The Terran Rangers/Final Fantasy VII by Heather Ray (summer beach reads txt) 📕

number of poisons and medicines, as well as viruses and bacteria."

"So, you've been reading that stuff all this past week?!" said Adam. "Don't you ever relax?"

"Accumulating knowledge is how I unwind," said Billy with a shrug. "You guys tend to work out your bodies, I work out my mind."

Suddenly, a part of the ceiling caved in, and a large, green monster fell into the crowded restaurant. The rangers jumped to their feet as the other teens present screamed in terror.

"We got a problem," whispered Zack.

"Everyone, get out!" Billy cried, trying to calm down the people. Tanya, Rocky, and Adam followed Billy's example, and tried to get the people out of the building without trampling each other. The seven Power Rangers leaped to their feet, and lined up in front of the monster, prohibiting him from following the fleeing teenagers. The monster laughed, and air tainted with tiny neon green particles gushed from its mouth as it talked.

"Brave little kids," he declared, "I am Contagion, and I will destroy!!"

"Whew!" cried Aisha, waving her hand over her nose. "What have you been eating?!"

"That is foul, Man!" declared Zack, scrunching his nose.

Jason looked around warily, and turned back to the monster. "The coast's clear," he announced.

Tommy smiled. "Then... its Morphin Time!!" he declared, "TERRA FIRE POWER!!"

"TERRA EARTH POWER!!"

bellowed Jason.

"TERRA WATER POWER!!"

yelled Katherine.

"TERRA WIND POWER!!"

screamed Aisha.

"X-Ranger One!!" hollered Zack.

"X-Ranger Two!!" cried Kimberly.

"Purple Ranger Power!!" called Alexis.

The seven Power Rangers transformed, and stood aggressively in a line. Contagion held up his long arms, and began swinging. The rangers easily dodged his flimsy attacks, and countered with punches and kicks from all angles. Contagion was stunned by the skill of his opponents, and the Purple Ranger took advantage of his state of confusion to hit him with a powerful beam of invisible ultraviolet light. The energy beam left a smoking wound on its chest, and it flew back, and crashed into a table.

"This guy isn't much of a fighter," said Zack, watching as the monster tried desperately to rise to its feet.

"Let's finish him while he'd down," said Jason.

"Right," said Tommy, "Terra Tempest, gang!"

"Ice Daggers!" cried Katherine, and two small silver and blue daggers appeared in her hands.

"Wind Shield!" yelled Aisha, and the green and black shield appeared.

"Flame Saber!" shouted Tommy, and his silver blade heeded his command.

"Lance of Light!" called Zack, the long white staff with a prism at either end materializing.

"Thunderbow!" screamed Kimberly, and her gold and yellow weapon took shape, sparking with electricity.

"Earth Sword!!" bellowed Jason, as the mighty sword materialized.

The rangers turned to the monster, who wasn't moving. They were stunned to see that it was slowly melting.

"Uh, what gives?" asked Alexis, "I mean, I didn't hit it that hard!"

"That was... weird," said Zack with a shrug, and the monster decomposed into nothing. Suddenly, the rangers' communicators went off.

"We read you," said Tommy into his wrist.

^Rangers,^

said Billy's voice, ^my sensors are showing that the monster has been destroyed. Is that true?^

"I guess," said Tommy. "We didn't even get a chance to hit it with the Tempest, but it just...melted."

^I'll run some more conclusive scans on the Youth Center,^

said Billy. ^Make sure that no one enters it for at least twenty minutes. Then, come back here.^

"You got it," said Tommy, as he left the Youth Center. Just outside, a crowd of spectators were standing, with Ernie, the owner of the building, in the center.

"Is it dead, Red Ranger?" asked Ernie.

"We...we're not sure yet," Tommy replied. "Please, let no one enter the Youth Center for about twenty minutes. We're going to run a few scans, to make sure all is well."

Ernie nodded, and the Red Ranger returned to the rest of the team. Then they all vanished in streaks of light.

Chapter Four

"Well," muttered Rito. "That was pointless

! Rita's Putties could last longer!"

"Contagion wasn't meant to fight the rangers!" roared Goldar. "All he had to do was breathe on them, and he did! Besides, Finster said it earlier -- the Space Virus can't last long in Earth's atmosphere. He did his job."

"So, now what do we do?" asked Rito.

"I'm glad you asked," said Goldar, stroking his sword and gazing down to Earth. "For species of the size of humans, the virus takes about twenty minutes to an hour to take affect. When it does, the Power Rangers will be incapacitated! We shall wait the whole hour, just to make sure. Then, we launch an invasion! We'll attack all the major cities in the United States, and then all the capitals in the rest of the world, bringing the planet to its knees. I've already asked Finster to start making a few batches of Viper Putties, and I've even sent a message to Scorpina. She's in the Alpha Centauri system."

"What is she doing there?" asked Rito.

"Zedd sent her to keep an eye on the Machine Empire. They are the greatest threat to his own empire, other than the rangers themselves, of course. But Scorpina hates it there. She'll be glad to return, especially since she won't have to follow Zedd's orders. She is only faithful to Rita."

"Oh."

"Come," said Goldar, "let's go see how the Viper Putty Army is coming along."

Chapter Five

"What is the deal with that monster, Billy?" asked Zack, taking off his silver helmet, "He certainly didn't put up much of a fight."

"Do you think maybe Rito made him?" suggested Katherine. "It certainly wasn't of the caliber of Zedd or Finster's monsters."

"I'd like to get some better readings," said Billy, standing up from his desk. He was holding a small device, about the size and shape of a calculator. "Who'd like to collect some more scans from the Youth Center?"

"I'll go," offered Aisha. She took the device, and vanished in a streak of green light. The rangers gathered around the Viewing Globe, and watched a moment by moment replay of the entire battle, without any sound.

"I saw the fight," said Billy, "but I couldn't hear what was going on. Can you fill me in?"

"He didn't say much," said Jason. "He basically introduced himself, and quoted the usual threats."

"Can you elaborate?" asked Billy, wiping off the lenses of his glasses with his shirt.

"Something along the lines of 'I am Contagion, and I will destroy you!'

" said Kimberly.

Billy's blue eyes widened in surprise, and he stood up straight. "His name was Contagion?!"

"Yeah," said Tommy, "I remembered hearing that word before, but I couldn't recall what it means..."

"It's probably from your sophomore year biology class," said Billy, sitting back down at his computer. He replayed the battle, but in slower motion. He also magnified the creature's face.

"What are you thinking, Billy?" asked Katherine.

"A contagion is a disease producing agent," Billy explained.

"Whoa," said Zack, "you mean like a virus?"

"Exactly. Take a look at this."

The rangers all watched as the monster slowly melted while it lay on a broken table. From the high magnification, small particles with an unnatural greenish glow were clearly visible.

"What is that?" asked Alexis, looking to Billy.

"From the image, along with the information we've just deduced, I'd conclude that those are viruses. The monster was most likely sent to start some kind of plague."

"Uh oh," said Tommy. "Good thing we kept anyone from getting back into the Youth Center. But Aisha is in there..."

"If she's wearing her helmet, she should be fine," he said. "The helmets have air purifiers, preventing the inhalation of harmful gases or particles."

"So then, we're okay," said Kat.

"No," said Zack, remembering the stench of Contagion's breath, "we're not. We didn't morph right away. And he was breathing all over us!!"

"It must have been the plan," said Billy, walking to the med unit. He activated the transporter, and six cots appeared side by side, all next to the med unit itself. Billy then turned to the rangers. "Please, all of you de-morph, and lie down. I'm going to get a face mask, just in case you are carrying a contagious disease. I'll also put on the air purifiers in here, to make sure no germs incubate."

Billy went into the closet against the wall, and the six rangers all de-morphed and lay down on the six cots. Soon, Billy returned with a scanning device and a mask over his mouth and nose. He began scanning the rangers, starting with Tommy.

"How do you feel?" he asked, activating the hand-held bio scanner.

"I feel fine," Tommy said. "But if we were just exposed to the virus, what makes you think it'd already be affecting us?"

"If a monster is distributing it, I would doubt this is an ordinary virus. If we assume its an alien disease, then your body will have no idea how to combat it. In short, you will have no natural defense against it."

After scanning Tommy for a few moments, Billy frowned, and touched Tommy's forehead.

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked.

"You have a fever," Billy said. "It's not too bad, but its a start. Other than that, I can't find anything else wrong with you."

Billy then left Tommy, and repeated the scan on Kimberly, and then the other Terran and X-Rangers. All five had the same symptom, a slight fever. When Billy scanned Alexis, he frowned even more.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Your temperature is higher than the others," he said. "Everyone else has a temperature of about 99.8, but you have a temperature of 101.3. That's a significant difference."

"What could be the cause?" asked Katherine.

"Perhaps because she's not a Terran Ranger?"

"What would that have to do with anything?" asked Jason.

"The Terra powers, as well as the X-Ranger powers, have a source from within your bodies -- namely