Disclaimer: We don't own the original Power Ranger series. But this series, while in the universe of Power Rangers, is of completely original creation. The characters, plot, and storylines are 100% ours (Yes we, 2 authors, not one with a split personality). So we hope you read, review and enjoy our story. Thanks!
Along an unknown beach laid a cave called Gua Cerita. Inside of this Cave lived a strange woman. She was not human. As she arose from her sleep she looked out at the city that was forever awake. She narrowed her eyes in anger and disgust. These pathetic humans would soon feel her full power. She would not be stopped this time. She would find this "New Solomon" and destroy him once and for all and then no one would be able to stop her.
Benjamin Knight walked down the street quickly down the street on a cool spring night. He had to get to the store and get back quickly before his mother noticed he was missing. 1am wasn't exactly the best time to be running out to the store, but he had to finish. He'd been struck by inspiration and what had started as a simple sketch had become a masterpiece. Well, almost. Then the ink in his pen had suddenly run out. He'd searched the entire house for a replacement, but with no success. Running out to the store was his only chance. Suddenly he spotted a flashing neon light. 24/7 Pharmacy. It would have to work. He jogged quickly over to the store. Hopefully they'd have what he needed.
Layla Mason was taking a brisk walk down the quiet street. She'd always liked taking walks in the early morning. Especially when she couldn't sleep. It meant she didn't have to walk past other people and deal with pointless conversation or looks. She preferred being alone with her thoughts, but she couldn't stay inside the rest of her life. Continuing her walk, she saw a blaring reminder in bright and blinding letters. Feeling the paper inside her coat pocket, she decided to enter. She might as well go in while no one was around. And with that she entered the little pharmacy.
Tristan Mendez strolled down the medication aisle. His shoulder was sore from playing baseball earlier that day. He was pitching the ball and he threw a couple of them too hard. Batting later in the game didn't help him either. Tristan was in search for something to sooth his aching pain. His father wouldn't be very happy to hear that he'd injured himself. That's why Tristan snuck out of his house late at night to find a pharmacy. Luckily he discovered this one store that was open for twenty four hours every day.
Sarah Davis realized she had run out of shampoo and conditioner. She could have picked a better time to go to the store but it was bothering her all night. Anyone else would've waited till morning, but her next couple of days were going to be filled with things to do and she would probably forget to buy these necessities. So one in the morning would have to do. To her surprise there was one pharmacy open that late and she entered it excitedly. Sarah just wanted to get home to go to bed again.
Brennen Himmel was silently putting items on a shelf at work. He accidently knocked them over while he was mopping the floor. Brennen was thinking to himself while doing so. "Why is a pharmacy open 24/7? And why am I working this late?" He kept working but not in a joyous mood. Flipping his jet black hair out of his eyes, Brennen looked at his watch and saw that he only had a half hour left until he could check out. He looked around at the late night shoppers. He found it a bit odd they were in the store. 1 am wasn't exactly a normal time for any one person to be in the store, but four people?
As he walked back to stand behind the counter he was approached by a girl with ivory skin and dark brown hair. She pulled her long green coat tighter around herself as reached the counter. Brennen had seen her a few times when she'd come in to pick up her prescription. She seemed like a nice girl, but she was always quiet. As she always did she hastily gave him the paper for the prescription as looked at him nervously with her mud brown eyes. As he handed her the pills he gave her a small smile to put her at ease and she shyly returned it.
As Brennen was printing the receipt for the silent girl they heard a scream from the back of the store. Strange laughter followed it. Brennen and the shy girl looked at each other then ran towards the sounds. The other three people in the store followed. At the back of the store there was a man being attacked by some strange looking creatures.
"Mr. Johnson!" Brennen shouted. The others stared at him. He looked at them and shrugged.
"What? He's my boss." He said. They five teens ran towards the strange creatures. They were outnumbered by the inhumane life forms and the teens did not know what to do. They kept getting pushed into the shelves nearby. Tristan crashed into some spray air fresheners. An idea sparked. He grabbed a few of the cans and tossed them to the others.
"Spray these in the freaks eyes." He shouted. The others grabbed the cans. Well, most of them did. Ben was hit in the head at first. Everyone started shaking their cans and then followed Tristan's instructions. The weird monsters were terrified and ran out of the store.
"Well that was weird." Sarah said shaken. "What were those things?" Ben said rubbing the back of the head where he'd been hit. "I'll explain later. Follow me. Quickly. We don't have much time." Mr. Johnson said before ducking into the storage room. Sarah and Ben followed him immediately with Brennen close behind. Brennen looked back towards Leyla and Tristan.
"Are you coming?" Brennen asked. "I don't think that's such a good idea. I think I should just go home." Leyla said walking towards the door. "Wait! You can't just leave. What if those things are still out there?" Brennen called out to her. He moved to walk over to her only to have his path blocked by a much taller boy.
"Look man. Those things, whatever they were, they're gone now. We just need to get out of here and forget the whole thing." "We just got attacked! You can't just ignore that kid. "Brennen said. "Tristan. My name is Tristan. I am not a child. And now I'm leaving." Tristan said ready to storm out.
"So you're just going to leave? Not even going to question what those things were and go home? What if someone else gets hurt? What then? If Mr. Johnson know something we don't we need to find out what it is now before those things come back." Brennen said trying to make Tristan listen.
"I'll stay," Leyla said walking back over, "We can't all just be imagining things. If-if those things were real then we have to make sure they don't hurt anyone else."
Brennen moved out of the way as Leyla walked into the storage room. Sarah walked into the doorway to see what was going on. She spoke up to Tristan, "Why do you want to leave so quickly? Don't you want to know what those things were? We are safe here."
Tristan looked over at Sarah. "Look sweetie, those freaks are gone now and I think it will be alright if I go home. You guys can have your little cult meeting without me. The police will deal with those monsters if they appear again." Tristan said ready to leave.
Brennen grabbed him by the shoulder and spun Tristan around. "You think the police will believe anyone if they said that a monster attacked them? We were lucky that we could fight off the creatures. Mr. Johnson may have the answers to the questions that we are all thinking of. If you don't want to go insane by wondering what just happened. It might be best if you join us." When Brennen finished speaking he let go of Tristan's shoulder and backed away. Tristan sighed and looked at the floor. After a couple of long silent minutes Tristan looked up at the others. "Fine, I'll join your little freak answer force, but if anything life threatening happens to me I am out." Tristan put his hands into his pockets and walked passed Brennen into the room. Brennen followed and closed the door behind him.
"Now that you're all here, I can explain what is happening." Mr. Johnson said pulling out a stone chest off of one of the shelves. The back room was large with a few shelves and a table. Around the table sat six chairs. There was a lot of empty space around the room, boxes flooded the dark corners. A single light hung over the table with a dull light bulb shining as bright as it could. It was hard to see anything but the area around the table. The teens sat in five of the empty chairs and waited for Mr. Johnson to retrieve the supplies he was looking for.
"What were those things?" Benjamin asked holding up his sketch pad. In the time it had taken for the others to join them in the back room he had been able to roughly sketch one of the creatures. It resembled a chimpanzee but the creature's fur was mangled together in hard clumps. Its skin was full of scars. The critter looked starved with its ribs almost sticking out of its torso and the boney arms fell to its side. The "monkey" had a bad hunchback. The face of the animal was almost completely ripped off with only small holes for its eyes and nose. The teeth in its mouth were pointy and there were plenty of them. The claws of the freak were long and sharp. "You drew that so quickly?" Leyla asked. "Yeah, I'm kind of an artist." Ben responded while blushing. "Well you're defiantly good, for better or worse." Tristan said observing the picture. While drawn with perfect detail and precision the picture still showed just how grotesque the creature really was.
"That is a 'malo mortuum animalium' or quite simply put in English a 'dead evil animal.' They won't always look like those chimpanzees but you can easily tell the difference between a living animal and those dead mongrels. They normally stay dormant and are harmless, but they are easily led by magical forces and I fear they had been awoken for the sole purpose of harming humans. " Tristan spoke up at this point. "Magical forces? Are you kidding me? Those dead freaks, if they really are dead, didn't seem mystical at all." Mr. Johnson looked at Tristan and said "Not all magic is mystical like you have heard in fairy tales. Some creatures, stronger than us and those animals, corrupt the power of unnatural forces for their own pleasure. If you just listen patiently I will explain all of this to you." Tristan was not impressed; however Sarah was fascinated by the explanation of the creatures' history. Leyla was barely listening to the story; she just stared at table and picked at chips in the wooden table. Benjamin was mindlessly doodling circles on a blank paper while listening intensely to the older man. Brennen sat emotionless and waited for Mr. Johnson to finish the story.
"Who's controlling the creatures?" Sarah asked with wide eyes. Mr. Johnson's expression darkened. "Well it's no unicorn I can tell you that. It is an evil creature named Gedembai." He said pulling a large old book out of the chest. "Long ago she terrorized the people of the ancient island of Gua Cerita with her cruel ways and the fact that she was devoid of love or compassion. She could turn any human or animal into anything she wished just by saying the words. If she said to someone, "You look like an ox!" that person would instantly be transformed into an ox. She could also turn people into inanimate objects such as rocks, and this meant certain death. Gedembai was feared and hated by everyone and her unusual power virtually made her the queen of the island. Her wishes were fulfilled unquestioningly and no one dared to disobey her."
"But why didn't any of the people just leave?" Layla asked. "They couldn't. She was to powerful. She would not allow anyone to leave so that they would serve her as her slaves." A few gasps were heard around the room. "Oh come on! Really? Fine I'll play along. How did she get defeated?" Tristan asked with sarcasm. Sarah smacked him in the arm. "Ow! What was that for?" "Stop interrupting the story" Benjamin said before nodding his head for Mr. Johnson to continue.
"The story of Gedembai ends when King Solomon came to rule the earth and she lost all her powers. She tried to turn Solomon into stone but was unsuccessful and fearing his punishment, she fled to an unknown destination. But now it seems she has returned and we need heroes to fight her until a descendent of Solomon can be found to seal her away forever." Mr. Johnson said.
"So…by heroes you mean us?"Brennen asked speaking for the first time since they'd gathered into the back room of the store. It came out as more of a statement then a question. Mr. Johnson opened a chest he had retrieved and pulled out 5 keys attached to a chain. Each had a colored gem on it in Red, Blue, Yellow, Silver, and Green.
"These Gems will help you fight the forces of darkness. You are the next generation…of Power Rangers."