Part Four

Chapter Four

Holding the children close, the Rangers made their way back towards the crowd of people waiting by the road. The amusement park had instantly reverted to an empty construction site, and the Rangers could clearly hear sounds from the suburbs beyond. The haunted tunnel was nothing more than a pile of freshly-dug dirt, while the lagoon was a shallow stormwater drain filled with the remnants of an overnight shower.

As the Rangers carried them, the children began to stir. The girl in Kimberly's arms looked about four, and as her bright blue eyes fluttered open, she looked around in confusion before her gaze fell on the superhero carrying her. Her eyes grew wide.

"Pink Ranger?" she asked excitedly. "What's happening?"

"You and some new friends got a bit lost today," Kimberly replied, nodding to the children being carried by the other Rangers, now peppering the Rangers with questions. "But we're gonna get you back to your families. What's your name?"

"Lily," the girl said.

Kim smiled. "Well I definitely know someone who's waiting for you," she said.

The Rangers rounded a corner and came into view of the crowd. Nobody had moved when the park had inexplicably vanished, everyone remaining frozen in a mixture of fear and surprise. But seeing the Rangers suddenly emerge from behind a pile of construction supplies, the crowd surged forward with wild cheers, four sets of parents at the front of the group. Seeing the same man and woman they'd spoken to earlier, Kim gently lowered Lily to the ground.

"Hey," Kim began, and pointed to the girl's parents. "Look who it is."

Lily turned to see and grinned. "Mummy! Daddy!" she shouted. "I met a Power Ranger today, she was really nice!"

Lily's parents reached their daughter and swept her into their arms, incapable of little more than happy sobs. Kim stepped back to Trini, when Sergeant Holdsworth made his way through the crush towards them.

"I don't know what went on in there," the police officer said, glancing from Kim to Trini, "but thank you. We couldn't have gotten them back without you."

"Don't mention it," Trini said. "We're glad everything turned out okay."

"I was talking to one of the other kids," Holdsworth continued, indicating the boy Zac had carried to safety. "He can't remember anything after arriving in the park this morning. Thank goodness for that, eh?" He tipped his hat and disappeared back into the crowd.

Watching Lily's parents with their arms wrapped around their daughter, Kim turned to the Yellow Ranger beside her. "Still think all we do is death and violence?" she asked softly.

Trini smiled. "No," she said. "Not today I don't."

Once the Rangers were back in the Command Centre later that afternoon, Zordon called the rest of us in. We stood there in silence as Trini relayed the Toymaker's final moments there in the pavilion.

"I felt sorry for him in the end," Trini finished, as Alpha continued patching the Yellow Ranger up, applying a bandage to her arm. "Don't get me wrong. He did horrible things. But I think, ultimately, he was being used by somebody else, and that same entity killed him when it no longer needed him."

"Which tells us something troubling," Zordon said. "There is a larger force at work here Rangers, something we have been unable to identify, using very powerful magic we can't seem to counter."

"The amusement park was a page straight out of Rita's playbook," Tommy began, "but none of this feels like her. Or Zedd for that matter. Where's the ego?"

"And I really doubt He Who Devours Truth was working for either of them," Scott added. "But the Toymaker mentioned Ag'reth as well, right? So there has to be a connection."

"Exactly," Zordon said. "What if these recent attacks are not random, but the beginning of a coordinated, targeted assault?"

"If that's true, things are gonna get worse before they get better," Jason added.

Sarah looked up from one of the monitors. "We're just getting word from Sergeant Holdsworth," she began. "The kids are fine, but here's a coincidence. All four of them were four years old, and they were the only four-year-olds visiting the park this morning."

"You know, he never did answer the question," Ian said. "The Toymaker, I mean. What did he need them for?"

"The last thing he said to me before he died," Trini said, glancing to Sarah, "was that the chains were breaking. And he was scared."

"We've been scanning the databanks ever since that night in August for any references to chains in ancient lore," Alpha replied. "I'm sorry to say Rangers, but there is a lot of them, and none of them have been particularly helpful."

"So we're fighting blind?" Brendan asked.

"When Ag'reth said that, it was to scare us," Trini said. "But it felt like the Toymaker was trying to warn us. Guys, something bad is coming."

"I agree," said Zordon. "Something is out there Rangers, a force unknown to us that is incredibly hostile. I would be lying if I said this didn't worry me. In fact," and Zordon swept his gaze around the room. "This worries me a great deal indeed."

To be continued.