Highway to Hell
Part III: Let Us Cross Over!
by MegaSilver

A column of white light streaked with royal blue touched down in the Power Chamber and dissolved, revealing Billy Cranston.

“Aiyiyi! Billy!” exclaimed Alpha. “Thank Lexian you’re here!”

“Sorry about the delay,” Billy apologized. “Cestro was trying to fix the ShogunZords as I was about to leave, and someone bypassed security trying to blow him up, so we had to get a team in there to retrieve him and override the self-destruct.” He wiped his forehead. “Man, what a day.”

“I’m afraid it’s about to get worse,” Zordon informed him. “It seems that a malevolent energy beam has the Power Rangers and their senior class trapped in an inaccessible dimension. At this point, we cannot assess their condition and must be prepared for the worst.”

Alpha clutched his head. “Oh, aiyiyi! I don’t even want to think about it.”

Billy hung his head, then quickly regained his composure. “Neither do I, Alpha. But if they were… harmed, there’s not a lot we can do to help them. I can try and tap into the quasitronic particles to trace the distortion the portal caused in our reality, and if they’re still alive, we’ll find them.”

“Exactly what we were thinking,” agreed Zordon. “We’ll need your help to proceed.”

Alpha handed Billy a stool for the computer console. “You may want this.”

“Thanks, Alpha.” Billy sat at the console. “How long ago did this happen?”

“As of right now, it’s been two hours and forty-eight minutes.”

“Well, let’s get to work,” declared Billy. “The longer we take, the less chance we have of tracing the waves.” He tapped on the familiar console for a few minutes, trying to reacquaint himself with the familiar operating system. “Okay, I’m in. Where did it happen?”

“It was on a small-town highway exit along Interstate 10 near Deming, New Mexico,” Alpha told him. “As near as we can figure, the bus was taking a stop for gas and got caught in an energy trap.”

Billy quickly scanned the exits along I-10, looking for unusual distortions in space. “Here, exit 82.” He pulled up a shot of the exit on the viewing window. “Look familiar?”

“Yes, that’s it!” exclaimed Alpha.

“Okay. Let’s see—whoa.”

“What is it?” asked Zordon.

“It’s odd, all right. I’m getting some strange readings, whatever it is.” He turned away from the console to face Alpha. “I’ll feed what I found through the quasitronic particles. We should know what’s up pretty soon.”

In her factory, which was just down the hallway from the prison, Divatox walked back and forth in front of the five Rangers, tapping her boots with the chain she held. “It’s now five in the morning—Central time, that is. The guards will retrieve you to report here for work at five AM CT each day, for the rest of your life. Those who don’t show up…” She paused, leaned close to Jason’s face, and breathed hot air into his nostrils. “… had better be sick. You work, your classmates live. You don’t… they die, slowly and painfully. And you get to watch. And then, you die.”

Kimberly caught Divatox’s eye. “So, mind telling us what we’re working fo—” She stopped short when the villainess slapped her across the face.

“SILENCE!” Divatox screeched. “You are all my workhorses from now on. You… are my asses.” She grabbed Kimberly by the elbows and dug her nails into the girl’s arms so hard that she bruised the skin. “Got it?”

Kimberly, who had transformed over the years from a pastel priss into a warrior princess, glared at her enemy rather than cower. “Got it.”

“Then get to work, asses!”

Three long hours later, Divatox stood on a platform above the machines and rang a dinner bell. “All right, Rangers, let’s go! You got twenty minutes for breakfast. I suggest you move! C’mon!”

Thankful for the reprise, the five teenagers set their equipment down, shut off the conveyor belts, and followed a group of Piranhatron escorts to the dank, Spartan dining quarters, where they found five settings of milk, orange juice, French toast, and sausage links.

Having noticed the bountiful portions before them, Tommy looked at Divatox with a puzzled expression. “Is this some sort of game?”

Divatox bit the inside of her cheek. “No. It’s breakfast, dummy. Eat. Now.”

The five took their places at the table and began to devour their meals. “At least we get good portions,” remarked Adam.

Hearing this, Divatox slinked over to the young man and smiled. “Well, you know, I do have to keep you healthy if I’m going to put you to work making torture devices.”

At that remark, Tanya nearly choked on her French toast. She took a quick drink of milk to wash it down. “Excuse me? Torture devices?”

“Ah, yes. I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I just couldn’t resist watching you work a few hours in disarray and confusion. Now that I’ve tired of that, I’ll move on to a new torment.”

Kimberly looked Divatox straight in the eye once more. “Which would be..?”

“It’s quite simple, dear. See… even hell needs some help to fully exploit its resources. Our torture devices are designed to bring humans to the bitter edge, just short of death. It’s a delicate process, and to fully ensure that we don’t lose anyone, we keep them healthy. All this means good food, no germs, suicide watches, and… quality labor in the manufacturing division. You five are being put to work making the very machines that will cause your classmates the worst forms of pain and torture for the rest of their lives!” Divatox threw her head back and laughed. When she recoiled, the Rangers had stopped eating, and now stared blankly at her, jaws slackened. “I thought you’d like that.”

Later in the morning, Divatox turned from watching the disheartened Rangers at work to talk with her nephew. “Oh, Elgar! It seems I have a teensy problem.”

“Eh, what’s that, Auntie D?” Elgar slurred.

Divatox wore a smarmy, sarcastic look on her face. “I have to go check up on the other seniors, and with Rygog and Porto back home on the ship keeping a communication signal alive, you’re the only one I can leave to keep the Rangers working. Only thing is… I don’t trust you any further than I can throw you. So what do you think I should do?”

Elgar scratched his head. “Eeeuuuhhh… I know! Maybe you could call in some Piranhatrons, merge my brain with theirs, and together we could be smart enough to hold the place!”

Divatox rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue in disgust. How could this imbecile possibly be related to her? “Oh, shut up! Don’t you know sarcasm when you hear it? Keep ’em going, stupidass!” As she exited, she pounded Elgar on the head.

Below them, Kimberly peered at the observation platform in time to see Divatox leaving the incompetent Elgar in charge. Tommy noticed her sideward glance and came over to talk to her.

“Is she gone?” he asked.

Kimberly nodded. “She’s gone.” She stepped down from the control panel on the conveyor belt and took off her gloves. “Tommy, we can’t do this,” she whispered. “Sooner or later, she’s going to let us see our friends getting tortured and I couldn’t bear that sight. We’re supposed to be protecting them.”

“We’re doing the best we can, Kim,” Tommy reminded her. “We can’t Morph, we can’t contact Zordon, and we can’t teleport. Cooperating is the only way we can keep everyone alive.”

“Tommy, have you seen what we’re making?” Kimberly pointed toward a custom-made Chinese water torturer and an automatic whipping machine entering the polishing machine. “And who knows what kind of natural resources this place has to compound these things?”

“Kim, we can’t give up,” Tommy protested. “As long as we’re here and Zordon’s on the other side, we stand a chance of being able to rescue them. We’re the Power Rangers; it’s our job.”

Kimberly swallowed hard. “You’re right,” she murmured. “I can’t stand it, but I don’t have a choice.” She brushed a piece of hair back. “You believe in God?”

“I… yeah. Sure. Why?”

“Because if you do, now would be a good time to start praying. Assuming He could even hear us from here.” Kimberly tried to smile.

All of a sudden, a loud flatulence sound broke into their conversation, and Kimberly and Tommy jerked their heads upward to see Elgar, ever unobservant of their misconduct, fanning his nose. “Whew-wee! Pa’d have been so proud…”

Kimberly made a face.

“We’d better get back to work in case she comes back,” Tommy noted. He put his hardhat back on and started back to his station.

“Tommy? I love you,” said Kimberly.

Tommy walked back over to his girlfriend and kissed her. “I love you, too. We’ll make it. We always do.”

“I know.”

Though groggy and with beard stubble on his face, Billy continued to read information from the quasitronic particles. All of a sudden, he jolted to life, wide a wake. “There’s something familiar right here.”

Alpha practically jumped up and down with excitement. “What? What is it? What is it?”

“I followed the path of the missing portal, and I’m picking up some familiar biorhythms.”

“The Rangers’?”

“Well… maybe. I know we’ve definitely seen these, and they’re definitely human, but there’s a whole bunch of them mixed together, like…”

“Like a bunch of students on a school trip!” exclaimed Alpha.

“Good work, Billy,” commended Zordon. “Let’s see if we can confirm the identity of these humans.”

“Right. I’m working on decoding the quasitronic signal to pull up an image.” Billy made a few adjustments and then turned his head to look at the viewing window. “We should be getting something soon.” Static appeared in the window, then cleared away to form a picture of two familiar, frightened faces. “Bulk and Skull!”

“Aiyiyi! But what’s wrong with them? Billy, zoom out!”

Billy did so, and to his horror, the two—along with many other students, were being stretched out on racks over a steaming pit of hot lava. “Oh my—what the—”

“It appears to be a hell dimension,” remarked Zordon.

“Hell? I thought hell only existed as an astral plane of reality.” Billy wrinkled his nose at the sight of his former classmates enduring hell-bent tortures. “Maybe I’ve got my theology mixed up.”

“Not hell itself, but there are physical dimensions which bear a close resemblance in several ways. One is that any human there is doomed to unbearable pain and torment. And two, there is a complete or near complete absence of hope; they cannot break out. However, unlike the hell after life, hell dimensions are not eternal—people can die in such dimensions, in which case, their essence would leave any physical reality and enter the rightful heaven or hell.”

“There’s no way out?”

“There is no record of anyone escaping a hell dimension after the portal has been shut behind them. Let’s hope that the Rangers and their friends will be the first.”

“A-men,” muttered Billy as he scanned over the teenagers, searching for the Rangers.

“Billy, can we get any audio?” asked Zordon.

“I think so. Let’s see, here…” Billy threw a switch and instantly, the Power Chamber’s sound system was overwhelmed by horrible noises of pain and misery. Almost as quickly as he’d turned the sound on, Billy switched it off. “Okay, then,” he sighed, continuing to search the area.

Alpha was practically shaking with fright. “I-indeed.”

“Oh, gosh… it’s Katherine and Rocky.”

“Katherine and Rocky are no longer Power Rangers,” said Alpha.

“Huh?”

“It’s a long story, but Kimberly has rejoined the Power Team in Katherine’s place and Jason assumed the responsibilities of the Blue Ranger shortly after we changed our power source,” explained Zordon.

That news hit Billy like a ton of bricks. It already felt weird to be back on Earth, but he had never thought about the possibility that the team might once again have changed hands. Not that he should be too surprised; it did happen more than occasionally, after all. Still… he’d been feeling homesick as it was, and coming back to find things changing everywhere didn’t help.

Zordon suddenly broke into his thoughts. “Keep looking, Billy. Try to find the Rangers.”

“Well… unless Divatox has another facility in the dimension… they aren’t here.” Billy sat back in his chair and sighed. “She probably has them separate from the others on purpose.” Billy took control of an object that resembled a joystick and maneuvered around the visual of the dimension.

“Look there.” Alpha pointed to a distant structure in the corner of the screen. “What’s that?”

“It definitely looks like a building of some sort.” Billy steered inside. “Huh. Could be a prison, a factory… or both—oh, wait; they’re here!”

“You’ve done it!” exclaimed Alpha.

“Excellent work,” commended Zordon. “Can we contact them?”

“I think we can. I’ll try feeding a signal through right away.”

As Tommy pounded on a scrap of heated metal to flatten it out, a familiar beeping caused him to pause.

What the..? My communicator? Could it…

He looked down at his wrists and saw that the red lights were flashing. It wasn't an illusion. Zordon was trying to get through. Instantly, he tore off his gloves and pressed TALK. “Alpha? Zordon? Is that you?”

“Tommy, it’s Billy! I’m at the Power Chamber helping Alpha and Zordon.”

“Aww, man, Billy, it’s so good to hear this thing work! Can you get us out of here?”

“We’re working on it,” Billy assured him. “Right now I’m establishing a connection to Eltar so you guys can Morph.”

“Awesome!” exclaimed Tommy.”

“Go get the others and get them to a safe place, then contact us. We’ll see what we’ve got.” “Gotcha!”

“HEY!” screamed Divatox from the bridge above. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

Tommy pulled out his Turbo key and spun his wrist, causing the Morpher to appear. He felt a rush of power as he inserted the key. “Numbering your days! Red Lightning Turbo Power!”

“AFTER HIM!” Divatox ordered her Piranhatrons.

Alas, their efforts were futile. The soldiers were no match for the Red Ranger, and by the time he’d overtaken them, the other Rangers had assembled nearby.

“Whoa!” exclaimed Jason. “Tommy, you can Morph?”

“So can you!” Tommy told them. “C’mon, guys! Let’s get out of here!”

“Shift into Turbo!” called Kimberly. Within moments, the four remaining teenagers Morphed into their Ranger identities.

“See you later!” Tommy spat at Divatox as the five dashed out of the chambers.

Divatox sliced part of the bridge off with her claw and beat the floor with her fist. “AAAARG!” she growled. When Elgar approached from behind, she clutched his throat and wrestled him to the ground. “Do you have any idea what just happened?”

“ACK! But A-Auntie… they still... can’t… get… OUT!” Elgar gasped.

“Which means we’ve got five Rangers to make the rest of MY time here a living hell! Listen closely. Call Rygog and Porto and tell them we underbudgeted the power we’d need to feed the hellbeasts to subdue any threats. Tell them to turn it up, pronto!” With that, she released her grip.

Elgar did as he was told and phoned the SubCraft. Within a few minutes, he put his hand over the mouthpiece. “Uh… Di? They say there’s a slight chance that if we turn up the power on the hellbeasts, we might not have enough left to feed a new portal for us to get out of here!”

Divatox’s glared at her nephew, her breath becoming short, the blood vessels in her eyes practically bursting from the pressure. “I… DON’T… CARE!!”