Ch49: Redcloak

Vala Stross now stood as the only opposition to the Archfiend Corrus and his Frost Giant ally. Moments ago she had entered the battlefield, destroying the Draug foot soldiers in one attack from the Legendary hammer Mjolnir. Standing between the Undead foes and the rangers, the teen raised her newly acquired hammer once more as she prepared to tackle Jotunn head on.

"Vala!? The hammer amulet chose her?" The four rangers exclaimed in a reaction of surprise and shock that Mjolnir had chosen a Stross of all people.

"Apparently she's worthy of wielding a god tier weapon." Lexa added as they looked upon the unexpected arrival to the battlefield.

"We don't really have much of a choice in the matter, if Mjolnir's chosen her, that's that." Percy explained to them to keep them from criticising any further while he drew the yellow morpher and amulet from behind his back. As he walked up to her to give her the two items he called out to grab her attention. "Hey you! Seems you've got yourself mixed up in all this, but since you're wielding that hammer, these are rightfully yours. Put the amulet on and use that morpher, by now I'm guessing everyone knows the morphing call we use, given how intrusive the news station here is." He explained to her, glancing quickly at the white ranger for a second. "So go ahead and knock yourself out." He finished handing her the two objects before heading back to the other rangers.

While they watched and waited, Vala looked to the two objects, hesitantly putting the amulet on before feeling a surge of electricity run through her as the elemental powers bonded with her. "Alright then, looks like I'm going to be a power ranger, maybe my cousin will show me a little respect now." She joked to herself to steady her nerves as she held up the morpher. "Now, what was it that they always call out again?" She asked, staring blankly towards Jotunn and Corrus as she did so.

"For crying out loud it's 'Mythos Ignite!'" Emlie called out with mild frustration at how careless the new yellow ranger was being.

"Oh yeah, that's right." She responded with a small laugh before returning to the more focused stance she had been in. "Mythos Ignite!" She called out as a bright yellow light flared from the morpher, enshrouding her for a few moments and blinging the two foes until it subsided.

When it did, Vala was stood with her hammer in hand, now clad in a female version of the yellow Mythos ranger suit, fitting to her form and completed with a skirt. As Vala took a few moments to look over her new costume, both the rangers and their foes gave unimpressed looks as her attention once again turned to something else.

"Hey, yellow, you mind hitting that Frost Giant with your hammer? We're kinda in a bind otherwise." Lexa asked in a bid to try and focus their new ally. Instead of mocking her lack of attention span, the pink ranger had opted to help rather than hinder due to their present situation, though she would likely bring it up later.

"Fine, I'll get on it pinky." Vala replied, trying to keep herself laughing to put the uncertainty and slight fear of going into battle against Jotunn aside.

On the sidelines, the pink ranger clenched her fist and growled slightly. "I'll get you back for that one soon enough." Though the others didn't want to say anything about her overreacting, they did worry what she had planned in response for that remark. Though as they all knew, that was best left alone.

As Vala stepped up with Mjolnir in hand, Corrus glanced to the undead Giant on his side, giving a small frustrated growl of his own as he looked at the new yellow ranger. "You deal with her. My plan's ruined, with the arrival of a new variable that shattered my forces, this battle's a loss. If you take victory this day however, you'll be rewarded handsomely for your efforts." He explained to the Frost Giant before taking his leave, sinking back into the ground.

Jotunn gave a roar and charged, swinging his giant club as he neared the yellow ranger. Slipping under his guard however, Vala took Jotunn by surprise, and with one swing of her mighty hammer knocked the giant to the ground as a jolt of lightning surged through the foe's body.

The Frost Giant groaned as it rose back up, slamming it's feet down with a heavy thud to plant them in place in an attempt to keep Vala from knocking him down again. With one bellowing roar, the zombified Giant swung its club, Vala narrowly avoiding the attack as it came towards her. Having to leap out of the way quickly however made her begin to panic again. She had felt the powerful burst of air that came from the closeness of the weapon go across her body and guessed that if it had hit, it would've been fatal.

Giving a gulp, she grasped Mjolnir with both her hands and turned her head to the hammer. "Okay magic hammer, I can't believe I'm saying this to an inanimate object, but please help me out here!" She pleaded to the weapon.

Without a moment spent to consider it, the hammer shot up out of Vala's hands and into the sky. It swirled around quickly above the Giant as it generated a stormcloud. Once it was ready, the hammer stopped spinning and slammed straight down through the centre of the artificial stormcloud, bringing with it a large bolt of lightning. Colliding with Jotunn, the hammer lit up the area, electrocuting the Frost Giant for a short time before the lighting strike died down. As Jotunn collapsed to the ground, damaged severely from the strike, Mjolnir returned to Vala's hand.

"Wow, so this hammer does listen to me." She commented, mesmerised by the impressive display of power from the Legendary hammer.

"Looks like she actually did it, a little surprising but she did pretty well." Artemis said as the Giant groaned in agony, wailing over the scorch marks on his corpse like body.

"It's not over yet, that Giant's gotta go first." Percy explained, still focused on ending the fight before any congratulations were in order.

From where she stood, Emlie caught site of a new figure entering the park. The oddity wasn't that someone was entering an active battlefield between the rangers and the Return's forces, it was the strange apparel the figure wore. Finely made leather armour hidden underneath a scarlet hooded cloak. The figure's facial features were also hidden from sight as he approached Jotunn.

"Huh, who's that? And why's he heading toward that Giant?" Emlie asked, grabbing the attention of the other three rangers as they headed beside Vala to investigate just what this new arrival had planned.

Marching onward without even a hint of cautiousness that the Giant might strike, the cloaked figure drew a longsword from inside the cloak. It was made completely of silver, designed to be the bane of any Undead creature it came into contact with. Yet there was one component of the sword that stood out. In the end of the hilt was a bright red gem that seemed to flare to life with energy as the blade was drawn.

"I've got sixty seconds, so I'll make this quick." He said, seeming to direct his words towards both the rangers and Jotunn. "You're Undead and a scourge that must be purged, prepare for your end." The cloaked figure explained to the Giant before running the silver longsword through it. Removing the blade just as quickly, he turned around as Jotunn dematerialised, turning into a pile of ash before them.

The rangers stood silently opposite Jotunn's executor for a few moments, unsure what to make of him. "Who are you? Why are you here?" Artemis asked in an attempt to gain answers from the cloaked figure who had shown up and killed their foe without any apparent reason other than to kill the Undead abomination.

"I am Redcloak. I came under the orders of my lady to vanquish the abominations that threaten her plans. While they are after the same thing as her, my goal is to stop them at all costs." He explained, raising even more questions.

"Wait, your Lady and the Undead want the same thing? Unless it's peace on earth and a heavy drop in weekly monster attacks, I doubt that's a good thing." Percy responded, taking charge of the situation as the others began to get the same uneasy feeling about this Redcloak that he had.

"I've said enough already, but if you plan to get in my way, then I have no choice." Redcloak finished, gripping his blade proper once more.

Darting at them with unnatural speed, Redcloak struck them all with his sword. The speed he had done it at was far too fast for any of them to see it coming and within seconds all five rangers were down on the ground, the wind knocked out of them from the heavy surprise attacks Redcloak had sent at them. Their power waning as they demorphed, Redcloak sheathed his blade and headed to the park entrance.

For a moment he stopped there and seemed to let out a small grunt of pain while placing his hand on his chest. "Be grateful I've spared you this day humans, you may not be so lucky next time." With those few words, he departed, leaving the rangers to recover from his swift but powerful attack on them.

As the five rose, recovering enough to do so, the newest addition to the rangers looked at the other four with a look of surprise and realisation, given how often they would disappear.

The other four looked back at her, noticing the look on her face, one they had seen often enough to know what it meant. "Before you say anything Vala we've heard it before. We should probably head back to the Command Center though, get this whole mess under wraps." Lexa intervened.

As the others brushed themselves off, Artemis pulled her phone out, having received a call. Given how it was sundown she wasn't expecting any calls and was surprised to get one. Upon reading the caller ID however, she answered. Listening to a panicked voice on the other end, her stomach dropped, a bad feeling settling in it. "Dad? What's wrong? Is he alright? Okay I'm on my way!" She asked her father, each sentence becoming more distressed as the conversation continued until she ended the call and turned to her friends. "There's an emergency, I've gotta go now. I'll come by later but I need to go right now." She explained to them with haste and slight panic. Without letting another word in, the Dryad ranger dashed off, despite her injury from Redcloak's weapon.

Though they worried about what had gotten Artemis panicked to rush off so quickly, they had other pressing matters to deal with, such as explaining everything to Vala and finding out more about Redcloak and this Lady he serves. For the time being, that's all they could focus on.

[Castelan General]

Having sprinted from the park to the hospital without stopping, Artemis was out of breath, yet still persisted as she made her way to the floor her brother was being cared for on. Sprinting down the hallway, her father stood outside the hospital room Aaron was in. Her face was full of worry as she came nearer. All she could think about was checking up on her brother. Her Dad managed to stop her from going in, seeing that she was panicked and worried about what he had told her on the phone.

"Hey, Hey. It's alright Artemis. Don't worry. I'm sorry I panicked on the phone and got you distressed too, but I was visiting while it happened and I got scared." He explained trying to calm her down now.

"What happened Dad? He okay isn't he?" She asked, still distressed from what he had told her on the phone.

"He's alright now, but a couple of minutes before I called you, well, his heart rate began spiking to dangerous levels. The doctors had to be called into the room and it sounded bad. Then after I ended my call with you, the doctors came out and told me that it just went back to normal. I'm sorry I worried you, but I wanted you here, in case…" He explained trailing off at the last moment, afraid of saying what came next, though it was obvious what he was trying to say without him saying it.

Artemis breathed in and out a couple of times to steady herself before hugging her father. "It's okay Dad. That's not gonna happen, he's really stubborn after all, he's not going anywhere." She said, in an attempt to reassure him, even if she did have her own fears that Aaron wouldn't pull through this.

Lord Du Lac smiled as he hugged his daughter tightly. Despite the reality that there was no way of knowing for certain why he was in this coma, or what had brought on the recent heart spike, he appreciated the sentiment of his daughter's words.

[Command Center]

While Artemis and her father watched over Aaron at the hospital, the other rangers were recovering while introducing Vala to the ranger world. While Percy went over everything that had happened leading up to this. Lexa and Emlie stood off to the side, leaning on one of Jamie's worktables.

"Hey. You alright? You've been kinda out of it since that Redcloak kicked our butts." Lexa asked, getting the attention of her best friend.

"Yeah, it's just this feeling about Redcloak. Something about him doesn't feel right. He said he was on a time limit too, then when he left, he looked to be hurt, but he hadn't been struck once when he wiped us." Emlie replied as they looked out of the large glass windows into the woods.

"Don't worry about it, you're just overthinking things. Besides, we told Jamie and the Doc what happened when we got back. At least we caught Corrus by surprise today when Vala showed up. She didn't do that well, but at least I know how to mess with her now." She said lightheartedly, trying to get the white ranger away from the seriousness of their ranger lives to enjoy the win they'd gotten today. Yet the smile she wore after her last sentence bore a mischievous undertone, which worried Emlie. Having known Lexa for so long she knew it meant only one thing, trouble.

While the two friends went about their business, Percy had caught Vala up on most of what had happened, having just spoke about the final battle against Abaddon. "That's when Aaron fell into the coma, I'm guessing you know the cover story for that. Since then though, things haven't been too good. Tyson left with his family because they didn't feel safe and Ben just lost hope that we were able to keep fighting if we had to, eventually he moved away. After that, I guess the rest of us started to blame ourselves for not being able to do anything back then. I know Artemis takes it out on herself the most though, spends whatever time she has to herself just practising her magic, even if it does get her hurt. I'm trying to look out for her, but she just keeps all that to herself and puts on a brave face. It's just getting hard to work as a team now when we can't even open up about it."

"I think I get it. He's her older brother and from the sounds of it, he's always been looking out for her, as soon as it was her turn to keep him safe, she couldn't do a thing about it so she's taking it out on herself. I'll have a talk with her when she gets back, girl to girl, maybe I can get through to her. After all, men are terrible when it comes to emotions." She said with a supportive smile.

"Thanks Vala. You know, you're acting a lot differently from how you were fighting that Frost Giant. More confident and you managed to keep your attention on one thing for more than five seconds. I'm not trying to be insulting there just so you know." Percy responded grateful for her help.

Vala let out a small laugh before straightening herself up. "I get a little nervous when it comes to trying new things, like morphing into a Power Ranger and trying to topple a Giant. I can focus on one thing for a while though, but that usually gets boring."

"Either way, I'm glad you're with us, you'll get the hang of things in no time. I'm just hoping we can get another black ranger soon too. The way Corrus is adapting to what we can do, we're gonna need it."

|Mythos|

That's chapter 49 everyone. Vala while she got off to a rocky, perhaps intentionally rocky, start she managed to pull through and zap Jotunn while forcing Corrus into a retreat with her unexpected arrival. Before they could finish it however, Redcloak arrived. Now it's pretty obvious who he serves, but it'll be drawn out for the sake of the characters. There's already some vague hints at things to do with his character in here, but I'll keep my mouth shut about it for the time being. Percy also admitted to watching Artemis since given how she couldn't fix what happened with her magic, she's the one likely to blame herself the most, that's just for a little character building in the future though.

Sorry I haven't been posting as much as I said I would either. Aside from fighting off a cold and having to be social and such, I've been investing quite a bit of my time lately into the Cthulhu Mythos, something that's piqued my interest as of late, though I might hold off on buying any of the Lovecraft books till I have money to spare. Either way you may see subtle or not so subtle hints or references to that in some of my future work. I'll have another Mythos out in the next day or two for certain, but I'm gonna be focusing on this series and try get it finished in the coming weeks. So until then, thanks for reading.

Next Chapter: Invasive Journalism

Synopsis: Harry Starke has been a fan of the Mythos rangers ever since they first appeared on the local news. Since then he has dedicated himself to finding out both who the rangers are and what the intentions of the monsters attacking Castelan are up to. Writing for the school paper, one day he hears about a new monster attack and decides to set out and solve both mysteries. The question isn't how far he'll go to achieve his goals, it's will he go too far in the eyes of those who see him as a friend? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Mythos.