The plan to eradicate Xmas

Ninjor

Desert of Despair

With high rock formations surrounding the rangers and extremely high temperatures, the Desert of Despair certainly lived up to its name. Behind them the rangers could see nothing but sand, which was being swirled around by gusty winds. They could see the hill that the map had mentioned in the distance but there was no telling how long it would take them to reach it with the current conditions.

After 25 minutes of walking, the rangers were hot and exhausted and they didn't appear to be any closer to the temple. Worse of all they had lost contact with the North Pole.

"I'm still not getting a response", Scott announced and pointed at their objective, "but I think we're getting closer".

"It's hard to tell", Mick said, "these rocks all look the same".

"Well I sure could do with a break, we can still be committed and take a five minute break", Nadira said as she took a seat on a large rock that was sticking out of desert floor. After a few seconds, Nadira shot up off the rock grabbing her legs and backside.

Scott rushed over to see if she was ok, "Nadira what happened?"

"That rock burnt me", she replied. The rangers noticed that the rock had started glowing red and was pulsating with light and radiating heat.

"Everyone get down", Cyra cried out as she sensed impending danger. The rangers threw themselves to the ground just as the rock exploded, sending debris flying across the desert.

The rangers slowly got to their feet and checked themselves over for any damage. Mick and Scott had a few small cuts to their forearms but nothing too serious, the others appeared to be fine.

"That was a close one", Alex commented, "looks like this desert is booby trapped".

"Agreed", Mick replied as he wiped some blood off his arm, "I suggest we keep going and watch our where we walk".

The others all agreed and carried on walking towards the hill. The rest of the journey was largely uneventful apart from a moment where they had to rescue Cyra from quicksand. When they reached the hill, the wind had dropped significantly and they were able to get a good look at the map. Based on the journey they had taken this was the correct place, however, there wasn't an obvious entrance to the temple.

"Did you find an opening?" Scott asked Mick and Cyra who were returning from further up the cliff face.

"Nothing, no gaps or secret buttons", Cyra replied, "maybe this is the wrong place".

"The rock formation matches the map Udonna gave us though", Mick added.

"Try Bernard", Nadira suggested, "maybe they can see something we can't"

Scott nodded and activated his communicator, "Bernard, Curtis do you guys read me?"

After a few moments Bernard's voice responded through the device, "Santa? Man it's good to hear your voice. We've been trying to reach you for nearly an hour".

"Long story Bernard", Scott replied, "we're at the hill mentioned but we can't find a way in. Can you see from there if there's a way in?"

There was silence for a couple of minutes as Bernard and Curtis checked the images. Eventually Curtis replied, "We've checked all angles and we can't find a way in either but I'm positive you're in the right place. The power readings from your location are off the scale".

Their conversation was cut off by the arrival of Inkworth and his squadron of zentinels. "So nice of you rangers to lead me to the temple, now prepare to meet your doom".

"We won't let you harm Ninjor Inkworth", Scott responded defiantly before bringing his communicator back to his mouth, "sorry guys gotta go, Inkworth and Zentinels have turned up".

Scott turned off his communicator and joined his team mates in battle. He swiftly disposed of two Zentinels immediately in front of him with a couple of well placed kicks. Mick and Alex had teamed up and were using the gymnastics skills on a group of five Zentinels. Alex flipped over two of them and took down the one behind them with a punch. She continued her run in the opposite direction from the two Zentinels and used the cliff face to spring board off and into a backflip. She connected with both of the Zentinels in mid air and they fell to pieces.

Mick meanwhile and taken one out at the start of a backflip and then the second one was eliminated on his way back down from a second flip. The rangers looked at their handiwork and high fived each other.

Cyra and Nadira were working together like a well oiled unit. The two girls took out their Zentinels with synchronised roundhouse kicked. Nadira then knelt down to create a launchpad for Cyra. The former ranger jumped her team mate's arms and took out two more Zentinels with a split leg kick.

Scott was facing off against Inkworth but without a weapon of his own, he was being extremely cautious. He quickly ducked a swing from Inkworth's staff and punched the warrior twice in the stomach. As he stumbled away, Scott following this up with a spin kick to Inkworth's head, knocking the armoured villain to the ground.

"Lucky shot", Inkworth growled and aimed an energy blast from his staff as Scott. He jumped out the way but this was enough of a distraction for Inkworth to take another swing. The staff left a huge cut in his red vest but fortunately it had missed his torso.

Inkworth took another swing at Santa but found that his staff was blocked by a sword. He looked at his attacker who was a bulbous blue figure with a golden "N" on his chest.

"Who do you think you are?" Inkworth shouted, "don't you know who I am".

"You should be asking who I am, for I am Ninjor", the legendary warrior replied with an excitable voice, "and I see you haven't changed in the last few years Inkworth"

Ninjor when on the offensive against Inkworth with lightning fast attacks from his sword. Inkworth was barely able to block Ninjor's sword and soon found himself backed against a cliff face. Deciding to live to fight another day, Inkworth teleported away in a flash of light.

Ninjor slowly placed his sword back in its sheath on his back and walked back towards the temple entrance which had suddenly appeared in the cliff face.

"You children should not have come to this place", he commented as he walked past the rangers.

"Ninjor wait", Scott exclaimed, "we are, or were the Power Rangers. Udonna sent us in the hope you could replace our lost powers".

"Well Udonna can do her own work, I was enjoying a peaceful slumber until you lot showed up", Ninjor grumbled.

"We don't have time to wait", Mick replied. Ninjor stopped walking but didn't turn around, Mick decided to continue, "please help us Ninjor, you're our only hope".

Ninjor didn't say anything and carried on walking toward the temple. The rangers couldn't believe that he was refusing to help them, "Come on guys", Cyra said to the group, "let's go, he doesn't want to help".

The rangers turned around and started to walk back into the desert. They were stopped by a call from Ninjor, "Wait", he called out to them, "I suppose you proved your worthiness by crossing the desert. Come into the temple and I'll see what I can do".

The rangers were overjoyed by this news and followed Ninjor inside the temple.