Rita walked away, her work done for the moment.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
It was just after dawn when they carried Billy’s body into the control room.
Alpha 5 zoomed out to meet them, and Zordon’s face appeared in the wall, his expression grave.
“Do something, okay?” Jason said. “There must be something you can do for him.”
“I told you that you are not ready,” Zordon replied.
“Zordon,” he pleaded. “Please help us. Okay? Please.”
Zordon was sad but firm. “There’s nothing I can do for him. We were both reckless with our teams.”
“I’m sorry,” Jason said softly as he turned and walked back over to Billy. Of all of us, he thought, Billy was the best. The kindest, the smartest . . . “I’m sorry, guys. He’s dead because of me.”
Kimberly shook her head. “No, Jason, it was all of us.”
“I pushed it,” Jason went on. “And, as usual, I made the wrong decision, out of fear . . . anger. I was just so angry. He’s a great kid, you know? He loved us. He loved being a Ranger.” The light in the Morphin Grid was getting brighter, just like it had the first time they stepped into it. “I’m sorry, Billy. I’d trade my life for yours if I could.”
Kimberly stood next to him. “Maybe he traded his life for us.”
“He probably did,” Zack said. He looked at the rest of them, one after another. “I would.”
“Me too,” Kimberly said.
Softly, Trini said it, too.
“It’s just the four of us now,” Kimberly said. The Morphin Grid blazed. “The truth is, whatever we’ve said to each other . . . it doesn’t matter. This? This is the only thing that matters.”
“She’s right,” Trini added.
At the edge of the room, Alpha 5 sidled up to Zordon. “Look at the grid. This is your time! Do you see it? The grid is open! Step through.”
“I see it,” Zordon said. His face vanished.
The kids were all still locked in their bonding moment. Intense morphing energy created wind that rocked them on their feet. “What’s happening?” Zack shouted over the sound.
“The Morphin Grid is open!” Alpha 5 shouted back.
The sound and light reached a crescendo . . . and slowly faded. “Zordon? Master?” Alpha 5 said into the silence that followed. “He must have stepped through the grid.”
Kimberly looked around. “Alpha, where’d he go?”
“I have no idea where he is,” Alpha 5 replied.
The wall pixels flickered and Zordon’s face appeared. “Why didn’t you step through? That was your only chance.” Alpha 5 sounded confused. Jason was wondering the same thing.
“I know,” Zordon replied. “But only one can come back.”
Something moved in the room behind them. They turned and saw Billy getting to his feet. He looked beat up, exhausted, still dripping wet, confused . . . but alive.
Trini, Kimberly, and Zack soon had Billy wrapped up in a group hug. He was still a bit wobbly on his feet. “Did I die?” he asked.
“No,” Kimberly said.
At the same time, Trini said, “Yes.”
Billy knew which one of them to believe. “And you brought me back to life? I told you we were superheroes!”
Jason spun back to Zordon, realizing what the old Ranger had done. “There can be only one Red Ranger,” Zordon said quietly. “Jason, this is your time. This is your team.”
Jason ran over to Billy and gave him a massive hug. “Welcome back, my friend.”
Billy’s huge grin faded as something else occurred to him. “We’ve got to go to Krispy Kreme, Jason.”
Zack gave him a look. “What?”
“Not for donuts,” Billy added.
“Okay, let’s try this,” said Jason. He then gave Zordon a respectful bow and offered his thanks. He understood the sacrifice Zordon had just made, bringing Billy back to life instead of resurrecting his own body. That was a true leader.
“Come on, guys,” Jason said, walking toward the Morphin Grid. They were already right there with him. They stepped into the footprints. Jason felt like he should say something inspiring, but all he could think of was, “It’s Morphin’ time.”
A rising hum vibrated through the ship. Each of the five friends felt the transformation coming. Jason saw his coin, shining and brilliant. The crust was gone, and the strange outline inside it was now clearly a T. rex.
A flare of light from the Morphin Grid washed over all five of them. As it passed, the Power Rangers looked at each other in their full armor, crackling with the energy of the Morphin Grid.
Jason ran one gloved hand over his other forearm, feeling the smooth, solid armor over the flexible underlayer.
They were all masked now, identifiable only by color: Jason’s red, Billy’s blue, Kimberly’s pink, Trini’s yellow, Zack’s black. They had done it! But on the other hand, they hadn’t really done anything yet. Rita Repulsa was still out there.
As a group, the Rangers charged out of the ship.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Rita left a little surprise for the would-be Rangers, then made her way to the bottom of an enormous quarry. It cut down through millions of years of rock, which made it perfect for her needs. She had lost Goldar sixty-five million years ago. It was time to bring him back. With her staff held high over her head, she cried out, “Come back to me, Goldar!”
A deep, seismic rumble sounded all through the quarry. Small trickles of gold appeared and ran together into wider streams that began to drip upward, into the air. More gold flowed from the rocks, pouring up into a mass that hovered above Rita’s head. Molten gold dripped and rained around Rita as the mass grew and began to take shape. It joined with the gold still flowing out of the ground, forming an immense pair of legs. Then the torso and head formed—and then arms holding brutal twin swords, each longer than a semitruck. Rita looked up and saw Goldar spread his wings and roar. The sound thundered out over the rocks, and Rita laughed with delight. What a creation he was! A hundred feet tall, pure gold, armored and invincible, and devoted only to her.
“I’ve missed you, my friend,” she said.
Goldar threw back his head, roaring again. What Zordon’s meteor had blasted apart, Rita’s power had remade! Together they turned and began their march on Angel Grove. Rita would find this Krispy Kreme, and then nothing would stop her.
Now was the time. The Zeo Crystal would be hers.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
As the Rangers reached the watery-ceilinged cave, they saw a putty, shimmering on the other side of the water. “How did he find us?” Zack wondered. “We gotta crush him.”
“Wait,” Trini said. A wave of other putties jumped into the water, blocking the way out.
Kimberly tensed. “Let’s do this.” She sprang up into the water ceiling. The other Rangers were right there with her.
As Jason approached the putties, he felt a change in his armor—an addition. He looked down to see that a sword had morphed at his side. He drew the blade and immediately felt its power.
All the Rangers could do was fight their way through. As one, the team charged into the putties. The water surged and boiled around them as they fought in full armor, tearing the putties apart—but there were always more. They battled on, fighting the putties until they all burst through the surface of the pool and out into the chasm.
The struggle continued on the ledges and slopes of the rocks around the chasm. Putties appeared from everywhere. The Power Rangers broke them to pieces, shattered them into clouds of dust, threw them off ledges. “There’s more coming!” Kimberly shouted, just when they thought they might have a break.
“Guys, they just keep coming!” Jason called out.
Billy spun a kick into the head of a putty. Pieces of it splattered the others nearby. “There’s too
many of them!”
“You guys hold them off,” Zack called out as he disengaged from the melee.
Trini turned to see him vanish into the chaos of the battle. “Zack, where are you going?”
She waited for a response, but none came.
Overwhelmed, she returned her focus to the fight. “Don’t stop!” Trini called out to the others. They had to stick together to the end.
The putties pressed close, forcing the Power Rangers toward the edge of a cliff. There was nowhere they could go. Then they heard a rumbling noise, from over the nearest hill.
Zack’s Zord appeared over the crest of the hill, scattering the putties and driving them over the edge of the cliff. Zack popped out of the cockpit. “You guys gotta get one of these!” he shouted. Even Jason was happy to see that he’d been reckless enough to take a chance.
They were feeling pretty good about themselves until Billy—who was looking across the broken landscape of the mine area—said, “Uh, guys . . . we’re too late.”
All of the others followed the direction of Billy’s gaze, and there they got their first look at Goldar.
“Oh, man,” Zack said. “That’s a lot of gold.”
Trini headed back toward the cave. “We’re going to protect the Crystal, right?”
There was a silence. Then Jason said, “Look. You saw what Rita did to us, and now she’s got Goldar.”
“We are going to Angel Grove,” Kimberly said.
“Then let’s get the Zords!” added Trini.
Zack was first into his Zord. He gave the rest of them advice while he rode it up to the top of the hill. “After you power up, gently lean forward, and your Zord will follow your lead,” he said. “Easy . . . slow at first.” Nobody answered. “Guys, is anyone coming up here?”
In a shower of falling rocks, the other four Zords crashed out of the cave. Trini’s saber-toothed tiger scampered between the triceratops and T. rex, with Kimberly’s pterodactyl swooping overhead. Zack jumped back into his Zord. “Great! You guys are doing great! Try to stay close . . . whoa, not that close!” Billy crashed into him and then steered away. “Kimberly, how you doing?”
The pterodactyl shot straight up in the air. “AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Kimberly screamed.
Trini had the tiger all figured out. She loped along, smooth and fierce, singing an old eighties song: “And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night . . .”
The rest of them sang along as they rumbled toward Angel Grove, the town they said they hated but were going to save anyway.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Kimberly watched from the air as Rita and Goldar strode down Main Street. Molten gold fell around her like rain. It crackled on the asphalt and started fires in trees that were too close.
“Guys! Our town!” Kimberly called out. “She’s destroying it.”
Closing in, the Rangers had to be fast and careful at the same time, so they didn’t squash any people. Jason stomped on a parked car and stopped to kick it away.
As Kimberly approached, she reported back to the others. “Rita and her golden boy haven’t found Krispy Kreme!”
“Kimberly, you hold them there,” Jason said. “Zack, Billy, circle the Krispy Kreme and make sure it’s safe. I’m heading straight for Goldar!”
“Copy,” Kimberly replied. “Going around.”
“Kim, I’ll go with you,” Trini added.
“Let’s go,” Zack said. “Billy, it’s just the two of us.” The mastodon and triceratops peeled away. Trini’s saber-toothed tiger headed to help Kimberly, who was firing away at Rita with the pterodactyl’s wing-mounted guns.
“Surprise!” she sang out.
Rita looked up. “How cute! The Rangers found their costumes and their dino-cars! Let’s give them something else to play with.” She struck her staff against the street. Putties came to life as she passed, forming from traffic lights and parked cars. Rita called to her creations, “Crush them!”
Billy looked out at the oncoming putties. “How many does she need?”
The putties shambled north to stop the Zords as Rita and Goldar kept going south. “Jason, watch out!” Kimberly called.
“They’re already here,” Jason said grimly. An army of putties swarmed over the T. rex. “I can’t get them off.”
“Turn your head,” Kimberly called. “Trust me.”
Jason pulled the controls, moving the T. rex’s head just as Kimberly jetted in his direction. Her pterodactyl blazed past, knocking the putties to the ground.
“Thanks, Kim,” Jason replied as he regained control of the fight.
Over to the west, the same thing was happening to Billy and Zack. Billy’s triceratops tipped over and crushed a wall of putties.
Energy blasts from the triceratops’s horns vaporized huge groups of putties. “Guns?! I have guns!” Billy couldn’t believe his good luck.
Zack charged forward to flip the triceratops back on its feet.
Back on Main Street, Trini and Kimberly tag-teamed Goldar, hitting him high and low. They couldn’t bring him down. Rita stood on the high school’s roof, looking for something . . .
“Rangers!” Kimberly called. “She just found it.” She strafed the putties again but couldn’t get to Rita.
“Okay, come on! Let’s move!” Jason’s T. rex swept a group of putties aside with its tail.
Billy was already moving, his triceratops’s six legs churning at top speed. “Zack and I are closest! We’ll try to push Goldar toward the water!”
They got to the intersection of Sixth and Main, close to the Krispy Kreme, at the same time as Goldar.
A few blocks away, Jason had finally shed the last of the putties. He headed toward Goldar, picking up speed. When he got close enough, he launched the T. rex into a feetfirst leap, smashing into Goldar, sending him staggering.
“Come on, Rangers, join me!” Jason called out.
Trini pulled her saber-toothed tiger toward Goldar. After seeing Jason’s first blow, she momentarily felt that Goldar might be easy to defeat. As she got closer, though, she could sense his power. It wasn’t long before both she and Jason were shaken free.
“We gotta do better!” Jason called out to the others.
“I’m coming!” Kimberly replied as the shadow of her pterodactyl tore across the battlefield.
Jason reared up his T. rex, readying another strike. On the periphery of the destroyed street he saw a familiar truck getting hit by molten gold, skidding out, and then crashing.
He looked at Goldar and his teammates, then at the truck. He knew his father was inside and needed his help. No choice, he thought. The other Rangers could fend for themselves.
Jason launched out of his Zord and into a sea of putties. None of them stood a chance as he fought his way to his father.
Sam looked up and saw only the Red Ranger, not his son.
“Give me your hand!” Jason called out.
His father hesitated, unsure of everything happening around him.
“Look at me!” Jason continued. “Trust me! It’s okay. You’re all right.”
His father reached out his hand, and Jason pulled him to safety.
Zack and Billy approached Goldar. For a moment they all paused . . . then Goldar slashed at them and knocked both Zords tumbling. “Jason, help us!” Billy yelled.
Jason pulled himself back into his Zord and rushed to their aid. “I’ll take Goldar from the left!”
Trini’s voice called out. “Jason! I’m right behind you!”
Overhead, Kimberly swooped down and picked up the triceratops as Billy curled it into a tight ball. Kimberly flew up thousands of feet in a few seconds . . . then circled around and dove.
“Incoming!” she shouted, and let the triceratops go.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Billy’s Zord landed in front of Goldar wit
h the impact of a huge bomb. Parked cars and newspaper boxes went flying. So did Rita Repulsa. She was catapulted over several buildings and landed in a heap. All of her putties collapsed into junk. Even Goldar was staggering, going down on one knee.
The Rangers cheered. “Billy, are you okay?” Zack yelled. “That was crazy brave, dude.”
The triceratops rolled over and got to its feet. “I’m okay,” Billy said, but he sounded a little spacey.
They all looked around. Had they won? Where was Rita?
They found out soon enough. Goldar formed a hand beneath Rita and gently lifted her until she stood upright. The molten gold healed some of her wounds and as he swung her back around, her eyes locked in on the shattered ground around the Krispy Kreme. “I feel the Crystal,” she said.
Goldar demolished the building to dig into the earth below the foundation. Before the Rangers could stop him, a blinding beam of light shot up from the hole. Goldar stopped and took a few steps back, admiring it.
The Rangers were transfixed for a moment. They had never seen anything so bright and pure. Then Jason got moving again. “He found the Crystal!”
One by one, the Rangers locked their Zords into a line between Goldar and the Zeo Crystal’s hole. Goldar smashed into the line, driving forward. The road buckled beneath them. “We’re sliding,” Billy said. There wasn’t much space between them and the blazing crater.
Trini chimed in. “It’s getting hot in here.”
Goldar shoved the line of Zords toward the Zeo Crystal’s light. “Yes!” Rita exulted. “Push them into the hole! Let them melt!”
Inside the Zords’ cockpits, the Rangers were starting to suffer from the heat. “This is it, guys,” Jason said. The T. rex’s armor was starting to buckle.
Trini saw that the mastodon was starting to warp out of shape. Zack had passed out from the heat. She sprang up to slap the mastodon’s cockpit. “Zack!” Trini cried out.
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