The Venomous Eclipse Read online

  “What is it, Kimberly?” the robotic voice of Alpha could be heard to say after only a few seconds’ delay.

  “We’re at the cove, and guess who else is here?” Kimberly said in a low voice.

  “Who?” Alpha asked.

  “Scorpina,” Kimberly said, well aware of the weight that name brought with it.

  “Scorpina is at the beach? Aye-yi-yi! That can’t be good,” the robot went on. “What is she doing there?”

  “Besides trying to carry out Rita’s plans to rule the Earth?” Kimberly said. “She lost a piece of jewelry and she wants it back.”

  The robot was quick on the uptake. “The ring that the Black Ranger found?”

  “You got it,” Kimberly said with a nod.

  “Have you morphed yet?” Alpha wanted to know.

  “Not yet,” Kimberly told him. “But I have a feeling we’re about to. And it’s just Trini, Jason, and I. Zack and Billy are at Billy’s garage.”

  “I’ll contact them right away,” the robot assured her.

  “Thanks, Alpha,” Kimberly said. “Pink Ranger out.” With a tap of a button on her communicator she ended the call.

  “I see only three of you,” Scorpina said, looking over the little group of teens. “Not your usual five. That means you won’t be able to form the Megazord,” she said with a small laugh. “This should be too easy of a victory.”

  “You should never underestimate a Power Ranger,” Jason told her. Then, turning to his two friends, he said, “Come on, team. Let’s do this. It’s Morphin Time!”

  “Right!” Trini and Kimberly both shouted.

  Kimberly raised her Power Morpher to the sky and shouted, “Pterodactyl!” She then immediately morphed into the Pink Ranger, complete with pink helmet and suit.

  Trini held her Power Morpher up to the sky and called out, “Sabertooth Tiger!” to become the Yellow Ranger.

  “Tyrannosaurus!” Jason yelled, holding his Power Morpher to the sky. He instantly became the Red Ranger.

  They managed to morph not a minute too soon because the Putties were already swarming down the bluffs toward them, ready to fight.

  “Let’s kick some Putty butt!” the Red Ranger said, striking a horse stance, his legs wide apart, one arm curved above his helmet, two fingers extended.

  “We’re with you,” said the Pink Ranger as she assumed a bow stance, with one leg thrust behind her and the opposite arm in front, which brought to mind the fluid motion of an archer drawing back on her weapon.

  “Let’s show Scorpina what makes us tick,” Trini said as she positioned herself in a resting stance. With her legs curled beneath her, she looked deceptively relaxed for someone who was about to unleash a mighty flurry of blows.

  The Putties came plunging down the bluffs, and the battle began. “Yah!” cried the Red Ranger, somersaulting through the air and knocking down two Putty Patrollers with knife blade strikes.

  “Hi-yah!” shouted Trini, spiraling through the air to meet a Putty head-on halfway down the bluff, knocking it down and seeing the creature tumble, felling two of its buddies.

  “Yeah!” the Pink Ranger cheered, flipping over one Putty as it took a swing at her and seeing it sock one of its friends by mistake.

  Scorpina appeared in their midst, clenching her metal claw and prepared to fight. “Where is the Black Ranger?” she demanded, scoring a body blow to the Red Ranger’s solar plexus. “I’ve had enough of you nasty teenagers and your thieving ways.”

  “A Power Ranger would never steal,” Jason informed her, managing to block her next strike and land a good flying back kick of his own. “We found the ring and we were trying to find its owner to return it before you showed up.”

  “Gah!” Scorpina bellowed. “Hearing what a bunch of do-gooders you are is even worse than when I thought you were trying to steal it from me.” She drew her crescent sword. “I can’t wait to be rid of you once and for all.”

  “I guess you’ll have to learn to live with disappointment,” the Red Ranger said, doing a backflip to avoid the curved blade as Scorpina sliced it through the air, mere inches from the red fabric of his uniform. “Because we’re not going anywhere.”

  “Hi-yah! ” the Pink Ranger cried and leaped into the air, propelling her body, feetfirst, toward Scorpina.

  “Too slow,” the evil one said, narrowly dodging the blow. “You’re no match for me.”

  “That’s what you think,” Kimberly informed her.

  Scorpina began rapidly slicing at the air, forcing the Pink Ranger to do a series of backflips to avoid being cut to ribbons.

  “Scorpina,” the Yellow Ranger said, doing a leg sweep to knock over a Putty before turning to help her friend. “Why don’t you go find another planet? Earth is taken.”

  But the evil scorpion lady managed to grab Trini with her enormous armored claw and then flung her across the sand. “Don’t even begin to think you can stand up to me, you snot-nosed little twerps!” She obviously did not appreciate lively banter during a battle.

  Six Putties managed to grab ahold of the Red Ranger and launch him into the air. Jason was barely able to tuck himself into a ball so he could roll out when landing. A bit of breath was knocked out of him, but he forced himself to spring back onto his feet. “Come on, team, we need Dinozord power now!”

  “Sabertooth Tiger Dinozord power!” Trini shouted, and her yellow Dinozord appeared as if sprinting out of the jungle.

  Kimberly joined her, summoning her flying Dinozord from its volcano by calling out, “Pterodactyl Dinozord power!”

  “Tyrannosaurus Dinozord power!” Jason called, causing his Dinozord to rise from the molten core of the earth.

  Scorpina tilted her head back and released an amused laugh. “I can’t deny that you’re brave, Power Rangers, but without your Megazord, you don’t stand a chance!”

  Meanwhile Zack and Billy were having a great time in the garage, using the ring to make things disappear. They’d already erased six strawberries, a cracker, a pile of leaves, a broken trowel, and a half-eaten sandwich that had gone stale.

  “This is so awesome,” Zack said, looking eagerly around the garage for more items to zap. “What else can we erase?”

  “I’m reluctant to continue playing with the ring,” Billy told him, even though he was enjoying himself.

  “Why?” Zack looked disappointed. “This ring is a blast. I didn’t know jewelry could be so fun.”

  “It is fun,” Billy agreed, “but I don’t fully understand how the erasure ring functions, so that makes it more dangerous. Plus, I have no idea where these items are going. Are they disintegrating? Are they in an alternate dimension? Are they being transported somewhere, reappearing in a garage in Alaska? Or on a tugboat in Bangkok? I have yet to figure it out.” The Blue Ranger shook his head. “No matter how much I’m enjoying making things disappear with you, I think it’s wiser if I continue with my analysis of the ring to identify the source of its power and fully understand how it works. We need to know the ring’s potential.”

  The Black Ranger looked like he wanted to protest, but then he changed his mind. “Yeah, all right,” he agreed. “You keep working on it, Billy. I should check in with Zordon and the rest of the team, anyway. I wonder if there’s any news.”

  But before Zack had a chance to follow up on his words, his wrist communicator emitted six melodic beeps in a specific sequence. “It’s the Command Center,” he said to Billy before answering the call. “Zordon, it’s Zack. What’s happening?” he said into the device. “Did you figure out who is looking for this crazy ring and why?”

  “Yes,” came Zordon’s deep, booming voice. He was an incredibly intelligent being from a distant galaxy who had been fighting Rita and her kind for centuries. But he’d been caught in a time warp and only appeared to the Power Rangers as a kind of blurry, floating head in a large glass cylinder housed
at the Command Center, where he was tended to by his loyal robot, Alpha 5.

  Zordon’s low, distinctive voice always came out a little distorted as he straddled the space-time continuum. “The ring belongs to Scorpina,” Zordon explained. “She has returned to Earth in quest of its return, and to finally achieve world domination for her old friend Rita Repulsa.”

  “Scorpina?!” the Black Ranger exclaimed. That was a name he’d hoped never to hear again.

  Billy looked up from his examination of the fascinating piece of jewelry.

  “This is Scorpina’s?” he asked. Knitting his eyebrows together and giving the ring a closer look, he added, “Curious. What led you to that conclusion, Zordon? I see no markings of the scorpion in the ring’s design.”

  “It was a gift from Rita. An exact copy of a ring that Scorpina lost during a battle many centuries ago,” Zordon explained.

  “Why would Rita give Scorpina a ring?” Billy wanted to know.

  “Yeah,” Zack added. “Rita doesn’t seem like the gift-giving type of sorceress. At least not without getting something in return.”

  “Aye-yi-yi!” Alpha 5’s robotic voice interrupted their conversation. He was unable to hold back his anxiety any longer. “Rangers, there’s no time to waste. Scorpina’s at Angel Grove Cove right now.”

  “The cove?” Billy frowned even more. “That’s where the rest of the team were headed, looking for clues about the owner of the ring.”

  “That’s why we contacted you, Blue Ranger,” Alpha informed him. “Jason, Trini, and Kimberly are in trouble. Scorpina has a bunch of Putties with her, and your teammates already had to call upon their Dinozords to fight them off. I don’t know how much longer they can hold out without your help.”

  Zack and Billy exchanged concerned looks. “Scorpina’s all kinds of trouble,” Zack said. “We need to get to the cove and fast.”

  “We should morph first,” Billy said with a nod of his head as he quickly shut down some of the equipment he’d been using to examine Scorpina’s little trinket. “We don’t want any bystanders to recognize us.”

  “Definitely not,” Zack agreed. A Power Ranger’s secret identity as an average teenager was key to survival, and one of the crucial rules to being a Power Ranger. “Good idea. And let’s take the ring with us,” he said, picking it up. “We might need it. We can erase Scorpina from the history books.”

  It was obvious from the expression on Billy’s face that he wasn’t thrilled with the idea. “I don’t think that’s a good plan, Zack. We only have a basic understanding of the ring; we only have an elementary idea of its capabilities. We know how to make things disappear, but we haven’t figured out how to bring them back. Why would we risk it?”

  “We know it can erase Scorpina off the map. That’s good enough for me,” Zack insisted. But when Billy still appeared reluctant, the Black Ranger added, “Don’t you remember the last time we fought Scorpina? It was brutal. We almost didn’t survive. I mean, any of us. And if we don’t survive, then Earth doesn’t survive. I’m not willing to take a chance on the whole planet going down. That’s just not a risk I’m willing to take.” He held Scorpina’s ring firmly in his fist. “I say, we’ve got the weapon and if things get tough, then there’s no reason we shouldn’t use it.”

  The Blue Ranger still wasn’t comfortable with deploying the ring, but his friend did have a good point. “Let’s check in with Zordon first. He knows a lot more about this stuff than either one of us.”

  “If Scorpina’s on the loose, we don’t have a moment to lose,” Zack insisted. “Let’s just get to the cove. If we think we’ll need to use the ring, then we’ll give Zordon a quick buzz.”

  Billy reluctantly agreed. “Okay, but we have to be careful. We don’t want to accidentally transport Scorpina into a shopping mall in Baltimore or something like that. We should only use it as a very last resort.”

  Zack pinched his lips together, but also nodded his head. “Okay,” he agreed. “But if we use the ring as a first resort, then I think the battle will go a lot quicker.”

  This earned a laugh from Billy. “Are you ready to morph so that we can teleport to the cove?”

  “You bet I am. We need to help the other Rangers.” Zack took ahold of his Power Morpher. “It’s Morphin Time!” he said in a loud voice. “Mastodon!”

  Billy followed suit, raising his Power Morpher in a steady grip and shouting, “Triceratops!”

  No Power Ranger would ever stand idly by knowing that a teammate was in trouble. Moments later they were a black and a blue streak in the sky as they teleported to the cove.

  Billy and Zack landed just in time to see their fellow Power Rangers leaping into the air to access their Dinozords. “Looks like we got here just in time,” Billy noted.

  “Why don’t I treat Scorpina and the Putties to a blast of the erasure ring, and we all go out and grab a burger?” Zack suggested.

  “Negative,” Billy said. “Remember the mall in Baltimore? We can’t take that chance unless things get really desperate.”

  “Fine. You’re right,” Zack said. “I’ll just hold on to it while we make short work of Scorpina and friends.” With that, he began patting down his Ranger suit. “Hey. Have you ever noticed that our uniforms don’t have any pockets?”

  “Look out!” Billy shouted as a Putty Patroller lunged at the Black Ranger.

  “Yah!” Zack shouted as he repelled his foe with a mighty spear-hand to the throat, which immediately took the wind out of the Putty’s sails, dropping the creature to the ground.

  From her lair on the moon, Rita Repulsa glared into her telescope. “Curses! It was going so well, and now the rest of those snot-nosed brats have shown up. I can’t stand it when they do that!”

  Finster, the ghostly owlish-looking creature that was Rita’s chief monster maker and in charge of keeping a good supply of Putties at the ready, was at his sorceress’s side. “We could send more of my Putties, most evil one. I have some piping hot from my monster machine.”

  “Putties,” Rita grumbled with a disgusted snort. “I have a better idea.”

  Taking the long wand with the crescent moon on top that she always carried and holding it like a javelin, the sorceress raised her voice and shouted, “Magic wand, make Scorpina grow!” And then she hurtled it toward Earth.

  As the wand pierced the crust of Earth, the ground split and bolts of electricity flashed and danced, filling the air with sparks. A pulsating light encompassed Scorpina. She threw back her head and laughed, fully realizing what was coming next.

  Scorpina began to grow at a rapid rate. Soon she was towering over the Power Rangers, as tall as a twenty-story building, her hulking mass throwing a shadow across the cove. And not only was she a giantess, but Scorpina had transformed from a coy and charming woman into a grotesque, mutated scorpion with mandibles extending from her jaws and an enormous claw strong enough to cut a Power Ranger in half.

  “Wow!” said Zack, awed by the ginormous creature before him. “I always think my memory has exaggerated Scorpina’s appearance into something much scarier, but it really hasn’t.”

  “It’s time for some dino-power,” Billy said, deflecting a Putty with a shoulder roll and then following through to knock the creature to the ground. “Let’s join the others and call our Zords.”

  “Great idea,” the Black Ranger said, before deploying his Power Morpher and shouting, “Mastodon Dinozord power!” His Dinozord appeared from a snowy tundra.

  The Blue Ranger joined him. “Right behind you,” he said. “Triceratops Dinozord power!” he shouted while raising his Power Morpher, causing his Dinozord to appear as if straight from the desert.

  Zack wasn’t quite sure what to do with the ring before accessing his Dinozord. He thought maybe he could tuck it into his belt somehow, but as he was quickly trying to figure something out, Scorpina lashed out with her tail, striking
at him.

  “You’re the Ranger who stole my property!” Scorpina screeched. “Give it back to me!”

  The Black Ranger was barely able to dive-roll out of the way, almost losing his grip on the ring.

  “That was a close one,” Billy called out to him as he was leaping into the air to access his Dinozord. “You okay, Zack?”

  “Yeah, fine.” The Black Ranger leaped back on his feet, as nimble as a cat. “Let’s get in our Dinozords and—” His words petered out as he looked around for his friend. “Billy?” Zack spun around, trying to look everywhere at once, but seeing his friend nowhere. “Billy?!” he said again.

  There was no reply.

  Scorpina slashed at Zack again, electricity shooting out of her tail’s stinger. The Black Ranger managed to dodge the blow, two Putties getting zapped by the bolts of lightning in his place.

  Zack scanned his surroundings again. Billy was nowhere to be seen. “Team,” he said, contacting the others with his wrist communicator. “Can anyone see Billy? We were just about to access our Dinozords, but now I can’t find him anywhere.”

  “I’m not seeing him,” came a reply from the Red Ranger. “His Triceratops isn’t moving. Get in your own Dinozord immediately. We can’t fight a supersized Scorpina from the ground.”

  Leaping into the air, Zack entered the cockpit of his Mastodon. “I’m in,” he updated the team. Glancing down at what he had clenched in his hand, he noticed something that made the bile rise in his throat. The stone on top of Scorpina’s ring was black, indicating that it had recently been fired. Zack had accidentally deployed the erasure beam. “Oh, no,” he said, feeling a cold ball of dread building in his belly. “I think I might have accidentally erased Billy with the ring.”

  “What?” Kimberly yelled from her Zord as she soared through the sky. “You couldn’t have. But I can’t see him anywhere.” And then she tried using her communicator. “Billy, this is Kimberly. We need you to call in. Can you hear me? Billy, if you’re out there, we need you to make contact right now.”