Twisted Circus Carnival

Synopsis: Herman Norman Reubens, also known as Pee-Wee Herman in his former years as a children's entertainer, takes the Power Rangers and all their friends for a fun-filled day at the carnival. But the fun and frolic soon turns to chaos when it is discovered that the carnival is a trap set up by Mal Ann Cholic, a happiness-loathing villainess who feeds on emotions to survive. She captures Pepper due to the fact that she is an emotion-sentient female robot. It's the Power Rangers to the rescue!

“Daisy was a good friend and good friends are hard to find.”--Auggie, Wonder

Chapter 1--It’s Finally Summer !  

Memorial Day had saluted the beginning of summer and a carnival had rolled into town.   Herman could remember the time he had gone to a circus. It brought back so many fantastic memories that they flooded him instantaneously.  Feeling giddy, he wanted to experience this nostalgia again.

‘Guys  ! GUYS !’, Herman said in his typical keet manner.  

‘What is it, Herman ?’, Kim asked.

‘Yeah, what’s up ?   You seem really psyched about something.’, Zach added.  

‘The circus is in town.    Want to go ? Conky gave me some fun money and I’m just itching to go !’, he said.

‘I haven’t been to a circus since I was a kid !’, Bulk chimed in.

‘Yeah, sounds like a fabulous idea !’, Kat added.   Since the vote to go was unanimous, Herman purchased tickets for all of them to attend, knowing it would be the most memorable evening they had experienced in a good long while.   

Chapter 2--Mel Ann Cholic, Queen of Dirge

Melissa Ann Cholic absolutely loathe happiness.   Where she hailed from, Planet Dirge (as one might’ve surmised by the name) no one was happy and everyone was miserable.  It rained all the time and there was a monochromatic tone to everything in life. Having tried an experiment one day to jump from planet to planet, she quantum jumped accidentally to earth with no real way to return, which didn’t help her already sour attitude.  

‘Maybe I can make the most of this.   That ringmaster, I can take his place ! I can sense there will be a window of opportunity opened to me.  I need to seize the opportunity before it passes me by.’, she mused as she used her dark magic to bind the ring master and put the entire circus under her hypnosis.   It was so easy to trick humans, she thought. So gullible. So easily misled.

Using her vest reserves of Dark Power, she transformed the circus into an evil carnival of doom, with dark colors and metal spikes everywhere. She then created an evil tilt-a-whirl and Ferris wheel.  All the Midway rides were terribly dangerous, bolts and screws missing and lackadaisical carnies running them.

‘Instead of a field of dreams, this will be a field of screams.’, she thought with a crooked smirk so devilish it came straight out of inferno itself.   Bursts of flame shot up behind her but backed down. Fear would set her true power to light. She simply needed time to activate it fully.

Chapter 3--None the Wiser

With small parlor tricks, Mel plastered flyers of the ‘Misfits Ball’ all over town and wherever she could.    Before she knew it, a crowd had gathered. She then saw Pepper, an emotionally sentient robot. It made her want to hurl.   

‘Something tells me if I take this robot for myself back to Dirge, I can use her to rob all her friends of their happiness.   I can easily change love into hate.  It’s such a simple operation. All I have to do is distract her...that will be no easy task.’, Mel thought to herself.    She prepared behind the scenes for her biggest, most nefarious evil scheme ever concocted. All the while the Rangers and their friends were being fully entertained.    Pepper, too, had been mesmerised by the magician. She couldn’t keep her eyes off him. Before she knew it, she had been bound and turned off but not before she could get a distress signal out.   It was so fast that the entertainment left no sooner as it had arrived.

‘Has anyone seen Pepper ?’, her husband asked in a somewhat depressed tone.   

‘I just got a distress signal from her.  She’s on a planet called Dirge.’, Starry Sky relayed.    No one was panicking about this but rather went into warrior mode immediately.    They didn’t know what kind of foe they would be facing but they realized that counterattacking in unison would be easier than charging in foolishly and impulsively.   They would help Pepper, no matter the cost.

Chapter 4--Coming In Blind

Using communiques with Zordon, the Rangers were able to pinpoint their destination to Dirge.   The planet was by far one of the most depressing place they had ever been. The weight of the sadness was really starting to affect them.

‘Don’t let the energy influence you.   Even though this place has zero redeeming qualities, keep going forward.  We’re here for Pepper, after all !’, Aisha said.

‘Less talk, more rock !’,  Zach huffed, becoming impatient.

‘In due time.   It seems Pepper’s captor has the proverbial castle in the mountains.   Let’s keep moving.’, Rocky said, obviously.

‘Just like Dracula !’, Skull observed, laughing a little.   It was fine until he had mentioned the infamous Impaler. The cumulonimbus clouds rolled in, bringing with them powerful thunder and lightning.   Luckily they were close to the castle before the downpour began. Even the rain seemed to cry in utter sadness but the suggestion of depression never even entered our hero’s minds.   

'Let's get inside. Maybe Pepper's in there.', Kimberly observed.

'Maybe, Kimberly. She could be anywhere.', Trini replied.  Pepper’s husband, ASIMO had linked to her frequency and nodded.

‘She’s most definitely inside the spooky castle.’, he said, matter-of-factly.

‘Why is it always the spooky castle ?!’, Bulk whined.   Spike, who had come along for the ride just for the carnival rides and fair treats was even more scared than his own uncle !  

Chapter 5--Why Are You Immune ?  

Mel had not anticipated the easy entry the Rangers and friends had made into her stronghold.   Usually her guards would be the ones protecting the treasury and the throne room but they were off in the gardens goofing around playing chess and hangman.    

‘Ugh, those imbeciles.  They couldn’t guard a drowning flea escaping from an inundated dog’s back !”, she griped.    

‘I knew you’d come !”, Pepper brightened.   Her momentary fear had given Mel a bit of a power boost earlier but all the fright she had collected from the Misfits Ball had been enough to make her formidable.   

Without saying a word, Mel unleashed a massive magic assault.   The Rangers and bots were moved back quite a distance but not knocked over.  The gust was supposed to give them a sense of hopelessness but all it did was fortify their resolve.

‘Why are you immune ?”, she barked, trying another attack.   The Rangers and Bots faced their worst fears head to head and not one of them cracked under pressure.

‘That’s old hat !”, Tega laughed, completely unafraid.    Mel began to disform and become hideous. She was an amoeba overtaking anything it came across.   

‘Man, this is something straight out of Akira.’, Zach quipped.

‘How do we combat something so gelatinous ?  Where’s its weakness ?”, Trini questioned. Billy looked through his specs.  

‘Right THERE !’, he pointed toward the demonic creature’s midsection.   All of them unleashed their power. Unfortunately, Mel had used all her ability to transform into an amoeba and she was quickly vaporized.    Dirge began to change once she had vanished. What was once a monochromatic planet transformed into a kaleidoscopic one. Another Princess, Allegra, approached them, her shackles having vanished and walking out of a double barred prison that disappeared.  

‘Thank you, Rangers.  I had been cooped up in that prison for millenia.  Mel was my evil sister. She had always been jealous of my favor.  She turned our planet Elatia unto Dirge. It wasn’t always like this but now, it is renewed.  I can’t thank you enough !’, Allegra said, with joyous tears in her beautiful multicolored eyes.    

Chapter 6--A Royal Celebration, Elatia Style

The spell over the traveling carnival was broken. The Rangers untied the ringmaster, who was actually the carnival's owner. He had disguised some parts of the carnival as a circus to draw in more customers.

'Thank goodness that's over with. Man, I got one splitting headache from this.', he bemoaned.   Allegra had come with them, disguised as a human and none were the wiser. She had always wanted to take part in the festivities of a carnival.  

‘At last we can actually enjoy the circus without having to worry.’, Tommy said without giving too much away to the ringmaster.   If he heard their tale, he’d think they were all nuttier than fruitcake or an Almond Joy.

Everyone thrilled at the trapeze artist and the tightrope walker.   There were daredevils and three rings of activities going on all at once.   Conky was munching on popcorn while Pepper was savoring some cotton candy.

‘Here !  Do you want some ?  It’s really airy and sweet !  Sort of like eating clouds !’, Pepper said to ASIMO.  Ever eager, the robot tried the confection and instantly fell in love, even if it did die his tongue blue.    

Afterward, the group relished riding on safe amusement rides and winning stuffed animals from the booths.    Pepper even scored herself a goldfish.

‘I want to name her Goldie.’,  she said, victoriously.

‘Aww, it suits her !’, Isaac commented.   Paprika squealed happily. She had wanted a pet for a while and she and her siblings were tickled the girliest shade of shrimp in existence.     

After the diversions of the evening, Allegra said her farewells and granted her friends a crystalline rose.

‘Should I need you again, this crystal rose will allow connectivity between us.  The vibrations should be translated to your ears miraculously. It’s beyond your telephones and cell phones.’, she boasted slightly.    They thanked her for the rose and watched her nod her head to quantum jump back to her home planet.

‘Well, one thing is for sure.  Today was certainly out of this world.”, Herman joked.   They all laughed and headed back to HQ, chatting about the bounty they had scored from the fair.   They were yawning and stretching, ready for another duly deserved evening of deep delta sleep.

Epilogue

Some dreamt of being a part of the circus itself as they slept through the night, undisturbed.   No injuries were sustained but fatigue had played its part in putting them all to sleep. Their dreams tonight were whimsical and nostalgic, hearkening to an era were things were more colorful and funky fresh.    None of them knew what tomorrow would bring, but they were aware tomorrow would be another unbelivable, exciting day, full of possibilities.

The End