Rangers in Black

Synopsis: A snow globe is stolen from the Angel Grove with a whole universe of royalty encapsulated inside. The culprits that walk out with it are being traced by J and K from the MIB trail the thieves in knowing this royal family upholds the very fabric of reality. If they are lost, everything will fall into the realms of entropy and chaos…

‘Worlds within worlds within worlds...’--Anonymous

‘It looked like they were wheels within wheels, like a gyroscope.’--Ezekiel 1:16

Chapter 1—What Could Be So Important About a Snow-globe ?

It was supposed to be a normal, charitable art exhibit event where local creative minds brainstormed on beautification projects, recycling, renewable energy, bettering the community and selling old art for a magnificent cause. In the midst of all the pieces being exhibited, there was a very meticulously crafted snow globe. It had an opulent opalescent castle with needlepoint spires, glinting in the light. It was surrounded by novae and stars being born. Planets passed by in the kaleidoscopic sky in the background. The castle was more of a resort, leading to smaller buildings below it. There didn’t seem to be a divide of class but the scenery seemed astronomical. It was known as Astronamox. A world that was governed by some of the eldest beings birthed out of God’s direct words of creation.

Astronamox hadn’t always been imprisoned this way. A jealous kingdom known as the Berylites had unsurpassed magical ability and saw the Astronamox as a threat to their rightful place in the galaxy. Not nearly so large a system as Reingold 4, where Astronamox resided, their ruler, Mourgoul, used his technology to shrink Astronamox into a more portable format; the snow globe.

Through a very convoluted sequence of events, Morgoul had lost Astronamox to other jockeying powers that be in the Universe. Eventually it landed in the hands of a kindly Pledian masquerading on earth as a human. He, a Lyrian, a Sirian and Orion had banded together to keep the Astronamox natives safe from harm and knew they could count on the Men in Black to keep their secret safe. Word slipped out among the black market when a mole known only by the mysterious initial I saw the snow globe being passed from antique market to flea market to pawn shop and finally to the art auction as a piece to be showcased. This is why J and K had been called to duty. They had followed all the initial clues and cues to this spot in Angel Grove. They also knew that the Rangers were nearby, somewhere. They simply just had to find them. Oddly enough, they just so happened to be at the same auction.

It was a whirlwind of events that lead to J and K making brief introductions and explaining why this unusual ‘artifact’ or ‘priceless item’ had been floating around the known galaxy and ended up in the Milky Way on Earth. They didn’t have time for the long version, so they just stuck with the Reader’s Digest tale.

‘Seriously though ! What’s so important about a snow globe ?!’, Adam asked, still frustrated. Zach shook his head and showed him what K had recently retrieved from an alien incognito that he had used his flasher on and had been fed a trope of white lies to. The sooner that incognito alien woke up, the sooner s/he would believe that s/he was actually working sanitation in the exhibition hall they had literally bumped into each other in.

‘Ok, I’ll believe that what I’m seeing now is entirely true.’, Adam finally caved. Synde had seen things like this before and read stories but meeting the actual Men in Black was a boyhood dream come true. He and his wife were so happy they could introduce their children to them. What would make this red letter day even better is if they got to be recruited. Little did they know, the Rangers, the bots and a few other unlikely friends were about to make this dream a reality.

Chapter 2—A Few Intergalactic Friends

Jupiter Jones, Cain, Valerian and Laureline as well as new, fresh faces from the realm of Star Trek appeared through a tesseract. Ms. Witch, Ms. Who and Ms. Whats-It had little time to explain why they had caused this rip to even exist but the 3 higher beings were aware that there had been a shift in power when Automanox had been purloined by Morgoul’s goons.

‘If it puts our entire galaxy in peril, which includes my Highness, Jupiter, I will put my life on the line to save it and try to right the wrongs done to these poor people.’, Cain said, dutifully. It was obvious his loyal lupine side was showing at this point. He was a true blue friend and protector. Since his love lived on Earth and was the ruler of many planets, he knew saving her would ultimately save trillions of other Earthlings.

Q looked rather bemused to be included with these other beings, clearly outmatching them.

‘Come now, this is childs play...I could be back in the Continuum...’, he began, as if he were whining.

‘I summoned everyone I knew who would be beneficial to the Astronamoxans’ situation. You of all beings should understand how powerful they are.’, Ms. Who explained. Q knew she was right. It wasn’t as if he was a bad godlike being, simply a mercurial one. With the impetus of their status hanging over him much worse than a proverbial sword of Damoclese, he felt as if he had been conned. He couldn’t say ‘no’ even if he liked. At least there were humans he could relate to. His old pal Picard had been sucked into the adventure but his best friend Amanda had come along. Seeing her again nearly made him break into tears. This was his chance to make her see just how benevolent he could be if he just tried hard enough. Yes, even some being as psychotic as himself could be redeemed. All it took was a hand offered in peace, love and friendship. Her’s was unconditional. She had always loved him and even though she was mortal and her life was nothing more than a vapor, she would always adore him and be his equal in her so called ‘lower functioning vibrational form’.

Chapter 3—Out and Out Fist Fight, A Flight into Space

Mourgoul’s minions initially stole the snow globe back, having knocked out J and K. The Rangers were trying to keep up with them, but they could teleport in and out of existence. They understood the finer points of quantum mechanics and knew everything was vibrational. Humans and bots on the other hand, were mere 2 dimensional characters existing in a 3 dimensional plane. The minions were far far more advanced and even their promotions of future actions were intricately accurate. The snow globe was theirs, and they had already begun plotting to party as soon as they delivered it back into their Master’s briny pincers.

‘Unless you want to face my fury, I would put that snow globe down. Slowly. No funny business.’, Q began, looking extremely intimidating. Kirk had only seen that kind of fury in IQ's predecessor Trelane. He knew that look intimately well and found himself shaken, although he didn’t show it outwardly. His friend and fellow commanding officer, Ambassador Spock, calmly placed his hand upon his shoulder.

‘There’s nothing to fear. This Q wishes to assist. How illogical. I wonder whatever for.’, Spock stated, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

‘I don’t know, Spock, but he is awfully alike to Trelane.’, Kirk said, feeling a bit uneasy.

‘He’s on our side, Kirk. Just trust him.’, Picard stated wisely.

The aliens looked at each other with doubt and nearly laughed. What ensued was the most surreal game of keep away played by entities that really knew better not to jostle around galaxies in the balance. Q was exceptionally gentle with the Astronamox galaxy and finally retrieved it. With the assistance of his friends, the aliens were knocked completely out.

‘How long are they going to be down ?’, Pee Wee questioned.

‘I gave ‘em a couple nasty haymakers. If we’re lucky, centuries.’, Q laughed.

Unfortunately, the aliens were much stronger than a fortunately placed knockout punch.

‘We didn’t want to get violent but you left us no choice. Morgoul doesn’t accept defeat so easily. ‘, one of the bulbous eyed aliens said, shedding his disguise. He was a disgusting, exaggerated millipede, pincers on its multiple arms. It was an eldritch horror, just as gut-wrenchingly ugly as his partner was, who had the form of gelatinous acid. If he touched anyone, he could severely burn them and sear through objects easily, so he had to control his viscosity precisely.

One by one, lasers were shot, punches were thrown. Q finally stopped everything with a single snap.

‘If Thanos can destroy, I can pause destruction. He is death. I am death, life and everything in between.’, Q said as he formed an indestructible prism around the globe. Amanda hovered close to him.

‘Did we really have to go to these measures, Q ?’, Amanda began, knowing she was wholeheartedly participating and facilitating the means for safe transport of the Astronamox royalty.

‘I can restore them to their former glory. Actually we will...’, he said. He went into a trance, immediately locking Amanda into his unbelievable alchemic talents. The two of them began to harmonize and synchronize at a frequency nothing else could cancel. In a blink, Astronamox was in its rightful place and it was as if nothing had occurred. The only players in the game were Q, Amanda, the Rangers, their friends and a very agitated J and K.

Chapter 4—What Just Happened ?

The Rangers were rightly confused and addled by everything that had happened in mere picoseconds. It was much faster than the had anticipated. All of them had geared up for a fight and they were all a little sore. They knew they had been fighting intergalactic menaces, but they were completely gone.

‘Morgoul is nothing more but a memory. Forces that malevolent need to be taught lessons.’, Q began.

‘What did you DO ? What is going on ?!’, many of the Rangers and their friends questioned. Even their newly made friends of Starfleet had already been transported into their own timelines, their own universes and had been set on entirely different paths. Their purposes had been met out and they had done their duty of keeping Morgoul and his lackeys distracted while the master Puppeteer ‘fixed’ everything.

‘That’s simple. He and his many goons are doing community service on Gergax 9. It’s a sanitation planet. Really nasty piece of work, too. Anyone that goes there spends an eternity cleaning up others messes.’, Q said. It was a fitting punishment for his many crimes.

‘Remind me never to get on your bad side...’, Amanda laughed. Her talents were just as vast as his but Q held all of the cards and knew how the game would end ultimately. His redemption had been finalized and he was an ultimate benevolence even though he was perfectly demented and chaotic.

‘I’d love to explain everything but Amanda and I have to return to the Continuum. The less you know about the future, the better.’, he began, with sympathy in his tone. One of the bots nearly stopped them both before they vanished, but thought better of it, knowing they would have to return to their cosmic posts, upholding all that is in balance.

Chapter 5—None of Y’All Are Gonna Remember This

J and K knew what to do at the end of a rather rough and ungrateful day. It wasn’t one of their better missions but nonetheless, it had been successful. Just as quickly as they had entered and facilitated the rescue of Astronamox, they had flashed everyone’s memory clean. The event had never occurred to them. They were simply at another art exhibition, helping charity.

‘I can’t explain why but my arm is really super sore.’, Tommy said, rolling his rotator a bit. Kimberly massaged it.

‘Yeah, my neck has got a krick in it and I can’t really figure why.’, she chimed in. Other Rangers expressed similar ailments but couldn’t understand why they had them. Somni gave an explanation.

‘Maybe you all slept funny last night !’, she chortled. Her husband and family laughed. It was the most likely and most logical of explanations. They would never know the events they had set in motion, but they went about their philanthropic duties for the day as was usual.

Epilogue

The day ended as it had began but everyone felt that they had earned a much needed rest. They were all a bit more tired then they had anticipated. Somnibot didn’t even have to lull them to dreamland this relaxing evening. None of them knew what was to come but they did realize that the holidays were fast approaching and it would soon be time to begin lighting the palm trees in California. A huge celebration would be underway and the most wonderful time of the year could finally begin.

To be continued…