Once their twisting and turning untangled the chair legs, they stumbled toward opposite ends of the room. Still trying to find a hiding spot, Bulk looked under the tables while Skull looked inside the desk drawers.
Seeing a tall supply cabinet, Bulk pulled it open. It was full of scientific equipment. Not knowing or caring what it was, he started yanking the equipment out and tossing it onto the floor.
Once it was empty, Bulk frantically waved at Skull.
“In here! Hurry up!” he said.
At first it seemed as if they’d never both make it inside. The cabinet was a tight fit, and the chairs made it harder. It was only when Skull, his chair and all, sat on Bulk’s lap that they succeeded. Reaching out with all four hands, they forced the door shut.
“I can’t see, anyway, so I’m closing my eyes,” Skull said.
“Fine,” Bulk answered. “Just stay quiet!” Then he closed his eyes, too.
Not used to being chased by “science nerds,” their hearts beat so loudly, they didn’t even hear the laboratory door swing open.
And they definitely didn’t see Finster rush inside.
“Oh dear, oh dear,” Finster muttered to himself. “All those teen scientists running around out there must be trying to find me! But how do they even know I’m here? And why are they so angry? They’re probably working with that dratted Blue Ranger! I suppose it doesn’t matter. The important thing is to hide somewhere until they give up.”
Being something of a scientist himself, Finster quickly realized that the only place in Billy’s lab that was large enough to hide inside was the supply cabinet.
Pleased with his brilliance, he chuckled as he grabbed the handle. Given my height, this should be quite a comfortable place to wait them out! he thought.
As the cabinet door opened, Bulk and Skull expected to see a group of angry science nerds. When they saw a furry, pointy-eared alien instead, they were very surprised.
Finster was also startled. He wasn’t sure what he was staring at.
It looks sort of human, but it has two heads! he thought. Is it some sort of monster the scientists here created? It’s fascinating!
As Bulk and Skull fell forward, a curious Finster stepped back to give them room. The combined weight of the bullies broke the chairs, freeing them.
Still on the floor, they looked up at Finster and screamed. “Ahhhh!”
Finster, thinking they might be trying to form their own low-tech version of a Megazord, screamed back. “Ahhhh!”
Bulk and Skull scrambled to their feet and ran toward the door.
Skull’s voice became very squeaky. “Bulk, wha-what is it?”
Nearly out the door, a terrified Bulk said, “I don’t know. Maybe it’s some kind of revenge experiment those crazy science nerds sent after us! Keep running!”
Peh. They’re just a pair of frightened human teens, Finster realized. And I have my own problems. Should I head back to the Moon Palace and face Rita’s wrath or wait until the excitement dies down, sneak back to the tanks, and use one of those wonderful giant creatures to create my ultimate monster?
Imagining the fearsome creature he might create, Finster closed the laboratory door and took the human teens’ hiding place in the cabinet.
Running full tilt through the hallways, Bulk and Skull began screaming at the top of their lungs, “Out of the way! We’ll get you for this!”
They were so loud, the Blue Ranger couldn’t help but hear them. The sound also made it easy for him to find them. But he had to yank them by their collars just to slow them down. The hardest part was to get them to stop yelling long enough to explain what they were screaming about.
“Guys, it’s okay,” he said over their cries.
When they finally recognized that a Power Ranger had grabbed them, they stopped struggling.
“Easy for you to say! You didn’t see that monster!” Skull said.
“Whatever it is, it’s gone now,” the Blue Ranger said. “What sort of monster did you see?”
Bulk panted. “It looked . . . sort of like . . . a really big Scottish terrier!” he said.
Skull leaned against the wall, breathless. “But it walked . . . on two legs,” he said, “and had a really horrible scream!”
“Finster,” the Blue Ranger said. “And where was this?”
Bulk pointed, but he was too out of breath to speak.
“Lab . . . ,” Skull added. “The one . . . where that loser . . . Billy . . . works.”
Loser? Billy thought. He stared at Skull for a moment, then decided to let it go.
As soon as they caught their breath, Bulk and Skull went back to running, even if they no longer had any idea where to go that would be safe from monsters and science nerds.
Chapter 11
The Blue Ranger paused at the door to his laboratory, his hand on the knob. He still had no idea why Finster was there, but now figured that the solar flares may have left him stranded, giving Billy only a few hours to catch him.
If he was trying to destroy the center by overrunning it with Putties, or unleashing one of his monsters, he’d have done it by now, Billy thought. Besides, Rita Repulsa and her equally evil minions usually attack places like power plants, military bases, or big cities. Why a science lab?
The only other possibility Billy could think of was that Finster was there looking for something, but what? There wasn’t anything on the small, isolated island other than marine life.
Well, Billy thought, it’s time to find out!
He quietly turned the knob. Then he threw open the door and leaped inside. The Blue Ranger landed in a combat stance: his legs spread for solid balance and his hands out, ready to strike.
But there was no one there. No one he could see, anyway.
I should have known Finster wouldn’t just be sitting out in the open, he thought. But trying to surprise him was worth a shot.
Noticing the extra food flakes floating in Goo Fish Junior’s bowl, Billy gritted his teeth. Annoying as it was, that was more than likely Skull’s work. At least that confirms this was where they saw Finster, he thought. He’d have to clean out the bowl, again, later.
As he scanned the room, he kept up his guard. Unlike the large area that held the marine tanks, there weren’t all that many places to hide in the lab. If Finster was still there, he’d be easy to find. The space was a mess. The equipment belonging to the research center, as well as Billy’s things, had been broken, torn, and scattered everywhere. But none of the piles were tall enough to conceal even a short alien.
The largest pile was a heap of equipment on the floor near the supply cabinet. The strange collection, of circuit boards and what looked like parts of a microscope, was half covered by the pieces of a broken mirror. Unless Billy was mistaken, all of that used to be in the supply cabinet.
That’s certainly a clue, Billy thought.
Hand on his holstered blaster, the Blue Ranger approached the cabinet. When he tugged at the handle, it resisted. Something inside was trying to keep the door closed.
Bingo! Billy thought.
With his enhanced strength, all he had to do was yank a little harder. The door flew open—and there was Finster. When Billy aimed the blaster at him, the cowardly minion shivered and raised his hands to cover his doglike face.
“Now, now! No shooting or hitting, please!” he begged. “I’m no warrior! More a thinker, you know. All that punching and kicking strikes me as crass.”
It was true, Billy had never seen Finster in a fight. Then again, he hadn’t often seen him without a monster nearby, either. To make sure they were alone, Billy looked around to see if anything was moving, but nothing was, and there were no other hiding spots.
Still cautious, he eyed Finster. “There’s no need to fight if you just surrender,” he said.
Lowering his hands, Finster chuckled. “Su
rrender? That’s a fine, fine joke! I really must tell the queen that one, once I get back and see her again. Ten thousand years in a space Dumpster, and you think I’d just surrender?”
For someone who wasn’t a fighter, Finster seemed strangely confident.
Billy held the blaster steady. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said.
“I’m afraid I must disagree with you about that, Power Ranger,” Finster answered. Straightening the tool smock he always wore, he waddled defiantly out of the cabinet.
“Electricus,” Finster said. “Here’s your target. Fry him.”
“Electricus?” Billy said.
The room still looked empty. The Blue Ranger had no idea whom, or what, Finster was talking to. But then the pile of broken equipment started to move. It shifted around, assembling itself like a living puzzle. Soon it looked less and less like a heap of junk and more like a hastily made robot!
A satisfied Finster watched. “I do find violence crass,” he said. “Unless it’s one of my monsters being violent! Then it can be quite wonderful!”
Even when Electricus was finished putting itself together, it didn’t have much of a shape, but a set of lenses on what might be considered its forehead flared to life, and . . .
A bright crimson beam shot across the room!
Billy leaped back to avoid being hit, then fired back with his blaster. He hit Electricus dead-on, but one of the broken pieces of mirror covering its body reflected the blast. It hit the wall, making a small, smoking hole.
Unharmed, Electricus made a high-pitched whining sound, then fired again.
Billy leaped a second time. Despite everything, he found himself impressed by the monster’s design.
He looked at Finster and said, “That whine must be a feedback coil and a transistor boosting the voltage to recharge the laser. You could have gotten them from the lab equipment, and the capacitors you’d need from the circuit boards. The lenses are obviously from a microscope. But where did you get a laser head?”
Finster tried to get closer to the door, but the Blue Ranger blocked his way. Proud of his work, and seeing no reason not to answer a simple question, he said, “A laser pointer. Same principle. The hard part was adjusting the microscope lenses.”
“Smart,” Billy said. “But I’ve got a few ideas of my own!”
As Electricus charged its laser again, the Blue Ranger dove, rolled, and leaped up near the ceiling. There he tore some frosted glass covers off the lab’s recessed lighting. When the next blast came his way, rather than dodge, he held the glass covers up as a shield. The ray hit the covers. The light that came out of the other side was bright but harmless.
It was Finster’s turn to be impressed. “That’s diffusing glass!” he said. “Clever! Laser is organized light, so you found a way to make it disorganized again!”
“Thanks. Want to tell me how you teleported here through the solar flares?” Billy asked.
“Ah,” Finster said, “that means you don’t know how! Which also means it’s unlikely your fellow Power Rangers will be joining us any time soon. Excellent!”
Billy groaned at his mistake. Finster was very smart.
The minion’s way to the door was clear. Again he headed for it.
“Much as I’d love to talk shop, Power Ranger, I really must be on my way,” he said.
“I’m going to have to insist that you stay!” Billy said. He raced up and grabbed Finster around the waist. The moment his hands made contact with the inventor’s tool smock, a painful electric pulse raced through the Blue Ranger.
“Yeow!” Billy cried out.
Rattled from head to toe, the Blue Ranger was forced to let go.
“Shocking, isn’t it?” Finster laughed. “Oh, that’s another one I must tell Rita! Shocking! Ha-ha! Goodbye!”
By fighting with his brain, Finster was giving Billy a lot more trouble than he’d expected. Billy promised himself he wouldn’t underestimate Finster again.
“Okay, you electrified your smock,” the Blue Ranger said. “But what happens if I do this?”
Rather than touch Finster’s smock again, he grabbed him by the arms. Before the little alien realized what was happening, Billy lifted him off his feet and hurled him into Electricus. When the electrified tool smock made contact with Electricus, both were covered in bolts of jagged white light.
Electricus broke into pieces. Now it really was a pile of trash.
Smoke curling from his smock, a dazed Finster plopped down beside it. After grabbing the side of his head to steady himself, Finster sadly patted his invention.
“Poor thing,” he said. “If I’d built you in my workshop, you could have really been something. Now I only have one choice left. I wish it hadn’t come to this.”
With a sigh, Finster took a small rectangular box from one of the smock’s pockets. To Billy, it looked like a TV remote.
“On the bright side,” Finster said, “I did make my Enhancifier back home!”
Before the Blue Ranger could react, Finster aimed the Enhancifier at the only other living thing in the room—the goldfish in the bowl. He pressed a button.
“I didn’t intend this for such a small animal,” Finster said, “but . . . you’ve left me no choice.”
A sparkling ball of blue plasma shot from the Enhancifier into the bowl. Surrounded by the strange energy, Goo Fish Junior started to swell. At first he looked like a sponge, sucking in not only the weird energy, but everything else in the bowl, including the water, extra food, and Billy’s inter-species communication experiment!
For a moment, as Goo Fish Junior completely filled the bowl, he became sphere-shaped. Then the glass shattered. As the shards flew across the lab, Billy had to shield his eyes. When he looked again, his goldfish was six feet tall!
He still had his tail and fish eyes and body, but he also had stubby arms and legs. There was a slimy coating all over the fish’s body. Billy guessed it probably helped keep the gills moist so that Goo Fish Junior could breathe in the air.
Finster had turned him into one of his unnatural monsters!
“Goo Fish Junior!” Billy cried. “No!”
Chapter 12
The human-size Goo Fish Junior lurched around. Bumping into walls, tables, and equipment, he nearly fell off his new feet. The big goldfish seemed terribly confused by the sudden change.
Not wanting to hurt him, the Blue Ranger lowered his blaster.
Finster stood by a table. He was clearly thrilled to be watching his creation in action, but from the way Finster ducked whenever Goo Fish Junior stumbled too close, it didn’t seem as if Finster could command him.
If he can’t control Goo Fish Junior, that much is good news, Billy thought. Maybe I can get him into one of the big tanks to keep him out of trouble. From there, I can try to figure out how to change him back.
Billy put his arms out and tried to gently corral his former pet.
“Easy, fella,” he said in his most soothing voice. “Let’s try to get you out into the hallway where there are fewer things to bump into, okay?”
It shouldn’t be too hard, the Blue Ranger thought. After all, how strong can a big goldfish be?
As it turned out, a big goldfish could be very strong.
When Billy took another step closer, Goo Fish Junior spun on his feet and smacked him hard with his tail. The astonishing force of the blow took the Blue Ranger right off his feet and sent him sailing across the laboratory. His back hit the wall so hard that the plaster cracked.
He fell to the ground, landing with a loud thud.
The Blue Ranger’s head was ringing, but he could still hear Finster applaud.
“Wonderful!” the giddy minion said. “Amazing, if I do say so myself!”
The door no longer blocked, Billy worried the evil inventor would escape. He fired his blaster at him, but missed. The blast burn
ed a hole in the wall, making Finster howl.
All the racket made Goo Fish Junior even more frightened. The creature threw his short arms up in the air, puffed open his mouth, and gave off what could only be described as a fishy scream:
“Ahiehhhhhshh!”
Realizing that the frightening explosion was because of Billy’s blaster, Goo Fish Junior stormed toward him and swatted him with his tail again. This time, the Blue Ranger flew straight up into the ceiling. His body went flat against the ceiling tiles. He seemed stuck there for a second, until some of the tiles, and the Blue Ranger, fell.
Finster was delighted. “That’s it, my creation!” he shouted. “Destroy the Power Ranger!”
But instead, the big fish turned toward the loud, irritating noise that Finster was making.
“Not me!” Finster squealed. He pointed at the dazed Power Ranger and made the mistake of screaming even louder, “Him! Him!”
The noise only annoyed Goo Fish Junior more, so he kept coming.
At about the same time, both the Blue Ranger and Finster realized what the problem was. Finster said it first, though:
“You don’t understand what I’m saying, do you?” Finster scratched his head. “Hmm. I really should have thought of that. All the monsters from the Monster-Matic understand me completely. I can’t very well go back to Rita unless I’m sure you know to attack the Blue Ranger, can I?”
With Goo Fish Junior nearly on him, Finster lowered his voice. “Sorry if I was shouting . . . but . . . Oh my. You don’t understand that, either, do you?”
With a THWACK of the large golden tail, Finster went flying.
Since he was smaller than Billy, and not wearing a protective Power Ranger uniform, the tail knocked Finster out even before he landed in the supply cabinet. The force of the impact made the door slam shut, sealing him inside.
Billy got back on his feet. He was a little shaken, but he wasn’t giving up. Much as he didn’t want to hurt Goo Fish Junior, he also had to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone else. And the research center was full of people.
Fish in Troubled Water Page 4