Jordan reappeared in a forest, which was completely engulfed in darkness. He couldn't begin to guess what time it was, time had a whole different meaning in The Library, when he could see and experience virtually anything he wished. Almost a year had passed since he had been taken there by Gosei, but to him, given all the things he had seen and learned, it felt like a lifetime.
He got up off his knees and looked around the forest. He had never been to this part of the country, but he had seen some hint of Bethal's power. He was confident that true to her word, she had sent him to Briarwood...or...at least as close to Briarwood as she could.
As he looked through the forest, all he could see was trees and darkness for miles in all directions. He couldn't even see the highway that at one time passed through it, linking Reefside to San Angeles. He remembered seeing something when his friends had come to Briarwood before, remembering something Nick had said. There was a powerful spell on the city, one that took it into the Magical Realm, and hid it from anyone that hadn't been invited to enter.
"Shit." Jordan muttered under his breath, realising the detail in his plan that had slipped his mind. He had never met the Mystic Force. They didn't know who he was, and so they hadn't invited him to enter Briarwood. He hadn't told Bethal about the enchantment, and so she hadn't known about it to counteract it when she sent him to Briarwood. He was sure it had to be close...he just had no idea where. "This is why I hate magic."
With that, he started to hike, wandering around in the vain hope that someone would notice him and let him into the city to rejoin his friends.
Meanwhile, in the city, a lot closer than Jordan could possibly believe, the Rangers were sitting around by Rootcore, the old command centre of the Mystic Force. The Lightspeed team and the Mystic Force team joined Emma, Gia, Jake, Noah and Orion for a much-needed meal.
"Here." Orion said, handing Emma another cup of his tea. Emma accepted it gratefully, taking a long drink. For obvious reasons, she could hardly keep her mind on anything. All her thoughts were with Troy. Although he was always quite guarded with his feelings, Emma could always read him. She knew how important his training was to him, how much his life revolved around his Martial Arts. It wasn't as though anyone would bounce back from losing a limb, but even in the short time since it had happened, Emma could feel him pulling away. It was as though he was giving up, like he couldn't see a future for himself. Orion had tried to help her though her own anguish, offering to pray with her, but not being of his faith, she had politely refused. She couldn't deny enjoying the ceremonial tea though. She could feel the familiar warm sensation rushing through her as she took it.
"So, you're sure you can't just...you know..." Jake said, waving around a stick like a wand. Nick sighed and looked to them.
"If it was that simple, no one would ever be sick or hurt." Nick told them. "Magic always has a price, especially when you violate the laws of nature. It's impossible to tell what that price would be. All I can tell you is when the scales are balanced...it's generally messy."
"So what about Troy?" Gia asked. "What does he do?"
"I guess he does the same thing anyone else does." Dana replied. "I guess he just has to learn to adjust."
"It's not like it's the end of the road for him." Carter stated. "I mean...prosthetics are getting pretty good nowadays."
"Yeah, there was a guy in one of my karate classes who lost a leg in Basra." Chad recalled. "He was pretty good too, last time I heard from him, he was about to become a Brown Belt."
"Yeah, and I heard there are fire-fighters that needed prosthetics." Carter added. "Some of them were even able to return to duty."
"So, there's a chance Troy could get back to action?" Noah asked.
"As long as we got him the right prosthetic and he adjusted to the difference in his training, yes." Dana told them. "There's no reason he couldn't have a normal life...if..."
"If what?" Gia asked. Dana just sighed.
"The biggest obstacle for him to overcome isn't a physical one." Dana told them. "It's a struggle; don't make any mistake, but the real problem..."
"It's a mental one." Emma muttered. They all looked to her as she drank some more tea. "He needs to believe he can get past this."
"Well...it's not like he'd be the first pirate with a fake leg right?" Jake asked. Gia just glared at him.
"That only happened in books!" She scolded him. "Pirates didn't tend to have doctors on board. Most of them wouldn't have survived an amputation carried out on the ship."
"I still can't believe this happened." Jake stated. "I mean...it's Troy! The guy's made of iron! Nothing gets to him!"
With that, Emma just got up and left them. They watched her go, heading for the hotel that Nick had arranged for comfort while their ship was being re-stocked for the next leg of their journey. No one was exactly sure when that would be, but they knew that they had to be ready and soon. Vrak and Vekar would not be kind enough to wait for them to be ready.
"I'm sorry, I didn't..."
"She'll be alright." Gia told him. "She's probably just going to check on Troy."
They sat in silence for a moment, before Orion got up, looking around them.
"Maybe we should do something to keep our minds occupied." Orion suggested. "I mean, we're still waiting on Troy being ready right?"
"What do you suggest?" Nick asked him. Orion started counting the group.
"We should have enough of us here." Orion stated. "How about I teach you a game we used to play on Andresia?"
Jake just smiled. He remembered Orion telling him that there was a game similar to soccer on Andresia that Orion had offered to teach him.
"Well, I guess working off some of that meal might not be a bad idea." Jake stated. The others were a bit more reluctant, but after a while, they all realised that they could use a distraction. Orion looked to Nick.
"Can you get us a soccer ball?" He asked. Nick just smiled.
"I think I can manage that." He replied. "You sort out the teams; I'll be back in a few minutes."
Up on the Armada Command Ship, Lavira went into Prince Vekar's chambers, finding himself exercising. He had locked himself away, turning over control to Damaras while he worked to return to an acceptable condition following his weight gain.
He had long since shifted the excess weight, but he seemed to have shifted the goal posts, and attained a new goal. Given the number of troops he had called to be sent to the holo trainer, it looked like he was starting to get a taste for combat. As she entered the room, she was about to say something, but found herself rendered speechless by what she saw.
He was performing chin-ups...but he was doing so using only two fingers on one hand to grip the bar! He was stripped to the waist, revealing a remarkable change in his physique. When he began, he had a huge paunch, and even before that, his body could at best be described as fleshy. Now...his pale blue skin was showing a lot of muscle that hadn't been visible before. His abs, his pecs, his shoulders...all of them now looked like they were carved from stone.
"Ah Lavira!" He said as he dropped down from the bar, coming towards her. "It's been so long; I wanted to tell you how well your device has worked."
Lavira had given him a device that electronically stimulated his muscles as he slept, giving him the equivalent of another full workout while he was resting up from Argus' idea of a workout...which seemed to have a lot more in common with a suicide mission if she was honest. It had a huge effect on the results. Lavira started to stammer, staring at him as she tried to comprehend the results.
"As you can see, it has been most impressive!" He complimented her. "Now, what was it you were here to tell me."
"Um..." She started to say, her mind drawing a blank. As she stared at him, she had a hard time remembering anything about what she was about to tell him. Finally, it came to her as he stared at her, like she was a stammering, bumbling idiot. "There...there have been some more developments since Lafitte's destruction."
"Oh, what developments?" He asked her.
"A couple of large energy signatures appeared on the scanners. "One of them shows up as an Armada signature, but...none of us have sent anyone down."
"That is odd." Prince Vekar commented. "It's probably just some commander trying to make a name for himself. It used to happen all the time in the Beta sector..."
"The other shows up as...Eltarian." She continued. Prince Vekar just looked at her.
"Eltarian?" He asked. "But...they disappeared from the Earth months ago!"
"It appears one of them is back." Lavira told him. "This presents us with a rare opportunity to..."
"Send everything that can be powered up in the next ten minutes!" He ordered her. "If Gosei is back, I want him to regret crawling out of whatever hole he's been hiding in!"
"As you command Your Highness." Lavira responded as she turned and left the room. As she got outside, closing the door, she leaned back against it, taking a moment to catch her breath. It had only occurred to her to breathe once she left his chambers. She took a moment to gather her bearings, before making her way to the armoury to see what was available.
Back in the forest, Jordan was wandering around aimlessly. As he passed the same rock formation for the fiftieth time, he let out a frustrated snarl and kicked it over.
"Bloody magic!" He remarked, running a hand through his hair. He considered his options for a moment, trying to think of a way to attract his friends' attention. Thinking about it, he hadn't really thought through this whole plan. He heard a snap, a turned around to see something in the distance, in the darkness.
"It's awfully dangerous to go walking around the woods at night you know." A familiar voice said in a casual tone. Jordan tensed up hearing it.
"Vrak!" He said as the cyborg stepped into view. "So, you really have been hiding all this time."
"I prefer to think of it as...biding my time." He told him. "Unlike my brother, I am playing the long game...and you can help me."
"I think I'm going to choose...no!" Jordan replied as his Robo Knight armour formed up around him. He drew his Robo Blade as Vrak drew his own weapons. As they started to circle each other, waiting for the other to begin, there was a bright flash, and they both found themselves surrounded on all sides by X-borgs and Bruisers...hundreds of them! Vrak looked to Jordan.
"Shall we take a rain check on our little duel?" He asked. Jordan responded with actions, turning and cutting down the first robots to attack him. Vrak did the same on the opposite side, smashing his brother's troops to pieces with ease as they advanced on them in an unstoppable tide.
Inside the barrier, the Rangers were in the middle of the game, Jake on a breakaway with the ball. The game did have some similarities to soccer as he had promised, in that it wasn't permitted for players to use their hands to control the ball, but it seemed like that was where the similarity ended.
At each end of the field, Xander had shaped some trees, altering the position of their branches to make three hoops, held upright about six feet off the ground. Orion had explained that to score, the ball had to pass through one of the hoops. Noah had commented it reminded him of Quidditch, but Orion's blank stare had reminded everyone that sometimes pop culture references didn't really work with him.
As he was rounding Gia, Jake suddenly experienced yet another major difference between the games. Orion charged at him full-pelt, wrapping an arm around his chest and shoulders, while his left foot went behind Jake's legs, sweeping them out from under him and drove him down hard. Jake coughed a little as he felt like he had been hit by a freight train.
"Dude." Noah stated. "Are you sure that's legal?"
"Hey, ask Tensou if you don't believe me!" Orion protested. Carter just rubbed his bruised ribs.
"Well, not all of us are fortunate enough to be Andresian." He stated. "The rest of us aren't as solid as you."
One of the things that had turned up in Noah's scans of Orion was that Andresians, although human, had evolved a little differently from Earthlings. The gravity on Andresia was slightly higher, meaning that their bone and muscle structure had evolved to be slightly denser than that of other humans. It meant that he weighed more than someone his size should, and was marginally stronger and more resilient than he should be. Orion just smiled.
"Well, if you're saying you can't take it..."
Just then, Tensou flew into view. He landed in the middle of the field, interrupting the game.
"Rangers, Rangers!" Tensou screeched in panic. "There's a battle going on outside the barrier!"
"A battle?" Jake asked. "But there's no one for miles!"
"There are hundreds of Armada troops!" Tensou told them. "Vrak is there too..."
"Great!" Noah said. "Let them beat each other senseless..."
"Jordan's out there too!" Tensou concluded. The Corsairs all looked around each other hearing this.
"Jordan?" Gia asked.
"Yes! He showed up!" Tensou told them. "I don't know how or why but...but...he needs help!"
"Come on!" Jake stated, snatching up his morpher. He, Gia, Noah and Orion all ran from the field, heading for the battle.
Outside the barrier, Jordan carved down another Bruiser as he started to back up. He bumped into something, and turned a little, realising it was Vrak.
"I bet you never thought you'd find yourself here did you?" Vrak asked him. "Standing back to back with me."
"Why are they attacking you?" Jordan asked him. "They're your brother's troops!"
"They don't recognise me in my new form. They believe I am an enemy." Vrak told him. "I suppose for the time being, the enemy of my enemy..."
"I don't buy it!" Jordan replied. Just then, the Rangers showed up, morphing as they ran into action, cutting them down from behind. Vrak just smiled.
"So predictable." He stated. "And very timely."
With that, he turned, and rammed a blade into Jordan's exposed back, a blade which penetrated his armour. Jordan cried out in pain as it plunged into him. Vrak activated a command, at which Jordan felt a searing, burning pain coursing through him.
"I have to admit, the Red Ranger taking out Lafitte was inconvenient, but it did have some positive outcomes." He stated. "Now the Red Ranger is laid up, and Gosei's precious baby boy has come out from under his rock!"
Jordan screamed loudly as Vrak twisted the blade, concentrating on the attack. Jordan looked down, seeing the armour recalling into him. He then felt something unusual...he felt the strength it offered leaving him. He tried to stop it, but as he willed it to return to him, he could feel the armour ripping through his body. As Vrak pulled out the blade, and Jordan fell to the ground, he looked to the metal artefact on his blade. Jordan turned over to see it too...it was the implant that had crawled inside him over a year ago, granting him the power of the Robo Knight and starting him on his Ranger adventure. He started to scoot away.
"Thank you for bringing me this." Vrak told him. "Don't worry, you'll see it again. Have fun with my brother's toys."
With that, Vrak disappeared, leaving Jordan on the ground. The Corsairs managed to clear up the last of the robots, before rushing to Jordan's side, looking concerned. He pulled himself painfully to his feet and forced a smile.
"Uh...hi guys." He offered. "Surprise! Guess who's back!"