Hi guys! I'm glad to have this chapter out. It's about 10 days after I wanted it to be done, but I kept adding things I wanted to accomplish in the chapter and then work really piled on the hours. I used to be able to come home after a shift ending at 10 and I could write. Now I just come home and crash. I actually just started Kamen Rider Ex-Aid a little while ago and I'm really enjoying it. I don't plan to do a Kamen Rider series now, but never say never…
I want to thank JTWAS1994, GoldenMewtwo (who just dropped a bunch of chapters of Eon Force. I'm looking forward to reading them after I reread the previous chapters) and JT818 for reviewing, as well as evtrax, Garrett Keller and GoldenMewtwo for favoriting and following (at least officially in GoldenMewtwo's case) and Multishipper0927 for following. I'm glad to see people found the team-up accurate to the characters, as that was what I was going for.
I'll talk more after the chapter, so let's get to it!
Myth 34: Not So Black and White
"No…" Victor muttered in his sleep as he tossed over.
Inside his dream, Victor was in the park where Oakly's tree had been all of those years ago. He was watching as a younger version of himself and his father ran around as his mother watched.
"Boys, the sandwiches are getting cold!" she yelled to them.
Both younger Victor and his father came over and sat down on the picnic blanket. The scene then jumped to after the meal and Victor's father pulled out a swiss army knife. He moved to carve into the tree before whirling around and pointing it at Victor's mother. Victor's mother looked up at him before standing up and pulling out a sword. Victor's father's swiss army knife turned into an identical sword as the two aimed their swords at each other.
Suddenly, Victor was in his younger self's place, sitting on the blanket looking at them as they pointed their swords at each other's throats. He wanted to get up and stop them, but his body wouldn't move. His parents moved to slash at each other as Victor's eyes grew wide and his mouth opened to scream…
Victor quickly sat up on his bed, gasping as his breathing slowly returned to normal.
"It was just a dream…" he said to himself as he looked over at the makeshift gear-operated alarm clock, which currently said that it was 3:17AM.
He put his head back on the pillow and looked up at the ceiling.
"But how the heck am I supposed to sleep after that?" he asked himself as he started to count the dropmarks created by the water leak in the apartment upstairs. Soon, the grips of sleep overtook him once more…
"Victor!" Jay called out, sounding somewhat annoyed.
"Oh, were you calling me?" Victor asked as he looked up from his project that was laying on the anvil before flipping up the welding mask.
"Yeah, I called your name about ten times," Jay said. "We're having a team meeting and it's important that you join us."
"Sure," Victor said as he put the hammer down and pulled the welding mask off his head before placing it on the anvil next to the hammer.
"You ok, man?" Jay asked, looking at Victor as the two of them walked up the steps to the mosaic computer.
"Just some nightmares," Victor said. "Nothing to worry about."
"Just let me know if you want to talk," Jay said. "We're all here for you."
"Thanks," Victor said, "but like I said, it's nothing to worry about."
"Alright, fearless leader," Nate said as he crossed his arms. "You called this meeting. What's up?"
"I was thinking about our battle against Aeolus and something really stuck out to me," Jay said. "Christina, if you would?"
"No problem," Christina said as she pulled up a few images of the quarry they had fought at before.
"It's a quarry," Nate said. "It's actually a pretty common Ranger thing to fight in a quarry."
"Even so," Jay said, "we hadn't fought in one before. Hades and Cronus usually target populated areas."
"Yeah, but even when they don't, they're at least within the city itself," Valerie agreed. "So why do you think they changed targets?"
"Mera?" Jay asked as he gestured to the redhead.
"I did some research..." Mera said before Nate interrupted her.
"Whoop-de-doo," Nate said. "So what?"
"If you would let me finish," Mera said as she glared at Nate. "As I was saying, I did some research and this is no ordinary quarry."
"Ok, so what makes it special?" Paul asked.
"That quarry is the very quarry that Demeter's Green Olympian Gems were hidden in," Mera said.
"You mean that my rock garden materials, including the Green Olympian Gems, came from there?" Christina asked.
"Correct," Mera said, "and I believe that there might have been some traces of the Green Olympian Gems left where they had been located previously."
"Ok, so Cronus got whatever traces were left of the Green Olympian Gems," Nate said. "It's not like there's much he can do with it, right?"
He looked around at the Rangers as they stared at him.
"Right?" he repeated.
"I don't think any of us know for sure," Adrian said, "but I would guess he wouldn't send Aeolus to collect those traces if he couldn't do anything with them."
"Chiron, do you have any idea what Cronus might want with Olympian Gem traces?" Jay asked.
"Unfortunately not," Chiron said with a shake of his head. "I can only assume, however, that it is for nefarious purposes."
"Whatever his plan is," Jay said. "We need to find Hermes. I can't shake this feeling that he'll be important somehow."
"Then I have good news for you," Christina said as she pulled up some text filled webpages and blurry photos, "I've been looking for articles and rumors about flying people and I've been picking up some chatter about a guy with wings on his shoes in London."
"That sounds like our missing Messenger God," Jay said. "But why didn't Marcus say anything? He said he would keep an eye out."
"Maybe we should go talk to him?" Valerie suggested. "I'm sure he has a good reason."
"I am less sure of that," Mera said. "His story about meeting Hermes was very vague. He left out many details besides meeting Hermes and then returning to aid us. He never told us, for instance, why he was meeting someone on the street."
"I guess you're right," Valerie said. "Because we were wrapped up in the fight with the crazed Rangers, I never really questioned his story."
"Guys, I've got someone from Olympus trying to come through a Door," Christina said. "Should I open the Doors for them?"
"Do it," Jay said. "They wouldn't come unless it was important."
The Doors of Janus flew open as a familiar Satyr God of the Wild came through.
"Can I speak to Victor?" Pan asked.
Victor walked down the steps over to Pan.
"Did you find her?" Victor asked. "Did you find my mother?"
"I did," Pan said with a nod. "I found her in an apartment in London at 193 Christopher Street. She changed back to her maiden name."
"London?" Victor asked, "I assumed she had stayed in America. I never thought to look in another country. But why did it take so long?"
"She kind of keeps to herself," Pan explained. "The Nymph whose tree she passes said she only passes every week or so."
"Guys, I've got to go see her," Victor said. "We have a chance at being a family again!"
"Man, two of our objectives are in London?" Nate asked. "What are the chances?"
"Coincidence or not, we can kill two birds with one stone if we split up," Jay said. "We'll split into three teams. Victor will go see his mother. Valerie, Paul and I will go see Marcus. The rest of you will search for Hermes based on the information Christina has."
"Right!" all seven of the other Rangers said with a nod.
"Christina, prepare the Doors," Jay ordered. "We're heading to London."
The sun was starting to set as Victor stepped out of the Door and found himself, according to his map, a few streets over from Christopher Street. He started to walk down the street as his mind focused on his mission.
I just have to convince her to come back to the US, Victor thought. But how much of a life has she built here? What if she already has a new boyfriend or husband? What if she has kids? Could I really convince her to leave that?
He looked down at the map before making a right at the corner.
What if she doesn't want to leave? he thought as he continued down the new street. What if…
He was so caught up in his thinking that he didn't notice the woman walking behind him. She was wearing sunglasses and a hat, hiding her face. She also seemed caught up in thoughts and didn't notice Victor as she walked right into him before falling to the ground and spilling her groceries from her brown paper bag. Victor turned around to notice the woman on the ground.
"Are you alright?" Victor asked as he bent down to pick up some apples.
"I'm fine," the woman said quickly. "Look, you don't have to help. I can handle it on my own."
She looked over at Victor as he picked up the fruit anyway and put it back in her brown paper bag.
"I don't have to, but I will because it's the right thing to do," Victor said.
"That sounds like something I used to say…" the woman said before she pulled off her sunglasses and pulled her hat up out of her face. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
Victor looked at the woman before he realized that the face was familiar…
"Mom?" he asked, "is that you?"
Paul, Jay and Valerie stepped out of the Door and found themselves on Oxford Street with lots of tourists and locals bustling around.
"We're supposed to find Marcus in all of these people?" Valerie asked as she used her hand to block some of the setting sun from her eyes.
"Christina, are you sure this is the right place?" Jay asked discreetly into his morpher.
"Positive," Christina's voice said from the morpher. "That being said, I think you're forgetting where you first met Marcus."
"I found him on…" Jay said before he realized what Christina was suggesting. "Of course!"
He took off running.
Valerie and Paul looked at each other, confused, before shrugging and following their leader.
"Jay, hold on," Valerie said as she ran to catch up, with Paul right behind them. "Where did you meet Marcus the first time?"
"I found him robbing a museum from the roof," Jay said as he ran up to an alley and morphed quickly. He leapt up to the fire escape and pulled down the ladder before demorphing.
"I'm sorry, 'robbing'?" Valerie asked as she started up the ladder. "As in 'stealing things' robbing?"
"Yeah," Jay said as he offered a hand to pull her up. "He only stole the gems, so I assumed that's what he wanted. I thought he was stealing them to keep them out of evil hands. Then he said something about selling them when he didn't want to join the fight against Typhon."
"From the little I've heard about Marcus, he seemed like a stand-up guy," Paul said as the teens started up the stairs of the fire escape. "You never mentioned him stealing things or wanting to sell the White Olympian Gems."
"I wasn't really thinking things through at the time or putting the pieces together," Jay admitted. "I was really just worried about the captured Rangers and focused more on the fact that he wasn't helping us rather than what he actually planned to do. I thought maybe it was just a one time thing."
By this time, the teens had reached the roof and Jay could see the brown-haired Caucasian 20-something that was Marcus Reuter. Marcus was currently preparing something in his bag and had his back to the teens.
"Looks like I was wrong," he finished before he leapt the small distance between buildings to get to Marcus. He took off running towards the thief.
Marcus heard the footsteps and looked up to see Jay running at him.
"Shit!" he said as he pulled out his taser. He lunged for Jay, but Jay leapt out of the way before kicking the taser out of Marcus's hand and sweeping out his legs. Marcus groaned as he fell hard.
"Looks like you learned something from your training with Jason," Valerie remarked as she and Paul, both out of breath, ran up to join Jay.
"Now," Jay said as he looked down at the prone Paul, "you have some explaining to do."
"What are we supposed to do?" Nate asked as he, Mera and the Thomas twins walked down the street. "It's not like we can just ask people if they've seen a guy with winged sandals fly by recently. They'll think it's a late April Fools' joke or something."
"Jay told us to use Christina as a resource," Mera answered. "So should we not start there?"
"Already ahead of you," Adrian said as he activated his morpher. "What do you have for us, Christina?"
"I've been hearing about sightings all over the city," Christina said from the Temple as she pulled up a map, "but he seems to focus on museums and attractions at night time."
"And that helps us how?" Nate asked rudely.
"It gives us a starting point," Mera said. "It will be night time in London soon, as seen by the setting sun. That will give us ample time to prepare. I would assume that Hermes would only be appearing late at night."
"So you actually have a plan?" Nate asked.
"Indeed I do," Mera said, "and this is how it will proceed…"
"I think you have the wrong person," the woman said as she put her sunglasses back on and lowered her hat before she stood up and started to walk away. "Have a good day."
"Wait!" Victor shouted as he ran to catch up with her, "you're saying you aren't Mary Grell?"
"I am Mary Grell," the woman said as she kept walking, "but that doesn't matter. I just want to be left alone."
"Mom, don't you recognize me?" Victor asked as he ran up in front of her, stopping her from moving forward, and looked where her eyes would be behind her sunglasses.
"What did you call me?" the woman asked as she looked into Victor's eyes. It took her a minute before she pulled off the sunglasses again to get a better look.
"Victor?" she asked softly as she finally recognized her son. "Is that you?"
"Yeah," Victor said. "I've been searching for you for a few years now. I'm so glad I finally found you!"
He pulled his mother into a hug, something which seemed a little awkward for his mother. However, she managed to wrap her arms around him too. The two of them soon broke apart.
"Come on," Victor's mother said as she gestured for him to follow. "Let's go to my apartment. We have a lot of things to discuss."
"I don't have to explain anything!" Marcus said as he slowly sat up while looking at the three teens. "When I told you I had personal stuff to do, it meant it was personal!"
"But your personal stuff involves committing crimes!" Jay argued. "I thought the White Olympian Gems chose you because you were a good person who happened to make one mistake. But you seem to be continuing to make the same mistake."
"Jay, aren't you being a little harsh?" Valerie asked. "I'm sure he has a perfectly good reason for why he's stealing things."
Marcus just remained silent.
"I'd start talking," Jay suggested, "because we could always just turn you into the police."
"For what?" Marcus said. "You have no evidence I was actually going to commit a crime."
"Uh, yeah we do," Paul said as he pointed to Marcus's backpack that has a mask hanging out of it, "I'm pretty sure people only have those if they plan to rob somewhere."
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Marcus asked, "because I don't remember you."
"New Ranger we added," Jay said before he raised his voice again. "How start talking!"
"Jay, can I talk to you for a moment?" Valerie asked as she pulled Jay away. "Paul, keep an eye on Marcus. Don't let him get away."
"What's so important?" Jay asked as he looked at his girlfriend.
"You seem really aggressive about Marcus being a thief and keep demanding answers," Valerie said. "Why does this have you so worked up?"
"He's tarnishing the Power Ranger name," Jay said, "if people ever find out that an Olympian Ranger is a criminal, we lose our credibility."
"I think it's something else," Valerie said. "Like you said, it tarnishes the Power Ranger name, but I think that upsets you because you think a criminal can't be a Power Ranger. It ruins your image of them."
Jay put his head down in defeat. He didn't want to admit it, but she was right.
"What am I supposed to do?" he asked. "Even evil Power Rangers didn't really have a choice. Marcus is choosing to steal."
"We just have to get him to explain his reasoning," Valerie said as she put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "Once we have a clearer picture, we can decide what to do."
The two walked back over to Paul, who now had his sword pointed at Marcus to hold him in line, and a startled Marcus.
"Why does he have a sword?" Marcus asked. "Seriously, who is this guy?"
"I'm the Hades Knight," Paul said. "The newest Ranger."
"Never heard of you," Marcus said.
Paul didn't say anything, but there was disappointment in his eyes.
"Dude, you were only in one public fight," Jay reminded him. "People will know who you are soon."
"Paul, you can put the sword away," Valerie suggested. "I don't think Marcus will be going anywhere."
She turned to Marcus as Paul put the Shadow Sword back in the Shadow Shield and shrank it down to wrist-watch size.
"Why don't you give us some answers so we can better understand your situation?" she asked. "Because I assume you have a good reason for stealing."
"It's…" Marcus said before he turned his head away, "you wouldn't understand."
"You could at least try," Valerie offered. "It might help to get it out into the open."
"It's my mum," Marcus said. "She's sick. Really sick. Her heart isn't going to last much longer. She needs a heart transplant or she isn't going to make it. But heart transplants aren't exactly cheap."
"So you turned to stealing to pay for it?" Jay asked demandingly. "You couldn't think of a legitimate way to earn the money?"
"I'm sorry, do you have over €1,364,000 to spend?" Marcus shouted. "Because some of us weren't born so lucky!"
"How many dollars is that?" Jay whispered to Valerie.
Valerie pulled out her phone and used her search engine.
"About $1,651,000," she replied. "Give or take a few hundred dollars."
"That is a lot," Jay said before turning to Marcus. "But couldn't you just take a loan?"
"My family hasn't been the best with finances," Marcus explained. "Even the hospital stay for my mum is barely paid for. No bank is going to loan so much money to us. Besides, we wouldn't be able to pay it back without gaining a lot of interest."
"But stealing isn't the answer," Jay argued. "Think about what happens to your mom if you get caught."
"I don't 'get caught'," Marcus said. "That's why I lay low. And I always have a backup plan."
He opened his hand, revealing a pellet of some kind, and threw it to the ground. The pellet opened up and released a smokescreen. The three teens coughed as Marcus grabbed his bag, remembering where it was, and took off out of the smokescreen.
"Get back here!" Jay said through his coughing.
"Marcus, we just want to help!" Valerie shouted as she coughed as well.
"You can help by leaving me alone," Marcus said. "I told you you wouldn't understand. Now stay the hell out of my way."
With that, he morphed with a flash of white light and took off into the sky.
I originally told Hermes I wasn't planning to use my powers to help me steal, Marcus thought as he flew above the buildings, but the other Rangers gave me no choice!
The smokescreen slowly dissipated, leaving the three teens standing there.
"Well, that went well," Paul remarked sarcastically.
"We have to find him," Jay said, "and make him stop stealing."
"Jay, he's just trying to help his mom," Valerie argued. "It's hard to label it as 'good' or 'bad'. Maybe if we could think of an alternate solution, we can make him want to stop stealing. Because something tells me if we find another way, we can convince him."
"Alright," Jay said with a sigh. "What started as a two-way mission to find Hermes and Victor's mom just turned into a three-way mission to help Marcus as well. We should probably check in with the other teams. Then we can start to brainstorm a solution."
"So Roger forced you away too," Victor's mother said sadly. "I was hoping that you would be able to choose your own path, but not like that."
"Ever since you left, Dad seemed to put even more time into work and less at home," Victor said. "if it weren't for the nannies he hired every few years, I would have been left to fend for myself."
He looked around the room. It was a small apartment that kind of reminded him of his own. It was cramped and damaged in several places and the smell was something Victor was all too used to.
"Kind of like how you were when you left," he said.
"It isn't exactly my ideal housing," Victor's mother said, "but it's relatively cheap and allows me to keep to myself."
"Why are you keeping to yourself?" Victor asked. "You're in another country. Dad can't find you here."
"You don't know that for sure," Victor's mother said. "I don't know if you know this, but your father isn't afraid to pay for spies and moles."
"I'm quite aware," Victor said, thinking of Tom and how he had been actually working for Victor's father.
"But you didn't come here to talk about your father," Victor's mother said. "So why are you here?"
"I came to bring you home," Victor said simply.
"Oh no," Victor's mother said, "I didn't come to another country to then suddenly come crawling back to your father after 11 hard years."
"But we can be a family again!" Victor protested. "if you and I see Dad together, maybe we can convince him to change his ways and…"
"Not happening," Victor's mother said, "things just...can't go back to the way they used to be. Too much has happened. I'm not sure why you want to be anywhere near your father after leaving him as well, but I'm not going to pry. However, I'm not going to go back to him. Not after he completely ignored everything I had to say. Not after he treated the both of us like our opinions didn't matter!"
"Mom…" Victor said. "Please. I just want a normal family again."
"I think you need to leave," Victor's mother said as she stood up, "It was good to see you again. You've become the young man I always hoped you would be. But it's just not going to happen."
"I'm not leaving without you," Victor insisted.
"Until your father admits his faults, I'm not going anywhere," Victor's mother said firmly. "Now get out."
"But-" Victor said before his mother interrupted him.
"Out!" she shouted at him.
Victor quickly stood up and opened the door. He closed it behind him and slowly walked down the hallway. He soon found himself outside the building. It had started to drizzle during his conversation and the slowly increasing rain seemed to fit his mood perfectly when it mixed with the darkness of night.
"Christina?" Victor asked as he activated his morpher. "Are you there?"
"I'm here. How did it go, Victor?" Christina asked. "Is your mom coming back to Olympia Hills?"
"No," Victor said as he looked up to her window, which had it shade down to block out the lights of the city. "No, she's not."
"If you want to talk about it…" Christina offered before Victor interrupted her.
"I'm fine," he said. "Which team needs the most help?"
"Both teams are pretty busy in their missions," Christina said as typing could be heard from the morpher, "but it looks like Jay, Paul and Valerie are the most open to having some help. Nate, Mera and the Twins already have a plan in motion and probably shouldn't be disturbed at the moment."
"Open a Door to their location near my coordinates and let them know I'm on my way," Victor said. "I'll be there in a minute."
"Alright," Christina said as the Door to the building next to the apartments began to glow. Luckily, most people were off this small street at this point in the day, so no one saw it until Victor walked up to it. He sighed as he opened the Door before slowly stepping through.
Unknown to Victor, his mother was sitting in the same spot she had been sitting when she had talked to Victor. She slowly balled her hands into fists.
"I'm not crawling back!" she said to herself. "Not after what he put me through! And if my absence leaves Roger all alone, then that's even better!"
She clenched her fists as she thought of the husband that had wronged her so much...
"Tell me, Hades," Cronus said as he looked at the blue flame screen his son had created for him. "What did you feel when the Black Ranger's mother spoke? Any sort of weakness we can exploit?"
"What do you mean, father?" Hades asked, "I didn't feel anything."
"Well, I did," Cronus said. "I felt a desire for vengeance on the person who wronged her: the Black Ranger's father. It was especially apparent at the end with her anger once the Black Ranger left."
"And how does that help us?" Hades asked, "I'm sure thousands of people in that city are angry with somebody in their lives."
"Tens or hundreds of thousands of people are afflicted with this weakness," Cronus said. "Possibly even millions. If we channeled that into power for a Dark God, the Rangers won't be an issue any longer."
"Is there a god who could do that?" Hades asked.
"If you bring Nemesis to me, I will be able to give her the power to do that," Cronus said. "With that power, she can destroy the Rangers and find Hermes all in the span of a few hours."
"I'll go get her," Hades said as he stood up and walked out of the giant double doors as two armored Spartoi opened them for him.
"Thank you, Rangers," Cronus said. "Because of you, I can complete the next stage of my plan faster than I could have ever hoped."
"Yeah, Mera has some sort of plan to find Hermes," Adrian said, his voice coming from Jay's morpher. "We'll likely be occupied for the next few hours. How did it go on your end with Marcus?"
"He kind of ran away after I confronted him on being a thief," Jay said into his morpher. "I caught a glimpse of him morphing, so he's probably flying somewhere in the city as the White Ranger."
"Wait, Marcus is a thief?" Adrian asked through the morpher. "Because I never really got a criminal vibe from him and you never mentioned it. Did you know?"
"I thought it was a 'keep power source out of evil hands' situation," Jay said into his morpher. "Turns out he's stealing to help his mother with a life-saving surgery."
"That complicated things," Adrian admitted, his voice coming from Jay's morpher. "Any ideas on how to help him without breaking the law?"
"We're working on it," Jay said into his morpher. "Just wanted to check in with you."
"We'll be fine," Adrian said through the morpher. "Just focus on helping Marcus. We'll bring Hermes home as soon as we can."
"Got it," Jay said into his morpher. "Talk to you guys in a few hours."
"Good luck on your end," Adrian said as he ended the communication
"We're gonna need it," Jay said to himself as he looked over at Paul and Valerie. "You guys come up with anything?"
"Short of magically creating cash, we've got nothing," Paul said.
"I thought of using my family's money," Valerie said, "but even my credit cards can't handle 1.7 million dollars, and my family isn't going to just give me that much money because I asked nicely."
"Damn it," Jay said. "That was the one idea I had so far as I was talking to Adrian."
The three of them looked at each other before the door leading to the roof, which they had never left, started to glow blue and flew open, allowing Victor through.
"How'd it go?" Jay asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," Victor said briskly as he walked past before turning around to face the three. "But what are you three doing here? I wasn't expecting to arrive on a roof, to be honest."
After a quick explanation from Jay, Victor looked over at the direction Marcus had flown off to (at least, according to what Jay was assuming).
"Well, it won't help us very much if we find him with no plan on how to help him," Victor said, "but on the other hand, the longer we wait, the more likely he is to steal something."
"Crap! I didn't even think of that!" Jay said.
"Luckily, I think I have an idea," Victor said. "What we're going to do is…"
"You sure this is the most likely spot for Hermes to choose?" Diana asked. "Because we've been sitting here an hour and nothing's happened."
"Patience is a virtue," Mera said, "and I have faith that Hermes will be arriving here soon."
"But why here?" Diana asked as she looked down at the ground a few dozen stories below. "It just seems like a normal building to me. A really tall building, but a normal building."
"I looked at the places Hermes had been sighted," Mera explained. "I found that the most common area for him to appear was around this part of London. Whatever his reason for appearing around museums, this is the best place to scout out the area due to its proximity to museums in this section of London. Furthermore..."
"Look!" Nate interrupted. "Someone's coming!"
Indeed, the Rangers saw a figure coming in for a landing on the building. As soon as the being touched down, the teens could tell that it wasn't Hermes. Instead, it was a familiar White Ranger.
"Damn it," Marcus said as he took a fighting stance, "I just can't seem to get rid of you buggers!"
Nate and Diana morphed instantly, ready for a fight, with Nate even equipping his Hero Armor. Mera, however, took a step forward, still unmorphed.
"Marcus, we can aid you," she said. "You do not have to fight us. We are on your side."
"You can help me by staying out of my way," Marcus said, "and if you won't do that, I will have to fight you."
"We're not just stepping aside and letting you steal things," Adrian said. "There has to be a better way."
"This is the better way!" Marcus shouted as he started to run and did a flying kick into Adrian's unmorphed body. Adrian went flying backwards, as Marcus had put a lot of strength into his attack. Adrian just barely stopped by the edge of the roof and stood up.
"I guess we have no choice," he said as he morphed.
"If you will not see reason," Mera sighed as she morphed as well. "We will have to defeat you."
"I'd like to see you try," Marcus said as he lunged at the Rangers.
Nate and Diana summoned their weapons and ran up to meet Marcus. Nate tried to stab his Ocean Trident into Marcus's gut, but Marcus spun around it before landing an open palm strike on Nate that sent him flying back, just as Marcus's last attack had done to Adrian. Diana slashed rapidly with her daggers, but Marcus did a handspring away before doing a sliding kick under her slashes and into her legs, knocking Diana down.
Mera summoned her Hero Armor before summoning her Battle Spear and transforming it into a ball and chain. She whirled it around her head before launching it at Marcus' legs. Marcus flipped over the attack before karate chopping Mera in the head, causing sparks to fly from her helmet and her to fall to the ground.
Adrian whirled his Sun Staff around his head before lashing out with one end of it. Marcus blocked the attack with one of his arms before using the opening to punch Adrian in the chest and knocking him back.
"Why's he so strong?" Adrian asked as he stumbled over to the other fallen Rangers. "Shouldn't he be on the same level as us?"
"My guess is he's been eating his Wheaties," Nate joked.
"My hypothesis is that his anger and distress is increasing his strength," Mera said, "it is possible that his heart is beating so fast that the Morphing Energy regulator in his suit is feeding him more power assuming that there is a life or death situation occurring."
"They do that?" Nate asked. "Why the hell hasn't that activated before?"
"Because it is very dangerous," Mera explained, "the human body cannot handle that much power for too long. Luckily, he should stabilize on his own as his heartbeat begins to return to a normal rhythm."
"Great," Diana said as she noticed Marcus advancing towards them. "Are we going to survive that long?"
Marcus was about to advance forward when something started to fall from the sky.
"Feathers?" Marcus asked as he put a hand out.
Indeed, it appeared that a large amount of white feathers were falling like a light drizzle of rain. One fell into Marcus's hand and started to turn red...
Victor's mother looked up at the feathers as they came down from the sky.
I thought that maybe if I went for a walk I could get Victor and Roger out of my head, she thought, and now these strange feathers are falling from the sky.
She looked over as a feather flew onto her shoulder. She watched as the feather slowly turned from a nice white color to a light red. In fact, every feather falling on her was turning red, and they almost seemed to flock to her.
"What the heck is going on?" Victor's mother asked as she noticed the gathering feathers forming a light red pile at her feet.
"I can feel your desire for vengeance," a female voice said behind her.
Victor's mother turned around in the pile of feathers to see a female figure in white. She had a white blindfold over her eyes that stood out when compared to her brown hair. Her robes were a white color matching the blindfold and she had a pair of large white wings connected to her back, though there were a few areas of dark red in her wings that almost looked like blood stains. The red feathers made up about 35% of her wingspan. She had a shadowy aura around her, revealing her as a Dark God.
"I can utilize it to its fullest potential and save you from your shortcomings," the being said. "Give me your urge for revenge!"
"Who are you?" Victor's mother said as she backed away from the shadowy figure.
"I am Dark God Nemesis," Nemesis said. "Goddess of retribution, revenge and justice. However, I now seek extreme anger and desires for revenge from sinners like you to empower myself and to help those with said sins. You have such a desire for revenge. I can sense it. Now give it to me so I may help you!"
"I…" Victor's mother said as she started to back away before turning and running.
"You cannot escape me with those sins on your hands!" Nemesis said as she flapped her wings and sent a barrage of sharp feathers at the fleeing woman.
Victor's mother cried out as she was struck in the back of the leg, causing her to crumple to the ground.
"Please," she whimpered as she looked back to see Nemesis approaching. "Don't hurt me."
"Then give me your feelings of vengeance," Nemesis demanded. "I must try and cleanse you."
"I don't know how!" Victor's mother said as tears came to her eyes.
"Then I'll just have to extract it from you myself," Nemesis said before she flapped her wings again, creating a gust of wind that sent the red feathers on the ground flying around Victor's mother's prone body. Nemesis gestured with her hand and the feathers began to swirl around the hurt woman in a spiral pattern.
Victor's mother screamed as the feathers began to turn a stronger and angrier red as they struck her body over and over.
Victor… she thought as she lost consciousness due to the stress of the situation.
The dark red feathers flew back to Nemesis and seemed to reattach to her wings, replacing some of the white feathers that used to be there. The red feathers now made up 50% of her wingspan.
Victor's mother, free from the feathers, fell to the ground.
"She had so much anger!" Nemesis said as she felt her own power grow. "This is more power than I had gotten from the last fifty people! She needed my help much more than they did!"
She looked over at the unconscious woman on the ground as flashes of Victor's mother's memories appeared in her mind.
"You have so many instances of anger," Nemesis said, "and you allowed it to damage other relationships. There is no greater injustice than that."
She thought about something for a minute before nodding.
"I'm taking you to my base," she said. "I need to ensure that all of the anger is gone."
She flapped her wings and created a tornado of white feathers that surrounded Victor's mother. When the tornado dissipated, Victor's mother was gone.
"The enhanced Spartoi will hold her until I can help her again," Nemesis said to herself. "I'll quickly gather more power and then find the Rangers. I'll get Hermes once the Rangers are dealt with."
With that, she flapped her wings a few times and took off into the night.
"Jay, come quick!" Adrian shouted into his morphers before Marcus kneed him repeatedly in the stomach while holding him by his shoulders. Adrian grunted as he crumpled to the ground.
"Any idea when his Morphing Energy is going to stabilize?" Nate asked as he looked over at Diana and Marcus clashing again.
"Without proper equipment, it is hard to tell," Mera admitted. "Hopefully Jay and the others arrived soon."
As soon as she said that, the double doors leading downstairs began to glow blue before flying open and letting out a morphed Jay, Valerie, Victor and Paul just in time for Marcus to send Diana flying again.
"Someone call for us?" Jay asked as he and the other three Rangers ran to help the others stand up. "What's the situation?"
"Marcus has activated a fight or flight reaction in his Ranger suit, enhancing his strength," Mera explained. "It should return back to normal soon, but he will not listen to reason or stand down. It is as if his emotions are overwhelming him."
"Sounds about right," Valerie remarked. "His mother is in the hospital and will probably die if he doesn't get the money for a heart transplant. I would be emotional too."
"Marcus, you need to calm down," Jay said as he stepped forward. "We have an idea on how to help your mother and…"
"Shut up!" Marcus shouted as he ran at Jay and tried to punch him in the helmet. "You don't even deserve to mention her!"
"Let me finish!" Jay shouted as he caught the punch and twisted Marcus' arm before returning to a normal volume. "We're hoping that Adrian's healing power can be used a little bit at a time to slowly heal your mother. We can't risk nectar because we don't know if she's where you got your partly-godly blood from, but Adrian's powers work on everyone."
"You don't know that'll work!" Marcus said as he tried to kick Jay with one of his legs, only for Jay to block and sweep out the other leg. Marcus fell to the ground and just laid there for a few seconds.
"You're right, it's not certain to work," Jay admitted. "But it's about as likely as a surgery being successful, right?"
Marcus thought about it before nodding.
"I guess it's worth a shot," he said as he seemed to finally relax. Jay offered a hand and helped him up.
"But first, we've got to figure out what's going on with these feathers," Jay said, gesturing to the red feathers piling around Marcus, Victor and Diana and remaining white before disappearing around the other Rangers. Jay had a few red feathers where he had been, but the trail had quickly ended when he had reached Marcus.
"It has to be a Dark God, right?" Nate asked. "Only one of them would do something this weird."
"I would assume so," Valerie said with a nod, "but what do the colors mean?"
"Red is usually a color of anger," Victor offered. "Could that be the case here?"
Jay was about to speak when the Rangers heard slow clapping behind them. The Rangers whirled around to see Nemesis floating in the air next to the building.
"I'm impressed," Nemesis said as she finished clapping. "I didn't expect anyone to figure it out."
"Who are you?" Jay demanded as the Rangers took fighting stances, "and what do you want?"
"I am Nemesis," Nemesis said, "goddess of justice, retribution and revenge. As a Dark God, I seek to use the power of others' desires for revenge to strengthen myself and help cleanse them of their sins. I can sense anger in some of you. I will help you by taking it from you."
"I'm not quite sure what the heck you're talking about," Nate said as he raised his Ocean Trident, "but we're not giving you anything!"
With that, he ran to the edge of the building and fired jets of water from the tips of his trident's points. Nemesis flapped her wings and soared over the attack before flying past Nate while striking him with the edge of her wing. Nate tumbled backwards from the force of the attack.
"Rangers, take her down!" Jay ordered as he, Valerie and Victor equipped their Hero Armor before all of the Rangers summoned their weapons and charged.
Nemesis sent a barrage of sharp white feathers at the Rangers. Mera's spear morphed into a tall shield as she ran through the attack, using the shield to protect most of her body while Paul just deflected the attacks with his Shadow Shield as he moved forward as well. The rest of the Rangers weren't so lucky, crying out as the feathers caused sparks to fly from their suits.
As the attack let up, Mera and Paul rushed forward even faster. Mera's shield transformed back into a spear just in time for her to stab it into Nemesis's chest. It was quickly followed by a slash from Paul's Shadow Sword.
Nemesis grunted as she stumbled back from the attacks, with Mera and Paul nodding at each other before pressing on the offensive. As the other Rangers recovered, Mera and Paul stabbed and slashed respectively at Nemesis. However, their attacks seemed to be doing less and less damage as the attacks piled up. Soon, they appeared to be doing nothing at all.
"What's going on?" Paul asked as he looked down at his sword. "I know I'm putting the same strength into every attack."
"As am I," Mera said. "She has some power we are unaware of, I would assume."
"I can sense the virtue of wisdom in you" Nemesis asked. "You are correct. Look around you."
The two Rangers, along with the other who had recovered from the feather barrage, looked around to see the red feathers from earlier flowing towards Nemesis and attaching to her wings. They now made up about 65% of her entire wingspan, with the rest being white.
"What the heck are these feathers?" Valerie asked as she watched a group of them fly over and attach to Nemesis' wings.
"They can sense and gain power from those who touch them, but only if the one who touches them wishes to achieve revenge on someone," Nemesis explained, "and that power is transferred to me when the feathers reattach to my wings."
"So our attacks weren't getting weaker…" Paul realized.
"...Her defense was getting stronger," Mera finished.
"And my strength has increased as well!" Nemesis shouted as she slapped the two Rangers aside with one of her wings before they could react, "but I still sense more anger from you three."
She pointed to Diana, Marcus and Victor as she said this.
"If you want them," Jay said. "You're going to have to go through all of us!"
Valerie, Nate and Adrian nodded as they formed a line with Jay between Nemesis and the three Rangers Nemesis had pointed to.
"If that is what it takes," Nemesis said as she flexed her wings for a second before flying forward at the Rangers.
Jay raised his sword just in time to block Nemesis's left wing slash but was too slow to block her punch with her right arm. He stumbled backwards as Adrian and Nate moved to take his place. The two Rangers smacked and stabbed her respectively in each of her wings with their weapons. However, Nemesis seemed to barely notice the attacks and attacked with her fists, sending the two Rangers to the ground.
Valerie fired arrow after arrow into Nemesis's chest, but the arrows seemed to have no effect on her.
"Foolish girl," Nemesis said as she smacked the bow out of Valerie's hand with her right wing. "Save your arrows. You can't hurt me with them. None of you can hurt me! Not while I am on such a righteous mission!"
She looked over at the three Rangers just in time to be struck in the face with Victor's Blacksmith Hammer. She stumbled back for a second before Marcus and Diana leapt at her and smashed their caduceus and slashed their daggers respectively into her wings as well. Unlike the attacks from the other Rangers previously, these attacks appeared to do some damage, as Nemesis stumbled back from the barrage of attacks.
"All together!" Jay shouted as the Rangers formed a circle around Nemesis and swung their weapons vertically. Nemesis ducked under the attack, allowing the weapons to clash against each other instead of her, before extending her wings and spinning around. All of the Rangers cried out as they were sent flying back by the sharp wings. However, the attack made Nemesis dizzy and forced her to take a minute to recover.
"Most of our attacks don't seem to be doing anything!" Nate complained. "What gives?"
"We are just not on her level," Mera said, "but Marcus, Diana and Victor's attacks actually succeeded…"
"What we need to do right now is get away and plan out our next move," Jay said, "but I have a feeling Nemesis isn't going to let us just walk away."
"We need a way to escape," Valerie agreed.
Victor stayed silent for a second before finally speaking up.
"I'll hold her off," he said.
"Not happening," Jay said immediately. "You're one of the people she wants. Which is exactly the reason why you should be part of the group escaping."
"But my attacks hurt her," Victor said. "Your attacks don't."
"I'll stay behind too," Marcus said. "It's the least I can do since I attacked you all."
"What part of 'not happening' don't you guys understand?" Jay asked. "I'm not leaving anyone behind, but especially not you two. Or Diana, for that matter."
"Look, I called someone for help," Marcus said, "they'll meet you at Paddington Station. You'll know them when you see them. We'll follow you in a minute. Now go!"
Victor and Marcus ran at Nemesis and punched her in the face together, one on each of her cheeks. Nemesis fell backwards from the force of the attack.
The others began to run towards the doors, demorphing on the way, with Mera ordering a Door for them to escape through. Jay paused for a minute and turned around to look at the Black and White Rangers facing Nemesis. Valerie noticed Jay stopping and ran back to him.
"We have to go," she said. "C'mon."
"Maybe if I used my Hoplite Armor…" Jay said. "Maybe I could hurt her enough to allow everyone to escape..."
"Or you could really hurt yourself in the process," Valerie said as she grabbed his hand. "We have to trust that the two of them can handle themselves."
Jay looked at Valerie.
"I guess you're right," he said. "Let's go."
With that, the two Rangers, hand in hand, ran through the Door.
Nemesis took off to follow them, only for Marcus to grab her by the foot and flip her onto the ground.
"You're not going anywhere, missy," Marcus said as he and Victor prepared for another round.
"Christina," Victor said into his morpher, "close the Door."
"What about you two?" Christina asked, her voice coming from the morpher. "How will you join the others?"
"We know where they're going," Victor said. "We'll follow along later when we can. Just do it."
"But…" Christina said through the morpher.
"Now!" Victor shouted in the exact same tone his mother had shouted at him.
The blue glow of the door faded almost instantly, leaving the two Rangers to face Nemesis.
"That was a mistake," Nemesis said as she stood up. "Both of your actions were a mistake. Now suffer the consequences!"
As she shouted this, she sent a barrage of feathers at the Rangers that caused sparks to fly from their suits as they were hit by the attack. The two Rangers fell to the ground and demorphed.
Nemesis walked over and flipped Marcus over with her wing.
"What are you going to do with us?" he grunted.
"I said I would help you and get more power for myself," Nemesis said, "and I plan to do both those things."
She stepped back and sent a tornado of feathers at Marcus that, when it dissipated, seemed to transport him somewhere else.
"You're next," Nemesis said as she walked over close to Victor and prepared to create another tornado, "and I even have a special someone waiting for you."
"What are you talking about?" Victor asked through a few grunts from the damage he had endured in his Ranger form.
"Where do you think I got so much power so quickly?" Nemesis asked. "I captured your mother. She had so much anger that I just had to help her be cleansed of it. Alas, I could not take it all in one go. I needed to keep her nearby to allow me to finish healing her. And now you will join her."
Victor cried out as a tornado of feathers sucked him up. Before he reached his destination, he fell unconscious…
Jay and Valerie stepped out of the Door and found themselves in a large train station. There were multiple sets of large rafters shaped like arcs that were keeping the roof up and lines and lines of train tracks set parallel to each other that, while separated by platforms for people to walk on, allowed multiple trains in. There was a statue of a bear wearing a hat and coat near where the Door the Rangers had come out of. There were a few dozen people walking around the station, but it appeared none of them had noticed the teens' arrival.
"Uh...Christina?" Jay asked as he watched the Door close behind the teens. "What about Victor and Marcus? How are they going to follow us?"
"Victor told me to close the Door," Christina said, "but I lost contact with him after that. Marcus isn't responding either."
"Damn it!" Jay shouted as he slammed a fist into a nearby wall. "This is why I said we should escape together! They could be dead for all we know!"
"I doubt that very highly," Mera said as she walked over to Jay. "Nemesis managed to draw power from them in the fight earlier. I would assume she would keep the two of them alive to allow her to gain more power from them later."
"That's right," Adrian said with a nod. "She was talking about how she wanted more power from them and even that she wanted to 'help' them. Why would she kill them?"
"It's not like you to assume the worst like that," Valerie said. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," Jay said, brushing it off. "Now where's that guy Marcus was talking about?"
The teens looked around, but everyone seemed to be wrapped up in their own business and were paying them no mind.
"I've got nothing," Diana said. "Looks like Marcus was lying about someone coming."
"Now now, Diana," a voice said as a man walked up behind the teens, "Marcus only committed crimes because he saw no other way. He isn't actually a bad person who lies for fun."
The teens whirled around to see…
"Hermes?" Nate asked. Indeed, the messenger god was standing before them. He seemed slightly more incognito, wearing a brown trench coat over a white t-shirt and jeans. His sneakers were the same as they had been when he had disguised himself so long ago, as they had little wing designs on the sides of them. He seemed to be hiding something inside his trench coat that the teens could only see the outline of.
"Is that a stick in your coat or are you just happy to see me?" Nate joked before Mera smacked him in the head
"I think you know the answer to that, Nathaniel," Hermes said with a smile. "Though I am happy to see you. Marcus informed me that you had been following him. I assume you were trying to help him, though he didn't seem to see it that way."
"Yeah, we finally figured out how to help his mother without having him commit crimes," Valerie said. "Jay came up with the idea of using Adrian's healing powers to slowly heal her."
"Hmmm," Hermes said as he stroked his chin. "That might work. But are you prepared for what happens if it doesn't?"
"Well…" Jay said as he thought about it, "not really. I was honestly just trying to come up with a quick solution. I'm sure we can figure out another way if we have to. Especially with Mera able to help us instead of trying to find you."
"You were trying to find me?" Hermes said as he raised an eyebrow. "Is that really the best way to be using your resources? What if Cronus launches an attack on Olympia Hills?"
"You know about Cronus?" Diana asked. "How is that possible? You've been hiding in London for over a month, so you didn't hear Cronus's message to Olympia Hills. And there's no one to tell you because we didn't even tell Marcus."
"You didn't need to tell him because I already knew," Hermes said, "I could feel the barrier containing Cronus get broken open by Hades's power all the way from the Underworld. I've also been keeping an eye on you and Olympia Hills."
Hermes looked over at Paul.
"It's nice to meet you properly," Hermes said. "I knew there was goodness in you."
"You...know who I am?" Paul asked cautiously. "And who I was?"
"Like I said, I've been watching you all," Hermes explained. "So I saw you and Gryphon split and your transformation into the Hades Knight."
"Well, this is great and all," Nate said, "but don't we have two Rangers to save?"
"Yes," Hermes said. "Follow me. I have somewhere we can plan out our next move."
He led the Rangers out of the train station.
"Well, Hermes just told us he knows more than he was letting on," Valerie commented to Jay. "The more things change, the more they stay the same, right?"
"Yeah," Jay agreed, "but if he can help us get our captured Rangers back and defeat Nemesis, he can do it however he wants."
Victor groaned as his eyes fluttered open. It was pretty dark in the room he was in, so it took him a few minutes to adjust to the lack of light. He looked to his right and saw Marcus handcuffed to a bar above his head and the rest of his body trapped by metal bands on a slightly angled, almost vertical, smooth sheet of metal. That caused Victor to look down and see that his own body was trapped in metal bands similar to Marcus. He looked up to see his hands were handcuffed to the same long metal bar. And that's when he looked to his left.
"Mom?" Victor asked as he looked at his mother, chained and banded just like he was. The sight made him feel sick. His own trapping could be endured. But his mother… he couldn't bear to look at her trapped like a prisoner. Luckily, she still seemed to be unconscious.
If I had to guess, I would say that my Ranger powers helped me recover from that teleportation/attack faster than the average human, Victor thought to himself.
He was starting to think of a way to escape when he heard someone cry out for help. He strained against the handcuffs and bands to lean his body to see what was going on and, as a reward, he could see enhanced Spartoi sprinkling white feathers on a young man a few years older than Victor. The feathers that touched him turned red and were collected in a basket on the floor.
"Go faster! I need that anger out of them!" Nemesis demanded as she walked up behind the Spartoi, who seemed to be leisurely doing their task, and punched them in the helmet, one with each hand. She winced as she pulled her fists back. Obviously, she had underestimated the strength of the enhanced Spartoi's armor.
Nemesis started to walk down the line and finally stopped at Victor after she noticed he was awake.
"Good, you're conscious," she said as she pointed to him. "Heal this one next. They can only be cleansed when they are awake."
"You're collecting power from our desire for revenge against people," Victor said as Nemesis started to walk away. "I want to know why and what you're going to do with us. You say it's to 'heal us' but I sincerely doubt it."
Nemesis turned back and walked directly in front of Victor. It seemed like she was looking into his eyes through her blindfold.
"You doubt me?" she asked. "I am on a holy crusade against the anger inside of you. Once you are cleansed, you will be killed."
"Kill us?" Marcus asked. "Isn't that a bit harsh?"
Victor looked over in surprise. He hadn't expected Marcus to be conscious yet.
"It's what you deserve," Nemesis said. "You all have been given plenty of chances to make up with people who have wronged you. And you probably turned most of them away. If you won't accept a shot at improving yourselves, I'll have to punish you for it."
"Who died and made you judge, jury and executioner?" Marcus remarked.
"Zeus, actually," Nemesis said. "I was made the goddess of revenge. As such, I get to destroy those who let revenge consume them."
"I assume the Dark God part of you is clouding your judgment," Victor said. "Because I'm not consumed by revenge. None of us are."
"As if a guilty person would agree with their guilt," Nemesis refuted. "It doesn't matter what you say. I will heal you, whether you like it or not."
She was about to say something else when she heard the sound of vibrating metal.
"What is that din?" she asked as she looked to Marcus, which was who the noise was coming from.
"That's the phone the hospital lent me!" Marcus said. "You have to let me pick up! It might be important!"
"I think not," Nemesis said as she reached into Marcus's pocket and pulled out the old-fashioned flip phone. "There shall be no distractions from your healing."
"No! Please!" Marcus shouted as he thrashed against the bands and handcuffs, "I have to make sure my mum is ok!"
Nemesis turned around without a word and walked away.
"Come back!" Marcus called out after her.
Victor looked over at the enhanced Spartoi as they continued their work.
There has to be a way to get out of this, he thought. I just need to find it.
His thoughts were interrupted again when he heard his mother stirring.
"What's going on?" she asked as she looked around. "Where am I?"
"Mom, it's going to be ok," Victor said as he looked over at her. "I'm going to get us out of here."
"Where is here?" Victor's mother asked as she looked around for some sort of way to find out where she was.
"A Dark God is collecting our anger and desire for revenge," Victor said. "She plans to use it to power herself up and 'heal us' at the same time."
"I do remember someone who called themself a Dark God," Victor's mother said as she thought about her attack. "But why are you here? You seemed fine when we talked earlier."
"Originally, I was hopeful you, Dad and I could all make up," Victor said, "because of your overwhelming anger towards Dad, I became angry at him as well. Nemesis saw that anger and wants to 'cleanse' me of it while powering herself up."
"I…" Victor's mother said as she thought about what Victor was saying and what Nemesis had said before. "I never meant for the anger to consume me like it did and I never meant to project my anger onto you. I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Victor said. "Dad brought it upon himself by pushing both of us away. We deserve to be mad at him."
"No, I could have tried harder to work with him," Victor's mother said. "We could have found a compromise if I had worked with him. If we get out of this, I'm willing to try again."
"Really?" Victor asked as he looked over at his mother in surprise. "You mean it?"
"I do," Victor's mother said with a nod, "but we would need to get out of this place first."
"I'm sure my friends are working on a way to get us free as we speak," Victor said. "We just need to be patient."
"Friends?" Victor's mother asked. "What friends do you know that would be able to save us? Are you sure they'll succeed against that Dark God?"
"They will," Victor said with a nod. "They have to."
"Alright, Hermes," Nate said as the incognito messenger god led them down the street. "Where the heck are you taking us?"
"You'll see in a minute, Nathaniel," Hermes said as he stopped in front of an abandoned house. "We're here."
He gestured for the teens to enter before following behind them. There wasn't much in the house besides a few haphazardly placed pieces of furniture. The entire room seemed to be filled with cracks and areas of damage.
"I'm confused," Adrian said. "I thought this would be a base or something."
"Yeah," Diana said as she ran her finger over one of the chairs before rubbing it against her other finger to get the dust off. "This place looks like it hasn't been touched in months."
"Looks can be deceiving," Hermes said as he pulled a stick out of his coat and slammed it on the ground. In a flash of white light, it had transformed into his caduceus. He pointed it around the room and a white glow radiated from the end of the caduceus. Whatever the light touched warped into an area not unlike the Temple.
"Nice trick," Valerie commented as she put a hand on a pillar to find it was solid. "How'd you do it?"
"I kept a pocket dimension or two in reserve, just in case," Hermes said. "I just placed it inside this house for the moment. When we leave, I'll place it back in my caduceus."
"Alright team," Jay said. "We need to find a way to beat Nemesis and we need to find it fast."
He turned to Hermes.
"Do you have any way we can view the battle again?" he asked.
"I don't have any type of surveillance system of London," Hermes said, "but I should be able to draw it from your memory and project it, it just might be a little uncomfortable."
"Just do it," Jay said.
Hermes pointed his caduceus at Jay and a white light emanated from the end of it. Jay began to feel a bit of a headache come on as the light projected around him and onto the marble wall. A flickering came from the light before it began to form into a picture. A minute later and the teens could see that it was a video of the battle from Jay's perspective or, more accurately, a memory of the events.
The teens watched the battle until Jay had been led by Valerie into the Doors and the memory paused. Jay winced as the memory paused and caused a bit of pain in his head.
"I assume that's all you wanted?" Hermes asked. "Because I can show after that."
"Go back a little," Mera said. The memory began to rewind, causing Jay to wince again, before Mera put up a hand.
"Pause it there," Mera said as Hermes paused the memory.
The other teens looked at the image of Nemesis stumbling back from Diana and Marcus's attack.
"Am I supposed to be seeing something?" Nate asked bluntly.
"Can you rewind a bit and then go at quarter speed?" Mera asked.
Hermes nodded. Jay grunted in slight pain as the memory backed up a little before playing again, now slowed down to quarter speed. Memory-Victor slammed his hammer into memory-Nemesis' face slowly as a red aura appeared around him and memory-Nemesis for about a second before memory-Diana and memory-Marcus came in for their attacks. There was a red aura around them and memory-Nemesis for about a second as their attacks connected.
"Why am I glowing red?" Diana asked.
"And why didn't we see this in the battle itself?" Adrian added. "Because I feel like I would remember my sister glowing if I saw it."
"You did not notice it because it only lasted a quarter of a second," Mera explained, "and I have a theory on why the attacking Rangers glowed. When Nemesis took the desire for revenge from Victor, Diana and Marcus, she created a connection with them. Because of that connection, they can bypass her enhanced power and hurt her as if she were a weaker foe."
"So they can hurt her while the rest of us can't?" Nate asked. "That sucks."
"And it's even worse with Victor and Marcus captured," Jay added, "because that leaves us with only one Ranger who can hurt Nemesis."
"Diana," Paul said. "But why is she desiring revenge against someone?"
"That's right. You weren't there for that," Valerie said. "Some girls at her old high school abandoned her one day for no good reason. I assume she still hasn't gotten over it."
"And I never will," Diana added. "They just left me out to dry. I think I deserve to be angry."
"At least we can use that anger to our advantage," Nate said. "And they say anger doesn't solve problems!"
"Still," Jay said, "it would be better if we could have three Rangers that could hurt Nemesis."
"And we need to save the people Nemesis captured anyway," Valerie added.
"That too," Jay said as he nodded.
"That's a great plan and all," Nate said, "but how do we find them? It's not like we can track Marcus or Victor's location."
"You seem to have forgotten the Olympian Gem Radar," Mera said. "We can track them using that."
"I'll call Christina and have her use it," Jay said. "She should be able to give us a location."
"Good," Hermes said. "I fear that once Nemesis has what she wants from her captives, they will not survive long."
"Then we'd better do it fast," Jay said before speaking into his morpher. "Christina, we're going to need some help finding some lost Rangers…"
Nemesis flapped her wings a few times as she took off from her latest attack.
"There wasn't enough anger to warrant capturing them," she said to herself, "so I'd better keep moving."
She looked over her wings as she flew. They were now about 75% red, with white lines of feathers on the horizontal top and bottom of the wings.
I was hoping that I would be able to get another 10% filled from attacking people on the streets of London and then to get the remaining 15% from my prisoners back where I'm keeping them captive, she thought as she flew between two skyscrapers that were a few feet apart, just barely getting her wings through. Her thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing in her robe.
"Again?" she asked out loud as she landed on the roof of a building. "I didn't know the hospital would keep trying to call the White Ranger. I'm glad I took it, as it would have been a huge distraction from purging his sins."
She was about to speak to herself again when a blue flame appeared next to her. Hades's face appeared out of it. Nemesis quickly kneeled in front of it.
"How much power do you have?" Hades asked. "Are you close to having maximum power?"
"I'm about three-quarters of the way there," Nemesis said as she looked up at him, "and I'm about to gain more when I return to the warehouse where I'm keeping the people I am going to cleanse."
"How many 'people to cleanse' do you have right now?" Hades asked. "I know you have the Black Ranger's mother, who will significantly increase your power quickly. But I assume you are still getting some from the others?"
"I have about 10 people right now," Nemesis said, "including the Black and White Rangers."
"You captured the Black and White Rangers?" Hades asked.
"I did," Nemesis asked, clearly waiting to be praised.
"You fool!" Hades shouted as blasts of fire emanated from his blue-fired head. "The other Rangers will be able to track them and find the warehouse! You need to kill the two of them now or the others will find you!"
"They can't hurt me anyway," Nemesis said. "I took the Yellow Ranger and Hades Knight's attacks like they were nothing. My mission is too righteous to be stopped."
"The Rangers don't care how righteous you are and are nothing if not resourceful," Hades said. "They also learn Dark God's weaknesses quickly. Destroy the Black and White Rangers before the remaining Rangers track them down!"
"Yes, my lord," Nemesis said as she stood up and took flight back to the warehouse. When she got there, she could already see that something was wrong, as the assigned enhanced Spartoi guards weren't waiting on the roof for her.
Nemesis heard a noise downstairs like metal hitting the ground and she quickly opened the door from the roof into the building and ran down the one flight of stairs. When she opened the door, she was annoyed to find…
"Rangers," Nemesis said. "Have you come to free those I am trying to help?"
"Come?" Nate asked, "more like came. We already finished rescuing them. After all, you don't really want to help them!"
"You just want power for yourself that you disguise behind a mission to help people," Victor said as he and Marcus revealed themselves behind the other Rangers, "and we're going to stop you!"
"You also have something that belongs to me!" Marcus shouted, "and I want it back!"
"Come and take it, then," Nemesis retorted as she flexed her wings, ready for a fight.
"I will!" Marcus said as he looked to Victor. "Ready?"
Victor nodded before the two crossed their arms over their chests as their Olympian Gems glowed with power.
"White Olympian Power!" Marcus shouted.
"Black Olympian Power!" Victor shouted.
In a flash of white light and black light respectively, the two Rangers were morphed.
"Spartoi!" Nemesis shouted as a blue portal appeared and a few dozen enhanced Spartoi leapt out. "Keep the others out of my way! I will cleanse these sinners myself!"
"Hero Armor, power up!" the core five Rangers shouted as their omega symbols expanded into their Hero Armor.
The Rangers summoned their weapons and charged forward.
Jay and Valerie flipped over a line of enhanced Spartoi, putting them right in the middle of the group.
"May I have this dance?" Jay asked as he offered out a hand to Valerie.
"You may," Valerie said as she took it.
The enhanced Spartoi looked at each other, confused, until Jay grabbed Valerie by the waist and threw her up into the air. Valerie fired arrows from her Love Bow as Jay slashed through a couple of Spartoi around him. When Valerie was about to land, he dropped the sword and held her up Dirty Dancing style, allowing her to fire arrows as he spun around. The enhanced Spartoi fell to the ground as Jay put Valerie down and picked up his sword.
"And you say we never do anything fun," he joked.
"I never said anything of the sort and you know it," Valerie said teasingly.
Nate and Adrian launched water blasts and golden arrows at the enhanced Spartoi respectively, but they seemed to just get back up again as soon as they were hit.
"We need to hit them with something stronger," Adrian suggested.
"Let's put them together!" Nate agreed as he gave his Ocean Trident to Adrian.
"Trident Arrow with Sun Power!" Adrian and Nate said as Adrain nocked the trident into his bow and pulled back the string before releasing it. "Fire!"
The Trident, now glowing with a gold aura, flew into one enhanced Spartoi before exploding in a ball of golden energy. The enhanced Spartoi went flying back and laid there, not destroyed but at least defeated for a few minutes.
Mera used her spear to block a sword strike from an enhanced Spartoi before ducking under another's sword.
I just need to calculate the centripetal force right… she thought as she planned out an attack.
As soon as one ended its strike, Mera began to spin her spear in a circle in front of her, using a hand over hand pattern to keep it spinning. The enhanced Spartoi looked at her as they backed up, unsure what she was doing. They soon got their answer when Mera moved forward and pushed her spinning spear into an enhanced Spartoi. The spear almost acted like a chainsaw, but all over the enhanced Spartoi's body. In a few seconds, the enhanced Spartoi was in pieces at her feet.
"Who wants to be next?" she asked as she looked at the group of enhanced Spartoi that began to back up even more.
Mera moved forward, now whirling her spear around her in a figure eight to create a wider area of damage, and shredded through the group, leaving them piles of bones and black armor. Once she was finished, she looked back to see that the piles were slowly reforming. Mera sighed as she prepared for round two.
Paul blocked a strike with his Shadow Shield before shield bashing the enhanced Spartoi aside and slashing it with his Shadow Sword as it flew back. To his annoyance, the enhanced Spartoi quickly stood up and went back to attack him.
"You guys just don't want to stay down," Paul said. "Time to fix that!"
Paul focused his power and stole the shadows from the group of enhanced Spartoi, freezing them in place. The enhanced Spartoi struggled as Paul gathered the stolen shadows into his sword before slashing vertically, sending an arc of shadows at the enhanced Spartoi. The Spartoi exploded from the attack and Paul stepped through the flames to help the other Rangers.
Marcus leapt forward with his long handled weapon, using it in a horizontal strike against Nemesis. She grunted as the caduceus slammed into her. Diana leapt over Nemesis and slashed along Nemesis's back with her daggers. Nemesis growled as she did the same spinning move from before, forcing the two Rangers back.
"Now, while she's dizzy!" Marcus shouted as he raised his caduceus for a vertical strike. As he came down with it, Nemesis raised an arm and allowed it to take the blow instead.
"How did you recover so quickly?" Marcus asked in surprise.
"I spun a lot less than I did before," Nemesis replied. "Not that I have to explain myself to a sinner like you!"
She extended her wings and flapped with a good amount of strength, forcing Marcus back with a wave of wind.
"Marcus, you're just walking into her attacks!" Victor said as he grabbed Marcus by the arm before the White Ranger charged again. "We need a plan!"
"Get out of my way!" Marcus said as he pulled Victor's hand off of him, "I doubt you would understand this, but my mother is probably in danger and I need to get that phone back to find out what's going on! Besides, you haven't been helping yet!"
"I wouldn't understand?" Victor asked. "My mother was one of the people captured by Nemesis! I know what it's like for a family member to be in danger! And I was analyzing the attacks and I might have an idea. If we attack together, we might be able to destroy her!"
Marcus looked at Victor, trying to read his body to see if he was being sincere, before nodding.
"Let's do it," he said.
The two of them ran at Nemesis together before Victor punched her in the stomach as Marcus leapt up and kicked her in the head. Nemesis stumbled back, clutching the wounded areas, before Diana slashed at her again with her daggers. Nemesis managed to stumble back to avoid the attack, but Marcus and Victor moved forward again, this time with their weapons.
"Spartoi! Bring the feathers to me!" Nemesis shouted as red feathers began to rain from the ceiling.
Marcus, Victor and Diana looked up to see that a few enhanced Spartoi were dumping containers of Nemesis's feathers onto her. The feathers reattached to her wings, now making all but a select few red.
"She's almost at full power," Victor warned, "but, if what Mera told me is right, that might actually be to our advantage."
"Right," Marcus agreed as he remembered what Mera had told him earlier.
We believe that the more anger she has absorbed, the more vulnerable she will be to those whose anger she has taken, the memory of Mera's voice said in Marcus's mind. In other words, the more anger she takes from you, the weaker she is to you as well.
"Same plan," Victor said, "I'll hit her low…"
"...And I'll hit her high," Marcus finished before the two Rangers ran forward.
"I now have the power I need to cleanse you!" Nemesis shouted. "Accept my gift!"
She launched a barrage of red feathers at the two Rangers. Marcus used his powers to fly above them while Victor blasted a stream of fire from his Blacksmith Hammer to burn them away.
"Final attack!" the two Rangers yelled as Victor came in for a hammer swing from below, sending her into the air against her will, before Marcus came in for a slash from the edge of his caduceus.
Nemesis cried out as she exploded in a cloud of fire and ash and the cell phone flew into Marcus's waiting hand, leaving just red and white feathers behind.
"What does it say?" Victor asked as he looked over at Marcus as he flipped it open and read the latest text message.
"No...No no no!" Marcus said as he read the message a few more times to make sure he read it right. "There has to be a mistake!"
Marcus fell to his knees and demorphed as the other Rangers, their battles done, came over to him.
"What happened?" Jay asked, fully well knowing the answer.
"My mum...she passed away a few hours ago from cardiac arrest," Marcus said. "I...I tried so hard to do what I could to help her. It just wasn't enough."
Marcus started to cry as the other Rangers looked at him, sorry for their friend. What none of the Rangers noticed was the teardrops hitting the white feathers as they turned red when the tears hit them. After a minute, the feathers were fully red and began to flow away before swirling around a spot a few dozen feet from the Rangers.
"Uh...guys?" Nate asked as he finally noticed the feathers and their strange behavior and pointed to it. "What's going on?"
"Marcus, how are you feeling right now?" Valerie asked, "you wouldn't happen to be angry, would you?"
"What do you think?" Marcus snapped. "It's that feathered freak's fault I didn't get to my mother in time! I checked the other messages. I could have been there as her condition worsened and at least made her feel better! You'd better believe I'm angry!"
The feathers finished swirling and reformed into two wings. In a flash of blue energy, Nemesis was reformed, her body connected to the wings.
"As your anger grows, so do I!" she shouted as she grew to the size of a skyscraper.
"We need the Zords!" Jay ordered into his morpher.
"On their way!" Christina said. "Should I send the Tortoise Zord too?"
"I don't think Marcus is in the right mindset for that right now," Jay said as he looked at the White Ranger as he wept. "We should be able to handle it."
The Rangers ran out of the warehouse and watched as the Olympian Zords, Gemini Zords and Cerberus Zord all ran or flew to them.
"Hero Armor, power down!" the five original Rangers shouted as their Hero Armor retracted back into their omega symbols before all eight Rangers leapt into their respective Zords.
"Let's form into the Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode and Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode!" Jay ordered as he and the other core Rangers turned their dials from ZORD MODE to WARRIOR MODE.
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 chestplate 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.
"Olympian Megazord: Warrior 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.
"Zords combine!" the Thomas twins said as they flipped the switch in their cockpits from neutral to SILVER MODE.
The Deer Zord leapt into the air as it's body began to transform. The front half of the body slid into the back half as the front legs popped off. The Raven Zord flapped its wings once more before they bend 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.
"Activate Cerberus Knight Megazord!" Paul shouted as he pulled the Shadow Sword and Shield from their place next to him.
The Cerberus Zord barked before it began transforming. The back legs swung around to become human legs, allowing the Zord to stand up straight, as the claws rotated around to reveal hands. The tail detached and straightened to become a sword. The two side dog heads rotated around on a pivot to become shoulder pads and a shield like design on the Zord's belly came off to become the shield in its left hand. The middle dog's head moved down to become a chest piece and a head popped up from under it. The head was silver with red eyes and a black helmet that looked like a knight's helmet.
"Cerberus Knight Megazord, ready!" Paul shouted as the Megazord posed.
The three Megazords stomped forward to clash with Nemesis, with the Cerberus Knight Megazord coming in from the right, the Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode coming in from the left and the Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode coming in from the middle.
Nemesis scoffed at the strategy before extending her giant red wings and slamming them against the Cerberus Knight Megazord and the Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode, sending them to the ground.
The Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode continued its path forward before stabbing at Nemesis with its spear. Nemesis turned out of the way, much to Nate's annoyance.
"How can she dodge anything?" he asked. "she's wearing a fricking blindfold!"
"You're asking that while we fight in highly advanced armor in a giant robot built many millennia in the past?" Jay asked.
"Yeah, point taken," Nate said with a sigh, "but we've got to find a way to hit her!"
"Let's try another tactic," Valerie suggested as she whispered something to the team.
"Let's do it!" Jay agreed as the Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode moved forward again towards Nemesis.
"Not learning is almost as much a sin as extreme anger is," Nemesis said. "For that, I will cleanse you from this earth!"
"Did she just use the word 'cleanse' again?" Nate asked. "Someone needs a thesaurus, and I'm not talking about Nemesis."
The Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode raised its shield to block the wing strike from Nemesis before bashing the wing away and stabbing with the spear.
"Gah!" Nemesis cried out as the Spear stabbed into her stomach.
"We've got her now!" Victor said. "Let's…"
He was interrupted by Nemesis's laughter.
"You sinners think a spear will destroy me?" Nemesis said as she laughed. "You are more foolish than I thought!"
She grabbed the spear just above where the Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode's hand was and pulled out the spear, even as the Megazord tried to push it in further. Eventually, Nemesis won out and forced the Megazord back while throwing the spear away. She was about to attack again when the Gemini Megazord: Silver Mode blocked the way and slashed at her with its scimitars. The Cerberus Knight Megazord joined it, slashing with its sword.
Nemesis cried out as the blades struck her and forced her back. However, she quickly moved forward again.
"Adrian, Diana, let's combine and try the finisher!" Jay ordered.
"Roger!" the twins said as their Megazord split into its two individual Zords before recombining onto the Olympian Megazord: Warrior Mode, turning it into the Pantheon Megazord. Adrian and Diana rose up to join the others in the shared cockpit.
"This might be weird without the sun, but begin final attack!" Jay ordered as the Megazord leapt into the air. The Eagle Zord's wings popped out of the Megazord's back to lift it higher and closer to the moon. The light from the moon reflected off of the Raven Emblem on the armor and struck the gladius that began to glow with the same light energy.
"Light of the Olympians!" the Rangers announced as the Pantheon Megazord came down in a large two handed slash with the sword.
Nemesis took the sword strike and went flying before landing on the ground. However, red feathers began to swirl around her as they lifted her back into a standing position.
"She just took the Light of the Olympians like it was nothing!" Diana said.
"What are we going to do now?" Adrian asked. "We can't seem to damage her at all!"
"Christina," Jay said into his morpher, "I'm really hoping you have something to help us."
"Mera, Victor and I have been working on a new combination involving the Cerberus Zord," Christina said as she typed away on the mosaic computer. "However, the power of the Cerberus Zord outclasses the other Zords and creates an imbalance in the power banks."
"And that means…" Nate asked.
"It could destroy you before the combination even gets close to destroying Nemesis," Christina said.
"It is the very reason we have not brought up this combination before," Mera said. "We fear that the risk outweighs the reward."
"I have to agree, Jay," Paul said from his cockpit, "the Cerberus Zord has way more power than the other Zords. We can't risk it."
"There has to be a way to balance the power output," Jay said, "because we need that power to win!"
"Rangers," Hermes's voice said through the morphers.
"Hermes, you must have made it back to the Temple if you can talk to us," Jay said with a sigh of relief. "Our plan to get you somewhere safe worked!"
"Not quite, Jason," Hermes said. "I never went back to the Temple. I just have ways of communicating through the morphers. Look around you. I am nearby."
The Rangers looked at a rooftop close to the Pantheon Megazord and saw Hermes standing there in his full godly attire.
"What?" Jay asked. "Why aren't you in the Temple? And why are you in your god form? What's going on?"
"There's no time for that," Hermes said, "I need you to listen to me very carefully. I have a way to grant the other Zords the ability to withstand the power the Cerberus Zord gives off. However, the moment I do it, Cronus will know my location."
"Then we need to send someone to protect you!" Jay said, getting a little more frantic as he stood up from the seat. "Call Marcus or something."
"You need all of you to form the combination and Marcus is in no position to fight," Hermes said. "I will fight off whatever Cronus sends as best as I can. Know that no matter what Cronus plans to do with me and the other gods, you can beat him!"
"We can't let Cronus get you!" Jay shouted. "We'll find a way to defeat Nemesis ourselves! Get to the Temple now!"
"Good luck, Rangers," Hermes said as he pointed his caduceus at the Pantheon Megazord and fired a white beam from it, "I know you can win."
The Rangers looked around the cockpit as the power seemed to increase. A new button popped out of each of the Ranger's controls, this one saying ULTRAZORD.
"Jay, I know you want to help Hermes, but we have to destroy Nemesis first," Valerie reminded.
"Right," Jay said as he calmed down. He sat back down in the chair. "Let's do this fast. Maybe we can still save Hermes if we win quickly."
The Rangers pressed their buttons as one.
"Zords combine!" Jay shouted as the Zords prepared to form this new combination.
The entire Raven Zord detached from the combination and reattached on the waist, changing from a chest emblem to a belt emblem. The arms the Owl Zord provided detached from the Megazord and became platforms for the Bull Zord feet.
The Cerberus Knight Megazord's arms and legs folded into the body and the center dog and Megazord head came off as the rest split in half, revealing two silver gladiuses. The center dog head unfolded an omega symbol design in gold before it reattached in the center of the chestplate of the Pantheon Megazord, with the head going right under the omega symbol. The two halves of the Cerberus Knight Megazord folded to become arms, with the dog heads acting as shoulder pads before going on the end like hands. The robotic face inside the helmet flew out as the Cerberus Knight Megazord's head flew into it backwards, revealing a new face that gave the combination gold eyes to match the omega symbol on its chest .
A platform rose up behind the Rangers and, in a flash of red light, Jay appeared on it. Paul rose up where Jay had been sitting, his Shadow Sword and Shield attached to his wrist in their miniature form for the moment.
"Olympian Ultrazord, ready!" the eight Rangers announced as the Olympian Ultrazord stood ready.
"Wow!" Valerie said in amazement as she watched the lights dance in the Ultrazord cockpit, "and I thought the Pantheon Megazord had power!"
"We don't have time to waste," Jay said as he looked over at Hermes as he began to battle with enhanced Spartoi. "Let's defeat Nemesis!"
The Rangers nodded in agreement as the Olympian Ultrazord marched forward.
"You are greater fools than I thought if you think that monstrosity will defeat me!" Nemesis said with a laugh. "No one will stop me from my mission!"
The Ultrazord summoned twin silver gladiuses and grabbed the handles between the dog head/hand's teeth. It marched forward again and slashed Nemesis with the gladiuses in an "x" shape.
Nemesis cried out in pain as sparks flew from where the swords had struck her.
"Let's finish this!" Jay ordered. "Begin final attack!"
The twin gladiuses disappeared as the heads on the dog heads/hands opened up and two cannon barrels came out. The same thing happened with the chest head, giving the Olympian Ultrazord three cannons.
"Olympian Ultra Beams!" the Rangers shouted, with Jay pushing his hands forward and the others pressing buttons on their controls.
Golden beams fired from the three heads and pierced right through Nemesis's wings, which she had tried to use to block the attack, and into her body.
"My mission is a failure!" she shouted as she fell to the ground and exploded.
The Rangers celebrated for a few seconds before the Olympian Ultrazord whirled around to look where Hermes had been.
Jay leapt out of the Olympian Ultrazord first and looked around at the rooftop. There were signs a battle had been fought there, but the only thing left were ashes from enhanced Spartoi that had been destroyed.
"Hermes, come in," Jay said into his morpher.
He waited a few seconds but got no response.
"Damn it!" Jay said as he fell to his knees before punching the roof in frustration. "This is exactly what I was trying to avoid!"
"Jay, you did everything you could…" Valerie said as she put her hand on his shoulder.
"And it wasn't enough," Jay said as he looked down at the ashes around him. "Not only did I fail Marcus today, I failed Hermes too."
"It's not a complete loss," Nate said, trying to help his leader. "We have a powerful new Ultrazord to use when Cronus tries to attack again."
"And I got my mother back," Victor added.
"Hermes gave up his freedom to help us," Mera said, "he was aware of what would happen should he fall into Cronus's hands, but he trusts us to aid him however we can."
"Yeah," Jay said dejectedly as he stood up. "Let's get back to Marcus. He probably feels worse than I do."
"Get your hands off of me!" Hermes said as he struggled against the enhanced Spartoi's grip. Even if he had been able to get away from that one, there were at least 20 forming a circle around him as they led him through the palace.
Two armored Spartoi opened the double doors with a salute as Hermes and his guards passed through.
Hermes grunted as he was thrown down in front of Cronus and Hades.
"Hermes," Cronus said coldly. "You have been proving to be a thorn in my side for quite a while, ever since you escaped."
"What can I say?" Hermes asked. "I'm a troublemaker. "
"That you certainly are," Cronus agreed, "You and the other Olympians. That wretched barrier you Olympians made stops me from reaching my full potential again."
"If you're looking for an apology, you aren't getting one," Hermes said. "You were a menace then and a menace now. The world was better off without you."
"Yet I disagree," Cronus said. "All I wish for is a perfect world where I rule. Is that too much to ask?"
"Considering all the destruction you'll cause, yes, it is too much to ask," Hermes said as he looked over at Hades. "And you're just going to let Cronus boss you around?"
"As long as your beloved mortals burn, I could care less who's in charge," Hades said.
"Somehow, I don't believe that," Hermes said.
"Believe what you want," Hades said. "One of us is on a throne and one of us is in chains. Again."
"I doubt I'll be in chains for long," Hermes said, "especially if Cronus has those shavings I assume he has."
"I do," Cronus said as he put out a hand and showed the green shavings to Hermes, "and I know what I can do with them when the time is right."
"What do you have planned?" Hermes asked. "Why don't you tell me?"
"That would be illogical," Cronus replied. "You could somehow escape and tell the Rangers. No. I think I will keep my plans secret, as they should be." He looked over at the enhanced Spartoi. "I've had enough of him. Take him away."The same group of enhanced Spartoi from before grabbed Hermes and led him away.
"What are you planning, father?" Hades asked. "You can tell me."
"I said I would keep my plans secret and I intend to maintain that secrecy," Cronus said as he stood up. "I'm going to the library. Make sure I am not disturbed."
"Yes, father," Hades said as he bowed his head.
What does he want from the library? Hades asked himself. He's awfully quiet about his plans. But it doesn't matter. However he does it, as soon as he takes out the Rangers, I'll take Cronus out myself!
One Week Later…
"Hey, mum," Marcus said as he looked down at the gravestone with his mother's name on it, "I had to come by and see you again."
He sighed as he looked at the stone he had bought using the money from the objects he had stolen. All in all, it was a respectable little memorial to the woman who had been Marcus's whole world.
"I've decided to stop stealing," he said to the stone. "The whole reason I was doing it was to help you, after all. And now that you're gone…"
He choked up for a minute.
"I actually donated most of the money to charity," he finally said. "It didn't feel right to keep it when I don't need it anymore."
He looked down at his morpher on his wrist.
"It's all because of this blasted thing that I couldn't get to you when it mattered most," he said, "but I can't bring myself to get rid of it. I have this feeling that I'll need it soon. I can only hope I can help everyone better than I helped you."
He put a hand on the gravestone.
"I'll come back soon," he said. "I promise."
With that, he turned and walked away, back to the bustling city of London.
"Mr. Steel?" the woman from downstairs said from the phone in his office. "Your son and wife are here. Shall I send them up?"
"What?" Mr. Steel asked in surprise before picking up the phone. "Send them up."
A minute later, Victor stepped into the room, followed by his mother.
"Victor…" Mr. Steel said. "Mary…"
"Hello, Roger," Victor's mother said. "Let's have a chat. We have a lot to discuss."
The original title for this sounded like a Sentai episode name more than a PR one, as it was: Revenge! A Dish Best Served Cold! It then changed to Vengeance, then to Spirit of Vengeance and finally to the current title: Not So Black and White. It was originally something I had Valerie saying in one scene and I realized the pun worked almost perfectly, so I changed it.
The Ultrazord was quite a piece of work, to be honest. I knew I wanted the Cerberus Zord to combine with something, and it didn't feel right to combine it with the Hero Zords for the Ultrazord (usually the original Zords are part of the Ultrazord) so I had to draft a few ideas over a few hours to create it. The final design works, so I'm happy with it. Really glad I don't have to make these for a real show, as most of my Zords would never work in live action with the constant resizing of things to make the Zords work.
I hope to have the next chapter out at the usual time, but I would also be ready to wait a few days after that. Work is a little crazy, but hopefully things will calm down soon and I can write more again.
Thanks for reading and may the power protect you!
