Period Two of the Orange Ranger Trilogy By David Gonterman Power Rangers by Saban Entertainment ___________________________________ In an empty Power Rangers Command Center, David Kintobor speaks: Ah've been asked every now an' then what else happened to me with the Power Rangers. Ah'm here to tell yawl what went down. Like Zordon said, while Ah was in a coma here, Ah was sent to another dimension; the one depicted in Blood and Metal. There Ah lived a good long life of seventy plus years. Ah fought the evil powers of mah father, who became the evil Doctor Robotnik, as ya'll find out. Ah freed my new home planet of Mobius, settled down, married, had kids, grew old, and died. And immediately afterward, I returned here. At least that's what the head said, but there was something he forgot to mention. A loop in the time-space continuim occurred where Ah lied in that hospital. It's the thing that Alpha detected. This loop stretched far into the future, 72 years to be exact, to the point where Ah 'died' on Mobius. There, the loop returned to this present time. However, it took me back in two stages: The first one was through the dimensions but not through time: In other words, when Ah first returned to Earth, seventy-two years have passed just like it did on Mobius. Since Ah was comatose all this time, Ah did not age a second. What Ah saw at that future was not pleasant. Apparently, the dahmned Klu Klux Klan caught wind of what happened to me, and took it upon themselves to make me a martyr for their cause, despite the fact that I have never in my live supported anything such as them. They no doubt linked mah Southern accent, Christian background, and the fact that Ah was called a damned racist by that multi-culturalist witch that shot off mah arm. They promptly marched to the hospital to protest mah death, and th' witch's supporters responded in kind. It was escalating into a riot. Trying to stop this riot from turning St. Louis into Yugoslavia, and to defend mah good name; Jason, Trini and Zack stood in between th' two warring factions, calling fo' one last chance fo' civility. They even called for everyone currently into the Rangers as backup. They were answered with gunfire. None of them survived, not one. Gunfire was answered with more gunfire. The Second Civil War of America has begin. This war proved deadly for the entire country. The Saint Louis Ah returned to was a plum ghost town. Every building was reduced to ruin. Skeletons lied everywhere. What didn't die in the fight died by disease and overexposure. And the sight of six rainbow colored spandex suits coverin' disintergratin' bones almost broke mah heart. I mean, ah wouldn't give a rat's tail if th' blacks and th' whites just decide to argue it all out in Hell; heck, they *want* this to happen. They don't speck for all African-Americans here, ah know that, but these Multi-Culturalist don't want equality with the other races, especially the whites. They want payback for what they say happened to them long ago, never mind that none of them were even born then. They *want* Affirmative Action and quotas; they *want* convicted wife-killers to go free; heck, Ah wouldn't be surprised if they *want* to have white slaves--The Ultimate Revenge in my book. Like ah said, ah wouldn't care less for them or what they stand for. What ah *do* care for is keeping my friends from getting killed in th' crossfire. The Power Rangers *are* my friends. It's up t' me to make sure what happened to them . . . doesn't, somehow. Ah didn't have any Time Travelin' thingies, but Ah thought Zordon did, so I grabbed one of th' wrist-coms from the bags of bones and tried t' contact him. No dice. Teleporter's out o' wack. I just sat there for about an hour, constantly calling for a faded out floating head on a wristwatch with dead batteries, my hopes draining, until Ah saw the first living human being since Ah woke up. An old, hobbling British Guy with a cane. Calls himself, "The Doctor." "Doctor Who?" "Exactly, my American friend." It took me a while to get it in mah head that England's top Time Lord have just entered the scene. Ah've heard of this guy. S'posed t' have two hearts, thirteen lives, and a time-traveling machine called a Tardis. What he wanted to do with me is to leave me his machine when he dies. "Ain't ya s'possed to regenerate after you kick the bucket, sir?" "Not this time, I'm afraid. This . . . is my last one." His last one, he's gonna die for real this tahm. He led me--slowly of course, ah havet' hold him from falling at times--to his machine. The chameleon circuit was busted, of course, so it was stuck in it's current form, but what a form it is: A Lamborgini Countach!! I'd never thought I'd see one in mah lahf, much less drive one. The Doc's voice was getting weaker. It's was getting pretty close to the end. "Please, son, if you can . . . take me to a quiet place to rest . . . away from all this death." Ah thought a while fo' a place, and decided t' take him to Monk's Mound in the Illinois side of the river. It's a Native place Ah like to romp around every now and then. Made great sledding until I knew it was a burial ground. (The thought of something undead sticking an arm out to stop my sled ) We sat on the biggest mound, the 4-tiered world record breaker mound. We shared a Diet Pepsi for one last time. Just a short time later, he used his last bit of strength to reach for his keys and gave 'em for me. "Remember, my friend. Be in it, to be in it," was his last words . . . [Outside of David's knowledge, a super-powered entity that vaguely resembles Edward Becerra appeared just outside of David's vision. He saw the Doctor give his last breath, dissolve into some purple goo, and join whatever was inside Monk's Mound. The entity said to himself "aw, $#!& not *this*," and promptly disappeared, leaving behind a glint of stardust.] Well, ah sho' was glad ah didn't hav'ta bury the man. Ah took the keys, hopped into the Tardis and fired her up. Ah tried to figure out the controls for a while, but Ah couldn't dechiper the European readings. Ah also found out that the operating system's on . . . a Mac!!! Phrack *this* crap!! I promptly ripped out the silicon bag of crap and installed the first IBM machine I can grab--damn, nobody's in the nearby St. Clair Square as well; this reminds me of Stephen King's "The Stand!" Ah thought about Windows 95, but I talked myself down to NT; not as many bugs. A control panel that resembled Doctor Brown's DeLoran popped up. Goodie. I punched in the coordinates. Current position, 72 years backward. I moved to the side of the road--I had enough sense of mind to know that when I return to the present, the mall *will* be jumping. Then I hit "Engage." For all of yawl who doesn't know how time travel by Tardis is like, think of being in a Gravatron at your small town carnival. Going at 5 Gs. Hanging on to the center railing. Man, Time Lords must be built like tanks just to stand the churning of the stomachs. Ah thought Ah was going to puke. POP!!! Promptly upon re-entry, which is almost as bad, Ah came back t' consciousness to find some of the machinery on fire. After putting it out with the fire extinguisher, Ah found out that it was the Time-Traveling circuitry has blown. (Piece of crap 'Made in Mexico' chip couldn't take the might of a decent IBM computer.) The blown circuit is also responsible for the teleportin' through space as well; now if ah want t' take it somewhere, ah have to *drive* it. Good thing it's a car! [David steps outside of the command center and approaches a Lamborgini Countach. we follow him inside.] For what's it's worth, ah think what ah got left is pretty cool anyway. Ah mean, Ah got th' best of both worlds. I have, in essence, a hot-looking, fast, Italian sports car, with the room of a mobile home. This is heaven. Well, I eventually made it back to the hospital, headed fo' mah room, when I saw the darnest thing. Ah saw my body, minus my metal left arm (he-no-I-no-whatever, I wasn't roboticized yet) being carried away in a stretcher . . . by a talking fox and a mouse!! I just stood there flabergastered. The fox only winked at me and showed me to my room. Ah didn't hop on the bed. Ah just stood there behind th' door, snacking on whatever hospital food was digestible there, until Zack showed up. He patted around th' empty bed for the missing body, while ah just snuck up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. Ya'now, ah'd never thought a Power Ranger would freak like that. _________________________________________ The Last Period of the Orange Trilogy will be posted later on in a future FoxFire Fanfict. I just don't know when. I didn't think yawl be interested in this, but someone keeps asking for it. I don't want to disapoint now, do I?