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

to the group of teenagers, and stared at them all intently.

"It's funny," he said. "You all seem so...familiar somehow. Do you live in Stone Canyon?"

"Actually, we're from Angel Grove," said Tommy. "Hi, I'm Tommy, and this is Jason, Katherine, and Adam."

Tommy pointed out his friends, as well as Adam, who was still in a coma. Doctor Campbell stood beside the cot, and looked at the boy curiously. He then glanced at the computer screen, and gasped when he noticed a rather large shadow occupying the young man's heart.

"What happened to him?" he asked, turning towards the teenagers. "He has some...thing penetrating his heart!"

"I'll try to explain," said Billy. "You see, that young man there is a Power Ranger. The Power Rangers possess crystal shards, that actually inhabit their hearts, and empower them from within. Under normal circumstances, the shards are intangible, and therefore don't interrupt the normal functioning of the muscle. But, this afternoon, Adam's crystal materialized, while still inside his body. As a result, its stuck there, piercing his heart, and damaging it severely."

"But, with such an enormous wound, he should've been dead minutes after the initial penetration."

"Yes," said Tommy, "but Billy placed him in stasis. He's still alive, but we have to get the shard out of his body."

"... and that's why I went to get you," said Aisha. "We don't know what to do. But we can't let Adam die!"

"Honey," said Doctor Campbell, cleaning his eyeglasses with a tissue from his shirt pocket, "we're talking about an extremely complicated, unprecedented heart surgery! I have never even attempted such an operation on a living person before. And I have no idea about the power emissions of the crystal in his heart. I am not qualified for this."

"But Sir, you are the most skilled heart surgeon in the nation," said Billy. "If you can't help us, who can?"

"You said he's in stasis?" said Doctor Campbell, once again glancing down at the unconscious boy.

"Affirmative."

"What kind of equipment do you have here?"

"Whatever you may need," said Billy, opening a drawer of medical supplies from beside the med-unit. "They may appear unfamiliar to you, but I guarantee, they perform the same tasks your equipment does, but more efficiently."

Doctor Campbell began searching through the tools, and studied each one closely. "Is there any way we can operate on Adam while he's still in stasis?"

"I believe so," said Billy. "We can penetrate the force field encasing Adam. It's primary purpose is to stop all his bodily functions, so he won't die."

"Then let's get cleaned up, Billy. We have a Power Ranger to save."

With that, Billy lead Doctor Campbell into the back, so they can prepare for the operation. Meanwhile, the rest of the Power Rangers, as well as Aisha, joined in a circle near the Viewing Globe, out of the way of the operation.

"So," said Jason, "do you think he can do it?"

"My father can do whatever he sets his mind to," said Aisha firmly, "and so can Billy. If there's any chance at all Adam can be saved, these two men are the ones to make it happen."

"Even if he does survive," said Katherine quietly, "he certainly won't be able to re-absorb the Zeo crystal any time soon. The strain on his heart will be enormous. And now, without Kimberly and Zack, we will never be able to defeat a monster."

"Zedd and Rita must know what's happened," said Jason. "They probably created that Multiversal hole in the first place! You can count on them sending down a monster sooner or later. They'd never miss a chance like this."

"Okay," said Billy, re-entering the CAC's main room. "We're ready."

Both he and Doctor Campbell wore green smocks, Latex gloves, hair nets, and masks over their faces. They both moved over to the med-unit, and prepared the equipment.

"Okay, Billy," said the doctor, "I've never used these tools before, so I'll tell you what kind of instrument I'll need, and you give me the one that corresponds with the typical surgical tool. Are you familiar enough with them to handle it?"

"Affirmative," said Billy. "Shall we begin?"

Doctor Campbell nodded his consent, and the two brilliant men began the delicate operation. No sooner had the first incision been made, the alarms sounded, startling everyone in the Central Access Complex.

"What was that?" asked Doctor Campbell, looking up from his work. "There's a monster at the park!" said Jason, turning on the Viewing Globe, "I knew it!"

The four teenagers circled the globe, and witnessed a large creature that resembled a woolly mammoth on two legs, rampaging through the glade.

"Let's get going," said Tommy. "Hopefully, we can take him out without the others. It's Morphin Time! TERRA FIRE POWER!!"

"TERRA EARTH POWER!!" yelled Jason, raising his fists to the sky.

"TERRA WATER POWER!!" cried Katherine.

Instantly, the three teens transformed into the Red, Black, and Blue Terran Rangers, with golden shields, white boots and gloves with gold bands, and a colored helmet with golden trim. Doctor Campbell couldn't help but watch in awe as the three young heroes vanished in streaks of colored light.

"Amazing," he whispered. "The Power Rangers...are children."

"Doctor Campbell?" asked Billy, getting the older man's attention. Doctor Campbell turned back to the med-unit, and continued with the operation. Aisha stood vigil beside the Viewing Globe, watching as the monster continued to march around pointlessly. In seconds, the three Power Rangers arrived at the scene. She sighed, and silently prayed that they'd be able to save Angel Grove yet again, despite the odds stacked against them.
Chapter Sixteen

Kimberly, Zack, and Nate sat in the back of the NightWolf jet plane while Shadow and Forge piloted the advanced ship towards New York, where the secret base of the Astonishing X-Men was located. Kimberly stared out the window at the murky brown clouds below, immersed in thought.

"Nate," she said quietly, "why are the clouds brown?"

"Well, there were tons of battles fought between humans and mutants here," said Nate. "Sometimes, the humans tried using atomic bombs, to obliterate their enemy. It only managed to completely destroy the ecology of the Mid-West. It's now a deserted wasteland, with enough radiation to make you glow if you stay too long."

"Creepy," said Zack. "That's the only way to describe this world. Creepy."

"And hopeless," said Kimberly, shaking her head. "It's horrible how you're forced to live, without the least measure of peace or security."

"We're managing," said Nate. "That's the best we can do, given the circumstances. I've lived my entire life on the run, so I really don't know what to compare it to."

"Nate," Kim asked, turning to face the young telepath. "What happened to Billy?"

"How do you mean?"

"The Billy I know is kind, considerate, and shy. But this Billy is all business. He was cold, brash, and...obsessed

. I don't know, its only a first impression. But something must've happened to turn sweet, quiet Billy into Rambo!"

"Billy? Quiet?!" Nate almost had to fight back laughter. "Billy Mitchell? Ace? The Rock? The Shadow? He's the man without emotion!"

"That's not how he should be!" said Zack, "Kim's right, man! Something's up with Billy, but we don't know what."

"Well, I've only known Billy for less than a year. That's when he and Forge found me, after I somehow escaped Sinister's laboratory. I don't know what he used to be like. But I do know he lost everything that was important to him: his friends, his family, his home, his wife --"

"Did you say wife?" asked Zack in surprise, "Billy is married?"

"Was married," corrected Nate. "She died before I met him."

"But, Billy's only seventeen years old! Isn't he a little...young

?"

"When you live in a war zone," said Forge, just coming out of the cockpit into the larger compartment. "When any day can be your last, and everything you every have loved can vanish in a blink of the eye, you mature quickly. There's no time for stalling when you live as a rebel in North America."

"I guess..." said Zack.

"You come from a different world," continued Forge, "Billy has suffered more than anyone I've ever met. He's changed from his younger days, because in the Age of Apocalypse, only the strong survive."

Forge pressed a button, and a small computer screen lowered from the ceiling, hovering a few feet in front of Zack, Nate, and Kimberly.

"The only way for the two of you to understand William Mitchell is to know what he's lived through," Forge explained. "So, since we're still about twenty minutes from Westchester, I'm going to give you a little lesson about the history of this dimension, and I'll use Billy as an example. Computer, please play the bio on William James Mitchell."

Processing,

said the computer, and as the words appeared on the screen, the female voice of the computer read them off.

Name:

William Mitchell

Date of Birth:

March 15, 1979

Place of Birth:

Angel Grove, California

Marital Status:

Widower

Group Affiliation:

Former Member of the X-Men

Present Affiliation:

Outcasts

Base of Operation:

Mobile

History:

William Mitchell was born with no mutant skills, but with an almost inhuman intelligence and skill with all forms of technology. Angel Grove, the town of his birth, was a place of relative peace until the year 1990, when Apocalypse, the self- proclaimed High Lord, set his sights on conquering the entire United States, and broke an agreement with the Eurasian group of human leaders to stop his militant conquering of North America at the Ohio River Valley. Apocalypse destroyed the West Coast in the year 1990, and killed as many of the humans as possible. Only a small group of humans survived: those who were able to take refuge in the cliffs outside Angel Grove. One young boy, eleven years of age, was found among the dead, and was brought to Mister Sinister, one of Apocalypse's Horsemen, because of his mental capacities. For years, Sinister conducted experiments on the young boy, because, in the view of the amoral mutant scientist:

"The subject William Mitchell is the closest Homo-Sapien I've encountered to the next level of evolution. He is on the very brink of evolution, and I would surmise that, if he had offspring, they would be of the species Homo-Sapien Superior. My research is to determine whether or not I can stimulate the dormant X-Factor gene in his DNA, helping him reach his potential. From my examination of the subject's brain patterns, his heightened intelligence is the for-runner of a keen telepathic mind. He is presently able to utilize over 14% of his brain mass, as opposed to the mere 9% that most humans are capable of. If I can stimulate his brain further, awakening