killer."

"The Gold Killer?" Jason asked.

"Yeah the killer steals gold off of his victims," Kevin replied.

Jason wanted to say that the killer could also be a woman but decided it wasn't relevant.

"Did your dad have anything gold on him?" Jason asked.

Kevin thought for a moment and then his eyes went wide.

"Yeah he has a gold watch," Kevin replied. "You don't think that the Gold Killer got him?"

"I don't know," Jason replied. "I'll leave that up to the police. But if it's missing, I would say that your dad probably ended up finding the killer."

"Jason take your seat!" Professor Flutesnoot called from the front of the class.

Jason rolled his eyes and took his seat; as he did Kevin put his hand up.

"Professor Flutesnoot, can I please be excused?" Kevin asked.

"Very well," Flutesnoot agreed with a sigh.

Jason watched as Kevin gathered his things and left the classroom. Jason felt bad for him, but he was also now quite certain that Rita was the one who had killed Kevin's father and he now felt that it was up to him and the others to bring her to justice for what she'd done.

"… and he told me that his father always wears a gold watch," Jason said to the others.

It was lunch time and the four of them were seated by themselves at one of the round tables.

"That's just too much of a coincidence," Betty said. "It had to be Rita. I mean it would be pretty hard to get the drop on a detective who was looking for a killer."

Just then Veronica showed up.

"Hey did I miss anything?" Veronica asked as she sat down.

"We're pretty sure that Rita's been killing people to gather gold," Cheryl replied. "Kevin Keller's father, he's a detective, was looking for a killer and ended up killed himself."

"Oh shit," Veronica said. "And here I thought I had an interesting story."

"Why what's up?" Chuck asked.

"Well on my way to school this morning I got jumped by these Mafia guys who were sent to kill me," Veronica replied.

"What? No way!" Cheryl exclaimed.

"Oh totally," Veronica replied. "But I was able to fight them off and get away thanks to the whole Ranger thing. I broke one guys nose and knocked them all out, it was an adrenaline rush."

"Oh that's pretty cool," Jason said. "Man I kind of want to get in a fight now; see what I can do."

"Yeah but we're not supposed to go around looking for a fight," Betty reminded him. "And we need to focus on Rita."

"Well we need to be able morph or whatever if we want to be able to take her on," Chuck said.

"After school we'll go back up to the quarry again," Betty said. "Rita's obviously here so we don't have much time."

The others all nodded in agreement.

The Rangers were back at the ship as Alpha led them into Zordon's chamber.

"Welcome back Rangers," Zordon greeted them.

"Zordon, Rita's going around town killing people to gather gold," Betty said. "We need to stop her."

"I know," Zordon said. "However the five of you are not ready to battle Rita yet."

"Come on there's five of us and one of her," Chuck said.

"Rita was once a Ranger like you, and she also has other powers which you do not," Zordon reminded them. "And she was able to defeat my team and we had far more experience than you five do, not to mention you cannot morph yet.

The Rangers were all silent.

"Go with Alpha," Zordon said. "You must train."

The five teens followed Alpha out of Zordon's chamber and to the training chamber. Today there were five different coloured stands each of which held a different weapon.

"Today Rangers we will begin weapons training," Alpha said. "On the stands in front of you are your individual weapons, each of which goes with your corresponding Power Coin."

Betty stepped towards the red stand which held a large sword with a thick knife like blade and bulky sabre grip. She picked it up and swung it experimentally a few times the weapon feeling much lighter than it looked in her hand.

"Cool," Betty said.

Cheryl went to the pink stand which held a recurve bow that had had blade on the outsides of the curve.

"I can see it can be used to fight, but uh, where are the arrows?" Cheryl asked.

"Just pull back on the string," Alpha replied.

Cheryl did so and suddenly an arrow appeared knocked on the string. Cheryl experimentally pointed it at the wall and fired, the arrow penetrated all the way to the feathers.

"Whoa, that is awesome," Cheryl exclaimed.

Jason went to the black stand and picked up a large two handed double-bladed axe. He gave a few experimental chops, the big weapon humming as he waved it about.

"Man this will do some damage," Jason stated.

Chuck went to the blue stand where there was staff-like weapon with blades on either end. He took it and twirled it around trying to be like the martial artists he'd seen in movies. However as he tried to spin it around behind his back he dropped it to the ground.

"Think I'm going to need some practice," Chuck said as he picked it back up.

Veronica approached the yellow stand last. On the stand was a pair of weapons that greatly resembled sais. Veronica picked them and did a few practice thrust.

"You know this is kind of like Raphael from the Ninja Turtles, he was always my favourite," Veronica commented.

"Didn't know you watched Ninja Turtles," Chuck said.

"From time to time," Veronica said.

"You can discuss TV shows later Rangers," Alpha interrupted. "For now you need to practice and master your new weapons."

Abbey Finn was the owner of Riverdale Jewellery, the only fine jewellery store in the town. It was about 7:15 p.m. and it had been a slow business day so Abbey decided she would close up early. With all the talk of some killer going around killing people to steal their gold people were probably not wanting to purchase any jewellery right now. Abbey hoped that the killer would be caught and brought to justice or her business might end up suffering greatly.

Abbey was just about to head into the back to begin closing up when the door opened. Abbey looked to see a somewhat dishevelled looking woman enter the store holding what looked to be a golden staff or sceptre which had a large green gem mounted on it in one hand.

"Um can I help you?" Abbey asked warily, there was something off about this customer.

"I want gold," the woman replied. "All of it."

"Um, excuse me?" Abbey responded; the request didn't make sense.

"I want all of the gold," the woman repeated.

Abbey didn't know off the top of her head how much all of the gold in her store cost, but she knew it was several millions of dollars' worth of jewellery; and this woman didn't appear to have that much money if she even had any at all.

"Okay and how exactly do you plan on paying for it?" Abbey asked suspiciously.

"Paying?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, if you want all my gold it's going to cost you a lot of money," Abbey replied as she stepped from behind the counter and slowly approached the woman.

"Money?" the woman inquired.

Abbey was beginning to think that this was some kind of prank.

"Look unless you have money to buy something I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Abbey stated.

Suddenly the woman reached out with her freehand quicker than Abbey could react and grabbed Abbey by the throat and lifted her into the air, Abbey's feet dangling off the ground.

"I do not buy, I take," the woman stated and smiled showing several gold teeth.

Abbey suddenly realized that this woman was the so-called Gold Killer the police were looking for. Before she could scream or do anything however the woman snapped Abbey's neck and dropped her corpse to the ground.

The woman then walked over to one of the cases which contained dozens of engagement rings and smashed the glass with her bare fist. She then placed her sceptre in the case and all of the gold liquefied and then pooled together leaving behind the various gem stones. The puddle of gold then travelled to the woman's sceptre and added itself as the sceptre grew to become more of a staff.

The woman then went about and did the same with all of the gold in the store. Once she had she looked at her staff and smiled.

"Soon Goldar, soon," Rita said.

Finally we see Rita. Meanwhile the Rangers are training with their weapons, but will they be ready and able to stop Rita? And we got a nice little ass-kicking scene in there from Veronica. There will be more of that coming up in the next chapters as the Rangers face Rita and her Putties for the first time.

Also thanks to everybody who has reviewed so far. I noticed there was some talk in the reviews about a White Ranger and Green Ranger. I would just like to state that Rita is the Green Ranger (that gem in her staff is the green Power Coin) and there will be no White Ranger. I don't intend to write anything beyond their battle with Rita. That said I appreciate your comments and suggestions none the less and please keep those reviews coming.