A/N:
I've finally decided to take on the daunting task of writing an original series. I intend for this to be more of a side project, but that doesn't mean I'll give it any less attention or effort either. I look forward to this personal challenge, and I hope you're all ready to meet a new team of heroes.

That said, I don't own Power Rangers or any of its related intellectual property. I only own my OCs and my great love for this genre of superhero fiction.

*IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER*
This story will contain some imagery and motifs inspired from Judeo-Christian mythology. I have no intentions to offend anyone, nor do I want to bring any sort of religious biases, or agendas into this story. While the powers are angelic in appearance, they are derived from elemental power and the magic of an ancient race. I will reveal all in time, but I only ask for all readers to be open-minded, patient, and most importantly, respectful toward each other. Thanks again for your kindness and understanding!

Joseph Hale took in a deep breath and smiled as he stepped outside into the crisp autumn air. The golden light of the morning sun warmed his face as he zipped up his red track jacket and began his walk to class. As he left his dormitory, he did his best to mentally use the campus landmarks to find his way. The last thing he wanted to do was pull out a map and make it known to the whole world that he was just another clueless college freshman.

As he strolled down the shady tree lined roads of the campus, he did his best to suppress the nervous feelings about his first day of class. Although Hyperion University wasn't a particularly large school, it wasn't a small school either, having been built at the edge of the nearby mountain city of Hyperion Falls. In a sense, the place was the best of both worlds, large enough to be exciting, but small enough to still feel homey.

Joe continued strolling along until he reached the steps of an older Romaneque style building made of brown stone. As he began to open the front door, he turned around when he heard his name called from behind. To his surprise, he saw the large burly form of his dormitory roommate, Nick Adler hurry up the stairs.

"Nick? What are you doing here? I thought the agriculture buildings are on the other side of campus."

"They were," Nick panted rolling up the sleeves of his green plaid shirt, "Seems my class schedule got all screwed up at registration. According to the university's system, now I'm stuck taking Ancient History 101."

"You're kidding," Joe remarked in surprise as he led the way inside the building, "that's actually where I'm headed."

"I thought you were one of the pre-law guys. What are you doing taking History?" Nick frowned.

Joe smiled to the large blonde farm boy, "I'm actually minoring in the subject. At the very least, I'm hoping this class should be interesting too."

Nick chuckled clapping his friend's shoulder, "Far as I can see, I'm just hoping you'll be willing to tutor me now. What do you say roomie?"

Joe rolled his eyes gently as they entered the main lecture hall and were greeted by the sight of two other students. Near the front of the classroom sat an attractive Hispanic girl wearing a stylish pink cardigan. Hanging over her desk was a young man with sandy colored features who wore an expensive looking navy blue sport coat. As Joe and Nick sat down nearby, the Hispanic girl caught sight of them and quickly hurried over, plopping down in a seat next to Joe.

"Hey, sorry. Do you mind if I sit with you guys today? Mr. Bluecoat over there was totally creeping on me."

The two friends blinked a moment before she tilted her head and giggled a little in embarrassment, holding out a hand. "Oh, right. Sorry. My name is Isabel. Isabel Herrera. But you can just call me Izzy."

"Err... hi. Nice to meet you Izzy," Hale replied politely shaking her hand, "I'm Joe, and this is my roommate Nick."

The farmboy gave her a friendly nod as the young man in the blue jacket ambled over.

"Aww come on Isabel, you didn't have to run away," he said. "I just wanted to talk."

Izzy rolled her eyes as the young man gave a shrug and turned toward Nick innocently, "Well, you couldn't fault me for trying, right?"

Extending a hand, he said "The name's Danny. How do you do?"

Nick shook Danny's hand and gave him a slightly suspicious look, "You aren't hitting on me too, are you?"

Izzy suddenly erupted in laughter as Danny gave him an annoyed frown. Stifling a laugh himself, Joe waved it off trying to be diplomatic, "Relax Danny. He's just joking, right Nick?"

Danny simply raised his hands in surrender and shook his head to himself with a sigh, "Well, I suppose I did open myself up to that one."

Changing the subject, Joe asked, "So, are you two also History students?"

Danny shook his head and casually sat down in the row behind them, "Nah. I'm actually a Business major. I'm just taking this class for an easy A."

"Not me," Izzy added leaning back in her seat, "I figured I'd take the course because I heard the professor is a hot younger guy."

The boys all stared at her in silent disbelief for a moment before exchanging puzzled looks between themselves.

Before they could say anything more, one more student entered the lecture hall. She was a petite Asian girl wearing a slim white zip-up hoodie. Despite her little size and her cute face, the large stuffed book-bag on her back looked almost comical in comparison. As she approached, she caught sight of Izzy and gave a deep sigh of annoyance before sitting down in the row behind her.

"Claire! I didn't know you were taking this class too!" Izzy called enthusiastically, "This will be awesome!"

"I'm only taking this class to get my Humanities requirement out of the way Iz." Claire mumbled pulling out her notebook and putting on her glasses. "The sooner I can get to my Chemistry courses, the better."

"Well, she seems cheerful," Joe remarked quietly to Izzy. The girl wearing pink patted his arm and gave him a reassuring smile, "Oh, don't mind her. Claire is my next door neighbor back in the dorm. She's a little uptight, but I'm sure she's a real sweatheart underneath."

Joe gave Isabel a skeptical look wondering if she really was that perceptive, or maybe just a complete ditz. As he did, Danny sidled up next to Claire and gave a suave smile, "Hi there. I'm Danny Winthrope."

At that moment, Danny's new pickup attempt was thwarted as the students saw their professor enter the room from a side door and take his place at the lectern. The man looked to be in his late thirties and was dressed casually, carrying himself with a calm and easy manner. He was tall and handsome with a hint of stubble on his face, and the boys could see what Izzy had meant. As the professor removed his black blazer and set it on a nearby chair, he took a look around the room in amusement. "Five students… well, that's definitely an improvement from last semester."

The students glanced at each other a moment as the professor spoke again, "Good morning everyone. My name is Professor Gabriel Bishop. I know the class seems a little small, but I'm sure we'll make do. Now, we have a lot of ground to cover, so let's go over the course syllabus and then dive right in."

"Easy A, huh?" Nick mumbled sarcastically toward Danny as Professor Bishop began his lecture.

Meanwhile, in the nearby city of Hyperion Falls, a group of construction workers were hard at work laying the foundation for a new office building. As the foreman made his rounds, he stopped to observe a group of workers pounding away at the rocky ground with their jackhammers. Amid the noise, the foreman suddenly began waving his arms and shouting for the men to stop while he pointed toward the ground.

"Hey! What's the hold up boss?" one of the workers asked powering down his jackhammer.

"Take a look!" the foreman replied pointing down into the rocky ground. "Did you guys see that?"

As the dust cleared, the workers stopped to see a large circular stone disk lodged in the earth. It seemed to have some kind ancient cryptic symbols carved into it.

"Woah. What do you think it is?" one of the workers asked in surprise. "Is it one of those ancient Egyptian tombs?"

"Here in America? Don't be an idiot," another worker said shoving him aside, "Egyptian writing had like, pictures and stuff.

"Well… whatever it is, I think we should hold up the digging for now." The foreman said.

The worker with the jackhammer gave a dismissive snort, "You really wanna tell the project manager that? He's already breathing down our necks and we're on a time crunch here. If we don't work, we don't get paid."

Before the foreman could protest, the worker put the jackhammer on the disk and began to drill, splitting the stone artifact in two.

To his shock, a powerful rush of air and black smoke erupted from the broken stone disk and began to swirl about violently.

The construction workers looked on in sudden fear as the black smoke began coalescing into a large dark form with glowing red eyes. "I'm free!" it cried, causing the swirling black winds to intensify.

"What the hell is that thing?" the foreman gasped in terror as he fell backwards in the dirt. The construction workers scrambled in fear as the creature gave a hideous laugh and blew past them, flying away into the sky. With a trembling hand, the foreman took a cloth and wiped the sweat from his neck, "I… didn't see anything… I think it's time we go on lunch now."

Back at the University, the five students furiously scribbled in their notebooks, trying to keep pace with Professor Bishop's lecture, until Claire stopped and raised her hand. "Professor Bishop, I'm sorry but I still can't understand. What good will learning about all these ancient ziggurats and Roman columns do us in the future?"

Bishop stopped and gave a thoughtful look. "History has long been viewed by students and other disciplines as a boring subject, or a bunch of useless dates, and it certainly can be. Believe me, I understand. But there is an important reason why we study the subject. Anyone want to take a stab?"

"So we don't make the same mistakes that we did in the past?" Danny called out, raising his hand.

Bishop crossed his arms and gave a half nod, "From a pragmatic standpoint, that's very true. But there's also another, more philosophical reason." Glancing down the row, he caught sight of Joe sitting with a pensive look on his face, "Mr. Hale? How about you?"

Joe looked up in surprise and noticed that his other classmates turned to look at him expectantly. He spoke hesitantly, "Well… I guess it's because history is a part of who we are. I mean, if we don't understand how we got here, then how can we even hope to know who we are today, or where we're headed in the future, right?"

Professor Bishop gave a warm smile and nodded, "And it's my hope that by the end of this class, we may answer some of those very questions. But for now…"

He was suddenly cut off when an older man wearing a black jacket and a white Roman Catholic priest's collar entered from the side door. Bishop stopped and gave a look of surprise as the priest walked over and put a folded up note in the professor's hand. Bishop took a quick glance at the note before nodding to the priest and turning back to the class, "For now… I think we'll call it day. Class dismissed."

Claire checked her wristwatch and protested quietly, "But we still have fifteen minutes."

"No complaints here." Nick grinned standing up, "Anyone want to grab a snack at the Student Union before the next class?"

"Sure, why not?" Danny shrugged as he and Izzy walked out of the room with Nick.

As Joe continued to watch Professor Bishop and the priest leave while speaking in hushed tones, he turned as Claire tapped his shoulder, "What do you think that was all about?"

"No clue," he shrugged, "Still… it's kinda strange don't you think?"

"Judging by the people in our class, I don't think we're in any position to judge," she quipped.

He gave her a pointed look until she waved it off with her hand, "In any case, that was a nice answer back there. Joe, right?"

"Yeah, sorry..." he replied, "Izzy didn't formally introduce us back there."

"Don't sweat it," she said nonchalantly shaking his hand, "I'm Claire Li. Where are you headed next?"

"Bio lab at 10:30." Hale grimaced, "My turn to complain about useless Gen Ed requirements now."

Claire gave a faint smirk, "Really? I'm headed there too. Come on, I guess it'll be my turn to take the lead."

While the students departed, Professor Bishop walked quickly down the hallway and out of the building with the older priest. "There is danger Bishop," the priest hissed, "those construction workers think they saw a demon in the city earlier today. I believe it to be an omen."

Bishop sighed in annoyance, "Or maybe they just hit a gas line and were hallucinating the whole thing. Father Santos I don't see why you're bringing this to me now."

Father Santos fixed the young professor with a serious look, "You were given those Keyrunes to study for a reason. If there is some kind of evil growing
nearby, we're all going to depend on you to figure out what they do... in hopes that they may be of use."

Professor Bishop scoffed to himself, "Says the same people who had largely denounced my research as fairy tales and pseudoscience. I'll get right on it Father."

With that, Professor Bishop angrily turned his back and began walking away toward his lonely little office at the edge of campus.

That night, deep in the forests at the outskirts of Hyperion Falls, the bright pale glow of the full moon cast a ghostly light through the leaves as one by one, the animals began to fall silent. A large dark figure with jagged horns and glowing red eyes stalked through the brush until it came to rest by a large moonlit pond. It had been so long since he had been free, the demon Belial couldn't remember what a simple pleasure it was to bask in the night's darkness and moonlight. Raising a claw over the water, he began to softly chant a guttural incantation until the waters of the pond began to bubble and churn with dark power.

In the light of the moon reflecting off the water, Belial could make out the large wispy silhouette of his master, the fallen angel Gideon. The monstrous shadow turned its glowing eyes toward the demon and stretched out his six twisted wings, "Belial? Is that you?" he rasped, his voice distorted by the unstable portal.

"I am here Master." Belial bowed, "The foolish humans have set me free and now I return to do your bidding."

Gideon nodded, "The seal between this world and the Abyss is weakening. I will need you to secure our path for when we escape our prison."

"What would you have me do, Master?" the demon asked leaning closer to the waters.

Gideon raised his hand, "You will seek out the five keyrunes of the Ancients. Find them so that none may take them up to oppose us. Do you understand?"

Belial nodded and cut the connection of his spell, causing the bubbling moonlit waters of the pond to die down. Seeing that he would need help in his search, the demon conjured a winged imp and set it free into the skies. "Go now my pet. Find the keyrunes and bring them to me."

The imp gave a shrill cry as it circled and took off from the tree line into the dark moonlit skies.

A/N:
Now that the plot is underway, I'd like to open things up to you the readers.

If anyone is interested and feeling creative, I'm open to some general submissions for other potential Friends, Allies, or Monsters of the Week. I ask that you please send those suggestions via PM only and not post them in the reviews. I'll be more than happy to work with you guys or answer any questions too. Otherwise, I appreciate any feedback and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts. As always, thank you all for reading!