Ch25: Spring Break
It was now the spring break for the schools in Castelan and the rangers were enjoying some much needed downtime. Since their last battle against Morgana, they've managed to learn to control their abilities and keep them stable, but beyond that, they haven't had much success. Even when they had been training more or less every day, they could only use a minor amount of their ability or all of their potential at once, which wasn't a great improvement to their situation either.
The day was just beginning as morning broke over the town, with the Blackspire towering in the distance. For such a dramatic change, the citizens of the town were now more used to it and hadn't thought of it in a while, unfortunately it was quite prominent in the news around the country.
Percy Smith got out of his bed and rubbed his eyes. Today he was going to meet up with his friends and head down to the pool in the Castelan leisure center. He got changed, putting a deep blue sleeveless shirt on along with a pair of shorts.
Walking along the upstairs hallway of his house, he glanced into his brother's room to see his brother, Max, playing what looked like a flight simulator game, which his brother had grown interested in now.
Before heading out of the door, he pulled out his trident shaped amulet and placed it around his neck. "Looks like it's gonna be bright out." He said to himself as he looked out of the window in his kitchen before leaving the house.
[Castelan Leisure Center]
The teens were gathered outside the complex, about to head in. The last to arrive was Percy as the others stood waiting. Among the six rangers was Vala Stross. After the quietness of the month that had gone by quickly, she had become part of their social group, and though some of the rangers didn't entirely like the situation, they were putting up with it as best they could.
Percy walked up and greeted them all. "How's everyone doing? We all set to get in there?" He asked.
Aaron walked up to the blue ranger. "Sure are. We better get in there before it gets packed." He told his friend.
The seven of them went into the building, separating into smaller groups to get changed.
In the women's changing room, where the girls were changing, Emlie had a pouty look on her face while she waited for the other two to get changed. She had tried to stay positive when it came to having to deal with Vala going after the same person she liked, even if it was for different motives.
Just then, the Germanic girl came and sat beside the white ranger and read her expression. "Something up?" She asked, Emlie just looked at her and then looked away with a sigh.
Unfortunately, Lexa was feeling a bit mischievous and when she was finished changing too, sat on the other side of the white ranger and looked at Vala. "She's just a little peeved with you because you're after the same person she likes."
Emlie's eyes widened at that and caused her face to go red as she put her hands over the pink ranger's mouth to stop her from saying anything else. Vala gave an amused laugh.
"I guess there's a little competition of affection then. I'm pretty sure I can win it today, all I need's a little bit of time and effort to use those seduction techniques my cousin taught me and I'll have no problems." She told the two as she walked off towards the pool.
"You seriously had to say that!?" Emlie complained, giving her friend a light slap.
Lexa's amused face then turned to an apologetic one. "Sorry for that, but without that you weren't gonna do anything. You just needed a little push to get started. Now get going!" She exclaimed pushing her friend off of the changing room bench they were sitting on. "If you waste time, you'll have to work harder." Emlie rushed out, to catch up to Vala where their competition would begin.
[Male Changing room]
In the changing rooms, the guys were just about ready to head out. Tyson and Percy were talking while Aaron was talking on his phone with someone. Ben was still changing.
The Templar ranger turned to his two friends after ending the call. "Jamie just called, said he was working on something for our 'extracurricular activities' he wants one of us to go help him test some stuff." He informed the two.
Tyson stood up and headed over to the locker with his clothes in. "I'll do it, water isn't really my thing anyway. Have fun you guys." The yellow ranger told the two, taking out his clothes and going into a changing cubicle.
"Okay, now that's settled, what's taking Ben so long?" Percy asked, although they didn't have long to wait as he called to them to say that he was ready.
Looking at their friend, they saw that he was wearing a pair of black and white checkered swimming shorts and around his arms were a pair of water wings while around his waist was an inflatable rubber ring with a green smiling dragon head on the front.
The two other rangers tried to hold back their laugher at the sight. "What's with the getup." Aaron asked as the two were trying to keep the laughter in.
"I- Uh… I can't swim." Ben sighed, looking down at the floor.
"Oh…" Percy paused while he thought something over. "Then I'll teach you!" He declared.
[The Little Goblin]
For the adults of this large town, there was one common goal they all shared, after a hard day's work, go to 'The Little Goblin' and enjoy a nice cold drink. It was a common socialising spot and today, it was a place for a reunion between old friends.
Lord Du Lac and Doctor Blake were sat down in a booth, taking drinks from mugs of frosty cold Little Goblin brand beer. For a bar, it was quite prosperous and owned its own brewery along with several other bars in other towns across the region. As they drank, another man sat down. On closer inspection, it was Percy's father.
"Ken! Great to see you again. It's been a long while." Doctor Blake greeted him.
"Ah it has been Kenneth. Ever since we were you know where with the others." Lord Du Lac told Ken.
"Ethan, Shaun, it's great to see you both. Just wish the others were here too. But enough of that how have you two been?" Ken asked as he began reminiscing with his friends.
[Command Center]
Outside the command center, in a clearing within the woods, Jamie was running some tests with Tyson. They had set up training dummies opposite the yellow ranger and Tyson also wore his amulet.
"Okay, go ahead and fire some lightning at that first dummy." The young technician told the ranger.
Tyson nodded and sent a bolt of electricity at the dummy. Unfortunately it spiralled out of control and caused the first dummy to burst into flames on impact.
"This doesn't seem like such a good idea, you sure the next one will work, I'm not one for arson." Tyson grimaced.
Jamie shook his head. "Don't worry, I'm sure the power dampener will work."
With a slight moment of hesitation, the ranger morphed using his morpher, when he did, the suit had a large metal ring attached to the front. "You sure?" Tyson asked, worried because of the flimsy looking tech.
Giving a sigh, he shot lightning at the second one, although it surged for a second it fizzled out afterwards, leaving the dummy intact.
"Okay, give me a few minutes to tweak it and we should be good." Jamie told the ranger as he demorphed, checking over his calculations.
[Castelan swimming pool]
The remaining teens were now stood at the poolside as they saw the place already becoming rather filled with other people enjoying the day.
Percy turned to the others and spoke up. "I'm gonna take Ben over to the swimming only area. Since he has no idea how to swim, I think it's best he learn now." The blue ranger told them.
As he and Ben left, Lexa called out to them in a joking manner. "Hey Ben, try not to drown!" She then turned to the three remaining teens. "So, what's everyone gonna be doing?"
Vala strutted over and lightly grabbed ahold of Aaron's arm. "I was thinking of going on that two person water slide, if someone would like to come along."
Emlie reacted to her advances on the teen by also grabbing hold of his other arm. "Well it can't be Aaron, I need someone to play a game with. I was planning on getting an inflatable ball and everything!" She cut in, the two then began to squeeze Aaron's arms tighter as they pulled him from side to side.
The ranger was getting more uncomfortable by the second as the two girls ragged him about. Thankfully, the pink ranger saved him from having his arms torn off by their feud by butting into their little argument.
"Well how about we all play ball. We'll flip a coin for teams and then play doubles, sound fair?" She suggested.
"Fine." The two said in an irritated manner, folding their arms.
Aaron gave a relieved sigh. "I'm just happy to have my arms free. At least there weren't five of you pulling on my arms. I'd envy anyone like that. At least I have Lexa to help free me."
Over at the swimming area, Ben gasped for air as his head came up out of the water. Whilst he was swimming, you would think a really unfit person was failing to swim as he went from edge to edge.
Meanwhile, in the lane next to him, Percy was doing laps upon laps in the water as the black ranger struggled to go from edge to edge. You would think he had a stamina to rival a god for the work he was doing, yet it was more likely a boon from his amulet whilst being in his natural element. He managed to do all of this while barking orders at his friend.
"No, Ben, try to keep yourself afloat like this instead of going under every few seconds. Come on! You're not gonna improve like that. It's like this, watch!"
Ben groaned as Percy was being relentless. Regardless of his intentions, it wasn't helping him at all.
The other teens were now in a rather deep area of the pool. Lexa and Aaron stood on one side whilst Emlie and Vala were on the other. The ball rested in Lexa's hands as they were about to begin. The pink ranger tossed it into the air and lightly punched it to send it towards the other two.
Emlie and Vala scrambled towards it, both claiming it and wound up running into each other going after the ball, which went behind them and floated soundly atop the water. The two gave groans as they went to retrieve the ball.
"Score one for us." Aaron said to his partner as they gave each other a fist bump.
"Okay, my turn." Emlie said, throwing the ball high in the air. It looked to be going over their opponents heads when Aaron jumped up and caught it before descending back down.
"Nice catch. Now send it home." Lexa complimented with a smile. Aaron gave a nod and launched it directly towards the two girls.
As the two reached out for it, Emlie slipped in the water and felt an extreme amount of pain as she fell back into the water. She opened her mouth in agony and her lungs began to be filled with water.
From above, Vala was shocked by the turn of events, as was Lexa. But wasting no time, Aaron dived down into the water and picked the white ranger up and carried her out of the water and onto a deck chair at the poolside. The other two girls followed on shortly.
"Well this sucks, guess I should phone up her dad about this one." Lexa said, heading to the locker room. Vala following close behind.
"Well stupid stunt or turn of bad luck, she's won round one at least. I know him well enough now to know that he's not gonna leave her there at all, he's too caring for that." She told the pink ranger.
"That's the kind a guy he is. Knight in shining armour to the rescue once again I guess." Lexa replied.
"Guess I'll just have to play the damsel in distress next time." Vala commented as she went to her locker.
[Lane Household]
Mr. Lane was sat on his couch talking with his son Lucas, who was visiting on his own in his break. Just then, their conversation was interrupted by the older Lane's phone ringing. He headed into the kitchen to answer it.
After a few moments he burst out with "She's done what!?" Lucas chuckled at how protective his father still was of Emlie. As he did his phone began to ring.
"Hello? Oh, hey. Wait, slow down, you and Sarah are where? How the hell did you manage to get there, oh another one of Sona's experiments. I thought you guys were done till we got back. Okay, want me to come get you? You mean the one in Mexico!? This is why I avoid volunteering for her experiments. I'll try to do something about it, just hang tight." Lucas sighed, ending the call.
He turned around to see his dad had also finished the call. "I've gotta head out." The two said simultaneously.
"Tell mom and Em I love them. I gotta be heading back, bye dad." Lucas told the older man before running out of the door, then Mr. Lane also exited the house.
[The Little Goblin]
The three men around the table had been sharing stories for a while now and were no longer sober as glasses littered the table.
"Hold-Hold on. I'm, gonna call Lohan." Ethan said in a drowsy manner. He pulled out his phone and called up the man.
"Lohan!" The three drunk men called.
"Hey Lohan, long time no-" Ken let out a burp in place of his last word.
"Ken? Ethan? Are you guys drunk?" The General asked.
"No, no, no. Just a wittle bit tipsi at the little goblin." Lord Du Lac said.
"You too Shaun? You guys are having a reunion then. Well I'd love to stay and chat but work calls." He said.
Before it cut off, another voice said something to Lohan. "Sir, here are the schematics on Zephyr that you requested. I was also informed to tell you that work is progressing well on it and it should be completed by 2029 by estimates." Then it cut off.
[Castelan swimming pool]
It had been half an hour since the other teens had left, yet Percy hadn't let up and he was still putting an exhausted Ben through his paces.
"Come on now, don't get lazy!" Percy barked at the black ranger as Ben kept swimming laps. Unbeknownst to the ranger, his swimming was improving, apparently an aggressive approach did work, except it wasn't as effective as a nurturing one.
'Next time, I'm wearing the waterwings, regardless of what anyone else says' Ben thought to himself as Percy kept putting him through his paces.
[Blackspire]
Morgana was sat within the dark study of the spire, sat down in front of a table with an ancient tome in front of her. Within it, it told the legend of seven ancient weapons and their use.
To go alongside their mythical artifact counterparts, seven magic weapons were created for their wielders so that they could fight the forces of evil more effectively as the war raged on. When the armies were sealed away into the cursed realms, these weapons were put to rest.
Thyrsus - A staff of nature. It was said that the circle of life revolved around it and its user could give and take life at will, making it one of the strongest weapons and by far the strongest staff to be created.
Brionac - A spear of unprecedented power. Wielded by an unstoppable warrior, it had earned its reputation as a spear which none could overcome, however true the legend is, it is indeed a dangerous weapon.
Parashu - A battleaxe of extreme size which can only be wielded by the owner of its counterpart. The weapon has four blades, two as a normal battleaxe would with two more at the top and bottom, it was phenomenal in wiping out legions of darkness during the war.
Mjolnir - The legendary hammer of the god of thunder in mythology. This sentient hammer can only be wielded by one it has chosen to be worthy of it. It had the power to amplify the abilities of whoever wields it tenfold. This weapon was in defeating the Titans in the war.
Tritonis - Little is known about this obscure weapon, said to be the trident the gods of water wield it is said it can manipulate and create water on an immense scale, even making it possible to change the sea and even remake the earth.
Artemis' Bow - Yet another weapon of a god. This was crafted by moonlight and from silverwood. It is the bane of the undead and will sear through any that it touches. It is at it's most potent when a full moon resides in the sky, it is the one weapon truly feared by the undead.
Excalibur - Also known as Calburn, the legendary sword of King Arthur existed long before that time, it was the smiter of demons and a holy sword created from a steel like no other, its effectiveness is based upon its user, the more strength they have, the more power they will wield in Excalibur. It is rumored that this sword was buried with another sword by the name of Arondight.
Below the text was a map, directing the viewer to the burial place of Brionac,the first of the weapons. Although the map was outdated, it wouldn't be too hard to update such a thing.
Morgana smirked. "Prince Abaddon will be pleased with these findings."
|Mythos|
That is chapter 25. While I planned for this chapter to get into the story. It was more of a slice of life chapter when I began writing it, so I stuck with that to just start off simpler. There was bitter rivalry between Vala and Emlie, a bit of pain for Aaron and a lot of ruthless coaching for Ben.
There were a lot of easter eggs to my future plans too, more on that in the future though.
Next, there was the mention of the weapons. I have put some of the lore of those in whilst tailoring them to what I want them to be used for in the story. The only one made up is Tritonis as there aren't any actual mythical tridents to my knowledge, so I based it on Poseidon's trident. The second act will revolve heavily around these weapons as a big plot point for the act.
Finally, the chapter mentioned last time will be the next chapter for certain and things will be returning to normal soon as the last few weeks of college begin to wind down, so I'll see you next time with the next chapter of Power Rangers: Mythos