The End
When Danny woke, he was in what looked to be an infirmary of some kind. He sat up, and immediately wished he hadn’t. His head was spinning, to say the least. He looked around. “This is totally unlike any hospital I’ve ever seen,” he muttered. And he had been in plenty.
The most “memorable” trip was when he broke his leg right after qualifying for his gold medal. He was going to try for a gold medal in something else, when he suddenly tripped up for some reason. He fell and slid right into the wall. When he heard a sickening crack from his leg and pain started shooting from it, he screamed for help.
He was determined to be able to make another gold medal, but by the time he had recovered from his injure, the Olympics were over. He vowed to be ready for the 2000 Olympics, but even that wasn’t looking well.
All of a sudden, the door to the infirmary opened, and in stepped a beautiful girl with a jacket on, and a pink shirt on underneath. She looked to be Chinese. “Oh, hello,” she said, “This is embarrassing. I came in here un-morphed, thinking you were asleep.”
“Don’t worry,” Danny said, “I already knew who you were, back on the battle field, Cassie.”
Cassie gave him a skeptical look. “How do you know my name?” she asked.
“Justin’s my cousin,” Danny replied, “One night, I heard him talking about it in his sleep. The next morning, I made him spill the beans.”
“Oh,” Cassie said, “I was wondering who you reminded me of. You could almost be Justin’s twin brother.”
Danny grinned. All of their lives, people had always told him and Justin that exact same thing. “Thanks,” he replied. He hopped off the bed, and noticed that his skates weren’t on. “Where are my roller skates?”
“We thought you’d rest more comfortably without them, so we took them off.” This time, it was a young man in a red shirt that came in. The other Space Rangers quickly followed.
“You must be Andros,” Danny said, “And Ashley, Carlos, and T.J. My name’s Danny. My cousin Justin has told me all about you guys.” All of a sudden, he had a dizzy spell. Cassie was at his side in an instant, helping steady him. Danny smiled. “How long was I out?”
“About three hours, I think,” Andros said, “Your body took a beating when you fell from the hoop. You jammed your shoulder, and had broken a few ribs. I’m surprised you could stand up to the Psycho Rangers as well as you did, especially as wounded as you were.”
“Chalk it all up to a big amount of adrenaline,” Danny said, “In some, subconscious way, I registered the wounds, but I knew that, if I stopped, I was going to collapse. And that I had to help you guys before that could happen.”
“We want to thank you for that, too,” T.J. said, “There’s no way we could have beaten them without you.”
“Hey, it’s no problem,” Danny replied.
“Where’d you learn to skate and do karate at the same time like that?” Ashley asked.
“All from one man, Master Thoi,” Danny replied, “Well, I learned to skate and merge martial arts with my skating from him. I became a third degree black belt years ago. I’ve never been able to use the skating/martial arts combo before today. On a live opponent, anyway. Master Thoi always set me up to pound dummies.”
“You were amazing, nonetheless,” Carlos said.
“I’ll say,” a young man in silver said. He extended his hand to Danny. “Hi, I’m Zhane, the Silver Space Ranger.”
“Like I said, I’m Danny,” Danny replied, “My cousin Justin used to be the Blue Turbo Ranger, and that’s how I know who the others are.”
“I think I know what allowed you to be able to defeat Psycho Red and Blue,” Andros said, “And it wasn’t adrenaline.”
“What is it, then?” Danny asked.
“You have morphing energy running all through your body,” Andros said, “I’ve checked every file, and this is totally unprecedented. The energy is part of your bloodstream. Let me guess. You’ve never been sick, and when you’ve been injured, whatever your injury is, no matter how severe, it healed very quickly, right?”
Danny was shocked, to say the least. That would explain his broken leg. While it hadn’t healed in time to compete in his areas in the Olympics, it had been really quick to heal. And he could never remember having a cold or the flu.
“You must be right,” Danny replied, “I never have been sick. I broke my leg once before, and it healed in an amazing amount of time. Wait a minute. If I have morphin’ energy coursing through my bloodstream, can I morph?”
“I would think so,” Andros said, “But you’d need a conduit to channel the energy for you to morph.”
Danny was deep in thought for several minutes. Absent mindedly, he played with the locket he always had on.
“What’s that?” Cassie asked.
“It’s a locket my grandmother gave to me before she died,” Danny said.
“Let me see that for a second, would you?” Andros asked. Danny took it off and handed to him. Andros studies it for a long moment. “This is interesting.”
“What?”
“I need to make a compositional analysis to make sure,” Andros said, more to himself than to the others. “Do you mind if I keep this here for a few days, to run some tests on it, Danny?”
“Sure, Andros,” Danny replied, “But why?”
“I think I may have hit on something,” Andros said, “I’ll need to make sure, though. Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do,” Danny said, “Take as long as you need, but I’ve got to be going. I’ll be lucky to get back before sundown as it is, and I doubt mom will believe me if I tried to tell her what happened. Um, where am I, anyway?”
The Space Rangers laughed softly.
Zhane gave Danny a ride home on his astro board. “Thanks for the ride, Zhane,” Danny said, as he hopped off.
“You’re welcome,” Zhane said, “Be careful around here. The Psycho Rangers might start coming after you.”
“Oh, they’re just a bunch of bullies,” Danny said, “Nothing I can’t handle, if I’m given enough room and I’ve got my skates. I guess I’ll probably see you guys around tomorrow?”
“Yeah, more than likely,” Zhane replied. He waved as he zoomed off back towards the Astro Megaship on his astro board.
“It’s going to be awesome being a Ranger,” Danny murmured, as he watched his new friend take off. He headed into the house. “Mom, I’m home. Where are you?” There wasn’t an answer. “Mom?” He went into the kitchen.
All of a sudden, Psycho Blue appeared before him. “Time for round 2, little boy,” he growled.
“Let’s take this outside,” Danny said, “I don’t want to wreck anything in the house. Or are you too afraid to face me when I’m on skates?”
“Let’s go,” Psycho Blue said, and led the way to the front door. Danny followed him out to the front porch.
All of a sudden, Psycho Red and Psycho Black were there, grabbing his arms. Psycho Blue laughed. “Do you really think I would face you on my own, after you gave me such a beating?” it taunted.
Danny tried to get at him, but Psychos’ Red and Black held him back. Growling, he shot his leg straight up and to the side. It smacked Psycho Black so quickly, it wasn’t able to block it. Psycho Black let go.
Lightning quick, Danny brought his knee up, right between Psycho Blue’s legs. Like Psycho Red had earlier, Psycho Blue dropped into a crouch. Danny then let the arm Psycho Red was holding go limp. When Psycho Red let go in surprise, Danny quickly elbowed him.
And then he did a running leap, off of the porch and onto the driveway. He looked down at the skates he had grabbed in mid run, but knew that he wouldn’t have the time to slip them on before the Psycho Rangers recovered.
“I wish I had them on right now,” he muttered. All of a sudden, the skates went from his hands to his feet in a momentary flash of golden light. “Awesome.”
The Psycho Rangers had finally recovered from his attacks, and came running down the steps after him. “You’ll pay for that, boy,” Psycho Red said.
“What’ll you take, cash or credit?” Danny taunted. He was feeling very sure of himself, now that he had his skates on. He realized that he needed some more room to work with, and started skating down to the road.
All of a sudden, Psychos’ Pink and Yellow teleported in right in front of him. “Going somewhere, little boy?” Psycho Pink mocked.
“Yeah, up and over.” Before Psycho Pink could react, Danny flew over its head and landed in the road, barely dodging a car. “Whoa, that was close.” The Psycho Rangers appeared at the end of the driveway. Five of them anyway. Psycho Silver was nowhere to be seen.
‘Where’s Psycho Silver?’ Danny mused. All of a sudden, arms grabbed him from behind and roughly pushed him into the other Psycho Rangers’ grasps. It was Psycho Silver that had surprised him. This time, Danny knew that he wouldn’t be able to get away. Psycho Pink and Yellow quickly took his skates off.
“You’re coming with us,” Psycho Silver said. Danny tried to struggle, but was suddenly washed up in a weird teleportation effect.
Authors note: Suspenseful, huh? Have I got you on the edge of your proverbial seats? Be here next time, as a shocking transformation takes place. All I can say is that it means trouble for the Space Rangers, the Psycho Rangers, and Astronema.