The Terran Rangers/The Spectrum Force/Sailor Moon - The Preliminaries Volume 5 by Heather Ray (lightweight ebook reader .txt) 📖

with my Economics professor," explained Rachel. "It was hard coming up with an excuse to suddenly leave."

"How long do you think that wooden cage will hold it?" asked Craig, glancing up at the tree. He muttered under his breath when he noticed that the tree branches hung from the tree lifeless, and Rythe was nowhere in sight.

"He...he sucked the life right out from these branches!" said Matt, flying up to the branches and touching them carefully. "He must've come here to absorb the life energy from the plants!"

Suddenly, Rythe leapt from his hiding place, on a branch concealed by leaves, and landed on Matthew's shoulders, squeezing his neck tightly with his limber legs. Matthew choked in shock and tried in vain to break Rythe's vice-like grip.

"We've gotta help!" cried Jocelyn.

"We have to be careful," whispered Rachel. "We can't hit Matthew! Let's summon the Elemental Armory!"

The Orange, Blue, Purple, and Red Enforcers lifted their hands to the sky. Their hands began to glow in their signature colors.

"Earth Lance!" cried the Blue Enforcer, slamming his glowing fist into the dirt below. The hand passed through the dirt effortlessly, and he pulled out a long silver lance with a blue handle.

"Ice Bow!" cried the Orange Enforcer, holding out her left hand. A block of jagged ice formed in her hand, and suddenly shattered, revealing a golden archer's bow, with orange string.

"Flame Daggers!" yelled Keith, holding his arms in an "X"

. A flame appeared in each hand, and each expanded to about a foot long, and formed into two silver daggers, with a red stripe going down the center and a red hilt.

"Lightning Sabre!" cried Rachel, holding her fist to the sky. A cloud formed inside the high ceiling of the greenhouse, and a flash of lighting struck her hand, forming a long, sharp sabre with silver blade and purple hilt.

The four heroes joined the Yellow Enforcer, who was still holding her Wood Boomerang, and glared menacingly at Rythe. Matthew continued to struggle against Rythe's powerful legs, barely managing to breath. Jocelyn stepped forward, poised to launch an ice arrow at Rythe.

"Think you not hit Greenie?" squealed Rythe, grinning from pointed ear to pointed ear. Jocelyn just smiled at it.

"I'm an excellent shot, Imp," she said, firing an arrow in Rythe's direction. The arrow sailed a good foot to the left of its mark, and Rythe immediately doubled over in laughter, but not loosening his grip in the least.

"Missed!" he gasped. "Missed!!"

Rythe still laughed uncontrollably, and failed to notice the tall figure behind him. He did, however, feel the searing pain of being stabbed in the back by a red-hot, razor sharp blade. Rythe screamed in pain, and fell off Matthew. Keith pulled his dagger out of Rythe's back, and helped the Green Enforcer to his feet.

"You okay, Buddy?" he asked. Matthew nodded his response, still coughing and clutching his throat. Keith and Matt joined the remaining four, who still stood in a line.

"Let's finish this joker off," said Rachel, holding up her sabre. "The Spectrum Storm!"

Matthew nodded and silently summoned his Wind Nunchucks. A cyclone appeared in his hands, and formed two green and silver nunchucks, with silver chain. The entire team held their weapons to the sky, and encased them in bubbles of colored light. The bubbles became opaque, and they threw the bubbles into the air simultaneously. The six bubbles joined in sky, forming a white sphere crackling with the power of the elements. The sphere sailed into Rythe, and Rythe suffered the might of a crashing wave, an earthquake, a sizzling fire, a bolt of lightning, a hurricane wind, and the force of a tree all at once. In a bright cascade of white light, Rythe exploded into cinders. The white sphere separated into the six smaller spheres, and vanished, leaving the six heroes in the greenhouse.

"Well, the damage isn't all that bad," said Jocelyn, looking around. "It could've been a lot worse."

"You're right," said Rachel, "Rythe would've killed every plant in the gardens, but the fight only killed a handful of trees and bushes. Altogether a good job, team."

As the Spectrum Force rose to the air to depart, the winds inside the greenhouse suddenly increased in strength, forming a small cyclone in the center. Everyone looked to Matthew.

"Hey!" he said defensively. "It's not me! I don't even have my nunchucks on me!"

"Then what's going on?" said Keith, watching curiously as the cyclone increased in size and strength, causing the trees to bend, and pulling Keith's body towards it.

"Hey!" he cried. "What gives?"

Craig grabbed Keith's gloved hand, and tried to stop him from flying into the cyclone. Strangely enough, the wind only seemed to pull Keith. The five others all managed to withstand the force of the wind. Suddenly, though, Rachel lost her footing, and was catapulted into the cyclone.

"AAAH!"

she cried as she tumbled through the cyclone to the very top. A bright light flashed, and she was no longer there.

"Ray?!" yelled Matt in shock. "What's going on here?"

"Guys!" yelled Craig between clenched teeth, "I...I can't hold him!"

Tamara, Jocelyn, and Matt all lent a hand, but Keith's hand slipped out of his glove, and he flew into the cyclone as well. Once he disappeared from view, the winds died down, leaving the four remaining enforcers alone.

"What... what do we do now?" asked Tamara, sitting on the grass with her head down.

"We go to Cloud Castle," said Craig, "and we pray that Spectra knows what Phaedra's plan is."

The Orange and Green Enforcers nodded, and the four heroes leapt into the sky, headed for the mysterious Cloud Castle at light speed. In milliseconds they reached the main gate of the golden castle situated on a cloud hovering in the stratosphere over Langstrum Alps. They passed through the gate and stood on the golden tile before Spectra, who was sitting on her throne. She looked curiously at the four Spectrum Enforcers.

"Where are Keith and Rachel?" she asked them. Craig's eyes widened.

"We were hoping you could tell us what happened to them," he stammered, "Phaedra must've kidnapped them! They were sucked in by a tornado after we destroyed Rythe."

"No," said Spectra, "Had Phaedra cast a black magic spell, I would've sensed it. There was no more Denebian magic after Rythe was destroyed."

"What're you saying?" asked Tamara.

"I'm saying that Phaedra did not sequester Rachel and Keith."

"But if Phaedra didn't do it," said Matt, scratching his chin, "then who did?"

Chapter Three

The four remaining Spectrum Enforcers -- Matthew, Jocelyn, Craig, and Tamara -- stood with their advisor Spectra in the throne room of the golden palace called Cloud Castle, which floated upon a fluffy white cloud miles above Langstrum Alps California. They had just battled one of Phaedra's monsters, but after the battle, Rachel and Keith, the two leaders of the Spectrum Force, mysteriously disappeared in a vortex of wind.

"Spectra," said Tamara, approaching the throne, "what do we do? Keith and Rachel have disappeared without a trace!"

"Do you have any enemies other than Phaedra that would want to capture them?" asked Matthew.

Jocelyn walked around the throne room with her head bowed in thought. As she wandered, her eyes fell upon a pearly cylinder about three feet high. Atop the cylinder was a mechanical device, the only machine in Cloud Castle. This machine was built by a brilliant young man from an alternate dimension, who visited Langstrum Alps half a year ago. Jocelyn's eyes widened as she examined the machine, an idea forming in her head.

"Guys," she said quietly, turning around to face her friends. "Who is the only villain other than Phaedra that the Spectrum Force has encountered?"

Craig looked at her questioningly, and then noticed the machine standing behind Jocelyn. "Of course!" he shrieked, "Lord Zedd must've done it! That would explain why we can't telepathically contact them!"

"But, why would Lord Zedd want to kidnap Rachel and Keith?" asked Matthew, "I mean, doesn't he have enough problems to deal with, like the Power Rangers?"

"Maybe he's still mad at us for trashing his throne room?" suggested Tamara with a shrug.

"Although we cannot figure out why Lord Zedd would choose to attack us, it is the only possibility we can come up with," said Spectra, standing up. She descended the stairs and walked to Billy's multiversal scanner. "With this, I can once again pinpoint the Command Center, and we can make contact with the rangers. Perhaps they know of some suspicious goings on."

The four Spectrum Enforcers nodded as Spectra activated the communicator.

Part Three

Chapter Four

Meanwhile, across the Multiverse, Rocky, Kimberly, Billy, and Aisha wandered around the Command Center, while Alpha 5 desperately tried to find a trace of the missing rangers -- Tommy and Adam.

"Alpha," said Kim worriedly, staring over the small robot's shoulders, "did you find them?"

"Aye yi yi!" shrieked Alpha. "There is no bio signature of either Tommy or Adam anywhere! They're gone!"

"What could Lord Zedd be up to?" asked Aisha "I mean, that portal he created could've grabbed all six of us! Why did he stop with Adam and Tommy?"

"I DO NOT BELIEVE LORD ZEDD IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE WHITE AND BLACK RANGERS,"

boomed Zordon.