"A Thunderous Return"

Meanwhile, Mondo had made his way over to Tommy and the other unconscious Rangers, standing over the Red Zeo Ranger. He looked down at the immobile human and laughed. “This is too easy! Of course, one never gets a chance like this often!” He raised his staff, the pointed end preparing to spear Tommy to the ground. “It is time to remove this glitch from my diodes for good. Goodbye, Red Ranger!”

A flash of gold…

Mondo was knocked back with such force that the staff flew off to the side. He fell onto his back and kicked his leg about like some turtle. He managed to look up and see the Gold Zeo Ranger making his way over to his friends. Jason Lee Scott knelt beside Tommy who still couldn’t speak.

“Tommy, are you all right?!” Jason asked, examining him with his helmet’s medical scanner. Tommy couldn’t move one muscle as his eyes tried to convey his thoughts. Jason shook his head.

“I don’t know what’s wrong, man, but I got your message. I’m going to stop this guy, okay?”

Tommy tried to scream, tried to tell Jason what he’d seen and heard, but he couldn’t. He’d heard the exchange between Mondo and Sean. Sean was telling the truth, apparently. Now he couldn’t warn Jason.

He tried to scream again, but it was no use as he watched the Gold Ranger jump into battle.

For what seemed like the millionth time today, Sean was flung through the air. As he landed on his back, he wished that he could morph and stop this monster. Terrorizer wouldn’t know what hit him when he got a taste of the power of the Hammer of Hykrania.

He got up and searched for Terrorizer but was instead greeted with the auric colors of, what he gathered, a Power Ranger of some sort. He was dressed in black with gold-cuffed white gloves and boots. A large chestplate, decorated with black patterns that seemed to indicate circuitry, shone in the beating Californian sun. He also wore gold kneepads with the same black pattern as the chestplate and a large gold belt. A symbol, one he recognized as Japanese for “king”, decorated the face of his helmet and belt buckle. This Ranger also carried in his hand a staff that had the same symbol for “king” with two bladed sides that extended from the staff. On top of the symbol was a glowing red orb.

Jason pointed to him. “You hurt my friends. Now, I’m going to hurt you!”

Sean shook his head, but before he could respond, Mondo and Terrorizer spoke up.

“Destroy him, my Gold Ranger,” Mondo commanded.

Terrorizer added, “Yes! Hurry so that we may destroy the Power Chamber!”

“But…” but he didn’t get a chance to respond as Jason thrust kicked him in the gut and slammed the Golden Staff of Triforia down across his back. Sean collapsed to his knees, but he had the presence to spin around and catch Jason’s leg. Pulling forward with it, Jason fell to the ground. Sean rolled backwards on the ground and stood up again, his body telling him of all the pain.

The Gold Ranger jumped up and pointed the staff at him. A bolt of energy issued forth, but Sean, determined to stop flying through the air, side stepped the beam. He ran towards Jason and jumped in the air, over another bolt of energy, and crashed into him. Jason shrugged him off like an insect and spun on his heel, kicking him in the face. Sean returned the favor by kicking him in the stomach in the chest, knocking him away.

“I’m not your enemy!” Sean cried at Jason. “They are just trying to make you believe that I’m on their side!”

“From what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, you are in league with them and I’m going to stop you, no matter what it takes,” Jason said.

“Look, I don’t know who you are or what you think is going on, but I am not with them!”

Jason started twirling the staff in his hand, bands of auric energy swirling about the head of the staff. Sean could tell something was up. Something that he wasn’t going to like.

Probably the only way that he could prove to this person that he didn’t mean any harm. It was the only way. He could go on fighting, but he knew that not even he could stand up to a fully powered Ranger. It was the only way.

He dropped his hands to his sides and stood before Jason who was getting ready for the Gold Rush. “Do what you must. I will not fight you anymore. If it is the only way to prove to you that I am on the side of the Light, then I will not fight. If you can look within your heart to see that I mean no harm – that this is an elaborate ruse by Mondo to get us to fight, then do what you feel is right.”

The Gold Zeo Ranger stopped but kept his energy charged up. What was going on? Was this a trap by Mondo to lure him into a false sense of security? He dropped the staff to his side, considering his actions.

NO! Mondo thought. If this fool, Sean, doesn't fight him in his Gold Ranger persona, I'll not be able to destroy the Power Chamber! I must think of something!

Mondo noticed that the Gold Ranger had stopped and appeared to be in some sort of deep thought, probably considering what Sean just said to him. A debate was swirling in that puny human head of his that would probably allow Sean to live. That couldn’t happen.

“Hurry and destroy him, Sean! While he's distracted!” Mondo yelled.

Sean, frustrated at the situation, let his anger get the better of him and turned to the Metal Monarch. “Will you shut the hell up?!”

It was meant to sound serious, but it came out as conspiratorial. Jason looked up, determined to stop him.

“Nice try, but you’re going down, pal!” he shouted as he started his power build-up again.

He wouldn’t believe him. No matter what happened, he had to do it.

Sean reached for his morpher and prayed to God for forgiveness.

“GOLD…”

“NOW, BILLY!” Zordon boomed inside the Power Chamber.

“Activating morphing energy block to his biorhythmic pattern, Zordon,” Billy responded, pressing a few multi-colored buttons on the console.

“…RHINO…”

Alpha checked the readings on the viewscreen. He jumped about happily. “Ay-yi-yii! Block is in effect!”

“…POWER!”

The sky darkened instantly. From all around, the wind whipped about, stirring the sands. The air howled loudly in the ears of all. The stirring sands were harsh enough to stir the rangers who were unconscious. Slowly, but surely, Tommy got the feeling back into his extremities. He stood up, wobbly at first, but managed to get his feet back under him. He helped Kat and Rocky to their feet that just woke up.

“What’s going on?!” Katherine asked loudly.

“Hey!” Adam shouted. “There’s that guy! Let’s go get him!”

“No, wait!” Tommy said, grabbing onto Adam’s arm. “He’s not evil! I heard him and Mondo talking! He’s not on Mondo’s side!”

“What?!” The others asked, incredulously.

“Apparently, Mondo was spying on us, Kat! He saw what happened when Sean morphed! He thought that if he got Sean to morph again, it would kill us! He tricked us!”

“Well, what’s going on now!” Tanya asked.

“I don’t know!” Tommy replied, putting the communicator to his lips and pressing the buttons. “Billy, what’s going on?!” Static greeted him. He pressed again and tried to speak into it, but it did no good. Communications were either being jammed or disrupted because of the storm.

Rocky pointed to Sean, shouting, “LOOK!”

Sean looked about him and up at the sky. A few moments earlier it was clear and hot, now the wind blew roughly and cold. Lightning flashed about the darkened clouds with thunder crashing in the background of the already howling wind. He looked at his morpher, but it was just sitting there, glowing with a strange golden glow. He didn’t morph into his uniform, so what happened?

Suddenly, as usually is the case, lightning struck him. He screamed loudly and in obvious pain it was causing. The lightning lifted him off the ground, shearing the rest of his already ripped clothing off. There he was, buck naked, floating in the air! He could feel the heat of the lightning, the smell of burning hair, the thunder that threatened to burst his eardrums.

He forced his eyes to open. What he saw was beyond description.

The Hammer of Hykrania floated in front of him, spinning rapidly, seemingly absorbing all the lightning from the surrounding storm. It stopped spinning and turned on its axis until the rounded arrowhead was pointed at him. A suddenly as the flash of lightning that hit him, a flash of energy struck the Power Morpher he still held. The metallic casing around the Power Coin blew apart in a fiery explosion. The coin, with the head of the rhinoceros, spun in the air until it seemed to melt and fly towards him, entering his body. He could feel the awakening energies from it.

Before his eyes, visions flashed. He could see the red form of a Tyrannosaurus Rex before a flash of lightning changed it to a Red Dragon. Another form, the black outline of a Mastodon , raised its trunk at him before it, too, was changed into a Black Lion, its full mane resembling the shaggy fur of the mastodon. The pink outlined form of a Pterodactyl flew across his eyes before a bolt of lightning hit it and changed it into a Firebird that bore a striking resemblance to a phoenix. A blue Triceratops lumbered into view, its three horns glowing as lightning hit it and transformed it into a Unicorn. A White Tiger roared against the backdrop of a dark sky as it swirled around revealing a yellow outlined form of the Saber-toothed Tiger. This tiger growled at him and roared before shifting into a Griffin.

The dinosaurs, which gave life to the ThunderZords, he thought. What’s going on?

All of the visions converged together and in a flash of lightning that was brighter than all the others, the vision of a rhinoceros came into focus. It stood proud with its powerful shoulders and gleaming horn. It looked at him and roared its call.

And Sean knew. He knew his time as the Gold Ranger was over. It was only a matter of time now, but he would still fight the good fight until he could fight no longer.

The morpher reformed, the gold coin settling into the chamber. He stretched his arms and shouted, “GOLD RHINO POWER!”

Another flash of lightning hit him, but it didn’t hurt this time. He forced his eyes open again to look at his body. Once again, he was clothed in the uniform of the Gold Rhino Ranger.

The energy dissipated. He floated down to the ground, landing softly in the sand. As if by cue, lightning struck the ground all around him. Standing his full height of six foot six, he un-holstered the Hammer of Hykrania and charged it up.

“Morphinomenal!” Sean breathed.

Part I / Part II / Part III / Part IV / Part V / Part VI / Part VII
RETURN TO ERA OF EXTREME