As the students filed out of the cafeteria on their way to their first-period classes Shane grabbed Murdoch by the collar and drug him to the side. "Ok, what was that?"
Murdoch shrugged off his hand. "You saw exactly what that was! Them Riders hit me with a fucking cup or whatever and laughed at us!"
"They did that to all of us, and we did it to them too."
Murdoch crossed his arms and shrugged. "Still, no one assaults Murdoch McGuinness and gets away with it. Shane fought the urge to strangle him and drug his hands down his face. He loved Murdoch, he was one of the best people to have in a fight but sometimes, he was too eager to get into a one.
"They didn't assault you Murdoch this was like a fan dispute over a bad call in a sportsball game not-"
"Sportsball?" Oisin giggled, walking up with Darlene who had her head low and enveloped in her hoodie. "Why not just say football or basketball?" Shane rolled his eyes.
"Whatever, I don't care what you do when you're down at Kitty McGee's or O'Hegarty's piss drunk and someone calls you a name or insults your mom bu-"
"You are not bringing my mom into this."
"I'm not I-" Shane groaned and walked away for a sec and Samuel stepped in.
"I think what Shane's trying to say is you may have overreacted just a tad." He said pinching his fingers together. Oisin nodded and put a hand on Murdoch's shoulder.
"He's right, this isn't O'Leary's where a fight happens every other night. This is the Academy, where so many great Rangers have graduated from and taught at; we've got a reputation to uphold!" Murdoch raised his brow and smirked.
"Really? Name five."
"Uh, well there was… uh…"
"Huh? What? Who, there was who? Name one, just one." Murdoch put a hind to his hear grinning. Oisin smacked the hand down smiling.
"That's not the point, the po-"
"Oh, I think that is the point or-" Darlene tried stepping in between them.
"Guys…" Oisin gently nudged her out of the way.
"No, the point is we've got a-"
"Then why'd you bring it up huh?" Murdoch playfully slugged Oisin on the arm.
"Guyyyyyysss…" Darlene separated them but they walked away from her and Oisin wrapped an arm around Murdoch's next and started giving him a nuggie.
"Nice try little boy, but the Horse is bigger than the Stag." Murdoch stood up forcing Oisin to let go. Darlene tried getting their attention again but Shane placed a hand on her shoulder and stepped in front.
"GUYS." The two stopped their brotherly spat to look at him.
"What? We weren't gonna hurt each other." Murdoch said, flicking Oisin in the head.
"Yeah, we're just havin' fun is all." He followed with a hard slap to Murdoch's midsection.
"That's not it, the Headmaster wants to speak with us," Shane pointed at Murdoch. "You in particular." Murdoch's shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes in objection but followed Shane as he exited the hall. The group walked down the halls of the academy towards the Headmaster's office, the school and its was laid out like a quarter of a circle, another quarter of the circle comprised the Henshin Academy's school and grounds. The other half was a town where the students and faculty lived during the school year, or year-round if they want. All of this was built inside of a giant "doughnut" shaped space station the size of the original Terra Venture's city dome orbiting around Earth.
It was decided to build the Academies inside the space station as a safeguard of sorts, two schools for future heroes would be a huge target for any villains looking to conquer Earth. Plus S.P.D. wanted an outpost and the Academy Founders needed funding after repairing their Academies every other year because of the actions of various villains attacking Earth. It also provided easy access to the moon, a safe place for the Rangers to train with their Zords; something the Zordon Academy founder realized was needed after a team of greenhorns nearly levelled an entire borough of New Reefside City.
The team passed classrooms overflowing with students on their way to the office, they barely had room for the Rangers last year and with the influx of new trainees and the entirety of the Henshin Academy student body personal space was non-existent. When they reached the office entrance Shane took a breath, knocked on the door and waited. After a few moments, the door swung open hard and fast, slamming against the adjacent wall scaring the daylights out of them. "Who is- Oh, The Celtic Thunder Rangers. The Headmaster's been waiting for you." The man in the doorway was dressed in a dark green suit, his long black hair was pulled back tight in a braided ponytail, and his dark brown eyes darted across the group scanning them.
Shane cleared his throat and stood straight. "Deputy Breas, morning." He smiled and his low but warm voice invited them in as he stepped out of the frame.
"Morning to you as well Mister Leath, come in, come in." As he closed the door behind Oisin, he muttered in a hushed voice. "Daghda doesn't seem to happy so I'd advise some caution." Shane nodded a thank you back at him as he climbed the steps to the main area, Daghda's office was split into two levels, the bottom floor had his desk and a seating area for more casual conversations and the upper level which served as an observatory deck for him to gaze out into the stars as well as a small library of books and more seating.
When they entered Daghda was leaning on the deck's railing, his back to the group talking with someone out of sight. "Well, we'll just have to talk with these two an-"
"Daghda! The Rangers are here!" Breas called, climbing up behind them. Daghda looked over his shoulder before twisting around to face them, hands clenching the railing.
"Hello, welcome." His voice was light and mildly jovial but his mouth was stuck in a frown. "Glad you could make it."
Samuel smiled. "A summons from the Headmaster isn't one to be ignored." he joked. Daghda pointed at him and the tips of his mouth lifted a bit.
"That it is Mr. Shea, that it is. Smart man." No one could tell exactly who he was looking at due to the dark aviators but Murdoch felt his eyes boring into him like a drill.
"So why'd you call us here." He asked. Daghda smirked.
"That was quite a show you put on just now the cafeteria." Murdoch nervously smiled and gave a shallow bow.
"Th-thank you, sir?" Daghda started across the deck and down the stairs, passing Breas who disappeared out of view on the deck.
"Oh yes, you've come far in your fighting since you came here. The way you leapt across that table," As Daghda approached the group they split like the Red Sea so he could stand in front of Murdoch. "delivering that Superman punch to that other guy's face." He placed a hand on Murdoch's shoulder. "That was really something." Daghda squeezed hard causing Murdoch to flinch. "And I would praise you for it, really I would. If it weren't a student you smashed the nose of."
Murdoch tried wriggling out of the Headmaster's grasp but it was iron tight. "I'm sorry Sir. I wasn't thinking, the excitement kinda went to my head." Daghda released him and started walking back to his desk.
"Oh, excitement. That's what that was? I thought it was anger, I mean who wouldn't be angry after getting hit in the head with a plastic cup." Daghda's mouth had dropped to a scowl as he turned to the Rangers again. He ducked his head just low enough to where Murdoch could see his bright green eyes boring into him. "I've seen you get mad before, I know it takes a while for you to get that worked up. Which makes me think there's something else going on that this morning's announcement compounded on. Am I right?" Murdoch nervously fiddled with his Celtic Cross necklace.
"Uh, n-no sir." He glanced at Samuel who was scratching his head trying to avoid attention. "I just overreacted a little bit." Daghda crossed his arms and raised his head and his eyes disappeared again.
"Ok." Daghda started heading back up to the observation deck. "Don't let it happen again. Headmistress Slaine and I are trying to do something almost unheard of and little spats like this morning will not help." The Rangers stood there as Daghda climbed the steps when he reached the top he did a double-take. "What are still doing here? You have classes, get going." Shane bowed his head and started leading them out of the room when their morphers gave a short jingle. He raised the Morpher and pressed the answer button.
"Heh-hello?" A thick Irish voice blasted from the speakers, Shane pulled the Morpher away it was so loud.
"Bout time ye eejits answered, ye got some chancers makin' arseways of the Ninja Steel courtyard. Give 'em 'ell!" Shane looked wide-eyed at the Morpher then at his friends.
"Uh… do you know have any idea what he just said?" The group shook their head and shrugged.
"No," said Darlene. "But I heard something about the Ninja Steel courtyard."
"Then let's head there and check it out." They raced down the stairs and out the Headmaster's office, leaving Daghda behind. As he watched them exit Breas walked up beside him.
"Seems they haven't been introduced to their "mission control" person." He joked.
"Yeah, they were supposed to be introduced in 3rd period and their first fight during 6th… The Miraigers are supposed to have their fight now." Daghda frowned, stroking his beard.
"Perhaps someone was a little trigger happy? I'm sure it was just a mistake on the organizers part. Moved them around on the schedule by accident." Breas reassured.
Daghda shrugged. "Perhaps, look into it when you get a chance will you please?" Breas nodded and started down the stairs.
"Yes sir, once I'm done with what I was doing I'll visit them right away."
"Thank you Breas," Daghda turned back to the window. "Now, Ms. Slaine about these students of yours."
"Eithne! EITHNE! WHERE'S ME HAT?!" A scratchy, slurred voice echoed through the ancient stone walls of the castle. A tall, lanky man in a pirate's coat stumbled into a throne room. His skin was grey like ash and pointed ears and horns protruding from his black hair which was a rat's nest on top of his head and hanging down to his shoulders. A long, thin scar ran from his forehead and down his face, ending at the jawline on his left side. His one open eye was a pit of black, penetrated by a golden iris, the left eye was held shut by iron rings pierced through the eyelid. "EITHNE! Honey!" he shouted again, he started towards the throne but forgot how his feet worked and wound up falling on the steps up to it, dropping a bottle in his hand.
A woman entered the room wearing a long black dress with blue accents, like the man she had grey skin, pointed ears, curved horns, and black hair. It was braided and fell midway down her back. A golden band set with a sparkling blue jewel in the center adorned her forehead while a black collar with a red rose wrapped around her throat. She walked over to the drunkard, her heels clicking on the polished stone floor. "Been in the stouts again Dad?" She picked the bottle off the floor as he reached for it.
"O'course, look at stumblin' 'bout like a newborn." he laughed rolling over on his back, Eithne helped her father to his feet and over to the throne. "Now, where's me hat?" Eithne rolled her eyes.
"It's right here on the throne like it always is." She removed a tricorne hat off the top of the throne and placed it on his head while he reached for the bottle of stout. "Have you heard from Lord Eochaid?" She pulled the bottle back and sat next to her father in a smaller throne beside his. The thrones they sat in weren't very elaborate like one might think. They were carved and polished solid oak with veins of gold, silver and bronze running through the carved Celtic knotwork.
"No I 'avent he's supposed to be meetin' me around now, that's why I needed me hat. Not right for a Captain to be seen without his hat." He joked fixing it properly on his head.
"Also not right for a Captain to be pissed during a meeting." Eithne shot back.
"I just wanted a little drink, one drink is all I had." He reached for the bottle again, failing again with Eithne holding him back.
"Uh-uh-uh, you can have the bottle back after the meeting." The Dad groaned and sat back on his throne.
"Fine… I'm your father you know. You should listen to me more." A Fir Bolg entered the room and bowed before them.
"King Balor, Princess Eithne, Lord Eochaid is here to see you." Balor nodded.
"Good, great, let him in, let him in." He gestured and righted himself in the chair. A pair of Fir Bolgs opened the doors to the Throne Room while a dozen more ran in and stood at attention on each side of the carpet leading from the door to the throne. Then a walking black cloak with long brown horns sticking through the back of the hood entered the room. As it approached the throne, it kneeled and removed the hood revealing another grey man with pointed ears and long black hair that fell around his shoulders and down his back.
"Good morning my King."
"Morning, Lord Eochaid. What's the news and please, call me Captain."
"I'm afraid it's unpleasant. Buama Sluagh was destroyed before he could accomplish his task."
"What?" The Captain snapped. "Destroyed? By whom?"
"A student Captain, a Kamen Rider student to be precise." The Captain stood up and walked down the steps to stand in front of Eochaid.
"A Kamen Rider? I thought the students weren't to receive their little transformation trinkets till later in the day."
"That's what I thought too, but it seems someone gave this one out early." Balor growled and kicked Eochaid across the chest, sprawling him on the floor. Eithne stood up and rushed to Eochaid's side and helped him stand.
"Dammit! You said this would be the perfect time to strike, to wipe out half of our enemies at once!"
"I know Captain, but I've already sent another monster to make up for my failure." Eochaid apologized before muttering to Eithne, "He's been drinking again hasn't he." Eithne nodded before standing beside her father.
Balor rolled his golden eye. "What kind of monster?"
"Another Sluagh sir. He's attacking the students now." Balor smiled and turned back towards his throne.
"Good, at least you did something right." As he sat down a thought crossed his mind and leaned forward. "The other students don't have their morphers. Right?" Eochaid cleared his throat and stood straight.
"Well, Captain… there are five…"
Shane led the others out of the building into the central courtyard where they found a large, hunchbacked creature stomping about and leading a group of short, hairy dark grey-skinned men in an attack against some students. As they ran in, the hunchback shouted. "Oh great, more humans, Fir Bolgs attack!"
"Come on guys. It's showtime." Shane held out his Morpher while the others slid their shields on their arms. They each pulled a disk from their pockets, roughly the diameter of a soda can. On each disk was a Celtic drawing of an animal, Wolf, Badger, Butterfly, Stag, and Horse. "Rangers ready!"
"Ready!" They placed the disks on the top half of the shield near a slit on the side, as they did a ripcord extended from the side. They grasped the cord and shouted. "CELTIC THUNDER!" They yanked the ripcord and the disks launched. They shot out of the top of the shields with a crash of thunder, the animals depicted on the disks rose out from them as they swirled around the Rangers from head to toe forming the suits. Finally, the animals each combined with their partner forming the Helmets and the disks wrapped around the waist and kilts fell from it.
"With the enduring faith of a Ranger! Celtic Thunder Black!" Murdoch roared.
"The guide to victory! Celtic Thunder White!" Oisin shouted.
"Keeper of the soul! Celtic Thunder Blue!" cried Darlene.
"With unflinching courage and tenacity! Celtic Thunder Green!" Samuel yelled.
"With intelligence and cunning! Celtic Thunder Red!" Shane cried.
"Clear the way! Power Rangers Celtic Thunder!" They shouted charging into the fight, Murdoch grabbed a statue of the White Ninja Steel Ranger from a garden and smashed it over the head of a Fir Bolg. Oisin took a student's bag from a bench and swung it like a flail smacking a few in the head before ducking under a Fir Bolg's punch. Oisin saw Murdoch throwing his weight around and slamming Fir Bolgs left and right, he looked from him to a sack one of the Fir Bolgs dropped and a lightbulb lit up.
"Murdoch!" He snatched a pair of bags and started running towards him.
"What?"
"Spin cycle!"
"You got it." Oisin threw one of the bags to Murdoch and they started spinning in a circle clocking the Fir Bolgs and knocking them down like dominos. Then the dizziness hit and they both stumbled to a halt before walking into each other.
"Jesus Christ, I feel like I just drank a couple dozen pints." Murdoch laughed, "That was a good idea though man." He shook his head free of the dizziness and got back into the fight, Oisin followed soon after. Elsewhere in the yard, Darlene and another girl got cornered by a pair of Fir Bolgs, their backs to a pond.
"Got any ideas?" she asked.
"We go low, they go high?" Darlene suggested. The girl nodded and they grabbed the Fir Bolgs by the back of the neck and knee slammed their stomachs before shoving them away. The Fir Bolgs grunted in pain and charged with a punch, the girls grabbed their arms and used the momentum to send them into the pond. The Fir Bolgs splashed before melting away in the water. "We did it!"
Shane and Samuel charged towards the hunchback, Samuel pulled a slide spin sidekick that forced it against a tree while Shane followed up with sidekick to the midsection and uppercut to its jaw while it keeled over. "Yeah! Take that you ugly moth-" A large black fist slammed Samuel in the chest before he could finish, Samuel landed on a stone bench where he arched his back in pain. Distracted by his friends' flight, the Sluagh knocked Shane back into a statue of the Red Ninja Steel Ranger.
As he rolled over he muttered, "Well at least it wasn't anyone important… Fuuuck…"
"Foolish humans! The Formorians will rise again! Surrender now or prepare to die!" The Sluagh yelled, failing to notice a flying Oisin from left field. Thrown by Murdoch Oisin landed on the Sluagh's shoulders and started beating on his head with Ninja Steel Blue's dismembered helmet.
"We're not the ones dyin' to-woah, woah, oh shit!" The Sluagh bucked around before crashing Oisin's face into a tree branch, dislodging him; Darlene ran to his side and dragged him away while Murdoch charged with another statue, this time of Ninja Steel Pink, in his hand and, like an MLB superstar's bat, swung it towards the Sluagh's head. The swing was blocked and the Sluagh grabbed the statue and ripped it from Murdoch's hands.
"Oh hell." He shouted narrowly dodging the monster's own swing of the statue which was smashed to pieces against the cobblestone pathway. "I hope Sarah's not gonna be mad about that." Their morphers jingled again, they answered the call and the same thick Irish voice blurted from it.
"Would ye stop faffin' about and fecking end this miserable little pox before ye destroy another statue?"
"You got any ideas?" Oisin asked. "We don't have our weapons yet!"
"Bet yer arse I do, use one of them disks ye got, use a 012 disk."
Shane shook his head. "What?!"
"The green disk with the nettin' on it! Use it like yer Morphin disks!" The angry Irish voice shouted before hanging up. Shane looked at Samuel who shrugged.
"Is the only thing we got." He reached into a pouch under his kilt and pulled out a couple of disks, Shane quickly singled out the one and took it. He went to load it but was interrupted by a flying Ninja Steel Gold statue. They tucked and rolled away before Samuel grabbed the disk back. "That's mine, get your own." He joked. Shane reached into his own pouch and removed the netting disk, he looked up and saw the others holding up their own disks. Shane nodded and they all loaded up.
"Hey! Hunchback!" Shane and Samuel stood and prepped their ripcords.
"Eh? Hunchback?! You'll know what a hunchback looks like when I twist yer spine in a pretzel!" The monster charged on all fours, his large gorilla arms pounding the ground.
"Don't think so!" Shane shouted and the group yanked their ripcords, the disks shot out of the shields towards the Sluagh, Shane and Samuel's disks hit him right in the face, sending him stumbling back as ropes of energy latched on to it wrapping around his head like a muzzle for an asylum patient. Darlene and Oisin's struck its arms bound them tight to its sides while Murdoch's tied its legs up causing it to fall flat on its face. The Sluagh struggled against the energy binds until it disappeared in a bright flash of light when it faded all that remained was a set of disks lying in the crater created by the Sluagh's fall.
The Rangers unmorphed in flashes of coloured light and Shane went to pick up the disks, they had an image of the Sluagh's face on it with a set of three digits under it, 093. Samuel looked over his shoulder at them while Oisin grabbed one out of his hand. "So what happened? Did it get, like, trapped in these?" He wondered aloud holding it up to the sun like a dollar bill.
Shane divvied out the remaining disks before placing the last one in the extra slot on his Morpher. "I guess so, I'll bet whoever it was on the other end of the Morpher knows more about it." They heard the bell ring and students began shuffling out of their classes on their way to the next one, a large number stopped at the windows to look out at them and the now wrecked courtyard. They couldn't hear what they were saying but some were laughing, some seemed to be in awe and others took out their phones and took pictures. Darlene shuffled behind Shane while Oisin and Samuel smiled and waved at the crowd.
"I think it might be a good idea to go to class and let the groundskeepers take it from here…" Darlene whispered, Shane nodded and started walking away. She followed after him trying to use him as a shield against the student paparazzi.
"Yeah, come on guys. Our job's done." The others followed, Samuel was looking back and up to the sky, expecting something to happen.
"You mean there's no giant monster battle? No Zords? No Megazord battle?"
"Doesn't look like it, I doubt they've been authorized for use." Samuel's face drooped as they cut through the crowded hallways on their way to class. Murdoch and Oisin split off from the group at a set of stairs up to the third floor while reenacting the battle while Darlene headed down a hallway towards the gym pulling her hoodie up to hide.
"Awww… I was really looking forward to that."
"I know, but I don't think Daghda wants to deal with the property damage you'd cause in the fight." Shane smiled.
"Hey. I did okay in the sims last year."
"Yeah, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of okay." He joked and started jogging down the hall. Samuel chased after calling out.
"I'll have you know that about half of that was not my fault!" The two friends chased the other down the halls on their way to the first of many classes ahead and the first of many challenges behind them.
Thank you for reading Episode 2 of Power Rangers Celtic Thunder! Come join my Discord Server and talk about it! /jFgQJE9
