Arc 1: Guardians Arc

Episode 1: Guardians Unite! Part 1

Angel Grove, September 7, 2012

It seems as though history has repeated itself in the ruined city of Angel Grove, but on a smaller scale.

Once more, the city has become ravaged by an evil force determined to rule over the galaxy, and the earth is the biggest obstacle in its way.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of metallic foot soldiers with rod-like firearms, alongside larger and armored blue brawler-type soldiers, spread throughout the chaos-induced city, attempting to spread across the entire world to make sure their power has outmatched all others.

However, before they could reach the next city, something stood in their way. Or rather, someone.

In fact, it was more than one person that stood in their way.

They are the Power Rangers. From the beginning to the present, and through time and space, stood every ranger known to date, morphed and ready for the epic battle that was about to begin. The foot soldiers readied themselves, as did the Rangers, who each raised their weapons into the air before making quick stances and sprinting towards the foot soldiers, who proceeded to do the same towards the Rangers.

And on that day, the fate of the world would either change for the better, or for the worst...

From that little tidbit you just saw, there's probably a lot you're wondering about. Well, let me take you back to a few months ago...

Angel Grove High - High Achievement Ceremony, May 28, 2012 -11:00 AM

Today was a very special day: the High Achievement Ceremony, a special event done to honor graduates who have gone above and beyond the expectations of Angel Grove High, staff and teachers alike, throughout their 4+ years. And those graduates are 18-year-old Kenneth Dumas, 16-year-old Jamie Terra, 17-year old Sarah Mirage, and twin brothers Josh Kozac and Sean Kozac, 17 and 18 years old respectively.

The ceremony was happening within the gymnasium. All Junior and Senior students on schools grounds were to come down to the gymnasium for the ceremony. And the one running the ceremony was former police lieutenant/volunteer of the Angel Grove Youth Center, and now principal of Angel Grove High, Jerome Stone. Let's just say that over the years, Stone has been building up his responsibilities over the years.

After all the students have taken their seats, Principal Stone walked up to the stage, microphone in hand, attempting to start things off right, or at least trying to.

"Good morning, students. I would like to start by mentioning something very important that happened, back when most, if not all, of you were in your first years of elementary school. Chances are you never even knew this happened. See, 10 years ago, a mysterious anomaly appeared here in Angel Grove. Nobody could describe it, the reason behind it being a mystery till this very day. But what we learned was that the timing of it lead to the disappearance of multiple families, which was no coincidence. Much to the shock of everyone back then, the people missing, were all parents. And it gets even stranger. Each parent that went missing not only had kids, but had no next of kin if something were to happen to them. As a result, the children of those parents were all put into foster care."

The crowd talked among themselves, surprised by what they're hearing from Principal Stone. "I would just like to ask for a moment of silence, in honor of those men and woman taken by something this tragic." The crowd and staff attending the ceremony lowered their heads and fell silent. After about 10 seconds of silence, everybody raised their heads once more as Principal Stone continued speaking. "But that's where the sadness of this story ends."

"When these five kids were in foster care, it was not a good experience for them at all. They all suffered to some degree. And even to this day, they still don't have any answers. But the greatest thing that came out of it, was that they all found one another. They all could relate to one another, and as such, they could rely on one another to stay strong and get through life, no matter how harsh the circumstances. And you will not believe what the result of that was." Stone then turned towards the left side of the stage. "Come on out, guys." At that point, Ken, Jamie, Sarah, and twin brothers Josh and Sean all began to walk towards Principal Stone. As the crowd saw them come out one by one, they began to cheer, knowing very well who they all are and how much they have accomplished.

As the crowd's cheering dimmed down, Stone continued with his speech. "For those who aren't aware, the High Achievement Ceremony is an annual school event that started roughly around the time I became Principal. This ceremony honors the Juniors and Seniors that go above and beyond the expectations of our education system. If you haven't guessed yet, our High Achievement Ceremony fell on the day after the 10-year anniversary of what happened to these now teenagers. And might I say, these guys have definitely accomplished many things together. Sure, they may have their problems, but being together has made them stronger, and has made them into the people you see now. You can all vouch for that, right?"

The cheering commenced again, but this time, it was suddenly interrupted by the ground shaking underneath everyone's feet. "Earthquake! Everybody evacuate the gymnasium, now!"

While everyone else had left the gym, including Principal Stone, the five had stayed where they were for some reason. As if something was keeping them there. And to some extent, something was. Suddenly, the supposed earthquake had come to a halt. The five were very confused. But out of all of them, Sean was the first to have a feeling that something was off. "That was no earthquake." he said out loud.

Next thing they knew, multiple pillars of what appeared as green slime began to rise from the ground. When the pillars grew to a certain height, they flashed and molded themselves into unearthly creatures. They were humanoid in shape and form, but seem like that of an insect in appearance.

"What are those things?" asked Ken. "They look like bugs..." replied Sarah, disgusted by the creatures. "Whatever they are, it looks like they found what they were looking for." said Sean. The insect-like monsters slowly advanced towards the five, whom of which were slowly being pushed into a corner. "Looks like these guys are looking for a fight." Jamie was not fond of the idea. "Do we have to? You know I hate fighting." Sean sighed. He wasn't sure as to go about this situation. But considering the circumstance that they're in, their options were severely limited. "Jamie, I'm sorry, but we don't have a choice." Jamie sighed reluctantly, but agreed with everyone else.

The five each took their own stances. The creatures in front of them seemed eager to fight them. "Let's do it!" yelled Sean as the five engaged the monsters.

If someone told me that I, along with Josh and my friends, would become guardians of the earth and fight an intergalactic insectoid army planning to take over the earth, I would have told them they were crazy.

I had my suspicions when we all had similar dreams the night before. But ever since those creatures attacked us that day, I knew that something was up.

We were involved with something far bigger than we could ever imagine.

Ernie's Juice Bar & Diner, May 28, 2012, 7:00 AM

After Jerome Stone gave up ownership of Ernie's Juice Bar during the time the Space Rangers were around, the place was eventually torn down after not being used for so long. Many people forgot about the Juice Bar, except for a certain someone. What people never knew about was that Ernie had a son, named after him. And while he was very young when Stone took over the Juice Bar, Ernie Jr. had a dream of running his own Juice Bar, following in his father's footsteps and keeping the positive vibe of social activity alive, as it was slowly waning over the years after the sacrifice of Zordon.

Regardless, Ernie Jr. has been running the Juice Bar for a few years now, to the point where he eventually expanded it into a Diner as well. As expected, business boomed on opening day, and the Juice Bar has come to be a great hangout spot once again.

Much like the original Juice Bar, this one had most of the space used for multiple purposes. It was a hangout lounge for the most part, but there was also mats laid around the floor for different forms of exercise, whether it be for yoga, martial arts, it didn't matter. There was also chairs and tables for people to sit at, alternatively, if they just want to enjoy a nice meal to tackle the morning day.

As if on time, the five teenagers being awarded for their accomplishments later on in the day, arrived at the Juice Bar like always. They sat at their usual spots in front of Ernie's counter. "Morning guys, how was your weekend?" Ernie asked. Sean then yawned. "Could have been better." Ernie chuckled. "Didn't get a lot of sleep yesterday, Sean?" "None of us did." replied Sarah sleepily. This struck Ernie as surprised. By some coincidence, they all ended up having trouble sleeping the night before. "Well, that's ironic." Josh groaned as he took out a ten-dollar bill and placed it on the counter. "You mind getting us some coffee?" Ernie grabbed the bill, not hesitating to follow through. "You got it. Who wants cream and sugar?" Everyone but Josh raised their hand.

Ernie was surprised, but didn't question what Josh wanted. He grabbed five medium-sized styrofoam cups and placed them on the counter. He then took one of the full coffee pots and started pouring into each cup. He then put the coffee pot back to where it was and proceeded to the kitchen. He went to the fridge and took out the different creamers so they could choose. He then grabbed the sugar and placed it on the counter. "Need anything else?" he asked. "Nope. We're good for now." said Ken. Ernie nodded.

A few minutes have passed, and the five seemed to be a bit more awake now. Sean then took a sip from his coffee. "So who else had a weird dream last night?" The other four were surprised, but they all raised their hands. They were then surprised at one another. "Huh, glad I'm not the only one." said Ken. "But what was the point?" asked Sarah. "What was this dream you guys had?" Ernie interjected. They all thought about it for a moment. They weren't sure. Their memory of it was vague, but eventually, they were able to remember something...

The night before...

The five all had very similar dreams.

The core similarity they all had were simple: A specifically-colored warrior silhouetted in the darkness was demonstrating their skills with a specific weapon. For Ken, the weapon was something similar to a crossbow. For Jamie, it looked like a claw of some kind. For Sarah, she wasn't entirely sure, but from what she could see, it appeared to be a ranged weapon of some kind. For Josh, it was an oddly-shaped axe. And for Sean, it was a sword with an unnecessarily large guard on it.

After fighting seemingly nothing for 20 seconds, the warriors all looked at the dreamers. Then suddenly, a quick flash of light encompassed the warriors. As a result, the warriors became the dreamers.

The sudden surprise caused all five of them to be shocked out of their sleep simultaneously. As a result, they couldn't sleep for hours. But when they did finally go back to sleep, it didn't last long as their alarms went off a few hours later.

"It happened so suddenly, I'm pretty sure none of us knew what to think of it at the time." explained Sean. "Really, I have no idea what this means. Either this is just some extremely rare coincidence, or there's something bigger going on." Ernie wasn't sure what to think of this. "I'm hoping that it's just a coincidence, considering how strong the bond between you guys is." They all gave a smile at Ernie. He had a point. The dreams could have just been a one-time thing representing their strong bond for the past 10 years.

But why do I get the feeling that it's the latter? thought Sean, who was more skeptical than the others on the inside. Something seemed wrong, and even though he had no idea of what the dreams were leading to, if anything, but he felt like there was something bigger going on behind the scenes.

And they were only just beginning to realize that.

Angel Grove High Gymnasium, May 28, 2012, 11:10 AM

The five had lasted fairly well, but they were not capable of taking the creatures down. The only ones who seemed to be able to have a chance at them were Sean and Josh. They had actually taken out a couple of them already, but it took more effort than it was needed. As a result, all five of them were knocked back into a corner, overpowered by just the sheer number of the creatures and how strong they were altogether.

They felt like their lives were at an end. They couldn't win against those things. They would die before they knew what happened to their families, before they learned the reason why everything bad happened to them, before they even knew why they were targets for the creatures in front of them.

The creatures then revealed what appeared to be gun barrels sticking out of their axe-like weapons, indicating that their weapons were ranged as well. The five all closed their eyes, expecting the worst.

However, that would never come to be, as they were, unbeknown to them since they all still had their eyes closed, encompassed by a bright light, which in turn sent them to a completely unknown location.

When they opened their eyes, they find themselves in a large indoor area. It was dark, and there was barely any sort of lighting for them to traverse wherever they were.

"What is this place? Weren't we just at the gym?" asked Jamie, who was the most confused out of all of them. "Jamie, calm down." said Sean in a whisper. "I don't get it either. But for right now, let's just figure out how to get out of here." Jamie nodded, feeling obliged with the situation she has been put in.

Sean then found what appeared to be a large table. Since he could barely see, he was glad to be holding onto something to keep from him falling to the ground. From what Sean could see, he saw chairs laid around the table, six in total. The place looked as if it hadn't been used in years. And yet, he has yet to see any cobwebs. Suddenly, what sounded like a speaker blaired into the five's ears. "All of you, please take a seat." This surprised everyone. They didn't think anyone was wherever they were. But the voice they heard sounded like a middle-aged man, possibly someone who knows where they were.

"Hello? Who's there? Where are we?" asked Sean, wanting answers. However, the person talking through the speaker didn't seem to hear a word out of them. "Please take a seat." said the man again. They all obliged and took a seat on one of the chairs around the table. When all of them took a seat, all the lights and such in the area seemed to come online, revealing a fairly large room, similar to that of a war room, but on a much smaller scale. There appeared to be a gigantic viewing monitor in which showed different camera locations across Angel Grove.

"What is going on?" Sean asked to himself.

Suddenly, what appeared to be automatic doors opened up to the right side of the gigantic monitor. Who they saw coming out of it was a man in a wheelchair. He appeared much older than the voice on the speaker implied. Perhaps it's the man's father. Either way, they needed answers, and this man was better than nothing. "Glad to see you all here." said the man, his voice matching the voice on the speaker. Sean then stood up from his seat. "Who are you? Why are we here?" questioned Sean. The man gave a small chuckle. He understood why Sean was asking those questions.

But nothing could prepare the five for what the man said next.

"My name is Lucas Zedren, and the fate of the world is in your hands."

To be continued...

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the first episode of Power Rangers: Guardians completed!

Let me start off by apologizing for not having this episode up sooner. I feel bad that it took me over the length of a college semester to write this. And so, I have to say that I'm sorry about that.

To be completely honest, I was going with the "First Impressions are Key" mentality. But as a result, I've constantly been trying to think of how to go about this. Just writing this episode alone made me think harder than I probably needed to. Cause I know that once I finally make the main characters into Rangers, I can finally start implementing the stock footage from Goseiger into this, and the story will begin to unfold for me.

Regardless, now that I got this episode out, it will be a lot easier and take less time for me to write future episodes.

And finally, I want to thank those who gave reviews on the introduction and such: Marcus O'Bannion, Misty, RoyMustang18, and grandprincessnatashiaromanov5. Keep them up! I really appreciate it. Also, let me know how I can improve on this episode along with suggestions on what to do for Episode 2.

And as I will always say, have a Morphinominal day, and may the Power protect you, always! ;)