The Beginning (Part 3)

Michael held the spear out to the side and let go of it. In a flash, it blinked out of existence. He turned towards Cassidy, Jack, and Susana. "Are you three ok?" They all nodded. Michael put his right hand on his left wrist. "Power down." His suit dissolved, retreating back into his golden box-shaped Morpher. Jack was slightly startled. "You're… older than I thought you were." Michael looked a little offended. "Old? I'm only 20." Cassidy pointed at Michael's chest. "Are you ok?" Michael nodded. "I'll be fine. The suit normally protects me from most of the damage, but strong enough attacks can still get through." Michael looked back at the crater in the ground left by the exploding Nighlok. "Sorry about the mess, Officer." Jack shook his head. "Don't worry about it, man. I'll radio this in to my boss and we'll clean up." Michael nodded and began walking away.

"Hey, wait!" Michael stopped and turned to Susana. "Yes?" "Where was the rest of your team? I thought Power Rangers worked together?" "Oh, I don't have a team. Even if I did, they wouldn't have come to help me." Jack looked concerned. "Why not?" Michael just shook his head. "Don't worry, I have everything covered." Susana looked back at the crater where Bogomo had been destroyed before looking back at Michael. "Yea, it certainly looked like you had everything under control." Michael looked directly at her. "Maybe things would've been more in my favor if I didn't have random civilians interrupting my fight and letting my opponents power up, hm?" Susana looked away, ashamed. Michael took a deep breath. "...sorry, I didn't mean-" "No, I'm sorry. You're right. If I hadn't gotten in your way, you would've beaten him without needing our help." Michael looked at her for a minute before speaking. "You did what you thought was right. That's nothing to be sorry about." Susana looked back up at him.

Cassidy cleared her throat. "So, when you say you don't have a team, does that mean you work alone?" "Yes." "So does that mean you're taking in new recruits?" Michael shook his head. "You don't know what you're asking. Being a Power Ranger is a very stressful job even in the best circumstances. Beyond that, being an Atlantis Ranger…" Michael held up his left wrist to better show off the silver trident on the top of his gold Morpher. "...is the most difficult of all, as you have to be ready at all times, and have to be better than everyone else. It's the hardest job in the world."

The trio was silent. Jack spoke first. "When I joined the Angel Grove Police Department, I took an oath to protect and serve. I love my job, but if there are monsters like the one we fought today running around, I can't just sit here and do nothing." Cassidy nodded. "I can't sit by and do nothing either. I don't want to watch anyone else get hurt because of these things." Susana stared at the ground. "I've done a lot of things that I'm not proud of. Whenever I try to stay on the straight and narrow, I end up right back where I started. I want to try and do better. I want to be better. I think helping people is a great place to start." Michael stared at the trio for a little bit. Then he slowly nodded. "Follow me."

The Power Ranger led the trio to the beach and spoke into his Morpher. "Red Megalodon, surface and beach." After only a few seconds, a massive red metallic object rose from the ocean. Jack, Cassidy, and Susana looked on in awe. Just as Michael was the first Power Ranger they had ever seen up close, this was the first time any of them had seen a Zord up close. Michael waited as the giant Zord slowly squirmed its way onto shore. Jack ran a hand through his hair. "...wow… this is… this thing's big…" Cassidy looked over at Michael. "Wait, I thought these things were supposed to be smaller?" Susana gave Cassidy a weird look. "Zords are huge." "Yea, I know that, but Zords normally combine together and form a skyscraper sized robot. This robot shark is just as big as those things." Michael nodded. "You're right. I'll explain more when we get to base." Once Red Meg was close enough, a small hatch on the side of the head opened up and extended a long but steep staircase that reached out and onto the beach. Michael started climbing the stairs with the others close behind him.

Once inside the Zord, Red Meg pushed itself off of the beach and sank back into the deep water. Red Meg, led by its built-in autopilot, began to swim at speeds far faster than any submarine. Michael sat in the pilot's seat, but didn't bother grabbing the controls. He just watched the empty ocean through the front monitor. Cassidy stood right behind him. "Where are we going?" "Atlantis." Jack looked at Michael with a raised eyebrow. "Atlantis? As in, the Lost City of Atlantis?" "Not quite. It's just the codename for the base. Speaking of which, we're here." The three newcomers look forward and see the massive Command Center, built on the seafloor. Any deeper and the sunlight wouldn't be able to illuminate it. It appeared to be built on top of six massive artificial caverns, each one big enough to hold Red Megalodon. The greatest feature, however, was the facility built on top of those six caverns, which appeared to be a giant dome-like structure. One of the facility doors opened, flashing bright lights to help guide the Zord into the cavern, which was clearly a hangar. Michael still didn't touch the controls, but the steering wheel turned on its own, completely under the control of the autopilot. Susana crossed her arms. "You have to do this every time you go fight monsters?" "No. The Morphers have built in teleporters that let us instantly travel anywhere in the world to include Atlantis. It only works for the wearer, so in order to bring you guys here, we have to take Red Meg." Jack slowly nodded. "So you teleported to the battle, and the Zord traveled to Angel Grove by itself?" "Exactly." The Zord finished docking with the base. Once the hangar door closed, the water began to pump out. Before the process was even halfway done, Michael stood up. "We don't need to wait for the water to finish draining. The door will open for us."

Michael led the group through the base and straight into the command center. Susana immediately looked to the left and smiled. "...wow…" The others looked over and saw the six colored tubes lining the wall: Red, Blue, Green, Pink, Yellow, and Silver. With the exception of the Silver, all of the tubes had the Ranger outfits on display with the Morphers on the wrists. Michael stood in the middle of the command center and turned to the group. "Alright, listen up."

"Being an Atlantis Ranger isn't easy. The other Power Ranger teams all work together to defeat their enemies. We can't do that. It's our job to protect the Earth as a whole. That means when a monster shows up, only one of us goes. The reason for that is because another monster can pop up at literally any moment, and the rest of us need to be ready to respond." Michael looked directly at Cassidy. "That's why our Zords are much larger than the others: each Zord turns into a full sized Megazord all by themselves." Cassidy silently mouthed the word 'wow' as Michael continued. "Nobody can force this responsibility onto you. If you want to leave now, nobody will hold it against you." Jack didn't even blink. Cassidy smiled and nodded. Susana took a deep breath before nodding. Michael smiled. "Alright then." He then pointed over to the wall with the Ranger outfits. "Pick any color except red. Your training starts today."