See my first fanfic – 'Welcome to the Saga' – for disclaimer.

A New Power
Chapter Two
By Peter J. Smith

The teleportation had lasted for a heck of a lot longer than any of the previous times, but I suppose that's because we had to travel out of the whole entire solar system and to another section of the galaxy. Anyway, after a long while, we felt solid ground under out feet, which meant that we'd landed.

"Everyone okay?" I asked, glancing back.

"We're all fine," replied Sarah.

"Yeah," agreed Aaron, "but where the hell are we?"

We had landed on a lifeless, desolate mountain plateau. All around us were red and brown rocks and boulders, and the gravel that crunched beneath our feet was also red. There was not another living thing, animal, person or plant, within sight. On all sides, the plateau led down to a countryside filled with canyons, cliffs and bluffs. It was much the same as the hill we now stood on – red, empty, and silent. Not to mention slightly creepy.

"Welcome to Nerimos," I said loudly, listening to my voice echo down across the land. "Nice place to visit…"

"But you wouldn't want to live here, huh?" finished Teresa. "Come to think of it, I doubt that there is anything living here. Or ever was."

"It's certainly not an ideal location for the next Club Med," added Scott.

I turned back to Scott. "Have you got the gizmo?" I asked.

Scott nodded. "Right here. It should come online any second. Ah, there we go. And Torlus is somewhere . . ." and here he paused, spinning around on the spot. "That way," he finished triumphantly, pointing along a ridge towards the…well, I can't really say east, can I? The small, yellow sun in the red sky had either just risen or was about to set. Essentially, he was pointing in the sun's direction.

"Good thing Billy gave us that," said Sarah.

"I'll say," I replied. "All right, weapons out. Be careful – no telling what we might run into here. Keep your eyes open, and let's go." And with that, we began our trek down the plateau, across a field of sorts, and back up along the ridge.

I caught Teresa staring up at the sky. "What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"I was just thinking how this is so odd. Somewhere, up there," and here she pointed up at the sky, "is Earth. We're not just in another country or continent, but on another planet. Isn't that weird?"

"I suppose you're right," I said with a nod. "In fact, I'd have to count this as the oddest thing that has happened to us so far." And with that, we continued walking.

We walked quickly but carefully over the red terrain, keeping an eye out for anything that appeared to be unusual. Eventually though, we were just keeping our eyes out for anything, anything at all. The countryside was, indeed, empty – just picture a scene out of those documentaries about the Sahara Desert that come on TV occasionally, but colour everything red. And remove the sand-dunes. Then, you've got what we were looking at. We played it safe though – we all kept our blasters unholstered and ready to fire at a second's notice. And with all the training everyone had gotten over the last few days, we wouldn't miss.

Eventually, the ridge ended in country that was a maze of deep canyons and steep hills. We hadn't been walking for long, only about an hour at the most, and we'd covered a lot of ground. The sun had slowly gotten higher in the sky as we'd been walking, so it had indeed been morning when we'd first arrived.

"Now which way?" I asked Scott. He and Sarah both glanced hurriedly over the constantly beeping device.

"Uh," started Scott, but Sarah grabbed the thing out of his hands. She took a quick look at it, and then glanced up to me.

"That way," she said, pointing towards a small, double peaked hill in the distance.

"Thank you," said Scott.

Suddenly, Teresa put both hands up. "Everyone get down," she commanded sharply.

We all immediately obeyed, dropping our blasters and falling to our stomachs.

"Teresa?" I asked. "What did you see?"

"That," she replied, pointing down to a hill far in the distance. We all saw what she saw – about four or five dozen of Rita's putties, ambling along the hill in a loose procession. Leading them were two human-shaped things, and I soon saw that only one was actually human. It was a woman, tall and beautiful, covered in black, gold, and red armour and carrying a long, curved sword. Beside her was some sort of monkey – I think it was male, but I couldn't be sure. It was tall, fearsome looking and covered in gold armour, and it too carried a sword. After a few minutes, they all disappeared down into a canyon, and we lost sight of them.

"That must be Goldar and Scorpina," whispered Sarah. "Wow, the picture back in the Command Centre didn't really do them justice."

"I hope they didn't see us," muttered Aaron.

I shook my head. "I doubt it. If they did, they would've have charged back up here. Fifty of them against five of us – I don't think they'd be worrying too much about the odds."

"Do you think that Rita has already beat us to Torlus?" asked Aaron.

"I don't know. If this Torlus guy is as powerful as Zordon says, then Rita herself would very likely have led this mission. If she isn't with them, then she may already be with Torlus," I responded. But Aaron's questions had bothered me. Had we been seen, and had Rita beat us to Torlus?

~*~

"They're here," grunted Goldar to Rita, as he crossed the Circle of Hianan towards her. "Scorpina and I both saw them while leading the putties here."

Rita turned away and looked at the dozens of putties that crowded the stone circle. For a minute, Goldar expected that he would be whacked again, so he put up his hands in preparation. But Rita's reply completely surprised him.

"Excellent," smiled Rita. "Just one team, like I told you?"

Goldar nodded. "Yes my queen. Just the junior team."

Rita's face lit up. "Perfect," she grinned. "I knew that one team would remain on Earth to battle my Crabitron. And Zordon sent the five junior rangers alone. It's almost too perfect. Now, we get the chance to defeat them that we didn't have last time." She raised her wand menacingly. "Gluk," she cried out, her wand glowing with energy, "I command you here now!"

In a flash of light, a puddle of mud moved across the ground towards her, before rising and molding itself into the mud creature that it was. Its body was unrecognizable, being covered by a healthy amount of brownish green slime. Its head was only just barely visible, and two glowing red eyes peered out of the mud over jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth.

"Gluk," she told the monster. "The junior team of five Power Rangers is here on Nerimos. They are heading in this direction – I want you and your monsters to bring me back their heads. Understand?"

He nodded, although it was difficult to see amid all the mud dripping off him.

Rita continued, remembering the last time she'd met us. "Oh, and the orange one? Kill him twice for me." Gluk nodded, then slithered off the stone circle. A trail of slime marked the path he took.

Rita looked back to Goldar, noticing that he was staring at her.

"Gluk?" he asked slowly.

"What do you want?" she asked. "We're in a hurry, I don't have the time to think up a fancy name for each and every monster I send off."

She turned away from Goldar and walked back across the circle, to where Scorpina had been helping a regiment of putties tie Torlus to one of the stone columns.

"Now Torlus," she started, with an acidic tone in her voice. "I'm running out of patience. Tell me where the medallion is now!"

Bravely, he shook his head. "Only the pure of heart my use the medallion," he spat back at her. "And I know I didn't read that on your resumé."

"You're funny," she grunted acidly. "I'll kill you."

~*~

"Straight over these hills," said Sarah, indicting a long row of short hills, "is where the energy is coming from. That's where he'll be."

"You sure?" I asked.

She nodded. "Positive. I'm pretty sure that this was the hill that Goldar and all those putties were coming towards."

"All right then," I called. "We're almost there. Let's go and check out the situation."

Aaron tapped on my arm as I began to walk forward. "Wait a second," he said urgently. "What's that down there?" I turned and looked to what he was pointing at.

Down behind us, in the valley that we'd just walked through, a loud commotion was occurring. About six or seven short creatures were leaping all over the place and knocking around someone else. I think that he were human and male, and they were dressed in blue and black robes. He carried a staff with which he was trying to defend himself with – it wasn't working. I'm not quite sure what the creatures were – they were mostly pale yellow, with some of the bigger ones having orange stripes. The best description that I can come up with is that they looked like meter-tall, yellow moles that stood on their hind feet.

"Should we help him?" asked Teresa.

"We really don't have much of a choice," I stated, gasping as the old man fell to the ground after being hit particularly hard by one of the mole things.

"It's part of that whole hero rap," replied Aaron. "Helping little old ladies cross the street and feeding stray pets."

"Three things," said Scott, as we began a slow jog back down the way we'd just come. "Firstly, he's a little old man. Secondly, he's being attacked by stray pets. And thirdly, we don't know how to fight those things."

"You're right," I said. "But we can still show 'em some force. Everyone, blasters ready, but let's not hit the creatures or stir them up too much…"

~*~

He scrambled back to his feet as the creatures growled and hissed around him. One jumped up at him – while still in mid-air, he hit it as hard as he could with his staff, and an audible crack echoed through the valley. The others paused, then attacked him all at once. He batted two away, and kicked another back, but they were all back on their feet in no time.

"Fire!" cried a voice, and five brightly-coloured laser beams smashed into the ground in front of him, sending up a shower of sparks and debris. Not one blast hit any of the mole-like creatures. The animals stopped dead in their tracks and turned to see what had fired at them.

"Aim," I instructed, as we all stood in a line and balanced our blasters on our crossed left arms, holding them in our right hands, "fire!" Again, none of the blasts hit anything other than the ground, but several grazed the creatures and a few of them whimpered.

"Aim, fire," I called again. This time, Teresa's blast actually hit one of the creatures' front paws. It cried out in pain – this was the last straw. Seeing one of their own hit, the other animals immediately turned and fled, whimpering and crying as they did so. They soon disappeared over a ridge in the distance.

"Well done," I congratulated the others.

"He might need help," said Teresa, and we jogged down the slope towards him. He was currently slowly picking himself back up. Sarah picked up his staff that he had lost during the scuffle and gave it back to him.

But as I reached him and looked at him, I felt something odd. I couldn't see any visual reason why there was something the matter, but I could sense something. Something not quite right. And so, as he got himself to his feet, to calm my hyperactive sixth sense, I asked, "Why were those things attacking you? And what were you doing out here in the middle of nowhere anyway?"

"They attack anyone who is too foolish not to avoid their burrows," he said, dusting himself off. "And I was just on some business to a neighboring village."

"Village?" asked Aaron, his curiosity piqued.

The man nodded. "Yes. They aren't visible, of course. But around here, we build underground villages. There is much groundwater and sustenance underground, you know. And if you don't mind me asking," the man continued, "what are you all doing out here?"

"We're looking for Torlus," answered Sarah. "We think he might be in danger."

"I thought so," replied the man. "Why else would you be here if you weren't looking for him? Oh, forgive my manners. Thank you for saving me. You know, I happen to know a shortcut to where Torlus is. Please, let me take you there to repay you."

I shook my head. "No thanks," I said to him, "we know where we're going."

"Are you sure? You wouldn't want to get lost."

"We're fine, thank you," I said. With that, we all turned around and began to walk back up the hill. But before we'd even gone five paces, the man suddenly appeared in front of us.

"You don't want to go that way," he told us menacingly.

I stepped forward and addressed the man, the penny havingg finally dropped. "Look dude, you go back and tell Rita that the next time she sends a monster who likes giving out directions, then make him a giant atlas or phone book or something."

The man smiled evilly. "Darn. It's my personality, isn't it? Always gives me away…" and with that, his features began to change. Mud that appeared from nowhere enveloped his clothes and body, and a thick layer of slime covered his hair and beard, which both soon disappeared. His staff then liquefied on the spot and melted into his hand. Apart from his glowing red eyes and wickedly sharp teeth, he looked plain old disgusting.

We all immediately took defensive stances. "Let me say 'ugh', " I said. "Who are you?"

The monster took a step towards us. "Gluk's the name," he said, "and slime is my game."

"That is so old," said Teresa.

Gluk ignored her, and raced forward towards us. It was amazing to see something so bulky and slimy move so fast. I was first – with one slimy blow to the chest, he sent me stumbling. He spun around, shooting mud out of his outstretched right hand, and as soon as it hit Teresa and Scott, they were blown backwards. Aaron and Sarah were prepared though – he lunged at Sarah, but she nimbly leapt out of the way. While Gluk was momentarily distracted, Aaron launched a high kick at his opponent – his foot met Gluk's face, and although it was lost in a glob of slime, he connected to something and knocked Gluk back.

"Great move," I said, as we regrouped.

"Yuck," he replied. "I'll be cleaning my boot off for months."

Gluk soon got back to his feet. "Let's even the odds a little, shall we?" And he raised his arms. "Monsters, attack!"

From out of the ground arose about twelve or so mud monsters that looked like secondary versions of Gluk. Each one was shaped the same as he was, with globs of slime all over their bodies, but they were shorter and lacked some of his features. "This was not in the job description," muttered Aaron.

Hesitating for a few more brief minutes to assess the situation, we all immediately leapt at our attackers. Teresa leapt over one of the monster's mud shots before pummeling his stomach with her fists. Rather disgustingly, with each hit her fist was lost in globs of slime and mud. She finally downed her opponent with a judo chop to its slimy neck, but not before her hands became almost totally covered in slime.

"Yuck," she groaned, and then screamed as two more monsters leapt at her.

Scott was having a much harder time trying to down his two monsters. Each kick and punch was blocked or avoided, and he himself was continually having to dodge blasts of mud. He jumped back and onto a rock, then launched himself over the two monsters and down behind them. He grabbed one in either hand and forcibly threw them towards each other, the decided effect that they knocked each other out. However, one simply splattered, covering him in globs of slime, and the parts that didn't splatter were drawn into the second, causing that monster to stand taller and growl ferociously.

"Oops," he mumbled. "That's not good."

Gluk had seen that his monsters were taking care of the other four rangers, and remembering what Rita had said, he leapt towards me and knocked me down. I got to my feet within seconds, and I slashed my forearms across Gluk's neck, removing large chunks of mud.

"That's not very nice," he grunted, slime drooling down his chin. Then, he raised his right arm, and I jumped backwards quickly, thinking that he meant to strike me with it. However, the slime molded and shaped itself into a long thin, beam. Soon, Gluk had a custom-made sword stuck on his right arm. He advanced towards me, swinging the blade through the air. How it had become hard and sharp all of a sudden, I couldn't be sure.

"Power sword!" I cried out desperately, just as Gluk swung his blade-arm at me. My sword formed in my hand in a flash of orange light, and it halted Gluk's sword with a loud clang. He quickly backed up and swung again – I just brought my blade down in time. He slashed horizontally again, and again, and it was all I could do to keep up. Finally, he swung with such strength that my wrist snapped back and I dropped my sword. He watched it go, then grinned.

He slashed again, slicing across my suit, and I was blown backwards and into the side of a boulder. As I slumped to the ground, Gluk moved in for the kill.

At the sight of Gluk advancing towards me with his sword raised above his head, I froze. I should have leapt to my feet and gotten the hell away from him, I should have rolled away – a thousand different things raced through my mind. But my body refused to act.

"It's been fun," he gloated, as he raised his blade-arm higher in preparation to strike off my head.