Chapter Three

I walked along with the others, keeping my gaze on my feet as I went. I didn't like what we decided. There had to be a reason we were chosen for all of this. And we were giving it up?

On the other hand…was it really our responsibility to save the city like that? To be their own personal…arsenal against these guys?

"You look like you're deep in thought?"

I turned to see Trini standing beside me, smiling gently as she unfolded her arms to climb over the boulder in front of her. Our trek had been easy at first, just a steady decline, but then the rocks and boulders started to jut out of the ground, and we had to be more careful with our footsteps. Anyway, I shouldn't have been surprised that Trini noticed my musings.

She was always so understanding, calm, and demure like that. Always able to read my mind or something. Or maybe I was projecting more with my face than I thought I was.

Either way, as she spoke, the others turned back to me with curious glances and I couldn't help but voice my thoughts out loud.

"Guys, we shouldn't have left," I mused. "I mean, he chose us to save the world." He could've chosen anyone else, but he chose us. There had to be something special about thar, right? Knowing what I know now, I can say the answer is a definitive yes. But then? I just thought it was that we were meant for something greater or something. "I say we do it."

"Do you really think we can?" Trini turned her big brown eyes to me. An honest question.

"Hey guys, you don't even know what you're talking about. I mean, we were talking to a giant floating head!" Zack said. He couldn't fool me, I heard the anxiety in his voice. He was worried he made the wrong choice or else that we were mad at him or something.

"And a robot," Kimberly reminded.

"The coolest robot I've ever seen," Billy added, practically breathless.

I opened my mouth to respond but was knocked off my feet at an explosion that sounded behind us. "Everybody down!" I immediately shouted, my adrenaline spiking, wanting to protect my friends the best I could. I don't know what it is, but that instinct always seemed to come up in me, even when I was a kid.

I remember being five years old or so and had met Billy for the first time. He was really nice and kind as we played in the park, a little bit shy when I walked over and saw that he was messing with some sort of a tech thing. (I still don't really get what it was). He looked up at me with glasses bigger than his face that seemed to magnetize the shy gaze radiating from him as he quietly explained what it was.

Then Bulk and Skull showed up—back then they were in the correct grade—and started to pick on him. I instantly taught them what's what and since then they've hated me. But I don't like other people being in danger. I always have to do something about it. Even if it's a danger to me.

So, in that instance, I immediately went into fight mode to keep my friends safe. Especially when these grey guys showed up and started attacking. We know them as putties now, but when we first saw them, they were just wiggling crazy, dangerous guys.

They attacked us and, after some screaming from Kimberly, we attacked back.

It was crazy. All of the martial arts that we'd learned over the years helped us out. I was always taught not to use martial arts as a means of self defense but of self discipline but it worked out. Kimberly's gymnastics helped as well. But, these guys were just too strong for us and before we knew it, we were flung onto the ground with them converging on us.

So we didn't have much more of a choice but to use our morphers like Zordon and Alpha had told us. And man, if you've never morphed before, you'll never understand how much of a rush it is.

"Mastodon!"

"Pteradactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Saber-tooth Tiger!"

"Tyrannosaurus!"

It's like your entire being morphs with a rush of energy. You're then covered by the the strongest, strangest sense of energy that goes through a suit and everything is just intuitive to you. Like you know what your'e going to do before you do it. It's like I felt the power of the Tyrannosaurus actually go through me.

And, once we were morphed, we were teleported again, this time back to the city.

Because that's when we met the guy that was going to be one of my biggest enemies. Goldar. Best way to describe him, a red eyed gorilla with the ability to fly from his golden armor. Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure what Goldar is, what species. All I know is he's an alien and a monster.

So we teleported back to the city and were ready to take on Goldar.

He put up a good fight with more putties our first go around but it was easier for us. We were stronger now that we were in form. Even Billy was flipping and kicking all over the place, scores better than what I've seen from the classes he's taken with me. Like the powers we got as Power Rangers unlocked what was inside him all along.

Almost like the suits were moving our arms and legs for us, like marionettes. That's probably a good description now. That we were puppets ready to do whatever needed to be done.

Then, Goldar suddenly was the size of a tower.

He laughed menacinlg yas he stomped towards us.

At that point, we had no other choice but to use the zords that Zordon had talked to us about. Okay, I was really excited for that part. Under my helmet, no one could see my smile after I declared, "Dinozord power!" to call upon our zords.

I wanted to see what it was meant to do, after we had morphed. Our suits were cool, I felt more powerful than any time I've ever felt before and now we were going to see the robots that we were going to pilot to save the city even further.

Plus, how many times can a guy say that they have their own Tyrannosaurus?

So, we watched as our zords came out of their hiding places and dutifully came to us so we could protect them.

Immediately, intuitively, we leapt into them to bring our zords together. It's amazing inside a zord. All the control panels and everything. But we had a job to do, and I was ready to save as many people as possible. "Log on!"

Kimberly, Trini, Zack, and Billy followed my lead and jumped into their zords, too. I could hear their exclamations of surprise through my speakers in my zord as they went in to pilot the zords.

"Zack here, this is kicking!"

"This is Billy, all systems go!"

"Trini here, ready to rock!"

"Hey, nice stereo!"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at Kimberly's exclamation. Of course, the first thing she would notice was the quality of the speaker system of our zords. I could almost read her mind, thinking about the kind of pop music she'd be blasting out of the speakers whenever she got the chance.

Still, we were able to bring the zords together. Somehow it was second nature for us to drive them and bring them together. Maybe it was through the power as well. But when we brought the zords together, it merged our cockpits so that we could see each other and do everything we were supposed to. Once the zords were put together, it stood strong and tall, a robot on its own.

It was amazing.

"You and your weapons are no match for me," Goldar declared once we were all together.

"All right guys, let's see what this baby can do!" I declared seconds before sending out missiles that crashed into Goldar. I couldn't help by excitement, seeing him get his. "Yeah! Zap him again!" This time, lightning shocks came out of the eyes of the Tyrannosaurus and blasted Goldar, knocking him to the ground.

We stood strong and tall, waiting for Goldar to fly at us once more. He swung his sword and struck us, and…I'm not going to lie. We were losing at first, taking hit after hit, as we got used to everything.

Billy gasped and frantically turned towards me. I saw the fear in his eyes through his helmet. You can put a ranger in a zord and their confidence will skyrocket, but they will still be themselves underneath it all. And Billy was still Billy, I could hear the quiver in his voice as he said, "Jason, that blow didn't even phase him!" after one of our stronger hits.

I didn't really get a chance to respond because Goldar was then flying towards us with a kick. "Oh man, he's coming at us!"

Yeah, with a drop-kick.

Goldar kicked us in the chest so hard that it was our turn to fall. And then Goldar was onto us swinging his sword. Well, we needed to fight fire with fire, and something told me that there was another weapon for us to use.

Okay, that's the part that's crazy, that I can't really explain. But when you're in your suit, when you're a ranger, it's like there's another being up there—or in your head—that tells you everything you need to know. I heard something in my head about a Power Sword and so I called for one.

It appeared in the hand of our zord and we swung it around, ready to take on Goldar…but he ran.

Like a coward.

"This isn't over, I'll be back!"

At least he gave us a warning. (I'm being sarcastic, here).

One the battle was over, we were brought back to the Command Center and the zords were put back into their hiding places. We demorphed in a bright flash of light, just like as we had morphed, and we turned to Zordon's and Alpha's smiling faces. (Well, only Zordon's cause he actually has a face, but I think if Alpha could smile he would, too).

"Congratulations on a job well done," Zordon said, his voice booming around all of us. Like a father figure. A proud father, heaping praise on his children. "Now that you've become Power Rangers, you must follow here basic rules or lose the protection of the power."

I exchanged a curious glance with Billy on that one. It made sense that there'd be some sort of limitations but I guess we hadn't really thought about it. The rules are simple, we can't use our powers for personal gain, we can't use them to escalate a battle unless Rita forces us too—at that point, I saw Billy's face fall just briefly. I had an idea what he was thinking about, having these new powers, but I couldn't really see Billy using it the way he wanted, he was too gentle for that- and we have to keep our identities a secret.

Like anyone would believe us, anyway.

"Uh, wait a second," Zack said, lifting a finger in the air. As if we were back in school. But that's what I meant about Zordon being like a father to us, he was a mentor, and we immediately knew to treat him with as much respect as we would any teacher. "I'm not sure we're the right ones for this. I mean, we were pretty lucky this time."

I understood what he meant. How did we know it wasn't just a fluke? That it wasn't the power and the suits that had us do everything we could to succeed? The thought had crossed my mind, too, but, I didn't want to dwell. That was Zack for you, he's goofy and charming and silly but he also had a good heart and was able to talk about his fears and feelings with ease. Vulnerable.

"Luck had nothing to do with it," Zordon reassured him. "You five have come together for form a fine group of superheroes as there ever has been. Youv'e been through an extraordinary experience together. You need each other now and the world needs you."

"All right. Yeah, I'm in." I couldn't help it. There was something screaming in me that we needed to do this. It was our responsibility, and I couldn't turn it down.

"Me, too," Zack agreed.

"You can count on me," Trini said.

"Affirmative!"

Kimberly was the only one who hemmed and hawed. I saw her lips purse in an expression of almost disgust as she mulled it over. She lowered her gaze for a moment, folding her arms self-consciously. "I don't know you guys," she said quietly. "I mean the outfits are cool and everything, but my hair gets all tangled up inside the helmets…" She twirled her hair around her finger. "I don't think I can do it."

I could see the mischievous glint in her eye as she said it. Kimberly was a lot of things, but she wasn't that shallow. She liked being presentable, but put her into a organization where she was going to teach a bunch of young girls about camping and living off the land and she'd jump in feet first…then complain about needing a shower later.

Alpha, on the other hand, didn't know Kimberly's mischievous side and started to short circuit in confusion. Immediately, she regretted her joke and worked to reassure him that she was kidding.

"Oh, humor, what a concept," Alpha mused, making the rest of us smile.

I turned and locked eyes with my friends in turn, getting their silent communication of their choice with their nods. "Let's do it," I declared.

And so that's how we started as being Power Rangers…and that's how we started the journey that, upon reflection, upon what we've lost, I don't know if we'd make the same choice again.