Author's notes – As I mentioned back in part three, I rearranged the official PR timeline to suit my own stories, allowing the MMPR team to have crossovers with other teams. Immediately prior to this chapter was the adventure where my Rangers met the Ninja Storm team. Ergo, they're all still talking about it.

Back in part three, He Who Devours Truth rattled Scott when he discovered that Scott was carrying a secret. In "The Impossible Boy", Eros (the Greek god of love, and friend of the team) figured out that Scott was holding something back, but he cared enough about Scott to not push the issue and offered support instead. Meeting the Ninja Storm Rangers was a defining moment in young Scott's life, because he met someone ... and in this chapter, we see the end-result of that.

Also, Hydrox is an underwater-themed character (who's delightfully morally-ambiguous. He hates Zedd, but he's not exactly an angel, either) who I used in a few earlier stories. He briefly lived in an undersea base, but when he left Earth, the base was abandoned. Various villains have used the undersea base ever since, ergo, Kim's dialogue regarding Tori's submarine. Just something to keep in mind. Wink.

One of these days, I'll actually sit down and write some of these stories. One of these days.

Also, the reference here to the Rangers accidentally levelling Mount Olympus is another call-back to "The Impossible Boy". It wasn't their fault.

Mostly.

Enjoy chapter ten!

Part Ten

Chapter One

2 months ago

With April came the longer nights of autumn. The days stayed sunny, but the extra bite in the air told everyone that winter wasn't far away. We were all glad that Tommy had retrieved the torch from the temple in Chile. While Alpha and Zordon spent weeks trying to make sense of the torch's engraved markings, the Shadow King case stayed on our minds. I noticed we were all growing a little more cautious, the longer time went on. Once the Easter holidays ended, the six younger Rangers returned to school for our second term, while the older Rangers didn't have to go back to college for another week. So the Sunday morning before lectures resumed, Billy invited Trini, Kim, Jason, Zac and Tommy around for a group study session at his house, so everybody could catch up and, as Trini suggested, centre themselves before the workload started again.

"Blue Bay Harbour sounds like it was an amazing place," Billy said.

"I'm sorry we missed it," added Trini, putting the finishing touches on a holiday assessment.

"Aside from the evil space ninjas, an army of monsters and the world almost ending," Zac said, "it was a lot of fun."

"And it's always good to know someone who has a submarine zord," Kim said, thinking of Tori and her dolphin, "whenever our next bad guy moves into Hydrox's undersea base and we have to go check it out."

Billy turned to Jason. "I heard that Scott had an enlightening trip," he said, in a way that only Billy could.

"It's funny," Jason began. "I never would've picked him and Dustin, but when you saw them together, they were just good for each other."

"Scott does seem a lot more confident lately," Tommy added. "It suits him. Where is Scott today anyway?"

"He's hanging out with Pete this morning," Jason replied. "I think they're studying. Pete tells me Scott is a good tutor. Plus, I think they're taking some time to reconnect. I never realised how much being a Ranger had…"

Billy's father stepped into the room, a coffee mug in one hand and the Sunday newspaper in the other. Jason froze mid-sentence. Everyone in the room turned to him before he started blushing.

"Sorry Mr Cranston," the Red Ranger said. "Force of habit."

"It's fine," Mr Cranston smiled. "It's a wonder more people in this city don't eavesdrop. It really is. Busy week in terms of saving the world?"

"I hope not," Zac said, then looked at the papers spread out before him. "Although I am surprisingly on top of everything. Kinda proud of myself, actually."

"Who'd have thought being organised actually works?" Trini teased. Zac laughed and threw his pen across the table. Trini snagged it out of the air without looking.

"Hopefully it stays quiet," Billy added. "I have a study group on campus late this afternoon, with a number of students I'm tutoring."

Just then, their communicators beeped that ever-familiar six-note chime. Without worrying about Billy's father, Jason raised his wrist. "Go Zordon," Jason said. "Senior team is here."

"Rangers," Zordon's voice crackled out of the device. "If you could come to the Command Centre? We have something important to go over." There was a pause for a few seconds, and Zordon continued. "Don't worry Mr Cranston. I'll get William home as soon as I can."

Billy's father smiled as the communicator fell silent. "I should hope so," he said. "I'd miss our lunch," and he raised his voice. "I'll leave you to it."

Billy stood up and gave his father a light embrace. "I'll be home soon," he said. Mr Cranston stepped away as everyone joined Billy.

"You have the coolest dad," Tommy said.

"Affirmative," Billy said. And the six teens reached for their communicators and vanished from the scene.

Sarah, Teresa, Ian and Brendan were catching up on some homework in the Youth Centre when their communicators chimed. Grabbing their books, they headed for the locker hallway and disappeared in four bright flashes of light, touching down in the Command Centre a second later. Scott and I arrived soon after. Once we'd all taken a minute to greet each other, we looked up to Zordon.

"We're here," said Jason. "What's the deal? Is Lothor back?"

Scott looked up quickly. "Do they need us in Blue Bay Harbour?" he asked.

The corners of Zordon's mouth crinkled into a smile. "Not yet," he said, then added softly, "be patient Scott."

"Is it the Shadow King case?" asked Tommy. "Did you have any luck with the symbols on the torch?"

"Yes and no," Zordon replied. "If you could turn to the viewing screen. Alpha?"

Alpha hit a couple of buttons on the keyboard before him and the viewing screen flashed to life. On the screen was the torch from Chile, while the row of symbols that lined the torch scrolled by underneath.

"Is the torch still safe?" Trini asked.

"Yes," Zordon replied. "We have the torch locked in a dampening vault deep under the mountain, and we are keeping a close eye on it. So far, there's been no problem. As for the symbols inscribed on the casing, they have proved impossible to translate. This is a language we've never encountered before. A month ago, we set the computer to scan our databanks for any sign of those symbols. The computers eventually came back with nothing at all."

My face fell. Beside me, Jason frowned despondently. "That was, like, our one clue," I said.

"What do you think Bill?" asked Jason.

Billy stepped towards the viewing screen. "Perhaps the fault is with us?" he asked. "We were looking at this from the perspective of twentieth century linguistics. We use specific symbols to represent letters that make up words, which is what we initially assumed we were looking at. But ancient civilisations often used pictograms like those to represent a full word, or an idea, or an entire sentence. Of course the computers couldn't find anything. We've had them looking for entire paragraphs. It's highly improbable the specific sequence of ideas engraved on the side of the torch would be repeated anywhere else. Ergo, no matches."

We turned back to Zordon to see him smiling broadly. "After the first search came back with nothing," Zordon began, "Alpha and I had the exact same thought. So we instructed the computer to perform the search again, but for the individual symbols this time."

"And?" Brendan asked impatiently.

"Almost immediately, we had a match," Zordon said. "A stone tablet was found in the Middle East several years ago, telling of a story that was ancient folklore by the time the tablet was carved. According to the carving, a man from a faraway land in strange dress stumbled into a small village, one day, breathless from exhaustion and terror. With his last breaths, he told a story of the destruction that had claimed his home. This is where the translation gets difficult, but he repeatedly mentioned something about a wave of creeping shadow. And one of the designs stitched onto the man's clothes matched one of the symbols on the torch." Zordon paused. "That was it Rangers. With all the resources available to us, that was the one match we could find. The sole civilisation that we can connect to the Shadow King is so old that it doesn't exist in any historical records. The story predates Alpha and I, it predates the Command Centre. That's the biggest obstacle in front of us right now."

"So the one place in all of human history that knew anything about the Shadow King was wiped out by some kind of massive disaster?" asked Sarah. "Tell me that's a coincidence."

"If this guy really was a world-ending threat," I began, "surely other people survived long enough to leave a record."

"It makes sense though," Trini said. "Thousands of years before the age of global communication, your whole world was your town. Or your valley, or your farm. Anything could've happened in that time."

"But we're not talking about a bad drought season or the measles," Zac said. "Remember the temple? The Shadow King is damned good at covering his tracks. He wiped out the one civilisation that knew anything about him, and now he's gunning for us. Billy, what do you make of this?"

Billy shook his head. "I'm not sure," he said softly. "Even with the torch, we don't have enough knowledge."

"Okay, it's just given us one more problem to solve," Scott said. "Where do we go for the information we need?"

"If the Command Centre's databanks don't have the answers we're looking for, why can't we look somewhere else?" Teresa asked. "There are other archives in the world with plenty of information about ancient civilisations."

"We've been through this," said Zac. "The Vatican doesn't like sharing."

"And this is older than the Olympians," Tommy added. "If they were even talking to us, which they aren't. Not since we levelled Mount Olympus."

"Not the Vatican," Teresa replied. "And not the gods either," and she glanced around the room. "What about Dragon Island? They've been around forever, and we know they have a huge archive of written history."

"Teresa's right," said Sarah. "Kulak and the dragon prince owe us a couple of favours. Let's call 'em in."

"It's an excellent idea," Zordon agreed. "We need to set out for Dragon Island at once. As you know, there are enchantments protecting the island. Once you're there, Rangers, we won't be able to communicate with you. And this is exactly the opportunity the Shadow King or any of our enemies would enjoy taking advantage of. Tommy and Ian, I need you to stay here in the Command Centre. Trini and Sarah as well."

Ian's face fell. "We never get the cool missions," he said. "We didn't go to Blue Bay Harbour, we can't go to Dragon Island…"

"The rest of you," Zordon continued, "morph and take the Phoenix zord. With the Shadow King's involvement, I'm taking no chances. Once you're within range of the island, call ahead. Hopefully, they will be happy to assist us. Be careful Rangers. By now, the Shadow King must know we're moving against him."

Jason glanced around the room. "Okay guys," he said, and we reached for our back pockets. "It's morphin' time!"

To be continued.