The Opening Gambit
“Finster!” Rita Repulsa bellowed, with a voice that could peel the paint from a house. “Where is that new monster? I’ve been waiting a week!” With her white, pointed hair bouncing up and down as she paced up and down the balcony of her castle. Her gown was the color of dried mud, with black,
valkrey armor. In her hand, she held a long, gold staff, topped with a object that resembled a closed cresent moon, encrested with small runes and symbols.
“Coming my queen. I’m sorry this took so long, but it really is my best work,” said Finster, not sure how high he should raise his voice. Dressed in blue cover-alls, he entered the room and produced a small clay figure that looked like a purse with legs. Finster stepped back from the small table he had placed it upon and smiled. Then, he looked to his mistress, as though to say, “what do you think.”
She cracked a half-smile, “This is it?”
“Yes, my queen,” he replied.
“This?”
“Yes,” he began to shrink away from her.
“A purse! I give you a week to come up with a monster to destroy those Power Brats, and you bring me a purse with legs!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
“Bu-but, my queen, it’s the most powerful monster in my book. It worked amazingly well on Karnak 5,” he said, backing away in fear.
“How do you think I’ve been able to keep up my reputation? By using monsters that will actually scare people. A purse wouln’t scare anyone except Tim Allen!”
“Empress Rita is right. If you had an ounce of talent, your monsters would have destroyed the Rangers by now, but like a rank amatuer you keep messing up,” Goldar said, coming out of the next room, the light reflecting from his golden armor almost blinding them both.
“You’re all pathetic! I ask you to do a simple thing like conquer a world,
and can you do it? NO! How can I become the mistress of all I survey, with you incompitent nitwits?!”
“Bu- but, my quee_,” Finster said, trying to calm her down.
“I’ve had it with all of you! If I had the time, I’d lock you all back in that dumpster! Oh no, now, my headache is back! If not for you idiots, I’d probobly have won by now. I ought to turn you all into Octavian Slime Toads!” she yelled, about to raise her staff into the air to strike the two monsters gathered in front of her.
Stay your hand, starwitch! said a voice from nowhere.
“What? I thought I told you never to try and give me an order, you gold monkey!” Rita said, believing it was Goldar’s voice.
“But, I didn’t,” he said in reply.
You would do well to listen to him. He speaks the truth. it said again.
“Alright! Who said that?! Show yourself before I make you regret you invaded the homw of Rita Repulsa!” she said, speaking defiantly and hoping to sound imposing.
Somehow, I doubt you ever make me regret anything.
Suddenly, a burst of crimson light filled the room, and the Eternal’s foreboding presence cascaded across them like an eclipse. His black cloak pulled about him, seemed to add to the apparent fear on the face of all but Rita. His gaze was planted on Goldar and Finster, apparently sizing them up in case battle was neccessary.
“Who are you?” Goldar said quizically.
One you would do well not to cross, winged one, he replied, with a hint of hostility.
His gaze shifted towards Rita, sizing her up as he did the others. Reaching out with a small fraction of his power, he felt the meager magic that eminated from her staff, its energies seemingly dwarfed by his own.
“What do you want? I have things to do and planets to destroy!” Rita said,
almost fidgeting under imposing gaze of the cloaked stranger.
To enlist your help, he replied.
“To do what?!”
To stay out of my way!
“What?”
You heard me, starfodder. I intend to launch an attack on the world below.
If at any time I see you, or your minions interfering, I will turn my wrath from it to you!
“Now, wait a minute! The earth is mine to destroy!” she shouted angrily.
What you claim as yours is not my concern. You may do what you wish with this infernal mudball after I am done. It means as much to me, if not less,
then you do!
“Who are you to command the mighty Rita Repulsa!” Goldar said, calling his sword to his hand in a burst of flame.
I am the darkness before the dawn, the time of hellish pain before the blessed relief of death. I am greater than all before me, and after me. I am the Eternal! he said, his anger erupting a halo of dark crimson light around him.
“Your name is MUD!” Goldar said, rushing to attack the Eternal, ready to cleave his head from his neck.
The Eternal merely scoffed in his direction and held his hand forward,
directly in Goldar’s path. A small red circle of light formed over the palm of his gloved hand, and flew towards the advancing warrior.
Goldar never felt the impact of the force that hit his chest, only his flight in the opposite direction as he and it collided. He slammed into the wall with a force that would crush a normal human. Within moments the he felt a something like a worm crawl over his arm. Turning his attention to it, he saw that resembled the wall color and texture. He noticed another. Then another.
Goldar began to scream as more tendrils grew out of the wall, and coated his body. Soon all that remained, was a humanoid shape where Goldar had once been.
As I said before, you would do well not to cross me, he said, looking to Rita. Now, have I made myself clear? Or would you care to serve as the next example?
“Yes! Yes! I’ll stay out of your way, just leave!” Rita said, falling to her knees in a pathetic show of fear.
Good. Now, niether you, nor your minions are to leave the moon! Not until I am finished.
“Very well.”
The Eternal looked at the space where Goldar was now perminantly attached to the wall. For a fleeting moment, his eyes glowed in a black unlight, and the tendrils unfurled from his form and dropped hit to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
He then disappeared, leaving an unconsious Goldar, a fainted Finster, and fearful Rita, in his wake.
Trini Kwan dropped the phone on to Ernie’s bar, a look of fear apparent on her face. “Tommy,” she said, reaching for words that would not come. She ran from the eating area to the workout floor, in a blur.
“Zack, Zack,” she cried frantically, looking for her friend, her eyes searching the scene crazily, trying to him. Finally locking on to her ebony skinned friend, who was standing by a girl; holding one side of his face as though in pain. She ran over to him, and discretely asked to talk to him.
“What is it, Trini. Girl, I was wearing Angela down. I almost had a date this weekend,” he said in reply. The ebony skinned boy looked at Trini in protest to her dragging him away.
“We can talk about your dreams later Zack. We need to get to the Command Center,” she said.
“Why, what’s goin on?”
“I’ll explain when we get there. There’s no time.”
“Alright. Come, on.”
The teens rushed outside. Hoping to avoid the crowds that cluttered the large building each day. Zack checked the surrounding area, ensuring there were no onlookers. The Asian girl held her yellow laced communicator before her mouth,
and spoke.
“Zordon?” she said.
Yes, Trini? said the deep imposing voice of her mentor and friend.
“Listen. Zack and I are coming in. Get everyone together. Somethings happened to Tommy,” she said, her voice shaking.
It is good that you have called. I was about to gather the team here,
anyway. There is a problem.
“We’re on our way,” Zack said.
Touching small studs on their wrist communicators, the two teens were enveloped in light and streaked off into the sky, toward the desert.
When Kimberly and Jason arrived in the innerchamber of the Command Center,
they were greeted by the sight of their good friend Billy, dressed in a blue tanktop and overalls. Exchanging glances of friendship with him, the three then turned to stand before the large, translucent blue Hyperlock Chamber that housed the image of their leader… Zordon. Suddenly, two bright streaks of light entered the room through the top dome. Trini and Zack stepped from the aurora of light that had encased them just seconds earlier, and beheld their friends. Alpha 5 waddled in from the corner, his high voice gave a sigh as he approached a small teminal.
“Zordon, what’s with the alarms?” Jason asked.
Rangers. Over the past twenty-four hours, Alpha and I have monitored intense chronal activity all over Angel Grove, its the surrounding areas, and on Rita’s palace on the moon. Normally this would not alamr us, as the use of your powers will, at times, cause small temporal anomalies to appear at random, he replied, his face a mask of non-emotion.
“Zordon, what’s different?” Billy asked.
This time, the energy is too concentrated, and to orderly to be as random as the usual phoenomina. Alpha, bring the image up on the veiwing globe, and tune the image to display unusually high concentrations of chronoton activity.
“On it, Zordon,” replied the small robot, punching up a sequence on a small blue key pad.
The foggy, white globe flickered for a moment, then an image appeared in it’s spotless surface, surounded by grey static all around. The image was an aireal view of the city of Angel Grove, that seemed normal. Then, it began to change colors, one by one until it settled on an eerie, grass green hue. A small,
grey circle began to outline an area around the city, and the area outside returned to its normal color scheme.
The green area is the area of chronal and temporal distortion, Zordon said,
his booming voice echoing throughout the chamber.
“But, that’s the entire city!” Billy said, almost frantic, “The entire area should be tearing itself apart.”
Not necessarily. It is possible to create a stable anomaly, but the power must be vast.
“Is Rita doing this?” Jason asked.
No. Even Rita is incapable of such a thing. Which is only one reason why I called you. Here is the other. Alpha, overlay the additional data over the current display.
The Viewing Globe flickered once more. This time, several small, white squares were illuminated over the jade color.
Those are spatial rifts that have formed in this area over the past several hours. After rating their power, we believe they originate in a time approximatly four years from now.
Zack looked back to Zordon, a perplexed look on his face, “Spatial rifts?” He then looked to Trini, his expression indicating his unfamiliarity on the subject.
“It’s a tear in space. Like a tube from one place to another,” she said,
happy to oblige him.
“Right Trini. But, how are we supposed to stop this, if we don’t even know who’s behind it,” Billy asked.
Zordon’s expression changed drastically for a moment. From one of emotional indifference, to visible saddness. From one moment to the next, these five had risked their lives for him and this planet more times than he could remember.
From the moment he summoned them to the Command Center, and gave them the power that he’d guarded so closly for so many years, he’d grown to actually love them as he would his children. It broke his heart that their undoing would come at the hands of a secret.
Alarms sounded all over the place, filling the room with a peircing sound.
The image on the globe changed abruptly, from the view that Alpha had created of their city, to one that looked like a very bad science-fiction movie by Ed Wood. The picture that now held their attention was a bright red portal, that seemed to eat the scenery behind it, and a small battalion of dark,
sinister-looking birdmen poured from it, armored in dark metal chestplates that seemed to draw-in the light that touched them. On the end of their wing-like arms were five, long feather shaped daggers, that looked capable of cutting the air itself.
The five, stood there, transfixed by the image before them, unable to move,
almost to even draw a breath. Their hearts almost leapt into their throats.
Never before had they seen such evil-looking creations.
Jason was the first to speak. “What in the hell are those things?!” his voice cracking as the formed at his lips.
“Whatever they are, they don’t look like Rita or Finster’s style,” Kimberly said,visibly shaking.
Indeed. They are called Tengas. A young race of warriors from the rim of the galaxy. There have been no reported sighting of them this far inside the perimeter before, Zordon explained, maintaining his emotionless expression.
“Well, it dosen’t matter what they are. They’re going to hurt innocent people if we don’t stop them,” Billy said, in a voice that sounded oddly commanding.
“He’s got a point,” Jason looked at his friends with a familiar look, and reached behind his back, “It’s Morphin Time!” Each of them thrust the small metallic morpher in front of them, and called the name of the dinosaur that resided ont the gold coin in the center.
“Mastodon!”
“Terydactyl!”
“Triceratops!”
“Sabre-Tooth Tiger!”
“Tyrannisaurus!”
Instantly, the five of them were engulfed by light; Jason in red, Zack in black, Trini in yellow, Kim in Pink, and Billy in blue. After a moment or two,
the light subsided, revealing the five similar costumes that each wore, and the different helmets that adorned them. Jason’s resembling a tyrannisaurus;
Zack’s, a mastodon with golden eyes; Trini’s; a tiger, Kim’s; a sleek bird of prey; and Billy’s a triceratops.
“Okay guys! You heard the man. Let’s go kick some Tenga butt!” Jason said as the five of them were once more surrounded by light, and soared out of the Command Center, and into battle…
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