Mayhem from Moon Palace

by Alexander Irvine

  Chapter 24

  In the Command Center, Alpha 5 stopped spinning. “Aye . . . yi?” he said. “Zordon, what happened to me?”

  “Alpha 5! You’re back?” Tommy took a step toward him but didn’t touch him. He didn’t want to risk getting zapped again.

  “You were hacked, Alpha 5,” Zordon said in a grave voice.

  “Hacked? Aye-yi-yi, how did that happen?”

  “We believe it was Finster. The Blue Ranger interrupted his energy signal and restored your control.”

  “Finster? Of course!” Alpha 5 said. “He’s full of tricks.”

  “Quickly now, Alpha 5.” Zordon was all business. “While Finster had control over you, the Thunderzords were deactivated. You must reactivate them immediately. Lord Zedd is in Angel Grove, and so are Goldar and the new creation, Wormazam.”

  “Yes, Zordon! Right away.” Alpha 5 turned to the terminals and started working. “It will only take a moment.”

  Tommy watched, frustrated that he couldn’t help. Would Alpha 5 get it done fast enough?

  “Green Ranger,” Zordon said. Tommy looked up at him. “You must go and help your fellow Power Rangers. Even if you cannot pilot a Thunderzord right now, you are still a member of this team, and they need you.”

  Zordon was right. Tommy nodded. “I’m on it, Zordon. You sure everything is all set here?”

  “You are needed in the field, Green Ranger. I’ll handle things here.”

  “Then I’m gone,” Tommy said. A moment later Alpha 5 had teleported him back to the canyon.

  Chapter 25

  The Red Ranger dodged another energy blast from Lord Zedd’s staff. He was keeping Zedd’s attention, which was good. So far he had also been able to either block Zedd’s attacks or deflect the energy blasts with his Power Sword. But sooner or later, Zedd wasn’t going to miss. The Rangers needed to break Finster’s hold over Alpha 5 and get to their Thunderzords, or they were going to be in serious trouble.

  “When I defeat you, Red Ranger, your team will crumble,” Lord Zedd gloated. “I will stand triumphant over the Power Rangers—and then I will find your Command Center and destroy Zordon at last!”

  “You’re getting a little ahead of yourself, Zedd,” the Red Ranger shot back. “First you have to defeat me, and I don’t see you doing that.”

  He sounded more confident than he felt. Lord Zedd was pressing him to the limits of his fighting ability. Jason had the discipline to be at his best every time he had to fight. And he needed every bit of his skill and courage now. Zedd was out for blood.

  Another blast from Lord Zedd’s staff blew a large boulder into gravel as Jason dove out of the way and rolled. He came up with the sword in a defensive hold, and Zedd’s staff clanged off the blade. Jason struck back, denting the armor on Lord Zedd’s leg. Zedd roared, more in anger than pain, and brought the staff down again. It rang against the Power Sword and came grinding down the blade to lock against the hilt. Zedd leaned into Jason with all his strength, but Jason held his ground. He had the power of the Morphin Grid with him, and he would not yield.

  Lord Zedd chuckled, and his staff changed into a giant snake. It struck out, coiling itself around the Red Ranger’s arms and causing him to drop his sword. Its fangs scraped against his helmet.

  So this is what Zordon meant when he warned me about the staff, Jason thought.

  He got one arm free and grabbed the snake around the neck, holding it at arm’s length. Slowly, using all his strength, he forced the snake to loosen its grip enough that he could get his other arm free. Then he got his free hand on his sword.

  “You’re about to lose your snake, Zedd,” he said through gritted teeth.

  The snake disappeared, becoming a staff once again. The Red Ranger pivoted away from Lord Zedd, who overbalanced and fell forward. But he was quick on his feet, and before Jason could take advantage, Zedd was upright and facing him again.

  “How long can you hold on, Red Ranger?” Zedd taunted him. “I grow stronger! If you have not defeated me yet, what hope do you have?”

  Hope, Jason thought. “I don’t need hope,” he said. “I know I’m better than you. You keep coming at me, and sooner or later I’m going to win.” He leveled the Power Sword at Lord Zedd. “Come on. Try me.”

  Zedd roared in fury and charged. He drove the Red Ranger back again with a series of strikes from his staff. Jason skipped back and dodged to the side, hoping Zedd would eventually wear himself out so Jason could counterattack.

  But time was running out. Goldar and Wormazam were keeping the team separated, which was what Lord Zedd wanted. They needed to find a way to strike back and fight together, and Jason had to lead the way. He was the Red Ranger, and his friends were depending on him.

  All the other Power Rangers, except Tommy, were now battling Goldar and Wormazam. Kimberly was still firing her bow up at Goldar, but Wormazam was getting close to her. Soon she would have to drop the bow and take him on hand to hand . . . or hand to slimy arm? Either way, they couldn’t use weapons against Wormazam unless they wanted more little Wormazams running through the hills outside Angel Grove.

  Jason saw the Blue Ranger in the group and called out, “Billy! Did it work?”

  “I think so!”

  The Green Ranger appeared between Jason and the rest of the group, up the canyon. “Tommy!” the Yellow Ranger called out. “We could use a hand here!”

  Tommy ran to join the battle against Wormazam and Goldar. Wormazam scuttled up the slope and batted rocks down toward the Power Rangers fighting Goldar. Occasionally one of them hit Goldar, who roared at Wormazam. “Careful, worm!”

  “That’s Wormazam! And I throw rocks where I want! Get out of the way if you don’t want to get hit!” To emphasize his point, Wormazam leaned against a large boulder and sent it bouncing down to the canyon floor. It deflected off a tree and smashed into other rocks, nearly flattening the Black Ranger.

  Goldar turned and saw the Green Ranger approaching. He hated Tommy more than the rest of the Power Rangers, and once he saw him, he forgot all about the others. He charged at Tommy, sword high and teeth bared. Each footstep shook the canyon floor.

  “Bring it, gorilla boy!” the Green Ranger sang out. He ducked inside Goldar’s wild sword swing and jumped up to grab on to Goldar’s armored hand. He landed three quick punches to Goldar’s thumb, loosening his grip on his sword. The sword spun away and stuck point-first in the canyon floor. Goldar tried to crush the Green Ranger with his other hand, but Tommy saw it coming and leaped away.

  The Red Ranger hesitated briefly when he saw Goldar go after the Green Ranger, and the momentary distraction almost cost Jason dearly. He sensed something moving out of the corner of his eye and flung himself backward at the last moment before Lord Zedd’s staff split the air an inch in front of his nose. The Red Ranger turned the backward flip into a handspring, landing on his feet again and launching a flurry of attacks that drove Lord Zedd back.

  “Power Rangers,” Zordon said. “We have restored control of the Command Center. Now is the time to summon your Thunderzords.”

  “Woo-hoo!” the Black Ranger yelled. “Here’s where we turn the tide, Power Rangers!”

  “Did you hear that, Zedd?” the Red Ranger shouted. “Your scheme didn’t work. We’ve got our Thunderzords back, and you’d better be ready.”

  He teleported back to the Red Dragon Thunderzord. Lord Zedd prepared to grow again, anticipating the Thunderzords’ attack . . . and Finster chose exactly that moment to appear.

  “Lord Zedd! I wished to give you time to savor your victory over the Power Rangers before I appeared to accept your praise. By now I’m sure you have noticed the marvelous results of my machine. As you will have seen, it completely deactivates the Thunderzords . . .”

  He looked up as he spoke. The Red Dragon Thunderzord was moving again.

  “Finster,” Lord Zedd growle
d. “Did you attack the Power Rangers’ Command Center?”

  “Yes, Lord Zedd. You see, I was able to commandeer Alpha 5 for him to . . . deactivate the Thunderzords . . .” Now Finster was looking confused.

  “Silence!”

  Finster fell silent.

  “What you have done is waste a chance to take advantage of your machine. If you had told me about it, I could have made use of it. But now . . . now . . .” Lord Zedd loomed over Finster, who cowered and dropped to his knees. “Now the chance is wasted! You have ruined everything! This is all your fault!”

  “I’m sorry, Lord Zedd. You see, I wanted to prove myself to you because of what, er . . . happened with Rita, and—”

  “Silence!”

  Lord Zedd held up a hand. “Listen, Finster.”

  Finster listened.

  The Power Rangers were summoning their Thunderzords.

  The Black Ranger called out, “Mastodon Lion Thunderzord Power!”

  Then the Pink Ranger: “Pterodactyl Firebird Thunderzord Power!”

  And the Blue Ranger: “Triceratops Unicorn Thunderzord Power!”

  The Yellow Ranger followed up: “Sabertooth Tiger Griffin Thunderzord Power!”

  And then the Tyrannosaurus Red Dragon Thunderzord also stood up again. The Power Rangers were at full strength once more.

  “Did you hear those sounds, Finster?” Lord Zedd asked. His voice was deadly quiet.

  Finster nodded. “Yes, Lord Zedd. I heard them.”

  “Those,” growled Lord Zedd, “were the sounds of a space Dumpster coming to get you! Now get out of my sight before you see me truly become angry! If I find you in the Moon Palace, I will . . .” Lord Zedd couldn’t find a word horrible enough. He raised his staff, and energy began to flare around the Z at its head.

  Finster vanished.

  Lord Zedd turned to see the Red Dragon Thunderzord still stamping toward him. “Red Ranger!” he shouted. “You show your weakness! But I have driven you from your Thunderzord once and will do it again! Then, you will—”

  He was interrupted when the Red Dragon Thunderzord took its dragon form again, sweeping into the sky and blasting Lord Zedd with its fiery breath. When the fire cleared, five Thunderzords lined the rim of the canyon, looking down on Goldar, Wormazam, and the raging Lord Zedd.

  “Destroy them!” he screamed. Around him the earth was blackened and smoking. “Destroy them all!”

  Chapter 26

  As one, the Thunderzords advanced down the canyon toward Goldar, Wormazam, and Lord Zedd. Lord Zedd threw a grenade across the canyon to explode in a brilliant flash at Wormazam’s feet.

  “We need a much bigger creature!” Lord Zedd proclaimed. “The biggest!”

  When the light had faded, Wormazam had grown to incredible size. He was bigger than any of the Thunderzords and the same size as Goldar, whose wings almost spanned the canyon from wall to wall when he spread them out. The two beckoned the Thunderzords closer. They were ready for the fight. They would have hated to miss it. Goldar clashed his sword against his armor, challenging the Power Rangers. The sound would have echoed off the walls of Angel Grove High School if he hadn’t been deep in the canyon.

  Wormazam wasn’t as loud, but it was just as big. The three ground-based Thunderzords rolled down into the canyon. “Get the legs!” the Black Ranger yelled into his helmet-communicator.

  They could also hear Alpha 5. “Aye-yi-yi, look at the size of that worm thing!”

  “I’m a little more worried about Goldar,” Zack said.

  Goldar’s sword clanged off the armor of the Yellow Ranger’s Sabertooth Tiger Griffin Thunderzord. The sound left Trini’s ears ringing. “Me too!” she shouted. She blasted Goldar with fireballs.

  From the rim of the canyon, the Green Ranger watched and seethed. He couldn’t do anything when the other Power Rangers were in their Thunderzords! Then he looked over his toes, down into the canyon. The Tyrannosaurus Red Dragon Thunderzord swept in a long circle around Lord Zedd, who blasted away at it with the deadly energies of his staff.

  Maybe I can help, Tommy thought. Jason’s been holding out against Lord Zedd all by himself for a long time now. And Zedd isn’t three hundred feet tall.

  • • •

  Lord Zedd was growing more and more frustrated with the Power Rangers. They should have been defeated by now! But the Red Ranger was stronger than Lord Zedd had given him credit for. And the other Power Rangers were holding their own against Goldar and Wormazam.

  It was time for a change in tactics. “Wormazam, bring down the Red Thunderzord!” Lord Zedd raged.

  “As you command, Lord Zedd!” Wormazam stepped back from the Sabertooth Tiger Griffin Thunderzord and turned toward the bottom of the canyon. The Red Dragon Thunderzord was turning to make another pass. Its mouth opened, and fire started to glow within.

  Wormazam raised its arms and pointed them at the Red Dragon Thunderzord. A long double stream of wormy slime shot out from the ends of its arms.

  “Man, I didn’t know it could do that,” the Blue Ranger said from inside the Triceratops Unicorn Thunderzord.

  “Me neither,” Trini said.

  “It sure didn’t do that inside,” Zack said. “At least not that I saw.”

  The slime splattered across the Red Dragon Thunderzord’s head.

  “I can’t see!” Jason cried out. The Red Dragon Thunderzord crashed into the canyon wall and landed at the bottom with a huge rockslide cascading down around it. Inside, Jason bounced and crashed around. It was a bruising crash, and the Thunderzord would need some repairs.

  “Okay, then,” he said. “Let’s settle this, Lord Zedd. Just you and me.”

  He tapped his coin and teleported out of the Thunderzord, appearing in front of Lord Zedd and surprising him. Jason didn’t even use his sword this time. He put all his focus and all his discipline to work, concentrating on one thing and one thing only: defeating Lord Zedd.

  Jason felt strong. He was inspired by seeing how the other Power Rangers had figured out how to meet the many challenges they had already faced that morning. They had stayed together, and each member of the team had done what was needed. Plus Billy had gotten to put on his show for the judges at the science fair.

  Lord Zedd slashed at Jason with the staff, but Jason felt a little extra energy, as if the team was making him stronger. He evaded Lord Zedd’s dangerous strikes with ease. The angrier Lord Zedd got, the more reckless he got. He charged after the Red Ranger, blasting at him and driving him closer to the opposite wall of the canyon.

  “You have courage, Power Ranger,” Lord Zedd said. “But courage does not matter if you do not have enough strength to back it up.”

  “Jason’s got more strength than you’ll ever know,” said someone else, from just behind Lord Zedd. It was Tommy Oliver.

  “You, Green Ranger?” Zedd sounded amused. “Are you not the Red Ranger’s rival?”

  The Green Ranger knew Lord Zedd was trying to drive a wedge between the Power Rangers by causing rivalries. That might have worked up in the Moon Palace, where Zedd ruled through fear . . . but it wasn’t going to work down here. “We’re a team,” the Green Ranger answered. “That’s all you need to know.”

  Chapter 27

  Higher in the canyon, the four Thunderzords were slowly gaining the advantage against Goldar and Wormazam. The Firebird Thunderzord beat its wings, unleashing a vortex of wind that spun Goldar to the ground and knocked Wormazam into the canyon wall. The Unicorn and Griffin Thunderzords bombarded Goldar with fireballs and boulders. He flailed back at them, but his sword only whooshed through empty air. Wormazam writhed against the rocks, trying to get to its feet. The powerful wind began to dry out Wormazam. Its arms couldn’t stretch far enough to strike at the Firebird Thunderzord. Its motions got slower and stiffer, and finally it froze in place, caked in dust. There was a burst of energy as Lord Zedd�
�s power left it, and then Wormazam was gone.

  “See, Lord Zedd?” the Red Ranger said. “We work well together.”

  Lord Zedd saw this. He looked back at the Red Ranger.

  “You imagine you have won today, Red Ranger? A fatal mistake. You see a tiny part of a much greater plan, which will end in your ultimate defeat! But I will unfold it in my own time. You will see . . . and very soon.”

  Then Lord Zedd disappeared in a flash of light.

  A moment later, Goldar disappeared, too.

  The Blue Ranger appeared where Wormazam had been, looking down at something on the ground. It was a solitary earthworm, nosing its way along the bare earth. Kimberly, Zack, and Trini joined him a moment later. Billy watched the worm for a while, then dug a small hole in softer soil under a eucalyptus tree and dropped in the worm. “I mean, it’s just a worm,” he said as Jason and Tommy approached.

  “Firebird Thunderzord did a number on Wormazam,” Zack said.

  “Early bird gets the worm,” Kimberly cracked. They laughed.

  Chapter 28

  But Kimberly’s joke reminded Zack and Trini of something. “The little Wormazams,” they said simultaneously.

  “Oh man,” Tommy said.

  Tapping their coins, Zack, Trini, and Tommy morphed and teleported to the school, appearing in the hall near the janitorial closet. It was quiet, and when they pushed the bookcases aside, they understood why.

  The little Wormazams were gone, just as Zordon had anticipated . . . but they had left a lot of slime behind. “Ew,” the Yellow Ranger said, looking at the line of goop.

  As they stood in front of the door, Bulk and Skull appeared around the corner.

  “Whoa!” Bulk said. “Power Rangers!”

  “Man, it reeks in there,” Skull said. “Or is that me?”

  “Hey, you guys weren’t around, so we took care of the monsters ourselves,” Bulk said. He dropped into a clumsy version of a Power Rangers fighting stance. “Good thing we were around, huh?”