Olympus Ascends

Impus's cocoon began firing at the city, causing damage and attacking civilians and nearly hitting the Rescue Rover. Alia's shield kept them protected until they got out of the Rover and prepared to attack.

The Rangers morphed and fired upon the cocoon, only to have it bounce off and cause an even bigger explosion. Suddenly, there was a huge hole in the ground with fire in it and then a new demon emerged.

Impus had grown up into a tall red demon with a sword; and he was now Olympus; Prince of the Demons.

"Is it really that little runt, Impus?" asked Loki.

"I am Olympus, son of Queen Bansheera," he said. "Bow down before me now or you will feel my power!"

"We'll never bow to you!" snarled Alia.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my o—"

He was cut off when Alia blasted him with electricity, sending him to the ground before he rose up again.

"Call me that again and I'll make you wish you'd never been born," she growled.

Suddenly, Carter launched himself at Olympus, only to have the demon disappear and then reappear, crushing him with his foot.

"Hey, get away from him!" said Ryan.

The other Rangers fired the V-Lancers while Ryan fired his Titanium Laser, which only bounced off Olympus before he counterattacked with fire. Ryan was able to dodge it and then Carter tried to blast Olympus with his Thermo Blaster.

Olympus just grabbed the weapon. "I don't think so!" He flung Carter away and then fired on him with his own weapon.

"This guy's tough, but we're not done yet, yah!"

"Carter, no!" shouted Ryan.

But Carter didn't hear Ryan's yell as he launched himself at Olympus, only to be beaten again, flung into some metal containers and wooden crates and then blasted by Olympus's eye beams. Ryan and Alia ran to help him.

"Carter!" yelled Dana.

But before she could react, she, Chad, Kelsey and Joel were captured by Olympus and held prisoner in his Star Gem. He tried to grab Carter, Ryan and Alia, but as his body was unused to the amount of power he was holding, he was forced to retreat back to the Skull Cavern.

Carter leaned against a crate, injured and exhausted. "The others, they're gone," he said. "We have to get them back. We have to help—"

He tried to stand up, only to be pushed back down by Ryan.

"You have to rest or you're only going to injure yourself further and then be of no help to anyone," said Ryan, sternly.

"We'll get the others back, I promise," said Alia. "Right now, hold still so I can heal you and then we'll head back to base and figure this out."

Carter knew it'd be useless to argue with them, so he just nodded and obeyed them. After being healed, they headed back to the Aquabase.

XXX

At the Skull Cavern, Olympus was adjusting to his powers. He was still quite tired, but he was recovering.

"Well done, sire, you managed to capture four of the Rangers," said Jinxer. "Your mother will be so proud!"

"Ah, my mother," said Olympus. "Soon the planets will be in perfect alignment and the prophecy regarding the hybrid girlwill be fulfilled."

"Yes, and we'll be able to give your mother's spirit a bodily form!" said Jinxer.

"Welcome, Prince Olympus," said Vypra, as she and Loki entered the room. "Your powers are impressive for a demon so young."

"Yeah, not bad for a kid," said Loki. "Now, let's destroy the Rangers in the gem around your neck!"

"Not so fast, Loki," said Olympus. "I have use for them first. They will allow me to infiltrate the Aquabase."

"Oh, great idea, genius!" said Loki, sarcastically. "Except the Aquabase is under water and did you ever see a full-blooded demon go into water? Of course not! We lose our power, unless we're like the hybrid girl!"

"Loki!" said Jinxer, warningly.

"You underestimate me," said Olympus. He gave an evil laugh as his gem glowed and he turned into Joel, Dana, Kelsey and then Chad.

"Prince Olympus, your powers are remarkable!" said Jinxer.

XXX

Back the Aquabase, everyone was searching for any sign of Olympus or the four missing Rangers.

Alia and Ryan were supposed to be giving any information they had on the demon prince, but Ryan couldn't focus as he could feel Alia's fear and worry over Queen Bansheera's return.

He tried talking to her telepathically to reassure her or calm her down and he was failing miserably.

Alia, everything is going to be alright, he said.

I fail to see how. I know what the prophecy said, but I never believed it might come true! How the blazes can she be back? She was supposed to have been destroyed! said Alia. She can't be back! How is this possible?

I don't know, but we'll stop her, somehow, someway.

Suggest a way then, she demanded. Bearing in mind that we've barely managed to keep ourselves alive fighting off her goons! Now that Impus has become Olympus with Diabolico's Star Power and if Queen Bansheera manages to destroy or capture me…you know what she'll do in order to return to her bodily form.

Ryan gripped his wife's shoulders tightly. I won't let that happen. I'm not going to let her take you.

You may not have a choice, she said, sharply. We may be powerful, but are we really a match for Queen Bansheera? You've said it yourself, she's worse than ten Diabolicos! My father died trying to keep her away from me! And you know as well as I what the prophecy—

Lia, stop it! he interrupted. Just stop it. Don't talk like this. We'll get through this, I promise you that. The prophecy doesn't control your destiny—you do. The Queen has destroyed so much of our lives; I won't let her destroy us further. I won't!

"Ryan, Alia," said Captain Mitchell, startling them. "Is there anything you can tell us about Queen Bansheera or her son?"

"Plenty," said Ryan. "Queen Bansheera is the ruler of the demons. Her palace used to be where Mariner Bay now stands. Her level of power and dangerousness is far beyond anything we've faced before. She was destroyed when the demons were entombed all that time ago. But apparently her spirit form survived. From everything we've read, a demon in their spirit form can't do much, but if they return to their bodily form, there's no telling what they can do."

"Impus—Olympus is Queen Bansheera's first and only son. He was born a year after I was. I grew up quicker than he did. Only being a half-blood does that. He was barely more than an infant for years. I'll admit, during the years I was with the demons, I raised Olympus as his mother-figure while the Queen was destroyed," said Alia. "Or at least, that's what we thought had happened."

"Wait, you raised the Queen's son?" said Carter. "What's he like?"

"As an infant, his mind was open to all forms of knowledge and he was quite harmless. He was never taught magic, but he knows plenty about using demonic powers. The dangerous thing is that the Star Power was given to Diabolico by the Queen and Impus was next in line for them. They would give him Diabolico's power and thus turn him from the infant known as Impus to the Demon Prince Olympus. He's young, but with Vypra, Loki and Jinxer around and if he learns how to use his Star Power, there's no telling what level of danger he poses to the city," said Alia.

"That isn't good," said Captain Mitchell.

"Could he enter the Aquabase?" asked Carter.

Alia shook her head. "It's a possibility, but an unlikely one. Full-blooded demons can't touch water without the risk of being weakened or destroyed. My being half-witch counteracts my demonic weakness. But there is a bit of good news. Ever since the cobra incident, I put wards up. The wards I placed around the entrance will prevent any demon from entering without an invitation by the Captain, the Rangers or me. Otherwise, they just get zapped or burned, even if they know where and how to get in."

"That's one for our side," said Ryan.

"Sir, we picked up a signal," said a staff member. "It's Chad."

"I'm on it," said Carter.

XXX

Carter headed down to where Chad's signal was and found "Chad," unaware it was Olympus in disguise.

"Chad, where are you?" yelled Carter.

Olympus placed some dust on himself and then staggered into view, pretending to be injured as Carter ran over to him.

"Chad, you okay?" asked Carter. "What happened?"

"I don't know," said Olympus. "Everything happened so fast…that monster… Olympus…"

"I know. What about the others?"

"Aren't they with you?"

Carter shook his head. "No." He helped Olympus to stand.

"We better get back to the Aquabase," said Olympus.

Carter nodded as they got into the Rescue Rover and drove to the secret entrance. "Come on in, Chad."

Olympus smiled to himself. Not noticing that he passed through the protective wards or realizing he had to be invited in. As far as he was concerned, everything was working out according to plan.

"Why don't you get cleaned up and meet me in Rescue Ops?" suggested Carter. "We'll keep scanning for the others."

Olympus nodded and got out of the car.

"Chad!"

He bit back a growl and faced Carter. "Yes?"

"Our quarters are that way."

Olympus laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I knew that. Guess that monster hit me harder than I thought."

Carter gave a slight chuckle.

Olympus snuck down into the hall, and after making sure he was alone, made contact with the others.

"Vypra, I've infiltrated the Aquabase," said Olympus. "Bring your army to the secret entrance."

"Excellent, Prince Olympus," said Vypra. "How about some extra muscle, Jinxer?"

"Way ahead of you," said Jinxer. "Allow me to introduce, Thunderclaw."

Olympus lingered in the hall a little why longer. He was listening in to the conversation between Captain Mitchell, Ryan and Alia.

"Chad was near where the cocoon landed," said Carter.

"Fine. Alia, has scrying turned up anything?" asked Captain Mitchell.

"No," said Alia. "My magic must be off, because the spell keeps saying all of them are here and so far, I've only seen and heard of Chad being returned to the base."

"Maybe we should send out a search party," said Ryan.

"Sounds like a plan," said Captain Mitchell. "Send two groups to the south and two groups to the west."

A search party? No! I've got to keep the entry clear. Thinking fast, Olympus turned into Kelsey and ran after them.

"Hey!" he said.

"Kels!" said Ryan.

"You made it back," said Carter, sounding relieved.

"Dana and Joel too!" he lied. "Safe and sound!"

"Well, that's a relief," said Alia, slowly.

"So, I guess you can call off the search party," said Olympus.

"Absolutely, now we can concentrate on finding Olympus," said Captain Mitchell, as he headed to the control room.

"Hey, Kels, how'd you know about the search party?" asked Carter.

"Oh, I just assumed you'd send one out to find us, right?"

"Yeah," said Carter, sounding uncertainly. "Right."

"Got to go," said Olympus.

XXX

Alia and Ryan continued their work, searching for Olympus until Ryan noticed something was bothering Alia. "Hey, Lia, what's wrong?"

"I don't know, something just seems off," said Alia. "Have you noticed anything strange about Chad and Kelsey since they got back?"

"Now that you mention it, yeah," said Ryan. "It's a bit weird we haven't seen any of the others together, just separately. And both of them were as pale as ghosts."

"Not only that, but when we were talking to Kelsey, I could've sworn that I felt Olympus was there instead of her," said Alia. "You know why I can tell that."

Ryan felt concerned. "We'd better check the wards."

They went down to the entrance where Alia had placed on special wards that prevented demons from entering without an invitation. She raised her hand over them and they appeared, glowing gold.

"They haven't been breeched," said Ryan. "Otherwise, they'd be red or we'd hear a siren."

"But why did I sense Olympus here if the wards weren't breeched?" asked Alia. "He couldn't have gotten in, not without setting off the alarms or getting attacked."

"He couldn't have, not unless…" a horrible thought came to Ryan's mind. "Unless the reason we've only seen the others separately and not together is because they were never here in the first place."

Alia's eyes widened as they raced back to their quarter and then she performed another scrying spell. This time, she scryed for Olympus and the crystal landed right where the Aquabase was on the map.

"He's here," said Ryan, horrified. "Carter must've invited him in!"

Just then, the monitor in their room came on and they could see Vypra, her Batlings and Thunderclaw trying to get in as the entrance and failing as they keep getting zapped with electricity or burned with fire because they hadn't been invited in.

"Oh, crap." said Alia. "Come on."

They radioed Carter and then stormed down to the lab where the controls for the secret entrance were. Ms. Fairweather just been flung to the ground by "Joel" after ripping out the Pass Key Card from the controls.

"Joel, is something wrong?" asked Ryan, as he picked up the Card.

"Hey, Ryan, Alia, Carter, buddies," said Olympus. "How's it going?"

"Oh, just fine, Joel," said Carter, glaring at him.

"There's just one little problem we need you to fix," said Alia. She raised her hand. "Aquamenti!"

A dose of water hit "Joel" and shot sparks of electricity through him, causing him to fall back and forcing him to change from Joel to Olympus.

"How did you know?" hissed Olympus.

"Did you forget who raised you for seventeen years, Impus?" growled Alia. "I've touched your mind. I know all there is to know about you and I can always sense when you're near!" She launched herself at him, flinging them both into the water where sparks of electricity went off.

"Lia!" shouted Ryan. He turned to Carter. "We have to go after them!"

"I know, come on!" said Carter.

XXX

Carter and Ryan drove as fast as they could to the beach where Alia and Olympus lay, exhausted and weak from having an underwater battle.

Alia rolled onto her back and coughed up water as Olympus's Star Gem glowed and then the other four Rangers came free of it.

"Guys!" yelled Carter.

"Lia!" said Ryan, as he helped her stand.

"Is everyone alright?" asked Carter.

"We're fine," said Dana.

Olympus staggered to his feet as Vypra, Loki, Jinxer and some Batlings appeared. Jinxer ran to Olympus's side and took him away to the Skull Cavern to regain his strength as Thundeclaw began to attack them.

They quickly destroyed Thunderclaw with the V-Lancers and then when he was enlarged, destroyed him with the Max Solarzord.

When they headed back to the Aquabase, Ryan, Alia and the other Rangers decided to teach Carter a little lesson.

While he was fixing his bike, they approached him.

"Hey guys," said Carter. "What's going on?"

"Carter, there's something we need to talk about," said Chad.

Carter stood up. "Yeah? What about?"

"What's with you letting Olympus right into the Aquabase?" demanded Joel.

"Inviting him and letting him get past the wards? Come on!" said Alia.

"What? Well, I didn't mean to…" said Carter.

"I can't believe you'd do something so dumb," said Dana.

Carter began backing up as they started approaching him. "W-wait a minute," he said. "It wasn't like I just let him in, he looked just like you!"

"Are you saying you couldn't tell me from a big, ugly demon?" demanded Kelsey.

"Yeah—I mean, no!" said Carter, bumping his head on the archway, not noticing he was stepping backwards into the pool. "Wait, it's just that—yeah, I—I mean no—it's not that…"

He then fell backwards into the pool as everyone laughed and Carter smirked, saying, "Funny, very funny guys."

"I think he's learned his lesson," said Ryan, laughing. "Next time he'll be a little more careful about who invites in to the Aquabase."

Carter laughed and then splashed them