Zack was not having a good time in the cockpit of his Mastodon. The crystal was no longer giving off a multicolored glow. In fact, it was actually starting to smoke, and the air in the cockpit was becoming thick and making him cough.

“Think I’d better bail on this technology,” the Black Ranger said, yanking out the crystal, which instantly crumbled into a million charred pieces. “The last thing I need is a fire.”

Now it was just him and his Mastodon battling Scorpina. The Black Ranger hoped he’d survive long enough for his friends to arrive. But it’d been quite a while, and he hadn’t heard from any of them. That wasn’t typical for the team. Zack hoped nothing had gone wrong at the Command Center.

Scorpina could sense something was different. She eyed the Dinozord with suspicion. The shimmering glow that had surrounded the Mastodon had disappeared, and the creature appeared to be getting weaker. Scorpina knew that it was time to strike. She coiled back her deadly tail like a whip right before it cracks.

“This is going to be so sweet,” Scorpina crowed as she closed in on the Black Ranger. “If you’d only given me my ring back, I would have made this quick. But you refused to cooperate, and now you’re going to suffer. And so will your entire planet, since your cowardly friends ran away.”

The Black Ranger knew this was probably the end of the line, but he was determined to go down fighting. “Bring it, Scorpina!” he shouted. “Give me everything you’ve got!”

The scorpion creature lashed out with her tail. Without the enhanced agility from the Sabertooth Tiger, Zack’s Mastodon couldn’t dodge the strike. Wrapping the Mastodon in her tail, Scorpina let loose jolt after jolt of electricity. Zack’s Dinozord began to violently shake.

“I think it’s time for me to bail out,” the Black Ranger said. He hated to abandon his Mastodon, but knew it was better for the world if he lived, so he could keep on fighting.

Leaping from the cockpit of his Dinozord, Zack plunged to the ground and did a rollout across the sand. By the time he sprang to his feet, the rest of the Power Rangers were standing in front of him.

“Hey, Zack. Good to see you,” Jason said with some relief, slapping him on the shoulder.

“Nice of you to show up,” the Black Ranger replied. Turning to the Pink and Yellow Rangers, he said, “Did you figure anything out? Can we get back Billy?”

“Yes,” Trini told him. “At least we think so.” She pulled the Eclipse Ring off her finger. “Look here,” she said, pointing out the well-concealed button. “If you reset the stone from black to yellow without pressing the button, then nothing happens; you can only make more stuff disappear. But if the stone is black and you twist it back to yellow while pushing this button, then you can make things reappear.”

“Okay, got it. But where is Billy now?” Zack wanted to know.

“No idea,” Trini told him. “But why don’t you point this wherever you had it pointed when he disappeared and see if you can bring him back?”

“Rangers, you must hurry,” Zordon’s voice instructed from their communicators, “before Scorpina has a chance to gather her strength.”

In her fury, Scorpina was still electrocuting the empty Mastodon. Finally, she let the Dinozord go, and it slowly tilted to one side and then crashed to the ground. Zack couldn’t help but flinch. It felt like he’d lost a friend.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jason told him. “Just get Billy back.”

“What are you going to do?” asked Zack.

“Call up our Dinozords and cause a distraction,” was the Red Ranger’s reply.

“Got it.” Zack started sprinting across the beach, clutching the ring.

“Tyrannosaurus Dinozord power!” the Red Ranger shouted, calling up his Dinozord from the molten lava of the earth’s core.

“Pterodactyl Dinozord power!” Kimberly cried, summoning her Dinozord from an ancient volcano.

“Sabertooth Tiger Dinozord power!” Trini yelled, bringing her Dinozord from the primordial jungle.

Zack tried to orient himself exactly like he was when Billy had disappeared. It was difficult to remember, and there weren’t a lot of landmarks on the beach. Plus, they’d been in the middle of fighting a bunch of Putties, so that had been absorbing most of his attention.

Adjusting the Eclipse Ring on his finger, Zack pointed it in the general direction where he thought Billy might have been when he vanished. “Here goes nothing,” he said to himself before pressing the secret button and giving the top of the ring a twist. A dark beam came shooting out of the ring, outlining several human-size figures. “Yes!” the Black Ranger said, convinced one of them had to be the Blue Ranger.

Half a dozen Putties took shape and then tumbled to the ground. “Okay, that’s cool,” Zack mumbled to himself, suppressing his disappointment when his friend didn’t appear. “But Billy was leaping into his Dinozord when he disappeared, so I guess I have to aim a little higher.”

Raising the ring while still pressing the button, he swept the air with the beam. A silhouette appeared, frozen in place as it was leaping into the sky. “That’s gotta be him!” Zack said, holding his arm steady.

A few seconds later, the Blue Ranger tumbled to the ground. “Billy!” Zack shouted, rushing over to him. “You’re back!”

“Am I?” The Blue Ranger was feeling a little dazed. Cradling his head with his hands, he said, “That was not fun.”

“Where were you?” Zack wanted to know, helping his friend to his feet. “Wait! Look out!” he said, dragging Billy out of the way of Scorpina’s tail as she tangled with Jason’s Tyrannosaurus.

“I’ll have to tell you later,” Billy said. “Right now I think we need to dino up.”

“Um . . . yeah,” Zack stammered. “I think my Mastodon might be out of commission.”

“Really?” Billy was surprised; the Dinozords could handle a lot of damage. “Why’s that?”

“Well, I used that crazy multicolored crystal thingy you were working on in the garage to give my Mastodon extra abilities so I could distract Scorpina while the others were trying to figure out how to bring you back. But then the crystal started to smoke, and my Dinozord got sluggish. I had to bail out.”

Billy nodded, trying to take it all in and process everything as quickly as possible. “It probably just overheated. Our Dinozords weren’t meant to handle that much power. Hopefully just letting your Mastodon cool off will solve the problem.”

“I hope so,” Zack said. “We couldn’t form the Megazord without you. And now that you’re back, we can’t form it without me.”

Billy gave him a rueful smile. “That’s the double-edged sword of being on a team, I guess. But I bet we can find a way to work together to take this galactic arachnid down.” When Zack gave him a confused look, Billy added, “Scorpions are part of the same family as spiders.”

“Oh.” Zack gave a nod. “That would explain why this one is so ugly.”

“Time to call on a little dino-help,” Billy said as he saw Kimberly fly past Scorpina, treating her to a laser blast. “Triceratops Dinozord power!” he shouted, and his faithful Triceratops appeared as if charging across the desert.

“I guess it doesn’t hurt to try,” Zack said. Then, raising his voice, he called, “Mastodon Dinozord power!” Much to the Black Ranger’s surprise and relief, his Dinozord began struggling to its feet.

“All right!” the Blue Ranger cheered. “Now let’s see about taking down this eight-legged freak!” With that, he launched into the air, accessing his Triceratops.

“Right behind you,” Zack told him. “But first . . .” The Black Ranger started waving his arms, trying to get the scorpion monster’s attention. “Scorpina! Hey, Scorpina!” he yelled. When she finally turned her head to look in his direction, Zack added, “Do you want your ring back?”

Scorpina took a step in the Black Ranger’s direction, obviously eager to get back her possession. Zack cocked his arm. “Well then, go get it!” he shouted, throwing the ring as far as he could into the ocean, where it was immediately engulfed by the waves.