Fishlegs was working his nailed to the bone in order to find the location of the last two Dragon Spirit Morphers. He found a number of text referring to the Gold and Silver Power Rangers and he believed that he might have found the location of at least one of them.
He was now presenting his findings to Stoick, Toothless and the other Rangers.
"I have found a number of text referring to both the Gold and Silver Power Rangers," Fishlegs explained as he showed on the monitor images. "And still tried to locate the location of the Gold, but I think I might have found the planet where the Silver is located."
"And which world would that be?" Hiccup asked curiously.
"The best translation I could find was the planet Sarkol," said Fishlegs.
"Another Dragkon planet," said Toothless as he leaned back. "My people have visited it, but try to start a colony on our world has been extremely difficult."
"Why is that?" Ragnar asked curiously.
"There is no pure water it's also folic acid, caused by the atypical amount of sulfide minerals located beneath the surface," Toothless explained.
"And you try to purify the water or something?" Astrid asked curiously.
"We do have water purifiers, but the acid is so toxic that it dissolves them under a certain amount of time," Toothless explained. "Generally we use the planet for mining or at least we did."
"What do you mean you did?" Snotlout questioned.
"I'm afraid that the planet is under Drago's occupation," said Toothless regretfully. "They took control of it about 30 years ago, it's where they mine most of their resources. The resistance has tried to come up with plans of retaking the planet, but given the fact that the water is toxic establishing a long campaign would not be beneficial."
"Great, so the planner containing the Silver Dragon Spirit Morpher is currently in the hands of the enemy," Snotlout grumbled.
"Hold on, we don't know that the shore," said Heather.
"When I was captured they made no mention of it," Hiccup reminded.
"Even if there is a chance that it has been taken, we still need to investigate to know for certain," said Astrid plainly.
Stoick looked deeply troubled. "I am not enthusiastic with this operation. We have so much to lose and very little to gain here, I doubt the council will be too pleased."
"What if we don't tell them about the Morpher?" Ruffnut asked.
"Yeah, we don't have to tell them everything," Tuffnut nodded.
Ragnar looked at Stoick. "For once I agree, we could just say that a simple scouting mission they would buy that."
"I do not like the idea of prospect of lying to the council," said Stoick gravely. "If they found out that we withhold information about this mission they could close the entire project down. Mildew has made a numerous attempts to shut down the operation, Wrinkly is still giving us a support, but Gothi is on the fence."
"Sooner or later they going to figure out where the Morpher is located and once they find that it was directly under their nose they will stop at nothing to get it," Astrid pointed out. "Sir, I know that this plan is risky, but we're willing to take the chance."
Stoick sighed. "You have a go, but you have 24 hours to find the Morpher."
"I can have my people make it look more authentic, to show that you are actually on a scouting mission," said Toothless.
Meanwhile up in space, Johann was still annoyed that Krogan had not delivered what he had promised.
"You promised that we would return to Drago's good graces, but instead your plan has pushed us even further back," Johann snapped. "I should never have trusted you."
Krogan narrowed his eyes. "Watch what you say, Johann. I am not in the mood to be toyed with."
"Neither us," said Red Drake's voice.
They turned and found that the Drake Rangers had entered their chamber and they all looked pretty annoyed.
"You created us to do one thing and now you're tossing aside after one failure," Red Drake snarled.
"Perhaps we should team up with Viggo, he seems to show more respect to his underlings," Blue Drake hissed.
Krogan then fired a powerful beam of energy that struck knocking her to the other side of the chamber. "Let me be clear, you serve me and no one else. If I wanted to I could eliminate you here and now so you had better watch yourselves."
Black Drake was about to make a move, but Red Drake raised his hand to stop him, he then looked at Krogan. "We're well aware that we are at your mercy, but you cannot deny that our first impressions to Drago did not go as planned."
"He has a point," said Johann turning to Krogan. "By now the Red Ranger has taught his fellow ranges a few tricks that will neutralise our pre-programming in the Drake Rangers and without DNA we cannot insert new instalments."
"Then we just have to make sure that the Rangers do not have the upper hand," said Krogan as he turned to a monitor. "I have managed to translate more the text and it has reveal the location of the Sliver Dragon Spirit Morpher."
"Where is it located?" Johann questioned.
"As luck would have it on Sarkol," Krogan smiled.
Johann looked up. "Our mining planet?"
"It did belong to the Dragkons a few decades ago and we have been so busy mining that we didn't decide to study some of the ancient ruins. This is the perfect opportunity to get the Sliver Ranger Morpher before the Rangers do."
"You want us to retrieve it?" Red Drake questioned.
"Indeed, if you succeed then will prove to Drago that you're not a waste of space," said Krogan approaching him.
"Give us the coordinates," said Red Drake.
On the planet, Sarkol, a portal opened and then shooting out of it were the Power Rangers on their Dragon Cycles. The twins now had their own Dragon Cycles, both of which were green and had the heads of Hideous Zipplebacks.
"So this is Sarkol," said Ruffnut as he looked around.
"Nice place, we can add it to our guidebook," said Tuffnut.
"You have a guidebook?" Heather asked.
"The Wondrous Places of the Galaxy," said Ruffnut holding out a book. "We made it ourselves."
"And what are you going to put on this guide about this place?" Astrid asked curiously. "Are you going to mention that the water here is toxic and that it is filled with enemy combatants?"
"She's right, it should at least have two stars," said Tuffnut.
"Can we focus?" Hiccup asked and then he turned to Fishlegs. "Fishlegs, do you know where this temple is located?"
"According to the text it should be located on a temple in the middle of something called the Sulphur Springs," said Fishlegs.
"Sounds charming," said Heather.
"According to the information that Toothless gave us there is a mess when love springs close to our location," said Ragnar.
"I'm surprised that the Dragkons didn't survey the entire planet?" said Heather as they drove off.
"What with the point be? This entire planet is filled with toxic wellsprings, the only thing good about this place is the minerals and you can mine them practically anywhere," Hiccup pointed out.
"Good thing that Drago did the exact same thing," said Astrid.
"I get the feeling of belonging to finds out that a Morpher was right under his nose," said Hiccup.
"We should be coming out close to the coordinates," said Ragnar.
Soon they came to a small mountain range which was filled with toxic pools, they could tell is toxic due to the steam exiting from them.
"Don't let a single drop land on you," Ragnar warned as they drove through the springs. "A single drop will be able to melt through your suits you don't want to know what it can do to the skin."
"You are the man, no messing about," said Hiccup and he directed that order to the twins.
"Why does he always look at us when he says that?" Tuffnut asked.
Ruffnut merely shrugged.
"I think I see the temple," said Fishlegs.
Soon the temple came into view and it was definitely Dragkon, it sat on a small island surrounded by springs it was amazing that the stone had not dissolved been so close to sulphuric acid. There were statues across it of a dragon which looked as if it had all wings and its head resembled that of an owl.
"What kind of dragon is that?" Astrid asked.
"It's known as a Stormcutter," said Fishlegs. "A Sharp Class dragon which has a very high opinion of itself."
"Sounds like someone we know," said Heather quietly.
"What was that?" Snotlout asked.
"It doesn't matter," said Hiccup as he looked around. "Seems as if were the first one is here."
"Like that's a surprise," said Astrid.
"Yeah, we're often the first one is here," Ragnar agreed.
"So what can we expect in this temple?" Snotlout asked.
"No clue," Fishlegs admitted. "There's only a few small mentions of acid, but that's about it."
"And you didn't think it was a good idea to inform us?" Snotlout glared.
"It could have just been talking about the toxic waters on this planet."
"Either way let's investigate with extreme caution," said Hiccup.
He then began making their way up the temple steps and soon entered the central chamber. Just like all the others there was inscriptions and some sort of test. This time a large gaping hole in the middle of the room and they could see the entrance on the other side, but jumping the gap was impossible.
"So how are we supposed to cross this thing?" Snotlout asked.
Fishlegs bent down began to read inscriptions. "'Only by an act of trust can one cross the endless abyss, if trust is not established when shall fall.'"
"Very cheery," said Heather.
Ragnar bent down and examined one of the stone tiles that surrounded the gap. The moment he stepped on it a beam of light appeared in the very centre of the room and it looked like some sort of platform.
"What's that?" Astrid asked.
Ragnar rubbed the bottom of his chin. "I wonder."
He then stepped off the tile and the platform vanished, he then stepped on another tile and this time to platforms emerged across the gap.
Ragnar turn to Heather. "Heather can you stand on a tile?"
Heather nodded and step on the tile and then suddenly another beam of light struck one of the platforms and this time it looked solid.
"Now let's test my theory," said Ragnar as he grabbed a stone.
He then tossed the stone onto the platform and it remained solid. He then took the step of the tile and the stone fell right through the platform as if it wasn't there.
"In genius," said Ragnar in disbelief.
"Hey, genius, care to enlighten us?" Snotlout asked.
Ragnar looked at them. "Each one of these tiles activates a hologram and went to beams of light hit in the same place the platform becomes solid."
"But on holograms just beams of light?" Astrid asked.
"There is some theories that one can make a hologram solid, but it has never been proven until now," said Ragnar as he looked into the chasm.
"Are you suggesting that we have to stand on these tiles to make a bridge?" Hiccup asked.
"I think it's more than that," said Ragnar and he turned to the other side of the pit and there he saw tile at the entrance. "One of us has to cross the bridge in order to activate the tile on the other side."
"This is where trust comes in," Astrid deduced. "One of us has to trust everyone else to greet the bridge so that he does not fall into the pit."
Ragnar nodded. "Exactly, one false move and their goners."
"So, do we have any volunteers?" Hiccup asked looking at the others.
Unsurprisingly no one-step fourth.
Hiccup sighed. "I'll do it."
Astrid immediately looked up. "I should be the one that does it, you're in command we can't afford to lose you."
"The test implies trust and I'm the only one here who trusts everyone absolutely," Hiccup reminded.
"Even still we should probably tie a rope around your waist, just in case," Ragnar advised.
There was no argument and soon Hiccup stepped towards the pit with a rope around his waist. The rope was attached to one of the pillars after making sure that it was stable. Then so began the test of fate as they began to operate the mechanisms.
They all had to do it carefully, making sure they took note which tile activated what hologram. Fortunately with later than there was easy enough to fill most of the tiles, but there was still quite a bit of risk. Hiccup almost fell into the pit when Ruffnut stepped off one of the tiles, fortunately the platform next behind him was solid so he was able to grab hold of it, though only just.
Most of it was a test of trial and error, but eventually they managed to find the correct pattern that allowed Hiccup to cross the bridge. Once on the other side hiccup did not hesitate to step upon the tile at the entrance stabilising the bridge allowing all them to cross.
"That was a hair raising," said Hiccup.
"We still have one test left," Ragnar reminded.
They began making their way into the central chamber and they found more inscriptions on the walls. Also in the centre was a statue of the Stormcutter with its wings outstretched.
"So what do we do now?" Snotlout asked.
"Guys, you might want have a look at this," said Fishlegs gesturing to one of the walls.
They all made their way over to Fishlegs and saw images of the original Dragon Spirit Rangers and it appeared that they were teaching humans how to harness Dragon Spirits.
"Wait, although as the original Power Rangers?" Hiccup asked.
"And it looks as if the training humans," Astrid noted.
"According to this, the first Dragon Spirit Power Rangers managed to secure many worlds from a great evil. After the battle was done, they discover that their powers were fading away and so they began to train the most devoted followers on how to harness Dragon Spirits," Fishlegs explained.
"This still doesn't explain about the gene though," Ragnar pointed out. "Because no matter how much training on meditation, one cannot alter genetics just like that."
"I think it was more than just simple fighting techniques or meditation," said Fishlegs as he examined it closely. "As far as I can tell these humans appear to be drinking Dragkon blood."
"Their what?" Astrid stared.
"Aww," said Snotlout.
"It also looks as if they using some kind of magic as well," Heather noted gesturing to the Dragkons performing some sort of movement with their hands. "Maybe was some sort of blood ritual?"
"Which probably created the gene," said Ragnar. "And then they would pass the gene onto their offspring and keep on sending it down the line."
"Are you saying that these ancient followers of the Dragon Spirit Rangers are our ancestors?" Snotlout stared.
"It makes the most sense and it explains quite a few things," said Ragnar folding his arms.
"Could also explain why we're having a hard time finding anyone with the correct gene," Astrid added. "It's hard to follow someone lineage after 3000 years and the gene could be stronger in some people than others."
"This still doesn't explain us how we can access the Morpher," Heather pointed out.
"They appear to levers here," said Ruffnut pointing at the statue.
"Yeah, four of them," said Tuffnut.
They made their way to the statue and found that they were right, on the podium which held the statue there were four levers pointing in all different directions.
"Okay, but what does this mean?" Hiccup frowned.
"Shall we try one out?" Snotlout asked.
"And risk triggering a booby-trap?" Astrid questioned.
Hiccup looked at Fishlegs. "Fishlegs, you have any ideas?"
Fishlegs examined the text on the podium. "'First I fly North then I down East before heading South and then finally West in order to avoid the acid storm.'"
"That was just as clear as mud," Snotlout grumbled.
"Actually I think it was reference into the levers," said Hiccup as he examined the base. "The all pointing in different directions, no doubt to represent North, East, South and West. Perhaps we have to pull them in the same order that the text describes."
"But which way is north?" Astrid asked. "I mean any of us thought to bring a compass?"
"And doubt that would work anyway," said Ragnar scanned the temple walls. "There's magnetic ore in the temple, it would make any kind of compass useless."
"Maybe this can help," said Heather.
Heather was looking up at a hole in the ceiling which showed the night sky.
"You mean to say there was a hole in the top of the temple and we had to go through all that?" Snotlout groaned in annoyance.
"If it makes you feel better there appears to be some sort of glass roof over that hole," said Ragnar. "Looks like we want to find nor were going to have to use the stars."
"Does anyone know about astrology?" Astrid asked.
"I do," said Hiccup as he rose to his feet.
"You do?" said Astrid looking surprised.
"My Mum taught me," said Hiccup. Hiccup then looked up at the stars. "Though it would be nice if I knew about the constellations."
"Does this help?" Ragnar asked handing him a scroll.
Hiccup looked at it and saw that it was star charts. "Where did you get these?"
"Toothless gave them to me before we left, he heard that those who created the temple here were well versed in astrology," Ragnar explained. "I guess he believed that we might come across this kind of problem."
"Well, these help you measurably," said Hiccup as he studied the star charts. He then made his way to the lever in the front of the statue. "Right, if I'm reading these correctly then this lever should be the West."
"Okay, looks like we've got something to work with," said Astrid.
"Question, what happens if you're wrong?" Snotlout asked nervously.
"Then acid will rain down on top of us," said Fishlegs.
"Sorry I asked," Snotlout groaned.
Hiccup then grasped hold of the lever that represented North and pushed down upon it everyone braced themselves in case it activated a trap, but nothing happened. Hiccup then began to press down the other levers that represented each the four corners.
"This should be the last one," said Hiccup as he pushed down on the final lever.
The moment he pressed down on the lever they heard the sound of a mechanism and the statues' forewings began to move.
"I think it's working," said Heather.
"Then let's get what we came for and get out of here," said Snotlout.
The dragon's mouth and opened wide, but when he looked inside of it they found that it was completely empty.
"It's empty!" Hiccup cried.
"What?" Astrid stared.
"Please tell me you're joking," said Ragnar.
"No, it truly is empty."
"But I'm sure this is the right temple," said Fishlegs.
Snotlout folded his arms and grumbled. "Knew this was a stupid idea."
"What do we do now?" Heather asked.
"The only thing we can do, go back home and report this," said Hiccup.
No one argued, they were all completely disappointed and then raised many questions. Was this the right temple? And if it was who took the Morpher before they arrived?
"Do you think it was Drago's forces?" Astrid asked looking at Hiccup.
Hiccup rubbed the back of his head. "Doubt it, if they did get here before us do you truly think that they would been able to get past the first test."
"They could have done by trial and error," Heather offered. "Let's face it the not exactly short on troops."
"Perhaps we should discuss this when were nice and home and safe," Fishlegs suggested.
"I'm afraid you're far from being safe," said a voice.
When they stepped outside they found that the Drake Rangers were there waiting.
"And of course they planned an ambush," Snotlout grumbled.
Red Drake extended his hand. "Now if you would be so kind a hand over the Sliver Morpher."
Hiccup and the others immediately looked at one another, this implied that they were in fact in the right place. Also this proved that Drago didn't obtain the Morpher.
"Even we had it we weren't handed over to you," said Hiccup.
Red Drake looked up. "What do you mean you don't have it?"
"I'm afraid someone beat us to the punch," said Astrid.
"You really expect us to believe that?" said Black Drake.
"I believe they are telling the truth," said White Drake.
"And what makes you so sure?" Blue Drake questioned.
"Perhaps it has something to do with their conversation before they got out of here."
"So what do we do now?" Yellow Drake asked. "I mean Krogan won't be happy when he hears that we failed."
Red Drake looked up at the Rangers. "I think you might forgive us if we take down a couple of Rangers."
Hiccup looked at him. "You remember the last time we fought, it didn't exactly end well for you."
"Didn't finish too well for you either," Blue Drake sneered.
"Attack!" Red Drake commanded.
The Drake Rangers and immediately charged at them and with no other choice Hiccup and the others did the same. Hiccup and the others for their respected colours, but that left Ragnar and the twins completely free so they decided to help whoever they wanted to. Ragnar had decided to fight alongside Heather while the twins fought with Snotlout.
During this battle also became apparent that the Drake Rangers had the own weapons. Red Drake was sporting a two handed sword and he struck it with immense force against Hiccup. Blue Drake was using wielding a scythe and she was clearly deadly skilled with it with the way she was swinging it. Snotlout was having a difficult time facing against Black Drake's bludgeon which was covered in razor sharp spikes and he was put in a lot of power behind it. Fishlegs was trying to avoid getting hit by Yellow Drake's pike which he was wielding like a master. White Drake was penning Heather down with a bow which was filing energy-based arrows directly at her.
"Looks like they've taken things up a notch," said Ragnar as he quickly shielded Heather against the arrows that White Drake was firing.
"But so have we," said Heather and she immediately jumped into the air and flung her whip.
She struck with perfect accuracy and White Drake was sent spinning through the air. However, while she spun she fired even more hours we would have secured have a Ragnar had shielded her.
"Still probably best to keep your guard up," said Ragnar.
Fishlegs used his hammer in order to knock away Yellow Drake's pike as he thrust it towards him. However, Yellow Drake merely use the momentum and performed a backwards thrust and Fishlegs had leaned back in order to avoid the point.
"You're rather clumsy without hammer of yours," said Yellow Drake as she pushed her advance.
"I'm not exactly matching the combat," Fishlegs admitted.
"Good, that makes things easier for me," Yellow Drake smiled broadly and carried on his assault.
Black Drake slammed his blood and write down towards Snotlout, who quickly rolled out of the way.
"Keep on running, eventually I'll hit you," said Black Drake.
"Oh, I'm not running," Snotlout smiled.
The twins then immediately jumped from out of nowhere directly behind Black Drake with spears at the ready. They then quickly struck down upon his back before he had a chance to counter, but all that did was annoy him as he immediately turned around and struck them with his bludgeon.
"I hope you weren't counting on them," Black Drake smirked as he faced Snotlout.
Astrid quickly leaned back in order to avoid her clone's scythe, it was a very difficult weapon to block against. Astrid knew that the real the real danger of the weapon was the curve in its blade, if she manages to get the weapon behind her she would have very little chance of blocking it.
"I see that you understand the capabilities of my weapon," said Blue Drake.
"I would be a poor soldier if I didn't," said Astrid as she took up a fighting stance.
Hiccup meanwhile was under the strain of his clone's two-handed sword, he was right now pushing as much weight into his sword as possible while Hiccup held his ground as he blocked it. There was no doubt that his clone was far stronger and no matter how much Hiccup dug in was being pushed back.
"Looks like the shoe is on the others foot now," Red Drake smirked.
"We're not going to give up," Hiccup glared.
"Good, I don't want this to get dull."
He then put even more weight into his sword and Hiccup would have been in trouble if a silver blur hadn't rushed by. Something then immediately struck Red Drake hard in the face and he was knocked to the ground and suddenly the same thing began to happen to the other clones leaving the other Rangers completely baffled.
"What just happened?" Heather asked.
"I don't know, I didn't see a thing," said Ragnar.
Hiccup turned towards the hillside and saw someone standing there. "Look up there!"
Everyone turned and saw a Power Ranger looking down at them, she was clearly female and her outfit was pure silver. Her helmet resembled that of a Stormcutter and she was holding a staff in her hand.
"The Silver Power Ranger?" Astrid stared.
"But who…" Ragnar began, but when he looked up again she vanished. "She's gone!"
"Who was she?" Fishlegs stared.
"Perhaps this is something we should discuss back at base," Snotlout suggested.
Snotlout was right, but clones were starting to regain consciousness and they couldn't bet on another daring rescue from their mysterious saviour. Ragnar quickly activated the portal device and they jumped into it before the clones had a chance to get their feet.
"They got away," Black Drake roared.
"Krogan isn't going to like this," said Blue Drake.
Red Drake merely smiled. "Not when we tell him that they retreated and we tell him that the Rangers didn't get the Silver Morpher."
"But neither did we and we were just attacked by the Sliver Power Ranger," said Yellow Drake.
"We only tell him what he needs to hear, let him draw his own conclusions," Red Drake smile.
"You mean lie," said White Drake.
"But we didn't, it's perfectly true that we didn't get the Morpher and neither did the Rangers. Why make things more complicated and why put ourselves in danger?"
Back at base, Hiccup and the others informed Stoick of their mission which was a mixed success.
"So there's a Silver Power Ranger out there, but how did she know you would be there?" Stoick pondered.
"And why did she help us?" Fishlegs asked.
"More importantly how did you manage to get past the first test," Astrid added.
"I'm afraid these questions will have to remain unanswered into a later date," said Stoick regretfully. "To the Councils knowledge all you have done is take part in a small scouting mission on a hostile planet, we have used the Dragkon's report of the planet to make a fair analysis and we have used our own scouts. However we cannot mention to them that the clones attacked you and overpowered you, nor can we mention about this Silver Power Ranger or the temple, unless we want to shut down the program."
"What we do have the Silver Power Ranger returns?" Ragnar asked.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," said Stoick looking at them all. "Until then we have to keep our ears to the ground."