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

Animalia
Chapter Two
By Peter J. Smith

"And Brendan," I introduced, "this is Teresa, Scott, Sarah and Aaron."

Brendan smiled and waved. "Hi."

"So, how's it been on your first couple of days?" asked Teresa, shifting her bag from her left to right shoulder.

"It's been okay," replied Brendan. "One of the better schools."

"Really?" asked Sarah incredulously.

He nodded. "Yep. Peter's been great."

I laughed. "I'll be sure to update my Christmas list. Hey listen, Brendan, we usually all head over to the Youth Centre after school. I don't suppose you want to come?"

"I'd really like to, but I can't. I've gotta get home. It's been nice meeting you guys," and with one final wave, Brendan turned and walked away.

"He seems nice," said Aaron as we walked away from the empty grade six classroom.

I nodded. "Yeah, he is. He'd make a good ranger…" I was cut off as our communicators all chimed. I instinctively looked around to check that we were alone, but it was after three "'o clock, and the school had a tendency to become deserted by its students at the earliest possible opportunity.

I raised my communicator to my mouth. "We're all here."

"Rangers," came Alpha's anxious voice, "we've found some information on Animalia. Can you please all come to the Command Centre?"

"We're on our way," I replied, and the five of us reached down to our communicators and instantly disappeared in five bright flashes of light.

~*~

"Animalia," Zordon's booming voice told all eleven of us, once we all arrived at the Command Centre. "Rita's name for one of her monster-making projects."

"Well," started Scott, "that's something."

"But not much. How much do we know exactly?" asked Zac.

Alpha shook his head. "Aye-yi-yi! All we could determine from the files that we have is that Animalia is the name of some creature that Rita has plans to build, using organs and hormones from animals that exist here on Earth. But we don't have anything more than that. And what we do have is sketchy at best."

"Well, it does explain everything," said Jason. "She's stealing animal hormones to build herself a monster. Kind of like Frankenstein."

"So it would appear. By combining her dark magic with natural elements," summarised Zordon, "Rita is literally designing what could be a very fearsome creature. Be careful rangers. This Animalia could strike at any moment."

"We'll keep a close eye on things tomorrow," I said. "Meanwhile, Alpha, keep a close watch on Australian universities and scientific labs. If Rita strikes again, we'll know about it."

~*~

Finster hurriedly jogged from his science lab through to the observatory.

"My queen?" he called, attracting Rita's attention, "Animalia is finished."

Rita leapt to her feet from her throne. "He is? Excellent work Finster. Take me to him at once."

Finster nodded. "Just follow me."

"Did you make him just as I wished?"

He smiled. "Everything exactly as you wanted. I even made a few improvements."

Rita sighed happily. "Ah, what a lovely day for a bit of rampant death and destruction."

~*~

"So," I said, putting my lunch box back in my bag and trying to force Rita Repulsa from my mind, "what do you want to do this lunchtime?"

Brendan shrugged. "Oh, I don't know, something with a small amount of interest, perhaps?"

"Brendan, if you haven't worked out that those kinda things don't happen at Currimundi, then I'm sorry but I just can't help you."

He laughed, and we turned and began to walk down towards the oval.

"Hey Peter," he asked suddenly, stopping in his tracks. "What's that?"

I looked up and towards where he was pointing – a shiver ran down my spine as I recognised Rita Repulsa and another figure, whom I immediately guessed was Animalia, materialising on the oval. Seeing them, all the kids and teachers who were on the oval instantly began to run, back up towards the cluster of buildings.

"Something interesting," I replied quickly. "Listen, we have to get to a shelter."

"How come?" asked Brendan, but the figure that was walking beside Rita answered before I could, sending a lightning bolt into a large tree.

"Oo-kay," he replied, the tone in his voice changing.

"Look, it's Rita and one of her monsters," I said. "The Power Rangers will get here soon, but right now, we have to get to safety."

"Works for me," he said. Then, with one last look back, we turned and ran past the classrooms, and joining a large crowd of people, we turned down a path that led towards one of the many underground shelters. Surrounded by people on all side, I stopped, forcing Brendan to stop beside me as well. I had to figure out a way to get away from him.

Luckily, I didn't have to. At that moment, a sea of people came between me us, forcing us away from each other. Trapped in the crowd of people, Brendan was forcibly shoved backwards along with everyone else. Then, the sunlight disappeared – he had entered the shelter. All around him people were crying and calling out to each other. He scanned the faces around him but could not see mine anywhere. Then, horror of horrors, the door slammed shut with a clang, the teacher in charge unable to see anyone else outside.

"No!" Brendan cried, desperately hoping that he would be heard above the cacophony of screams and shouts in the shelter. "No! Peter's still out there! No!"

~*~

I soon found the others, and, seeing as the school was now completely deserted, we morphed and ran down to face the monster. By now, Rita had left, never one to lead her own troops into a battle, but the monster remained. And physically, we soon saw that he looked more disgusting than Gluk, if that was even possible.

Like most of Rita's recent creations, the monster was more of a mutant than a monster. It stood about six feet tall, with red, orange and white fur on its upper body and pebbly grey skin on its stomach and legs. Its claws were long, grasping and sharp, and it had a long tail that looked as if it had been grafted directly from a scorpion. On its back were two folded-up wings, made up of white and brown feathers, and its head was, well, indescribable. Beady yellow eyes looked down at us from a face with features outlined by orange fur. Teresa summed it up nicely with, "Why don't we ever get a decent looking one?"

"Just one of the many clichés that filter down into reality," I replied. "C'mon guys, we can take him. Let's power up!" And in formation, we charged down towards the monster.

I immediately leapt into the air to knock the beast down with a high kick, but amazingly, as I came close, Animalia caught me in midair, spun me around and let go. I was sent flying through the air and landed about thirty feet away.

The others immediately took up the attack. Sarah and Aaron both leapt at the creature with some lightning fast judo chops, but Animalia lashed out, sending them crashing back. Sarah recovered in a second and jumped back towards the monster. She got in a successful high kick to Animalia's chest, but trying to follow it up with several punches to the chest, she found that Animalia successfully blocked every punch.

With the monster's attention was focused on Sarah, Aaron chose to
attack, but without even moving, Animalia swung his arm around and struck Aaron a glancing blow. Lifted off his feet, Aaron was sent flying through the air, where he came down heavily next to me.

Scott and Teresa leapt forward to aid Sarah. With minimal effort, Animalia threw Sarah to one side, and threw Scott into Teresa which downed them both. By now, I had recovered, and I leapt back towards the creature, skillfully dodging his forward swipes and knocking him back with a high kick. The beast then lumbered backwards away from me, and I soon saw why – Animalia had reached one of the wooden gazebos and grabbing one of the wooden poles, he ripped it right out of the concrete and away from the rest of the woodwork. Whoa – he didn't even appear to strain. He swung his new weapon at me viciously, and I quickly leapt backwards out of danger.

"Well," said Scott, "those must be the elephant genes showing through."

"Yeah, this guy is a real brute," added Aaron.

"I'll say," muttered Sarah. "Any thoughts fearless leader?"

"I don't know," I said, turning from Animalia to the others. "How about we…?"

"Get down!" cried Teresa, and we all dropped to the ground as Animalia shot through the air past us, flapping his wings furiously and swiping at us with his claws.

On cue, Scott added, "And there's the eagle genes."

Hovering in midair a few feet above our heads, his wings beat the air with loud "'thwumps'. He looked down at us, turning from one person to the other. All of a sudden, he turned and dived down a few feet, swinging at us with the club that he'd ripped out of the gazebo. We all ducked under his vicious swings, then turned back to face him. But it looked as if he was having trouble hanging onto the wooden pole, and soon, he let it drop down to the grass.

Suddenly, he swooped down towards us with a bird-like cry. He was so fast that we had no time to get out of the way as the claws on his hind feet slashed across our suits, sending us all to the ground in a blaze of fire and sparks.

"Whoa," said Sarah, as we all got to our feet. "This guy is fast."

"And tough," added Scott.

"I agree," responded Teresa. "We can't fight him like this."

"We need to bring him down," I agreed. "Scott, Aaron, weapons out now!"

The power staff and power blasters immediately formed in Scott's and Aaron's hands. Quickly, I whispered my plan to them. They agreed, and while Animalia was hovering motionless in mid-air, Aaron fired on him, aiming high so that Animalia would be driven low. It worked – Animalia swooped down on us at a far lower angle than he had before. Scott then jumped into the monster's flight path, and using his staff, he leapt into the air like a natural-born pole-vaulter, knocking the monster out of the sky. The monster landed with a crash, and enraged, he got back to his feet.

"Power Sword!" I cried, and charging towards him, my weapon formed in my hand. I leaped at him, swinging my sword viciously, but he dodged out of the way. I swung around and continued the attack, remembering a move Jason had taught me. I struck the Animalia on the chest but he swung around and launched his own attack – his tail flew at me. Not knowing what to expect, but realising that it wouldn't be good, I dived to the ground. The sharp tip of the tail just missed me and embedded in the ground, where the grass began to sizzle and immediately turn brown.

"There's the scorpion venom," announced Scott, as the other rangers ran forward to help me.

Animalia spun around, and the tail whipped around towards Scott. Luckily, he blocked it with his staff, but with a hind-kick from Animalia, he was sent flying. Aaron fired twice, but the beast raced towards him with an incredible burst of speed, during which time his tail went limp, and lashed out at him with his claws. He ducked back, and Sarah used her mace to smash the monsters claws. She soon found the tail speeding towards her, and she leapt nimbly away, but Animalia followed, swiping with his claws. All of a sudden, Teresa's whip snaked around his foot, causing him to stumble and fall. But while on the ground, his eyes glassed over briefly, and he shot bolts of electricity from his arms, causing Teresa to drop her whip and stumble backwards.

"Don't tell me," I said to Scott as we both raced to Teresa's rescue. "Those was the electric eel hormones."

Before he could answer, we noticed six bright streaks of light, racing through the sky towards the school. Soon, the six senior rangers had materialised on the oval, and pausing briefly, they ran over to us.

"You guys okay?" asked Trini, as Scott and I helped Teresa to her feet.

"Never better," I said, then added amiably, "you guys took your time."

Jason grinned. "Just arriving fashionably late," he said.

Now, I could describe the battle to you bit by bit, but I won't. For two reasons. Firstly, it lasted from twenty to thirty minutes, and if I were to go over every detail, you would probably get bored very quickly. Secondly, we were losing pretty badly, and I'm not too fond of that fact. Even with all eleven of us throwing everything we had at the monster, Animalia still always seemed to be getting the upper hand. It got really annoying. We were kicking, punching, head-butting and firing at the monster, but it just didn't work.

Finally, we all collapsed onto the grass, utterly exhausted. Across from us, Animalia stood panting, out of breath but still ready to fight.

"Maybe someone should've told him that we're the good guys," panted Trini.

Several hundred metres away, two lone figures stood keenly watching the battle from atop the roof of the music block. One of them was dressed in gold armour and carried a long sword, and the other wore a long brown dress and a breastplate and carried a wand with a red orb set in one end.

"This is even better than I expected," smiled Rita Repulsa with delight, turning to Goldar. "Animalia is far stronger and more powerful than I'd anticipated."

Goldar nodded. "He's certainly more than a match for all eleven of them."

"Yes. That'll teach Zordon that if things get tough, he can't just go and hire more rangers. I wonder why we didn't try something like this ages ago."

"You realise, my queen, that they are in position," grunted Goldar. "Now would be a good time."

"Of course," Rita nodded. "I was just taking time to enjoy the fight. But now, let's make things interesting," and she raised her wand and, while muttering spells under her breath, the wind picked up, lifting leaves and rubbish off the ground and carrying them into the air, and the red orb began to glow. Down on the battlefield, we all suddenly became aware of what was happening, and we looked around in confusion. Then, before any of us could move, lightning bolts struck the ground all around, and great cracks began to appear in the earth. Finally, the ground began to fall, for want of a better word, and the entire battleground fell suddenly, taking us all with it.

Everyone screamed and cried out in surprise, and finally, our wild ride stopped. Despite the dust and debris, I instinctively knew that we were in the sewer. And as the dust cleared, and we all painfully got to our feet, a quick glance around at the stone walls and exposed pipes confirmed my suspicions. Unfortunately, I also noticed Animalia standing tall in the darkness, ready for battle. And no-one had time to ponder what the heck had just happened, because Animalia chose that second to continue his attacks.

The monster raced forward, skillfully avoiding the debris and masonry that littered the ground, and immediately began lashing out at anyone who didn't get out of his way. Ranger after ranger fell to the ground – Animalia was just moving too fast to keep up with. Darting in and out of the shadows, leaping over fallen chunks of rock, it was incredible to watch the beast and a struggle to stay out of his way. Finally, after downing Billy, the last ranger still standing, the monster stopped, turned and surveyed the battleground.

All became silent then, as we all slowly pushed away the feelings of dizziness and pain and staggered back to our feet. Suddenly, a high-pitched voice echoed out of the darkness, and despite our various injuries, we heard it perfectly and were left in doubt whatsoever as to the voice's identity.

"Animalia, here," commanded Rita Repulsa, stepping out of the shadows and into the sunlight. Obediently, the beast picked up its feet and trotted over to her.

"I see you've all met my newest pet," she began cheerfully. "And I'm sure that you all have come to the realisation that you are no match for him. After all, you spent the better part of an hour trying to defeat him in battle, and yet he consistently beat the tar out of you." She paused, and despite the fact that she was standing a fair way back in the sewer pipe and cloaked in darkness, it was pretty obvious that she would have been smiling.

"So," she continued, "I'm willing to cut a deal. Of sorts. By this time tomorrow, I'll be expecting a present from you. It could be a zord, some power coins, a key to the Command Centre, I'll leave it up to your judgment, and in return, I'll keep Animalia on a leash. That is my final offer. If you don't feel like being generous, then Animalia can just tear you all in half." And once she'd presented her ultimatum, with a wicked laugh, Rita and Animalia turned and disappeared into the darkness, leaving the eleven of us bruised, bleeding and alone in the tunnel.

tube* Ó