Power Rangers 1. Prologue

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 1: Prologue  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: For all intents and purposes, this could be classified as a continuation (a.k.a. sequel) to my earlier Zeo story, _Shadow of the Dragon_. While it's not necessary to read that story to enjoy this story, I'd highly recommend you do so.

On A Further Note: Any reviews would be greatly appreciated.

---

He remembers the scene vividly.

He and the White Ranger having fought off and defeated the Wizard's mutant rats, saving the villagers from the menace. White Ranger declared they should go home, but _he_ decides to stay behind and do some good, much to the dismay of the Ranger. Then _he_ materialized a hat out of thin air and placed it on his head, walking towards the villagers. A second later, the suited man gave a quick salute and vanished into thin air. That was the last that the tiny village of Angel Grove saw of the White Ranger.

That was the last _he_ saw of his original.

Realizing that he could never fit in with the villagers despite their claiming otherwise because of his unique origin, he left Angel Grove and decided to travel the world round, hoping to do some good somewhere. But it took him several weeks before coming to the realization that no matter what he does, he'll never get over the fact that he can never live his own life or go his own way.

Based solely on the fact that he's nothing more than a clone...

A copy...

A fake...

For ten years, the clone had travel the better part of the fledgling North American countries and colonies until fate landed him on a secluded cavern, where he would spend the rest of his natural life there as a hermit until his eventual passing. However, over the twenty years of seclusion, the clone realized that he didn't age, nor did he lose an ounce of strength. The only thing noticeably different were few streaks of white hair and a beard, but other than that, he didn't have any symptoms of aging. The clone couldn't understand why until he remembered the words of the Wizard during his briefing:

"You're not a true human. You have certain properties that enable you to live longer than these humans. I believe the term is called immortality."

Immortality. The inability to die unless someone decapitates you. The clone found another reason to be considered an outsider; he had heard enough stories of the supposed immortals who get banished from villages because normal humans fear them. Not wanting to cause trouble, the clone worked feverishly on creating an explosive. When he created enough, he used to destroy the entrance of his cave and seal him from civilization forever, where he would spend an eternity of uninterrupted sleep.

What he hadn't counted on was the corrupt nature of the Green Power coin he possessed. Despite the control of the Wizard seemingly faded, he still hadn't completely let go of the darkness. In fact, over time he had learned to embrace the cold energies of the coin that were slowly but surely building up. What he gained from doing so was powers and abilities he never knew he had. Abilities he hadn't counted on.

So he laid low in his cave, his own lair. Learning to harness the full powers of the coin, taking down notes using stone chippers to write the information on the walls of his lair. He knew that without a working morpher, morphing into a Ranger and retaining stability in that form would be impossible. He wasn't concerned with that, because what he gets out of the learning process may prove to be more beneficial than morphing.

Then the day came when his lair was raided by a robot prince named Gasket, aided by a fem-bot named Archerina. They seem to noticed the clone's corpse, but thought it was merely a well-preserved human corpse. The clone didn't move a muscle, but knew that Gasket would want the green coin. He thought of fighting this intruder, but what would it accomplish? Besides, from his incisive rambling of global domination and machine empires, he's probably another in a long run of evil villains in failed battle with the Power Rangers.

Led by his original...

Then a thought came to mind. _Let him take the coin and then you can take it back when it benefits you._

The clone resisted the urge to smile until Gasket and his female companion left, with the coin in hand. When the cave was sealed shut again, the clone let out a hollow laugh. Realizing the opportunity to strike is almost at hand, he approached a stone tablet and pulled it off with his enhanced strength, revealing a smaller tunnel. He entered the tunnel and navigated through the network of empty caverns until he found light. Following that light, he found himself staring at the blue sky in the middle of a desert wasteland.

It didn't take long before the clone noticed a wanderer wearing a red cloak passing by. The clone instinctively snuck up behind him without so much making a noise. With a slight tap, the clone pushed the stranger to the ground and pulled off his hood to review an green-skinned humanoid. Before the clone could question this alien, the alien screamed loudly in agony as smoke began to fume from his body. The body soon crumbled as the scream died out and soon there was nothing but ashes amidst a red cloak.

Picking up the cloak and wrapping it around his body, the clone wandered about until he noticed a small, peculiar spacecraft in the horizon; presumably belonging to the alien creature he killed. Once he got on board through the opened hatch, he had a look around. The interior of the vessel had a main cargo room, a small 'bridge' area, and a database area in the back, where the computer databanks are situated. The clone opted for the computer room and looked up information on how the ship worked. Three hours later, the clone took control of the ship and set a course for earth orbit, activating the specially-equipped stealth system as to avoid detection.

---

Several days have passed since the clone acquired a space shuttle. Under the guise of an alien privateer, he had come face to face with Gasket, the robot who stole his coin. For an hour, the two had been discussing business arrangements. By the end, the deal was settled. In exchange for his assistance in Gasket's war against the Rangers, Gasket would provide the clone with the basic codes required to create an army of bio-noids; beings created from the fusion of organic tissue with mechanical work, a science perfected by Gasket's father-in-law, Lord Aradon.

At first, Gasket balked at the idea of the process called bio-automation, but soon gave it when it was discovered that he couldn't used his acquired power coin in his current mechanical form. So at the request of Aradon, Gasket transferred his consciousness to a prototype bio-noid and used it against the Rangers, gaining access to the Dragon Dagger and subsequently the Dragonzord; all the while his original body underwent bio-automation. During all of this, the clone would stay secluded in Earth's orbit on board the shuttle, hiding comfortably behind the ship's stealth shield.

---

During Gasket's mind-games against his original, the clone had chosen to lay low for the moment. He took some time to get some rest; not necessary given the amount of time in his life he spent sleeping, but it did calm his nerves to a point. Despite hearing a strange sound in the back, the clone had managed six hours of uninterrupted sleep.

When he woke up, he noticed one bio-mechanical lifeform on the moon's surface. Setting the appropriate co-ordinates for his whereabouts proved easy considering the clone's lacking experience in spaceship operation, but his time with Gasket incognito proved rather beneficial, as he had learn much about the happenings on Earth and beyond, including Gasket's mind games with his original, Thomas Oliver.

The clone smiled at the thought of his original's look when they will eventually meet face to face, but quickly shook the thought away and proceeded towards the main database room in the back. When he got there, he noticed the damaged screens and circular datadisks scattered about in the room.

_As suspected_, he thought, _Gasket blew out all the memory banks while I was sleeping. Luckily I have this._

He pulled a small, delicate cylindrical piece of metal with glowing blue lines and stared at it for a moment. From what the clone understood, it was a high-capacity memory rod that held more than its fair share of computer data; practically the comparative capacity of twenty DVD discs. It was more than enough for the clone to make a copy of the shuttle's database, including the 'bio-noid' information as well as starmaps and other miscellaneous bits of information that may prove useful in the future.

Putting away the metal piece, he lifted his hood over his head and opened the main door. The first thing he saw was the original (albeit modified) figure of the former prince Gasket, whose father had recently been branded a traitor within the Machine Empire, or so reports have said.

"It's about time you got here." Gasket said. "You'll be happy to know that the coin still works, much better than I anticipated. However, the Dragon Dagger has been destroyed by the Red Ranger and so the Dragonzord is inaccessible. As agreed, in exchange for your services, I will give you the information you need to create your 'secret army.'" 

_Sure you will_, the clone thought. From the backpocket of his cloak, he pulled out the damaged datadisk and showed it to Gasket, who seemed oblivious to it until his eyes laid upon it. He took two steps towards the cloaked figure before pausing to raise a hand over his head. The clone, unsure of what was causing it, pulled out a small, sleekly-designed hand blaster and aimed it point blank at Gasket's chest. When Gasket became aware, the clone fired a shot and watched as the son of Mondo staggered back and forth, then crumbled to the ground. The clone grinned and walked over to Gasket, removing his hood as he did so. Kneeling down, he punched through Gasket's damaged chest piece, kept it there for a few minutes, pulled it out when he felt something smooth and round. He examined the oil-covered coin, which had a footprint and tucked it in his pocket. 

"This was on loan so you could challenge my 'original'." he told Gasket, "My being there would have aroused suspicion, but they never would have suspected you. And they didn't. As far as they're concerned, they think you stole the coin when you found my 'grave' somewhere... out there. You thought that my body was well preserved because of the increasing powers of the coin, so you took it and allowed me to rot in the tomb. 

"But you didn't count on me being alive, did you? The fact didn't compute that this clone, sent several hundred years to the past because he couldn't co-exist with his 'original', was still alive and in healthy condition. It never occurred to you that the person you were dealing with to offer you safe haven to Earth was the man whose tomb you've raided. Admittingly, I thought of surprising you when you raided my tomb, but since you were so insistent on fighting my original, I let you keep it for the time being. But not permanently, I assure you. And now, my friend, as a once-almighty tyrant used to say, 'it's time to pay the piper.'" 

The clone waited for Gasket to respond. After a few seconds, Gasket shook his head nervously, his mouth muttering what he recognized were naughty words, but no voice came out. The clone merely sighed as he aimed the blaster directly over Gasket's forehead and pulled the trigger. While it wasn't enough to blow a hole through the former Prince's head, it was enough to cause some momentary twitching of the limbs before freezing. The clone watched as the robot twitched until it laid there motionless. Satisfied with the turn of events, the clone allowed himself a grin. 

He took a moment longer before he turned and walked back to his shuttle, leaving behind the inactive Gasket. Even with an inactive database, the clone could still access his memory rod with the only other working computer terminal not dedicated to a working system. He promptly pulled out the rod and inserted into a small circular slot. After a few seconds, the screen showed a status meter slowly filling. 

"This plan is going to take some time," he said to himself as he worked the navigation controls of the shuttle, "so I better find a safe haven where I can work the kinks uninterrupted." 

The clone walked back to the bridge and worked the controls, lifting off the shuttle and activating the stealth shield. He did a quick pass-by of the Lunar Palace controlled by Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa; no doubt they will be genuinely surprised to see his face again. Again, the thought was quickly replaced, as the clone told himself to stick with the goal at hand. He began devising a plan in his own mind that will eventually lead to a fight with his original and once he's there, he will do what should have been done long ago... 

To be continued...


	2. Falling Apart

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 2: Falling Apart  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: Any reviews or criticisms would be greatly appreciated. Please?

---

Thomas Oliver... retired Power Ranger. There's a thought after a few months, he has gotten used to. It's happened to him thrice before, but that was due to the fact that his powers were stripped from him. Of course, he always found himself bouncing back into the fold with newer, stronger powers. 

This time, however, he willingly chose to walk away. 

Handing over his Turbo key and morpher to a head-strong teenager named T.J. Johnson felt more like a relief than something painful, but Tommy had way too much free time on his hands now that racing season had begun. His uncle had urged him to go for a career, but Tommy politely declined, saying it was not for him and that he planned on helping his friend Rocky DeSantos open up a karate school in the suburban area. 

Tonight, he has other things to worry about. This would be his first true date with Katherine Hillard, a girl who, besides being a fellow former Ranger, was also the current love of his life. While they have been out to a movie or a short meal, this would be the first time they'd be able to do something uninterrupted. Considering that Kat would be leaving for England in a few days time, this would be the last chance they have of having time to themselves.

So Tommy had dressed in a rarely used dark red suit jacket, dark green shirt with white tie, and dark red slacks. Tommy even tied his hair into a ponytail and used some hairspray to give his hair a silky slick appearance, something he hadn't done in quite some time. After forty-five minutes of preparation, Tommy headed for his black jeep and took off. 

Now if only he can get there in time. 

---

Kat Hillard... retired Power Ranger. A thought that even after a few months, she still hasn't been able to get used to. Despite having willfully passed on her Turbo key and morpher to a worthy candidate in a teenager named Cassie Chan, she has had times when she felt empty with being called into action. The Ranger business, given its risks and dangers, was a thrill and to be able to live a normal life seemed rather boring to Kat. Being accepted into the Dance Academy in England didn't change that.

But tonight would more than make up for it, for she would finally be able to get a first true date with Tommy without having it be interrupted by alien threats or evil spells, a few days before she prepares to leave. After some time picking out an outfit to wear, Kat opted for a simple one-piece black dress and black shoes, with a pair of dark pink earrings. While fixing up her hair, the phone rang. Kat considered answering it, but decided against it.

_Let them leave a message_, she thought, _I don't want to be late._

After three rings, the answering machine made one bleep followed by Kat's mother's voice. "_Hi, you've reached the Hillard residence. Unfortunately, no one's home to take your call. Please leave a message after the beep._"

After the beep, all that followed was a heavy sigh and that's all. At first Kat found it peculiar because anyone in this town who called anyone left many long (_sometimes too long for their own good_, Kat thought) messages. Kat could have concluded that it was a long-distance call, but then she'd have to wonder why anyone would waste money just to hang up. Her thoughts faded when she heard some knocks on the front door, which only made Kat agitated than usual.

_I'll try and make him leave quickly without hurting his feelings_, she thought as she marched to the door.

Kat's agitated frown was quickly replaced with a wider-than-usual smile as she opened the door, revealing a young slender mailman holding a parcel wrapped in brown paper. Kat cocked her head a bit as the mailman nervously thought of something to say.

"Is there a Katherine Hillard living in this residence?" the mailman asked, rather timidly. 

"That's me." Kat answered.

The mailman let out a relieved smile and extended the box to Kat. "This package is for you, ma'am." he said more cheerfully but still rather nervous.

Kat openly plucked the box from the mailman's hands and suddenly noticed how heavy the package was. She also noticed the dark, wet spots on the brown paper; probably where the young man's sweaty hands held it. Gently, she placed the parcel near the main closet and turned her attention back to the mail.

"Thanks." she said. "Listen, I have to be on a date, but I'm sure my date isn't going to be there on time, so would you like to rest for a while? Have a glass of water?" 

The mailman shook his head nervously. "No, no. I have to get going. Good day, ma'am."

He soon took off almost manically, earning a look of bewilderment on Kat's face. She merely shrugged and closed the door behind her. Picking up the heavy parcel, Kat carried it to the kitchen and placed it on the counter. She thought of waiting until after her date to open the package up, but again, she had a feeling Tommy would be late.

With a butterknife she pulled out of the sink full of dirty dishes and other utensils, Kat cut off the wire that was tied around the parcel. Once that was done, she ripped off the brown paper, revealing a fine-crafted silver chest with several inscriptions on the side she didn't recognize anyway. After some hesitation, Kat opened the chest and... 

--- 

After some time, Tommy made it to the small French restaurant. He used to take Kimberly, his first girlfriend, here along with Zack and birthday girl Angela, whom Zack was always trying to get on a date with. Suffice to say, that didn't turn out too well, thanks to Rita Repulsa's usual shenanigans. He checked to see if Kat was anywhere nearby, but was surprised that she wasn't her. He checked the time and was equally amazed. 

_Amazing_, he thought, _I'm actually early_. 

Approaching the nearest table, Tommy pulled a chair carefully and sat down. He took a moment to look around and found that a few years hasn't changed this place one bit. From the corner of his eye, he noticed the waiter, a slim gentleman in his late twenties, approaching his table.

"_Excusez-moi, monsieur_." the waiter asked with a heavy French accent, "Are you ready to order?" 

"Actually, I'm waiting for someone." Tommy answered politely, "but could I have a glass of water? I'm feeling a little sweaty." 

The waiter shot an understanding smile at the young man and promptly nodded before walking towards the back. Tommy rubbed his hands together, smiling in anticipation for what may be his first uninterrupted romantic dinner with Katherine. Once again, thoughts of his former Ranger life came up, but he pushed them away. 

_Am I getting that nostalgic already?_ he thought. 

---

The past year has been a bore for former empress Rita Repulsa. Other than a quick skirmish with the Rangers early during the year, nothing of note had occurred on their front. Claiming control of their home to finally wreck havoc on Earth, Zedd decided to lay low, much to her dismay. Every time Rita had proposed a plan of attack against either the Power Rangers or the space pirate called Divatox, Zedd would shoot it down, going as far as to threaten to send her back into her dumpster prison if she tried anything behind his back. Rita, for the most part, agreed to back off from the Rangers, but not without questioning Zedd's fortitude. That's all Rita has really done ever since Zedd's battle.

Checking the balcony, she noticed a strange illuminous being appearing before her, claiming to be a messenger from the Cimmerian planet. She heard his message, smiled wickedly, and sent the messenger away. Clearly, this was worth sharing with Zedd. Rita quickly walked over to the master bedroom, where Lord Zedd was sleeping.

---

A brutal battle with his hated adversary. Zedd recalled the fight clearly as if it happened just a short while ago, because that's the only thing that ever crosses his mind when he sleeps. He remembered the battered Ranger and his vain efforts. He remembered the brutality the two had caused. He remembered delivering the crippling blow that finally knocked the Ranger down on his back, vulnerable to the killing blow. Then he remembered not capitalizing on the opening, feeling a bit of pity for the fallen Ranger. He recalled his friends showing up, ready to defend their great leader, and recalled sending them home when he should have taken them out.

To this day, he could never figure out why he didn't.

"Zedd." the witch tugged on Zedd's blanket, prompting the fleshman to wake up, but not enough to get out of bed.

"What is it, Rita?" he asked.

"Eltare has been conquered by Dark Specter's forces." Rita shrieked, "The Alliance has finally taken control of that wretched planet after many failed attempts!"

"So what?" Zedd asked, sounding uninterested in Eltare's capture.

Rita leaned closer to Zedd's ear (what's left of it) and whispered, "Zordon's been captured."

"WHAT?!" Zedd sat up instantly, not believing what he had heard.

"Zordon has been captured, Zeddy!" Rita cried out in excitement, "And we've been invited to Dark Specter's party at the Cimmerian planet!!"

_Damn_, Zedd thought, _this is the last thing I needed_.

Rather than convey his disappointment in recent events, Zedd simply got out of bed and headed for the organic shower chamber in the back, his unintelligible mumbling confusing Rita, who thought it was good news. She didn't push it, however. She sped out of the master bedroom to find something ugly to wear for Dark Specter's party.

---

Two hours passed and Tommy, on his third glass of water, still waits for Katherine to show up. He knew that Kat would somehow be delayed because of the heavy traffic, but he didn't think it would take her this long. He then jokingly assumed that Kat adopted his knack for tardiness, or rather she would purposely show up late in spite of it, but he also knew that would never be the case. After some time, he couldn't help himself and called for the waiter, who arrived promptly.

"Can I have a coffee?"

The waiter raised an eyebrow. "_Monsieur_ wants to skip the main meal?"

"The _ monsieur_ is waiting for the _mademoiselle_ to show up." he replied, "I'm sure she won't mind if I had a cup."

"_Je comprends_," the waiter said, "I'll be back."

Tommy nodded as the waiter went to the back and almost half a minute later, brought back a regular-sized mug of black coffee. Tommy thanked the waiter and gave him a two dollar bill for a tip, which delighted the waiter. Tommy waited patiently, taking small sips of his coffee as the minutes flew by. Over time, the minutes seemed like days and soon Tommy was starting to feel worried, as if something bad could have happened. Or maybe she's had second thoughts...

The sudden ringing of his new cell phone almost startled Tommy, but was enough to break his line of thought. He hadn't been used to it, but at least he didn't have to worry about hiding out to talk into a communicator. Tommy pulled out the small compact phone and flipped open the receiver.

"Hello?" 

"That you, Tommy?" It was Rocky, although from his sad tone, Tommy didn't immediately recognized his voice. 

"Rocky?" Tommy asked. "What's wrong?" 

A hesitant silence on Rocky's side, something that did not sit well with the former Green Ranger, especially when that silence came from someone who loved to engage in meaningless (and sometimes, not so meaningless) conversation. 

"Tommy?" he said nervously, "Have you heard from Kat?" 

"I've been waiting two hours for her." Tommy said, trying to sound humorous, "Maybe I'm misunderstood her and I'm really late as usual." 

Rocky ignored Tommy and spoke uneasily, "Tommy. I tried calling her house to ask her for something, but I got no signal." 

Tommy nearly choked on his water upon hearing Rocky, but didn't seem too worried. _Maybe phone line was cut off_, he thought. 

"Did you try a communicator?" he suggested. Despite not being Rangers, they were still able to use communicators thanks to a specialized network Billy had recently developed. 

"That was the next thing I did." the former Red/Blue Ranger answered, "Nothing."

Time seemed to stop in Tommy's eyes; the whole world crashing down on him. Rocky kept mentioning his name, but Tommy couldn't hear him. His heart grew heavy with unbearable pain and anxiety. After a moment of stillness, Tommy shut off his phone, got up, and ran out of the cafe, jumping right into the driver's seat of his jeep. Tommy panically inserted the key into the ignition and soon sped down the street, avoiding other cars. He knew he was breaking speed limits and some nearby driver he cut off gave Tommy the middle finger, but he didn't care. Not now.

When he parked the car, he turned his head to Kat's house. The smoke was too thick to see everything, but what he could see did not please him. 

The house was missing and in its place was a huge crater. 

"Kat." he called out worriedly. There was no answer.

Kicking the car door open, Tommy leapt out and ran towards the huge crater to check further. Whatever used to occupy this space no longer exists. Nothing remains. No ruins. No debris. Not even a common stone was there. Everything was gone, nothing was left untouched. Just one big burn mark and a giant hole in the ground was all that remained of Kat's house. Tommy hopelessly slumped onto his knees, fighting off the urge to cry. But it was too much; tears began to drip down his face and his heart was pounding heavily, knowing he can't do much of anything at this point. Tommy began to breath heavily, those breaths turning to snorts, and finally from the top of his lungs, he let out a scream of rage. Of a savage animal who had just lost his mate.

An inhuman scream that even the deaf could hear.

---

In the forest area of Angel Grove Park, a small shuttle landed on the most smooth surface in that patch. The side doors slowly slid open and out walked the clone, now bearing a full beard as opposed to the goatee he was sporting short of a year ago. When the clone was out, the door slid shut and the shuttle quickly went into stealth mode, vanishing into thin air to avoid detection.

The clone walked through the quiet and calm park, his red cloak contrasting the dark tones of the night. He studied the surrounding area of the park. Other than the occasional homeless person scurrying garbage cans for edible food, the place was practically devoid of people. The clone didn't expect to find anyone; it was late and people do spend time sleeping or going to strip clubs.

Suddenly, he heard a rageful scream, the likes of which he had never heard before. After a moment, the clone seemed to recognize the inhuman scream and a devilish smirk slowly formed on his face.

To be continued...


	3. Flames

POWER RANGERS:  BREAKDOWN - Part 3: Flames  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: Any reviews or criticisms would be greatly appreciated. Please? One little review shouldn't hurt.

---

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 a Red 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 the Red Zeo Ranger. Wandered back to that moment of reluctance.

"Screw this!" Zedd told himself, "I've got my own plans!"

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, which was visible to Rita because of his mask.

"Don't worry, Rita. I have a plan." he said just as he stepped through the portal he had created.

---

"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 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. "How do you know it's been destroyed?"

"I talk to Justin every once in a while." Rocky explained, "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. Justin didn't go because he wanted to be with his dad."

Adam nodded. "A noble reason. If I were in his shoes, I probably would've done the same thing." As if he gotten a sudden bolt, he had a flash of realization as to the other piece of information Rocky had revealed. "Zordon's been captured?"

"An attack on Eltare by this dude named Dark Spectre." Rocky confirmed, "That's all I know."

Adam seemed worried. "We'll have to be careful then. If our replacement Rangers 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.

Jason studied his fellow Red Ranger for a moment and soon observed the still-full plate of food in front of him.

"You're rather pessimistic." 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 idiot 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."

"How would you explain the fact that no one's been able to reach her? Neither by phone or communicator."

"She could be in seclusion." Rocky suggested.

"We'd still have a way of knowing." Adam said, "But you're probably right."

Jason gently wiped his mouth before speaking. "I already called Tommy's brother and he says he'll help 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, Jay. 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."

---

When Jason Scott met up with Emily and Kim 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 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 trenchcoat, 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."

"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're aggressive." the clone stated, his voice very unlike Tommy, "It 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 a wizard a couple years ago," Kim answered, "although I thought he was turned good and got stuck in the past."

Jason huffed. "Looks like he's back. And he's not playing games."

To be continued...


	4. Affairs

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 4: Affairs  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note to Ace Venom: Neither Gollum nor Smeagol (sic) had anything to do with either this story or my apparently depressing mood. Thanks for the review.  
Note to everyone else: Any more reviews would be greatly appreciated.

---

The timing for Lord Zedd's arrival couldn't have been better. The palace was still in one piece and well preserved despite the inactivity of the past year. Materializing in his hibernation chamber, Zedd marched towards the vault, which was three rooms away. He entered the combination code via keypad and the door slowly opened inward, revealing a plain room with two glowing energy tubes in the center. Zedd stepped somewhat closer to the closest tube and wiped off the layer of ice to reveal an empty tube glowing blue. He then walked over to the other tube and saw that it was empty, glowing red, and giving off heat. A smile crept up his concealed face as he walked out of the chamber, the vault door slowly closing off the small room.

After a short while, Zedd made it to the throne room. Surveying the place for a moment, he approached his throne and sat into it, content that other than the complete emptiness of the palace, not much has changed since his hiatus. Then again, he had been living here. But for some reason, he never came back to this room.

Looking outside the balcony, Zedd used his telescopic vision to check on the Dark Fortress, the space station that served as the home base of Astronema and her crew. He couldn't bare looking at the thing, which was composed of half-solid and half-green grids, because it was always such an eye sore even to him, who could afford to look at anything unpleasant and not be repulsed by it.

"My dear, stupid Astronema," Zedd teased, "you have no idea what you're getting yourself into coming here. Whether it'll those Junior Ranger wannabes defeating your minions or the Masked Rider prince of Edenoi currently in subterfuge. Heck, I even hear those putrid Ninja Turtles in New York have come out of retirement. I have found it amazing that this small, worthless blue planet would attract all the freaks of the universe." He almost chuckled at that last comment. "But that is none of my affair. I have my own work to do."

Almost as Zedd turned, he noticed five strange rock creatures materialize before him. Upon closer inspection, he had recognized these creatures as rock-skinned Putty Patrol. Having used these creatures to safeguard his palace, he knows that they were reliable foot soldiers despite their lack of mobility.

"Welcome home, my lord." the lead putty said, "we await your orders."

---

After six weeks of endless searching close quarters and coming up with nothing, Jason Lee Scott called the search for his two missing friends off. There wasn't anything else he could do at the moment. Adam had suggested using one of the transmitters he managed to bring with him before he retired to get a signal to the Space Rangers, but so far there was no progress on finding them.

In his small apartment room, Jason laid on his bed staring into the ceiling, which had been well-preserved given the condition of the building itself. It had been staring at it for the past hour, contemplating the old days when it was this one big happy Power Ranger family. The group that couldn't fall apart even if you dropped a nuke on them... or at least, that's what he's always wanted to believe. But Switzerland changed all that.

Shrugging his thoughts, Jason got off his bed and approached the brown box of props. He pulled out various alien and mythical objects; old Ranger helmets, communicators, a Zeo Blaster (which he never even remotely had during his brief stint as Gold Ranger), and other oddities closely filled up, most looking to be in pristine condition, with very few scratches on them at worst. Then, close to the bottom of the box, Jason's eyes were affixed on a familiar object. He pulled the object from the bottom.

It was a morpher; the original morpher, charred with rust and noticeable burn marks. He remembered Rocky giving it back to him the day after graduation, ribbing that no collection of alien artifacts would be complete without a damaged morpher in hand. Jason studied the old gadget and quickly reflected on older times... on happier times. In retrospect, he had almost regretted leaving, because he had sometimes blamed himself for things falling apart as much as they did. On the other hand, he knew he couldn't stick around forever and quickly got over it.

Unlike his longtime friend who's always had a knack for blaming himself...

---

In the past weeks since his secret arrival, the clone has had a very difficult time locating his original. Even with the various scanning techniques that his shuttle was capable of, there was no sign of him anywhere. The clone, having exausted all available options, dropped the search for his original and concentrated on his other plan. He pulled out several sheets of paper stapled together from his pocket. The clone flipped through the pages of the document, which contained various handwritten notes and formulaic designs, before tossing it aside and facing the monitor screen before him.

"Computer," he paused before he heard a faint bleep, "bring me the Bounty Hunter database."

The monitor filled with a list of names that filled the screen. The clone scanned through page after page of names, none of which peeked his interest or seemed somewhat impressed by their skills. After a moment of searching through the database, his eyes peered to one name deep down the list in particular and the skills complementing the name was more than enough to get what he needed done. An evil smirk crept up his face, his plan now falling into place.

---

Despite professing his love to Cestria on Aquitar little over a year ago, William Cranston opted to return to Earth when Tommy needed his help in dealing with Gasket last year. Since then, he had stayed on Earth and proceeded to take part-time college courses while helping out a local fireman with some important R&D. In retrospect, Billy had been really busy that he hadn't gotten the chance to contact most of his friends, although his family and some Zeo Rangers seems to be the only immediate people to know.

Then he received the call: that they were retiring and passing their jobs to four new candidates. While he had voiced his approval, he couldn't help but be concerned. He was never too happy in seeing a twelve-year-old boy take on the position, despite being an advanced intellect. However, a brief meeting with Justin during Tommy's karate expo had soften his feelings for the kid, seeing a bit of himself even.

Then he received another call: Kat's house blew up and both she & Tommy have suddenly gone missing. For the most part, he had been kept up to date on search progresses, even managing to devise his own methods of a world-wide scan. Unfortunately, nothing he did could produce either one of his missing friends.

Then the communicator beeped... the familiar chime of the old wrist communicator interrupted Billy's train of thought and he immediately dragged his chair to his dresser and picked up the 'watch'. He could only guess who was using this old thing at this time.

"Billy here."

"Billy," it was Kim's voice, "The search has been called off."

Billy sighed. His mouth moved, but no words came out.

Kim, not waiting for an answer, continued, "Jason's burnt out and decided to leave everything to chance and hope Tommy miraculously shows up. Right now, we're trying to reach the newbie Rangers so they can search other worlds for him or Kat, but we can't get a signal."

Billy, having found his voice, replied, "How will you be able to contact them? Our old communicators don't have much range these days."

"Adam kept one of the old transmitters before he retired from Rangerdom." Kim revealed, "It keeps in contact with most Earth Rangers, but he's having a hard time getting the kinks to work." She paused for a moment. "Then there's the stupid war in space."

Billy sighed again. "Kim, I think it is time to begin _Project Prodigy_."

There was no response. Billy started getting worried.

"Kimberly? You still there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here." Kim said, sounding less than enthusiastic, "But _Project Prodigy_... I don't know. Are you it's the right time? What with Zordon being a P.O.W. and everything that's been going on?"

Billy almost knew she would say that. "It's the best time to go for it, Kim."

"Timing isn't an issue here, Billy." Kim elaborated, "The whole process depends more only sheer luck than anything. Even if you manage to get in the necessary programming today, it could take anywhere from a few days to a few months before the whole system starts up. Once that's done, you'd still have to wait a couple years before _Project Prodigy_ eventually terminates in order to see any semblance of a final result. Of course, that all depends on how much of the equipment is still intact and powered up to begin with. And I shouldn't have to tell you that _Prodigy_ would be completely defenseless and that even the tiniest interruption could be the cause of universal Armageddon."

Billy, almost quite literally, went bug-eyed hearing this many details from Kimberly of all people, who, as intelligent as she was, was the absolute last person he would expect to be this informed over an experiment that wasn't much more than a mere mention or afterthought.

"Since when did you become the expert on this stuff?" he asked, sounding rightfully shocked, "Did you steal my mind-reader and switch brains with Ninjor or something?"

"Up your shaft" was Kim's subtle response. Billy sighed and quickly got over the shock.

"Look, Kim." he said, "I know there's a huge chance that this won't work to our favor. But it's worth the risk, if it could help us find our friends and deal with any threat that may pass our way."

Another long pause, this one a little more uncomfortable than the other two.

Finally, Kim sighed heavily. "Alright, Billy." she answered dejectedly, "Do what you have to. I'll let the others know you're 'busy' for a while."

"Thanks. Later." Billy replied before signing off.

He wrapped the communicator around his wrist and searched his closet for a decent set of clothes. Not wanting to waste time in deciding a fashion statement, he opted for a plain white shirt and black jeans. Running from his bedroom to the garage, he pulled out a beaten-up blue spiral notebook from a pile of sheets and briefly looked inside. Finally, he checked all the doors and windows to make sure they were all shut and made his way to the backyard, where his personal Aquitian compact fighter was parked.

One of the funny things about this town: the neighbors never complained nor inquired to either the Cranstons about the alien spacecraft that was (literally) parked in their backyard. Since they knew Billy to have been in space for quite some time, they almost found it intriguing.

Billy climbed into the cockpit and went through the usual start-up procedures, which including checking if all systems were functioning acceptably. When that was done, Billy controlled the ship off the ground and started to fly off to the dusk sky.

---

It took a day to transmit a message onto the Bounty Hunter Database, but sure enough, the clone got his message through. Around the late hours of the night, he waited outside his parked shuttle for the bounty hunter he was hiring to show up. From the distance, he saw a beam of golden light shoot down to the ground and from it emerged a young Asian woman decked in gold spiked armor. The clone, recognizing the woman, came to greet her.

"Word is you have a job for me," the armored woman said, "and that you're willing to pay handsomely for my services."

The clone smiled. "You're right, Scorpina. I do have a job for you..."

To be continued...


	5. Prodigy

POWER RANGERS:  BREAKDOWN - Part 5: Prodigy  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: Thanks for the reviews thus far. Keep 'em coming.

---

Two months have passed since space pirate Divatox leads an army to attack the Power Chamber after discovering its location. Despite valiant efforts by the Turbo Rangers led by T.J. Johnson, Divatox succeeded in destroying the Power Chamber and stripping the Turbo Rangers of their powers. Just as she was about lay claim to planet Earth, she is sent away by a messenger of Dark Specter to attend a gathering to celebrate the capture of Zordon. With Divatox gone, the Turbo Rangers decide to utilize a NASADA space shuttle to pursue her and hopefully save Zordon. Justin Stewart, Blue Turbo Ranger, did not join them because he wants to stay with his dad.

Today, Justin is focused on school, part-time karate classes, and the occasional hang-out with his friends, but while he hasn't regretted the decision he made, he still longs for the thrill of being a Power Ranger. He had never felt so helpless and useless before as he did now.

_I can't be here while they're out there_, he thought, _I've got to do something._

Waiting until the night hours, Justin slipped on a jacket and crawled out of his bedroom window, being careful as to not make a sound. Sleeping down the nearby tree, Justin ran from home as quickly as he could.

---

The small, compact Aquitian air fighter landed about three miles from the smoke clouds forming the mountain base that used to house an alien structure. Settling on the ground as the engines caused dust to be blown, the fighter powers down and the cockpit slowly opened up. Out crawled William Cranston, the former Blue Ranger and one of Zordon's first chosen. 

All he wanted was a walk to the former location of the Power Chamber, recently destroyed. At first, he was in a bit of shock as he absorbed his surroundings, but soon it became a sense of expectancy and disappointment. In his heart, he knew that those rookies, regardless of how good they were, wouldn't be able to handle the onslaught. Perhaps if...

Billy's thoughts were interrupted as he heard the sounds of small rocks falling nearby, followed by audibly heavy breathing. Not one to leave home unprepared, Billy pulled out a palm-sized blaster weapon from his inner jacket pocket, holding it firmly in his hands as he searched for the source of the noise. When he heard feet shuffling, he quickly twisted his body fluidly and fired a laser burst from the direction the shuffling came from. The shuffling stopped and Billy got a half-good look at his 'leech.'

"Don't move!" Billy called out, pointing the blaster at the intruder who was emerging from some rubble.

"Don't shoot!" the person cried, "I'm innocent!"

The intruder, a boy no more than twelve years of age, raised his hands to cover his face, trying to hide either the sweats of fear or the embarrassed grin on his face. Billy, managing a sigh of relief and disappointment, lowered his weapon away from the boy, but keeping it firmly in his hand. Despite having never met the kid, he was quite familiar with him. 

"Shouldn't you be in bed, Justin?" he grimaced, "Even your status as a former Power Ranger doesn't change that." 

Justin Stewart, child genius and former Blue Turbo Ranger, stepped forward. "Aren't you supposed to be on some alien planet?" 

Finally the original Blue Ranger nodded. "That joke's so last year, kid." 

He put away the blaster and approached the boy, extending his hand as he went along. Justin accepted it and shook it firmly, which almost surprised Billy, but not by much. For a minute, they both stood there without uttering a sudden word. Although Justin was star-struck in meeting a former Ranger, let alone an original Power Ranger, Billy felt rather awkward. Whether it was because this kid was also a former Ranger or because he wanted to get this kid to go away without hurting his feelings, he wasn't quite sure. 

Justin broke the silence. "Sorry your homecoming didn't turn out as much as you hoped." 

Billy merely shrugged. "I haven't been here in over a year." he said, "You would think that the Power Chamber would have been more durable and more protected than the Command Center, considering it's underground." Billy twitched slightly in realization. "I forgot, the new Chamber replaced the old command space when we upgraded it." 

Justin stood there as Billy surveyed the wreckage. In the night air, he couldn't make out the facial expressions of this veteran Ranger, who he had heard many stories about from his time with Tommy. Out of all of the old Rangers, Billy had been the most reclusive, not having been seen in some time.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Billy asked, not facing Justin.

Justin didn't hesitate. "I was looking for ways to help T.J. and the others." 

"A lot of help that's going to do you searching in rubble." Billy said coolly.

"I know." the former Turbo Ranger replied, "But I remember Tommy mentioning a secret passageway he and the others uncovered shortly after the old Command Center blew up." 

"Oh yeah. When we got the Zeo Crystal." Billy said, who noticed a look of surprise on the young Justin's face. "I was there." 

"Oh" was all Justin could muster. 

"Like I said," Billy said, "a lot of help that's going to do you searching in rubble. The passageway can be only be accessed through here with a key item, but you don't have one, do you?" 

Justin shook his head. 

"So we need to get there through the side entrance in the mountains." Billy said. "It leads to a network of tunnels underground. We might be able to uncover something."

"Do you remember where?"

Billy nodded. "I'm pretty sure."

Billy turned to walk away from the rubble, but stopped and quickly glanced back to Justin, who was feeling somewhat dejected as he sulked. It went against his better judgment, but it was worth a shot.

"I'm just going to check if it's possible to get in through another entrance." Billy said, "Though I would rather you've returned home and get some sleep, I guess you could tag along."

Justin's eyes lit up as he ran towards Billy, who reluctantly waited before moving on. After a good half-hour of trekking through the pillars and rock formations of the desert, the two Rangers managed to find a strange rock formation where a cave entrance situated.

"What?"

"See that cave over there, Justin? That's the hidden entrance to the underground alcove." Billy paused for a moment as he noticed the younger Ranger's bewildered expression upon mention of the alcove. Smiling, he explained, "The alcove is an auxiliary area that contains many parts for the Command structure, such as replacement consoles, Alpha body parts, and the like. But it contains its own power source so it's essentially an emergency back-up chamber."

Justin stared at the older Ranger, dumbfounded. "I thought the Power Chamber was the 'back-up' command center."

"True, but it was only ONE back-up chamber." Billy said as the two began towards the cave, "In reality, when Zordon first made his way to Earth, he had established four command chambers in this perimeter, including the main Command Center, the Power Chamber, and the underground alcove. The alcove isn't essentially as well equipped as the others, but it has what I need to

The two made their way down the slope as Billy continued.

"Billy," Justin spoke in realization, "you said there were _four_ chambers. What about the fourth one?"

"Admittingly, I have very little information on it." Billy explained, "Any files concerning the fourth chamber were classified. Zordon sealed the information concerned the forth chamber to protect its existence. Not even Alpha has access to the files; they're part of a locked memory cache that is nigh impossible for me to access."

Justin huffed. "Impossible for you? Yeah, right."

Billy shrugged. "Hey. Even we smart guys get stuck sometimes."

The two eventually made their way to the cave entryway, but were dumbstruck when they noticed the pile of rocks that blocked the way. Billy motioned his hand at Justin for him to stand clear and Justin took a couple steps back as Billy began tossing aside stones. However, after tossing five stones, Billy stopped, seeing that there was no purpose.

"It's blocked." Billy declared dejectedly, "We can't get it."

Justin wanted to reply, but didn't. He just lowered his head.

Billy noticed the kid's disappointment and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Justin. We'll find a way in eventually, but not today."

"There you are!" a voice from behind called out.

"Rocky?" Justin assumed, "Is that you?"

Indeed, Rocky DeSantos emerged from the blackness of the night. His frown grew wider when he noticed his 12-year old replacement. "Justin?!"

"Wow," Billy mused, "A meeting of former Blue Rangers. How coincidental."

Rocky ignored Billy's quip and gave out a relieved sigh. "I'm so glad I found you, man. For a second, I thought you had disappeared too."

Billy smile faded. "Did you hear anything from Tommy?"

Rocky shook his head. "No word. I'm getting the feeling that Tommy doesn't want to be noticed."

"He must be taking this Kat thing pretty hard." he said, referring to the former Pink Zeo Ranger, who had mysteriously disappeared some time ago. "I can understand that he'd be gone for a few weeks, but two months? Without any indication or referral to any of us?" He tilted his head slightly downward. "This is more like me than it is Tommy."

"Yeah, but we know where you are most of the time." Rocky chimed in, "Anyway, Adam is still trying to reach the rookie Rangers with your gizmo."

"What about Jason?" Billy inquired, "How's he doing?"

"He's depressed somewhat, but he'll live," Rocky said, "By the way, Kimberly told us what you were planning to do. This_ Project Prodigy_ thing is important if things start to go real bad."

Billy nodded. "Yeah, well. _Project Prodigy_ isn't going to be in effect anytime soon because we can't get through the damned entryway." He furthered his frustration by kicking a random rock off the pile, which didn't hit anything but the ground.

"Our old power coins, maybe?" Rocky suggested, "It should be at full charge by now and chances are you could pull off a morph."

Billy shot his idea down with a glare. "The coin has unique properties that I'm just discovering and none of us have a functioning power morpher. Besides, the rocks are wedged in a way that you'll need a cannon to blast it all away."

"What about the Turbo RAM?" Rocky suggested to Justin, but Justin shook his head.

"No Turbo powers, no Turbo RAM." Justin said. A similar idea sprung to mind. "What about the old Power Cannon? It's still good enough and you don't need to be in a Ranger state to use because of the recent changes done."

Billy looked at Justin for a moment. "Why were you a Ranger again?"

"Last minute replacement." Justin admitted.

Billy merely awed. "Could have fooled me." The response earned a wide grin from Justin.

Rocky seemed even more confused than before. "Since when didn't you need a morphed state to summon the cannon?"

Billy scratched his head. "Long horrible process that I'd rather not be reliving again. I've brought it home, tweaked it, and made it so it could be used by anyone that needed it. It's got considerable power that still makes it a viable weapon despite its age. The problem is I still have some stuff to fix up, looking to be a projected two, maybe three months more work before we can even test the stupid thing." Billy stared at Justin for a moment. "Now that I think about it, I haven't a clue as to how you knew about those changes. I didn't tell anybody."

Justin shrugged as his face turned pink in embarrassment.

"Three months?" Rocky said, concerned, "Could we wait that long?"

"Oh, I'm pretty sure." Billy said, "No one knows that the alcove exists because it looks like a regular storage room."

Rocky smiled. He realized it now.

"So now what?" Justin asked.

Billy shrugged. "Now we go home and get on with our lives. Nothing we can do at the moment but let the cycle of things run through..."

---

The beach was uncharacteristically quiet as far as Scorpina knew, but it was night and most people would not be spending time at the beach around this time. For the past month she had made some searches throughout the state with little success, until two gray masses caught her eye. She slowly travesed the sands towards the two and immediately recognized their forms: it was two of Rita's old putties, laying there unconsciously. In each putty's hand was a circular clay object with five blinking lights.

"Two putties holding two badges of darkness." Scorpina observed, smiling, "Looks like I found them."

Scorpina picked up the two putties and slung them over each of her shoulders. Soon enough, she teleported back to the interior of the clone's ship, who was working with some documents and hadn't noticed her until she had coughed. When the clone turned to see her and saw the two putties, he smiled.

"You've found them." the clone mused, "Put them in the back so I can work on them later."

Scorpina brought the two unconscious putties to the back room as the clone produced a thin digital pad. A minute later, Scorpina emerged from the backroom of the ship as the clone turned to face her.

"This should be sufficient for the initial payment." he said as he handed her the pad. "In credits, as you said you wanted."

"Good for the moment," she said, making the pad disappear with a flash of golden light, "but this last job on your list will be... time consuming."

The clone nodded. "I trust you. Take as long as you need, but get it done."

Scorpina nodded and vanished in gold light. The clone stared into the space she once stood in for a moment before standing up and walking to the pilot's seat. He inserted a set of co-ordinates that took him to the moon.

---

A year of events is a long time for Zedd to have missed, but in his personal chambers, through his special database which is constantly updated with recent news, was able to learn what has happened during his personal hiatus. Curious as if Divatox's claims of destroying the Rangers were true despite the presence of news, he looked for the appropriate articles that included visual references of the five Turbo Rangers involved in the Power Chamber's demise. He grinned behind his mask when he saw five faces he hardly recognized, knowing that these aren't Rangers; they were amateurs.

With that being completed, Zedd walked to his chamber of command and approached the balcony to take one long look at Earth, with his telescopic vision. He then focused his vision towards central-Angel Grove, where the new Rangers were fighting two monsters. From all indications, their Megazord was taking a beating badly. Zedd felt a presence behind him for a moment and slowly turned to see a human male wearing a heavy trenchcoat, with long graying hair and a beard. The fleshman knew that despite his initial appearance, this was not the man he had declared a personal war on so long ago.

"Surprised to see me, Zedd?" the clone asked.

"I know all about your special genes, fake." Zedd stated bluntly, "Although I've got to admit, you showing up here takes real guts. But I want you gone from here now."

The clone shook his head, walking towards the balcony. "Not until we've talked."

"About what?"

"An alliance."

Zedd shook his head in disbelief. "With you?"

The clone nodded, his eyes showing no signs of deceit. Zedd stared at this mirror image of his arch-rival much more closely and realized he was serious on this alliance. He didn't understand the reasoning behind this move, but had to admit this was

"So you want to be my... partner." Zedd said, to which the clone nodded again, "What is the point of this?"

Now was the time for the clone to pitch the idea. "You and I both have a common goal, Zedd. Both our common goals involve a certain retired Power Ranger from which I was created. It's clear to me that we both want him dead so our common desires are gained."

"What common desire?" Zedd scoffed.

"Kill Thomas Oliver and I will gain a right of living. I will not have to worry about living in shadows or in hiding, because only one of us is alive." He leaned closer to Zedd as he spoke the following words in a deep voice, "Kill Thomas Oliver and you get to remove that white stain on your cursed soul. You will not be seen by the masses as a joke, a has-been... a merciful coward."

Zedd took angered steps towards the clone to the point they were nose to iron mask. Zedd's body began to glow brightly as did his throne room, something that had not happened.

"Touched a nerve, have I?" the clone asked, a smirk creeping on his face, "I guess it must hurt your ego to have to remember that time you had him down for the kill and you let him go. It must be painful that you didn't have the balls to kill your mortal enemy, but some bimbo space pirate doesn't hesitate to kill off a bunch of kids."

"Which she failed to do so," Zedd interrupted, "Be truthful."

The clone's grin grew wider. "What do you say, Zedd? Join me and we'll see to it the white stain on your soul is removed by destroying the very source of our emotional anguish." He soon extended his hand towards Zedd. "Join me and reclaim your rightful title as the emperor of all you seek."

Zedd thought long and hard for a moment. On the one hand, he would gain an ally who shared as much animosity as he does for the former Green, White, and Red Ranger. An ally who would know all his secrets and vulnerabilities. An ally like that, he couldn't find anywhere else. But on the other than, could he really trust this clone, who was a pale imitation of his mortal enemy? In the end, it wouldn't matter, because there is no doubt the clone doesn't trust Zedd, yet he is offering the proposal of an alliance.

After a long time of thought and some hesitation, Zedd accepted the clone's hand.

An alliance was formed.

To be continued...


	6. Recollections

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 6: Recollections  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

**Note to most:** Sorry for the lateness of my posting, so in appreciation for those who are still around, thanks. Reviews are always appreciated.  
**Note to ZX:** Glad you're enjoying the fic. As far as the Machine Empire civil war goes, that's another story in which I hope to write in the near future.

* * *

January 17, 1998. The day that he witnessed a travesty occur that shattered everything he held dear.

Two days later, he walks off to find answers on this strange world called Earth. He tells few he's leaving, but tells no one of his eventual location. Because even he doesn't know where he'll go. So he began wandering the earth, through means that only he knows of.

All that happened five months ago... and he still hasn't found an answer.

* * *

**To: Trini Kwan  
From: William Cranston  
Subject: Non applicable**

**First off, I would like to offer belated apologies that your trip back home was cancelled months ago. I am probably uncertain if you will be receiving this email due to the level of travel your current occupation , but I feel compelled and obligated to keep you and Zack apprised of current situations here at Angel Grove. Considering the level of security necessary, you will forgive me if I keep as brief and as ill-detailed as possible.**

**I am quite certain in assuming that both Zack and yourself have been aware of Katherine's unfortunate... accident and Tommy's subsequent disappearance shortly thereafter months ago. Despite all our best efforts of locating either two, we haven't been able to produce desirable results and have since called off the search. All attempts at contacting the Ranger team in space have failed despite assistance from my Aquitian friends. Since then, we have all kept relatively busy.**

**I thought you would be interested to know that I am on the initial stages of commencing _Project Prodigy_. With final modifications on the Power Cannon completed, I will soon head back to the ruins of the Command Center and blast through the blocked entrance leading to the underground alcove. If all goes well, we could have something that can help us find our friends and perhaps even go as far as to render assistance to the space Rangers in their search for Zordon.**

**Should you have the chance of responding to this email, I would greatly appreciate it and hope to see you again soon.**

**Regards,  
Billy**

Finishing the final words of his email message, William Cranston stretched his arms out above and let out a long yawn. This past month's work has been tiring and having to relay old news to one of his best friends and former Ranger comrades has been really stressful. However, he believes that all the frustration and impatience will pay off with the initiation of Project Prodigy. His thoughts soon wandered to past events...

When the search for Tommy and Kat (respectively) was dropped, Billy focused his energies on a top-secret program codenamed Project Prodigy. Very little information on the project was ever revealed to the others, other than it took a long period of time to initiate and even longer to complete. Despite having little to work with, Billy would not be daunted with a task of utmost importance. Of course, the only hidden entryway was blocked off - forcing Billy to revive work on the Power Cannon, an old weapon of the original Ranger powers that had been purged from the Morphing Grid during the short time he was in the Power Chamber shortly after his return from Aquitar.

With some help from Justin on his spare time and Kimberly (much to his utter surprise), Billy was able to get the Power Cannon to almost functioning status. The lack of necessary components had slowed down the process considerably, but Billy was able to keep within schedule for the most part. Along the course of the weeks, Billy had received word that Justin was somehow able to regain his Turbo powers, including a functioning morpher. Justin also noticed that he was able to summon the Turbo Rangers' Turbo RAM weapon without the presence of four other Turbo Rangers to do so.

Justin was able to summon the Turbo RAM in his morphed state. However, he later noticed that the weapon was missing several key components, presumably lost or destroyed when TJ shot it down Goldgoyle's mouth. Billy, being the resourceful fellow that he is, was able to use several essential parts that were remaining and adapted them for use on the Power Cannon. Within a month, the cannon was fully operational - not requiring a morphed Ranger or six to utilize the weapon. The weapon was heavily downsized physically so that it would be humanly possible for one person to hold.

Having reflecting on the past, Billy clicked on the send button, closing the email window and review the blank desktop screen. It was time to get back to work.

* * *

It seemed almost like dejavu to Lord Zedd, who was grimacing through some sheets of paper in his personal chamber. Accepting a new ally making grandioso claims of laying waste to their enemies. The last time he had taken to an ally's word, they've let him down. Those whom offered services to him were as useless as those who hadn't. Once again, Zedd finds himself allying with someone, but this person promises not victory, but the death of one of his hated enemies. It's an ally he could truly trust implicitly.

Much to his surprise, the clone of his greatest nemesis was filled with as much pure hatred for his originator as Zedd was. The clone also came prepared, presenting Zedd with various documents and research notes that he hadn't expected from anyone the likes of which he had encountered, let alone a copy.

Using the clone's research from the two Mutant Ranger autopsies and Zedd's own alchemic experiments, the Ranger Wraith was born. An amalgamation of an original Ranger and Zedd's Rock Putty soldier in appearance, the Ranger Wraith was designed with the lifelessness of a Putty but the weapons, strength and durability of a fully-powered Ranger, making it an almost ferocious fighter. The formula for the creation of such a being required very little resources to be implemented and within a month, twenty-seven Ranger Wraiths were created. The following months produced an equal, if not greater, number of Ranger Wraiths, currently totaling in the hundreds.

The second major task was the complete overhauling of Zedd's personal warzord, Serpenterra - still in progress since work began shortly after enough Ranger Wraiths were produced less than a month ago. While the new form was significantly smaller than the original, it more than made up for it with an enhanced energy distribution network that was able to handle the zord's power demands, which had also been steadily decreased. Despite this decreasions, Serpenterra had plenty of upgrades, including an enhanced super laser that was more powerful than before, enhanced shielding, and various defensive systems.

While these were all impressive additions to his army, Zedd did admit some frustration that for all they have accomplished, they still haven't devised a means to locate their common enemy in Thomas Oliver. Beneath that frustration, Zedd was rather impressed that the former Ranger would keep in hiding for this amount of time.

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed the clone's silouette at the entrance of the room. The clone took a step forward and his visage... no, the visage of one Thomas Oliver, was seen in the dim lights of the chamber.

"What is it?" Zedd asked.

The clone smiled wickedly. "I might have found him."

Zedd sighed. "It's about time. Where is he?"

"The Cathedral of Angels in downtown Angel Grove."

Zedd paused for a moment, staring at his ally a minute, searching for any sign of sarcasm, but soon realized that the words muttered were nothing but genuine truth.

"A church?" Zedd called out in disbelief, "He's in a church?"

The clone nodded. "Yes, rather odd."

Zedd stood up from his chair. "I am going there and-"

"No, you're not." the clone interrupted, "The cathedral has some rather mystical properties that will severely weaken evil beings such as yourself. If he is there - and I'm not doubting your own power levels, Lord, but he can easily outmatch you and destroy you. And quite frankly I would rather have you alive in the coming days."

Zedd nodded. "So what do you suggest?"

"I'm a clone of him," he said, "and that makes me human despite my physiology. I may not have the dark powers in that realm, but I can fight him in means you can't." He walked closer to the fleshman lord. "Consider this; your first reaction to seeing him would be to kill him on sight. But given the environment, you'll be tired and Oliver will destroy you just as easily as you beaten him to a bloody pulp. His mind is so full of rage and anger that he will be go berserk on you. On the other hand, I'm not driven by evil intentions. Only a will to live a normal life, which doesn't seem to be particularly evil to me. I can get into his mind because I know what makes his strengths and weaknesses."

After some careful thought and hesitation, Zedd sighed and gave a- which the clone took as an agreement. The clone proceeded on his way out, but stopped, sensing that the fleshman was going to say something else.

"You do know that you'll have former Rangers who are keen in looking for him as well." Zedd warned, "Not to mention you'll have to deal the Kerovan bastard and his four Power Ranger wannabes."

"Don't worry, Lord." the clone assured. "I can handle them."

Zedd nodded. "Just the same, I want you to take a battalion of Ranger Wraiths with you. I wouldn't want anything to happen to my... partner." There was some hesitation from Zedd forcing that last word out.

The clone almost smiled at the comment, but didn't. Instead, he merely nodded and walked out the throne room, leaving Zedd alone to ponder the inevitable battle.

* * *

Power Karate, the martial arts studio that Adam Park and Rocky DeSantos opened up last year was a very profitable move on both former Rangers' parts. When word got around that the Youth Center was sold and to be transformed solely to a diner, there was a demand for martial arts classes within the greater Angel Grove area. On a typical Saturday morning like this, the school is closed so that the two owners could either come up with new lessons, go through the books, or discuss things normally not discussed in open areas.

In a small green room, with one lamp as the sole source of illumination, Rocky and Adam sat on both sides of a round table looking at a particularly rusted object.

A Power morpher, to be exact. Or rather, Adam's morpher.

Rocky picked up the object and studied it. After some time, he looked at Adam with a confused look on his face.

"You mean this still works?" he asked.

"Yes," Adam responded, also somewhat confused, "but it wouldn't really provide me with a stable morph." He clutched his left shoulder and groaned in slight pain, "And when I de-morphed, it hurt bad."

"You know what I think?" Rocky said with a smug look, "I think that you've been using other powers for so long that this old thing doesn't really like you anymore."

Adam couldn't help but grin at that last bit. "Good point, man."

Rocky laid the damaged morpher down. He looked back at his friend, who was still holding on to his shoulder and grimaced in pain. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked.

Adam tried to smile, "Sure. Just that this shoulder hasn't been doing good since that stunt gone wrong."

"Oh yeah!" Rocky laughed, "I think I was there. The funny thing was that I didn't know whether to feel bad or laugh my socks off." That last remark made Adam smile and soon both former Power Rangers were laughing hysterically. Finally both managed to calm down.

"Seriously, why did you use it?" Rocky asked.

Adam cocked an eyebrow. "Carlos was in trouble, man."

The former Red/Blue Ranger nodded "I know that. But you also had your Zeoniser on you, too. Why didn't you use that instead?"

Adam shrugged. "Old habits."

That answer was more than enough for his friend.

Adam spoke in a more serious tone, "So what did you do with your Morpher?"

Rocky hesitated for a moment but finally answered, "I gave it to Jason. You know. As a souvenir." Rocky got up and headed for the small fridge. "I figured that he would probably want it as part of his little collection."

"Collection?" Adam asked with peak interest.

"Yeah," Rocky revealed as he popped open a bottle of Gatorade, "ever since his Gold Ranger stint he's been collecting stuff. Helmets, suits, zord parts, you name it, he's got it. He even has a piece of Plaghe floating around a containment tube Billy built so the thing doesn't make anyone sick."

"And Zordon & Dimitria lets him keep that stuff?"

"Yep."

Adam got up from the table and proceeded towards the exit. Rocky, Gatorade in hand, followed his green-clad friend.

"Thoughts?" he asked with some concern.

Adam shook his head, "Nothing. Not since... you know..."

Rocky caught on to Adam. He dropped the subject with a simple "uh-huh." No sarcastic tone, just a simple soulless tone.

Rocky sat down to his desk, going through the drawers, searching through papers and other oddities that lied within them. After a while, he pulled out a picture. It looked as if it was taken years ago. On the picture were the small group of friends; Adam, Rocky, Aisha Campbell, Jason Lee Scott, Zackery Taylor, William Cranston, Trini Kwan, Kimberly Hart, and Tommy. The only picture he had where the original Power Rangers and their three successors were together at the same time. Rocky passed the picture along to Adam after observing it. Looking at the picture of the old gang brought a smile to Adam's face.

"Those were good times," Adam commented, still holding the picture, "too bad we'll never have one last moment together."

"Yeah," Rocky responded regretfully, "too bad..."

* * *

"Did you find the parts you needed?" Kimberly asked as Billy walked out of the hardware store alongside Justin. The three began walking down the main street of the Angel Grove square.

"Yeah, it's all in stock," Billy answered, "but I'll pick them up tomorrow. The clerks obviously wanted to close up shop and wouldn't appreciate me asking too many questions twelve hours past closing."

Kim smiled. "Three hours was bad enough. Anyway, when do you suppose you'll be able to make it to the site?"

Billy was about to answer when he heard the sound of a spark explosion in the distance. "What was that?"

Justin looked around. "I don't know. Maybe we should check it out."

The three continued their way down the street and as they got farther, the sounds were getting louder. Now voices and battlecries were being heard, along with weapons fire.

"Sounds like it's coming from the cathedral." Billy observed.

The three made their way to the cathedral, but hid behind a building to avoid detection. From the distance, in front of the cathedral, they could see the Space Rangers battling a familiar-looking enemy in golden armor. From the looks of things, these Rangers aren't doing so well. Kim saw enough when Scorpina took the five Rangers down with her scimitar and taunted the fallen Rangers with a crackling laugh. Whether it was instinct or whether it was a sense of duty that got her to run to the battle scene, Kim couldn't really tell. It didn't matter to her, anyway. Without much option, Billy and Justin followed the former Pink Ranger. The three eventually made it to the battle, immediately gaining the assassin's attention.

"Oh look." Scorpina called mockingly, "It's the Geritol Rangers."

"Not you again." Billy cried, almost whining, "Have you ever considered retirement?"

Scorpina, ignoring the fallen Space Rangers, answered with a quick, fierce dropkick that landed on Billy's chest, knocking the former Blue Ranger down. With her attention to Billy, Kimberly ran at Scorpina and tackled her to the ground, but the scorpion woman managed to knock her off with a quick jab. With two Rangers down, Scorpina set her sights on Justin, who held both fists up in a boxing stance.

Scorpina grinned at the sight of Justin. "What? The Ranger league couldn't get anyone over eighteen?"

Justin rushed in on Scorpina and managed several kicks, all of which Scorpina managed to block. One kick from Justin missed and Scorpina extended her arm, her hand holding Justin's head (and covering his face at the same time) at a distance. She looked at the kid in pity as he swung his arms as if to deliver punches, but gets nothing but hair. After a while, Scorpina yawned and pushed the youngest Ranger down on his rear. By now, the two older Rangers had regrouped, but made no advances.

Scorpina studied the trio for a moment before snapping her fingers. Almost suddenly, to the surprise of the three former Rangers and the recovering Space Rangers, twenty humanoid forms in odd Ranger costumes formed around Scorpina, who let out a devilish laugh and disappeared into thin air. Almost instantly, the spot occupied by Scorpina was now occupied by a man with a familiar face.

"Tommy?" Justin called.

"No," Billy corrected, "Not Tommy."

The clone smirked, "That's right, Billy. I'm not Tommy!" He extended his arms high and called to the sky. "Newbie Rangers, Oldie Rangers, meet the Ranger Wraiths, a creation of Tommy-Boy's clone and the incomparable Lord Zedd. Ranger Wraiths, meet cannon fodder."

At the drop of his arms, the Ranger Wraiths attacked. The battle is just beginning.

To be continued...


	7. Return

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 7: Return  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

**Note**: Thanks for the reviews, keep 'em coming.

* * *

Kimberly Ann Hart had hoped that she wouldn't have to be dragged into this sort of thing again. She had hoped the whole invading alien rule wouldn't have applied to her if she retired from being an active Power Ranger. She had hoped that she could pass on the 'monster magnet' title to the newbie Rangers that would come after her while she could go on and live a seemingly normal life.

At times, she often thinks to herself, _If that's the case, then what the hell am I doing here? Again?_

Alongside her longtime friend, William Cranston, and the youngest retired Ranger, Justin Stewart, Kimberly looked on as the twenty Ranger Wraiths, twisted grunt soldiers with Ranger attributes, rushed at them. To the clone, they're twenty stronger Putties. To her, and quite possibly to the two beside her, they're twenty fully-powered Rangers, ready to unleash their full arsenal at a moment's notice. Soon enough, the two forces collided and the battle began.

Billy's years of inactivity had somewhat dulled his fighting techniques, but what he remembered was steadily enough to keep the three Ranger Wraiths off his back. A quick flip or two got him safely away from the Wraith's cumbersome maneuvers, but as he tried to block one blow, the pain was too much for him and he began to run, with the Wraiths, now joined by two others.

Kim managed to stay ahead of the Wraiths with her quickness and some backflips while Justin tried to delivered some quick (but worthless) kicks that hardly phased the Wraiths. When both of them realized nothing was working, both regrouped with Billy and soon the three were surrounded by the Wraiths, forming a circle around them. Just when things seemed bleak, two powerful explosions knocked several Ranger Wraiths out of the way and the cause of the explosions were two humans whom Billy and crew instantly recognized.

"Jason! Adam!" Billy called out, "How'd you guys know to find us here?"

"Alpha teleported us here from their ship," Jason replied as he joined the group, "The less said, the better."

"Brought you an early Christmas present, Billy," Adam called as he tossed the new Power Cannon to Billy, who caught it with both arms. "Sorry I broke into your house."

"If this works as well as I hoped," Billy commented, "I won't press charges, Adam."

Billy checked the Cannon for a moment before powering up. When he heard a slight hum originating from the weapon, he let out a mischievous grin and stared at the Wraiths. With a quick motion, Billy slung the cannon over his shoulder and fired a powered blast at the Wraiths. An explosion caused by the blast caused three Wraiths to get knocked down, and Billy glanced at his piece of hardware, impressed by its power. Regrouping together briefly, the former Rangers quickly found themselves surrounded by the Ranger Wraiths, including those slowly recovering from the two previous cannon attacks.

Instantaneous, Jason tackled down five Rangers Wraiths with both arms extended, clearing a path for Kimberly to run past them and head straight for the clone, but she was quickly cut off by another Wraith, who delivered a straight jab at her jaw. The blow momentarily stunned her, but she quickly recovered to dodge the Wraith's offense. Another Wraith snuck up on her in an attempt to attack, but she noticed and quickly landed the tip of her heel on the Wraith's helmeted head, cracking the protective headpiece.

Jason got back on his feet and quickly got into a melee with three Ranger Wraiths, surrounding him. Jason managed to hold his own against the superior opponents. While none of his attacks were having much effect on them, their counters weren't necessary quick in execution and Jason was able to dodge or block most of them.

Much to Billy's satisfaction, the new Power Cannon was working perfectly, holding off three Ranger Wraiths. Even at full power, the cannon's shots weren't enough to destroy the soldiers, but they did keep them at a distance and that's all he needed for now.

* * *

From the distance, the Space Rangers were recovering from their inflicted wounds suffered from their bout with Scorpina, who had left shortly before the Ranger Wraiths appeared. They stood there in awe as they saw these former Rangers handle the Wraiths with efficiency despite being powerless. Even without their powers, they were still able to--

"You guys going to stand there all night?!" Kim exclaimed to the Space Rangers as her kick struck a Ranger Wraith's chin, "Or are you actually going to help?!"

Andros nodded. "You heard her. Let's help them out."

On command, the Space Rangers summoned their weapons and leapt into action. In an instant, there were ten Rangers in action and each were squaring off against two Wraiths each. With the numbers increased, the former Rangers and the current Rangers were nowhere near winning the battle, but the odds were seemingly getting better and the chances of defeat was growing slimmer with each passing second.

* * *

Standing in front of the cathedral, the clone of Thomas Oliver looked on as the battle raged. The Space Rangers, whom he recognized through several news reports, were slowly getting the better of his Ranger Wraiths, but the advantage appeared to be waning. He looked around for the former Rangers, who were holding their own against his creatures, but knew that they would have to give way to fatigue. Soon enough, he thought, this battle would be over and the Ranger Wraiths would be victorious.

Confident that things would go as planned, he began taking several steps towards the giant doors of the cathedral, which slowly opened up on their own, revealing an elaborately designed interior. The clone continued onward until he was inside the main hall, upon which the doors slammed shut behind him. He continued his way up the main altar, but stopped midway as strange humming sounds echoed in the hall. The clone looked around for the source, but the sound surrounded him, not coming from any direction but rather all over.

Soon the humming became louder but the sound was focused toward the entrance. The clone turned to look as several columns of light briefly lit and formed several metal warriors holding arcing blades, all of them surrounding a human female clad in battle armor of unearthly origin. The clone flinched for a moment to the study the female's face for a moment.

"Who in the hell are you?" he asked.

The female groaned in response. "Is there anybody on this wayward planet that has heard of Astronema?"

The clone shook his head in disappointment. "Wait a minute. You mean to tell me you're the so-called princess of evil that everyone is so scared of?" The clone followed his word with a almost-girlish giggle before returning to a serious tone. "Man, did evil take a downfall these past centuries or are you just reaching puberty?"

If the idea was to anger Astronema, it seemed to be working. The self-proclaimed princess was absolutely fuming and was almost about to attack when a strange presence stopped her. The clone, not surprisingly enough, felt the presence as well. His suspicious were eventually confirmed when he heard his own voice, but the words came from elsewhere.

"You shouldn't be here."

The voice echoed across the chamber. Astronema, her crew, and the clone looked around before they found its source standing before the altar; a human male in his twenties wearing a heavy trenchcoat. Underneath the charred heavy coat was a white jumpsuit with gold belt and a dusty, charred chestpiece bearing an insignia of a champion of justice long fallen. The clone almost immediately recognized this person; no doubt the new player of this board recognizing himself too.

Astronema almost groaned at the sight of the man, whose image was obscured in darkness. "Another Ranger? How many do you have on this world anyway?"

"More than you can count," the Ranger answered, "Who the hell are you?"

"Your destruction." Her answer was cold and her voice no longer bore the arrogance she had been suspect off. She just as soon held her staff with both hands and aimed its tip at the shadowed Ranger.

"This is a holy shrine, you know?" the clone stated, "Your power is useless."

Astronema grunted and extended her staff at the Ranger, who looked on unphased. The staff momentarily glowed purple for a moment and soon the glow faded. The Ranger smiled and shook his head as Astronema attempted to get something out of the staff to shoot; a beam of lightning or an energy ball. Much to her frustration, nothing happened. The Ranger continued to look on as Astronema tossed her staff aside and pulled out her boomerang. With much strength, she threw it at the Ranger, but her eyes widened when a bolt of white lightning from the ceiling destroyed the weapon.

"Told ya," the clone said smugly.

"Get him!" Astronema spat, snapping her fingers.

At the snap of her fingers, the twenty Quantrons that surrounded Astronema dashed past the clone and straight at the Ranger, who stood there with a determined look on his face. Pulling out an elegantly-crafted broadsword, the Ranger began swiping through Quantrons like they were nothing but tin foil. The clone watched as this Ranger effortlessly piled through Astronema's best soldiers, pieces of armor ripped and cut apart. He moved away from the lights of the hall and hid himself within the darkness, making sure that neither were aware of him. By the time he turned back to watch the fight, it was quickly over, with the Ranger standing triumphant.

"Hmph," the Ranger mused, "Putties were tougher than that."

A snarl formed on Astronema's face as she saw the havoc before. "You'll regret the day you--"

"'Regret the day you messed with me,'" the Ranger interrupted, "Considering you're still alive, I suggest you leave while you still have limbs to move. And don't try and pull anything, because one wrong move..." A snap of his fingers echoed, "will finish you quickly."

Astronema stood there, looking at this silhouette of a man who seemed to instill some form of strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. For the first time in her life, her cocky and arrogant attitude was replaced with a uncomfortable feeling of fear and anguish. Slowly, she took a step back as the figure shook his head and stepped closer. Astronema could feel a drop of sweat running down the side of her face as she slowly backed off from this approaching enemy. When she found herself outside standing before the large doors of the chapel, Astronema just as quickly teleported away in purple light, leaving the Ranger alone in the main hall standing above several unfortunate grunts whom have suffered his wrath.

All attention in the battle was now focused on the Ranger, emerging from the doors of the cathedral and surveying the participants. Some he recognized as his friends, others as his successors, and a select few he didn't recognize, but clearly knew they weren't friendly. Almost instantaneously, the Ranger Wraiths ran at him with great speed, but in his mind, they were slowly approaching him. He could glance at the various people, warning him to watch out, but their voices become muffled to the point where they are barely comprehensive.

With a quick motion, the Ranger extended his arms straight ahead and in flashes of white light, two spectral blasters, made of a transparent alloy and glimmering with light, materialized in his hands. This did not distract the Wraiths from their course. From the barrels of each blaster shot a blinding beam of white energy that flew at the Wraiths, piercing through any solid matter and turning it into dust. Each Wraith in contact with the beams literally blew apart from the intense power of the beams. When only three Wraiths remained, they thoughtfully teleported away in green light. When all was well, the blasters disappeared and so did the Ranger. What remained were ten silent individuals.

Kim broke the uneasy silence. "Would someone please tell me what the heck just happened?"

* * *

"He has grown much stronger than I had anticipated," the clone said, "This could pose a problem for us."

The clone had seen the remainder of the battle and its fateful conclusion through Rita Repulsa's old telescope. Behind him, Lord Zedd used his telescopic vision to observe what his ally had witnessed and almost seemed relieved when three of his Ranger Wraiths escaped utter destruction. He saw the remaining Rangers converging together for a moment and then going on their separate ways. Zedd turned away from the balcony and slumped on his throne.

"Even I don't know where he got this power," the fleshman said, "but I have a feeling his rage must have something to do with this."

"Indeed," the clone replied in agreement, "I think we should invite him here."

"Are you out of your mind?" Zedd almost barked, "You know he'll never agree to join us. He's too good for that."

"True," the clone said, "but at this point, he wants to get to the one who got him to the state that he's in. So we should bait him with 'information' that he would want. He accepts, he comes here, we finish him off, mercenaries are paid off, you go your way, and I'll go mine. We'll all sleep happier knowing our common enemy is dead and the maggots will eat his rotting flesh."

"I'd stay and help, but at this point, I have to go," Zedd's voice faltered, "I must check on Rita and make sure she didn't mess anything up to get on Dark Specter's side. Again."

"I've anticipated this turn of events, Lord Zedd," the clone said confidently, "but you needn't worry about leaving, because I have prepared for such an occasion."

With a snap of his fingers, the entire chamber of command grew dark, with only the stars outside the balcony being the only source of illumination. A low humming sound echoed throughout the chamber and a column of red light formed directly in front of Zedd. In a flash of blinding light, the lights of the chamber restored and in the middle of the chamber, standing before Lord Zedd was a fleshman of similar stature and similar build to the dark lord. After a moment of studying the fleshman that stood before him, Zedd came to a realization.

"A stunning recreation of me," Zedd declared, "I'm almost impressed."

The clone nodded. "This is Flinn, a master impersonator who can take any shape, impersonate any one's attitude and voice without so much as a hitch. Putting the two of you side by side, I doubt anyone would be able to tell the two of you apart."

"Then how do you know which is which?" Zedd asked.

Flinn decided to answer, in Zedd's voice no less. "I have a special compound encoded into my DNA that very few people will notice, Shapeshifters of my kind are extremely rare in this universe and it is correct to presume that no one would. But this clone was created with special abilities that enable him to see that compound. That is how he is able to tell."

Zedd nodded. "You sound like me too. Now I'm really impressed."

A smile crept up the clone's face as he heard Zedd's compliment. "So while Flinn is dealing with your nagging wife-servant and the pacifist monarch of the Alliance, you can stay here and deal with your enemy. Deal with our common enemy and get on with our own lives."

The clone turned to face Flinn and said, "I don't know how long this will take us. Chances are you'll have to stay put for weeks, maybe even months. But I will ensure you get paid the agreed amount as well as an additional 75%."

"No worries," Flinn said, "I've always wanted to impersonate a monarch as great as Lord Zedd."

Zedd allowed himself a smile, but it faded as he faced his doppelganger. "I hope, for your sake, that you have a high tolerance level. Rita can and will get on your nerves with her incesive

Flinn smiled. "Your concern is duly noted, Lord Zedd. But completely unnecessary as my previous assignments had all been completed properly." With that, he teleported.

Zedd turned to face the clone. "Flinn, Scorpina, the freighter. Where in the name of all that is evil do you get the funding?"

"I have my sources, Zedd," the clone answered smugly, "and speaking of which, it's time to begin our contingency plan."

* * *

Three weeks passed since the battle in front of the cathedral and the supposed sighting of the missing Thomas Oliver. Other than hearing of the Space Rangers' battles with evil, twisted Rangers, nothing of note has happened as far as Jason Lee Scott was concerned. Billy had decided to postpone Project Prodigy for another month so that he can work out the final kinks, leaving Jason with plenty of time to contemplate on what to do next. In his bedroom of his parents' house, he meditated in peace. Only several candles lit the room, which was still dark.

Jason's line of thought was interrupted when, by the corner of his eye, he noticed the candles' flames extinguished. He knew better than to pass it off as just wind from an open window. He got off his bed and took a quick scan of the room. When he looked towards the closet door, he saw a silhouette of the Ranger who had appeared three weeks ago.

"Tommy? Is that you, bro?" He had to ask.

The Ranger made no movement and didn't answer. Jason took a step closer to see if it was him, but the Ranger took a step back. Jason decided not to push it, although in his heart, he knew that it was him.

"Give this to Billy," the Ranger said as he pulled out a minidisk from his jacket, his voice void of emotion. "He'll know what it is."

Jason took this disk with a bit of reservation and studied the Ranger's eyes for a moment. What he saw in those eyes scared him, almost causing him to freeze in place. The Ranger stared back into Jason's eyes and could see the fear. He lowered his head and turned his back to the Red Ranger.

"Don't try and follow me," the Ranger ordered, "when the time comes, I'll find you."

Before Jason could respond, the Ranger vanished without a trace, without a customary flash of light. He simply faded away as if he wasn't there. Jason stood alone in his room looking down at the spot on the floor where the Ranger stood. He stared at that spot for five minute straight before he uttered two words.

"Now what?"

To be continued...


	8. Consolation

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 8: Consolation  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: Thanks for the reviews and sorry this took longer than intended. Enjoy this eighth chapter.

---

Every night he sleeps within the drudgery of broken pieces of metal, hanging wires, and burnt circuitplates scattered about in a small chamber. Every night, he always has the same recurring nightmare; a nightmare where he reaches her house and witnesses its demise, unable to prevent it. Every night, he experienced the same nightmare repeating itself in the same way, as if it was a scripted event. He would try other things and think of other thoughts to change the flow of events. But no matter what he did, he couldn't change the nightmare.

He couldn't save Kat.

Upon awakening this day, Thomas Oliver emerged from the darkness of the chamber and into the gigantic holding bay that once held the old Zeo Zords. He never knew what happened to them last year, only that they were locked away elsewhere in a secret location that only a select few know of. This bay would have held space for the Turbo Zords shortly after their creation, but with those destroyed, all that's left is an empty chamber void of life.

Thomas studied the surroundings of the holding bay. Even with the night air filling the place,the layer of dust that covered, and the giant doors literally ripped away, the place has held up rather well. Thomas' eyes squinted to various areas of the holding bay until he saw a figure standing several feet away. Thomas couldn't see his face or recognize his posture, but somehow he knew who he was. After all, he was a part of him.

"The great Thomas Oliver." the clone declared, "Former Green Ranger. Former White Ranger. Former Red Ranger. Former... Red Ranger. Current has-been."

Thomas's face bore no emotion, his eyes affixed to the clone.

"You were a very difficult man to find, Tommy-boy. I'd almost be impressed with this newfound elusiveness of yours - not to mention your spectral weapons - but I haven't been keeping up with recent affairs. What with my alliance with Zedd and all."

Thomas made no answer.

The clone raised his hands. "Okay, so maybe Zedd isn't the best topic of choice to be discussing with you. Especially since he kicked your ass a year ago. And badly I might add." The clone paused for a moment of deep thought, then almost instantaneously he asked, "How's Katherine doing these days? Are you two still dating by any chance?"

Thomas almost flinched at the mere mention of the name. _How could he have known?_

"Oh! Am I bad? I'm sorry I seem to have your bad memory too." The clone's next words were spoken with cold emotion. "She's dead. As much as you'd like to believe otherwise, Tommy, she ain't coming back. I personally saw to that."

Thomas's stone-like expression grew more angrier as every second passed.

"I was the one who staged the whole thing. I was the one who put the detonator together. I was the one who had it delivered to her house. I was the one who pulled the mechanism to fire. It was all me."

Thomas took a step forward towards the clone, whether it be intentional or instinctual. The clone took notice of this and stepped back a bit. Thomas continued to approach him and the clone continued to back off until he stopped as Thomas continued his march.

"So now that you know what you know, Tommy," the clone said, "what are you going to do? Kill me?"

Before Thomas could act, the clone blinked out of existence and suddenly he was alone in the massive holding bay. Thomas looked around to see if the clone was anywhere, but he didn't see him. With the clone gone, Thomas gathered his belongings and walked out of the holding chamber on his way to another familiar locale, long destroyed.

---

"We're ready to get this over with, Bill," Kimberly said as she made final checks to the Power Cannon, which was positioned on a tripod stand. Behind her, Billy made notes on his portable computer pad while Justin stood in the distance and watched the two original Rangers at work. When Kim motioned a hand at Justin, he sprinted to the cannon, careful not to trip over any wiring scattered on the floor.

"We'll need to wait a few minutes for the Cannon to reach maximum power," he said, "but things look good."

Kim nodded and began to walk towards Billy. But as she did, she heard faint mumbling in the distance. It didn't come from Billy, who was still close by. Nor did it come from Justin who was just behind her. She disregarded the mumbles as her imagination and continued the steps towards Billy. Then it came back, somewhat louder mumbling sounds that she heard. She didn't know exactly where it came from, but Kim had a feeling where she should look first.

_Could it be him?_ she thought, After all this time?

From the distance, Billy finished recording notes on his pad and walked down the slope. As soon as he caught up with Justin, he glanced away and noticed Kim walking towards the Command Center ruins.

"Where you going, Kim?" he asked.

"I want to check out something at the ruins," Kim answered as she walked, "I won't be long, guys."

---

He stood in the middle of the ruins, moving his head and eyes gingerly to digest all that surrounded him. In his mind, however, he could see a faint echo of the original Command Center upon which these grounds served as the foundation of. In his mind, he slowly approached the spot where Zordon's energy tube would normally be located in that locale, now just a pile of burnt circuitboards and shattered pieces of a plasma tube. He stared at the broken bits for a straight minute without saying a word. What could he say, after all?

"Look who decided to actually be here."

He heard her voice echoing in the night sky. When he saw Kim emerge from behind a pile of rubble, it almost pained him. He hadn't seen her since Murianthias, but remembered her to be distinctly different from her days as a Ranger. In some ways, she was almost unlike the ex-valley girl he used to date.

"Kimberly."

"Glad to see you remember me, Tommy," Kim said humorlessly, "Didn't think you would remember your friends since you decided not to tell anybody about your little joyride."

Thomas didn't answer, but Kimberly didn't expect him to. She could tell from a brief glance of his eyes that even after all this time, he was still hurting from what happened to Kat. But she also saw something else in him, something she couldn't be sure of other than she didn't like it.

"I wanted to say something to try and ease the pain," Kim said, "but there isn't anything. You've pretty much distanced yourself from everyone. Made sure no one was able to reach you."

Thomas turned away from Kimberly briefly. "That's not entirely true, Kim."

Kim raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it? Sure could've fooled me with your disappearing act."

Thomas sighed. _She has a point_.

"I needed to look for answers, for anything that could explain this." He paused a moment to face his former girlfriend. "But I didn't find anything except for the fact that the Zeo Zord Holding bay is the most uncomfortable place to get some sleep in."

Kim managed a half-smile at that last remark. "How are you holding up anyway?"

"I don't know if I am holding up, Kim," admitted Thomas, "Ever since what happened with Kat, I've been a wreck."

"What happened with Kat could have happened at any time," Kim told him, "You being so close to her, there's no doubt it'll be hard for you. It'll be hard on all her family and friends." She paused a moment, trying to get the right words for what she would say next. "But I get this ugly feeling there's more to it than just Kat."

There was a moment of silence, as if Thomas was trying to drudge up the courage to say words that he knew would hurt him.

"Dimitria and Zordon had said that it was time for us to go," Thomas recalled, "that we should select four replacements to continue the Ranger duties. At first, I felt okay about it and was willing to go for it. Then this happened and I search for answers. The more I move around, the more I realize that giving up that responsibility was a mistake. I was so angry at Dimitria and Zordon because if we were still Rangers, we'd be able to see it coming ten miles away. If we were still Rangers, they would know about what was going to happen to Kat and..." His voice trailed off and he said nothing else.

"They're not all-seeing either, Tommy," Kim added, "otherwise he wouldn't get captured."

Thomas nodded, then looked up to Kim. "Did you ever regret living behind your Ranger duties, Kim?"

Kim almost hadn't expected that question from him.

"Honestly?" she said, "No, I didn't."

Hearing those words from Kim surprised Thomas, as if he hadn't expected her to say that. But he didn't say anything.

"When I passed on the Crane Coin to Katherine, I felt like a tremendous weight had been lifted off my shoulders. As much as I enjoyed my time with the Rangers, I had to move on. There comes a time when you have to face reality and make way for the new blood so they'll take care of the hero thing while you go on with your life. That's sort of how I felt when I retired, for lack of a better word.

"But what happens since then? I get involved in an intergalactic scavenger hunt, get hung over a fire pit, and I find myself running around the city fighting Phakers being led by the supposedly immortal clone of my ex-boyfriend!" She kicked a small pebble off the ground as she said that last part. "I thought that I had given up the weirdness and stupidities, but you know what they say about 'Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger?' There's actually a little truth in that."

Thomas was silent for a moment before he said, "Never knew you felt that way."

"Yeah, I had my blame rounds the same as you," she replied, "But in the end, it doesn't matter. What happened happened and there's no way we can change it."

Before Thomas could answer, he found his surroundings fading to black and found himself surrounded in pitch blackness. Only moments later, a bright spotlight shined over him. When he attempted to lift a foot, he found that he couldn't. He was completely immobilized.

"Yeah, it's me again." It was his voice, but it seemed much colder and much more malicious. Thomas knew who it was and tried to make some semblance of movement, but to no avail.

"Don't bother looking for me, because I'm in your head and no one else is hearing these message but you, so listen up."

Thomas didn't say anything, not that it did him much good.

"Here's the deal, Tommy-boy. I want you, you want me, and Zedd would love nothing more than to see you self-destruct before you eventually suffer and die. What's say we get a little get together and finish this thing once and for all?"

Thomas knew all too well that this was bait for a trap, but there was little to disguise that fact. All he knew was that this would be his chance to finish this affair once and for all.

"You'll be receiving co-ordinates on your communicator for teleportation on the Lunar Palace. You'll know this when the communicator sounds a nine-tone signal. When that happens, you have fifteen minutes to decide on whether to go or not. Now I don't want to give you the wrong idea that this is an ultimatum. It isn't one, because chances are we'll kill your friends and everyone else as soon as we're done with you. Our meeting together is inevitable, so nothing you do will change that."

Thomas felt dizzy for a moment and when he came to, he found himself in the ruins of the Command Center with Kimberly holding him firmly on both arms to keep him from collapsing to the ground. When he came to, she let go and Thomas took a deep breath in.

"Are you alright?" Kim asked, concerned, "You almost phased out there for a minute."

Thomas nodded, then said, "It was him. He was talking to me, telling me something about settling the score once and for all."

Kim looked around briefly before replying, "I didn't hear anybody."

"I know," Thomas said, "It was a mental communication." He paused to take a breath. "We have to get to the others."

Kim frowned at the idea. "You disappear for seven months and you want us to get back together? That's really sloppy leadership skills."

"I need your help, Kim," Thomas said, almost pleading.

Kim thought it over briefly. "When you put it that way... I'll give Jason a call and tell him I'll bring you over to his place." She paused a bit, making Thomas uncomfortable. "But we can't spare that many people, Tommy. Tanya's in L.A. finalizing a record deal, so she's no go. Billy and Justin are about to begin _Project Prodigy_ and we have no way of contacting the Astro Space Rangers or whatever they're called these days."

"Well, we can't bother Tanya," Thomas insisted, "And the sooner Billy gets _Prodigy_ up and running, the better. Which means we have to regroup with Jason and crew."

Kim studied her ex-boyfriend for a moment. "You almost sound like we're going on a raid."

Thomas didn't answer.

---

Billy did a check on the power readout of the Power Cannon using his datapad, which was reading at eighty-five percent and wasn't getting any higher than that. When Billy extended his hand to Justin, the Blue Turbo Ranger handed him a square-shaped card that was inserted into a slot of the Power Cannon. As soon as he shut the exposed circuits of the cannon, he saw the datapad's readout jump to one-hundred-fifty percent, slowly rising.

"Stand back, kid," he warned Justin, "This could be a little rough."

Justin took a few steps away from the entry as Billy waited for the cannon to reach maximum charge. When the datapad confirmed this (at two-hundred percent), Billy waited a moment before pulling the trigger. A pulse of colored energy shot from the main cannon and flew at blinding speed at the rubble, exploding upon impact and forcing the two Blue Rangers to cover their faces from the blinding light. When the light faded, Billy and Justin saw that the rubble had been blown away, revealing an barely-lit corridor with metal walls.

"It worked, Billy!" Justin said excitedly, "We can get in!"

Billy nodded and gave a confident smile at the kid, who smiled back. Before they could make their way in, the two heard speeding footsteps in the distance. They turned around to see Kimberly running at them, with another figure running behind them. It took a moment for Billy to recognize the man behind her and almost dropped his jaw at the sight of him. Justin stood there staring in awe at the veteran Power Ranger who had been missing for several months. He was almost intimidated by the presence.

"Tommy?" Justin asked nervously.

Thomas didn't say anything, but he merely nodded.

Billy looked at the both of them with utter confusion. "What's going on?"

"We have to go, Bill," she said.

"What about _Prodigy_?"

"You and Justin stay here and get _Prodigy_ up and running," she replied, "I need to reconvene the others for a briefing."

Billy seemed confused. "Briefing for what?"

After a short moment of silence, it was Thomas Oliver who answered the original Blue Ranger's inquiry.

"We're going to raid Zedd's palace and finish this once and for all."

To be continued...


	9. Preparing for War

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 9: Preparing For War  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: Sorry for the ridiculously long delay. Here's the next chapter in this story.

---

For the past half hour, the two former Blue Rangers Billy and Justin navigated through the underground tunnels in search of this mysterious alcove that is said to be the instrumental locale for initiating _Project Prodigy_. But their minds was to a discussion before that, when Thomas Oliver, whom he hadn't seen since Kat's death (and they're calling it a death now), announced straight out that they would raid Zedd's palace. Then they left - no arguments, no discussion, that was all there is to it. It left Justin confused and Billy was utterly frustrated at the whole sequence of consequences. Despite his disapproval of this sudden impulse, he decided not to push it further and soon, with Justin, began searching for the underground alcove.

"I can't believe Tommy's going to the palace," Justin quipped, "It's almost like he went to Arkham Asylum or something."

Billy couldn't help but smile at Justin's statement, though he did admit that this sudden aggressive stance from Thomas did scare him a bit. The toll Kat's death has had on Thomas must have been much worse than any of them could ever imagine. More to the point was where did he get those spectral weapons? The power of that kind would only be... "Ow!"

Billy's train of thought was interrupted when he banged his head against a hanging distribution pipe. Justin quickly concealed his wide grin as soon as Billy turned to face him. Billy did find some humor in it, not to mention he was almost thankful that it didn't cause him to drop the laptop computer he was carrying under his arm, and the two kept going until they reached a small square room with various storage boxes piled up along two of the walls. The third wall had a wide, circular door with a small, fist-sized hole in the middle. Then there was the forth wall, where Billy and Justin stood before an open door.

"The alcove?" Justin asked.

Billy nodded in confirmation. "The alcove. Let's get to work."

Both Rangers moved any and all boxes from the walls, placing them alongside the hallways. The removal of the storage boxes revealed a control panel embedded into the wall and, with a quick wipe with a loincloth he pulled out of his pocket, monitor screen. Billy's first instinct was to activate the system, but none of the buttons and switches had any effect. Just when things seemed bad, Billy noticed a control port that escaped his notice earlier. Studying the port more closely revealed it to be a USB port, similar to the kind being added to the latest computer models these days. Billy managed to set his laptop on a pile of boxes that didn't get moved, then pulled out a long USB cord, connecting it to both the laptop and the control port.

Almost instantaneously, both the laptop computer and the control panel were starting up and before Billy and Justin knew it, the alcove's command console popped up on the black computer screen. With the main computer system online, Justin took a step back and watched as Billy began working his magic, operating the console and learning much of its complicated systems with incredible ease. For fifteen minutes, Justin looked on as Billy did most of the work. Finally, just when Justin thought things couldn't get any worse, Billy stopped and checked his laptop. Soon, he let out a disappointed sigh.

"What's that?" Justin asked, curious as to what would make Billy depressed.

Billy frowned. "According to the readout on my laptop, the alcove doesn't have the sufficient programming algorithms to activate _Prodigy_. We'll have to try and find that fourth chamber I told you about months ago." He gestured towards the sealed blast door. "And I think that's how we get there."

Justin looked at the door for a moment before commenting, "How do we get in?"

"Fortunately," Billy answered, "The alcove does have access to the locks. I believe I can access the unlocking sequence that will enable us to open the doors and get this over and done with."

Billy entered a few more commands into the system, but momentarily paused when he heard a faint beeping sound. He glanced at Justin, who shook his head innocently. He promptly ignored the beeping sound and went back to work. When Billy finished with the last set of commands, he heard Justin gasped and faced him worrying.

"It's the communicator," Justin realized, "the signal's barely getting through here."

Billy thought about it for a second, but that's all he needed. "Justin, I've inputted a sequence of codes and the computer is scanning through them. While I go out and check what's going on, I need you to check this sequencer. Once you get a confirmation that the codes are approved, pull this switch here." He pointed to the rounded red bar on the very bottom of the console.

"Gotcha."

With things under Justin's care, even though it wasn't really needed, Billy quickly made his way through the tunnels and out of the cave. Even though the likelihood of encountering somebody at this time around here was astronomically small, Billy checked around to be on the safe side. When he saw no one around, he spoke into his communicator.

"It's me. What's up?"

"Bill, what's your current status?" It was Jason's voice.

"We can't access _Prodigy_ from the alcove," Billy reported, "So we're going to try getting to the Forth Chamber. Jason, I have to warn you that once we access the chamber, there's no way we'll be able to maintain communication with each other."

There was a moment of unsettling silence before Jason answered, "Alright, so before you go on and we completely lose track of you, we need some advice on how to operate the PortalCom."

Billy frowned at the thought. "So Tommy told you about his 'raiding' plan?"

"Yeah, he told us a bit, then he's gone," Jason said nervously, "As soon as his communicator sounded a tone I've never heard of, he told us to use the maps from his disk to formulate a strike plan and he left abruptly. Just like that." There was a slight pause before Jason spoke again, sounding more tense. "I have the funny feeling something's wrong here, Bill. There's more to this than Tommy's letting off."

Billy thought for a moment. "So are you going to follow him?"

"We've no choice, man," Jason answered, noticing the heavy groan from Billy, "Look, I hate this idea as much as you do, but this is the only viable option. We were going to ask the Space Rangers to back us up in case something goes wrong, but we can't reach them. And quite frankly, the last thing I want is to lose another friend."

Billy hung his head. _Jason's right_, he thought, _this is the only recourse._

"Co-ordinates have to be set into the PortalCom's nav computer before you attempt to activate the portal," Billy explained, "Is there anyone staying behind to operate the device so you guys could get back?"

"I am," Rocky DeSantos' voice suddenly blared through the speaker of the communicator, "I'd love to go along, but my back is still sore and it'd be bad business to leave the dojo shut down without notice."

Billy smiled at the thought. "Thank God for that. Because I wouldn't want to send Justin there." From the cave entrance, Billy could almost hear a barely audible "Hey!" from Justin.

"So that's all there is to it?" Jason asked.

"Yeah. Adam should know how to operate it."

"Okay, we'll get ready and be on our way in a few hours," Jason said, "Are you and Justin going to be fine on your own with _Prodigy_ or do you need any more help?"

Billy shook his head instinctively. "No, we're fine."

"Okay," Jason said, "Good Luck."

"You too" was Billy's reply before the signal was cut.

With that taken care of, Billy re-entered the cave and made his way through the tunnels to the alcove. If it wasn't for the lineup of boxes along the wall to help him back on his way, he would have gotten lost again. He eventually made his way back to the alcove, where he saw Justin staring at the console screen, where various digits and variables were shown.

"Anything?"

Justin shook his head. "Nothing. I don't know maybe--" Justin was cut off when he heard a pleasing tone from the computer. At the same time, he planted his foot onto the switch and pushed it down. There was a momentary period of shaking in the room that had caught Billy and Justin off-guard, but it didn't last long. After what seemed like a very long period of waiting, the locked door slowly opened up, revealing another door of light behind it. The light was a brilliant white, similar to what Billy experienced when he discovered the White Ranger.

Billy took a closer look at the light portal; this wasn't the same kind of door. He felt as though it had an almost interdimensional aura to it, but these kinds of portals were almost impossible to manufacture, as they would instantly destabilize and cause spatial damage to the area around it. And yet here it was, glowing before him without fail. Billy gave Justin a quick glance and nod. Justin disconnected Billy's laptop from the console and approached Billy.

Billy glanced at the young Ranger and smiled. "Let's go, Justin. _Project Prodigy_ awaits us."

Side by side, the two stepped into the portal, their bodies engulfed into the light source. When the two have completely vanished, the control console in the alcove went black and the heavy door closed up.

---

Jason Scott was scared out of his mind. He wasn't ashamed to admit it because most of his friends were too. There was an air of uncertainty in the Power Karate studio, with several former Rangers gathering and preparing for what may very well be either their most dangerous adventures or the biggest mistake of their lives. Unfortunately, upon hearing news of this raid, Jason did not share his usual optimism and believes in his heart that this offensive-minded mission is not necessary. He almost developed a certain level of confusion concerning recent events in these past few months; events that have undoubtedly involved his long-time friend, Thomas Oliver.

To see him again was a relief, but to see him in the state that he was in - the fragile mindset that he was in, to be able to do anything rash - was a particularly disturbing thought to Jason. Whenever he looked into the eyes of Thomas during the brief time he was standing there barking orders and battle strategies, he could see a built-up rage that was seemingly about to explode at any moment. It was almost like dealing with Thomas when he was the evil Green Ranger, except without the corny evil laugh he had the tendency of doing.

Jason put aside his recollections and studied his weapons of choice closely. The customized _d'tahg_ dagger, a moderate-sized weapon of Klingon design he bought at a pawn shop, was a good striking weapon that was considerably durable and was able to penetrate even the most hardened armor. Jason had studied the intricacies of _d'tahg_ combat through various Klingon websites and could consider himself a master of the weapon. There was also the still-experimental laser pistol in his holster, which hadn't seen much use in years and for good reason; it was an atrociously weak weapon that couldn't even melt the wax off a candlestick. Nonetheless, Jason had special plans for the use of the laser pistol.

With his gear in check, Jason peered over to Kimberly sitting by the table... or rather, her peculiar choice of wardrobe. At first, he passed her choice of a pink t-shirt and matching denim pants as nothing more than a sense of nostalgia, but then he took a closer look at the pink shirt she war and noticed its diamond-patterned design was eerily similar to the old Ranger suits. Around her neck was a thin, reddish rope with a crucifix hanging from it, which made Jason somewhat confused. Even in recent days, he had never known Kimberly to owning any crucifix chains of any kind, let alone wear one. He wanted to bring it up, but common sense got the better of him.

His eyes slowly retracted away from Kim to the contents on the table, where he saw several small throwing knives, two palm-sized pink orbs, and a small sword, similar to what ninjas used. His mind was absolutely boggling at this point as she checked her "toys", wondering where she got them. Of course, she'd probably ask the same thing of him and his laser.

Jason turned away from Kimberly completely and looked towards Adam, who was showing Rocky how to operate the PortalCom. Jason could almost feel for Rocky, who did an extremely good job of hiding his discomfort over not being able to join them in this mission. However, Jason's successor knew that he would be best served here to bring them back, in case Billy and Justin don't make it back from the _Prodigy_ experiments.

By nine o'clock at night, Adam had set up the portal and the three former Power Rangers were ready to enter the portal that had formed between the two energy conductors of the device. Jason stood in front of the middle space between the two conductors as Adam brought up a portal through the control panel on the left conductor.

"Remember, guys," Adam said, "the portal will take us to random areas of the castle, which means we'll have to meet up somewhere."

"Where do you suggest we meet up?" Kim asked.

"The main hall," Jason blurted out, "It should the easiest to find."

Adam and Kimberly nodded. With no other words spoken and no objections raised, Jason give a slight nod and said, "Let's do this."

Jason stepped into the portal of light first and faded away, leaving behind a trail of red mist. Next up, Kimberly took a step into the portal and also faded, leaving a trail of red mist in her wake. Finally, Adam took a second before he stepped into the portal, a trail of red mist floating the air. Rocky stood in front of the Portal for a moment before taking a step back. The portal soon began to slowly fade into nothingness.

"Good luck, boys," Rocky said as the portal faded, "Good luck to us all."

With the portal completely closed off, Rocky began to feel tension in the air. He walked into his office and pulled a large sign that said "CLOSED FOR THE WEEKEND" in bold red letters over a plain black backdrop. He approached the front door of the studio and checked if it was locked, then hung the sign on one of the hooks of the door. Rocky checked to see if everything was properly shut down and locked. He walked back to the main gym area, pulled up a nearby chair, and sat in front of the PortalCom, waiting for his friends to come back.

In an unexpected moment, Rocky's communicator started beeping. In a frantic pace, Rocky rushed to his office and pulled out the wrist device from the top drawer and answered.

"Billy?"

"No," the voice said, "It's Andros."

"Who?" Rocky asked, then it clicked to him. "Oh yeah, you're the Ranger from space. What's up?"

"Well, I've been told you needed our help with something," Andros said, "Unfortunately, we were busy with Orange Ecliptor and weren't able to respond then. Is there something wrong?"

Rocky sighed. "Actually, there is something..."

To be continued...


	10. Face to Face

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 10: Face to Face  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: Any reviews and comments (no flames) you may have would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy.

---

It's been an hour since Thomas Oliver teleported to the castle via invitation from his clone, who had promised to settle the score with his original. In a barely-lit round room with a square table and two chairs facing each other on each side, Thomas walked around and awaited his host. He thought of leaving the room and running rampant through the castle to look for him, but he would wait him out. Because even if this was a trap, he wouldn't let anything get in the way.

"Welcome to my Palace, Red Ranger," the fleshman greeted, "Or is it White Ranger? Or just plain Tommy until you find another Ranger color to add to your repertoire? I hear Black is available these days."

Zedd stared into the cold eyes of the former Ranger and saw the rage that was about to burst at any moment. Almost immediately, Thomas went into an offensive-minded stance, which caused Zedd to shake his head in disbelief.

"There's no need for that, my old foe," Zedd said, "I am here simply to talk. Besides, I had already promised your clone I wouldn't lay a finger on you. So sit down and have some Kerovan Brandy." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'd advise you to not tell anyone about it. It's illegal."

Part of Thomas' gut was telling him that Zedd was lying and that he should attack. However, for some reason, Thomas had a distinct feeling that Zedd was being sincere. Reluctantly, Thomas pulled a chair and sat down. Zedd pulled a chair on the other side of the table and sat as well. Zedd extended his hand forward and in a flash of light, a clear bottle containing a blue beverage formed. Zedd then snapped his fingers of his free hand and two glasses appeared. Zedd poured the contents of the bottle into one glass and slid over to Thomas.

"It's been far too long since we've last met face to face, Tommy. Do you remember that last time?" He leaned closer to Thomas and his voice lowered. "Remember when I had beaten you within an inch of your life?"

Thomas took a sip of the brandy (_a bit sour_, he thought,_ but otherwise not bad_) and smiled. "You could have killed me then, but you didn't. Sometimes, I almost wish you had."

Zedd lowered his head in shame, trying to come up. "Oh, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. If I were to have killed you, what would I do for amusement?" He paused when he saw the disbelieving eyes of his old enemy. "After all, I want to cause you pain and misery throughout your limited lifespan. I want to see you suffer the same way you've made me suffer every time you've ruined another one of my glorious plots. That couldn't be done if you were dead."

"So you killed her?" Thomas spat out, the anger evident in his voice. "You planned all this just so you could screw around with me?! Is that all she's worth to you?!"

"No, my boy," Zedd answered calmly, "I didn't plan this whole Kat murder. Didn't it occur to you that if I were to have planned this, I would have committed to it the first chance I got? I want to rule worlds, my friend. You can't rule if all your subjects and slaves are all dead." Zedd set aside his near-empty glass and leaned closer to Thomas. "I can tell you two little pieces of information that could be of utmost importance. Now whether you take them as horrifying fact or cleverly concocted fiction is entirely up to you."

Thomas didn't say anything, but nodded. Zedd sighed and continued.

"First off, I haven't a clue as to who killed your girlfriend, although your clone is taking credit for it. Doing a damned fine job of messing around with your mind like that, it's almost amazing. He believes that if you were mentally incapacitated, it would be easy for him to kill you without much effort. He believes himself superior to you and who can blame him? He outlives you by several hundred years."

Thomas took a sip of his brandy and thought over Zedd's words, which were almost bleeding with sincerity. His meetings with the clone had never been physical battles, but rather attacks at his psyche. If this whole purpose was to rattle him, then he's done an exceptional job. No one had been able to out-psych Thomas as much as he's been able to.

"The second piece of news does not specifically concern you," Zedd continued, "but it does concern everyone and everything that dares to have a life. Do you know of the being known as Dark Specter?"

"Dark Specter?" Thomas repeated, although he HAD heard of the name of the Alliance's top boss. "What about him?"

"Dark Specter is planning a full-scale assault on the universe," Zedd said, "He's rallying all the Alliance warlords together and issuing battle plans on where to strike. Word is that he's chosen his pseudo-princess Astronema to oversee the execution of these plans."

Thomas heard Zedd's words and noticed a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "You don't sound like you have faith in Specter's plan."

"Please," the fleshman scoffed, "Dark Specter is Grand Monarch only because of politics; nothing more and nothing less. Unlike myself and other warlords, he lets his minions do all the work because he has little tactical knowledge and his power level is hardly enough to scratch the skin off a Putty. You'd think that he would have been easily taken down, but he was the one who orchestrated the 'great' Battle of Eltare."

Thomas almost squinted at the mention of his former mentor's planet. Zedd didn't notice.

"That one stroke of fortune is the only reason why he's still in charge and why he's so revered. Other than that one fluke, Specter has done less in his entire regime of twelve millennia than a Rugalian royal has done in a week. If Specter was truly an intimidating force, this rash planning would have come into fruition a long time ago when the Alliance was at its strongest and most unified. If that were the case, we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation."

"Good point," Thomas admitted as he took a sip of his brandy, "but you know that a unified Alliance means greater numbers. The old saying has always been 'There's power in numbers.'"

Zedd nodded. "In the prime of the Alliance, this would be true, but these days, that simply isn't the case. Despite the capture of Zordon and the number of unified supporters, the Alliance is actually at its weakest. Surprise is its only true advantage because no one will be expecting such a grand-scale assault for the reason being that it's spreads too thin. The Alliance has Astronema, whose forces are capable of widespread construction of warships and troops, but it's a strain on resources, which the Alliance is severely lacking. I'll admit one good thing; if there's one thing this plan has going for it, it's timing."

"Timing?"

"The timing couldn't have been better for a brash plan because of the impending chaos that spread throughout the universe," Zedd commented, "Kerovan rebels are on the brink of destruction in their constant defeats against Alliance forces. The Machine Empire, under the command of a new Emperor, is fighting a civil war that makes them susceptible to Alliance attack. Most of the forces of good have dedicated most of their resources in searching for the old bag Zordon. Even your Ranger pals from Aquitar are spread too thin battling HydroHog's Aquatic armies.

"But like I said, I have no faith the plan will succeed, because the best Alliance forces were beaten and so they shall be again."

Thomas finished off the last of the brandy remaining in his glass, his eyes affixed to the fleshman's visor. He tried to find any hidden motive to these speeches and discussions over battle strategies, but he didn't find any. He tried to push back any notion that what Zedd might be saying is true, but no matter how much he fought that notion, he had no choice to accept the fact that he was telling the truth. Of course, how Zedd gotten his hands on this bit of information was a complete mystery, but Thomas didn't care for the details.

Zedd stood from his chair. "I really did enjoy this banter, my boy. And I enjoyed our battles together. In the meantime, I suggest you head for the throne room. You have an... old friend awaiting you there."

With those last words, he vanished in a trail of red lightning. A moment later, Thomas slowly got up and walked out the exit to make his way to the throne room.

---

Shortly after stepping through the portal, Adam found himself alone in a darkened room, with only two outer windows illuminating the room. He took a close look around, seeing various test tubes, chemical containers, and surgeon tools scattered about. There were stretcher beds, workstations covered in grime, and other oddities laying around that Adam couldn't recognize. Adam walked towards a white sign on the wall closest to him and instantly recognized the various BIOHAZARD symbols and warnings, despite the foreign text.

_This must be some kind of lab_, he thought, _and a pretty messed-up one too._

Adam took a quick walk around the spacious lab in search of the exit. He eventually found a small metal door nearby, where light was escaping through the cracks. When Adam approached the door, however, he noticed that there was no opening mechanism on it and hence, no means of opening the door. Suddenly, Adam heard inhuman growls and was caught off-guard when the room began to shake lightly, as if a giant beast was approaching.

"What the hell?"

Adam turned to see the source of the growls and shaking in the form of a mutant beast that can only be described as a perverted amalgamation of the original Yellow and Pink Power Rangers. The helmet was more in common with the Pink Ranger's helmet, but with the addition of the two saber teeth. The body was a mishmash of yellow, pink, and white shades, and two sets of arms - one set yellow, one set pink - had gigantic gray crab claws. The belt buckle and boots were also a dark grey-color.

_Just great_, Adam thought, _Just what I don't need right now._

With great strength, the mutant leapt at Adam, who was able to roll out of the way. When the mutant landed, it caused a momentary shaking of the room that made Adam nearly lose his balance as he got back to his feet. Adam dashed at the mutant and delivered a quick jab to the chest, but the mutant merely shrugged the blow and Adam found himself clutching onto his fist in pain. Before he could recover, the mutant grabbed Adam with all four arms and held him firmly. Adam felt the immense pain of the maneuver and almost thought his ribs were about to crack. The mutant then hurled Adam to the further wall, where the Ranger crashed onto a lab table with various test tubes and empty containers, shattering them all.

Adam slowly got to his feet, clutching his left arm in pain. He saw the mutant slowly and methodically walk towards him, letting out an aura of invincibility. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to face the creature in his current condition, Adam summoned the two pieces of Zeoniser, did the pose, and clutched them together as he made the call.

"Zeo Ranger IV! Green!"

At the sound of the call, green light enveloped Adam and replaced him with the form of the Green Zeo Ranger. The Mutant slowly crossed its four arms together and slowly built up energy. The creature soon opened its arms apart, shooting a cascade of pink and yellow energy that Adam managed to dodge quickly. He looked back to his position and saw that the beam had practically melted the wall.

_This is going to be tougher than I thought._

---

She expected to brought to a cold dungeon, the throne room, a cavern, or even a death pit. But when Kimberly found herself outside standing before a long, dense strip of trees on a clear day, she had wondered what had gone wrong with the PortalCom. But that lasted for three seconds, before she took in the scope of her surroundings. Behind her was nothing but endless grassland, supposedly all flat with no hills or varied elevation. Looking back to the forest, Kim shook her head in disbelief, but decided to go ahead and venture into the forest.

The minute Kimberly stepped into the forest area, she momentarily felt a cold breeze blowing by her. Then she began to feel somewhat warmer, but nothing more than that. It was almost room temperature, prompting Kim to believe that all this was an illusion after all. That didn't change the fact that she had to find a way out of here and she continued onward. She was almost grateful of her petite size, because the trees were placed so close to each other she would have had a hard time squeezing through if she were any bigger. The environment was almost enough to make her claustrophobic.

After a half-hour of passing through narrow tree trunks, Kimberly finally found an open space where trees were scattered more openly. That allowed her to move a little faster. She had always kept in the same direction she had always gone because the trees on her left and right side almost seemed stuck together, as if it were a wall of logs with added tree branches.

After what seemed like an eternity of forest scavenging, Kimberly found an opening in the forest area, leading to the edge of a cliff. Standing in that opening was a human-looking female, clad in golden armor and holding an alien scimitar. Kim groaned as she recognized the person.

"Scorpina. You still alive?" Kim asked sarcastically.

"Funny," Scorpina said, "I was going to ask you the same question."

Kim shrugged. "I try."

Scorpina nodded and snapped her fingers. On cue, seven Rock-Armored Putties formed from the ground and quickly surrounded the former Pink Ranger, who went into a stance. From the distance, Scorpina watched as her minions were about to fight this intruder who had invaded her personal playpen.

---

Emerging from the randomized portal that quickly faded, Jason found himself in a large, open chamber that had sufficient lightning despite the absence of a light source or even an open window. The inward-dome ceiling of the chamber was considerably high and there were various scaffolds hanging above Jason, all of which looked as though they were about to fall at any given moment. Jason looked around and found the chamber to be completely empty, but he did have a feeling that he wasn't alone.

Shaking off his thoughts, he approached the sole opening in the chamber and walked towards it, but soon he took a few steps at a time and then completely stopped. He stared ahead at the doorway with convicted, hoping that the emerging obstacle was just an illusion created by his mind. But it wasn't; it was real and Jason soon found himself in a fighting stance.

Blocking the doorway, standing before Jason, was the master of this domain, Lord Zedd.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	11. Fight!

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 11: Fight!  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Note: The chapter's title should be pretty self-explanatory; here's where the fun begins. Enjoy and don't forget to leave me a review when you're done... enjoy.

---

Emerging from the randomized portal that quickly faded, Jason found himself in a large, open chamber that had sufficient lightning despite the absence of a light source or even an open window. The inward-dome ceiling of the chamber was considerably high and there were various scaffolds hanging above Jason, all of which looked as though they were about to fall at any given moment. Jason looked around and found the chamber to be completely empty, but he did have a feeling that he wasn't alone.

Shaking off his thoughts, he approached the sole opening in the chamber and walked towards it, but soon he took a few steps at a time and then completely stopped. He stared ahead at the doorway with conviction, hoping that the emerging obstacle was just an illusion created by his mind. But it wasn't; it was real and Jason soon found himself in a fighting stance.

Blocking the doorway, standing before Jason, was Lord Zedd, holding his signature Z-edged staff that had been instrumental in many dark spells and attacks. Jason knew that Zedd was a strong opponent physically and his magic attacks made things much more difficult, but Jason also remembered what Zedd had done to Thomas less than two years ago. That victory made Zedd cocky, so Jason could use that to his advantage.

He still had the power coin Rocky gave him on hand and thought of morphing, but knowing what happened with Adam and the black Power Coin, he didn't want to take the chance. He positioned himself in a offensive-minded stance, his right hand clutching onto the _d'tagh_ knife. On the other side, Zedd also assumed fighting position, holding his patented staff with both hands firmly.

"You're hopelessly outmatched, ex-Ranger," Zedd taunted, "Remember that it was I who've beaten your friend into a bloody pull no more than a year ago. I just hope that you will provide more of a challenge that I won't take pity on you."

Jason smiled. "Then I'll try not to disappoint, Zedd."

The two warriors dashed at each other and soon the fight was on. Zedd blocked each of Jason's many kicks with his staff, but each attack was causing him to recoil a step back. The two would make their way up a flight of stairs connected to one of the elevated platforms in the chamber. Occasionally, Jason would attack with the knife, which Zedd would block, but each knife shot blocked was causing damage to the staff. This occurred for several seconds until Zedd was nearing the edge of the platform. Noticing that the fleshman was cornered, Jason unleashed a hard sidekick to the side of Zedd's face with enough momentum to knock Zedd off the platform and crashing down on the main floor. Zedd quickly got back on his feet, only to get knocked back by a flying Jason's tornado kick attack.

Jason stepped in for another attack, but the fleshman quickly struck the former Red Ranger's stomach, disarming the Ranger of his knife. Jason stepped back and clutched his stomach area in pain while Zedd looked on, ready to take advantage of his stunned adversary. Before Jason knew it, he felt the full brunt of Zedd's fist across the jaw that would have been enough to dislocate it. Jason managed to recover quickly to block another punch from Zedd and counter with an uppercut that caused the dark lord to stagger back several paces. Jason quickly grabbed the knife and tossed at Zedd, who managed drop to the floor so that the knife would impale itself into the wall behind him.

"Come on, Zedd!" Jason called out as the fleshman slowly recovered, "Where's your bag of tricks?"

"Foolish human," Zedd growled, "That can easily be arranged..."

---

Even in the guise of Zeo Ranger IV, Adam found himself leaping around the room avoiding the pounding blows and energy bolts of the mutant Rangerbeast. He would occasionally fire quick shots with his Zeo Pistol, but the shots did more to aggravate the beast than to harm it. The mutant caught Adam on mid-jump with a fierce uppercut that sent him crashing through a close-by shelf, shattering most of the test tubes stored. Adam was laying down for a moment to fight off the grogginess, and slowly lifted his head to see the mutant staying put on the other side of the room. Adam looked around to find any other surprises, then noticed several test tubes still intact. He noticed these tubes were filled with a greenish chemical, an idea popped to mind and he quickly jumped to his feet.

"Hey, ugly!" Adam cried out, "It's pick-on-the-frog day!!"

It was a lousy one-liner and not one of his best either, but it enraged the Rangerbeast enough to leap at Adam. The first part of his plan accomplished, Adam went to step two. He grabbed the two test tubes of chemical that had managed to survive the battle and tossed them at the mutant. The tubes shattered on impact and the greenish chemical splashed over the mutant, crashing on the floor. Adam was lucky to have moved out of the way in time, or he would have been squashed by the mutant. The room shook, but because Adam was still in the air, he didn't feel much of the effect. Landing gracefully on the other side, he immediately powered down, causing the uniform of Zeo Ranger IV to disappear. From his jacket pocket, Adam pulled out a palm-sized silver sphere and held on to it as the mutant regained its footing.

"This is it," Adam told himself, "It's now or never."

With a quick overhand toss, Adam lunged the silver sphere at the mutant, who continued to dash at Adam. When the sphere made contact with the mutant, it immediately shot out several bolts of electricity at the mutant, whose agonizing growls were deafening. A minute would pass before the lightshow finished and the mutant was incinerated, leaving behind a pile of dust and pieces of burnt clay flew all over the room. Adam almost felt sorry for the creature... almost.

Adam glanced back to the metal door as it began to slowly creak open. Adam left the creature's remains behind and walked through the door, which slammed shut behind him and disappeared. Adam found himself in a narrow hallway, with no markings to indicate his current whereabouts. He began his search for the main hall, where he was supposed to meet the others.

---

Scorpina looked on as Kimberly fought against the rock putties for the past several minutes. She hadn't expected the girl to last this long without the use of her morphing powers, believing that the girl had improved since she last saw her, but she comforted herself in the thought that it wouldn't be long. Kimberly did a couple of backflips to increase distance between herself and the putties, but the five would catch up with her. She pulled out one of her orbs and tossed it to the putties, causing a small explosion to knock the five down. Kimberly pulled out the short sword from its holder slung on her back and held it firmly with both hands as the putties dashed at them.

With the sword in hand, Kimberly had a much easier time with the putties, blocking their every move like clockwork. Even so, she will still outnumbered and her foes were still much more powerful than she was. At that moment, Kim tossed the sword pulled a rusted object out of her back pocket and gripped it firmly, an object that Scorpina instantly recognized. It was the original Power Morpher, having suffered some rust and damage over years of inactivity. Scorpina was amused by the sight.

"Please," the assassin scoffed, "You know your morphing powers are gone. I'd hate to see you have delusions of grandeur over being able to morph."

Kimberly allowed herself a devious smirk. "Who said anything about morphing?"

With her other hand, she pulled the coin out of its holding place and gripped on it firmly. Tossing aside the rusted object, the fist holding the coin began to glow with pink energy, which soon enveloped the rest of Kim's body. A rock putty close by made the unfortunate mistake of striking at Kim, as he was met with a swinging backhand from the former Ranger that resulted in the shattering of the putty. Scorpina looked ahead with horror as Kimberly jumped at the second closest putty and shattered that one with a diving fist. Kim took a quick glance at her closed fist and smiled wickedly as she felt the rush of power flowing through her body.

_Billy was right about the coins_, she thought, _I could get used to this._

A third rock putty leapt at Kimberly, who immediately noticed the flying target. Instinctively, she extended her closed fist at the putty. As soon as she opened her hand up, the putty, who was still a distance away from Kim, was knocked back and impacted the farthest tree, where it shattered into several rocks. The two remaining putties dashed at her with fists extended overhead. Kim looked on unrattled and place her two hands together, where a small, but growing ball of pink energy formed. When the putties were close enough and the balls had reached a desirable size, Kimberly launched the energy ball at the putties, whom turned away and ran. The ball overcame the two footsoldiers and completely destroyed them.

All that remained was Scorpina, who was in absolute shock over what has just happened. She saw the former Pink Ranger's body continually bleed off pinkish energy to the ground. She was somehow able to hide her fear from Kim, who slowly turned to face the scorpion woman. A devilish smile crept up the face of Kimberly, whose eyes were now glowing white with a pink tint.

"Come on, Scorpy," she taunted, "Or are you scared I might break you into itty bitty pieces like I did your table scrap?"

An enraged Scorpina launched herself at Kimberly, but the former Pink Ranger executed a backflip to avoid the scorpion woman's attack and give herself enough distance between herself and her enemy. Kim did a full three-sixty degree spin slowly and methodically and when she finished the turn, several throwing knives were suddenly shot at Scorpina. The first few were deflected with her sword, but one caught her arm, cutting an open wound as it flew by. Scorpina held her wound, letting out a whelp of pain, giving the opportunity Kimberly needed to finish this quickly. Suddenly, Kim felt an emmence pain all over and dropped to her knees, as she felt the rush of power suddenly leave her body. Scorpina, still clutching her wound, saw Kim suddenly crumbled to the grown in agony and smiled.

"So the tide has turned," the assassin told herself, "I'll make this as quick and painless as possible."

---

Shortly after Rocky, he was teleported to the Astro Megaship, the Space Rangers' base of operations and home for the past year. While on board, he looked around and noticed the extensive battle damage the ship had suffered. Several decks were deemed off-limits because of hull breaches, several open panels exposing burnt circuits were common, and pieces of debris and destroyed stretches of wall was evident in the lower decks, where the Megaship stored its zord transformation units.

After a brief conversation with the Space Rangers over their current situation and receiving an emergency signal from another world, it was decided that Rocky would be loaned the Megashuttle, the secondary vehicle of the Space Rangers, which was just a regular NASADA shuttle upgraded with Eltarian technology such as weapons, shielding, and transporters. It took an hour for Andros to teach Rocky all that he needed to know about basic flight controls and other functions.

"You sure you want to do this?" Rocky asked the Red Ranger.

"It's better off," Andros said, "It'll be a while before we're able to repair the Megazord processors on the Astro Megaship, so we won't be needing the shuttle until they get fixed. So you're better off taking it."

"But you'll be defenseless! If what TJ says is true, you don't have any-." Rocky stopped talking when Andros raised his hand.

"This is the best thing we could do," the Kerovan said, "Your friends need you to be on alert and we need to check this situation on Rigel Ten out. In any case, the Megaship isn't going to be any better off whether we have a shuttle or not."

After some thought and reluctance on Rocky's part, he nodded in agreement. He took a brief look around the Megashuttle before turning to face Andros, extending his hand to the Kerovan. Andros grabbed it and gave a firm shake.

"Good luck," he told Rocky.

Rocky nodded. "You too."

---

_What the hell is going on_, Kimberly thought as the excruciating pain began to overwhelm her. The power coin's effects are starting to wear off and she would be a sitting duck against a merciless Scorpina, who openly savored the opportunity to finish off this former Ranger once and for all. Slowly, she approached the fallen Ranger with sword in hand. Kimberly knew this and suddenly she felt less pain, quickly replaced with a resolve to finish this fight off quickly.

The she realized that she still had an explosive orb on her, so she pulled it out of her pocket and hid it from view. When Scorpina approached Kim and grabbed her, Kim turned and rolled away, tossing the orb to Scorpina's face. When Kim's roll was done, she recovered in time to see the orb explode right in front of Scorpina's face. The blast was suShe could hear the inhuman squeals and screams of pain as Scorpina desperately tried to regain some semblance of composure. Kim stood up slowly, her own pain present but no longer a handicap, and picked up the ninja blade she had dropped.

After a minute passed, Kim saw Scorpina lunged towards her, her once-beautiful visage burnt and peeling off to reveal a beastly face. In typical fashion, Kim felt like vomiting but fought the urge and held the blade over her head. Scorpina sped up a little faster, producing another curved sword in her hand and dashed at Kimberly. The two soon clashed swords together. Moves were either blocked or countered, neither one making much mistakes. But because of her inexperience with the use of a sword, Kimberly was fighting a losing battle and she knew it. It took a crucial mistake by Kim for Scorpina to knock the sword from her hand. Kim backflipped several times to avoid Scorpina's sword swipes. However, backflipping too many times had Kim staggering out of the forest area and close to the edge of a cliff, where there was only the roaring and violent tidal waves of the deep sea below.

Scorpina ran at Kim with her sword raised high. Instinctively, Kim ran towards Scorpina and executed a roundhouse kick that separated her opponent from the sword. She soon followed that up by quickly flipping upward on top Scorpina so she was in a handstand position while over Scorpina's head, dropping behind with both her arms wrapped around Scorpina's neck. As a result, Scorpina tumbled backwards along with Kim and both hit the ground hard. As they landed, Kimberly heard a loud cracking sound. She had a sore pain in the back of her head as a result of the whiplash, but didn't feel numb. She sighed in relief when she moved her arms and legs. She flipped upward and turned to see Scorpina laying on the ground motionless. Kim knelt closer, checking for a pulse, but she couldn't find one.

_Her neck's broken,_ she thought, _she's dead_.

Exhausted, Kimberly dropped to her knees, breathing heavily. She then pulled out her power coin and stared at it for a moment, but her eyes blinked successively when she noticed that the coin, once rusted and on the verge of falling apart, was now whole and had a brighter shine than when she had first received it. The enormous charge the coin had produced early on, along with the pain, were gone; almost as if she never had it.

"Okay," she said as she slipped the coin into her pocket. "Now I've got to get out of here."

As she said that last statement, the cliff, sky, and forest slowly faded away, leaving Kimberly in a small room with green walls. The wall behind her opened up and Kim walked through it, bringing her to one of the castle's many hallways. She took a quick glance at Scorpina's fallen body before turning away as the wall closed. With that done, Kimberly began looking for the main hall, where they would supposed to be meeting.

---

For the past fifteen minutes, Jason had been on the defensive, narrowly blocking and dodging many of Lord Zedd's quick strikes and vicious blows. He was almost amazed that he was able to last this long considering Tommy was beaten in roughly half the time. Even Zedd was impressed and genuinely surprised that this human - this former Ranger - was able to last as long as he did, although the cold mask hid this from his opponent. After a crucial mistake by Zedd, Jason landed several palm strikes to Zedd's stomach and followed up with several kicks, but a mistimed roundhouse allowed Zedd to aim the edge of his staff at Jason. Before Jason could react, he was struck by lightning from the staff and knocked to the ground, his body smoking and aching in pain.

"And so it ends," Zedd proclaimed. "It's time to end this once and for all."

Zedd stood valiantly over the fallen Jason, who was trying to build enough strength just to get back on his feet but couldn't. Zedd held the staff over Jason's head momentarily to "take aim" then slowly swung it overhead as far back as he possibly could. Jason waited for the proper moment to block, but felt a surge of energy the likes of which he had never felt. His instinct was forcing him to extend his fist overhead for no reason as Zedd began to swing the staff down at his foe. As the staff made its way to Jason, Jason let out a warcry as he swung his closed fist at the staff, hoping to block the blow. When the staff was extended horizontally over the former Ranger, Zedd knew the end was near, but what followed was a loud sound of two metal weapons clashing against each other. Zedd looked on as Jason suddenly had a familiar sword in his hand and he thought it was a figment of his imagination, but it wasn't. It was real.

Zedd's staff clashed with the Power Sword, the weapon of the original Red Ranger. It was an enchanted weapon that was thought gone along with the powers of the original Rangers - something Zedd had personally seen to - and yet here it was in this human's hand. Zedd couldn't believe it... he wouldn't believe it. No words could describe the absolute shock of seeing this weapon again, the weapon that could destroy him in his weak state. Jason could hardly believe or understand it, but at this point, he didn't care. What matter was that the odds were now even.

With the fleshman stunned by the sudden appearance of the sword, Jason delivered a quick kick to the sternum that knocked Zedd back a couple steps and stood up. Zedd attempted another swing with his staff, but Jason blocked the attack and began his own series of sword swipes and kicks, all of which Zedd was able to block. Soon after, the attacks came out much faster and hit much harder, not giving Zedd any chance to strike back because he was busy blocking all the attacks with his staff and taking steps backward. Zedd was quickly being overwhelmed as the attacks of Jason were executed with more speed and ferocity than humanly possible, almost to the point where Zedd would see triple-images of Jason attacking and trying to counter all that was being thrown at him. After what seemed like eternity, a well-placed sword strike from Jason shattered Zedd's staff and the Red Ranger knocked down the fleshman with a fierce sidekick to the head, cracking the visor at the same time.

Jason looked down on his feet and saw the two staff pieces turn into a single serpent snake, roughly four feet in length. Slowly, it was slithering away from the Ranger and back to its master, who was lying against the wall with a cracked visor. Jason held the Power Sword downwards with both hands and in a split-second, drove the enchanted sword through the serpent. Both he and Zedd could hear the sickening squeals of the serpent as it gasped to retain whatever life was quickly leaving it. The snake tried to wiggle free but to no avail, and Jason twisted the sword around to cause more pain to the snake, as blue blood started gushing from the wound. Soon, the serpent was motionless and turned to dust; the source of Lord Zedd's power destroyed for the moment.

Jason slowly turned his attention to the fallen fleshman, who had gathered his bearings and stood up firmly. Jason extended the tip of the sword to Lord Zedd's neck, who did not put up much of a fight anymore and was breathing heavily. Jason's eyes were affixed to Zedd's visor and for a brief moment, both were silent as the two continued to stare back at one another.

"Where is he, Zedd?" Jason asked.

"If... If he's followed instructions," the fleshman stated, panting heavily, "he should... be in the... the main throne room."

Jason dropped the sword and took a long, hard look at Zedd before speaking, "Take this chance to leave this place and never come back."

Zedd huffed and stared at the man who had beaten him cleanly. He still hated him for what he was and what he had done, but then there was a new sensation hitting Zedd that replaced those feelings of hatred. Something he hadn't expected to feel towards anyone since his younger days, but something he couldn't properly identify with. But if he had to give this feeling towards Jason a name, he would have to call it respect.

"You've proven yourself to be a worthy opponent, Jason Scott," he said, "I just hope you're prepared for the war that awaits you in the coming days."

With that said, the defeated and humbled Zedd vanished in red lightning and smoke, leaving Jason alone in the large arena. Jason left through the main exit and proceed to search for the main hall that he was told about. However, the last bit that Zedd mention got to Jason.

_War?_ he thought, _What war?_

To be continued...


	12. Duel to the Death

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 12: Duel to the Death  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

Sorry for the delay, folks. Here's the new chap, a.k.a. the main event. Enjoy and review.

---

The desolate throne room of Lord Zedd's palace was practically empty when Thomas Oliver stepped through the doors. Not just a lack of people, but the usual decorations, chairs, and other things were missing as well. He didn't find this odd, but it did draw an air of suspicion. From the distance, he could hear footsteps echoing throughout the throne room. Nothing left to do, Thomas turned towards the refurbished balcony. Once providing an open view of the moon's surface and beyond, it was now completely sealed with an organic substance, oozing a perculiar transparent slime to the floor. Thomas slowly turned away and, standing before the giant fan, was the reason for his being here.

His clone... although at this point, he didn't look like it. He still had the long, grayed hair and the face was almost undeniably his own, but the clone's skin was blue-colored and his eyes were completely white with a greenish tint. Several blood veins were visible on the sides of his face, the nose had attained a much pointier shape, and the goatee that he had sported before had grown into a full beard, bits of white and grey scattered about. He looked older to boot, although not by much.

"It's been a long time, Tommy-boy," the clone mused, "don't you have anything to say to me?"

Thomas sighed. "I'd thought the dark side no longer had any control over you. I guess I was wrong."

"I don't have a dark side, Tommy-boy," the clone admitted. "I am the dark side. That's my driving force, the force that has kept me alive the past couple centuries."

"I don't believe that. Last time I left you, you wanted to stay behind and do some good. Now I see you and you'll doing this?"

"It's my nature to regain what was stolen from me," the clone told him, "and I was going to do by any means needed. Even if it meant screwing with a few lives, manipulate the playing pieces, or even kill them off.

Thomas almost flinched. The rage that was slowly building within him jumped up a notch, but Thomas managed to contain himself for the moment. The clone's choice of words were intended for him to lash out, but he wouldn't fall for that trick again.

"What did you do with Kat?"

The clone smiled. "I didn't do anything with Kat. Other than blow her house up."

That did it. Thomas sprinted at the clone, grabbed his coat, and pinned him against a nearby pillar. The clone flinched as Thomas' grasp on him grew firm. He didn't expect this kind of behavior from his original.

"Oh come now, Tommy-boy," he taunted, "You don't want to do that. That's a Green Ranger trait."

Thomas felt a sharp pain on his chest, inadvertently letting go of the clone. The clone soon followed his mental attack with a uppercut that knocked Thomas to the ground. A wicked smirk crept onto the clone's face as he saw his original getting back on his feet, wiping the blood off his lower lip.

"And you're no Green Ranger!"

"For once, you're absolutely right." Thomas replied before driving his fist into the clone's chest. The clone recoiled back a couple steps and was soon tossed back further with a blast from Thomas' spectral blasters, both of them continually firing shots and hitting various areas of the clone's body as he was airborne. Much to Thomas' surprise, the blasts did very little damage, nor was the clone feeling any intense pain. Thomas tossed aside the blasters and leapt at the clone, both legs firmly together in a dropkick position. The clone recovered quickly enough to sidestep the dropkick and roll away. The clone and his original faced each other, both of them taking similar stances, and grunted.

The clone extended his hand and fired several green bolts at Thomas, who swiftly dodged all the shots that flew his way. Thomas picked up the closest blaster and fired several shots at the clone, who did not stagger to each blast and slowly approached his original. Thomas continued to fire blasters without pause as the twisted mirror of himself drew closer. When the clone was almost close enough, Thomas landed a swift soccer kick between the clone's legs. The clone groaned in pain as the pain to his extremities grew unbearable and he staggered back a step, all semblance of a threat and defense gone. Thomas delivered a quick roundhouse kick across the clone's face, knocking the inhuman fighter down to the ground as he grimaced in continual pain.

Thomas stood still for a moment staring past the proverbial mirror into the very eyes of the demon itself. From his inner pocket of his coat, he pulled out an old-style revolver that had not seen much use in years. As Thomas slowly raised the revolver to the clone's forehead, the clone saw something in Thomas Oliver that he had never seen before. Something he had always thought his original would be incapable of having. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.

"Do it, Tommy-boy," the clone said, "Give in to your hatred."

Rage, the same rage that had been building in his soul since the death of his would-be fiancee, the rage that had grown bigger with each passing day. Anger, the only emotion he feeds on, the anger that would multiply each time he reached a supposed dead end. Hatred, a faltering trait that had brought out the intents and dark dreams that he shunned long ago. A younger Tommy Oliver would have claimed these feelings weren't a part of him. A younger Tommy Oliver would renounce his dark side and claim he would never succumb to its temptations. A younger Tommy Oliver would walk away from any situation with his head up, regardless of its costs and sacrifices.

But that Tommy Oliver is long gone, shattered and destroyed by an event that filled him with bitterness, guilt, and an immeasurable desire for revenge. What remained was slowly transformed into a man with a new light on things, a man who saw all his hard work fighting monsters and evil warlords from outer space burn in dust, a man who drifted from his closest friends because he wanted to pursue the one who committed the heinous act on his own. But as his mind shifted to these thoughts, his hand held firmly to the revolver.

"What are you waiting for, you gutless son of a bitch?!" the clone screamed, "Kill me! Put me out of my misery!"

Thomas's face grew dim and for a second, the clone thought he would actually do it. But before the clone could say anything else, Thomas lowered the revolver slightly and extended his other hand. The clone knew that even with all this rage, his original would never...

"Give me your coin," Thomas said, "and I'll consider it."

The clone nodded in agreement and pulled the coin from his pocket. He tossed it at Thomas, who caught it with his free hand and placed it in his own pocket. Thomas took a step back and tossed aside the revolver. The clone also let out a cough that could have easily passed as a laugh.

"I knew that you wouldn't have the guts to kill me," he said bitterly as he slowly got back to his feet. "Take your sorry coin! I don't really need it anymore!"

Thomas took a step back as the clone pressed the palms of his hands together and recited a prayer in an alien language. As the clone muttered the prayer, his body began to glow and the glow caused the clone's heavy trenchcoat to be vaporized. On the back formed two pairs of long, white-feathered wings with a tint of green on the edges of the feathers. The blue-colored skin soon became a darker blue and his eyes, which were merely dark before, were now a bloody crimson glow. At first glance, it seemed like he had grown a foot, but then Thomas realized his newfound ability of flight. Thomas stood there dumbstruck and didn't know what to do.

"You should have killed me, Tommy-boy!" the clone cried out. "Now you're going to feel my true power!!"

Unable to act in time, Thomas was hit with a thunderous blast of energy that sent him crashing through the walls of several rooms. By the time he had hit his seventh wall, he crumbled to the ground, groaning in pain. Regaining his senses, he looked up to see the angelic form air dashing straight for him at a blazing speed. By the time Thomas was on his feet, he was met with a hard-hitting clothesline, sending through another wall and causing him to tumbled down several flights of stairs in the vertical tower. The pain was getting unbearable for Thomas, it was almost a miracle he was able to merely survive each blow, let alone be able to recover quickly.

Standing back on his feet, he saw the winged beast that was his clone dive straight for him. Thomas pulled out his Zeoniser morpher, but saw that it had been damaged somehow. It would need extended repairs and Thomas had no time for that. Suddenly, time seemed to slow down and reality somewhat shifted. The thunder-like sound of the diving enemy grew silent and all Thomas could hear were voices, none of which he could recognize, all speaking at the same time sounding like gibberish. On instinct, he slowly pulled out the green coin and saw that it was glowing a faint green. From his other pocket, he plucked the white coin, which glowed to match the intensity of light emanating from the green coin. Slowly, Thomas clasped both coins together and contained the light within his hands. When he took them apart, only one coin sat within his hands, alternating between green and white auras glowing brightly.

He had the morpher. He had the coin. What's to stop him?

"Here goes nothing." Thomas muttered to himself, quickly slipping the glowing hybrid coin into the old broken morpher. To his amazement, the morpher began glowing as soon as he slipped the coin into its slot. When the glowing stopped, Thomas found himself holding a fully functional power morpher, its damage seemingly repaired. With a renewed sense of purpose, he quickly raised the morpher into the air and let out a cry of pure rage.

By chance, the morphing process worked. Soon after being enveloped in light, the form of Thomas Oliver faded, leaving only the familiar form of the original Green Ranger, except the helmet now had a silver streak and the shield was much more sturdier than before. Thomas felt as if he was welcoming an old friend, although he felt somewhat naked without the Dragon Dagger by his side.

A second of admiring his new form, Green Ranger quickly cocked his head upward, seeing his mutant clone dive straight down at him. With a thrust, Green Ranger leapt high to meet with his airborne opponent. At close proximity, Green Ranger threw a hard right hand across the clone's jaw, throwing him off-course and causing him to crash to the ground. Green Ranger, still airborne, was able to control his rising height and began dropping, facing his foe. The clone attempted to fly up at him, but was met with an ongoing barrage of green energy orbs. While he managed to block one shot and evade another, another struck him in the chest and the rest followed suit, pounding the clone as he crashed through the stone stairs and landed on solid ground several floors below.

Green Ranger landed gingerly on both feet and white light enveloped the Ranger, bright enough that the clone flinched and covered his eyes. When he dropped his arm down, he saw the White Ranger standing where the Green Ranger had been. The White Ranger was in familiar garb, although the golden gauntlets on the gloves and boots were replaced with the traditional gold diamond patterns. The clone shook off his dizziness and was able to back on his feet, but was met with a diving fist to the shoulder blade from White Ranger before he could act.

The blow was painful, enough for the clone to clutch on his shoulder. Noticing his opponent staggering, White Ranger channeled all his strength and power into one mighty uppercut, sending the dazed clone into the air once more. White Ranger looked up for a moment and then extended his right hand high as he saw the enemy fall. A white beam formed from his raised hand, but did not shoot at the enemy. The clone's flailing body grew wider and seemed to fall on top of the White Ranger, but when he was close, he suddenly stopped. The clone did feel a sharp pain on his chest, the feathers quickly falling off his bloodied wings. The clone mustered enough strength to look 'down' to see the source of his pain; being impaled by the White Ranger's Silver Broadsword, a weapon that had rarely seen combat.

White Ranger tossed the clone aside with the sword still impaled through his body. He studied the clone as he fought to gain some air, but blood bled from his nose and he coughed out crimson liquid. White Ranger stared aimlessly at his copy as he struggled to maintain his life. The clone's eyes soon went white and the twitching stopped. A moment later, the rotting corpse slowly turned into a pile of dust. Such was the end of the clone.

White Ranger quickly demorphed and thus remained Thomas Oliver in his battered armor. Thomas looked over with the morpher in his hand and saw that it had returned to its damaged state. The coin, however, was still glowing. Pulling the coin out and tossing the morpher aside, Thomas saw the single coin glow once more and splitting back to the respective Green Dragon and White Tiger coins, then slipped the two away in separate pockets. Thomas looked up the damaged staircase and made his way back up, careful not to slip on any debris laying around.

When he arrived on the top floor and back in the throne room, he saw his friends standing there, looking around to figure out what has just happened. Thomas' face held like stone, but gave an appreciative nod to his friends, who nodded back. Jason took a couple steps forward and paused, as his face contorted from relief to puzzlement. Adam and Kimberly, from a distance, saw what Jason saw and were equally puzzled.

Curious as to what they were looking at, Thomas turned to see the clone's spirit fly straight for his original, but Thomas was quick to dodge the flying specter. As a result, the spirit continued to fly at the target ahead of him, who just happened to be Jason. Jason did not move, nor did he flinch. Instead, he pulled out the experimental laser pistol, aimed it at the spirit, and fired. The beam flew straight at the spirit and both light sources collided with each other. The spirit was destroyed on impact.

Thomas rose up to see Jason holding the blaster in his hand. Once again, Jason pulled his ass out of the fire when all was over and done with. Upon taking a closer look at the weapon in the Red Ranger's hand, Thomas' face shifted from the grimness to one of awe and amazement, the first time in several months that he had felt such emotions. From the distance, Adam and Kimberly joined up with the two.

"Is that the laser gun Billy was building last year?" Thomas asked.

Jason sighed. "Yep."

"Did he upgrade it or modify it?" Adam inquired.

Jason shook his head. "Nope."

Kim slumped her shoulders. "You mean that's all it took to finish this?!"

"Yep," Jason replied. He then turned to Thomas. "You okay, bro?"

"No, I'm not," answered Thomas grimly, "It'll take time before I'll be okay, Jason."

On cue, a loud boom sound echoed through the halls of the palace and in the sanctums of the wrecked throne room. The former Rangers looked around see what could have been causing the sounds of explosions, but were then met with slightly rumblings of the floor. It wasn't long before the ceiling of the room began to show cracks.

"What's going on?" Kim called out.

"The Palace is imploding," Adam realized, "We have to get out of here!"

"I got an idea," Thomas said, "but I'm not sure it'll work."

Jason was about say something, but paused when he saw Thomas pull out a small control pad with a blinking red button on top. Before anyone could react to the device, Thomas firmly pushed down the button and...

To be concluded...


	13. The War Begins

POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 13: The War Begins (Epilogue)  
Written by DTM666

Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.

This is it, folks. The final chapter of Power Rangers: Breakdown. What lies ahead, you ask? Read on...

---

"Let's go, Justin," William Cranston told Justin Stewart as they stood before the glowing portal, "_Project Prodigy_ awaits us."

Side by side, the two stepped into the portal, their bodies engulfed into the light source. Justin was almost taken aback by the sudden impact of cold air that caught him off-guard, but it wasn't enough for him to panic. He turned to Billy, who seemed completely calm and relieved when he stepped in. Justin didn't think up any ideas.

When the two Blue Rangers emerged from the portal, they found themselves in a darkened chamber. The portal behind quickly vanished, prompting Justin to let out a gasp. He was at wits' end, but didn't want Billy to notice. Not that it would matter anyway, because Billy also seemed somewhat anxious over the ordeal. When the two took several steps, there was a slight humming of an energy core powering up and before the Rangers could react, the lights went on to reveal the details of the chamber.

At first glance, it almost looked liked a carbon copy of the old Command Center that once served as the headquarters of the Power Rangers. The command consoles were set-up in a circular position, the columns of lights were placed in precisely the same positions, and sitting in the forefront of the chamber was a green-tinted version of Zordon's command module. However, this chamber was much more spacious, lacked the starfield backdrop of the old Center, was generally of older design, as the consoles seemed more archaic than Billy was accustomed to.

"The fourth chamber?" Justin blurted out.

"I assume so." Billy answered, though he wasn't too sure.

The furthest command console had a blinking light, bright enough for Billy to take notice. When he approached, he saw that the light came from a circular push button. Billy turned to Justin and nodded before turning back and pushing the button. Suddenly, an extra light activated, illuminating the chamber slightly and soon enough, a strange robot figure appeared and took control of the other consoles.

Justin's eyes widened as he realized who this was. "Is that Alpha?"

Billy nodded slightly. "It would appear to be an earlier model. Probably a first-generation Alpha."

"Oh my! Oh my! What is all this shaking?" the robot Alpha said, much to the surprise of Justin and Billy, who didn't feel any shaking whatsoever. "It's the big one! I know it! I know it! We'll shake apart!"

Billy approached the Alpha robot closer and studied the robot a little closer. He tried to get a good look at the robot's neck, where an identifier label was usually placed. Billy's eyes widened when the label identified this mechanical lifeform as the same Alpha 5 that had been Zordon's assistant in the Command Center. Billy looked up to see a floating head - presumably Zordon, but not looking much like him - form in the energy tube.

"Calm down, Alpha," 'Zordon' said, "It's Rita. She's escaped and attacking the planet."

"How can you be sure, Zoltar?" the Alpha robot shrieked, to which Billy raised an eyebrow. _Zoltar?_

"I can sense her evil vibrations," Zoltar said, "Push the big button to initiate Plan B. That will it teleport to us the most dangerous group of ruthless, underhanded, self-absorbed, and over-emotional humans in the area."

"NO!" Alpha cried in horror, "NOT TEENAGERS!"

That last comment caused both Blue Rangers to smile. Justin approached the busy Alpha robot and threw his hand in a slow, judo-chop manner at the Alpha robot, but the hand merely phased through Alpha without disrupting the robot's work.

"Oh, now I get it," Justin said, "It's a holographic presentation. That's why there's no shaking."

Billy nodded. "Apparently, this is something that was floating around the memory packs, but this doesn't seem right."

When the five teenagers emerged from nowhere as expected, Billy could recognize his old friends, the original Power Rangers, who also seemed to be part of the holographic presentation. Jason Scott, Zack Taylor, Kimberly Hart, and of course, himself. They looked somewhat younger than before and equally perplexed by their surroundings. However, he didn't recognize the girl with the white top and yellow khakis. And the thick frame of those glasses young Billy was wearing made old Billy roll his eyes in bewilderment and annoyance. Even at his most 'nerdish', he would never wear Steve Urkel's frames.

"Wow," Justin said in awe, "so this is how the Power Rangers got started?"

"More or less," Billy answered, "although I don't know who the girl in the yellow is."

Billy and Justin watched as the five teens left and Alpha began to sulk about things not going so well. For the next few minutes, nothing happened except for Alpha and Zoltar observing the five Rangers who were trying to make their way home. The next few moments happened exactly as Billy remembered, although even that has its discrepancies. Rita's fireball caught the teens off-guard and soon they were surrounded by Putties, just as it happened in real life. The teens were having trouble with the Putties and were subsequently defeated, as it happened in real life, although realistically they had an easier time despite being defeated. Billy groaned in embarrassment as the five teens called for help in high-pitched voices that rivaled Rita Repulsa's own screechy voice in annoyance. Finally, the five teens morphed, although the transformation procedures were different, but the end result was the five teens in the familiar colors of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

"They did it, Zoltar!"

Despite being different, Billy found the projection to be eerily similar to his first romp in blue tights. To see this from Zordon... er, Zoltar's point of view in the Command Center offered a unique perspective. He soon turned to Justin, who saw the events unfold not through a Ranger's eyes, but through the eyes of a wondering 12-year-old boy who got to witness a story that very few people have seen. Billy saw not just the awe-struck expression in this kid's eyes, but also the sheer wonder.

"Enjoying yourself, Justin?"

"Yeah." he said, "I never knew you were such a nerd."

Billy merely gave a cold stare that made Justin shut up. Their attention turned to the viewing screen, where the Rangers were battling King Sphinx, or Fly Guy as the projection referred to him. Eventually, the battle ended and the projection shifted again, bringing back the five teens as young Billy explained their adventures with a bit of excitement, which made old Billy perplexed. When young Billy attempted a leg split and hurt himself, Justin turned away to hide his laughter, while old Billy let out a painful groan. The rest of the projection seemed trivial and after the Rangers agreeing to fight on, the extra projections deactivated themselves, leaving Billy and Justin alone in the command chamber.

"That was fun," Justin said amusedly, "But what does that have to do with anything?"

His answer soon came with ferocious shaking, and blinking lights. Billy held firmly to a console to maintain his footing while Justin did the same. The shaking was vicious, but nothing threatening, as the chamber showed no signs of falling apart.

"What's happening, Billy?!"

"I don't know!"

The shaking soon stopped. In the green column of light before them, another spectral image appeared of another head. This head seemed more familiar to the Zordon that Billy recognized, but there wasn't the regular distortions of image delays that projection tubes of the past and present had been, and the image was presented in a crisp fashion that the head's movements and lip motions were almost fluid without flaw.

"Zoltar?" Billy blurted out.

The head twitched. "_Billy, please. I need not be insulted by reference of that name._"

Billy smiled smugly. "Sorry, Zordon."

The sage nodded politely but noticed the younger visitor. "_Despite my vague recollections, I still recognize you, young Justin._"

"But I thought you were captured, Zordon!" Justin cried out, "How can you be here now?"

"_Actually, I am not really here,_" the sage said, "_but by accessing this command chamber, I am able to communicate with you, if only for a short time._"

"Are you alright?" Billy inquired, despite knowing better.

"_For the moment,_" Zordon said, "_Dark Specter is slowly draining my powers, but I'm still relatively strong. But let's not worry about this for now. Am I correct in assuming you are the process of initiating _Project Prodigy"

Billy nodded. "We were going to do months ago, but problems abound."

"_I understand,_" the sage said, "_I had a feeling you were going to execute it sometime. There are two ways of implementing it; the short way and the long way._"

Billy raised an eyebrow. "I was going to do the long way. Times are hectic these days."

Zordon nodded. "Correct, Billy. The forces of evil are gathering together in an attempt to conquer the universe in one fell swoop. Even as we speak, my energy tube is being transferred to another location. I cannot say where."

While Billy seemed to understand what Zordon meant, Justin was the only one confused by all this. "If there's a short way of doing this, why don't we do that instead?"

"_The short way is faster, Justin,_" Zordon explains, "_but it leaves the project exposed to evil forces to disrupt it or even gain possession of it to use for their own twisted purposes. The long way focuses on shielding Prodigy from evil forces, but it does not work as quickly. It is much more preferable this way._"

Billy noticed the odd flicking of Zordon's image and worked the controls quickly to try and maintain a lock, but to no avail. "I'm losing contact, Zordon. I'll try to find a clear signal."

"_Don't, Billy,_" the sage insisted, "_Your efforts must be put into getting _Prodigy_ running. At this point, it is our only hope. Good luck, my friends, and may the power protect you all._"

On those last words, the image of the Eltarian sage Zordon blinked out of existence, leaving the two Blue Rangers alone in the Command Chamber. There was a minute of uneasy silence between the two, broken by the youngest Ranger who uttered two onimous words.

"Now what?"

After a moment of thought, Billy let out a hard breath and answered, "We're going to fulfill Zordon's final wish and initiate _Prodigy_."

Justin seemed puzzled by Billy's choice of words. "You sound like we're never going to see him again."

Billy didn't reply.

---

Jason froze in place when he found himself not in a dingy palace throne room that was about to fall apart, but aboard a space vessel. From the various containers neatly stacked and organized, he assumed that this area was the cargo hold. Nearby, Adam studied some of the container markings, which were clearly written in plain English. Before the two could ask questions, they were met with a familiar friend who had just walked in.

"Welcome to the Megashuttle, boys," Rocky DeSantos' cheerful voice boomed, "on loan from the Space Rangers."

"Rocky!" Adam blurted out.

Rocky staggered back a bit as the two Rangers stepped. The three clapsed hands with each other, knowing all is well. Jason

"Wait a minute," Jason said. "Something's not right."

Adam's jaw slightly dropped in realization. "You're right, Jason. Where's Tommy? And where's Kimberly? Shouldn't they be here too?"

Rocky's head hung, much to Adam and Jason's disappointment. "When the palace imploded, the shuttle's scanners showed two teleport beams caused by an unknown source, but I used the modulator or whatever it's called to bring the teleport beam here instead of wherever." He paused, not able to find other words. "I haven't found any other teleport beams."

Adam stared ahead at the wall. "Do you think they made it out before the palace imploded?"

"I hope so, Adam," Jason commented, "But now's not the time to worry. Right now, we have to get ready."

Both Adam and Rocky stared quizzically at the original Red Ranger. "For what?"

Jason's eyes met the others with great despair. "War."

---

He survived the battle with his old enemy, but the price for survival was high. His prized lunar palace had been destroyed. His generals were dead. His partner and trusted ally were dead. His once-mighty empire was in control of a doppelganger and his dumb wife. His powers had all but been depleted. Despite all that has happened, or rather in spite of what has happened, Lord Zedd was the happiest warlord in the universe.

Through his doppelganger posing as the dark lord, Zedd had learned of the United Alliance of Evil's plan to conquer the universe. Under normal circumstances, the Alliance would defeat the forces of good with their superior numbers and head-on approach. After all, everyone was friends, right?

However, this is far from normal circumstances. The Machine Empire had reached a turning point in its internal civil war, the Rugalian people have discovered a long lost Eltarian weapon of destruction, and there are rumored to be those who plan at striking at Dark Specter himself, since he would be defenseless.

And then, there was Lord Zedd. Before him, on a secluded planet that only he knows of, billions of his varied troops marched towards many strike cruisers and battleships, parked along various fueling stations. The Ranger Wraiths, now further enhanced than those before them, numbered in the near-millions. Of course, there were also his trusted Rock Putties soldiers and Tenga Knights, a rank higher than the Tenga Warriors of old.

Behind the fleshman, a Rock Putty appeared and bowed to the dark lord. Zedd turned to face his loyal soldier and nodded for the Putty to stand, who did just that. The Putty took a step forward to Zedd before speaking.

"What course, my lord?"

Zedd smiled wickedly behind his mask. He knew exactly where he was going to go. "Set a course for Eltare..."

---

Months ago, she found herself before the haunting image of a former Power Ranger. She felt an atmosphere of terror from this fallen warrior who had endured much pain in a short period of time. For the first time in her natural life, she felt the sensation of fear that struck her deeper than anything that had scared her to a degree. It was a sensation that showed her vulnerability.

It is a sensation she would not experience again.

In a few scant moments, she will teleport to her master's domain, where they will plot the final battle of the bloody and brutal Alliance Wars; the battle to end all the battles. In that one gathering, all that is good and just in the universe will fall and a reign of chaos and anarchy will be born, to be ruled by those who not only won the war, but those who are strong enough to endure and survive.

It would be her crowning achievement to bring forth that new era and increase her chances of taking down her master, becoming the undisputed queen of evil. Everything will go according to plan, all who oppose her will be destroyed and the new era of Astronema will erase all that came before it.

The pieces are set. The countdown to destruction has begun...

THE END...  
The Countdown begins and the story concludes in _Power Rangers: Zero Hour. _Currently Online... so go read it, dammit!


End file.

Power Rangers, Adventure, Drama