Son of War
Disclaimer: Anything you can google is not mine.
Chapter 4 – Briarwood
Now that the Space Rangers were here also, Lori found that she did have a lot of friends after all. With all her friends around her, Lori felt more at home than she ever felt in any other place she's ever lived in. But at this point, it wasn't time to rejoice and enjoy life. It was time to whack your brains and try to figure out a way to save the Earth so you can have a future to rejoice and enjoy life. And whack her brain, Lori did. She whack so hard, she probably lost a couple IQ points, but still, she had no clue in finding out who this Son was, or where they could find him.
"Lori, I know we're in sort of a bind here, but don't try too hard," Trent said one day during their drawing session. Tommy had suggested that while they were trying to solve this puzzle, the teens should go back to living their normal lives and that they'll be called on if they were needed. "It wouldn't make things any better if you killed yourself trying to figure this thing out."
"If I die but figure it out, then I've died for a good purpose," Lori said, crumpling the piece of paper in front of her in frustration and tossing it back into the trash without looking.
"Nice shot," Justin said, walking up from behind them and sitting down.
"I want a nice shot with the puzzle," Lori replied, glancing up at Kira playing the guitar, her object today. Trent filled Justin in of their conversation as Lori continued with her sketch, trying to cheat off of Trent's paper, which doesn't really work when it comes to drawing.
Justin put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "I think maybe you should take some time away from this whole prophecy thing," he said.
"What else can I think about in a time like this?" Lori asked him.
"How 'bout yourself?"
"What about myself?"
"Do you know why Tommy brought you here to live with him, even in the middle of all that was happening with Mesogog?"
"No."
"He wants to adopt you."
That caught Lori off guard.
"What?!" she demanded, dropping her jaw and pencil.
"Yeah, he was talking to me about it. He brought you in now because he wanted to be sure that even with his Ranger duties he can still take care of you. But now that you're in on this, he's wondering whether or not he can provide a safe environment for you."
"I've never been safer than with him."
"I know that," Justin assured her. "But he doesn't."
"Hmm…." Lori murmured.
Just then, TJ came in and called Justin away. Trent looked at his young friend with a concerned look.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm just wondering what it would be like if Tommy did adopt me," she told him, resuming her sketch.
"Well, what was it like with your family before?" Trent asked.
Lori looked down. "I never had a family before," she said quietly.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Trent said. "I didn't know."
Lori shook her head, but said nothing. Trent sighed.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm adopted too."
This made Lori look up at him. "You're adopted?" she asked, "By whom?"
"My father is Dr. Anton Mercer. You know? The guy that subbed for Dr. O when he was…"
"In the Himalayas?" Lori finished sarcastically. Trent laughed, remembering Ethan's lame excuse for their teacher's sudden disappearance. The truth was, Tommy had been stuck, unable to demorph for a while, and when then he ended up being invisible during one attempt to demorph him. When they tried to make him visible again, it worked, but it put him in a coma, in which he was rushed to the hospital and had to fight his past former Ranger selves for his life.
"My parents used to work for him, and when they disappeared during one of their digs, he took me in as his own," Trent continued. "He's a great guy, but he's not very supportive of my artistic endeavors."
"How do you know?" Lori asked him.
"I think his exact words were, 'Trent, I am in no way supportive of your artistic endeavors'."
Lori laughed and Trent joined her, nodding. "There you go. That's what a kid like you should be doing, laughing at jokes, hanging out with friends, having fun, not pulling your hair out trying to figure out some ancient prophecy."
"I never pulled my hair out," she objected.
"Right," Trent said, correcting himself. "You just knocked several IQ points out."
Lori laughed, and then sighed. "I guess you're right. I'm gonna go for a walk, get some fresh air."
Trent nodded approvingly. "That's right. It's a crime to keep a kid inside on a day like this."
Lori nodded, agreeing. "I'll see you later then."
"You don't need me to come with you?"
"Nah, I want to clear my mind."
"All right then," he nodded. "I'll see you later."
Lori smiled and waved, then left Cyberspace. She walked through the city, seeing other kids running and shouting, enjoying the sunshine. As much as she envied them, she realized that she could never have that, wherever she went, there will always be something she'd have to do, something she'd have to help with. But that was what she did best, helping. She wouldn't trade it for anything else. She loved helping her friends achieve what they needed. And it was what she enjoyed to do. Other kids may enjoy playing video games or sports or whatever, but she enjoyed helping others, it's just the way she is.
Absentmindedly, Lori wandered to the woods, and before she knew it, she had left behind the sounds of civilization, engulfed in the silence of nature, only broken by the chirps of birds and other animals living there, her footsteps muffled by the soft undergrowth. She smiled when she saw the sinkhole that had dropped her into all of this and carefully stepped around it. Now that she knew their secrets, Tommy showed her a much easier way to enter Dino Ops, using a passage in his house. With the sun high above her head, Lori walked deeper and deeper into the woods, deeper than anyone in Reefside had ever been. Only when she realized something was different, did she stop.
Lori inhaled sharply, looking around abruptly. Everything had suddenly changed. It was no longer warm and bright, instead it was a solemn grayish. The songs of birds and crickets could no longer be heard. The dead silence caused the hair on the back of Lori's neck to stand up. It gave her goose bumps; a shiver ran down her spine.
"Where am I?" she wondered, barely out loud. The trees were towering above her, taller than the ones she remembered in the woods bordering Reefside, slimmer too. Its limbs and branches looked arms, waving frantically in the air. However, what really had Lori wondering was that they were in the middle of winter, the branches of the trees in the woods were completely bare, these trees however, were full of leaves.
"This is so weird."
Lori whipped around. It was exactly what she had been wondering. But who had voiced her thoughts? She squinted in hopes to find that source of the voice. "Who's there?!" she demanded, her voice echoing in the seemingly-empty forest.
"Oh, this is not good!"
At once, Lori picked that up and zeroed in on it. She ran to the bushed and separated it, trying to see who was spying on her. As soon as she saw it, she wished she hadn't.
"Ahhh!!!" she screamed.
Behind the bush was a…Lori didn't know what it was. It might be a troll…or a goblin…or maybe he was just one really, really ugly man. He wore a nasty goblin hat, with a huge nose, his face covered with so much hair Lori thought his facial hair was connected to the ones on his head. All in all, this…thing was disgusting. Not just in appearance, he reeked as well.
It took a while, but finally, her legs obeyed and Lori ran, screaming at the top of her lungs, away from that creepy looking creature. Blindly, she ran, constantly looking over her shoulder to see if it was following her. Luckily, it wasn't. And they she tripped on a high root and started to roll…right through a tree!
"Oh! Ooh! Oof!" Lori huff as she rolled, bouncing on bumps on the ground, finally landing with a flop.
"Ahhh!" she heard someone yell. Then there was a screech and Lori smelled smoke. "Are you crazy?!" the same voice shouted after what seemed like a crash. "What the heck are you doing?!"
Lori couldn't answer him. She was lying on the ground, her chest heaving as she gasped for breath. When she opened her eyes, everything was spinning. A face—at least Lori thought it was a face—came into view.
"Are you okay?"
Lori groaned in reply. The guy reached over and pulled her up, slowly. "Thanks," she moaned.
"What were you thinking?" he asked.
"I wasn't…I guess." Then Lori suddenly remembered something. She jumped to her feet to see if it had followed her. She sighed in relief when she saw that it didn't."
"Are you okay?" the guy asked again.
"Yeah," Lori nodded, still panting a little. "I'm fine."
"I don't think you are."
"Huh?"
"You're bleeding…a lot."
Lori looked down at her left arm and grimaced. It was battered, bleeding so much she couldn't even see the wound. "You're right," was all she said.
"Why don't you wait here, and I'll go get some help?"
"Uh…" Lori looked worriedly at the forest where she had just come through.
"Or you could come with me?" the guy said, seeing my face.
"Mom says not to talk to strangers," Lori lied. She didn't know who this guy was, whether he was good or bad or in between (if that was possible). She wasn't sure if this guy could be trusted, and the mom-stranger card was the perfect excuse to test people out.
"Well…" the guy said. "My name is Nick Russell. I'm 21 years old and I like classic motorcycles, both riding and fixing them. You?"
"Lori Kellen, 12."
"All right, now that we know each other, let's get going…before you bleed to death."
Lori almost laughed. "Right," she said.
Nick picked up his motorcycle from where it laid on its side on the side of the road. Lori guessed the accident was caused by him trying to avoid running her over. She looked at it apologetically as she climbed on behind him. The engine sputtered a little, but then roared to life. The late teen revved the engine and sped down the road.
"Wow, what did you do?" the nurse asked when Lori was brought into the hospital.
"I fell," Lori answered simply. The woman looked skeptical, as if she thought she was lying, but Nick confirmed her story with a nod. Shrugging to show she didn't really care, the nurse called in the doctor. He looked a little more nice and welcoming than the nurse, but maybe that was because he got paid more for doing whatever he was supposed to do. He tried to make small talk as he examined Lori's arm, but when neither she nor Nick said much, he gave up. In silence, he finished his job.
"You have a fracture, almost a break. Try not to put any extra weight on it for the next three weeks. Other than that, you're fine," he reported—a little coolly—when he was done.
"So do I have to come back for any checkups?" Lori asked him.
"If you want the cast off," the doctor answered.
"Can another doctor take it off?" she asked. "We're just traveling through," she added when the man looked suspicious.
"I suppose," was his answer.
The little girl nodded. Good, she didn't intend to come back here. She wondered how she would explain it to Tommy, but decided her best bet was to have it taken off by Justin or Zhane, any one of the "kids" that she knew wouldn't rat her out.
In addition to the cast, the doctor also put Lori in a sling. He also prescribed some painkillers in case it hurt too much. Lori didn't really feel anything, her arm had kind of gone a bit numb this whole time, but she found no reason to tell him this, so she quietly took the slip, stuffed it in her pocket, nodded to the doctor and nurse's words to be more careful in the future, and left with Nick.
"So, should I take you home?" he asked when we made it out to fresh air.
"Uh…to be honest, I don't even know how to get home from here," Lori said. "Actually, I don't even know where here is."
"Then how did you get here?" Nick asked.
"I'm wondering that myself," the little girl muttered. "Where are we?"
"Briarwood," he answered. His voice sounded weird, full of emotion, Lori didn't know how to describe it.
"Briarwood," she murmured. She had never heard of it before. "Is it still in California?"
"Yeah."
Well, at least she's still in the state. Lori sighed and looked around. Nothing seemed familiar. What was she going to do?
"I don't want to rush you or anything, but I kind of want to go somewhere, so…"
"Hey, it's cool, I don't have anywhere to be," Lori shrugged, following the teen to his bike. "Where are you going?"
"Rock Porium. It's a record store," he added when he saw my puzzled look. "I used to work there with my friends; I'm going to see if I could find them there. I've been gone for a year."
"Where've you been?"
"It's kind of a long story."
"Are they all?" Lori replied.
Nick smiled and chuckled and helped her get on behind him then he gunned the engine and shot into town. He pulled up by a large oak tree, also full of leaves, Lori noted. As he turned off the engine and took off his helmet, Lori noticed Rock Porium. You really couldn't miss it. Its wall was very colorful; some could call it a mess of paint, others call it abstract art, but Lori had one word for it: target. It looked as if whoever painted it just threw the paint against the wall. But she had to admit, if it was looking to attract attention, it definitely worked splendidly. She was hooked.
"This must've been an interesting place to work," Lori said as she and Nick headed over to the store.
"It was," Nick agreed, nodding.
They walked in together. Lori looked around. She didn't know much about music, but obviously, these people did. There were tons of CDs, DVDs, and vinyl records. It was all set up in a pretty cool, casual way. It was pretty busy as well, not completely packed, but not empty either. No one noticed them at first, but Lori sure noticed the people in there. They didn't look like the everyday people you see on the streets. Some looked stunningly beautiful, others looked utterly hideous…and then she saw it, and it was coming over!
"Ahh!" she cried, unintentionally grabbing onto Nick's sleeve.
"Oh, it's you again!" said the goblin-troll thing when he came up to her. "I-I think I surprised you before, my apologies."
"Uh…" Lori didn't know what to say. "N-Nick?"
"Nick?" asked the creature. He looked over at the teen Lori was standing next to and gasped. "Nick!" he exclaimed. At once everything was quiet. Everyone in the store turned their heads and looked towards the three by the door.
"Nick!" they all yelled running up to him. The first one to reach him was a girl. She was had long black hair tied back in a ponytail and wore a purple shirt that Lori guessed was the store's uniform, for three others wearing it came up behind her (one girl and two guys). The first girl threw her arms around Nick. The two embraced tightly.
"Nick, you're back!" exclaimed the other girl in the purple shirt. Her hair was short, but dyed hot pink.
"Nick, it's great to see you, mate!" said one of the guys in the purple shirt.
"How long are you visiting?" the other guy, a redhead, asked.
"You don't visit home, Chip," Nick replied when he finally let go of the girl he was hugging.
"So you're staying?" the girl asked.
Nick didn't answer; even Lori knew that was a rhetorical question.
"I hate to interrupt your reunion," Lori said. "But I have a question."
The five teens looked down at her, waiting for her to ask. She just motioned around at the people in the store, not knowing how to put it into words.
Nick looked where she pointed and chuckled lightly. "Briarwood's not like any place you've ever seen before, huh?"
"I've never seen so much…diversity in a place," she replied.
"Half of these people are mystical beings, that used to live in hiding in a parallel dimension in the forest," Nick told her. "But during the final battle against the Master, they stepped out and joined forces with the citizens of Briarwood to fight against the real evil."
"And now monsters and humans lived together in harmony?" Lori guessed.
"We're not monsters," said the nasty creature Lori had encountered earlier.
"Then what are you?" she asked.
"Me? I'm Phineas the Troblin."
"The what?"
"The Troblin. Half troll, half gobblin."
"Oh," was all Lori could muster up at the moment.
"This is Lori," Nick said after a short pause. "Lori Kellen. Lori, these are Xander Bly, Chip Thorn, and Madison and Vida Rocca."
"It's nice to meet you, Lori," said Madison (the girl who hugged Nick).
"You too," Lori nodded. Again, it came to the part where no one knew what to say and it drifted towards the uncomfortable silence. Then Lori laughed. "It's funny," she said. "Every place I've lived, from Angel Grove to Blue Bay Harbor to Reefside, villains had chosen it as the place they attack when they want to take over the world. I've seen countless monsters destroying the city but never as much as uttered a whimper, but when I saw Phineas today in the forest, I ran screaming at the top of my lungs. What's happening to me?"
The others laughed. But suddenly Phineas got serious.
"How did you get into the forest?" he asked.
"I walked?" Lori guessed, not really understanding his question.
"A lot of people go into the forest now Phineas," Xander said, "ever since they know there's nothing to be afraid of in there."
"No, but she's not from here," Nick added. "She's never even heard of Briarwood."
"And I've never heard of the places she lived," Madison said. "Angel Grove? Blue Bay Harbor? Reefside? Where are those places?"
"They're small cities in California," Lori answered.
Okay, now they were all getting a little confused. None of them knew what was going on anymore.
"Hey," Chip said suddenly. "If you're back, then Udonna should be back too right?"
"Yeah, we all came back," Nick confirmed.
"Then let's just go ask her!" Vida exclaimed.
"She went to Rootcore to see Claire!" Nick reported excitedly.
"Let's go!" Xander said and Lori found herself running after the teens—and the Troblin—out of the record shop and across the street. She came, however, into a screeching halt when the first of the group, Chip and Vida, ran straight at the oak tree and vanished with a flash.
"Whoa!" she cried. "What was that?!"
"That was how you got out of the forest today," Phineas told her matter-of-factly.
"Huh?"
"Come on, we'll explain later," Nick said, patting her on the shoulder.
O…kay, she thought, and allowed him to steer her through the tree. Lori was shocked when she found that the Troblin was right. Through the oak, she found that she had returned to the eerily gray forest. Furthermore, the teens were now in different outfits. They wore black outfits accented in different colors, Chip in yellow, Madison in light blue, Nick in red, Vida in pink, and Xander in green. They even had sleeves that covered their forearms, starting from their wrist and going up to their elbows, and capes that reached their knees.
Lori was about to open her mouth to ask, but the others were already headed in a direction and she didn't want to get left behind. Where they led her shocked her even more. Her jaw dropped open as she stared up at a gigantic tree, its trunk and limbs twisted like a braid. Nick, his hand still on her shoulder, led her to the entrance, which seemed like a root of the tree. It was in the shape of a head of a gator or a croc or maybe some kind of dinosaur. It had a red orb near the top corner that looked like an eye and when it opened for them to enter, it had what looked like stalagmite and stalactite coming from the roof and floor, representing teeth. Lori gulped nervously as it closed, "swallowing" them in.
Inside, Lori guessed was the hollowed out trunk. It was a pretty round, circular room. Despite the medieval look, it also had computers. There was a large round table in the middle with a big yellow crystal ball set in its center. To the left of that was a podium, holding a large encyclopedia sized volume. Opposite of that was a wall that hung five brooms, each with a different colored background that matched the ones the teens wore. Thinking back, Lori should've guessed at once, but she was in too deep of shock.
Four people were already in there, sitting around the big wooden table that looked like it was part of the tree. Two of them were women, dressed in white dress/robes. The other two were men, dressed in what Lori guessed knights would've worn under their armor. Three of them were obviously older than the teens, but one of the women looked about their age. They looked at the newcomers, stopping their conversation. They didn't seem surprised to see the Troblin, but their eyes soon fell on Lori and grew wide.
"What is this?" asked the oldest man. He wore a tan vest over white, a streak of his hair down the middle graying like his mustache.
"Welcome to Rootcore, Lori," Nick said, walking the little girl to the table. The others followed behind.
"Nick?" asked the older woman. She had long wavy brown hair that was somewhat put up. Her dress was long and wrinkly, kind of like her skin.
"Who is this you brought here?" asked the other man. He was in his thirties or so, a bit younger than the other man, but older than the teens, definitely. His hair was all black and combed back. He had a light mustache that encased his mouth. His clothes were mainly a golden color.
"This is Lori Kellen," Nick told them. "Lori, this is Daggeron, Clare, and my parents, Udonna and Leanbow."
Lori nodded at them in acknowledgement. They nodded slightly back.
"Udonna, we want to ask you something," Vida said.
"What is it?" asked the older woman.
The seven of them told the four about their conversation at Rock Porium. At once the elders led them to the podium.
"This is the Xenotome, it is all-knowing and holds all the power and secrets of the Mystic Rangers," Udonna told Lori as she opened it and began searching the pages
"Rangers," Lori said. "You guys are the Power Rangers?!"
"Yeah, didn't you know?" Vida asked.
"Should I have?"
"Well, ever since that last battle a year ago," Xander said. "Everyone in Briarwood has known."
"Well I'm not from Briarwood," Lori reminded him. "So you don't have a secret identity?"
"We did up until then," Chip answered.
Lori smirked. "I guess I should've known when I saw the colors," she said, eyeing the colors they wore. Even in their civilian life, the Rangers tend to wear colors that matched their Ranger color. Lori had noticed that after learning her friends' Ranger identity. Before learning of their secret, she just thought they were strangely (and coincidentally) color-obsessed. "Are you all Rangers?"
"The five of us" Madison said, meaning the teens "are the Mystic Force Rangers. Udonna was our mentor, a powerful sorceress, and the White Mystic Ranger. Daggeron was our teacher and the Solaris Knight, and Leanbow was his teacher and the Wolf Warrior. And Clare, is now a full-fledge sorceress."
"Knights, Warriors, Sorceresses?" Lori asked. "Sounds more like a fairytale than your modern day superheroes, don't it?"
"You seem to know a lot of information about the Power Rangers," Udonna observed.
"I'm friends with three teams of Power Rangers," Lori answered. "The Turbo and Space Rangers from Angel Grove, the Ninja Storm Rangers from Blue Bay Harbor, and the Dino Thunder Rangers from Reefside."
"Again, where are those places?" Madison asked.
"Ah," Udonna said when she found what she was looking for. "These places are in a different dimension," she told them. "That dimension lies on the other side of the forest."
"Another dimension?" Lori asked.
"Yes."
"So you're telling me I just walked right through to another dimension?"
"That's right."
Lori thought about that for a while. "How accurate is that book?" she finally asked.
"The Xenotome is all knowing," Udonna repeated. "The Xenotome is a fountain of untapped magical knowledge; hence it is called "The Book of The Unknown"."
Again Lori had to take a little time for to digest it all. Then she suddenly got an idea. She told them about the prophecy. "If the Xenotome knows everything, can it tell us who this Son is?"
The Book answered before the old sorceress. The pages began to glow and a yellow light seared out of the spine, the binding of the book as if it was about to rip it open, right down the middle. Lori and her new friends could do nothing but watch with wide eyes and open mouths.
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