MMPR - The Guardians Saga : Streaks of Saffron
Prologue
Ten thousand years ago…
The Order of Meledon fought back against the forces of evil, including but not limited to the Vile Dynasty, the Machine Empire, the Ninjas of the Dark Cosmos, the Coven of Chaos, the Great Beast Dai Shi, Lord Zedd and the Dark Masters. They originated from the planet Phaedos, channelling the great powers of the Morphin Grid through their animal spirits, using discipline and meticulous training to hone their reality defying abilities instead of using talismans and morphers to do the same. Alongside the Eltarian Guardians, they enforced a brief era of peace and tranquillity in an otherwise unruly galaxy with barely restrained chaos.
Known by different names throughout the galaxy, they spawned legends and a legacy that persisted through millions of years and inspire countless to take up arms against the growing forces of injustice.
Now they have followed the evil forces of Rita, Dai Shi and Ivan Ooze to an otherwise deserted planet at the edge of the galaxy, a place where Ninjor's fabled power coins were hidden … the planet whose mighty creatures which inspired him to create his legendary dinozords.
By the time the strike team of the Order and their allies arrived on Earth, led by the master warrior Dulcea of Phaedos and her consort, the Supreme Guardian of ELtar, Zordon of ELtar, the dinosaurs were long since driven extinct and the world was populated by a species resembling that of most worlds, yet lacking any special powers or magic… humanity.
Ivan Ooze had proclaimed himself the Emperor of Earth, having built his palace in the centre of one of the planet's most powerful ley lines, a place that would eventually become Angel Grove. Having found three of Ninjor's lost power coins, he corrupted their powers to transform their once benevolent zords into the terrifying ectomorphicons. The tenga, scorpion and honeybee zords were now the fearsome Tengu Queen, Scorpitor and Hornitor, machines of mass destruction and untold terror.
His top general, Dai Shi had corrupted a group of human warriors with promise of great power, making them his Rinshi Army. He had claimed the green power coin as his own and commanded the Dragonzord to tear down any sort of resistance to Ooze's reign of terror.
Ivan Ooze's vizier and chief sorceress, Rita had taught magic to a couple of humans with a brief spark in them, turning them into dangerous sorcerers. She had uncovered the cyclops power coin and entrusted it to her top acolyte, Silverback who used dark energies of the demon Lokar and his infernal Talos Dimension to turn the cyclops zord into the undefeated Cyclopsis.
Within a short period of a few years, Ooze had established himself as a fierce warlord who can easily overthrow the Vile Dynasty or even Dark Spectre if he so wanted, and can topple the balance of power in the universe.
After spies confirmed the source of Ooze's newfound powers, the Order rushed to liberate Earth and recover the rest of the power coins before Ooze could siege them. Shortly after their arrival, they found the core five coins, whose powers were inspired by the dinosaurs. They entrusted the powers to five humans who resisted Ooze. Instead of forcing their will on the coins and the zords, they respected the coins and their totems, gaining their acceptance and protection in the form of arcane armour that shielded their bodies and granted them with superhuman strength and agility. Geki, Goushi, Mei, Dan and Boi of Earth became the first Power Rangers. The Order studied the amazing technology and incorporated aspects of it to their own fighting style. Now the ninjetti could access armour of their own, which while not powerful as the ranger suits, did offer some protection.
During their fight against Ooze, other coins revealed themselves to willing champions and new rangers joined the fight. Hina the White ranger, wielder of the Tiger Coin and vessel of the mysterious White Light. Raksha the Saffron Ranger, chosen by the Garuda coin and guardian of the skies.
The Order of the Claw established their roots on Earth, training the members of the human resistance in the way of the animal spirits and soon, they joined the battle, fighting alongside their alien comrades and the rangers.
Seeing the scales tip in their favour, Ooze entrusted the coins to warriors of his own, creating evil rangers. Dai Shi the Green Dragon Ranger. Scorpina of Edenoi the Gold Scorpitor Ranger. Silverback of Titan the Silver Cyclopsis Ranger. Rita the Amber Hornitor Ranger and he joined the fray himself as the Purple Tenga Ranger. However, their armoured forms were nothing like the pristine, smooth, sparkling suits of the Order's rangers. Their forms were twisted, jagged and demonic in appearance, as a result of dark energies overriding the coins' normal programming to access their powers.
Dai Shi amassed an army of his own, his human soldiers using their animal spirits to turn into feral mutants and deadly combatants.
Rita's alchemists and mages had created golems and horrible monsters from extradimensional energies, that would strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest of warriors.
The war was fierce, with heavy losses on both sides. Ultimately, Ivan Ooze was sealed in a cannister and buried deep within the planet and his ectomorphicons dismantled and buried near him.
Dai Shi and Rita continued the fight. Dai Shi having now resorted to imbue the native animals of the planet with dark energies, giving them sentience and a hunger for human flesh, creating the grotesque Phantom Beast Generals.
Dulcea, enraged by the perverse manipulation of the natural order and embittered by the fact that Dai Shi was once her star pupil and successor to the title of the Master Warrior before betraying them and joining Ooze, fought all the Phantom Beasts singlehandedly, entrapping them in crystal eyes and scattering them to the great ocean. While Dai Shi's rinshi armies and the Dragonzord distracted Zordon and the rangers, Dai Shi with the might of the dragon coin battled Dulcea, seeking to avenge the loss of his prized generals. The master warrior with the wisdom and elegance of her owl spirit destroyed Dai Shi's mortal form, however his corruption of the animal spirits and the energies of the grid have turned him into a demon. With his second form, which resembled a giant dragon, he unleashed his fury in the form of hellfire that set the battlefield ablaze, taking out both members of the Order as well as his own army. Driven delirious by the chaotic energies of the dark cosmos, he attacked anyone he set his eyes on, forcing Dulcea to enter a shaky alliance with Rita and her forces. They succeeded in trapping Dai Shi's spirit in an enchanted box but not without sacrifices. Dulcea sacrificed her life force to weaken Dai Shi and died in Zordon's arms shortly after the battle ended. Silverback was heavily wounded and perished while battling Dai Shi. The amber and gold coins were lost during the epic fight and the white and silver coins damaged beyond repair.
However, Rita managed to acquire Dai Shi's old dragon coin and managed to turn the scales on Zordon, taking advantage of the massive loss of weapons and warriors the Order has lost. Thrusted into a leadership position with the passing of Dulcea, Zordon led the remaining rangers to battle, obliterating all of Rita's forces with extreme prejudice, including her top general, Scorpina, who was a capable warrior even without her power coin.
With nothing to lose, Rita allied herself with the nefarious Lord Zedd, gaining a new ruthless general in the form of Goldar of Titan, the brother of the fallen Silverback and armies of vicious monsters, which drove the Order to their limits. Furthermore, with the aid of dark spells and the ancient Sword of Darkness, she warped the mind of Burai, Geki's brother and Raksha's betrothed, making him her champion and the new evil Green Ranger, who fought the rangers mercilessly.
Rita used his knowledge of the ranger's operations to launch a sneak attack on the Order's base, a fortress built on the ruins of Ooze's palace, a symbol of hope for the entire planet, the Command Centre. While Goldar slayed several members of the Order and the Green Ranger battled the rangers to a standstill, Rita fought Zordon, dark magic clashing against light magic. Ultimately, she trapped him in a time warp, but at the cost of all her magical reserves, which turned her as vulnerable as any human. Relishing in their victory, she commanded her troops to return to her castle in the moon.
While the rangers despaired the loss of their mentor, the Order called for reinforcements. King Lexian of Edenoi, the Masked Rider and his robotic assistant Alpha 5, the elusive Keeper, the enigmatic Magna Defender, Priestess Dimitria of Inquiris and Zordon's successor as the Supreme Guardian of Eltar, Gosei the Sentinel Knight rushed to Earth.
Zordon's body was trapped between dimensions in the Nexus Dimension and his spirit slowly fading away to the ethereal planes before Lexian and Dimitria using astral projection and telepathy guided him to safety. With their combined powers, they created a pocket dimension within the nexus dimension hospitable to Zordon. While he wouldn't be able to physically cross over to the mortal plane, he was safe and would be able to contact his allies through a plasma tube.
Even with reinforcements, the battle was far from over. Rita and her forces were preparing for the arrival of Lord Zedd and his massive army from the other side of the universe by constructing a warp gate on the moon.
Determined to stop them, the rangers, the Order and their new allies attacked the lunar forces, however it was already too late… Lord Zedd's fearsome warzord, the Serpenterra had crossed through and it was taking the might of the ranger's Megazord as well as the other zords of their new allies.
The Dragonzord was stopped from aiding Serpenterra by the Saffron Ranger's Garudazord, both sentient mechanical beings pitted against each other by the wills of their wielders.
Raksha the Saffron Ranger, who had been trained by both Dulcea and Zordon in the ways of magic and ninjetti, fought against Rita, the green ranger and her ground forces, aided by her new allies.
With a powerful spell, she broke Rita's hold on Burai and freed him from her curse. With the green ranger fighting alongside them, the Order forced Rita on the defensive.
Rita, with her natural magic all but gone, was forced to rely on a magical staff to fight. While Lexian and the Magna Defender fought Goldar, Burai was able to make his way through Rita's monsters and armies of her putty patrollers. With a single strike of his dragon dagger, he snapped Rita's staff to two halves, the energy expulsion from it's destruction knocking Rita out.
However, their victory was short-lived as Lord Zedd himself landed on the battlefield, his handsome visage betrayed by his cold eyes and deadly obsidian armour. Singlehandedly, he defeated Gosei, Dimitria, Magna Defender and Lexian almost effortlessly. As Burai and Raksha fought him, their ranger forms offering them some protection against his terrifying dark magic, however they were no match for his raw power. He threw them back with a wave of dark energy, knocking them back. He pointed his Z staff at Raksha and let loose a stream of hellfire that would have reduced her to ashes on the spot, if not for Burai jumping in front of the attack. He was utterly obliterated, the dragon coin dropping on the moon surface unceremoniously.
Raksha screamed at the loss of her beloved as Zedd chuckled, making his way to her. He picked up the dragon coin before tossing it carelessly towards the unconscious forms of Rita and her henchmen. He smiled maliciously at Raksha, raising his staff again and aiming to finish what he started when she fought back, channelling the power of the coin with her magic. Golden aura enveloped her as the spectral image of the celestial bird, garuda hovered over her. It flapped it's wings, sending down bolts of lightning at Zedd, which he deflected with his staff before unleashing energy attacks of his own. Raksha knew it was a losing battle but she soldiered on, when she felt something empowering her. Raw unfiltered grid energy flowed into her from the surface of the moon itself. It was power unlike anything she had felt before, far surpassing that of the White Light or the Great Power of Phaedos. Raksha found herself surrounded by a blaze of silver fire. She leapt from the lunar surface and hovered in space, positioning herself in the centre of her spectral garuda as it started to transform into a crystalline projection of a phoenix. Her visor turned blood red as a silver shield appeared over her chest, accompanied by silver armbands and gauntlets. She directed her hand at Zedd and the phoenix screeched and flapped it's wings, letting loose a torrent of celestial fire that rained down on Zedd, forcing him to erect a forcefield to defend himself.
Though she did not know it, that miraculous energy that saved her and quite definitely Earth from Zedd's wrath was from the Zeo Crystal buried in the mysterious Caves of Deception underneath the lunar castle. The crystal, a natural source of light energy had sensed Raksha's plight and reacted to Zedd's evil presence by making Raksha the champion for it's incredible powers.
Zedd stepped back fearfully, just as Raksha let loose all that power, silver energy tearing through Zedd's forcefield and setting him on fire. He howled in pain as he tried to magically dispel the fire to no avail. He shot the Saffron Ranger one last glare before making a hasty retreat by teleporting back to his home world, where his healers would be able to save him but he would be scarred for life.
The energies spread through the moon, entrapping Rita and her henchmen in silver tendrils before miniaturising them and directing them to a discarded cannister, sealing it shut. The dragon coin was unfortunately sealed alongside them, decades of evil holders having tainted it's energy signature and signalling it as a source of evil to the zeo energies.
The energies then directed themselves to the megazord, empowering it to unleash one final attack that forced Serpenterra back through the warp gate, which was subsequently destroyed in a huge explosion.
The Saffron Ranger, still surrounded by the crystalline Phoenix, disappeared in a burst of silver flames as the Megazord landed on the moon.
The Order at large thought Raksha had perished, defending the Earth from Zedd and she was honoured throughout the universe, her tales regaled in planets and cultures she had never seen in her lifetime and becoming a legend that would persevere through ages to come.
After returning to Earth, the rangers surrendered their power coins to Zordon, resuming their civilian lives. Their otherworldly allies returned to their respective planets, only Alpha 5 remaining to help Zordon and maintain the Command Centre.
The original members of the Order of Meledon returned to space, continuing the fight against evil in the wider universe while the humans who had joined the Order as members of the Resistance remained and carried on the legacy of the ninjetti. Eventually they came to be known as the Pai Zhua or the Order of the Claw, and became a global order of guardians, protecting Earth from the shadows.
Zordon kept watch on the planet, protecting it from other forces of evil and occasionally selecting new ranger teams to battle forces of evil who came to attack Earth.
The Garuda Coin was thought to be lost forever, incinerated in space so Zordon never searched for it or Raksha, not that he would have found them if he had.
The brunt of the cosmic energies of the Zeo Crystal, filtered only through a single coin had taken it's toll on Raksha, however the Grid had sensed a second life budding within her… Burai and Raksha's child growing within her womb. The moment she would have demorphed, the power withdrawal would have killed her and the baby alongside her, so the Power accelerated the growth of the baby, the Garuda Spirit protecting her.
Raksha was teleported half way across the planet on the doorsteps of a kind healer, the knowledge of what was happening to her telepathically transmitted to her by the Garuda spirit. The moment she demorphed, she was in labour and while the healer managed to save the baby, she couldn't do anything for Raksha. Vestiges of morphin energy sustained her for barely a few minutes after the delivery, just enough for her to hold her daughter and keep the garuda coin in her small palms.
With her last breath, she looked at the healer. While she was too tired to speak, her eyes said it all. The kind healer smiled at her, promising to care for her daughter as her own and Raksha passed away peacefully, knowing while she wasn't able to have a life with her husband, their love would live on through their child… a child protected by the morphin grid and the spirit of the mighty garuda.
The child would grow up to be a hero, using the powers of the coin to defeat ancient demons who plagued the villages and her tales of valour would spawn legends and myths of the Garuda.
The coin would be passed through her bloodline, eventually the knowledge of it's magical powers would fade to obscurity and it would become a family heirloom, until centuries later, when by a twist of fate, Raksha's descendants decided to move to the city of Angel Grove and the legacy of the Saffron Ranger was reignited.
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