Episode 12: Part 1
A few weeks passed and the cold grey clouds of February began to give way to the warm clearing skies of March. As Nick Adler hefted another large bag of fertilizer and unloaded it from the nearby truck, he glanced around at the small plots of land set aside for the Agriculture students on their corner of campus. It had been warmer that past week and the big blonde farm boy could already spot the faint traces of green grass beginning to poke out from underneath the thawing snow. It was nice to see new life again.
He smiled warmly to himself as he eagerly wondered what types of plants his class would be cultivating later in the semester. Setting the bag of fertilizer down in the storage shed, he stepped out letting his Botany professor lock it up for the day.
"Thanks again for staying after and giving me a hand today Nick. It was a big help," the young red headed professor said as she finished securing the shed.
"Oh, don't mention it Dr. Feldman. I was happy to do it," Nick smiled as he took a breather from all the heavy lifting he had done throughout the afternoon, "To be honest, I can't wait for all this snow to melt so we can start plowing the soil already."
Dr. Feldman laughed, "Well, it's going to be a little more work this time around. The university bought some extra land for us to start extending the plots. I'm going to need all the help I can get."
"Hmm, I'm not too sure I'll have much luck recruiting my own friends to help," Nick admitted with a small chuckle of his own, "They're all pretty busy people."
"Well, I guess you could always ask Gabriel... I mean, Professor Bishop to come help out here from time to time. I've heard you've taken a real shine to him."
It did appear a little odd that a student in Nick's curriculum would be spending so much time with a History teacher. Nick decided to just downplay it, "Yeah, I guess. Mr. Bishop's a pretty cool guy, though you sound like you're pretty familiar with him too."
Dr. Feldman smiled wistfully and shrugged as they walked back toward the campus proper, "Well, we both went to grad school together and became friends. If you think he's kind of a maverick now, you should have seen him when we were still grad students here... he was the life of the party."
Nick listened in quiet interest as Dr. Feldman related a funny story from their past while he pondered a few things himself. Of course Professor Bishop was a handsome guy with a certain charisma and odd charm about him. But it was hard to see him as happy-go-lucky and carefree as his Botany professor was describing. While Bishop was regarded as an eccentric by his academic peers, he had still seemed to temper that with a more serious and focused side, especially after becoming the de facto mentor of the young Vanguard Rangers.
"To be very honest, I've begun to worry a little bit about Gabriel," Dr. Feldman sighed, "I've barely talked to him or seen him this past semester. It seems he's been so absorbed in some secret project that he doesn't want to discuss with any of our peers."
If only she knew he was devoting himself to helping a team of Power Rangers ward off an apocalyptic threat, Nick thought to himself quietly.
Clearing his throat, he said, "Oh... well... I'm sure he's just on the verge of some big breakthrough in his research. Next time I see him, I'll let him know to get some fresh air and stop by your lab for a visit."
Dr. Feldman gave an appreciative smile and removed her planting gloves to check the time, "I appreciate that Nick, though you should probably be heading back home. I'm still going to expect your homework to be done at the start of class tomorrow."
The Green Ranger did his best not to groan out loud as gave a wave goodbye to his teacher. Just then, Nick felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. As he pulled it out to check the urgent text message, he gave a quiet shrug toward the retreating form of Dr. Feldman, "Sorry professor, looks like homework's gonna have to wait."
Demon guards snapped to attention as General Abaddon entered the great hall of the Dark Spire and strode up to the ornate marble throne where Archangel Gideon sat. At the foot of the throne's dais, the demonic counselor Shemhazai waited, bent on one knee in reverent prostration, before rising to join the General in addressing their master.
Fixing his eyes on the battle scarred warrior in heavy armor, Gideon smiled, "General Abaddon, I was not expecting you for a while yet. I trust everything is in order?"
The General lowered his head slightly, "Yes, Lord Gideon. I was ahead of schedule and everything has been arranged just as you wished."
"Excellent," the fallen archangel replied with a pleased look.
From the foot of the dais, Shemhazai lifted her head slightly, "Lord Gideon, I have not been appraised of the current situation. May I ask what it is you are planning?"
Gideon laughed, "Forgive me Shemhazai. I did not mean to neglect you of late. Rather, time was of the essence and I needed one of Abaddon's commanders for a special assignment."
"My lord… I still don't understand."
At that moment, Abaddon spoke, "Lord Gideon told me that when he had battled the Rangers last, he sensed that a new great power had been awakened… that of a 6th Empyrian titan. He could begin to hear its call and believed it was buried somewhere in the region."
Turning to the counselor with a mocking smile, he growled in amusement, "Then again Shemhazai, you are the Cambion Legion's spymaster. Don't tell me that you were unaware of this development."
Shemhazai gritted her teeth in fury but Gideon raised his hand, "No matter. I have dispatched one of Abaddon's special demons to dig up the so called zord and seize it for me."
"My lord, even if we capture this new war machine, wouldn't a newly awakened titan suggest the rise of a sixth Vanguard Ranger?" Shemhazai asked.
The archangel waved it off, "An additional Ranger will not make much difference once the final invasion is ready to be launched. If we can still seize one of their own war machines, then all the better."
The counselor held her tongue and bowed silently. While his words were in fact true, she could only hope that his hubris would not ultimately lead to his undoing as it had several thousands of years ago.
Panicked shouts filled the afternoon air as a platoon of Magogs stormed through the mining camp at the hinterlands of Hyperion Falls. While terrified miners scattered about and fled for their trucks, a large minotaur demon followed slowly in the wake of the Cambion foot soldiers. As he walked, Minorous examined the abandoned mining equipment and snorted with disdain.
Without their great steel machines and noisy tools, the humans themselves were so frail and weak, unable to extract the riches they sought from this nearby mountainside. The lesser commander of Abaddon's legion continued on his way and drew a great two headed axe. As he strode forward and reached the actual dig site, he gathered the Magogs from their pillaging to point at the excavated earth.
"General Abaddon said the Empyrian titan is in the area somewhere," he growled, "It's our job to dig it up, so grab your tools and get to work!"
While the Magogs gathered their digging tools, Minorous struck the earth with several powerful blows of his battle axe causing large bursts of rocks and dirt to erupt from the ground. Without wasting any time, the gibbering demon soldiers began clearing the dirt from the now larger hole the miners had originally started.
But as they did, a great gust of wind blew and kicked up a cloud of dirt that momentarily blinded the demons. As the dust settled, the Cambion attackers turned in surprise to face five morphed Power Rangers with weapons at the ready.
"Digging your own graves huh?" Danny called leaning casually against his spear, "Thanks for saving us the trouble."
The minotaur growled in fury and raised his axe, "Magogs! Destroy them!"
"That's our cue," the Red Ranger replied leveling his saber sword at the oncoming minions, "Vanguard, Take Flight!"
In one unified motion, all five Rangers sprung forward and clashed with the Cambion troops, cleaving through them with ease. While the Blue Ranger cleared a path and quickly lanced through the Magogs, he reached for his Feather Stinger pistol and tossed it behind him in one motion. Following in his wake, Claire caught the pistol in her off hand and took to the skies with a leap, opening fire along with her own gun. The Magogs screeched in surprise as the dual wielding White Ranger rained down a withering volley of golden blaster fire from above.
Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield, Joe and Izzy knifed their way through the Magog missile troops with their more agile sword fighting moves. Though a group of Cambion archers regrouped and fired off a volley of bolts, the shots were scattered by a powerful summoned gust of wind from the Pink Ranger. As the deflected shots went wide, the Red Ranger swiftly followed up and swept aside the archers with a flame-throwing wave of his sword.
At the center of the battlefield, the Green Ranger trampled over several Magogs in a football charge and locked weapons with the demon commander. Taking one powerful swing, Minorous knocked Nick's warhammer away before lowering his head and trying to gore the Ranger with his horns. In a flash, Nick grabbed the minotaur by the horns and skidded backwards before shifting his weight to turn the monster's charge aside. Minorous lurched sideways and stumbled as his horns were twisted aside, but he managed to pitch the Ranger over his head in a powerful counter-motion as well.
As Nick hit the ground and felt the wind get knocked out of him, he tried to rise but saw the demon recover faster. In a flash, Minorous took another swing with his axe, but to Nick's relief, the Red Ranger dashed in to raise his sword and ward off the blow.
"Whitesteel! Armor on!" Joe cried as the axe came down on the now armored Ranger. In a tremendous crash, the axe collided with the Red Ranger's sword and shield sending the surprised hero hurtling backwards into his ally from the overwhelming force of the strike.
Despite his best effort to catch his friend, the Green Ranger fell over backwards too and found himself momentarily tangled up with the Red Ranger.
"I thought you Rangers were supposed to be strong," The minotaur mocked as he advanced forward to bring his weapon down again.
He was suddenly cut off though as a blinding light crashed down on the battlefield and sent the demon flying sideways. Moments later, a deafening thunderclap reverberated in the air and rattled the remaining combatants. All five Rangers blinked their eyes and stood in speechless wonder as the light faded and a new Power Ranger in a golden colored suit stood before them.
The mysterious Ranger appeared to be female and had a similar design on her suit, only enhanced by a few assorted pieces of impressive armor. She wore shining pauldrons, bracers, and greaves with ornamented sigils carved into them. At her belt hung a Keyrune just like theirs. With a slow deliberate movement, the Gold Ranger turned her head toward Minorous as he rose to his feet and snorted in anger.
"You caught me off guard Ranger, but not even you can hope to challenge me by yourself."
The Gold Ranger watched with calm indifference as the charging minotaur bore down on her before reaching to her side where her gladius was sheathed. The five Vanguard Rangers watched in stunned silence as the new Ranger drew her blade with lightning speed and evaded the demon's strike. In the blink of an eye, the Gold Ranger inserted her Keyrune in the base of the gladius and summoned her weapon, an impressive scimitar that suddenly duplicated itself. Armed with a blade in each hand, the Gold Ranger ignited the swords with crackling electricity and counterattacked. In a show of great skill and dexterity, the Ranger unleashed a furious storm of slashing strikes on her startled Cambion foe.
Unable to keep up against the overwhelming speed of the Ranger, the large demon was thrown back and disarmed, struggling against the paralyzing surges of lingering electricity.
"Empty threats from a worthless bully," the Gold Ranger sneered to the wounded monster, "Prepare to be vanquished."
Locking the hilts of her two swords together, the Gold Ranger raised the double blade up and charged it with energy, transfiguring the weapon into a sort of radiant javelin made out of lightning. In a heartbeat, she hurled the lightning bolt at the monster but Minorous stamped his hoofs and dissipated into dark smoke, retreating as the bolt passed harmlessly through the cloud of ash. On the other side of the battlefield, Danny, Izzy, and Claire gasped as they watched the searing thunderbolt rocket through the retreating demon and strike the immediate earthworks nearby them.
The finishing bolt exploded in a brilliant flash with the force of a bomb. Clouds of rock and dirt flew everywhere while tendrils of powerful electricity surged outward trying to find a ground. Without hesitating, Danny called his Whitesteel armor and stepped in front of his two female friends to shield them from the blast while planting his spear in the earth to ground the thunder. The powerful bolts leapt into the spear, but even that was too much for the Blue Ranger to handle all at once. In a final burst of dissipating power, the thunder subsided but threw Danny to the ground causing him to demorph.
The other Rangers hurried over with horrified expressions to help their fallen friend as he gasped and weakly moaned on the ground. Despite the protection from his Ranger suit, Danny's skin was slightly burned and his jacket scorched with several black streaks. To everyone's surprise, Izzy was the first to his side. She rolled him over and gently cradled his head while stroking his face. "Danny? Are you ok? Say something... please!"
While the others gathered around the frantic Pink Ranger to make sure Danny was still breathing, the Gold Ranger turned toward them and slowly approached. As she did, she powered down revealing a young woman about their age. She wore antiquated robes and had a tall athletic build with shoulder length blonde hair and cold blue eyes. While she had a stunning aura of angelic beauty about her, her face and her features were sharp and hardened with a grim countenance.
Turning in surprise, the other Vanguard Rangers watched as the mysterious young woman knelt down beside the fallen Blue Ranger and held out her Keyrune.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Nick growled in outrage, but Joe put a restraining hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Saving your friend's life," the young woman answered sharply before turning back to Danny. A soft gentle glow began to emanate from her artifact as she entered a new sigil combination and focused on her patient. Several long moments passed as she waved the Keyrune's soothing light over Danny, seemingly healing him from all his injuries.
As the light faded, Danny's eyes fluttered open and he groaned tiredly while the Gold Ranger lowered her Keyrune.
Claire and Izzy slowly helped prop the revived Blue Ranger up as Joe turned to the newcomer with a serious expression, "Thank you for helping him... though I didn't know there was another Ranger."
The young woman examined him for a moment with a calculating look before fixing him with a firm gaze, "We've met before... at the barn house with the snake demon. I am Karaphriel, a fellow warrior of Eden and guardian of the Fountain Aurum. If you wear the color Red, then I assume you are the leader of these new Empyrian warriors?"
"The Vanguard Rangers now... and yes. My name is Joseph Hale."
Karaphriel glanced down thoughtfully to the recovering form of Danny before turning back to the Red Ranger, "Well then Sir Hale... it seems we have quite a bit to talk about, don't we?"
Joe noted the apprehensive looks from the other Rangers before glancing back to meet Karaphriel's cold hard eyes, "Yes. It seems that we do."