Chapter 2 - Patiently

Kira Ford tossed her magazines into the empty seat next to her. She had read through each of them already during the flight from New York to San Francisco. They completely bored her by now, halfway through the train ride to Reefside. She needed something else to help pass the time.

The TV mounted two rows up didn't make things any better. It was still repeating the same GNN news reports that had been playing in a loop for the last several hours. Will had gone nuts in Angel Grove yesterday, before he was somehow taken down. An initial account claimed that a villain had shot him down with an energy blast before stealing his morpher. It came from a nine-year-old known for his overactive imagination, who gave three wildly different descriptions of the villain within the next several hours. With no other sightings in the area, and no alerts from the city's monster detection system, the police were now assuming that Will's HoverTek Cycle had exploded due to a malfunction. It was decided that some ordinary thief must have made off with the morpher. The Angel Grove Police were experienced with monsters and supervillains, knowing that they were never this inconspicuous.

Kira had called Dr. O after the incident, offering her help. But he had reassured her that everything looked fine, and that he could take care of it himself. Still, Kira wondered about who was now running around with the Black Overdrive Tracker. Whoever he is, he can't be any worse than Will. She cracked a smile as she shook her head in disapproval of own nasty thought. Kira knew that this was a serious matter, and that she should be more respectful to her fellow Ranger. But it's Will, she thought. She was sure that the other Rangers were already searching for the thief, and that they would defeat him with ease if he were to use the morpher for illegal purposes. She would help as well, if called upon. Until then, she was worried about whether Will's antics would affect her gig in Angel Grove the next day.

She had also called Tori and Xander. They were two of the Rangers who had remained close to her, and they were always available if she wanted to chat. The two of them were also stunned by the news, but they agreed that Will was the Ranger most likely to get himself into this kind of trouble. The subject led to a discussion about their team up two years ago, when the three of them had helped save the Overdrive Rangers from Thrax.

Kira didn't like to talk badly about others, but she couldn't resist being drawn into the conversation. She and Tori laughed about Dax and Will's attempts to hit on them. Xander couldn't understand how quickly Tyzonn had flipped from desperately wanting to stop the Fearcats, to quitting with the rest of the Overdrive team in the middle of the crisis.

The three of them reminisced about their farewell to the Overdrive Rangers, after Thrax had been defeated. They had wanted nothing more than to call the younger Rangers out on their behavior. Adam, however, had wisely instructed them to maintain a friendly tone lest they damage the Overdrive team's fragile egos again. Kira and her friends cracked up over the phone when they remembered how Hartford had called for a "Go Go Power Rangers" cheer for "old time's sake" – as if he and his team had ever been there. "Desperate to fit in" was how Tori had described him.

Worst team of Rangers ever, Kira thought. She had been mentored by Tommy Oliver, a member of the original team. She had seen his video diaries. She knew what a real Ranger from back in the day was like.

Stuck on the train with nothing else to occupy herself with, Kira withdrew into her memories. Her thoughts took her to another team up, which had occurred a year after she had first met the Overdrive Rangers. A new threat from the Mystic Realm had emerged, and most of the Rangers still active then already had their hands full. That desperate situation had led to a rare call from Dr. O.

Good old Dr. O, she thought as she picked up the phone. He was usually busy with something else whenever she had called him before. Kira understood that a man who watched over more than one world did not have a lot of time to chat with friends. But when she and Dr. O did get to talk, she always felt an instant reconnection as if they had never gone their separate ways.

"Kira, I need you." Dr. O said, before explaining the Goblin-Troll War. On the request of their friend Phineas, the Mystic Rangers had attempted to broker a lasting peace agreement between the two races. Nick took it upon himself to mediate a meeting between the Goblin High Council and Karnac, the Troll King. The meeting was a disaster. Both parties arrived paranoid about treachery from the other side. Suspicions turned to accusations, which led to blows. By the end of that day, tensions between the two races had erupted into all-out war. The goblins rolled out their mechanized armies, while the trolls relied on their black magic and superior physical strength.

The Mystic Rangers struggled to restore order in the Mystic Realm, while the Jungle Fury team was still busy contending with their foe Dai Shi. Most of the other Rangers kept watch over their own cities, as the fighting spilled over into the Earth realm. Karnac himself had come to Earth in search of the Darkheart, an ancient sword that could destroy the goblins forever.

The task of leading a team against Karnac was laid before Kira. According to Dr. O, she was the first one who had come to mind as he was drawing up his plans. That statement, which he delivered so casually, filled Kira with pride. Without thinking about it, she quickly accepted the assignment so that she could do her mentor proud.

"Nick!" Kira yelled as she greeted him outside of Hartford Manor. "Glad you could make it." He had called Kira earlier with an offer to help lead the team, wanting to be there when they confronted Karnac. Kira had gladly accepted that offer. While she was usually quite open and frank when dealing with others, she often found herself acting more reserved during Ranger matters. It's easier to speak up when nothing's at stake, she admitted to herself. Kira remembered falling in line behind Conner whenever he took the lead during battle, even if she wasn't sure that he knew what he was doing. She deferred to Dr. O as well, but he was Dr. O. It helped that she was so close to the two of them, and comfortable in trusting their decisions. Kira had been far less comfortable with the idea of leading, and possibly clashing with teammates who weren't so easy to get along with.

Because of that, she felt anxious as she entered the mansion with Nick. With limited options, Kira had reluctantly turned to several of the Overdrive Rangers for help. At least they can find artifacts, she thought, trying to look on the bright side of things.

Kira and Nick stepped into Hartford's command center and surveyed their troops. The billionaire stood on one side of the room with Rose, Dax, and Will. Two young men that Kira didn't recognize stood on the other side, wearing colorful Chinese-style uniforms.

"Hi everyone." Kira walked forward and smiled brightly, hoping to get things started on the right track. Hearing something from their direction, she turned to the Overdrive Rangers.

"I'm a leader, not a follower," Will muttered. Rose wasn't paying much attention to her new teammates, taking a quick glance at Kira before returning her eyes to the computer that she had been working on. Dax wasn't paying much attention either; he was too distracted by a small bag that he kept feeling in his hands.

Whatever, Kira thought as she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She turned to the two unfamiliar men. "Hey there. I'm Kira, nice to meet you."

The taller, blond-haired man came up and shook her hand. He maintained his soft grip a little too long as he peered into her eyes, with a dopey smile forming on his face. "I'm Dominic…you're beauti–"

Kira was about to yank her hand back when the shorter, Asian man pulled his companion off. "Easy lover boy," he said with a hint of disdain. He turned to Kira and introduced himself in a brash tone. "The name's Theo."

This is gonna be bad, Kira thought. One minute in and she already knew that this team wouldn't gel. She wondered if Nick would step up and help bring some order to this group. Regardless, she had to press on. "You guys must be from Jungle Fury."

"Of course," Theo replied. "The Darkheart is a Pai Zhua legend. Our Master thought you guys might need some help."

"Well, it's good to have you on our side. Let's get to work guys." Kira turned to the Overdrive Rangers. "Do you have any information we can use?"

Rose stepped in front of a holographic display as a confident smile appeared on her face. "Utilizing geosynchronous surveillance satellites, I have triangulated the distinctive –"

"Sorry," Kira said with a friendly smile. "Can you say that in simpler terms for the rest of us?" Judging from their expressions, Dominic and Dax already seemed lost.

"Listen, you will NOT make me ashamed of my own intelligence!" Kira was stunned as Rose suddenly snapped, coming up to her and sticking a finger in her face. Her first instinct was to say something right back at Rose, but then she remembered her previous experience with the Overdrive Rangers. She struggled to think of a proper reaction as Rose continued to glare at her.

Kira managed to regain her composure after a few long, awkward moments. "I, I'm sorry Rose. I didn't mean to make you feel bad." Rose turned away with her nose in the air, returning to the holographic display. Things were already getting out of hand. Any time Nick, Kira thought. She turned around and saw him standing silently behind her. Nick didn't seem very comfortable with the situation either. She felt for him, because she knew that leadership didn't come naturally to everyone. But she couldn't be the only one responsible for bringing this team into line. Come on Hartford, say something. She turned and gave Hartford her own angry glare. The man threw up his hands, as if to say "Don't look at me."

Rose explained what she had found. Using American military satellites – as well as a couple of Russian satellites that she had hacked into – she had detected a powerful new energy signature that had just recently flared up. Rose believed that it was the Darkheart energizing due to Karnac's mystical efforts to reach out to it. It was located in the mountains near the northern California town of Cresthill Valley.

Dax didn't like the sound of that. "I've heard of that place. People say it's cursed!" Shaking with fright, he clutched his small bag close to his face.

Kira thought that was a sorry reaction for a Ranger, but she decided to keep quiet so that she could hear some more about the supposed curse. Theo wasn't as restrained. "What's the matter, you scared?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Guys, there's no such thing as a curse," she said matter-of-factly.

The team headed for the hangar after the briefing. They were going to ride on the SHARC, which was the Overdrive Rangers' hypersonic transport vehicle. But once there they were stopped by Hartford's butler Spencer, who wanted to commemorate the occasion with a team photo.

"Ah, red, yellow, blue, pink, black and white," Spencer said out as he readied his camera. "We have ourselves a classic team of Power Rangers."

"Not quite," Theo chimed in. "Look around. There are seven of us. Two blue."

He's right, Kira thought. This is my chance! She looked over her two Blue Rangers. Weighing their pros and cons, she pondered which one she could dispose of as an excess member who could contribute more elsewhere. Should I pick the dimwit or the cocky jerk? It wasn't an easy choice.

Kira thought about the other members of her team. Will had already made clear his attitude about working with others. Rose thought that she was smarter than everyone else, who she obviously looked down upon. Dominic seemed okay when he wasn't being dumb or creepy, though Kira had doubts about his ability to follow orders. And then there was Nick, had been a leader for no discernible reason to Kira, but an official leader nonetheless. The team already had too many "leaders" and "strong" personalities. It didn't need another one.

"Good point Theo. Listen, I feel really bad about dragging you away from Ocean Bluff. Your city needs you." That's right, Kira thought to herself. Play to his ego.

"It sure does."

"Your team's leader probably wouldn't know what to do without your help." Kira didn't know the Jungle Fury Red Ranger, but she assumed that Theo didn't get along with him either. It was an educated guess.

"Casey?" Theo snorted. "I was the one who taught him how to fight!"

"Well I guess it's settled then."

Theo nodded and smiled. "It's good to see a leader who respects my talents."

Kira had gotten rid of Theo, but she still had to put up with the rest of her dysfunctional team during the flight to Cresthill Valley. Dominic and Dax seemed to really hit it off, yukking it up at each other's inane jokes. Rose sat there quietly with her face buried in a book, only acknowledging her teammates through the occasional glance and headshake. Kira felt sick, but she didn't know if it was because of her teammates, or the flight. Will had taken the controls, and was making all sorts of unnecessary maneuvers in a likely attempt to show off. Kira sighed in distress about the possibility that she would fail the world. That she would let down Dr. O, after all the trust that he shown her. She had no one to turn to…

"Hey, what's got you down?"

Kira looked up and saw Nick. "I'm just worried about the mission," she replied.

Nick looked over his shoulder at the other members of the team and nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

Finally, Kira thought. It was good to know that she wasn't alone in this.

"Don't worry Kira. You've got the Light on your side." Nick gave Kira a bright smile and a reassuring pat on the shoulder before returning to his seat. Kira didn't know what "the Light" was, but she thought it sounded similar to "the Power" that had protected Dr. O in the scenes that she had seen from his video diary. Nick's words gave her hope, even as Will took the SHARC into another stomach-turning dive.

The SHARC finally landed outside of Cresthill Valley, after a ride that had seemed much longer to Kira than it actually was. The landing zone was near the general location of the Darkheart, but the Rangers would have to search for the weapon on foot and pinpoint it using handheld tracking devices. Kira made the command decision to traverse the rocky terrain unmorphed, so that the Rangers wouldn't be given away from a distance by their colorful power suits. That decision required the team to keep its eyes open so that it wouldn't fall to a first shot by the enemy. Will took point, while Dax and Rose were assigned to watch the flanks.

After walking for a while, Kira noticed Dax caressing his bag once again instead of doing his job. She stopped the team to have a few words with him. "Dax, what are you doing?"

"Sorry, I can't focus. I'm telling you, this place is cursed."

Kira shook her head and looked down at Dax's mysterious bag. "What's that in your hand?"

"These? Oh, they're my lucky marbles."

Lucky marbles! Is this guy serious? Kira wondered why fate would stick her with such a defective team, so utterly incapable of doing anything right. Then she remembered something that Dr. O had once told Conner: that the leader is ultimately responsible for the team's performance. That a real leader should take charge of the situation, no matter how bad it was. But how can I do that, when none of them will listen?

Kira knew that such ideals were much harder to practice, but that did little to comfort her. She couldn't shake the nagging idea that she was just a bad leader, who was in over her head and partially responsible for this situation. The team's problems should have been addressed right away, instead of being allowed to persist. She should have stood up to Rose. She should have put Will in his place, and reassured Dax. But it was too late for that now. Please, just let me get through this one time, Kira thought.

A black fireball suddenly soared down from Dax's direction, exploding near the Rangers and sending them all to the ground. The trolls had found them. "Just like lambs to the slaughter," Karnac proclaimed.

The team got up and prepared to do battle.

"Magical Source, Mystic Force!"

"Dino Thunder, power up! Ha!"

"Overdrive, accelerate!"

"Ha, you missed!"

"God Dom, will you just morph?" Kira threw her hands up in frustration and disbelief.

The Rhino Ranger transformed just as the spear-wielding trolls descended upon them. The team was quickly separated as the battle turned into a vicious, chaotic melee. More and more trolls came down from above, propelled as high as twenty feet into the air by their powerful legs. Kira was struck down from behind as she saw Will personally challenging Karnac.

The violence seemed to excite the land itself. It came to life, rupturing in various places to swallow combatants or spew corrosive green vapor. Troll warriors flailed their arms in pain as their skin burned from the acid.

Kira tried to get up, struggling against the pair of trolls that were on top of her as well as the trembling ground beneath. The earth gave away before she could escape. As the nearby trolls tumbled into oblivion, Kira avoided the same fate by clutching on to the edge of the newly formed abyss. A deep, sinister laugh echoed up from below as Kira climbed out of the hole. "Gee, it's almost like this place is cursed."

Just when it seemed like things couldn't get any bleaker, the goblins entered the fray. Goblin soldiers fired their muskets at anything that moved, while their more powerful clockwork robots engaged the trolls in hand-to-hand combat. A massive, steam-powered Goblin Zord appeared, indiscriminately stomping around the battlefield.

The Zord blasted Kira off the ground with a volley of cannonballs. She landed on her side, bouncing off of the hard, rocky surface. With her thoughts blurred by the impact, she lied on the ground for a half minute as trolls and goblins clashed around her. She couldn't help but think that she could tear the crude war machine apart if she still had her Ptera Zord. Kira got up and fought off another troll, diving away just as the Goblin Zord fired again. More cannonballs rained down, annihilating the goblins' friends and foes alike.

Kira took cover in a natural trench, rolling in just as the ground exploded behind her. She leaned against the trench wall, holding her head in a daze. Looking to the side, she saw the bright red of Nick's power suit.

"Nick! Thank God you're here. I couldn't find the others."

Nick just sat there, bent over and with his helmet in his hands. "It-It's all my fault…"

He seemed distraught. Kira put her hands on his shoulders, trying to reassure him like he had done for her onboard the SHARC. "What are you talking about Nick?"

"None of this would've happened if I didn't arrange that meeting…if I wasn't a Ranger…"

Rocks slid down the trench walls, as did the bodies of several goblins. Something has to be done, fast, Kira thought. She said what she could to give Nick strength.

"Don't worry. Look at me Nick, look at me! Whatever happens, we have the Light on our side!"

Nick looked up at her, with his lips quivering. "I-I am the Light! And I failed!" His head fell back down in disgrace.

Kira's jaw dropped. Oh God I'm screwed. Things looked so hopeless that she felt the urge to just give up and hide in the trench. But she fought back that moment of weakness and stood up. She didn't want to be like Nick. Take charge of the situation, she remembered. "Listen, you can sit there and feel sorry for yourself, or you can try to do something about it." Kira turned and started heading up the trench walls.

"All I wanted was to help."

"You can help by getting up and fighting."

"But it's so–"

Kira didn't hear the rest of Nick's sentence, for she had already pulled herself out of the trench. Fighting with renewed determination, she cut through dozens of foes to find her teammates. A group of goblin robots had encircled Dax, Rose, and Dom, pounding on the Rangers from all sides with their heavy metal limbs. Kira intervened with a flying kick, toppling several of the clumsy machines. Helping Rose off of the ground, she cried out to rally her teammates. "Keep fighting Rangers! Give them everything you've got!" Chills ran down her spine as she led her team into a charge. This was unlike anything she had previously done as a Power Ranger. It was strange, new, and exciting.

As she brought her sword down on one of the mechanical goblins, Kira heard Will screaming "It's mine!" She turned and saw Will making off with the Darkheart, weaving between several acidic geysers. Karnac pursued him toward the town, with the Goblin Zord following close behind.

"Maneuver to attack both groups from the flank," Kira shouted. "Give them an opening to retreat. Don't get caught in the middle again." She left her team after issuing those orders, running toward a nearby slope.

"Where are you going?" Dax shouted.

"I've got a Zord to catch!"

Kira quickly ran up the slope as her teammates continued to battle the trolls and goblins. Jumping off from the top, she went into Super Dino Mode and soared into the valley below toward the Goblin Zord. She almost slipped off as she smashed against its shoulder, barely managing to dig her fingers in between two armored plates. Climbing toward the head, Kira found an entry hatch and sliced it open. She slid inside, falling into the depths of the massive combat vehicle.

After crawling through its sooty gears and pipes, she reached what appeared to be the engine room. "Okay, now how do I shut this thing down?" Kira tried to think of a way to disable the Zord without causing a catastrophic explosion. "Wish Ethan or Hayley were here," she said as she looked around, unable to recognize any of the moving parts. "Guess I'll have to do things the hard way." She took out her blaster and opened fire in every direction. Sparks and metal fragments flew as the pipes burst open, releasing clouds of pressurized steam into the room. Kira ran for a nearby a mechanical lift, not wanting to stick around for a potential explosion.

The lift took her to the cockpit, directly behind the goblin pilots. Caught by surprise, they were easily dispatched. Kira got behind the controls as the dying Zord began to waver. She looked down and took aim at Karnac through the Zord's telescopic sights, doing her best to compensate for the swaying. With a great deal of satisfaction, she pulled the trigger. Kira saw Karnac's body being flung into the air, but she didn't have time to confirm the kill or fire another round of shots. She blasted through the front window and spread her wings, leaping from the Goblin Zord just seconds before it exploded.

The shockwave pushed her down faster than she would have liked. Kira made some adjustments, bringing herself down in a semi-controlled landing. She still hit the ground hard, in a way that was sure to leave bruises. Oh well, I've had worse today, Kira thought. She lied on the ground for half a minute again, although this time it was for pleasure. A wide smile formed on her face, hidden behind her helmet from the crowd of civilians who were gathering around her.

A little girl spoke up from the crowd. "Mommy is she dead?" Kira groaned as she pushed herself up. She would have to get her rest some other time.

She trudged up to Will, who was standing nearby welcoming the admiration of the townspeople. "What happened to Karnac?" she asked.

"Dude ran like a punk!" Will yelled as he pumped his fist in the air. The crowd erupted into cheers. Men pushed their way past Kira in an effort to high-five him.

The other members of the team ran down, hoisting Nick on their shoulders. Dax screamed in celebration as they set Nick down on his feet. "Let's give it up to our main man!"

Rose walked up to Kira, pointing her finger again. "We got surrounded after you disappeared on us again. Nick was the one who saved us."

"The guy swooped down like a phoenix!" Dax shouted. "A PHOENIX!"

Dom raised Nick's arm into the air. "To the Red Mystic Ranger!"

"And to my lucky marbles!" added Dax.

Kira had finally had enough. Enraged, she snatched Dax's marbles and threw them down a nearby storm drain.

"No, not my marbles!" he cried.

"No one cares about your stupid marbles, you moron! You lost your marbles a long time ago!" Kira called him an idiot, a fool, and a few other words that she would usually never say to someone she knew. "Were you dropped on your head as a baby?" she screamed.

She wasn't done yet. She turned to Rose, getting right up in her face. "No such thing as a curse? Are you kidding me? What kind of books are you reading?"

This isn't me, Kira thought. But at that moment, she didn't care. She had to let it all out. Kira continued to rant at her teammates for the next minute, dropping F-bombs left and right.

Having finally gotten the release that she needed, Kira calmed herself with a few deep breathes. I just need to get out of here and lie down, she thought. As she turned around to leave, she bumped into the little girl and her mother. Kira saw the pen and paper that the girl was holding up to her. She also saw the look of sheer astonishment on the girl's face, as well as her mother's. Kira was mortified. She meekly took the paper, scribbling down a positive cliché before taking off in a hurry.

Dr. O was not pleased with her public outburst. "Kira, you represent something when you wear that power suit. You have to remember that responsibility."

"I'm so sorry Dr. O." Seeing his disapproving face somehow hurt more than all of the mental and physical stresses that she had experienced during the mission. Kira nodded in understanding as she began to leave in shame.

Dr. O stopped her with a few brief words before she had left that day. "One more thing Kira…Good job."

The train's engineer made an announcement, pulling Kira's mind back into the present. "This train has been stopped due to inclement weather. It appears that some trees have been blown across the tracks. We expect to resolve this problem within the next hour. Sorry about the inconvenience."

Her long train ride had just gotten even longer. However, Kira just sat back and relaxed. It seemed so small, so insignificant compared to everything that she had endured that day last year. Even that experience wasn't all bad. She had gotten a chance to command her first team and learn what she was capable of. After leaving Dr. O's house that day, she had sworn to herself to become a better Ranger. To face life's challenges with strength and confidence, instead of allowing her actions and feelings to be controlled by others. She didn't always remember that promise, but she did now. A few hours more on the train just didn't seem so bad anymore.

Looking back I don't regret

One single day

-Kira Ford, "A Star is Torn"

Hearts of Darkness:

An Introduction to the Beast War

The Pai Zhua, or Order of the Claw, is far older than most people know. Our roots lie in a loose alliance of kung fu masters who lived over ten thousand years ago. While each master developed their own style and philosophy, we all shared some common attributes. Each master was exceptionally attuned to their animal spirit - that part of the universe's life energy generated by the living creatures that are most similar to a person's natural attitudes and abilities. By connecting with our animal spirits, we could achieve a greater level of power and do things that were beyond both animal and human. The masters also possessed a strong sense of responsibility. We believed that we had an obligation to use our power to protect innocent people from the warlords, aliens, and other-dimensional forces that threatened their existence.

Master Grizz was one of the most prominent masters, renowned for the tremendous physical strength that was granted to him by his Bear Spirit. That strength was put to its greatest test on the day that his home village was attacked by an army of mysterious alien raiders. Grizz fought well by all accounts. Unarmed, he was able to singlehandedly defeat over three dozen of the inhuman attackers. But he was understandably overwhelmed, and was unable to stop the carnage. His village burned, and many of its people lost their lives. Among the dead that day were Grizz's wife and infant child.

The other masters tried to console him while tending to his physical wounds, but Grizz roared for days with an incoherent, beastlike rage. When he was well enough to leave on his own ability, he departed with just a few brief words: "We are all so weak." The extent of his self-loathing was so pronounced that we knew that he would never be the same again. Grizz abandoned his students and vanished without a trace.

He suddenly reappeared a year later, excitedly claiming to have achieved a far greater level of enlightenment. He called for a council of the other masters so that he could share the new truths that he had discovered. Grizz ranted and raved about how weak and wretched humanity was as he brandished a new, sinister-looking sword. He accused us of failing to totally connect with our animal spirits, stating that we had only scratched the surface of our potential. Grizz believed that we had to reject the weakness of the human body and mind, fully embracing the unbridled fury of our animal spirits. Only by doing that, he claimed, could we possibly meet the challenges of our cruel and dangerous world.

What he said that day amounted to heresy. Other masters, including myself, were quick to point out that our greatest strengths were our logic and compassion: things that were distinctly human. Master Guin outright rejected Grizz's beliefs as poorly thought-out nonsense, stating that some animal spirits were not the least bit aggressive. But not every master denounced Grizz's radical new ideology. The Hawk Master Carn, the Jellyfish Master Jel, and the Phoenix Master Sun argued on Grizz's behalf. They too were unsatisfied with the theories of the time, which they felt were too rigid and constraining. The three of them left with Grizz, who promised to reveal a world of new possibilities to anybody who would follow him.

The four rogue masters soon took their message to the road, preaching to angry and victimized villagers. But they didn't stop there; they also actively sought to sway the pupils of other kung fu masters into joining their movement. Their efforts were unfortunately successful, and they accumulated hundreds of recruits. Disturbing accounts of Grizz's speeches traveled throughout the various academies. Grizz and his fellow masters appeared only in their animal forms, powerful transformations that the other masters only resorted to during the most dire of battles. Grizz carried his mysterious new weapon at all times, and it seemed to burn with dark energy as he grew more impassioned. He claimed that his sword, the Darkheart, spoke to him and offered the gift of "Zokato," a manifestation of great power arising from pure rage.

One brave pupil of mine volunteered to infiltrate Grizz's growing forces. He disappeared with all of Grizz's other recruits, after being taken to his new mountain fortress. The boy suddenly returned three months later, bearing terrible news. Grizz and the other rogue masters had gone through with their vow to completely abandon their humanity. During an evil ceremony held before their followers, Grizz used the Darkheart to forge four bracelets that permanently bound the masters into new animal forms. These new appearances were monstrous, reflecting the fear and hate that had twisted each of their hearts. Masters Grizz, Carn, Jel, and Sun were gone forever. Henceforth they were Grizzaka, the Land Overlord; Carnisoar, the Sky Overlord; Jellica, the Sea Overlord; and Nix, the Space Overlord.

Some of their more powerful disciples also assumed new, bestial identities. But not all of their students were strong enough to induce permanent animal transformations. These students showed their allegiance by simply discarding their "weak" human attributes, even if they were unable to fully transition into something else. During their own horrifying part of the ceremony, their faces faded away into the same blank visage as their skins turned into a pale, neutral white. Grizzaka called them the Rinshi, his "Army of Fear." Together, the Overlords promised to lead a crusade that would convert or destroy humanity, ensuring that Earth would persist under the rule of the strong.

I acted quickly to unite the other masters in resistance to the Overlords' threat. Thus began the Beast War, a great conflict fought to decide the future of life upon our world. It was a war fought between ideas as much as it was fought between armies, and one that was characterized by betrayals and shifting loyalties.

Following a devastating defeat, tensions arose between Grizzaka and Nix. The Space Overlord had grown to view Grizzaka as an incompetent; full of rage and bluster but lacking in actual leadership. This rift between the Overlords eventually led to a schism, as Nix left with a number of their followers to form his own faction. Nix declared himself to be the King of the Phantom Beasts, and the one true visionary of the world's future.

Though he retained a belief in the superiority of the animal form, he rejected Grizzaka's ideology of untamed anger. Instead of becoming slaves to their hate and rage, the Phantom Beasts held themselves to be more rational and calculating. They strove to control their emotions, using their anger to fuel their powers but always remaining mindful of the goals that they would relentlessly fight for. King Nix claimed to have discovered a power greater than Zokato during his meditations. He called it "Rinzin," a fiery manifestation of his ambition and inexorable will.

Reeling from Nix's betrayal and Grizzaka's subsequent loss of reputation, the Overlords did what they could to salvage their cause. They turned to Dai Shi - a precocious young follower of theirs empowered by the Dragon Spirit, with seemingly limitless potential. While the Overlords remained in control behind the scenes, it was the charismatic Dai Shi who eventually became the face of their army.

But try as they did, the split between the Overlords and the Phantom Beasts eventually led to the downfall of both factions. They were so obsessed with vengeance that they battled each other even as humanity's forces annihilated their armies. In a fateful confrontation, Nix destroyed Grizzaka and banished the Darkheart off to lands unknown with the use of his space-warping powers. Nix himself was seriously wounded during the battle. While the exact nature of his fate remains shrouded in mystery, it is believed that his own generals drained him of his Rinzin power and Phoenix Spirit rather than try to save his life. Such actions befit those who subscribe to such a ruthless and calculating philosophy.

In a war of ideas, those involved will strongly assert their total dedication to their ideals. However, their actual conduct is rarely as pure. Though the Overlords' followers swore to cast off the weakness of their humanity, some of them held on to the ability to revert to their human forms out of vanity or self-doubt. Many of them didn't even believe in Grizzaka or Nix's goals, but joined their armies anyway out of lust for power. Grizzaka himself clearly seemed to lose sight of what he was fighting for as he became consumed by hate, falling further under the sway of his vile sword. And while the Phantom Beasts prided themselves on their more focused and rational mindset, quite a few of them were known to fly into animalistic frenzies or quarrel over petty matters.

Grizz and the other rogue masters started with a strong conviction that they were doing what was best for the world. Yet it was this same belief in their mission that blinded them to the reality of their actions. In the end, the Overlords and the Phantom Beasts destroyed themselves through their own fear, ignorance, and hate.

But it should be noted that many Pai Zhua warriors today are too quick to anger, too self-assured in their righteousness, and too disconnected from the common people that we watch over. Indeed many of you have been trained while remaining ignorant of the Pai Zhua's origins and history, something that this text aims to rectify. As you read through this book and examine the people, the events, the tactics, and the philosophies of the past, be mindful of how these things compare with what exists today. Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

Mao

Cat Master

Order of the Claw