The Five Rings - Part 1
It was a stormy day. On the side of a large mountain six climbers were using all of their strength to scale the cliff face in the presence of the tortuous wind and rain. A rock fell down, nearly hitting the group's leader, Paul in the head until his partner tugged his rope away at the last second. He looked down at the man who had just saved his life, giving him a cool nod as gratitude. He then proceeded to look down at the rest of his accomplices, seeing that they were struggling just as he was. After taking a second to breathe he glanced upwards, realising that there was a small opening to a cave only a few metres up. With one last push he made it to the opening.
Upon reaching the top he breathed a short sigh of relief, resting his hands on his hips and slightly bending over. He then removed his hat and scarf, revealing a stern, square-jawed, muscular man in his late thirties. After taking a breath he pulled a small worn map out of his pocket, showing the location of the cave. He then pulled his smartphone out of his pocket, looking at the GPS on it to check his location. After replacing the map in his pocket his partner had got up.
"How ya doing?" he asked
His friend did not reply, instead he just peered over the edge, seeing that the others were not far behind. The next one up was a woman, Clara, Paul's wife. She immediately walked over to Paul where he gently kissed her on the forehead. After that her partner pulled himself up, Matt, a large dark-haired, bearded man. He walked up to Paul's partner and gave him a playful chop towards his head, stopping just short but brushing his curly, puffed out hair, he turned around giving Matt a blank stare in his annoyance. In return Matt gave and awkward but cocky smirk and then proceeded to venture further into the cave however was promptly stopped by Paul who quickly snapped.
"Hold up Matthew" in a stern manor, like a teacher talking to a naughty child as he pointed towards the opening of the cave where the last pair of climbers were clambering up; Sebastian a dark-skinned man of a short structure and Martha a tall, thin woman with a shaven head. Both approached Paul where Martha said,
"Well, what now?" as if Paul knew all of the answers to life.
"Well, I think it's actually real" he replied in a surprised but sarcastic manor as he turned his attention over to Matt who had a cheeky but triumphant smirk on his face. He quickly came back and said
"I knew it, you guys just needed to believe in me"
Before Paul could say more his attention was averted to a golf ball sized amulet around his neck that was covered in old-looking markings and was suspended on a silver chain. The amulet had started to glow with light that lead into the cave. Before they could move further some rocks were seen falling and a sound of what appeared to be footsteps
Nervously, Martha asked "isn't this place supposed to be abandoned?"
A confident laugh came from Matt as he boastingly said
"It's probably the spirits of the fallen warriors that guard this place. You never know we may finally get to put our training to good use"
The other just rolled their eyes other than Paul and his climbing partner who did not seem to react and just gave a blank expression.
As the group wandered further into the cave the amulet around Paul's neck started to pulsate which got more and more intense as they went further in. As the group gingerly walked through the tunnel they saw that it was covered in markings that resembled those on Paul's amulet. The cave also had ancient weapons from what seemed to be from all parts of the word scattered all over the floor. The group finally reached the end of the cave where they were presented with what appeared to be a sarcophagus with three statues surrounding it all resembling humanoid figures but with the features of animals, a squid, a vulture and a spider.
The sarcophagus itself had an interesting design. It was covered in markings like those on the cave however thy all lead into the centre where there were five small rivets that were about a centimetre wide, arranged in a circle. Both ends of it were covered by two more statues that were positioned as if they were holding it. Both had humanoid figures but it was not clear what they looked like underneath since they were both hooded.
Matt looked around at the weapons on the floor and fixed his sight on a katana on the floor.
"Gotta get a souvenir" he stated as he picked it up and swung it about triumphantly like a child with a toy.
At that point a man dressed in white robes and hood, wielding a staff with markings matching those of the cave appeared and stood in front of the group. Matt tightened the grip on his sword and shifted to a sideways stance facing the figure. The figure then removed his hood revealing an old man with a long grey ponytail. Paul stepped forward and gently pushed the sword in Matt's hand downwards who immediately gave the look of a child who had been disciplined by a parent.
"Hello. Do you live here?" asked Paul confusingly.
The man fixated his eyes onto Paul and proceeded to say in a deep, bellowing voice,
"Leave, now and don't take anything!" as he fixated his eyes toward Matt and locked his eyes onto him
Matt gave the man an aggressive look, vexed that someone had told him to put his souvenir then proceeded to push Paul out of the way and said
"Well why should I listen to you?"
The figure stared into Matts' eyes and snapped
"Because if you don't the whole world may cease to exist as you know it and it would be your fault"
Matt gave a small chuckle and proceeded to say
"Yeah right, get lost"
An expression of pure rage swept over the figure's face followed by sadness and then anger. He then said
"Well then it is with deep regret that I must do this"
He swung his staff at Matt who blocked the strike with his sword. Paul and his climbing partner who were observing the whole ordeal ran in and tried to break up the fight, Paul grabbed Matt by the shoulders and his partner did the same for the mysterious man. The mysterious man then turned to Paul's partner and with seemingly no effort kicked him into a tunnel going off to the side of the cave. Seeing what had just happened Paul yanked at Matt's jacket only for him to be blanked by the man who was at this point fixated on the fight.
As the two fighting men moved throughout the cave Matt started swinging his sword more heavily seeing that his opponent had the upper hand and in his rage he hit and struck the head off of the statue that resembled the humanoid squid. The pair temporarily ceased fighting as the mysterious man gave a look of sheer terror as what appeared to be a ghost came out of the statue and flew around the cave for a few seconds. To the amazement of the rest of the group who had frozen in disbelief of what they had just witnessed. The ghost the darted towards Martha who fell over when she had noticed it wanted her. It then went straight into her mouth and then inside her.
Martha then stood up stiff as a board with a glazed over look and eyes that were completely white at that point tentacles started to appear all over her body as she turned into what the statue was. Once the transformation had completed she knelt to the ground and started heavily breathing.
The two men were still fighting and Matt was clearly outmatched but nonetheless was undeterred. After taking another large swing he stumbled forwards and fell into the statue of the humanoid spider. Once again a ghost came out and his time went into Sebastian and like with Martha it turned him into a living version of the statue and like with the other on he fell to his knees.
In a desperate attempt to save his friend Paul grabbed a shuriken from the floor and threw it at the mysterious man but missed and hit the last intact statue. This caused it to become weakened and fall apart. Like with the other two a ghost sprung from the statue but this one was larger than the other two. It flew between the fighting men stopping them from fighting. The ghost then singled out Matt and circled him before going into his mouth and once again he turned into the vulture-like being.
The three new beings then stood up and then approached each other and in that instant disappeared into thin air. The walls of the cave than started to shake and crumble. Paul ran toward Clara but was cut off by a rock fall before he could reach her. After more intense shaking Paul fell over and became trapped by more falling rocks, seemingly with no way out.
After the shaking had stopped Paul froze for a second, pulled the rocks off of himself and analysed his surroundings then out of the corner of his eye saw the mysterious man whose bottom half had been trapped by the rocks. Paul rushed over and started to remove the rocks, thinking the man was unconscious. Suddenly the man grabbed Paul's leg, making him jump. In a broken voice the man said to Paul
"There is no need, it is up to you now"
"What?" Paul said, confused
"Your amulet" he replied, pointing to Paul's amulet.
Paul grasped his amulet and cradled it in his hand like a small baby.
"What about it?" he asked
"It shows you are the one" the man replied
"The one?" Paul replied, still confused and shocked at what had just happened.
The man tightened his grip on Paul's leg, he then reached into his robe and pulled out a book that had the same markings as Paul's amulet. Paul took the book and gave the front of it a confused glance before averting his attention back to the mysterious man.
"Who are you?" Paul asked
"My name is Shalen, last of the Dragonknights" the man replied
Paul gave a shocked look to Shalen before twisting his head sideways and giving a confused look. He opened his mouth to ask more questions but before he could his vision went completely white and he passed out. When he awoke he was in the open at the bottom of the mountain. He had none of his climbing equipment on him and none of his possessions, apart from his amulet. But then he noticed that by his head there were five golden-coloured rings, each with a different coloured gem in them; pink, green, blue, yellow and red. And each gem had a different symbol of an animal in them; the pink one an eagle, the green one an alligator, the blue one an ape, the yellow one a scorpion and the red one a tiger.
In another cave the three monsters that had just appeared out of the statues and taken the bodies of Paul's accomplices had just teleported to. The vulture-like one, Cyrax was the leader. He gazed at his brother and sister, Kaida, the squid-like one, and Scuttle, the spider-like one.
"Finally!" he triumphantly yelled
"Those fools thought they could hold us forever" he said with glee.
In a sinister voice Kaida butted in saying "I never thought we would find worthy hosts for our spirits again"
Turning to Scuttle, noticing that he was seeming to be quieter than he should Cyrax said "What seems to be the problem brother, are you not happy to be finally free after thousands of years as a statue?" in a concerned manor.
In a depressed voice Scuttle replied "I am my brother but our mother has been buried in the rock fall, all because of that Dragonknight"
"Fear not brother, she will soon be free once we've uncovered the tomb and got the rings" Cyrax replied.
In the cave they were in there were more markings on the wall were as old as those in the first cave but different. These had a darker tone to them and instead of weapons covering the floor there were small urns that had the markings on them of those in the first cave. Jeer gestured to the pots, seeing this Kaida's and Scuttle's faces lit up.
"Our old comrades are imprisoned in these urns" said Cyrax.
"We can use them to get the rings to free our mother" he beamed as he looked over to Kaida.
"But how are we going to get to the tomb after the rock fall?" she replied.
"I'm sure Scuttle can help us with that problem" added Cyrax.
"Certainly" replied Scuttle
"The first load should be coming out now" he added as he stood at an altar at the back of the cave.
With that he moved his abdomen towards a large stone bowl located at the bottom of it and a few seconds after that happened a horde of large humanoid ants sprung out of the bowl and started snarling and spitting venom but when they saw the three who had brought them to life they stopped moving and turned their attention to Cyrax.
"Venomites!" he screamed.
"Free our mother's sarcophagus" he ordered and with that he teleported them to the site of the cave in to start work on removing the rubble.
"Get another load going" he said, edging towards Scuttle.
"Yes brother" Scuttle replied
"If we are to get the power from these rings we're gonna need many more" Cyrax replied.
From seemingly out of nowhere Kaida butted in saying
"If those rings have chosen a master, do you really think those Venomites are going to be enough?"
"Should we maybe get smashing" Scuttle added with excitement.
"Just one" Cyrax snapped
He added on "If we freed all of them at once they will realise that we failed them and will turn on us and destroy us"
"Yes brother" Scuttle replied timidly as she studied the vast array of urns until he picked one out and smashed it on the floor. As the urn smashed a black and grey smoke filled the air around it and as it cleared arose a tall monster with black scales like a lizard but then large horns like a bull. Cyrax smirked in triumph.
"What now?" Kaida asked Cyrax
"We wait" he slowly replied.
Five years after the events of the cave in a small industrial estate on the outskirts of the city of Maidensville Myles Hudson was sitting on a small wall outside of what appeared to be a run-down unit. Above it was a faded sign that read 'Warrior's Spirit Martial Arts Centre' with a symbol of a coiled up dragon next to it and a phone number and an email address below it. The rest of the area had distribution centres for small trendy clothing companies or shops for tradesmen to buy their tools and parts. Nowhere was operating since it was a Sunday afternoon and everyone else was at home however Myles was not there for that, he was there for the martial arts class. He was waiting for the instructor to arrive, he checked his watch, 15 minutes to go. He was always the first one there and was always early but that didn't bother him, he liked to be alone and listen to his music away from the rest of society. That day was no different seeing that he had time to kill he unzipped his thin, red hoodie, put his headphones in his ears and zipped it back up to stop the wires from dangling around. He looked up to the sky and saw a blanket of menacing grey clouds approaching. With a light sneer he plugged the headphones into his phone and scrolled through the array of music that he constantly listened to, only one thing could satisfy him that day, heavy metal. He finally felt that he had some peace and quiet.
A few minutes went by and a large four by four pulled up. From the passenger seat a well-built guy around the same age as Myles came out wearing a dark blue t-shirt. It was Shawn, Myles' favourite training partner from the class, the way they would train together made everything seem so easy and made each technique just flow perfectly.
"What's up?" he said excitedly to Myles as he lightly slapped him on the side of the arm with the back of his hand as he sat down on the wall next to him.
"Nothing much" Myles replied in a reserved but upbeat manor. He looked at his watch again, five minutes until the lesson starts.
"He should be here by now" Myles said to Shawn.
"Yeah, I wonder what we're doing today" Shawn replied
Quickly Myles came back with
"I dunno, I just hope we don't have to use that pole"
Shawn gave a light chuckle. There was a pole tied between the two pillars in the dojo that was used to climb across, Myles could do anything that they were doing in the dojo apart from anything involving that pole.
"You'll get it one day" Shawn said in a supportive manor
At that point a black hatchback car pulled up just near the door to the dojo. The engine turned off and out came Paul. Paul was a martial arts teacher who liked to climb in his spare time. He had not shared the events of the cave with his students even though they knew that something was up since he always wore a wedding ring but never mentioned family and whenever he was asked about his amulet he would go quiet and quickly change the subject or scald the students for not concentrating on their training.
Myles and Shawn quietly hoisted themselves up from the wall and made their way over to the door where Paul was removing the padlock to the dojo door.
"Hello" Paul said in a brash but friendly manor while looking up at his students.
As they followed their teacher into the dojo the sound of a bicycle abruptly breaking was heard outside. A few seconds later a girl with a black polo shirt with pink stripes walked in, Freya. She kicked off her shoes and joined Myles and Shawn who were putting their belts on in the bench area. Myles looked up at her and gave a friendly smile before going back to what he was doing, Shawn doing the same shortly afterwards. Alfreda gave a similar look to them back. She was the newest member of the class she had just moved to Maidensville from Latvia and had trouble settling in but found a degree of comfort in the martial arts club. She only spoke when Paul came up to her and asked her.
"How you doing?" in his usual upbeat but serious manor.
"Fine thanks" she timidly replied
"Can I use the room?" she added.
"Of course" Paul replied
She quickly took a plain black t-shirt out of the pink drawstring bag that she had on her back and walked into a store cupboard at the back of the dojo. Despite having their own dojo they did not have their own changing room so the women would usually have to use the store cupboard to change in.
Myles took his red hoody off to reveal a similar black t-shirt while Shawn did nothing.
The next student to come in was Lizzie, the youngest and smallest person in the group. She came in and confidently walked over to the bench and placed her yellow bag down next to Myles'. Myles noticed this and gave a vague smile and said.
"Hey Lizzie" in a manor like you would to a younger child.
"Hello" she replied with an element of sass in her voice. She then proceeded to pull a yellow hair band out of her long-bushy hair.
Paul looked at the clock on the wall, 12:59, and the lesson starts at 13:00. Just at that point the sound of a barely working moped pulling up came from outside of the dojo. Almost instantly after Aron stumbled in. He hastily kicked off his shoes and ducked under the door leading from the foyer into the main dojo. He threw off his green camouflage jacket and put his belt on in a rush. Myles gave him a humorous look before tapping his head. Aron put his hands on his head in confusion before remembering he still had his dark green beanie had on. He pulled it off to reveal his straight black hair and threw it on top of his jacket.
Looking relieved Paul said "Ah, just in time"
"Sorry I'm late" Aron replied in his usual apologetic manor
Paul then looked back at the clock
"Time to start" he shouted
The students promptly stood in line from left to right in order of most to least senior; Myles, Shawn, Lizzie, Aron, then Freya.
"Kneel" said Paul as the class then knelt down. He then turned his head slightly towards Myles and gave him a gentle nod.
"Bow to Sensei" Myles shouted as part of the opening ceremony of each class. The class promptly followed along and simultaneously bowed to Paul who promptly bowed back.
"Let us begin" Paul said. He walked over to some baskets that were laid out at the edge of the room and pulled out two boxing pads. He then threw them at Myles who put them on and stood in front of Paul. The two them bowed to each other and Paul instructed Myles on what to do with the pads. He then showed a combination of strikes on them. He repeated the combination several times to ensure that the class had got it.
"Now you try" he announced to the class.
Aron and Lizzie went over to the baskets and pulled out a pair of pads each. Aron put the pads on and confidently walked over to Shawn who gave a confident nod in return, holding them up just as Myles did. Lizzie walked over to Freya who was nervously standing (where she was from the start of the demo), handing the pads to her. Freya then put the pads on and held them up while looking at Myles for assurance. Myles continued to train with Paul. Paul took the pads off of Myles so that he could have a go.
After repeating the striking sequence a few times Paul gave a small smile to Myles and gently touched him on the arm saying
"That was really good, your training is really coming along"
Myles smiled and subtly nodded in acknowledgement.
Paul then went over to Shawn and Aron. The pair had swapped over at this point with the pads on Shawn and Aron doing the striking. Being a boxer Shawn had hit the pads hard and Aron's hands were hurting, even though the pads. Aron repeated the pattern a few times over before Paul stepped in to give him some pointers.
Being without a partner Myles felt lost. He glanced over to Freya and Lizzie who were also doing the combination but unlike with Shawn and Aron it was still on Lizzie. She was having trouble remembering the combination. She looked over to Myles for assurance who in turn looked over to Paul only to see that he was still busy with Shawn and Aron. He gave a kind smile and went over to help.
"Let me see you do it first" he calmly said
"But I have no idea" Lizzie snapped back
Just do it" Myles replied in the same calm tone.
With a roll of the eyes Lizzie gesture to Freya to hold the pads up and went to attempt the combination again. Myles just looked on with his eyes fixated on Lizzie's hand hitting the pads. After she finished the combination Myles chuckled softly.
"It was actually pretty good" he said
"Just use the other hand for the chop at the end" he added.
Seemingly from out of nowhere Freya said
"Can I try?"
She took the pads off and handed them to Lizzie who put them on. Freya took up the stance ready to start the combination however before she could start Paul shouted
"Halt!"
The class fell deadly silent and sat down at the back of the room awaiting further instructions from Paul. He pointed towards Shawn who joined him at the front then bowed to him. Paul then demonstrated a technique involving kicking your partner over your head. After demonstrating it a few times he instructed the class to try it themselves like once before. He also instructed them to change partners. Shawn trained with Paul while Aron went to Freya and Myles to Lizzie. Since Myles was the senior student he got to go first. As him and Lizzie took up the stance to do the technique Lizzie gave a nervous giggle.
"I haven't hurt you yet" he quietly said as he did the technique the first time, throwing her over his head with ease. She rolled out of it and stood up with her back facing to Myles.
"See that wasn't so bad" Myles said
"You wanna go?" he quickly continued
"Alright" she said in a scared tone of voice.
"I won't crush you" he replied reassuringly
As Lizzie did the technique Myles dived over her, giving her the impression that she was throwing him. Unfortunately he misjudged how much power he needed to put into it and went too far, going into a shelf located in the corner of the room. From the shelf fell a small brown box. As it hit the floor the five golden rings that Paul had obtained from the fateful day at the cave fell out.
Seeing what had just fallen Paul's eyes widened with shock, seeing what had just fallen. He ceased training with Shawn and marched over to the corner and bent over to pick the rings up but before he could touch them the gems on them started to pulsate. Paul froze with amazement, his eyes remained wide.
"It's time" Paul muttered to himself. He took a second to compose himself before marching over to the pulsating rings on the floor and scooping them up in one hand.
He turned towards Myles who gave him a confused look.
"Take one" Paul said in a solemn tone.
Myles glanced down at the rings and back up at Paul (who gave a small nod towards the rings in his hand). He eventually reached forward and took the one with the red gem on it.
Paul then turned towards Lizzie who took the yellow one, then Shawn who took the blue one, Freya who took the pink one and finally Aron who took the green one.
"What are these?" Aron asked
Paul put the box down then picked up the book that Shalen had given him then turned towards the class who were looking to him for answers.
"Let me explain" he said
The class gazed at him in confusion. He stood in front of them, he glanced down at his amulet then opened to book.
"Five years ago, before I knew any of you I had gone climbing with some of my older students, including my wife Clara. We had been climbing a mountain that was said to be home to 'The Cave of the Warrior' according to one of my more outgoing students, Matthew Rose. It was said to be a cave that housed the spirits of all of the greatest fallen warriors throughout history. I didn't believe it and frankly I didn't want to go but Matthew insisted that we looked for it. He was arrogant and wanted to be the best at everything. I had always picked him up on his ego but he never listened to me. After finding the cave we were met by Shalen, the last of the Dragonknights, an order sworn to defend the world from the most evil of all warriors, those alive and in spirit. Matt did not see that this man wanted to help us and attacked him. In the ensuing battle that followed he managed to free the spirits of the Triad of Destruction. These spirits took over the bodies of some of my best students. Kaida, destructor of the sea took Martha, Scuttle destructor of the land took Sebastian and their leader, Cyrax destructor of the sky took Matthew himself. Some of my students, including Clara were lost in the fall of the cave that followed."
He pointed to an old photo of him and his class where a tear came to his eye and he continued,
"Their ultimate goal is to awaken their mother, her name was lost in time, she is only known as the Lady of the Doomed, a being that takes in all of the fallen fighters of evil. That is when Shalen came to me. He gave me these rings as well as this book that contains the knowledge that comes with them. He told me to find those who are worth of their power, those who have the spirits of a true warrior and the only ones who can prevent the Lady of the Doomed from being awakened"
He then moved over to the front of the dojo where he pressed a button behind the picture of his old class. The front of the wall turned around revealing an old looking shrine but with a modern-looking screen on it.
"So what do you think?" he said
Myles laughed and said
"Is this some kind of joke?"
"I like it" Freya interrupted
"That's not all" Paul continued
"The book taught me how I can harness the power of these rings to their full potential and how you can use them"
"And how is that?" Lizzie asked
"They will allow you to become Power Rangers" Paul said back with glee.
The class once again fell silent in awe. Paul once again spoke
"I figured out how to boost your cell phones with the power of the rings so I can reach you and you can reach each other anywhere and at any time" as he pointed towards the shrine. He pressed a button and some energy from the rings came out of them and into the class' cell phones. He then glanced at the clock, 15:00, and the end of class.
"Time to go. Oh and keep this quiet" he said.
The class, including Paul forgot to do the closing ceremony in light of what they had just been told. As Myles wandered out of the dojo he was walking alongside Aron where he asked him on his thoughts on what they had just been told.
"So what do you think of all this?" Myles said with a light chuckle while looking at his ring
"I have no idea" Aron replied, still in a state of shock rom the news as he climbed onto his moped. And started it up. The engine juddered for a few seconds. Aron stared at it in suspense, even he didn't know if it was going to start or not. Finally it started, Aron gave Myles a small wave before moving off out of the complex. Myles turned around to Shawn, the two could not help but laugh, they both knew that Aron's moped couldn't move very fast and it kept breaking down.
Back in their cave Cyrax, Kaida, Scuttle and their monster Minard were waiting until a felling shot up Cyrax's back. He jumped to his feet, suddenly feeling like he had been reborn, like he finally had a purpose.
"They have been found" Jeer replied with glee
"The rings have chosen their masters" he continued as he turned to Minard.
"Take the Venomites and retrieve them!" he ordered
Minard gave a growl before bowing. Scuttle fired a bolt of his venom out of his fangs onto Minard which caused him to teleport away along with the Venomites that were surrounding him.
Back at the dojo Myles and Shawn were still giggling about Aron's scooter. They had been joined by Lizzie who was waiting for her mother to pick her up as she was the youngest and could not drive and didn't have enough money for the bus. Freya was un-chaining her bike but before she could finish unwrapping the chain the whole group glanced up.
"Is he coming back?" Shawn said in confusion
"Probably forgot his phone again" Lizzie came back with a snigger
At that point Aron came skidding back round the corner, falling off his moped and shortly being followed by Minard and twenty or so Venomites.