PRLG: A Different Shade of Pink
Episode XLIII. Journey’s End, Part I: The Merge
by Green Senturion

“I’ve been searching for you for a while Deviot, hoping that you would emerge from the Lost Galaxy soon,” Trakeena sneered as she circled the fallen Deviot, “But who would have thought, that in the whole Galaxy, you would end up near the planet where we first found the Data cards and those two rogue Power dweebs?”

“You asked to see me, Commander,” High Counselor Renier said as she saluted and entered into Stanton’s office.

“I did,” he said, “For…there is some news we must speak of.”

“I’m not surprised,” she said, “Since we haven’t spoken in quite a while.”

Stanton sighed and motioned to a chair in which she then sat. He stood, pacing.

“There is some good news. The Rangers are still alive, and that pirate Mutiny was destroyed by Trakeena…who seems to have gone away, as it were.”

“All right…”

“Mike…”

“The Red Ranger you let off so easy despite his absence?” the High Counselor asked with a smile.

“Yes…he is in fact the Magna Defender…and he and his Rangers saved a number of inhabitants from Mutiny. And they’re still here to protect us.”

“That’s good,” the High Counselor said, slightly disinterested with this good news.

“Furthermore, Damon, our most trusted mechanic, has put our engines on the low-output function…which would mean that we would be able to make it to the New World with the little fuel we reserved in the Lost Galaxy.”

“Would?” the High Counselor said as she straightened up in her chair.

“High Counselor,” Commander Stanton said as he stared at the ground in silence for a moment, “Do you remember when we were traveling and the atmosphere suddenly became an odd shade of red?”

“I do,” she said, “Why do you ask?”

“We…we are at that point….in the galaxy.”

“What do you mean?” Renier asked as she stood up with a start.

“We have re-emerged into our galaxy…far from where we left it. Even with our engines exerting as minimal an effort to travel as is mechanically possible…we do not have enough fuel to make it to the New World.”

“Traitor!” screamed Trakeena as she fired at Deviot a beam from her staff, “Betraying me to join Captain Mutiny! Just what do you have to say for yourself?”

Deviot stared at the ground and released a throaty laugh. “What can I say…I’ve always wanted power…it started with the time where I killed…”

“SILENCE!” Villamax called. He ran toward Deviot and delivered a flying jump kick to Deviot’s head. Deviot fell back and groaned as he felt his shoulders encompassed by sticky fluid.

“You should have known,” giggled Kegler, “That these two would destroy you if you left.”

Trakeena raised her staff, Villamax raised his sword, and Kegler bobbed with excitement.

“I…” Deviot started, but saw that the moment to reason with them had eluded him. With a fierce battle cry, he leapt from the floor and blasted Villamax and Kegler away with his wrist mounted laser. Then, after fighting off Trakeena’s staff blows with his pure metal force, he managed to turn her around so that she faced the cocoon. Turning his head around to see the two fallen warriors rising, Deviot knew that his choice now was critical. He punched Trakeena in the gut—hard. She staggered back and fell against the coccon. Deviot slowly menaced toward her and said, “Now, I shall have my power.” Trakeena screamed as the cold metal digits clung onto her like tendrils and rammed her forward, and then gradually, painfully, became a part of her own being.

“I don’t understand,” Renier murmured, “Who else have you told of this?”

“No one,” Stanton whispered, “But,” he started, his pitch rising as his nerves hardened, “I’m sure there are at least…a few others who have realized as well.”

Renier angrily shrugged her shoulders and got up and paced while saying, “Well, what do you expect me to do? Just say everything’s okay, bounce away with a smile? We have many people aboard the colony whom we will not let down, Stanton.”

“Many more thanks to the recapturing of Mutiny’s slaves…”

Renier closed her mouth and then her eyes, sitting back down in her chair. Drumming her fingers together, she released a heavy sigh. After a moment of silence, the High Counselor looked up at Stanton and said, “Do we have emergency evacuation shuttles?”

“Yes, I believe so,” the Commander answered.

High Counselor Renier stood up once more, this time with more lethargy and resignation. She paced toward the window, and then turned back toward Stanton. “I doubt our emergency shuttles have much fuel in them either…what is the nearest planet?”

Stanton pointed out the window to a large, rocky mass and said, “Well…the nearest body we can see is that moon over there. I’m afraid it’s all we’ve got.”

Renier shook her head after observing the satellite and said, “So it has some tress…but does it even have a breathable atmosphere? Water? FOOD?”

Stanton smiled gently and looked at Renier directly in the eyes. “I’m afraid we’ll have to find out together.”

“My queen!” Villamax cried. He ran to the cocoon and punched hard, but was merely sent back by an electrical discharge. Grunting, he lifted himself up with Kegler’s help.

The two stared at the moving mass of webs, hoping that somehow, soon, Trakeena would emerge. Strangely, thirty seconds later, she did—but she was not at all the same.

She now had long, cord-like tendrils coming from the back of her head, as well as Deviot’s familiar wrist mounted laser on her left hand, the non-staff-wielding hand. She seemed dustier, less familiar but more…mechanical. This new trait emerged fully fleshed when she laughed a bellowing, echoing laugh like that of a claw scratching against a metallic surface.

“I’m back,” she boomed. “And now that my more useless half is in check, we can get to work on eliminating those Rangers again.”

Villamax shook his head, confused as to how perky his queen seemed. “My lady, you are…completely all right? What of…”

“That fool?” she laughed. “Gone. Completely under my control. Now…we may have passed Terra Venture earlier, but we should still be able to catch it judging by how slowly it was moving. Let us go to the control room.”

Villamax stared after his mysterious queen and whispered to Kegler, “She is not the same she once was…something is horribly amiss.”

Cassie awoke with a start upon hearing the blaring alarm in her room. Always before I see the Phantom’s face do I wake up, she thought angrily. The flashing red alarm above her bed drew her attention next. This isn’t the Power Chamber, she thought, what’s the warning bell overhead here for?

Cassie received her answer as her door opened and Leo appeared before her. “I’ve just gotten word from Kai…we’re evacuating Terra Venture.”

“What?” she cried, leaping from bed with a start, “Why?”

“I don’t know!” he cried, “But the alarm’s been saying on a loop that all Terra Venture citizens should report to the Shuttle Bay immediately. I confirmed the instructions with Kai, and he says he’s as clueless as we are.”

“Does everyone else know?” Cassie asked helplessly.

Gesturing to the ceiling, Leo said, “With an alarm like this in every room…yeah, I’m sure most people know.”

Cassie shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, then, that’s that. Let’s get out of here.”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Trakeena laughed, “Just a few light years away, as I predicted. Here it is!”

The great blue Space Colony of Terra Venture in all its structured complexity hovered a sizeable but manageable distance away from the Scorpion Stinger. Also within sight was the moon on which Terra Venture was about to land, though Trakeena didn’t know about these facts.

“Now…we destroy the engine! Terra Venture falls through space, eventually to a black hole…and we watch and win!”

Villamax shook his head and said, “My queen, if I may interject, isn’t your fight with the Power Rangers?”

“Yessssss!” Trakeena spat angrily. “And?”

“Well then,” Villamax started uneasily, “Why do you wish to bring down the whole of Terra Venture along with them?”

“Because Terra Venture never surrendered the Rangers to us anyways…they deserve the punishment.”

“Well, in all fairness my queen, you’ve never really given them a chance…”

“Fine!” she yelled, “I’ll demand that they hand the Rangers over, and if not, the space colony sinks through space, all right?”

“Okay,” Villamax replied. As Trakeena shimmered away, he thought, But what a cowardly way to go about getting your foes to meet you for the last time.

“I guess this is it,” Renier said, “I mean, it’s too bad. This colony really brought us to this point…I was sure we could’ve gone…”

A flashing of light, a stuttering laugh, and an erupting of fear came when Trakeena teleported into the room, similar to the Wicked Witch’s entrance in “The Wizard of Oz.” But this evil being was not able to be melted with water, emotion, or anything else.

“Here’s the deal, Counssssselor,” Trakeena hissed as she grabbed the High Counselor by the scruff of her neck, “Hand over the Rangers to me…place them atop the Command Tower in thirty minutes…or else.”

“Or else what?” said Commander Stanton with bravery.

“Or elssssse,” Trakeena hissed again, punching Commander Stanton in the stomach to reinforce her point, “The whole space colony sinks.”

Commander Stanton nodded apprehensively to this demand. “Yes, Trakeena…we’ll do as you say.”

Trakeena smiled and said, “You’re cowards…but intelligent cowards.” Then, with an effect the same as with which she entered, she left.

“Commander,” the High Counselor said as she rubbed her neck, “Why were you so compliant with Trakeena’s requests?”

Commander Stanton smiled wryly and laughed. Seeing Renier’s confusion, he gesticulated grandiosely and said, “In a half an hour…we’ll be aboard the shuttles and away from here for good.”

Renier nodded and said, “I like the way you think, Commander.”

“Everyone ready?” Leo asked as the teens with their bags walked up behind him. Cassie, Maya, and the Phantom Ranger all nodded.

“Good…then let’s go.”

The journey to the Shuttle Bay was a brief but busy one, with all sorts of people frantically scurrying to and fro about the hallways. A hall monitor stood in each hallway patrolling and ensuring that every citizen was capable of leaving. Past people bustling, hustling, and muscling to ensure that every possession and person they loved was with them the teens walked, finally arriving at the tall white Shuttle Bay doors.

“Okay…here’s the drill. We help Kai with boarding people aboard the shuttles…then we take the Megaship out of here. Phantom, you’ll take your shuttle right? Phantom?”

But not surprisingly, the Phantom Ranger was one step ahead of Leo. After a pause in which the Phantom Ranger assured himself that the hallway was temporarily empty, he whispered, “You can’t see, but I just gave you a nod.”

“Okay, then we’re good to go…let’s hit the road!”

A moment later his Transmorpher beeped. “What’s up?”

“This is Damon…I thought you should know why we’re evacuating.”

“Yeah?”

“Leo…we didn’t end up where we thought we would. We’re near Rashon, where we fought Psycho Pink. We traveled quite a distance from there before entering the Lost Galaxy, but our coordinates don’t seem to indicate that idea.”

After a silence, Leo engaged the conversation further. “So?”

“So,” Damon sighed, “Our New World is going to be…a moon.”

Leo turned to the others and pointed to the rock in the sky, “You see that? It’s…home sweet home.”

“Thanks Damon…good luck buddy.”

“I think we all need it, Leo.”

Trakeena paced about the room briskly. Almost surreptitiously Villamax instructed, “Do not be so impatient when you don’t even know if your plan will succeed.”

“What do you mean?” Trakeena called.

“All I mean…no! Enough.”

Villamax turned directly to Trakeena and said, “This plan is a most dishonorable one, and I find that you would threaten innocent people to serve your own needs highly…AH!”

Villamax cried out as Trakeena brutally slapped him across the face with every ounce of her mechanical might. “Do not question my intentions again, Villamax…or you won’t live to regret doing so.”

Villamax held his cheek and stared solemnly at his unfamiliar queen staring out the window at Terra Venture. Checking a clock on the dashboard, Trakeena confirmed, “Well…the half hour’s over…let’s…huh?”

Trakeena watched the numerous shuttles evacuating the colony and heading toward the moon. “No…what the…what is this?”

Kegler huddled next to the stricken Villamax and patted him gently on the back. Villamax just glared at the frantic queen, wondering who she was now.

“Mike,” Commander Stanton said as the final shuttle was about to depart, “I wish to thank you for everything you’ve done for me…and the colony…as the Magna Defender. Thank you.”

Mike was surprised, but smiled and thanked the Commander anyway.

The Commander sighed as he turned on his heels and looked at the near empty bay, “But…seeing you…and your Rangers…and all the people who are leaving to start life aboard a new planet…makes me feel happy. I think I’m okay with the prospect of moving on and colonizing life elsewhere. I just hope we CAN live there.”

The Commander smiled and patted Mike on the shoulder before gesturing to the Megaship and saying, “Go and join your other Rangers. Oh, and tell them…that their boarding was very subtle…I still don’t know who they are!”

Mike smiled and said, “Thank you, Commander.” He saluted to Stanton and then, after watching him board the shuttle, boarded his own spacecraft.

“Okay, guys,” he called to the other Rangers, “We’re on our way…wait! The Galactabeasts!”

“Don’t worry!” Alpha replied as he came clunking over to the Magna Defender, “They’re all set. They can teleport to the planet whenever they feel ready. By the way, where is it?”

Mike nodded and pointed to the craggy surface of the moon toward which they were traveling. The shuffling robot seemed ready to whoop when Mike said “Now let’s go.”

Trakeena glared after the shuttles and slowly spoke, “If they think…that that easily…they can get away from ME…then they’re crazier then I!”

Trakeena whirled around and cried, “Villamax! Call every Stingwinger in the horde! Tell them to stop those shuttles from landing on the moon at all costs!”

Villamax nodded and reluctantly turned to leave. Turning back to the control console, Trakeena said, “And I will make sure that the Astro Megaship cannot help while their precious friends are being attacked! Deviot has everything under control!”

Kegler shook his head and stared at who he had thought until now was Trakeena. He then began to bob away down the hall, thinking, I must warn Villamax!