Episode 5: Part 1
Nick Adler sat in his dorm room humming a tune as he held a small watering can over a potted plant. In his other hand, he gripped his Keyrune. All about the dorm room were several large pots filled with colorful flowers and other germinating plants.
"Hey there buddy, you must be really thirsty today," the Green Ranger smiled at the plant, "I know it's getting cold outside but I'll do my best to keep you all warm."
Try as he might, Nick couldn't help but speak gently and lovingly to the plants in the room. Having grown up on a farm, he had always talked to the crops while working in the field. It made him feel more connected with the earth and the life that constantly surrounded him, whether it was inquiring about a sick cornstalk's condition, praising the quick growth of the flowers in the garden, or even apologizing to the weeds for pulling them. It was no surprise he'd become an Agriculture major when he went to school.
Giving the Keyrune a wave, he channeled a little natural energy and all the plants shifted slightly and perked up, a positive response. Looking about the room, Nick sighed contentedly. While it was nice to be surrounded by greenery again, he still worried. The sight of so many flowers was sure to betray his love of floral gardening. While Nick always liked to play the role of the big tough football player in high school, he was always a bit sensitive and secretive about his other hobby for fear that other students might laugh at him, or call him effeminate.
His thoughts were interrupted as the door entered and his roommate Joe walked in. Nick held his breath as the Red Ranger stopped and looked around in shock.
"Uh Nick… what's going on here? This place looks like the botanical gardens."
Nick gave a nervous laugh, "Oh, hey Joe. Uh, you remember I'm taking that Botany course next semester. I kinda wanted to get a head start on growing some samples."
"Ok. That's great man, but why here?" Joe sighed moving a pot from a nearby shelf to make room for his own book bag.
Nick grimaced and did feel a little bad for crowding up the room without telling his roommate. He knew his friend was a bit of a neat freak and liked to keep his half of the room particularly orderly.
"I'm sorry Joe," Nick answered, "But I promise it will only be for a week. They're making space in the campus greenhouse so that I can transfer the plants until then."
Joe shrugged and lay down on his bed admiring another pot of red flowers nearby, "Well, I guess that's all right then. Though, it'll make it hard for everyone else to hang out here in the mean time."
"No!" Nick insisted "You can't let anyone else into the room until then! Or tell them!"
The Red Ranger frowned in confusion, "What? That you like caring for plants? So what?"
"So, if anyone else found out I like doing something as unmanly as flower gardening, I'll never hear the end of it." Nick exclaimed in worry.
"Come on Nick! You're being ridiculous now," Joe laughed rising from his bed, "No one's going to care. I don't, and I'm sure the others won't either."
The Green Ranger halted Joe and put his hands firmly on the Red Ranger's shoulders, "Please! I'm begging you as a friend. Just don't say anything about it to the others, ok?"
"Oh… all right," Joe relented, "But you're still being an idiot."
Just then, a knock at the door was heard and Danny's voice called out,
"Hey! Can we come in? The girls and I are going to grab dinner downstairs. Are you two coming?
"Just let me handle this," Nick said to his roommate as he stepped out of the door and blocked the other three Rangers' view inside. "Hey guys, just give us a minute. We'll be right down with you."
Danny scratched his head, "Is everything ok? You guys usually leave the door open for us all the time."
"Oh," Nick muttered, "Umm, well, you see... Joe and I were having a talk… about something personal."
"Is everything all right?" Izzy asked in concern "Hopefully it's nothing serious,"
"Oh no," Nick said waving it off, "He's uh… suffering from a little problem. Yeah… it's kind of embarrassing and something he thought only a fellow guy would understand."
"I see," Danny replied curiously as Nick gestured below his belt line and the two girls exchanged a puzzled look.
From inside the dorm room, Joe growled and clenched a fist at the outrageous story Nick was making up. It seemed like he had no choice but to play long now. With that, the Red Ranger exited the room and met the surprised looks of his fellow Rangers.
"Hey everyone, are you ready to eat?" he asked in a neutral tone.
"Uh, yeah. Sounds good," the other three chorused giving him an odd look before heading downstairs.
Nick gave an apologetic grin as the Red Ranger turned to him in mild annoyance while they trailed behind, "Oh, you're going to owe me big time for this one."
I can't believe it!" General Abaddon exclaimed as his mocking laughter echoed in the throne of the Dark Prison Spire, "The great and cunning Shemhazai foiled by the same group of human children."
The female Cambion Shemhazai glanced idly to the demon general and regarded him patiently from her seat at the foot of the throne. "Yes General, my servant was unsuccessful. But then again, failure is an experience you are more than familiar with."
Abaddon whirled around on her and reached for the hilt of his weapon in rage, "Silence you witch! We'll see just how smug and superior you are when I cut your forked tongue off."
"Enough!" came the powerful voice of Gideon as he sat upon his throne. "I tire of your constant bickering. Unless you have another plan to seize Hyperion Falls, you waste your energy fighting amongst each other."
The two demon generals bowed their heads in submission before Shemhazai spoke again, "Forgive me Lord Gideon. I wish to be given another chance. I have another servant from my legion who is ready to serve you. The earth demon Enten has power to make the ground and the knees of the mortals tremble in terror."
"What guarantee do you have that it won't end up like the others?" Abadddon questioned.
Shemhazai turned to the Cambion warlord and smiled, "You just worry about mobilizing your own troops. I will see to the rest."
A cold November wind blew as Dr. Feldman set down her shovel and reached into the hardened dirt of the farm fields. Giving a sigh, she picked up another soil sample from the ground and examined it curiously. The Botany professor from Hyperion University shook the soil in the plastic container, wondering if maybe some parts of the ground had already begun to freeze over. Winter was fast approaching and he had already had some difficulty digging up some last minute samples for the year. Back at the university, she would have a nice hot cup of coffee to warm her up, but all that was still a good fifteen miles away.
Hearing a slight rattling in the container, the young red-headed scholar put on her gloves and reached inside to fish out the object from the soil. To her surprise, she found a large black seed about the side of a walnut. It had a hard jagged shell and she gasped as it slightly opened revealing a red demon eye.
Crying out in terror, Dr. Feldman dropped the seed and watched as it opened further and dark writhing tendrils sprouted and dug into the ground. In the blink of an eye, the demon seed buried itself again into the soil. The startled professor breathed heavily and took a few steps forward to observe where the creature had planted itself. As she did, she stopped as the ground around her began to tremble violently and crack.
The next moment, a large serpent made out of soil and rocks burst from the ground and reared its frightening head at the scientist. Its head appeared to be like that of a dragon serpent but at its center was the black seed and red demon eye, giving the appearance of a cyclopean beast. As the demon Enten gave a roar, the ground split further and Dr. Feldman turned to flee in terror toward her jeep. As she jumped in the vehicle and started the engine, she saw the large monster plunge its head back into the ground and quickly begin burrowing its way toward the city of Hyperion Falls at great speed.
Grabbing her phone, she took off toward the city and followed the creature, hoping she would be able to reach someone at the University and spread a warning.
Meanwhile, back on campus, Joe sat in the main lounge of the dormitory intently studying for Professor Bishop's next History exam. Seeing as how Nick had all but commandeered the room with his plants, the Red Ranger decided to get his studying done in another comfortable spot. Unbeknownst to him, Danny, Claire, and Izzy returned from their morning classes and entered the lounge from the opposite doors, spying him on the couch with his nose buried in a History book.
Giving a mischievous grin, Izzy nudged the other two Rangers, "Let's have a little fun. Watch this."
Quietly walking over, Izzy gently plucked the book from the Red Ranger's hands and plopped right down on his lap.
"Uh, Iz? What are you doing?" Joe gulped in surprise as she slung her arms around his neck and cuddled up close to him on the couch.
The other two Rangers approached with amused smirks as Izzy gave him a suggestive wink, "Oh nothing. I'm just trying to be here for my friend. It's just that I heard from Nick you might be a little frustrated and having some guy problems recently. Just let me know if there's anything I could do to help, if you know what I mean..."
Despite his red face, Joe gave a flustered huff and tried to gently push her off of him, "Will you knock it off? I don't have any... sexual problems."
"Well, then the only other explanation must be jock itch." Danny commented with his arms crossed sagely. "Trust me, for an athletic guy like you, it's nothing to be ashamed of."
"What?" Joe gasped in outrage. At this point, he was almost wishing he called Izzy's bluff.
Flopping down on the couch next to him, Claire pulled out a book and gave a pat on the shoulder, "Danny's right. And remember, I'm a pre-pharmacy student so I can even help you figure out the right ointments to use."
This was getting out of hand. Joe wasn't sure if his friends seriously believed Nick or if they were just messing with him now. Fortunately, he didn't have to wonder long as his phone went off.
"Hey, slow down there chico," Izzy laughed playfully as Joe pulled out his phone from his pocket and finally pushed her off his lap. The others became quiet as the Red Ranger answered the phone and his face darkened, "Got it. Hang in there. We'll be there soon."
Turning to the other Rangers, Joe said, "That was Nick and we've got trouble. There's a Cambion headed toward the city, so let's try to cut it off."
With a quick silent nod, the others jumped off the couch and headed toward the door wondering what new threat was headed their way this time.
At the other end of campus, Nick perched atop a tall pine tree watching the road. He had already morphed and while the Green Ranger was protected from the wintery chill by his suit, he could feel the cold air swirling around him. Glancing to his left, he saw the university's large greenhouse where many students and professors from the agriculture program kept their samples and projects. Even if he was alone right now, Nick made himself a silent promise to protect those plants.
Looking back up, he saw a large mound of earth rising from the main road in the distance. All he knew from Professor Bishop was that he received a call from his colleague Dr. Feldman about some burrowing monster. It was now up to the Rangers to try and halt the demon before it could take the main road into the city limits several miles away.
To his surprise, Nick saw the mound of earth rapidly approach, as if it were some underground mole with a rocket pack on its back. Drawing his Keyrune, Nick leapt from the tree and made a sweeping gesture with the artifact, calling a thick wall of earth and stone to erupt from the ground and block the path of the intruder.
In a moment, the creature slammed into the wall and erupted from the earth, writhing in confusion and fury. The Green Ranger gasped as he witnessed a large serpentine dragon made of earth and stone turn on him and give an angry roar.
"Hey ugly, you're not the only one who can make the earth shake!" Nick shouted back as he called his warhammer and tried to suppress his fear.
As the earth dragon surged toward him, Nick brought his hammer around and smashed the monster's head aside, but he was still overwhelmed by the force of its charge and the creature's tail whipped around, sending the Ranger flying back toward the greenhouse and into a clump of small trees.
With another roar, the demon charged again as Nick struggled to rise to his feet and shake off the dazing blow he had taken. Just before the monster could dive on him, it reared back suddenly as if avoiding the clump of trees as well as the other plants around the greenhouse. From its place in the softer soil, the dragon reared back and spat a barrage of large rocks from its mouth.
Nick tumbled away as the small boulders smashed into the small line of trees and devastated the greenhouse too. Turning in horror to the ruined greenhouse, Nick glanced back and saw the demon slowly advance on him again. As it fixed its black and red cyclopean eye on him, a volley of golden blaster fire erupted from above and momentarily threw the serpent back.
Nick sighed in relief as the other 4 Vanguard Rangers swooped in to help confront the monster.
"You look like you could use a hand there big guy," the Red Ranger said helping Nick to his feet. "Are you ok?"
"That bastard smashed the greenhouse!" Nick growled angrily, "I'm gonna smash him now!"
Before he could speak again, the earth demon surged at Izzy but the Pink Ranger took flight with her wings, leaping to safety while Danny pointed his Keyrune and called forth a powerful jet of water.
To the Rangers' surprise, the water struck the serpent and split its head off, turning it to mud. But as the head fell to the earth, it burrowed deep and reemerged with a full body again.
"No fair. Water always seems to beat earth in the video games," Danny muttered as he made a winged leap to get clear of the raging monster.
"This isn't good," Claire called nervously, "We're not even scratching that thing."
Pulling his own Keyrune, Joe turned to Nick, "We can't beat that thing while it's in the earth. Think you can do something about that?"
Nick readied his hammer, "Back me up. If we're going to fight that thing on its own turf, let's make his turf unfriendly to him."
The Red Ranger nodded as Nick smashed the ground with his hammer creating a large string of cracks around the monster's path. As he did that, Joe aimed his Keyrune downward and called burst of volcanic fire to erupt from the fissures created by the Green Ranger.
The demonic earth serpent roared as its way was blocked and its body was scorched on several sides by the hot steam and fire. With another angry noise, the demon dove back into the ground and quickly retreated back the way it came as the temporary fires died down again.
Lowering their weapons and Keyrunes, the five Rangers turned to each other in worry. Even though they had checked the demon's advance, it wasn't really a victory and felt more like a temporary stalemate.
"That is one tough Cambion," Danny remarked eying the torn up earth and destroyed main road around him. "We barely touched that thing."
"Every monster has a weak spot Danny," Claire answered trying to sound optimistic, "We just have to figure it out."
Nick stood aside from his fellow Rangers, sadly looking at the destroyed trees and greenhouse as Joe put a firm hand on his shoulder, "Come on Nick. We need to head back to talk to the Professor. Who knows how long we'll have to regroup before that thing comes back again."
Nick gave a nod and watched as his friends took to the sky before solemnly following them and leaving the ravaged battlefield behind.