A/N: I hope this lives up to everyone's standards...
"What a mess!" exclaimed Madison Rocca, surveying the earthquake damage.
"Yea, now the store is messier than before," replied Vida, Madison's fraternal twin.
Both Rocca sisters worked in a music store called the Rock Porium, along with their lifelong friend, the red-haired Chip Thorn, and their newer friend, Xander Bly, who had moved to Briarwood from Australia when he was younger. The four of them were the Rock Porium's only employees, despite the owner, Toby always being there, never did anything.
"Maddie, Vida, Chip," Xander began, causing the three of them to gaze at the Aussie, "why don't you start to clean up, while I'll sit here and supervise."
Xander was probably the laziest person in all of Briarwood, but to Chip, Vida, and Madison he was a loyal and trustworthy friend. Yet, his position at work was supervisor, so in reality the three of them had to listen to him. Chip and Madison looked at each other and shrugged and each went to a corner of the store to start restocking cds. Vida, the Rock Porium's resident DJ and tomboy, on the other hand wasn't going to take anything from Xander, who had settled into a chair reading a magazine. She snuck up from behind him, and removed the back cushion on the chair, causing him to fall back, against the wooden frame of the chair. He quickly turned around and saw Vida standing there with the cushion in her hand.
"What was that all about, V?" he asked with a grin.
"You know, Xander, the usual, you being your lazy self, not doing anything…"
"I am doing something, V," he interrupted, "supervising."
Vida groaned and threw the cushion at Xander's head scoring a direct hit. Xander just threw her a look that could kill, and went back to his magazine. A few seconds later, Chip noticed a crowd gathering across the street.
"Hey guys, check this out!" he exclaimed.
"Wonder what's going on," Madison said, taking off her work vest, and grabbing her camera.
Although her sister was a tomboy, Madison was more girly, with longer hair than her sister, more shy and timid, and always seems to be hiding behind her camera. She turned the camera on, and left the Rock Porium. Vida coming up behind Chip, smiled at him, and both of them took off their work vests, and followed Madison. Xander still seemed oblivious to what was going on, a few seconds later he looked up from the magazine.
"Guys?" he asked in his thick Australian accent.
His eyes met the store window and saw them across the street, he stood up throwing his vest on the chair, and left the store.
The crowd, it seemed was gathered around a young dark haired man, who seemed to be in his late teens on the verge of adulthood. He seemed to be really upset about something. "Please, can anyone help me?" he cried.
"What's wrong?" a voice called from the back of the crowd.
The crowd split, revealing the speaker of the voice to the young man. The speaker, Chip, was gazing intently at the young man who although looking a few years older than Chip and his friends, seemed broken, sick, and depressed.
"It's my younger sister," the young man said in between tears, "she ran into the woods, and I followed her, but now, now, now, I can't find her, my mom is going to kill me."
Chip looked at the Rocca sisters, although Maddie was still hiding behind the camera, and both seemed really interested in helping the young man.
"I'll go," an Australian voice said behind Chip, "I want to help."
All three Rock Porium employees turned around and saw Xander standing there, who, they thought they left on the chair.
"Where did you," Vida began, "oh never mind," she finished throwing Xander another one of her famous 'I'm going to get you' looks.
"I'm in too," Chip said, "sounds like an adventure!"
Vida glanced at him, "I'm with you too, Charlie Thorn, you need someone sensible with you," she said seriously, referring to Chip's knack of getting into trouble with his strong belief in the mystical and fictional.
Madison powered down her camera, "this is totally unlike me, but wherever my sister goes, I go too."
The young man meanwhile was searching 'through' his help for something that only he could see. 'There you will find four people who seem to be hiding magic within themselves,' a voice echoed in his mind. These are them, the young man thought. All his life he could feel other people with magic, he didn't know why or how, but somehow he was always right. Now he knew why he was always drawn to these four people. They were magical, they just didn't realize it.
Whispers were prevalent
among the crowd. They know not to go into the woods. Why is that
young man asking for help? The woods are dangerous. But the young
man seemed oblivious to them, as well as the four friends. The young
man walked over to Chip who to him, seemed to be the leader of the
group, "Thanks for volunteering, if I can't find her I'm dead."
"No problem," Chip said holding out his hand, "the name's Charlie Thorn, but to everyone else I'm Chip." He pointed to Vida, the short haired girl with white highlights in front, "This is Vida, her sister Madison," he gestured to the smaller girl with the camera, "and this is Xander," Chip said pointing to the dark haired Aussie.
The young man was put on the spot, he couldn't use his real name in front of all these people, yet risk letting the existence of his world shine through too quickly to too many people. "I'm Nick, Nick Russell," the young man said, using a name that he found off of the top of his head. "My sister who is lost is named Clare, please there's not much time."
Nick ran into the woods, followed closely behind by Xander, Madison, Chip, and Vida. They quickly reached the barrier between Briarwood, and the Mystical World. Nick, being used to it, didn't do anything as he ran ahead and disappeared. Madison paused just after the barrier.
"Did you guys?" she began, when all of the sudden black creatures came out of no where and poised for a fight. "Okay, nevermind, who are these guys?"
Xander smiled, "It's time for plan Xander, he said walking over to the closest one. "Hello, my name is Xander Bly and this is Chip," he began when the one he was talking to punched him, throwing him back to only land on the ground by the feet of Chip, Madison, and Vida.
"Maybe that wasn't a good idea, Xander," Vida said.
"You think?" Xander exclaimed sarcastically.
"I say let's fight them!" Chip said loudly.
Madison nodded, despite her shyness, she sure knew how to defend herself, he parents made sure of that. "Where did Nick go?" she asked.
"I don't know, sis, but right now they want a fight," her sister replied, just as a group of the black, ugly creatures attacked her.
Jab! Jab! Kick! Throw! was all that was going on, it was a mess of black creatures and the four teens. Just as Vida was about to land a blow at a creature, from out of no where, a blast of ice came, freezing the creatures in there places, and from out of the woods, came someone in a white suit, with a snowflake on top of the helmet. The suit looked at them, "Run!" it yelled at them in a woman's voice.
Madison found herself in the lead of the little parade they formed. They ran deeper and deeper into the woods, until they came across what looked like a native American settlement, but it couldn't be cause walking in between the structures were people, but some had wings behind their backs, some had pointed ears, and others were just plain ugly.
"A little early for Halloween, ain't it?" Vida mumbled.
"These are my kind of people," Chip said.
At that moment, one of the pointed eared people noticed them. "Its them!" he exclaimed. "The Protectors are here!"
The rest of the people noticed the teens and gathered around them. Xander held up his hands in the surrender motion. "I always wondered what it would be like to be worshipped."
Vida smacked him, and began to back up with the others as the odd looking people got closer and closer to them. The teens all too quickly found themselves backed into a wall of some sort. Madison looked behind her and screamed. It was a stone, fire breathing dragon that had opened its mouth at Madison's scream. "Let's go inside!" Chip yelled.
"But, it's a…" Vida began, but didn't have time to finish as Chip and Xander grabbed Maddie and her respectively, and ran inside the dragon's mouth, which closed behind them. They ran inside the dragon, and soon found themselves in a room with a table that had five colorful symbols on it. One was red and looked like a phoenix, the second was green and resembled a minotaur, a third was yellow and was what looked like a garuda, the forth was blue, and had a mermaid's tail inside of it, the fifth was pink and had what could be a fairy or a sprite. Sitting at the other side of the circular table was a familiar face…Nick Russell.
Next Chapter: The Rangers get their powers and morph for the first time.