Ch48: Decisions, Decisions

Deep in the wilderness that resided near Castelan, a damp cave was well lit by candles, placed in crevacesses and ledges around the large chamber. Footsteps echoed through the cave, the cause of the sound stood at the mouth of the shelter. The figure elegantly made it's way into the warm cavern, light revealing just who had arrived here.

The ancient being Kumiho strode into the cave, a focused expression on her face as her numerous tails blew to the side from a gust of wind that flew into the cave. The old god walked on until she came upon a small pond at a far back cave edge, stopping just short of the water, she crouched down and watched as the water rippled.

"You know, skulking in the darkness like you are isn't good for your wellbeing. If I didn't know better, I would've mistaken you for an intruder and killed you where you stand. Luckily for you, I have some use for someone of your talents." Kumiho spoke aloud, her voice echoing throughout the seemingly empty cave.

As she gently flicked the water with her hand, footsteps were heard echoing through a tunnel that lead further into the cave, yet they were getting closer. After a few moments, whoever else had been lurking in the darkness emerged into the light. A long and flowing black robe with a hood over the head were worn by a man, who appeared old and scarred. He stood behind her with his head held low.

"Tell me, did you get the items I needed? If you didn't, then I have no further use for you." Kumiho asked the robed man while threatening him.

"Yes, my mistress. Everything's ready for the ritual, when is it to take place?" He confirmed as the old god rose from the cave pool's edge.

"I have one more thing to gather first, but it will be soon enough, Reaper." She answered him, confirming him to be Reaper, the former servant of both Shadai and Abaddon.

[The Undercroft]

As Shadai rested upon the stone throne inside the ancient evil lair, his newest subordinate paced through the crypt's halls. While he was frustrated that the rangers had a surprising advantage on all of his soldiers, he knew it wouldn't last for long.

'Soon enough I'll remove those rangers from our path. With the armour collected, my soldiers won't be cut down so easily by such weapons. But one thing remains, I need something stronger to crush those rangers, a soldier of pure brute strength. I know just who to choose.' The Undead commander thought to himself as he came to a halt before another chamber.

Entering, the Archfiend scanned the large chamber for what he was looking for. Much larger sarcophagus' were contained here. Corrus, walked along the cold floor of the Undercroft until he came across one coffin in particular. Removing the great stone lid, a huge and barbaric looking skeleton laid resting. A jagged axe, sized up for whatever creature was contained here, rested beside it. Without a moment of hesitation, Corrus placed his decayed hand upon the skeleton and began infusing it with the dark power of the Return.

As the moments passed, the body of the skeleton began regenerating until a corpse like version of the being that he had brought back rested there, until it opened it's eyes, now a corrupted from the power of the Return, and rose from its coffin. Blue almost frozen skin, with a certain decay about it and a tremendous size to this creature was menacing enough. This being also wore thick plate armour that was engraved with what resembled norse markings.

Corrus laughed maniacally. "That's it, rise up and take your revenge upon the surface. Jotunn, last of the Frost Giants, destroy the Power Rangers!" He commanded as Jotunn let out a beastly roar of understanding.

[Sacred Springs High]

Morning Homeroom was in session and all the rangers were sat lazily in class as the principal's assistant gave the morning announcements, for whatever reason, the principal himself couldn't do it today. "Lastly, could the following people come to the principal's office as soon as possible. Emlie Lane, Lexa Eve, Percy Smith and Artemis Domino. That's all, have a nice day."

The three older rangers looked at each other, uneasy about what they'd been called for, the most worrying thought is the they could've been found out.

As the three made their way out into the hallway, they gave each other uneasy looks. "What do you think this' about?" Percy asked, not sure what to make of it.

"I know if somebody's in trouble, it can't be me, I always cover my tracks if I've done something wrong." Lexa smirked, though it was hard to tell whether or not she was joking.

As they made their way to the office, they spotted Artemis standing just outside, waiting for them. "Did any of you guys do something? Because this is really weird. Why are we being called up here when we've done nothing."

"I guess we should just head in and find out." Emlie answered as they opened the door into the secretary area.

The principal's secretary gestured with her hand for them to enter the office, paying little attention to the four and continuing on with whatever she was so frantically typing. The rangers slowly opened the door, half expecting to get a lecture as they entered.

To their surprise, they didn't find the principal in the seat. Instead, their mentor, Doctor Ethan Blake, sat in the principal's place, the difference was, he appeared well dressed in a suit and tie. He had an uneaten donut with sprinkles in his hand and it appeared he was about to eat it when the rangers came in.

As the door closed, their mentor set the donut down on the desk as stood up. "Glad you're all here. Guess you're kinda surprised I'm in the big seat then. There's gonna be an assembly at the end of the week explaining this, but as of now, I'm officially you're new principal. Aside from better pay and a fancy office, whenever we've got a problem in the city, I can call you up and get you out of classes to deal with it." He explained to them.

"Isn't that gonna affect our grades some way though?" Percy asked, worried that more freedom as rangers would impact their normal lives further.

"I wouldn't worry about that. After all, as principals I can give detentions whenever I want."

"Wait, you don't mean you're gonna-" Lexa asked in a panic before being cut off by the new principal.

"That's right, every time you have to go out and be rangers, you'll spend the day in detention making up for lost time." Principal Blake explained to them, getting an immediate group wide groan from the rangers in response. "There's one more thing. I just got word that there's a monster attacking with those Undead Draug."

"You've seriously gotta work on your timing." The pink ranger remarked as they headed out of the office to deal with the newest threat that had arose and now threatened their city.

Principal Blake slumped down into his chair as his stomach gave a growl. As he reached forward toward where he put his donut, he realised it wasn't there anymore. "That's funny, I'm sure I left my donut around here."

As they sprinted down the halls, Percy looked over to Lexa and smirked. She was happily munching down on the donut meant for their teacher as they ran. One thing that hadn't changed was her habit of taking any food she can get her hands on and Percy doubted it ever would change.

[Castelan Market]

While the market stalls were brimming with goods, the amount of civilians there was dropping drastically as they fled from the terror of the Undead Draug and the resurrected Frost Giant.

As they last of the civilians took off from the area, the four rangers ran down the pedestrian street toward the monstrous Jotunn. Looking at the foot soldiers, the rangers noticed how they now wore armour.

"Looks like they remembered to protect themselves this time around." Emlie told the others as they each drew their morphers.

"Either way, it shouldn't take long to take them out like last time. Wait is that a giant?" Artemis asked, only now noticing Jotunn towering above the Draug.

"Like you said, shouldn't be too hard." Percy smirked as they raised their morphers.

"Mythos Ignite!" "Druidic Energies, Unleash!" They called, morphing in a flash of light and calling upon their Legendary weapons.

Drawing back her bow, the pink ranger took aim and targeted a Draug on the front line. "Alright, time to see if that armour of theirs does anything." She commented as she released the string, sending an energy arrow zipping through the air. It clashed with the armour of the Draug and seemed to bounce off. Lexa's eyes went wide behind her helmet. "Just great, the one weapon we have against the Undead that actually works and now it's useless."

"You mean we can't beat these zombies!?" Emlie asked in a panic, without the reassurance they could get rid of them, Emlie's fear came flooding back. "Oh great, we've got nothing to stop them, this is bad, this is bad. No no no no." She said to herself as her fear of zombies became worse.

"Alright, maybe they'll scatter if we can take out the Giant. Lexa, call up some strong wind to blind them. Artemis, you'll go and start firing magic at the Giant and the Draug. I'll take it on with my Trident, hopefully we can pull this off before Emlie loses it more than she has." The blue ranger directed them.

Without a second of thought, Lexa channelled her elemental wind into a strong and sustaining burst to blind the Draug and Jotunn. Once the cover was laid, Artemis used her magical staff to vault into the air over the Draug, where she cast a ball of energy down upon the zombie foot soldiers, blasting them to the ground as she landed behind the lines.

Soon enough, Percy joined her to deal damage to the Frost Giant before them. Jabbing his Trident into the leg of Jotunn, the Giant let out a furious roar, slamming both green and blue rangers back to where the other two were stood. A few seconds later, Lexa gave an exhausted sigh and lowered her hands to dispel her elemental wind tunnel.

While the rangers were either exhausted, injured or fearful of their foe, the Draug recovered quickly and charged forward with their weapons. "Somebody do something quickly!" Emlie exclaimed as the Draug were almost upon them.

Percy sat up and saw the coming danger. Levelling his spear, he let loose a powerful stream of water to clash and knock down the zombies ahead. "Any ideas on what we do next?" He asked as the Draug started to stand, some slipping as they did.

"I kinda know one way, but I'm not even sure it's gonna work. It's pretty advanced and I've never done this kind of magic before." Artemis responded as the Draug now began to charge once more.

"Get to it then!" The other three called out.

The Dryad ranger held her hands near each other and cast the unpractised spell. After a moment, a large green circle of energy, with archaic symbols and markings appeared under their feet and transported them away from the battlefield before the Draug could catch them.

Jottun snarled and turned away, commanding his troops to retreat, sinking into the ground to return to the Undercroft.

After the rangers had been transported away by this new spell, all the could see was black. The rangers could hear each other and the appeared to be in a small room due to their lack of space. While they struggled to find a way open, light came pouring in and the four tumbled out into the empty school halls. Fortunately lessons were still going on and no one had seen them. A school janitor had opened the door to enter the cleaning supplies closet they'd emerged from, his lack of attention and the music bursting from his headphones allowed them to go unnoticed as they stood up and gave a sigh of relief that it was all over. It seemed they'd not have to explain their ranger suits either as whatever magic Artemis had use also returned them to their usual clothes.

"That could've gone better." Percy groaned as he rubbed his head.

"Tell me about it, I feel like my head's splitting." Lexa groaned.

"Sorry guys, magic's like maths, complicated and boring and I probably got something wrong." Artemis apologised.

"We need to get the upper hand on them though, find a way to beat them down now they've took out our best weapon against them. There's something else I want to say too, I'm sorry I keep freaking out all the time when it comes to fighting zombies." She said to them, holding her head low.

Lexa walked over and patted her hard on the back. "Don't worry about it, everybody's scared of something, you've just gotta learn to get over it in the end. Now let's get going, I think I know how to surprise those undead the next time they come knocking." She smirked, which gave the other three rangers uneasy looks as to what Lexa was planning.

[Command Center]

Arriving at their base of operations for the first time since the new threat had emerged, the four rangers weren't surprised to see that Jamie was hard at work making tweaks to their systems to ensure they were ready for the next time Undead forces attacked. By the time they had arrived, the sun was setting and cast bright rays through the windows of their base.

Since two of the rangers had left and another was incapacitated, they have kept the amulets containing their Legendary weapons safe, along with the sword Arondight that rested in a display case near the entrance. The amulets sat in a case lined with a special material to keep their power at bay.

Lexa and the others walked over to a table where the case sat. The pink ranger opened it, further adding to the worry the other rangers had to their plan. "Let's face it, without a real team, we're going nowhere. So why not go find a couple of new rangers to help out with this." She explained to them as she turned around to see how they'd react.

"Lexa, you might wanna turn around right now. One of the amulets… It's, it's floating." Percy informed her as they looked at the floating hammer amulet behind the pink ranger.

"You're not tryna mess with me are you?" She asked skeptically to which the other rangers shook their heads.

Yet there wasn't time for her to actually check as the amulet flew straight out of a window Jamie had opened to keep the place cool. The rangers' eyes widened as they realised that in a matter of seconds they had lost an ancient amulet of sizable power.

Lexa quickly shut the case once more and gave a sigh of relief neither of the other two amulets would be able to fly off as the hammer amulet did. "Damn it, I thought that'd work, now we're an amulet short and it could be anywhere by now."

Jamie had just finished tuning one of the systems when the incident had happened and had seen it all. "It's been trying to do that for the past few days. From what the doc says, Mjolnir's consciousness joined with the amulet and now it's wanting to find a new partner, you just let it go early I guess. You better take Tyson's morpher with you the next time you go out against the undead. Whoever it chooses might just be there to give you a hand."

"That's a relief, for a second there, I thought I'd screwed up." Lexa smiled, relieved that it wasn't entirely her fault.

"It still kinda is your fault, seeing how we were supposed to choose who was gonna be a ranger, instead of leaving it up to a magic hammer." Emlie replied, sending some of the blame back on Lexa.

"I guess there's nothing else to do now but go home and wait for the Undead to attack again." Percy finished as they started to head out to rest after the tough battle earlier and now the strange incident here, now their only chance at keeping up with the Undead rested on whoever Mjolnir chose as its wielder.

[Kumiho's Lair]

Further within her cave lair, the old god stood before an old and rickety wooden table. Large clumps of fresh meat and small plants were scattered upon the table as Kumiho drew the tear drop gem on a necklace and placed it in the centre of the table.

"With the ingredients gathered along with the soul gem I filled months ago, all it needs is a drop of blood to complete the ritual and bring about my servant." She explained to Reaper as he skulked in the darker areas of the shade. "One who won't serve me out of necessity, but willingly." Kumiho added as she lifted a blade from the stone floor.

Moving it to her hand, the old god pricked her finger and let the blood drip onto the stone, igniting it with an intense bright red light. Soon enough the light spread to each of the ingredients placed upon the table until all of it was covered and the light began to take the form of a human. Kumiho smirked as her new servant began to take form and her plan's next stage was about to begin.

[Castelan Park]

Corrus, Jotunn and a platoon of Draug troops were attacking the townspeople mercilessly as screaming came from all across the park. It appeared as if the Archfiend's tactics had changed, commanding his troops to destroy anyone in sight.

It didn't take long for the rangers to respond to the terror being brought upon the civilians in the park as the four morphed rangers arrived, ready to deal with the Undead forces in sight. Though they had a slim chance of victory, hope was riding on whoever Mjolnir had chosen to appear and deal a surprise blow to the Undead warriors.

Despite her fear of zombies, Emlie raised up her spear Brionac to the sky where she called upon her elemental power of light to blind the Draug in the area and as cover for the other rangers.

Percy, Lexa and Artemis all unleashed a flurry of elemental attacks upon the enemy while their foes were blinded, believing that they'd finally found a fighting style that Corrus and his Undead couldn't overcome. Yet Emlie couldn't handle the pressure of being vulnerable while she projected the intense light to blind their foes and soon ceased channeling her power, instead watching the Draug near her in case they made a move to fight her.

While the white ranger did so, the other three looked in surprise as none of the attacks that they had thrown seemed to have landed. Their foes had gone unscathed as Corrus stood behind his lines of Draug, smirking, knowing that they were now in trouble.

"Surprised? We're not your run of the mill army after all. We serve the highest being, the Return! We will bring about his coming and you shall know that each victory you might deliver won't matter. We will adapt to our foes until there's nothing that can stop us!" He exclaimed as he gestured for his soldiers to march forward.

The large platoon followed the Archfiend's orders and began advancing on the rangers, who had been so quickly outmaneuvered. As the rangers braced themselves to clash with the force that had once again built up its strength to stop their attacks, they were just as surprised when a surge of lightning coiled around a metallic object zipped through the air and collided with every last one of the Draug, destroying them in a powerful vortex of electricity.

As the electrified metallic object returned to it's point of origin, the rangers turned their heads to see that the object was in fact the Legendary hammer, Mjolnir. Each of their eyes widened upon seeing who now held the hammer.

"Wow, this thing really does work." Came the voice of a young woman with a slight German accent. "Guess that means you freaks were wrong about nothing being able to stop you, lightning works pretty well." She addressed the remaining Undead forces as she walked nearer to the rangers.

"A mere human tore through my forces so effortlessly. This makes no sense, where'd you come from? Who are you?" Corrus asked, enraged that his plan on defeating the rangers was quickly stopped by the young woman's appearance.

"Where I came from doesn't really matter. My name though, It's Vala Stross, and when I'm through with you, you'll not forget the name." She announced to the Archfiend as she raised the hammer once more, ready to deal as much damage as she could to the Undead forces now threatening the town.

|Mythos|

That's chapter 48 everyone. First off, Reaper still lives. Now serving Kumiho due to a shared goal, but not exactly loyal to her either. If you're clever enough to figure out the word, Jotunn is the old norse name for frost giant and native of Jotunheim, I figured I might as well seeing as we're focusing on bringing in a yellow ranger with norse themes to their ranger arsenal. It kinda makes sense that the head of the school would've had enough of all the goings on by now so I decided why not promote their mentor, that way they can get to the battle easier, but he was a little mean with his cost for that though. I guess Lexa stealing his donut is karma. Corrus is a unique villain in the regard that he'll prepare and adapt to whatever the rangers throw at him, making him a lot smarter and dangerous than you're standard warrior type villain. Kumiho is also creating her own servant, using the soul of a certain ranger in it's creation too, something you'll find out more about soon. I'd say Mjolnir is a lot different to the other weapons in the regard that it's sentient, so I like to play around with that dynamic and have it go off on it's own from time to time. Why on earth it chose Vala Stross over anyone else is something I'll mention another time, it does sound like nonsense though.

Well everyone, looks like the years off to a close in the next day and a bit. I'll be back some time in the new year, shouldn't be too long till the next time I post. Either way it's been a great year and I'd like to just thank anyone that just reads and those that support with other things or leave reviews on what you're thinking. I hope next year can be just as great, so have a happy new year and may the power protect you all.

Next Chapter: Redcloak

Synopsis: Upon Vala Stross revealing herself to be chosen by Mjolnir, she takes up the mantel of the yellow Mythos ranger to take on Corrus, Jotunn and their remaining forces. As the battle nears it's end, a mysterious warrior enters the fray. Who is the mysterious warrior and what are this warrior's objectives? Find out Next time on Power Rangers: Mythos.