DO not own. so sick. oh god. been so *&^%ing sick. hope everone is doing well! enjoy!
Kit.
XXX XXX
The day dawned clear and crisp. Alarm ringing, Noah stood and stretched. And cursed is apparent overactive imagination for his dreams of the past few days. And glitter. For the last three days he has been cleaning glitter off of everything. His communication watch chimed and he scratched at his wrist before activating it.
"HEY MAN" Noah winced at the volume of Jakes voice.
"Jake, you don't need to yell. It's like a Bluetooth device."
"Sorry, I'm just. Man what a night!" the excited voice of his best friend lowered in volume, if not in enthusiasm. Noah, already tired, sighed.
"I can safely say I do not want to know. It is too early for this. Did you finish your biology homework? It's due today in forth."
"Dude! That's not what I meant. I have just been having really, really, /really/ vivid dreams. And yea, totally finished bio homework…. What page was it again? You know, just so I know I did the right one…"
"I still don't…. wait, have you been finding glitter everywhere?"
"Yea. It keeps turning up all over the place. So what page of biology was it?"
"Pages 65 and 70. I need to call Troy and Orion. Finish your homework. I will see you soon for the bus." Noah clicked off his communicator and hummed thoughtfully, shaking a pail blue hoody out from the bottom of his drawer. He looked it over with a critical eye before deciding that less glitter was better and pulled it on with a sigh. He had more calls to make.
XXX XXX
Orion swore vigorously in the language of his home planet. The communicator that lay in his camp queened a cheerful tone and he swore in its direction as well. Tensue tilted his eye servos and buzzed up to the silver ranger.
"It sounds like the Blue Ranger is looking for you!" Orion grumbled briefly before switching languages.
"Yea. Noah seemed off the other day, maybe he is calling about what we talked about?"
"You mean about the first Blue Ranger? It is possible. It could also be about the witches we have been looking for. With the sensors of your ship being repaired, we may be able to track people coming and going from here to the moon. Maybe he wants to know if we found anything yet." Orion strode over to the still chiming communicator.
"Too many maybes. Let's find out."
XXX XXX
Troy slammed a hand down on his alarm clock. Another day of dreams and a very active imagination. He pealed his eyes open and cursed softly. The pillow and a fair portion of his room sparkled in the rising sunlight. His watch beeped softly and he pulled himself off the bed to reach for it. The ordinarily even tempered Red Ranger found himself felling rather testy as he stared blearily at the noisy device.
"Troy here."
"Troy, its Noah, I have an important question for you. I have asked Jake and Orion already but I need to know from you too." Troy glanced over at his clock as Noah spoke. His eyes widened.
"Crap! I'm late! Can it wait until I see you at school?" there was only silence in reply. Troy sighed. "What is it Noah? If its bio I finished both pages last night."
"Have you been having vivid, inappropriate dreams and finding glitter everywhere after you wake up from them?" the solemn words seemed to weigh the air around him down.
"This isn't a coincidence is it?"
"No. Jake is the reason I noticed if he hadn't mentioned anything I would not have made the connection. Then I checked with Orion, and he is dealing with the same thing; now you. The girls are probably in the same boat. If it affecting the four of us then it is affecting them too."
"Page everyone. We aren't going to class this afternoon."
XXX XXX
Jake and Gia where the first to arrive at Abby's shop. The door with the cat and broom mark was cracked open and thumping could be heard along with scraps of conversations.
"No, the bones are not here for selling! Those are here for my personal order! And that is definitely a private piece for Councilman Ryan. The Shards of Grace where a teaching tool for Troy put it with the others. Don't knock that over! It will act as a catalyst for half the shop!" Faint cursing could be heard mixed in with the directions and noises. The two rangers looked at one another and pulled the door the rest of the way open and heading down the stairs.
Bedlam was the first word that came to mind when they got to the bottom.
Twelve creatures made of smoke and bones where scurrying around with boxes as Abby barked directions at them in various ways with varying degrees of force. Her hands waved about and things seemed to be going every which way with no rhyme or reason. She slipped into a language that they did not understand, and seemed to be holding three arguments at once. A tiny dragon made of bone curled up around Jake's foot, purring and grumbling in equal measure before flying (how was it flying! Jake cried in his mind It had no skin for its wings!?) back over to Abby.
"Mm, hello Kipsel-" she patted the little critter on the head without stopping the flow of traffic or magic "-I don't have any shards for you right now. Go back to checking for mice and such. I will find you some in a bit." It tugged on her hair pulling her to face the stairs and the two shocked rangers at the bottom of them. "Ah. Thank you Kipsel. I think there are soul shards in the second drawer near the cash. Grab as many as you like." She turned away briefly "alright everyone, put everything way. We will finish this later." The small army of help she had summoned put all the boxes away onto shelves or back on the pallet in the corner before dissolving and flowing into the jars along the wall. Jake was the first to react.
"That. That is very Mummy and Mummy Returns. Did you steal that from the movies?" a smile was the response to his blunt question.
"I did. It makes sense! Though…it is difficult to control, build and dissolve them every time. I am still working out the kinks of that particular spell. Alas, I had to leave my mentor before we could perfect it together. Though, don't you have class right now? I didn't expect you until later. It is order day after all, and getting run over by a skeleton is not high on anyone's to-do list." Jake and Gia looked at one another, blushed, and then looked at their confused magical teacher. Gia was the first to speak.
"What do you know about dreams and glitter?" the hesitant query caused a frown on the smaller female.
"You are going to have to be much more specific. There are a great many magics in general that involve dreams. As a Wild Mage you are capable of about a third of them with minimal effort. And Jake, as a Rune Mage, you can accomplish almost half with the right tools and enough stored power. As for glitter, it's a fairly common dispersal technique for mass target spells. And for low powered Magic users, they can infuse it in small quantities to get a large burst of high powered magic. Good for traps. None of this is important enough to-" Gia held out a small bag of the glitter from her room and clothes. It sparked on contact with the light of the room. "-Crap." The pause before her last word was noticeably filled with many unspoken curse words. "Is this on all of you?" nods from both Rangers had her cursing more and with great fervor. She moved purposefully across the room still cursing and began rummaging around in a cabinet that did not hold a display.
"What is it exactly?" the question caused a pause of motion and the rangers looked expectant. A sigh was heard and Abby turned around bundles and bowls in hand.
"this is glitter-" "we gathered that thanks." "-shut up and listen kiddo. You may only be a few years younger than me but in this sort of work there may as well be centuries between our knowledge. This is glitter Infused with a rather cruel curse that was banned about six decades ago; and was discouraged from use by every council on every continent for at least two hundred years before that. Ireland and Scotland where the first two ban its use three hundred years ago, England followed thirty years later, and every ten years after that another council in another country banned the teaching and using of this curse. The Americas where the last to ban it due to some confusion in name translations and methods of use."
"But what is it for exactly?" Abby looked at Gia with something that could almost be described as pity.
"In English, this was once known as Love's Gift. Hence the confusion and delay in banning and teaching. A better translation is Strength of Will Over Heart or 'My Feelings made reality'. In layman's terms it takes the person you have the strongest feelings for and twists that into what will become intense physical desire. The more magic you use, the more intense the feelings. The reason for the ban is really quite simple. If the person the desire is for is not receptive, the curse backfires, and well…. Rage and desire as well as powerful magic typically have a very bad ending." The two Ranges cringed.
"How do you know about it?" Jake was frowning in thought as he looked over. Abby was mixing and tossing things into various bowls, before directing Gia to pour the glitter into a quartz basin on the counter.
"Good question! Many spirits are disgruntled by the limitations of being, well, spirits. As such they like to pass on their knowledge and research. As a Necromancer I am tasked by the council to record as much of it as I am capable of. And then classify it based on what I know of modern Magic. This was the old ways are not lost to us. And we can learn a great deal of things that where long lost to time and language change, like counter curses, and cures for things we thought where hopeless. Ten years ago, this would have had to pass through you naturally, with calming spells on every patch of skin that would be exposed. Or you would have to take a trip to the World between Worlds to visit the curse breaker. And while the two of you are powerful enough to take the second option with little hassle, it is not something that I can do easily. So, this will take the edge off. I will look at the grimoires to see if I can rustle up anything else to help. Stay here." A side door opened with the help of a skeletal hand and Abby took the basin and a bowl of ash through into what looked like a small library. The tiny dragon formed and flew up the shelves to pull down a leather wrapped book with iron knot work across the cover and down the spine. Indistinct muttering could be heard and the occasional poof of ash floated out the door. Gia and Jake shrugged and headed a little further away to talk.
"The world between worlds?" Jake seemed lost in thought. Gia, after getting to know him and saving the world with him, knew not to underestimate the Black Ranger. He looked her in the eye and smirked. "Hey, she said we are strong enough to go see the curse breaker. And that could free all of us from this glittery nightmare. Shall we?"
"Now? Do we have what we need to cast something like that?"
"If you have the control to hold the door open I can totally get us there." At that Gia punched him gently in the side.
"I have learned a lot. There is so much more to Wild Magic then just luck. I can will this to happen. Though it will come at a price."
"If we share the cost it will be even easier. Come on. I have my ink and brush-pen-thing and the rune stones I have been working with. We can totally do this." Clouded by the curse and distracted by the effects, the two rangers gathered their magic and began to cast. Not realizing that it would have damning consequences for their fellow rangers. Linked by the magic and morphing grid, the cures would ripple through their friends thanks to the power they were channeling.
XXX XXX
There were days Lance loved his jobs. Martial Arts, Parkour, and magic all combined to help him channel his power in the best of ways. The battle side of Physical Magic pulsed strongly in his blood. And the lightwalker heritage gave him an advantage over many who believed themselves too good to follow the rules and laws put in place. As well as those who sought to take the two women under his protection.
It also sucked sometimes.
Like right now, when two students that had arrived early cast a massive transport spell, with no grounding, no shields, and no supervision. And he definitely was the wrong person to stop them. No amount of augmentation from the spells inked into his skin could help him stop them. So he did the next best thing. Grounding and shielding the spell he slammed both hands into the door they opened to keep it from swinging shut before he could get them help. The strain of carrying a spell fueled by two people by himself was not something he could hold for very long. Thankfully he didn't have to.
"Lance!" he turned just enough to see Abby.
"They opened a door to the World between Worlds! Unarmed, and untaught, and Alone!" his furious voice meant that no further words where needed. A ribbon of black and gold magic shot from her hand and wrapped around the bare wrist holding the spells. Tiny dragon in tow, she leapt through the shrinking door. It snapped shut, and the dragon did not make it through instead landing on the ribbon of power between them before collapsing into a small pile in his hands. He places the now lifeless bones gently on the counter. The ribbon pulsed and flexed before snapping taut. He sat on the floor and settled into a meditation pose in order to hold his end of the line as best as he could. The other four rangers found him like that when they arrived together twenty minutes later.
XXX XXX
Finster sat with his two newest acquisitions. The Yaga sisters had cast a curse ages ago. Now it was starting to come to fruition.
"This it even better than I had hoped! They are separated and distracted, their helpers are undefended, and they have no clue what they are facing! The two of you should be able to finish off the four rangers here with ease. Go, and do not fail me. You will not like what happens." Goldar settled near Finster. His massive wings flexing with ease in the light gravity of the moon. Once the Yaga sisters had departed with a bunch of putties he turned to the tiny clay sculptor.
"Shall I crush the Yellow and Black Rangers master? It would be so easy now. All the power from Gillis and Greenteeth sits with in me. I can crush them with ease!"
"No!" the sharp reply brought Goldar up short "No, your power is unfamiliar to you. Your skills useless in that realm. And frankly, I need a scalpel, you are a blunt instrument. A mace, suited for war and battle, not skill and precision. No. I will craft a being that will be all that I need. You should rest. The power you carry will be draining. If not now then soon. Your time will come. If you wish for war, destroy the last Yaga sister. Make sure she will trouble us no more." The Golden monstrosity bowed low and pulled out the Dragon Dagger.
"I will do so with pleasure Master." He flexed his wings one last time and was gone. In the silence Finster smiled.
"Soon enough I shall have all that I need. All that power and the world at my feet. I alone shall be king and master. And none shall stand in my way." The eyes of madness faded, and left was the cold calculated gaze of a being with cruelty and devastation in his mind and soul. His hands began to work, sculpting and shaping a creature with the sole purpose of hunting and ending the two rangers that had foolishly gone off alone.
The creature came to life, and knelt at Finster's feet.
"Go, destroy them and take their power. It is raw and unformed. They are easy prey. Bring back their power, and their morphers. We will sever the cord to the morphing grid and rid the world of two Power Rangers!" cold eyes looked up and a deceptively pleasant smile formed.
"Yes, my Master."