Originally Published On FF.Net: July 2004 to October 2004
Second volume of the Breakdown Trilogy, preceded by PRZ: Shadow Of The Dragon and followed by PR: Zero Hour.
Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by Saban Brands and not the author.
-o-
The celebration of the commencement of the Alliance Wars had not ended as intended. With all the major members of the United Alliance of Evil celebrating the capture of Zordon, it should have been a joyous occasion if it were not for the blatant party-crashing of an unindentified Power Ranger, who had infiltrated the festivities. Amidst the chaos, Dark Specter sent his young princess, Astronema, to pursue the Ranger, while others were given their own assignments.
By the dawning of the next day, only the fleshman emperor of darkness known as Lord Zedd stood in the middle of the chamber, looking ahead as the sun rose behind the Cimmerian mountains. Zedd looked around for a moment before stepping out of the plateau and into the small airlock room. He headed for Airlock Three, where his crew awaited him aboard a small freighter. However, his mind wandered for a moment.
Wandered back to that battle with Tommy Oliver.
Wandered back to that moment of reluctance to land the killing blow.
“Enough of this!” Zedd told himself, “I’ve got business to attend to!”
With that, he made a march towards Airlock One, which was closed off because the cruiser that was there had already left. Zedd, with a wave of his staff, managed to open the airlock and behind it, form a portal that would serve as his way to…
“Zedd?! What’s the matter with you?”
Zedd groaned as Rita Repulsa called out from the other airlock. He did not want to hear her voice.
“Rita, I’m going back to Earth,” the fleshman said.
“Earth?!” Rita shrieked, “You’re going back to that miserable planet?! To do what?!”
“Unfinished business.” Zedd said calmly, “Straight and simple.”
“Do you realize what would happen to you if Dark Specter found out you were disobeying orders?” Rita shrieked.
A smirk formed on Zedd’s face, one so obvious that it was noticeable to Rita even past his mask.
“Don’t worry, Rita. I have a plan,” he said just as he stepped through the portal he had created.
Rita stood there dumbfounded, standing for a moment before walking back to the airlock where she saw Goldar waiting by the door. She walked past him and into the airlock, but stopped when she noticed Goldar standing guard.
“Get in, Goldilocks,” she ordered, “Zedd’s not coming.”
Goldar hesitated for a moment, but eventually stepped inside and sealed the door behind him.
-o-
“What do you mean he’s gone?”
Jason Lee Scott did not hold back any shock as he said those words when he found out from Rocky DeSantos that their friend and longtime Ranger colleague, Thomas Oliver, had mysteriously and suddenly disappeared shortly after the apparent death – disappearance – of Katherine Hillard, another Ranger friend and Tommy’s girlfriend. In the newly refurnished juice bar formerly known as the Angel Grove Youth Center, renamed the Surf Spot, Jason sat on the furthest table away from the bar along with Rocky and Adam Park, former Rangers and co-owners of the Power Karate dojo on the east end of Angel Grove.
“When did you find out he was leaving?” Adam asked, having found his voice.
Rocky shook his head. “I got the letter just this morning, but this could be over a week old at least so he could be long gone by now. I haven’t been able to reach him all day.”
Jason Lee Scott snorted in frustration. First Kat, now Tommy. What the hell is going on here?
“Did you hear anything about Kat?” he heard Rocky suddenly ask.
“Lieutenant Stone said he’s doing whatever he can to get details on what might have happened to Kat’s house,” Adam answered, “but nothing’s turned up yet. I don’t like this, guys. This isn’t an accident or random attack. I have a bad feeling about all this.”
“You and me both, Adam,” Jason said, “Maybe we should get the Turbo Rangers to help us out. The sensors at the Power Chamber could be used to find any traces that could mean dirty work from the usual suspects.”
“That’s not going to be easy,” Rocky groaned, “Especially since the Power Chamber’s been wasted and the ‘usual suspects’ have run off to celebrate Zordon’s capture.”
Jason raised an eyebrow. That was new to him. “What do you mean it’s been destroyed?”
Rocky took a moment to sip from his juice before answering. “Just a couple days ago, Justin stopped by the dojo while I and he looked like a mess. I gave him some clean clothes and then he mentioned that the Power Chamber was lost during an ambush with Divatox. Once that was done, the other Rangers had to go into deep space after Divatox.”
Jason soaked in everything Rocky had explained so far. It seemed hard to imagine the Command Center… Power Chamber destroyed in such a fashion. Certainly, the stakes have been raised a lot higher now that the Rangers have left Earth to pursue Divatox in space.
“What about Justin?”
“He’s alright,” answered Rocky, somberly. “But he stayed behind because he didn’t want to leave his dad behind.”
“I can understand that,” Adam said, nodding. “If I were in his shoes, I probably would’ve done the same thing.” He had a sudden flash of realization as to the other piece of information Rocky had revealed. “Wait, Zordon’s been captured?”
“An attack on Eltare by this dude named Dark Specter,” Rocky confirmed, “That’s all I know.”
Adam seemed worried. “We’ll have to be careful then. If our replacements are out in space, we may need to get back on the job whether we have a working set of powers or not.”
“Yeah, right,” Rocky said, casually fiddling around with his dinner.
Jason studied his fellow Red Ranger for a moment and soon observed the still-full plate of food in front of him.
“You’re not sure things are going to turn out okay,” he said matter-of-factly.
Rocky’s head slumped. “This whole Kat, Tommy disappearance thing’s bummed me out.”
“Don’t worry, man,” Adam said, placing a hand on his shoulder, “I’m sure Tommy will come around soon.”
“It’s not like him, though,” Jason said, “not even during his Green Ranger years.”
“We’ve never been in this situation before, Jason,” Adam said, “Sure, we’ve had roster changes and we’ve lost powers, but we’ve never suffered a casualty before. As far as Tommy goes, he just lost his girlfriend and he probably blames himself when there’s no point.”
“I’d tell him that he shouldn’t be feeling responsible, but what good would that do? He always had a knack for blaming himself in circumstances such as this.” Jason took a sip of his juice and quickly swallowed before continuing. “I’d like to say Kat’s alright and in some evil dictator’s lair, but somehow I don’t see that as a likely scenario.”
“There’s no proof that Kat died in that explosion,” Adam countered. “It’s entirely probable that she might have been already gone when it happened.”
“But how would you explain the fact that no one’s been able to reach her?” Jason pointed out. “Neither by phone or communicator.”
“She could be in seclusion.” Rocky suggested.
“We’d still have a way of knowing,” Adam said, “Right now, all the evidence points to her having been at home when it blew up. And with the Power Chamber destroyed, we have no way of finding out otherwise.”
Jason gently wiped his mouth before speaking. “I already called Tommy’s brother at the reservation and he says he’d helped us look for Tommy. Kimberly just came back from Florida to lend a hand too. Zack and Trini are supposed to be coming back in a couple weeks and the last thing they need is to find out one of our own could have been killed while the other is missing as a result of grief. We have to move on and hope things turn for the better.”
There was a brief moment of silence before Rocky finally answered, “You’re right, Jason. We can’t let this get to us. Kat wouldn’t want it that way.”
“Right,” Adam concurred.
Jason nodded and smiled slightly. “Okay. Let’s eat and get on with our day. I have to meet up with Emily and Kim at the foodmart in an hour.”
-o-
When Jason Scott met up with Emily and Kimberly at the foodmart, they quickly grabbed a bite to eat and then began discussing random stuff, including telling Emily about Tommy’s disappearance. Despite time being short on her hands, Emily would try and help out with the search for their friend. Kimberly, being a former Ranger and Tommy’s ex-girlfriend, felt some sort of loyalty and decided to help Jason with a bit of searching during the day. By 2:15 pm, Emily had to leave for a job interview, leaving Kim and Jason behind.
Both of them decided to meet up with David Truheart, Tommy’s formerly long-lost brother. After a bit of planning, it was agreed that David would check the reservation and other religious sites while Jason and Kim searched the usual hangout spots. With the Surf Spot and Angel Grove High School crossed off the list, they both began searching other sites, including the lake, the park, the beach, and some other places. All came off as dead ends, with no sign of Tommy in any of them.
Around 6:55 pm, the sun would begin to set. Kimberly had suggested checking out Tommy’s cabin by the lake, a spot where he would usually seek refuge in when things got tough to deal with. Figuring it was worth a shot since they found him there before, Jason agreed and both took his Red Porsche to get there. After a half hour drive, Jason saw a medium-sized wooden cabin to his left and promptly pulled over. Jason and Kim stared at the cabin for a moment before Kim nodded in confirmation that this was the right house.
“Okay,” Jason said, “Let’s go.”
Both the former Red and Pink Power Rangers stepped out of the Red Porsche and began walking towards Tommy’s cabin. But before they could get within five meters, the cabin quickly erupted in flames without warning; the blast knocking the wind out of Jason and Kim. When they got back up to their feet, they saw the cabin quickly breaking down as a result of the increasing fires. In the corner of her eye, Kim noticed a strange, shadowy figure in emerging from the flames in the background.
Also noticing the figure in the trench coat, Jason gave chase and sprinted until he had gotten close enough to tackle the intruder to the ground. Both rolled down the steep hill, grappling each other, hoping to get a good shot to knock the other out. After a while, both found themselves fighting on the beach. Jason, unable to get a good look at the face, kneed the intruder in the guts, knocking him into the air momentarily before landing gingerly on the sand. Both opponents stood up, regained their bearings, and walked around in a circle. Both faced each other and kept about two meters distance from each other. Both stayed in defensive stances, waiting for the other to make the first move.
From on top of the hill, Kimberly observed the two brawling. She turned her head to the increasing flames emanating from the cabin. She checked the area for any hydrants, but found that there weren’t any. With a blind spot, Kim pulled out her cell phone and call 911, but a connection couldn’t be made. Next, she tried her communicator to call for the others, but all Kimberly got was static. With things seemingly hopeless, Kim suddenly noticed a small yellow tube barely sticking out of the high grass. Running towards it, she looked at the tube and noticed it had a red button with the words “PUSH IN CASE OF FIRE” in a poorly legible font. Without hesitation, Kim pounded on the button.
As soon as she did, several small rods emerged from the ground, forming a circle around the flaming cabin. When twelve of them emerged, each began spraying heavy doses of water in the cabin’s direction, slowly killing off the flames until they were completely extinguished, the heavy smoke hiding the charred ruins of what was once a cabin belonging to her ex-boyfriend. With the threat of a fire eliminated, Kimberly began running towards a nearby tree.
Meanwhile, Jason studied his human opponent for a moment trying to get a good look at him, but his face was too obscured as a result of the darkness. For the past three minutes, the two circled each other, neither one of them making a move in. Not a sound made during this whole, which got to the former Red Ranger.
“Who are you?” Jason asked, breaking the silence. “And what did you do to that cabin?”
“You know who I am.”
Jason took a step closer to study his enemy’s face, but the wave of shock couldn’t be fought when he realized who he was fighting.
“Tommy?”
As soon as Jason was close, ‘Tommy’ delivered a quick headbutt that knocked the former Ranger back a few steps. Jason’s surprised expression changed to that of anger as he rammed his fist into ‘Tommy’s’ nose, causing blood to trickle from the nostrils. ‘Tommy’ wiped the blood from his upper lip and let out a smirk.
“You’re pretty perspective,” ‘Tommy’ said, “your pals didn’t recognize me when I could have passed as him years ago.”
“I know him too well,” Jason said, “but you haven’t answered my question.”
“My problem isn’t with you,” the clone stated defensively, “It’s with your buddy. My original.”
The former Red Ranger held his ground. “He’s my friend, which makes it my problem.”
‘Tommy’s’ smirk quickly faded and held his hands close together. Between his palms began forming an orb of green energy that grew bigger. Jason, knowing what he has plan, made for a quick dash at ‘Tommy’, but ‘Tommy’ released the attack and soon green energy struck Jason in the chest, knocking him down and out. ‘Tommy’ approached the fallen former Ranger and smiled.
That moment was the only opening Kimberly needed to strike. Leaping from one of the tall tree, she struck the clone square across the neck with a dropping fist attack that staggered him. When he came around, he was met with a quick roundhouse kick that split open the side of his lower lip, blood beginning to trickle from the wound. Kimberly continued her assault on the clone, who began to block her every move. Even so, he knew he couldn’t keep up much longer. Finally, after a straight barrage of kicks being blocked, the clone suddenly threw his right foot unto Kim’s chest, causing her to recoil a few steps back. The clone followed that attack up with another kick, but Kim was able to quickly recover and flip out of his way.
“You’ve gotten more aggressive,” the clone stated, his voice very unlike Tommy, “That style doesn’t suit you.”
“Coming from you,” Kim said, “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
The clone launched himself into the air and extended his right leg as though to deliver a kick to Kim’s head, but Kimberly, anticipating the attack, jumped up and managed to grab that leg and throw the clone off-course, causing him to crash onto the ground on his back while Kim landed gingerly on her feet close to Jason, who was just starting to come around.
“I see you don’t need my help,” Jason said sarcastically. “I’ll just fall back to sleep.”
“Not now, Jason,” she said, extending her hand to Jason, who took it and got back on his feet.
The clone took a step back as the two former Rangers advanced towards him. Neither one, however, made an attempt to attack him, which he found rather odd. Nonetheless, rather than press for an attack, he merely snapped his fingers and soon vanished in a trail of green mist. Both Rangers stood, glanced at each other, and glanced at the rising smoke from where the cabin was.
“Who was that guy?” Jason asked, confused. “Was he a clone?”
“A clone of Tommy, created by an evil wizard shortly after you guys left for the peace conference,” Kim answered, “But I thought he went back to the past.”
Jason huffed. “Looks like he’s back. And he’s not playing games.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
