Mayhem from Moon Palace

by Alexander Irvine

  “Hit me again!” Wormazam gargled. “There will just be more Wormazams!” It was growing back the pieces they had cut off. By the time the little Wormazams were done changing, the big Wormazam had grown back everything it had lost.

  “Man, that did not work out like I planned it,” Zack said.

  Chapter 9

  Bulk and Skull got their science-fair project unloaded and set up in five minutes flat. They were going to be rich. Skull had found a mirror at a thrift shop that made a person look skinnier, and they had put it up next to a regular mirror Bulk got out of his garage. They put a scale in front of each mirror. The regular mirror had a scale that gave an accurate weight. Skull had fixed the other one so it read ten pounds lighter. Then they had added a bunch of computers to the display so it looked more . . . well, science-y.

  “We’re gonna win for sure,” Bulk declared. “And then we’re gonna be rich. We’ll have our own infomercial.”

  Skull was looking around the gym. “Man, Bulk, did you ever see so many geeks in one place?”

  “Not since the last science fair,” Bulk said.

  “You went to the last science fair?”

  “Ha! Me? No way! But where else would there have been so many geeks?” Bulk gave Skull a shove. “Let’s look around.”

  They walked down one of the aisles, gawking at the experiments on both sides. Kids from all over their part of California were there. One table had a mini garden with some kind of new tomato. Another was covered in different kinds of glass with lights that shone through them to make rainbows.

  “Huh,” Skull said. “Where are the unicorns?”

  They stopped by a table that had a solar-powered battery charger.

  “How do they know if it works in here?” Bulk wondered. Then the kid behind the table brought out a solar lamp and turned it on. “Oh. Hey, kid. Will that thing give you a sunburn?”

  “Um, yeah, I think it will,” the kid said. “But I’ve never tried.”

  “Whatever,” Bulk said. He caught up with Skull, who was now standing in front of a poster covered with math. There was a computer on the table next to it with different-colored shapes curling around in patterns.

  The table next to that one didn’t have anyone standing behind it. Bulk looked it over, and something caught his attention. “Hey, Skull. Check this out. Billy Cranston.”

  “Figures,” Skull said. “No way would Billy miss out on a nerd fest like this.”

  They both looked at Billy’s experiment. It was some kind of . . . radio, maybe? A computer? They couldn’t tell what it was supposed to do. It had too many screens and buttons for them to figure it out. They looked at the posters lying on the table and tried to read them. It was all super-complicated science stuff.

  “What’s he talking about?” Skull asked Bulk.

  Bulk shrugged. “Nerd stuff, man. How should I know?”

  Skull squinted. “Targeted . . . anti-dimensional energy . . . coherence disrupter,” he read slowly. “Sounds like he just made that up. I mean, what does that mean?”

  Bulk was looking past him. “Hey,” he said. “I have an idea.”

  Skull looked where Bulk was looking. He saw a pair of judges talking to one of the science nerds three tables over.

  “What idea?” Skull asked.

  Bulk grinned at him. “What if we pass this off as our project?”

  “What? How are we gonna do that, Bulk? We can barely read this stuff!”

  “Seriously,” Bulk said. “We hide Billy’s name, and when the judges show up all we have to do is grin and act proud. Nerds get all tongue-tied. The judges will read the posters, and boom, we get first prize!”

  “Hello, gentlemen,” an adult said from behind them.

  Both Bulk and Skull spun around, trying not to look guilty. “Um, hi,” Skull said.

  There were two judges, a man and a woman. They wore name tags: MR. NORDLING and MS. HERNANDEZ. “Interesting-looking project you have there,” Ms. Hernandez said. “Why don’t you tell us a little about what it does?”

  “Um,” Bulk said.

  “Yeah, um . . .” Skull couldn’t figure out what to say. Why had Bulk had this dumb idea? “The poster says it better than I could,” he said, pointing to one of the posters.

  “Targeted anti-dimensional energy coherence disrupter,” Mr. Nordling read. “That’s a mouthful, ah, what are your names? I don’t see them on your table anywhere.”

  “I’m Billy,” Skull said.

  Bulk glared at him. Skull couldn’t figure out why he was mad at first, but then it hit him: They were supposed to be taking credit for the experiment, and he’d just messed it up by saying that his name was actually Billy!

  Then he had another idea. If they couldn’t take credit for Billy’s experiment, the next best thing would be to mess it up for him so he couldn’t win.

  “Um,” Skull said. The judges were watching, making him nervous.

  “I’m Billy, too,” Bulk said. “We’re both, um, named Billy.”

  Ms. Hernandez was looking at her clipboard. It had a list of the experiments on it. “Billy . . . Cranston, is it?”

  “That’s me,” both Bulk and Skull said at the same time.

  Mr. Nordling and Ms. Hernandez looked at each other.

  “Neither of you is Trini?” Ms. Hernandez asked.

  Now it was Bulk and Skull’s turn to look at each other. “He is,” Skull said, pointing at Bulk. Bulk glared at him, confused by the turn of events.

  Mr. Nordling watched this exchange. He wrote something on his clipboard. “How about this,” he said. “We’re going to look at some other experiments and give you two a chance to get settled in.”

  “Sure,” Skull said. “Okay. We’ll get settled in.”

  “Yeah,” Bulk said.

  The judges moved on to another table, and Bulk punched Skull hard in the arm. “What are you doing, dummy? Now they think I’m Trini!”

  “What was I supposed to do?” Skull asked. “We can’t both be Billy.”

  “There goes my great idea,” Bulk grumbled.

  “Ha. Some great idea,” Skull said. “How were you going to convince anyone you were Billy Cranston? Let’s get back to our experiment before we get in trouble.”

  “What we should do is go find Billy and tell him the judges already came to his table,” Bulk said.

  Skull chuckled. “Oh yeah. That’s a good idea. It’ll be fun to watch him squirm.”

  They left the gym and looked down both of the hallways leading into other parts of the school. “Wonder where he is,” Bulk said.

  “I bet he’s in one of the science labs,” Skull said. “Probably forgot some kind of nerd thing there and that’s why he wasn’t at his table.”

  “Right,” Bulk said. “Let’s check it out.”

  Chapter 10

  From the throne room, Lord Zedd watched Goldar fighting the Red Ranger. “Why can you not destroy a single Power Ranger, you useless fool?” Zedd screamed.

  He had sent Goldar when he saw Jason Scott isolated and alone. The Red Ranger was the leader of the team, and Lord Zedd was convinced the Power Rangers would fall apart if he could eliminate their leader. Surely Goldar should have been able to accomplish that!

  But if not . . . if Goldar was just a bumbling idiot . . . then Lord Zedd was prepared to take matters into his own hands.

  That was why he had chosen to create Wormazam. Lord Zedd had studied Earth’s life-forms and learned that the earthworm had the power of regeneration. His Wormazams would take this to the next level. When his worm was cut in two, both halves would regrow into complete earthworms. It was a perfect way to keep the rest of the Power Rangers occupied while Lord Zedd focused on the Red Ranger. He knew they would fight Wormazam, and he also had guessed that they would resort to their weapons when they could not defeat Wormazam hand to hand.
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br />   His plan had worked perfectly. Now Wormazam had grown back to its full power, and there were four smaller Wormazams on the run in the school. The other Power Rangers would have their hands full chasing those Wormazams. They would not be able to come to the Red Ranger’s aid.

  Lord Zedd knew Baboo and Squatt were hiding behind the wall in the throne room. “You ran from the Power Rangers even though I surrounded you with the most powerful Z-Putties that have ever existed! I will destroy the Red Ranger myself, and the rest of the team will fall! Rita Repulsa would have failed already, but I have cut off the leader of the Power Rangers from all his friends! When he falls, the rest of the team will fall.”

  He pounded a fist into the wall and imagined Baboo and Squatt cowering. “The Power Rangers will be destroyed! And when I have destroyed them, I will hunt down their base. Zordon will be next, and that ridiculous robot Alpha 5. All will surrender, or I will annihilate them! Earth will be mine!”

  Lord Zedd raised his staff. Then he paused. “Perhaps after this is all done . . . after I have seized this planet and made it mine . . . I will bring Rita out of the space Dumpster. Just long enough to see the look of miserable defeat on her face once more, and then I will put her back in the space Dumpster forever . . . with all her cowardly minions!” He pointed his staff at the throne-room window, where Earth shone blue and white. A crackle of energy surrounded him. When the flash faded, he was gone.

  Chapter 11

  Down in his laboratory, Finster heard Lord Zedd raging in the throne room. He had been working on his device for hours, and now he thought it was just about complete. And just in time. Lord Zedd was threatening to put them all in the space Dumpster with Rita Repulsa!

  Finster vowed that he would not be going into the space Dumpster. Baboo and Squatt could take care of themselves. As far as Finster knew, they had not told Lord Zedd about the device, so Finster would be able to take complete credit for what was about to happen.

  The device was designed to find the electronic frequency Alpha 5 used to send and receive messages. He used the same frequencies to talk to the Power Rangers and to Zordon. Finster had spent a long time finding that frequency. Then, once he had found it, he had to figure out a way to create a device that would use that same frequency. The third step was the most difficult and the most satisfying. Once Finster had found the frequency and built his device, he had to program it to send signals that Alpha 5 would be forced to obey—and cut off Alpha 5’s ability to communicate with the Power Rangers.

  Now he had done it! The device was complete. Already it was interfering with the Power Rangers’ communications. He had built a glowing sphere that showed the waves of energy coming from the device. The wave patterns told Finster what the device was doing and what frequencies it controlled. All he had to do was focus it on the correct frequency, and Alpha 5 would be unable to resist.

  Finster looked around. Baboo and Squatt were nowhere to be found. This irritated him. He wanted them to be present when he took control of Alpha 5. They should know that he was more useful and more powerful than they were.

  He also wished Lord Zedd were there. Once Zedd saw what Finster had done, he would never banish Finster. Perhaps he would even let Finster stay at his side in the throne room, as Goldar always did. Finster was about to give him the key that would unlock the Power Rangers’ Command Center. Surely there would be a reward! Or at least the device would keep Finster out of the space Dumpster.

  All he needed was a few minutes to make some final adjustments.

  Chapter 12

  Billy and Trini made the rounds of the auditorium, the pool, the choir room, the band room, and all the other spaces in that wing of the school. Everything seemed normal for a Saturday morning. Most of the rooms were empty, and a swim class for little kids in the pool was breaking up as Billy and Trini stuck their heads in. They did see Bulk and Skull wandering around near the band room, but there was no sign of any nefarious activity from Lord Zedd. So they decided to head back to the gym to see what was up with the rest of the team.

  “Why haven’t we heard from anybody?” Trini wondered. She raised her communicator but all she could hear was static. “Some kind of interference. That must be it. Look, we’ll keep searching later. You’ve got to get back to your experiment.”

  Billy was anxious to return to the gym. The fair was starting, and he had to be there when the judges wanted to talk about his experiment. But his first responsibility was to the Power Rangers, and he had to live up to it. The conflict had him on edge. Trini could see it.

  “Hey,” she said. “It’s going to be all right. We’ll figure this out, and then we’ll get you behind your . . . What is it again?” She had helped him put parts of his experiment together, but she still didn’t completely understand what it was supposed to do. Billy’s ideas were brilliant but pretty hard to follow sometimes.

  “Targeted anti-dimensional energy coherence disrupter.” Billy headed straight for his table when they came into the gym.

  Trini quickly caught up to him and spent a minute reading the posters. “Right. Targeted anti-dimensional energy coherence disrupter. So let me guess, it jams signals, right?”

  “It uses quantum energies from this dimension to detect and jam devices that use dimensional energy,” Billy said. “Rita sometimes used those kinds of energy. I bet Lord Zedd does, too, but I haven’t had a chance to really analyze the latest energy signals.”

  “So you’re going to tell the judges you built it to fight a secret threat from space?” Trini wasn’t sure how that would come across.

  “I hadn’t really thought about that yet.” Billy looked around. “Where are the judges?”

  “I’m more worried about where the rest of the team is,” Trini said. “Is the disrupter already working? Maybe that’s what’s messing with our communicators. Come on. Let’s make sure they’re okay.”

  “Power Rangers,” Zordon warned. Static crackled from her wrist-communicator. “Power Rangers,” Zordon said again. They could barely make out what he was saying. “The Red Ranger is battling Goldar in the parking lot. You must go to his aid.”

  She and Billy looked around to see if anyone had noticed. But as the science fair got going, teams, judges, and spectators were all making so much noise that nobody had heard Zordon. Trini held her wrist up and spoke as quietly as she could. “Understood, Zordon. We’re on our way. Did you hear that, Billy?”

  He was already coming around the table. “Yeah. Goldar. Jason’s going to need our help. Hey, where are Zack, Kimberly, and Tommy?”

  Chapter 13

  Zack, Kimberly, and Tommy had started off fighting one Wormazam. Now they had five to deal with. Four were little, about the size of golden retrievers, and they moved fast around the science lab, trying to get behind the three Power Rangers.

  “Stay tight to one another,” Tommy said. “Back to back to back.”

  “Think they can keep regenerating?” Zack wondered. “I mean, if we go after the little ones with our weapons, will they just make more?”

  “I don’t think we can take the chance. We have to find another way to defeat them.”

  Kimberly lunged out and kicked away a little Wormazam. Zack and Tommy were fending off blows from the big Wormazam. The floor was slick with worm slime, and they had trouble keeping their footing.

  “It’s a little cramped in here, don’t you think?” Wormazam said. “Maybe we should find some more room!”

  Two of the little Wormazams headed for the door. Kimberly and Zack ran after them, but they were already out in the hallway.

  “Go get them!” Tommy yelled. “And shut the door! I’ll try to hold these guys here.”

  Zack slammed the door. How was Tommy going to hold out against the monsters by himself? He didn’t even have his full Green Ranger powers.

  “We can’t leave him in there,” he said.

  “We have to,” Kimberly
shot back. She spoke into her wrist-communicator. “Zordon, we’ve found the monster Lord Zedd created. It split into a bunch of little monsters, and we’re hunting them in the school.”

  “You . . . hurry,” Zordon said through flares of static. “The Red Ranger . . . Goldar, but . . . divided, Lord Zedd . . . strike again.”

  Kimberly wasn’t completely sure what he was saying, but it sounded like things were getting dangerous.

  The little Wormazams were both headed back down the hall, toward the big lobby area between the classroom wing and the side of the building where the auditorium and the gym were.

  “We can’t let them get close to people,” the Pink Ranger said. “They might cause a panic or wreck one of the experiments and start a fire.”

  “I know!” The Black Ranger ran after them . . . and right at that moment, Bulk and Skull came sprinting around the corner from the other side of the school at full speed.

  “Whoa,” Bulk said. “Power Rangers!”

  Skull pointed at the two smaller Wormazams—who didn’t look so little out in the hallway where you couldn’t see the big one. “And monsters!”

  They turned and ran back the way they had come. Kimberly took the chance to tackle one of the small Wormazams. Following her lead, Zack jumped on the other one. The Wormazams thrashed, but the Power Rangers held tight.

  “Okay, now we’ve got them,” Zack said. “What do we do with them?”

  “Rangers,” Zordon said through their wrist-communicators. “I have analyzed what Lord Zedd did. Wormazam’s biology is based on a normal earthworm.” Static flared again. “. . . dry out in the sun . . . destroy the original Wormazam, and the smaller ones will be destroyed, too.”

  “Then all we have to do is keep them out of the way while we go after the big one.” Zack grunted. “I have an idea.”

  He ran up the hall and around the corner. Kimberly followed. The Wormazam in her arms slapped at her faceplate, leaving trails of slime. Zack reached the open janitorial closet. He threw in his Wormazam and kicked the mop bucket out of the way so he could slam the door.