Episode 10: Part 1
Despite the bright light of the noon sun, a hazy smoke hung over the skies of Hyperion Falls as several giant Magogs wreaked havoc over the outer suburbs of the city. Fires erupted and cars sped away in a panicked scramble while the demon foot soldiers empowered by their own Cambion sigils continued stomping through the region. Before they could go any further, they heard a shrill angry scream of an animal from overhead.
The giant Magogs paused for a moment and looked up to the skies. As the smoke and haze dissipated slightly, they could see a large red griffin diving down toward them followed by 4 other celestial beasts. In a flash, the five metallic creatures fused together and created a familiar titanic warrior in their wake. Folding its metallic wings, the Vanguard Megazord landed amidst the giant invaders, crushing one of the Magogs under its feet in a cloud of fiery smoke and brimstone.
"Guess who's back?" Nick hollered enthusiastically from his console already rearing for a fight.
Nearby, Danny glanced around the area and did a quick headcount of the giant Magogs, "Wow. Looks like Gideon isn't pulling any punches this time."
"Stay focused everyone," the Red Ranger called gripping his own cockpit controls, "If he's down there, we have to get through these clowns first. Claire? Think you can clear a path for us?"
The White Ranger gave a thumbs up and reached for her console, "Way ahead of you."
Before the Magogs could react, the Vanguard Megazord raised its White Wolf arm. As the wolf's head opened its mouth, a powerful icy jet of cold snow and ice spewed out, striking several of the demons and freezing them solid.
Charging forward, the Megazord smashed several of the frozen enemies apart with its other fist continuing to ward off the other giants with the wolf's icy spray. Looking about the battlefield, Danny growled, "We still need to thin out their numbers and the giants are falling back."
Immediately, the Pink Ranger tapped her head, "Leave it to me. I've got an idea."
To the others' surprise, Izzy took the controls and had one of the Megazord's arms reach up to the winged crown around it's head. Detaching the Pink Kestral zord from its perch for a moment, the Vanguard Megazord hurled it at the distant giant Magogs. The Kestral curved its wings and whirled through the ranks of enemies like a giant boomerang. The giant foot soldiers cried out as the Kestral swiftly carved through the rest of them and returned to the Megazord's waiting hand.
"Way to go Iz! That was brilliant!" Nick cheered giving the Pink Ranger a high five. As the giant Magogs exploded in clouds of fiery ash, Joe kept watch until he spotted a familiar figure with 6 wings waiting atop one of the ruined towers of the district.
"All right everyone, the way is clear. Now we just have one last monster to deal with."
From his perch, Gideon watched patiently as the victorious Vanguard Megazord disassembled and returned to the skies. Although he wore a look of indifference on his face, he couldn't help but marvel again at the sight of his people's titanic war machines. Those children he had faced before had certainly come a long way and he almost felt a twinge of pride that those human Rangers could almost be considered worthy adversaries.
The leader of the Cambion legions continued to stand atop his perch and gaze down at the ruined streets as the five Vanguard Rangers emerged from the smoke and fires to face him again. This time, they approached with more grace and certainty born of confidence. Despite their near defeat in their last encounter, these humans who wielded his race's ancient powers almost resembled the great Empyrian heroes of old for a brief moment.
The Archangel extended his wings and floated down gently to the ground with a smile, "You've returned to face me Rangers. I'm impressed with your handling of the titans. Well done."
"We didn't come to exchange pleasantries with you," Nick called pounding his fist into his other hand. "We came to clip your wings... all six of them."
"He's right Gideon," Joe said loudly stepping forward and addressing the Cambion lord, "We're only giving you one chance. Leave this place and don't ever come back."
Gideon curled his lips into a smile and broke out into a loud laugh, "Such arrogance, Red Ranger. You've already witnessed my power and still you humans... you pretenders, think that you have any right to speak to me this way?"
The Archangel unfurled his wings and summoned a long glowing blade, "You may have gotten away from me once... but this time, we finish the fight."
In a flash, the Rangers called their own weapons and took ready stances as Gideon charged forward bringing his blade around in a blinding arc. The Rangers scattered and took to the air in different directions evading the Cambion lord's first onslaught.
"All right everyone, just like we planned!" Danny called landing nearby and raising his Keyrune alongside the Red Ranger.
As Gideon turned and swooped at the two Rangers, Joe and Danny called on their elements together and the battlefield immediately became shrouded in a thick cloud of blinding steam. The Cambion lord slashed blindly into the smoke and beat his wings to blow the steam away, but he suddenly found himself caught up in a whirling cyclone of pink wind around him. Gideon growled as he momentarily lost the lift from under his wings and was suddenly bombarded by an icy volley of arrows from above.
The Pink Ranger let up on the whirlwind as Claire swooped down from above strafing Gideon and momentarily pinned him to the ground with her fire. Shaking off the minor damage of the ice bolts, Gideon turned again in surprise as the Green Ranger landed nearby, driving his hammer into the ground. A thunderous shockwave of earth erupted from the strike and plowed into the Archangel, keeping him on the ground while blinding him with dirt.
While the Rangers regrouped, Gideon shook off the blow and smiled, "I'm impressed. You're almost fighting like Empyrian angels now... but not yet."
The Archangel stretched his six wings and they began to glow, charging up for his devastating attack.
Turning to the Red Ranger, Izzy asked, "Ok, is now a good time to use it?"
Joe nodded raising his left arm along with the others, "Now is the perfect time."
In a circular arm motion, all five Rangers summoned their brilliant armor and shields in unison, "Whitesteel! Armor on!"
As the Vanguard Rangers were instantly endowed with their armor, they took defensive stances while Gideon unleashed his hail of dazzling golden fireballs. Despite the intense heat and force of each projectile, the Rangers raised their shields and deflected the storm of attacks. Gideon stopped and stared, recognizing the armor and realizing its reflective properties were nullifying his attacks.
Amid the flaming ruins of the street, the Rangers remained on their feet, but just barely. Their new armor had protected them, but the intense force of Gideon's attacks had felt like they were standing against a fire-hose at full blast.
"All right. What now?" Nick panted as the Rangers caught their breath for a moment.
Seeing Gideon halt for a moment as if catching his own breath, the White Ranger had a sudden brainstorm."Everyone, remember how Gideon had weakened himself in the last battle when using that attack? What if we lure him in and beat him through attrition?"
Joe smiled grimly and nodded, "Great idea Claire. Everyone, get ready to turtle up and counterattack on my signal."
The Rangers nodded and gathered together as Gideon walked forward and charged up for another attack. As the Archangel continued to advance while firing another powerful wave of golden energy, the Rangers huddled up close and locked their shields together to form one unified defensive formation.
Gideon watched as he neared the Rangers, continuing to pound their shield with his relentless fire. He knew he was exerting a lot of energy again, much more than he had before, but the Rangers could not hold out forever. He had pinned them all to this one position and when he was upon them, he would finish them off at close range. When the Archangel drew close, he let up his projectile attack, seeing them struggle to hold their shields together.
As Gideon raised his sword to cut through their defenses, he heard one of them cry, "Now!"
To his surprise, four of the Rangers broke formation and spun around to brace themselves against the Red Ranger. There, kneeling was the Red Ranger with their hidden Radiant Arbalest aimed straight at the Cambion's head at point blank range.
"Pride goeth before the fall, asshole." Joe grinned pulling the trigger of the weapon.
Gideon roared in fury as the surging bolt of powerful white light disintegrated the head of his astral projection. As the Rangers recovered from the powerful recoil of their weapon, they stared in amazement while the rest of the Archangel's body collapsed to the ground and instantly burned away into nothing.
The Vanguard Rangers sat in stunned silence for a moment realizing they had just dealt a humiliating defeat to the leader of the Cambion legions himself. While they did not actually destroy him, they demonstrated Gideon was not as invincible as he originally thought he was.
The silence was broken as Nick turned to his roommate, "Dude... that was badass... like, straight out of an action movie."
The Red Ranger slowly turned to the others and let out a delirious laugh. The other Rangers couldn't help but laugh and cheer in relief at what they had done, exchanging hugs and handshakes.
While the five celebrated, relieved citizens of Hyperion Falls crawled out from the ruins of their hiding places, carefully approaching and giving grateful cheers. The Rangers knew that the battle was far from over, but for now, amid the grateful applause, handshakes, and cheers of the people they were protecting, the Rangers decided to simply enjoy the moment and give thanks that they were able to live and fight another day.
Back in the Dark Spire, Gideon roared and clutched his head as the ritual circle was broken. Again, the lesser demon sorcerers scrambled in fear and retreated to the safety of the shadows while Shemhazai rushed to the side of her distraught master.
"Lord Gideon! Are you all right? What happened? We couldn't hold the connection to the mortal world any longer."
Gideon took several deep breaths letting his long pale golden hair spill down over his face. Shemhazai watched in fear and wonder as her master remained holding his face as if he were in great pain before suddenly hearing him laugh softly. Eventually, he lowered his hand and his laughter grew even louder.
"My lord?" she prompted.
Gideon calmed himself and turned around heading back to his throne, "It would seem that these Vanguard Rangers are in fact worthy successors to the Empyrian Keyrunes after all."
Shemhazai frowned, "Are worthy successors? As in present tense? Then that must mean that they..."
"Bested me in combat?" Gideon finished, "Yes. It was a most amusing battle... the most fun I've had in millennia."
"My lord!" Shemhazai cried, "If your aspect was defeated, then you have burned away a small portion of your power!"
Gideon smiled as he sat back down on his throne, "A tiny fraction of my power, but there is more than enough to triumph should I ever face them in person. If anything, I will know not to underestimate them again... and neither should you."
Shemhazai bowed her head, "Yes... of course, Lord Gideon."
With a sigh, Gideon gave a malevolent grin, "Now then... fetch me General Abaddon. His punishment should almost be over, and I have some plans for the future that I'd like to discuss with him."
A/N:
Hey readers, I just took a drink of of the magic prophecy waters and while I haven't gone blind, I still wanted to give you all a quick heads up of what to expect in the next few chapters.
Episode 10 is going to be a little short to tie up the Whitesteel arc. Episode 11 is going to be more of a light hearted breather episode, so fair warning... a Romantic and "shippy" misadventure may be on the horizon.
After that, Episode 12 will kick off a short arc formally introducing this series's 6th Ranger. I hope everyone is enjoying the series so far and special thanks goes to everyone who is reading, reviewing, following, or just lurking. I love you all for it. :)