"Ermph!" Justin groaned as he stretched.
"You okay, Justin?" Tommy asked.
"Fine, just a little stiff." Justin rubbed his lower back as
he joined the group. "Man, that was some fight yesterday, huh?"
"Yeah, it was. Those Chromatoids are tough!" Tommy said. Justin
pushed up his shirt sleeves, revealing ugly bruises around his elbows.
"Justin! What happened?" Katherine gasped.
"Huh? What?"
"Your elbows!"
Justin looked at his elbows. "Holy cats! I don't know what happened!"
He quickly pulled his sleeves back down. "I'd better not let Gina
see these. She always freaks when one of us gets a new bruise, no matter
how it happened."
"Who's Gina?" Tanya asked.
"She's cool. She's a counselor at the shelter and she's working on
getting her permanent license. She's kinda like a big sister to the older
kids, and like a mom to some of the little kids."
"Hey J, you ready?" a mid-tone accented female voice called out
from across the youth center.
Justin turned around in time for a small blond cannonball to fly into him.
"Justin!" the little girl squealed with delight, locking her
arms around him and gazing up at the annoyed boy with adoration glowing
in her big blue eyes.
"Gi-na-a!" Justin groaned. "Get Lisa offa me!" He tried
to detach Lisa from him but the little girl had an unusually strong grip.
"Gi-na-a!"
A tall young woman came over to the table. Brushing her short dark hair
out of her eyes, she managed to detach Lisa from Justin. Lisa clamped her
arms around Gina's neck instead.
"You ready, J?" Gina asked again.
"Yeah, I guess so. I'll you guys later, right?"
"Right. Take care," Adam replied, hiding a smile as the threesome
walked off, Lisa singing happily to herself.
That night, as he was getting ready for bed, Justin took a quick inventory
to see if there were other bruises. There were. His knees and shoulders
had bruises as ugly as the ones on his elbows, and there were fainter bruises
on his ankles and wrists. Justin rubbed his lower back again, willing to
bet his morpher that he had one hell of a bruise there, too.
"I wonder how I got these?" he thought as he drifted off
to sleep.
The next day, Zordon called Justin to the Power Chamber. "What's
up?" Justin asked. "Where are the others?"
"Justin, I have called you here to explain your bruises."
"How'd you know about them?"
"It was an inherent risk in giving you the powers. Because you have
to grow each time you morph, your body is being put through a terrible
strain. Each time you morph, your body loses some of its natural resiliency.
That is also why you have been experiencing stiffness in your limbs."
"So you're saying......"
"That eventually, your body will break down from the added stress.
If you continue to morph as you have been, you may end up damaging yourself
beyond repair."
"Morphing as I have been? There's another way? What is it, stay my
natural size?"
"If that were a possibility, I would have used it from the beginning.
Unfortunately, the powers require a full-grown humanoid when morphed. The
powers adjust your body."
"So, doc, what's the prescription?"
"For now, we monitor your body's progress. When it becomes absolutely
necessary to implement another method of morphing, we will."
"Oo-kay." Justin, sensing that the being was done, teleported
out then ran to the juice bar.
"Hey, Justin, how're the bruises?" Katherine asked.
"They're fading. I found out how I got them," he said, then proceeded
to tell them everything Zordon had told him.
"Another method of morphing? I wonder what Zordon's planning,"
Adam mused.
"Well, one things for sure. We won't know until he decides to tell
us," Tommy grinned.
After the latest battle, two weeks after Justin's diagnosis, the group
demorphed in the Power Chamber.
"Errrmph!" Justin exclaimed, his joints hurting.
"Justin," Zordon spoke. "It is time. If you morph unaided
once more, you won't recover from the damage."
"Unaided? What're you going to do, infuse the Turbo key with Ben-Gay?"
Justin asked wryly.
A noise came from a shadowed corner of the Power Chamber. As everyone turned
to look, Katarina stepped from the shadows.
"Justin, in order for you to remain as Blue Turbo, you need someone
who will provide the height for the powers. Katarina is skilled in her
fighting style. You and Katarina must split the Blue Powers and morph together."
"What?" came from the group.
Katarina held up her wrist, which held a morpher identical to Justin's.
"We'll each have half of the mechanics and half of the key. By touching
the morphers together when we morph, we'll share the suit and the powers."
"That's sounds awkward," Justin commented, trying to picture
two people in one Ranger suit.
"It sounds confusing, but once we morph, you'll understand,"
Katarina told him.
Justin had to wait a while before he could find out exactly how this
dual morphing worked. There wasn't a battle for three weeks. He supposed
it was good. It gave him time to read over something he had found in the
Power Chamber: Billy Cranston's mechanical notes on the Zeo Zords and other
projects he didn't have time to complete before leaving for Aquitar. There
was one thing in the notes, a holobeam AI projector, that Justin was itching
to get his hands on. "I wish I'd known Billy," he said to himself.
"It would be neat to see these things happen first hand, instead of
just reading about them."
Justin was so absorbed in his reading that he didn't hear the door inch
open. One blue eye peeked into the room. Slowly, Lisa slipped inside.
She knew Justin didn't want her in his room, but it was hard to stay away.
He had such neat things to play with, with pretty lights that blinked.
Plus, he was her "big brother," at least in the small child's
confused mind. She adored him and given the chance, would follow him around
like a little puppy dog, to the older child's frustration.
She saw something shining on the dresser. Carefully, so Justin didn't hear,
she slipped over there. Picking it up, she saw that it was a key to something.
Even though Lisa was only four, she knew what keys were for: to open things
or start things. She also knew that Justin didn't have any locks (though
he might have wished for them on occasion), and didn't have anything that
started with a key. As she did whenever she was confused, she took the
key to Gina.
Justin didn't notice any of this. He was absorbed in the notes, trying
to figure out where in the Power Chamber Billy had stashed the partially
completed AI system. He was pulled out of his notes by his communicator
beeping. "Justin here, what's up?"
"Justin, Divatox has sent another of her monsters to Angel Grove.
Please report to the Power Chamber so that you and Katarina can test the
morphing sequence."
"On my way." Justin reaced over to his dresser to retrieve his
half of the key. It wasn't there. That's when he noticed his door was open.
"Li-sa." he growled.
"Gina, what's this?" the little girl was asking as she held
the key out.
"Looks like a key, hon. Where'd you get it?" Gina asked in her
always-cheerful voice.
"Justin had it," Lisa said as Justin tore into Gina's office.
"All right, Rugrat, what'd you do with my key?" he asked. Lisa's
eyes began to fill with tears.
"Justin, you know how excitable Lisa is. She just wanted to know what
it was. Here." Gina handed the key to Justin. "Lisa, sweetheart,
apologize to Justin for taking his key without asking."
"I'm sorry," she said, hugging Justin's leg. As she snuffled
loudly, she also managed to wipe her nose on Justin's pant leg.
"Gi-na-a!!"
After retrieving his key, Justin transported to the Power Chamber. Katarina
and the others were already there. "Sorry," he apologized. "Lisa
took my key."
"Justin, Katarina, prepare to morph," Zordon instructed.
Carefully, Justin and Katarina faced each other. Placing the morphers against
each other, they inserted the keys. "Mountain Blaster Turbo Power!"
they called out.
A blue light surrounded the pair. As the others watched, Katarina and Justin
fused into one person, the helmet forming over a face that was unfamiliar,
yet familiar. He-she-it-they removed his-her-its-their helmet, and separated
into Justin and Katarina again. Justin's Blue Turbo costume was the same
as it had always been. Katarina's was like Justin's, only with a skirt
like Tanya and Katherine's.
"That was weird," they said simultaneously, then looked at each
other in surprise.
"No time to dwell on it. Divatox's monster is tearing up the city.
Let's shift into Turbo!"
In battle against the Chromatoids, the other Rangers found it weird
that the Blue Ranger would occasionally shift from male to female and back
again in the middle of the battle. Fortunately, the Chromatoids found it
weird, too, and were distracted.
Justin and Katarina found that they worked well together. There were times
that Justin's training couldn't get them out of a situation, but Katarina's
could, and vice-versa. Also, it helped that when Katarina's personality
took over, the body became slimmer and could get out of the grasp of a
Chromatoid easier. The monster was defeated and the Rangers returned to
the Power Chamber.
"That was so awesome!" Justin exclaimed as they demorphed. "And
I don't hurt at all!"
"Justin, Katarina, you are both aware that you need each other to
morph. You can not morph alone," Zordon told them. "Katarina,
I have already informed you of the code of the Power Rangers."
"Only use the Powers for good, never provoke a fight, never escalate
a fight without provocation," she repeated. "I know."
"Good. May the Power protect you all."
The End
Author's Notes: This story came into being as I watched Turbo: A
Power Rangers Adventure. The scene where they morph for the first time
and Justin turns the "wrong" way sparked the dual morphing image.
Also, the morph shot where he "grows" gave me the idea of him
having skeletal trouble due to morphing.
Gina and Lisa came into being because I wanted to have a charecter who
is attached to a Ranger but does not know the identities and is not a "future
Ranger". Also, I felt Justin needed a foil, and what better foil for
a twelve-year-old boy than an adoring four-year-old girl? :)
The holobeam AI projector that I mentioned will not be forgotten. Perhaps
there is another story just in that one lost project of Billy's. :)
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