Hey Ranger fans!

I'm glad to give you Episode 13, and I've finally actually decided how exactly the rest of the series will go. Basically, I've been making it up as I go so far, but now there's actual, written plans for the rest of the series. This starts the hunt for the remaining Olympian Gems. This also marks me stopping the "I don't own Power Rangers" thing because I think I've beaten it to death.

(Hey, future Spidey here. I've made some moderate edits to the story, mostly with Dan's character. For those of you reading this for the first time, you'll know who Dan is soon enough. I just wasn't happy with how I wrote him in some scenes compared to others and decided to fix it. Thank you for your understanding!)

Thanks, as always, go to JTWAS1994 for reviewing and following the story so far

As always, Enjoy!

Myth 13: The Hunter or the Hunted?

"Man, I hate walking in the woods in the winter!" Nate complained as the Rangers hiked up the hill. They all had winter coats in their Ranger color, with each Ranger having slight differences in their styles, such as Valerie's fake fur and Victor's coat being a little small for his larger frame.

"Will you ever stop complaining?" Diana asked as she pushed some branches out of her way.

"Not likely," Mera said as the Rangers stopped to look at the land below them.

"OK Victor," Jay said, ignoring the chatter behind him, "Where's the Olympian Gems?"

Victor looked down at a pocket watch that had been transformed into a radar that searched for Olympian Gems. It had been about a week since the Halloween party, and the Rangers decided to be proactive by searching for the lost Olympian Gems. Victor and Mera had worked around the clock to design a portable radar system, and the team was now enjoying the fruits of their labors.

"Should be straight ahead," Victor said as he pointed forward towards a hill in the distance. "All the way down, then up that hill."

Nate sighed.

"This is going to be a long walk, isn't it?" he asked.

"Come on, Nate," Valerie said. "Exercise is good for you!"

"I don't have a problem with exercising," Nate retorted. "I just wish we knew exactly where we were going."

"Let's move, team!" Jay said as the Rangers moved forward. Valerie ran up to the front of the group to meet up with Jay.

"How's it going, expedition leader?" she teased as she put her hand in his.

"Better now," he said as the group continued down the trail.

"Ugh," Nate said. "Ever since those two got together, everything's become so...lovey dovey when it comes to them being with each other."

"For once, you and I agree," Diana said as she crossed her arms. "How can he be the leader when he's so...focused on her?"

"Let's be supportive," Adrian said as he came up behind the two. "It's hard to have a relationship in a war against an angry god of death. Just be glad they found each other."

The two sighed. However, as Nate looked down at the ground, Diana looked out to her right. She stopped suddenly and pointed.

"Look!" she said, "Deer!"

The Rangers stopped and looked. Indeed, there was a family of deer, with a doe, a stag and three baby deer. The deer looked up, frightened, and ran away. As the Rangers turned to continue, they heard a gunshot to their right once again.

Jay immediately sprang into action.

"Come on!" he said as the Rangers ran towards the source of the sound.

They reached a clearing, and the buck was lying on its side, barely moving. The rest of the family was nowhere to be seen. Diana rushed forward and kneeled down before inspecting the buck. She frowned at what she saw.

"It's been shot," she said. "Someone just shot this defenseless animal!"

"Who would do such a thing?" Valerie asked as she bent down to inspect the buck as well.

"That was a good one!" a man shouted as he and two friends came into the clearing. He noticed the teens and lowered his rifle.

"What are you kids doing in this neck of the woods?" he asked.

"We're searching for O…ow!" Victor said before Nate stomped on his foot.

"We're searching for outstanding animals, and look! We found one!" he gestured to the buck. "Now we can go and search for more!"

Nate turned and went back to the path.

The man pointed his rifle at the buck's head.

"A clear shot…" he mumbled to himself.

Diana moved into the line of fire, her arms outstretched to protect the buck.

"Why are you doing this?" she demanded. "Can't you see it wasn't hurting anyone?"

"It's just for sport, honey," the man said as one of his buddies shoved her out of the way. He lined up his rifle again.

Diana was about to move to block the line of fire again before Jay and Adrian grabbed her arms.

"As much as I hate to see it, it is hunting season," Adrian explained, "so what they're doing is legal.".

"But it has a family!" Diana shouted as she pulled against the two boys.

"It's their right to hunt if they so choose to," Mera explained.

"There's nothing we can do," Jay said as the two boys pulled her the way they came.

"But...but," Diana said as she finally gave up and slumped down in defeat. "Dine, let's go."

"Go back to your little nature walk!" the man said as he cleaned off his rifle, "better yet, maybe we'll follow you! Hunt whatever you guys find!"

"Don't push it," Jay warned as the teens left the clearing.

Diana closed her eyes as she heard another gunshot, knowing that it had ended an innocent animal's life.

"Man, what a jerk," Valerie said as the group finally reached the hill. "He knew how upset Diana was and still decided to upset her more."

"Some people are just like that," Jay explained, leading the team up the hill.

The Rangers looked around as they reached the top of the hill.

"There's nothing here," Adrian noted as he bent down to examine the ground. "Just grass and dirt."

"OK, Victor, very funny. Now where is that pair of Olympian Gems?" Nate said as he turned to face Victor.

"I don't understand," Victor said as he looked down at the radar. "It says that a pair of Olympian Gems should be right here!"

"Perhaps we made an error in our calculations?" Mera suggested.

"Or maybe you 'geniuses' screwed...woah!" Nate said before the ground crumbled under him and he fell through it.

"Oh my god! Nate!" Valerie shouted. She ran towards the hole and looked down.

"Be careful!" Jay warned.

"I will. I can't see anythinggggg!" she shouted as she fell headfirst into the hole.

"So much for being careful…" Jay said as he looked to Mera. "I don't suppose you have any rope, do you?"

"I do," Victor said as he opened his bag and pulled out a circular device with a stake on one part of it and rope around the ring. He put the point into the ground far away from the hole. He unwound the rope from the ring and clipped it to Jay's belt.

"I'll stay up here to make sure the device functions properly, then follow you down" he explained.

"That's reassuring…" Jay said as he was slowly lowered into the hole by the device. Jay looked around as he slowly descended. There wasn't much to see. It was too dark to actually see anything except for the light coming from the hole. When he reached the bottom, he unclipped the clip from his belt and watched as it slowly went back up. He turned on a flashlight and found Nate on the ground under Valerie.

"She fell on top of me!" Nate shouted as he tried to roll her off, "and she must've passed out because she isn't moving at all."

"She's scared of heights, remember?" Jay said as he helped roll Valerie off of Nate so he could stand up. Jay gently shook Valerie as the rest of the team, one by one, came down through the hole and into the cave, turning on their flashlights as soon as they landed. Valerie started to come to as Victor made his way down.

"The machine should hold," he said as his feet hit the stone floor.

"Should or will?" Nate asked. "There's a big difference between the two, buddy."

Valerie's eyes fluttered open and Jay's face filled her vision.

"What happened?" she asked as Jay helped her stand up.

"You fainted, probably from the shock of the fall," Jay said. "Do you feel alright?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Valerie said.

Alright, guys," Jay said. "Let's look around. If the Gems aren't on the hill, maybe they're under it."

The team split up, with each Ranger looking for any clue to the Olympian Gems' location. Diana wasn't looking too hard.

"I'm still thinking about that poor deer," she said to her brother as they searched.

"I'm sorry about what happened with it," Adrian said, "but there's nothing we can do about it. He has a right to do it if he chooses to."

"Maybe he shouldn't have that right," Diana suggested. "There's no people hunting season."

"Yeah, it's called the Purge!" Nate shouted to the two from the other side of the cavern. "You know we can hear you, right?"

"Shut up, you!" Diana shouted as she turned around and marched over to Nate. She was about to start yelling at him when Mera shouted first.

"I believe I have found something of note!" she shouted. The rest of the team rushed over, Diana still glaring at Nate.

"Look at that!" Jay marveled.

In front of the team were four marble pillars in a square that were identical to the ones in the Temple. There was an altar in the center of the four pillars. The Rangers slowly approached it.

"It could be booby-trapped…" Jay said cautiously.

"Heh, you said trap," Nate snickered.

All of the teens shot him a look before continuing forward. They stepped up right in front of the altar with no difficulty. There were two golden bracelets, obviously Olympian Morphers, on the altar with purple gems attached to them.

"Go on, fearless leader," Nate said. "Grab the Gems so we can go."

"Victor," Jay said as he looked at the teen. "You're sure that there's no way for the Gems to protect themselves and injure me?"

"It only happens with bonded Gems and 'evil hands' as Hermes put it, so no," Victor said. "You should be good to just grab them."

Jay slowly put his arms out and grabbed the morphers quickly. Nothing happened. The Rangers look around for any potential traps.

"That was anticlimactic," Nate noted. "I was all ready to go full Indiana Jones and run away from a rolling boulder or something.

"Well, I would assume the Purple Olympian Gems represent Dionysus," Mera explained. "he was...well...a drunk."

"Yeah, his followers were too," Adrian added, "I bet this was once a temple to Dionysus!"

"And what? They were so drunk that they forgot these here?" Nate said, utterly unconvinced. "Under a mountain?"

"No, I think he was laid back enough that he wasn't too worried about the mortal wielding his powers," Jay explained. "So he just left them so someone could find them. That's just my theory, at least. Anyway, let's head back. We got what we came for."

The teens started their walk back the way they came.


Nate groaned as the machine pulled him to the surface.

"You have no idea what that does to my back," he complained to Victor as he stretched backwards to try and crack it.

"Well done, team!" Jay congratulated. "We accomplished our goal! Let's hike back to my car and get back to the temple with these unbonded Olympian Gems and Morphers."


Hades grimaced at the sight of the Morphers in his blue fire projection of Jay.

"At first I thought five Rangers was too many. Then there were seven, and now possibly eight? This won't do!" he said as he drummed his fingers on the arm of his throne. "I need to do something…"

He waved his hand and the vision rewound to the three hunters the team had met.

"That's it!" he shouted as he dipped his hand into the brazier by his throne and created a blue fireball, "Actaeon! I have need of your skills."

He threw the fireball and it opened into a portal. Out of the portal stepped a humanoid stag. Strapped to both of his arms were special crossbows and strapped to his back was a quiver full of bolts.

"I hear and obey, Lord Hades!" Actaeon said as he kneeled as best as his stag-like shape allowed him to in front of Hades' throne.

"You are one of the best hunters who ever lived, and you hold a grudge against Artemis, you will be perfect to attack the Rangers!" Hades announced. "Take some Spartoi, bring me the Olympian Gems and let no one stop you! Just don't touch the bonded Gems or they'll reject you. Only bring me the Purple ones."

"As you command," Actaeon said as he slowly stood up.

Hades reached into the brazier again and created another fireball. He launched the fireball behind Actaeon and a portal opened up that Actaeon stepped through.

"Excellent, the Rangers will fall prey to Actaeon's skills," Hades said as he got up from his throne, "and now I must prepare my army for the battle to come. Come, Persephone, we have work to do."

He offered his hand and Persephone reluctantly took it.

Hades, paying no notice to her reluctance, led her out of the throne room.


The Rangers were in the middle of their hike back when they heard a gunshot again. Diana flinched at the sound, with the other teens just startled by the loud noise. They were prepared to continue on their way when they heard repeated gunshots and screams for help.

"Come on!" Jay said as he led the group towards the sounds.

The team found Actaeon, backed up by Spartoi, in a faceoff with the hunters from earlier, the hunters pointing their rifles and Actaeon pointing the crossbows on his wrists. The hunters struggled to aim correctly as they shook in fear.

"Ah, more prey!" Actaeon said after noticing the teens. "I'll finish with this hunt and start yours in a moment.

"We can't morph in front of those hunters," Jay whispered to the group. "We just have to fight as ourselves."

The team shifted into fighting stances and charged at the monster. Suddenly a net trap on a tree was triggered and the teens were all caught in the net in one large pile.

"You really thought I wouldn't be prepared?" Actaeon gloated. "Just stay put, I'll be back for you."

He pointed at the man who had shot the stag earlier. "You! Do you consider yourself a great hunter?"

"You bet I do!" the man shouted defiantly even as his gun continued to shake.

"Maybe you shouldn't!" the monster shouted as a bolt disappeared from his quiver and went into his right crossbow. Actaeon twisted his arm and the string pulled back on it's own. He flexed his wrist down and the bolt fired from the crossbow and into the man's chest. The man fell back, clutching his chest, into the ground. His buddies dropped their guns and ran away, shouting for help as they did.

"We have to get loose!" Diana exclaimed as he struggled in the net.

"Stop...moving...us!" Nate said angrily as the net began to sway.

"No, keep going!" Jay ordered, "I think it's working!"

The entire team began to shake the net. Eventually the rope holding it up gave out and the teens fell to the ground. Jay reached up and untied the top of the net, freeing all of them.

Noticing that the hunter was now unconscious, the Rangers put on their morphers.

Actaeon turned around in surprise.

"How did you escape?" he asked.

"Three guesses, and the first two don't count," Jay said before getting into the morphing stance.

"Ready?" he asked the team.

"Ready!" the other teens answered.

"Silver Olympian Power!"

"Gold Olympian Power!"

"Pink Olympian Power!"

"Yellow Olympian Power!"

"Black Olympian Power!"

"Blue Olympian Power!"

"Red Olympian Power!"

In a flash, the Rangers were morphed into their suits. They all looked to Jay for orders.

"OK, guys. We need to stay close. He can't fire his crossbows if he can't move his arms, so we need a way to restrain him. Let's summon our weapons and get in there!"

The Rangers nodded before summoning their weapons.

"Hunting Daggers!"

"Sun Bow!"

"Love Bow!"

"Battle Spear!"

"Blacksmith Hammer!"

"Ocean Trident!"
"Lightning Sword!"

The Rangers, minus Valerie and Adrian, flipped in the air to throw off Actaeon's aim as he started firing a few bolts at them from one of his crossbows, mostly aimed at Diana.

Jay deflected the bolts with his sword before coming down in a mighty slash. Actaeon flipped backwards to dodge and fired rapidly from his crossbows. Nate and Victor ran to where he would land and prepared to sneak attack, but Actaeon angled his leap so he struck both of them in the helmet with his hooves, causing sparks to fly. Diana slid past Actaeon, trying to slash him with her one dagger, but Actaeon turned his body just out of the way. Diana turned around for another pass, but the same exact thing happened a second time. Actaeon seemed to show more interest in Diana than any of the other Rangers.

Mera observed the battle and quickly figured out Actaeon's strategy.

"He is maintaining his distance from us so he has perfect range!" she shouted, trying to explain it to the group.

"Maybe the best way to beat him would be with our own ranged weapons! Valerie, Adrian, you're up!" Jay ordered.

Valerie rolled behind a tree and peered around. A bolt suddenly struck the tree, right above Valerie's head.

"Yikes!" she said as she fired an arrow from her bow and then hid behind the tree again, using it as cover. "This guy is dangerous with those crossbows!"

Adrian rolled behind a different tree and fired arrow after arrow at Actaeon. He dodge them all before turning towards Diana again. He fired off multiple bolts at her.

"Diana, look out!" Adrian shouted as he flipped over and then blocked the bolts. Sparks flew from the areas the bolts hit as Adrian fell to the ground and demorphed.

"Adrian!" Diana shouted as she knelt down to check on her brother. She felt his chest and could recognize he was still breathing.

As Diana examined her brother, the other Rangers maintained their battle with Actaeon, keeping Diana a good distance away from the fight.

"This isn't going great," Jay admitted as he once again missed a slash before dodging more bolts.

"He just dodges everything we try to hit him with!" Nate shouted as he tried to stab Actaeon with his trident, but found he once again missed.

"Let's try boxing him in!" Jay ordered as he, Mera, Nate and Victor formed a ring around him. "Flank him and take him out!"

Mera went in for a stab with her spear, but Actaeon leaped over it and she struck Victor instead.

Jay slashed at where he was going to land, but Actaeon did another flip and avoided the strike.

"This guy is making us look like amateurs!" Nate growled as the Rangers who were still active (everyone but Adrian) regrouped in front of the monster.

"Maybe we need to rethink our strategy?" Victor suggested.

"We've altered our strategy multiple times!" Mera said, "and yet he still makes us look like fools!"

"I have one idea," Jay said. "Let's bring 'em together!"

Nate's trident bent 90 degrees as the "teeth" spread out and bent to form a handle. Victor's hammer landed on the ground handle side up as the love bow clicked onto the former trident, which then clicked onto the hammer handle. Mera's spear was bent around the bowstring to make it thicker as the behemoth of a weapon hit the ground.

"Olympian Crossbow!" the Rangers shouted.

The girls knelt down to support the firing end, while Vincent and Nate pulled back the string to allow Jay to place his sword into it.

"I'll back you up with a Moon Arrow," Diana said as she pulled back the string on her own bow.

"Olympic Lightning Storm!" Jay shouted as he infused the sword with a bit of his power. "Fire!"

The sword fired at the monster as red lightning struck it. It was quickly followed by a large glowing silver energy arrow fired from Diana's bow.

Actaeon didn't look impressed, and yawned. At the last second he leapt into the air, flying over the projectiles, before firing multiple bolts from his crossbows. Jay, Nate, Mera, Victor and Valerie shouted in pain as the bolts struck their suits, causing sparks to fly. Diana managed to roll to the side to dodge

The five fell to the ground and demorphed, quickly becoming unconscious.

"That was an easy hunt!" Actaeon said as he walked over to the fallen teens, "one, two, three, four, five plus the Gold Ranger makes six, but weren't there seven?"

"That's right!" Diana said as she split her bow into her Hunting Daggers again, "and I'm the Ranger you're going to wish you never faced!"

"No, my dear," Actaeon said as he prepared his crossbows again. "You're exactly the Ranger I wanted to face! It's because of your Patron that I ended up this way!"

"My Patron? You mean Artemis?" Diana asked quizzically.

"If I had never met her, I would still be human!" he shouted as he fired bolts at Diana. "I saw her bathing, and she cursed me into this form!"

"So you hold a grudge against her?" Diana asked. "I'm not her! But if you did peep in on her, you deserve your fate! Hunting Daggers! Double Swipe Slash!"

She zoomed across the battlefield towards the monster. She slashed at him once as she passed, but he once again dodged. She quickly u-turned and came in for another swipe, but was annoyed when she missed again.

"I'm too fast for you!" Actaeon said, "and now it's time for you to join your friends!"

"Diana!" Hermes shouted through her morpher. "You have to get out of there. You can't win this by yourself! Take that civilian and the Gems and flee!"

"This isn't over," Diana growled as she turned to flee. With one step, she was a blur. She ran to Jay and grabbed something out of his pocket before running to the hunter and scooping him up. She quickly made her way deeper into the forest.

"Coward!" Actaeon called after her. "Just like Artemis to abandon her friends!"

Diana grit her teeth under her helmet as she leapt over a gap and under some branches.

"I'll make you eat those words," she vowed.

"Now to claim my prize," Actaeon said as flipped over Jay and rifled through his pockets. He came up with nothing except Jay's wallet. He flipped it open to reveal Jay's driver's license from Olympia Hills, NJ before throwing it aside.

"Everything he has is worthless!" he said. "There's no unbonded Olympian Gems here! So where did they…"

He suddenly realized where the Gems had gone.

"That girl...she stole it right under my nose!" he shouted to the sky, "Silver Ranger!"


Diana finally stopped about a mile away from where she began. She dropped the hunter and bent over to catch her breath, demorphing as she did so. She had used up a lot of energy to run for so long, and couldn't maintain her armor anymore.

The hunter groaned as he came to, feeling something on his chest.

"What happened?" he asked. "Last I remember there was this monster asking me if I was a great hunter."

He finally noticed Diana as she tried to tend to his wound.

"Weren't you the girl complaining about my hunting earlier?" he asked.

"I am," Diana said as she pulled out some gauze from her back pocket. "Really wish I had remembered all that stuff Adrian tried to teach me…"

"What the hell are you doing?" the hunter asked.

"Trying to save your life," Diana said as she started to wrap the gauze around his midsection. "It looks like the bolt didn't go too deep. Unlike that buck, you're going to live."

"You really need to let that go," the hunter said. "It was just for sport, after all."

"Call it what you want. It's still murder in my book," Diana said as she stepped back. "Now go on. Get out of here. That monster's probably looking for me right now and I don't need you to get hurt anymore, as much as I might enjoy it."

"Fine," the hunter said as he stood up. "I want no part of this anyway."

With that, he started to walk off.

"You shouldn't let him leave," a girl's voice said from behind Diana.

Diana turned around and standing in front of her was a girl, about 15, with brown hair in a bun to keep it out of the way and a silver shirt and mini-skirt. A silver bow and leather quiver with silver arrows were strapped to her back.

"Who are you?" Diana asked accusingly as she shifted to a fighting stance. "Another of Hades' minions?"

The girl noticed this, but didn't react. Instead she kept talking.

"How was this monster created?" she asked.

"Artemis cursed him, and now he holds a grudge," Diana said warily. "Why?"

"Aren't you doing the exact same thing with this hunter?" the girl asked as she gestured to the direction the hunter had gone. "Holding a grudge for one thing he did?"

"Yeah, but he deserves it," Diana said.

"Grudges only last as long as you want them to," the girl said as she turned away, "but are toxic to those who hold them. They can be a weakness."

"So what are you saying I should do?" Diana asked as she began to let her guard down. "Just forgive him?"

"What you do is up to you," the girl said as she looked over at Diana. "We are not here to just tell you exactly what to do, but to advise you to the right path."

The girl ducked behind a tree.

"Wait! What do you mean 'we'?" Diana asked as she came around the tree, but the girl was gone. In the distance, Diana could see a deer running away from the area. She smiled for a moment before going back to her usual serious expression.

"Hey, hunter guy!" Diana called out as she started sprinting the way the hunter went.


"My buddies just left me," the hunter said to himself as he went down the path. "Some friends they are! Got a fricking crossbow bolt in my chest and they just run!"

"Hey, wait up!" Diana shouted as she ran up to join him.

"Oh, it's you," the hunter said as he continued along the trail, not even looking at her. "Come to tell me off some more?"

"I need your help," Diana said. "I need to save my brother and friends and I can't do it alone."

"You hate me. Why would you ask for my help, and why would I accept?" the hunter asked as he finally stopped and sat down on a log. Diana came and sat beside him.

"Look, just because we have differing opinions on something doesn't make us enemies," Diana explained, "and holding a grudge against you is going to lead me to becoming like that monster: so obsessed with the object of my hatred that it consumes me. So please…"

She turned and offered her hand to the hunter.

"Help me," she finished.

The hunter sat there for a minute before nodding.

"Fine," he said. "I don't really know what I can do, but I can try. How are we going to do this?"

"I honestly have no idea," Diana admitted. "I usually save the plans for Jay or Adrian. I just go in kicking ass and taking names."

"Speaking of names," the hunter said with a chuckle, "I'm Dan Winslow. And you are…?"

"Diana Thomas," Diana said.

"Nice to meet you, Diana," Dan said. "Now, the best way to figure out plans is to know what we have to work with. I dropped my gun, unfortunately, but I was hoping you might have more than gauze in your pockets?"

"I have these," Diana said as she pulled out the Purple Olympian Gems, still attached to the morphers. She wasn't even looking at them as she put them down on the log. "They're what that monster's after. But they can't really help us without a host."

"Are they supposed to glow like that?" Dan asked as he pointed at the Gems.

Diana looked down to see that they were indeed glowing.

"Uh…let me ask about that," she said as she activated her morpher. "Hey, Hermes? What does it mean when the Gems are glowing."

"That usually means they're bonding with someone," Hermes said through Diana's morpher. "Are you saying that that hunter is bonding to the Purple Olympian Gems?"

Diana looked over as Dan picked up the morphers. The Gems had stopped glowing at this point and he was looking them over.

"I think he just did," she said into the morpher before lowering it to look at Dan, "and with the little I know about Dionysus, I might have just come up with a plan."


"Agh! I hate being tied up!" Nate shouted as he struggled against his bonds. He and the other five Rangers had been tied to separate trees in a grove forming a perfect circle. The trees were far enough apart that the Rangers couldn't help each other, even if they could move their hands.

"Is there anything you do like to do?" Valerie asked. "Because all you keep doing is complaining about how much you hate what we're doing."

"Shut up, all of you!" Actaeon shouted.

"What are you trying to get out of us?" Jay asked. "You can't take our Gems from us and the Purple Gems are somewhere out in the woods. What could you possibly gain from tying us up?"

"Indeed, it makes no logical sense," Mera agreed.

"You six are one thing for me: bait for the Silver Ranger," Actaeon explained, "and she'll bring me the Purple Gems to save you!"

"How would she know of that deal?" Victor asked, honestly confused. "She wouldn't be able to figure that out on her own, right?"

"Well...you know...what part of 'shut up' do you kids not get?" Acteaon said as he pointed his crossbows at each of them in turn. "The next one to talk gets a crossbow bolt to the face!"

"You don't have to hurt them," Diana said as she appeared behind one of the trees and started to walk towards him. "You want the Gems? You can have them."

She continued to walk towards him as he started backing up

"That's close enough!" he shouted as she stopped moving forward. She was now in the middle of the circle of trees.

"Now where are those Gems?" he ordered. "Hand them over! I want a taste of their power!"

"Alright, but be careful what you ask for," Diana said as she moved to the side. "Now!"

There was a slight rumbling as thick vines shot out of the ground and quickly moved towards Actaeon. He flipped and weaved through them, dodging every single one.

"What's going on? Artemis doesn't have the power to do this!" Actaeon shouted.

"No, but Dionysus does," Dan said as he stepped from behind another tree and stood next to Diana. The morphers on his wrists had the Purple Gems glowing with a brilliant purple light.

"Those aren't just any vines!" Dan said, "They're grape vines!" He gestured towards the Rangers and more vines appeared and sliced through the ropes, freeing the teens.

"Who's ready to take down this horrible hunter?" Jay asked as he prepared his morphers, "it's Morphing Time!"

"Purple Olympian Power!"

"Silver Olympian Power!"

"Gold Olympian Power!"

"Pink Olympian Power!"

"Yellow Olympian Power!"

"Black Olympian Power!"

"Blue Olympian Power!"

"Red Olympian Power!"

There was a flash of light and in the team's place was their Ranger Forms. Jay nodded to Dan, who instantly knew what to do: begin the roll call.

"Dionysus, god of the vine! Purple Olympian Ranger!"

"Artemis, goddess of the hunt! Silver Olympian Ranger!"

"Apollo, god of healing! Gold Olympian Ranger!"

"Aphrodite, goddess of love! Pink Olympian Ranger!"

"Athena, goddess of wisdom! Yellow Olympian Ranger!"

"Hephaestus, god of the forge! Black Olympian Ranger!"

"Poseidon, god of the sea! Blue Olympian Ranger!"

"Zeus, god of lightning! Red Olympian Ranger!"

"Using the powers of the past to protect the future! Power Rangers Olympian Force!"

Dan's suit had gold highlights like the five main Rangers, and his visor design was two vines wriggling forwards to form an 'x' shape, almost similar to Jay's visor.

The Rangers then summoned their weapons, including Dan's new weapon.

"Vine Thyrsus!"

"Hunting Daggers!"

"Sun Staff!"

"Love Bow!"

"Battle Spear!"

"Blacksmith Hammer!"

"Ocean Trident!"

"Lightning Sword!"

Dan's weapon was a wooden staff wrapped in grape vines with a pinecone on the end.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked into the morpher, "I'm a hunter, not a monk!"

"It should channel your grape vine powers," Hermes said through the morpher.

"Ok, I guess," Dan said as he hung back with Valerie. The other six Rangers charged with their respective weapons.

"What makes you think this time will be any different?" Actaeon asked as he dodged every weapon again and again

"Because we have him," Jay said as he backed up from the fight to point at Dan. "Do your thing, Purple Ranger!"

"Thyrsus Vine Power!" Dan shouted as he raised the Thyrsus into the air before pointing it at Actaeon. Grape vines shot out of the staff and the ground surrounding Dan and swallowed up Actaeon in a large ball of vines. A small hole appeared to let the six Rangers jump in.

There was the sound of massive violence in the big ball of grape vines before Actaeon came flying out, covered in scratches and blood. The Rangers jumped out too and the ball dissipated as the vines went back into the ground.

"I think it's time to finish this!" Diana said as she shifted her Hunting Daggers into her Moon Bow, "Dan, feel like lending me a hand?"

"Diana," Dan said as he offered his Thyrsus to her, "it would be my honor."

Diana drew back her bow as Dan stood next to her

"Thyrsus Arrow with Moon Power!" she shouted. "Fire!"

She released the "arrow" and the Thyrsus went flying. As Actaeon got up, grape vines shot out of the Thyrsus and tied his hooves to the ground. He struggled and struggled as the Thyrsus got closer and closer. Finally, somehow, the Thyrsus pierced right through him.

"This hunter just became the hunted!" he shouted as he fell forward and exploded in a burst of flame and ash.

The Thyrsus came flying back and Dan caught it.

"Well, that was fun…" he started before Jay came up to him.

"Hold that thought, Hades doesn't give up so easily," he said before pointing at Actaeon's remains. "Look."

The remains were surrounded in blue flame before reforming into Actaeon, who then grew over even the tallest tree in the forest.

"That's what I call big game!" Nate joked as Diana spoke into her morpher.

"Hermes, we need the zords, now!" she ordered.

"On their way!" Hermes said as he typed a few commands into the mosaic computer.

The Deer, Horse and Bull Zords dashed over trees to reach the battle, while the Eagle, Owl, Raven and Fish Zords, with the Fish in the Eagle's talons, soared over the giant monster.

Dan stood there confused as the Rangers prepared to jump into their Zords.

"What do I do?" he asked Jay.

"Knowing Hermes," Jay responded. "There should be a Zord for you in three, two, one…"

A large purple Leopard Zord leapt over more trees to match the strides of the other land Zords.

The Rangers, Dan included, leaped into their Zords.

"All Rangers report in!" Jay ordered as all the Rangers put in their Gems and the cockpit came to life.

"Nate here, ready to kick butt!" Nate said.

"Victor speaking, wondering about new combinations using this Leopard Zord…" Victor said thoughtfully.

"Mera conversing, ready for confrontation!" Mera said stoically.

"Valerie reporting, I just love this part!" Valerie said.

"Adrian here, ready to take down the punk who targeted my sister," Adrian said, determined.

"This is Diana, hoping he suffers a bit for this," Diana said as she put her fist in her palm.

"Uh...is this thing on?" Dan said. His cockpit was the same as all the others with the visor design inside a circle on the back wall.

"We need to out-maneuver him," Jay said. "Form Olympian Megazord: Centaur Mode!"

"Right!" the four other core Rangers said as they turned the knob to the correct mode.

"Adrian and Diana, " Jay ordered, "you two go into Silver Mode to try and box him in with melee attacks."

"You got it!" Diana said as she and Adrian flipped the switch to SILVER MODE

The Horse Zord was first, as it ran forward and had the head move into a chest cavity before closing up.

The Bull Zord was next, as it's head came off before the legs folded into the body. The entire Bull Zord then landed on the horse as the bodies clicked into place

Next came the Owl Zord. As its head detached from the body and the body detached from the wings, the wings clipped onto the sides of the Eagle Zord and expanded, forming the arms.

The Eagle Zord was next. As its wings clipped off together in one long arc-shaped piece and it's legs slid into its body before it connected to the Horse Zord and Owl Zord, it was now forming the entire body of the combination. The Eagle Zord head screeched and opened up it's mouth to fit the other side of the Owl Zord's head into it, revealing a different robotic face.

The Fish Zord clipped onto the back after folding a bit to form the quiver, with the dorsal fin splitting into "arrows". The Eagle Zord's wings went into the Megazord's left hand to create a bow.

"Olympian Megazord: Centaur Mode! Ready!" the Rangers shouted as they met up in the central cockpit. Jay was in the front with Nate diagonally to his right, Victor diagonally on his left, Valerie diagonally behind Nate and Mera diagonally behind Victor.

The Deer Zord leapt into the air as it's body began to transform. The front half of the body slid into the back half as the front legs popped off. The Raven Zord flapped its wings once more before they bent in the center. They folded down, covering the body with the entire body splitting in two, with the wings forming a covering over the legs. The Deer Zord came down and connected to the now split Raven Zord body forming the legs The front legs of the Deer Zord reattached by connecting to the back legs, now arms, forming thicker arms. The Deer Zord mouth opened, revealing a face hidden inside the head. It now looked like a robot in an animal pelt of some kind.

"Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode, ready!" the twins shouted as they joined together in a single cockpit, with Adrian on the left and Diana on the right.

"Let's attach the Leopard Zord!" Diana shouted as she pressed a few buttons. The Megazord's right arm came off and the Leopard combined with its legs bent to form a arm-like shape and its head facing towards the sky. The tail lengthened to form a whip. Dan's cockpit came up next to Diana on the right, putting Diana in the middle and Adrian on the left.

"Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode with Leopard Power!" the three Rangers shouted as the Megazord posed.

The Olympian Megazord: Centaur Mode galloped in circles around Actaeon, firing arrows everywhere, but he dodged them all. He had not lost any agility when he grew. The Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode with Leopard Power moved in for the attack

"Oh, hold still," Diana said.

"Leopard Whip!" Dan, Diana and Adrian shouted together as the tail of the Leopard Zord "arm" expanded before the Megazord wielded it like a whip. It snapped the whip on the ground before sending it out to wrap around Actaeon. Actaeon struggled as the whip wound its way around his body.

"He's not going anywhere!" Diana said confidently. "Take the shot!"

"You've got it!" Jay said before turning to Nate. "Let's try one of the other colored arrows!"

"Let's go with black!" Nate said as he pulled the lever to the black arrow setting before all the Rangers pressed the trigger. "I hope this works! Anvil Arrow!"

The Megazord reached behind its back and picked out a black ended arrow. It fired it at point blank range into Actaeon's head. A large anvil appeared over Actaeon and fell down onto his head.

The Gemini Megazord unwrapped its whip from Actaeon as he fell to the ground.

"I guess my hunting prowess didn't impress you?" Actaeon shouted before falling over and exploding, with the two Megazords posing in front of it.

The Rangers celebrated in the cockpits as the Megazords powered down.


"And this is the Temple!" Jay said, giving the tour to Dan. "This is where we train and rest between battles."

"Look guys," Dan said, "as great as being a Ranger is, I have responsibilities to take care of. Hunting is a very small part of my life, and, thanks to Diana, I've decided to give that up, along with my shitty friends. But I still have to have a job."

"What are you saying?" Diana asked. "Are you quitting?"

"No, no, no," Dan said. "I'm just saying I might be better for big emergencies only."

"Like a reserve status, perhaps?" Mera offered.

"Exactly!" Dan said, "but first, how about Pizza? On me? I want to improve your impression of me and food seems like a good place to start."

"I knew I liked this guy the first time I saw him!" Nate said as he wrapped an arm around the Purple Ranger and the two walked through the Doors already waiting for them.

"If I remember correctly, you made up something about 'outstanding animals'," Mera said as she followed.

"I guess we finally found something Nate likes…" Valerie said.

The remaining Rangers laughed as they followed, going out to enjoy the city they called home.

Thanksgiving and Winter Break are coming up for school, so we'll see how much I can push out before the beginning of the new year. My goal is to be half way done the series. How many chapters will that be? You'll just have to wait and find out!