August
The first thing I was aware of was the splitting headache I was sporting. I didn't want to open my eyes, it was even worse than 7 am on a Monday morning. But eventually when I did, I was greeted by the soft twinkling stars around me. Thank god the Star Chamber is fairly dim. I sat up and looked over at Rebecca, still resting peacefully, then next to her slept Anna. I guess she got injured in the fight as well.
The fight.
Rebecca and I were sent to the southern part of the park, patrolling our perimeter when she heard something stomping towards us. A giant fucking Rider came running at us—really me. But she jumped in front of it and began whacking at it with her sword. We were dumb struck when it didn't turn to dust, then it swiped her to the side, throwing her into a tree. Of course I then tried to step up and reclaim some of my man-itude, but the Rider's fist came crashing down on me and I went out cold. Then I woke up here with a giant headache.
"Hello Capricorn, how are you feeling?" Etoile asked me, appearing out of the stars.
"My everything hurts, but other than that I think I'll survive. How is Rebecca?" I would really rather her not die for me, that would suck major balls.
"She will be the same as you. She shall wake in a matter of minutes." Just as she said that, Rebecca groaned.
"What the hell happened?" she croaked, rubbing her eyes, then head. "Never mind. It all just rushed back to me."
"And the others?" I asked Etoile.
"Thanks to young Pisces they are all uninjured, excluding a few sore spots."
"What did Anna do?" Rebecca asked, suddenly really worried and finally sitting up. I was worried too, even though I wouldn't try to show it. Again it would suck to loose a teammate so early.
"She accessed her secondary powers of healing waters and restored the other nine Rangers. Unfortunately she pushed herself over her limit and is now unconscious."
"Secondary powers?" Rebecca and I seemed to ask with the same amount of skepticism together.
"I will explain when the rest of your team joins us. They are currently in their quarters. Yes, each of you has a room here just beyond the Simulation room." Etoile is definitely able to read minds, must run in the Ranger family because I could swear Hannah knows exactly what I'm thinking sometimes. "I will go and get them and we can begin telling you of the Universal's advisories, as well as how your predecessors fell." She faded into the stars, not even walking through the Sim room like a normal person.
"How are you feeling?" I asked Rebecca.
"Worse than any of my other concussions." She tried to jump off of the bed, but wobbled a lot, and her knees gave out making her nearly face planting until I caught her. She groaned again, and then laughed some "But I can feel my brain almost mending itself, you know?" Our faces were a few inches apart and she was still in my arms. I didn't feel anything like what a guy is supposed to feel with a girl that close to you, nothing romantic or even sexual.
"Yeah." I said, and then almost shoved her away from me. "It's like the stars are fixing me, making me all right inside." I thought for a second. "I did not mean to sound like I just smoked a bowl."
She laughed, "No worries." Then it was sort of tense, we didn't know each other and hadn't really talked before becoming Rangers, regardless of the fact that we went to middle school together and were in the same homeroom.
"Thank you." I said finally. "For stepping in front of me to face the Rider on 'roids."
"You're welcome. I mean, you would have done the same for me. It all comes with wearing the suit."
Then Etoile came back to the main Chamber and Klaus ran out of the locker room, followed soon enough by Hannah, then the rest of the Rangers. None of them looked like they were in a good mood. Sure Rebecca and I got hurt but we were fine and we won the battle against the Riders. Klaus was the only one who looked sort of happy, running at Rebecca, then invoking her in a hug and whispered something into her ear. Hannah rushed up to me, looking like she wanted to do the same thing, but stopped herself right before she got to the platform. I wished that she would.
It hit me.
That was the reason why I didn't feel anything with Rebecca in my arms, I wanted it to be someone else. Someone who happened to be the amazing leader of the Power Rangers. I felt like I was seeing her for the first time.
"Hey." She said finally, breathlessly. "How are you doing?"
"I'm good." I said softly to her. "I hear Anna fixed you guys up."
"Yeah, we were pretty surprised, but she easily sped up the healing process by like three weeks."
"What about the giant uber Meteor Rider thingy or whatever you call it that Rebecca and I were fighting?"
"Mega Rider." She corrected. "And I took care of it. All it needed were a few well placed super charged blows and they crumble just like regular Riders." We stood awkwardly, then she finally wrapped her arms around me. "I'm glad that you're okay." She whispered.
"Rangers." Etoile said, gathering us all up and making Hannah and I break apart quickly. I felt really awkward, like everyone was watching us now. "Gather around the viewing screen. We are going to tell you what to expect in the coming days. We are also going to be telling you the history of your powers.
"Long ago on a planet very much like Earth lived sixteen fierce warriors, the best of their kind. Warriors much like yourselves."
"Sixteen?" Felicia asked. "But there are only twelve of us."
""Patience Gemini. As we were saying, in their culture they worshipped us, the stars. We were their gods. In their death they believed that if they lived a whole and proper life they would be able to travel among us, experiencing our wonders until the end of time.
"When the Universal came to their planet and opened fire and destroyed everything they knew they begged of us to give them aid and we took mercy. Aries, Orion, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Taurus, Andromeda, Scorpio, Draco, Virgo, Libra, Pisces, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Cassiopeia. But we gave them the power too late and their home planet was taken as another colony of the Universal's and he moved on to the next one. They followed him and began to try and save the universe. By the end of their run the liberated a third of his empire." Someone whistled.
"Eventually, one of the teams of four Rangers tired, not of the fight but of their position on it. They were wary of the side of good, claiming they saw the inevitability of it and so they changed their minds and joined the Universal. For a price. They were to destroy the other remaining Rangers, show them no mercy and confirm their allegiance to the Universal. Three of the traitors were perfectly content with this, but one, Andromeda, was hesitant. She had really only left because the rest of her team did, as you find, they were bonded. She would not strike her fellow Rangers to kill like the others and eventually regretted leaving the Rangers. But her regret was too late, the other traitors launched their final attack on the Rangers and nearly succeeded in taking them out, until Andromeda repented and begged of us to make sure that those on the side of evil did not win willing not to give just her life, but her star journey as well. We could see the desperation in her eyes, mind and soul and granted her request. She was to take a blow from each side then those of evil would be stopped. She had no problem taking one from the evil Rangers once they realized that she was a traitor to the traitors. She needed to convince Aries, the leader of the team at the time, to kill her. He would not do it even though they thought she turned on them. After much pleading he finally did hit her, trying to hurt her as little as possible and her ascension began.
"She began to glow as bright as a galaxy, getting bigger and bigger and much less humanoid. She forced the Rangers to run and escape her deadly light, so they would not face the fate of the ex-Rangers. Her glow was so pure that it attracted and ripped the Ranger abilities of those who were then impure. They lost their ability to wear the uniform and to use their elemental power, the power needing to go somewhere unable to just exist in the universe broke in two and went to the remaining Rangers, even Andromeda's power. She would not need them were she was going. Those became the Ranger's secondary powers, which young Pisces demonstrated today with her healing.
"Your secondary powers will come about eventually, those of you that are principle users are in the line that did not receive extra powers, but you tie the group to your core ones, which is equally important."
"Do you know what our secondary powers are?" Felicia asked again.
"Yes. But you are to find them on your own. We can say that Taurus has already used her power without even realizing it. "
"Really? I did?" Hannah asked, clearly surprised.
"Indeed. Your secondary power is the ability to manipulate plants."
"The Overnight tree." Anna said from her stretcher bed thing. I didn't even realize that she was up.
"So there's no point in the rest of us trying to mimic Anna or Hannah to get our secondary's?" Felicia asked.
"Correct. But it will come about when you need it. Just be patient."
"This is great and all, but could we get back to the ex-Rangers and how our predecessors died?" Jerry bitched.
"Of course. Andromeda was granted a much greater after life than traveling among the stars. She became one of us. Millions of us in fact, the galaxy you know as Andromeda, named after her."
"That's not too far from the Milky Way. It's the closest galaxy to us." Jerry noted.
"Indeed Scorpio. The Universal came close to the Earth, it was almost time for their final battle. The Milky Way was one of the last galaxies to be untouched by the Universal and the Rangers, perplexed but grateful of what Andromeda did for them realized they must do the same to stop the Universal. They did not wait for his armies to attack yet another helpless planet, but instead infiltrated his ship, getting close to him and then giving their powers back to the stars. They left the Universal extremely weak and in a comatose state. We once again had their powers once more for when he awoke we would be able to give the abilities to a new group of warriors."
"And that's where we come in." JT said.
"Yes quite." Etoile said. "Now onto the three renegade Rangers. Though Andromeda did manage to take Orion, Draco and Cassiopeia's Ranger powers, they still retained some traits, and the Universal provided them with others like super strength and speed. Each was a great marksman and trained their whole lives in combat and weaponry.
"Orion is the most versatile of the three with weapons. From mythology you know him has the hunter and is skilled in all areas around that including tracking and swiftness.
"Cassiopeia is quick and nimble. She is as beautiful as she is deadly and is not afraid to fight un-honorably. She has the most fire in her and will not quit on an enemy until they are dead. Her primary weapons are genetically engineered titanium nails. She's extremely sadistic and enjoys causing her opponents pain.
"Finally, Draco. He is now seated at the right hand of the Universal and with good reason. He is the best and most vicious fighter in the Universal's legion as well as being the most intelligent of the three. He was the strategist for the Rangers once. He is willing to do anything to win, even selling his soul to regain his fire power.
"So he's a fire user?" the guy fire user who wasn't Klaus asked. I swear it was the first time I heard the kid talk.
"Not like you are. There is a reason he is called the dragon, he breaths fire and it cannot be put out like the hand of a Meteor Rider. However, it does not have the same acidic properties of their hands, nor is it the star fire that our fire users posses. But it is still extremely deadly. He will be the worst and most challenging advisory in the coming battles."
"What about his armies? The Universal make it seem like he has legion upon legion waiting to strike."
"That he does. Not only of Meteor Riders, but of countless other foot soldiers used against past Ranger teams. The Meteor Riders and especially the Mega Riders as you have deemed them are some of the best of those foot soldiers though and you can clearly handle them. That is all that we have for you today. Taurus? Do you have anything to add?"
"Actually yes. Nicknames. We didn't do a bad job today not saying names but we can't be shouting them in the middle of battle especially in a public place."
"I didn't hear anyone say a Ranger's name." Patrick said, countering her, again. It was the first time he spoke, lost in his own thoughts I guess. But he would never miss the chance to make Hannah look bad. I still have no idea what that's about. I may be sort of an ass, but I'm nowhere near as bad as he is towards her.
"Yes. But I heard several different nicknames for a few of us. I think it would be best if we only had one, make everything simpler. Either your symbol, zodiac or color, you know? Like for example mine would be Taurus."
"I wanna be Fish!" Anna said, actually excited. The only one, of course.
"Archer." Klaus nodded.
"Gold." JT. He winked at Anna
""Can I be Gem?" Felicia asked.
"I'm fine with Virgo."
"Leo."
"I guess Blue for me."
"Cap." I said. "I'd rather not be called sea-goat."
"Scales." Patrick said, finally going along with the plan.
Neither the Ranger whose name I can't remember or Sam said anything. "What about you guys? Adrian? Sam?" Hannah asked them.
"I'll just go with Red." Adrian— that was his name—said.
"I don't want to be called Cancer, Navy, or Crab." Sam said, making a disgusted sort of face.
"I got it!" Anna exclaimed. "Shellshock! Because you know, crabs have shells! And you have a shell shield!"
"That's cool. I like it." Sam agreed.
We didn't know what to do from there and were just sort of awkwardly standing. "What now fearless leader?" I asked Hannah, smiling.
"Now we go home. There isn't any time to train and I'm sure your parents are expecting all of you. Not to mention homework." A few of us groaned. "What? Just because we're super heroes now doesn't mean that school isn't important. We can't be Rangers forever, and real lives need to be maintained." Most of them were quick to teleport out, wanting to go home. Doing me a favor and leaving Hannah and I alone.
"Thanks for saving me, back at the park." I told her.
"Of course. All in a days work. But I didn't do it alone, JT helped too. He, Anna and Klaus were actually the ones to figure out how to get rid of the Mega Rider. Really I was just bothering it until he got there to help." She was trying to be bashful but I wanted her to be proud of what she did.
"Still, you probably gave it quite the fight. I mean you didn't just take one hit from it then were out cold for the rest of the battle."
"I did take one of its arms off, but it didn't slow down easily. They don't die by decapitation or hacking off various limbs." She laughed, recalling a memory. "You should have heard Sam scream and cuss when one of the Mega Riders came at him without a head."
"You really trust him? To be a Ranger?" I will say that surprised me. I only knew Sam by reputation but still, I've seen him enough and knew who he hangs around with to tell that it was not the crowd to be saving little kids and doing good.
"I trust him with my life. I'd trust all of you with that. I need to. We all need to for that matter, the time will come rather soon when our team will be tested and we can't be a good Ranger team unless we have faith in each other." She said wisely.
"You really are the best leader. If it were up to a vote, I would be behind you one hundred percent. I would be an awful leader. I don't know if I could be so openly supportive of everyone on the team all the time. I'd have bitched out Patrick more than a few times, the way he acts towards you. Why does he do that?" I wanted to get an answer from her, not just because I was curious, but because I wanted her to see that I was here for her to confide in.
"Shouldn't you be getting home? Your parents are probably worried." She changed the subject, looking away from me.
"It's just my mom. But she's cool. She just thinks I'm with Will. He's probably more worried that she is. He might think I finally got a girlfriend or something." I laughed. Of course Will knew I didn't have a girlfriend, but he didn't know that I liked Hannah. Hell I didn't know that I liked Hannah before we came to the Star Chamber that day. I blame the concussion. She didn't say anything and I could tell that she was bothered by the girlfriend comment.
"Did Etoile tell you what the Universal said to us when he appeared after the fight?" she asked me, completely changing the subject again.
"No, what did he say?"
"That he was close, in two days time his armies will be here. The war will begin."
"What?" I said, shocked. My mind started to race, two days wasn't enough time. "I better get back then. Talk to my mom, read all four hundred pages for APUSH." She seemed lost deep in though, but still popped a cute little half smile.
"APUSH always comes before the end of the world. See you tomorrow." She said distantly then muttered, "Better call Rebecca too. Shit." She tuned to the viewing screen and began working.
"Aren't you going to leave too?"
"Eventually. I just need to tell Rebecca about what the Universal said and then record a video journal entry of the fight today. We need to remember all of this. At least to provide information for the next teams."
"Alright. Sweet dreams." I said, grabbing my backpack from where we put them on the side of the platform then teleported out about a block away from my house.
I was thinking how to best go about my next two days as I walked home. Tonight I would be with my mom. Tomorrow, school, I would get the chance to talk to all of my non-Ranger friends, then after school I would be late to training to hang out with Will. I'm not stupid. I know there is a very good chance that I don't survive. Now I get why everyone was so somber and quite and the reason that Etoile was telling her story. There was an Atlisian weight pressuring down on my shoulders. Sure it was split twelve ways, but the weight of the world divided by twelve is still a shit ton more than any teenager should carry. If we don't protect the world, everyone could die or be enslaved. The only thing stopping that from happening were some kids who had only had their powers for less than two weeks. The odds were not in our favor. I finally walked up to my driveway; passing the first two garage doors to the one that was actually closest to the basement door inside.
"Hey mom!" I called once in the house.
"Hi honey!" she called back on the main floor, but I couldn't say where. "Dinner will be ready in a half hour!" I guess she was in the kitchen.
I went up to my room and did my APUSH reading, for once looking forwards to it. Slavery could at least take my mind off of the possible enslavement of the human race. Kind of.
So I then had a nice dinner and conversation with my mom, telling her that I loved her by the end of it. Of course she thought something was wrong with me because 'when would I ever tell my mother that I loved her' but whatever. I may only get one more night to tell her after this and she's done a lot for me since dad died. I realized that I don't think I'll ever be able to thank her enough even if I survive this. I made a mental note to tell her a lot more.
I returned back to my room and pooled out a bag and started smoking it. What else could I do? Mom never checked on me, she was cool about giving me space. Maybe it was growing up in Oregon but she never questioned the smell in my room, just as long as it didn't spread to the rest of the house. So I was alone with my weed and my thoughts, mostly of death.
After a while they turned to Hannah, to a girl I hadn't really given a second thought to, outside of her being intelligent and in my APUSH class and good to talk about my love and her hatred for Hemmingway during study hall in the library. Even then she never really talked to me, more so with JT and sometimes Will. Mostly she was deep into reading a book, only occasionally commenting on our conversations, but never passing up the chance to give me an odd look when I said something crude or stupid. But then suddenly boom. Day one of being a Power Ranger she showed me something totally different. She showed me how fighting can be really sexy and she's a great leader who's tough when she needs to be and always ready to back her teammates, even against some of her teammates, and she taught me how to use my element, which in itself was the most sensual experience of my life. But that only gave her the second and third thought, okay and a fourth whenever I needed some August time, but today, today changed it.
It wasn't even so much the fact that she saved my butt, but how she kept her composure. Through all of this she was the strong leader looking death in the face. Maybe she broke down later on when no one was there to see, which made me sad, a surprising fact in itself. But even if she did, she knew that everyone else was falling apart. I didn't even know the news and I could see it. It was pretty clear. But if their leader fell apart I could see them all just going nuts.
And okay she was cute too, I'm not going to lie about that. She wasn't drop dead gorgeous like in the movies and shit but she carried herself in a way that knew who she was and was proud of it. She didn't feel the need to fit in with the Mt. Lebanon stereotype either. Hell for the longest time she had hair shorter than mine, probably just to throw her middle finger to the school and all of the people in it, not to mention the heavy black eye liner, leather jackets and lack of designer brand clothes. Not at all my normal type, but there was something so good but dangerous and witty and perfect about her.
So I apparently developed a new crush that I didn't even know about until an hour ago. It hit me like a fucking frying pan. I couldn't wait to tell her. Hell in two day's time I'm not going to be alive, chances say, and she's not going to survive then either. And god damn it all if I wasn't going to make her last day special. How did I know that she liked me? I didn't. I'm not a mind reader. I know I'm attractive, I've had plenty of girls tell me that. And she's a girl who's clearly not blind, at least she's noticed how attractive I am. I'd caught her looking at me a few times just during class when she thinks I won't notice. So at the very least I had that. But I'm smart too. We've had some really great talks in the library and even better ones after becoming Rangers. There are so many connections formed between us being Rangers and earth users being the big ones, but even school, APUSH bonds kids all the time, and our time in study hall. I made up my mind, I was going to tell her after training tomorrow. And she was going to accept it and return my crush, I made up my mind about that too.
I've already learned a few things by being a Ranger. One: trust those who work with you, your life is in their hands. (Hannah taught me that tonight) Two: the best people for the job aren't necessarily the most obvious ones. (A good few on the team) Three: carpe diem, because two days from now you're gonna be dead.