Half-breed
by Kay Enasni

The Power Chamber
Samantha lay Billy down on the examination table. He had already began to recover, and his eyes were open and alert, waiting for Zordon to tell them what he had to tell them. His fiancée remained by his side, as the other rangers lined up in front of their mentor. The little robot was scuttling along excitedly, "Aiyi-yi"ing about something. Zordon was smiling, despite the ranger's obviously foul mood.

"THE TIME HAS COME, ZEO RANGERS, TO SHIFT INTO TURBO!" Zordon declared happily. Each of them exchanged bewildered looks.

"Huh?" Tommy asked dumbly. "What do you mean?"

The power of the motor lives within each of you. The need for speed is great, and the power is as well. It is the only thing that can be used against Divatox, and the only thing that can defeat her. Although I feel some strange feelings coming from four of you. Racheal Cranston's voice poured into the Power Chamber. Am I right?

The four senior members of the team, Tanya, Kat, Adam and Tommy nodded solemnly. They had been planning on quitting for a time now, for they had been out of high school for the longest of times. It was time to go on with their lives. Tommy and Kat were engaged to be married as soon as she returned from the Ballet Academy (for which she learned that she had been accepted to that very same day), Tanya had decided to go into radio full time, and go to college, and Adam had decided to help Rocky and David run the martial arts school. It really was time for them to move on. They stated this to their mentor, the robot, the Wolf, the Cat, and the Silver Ranger. To them, they were letting the whole team down, but Zordon only smiled at them.

"THAT IS VERY MATURE OF YOU," he added as they finished. "TO ADMIT WHEN IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO LET GO, AND I AM VERY PROUD."

You have made a wise decision, rangers. The time HAS come for you to move on and enjoy what your lives have to offer. The only thing that is now required of you, is that you decide who will take your place on the team.

"Remember my friend from the soccer team? Carlos Rivera? I think that he would make an EXCELENT replacement for me." Adam said.

"And Ashley...you know...the Cheerleader. I'd like her to be my replacement." Tanya stated, smiling.

"I met the most wonderful girl. She's a very talented singer, and we were very fast fiends. Her name is Cassie. She will replace me." Kat said.

"And my new friend T.J. can take my place." Tommy replied. "He has alot of potential as a leader."

"THEN THEY SHALL BE YOUR REPLACEMENTS. ALPHA, TELEPORT ASHLEY, CASSIE, T.J., AND CARLOS TO THE POWER CHAMBER. IT IS TIME TO PASS THE TORCH ON TO A NEW GENERATION."

In seconds, four startled teenagers were teleported into the Power Chamber. Cassie fainted right on the spot, it was such a shock to her. Ashley found herself stuttering, and wide eyed Carlos could do NOTHING but stare. T.J., the poor guy, screamed. They were scared out of their minds, and were even more so when they saw who was there.

Kat managed to revive Cassie, who shrieked as soon as her eyes open. She scrambled to her feet and ran over to the little group. They all huddled together. Each of the rangers and all else watching could tell that they were shaking. And who could blame them. The only one who had not been scared on his first entrance to the Command Center or Power Chamber was Billy, and he had at least been shocked.

To help them, Billy hopped off of the examination table. The young teacher taught a sophomore class as well, and they were all in it. He told them about what was going on, and what they had to do, and managed to calm them all down. Soon they were all nodding in agreement.

Tommy, Kat, Tanya and Adam stood before their chosen replacements. Suddenly, in their hands, there appeared a key. Tommy held the key up before him.

"T.J. You are powerful and brave. The ideal leader for an ultimate team. You will be the Red Lightning Turbo Ranger." He said. They key glowed bright red, and Tommy placed it in the palm of T.J.'s hand. His palm closed around it, and in a flash, the Red Lightning Turbo Ranger stood there.

Kat held up the key. "Cassie. You are swift, and smart. The perfect replacement for me. You will be the Wind Chaser Turbo Ranger, The Pink Ranger." That key glowed as well, and Kat placed it in Cassie's hand. Then there stood the Wind Chaser Turbo Ranger.

Tanya smiled as she looked at Ashley. She too held up the key. "Ashley. You are happy, but serious. You are the perfect replacement, and the ultimate choice to be the Dune Star Turbo Ranger, The Yellow Ranger." And then there was the Dune Star Turbo Ranger.

Adam looked around him. He had always been shy, and hated ceremonies. Hesitating a little, he held out the key. "Carlos. You are patient and smart. I could never choose anyone else to take my place. You will be the Desert Thunder Turbo Ranger, The Green Ranger." And then finally, the Desert Thunder Ranger stood before them.

They all looked wonderful, standing there in their magnificent new turbo uniforms. The other four looked more proud than they had ever been. It was a wonderful day, despite it's horribly rough start. The remaining two rangers smiled at their new teammates. Each of the Zeo team embraced the other members. Of course they cried a little, and who wouldn't! Four members of a six member team were leaving to persue the better things in life. Then they left the Power Chamber, with pained good-byes, never to return again.

The Power Chamber was deathly silent. Billy still felt alot like crying, and was trying desperately to shove the gigantic knot that had formed in his throat down. He rubbed his eyes a little, and sniffled. "That was such a Kodak moment." he said. Justin laughed a little, and then he too looked near tears.

"Just when I get used to one thing, a whole new thing starts. I must have the worst luck in the world." Justin said, then looked instantly shocked. "Hey Zordon! What about me and Billy? Don't we get powers too?"

"OH! YES! YES! I NEARLY FORGOT. ALPHA, PRESENT THEM WITH THEIR POWERS PLEASE. MY MEMORY IS GETTING WORSE AND WORSE."

Alpha held up two keys. "Justin, you are small, but have a sting like a scorpion." he said, gesturing to the key that was glowing blue. "You will be the Mountain Blaster Turbo Ranger, the Blue Ranger, and second in command." he placed the key into the boy's hand. As Justin morphed, he shot up a good foot or so, and was garbed in the blue turbo suit.

"This is so cool!" Justin said excitedly, jumping up and down a little. Though he had the figure now of a full grown man, he was still a 12 year old in mind and in voice. He looked over at Billy. "This is awesome! Come on! I wanna see what yoursuit looks like!"

Billy laughed a little, then turned to face Alpha. His face was serious, and Samantha could only stare upon him with love and admiration. {If she had done what she really wanted to, Justin would have been forced to leave, for she was thinking about what Billy would look like in spandex...or more acurately, OUT of the spandex. ;-)} His mother watched on too, through the sapphire eyes of the medallion. She was very proud of her son, and was glad that he was living up to his destiny. Alpha held up the key. It was shining so brightly that it was nearly blinding, and yet Billy looked into it.

"Billy. You have been through many troubles and sorrows in your past. But you have always been there for those who needed you. You have truly proven yourself worthy of this power. Cunning, swift, mighty and loving. Each of these is part of you as a whole. I give to you the power of the Silver Wolf Turbo Ranger, the most powerful of them all. Guard it wisely, and may the power protect you always." and the key lay in his hand a second later, and he became the Silver Wolf Turbo ranger. The helmet still bore the face of the wolf, but the rest of it was almost exactly as the Zeo had been...except...well...Turboish.

The Power Rangers, old and new, came to stand before the gigatic tube which held their mentor. They each took off their helmets, and Justin shrunk back down to his normal height. He was smiling down upon them softly. "YOU ARE THE POWER RANGERS TURBO; AN ELITE FIGHTING FORCE THAT IS AN UPGRADE OF THE FORMER ZEO POWERS. THESE TURBO POWERS ARE BASED UPON THE SPEED AND STRENGTH OF THE CAR. THE KEYS THAT WERE GIVEN TO YOU BY EITHER YOUR PREDESESSOR OR ALPHA ARE PART OF THE MORPHING MECHANISM THAT ARE CALLED YOUR TURBO CHARGERS. WITH THE WORDS 'SHIFT INTO TURBO' YOU WILL MORPH INTO THE TEAM THAT YOU ARE NOW. ONLY DO THIS IN TIME OF NEED. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER THE RULES, AND OBEY THEM TO THE FULL EXTENT."

"Um...Excuse me, Zordon. but we're new. We don't know the rules." T.J. stated. "Do you think that you could tell us what they are?"

Zordon looked to Billy, who smiled. Billy knew the rules very well, for he had been one of the first. "The rules are simple, but they must be obeyed. Or else, you will lose the protection of the power." Billy took in a deep breath and began, "Number one: Never escalate a battle unless...Divatox forces you. Number two: Never use your powers for personal gain. And Number three: Never tell anyone your identity. No one may know that you are a Power Ranger."

"NOW THAT I HAVE TOLD YOU, PLEASE STATE THAT YOU ARE WILLING TO GO ON WITH THIS. THIS JOB WILL MEAN RISKING YOUR LIFE MANY TIMES, AND ONE TIME, THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT YOU MAY NOT COME BACK. SOME MAY NOT WANT TO TAKE THIS RISK, SO IT IS YOUR CHOICE, AND YOURS ALONE. CHOOSE WISELY."

"I'm all for it!" T.J. exclaimed

"Count me in!" Carlos yelled. His friends stared at him. Carlos was usually a very shy young man, who almost always had his doubts about something. To see him so willing to do something that could possibly kill him was truly amazing.

"Affirmative!" chirped Justin. Billy laughed a little. That was exactly what he had said when he decided to become the blue ranger. It brought back wonderful memories of times long ago. Justin really was alot like him, more mature in some ways, but alot like how Billy had been.

"Yeah! What he said!" Ashley giggled.

"I'm in!" Cassie said. "These outfits are TOO cool!"

"You know I'm in." Billy said in a low voice. "I'll be a Power Ranger until the day I die, with or without the Power!"

"THEN I WELCOME YOU ALL. T.J. THE RED LIGHTING TURBO RANGER. JUSTIN, THE MOUNTAIN BLASTER TURBO RANGER. CARLOS, THE DESERT THUNDER TURBO RANGER. ASHLEY, THE DUNE STAR TURBO RANGER. CASSIE, THE WIND CHASER TURBO RANGER. AND FINALLY, BILLY, THE SILVER WOLF TURBO RANGER. YOU ARE NOW THE POWER RANGERS TURBO. MAY THE POWER PROTECT YOU, FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES."

I am proud, on this day, my son. You have truly proven yourself a man. I am now able to leave you, knowing that you can take care of yourself. Please try to understand, that I will never leave you totally, and that I will always be with you in spirit. I love you, Billy. Remember that. You are the mighty Half-breed, and nothing can stop you. Keep close watch on the medallion, my son. The ultimate battle is yet to come. You shall be forced to make a hard decision over two things that you love very much, but do not be eluded. Remember that...and me...until the end of time.

Billy pulled out the medallion from underneath the tight suit, and looked into the eyes of the wolf. A tear appeared in is eye. "I will." he whispered. "Forever. Until the end of time, and then a day." Then the rangers had a minor briefing, and they returned home. Samantha could not cheer Billy up that night, and it disturbed her. He was very depressed about how his mother had left him so soon after she had come back. The pain would fade, of course, but never die completely. Of course, she would be back, and in a way that none of them would ever imagine.

Divatox's Sub
Divatox pulled bits of weeds out her purple ponytail. Once it was out, she flung it at her 'Three Stooges' and began to scream uncontrollably. She began her usual stomping fit, and was growling like an angry dog.

"I can't believe this! I let a group of little brats get the better of me! This is TOO unreal!"

Elgar was laughing his head off. "You let a little midget hurt ya, Auntie D! You...hahahaha...let a midget get you!"

"Shut up!" she screamed. The egg headed monster fell to the ground, grunting and moaning. "There must be some way to defeat those pathetic excuses for teenagers!"

"Ahem, Captain. If you don't mind me interrupting...."

"WELL I DO MIND!"

"The rangers are powerless, my Captain. You can easily destroy them with just your piranatrons now!"

Divatox stopped her ranting and stood there, mouth wide open. Her eyes were open as wide as her mouth, and indeed she did look very stupid, stupefied, stupefying, whatever. She looked very strange to say the least. "You're serious?"

"Yes, my Captain. When you fell into the ocean with the Silver Ranger, the Zeo crystal disintegrated, thus destroying any power that they had at the time. Now they have no powers, and are completely helpless in the event that you attack!"

Her wide opened mouth turned into a cruel sneer. She chuckled down deep in her throat and twirled her long purple ponytail. "That is SUCH an interesting concept, Porto. I think I'll try it out. But first...I want to settle in....make them think that we left. So that when we attack, they won't know what hit em!"

The sub echoed with the evil woman's laughter for hours to come. In fact, if you ask Elgar, Porto or Rygog, they'll probably say that she laughed all that night, and all the next day.

Angel Grove Youth Center: A Week Later
"So...um...how do you do that?" Ashley asked. She was staring dumbly down at her Biology book. It wasn't that she didn't know biology. She knew it inside and out. But she was flirting with the teacher.

"You have to pin down all of the feet, and then run the scalpel down from it's neck, down to in between it's legs. You have to be really careful about it though, or you'll have a frog that has been cut in half." he looked hard at the Yellow Ranger and shook his head. "Why are you asking me this? You passed your frog dissection with flying colors."

She was forced to blush. "I just want to hang out with you some more." she said. She knew that she was lying, but she didn't care. She could NEVER tell her teacher, her fellow Power Ranger, that she had a MAJOR crush on him. That just wasn't the way things were supposed to be! Especially since she knew he was engaged to Samantha.

"Admit it Ashley. The only reason you want to be with me is cause you've got a crush on me. I know...because on this piece of paper, it has the words 'I love Billy." in a little heart."

Wide eyed, she snatched the piece of notebook paper out of his hand. "Yo...you weren't supposed to see that!" She exclaimed. Ashley quickly shoved all of her books and notebooks into her yellow book bag, and with a short "See ya." had headed across the Youth Center, face flushing a bright red. Billy shook his head, smiling. She was a nice girl, but not one that he would ever love. And besides, he was engaged to the most wonderful woman alive. To him, anyway.

And speaking of his fiancée, and co-teacher, she came up behind him and playfully licked his ear. "Hey there, handsome." she purred in his ear. "What's cookin?"

"Mmm....nothing much, Sam. Just trying to convince Ash that she's not really in love with me, and that it's just a major case of puppy love."

"She's STILL at that?" Samantha questioned, pulling up the chair beside him and plopping down into it. "I would think that she would have fallen for Carlos by now!"

Billy tapped his fingers along on the table and sighed. "I know, because Carlos sure as hell has fallen for her. But she refuses to grow up. She reminds me alot of a friend I once had, Kim Heart. She's the Valley girl, ditzy cheerleader type. But I tell you, this being a ranger is really gonna harden her up. She'll shape up in NO time."

"I should hope so." Samantha added. "Carlos is flirting like a MANIAC, and she is being so oblivious to it that it's not even FUNNY."

"I would think that she would notice something like CARLOS flirting."

Justin bounded up to them. "She is all he ever talks about. I just don't get this love thing. Love is just so....confusing."

Samantha laughed and ruffled Justin's hair. "You'll understand one day. When you're all grown up."

Justin looked disgusted and began to smooth his hair back down. "Don't mess with the hair!" he complained. "And I'll never be in love. I have sworn to a life of celibacy!"

Samantha and Billy exchanged strange looks. "Aren't you a little young for that?" Billy asked, raising an eyebrow. Justin only shook his head.

"It was T.J.'s idea. He and Cassie were talking about it, and he told me about it, and I thought it was cool." He stated plainly. "Cause who in their right mind would fall in love with me?"

Billy laughed. "What about that nice little girl. What was her name? Sarah?"

Justin grimaced. "She's 3 years old!" he declared, visibly shuddering. "That's disgusting!"

The other rangers came up. Cassie and T.J were looking very concerned about something.

"Hey, Billy?" Cassie asked. Her voice was trembling. He looked up at her with worried eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"We just realized something." T.J. said. "We've been Power Rangers a week, and not a single monster has shown up. We're not sure if Divatox has left, or if she's playing a horrible joke on us, and making it seem like she's not going to attack."

Billy looked thoughtful. In his many years as a ranger, he knew that the trick that villians loved the most was the element of surprise. "Yeah....she might be stalling. To make us think she's not gonna attack and make us let our guard down. Just be alert for any attacks. She could attack at any moment, remember that. BE ALERT, DO NOT LET YOUR GUARD DOWN." The last part sounded very much like a stern order, and the other rangers nodded their heads seriously.

"You can count on us!" Carlos said, his hand reached behind Ashley, and pinched her rump. She squealed and slapped his arm hard. He had an innocent puppy look on his face. "What? I didn't do anything!"

"Don't give me that!" she said, and grabbed onto his long hair. She gave it a sharp tug, and he yelped. "Don't do that to me ever again, if you value your precious hair!"

"Ow ow ow! Let go! Please! I'll leave you alone, I SWEAR!" She only dug her nails on her left hand into his arm, and pulled on his hair tighter.

"You had better!" she snapped. "Or those lovely locks of yours are going bye bye!" She started to twist his arm. Billy's eyes narrowed and he let out a low growl. It was as if they had not even been listening to him. He, the senior member of the team, had given an order to them, and there they were...acting very childish. He pounded his fist down hard upon the table.

"Were you two even listening to me!?" he growled. "I gave all of you specific orders! Now if you do not obey them, she'll catch you with your guard down. You guys have not been on the team long enough to be goofing off already. Now if you're NOT up to this, and you want to remain helpless little....children, then you keep this up. I'm sure that we can find someone to replace you."

The Yellow and Green rangers stood there, staring at him. He had a very deep frown on his face, and his eyes were flashing with anger. They had never seen him act this way before. It was not only they who were shocked. Justin, Cassie and T.J. were startled by his reaction as well. Even Samantha didn't understand it. It seemed to her, that ever since he had returned from the Machine Skybase, that he had been very different. He was almost like an animal.

"We....we're sorry." Ashley stammered. She was very hurt. "I..didn't mean to...ignore you. I...just don't like Carlos messing with me."

"And...and I should not have been messing with Ashley. If I hadn't been, none of this would have happened."

The anger slowly faded from Billy's eyes, but was only to be replaced with a sharp burning fear. "I...didn't mean to overreact like that." he whispered. "And I normally wouldn't have. Something is wrong with me! And I don't know what!"

"This is really weird." added Justin. "But you know what. I just might have the thing to cheer everyone up!"

Everyone turned to look at the Blue Ranger. He began to dig around in his bookbag, searching for something. After a few minutes of waiting, the others were shocked when Justin pulled out seven plane tickets.

"I bought them with all of the money I've saved up with my paper route!" he exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear. "I thought that since winter vacation just started, that we could go to Alaska together, just to...you know....chill out until school gets back in session. We could hang out, rest...a certain two of us could get married..." He looked over to Samantha and Billy.

"Oh! That's a wonderful idea, Justin! I love it!" Samantha said, and hugged him. "What do you think, Billy? We could get married up there! It would be wonderful!"

Billy was a little reluctant. "Well...as I said, Divatox could attack at any moment. And it might help if we were here to take care of things."

T.J. smiled and tapped his communicator. "Hey, Billy. Isn't that what these are for? It's an excelent idea, and Justin went off and bought the tickets with his own money. I say that we go, and if there are any problems, then Zordon could call us on these. With a simple press of a button, we can be here and give Divatox what she's got coming!"

Billy nodded his head slowly. "You know, the thought never occured to me. That's a good idea, T.J.! Alright Justin! Let's go to Alaska!"

"Oh this is gonna be so cool! But...we majorly need to go shopping!" Cassie explained, matter-of factly.

"I live to shop!" chirped Ashley, clapping her hands together. "Shopping is life, and life is shopping. That's my motto. Wait...or is it 'Cheerleading is life, and life is cheerleading'? Oh well... either way, I LOVE TO SHOP! Come on everyone! Let's go to the mall and shop till we drop!" She, Cassie and Samantha started going on and on about shopping, and began to discuss things that they would buy.

Carlos shook his head. "Women." he muttered.

"Can't live with them, can't sell them for spare parts." added Billy. His response to Carlos's comment was only met by a sharp punch in the gut by Samantha. "OW!"

"That was mean." she said, sounding very stern. On the other hand that she was smiling, showing that she was only kidding around with him. "Keep that up, and what happened last night will never happen again!"

"No! You can't do that to me!" he whined, blushing. The other rangers, along with Samantha, broke out into laughter. "Come on, come on. Let's go to Sunset Flames and get some things for our trip. When are we supposed to get to the airport anyway, Justin?"

"4:00 p.m. tommorrow." he replied, holding up the tickets for all to see.

"Dang! Well, we better go now!!" Billy said.

"SUNSET FLAMES MALL, HERE WE COME!" Samantha, Cassie and Ashley exclaimed. All of the male rangers looked at each other and sighed.

"Women." they grumbled.

Sunset Flames Mall
"Ooh! I totally LOVE those skis!"

"They are TOTALLY you, Cass! Get them!"

"You two...come over here and help me pick out my wedding gown!"

"That one is totally faboo Sam! Get it!"

"Ashley...that is a tux."

"It is? Oh!"

"How about this one?"

"That one's nice. I lean more towards pink though."

"Aren't wedding gowns traditionally white?"

"It IS white, Ashley."

"It is? Gee, aren't I dumb today! That one is like, totally faboo, Sam! GET IT! GET IT!"

"That one is like, totally faboo, Sam! GET IT! GET IT!"

"Shush up Justin!"

"Make me!"

"Justin, come here and try on these snow boots!"

"I already got a pair, T.J.!"

"They were too big and you know it! Come here!"

"Big is good! Leave me alone!"

"Justin, please. You need ones that will fit comfortably."

"I'm fine!"

"Justin, listen to T.J. please. You're just being difficult. Has Billy come out of the dressing room yet?"

"No, he hasn't, Carlos. He's trying on tux's for our wedding."

"I DON'T WANT SMALL SNOWBOOTS!"

"Too bad. You can have two pairs. I suppose that you want big skis as well?"

"Nope. I need tight skis."

"THOSE ARE TOO SMALL!"

"They have to be tight."

"Sheesh, Justin. Make up your mind!"

"Leave me alone Ashley!"

"Cassie! Get Carlos off of me!"

"Get off of her you pervert!"

"Ow!"

"Ta-da!"

"Oooh....Billy, that is so like, totally faboo! Delish!

"You think? I'm gonna get it."

"Can we hurry up and get out of here!? Us guys got everything we need!"

"The girls have everything too, Justin. They just want to buy MORE. You know how women are!"

"Women suck! Let's grab them and get out of here before I PUKE!"

"Hey! Let us down!"

"Yeah! Let us down!"

"Good thing I already bought everything I needed for the wedding dress!"

"Let's go home and pack!"

"FINALLY!"

"Justin, please. SHUT UP!"

"Fine fine fine. Let's get out of here before I GO NUTS!"

And that was how their mall trip went. That was one time in the life of the Power Rangers when they WEREN'T exactly working together as a team.

On Divatox's Sub
"This is just GREAT! The rangers are going out of town. And what's worse! I DIDN'T GET TO THEM BEFORE THEY FOUND POWERS! SOME brilliant plan, Porto!"

"How was I to know that they had already found power! I can't trace that type of thing from inside THIS piece of junk!"

"You STILL should have realized! RYGOG!"

"Yes, Captain Divatox?"

"I want you and a monster to make sure that the rangers never make it to the airport tomorrow. I want them dead!"

"Yes, my Captain. Whatever you command, I shall obey."

On The Open Road
"I'll tell you wh at I want, what I really really want!"

"So tell me want what you really really want!"

"I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really really wanna zigzig ha!"

"If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends! Make it last forever. Friendship never ends. If you wannabe my lover, you have got to give. Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is!"

The rangers broke out into laughter at Justin and Ashley's rendition of "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls. Billy sat at the drivers wheel of the van, trying hard to contain his laughter. Despite his efforts, he was shaking hard, as was the van.

"You...you two are quite a pair!" He managed to blurt out.

"Thank ya!" Justin giggled. "Me and Ashley are gonna go on tour! We need a name for our group though."

"How about....A Couple of Idiots?" Carlos recommended. Ashley punched him hard in the shoulder. She was sitting right next to him in the middle section of the van, and Justin was next to her. Billy of course was in the driver's seat, and Samantha was in the passanger. In the back, Cassie, T.J. and stuff that they found that could not fit in the trunk sat. They were practically burried back there, but did not seem to care. Skis were bouncing up and down on the roof of the van, as were a few suitcases. Three weeks in Alaska...what a dream vacation.

"Don't make fun of me and my fiancee!" Ashley snapped, and pulled Justin into a hug. He of course was blushing QUITE a bit, and for some reason Carlos was looking very jealous of the younger boy.

"I'm your fiancee?" Justin asked. "Since when?"

"Since I said so." she said simply. "We can get married in Alaska too!"

"I really hope that you're kidding!" Both Justin and Carlos yelped. Ashley was nearly crushing him, and Justin didn't exactly like how close she held him to her chest. He was only 12 for crying out loud!

"Nope." Ashley laughed. "You and me are getting hitched, Justin. I'll be Ashley Stewart!" Justin groaned.

"Ashley! I'm 12 years old! I'm not ready to settle down!"

Laughing, Ashley let him go. "That's OK...I wanna marry someone else anyways!"

Billy sighed. "Not this again." he grumbled. "I've told you time and time again, Ashley. I am....."

"It's not YOU, Silly Billy. I've fallen in love with someone else!" and without a word of notice, she pulled the Green Ranger into a kiss, that had it been explosives, the entire universe would cease to exsist.

But before their kiss was finished, the van began to spin out of control. It had been moving smoothly just moments before, but now it was shaking and spinning. It was like something enourmous was jumping up and down upon it. Screaming, Billy somehow managed to pull the van over to the side of the highway and shut it down.

It was still shaking violently, and every one of them was hanging onto one of the other. "What's going on!?" Cassie shrieked. Suitcases and duffle bags came toppling down on top of T.J. and herself, and they desperately tried to pull them off.

"Get out of the van!" Billy commanded. "NOW!"

One by one, they all toppled out of the van. Once out, they looked on top of it, to see what had been causing the problems. They were shocked to see Rygog, and a very strange looking monster. It looked as if it were half man, have panther, and Samantha gasped when she saw him.

"Tygris!" she exclaimed.

"Hello, Samantha." he said in a gruff, deep voice. He bowed down low in her presence, for she was the leader of the Cats...the FIRST Cat. "How might you be on this lovely day?"

"Tygris...I command you. Leave this area at once."

"I am afraid that I cannot do that, milady. You see, my Captain Divatox will kill me if I do not complete this mission."

"I do not give a care about 'Your Captain'. Divatox can shove the orders she gave here up her butt. Now LEAVE."

"I am sorry, milady. I must do what I must do." and with that, the cat man leapt off of the van.

"SHIFT INTO TURBO!" Billy yelled.

"Red Lightning Turbo Power! Red Lighting, ready to bolt!" exclaimed T.J.

"Mountain Blaster Turbo Power! Mountain Blaster, ready to crash!" Justin yelled.

"Desert Thunder Turbo Power! Desert Thunder, ready to rumble!" Carlos declared.

"Dune Star Turbo Power! Dune Star's gonna shine!" Ashley shrieked.

"Wind Chaser Turbo Power! Wind Chaser, ready to howl!" Cassie cried.

"Silver Wolf Turbo Power! Silver Wolf, until the end of time!" Billy screamed. "Let's do it!"

Billy leapt up to meet Tygris in midair, and the swords that they each held clashed together. Both were growling and snarling at each other, and the swords clanged together noiselly. Before the rangers could reach him to help, Rygog had jumped down as well. Piranatrons appeared all around him, and they took on the other five rangers, leaving Billy alone to fight Tygris.

Samantha was torn apart. Tygris had been a good friend of hers back in the time of ancient Egypt. He was created by a great alchemist, and she and he became good friends. They remained together for many centuries, for he...like she...was nearly immortal. But then things changed. Tygris got cruel and hard, and went against Samantha in whatever he did. They grew apart, but they each still had a place reserved in each others hearts for the other.

"Your love for Samantha shall be your downfall, Son of Wolf! She is mine...she is meant to be with a cat, which you are not. Cats and Wolves do not go together, and all wolve's must die! You and she will never be together." Tygris bore his teeth and clamped them down hard onto Billy's wrist. He cried out and tried desperately to shake it off, but the sword that he held in that hand clattered to onto the earth, and he had no weapon. A river of blood poured down from the wrist, and Tygris's claws began to slash at the chest and arms. Billy was litterally defenseless, and could only utter cries of pain. With one sharp kick to his knees, Tygris had rendered Billy's legs completely useless, and the Silver Ranger was hanging in the mouth of the Man Panther by his bleeding wrist.

Now Samantha knew that Tygris was no longer on the side of good, if even by a tiny percentage. He was killing the man she loved more than anything on the Earth. This would NOT be permitted. The rangers were doing all that they could to get to him, and Justin had managed to break through the piranatrons. But Tygris had easily dismissed him by slamming the young boy into the van head first. He was struggling to get to his feet, and called to the other rangers. They were too meshed within the piranatrons to make it to the Silver Rangers, and all he did was continue bleeding. There was so much blood.

So much blood. So much blood. So much blood.

Bright red, thick blood flowing down the arm. Shining, bright blood covering the silver armor that covered his arm.

A loud, cat-like scream poured out of Samantha's mouth. With it came a flash of amber flight, that enveloped her form. It quickly faded, and there where she had once been, stood the most gigantic mountain lion that any of them had ever seen. Snarling, she bounded through the piranatrons, trampling them over, and then snapped her jaws down onto Tygris's throat. When he opened his mouth to cry out, Billy fell to the ground in a heap. The blood immediately stopped flowing, and the automatic ranger recovery system began to go to work. Billy was healing quickly.

The other rangers knew that Samantha would take care of Tygris, so they set their sights on Rygog. He was already scared, and was cowering. A very dizzy Justin, swaying to and fro, was laughing at him, and taunting him.

"Neener neener neener! Rygog is a WEENER!"

"Captain!" Rygog yelped. "They're ganging up on us! The Cat is KILLING Tygris!"

Divatox appeared next to her first make and slammed him to the ground. "The midget is right! You ARE a weener! Look at them! Four of them are brand new Power Rangers! And this is their first battle! You could at LEAST handle THEM!"

"B...bu..but...." he stammered, cowering away from Divatox and the Rangers. Out of the corner of his eyes he could spot the man panther being torn to bits by the Cat. She was strong, and if something didn't happen, their best monster ever would be destroyed. And for once, he really didn't care. He just wanted to go back to the saftey of the sub and curl up in a little corner. Once there he would sleep for a million years...maybe longer. But for now, it was the present, and at any moment Divatox and the rangers could quite possibly knock his friggin head off.

Not that it would matter to him anymore.

"Get up! GET UP!" Divatox snarled at him. She kicked him in a sensative male area with the toe of her boot, and he shot upright, screaming. "Get up and finish the job! IF you value your pathetic life!"

Rygog stumbled to his feet and looked at her. His red eyes were glowing with fury. "No." he stated simply, and returned to the sub. Divatox followed him, hot on his heels.

But not long after, the torpedos struck Tygris. They knocked Samantha to the side, and returned her to her human state. Tygris loomed above them, now very huge indeed. The four newest rangers were very startled to see this, and jumped back a little. Justin had regained his senses, and Billy had climbed to his feet.

"Come on guys. It's time to use the Zords." he said. He rose his fingertips to the ear of his helmet. "Silver Wolf Turbozord power!"

Repeating Billy's gesture, the other's followed.

"Red Lighning Turbozord power!"

"Mountain Blaster Turbozord power!"

"Desert Thunder Turbozord power!"

"Dune Star Turbozord power!"

"Wind Chaser Turbozord power!"

And then the Zords came. 6 gigantic cars, thundering down the highway. They were AWESOME. All of the rangers, old and new, stood there and stared up at them. These were their vehicles.

"Woah!" Billy cried, looking up at the gigantic silver car that had slid to a stop before him. "Amazing."

"Let's do it guys!" T.J. commanded, and with no more than a "Hi-ya!" he had jumped up to the driver's seat of his Zord. Emitting battle cries of their own, the other rangers followed.

"T.J. here! Ready to rock this big cat's world!"

"This is Justin! All systems online!"

"Carlos here! This cat is toast!"

"Ashley....oooh.....COOL Car!"

"Cassie's here! Ready and raring to go!"

"Alright! This is Billy. Let's skin this cat!"

Tygris smiled evilly and growled. His enormous teeth were bared, and his growl sounded like some type of strange laugh. He stomped his huge feet and shook his arms. "I feel invincible!" he roared. "Nothing can stop me now!"

"That's what you think!" said the Half-breed, holding onto the steering wheel tightly. He tuned it sharply to one side, and the Silver wolf zord lurched forward and in the direction of Tygris. The headlights flipped back to reveal missiles, and they were fired into the gut of the monster with the push of a button. That blow was fired by a blast of electricity from the Mountain Blaster Zord.

"Haha!" Justin laughed, making his hand into a thumbs up sign. "Right on target! This is fun!"

"Ooh! I wanna try!" T.J. said, and punched down hard on a button. It didn't come back up, and Tygris was pelted with cannonballs that would not stop coming. "Um...whoops?" he said and shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm right on his tail, Teej!" Cassie called, and threw a grappling hook at Tygris's tail. Once it was hooked on tightly, she laughed and put the Wind Chaser into full reverse, at top speed. The monster crashed to the ground.

Carlos and Ashley decided that it was time to do something about it. "Let's kick some asphault!" exclaimed Ashley. "Put 'er in high gear, 'Los! We're gonna run this dude over!"

"Right!" Carlos replied, and they both shifted into high gear. The cars zoomed foward and trampled over Tygris's fallen form. The two rangers were laughing their heads off as they did so. It was GREAT fun!

The man panther could not take it anymore. He jumped to his feet, throwing the Dune Star and Desert Thunder Zords off of him. "That's it!" he yelled, clenching his fists. "It's time to show my true power!"

Suddenly armor appeared on his already muscular form, and a gigantic mace and flail appeared in his furry hands. He swung it around menacingly and growled down deep. "This is it! I'm gonna take you out Puny Rangers!"

"Come on guys!" Billy said, clapping his gloved hands together. "Let's see what this baby can do when it's at full power! TURBO MEGAZORD POWER! NOW!"

The 6 cars zoomed up to each other and began to transform. The Red Lighting bcame the head. The Dune Star and Desert Thunder became the feet. The Mountain Blaster became the midsection. The Wind Chaser became the arms. And the Silver Wolf turned into a shield. There stood the Turbo Megazord, and it held it's sword out. "Power Rangers!" The six people in it's cockpit yelled.

Samantha had stumbled to the van and hid behind it. This was the closest that any one living being that was an inhabitant of earth had been to an actual dual between the Power Rangers and their arch-nemesis. It was very stirring to watch, and was very glad that Tygris had forgotten about her. She remained behind the van until the battle had ended.

The two giants duked it out, giving and taking equal ammounts of blows. But this of course was not what either of them wanted. They wanted the other to be destroyed. Tygris spun his mace and flail high above his head. It began to increase in speed and became nothing more than a blur. Too bad the Turbo Megazord did as well!

"TUBO MEGAZORD SPINOUT!" The rangers cried, and a spinning zord chopped a gigantic Tygris in two. The two halves crashed to the ground and errupted in flames. The Turbo Rangers had won this round! They cheered and jumped around in their seats, then hopped out of their Zord. It returned to the Holding Bay, and they had unmophed when they landed on the ground.

"That was awesome!" Justin declared. He was bouncing up and down, laughing and gasping. "We won! We won!"

Samantha came from behind the van and gave each of them a huge hug, and Billy a passionate kiss, and said. "Excelent job, guys! That was great!"

There was much chatter and discussion as they climbed back into the van and replaced the things both on top, and inside of it. Their first battle as the Power Rangers Turbo had ended in a great victory. Once everything was settled, Billy started the van up again and they were once more on their way to the airport. This time, there were no interruptions. And even though they had seen Billy recover at lightning speed, and his fiancee turn into a cat, somehow they had all forgotten about that. So then they went on, to begin their trip to Alaska.

But no one seemed to notice the blonde haired man that was watching them from the side of the highway. Nor the Japanese woman that stood next to him.

Angel Grove National Airport
"Come on, come on! Grab that and let's go!" Billy commanded, waving his arms. "Someone grab that little one on top! We're gonna miss the plane!"

"That little one is ME!" Justin screamed. "Let me down, T.J.!"

"Whoops! Sorry Justin! Didn't mean to pick you up!" T.J. said and put Justin back on the ground.

"Sorry, Justin! I thought that you were a suitcase!"

"Don't worry!" he laughed as they ran through the crowded airport. "Everyone does!"

They each were carrying bags and skis under their arms as they ran. It was quite a sight to see a kid the size that Justin was, nearly burried underneath the odds and ends that the others had piled on top of him. It was a relief to all of them when they finally made it to the place, just barely on time.

They stacked their luggage on the convator belt, and dashed for the plane. When they finally got on, it was already beginning to take off. It was very rare, in these cases, for a plane about to make it's run down the runway to stop and let passangers aboard. But luckily for the Rangers and Samantha they DID stop. Billy was crammed into a window seat near an enourmous man, and Justin was constantly being flirted with by a little girl.

"OW!" Justin screamed, and covered his hair with his hands. "Stop pulling my hair!"

The little girl, named Rosaura, giggled and pulled at his hair again. "Pretty!" She cooed. "Pretty! Pretty hair!"

"Now, Rosaura." her mother said to her in a harsh tone. "Leave the little boy alone. He doesn't like you pulling on his hair."

"But Mommy! I like the pretty boy's pretty hair!"

"Please! Listen to your mother! I like my hair too...and I would like some of it to BE there when we get to Alaska!"

Rosaura paid him no mind. She took up two handfulls of his long, dark brown hair, and tugged on it as hard as she could. To her this was the most fun thing in the world, and she was having a fit. She was laughing so loud that even Justin's screaming couldn't be heard. "Pretty hair!" She laughed. And before she knew it, a large chunk of Justin's hair was resting in the palms of her little hands. "Pretty hair for keeps! ALL for me!"

Justin's eyes became wide and his hand went to the back of his head. Sure enough, there was a bare spot. It was barely big enough to be noticeable, and the other layer of his hair covered it up, but it was still his hair...and it was still his hair that was NOT in his head. He turned around in his seat to look at Rosaura.

She bit her lip, and opened up her hands. Holding them up to Justin, she gestured the peice of hair to him. "You can have your pretty hair back." she said sweetly. She stood up on her chair and put the hair on top of Justin's head. "Looks good." she added.

Justin could not help but smile at her. She was only about 3 years old, and those big blue eyes and that cute little voice told him that there was no reason for him to be mad at her. He took the hair off of his head and handed it back to her. "Here." he said. "You can keep this!"

And the look that she gave him could melt the coldest of hearts. Her little face just lit up as she held the dark brown hair in her hand. "You mean it? Pretty hair for keeps? All for me?"

"Yep! All for you!"

"Wow!" she exclaimed and bounced in her seat. She planted a tiny kiss on Justin's forehead and then giggled. "Pretty hair all for me! Pretty hair for keeps! Pretty boy with pretty hair gimme pretty hair all for keeps! ALL FOR ME!" she waved the hair over her head, and then placed it on top of her own hair; a mop of pretty blond curls. You had to admit, it looked very strange, and yet very cute in it's own sense.

In the meantime, Billy was not only struggling with not being able to sit near Samantha, but to keep dry. Now this was meant in more than one sense. The man sitting next to him; a very large man, was asleep. He was hunched over, and leaning over onto Billy. A thin line of drool hung from his lip, and threatened to drop at any moment. What matter matters even worse though, was the fact that Billy had an urgent call from Mother Nature that he needed to answer, and the man refused to let Billy up so that he could use the restroom.

Samantha was trying hard to supress her laughter over her fiancee's situation, but it was way too funny! He was whimpering like a little puppy, eyes squinted and face pouty. It was so funny, and so cute, that Samantha just plain burst out laughing. Billy looked at her with pleading eyes, but then gasped when the drool came down closer to his shoulder. She only laughed harder at him, gesturing with her hands so that he would know that she was sorry. When the drool finally spat itself down onto his shoulder, Billy shrieked out a cry of disgust, that caused the man to jolt up to an upright position, wide awake and furious.

He turned to Billy with a mean glint in his eyes, and balled up his fist. Samantha's mouth dropped open as she gasped. Of course, by that time she had stopped laughing. Just as she was about to go punch the man before he could lay a hand on Billy, the man put his hand on Billy's shoulder and smiled.

"So, sonny." he said {for this was a considerably older man}. "If you wanted to get up and use the W.C., all ya needed to do was ask!" and with that he slid out of his seat and let Billy out.

Billy was greatly relieved, and ran to the restroom without haste. When he returned the space next to Samantha was empty, and the man looked at him, smiling broadly.

"I thought that you two love-birds might wanna sit togetha." he said simply. Billy thanked him, and plopped down in the seat. Samantha kissed him passionately and nibbled at his ear.

"Glad you could make it." she said. "Why don't you just relax and get yourself a nice nap?"

"A perfect plan, Sam." he said, and leaned back in his chair. Samantha whispered sweet nothings into his ear until he had fallen asleep. And he did sleep, until they arrived at the Airport in Nome, Alaska.

Best Western: Anchorage
"Whoohooo!" Justin exclaimed and dove towards the bed. The springs creaked loudly as he did so, and he bounced upward a few times. He laughed and burried his face in a soft pillow, kicking his legs around. Then he lay still, and faked a loud annoying snore. Giggling Justin was soon flipped over by T.J. who was smiling at him.

"Looks like SOMEONE is excited to be at the hotel!" he said as patted his mittened hands together, and brought his arms about his torso. "You've got snow all over the bed now!"

"I don't care!" Justin said. "As long as I am not out there, IN the snow!" He pointed out of the large picture window, where outside could be seen a great blizzard. "I nearwy fwoze my wittle arms off!" he said in a voice that made him sound only three years old, and then started to laugh all over again.

Carlos, who was standing besides T.J., dusted off his green coat and shook his head. As he did so, a pile of snow crashed to the ground from out of his long hair. Justin only laughed harder.

"Look! It's the abomidible snow man!" Justin pointed to Carlos quickly, then he clutched his sides and laughed some more, turning very red in the face. Carlos turned towards the bed, grabbed a pillow and sent it hurling towards his yougner friend. He was met by a barrage of the other pillows that Justin had grabbed from nearby, and tossed. T.J. backed away from them, and let them have their pillow fight.

Minutes later, the girls, followed by Billy, stumbled into the room. They were more or less as snow covered as Carlos had been, and when Justin saw them {for he had calmed down by this time} he had a fit! Each of them had a pillow shoved in their faces, and Justin's wild laughter rang in their ears. Through laughs, they could hear him trying to say something, but the only things that they could make audible were the words "abomidible snowmen!" And to shut him up, they each burried him with the pillows.

Billy dusted his gloves off as he set down the suitcases. "OK, everyone. We're all checked in. You guys will get to keep this room with Justin." he nodded towards the laughing pile of pillows. "Good luck!"

T.J. and Carlos groaned as they looked at Justin. He popped his head up out of the pillows. He stopped laughing and looked at them. "What was so funny, anyways?" he asked.

Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads. Samantha came over to him and ruffled his hair. "Now now now....you just calm down! You have had way too much Surge today."

"Ha! There is no such thing as TOO MUCH SURGE! If it weren't for my size, I would be LIVING in a Surge can!" He reached up and smoothed his hair, remembering the girl who tore his hair out. He smiled.

Billy crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat loudly. The other people in the room brought their attention off of Justin, and back to him. He brought his lfet hand to rest on the handle of a large suitcase that was sitting on the floor beside him.

"Cassie and Ashley, you guys have the next room down, to the right. Here's the key." he handed the room key to the closer of the two, Cassie, who pulled out her keys and quickly added it to her keychain. "And Carlos, I already gave you the key for this ro Daran saun

Carlos reached deep down into his jeans pocket and produced a large key ring. From it hung the room key/ "Right here." he added.

"Good." Billy nodded approvingly. "First, some ground rules. No parties in the rooms, no guys, or girls, besides us, and no alchohol. Got it?"

Everyone nodded.

"Alrighty then. Samantha and I will be in the honeymoon suite down at the end. And dear," he looked at Samantha, smiling a little. "No 'honeymooning' untill we're married. OK?"

Samantha let out an exhasperated cry, and plopped down on the bed next to Justin, who had started up another giggle fit. She drew her face into a pout. "How come?" she squeaked. "Doing it out of wedlock never mattered before!"

Billy flushed a deep crimson, and covered his face with his hands. "Sam...." he complained. She only sat there, smiling at him.

"My point exactly!" she exclaimed, and then everyone in the room except for Billy began to burst out laughing.

Billy moved is glance off of her quickly, to meet Justin's gaze. The younger boy immediately stopped laughing, and appeared in a trance. His jaw was slack, and it hung down, but he said not a word.

Between the two sets of eyes, an image that they could only see appeared. The two of them; Billy and Justin, were standing together in the middle of the night. Mountains of snow plummetted down from the sky above, drenching them with it's stinging wetness. They had no coats, or any other protective garments over their normal clothing, which was clinging onto their bodies. They began to trudge through the snow slowly. It was so cold, and the blizzard became far more worse. The snow was flung into their eyes by strong gusts of wind, and they stung like needles. But still they walked on.

They seemed to be searching for something, and quite desperately at that. Justin looked at Billy, and cupped his hands over his mouth. Out of it, though the sound could barely be heard, he began to call out the names of all of the other rangers. Billy followed what Justin was doing, and they proceeded over a large snowbank. Suddenly, there came a blinding flash of white light, and the two of them were knocked back into the snow, frozen and unconscious.

As the room faded back for them, they jumped back. Startled cries escaped their mouths, and they gaped at each other in amazement. The rangers and Samantha, on the other hand were very confused, and were giving the two of them strange looks. Billy grabbed onto his head, and bumped into the wall. Slowly, he slid down onto his rear.

What just happened to us? He thought to himself, covering his eyes with his hands and rubbing fiercely. To his amazement, inside of his mind a voice rang in as clear as a bell.

Huh? What's going on here!?

Billy jolted up. His eyes were very wide. "JUSTIN!?"

"Billy, what's going on!" he whined, looking at the Silver Ranger. They were both in a state of complete shock, and a thin line of sweat had formed on each of their brows. They had just shared a vision of some kind, and had read each others mind. They had talked telepathically, and had no idea of the reason why this had happened to them.

"Billy!" Samantha cried, and hopped off of the bed to kneel beside him. She placed her shaking hand on his heaving chest and let him lean on her. "What happened? You're breathing so hard! What is the matter!?"

Billy leaned on her and let her hold him against her. His eyes were wide and locked on the pair of wide, frightened brown eyes that were across the room from him. "I...don't know...Sam. I...I...I'll talk to you about it later." he stood up, his knees wobbling. With trembling hands he reached into his pocked and pulled out his key ring. They jangled noisily as he sorted through them, looking for the right key for his room. Once he had found it, the keys dropped out of his hands and crashed down on the floor. He bent down to pick them up, and collapsed to his knees.

"Billy, Justin...what is wrong?" Cassie said to them. She walked over to Justin and he hugged onto her tightly. "Did something strange happen to you guys?"

"I said I'll talk about it later, Cassie." Billy snapped, and rushed the rest of his words. "The last thing I need to tell you is the ground rules. 1. No Smoking or Drinking. 2. No parties 3. No sex whatsoever. and 4. If you hear a lot of noise from the Honeymoon suite, DON'T come in." and with that he stumbled to his feet, grabbed onto the suitcase nearest to him and left the room.

Justin wiggled, and desperately tried to break Cassie's grip. "Let me go! I have to talk to him!" his voice choked out with tears of fear. "Let ME GO!"

"Justin! Calm down, please!" Cassie said. She leaned down and started to whisper things into his ear, as to calm him. Somehow they took some effect, and he was still and quiet. Cassie looked to the other rangers with a look of worry in her eyes. "We need to talk to them once they have calmed down. Something really bad must have happened to them that we couldn't see."

T.J. nodded as he looked at Justin, who had fallen asleep in Cassie's arms at the sound of her voice. "This could be one of Divatox's plots. She has only attacked once, and that surely wasn't the last either. We need to keep a lookout. That one battle was almost too much for Billy, who knows what she has set her sights on now?"

"But we need to get some rest first. We can't defend the world if we're dead on our feet." Carlos gestured his hands to each of the three beds. "A nice warm shower sounds really good to me right about now. Not to mention a long nap. That plane ride exhausted me."

Ashley crossed her arms over her chest and smiled. "Shower sounds good."

"I never invited YOU, Ashley."

"I know! I know! But you do NOT wanna know what kinda thoughts just ran through my head when you mentioned yourself in the shower!"

Carlos blushed, and headed out of the room. Seconds later the sound of rushing water could be heard in the bathroom, and Carlos yelped out at how hot the water was. T.J. shook his head, smiling. Cassie stood up and lay Justin down on the pillow. His breath was quiet and deep, and he yawned. "Come on Ash, let's go get some rest."

"Right behind ya, Cass!" Ashley called, jerking herself out of a fantasy of Carlos and herself. She left the room at Cassie's heels.

Samantha looked worriedly over at T.J. "I'm scared, Teej." she said, rubbing her hands together. "I don't want anything to happen to either of them."

"I understand what you're saying, Sam. But we'll keep watch over them, BOTH of them. We won't let Divatox get anywhere NEAR them without a fight."

She pulled T.J. into a warm hug, thanking him. "I'm going to go talk to Billy, and see if he'll tell me what happened." she said. "If its something we should be worried about I'll give you a full report."

T.J. nodded, and waved to her as she headed out the door. She was going to make a good wife for Billy. Still there was something strange about her; something that he couldn't quite pin down. Part of the battle earlier that morning was very blurry and he couldn't remember it. There was something about a cat attacking Tygris, and any memories about Samantha during the battle were gone. He shrugged his shoulders and plopped onto the bed. He looked over at Justin, who slept soundly, wishing that he had known what was going on between him and Billy. T.J. knew that if Divatox came anywhere near them, that she would meet his fist head on. There was no chance that she was ever going to hurt them as long as he was around.

Meanwhile, Samantha went into the honeymoon suite, which the door had been left open. She closed it quietly behind her, and looked around the room for Billy. Upon hearing the sound of the rushing water, and seeing the steam boiling out from the bathroom, she knew that he was taking a shower.

"Billy?" She asked. "Care for some company?"

"If it's you, yes," he chuckled weakly; the memory of what he and Justin had seen was still with him.

She was with him a few moments later, running her hands across his tense shoulders. "You're very upset. What happened?"

It took a few minutes of massaging before he relaxed enough to start talking. Samantha was hoping for something more afterwards, but wanted to know what he and Justin had seen before they got into serious "honeymooning", despite the fact that they were not yet married.

"You know, it's kind of hard to concentrate with you this close to me," Billy smiled as he turned to look directly into her warm eyes. "But I think I can manage."

She giggled a little, trying to lighten the mood. "Then I'm obviously not trying hard enough to get your attention!"

"You've had my attention from the first time I saw you," he told her, kissing her at the base of her throat.

Before things got too involved, Billy pulled back. "Samantha, maybe you can explain what happened to me and Justin."

In quick, terse words he explained what they'd seen, and about the telepathic moment they'd shared. "Have any ideas on what's happening?"

Samantha frowned lightly, and put her hands around his waist. He smoothed her wet hair, and she lay her head on his dripping chest. "I have no idea what it means, Billy." she sighed. "It could mean any NUMBER of things. I'm sorry."

"It's OK, really. I just hope that it isn't some of Daran or Divatox's work. If it is, they'll get a Half-breed's claws in their eyes! Not to mention everywhere else! They'll learn not to mess with me, even if it means their deaths!"

She nodded slowly, and kissed along his neckline. "And I'll help." She added. She sighed a little. "It would be a lot easier if the others knew what we were, you know."

Billy nodded. "The new Rangers . . .well, I'm not really sure how they'd take it. I mean, a half-breed and the first cat...it's not exactly your usual situation, you know."

Samantha smiled and ran a finger down his back suddenly. "We have other things we should be doing tonight than discussing who knows what and why, Billy."

Divatox's Sub
The gigantic submarine slid through the icy waters near the coast of Alaska. Divatox refused to let the rangers get slip through her fingers so easily, and had ordered the immediate deployment of her troops and her vessel to the frigid coastline of Alaska. She knew that they would not be able to defeat her without their precious zords nearby. And even if they were, there wasn't a chance that they would ever be able to drive through such deep snow! Their location DEFINITELY gave her the upper hand! It was ALL too perfect!

Not only that...but she had a plan. Oh yes, her plan had already begun to take shape! For in the sub with her, tied and chained up in the corner near her torpedo launcher, was Daniel Cranston. That fool Billy would never attack her if he knew thatshe had his father, and would not take a second thought to kill him. Her plan was flawless. She had the Half-breed's father, and he would surrender.

And yes, she had indeed found out about Billy's...condition. She had killed many half-breeds in her past, and surely this one would be no problem. From where she heard of Billy, was the strangest of all. At night, when she had fallen asleep, a man with a gruff voice whispered valuable information to her. Sometimes Divatox thought that she could hear a woman giggling softly in the background, but she often ignored it. All that mattered is that the information was true, and that she was going to take advantage of it! She didn't know quite HOW yet, but she had plenty of time to think of something. After all, she wanted to save her major attack for after the two goody-two-shoe's lovebirds were married.

She had been looking into her periscope, viewing the glaciers up ahead. They would present no problem to her; for all she had to do was use her torpedoes. And KABLOOEY! They would be space dust, and the sub could get through without any problems. Smiling wickedly, she pushed her periscope up, turned, and walked over to Daniel. Muffled cries came from him, choked off by the gag they had put in his mouth when capturing him. Laughing, Divatox grabbed onto the ropes that bound his wrists, and pulled him up to her.

"Having a nice trip?" she snarled, letting out an evil giggle.

"Mmpph! Nmph!" Daniel grumbled, shaking his head. He struggled against her grip, crying out. But alas it was no use, for it did him no good. She was too strong for him to take down. Especially in the bonds that held him tight. This was nearly as bad as the time that the Hunter had set the trap of roots for himself and Rachael.

Divatox studied the man that was her arch-nemesis's father, and found that he was not half bad looking for a human. It would be nice to have some nice dirty fun with him before he was killed. After all, she had learned when she was younger: "Never let a good looking captive man go to waste!" and she didn't plan on going against that rule with this man. It wasn't like it was gonna be an ongoing thing or anything, just a one time fling. No Big deal. It's not like he wasn't going to be dead within the next month. "Oh...I have BIG plans for you, little man. Would you like to know what they are?"

He shook his head, shouting out muffled "No!" 's. Anything that this woman had plans for him to do could not in any way, be a good thing. He didn't need an ugly purple haired lady messing with him, just as he had found out where Billy was going to be married! He had been on his way to the airport to join the rangers, when this egg headed monster jumped him {with many fish looking creatures, I might add} and brought him to this disgraceful looking subcraft! He didn't want any plans that she had for him!

"Well," she rubbed her chin with her gloved hand, still holding him tightly with the other. "First of all, you're going to be my bait for destroying your son, Billy and all his pukish Power Ranger friends!" She paused for a minute, licked her lips and did her very best to look seductive. "And the second thing is, you will have to sleep with me, whether you want to or not!"

And before he could even put up protest, he was dragged into Divatox's sleeping quarters, to be the object of her pleasures.

Meanwhile, though she did not know it, her two stowaways were scrounging around for something to eat in the hold. Scorpina found herself nibbling at something, that tasted like it used to be some type of bread, while Daran tore at some raw fish with his teeth. They had spent the last few days in the sub, telling Divatox about the Half-breed. They needed all the help that they could get in defeating him.

Growling, Daran threw down the fish. "So, what are we going to do with the Half-breed once we have him killed? Besides rule the world with the amulet that he will leave behind of course!"

"Oh, I donno. Possibly open up our own beachside resort? I have always wanted one of those. Not to mention that I wanted to know what one IS."

"I don't believe you understood me!" he exclaimed, snatching the hardtack out of her hand. "What are we going to do with his rotting corpse? It might be worth something you know!"

"Hmm....there are so many options. We don't want to give him a decent funeral of course!"

"Of course not! Why would we?"

"Well....as I always say, 'We'll think of something'. We do have a month or so before our major plan takes shape."

"You're right." He muttered, climbing to his feet. "We've got plenty of time. And there is one thing we know for sure."

Daran looked out through the porthole of the sub, staring at the clear ocean waters. "The Half-breed will die."

On the Slopes!
"Whoops! Be careful there, Justin! Don't wanna hurt yourself!" Carlos lifted a snow covered Justin out of the snow and set him back up on his skis.

Justin began to laugh. "I told ya! I've never been skiing in my whole life! So far, it's been FUN!"

"Justin, all you have done is fall down face first into the snow on your way to the chair lift. We haven't even begun to ski yet!" T.J. said, smiling broadly. He handed Justin the ski pole that he had dropped. Laughing still, Justin grabbed hold of the pole and snatched it away.

"It's still fun!" he said, and pulled his ski goggles over his eyes. You had to admit, he did look a little funny with such big goggles on a small face. Everyone covered their mouths with their gloved hands to press back their oncoming laughter. He put his hands on his hips, so that the poles of his skis were sticking straight out to his sides. "What?" he questioned, giving them a strange look through the goggles.

"N...nothing!" Billy gasped, turning red in the face. He turned to look away from Justin. It was just too funny! No one could possibly have looked at him and not laughed!

"Oh, this is great!" Justin was torn between being angry and laughing himself, he had an idea of how he had to look like this. "My best friends are all laughing at me!"

Cassie managed to control herself long enough to tell him, "It's too bad Divatox isn't here to see you, she'd laugh herself straight off the planet!"

Justin widened his eyes at this, and the sight of that through the goggles just sent them all into more and more spasms of laughter they could no longer hide. "Oh, fine! Keep laughing!" Justin pretended to be upset and started to stalk off through the snow.

He managed to take about four steps before he tripped over his ski poles yet again, and said something muffled by the snow. "What was that?" Billy called over to his young friend. Justin sat up and struggled to his feet and looked back over to them.

"Nothing," he smiled a little, then whipped one hand from behind his back, throwing a perfectly packed and rounded snowball straight at Billy.

"Hey!" the Silver Ranger clawed at his face, trying to clear the snow out of his eyes. "Justin!"

The littlest Ranger would've run, if every last one of the others hadn't started pelting him that moment with snowballs they'd scooped up at a moment's notice. "ACK!" he wailed, grinning. "I'm under attack!"

"That's what you get for hitting me!" Billy tossed two snowballs of his own at Justin, then stopped the fight with a quickly raised hand. "We came here to ski, not snowball fight!" When everyone responded to that with moans and groans of disappointment, Billy told them, "We can have the snowball fight after we ski!"

"Really? We can do that? Alright!" and with that, a snowball went hurtling into Ashley's face, covering her nice yellow coat with the fine white powder. She crinkled her nose, and reached up to brush herself off, only to be plowed into by Carlos. He too, living in Honduras the majority of his life, hadn't the slightest clue on how to ski, and was almost as big a klutz as Justin was at it. It seemed as if they were TAKING TURNS falling over their own two feet! And when Carlos began to curse in Spanish, all of the others tripped over their OWN feet and started to laugh

"Ow! Watch where you're going burrito boy!" Ashley complained, grabbing onto his hair and shoving him off of her into the snow. "Can we make it to the chair lift without one of you two tripping on the way?"

Carlos stumbled back up onto his feet, arms flailing the ski poles in all directions. "I....hope we ca...WOAH!" in his attempt to turn around, he fell on his butt into the snow.

"I guess not!" T.J. said, reaching up into his coat to remove the snowball that Justin had stuffed in it. "Come on you guys! Are we gonna have to pick you up and carry you?"

Just as Justin gave her a weird look, Samantha chuckled quietly, and backed up into Billy. "Um...did you HAVE to say that, T.J.?"

"Can we just get to the chair lift and start skiing?" Cassie sighed, though she was smiling widely. "I would like to get on the slopes before I become old and gray!" She laughed and made her way over to chair lift. Ashley came to sit next to her, and they were carried off. Next came Billy and Samantha, which the two of THEM could not seem to stop kissing. T.J. somehow managed to get Justin onto the lift, and Carlos miraculously got on all by himself.

Surprisingly enough to all of them, they made it across from the chair lift with no problems at all. Justin and Carlos didn't drop a single ski poll, lose their goggles, fall off or ANYTHING. It seems as if things had taken a change for the better, and there would be no more screw-ups the rest of the day.

Boy, were they ever wrong.

First, Justin tripped as he tried to get off of the lift, and lost one of his poles. As he fell, the poll dropped from his hand and went crashing all the way down the mountainside, never to be seen again. To his disappointment, Justin had to sit out until they found him a boogey board to sled on.

Then there was Carlos. Poor little Carlos started off well enough. He started down the hill pretty well, and didn't take a spill. But oh, did that ever change. About half-way down the hill, he began to slide out of control. Screaming, he barreled down the hill; his hands out in front of him. It wasn't too long before his left hand, the left side of his torso, his left leg and the left side of his face came in painful contact with a gigantic fir tree.

Letting out a shrill cry of pain, Carlos collapsed into the deep snow. His entire body throbbed. That is, all except his left wrist. It was very numb, and out from underneath the rim of his glove, came a thin stream of blood. He groaned and turned his head to one side. The cold snow seeped in through his garments...chilling him to the bone. It wasn't long before he lost consciousness.

Seconds before the impact, the rangers saw him spinning out of control, and were calling out to him. Now they knelt down next to him, crying out desperately for help. Ashley held the unconscious Carlos close to her, hot tears streaming down her face. Cassie and T.J. managed to get back atop of the slope, and made their way to the nearest ski lodge.

"Hey! We've got an emergency here!" T.J. yelled as he burst into the lodge, not bothering to toss down his polls or remove his skis. Cassie stumbled in after him. Indeed, all eyes were on them as they stood in the doorway.

"Our...friend! He slid out of control on the slope, and hit a tree! He's bleeding from his wrist, and he's unconscious! Please! We need a phone, an ambulance, SOMETHING!" Cassie was trembling uncontrollably, her face streaked with tears. "Please...he needs help."

Some of the people looked at each other, and one headed for a phone and called the hospital. Another person, a young woman came up to them.

"I am a doctor." She said, as she grabbed onto her parka and pulled it on. "I am Nika Lewis. Now, if you don't mind, take me to your friend and I'll see what I can do for him until the helicopter arrives." Nika grabbed onto a medical kit nearby, and rushed at the door with T.J. and Cassie at her heals.

There was no need for either of them to tell Nika where Carlos was, for Ashley led her there with her loud screaming. The three of them stumbled down the slope, and made their way to where the collision had occurred. Nika had to push them all away, and pry Ashley away from Carlos so that she could examine him. She carefully looked over him, making sure that she did not injure him any further, and to make sure that he did not get anymore wet than he already was, she took off her parka and gently lay him down upon it. She grabbed the goggles off from his eyes, took off the elastic band and made a tourniquet. She secured it tightly to his upper arm to stop the bleeding, but already she knew that he had lost many pints of blood by the deeply red colored snow that surrounded the area from which she had moved him.

Much to everyone's relief, the helicopter arrived only minutes later, and carried both Carlos and Nika to the hospital. The remaining people made their way up the hill, all the way back to the hotel in record time. From there, they teleported to the hospital, and sat in the crowded waiting room, waiting for news on Carlos. To Justin and Billy, this was almost like waiting to find out what had happened to Rocky, and they hoped that his injuries would not cause him to have to leave the team.

Hours after hours passed, and there was no word on his condition. Ashley had long since stopped pacing back and forth, and everyone else could not seem to stop fidgeting. They desperately wanted to know how he was going to be; to see if he was going to be OK. He had hit the tree very hard, and they did not want to lose him to one stupid skiing accident. After what seemed to be an eternity, Nika came out of the emergency room with a grim visage on her face.

Cassie stood up quickly. "How is he, Nika?" she asked quickly, voice quavering.

"He...he lost a lot of blood from his wrist. As you all know, that is not a very good area to lose a lot of blood from. He needs more blood, but unfortunately....we don't have his type in stock here, like we are supposed to." She sighed. "And have been unable to find any donors."

Billy looked to Samantha, and then to each of the others. He pursed his lips and nodded, seemingly to himself and stood. "What type is he?" he inquired, his voice cold and full of concern for the Green Ranger.

"His type is O-." Nika replied, shaking her head solemnly. "And people with type O- can only take blood donated from other people with type O-. In these parts, that type is very rare. But we still should have had some in stock."

A small smile formed on Billy's lips. "I can donate." He said. "I'm a type O-."

Nika let out a deep sigh of relief and grabbed onto Billy's arm. "Thank the gods." She said. "We need to get him that blood as soon as possible. You don't know HOW relieved I am to hear you say that!" and with that, she pulled him into the other room.

Within the hour, they had given a pint of Billy's blood to Carlos, and he was resting comfortably in his room. With the new blood, he was doing a lot better, and was somehow healing miraculously. As soon as they got the permission, each of them crowded into Carlos's small room. He was very happy to see them, and greeted them with a warm smile, and a hug for everyone. To make them feel better, despite the loss of blood, all that was wrong with him was a few bruises and a broken wrist, and within a few days he would be well enough to go back to the hotel with them. He did not have to quit the team!

"So," Justin said after a long while. "I guess you'll never want to go skiing ever again, will you Carlos?"

His response shocked each and every one of them. "Are you KIDDING!?" He exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. "I have never had so much fun in my entire LIFE!"

This caused everyone to start laughing. Even though there had been an awful accident, Carlos was not gonna let that trip him up! Despite all the bad things that had happened, they had to admit that they each had a great time! All in all it had been one heck of a day!

Of course it was not long before the nurse came in, and shoved everyone out of Carlos's room. The man promised that they would be allowed to visit him some other time, and that he would be fine within a few days, but it was plainly obvious that he was very angry with them. They had protested for a solid 10 minutes after the visiting period had ended, and he WANTED THEM OUT! Promising Carlos that they would visit again the next day, they all left his room and went back to their hotel.

Carlos sighed and leaned back into the hard hospital bed pillows. He felt really strange, very powerful, and thought that he did not NEED to stay in the hospital any longer! But of course, he was terribly exhausted, and just before he closed his eyes, there was a flash of silver; and then he was asleep.

Louveteau Dominion
"The time at hand has come, my pack brothers...and sisters. Our most gracious leader, as you may all remember, died nearly a decade ago on this very night, and for that, we are saddened. But there is also cause of great joy on this night!"

"Oh, my wise older brother, why should there be cause of joy on a night which such great sorrow occurred so many...many years ago?"

"I have not only gathered you here to mourn our leader's death of so long ago, but to announce the arrival of her heir, the most exalted half-breed to our domain. Xenos: the son of Racheal, has come."

"Oh my! Is it true? Has he really come to save us? Has he?"

"Shhh...calm yourself Beta. Yes, indeed he has arrived on our vast, snowbound kingdom. He is not quite ready to become our leader though. You see...he has not gone through his first Transformation yet."

"I do wish that he would hurry! We are indeed in great peril! Daran will come any day now, I am sure. And then we will all be destroyed! Without him we are lost, you KNOW that, Alpha!"

"He is learning as fast as he is able, Omega. Our own gracious leader, even in death is assisting him into becoming a fine leader for us. Don't you fret now. He will come for us as soon as the Transformation occurs."

"I concur, Alpha. This is indeed a time for celebration as much as it is sorrow. Though Racheal has left us in body, she will never leave us in mind and spirit. We all know that any offspring of Her...will be in her likeness, and a wonderful leader. We have no need to fear. Xenos will rise soon enough!"

"Well stated, Gamma! Now everyone, you know that we MUST prepare for his arrival. He, as yet, has no idea what he is FULLY capable OF. It is our job, and ours alone to prepare him. Racheal has brought him as far as she is able, and now it is our turn."

"I have devised a perfect plan to get him, my lord."

"Do tell the whole court, so that we may all know."'

"I have been working for many, many weeks on my enchanted howls. The ones that you asked me to invent for the purpose of roping the Half-breed. Or more precisely, attracting him."

"Go on, go on."

"I have perfected them. One tiny sip of this elixir, and one crystal clear howl into the light of the full moon will attract him miles away! He wont Transform as of yet, but he will at least hunt, and act as we do. And that, of course, is the next step before the Transformation."

"My, my, my, Delta. You have been quite the busy little wolf, haven't you? Well that is not to say that I am EXTREMELY pleased with this report. The only flaw at the moment, is that the full moon is an entire week away. But as Racheal told unto us, 'All things will come in their own due time. If we are not patient, then we may miss the greatest of opportunities that lay in the paths ahead of us.' And so now we will wait. The meeting of Louveteau Dominion has been adjourned. Until then, my loyal pack. May the Power Protect You."

Divatox's Sub
"I'll be right back, my little Sugar Dumpling." Divatox practically purred into Daniel Cranston's ear. She smiled sweetly as he nodded with acknowledgement, and curled up asleep in the gigantic bed as he pulled the dark purple comforter over his bare torso. Pulling on her cape, she gently touched his cheek with her long fingernails, and kissed him lightly on the forehead. So she wasn't going to kill him after all. So what? He still made pretty good bait, considering that Billy would do anything to get his father away from her.

Not that Daniel would necessarily WANT to be taken away from her, now.

And no, it's not what you think. Not a single love spell/potion or anything of the sort was used on Billy's father. Not one. It had all happened so suddenly, you see. At first, Daniel was not exactly thrilled with the purple haired woman who was trying to rip his clothes off, and Divatox wasn't really in any mood to be sociable, and had kept him gagged and tied. But....then she looked into his eyes. Twin seas of endless blue; captivating her. She couldn't believe herself when she found that he had untied him, and they began to talk.

But as you can tell by the way things have been described, that talk is not all they did. They both found out, that with each other it was truly possible to leave a deceased loved one behind, and love another. As revolting as it may sound, Divatox and Daniel Cranston had fallen head over heals in love with each other, and both were not sure in the least exactly how it happened that way. It just...well... Happened.

She left the room quietly, so that he could rest. The previous night had been a busy one for him, and heaven forbid, he needed it. Besides...Divatox had other fish to fry. Or other wolves for that matter. Somehow, she never COULD stick with a plan to back off of something until the appropriate time. There was always a constant need, a continuous urge within her to attack. She was war-driven, I guess you could say. But that of course, it the nature of a space pirate. Everyone knows that!

"Oh, Porto!" she complained, looking through her periscope in her usual manner. "Why can't I ever be pleased with a perfect plan! I want to destroy the rangers NOW!"

"Well, my captain. You can always toy with them a bit before the master plan. Just try not to drop a hint that it is you...so that we can remain undercover. It wouldn't be smart to ruin our perfect plans, just as soon as they are within our grasp, only because you were bored and felt like attacking." Porto said to her, looking through The Intergalactic Yellow Pages. He was obviously searching for a monster that Divatox could use in her plans.

"Don't tell me what I can and cannot do you giant marshmallow! I know what I am doing! They'll never suspect a THING!" she screamed. She grabbed tightly on the hatch to his porthole like face, pulled the little door open, spit in his face, then slammed it closed. "GOT IT!?"

"Y...yes. Of course I understand, my captain!" he wailed, and continued to leaf through the enormous phone book. "Aha!" he declared. "I have found the PEFECT monster!"

"Hmm??"

"You remember that WONDERFUL woman we met on Raliaan IV. The one with the wings?"

"Oh, Falconia. Yes...I remember her. To my knowledge, she is the only monster I ever hired that was any good." Divatox put her hands on her hips and peered over the spine of the phone book to look at it. Porto had his finger planted on the picture of a woman, who looked very much like a bird of prey.

"Shall I give her a call?" he questioned, searching around for the telephone. Reaching up underneath a pile of seaweed that Elgar used as a decoration, he pulled out a ruby red telephone and stuck it inside the porthole like door covering his face; his fingers ready to dial.

"Sure, sure. Goright ahead. But if this brilliant scheme of yours doesn't work..." she grabbed the top of his head and brought his face up to hers. "You had better know how to swim...got it!?" and with that, she slammed the porthole closed on the phone cord.

Shakily, Porto replied as he dialed the number. "Yes, my Queen. Falconia will not fail!" Only seconds after he dialed, there was a sudden click, and the phone went dead. "That's odd."

"No! It's Falconia!" a woman screeched as she mysteriously appeared on the Sub. She indeed did look like a falcon, with long white wings with grayish streaks. She had a long, curved beak, bright yellow eyes, and her feet were shaped like that of talons. But those were the only falcon like things about her. The rest of her body was shaped like that of a human female; a sturdy warrior woman. "What do you want!?" She demanded. "I thought that I had given you enough help with Raliaan IV!"

"Yes, yes, yes...of course you did, Falconia. But my queen wishes your assistance again. She wants you to be secretive, as you were last time, and don't let the Power Rangers know that you are working for her. Queen Divatox has BIG plans for them, and if you don't keep it quiet, then they will all be ruined, got it?"

"And WHY is the big Marshmallow Porthole Head talking to me? Why doesn't 'Queen Divatox' talk to me herself?" Falconia peered behind Porto's enormous head. "Where IS she anyway?"

"Why, she's right..." as Porto turned around to see where Divatox had been, he found that she had disappeared. "Here." He finished.

"Oh my! Has Divatox taken up magic? She doesn't appear to be there to me!"

"Just do what I say, Falconia. I'm sure Divatox is doing something very important. Now, you have heard of the Power Rangers, right? Or am I going to have to brief you?"

"No, no, no, Marshmallow man. I don't need any briefing. Every villain from any galaxy has heard of them! Unbeaten, eh? Well not for long!" she cackled down deep. "Watch out, Power Rangers! You've met your match!" And before Porto could say another word to her, she had disappeared from the sub.

He sighed deeply, and went to take care of the things that need to be done for a sub to remain in working order. Rygog had been severely punished for his defiance, Porto knew. He, along with Elgar, was quite possibly still swimming outside; for Divatox had thrown them out into the deep, cold ocean. Suddenly, above his head he heard sounds. Low, metal clanging sounds; like someone was walking around in the air vents above him. "Who's there!?" he exclaimed, reaching for a large object to bang on the ceiling.

Daran and Scorpina backed up against the wall, whispering profanities to each other. When Porto finally quieted, and they looked down through the vent to find that he had left the main control room. Scorpina slumped down onto the floor, still cursing.

"We almost gave ourselves away!" she exclaimed, growling at Daran. "You know, we BOTH gotta be careful! Not just me, you know!"

"Would you just SHUT UP! I know it was BOTH of our faults. Great god, Scorpina, you truly ARE the fool of this duo!"

She looked up at him, nearly jumping back as he cracked his gigantic knuckles. "W...well, you know we need to get a plan, and FAST! You saw how quickly Divatox snatched up that monster and sent it down. It's only fair that we get to torture the rangers as well! You never know, we just might get rid of that pesky Half-breed once and for all!"

"Can't you ever be patient, woman? We'll get to it soon enough!"

"We are only waiting, because your royal freakishness..." she jutted her index finger out to point at him. "Has not come up with a brilliant scheme yet, no matter what he says!"

Daran growled, and with a swipe of his arm, backhanded her in the chin. She went crashing into the opposite wall, and slumped onto the ground. Slowly, Scorpina lifted her head to look up at him as he towered over her. There was an evil scowl on his face, and he reached town and took hold of her long black hair. With a fierce pull, he had her dangling her feet nearly two feet off the ground, being face to face with him. She trembled with fear, and bit down hard on her lip. His hot breath coursed around her face, and the low growl still resonated within him. "You had better not lose your tongue with me, you puny little bug, or along with it your head shall go! Is that understood?"

She nodded her head to the best of her ability, the rest of her body trembled with fear. With a loud grunt, he again hurled her into the wall.

"That's better!" he snarled. "You know better than to get smart with me. I indeed have a plan, but it is not yet ready to be unleashed." He plunged his booted foot into her side, pinning her to the wall of the already cramped area. She gasped for a breath, but none would come. Her eyes watery, she managed to gaze up at him. Daran had the most evil grin on his face, and pushed his foot deeper into her midriff. "Is that also understood?"

Scorpina's voice came out as nothing but a shrill, squeaking whisper. "Yes, master."

He kicked her once more, and then stalked off to the other end of the narrow hallway. Scorpina pushed herself up onto her elbows, glaring at him through her dark eyes. There was a sudden flash of red that sparked through them...but then it disappeared. She gasped, catching the breath that she had lost, and slowly began to regain her energy.

Just who did this guy think he was anyway? The king of the entire universe? Ha! Fat chance on that one! He wasn't any more powerful than she was...it was just that he was a man. Daran was nothing but a self-centered, chauvinistic pig. Well his high and mighty personality was going to be his downfall, which was for certain! If there was one thing that Scorpina could not stand, it was a man who thought that he was the center of everything. She was not ever going to live this down; not a chance in hell. She knew, that she would get the better of him, and at a time when it would most hurt him, and he would least suspect it. But...then...how should she go about it.

She craned her neck to look down the hallway, only to find Daran asleep at the end of it. Around his neck, she spied the 5 medallions. Now...if he didn't have those...it would cost him everything. Perfect! Scorpina climbed to her feet slowly, both for stealth, and the fact that she was still extremely sore. Quietly, slowly, she crept down the hall, keeping her eyes locked on his huge, sleeping bulk. He did not budge in the least. She was fortunate that he could sleep through anything. Soon she was hovering over him.

She clicked her tongue distastefully, shaking her head. "Such a pity...what a fool you are." she murmured, and knelt down silently beside him. Outstretching her arms, she managed to catch the chains of the medallions under her slender fingers...just barely grazing the skin of Daran's neck. He sighed deeply, then turned away from her, as if to roll over. She gasped, nearly losing her grip on the gold chains...but somehow she managed still to keep hold of them. Then she realized, that now that he had rolled over, it would be easier to remove them from around his neck. Just the stroke of luck that she needed! With quick haste, she jerked all five of the medallions from around his neck, and silently stole back to the other side of the hall.

"I have triumphed!" she whispered excitedly, holding the medallions in front of her. They twirled around and around, and the gold twinkled in the light from the main control room below, sending gold flashes around the area surrounding her. With an impish grin, she stowed them carefully in the hilt of her sword at her hip. They would be safe there, for her sword was not as long as it's sheath...and now Daran would never find them.

Indeed he would pay for his foolishness.

Back at the Hotel
"You guys! Hurry it up! I see Nika and Carlos coming this way!" Justingrabbed hold of the curtains and pulled them closed. He hopped off the windowseat, narrowing his eyes and putting his hands on his hips. "Faster! Wehaven't got all day! Quit being such slow pokes! Get a move on here." Theyoungest ranger ran around the room, barking out orders to the others.

Billy managed a small smile as he looked down at Justin from the chair onwhich he was standing. In his hands, he held one end of a gigantic banner, andT.J. was across the room, holding the other. He too was standing on a chairand they both were trying to hang the banner so that Carlos could see it assoon as he walked in.

The Blue Ranger had seemed to take control of the entire party plan. Afterall, it was his idea! He was like a tiny army sergeant with long hair, marching around the room and clapping his hands together. All the while he wasshouting, his teenage boy's voice cracking as he demanded that Cassie put thesodas out, Samantha get out the streamers, Ashley stop eating the chips, and that Billy and TJ hurry their butts up with the stupid banner. All in all, it was a really comical moment indeed...if only they had a video camera!

As a matter of fact, since Carlos's accident, Justin had been more independent, and taking more charge. Carlos's accident and injury had affected all of them. It terrified them that one of their friends; their teammate,nearly died. And after all of that, the guy still wanted to go skiing again! There was just no stopping the unstoppable, I suppose...but now he was coming back after getting released from the hospital, changed forever in a way thatonly one of them could possibly understand.

Billy grimaced, taking his gaze from perpendicular, to stare right down intoJustin's eyes. Instantly, the both of them froze. They had, ever since thefirst time they had caught each other's gaze, been avoiding looking each otherin the eyes. Now Billy had done it, and now it was happening. Images swirledaround them, the world became black, and everyone else around them faded.

And when they awoke, the two of them were tied to gigantic wooden stakes,hovering directly above a roaring blaze. Justin let out a startled cry, andBilly growled deeply. They turned their heads off to their right side whenthey heard a low cackling coming from that direction. There stood a muscular,blonde haired man who was dressed from head to foot in furs. His teeth glintedin the rising fire; his lips curled into the most sinister smile imaginable.Behind him, Scorpina stood with her sword held to Carlos's throat. Each andevery one of their friends; T.J., loyal red ranger, Ashley, the sometimesstubborn yet powerful yellow ranger, Cassie, the swift pink ranger, Carlos,the dark and mysterious green ranger, and Samantha, the first of all cats andBilly's beloved; we're bound tightly with what seemed to be glowing yellowropes. When Justin saw them, he twisted and yelled, trying to break himselffree.

"Stop it!" Billy snapped. "You'll get yourself fried, and that wont helpanyone!" There was a low resonance to Billy's voice...something non-human aboutit. Justin jerked his head in Billy's direction.

"Then what do you suggest, oh powerful leader!" he declared, eyes flashingwith fury brighter than that of the fire. "She's gonna kill Carlos!"

And then Daran began to come closer, his laugh rising high and ringing intheir ears. Billy looked at him, narrowing his glowering eyes. Then henoticed....Daran was not wearing the medallions! The Ape, the Crane, The Bear,The Falcon and The Frog; they were not there round his neck as they usuallywere! But Billy had no time to figure out where they had gone, as Daran swipeddown his knife and hacked the ropes that tied Justin and Himself off of thestake and the two of them plummeted towards the flames...and Carlos's screamechoed high into the night...

Billy and Justin snapped out of it almost immediately, gasping for breath andfalling backwards to land on their rears.

"It happened again!" cried Justin. "It happened again! We saw another vision!We saw it!"

"Carlos..." Billy panted, rising to his feet. "Where's Carlos!? And Daranand...." He looked at everyone else, who's eyes were wide and full of fright. Hegulped loudly and told them, "It happened again...we met each other's gaze andsaw a vision. It was...it was awful..."

"We were tied over a fire, and you guys were tied up....and Scorpina had asword at Carlos's neck...and Daran cut the ropes and we fell into the fire andCarlos screamed and...." Justin blurted out the words so quickly that they werebarely even audible, and silenced himself quickly.

As a matter of fact, everyone in the room was silent.

Until there came a knock on the door...

Ashley jumped quickly and squealed. "It's Carlos! Turn out the lights, andeveryone but Billy HIDE!" without a word she jumped under the refreshmenttable with Justin in tow. The memory of what had just occurred disappeared,and Cassie, Sam and TJ too dashed for decent hiding places. Billy switched offall of the lights, and quietly went to open the door. He poked his head out,only to be met by a snowball, and Carlos's loud laughter.

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed. Billy wiped the snow crystals out of his eyes andgrinned at the Green Turbo Ranger, who had the most goofy smile on his face.Smiling was something that all of them had rarely seen Carlos do, and itreally was a welcome change. "Hey! Why's it so dark in there?" he asked Billy,trying to push through the doorway. Billy stood his ground.

"Turned the lights off, everyone else is out and Justin caught a cold.Thought it might be nice for me to stay with him. You know, watching him andletting him get his rest and giving him medicine and all that..."

"Oh..." Carlos bit his lip. Nika came up from not too far behind him. "Well,can I come in, I want to see how my buddy's feeling and all..."

"Sure...you and Nika can both come in. I'm sure Justin wouldn't mind the sightof a doctor right now. I told him 'Justin, you really shouldn't have jumpedinto that snowbank!' but did he listen? Heck no!" Billy held open the door forthe two of them, and they stepped inside the darkened hotel room.

Carlos looked around. "Where is he?" he wondered, and all of a sudden, Billyswitched on the lights and people spouted out from underneath tables, beds,and out of closets. There was a gigantic banner that read "Welcome Back,Carlos!" hanging across the ceiling with multi-colored streamers and balloons.A refreshment table was piled high with food and drink, and Carlos's jaw, itwas safe to say, had dropped down to the floor! Nika grinned, crooked herfinger underneath his chin and covered her mouth with his. Ashley's eyeswidened, and she gasped...and Carlos staggered backwards, closing his mouth. Hegave a short glance to Nika, and then back to Ashley, and walked over toAshley's side. Finding that her man was loyal, Ashley gave a satisfied "Hmph!"to Nika, who just continued to stare at Carlos.

"Wow! A party for me!" Carlos gazed around the room, trying not to think ofwhat Nika had done to him. "I've never had a party before!" he tapped the caston his left wrist with the palm of his right hand. Ashley put her armslovingly around him and brought her lips to his with a loving kiss.

"Yep." She said. "We missed you while you were in the hospital...and we wantedto throw you a welcome back party!"

"It was Justin's idea!" T.J. pointed to the Blue ranger, who was practicallybouncing off of the walls. Cassie nodded.

"The little nut came up the idea for a welcome back party for you once theylet you out of the hospital, and we thought it was a great idea!"

"Yeah, well I think it's an absolutely superb idea..." an unfamiliar,screeching voice cooed. All of them turned to look at Nika, who's parted lipshad just uttered the sentence. They curled into a twisted and evil smile.

Carlos's eyes bulged as he stood there, completely still and staring at her.His jaw was slack and his arms hung limply at his sides. "Nika..." he whispered,then gulped suddenly as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Shewas giving him an uncomfortable feeling. His deep brown eyes darted around theroom, catching the worried gazes of his friends and trying his hardest not tomeet Nika's glowering stare.

There was something that just wasn't right about her on this day. Everythingabout her was different except for her appearance, and even then there seemeda dark presence about her. She had never kissed him before; never even triedto come onto him for that matter. And now this change in her voice...thescreeching, grating harshness. The evil, the anger...the rage...the hatred. Allwere there, in her voice, appearance and personality. He could sense it,somehow, though he knew that he never would have sensed it before. Now hewondered why he had noticed it now, but to him it was like she wasn't evenNika at all.

That was it!

She wasn't Nika!

Somehow, deep within him he could feel it. She wasn't Nika at all, but animposter in Nika's skin! He knew...that underneath she wasn't even a human. Abird...what was this about a bird? She was a bird! What had this imposter donewith Nika!?

The clone waltzed over to Carlos, purring deep within her throat. "What isit, lover?" she asked him, a saucy smile upon her lips.

"Who are you?" he demanded, jumping back as Nika's hands, stolen by someforce of evil and hatred, caressed his chest gently. "What have you done withNika!"

"Nika is dead, lover-boy." She cooed. "Good and dead."

"DEAD!? You killed her, you devil! WHO ARE YOU!?" he grabbed hold of hershoulders and shook her fiercely. She cackled shrilly, and Carlos screamed andjumped back. As he did so, he looked down at his hands. There in his palmslay a large clump of gray and white feathers. He then lifted his gaze to lookup at Nika's killer and gasped.

She was covered with the same feathers that he held, obviously he had ripthem from her shoulders as he had shaken her. Her once soft and lovelyfeatures twisted and changed before their eyes, revealing long curved andpointed beak, and deep set, bright yellow eyes. Her clothing had vanished,revealing that her entire frame was covered in the same feathers. Everyone inthe room gasped and reached quickly into their pockets to get their keys; thesource of their power.

They had to get rid of this monster, and fast.

Billy snatched his key out first and fell into the all too familiar stance.T.J. and Justin fell in step behind him seconds later and given a few moreseconds, Ashley and Cassie were in formation too. Samantha backed away fromthe potential battle, and Carlos still stood there, digging around in hispockets.

Billy turned his head off to the side, looking hard at Carlos. "Come on,Carl." He snapped the command. "Get your key, and let's go!"

Carlos shot a panicked look, still searching in his pockets and coat. "I knowI had it right here!" he explained, his voice filled with worry. "It's gone!"

"Oh, shit..." Billy cursed under his breath, and low murmur ran through theremaining rangers. "Come on you guys, we have to go on without him. You..." hepointed at Carlos with his index finger, eyes practically glowing. "You keeplooking for your key, we'll hold it off until you do." And then the SilverRanger turned his attentions back tot he monster.

With their keys out at the ready, they all let out a loud cry of "Shift IntoTurbo!" and their arms flailed in the familiar morphing sequence. All flashedwith bright light that when it faded, 5 Turbo armored stood in the place ofthe 5 civilians, poised for battle.

"Who are you, chicken butt!?" T.J. barked out as he put his gloved hands onhips. "And what do you want from us!?"

Falconia scratched the ground furiously with her massive talons. "What whoyou're calling 'chicken butt' there, Baldy!" she screeched/ "I am Falconia,conqueror of galaxies and I answer to no one, before you assume that I amworking for one of your low class super-villains!"

"Gee...that is a reassuring thought to brood over." Cassie crossed her arms andshook her head. "Bite me, Bird Brain!"

"Well, you'll fear me soon enough, missy! I always get what I want, when Iwant it! And if you wanna learn that the hard way, have it your way! Well,well, well! Lookie what I have here!" she held up a communicator and a key andthen slipped the communicator onto her wrist. Carlos's head shot up from wherehe had been looking through a suitcase, and he screamed. "A batch of DesertThunder Turbo Chargers! Just what I what I always wanted, and now they'remine, all mine at last!" The bird-like creature doubled over laughing.

With an ear-shattering scream, Carlos dashed out to slam into Falconia. Criesand shouts of disapproval rang out in a chorus of voices, calling for Carlosto get away from the monster. But he refused to listen to them

In one fluid motion, Falconia issued out the morphing sequence using thestolen Turbo Chargers. The bird woman stood there, dressed in Carlos's greenarmor seconds later. Her feminine curve filled it's normally manly, muscularform like a glove. Like lightning, the false Green Turbo Ranger grabbed thereal one and held him close. Her grip on him implied that she had nointentions on letting him go.

"Now I have the other thing I wanted!" she shrieked, drowning out the shoutsof the terrified group of Power Rangers. "So nice and spicy....like a nice bigcuddly burrito. Yum..." she seemed to slip off into her fantasies, yet her gripon Carlos had slackened none.

"What are we going to do?" Ashley whined and clasped her hands together.There were soft sounds of sobbing through her helmet. Justin came up andhugged her warmly, trying his best to comfort her. Still, she sobbed louder.

"This isn't fair..." Billy gestured to where Carlos was being held, shaking hishead. "We cant attack her for fear of hurting Carlos, and I don't want to takeany chances."

T.J. sighed. "That'd understandable, the poor guy's been through so much. Wedon't want to maim him or anything."

"But if we DON'T do anything," Cassie pointed out. "Then SHE might maimhim...or rape him, which ever comes first!"

"There isn't much that we can do then, is there? Some leader I am...."

Stop that this very instant, William Cranston!

Billy looked up, shocked and overjoyed. "Mom?"

Billy...you know that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. Just bepatient, and things will happen in their due time. Do you honestly think thatafter all those visions that you've had, that the Ne...I mean Carlos is going todie in this battle? Heaven forbid, Billy, what WERE you thinking.

"You...mean those images were real?"

That I did, but take heed, I will not tell you all that is to happen. Youmust do much of this on your own. Just a friendly reminder from your friendlyneighborhood ghost wolf-mom. Now you know what you must do, or at least, myfriend does...

It was then when the Turbo Rangers remembered Samantha. She had been helpingCarlos look for his Turbo Chargers before he lashed out at Falconia, and nowshe was in her cat form, prowling towards the womanized bird of pray. Shesneaked up quietly from behind her, and with a quick swish of the paw,Falconia was on her back and screaming. Carlos scrambled to his feet,snatching his Turbo Chargers away from her, and then cried, "Shift IntoTurbo!" And he was now back in his rightful position of the Desert ThunderTurbo Ranger. He whirled about to face Falconia, still writhing on the groundand let his booted foot impact on her stomach. She rolled, and leapt up,screeching with anger. Carlos gave the rangers and Samantha a thumbs up sign,then balled up his fists again.

"You...puny little....Power Pukes!" Falconia was rasping; Carlos had dealt hera pretty serious blow and she was just now getting to regain her breath."You...you'll never defeat Falconia!"

Samantha had just about had enough. To her, this bird was LUNCH! She lungedout and caught Falconia's wing with her massive jaws and bit down as hard asshe could and began to drag her towards the door. Carlos ran to the door andflung it wide open, then moved out of the way so that Samantha could getthrough. Nodding slightly to Carlos as a sign of thanks, the gigantic catdragged the bird-woman out into the snow. With a loud grunt, she flungFalconia as hard as she could, straight into a gigantic snow bank.

Billy shouted a quick, "Come on!" to the rest of his team, and the whole lotof them raced after Samantha, just in time to see Falconia bursting out of thehill of snow. She shivered and shook, then let out an earth-shattering screechof rage.

"Stupid cat, Stupid Power Rangers! You're all gonna pay for this!" Sheflapped her limp wing in their direction.

T.J. let out a deep-voiced chuckle. "Ha! I'd like you to give us your bestshot!"

Falconia cawed at him, then started to charge. "You asked for it!" shedeclared, and before T.J. could so much as move, she had pounced upon him andwas ripping at him with her talons.

He squirmed, shouting out his pain. She was too heavy, he couldn't get heroff! She just kept ripping, and ripping, and ripping....

Cassie screamed and pulled out her bow. "Hey, chicken shit!" she screamed,and just as Falconia turned around to screech at her, Cassie fired the bow andknocked Falconia off of T.J. Grateful to say the least, T.J. climbed to hisfeet, then pulled out his sword. Billy ran up next to him.

"Let's take her out..." Billy rumbled. T.J. nodded, with with short battlecries they charged with their swords out in front of them. A large wingflapped down and knocked the swords out of their hands and into the snow. Theyhadn't even gotten a chance!

Arrows and bolts of electricity flew past their heads to strike Falconia. Atleast the others hand their weapons! The red and silver rangers bolted forwardand grabbed their swords out of tnhe snow, then held them in front of them atthe ready. Their teammates streamed up to stand beside them.

Falconia, to say the least, was ANGRY! Suddenly, before their eyes she beganto grow to unimaginary height, and without the help of any spinning orbs ortorpedoes! The group of Turbo rangers gasped and jumped back.

Billy turned to Justin. "You know what we gotta do." He said, then broughthis fingertip to his earplate. "We need Turbozord power NOW!"

As if they had been placed in Alaska all along, the 6 zords burst out fromunderneath the snow and sped towards their corresponding rangers. All leaptand were in the cockpit seconds later.

"Okay Rangers, Sound off!" Billy barked.

"Red Lightning: T.J.! Everything's ready here!"

"Mountain Blaster: Justin here! Let's kick some tailfeather!"

"Desert Thunder: This is Carlos! All systems are online!"

"Dune Star: Ashley here! I STILL like this stereo!"

"Wind Chaser: Cassie! Ashley, shut up and drive the zord!"

Billy looked at the gigantic monster standing in front of them, and decidedthat just their zords alone would not be able to conquer the monster. "Comeon, guys! Let's bring em together!"

Insantly, the six zords changed their shape, andbegan to snap together. Itwasn't long before the Turbo megazord stood in front of the evil Falconia, andwas menacingly swining the Turbo sword at her. She only laughed.

"And this is what I am up against?" she snortedm, correct?"

Carlospowerful! You can't beat me with that gigantic tin can, bucket of bolts you'redriving! That thing couldn't hurt a fly!"

Billy retorted bravely, "You can think that all you want, Falconia! But youknow what? You'll never defeat the Power Rangers! TURBO SPINOUT!"

The zord began run at Falconia at full speed, then spin furiously. She yelpedand tried to back away, but the spinning saber caught her in the stomach, andshe errupted into flames, then crashed to the ground.

"That was easy..." said Ashley. "And she thought she was so tough!"

"She was all talk, and no fight...She thought that her threats would scare usand make us wearker, and then she'd be able to beat us. " Carlos said, then heshivered. "She almost had me too...I have to thank Samantha for saving me fromher."

Billy grinned underneath his helmet. "I bet Sam was glad to help you."

T.J. looked at them all, and they all were suddenly quiet. "You guys..." hepointed out. "What about Nika?"

Carlos nearly screamed. "Oh my god! Nika! She's dead!"

At that moment and time...there seemed to be nothing that they could say thatcould calm him down. Falconia had killed the doctor that had saved his life,and even though the rangers had destroyed her, Carlos was still not satisfied.He had been good friends with Nika...and to find out that she was dead...well...thathurt him more than he would ever know. Whoever sent Falconia out, whether sheworked alone or not, was going to pay dearly for taking the life of a friendto all of them.

That night, which was the night before Billy and Samantha's wedding...Carlosstood alone outside, staring up at the moon. Tears glistened in his eyes withthe pale light that the moon shone down. He had his arms hanging down limplyat his sides, the one un-injured fist clenched tightly. "Lady above...guide hersoul to the Summerland, that she may be reborn and perhaps, someday, we shallmeet again." He whispered the words quietly, then wiped the runaway teartrailing down his cheek off.

T.J. came up behind him quietly, and laid a hand on his shoulder. "I'msorry..." he said gently, trying to be comforting to his friend. Carlos onlybowed his head in response, whispering a few words. When he looked up at themoon again, T.J. continued. "Maybe...you should come inside. Billy's wedding istommorrow morning...and...you're the best man. Besides, you're going to catch yourdeath of cold out here, it's below freezing now."

Carlos turned around and nodded, and then the two of them headed back for thehotel room. It had been a tiring day...and the one to follow was coming up fast.It was almost time...for Billy: The Blue Ranger...Billy: The Silver Wolf ZeoRanger....Billy: The Silver Wolf Turbo Ranger...to marry the woman he loved. Itwas almost his wedding day.

A Small Wedding Chapel in Anchorage

There was a definite chill in the air that morning, but that was normal forAlaska, and in no way took away from the warmth and love inside the smallchapel. Billy's heart thudded in his chest as he waited in front of thechaplain. He could hardly believe today was the day. After everything thathad happened, after all that had tried to stop them, from Scorpina to Gasketto Daran, he and Samantha were finally going to be married.

"You're nervous," he glanced over at Carlos, his best man. He'd alwaysthought Adam would be performing this for him, but the former Rangers hadn'tbeen able to make it up there in time. They did however promise that once theygot their busy schedules in order and got together, that they would make it upto Sam and Billy in any way that they could.

And indeed their schedules were very busy! Tanya Sloan was taking the musicworld by storm with her debut platinum album "A Time to Let Go". Adam Park wasno longer working at the martial arts academy, but auditioned for a minor rolein a major big-screen motion picture, and had ended up landed up the leadrole! He was now in the middle of the filming process in Hollywood. Nascar driver: Tommy Oliver, was taking the racing circuit by storm with hiscontinual wins. And then there was world famous ballerina, Katherine Hillard.She was performing in the most famous ballets in the world. Rocky DeSantos wasa teacher for a class of disabled children, and was attending peaceconferences around the world. Jason Lee Scott had ended up travelling toFlorida, and had married Kimberly Harte. They were expecting a little bundle of joy any month now...

"What makes you think that?" the Half-breed asked, doing his best to concealthe nervousness in his voice. Carlos chuckled and pointed to Billy's shakinghands.

"Just a hunch," the Green Ranger said dryly. "Chill out, this is supposed tobe the happiest day of your life!"

"I know, I know," Billy was about to say more, when the doors at the back ofthe wedding chapel opened, and he saw Cassie standing there in her maid ofhonor gown. Samantha had decided against having any bridesmaids; she would beescorted by no one. The only people involved in this wedding were her, Billy,Carlos the best man, Cassie the maid of honor, the other Rangers as witnesses,and the chaplain performing the ceremony itself.

Cassie walked down the aisle, a small smile on her lips. She knew Billy andSamantha were going to be very happy together. Nothing any of their enemiescould do would prevent that.

If any of the Rangers had been paying closer attention, they would havenoticed two pairs of hate-filled eyes glaring at them from the shadows above. Daran whispered to Scorpina, "This is an abomination! This should not happen,we must stop it."

Scorpina shook her head. "Let them have their joy. It will make it all thesweeter when we rip it from them. Be patient." The two minions of evilwatched in silent outrage as Samantha entered the chapel and the weddingbegan.

Billy's eyes widened as he saw her; she was more beautiful in this momentthan she had ever been since he'd first known her. Words simply failed toconvey how she looked. "Beautiful" wasn't good enough. "Lovely" was aninsult. "Perfect" was the next thing that sprang to his mind, but even thatcouldn't do the job good enough. As she approached, all thoughts of how todescribe her failed. It was time.

Time to be married.

"William, Samantha, you have come before this company this day to proclaimand affirm your vows of love for all time," the chaplain began the ceremony."Are you both resolved to continue in this?"

"We are," the couple said in unison. There was no going back, no denial.There was only love between them, love and romance and passion to fill thecosmos for all eternity.

"Do you, William, take Samantha as your wife, to have and to hold, insickness and in health, for better and for worse, for as long as you bothshall live?"

There was only one answer possible. "I do."

"Do you, Samantha, take William as your husband, to have and to hold, insickness and in health, for better and for worse, for as long as you bothshall live?"

Samantha smiled; after so long, she had found her true love. "I do. I losttrack a long time ago of how long I have waited to say that. I love you,Billy."

"The rings, please," the double wedding rings were held out by Carlos andCassie, and the chaplain held them up. "Rings are endless circles, just asthe cycles of life and love are endless. With these rings, your love becomeseternal."

Billy took Samantha's ring in his left hand, and her left in his right. "Withthis ring, I thee wed, and all that I have is thine," he spoke the wordsformally, gazing straight into her warm and loving eyes as he slid the ringonto her finger. She took his hand in her own, and picked up his ring.

"With this ring, I thee wed, and all that I have is thine," she intoned, hereyes never leaving his. The chaplain smiled as the witnesses exploded intospontaneous applause, which seemed completely appropriate.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," the chaplain announced. In theshadows, Daran and Scorpina clenched their teeth, just barely refraining fromleaping down and killing them all. The Rangers didn't notice then, anymorethan they noticed the slim red and gold clad figure watching from behind apillar. A soft, cold voice whispered, far too low for anyone to hear, "Enjoyyourselves while you can, Rangers. It won't last forever."

Divatox never forgot her foes.

The Hotel: Justin, T.J. and Carlos's Room
"Billy....dear, are you sure that you don't want to come with us? We couldalways leave Justin alone, he's a mature young man." Samantha put her hand onBilly's shoulder. Nearly two weeks had past since Billy and Samantha'swedding. It was a cold, clear night, and nearly everyone wore their coats,gloves and parkas. Billy did not, however, and sat slumped in a chair. Justinwas across the room from them standing on his bed, looking at them all.

"You're darn right I'm mature!" Justin exclaimed, jumping up and down on hisbed. Seconds later, he had sent himself hurling to the floor, head first. Goodthing that there had been pillows on the floor. He poked his head up from theother side of the bed, laughing like a maniac.

Billy eyed him strangely, sighed, and shook his head. "Sorry, Sam. I justdon't feel up to going. I'm really tired...and I have this awful headache.Besides...you think that we can leave this little idiot here by himself withouthim being put an insane asylum while we're gone?"

"Hey!" Justin squeaked, glaring at Billy. "I will not get locked up in theinsane asylum! They're too good for me!" and then he began to giggle again,collapsing on the floor.

"I see your point." Carlos nodded at him. "But you don't know what you'remissing. This club is supposed to be totally beast."

"Wish I could come...but I really don't feel well. I have this poundingheadache, you see...." He trailed off, and stopped a second to rub his temples."Oh, geez..."

"It's OK. Maybe you can come with us next time. One of us will stay withRusty over there..." T.J. pointed his index finger out at Justin...who stopped tostare at him in disbelief.

"Don't call me that!" he said, and hurled a pillow at T.J.

Cassie laughed a little, and took the pillow from T.J. "We need to get going,though." She looked to the others.

"We'll see you guys later...Justin, don't mess with Billy, he's got aheadache...OK?" Ashley gave Justin a cold glare, and he stopped laughing.

"OK, me be good." He said quietly. "You guys have a good time at the club."

"We shouldn't be past midnight." Samantha bent down and kissed Billy on theforehead. "You relax, and get better." With that, they all headed out...and fora few minutes there was silence. But of course, with Justin, it wasn't tolast. It took Billy hours to finally get him to sleep.

Grabbing onto the television remote, Billy plopped down into a hard chair. Heclicked on the television, not caring what was on. He was nearly alone in theroom, except for the sleeping 12-year-old in the bed that was across the roomfrom him. Justin was snoring softly, and rolled over to face the wall. Billystared mindlessly at the glowing box, and rubbed his throbbing temples.

Of course Justin, only being 12, had been a total pain in the butt when Billyhad tried to get him to go to bed. That only made things worse for Billy'sheadache. Now, finally at 2 a.m., Justin had finally drifted off to sleep andBilly found that he could not. He was far too restless, and he didn't have aclue as to why.

As Billy found himself finally feeling the urge to sleep, and was slumpingback into the chair, a icy sharp breeze gushed through the room. It caused himto shudder, and goose pimples rose up on his bare forearms. Somehow he managedto push himself up out of the chair, and made his way across the room. Once hewas at the window, he reached up to shut it so that the cold would cease.

But the window wasn't even open.

In fact, it was IMPOSSIBLE for the window TO open. There just wasn't any waythat any wind could have gotten into the room. The door was shut tightly, andthe heater was on, not the air conditioning.

The wind continued to circulate through the room. It came harder and harder,and was becoming more and more cold. It seemed to whisper his name, as ifcalling to him. His eyes flashed silver quickly, and unconsciously he walkedto the door, pulled it open and stepped outside. The cold air pinched hisexposed face and arms like needles.

But the cold didn't matter.

His eyes scrolled up from the horizon to meet the full moon directly above atthe zenith. It was enormous, as they were near the top of the world, and thecraters were more clearly visible than they had ever been before. There weremany shapes that he could distinguish from them, but none more visible to hiseyes than the face of his mother; both wolf and human. She was smiling gentlydown upon him, and her eyes were glinting with the wildness of the first ofWolves.

As he looked up at the giant white sphere, he drew in a deep breath....

AND HOWLED.

What was even more surprising, was the fact that in the distance, the howl ofanother wolf, a REAL wolf, came in response. With lightning fast reflexesBilly shot his head in the direction that the howl had come, and scanned thenearby area with his eyes to find the alpha of the pack. Nearly a mile off, hecould spot him. He began to run, his breath coming out as quick pants andformed a fog before him.

As he ran, his teeth became longer and sharper, as did his nails. He washunting on this night. His hunger for meat had risen, and he could taste theblood in his mouth at that very instant. The alpha looked at the young Half-breed curiously as he came running up, and sniffed at him. He smelled like awolf, he howled like one, the only thing that wasn't the same is that hedidn't look like one. But Alpha could sense the wolf blood within Billy, andallowed him to go hunting with the pack.

For at least an hour, Billy, Alpha and the pack searched for their dinner. Itwas a relief to all of them when they spotted a caribou across the way,struggling to make it through the heavy snow that had fallen just earlier thatday. Billy let out a howl, and he and the pack charged at the helpless beast.It cried out in pain when the wolves pounced upon it, and began to eat italive.

Billy found himself going completely berserk. He shredded at the skin of thecaribou, and tore at it's flesh with his teeth. He wanted it, and badly. Theblood...he craved it. No...no....he NEEDED it. He needed the blood to survive.He needed the hunt, and the flesh, and the blood. He needed it all. He waswild. He...was...the Wolf.

After their meal was completed, and they all stood there, licking theirchops, Billy stood upright. He was covered from head to toe in the warm bloodof the caribou, and his eyes glinted with madness. Something had just occurredto him. The Neo Half-breed...he needed one. He must make another of his kind.Billy knew, that he must let his blood mingle with that of a human, and turnthat human into the Neo Half-breed, or all was lost. He was getting horribleglimpses of the future. Powerful, evil images. The Neo Half-breed MUST becreated that very night!

Without a word, {or bark, even} Billy ran off again to head to the hotel. Heknew just the one that he would make into the Neo Half-breed. No one was inthe room except for him, an he would give very little trouble. Within minutes,he reached the hotel room that he had left nearly an hour and a half ago. Hisbelly was full, and his heart throbbed with the desire to create another. Theheadache he had earlier had ceased totally, and when he saw that the othershad not returned, he smiled menacingly.

There, still asleep in the bed was his target. Such a helpless little child!He would not be helpless much longer. Billy's eyes narrowed into tiny slits,and he went over to the bed. With his nails still long, he grabbed ontoJustin's tiny shoulder, and squeezed. Almost immediately Justin's eyes flewopen and he let out a whimper. But it soon turned into a scream when he sawBilly.

Indeed Billy was very frightening. There was blood caked on his skin andclothes, and his nails were long. There were bits of flesh underneath them,and on the corners of his mouth. It was as if he had gone wild, and had beenhunting for fresh meat, and that Justin was going to be his desert.

"Don't eat me, Billy!" he pleaded. "I don't know what is going on with you,but don't eat me!"

Billy waved his hands, and the blood and flesh disappeared. He was totallyclean, as if he had never been hunting. The only thing that remained the samewas the length of the fingernails and the teeth. "Why, Justin." he said in alow voice. "I have no intention on eating you. I have a proposal to make foryou, in fact!"

"Wha...what kind of proposal? What is going on with you, Billy!? This isn'tlike you at all!"

Billy let out a short, dry laugh. "Oh...but it is, Justin! More than you know.I am a Half-breed, Justin. The Zeo Rangers did not tell you that, did they?"

"No. What does it mean?"

"That I am the son of the first Wolf, and a human..." Billy trailed off, thenstarted telling Justin the tale of the beginning of time. Justin sat there,wide eyed and amazed. "What I am trying to say, Justin. Is that if somethingshould happen to me, The Half-breed, then I will need someone to take myplace. A Neo Half-breed, per say."

"So you want ME to be the Neo Half-breed." Justin added thoughtfully.

"Exactly." Billy nodded. "Ever since we began to see visions of things thatmight happen...and communicating through telepathy, I felt that you would be thebest replacement. Besides, you are more fit for the job than any of theothers...."

"I'll do it!" he replied. "I feel really honored for you to ask methat...and if in any event that something happens to you...I know what to do,and you'll have a good replacement. I'll do anything I have to."

"I warn you...." Billy said softly. "This is going to hurt BAD at first."

He took Justin's arm in his hand and with his other hand, opened a vein.Justin stared as his blood rushed from it, his head started spinning. Billyacted quickly, opening his own vein and placing it upon Justin's bleedingwound. Their faces twisted, from pain to ecstasy. They struggled hard not tolose consciousness, and it seemed as though fire was shooting through them.They both shut their eyes tightly. Neither of them noticed when Samantha,Cassie, T.J., Carlos and Ashley entered the room.

"What in the hell is going on here!" T.J. exclaimed. Justin and Billyimmediately jerked their arms apart. Justin was startled, for he thought thathe would still be bleeding. But he was not, and he was staring at his closedwound, wide eyed.

Carlos' eyes widened as he took in the scene before him. Too shocked tospeak, he could only stare, his face pale and drawn with a mixture of fear,revulsion, and a strange attraction he couldn't begin to explain. Somethingdown deep was pulling at him, drawing him ever closer to the seen to look atthem with boundless curiosity. Kind of like a wolf, you might say.

Cassie found herself clutching at the doorframe, her knuckles white with theforce of her grip. "W-what are you doing to Justin?" she managed to stammerout, not even sure if she believed what she'd seen in the first place.

Samantha was perhaps the least startled of them all, though she hadn't quiteexpected to come into the room to see her husband crouched over Justin, doing.. .was he doing what she thought he was? And if so. . .why?

Ashley's reaction was arguable the simplest. She fainted.

Billy stood up and looked at the others. "Nothing is going on in here. Wewere just doing some experiments with our pulse rates." he said simply."Nothing to faint about." he lifted Ashley up onto the other bed.

T.J. looked at Justin. "Justin? Is this true? Because if he was doing what itLOOKED like he was doing, you need to tell us!"

"No! He wasn't doing ANYTHING like that to me! Billy wouldn't do somethinglike that! He was..." Justin glanced at the TV. Luckily for him, there reallyWAS an experiment on a television on how to test pulse rates. "We were doingthat! What is on TV!"

And sure enough, on the television there were two people testing their pulsesin the way that Billy and Justin had seemed to be. They all sighed in reliefand looked at them.

"We're really sorry." Carlos said. "We didn't know... I mean...if you came inand saw one of us practically on top of Justin...what would YOU think?"

"That you had lost your mind and were molesting a kid...but you have toremember...we're scientists and we like to experiment, even if most of itlooks weird like that. I would never do that to Justin...ever."

Justin yawned and lay back down in the bed. "Now if you guys don't mind, I'mREALLY tired. Billy woke me up from a perfectly good deep sleep to show me theexperiment."

Billy smiled. "Sorry about that...I just thought that you would like to tryit before it went off the air."

"Yeah...it was cool." Justin yawned. There was a secretive smile upon his facethat made a mark of "Ha ha! I know something they don't know!" and then hewas soon fast asleep.

Cassie carried Ashley off to their room, and they too went to bed, andSamantha and Billy headed off to their honeymoon suite to let the guys getsome rest. Samantha looked very concerned for her husband.

"Billy, why were you performing the Making?" she asked him, holding tightlyonto his hand. "The original animals, and the Half-breeds do that to makeanother of their kind if they feel that they are near their end."

"And I feel that way." He said solemnly. "I...hunted with a pack of wolvestonight, Sam. When I was done, I had an awful feeling, and it told me to makethe Neo Half-breed, and how I was to do it. I didn't want to take the chanceof me dying, and there not being another Half-breed to take my place."

"So, you decided to make Justin into the Neo Half-breed. Just in casesomething happened to you, right?"

"Right, and I made up that lie to keep the others off my back, they wouldnever understand what I had to do. They don't even know that I am the Half-breed, much less what one is."

She pulled them into their room and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. "Don't worry." She said. "I'll always be here to protect you. And what's more, I amglad that you took that precaution, it was very smart of you." She pulled himcloser in her warm embrace and kissed along his neck.

"Thanks for being so understanding. I had to do it. I'm really worried aboutwhat might happen now...I had the most horrible vision."

"Shhh..." she purred, licking at his ear. "Forget that for now. You've got meto contend with!"

"Mmm....I love it when you do that! Alright...I'll forget about it...FOR NOW." Hesaid. And when she pulled him onto the bed with her, he really did forgetabout it, but that did not mean that he forgot about it completely. It wouldcome back to haunt him.

And in a way that no one suspected.

To Be Continued