Project: Power Eagle
by Joe Rovang

	The blue clouds streak by at an unimaginable rate.  I watch the 
puffs of vapor soar past in this endless black void, and I almost feel 
like I'm flying.  But there's no breeze.  Nor is there gravity, which 
is... odd.
	I look down.  In my right hand is a Power Morpher that chooses 
not to respond.  In my left hand is a rubber chicken.  Something is 
definitely amiss.

	"Where did I go wrong, Jack?"  Billy eyed the communicator on the 
table before him with unparalleled intensity.  The white mouse in the 
cage beside him offered no suggestions.
	Billy had to admit, the data disc Alpha had given him was 
incredibly fascinating.  It contained detailed specifications on the 
Command Center computers, the Power Morphers, even Alpha himself.  Yet 
graduate of the Accelerated Baby Genius program or not, he found 
himself completely mindboggled by the physics behind it all.  Something 
involving a neutrino power grid enveloping all of the universe... very 
strange.  But he was learning.
	So far, he had designed a set of communication devices which 
would actually transmit a microwave signal through the grid itself, 
homing in on a receiver and having it "come out the other side" with no 
delay.  Well, that was the intention.  As yet, they remained unable to 
tap a valid sector of the grid for some reason or another.  It was 
extremely perplexing.
	Then, before Billy's eyes, a tiny red indicator light in the 
upper right corner of the communicator blinked on.  It had locked on.  
He quickly turned his head toward the other four communicators lying 
nearby.  They were on as well.  He'd done it!

	Forty minutes later, Billy watched as his four comrades pressed 
their communicator buttons and promptly dissolved into nothingness.  He 
was now alone in the hallway of the Youth Center.  Now you've done it, 
he heard himself think.

	So the communicators hadn't worked as planned.  He'd mixed up 
some data and accidentally tapped a sector in use by the Command 
Center's teleportation systems.  But Alpha had easily fixed the 
problem.  Now they could communicate and teleport freely with the 
devices without having to be morphed.  Teleportation... there was an 
interesting concept.
	Billy considered the possibility of propelling a vehicle using an 
infinite series of infinitely small jumps.  If this were possible, he 
had some nefarious plans for his father's Volkswagen.

	Weeks later, during the time not spent attending school, saving 
the world, and repeatedly explaining to his father that his Beetle was 
indeed driveable despite its unusual customization and the comments it 
enticed from his coworkers at the office, Billy analyzed the second 
most fascinating aspect of the Ranger powers: telepathy.
	A telepathic connection from Ranger to Ranger, and Ranger to 
Zord, allowed for a vicious sense of efficiency.  Without it, Megazord 
combat would have been impossible, and Zordon help the team without 
telepathy left to wonder what a battle cry of, "Let's do it!" referred 
to.  Then, of course, were the simultaneous hand gestures which any 
casual observer would have guessed had taken hours to learn.
	On his quest to unravel the secrets of telepathy, Billy had 
completed a setup which would facilitate direct thought transfer.  No 
small feat, but he had confidence that it would work.  That afternoon, 
when Kimberly came over for tutoring, he brought her into his garage 
laboratory and showed her how it worked.
	Kimberly was a great friend and a trusted close companion, and 
Billy cared very much for her.  Had he been asked why his thought 
transfer invention consisted of two standing areas perfectly shaped for 
his and Kimberly's bodies such that they would have to hold hands 
during the experiment, he would have rigorously denied any hidden 
motives.
	She smiled at him as her fingers wrapped around his.  Billy's 
pulse began to quicken... from the excitement of a new experiment, he 
told himself.  Yes, that must be it.  He flipped the switch.

	"Hello?"
	"Kimberly...?" Billy asked timidly in a voice which was new to 
him.  The phone rested between his ear and his shoulder in an awkward 
manner.  These shoulders were too small.
	"What is it now, Billy?" came the impatient reply.  The odd part 
was that it was his own voice.
	Billy looked down at his new body shamefully.  "I can't get your 
bra on."

	After the infamous "Body-Switching Incident of '93" (which he had 
eventually traced to a simple crossing of wires, much to his own 
embarrassment), Billy had sworn off the wild experiments and had grown 
content with studying the Command Center's systems.  They taught him a 
great deal about the technology which was centuries beyond Earthen 
standards.  Slowly, he learned more and more.
	He learned of a new security system for the Dinozords.  He 
learned of a planned renovation for the Command Center.  He even 
learned the molecular composition of their Ranger suits.  Why, with a 
little experimentation, he could probably--
	Billy blinked and looked up from his monitor toward his empty lab 
table.  "Well," he told himself, "that lasted a week."

	In the months that followed, Billy conducted experiment after 
experiment, convinced he could unlock the secrets of morphing and 
someday simulate the morphing process.  Given enough energy, he was 
sure he could generate a layer of superdense metallic fiber to surround 
a test object.  For the fun of it, he would also simultaneously summon 
an accessory of some sort for the object, just like the Rangers' Blade 
Blasters.
	He just needed a test object with enough flexibility to test the 
compression resistance of the fiber, and enough irregularity in shape 
to present a fair challenge when scanning its surface area.  Billy 
looked around the room.

	As he removed the rubber chicken from the surface mapper, Billy 
heard something pressing against the window behind him.  He turned just 
in time to see a child's blond head duck out of sight.
	Outside, Timothy Winters crouched in the bushes and hoped with 
all his might that the inventor hadn't seen him.  Just then, the window 
above him slid open, and Billy's head leaned out.
	"Timmy," he said with a smile, "do you need help with your 
homework again?"
	Timmy swallowed and frowned guiltily.  "Jeeze, Billy, I'm sorry..."
	Billy extended a hand and helped the boy to his feet.  "You know, 
if you want to watch my experiments," Billy told him, still smiling, 
"you can use the door."
	Timmy chuckled awkwardly and brushed some errant leaves off his 
jeans.
	"What are you doing out there?" asked Billy.
	Timmy looked down, avoiding the teen's gaze.  "Um, I heard at 
school that you were a Power Ranger."
	Billy chuckled.  "Who told you that?"
	"My friend Cameron," replied the boy, glancing up at Billy.  "He 
said his brother heard you talking about morphing... at school with one 
of your friends."
	Billy looked at his young friend for a moment and then spoke, 
"Come in here, Timmy.  I wanna show you something."

	"Wow, are you serious?" Timmy asked, examining the apparatus 
which filled an entire wall of the laboratory.  "You can morph things 
with this?"
	"If all goes well," Billy answered.
	Timmy looked back at Billy in awe.  "But why have you been making 
all these things?  The teleporters, the Morphers..."
	Billy adjusted his glasses and replied, "Well, I can't let the 
Rangers be the only ones with the really cool gadgets."
	The boy smiled and resumed looking at the room-sized 
pseudo-Morpher before him.  "Do you think it'll work?"
	"I'll tell you what," Billy proposed.  "I'm testing the process 
tomorrow after school.  You bring all of your friends here, and we'll 
see together whether it works."
	"Wow, really?"  Timmy laughed, "Oh, this is gonna be so cool."

	"Project: Power Eagle" was, if nothing else, a public relations 
success.  The crowd of middle school children anxiously awaiting the 
grand experiment had since disregarded all rumors concerning Billy 
being a Ranger.  The big news now was that their local super-genius had 
built his very own Morpher.  Billy smiled, rubber chicken in hand, as 
the crowd waited in hushed awe.
	"When I press this button," he announced, passing his hand over 
the control box, "this rubber chicken's gonna morph into a Power 
Eagle."  There were some murmurs in the audience, and Billy noticed 
Timmy just arriving in the back of the room.  He chuckled; Timmy had 
been so devoted to rounding up the entire neighborhood that he'd nearly 
missed the experiment.
	"This is a prototype," he continued, "and it's still in the 
experimental stage.  And remember, don't touch anything."
	That said, Billy reached to the controls and pressed the button.  
At that moment, he vanished from existence.  The rubber chicken was 
gone as well.

	Timmy looked at the equipment beside him in panic.  What did I 
do?  What did I do?! he shouted in his head.  I just bumped it a little!
	A girl beside Timmy turned to him - she was obviously concerned.  
"Timmy, was this supposed to happen?"  Timmy looked at her and grimaced.
	Suddenly, there was a whoosh of air as the Pink Ranger 
materialized from a column of energy in the corner of the room.  The 
kids looked at Timmy, wondering whether any of this was planned.
	"Wow, the Pink Ranger!" he heard Cameron exclaim.
	Kimberly studied the apparatus.  "As soon as I find the right 
wires," she told the children, recalling Alpha's description of the 
broken circuit, "we'll get Billy back."
	This relieved the kids.  It did nothing, however, for her, as she 
had no idea where the problem could be.  Why couldn't Alpha have called 
someone like Trini?
	And then it hit her.  Billy had learned from his past experiences 
with crossed wires.  Staring her right in the face was a bright green 
cable plugged into a red port.

	Billy winked back into existence, rubber chicken and all, to find 
the Pink Ranger having fixed his invention.  He couldn't help but smile 
as he asked, "Hey, what happened?"
	Kimberly explained, "I guess these wires got crossed somehow."
	Timmy swallowed hard and stepped forward.  "I want you to know... 
I'm the one who crossed the wires."  Oh, for a hole to crawl into.  
"I'm really sorry."
	"Hey," Billy told the boy comfortingly, "we all make mistakes.  
It takes real courage to be honest.  I really admire your strength, 
Timmy."  He extended his hand, and Timmy blew out a breath of relief as 
he returned the handshake.  "Of course you know," Billy continued, "I'm 
going to have to kill you now."
	The boy froze.
	"That's a joke, Timmy."
	Pink Ranger giggled.  "You guys be careful now," she instructed, 
and then touched her hands to her belt and vanished.
	"Shall we try again?" Billy asked, regaining his position beside 
the control box.  The kids enthusiastically agreed.
	He took a step back.  "Timmy, would you like to do the honors?"
	Timmy smiled proudly and accepted.  As the boy stood ready, Billy 
thought for a moment and then set the rubber chicken on the lab table.  
He nodded at his assistant.  "Power it up."
	Timmy pressed the button.  The children looked around as a 
growing electric hum began to fill the room.  The lights dimmed for 
what reporters would call the mysterious citywide brown-out.
	A small pinpoint of green light drew all eyes to the object on 
the table.  The point grew into a glowing line which bisected the 
object.  More lines then spread out from the rubber chicken's beak like 
a star, then ran down the sides of the object.  Another set of 
perpendicular lines criss-crossed around its circumference, forming a 
grid which covered the object's surface.
	"Loading the template," Billy explained, watching carefully.
	There was a flash of light, and the rubber chicken on the table 
was suddenly replaced by... a rubber chicken wearing a layer of green 
spandex.  And strapped to the rubber ch-- "Power Eagle" was a miniature 
gray jetpack with silver wings folded down behind it.
	The crowd was stunned.  But Billy wasn't finished.  He picked up 
a remote control from the setup nearby and flipped it on.  The Power 
Eagle stirred and began to hover inches off the table.
	Billy grinned and pressed the automatic door opener on the garage 
wall.  "If you'd all proceed outside..."

	The headline of the next day's Angel Grove Gazette read: 
"Rocket-propelled flying chicken mystifies local residents."  Reading 
it, Billy smiled; he'd broken the secret of the morphing powers.

***

	1997.
	Tommy slammed against the ground with a lingering groan.  
"Tommy!" shouted Kat.
	Adam stood in front of his downed comrade in a karate stance as 
Tommy rose to his feet.  Lumbering toward him was a large armored 
monster wielding a massive sledgehammer.  Adam glanced back at his 
teammates.  "This guy's too strong!"
	"You're right, Adam," replied Tommy, eyeing the approaching 
monster.  "Let's do it, guys!  Shift into Turbo!"  As he flexed his 
left arm in front of him, Tommy quickly twisted his wrist.  Delicate 
motion sensors in his communicator triggered a Class 2 equipment 
summoning, and a silver morphing device shimmered into existence in 
place of the communicator with a flare of red light.
	At the same time, a silver key forged from the metals of an 
ancient alien artifact materialized in his right hand with a Class 3 
summoning.  With a blur of arm gestures, Tommy inserted the key into 
the wrist device and turned, activating its primary morphing systems.
	A dual-phased secondary morph generator formed around Tommy's 
waist and ran its preprogrammed suit generation algorithm.  Energy 
drawn through the Turbo Key coalesced into matter, weaving a complex 
metallic fiber around every inch of Tommy's body on the molecular level.
	Finally, composite sections of helmet, each containing powerful 
microcomputers, interlocked and formed a seamless whole around Tommy's 
head, becoming his new eyes and ears.  By any standard, it was a far 
more advanced design than had been used by any previous Earth Rangers.

	The Turbo Megazord raced toward the giant armored monster with 
the Turbo Megazord Saber in hand.  At first impression, the situation 
would have looked hopeless.  The monsters used by Divatox were of a 
much stronger breed than monsters of the past.  Few Megazords, short of 
the Super Zeo Megazord, which had been rendered useless by the Machine 
Empire, would have had the raw power to finish off such behemoths.  
Certainly, the relatively puny Turbo Megazord Saber couldn't hope to 
put a ding in this monster's thick armor.
	Suddenly, however, the Turbo Megazord began to spin rapidly.  As 
it glided past the monster, the Megazord delivered a meager three 
hundred twenty-six slashes to its foe's midsection.  The armor was 
gashed open after eighty-seven.

	Billy grinned as he watched the explosion on his palm viewer.  He 
was especially proud of that maneuver.  A tap to the viewer made it 
vanish, and he stepped into his personal quarters.  Their personal 
quarters.
	"Hi, honey, I'm home," he called out as he peeled the biotech 
braincap from his head.
	Standing at his new display case in the wall by their main 
underwater observatory window, Cestria turned and smiled sweetly.  
"That was a quick conference."  She wrapped her arms around him, 
something in hand.
	"Billy," she said after kissing him softly on the lips, "I'm 
afraid my knowledge of your culture is still lacking."
	"Oh?"
	She presented him with a rubber chicken.  "I have no idea what 
this is."
	He smirked.  "That, my dear, is a Power Eagle."