The Terran Ranger/The Spectrum Force - The Preliminaries Volume 2 by Heather Ray (if you liked this book TXT) 📕

On the slope of the smallest of the Langstrum Alps, Matthew and Jocelyn stopped and rested on a large rock. The hike had been grueling, and they were falling behind the group.

"Get up, Joce!" said Matt, looking in the direction where the rest of the Ecology class went. "We're gonna be left behind!"

"I don't care!" grunted Jocelyn, resting her chin in her hand, "I can't walk another step! I have mosquito bites all over my body, and my leg muscles feel like they've been pureed!"

"What did you expect?" asked Matt, sitting down beside her. "This is supposed to be a 'get back to nature'

trip. You KNEW

there'd be bugs!"

"I should have brought my mosquito repellent, but I didn't even think about it. Sheesh, this trip bites," she complained, vigorously scratching her arm, "literally!"

"Get up!" he said, pulling her to her feet. "Enjoy the fresh air!"

"I can enjoy the fresh air sitting down!"

"But we'll get lost! The sun is setting..."

"Come now, children," said a voice from the shadows, "you're not afraid of the dark, are you?"

"Who's there!" yelled Matt, jumping back in surprise.

The woman emerged from the shadows with a long bow in her hand. "I am Celea, Princess of the Denebian Empire. I have been sent to end your pathetic lives."

Celea shot the glowing arrow above Jocelyn and Matt's heads.

"HA!" laughed Matt. "You missed!"

"Uh, Matt," said Jocelyn, tugging on his sleeve and looking above them, "I don't think she missed!"

Matt looked up and saw the arrow hovering above them. It suddenly became a magical portal.

"Run!" cried Matt, pushing Jocelyn away. They both tried to put some space between them and the portal, but they couldn't fight the vacuum sucking them in.

"Goodbye, children!" said Celea, "I hope you enjoy rotting in the Limbo of Lucifer for a century of two! Oh, and don't be lonely, your friends will be joining you soon enough!"

On one of the lush mountains of the Langstrum Alps, two unconscious teenagers lay in the green grass: Kimberly Hart and Billy Mitchell. The whistle of the mountain wind stirred Kimberly out of her sleep. Her doe eyes fluttered and as she opened them, she was taken aback by her surroundings.

"Wha...what happened?" she whispered weakly, sitting up. "What happened to the beach?"

She touched her throbbing temple, and looked around at the beautiful landscape. Her eyes widened as she remembered her encounter with the magical hole at the beach.

"Why would Lord Zedd send me to a beautiful mountain slope?" she wondered out loud, rising to her feet and brushing the dirt from her clothing and hair. She looked a little down the slope, and saw Billy lying still.

"Billy!" she cried, quickly approaching him. "He must have jumped into the hole after me! Billy, get up!"

Kimberly shook Billy violently, terrified that he may not have survived their ordeal. Billy's eyes fluttered as he regained consciousness.

"Are you okay?" asked Kim, helping him sit up.

"Affirmative," said Billy, straightening his glasses and peering at his surroundings. He then rose to his feet and climbed up a boulder.

"What are you doing?!" cried Kim, climbing up after him.

"I'm only trying to get a better view of our whereabouts," he answered, standing atop the boulder and gazing down the slope. From his vantage point, he could see a large city in the distance. Kimberly reached the top and looked down on the city as well.

"One thing's for sure," said Kim. "That is NOT

Angel Grove! It almost looks like Los Angeles!"

"Except for the fact that there isn't a large cloud of smog floating above the city," observed Billy.

"Well, where can we be?" asked Kimberly, starting to get very uneasy.

"Perhaps we should contact Zordon. He may know the answer."

"Right," said Kimberly, activating her communicator. All she could hear was static.

"Do you think the mountain range mucked up the communicator?" Kim asked, looking at Billy. He scratched his head in thought.

"It's possible. Perhaps we should try to teleport. The teleportation signal is harder to interrupt than verbal communications."

"Let's go!" said Kim, pressing a sequence of buttons on the communicator. A beam of pink light and one of blue light engulfed the Rangers, and carried them straight up into the clouds. When they materialized, Kimberly and Billy found themselves on a cloud high above the mountain they were just standing on.

"Whoa!" cried Kimberly, looking down at the Earth below them, "This is NOT

the Command Center!"

She turned to Billy, who wore an expression of panic.

"Billy, what's wrong?"

"Clouds are just condensed water vapor," he said. "We should not be able to stand on one! We are in the stratosphere of the Earth's atmosphere as well. We shouldn't be able to breathe at this altitude!"

"Maybe this isn't your typical cloud," said Kim, once again looking down. "Uh, Billy, how high are we, exactly?"

"Well, the stratosphere starts at about eleven miles above sea level."

"That's a long way to fall," said Kimberly, turning her head upwards. Her chin dropped.

"Uh, Billy," she mumbled, "do the laws of gravity apply to the stratosphere?"

"Of course, Kimberly. Gravity exists everywhere in the universe. Why?"

"Because there is a gold castle floating above our heads!" she cried, pointing above them.

"Remarkable!" said Billy, staring at the castle in awe. "Obviously, beings of incredible power are at work. We are NOT

on a normal cloud, and that is NOT

a typical castle. Our teleportation signal must have locked into the power emanating from that castle."

Suddenly, Billy and Kimberly saw the gate of the castle open, revealing a blinding white light. A rainbow appeared from the door, creating a narrow bridge to the cloud on which Billy and Kimberly stood.

"It's tangible, Kim," said Billy bending down and cautiously touching the rainbow with his hand. "Just like the cloud we're standing on."

"Look's like someone's inviting us in," said Kim, approaching the rainbow. "So let's go inside."

"Is that the wisest course of action?"

"Probably not, but what choice do we have?"

Kimberly skillfully walked along the rainbow, keeping her balance perfectly. To her, it was just like walking along the balance beam at the Gym and Juice Bar. Billy, on the other hand, wasn't quite as graceful as Kim. Kim looked back and saw him shaking a bit.

"Billy, what ever you do, don't look down!" ordered Kim, seeing his discomfort.

Billy set his eyes on the bridge ahead, trying to avoid looking at the clouds and mountains below. He laboriously reached Kim, who was halfway to the end. She had stopped to wait for Billy, and offered him her hand.

"No thank you," said Billy meekly. "After all, if I do lose my footing, you will not be able to hold me up."

"Good point," smiled Kim, continuing forward. "Do you want to walk ahead of me?"

"No, continue. We're almost to our goal." After a few more cautious steps, the two teenagers reached the gate. Billy let out a sigh of relief and they both entered the castle. They found themselves in a glorious throne room, with walls and floors of gold, curtains of white, and a golden throne resting on a small platform about four feet above the floor. The throne was adorned by gemstones of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. On that throne sat a woman dressed in a white toga, with a purple cape and flowing pink hair. A golden crown rested on her brow, and a welcoming smile was etched on her pale face.

"Greetings, children," she said sweetly, "I am Spectra, and this is my Cloud Castle. I am most curious as to how you reached my castle, and how you even saw it. Only those with the capacity for great power can see my castle. Who are you, and why did you come?"

Meanwhile, at the beach in Angel Grove, the five remaining Power Rangers remained at the spot where the hole that engulfed Kimberly and Billy had been. Trini was scanning the sand with a special device Zordon had teleported to them. Alexis and Jason were keeping watch for any more Putty Patrollers or curious beachcombers. Zack and Tommy, who had only just reached the shore, were being informed of the day's events by Trini.

"So," said Tommy, still not quite believing what he was hearing, "Kim was pulled down some kind of hole, and Billy jumped in after?"

"Exactly," said Trini, "I think Zedd's plan was to capture Kimberly. Actually, this is the best of Zedd's plans by far! He actually figured out exactly when to strike and how. We were ready to go swimming, so we didn't have our coins with us. Also, the five of you were on the boardwalk. There was no way you could have reached us in time to help!"

"Wow," said Zack, "Zedd really thought this one through. We usually manage to ruin his plans before something really bad happens."

"The question is, what does Zedd want with Kimberly?" asked Tommy, rubbing his chin, "And, what will happen to Billy? After all, he probably wasn't part of Zedd's original plan. Trini, do you read anything?"

"No," she said in frustration, "there's nothing here! No energy signature, no alien matter particles, not even a DNA trace of Billy or Kim! It's like nothing happened at all here!"

"Easy Trini," said Zack, patting her shoulder. "We'll find them."

Suddenly, Trini's scanner began glowing.

"What's going on?" asked Tommy and Zack at once.

"The scanner is picking up a power signature!" answered Trini in excitement, "I'm picking up a warp signature, from some kind of teleportation, and two bio-signatures, too!"

"Is it Kim and Billy?" asked Jason, as he and Alexis ran back to the others.

"I can't tell just yet. Once they materialize, I can scan their DNA..."

Then, a flash of light struck, and girl with golden brown hair materialized on the very spot where the hole had been.

"Kimberly!" said Zack, while Tommy checked her pulse.

"She's alive, and she's waking up!" said Tommy, obviously relieved.

"Wait a minute," said Trini, taking a better look at the girl. "Kim was wearing a