Twist Of Fate

“Storm Blaster!” Justin Stewart, the third in a series of blue rangers, and one who had always been the youngest Blue Ranger ever, (age 11) but who was, at that point in his life, in his late teens, grinned at the blue Turbo Zord jeep and shook his head. “You have a way of appearing at just the right times! College is great, but boy do I miss you!”

He watched as the jeep flashed its lights, and Justin tilted his brunette head, and his hair, always slightly too long anyway, fell in front of his face. He impatiently pushed it back and listened intently as, almost frantically, the jeep hummed and the lights flashed on and off.

“What do you mean, there’s someone at the Power Chamber? There is no Power Chamber. Divatox destroyed it . . .”

The jeep once more frantically flashed its lights, and Justin nodded.

“Well, of course I’ll come!” He exclaimed and jumped into the jeep. The seat belt buckled, and together, at an incredible speed, the jeep took off. After a moment, it was a mere flash of blue light, and Justin gave a whoop of pure joy. No matter how old he got, he knew he would never get tired of flying in the jeep -- especially when it went Turbo.

Quickly, very quickly, they arrived at the bottom of the mountain, and Justin sat on the roll bar of the jeep and trained a pair of binoculars on the shattered remains of the Command Center.

“Are you sure, Storm Blaster?” He asked, as a pang of pain and remembered fear clutched at his heart. He, TJ, Ashley, Cassie, and Carlos had been in it when it had been destroyed. “It looks like nothing’s changed at all.”

The jeep once more flashed its lights, and Justin looked surprised.

“Inside?” he asked, and the lights flashed once more, and Justin shrugged.

“Okay,” he nodded, and grabbed his morpher from the glove compartment. “I’ll go check it out,” he waved, turned, and climbed the mountainside to the Command Center/Power Chamber.

Quietly, he climbed over debris, and looked surprised at the neat piles that had apparently been grouped by their type and size, and then looked down, way down, into the hole.

He frowned, and realized the hole was so dark he couldn’t see anything. “Storm Blaster,” he said, via his communicator. “I’m going inside. I’m not sure how long this’ll take, but if I need you, I’ll call.”

The jeep revved and Justin nodded, then pulled out his Morpher. “turbo Morph!” he called out, and did a most unprofessional and most un-adult giggle as the blue glow lit around him, and spread over his body until it covered him completely in a bright blue glow. Slowly it faded and left him in his ‘Blue Turbo Ranger’ outfit. He struck the familiar pose as his body adjusted to being the Blue turbo Ranger once more.

“Wow, that’s weird,” Justin blinked under his helmet. “I’m so used to growing taller in this thing, it’s strange not to do it. I must have finally hit the height requirement.” He looked down into the hole, and to a certain extent, his suit’s vision automatically cleared the darkness. He was able to see several handholds and other surfaces that would help him climb down, into the center of the chamber, and he put action to thought.

He jumped down the last few feet, and it was with another pained twinge of his heart, that he looked around the huge, almost empty room. He frowned as he noticed the brilliant blue glow in the wall.

Cautiously, he walked toward it, and slowly reached a finger out and touched it. The glow crackled around his finger, but didn’t hurt, or fling him back, like any forcefield he was familiar with, and he tried to push his finger forward. He met a resistance, and pushed harder, until he threw his entire body weight at it.

With a yell of surprise, he fell through the forcefield and landed on his side in a room that was glowing with red, pink, yellow, blue, black, and white lights. Computer consoles and monitors flashed and beeped with life, while a large mirror edged with rotating red, pink, yellow, blue, black, and white lights, was suspended, seemingly in midair, against a dark background. In the back, purely for decoration, were several glass cases that held several very old style Ranger outfits.

It was only after that, that Justin noticed the hooded, cloaked figure that stood in the center of the room.

“You know, it would have been easier just to knock,” the figure said, and Justin stood. He eyed the figure curiously, and knew, on an instinctive level, that the being posed no threat to him.

“Probably,” Justin nodded, and looked around. “Nice place you’ve got here. did you do all this?’

“Yes,” the figure, who Justin decided was definitely male, answered, and Justin sighed.

“I don’t remember any of this being here last time I was here,” he said, and the figure nodded.

“I take it that you’re one of the rangers who came here after the originals were gone, but before they went into space?”

“Tell you what,” Justin frowned under his helmet. “I’ll answer a question, and then you answer one, and we can play twenty questions all night, or I can simply come to the point, and get back to my friend outside.”

“Is that your friend?” The figure asked, and pointed to the large mirror whose surface cleared up, and Justin saw a crystal clear picture of the outside, up to and including a rather nervously humming Storm Blaster.

“Yes,” Justin nodded, and though he knew the figure wasn’t going to hurt him, he also didn’t know whether he could trust the guy or not, and, unlike his younger self, had learned caution over the years. “He’s had some bad experiences over the years, and gets nervous when I’m out of his sight for any period of time.”

“So . . .” the figure moved closer to the mirror. “that’s a fully sentient, self-automated Zord capable of autonomous deliberation and motion.”

“Yes, it is,” Justin’s estimation of the person rose, and he smiled under the battle helmet, and the figure turned his hooded head to him, and nodded.

“Then you must be one of the Turbo Rangers.”