Chapter 17: Defender of Avalar

New Harmony High School….

Dylan Foutler…

I never really considered myself the type of student to nervously stare at the clock, waiting anxiously for the school day to end, But today wasn't exactly a typical day by any means. Today was the day we were supposed to begin our quest for the Purple Dragon Morpher in the mystical Dragon Realms. Mom was convinced that I was just going on a camping trip with my friends, ironically she's only letting me do this because she wants me away from all the monster attacks the city is currently suffering from. In a way, she was kinda getting what she wanted. Malefor was laser focused on destroying the Human Realms, leaving us to freely explore this other world that had apparently been co-existing with our own for god knows how long.

Trying to focus on typical high school stuff was pretty laughable. How could I possibly care about Cold War tensions or Algebra when I was about to hop dimensions as soon as that final bell rang? I wonder what the Dragon Realms is like? Kevin and Dean had been there before, maybe I should ask one of them?

RRRRRIIIIIING!

God, finally! Everyone excitedly got out of their seats, all ready for their weekends off. But I doubt any of them were going to have a weekend that would ever quite compare to the one I was about to have. I grabbed my bag and headed towards the parking lot. That was the spot we had all agreed to meet before headed to the Temple. I had made sure to pack some supplies for the trip in my backpack before leaving for school today. It wasn't much, just enough to get us through at least a few days. I really didn't expect to be staying long, just long enough to get the morpher and maybe sneak in some sightseeing.

It didn't take long to find the other rangers all standing in a circle. "Hey guys, we ready to go?" I asked as I approached the group.

Dean nodded, "Yeah man, I've got everything I need right here." he said, showing off his Nike duffle bag.

Jess smiled, "Yeah, I can't wait to see the Dragon Realms," she commented.

Kevin rolled his eyes, "It really isn't much to look at," he said, "The Tall Plains was just a boring field," he said. Well hopefully the part of the Dragon Realms Spyro would be sending us to would be a bit more exciting than that.

"Remember guys, we're primarily there to get that morpher," I said, "I mean, I'm sure Spyro won't mind us taking in some of the sights, but priority number one is the morpher," I explained. Everyone nodded in acknowledgment, before we all checked to see if anyone was looking before finally warping to the Dragon Temple.

The instant we appeared there, Spyro was sitting there to greet us. "You four certainly didn't wait long after class let out to get here," he commented with a slight laugh. "I assume you all are ready to head to the Dragon Realms?" he asked us.

I nodded, "Yes sir," I said.

Spyro nodded, "Good, but before I send you there I want to make one thing perfectly clear," he said, "The Dragon Realms aren't like the Human Realms, danger lurks behind every corner," he warned us. "So be on your guard, and no matter what happens, your top priority is getting that morpher, without it we stand little chance if Malefor makes another attempt on New Harmony," he explained.

We all nodded, showing that we understood. Spyro smiled a bit, "Very well, as I said before, transporting you to the Dragon Realms takes a lot of energy, I'll try to get you four as close to the morpher's hiding place as I possibly can, but it's on to you four to find it," he explained before tossing me a map. "That map should help you four navigate the Dragon Realms, but I'm sure your Dragon Spirits will be able to guide you," he said, making a point to stare directly at me after that last bit.

I could tell Spyro was still trying to come to terms with the fact that we had his old mentors hanging out in our brains. I doubt the thought sat well with him, I mean, I wouldn't exactly be very thrilled that I condemned my mentors to a life trapped in a stupid teenager's head either.

Spyro then closed his eyes and began to concentrate, energy began to swirl around the four of us as we finally began to warp to the Dragon Realms. "Be careful out there," Spyro told us before we suddenly found ourselves in the Dragon Realms… or at least what I was assuming were the Dragon Realms.

Funny… the Dragon Realms seemed to look a lot like a swamp. The ground beneath us could only be described as… ugh… "moist". The smell was pretty pungent too… how nice.

Kevin wasn't enjoying himself much either, as he looked downright miserable. "God! Can't Spyro ever send us to the nice parts of this stupid dimension?!" he whined. So far the Dragon Realms were a bit underwhelming to say the least, when I heard about it, I had visions of sprawling castles and valleys of molten lava… but instead I get the Louisiana Bayou but with cartoonishly large mushrooms instead of rednecks.

"Come on guys, we gotta find that tomb and get that morpher," I said before taking my first few steps. My sneakers instantly begin to sink in the damp muddy floors of the swamp. Ya know, ranger work truly is one of the most rewarding vocations… ugh.

I took out the map, Spyro had thankfully thought to mark where Sparx's tomb was for us. But where we were in relation to it was a bit of a problem. "Now we just need to figure out where we are," I said.

Kevin walked ahead of us, "He couldn't just warp us there? Seriously, how hard would that have been?" he complained before suddenly, out of nowhere, some kind of long pink tongue latched onto him! Kevin yelped in surprise as the tongue began to drag him across the swamp floor. "GUYS! DO SOMETHING!" he cried as he struggled to get free.

The three remaining rangers all gave chase until we found what it was that was trying to reel poor Kevin in like a fish. It was some kind of weird plant… frog… thing. It even went "ribbit" like a frog! Kevin struggled to get himself free as the frog plant opened its "mouth" wide to presumably swallow him whole. "Hang on Kevin! I'll get it!" I said before running up to the plant.

One hard flying kick to it's midsection was enough to get it to lose its grip on Kevin, who flopped face first into the mud with a wet splat. "I hate this place," Kevin groaned as Dean and Jess helped him to his feet. A few more kicks from me were enough to get the bizarre plant to realize this really wasn't worth it and it high-tailed it out of there with a surprising amount of speed.

All I could do was just shake my head in disbelief. Well, Spyro did warn us that the Dragon Realms were full of danger. I don't think any of us were expecting said danger to come in the form of man eating frog plants. "I think we should be a bit more careful moving around this swamp, guys," I said.

"Oh really?!" cried Kevin, "You sure about that Dylan? Cause I just love almost getting eaten by mutant vegetables!" he said sarcastically, clearly still a bit frazzled by what had just happened.

With a simple chuckle and shake of the head we continued our journey through the swamp, making sure we didn't have anymore… erm… "encounters" with the local wildlife.

Meanwhile…

Not Too Far Away…

Ape Commander…

I knew coming out here was a good idea, it looked like we had four… uh… what were those things? I looked closer in my telescope I had once stolen from one of those scavenger folks. These things looked like apes, but only vaguely. I honestly didn't care what they were, I was more interested in the strange bags they had on them. They looked quite full, with supplies no doubt, supplies that I wanted.

"General Grave!" one of my apes addressed me, "Did you find something?" he asked me.

I nodded, "Four travelers, not sure what race they are, but they have plenty of supplies," I said. Times had been very tough for us apes ever since Malefor fell, we had to scrounge for whatever we could find. Those damn dragons had reduced us to a mere shadow of our former selves. But soon… the ape kingdom would rise again. "Ready our troops and tell them to head east, with any luck… we'll head them off at the pass," I said with a sly grin.

Meanwhile…

Back with the Rangers…

Dylan Foutler…

I hated wandering around blind, but unfortunately we had no idea where we were going. The map we had was basically useless to us since we didn't know where Spyro had warped us to. This was starting to look hopeless, it's not like we'll just randomly stumble upon-

"Hey guys! I think I found it!"

Well that's convenient, it seems Dean had found the tomb we were looking for. All of us joined up with Dean, who was standing in front of what was obviously a tomb of some sort. It wasn't too elaborate, just a simple stone structure with a dragonfly statue at it's top. You'd think the brother of the Legendary Purple Dragon would get something a bit more impressive than this.

Dean pulled the stone door open, a horrid rotting smell assaulting our nostrils causing all four of us to gag. "Oh god! It smells like the entire universe died in there!" whined Kevin.

I took a flashlight out of my backpack and shined it inside. Strangely the only thing in there was a very tiny coffin. Geeze… what happened to Spyro's brother that would require a coffin that small? Did he lose a fight with a blender? "Sparx was a dragonfly, Dylan," Ignitus informed me. Wait… what? "It's a long story, but I feel there is something more alarming about this tomb than Sparx himself," Ignitus said. "The morpher is not here," he revealed.

I looked around again, hoping to god Ignitus was wrong. But sadly, the only thing in here were cobwebs and a dead dragonfly corpse. Someone took the morpher… of course they did. Because nothing can ever be easy for us, right? "Guys, we've got a problem, someone beat us to the morpher," I said.

"Are you kidding me?!" cried Kevin. "We just trudged through this stupid swamp for nothing?!" he complained.

Jess looked nervously around us, "Wh-What do we do now?" she asked. That was a pretty good question, where the hell would we even begin to search for the guy who took it? They could be anywhere in the Dragon Realms!

"Oh I wouldn't worry too much about that,"

All of us turned when we heard a very unfamiliar voice sound from behind us. That's when we all saw that we were surrounded by what looked to be an army of mandrills. Their fur was all matted and rough, their skin covered in warts and other unsightly impurities. God… I could smell their putrid body odor from here, and considering I was in a tomb with a rotting corpse, that was quite impressive.

One of the mandrills stepped forward, a rather burly looking one wearing heavy black armor and some kind of weird metal headdress. He had one missing eye, probably lost in some kind of battle if I were to hazard a guess. He held some kind of rusted sword or machete in his hand. "I'm gonna make this nice and simple for ya," he said before pointing his rusted blade at Kevin's bag, "Your bags, hand 'em over, all of them," he demanded.

Of course, what trek through a fantasy land is complete without an encounter with the local bandits? "Are you for real?" I asked. I'm sorry, I just can't take being robbed by baboons of all animals seriously. They just looked so doofy with their long faces and comically large red noses. The only way this could be less imposing is if they were all holding bananas as weapons.

"Oh, I'm "for real"," the lead monkey said. "And unless you want me to slice that smirk right off your ugly face, you're gonna do as I say!" he demanded. Uh… excuse me… my ugly face? I'm not the one who looks like a baboon who just lost a fight with a frying pan!

Well, we didn't find the morpher, but it looks like we will get a fight as a consolation prize. God, how dumb would it be if one of these stupid monkeys happened to have the morpher?

Kevin laughed as he stepped forward, "Oh man, did you guys pick the wrong guys to rob," he said before quickly kicking one of the baboons right in the jaw, sending him tumbling right into a mushroom.

And with that, we all began to fight. I of course went straight for the head of the class. Making sure to kick the lead monkey's machete out his hand before roundhouse kicking him right across his stupid face. The mandrill growled as he popped his jaw back in place. "Not bad," he said before suddenly flying into a frenzy! He managed to catch me completely off guard and tackled me to the ground. All I could do was throw my hands up as he tried to viciously claw me to death with his alarmingly long nails.

I managed to finally push him off with a swift kick to the midsection. But the primate didn't waste a single movement and went right back on the attack. I tried to score a high kick to his temple, but he managed to block it and caught me right across the face with a vicious claw slash.

My face stung like hell, thankfully he hadn't managed to cut too deep. But he wasn't about to let an opening pass him by as he nailed me with a double ax handle that sent me straight to the ground. "I guess I should thank you, I haven't had this much fun in a long time!" said the primate.

I could see the other rangers weren't having much luck either, as the apes seemed to be using the numbers game against them. Poor Kevin was already on the ground, trying to keep the mandrill's claws at bay. Jess was being pinned to a tree by two mandrills, and Dean was just being dog piled by a whole gang of the things.

The lead mandrill stomped hard on my back, "Well, it looks like you and your little friends aren't doing so well," laughed the monkey, "How's about you just hand over your supplies and call it a day, eh?" he offered. Dammit! I don't see any other way out of this, I couldn't reach my pocket, so getting my spirit gem and morphing was out of the question. But we needed our supplies! If we didn't have our map we'd be lost in seconds, and without food we'd end up dead.

However, just as all hope seemed to be lost…

"Elemental Power! Aether STRIKE!"

Suddenly a wave of purple slashed right through the mandrill on top of me, the primate sent flying through the air in an explosion of sparks. The monkey quickly sat back up, a look of pure disappointment on his face as he saw who his attacker was. "Oh no, not you!" he whined.

I saw a white boot step into my view, "Yes ape, me," a cool, gravely voice said. The mysterious figure approached the mandrill, allowing me to get a better look at him. My eyes widened upon realizing the man who had come to our rescue was a Power Ranger… a purple Power Ranger.

He had the same basic suit as the rest of us, purple with a black sleeve with gold stylized trim. However he had some kind of gold chest armor that bore his elemental crest, whatever it was that it was supposed to represent I had no clue. His helmet was clearly a depiction of Spyro, but it oddly had slightly pointed ears, as if meant to fit the ears of a cat. It's face mask also extended as if to compensate for some kind of muzzle. His arms had golden bands around both biceps. His knees had golden armoring around them, almost resembling knee pads. In his hand was some kind of saber with a large purple gem embedded in it's crossguard.

Well, I think we've found out where the Purple Dragon Morpher went. The mysterious ranger began to pose with his saber, "I am the Defender of Avalar! Power of Aether! Dragon's Roar! Purple Ranger!" he said before striking his dramatic pose.

"Defender of Avalar"? Really? I guess I shouldn't complain too much, this guy seemed to be on our side after all.

The mandrill forced himself to his feet. "You've interfered with me for the last time purple boy!" he threatened the Purple Ranger. "Apes! Kill him!" he ordered.

The very second that order left his lips, his army of apes descended upon the Purple Ranger. The Purple Ranger suddenly twisted the hilt of his saber into some kind of rifle shape, the purple accents on the blade popping out to reveal two gun barrels. "Purple Dragon Saber! Blaster Mode!" He called before proceeding to fire purple energy at the attacking primates, picking them off like flies.

Oh come on! How come his sword gets to turn into a blaster and mine doesn't? But more importantly, how the hell was this guy able to contain the morpher's power so well? Shouldn't he be trying desperately not to explode right now? Instead, this dude was just picking off apes like it was going out of style!

He then reverted his sword back to its original form. "Purple Dragon Saber! Blade Mode!" he called as he did this. He then started slicing into the monkeys with an alarming amount of skill and procession. Man… this dude was good. No wonder Spyro wanted us to find this morpher, the power it had was unreal.

The Ranger's sword began to glow with purple energy. "Elemental Power! Aether Slash!" he called before slashing his sword in a circular motion, taking out every remaining ape with one strike. Leaving the head ape as the last one standing.

"Last chance General Grave, retreat or die," the Purple Ranger said.

The head ape, who I guess is named Grave, began to weigh his options. "Fine! You win this round Purple Ranger! But you haven't seen the last of us!" he said before he and his apes began to retreat.

Satisfied, the Purple Ranger holstered his sword and began to walk off. "Wait!" I said, knowing we needed that morpher. The Ranger stopped in his tracks. "We need to talk," I said.

The Ranger turned to me, "We have nothing to discuss," he said coldly, "I suggest you all get out of here before those apes decide to try again," he told me.

I decided to flash him my morpher, "I think we do have "something to discuss","I said, making sure he saw the morpher.

The ranger looked to the morpher and back to me. "Am I supposed to be impressed you have one too? You're wasting my time," he said. Strangely, I could hear a slight feline like growl rumble from the Purple Ranger's throat.

Dean decided to lend me a helping hand. "Dude, you're a Power Ranger, like us," he explained. It was hard to tell from under his helmet, but I could tell The Purple Ranger losing his patience with us from his body language.

"Look, we came here looking for that morpher," I explained.

"Then you've wasted your time," the Purple Ranger growled. "I need this morpher to defend my people from the remaining Dark Armies!" he said before trying to leave, only to have his arm grabbed by Dean. "Release my arm," he snarled at Dean.

"Dude, a lot more than your people are at risk right now, we need the power of the Purple Ranger to help us stop Malefor before he destroys our world," Dean explained before the Purple Ranger wrenched his arm out of Dean's hand.

"That is nonsense! Malefor is dead!" snapped the Purple Ranger. "I will not ask you again, leave me be or I will kill you!" he threatened us. Dammit, of course he had to be unwilling to join us! Because, again, nothing can ever be easy for us.

The Purple Ranger once again tried to leave, but this time Kevin stepped right in his path. Earning another weird feline growl from the Purple Ranger. "Look sunshine, you can either come with us, or hand us that morpher! We're not gonna watch our whole world burn because you wanna go play Robin Hood in the Dragon Realm version of The Sticks!" he scolded the Purple Ranger.

The Purple Ranger replied to Kevin's demands with a hard one inch punch right to his ribs. Kevin sputtered and coughed as he collapsed to his knees. "Your world is of no concern to me," said the Purple Ranger, "Believe it or not, your world isn't the only one that needs help," he said before walking right by Kevin. "I will warn you only once, do not bother me again, or else," he said before leaping into the trees and vanishing from sight.

Dean helped Kevin back to his feet, "Man… that guy hits pretty hard," Kevin whined.

Jess soon joined my side, "What do we do now? We can't leave without that morpher," she said.

"I say we jump him and rip that thing right off his wrist!" snarled Kevin, clearly still mad at him for that epic gut punch he just received.

Dean however, felt differently, "I say we try to reason with him," suggested Dean. "I mean… he's using his power to help people isn't he? How bad can a guy like that really be?" he asked.

Kevin glared at Dean, "Are you serious? Dude just sucker punched me in the gut and told us our world could burn for all he cares, dude's a total headcase," he said.

"He's just worried about his own world," said Jess, "Maybe he doesn't understand how much danger both worlds are in?" she suggested.

I sighed, there were good points to be made on both sides. On one hand, he clearly didn't believe Dean when he mentioned Malefor was back, so there was a possibility he might change his tune if we prove to him Malefor is back. But on the other hand, Purple Ranger didn't exactly endear himself to us by snarling at us and punching Kevin's guts out.

I just shook my head, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there," I said, "For now, I think the Purple Ranger was right about one thing, that we should get out of here before those apes come back for round two," I said.

Kevin put his hands on his hips, "Yeah, but where do we go? I don't exactly wanna camp out in this swamp," he asked.

I took out the map again, noticing a village in the "Valley of Avalar" that wasn't too far from here. "There's a village nearby, maybe if we explain to them who we are and why we're here they'll be willing to help us?" I suggested.

"Or they could give us the same kind of welcome Purple Boy did," Kevin said.

Dean shook his head, "It can't hurt, I mean, Spyro's gotta be pretty popular around here, I'm sure his name would get us pretty far," he pointed out.

Jess nodded, "Besides, it might help us find the Purple Ranger in his unmorphed form," she said.

"Then it's settled, Avalar Village it is," I said before walking ahead of the group towards the Avalar Village. Hopefully it's residents would be more welcoming than the locals we've met so far…

Meanwhile…

Swamp…

Zenith…

How bothersome…

I didn't expect there to be others with this kind of power, much less ones who desired to recruit me. But I wasn't about to abandon my world, my people. They didn't understand, how could they? This other world they claimed to hail from was probably one of peace and prosperity, in ill-need of a protector like myself.

"You're making the wrong decision, Zenith,"

Ancestors, it seems my dragon spirit wishes to chime in again. It's voice was of a young dragon, it claimed to be Spyro, but I doubted it. He sounded far too young, like the voice of a child. Spyro would be at least in his late adulthood by now. It would also mean Spyro was dead. Which I doubt any of us in the Dragon Realms were willing to accept.

"Deny who I am all you want Zenith," the voice said, "The fact remains that you're abandoning a whole world to death just to protect one village," he scolded me.

Ridiculous, there was no way Malefor had returned. He was dead, everyone knew that. "Sealed, not dead," the dragon spirit corrected me. "I created this morpher to protect the world in case he rose again, what if those other rangers were telling the truth?" he said.

"It's not my problem!" I snapped, slamming my fist against a tree. "My concern is my village, not some mythical far off ape world," I snarled. "Besides, I find their story far-fetched, you told me this was the only morpher, why would there be more?" I asked.

"I don't know," admitted the spirit, "Maybe I made others after this one failed," he suggested. "Speaking of, you should probably unmorph before the power overwhelms you again," said the spirit.

He was right about that at least, I could already feel the power overwhelming me again. "Power down!" I called before the suit vanished back into the morpher. "I'm heading home, and I will hear no more of these other rangers," I said before heading back to the village.

Meanwhile…

Valley of Avalar…

Dylan Foutler…

It didn't take long for us to find ourselves finally free of the murky swamp. I wouldn't lie, the landscape we now found ourselves in far more closely what I expected the Dragon Realms to look like as opposed to the swamp. It was a beautiful sprawling valley with luscious vegetation and a roaring river running across it.

"At least we get an upgrade in scenery," commented Kevin.

I looked to the map again, "According to the map, if we follow the river we should find the village," I said before heading towards where the map claimed the village was.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to finally be out of that swamp. This valley was so much nicer, it definitely smelled nicer too. A part of me wanted to stop and take in the scenery, but I could tell the sun was beginning to set and I didn't want to be out in the open once nightfall approached.

"Uh Dylan, you might wanna look up from that map,"

I did as Kevin asked, only to be met with quite the sight. We were surrounded on all sides by… cat men. I'm starting to think every race in the Dragon Realms was some variation of animal person… or whatever the hell that frog plant thing was. The cat men were all brandishing swords and spears and pointing them all right at us.

One of the cat men approached us, making sure to keep his sword pointed right at us. This cat man was quite well built, his right eye had a scar running down it, the pupil in that eye was slightly milky, telling me he was completely blind in that eye. His robes were a royal purple color, a small cape held in place by a round paw print buckle. "For what reason do you approach our village, strangers?" he asked us in a gruff voice.

The other rangers all looked at me. Oh, just because I happen to be the Red Ranger means I have to be the one to talk down the sword wielding jungle cat? "Uh… we were kinda hoping for a safe place to set up camp," I said. Yeah I could tell from the looks they were giving me they weren't looking into hosting guests.

"And why should we allow you to camp near our village? You could be of the Dark Armies for all we know!" the scarred cat snarled.

Dean moved himself between me and the feline, "Easy dude, we're the Power Rangers," he said as if any of these guys even knew what that was. "Spyro sent us to this world to find a morpher-" Dean began to explain before suddenly being cut off.

"You've met Spyro?" he asked. The shock in his voice told me that this was the first time they had heard that Spyro was even still alive. "No one has seen him in over a decade," he said before regaining his aggressive posture. "How do we know you speak the truth?" he asked us.

Almost as if on cue a small gem flew out of my morpher and onto the ground. I of course knew this meant Spyro wanted to talk to us, but none of the cat men knew what to make of it until the Spyro hologram appeared, starting the crap out of all of them. "I think I can help with that Swiftfoot," he said, revealing he somehow knew this cat guy. "I can assure you, the Power Rangers mean you no harm, and would greatly appreciate it if you housed them for the night," he said. You couldn't do this before when we were trying to convince the Purple Ranger to join us?! Ugh… whatever, he was making things easier for us so why complain, right?

The head cat, who was apparently named "Swiftfoot", bowed his head. "Y-Yes great Purple Dragon, forgive me I just… we didn't know you still lived!" he confessed.

I noticed Spyro looked a bit guilty upon hearing that, "I'm sorry, I had disappeared so I could create a vanguard against Malefor," he explained.

Swiftfoot sighed, "I… uh… I understand," he said. Something about the way he said that made me wonder if he really meant that or not. It was like he wanted to say something but didn't have the courage to say it.

The hologram vanished and I placed the gem back into its place. Swiftfoot sheathing his sword and approaching me. "I apologize for the misunderstanding, but we aren't exactly in a position to be very trusting," he explained.

I wanted to ask him about how he handled that conversation with Spyro, what it was he seemed to be hiding from him. But part of me knew that probably wouldn't end well for us.

"Our village isn't exactly made for guests," Swiftfoot explained, "But you may make camp here for the night," he assured us before leading us into the village.

The second we set foot in the village I instantly figured out why Swiftfoot felt like it wasn't suitable for housing guests. The place was kind of a dump to be blunt. It was a small village full of straw huts, I could see a small farm set up not too far from me. It seemed this village's feline inhabitants liked to live within their means. The whole village seemed to be surrounded by walls of sharpened bamboo.

Swiftfoot led us to a spot where we could set up camp. "You four should find it safer here in the village walls, it's not wise to be caught out in the open at night around here," he explained. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to inform the Chief of your presence," he said before going off to do just that. Leaving us to set up camp.

"I don't suppose anyone thought to bring a tent?" Kevin asked.

Jess fished something out of her backpack, "I had to bring on, otherwise dad wouldn't have bought my "going camping" story," she said. I guess I wasn't the only one who thought of the camping excuse. Well, at least we won't be sleeping out in the open…

Meanwhile…

Zenith…

It hadn't taken me long to return to the village, I knew the way like the back of my paw after all. But I noticed that there was a lot more commotion in the village than usual. I overheard chatter about the purple dragon being alive… while others discussed a group of strangers who had apparently arrived at his behest.

I was confused at first, but it was when I saw a small group of very familiar looking figures gathered in the center of the village did I understand what was happening. It was those other rangers again! They just stood there in the center of the village, setting up some kind of tent! I was furious! Who allowed these… these things in here?! They must have fooled everyone by claiming they worked for the Purple Dragon! But why?

My eyes widened… did they find out who I was? No… no that's impossible, I was far away from them when I de-morphed! But… then why were they here? And more importantly, how do I get rid of them without revealing my identity?

"Ah! Zenith! There you are,"

I saw my father approach me, "I was just on my way to inform Chief Prowlus of our new guests," he explained.

This was unbelievable! My father was smarter than this! "Father, we shouldn't be allowing them in here! We don't know who they are!" I said.

"They're of the purple dragon's employ," Father explained.

"How do you know that? They could be lying to you!" I argued.

My father raised an eyebrow, "You seem to object to our guests quite strongly, my son" he said. Dammit! He's on to me! "They proved their connection to the purple dragon, he spoke to us through one of their gems and confirmed their story," he explained.

Dammit… they're good… I'll give them that much. "And what is this "story"?" I asked.

"They claim to be attempting to retrieve another "morpher"," he explained. I tried not to show any signs of me being bothered by that statement, my father could not know I was the Purple Ranger! "I don't suppose you'd know anything that could help them, as well traveled as you are?" he asked me.

I glared at the group of rangers before turning to my father, "No father," I lied. I didn't know what game they were playing at, but I wouldn't fall for it. Their tricks may fool my fellow tribesmen, but not me. It isn't hard to fake a vision through a gem.

"Do you really? Or are you just in denial?" sounded my dragon spirit. Be silent! I will not argue with you in front of my father!

"Well I must be off, can't keep the old man waiting," Said father before going off to inform Chief Prowlus of the ranger's presence.

I turned back to the "rangers". I knew not what their game was, but I would not fall into their trap. I was needed here, and so help me, I will stay where I was needed…

A/N: Well, looks like Zenith is in a pretty tough bind here, and why was his father so weird around Spyro? Only time will tell.

As you can see, I made a few changes to Zenith's arsenal. I will confess that his sword having a blaster mode was completely inspired by the Wild Force Silver Ranger's "Lunar Cue". Something about a sword that can turn into a gun just seems so cool to me.