It was another bright, sunny day. However, the Spices were spending it indoors at the Surf Spot. Jenny, Hanim, Spinal, Kathy, and C.C. were sitting at a table just chatting. All of a sudden, Hallie skipped over to their table looking all excited.
"Well, well, what are you so happy about?" Jenny asked.
"I found something," Hallie replied.
"And what is that?" Kathy asked.
Hallie pulled out her little treasure. It looked like a folded flag, which looked red and black. Hallie gave it to Jenny, who unveiled it. It was actually black on one side, and red on the other.
"I have the feeling that I’ve seen this before, but I can’t remember where," Hallie said.
"I have that feeling, too," Jenny said. "Hmm . . ."
She examined the cloth carefully, digging into her memory to figure out where she had seen it. Within a few minutes, she had the answer. She gasped in surprise.
"What is it?" asked Hanim.
"Hallie . . ." Jenny began. "This is Ecliptor’s cape!!!"
Meanwhile, the Power Rangers were sitting at a nearby table. Upon hearing Ecliptor’s name, they turned to the Spice Club.
"Where did you find this?" C.C. asked, examining the cape herself.
"I just found it lying around in the park. I didn’t see the Candyman anywhere."
"Oh, Hallie, give it back to him; we don’t need it," Jenny said.
"Oh, okay," Hallie said, taking the cape back. "I’ll do it, provided that I can find him and that he doesn’t kill me at first sight."
"Here, I’ll go with her," Kathy offered.
The girls started out of the Surf Spot.
"Oh, if you don’t see Ecliptor out there, just leave the cape somewhere," Jenny called. "Maybe he’ll come by and pick it up."
The girls nodded, then left the building. As soon as they did, the Rangers approached the remaining members.
"So, your sister found Ecliptor’s cape, huh?" T.J. asked.
"Yeah. What harm can he do when Hallie’s just trying to give it back?" Jenny said. "We have no use for it."
"Ecliptor is very dangerous," Andros began.
"Well, so are the girls," Hanim interrupted.
"Even though they’re only ten and twelve years old, they both have their unique abilities," C.C. added. "They’ll be fine, no matter what Ecliptor pulls."
"Well, okay; if you say so," Carlos said. "I guess I just don’t know them well enough, because I haven’t seen them in combat too much. The only time I saw them in combat was in that tournament back there where you came out to save us from the Dark Specter."
"Speaking of the Dark Specter, is he still around?" Jenny asked. "Or did I kill him back there? I don’t know, he may have survived. He was very powerful; I felt like I was kicking a lifeless rocky volcano. My feet were so sore afterwards, you won’t believe it."
"Well, we haven’t heard from him since then, but we still have no proof that he’s actually dead," Ashley said.
"So if he did survive, we must be ready for when he attacks again," Cassie added.
The Spices nodded, then the Rangers went back to their own table.
Meanwhile, Hallie and Kathy headed for the park. They didn’t see Ecliptor anywhere.
"Well, he’s obviously not here," Kathy said. "What do we do? Just leave the cape here and go back to the Surf Spot?"
"I kinda wanted to stay here for a little while and wait," Hallie replied. "I mean, just to make sure that nobody else picks it up or throws it in the garbage."
So the girls sat on the picnic table and waited . . . and waited . . .
"You know something, Kathy?" Hallie asked. "I’m beginning to think that three is our lucky number."
"Why would three be our lucky number?" Kathy asked.
"Well, we can divide into groups of three easily," said Hallie. "We have three skeletons, three gargoyles, three cyberninjas, three aliens . . ."
"Three aliens?"
"Yeah. Marvin, Zorak, and Brak."
"Wow. I think you’re right, Hallie."
Before they could carry on their conversation, Ecliptor appeared from nowhere.
"What are you doing with my cape?" he demanded.
"We were just gonna give it back," Hallie told him. "We have no use for it."
She threw the cape at him. It landed on top of Ecliptor, covering his head. Ecliptor pulled the cape off and growled at the girls. He aimed his sword at the girls and fired green lasers from it. Hallie somersaulted out of the way, but Kathy was unable to avoid the blast. When Hallie looked back to where Kathy was, she saw a defenseless infant sitting in her place. Hallie gasped.
"You turned Kathy into a baby!!" she screamed.
"That’s right," Ecliptor replied. "Now Baby Spice is just a wittle bitty baby. Maybe that will teach you to steal things that belong to the mighty Ecliptor!"
He let out an evil laugh. However, the three gargoyles swooped down from the sky and punched him simultaneously. Lexington ran up to Hallie.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"I’m fine, but look at Kathy," Hallie said.
"Hey, if you want to pick on little girls, you have to go through us first, Candyman!" Brooklyn shouted.
"Stop calling me Candyman!" Ecliptor shouted back.
The gargoyles just chuckled. Ecliptor growled in anger and vanished. Then the Spices ran up to baby Kathy.
"Kathy! Speak to us!" Demona cried.
"Baby like watta!" Kathy exclaimed in her baby talk.
"We need to get her some help before anything else happens," Brooklyn said.
"How did you guys know we were in trouble?" Hallie asked.
"Well, we just glided by and saw Ecliptor down here, so we zoomed to the rescue," Lexington replied.
"Well, I’ll take her to Jenny," Hallie said. "Let’s see what she suggests."
So she took Kathy to the Surf Spot. Jenny, Hanim, Spinal, and C.C. were still sitting around.
"Hey, Hallie, where’d that baby come from?" Jenny asked. "And where’s Kathy?"
"This is Kathy," Hallie told her. "The Candyman turned her into a baby. But he did get his cape back."
"Hmm." The other Spices moved in for a closer look.
"Whoa, that’s Kathy, all right," Spinal said.
Kathy took one look at Spinal. Then she started bawling. Spinal jumped back and covered his face.
"Uh, Hallie, why don’t you let the Rangers take care of her," Jenny suggested. "They may have something that can get her back to her right age. It’s obvious that we don’t."
"Okay." Hallie took Kathy to the Rangers’ table.
"Hallie, what’s up?" T.J. asked.
"Ecliptor turned Kathy into a baby," Hallie replied. "We were thinking that maybe you could somehow get her back to normal."
"Well, we can work on it," Ashley said. "It may take some time."
"We’ll have to get her to the Astro Megaship," Andros said.
"I’ll go with you," Hallie said.
The Rangers and Hallie left the Surf Spot and teleported to the Astro Megaship. The Spices sat back at their table.
"Well . . . " Jenny began with a sigh of boredom. "Anybody wanna go for a walk?"
The others laughed. "Sure, why not?"
They left the Surf Spot and walked into the park. They were running out of things to chat about. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Quantrons appeared.
"Great! Now we have the Quantrons on our butts!" C.C. cried.
The Spices engaged in battle. The Quantrons appeared to have the upper hand. One Quantron used its blade and sliced Jenny’s chest. She fell back and held her open wounds, getting blood all over her hands. Luckily, Carlos teleported down in his Ranger costume.
"Lunar Lance!" he screamed.
He used the Lunar Lance to fight off the Quantrons, then went to help Jenny up. Jenny took his hand and pulled herself to her feet. Carlos stared at the blood that was now on his glove.
"Carlos, where are the other Rangers?" Jenny asked.
"They’re still on the Astro Megaship working with Kathy," Carlos replied.
As Hanim, C.C., and Spinal fought, Astronema appeared behind Spinal and grabbed his shoulder. When Spinal turned around, he gasped. Astronema’s hair was now a curly brown. She grabbed Spinal’s head and kissed him directly where the lips would be. When she finished her kiss, Spinal punched her hard in the face.
"Oooh, ouch!" the girls cried, wincing in pain and laughing.
Spinal’s punch drew blood from Astronema’s mouth. She just licked it into her mouth and smiled. The Quantrons stopped attacking and surrounded Carlos and the Spices.
"Get ready for the ride of your life . . ." Astronema said, "um . . . I mean death."
She aimed her staff at them and fired. When it made contact with the good
guys, they vanished. Astronema bursted into an evil laughter.
Meanwhile, the Power Rangers were examining Kathy on the Astro Megaship. They had her sit on a table and hovered devices around her. Those devices seemed to be beyond even Albert Einstein’s comprehension.
"Well, we know that it’s definitely Kathy," Ashley said.
"Is that all you were doing?" Hallie asked. "Scanning her DNA patterns?"
"That’s always the first step," T.J. replied.
"Okay, how do we get her back to normal?"
"I’ll make a device that will take care of that, Hallie," Alpha said. "Don’t you worry. We’ll have Kathy back to normal before you know it."
Alpha left the room to start working on a solution.
"Ow . . . what’s going on?" Jenny woke up with a start. She looked around to find herself in an ordinary-looking car. She noticed her friends who were still unconscious; Spinal in the passenger seat, and Hanim, Carlos, and C.C. in the back. Carlos was no longer in his Power Ranger form.
"This is no ordinary car," Jenny thought.
She pulled on the latch that opened the door, but it wouldn’t open. She didn’t like the feeling of this, so she woke up the others.
"Hey, wake up, everybody!"
The others stirred.
"Ow. Wha’ happened?" a still groggy Spinal asked.
Carlos woke up and explored his surroundings. "We’re . . . in an old car!"
"We’re . . . stuck . . . in this car," Jenny told him.
"Hey, what’s on that TV?" C.C. asked.
There was a screen between the driver and passenger seats. Jenny reached out and turned it on. An image of Astronema appeared on the screen.
"Hello, Spices," she called.
"Eeeuw! I can’t believe I was kissed by that poor excuse for a woman!" Spinal screamed.
"And it felt really good," Astronema said. "That punch of yours felt good, too."
Spinal looked at the back of his hand. "Oh, yuck! I still have Astronema’s blood on me!" he cried, wiping it off on the door.
"Well, don’t worry, Spinal," Astronema went on. "If Elgar can win Tonfa Spice’s heart, I’ll win yours soon enough."
Jenny started laughing. "Don’t be so sure. Elgar is fun; he has a sense of humor. You have none."
"Hmph!" Astronema glared at her angrily.
"So, what are we doing in this old car?" C.C. asked.
"I’m glad you asked," Astronema replied. "That is no ordinary car. That car will accelerate by itself. Tonfa Spice can drive it, but she can’t stop it or slow down. If she drives well enough, she might be able to save your lives. If not, she’ll crash somewhere and your fate will be sealed. Goodbye."
The image disappeared from the screen.
"Ouch!" Jenny gasped. She reached into her shirt and pulled out dried blood. The unconsciousness had allowed the Spices to heal their wounds. "Here, Carlos, you want my dry blood?"
"Oh, that is disgusting!" Carlos cried.
"What makes her think that Jenny can save our lives?" Hanim asked.
"No kidding," Jenny added. "The only life we have in here is Carlos."
"Oh that’s right," Carlos said. "You guys are dead, aren’t you?"
Jenny looked out the windshield. They were on a four-lane empty road in a desert-like environment.
"Well, the road looks big enough, so the ride shouldn’t be too bad."
Astronema reappeared on the screen. "Get ready to meet your doom!" she called with an evil laugh.
Jenny gripped the steering wheel as the car’s engine was turned on. "Hang on to your hats, people. I don’t have my driver’s license yet."
"Your what!?" Carlos screamed.
Before anyone could react, the car accelerated, the tires screeching on the road. Jenny drove along the road rather clumsily.
"Uh, Jenny, there are no seat belts in here," Spinal said.
"Astronema doesn’t want us to survive," Jenny told him. "So if the roads get tough, this could be one hairy ride."
"Oh great. My bones may not survive," Spinal muttered.
Before long, the car was speeding at an easy 150 m.p.h. They came to a rough turn. Jenny jerked the wheel in the directions and barely managed to avoid a jeep. The jeep honked its horn at them. Jenny just shrugged her shoulders.
"Whoa!" they screamed.
"Do try to be a little more careful," said Carlos.
"Hey; I’m doing the best I can," Jenny told him. "Let’s see you drive at 150 m.p.h."
"Well, slow down already!" Spinal cried.
"I have no control over the speed of this car whatsoever," Jenny said calmly.
After a while, they drove into a tunnel. A set of left and right curves had Jenny out of control. As she curved to the left, she crashed into an old pickup truck. Of course that didn’t slow the car down. Jenny drove past the truck and continued through the tunnel. She drove in the lane between two more cars. The others gasped, fearful that they would crash again. Jenny was never able to drive in one lane. She felt like one of those racing video games had come to life. After a few more hairy turns, the car slowly came to a halt. Carlos and the Spices sighed with relief.
"Well, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?" Jenny asked.
"That was just a warm-up," Astronema told her. "Looks like you’re ready for something a little more . . . challenging."
"Oh, goody goody gumdrops," C.C. sang.
"What do you mean?" asked Carlos. "We’re in big trouble here. Astronema, aren’t you being a little hard on us?"
"That is my intention, Black Ranger," Astronema replied. "Time to go."
A blue and black portal appeared in front of them, and the car automatically drove into it. They found themselves at the bottom of a canyon. The road was never straight; there were so many turns and curves, Jenny was overwhelmed and nearly out of control. That also made avoiding the traffic harder than ever. There were also many dips in the road. Out of nowhere, Hanim gasped.
"Look out for that school bus!" she screamed.
Jenny saw the school bus and attempted to drive around it, but the car
skidded out of control and hit the bus at full speed. Spinal and the girls
gripped onto the backs of the front seats. Carlos grabbed onto C.C. The car
still wouldn’t stop. It recovered from the crash quickly and continued
through the canyon. Luckily, that canyon part didn’t last long, as another
dimensional gateway appeared in front of them, and they drove through without
losing speed.
The Power Rangers were still working on a solution to Kathy’s age problem. As Alpha worked on his device, he received an alarm and called out to the Rangers.
"Rangers, come quick!" he cried.
The Rangers rushed over to the bridge.
"What is it, Alpha?" asked T.J.
"Ecliptor is on a rampage," Alpha said. "You’d better get down there and stop him."
"Well, where’s Carlos?" Ashley asked. "He should have been back by now."
Hallie came onto the bridge. "Carlos is missing? Last I heard, he went to help a few of the other Spices."
She opened her ring and spoke into it. "Sis, can you hear me? Come in!"
Fortunately, Jenny was able to answer. "I’m here; what’s up?"
"Is Carlos still with you? The Rangers need him because the Candyman is attacking the city."
"Candyman?" Andros asked.
"Well, he’s with us, but we’re in a bind of our own," Jenny said. "We’re in a car with the mind of a wild bull. I’ll tell you, Hallie; if we survive this mess, call it a miracle."
"Okay. Hallie out."
"Looks like we’ll have to handle Ecliptor without him," T.J. said.
"Let’s go; to the jump tubes!" Andros declared.
The Rangers raced to the jump tubes and slid down simultaneously. They
morphed into their Ranger costumes and sailed down to Earth in their galaxy
gliders.
Meanwhile, the new dimensional gateway sent the runaway car into a stone castle. The drive began in the courtyard. The road was made of stone while on either side of the road was pure green grass. Jenny drove inside the castle onto a red carpet. She was forced to make a sharp left turn onto a narrow wooden bridge over a huge pool of lava. The others gasped in fear.
"Whoa! Where are we?" Spinal asked.
"Gee; I think it’s a castle of some sort," Jenny said.
She made a right turn and drove down some wide steps. Each little drop had the group bouncing up and down in the car. Once the steps ended, they made a left turn around a tower. The car just didn’t have the power to make that sharp a turn, so they hit the wall a dozen times as they went around. Then there were two drops, each to a lower platform separated by lava pits. When they finally got to a straight, peaceful road, the car suddenly stopped dead in its tracks. Hanim and C.C. flew forward, but fortunately hit the soft front seats. Carlos wasn’t so lucky. Since he was in between the front seats, he flew forward and hit the windshield. To the others’ surprise, the glass didn’t break at all. Carlos let out a scream of pain as he collided. Jenny and Spinal gasped.
"Carlos!" They gently took Carlos and helped him back into his seat. Carlos was still conscious.
"This is unbreakable glass," Spinal said. "We are stuck in here, aren’t we?"
Jenny was gripping the steering wheel so tight, her knuckles were pasty white. When she let go of the wheel, her knuckles turned red.
"Yeehaw!!" she cried, laughing.
The other girls were laughing also. Clearly, they were having a good time. Carlos and Spinal stared in confusion.
"You’re all enjoying this, aren’t you?" Carlos asked.
"It’s the curse of womanhood," Spinal said.
"The curse!?" Jenny screamed.
"Who taught you how to drive, anyway?" Carlos asked.
"You really wanna know?" Jenny said.
"Yeah; otherwise, I wouldn’t have asked. So, who taught you how to drive?"
Jenny looked at him sweetly. "Why, Elgar, of course."
"You’re kidding!" Carlos cried.
Jenny shook her head. "In fact, he did a pretty good job, don’t you think?"
"Aye-yi-yi."
The Spices laughed. The car started up again suddenly . . .
While the Power Rangers were on Earth fighting Ecliptor, Alpha finished the device that would return Kathy to normal.
"Hallie, I’ve done it!" he cried. "Go get Kathy, hurry!"
"Okay!" Hallie raced to the room where they had left Kathy, only to find her gone. Hallie gasped in fear. "She’s gone!!"
Hallie raced around the ship looking for the infant. She found Kathy about to crawl into Andros’s jump tube. Hallie gasped again.
"NOOOO!!!"
But it was too late. Kathy had already entered the jump tube and started sliding down. A panicked Hallie dove into the tube after her. Fortunately, she caught up with Kathy before they got out of the Megaship. They headed down to Earth at an alarming speed. They landed directly in Angel Grove park. Hallie realized that she was heading straight for Ecliptor, so she jump-kicked him before hitting the ground roughly.
"Hallie, what are you doing here?" T.J. cried.
"Kathy got into the jump tubes, so I followed her," Hallie replied.
Meanwhile, baby Kathy crawled straight up to Ecliptor, who picked her up.
"Well, what do we have here?" he asked.
"Stop! Leave her alone!" Andros screamed.
"Don’t worry, Andros; he won’t get far," Hallie said calmly. She walked straight up to Ecliptor and kicked him in the shin. Ecliptor instantly dropped Kathy, and Hallie caught her. She quickly moved out of the way before Ecliptor could harm her.
Luckily, the runaway car ended up in Angel Grove park as well. It was headed straight for the Rangers.
"Shriek!! It’s Ecliptor!!!" Spinal screamed.
"Really? I’ll fix him," Jenny said. "All right, Candyman. I’m sending you to the supermarket as a bag of jelly beans."
She drove the car right in Ecliptor’s direction. Ecliptor turned around to catch sight of the car, and he had at least a good second to react. But surprisingly, he didn’t move. When the car hit Ecliptor, it stopped dead again. Ecliptor was sent flying. He teleported away before he hit the ground. Jenny pounded frantically on the window.
"Hey! Get us out of here before it starts up again!" she cried.
Before anyone could react, the car started up again. The Rangers knew exactly what to do, though.
"Galaxy gliders, hang ten!" Andros shouted.
The galaxy gliders arrived, and the Rangers jumped on them and flew after the car. They had a difficult time catching up though. Each Ranger pulled out their blaster and shot the doorknobs.
"Okay, everybody; we’re gonna have to make a jump for it," Jenny announced. "Carlos, that includes you."
"Are you insane!" Carlos cried.
"Yes, I’m insane! Ready, Spices?"
"Ready," the other Spices replied in unison.
Hanim, Spinal, and C.C. opened their doors and prepared to jump out. The Rangers motioned for them to jump onto the galaxy gliders, but the Spices ignored them and just jumped to the ground. They rolled along the ground for a while. Jenny had to keep driving the car and wait for Carlos to get out. Carlos moved over to the door, but he was hesitant to jump out. Finally, he found the courage and jumped onto Ashley’s glider. That’s when Jenny realized that she was heading straight for a cliff. She couldn’t wait any longer; she jumped out of the car and rolled along the ground. The car flew over the cliff and fell all the way down to its explosive death. Jenny rolled over to the cliff. She barely managed to grab the edge and was soon hanging by her fingertips. C.C. and Spinal raced up and grabbed her wrists. Slowly but surely, they got her back onto the land. The Rangers ran up to them.
"Are you guys okay?" T.J. asked.
"We’re fine," Jenny said with a smile.
"Jenny is one HELL of a driver," said Carlos.
"She did good, though," Hanim said. "She did her best and pulled off some hairy stunts."
"She had us scared for a while," Spinal added. "We went through a castle where the car bounced off the walls and jumped over lava pits."
"Wow! Sounds like you had a blast," Hallie said. "I’m sorry I missed it."
"Believe me, Hallie, this was one ride you do want to miss," Spinal told her.
"I really wish Elgar were here," Jenny said. "I need to thank him for the driving lesson."
"Well, now that you guys are safe, let’s get Kathy back to normal," Andros said.
"By the way, where is Kathy?" Hallie asked.
Everyone looked around, but the defenseless infant was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, Alpha contacted them.
"Rangers, there’s no need to worry," he said. "I teleported Kathy back to the Astro Megaship."
"Phew!" The Rangers and Spices sighed with relief.
"Alpha, don’t scare me like that," Hallie said.
Out of nowhere, Ecliptor reappeared with a red hot temper.
"Tonfa Spice, you’ll pay for running me over," he said.
Determined to protect her older sister, Hallie rushed over and embraced Ecliptor.
"She’s tired right now. Let’s talk about us." Hallie gave him a smackeroo on the cheek.
"Eeeuw," Ecliptor muttered as he pulled her off. Hallie kept on lunging, but Ecliptor held her back.
"No! Let’s stay like this forever!" she cried.
In response, Ecliptor tossed her over to her friends.
"Hey, are you all right?" asked Ashley.
Hallie just sat up and sighed. "He touched me!!" she gushed.
Ecliptor slowly advanced on the very nervous group. Suddenly, he paused.
"Candy Spice kissed me! I need a shower," he said. Then he vanished.
Hallie smiled. "I’m gonna marry that Candyman."
"I don’t think so," Jenny said. "I can’t even marry Elgar. You’re much too young to be married."
"Well, let’s get up and get Kathy back to normal," T.J. suggested.
They teleported to the Astro Megaship together. Alpha was ready to fire some kind of laser at Kathy.
"Hello, everybody. I knew you wouldn’t want to miss this for the world," he said.
"We’re ready, Alpha," Jenny told him.
"All right." Alpha fired the laser and Kathy was instantly returned to her normal age.
"Phew! I forgot that being an infant was so tough!" she cried.
The others laughed.
"I think we all did, Kathy," Jenny said.
"You know, Hallie, if you’d ever gone on to be an adult, you’d make a great baby-sitter," Kathy said.
"I don’t think so," Hallie said. "Baby-sitting is such a pain."
"Well, so is Ecliptor."
Everybody laughed. Now that Kathy was back to normal, the Spices returned to Earth to carry on with their bashful ways.
