Chapter Fifteen: Hiders, Keepers
Dulcea looked at the resistance fighters in front of her. The spokesperson was Rahp, who looked as if he hadn't slept in days. Odds were, he hadn't. He and another member of this group, Filcar, had been present when their leader, Commander Zedd, had been possessed by some creature. This new being who called himself Lord Zedd was nowhere to be found. Rahp had informed their team of what had occurred. They all wore solemn expressions.
Accompanying Dulcea were two other Morphing Masters: Gosei and Kamen. The man from Edenoi (Kamen) peered at the artifact on the table in front of them. To a casual observer it was just a crystal. To someone standing in its proximity, however, it was much more. One could feel the power the Zeo Crystal exuded. Sentinel Knight had proclaimed, when Orion and App had originally been called to study it, that it was a physical chunk from the Morphing Grid. In reality, the Morphing Masters in general did not understand what that statement meant. Sentinel Knight, the presiding and oldest member of the group, also did not fully comprehend this proclamation. All he knew is what he felt when he was near the object, and with his connection to the Morphing Grid, there was no doubt in his mind that, somehow, the Morphing Grid had a piece of it that had crystallized and taken a form here in this dimension of existence.
"So, what do we do? We are here to plan, but I don't know where to start." Kamen remarked, breaking the silence.
Gosei nodded. "This is a daunting task that we have been given. I fear whatever we do will attract Vile or any other fiend that may be creeping out there in the universe."
He shot a quick look at Kamen subconsciously as Count Dregon came to his mind. Dregon had been denied the title of prince on Kamen's homeworld by his father, Lexian. Dregon had then taken a portion of Edenoi's troops who were loyal to him and had begun waging a small war on Edenoi. A number of Alliance soldiers had been enough up to that point to fend off Dregon. People had been grown worried, however, because a substantial amount of time had elapsed since Dregon's last attack. Rumors throughout the galaxies were that Dregon had a plan in place, and was close to implementing it. Those in the know about the Zeo Crystal in the United Alliance feared Dregon had heard of the Zeo Crystal, and wanted it to help him against Edenoi.
Continuing their stare at the powerful object, Dulcea looked up. "Well, Sentinel gave us the task because he felt this team was strong enough. Now, does anyone have any suggestions?"
No one from Rahp's crew budged. The tension from them was thick. They had already been through a lot since they were "recruited" into the Alliance Armada. It was understandable that they were just going through the motions by this point.
Gosei coughed and stood. "I have had this thought... What about the Masters' Palace on the satellite of Earth?"
Kamen laughed. "You mean the original headquarters? Why would that work at all? It is an old building with antiquated defenses."
"I thought that since it was good enough for the Venerated Ones, then why not for us? It wouldn't be the first place anyone would think of, it does have good defenses, and we can always fortify it."
Dulcea nodded at Gosei's statement. "I understand what you are saying. The Venerated Masters picked Earth as their base so long ago because of its connection to the Morphing Grid."
Looking at the troops, she continued. "All we would need to do is increase its defenses a bit more, and I think it would work."
Kamen considered before offering his thoughts. "Edenoi has been working on dimensional pocket technology. I know Zordon had tinkered with it at one point about one hundred years ago. You know... I can always get some of this tech for the defenses. We could create an obstacle course with defenses and dimensions in and around the crystal."
"I remember reading Zordon's report on that tech," Gosei added. "He spoke about using this dimensional technology as a way to give bases more rooms than it actually had, like a soldier would have his own dimension in which he could fight."
Rahp decided to add in his two cents. "I think this idea is good. We travel tothe Masters' Palace on Earth's moon and hide the Zeo Crystal there. We create defenses around it and leave warriors there to make sure things work out."
Dulcea smiled. "I have something else we can add to this: deception." She continued smiling.
Everyone stared at her, waiting to hear what she meant.
"My people," Dulcea said, "Had techniques of guarding things by causing hallucinations. We called it the Art of Deception."
Kamen was shocked to hear Dulcea mention "her people": Dulcea's species was kept as a confidential record in the United Alliance and only a select few knew anything about them.
"If someone is not completely pure of heart, they would succumb to their own delusions. This especially works with large groups of people: even if you have a group of genuinely good people, the little bits of impurity within them will combine to create enough impurity to fuel the Magic, making the delusion a reality. I personally don't know of anyone who would want to hunt the Zeo Crystal on their own, but with a group." She was very pleased with herself. She felt like she had found a foolproof plan to protect the artifact.
"So we call it the Caves of Deception. We create a network of tunnels under the Palace, embed these tunnels with your Magic, Master Dulcea, and reinforce the rooms of the Palace with the pocket dimensions to hold prisoners and lay traps for anyone trying to get past us." Filcar said all of this with confidence, as if he were reciting facts from a book. Filcar was a big picture man, and once he heard a plan that made sense, he was ready to take action.
Kamen nodded with approval. "I will get a hold of my scientists right away."
"I will arrange for our trip to Earth's moon." Gosei said, stepping out of the room.
As everyone filed out after Gosei, Dulcea looked at the crystal.
It has been so long since I have tapped the power of my heritage. I hope I do them proud... Dulcea thought, thinking of the trek that brought her to this point in her life, so long ago...
. . .
Magnus paced in the room they found themselves in. It was a small space station orbiting around Triforia. He, Dimitria, and Ivicar were supposed to travel to Triforia to investigate Tria's disappearance, and secretly to ascertain whether Triforia was harboring the vigilante, the Gold Ranger.
When they approached, they were beckoned to dock at the spaceport. Magnus was very upset.
"We are Morphing Masters! We should not need to have to trifle with these procedures." He lost his patience and slammed his fist into one of the metal walls, leaving a slight dent. "This isridiculous!"
Ivicar smiled and walked over to Magnus. "Patience, dear friend! Patience! We have to all abide by the laws of each planet. If we don't abide by law, then all there is... is chaos! Now, we don't want that now, do we?"
Walking away before Magnus could retort, Ivicar by default made the statement a rhetorical one. Magnus hit the same spot, deepening the dent as his rage deepened as well.
A young Triforian then entered their room with a stern look on his face. "Masters, although we respect you, Triforia has laws it must abide by. You do not have a warrant to search us to the degree you want. We will tell you upfront that we are not harboring Master Tria-"
"She is no longer a master." Magnus cut the man off, glaring at him.
"...we also have no idea about a warrior clad in gold armor. You have our cooperation. If we see or hear of anything, we will let you know. Your shuttle has been prepped by our team and you may leave at your earliest convenience." He rushed through his entire statement quickly and succinctly, not allowing any room for debate.
Ivicar walked back to Magnus and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Magnus! I know we travelled out here to get this done, but remember we must remain calm. Although they may not allow us in now, if we come back later, with the proper paperwork, they may let us in! So, let us head back home and report to Sentinel."
Magnus shrugged off Ivicar's arm. "I am not wasting anymore time! Hey, you! Bug!"
Magnus took his long strides to the young man before he could leave the room, blocking his way. "Listen here... I came here on assignment to get something done. I need you to understand that we are here to ensure safety. We don't have time to wait for paperwork. Now, let us in!"
The man pulled out a blaster and shot Magnus in the gut, charring the armor under his robe. "What!? You will rue the day you messed with me! Defender Helmet!"
Suddenly, Magnus was in his Defender uniform. He pulled out his own blaster.
The impulsive young man had acted without thinking. He had been afraid and thought he needed to defend himself. He had no idea he was starting an intergalactic incident.
"Why don't we all just calm down? Will you all please put away your weapons?" Dimitria implored the people in the room, reverting to her "question mode" due to being nervous.
Suddenly, soldiers could be heard outside the room in the halls, approaching the disturbance. The young man ran out.
"That worm! Ivicar, Dimitria? Let's move out." Armored Magnus screamed as the young Triforian officer sprinted out of the room while Magnus had been distracted.
The Morphing Masters ran out the door and through the hallways. They fought their way when they had to, carefully ensuring no one was destroyed.
Armored Magnus, after having traveled a ways and had not had too many encounters, saw their ship surrounded by soldiers. He put up a hand, signaling the other two to leave things to him.
To the troops, Armored Magnus began a proclamation: "I am Master Magnus. I am a very good fighter. Accompanying me are two other Morphing Masters. Now, we have been nice and spared the lives of those who have attacked us. We did not deal the first strike, but believe me, if you do not move, I will deal the last one. If you let us go now, you will be spared."
One by one, the troops lowered their weapons. The three Morphing Masters made their way to their ship.
"Our systems are ready. Leaving Triforia's gravitational pull." Dimitria informed the crew of two behind her, feeling comfortable again and no longer speaking in questions.
"Well," Magnus said, turning to Ivicar as he pulled off his helmet. "That sure did escalate quickly, didn't it?"
Ivicar nodded. "Yes, I should have foreseen their bureaucratic ways would be an issue. My apologies for not getting a warrant for this occasion."
Magnus smiled as he shined his helmet. "Don't you worry. You shouldn't have needed to do that." He then sighed. "Everytime you mentioned that we were to come back, and that we needed a warrant instead of getting things done right then and there... it just infuriated me, you know? I am the one who needs to apologize. I hope I can mend things with Triforia once we get back home."
Looking out the window into space, Ivicar, in his warm way, replied to Magnus. "I hope so, too, Magnus. Triforia is a strong force within the United Alliance. If we lose them, we may have started a chain reaction that could leave a big hole in both our and Triforia's defenses."
. . .
Master Vile looked out the window of his Skull Ship. He was smiling.
"Now is the time. Soon, everything will fall into place. Are you both ready?" He turned to face the two behind him.
"I always am." The Fake Gold Ranger said, gold energy glowing from the fighter's gloves.
"Soon, the Morphing Masters will be nothing but a memory!" Madame Woe stated, flashing her long nails.
Master Vile looked at them, then back out the window. He looked at the planet on which the Morphing Masters were. "Soon, you will feel my wrath, Morphing Masters! Soon, the Zeo Crystal will be mine!"