The Terran Rangers/X-Men, Heather Ray [best black authors .txt] 📗

destroy a great many worlds, Boy!"

"Never!" cried Nate, creating a shield out of psionic power to deflect Onslaught's attack. "After all you've done to the world, and the Multiverse, do you really think I'll let you survive this?"

"Do you even have a hope of stopping me?" chided Onslaught, launching himself at Nate, "I can see into your mind, boy. You are too tired to keep me out completely. I can feel your insecurity, your doubts. You know you cannot defeat me! I have no body to call my own, so my entire essence is here on the Astral Plane! You, on the other hand, are anchored to your body, so you can't experience the total freedom I have here! I am invincible!"

"One thing's for sure," said Nate smartly, "You certainly talk a lot. Just like any other tyrant. Hitler, Stalin -- always talking, always threatening. You're just full of it!"

"How dare you compare me to those weak humans?!" roared Onslaught, swatting Nate away with a psionic broadsword, "I am the one and only Onslaught! I am the most powerful being alive! I can destroy you with but a thought, little man!"

Suddenly, Onslaught disappeared.

"Oh, crap," said Nate. "He went back to Trevor's body! I've gotta follow!"

But when Nate tried to re-enter his own body, he still found himself on the Astral Plane.

"Double crap!! He's trapped me on the Astral Plane! If he kills my body while I'm here, I'll be trapped in an interdimensional limbo! I've only got one chance..."
Chapter Eighteen

Kimberly was still bathed with the fiery red light of Tommy's Zeo shard when she felt a mental tug.

*Tommy? Is that you?*

she asked, hoping he had awaken.

*Kimberly, its me, Nate. Where are you?*

*Finster's lab.*

*Did you save Tommy?*

*We're working on it. What's up?*

*You have to hurry, Kimberly. I was battling Onslaught on the Astral Plane, but he split and trapped me here somehow. Now he's back in Trevor's body, and my body is lying on the ground completely unprotected. If he kills me now, I'll be trapped in an interdimensional limbo.*

*Like Zordon?*

*WHO?!*

*Nevermind. We'll be there ASAP!*

Kim opened her eyes and saw the red light die down. Also, the horrible pain she was enduring had lessened.

"It worked Kim!" said Annie excitedly. "You did it! The red Zeo shard is charged. You okay?"

Kimberly tried to speak, but her lips didn't seem to move. She tried another approach.

*Annie, listen to me. I don't know what's wrong, but I can't move a muscle in my body!*

"It must be the strain of the transfer," said Annie, answering Kim's telepathic call verbally.

*You've got to go to the throne room and save Nate! Solar is about to kill him! I'll be fine.*

Annie looked at Kim in surprise, and then her face hardened into a serious frown. She snapped on her Yellow Ranger helmet and ran out the lab, as quickly as possible. When she left, Kimberly relaxed a little and once again tried to move.

I've got to give Tommy back his Zeo shard! He's so weak now!

*Tommy*

she called. *Are you still with me?*

When Tommy didn't answer, she started to panic.

*TOMMY?! PLEASE!*

Her eyes started to water as she tried desperately to move. Although some of the feeling had returned to her arms and legs, she still couldn't move.

*Tommy,*

she said more calmly, *you can't leave me. I won't let you! Answer me!*

*Kim,*

whispered Tommy mentally, *I'm so...tired...*

*Hang on, Tommy! We NEED

you!*

Kim panicked as she felt his mind slipping into oblivion. Using every nuance of energy within her, she mentally pulled the red Zeo shard from her body. She telekinetically directed the gem to Tommy, who lay on the stone floor not to far from her. She once again called to him.

*Tommy, listen to me. I can save you, but you need to stay with me. I can't force the Zeo shard into you -- you have to accept it. Do you hear me? Tommy?!*

*Hurry*

came the weak response.

Kimberly immediately steered the gem to Tommy's heart, just as Nate had done to her after her seizure. Tommy accepted the power, allowing the shard passage through his scalded chest. The shard, now intangible, took its place inside Tommy's heart, pumping power into every artery in his system. Immediately, Tommy felt invigorated and alive. Still, he was brutally wounded, and found it difficult to stand up. He managed to pull himself off the floor, and leaned on the lab table with Kimberly still lying on it. She looked up at him with glassy eyes, and even managed to crack a slight smile. Tommy looked down at her, and smiled back.

*Are you okay?*

she asked him.

"I'm fine. Or at least I will be, once we get back to Earth and Billy runs me through the med-unit. How 'bout you? Are you okay?"

*I can't move yet, but otherwise I'm peachy.*

Tommy gently took Kim's hand and held it between his.

"Thanks, Kim," he whispered.

*For what?*

"For everything. For saving my life, for being there for me, for...for giving me something to live for. You've made such a difference in my life. I...I owe you."

*Oh, Tommy, you don't owe me anything. You've saved my life dozens of times! And you've made my life feel...complete

.*

Kimberly felt embarrassed after so easily divulging her innermost thoughts through the psionic link. But her embarrassment was quickly replaced with fear as she remembered Nate's present circumstance.

*Tommy!*

she cried mentally, *Nate's in trouble! Go to the throne room and help Annie! She can't beat Solar by herself!*

"But, what about you--"

*I'll be fine, GO!*

Tommy hesitated, kissed Kim gently on the forehead, and stood back.

"It's Morphin Time!" he cried, raising his arms to the sky, "TERRA FIRE POWER!!"

In a flash of fiery red light, Tommy became the Red Ranger, and quickly ran down the hall. Kimberly watched him go, and smiled to herself.

Chapter Nineteen

Annie had reached the throne room just in time to see Solar stand up from his throne. He was shaky on his feet, and a little disoriented from having to once again adjust to two minds being inside one body. This gave Annie enough time to reach Nate.

"Hold it right there, Solar!" she yelled authoritatively. "You're through causing trouble."

"Well, if it isn't the little Yellow Ranger," said Solar, his eyes glowing pure gold and his mouth contorted into a frightful smirk, "I suppose you came here to save you're little boyfriend. Well, too late! By now, the machine has done its job, and the Red Ranger is a memory! So, what are you gonna do now, Kimmy? Cry over the loss of your love?"

Annie was furious at his cold remarks. However, she couldn't bring herself to attack Solar, since she was staring at the face of her beloved husband, whom she hasn't seen in two years.

"I...I didn't come here to save Tommy," she said quietly, unsnapping her helmet, "I came to rescue my husband and bring him home. Trevor, come back to me."

Solar was shocked when he saw the face of Kimberly Monroe, a stunning adult woman, as opposed to Kimberly Hart, a lovely and perky teenager. He was so shocked that for a brief instant, Trevor seemed to surface. His eyes became aqua, and this golden aura of power seemed to die down. He fell to his knees, tears forming in his aqua eyes.

"K -- Kim?" he asked hoarsely, looking up at her. "Is it really you? Are you MY

Kim?"

"Yes, Trev," she said quietly, kneeling beside him and embracing him lovingly. "It's me."

"This isn't some kind of sick joke?" he asked, his voice shaking with disbelief.

"Its really me," she said, breaking the embrace and looking him in the eyes. She reached beneath the collar of her Terran Ranger uniform and pulled out the gold lightning bolt locket that Tom gave her before her departure into the past. She opened it to reveal two small photos.

"See? These are the two people who mean the world to me. My husband and --"

"Tony!" cried Trevor, his eyes shining with love. "My God, he's gotten so -- big

!"

"Trev," she said softly, "you've been missing for two years. He's four now."

Since Trevor was in conscious control, Onslaught was forced to drop his barrier around the Astral Plane in order to re-assert himself. Nate came into consciousness just in time to see the aqua in Solar's eyes being slowly replaced by an eerie golden glow.

"Kim!" he cried. "Look out!"

But Nate's cry was too late, for Solar had already telekinetically tossed the woman into the wall, fifty feet away. She crashed into the wall at blinding speed, striking her back and bare head against the stone wall. She slumped into a heap against the wall, blood trickling down her temples and the corner of her mouth. The Red Ranger ran into the room just in time to see the Yellow Ranger slam into the wall, and looked in horror as she lay deathly still. Behind his red and gold helmet, his eyes were glowing red.

"Monroe!" he cried fiercely, throwing his body into Solar's like a cannon ball. "Do you realize what you've just done?! You killed your WIFE

!!"

While Solar and the Red Ranger wrestled across the stone floor, Nate checked on Annie.

She's alive at least, but she needs treatment!

*Kim, can you hear me?*

Downstairs, in Finster's lab, Kimberly was sitting up on the lab table, shaking out her legs. Although she could move them, she knew they wouldn't support her weight. She heard Nate's call.

*Yes, I hear you. What's happening?*

*Kim, do you know anything about the Astral Plane?*

*Only a little. Zordon told us that's where he is, because his body was destroyed while his mind was on the Astral Plane. I've never been there, though.*