Chapter X—Remember the Titans, Part III
"Damn!" Zeus's voice echoed throughout the couloirs of the Olympian Palace.
Lightning and various bursts of air sprayed and slammed around him, giving his anger a tangible state.
"Honey, don't worry," Hera soothed him, rubbing his shoulder calmly.
"Remind me to never use an evil ranger plot again," he told her as he massaged his temples.
"Oh, I wouldn't say 'never,'" she purred.
"What do you mean?"
"The Time Quartz, dear; give it to the demigoddess child," she instructed him, her rubbing getting more ragged.
"A brilliant idea, beautiful," Zeus replied as he moved deeper into her claw-like nails that raked his skin.
"Well, I was taught by the best," she whispered.
—X—
Carter, Ryan, and Zhane weren't exactly being careful with the unconscious Eltarian royalty. As far as they were concerned, betrayal had destroyed any loyalty they'd had towards them.
"Where should we put them?" Zhane asked to no one in particular.
"Take them to the basement; I've recalibrated the Elemental Tubes they used to give us our powers so that the stones effect will be completely removed. Hopefully it'll work," Bridge answered, and then turned his attention to Skylar, "So you came from the future when SPD was absorbed?"
"Our future? Yes," answered Skylar, setting down her half empty mug of coffee and fixing Bridge with a forced look of complacency. "The survivors and those on outer-lying planets returned and regrouped in an underground facility. Me being the only ranger, we voted that I come back to find you two; we thought it was an orchestrated attack to get to you, Commander Tate."
"How many survivors are there?" Sky asked from the back, having been tense since her arrival several hours ago.
"Not many. Less than 200 and we're barely surviving. The storms haven't stopped."
"Wait, wait, what the hell is going on?" Zhane questioned, having returned from the basement.
"Trust me, if there's anything I've learned about Time Travel, it's that you don't want to know anymore than what you know now," Wes suggested.
"It seems like there's some greater force that's in charge of these storms, and what records we could gather of this time have been completely altered."
"How so?" Ryan piped up.
"I can't really say, the records change every day," Skylar shrugged.
"And you want us to just come back?" Sky asked.
"Sir, you're the only hope we have for restoring SPD. None of the other Morphers even function without the Delta Base. Our link to the Morphing Grid is pretty shot."
Sky stood from his leaning position, pacing the kitchen. "I'd like to explain the situation here, but I'm not sure I really know anymore."
"Yeah, Hunter kind of opened a whole new can of worms," Dustin sighed.
"Yeah, I know, talk about a shock of the century," Leo chimed in.
"But I thought Hunter was human? I mean, who are this guy's earthen parents?" Ryan questioned.
"Hunter was adopted when he was younger, but his adopted parents were killed by Lothor," Dustin explained.
"Lothor is a member of the United Alliance of Evil," Skylar added.
"Of which we have yet to determine who the overall ruler is," finished Commander Tate.
"Dark Specter, right?" Zhane asked, "Wasn't the UAE completely destroyed when Zordon was killed?"
"No, the members within range of Zordon's energy wave were purified or destroyed, but others survived," Skylar answered.
"Like Queen Bansheera and Trakeena," Ryan surmised.
"Exactly."
"What if the Chrominites are the leaders of the UAE?" Silver Fury Ranger Dustin asked.
"Chrominites? Why does the word sound familiar?" Skylar wondered.
"The Chrominites are dimensional menaces intent on ruling or destroying everything. Apparently, they are sworn enemies of the Eltarians rumored to have incredible powers that defined nature at one point in time," Sky stated.
"The Gods of Olympus?" Skylar asked, her shock flowing through her question.
"Yeah, them. We've been fighting their Demigod beasts for weeks," answered Carter.
"How?" Skylar demanded, standing from excitement.
"The Cronus Stone shards that Nike and Andrea gave us," responded Dustin.
"The Cronus Stone, of course!"
Skylar now began pacing the room in pure excitement, pushing her short brown hair from her face.
"In Greek Mythology, there was a great titan named Cronus who was the father of all the Gods and wife of his sister Rhea. He was the youngest of the second generation of Titans and he hated his father Ouranos because of all the power he had. So, when Ouranos hid several of his wife Gaia's more…not-so-beautiful children in Tartarus, Gaia encouraged Cronus to kill his father, but when Cronus tried to, he merely castrated his father."
Several of the rangers flinched, taking in a sharp breath and closing their legs just a bit tighter than usual.
Skylar ignored them and kept going.
"When the…remains of Ouranos' genitalia landed on earth, they formed mountains and the Goddess Aphrodite from the sea, and for this, he swore revenge on Cronus, telling him that his own children would revolt against him. So, when Cronus sired 6 children with his sister Rhea, he swallowed each one when they were born so they couldn't revolt. He swallowed them all but Zeus, who escaped—"
"Because Rhea substituted the rock in Zeus's clothes for him," Leo caught on.
"Exactly. An Omphalos stone. This stone drew powers from Cronus and the Gods inside him, so when Zeus attacked Cronus and freed his siblings, the newly freed rock absorbed powers from Zeus as well. And because Cronus obviously had something strange in his stomach, the stone continued to sample powers from every child that would be born from a God or Goddess."
She paused for dramatic effect and needed to be reminded several times by Sky to continue.
"When Zeus realized the stone had such power, he went after it, not wanting anyone to have powers that could counteract his own. Unfortunately for him, he realized it too late and the stone was kept on Eltar, where the sworn enemies of the Chrominites watched over it."
"They were the ones who locked the Chrominites out in the first place, right? The Eltarians?" Zhane asked.
"I'm assuming so. So whoever let them in is one stupid son of a—"
"So the Gods want the stone so no one can stop them?" Ryan half-shouted, cutting her off.
"Either that, or to set Cronus free. I'm curious as to why he hasn't been awakened already."
"Why would they want Cronus free? And why would he have already been awakened?" asked Leo.
"Well, Cronus is the ultimate power. If Zeus held the Cronus stone, both he and Cronus would be equal in respect and power, both ruling as 'kings' of their conquered land. Remember, the stone has powers from Cronus as well. But this mighty titan can only be set free when the Cronus Stone is reassembled and the chant is recited to release him. With him reborn, they would usher in another 'Golden Age' where they ruled all."
"Well…not all titans are bad, as we just saw. They're the siblings of Cronus, right?" the Gold Ranger, Wes, wondered.
"Yes, but they're not nearly as powerful as he is. Castrating Ouranos gave Cronus all of Ouranos's power. Castration was thought to be the act of separating Heaven, which was Ouranos' kingdom and embodiment, and Earth, which was Gaia's domain."
"So our only hope is the shards of this stone?" asked Bridge.
"Basically," Skylar answered.
"So how are Bridge and I supposed to come back with you if we're supposed to stay and destroy the Gods?"
"How do you kill a God?" Dustin asked.
"They're immortal. Somehow, we'll have to improvise. And to answer your question, Commander; we defeat the Chrominites, we save our time."
"We save everything," Leo added.
"Right."
-X-
The early morning began to take its place, 4:30 to be exact. All of Angel Grove was pretty quiet, save the few people in the all night café typing away like madmen. And in the midst of an overall quiet morning, a swirling orange portal opened in the middle of the street, an armored figure stepping out.
"So this is Angel Grove?" she muttered, glancing around.
Without another word, she unsheathed her sword and began randomly blasting buildings, careful not to kill anyone. She repeated the action, now destroying random cars that lined the streets or several lights; anything to cause mayhem. Still…it was boring to her.
-X-
Sleep was not coming to any of the rangers. All of them stayed in the living room awaiting the Eltarians or mulling over their brief history lesson. It was somewhat enlightening—knowing what they were fighting for. Skylar had given them more answers than Nike and Andrea had ever offered, and though none of the rangers really minded not knowing, they felt better with some knowledge.
"Who died?" Andrea asked, stepping out of the basement and seeing all the gloomy faces.
"Andrea!" could be made out from the cheers coming from the rangers, among various other phrases relating to "you're okay."
"I've gotta say…I'm honestly shocked this house isn't gone by now," Nike joined in, the room looking at her confusedly.
"It still hasn't been the same without you guys," Leo admitted. "What's with your hair?"
Nike rubbed her hair with her hand, observing the dark color of it. It had reverted to its natural brown color.
"Oh, I'm…naturally a brunette. The blond was mostly to keep people off mine and Andrea's trail," she explained with a small smile. "The Cronus energy from the stone must've put me back to my complete natural self."
"Did it work?" Bridge interrupted. "The procedure, I mean."
"What work?" Dustin questioned.
Skylar caught her breath before explaining more complexities. "Bridge unblocked the psychic output that every Eltarian possesses. When the Stones were originally implanted on their cerebral structure, they took over the Eltarian brain, building up all the psychic powers and causing these three to go…well…psycho."
Nike chuckled, "Yeah, what she said."
"It worked Bridge. Thanks," Andrea said, kissing him on the cheek. "In the meantime, let's get down to business."
Skylar frowned at the redhead's affection to her SPD comrade.
"Or get down to sleeping," Dustin suggested, "I'm exhausted. Besides, I think Zeus has his hands full trying to come up with a backup plan."
"I agree," Wes yawned.
"Well, where can I sleep?" Hunter asked, breaking his silent-streak.
"You can have my bed since you and Dustin know each other. I'll snag a couch."
"You sure, Wes?"
Wes nodded, stifling a yawn, "I'm not all hung up on this evil ranger stuff; it's in the past. Far as I'm concerned, we're starting on a new page."
Hunter offered his thanks, and after all "goodnights" were said, he followed Dustin to the room they'd be sharing for the night.
"Dustin…about what I said earlier…" Hunter paused.
"About it."
"I…I didn't mean it, really…I'm not quite sure where those thoughts came from."
"So then what did you mean?"
Hunter silenced and Dustin's silence spoke deafening volumes.
"That's not what I wanted to say at all, Dusty—"
"It's Dustin."
Hunter sighed. This wasn't going to go over well.
"Dustin, you do not understand at all. In my subconscious, I try to tell myself those things so that I don't like you so much…"
"What's wrong with me being a best friend? Why do you always have these walls that you keep up to try and keep everyone out? What did I do that was so—" but his sentence was caught in a moment's notice kiss.
Hunter pulled away quickly, "That's why."
A few blinks helped Dustin process the situation. Hunter, boy, best friend, kiss, not straight. BAM.
"Whoa. You just kissed me," Dustin mused, his voice sounding distant and distracted.
Hunter laughed nervously. "Yeah…"
"And you're straight," he continued in his distant voice.
He laughed again, "Ah-hah…about that…"
"I need to sit down," Dustin said faintly.
"What are you thinking?"
"I-I dunno. I'm wondering how I didn't see it. Why you didn't tell me. Why the hell you just kissed me. And why I'm not upset about it."
Hunter remained silent. He was speechless, his stomach felt like it was devouring itself, and his ears rang with a constant tune of doubt and pessimism.
"Well how do you feel?" Hunter asked finally.
"I dunno how I feel. You're my best friend, dude. It'd just be so…weird to like you. And that's even without the gay thing. I mean, it'd be like me dating Tori!"
"Dustin, you did want to date Tori for a while."
"Oh…yeah…well…I dunno. It'd be weird. I care about you a lot, I mean, you're my best friend, you've always been there for me in the past year…I just don't think I can let that go."
"Why would you have to let that go? We'd still be friends…only…"
"Different, right?"
"Yeah…guess you're right. Maybe we should just go to sleep."
The awkwardness of his statement lingered in the air before he laughed, "Sorry, I meant go to sleep in our own, separate beds."
Dustin grinned, "Right."
—X—
Natasha was really starting to get angry. The cops had come to try and stop her and they kept firing their useless little weapons at her. She felt the urge to just put them out of their misery, but she knew that was Zeus talking, not her. She wasn't a murderer.
She took her sword and held it in front of her, then slammed the point into the ground which caused an enormous ripple of energy to knock back the cops.
"Go ahead, call your army; I love tanks."
The men and women of the Angel Grove Police Department cowered before her. They'd never had to fight a power ranger before…normally the rangers did that themselves. So why, exactly, weren't they here?
"Send in the tanks!" a wounded man shouted over his walkie-talkie.
Seconds later, her goddess hearing kicked in as she heard a formation—approximately 5 fighters—of jets headed her way. She smirked as she positioned herself ever-so-slightly and closed her eyes. In a flash, she was on the now "still" planes, as time had stopped for everyone she wanted it to. She noted how easy it would be to just drive the sword through the pilot and send him over to Hades. How easy it would be to completely wipe out mankind within the hour. And she quickly trashed the idea, fighting the Chrominite tendencies she had.
She got to business, inputting several commands on the lead jetfighter. This time, she did let out a small chuckle as she phased over to another jet and pressed play on life. Just as she had intended, the lead jetfighter's afterburners went off, blurring the view of the other fighters. Natasha closed her eyes and was instantly back on the ground, watching her work in the skies.
"Eject! Eject!" she could hear them screaming over the walkie-talkies.
She could hear the tanks before many could even see them, and she yawned as she outstretched her palm, a large orange blast fraying the edges of all 6 tanks. They were now treadless, trackless, and helpless as the pilots quickly abandoned the smoking metal trash.
The officers looked at her in horror as they suddenly realized the Power Rangers could no longer be trusted.
-X-
"What's that?" Zhane asked as they all met in the basement.
"An unidentified energy. Might as well go check it out," Nike said, fighting back a yawn.
"At 6:30 in the morning?" Leo mumbled.
"Ranger's gotta do what a ranger's gotta do," Sky said as he posed for a morph.
"Ready?" Wes asked.
"Ready!" They all said in unison.
"Nature's Fury, Release From in Me!"
—X—
As the rangers flipped onto the scene, they couldn't help but notice how deserted it was. There was nothing in sight.
"Are you sure the alarms are working right?" Leo asked groggily.
"I'm sure," Nike assured
"What the hell happened to my suit?" Andrea shrieked, looking at herself.
"Yeah, it definitely changed. At least you look like a girl now," Leo said.
"You are really pushing your luck, you know that, Aquaman!"
"What's that supposed to mean, super-bitch?"
Someone was definitely grouchy.
"Oh, like you can talk Mr. Limp Fish!"
Nike gasped. "That was low..." she said.
"I am not limp, you just aren't attractive," Leo said simply.
Skylar's head felt it like it was about to explode as she looked back and forth between the two competitors.
That did it, Andrea was on the warpath. "Why you bigheaded, washed up has-been of a white ranger-" she started.
"Hey!" Nike yelled, "Cool it."
Andrea mumbled as she looked herself over. Instead of red trimmings she had pink trimming, she now had one belt as opposed to two, the horns on her helmet went from red to pink, and green spandex with pink trims now covered her legs under a white and pink skirt that split down the middle. A metallic bustier of sorts wrapped around her midriff and the stripes present on the other rangers' suits were now on hers, only an additional three had been added due to the changing of numbers on the team. On her right shoulder was her Astral Rune, and on her left breast was the Astral Insignia that resembled two upside-down crescents. She wore two short gloves on her hands, each with arrows identical to the other rangers', along with spiked knuckle braces at the base of each finger. The two elbow pads and high-heeled boots set her apart from the rest of the rangers easily and made her resemble a female even more. She definitely looked like a hero. A female hero.
Nike's outfit had changed as well, being that the black vest on her chest and spike cuffs on her arms were gone and replaced by a black bustier with red ventral paneling, and black elbow pads with serrated gauntlets that led down to her hand and the arrow found on everyone else's suits. The horns on her helmet had reduced to two, and instead of pants, she wore the classic spandex like her sister and a side-split red and black skirt. Another thing she shared with her sister were the lethal looking heeled-boots, the new stripes, runes, and sigils, and a v-neck collar.
"I think the suits look great," Zhane said.
"Thanks," Nike and Andrea said at the same time.
"Why didn't yours change, Hunter?" Dustin asked.
"I dunno, I was wondering the same thing."
"Guess you look like a guy either way," Bridge commented.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"I'm picking up some life-forces over there," Sky said to everyone.
The Rangers and Skylar began to converge on the location until the sight of disruption was obvious. In the middle of the street stood yet another ranger, her sword outstretched with energy radiating from it. Dozens of destroyed cars belonging to civilians and police alike decorated the streets, whereas shrapnel and scrap metal was strewn throughout the fields around the area. One building was completely devastated by…a jetfighter sticking out of it?
"Who the hell are you? And what are you doing!" Skylar screamed upon seeing the devastation.
The ranger slowly turned around. "Oh, I apologize…I seem to have left my manners on Imperious. I am the Orange Temporal Ranger, daughter of the Gods and holder of the Time Quartz."
"Charmed. We're the Power Rangers. Mind telling us why you just went on a destruction spree?" Andrea shot back.
While several rangers stayed put, the others went to aid the wounded, though not much could be done. Strangely enough, no one was mortally wounded.
"Everything's gonna be okay, just stay calm," Hunter was soothing someone.
The civilian inched away from Hunter, a look of pure fear plastered across his face.
"No, traitor, everything is not going to be okay. That is, unless you give me the stones," Natasha corrected.
"Why do you freaks even bother asking anymore? Obviously we're not giving them up!" retaliated the Blue Fury Ranger, Zhane.
"Then I suppose you leave me no choice, Rangers," Natasha taunted.
She reappeared in front of the rangers, her hands held out. Seconds later, energy built up and shot out at them and catching them off guard. Quickly, Bridge managed to block Skylar but was inadvertently hit, sending him reeling backwards with the other 10 rangers.
"Well that hurt," Dustin groaned as he sat up.
She gave them no time to even stand. Large beams of electrical energy struck them from her sword and she slammed them even further into the ground, a crater of sorts now forming.
"Give. Me. The Stones."
"Bite me," Andrea growled as she charged the Orange Ranger.
They rapidly engaged in hand to hand combat, the blows invisible to the regular human eye. Small pockets of air began slamming together around them as Natasha began to gain the upper hand. She twisted Andrea's arm, then slammed her kneecap into the back of Andrea's knee, forcing her to the ground. Then, mercilessly, she opened her palm and blasted her in the back several times until her body fell limp to the ground.
Nike rushed forward, Hunter and several others by her side. All at once they began attacking her to no avail.
"I can't touch her! Even when I know my fist hit her, it just goes through her," Dustin complained to Hunter as he waited for an opening in the fight. She was currently slamming Ryan and Leo together after she'd kicked Carter into a large stone pillar.
Hunter and Dustin found the break, but it was no use. She slashed out with her sword; a rope of tangled orange energy picked them up into the air and slammed them into each other while electrocuting them. She laughed as she threw them through the window of a large bank, causing the front face of the building to crumble.
"This is pathetic. Give me the stones or I will destroy the rest of the solar system, leaving Earth completely alone and vulnerable to an assault."
The rangers regrouped, their armor smoking.
"You know the end is inevitable; you can't beat time, rangers, and you sure as hell cannot kill a goddess. You have an hour to decide," the Orange Ranger said as she disappeared in a swirling orange portal.