Episode 23: Part 2

After early evening set in, everyone had returned to the Wintrhope's family home in the near suburbs of the city. Gabby sat on one of the couches in the living room wringing her hands in concern while watching her father pace restlessly in a corner. On another nearby couch in the room, Izzy sat holding an icepack to her arm while her old teammate Claire sat with her and examined the injury. Tyler sat on the couch beside Gabby with a comforting arm over his girlfriend and given the circumstances, she had completely forgotten their recent argument. he cleared his throat, "Hey Mom... is Aunt Izzy going to be okay?"

Claire took another minute to study her friend's arm before giving a little grimace, "It's a little hard to tell if anything is broken. I might need you to come in the hospital so we can do some x-ray scans."

"Sure thing Claire. I'll gather the boys and get the car ready right away," Danny said before giving a serious but concerned look toward his wife, "Iz, do you need anything else?"

"For you to just calm down mi amor," Izzy smiled appreciatively before wincing in pain. Ever since they were young, Danny had always been a laid back person who liked to joke around, but when people he loved and cared about were in trouble, he became a completely different person. "We've all taken much worse injuries in the past."

"I know Iz. It's just..."

Gabby called over to her father, "It's okay Dad. Don't worry. Aunt Claire will take care of Mom, and I promise the rest of us will take care of the monster who hurt her. It's personal now."

He nodded and left the room as Claire took some cloth and began wrapping a makeshift sling to secure Izzy's injured arm. The other Advent Rangers sat quietly contemplating the situation as Izzy fixed her eyes on her daughter who was stewing quietly, "You have that look in your eyes Gabrielle. I know what you're thinking right now."

"Can you blame me?" Gabby asked, "That Nephilim hurt you and I want to tear that monster apart right now."

Izzy shook her head, "Which is why you have to stop and think right now, mija. You're angry and upset and you're letting your own selfish feelings cloud your judgement. That's why I lectured you earlier after the battle."

"So am I supposed to just turn off my feelings and not care?" Gabby asked.

"No. You have to accept those feelings and let them make you stronger when it's appropriate," Izzy said, "But you also have to be smart enough when to know when that time is. Trust me, when I was your age, I was the same way sometimes... being kinda selfish and overemotional."

"Hmm, sounds about right," Claire quipped quietly giving her best friend a teasing smile while she continued to wrap the sling.

Gabby sighed and nodded toward her mother before speaking calmly, "All right... the important thing now is rescuing those people who got captured. Who knows what Samandriel might do to them?"

"I have a feeling she's not sure herself," Eli admitted from a nearby chair, "I think I had confused her when I tried asking her to call off the attack before. She didn't seem too willing to take hostages earlier, but she did so anyway when she retreated."

"I think it's more odd she didn't seem to want to take any swings at you individually," Danielle pointed out, "Maybe she really does have some kind of weird crush on you after all."

Eli huffed and rolled his eyes, "Listen... whatever the case, maybe we can use this to our advantage. We can take what Mrs. Winthrope said about emotions and priorities and turn it around on Samandriel."

"You have a plan Eli?" Amber asked curiously.

"Well, I admit it's not the most sane plan, but it might be worth a shot. The Nephilim seemed like they wanted to pick a fight with us to day so I'm suggesting we go and lure them out. If that Herald attacks, Samandriel will be close by and so will the hostages. Maybe I can stall her or reason with her while the rest of you save the hostages and delay the Nephilim?"

Tyler nodded and stood up, "You're right Eli. It's a little risky, but it's still the best plan we've got right now. Let's go. If those grade-schoolers are still in danger, then we don't have any more time to waste."


Later that evening, Laurel Coleman sat huddled with a small group of the school children who had been captured along with her in the Nephilim attack. The kids all looked tired, hungry, and afraid as they sat gathered around her for protection while the monstrous chimera Raziel stalked around them. Everyone had been taken to the ruins of an old abandoned chapel in the woods a little further outside the suburbs. That site had some historic significance and the chapel that stood there had been used by the pioneers going west before attempting to cross the Rocky Mountains.

For now, it seemed like the mysterious pale angelic woman who stood at the edge of the church ruins was the only thing keeping the large monster from eating the prisoners. A cool evening breeze blew taking off the edge of the summer heat and Laurel was grateful they weren't freezing cold right now. She took a deep breath and called out to Samandriel, "Hey! What are we doing here? Can you please let us go?"

The beautiful fair skinned woman in white robes with long silvery hair glanced over toward her and sighed, "I'm afraid I can't. I haven't decided what to do with you yet."

"I promise we won't get in your way. Please, the kids are scared and just want to go home," Laurel pleaded, "We don't want to fight."

Samandriel stopped as Eli's words echoed in her mind and she almost felt a twinge of pity for the defenseless miserable looking kids who had been dragged into this. Wasn't this a little bit of the same thing going on with the opening of the Eternity Gate. The Nephilims' conflict was with the Heavens after all. Maybe humanity really had just been dragged into it against their own will. After all, her doing this today had been for show, in case other agents of the Sanctum were watching her. She had backed off and stayed her hand today, because a human man had appealed to her and asked her to show compassion. She would have pondered this further, but Raziel immediately reared up and tensed.

It had been tasked to attack the Rangers only so that meant they must have been nearby. Maybe looking for the children? Samandriel nodded to the Herald, "Go."

The chimera bounded away into the dark brush to hunt down its enemies. Samandriel turned to Laurel and gave a pointed look, "I will return shortly. Do not think of going anywhere."

She spread her wings and took off into the night sky to follow Raziel and take care of the Rangers if they were nearby. Laurel turned back to some of the kids and weighed the options in her head. Despite what that Nephilim had said, now was their chance to make an escape. It was risky, but it was better than not trying at all. She gathered the kids and quickly led them from the ruined chapel, hoping to find a way to safety down the winding forest trails.


Some distance away, the six Advent Rangers touched down to gather their bearings after flying low over the area where the kids were taken. There was a large forest preserve near the school which eventually fed into a much greater forest which spread out from the outskirts of Hyperion Falls toward the distant mountain ranges to the west. To their surprise, the Rangers heard movement from the edge of the large clearing they were resting in. Moments later, the large beastly chimera burst through the treeline and gave a savage roar before Samandriel came floating over the low horizon to track her pet's progress.

She paused and floated down to momentarily restrain the Celestial beast as the Rangers all prepared for a fight. "Rangers... you're here for the prisoners? You can have them, if you can get through us."

Eli stepped forward and took a deep breath, "Wait! This is all for show, isn't it, Sam?"

"Step aside Eli, now is not the time to..."

"It's the perfect time," he interrupted, "You said it before. We don't have to do this. You don't actually want any harm to come to those children and we both know it. Your Herald here might want to tear us to pieces, but you yourself don't. Isn't that right? You're just doing this to play along with the rest of the Triumvirate?"

"Eli..."

"Samandriel, listen to me," the Blue Ranger pleaded, "We don't have a lot of time. It won't be long before that last seal is broken. You'll have to choose a side and you can't sit on the fence any longer. Please... help us."

Samandriel hovered with a conflicted look and remained silent until there was another rustling in the brush and everyone turned to see Laurel and the children enter the clearing. Because of the winding forest path, Laurel took the easiest for the kids to walk on and accidentally led them right into the middle of the standoff. Samandriel tossed a handful of marble spheres to summon some soldiers before taking to the skies. She decided to wash her hands in the matter and let the events play out as they would today. There was no way she could continue to focus in this battle anymore.

The herald snarled and bounded forward to attack while Gabby made a mad dash to aid Laurel and the children. As the Sentinels closed in, Gabby readied her rapier and pulled her blaster pistol as well. To Laurel's surprise, Gabby offered it to her with a nod, "Ms. Coleman, I could still use a hand protecting the kids. How would you like to be an honorary Pink Ranger today?"

Laurel blinked in shock before breaking into a wide smile. She took the pistol and squared off against the incoming infantry of the Sanctum, "It'd be a privilege."

The children stayed down and watched in awe as their new school teacher give the Pink Ranger a fist bump and then leveled her weapon toward the enemy monsters. The moment that Laurel fired her first blaster shot, Gabby sprinted forward and launched an aggressive attack. The Sentinels caught in the flank took futile swings at her while Gabby nimbly dodged and tumbled around them with athletic grace and agility. She moved through their ranks and cut down several soldiers at a time while Laurel laid down volleys of covering fire and occasionally hit an advancing Sentinel.

Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield , the Rangers all circled the Raziel to try and corral the beastly Herald. As it charged one way, Tyler slashed the ground with his blade halting the creature with a wall of fire. It abruptly changed direction only to run into a palisade wall of ice spikes which Amber called up with her spear. The monster snarled and smashed the ice barrier apart with its paws only to be pelted by another hail of blaster fire from Eli, Danielle, and Ethan.

Raziel turned and lashed its tail around to try and mow down the Rangers but they all leapt clear and took to the air with their wings. Unfortunately, they only had a moment to breathe before the Herald reared its three heads up and fired off its breath weapons filling the sky with jets of elemental energy. The airborne Rangers rolled and tumbled clear with deft aerial maneuvers to evade the attacks while the monster took to the air as well.

"Damn! This guy is really starting to tick me off," Danielle called to her comrades as she veered away from the flying Nephilim who gave chase.

Back on the ground, the Pink Ranger made her way back around after cutting a swath through the enemy troops and moved to assist Laurel against the last three soldiers who came at the small group of kids. Everyone watched as the courageous teacher dodged past a Sentinel and kicked another back into its comrade before Laurel pulled the trigger and blasted both of them apart. She gasped as the last remaining minion grabbed her from behind but she aimed the pistol down and blew off its foot before she broke free and whirled around, firing one more blaster shot at point blank range to destroy it.

Laurel gave a gasp from the exhilaration of the fight as she stumbled over to her knees to rest and process what she had just done. Several of the kids gathered around her giving cheers and seeing if she was okay as Gabby came over to with a proud nod, "Thanks for the assist Ms. Coleman. I think you missed your calling to be a Ranger."

Laurel gave a tired smile and handed the Pink Ranger back her blaster pistol, "Thanks, but I think I'd just be happy looking after the kids in my own way."

The kids looked up and marveled at their local female superhero before them as Gabby gave a little wave to them, "Okay kids, I need you to do me a favor right now. Just be brave and look after your teacher for me right now. I'm going to take care of everything now."

She turned back toward the fight and saw that her teammates had returned to the ground and were trying to find a good angle to attack the feral Nephilim. She reached for her morpher and called upon her Exalted powers to take on an even greater form. The female armored angel streaked forward leaving behind contrails of pink and blue energy as she took on Raziel in a surprise flank attack.

She surprised her fellow Rangers until Tyler gave a quick wave, "Wait, hold off for a minute everyone. I think she's got this one."

Gabby darted ahead and dodged past the chimera's tail strike before swatting the stinger away with her blade. As she continued to close, Raziel fired a three pronged breath weapon at the Pink Ranger but she responded by enveloping herself in a small whirlwind of combined air and water which deflected the breath attacks. She leapt high and broke the tornado causing the violent pockets of air to slam into Raziel and throwing it off balance. The Pink Ranger dove down on her foe at close range and began to pummel with with a barrage of charged rapier thrusts that were only enhanced by her Exalt form. With another swipe of her Wind Slicer, the Herald was wounded and thrown back several yards.

As the other Rangers regrouped around her Gabby called out to the Herald, "I've had enough of you Nephilim! It's time for us to put you down! Eli? Back me up, here?"

"You got it," the Blue Ranger called as he called on his Exalted form as well.

Gabby and Eli streaked forward and circled the Herald several times to lock it down from charging. As they penned it in, Gabby stirred up a bubble of violent air to keep her foe immobilized from flying while Eli poured on water and fire into the bubble which created a chamber of scalding steam that hurt and blinded Raziel even more. When their combined attack reached a crescendo, the two made a criss-cross strike on their enemy to land mortal blows upon it.

The bubble of wind and water burst apart as the Nephilim gave one last howl of fury and exploded. Both Eli and Gabby made a skidding landing as a plume of the slain Nephilim's feathers and golden flames rained down amid the remnants of the Rangers' blue, pink, and red contrails.

"Woohoo! Nice kill!" Danielle cheered as the others came over to congratulate their two friends, "You were really fired up on that one."

Gabby smiled and turned back to where Laurel and the freed children were watching and cheering from a distance, "Thanks. I had a lot to make up for, and thanks again for the help Eli."

"No worries," he replied gesturing back to the civilians, "Now come on everyone. Let's get these people back to safety and call it a day."


Late that night, the Rangers returned to the school grounds with all the rescued hostages and made sure they all got home safely. The kids were all shaken from the experience, but none the worse for wear. At the moment, many of the kids had forgotten about their discomfort and were more excited to be hanging out with real life Power Rangers. They had heard from their parents about the original Rangers who had protected the city but now the kids were all star-struck at getting to be around this newer younger team.

The next day, the six Rangers took some time to sleep in and recover from their skirmish with the Sanctum before meeting again in their coffee house in campus town. Now that Laurel was now privy to their secret, she had been invited to join them and sort things out from the ordeal. As they all sat together, the teacher thanked Ethan as he served her a cold drink before turning to the others, "You know... I just wanted to thank you again for saving all of us yesterday. I know things got kinda crazy and I feel bad that Mrs. Winthrope got hurt in the process."

"That's okay," Gabby said with a kind smile, "By all accounts, Mom is going to be okay and I'm sure she'd have been proud of the way you stepped up and helped us too. That was pretty heroic."

"Well... I don't know about that," Laurel admitted sheepishly, "You were still the one who took down that monster the other day."

Now it was was the Pink Rangers turn to be modest, "Honestly, I had a bit of help and my mother helped put some things into perspective for me too. I guess even outside the classroom she never stops teaching, does she?"

Laurel smiled, "I guess it comes with the territory. We could always stand to learn new things."

"Speaking of, I wonder what the Triumvirate's next play is going to be," Eli mused aloud, "After all, Samandriel was really acting funny and I can't help but wonder what's up with her."

As the others began to chatter and speculate, Gabby turned to Tyler with an apologetic look, "Hey Ty... uh, while we're here I wanted to apologize to you about getting upset over the whole anniversary thing too. Considering what Mom told me, in hindsight it seemed kinda stupid and selfish of me too."

"Oh... don't sweat it," he replied waving it off, "But if you want, we can still do something fun on that day. I was thinking of taking you salsa dancing."

"Really?" Gabby asked in happy surprise, "But wait... I thought you hate dancing."

"I do. But since it makes you happy, I figured it couldn't hurt to give it another try," he admitted with a shrug, "Besides, I already recruited Dani to coach me and I don't think she's going to let up on teaching me either."

The Purple Ranger gave a playful laugh from nearby and grabbed Tyler by the arm to pull him out the door, "That's right. Time's a wasting Hale. Gabby, I'm stealing your boyfriend for the next few days to whip him into a lean mean Latin dancing machine."

"Great. Have fun. Just bring him back in one piece," Gabby waved nonchalantly while Tyler gave a startled look of dismay while being dragged out the door.

"Wait... what?"


Meanwhile back in the Sanctum, Samandriel stood in one of the open air aeries toying with some of the little oculus creatures that the Nephilim used as their spies. She considered the defeat of Raziel which had not been a major loss, but her thoughts drifted more toward the words of Eli in their recent encounters. While part of her was still excited that only one seal remained and that she and her brothers were close to achieving their original goal, part of her was also reluctant. In this past year or so of direct battle with the humans, she had begun to question her motives about a lot of things.

She had to admit that there was something about the humans that fascinated her. Even for lower beings with all their flaws, there was still something intriguing and admirable about their race and she found herself more and more drawn to them. Had she found something noble and admirable about these Rangers? Perhaps even more so with the Blue Ranger himself who expressed his own admiration for her. Perhaps it was a combination of curiosity and personal infatuation that had gripped her and she found herself reluctant to commit to her original mission with the same zeal. Was it at all possible that maybe she and her fellow Nephilim were wrong?

Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard someone else enter the aerie and approach her. The little oculi scattered to their perches as Ithuriel entered with an impassive expression. Samandriel regarded him coolly, "This is a surprise. I wasn't expecting to see you here."

Ithuriel scrutinized her and folded his arms within his robes, "I came to tell you that Umbriel is waiting to talk to you about the loss of Raziel."

"All right. I understand he might be a little unhappy right now, but it's just a minor setback in the grand scheme," she said as she began to walk past him to head for the door. She stopped abruptly as he caught her by the arm.

"I'm beginning to wonder what your grand scheme is," he said, "Your curiosity with the humans has become problematic. I have reason to believe it's making you soft and clouding your judgment."

Samandriel glared at him incredulously, "Are you really calling my loyalty into question, brother? How dare you! Umbriel will hear..."

"Spare me the hysterics, sister. Umbriel has indulged your whims out his own affection for you. You may have our brother fooled, but not me."

She broke free of his grip and stormed past him toward the door. She stopped when she heard him call sternly, "Be very careful Samandriel. I'm warning you to think very hard and remember just who it is you're loyal to."

"Considering your own failed track record, don't make any threats you can't follow through on."

She took a deep breath to steady herself before leaving the room in a huff while Ithuriel watched her go. As the chamber door closed, the Nephilim lord cast a level gaze over the chattering oculi and quietly followed her out with a contemptuous snort.