Episode 7: Part 1
Joe Hale shook his wrist out as he continued taking notes during Professor Bishop's History lecture that morning. Nearby, his four other friends sat in varying states of attention. Claire furiously scribbled in her notebook while Izzy sat doodling pictures of flowers and cute animals instead. In the next row, Nick gave a bored yawn as Danny reclined back in his seat with his usual nonchalant posture.
"Starting in 334 B.C. Alexander the Great forged one of the largest empires of the ancient world from the small Greek city state of Macedonia." Professor Bishop said, "Even at a young age, he showed himself to be a shrewd ruler and a brilliant military commander whose leadership won great victories against overwhelming odds."
At that, Nick grinned and gave Joe a light nudge, "I'll bet he didn't have to fight any army of Cambion demons though."
Bishop continued, "For example, at the Battle of Gaugamela, Alexander defeated a Persian army 5 times the size of his. While the Greek infantry stood their ground, Alexander and his well trained Companion Cavalry were able to maneuver around and make a bold direct attack on the Persian king himself."
"How were they even able to pull that off?" Claire asked aloud, "I mean, the Greek army was outnumbered and they still made a direct attack? Why would any of Alexander's soldiers take such an insane risk?"
Bishop smiled, "Because they believed in their leader and his ability to see them to victory. Alexander understood the great risk involved, but he also had a great deal of faith and trust in his troops. He was noted for putting himself in danger by fighting alongside his men. That in turn won Alexander the love and respect of his soldiers. That is why he could count on them to do whatever had to be done in order to win their battles."
Stopping to look at his wristwatch, Bishop shrugged, "And that looks like all the time we have for today. Remember, your term papers will be due in two weeks. Class dismissed."
As the Rangers filed out of the lecture hall, Joe followed behind his other friends while they laughed and joked amongst each other. Professor Bishop's words had made him think about the threat posed by their Cambion enemies. The battles were only getting more difficult and he quietly wondered how much longer the Rangers would be able to continue fighting them off. After all, it's not like he was some great king or brilliant military leader like Alexander the Great was. He couldn't help but wonder for a moment if the others worried about the situation like he did.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as he heard his name called from behind. Joe turned in surprise to see the familiar face of Izzy's sorority sister Jen Kaufman hurrying down the hallway to catch up to him. "Hey Joe! I'm glad I caught you. Do you have a minute?"
The Red Ranger felt his heart skip a few beats as he tried to remain cool and collected, "Yeah, sure. What's up Jen?"
The short brunette girl gave a relieved smile, "I just wanted to thank you again for all your help in editing my part of the group project in English class. You really went above and beyond for me, and I know we'll get an awesome grade."
"Oh… don't mention it. I was happy to help," Joe replied with a bashful smile, ignoring the fact that he actually lost quite a bit of sleep the prior week because of it. "Hey, if I remember, didn't you say you were taking the same Psychology class as me for an elective next semester?"
"Yup, and I'm confident if you're also leading any team projects in that class, we'll do great there too." Jen winked.
Nearby, the other Rangers stopped to watch the exchange with amusement... everyone except for Claire. The White Ranger crossed her arms and wrinkled her nose, "Any bets Jen is just looking for an easy ticket to a good grade?" she muttered disapprovingly.
Danny gave a small knowing smirk, "That's a pretty quick accusation Claire. Do you know something we don't?"
Claire gave him a surprised look before turning away with a huff, "I... no. Just call it female intuition."
Nick rolled his eyes at Claire's comment as Joe rejoined his friends walking down the hallway. "Everything ok there chief?" the Green Ranger asked.
"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?" Joe replied trying to sound indifferent as they exited the building. "Jen just wanted to talk about our team project in another class."
"We know," Izzy giggled playfully taking his arm as they walked, "We're just making sure you'll be able lead that team with a clear head too."
The Red Ranger gave an exasperated sigh as Danny, Nick, and Izzy began laughing again. It was going to be a long walk back to the dormitory.
The loud ringing sounds of steel echoed from the dark dungeon of Gideon's prison spire as General Abaddon threw back several Magog soldiers with one powerful swing of his battle axe. As the Cambion warlord advanced with his menacing weapon, the group of injured Magogs who had been sparring with him cowered in fear.
"Pathetic," Abaddon grunted in disgust while the foot soldiers rose to their feet and skulked away into the shadows, "Do you think the Power Rangers will be any easier on you than I was?"
The scarred warlord lowered his axe and spat on the ground as the chamber doors opened and his rival Shemhazai entered. Her long flowing robes trailed after her as she stormed into the torch-lit dungeon.
The Cambion demoness quickly marched up to him with an angry look on her face and cried, "General Abaddon! This is unforgivable!"
Abaddon snorted and slowly turned his head toward his master's advisor. "What nonsense are you going on about this time, witch?"
"Nonsense?" Shemhazai spat in outrage, "You are the one who has sent a demon to attack the mortals without Lord Gideon's permission!"
"He never forbade me from doing so either Shemhazai," the warlord pointed out. "Tell me, where is Lord Gideon now?"
"He's locked himself in his throne to sulk after the defeat of his servant Frygia," Shemhazai answered crossing her arms.
Abaddon nodded and slung his axe upon his back, "Which is why I'm taking action now. While you waste your time talking and coming up with excuses for the failures of your own demons, I will continue the fight and win Lord Gideon's favor again."
"By dispatching another one of your hapless grunts?" the witch sniffed.
Abaddon shook his head and continued to walk away, "No. Baphomet is a lesser war chief within my legion. It's time for the Cambion army to start demonstrating its real power and leadership to those meddlesome Rangers."
As she watched the demon general depart, Shemhazai growled and said a quiet prayer that the Cambion warrior Abaddon sent to earth would fall in battle like the others.
A few days later, Danny made his way out of the busy lunch line in the dormitory cafeteria and looked down at his tray with a discouraged sigh.
"Yuck. It's a bad omen when they serve meatloaf twice in one week," he said as he took a seat at a nearby table where Joe was finishing his lunch.
The distracted Red Ranger mumbled an agreement as he ate a bowl of clam chowder and read intently from a textbook. Tilting his head curiously, Danny eyed the small group of books his friend had stacked up nearby. "Let's see... campaigns of the ancient Roman army, Thucydides, and the Peloponnesian Wars. A little light reading?"
Joe looked up a moment and gave an apologetic smile, "Oh, sorry Danny. I was just reading over some of these books Professor Bishop loaned me."
"Why? Are you planning on conquering Carthage?" the Blue Ranger chuckled as he dug his fork into the meatloaf.
Joe shook his head, "Actually, Professor Bishop's lecture got me thinking recently. I was hoping I could find something here that will help us when we run into the bad guys next, whether it's a military tactic or a philosophy to understand the enemy."
Danny glanced around to where a few other oblivious students sat nearby before nodding, "That's actually a pretty good idea. Find anything useful yet?"
"Not really," the Red Ranger sighed, "If anything, it just makes me wonder even more how these great kings and generals did it."
Just then, his phone buzzed and he checked the text message. "I guess I'll have to figure it out later. Bishop says we have trouble in the city. Let's go!"
As Joe rose from the table and hurried out of the cafeteria, Danny took one more look down at his uneaten meatloaf and shrugged, "Well, it's not like I was really planning on eating lunch anyway." Giving another sigh, he got up and hurried to catch up with the other Rangers.
Small explosions and fires erupted from one of the larger rail yards in the city of Hyperion Falls. Railway workers and train passengers fled in panic as a platoon of Magog soldiers chased them off and began causing damage to some parked trains in the yard. As they did, their Cambion commander, Baphomet nodded in satisfaction.
The powerfully built demon with a goat head and large curled ram horns gave a laugh. "Keep at it Magogs! What good is attacking a random civilian center when we can hit a much more practical target first?"
"End of the line demon!" came the voice of the Red Ranger as five winged Power Rangers swooped down from the winter skies and swiftly landed before the monster.
"Hey, is it just me, or are these demons getting uglier every time?" Nick taunted as the Cambion growled and stepped forward drawing a flanged mace.
"You arrogant mortals actually think you can pretend to wield the Empyrians' power and humiliate General Abaddon? I, Baphomet teach you what happens to those who stand against the will of Lord Gideon!"
Joe paused a moment in surprise, "Gideon? As in the leader of all the Cambion demons?" Shaking his head, he drew his Feather Stinger pistol against the approaching monster, "It doesn't matter. We'll put you down like all the others. Rangers?"
The other four drew their pistols in unison and took aim. "Ready on three?"
"Three!" all the Rangers immediately called opening fire on the Cambion commander.
Baphomet staggered back slightly as he was hit by a volley of golden blaster fire. Giving a growl, he waved his mace forward, "Magogs! Attack!"
As the Rangers turned to face the charging platoon of red skinned demon foot soldiers, Izzy looked over to see Baphomet turning tail and retreating from the battlefield. "Hey you guys! He's getting away!"
Switching out weapons for his gladius, Joe gave a growl as he quickly sized up the situation. "Ok Rangers, new plan. I'm going to try to run down that demon. Nick you're with me. The rest of you, think you can take out these grunts?"
"Piece of cake," Danny answered with a confident thumbs up, "Leave it to us."
With that, the Rangers split up into two teams as Joe and Nick charged deeper into the train yard to intercept the fleeing Cambion. While a furious melee erupted between the other Rangers and the Magogs, the Red and Green Rangers ran across the snowy train tracks navigating through rows of the parked locomotives.
"It's awfully quiet," Nick muttered gripping his gladius tightly, "Where did he go?"
The two friends passed another row of trains and gasped as Baphomet surprised them, leaping from atop one of the trains. The Rangers jumped out of the way as the beast landed and raised their guards to block their enemy's mace blow. Using his great strength, the demon pushed back and shoved the Red Ranger aside to spread his enemies out.
Giving a snort, the Cambion turned his attention to the Green Ranger and took advantage of Nick's lack of finesse with a short sword, beating the Ranger's guard down and landing a hammering blow with his mace. As Nick spun sideways to the ground, the demon's advance was halted as Joe leapt over its head from behind and parried the monster's next blow. Turning aside the Cambion's weapon with a dextrous maneuver, the Red Ranger counterattacked and slashed Baphomet across the face with his own gladius.
The wounded demon gave a furious roar but surprised the Ranger by dropping his head and bull-rushing him with his horns. Joe gasped and raised his guard just in time as the force of the headbutt disarmed him and sent the Ranger flying backward. As Joe skidded to a hard stop on the icy ground, he struggled to rise, still dazed from the force of the demon's last attack.
"If you want to maim me, I'll do the same to you!" the Cambion growled lowering his ram horns again and firing off a powerful blast of dark fire from the tips of them.
To Joe's horror, Nick suddenly leapt to his feet and jumped in the way of the attack to protect his friend. The attack erupted in a violent fireball and the Green Ranger was thrown back into a nearby train, denting the side of it. As the Ranger slumped over, Joe gave a panicked shout as Nick demorphed and seemed to pass out.
After witnessing the event in momentary surprise, the horned demon began to laugh, "Well, that still worked out. One down, four to go."
The Red Ranger turned on the monster and drew his pistol in rage. As Joe began to shout in fury and fire off several wild shots, the demon clutched its wounded face and withdrew. "It looks like we're even for now. We'll finish this later Red Ranger."
"Come back here and fight, you coward!" Joe shouted in vain as he fired off a few more shots at the fading monster.
At that moment, the other Rangers rejoined him, having easily defeated the Cambion foot soldiers. "What's going on here?" Claire called in worry as Joe tossed his pistol away and rushed to Nick's side.
The other Rangers hurried over in dread as they saw Nick's eyes flutter in and out of consciousness. "Hey! Stay with us buddy," Joe pleaded in fear as he powered down and grabbed his cell phone. "Please! Hang in there. We'll get help. Just hold on!"
Nick gave a weary nod as he put his head back and passed out.
When Nick regained consciousness, he cracked open his bleary eyes and looked around. His head was still swimming and he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, where he had taken the brunt of the monster's attack. Wincing in pain, he tried to shift over and found himself lying in a bed with his arm in a sling.
"Hey! He's waking up!" Izzy gasped in relief calling the other Rangers over.
"Where am I?" Nick croaked, "And what happened?"
Danny put a gentle hand out to restrain him and said, "Easy there big guy. We're in the college's hospital building. You gave us a bit of a scare earlier."
Nick nodded for a moment before another worried look crossed his face. As if sensing his next question, Claire answered, "Don't worry. We told the doctor you fell on some ice and took a bad spill. You're really lucky you only got away with a minor dislocated shoulder and a concussion."
"Just like football season then," Nick groaned putting his head back. Glancing over, he turned to see his roommate standing aside with a guilty look on his face. "You ok there Joe?"
The Red Ranger gave a pained wince and shook his head, "I'm sorry Nick. This is all my fault that you got hurt."
The Green Ranger shook his head slightly, "Don't blame yourself. I just wanted to protect you and it was still my choice to try and block that demon's attack."
"A choice you wouldn't have had to make if I made a better decision in the first place," Joe countered, "I made a bad call on the battlefield today. I should never have split the team, and I wound up putting everyone at greater risk because of it."
"Come on Joe," Izzy cut in gently putting a hand on his shoulder, "Mistakes happen. We all had our part to play in it too."
"It doesn't matter," he answered shrugging it off with an edge in his voice, "If you all want me to lead this team, then it's my responsibility to keep you all safe... and I failed to do that today. I'm sorry Nick."
Shaking his head again, the Red Ranger turned and quietly left the recovery room leaving the other four Rangers sitting in grim silence.