The New Team
Chapter 1: Chosen
By Peter J. Smith
Chapter 1: Chosen
By Peter J. Smith
It was the kind of morning when you just couldn't decide whether to put your car's windscreen wipers on full or just keep them at intermittent. It had been raining on and off all week, which meant we were on par for typical summer weather, but it had slowly been easing off and would probably be gone by noon. Shame, really. I love this type of weather - there is nothing like lying in bed of a morning, half asleep and very comfortable, and listening to the rain gently fall on the roof. Okay, so I'm sounding like a poetic fool, but give me a break, no one's perfect.
Hi. My name is, boringly enough, Peter Jason Smith, but Peter'll do just fine. I'm a very typical eleven-year-old boy, and I live with my mother and father in the suburb of Currimundi, which is a northern suburb of the town of Caloundra.
Anyway, as I slowly opened my eyes, listening to the rain outside, my eyes focused on the clock across the room from me. Darn - it was twenty to eight, and I had to be at school in about twenty minutes. Still half asleep, I climbed out of bed and wandered into the kitchen, where my mum and dad sat, eating toast and grumbling about something on TV.
"Morning," I murmured, sitting down to pour myself some cereal.
"Oh, good morning," replied Mum. "Did you see the news?"
I shook my head. "I was asleep, Mum."
She smiled. "Oh right. I forgot. Anyway, I just heard on the news that the Power Rangers were in another battle last night and that they lost."
I looked up sharply. "They did?"
"Yes. They were fighting some lizardy thing, and the reports say that their powers gave out and they were forced to flee the scene."
"I don't believe it," I said through a mouthful of Nutri-Grain. "The Power Rangers don't lose. It just doesn't happen."
Perhaps I should explain. Here in Caloundra, over the last few months, all sorts of human-sized monstery things have started to show up. Some of them look really weird, but all have been deadly, with laser beams and rockets. They usually show up and then randomly begin destroying things. That is, until the Power Rangers, six super-heroes who have taken up residence here, show up. The Power Rangers are legendary around here - real life super-heroes, who battle evil with blasters and all sorts of weapons. Usually though, just when the Rangers start to win, the monster that they are fighting will grow to be about ten stories tall. That's when they call on their huge robots, called Zords I think, and then they will, without change, win.
Mum continued to talk to Dad and I about this, and all the while I was hurriedly eating my cereal. Once finished, I got up to go get dressed for school. As I left the table, Dad turned to me and said, "Be careful today. If the Power Rangers did get beaten, be sure that you're the first person into those underground shelters if something happens."
I grinned. "Sure thing dad, although I seriously doubt that the Power Rangers could ever get beaten." Can't you tell that I them admired these heroes intensely?
Once in my room, I began to get dressed, pulling my green and white ill-fitting school uniform out of the cupboard and putting it on. At five feet in height, I'm tall for my age, and to match that, I'm thin and rather lanky. I have a mass of wavy dark brown hair, and my eyes are just plain old hazel. The oddest thing about me, though, lies with my feet - because I was born with a club foot, my right foot is about two inches shorter than my left foot. My right leg is also shorter and thinner than my left leg.
My mother came past once I sat down to put my shoes on.
"Yes, I managed to finish the assignment, and no, they do not need any more parents for the excursion next month," I said, surprising Mum and myself.
Mum looked at me oddly. "How did you know I was going to ask you that?"
"Lucky guess," I lied, and she walked away. There's another thing I need to explain - I suppose you realie that most people have a sixth sense in that they can sometimes sense things before they happen. Well, I have a sixth sense too, but the funny thing is that it often goes into hyperdrive. In some situations and with certain people, I just can just sense, see and feel things that no one else can. They're big things, too. And even normally, there are some things that I just know. It's complicated.
Anyway, in a few minutes, I was ready to go. When Mum and I leapt into the car, we were only about five minutes late, which is a record of sorts. Mum drove out of the house, up Elonera Street, and over the hill - down at the bottom lay my school. Currimundi State School, to be precise. At either end of the school grounds lay a large grassy oval, and in between were the school buildings - about twelve of them, each interlinked by a number of concrete walkways. The road passed one side of the school and on the other was an environmental area, which was a fancy name for a swamp. Beyond that, though, was the beach.
But although that was the physical description of the school, to me, school meant pain. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the first five years. But now in grade six, I was trapped in a class of neanderthals, thugs who were violently opposed to people who used their brains. I hated it, and I hated it with a passion I hadn't thought possible. With only about seven people out of a grade of about 120 that I could call my friends, school was currently not my favourite place to be.
The day passed slowly, as they all did. My teacher is a big Italian dude called Mr Di Certo. He's a nice guy, but with a class of thirty, he just can't keep the thugs and me apart, so I usually take matters into my own hands. At Morning Tea, I usually find somewhere else to be for the twenty minutes, and while in class, I can usually keep out of danger. Lunch time always heralds trouble, but I have developed several defenses, and not surprisingly, they all involve getting the hell out of the area. And as the bell rang, signifying lunch-time, I was already forming plans.
"Hey," called a voice, and I turned to see my friend Scott Tiaron walking up to me. Scott was a great guy, and I'd known him forever, so he was one of the few people that I trusted. "What are you doing for the next hour?"
I shook my head. "I don't know," I replied, going to my bag. "I was thinking about maybe hanging around the big covered area today, or maybe the library."
"How would you like to come and jump in puddles with Aaron and me?"
I turned to him quizzically. "Uh, Scott?"
He smiled. "Aaron's science project involves water and plants. I don't know, something like that, I don't pay attention. Anyway, now that the rain's stopped, we thought we'd have a look down on the oval."
I looked out - it had indeed stopped raining, and anyway, Joel, Damien, and Joshua were coming out of the classroom, laughing and joking. The sight of these three together always scared me just a little. There were lots more bullies in our grade, but till the day I die, I will always hold those three responsible.
"Sure," I replied, grabbing a sandwich out of my lunchbox and beating a hasty retreat. Cowards we may be, but at least cowards actualize their potential lifespans.
"Oh, this is a big one. Look, there are tad-poles in it," cried Scott.
I turned to Aaron. "He gets way too much enjoyment out of this," I smiled.
Aaron Gee laughed - I'd only known him since about grade four, but he was just as amiable and easy-going as Scott. He was a big bloke - about as tall as me, and big. Not chubby, but muscular. With blue eyes and dark brown hair, he always looked happy and cheerful, but he was the one guy I could count on to keep me safe. No one ever tried to be nasty to him.
He turned away from Scott and looked down into the pool of water at our feet. As he leaned over and peered into the pool, taking notes in his book, I reflected that I didn't quite know what he was doing, but anything had to be better than making myself a target by hanging around the classroom.
As Aaron got back up, Scott returned to us, bounding energetically over the puddles of water. "Do you want to see the tad-poles or not?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir," laughed Aaron, and we began to follow Scott as he worked out a path in-between the many pools of dirty, muddy water.
"Hang on," I called, turning back, "we've got company."
"Hi fellas!" cried a high-pitched voice, and we turned to see two girls walking down the slope and onto the oval.
"Whatcha doin'?" asked Teresa Tiaron, as she and Sarah Weir reached us.
Scott grinned. "Hey, sis," he said. "We're just jumping in puddles."
Teresa smiled. As you've probably guessed, Teresa and Scott were brother and sister. In fact, they were twins. And if it wasn't for the differing genders, you would think that they were identical. Like Scott, Teresa had curly black hair and blue eyes. Hers was much longer, though. They were both the same height and shared the same interests. And like Scott, I'd known Teresa since I was a baby - their mother had been close friends with mine.
Teresa walked over and stood beside Scott, and Sarah came over to me and Aaron. "Sounds like fun," she said. "Mind if we join in?" With blond hair and blue eyes, Sarah was tall and pretty. She was actually my cousin - a month younger than me. Sarah is probably the nicest person that I have ever met - she is kind, caring, and sensitive.
"Well," Aaron told her, "you can if you want, but we're almost done."
"We are?" I asked disappointedly. "Ah, nuts."
Suddenly, without warning, an explosion occurred across the road, and a huge red and yellow fireball that roared skyward lit the area. Large chunks of fiery debris soon fell from the sky. Everyone instinctively ducked.
"What the...?" began Teresa.
Soon after came another explosion, but this one was much closer. One of the small, wooden gazebos across the oval was suddenly lost in a fireball as it was blasted by an unknown force. The noise was almost deafening, and we all leapt back in shock and surprise.
This time, however, I'd noticed a golden flash of lightning strike the gazebo before it had gone up. My suspicions were confirmed when a figure stepped out of the smoke and fiery debris. At first, I thought it was a teacher or another student telling us to run for safety. But after a few seconds, I changed my mind. It was certainly not human - it was about seven feet tall, and it was covered in blue and gold shiny scales. Standing on its hind legs, it looked as if a genetic scientist had run amok, or else gone to work drunk - the beast was a seven foot tall cross between a crocodile, a goanna, and a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
"That's the monster that the Power Rangers fought yesterday," gasped Teresa. All of a sudden, as if noticing the five of us for the first time, the creature began to walk across the oval towards us.
Surprisingly, even though I was quite terrified, my mental processes didn't shut down, and I immediately began to form a plan to get us all away from the beast. I'd always read of people who completely froze up in an emergency - apparently, I was an exception.
"Everyone stay back," I commanded. "The Power Rangers will be here."
"But they lost to this thing, didn't they?" asked Sarah fearfully. As if in an answer to her question, the monster raised its arms and sent another explosive charge into the ground only meters in front of us. Dirt and grass erupted skyward in a fiery explosion. Luckily, the fireball wasn't too big, and whether the monster intentionally missed us or not, I couldn't know.
"Oh hell," I muttered. The beast had already crossed half the oval, and was raising its arms again.
"What do we do now?" asked Aaron fearfully.
Sarah looked at him. "Running would probably be a good idea."
I'm honestly not quite sure what happened next. One moment, I was standing on the oval, Teresa and Scott on one side and Sarah and Aaron on the other. But the next moment, I was somewhere else. I will always, always remember seeing the grass and puddles of water in front of me disappear as I was suddenly lifted to a dizzying height above the oval. And then, I was whisked through the air, over Battery Hill and over Aroona, and out west. Caloundra disappeared beneath me and soon all I could see was sand dunes and foot hills.
I looked back - I was now only a blur of multi-coloured light that, like a comet, trailed away and tapered off. I noticed that I felt much lighter. Beside me, I could hear screams - I believe it was Teresa - which meant that the others had come to. Ahead, I could see a range of mountains, and at the summit of one of the gentle hills was an odd, beige-coloured building. I was being pulled along, faster and faster, and the building was getting closer. Then, all of a sudden, while I was almost directly over the building, my little comet was yanked out of mid-air and drawn into a large grate on top of the building. In a flash of light, the wild ride ended, and I was left standing in the middle of a large, dark room.
I quickly glanced around - behind me, I noticed the others. They looked okay, and I would've asked them how they were if I didn't suddenly take my surroundings into consideration. The room was large, the ceiling alone being about twenty feet above us. Around us was a ring of control panels, with little buttons and flashing lights all over them. There were numerous keyboards and three monitors. Beyond the panels was an empty space, and then the wall. It was circular, so there was really no corners, and covered in different panels and pipes. There was also a map of the World. Behind us all was a doorway, but in front of us was a large bluish pipe, with two tall electrodes on either side. Amazingly, in the pipe was a head - no, a face. If, indeed, it was human, it would've been male. All in all, I'd have to say that it was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen in my whole entire life.
"Where are we?" stuttered Aaron slowly.
"And who are you?" asked Sarah slowly, directing the question to the head.
Incredibly, the head replied. "My name is Zordon," it said, "and you five were brought here because you were all chosen to become Power Rangers."
.