A/N: Just a heads up, with school starting Power Rangers: Olympian Force will be falling out of its regular Wednesday slot into an irregular one, roughly once a week though.
Disclaimer: Never, ever will I own Power Rangers or Greek Mythology. But, I do own the computer that this chapter was written on.
Hades sighed, as he looked out onto his Underworld castle court. Persephone was seated at his side, and she half-heartedly watched the fight in front of her. Two of the Roman Rangers, Mars and Mercury, had started to fight verbally, but that quickly changed to a sparring match. So far Mercury was winning, as he pinned Mars down.
Hades' head snapped up as the two large metal doors opened into the court. A flustered Daemon, quickly made her way towards the God and Goddess, her black satin dress swishing behind her. She got down onto one knee and bowed.
"Aergia, what news do you bring?" Hades asked, rising. She took this as her cue, and stood up. Mars and Mercury stopped their fight to see what was happening.
"The seventh Irenic crystal's energy was picked up this afternoon, right here in Olympia Heights," Aergia said, as she made her way towards Hades.
"Impossible!" Hades shouted. "It was destroyed 5,000 years ago, along with that pesky White Ranger. I personally saw to that!"
"Again, I am only reporting what I found out when I walked through the monitoring room. That was earlier this afternoon."
"And I am only finding out about this now?" Hades growled. He scowled and looked over at Persephone, who had not moved.
"Sorry, I had other things to attend to," Aergia said, as she guiltily looked in a different direction. She muttered something under her breath, that wasn't picked up by Hades.
"We can go retrieve the crystal for you," Mercury said, as he and Mars walked up the marble steps. He gestured to the two of them.
"No," he snapped. "Whoever has the crystal isn't just going to come out with it," Hades paused, and looked over at Aergia. "You go, but attack the city. We might as well kill two birds with one stone. That crystal can't stay hidden forever, and when the Ranger's go down, it will come."
The snow had been cleared off the Cambridge house drive way earlier that day, giving Bryce a great opportunity to shoot some hops. His little sister, Alyson, who was had just turned five, was playing in a small pile of snow.
Bryce dribbled the ball towards the net. He jump stopped, and paused. Quickly, he sprung up on his feet and shot the ball. The ball flew towards the net and swished in.
"He shoots… and he scores!" Bryce cheered, running over to grab the ball before it went into the snow.
"Again, again!" Alyson clapped, snow falling onto her lap. The California coastline rarely saw snow, and the all of the kids were taking advantage of it, even the youngest of them.
"Watch this," Bryce said, as walked to the opposite end of the hoop. He ran forward, and crossed the ball through his legs. As he neared the hoop, he jumped up onto one foot, and the ball bounced off the backboard into the net. Alyson clapped excitedly, as Bryce bowed in her direction. Alyson giggled, as Bryce tried to pick her up. She was rather small for a five year old, only weighing about a three year old.
"Nice shot!" She said, giving him a high five. Bryce forgot about the ball and it rolled towards the street. "Ball!" She shouted, as she pointed at the runaway ball.
"Oh no," Bryce shouted, as he carefully set her down. He ran towards the street, and was about to grab the ball when a foot stopped it from going any further. The owner to the foot, kicked the ball up and caught it.
"I think this is yours," the blonde female said, handing the basketball over.
"Thanks," Bryce said, tucking the ball under his right arm. "I don't think I've seen you around before. I'm Bryce, Bryce Cambridge." He stuck his hand out for her to shake it. She looked at it confused, and made no effort to shake it. Confused, Bryce pulled it back. "This here is Alyson." The five year old had found her way behind Bryce's legs, her head just slightly peeking out.
"I go by Marissa," she said, smiling at the younger girl. She crouched down to Alyson's level. "Alyson, what a pretty name; rumor has it one of my very old relatives went by that name thousands of years ago. Of course that wasn't her real name; it was something longer I believe."
"Did you just move here?" Bryce asked, as Marissa stood up.
"Yeah, just across the street. My father is working out here right now, some project for NASADA. I don't really know," a muffled beeping noise from under Bryce's coat brought Marissa out from her thoughts.
"I've got to go," Bryce said, and he lifted Alyson up. "I better get this one in before she catches a cold. It was nice to meet you." Marissa nodded, before she made her way across the street.
"I'm not too late for the party am I?" Bryce asked, as he jumped into the fight morphed. He swung his sword around, and hit three Dwellers in the chest. They all fell backwards onto the snow in the park.
"We're just getting started," Jet shouted, as he flipped two Dwellers over his shoulders.
"What's going on," Bryce asked, as he noticed the surrounding citizens all lazily sitting around. They were not making any effort to leave the fight, and only yawned.
"I can answer that!" Aergia said, as she jumped down off the branch of a tree. "Aergia is the name, and being lazy is my game!" She threw a small black ball towards two female humans. The ball rolled to their feet before releasing a grey smoke. It smelled like sulfur, and the Ranger's all held their noses. When the smoke disappeared the two humans dropped their shopping backs, and sat slumped against a nearby building.
"Oh, no!" Charley shouted, and she ran towards the two teens. She tried to get them to move, but they wouldn't budge. "What did you do to them?" Charley yelled at Aergia.
"With one blast of this," Aergia held up another black ball. "No human can resist my laziness spell." She grabbed another ball out of her side bag, and threw them towards Kennedi and Lew. "Let's see how you rangers like this."
Lew quickly reached for his hammer and swung back. As the balls came closer, he swung hard and they flew back high over Aergia's head.
"Pesky Ranger," Aergia sneered. "You may be able to block these, but you can't keep up forever." She reached into her bag and this time threw four balls towards Nathalie and Jet. Charley, who was nearby saw it, and quickly jumped in front of the two Rangers. She put up her force field, to protect all three of them.
"Thanks," Nathalie said, as she drew the string back on her bow. She shot two arrows at once, and hit two Dwellers. Spinning on her heels, Nathalie turned around and fired towards Aergia. The female Daemon ducked, and the arrow hit a Dweller instead. The Dweller's read lava body slumped down.
"I've had enough of your silly Ranger games," Aergia shouted, grabbing a few more lazy bombs. "Where is the seventh crystal?"
"What are you talking about?" Nathalie asked, as she flipped the Dweller over that grabbed her shoulder. "There are no more crystals."
"Haha," Aergia laughed. "Apparently your little mentor Phoebe hasn't been completely honest with you," Aergia threw a smoke bomb towards Nathalie. The little black ball exploded at her feet. When the smoke disappeared, Nathalie was still standing unaffected by the spell. "What? Impossible!"
"Apparently your little spell doesn't work on us," Bryce sneered, as he swung his sword at Aergia. She jumped up, and back flipped away. She reached into her bag to grab another lazy spell ball, but there were none left.
"No!" Aergia shouted. "This can't happen. Your lucky Rangers, I'm all out. Next time though, you won't be so lucky." She snapped her fingers and all of the Dwellers disappeared as she did.
Lew swung his hammer at a Dweller just as it disappeared. Lew lost his balance, and fell to the snow. Frustrated, he kicked a large chunk of ice.
The Rangers sat around the center table in the Command Center patiently watching Phoebe. Well, most were watching patiently. Jet on the other hand, not so much.
"How come you never told us about a seventh crystal?" Jet asked, breaking the silence. Phoebe nervously gnawed on her lip.
"Because, until this afternoon I didn't think it existed anymore," Phoebe said, as she paced back and forth, rubbing her temples. "I was there, I saw it destroyed. Impossible." Phoebe muttered to herself, not loud enough for the others to hear.
"What happened?" Charley asked, as she sat up straighter. "And tell us the truth, the whole truth. I'll know if you're lying to us."
"About 5,000 years ago, back when the last current team was active there was originally seven Rangers, not six," Phoebe said, as she joined the Rangers at the table. "The White Ranger, Alessandra was believed to be destroyed by Hades' along with her crystal."
"I thought all of the crystals, besides the ones in our morphers, lived on Mount Olympus?" Lew asked.
"They do now. That was taken as a precaution after Alessandra's was destroyed. The Ranger's used to wear them with them at all times. It was believed to enhance their powers. But after Alessandra and the white crystal were destroyed, the Gods and Goddess agreed that it would be safer for them on Olympus."
"And now, it's believed that the crystal has been found?" Bryce asked, as he subconsciously rubbed his own morpher.
"Earlier this afternoon, the energy signal was picked up. I didn't tell you guys because I thought it might have been a hoax," Phoebe said, as she stood back up.
"So now, someone is running around the city with the seventh Crystal?" Bryce asked. Phoebe nodded. "Well, that can't be good."
"No, that is why I need some of you guys to pick up extra shifts of monitoring the city," Phoebe said. A few of the Rangers groaned.
"But, we're already doing over time with the Roman Ranger's on the run," Kennedi argued.
"I know it's a lot to ask, but this is really important. If Hades get's his hands on the crystal, he'll be able to access the seventh morpher," Phoebe walked over to the monitor, and quickly put a sweep of the city on for twenty-four seven.
"I'm in," Bryce said. He looked over to Charley who nodded. "Charley and I can take the first shift after school tomorrow." Phoebe nodded in thanks, and the other Rangers all agreed to take shifts too.
"Let's all go home and get some sleep," Nathalie yawned, as she got up. "It doesn't look like we are going to be getting much of it in these next couple of days."
"No, and get this," Charley laughed, as she and Bryce walked down the abandoned school hallways. "I totally forgot my lines, and so I started to make up things while Max sat there giving me weird faces."
"I'm so glad I don't do theater," Bryce sighed. "Not that there is anything wrong with it." He corrected, as he kicked a pencil across the floor.
"It's not that bad, I really enjoy doing it," Charley said. She stopped and bent down to grab a crumbled piece of paper. She caught up with Bryce and tossed it into the trash from a distance.
"Maybe you should go out for the basketball team instead," Bryce laughed.
"Nah, it's not really my thing. I enjoy more of the fine arts type of things. Theater, playing guitar, and singing. You know," She said, as they rounded the corner to come up to the gym and cafeteria. Bryce spotted something with his eye, and pulled Charley back. "What?"
"Is that a… dog?" He asked, raising an eye brow. Sure enough, there was a golden retriever walking down the hallway. It stopped and looked at the door to the gym. Suddenly it stood up on its hind legs, and stretched out into the form of a human. The human was dressed in all black, with a hoodie hiding its face.
"That did not just happen. I must be seeing things," Charley said, rubbing her eyes. "Maybe I've been watching too much T.V." The human picked the lock, and went into the gym.
"That's no normal human," Bryce said, running towards the gym door. His hand caught it just as it was about to shut.
"Bryce!" Charley whispered. She ran after him. "What are you doing?"
"Come on," he said, ignoring her question. Charley sighed, and followed after him. The human walked through the portal to Olympian Ops. "That can't be good. I though only Rangers could go through there."
"We should morph," Charley said, looking around nervously. Bryce shook his head.
"Let's use that as a last resort," He said, before jumping through the portal. Charley sighed and followed after him. "Stop right there!" Bryce shouted at the human. The human spun on its heels and flung towards Bryce. It threw a punch at his nose, which he caught. Bryce twisted the human's arm around and flipped it over. It gracefully landed on its feet crouched down. Flipping up, it tackled Bryce to the ground. Pinned down, Bryce struggled to move.
Charley ran over and pulled the hood off of the human's head. Blonde locks of hair framed the now revealed teenage female's face. A small white crystal necklace fell out from under her shirt, and dangled in front of Bryce's face.
"Marissa?" Bryce asked. Charley, ignoring Bryce's comment, shoved Marissa off of Bryce. Roundhouse kicking, Charley hit Marissa in the side. Marissa stumbled back onto the table. Marissa sprung up, with her fist drawn.
"Bryce?" Marissa asked, now recognizing the Green Olympian. "What are you doing here?"
"I think I should be the one asking that," Bryce said, getting up.
"Would someone please explain to me what is going on?" Charley asked, throwing her hands into the air confused.
Trivia: The floor plan for the school, the gym being across from the cafeteria, was inpired by my own school.