Wow, Chapter 28. Feels like I had just put out the first chapter only…about 2 years ago?! How the time flies! In all honesty, I only planned 32 chapters originally, but the story kind of ballooned over time as I got more ideas. Now we're up to 40 planned chapters! This is one chapter I've had planned for a while, and has been in every episode list I've created.
I apologize for being a little late with this chapter. I was working on the Wiki a lot during the times I usually work on Fanfiction related stuff. Anyway, here it is, a little late. But because of its length, I think you can see how much work went into this chapter in the end.
This Chapter marks 200,000 words! Basically, because of the Dark God stories being so complex, we reached another 100,000 words within less than half the time it took to reach it the first time. Here's hoping for about 350,000+ by the story's end!
If the title didn't give it away, this is an adaption of an X-Men comic storyline also called Second Genesis. It was shown in Giant SIzed X-Men #1 and featured a new team of X-Men saving the old team from a threat (it's the one that introduced Storm and Nightcrawler and added Wolverine to the X-Men as well as introduced other "Classic" X-Men characters). This will be following a similar trajectory, but featuring the Power Rangers instead. This idea came to me after I realized I still had Rangers to introduce, and it made sense to introduce them all at once instead of spreading them out. I guess I'll find out if it worked soon enough based on reviews…I even have an idea for them if they gain enough support...
Speaking of reviews, I want to thank JTWAS1994, GoldenMewtwo and DaughterOfSBWG for reviewing the last chapter and Animus1 for following and favoriting the story.
I notice GoldenMewtwo and DaughterofSBWG are starting to put pieces together. I won't say if they're right or not, but it's certainly interesting what's been revealed so far about the villains…
I apologize for Chapter 14 being in Chapter 11's spot for a few weeks. I honestly just didn't notice. Oh well, things happen.
I tried to do research for this story about different parts of the world, but I'm not perfect. I hope there aren't any mistakes, but it is quite likely there are. If you know about the areas I chose better than I do, put the information into a review or PM and I can adjust. I tried using a time zone converter, but I'm not perfect. So if there is a cultural mistake or the times don't line up, just let me know.
Man, these author notes are getting long… Anyway, that's all from me! Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Myth 28: Second Genesis
Mikhail Urusov sighed as he used the tractor to plow the field, preparing for the end of winter. He had been told that even a few decades ago, his family would have been doing this by hand. That he was lucky that he had to do less work to do the same job. Still, he found it rather boring, as he had been doing it for several years at this point, ever since he was tall enough to see over the wheel. His brown hair was hidden under a farmer's hat. He wore it because it was his grandfather's and his father had told him to, not because he felt any connection to his farmer life.
Mikhail saw his father waving frantically on the side of the field, and turned off the tractor before running over.
"What is the matter, Papa?" he said in his native Russian tongue as he pulled off the hat.
"It is your sister, Agnessa" his father said, replying in the same language. "She has disappeared."
"What?" Mihail asked, "are you sure? Where was she last seen?"
"Your mother saw her entering the woods," Mikhail's father said. "She didn't think anything of it, but it's been three hours and we haven't seen her since."
"I'll go and I'll take an ax with me," Mikhail said as he grabbed an ax from the barn wall, "I'll need it if I find anything dangerous."
"It is winter," Mikhail's father said. "The bears are hibernating and many birds have migrated. What could be dangerous out there? She is probably just lost and scared, and that might scare her more."
"Call it a gut feeling," Mikhail said as he headed out of the barn towards the woods.
"You don't always need a weapon," his father sighed, "Russia is safe. We are safe. Why do you feel this need to protect us? Why do you seek action?"
"Stay inside in case whatever took her comes here," Mikhail ordered, completely ignoring his father.
"You are jumping to conclusions again!" Mikhail's father shouted after him. "Don't scare Agnessa when you find her!"
"And you said you found them here?" a kind voice asked in Russian.
"Yes, they were along the river," a young girl's voice replied in Russian.
Mikhail snuck around behind a tree and looked out. There was a man-horse hybrid that was kneeling down next to the river, which was almost frozen over by the temperatures, and his sister was standing next to him, bundled up in her coat. Mikhail ran out from behind the tree and charged at the man-horse.
"Get away from my sister!" he shouted as he leapt and slashed at the man-horse.
"Mikhail, no!" Agnessa shouted as Mikhail swung his ax down. The blade cut into the man-horse's backside. He cried out in pain as golden ichor, the blood of the immortals, dripped from the wound.
"What the hell are you?" Mikhail demanded. "Nothing bleeds that color!"
"If you would let me explain…" the man-horse said as he tried to back away, only to remember the river was behind him and it would be dangerous to try and cross. So he instead stood his ground.
"Take this!" Mikhail shouted, ignoring the man-horse, as he came at the man-horse's face with the ax.
"Stop, Mikhail!" Agnessa pleaded again as the man-horse leaned back so that the edge of the ax just touched his forehead.
"Did you try to hurt her?" Mikhail asked, not looking at his sister. "I am certain you did!"
He did a one-armed slash at the man-horse's horse front. The man-horse grunted as he bled from the old and new wounds.
"I didn't touch her!" the man-horse protested "I merely needed her help. I was looking for those."
He pointed at two gems on the ground. They were crimson in color, and even Mikhail could tell they were important.
Mikhail slid under the man-horse and grabbed the gems.
"You must be one of those monsters that have been attacking the United States," Mikhail said. "Well, I won't let you have these!"
He seems to jump to conclusions quickly! the man-horse thought. And to think I thought Nathaniel was impulsive!
"I have to protect my family!" Mikhail shouted as the gems in his hand glowed a brilliant crimson color.
The gems chose this dangerous young man? the man-horse thought. Then again, he seems as impulsive as Ares was when he started.
"I surrender," the man-horse said in Russian as he lowered himself as low as he could. "Just let me explain."
Mikhail pointed the ax at the man-horse as his sister looked between the two fearfully with tears in her eyes.
"Talk," he said.
"My name is Chiron," the man-horse, now recognizable as Chiron, said. "I work with the Olympian Power Rangers in America. I train them as my disciples. Something terrible happened to some of them, and I am now trying to find the other Olympian Gems that grant them their powers to create new Rangers."
Mikhail looked at him strangely.
"You work with the Power Rangers?" he asked skeptically. "I don't believe you!"
"If you come with me, I can show you," Chiron said. "The Gems appear to have chosen you, after all. Not only was I looking for the Gems, I was looking for someone to wield them and become a Power Ranger too."
"You want me to fight those monsters?" Mikhail asked.
"Oh, no," Chiron said. "I need you to fight one monster."
"One or a hundred, I'm in," Mikhail said as he put down the ax and pulled Chiron back up. "I'm sorry I assumed you were hurting my sister."
He looked over at Agnessa.
"I was just trying to protect you," he said as he offered a hug, "come here."
"Stay away from me!" his sister shouted as she ran over to Chiron and gripped one of his legs fearfully, "I thought you were just protective, but you went too far this time! The horseman was asking for my help!"
Chiron put a comforting hand on her head as the wounds on him began to close up.
"How are you doing that?" Mikhail asked.
"I am immortal," Chiron said, "blades may cut me and arrows may pierce me, but I survive and heal quickly. Now, what to do about this?"
"What do you mean?" Mikhail asked. "I go with you, right?"
"I meant her," Chiron said as the hand on her head began to glow a golden color.
"What are you doing to her?" Mikhail asked accusingly.
"Just trying to smooth this out in her head," Chiron said. "I personally prefer science, but I suppose my powers will have to do."
"What?" Mikhail asked as his sister's eyes rolled back in her head as she passed out. He managed to run and catch her in time, leaving the ax on the ground.
"I just altered her memories," Chiron explained. "She remembers helping me, and then passed out. You then found her and took her home. Nothing in the fight ever happened."
"You can do that?" Mikhail asked as he stood up carrying her in his arms. "But why? Especially after I wrongfully attacked you!"
"So she isn't scared of you," Chiron said, "I thought that your relationship shouldn't be ruined because of a little misunderstanding between the two of us. You have a good heart. You were just a little reckless"
"What now?" Mikhail asked. "How do I find you after I take her home?"
"Tell your parents you'll be out for a day or two," Chiron said. "I will be waiting right here. Then I can take you to somewhere where I can explain things more."
"Right," Mikhail nodded before noticing the ax again. "And what do I do with that?"
"I'll take it," Chiron said, "I have an idea on something I can do with it."
As Mikhail started to walk back to his home, Chiron thought hard about what he had just done.
I hope I haven't just made a huge mistake, he thought. I don't like him too much, but the Gems chose him and won't choose another. I don't really have a choice if I want a Crimson Ranger.
He looked over at the ax before galloping over and picking up the ax.
Victor might not be available, he thought, but I should be able to use Morphing Energy to turn this into a better weapon for him to use. Besides, he'll need it to face the threat I'm about to put the new team against...
Marcus Reuter looked down at the glass case directly under him. Inside was a familiar set of jewels and valuables for anyone who lived in London: the Crown Jewels. He was currently wearing a black leather suit and a black mask and hat combo that left his eyes and mouth exposed.
Just a straight line down, he thought to himself. Shouldn't be too hard, should it?
He pressed a button on the device on the back of his belt as the machine it was attached to by a wire slowly lowered him. He let go of the edge of the vent he had slipped out of and sighed in relief when the grate that went on top of it was on a hinge.
Just like my source said, Marcus thought as he slowly was lowered down by the device and machine it was attached to. Actually, it's all like my source said. Marcus, my good sir, I think you found yourself a man on the inside.
He looked down and saw something that made him quickly press a different button on the device that stopped him from moving up or down. He reached into his bag strapped around his shoulder and pulled out a can. He shook it before spraying out some smoke. The smoke began to cloud the room. Nothing happened at first, but when Marcus squinted, he could see the red lasers around the room, including the one he was about to touch with his foot.
Sloppy mistake, Reuter, he thought to himself. You almost touched a laser, you git!
He maneuvered himself slightly to the right, where there was a gap in the laser beams. He lowered himself all the way to the floor, right next to the glass case, and released himself from the device before pulling out a laser of his own.
He smirked as he activated the laser pointer that began to cut through the glass.
Just about a minute more… he thought as he slowly moved his hand to move the laser in a circle, the same shape that was now sliced into the glass case on one side. He stuck his hand in and was shocked to hear alarms now going off. Shit! There was a motion sensor inside the glass too? he thought as he heard the door rattling, likely the police trying to get in. I've got about 30 seconds until they unlock that door!
He looked over at the jewels and even the large crown that was part of the collection. However, his eye was caught by a pair of brilliant white gems. He quickly grabbed them and stashed them in his bag, not noticing them glowing, before leaving a miniature tortoise and a piece of paper that said "Too Slow!" on it. He reattached the device and pressed a third button that shot him up by pulling the wire quickly. Just as the police managed to open the doors, Marcus Reuter was gone.
"Who was that?" one of the officers, a male one, asked as he turned off the laser and the alarm.
"I'm not sure," another, this one female, answered as she walked over to the glass case. "But from this note and miniature calling card, I think the Tortoise has struck again."
"The Tortoise?" a third police officer, this one also male, asked. "Is that really the animal he chose as his name?"
"Slowly but surely, he wins the race," the female officer, most likely the leader, replied. "He strikes the same place multiple times, taking collections piece by piece. Not sure why he got sloppy this time. From what I've heard, he takes stuff from museums and attractions all over London. Usually it takes a few days to notice things are disappearing, so that's how he gets away with it. We need to beef up security, fast."
She looked around at her two subordinates, who looked at her expectantly.
"Chances are," she said, "he'll strike again."
"What'd he actually take?" one of the male officers asked as he walked over to the glass case. "Everything looks like it's still here."
"We'll analyze the footage!" the other male officer said. "Then we can see what he took!"
"Not going to work," the female officer said as she shook her head. "He likely took out the cameras before he came into the room. We're going to have to go through everything to check."
"I think I found what's missing!" the male officer who had asked what was missing before said. "Weren't there those white gems the Queen added a little while ago?"
"Yeah, like a month ago," the other male officer agreed. "She didn't make a big event about them, but there was a small ceremony to add them to the collection."
"We'll have time to reminisce later!" the female officer said. "Call for a 'copter. We need to check the roof. Maybe he's still there!"
"Roger!" the two male officers said as they ran to the security office to find a phone to use.
"Did he really want the gems, or did he just take the first thing he could grab?" the female officer asked herself out loud. "Guess we'll find out when we catch him. IF we catch him."
Marcus sighed in relief as he crawled out of the vent back onto the roof.
"Think I gave the coppers the slip this time," he said out loud. He spoke with a British accent, which made sense given where he was in the world.
"You may have given them the slip," a voice said from the shadows, "but you haven't lost me."
"Who's there?" Marcus asked, glad that he hadn't removed his mask yet. His secret double life was the only thing stopping him from being found by the cops. He squinted into the darkness, trying to see who had spoken to him.
"There's supposed to be no cops on the roof," he said. "So why are you here?"
"Who said I was a cop?" the voice said as the figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing the Red Olympian Ranger.
"What? A Power Ranger?" Marcus asked in confusion. "Thought you buggers stayed in the States."
"Technically, we protect the whole planet," the Red Olympian Ranger said. "Now come with me. I need to show you something."
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Marcus shouted as he pulled a taser out of his shoulder bag before charging with it outstretched in front of him.
"Really?" the Red Olympian Ranger asked as he spun around Marcus before gripping his wrist, causing Marcus to drop the taser, and holding his other arm behind his back. "I fight monsters and Dark Gods and you're coming at me with a taser?"
Marcus struggled for a minute before he managed to pull his arms out of the Red Olympian Ranger's hold. He took a fighting stance.
"I don't have time for this," Marcus said. "But I'll fight if I have to."
He leapt at the Red Olympian Ranger before coming in with a flying kick. The Red Olympian Ranger blocked it with one arm before pulling his other fist back and punching Marcus in the gut. Marcus crumpled to the ground while clutching his stomach
"I didn't even put my full strength into that punch," the Red Olympian Ranger said as he grabbed the downed Marcus and put him over his shoulder, which was interesting considering Marcus had to be a few inches taller. "Now stay still, I'm taking you somewhere away from the cops."
"You're not turning me in?" Marcus managed to get out.
"I've got bigger plans for you and those gems you grabbed," the Red Olympian Ranger said as he spoke into his morpher. "Open a Door, Christina. Then I've got to head out again. I've got two more to find."
"You got it," a female voice that Marcus didn't recognize said from the band on the Red Olympian Ranger's right wrist.
The outline of the door to the roof from the previous floor glowed blue as the Red Olympian Ranger walked over and opened it before stepping through, allowing it to close behind him.
A few seconds later, a helicopter flew up and above the roof, lighting it up with its searchlight.
"I've got no visual," the police officer in the back of the helicopter said through his radio. He was glad the radios could be heard over the roaring helicopter blades.
"Please repeat," the female officer from the room below said. "Did you say 'no visual'?"
"Seems our Tortoise turned into a chameleon," the officer in the copter joked. "Because he seems to have disappeared."
Virginia Hale was hiking on the volcano when it all happened. She had stuck to the path and reached near the base when the ground under her began to shake. Her long black hair shook with the vibrations and her Hawaiian features turned to one of confusion.
An eruption? she thought. But there hasn't been an eruption of Kilauea in a few years. Why now?
She watched as lava spewed from the crater and flew into the air, only landing a few feet from the crater. However, it began to flow down the body of the volcano quickly.
"Oh crap," she said as she watched the lava slide down the volcano and towards her. "Oh crap! oh crap!"
She continued her speaking of those two words as she started to run away from the lava. She looked around for some ground higher than the lava. She noticed a male teen, a few years younger than her, looking up in shock before hightailing it as well. The two found themselves running next to each other.
"Hi, I'm Jason, but you can call me Jay," the teen said as they ran.
"I'm Virginia, and now is really not the time!" Virginia shouted as she and Jay continued to book it, but the lava was gaining.
"Look, I love running as much as the next guy," Jay joked, "but did you see anywhere we can actually run to? You know, somewhere the lava won't follow us?"
"Working on it," Virginia said.
She noticed another mountain that was across from the volcano. Luckily, they were close enough to the trail that they could follow it up away from the lava.
"How about that?" she asked as she pointed at the mountain. "We could start up that and get away."
"Anything's better than here!" Jay replied
The two started up the trail when Virginia looked behind her and saw something trying to crawl away. She turned back and started running towards the slowly moving thing. Jay didn't notice and kept running for a minute before actually looking back.
"What are you doing?" Jay asked as he stopped.
Rather quickly, Virginia was beside him again and led him up the mountain. They reached what they assumed was a safe distance and stopped. Both were panting, with Jay reaching into his small bag to pull out a water bottle before taking a swig. Virginia was sitting on the ground, holding the...thing she had grabbed.
"What did you stop for?" Jay asked as he finally caught his breath.
Virginia opened her arms and let the mouse out of her arms. It looked at her and squeaked before scurrying away.
"You stopped for a mouse?" Jay asked.
"I would have stopped for any animal that was there," Virginia said. "It probably has a family somewhere, and now it can get back to it."
So she values all life, Jay thought as he pulled out a pair of orange gems on golden wristbands. Maybe she's the one I'm looking for. After all, the Doors were programmed to send me to a potential recruit and there's no one else out here.
"Could you put these on for me?" he asked.
"Uh...sure?" Virginia said as she slipped the bands on her wrists. The gems began to glow with a warm orange light.
"Bingo," Jay said as he pulled up his sleeves, revealing identical wristbands but with red gems instead. "Do you know what these are?"
"Not really," Virginia said, "but I'm hoping you'll tell me. What are they and why are they glowing?"
"These are called Olympian Gems," Jay said. "They basically contain the essence of a Greek God."
"Ok…" Virginia nodded. She was understanding so far.
"The Olympian Power Rangers use them to morph into their Ranger forms," Jay said, "and, as the Red Olympian Ranger, I've been looking for someone to wield these Orange Olympian Gems. I need new Rangers to fight a powerful new threat we're facing."
"You're the Red Ranger?" Virginia asked, "but you're even younger than I am and I'm only in my twenties! And you want me to fight a monster or a Dark God or something like that?"
"Can I at least show you our base before you completely blow me off?" Jay asked.
"No, I believe you," Virginia said. "It's just a lot to wrap my head around. But sure, take me to your base. If you need my help, I can't refuse. It's the right thing to do."
That's probably why the Orange Gems chose her, Jay thought. That's two down, three if Chiron's done, it's up to me to find the last one, I guess. I just hope these new Rangers can take on this threat...
"So, the samurai warriors defeated the Nighlok warriors using power symbols passed down from parent to child…" the teacher droned on in Japanese.
Jasumin Aiuchi yawned as the teacher continued. Unfortunately for her, her history class had just started and there was plenty more information to come. Her black hair was near the back of the chair, and her brown eyes were slowly closing. Her white schoolgirl uniform had a black skirt attached and both were comfortable enough that she was starting to fall asleep...
"Aiuchi-san!" the teacher shouted as she noticed the student starting to drift off. "Pay attention, this will be on the exam, I assure you. Especially with these families leading to the Samurai Power Rangers! As such, they are very important to our history!"
"But this same history is used for a children's show!" Jasumin argued, "so why are we learning this?"
"You are of course referring to Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, I assume?" the teacher asked. "Then you would see how knowledge of their history helped them defeat their foes. Knowledge wins battles, Aiuchi-san. Even fictional characters could tell you that."
Jasumin glared at the teacher for a minute before giving up.
"Yes, Sensei," she said as she bowed her head.
"Now, as I was saying…" the teacher said as she started up again.
It was now lunch time, and Jasumin was sitting with her friends. They were all conversing with each other when Jasumin looked up from the table to see a teen, about her age, she hadn't seen before. He seemed to be American by his skin tone, and he had brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing a red t-shirt that really stood out from the student's white uniforms. Then again, they were eating outside, so passersby were not uncommon in the open area around the school.
I've never seen him before, she thought as she got up. This boy intrigued her.
"I'll be right back," she said back to her friends as she walked over to the teen. "Hello there. What's your name?"
"Uh...shoot," the teen said in English as he fiddled with a little device on the collar of his shirt. There was a wire that traveled to his ear, where there was a headphone-looking part.
"Could you say that again?" the teen asked as he finished adjusting the device.
Jasumin looked at him, confused.
Is he speaking English? she thought. I've learned a little in school, but not enough to have a conversation. I was really looking forward to talking to him. Guess I'll ask again and see what happens.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The teen tapped the device, trying to get it to work before smacking it hard. A green light turned on for both parts of the device.
"Finally!" the teen said in English before he started to speak again. What was weird was that he suddenly started speaking in Japanese.
"Hi, I seem to be lost," he said. "Could you tell me where I am?"
"This is Hiroo Senior High School," Jasumin said, "one of the best schools in Tokyo. How could you get here and not know where you are? Who are you?"
"Oh, guess I didn't say that," the teen said. "My name is Jay. I'm from America, but I'm assuming you could figure that out. Sorry about me speaking English earlier. A friend of mine made these translators, but they don't seem to work very well."
"What do you mean 'translator'?" Jasumin asked. "Aren't you speaking Japanese right now?"
"Nope," Jay said. "I don't know a word of Japanese, but these translators do something or other to turn what I'm saying in English into Japanese, and the same sort of thing in that it turns what you're saying in Japanese to English. Anyway, what's your name?"
"I'm Jasumin Aiuchi," Jasumin said, "I go to Hiroo Senior High School. I was actually supposed to learn a lot of English in school but…"
"But what?" Jay asked. "If you were supposed to learn English, why do you have to speak in Japanese to me?"
"I kind of slept through most of my English classes…" Jasumin admitted. "I took the test to get into this school and barely passed the English part."
"Ok…" Jay said, a little dumbfounded. From what he had heard, Japan took schooling very seriously. To hear a girl from that country admit to barely passing...It was really strange.
She's definitely not the one I'm looking for, he thought.
"Well, I've got to go," Jay said as he moved to leave.
"Wait!" Jasumin said. "What are you doing here in Japan?"
"I can't really talk about it," Jay said as he started walking away. "Sorry!"
He walked down the street, but when he passed the alley, they struck. Jay looked around wildly as a bunch of men in their twenties and thirties in masks surrounded him.
"Who are you?" Jay asked, glad he could at least try to communicate with the translator.
"Just call us the neighborhood watch," one of the men, most likely the leader, said. "We protect this neighborhood from those we don't like."
"I'm sure you'll like me if you get to know me…" Jay said nervously.
"You're an American, right?" another member of the gang said, "you probably think you're better than us! That's why we don't like you!"
"Guys, this is all one big misunderstanding…" Jay said as he tried to back up, only to bump into one of the members of the group. His sleeves rolled up a bit to reveal the gold of his Olympian Morphers.
"What do we have here?" the man he bumped into said as he grabbed Jay by the wrists and lifted him up to examine the morphers. "They look valuable!"
He then looked down and noticed two more had fallen out of Jay's bag. These morphers had aqua gems on them and were on the same type of gold band.
"The Kyokuto-kai will accept us for sure if we bring them these!" the man next to the one holding Jay up said as he grabbed the aqua-gemmed Olympian Morphers off the ground.
"Those don't belong to you!" Jay said as he struggled to free his arms.
"And this looks valuable too!" yet another member said as he examined the translator before yanking it off his collar and out of his ear. Now Jay couldn't understand anything the gang was saying. But he did recognize it when they drew lines over their throats as they looked at him and talked with each other. Then he saw them drawing knives.
"Hold on!" Jay said in English. "Can we wait just a moment?"
"Stay away from him!" a female voice shouted in Japanese. Jasumin ran up to face the leader of the gang.
"What are you going to do, little girl?" the gang leader asked in Japanese. "And why do you care so much about this American?"
"It doesn't matter why I care!" Jasumin said, "I can't let you hurt him!"
"What are you going to do?" the gang leader asked again.
Jasumin looked at Jay, who was still struggling, and the morphers in the gang member's hand before looking back at the gang leader. She had some semblance of a plan, but it probably wouldn't work…
I have to try! she thought. Jay's stuck in this situation because he was walking away from me. I also just don't want to see him go yet!
She ran up to the gang member holding Jay by his wrists and kicked him in the gut. It barely did any damage, but it was enough for the man to loosen his grip on Jay. Jay noticed this and kicked the man in the same place. This attack actually did something, as it made the man let go and tumble backwards. Jay landed on his feet and lunged for the aqua-gemmed morphers. A gang member beat him to it and tried to punch Jay in the face. Jay ducked before coming in with an uppercut, using the momentum of extending his legs to power up his punch.
Jasumin noticed Jay going for the morphers and went for it herself. Luckily, the gang was too focused on Jay, who was surrounded by them, but was still beating them up. She grabbed them and started to run back to the school and safety.
These must be important to Jay, she thought. I should get them away from the gang.
She looked back and saw that Jay was getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of gang members. While he seemed stronger and faster than he appeared, he still was only human, and the gang was starting to come at him with their knives.
She looked between the school, a safe place, and Jay and the gang, a dangerous place but somewhere she would help the most.
"Here goes nothing," she said out loud as she stepped forward.
The aqua gems on the morpher began to glow, and Jasumin looked down in amazement. She could almost hear a female voice telling her to put them on. She did so and felt a rush of energy. She started to sprint towards the gang, but found her way blocked by the guy she and Jay had kicked earlier.
"Stay back, little girl," the guy said. "You might get hurt if you really piss me off. Besides, your last attack did nothing! Just go home!"
Jasumin didn't answer and did a roundhouse kick into the guy's gut. Just like when he had been hit by Jay, he went flying backwards, but this time went farther and actually slammed into the wall. He fell to the ground and slumped over, completely KOed.
Jay noticed Jasumin coming towards him and motioned for her to stay away. He knew that talking was useless without the translator, but he could still try to communicate with her.
Jasumin shook her head and kept running towards the gang and Jay himself. A few gang members with knives broke away from Jay and ran over to Jasumin. She used an arm to push away a knife thrust before punching the gang member in the face. He fell to the ground and was quickly replaced by two more. They both slashed with their knives, and she did a handspring away before kicking the knives out of their hands. Both men turned and ran away before Jasumin could do anything else.
Jay punched and kicked his way out of the middle of the group and carved a path towards Jasumin.
He managed to reach down and grabbed the translator on the way. Luckily, it appeared that no one had stepped on it during the whole fight. He put the device back on his collar and in his ear before he got over to Jasumin.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, the translator turning his speech into Japanese. "Get out of here! It's much too dangerous to drag you into this!"
"You look like you needed my help," Jasumin said, a little startled by Jay's reaction and now feeling a little self-conscious. "You probably wouldn't have gotten free if I hadn't stepped in."
"Fair enough," Jay admitted before he looked down at Jasumin's wrists. "And you put on the Ol...those wristbands?"
"Yeah, and they glowed," she replied. "Is that normal?"
"Normal?" Jay asked, "No. Good? Yes"
"What do you mean 'good?'" Jasumin asked as they noticed the gang regrouping and coming towards them again. "You say rather strange things, you know."
"We'll talk later," Jay said, "let's get rid of these guys first."
Jasumin nodded.
"Right," she agreed.
One long, drawn-out fight later, Jay and Jasumin were breathing hard, but at least they were still conscious. Their opponents weren't so lucky.
Jay gave a gang member a haymaker to the face and turned away before he moved to block another guy's punch.
"These guys are way more challenging than the Spartoi!" he said. "Even the armored ones aren't this tough!"
"I don't even know what that means," Jasumin said as she kicked a guy in the crotch and watched him fall to the ground, covering the area while screaming in agony. "'Spartoi'? Is that even a word?"
"It's a proper noun," Jay said. "Probably sounds exactly the same in Japanese as it does in English."
The two met up as they heard sirens.
"We should probably get out of here before the police arrive," Jay said. "Come on!"
He grabbed her hand and didn't notice her blush as he led her away from the slumped over gang members. The two of them went a block west and then a block north before stopping.
"You said they glowed?" Jay asked as they stopped and he let go of her hand.
"Yeah, and you said that was good," Jasumin said. "Why?"
"I've been searching for someone who could make those gems glow," Jay said. "I'll explain on the way."
"The way where?" Jasumin asked as she noticed Jay put his morpher close to his mouth.
"The Temple, our base," Jay said before speaking into the morpher. "Christina, open a Door for us near our coordinates."
"One Door, coming up," Christina's voice said from the morpher.
Jasumin looked on in amazement as the door next to them had its outline begin to glow blue before Jay pulled it open, revealing a blue portally space inside the doorframe.
"Hate to drag you from school," Jay said, "but we're kind of on a schedule here, and we're already behind. Time Zones are kind of confusing, but I think we worked it out."
With that, he walked through the doorway/portal. Jasumin looked at the Door skeptically before stepping through.
"Ah, Jay," Chiron said as he watched the teen step through before watching a teenage Japanese girl walk through a few seconds after. "And who is this?"
"This is Jasumin," Jay said, his translator still on so Jasumin could understand him. Somehow, Chiron seemed to understand, nodding in response.
"Did I hear you say Jasmine?" Marcus, who was just lying on one of the steps with his arms behind his head, asked.
Jasumin looked at him, confused. Without a translator, she didn't have any idea what Marcus was saying. MIkhail was also confused, as he didn't understand a word of what the others were saying at all.
"What did he say?" she asked Jay.
"He asked if your name was Jasmine," Jay answered. "Do you want me to correct him?"
"I suppose Jasmine would be the anglicized version of my name," Jasumin said. "If you all want to call me that, that's fine. I would just like to be able to understand him."
"What are you saying?" Mikhail asked everyone in the room. "I don't understand!"
"Mikhail is saying a similar thing," Chiron, who understood Russian, said in English. "I called in an old friend to come and help us out."
"What do you mean?" Jay asked after he turned off the translator so most of the room (Virginia, Marcus, Christina and Chiron) would understand. "Who did you call in?"
The Doors of Janus behind him and Jasmine flew open. Jasmine leapt behind Jay and hid behind his body. She slowly peeked out to see what was going on.
"The spirits of nature and fate have brought me here," Hecate said as she stepped out of the Doors.
"I actually called you here, but I'm glad the spirits agree with me," Chiron said.
"You called her?" Christina whispered from the computer chair to Chiron. "I thought you didn't like her. That's what the others told me, at least."
"That doesn't matter," Chiron whispered back, "we need her help."
"Chiron," Hecate said, "have you found a challenge technology cannot fix? Do you require my help over your science?"
Chiron sighed as he looked over at the teens and 20-somethings around him, with only half of them understanding each other.
"Yes," he admitted. "My disciple Victor made translators, but they only really work for translation of one language to another. That will not do if these Rangers are to work together. They need to be able to communicate. Can you help?"
"So, a simple translation spell?" Hecate asked. "I would be glad to help. I heard what happened to the other Rangers and want to aid in any way I can. Have you told these new recruits yet what happened to the other Olympian Rangers?"
"What did happen to the other Rangers, Jay?" Marcus asked, eavesdropping on the conversation before looking at Jay. "Did they just disappear?"
"Once everyone can talk to each other, I'll tell the story," Jay said.
"Can you just do it?" Chiron asked, "it's already 9:00 PM and the teens' parents must be worried sick about their children. We need to keep moving!"
"All will work out in the end according to the spirits of fate," Hecate said before noticing Chiron's look. "But I do see your point. Here we go."
She chanted a few words in ancient Greek as blue energy swirled around her hands. The energy became a gas that she blew into the direction of each team member. They started to cough as the gas overwhelmed them.
"Is she trying to gas us out?" Marcus asked as he continued to cough.
"What the hell was that?" Mikhail asked as the gas dispersed. "Was that supposed to do something?"
"Hey, I understand you now!" Marcus said as he walked over to Mikhail. "You know English after all? I've been trying to speak to you ever since I got here and you just shook your head! Were you dissing me the whole time?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Mikhail asked. "Of course I don't speak English. It's you who started using Russian!"
"Ok, why don't both of you calm down?" Virginia said, finally saying something, as she came in between them. "I'm sure there's a good explanation on why we can all understand each other."
She turned towards Hecate while maintaining her position in between the two guys.
"You said something about a…'translation spell'?" she asked Hecate.
"Yes," Hecate said. "That gas makes it so you all understand each other as if you were speaking your native languages. It never wears off, so you should be able to understand almost any new language from now on."
"I'll pass all of my English tests now!" Jasmine shouted as she jumped for joy.
"However," Hecate said, "the spell will temporarily fail if you try to use it for ill purposes like cheating. It is as the spirits of nature willed it to be."
"Aw man," Jasmine said as she looked down at the ground. "There goes my plans…"
"A Ranger would never use their powers to cheat anyway," Jay reminded her, "it's unfair to everyone else who has to work hard."
"Understood, Jay-kun," Jasmine said.
"Uh...what did you just call me?" Jay asked.
"Jay-kun," Jasmine said. "Does that not translate into English?"
"No," Jay said, "what does it mean?"
"Just something friends call each other," Jasmine said. "I won't be expecting you to call me -chan because it's not in your culture, but calling you -kun is in mine. So I'll be calling you Jay-kun."
"Ok…" Jay said as he walked to the middle of the room in front of the steps.
We don't really use it for friends, Jasmine thought as she followed him and sat on the step next to Virginia. It's more for a male the speaker is emotionally attached to. But he doesn't need to know that now.
"I suppose I'll be off," Hecate said before turning to Jay. "Olympus is starting to come together. Anyone you can save could be useful. And tell Victor that Pan is still working on his request."
"I will when I see him," Jay said.
Hecate went to the Doors of Janus and watched as they flew open, programmed by Christina, who was still in the computer chair. She stepped through and they closed behind her. A few seconds later, they opened again. Out stepped…
"Dan," Jay said as he walked over and shook the man's hand. "Good to see you again. We seem to call on you a lot for a reserve member."
"Yeah, I'm just glad I don't need to call a sick day this time," Dan said as he walked over and noticed Christina in the chair. "Hey Christina, you all healed up?"
Christina turned around to reveal she still looked tired, but otherwise looked fine.
"Yeah, Adrian saw to that," she said. "Just a lack of energy right now, but typing doesn't take too much out of me."
"Good," Dan said as he looked at the steps with people on it that he had never seen before. "And who are these guys and girls?"
The teen and twenty-somethings held up their right wrist, showing one of their Olympian Morphers. When Jay and Chiron had taken Marcus and Mikhail respectively back to the base, the gems had already created Olympian Morphers for the men to put on. They were gold as well, matching the two girls' morphers.
"I'm Marcus Reuter," Marcus said as he showed his white Olympian Gems.
"Mikhail Urusov," Mikhail said as he showed the Crimson Gems.
"I'm Jasumin Aiuchi, but you can call me Jasmine," Jasmine said as she revealed the Aqua Olympian Gems. "Everyone else is."
"Virginia Hale," Virginia said as she showed the Orange Olympian Gems. "Nice to meet you!"
"I'm Daniel Winslow, but you can call me Dan," Dan said before he turned to Jay. "You found them? You found the missing gems AND their wielders?"
"Didn't really have a choice," Jay said, "circumstances called for it."
"Speaking of which," Dan said as he sat down between the distanced Mikhail and Marcus, who still apparently couldn't stand each other. "Are you going to tell all of us what happened now that I'm here?"
"Sure," Jay nodded, "it started about ten hours ago…"
Flashback
Jay and Valerie were talking near where the suits were displayed while Victor was tinkering with a new invention, Nate and Mera were sparring and Adrian and Diana were practicing their archery.
"You sure you don't want to practice?" Adrian called across the room to Valerie. "You never can practice enough."
"Jay, tell Valerie to get her ass over here so we can practice together!" Diana shouted. "We need to know how much she's improved so we can plan for battle strategies!"
"Ok, guys. Give me a minute," Valerie said before she turned back to Jay. "So you met my parents on Valentine's Day-"
"And confused the heck out of them," Jay interjected.
"-So when should I meet your parents?" Valerie finished.
"Well, that's a complicated question," Jay said as he rubbed the back of his head. "My parents are kind of traveling a lot. If it's not for work, it's probably to visit Paul's parents while working. So they're never really around. That said, they're coming back tomorrow from a trip, so they should be good to see in about 2 days."
"Alright, 2 days should work," Valerie said. "And I should just remind you that you still owe me a Valentine's Day style dinner!"
"I owe you?" Jay asked playfully. "Who was snuggling against Victor and blew me off? I can't quite remember..."
"Fine, I'll take a semi-formal restaurant," Valerie said as she started to walk over to the twins. "Just please make it happen. I already feel guilty we spent Valentine's Day apart, and I want to spend an evening with you that doesn't involve fighting Dark Gods."
Jay was about to respond when the alarm went off.
"Just had to jinx it, didn't you?" Nate said as he and Mera stopped sparring and walked over with the others to the mosaic computer. Christina was already there, pulling up a feed.
"What the hell is that?" Diana asked as she looked at the screen. Jay's face turned pale at the same time that Chiron's did.
On the screen was a green and gold humanoid figure. He was completely covered in the gold armor except for his face. His face was green and snake like, but he had a golden helmet that looked like a cobra hood. He had a giant golden open-mouthed snake head on his front as part of his body armor and giant golden wrist guards that looked like open-mouthed snakes, with his hands coming in between the fangs. He also had golden knee guards shaped like snake heads, as well as golden boots.
"Snakes…" Jay said. "Why did it have to be snakes?"
"Stole the words right out of my mouth," Nate said. "I thought I was the one who made the references around here."
"Getting back on track…" Valerie said. "Who is that? I don't recall any snake gods, so it shouldn't be a Dark God. I think."
"Not unless Hades is reaching into Egyptian Mythology," Mera said. "Which I sincerely doubt."
"No, Rangers," Chiron said, still pale. "That is Typhon, King of the Dark Order and one of the few embodiments of pure evil from Greek Myth."
"The Dark Order?" Nate said. "I thought we were done with those guys!"
"I just assumed they gave up," Victor said. "But why would they give up if their king is that?"
"Typhon was locked in Tartarus, one of the worst places ever in life after death," Chiron explained. "Zeus put most of the enemies of the gods there himself."
"Yeah, Hermes mentioned that," Valerie said. "He said someone named Cronus was trapped in there."
"Cronus is but one of many trapped in there," Chiron said, "Typhon was, apparently past tense, another."
"So do we need to worry about Cronus getting out?" Victor asked. "Because it sounded like he was the hardest fight the gods ever faced. I doubt we could take him."
"I certainly hope not," Chiron said. "But we would have felt his release from Tartarus. He isn't exactly subtle."
"Ok, so how powerful is this guy compared to Cronus?" Adrian asked. "He was trapped in Tartarus too, so he must have been pretty bad. And you did just call him 'one of the few embodiments of pure evil from Greek Myth'."
"Putting it into terms you teens might understand, if Cronus was a 10 in difficulty, Typhon is a solid 9," Chiron explained.
"Great," Nate said. "Yeah, we'll get right on fighting him. It's going to be a great story: 'Hey mom? Guess what I did today? I got my ass beat by a giant snake monster!'"
"Look," Jay said as he turned towards the others. "I'm probably the most scared out of all of us. Not only are we facing a snake monster, one of my worst fears, my anxiety's going crazy because we're fighting in possibly the hardest battle we've had so far. But we need to get out there and stop him before he destroys everything."
He pointed to the mosaic screen, where Typhon was sending cars flying and destroying buildings with just his roars.
Just like Medusa, Jay thought to himself. Just keep your fear in check...oh, who am I kidding? I didn't actually have to look at Medusa. That's why I could beat her. But I was terrified of her sisters until they turned out to be nice. I guess part of it too was the fact that they weren't 100% snake, while Typhon totally is!
He was shaken from his thinking by Valerie's voice.
"You heard us, right?" she said.
"Sorry," Jay apologized. "In my own little world. What did you say?"
"That we're with you," Valerie said. "We agreed to be Rangers so we could stop things like this. So let's get out there!"
Everyone looked at Jay expectantly.
"You heard her," he said. "Let's get going."
He turned to Christina.
"Prepare to call Dan if needed," he said, "but only as a last resort. Today's not a day he can take off easily from what he told us."
Christina nodded and started to type away on the mosaic computer. She turned towards the Rangers and gave a thumbs up as the Doors of Janus flew open.
"Good luck out there," she said.
"Use everything you have learned," Chiron said, "and you are certain to win."
They aren't ready for this! Chiron thought. But I have no choice. I can't even tell them they are probably going to lose because that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy… When did training heroes get so complicated? I used to be able to train them in combat and send them on their way. Now I have to watch my students fight and most likely fail...
The Rangers ran out the Doors of Janus and stepped out of the doors of an apartment building. The door closed behind them, leaving nowhere to escape until they summoned another Door.
Jay stepped forward, with the other Rangers right on his heels. They noticed that the street was empty. Most likely the civilians had gotten away, or at least that's what Jay hoped. The Rangers lined up in front of Typhon, who still had his back towards them as he smashed his gauntlet into a building before ripping a large chunk out of it.
"Hey, Solid Snake!" Jay shouted.
Typhon turned around and looked at the seven teenagers standing in front of him.
"You are the ones who defeated my children?" he asked in a deep hissy voice. "But you are so young!"
"We may be young, but we can still beat you!" Jay shouted as he prepped his morphers. "Ready?"
The others prepped their morphers and nodded.
"Ready!" they replied.
"Silver Olympian Power!"
"Gold Olympian Power!"
"Pink Olympian Power!"
"Yellow Olympian Power!"
"Black Olympian Power!"
"Blue Olympian Power!"
"Red Olympian Power!"
With a flash of colored light, the Rangers were morphed.
"Hero Armor, Power up!" the five main Rangers shouted. The omega symbols on their chest expanded into their Hero Armor, creating the overshield, shoulder pads and arm bands.
"What's the plan, fearless leader?" Nate asked as he looked to the Red Ranger.
"First we create a crack in his armor, same as we did for the rest of the Dark Order," Jay said. "So we need to use some of our most powerful attacks. Then we used the Omega Olympian Crossbow to finish him."
"Right!" the other Rangers agreed as they spread out around Typhon before summoning their weapons.
Jay swung his Lightning Sword at Typhon's exposed face, but Typhon stepped back from one strike before stepping forward and trapping the sword in his gauntlet when Jay went in for a second strike. He flicked his wrist and sent the Lightning Sword, and Jay with it, flying a few yards away. Jay was knocked out of his Hero Armor as a result, but remained in his normal suit.
Victor came in with a heavy horizontal hammer swing, but Typhon ducked under it before placing his right hand inside the gauntlet, leaving only the fangs showing. The gauntlet opened like a real snake mouth and chomped onto Victor's unguarded upper right leg. Victor cried out as the fangs sank in before Typhon used the leverage to hurl Victor into the wall of the building Typhon had just been attacking. Victor groaned as he demorphed in a flash of black light amidst the rubble of the wall.
Typhon whirled around just in time to catch the trident and spear stabs of Nate and Mera with both gauntlets' "mouths", leaving no damage on him.
"You can't sneak up on me," he said. "I can smell you coming a mile away."
His forked tongue flicked out as he grinned. The eyes on the snake on his chest flashed red as it came to life and spit venom at Nate and Mera. They both cried out as the venom seemed to act more like acid, melting into their suits. Typhon twisted the points of the Trident and Spear outwards before hurling them away. They both demorphed in flashes of blue and yellow light respectively and lied on the ground, grunting in pain as the venom continued to burn them internally, even with their suits gone.
Valerie launched an arrow at Typhon, almost striking him in the cheek. She was several hundred yards away and glad she didn't have to be close to him.
He took them out so easily, she thought, but the three remaining Rangers have range. I'm guessing he can only spit that venom so far, so as long as we keep our distance, we can win.
Typhon started to run towards Valerie before his legs shifted into a tail. He whirled around with his tail still elongating. It stretched forward and struck Valerie in the stomach, sending her flying into a wall. The wall cracked from the impact and Valerie demorphed in a flash of pink light as Typhon's tail shortened itself and became golden armored legs again.
Typhon looked around at the fallen Rangers.
"Is that all you've got?" he asked before he noticed Adrian and Diana a hundred or so yards away. "Oh right, there were seven of you, weren't there? I almost forgot. You all look the same to me. You all look like pathetic little humans."
"Gemini Arrow!" the twins shouted as they launched their arrows at Typhon. The two energy arrows combined into one glowing arrow before flying at Typhon. He twisted around it in an unnatural way, almost like he had no bones. He twisted back into his normal shape before looking at the twins and grinning.
"That was a mistake," he said before he dashed towards them at superhuman speeds, "I would have let you live a little longer if you didn't attack me with the others.
Diana noticed this rush attack and activated her own super speed. She dashed a few feet around Typhon just as he grabbed Adiran by the neck.
"You're the Apollo one, right?" he asked. "You foresaw this, I assume. Did you even warn your teammates? Or did you just let them go into this slaughter?"
"I...didn't...see...you...in...the...vision," Adrian struggled to get out. "I...just...saw...us...lose."
"Pathetic," Typhon said. "If your future seeing abilities were better, I would consider keeping you in my new world."
He slammed Adrian into the ground by his neck. Adrian called out in agony as his suit took most of the impact, but his body still felt it. He demorphed in a flash of golden light as Typhon stood over him.
"Normally Apollo and Hermes were the healers," Typhon taunted. "I don't see anyone with Hermes' powers, so I guess that makes you the healer. But who's going to heal you?"
"Step away from my brother!" Diana shouted as she fired an energy arrow at him with her bow.
Typhon looked over at Diana and smirked.
"You think you can hurt me?" he asked, "I would have suggested running, but I prefer a good fight."
Diana activated her super speed and came in for a super fast kick. Typhon used his speed to dodge before punching Diana in the helmet with his gauntlet. She stumbled back before attacking with a flurry of punches. Typhon blocked each one. When the punching stopped and the other Rangers could see again, Typhon was holding Diana's fist in his hand.
"That's it?" he asked before sneering as best he could with a snake face. "Disappointing."
He used his hold on Diana's fist to twist her arm before hurling her over his shoulder and into the ground. He began to rapidly punch her until she stopped moving and demorphed in a flash of silver light.
Jay got up from the ground and looked around at the situation around him. Everyone was out of action except him.
He noticed Typhon walking over to the prone Valerie menacingly.
"Stay away from her! Red Lightning Strike!" Jay shouted as he summoned a red lightning bolt onto his sword, charging it up, before leaping at Typhon, who was at a 90 degree angle from Jay. Jay slashed at Typhon's exposed green face and just barely cut him.
Typhon whirled towards Jay and grabbed into his suit with the gauntlet, using the snake fangs to bite into his suit. Jay cried out as sparks began to fly. He dropped his sword, too busy being in pain to notice. With Typhon's other hand, he felt the small cut.
"You actually cut me," Typhon said. "I'm impressed. I was so distracted in the battle that I missed your scent coming at me. Not many people can sneak up on me. Maybe I'll let you live."
Jay just grunted as the snake fangs sank in a little deeper. They were still only affecting the suit, but with a little more pressure, they might break through and into his skin and organs.
"Yeah, I think I'll let you live," Typhon said as he let up the pressure and dropped Jay to the ground on his stomach. Jay rolled onto his back and tried to get up, but the damage was too much. In a flash of red light, he demorphed
"I'll be taking your friends, though," Typhon said. "My wife wants to have some words with them."
"You're not...taking them...anywhere, you bastard," Jay said as he struggled to get up.
"You're not really in a position to argue," Typhon said as he snapped his fingers, "Harpies!"
Some really powerful looking Harpies flew down. They didn't have any visual differences to the ones the Rangers had faced before. Instead there was just an aura of power surrounding them that made them seem different.
"Take the Rangers to my wife," Typhon said, "but leave the Red one. I have too much respect for him now to destroy him."
One by one, the downed Rangers were grabbed by the powered-up Harpies and were led past the still downed Jay. As Victor walked past, he looked towards Jay.
"Activate Project Alpha," he said, "Chiron and Christina will know what that means."
Jay nodded.
"I'll tell them," he managed to get out.
With that, Typhon led the other Rangers away, leaving a defeated Jay lying on the street.
End Flashback
"And that's what happened," Jay finished, "Chiron and Christina knew all about Project Alpha. Turns out because Alpha was the beginning of the Greek Alphabet, it meant the new beginnings for you guys."
"That's a great story," Marcus said. "But I don't see how we can help against anything like that. This Typhon guy completely kicked your asses, and you've been fighting monsters and Dark Gods for almost 6 months. Meanwhile, we just got our powers. We're in way over our heads here."
"There has to be a reason why we could help," Jasmine said. "Right, Jay-kun?"
"Each Olympian Gem set gets stronger for each additional set there is in the link between them all," Jay said, "basically, more Gems means more power for each Ranger. That's what we as a group agreed on, at least."
"I personally just see Typhon as someone who needs to be stopped," Mikhail said as he punched his fist into his palm. "And we're the ones who need to do it."
"We need to think this through," Marcus said. "Even if we save the other Rangers, who's to say they'll do any better with us there? Just because you think the others will get stronger when we're there doesn't mean that they will."
"If you really feel that way," Jay said, "you're free to leave. Just leave the White Olympian Gems here. We'll give them to someone who actually wants to help."
"Considering you kidnapped me without asking if I wanted to help and then held me here for hours, I think I will leave!" Marcus said as he marched to the Doors of Janus. "But I'm taking the Gems with me. They should fetch a pretty penny on the black market."
"Very well," Chiron agreed. "Send him to London, Christina."
Christina nodded and started to type on the mosaic computer.
"What? You can't be serious!" Jay said. "We can't just let him sell the Olympian Gems! We need them to save my friends!"
The Doors flew open as Marcus walked up to them.
"Not my problem," he retorted, "if the rest of you want to waste your time, go ahead. But I'd rather do what's best for me. See ya!"
With that, he stepped through the Doors before they slammed shut behind him.
"Why didn't you take the Gems from him?" Jay demanded. "He's just going to sell them!"
"The reason is twofold," Chiron said, "firstly, the Gems already bonded to him. Once a bond is made, it cannot be broken."
Christina looked down at the morphers on her wrists.
So I'm stuck with these? she thought. I don't want to fight anymore, but if we can't get a new Green Ranger…
"Secondly, the Gems wouldn't have bonded with him if he was truly a bad person," Chiron said. "As such, I believe that he'll do the right thing in the end."
Jay let out a long sigh.
"I guess it's kind of my fault," he said as he ran a hand through his hair. "I fought with him and made him come here. I should have offered instead, then maybe he would have stayed."
"We can't change the past," Chiron said, "but we can use it to improve the future."
Jay turned to the others, who had turned to look at him and Chiron talking.
"I could really use your help," Jay said. "Please. Help me save my friends."
"Not to mention the world," Mikhail said with a grin. "I'm in."
"I want to help anyone in need," Virginia said. "If your friends are in trouble, then I have to be there for them."
"I see how much you care about these people, Jay-kun," Jasmine said. "So I care about them too. And like Mikhail said, we'd be helping the whole world by defeating this monster!"
"Of course I'll help, Jay," Dan said. "You guys have been nothing but good to me. I need to continue to return the favor."
"Thanks guys," Jay said. "Now, I know Time Zones are different, so some of us might need to sleep, but we all need to train until Typhon shows himself again. I want all of us to be able to use our weapons and skills and be able to work together. So who's with me?"
The other Rangers voiced their agreement, and off training went.
An hour after the battle with Typhon…
"We've been walking for a while," Valerie said. "Are we even in Olympia Hills anymore?"
"I would assume so," Mera said. "Olympia Hills is a rather large city, so it is likely we are still within city limits.
"Shut up back there!" Typhon snapped. "I'll keep you quiet if I have to!"
Both girls fell silent as they continued along the sidewalk. It was night now, so there were few people on the streets, and the few that were heard of the Rangers' defeat and quickly ran inside.
Typhon led the super-powered Harpies into an abandoned warehouse, with the Rangers being dragged behind them in noticed the sign over the door had a fruit logo on it, but no words.
"Honey, I'm home!" Typhon shouted. His voice echoed through the mostly empty warehouse.
"Did you beat the Rangers, my husband?" a female voice asked from behind some stacked crates. A green woman slithered into view.
"Who the hell are you?" Nate asked. "You look like a less cool version of Medusa."
"I am Echidna, Queen of the Dark Order and Mother of Monsters!" Echidna snapped, "and you will show me proper respect!"
"Don't hold your breath," Nate replied.
"So not only did you destroy my children, you are also defiant to me and my husband!" Echidna said. "I know just what to do with you! Bring him forward!"
Two super-powered Harpies dragged Nate in front of Echidna before forcing him to kneel. Echidna slithered towards a table and grabbed a whip off it. She slithered back in front of Nate and whipped him on the shoulder.
"Ow!" Nate cried out. "What the hell is wrong with you? You don't just go around whipping people!"
"You destroyed 6 of my children, so I will give each of you Rangers 6 strikes, one for each...wait a minute…" she said as she counted out the Rangers, "Typhon, I think you missed one!"
"I spared the Red Ranger," Typhon said as he felt for the small cut before pointing it out to his wife. "It's mostly healed, but he actually managed to get a single cut on me. So I spared him. Besides, what can one Ranger do?"
"From my spies, I've heard there's at least 2 more, a Green Ranger and a Purple Ranger! He could gather them and launch a rescue attempt!" Echidna shouted, completely annoyed by Typhoon's choice.
"He only gave me one cut before I beat him," Typhon said. "And besides, I really injured him, so he'll be healing for a while."
"I always said that the Caucasian Eagle was stupid because of you!" Echidna said as she whipped at Typhon's face. "Because it certainly wasn't because of me!"
"Honey, I think you're overreacting," Typhon said as he caught the whip just inches from his face. "How about you take your frustrations out on the Rangers instead? You still have 35 more lashings to give if you want to keep your word. Let me worry about the Red Ranger and any friends he may bring."
"Fine," Echidna said as she calmed down and pulled back the whip. "Harpies! Chain the Rangers to the crates!"
The Harpies did just that, wrapping the chains around the Rangers and the crates. When they were done, the Rangers couldn't move their arms, legs or any other part of their bodies.
"Now, to begin your punishment…" Echidna said as she slithered over in front of Nate, "I think I'll start with you for your rudeness!"
Typhon watched as his wife got her revenge on the Rangers.
If I had just been released with the others, he thought, we could have defeated the Rangers sooner and my children would still be alive. Then again, they're just back in Tartarus...If we could just get Gryphon to free them again like he did before…
At the same time as the Rangers are training...
Gryphon looked into the workroom from his place in the shadows before stepping out when one of the Cyclopes, Steropes, walked near his corner.
"What's taking so long?" he demanded. "It's been over two weeks in the human world, and you have nothing for me!"
"It's taking a little longer than expected," Steropes said. "The same thing actually happened with Zeus' Thunderbolts. He told us we had a century, it took us about 3! But that was just getting the shape right and…"
"So what's the problem with my weapons?" Gryphon growled. "Why are they proving so difficult for you?"
"Just a little rusty," Steropes said. "Anyway, there is something else we need."
"What do you want?" Gryphon asked.
"Well…" Steropes said, "while the weapons are almost finished, we need a god's power to put them on the same level as Zeus' Thunderbolts, Poseidon's Trident and Hades' Helm of Darkness. While they may be durable pieces of special metals, they are mostly just an ordinary sword and shield."
"A god's power, eh?" Gryphon said. "I'll see what I can do. Until then, keep working! I'll be back with that power source."
"Take this," Steropes said as he handed Gryphon a bronze longsword. It was more of a standard sword than Gryphon's had been, perfectly balanced and sharpened, as well as without the extra divots in the blade Gryphon's old blade had had.
"We at least finished the sword,' Steropes explained. "Use it to help gain a god's power."
Gryphon nodded as he replaced his own sword with this new one before he stepped out of the barrier and into the volcano. He flapped his wings once and took off.
I'll just steal the power from a Ranger, the human voice in him thought. If I can get one alone, I should be able to steal their power.
Time's running out, the animal voice said growled. Soon, the true Gryphon will be free!
Around 10 AM the next morning…
"Alright, I think we've got it!" Jay said. "We've got a solid plan to defeat Typhon!"
He looked at the mosaic computer and the time that was on it before looking at the others.
"Good thing today's a teacher in-service day at school," Jay said, "or else I would have to explain why the other Rangers aren't there."
"You all are teenagers going to the same school?" Virginia asked, "and you all serve as Power Rangers together? You must have a close bond to be able to be together for so long."
"Yeah, we really do," Jay said as he thought about his friends, but especially Valerie. "More than you know."
"Shouldn't we get moving?" Mikhail asked impatiently. "We need to find Typhon and take him down."
"We can when we know where he is," Dan said as he walked up to Chiron, who was on the mosaic computer after having helped train the new recruits. "Any luck, Chiron?"
"Nothing yet," he said as Christina walked into the room from the Zord hanger and he turned to look at her. "How's the new formation working?"
"The Zords are fully restored," Christina said as she pulled off the gloves she had been wearing. "Luckily, Victor did most of the work when he planned Project Alpha. I just had a few basic fixes. I only worked on it for an hour after coming back here from home and I'm already done."
"Can we see what this new formation looks like?" Jay asked.
"Sure, I just need to…" Chiron said as the alarm went off and he changed the mosaic computer screen to show the cause. "Maybe later. Right now, it looks like…"
"Gryphon?" Jay asked as he looked at the screen. "I haven't seen him in weeks! I was hoping he just gave up. Looks like I'm not that lucky."
"Remember that Gryphon was part of the Dark Order," Chiron said, "so this attack may have been coordinated with Typhon. Be careful."
"Alright, Rangers," Jay said as he turned to his new team. "I know this isn't what we trained for, but we should still be able to defeat Gryphon together."
"Right!" the other four Rangers agreed as Jay led them to the Doors of Janus.
"Open a Door," Jay said as he looked to Christina, who was taking over for Chiron on the mosaic computer. "We've got a Gryphon to beat."
"Alright," Christina said as she typed a few keys and the Doors flew open. "You are good to go."
"Let's get to it," Jay said as he led the Rangers through the Doors.
"Their sensors should have picked up on my presence," Gryphon said, "Hades might have too. I have to be quick, before he plans a move against me."
The new Rangers followed Jay down the street before they all stopped a few feet from Gryphon. Considering he was on a streetlamp, that was probably the best course of action for the Rangers in order to have more mobility.
"If it isn't...who the hell are you guys?" Gryphon asked as he looked down at the newcomers. "I recognize Jay, but the rest of you...where are the other Rangers?"
"I assumed you would know!" Jay shouted. You know, considering your father took them! Where are my friends?"
"So, Mother and Father finally made a move," Gryphon muttered. "I was wondering how long it would take them."
He raised his voice to converse with Jay again.
"So you got these second-rate replacements?" Gryphon remarked. "They're not even wearing the right colors!"
The replacement Rangers looked down at what they were wearing.
"He has a point," Jasmine said as she examined her white school uniform she was still wearing. "Though not all Rangers wear their colors normally."
"Hey, who are you calling second-rate?" Mikhail asked as he felt his rage beginning to build. He took a step forward.
"Calm down, Mikhail," Virginia said as she lightly pulled him back. "You've heard what Gryphon has done to the Rangers before from Jay. They barely won in their last encounter."
"I would listen to your orange-clad friend," Gryphon said as he drew his new sword. "This is even better than I could have hoped for. Instead of 7 Rangers who know most of my moves, I've got 2 skilled Rangers and 3 rookies. I only need one of you. Any volunteers?"
"No one's going with you anywhere," Jay said. "You guys ready? Because it's Morphing Time!"
All of the Rangers nodded and crossed their arms over their chests
"Aqua Olympian Power!" Jasmine shouted as her gems glowed.
"Orange Olympian Power!" Virginia cried as her gems glowed as well.
"Crimson Olympian Power!" Mikhail roared as his gems began to glow like the other two's.
"Purple Olympian Power!" Dan said as his gems glowed too.
"Red Olympian Power!" Jay said as his gems glowed the brightest.
With a flash of multi-colored light, the Rangers were transformed.
"Whoa!" Jasmine said as she looked down at her hands, "I feel so much stronger than when I had just gotten my Olympian Gems!"
Her suit was aqua, like her gems, with an aqua skirt, golden omega symbol, belt, shin guards and morphers and a black visor in the shape of a peacock's tail with gold outlining around it.
"So this is what it feels like…" Virginia muttered as she looked down at her suit.
Her suit was orange, like her gems, with an orange skirt, golden omega symbol, belt, shin guards and morphers and a black visor in the shape of a flame with gold outlining around it.
"Let's kick some ass!" Mikhail shouted as he took a powerful stance.
His suit was crimson, like his gems, with a golden omega symbol, belt, shin guards and morphers and a black visor in the shape of a twin headed ax with gold outlining around it.
Dan summoned his thyrsus and twirled it around.
"I'm missing work right now, and I'm going to make you pay for it!" he said as he continued to twirl. "But man did I miss this feeling!"
"I know it feels different the first few times you morph," Jay said as he took a fighting stance, "but we need to stay focused. You morphed during training so you know how to use your powers, but we need to keep our eye on the prize: defeat Gryphon then find Typhon."
The others stopped admiring themselves and took a fighting stance too.
"Sorry, I just didn't get a chance to admire my new suit too much, Jay-kun," Jasmine apologized, "but I think we're ready now."
The others nodded as they summoned their weapons. Dan already had his, but he still called out the name.
"Marriage Scepter!" Jasmine yelled as a scepter appeared in her hand in a flash of aqua light. It had a silver body and an aqua sphere on the end of it.
"Hearth Torch!" Virginia shouted as a torch appeared in her hand in a flash of orange light. It was an orange color, but still looked like semi-natural wood, and had an orange flame burning at the tip.
"War Ax!" Mikhail cried as a giant twin-headed battle ax appeared in his hands in a flash of crimson light. It had a crimson neck and handle with a large silver blade on 2 of the sides on one end.
"Vine Thyrsus!" Dan shouted as he stopped twirling the purple colored staff with green vines around it and aimed it at Gryphon, who was still on the streetlight.
"Lightning Sword!" Jay announced as his familiar red hilted sword with a gold blade appeared in his hands in a flash of red light.
"Let's…" Jay started.
"Go!" Mikhail interrupted as he ran forward. He leapt into the air and did a flip before swinging his War Ax in a mighty arc with both hands.
Gryphon leapt off the street light and over the attack before kicking Mikhail in the back of the head and slashing his back with his sword. Mikhail fell to the ground, sprawled out with his ax in front of him, as Gryphon gracefully landed.
"I was going to say make a plan," Jay said. "Great. We're already down one more Ranger. Everyone, we outnumber Gryphon. Let's use our numbers and teamwork to our advantage!"
The others nodded as they charged forward. Jasmine, Virginia and Dan only went some distance forward before stopping. Virginia pointed her Hearth Torch at Dan and some of the flame burst out and hit him. Instead of hurting him, it instead gave him an orange aura. Dan pointed his Vine Thyrsus at Gryphon and many large grapevines came out of the pavement and flew at him. There were both more grapevines than usual, as well as the fact that they were thicker than usual.
The grapevines snaked past Jay, who was running towards Gryphon, and wrapped around the bronze warrior. Gryphon struggled as he tried to snap the vine with his strength, but the thicker grapevine wasn't budging. The orange aura around Dan faded quickly, but it had done its job.
"How?" Gryphon asked. "You may have captured monsters before, but I am much stronger than them! How are your grapevines so much stronger now?"
Dan looked at Virginia.
"Should we tell him?" he asked.
"I don't think so," Virginia said as she thought back to her training and how she learned about her power…
Flashback
"All of the Olympian Rangers have a special power," Chiron explained to the new Rangers, as well as Dan and Jay, both of whom were also learning, "Jay, as Red Ranger, has the power to control Lightning; Nate, the Blue Ranger, has power over water; Victor, Black Ranger, can manipulate fire; Mera, as the Yellow Ranger, can create new weapons out of thin air; Valerie, the Pink Ranger, has compatibility with all of the other weapons and powers and can create explosive hearts."
"I've barely seen Mera use that power," Jay commented, "and didn't Victor create Valerie's compatibility with his upgrade to her bow?"
"Sounds like the guys use their powers the most," Jasmine said, "interesting…"
"Anyway," Chiron said as he cleared his throat. "The Gold Ranger, Adrian, actually has two powers: the ability to heal others and the power to see the future, though he has very little control over the latter, which might explain why he has two…Either way, Diana, as Silver Ranger, has super speed like the deer does…"
"Matches her Zord, I guess," Dan said.
"Less chatter, please," Chiron said. "I'm getting to the other powers. Dan, the Purple Ranger, can create and manipulate grapevines; Christina has the power to manipulate nature as the Green Ranger. And as for you three…"
He pointed at Mikhail.
"Being the Crimson Ranger gives you increased strength that multiplies when used aggressively," Chiron said.
"Work for me," Mikhail said.
Chiron moved over to Jasmine.
"You have the power to bless or curse someone," he said, "Hera wasn't really a goddess who fought that much, so her powers are less aggressive."
"Odd…" Jasmine said, "but ok."
Chiron pointed to Virginia.
"Hestia has powers derived from the Flame of the Gods so, as Orange Ranger, you can enhance other Rangers powers for a short time, usually one attack or use."
"Understood," Virginia said with a nod.
"As with all of the powers, you three do have limits," Chiron explained, "so I wouldn't suggest overusing them. They drain energy fast with multiple uses. Eventually, you'll demorph or, if pushed more, could end up way worse."
"And on that note…" Jay said, "let's actually practice with your powers and weapons."
Later…
"You have a torch, right?" Jay asked as he walked over to Virginia. Both were morphed, but didn't have their helmets,
"Like Chiron said," Jay continued, "you have the power to enhance other's abilities like a weaker version of the Flame of the Gods."
He pointed to the brazier in the corner with the golden flame.
"Christina used the Flame of the Gods before," Jay said, '"so I asked her to come over to talk with you."
With that, he waved to Christina and beckoned her to come to the two of them. Christina walked up.
"Talking about the Flame, right?" she said. "It all happened when the Rangers were trapped in another dimension. I stuck my hand into the Flame and wished for them to come back. The Flame didn't burn me and allowed me to use some of its power. I assume it was only a fraction of what it can do. I would just try wishing really hard to help a Ranger and try it."
"Ok," Virginia said as she grabbed her helmet, "Jay, can I try it on you?"
"Sure," Jay said as he grabbed his own helmet. Both put their helmets on as Virginia prepared to use her power...
End Flashback
"Let's keep it a secret between Rangers," Virginia said, "I've got to rest for a moment. That took a good deal out of me. Something tells me I'll only get three or four boosts until I have to demorph, so let's save the rest for now and let the others do their part."
Gryphon growled as he tried to break through the grapevines again, but they weren't moving at all.
"Jasmine, now!" Jay shouted as he leapt up into the air.
Jasmine nodded and used her scepter to create a ball of aqua energy with white energy around it. She hurled it using the scepter at Jay and it flew into him as Jay summoned lightning onto his blade before he struck Gryphon vertically.
"Red Lightning Strike!" Jay shouted as he slashed.
The blade caught itself in a weak part of Gryphon's armor and pulled off a bit of armor above his chest, leaving a small gap between Gryphon's helmet and chestplate.
Jay landed on the ground and examined the damage. He noticed that he could see through the chainmail that was under the armor to see…
"You're half human?" he asked. Indeed, it appeared that way, as there was a 50-50 split in the middle of Gryphon's body, with half being caucasian human skin and the other half being tan and hairy. Gryphon growled as part of his secret was revealed.
He's not supposed to know until later! the human voice in Gryphon's mind shouted. This armor is supposed to be stronger than that! How did he break through it?
"Nice job with the blessing, Jasmine," Jay said. "It's an odd power, but I think we're making good use of it."
"I agree, Jay-kun," Jasmine said with a nod.
While Jay was standing in front of Gryphon, sword pointed at the gap in his armor, Mikhail finally got up.
"Alright, time to kick some…" he shouted before he noticed the scene in front of him. "Damn it. Is it over?"
"Basically," Dan said as the Rangers gathered around the captured Gryphon. "So, Jay. What do we do with him?"
"We need answers," Jay said. "Starting with who you are. Really. Because you're not just Gryphon. From what we learned, they're pure, but humanoid, animals. You've got some human in you. So, what gives?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Gryphon sneered through his helmet. "You'll find out, in due time."
"Answer me, damn it!" Jay demanded. "Do you have someone trapped in there?"
"Oh, no one's trapped," Gryphon said. "This combination's completely beneficial for both parties."
"Jay, why don't we just take his helmet off?" Dan asked, "there's nothing stopping us."
He reached to pull it off, but his hands were forced back by some magical force.
"Only when a Dark Order member wills it can his helmet be removed," Gryphon said. Jay could tell he was smirking under his helmet.
"Fine," Jay said. "Where's your father? Or, more specifically, where's the father of the real Gryphon half? Where's Typhon?"
"I don't know," Gryphon said, "and I wouldn't tell you even if I did. That takes all of the fun out of it. I can assume that your friends are probably being tortured right now. At least, that's my guess with how my mother was after you slew the rest of the Dark Order."
"Who's the Dark Order again?" Jasmine asked.
"The bad guys we need to stop," Mikhail said. "Chiron explained them to us when telling us about Typhon."
"Right…" Jasmine said as she thought back to that lesson…
Flashback
Jay had just gone to take a rest, and Christina had already gone home, so it was just Chiron, Dan and the three new recruits in the main room of the Temple.
"So who exactly are we fighting?" Mikhail asked eagerly.
"His name is Typhon," Chiron said, "and he is the King of the Dark Order."
"And the Dark Order is bad, I'm assuming?" Jasmine asked.
"You've heard of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table?" Chiron asked. The others nodded that they had.
"Think of them as the villain version of that group," Chiron said as he pulled up videos of the Rangers fighting them, with such fights as Nate, Victor, Mera and Valerie against the Colchian Dragon Knight, Mera and Nate vs the Crommyonian Sow Knight, when Victor and the Caucasian Eagle Knight had fought and all seven of the main Rangers facing Gryphon and Chimera.
"But the Rangers beat them?" Virginia asked.
"Yes," Chiron said with a nod, "but they never fought Typhon, their king, until today."
He showed footage of the battle that Jay had described before. The two girls flinched every time Typhon landed an attack. Eventually, the fight ended with Jay retreating, just as he had said.
"When Jay returns, you will talk strategy," Chiron said. "Jay has been thinking about it all day, and while I can help, I cannot decide the strategy for you. You must all agree on a plan of taking him on."
End Flashback
"Chiron did talk about them!" Jasmine said.
"She doesn't have the best memory, does she?" Dan whispered to Jay.
"I think it's just mentally learning things," Jay whispered back. "She kept up with the training, so she can physically learn well. I don't know. She did almost fail English in school."
"Back to Gryphon," Mikhail said as he interrupted the two whispering. He picked Gryphon up by the neck armor and held him in the air.
"Why did you attack us?" he asked. "If you're not working for Typhon…"
"I have my reasons," Gryphon said as he seemed to smirk under his helmet again, "and I think I have a question for you."
"Go ahead," Jay said. "We'll be as helpful as you've been, probably, but go ahead and ask."
"How long did you really think you could hold me?" Gryphon asked as he unfurled his wings. The sudden expansion was too much for the grapevines to take, and they quickly snapped.
Gryphon used his wings to fly about 4 feet off the ground, grabbed his sword, and flew past the Rangers, who scattered to dodge, before u-turning and grabbing the closest Ranger.
"Jasmine!" Jay shouted as Gryphon held her in place with an arm around her midsection and his sword pointed at her neck.
"I have another question for you, Red Ranger," Gryphon said, "and you will tell me the real answer or this girl dies!"
The other Rangers slowly started to move closer before Gryphon backed up the same amount, dragging Jasmine down the street.
"Don't get any closer!" he said. "You don't want your new teammate's blood on your hands, do you?"
"Ask your question," Jay said.
"What grants you the powers of the gods?" he asked. "Why do you have your abilities?"
Jay growled. He didn't want to tell Gryphon anything about their powers, but he didn't really have a choice. One of his new teammates was in trouble, and he wasn't going to lose someone else to the enemy...or death.
"The Olympian Gems chose us," he said as he tapped the right gem on his wrist with his left hand. "They contain the essence of a god. A portion of their power."
"That's why Hades wanted them originally, before switching to going after the Flame of the Gods!" Gryphon realized, "I never paid enough attention! Why couldn''t Hades just steal your gems? Is there a reason I can't just take them?"
"Once bonded, the bond can't be broken," Jay said, recalling what Chiron had told him before when Marcus left. "So, once they bond to someone, they're useless to everyone else. You could steal our gems, but you couldn't steal our power."
"I need unbonded gems…" Gryphon said to himself, "and there's only one god left who might have them, especially with these new Rangers bonded to the other gems…"
He was so entrapped in his speaking to himself that he didn't notice the twin-headed battle ax coming towards his exposed neck until it was too late. The blade didn't cut very deep, but it still hurt him, even through his remaining chainmail. Gryphon stepped back with a yelp, letting go of Jasmine, who Jay ran and grabbed before she hit the ground. Gryphon let out a growl before taking to the sky, still clutching his wound.
"Next time, Red Ranger," he growled. "Next time you won't be able to count on your friends, old or new, and things will be very different!"
With that, he flew away from the battle.
The Rangers sighed in relief, with Jay still holding Jasmine from hitting the ground. The Rangers demorphed as Jay helped Jasmine up. She stumbled into him as she stood up before he helped her right herself.
"You saved me, Jay-kun," Jasmine said. "Thank you!.
"Uh...Mikhail saved you," Jay said, "but I did help, so you're welcome."
I wonder if he'll figure it out, Dan thought as he looked at the two as they talked for a minute. She's definitely into him and he's oblivious. How's she going to react when she meets Valerie?
He was shaken from his thoughts by Jay speaking to all of them.
"Well, that didn't give us any leads," Jay said as he looked at his watch, "and it's only noon now. I know time zones are different and some of you might be tired, but we have to search for the others."
"Jay, I just got something," Christina's voice said from the morpher. Jay put it up close to his mouth.
"What do you have for me, Christina?" he asked.
"We searched for their Olympian Gem signatures and found them near the edge of the city," Christina said through the morpher. "Sorry it took so long, it was more complicated than I thought. Anyway, if you go through a Door to the Temple from your current location, we could then send you close to their location."
"Sounds good," Jay said. "Open a Door for us."
A door to an office building began to have a blue outline around it as the Rangers walked up to it. Jay opened the Door and let the others through first.
"Here's hoping this works out in the end," he said as he went through and the door shut behind him.
Gryphon grumbled as he continued his flight towards Mt. Vesuvius.
"I thought that with all of those new Rangers that they would be inexperienced, but even they beat me!" he said to himself before looking down at his hands. "Am I really that weak now? What happened to me?"
He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice a shadowy Hermes flying in at him quickly. Gryphon heard a whoosh and looked up in time for Hermes to smack him upside the head with his caduceus. Gryphon went flying out of control and crashed into a very snowy mountain. The snow managed to cushion some of the impact, but Gryphon could still feel some pain in his back from where he had crashed and some pain in his face from where he had been struck. He growled before standing up and shaking his wings to get the snow off. He flapped his wings once and took off into the air, straight at Dark God Hermes.
"Who sent you and why do you look like Hermes?" Gryphon asked, remembering Hermes from when he had been leading the captured gods to Hades' Palace and the jail underneath. But he definitely didn't have the shadowy aura that he had now.
"I am Dark God Hermes!" Dark God Hermes said, "I was infused with Hades' power and sent to capture you. I was ordered to bring you back alive, but he never said how alive."
He grinned darkly at that statement before coming in for another strike, this time from above. Gryphon drew his new bronze longsword and barely blocked the strike.
Hades must have this power to give now that most of the Flame of the Gods is his, the human voice in Gryphon said. Otherwise the Rangers would have been destroyed months ago. Then again, I could be destroyed now!
Just hit him harder! the animal voice roared. Rip his guts out! Stab him in the head! Eat his brain!
First of all, ew, the human voice said. Second of all, no one likes a back seat driver.
Gryphon slashed horizontally with his sword, but Dark God Hermes blocked it with his caduceus before whirling around and smacking Gryphon in the helmet with it.
Gryphon roared in annoyance and pain as Dark God Hermes flew around him, attacking from every possible angle. His armor began to crack in multiple places as the human in Gryphon became more and more angry.
Nothing will stop me from taking my revenge against Jay! the human voice shouted inside Gryphon. Not some pesky little Dark God. Not the other Rangers. Not anybody!
Somehow, the dark energy powering Dark God Hermes began to flow over to Gryphon through the sword, though neither noticed it.
Gryphon began to glow with a bronze aura, which was stronger than it had ever been, as he slashed an x in the air in front of Dark God Hermes before stabbing into it.
"Gryphon's Fire!" he shouted as a stream of bronze flame flew forward at Dark God Hermes. Dark God Hermes laughed as he just flew around it before coming in at Gryphon to strike again. However, this time, Gryphon was ready. He reached out with his hand and grabbed Dark God Hermes' neck at speeds faster than Dark God Hermes could dodge. By now, the shadowy aura around Hermes was almost gone and a bronze aura was glowing around Gryphon as he flew downwards, holding Dark God Hermes by his neck the whole way. They crashed into a forest and created a crater. Some trees were blown over and snapped by the force of the drop.
Dark God Hermes wasn't moving as Gryphon stood over him, the aura slowly dying down. However, he still felt more powerful than he had at the start of the battle.
What the hell was that? the human voice asked. I somehow just absorbed his power and made it my own. What gives?
I have never seen that before, the animal voice said. It is not one of my powers to steal strength. I am just as much in the dark as you are.
Perhaps this sword has something to do with it? the human voice asked as Gryphon examined the blade before sheathing it, I had better go ask the Cyclopes and see if they finished my shield. The plan to take a god's power from the Rangers was a bust, but I think I know where to go once the shield is finished.
He turned to look at Hermes, who was slowly coming to.
Where he came from...the Underworld, the human voice finished.
"You...saved me from Hades' influence," Hermes said as he slowly got up. "Why?"
"It wasn't for your benefit," Gryphon said. "It was for mine."
"I don't believe that," Hermes said. "There is still good in you. I can sense it."
Gryphon stepped towards Hermes.
"There is no good in me, and I'll prove it," Gryphon said as he grabbed Hermes by the neck again and flew up before hurling him towards the horizon. "Find the goodness in that."
Hermes flew for about five minutes in an arc before landing in a dumpster in a city. Somehow, he had avoided all of the buildings and anything else blocking his way. He looked over at the newspaper lying on the ground next to the dumpster.
He read it to himself and smiled.
There was good in that, whether you meant it or not, Hermes thought as he climbed out of the dumpster. Because this is exactly where I need to be.
As he walked away the newspaper was picked up by the wind and thrown forward, revealing the words "The London Times".
Nate cried out again as the whip struck him for what felt like the millionth time.
"Whatever happened to 36 lashes?" he weakly joked. He was glad that the chains were tight enough to hold him close to the crate. Otherwise, his legs would have given out a long time ago.
"My wife," Typhon said as he noticed how weak the Rangers were now from exhaustion, their wounds from their battle with him and the marks on their bodies from the whippings. "Is this really necessary? Why not just put them out of their misery?"
"Maybe they have suffered enough…" Echidna said thinking about it before changing her mind, "and maybe they haven't!"
She lashed out with her whip again, striking Mera this time. She yelped in pain.
"How does torturing the Rangers help us take over the world and remake it as we see fit?" Typhon asked. "If we kill them, then we can focus on that!"
"Fine," Echidna said, "I wanted them to feel the pain I felt when my children died at their hands, but if you really just want them gone…"
Echidna slithered away from her place in front of the Rangers as Typhon took her place. He was about to attack when his tongue flicked out for a moment. His face turned to one of anger.
"The Red Ranger is here!" he shouted.
At the same time he shouted that, Jay, fully morphed and Hero Armored up, fell from the ceiling and landed in a superhero landing pose in between the wounded Rangers and Gryphon and Echidna. He slowly stood up and summoned his Lightning Sword.
"Now!" he shouted. An orange flame shot at him and created an orange aura around him. Jay raised his sword, summoning a red lightning bolt onto the blade before slashing vertically.
"Red Lightning Strike!" he shouted as he swung his sword down. The blade actually cut into Typhon's face, bisecting it and the rest of his body, armor and all. The two halves fell to the ground as Jay pointed his sword at Echidna.
"That was easier than I thought," he commented. "Now, how about you free my friends?"
"I think not!" a familiar voice said as Typhon leapt from the shadows and bit into Jay's upper leg with one gauntlet while punching him with the other repeatedly.
"What the hell is going on?" Nate asked. "We just watched Jay cut him down! What gives?"
"I've been meaning to shed my skin for a while," Typhon said as he gripped Jay's leg with his gauntlet and backhanded his sword away with the other. "Luckily, I can use it as a decoy while I snuck into the shadows with my super speed. I could smell you coming from a mile away. I don't know what you were thinking coming here alone. I thought you had other Rangers to call on."
"Oh, I do," Jay said. "You weren't the only one with a decoy."
"What...the captive Rangers!" Typhon shouted as the chains binding the captured Rangers fell to the ground. The six fell to their knees, their legs spent from holding themselves up all that time.
Meanwhile, Echidna was slithering away when a certain Aqua Ranger stepped in front of her from out of the shadows.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked as she put her hands out to block her.
"Who are you?" Echidna asked as the other Rangers stepped out of their hiding places. Dan was behind a stack of crates, Virginia was from a corner with an eyeline to Jay and Typhon and Mikhail was from behind the crates the captive Rangers had been chained to. He was holding his War Ax, obviously being the one who cut the chain.
"How did you escape my smell?" Typhon asked. "I should have been able to detect all of you!"
"We moved very slowly and had these," Virginia said as she gestured to the grapevine around her suit. In fact, all of the new Rangers had them, as well as Dan.
"Next time, don't use a jam warehouse as a hiding place when you're fighting someone with power over grapevines!" Dan said. "We used grapevines to hide our scent from you. The grapevine smell blended in with all of the other fruits the jams in this warehouse used!"
"Very well done!" Mera said. "It sounds like a plan I might have come up with myself. I am impressed."
"And I'm pissed off!" Typhon said. "So many Rangers! I suppose I'll just have to defeat you all this time!"
He hurled Jay towards the kneeling Rangers. Jay skidded along the floor before demorphing.
"Harpies!" Echidna shouted. "Even the odds for us!"
The super powered Harpies flew in from all sides and slashed at the still morphed Rangers with their claws and talons. Virginia managed to get close to the weakened Rangers and safety, but the others weren't so lucky. They were launched to the group of Rangers and demorphed. The super powered Harpies circled up around Typhon and the Rangers.
"I have an idea," Virginia, the only morphed Ranger, said, "but I need your help."
She pointed to Adrian.
"I'm still weakened," he said, "but I'll try."
"Just morph and summon your Sun Staff," she said.
Adrian stood up and morphed in an instant before summoning his Sun Staff. Virginia pointed her torch at him and propelled the flame to form an orange aura around him.
"Now try to heal everyone," she said.
"I can only heal one person at a time," Adrian said, "I'm not some cleric from a video game. Plus, it takes a lot out of me."
Jay looked up at Adrian.
"Just do it," he ordered.
"Ok…" Adrian said as he activated his healing powers. Multiple golden orbs flew out of the staff and flew into all of the Rangers. They all glowed their Ranger colors as they slowly but surely stood up. The scraps and cuts and bruises all disappeared and all of the Rangers, new and old, looked good as new. Virginia demorphed from the exertion of her power, as did Adrian.
"It worked," Adrian said as he looked at Virginia in surprise. "How did you do that?"
"I boost another Ranger's powers," she explained. "Now, I think our leader has something to say."
Jay nodded that he did indeed have something to say.
"This is the largest gathering of Olympian Rangers we've ever had," he said, "let's show them what we can do! It's Morphing Time!"
All of the Rangers lined up and crossed their arms over their chests as their Olympian Gems glowed with power.
"Aqua Olympian Power!"
"Orange Olympian Power!"
"Crimson Olympian Power!"
"Purple Olympian Power!"
"Silver Olympian Power!"
"Gold Olympian Power!"
"Pink Olympian Power!"
"Yellow Olympian Power!"
"Black Olympian Power!"
"Blue Olympian Power!"
"Red Olympian Power!"
With a flash of multi-colored light, the eleven Rangers were morphed.
"Everyone, stay in pairs!" Jay ordered, "I'll be the only one alone. Defeat as many Harpies as you can, then go for Typhon and Echidna!"
The others nodded in agreement as they summoned their weapons.
Jay led the charge towards the enemy as the Rangers ran forward to fight the Harpies.
Jay flipped over the Harpies before slashing at Typhon.
"No shedding your skin this time!" he shouted as he slashed. "I've seen all your tricks!"
Typhon backed up and Jay only sliced air.
"Not all of them, Ranger," he hissed as he lunged forward while Jay was off balance and had two golden swords come out of his gauntlets, which slid back to allow his hands out. Each sword had a golden hilt and straight silver blade. Typhon slashed at Jay with his left blade, but Jay parried before slashing at him again. Typhon used his right blade to block.
"I don't see that same spark in you that you had last time," Typhon taunted. "Afraid you're going to fail your team again?"
"Not today, not ever," Jay said as he used the zigzag pattern of his blade to slide down Typhon's sword, causing sparks to fly before whirling around with a low sweep with his leg.
"I'm starting to see the spark again," Typhon said. "Show me what you can do!"
Jay slashed vertically at Typhon's face again, but Typhon blocked with both of his swords in an "x" shape.
"I don't even remember why I spared you!" Typhon shouted. "The original Olympian Rangers did so much better! Zeus defeated me slowly but surely. You're just fighting slowly!"
"Taste lightning, you big bully," Jay shouted. "Red Lightning Stream!"
Jay backflipped away before summoning red lightning and firing a stream of it from the flat of his blade, with one hand on the hilt of the sword and one on the other end and the lightning coming from the middle.
"That's all you've got?" Typhon said as he blocked the attack with his swords. But he was expecting Jay to stop and Jay wasn't stopping his attack.
Typhon was finally pushed back as the lightning pushed against his twin swords, still in the "x" shape. He slowly pushed forward, but eventually the stream was too much and he stopped pushing forward. Instead, he was sent flying backwards into some wooden crates. Splinters flew from the impact as Jay stopped his stream of lightning.
Typhon leapt out of the crate fragments. He looked enraged. His armor was also cracked right in the chest, though it appeared that Typhon hadn't noticed it.
"Big mistake, you Olympian God wannabe!" Typhon shouted as he slashed rapidly with his swords. "You're history, just like your predecessor!"
Jay tried to block some of the slashes, but was eventually overwhelmed. He backed away, still blocking and now trying to think of a new strategy he could employ until the others could come to aid him.
Meanwhile, the other Rangers were facing down the Harpies, just as Jay had ordered.
Valerie aimed an arrow at a Harpy and fired while flipping away from another Harpy's talons. She landed behind Jasmine, putting them back to back.
"Hi, I guess you're my partner for this," Valerie said, "I'm Valerie. I mostly shoot arrows, though I can do some close combat too. What's your name?"
"I'm Jasumin, but you can call me Jasmine," Jasmine said as she blocked a Harpy's claw strike with her scepter, "I can curse and bless things by hurling an orb at my target. It's basically just luck control. It worked for Jay-kun and I before."
"Jay-kun?" Valerie asked.
"It's what I call Jay," Jasmine explained. "To be honest, that honorific is for boys who are close to the speaker in my culture. I call him that because I want us to be closer."
Oh no! Valerie thought to herself as she kicked a Harpy away. Does she not know about Jay and I? Does he know how she feels? She shook her head to clear her mind of those thoughts. I don't have time for that right now. I need to defeat the Harpies and then help Jay!
"Throw a curse orb into the air!" Valerie shouted. "Right above us!".
"Ok!" Jasmine agreed. "I hope you have a plan!"
She created an aqua orb with red energy around it and hurled it straight up into the air. Valerie aimed her bow and shot it. The arrow pierced the orb and caused it to explode into mini orbs that slowly fell into the Harpies around them. There didn't seem to be an effect for a minute until one Harpie tried to leap at the two female Rangers. Its wings failed to open correctly and it fell on its face. Jasmine smacked it with the scepter while it was down before Valerie shot an arrow into its head and killed it.
"They look stronger, but they seem like they don't need too much more effort," Valerie commented as the two continued to fight. However, the Harpies kept having bad things happening to them. Some scratched their allies by mistake. Some fell on their faces like the previous one had. Overall, bad fortune appeared to have struck the Harpies around the two Rangers. In about two minutes after they had been hit, all of the Harpies were down and the two girls rushed to help Jay.
At the same time the girls had been talking, Victor and Mikhail found themselves back to back.
"You're the old powerhouse of the team?" Mikhail asked.
"Old? What do you mean old?" Victor said.
"I just meant that after this I was replacing you," Mikhail said. "No disrespect. You seem like a great Ranger, but come on! A hammer vs an ax? Who wins?"
I have to work with this guy? Victor thought as he brought his hammer down on a Harpy's head, sending it crashing to the ground. Seriously? We are nothing alike! Why would he replace me? Then again, he is the better fighter. But Jay wouldn't replace me...right?
In another part of the warehouse, Dan and Diana were working together, with Dan wrapping up the Harpies in grapevines and Diana sniping them while they struggled.
"Sorry I couldn't be there before," Dan said as he continued to wrap up Harpies, "but I came as soon as I could."
"I just feel bad for making you miss work again," Diana said as she shot another one with a silver energy arrow. "We keep doing it to you."
"Hey, for you guys, it's worth it," Dan said. "Besides, this is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. Meeting you and the other Rangers."
"Yeah, about that…" Diana said. "I know we're good friends, but that's all I really want to be. I feel like I'm leading you on, but I'm not trying to."
"Yeah, that's not a problem and no you're not," Dan said as he started to smack the trapped Harpies with the pinecone on the end of his Thyrsus. "I heard from Jay what happened a few weeks ago, and it confirmed what I already figured out."
"What do you mean?" Diana said as she continued to fire arrows at Harpies' heads. From her tone, she obviously knew what he meant.
"You like girls, right?" he asked.
Diana sighed.
"What gave it away?" she asked in return.
"You never seemed happy when the guys flirted with you when you went with us for ice cream one time and pizza the other. Jay also told me about how many letters you got at school and how you weren't interested in any of the guys."
"Can we talk about this more later?" Diana asked as they finished up with their Harpies. "We need to help Jay and defeat Typhon."
"Yeah," Dan said as he and Diana ran over to Jay and Typhon, who were still locked in one-on-one combat. "But this conversation is not over."
Mera and Virginia found themselves back to back at the same time the other Rangers had met their partners.
"You had quick thinking using your powers," Mera said as she stabbed her spear at a Harpie head, "I feel like you're a thinker like me."
"Not really," Virginia said as she waved her torch to force the Harpies back. "I just...had some inspiration. Chiron gave me all the pieces, I just had to put them together."
"And not many people would have been able to put those pieces together like that," Mera said. "But I cannot help but notice your lack of fighting ability."
"I'm not a pacifist," Virginia said as she gave a weak kick to a Harpy, pushing it just a little bit using the strength her suit granted her, "but I'm not a fighter either. I thought I would be able to just support you guys from a distance, but I guess not."
"Not a problem," Mera said as she swung her spear like a staff and smacked a Harpy in the head with the end without the point before flipping it around and stabbing, "Victor is not much of a fighter either, but he does manage quite well."
"I have one other idea," Virginia said. "You haven't used your power to the fullest potential yet."
"I am listening," Mera said.
"You create weapons, right?" Virginia asked, "So why don't you create a new weapon for yourself instead of launching spears like you normally do?"
Mera thought about it for a minute.
"I assumed my weapon was fixed as a spear," Mera admitted, "but I can try."
She closed her eyes and concentrated and her spear began to glow before turning into a large greatsword. She opened her eyes and looked at the large sword in her hands.
"Get down!" she shouted as she swung the sword around her, knocking Harpies back and slicing them at the same time. Luckily, Virginia had heard her warning and had gotten lower to the floor where the greatsword could go over her. Mera finished her arc and her greatsword turned back into her spear just in time for her to jab it into a Harpy's head.
"I might want to keep you around," Mera said as she leapt at another Harpy before launching some spears out of her spear. The spears struck the Harpy in multiple places, as well as the Harpies around it. With those Harpies down, the area was clear for Mera and Virginia to move to help Jay.
At the same time, Nate and Adrian were moving like a well oiled machine. Nate stabbed a Harpy in the gut with his trident before hurling it over his shoulder with his strength. Adrian blocked an attack with his Sun Bow's body before launching an arrow at a Harpy about to swoop down on Nate.
"Watch your back," Adrian said as he sniped a few more Harpies with his bow. "These things are everywhere!"
"You keep an eye on my back…" Nate said before he whirled around and stabbed right next to Adrian's helmet. Adrian was shocked until he heard the death shriek of a Harpy as it fell to the ground. Apparently one had been trying to sneak up on him, and he had missed it. If Nate hadn't noticed...
"And I'll keep an eye on yours," Nate finished before he whirled around and slammed his trident's body into a Harpy. He then used the leverage to flip it into the air and then sidekicked it into a wall when it was close to his leg.
"Haven't worked with you alone since Orthros," Adrian commented. "We work well together."
"Yeah," Nate said, "when you aren't stealing my trident out of my hand to launch at the enemy. Come to think of it, we were fighting Harpies then too."
Adrian nodded as he kicked a Harpy away with a roundhouse before shooting an arrow right into its face.
With that, they had defeated all of their Harpies, so there were no more in the warehouse. All ten of the other Rangers ran up to help Jay, but found their way blocked by Echidna.
"At first I was convinced Hades was just failing at beating you because of his incompetence," Echidna said. "Now I see that you just don't seem to know when to give up!"
She lashed out with her whip, striking the ground in front of the Rangers.
"If you know what's good for you, you'll stay back and let my husband and your Red Ranger finish their duel," Echidna threatened.
"Come on, it's just her!" Nate said as he stepped forward. "We can take her! She literally has no legs to stand on!"
"Hold on," Mera said as she put a hand out to block Nate's progress. "She must have some trump card if she thinks she can hinder us herself."
Nate shook his head as he shoved her hand aside.
"No, our fearless leader needs our help. We have to get past!" Nate shouted. "Diana, crimson guy! On my mark!"
"It's Mikhail," Mikhail said, "and you've got it!"
"Now!" Nate shouted as the three Rangers leapt at Echidna, weapons drawn.
"Fools," Echidna said as she backed away from the trident, dagger and ax strikes before spitting some clear venom from her mouth at the three Rangers.
The Rangers cried out as the venom struck them in the visor, melting it. They fell to the ground, writhing in pain before finally stopping. They stood up as one and whirled around to look at the other Rangers. Valerie gasped as she saw the crazed look in their eyes.
"Everybody back!" she shouted as the crazed Rangers roared like animals and ran at the other seven Rangers.
Nate stabbed his trident into Mera's chest plate, but found that the armor was too thick to penetrate. He roared again and punched Mera in the face with his other hand.
"Nate, get control over yourself!" Mera shouted as she rolled with the punch to minimize the damage before trying to grab him.
Diana leapt at Adrian, trying to stab into his helmet. Adrian managed to grab her wrists and tried to twist her hands to make her drop the daggers.
"Diana, it's me!" Adrian said as he struggled against her strength with his own. Diana just let out a shriek as a response.
Mikhail leapt at Jasmine, slashing with his ax at her head. She stood frozen in fear until Valerie tackled her to the ground and Mikhail flew over her and into some crates. He stepped out of the debris and roared again.
"They've gone wild!" Valerie shouted. "We have to contain them!"
"Normally I would be in charge if Jay and Nate are incapacitated," Mera said as she struggled against Nate to pull the Ocean Trident out of his hands, "but I have my hands full at the moment."
Valerie stood up and watched as Jasmine, Virginia, Victor and Dan turned to look at her.
"What's the play?" Dan asked.
"I was kind of hoping you guys had an idea," Valerie admitted.
"I actually do," Virginia said, "but it's going to take a lot of work. And all this time, Jay is fighting alone. We'll need all of the Rangers here for my plan to work, so we can't spare anyone to help Jay. You know, besides the fact that Echidna would just attack again with her venom if we got near her."
"We need someone who could get above and over her," Valerie said. "I don't suppose any of you can fly?"
There was the small sound of a Door being created as the door by the Rangers to what appeared to be a manager's office turned blue and opened. Out stepped a Ranger in white. His visor was a caduceus angled at 45 degrees, the same type that Hermes had had when the Rangers first met him, with snakes on either end wrapping around it. His morphers, shin guards and the trim around his visor were all gold, and he had white Olympian Gems on his morphers.
"They can't fly," the White Olympian Ranger said as he pulled off his helmet, revealing Marcus Reuter's face, short brown hair and all, "but I can."
"Marcus?" Virginia and Jasmine asked in surprise.
"Yeah," Marcus said. "It's me."
"Why did you come back?" Jasmine asked. "I thought you said that you didn't want to help."
"Well, isn't that the story to tell," Marcus said, "it started when I was in London a few minutes ago…"
Flashback
Marcus looked left and right before crossing the street. A car honked at him as he ran in front of it.
"You're on the wrong side of the road!" Marcus shouted as he ran past before reaching the sidewalk and shaking his head in disbelief. "Bloody American tourists. Think their way to do things is the right way. When you're in England, you've got to do things our way."
He looked around to make sure no one was watching and slipped into a side alley. He noticed someone was waiting in the alley for him. His face was hidden in shadow, but Marcus could tell from his body shape that this was a man.
"What do you get when you mix sausage and potatoes too much?" Marcus asked, slightly on edge.
"Bangers and Mash," the other man replied in an American accent.
Marcus relaxed a little.
"You're the buyer?" Marcus asked. "I'll admit, I usually only sell to those I know, but you offered enough and said they were for a good cause. It's strange you're American, though."
"Look, I don't have much time," the man said. "I need to get those gems somewhere safe."
"Yeah, yeah," Marcus said as he pulled the morphers out of his pocket. "Give me the money first."
The man lunged forward at superhuman speeds and grabbed the morphers out of Marcus' hands.
"These...are bonded already?" the man asked as he looked at them, "but to who?"
"Hey!" Marcus said as he noticed the morphers were now in the man's hands. "Give those back! Or give me the money, I don't really care. Just give me one of them!"
"Who are they bonded to?" the man asked.
"Oh, don't tell me you're one of those nutters who want to help the Rangers with their 'Olympian Gems'," Marcus said. "Look, they're bonded to me. Happy? Now give me the money!"
Marcus lunged at the other man, but he moved a few feet away in an instant.
"You...how are you doing that?" Marcus asked. "You aren't human!"
"An excellent observation, Marcus Reuter," the man said as the sun moved, moving the shadows to reveal the man to actually be Hermes, "I am indeed not human. I am the Greek God Hermes. I wouldn't expect such a deduction that I wasn't human from anyone less than my successor as the White Olympian Ranger."
"I don't want to be an Olympian Ranger, ok?" Marcus said. "Why can't you buggers take 'no' for an answer?"
Hermes activated the communication function for the morphers in his hands and Marcus could hear the battle going on with the other Rangers as they fought their wild teammates.
"They sound like they're in trouble," Hermes said, "and they could use your help."
"Give me one good reason," Marcus demanded.
Hermes walked over and whispered something into Marcus' ear. He backed up as Marcus' face changed to one of determination.
"Tell me what I need to do," he said as he revealed the morphers he had stolen back and strapped them back on, "because it looks like I'm not selling today."
End Flashback
"You ran into Hermes?" Valerie asked. "How is he? Is he safe? Is Hades after him now that he escaped?"
"All good questions for another time," Marcus said as he put his helmet back on, "now tell me this plan of yours."
A few minutes later, Marcus was running at Echidna.
"I don't know who you are," she said, "but you'll regret coming to aid the other Rangers!"
"I doubt it, luv," Marcus said as he leapt into the air. He suddenly soared over Echidna like gravity didn't exist for him. He landed just in time to summon his caduceus and strike Typhon in the face with it.
"What?" Typhon shouted. "How did you get past Echidna?"
"That's for me to know and you to never find out," Marcus said. "Now, I only got a crash course in my powers, but this seems like a good test run!"
He took a leap into the air and swooped past Typhon, striking him in the face again before u-turning and doing a double kick into his back. Jay backflipped away as Typhon went down.
"That should give us a moment to breathe," Marcus said. "Now, I hope you have a way to put him down permanently."
"I do," Jay said, "but we'll need the others to do it."
Meanwhile, Virginia used her torch to empower Dan again as Jasmine hurled curse orbs at the wild Rangers. Adrian was holding Diana with arms behind her back, Mera was barely holding back Nate and Victor was grappling with Mikhail. The three wild Rangers got hit by the orbs as the other Rangers pushed them towards each other. The wild Rangers tripped on seemingly nothing and tumbled towards each other.
"Now!" Virginia shouted as the three wild Rangers were in a perfect position.
Dan used his powers, boosted by Viriginia, to wrap the three up in a large grapevine. After it had fully enclosed them, the grapevine tied itself in a tight knot to hold them securely.
"I can't believe that worked," Adrian admitted.
"It kind of helped that they had a one-track mindset of destroying us," Victor said, "So they weren't paying attention to what we were coordinating or things happening around them."
The three wild Rangers roared as they struggled against the grapevine rope.
"Stay," Valerie joked.
Everyone looked at her in surprise.
"What? Nate's captured and Jay's fighting Typhon," Valerie said. "Someone had to make the joke."
"Speaking of Jay-kun," Jasmine said, "we need to get past Echidna and help him."
Valerie nodded to Victor.
"Blacksmith Arrow?" she asked before turning to Adrian and Mera, "and you guys do a Battle Arrow with Sun Power."
The two combination attacks were prepped and aimed at Echidna.
"Blacksmith Arrow!" Valerie shouted as she fired the arrow.
"Battle Arrow with Sun Power!" Adrian shouted as he fired his arrow.
The hammer hit Echidna in the head at the same time the golden-glowing spear struck her in her exposed stomach.
"My family! I have failed you!" Echidna shouted as she fell to the ground and exploded.
The ten Rangers ran over to Jay and Marcus just as Typhon was standing up again. Nate, Diana and Mikhail's visors had repaired themselves so they looked normal again.
"You destroyed my wife!" Typhon shouted, now even more enraged. "All of you will pay for that!"
"Not if you pay for capturing my friends first!" Jay shouted as he looked to others. "Time for the Omega Olympian Crossbow! Aim for the crack in his armor!"
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.
"Twelve Ranger Omega Strike!" Jay shouted as 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 respectively. Then Diana put her hand on Mera's shoulder and Adrian put his on Valerie's. Dan put his hand on Adrian's shoulder and Marcus put his on Diana's shoulder. Mikhail put his hand on Dan's shoulder and Virginia put her's on Marcus' shoulder. Finally, Jasmine put her hand on Mikhail's shoulder.
The Rangers began to glow with a golden light as their energy was all put into the Lightning Sword and Hunting Daggers.
"Fire!" Jay shouted as he pulled the trigger. The Lightning Sword and Hunting Daggers flew out of the Crossbow and struck Typhon in the chest. The sword stabbed right through the crack and made it into a hole that the Hunting Daggers went into before carving an omega symbol into Typhon's chest.
Typhon fell to the ground and exploded as the Lightning Sword and Hunting Daggers returned to their owners' hands just in time for the Rangers to whirl around and pose in front of the explosion.
"Good job, guys," Jay said as he prepared to turn around. "Now let's get out of..what?!"
He looked at where Typhon's remains should have been and saw that Typhon was still alive. He held up a golden apple.
"It's not over yet, Rangers," he said as he took a bite of the golden apple before he grew to the size of a skyscraper, crashing through the roof of the building as he did so. "It's not anywhere near over!"
He took a step forward, stomping through the roof and at the Rangers. The Rangers ran outside and looked up at the giant Typhon.
"He just doesn't know when to give up!" Nate remarked.
"Christina, send the Zords!" Jay ordered through his morpher.
"You've got it," Christina said on the other end as she typed away on the mosaic computer, "I'm sending the new Rangers' Zords too. Maybe they can help contain him."
"Thanks, Christina," Jay said as he watched the 12 Zords come from the sky and land.
From the sky came the Red Eagle Zord with the Pink Fish Zord in its talons, the Yellow Owl Zord, the Gold Raven Zord and a new Crimson Vulture Zord. The Vulture Zord was completely crimson except for its silver legs and talons and glowing green eyes.
From land came the Blue Horse Zord, the Black Bull Zord, the Silver Deer Zord, the Purple Leopard Zord, the Aqua Peacock Zord, the Orange Donkey Zord and a new White Tortoise Zord. The Tortoise Zord had a white pyramid-shaped shell with a golden underbelly and a white head and legs.
"New Rangers, get in the Zord that matches your color," Jay said. "I know you haven't piloted them yet, but the controls are pretty intuitive."
"Right," the new Rangers said as all 12 Rangers leapt into their Zords. The new Rangers Zord cockpits looked similar to the other Rangers, with the Vulture having a stick like a jet to control it and the others having twin throttles to control their Zords. In the back of the cockpit was the Ranger's visor in their color in the middle of a circle. All 12 Rangers put their Olympian Gems in the correct slots.
"We need as many bodies as we can get," Jay said, "so let's form into our separate Megazords. We'll form Icarus Mode for the extra mobility we'll have in the air. Along with the new Zords, we should be able to stop him."
"Right!" Nate, Victor, Mera, Valerie, Adrian and Diana agreed.
The core five Rangers turned the dial to ICARUS MODE and the Zords began to change.
The Bull Zord was the first to change, as the head came off, the body split apart and the legs flipped around 180ᣞ and the front and back legs combined.
The Horse Zord was next, as its head went into a chest cavity while the front and back legs combined together and connected to the Bull Zord legs, forming a complete waist, legs and feet.
The Eagle Zord was next. As its wings clipped off together in one long arc-shaped piece and its legs slid into its body before it connected to the Horse Zord, it was now forming the entire body of the combination. The Eagle Zord head screeched and opened up its mouth to fit the other side of the Bull Zord's head into it, revealing a robotic face.
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.
Lastly was the Fish Zord. As the entire dorsal fin and tail came off, it popped open completely in half before coming onto the Eagle Zord's body as a chest plate and combining together again. The tail folded into a plume that went onto the Eagle Zord's head to complete the helmet look. The horns from the Bull Zord head attached together and became a straight point before combining with the dorsal fin to create a large spear that went into the left hand. The Owl Zord body lengthened itself a bit before the head slid into a hole in the center, finishing the shield, which went on the right arm.
The Megazord launched into the air and the bow made up from the Red Eagle's wings detached from the back of the Megazord and split into its original wings before reattaching onto the back of the Megazord to form wings to carry it in the sky.
"Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode ready!" all five Rangers shouted as they all joined together in a single 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.
"Let's form Silver Mode!" Adrian shouted as he flipped the switch to SILVER MODE while Diana did the same.
The Deer Zord leapt into the air as its 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.
The remaining Zords that didn't combine rallied around their Megazord brethren.
The Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode took to the air before swooping down with a spear strike. Typhon used his gauntlet to bite down on the point of the spear, leaving no visible damage on Typhon. He used the leverage his hold on the spear gave him to slam the Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode into the ground. The Rangers cried out as sparks flew around them.
The Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode stomped forward and slashed with one of its blades at Typhon's face. Typhon leaned back to dodge it before reversing his movement and headbutting the Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode with his helmeted head. The Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode stumbled back before correcting itself.
The other uncombined Zords moved in to attack. The Vulture Zord attacked his face with its talons, but Typhon grabbed it with his gauntlet's "mouth" and hurled it into a building. The Tortoise Zord slammed into Typhon's legs with its sturdy body. Typhon responded by turning his legs into a tail and whirling around, whipping it with his new tail before it transformed back to legs. The Tortoise Zord slid back, mostly undamaged but still out of the fight for a moment. The Donkey Zord snipped at Typhon with its ears and attempted to cut off the fangs on Typhon's gauntlet while the Peacock Zord tried to do the same with its tail. Typhon punched both Zords away with the metal body of the gauntlets, with the Zords' blades not even leaving a scratch on Typhon. The Leopard Zord whipped out with its tail at Typhon and wrapped it around his legs. Typhon turned them into a tail again and slithered through the grip before the eyes on the snake head on his front flashed red and it spit venom at the Leopard Zord. The Leopard Zord leapt back to dodge, only for Typhon to summon one of his swords and slash the Leopard Zord. The Leopard Zord was sent flying back by the sword attack.
The Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode finally stood up and stomped next to the Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode. The other Zords got up and grouped up around the Megazords again.
"Let's try with the Megazords again!" Nate shouted.
"It would be nice if we had another Megazord to fight with," Valerie said. "I feel like the individual Zords struggle on their own."
"Wait, Christina," Jay said into his morpher. "Didn't you have a new combination? You mentioned it after training and before Gryphon attacked."
"I do have a new combination," Christina said on the other end. "It should give you one more Megazord to work with. I just need to send the Serpent Zord and all six of the auxiliary Zords should be able to combine. I won't be there, but the autopilot should work fine."
"Let's do it," Mikhail said. "I want to be able to fight against this bastard better!"
"Sending it now," Christina said as she typed a few keys.
In about 30 seconds, the Green Serpent Zord burrowed out of the pavement next to the other Zords and slithered in front of them.
Dan, Marcus, Virginia, Jasmine and Mikhail all saw a red button light up in their cockpit and pressed it. The Zords moved into position.
The Peacock Zord's head and tail came off as the body shifted into a more foot-like shape, with some of the bottom sliding forward to make the end of the foot.
The Serpent Zord looped up and connected its tail into the Peacock Zord's body before the head bent 90 degrees and became a foot as the rest of the body segments became rigid and formed the legs and waist.
The Tortoise Zord connected to the top of the waist the Serpent Zord was forming with the top of the pyramid shell to the front. The head and legs retracted into the body as the head of the pyramid flipped down, revealing a red glowing square where the pyramid head had been and an Omega Symbol etched into the bottom of the Pyramid head.
The Leopard Zord connected as the left arm, just as it did when it became the arm of other combinations. The tail extended into a whip.
The Donkey Zord's ears detached as it became the right arm. The Peacock's head and tail combined into a circular shield and went onto the Donkey/Right Arm. The ears connected to the red square on the chest at a 45 degree angle, forming a "v" shape.
The front of the Vulture Zord bent backwards on a hinge, revealing a robotic face inside. The wings folding in such a way that they were sticking out of the sides of the head with the wavy part at the end. The head combined with the rest of the Megazord.
The Rangers came into a cockpit together, with Dan in the front with Marcus diagonally to his right, Mikhail diagonally on his left, Virginia diagonally behind Marcus and Jasmine diagonally behind Mikhail.
"This is the Gladiator Megazord," Christina said through their morphers.
"Gladiator Megazord, ready!" the five Rangers shouted.
The three Megazords stomped forward as one. The Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode grabbed Typhon's left arm and the Gladiator Megazord grabbed his right. The Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode took off into the air before looping around and swooping towards Typhon, spear out and glowing. The spear struck his armor and left a crack from the impact. The Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode landed behind Typhon as the other Megazords let go.
Typhon whirled around to look at the Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode and tried to launch venom at them using the snake mouth on his chest. The Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode leapt back to dodge. The Gladiator Megazord stepped forward, still on Typhon's right side and powered up its whip before sending it through the air at Typhon. The whip cracked against the weakened armor and made the entire snake head on his front come off.
"Now he can't attack with that venom-acid stuff anymore!" Nate said. "Great!...Now how do we beat him?"
"You see the big hole in his armor?" Jay asked, "we're going to hit him there."
"Oh," Nate said, "I just assumed that was too obvious. This chapter's been going on for over 23,000 words. Thought maybe we were going to go even longer."
"I...what?" Jay asked before shaking his head. "Never mind. Everyone, let's finish him!"
The three Megazords lined up in front of Typhon, who was trying to cover his entire exposed chest. The Rangers could see chainmail under it, but it wasn't nearly as strong as his normal armor and they could also see Typhon's green scales matching his face.
"Prepare final attacks!" Jay ordered.
"Hunter's Fury!" Adrian and Diana shouted as the Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode did a mighty x-slash made of silver energy with its blades and launched it at Typhon.
"Emperor's Judgement!" Dan, Marcus, Mikhail, Virginia and Jasmine shouted as the Gladiator Megazord's whip glowed purple before the Megazord lashed out repeatedly with it. Each whip strike dealt more and more damage as momentum was built up. Finally, the attack let up, only for the Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode to swoop in from the back and lift Typhon into the air. Typhon was too stunned by the attacks to try to escape.
The Megazord hurled Typhon into the air before flying around and above him.
"Too-Close-to-the-Sun Strike!" the Rangers shouted as they spun their spear in a perfect circle around the outline of the sun behind them before doing a mighty stab into Typhon as they both fell down to earth. The Megazord maintained its push with the spear into Typhon's new weak point all the way until impact with the ground. Typhon exploded, while the Olympian Megazord: Icarus Mode stepped out of the flames, unscathed.
"That's a wrap!" Jay joked before turning serious again, "but, in all seriousness, good job, guys."
The Megazords slowly powered down as the people of the city came out of their buildings to see that the battle was over. They cheered, glad that the monster had been defeated and the battle was over.
"Well, that's the end of the Dark Order," Valerie said as the twelve Rangers stepped out of the Doors of Janus back into the Temple.
"Except for Gryphon," Jay reminded. "Then again, he doesn't seem to be involved with them anymore. He had no idea where Echidna and Typhon were when we fought him. He had this new sword and it turns out he's half human."
"He's what?" Diana asked as she looked at Jay. "Are you sure?"
"Positive," Jay said, "Dan can confirm it. As can the new Rangers."
"Fascinating," Mera said. "That raises many new questions. Who is combined with Gryphon? Why? Was it an accident or was it intentional that a human is a part of him?"
"All good questions," Jay said. "I was hoping you and Victor could analyze the footage of the battle."
"I have one big question we need to answer right now, though," Nate said.
He turned to look at all of the Rangers who had come through the doors, as well as Christina, who was still in her chair.
"What are we going to do with 13 Power Rangers?" he asked.
"I think I can answer that," Virginia said, "at least for me. I'm going home."
"Yeah, my parents must be waiting for me to return," Mikhail agreed.
"As much as I hate it, my parents really want me in school," Jasmine said. "As much as I want to spend time with you all, I can't all the time."
"I have...things to get back to," Marcus said. "Personal things."
"I might still have a job," Dan said. "Who knows, with how many sick days and vacation days I've taken. Not that I'm complaining. I love being a Ranger. But I've got a life too."
"And I'm staying on tech support," Christina said. "Besides the fact I'm still healing, I still don't want to fight anymore."
"And we're back down to 7 Rangers," Jay said. "Which is good. I think 7 Rangers is a good number to have. Any more and we start stepping on each other's toes."
"I do want to talk to you and Jasmine before she leaves," Valerie said, "is there somewhere we can talk?"
"Yeah, Diana and I need to talk too," Dan said.
The Rangers split off, with Jay, Jasmine and Valerie near the suits like usual (except for Jasmine being there) and Dan and Diana stepping into the medical center.
"Look, Jasmine," Valerie said, "I know you like Jay."
Jasmine looked over at Jay before sighing.
"Yeah, I do," she admitted.
"Wait, what?" Jay asked. "Since when?"
"Since I first met you," Jasmine said. "You were so mysterious and exciting. Part of that was you being from another country. I find Japan boring, except for our Super Sentai shows."
"Super Sentai?" Jay asked before Valerie smacked him lightly. "I mean...there's one problem with you liking me. Now, don't get me wrong, you're a great girl, but…"
"But…?" Jasmine asked.
"Valerie and I are kind of a couple," Jay said as he held Valerie's hand and put the two hands up to show they were holding hands. "So it's not you, it's me."
Valerie sighed from the cliche line.
"What?" Jay asked. "I've always wanted to say that!"
"Ok," Jasmine said, "I guess I'll leave you two alone, then. Bye Valerie-chan, bye Jay-kun."
"Valerie-chan?" Valerie asked.
"It's a Japanese thing," Jay said, "at least that's how she explained it."
Meanwhile, Dan and Diana were in the medical center.
"Why are you being so secretive about it?" Dan asked. "So you like girls. It's 2020. Most people have become more accepting of that sort of thing."
"It's just…" Diana said as she tried to find words to describe it, "I had friends abandon me before while not even knowing that I like girls. What if these guys abandon me now because of that fact?"
"I can promise they won't if you just tell them," Dan said, "but I don't know how to convince you otherwise, though."
"I wouldn't try," Diana said, "but please don't tell the others."
"Alright," Dan said. "They're going to find out eventually, though."
"Thank you," Diana said. "I just...want to tell them when I'm ready."
Which will probably be never, she thought, I don't want to risk my friendships.
"That's it?" Diana asked.
"Unless you have anything else," Dan said.
Diana shook her head and stepped back into the main room just as Jay was calling everyone together.
"I was wondering if we could consider you new Rangers reserve members," Jay said. "If we need you, we'll call you. And no will be an acceptable response."
He directed that last part at Marcus.
"Sounds good to me," Virginia said.
"Yes, that works," Mikhail said.
"I'll try to help when I can," Jasmine said.
"As long as you'll accept no," Marcus said.
"Alright, unless anyone has anything else, you're all free to go home," Jay said.
"I do have one thing," Chiron said, "I want to commend all of you on your victory today. Not many can say they faced Typhon and not only survived but won. As you go back to your normal lives, know that you will always be welcome here."
With that, Christina programmed the Doors for Honolulu first.
"Ready when you are, Virginia," Christina said.
"I feel we will talk again soon," Mera said. "Your mind is sharp, even when your fighting skills are not. We may yet have need for you again."
Virginia nodded and stepped through the Doors back home.
"Mikhail, you're next," Christina said as she programmed the Door to be close to his house in Russia.
"I enjoyed kicking evil's ass," Mikhail said with a grin. "Call me if you need my ax again."
"You bet," Nate said.
"And Victor?" Mikhail said.
Victor turned from his anvil to look at him.
"Not too shabby for the old powerhouse," he smirked before he stepped through the Doors.
"Jasmine, Tokyo's next," Christina said, "I just want to warn you that it's 5 AM your time right now."
"An hour of sleep?" Jasmine said as she lowered her head. "Oh man."
"Look, I'll look into this 'Super Sentai', ok?" Jay said. "Now do your best in school. All of us are trying to do our best here in America."
"Goodbye, Jay-kun," Jasmine said as she leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek before stepping through the Doors. Valerie looked annoyed.
"Hey, I didn't tell her to do that!" Jay said. "Looks like it'll take her a little time to realize that you and I are together."
"I guess," Valerie sighed.
"Marcus, are you sure these are the right coordinates in London?" Christina asked.
"Positive," Marcus said as he stepped towards the Doors. "Now, Hermes didn't say where he was going. He might still be in London, he might not. I'll keep an eye out for him."
"That's all we can ask for," Jay said. "We're actually going to look for him using the mosaic computer once we send you home."
"I guess I shouldn't keep you waiting then," Marcus said, "cheers!"
With that, he stepped through the Doors and they closed behind him.
"As much as I'd like to stay," Dan said, "I'd like to see if I still have a job. Christina, could you fire up a Door for me to my apartment?"
"You got it," Christina said as she typed a few keys and the Doors opened again.
"Thanks for everything, Dan," Jay said. "It was good to have you with us again, even for a little while."
"Feeling's mutual," Dan said before waving. "See ya!"
The others waved as Dan stepped through the Doors before they closed behind them.
"Now that everyone's back where they belong," Jay said, "let's search for Hermes. Hades is probably after him again, so we've got to find him before he does. Then we can worry about Gryphon and the human that's a part of him."
The others nodded in agreement. They had a lot of work ahead of them.
Marcus stepped out of the Door into the alley. He could smell the London air again and could feel the raindrops as they began to fall. He walked out of the alley and saw his destination down the street.
"Perfect," he said as he started down the sidewalk. Soon, he had reached his destination. He stepped inside and walked up to the desk.
"I'm here to see Mrs. Reuter," he said to the receptionist.
"Oh, Mr. Reuter," the receptionist said, "good to see you again. Here's your visitor's pass and name tag."
She handed him a black lanyard with a pink piece of paper in it that said "Visitor", as well as a white name tag and a pen.
Marcus wrote his full name on it before handing back the pen.
"It's still the same room," the receptionist said, "12O. You remember how to get there?"
"I'll be fine," Marcus said, "thank you."
A few minutes and an elevator ride later, Marcus was walking towards the right room. He looked inside and knocked on the doorframe.
"Knock knock," he said.
A woman, probably in her 50s and in a medical gown was lying on a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV and heart monitor.
"Marcus?" she said. "You came to see me again? That makes three times this week!"
"Anything for you, mum," Marcus said before he noticed her trying to sit up. "No, don't sit up for me."
He rushed over and helped her back down.
"You just need to rest," he added. "You'll be better soon."
"Oh, we both know that my weak heart is only going to last a little longer," Mrs. Reuter said. "I'm glad you came, though. I always enjoy seeing you."
"Mr. Reuter?" the doctor said as he stepped in. "I'm both surprised and glad you're here. I have some news about your mother. Shall we step out into the hall?"
"Sure," Marcus said, "I'll be right back, mum."
The two men stepped into the hall as the doctor looked at the chart.
"What's the news, doc?" Marcus asked, "is my mother ok?"
"I'm afraid to say that her condition's getting worse by the day," the doctor said. "Only that heart transplant could help her now, and that costs a lot of money."
"I'm working on getting it," Marcus said. "Could you at least put her on the list? I promise I'll have the money when it comes time to pay."
"Normally we ask for the money up front," the doctor said before sighing, "but I'll see what I can do. I haven't told your mother yet because of the news possibly worsening her condition. Be careful when you tell her."
"I will," Marcus said as he looked towards the room again, "thank you, doctor,"
Somehow Hermes knew about this and promised he could help, Marcus thought, I can only hope he doesn't get caught by Hades before that. Otherwise, I might need to do one or more heists to pay.
He walked back into the room, still deep in thought.
"Everything alright, Marcus?" Mrs. Reuter asked. "The news wasn't bad, was it?"
"Don't worry about it, mum," Marcus said. "Everything's going to be fine, I promise."
"Finished!" Brontes said as he put down the hammer and picked up the bronze shield by the sides. Steam flew upwards as Brotes' hands touched the still hot metal that was rapidly cooling, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Good," Steropes said. "Our client was not happy when I told him only the sword was ready. Hopefully he'll be happier when we give him the shield too."
Gryphon snuck out of the shadows behind Brontes and grabbed the shield.
"Thank you," Gryphon said. "You've been most helpful."
He used his other hand to draw his sword and took an aggressive stance.
"What do you think you're doing?" Arges asked.
"You've outlived your usefulness," Gryphon said. "Once you answer one more question for me, I will end your lives."
"Why would we answer a question if you're going to kill us either way?" Steropes asked.
"Because I'll give the one who answers my question a few more minutes of life," Gryphon said, "now, my sword absorbed the power of a Dark God. Why?"
"It means that the Dark God's energy is a viable godly power source," Arges said. "Whatever powers the Dark Gods have has enough godly energy to be used to power your weapons up to their full potential, like you wanted in the first place. Once you have the source of the power, you won't be able to absorb any more of that energy because you won't have to."
Like the Rangers told me, the Olympian Gems have the power of the gods, Gryphon's human voice said in his head. So are Hades' Dark Gods powered up by his Olympian Gems?
"You've been most useful to me," Gryphon said, "and I'm feeling generous today. I'll let fate decide if you live or die!"
Gryphon called forth his bronze energy aura around his body and fired a powerful beam from his sword. The beam cut into the rock right above the Cyclopes before Gryphon turned and ran towards the entrance. He continued firing beams from his sword as he went until he reached the entrance.
"Now your skills can't be used against me," he said as he fired one more beam over the entrance, causing the volcanic rock to fall over the space and block it off.
"Next stop, the Underworld," Gryphon said to himself as he took flight out of the volcano, "and I have a guess on how I can get Hades to take me there..."
"Even Hermes failed me as a Dark God, falling to Gryphon!" Hades roared as he watched the battle over again on his flame screen. "But he's still alive and may yet serve his purpose. Spartoi!"
An armored Spartoi ran into the room and saluted.
"Send some of your brethren out to find Hermes," Hades said. "He may be in disguise, but make sure he doesn't get away!"
The armored Spartoi nodded as it ran out.
"My lord, Hermes may be weakened, but he is still a god," Persephone said. "Are you sure some Spartoi can handle him?"
"They will be fine," Hades said. "The further he gets from the good part of the Flame, the weaker he gets. If the Spartoi can get him to the Underworld, he will be as helpless as he was before."
Hades looked out on the flame screen again and was surprised by what he saw.
"Hades!" the Gryphon on the flame screen shouted. He was in a forest somewhere in Europe, as far as Hades could guess, and looked unarmed.
"Hades!" Gryphon shouted again, "I surrender! Take me to the Underworld where I can face your wrath!"
"Spartoi!" Hades shouted again.
Another armored Spartoi ran in and saluted exactly the same as the other one had.
"Go get Gryphon," Hades ordered. "I have need for him alive, and he appears to be unarmed. You can rough him up a little bit, though."
Gryphon took another step forward.
"Hades!" he shouted, "I know you can hear me!"
A blue portal appeared in front of him and a dozen armored Spartoi leapt out.
"Your boss heard me, I assume," Gryphon said. "I surrender. Take me to him."
The armored Spartoi grabbed Gryphon and put him in chains before leading him through the portal.
Everything is going according to my plan, the human voice in Gryphon said as the portal closed behind them.
Ok, I'll admit it. That turned out WAYYYY longer than I expected. I expected it to be long (introducing new characters, progressing Gryphon's story, etc) but this is even longer than Love is in the Air! Anyway, I'm sorry if you thought it was too long, but I really didn't want to split it in half so I could tell the full story in one chapter and I could keep my story to the 40 chapter plan.
Review, Follow, Favorite. If you do any of these things, I will mention your name in the story. It's just my way of saying that I appreciate the fact you did it. Tell me if you like the new characters. Tell me how to improve. Or you could do none of that. Just your view is enough sometimes.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and may the power protect you!
