“I’m glad you’re pleased with your present,” Rita said to her friend. “But I am going to need my telescope back, you know. So if you wouldn’t mind . . .” She waved her hand at the empty space where the instrument used to be.
“Of course,” Scorpina said, raising her hand. She depressed a well-concealed button on the side of the ring and gave the top a twist in the opposite direction. Another beam of light came shooting out of the ring, this one dark like a shadow. At first only a silhouette of the telescope appeared. And then, half a second later, the whole thing was back, exactly like it was before. The ring’s stone now appeared canary yellow once more.
“Hooray!” Squatt shouted, clapping and jumping up and down. “I love magic!”
“I love this gift,” Scorpina said. “And here I didn’t get you anything.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Rita told her. “But if you’re feeling like you want to return the favor, you could always go down to Earth and cause a little trouble for the Power Rangers.” After which she added, “I mean, only if you feel like getting some exercise.”
This made Scorpina laugh. “Rita, you’ll never change. But I love my present and I’d be happy to get rid of the Power Rangers for you, once and for all. Should I dispose of Zordon, as well, and his annoying little robot friend? Or would you like to do that yourself?”
“Get rid of them all!” Rita practically shouted. “I’m sick of trying to conquer this puny planet. With the Power Rangers and Zordon out of the way, I can crush Earth under my boot heel and then move on to conquering something more interesting.”
“You’ll be in a new part of the galaxy by next week,” Baboo said.
“She will if I have anything to say about it,” Scorpina said with a laugh.
“Take Baboo with you. And a platoon of Putty Patrollers, if you want,” Rita offered.
“Why not?” Scorpina shrugged. “Come on, Baboon.”
“Begging your pardon, Miss Scorpina, but it’s Baboo,” the vampire monkey corrected her, although he did it rather meekly.
“Baboo, Baboon, whatever,” Scorpina said with a wave of her hand. “As long as you follow orders, then I don’t care what you call yourself.” She ran a hand over her gold helmet and then adjusted some of the plates that formed the iron claw of her left hand. “Now let’s teleport down to Angel Grove and get the job done.”
“Don’t forget about me,” Squatt called, rushing over to teleport with them. “I want to play with the ring, too.”
But the blue warthog wasn’t nearly as coordinated as he believed himself to be. He ended up crashing into Scorpina and Baboo just as they were starting to teleport and knocking them over. Two seconds later, the three of them tumbled onto the beach just outside of Angel Grove.
“You idiot!” Scorpina shouted, trying to push the blue goon off of her. “I should send you to an alternate dimension for that.” Then she looked down and noticed that her hand was bare. “My ring!” she cried. “It’s gone!”
“It must have fallen off your finger while we were leaving Rita’s fortress,” Baboo said, getting up and dusting the sand from his clothes.
“Rita will kill me if she thinks I’ve lost it,” Scorpina said, getting to her feet. “I must go back for it.”
“We’ll go with you,” Baboo offered.
“No,” Scorpina snapped. “You stay here with the blueberry warthog and wait for the Putty Patrollers to arrive. They should be here any second. Stay out of sight, and I’ll be back in a moment.” With that, she was gone.
“I think I hear voices,” Squatt said after they’d been standing on the beach for a good ten seconds.
“Sounds like humans,” Baboo said, hearing the voices, too. “Quick, behind that bluff before anybody sees us.”
By the time the boys got to the beach, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart had already set up the volleyball net, laid out beach towels, and inflated a couple of rafts.
“Hey,” Kimberly called when she spotted Jason, Zack, and Billy approaching. “You found us.” She was wearing pink shorts, a pink bikini top, and pink flip-flops. It was her favorite color, and just happened to be her Ranger color.
“I hope you remembered lunch,” Trini added, smiling at the guys. “We’re starving.” She had on yellow-and-white-striped shorts and a pale yellow tank top. Her long, glossy black hair made a striking contrast with her Ranger color.
“Sandwiches, drinks, music, sunscreen—we brought everything,” Zack said with a broad smile as the guys toted a few bags across the short spit of beach that created Angel Grove Cove.
Most people stuck to the main beach because it was easier to access, but the Power Rangers preferred the smaller beach that was surrounded by bluffs. That way they didn’t draw any attention if they got a call from Zordon on their wrist communicators or suddenly had to morph. Plus, with no one else around, they could show off, using their awesome superhero acrobatics while playing their own special version of volleyball.
“Who’s up for a game of power volley?” Trini asked, picking a side of the volleyball net. Tossing the volleyball up into the air, she raised her arm and brought it down hard, firing the ball over the net.
Power volley had similar rules to volleyball, but with martial arts moves and Ranger strength.
The boys set down their gear and peeled off their shirts.
“I’m in,” Zack said, scooping up the ball and grabbing a position in the sand on the other side of the net from Trini.
“Me too,” said Kimberly, joining Zack on his side of the net.
“I’m with Trini and her killer serve,” said Jason, aligning himself with the Yellow Ranger.
“How about you, Billy?” Kimberly called. “Are you ready for a little friendly competition?”
“Maybe later,” the Blue Ranger told her. “Right now I want to set up Zack’s radio to run on solar power. That way we won’t have to delay if we run out of batteries and need to grab more,” he said, pushing his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose.
Jason smiled. “Leave it to Billy to come to the beach and then work on a science project.”
“Fine by me,” said Zack, tossing the ball into the air a few times to warm up. “I’m all for free tunes.” He turned his attention to the game. “All right, team Jini,” he said, combining his two opponents’ names. “Prepare to lose.”
Jason laughed. “Go ahead, Zimberly. You can try.”
Then Zack threw the ball very high, straight up in the air. Quick as lightning, he did a jump-spin crescent kick, and then hammered the ball across the net for his opening serve.
Jason dove for it, but was unable to stop the ball. “That’s Zimberly one, Jini zero,” the Black Ranger said, high-fiving his teammate.
But Trini managed to block Zack’s next serve, setting up Jason to spike the ball over the net.
“Good try, but now it’s Jini’s serve,” Jason said, enjoying the friendly rivalry. “Here comes the hammer.” He tossed the ball to Trini and said, “Give them a taste of your killer serve.”
“You got it,” Trini said. “Just feed me the ball. I’m going to take a spin.”
“Okay,” said Jason.
Trini backed up. As soon as the Red Ranger tossed the ball into the air, Trini started twirling across the sand.
Then, as the ball dropped within range, she kicked one foot into the air and quickly followed it with the other, so that her body was practically parallel with the ground as she came into contact with the ball, which went rocketing over the net.
“Got it!” Zack called, and he tried his hardest to save the point, diving onto the sand. But the ball was going too fast and it bounced just out of his reach.
Jason raised his hand above his head to high-five the Yellow Ranger. “Awesome butterfly kick,” he said.
“You okay over there?” Trini called when Zack didn’t immediately pop back up o
n his feet to keep playing.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Zack said. “It’s just, I found something.”
“What is it?” Kimberly asked, walking over to where he was sitting on the sand.
“Some kind of fancy ring,” the Black Ranger said, extending the bauble toward her. “Check out that yellow stone. It’s so bright; I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It must be a topaz,” Kimberly said, moving the ring a little so the stone could catch the sun.
“I thought a topaz was blue,” Trini said. She and Jason had crossed the net to have a closer look at Zack’s discovery.
“They can come in blue, pink, orange, yellow; lots of different colors,” Kimberly said. “But this stone is unusual. It’s much brighter than anything I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, then keep it,” Zack said affably. “I mean, I’m not going to wear it.”
“No, I can’t,” Kimberly said. “I’m sure whoever lost this ring wants it back. Besides, the stone is so bright, I think there’s a chance it might be a canary diamond.”
“A diamond of that size and color would be very unusual,” Billy said, being lured away from the radio by the discovery.
“Then we should try to find the owner,” Trini said.
Zack shrugged. “Sure, but how? We can’t exactly go around saying, ‘Hey, did you lose a really expensive ring?’ or anything like that. We don’t want it to end up with the wrong person.”
“We could put up flyers,” Kimberly replied. “But not give the ring’s description.”
“Or maybe even swing by the police department to see if anyone reported the ring missing,” Jason suggested.
“May I see the ring?” Billy asked. Kimberly handed it to him. “Hmm,” he said, taking off his glasses and squinting at the trinket. “This is a very complex mounting and seems to have some type of mechanical element.”
“A mechanical ring?” Trini couldn’t help but raise her dark eyebrows. “What does it do?”
“I’m not sure,” Billy told her, handing the ring back to Zack. “But if we can’t find the owner, I’d like to take a closer look.”
Meanwhile, behind the bluffs above the cove, Baboo, Squatt, and a platoon of Putties were watching the teens.
“I think they’ve found Scorpina’s ring,” Squatt said.
Baboo adjusted his monocle. “I believe you’re right.”
“We should try to get it back from them,” Squatt went on. “Then maybe Scorpina will be nice to us.”
“I don’t think she’ll be nice,” Baboo told him, “but maybe she’ll be less scary. I still tremble whenever I think about the last time she battled the Power Rangers. I can’t believe they survived.”
“Me too,” said Squatt. “But how are we going to get that ring back?”
“I have an idea,” said Rita’s monkey minion. “But it’s not for me or you to do. Grab one of the Putties.”
Back on the beach, the Power Rangers were sitting down for some lunch. “I know looking for the owner of a lost ring won’t exactly be death-defying, but I still want to fuel up before we do anything else,” Jason said. “And then maybe finish our game before we head out.”
“Oh, look,” said Zack, squinting at the bluffs. “Here comes an elderly woman, headed right this way. Maybe she lost the ring?” Everyone looked up to get a peek at the new arrival.
“Getting to the cove is quite a hike, especially for a senior citizen,” Jason observed. “She must be in amazing shape.”
“That’s kind of a funny outfit to wear to the beach,” Billy commented. “Do older women usually wear jeans under a sundress?”
“Not with a knit shawl on top,” Trini told him. “But look at that hat. It’s so big; maybe she’s just trying to stay out of the sun.”
“Guys,” Kimberly said, rising to her knees and staring harder at the approaching figure. “I don’t think that’s a woman. Call me crazy, but I think that might be a Putty.”
“What’s a Putty doing here?” Billy asked. Everybody sprang to their feet.
Putties appeared from every crest of the bluffs. “Let’s get moving, team,” the Red Ranger said. “We’re surrounded.”
A swarm of Putties came charging down from the bluffs. They immediately had the Power Rangers surrounded on three sides.
Glancing over his shoulder, Jason saw that behind them there was nothing but ocean. The teens were either going to have to fight their way out of the cove or swim for Hawaii.
As usual, the Putties were completely gray—except for the one that was wearing the old-lady disguise.
“Why are they attacking us?” Kimberly wanted to know. It seemed very random for just a sunny afternoon at the cove.
“I don’t know,” Jason said. “Maybe they wanted to use this part of the beach.”
“They could have just asked,” Zack added. “We would have shared.”
The air was filled with the strange little burbling noises the Putties always made. The Power Rangers assumed it was their way of communicating with one another, but it made no sense to human ears.
“Should we morph?” the Pink Ranger asked as the Putties got closer.
“No,” Jason told her. “It’s just a bunch of Putties. It’ll be good to practice without the Ranger Powers.”
“You got it,” said Zack, taking a crane stance, balancing on one leg, with the other leg bent and resting on his knee. He was ready to kick any Putty within leg’s reach.
“No problem,” said Billy, assuming a back stance, his weight on the leg he had positioned behind him so that he was prepared to kick or punch.
“We’re with you,” agreed Kimberly, striking an hourglass stance, her weight distributed so she could move forward or backward quickly and with equal ease.
“Let’s do this,” Trini said, posing in a cat foot stance with one foot poised in front of her, ready to strike.
The Power Rangers had all assumed a defensive position as the Putties initiated their assault. “Come on, team,” Jason said from his power stance. “Let’s show these Putties that picking a fight with the Power Rangers is no day at the beach.”
“Hi-yah!” Trini said, launching into the air and executing a fierce flying front kick that sent a Putty staggering.
“Yah!” shouted Jason, taking out two Putties with a spinning split kick.
A Putty came at Kimberly and she did a quick aerial, deploying her gymnastics skills to avoid the creature. Then she took the Putty down with a well-placed spinning back kick and a palm-fist strike.
“Eat sand, Putty Patroller!” she said, coiling her body into a tiger stance in anticipation of the next attack.
Three Putties were coming at Jason, but the Red Ranger wasn’t worried. He snatched up one of the beach towels and taunted the Putties with it like a matador waving a cape.
“Toro, toro, toro,” Jason said, just like the bullfighters do in Spain. His attackers fell for it and they were quickly staggering from a series of blows.
Concerned that he might lose the ring, Zack stuck it on his finger as the Putties were closing in. But he was quickly confronted by six Putties, so all thoughts of looking out for someone else’s property were driven out of his head.
The Black Ranger always loved incorporating dance moves into his fighting whenever he could, so he did a quick step spin to distract his assailants. It worked—the Putties were confused and mesmerized—but Zack didn’t notice that he’d also accidentally bumped the latch on the ring.
By the time the spin was over, there were only two Putties trying to fight him.
“Hey, weren’t there a few more of you a moment ago?” Zack asked with a frown. The Putties only burbled as they came charging at him. Zack was confused, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He quickly dispatched the duo by grabbing the first one by the arm and flipping it at the second.
&nbs
p; With his opponents temporarily out of commission, Zack scanned the area to see if any other members of the team needed help. They appeared to all be holding their own. The ring was a tight fit, and he twisted at it, trying to give his finger underneath some circulation. When he looked back at the Putties he’d been fighting just seconds earlier, they were gone.
“W-what?” the Black Ranger stammered, scratching his head. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? But there was no time to puzzle over the mystery because Billy was quickly being overwhelmed by several Putties.
“Hey, Zack,” Billy called as one of the Putties lunged for the radio. “I think they like your music.”
“Why are they going after that?” Zack wondered aloud. It was just a cheap radio, after all. The best thing about it was Billy’s modifications.
“I don’t know,” the Blue Ranger told him. “Maybe they’re interested in solar power. Why don’t you come over here and help me figure it out.”
Billy leaped into the air, executing a split kick that knocked two of the Putties to the ground. “Find your own tunes,” he told them.
But then another Putty grabbed the radio, looked underneath it, shook it, and then threw it on the ground. Zack frowned. “I guess they’re not trying to steal my tunes, after all.”
“But what are they doing here?” asked Trini as she did a knife hands block and then struck back at her opponent. “They’re not here just to catch some waves.”
“Maybe those two know,” Jason said, indicating the top of the bluffs, where Baboo and Squatt were watching the action, safe out of harm’s way, as usual.
“I think maybe we should ask them,” Zack said, spinning a Putty around and then sweeping its legs out from underneath it with a heel hook.
Kimberly did a series of handsprings to avoid the Putty trying to grab her, but then the creature snatched up a beach towel and shook it, instead. “Come on,” Kimberly said. “Let’s go find out why the flying monkey and the blueberry warthog are here.”
The Venomous Eclipse Page 2