Hello! I know that you all have been patiently waiting for a chapter for over two months. Thanks for your patience. School's been really eating into my time, but I seem to have found a way to work on this and still get my schoolwork done. It's just hard to write for school and then have energy to write this. All complaining aside, I'm glad to finally be able to deliver this.
I want to thank JTWAS1994, Golden Mewtwo and SwifteForeverAndAlways for their reviews, and I'm especially thankful to the anonymous reviewer P.K for telling me about Chapter 34 accidentally being a repeat of Chapter 33. I totally missed it and appreciate them bringing it to my attention. I want to also thank SwifteForeverAndAlways for following and sunwoosbestie, soundwaveprime, DragonKent, Grimlock987 and AMerg99 for favoriting and following. I also want to thank brianennis26 for favoriting as well. Whew! The number of people I want to thank is getting longer and longer. One of these days, it's going to be longer than the story itself (then again, most chapters are at least 10,000 words, so maybe not)
As you might notice as you read this, I have changed the way I format my dialogue. Apparently, according to my writing professor and the internet, I've been formatting it incorrectly. This is a more grammatically correct way of formatting it. I'll probably go back and do the other chapters when I find time. Just know that while the format might change, the content will not. Just so no one's completely shocked when they see things are different.
(2022 Spidey here. I finally finished the format updating and I DID change a few things in a few of the chapters. Cronus's character has been made more consistent with how he acts in this chapter onward (i.e. emotionless and cold). Also, some minor dialogue updates have been made to improve flow. Thanks for your understanding! This was a huge undertaking and I can't believe I finished!)
I'll talk more after the chapter's done. Enjoy!
Myth 37: Clash of the Gods
Cronus walked into the stone-cold room, listening to the banging of the hammer as he entered.
"Athena seems to be making progress," he said. "What do you have to show me?"
"I've got the helmets finished," Dark God Hephaestus said as he put the hammer down and wiped his brow, "but the chest plates are going to take some time. The Flame may heat the metal easier, but it still takes a while to make so many sets of armor."
"I understand that," Cronus said. "That's why I gave Athena 17 days to finish her part. You have that same amount of time to use that Flame to create the suits I require-"
He was quickly interrupted by the sound of thunder in the next room.
"What's going on?" he asked as he turned around and ran into Athena's lab. "I didn't order you to...oh."
"Hello Father," Zeus said as red lightning crackled over his entire body. "I've come to stop your evil plots once and for all."
"I'm impressed," Cronus said as he slowly clapped. "I'm impressed that you managed to convince the other gods to give you their energy. I assume you chose this time because Hades is no longer by my side, correct?"
"That has something to do with it, yes," Zeus said as he looked at his father with his fierce blue eyes, "but it's mostly because you have been taking my children for weeks now and I want them back."
Cronus extended his arms as dark-golden energy gathered around his hands.
"I'm afraid I've come too far for my unruly child to stand in my way," Cronus said as the dark-golden energy began to travel up his body, forming a thin layer of energy over his entire form.
"I beat you once," Zeus said as he balled his fists. "I can do it again!"
The two charged at each other, with Zeus forming a bolt of lightning in his right hand as Cronus created a ball of time energy in his left. The two hurled the projectiles at each other before slamming into each other as they clasped hands and pushed against each other, both trying to force the other over. The lightning and time energy on their bodies also began to clash, with the lightning zapping the time energy around Cronus' body but gaining no headway and the time energy burning into the lightning protecting Zeus' body. The two split apart before Zeus launched himself into the air and swung his leg towards Cronus' head. Cronus quickly put up his hands and caught the kick before slamming his open palm, full of his dark-golden time energy, into Zeus's exposed chest. Zeus cried out as he went flying backwards and slammed into a bookshelf, causing the structure to splinter and all of the books to fall on him. The red lightning that had been sparking around him died as he sat there, stunned.
"You seem to be forgetting that you had help last time," Cronus said. "The other Olympians and even some of my Titan brothers had to help you take me down. You can't do it yourself, especially without your Ranger powers."
Zeus glared at Cronus as he stood up, the red lightning appearing around his body again.
"I don't need my Ranger powers! Not while I have the godly energy from my family!" Zeus shouted as he fired two streams of red lightning from his palms at Cronus.
"Pathetic," Cronus said as his dark-golden aura flared up. He slapped the bolts into the floor. "Your emotions are clouding your judgement and making you act irrationally. For instance, you know that the time energy surrounding me allows me to slow down time, yet you try to throw ranged attacks at me. If you were thinking clearly, you wouldn't have wasted your energy attacking like that. I, however, am as logical as ever."
The aura around him flared up as time slowed again. Cronus charged up, his golden energy flowing around him, before firing a large beam of time energy that struck Zeus in the chest. Cronus dispelled his aura, returning the flow of time to normal, and watched as the impact of his attack struck Zeus suddenly, sending him flying into a wall.
Zeus groaned as he slowly stood up.
"I can't fail," he said as the red lightning struggled to spark again. "My entire people are relying on me!"
"Is that so?" Cronus asked. "Too bad you failed them miserably."
He fired a continuous beam of time energy into Zeus, forcing the Olympian to his knees. Zeus cried out in agony as the beam began to affect him, causing him to wrinkle even more and his skin and bones to start becoming brittle.
"This may be an interesting experiment," Cronus said. "The humans think us immortal. Perhaps we should test that..."
Zeus continued to age as the beam persisted until the process suddenly started reversing. As soon as the beam stopped and he had been returned to his normal age, Zeus collapsed to the ground. The process of rapidly aging and deaging had weakened him immensely and he could only groan as he laid there on the floor.
"...but not today. I need you in fighting shape to fight the Rangers," Cronus said as his aura died.
He clapped his hands and two enhanced Spartoi, their black armor gleaming in the light, came over. They lifted Zeus by an arm each and pulled him over to a chamber, with the lightning god too weak to resist even as the Spartoi used the restraints to hold him in place. He slowly looked up and looked at a pair of dark gold morphers with red gems on them. The gems were identical to the normal Red Olympian Gems except for a murky, nebulous darkness in them.
"What are those?" he asked as he looked at them in horror. "What did you do?"
"I thought it was so obvious even one as illogical as yourself could see it," Cronus said as he put his arms behind his back. "I have created Olympian Gems of my very own that, while somewhat tricky to work with at the moment, will turn you into my Dark Red Olympian Ranger."
"You're mad!" Zeus said. "The Olympian Gems were created to power a force for good! They could never be used for evil!"
"I consider my quest just," Cronus said, "even as you consider it evil. I am doing what has to be done. Humanity is a mistake that must be corrected."
"You can't kill an entire race!" Zeus argued as he weakly struggled against his restraints. "Genocide is not the answer!"
"You'll come around to my way of thinking soon enough," Cronus said as he pressed the button next to Zeus' chamber, slowly closing it. "I will see you soon, son. And you will finally be useful to me."
"Father, you don't have to…" Zeus said before the chamber slammed shut, cutting off his sentence.
"Grandfather?" Dark God Athena asked expectantly.
"Do him after Hades," Cronus said. "He could be the most difficult. Just finish within the deadline."
With that, he opened a portal and started through it.
"Where are you off to?" Dark God Athena asked.
"To inform the Olympians that their little plot failed," Cronus said as he turned his head to look at Dark God Athena, "and then, I will put them in the remaining chambers so they can't do such an illogical act again."
With that, he stepped through the portal, leaving Dark God Athena and Dark God Hephaestus to continue their work.
"Explain to me how it works again," Paul said as he looked at the large metal rod that almost looked like an arrow except that it had a rounded head instead of a point.
"It's essentially a large Morphing Energy EMP," Victor said as he tightened a bolt before looking up at Paul. "We're hoping it can cancel out any Dark Olympian Ranger's Morphing Energy and make them a normal Dark God again."
"Yeah, because that'll be so much easier to deal with," Nate said sarcastically as he leaned against a pillar across from where the two teens were working.
"Have you ever heard the saying 'better the devil you know than the one you do not'?" Mera asked.
"Can't say that I have," Diana said.
"I have," Adrian said. "It means that it's better to fight something you know than something you don't. We don't know what these Dark Olympian Rangers are capable of, but if we turn them back to normal Dark Gods, which we've dealt with before, we might be able to deal with them."
"They still might be pretty powerful, especially if Cronus has learned from his mistake and is turning the Olympians into the Dark Olympian Rangers so they don't have the compatibility issue," Victor said, "but this might tip the odds in our favor."
"And if it doesn't work?" Nate asked as he returned to an upright position. "What do we do then?"
"Jay's been working on that," Victor said as he pointed with his wrench towards Jay. The Red Ranger was pacing back and forth with his head down, deep in thought.
"Has he, though?" Nate asked. "It looks like our fearless leader is just pacing, like he has been for the last few weeks. Please don't tell me this hunk of junk 'arrow' is our only strategy."
"Not exactly," Jay as he slowly looked up at Nate. "I've got a few other strategies we can use. Namely, we can bring the reserves. Cronus isn't going to be holding back any of his Rangers, so neither should we. The only problem is that most of them are busy or can't help us for personal reasons."
"It took you 17 days to figure out we should bring in more Rangers?" Nate asked. "I could have told you that in a fraction of the time! Probably within the first day!"
"Look, I'm doing the best I can," Jay snapped a little before calming himself down. "I still feel depressed about attacking you guys and losing us the Flame. Honestly, it's really hard to think of solutions when all you can remember is the failures."
"Oh," Nate said, not being as snarky now. "I...didn't realize you were feeling that way."
"I do my best to hide it," Jay said as he sat on the step next to Valerie. "I've been doing it for about half my life, so people rarely figure it out unless I spell it out for them. And spelling it out for them isn't the easiest thing to do."
Valerie put her hand on top of his as Jay looked up at Nate.
"But I haven't spent all 17 days thinking only to figure out that we need to bring in the others," Jay said as he looked at the Blue Ranger. "It's more of a question of how we do it. It's not going to be easy for some of them, but we have to do this to stand a chance. At least have them ready for when we call them."
"Ok, I'm in," Nate said as he looked over at Victor and Mera for a minute as they worked before looking back at Jay. "Do we need those two to gather the reserves?"
"Not really," Jay said as he stood up. "Some of them we can just call. The others? We're going to need to go to them in person."
"Alright," Nate said. "Where do we start?"
"If I may?" Chiron said as Jay turned around to look at the centaur, who was typing on the mosaic computer before pulling up the Olympian Gem Radar. "Sometimes it's best to start with the hardest problem so the rest seem easier."
"Oh, I have an idea who that is…" Nate said as he looked at the mosaic computer screen as it focused in on Russia.
"Absolutely not," Mikhail's father, a big burly man with thick hair on his head, face and exposed arms, said. "We are not letting you, or your sister, out of our sight again. I don't care if your friends are 'important'. Nothing is more important than your safety and staying with your family."
"Papa, you've basically held me hostage here for three months!" Mikhail complained. "I'm 26 years old! I'm not a little kid! I can take care of myself!"
Mikhail's father looked over at Mikhail's mother who shook her head. He looked back at his son with a stern gaze.
"Your mother and I can't risk you being wrong," Mikhail's father said. "I'm sorry, but the answer is no."
Mikhail was about to say something when there was a knock on the door.
"Who could that be?" Mikhail's mother asked as she walked to the door and looked through the little hole in the wood. "Sergey, come over here, quick!"
"What is it, dear?" Mikhail's father asked as he walked over himself and looked through the hole. "'O Bozhe moy! (oh my god!)"
The two of them quickly opened the door and in stepped the Red and Pink Olympian Rangers, fully morphed.
"Hi, I hope we're not intruding," the Red Olympian Ranger said in perfect Russian. "We just needed to talk to you about Mikhail."
"O-of course," Mikhail's mother said as she gestured to the shabby, damaged couch. "Have a seat."
"We're honored to have celebrities such as yourself in our home," Mikhail's father said as he sat down in the beaten-up chair across from the Rangers. "Even in the far reaches of Russia, we have heard of the mighty Power Rangers."
"Good, then you know part of why we're here," the Pink Olympian Ranger said. "Mikhail is an...associate of ours and we need his help."
Mikhail's parents' heads whipped around to look at Mikhail as he stood there, a little surprised by what was going on.
"You know the Power Rangers?" Mikhail's father asked his son, who nodded. "Why didn't you tell us?"
Mikhail looked over at the Red Olympian Ranger as he nodded, telling him it was alright to explain.
"I don't just know them…" Mikhail said. "I'm a Ranger myself."
"You're a what!?" Mikhail's mother shouted.
"I'm a Power Ranger," Mikhail said. "I helped them fight a monster a few months back and I would have helped them more, but I was locked up here."
"If you had just told us," Mikhail's father said, "we might have been a little more lenient on you."
He looked to his wife, who seemed to have a raging fire in her eyes as she glared at him.
"It's just that we're not supposed to tell anyone, even close loved ones, about our secret identities," Mikhail replied, "and let's face it, we haven't been close for a few years now. I figured telling you, besides being against the rules, wouldn't do anything. You two were pretty set on try to 'keep me safe.'"
"And for good reason!" Mikhail's mother shouted as she turned her fierce gaze to her son. "These people are telling you to fight monsters! That's even worse than anything either of us thought you might be doing! I just assumed you were doing drugs or something. But this... I can't accept my son putting himself in danger!"
"Mama, it's for the greater good!" Mikhail shouted back.
"There is no greater good than your own safety!" MIkhail's mother shouted.
"So you're saying my safety is more important than helping other people?" Mikhail asked, still angry. "Because I don't see it that way! Do you know why I agreed to be a Ranger in the first place? To protect you guys, my family! And now I'm starting to regret some of my choices! My choice to want to protect you and my choice to come back to this damn house!"
His parents, and even the two Rangers, looked at Mikhail, stunned by his outburst. They were even more stunned when Mikhail went to the door and walked out before slamming it shut.
"I'm sorry," the Red Olympian Ranger said. "I didn't know this was going to happen and-"
"Get out," Mrs. Urusov said as she pointed to the door, "now! Before I call the authorities."
"We can fix this. We can-" the Red Olympian Ranger said as the Pink Olympian Ranger led him to the door before Mr. Urusov interrupted him.
"I think the two of you have done enough damage to this family," Mr. Urusov said. "Now, as my wife said, get out."
"For what it's worth, we're really sorry," the Pink Olympian Ranger said with a bow of her head before leading the Red Olympian Ranger outside.
The Red Olympian Ranger sighed as the Pink Olympian Ranger let go of his arm. Both demorphed in a flash of red and pink light respectively.
"I just screwed things up for Mikhail," Jay said as he walked over to a log and sat down on it before putting his head in his hands. "I thought letting him tell his parents the truth would make things better, not worse!"
Valerie was about to speak when Mikhail came up from behind Jay and sat down on the log next to him.
"It's fine," Mikhail said. "My family and I were having trouble for a while, long before Chiron showed up. And I was never happy here anyway."
"But still-" Jay said before Mikhail put up a hand to stop him.
"I said it's fine," he said firmly. "But I assume you didn't come just to cause my family and me to argue. What's up?"
Valerie, noting Jay's somewhat still distraught face, decided to take charge of the conversation.
"Cronus is making Dark Rangers," she said. "Not only that, he's making them out of the Olympians and Hestia. Jay thought that if/when he sends all 13 Rangers at us, we could use some back-up to even the odds."
"Considering I literally have nothing else I could be doing, count me in," Mikhail said before thinking for a second. "You don't think I could stay at the Temple until my parents calm down, do you?"
"We've already got Paul living there," Valerie said, "so I think you staying there shouldn't be a problem."
"Great," Mikhail said as he stood up and pulled his morphers out of his pocket. "I'll call us a Door and we can get out of this hellhole."
As Mikhail spoke into his morpher, Valerie looked over at Jay.
"If it makes you feel any better, I think Mikhail's happier getting that off his chest and leaving," she said.
"I just...I never meant to break up his family like that," Jay said.
"Paul told me a little while ago about something that Chiron told him when he became the Hades Knight," Valerie said. "It went along the lines of 'you can't change the past, but you can change the future'. You can't undo what just happened, but you can move past it. Mikhail already has."
"You're right," Jay said as he stood up, a fire in his eyes again. "Let's get back to the Temple and check on the other's progress with their Rangers. Maybe we'll have a full house when we get back."
"Hey, mum," Marcus said as he put his hand on the cold, hard gravestone. "I know I just came by yesterday, but I can't seem to stay away. I just feel horrible. I should have been there for your final moments. If it weren't for that Dark God attacking and the Rangers dragging me into their shi- stuff. Sorry, I know how you feel about foul language. I...I really miss you. I'll probably come back tomorrow. See you then."
He took his hand off the stone and started to walk away before noticing Adrian and Diana standing nearby one of the oaks that covered the cemetery with its shade.
"What the hell do you two want?" Marcus asked as he walked up to them. "Haven't you blasted Rangers caused me enough pain?"
"You know it wasn't our fault," Adrian said. "I know you're lashing out because of the pain, but you can't just blame us for-"
"You may not have killed her," Marcus interrupted, "but your Ranger hijinks made me unable to be with her! If I had never been a Ranger, I could have been with her as she died!"
"And I'm really sorry for that," Adrian said. "We were just trying to find Hermes and-"
"Don't bother trying to explain," Diana interrupted. "He's not going to listen."
"So what, we just force him to come with us?" Adrian said. "You know that's not going to work, Diana."
"I'll fight you if I have to," Marcus said as he took a more defensive stance. "Because you two aren't taking me anywhere."
"I'm not forcing him," Diana said. "Look, Marcus. Your mom meant a lot to you, right?"
"Not just a lot," Marcus said. "She meant everything to me. She believed in me when no one else would."
"Well, the pain you felt while losing her?" Diana said. "A lot of people who feel that for other people might feel the same pain you're feeling if Cronus accomplishes his goal. We need your help so people don't have to go through what you're going through."
Marcus sighed as he looked down at the ground in defeat.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"We need you to fight with us," Diana said. "Cronus is going to turn the Olympians not only into Dark Gods but Dark Rangers. We're going to need all of the Rangers to fight them and that includes you."
"Fine," Marcus said. "But after this, we better be destroying Cronus and ending this once and for all because this is the last time I'm helping."
"Thank you, Mar-" Adrian said as Marcus walked past him.
"I'm not doing it because of you," Marcus said as he walked up to Diana. "I'm doing it because she gets it. She gets how I'm feeling. Now come on. I'm sure you have some sort of plan you need to fill me in on. You usually do."
"Door's that way, at the edge of the cemetery," Diana said as she pointed.
As Marcus led the way down the earthy beaten path, Adrian ran from the tree to Diana.
"How did you do that?" he whispered to her.
"I've been working on being more open on my feelings," Diana said, "so I just thought about how I would feel about losing you or the others and channeled it into talking to Marcus."
"Wow," Adrian said before patting his sister on the back. "I'm impressed. You've really improved since this whole Ranger thing started."
"And you haven't changed one bit," Diana joked. "Now c'mon. Marcus is getting pretty far ahead and he doesn't know which door is our Door."
The two broke into a run after their White Ranger, who was finally ready to fight again.
"Hey Nate," Dan said, washing dishes as Nate walked in. "What can I do for ya? A slice of the Meat Lover's like last time?"
"Nope," Nate said. "As strange as it sounds, I'm here on business. That and I'm broke."
"And what business would that be?" Dan said as he cleaned one of the plates with a rag before putting the plate down. "I have a guess that it's Ranger related. I just want to know the reason I might be risking my job this time. Can't be worse than Typhon."
"It can and it is," Nate said as he leaned on the counter. "Cronus is making Dark Rangers out of the Olympians and will probably be sending them soon. We already fought some knock-offs, but they still gave us a real challenge. Jay says we need all the help we can get, and that means bringing in the reserves."
"The Olympians?" Dan asked as he put down his rag. "Like the big guns?"
"The biggest guns," Nate said with a nod. "We're preparing for Hestia to be included as a Dark Ranger too. That means we're looking at 13 Dark Rangers coming at us. If we can get all of the reserves on board, we'll have the advantage with 14 Rangers. Then again, there were only two Dark Rangers before and they wiped the floor with six of us…"
"Best to leave that part of the sales pitch," Dan said with a laugh. "But in all seriousness, this should be one of Cronus' last plays, right? How much stronger can he get than the Olympians?"
"I'm sure Mera could give you a long and boring answer to that but, based on my knowledge, I'm going to say that you can't go much bigger than the big guns," Nate said. "So yeah, I don't know what else Cronus could do once we win against them."
"Then I think I can help," Dan said. "My boss has more faith in me due to me not missing a shift the last few months. I think one afternoon off shouldn't be a problem. Can't go to any strategy meetings unless it's urgent, though."
"Good," Nate said. "Because I'm rarely serious but when I say that we need all the help we can get, I mean it."
"Why did you come see me personally?" Dan asked as Nate turned to walk out the door. "You could have used your morpher to call. So why come here?"
"Because the plot demanded I do something during this montage," Nate said matter-of-factly until he noticed Dan's confused expression. "But don't worry about it. Maybe next time I'll take you up on the Meat Lover's. See ya."
'Yeah," Dan said with a small wave as the African-American teen walked out of the pizza parlor and onto the dead street. "See you soon…"
"Athena, your time is up," Cronus said as he stepped into the Lab, "and I am expecting results...Athena?"
He looked around at the weapons lining the table and the pods as they slowly opened. Out stepped the 12 Olympians, as well as Hestia and Hades. All of them had a shadowy aura around them, as well as glowing blue eyes.
Zeus stepped forward and took a knee in front of his father.
"Father, how may I serve you?" Zeus asked, his blue eyes now full of fire rather than lightning.
Cronus looked over at the Red Dark Olympian Morphers lying on the cold black table and moved to pick them up. His fingers had almost touched them when Athena got in the way
"Wait!" Dark God Athena shouted as she blocked Cronus' hand. "Don't touch them!"
"Why not?" Cronus asked, his hand recoiling a little. "Are they not mine to give?"
"No, but they are ours to take," Dark God Athena said as each of the Dark Olympians grabbed their respective Dark Olympian Morphers and strapped them onto their wrists. "I had a little extra time, so I added a safety measure in case the Rangers try to remove them by force. If anyone except a Dark Olympian touches it...let's just say there will be consequences for such an action. We have a whole back-up plan in place if they try it."
"What is it?" Cronus asked, a little surprised that a Dark God would come up with their own idea. "Tell me."
As Athena whispered in his ear for a minute or two, Cronus maintained an emotionless look. He nodded a few times during the explanation instead.
"Clever," Cronus said as he moved away from Athena before turning to the other Dark Olympians. "You know your mission: destroy the Rangers and ensure my destruction of all mortals is unopposed."
The Dark Rangers nodded as Cronus opened a dark-golden ringed portal.
"This will take you to Olympia Hills," he said. "Now, their power works best in numbers. Split them up by any means necessary and then destroy them. Or you can use Athena's special method of dealing with them. I don't care, as long as they are out of my way."
"Yes, Master Cronus," the 14 Dark Olympians said as they bowed as one.
One by one, the Dark Olympian stepped through until Cronus was left alone in the lab. He opened a new portal and stepped through it into the throne room on the other side. He sat down on his throne as he reached into the brazier of blue fire that was burning stronger than ever. As he created the familiar shape of a flame screen, he began to speak.
"Alright, Chiron," he said. "Let us see who wins between my Rangers and yours…"
"...and that's our plan to defeat Cronus's Dark Olympian Rangers," Jay finished as he looked around at the group of teenagers and 20-somethings. His eyes focused on Valerie for a moment, who gave an encouraging smile and little wave.
"And when is this attack going to occur?" Marcus asked as he crossed his arms. "I was under the impression it would be rather soon from the way Diana and what's-his-name were talking."
"What's-his-name?" Adrian mouthed as he looked from his sister, who snickered a little, to his girlfriend who put a hand on his shoulder to both support him and keep him sitting down.
"We have reason to believe that the attack will indeed be soon, though maybe not as soon as you expected," Jay said. "Mera and Victor calculated approximately how long it would take to reverse-engineer the Ranger suits with the data the automaton Fortuna gave and came up with-"
"Can't believe she was an automaton," Jasmine muttered to herself and anyone near her.
"-...well," Jay said as he gestured for Mera to come up to the top of the steps. "Mera, why don't you tell them?"
"The date Victor, Chiron and I came up with was approximately 26 days from the day that data was gathered, almost a full month" Mera explained, "so it most likely will happen next Saturday."
"So why gather us now?" Mikhail asked. "Isn't it still a rather long way away from happening?"
Chiron moved from his spot on the side to next to Jay.
"That data is very much a rough estimate," he said. "Coming to a concrete date was almost impossible. But what I can tell you is that you should be ready from this moment on. You never know-"
Everyone jumped a little as the alarm went off.
"No…" Chiron said as he galloped over to the mosaic computer and pulled up the feed from the city. "It can't be!"
The Rangers watched as the stones twisted and turned to form the image of…
"The Dark Olympians," Jay said. "Damn it! We're not ready!"
"'Not as soon as you expected', huh?" Marcus mocked.
"Our data didn't predict this," Victor said as he and Mera rifled through their notes. "They must've found a way to advance their timetable."
"We can figure out later how they did it," Jay said. "We need to get out there and stop them from doing any more damage! Chiron, prepare the Doors! Then call Dan, we're going to need all hands on deck!"
Chiron typed a few keys on the keyboard as the Doors flung open. He gave a quick thumbs up as Jay led the charge out the Doors, the 12 other Rangers right behind him.
"This is Veronica Summers from Olympia Hills Channel 6 and it is absolute pandemonium out here!" a black haired woman shouted into the microphone. "While we've seen attacks by Dark Gods before, we have never seen an attack of this size. There appear to be at least ten Dark Gods assaulting the city, with even more likely to be nearby."
"What are you idiots doing?" a hot dog vendor, weenie still in his hand, shouted as he ran past. "They're coming this way!"
"I am a reporter," Veronica argued. "I do not run from-"
She shrieked as a bicycle missed her by inches.
"Ok, maybe I do run!" she shouted as she and the cameraman, still rolling, started in the same direction the hot dog vendor had gone.
The door to one of the storefronts began to glow blue as the Rangers, still unmorphed, ran through until they reached a plaza.
"What the hell happened here?" Paul asked as he looked around. "It looks like a storm hit this place!"
Indeed, there were scattered items littered across the ground as the wind began to blow even stronger.
"Rangers!" a familiar booming voice shouted from the sky. "We've been expecting you!"
Dark God Zeus, his white toga flapping a bit in the wind, slowly lowered himself to the ground from his place in the middle of the storm. Without him, the storm began to die a little, yet continued to rage.
"You failed us," Dark God Zeus said. "You failed to protect the very Flame we gave to you. You failed to stop Hades before he could free Cronus. And you failed to ever even attempt to save us from the Underworld."
"You keep saying 'us'," Nate said as he gestured around, "but I'm failing to see an 'us'."
Shadows appeared around the Rangers, forming a circle around them, and figures rose from them. As the blackness around them faded, their white robes came into view, revealing the 11 other Olympians and Hestia.
"Here we are!" Dark God Dinoysus said. "Aren't you glad you *hic* asked?"
"Though this isn't all of us," Dark God Ares said with a malicious grin. "Why don't you show yourself, Uncle?"
One final shadow appeared and out rose a black robed figure that the Rangers were all too familiar with.
"Hades?" Victor asked. "We never included you in our predictions!"
"Looks like you're going to have to...improvise," Dark God Hades said before he dropped and slammed his palms into the ground, causing shadows to flow from them. Large black shadowy dog heads appeared out of the shadows and rapidly advanced at the teens and 20-somethings.
"Scatter!" Jay ordered as the Rangers did exactly as he ordered. However, each of the Rangers, save for Jay, were swallowed up by the dog heads as they moved to match the Rangers' dodges, with the dog heads completely avoiding Jay.
Jay looked around at the 14 Dark Gods as they tightened their circle around him.
"Don't suppose we could talk about this Ranger to Ranger, right?" Jay quipped.
"Go," Dark God Zeus ordered. "Follow the plan."
The other gods nodded as they slowly sunk into their shadows again.
"That leaves you and me," Dark God Zeus said. "No one to save you. No one to support you."
"What did you do to my team?" Jay demanded. "Where are they?"
"Father had the brilliant idea to split you Rangers up," Dark God Zeus said. "You struggled against two fake Dark Olympian Rangers while working together. How will you fare against 14 real ones while staying apart?"
"Guess we'll find out, won't we?" Jay said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Red Olympian Power!"
In a flash of red light, Jay was transformed into the Red Olympian Ranger.
"Hero Armor, power up!" he shouted as his omega symbol expanded into his Hero Armor.
He summoned his Lightning Sword in another flash of red light and took a ready stance.
"Your confidence in your team is misplaced," Dark God Zeus said as he crossed his arms over his chest before speaking in a sinister tone. "Dark Olympian Power."
Shadowy red light radiated from the Red Dark Olympian Morphers and, in a flash of black light, Dark God Zeus was transformed into the Red Dark Olympian Ranger. He summoned his Lightning Sword, an exact duplicate of Jay's, in another flash of black light and took a ready stance that was more aggressive than Jay's.
"Let's begin," Dark God Zeus said as he charged at Jay.
Nate cried out as he was released from the shadowy dog head and fell a few feet to the ground.
"This damn author's running out of ideas considering he split us up again," he muttered to himself as he picked himself up. "This is like, what, the fourth time?"
He only got a second to look around, noting all of the glass tanks around him, before a blast of water hit him in the gut, knocking him back into a wall of thick glass. A man in a white toga with long white hair and sea-green eyes walked towards him, trident aimed at Nate. People were running away from the two of them, leaving the room empty save for them and a few kids that were hiding.
"Hey, old man," Nate said as he put his hands up in a gesture of surrender as he slowly stood up. "Any chance you could explain why we're in an aquarium of all places? You know, besides the fact that we haven't had a Ranger fight here yet."
"Master Cronus told us to beat you Rangers by any means necessary," Dark God Poseidon said, trident still aimed at Nate's head. "I took that to mean I should fight somewhere where I can use my powers most effectively."
"Blah blah blah blah," Nate said. "All you Dark Gods do is talk. You've got powers? I would start using them!"
"You rude little-" Dark God Poseidon said before Nate quickly kicked the head of Poseidon's trident, moving it away from his head.
"Blue Olympian Power!" Nate shouted as he crossed his arms over his chest. In a flash of blue light, he was morphed into the Blue Olympian Ranger.
"Hero Armor, power up!" Nate shouted as the omega symbol on his suit expanded into his golden chestplate.
As Poseidon re-aimed his trident at Nate, Nate summoned his own Ocean Trident and stabbed it into Dark God Poseidon's hand, causing the sea god to drop his weapon.
"You're starting to get on my nerves," Dark God Poseidon said as he backed up and crossed his arms over his chest. "You might regret that. Dark Olympian Power!"
Shadowy blue light radiated from the Blue Dark Olympian Morphers and, in a flash of black light, Dark God Poseidon was transformed into the Blue Dark Olympian Ranger.
He raised his arm into the air as his old trident disappeared and a new one, identical to Nate's, appeared in his hand.
"Let's see what you've got, you cheap copy," Nate said as he charged at the Dark Olympian Ranger.
The two blue-clad warriors ran at each other before stabbing at each other with their Ocean Tridents at the same time. While Dark God Poseidon grunted at the sparks that flew from his chest, Nate yelled in pain as more intense sparks flew from his suit.
"That hurt, you son of a bitch!" Nate shouted before looking at a kid who was hiding behind a smaller tank. "...uh, don't repeat that to any adults, ok? And get out of here!"
As the kid ran out of the room, followed by a few others, Nate stabbed at Dark God Poseidon again with his trident. Dark God Poseidon used the body of his own trident to block before counter attacking, causing sparks to fly from Nate's armored chest again.
"You're telling me that you were one of the Rangers causing Master Cronus so much trouble?" Dark God Poseidon asked as he pressed the attack, stabbing again and again with his trident. "You've hardly touched me! My victory is assured."
"Assured?" Nate asked, backflipping away before continuing. "That word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
"What?" Dark God Poseidon asked as he lowered his Trident for a moment.
"Princess Bride reference," Nate said. "What, you guys don't have Amazon Prime on Olympus?"
"What are you blabbering about now?" Dark God Poseidon asked, "Stop wasting my time!"
"As you wish," Nate said. "See? I can do these all day."
Dark God Poseidon roared in frustration as he slammed his trident into the floor. In a matter of seconds, a stream of pressurized water exploded out of the ground and slammed into Nate, pushing him into the glass.
"Ow," Nate said as he stood up. "Scratch what I said earlier. That hurt."
Dark God Poseidon raised his trident and hurled it at Nate. Nate barely moved his head out of the way in time, as the trident smashed into the glass inches from his head.
"Whew," Nate said as he 'wiped his brow' on his helmet. "That was close."
Then there was a cracking sound. Nate quickly stood up and backed away, watching as the reinforced glass began to crack around the trident like it was just ordinary glass.
"Oh, come on!" Nate shouted as he watched the glass shatter, letting over 500,000 gallons of water into the room. He took off running, only for Poseidon to block his exit.
"Great," Nate commented as he raised his trident. "Well, at least I have a weapon and you don't!"
Dark God Poseidon extended his hand and, a few seconds later, his trident flew into that extended hand.
"...Or not," Nate said as he looked back at the coming wave of water. "Any chance you could let me pass?"
Dark God Poseidon responded by kicking him in the gut and sending him flying back into the wall of water itself. As his momentum slowed, Nate looked around at the fish as they swam around him. Poseidon must have closed the doors to stop the movement of the water. Nate noticed that he was able to breathe even when he was completely submerged, just as he had when chasing Scylla in the lake.
Hey, this isn't so bad, Nate thought. Just a bunch of peaceful fish. I wonder what exhibit this was before Poseidon ruined it?
He looked over at the wall and saw the words…
'Shark Realm'? he thought. Oh shit.
He watched as a group of sharks gathered around him, with Poseidon riding the largest one, an Atlantic Blacktip. Nate looked at the teeth on that thing and was ready to faint.
I've got to get away! he thought, all of his senses on high alert. Those things are going to eat me!
Dark God Poseidon motioned for the sharks to advance as Nate spun around, trying to keep his eyes on all of the sharks. As they closed in on the helpless Blue Ranger, he seemed to panic even more.
"Any last words before I end your pitiful existence?" Dark God Poseidon asked. After a few seconds of silence, he gave the order with his trident to advance.
Just as the sharks were about to reach Nate, he pointed the trident's pointed end to the ground. The points glowed blue for a second before releasing a stream of water, rocketing Nate upwards. He covered his head the best he could before smashing through the ceiling. He landed on one of the rafters and looked down at Dark God Poseidon.
"Nice try," Nate said, "but I don't go down that easy, even when scared. Now I have some friends to get back to. See ya!"
Dark God Poseidon shook his fist in rage as Nate leapt from rafter to rafter, making his now-easy escape.
Victor grunted as the shadowy dog head released him on the ground of what appeared to be an abandoned factory. Mera landed in a crouch on a stationary conveyor belt in the same position she had been in when the head had swallowed her. Mikhail landed more similar to Victor, being more sprawled out on the cold, hard ground.
"Are you alright?" Mera as she got off the conveyor belt and offered Victor her hand.
"That...wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world," Victor commented as he used Mera's offered hand to stand up. "Though shadow-travel is an interesting form of transportation. I wonder if Paul could do it…"
"Now isn't really the time to be thinking about transportation!" Mikhail said, having stood up, as he pointed to the three shadows that released Dark Gods Hephaestus, Athena and Ares, all already garbed in their Dark Olympian Ranger suits with the darker gold parts seeming to suck in the light.
"Hello, Rangers," Dark God Athena said. "Are you ready to be destroyed by our superior armor and abilities?"
"In other words, you guys ready to be clobbered?" Dark God Ares asked as he punched his fist into his palm. "Because I'm itching to go!"
"Be calm, Ares," Dark God Athena said as she put a hand on Dark God Ares's shoulder, only for the war god to slap it off.
"Don't you tell me what to do!" Dark God Ares shouted as he pointed an aggressive finger at Dark God Athena and Dark God Hephaestus. "We may be working together and you may have designed our powers, but that doesn't mean I have to like you!"
"The feeling's mutual," Dark God Hephaestus said. "How many times did you steal Aphrodite from my chambers?"
"Oh please," Dark God Ares said. "She was practically begging for someone to spice up her sex life. Obviously you weren't cutting it."
"You take that back!" Dark God Hephaestus shouted as he charged at Ares and knocked him over.
"Would the two of you knock it off?" Dark God Athena asked as she grabbed each of them by the back of their suits and turned them towards the Rangers. "Turn your anger on them!"
"Oy blyat' (Oh shit)", Mikhail said, his body frozen, as Dark Gods Ares and Hephaestus ran towards them, with Dark God Athena right behind.
"Black Olympian Power!" Victor shouted as he rolled away from Hephaestus' charge and caused him to slam into the conveyor belt. In a flash of black light, Victor had become the Black Olympian Ranger.
"Hero Armor, power up!" Victor shouted, causing his omega symbol to expand and transform into his Hero Armor.
Mikhail didn't move out of the way in time and cried out as Dark God Ares slammed into him, sending him flying into one of the large pressing machines and creating a dent in it.
"Yellow Olympian Power!" Mera yelled as she stood her ground and crossed her arms over her chest. In a flash of yellow light, Mera was transformed into the Yellow Olympian Ranger.
"Hero Armor, power up!" she shouted as she summoned her Battle Spear transforming it into a club, before swinging it at the charging Dark God Athena.
"A good attempt," Dark God Athena said as she ducked under the swing and popped up to punch Mera in the helmet, causing sparks to fly, "but not good enough."
"Then I will just have to try a new tactic," Mera said as her club transformed back into its normal spear form. She stabbed the spear at Dark God Athena in a barrage of attacks, but each attack was dodged by Dark God Athena.
Mera growled as she attempted to use her spear as more of a staff, swinging it around to try and strike Dark God Athena with its body.
Dark God Athena summoned a Battle Spear of her own and blocked the attacks with the hard body while mixing in jabs of her own at different parts of Mera's body. While Mera wasn't actually hitting her opponent like Dark God Athena was, she was still forcing the Dark God back.
"You call it a tactic, but you are just randomly attacking," Dark God Athena said as she dodged a more powerful attack on Mera's part that embedded her spear in a pipe before finishing her own attack with her duplicate spear, "while I…"
Mera's body suddenly froze as she fell to the ground, her legs somehow not supporting her weight any longer.
"...am attacking strategically," Dark God Athena finished.
"What did you do to me?" Mera asked as she struggled to move.
"I hit some pressure points," Dark God Athena said. "You will not be moving for a few minutes, which is all the time I'll need to finish you off."
"Is that so?" Mera asked as she managed to look up and past Dark God Athena, towards the pipe. "You may have more trouble than you think accomplishing that goal."
"What are you talking about?" Dark God Athena asked as she raised her spear. "This will be quick and easy!"
Mera mentally reached out to her Battle Spear and sent it to the pocket dimension, leaving a puncture in the pipe. Pressurized steam shot out of the hole as soon as the spear disappeared and blasted Dark God Athena across the room.
"You weren't the only one thinking strategically," Mera muttered as she focused on trying to make her body move before Dark God Athena came back.
Mikhail groaned as he laid on the ground, still hurt from the collision with the pressing machine.
"C'mon!" Dark God Ares shouted. "Get up! I at least want a challenge before I beat you!"
Mikhail slowly got up and glared at Dark God Ares.
"Look, I've had a shitty day as it is, but you're just making it worse," Mikhail said. "So if you want a fight, I'm happy to give you one! Crimson Olympian Power!"
In a flash of crimson light, Mikhail had morphed into the Crimson Olympian Ranger. He summoned his War Ax and sent a horizontal slash at Dark God Ares.
"There we go!" Dark God Ares said with a laugh as he blocked the attack with the body of his own ax. "That's the fire I was looking for!"
Mikhail swung his ax again at Dark God Ares, this time going for a vertical, over-the-head strike. Dark God Ares, much to his frustration, just held his ax horizontally and deflected the attack again.
Mikhail hefted the ax to attack again, only for Dark God Ares to swing his own ax at Mikhail. Mikhail ducked under the attack before slashing into Dark God Ares's legs. He growled in frustration as the attack just bounced off without even leaving a mark on Dark God Ares's crimson-armored thigh.
"You call that an attack?" Dark God Ares asked. "This is an attack!"
Dark God Ares drew his ax back as the head began to glow black before bringing it down in a mighty cleave. Mikhail raised his own ax to block, only for Dark God Ares's ax to slice right through the handle and strike Mikhail in the helmet. Sparks began to fly as Dark God Ares forced the ax deeper into the helmet.
If I don't do something, Mikhail thought, he's going to slice right into my head!
Meanwhile, Victor and Dark God Hephaestus were in a shoving match with the handles of their Blacksmith Hammers. Victor grunted as he pushed hard against Dark God Hephaestus' hammer handle with his own. To his surprise, Dark God Hephaestus wobbled a little and took a step back to keep his balance.
I wonder… Victor thought as he and Dark God Hephaestus continued to push against one another.
Victor suddenly moved his hammer out of the pushing match and spun around, using the momentum to slam his hammer into the back of Dark God Hephaestus' leg. The smith god howled in pain as he stumbled away from the attack.
Now's my chance! Victor thought as he began to attack with swing after swing at Hephaestus' legs.
The Dark God attempted to block the attack, but Victor was much more used to his weapon and knew how to use the hammer's weight to his advantage. Dark God Hephaestus eventually fell to the ground, his legs shining with a black energy, almost like an illusion, and revealed twisted and deformed legs.
"Master Cronus told me the Dark God powers would fix my legs!" Dark God Hephaestus said. "Why didn't it work?"
"It's over," Victor said as he pointed the top of his hammer at Hephaestus's head. "Now to free you from Cronus."
Dark God Athena, who has recovered from the blast of steam, noticed the position Dark God Hephaestus was in and hurled her spear at Victor. The Black Olympian Ranger cried out as the spear flew into his side. He dropped his hammer and stumbled back, clutching his side.
"Stand up," Dark God Athena said as she offered her hand to Dark God Hephaestus. "Contrary to what the Black Ranger said, the fight's not over. And besides, you haven't seen all your armor and weapons can accomplish yet."
Dark God Hephaestus slowly stood up before he was hit in the back by something that quickly bounced off him into the ground. He and Dark God Athena looked down to see a crossbow bolt stuck in the floor. They both looked up from the bolt and saw Mera standing there, crossbow in hand.
"You hurt my friend," she said as another bolt appeared in her crossbow, "and for that, you will pay dearly."
"And how are you going to do that?" Dark God Hephaestus asked. "There's one of you and two of us."
"You are correct," Mera said. "Let me even those odds."
She turned 90 degrees and fired the bolt at Dark God Ares. Like Dark God Hephaestus, the attack bounced off, but it still distracted him enough to allow Mikhail to land a powerful slash on his front with his crimson-glowing War Ax.
Dark God Ares let go of his own ax, still embedded in Mikhail's helmet and stumbled back from the sheer strength of the attack.
"Finally," Mikhail said as he sent his ax to the pocket dimension and pulled out the one in his helmet before throwing it away. "I almost got what you Americans call a 'splitting headache'."
"How dare you just throw away one of my weapons!" Dark God Hephaestus shouted. "Even if it is that barbarian Ares's property, I still made it! I put so much work into that!"
"After he almost put that ax through my head, you'd better believe I would throw it away!" Mikhail retorted. "Now, if you are so insulted, why don't you face me yourself?"
"And destroy someone with the power of Ares?" Dark God Hephaestus asked. "Gladly!"
The shimmering around Dark God Hephaestus' legs faded as they changed back into normal legs. He stepped forward to test it before picking his hammer up from off the ground and dashing towards the Crimson Olympian Ranger.
Mikhail sidestepped the first swing before using a similar cleaving attack to the one Dark God Ares had used on him. Dark God Hephaestus raised his hammer in time to block the attack with the sturdy handle before lashing out with one of his legs to kick at Mikhail's chest.
Mikhail stumbled back from the attack, giving Dark God Hephaestus all the opportunity he needed to slam his hammer into Mikhail's chest, knocking him to the ground. Mikhail grunted as his back met the hard floor in a forceful way.
"Now to end Ares's Ranger once and for all!" Dark God Hephaestus shouted as he raised the hammer over his head.
Mera tried to run over to help, but Dark God Athena blocked her way with her spear.
"Don't interfere," Dark God Athena said simply.
"I most certainly am interfering," Mera said as she transformed her Battle Spear into a new shape the likes of which Dark God Athena had never seen before.
"What in the name of Olympus is that?" Dark God Athena asked, both curious and shocked.
"We mortals call this a minigun," Mera said as she hefted the large weapon with one hand on the handle and the other on the trigger, "and you are lucky enough to see how it works."
With that, she opened fire, sending bullet after bullet into Dark God Athena's armor. While it didn't pierce said armor, it did force Dark God Athena back and away from blocking Mera's path. Mera then turned the minigun on Dark God Hephaestus just as he was bringing the hammer down, sending him tumbling back from the force of the bullets.
"Get up," Mera said to Mikhail as she helped Victor stand up. "We need to retreat."
"Agreed," Mikhail said with a nod, "but I have a feeling the Dark Olympian Rangers are not going to let us leave so easily."
"I have something that may solve that problem. Hold him for a second," Mera said as she handed Victor off to Mikhail.
She focused for a few seconds and her Battle Spear-minigun became a grenade launcher. She fired a few grenades at each of the Dark Gods as they started to move towards the Olympian Ranger and then at a few at the support pillars.
"Now, as Nate would say, 'run like hell!'" Mera said as she grabbed Victor and the three Rangers took off out of the room.
The Dark Gods looked down at the baseball-sized metal things by their feet and looked at each other in confusion.
"Were these supposed to do something?" Dark God Ares asked. "They might as well have thrown-"
Suddenly, the grenades went off, launching the Dark Gods into the air. As they hit the ground and the roof began to collapse on them, Athena looked out the damaged window to see the three Rangers as they ran.
"Well played, Yellow Ranger," she muttered to herself. "That's twice you've outsmarted us."
Just as she finished speaking, a large chunk of the roof came down and fell on her.
Dark God Ares started to rush towards the exit, but Dark God Hephaestus blocked his way.
"What are you doing, you lame idiot?" Dark God Ares asked as he looked around at the crumbling building, "we need to get out of here before we're crushed!"
"You're not leaving this room," Dark God Hephaestus said matter-of-factly. "Not after what you did with Aphrodite!"
"Now is not the time!" Dark God Ares argued as he shoved the smith god aside. "I'm out of here!"
As Dark God Ares ran towards the exit, his armor vanished. He stopped for a minute and looked down at himself.
"What happened to my suit?" he asked.
"What I give, I can take away," Dark God Hephaestus said as he tapped his Dark Olympian Gems, "Athena may have created the Gems, but I still had time to make an off switch for whoever I want. Athena and I will survive the roof falling due to our suits. Without your's, you will perish."
"What do you want me to say?" Ares asked. "Because I'm not sorry. She asked for it!"
"And you agreed to it," Hephaestus said. "Good luck surviving a falling roof."
With that, the chunks of the roof came down and fell on the two of them.
"Was that really a victory?" Mikhail asked as he helped the stumbling Victor along. All three were still morphed and Mikhail still had the gash through his helmet, while Victor was still holding his side.
"Considering I doubt that the roof and explosions destroyed them, no," Mera said.
"You think they survived?" Mikhail asked.
"The armor the original Dark Olympian Rangers used was strong," Victor replied as he looked back at the crumbling building, "and I think their armor is even stronger. If Mera hadn't surprised them with her attacks, I doubt we would have stood a chance."
"And what do we do now?" Mikhail asked.
"We need to regroup," Mera replied. "Our strength is generally in our numbers. We barely stood a chance in our three-on-three fight, but if we can meet with the others, we might be able to figure out a way to win."
"We do have one advantage, though," Victor said. "Hephaestus and Ares were arguing. If Athena hadn't been there, the two of them probably would have gone at each other instead of us."
"I believe I can see where you are going with that thought," Mera said with a nod. "If they were arguing over an old feud between the two of them, then other Dark Olympian Rangers might have grudges with each other too."
"And we can exploit those grudges to whittle down their numbers," Victor said before he gripped his side a little harder. "But first, we need to get to the Temple to treat this wound."
"Then I have three calls to make," Mera said. "Because I can think of another few grudges that may exist and our teammates need all of the help they can get…"
Valerie cried out as she fell from the shadowy dog head onto the soft grass. She looked over as another shadowy dog head deposited Christina next to her. The two girls stood up and brushed themselves off.
"We're at the park?" Valerie asked as she looked around.
"Looks like," Christina replied before she pointed to a large tree. "Because that's the tree Pan used to attack us a few months ago. Still looks beautiful as ever. This whole park does."
As if on cue, two female figures rose from the shadow of the tree Christina had pointed out.
"So you see beauty in nature as well?" Dark God Aphrodite asked.
"Because so do we," Dark God Demeter said. "It's almost a shame we have to destroy you."
"You wish!" Valerie said as she prepped her morphers. "Christina, you ready?"
"Ready!" Christina said with a nod. "Green Olympian Power!"
"Pink Olympian Power!" Valerie shouted.
In a flash of green and pink light, the two teens were transformed into the Green and Pink Olympian Rangers.
"Hero Armor, power up!" Valerie shouted as her omega symbol expanded into her gold chestplate.
"Very impressive," Dark God Aphrodite said. "But you stand no chance against us."
The two goddesses crossed their arms over their chests as one.
"Dark Olympian Power," the two of them said together as their morphers released a shadowy green and pink light respectively. In a flash of black light, they were transformed into their Dark Olympian Ranger suits.
Valerie was the one to make the first move, summoning her Love Bow and firing an arrow at Dark God Aphrodite. Dark God Aphrodite blocked it with the palm of her hand, causing it to shatter on impact and leaving no lasting damage.
"These suits Hephaestus made may look identical to yours, but they are much stronger," Dark God Aphrodite said as she summoned her bow "as are our weapons. While an attack like that can't hurt us…"
She released an arrow and fired it into Valerie's chest, causing sparks to fly. Valerie cried out as she flew back a bit before crashing to the ground.
"...ours can hurt you," Dark God Aphrodite finished.
"Not that you, Green Ranger, could hurt us anyway," Dark God Demeter said. "A pacifist as a Power Ranger... What are you doing with your life?"
Christina stood there for a minute, as if pondering the question.
"Well, not that it'll matter," Dark God Demeter said as she summoned her Nature Scythe and charged at Christina. She swung the scythe around a few times, trying to catch Christina with the curved blade. She smirked a bit under her helmet as Christina twisted around or ducked under every attack before kicking the scythe out of Dark God Demeter's hand..
"So you do have some fight in you," Demeter said as she put her hand out, with the Nature Scythe flying into her awaiting hand. "Good."
Christina grimaced under her helmet as she summoned her own Nature Scythe before the two began to swing at each other.
Valerie slowly stood up while the area where the arrow had struck continued to let off smoke. A voice could be heard coming from her morpher, though it was hard to make out over the clashing of the scythes.
"Stay down, little girl," Dark God Aphrodite said as she aimed her bow at the Pink Ranger. "You're no match for me."
"You're probably right," Valerie said as she breathed a little heavy from the pain, "but Demeter is."
"Why would Demeter be-" Dark God Aphrodite asked before Valerie shouted over her.
"Hey Demeter?" she shouted, "remember how Persephone was taken by a lustful Hades?"
The sound of metal hitting metal ceased as Dark God Demeter looked over at Valerie.
"Of course I do!" she said, "there isn't a day that goes by where I don't curse Hades for what he did!"
"Who causes lust in people?" Valerie asked.
Dark God Demeter seemed confused by the question, lowering her scythe as she thought about it. As soon as she figured it out, she whirled around to look at Dark God Aphrodite.
"You!" she shouted as she pointed a finger at her once-comrade. "You sent your son to cause that! If Eros had never struck Hades with his arrow, my daughter wouldn't have to suffer for months on end in the Underworld!"
"I never told him to do such a thing!" Dark God Aphrodite argued. "Unlike you, I let my child leave the nest."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dark God Demeter asked as she stomped over to Dark God Aphrodite. "Are you judging my parenting style?"
"What if I am?" Dark God Aphrodite asked. "You know, for a goddess of the harvest, you don't cultivate your children well."
"How dare you!" Dark God Demeter shouted as she raised her scythe and slashed at Dark God Aphrodite with the curved blade.
Dark God Aphrodite backflipped away from the attack before aiming her bow horizontally and firing a horizontal line of arrows all at once. Dark God Demeter cried out as the arrows pelted her armor, somehow finding their way into the weaker parts of her armor. Dark God Demeter lowered her scythe and backed up a bit from her former ally with her hands up. Dark God Aphrodite charged up a pink energy arrow and held onto it, aiming it at Dark God Demeter.
"You aren't a violent goddess," Dark God Demeter said, a little panicked. "Perhaps we can talk about this-"
Dark God Aphrodite smirked under her helmet as she released the string. Dark God Demeter cried out as the arrow pierced her chest, causing sparks to violently fly. She fell to her knees as Dark God Aphrodite walked over to her and grabbed the end of the arrow not in Dark God Demeter's chest.
"Love causes violence all the time," Dark God Aphrodite said as she forced the arrow deeper, causing Dark God Demeter to scream in agony. "Ever hear of a 'crime of passion'?"
Dark God Demeter didn't respond as Dark God Aphrodite finally pulled the arrow out and allowed it to dispel in her hand. She pushed on Dark God Demeter's helmet and watched as she collapsed to the ground. As soon as Demeter hit the ground, her suit disappeared and her dark aura faded. Dark God Aphrodite was about to pull back the string of her bow to fire another arrow into Demeter's head when something inside her stopped her.
"You're lucky I have no reason to see you dead," Dark God Aphrodite remarked before turning to where the Rangers had been. "Now, where were we?"
But all she saw was an empty park.
"Master Cronus will not be pleased," Dark God Aphrodite said as she started over towards the shadow of a tree. "But I'm sure the others have destroyed the Rangers by now. We can hunt down those two later."
With that, she stepped into the shadow and sank down into it, leaving the park occupied only by the unconscious Demeter and the birds flying overhead.
"Daniel!" Chiron's voice shouted through Dan's morpher as he ran down the street, avoiding the larger cracks in the pavement as he went.
"If you're going to tell me that the Dark Olympian Rangers are attacking, I kind of figured that out," Dan said into his morpher as he continued to run.
"It's more than that," Chiron said. "The Rangers have been sent to different parts of the city through Hades' power over shadows. You're the only one not currently in combat with their opposite Dark Olympian Ranger."
"Hades? Don't remember hearing his name when Nate was giving me the sales pitch," Dan said. "All joking aside, if the others are facing their Dark Olympian Ranger counterparts then where's mine?"
Dan was about to ask another question when he tripped. He twisted around to land on his side instead of his face, but it still hurt.
"I'm on flat pavement. What the heck could I have…" he asked before he looked back where he had tripped and saw a grapevine sticking out of the pavement like a grass knot. "Damn it."
"*Hic* You rang?," Dark God Dionysus asked as he stumbled from behind a building into Dan's view. He slowed for a minute, trying to walk in a straight line, but failed, instead going in a more zig-zag pattern. He finally stopped in front of Dan before turning to look at him.
"Based on that drunken walk you just did, I'm going to assume you're Dionysus," Dan said.
"Yeah and you're my itsy bitsy opponent," Dark God Dionysus said with a drunken laugh.
"Yeah, with you like that, this shouldn't be too hard," Dan said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Purple Olympian Power!"
In a flash of vibrant purple light, Dan was transformed into the Purple Olympian Ranger. He summoned his Vine Thyrsus and stepped back a bit.
"This'll only hurt for a second," he said as he pointed the Thyrsus at Dark God Dionysus. Seconds later, a bunch of large, thick grapevines flew out of the street and at the drunken Dark God.
"Oh?" Dark God Dionysus asked as he looked at the grapevines just as they parted around him. "Are we fighting already?"
Dan summoned more grapevines from different directions but everytime he did, the vines just parted around Dionysus. Finally, he summoned grapevines from all directions. As the vines flew in, Dan swore he could see a spark in the eyes of Dark God Dionysus and his shadowy aura intensify just before the vines crashed into each other.
"That had to get him," Dan said as he walked forward, mentally ordering the vines to part and let him through. "I'd better go get the body so we can have the good Dionysus back. If he has any good in him, that is."
He stepped into the very center of the grapevines before being blasted out seconds later. Dan cried out as he bounced along the pavement a few times before skidding to a stop.
"You know what they say about not counting your chickens before they hatch," Dark God Dionysus said soberly as he stepped out of the mounds of grapevines in his Dark Olympian Ranger suit. "You underestimated me. Now you will feel my wrath!"
Dark God Dionysus ran forward just as Dan was getting up and smashed his knee into Dan's solar plex. Dan let out a little gasp as the air was knocked out of him.
The force of Dark God Dionysus' attack also launched Dan into the glass display of a nearby shop.
"Ow," Dan said as he made sure to get up quickly this time to ensure Dark God Dionysus wouldn't pull the same trick again. "You know, you're pretty coordinated for a guy who's drunk most of the time."
"And you're a rather good punching bag for a Ranger," Dark God Dionysus retorted.
Damn it, I need to do something! Dan thought as he stepped out of the glass display, careful to avoid the broken glass, and back onto the street. But Dionysus isn't going to give me a chance to figure out what that something is!
As if on cue, Dark God Dionysus came in with a powerful punch to Dan's chest and then a two-handed swing at his head.
Dan, ready this time, blocked the punch and ducked under the two-handed swing before side kicking Dark God Dionysus in the chest. If it had any effect other than sliding him back a bit, Dark God Dionysus sure didn't show it. However, this gave Dan a few seconds to think.
If I can't defeat him with my grapevines and physical attacks don't work, what can I really do? Dan thought. Like Dionysus said, I'm just a punching bag right now! I need to get away and regroup with the others.
He looked down at the Thyrsus that was laying at his feet and his eyes lit up under his helmet.
"Time for you to die," Dark God Dionysus snarled as he started towards the Purple Ranger.
"Not today," Dan retorted as he slammed his Thyrsus into the ground, causing a wall of thick grapevines to smash through the pavement and rise to form a wall.
Dark God Dionysus looked at the wall before raising his hand and focusing his power. In a few seconds, the vines had retreated back into the earth, but Dan was nowhere to be seen.
"Maybe he is more than a punching bag," Dark God Dionysus said as he looked around the empty street. "But it doesn't matter. He may have run, but he won't be able to leave the city for long. Not when so many people are suffering!"
With that, he turned and sank into the shadow of a skyscraper. The grapevines that had still been on the battlefield began to sink back into the earth, leaving the broken pavement as the only indicator of what had happened there.
"Looks like it's just the two of us," Jasmine commented as she looked over at Marcus.
"Great…" Marcus said as he looked around at the lines of gray, cold gravestones. "And they stuck us in a cemetery of all places. Not really the best thing for my mental health, now is it?"
"Well, I think you might need to worry about your physical health too," Jasmine said as she grabbed his sleeve and pointed towards the warping shadows. "Look!"
Out of the shadows rose Dark God Hermes and Dark God Hera. Hermes stepped towards the two young adults, while Hera hung back.
"Hello Rangers," Dark God Hermes said, a big mischievous grin on his face. "How are you feeling about our location choice, Marcus?"
"You yaro(jerk)!" Jasmine shouted. "He's already upset about his okaasan(mother)! Why do you need to torment him more?"
"It's fine," Marcus said as he brushed past Jasmine and went closer to the Dark Gods. "If anything, he just gave me more of a reason to beat him up."
"Ooo! Do you still have some bite left?" Dark God Hermes asked. "Let's see it, then!"
"You want it? You're getting it," Marcus said as he ran at Dark God Hermes while crossing his arms over his chest midrun. "White Olympian Power!"
In a flash of brilliant white light, Marcus was transformed into the White Olympian Ranger, just in time to ram his shoulder into Dark God Hermes's chest. Dark God Hermes stumbled back as Marcus summoned his Messenger's Caduceus and effortlessly moved into his next attack with it.
"You think you can stand against the Queen of the Gods?" Dark God Hera asked Jasmine as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Dark Olympian Power!"
In a flash of shadowy aqua light, Dark God Hera was transformed into the Aqua Dark Olympian Ranger. She summoned her scepter and fired aqua-glowing orbs of energy from it at Jasmine, forcing the teen to dodge.
She's not even giving me a chance to morph! Jasmine thought as she continued to weave between the attacks. She finally dove behind a gravestone and, as the orbs started to chip away at the stone, crossed her arms over her chest.
"Aqua Olympian Power!" she shouted.
In a flash of brilliant aqua light, Jasmine was transformed into the Aqua Olympian Ranger. She summoned her scepter and took a deep breath. This was the only way she would stand a chance. Jasmine took off from behind what was left of the gravestone and continued to run in a straight line along the row as Hera fired a barrage of orbs that followed closely behind. As Jasmine ran, she fired a few orbs of her own, these cloaked in a red energy. Some of the orbs struck Dark God Hera's aqua orbs, causing the two to dissipate, while some others actually got through Dark God Hera's attack and hit the goddess herself.
"Was that supposed to do something?" Dark God Hera mocked as she stopped the attack for a minute. "Such a pathetic attack from such a puny mortal is-"
She stopped her sentence midway through as her scepter slipped from her hands. She looked down at the scepter before bending down to pick it up. When she looked up, Jasmine's knee collided with Dark God Hera's helmet and sent her falling to the ground. Dark God Hera groaned as she looked up at the Aqua Olympian Ranger standing above her.
"You think this is over?" Dark God Hera asked. "This battle is just beginning!"
Dark God Hera grabbed her scepter from the ground next to her and blasted a barrage of aqua orbs into Jasmine's chest. Jasmine cried out as the orbs launched her backwards.
"You should have continued running," Dark God Hera said as she walked over to the prone Jasmine and put her foot on Jasmine's stomach. "You might have gotten away."
"I don't plan on running," Jasmine said as she struggled against the foot holding her down. "Not when Jay-kun and Valerie-chan and the others need my help!"
"And what help are you giving them like this?" Dark God Hera mocked. "You've barely left a scratch on me!"
Jasmine was thinking about how to respond when a voice came from her morpher.
"The Dark Gods have all negative emotions amplified!" Mera's voice said from the morpher. "Use those emotions against them!"
'Negative emotions?' Jasmine asked herself. 'What does that even mean? And how does it really help us?'
She thought about it for a few seconds before giving up.
It doesn't make sense to me, she thought, but maybe Marcus figured it out.
She looked back at her opponent just in time to see Dark God Hermes, morphed into his White Dark Olympian Ranger suit, go flying into Dark God Hera, freeing Jasmine from Dark God Hera's foot.
"Come on," Marcus said as he ran over and offered a hand to Jasmine. "I heard Mera's message and I thought about some of what Hermes had told me about himself. I have an idea on how to turn them on each other."
"And that is?" Jasmine asked as Marcus pulled her up.
"The family dynamics," Marcus said simply.
Jasmine looked at him, confused, as Marcus walked forwards towards the quickly rising Dark Gods.
"Well, Hera," Marcus said, "you must be proud of Hermes. He's really giving me a run for my money."
"Why would I be proud of Hermes?" Dark God Hera asked, just as confused as Jasmine.
"You're his mother, aren't you?" Marcus asked.
"I most certainly am not!" Dark God Hera shouted. "That runt was created when Zeus…"
She seemed deep in thought for a moment before she stood up and glared at Dark God Hermes through her helmet.
"When Zeus mated with Maia!" Dark God Hera yelled, aiming her words at Dark God Hermes, "you're just another example of Zeus' infidelity! And you slew my beautiful Argus!"
"You can't blame me for the details of my birth!" Dark God Hermes shouted defiantly, "and I only slew Argus because of your insane jealousy of Io!"
"I'll kill you!" Dark God Hera shouted as she pointed her scepter at Dark God Hermes and blasted him repeatedly in the helmet with aqua-glowing orbs, knocking him to the ground.
Dark God Hermes, not wanting to take the attack any longer, stood up and took off into the sky. After going around Dark God Hera a few times, Hermes swooped down and struck Dark God Hera with his caduceus, sending her to the ground.
"C'mon," Dan said as he shook Jasmine's shoulder as she watched the fight. "We need to get out of here."
"Right," Jasmine said, turning and following after the White Ranger as the two Dark Gods continued to battle.
"Stop...this...now!" Dark God Hera shouted as Dark God Hermes swooped in time after time and struck with his caduceus, causing sparks to fly, while moving out of the way of Dark God Hera's projectiles.
"If you're the high and mighty Queen of the Gods, get yourself out of it!" Dark God Hermes argued as he continued his assault.
Dark God Hera had no response except a roar of frustration as she increased her projectile output even higher. But it still proved ineffective as Dark God Hermes was able to fly out of the way. Eventually, the sparks flying got more and more frequent until Dark God Hera collapsed to the ground, her suit disappearing in the process.
Dark God Hermes finally landed and walked up to the prone Dark God Hera.
"You wouldn't actually hurt me, would you?" Dark God Hera asked, her voice quivering in fear.
"You started this fight," Dark God Hermes said, "so you're going to see it through to the end."
He raised his Caduceus and slashed into Dark God Hera's stomach with it, causing golden ichor to fly. Dark God Hera screamed as the wound in her abdomen began to bleed profusely with golden ichor coming out rapidly from it. The intense blue fire in Hera's eyes faded as they closed and the shadowy aura around her faded.
"Now to finish the job," Dark God Hermes said as he raised his Caduceus again and started to bring it down. However, he stopped himself at the last minute.
"She isn't worth the effort," Dark God Hermes said as he turned away. "But you, Rangers, are."
He looked around, but Jasmine and Marcus were gone.
"Fine," he said as he stepped into a shadow and began to sink down, "we'll have fun next time."
Paul grunted as he fell out of the shadowy dog head onto the hard pavement. It was a relatively small fall, but it still hurt. As he stood up and brushed himself off, he noticed Virginia a few yards away. She seemed to be getting up as well, while shaking the dust out of her orange tanktop.
"Hey," Paul said as he jogged over. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Virginia said. "Just glad I'm with somebody in this. I'm not really a great fighter. I assume you're pretty good if you're an active Ranger."
Paul was about to respond when a Dark God rose out of the shadows of the buildings.
"Ah, Rangers," Dark God Hades said, "right where I left you."
"What are you doing here, Hades?" Paul asked. "Why would Cronus send you onto the battlefield? You were his second-in-command from my knowledge!"
"Things change," Dark God Hades replied, "and so must my role."
"He turned on you, didn't he?" Paul asked.
"My master set me free!" Hades shouted. "Something you wouldn't understand!"
He created a ball of blue fire in his hand and hurled it at Paul. At the last second, the shield on Paul's wristband grew to its normal size and blocked the attack.
"If you're going to be like that, then the time for talking is over," Paul said as he turned the Olympian Gems on his sword and shield so that the bronze bands were vertical. He then drew the sword out of the shield "Hades Knight Power!"
In a flash of black and bronze light, Paul was transformed into the Hades Knight. He charged at Dark God Hades. Dark God Hades hurled multiple blue fireballs at Paul as he ran, with Paul raising his shield to block the attacks. As soon as Paul reached Dark God Hades, the two began to engage in combat, Paul with his sword and shield and Dark God Hades with his blue fire.
"I'd better help Paul!" Virginia said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Orange Olympian Power!"
In a flash of orange light, she was morphed into the Orange Olympian Ranger. She summoned her Hearth Torch and prepared to aim it at Paul when an orange and black leg kicked the torch out of her hands. Virginia looked over at the fallen torch before whirling her head to look at the source of the kick.
"You're going to stay out of that," Dark God Hestia, already morphed, said as she lowered her leg. "I'm your opponent, after all."
Virginia grimaced under her helmet. This was what she was trying to avoid.
Dark God Hestia, seeing Virginia's hesitation, took the offensive. She pummeled her opponent with a series of punches and kicks, giving Virginia no recovery between attacks. Finally, however, Dark God Hestia had to let up to recover a bit herself. Virginia backed up, even more unsure of her chances in this fight.
Ok, so what do I do? she thought as she rapidly looked around, trying to find options. I could try fighting Hestia, but I'd probably lose. I could try to go help Paul again, but Hestia would probably pull me back. I could boost Paul, but that doesn't help me at all!
As she backed up some more, she felt the heel of her boot hit something. Virginia looked down to see that the Hearth Torch was now right beside her.
There's a fourth option, Virginia thought, and I don't know if it'll work. But I still have to try!
As Dark God Hestia advanced towards Virginia, she noticed the torch in her target's hand and aimed at the Dark God.
"That isn't going to help you," Dark God Hestia said. "Those flames are too weak to hurt me and you have no one to power up."
"I DO have someone to power up," Virginia said as she spun the torch around so it was pointing at herself. "Me."
Orange flames danced from the end of the torch into Virginia's body, creating an orange aura around her. Virginia sent the torch to the pocket dimension and looked down at her hands as they glowed orange. She clenched her fist before running and smashing it into Dark God Hestia's helmet. As Dark God Hestia fell from the punch, it was hard to tell who was more shocked: Dark God Hestia or Virginia herself. Even more surprising was the fact that the aura hadn't faded after that one attack. Instead, it was only slightly weakened.
"That was a lucky punch," Dark God Hestia said as she stood up. "It won't happen again."
She charged at Virginia, only for Virginia to whirl out of the way of her attack before using the circular momentum to roundhouse kick Dark God Hestia in the back.
Dark God Hestia stumbled forward before summoning her own Hearth Torch. She pointed the flaming end at herself, preparing to power herself up, when Dark God Hades, now in an dark bronze-armored Onyx Dark Ranger suit, stumbled into her, knocking them both over.
"You klutz!" Dark God Hestia shouted. "Get off of me!"
Dark God Hades quickly stood up before looking to the still-prone Dark God Hestia and then over at Paul, who was now meeting up with Virginia.
"Aren't you going to help me?" Dark God Hestia asked expectantly.
"No…" Dark God Hades said as he looked between her and Paul one more time, "but you're going to help me!"
He reached down and grabbed Dark God Hestia's Dark Olympian Gems. In one move, he had ripped them off the morphers. Hestia immediately fell to the ground as her shadowy aura flowed into Hades. Once the flow of energy had stopped, Hades clenched his hand and crushed the Orange Dark Olympian Gems.
"Much better," Dark God Hades said as he dropped the shards onto the pavement. "Now, where were we?"
He looked back at where Paul and Victoria had been to find them…
"Gone," he said. "And after I went through so much trouble to get the power to obliterate them. Very well, I'll just destroy them next time."
He stepped into the shadow of a nearby building and sank down into it. As soon as he was gone, Paul and Virginia reappeared from a shadow across the alley.
"I'm really glad you didn't scream when I grabbed you," Paul remarked, "otherwise, that disappearing trick would have never worked."
"A little warning next time?" Victoria asked. "I wasn't exactly prepared to become the Invisible Woman."
"We can worry about that later," Paul said as the two hurried over to Hestia.
Virginia felt her neck for a pulse and was glad to feel one.
"She's alive," Victoria revealed. "I wasn't sure with Hades draining her energy, but she's definitely alive."
"Let's get her back to the Temple," Paul said, "then we need to go meet up with Jay. Zeus is probably the strongest of the Dark Olympian Rangers if Jay being the strongest of us is anything to go by. Jay probably needs our help.
"Right," Virginia said with a nod before activating her morpher. "Chiron, we're going to need a Door near our location. I think we have someone you want to meet."
Adrian and Diana both cried out as they were released from the shadowy dog heads at the same time.
"Where the hell did they send us?" Diana asked as she quickly got up and looked around. It appeared to be the top of a building, with multiple buildings of similar heights all around.
"Looks like some kind of apartment complex," Adrian answered as he looked at the similar sized buildings and the small gardens around them.
"Give the man a gold star," Dark God Apollo said as he rose out of a shadow from the structure above the stairs. "I'm impressed. Aren't you, sister?"
"If that's what it takes to impress you, I'm scared for what doesn't," Dark God Artemis remarked as she rose from the same shadow, right next to her brother.
"You're just jealous that you have to act like nothing impresses you in order to look 'cool'," Dark God Apollo retorted.
"Hmph," Dark God Artemis said in response.
"But forget that," Dark God Apollo said. "We have Rangers to destroy."
"Just like Niobe's children all over again," Dark God Artemis remarked, "and I'm sure it'll be just as easy."
"Well, forgive us if we don't just roll over and die," Diana said as she strapped on her morphers and crossed her arms over her chest, "Adrian, you ready?"
"Ready!" Adrian agreed as he strapped on his own morphers and did the same.
"Silver Olympian Power!" Diana shouted as her gems glowed with a powerful silver light.
"Gold Olympian Power!" Adrian shouted as his gems glowed with a powerful golden light.
In a flash of silver and gold respectively, the twins were both morphed.
"Dark Olympian Power," the two Dark Gods said together as shadowy gold and silver light respectively emitted from their morphers. In a flash of black light, the two Dark Gods were morphed into their Ranger forms.
For a moment, neither group made the first move. Then Dark God Artemis lunged forward, summoning her Hunting Daggers as she did so. She slashed at Diana, causing the Silver Ranger to backflip away from the attack. That seemed to be the signal for Dark God Apollo, as he then ran forward at his counterpart.
Adrian summoned his Sun Staff just in time to block a kick from Dark God Apollo. As Dark God Apollo continued his attacks, Adrian continued to block with the body of his staff.
Meanwhile, the two Silver Rangers had begun to engage in a contest of outmaneuvering the other. As Dark God Artemis slashed with her daggers, Diana ducked before attacking herself. As she brought the daggers down in a downwards slashing motion, Dark God Artemis backflipped away before quickly changing her daggers into their bow configuration and firing a few shots. Diana cried out in pain as the arrows struck her and forced her back.
"That's how you want to play it?" Diana asked. "Fine with me."
With that, she changed her daggers into her own bow and the two began to fire at one another, with all of the arrows colliding with each other and none getting through.
Back with Adrian, Dark God Apollo had finally summoned his own staff and the two had begun to smash their staffs into each other from different angles. While each attack from one was blocked by the other, Adrian was slowly losing ground as Dark God Apollo pressed his advantage. Finally, Dark God Apollo managed to get through Adrian's defense and slammed the end of his staff into Adrian's gut. Adrian stumbled backwards and fell on his butt.
He's strong! Adrian thought before glancing at Diana as she struggled. Both of them are! There's no way we're going to win these one on one battles. It's just not feasible.
Adrian grunted as Dark God Apollo smacked him across the helmet with his staff.
But what can we really do? Adrian thought. The only person who could beat a Dark Olympian Ranger by themselves would be…
His eyes lit up under his helmet. As Dark God Apollo was about to rain another attack on him, Adrian rolled out of the way and took off towards Dark God Artemis and Diana.
"Where are you going?" Dark God Apollo shouted after him. "We can't fight if you run away!"
"You've got a bow!" Adrian shouted over his shoulder. "Use it! If you can actually hit me, that is."
"What do you mean 'if'?" Dark God Apollo asked as he changed his staff into its bow mode. "I always hit my target."
He pulled back the string and aimed as Adrian ran towards the two Silver Rangers. As soon as Adrian was about to reach Diana, who was still in her firing match, Dark God Apollo released the string. The golden energy arrow flew through the air, straight at Adrian's head.
"Duck!" Adrian shouted as he tackled Diana to the ground.
The golden energy arrow soared through the air, over the twins' heads and into Dark God Artemis's helmet. A few sparks flew but she was otherwise unaffected. Her body language, however, immediately changed.
"What in the name of Tartarus was that?" Dark God Artemis shouted. "You did that on purpose!"
"What?" Apollo said, shocked. "Why would I do that?"
"I heard him saying something about proving he was a better shot," Adrian said as he and Diana stood up. "He just got a headshot. Can you?"
"You think you're a better shot than me?" Dark God Artemis shouted as she leveled her bow at her twin, "you're going to eat those words!"
She released the string of the already nocked bow and hit Apollo in the head with a silver energy arrow. He cried out as a large number of sparks flew from his helmet and he stumbled back a bit. Dark God Apollo refocused on Dark God Artemis and Adrian could tell, even through his helmet, that his blue eyes of fire were burning brighter now.
"That hit way harder than my arrow!" Dark God Apollo shouted.
"If you can't take it, don't say you're a better shot than me," Dark God Artemis retorted.
"The Gold Ranger made that up!" Dark God Apollo shouted, "I don't know why yet, but he did!"
"It doesn't matter if you said it or not!" Dark God Artemis argued, "you've definitely thought it. You've always thought you were better than the rest of us Olympians, just because the Greeks loved you the most!"
"Artemis, you're overreac-" Dark God Apollo shouted before he was quickly hit with another silver energy arrow. "That does it!"
With that, he raised his bow again and fired arrow after arrow at Dark God Artemis.
Dark God Artemis did the same thing, raising her bow and firing a barrage of arrows at her brother.
Both cried out as the arrows buffeted their armor before reaiming and doing it again. After a while, they were both breathing heavy as smoke wafted off their armor from the sparks that had been flying.
"Maybe we can talk this ou-" Dark God Apollo said before Dark God Artemis interrupted him.
"The time for talking is over," she said, "I've always wanted to do this. And I'm not giving up this opportunity just because you asked nicely."
Dark God Apollo was about to respond when Dark God Artemis knocked multiple silver energy arrows that were larger and glowing brighter than any of the other arrows the two Dark Gods had used thus far.
"Goodbye, brother," Dark God Artemis said as she released the arrows.
Dark God Apollo tried to move out of the way, but the large energy arrows began to split into smaller energy arrows until there was an entire wave of them coming at him. He cried out as the arrows struck him and actually pierced his armor. He fell to the ground and laid still as his suit dissipated and his dark aura faded.
"Now to finally rid the world of you," Dark God Artemis said as she turned her bow into daggers again and prepared to stab Apollo.
"That's enough," Diana said. "I don't know what Adrian's plan was, but I'm pretty sure one Olympian murdering another wasn't part of it."
"I'd like to see you try and stop me," Dark God Artemis hissed.
Diana summoned her bow, before nocking an arrow and aiming all in one movement.
"You can hit me with all of the arrows you want," Dark God Artemis said. "But I am a Dark God and I-"
That was when a golden energy arrow struck her in the head and knocked her back. She cried out as she tumbled on the ground a couple times.
"How'd you know that would work?" Diana asked as she looked over at her brother.
"Because it would work on anyone who just fired that many powerful arrows at once," Adrian said. "They may be gods, but even they have limits."
"You…" Dark God Artemis said as she slowly stood up, "you will pay for what-"
"Ready for the Gemini Javelin?" Adrian asked.
"If that's what you want to do," Diana replied.
The two combined their melee weapons, with the Hunting Daggers combining into one blade and then attaching to the Sun Staff. The end result was a javelin.
"Gemini Javelin! Launch!" Adrian and Diana shouted as Adrian hurled the javelin at Dark God Artemis. She didn't even try to run, instead accepting the javelin straight into her chest. There was an explosion of gold and silver energy that, once completed, left Artemis lying on the roof.
"I can't believe that worked," Adrian said as he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, "I knew they could hurt one another better than we could, but I wasn't sure one would defeat the other."
"As impressed as I am, the others probably need our help," Diana said.
"What about these two?" Adrian asked as he gestured to the unconscious Olympians.
"We're going to have to leave them for now," Diana said. "We can always come back later."
Jay cried out as he was blasted backwards by a red lightning blast. The area he was hit in smoked a little from the force of the attack, but otherwise he seemed ok.
"Where is the Hoplite Power I helped you master?" Dark God Zeus asked, "you'll need it to stand a chance against me."
I know that if he's goading me into using it, I shouldn't, Jay thought, but he isn't wrong when he says I need it to actually have a shot. Guess I have no choice.
"Hoplite Bracers!" Jay shouted as he crossed his arms over his chest again. In a flash of bronze light, the two bracers appeared on his wrists.
"Red Hoplite Ranger!" Jay shouted as he raised his arms to the sky and was struck by a red lightning bolt. As the flash from the bolt died down, Jay stepped out as the Red Hoplite Ranger.
"There it is," Dark God Zeus said. "Now take your best shot."
Jay summoned the Dory Spear and Aspis Shield and charged forward at a rapid speed. He attempted to stab his spear into Dark God Zeus' chestplate, but the Dark God backflipped away before slashing at Jay as he overextended his attack.
"Come on!" Dark God Zeus goaded. "I know you can do better than that!"
Jay growled before charging again, this time using the spear's point to try and jab at what he perceived to be Dark God Zeus's weak points. However, Dark God Zeus's armor seemed to disagree, as the spear point just bounced off those areas.
"Pathetic," Dark God Zeus commented. "What happened to the power this form gives you? These attacks feel no more powerful than your normal ones."
"You want more powerful attacks?" Jay asked. "Happy to deliver."
Jay pulled back the spear, allowing red lightning to gather around it, before quickly attacking with a powerful jab into Dark God Zeus's midsection. Dark God Zeus cried out as sparks flew from his suit and he stumbled back, trying to recover. Quickly, however, the sparks died as Dark God Zeus seemed to almost absorb the damage itself.
"What?" Jay asked, very confused at what had just happened. He didn't have time to try and figure it out, however, as Dark God Zeus did a powerful two-handed slash with his red-lightning-sparking sword that sent Jay flying into a wall. Jay groaned as he fell to the ground. His Hoplite Armor was probably the only thing that had saved him from being seriously injured by the collision with the wall. His body still ached all the same.
"I was honestly expecting more of a challenge," Dark God Zeus said, "I heard from Master Cronus that you completely devastated Fortuna when you fought her. Where is that power now?"
"You're starting to sound like a broken record," Jay weakly quipped as he slowly got up. "You keep saying you want to see my full power. Guess I need to oblige."
He raised his spear into the air.
"Phalanx Strike!" he shouted as multiple ghostly hoplite soldiers appeared around him and formed into the phalanx formation in front of him.
"Attack!" Jay shouted as he put his spear into an overhand grip over his shield and pointed it forward. The phalanx, ten men wide and eight men deep, marched forward in formation. The front line had their shields up and the other lines had their spears protruding in between and above the shields.
Dark God Zeus gave a sigh as he looked at the ghostly troops marching towards him. As they tried to knock the Dark God down to trample on him, Dark God Zeus swung his sword around, quickly taking the soldiers down with large swings of his blade. By the time the last line of soldiers had reached Dark God Zeus, all of the warriors in front of them had dissipated into thin air. Even more surprising than Dark God Zeus taking the phalanx down was the fact that the energy released when the warriors dissipated seemed to flow into Dark God Zeus himself.
Jay didn't even get a chance to reflect on this update before Dark God Zeus charged at him. As the Dark God rapidly slashed with his sword, Jay tried to raise his shield to block. However, Dark God Zeus was skilled enough to strike around the shield. Soon, Jay was breathing heavily as sparks flew from his suit in the areas he had been hit.
"It's over," Dark God Zeus said as he strolled up to Jay, who took a defensive stance. "You lose."
Dark God Zeus reached out and ripped the Aspis Shield off of Jay's arm before knocking the Dory Spear out of the Red Ranger's hand. He gave a swift kick to Jay's chest, slamming him painfully into a wall. As Jay tried to get up, Zeus fired a large blast of red lightning into Jay. Jay cried out as the lightning coursed through his armor. In a flash of bronze light, Jay was back in his base suit as he fell to his knees. It was only through sheer will that he had managed to even maintain that. He looked down at the Hoplite Bracers as they smoked. He sent them back to the pocket dimension before looking up at Zeus as he walked away.
"Get back here!" Jay shouted. "I can't let you do as you please to Olympia Hills!"
"You don't have a choice," Dark God Zeus said as he stopped and looked back at his weakened opponent. "Now, enjoy the show."
He raised his hands and red lightning began to spark between his fingers. He was about to fire a lightning blast when pink, gold and silver energy arrows struck him, breaking his concentration.
"Who dares?" the Dark God asked as he looked in the direction the arrow had come from.
"Jay!" Valerie shouted as she ran up to her boyfriend and offered her hand. The other Rangers came in as a group, standing between Jay and Dark God Zeus.
"Thanks," Jay said as he took the hand and pulled himself up. "What happened to the Dark Gods you guys fought?"
"We accomplished our goal of beating some of them by turning them against each other," Mera said as she looked at the Red Ranger, "but the others were able to retain their Dark God powers."
"Who's left?" Jay asked.
"From what I've heard from the others, it's Hermes, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Hades and Dionysus for certain," Victor listed. "Maybe Ares, Athena and Hephaestus. We weren't sure if bringing the building down defeated any of them."
"'Bringing the building down'?" Jay echoed before shaking his head. "Never mind. I haven't been able to beat Zeus and he just somehow absorbed my attacks and damaged my Hoplite Powers. I don't know how to win this…"
"Well, it's fourteen against one," Nate said. "And while I may be failing math right now, I know that fourteen is bigger than one."
"Hate to mess with your math, mate," Marcus said as he pointed in front of the group, "but I think the Dark Gods are regrouping."
Indeed, out of different shadows of the plaza came the remaining Dark Gods, all still in their Ranger suits. They lined up alongside Dark God Zeus as he strolled up to the middle of the plaza, a few hundred yards from the Rangers.
"Greetings, my brethren," Dark God Zeus said as he looked around. "It saddens me that less of us have returned, but I still believe we can be victorious."
"Yeah," Dark God Hermes said, "I mean, look at these pathetic mortals! Why I ever put my faith in them is beyond me."
"I really hope that's the Dark God part talking," Jay muttered to himself before speaking aloud. "Anyone have any ideas? I'm open to suggestions."
"We need to use the secret weapon," Victor said. "It's the only way to weaken them down to a more manageable level."
"But first, we need to do a little something..." Nate said.
"What?" Jay asked before realizing what Nate meant. "It is a Ranger trope, I guess. Start the roll call!"
"Hades, god of the Underworld! Hades Knight!" Paul shouted as he posed.
"Hermes, god of thieves! White Olympian Ranger!" Marcus shouted as he posed.
"Hera, goddess of marriage! Aqua Olympian Ranger!" Jasmine shouted as she posed.
"Hestia, goddess of the hearth! Orange Olympian Ranger!" Virginia shouted as she posed.
"Ares, god of war! Crimson Olympian Ranger!" Mikhail shouted as he posed.
"Demeter, goddess of the harvest! Green Olympian Ranger!" Christina shouted as she posed.
"Dionysus, god of the vine! Purple Olympian Ranger!" Dan shouted as he posed.
"Artemis, goddess of the hunt! Silver Olympian Ranger!" Diana shouted as she posed.
"Apollo, god of healing! Gold Olympian Ranger!" Adrian shouted as he posed.
"Aphrodite, goddess of love! Pink Olympian Ranger!" Valerie shouted as she posed.
"Athena, goddess of wisdom! Yellow Olympian Ranger!" Mera shouted as she posed.
"Hephaestus, god of the forge! Black Olympian Ranger!" Victor shouted as he posed.
"Poseidon, god of the sea! Blue Olympian Ranger!" Nate shouted as he posed.
"Zeus, god of lightning! Red Olympian Ranger!" Jay shouted as he posed.
"Using the powers of the past to protect the future! Power Rangers Olympian Force!" they all shouted together as an explosion went off behind them.
"Alright, let's do it!" Jay shouted as Nate, Victor, Mera and Valerie put their weapons together into the Olympian Crossbow. As they took their proper positions, Jay summoned the Morphing Energy EMP Arrow and nocked it into the Crossbow. He aimed it at the Dark Olympian Rangers, who just stood there.
"Fire!" Jay shouted as he pulled the trigger. The arrow went flying at the Dark Olympian Rangers, most of whom sank down into the shadows to escape. Only Dionysus, who was wobbling a bit, was in the blast radius as the arrow hit the ground, letting out a wave that caused Dionysus's suit to crack. Dinoysus looked down as his suit shattered completely, leaving the wine god in his white toga. His dark aura and blue eyes were still present, showing he was still under Cronus's control.
"Woo!" Dionysus shouted as he threw his hands in the air. "Now I can air out! That suit was pretty hot."
"We got one of them," Valerie said.
"Let's just use another one!" Nate suggested. "Maybe we can hit one or two more."
"Mera and I only created one arrow," Victor said, "and it would take a while to make another one."
"So we have to beat them in a fight?" Marcus asked. "Great…"
As if on cue, the seven remained Dark Olympian Rangers rose out of the shadows behind the Rangers and struck them from behind. The Rangers cried out as they went flying from the sneak attack. As they landed, they were quick to get up.
"They hit us. Let's hit 'em back," Jay said. "Stay out of the shadows so they can't keep shadow-traveling. Let's go!"
The other Rangers nodded as they charged at their Dark Olympian Ranger opponents. In the beginning, the Rangers were landing multiple hits that, while seeming to do little damage, still did something. However, as the fight dragged on, the Rangers were attacking less and less and the effects of the attacks became weaker and weaker. Meanwhile, the Dark Olympian Rangers seemed to be just as strong as ever.
"Wee!" Dark God Dionysus laughed as he sent grapevines flying at Dan and Virginia. The two dodged out of the way before Dan looked at his orange teammate.
"Can you boost me?" Dan asked.
"Sure," Virginia said with a nod as she pointed her torch at Dan and sent the orange flames into him.
Dan summoned his Vine Thyrsus and aimed it at Dionysus. The pinecone glowed purple for a few seconds before thick grapevines, thicker than they had been in Dan's battle with Dionysus before, broke through the pavement and smashed into Dionysus, who no longer had the immunity to the vines that his suit had given him. After a few seconds of squeezing around the Dark God, the vines retreated. Left on the ground was Dionysus, his Dark God aura gone.
"Guess a drunk guy doesn't have much stamina, does he?" Dan asked as he looked at the downed Olympian. "Well, that makes things easier."
"Ah!" Nate shouted as he went flying backwards near Jay and the others as the Dark Olympian Rangers started to force them all back. "Yeah, this is going great."
"What do we do?" Valerie asked.
"I have an idea," Virginia said, "but I don't know how likely it is to work."
"I'm just about open to anything," Jay said.
"I saw Hades take Hestia's gems off of her morpher," Virginia said, "and once she was disconnected, her aura stopped. I didn't get to see what happened next, but I think removing their gems might be the key to stopping them."
"You mean like that?" Mikhail asked as he pointed.
"Hades!" Dark God Zeus shouted as he looked over at his brother. "What are you doing?"
"I'm doing what's required," Dark God Hades said as he ripped the White Dark Olympian Gems off of Dark God Hermes's morphers and absorbed their power. "I'm doing what has to be done."
"And turning on your fellow Dark Olympians is 'what has to be done'?" Dark God Zeus asked as he watched Dark God Hades smash the Gems in his palms and sprinkle the shards on the ground.
"It is," Dark God Hades replied as he turned to the remaining Dark Olympian Rangers. "Master Cronus wants a world without the Olympian Rangers. I can only accomplish this with the power you can give me!"
"This supports the theory I created," Mera said as she looked towards the other. "Cronus's Flame has amplified any negative emotions in the Olympians. For example, Hades's thirst for power."
"Do we let Hades just take the other Dark Olympians Rangers out?" Jasmine asked.
"We can't," Jay said. "If we let Hades gather all of that power, not even all of us together would be able to stop him. We need to take him out now. But first, we need to take those Olympian Gems all of the Dark Olympian Rangers have away from them. The five Rangers who still have a counterpart should take the gems. The others will act as backup."
"Right!" the others agreed with a nod.
Jay, Nate, Victor, Mera and Valerie all ran at their counterparts. The Dark Olympian Rangers smirked under their helmets as they stood there. The five Rangers grabbed one of the gems on their counterpart all at the same time and a wave of black light flashed out into the plaza.
A second later, the Rangers were able to see again. They looked towards the Dark Olympian Rangers again and gasped.
"Now this…" an unmorphed Jay said as he looked down at his body. His eyes were glowing blue and he had a familiar shadowy aura around him. "...this, I could get used to."
"The trap worked perfectly. The Ranger's bodies are ours," Mera said, her eyes glowing blue and her body surrounded in a shadowy aura as well. She looked over at Victor. "But did you accomplish your part of the prepping?"
"I did," Victor said as he took a few steps forward, the shadowy aura following him. "But I have to tell you, it's so nice to be able to walk like everyone else!"
"And you aren't half bad looking either," Valerie said with a giggle, her blue eyes showing some interest.
"That doesn't matter what he looks like," Nate said. "The point of this was to remove these Rangers from the equation. And to give us a boost."
"Shall we show the other Rangers that boost?" Valerie asked as she looked over at Jay.
"Let's do it," Jay said simply as the five lined up in front of both Dark God Hades and the remaining Rangers. He gave a sinister grin. "It's Morphing Time!"
"Dark Olympian Power!" all five shouted together. In a flash of black light, they were transformed into their Rangers suits. Their suits had the same black and dark gold on them that the Dark Olympian Rangers had normally.
"Deity Mode!" the five Dark Olympian Rangers shouted as they crossed their arms over their chests again. They were surrounded in a black light again and when the light cleared, they had new suits.
The most noticeable thing about the suit was the cape. It had two circular clasps on the Rangers' shoulders that held the cape in place. The cape was in black, but also had a lining of their Ranger color. The only other thing that had changed was that all of the dark gold on the suits was now very shiny and reflective.
Out of all of the Rangers, Marcus said it best.
"Well, shit."
I do love a good cliffhanger! As I actually planned out most of the next 3 chapters, I should be working a bit faster. Especially because my new location where I write my chapters really helps me to push myself to work. Anyway, I hope to have another chapter out next month on time, but I honestly don't know if that's going to happen. I'll try my hardest, nevertheless!
As for why the arguments the Dark Olympians had were so bizarre and/or childish, remember that emotions don't always make sense, especially negative ones. They can paint our world in different ways from how others see it. Thanks for bearing with me through that!
Until next time, may the power protect you!
