Power Rangers Zeo: Venusian Encounter, Heather Ray [books that read to you .txt] 📗

their master, allowing him easy passage. Once Zedd reaches the summit of the mountain, he lifts his "Z"

staff to the overcast sky, causing a web of lightning to surround the area. Then, a city magically appears, in the ancient style of Athens Greece, with white pillars climbing to the heavens, statues of great heroines, and strings of ivy decorating the white stone. Zedd enters the gates, and the inhabitants of the city, all beautiful women appearing to be in their twenties and wearing clothing that looked like Grecian togas, stopped whatever it was they were doing and kneeled humbly to their emperor. Zedd's visor flashed with delight as he saw the respect the women afforded him.

"You may rise, Venusians!" he roared. All the women heeded his command.

"What brings you to the peak of Mount Ambrosia, on Venus Island, my liege?" asked a young blonde woman standing near him, "It has been centuries since your last visit."

"I have come to speak to Scorpina, Dalal. I am told she has returned to her sisters. I also would like an audience with Queen Syren, immediately."

"I shall take you to the queen now," answered Dalal "and I shall send scouts to find Scorpina. She left Ambrosia earlier today. She likes to practice her magic by the shore."

Dalal lifted a sword into the air, which had been attached to her belt, and the women all formed two lines from the gate to the large white palace in the center of the city. The women all lifted their swords, creating a canopy, and Dalal and Zedd walked between the two rows to the palace. Once inside, Dalal bowed deeply to the throne, in which sat the fair Queen Syren. Syren was wearing a floor length toga, with a golden crown and matching belt. Her cherry red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and held with a gold band. Her gray eyes twinkled and an evil smile crossed her face as she saw the menacing figure of Lord Zedd enter the room. She stood up and bowed low before the emperor of evil.

"To what do I owe the honor, m'lord Zedd?" she asked, standing upright.

"I am here to ask a favor of you, Syren," he answered, "No doubt you have heard of the Power Rangers?"

"Of course. They were here on Venus Island only a year or so ago. I ordered the Venusians not to interfere with them, since we received no order from you. I thought you had forgotten about your troop of Amazon Warriors."

"No, I merely was awaiting the right opportunity to call you into service, Syren. I want you personally to defeat the rangers. Your skills of mesmerizing men are second to none."

Syren smiled at the compliment. "I thank you for your vote of confidence, m'lord, but I must remind you that my spells render only men helpless. I may be mistaken, but two of the rangers are women."

"That is true, but the Yellow Ranger brought up a very interesting point earlier," said Zedd, "She said that the women on the team have never played key roles on the team, and that is indeed true. The men do all the fighting, the thinking, and the leading. The women who were fighters--Trini, Kimberly, and Aisha--have all retired. The two female Zeo Rangers are the least experienced, and neither of them are very accomplished as fighters. After you capture the men, it shouldn't be too difficult to destroy the women."

Just then, a young brunette in a short toga ran into the throne room.

"What is it Jezebel?" asked Syren, "I am speaking with Lord Zedd!!"

"I have brought Scorpina as you requested," said Jezebel, bowing and leaving the room. Scorpina entered the palace, also wearing a snow white toga that reached about mid thigh. She had a black onyx belt, and a golden sword in her hands. Her long ebony hair was pulled into two French braids.

"Zedd, what are you doing on Venus Island?" she asked in surprise.

"I have come to seek the aid of the mighty Venusian warriors to destroy the Power Rangers. That includes you, Scorpina."

"But Lord Zedd, I requested a leave of absence from Rita. It is of vital importance that I stay and help the queen."

"Help her do what?" asked Zedd, "What's going on here?"

"The day after tomorrow is the one-hundredth anniversary of the Naya Massacre. One hundred and twenty years ago, a group of former queen Naya's rebel Venusians escaped the dungeon, and fled the island. Dulcea managed to reach Zordon of Eltar, and he sent her to guard the Power on Phaedos. Many of them remained on Earth, hoping to save Venus Island from my tyranny. They adopted human names, and dwelled among them. Some of them even took mates and had offspring. We managed to find them all with Queen Naya twenty years later in England. They had joined together to plot to recapture Venus Island, and we stopped them. The only problem is, one of them, called Leila, managed to escape the carnage. The others were all killed. So, there now exist two free rebel Venusians -- Dulcea and Leila."

"What can two women possibly do against your army of Venusian warriors?" asked Zedd.

"Well, Leila may have wed, and therefore may have had children. Venusians can only bear female offspring, because the Y chromosome cannot survive in a Venusian body. That is why we are all women. The offspring of the other Venusian turncoats will be the great-grandchildren of the Venusians, because being crossbreeds they do not inherit the immortality of their mothers. However, they do inherit the physical agility, intelligence, enhanced healing, agelessness, and beauty of the Venusians. Leila is still alive, and that means that she may have children, and a half-Venusian may have enough magical power to be a problem. The sooner Leila is killed, the sooner the rebellion will truly come to an end."

"About how many rebels were there?" asked Zedd.

"There are at least a hundred rebels still imprisoned in the catacombs of the castle. Naya led a group of her generals in an escape. There were five total--Naya herself, Leila, Dulcea, Erwina, and Avangone. Dulcea immediately went to Zordon to protect the power of Ninjetti, since she was the keeper of the Ninjetti power. Therefore, she never had children on Earth. Erwina had one daughter, but she brought her to the meeting, so she was killed as well. Avagone's two daughters each had two daughters, and three of the four grandchildren had children, making a total of four great-grandchildren. All the great grand-children still live--the youngest is twelve and the oldest is twenty-two. Two of the grandchildren still live, one being forty-seven and the other fifty three. So, there are a total of six descendents of Avagone still living. Naya had two daughters, and one of them married and had three daughters. Those three each had one daughter, and one of the three grandchildren of Naya is dead. So, there are five descendents of Naya. Since Leila is still alive, it is impossible to know whether or not she has living descendents, but there are none to my knowledge. To celebrate the anniversary, we plan to capture all the descendants of the traitors, and kill them together in a blazing fire. Leila herself shall be killed by my hand. So, we have been watching the descendents, and have a great deal of information on them."

"If you know their names and you know where they are, there shouldn't be a problem," said Lord Zedd, "Just send a few Venusians to grab them. If they are the great-grandchildren of Venusians, then they have only one-eighth of the magical powers of Venusians, and shouldn't be much of a threat."

"I have a list of the eleven descendents," said Syren, standing again from her throne and pulling out a blood red parchment, "Each of them may have limited supernatural powers. All should be inhumanly agile, extremely beautiful, fast healers, very intelligent, and should all look younger than they truly are. The list reads: from the tribe of Avagone--Elisa Manning, her daughter Janette Manning, Silvia Turner, her daughter Andrea Turner, her other daughter Elizabeth Turner, and finally Christina Hendren. From the tribe of Queen Naya--Josephine Trent, her daughter Kelly Trent, Caroline Hart, her daughter Kimberly Hart, and Courtney Davis."

Upon the mention of Kimberly's name, Scorpina's chin dropped, and Zedd's visor began to glow brightly red.

"Did you say Kimberly Hart?" asked Zedd in disbelief, "As in Kimberly Anne Hart, the gymnast in the Pan Global Games in Florida?"

"The very same," answered Syren, "Why? Do you know her?"

"Of course I know her! She was the original Pink Ranger!! So, she isn't even human, and she possesses Venusian powers. This isn't good. Syren, you must attack the Power Rangers. Immediately. If you wait until the anniversary, the rangers will be with Kimberly in Florida, and you will be unable to capture her. Get the rangers, and send a Venusian to the games at the same time. She can capture Kimberly, and you can capture the male Power Rangers. Do this for me, and you will no longer be indebted to me. Deal?"

Syren rubbed her chin. She then smirked. "Deal."

"Excellent. Scorpina, are you coming?" asked Zedd, turning to leave the castle.

"Scorpina is my greatest assassin," said Syren, "and my best tracker. If anyone can find Leila for me, it is she."

"Very well. Once you find Leila, though, I want you to return to the Moon."

"Yes, Lord Zedd," said Scorpina, bowing low.

"Things may turn out well for me after all," said Zedd with a smirk.

Chapter Four

In Angel Grove, Katherine Hillard has locked herself in her room. The television has been unplugged ever since she saw the Oprah Winfrey show a few hours ago, and the telephone has been disconnected. Even the shades are drawn, to block out any distractions from the outside world. Katherine knows that these extreme measures are absolutely necessary; since she's spending the entire weekend in Florida with her friends, there is no way she'll get a chance to study for her Calculus midterm any other time. Although Katherine is an excellent student, her Calculus grade is slipping, since that's the class she has right after lunch, and the Machine Empire had a practically clockwork habit of sending down monsters at lunchtime. So, Katherine misses a lot of Calculus classes, and hasn't been doing well on the tests she's taken so far. Now that the Machine Empire hasn't attacked in over a week, there is no excuse for failing this test. Except for the Pan-Global Games.

Katherine has mixed feelings about her trip to Florida this weekend. Although she really misses her friend Kimberly, and is really excited about seeing her compete for Pan-Global glory, she's also a little apprehensive. After all, Tommy has only recently been showing signs of getting over Kimberly after that