Part Twelve
Chapter Five
The Command Centre appeared on the horizon, and a second later I materialised in the central chamber. Glancing around, I realised I was the last Ranger to return, which was good news. At least everyone had escaped the Gatekeeper no worse for wear.
"Hey guys," I began. "Why aren't we back in England chasing…" but I felt the presence missing from the room when we'd left, and I spun to the plasma tube, only to see a familiar face looking back. "Zordon!" I shouted.
"Rangers," Zordon boomed, with a relieved smile. "It's good to see you. Alpha managed to re-establish contact with me several minutes ago. I'm glad to be back."
Teresa stepped forward. "We're sorry we kicked you out," she said.
"A necessary precaution," Zordon replied. "I could sense the Shadow King infiltrating our system while we were speaking. The last thing I did was strengthen all the protections in the vaults under the mountain. I could feel the Shadow King trying to reclaim the torch."
"Whatever you did, it worked," Kim said. "The torch is safe, and Alpha got us back online, like, a couple of minutes later."
"Excellent," Zordon replied. "Tell me everything I missed."
"We ran into the Shadow King's last minion," Ian began. "Calls himself the Gatekeeper. He attacked a museum in Manchester with a couple of shadow demons. I guess he couldn't get the torch, so he went shopping instead. They stole some kind of gemstone, maybe an emerald? Bren saw it. That's all we know."
"We tried to stop him but he was tricky as hell," Zac continued. "He was wearing a pendant. It seemed to give him the power to open portals. That's probably why he was summoned back to Earth, right? To use his power to free the Shadow King from that other dimension."
"Where'd everyone end up, anyway?" Scott asked.
"A restaurant kitchen in Sicily," Trini replied.
"Somewhere in Frankfurt," Tommy said.
"Halfway out over the Atlantic," Zac added. "It was a long way down."
"The top of the Eiffel tower," Teresa said. "I don't know who was more surprised. Me or a tour group of German soccer fans."
"I think I was on the Matterhorn," I said. "It was kind of peaceful."
"But this tells us a great deal," Zordon said. "As Zachary surmised, this Gatekeeper is here to unlock the dimensional barrier which is the only thing stopping the Shadow King from escaping. But his power has limits. You confronted him in a British museum, and the furthest he could send you was the edge of Western Europe."
"But we don't know what the deal is with the jewel," Tommy said. "I really doubt the Gatekeeper is interested in the international stolen gems market."
"And was that the army of shadows that are supposed to accompany the Shadow King?" Kim asked. "It was four shadow demons and we killed three of them."
"Alpha, where are we on the computers?" Billy asked.
"Ayeyiyi Rangers," Alpha began. "The teleportation network is fully operational, and we have limited access to the mainstream media channels. But our archive system and monitoring programs are still offline. In a thousand years, I don't think we've ever had a breach like that! We'll have to run a full diagnostic on every system before we start using them again, in case the Shadow King left any Trojan horses behind. I'm sorry Rangers. It's going to take a lot of time before we're back online."
"And that's time we definitely don't have," I frowned.
Sarah turned to me. "You okay cuz?" she asked.
I shook my head. "Still thinking about something the Gatekeeper said to me," I replied. Glancing around, I saw that everyone was looking at me. "It doesn't matter," I added quickly. "The point is, how do we get ahead of this? This guy has a huge head-start on us. We've got no idea where he is or what he's doing. And we have to somehow stop an apocalypse. What do we do?"
"What we do best," Jason began. "Split up and hit this from every angle."
"Agreed," Zordon nodded. "Billy, Trini and Scott, we'll need you three to help Alpha get the Command Centre's systems back online." The three Rangers demorphed and stepped away.
"Meanwhile," Jason continued. "Zac and Teresa? Head back to the museum. Talk to the curator. Wake up the entire staff if you have to. We need to find out everything we can about that stolen gemstone."
"You got it," Zac nodded.
"We might not have the archives, but surely we've got hard copies of the information about the torch, right?" Jason asked. Zordon nodded, and the Red Ranger continued. "The Shadow King wanted it for a reason. There has to be something in there that'll tell us why. Tommy and Kim?"
"We're on it," Kim said, and they too demorphed.
Sarah indicated Brendan, Ian and I. "What about the rest of us?" she asked.
"The Gatekeeper's been on Earth for a week, and he's collecting magical totems," Jason replied. "He has to have a base somewhere. But it's not like he's checked in to the presidential suite of the Plaza. There's places on Earth that are going to hide him, even from us, and that's where we need to start looking. The poles, the Bermuda Triangle, the forest around the College of Magical Knowledge. We need to make a list of locations and start checking them off."
Zac glanced over to the Aqua Ranger, pacing in circles at the back of the room. "Hey Brendan, you all right?"
Brendan looked up. "I don't think you guys heard it, but the Gatekeeper said something when he thought nobody was listening," the Aqua Ranger began. "He said, 'more power to absorb' or something, and it stuck with me, right? Like, the Shadow King absorbs power, that's how he's been getting stronger the last year. And what do the brilliant people always say?" and he gestured across the room to where Trini, Billy and Scott were already working on the consoles. "Energy can't be made or destroyed, it just moves around a lot. I feel like I have the puzzle pieces, I just can't see the picture," he murmured. "Power to absorb…" but he froze in place. "Oh hell."
"What is it?" asked Teresa.
"No wonder the Shadow King didn't care," Brendan said quickly. "He had the perfect plan, right? Unleash his minions on the world. If they succeed in releasing him? Great. But if they ran into us?"
"Then we'd destroy them," Tommy said, then paused as he realised what Brendan was talking about. "The Shadow King would absorb their power and be able to break free on his own."
"Wait," I said. "We've actually been doing the Shadow King's work for him?"
"It's worse than that," Brendan continued. "We have to stop this Gatekeeper guy. But if we beat him, that'll be the final surge of energy the Shadow King needs."
"Brendan's right," said Sarah. "How do we kill this guy without killing him?"
Jason raised his voice. "Guys!" he called, and everyone in the room turned to us. Brendan quickly explained his theory to the rest of the team.
"That makes things a little more complicated," said Trini.
"But not impossible," Jason replied. "Bill, you remember the start of the year when we were throwing around ideas for non-lethal containment, I think you called it?"
"Affirmative."
"I think it's time we revisited some of those," Jason said.
"Scott and I still start formulating plans at once," Billy said.
"Good idea," Trini said. "Alpha and I will keep working on the computers."
Ian couldn't help but smile. "I like this," he said.
"You do?" I asked.
"We have a plan," Ian nodded. "It's more than we had an hour ago."
"Rangers," Zordon said, and we turned to look to him. "I'm not sure what's going to happen today. All I can see is that the battle in front of us might be one of the most important we'll ever fight. But I wanted to tell you, now, in a moment of safety, that I'm proud of you. And I want you to never forget that, in your worst moments? Your most powerful weapons will always be there for you. With that said?" and he gazed around the room. "Let's go to work."
"I'm just checking in," Sarah said, glancing out the window as her zord cruised over a forested mountain range. "Where's everybody else?"
"Good to hear from you," Alpha replied. "Brendan and Ian are currently in central Europe, working through the list of locations, while Peter and Jason are on their way home from Antarctica. No word from Zac and Teresa yet."
"I'm just approaching the Forest of Eternal Light," Sarah continued. "I'll do a quick sweep and let you know if I find anything."
"Good luck," Alpha replied, and the radio fell silent.
Even though the sun was behind her, Sarah could see an unnaturally-bright glare from a row of hills on the horizon. The forest was drawing closer. Visiting the forest always made Sarah uneasy. Everything in the forest, from the plants to the streams and even the rocks, all seemed to glow with an unearthly luminescence. It was too bright. There were no shadows and nowhere to hide. It was unspoilt beauty, and Sarah could appreciate it for that, but the whole forest screamed of ancient, deep magic. It made the hair stand up on the back of her neck.
Which is why it was the perfect location for the Shadow King and his minions.
Cresting the final row of hills, the forest lit up the underside of the Rhamphorynchus zord. Sarah took a second to let her eyes adjust, then swept her gaze over the landscape. There was nothing but rows and rows of glowing trees. She'd just steered the zord around for one final flyover when she spotted it.
A patch of shadow, following one of the trails through the trees. Flying closer, she peered closer.
It was the Gatekeeper.
Sarah tapped her communicator and shot down to the forest floor in a blaze of purple light. Materialising on the ground a second later, she summoned her Power Mace, spotted her quarry a hundred metres away and broke into a run.
Whatever the Gatekeeper was looking for, he seemed to have found it, stopping by a small sapling that was just peeking above the soil. Even as Sarah closed in, the Gatekeeper reached down and ripped the sapling out of the ground. Almost instantly, the leaves wilted. The light from the plant grew darker, as if it was absorbing shadow from the Gatekeeper himself. Only a few metres away, Sarah threw the mace with all her might. But the Gatekeeper reached for his pendant, and with barely a look at the Purple Ranger, he took the sapling, stepped through a portal and disappeared.
Sarah skidded to a stop as the mace flew through the air where the Gatekeeper had been standing and shattered a nearby boulder to dust.
"Damn it," she swore.
To be continued.