Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie by Heather Ray (beach read book .TXT) 📕

When the Pink Ranger materialized in the Turbo Chamber, standing just as immobile as her former uniform displayed behind the wall of glass, both Alpha and Zordon were immediately alarmed.

"KATHERINE?"

Kat shook herself, breaking out of the shocked stupor the last few minutes had draped over her senses. She straightened, her free hand deftly tearing her rose helmet from her face.

She held her other hand up for both to see.

"Aye yi yi!" Alpha gasped, "Tommy's Morpher!!"

"Goldar and Scorpina have taken him hostage," she informed them, depositing her helmet on the nearest flat surface. "He let them beat him."

An astonished silence fell, finally broken by Zordon's soft-spoken revelation. "HE MEANS TO RESCUE KIMBERLY...BY ANY

MEANS POSSIBLE."

Katherine nodded her agreement, pressing her lips firmly together.

The grim smirk on his face, right before he left, spoke volumes. He was willing to do anything

, risk anything

to save her. His expression was so eloquent she could discern his resignation...his desperation.

He knew he would likely die in this unwise, last-ditch effort. Even Tommy couldn't cloud his mind in denial any further: the last two times Kimberly saw him, she nearly tore his head off. Only this time, he would have no Powers to protect him. Only this time, he would have no friends to take the decisive steps he couldn't bring himself to execute.

Even if he miraculously survived his coming encounter with the Flame of Destruction herself, how could he possibly find a way

out of Lord Zedd's palace?

"That's your job..."

Katherine's jaw set. Perhaps there was a chance after all. For once, Tommy had actually requested her help, rather than bat away her efforts to save him. And she, unlike all the other Rangers, actually spent several days in the Lunar Palace, exploring the towers and cellars both as a cat, as well as a person.

"It's time for action," Kat decided aloud. She cast her stony gaze at Zordon. "I know we don't have anything conclusive on Kimberly's condition, but by the time we do, Tommy will be dead!"

Zordon regarded the Pink Ranger for a moment. Most often, Katherine was more inclined to be reserved, and let others make the decisions for the team. If she were upset, she always withdrew, occasionally voicing her thoughts, but never forcefully. Never had he seen obstinance harden her face.

"I AGREE,"

Zordon concluded. "IT IS UNFORTUNATE THAT WE HAVE BEEN FORCED TO ACT WITHOUT PROPER PREPARATION, BUT THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE."

"I'll get the other Rangers!" Alpha volunteered, hurrying to the communicator.

"FIRST, WE MUST FINALIZE OUR DE-STABILIZER. WITHOUT IT, WE CANNOT EVEN PENETRATE THE SHIELD GUARDING THE LUNAR PALACE."

"Right," Kat mused, suddenly distracted. She stared at the small black box resting in her palm, and the gold key sitting beside it. "And there's one more measure we can take to better our chances."

Despite popular belief, the natives of Phlegethon are not vastly different from human beings. True, the average life span is over two centuries. True, their physical strength rivals that of an ox. True, they do possess innate magical adeptness that could be harnessed by early training.

However, Lord Zedd was far

from a typical Phlegethonian. For Zedd valued power and control above and beyond all else, and was willing to sacrifice such a meager concern as physical appearance to achieve that end.

His determination gave him more than one hundred-fold the expected life span he was born with. It also gave him control of magical forces that his people could barely dream of, making the violent, malicious ruler a living god in the eyes of his servants.

There was a great price to pay. The magical forces he learned to harness warped his physical appearance, stripping him of his skin and enlarging his brain beyond the limit of his skull. He became grotesque from a humanoid point of view. And yet, he had power beyond which any other in the House of Zhept had ever dreamed. During his ten millennia reign, he'd expanded his Empire to include hundreds of systems, covering thousands upon thousands of light years from his throne world, like a cancer spreading from an infected organ to corrupt the entire organism.

Yet, in order to survive the massive amounts of energy flowing through his muscles and organs, as well as the wear and tear associated with millennia of life, regular maintenance was in order. He did not sleep in the conventional way. Rather, he had to undergo regular regenerative therapy, to restore the chemical balance needed to withstand the rigors of his awe-inspiring power.

Typically, he would only need to suffer the prolonged regeneration every decade or so; and as it forces days of inactivity, even that seemed too often. However, the more trying the magical energies Zedd harnessed, the more he would need to regenerate. After the tedious practice required by his latest scheme, and the magical spell he needed to perfect for his bride, he found himself exceptionally spent.

As a consequence, rather than risk overextending himself during the process of erasing some of Kimberly's key memories and repressing some untoward emotions, Lord Zedd decided to undergo the regeneration immediately. After all, considering the months of effort invested into his latest game, the last thing he wanted was to inadvertently damage his prize.

The full regeneration cycle consists of four stages, not entirely dissimilar to the four stages of sleep humans experience each night. After each stage of regeneration, the Emperor returns to a level of awareness just below consciousness, leaving him sensitive to certain tremors of power in his immediate area. The Emperor could only awake of his own volition in between stages; were he to be awakened during a stage, he would be off center for days.

Zedd emerged from the second stage of regeneration, and was startled to full wakefulness by the energies pulsing in his palace.

Kimberly, he determined, remained in her own chambers. However, Goldar and Scorpina were in the Dark Dimension.

They have opened a portal to my Dark Dimension in my throne room,

he realized, visor igniting with irritation. The Dark Dimension is only to be utilized when we have a dangerous prisoner.

Bare muscles tensed as a thought occurred to him. "Idiots. They have hastened my grand scheme, and openly attacked the Power Rangers."

His fist clenched.

She was so angry, she was literally seeing red.

Kimberly paced around her spacious chambers, arms folded tightly beneath her breast as she listened to her heels beat against the cold stones.

Damn him...damn them both

!

she fumed, so beyond mere anger she couldn't even curse aloud. Flaunting themselves right in front of me, mocking me from a distance! Do they think I will forget this??

Her lips parted in a feral growl. To her surprise, smoke puffed out of her lungs.

Blinking, Kimberly stopped dead in her tracks. "What the hell

?"

She sucked in a breath, and slowly blew it out, watching the traces of smoke spiral from within.

"It's happening again..."

she realized, quickly unfolding her arms. Her eyes widened as she examined her body. A strange light seemed to stir from within, making her skin iridescent, almost like a light bulb.

And at the tips of her fingers, small flames began to penetrate through her skin, and burn vivaciously along her fingernails.

"It doesn't burn,"

she noted, staring at the inexplicable phenomenon. "Something inside me hurts...but the fire I'm creating doesn't burn at all."

Closing her eyes, she willed the fire to ebb. Taking a breath, she slowly opened one eye to see the result.

The fire was gone.

"I can control it...I think."

She then held her hand outstretched, palm up. Focusing on that location, she began concentrating. Slowly, fire seeped through her skin again, coalescing into a slowly-building ball of flame, launching smoke into the air as it spun in her palm.

"I can

control it!"

she marveled, watching the fire dance in her grasp. "My powers are growing

...feeding off my anger. I can feel

it..."

A soft knock distracted her, causing the flame to blink out of existence. With a huff of irritation, she turned to the door. "What?"

Scorpina pushed open the heavy door, bowing at the waist. "Mistress, your presence is requested in the throne room."

Kimberly hazarded another glance at her hand. Scorpina's mention of the throne room revived a burst of anger, as she ruminated on the reason she'd fled in the