The Terran Rangers/X-Men by Heather Ray (ebook e reader .txt) 📕

On the Moon, Lord Zedd's laugh echoed throughout the palace. Rita returned to the throne room angrily, and frowned at Zedd.

"Oh, what is it now?!"

"You aren't going to believe the luck we've come across! When you created that spell, you managed to send a ripple through the Multiverse! In order to regain balance, random time-holes have appeared throughout space!"

"So?"

"So, one of them has just captured Kimberly and Zack!"

"You're kidding!" she squealed. "Oh this is fantastic! They're probably in the middle of nowhere now! There's no way the rangers can ever find them!"

"Oh, wait Rita, it gets better!" said Zedd, trying to calm himself. "The portal also disrupted the Zeo shard in Adam's body! He apparently flashed in and out of the portal, and the Zeo shard became tangible! Now, its stuck in his heart! He can't survive that kind of strain! He's as good as dead!"

"I don't believe it!" Rita squealed. "The rangers are down to half-power. Permanently!!"

"We must take advantage of this," said Zedd excitedly. "The Power Rangers can never deal with a monster now!"

The city of Los Angeles was in ashes. The great towering buildings were in ruins, and filth and disease ran rampant through this city. This area was highly populated by homo-sapiens, who took refuge in the desolated area, and tried desperately to create a sense of security within a group. But the High Lord Apocalypse had decreed that humans should not have the privilege of being free to establish their own society. And of course, they had no place among Apocalypse's brethren -- homo-sapien superior, or mutants, as they were commonly referred to. Apocalypse was the ruler of the continent of North America, and he refused to allow the weak to populate his land. Only the strong survive, he believed, and he had appointed himself the one to decide just who was strong, and who was weak. Los Angeles was the most recent human habitat to suffer a culling, in which Apocalypse's hordes of genetic mutations run rampant, destroying everything in their path, and enslaving the handful of humans that survived. These humans were strong, at least by human standards, and therefore gain the "privilege"

to be servants of the mighty High Lord and his allies. Either that, or they were turned over to the dark scientist Mister Sinister, who used them as test subjects on his many inhumane, brutal genetic experiments. Now, two members of Apocalypse's forces had been assigned the job of taking census, recording the dead in Los Angeles, as well as collecting the very few that may have survived.

"I do not believe I'm doing this!" yelled the blonde man in black armor angrily, "I am a Prelate! I should be in Apocalypse's palace, making laws and commanding the forces! But no, I'm stuck in this dirt pile! I will never become one of the Horsemen if I keep on looking for dead bodies!"

"Please stop complaining Havok," said his pale skinned, ebony haired companion. "You're just lucky Apocalypse didn't kill you for trying to murder your brother the other day! He is your superior officer, you know."

"Don't remind me," said Alex, running the scanning device over a pile of crushed wood, "I just can never understand why the High Lord is so fond of Scott! I know he is a traitor to Apocalypse, as well as all homo-superior! That is the only explanation for the disappearance of seven of Sinister's 'lab rats'

in the past month! He's helping the humans escape, and that is treason, punishable by death!!"

"But you can't prove it," said Domino, her one eye twinkling, "and there's no way Apocalypse will believe your word against that of Cyclops. He's been a faithful warrior and trusted adviser for years!"

"Domino," said Alex staring at his hand-held computer device, "I'm picking up life signs! And they're very strong!"

"Really?" asked Domino, standing beside Alex and glancing at the computer screen. "But that's impossible! The Hounds came through, and they actually can smell life! They were sent to kill everyone! Who could possibly survive the culling, without being on his last limbs?"

"Let's find out," said Havok, climbing over the pile of wood and looking out. "There it is!"

Domino and Havok raced down the hill of rubble and found a young woman, neatly dressed in black bootleg pants and a silk yellow blouse, with caramel brown hair. She seemed unharmed, only unconscious.

"I don't understand," said Havok. "No human could possibly be dressed in anything but the standard green rags! What strange uniform is this? And, how could she survive the culling without so much as a scratch?!"

"Maybe she's not human," said Domino. "Here, I'll use my analyzer to determine whether or not she has mutant powers."

Domino pressed a few buttons, and waited for the results. She then stared at the screen, and her chin dropped. Havok frowned and glanced over Domino's shoulder.

"What?" he asked impatiently. "What is it?"

"She's not a mutant," Domino announced finally, "but she's not quite human, either."

"Is she an alien?"

"No."

"Then, what in the name of the High Lord is she?!"

"I...I can't tell," Domino admitted. "She has a strange power exuding from her, but her DNA shows no trace of the X-Factor, the gene that all mutants have."

"So, she has powers, but she's not a mutant," said Havok. "This is big!"

"What do you mean?"

"What if she's part of a human project, to give normal humans super powers, so they can defend themselves against us? If I can discover this secret organization, and report my findings to Apocalypse, he will make me a Horseman by tomorrow!"

"Alex," Domino said, facing in the opposite direction, "I'm detecting another life form. Just like this one, but over there."

"Investigate," said Havok, picking up the unconscious young woman, "I'm bringing her to the High Lord. He'll be most interested to learn of this new breed of human."

"Whatever you say," said Domino, running towards the other life form. She found, lying atop a heap of rubble, a young African American man, also dressed in neat, un-tattered clothing, with no visible injuries.

"We might as well bring them both," said Havok, lying the girl down inside an energy cage on the back of a hovercraft. "Put him in."

Domino lifted the unconscious young man, and placed him inside the cage. The bars began to glow with a yellow energy, signalling that powerful electricity was running through the metal. Then, Domino and Havok boarded the hovercraft, and vanished over the horizon.

"What do you mean his Zeo shard materialized inside his heart?!" yelled Jason Lee angrily.

"Exactly what it sounds like," said Billy, maintaining his calm and standing over Adam's still form, "I don't understand why, but when the Multiversal portal closed, Adam went into cardiac arrest. His heart has been punctured, and its serious."

"How serious?" asked Katherine quietly.

"As serious as it can be," said Billy, turning on a small computer screen. The image of Adam's heart appeared.

"Do you see that shadow, occupying about a quarter of the volume? Well, that's the green Zeo shard. It became tangible while inside Adam's heart, and is now piercing his left ventricle, in the same manner a precise knife thrust would."

"So," said Tommy, "how is he still...alive

?"

"I've placed him in stasis, but unfortunately, the radiation emitted from the Zeo shard is interfering with the med-unit's equipment. Usually, one would de-morph prior to using the med-unit, but the crystal is in its active state. I can't turn it off, and I can't make it intangible again."

"Then," said Aisha, stepping towards the others, "it has to come out the old fashioned way."

"As in surgery?" asked Jason. "Can you do it, Billy?"

"I have never operated on anything before," said Billy, "and although I may be capable of doing such a delicate operation, I would certainly need expert assistance."

"Then, we need to get an expert," said Aisha, taking Adam's communicator, which was on Billy's desk, "I'll be right back."

"Aisha?" said Katherine, walking over to her. "Where are you going?"

"Angel Grove University," she said matter-of-factly. "There's only one man I know who can save Adam's life. I don't care whether or not I break our vow of secrecy. Its not worth losing one of my best friends."

With that, Aisha walked over to the teleporter, and tried to figure out how it worked. Billy walked next to her, and turned it on.

"Good luck," he said, as Aisha vanished in a streak of white light.

"What do we do in the meantime?" asked Tommy, turning to Billy. "Have you managed to figure out what happened to Kimberly and Zack?"

"Negative," Billy said, walking back to his desk, "I did try to access the Multiversal Scanner, like we have done in the past when dealing with the Spectrum Force, but for some reason, the entire Multiversal plane is in chaos. I don't know what happened, but something disturbed the Multiverse from within, sending a shockwave throughout the passageway."

"So, we can't find Kim and Zack?" asked Jason.

"Not yet, at least. I can't even begin scanning until the Multiverse 'calms down'

so to speak. All we can do is wait."

"Right," said Jason bitterly, "and in the meantime, we're down to half-power."