Transdimensional Archives

 

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

Animalia
Chapter Four
By Peter J. Smith

Morphing in mid-air with a brilliant flash of orange light, I was fully suited up and ready to go by the time I reached the bottom. Scott soon followed, morphing in mid-air and dropping down beside me. We landed in roughly the same place we had yesterday, but today, we were in a better position to glance around and take in our surroundings. It was dark, with tiny shafts of sunlight coming in from grates in the distance, slightly creepy and darn smelly, with pipes and sewer slime everywhere.

"How the heck can the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stand this?" I wondered.

The tunnel was about ten feet wide and nine feet in height, with a drain in the middle that heaven only knows what flowed through. I saw that both ends of the tunnel curved away after twenty feet – at a scream from Teresa, though, we were left in no doubt as to the direction to follow. Pausing briefly, Scott and I drew our blasters and charged down the tunnel.

With our boots splashing through the puddles, we soon slowed to a brief jog, as we both sensed that if it was a trap, we'd be running straight into it. Anyway, the tunnel twisted and turned a few times, but from Teresa's screams we always knew which way to go. And from the direction that we'd been following, I guessed that we were heading away from the school and Currimundi Lake, the small lake near the beach, and more or less towards the suburb Aroona and the empty blocks of land that lay west of the Nicklin Highway, the road that ran right through Currimundi.

"This is creepy," muttered Scott, as we jogged past some large exposed pipes.

"And let's not forget gross," I replied, trying not to make too much noise.

Suddenly, I noticed some light from around a bend up ahead. As Scott and I crept closer, staying safely out of sight behind some pipes, we saw that we had reached Animalia's lair. It was a large, dark room of some kind, with pipes and electrical wires, a high roof and a pile of rags in one corner. On these rags, we saw Teresa, shivering but knowing her, only slightly afraid and otherwise no worse for ware. Animalia was visible too, watching Teresa and growling menacingly.

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder and almost leapt out of my skin. Turning around, I saw that Sarah and Aaron, morphed, had followed us to Animalia's lair.

"So," whispered Sarah quietly, "what's the plan?"

I nodded, although it was difficult to notice in the eerie darkness. "Yep, though it's a bit rudimentary. You guys charge Animalia, keep him distracted, and I race over and get Teresa."

Aaron smiled. "Works for me. Hey, did you two have trouble contacting the Command Centre?"

"Yep," I said. "We figured they had turned it off to run some sort of check. Okay," and I raised my voice, "let's go!"

The four of us charged out of the tunnel and into the room, firing a barrage of laser blasts at Animalia, very careful not to hit Teresa. Animalia turned and, with an enraged roar, he lumbered towards us, not nearly as fast or as nimble as he had been during our first confrontation. But as he attacked the others, I dived around him and ran for Teresa.

"Glad to see you," she said, getting up and quickly walking towards me.

"That's me, your knight in orange armour," I replied. "Now c'mon, let's go, it's morphin' time!"

She grabbed her morpher, held it out in front and opened it.

"Velociraptor!" she cried, and in a flash of light, the white ranger uniform formed on her.

Meanwhile, Animalia was making light work of the others. He'd attacked Sarah first, knocking her blaster aside and sending her crashing into the wall. Turning to Scott, Animalia received a high kick to the head, but remaining unfazed, he slashed his claws across Scott's chest and knocked him away. Aaron nimbly leapt over one of Animalia's swipes, and he continued the attack with several roundhouse punches. Although it slowed him down briefly, the beast lurched forward regardless, forcing Aaron to retreat.

Suddenly, Teresa's whip snaked around Animalia's midsection, jerking him away from Aaron. Then, I leapt out of the darkness towards the beast, but in the darkness, I had missed my mark. This gave Animalia ample time to step back, block my attacks and throw me away, where I landed by the others with a painful crash.

"Well," I mumbled, getting to my feet, "this is going really well."

As Animalia advanced towards us, Teresa turned to me triumphantly. "Well don't panic – here comes the cavalry!"

The six senior rangers charged into room and all leapt towards him. Jason and Zac both attacked with their respective weapons, and Kim shot a few arrows at the monster. Gaining his attention, she leapt across the room. Her distraction worked – while Animalia had his attention focused on her, it allowed Billy, under Tommy's guard, to set up a pair of large spotlights. I had no idea of how strong they both were, but I figured that Billy knew exactly how much light we needed. And as Trini and Kimberly continued their attack on the monster, he called out to them, "Guys! I need him looking this way!"

"Got ya covered Billy," said Tommy. Drawing his blaster, he turned and fired at the monster. The blast went wide and missed the ever-moving Animalia, but it nonetheless caused the beast to swing around. Seeing Billy and Tommy, he charged towards them, but Billy chose that moment to flick the switch on the lights. Immediately, the whole room was bathed in a startling bright white glow.

"Not to beat to death a pun," smiled Billy through gritted teeth, "but I thought that it was about time to throw some light on the subject."

Caught in the light, Animalia roared out and raised his paws to his head. He swayed erratically from side to side, and waved his hands around. The mole components of him, which had enabled him to fight so well in near-total darkness, were obviously completely spun-out. I quickly ran around the edge of the room, leading the others to the senior team. Reaching them, we turned back to Animalia, now growling angrily. Suddenly, the monster's body went limp and his arms hung at his side.

"Oh no," began Zac. "Jason – we've got to do something."

But it was too late – now fully in electric eel mode, Animalia raised his arms and sent a massive electricity surge towards the spotlights, forcing us all to dive out of the way. The spotlights short-circuited in an explosion of sparks, and the whole room instantly fell dark. Animalia, switching back from eel to mole, regained his composure and lurched angrily towards us, forcing us to all back up.

"Now what?" asked Trini desperately. "That was our one hope."

"Yeah, and boy," said Tommy, "that was not how things were supposed to go."

"Again," I said frantically, as I backed up against a wall. "To rephrase Trini, what do we do now?"

"Well, we should never count out the advantages of a strategic retreat," said Jason, as Animalia took several more steps towards us. Now, he was only about four feet away, and with one swipe he could have caused one of us some pretty heavy damage.

"Oh," replied Sarah, "I'm all for…whoa!" Her cry caught everyone's attention, even Animalia, and we all turned towards her. But she was not looking at Animalia or anyone in the whole room – Sarah was closest to the sewer entrance, and she was intently staring into the dark pipe. The reason – it wasn't dark anymore. A translucent multi-coloured ribbon was floating through the sewer pipe, throwing out light that infiltrated every dark corner of the tunnel. I could see that the approaching ribbon of light had seven very definite lines of colour – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, dark blue and light purple.

The rainbow, for want of a better word, entered the room and immediately lit up the whole place, far more than the spotlights had done five minutes ago. We were all bathed in an incredibly bright light – Animalia instantly began to get agitated. Then, the rainbow raced towards him and began to spin around him, wrapping the monster in multi-coloured light. By this stage, Animalia was spinning around and around, completely disorientated by the barrage of light.

Then, without any warning, another ranger leapt into the room, leaving us all silent and stunned. As he raced out of the tunnel towards Animalia, I noticed that his suit was silver, with a white diamond on the chest and white gloves and boots, like ours. His helmet design mostly resembled Tommy's dragon helmet, and around his belt hung a silver blaster. As we all stood there speechless, the new ranger leapt towards Animalia, knocking him back with a kick to the stomach. Then, from out of nowhere, two silver sai appeared in his hands, and he attacked the monster again. Animalia, still fazed by the light, could do nothing to defend himself. Finally, the new ranger's relentless attacks eased off, and there was silence in the room.

I took a step forward. "Who is he?" I asked.

Beside me, Jason shrugged. "Got me. But he stunned Animalia – that's all that counts. He must be on our side. So let's show him some Torlian power!"

"Right!" I agreed. "Power Sword!" Instantly, both our swords formed in our hands. Standing side-by-side, we raised the two weapons above our heads until they formed a massive ball of energy. Swinging the two swords down, the energy flashed across the room and smashed into Animalia, sending him crashing right through the wall into an adjacent sewer pipe. Then, all went quiet.

In the silence that followed, I lowered my sword and walked across the room to where this "'rainbow' ranger was standing.

"Wow," I said. "Listen, I don't know who you are, but thanks for your help."

The ranger turned to me as the others walked towards us. "Peter? Whoa, so it is you."

The voice immediately set alarm bells ringing. "Brendan?" I asked in a husky voice, hoping to disguise my own surprised voice.

Brendan shook his head. "Peter, you don't have to worry. Zordon explained it all to me. Everything. About you, your powers, the senior team and the zords."

I turned to the rest of my team, and I had no doubt that they were just as surprised as I was. It was Jason who broke the silence and spoke first.

"So you received the sixth junior power coin," he said. "I'm glad. From everything that Peter told us, you'll make a good ranger."

Brendan nodded. "Well, I hope I can live up to everyone's expectations. Heck, I was still asleep when Zordon teleported me to the Command Centre, and I was completely out of it for at least an hour. But then I was given the Power Coin and my sai, and I gotta say, wow."

We all smiled, remembering similar feelings. "What dinosaur did you get?" asked Aaron curiously.

"The Dilophosaurus," Brendan announced proudly, tapping his power coin.

"Two-ridged lizard," I remembered. "For the two ridges of bone on it's head."

Brendan grinned. "Junior science, huh?"

I smiled, glad for the ice-breaker. "Amateur palaeontology."

"Heads up guys – we got trouble," announced Kim, pointing towards the whole in the wall that Animalia had been blasted through. Animalia was slowly staggering to his feet, and then, spying us, he charged off. We all ran after him, darting through the hole and to the right – the pipe ended in a large drain, and after that, we found ourselves on an empty block of land. Directly in front of us, Animalia was racing along the road.

~*~

Rita was not amused. Not in the slightest.

"HOW DARE THEY?!?" she screeched, standing in the Lunar Palace's observatory, watching the battle through her telescope. "Animalia was unstoppable, the perfect warrior. Not only do they almost kill him, they have the nerve to make another Ranger. And giving him rainbow power!"

"Things don't look too good?" asked Finster, but he immediately regretted saying it – it had came out more as a flat statement.

"No they don't," she replied angrily, "but no matter. No more Miss Nice Witch." Standing to her full height, she raised her wand, and the red orb began to glow. "Magic wand, make Animalia grow!" White energy bolts then shot from the orb, snaking down towards the Earth and through the atmosphere.

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