A/N: My version of the quintessential "Good versus Evil" story.
Although
this is not a crossover with any other fanfiction genres, it
is comprised of elements from quite a few fandoms, including Lord of
the Rings, Mystic Force, Star Wars, King Arthur, etc. So, yes –
there will be magic :)
But unfortunately, other than a light Blake/Tori, there will be no 'shippings' this time. Sorry, folks! But stick around anyways – you might like the OC's!
ECHOS OF EVIL
By Dany
PG-13
Summary:
Power Rangers Ninja Storm with quite a touch of other-worldly magic.
When
a powerful evil sorcerer from another dimension joins forces with
Lothor to take over Earth, the Rangers in turn must team up with the
sorcerer's sentinel to prevent the end of the world as they know
it…
Prologue:
A
peaceful, balmy darkness of night had descended over the vast valley
of The Light in the magical realm of Ithrandar. In the village at the
foot of the sacred hill that was home of the Temple of The Light,
only very few windows were still illuminated. The darkest hour of the
night was swiftly approaching and most of the villagers were sleeping
the deep slumber that came with the knowledge that Evil had been cast
out of the valley once more.
A dozen weeks had passed since the Guardians and the High Wizards of The Light had, in an unprecedented display of strategic ingenuity, swordsmanship and magic skills, managed to finally capture the Dark Sorcerer, Luthien. This latest spawn of the Evil Powers had thus far been the most powerful of them all and had spread terror and destruction over the land. Not one corner of peaceful Ithrandar had been spared and great parts of this once beautiful country now lay in ruins. Even with the combined efforts of all the Guardians and wizards versed in the magical powers of The Light, it would take many seasons to recover from this dreadful devastation. Everyone – from the mighty High Wizards and the brave soldiers of the Guardians down to the simple village craftsmen and farmhands – knew that the peace would not last indefinitely.
It was merely a temporary truce; once recovered from their defeat at the hands of the Guardians, the minions of the Evil Powers would doubtlessly come forward from their hideaway in the Black Mountain and attempt to wreak havoc upon the land once more, but without one of their most revered leaders, this would fortunately take much longer than normal.
This Dark Sorcerer was presently kept imprisoned deep within the fortress of the Great Temple, headquarters of the Guardians of The Light. Kept in suspended animation by a spell so powerful that it had taken the combined efforts of all the High Wizards of The Light, he lay in deep slumber ever since his defeat. He was a man of unfathomable powers; therefore, no other means of confinement would do.
During the battle, the sorcerer had managed to gravely wound the captain of the Guardians, and for several agonizing days no one could say whether he would succumb to his injuries. But in the end he had pulled through and after his recovery the exalted captain had taken it as his personal task to guard the sorcerer against anyone trying to break the sleep spell.
So intent was he upon not failing in this duty that he took an extraordinary measure; he convinced the High Wizards of The Light to cast the charmed sleep upon himself as well. Thus the uninterrupted guardianship of the enemy of the people of Ithrandar was assured until the Dark Wizard would expire of natural means, for the captain's spell was altered to be interrupted only if the sorcerer's spell was broken or after he had taken his last natural breath.
Or so it was supposed to be.
The three shadows creeping through the night at the edge of the forest knew nothing of their master's personal sentinel. All they knew was that they had been appointed the task of freeing their lord and returning him safely to the realm of the Evil Powers, the Black Mountain. Failure was not an option; on pain of death they had taken an oath to fulfill this duty.
The Black Sorceress, mother of the imprisoned dark wizard and queen of the Evil Forces, had handpicked the three mercenaries, for they were the most powerful remaining wizards in her evil army.
Those three now crouched behind the trunks of some ancient oak trees, scanning the imposing stone structure of the temple of The Light on the hill before them.
The first wizard made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. "I am loath to enter this place," he snarled as he glared at the temple.
"As am I, but this has to happen tonight," his companion replied. "You know why; the powers of the Evil Forces are at their height during a lunar eclipse and the Guardians know this not."
In perfect synchrony, the three mages looked up to where the round disk of the moon was nearly fully darkened by the shadow of the planet, making it nearly indistinguishable against the blackness of the sky.
"And we must take advantage of their ignorance this very night, for there will not be another darkening of the moon for many seasons to come," the third wizard and appointed leader said.
The first one nodded. "Aye, but where would He be?"
"Her Majesty the queen predicted that he would most likely be held in the Guardian tower yonder." The second wizard pointed towards a high tower in the northwest corner of the temple. Through a narrow arched window in the upper part of the turret, they could see the flickering lights of torches. In unspoken accord, they extended their minds towards the room beyond the window, searching until they felt the familiar magical vibrations of the Evil Powers. Then they looked among each other and nodded. They had found their lord.
"Let us make haste now, Brothers," their leader said, "and free our master!"
The unfortunate sentry by the entryway to the tower never realized death was approaching until it was too late. Moments later, the three intruders were on their way up, climbing the winding staircase to the chamber silently and near invisible in the shadows.
The two guards in front of the upper chamber's door at the top of the stairs were half asleep, therefore they were slow to reach for their swords. The three wizards were on them in the blink of an eye. Blades flashed and cries were choked off as two of the intruders took care of the sentinels while the third pushed through the door and into the room beyond.
And there he stood for a moment in the flickering light, blinking in bewilderment.
The circular chamber was completely devoid of any furnishings or decorations save three torches in their sconces along the walls. But before him on the floor sat a rectangular stone vessel – a sarcophagus of some kind, yet twice the width of an ordinary one. It was lidless, yet the brightly glimmering force field of Light-magic that was stretched across its four corners was plainly visible even from a few feet away.
Joined by his two brethren, the dark wizard stepped closer, eyes widening when he saw the reason for the crate's unusual dimensions.
Inside the sarcophagus – in identical poses on their backs with their eyes closed - were not one but two bodies. One they recognized immediately as their master; the face of the other was foreign to them, albeit not the hated uniform of the Guardian of The Light which he wore.
Their leader gave a snort. "This explains why the tower was but lightly guarded. They deemed the lord Luthien dangerous enough to give him his own Guardian, even in his charmed slumber," he sneered, then bent down to inspect the seal on the side of the stone crate which held the force field in place. "Let us break this seal, kill the cursed Guardian and take our master from this wretched place!"
The first wizard drew his blade and stood poised over the white-clad figure in delighted anticipation of yet another kill while his companions summoned the dark magic powers necessary to break the sealing spell.
Yet before they could carry out their task, a sharp cry reverberated through the chamber.
"Do not lay a finger on this sacred chest, foul thing of the Evil Powers!"
The minions of Evil whirled around; three figures had spilled into the room from the entryway of the chamber, accompanied by half a dozen white-clad Guardians. Three old men they were, grey-haired and grey-bearded, yet they stood tall and straight-backed, wearing robes of brilliant scarlet with the emblem of the High Wizards of The Light blazing from their chests in golden embroidery.
The dark leader snarled; he had anticipated that the wizards of The Light would sense their presence, but he had hoped for some more time to give them a chance to rouse their master. With the lord Luthien awake, none in their path would have stood a chance against them.
One of the fair wizards now raised a hand, pointing a long, elegant finger at them. "Step away from the Evil Sorcerer," he commanded.
The three intruders did not move. "Here lies our master, the next ruler of your accursed land and all of its rabble," the third evil wizard hissed. "We shall not leave this place without him!"
"Then you shall not leave it at all!"
Separated only by the length of the sarcophagus, the two parties glared at each other until the dark leader suddenly thrust out an arm. One of the wizened wizards mirrored his move, however, and their magical energies met right above the center of the sarcophagus.
And then a strange thing happened; contrary to the expected explosion, the two beams combined and coalesced, shooting upwards, and a moment later a deafening noise roared through the chamber as the roof blew apart. Large pieces of timber, stone and mortar rained down onto Guardians and Wizards alike and everyone who did not possess the immediate presence of mind to throw up a magic shield to protect themselves was crushed by the rubble. When the last stone had fallen, only two of the evil mages and the three High Wizards remained on their feet.
The two bodies inside the sarcophagus, protected by the magical force field, remained unharmed and unaware of the ominous events all around them.
Through the large hole in the roof the now fully eclipsed moon was barely visible against the backdrop of night, yet the evil wizards felt its energy infuse them as they simultaneously cast up their arms to draw upon its powers.
The momentarily bewildered High Wizards of The Light retreated some steps, but instinctively summoned their own magic against the inevitable second assault from their enemies. And only a moment later, the two remaining evil sorcerers thrust their hands out towards them with twin roars of victory. Their lunar-infused magic beams, however, were stopped by the combined energies of their three righteous opponents and for a long minute, all five powerful men were locked in a stalemate of magical forces. Hands held out in front of them, teeth bared and faces straining with effort, each wizard pushed his respective energy beam forward until the power build-up between them simply proved too much. Suddenly, an ear-splitting explosion at the contact point of all five beams effectively ended the stand-off. The shockwave ripped through the chamber, blowing out the stone walls all around them and knocking each of the wizards off their feet. The two evil mages were cast from the tower, their screams tearing through the night. Two of the High Wizards of The Light were hurled down the staircase of the tower, but the third one managed to hang on to the door frame. Therefore, he was the only one who caught a brief glance of the flash of light that encased the stone crate before it grew too bright to look upon.
When he opened his eyes once more a moment later, however, only empty space was before him.
The sarcophagus had vanished. The dark wizard and his guardian were gone.
Cam Watanabe was bored. With an expansive sigh, he moved his mouse across the screen for the umpteenth time, going through yet another scan of the surveillance system. He had nothing else to do.
It had been an unusually quiet week during which Lothor had not shown his ugly mug even once. Cam was beginning to wonder whether his evil uncle had gone on vacation.
The downtime had provided the technician with ample time to catch up on pretty much everything around Ninja Ops. Consequently, the Zords were upgraded and stocked with power spheres, the Tsunami Cycles and Hunter's Glider were repaired and washed, and even the command center was cleaned and mopped.
For the first time in weeks, Cam seriously contemplated misusing the Supercomputer by playing a video game.
Didn't NASCAR '06 come out last week? If I streak into town now, I'd have enough time to practice to actually be able to beat Shane or Hunter at this later on... Grinning, Cam rose and reached for his jacket.
"Hey Dad, since everything's quiet around here, I'm going to head into town for a while, okay? You gonna keep an eye on things here for me?"
"Of course, son." From his position perched in front of a mini TV screen on his mobile habitat, Sensei Watanabe absentmindedly waved a paw, his eyes never leaving the scene on the screen. Cam cocked his head. Another Jackie Chan movie? Dad's really turning into a junkie here…With an amused shake of his head, Cam headed towards the stone stairs.
He made it to the third step before the Supercomputer's alarm began to blare. Cam closed his eyes for a second and hung his head, letting out a heavy breath. "You had to say it, Watanabe," he mumbled to himself. "Had to jinx yourself."
And with a shake of his head, he jogged back to his computer station.
It was not, however, the monster alarm he had expected;
The huge screen was displaying the views from various surveillance cameras in the northern part of the forest. A separate window in the lower right hand corner of the screen had popped up, showing a gage of energy readings that were already swinging disconcertingly quickly towards the 'dangerous' levels. Cam had installed this custom-coded program only a few weeks ago after he discovered that every time Lothor sent a monster to Earth, the evil energy that preceded it could actually be picked up a few moments before it reached the planet. Thus the system could be used as a sort of an even earlier warning system than the surveillance cameras.
Currently, however, the forest was still devoid of monsters even though every one of the energy reading bars was now all the way in the Red Zone.
"What the…?" Cam called up more camera displays, searching for the doubtlessly humongous monster that was loose in the woods somewhere. Sensei had abandoned his movie and was now standing next to the big red button on the console, staring at the screen with a worried expression.
"What is happening, Cam?"
"I don't know." Cam squinted at the screen, typing furiously. "The energy readings are off the charts – there should be a monster the size of King Kong out there, but the security cameras are not showing anything."
As if on cue, there was a sudden bright flash from one of the camera views. Cam's eyes flickered to it just in time to catch a wide bolt of energy slamming into the ground near a group of pine trees. Cam tensed, waiting for the inevitable shape of Lothor's latest creation to step out of the residual smoke, but nothing moved. Half a minute passed and the smoke dissipated, revealing a stationary shadow of undistinguishable shape.
Father and son cast each other a baffled look before Cam zoomed in on the object.
"It looks like…"
"…a sarcophagus of some kind," Sensei finished for him. He scratched his furry head while Cam continued to stare at the screen, brows drawn together, obviously deciding something. Finally he moved to rise.
"I'm going to check it out."
"You should not go alone, Cam."
"Yeah, well, the others are all still in school, so there's not much of a choice," Cam replied while he pushed his chair back. "Just stay here and monitor me, okay? If anything goes wrong, you can still call the Rangers."
Meanwhile, on his throne on the bridge of an asteroid-shaped spaceship several miles above Blue Bay Harbor, Lothor, evil space ninja and arch nemesis to the resident Power Rangers team, was unceremoniously yanked out of his mid-day nap by the ship's alarm klaxons. Hands clamped over his ears, he staggered towards the main computer console, fully expecting a frontal assault from at least a dozen rival alien invaders with heavily armed battle cruisers, ready to shoot him out of the planet's atmosphere in their quest for Earth's domination. Instead, he was surprised to find the viewing screen locked onto a part of Blue Bay Harbor National Forest where a massive energy bolt had apparently just deposited something right into the midst of a grove of trees.
A rustling by his shoulder announced the arrival of his nieces Marah and Kapri who were curiously peeking around his large frame at the same monitor. Lothor pointedly ignored them; instead, he hit the ship-wide communicator button with his fist.
"Zurgane, Choobo, Vexacus, did any of you half-wits just send an unauthorized something down to Earth without consulting me first? I will have your ugly heads for this!"
"Uh…no, sir!"
"What? No, not me, nu-uh!"
"Never without your explicit prior permission, my liege."
Lothor took another look at the screen, his irritation slowly giving way to intrigue. "Hm, what do we have here, then?" he mumbled, scratching a leather-swathed chin while he magnified the image.
He cast a sharp glare at his two nieces who promptly threw up their hands in defense.
"Wasn't us, Uncle!"
"Well, what is it and where did it come from, then, all of a sudden?"
Two sets of shoulders rose and fell in unison and Lothor looked back at the screen. "All right, I guess I'll be taking a closer look at this thing. I'm intrigued now."
"Oh, can we come, too?" Marah squealed, eyes bright with excitement. "Pleeeaaase? We haven't been off this floating rock in days."
"Yeah, and while we're down there, maybe we can stop at Starbucks?" Kapri implored. "I could really go for a grande Vanilla nonfat latte with an extra shot of..."
Her uncle's death glare made her flinch. "Okay, okay, just a suggestion."
"Let's go, you airheads!"
TBC…
