Chapter 43—The Mission
Amy
"We have to go where?"
Doc Ol looked at me, his face helpless. "Eltar. The Council wants a first-hand recounting of Gabriel's demise. By all of you."
"I don't do well with space travel," Beth said. "Last time we went to Zordia, I felt like I was gonna hurl the whole time."
"I'm with you on that one," my boyfriend, Jay, agreed.
"We won't be flying," Aaron said suddenly, moving from Patrick's side as the whole concept seemed to click, "we'll be using interplanetary teleportation."
"Wait, what?" Matt wondered. "Is that even possible?"
"It's the fastest way to travel; rangers have been doing it for years," Corey, Aaron's little sister, answered.
"If that's the case, why didn't we just do that in the first place?" Jay demanded, eyeing Corey suspiciously.
"Part of the Temporal Protection Act included limiting the use of IT because it's Eltarian technology that could make for an easy invasion," she responded intelligently, pushing a piece of wavy blond hair behind her ear.
"So wait," Grace said slowly, "you're telling me we're teleporting to Eltar just to tell them what happened with Gabriel?"
"That seems odd to me," I ventured, "I mean…we'd be leaving the planet completely unprotected."
"What do we have to protect, though? I mean, Gabriel's gone, Mes is gone…and SPD hasn't made a peep since the Mecha Squad checked on them yesterday," Matt shrugged.
"I'll be monitoring the entire planet via satellite and the Mecha Squad will be standing by; if anything goes down, you can teleport back in no time," Doc Ol reassured us. "Now please…step under the Digitizer."
"We have to be digitized?" Aaron asked apprehensively.
"No, I've reformatted it to emit a transportation beam that feeds off our newly restored Cyber Network."
"Speaking of the Cyber Network," Grace said, "did you re-encrypt it to repel any more nasty viruses?"
"Of course," he said, chuckling at his daughter's enthusiasm.
We all began to gather around the digitizer, glancing nervously at each other. It had been so long since we'd even thought about digitizing again, let alone teleporting to another planet.
To be honest, I was still trying to process the fact that we had won. I wasn't sure if it was just my natural realism shining through and trumping the optimism my teammates were feeling, or if I was just being paranoid…but it seemed too convenient for both Gabriel and Mesomorph to perish in that blast.
After the startling revelation of Patrick's origin, we had traveled to meet the Zordians to tell them of Gabriel's defeat. I mostly blamed Zeta for the doubt I was feeling about Gabriel's death, because the Seraph seemed less than convinced that his rival was suddenly ousted. Then again, it could have been a pride factor. He was probably upset that it wasn't him who defeated Gabriel in glorious battle.
As the teleportation beam fired up, I unconsciously grabbed Jay's hand. The feeling of security he exuded always helped calm the creeping doubts I had about anything, including those about his former friend, Gabriel.
Beth had taken the whole thing a lot better than I expected, and when the teleporter began to relocate our atoms, I glanced at her face. Just before her eyes disappeared, I saw her blink them, and when they reopened, I saw the sadness in them. It must have been hard for her to hear that Gabriel was really gone, but if she was upset with Aaron's decision to destroy him, she said nothing about it.
When I reopened my eyes, we were in a large, white, metallic dome with glass panels surrounding us. We had successfully made it to Eltar in under a minute. I hardly remembered zooming across space in a ray of jumbled and accelerated particles, but, like a distant dream, I knew it had happened. The glimpses of outer space that loomed in my head were fading from vivid to dull, but they were there nonetheless.
"Wow," Grace sighed, looking around.
Wow was right. We had never been to Eltar. Jay had done some traveling to the Eltarian infirmary during Patrick's pregnancy, but other than that, none of us had ever been.
"This way," Aaron said tersely as he opened the teleportation chamber.
Without moving.
"How did you do that?" I asked him, having felt the hairs on the back of my neck stiffen.
"Psychic pulse. Just about everything on Eltar is done with the mind—even the language is mostly spoken telepathically."
"But I thought you were an Empath…not a telepath?" I asked slowly, following him as he led the way down an equally bright hallway.
"Telepathy is different than a psychic pulse—a psychic pulse is just using my mind to command the door to open. In Eltarian, of course."
"Confusing," I said, "but I get it."
"Dude, you would never be able to do anything on Eltar if you were drunk," Matt noted.
We all stopped to stare at him.
"What? Have you ever tried thinking straight while drunk?"
"Have you ever tried thinking straight while sober?" Grace retorted, laughing at the expression on her boyfriend's face.
We all chimed in, except Beth, who seemed to be keeping to herself. I could tell she was happy for the war to be over…but I could tell she was feeling the consequences far more than we were.
"Prince Aaron," greeted a man at the end of the hallway, his bright purple eyes gazing back at us.
Here was thing with Eltarians.
They were all different.
Some—most—appeared human in their youth. But as they aged, like Zordon had, their teeth sharpened and their ears disappeared. This guy had no ears. And his teeth were like mini daggers in his mouth.
"Master Jarren," Aaron said respectively, bowing his head slightly, "these are the Cyber Rangers. Will you be taking us to the Council?"
"Unfortunately, I've been dubbed as your escort," he said drolly, "but I guess I don't mind too much."
"I'm sure you could use a day off from training Eltarian soldiers; your mind must be exhausted," Aaron laughed.
The rest of us exchanged confused looks, though Patrick seemed to be up to speed.
"Who is this guy?" I wondered quietly to the Green Ranger.
"Elite Master Jarren; he trained the Fury Rangers when they came to Eltar."
"What did Aaron mean by his mind being tired?"
As we began walking towards a door that led to a long glass sky bridge, Patrick answered my question as simply as possible.
"Well, Eltarians have several types of schooling: the first level is P-School, or Psychic School. Every Eltarian child on the planet attends this school at the age of 5 to learn how to deal with the low-level psychic field they are all born with. They learn the basics, like how to operate Psychic Pulse fixtures; like doors, windows, and that sort of thing."
"Wait, so they don't have to like…learn stuff?"
"Well, they do, but they don't begin assimilating knowledge until V-School, "V" standing Vaertos—to know. At age 8, they begin learning to use their developing minds to absorb knowledge from Eltarian Instructors." I could tell from the depth of his answer that Patrick was fascinated by this—after all, it was his major at DePaul, so it was like he was telling me all he'd learned. Not to mention, the joy was apparent on his face as he recounted the information, and I wasn't about to not learn this stuff. It was interesting!
"The instructors use a neural transceiver to send information in harmless psychic pulses to the students in small amounts," he continued. "By the time they're 10, most Eltarians learn all the facts deemed academic."
"Wish they had that on Earth," Matt grumbled. "I mean, that would save so much time. We could start working by the time we were ten!"
"Well," Patrick said, "not exactly. Eltarian brains mature parallel to their surroundings, meaning if they're displaced from Eltar before their psychic powers manifest, a lot of that knowledge can be lost."
"How is that possible?" Grace asked. "If you know something, how do you just suddenly not know it?"
"You forget," Patrick said simply, laughing slightly. "I mean, we do it all the time. Only difference with Eltarians is that they usually have more knowledge to forget than we do."
"I see," she said.
"Do you think I could have psychic training while here?" I asked timidly. "I mean, my power is energy, and Doc Ol said that energy in the human body usually manifests in the mind: resulting in telepathic and telekinetic abilities."
"Dude, definitely," he enthused. "We should go together! Maybe I can learn to use my psychic field to wake Rheas from his coma?"
I tried not to, but I accidentally exchanged looks with Grace, who also seemed slightly worried about the prospect of Patrick merging minds with a guy who had tried to kill us numerous times.
"Yeah," I said, trying to sound as excited as he was.
—43—
Eltar was more beautiful than I had ever imagined. As far as I could see, there were trees with crystal leaves everywhere, and rivers of white water that flowed brilliantly around the transparent skyscrapers that made up the capital city of Eltar—conveniently named "Eltar." The bright blue vegetation was soft and lush, interspersed flawlessly among the buildings, streets, and artificial landmarks; and the air was pure and crisp—unlike Earth's.
"I really don't like how that meeting went," I muttered to Jay, who sat next to me in the fields outside the Eltarian palace.
"Neither do I," he agreed, frowning. "They made Gabriel seem like he wasn't even alive—like his whole existence was just…not meant to be."
"Well," Grace ventured slowly, "he is kind of their version of the devil."
"If he's so bad then, why won't the Eltarian Council even vote for the Declaration of War?" Beth chimed in, folding her arms. "I mean, we need all the help we can get against SPD—there's no way we can fight hundreds of SPD Rangers."
"Look at it from their point of view, though," Aaron argued. "War against Earth isn't just war against SPD—it's against Earth. And when Eltar goes to war, it really goes to war. If they were to agree to help us, they would send the Armed Forces in to decimate Earth, eradicate SPD, and then leave."
We all seemed to sigh unanimously.
"Where's Patrick?" I asked, changing the topic.
"He went to go have a Psychic Session," Aaron said dismally. "I tried to talk him out of it, but he's pretty dead-set on learning how to reconstruct Rheas' psychic field and revive him."
"Does he really think that's a good idea?" Matt wondered.
"Apparently."
"Well," I said, standing, "I'm gonna go find him. I want to work on controlling my own powers."
Jay looked at me worriedly.
"Don't worry," I laughed, "I'm not gonna use them to read your mind. I don't want to."
"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded defensively.
"That I don't need to, genius."
With that, I bent down to kiss him and bid the others farewell.
I tried not to look like too much of a tourist, but the entirety of Eltar was fascinating to me. Doc Ol had warned me before leaving to keep my powers in check as much as possible, because apparently the entire planet had a psychic field around it…and if I were to let my powers slip from my control, I could go ballistic.
As I passed the outer hall of the palace and went through my necessary security checks, I headed to the main reception desk, asked them to locate Patrick, and then followed their instructions to his location.
One of the things I loved the most about the planet was how easy it was to get from Point A to Point B; short-range teleporters were stationed in the most convenient areas, and to input your destination didn't actually require a psychic signature. Thank God.
I opened my eyes as the transporter beam died down, my vision clearing as I noticed the room around me. It was abuzz with light blue lighting that radiated throughout the room, bouncing off the walls as if trapped.
"Hello," said a woman from a desk in the shadows of the light.
"Hi," I said insecurely, not as confident in my Eltarian as the others were, even with Tonyxn's data stream running through my head. "I was wondering if I could enlist in a Psychic Session."
The woman smiled kindly, pointing to a holo-screen that doubled as a sign-in. "Please sign in, and Elite Master Jarren will be with you shortly. He is currently in a session."
"With Patrick?" I wondered as I signed the form.
She nodded knowingly. "Did the other rangers not wish to develop their psychic powers?"
"Oh, I'm the only one with psychic abilities—aside from Aaron that is."
I noticed the frown she briefly displayed at my use of Aaron's name, so I corrected myself.
"I mean, Prince Aaron," I chuckled. "The others don't have Psychic Powers."
She shook her head gently, but said nothing else.
In my head, I was simply muttering "oh…kay" to myself. But I did so quietly. Hopefully she wasn't reading my mind.
I was only in the waiting room for another ten minutes before Patrick came out, a completely different look on his face than before.
"How'd it go?" I wondered.
"Fucking phenomenally," he laughed.
It had been a while since I'd heard him genuinely laugh, and I smiled internally at his change of moods.
"Master Jarren helped me in so many ways," he continued. "Psychic Sessions are like a combination of therapy and ranger training…it's…it's unlike anything I can explain. Just, go try it."
I looked at him skeptically. "Well, that's why I'm here."
He patted my back optimistically as he headed for the front desk where the creepy lady sat, but I was done paying them attention. I was ready to learn the full extent of my powers.
I walked briskly through the double glass doors and down a long corridor made of a strange type of transparent metal. On the other sides of the metal seemed to be a vast void of nothingness, and it was the first time on the planet where I felt an ethereal chill creep up my spine.
I instinctively brought my arms up around my stomach and shivered.
Elite Master Jarren was floating serenely in the middle of the dome-shaped room. It looked as if he were suspended by imaginary puppeteer strings and like someone had forgotten to cut him down.
"Hello, Amy," he greeted me.
"Hi," I said nervously.
—43—
I hugged my over-sized navy-and-maize hoodie to my body and brandished Jay's jersey loudly like a flag that whipped wildly in the cold winds of the University of Michigan's football stadium. As I hollered my support to my boyfriend, who faked right, juked, and ran the pigskin himself—so much for the quarterback looking to throw—I felt the excitement of the stadium peak. I instinctively put my mind on
He leapt past the 40…the 30…the 20…
I increased the volume of my cheering as hundreds of students and Michigan fans went wild with me.
The Rose Bowl was over, Michigan topping Ohio State 49 to 42, thanks to Jay. And everyone was abuzz about it.
"Jay Owens is on top of the world right now, and it's no wonder he blew off the Lions like yesterday's news," a reporter was saying just 10 feet from me.
I fought the urge to smile in pride for Jay's athletic abilities. They were his natural, God-given talents. Sure, he wasn't as smart as Patrick, or maybe even Aaron, but they couldn't do what Jay could. He was big enough to be a receiver, but his arm was like a precision cannon; not to mention, he was faster than anyone I'd ever seen—regardless of his elemental powers.
Jay was a superstar, like Grace, Patrick, and Aaron—everyone knew who he was. I mean, if you followed NCAA or even NFL, you had heard about Jay Owens. So how did a normal girl like me end up with one of the most-talked-about College Football players?
"I swear, that's her—that's Jay Owens' girlfriend."
"You've got to be kidding me? Is she even old enough to be dating? She looks 12."
"I'm not even sure if she's a girl; where are her boobs?"
I tried my best to ignore the obnoxiously loud girls—pretended to be oblivious to the hateful rants they were screaming in their heads—but it was just no use.
Normally I didn't care. Normally, I would tell Jay about it later and we would laugh. Normally, I would focus on what I was doing later—fuck the present.
But that day, I just snapped.
I never used my powers to harm people. Ever. But that day, I had them all under the impression that they were bums that needed to scavenge the stadium trashcans for a pink bunny rabbit that would grant them eternal happiness.
I never told jay.
—43—
So, I was sure Psychic Sessions were going to be something I'd have to get used to; Patrick seemed to love them, but I wasn't as keen on reflecting as he was. My next session, according to Aaron, was to be with Andrea and Nike—his aunts, and members of the Royal Family. Apparently, they had something to teach me. I didn't really see the point in being forced to look back on my memories, especially when they had nothing to do with the present. A football game had nothing to do with the fact that SPD was threatening to invade Eltar.
I didn't really say much to the others after my session, but Jay could tell something was off; I was just glad he didn't pry. By the time we went to sleep, I was exhausted, and I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.
Then, I came to realize the true meaning behind Psychic Sessions. They allowed you to see everything that was wrong with your mind—every little aspect of your life that you absolutely despised or feared—and then pushed you to conquer it. It was like coming to peace with all my inner demons. And I obviously had a lot—I just wasn't aware of it.
In my dreams, I fought bravely against them all. My insecurities, my doubts, my flaws, my fears: everything. And at the end of the road, I felt peace. I felt oneness.
I felt Gabriel?
In an instant, I was overcome with a bombardment of emotions, tumultuous and jumbled and angry, that tore at my inner peace like razor sharp talons. I had to escape him! In my mind's eye, I flew away from him at the speed of the fastest automobiles known to man—but he was faster. And he caught me as he shrieked for help. He bellowed indignantly at me, reminding me that it was me who brought him to the rangers.
I had started his destiny.
I awoke with a start, Jay shaking me frantically.
My head lolled back slightly from the whiplash of his shaking, but I finally caught my breath and opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the worried look upon my boyfriend's face, his hazel eyes burning with concern.
"Are you okay?" he asked for probably the hundredth time.
"It's Gabriel," I managed to choke out.
"I felt it too," he said, "I think you…I think you projected your dreams into my head."
I rubbed my forehead. "N-no, that's impossible. I have always had control of my powers."
No sooner had I spoken did a cry of pain and alarm sweep through the dormitory hallways we were allotted on Eltar.
"What was that?" Jay wondered as he stood at the doorway, looking up and down the hall.
I closed my eyes and focused.
Patrick.
"It's Patrick!" I half-yelled. "C'mon!"
I grabbed Jay's hand as we hurried down the hallway and I felt him pick up speed as his pyro powers kicked in. We were at Patrick and Aaron's door in no time.
Patrick's body was crumpled on the ground, his eyes half-open and a mysterious green aura undulating around him.
"What happened to him?" Grace demanded as she and Matt arrived.
"Is he alive?" Beth asked quietly, entering the room.
"He's alive…he's just in shock. His…his powers have been drained," I answered.
"Where's Aaron? How could this happen in the Eltarian Palace?" Jay began to panic.
I was quiet for a few moments as I focused my powers and sought out Aaron.
"It…it was Aaron," I replied silently.
"What?" Jay snarled.
"It's his Empath powers," I said, "my dream projection must've interfered with his psychic field and caused his powers to go berserk."
"So you're telling me he took Patrick's energy just by empathetically bonding with him?"
"It's possible; Aaron is one of the most powerful Eltarians on the planet, especially with his psychic powers fully manifested. Hunter said the limits to his abilities are unknown, so it's plausible to think his Empath abilities not only allow him to feel people's memories…but to feel everything they feel. Even their powers."
"Great," Matt sighed, "now we have a super-powered Aaron on the loose with Patrick's powers and we have no idea where he is. Not to mention, if we touch him, we'll lose our powers. Am I missing anything?"
"It gets worse," I said as I ended my psychic search for Aaron. "Aaron is mentally battling Gabriel."
"Gabriel?" Matt whispered.
"He's dead," Grace argued.
"Apparently not," I answered.