~Mystic Realm~
A large alarm blared throughout the cities all over Mystic Realm alerting to an attack. Looking into the skies, the denizens could see the sun was being blocked out by a dark blue glow.
A sky blue gelatinous mass moved ever so slowly across the landscape, absorbing the buildings.
~Eltar~
At the very same time, the planet of Eltar was being absorbed by the same blue mass. Inhabitants fled while the defense forces attempted to blast it backwards. However, as the Eltarians used their special magic to fend off the mass, small parts of it began to glow a bright white.
Emerging from the glowing mass came grey beings that appeared to be wrapped in a black cloak while wearing a yellow mask. Thousands of these probes were connected to the mass via a black tube protruding from their necks.
No matter how many times the Eltarians smacked them down, the beings just shot straight back up into the air.
~Earth, HQ~
Everyone was gathered in the HQ main room staring at the main screen which depicted snapshots of Edwin, the Homunculus, and Twilight Red. Jared was leading a discussion about the three.
"After everything that's happened, we still don't know what they want. We know Jules and Jacob are being used as the power source to these things but we don't know how to get to them. My Dad went back to the Dark Void to talk to Wiseman and see if he knows anything."
Noah said, "In the meantime, we're back on the defensive."
Dr. Bly informed, "In case he tries to pull something, Claire and I will get to Caroban and set up defenses." With that, he and Claire teleported away in a flash of yellow lights.
Lydia said, "Tobias and I will dig up whatever we can."
"Good." Jared nodded. "We need to-" A chilled sensation ran through his spine. Something in the air was different-malevolent. "Hit the deck!" He commanded as HQ began to violently shake.
"What's happening?!" Liam asked, holding onto the walls.
"Pulling up footage..." Tobias stated as he quickly typed at the keyboard. He pressed enter and projected the outside onto the large screen.
Twilight Red and a platoon of Homunculus were blasting the building from all sides.
"He found us!" Tobias pointed out. "HQ defenses are coming online now!" Typing out numerous commands on his Ipad caused the walls of the building to materialize laser cannons. Rapid firing, these turrets were able to take out quite a few attackers. However, they proved to be fruitless; the Homunculus were able to destroy them within minutes.
"Girls, take the ceiling. We need your powers to thin them out from above." Jared instructed.
"Noah, go out back. Use the lake. Liam, raise some barriers of stone. Asher and Chris, we'll take down whoever enters. Tobias and Lydia, I need you to monitor the battles on all fronts."
In moments, the Rangers dispersed and were fighting off hundreds of Homunculus. Shadow Beasts from the air, sea, and land accompanied them.
On the roof, Alicia and Sonia called forth powerful storms to strike down as many invaders as they could. Behind HQ, Noah stood on a geyser of water moving his hands around creating whirlpools. Liam raised giant stone walls to block more Homunculus from rushing forward. Unfortunately, their combined efforts weren't enough to keep everything out.
Inside, Asher did his best slashing Homunculus away from Tobias and Lydia while Chris and Jared took on the bulk of the infiltrators.
Blasts and explosions burst in all directions. All over HQ, Homunculus tore up everything in sight. Screens were being shattered, control panels pulled and walls demolished.
Jared sent a burst of flames down a hallway destroying a group of charring enemies. From out of nowhere, the wall next to him exploded, sending the boy flying across the room. Noah, Liam, Sonia and Alicia came flying in and landed on their backs.
Twilight Red stepped into HQ holding up his sword. "That was fun. Care for another round?"
The Seven got to their feet and summoned their X-Swords.
"Gnirb meht ot ytefas!" Alicia chanted holding her palm out to Tobias and Lydia. Bright yellow lights poured over the two like a waterfall and teleported them to the outside away from danger.
"Let's go, guys!" Jared called out. With that, they charged forward with all their might. One by one, each met Twilight Red with a brief sword clash before being slashed away. Liam was the first to recover and jumped into the air.
Red sent a wave of fire at Liam and knocked him through the ceiling into the upper floors. Noah whipped his left arm forward and willed forward a strip of water from the ocean outside. The rush knocked Red off balance enough for Sonia and Jared to slash him in the back. Alicia came from above with a spinning axel kick and nailed Red on the head. She cartwheeled out of the way and Chris charged forward with his Zwei-Sword.
"Take this!" He yelled swinging the massive blade. However, the Twilight recovered, caught the blade with his right hand and threw Chris away from him.
"Enough of this!" Red sent pulses of power in all directions knocking all the Rangers down once more. To add onto the danger, more and more Homunculus stormed in from all directions, easily overwhelming the Rangers.
It appeared to be the end when a familiar voice commanded, "Twist Tornado, Activate!" A swirling red twister whipped up all the attackers and brought them outside.
"Rock Rush, Activate!" Two boulders flew into the HQ and knocked Slade into a wall.
"Windrive, Activate!" Pink wind swept up the Rangers and brought them to the beaches outside. The Seven landed on their backs and got up to see the Megaforce Rangers fighting Homunculus.
"We thought you could use some help!" Gia said.
"How'd you know?" Sonia asked.
"We'll explain later!" NJ responded.
"Above you, Noah!" Jake called out to his best friend. NJ was about to get struck by a Homunculus when a male voice commanded, "Chain Ring, Invoke!" Numerous chains appeared from thin air and pulled the Homunculus to pieces.
Floating in the air was Hale Sanders, Kamen Rider Wizard.
"Megaforce Blaster, Fire!" The Megaforce Rangers barreled through the remaining Homunculus forces within minutes, forcing Twilight Red to retreat.
~Slade's Underground~
"Slade, I was interrupted by unexpected enemies." Twilight Red explained.
"No, no, Twilight Red. You've done a fine job. While you were distracting the Legend Rangers, I was able to round up some new sources for the Void Key." Slade held up the spherical paperweight object and studied it. Inside, murky purple liquid was almost to the brim. "I just need another powerful source of energy..."
~Outside HQ~
The Rangers demorphed and found Lydia and Tobias. The two groups sat on the ground and talked about what was happening.
"We got a call from our mentor, Gosei." Orion explained.
"Eltar and the Mystic Realm are being swallowed up by some sort of mass." NJ continued holding up an Ipad. He swiped his finger across the screen to show footage and images of both planets.
"This blue mass is impervious to all attacks, scientific or magical. It seems to be swallowing up all the buildings and organic materials."
"So could Slade be behind this?" Liam asked.
"We're not sure." Troy replied. "We've been trying to figure this one out for a while."
Hale stepped in and spoke, "That's where I come in. Across the worlds, there's a disturbance in the atmosphere. Right now, Eltar and Mystic Realm are being attacked by this mass. Right now, it's affecting every other world I've been to in the form of natural disasters."
Suddenly, the Legend Rangers felt a bloodthirsty chill in the air coming from the city.
"Do you guys feel it?" Asher asked, looking at his friends.
"Yeah, it's Slade." Chris replied. "We have to go."
Tobias said, "Lydia and I will stay here and try to salvage what we can from HQ."
Troy explained, "We'll stay on standby in case something else happens. Good luck."
~Bayview~
Bayview shook with the oncoming attackers. Slade and Twilight Red blasted everything they could see, trying to force out the Rangers.
"There!" Jared called out as he and his friends ran down the street.
"Good of you to make it." Slade mused summoning his sword.
"This ends here." Noah said with confidence.
"Oh really?" Red replied, raising his own sword. "Try to end it."
"Let's go!" Jared instructed, trying to ignore the familiarity of the situation.
"Spirit Legend, Awaken!"
~Morphing Sequence~
The Seven ran forward once more with their weapons drawn. Jared, Noah and Alicia took on Slade while Liam, Sonia, Asher and Chris fought Twilight Red.
Alicia soared into the air and fired a few arrows at Slade while Noah came around the side to slash forward with his Kwan Dao. Jared ran in from the other side with his sword and swung down.
Slade slashed the arrows apart then blocked the boys at the same time. He threw the two up into the air and blasted them with energy. Alicia front flipped downwards from the air and kicked up but missed. She swung her bow forward but Slade backflipped away from it. Noah and Jared jumped off of her shoulders and jabbed forward with their weapons nailing Slade in his chest. They forced themselves forward and ran Slade into a building wall, creating large cracks behind him.
Sonia repeatedly flipped forward and ended with a large backflip over Twilight Red's head. He slashed upwards but missed, causing an opening in his defense. Chris sent a black slash wave from his Buster Sword while Liam slammed the ground with his axe, sending a rush of green energy forward. The two attacks hit Twilight Red while Asher came from above and slashed him repeatedly. Red sent an invisible wave outward and knocked Asher and Chris away, de-morphing them.
The city continued to shake with the conflict as the Rangers fought the two attackers. "Let's finish this!" Alicia said. Liam trapped the figures between stones, while Sonia charged up Lightning. Noah and Alicia sent in a water-wind combo attack that struck the enemies. Sonia then released the lightning into the water, electrifying her target.
"Now!" Jared told himself. He held his left hand in the air and created a metallic arrow. He let it catch golden flames and shot forward.
As they were repeatedly bombarded, Twilight Red muttered, "We have to stop that arrow from hitting us. We can use the Void Key to-" He was cut off when felt Slade grab his arms.
The arrow struck Twilight Red and exploded.
Thinking they won, the Rangers gathered together.
"Is everyone ok?" Jared asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Chris replied as he helped Asher up. "Did we win?"
"I..." Without continuing, Jared felt something click inside his head. The familiarity, the timing, the scenery... It was just like...
"Don't think you will be for long." Came Slade's voice. Turning back, the Seven were stricken with shock.
Slade had used Twilight Red as a shield.
"I should've done this long ago." Slade pointed out as he turned Twilight Red into dark energy. He shrunk the energy into a small ball and placed it in the Void Key, filling it to the brim.
"Just like in my dreams..." Jared absentmindedly whispered as he gripped his X-Sword.
Slade laughed to himself in success. "With the Void Key full to the brim, I can execute my final plan. Goodbye for now, Power Rangers." Laughing maniacally, Slade was enveloped by a light blue smoke and disappeared into thin air. Suddenly, the ground began to shake.
"The Nemeton..." Alicia whispered. "I can feel it. It's... so weak now."
"Now what?" Liam asked as he demorphed. "What're we gonna do?" As if it was answering his question, everyone's morphers went off.
"Go for Jared." Jared spoke into his morpher. Scott's voice came out of the other end. "Guys, we found something. Come to HQ... or what's left of it. We'll be waiting in the Sky Ship."
~Sky Ship~
The Rangers quickly teleported to the remains of their HQ, trying to ignore the haunting sight and entered the Sky Ship. The bridge was very comfy and humble. There was a large monitor on the far end with stairs next to it that led to the outside. Lined up against the sandy colored walls were bookshelves, couches and chairs. At the very center of the waxed wooden floors was a large black table. NJ pressed a button on a small control pad and made numerous holograms project from the table top.
"What'd you find?" Jared asked them all.
"This." Scott replied as we controlled the projections with the control pad. "Using our combined notes, we found out Slade's ultimate plan."
~Slade's Underground~
A bloodcurdling scream ripped through the space. It was one of struggle and resistance; of course, it would come from Jules.
"You've been trapped in semi-stasis for almost a year. You cannot escape." Slade taunted.
"You won't get away with this." She repeated. "The Power Rangers will stop you."
"My dear, I believe that my plans are beyond your friends. You see, everything is falling into place. With the Void Key full, I can swallow two powerful counterparts: Eltar and Earth - The two planets with the strongest connections to the Morphing Grid."
~Sky Ship~
Scott continued to explain, "... Of all planets, our Earth and Eltar, known as the 'Core Planets,' are the most powerful. The Mystic Realm is the part of Earth that holds a majority of its magic."
Hale picked up, "Right now, Eltar and Mystic Realm are beginning to be absorbed by Slade's mass. Because the Core Planets are being attacked, there're negative side effects throughout the entire Universe."
"But the million dollar question is, why is he doing this?" Sonia interjected.
~Slade's Underground~
"With the Core Planets absorbed by my mass, I will be able to bring them together and create an even more powerful planet."
"Why?!" Jules demanded in righteous fury. "Why have you done this?! All the pain and suffering? Why, Slade?"
"Is this some kind of game to you?!" Jacob finally screamed as he struggled against the vines that were sapping his energy like a leech.
"So I can reach..."
~Sky Ship~
NJ replied, "So he can reach..."
~Slade's Underground~
"The Realm That Will Always Be." Slade stated simply. With that, he turned and walked away leaving Jules and Jacob baffled.
~Sky Ship~
"The Morphing Grid. He wants to get to the Morphing Grid to steal its power for himself."
The whole room fell silent; no one chose to speak. Jared sat down on a coach with a blank expression on his face. Alicia, worried, sat down next to him and grabbed his arm with her hands. Asher sat down with his parents and looked as if he wanted to say something.
Taking a breath, he said, "I can't say anything..."
Everyone looked at him with curious eyes as the boy continued. "I can't say anything not because of secrecy, but because I don't know what's gonna happen. The Future we saved- the one I came from, it's the one that will most likely happen. If we fail and lose this war, I'll probably disappear."
Alicia and Jared gently pulled their son into a hug on the couch. "That won't happen." Alicia stated softly.
"So now is the time to strike." Noah said hitting his left palm with his right fist.
"When will Slade's transformation take place?" Liam asked Lydia.
"Tomorrow. During Graduation for our Senior Class."
Sonia said, "Then we'll be ready. It's time for action."
"Good." Troy smiled. "I'll make a few calls. Then, we're finishing this."
All the Rangers and Hale put their hands together in a circle.
"The War has begun." Jared stated to his comrades. With a voice full of conviction, he said "We're gonna end it."
TO BE CONTINUED... Next two chapters will finish off the series!
