Chapter 2: What Once Was, Is Again, Part 2.

Chapter Plot: Two teenagers find themselves thrown into a world they can barely comprehend.

By: Dancer of Dreams

Notes: I have no idea what their outfits are made of, but I'm going with spandex. (Sorry if it is wrong.)

Advice To Live By: As you journey through life take a minute every now and then to give a thought for the other fellow. He could be plotting something.


"I am the AI XY79HY56, code name Lilanda. I welcome you, the new protectors, to central command."

Olivia jumped, with an 'eek'. "Woah. What in the world did you do?" She slid away from the hologram.

Daniel shrugged. "I don't know. I just pushed some buttons and..." He trailed off as he pushed some more buttons. Suddenly both the hologram and the woman on the computer screen disappeared. Then the screen flickered and on it appeared what seemed to be some sort of footage.

There was screaming.

A woman with red hair and a blue red tinted skin ran into view. She was soon followed by a man who looked vaguely like a fish.

He launched himself at her and they both feel out of view.

"Alira--!" A male voice yelled, choking off at the end.

There was a maniacal laugh and a female yell.

"No!" The woman, Alira, yelled. She seemed to run to the console and push a few buttons. The area where they had found the crystals glowed momentarily and a sort of shield went up.

"What did you do?" The evil man yelled at her. He tried to grab the case, only to be shocked.

She grinned. "You cannot touch the crystals, only the chosen ones can." Alira glared at him.

"Fix it." He pulled some sort of energy knife from his side and placed it against her neck. It created a fine line of orange blood and she flinched.

"Never!" She screamed at him. "You killed the other guardians. Now you will never own the power!" Alira let out a cry. "Why did you betray us?"

"Why not? For power. Why else?" He grabbed her and threw her out of the camera's range.

The next thing they knew, something orange, that looked suspiciously like the woman's blood, splattered across the screen.

"Wow." Olivia whispered. "What was that?"

A voice from beside her spoke. "That was the end."

Both Daniel and Olivia turned around at the same time. There was the woman that had appeared on the screen only moments before.

"Woah." That came from Olivia. She circled around the hologram, figuring it wasn't harmful.

"Cool. A hologram." Daniel mumbled. He joined his friend in circling the hologram, who was beginning to seem a little annoyed.

The hologram and computer screen smiled slightly. "I am more than that. I am an AI, and artificial intelligence."

They both jumped back. "You can talk?" This came from Olivia. She certainly hadn't seen anything like this before.

The hologram gave her a look like 'duh'.

"Right." Daniel was starting to get a little freaked out. "Time to go, Olivia." He grabbed the girl's wrist and dragged her to the door.

"Wait!" The A.I., Lilanda, called to them. At that the elevator's door slammed closed.

"Hey!" Olivia cried out.

Lilanda shook her head. "We need to talk."

"No. We don't." Olivia replied.

"The gauntlets choose you and you accepted them." The A.I. informed them. "When you accepted them, they joined with you. Your energy's became one."

Daniel looked confused. "What?"

"Those gauntlets hold the power." She informed the teens.

"What sort of power?" Olivia asked the woman in front of her.

The power fluctuated. Lilanda's form flicked before reappearing. "There isn't much time. The power you hold is the power to become power rangers."

Olivia let out a laugh. "Power Rangers?"

Lilanda nodded. "They are real. Now that the power has been reawakened, he will come after you. He will try to destroy you and take the power." The power once again fluctuated. "You must hurry and leave. If the power cuts before you make it back to the top, you will be stuck."

"How do we use it?" Daniel nodded towards the elevator.

"Place you hand on the middle of the left corner. It will go and take you to top surface." She stopped them once again before they left. "Wait." A mechanical arm shot out of the wall and pick up something off of a table. It chucked it at Olivia, who caught it. "And take the crystal box." The mechanical arm picked the box that the they had got the crystals out of and handed it to Daniel. "Only when the crystals have returned to their chosen will central command be able to return to full power. When you want to transform. Just call out 'Alpha Star. Execute! You will then become power rangers."

"How will we know where their 'chosen' are?" Daniel asked.

"The device I gave you. It will pick up on their energy signals. Use the energy of the gauntlets to activate it. There are only two more crystals." The power cut off and for one frightening minute the two had worried that the power was completely gone. But the power had cut back on and Lilanda had reappeared. "Hurry, my power has almost completely depleted."

The two teens hurried out the door and up the elevator. And not a moment to soon. The moment they entered the living room of the old house the power had completely shut down.


Somewhere outside the Cyclops Nebula

A fish like man smiled. He looked at the flat screen on the table. "So the gauntlets have passed on to a new generation." He stood up and head to the door, pausing before he exited the door. "Very good. It will make this easier." He left.


Sky Hill's High School

7: 46 am, The Next Day

"So what do you think we should do?" Daniel sat down on the picnic table, in front of Olivia. He placed the box between them and she sat the finder on top. They had split company after leaving the abandoned house the evening before, deciding to choose what to do the next day. Still, he hadn't got much sleep the night before. And, by the looks of Olivia, she hadn't either. The clothes she had chosen was wrinkled, her hair hadn't been brushed, and she looked dead on the water. Like him she had covered up the gauntlet, only he had worn a long sleeve shirt (which was stupid in the crazy heat like this). She had taken a long piece of neon pink cloth, matching her tank shirt (her pants were white), and she had wrapped them on over the gauntlet, holding them together with a couple of safety pins. It didn't look great, but it worked.

She noticed him watching her and unconsciously smoothed her shirt. Olivia glared at him, which he grinned at and flushed a little. "I look like crap. I know." She sighed. "Right. So... I think we should do it." She thought about this a lot last night. And she had came firmly to this conclusion.

"Are you nuts?" Daniel questioned her. "If what she said was right, it could get us killed."

"If what she said was right, he, who ever he is, is going to come after us anyways." Olivia informed him. "I'm not saying that we try to go after him, but there is nothing that we can do if he comes after us."

"That's exactly the thing. We don't even know who, or what, is going to come after us." Daniel practically yelled at her.

"Shh!" Olivia place a hand over his mouth. "Do you want someone to hear us?" She shook her head. "That's why we have to find the others. It he does find us, there is more power in four than two."

"It's up to you." Daniel told her.

"Me? Why?" She asked him, curious.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "I can't let you do yourself. It's suicide. If I'll feel better if I know you're not going in alone."

She grinned in at him. "It's decided then. We're going to do it."

He dropped his head. "I was afraid you were going to say that."

Olivia giggled. "Come on. Let's get to class."

"If I do this. Just one thing." Daniel grabbed the box and shoved into his back pack, handing her the finder.

"Name it."

He pulled his sleeve back, showing some of the gauntlet. "Let's find a way to camouflage these."

"Deal." She dragged him off, into the school.


In self-esteem class, later in the afternoon, Olivia yawned the class getting even more boring than it had begun.

Mrs. Priutt tried to avoid yawning as well. "So, what are we talking about when we talk about ourselves?" She paused. No one even moved. "Anyone?" Someone in the middle of the room raised his hand. "Yes."

"We're... talking about us."

The teacher grinned. "Excellent. When we talk about 'ourselves' we're talking about 'us'. Now, everyone, I've got a little challenge for you. Today we talked about turning your daydreams into reality. Tonight, I want each of you to go home and do just that. What do you say?" She waited. That had gotten everyone's attention. All except two teens in the back. The male in blue and the female in pink. "Um... you." She pointed to the male. "What's a daydream that you'd like to see come true?"

Daniel blinked, coming back to reality. His mind had been elsewhere. The same place it had been all day. "Well, I guess I'd like my whole family to do something together."

"Excellent!" Mrs. Pruitt replied.

He grinned, obviously coming up with an idea to mess with the teacher. "Something that'll really make them suffer." Like his parents were ever around...

The teacher looked taken aback. "Uh... it's healthy to air these feelings... It think." She glanced at the watch on her hand. "Oh, look at the time. Class is over. We'll talk more about this tomorrow. Class dismissed."

Olivia gathered her back and smiled. "Nice one."

"Thanks." Came the reply.

Olivia rolled her eyes. They exited the school everyone had already gone. All except the self-esteem class and their teacher. They class had came out the front and the two teens were leaving the back, though, planning to take the wood back again.


"They don't look like much of a problem, Afner." A woman with black hair and neon blue roots, and a black body suit informed her employee. The one in pink looked very familiar.

The fish looking man, Afner, shook his head. "Drincka, my lady, they are more then they seem." He explained to his employer. No one but his sister would ever know that he had an alternative motive. The woman did not understand the power that these kids were carrying around.

"If they stand between me and finding my sister than we'll see." She turned to Afner's sister. "Elxtra, what do you think?"

The fish woman nodded. "They are certainly a threat."

"Alright." Drincka turned to the cat-like creatures behind her. "Tridroids. Get them."

The creatures did as she commanded.


Daniel stretched his arms above his head. The forest was very quiet. Actually, it was to quiet. Usually there were birds chirping and wind was whistling. But now there was nothing. "Wait." He flung an arm out in front of Olivia, stopping her cold. "Do you hear that?" He asked her.

Olivia shook her head. She hadn't known him that long, but it didn't take a genus to realize he could be really weird at sometimes. "No. I don't hear anything."

"Me either. That's the problem." Daniel shook his head.

There was a rustling from beside them. They turned in union to see the creatures standing beside them. There two fish-like beings. One was male and the other female. Behind them were many creatures that looked exactly the same. They are completely dark blue except for three red x's on their faces. Two where the eyes were supposed to be and one in place of the mouth.

"Woah!" Olivia called out. This was creepy. "What are you?"

The female fish smirked. "I am Elxtra."

The male followed in suit. "I am Afner. Give us the gauntlets or face the consequences." He commanded of her.

Daniel leaned over to Olivia. "Now would be a good time to run." They took off farther into the woods like a shot.

Afner snickered. "Tridriods. Attack." He commanded the dark blue creatures, who took off after the teenagers.

"They're following." Olivia glanced behind her and saw the Tridriods. The next thing she knew, she was tackled my one of them. She let out a shriek and nailed the thing with her foot, sending the thing flying backwards. She scrambled up to her feet and joined Daniel, who had turned to face the on coming Tridriods.

The Tridriods attacked.

Olivia sidestepped her attacker, grabbed his arm, swung him around and threw him into a tree. She gave one a full spinning hook kick and followed up with a roundhouse kick to it's head.

Daniel did backhanded punch to one of them, it's head snapped hard to the side. He ducked ones swing and did a roundhouse kick to the back of it's knee, making it collapse to the ground. "I didn't know I could do that." He told Olivia.

She did a back elbow jab at ones face, causing it to step backwards and fall over a fallen Tridriod. "Me either." Another one jumped up into the fray and tried to punch her, but she blocked him, grabbed its arm and threw him up against the rock wall. It tried to come after her again, but she side kicked him soundly in the gut, forcing him back up against the wall.

Daniel turned around just in time to get punched in the face by one. It tried to punch him again, but he ducked it and rose back up to roundhouse kick it in the side of the head.

"Time to go!" Olivia yelled at Daniel and grabbed him by the arm to drag him off. They were blocked in my the Tridriods. Olivia glanced around in the other direction. They were surrounded. "What are we going to do?"

He looked at the gauntlet that was wrapped around his wrist. "We could..." Daniel held it up to her.

"What? I thought you were completely against it?"

Daniel shook his head. "If it saves our butts., then I don't."

Olivia looked him in the eyes and nodded. "Alright then."

The two ran their hands over their gauntlets, transforming them into morphers. They pulled the half of the stars off of them. "ALPHA STAR! EXECUTE!" They slid the star back on top of the other one changing from and five point star to a ten point star. A couple moments later, they had been transformed.

"Cool!"Olivia looked at her pink outfit. It was a pink spandex no sleeve dress thing with a silver star in the middle of the chest. There were dark pink boots and silver spandex tights. Pink elbow-length gloves dawned her hands and their was the same sliver spandex tights material traveling from her shoulder into the gloves. Her helmet was a simple design mixture of pink, sliver and black.

Daniel grinned, though it was impossible to see. "Tell me about it!" His outfit was sort of like hers only not in dress form. It was a complete full body dark blue spandex outfit. The only silver on the outfit, until you reached the helmet, was the star on his chest. He had even darker blue boots on his feet.

She snickered. "You're wearing spandex."

"You're wearing spandex." Daniel mocked. "You're wearing it too." He informed her.

Forgetting about the creatures around her, Olivia snorted. "I noticed. And I happen to think that I can pull this look off."

Afner growled. "Ranger's or not, I will still destroy you!" He turned back to the Tridriods. "Get them!"

Olivia's eyes widened as they advanced. She kicked one in the face with a high round house kick, forcing it to step backwards to keep its balance. Another returned with a jumping half-twist crescent kick, which she ducked. It tried two punches, but Olivia blocked both. On the third punch, she grabbed a hold of its arm and hit him in the face with a front high kick. Letting go of the Tridriod, Buffy punched it squarely in the midsection and followed up with a swinging punch to its face, sending it to the ground.

Daniel had to grin as he saw his new friend fight the creatures that were attacking them. He blinked as a Tridriod punched high, blocking it. It threw a backhand punch, but he blocked it again and followed up with a front snap kick to its stomach. As it leaned forward in pain, Daniel slammed his elbow into it's back.

Afner growled. It was not possible. No two teenagers could defeat his Tridriods. "I will take care of this little problem myself." He turned to his sister. "You go after the boy. I'll see if I can handle the little girl." His voice surrendered his idea of the girl. He approached the girl, the Tridriods separating like the red sea. Afner attacked Olivia with a double punch, but she blocked it and delivered a punch to his gut and a hopping snap kick to his jaw. He stepped back, but wasn't fazed. "You're strong." He landed a solid backhand fist to her, sending her flying. "I'm stronger."

While Afner attacked Olivia, Elxtra took her frustrations out on Daniel. She cartwheeled and immediately lunched into a full spinning hook kick, which he barely managed to dodge. He came up in and assumed fighting position. She came at him and swung, but he blocked it, held onto his arm and gave her three round house kicks to her stomach before she shakes loose.

Daniel managed to dodge another kick, glancing at Olivia in time to see her go flying. "Olivia!" He called. Luckily, he saw her immediate jump back up, clutching her stomach.

"You're wasting my time." Afner called.

"Hey, I had other plans, too, okay?" Olivia replied, her arm still wrapped around her stomach in pain.

Elxtra joined her brother. "You think you can stop me? Stop us?"

"You have no idea what you're dealing with." Afner growled.

All the while Drincka was watching the whole exchange, a curious look on her face. She still was sure whether the teenager were a threat. They didn't seem like much of one. It seemed as if they hadn't even been fighting long. Plus, the teens hadn't attacked them. They had attacked the teens. It was like they didn't even want to fight. Curiouser and Curiouser. "Afner. Elxtra. Don't even bother." She turned to leave. "Let's go."

Elxtra frowned. "But, my lady,..."

"Now." Even though her voice didn't raise, an unmistakable tone to it. Commanding.

The woman and the fish people disappeared in a flash of light.

"Now that was strange." Olivia informed Daniel.

"Oh yeah."


Olivia's Foster Mother's House

6:37 pm

Olivia was laying on her stomach, not even caring that the grass was still damp. She was watching her gauntlet, it shape shifted into a crystal bracelet (the exact color of her crystal) and she shifted it back again. Her eyes never leaving the bracelet/gauntlet, she repeated the process.

On one of the steps, Daniel was taping on his laptop, his gauntlet already shifted into a bracelet. He glanced at Olivia as she shifted her gauntlet over and over. "Are you sure you want to do that out here. What if someone sees you?"

She snorted. "Who's going to see me? Nikki's at work and Annie's off with whats-their-faces. And there is no one around for miles. I live in the middle of the woods." Olivia gestured to the forest.

"Still..."

"Oh, stop being such a worry wort." Olivia giggled and rolled over onto her back.

Daniel grinned. "Low self-esteem, huh?"

Olivia snort once again. "I don't have low self-esteem. I just have low-esteem for everyone else." She replied and then sighed. "You might be right though." The bracelet returned. "I'll be more careful. Still, you got it admit it is cool."

"Yeah, risking our necks for who knows what reason." Daniel said, deadpan.

She just rolled her eyes. "You know all the answer to the questions on the release test, right?"

He nodded. "I've got them in my notebook." Daniel tossed it to her.

Olivia caught it an sat up. "Cool." She flipped it open, than stopped at a certain page. "Listen to this, 'The next time you start to feel bad about yourself stand in front of a mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, "You are an individual. No one else is like you." Olivia paused for a moment. "Last time I checked, that was called schizophrenia."

"Either way, it involves psychology."

Olivia nodded. "You know, why don't we just take the test tomorrow and get out of the class once and for all?"

"How would I spend my afternoons?" Daniel questioned her.

She held up the finder, conveying a silent message.

"Well it certainly can't be much worse than listening to Mrs. Pruitt droning on and on."


Sky Hills High School

4:15 p.m.

Mrs. Pruitt sighed. "And so, for tomorrow I want you to make a list of ten ways the would be a sadder place if you weren't in it."

A boy in the front of the classroom raised his hand, "Oh, Mrs. Pruitt, Mrs. Pruitt!"

"Yes, um... you."

"Is that if we'd never been born, or if we died suddenly and unexpectedly?" He asked.

"Never been born." The bell rang. "See you all tomorrow!" She called, not noticing the two teens who was approaching her. She felt a tap on her shoulder and jump as she noticed them. "Hi! Did you need clarification on something we covered today?"

Daniel shook his head. "We feel really good about ourselves."

"We feel as though we are ready to take the graduation test." Olivia finished.

Mrs. Pruitt grinned. "Well! I'm glad your self-image meter is on the up tick, but we still have five weeks of class left."

"This first week has been a real eye-opener. It must be the way you teach." Daniel buttered up the teacher.

The teacher blushed at the compliment. "Oh, well... thank you very much." She looked at Daniel more closely. "You know, you look familiar somehow."

Olivia caught the teachers attention before she could figure it out. "So... can we take the test?"

"Well, it's not the way we usually do it, but... I guess so." She grabbed the test off of her desk. "Okay question one: 'Self-esteem is important because..."

"It's a quality that will set us up for good positions for the rest of our lives." He finished the question.

Mrs. Pruitt nodded, impressed. "Good. Now, 'The next time I start to feel bad about myself...'"

Olivia finished this one, "Stand before the mirror, look myself in the eye and say, 'You are an individual. No one else is like you.'"

"You two really have been paying attention! Okay, 'There is no such thing..."

"As the right weight." Olivia continued.

"Or the right height." Daniel added.

Olivia grinned. "There is only what is right for me."

Daniel finished it off. "Because me is who I am."

Mrs. Pruitt jumped up happily. "I don't think we have to fo ant farther. I am really pleased! I think the whole school needs to hear about this at assembly!"She left the room in a rush, hurrying to find the principal.

Olivia blinked. "Assembly? Assembly!" She exchanged a look with Daniel and they took off after her.


Sky Hills Auditorium

The Next Day, 12:45 p.m.

Unfortunately they had not been able to talk Mrs. Pruitt out of informing everyone at the assembly. Currently, Principal McQuire was droning on and on about some school thing. No one was really paying attention, though. Some were whispering, others were napping. Olivia noticed that Annie was one of those who were whispering. Actually, Annie was whispering and pointing at Olivia was sitting hunched down in one of the seat, trying to disappear.

Principal McQuire noticed none of this. "And once again, the bake sale was a tremendous success. We raised more than $400, which was subsequently stolen from the office, but I am confident we will get that money back. In a related note, the school nurse will be visiting home rooms tomorrow to collect DNA samples. Now, Mrs. Pruitt has exciting news about our after-school self-esteem class."

Sliding even farther down into the seat, Olivia whispered to Daniel. "This is really going to help me gradually ease into student life."

Daniel shook his head. "Usually when I have this dream I'm wearing pink taffeta and have a chicken on my head."

There was a meager applause from the crowd.

"Thank you." Mrs. Pruitt began her speech. "You know, self-esteem is a little like you car's brake fluid. You may not even know you're low on it until one day you go to shift gears and nothing happens."

A voice from the crowd yelled. "That's transmission fluid!" It got tittering and catcalls from the audience.

Mrs. Pruitt blushed slightly. "That's... what I said. Anyway, I'd like you to meet two students who have completed out self-esteem course faster than anyone ever before! Please join me in congratulations as I present these certificates of self-esteem to... Daniel Marsh and Olivia Piper."

Another meager applause.

They didn't move. "Well?" Daniel turned to Olivia.

"Well what?" Olivia replied.

Daniel shook his head and motioned to the stage.

"No way! I'm not going up there. You!" She refused.

"I'm not doing it! You do it!"

"No way! You!"

"You!"

"You!"

Daniel shook his head. "Oh, what the hell." He mumbled and walked to the podium, as th emeager applause died. A grin crossed his face a idea came to mind. "I just want to say how proud I am today. Knowing that I have self-esteem gives me even more self-esteem." Daniel glanced at Olivia, who caught the gist of what he had in mind and smirked back. He let his voice wobble a little. "On the other hand, having all you know that I had low self-esteem make me feel... kind of bad. Like a big failure or something." The audience tittered. "I, uh, I want to go home." He let out a fake sob and ran off stage.

The audience laughed as Mrs. Pruitt ran off after him. Olivia snuck off as everyone's attention was deferred.


Olivia caught up with Daniel outside the school. "Very nice."

"Thank you." Daniel replied.

Maybe things were going to be fine after all.