Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
"Trial By Fire"
Original Air Date: 02/26/00		Based on: GoGo Five #07 - Utsukushiki Saimaa No Wana (The Beautiful Saima Woman)
*7th Regular Season (3rd of the 8th Season by Series) *Official Fox Kids Show Number PR-1003 *3rd episode of PRLR *341st total Power Rangers episode
Writer: Judd Lynn (His 100th episode either written or co-written!)		Director: Ryuta Tasaki
Starring Cast: Michael Chaturantabut _AS_ Chad Lee (Blue Ranger) Sean Cw Johnson _AS_ Carter Grayson (Red Ranger) Alison MacInnis _AS_ Dana Mitchell (Pink Ranger) Keith Robinson _AS_ Joel Rawlings (Green Ranger) Sasha Williams _AS_ Kelsey Winslow (Yellow Ranger) Ron Rogge _AS_ Captain William Mitchell Jennifer L. Yen _AS_ Vypra		Additional Cast: Soren Fulton _AS_ Hostage Boy Tyler Foster _AS_ Young Carter Neil Kaplan _AS_ Diabolico (voice) David Lodge _AS_ Loki (voice) Kim Strauss _AS_ Jinxer (voice) Wen Yann Shih _AS_ Impus (voice)

SUMMARY:

[Recap of "Operation Lightspeed" & "Lightspeed Teamwork"]

Inside the Lightspeed Aquabase, submerged in the lovely Mariner Bay, we find the group of five really old Power Ranger teens getting ready for their training session. They're in a room that gets no name, but we'll call the Aqua Apartment for the time being. Kelsey loads up her yellow colored climbing gear into a bag on her bed (with more yellow colored items decorating along the top of said bed), as Dana (at her bed, located right across from hers, both right up against the walls) asked what her family said. Kelsey says they asked "what are you, crazy?", something everyone has always said to her since she was a kid, and she always answers "you have no idea!". Kelsey walks around the Aqua Apartment (what little space there is to move), and sits down in-between Joel & Chad on the Lightspeed sofa located between the guys sleeping areas and the girls. The topic of what her family called her crazy about wasn't of being a Ranger, but of her rockclimbing hobby, saying it's such a rush to hang a thousand feet from a cliff. Joel tells her to check this out, explaining that when he was 8 all he wanted more than anything was to fly like a bird. So he built himself a set of wings, and jumped out of his second story window. They laugh, Carter stands up and shoves the cowboy hat onto Joel's head, joking that's not only crazy, but stupid!

The group piles out of the Aqua Apartment carrying their handbags, and as they walk, Dana asks Carter if he always wanted to be a fireman. He says not really, until one night when something happened, Carter suddenly has a flashback to a firefighter standing in a blaze, taking off his mask as a door shuts in front of him. Carter's origin explanation comes to a halt, he says it was nothing, his teammates interests are piqued and they whine demands to know what happened. He's saved by the announcement, as a voice is heard telling the Rangers to report to the Training Area on double time! Soon, they're on land in a secret installation owned by Lightspeed (Area 55, perhaps? Heh), standing at attention like good soldiers and saluting, as per Carter's shouting orders. Our heroes are dressed in color coded shirts and loose pants, plus black boots, ready to train! Captain Mitchell stands before them, dressed in all black and a beret, with a man in black on each side of him, and several Lightspeed technicians sitting at a computer console behind them, monitoring the results. Mitchell removes a stopwatch, shouts "ready! go!", presses the buttons and the Ranger teen run off to begin the intense exercises.

[opening credits. Ms. Fairweather's apparently contracted to be on the opening despite not appearing on the show this episode!]

Chad & Joel flip over a wall, landing smoothly they then shake hands and continue rushing through the course. Next crawling under a green net lowered to the ground, then hopping through tires and rushing past Captain Mitchell, turning around and saluting him, ending their training. Mitchell stops the clock, they got a minute and thirty seconds as their time, he smiles and calls it good (as a Lightspeed technician is seen filming the event on a camcorder behind him). Mitchell departs, and Chad & Joel cease standing at attention and bend over to catch their breaths, Chad actually grabbing his gut in pain from the grueling experience. In another part of the training grounds, Kelsey races out of a burning building with a small crash-test baby in her arms. She attaches her belt to a hook and scales down the side of the building with the baby, landing on the ground safely where Dana awaits with a first aid kit. Dana takes the child, wraps her in a blanket and performs CPR successfully (as successful as you can get with a plastic doll). Once this is finished, they stand and salute Captain Mitchell, who timed them at two minutes, calling it not bad. He leaves the scene with the camera-carrying tech & another one who has a headset on. After the exit, Kelsey & Dana giggle and high five themselves on a job well done.

Inside one of the buildings, Carter fires his makeshift safety blaster at a cardboard vampire creature! The blobs of paint from the gun take the target down, when suddenly another appears in a nearby doorway. Carter rolls over a counter, and begins firing, only this time, his shots fly all over the place before striking the fang-faced monster the third and final time. Carter then runs out of the room, leaps over a railing and salutes at attention, Mitchell timed him at fifty-two seconds! Carter pumps his fist excitedly, and walks over to his cheering teammates (who stand next to the Lightspeed Humvee, the method of which they arrived at the training area). Carter tosses his blaster to Chad, and then picks up Kelsey, swinging her around triumphantly, finally setting her down and slapping five with the others. Inside the room, Captain Mitchell and the two techies explore the results of Carter's rescue mission, Mitchell is perturbed most angrily. He leaves the messy scene and calls on Carter, who comes over to him in front of the railing. The Cap tells him he may have had the fastest time but got the lowest score. Carter doesn't understand, Mitchell then points to his noggin and says he has to take time to use his brain before using his blaster. Carter buts about hitting every target, which means nothing to Mitchell since he didn't think the situation through as the obvious choice may sometimes be the wrong choice. The Captain walks over to his Lightspeed employees and orders them to get their gear and return to the Aquabase, leaving Carter behind a bit dumbfounded, and his teammates speechless.

Meanwhile in the thunderous pocket dimension where the evil Skull Palace is located (though according to certain promos, the place is actually called the "Skull Cavern", so i'll refer to it as both until as such time as it gets a completely official name), Loki is watching the Lightspeed Megazord destroy Magmavore from the previous episode via a viewing, uhh, puddle on the wall. The blue brute calls the Megazord really powerful, saying that to destroy Mariner Bay they must defeat it and fast! Diabolico mentions that Queen Bansheera will be quite unhappy if she returns and the city is still standing. Impus coos out for his mama, Jinxer seems to know the kid better than us, since the giggling apparently means they've gotten the baby dragon upset! Diabolico ignores his lackey and turns to the viewing puddle, where Vypra is seen. She speaks to herself about how if you want to destroy a city you do it from the ground up, as she holds a dangerous spike in her hand. Mariner Bar is soon quaking without warning, shaking the standing of even those inside the Aquabase's hallways! Up in the Command Headquarters, Captain Mitchell checks the monitor readings and discovers that was no simple Earthquake. He orders everyone to go to alert status, klaxons start to sound, lights flash, Lightspeed employees scramble, and an announcer tells the Rangers to go the Transport bay! Our heroes grab their Lightspeed Members-Only Jackets, don them, and walk into the Transport Bay as they proceed to hop in the Humvee. Carter asks his pals if they're ready to roll, Joel says always but wonders when he's going to get to drive this thing! The floor lowers, the Humvee races out the underwater tunnel, and comes out in the city via the usual sealed airlock.

[commercials]

Somewhere inside a Mariner Bay building's basement, we find an army of Batlings hammering down those demonic spikes we saw Vypra with earlier. One Batling holds the spike while another hammers it in with a Thorish sledgehammer, this occurs in several areas of the room, causing the earthquakes to increase steadily. Vypra walks in from a room atop a stairway (the bathroom, likely), aims her sword and orders them to go faster, and for those too stupid to notice, she shouts that she's going to destroy Mariner Bay with an earthquake. Carter's voice is suddenly heard, telling her not if they can help it, all attention turning to them as the Lightspeed Power Rangers make the scene! Vypra introduces herself to the Power Rangers, saying that she is so glad they've finally met, so she can destroy them! She orders the Batlings (or Battlelings as the captions call them here) to attack, the group of dark winged creatures pull out of their swords and rush at our heroes. The Rangers begin to fight them, and there are so many in fact, that a few are left standing around and waiting on the sidelines doing nothing!

Blue Ranger kicks a few around, as Pink Ranger leaps from an upper floor window at one of them. That Batling fires his sword at her, missing and getting beaten for it, as Pink Ranger begins to fire her Rescue Blaster at several Batlings surrounding her. Yellow Ranger plays with a well-placed rope, swinging around and kicking the Batlings with ease. Green Ranger kicks a couple, and then proceeds to twirl his Blaster in hand, flipping over and cartwheeling in the air as he fires it at a group of the creatures, landing perfectly and telling them not to mess with the cowboy! Vypra jumps from her stairway perch and aims for Carter, fighting the Red Ranger one-on-one with the might of her sword. Once that gets kicked out of her hands, she's left no other option but to keep battling physically for a while. She soon gets the chance to escape and goes for it, grabbing one of the spikes and running, Red Ranger chases but Vypra picks up her sword and slashes at him. He's stunned by the sparks, allowing her to rush up the stairs to the parking lot above. Vypra runs around (apparently, those wings are just for show!) and soon comes across a couple of citizens who are frozen with fear. She tells them to get out of her way as she fires her sword at them, blowing up a few of the shopping carts the people had been using. Red Ranger hops over her and tells her that's enough, Vypra slashes at him with her sword again and the fight continues. Eventually, she shoots off an energy blast from it, that gets kicked away by Carter, boomeranging back past Vypra and striking a wall, causing ceiling debris to crumble in front of a set of gas canisters.

Red Ranger aims his Rescue Blaster at Vypra, telling her to put down her weapon nice and easy. She refuses, and continues pointing her sword at him as she backs up to the wall and notices the highly flammable material under the debris. Carter gives her one last chance before he fires, but instead she tells him to take this, firing her sword at the ground and creating a small fire between them. Red Ranger ducks away from the flames, giving Vypra time to teleport away by turning into her demon spirit form and fading back to the thunderous dimension. Carter wonders where she went for a moment, until he suddenly hears the sound of the ceiling collapsing above the rest of the civilians behind him! He remarks that those people are in trouble and need his help, Captain Mitchell is monitoring the events in the Aquabase via Red Ranger's helmet, where he tells Carter to put out the fire first. Carter tries to say there's no time and he has to get them out now, but Mitchell orders him to take care of the blaze first. Red Ranger does as commanded, readjusting his Rescue Blaster into extinguisher mode and dosing the flames in an instant (as we saw a techie preparing this weapon on the last episode). Just then, the roof finally gives way and starts to crumble atop a mother and her small son. Red Ranger extends his arm out and shouts for them to get out of the way, but it's of no use, he's too late. Carter stops in his tracks at the sight, and when the dust settles, he watches as the mother picks the injured son (called "hostage boy" in the end credits, despite not being held hostage at all) up from the rubble.

The Power Rangers finally show up, Green & Pink Rangers rush over to the mother and child, Joel picks the kid up (shaking him around, better hope there's no spinal damage!) and tells the lady not to worry as they'll take care of him, Dana says he'll be alright. Capt. Mitchell is watching, breathes a rough sigh and removes his headset in a somber mood. Blue Ranger has his hand on Red Ranger's shoulder, comforting him for a moment, until Carter suddenly storms off, despite the pleas from Chad & Kelsey. Sometime later, Carter is back in the Aquabase (likely by unexplained way of how Joel got to the flower shop last episode, as I don't think he took the Humvee without his pals), marching through the halls towards Captain Mitchell's cabin. Mitchell is seated at a table writing a letter ("Dear Ms. Fairweather, How's your latest Zord-tech swiping exploits going? Love, Big Willy"), until Carter rushes in and screams into the Cap's face about how he told him to put out the fire and was wrong. Mitchell calmly tells the boy he wasn't, Carter says that of course he was, those people should have been saved first. Cap says that Carter did the right thing, but Carter shouts in protest, stating that because he listened to him that little boy got hurt. Carter madly pouts and storms off again, leaving the Captain at a loss for words at the moment.

In the Mariner Bay hospital, Carter enters the boy's room, whispering that he was so sorry and it should never have happened to him. The boy is either in a coma, or asleep, or both, so Carter sits by his bed and holds the bandaged-head kid's hand. Carter wishes he was more like "him", filling us in on who "him" is at last. He mentions that he was about his age, and doesn't know how it happened but the place was on fire and was so hot he couldn't breathe. We see young Carter stumbling around in a blazing building, eventually falling to the floor and crying. Carter says he was so scared and didn't know what to do, until suddenly, "he" was there! A firefighter rushed in and found Carter just in time, but as they were leaving a fiery beam quickly fell from the ceiling, the fireman grabbed it and prevented it from blocking the doorway. He urged Carter to get out of the room, and soon the boy listened to orders and ran right into the arms of another firefighter. The hero (who caught on fire partially while holding the beam) then tossed the beam down, accidentally knocking a cart into the door, causing it to shut. As it shuts, Carter is carried off by the other fireman, but looks back at the other man taking off his oxygen mask (right in the middle of the blazing fire, but i'm sure he has his reasons). The door closes before he can see the hero's face (duh, no reason for that! Not he's Captain Mitchell or anything... ;}, saying that he saved his life, never knew his name but ever since that day all he wanted to be just like him. Carter thinks that guy would have made sure the kid was safe, and laments he'll never be that good.

Carter's soon back in the Training Area, walking around his section of the grounds when he bumps into a tank that was near the last cardboard creature he took down. There's a sign on it that reads "flammable & explosive", Carter finally gets a clue and then runs off yet again, returning to the parking lot from earlier. There he finds behind a blanket in the area he was fighting, a huge canister of gasoline (safe town, this Mariner Bay is, gas in every building!)! He's overcome with images from a parallel world, where Red Ranger chose to safe the people first instead of putting out the fire. Worst case scenario occurred, and the fire spread to the canisters of gas, blowing up the whole lot and killing everyone in the vicinity! Captain Mitchell walks in on his out-loud realization, stating once more that sometimes the obvious choice is the wrong choice. Mitchell mentions it isn't easy being a leader, you learn tough lessons every single day. The heart to heart ends when a tremor rocks the ground with a violent burst. Carter's Rescue Morpher goes off, in the same sound that both the Astro & Transmorphers used, and Joel is heard telling him they need his help. Carter's not sure he's cut out to be a Ranger, but Captain Mitchell is, and is more sure now than ever. The cap says his friends need his help and he should get going, Carter's encouraged, telling them he's on his way, nodding to the Captain and rushing off to battle. The scar-faced Captain Mitchell stands smiling at the boy he had no general interest in before selecting him to be a Ranger, no sir-ree-bob!

[commercials]

In an underground tunnel (or a sewer tunnel, take your sticky pick), the Power Rangers are back to battling the Batlings. As per tradition, without the Red Ranger around, the others do incredibly poorly in the fight, getting smacked around like an old soccer ball. Vypra's off to the side, posing evilly and smiling, and soon decides to breathe some life into the situation by blowing blue flames into her hand (that match her demon spirit color, fittingly), and then firing the flame wave at our heroes! With the Rangers down for the time being, Vypra has a Batling hold the spike in the ground, as she raises the hammer into the air and aims for what will likely be the final strike to shatter the fault lines (at least, as much as I figure since Joel shouts "no, don't do it!" so desperately). Vypra lowers the hammer swiftly, but before it can hit the nail on the head, it's blasted away by Red Ranger! Carter's there with his Rescue Blaster, telling Vypra they've had enough of her ground-shaking games and are putting an end to this. Vypra resume the sword-slashing battle from earlier by running at Red Ranger, and he just ducks out of her attacks and aims his Blaster in her face, ordering her to freeze. She does so, and Carter puts his Blaster back in the holster, saying he knows what she's up to. Vypra eggs Red Ranger on to keep fighting, but he says that now is not the time, running away from her as she swipes at him with her sword. Carter makes his way through a line of Batlings, and finally rolls to the ground, grabbing the spike, tossing the it in the air and shouting a heads up to his teammates as he Blasts it to pieces!

Red Ranger tells them to destroy the spikes, Chad just gives a "Right!" while Joel casually plays it off as something he already knew to do. Yellow Ranger flips over a spike, grabs it and kicks a Batling before tossing the spike offscreen. Green Ranger grabs one as Pink Ranger jumps on one, snatches it with her feet and flips backwards, tossing it towards Blue Ranger, who then chucks the three spikes into a pile, as do the others. All five Power Rangers aim their Rescue Blasters at the pile of spikes, and despite Vypra screaming for them to be stopped, our heroes fry the spikes into ashes. The Batlings screech loudly, and Vypra orders them to destroy all of the Rangers! In the Skull Palace, Loki is watching the Batling/ Lightspeed Ranger fight from his viewing wall puddle, noting those annoying Rangers have destroyed all of Vypra's quake spikes (it seems quake spikes are hard to come by, I think). He suggests she get a little help, raising a set of five large demonic cards in his hand and pulling one out of the deck and offering it to Jinxer. Jinxer calls it a good idea, checks out the card and calls it an excellent choice. He then flings the card into the demon mouth on the wall behind them, reciting a spell and waving his hands, "From the bowels of the evil light, create a monster the Rangers must fight!". The mouth glows with the image of a universe within it, and a metal rod atop its head glows gold as the monster is made, much to Loki's delight.

While the other Rangers play "bat the Batlings", Red Ranger chases after Vypra, who flees down the tunnel. It leads out into the forest on the side of a mountain, and once she's out, Loki spots her from the mountain top above. Don't know why he felt he had to show up, but he's there, groaning upon seeing Red Ranger following her. Loki tells Jinxer to do his stuff, and Jinxer is even higher on the mountain range, waving his arms around and incantating "rocks and pebbles down below, I call on you to grow! Unite and destroy!". Apparently, the mouth of hell blew chunks, as all we see are some meaty monster pieces on the ground. Jinxer's spell turns them into large bats that amass together and create the creature's true giant form! He's given no name, but since he's a gold creature with a hugely prominent smile, we'll call him Grinlin (cause you see, the grin, and the gremlin... oh to bugger with the puns...)! The Power Ranger seem done with the Batlings, and Vypra must have gotten away, so Carter shouts "Rescuezords, mobilize!", and before we know it, Rail Rescues are out in the city, already opened, and our heroes plop right into their Lightspeed Rescuezords, calling off their numbers. The Zords roll out, Red Ranger calls on Megazord mode, the others salute with a Lightspeed shout. The Lightspeed Megazord forms rather swiftly, and begins to face off with the ever-smiling Grinlin. The monster strikes at the Megazord, grunting like a mindless creature as the Rangers strike back at it. The camera pans out, revealing the action is taking place in a mountain range behind Mariner Bay City. Grinlin takes quite a few punches to the oversized lips, and falls to the ground, leaving a dirt cloud in his wake. The Megazord scans around but can't find him, when Grinlin pops up from under their feet and grabs the Lightspeed legs! Blue Ranger activates the Lightspeed Ladder Arms, the metal fists slam into the ground, and the arms extend, causing the Megazord to twirl around in the air, kicking Grinlin several times in the head. The creature is thrown across the area by this, and once both feet are back on the ground, Red Ranger grabs his Rescue Blaster handle (or as he calls it, "Blaster Grip"), and locks on, calling forth the Lightspeed Megazord Saber. It appears in a flash from the Lightspeed symbol on the Megazord belt, forming outwards into the shape of a sword. With the call of "Ignite!" by Carter, flames surround the Lightspeed Megazord as it creates a fiery circle in the air using the Saber before slicing it down into Grinlin. The Megazord turns around and poses in the sunlight as the monster sparks and explodes, leaving no meaty chunks behind.

[commercials]

Later at the Mariner Bay hospital, Carter enters the injured boy's room with a gift, only to discover the kid isn't there! Fearing the worst, until he hears the kid's voice from outside, calling the Ranger teen by name. Carter walks out and finds the bandaged-head boy standing in a robe, and given Carter puts his hand on the boy's shoulder, he is indeed not a ghost. He's glad the boy is okay, the kid says it's all thanks to him and someday when he grows up he wants to be just like him! Carter smiles and hands him the gift, the kid shakes it and is soon picked up by Carter, overjoyed everything is alright. Captain Mitchell is nearby, watching them silently for a moment, before smiling and walking away, putting on his hat as he does. The kid calls Carter awesome, they smile and high five. Think Lightspeed will pay for his insurance and medical coverage?

[scenes from "Riding The Edge"; end credits]