Volume IV – Nemeses

Chapter 26—Intro to Hebrew 101, Part I: Amazing Grace

Matt

"So once you find cotangent, you can use it to find the tangent by using…"

I rolled my eyes as I listened to Mr. Morris drone on about angles for what seemed like the absolute longest final 15 minutes of class before second period. I stifled a yawn from the lack of sleep I'd been getting, then glanced over my shoulder out the window where the kids in weightlifting class were outside playing flag football. Lucky bastards.

"Matt, can you give me the answer to this problem?"

I felt the heat rush to my cheeks as I was caught off guard. "Well, uh, you, uh…"

"Solve for the tangent of the angle you do have, along with the adjacent side we know," Amy interrupted for me, saving my tail. I shot her a thankful glance and she nodded slightly.

My mind had been everywhere except for on school, but the main thing I found myself tripping up on was Grace. It was no secret to anyone on the team anymore that I was head over heels for her. It didn't freak her out so much after the night I told her I was in love with her. She grew to accept it and see it as more of a blessing than a curse, but she still distanced herself from me greatly. Maybe part of it was because she'd found out Doc Ol was her dad and she'd been spending a lot of time with him. Maybe that was it?

I just couldn't understand what was wrong with me; why she couldn't be with me. I was captain of the swim team, I had a pretty killer body (so I was told), and I thought I had a pretty good personality. So…why not me? What did she see in Aaron before? Okay, well maybe that was a stupid question. Even I had to admit Aaron was physically perfect, as I'd heard Patrick tell me in almost excruciating detail.

Speaking of Patrick; I was infinitely glad to have my best friend back. I didn't know my homophobia could dissipate so quickly, but it was almost hard to believe I'd once had a problem with him dating Aaron. But now that I was okay, the three of us actually hung out quite a bit, and I started to realize that Aaron was actually a pretty good guy; he was great for Patrick and really helped him through his tough times with his mother's death.

But death seemed to be pretty non-permanent lately.

After our run-in with Gabriel at school yesterday, things just got even more complicated. Our mission after school had now become urgent so we could obtain the Super Stones from the Altar of Eltar and power ourselves up before Mesomorph had time to repower Gabriel. Not to mention, with Zeta missing, our anxiety levels spiked upward seamlessly.

I was jarred from my thoughts by the sound of the bell. As if on auto-pilot, I stood from my desk, folding my binder shut and slipping it in my backpack in one fluid motion.

"You okay, dude?" Amy asked me as we made our way out of the classroom.

"Yeah, just a lot on my mind. How are you?"

She smiled largely. "I'm dating Jay."

I stopped in my tracks. "Seriously?"

"Is that bad?"

"No! I mean, that's great! I'm glad you're, you know, all better after you and Patrick split. You always said it'd be impossible for you to move on," I said, pushing the large double doors of the math building open to make our way outside.

"Well, I didn't think it was possible then, but…I dunno. There's something about Jay that a lot of people don't see; he's a lot deeper than we give him credit for."

I rolled my eyes. "Right. So where is this boyfriend of yours?"

"Someone say my name?" Jay asked as he made his way up from behind us. "Hey, Ames," he greeted the short pink ranger, giving her a quick kiss.

I cocked an eyebrow. "That's new."

"Hey, Matt," someone said to my left. I looked over to see Michelle Meyers, my ex-girlfriend and captain of the girls' swim team.

"Oh, hey Michelle, what's up?"

"Not much, I was wondering about your line-up for the men's 400 free relay. You really think it's a good idea to start with Samuels?"

I scoffed. "What's wrong with Samuels?"

"Yeah, Michelle, what's wrong with Samuels?"

I looked to my right now to see Gabriel walking alongside me, Jay and Amy keeping their distance slightly behind him.

"What do you want?" I whispered to him, my voice deathly serious.

He laughed incredulously. "Matt, buddy, what's wrong? You can't be that upset that I went on hiatus, can you? I mean, you act like I just, I dunno…" he lost his smirk as his face and tone went steely, "dropped dead, or something."

"I'll talk to you later, 'kay Michelle?"

She looked like she was about to speak, but I'd already brushed past her and by Gabriel, Jay and Amy following suit.

"What did he say?" Jay asked me when they'd caught up.

"Nothing, he just gives me the creeps," I replied, examining the Goosebumps on my arms.

"We need to hurry up and get to the Altar," Amy said, looking back at Gabriel.

For some reason, I didn't even feel like the Super Stones would help against what he'd become.

—26—

"Alright, remember; once we're down here, we'll lose all communication with Doc Ol, as well as access to the Morphing Grid. My Dyn said once we're on the inside, there will be traps we can disable with proper security codes," Aaron was saying. "Some of them might even be trivia."

"Trivia?" Patrick asked, his green suit still making me somewhat skittish around him.

"Like Ranger questions. Like, I dunno, 'who was the first Blue Ranger of Earth,' or something like that," Aaron responded, his shiny white helmet turning toward his green-clad boyfriend.

"What happens if we get something wrong?"

I turned to Beth, who was now speaking from her red, black, and gold helmet.

Aaron was silent for a moment, looking at each of the rangers who were geared up in their respective suits. "I didn't ask him that."

We looked past him at the entrance to the underground base, now covered by the Elesfite panel that Hunter had teleported in from Eltar once he discovered the Altar was found. Apparently, Elesfite was nearly indestructible. Just in case Mesomorph tried to get in.

Like she was reading my mind, Amy spoke up. "We should hurry and do this before Mesomorph takes the opportunity to attack while we're gone."

We nodded solemnly and watched as Aaron contacted Doc Ol to have the panel removed. After the confirmation, I could hear the hum of energy as panel lifted itself up, magical energy flowing around it like a barrier between it and the real world.

"Be careful, rangers," Doc Ol said before we stepped onto the rock platform Beth had summoned for us.

I felt her lower it into the depths of the Earth, our ranger suits beginning to flicker.

"Once we land, we'll have a good three miles or so to hike," Grace was saying as we submerged farther and farther.

"Matt, I need you to go ahead and scout things out so we'll know how far we've got and whether things have changed since the last time we were here," Aaron continued.

I nodded quietly.

"I-I should go with him," Grace spoke up. The other's looked at her just as she spoke, but I stared ahead, listening intently. "I mean, I know these tunnels better than any of us, so I should probably go with him. Plus, with the lights are out in here, and I can move the darkness so he can see. You guys already have Aaron as your nightlight."

The platform landed with a thud, pushing dust out in a wave.

"I'm not a nightlight," Aaron responded haughtily. "But fine, go."

Patrick snickered at Grace's remark, but my heart was beating a thousand miles a minute. I hadn't been alone with Grace since that night at her mom's house when we first grew apart.

I stepped off the platform lightly, felt my powers dissipate completely, and powered up the elements of wind as I floated off the ground. I saw a flame of dark energy engulf Grace as she flipped into the air and floated with her shadow gliding. Without another word, we both took off into the black abyss of the cave, Grace removing the darkness as we flew.

"We've still got a ways to go," Grace said, finally speaking after roughly fifteen minutes of silence.

I couldn't decide whether or not to respond; whether she was pushing me into starting the conversation we both knew we needed to have. Both of us knew the gap between us had caused tension more concrete than the rocks that surrounded us. I couldn't tell if she was baiting me or not, but I bit regardless.

"So, do you think we'll ever be, you know…friends again?"

She kept her head straight forward, her focus never faltering from the mission. "I don't know what you're talking about, aren't we already friends?"

"No."

She stopped gliding and landed on the ground as she looked at me with a faint sparkle of hurt in her eyes. "Why would you say something like that?"

"You and I both know it's true. We haven't hung out in forever, and I can't even remember the last time you and I were alone together. You just go on acting like nothing happened, like our friendship never mattered," I paused, "like I had never fallen in love with you."

"I did it to protect you," she snapped.

"To protect me? From what? From you?" I landed and made eye contact. "You still don't get it, do you, Grace? People don't choose who they fall in love with, and I didn't choose to fall for you. But whatever 'damage' you think you could possibly do to me has already been dealt times a million from you lately. You think shutting me out and keeping us far apart helps me get over you? It doesn't. It fucking hurts. But you don't seem to care about that. You only seem to care about what it's like for you, because God forbid anyone ever gets close to you. You beat yourself up so much for absolutely nothing, and then you let it make the people around you feel like shit."

I could see the tears in her eyes threatening to fall, but I couldn't stop now. She needed to know.

"You can't stop people from feeling a certain way, and for you to think you can is just fucked up. For you to isolate yourself to do something for that person's 'own good' is wrong; I never asked you to do that because I know better. I know it's stupid to think that removing yourself from the picture would actually help. But I wouldn't expect you to understand how that goes; you never gave me a chance."

With that, I let the wind sweep up from under me as I hovered over the ground and flew forward, feeling the darkness surround me as Grace stayed behind.

—26—

I think I saw the shadows move before I saw her as each bit of darkness poured into her body.

"Matt, wait," she commanded.

I stopped short and let myself fall slowly to the ground.

"You were right…about everything. And I'm sorry. But I just…after what's happened, I'm really not ready for a relationship. I can't do that to you; it's not fair."

I listened, but I could already feel my refutation tugging at my lips.

"But before you say anything, I do want my best friend back."

Now I was dumbstruck, almost speechless. I was ready for a justification of her actions; for something to shirk the blame. But it never came. All that came was a warm, tight embrace.

"I love you, Matt; you're the only one I can count on in this world."

"Anytime," I responded, the words coming like first nature to me.

She rubbed my back, inhaled loudly, and then turned to speak to me. "Shall we get going, then?"

I nodded, a faint grin forming on my mouth.

Despite the fact that nothing more was said on our voyage to the Altar, the tension between Grace and I had all but dissolved. Through the words that were spoken, our friendship and calmness had returned instantly, like some blanket of reassurance.

"So this is the Altar?" I asked, standing before a huge slab of metallic alloy with seven small slot-like openings.

"Guess so," Grace responded, running a hand over the cover. "Let's hope it does what Aaron says, otherwise we're screwed."

"Well, just because Gabriel's back doesn't necessarily mean we can't take him. We've got Patrick, now."

"Patrick's only half as strong as he was when he was evil, though," she pointed out lightly. "Besides, with Zeta still on the loose and Gabriel regaining his powers, we're going to need a lot more than power suits and Zords."

"Aren't Eltarians supposed to have like, super powers or something where they turn all glowly and stuff?" I griped. "Why doesn't Aaron just do that?"

Grace looked at me a little awkwardly before shaking her head and laughing. "So you do actually pay attention in class."

"Of course! I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks," I laughed back.

"It would be a lifesaver if Aaron could pull some miracles out of his royal ass…God knows we need some."

"Sorry, no miracles today," Aaron said from behind us, his body emanating a large aura of light.

Grace blushed, but stepped back away from the door. "How do we open this thing?"

Patrick snickered at the change of subject, but Aaron chimed in. "It needs our morphers. Hopefully they can put out enough energy to open it."

Silently, we all removed our morphers, only to have a digital projection emit from the door.

"Code Required: Please enter the date of birth of the Heir of Eltar."

Everyone looked to Patrick and Aaron.

"July 16th, right?" Patrick asked his boyfriend.

"Yeah," he said slowly, thinking, "but I think it wants it in Eltarian."

He stepped forward and raised his hand in front of the projection, a touchable keyboard hologram appearing in front of his hand. Sure enough, the keyboard was Eltarian.

"Approved. Please standby, power source scanning."

We all stood, waiting in pure suspense as the computer whizzed and whirred, red dots blinking in sequence as it scanned.

"Power source insufficient," it reported, ejecting our morphers like a temperamental CD player.

"Are you freakin' kidding me?" Jay cried, throwing his hands up. "We came all this way, go through all this shit to get a seventh ranger, and now the power source is 'insufficient?'"

Patrick turned slowly to Jay. "Don't forget that I'm still 40 percent more powerful than you, asshole."

Amy stepped between the two. "Can we not get into this now? We have more important issues to worry about."

"Like us."

We spun around, Aaron casting light upon the intruders.

They were all cloaked in some kind of grubby black clothing, each one with linings of alternating color. They were all a different height and stature, but from the anger in their voices and stances, it was obvious they weren't there to talk.

"Who are you?" Aaron asked, his voice echoing off the walls.

"The last people you'll ever meet," one of them explained quietly.

They rushed at us with absolute silence. Aaron barely had time to tell us to abort the mission before he was fighting one of the cloaked fighters.

I quickly dodged a swipe from my opponent, his attacks fast and fluid—almost unpredictable. He kicked high, like the arc of a crescent, then slammed down with his heel and struck my shoulder. I went down loudly, a sharp pain shooting from where he had hit me.

"Aaron, I can't see, dude!" I shouted to our leader.

"Regroup! On the surface!" he managed to shout out between heavy breaths. I looked over to see his radiating body block a punch from his attacker.

Grace, I could see, was manipulating the darkness around her into all sorts of weapons to help, but her pursuer managed to bring up solid blocks of water to negate her attacks altogether.

"You can't beat us when we already know your tricks," he said menacingly.

I flipped over my fighter and shot a ball of condensed air at Grace's attacker.

"Bull's eye!" I cheered as I landed.

I was suddenly hit hard in the ribs by what felt like sheer cold. A blue glow dying down in radiance as I looked at my side, frost visible on my t-shirt. My attacker stood over me.

"Bull's eye."

He was quickly knocked aside by a burst of shadow energy from grace, and I saw green lightning flying wildly from behind her. Patrick was no doubt combating two at once, trying to lighten the burden on us and probably trying to prove himself or make up for past sins. Either way, I didn't care what his motive was; as long as it helped!

"We've got to get up to the surface!" Amy shouted above the chaos, projecting a force field around her and Beth while the red ranger brought up pillars of rock.

"We can't hold this much longer, let's fall back!" Beth was now yelling.

An explosion of light emanated from where Aaron was standing, forcing the attackers away with immense energy and a blinding shockwave.

"Time to put this warp theory to the test," Grace said as we all regrouped around Aaron and inside of Amy's force field.

Grace grabbed hands with Amy, who then grabbed with Aaron. The three of them began to sync their energy until we were engulfed by it. As our molecules began to accelerate and disperse the matter around us, we were sucked through the ceiling of the tunnels, through the ground, through the earth, and finally, back to the surface.

"Dad, re-engage the morphing sequence; we've resurfaced without the Super Stones and with a few unexpected guests," Grace reported, sagging noticeably from the loss of energy.

"I'll begin scanning for a signature," Doc Ol responded through our communicators.

"Ready to suit up?" Aaron asked everyone.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Patrick answered.

"Ready?"

"READY!"

"CYBER DIGITIZE—ENERGIZE!"

I felt the familiar gusts of wind sweep me off my feet, torrents of blue tempests swirling around me and coating my body in the blue Elesferi. I felt my hands become gloved, gauntleted, and firm; I felt my boots materialize and the data begin to stream through the entire suit as my element and the Kappa coding became one. My sigil of the Cyber Squad appeared on my chest and my helmet began to click into place as the winds picked up speed. Finally, the pristine white visor snapped shut under the beak-design on my helmet, and I cried out:

"Kappa Blue: Hurricane Cyber Ranger!"

"Upsilon Yellow: Pyro Cyber Ranger!" I heard Jay scream after me.

"Alpha Red: Stone Cyber Ranger!"

"Delta White: Light Cyber Ranger!"

"Zeta Green: Storm Cyber Ranger!"

I heard Beth, Aaron, and Patrick, respectively, call out their designations. I knew that Grace and Amy had already announced themselves as "Psi Black: Shadow Cyber Ranger" and "Sigma Pink: Force Cyber Ranger" before I had finished my morph. But I think the exhilaration I felt had blocked them out.

Our opponents were already standing before us, their cloaks blowing wildly. Still, we couldn't see their faces, masked by shadow and anger.

"Let's do this," the leader with white trimming said solemnly, his voice now sounding a little more familiar.

"MECHA MODIFY—MOBILIZE!" they chorused, a burst of energy temporarily blinding us and our scanners.