Unfortunately, as I expected, I have to go back to about once a month updates again because of school. This chapter took especially long to write. If you had told me one chapter would be this long (over 10,000 words), I wouldn't have guessed this one. More ideas just kept coming to me and I just added more and more. I hope you enjoy it!
I want to thank JTWAS1994, GoldenMewtwo and now DaughterOfSBWG for their continued support, as well as DanielJensen for his review. No matter how small, I do read all of the reviews.
The poll is now closed! Interestingly, the two least developed characters in my opinion were selected: Victor and Adrian. I hope to improve the least developed characters in chapters like this one.
I actually make up the episodes as I go, so ideas are always welcome. I've been using reviews as fuel for certain plot points, and they've just expanded from there. Gryphon was created because of a review from DragonEmperor999 and now has a large role in the story, and the Dark Order arc was an idea by JTWAS1994. I have a general shape of how I want the story to go, but ideas are being added to it all the time.
This is March 2022 Spidey-Cent interrupting! I updated this chapter a bit to fix the grammar, but to also make the story make a little more sense. There's still a giant leap in logic in this story, but I'm not rewriting the whole thing. Please enjoy the edits I have made!
Anyway, enough from me. Let the story commence!
Myth 23: Two-Faced
Victor looked at the sign and then back down at the piece of paper in his hand. The name, Tom's Tools, matched on both the paper and the sign, but the building seemed a lot...bigger than Victor had imagined. When he had first heard about jobs opening up at Tom's Tools, he was expecting a struggling small business. Instead he was finding a decently sized brick and mortar building.
Victor looked down at the watch he had built out of small parts he had found at a place just like this one.
"Five minutes until my interview starts," he said to himself. "Guess I better go in. Better early than late, I suppose."
As he walked in, he marveled at the amount of tools and other items related to them around him.
A man shorter than Victor with a green vest with the name tag "Tom" on it noticed him from the guest service desk and walked over to him.
"You must be Victor Steel," he said as he put out a hand. "I'm Tom. I own this store"
"Uh...yes. I am Victor," Victor said as he slowly took the man's hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Tom."
"Strong grip you've got," Tom noted as the handshake ended. "You said you were a tinkerer, but I never would have thought someone as large as yourself...Well, never mind that. When can you start?"
"Excuse me?" Victor asked. "I thought I had an interview first."
"Oh, I usually don't bother with interviews," Tom said. "I can just tell a lot about a person from how they look around my store. You have a look of wonder in your eyes. That's exactly what I'm looking for in an employee. So, when can you start?"
"Uh...Right now is fine," Victor said before Tom led him over to a closet and handed him a green vest that matched Tom's. On the name tag it said "New Employee".
"OK, give me one second," Tom said as he pulled out a walkie talkie. "Tony, can you come up here?"
"On my way," came the reply.
A minute later, another man with a green vest came up. He was at least 6', had a goatee and was bald. Victor could have sworn that he saw tattoos creeping out of the man's sleeves as well.
"This is Tony. He's your manager and he's going to show you the ropes," Tom said. "Tony, call me if there's a problem, ok?"
"You got it, boss," Tony said. He turned to Victor. "Alright, rookie, here we go. I've found the best thing to do is dive right in."
"O-Ok," Victor said, slightly intimidated by the man's presence.
"When are you going to figure out you and Hades are never going to win?" Jay asked as he and Gryphon clashed their swords against the other's. "This is kind of getting embarrassing for you."
"If you didn't have that Hero Armor, it would be a different story," Gryphon growled as he pushed against Jay's sword with his own.
"Yeah, but I DO have the Hero Armor," Jay said as he gestured with his free hand to the armor. "So…tough noogies to you."
Jay kicked Gryphon in the abdomen, right under his sword, and pushed him back with the power of his kick. Gryphon extended his wings to stop the momentum before reversing his direction and swooping in at Jay again.
Jay summoned the Mirror Shield and reflected the inertia of the attack back into Gryphon's arm, causing sparks to fly from his arm as he dropped it.
"Not again!" Gryphon shouted as he picked up his sword and black mist began to appear around him. "Next time will be different!"
Jay shook his head before he looked over to his teammates.
Nate stabbed a final Spartoi in the chest as Mera did the same behind him. Diana slashed a head off with an "X"-slash before punting it away. Adrian and Valerie released a final arrow each that pierced the 2 Spartoi in the gut, causing them to fall over.
The Rangers gathered together and demorphed.
"Why the heck did Gryphon bring NORMAL Spartoi?" Valerie asked as she wiped her brow. "It doesn't really make sense."
"Unless this was an unapproved attack," Mera answered. "In other words, Hades does not know what Gryphon is doing."
"Anyone else feel like Gryphon's got his own personal vendetta against us besides what Hades tells him to do?" Jay asked.
"Us?" Nate said. "I think you mean he has a vendetta against you. Man, what the hell did you do to him in a past life?"
"Not sure," Jay said. "I thought it was from the first time we fought him and struck his wings, but it seems to run deeper than that."
"And really? 'Tough noogies'?" Nate asked. "That's the best you could come up with?"
"Hey! You try fighting a 6 foot bronze-armored mythological warrior and see what you can come up with on the fly," Jay said as he laughed. "Anyone know where Victor is? He didn't show up for the battle."
"I'm here!" Victor shouted as he ran through glowing blue doors across the street from the other teens. "I'm...here." He looked around for a minute. "Did I miss something?"
"Yeah," Nate said as he put his arm around Victor, a tricky feat with the height difference, and started walking towards the doors Victor had come from. "So there we were: 50 to 1 and…"
"Oh good grief," Jay said as he led the team towards the doors. "Christina, give us a Door back to the Temple, please."
The doors Victor had come from started to glow blue again and the Rangers stepped through.
"I can't imagine what we would do without the Doors of Janus," Jay admitted as the Rangers walked into the Temple.
"It would certainly make our jobs harder," Adrian agreed.
Nate had finally detached from Victor, and Jay walked over to the taller teen.
"Hey, where were you?" he asked. "I know it wasn't a Dark God, but we could have still needed your help."
"Sorry, new job," Victor said, gesturing to his green vest. "The hours are kind of all over the place. I hope to talk to Tony soon about fixing that."
"Yeah, I was wondering what the vest was for," Jay said. "Green isn't really your color. Just make sure you figure it out, alright? We need you on the battlefield."
"Sure," Victor said. "I'll look into what I can do."
Victor grunted as he reached to one of the higher shelves. It was at least 7 feet off the ground, making it hard for even someone as tall as Victor to reach it.
"Tony to Victor," Tony said through Victor's walkie talkie.
Victor stopped reaching for the shelf and pulled his walkie talkie out of his overall pocket.
"This is Victor," Victor said.
"I've still got a customer waiting for that special Phillips-head screwdriver and a whole line of customers trying to find items" Tony said. "Could you pick up the pace?"
"Sorry," Victor said as he grimaced, "I'm working on it."
"Tom to Victor," Tom said through Victor's walkie talkie.
"Sorry I'm running behind, boss," Victor said through his walkie talkie. "It's just piling up so quickly."
"Hey, don't stress about it," Tom said through the walkie talkie. "Just focus on one job at a time."
"You got it," Victor said.
Victor reached again and managed to reach the screwdriver on the top shelf.
"One down," he said as he started back to the customer service desk. "Who knows how many more to go…"
One by one, the line in front of Tony shrank as Victor did his best to help each customer. What was weird was that Tony never offered to help Victor search for items. Instead, he just stayed at the customer service desk and called Victor on the walkie talkie, even though there was someone else already at customer service who Victor assumed could probably handle it. Tom called Victor every once in a while to give him encouragement and advice, but it was still a slow process.
Victor was walking down the aisle when Tom passed him. Victor finally decided to say something.
"Hey, Tom," Victor said, "I feel like Tony isn't really helping me out. You've given me more help than he has."
"I'm sure he has a good reason," Tom said. "I trust Tony. He wouldn't ask you to do anything that he wouldn't do."
"I guess…" Victor said, his courage to speak about his problem fading.
"I'll tell you what. I'll speak to him about it, ok?" Tom offered.
"Sounds good," Victor said as he headed back to his current task.
A few days had passed and, in Victor's opinion, nothing had really changed. It was luckily an off day for him, and he was back at the Temple with the other Rangers.
"No attacks?" Jay asked Christina as the Rangers walked into the room.
"Nothing," Christina said. "Hades has gone quiet."
"Do not let your guard down, Rangers," Chiron warned. "Hades is probably waiting for the right opportunity to attack."
"Yeah, but with our new Hero Zords we can't lose," Nate said.
"Do not be too hasty or arrogant," Mera warned. "We underestimated the Dark Gods when we first heard about them. It would not be wise to make the same mistake twice."
Victor looked into the distance, lost in thought.
"Hey, Victor," Valerie said as she walked over, "are you ok? You seem...preoccupied."
"It's just work," Victor said. "I asked one of my bosses to speak to another one of my bosses and nothing really happened."
"Why don't you start from the beginning?" Valerie suggested.
Victor explained the situation, from his hiring to Tony's lack of action to his conversation with Tom.
"That is odd," Valerie said. "Tom sounds like a nice guy, and Tony seems like a jerk. But Tom, Tony's boss, won't speak to him about an employee's problems?"
Victor nodded. "It's odd, but it's the truth."
"Give me a little time," Valerie said. "Maybe the rest of us can think of something."
"Who's next?" Hades asked himself as he walked down the line of prison cells, "I need a Dark God who can outsmart the Rangers. Trick them somehow. Brute force isn't really working."
He walked past a few cells before looking into one. The god in it had two faces on his bald head. One face was on the front of his head like a normal person, but the other was on the back of his head.
"Janus," Hades said. "You will do nicely."
"I knew you were coming for me," Janus said from his front face. He tapped his back face's cheek.
"I was warned of your arrival," he continued from his front face, "by him."
"Hades is going to turn you into a Dark God," the back face warned. "You will fight the Olympian Rangers."
"I forgot about your future-seeing abilities," Hades said. "Tell me, what do you see in my future?"
"You will be betrayed by one of your own," the back face said. "By the one you least expected."
"I don't care about that. I actually expect someone to betray me. What I want to know is: will I beat the Olympian Rangers?" Hades demanded.
"That's not how my powers work," Janus' front face said. "Only the Oracle of Delphi can see the future in that clarity, and she is hidden."
"Did you know the Rangers would beat Hecate and gain the Hero Zords?" Hades asked.
"I did," Janus said from his front face, "but I feel no loyalty to you. I give everyone I meet one prediction, and you got yours."
Hades snapped his fingers and two armored Spartoi marched up.
"Take him to the throne room," he ordered, "I'll make him change his tune yet."
Hades led the way to the throne room, the armored Spartoi taking Janus in chains behind him.
Hades turned around and sat on his throne before looking at Persephone in her smaller one.
"Ready for another attempt at destroying the Rangers, my dear?" he asked.
Persephone gave a little smile before looking away, deep in thought.
Hades reached into the brazier of blue flame beside him and hurled the fire at Janus. The fire spread around Janus, reaching his head last. Both faces' eyes became the same shade of blue as Hades' flame.
"Tell me more about the future," Hades demanded again. "Will I beat the Olympian Rangers?"
"I...cannot tell you still," Janus said from both his faces. "I want to, but the spirits of order are preventing me from saying it. No one should know too much about their own future."
"Fine," Hades said as he sighed. "What else can you do?"
"The Rangers use my doors to transport themselves to the battlefield," Janus said from both his faces. "If I got close enough to the doors, I could force the Rangers to different ends of a different dimension."
"Excellent," Hades said, "Echidna tried to separate the Rangers before, but didn't try far enough. Across a dimension should be quite enough distance, and they won't be able to get back! We can pick them off one by one." He grinned mischievously. "And I know just how to do it. Gryphon!"
Gryphon stepped out of the shadows, his armor good as new. He kneeled before Hades.
"You called, my lord?" he asked.
"I have a plan to destroy the Rangers," Hades said, "and I'll even give you the chance to destroy the Red Ranger. This is how it'll go…"
A little while later, a portal opened near a shopping district and Janus fell out of it before it closed behind him. The passersby looked at him and noticed his two faces before screaming and running.
Janus looked up from the pavement his face had been squished into.
"The Olympian Rangers," he said from his front face to everybody screaming, "I need to speak to the Olympian Rangers!"
A door near him started to glow blue as it burst open and the seven Rangers, already morphed, stepped out.
"Hold it, Dark God!" Jay shouted. "You won't hurt anyone else!"
"Rangers, thank goodness!" Janus said from his front face as he ran up to them, with the Rangers stepping back to avoid him, "I need to talk to you!"
"Anyone notice something different about this Dark God?" Valerie asked.
"His eyes are not the same shade of blue as Hecate's were," Mera noted.
"And he doesn't have that shadowy aura that Hecate had before," Adrian added.
"Hades tried to turn me into a Dark God," Janus said from his front face, "I managed to escape. As Janus, the god of doorways, I was able to open a portal to Earth from the Underworld."
"You're Janus?" Victor asked. "As in the guy who powers our Doors?"
"The very same," Janus said from his front face as he bowed. "Please help me. Hades will send troops soon…"
On that cue, multiple armored Spartoi jumped out of a new portal. They drew their weapons and leveled them at the Rangers.
"Jay, we've got to take Janus to base. It's the only place we know of that Hades can't reach," Victor suggested.
Right, Victor," Jay said. "Ok, guys. Let's grab Janus and get back to the Door. No need to prolong this any more than we have to. Also, I don't think we need to waste the Hero Armor on this."
"I agree," Mera said. "We don't know if the armor has a limit to its use. It would be wise to conserve the power, just as a precaution."
The other Rangers nodded to both statements before they summoned their weapons.
"Hunting Daggers!"
"Sun Bow!"
"Love Bow!"
"Battle Spear!"
"Blacksmith Hammer!"
"Ocean Trident!"
"Lightning Sword!"
"Christina, open a Door in the previous coordinates," Jay ordered.
The door the Rangers had come from began to glow blue again.
The Rangers and Spartoi stared at each other for a moment, almost in a standoff, before both sides charged forward.
"Come on," Valerie said as she grabbed Janus by the arm, with Adrian grabbing the other. "We're going to take you back to our base."
"Thank you, Rangers," Janus said from his front face as he allowed the Pink and Gold Rangers to guide him towards the glowing blue Door.
Armored Spartoi got in the two Rangers' way, but there was always another Ranger to attack it and keep the armored Spartoi away from Janus.
About a minute after the Rangers had started leading him, Janus had reached the Door, followed soon after by the other Rangers, having defeated the armored Spartoi.
"Let me go first," Janus said from his front face. "I can use my powers on the other side to ensure the Spartoi can't follow."
Jay looked to Victor.
"You know the most about the Doors," he said. "Would that work?"
"I'm not sure," Victor said, "but I think it would. I think we should try it."
"Thank you, Black Ranger," Janus said before he stepped through.
The other Rangers waited a second before the Doors began to glow a darker blue. It was more of an indigo but not quite a violet.
"I think it worked," Jay said. "Let's…"
Suddenly, the Door began to act like a vacuum, sucking up the nearest Ranger, Victor, before moving onto the others.
"Something is amiss!" Mera shouted as she held a pole near the Door. "I do not believe this is supposed to happen!"
"Really?" Nate asked sarcastically as he clung to another pole. "I thought this was completely normal!"
One by one, the Rangers lost their grip, getting sucked into the Door.
The last thing Jay saw was a flash of blue as the Door sucked him up, and everything faded to black.
Christina looked at the readings on the computer and looked shocked.
"Chiron!" she shouted. "These readings can't be right, can they?"
The centaur galloped over and looked over her shoulder.
"Oh no," he said. "I'm afraid they are. Somehow, the Rangers have been scattered all over another dimension."
"How is that possible?" Christina asked. "The Doors have never malfunctioned before."
"You have me to thank for that," Janus said from his front face as he stepped out of the Doors.
"Who the heck are you?" Christina asked as she got out of the chair and looked over at Janus.
"Just the god who created those Doors," Janus said from his front face. "You can call me…"
His eyes began to glow the same blue as Hades' flame and a shadowy aura appeared around him.
"The Dark God Janus!" he finished with both faces now speaking in an overlapping way, as they would for the rest of the conversation.
"You are not welcome here, Dark God!" Chiron shouted as he pulled a bow and quiver full of arrows from the rack and aimed the bow at the Dark God. "Bring the Rangers back here and go back where you came from, and no harm may come to you."
"Now, now," Janus said as he wagged his finger. "We both know that's not true. You want to destroy my new dark side, and you aren't going to let me leave your base without doing so."
"Where did you send the Rangers?" Chiron demanded as he moved the bow from aiming at Janus' chest to his head.
"Far away," Janus said simply. "Somewhere where they can easily be picked off. If the location doesn't kill them, the Spartoi Hades sent will."
Christina stood up from the chair and revealed the morphers on her wrists.
"Well, you missed one Ranger," she said. "Green Olympian Power!"
In a flash of green-colored light, Christina was replaced by the Green Olympian Ranger. She took a defensive stance.
"I know all about you," Janus said as he summoned twin swords. "The pacifist Ranger. How are you going to stop me from acquiring the Flame of the Gods?"
"The gods tasked me to bring the Flame here," Christina said, "I'm not about to sit around and just let you take it."
I just need to hold him off long enough for the other Rangers to figure out a way back, she thought.
She summoned her scythe as Janus charged towards the Flame. Christina moved to block his way and blocked his double sword strike with the body of her scythe.
She cried out as Janus managed to push her down to the floor with his swords and her scythe and held her there.
"You're going to regret getting in my way," he said.
Christina gulped as he removed one of his swords from the body of her scythe and raised it over his head.
He was about to bring it down when an arrow struck him in the right shoulder. He cried out in pain before pulling the arrow out with his other arm. He looked through his back face to see Chiron notching another arrow.
"Step away from my student," Chiron said.
"Make me, centaur," Janus said as he got off of Christina and turned around so his front was facing Chiron.
Hurry, Rangers, Chiron thought, I don't know how long we can hold him back…
Jay opened his eyes and saw nothing but sand. Lots and lots of sand. He felt the sun beating down on him and just how hot the sand was on his prone body.
"Hot, hot, hot!" he shouted as he quickly stood up. "Where am I?"
He looked around and saw the vastness of the sand and realized…
"I'm in a desert?" he asked as he looked around for any type of landmark. "How the heck am I supposed to get back home?"
"You aren't," a voice said as a shadow swooped over Jay.
"Aw man…" Jay said as he looked up. "If it isn't my old friend."
"I am not your friend," Gryphon said as he landed in front of Jay, "but I am certainly your enemy!"
"Let's get this over with. I need to figure out a way back to the others," Jay said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Red Olympian Power!"
In a flash of red light, Jay morphed.
"Hero Armor, Power Up!" he shouted as the omega symbol on his chest grew into the Hero Armor. He then summoned his Lightning Sword.
"I will destroy you this time, Red Ranger!" Gryphon shouted as he ran up to meet Jay's sword with his own...
Nate looked around.
"Well, this is just great," he said as he shivered.
He had woken up to find himself in an arctic-like environment, a sort of snowy tundra that he, obviously, had not prepared for.
"We were supposed to be going back to the Temple," Nate commented. "Guess I made a pitstop or something in freeze-my-ass-off-ville."
He looked around again, but didn't see any structures or people around. He did, however, see some Spartoi jump out of a portal in front of him.
"Damn it," he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Time to get to work, I guess. Blue Olympian Power!"
In a flash of blue light, he had turned into the Blue Olympian Ranger and summoned his ocean trident.
"Hero Armor, Power Up!" he shouted as the omega symbol on his chest expanded into his Hero Armor.
He charged at the Spartoi as they summoned their weapons and did the same...
"We don't seem to be doing very well," Adrian commented as he and Diana ran through the jungle. He heard the armored Spartoi's feet crunching on the leaves.
The two of them had managed to stay together through the trip and had found themselves in a jungle of some kind. When they were trying to get their bearings, armored Spartoi had appeared in a much larger number than ever before. They had morphed for the better mobility it provided, but had decided not to fight.
"I'm surprised I was able to convince you to run," Adrian said as he vaulted over a log. "I thought you would have wanted to fight them."
"I'm determined, not stupid, brother," Diana said as she rolled under a particularly thick vine,.
"I know, but you've seemed extra agitated lately," Adrian said as they both continued their escape. "Want to talk about it?"
"Does now really seem like the time?" Diana asked. "Trust me, if we had the time, I would be looking at the beautiful nature instead."
"Good point," Adrian conceded. "Small problem. I think we've run out of ground."
"What do you...oh," Diana said as they both screeched to a halt.
In front of the two Rangers was a big ravine. There was water at the bottom, but it still seemed like a long fall.
The two Rangers whirled around as the armored Spartoi stepped out of the brush and closer towards the Rangers. Diana looked between the ravine and the large number of armored Spartoi, weighing her options.
"Do you trust me?" she asked her brother.
"Of course I do," Adrian replied. "Why?"
"Jump!" she shouted as she grabbed her brother's hand and led them over the edge.
It felt like a long fall, as the water got closer and closer. Then, finally they hit the water.
The armored Spartoi looked down the ravine, but elected to not follow. A portal opened behind them and they stepped through, their targets most likely dead...
"Man, I hate the dark!" Valerie moaned as she stepped forward. She had somehow gotten into a cave system during the trip, so that's where she found herself when she awoke. She had felt around for a wall, and was now using it to navigate the cave. Every once in a while, she would just barely see a bat fly past, causing her to scream.
"This is why I'm not a spelunker," she said to herself before she noticed there was some light coming from up ahead. "Finally, an exit!"
She let go of the wall and rushed forward towards the light. She reached the area, but instead of an exit, she found a hole in the ceiling of the cave. Unfortunately, the cave was 15 feet tall, meaning the hole was too high for her to reach.
"Man, I wish there was someone here with me," she said, "Jay would have a plan. Victor would have a tool to use. Mera would have the knowledge about how to get out of caves. Nate would have the plain determinedness to force himself out." This caused her to laugh at the thought of Nate yelling at the cave to let him out. "But what do I have? The heart to support them. I need to find a way to be my own person or something…"
She was about to look for a rock to use to give herself a boost before she heard footsteps near the hole.
"Hello?" she asked. "Is somebody there? Please tell me you have some rope or something."
A head poked out from above the hole, but it wasn't a friendly head. Instead, it was the head of an armored Spartoi. It seemed to send out some sort of silent call, as a group of them appeared out portals around her.
"Any chance you're willing to help a girl out?" Valerie asked as she looked at the large group around her. Noting no response, she sighed.
"I didn't think so," she said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Pink Olympian Power!"
In a flash of pink light, she was morphed and summoned her Love Bow.
"Hero Armor, Power Up!" she shouted as the omega symbol on her chest expanded into the Hero Armor.
She leveled her bow at one armored Spartoi running at her and pulled back the string. This was going to be a hard fight...
Mera opened her eyes. She was demorphed and was sprawled on the ground. She looked around to see that she had landed on a small island. The island was only a few dozen feet in diameter, meaning she could see the ocean a little ways away in all directions.
"Well," Mera said, "as Nate would say, it appears I am in the middle of nowhere."
She was going to speak more when portals appeared around the island and dumped out several armored Spartoi to surround her.
"These close quarters will be quite a hindrance in battle," Mera commented as she crossed her arms over her chest, "but no matter. Yellow Olympian Power!"
In a flash, she was morphed.
"Hero Armor, Power Up!" Mera shouted. The omega symbol on her chest expanded and formed into her Hero Armor.
"Shall we begin?" Mera asked as she summoned her Battle Spear.
The armored Spartoi obviously didn't respond and instead brandished their weapons for battle...
Victor opened his eyes and looked around. He had somehow demorphed during the trip. It appeared he was in a grassy field of some kind. There were flowers everywhere, and trees off in the distance.
"What happened?" Victor asked himself. "How could the Doors of Janus have backfired like this?"
He thought about it for a minute.
"Well, the only new thing we added to the mix was Janus. I guess he didn't escape. This must have been one of Hades' plots! And I'm the one who said we should trust Janus!" he said before punching the ground. "How could I have been so stupid?"
"Being trusting isn't stupid," a female voice said.
Victor turned his head to look and saw a woman in a tree-like dress. Her hair was orange, like the leaves in autumn, and she was barefoot.
"Who are you?" Victor asked as he stood up, "and what do you mean?"
"I am a dryad, a tree nymph," the woman said. "You can call me Oakley. And what I meant was that while you shouldn't trust everyone, you should be open to trusting others. Even when you make mistakes, you just learn from them."
"So I should trust people, but at the same time be careful?" Victor asked, trying to understand.
"Exactly," Oakley said with a smile. "Now, how did you come to our land?"
"I got sucked up by a sort of portal," Victor said. "It must have scattered my friends and I through this place, wherever we are."
"We are in the dimension of the nature spirits," Oakley said. "it is parallel to your own. Every tree, plant and river has a spirit, and this is the plane of existence we reside in. We can often see into your dimension through our respective trees, plants and rivers on your side."
"Another dimension?" Victor said. "I had heard of the theory before, but I never imagined it to be possible."
"You seem more at ease than usual," Oakley said. "Normally, you would be quiet around a stranger. Any particular reason?"
"You just feel...familiar," Victor said. "The more I know someone, the more comfortable I am with them. I feel like I've known you for a while."
"And I know you, Victor," Oakley said, "but there will be time to explain that later. Right now, we must search for your friends. From what I have heard from my brothers and sisters on the other ends of the dimension, they are not doing well. Luckily, we have a way to quickly reach them"
"Right," Victor nodded as he followed Oakley towards the forest, "and that would be…?"
"Nature magic," Oakley said over her shoulder. "Our lord Pan is the best of us at it, but the rest of us can still pull off a simple transportation spell. Well, some of us, anyway. Needles should be able to help us."
Oakley reached a large pine tree and knocked on its trunk.
"Needles, you there?" she asked.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," a male voice said from the tree trunk. A head popped out of the tree. He had a green beard that looked like pine needles on his face, and green hair that looked like pine needles pointing straight up in the air.
"What do you want?" he asked grumpily.
"I need your help," Oakley said. "The Olympian Rangers from the parallel dimension have come to our world, I need you to use some of your nature magic to gather them and send them home."
"What do I look like, a bloody satyr?" Needles asked. "I can't send them across dimensions! Only Pan could do that, and he was at Olympus when it fell. I can't help you."
He was about to stick his head back in the trunk when Victor stepped forward.
"Please, sir," he said. "I just want to help my friends."
Needles looked at him for a moment before caving.
"Fine! I'll do it," he said. "The best I can do is send you to the vicinity of the other Rangers one at a time. You'll have to find them yourself. And like I said, I can't cross dimensions, so I can't send you home. You'll have to figure that out."
"Thank you, Needles," Oakley said. She turned to Victor. "Are you ready?"
Victor steeled his resolve and stepped forward. "I guess so."
"Alright," Needles said as he stepped out of the trunk completely. He was wearing a brown tunic with pine needles everywhere.
"First one's in the Icy Tundra area," Needle explained. "I can send you close to him. When you find him, just call for me. The other nature spirits should be able to send your call all the way back to me."
"Let's do this," Victor said with a nod as Needles raised his arms over his head.
Pine needles around the tree Needles came from began to swirl around Victor, creating a tornado of some kind. When the wind died down, Victor was gone.
Nate cried out as he was pushed back by the barrage of armored Spartoi attacks, sparks flying from his suit.
"Man, twenty against one seemed like such good odds for me," Nate said as he clutched at his side. "Guess I can be wrong every once in a while."
The armored Spartoi with spears hurled them at Nate, who rolled out of the way to dodge before the spears reappeared in the armored Spartois' hands.
Nate pointed his trident at them and fired a water blast. It was so cold, however, that the water froze in mid air and fell to the ground before shattering.
"Oh yeah, it's like negative 100 out here," Nate said. "But, if I remember correctly, snow is just frozen water, so…"
He raised his trident and created a small few yards high and wide wall of snow and ice before pointing his trident at the armored Spartoi and launching the wall forward. The wall collided with a few of them, causing them to fall down and disintegrate, but the rest dodged.
"Oh shit," Nate said as they charged at him.
Victor cried out as he came flying over Nate before landing and slamming his hammer into the ground, creating a large fissure that ate up all of the armored Spartoi in one fell swoop. He turned around to look at Nate.
"C'mon," Victor said. "We need to save the others."
"Uh, ok…" Nate said. "Not used to you being so...sure of yourself."
"I'm working on it," Victor said, "Needles! I found him! Take us back to you!"
"Who the hell is Needles?" Nate asked as pine needles appeared on the snowy ground and began to swirl around them. "What the hell is going on?"
"I'll explain later," Victor said. "I've got more Rangers to save."
Mera swung her spear in a circle around her, forcing some armored Spartoi back and knocking others into the water where they quickly disintegrated leaving only metal armor plates in the water to show they had existed. Mera cried out as a line of spear-wielding armored Spartoi jabbed into her exposed limbs and helmet, causing sparks to fly. Another armored Spartoi with a sword sliced at her helmet, causing her head to be pushed back and her body to follow. Mera fell into the shallow shore and looked up at the armored Spartoi lining up in front of her.
"I may be in over my head," Mera said. "Any chance of a surrender, perhaps?"
The armored Spartoi looked at each other for a second before looking back at Mera and moving closer.
A whirlwind of pine needles appeared in a spot close to Mera. Victor stepped out, morphed and hammer on his shoulder. He smashed a bunch of armored Spartoi aside before reaching his hand out to the prone Mera.
"I've come to rescue you," Victor said.
"A valiant effort indeed," Mera said as she took the hand and pulled herself up. " "How did you get here? And most importantly, how can we leave?"
"The friends I made here," Victor said. "They've been taking me around this dimension so I can gather everyone."
"You seem very confident right now," Mera noticed.
"Yeah, I guess I am," Victor said. "It's not a bad change, right?"
"No, certainly not," Mera. "I never said that."
They both looked down to notice they were still holding hands. They quickly broke apart.
"Let's go," Victor said, a little flustered, "Needles!"
"What in the world is a 'Needles'?" Mera asked.
Pine needles appeared around them and began to swirl around them in a tornado. In the blink of an eye, they were gone, with only needles to show their presence.
Diana slowly opened her eyes. The last she remembered, she and Adrian had jumped off a cliff into a river. However, she seemed to be on dry land now. She sat up and looked around. Adrian was beside her on a moss bed identical to her's. They were both demorphed and in a cave of some kind. Diana quickly got up and got into a fighting stance as a female figure wearing a green mosslike dress stepped into the cave.
"Where are we? Who are you?" Diana demanded.
"Calm yourself, human," the female said, "you are safe here in my cave. You can call me Moss. I am the spirit of the moss you rested on."
"What? A spirit?" Diana asked, "what the hell are you talking about?"
Moss explained the same way Oakly had to Victor, telling her about how this world and the Rangers' world were separate, but at the same time connected.
Adrian had woken up by this time and had heard Moss's story.
"Mera must be having a fit right now," Adrian said, "this seems more magical and spiritual than she would like. Now, Moss, how did you save us?"
"I didn't," Moss said. "My fellow spirits, the Nereids of the river you leapt into, rescued you by grabbing you from the rough waters and bringing you to me."
"Well, it's been great and all, but we need to find a way out of this dimension," Diana said. "Thanks, I guess."
"Hold on," Adrian said, "are you sure we should leave? There were a lot of armored Spartoi out there. Isn't it safer to stay here?"
"I would rather depend on myself than hide in this cave," Diana answered. "C'mon."
A whirlwind of pine needles appeared in the cave and Victor stepped out, unmorphed.
"Just like Needles said," Victor said. "Easy pick up."
"Well," Adrian said as he blinked in surprise. "That's different."
"Yeah, one of the nature spirits that live in this realm is teleporting me to find you guys," Victor said. "We should probably get back so we can figure out how to get home."
"Do we have to?" Diana said, "if they're nature spirits, then maybe I can talk to them about how to protect them best on our side."
"I'm sure you can talk to Oakly about it," Victor said. "Let's get back."
"Bye!" Adrian said as the three teens stood next to each other and were surrounded by a tornado of pine needles. In a flash, they were gone, with only pine needles left behind to show they had been there.
"I asked for help, not for you to attack me!" Valerie shouted as she ducked under a spear stab before bending backwards and kicking it with her legs, flipping over with the momentum. She aimed her bow and rapidly pulled back the string, sending a barrage of arrows into the armored Spartoi's exposed heads.
"I was hoping for a more stimulating conversation with you boneheads," Valerie said as she backflipped over a Spartoi before kicking it in the back of the leg, sending it to the ground. "Guess not."
More Spartoi, these ones with bows, appeared out of another portal to replace the ones Valerie had defeated.
"There's more of them?" she asked, "wait, stupid question. Of course there's more."
The Spartoi looked startled as a whirlwind of pine needles appeared next to her. Victor leaned his head out of it.
"There's too many to fight!" he said. "This is more of an extraction than a rescue. Get in the pine needles!"
Valerie nodded and rolled out of the way of a barrage of arrows and into the whirlwind. The Spartoi ran towards it but it quickly dissipated, leaving no trace it had ever been there but a few pine needles clinging to the stone floor.
"There are now six of us," Mera said, "and we all know who is last."
"Our fearless leader," Nate said, "Jay. Any reason why he's last besides to advance the plot?"
The others just ignored the second half of what he said and continued their conversation.
"I heard from my cactus spirit friends that your friend is facing a bronze-armored warrior," Oakley said. "Does that mean anything to you?"
"Gryphon," Diana growled.
"That guy's been a thorn in our side for months," Adrian explained. "He works for Hades, but seems to have his own agenda."
"That sounds like your problem, then," Needles said grumpily. "Can I just send you to help him so I can send you back here and I can go home?"
"Better send all of us," Victor said, "Jay's going to need all the help he can get."
"Whatever you say, kid," Needles said. "Everyone gather together. A smaller area means less magic is needed, yadda yadda law of exact exchange blah blah blah."
"Interesting," Mera said, "magic still follows the law of conservation of mass?"
"Yeah, sounds great," Nate interrupted before Needles could answer, "but I thought we were trying to save our Red Ranger."
"Sorry!" Mera said as she joined the gathering of teens. "Perhaps we can speak of it later?"
"Maybe, kid," Needles said as he prepared his magic again.
"Best of luck, Rangers," Oakley said as the pine needles began to swirl around them. As the wind picked up speed, the Rangers morphed before it became a full tornado. In a flash, they were gone, leaving Oakley and Needles to wait for their eventual return.
Jay grunted as he was kicked in the arm, causing him to drop his sword. He summoned the Mirror Shield as Gryphon prepared to strike, but Gryphon swerved out of the way of the shield and struck Jay on his other arm, causing sparks to fly.
"Unlike you, I actually learn new tricks," Gryphon sneered. "You just get magic weapons and power-ups from immortals like lottery tickets while I have to train long and hard to best you."
"Oh, cry me a river," Jay retorted. "No, really. I'm dying of thirst here."
"Joke all you want," Gryphon said as he leveled his sword on Jay's throat. "You won't be laughing soon enough."
"Hey, ugly!" a male voice shouted. "Do the cliches come naturally or do you invent them yourself?"
Gryphon whirled around to look at the six other main Rangers facing him. The four who could were wearing their Hero Armor, and all had their weapons drawn.
Gryphon grabbed Jay by the back of his neck and pushed his helmet into the sand. He leveled his sword over the back of Jay's neck.
"You're next, Rangers," Gryphon said. "Once I get my revenge on Jay!"
"Wait, you know our names?" Valerie asked as she lowered her bow for a second before raising it again. "You've always called us by our color names."
"I thought I would play along with your 'secret identities'," Gryphon explained. "Can't have you, or at least Jay, destroyed by others, when it should be my pleasure to destroy him and get my revenge! Now back to the matter at hand. Or head, I should say!"
He raised his arm in preparation to slice off Jay's head with his sword, but Valerie, Diana and Adrian launched arrows at the same time that hit Gryphon in the wrist, the hand and the sword. This caused him to drop the sword and for the sword to fall into the sand. Gryphon reached for his sword, holding Jay's helmet down with his other hand, but Victor, Mera and Victor all leapt at him. They pushed him away from Jay with the bodies of their weapons before hitting him with a Critical Strike from Mera and a fiery and watery strike from Victor and Nate respectively.
Valerie rushed over to Jay and pulled him up.
"What took you guys so long?" Jay asked. "I was running out of jokes to tell Gryphon. In all seriousness, how the heck did we get here and how do we leave?"
"This is another dimension that the spirits of nature live in," Valerie explained as she dusted the sand off Jay's suit. "We got sent here because Janus did...something to the Doors. We're not sure what. And we don't know how to get home. The spirit who transported us here said he can't take us home."
Jay looked over at the slowly rising Gryphon.
"Can we at least leave the desert? We also need to make sure Gryphon can't follow us," Jay said.
"Ask Victor," Nate said as the Rangers regrouped. "He's the one who saved us all."
"Victor?" Jay asked before patting Victor on the shoulder. "Good job, big guy. Now, can you get us out of here?"
"Needles!" Victor shouted to the sky.
Pine needles appeared around the Rangers and soon a tornado of them had formed. The Rangers watched on as Gryphon got up and lunged at them.
"You can't escape me!" he shouted as he reached out with both arms to grab Jay before the tornado threw him away. Gryphon looked on as the tornado died down and the Rangers were gone.
"Not again!" Gryphon shouted. "Hades will not be pleased…"
He vanished into his signature black smoke that appeared around him.
Oakley and Needles looked on as the tornado reappeared and the Rangers stepped out. They took off their helmets as they walked towards the two.
"That's why you shouted 'Needles'," Jay said as he looked at the grumpy tree spirit. "He literally has needles for hair. I take it he's one of those nature spirits?"
"Don't act like I'm not here!" Needles shouted, "I'm not some sort of sideshow. Ok, kid?"
"Victor," Oakley said as she walked a bit of distance from the others and gestured for Victor to follow. "I need to talk to you before you find your way back to your world."
"Sure, what do you need?" Victor asked.
"I said I would explain why I was familiar to you, and now is the time," Oakley said. "Do you remember the oak tree in the park you used to visit?"
"Yeah," Victor said. "Of course I do. It started before my mother left, almost 13 years ago..."
Flashback
A younger Victor and his father were running around an oak tree in Olympia Hills park. Victor's mother, who has the same black hair as younger Victor and his father, was sitting on a red plaid picnic blanket.
"Boys, the sandwiches are getting cold," she said as she looked over at younger Victor and his father.
"Who wants a warm sandwich?" younger Victor asked.
"Come on, buddy," Victor's father said as he led the younger Victor to the picnic blanket. "Some of us like our meatball subs hot."
The scene changed to reveal after the picnic.
"I have something for us to do," Victor's father said.
"What is it, Daddy?" younger Victor said.
Victor's father pulled out a swiss army knife and walked over to the oak tree. He began to carve into it. First an "S" then a "T" then…"
"St..St..." younger Victor said, trying to read what his father carved.
"It says "Steel Family Forever"," Victor's father said as he put away the swiss army knife and pulled his wife and child in for a group hug. "Because we will be a family forever."
End Flashback
"How do you know about that?" Victor asked.
"I know because I am that oak tree," Oakley said as she waved her hand over her dress and revealed the "Steel Family Forever" written in black on it.
"Oh," Victor said. "Why are you bringing this up, though?"
"Because I heard what happened to your parents and I saw how much your mother loved you," Oakley said. "You should find her."
"Where is she?" Victor asked. "Do you know?"
Oakley frowned. "Unfortunately not. I've asked my fellow nature to find her, but they don't necessarily know how to orient themselves in your world."
Victor's face fell.
"Oh," he said.
"Don't worry, Victor," Oakley said, "I'm sure that you can find her. But there's something else. Tom isn't who you think he is."
"What?" Victor asked.
"He works for your father," Oakley said. "I saw them meet recently near my tree. Your father offered a bribe to make things…difficult for you."
"Why?" Victor asked. "Why does he hate me so much for taking control of my own life?" He was about to start crying when he heard Jay's voice.
"Victor!" Jay shouted. "Come quick!"
"What's going on?" Victor asked as he rubbed his eyes before walking with Oakley back to the group...
Christina was sent flying back into the mosaic computer, knocking over the chair and denting the keyboard.
"Victor's going to have to fix that," Christina said to herself as she stood up and leveled her scythe at the approaching Janus.
She and Chiron had been fighting a losing battle. While they had managed to distract Janus from finding the Flame, they were struggling to land a deciding blow. Meanwhile, Janus was quickly hurting them. Christina could still feel a tenderness in her ribs. The Dark Gods fought a lot more viciously than Hades' monsters ever did.
Christina blocked a strike from one of Janus' swords with the body of her scythe before kicking him in the chest.
"I normally don't condone violence, but you've given me no choice," Christina said as she whirled her scythe around herself. "Surrender now, while we give you a chance."
"Green Ranger," Janus laughed. "You are the only Ranger I am fighting. Why would I surrender when my odds are so good?"
Christina gritted her teeth under her helmet. That plan of getting him to surrender went up in smoke, just like every other thing she and Chiron had tried.
We have one chance left… Christina thought as she flipped over Janus and landed by the brazier the Rangers' Flame of the Gods was in. Here goes, well, everything.
She stuck her glove inside and concentrated. A golden glow appeared around her hand.
"What are you doing?" Janus asked as he leapt at her. Chiron moved into his way and kicked him with one of his horse legs.
"Bringing the Rangers back here!" Christina shouted as the glow expanded to encapsulate her entire body. A ray of golden light flew from her body and landed in front of Janus. A golden portal appeared where the light had struck.
"What's going on?" Victor asked as he and Oakley rejoined the group. In the middle of the group was a golden portal.
"I think our ticket home just arrived," Jay said. "Who wants to try it first?"
"Noseys!" Nate shouted as he put his finger on his nose.
Mera rolled her eyes and moved behind him before pushing him through. Nate cried out as he fell into the portal.
They waited a moment for Nate to confirm it was safe, but he never came back.
"Not sure what's happening on the other side, but we should just assume it's safe to go through," Jay said. "Let's go."
The other Rangers waved and said their goodbyes as they stepped into the portal.
"Have a safe trip, and best of luck against Hades!" Oakley said as she waved.
"Don't come back!" Needles said as he turned towards his tree and stepped back through it into the inside of the tree. "Good riddance. Humans in the spirit world! So much for my quiet day."
"Oh, you enjoyed that," Oakley said as she gave a knowing smile and walked back to her oak tree before stepping into it.
Nate fell onto the ground, his helmet falling in front of him. He reached out to grab it and looked up to see Janus looming over him.
"I was hoping to run into you again," Nate said.
He reattached his helmet as he stood up in front of Janus. One by one, the other Rangers stepped from the portal and joined the line in between Janus and the Flame.
"You put me in negative 100-degree weather!" Nate shouted as he summoned his trident and tried to stab it into Janus' midsection. Janus managed to avoid the strike by stepping to the side, causing Nate to stumble.
"I don't know how you made it back," Janus said from both faces, with his voices overlapping, "but you won't be here long enough to stop me!"
"Christina?" Adrian asked as he looked at her next to the brazier. "What did you do to bring us here?"
"I managed to harness the Flame's power," she said as she ran up to join the Ranger line. "I don't know how, but I did. Now, I normally don't fight, but please give me the honor of helping to defeat him. He kind of kicked me around the Temple a lot, and I am PISSED."
"You got it," Jay said as he gave a thumbs up. "Glad to have you on board."
"Let's do the 8 Ranger Omega Strike," Victor suggested. "Ot hurt Hecate last time."
"That logically makes sense," Mera agreed.
"8 Ranger Omega Strike!" Jay announced.
Nate's Ocean Trident bent 90 degrees as the "teeth" spread out and bent to form a handle. Victor's Blacksmith Hammer landed on the ground handle side up as Valerie's Love Bow clicked onto the former trident, which then clicked onto the hammer handle. Mera's Battle Spear was bent around the bowstring to make it thicker. Adrian's Sun Staff helped the hammer hold up the crossbow, and Diana's Hunting Daggers went on either side of Jay's Lightning Sword as both were loaded into the crossbow.
The Rangers lined up diagonally on either side of Jay. Nate and Victor put their hands on Jay's shoulders, then Mera and Valerie put their hands on their's respectivly. Then Diana put her hand on Mera's shoulder and Adrian put his on Valerie's. Christina put her hand on Adrian's shoulder.
The Sword and Daggers began to glow with a golden energy created by combining all of the Rangers' power as Jay prepared to pull the trigger
"Fire!" he shouted as he pulled the trigger. The Lightning Sword and Hunting Daggers flew at Janus. When they hit, the daggers moved to carve the omega symbol into him.
Janus cried out as he split into two. One Janus with a shadowy aura fell to the ground, while the other without the aura appeared a few feet away. The one surrounded by the aura opened his eyes to reveal his eyes burning even brighter blue. He got up and opened a portal in front of himself. He stepped through it and the portal closed behind him.
The Ranger looked at the mosaic computer as an alarm went off. The stones on the screen twisted and turned to reveal the Dark God Janus had now become giant-sized and was attacking the city.
"Let's go!" Nate shouted as he ran to the Doors of Janus.
"Wait," Jay said, grabbing Nate's arm. "Can we trust the Doors to take us where we want to go?"
"Especially with that unique and different color than usual," Mera added, pointing out that the glow around the Doors was still the indigo from earlier.
"Maybe the real Janus can help us," Valerie said as she and Adrian went over to help the normal Janus stand up.
"Rangers!" Janus' front face said. "Thank you for saving me! I was trapped inside that dark imitation of my power."
"Hecate said the same thing," Mera said. "I am unsure how the Dark God creates a duplicate body. I may need to look into it."
"Hey, Janus," Nate said, "we've got a giant evil version of you attacking the city. Any chance you can fix the Doors?"
"Of course," Janus said from both faces as he turned to the Doors and waved his right hand from right to left, then his left hand from left to right before pushing forward with both hands. The Doors returned to their normal blue color and flew open.
"All good, Rangers," Janus' front face said with a salute. "That should take you back to downtown Olympia Hills."
"Let's go!" Jay ordered as he ran through the Doors, Nate and Diana on his heels and then the other Rangers, including Christina.
They found themselves on the other side of a restaurant's doors. The glowing blue around the doors vanished as the Rangers ran forward.
"Hero Zords!" the five main Rangers called out. Their omega symbols glowed as an orb in their Ranger color flew out of it. The orbs flew into the air and formed into humanoid figures.
"Chiron, send the Raven and Deer Zords!" Adrian ordered into his morpher.
"Also send the Serpent Zord!" Christina added.
"Serpent Zord?" Diana asked. "Do we even have a Serpent Zord?"
"We do since Chiron and I rebuilt it," Christina explained. "I wasn't sure I wanted to go into battle, but if I did, I would need a Zord. Luckily, Demeter had a Zord as the first Green Olympian Ranger, and we managed to rebuild it for me."
The Deer Zord pranced over some cars and the Raven Zord swooped in from the sky. The green Serpent Zord appeared from a burrow underground and slithered out of a hole in front of the Dark God Janus.
The Rangers all leapt into their Zords. Christina's cockpit was like all of the other Olympian Zords, with the scythe design of her visor in green behind her in the cockpit.
"Hero Zords, combine!" Jay ordered.
The Aphrodite Hero Zord's arms folded into its body as its legs pivoted to the front before combining to form a foot. Its head also flipped into the body, leaving a connection point. The Athena Hero Zord did the same transformation, creating a second leg.
The Poseidon Hero Zord's arms also folded into its body as the head flipped into the body, but leaving no connection point. The legs rotated 180 degrees before folding onto the back of the Zord. A connection point on the back of the Zord flipped out. A fist slid down and out of the Zord's body. The Hephaestus Zord made the same transformation but facing the other way, creating a second arm.
The Zeus Hero Zord's legs folded before sliding into the body and being covered by a plate with two holes for the legs. It's arms folded into the body and revealed a hole on each side for the arms. The head flipped around to reveal a larger head that still had the same style helmet, but in gold with a red plume on top.
The Aphrodite Hero Zord and the Athena Hero Zord connected into place as the left and right leg respectively as the Poseidon Hero Zord and Hephaestus Hero Zord connected as the left and right arms respectively, with the Zeus Hero Zord bearing the points they connected to.
A golden gladius and a round gold shield appeared in the Megazord's hands. Magically misty versions appeared in the Ranger's hands as they joined together in a single cockpit to show them how they were using the weapons.
"Zords, combine!" Adrian and Diana shouted together as the Zords moved into proper formation: the Raven flying directly over the Deer.
The Deer stood up on its hind legs, which unfolded to become thicker. It's front legs turned 90 degrees to look like human arms on the shoulder joint. The arms also expanded to become larger. The body of the Deer opened up, with the head becoming part of the chestplate. The Raven swooped in, with the wings detaching to create a bow, and filled in the giant hole in the zord, creating the shoulders and head. The Raven head slid up to reveal a robot face inside and create a hood.
"Gemini Megazord: Gold Mode!" the two shouted as the Megazord grabbed the golden bow from its back made out of the Raven's wings.
The Hero Megazord stomped forward and slashed out with its sword in a vertical slice.
Dark God Janus summoned twin blades and blocked the attack with the left sword before making a swipe with the right.
The Hero Megazord raised its golden shield and blocked the attack.
"We seem to be at a stalemate," Mera commented.
"Good thing you have us then," Adrian said as the Gemini Megazord: Gold Mode leapt into the air and fired a golden arrow at Dark God Janus, who raised his sword and sliced it vertically in two. Both halves flew into abandoned buildings, which exploded from the attack.
"Let me try something," Christina said as she manipulated her controls. The Serpent Zord coiled around Dark God Janus, wrapping him up and forcing his arms to his sides.
"Now let's hit him!" Nate said as the Hero Megazord's weapon changed to a golden trident. "Hero Trident!"
The Megazord stabbed Dark God Janus in the face with the trident's teeth, causing him to cry out in pain. He grunted as he flexed his muscles and forced the Serpent Zord off of him. The Serpent Zord slithered over closer to the Gemini Megazord: Gold Mode.
"You think we can combine?" Adrian asked.
"It should work," Christina said. "It worked in simulations, at least. Chiron and I never tried it in reality."
"No time like the present!" Nate shouted as the Megazord held both of Janus' swords back with its shield.
"Serpent Zord, combine!" Adrian, Diana and Christina shouted together.
The Deer arms came off of the Gemini Megazord: Gold Mode and the Serpent Zord split in half horizontally. The halves of the Zord attached where the arms had previously been, forming new arms. The tail half was the left arm and the head half was the right arm.
"Gemini Megazord: Gold Mode with Serpent Power!" Adrian, Diana and Christina announced together.
"You think some fancy new combination is going to beat me?" Dark God Janus asked as he laughed from both faces.
"Yeah, we do," Diana said matter-of-factly as the Gemini Megazord: Gold Mode with Serpent Power stomped forward and punched Janus with the left arm/the tail and then the right/head arm. The Serpent Zord head snapped at the Dark God, sinking its fangs in.
"Let...go!" Dark God Janus said as he struggled to get the Serpent head-arm off of his torso.
"Attack him now!" Adrian shouted through the Ranger's cockpit communications system.
"You heard the man," Jay said. "Let's use Victor's hammer."
The golden trident dissolved and was replaced with a large golden two-handed hammer. The mist version in the Ranger's cockpit did the same thing.
"This is for tricking me!" Victor said as the Rangers began to wind up.
"And for sticking me in the snow!" Nate added.
"Hero Hammer Strike!" the five Rangers announced.
The Rangers finished winding up their attack and smashed their hammer onto Janus with a vertical strike, pounding him into the ground. Dark God Janus struggled to work his way out of the hole he was now stuck in, his arms trapped at his sides once again.
"Serpent Zord Nature Beam!" Adrian, Diana and Christina announced as they charged up energy before the Serpent head-arm opened its mouth and a green beam came out. It struck Dark God Janus in the chest and caused him to explode.
The two Megazords posed in front of the explosion.
"Alright," Jay said. "Let's head back to base and see how not-Dark God Janus is doing."
"I foresaw that Hades would use me, but I didn't know how," Janus said. Only his front face was talking now, just as it had been when he had talked to Hades.
The Rangers had returned to the Temple and Victor and Mera were working on fixing the mosaic computer keyboard and everything else that had been damaged in the attack. The others were listening to Janus' story.
"Even if you did," Jay said. "There wasn't much you could really do. From what we understand, it's like a cell block in the Underworld right now."
"So you say you can see the future?" Nate asked excitedly. "Can you tell me what happens in my future?"
"It doesn't work like that," Janus said, "I get flashes of the future. Snapshots. And I can't do it on command."
"Well, no wonder Hades threw you in front of us…" Nate said as he went off to the corner, sulking.
"What I can tell you is that those Hero Test visions you saw were important. Mera should know what I'm talking about, and Victor, to a degree," Janus explained.
The two looked up from their efforts and nodded in agreement.
"He is correct," Mera said. "My vision helped me defeat Hecate."
"I'm not really sure how mine connects yet…" Victor said, "but it has something to do with my family."
"Speaking of which," Chiron said as the two teens backed away from the mosaic computer and Christina sat down. She tapped a few runes on the keyboard and pulled up a formal looking document.
"I overheard your conversation with Valerie and looked into this 'Tom''s background. It appears that he has some funds that have appeared from nowhere. He also used to be an employee of…"
"My father," Victor said, "so Oakley was right. Tom isn't being a good boss. He's just working for my father."
Christina got up and allowed Victor to sit down at the chair, heading over to the Flame instead. Adrian noticed and headed over.
"Hey," he said. "Thanks for saving us and all. You still don't know how you tapped into the Flame's power?"
"Trust me," Christina said as she looked into the golden Flame. "If I did, I would be sharing it with everyone as quickly as possible. It would be a useful skill for all of us to have. I just stuck my hand in and wished for you guys to come back"
She did just that and recoiled from the heat.
"But I try now and the Flame just acts like any normal fire. It burns me if I try."
"Hey, we'll figure it out, right?" Adrian said as he smiled.
Christina looked at him and smiled as well.
"Well," Valerie said. "We've had Hecate start rebuilding Olympus, and I'm sure she could use help."
"I should go there, then," Janus said as he headed towards the Doors, "I checked the Doors, improved their security and upgraded them. They should now allow for trans-dimensional travel. Just in case this ever happens again." He gave a wink to the Rangers. "Well, I guess I'm done here. Just call me if you need some help. In fact, call any of us if you need help. You never know who might answer."
He snapped his fingers and the Doors opened for him. He looked back and waved to the Rangers as he stepped through. The Doors slammed shut behind him.
"So, Victor," Jay said. "What are you going to do with this information Chiron gave you?"
"I need to confront Tom and tell him what I know," Victor said as he copied the file on the mosaic computer to a modern USB, "I'm sure there's a simple explanation for all of this."
"If you say so…" Valerie said.
"If not, just call us," Nate said as he grinned.
"We'll beat his ass for you," Diana agreed as she cracked her knuckles and grinned just like Nate.
"I do not believe that will be necessary," Mera said as she walked over to Victor. "A good talk should solve this problem."
"Good luck," Jay said as Victor walked up to the Doors as they opened for him.
Victor stepped through.
"You what?" Tom said as he slammed his hands down on the desk in front of him.
"I have a file here that proves you are being bribed by my father," Victor said as he held up the USB. "Just like him being bribed by others. It seems like a vicious cycle to me."
"Where's this confidence coming from?" Tom asked. "When I saw you working you were quiet as a mouse."
"Well, this mouse has some teeth," Victor retorted, "and I'm not afraid to use them. I found my inner confidence again. Sometimes I've got to speak my mind, and this is one of them. Now, I can take this information to the police and show you're discriminating against me or I can keep this between us. That is, if you do some things for me."
"What do you want?" Tom asked. "Money?"
"No," Victor said. "I want you to give me a fair chance. And one more thing. I want you to send a message to my father."
Victor leaned forward in his chair.
"I'm coming for him next," he finished before standing up. "The choice is yours. You thought I was dumb because of my size, but you shouldn't judge first appearances. You of all people should know that."
Tom growled and stood up from his chair too.
"Listen, you little twerp. If you want to keep your job, you will tell nobody about this. I own your ass. It doesn't matter who I accept bribes from, especially your father. I can do what I want because this is my store."
Victor turned around and walked away.
"You hear me?" Tom shouted as Victor left.
"They're all the same in the end," he said to himself. "Both Tom and my father. They use the same lines and assume the same things."
He pulled a tape recorder from his overalls as well as the USB.
"Glad Valerie gave me this to borrow," he continued as he walked away from the office and out of the store. "Better take these to the police right away."
It was a few days later when the changes started to occur.
"Move it to the right," Tony said as he gestured to scootch the sign to the right, "ok, maybe I meant left."
Tony looked over and saw Victor.
"There's the little whistleblower," he said. "You coming in for work?"
"Yeah, just let me punch in," Victor said.
"Hey, I'm glad you talked to Tom and got his confession, but next time, come to me first, k?"
"I just assumed that…" Victor started.
"That I wouldn't understand? Trust me, kid. This ain't my first rodeo," Tony said. "Now get in there and help those customers out, will ya?"
"Sure thing, Tony," Victor said as he walked into the store.
Tony turned his attention back to the sign and gave an OK sign.
"Perfect!" he said. "You guys can come down now."
"You got it, boss," one of the burly men said as he climbed down the ladder and his partner did the same.
The three men looked at the sign.
"Tony's Tools," Tony said. "Has a nice ring to it."
The three men walked into the building, ready to help out all of the customers and their tool needs.
Please review! As stated above, I may not respond to them, but I do read them. Until next time, may the power protect you.
