Chapter18: two man army
In a dark cave at the end of the forest, two atrocious beings talk.
One looks like an octopus combined with a fallen angel. His head resembles a red skull attached to a black octopus head. His body is black and red flesh, hard as stone. He has two large wings, but with tentacles instead of feathers.
The other looked like a creature in demonic red samurai armor. Six eyes and sharp covering his red face.
These are octomus and xandred, two of the most powerful members of the morlock and Nighlok respectively.
"I told you not to bring out any copies, they just make our main bodies weaker" Xandred tells the octomus, much to the morlock's annoyance.
"It displeases me to admit it, but you were correct Xandred. While the summons are powerful, we appear to be running on a fading power source."
Xandred nods and holds a hand out "even now I can feel my power slowly fading. At least I don't need sanzu water anymore"
"Then we're in agreement, we'll summon no more. All our power should be enough to enact our plan." Octomus grabs Xandred's hand, pulling him up from his sitting position.
"The two of us will be enough "
…
"So you really just left the blade up there?" Thruster asks, he and Zolda have left the area where the others were.
"Yep, if I can't use it how I see fit, then I don't want it" Zolda responds as he walks through the forest. around him are a myriad of different creatures of all shapes and sizes.
They walk for a while, until they hear a voice from behind them.
"Hey you two"
Behind them is one who called himself Jaden, the man holding Zolda's blade. This comes to the annoyance of Zolda, who just waves him off. "I don't want it, go away".
Unfortunately for Zolda, the blade flies out of Jaden's hand in the sheath-like Morpher.
"I have a bit of a proposition for you, a way to blow off steam, and if you come with, afterwards I'll give you this" Jaden holds up a small book, on it are various kanji.
"A legacy book? Alright, fine" Zolda answers as he gestures for Jaden to lead the way.
…
Back at root core
"I can't believe him!" Arjet grumbles as she paces back and forth, "why won't he take this seriously?"
As she's seething in anger, Toxala and Kyle have regained consciousness. The former of which is yelling at the latter.
"It was going fine until you got involved!"
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to help you"
"I. Don't. Want. Your. Help" Toxala punctuates each word, eyes glowing red as she's desperate to get the point across.
A clap gets everyone's attention, Nick lets out a sigh and proposes something.
"How about an exercise, a way to blow off steam. And when where done, I'll give you guys this"
He holds up a book, on it are various magic circles.
"The mystic Force legacy book!? How'd you get that!?" Arjet asks as she tries to snatch the book away, Nick teleporting behind the girl.
"Showed up in my room a few days after the green master's message went out. Now, who wants to play?"
Toxala shoves Arjet to the side, yelling out "magic! I want it!"
…
In a open clearing of the forest
"I saw you battle with that korrag clone, you barely used your weapon."
"I fired everything I had at that thing" Zolda responds
"Yeah, lots of guns, but you only swung your sword once."
If the cannons did nothing, what good would the sword do?" Zolda sighs out
"Eh, for normal people, not much" Jaden says as he raises his blade. He lashes the air, and three trees in front of him fall.
"For rangers, you never know" he smiles at the stunned duo. "Now, let's have a little sparring match, and get you accustomed to the blade."
…
Root core:
Why are we doing this again?" Arjet inquires as she and the others in root core are sitting in a circle, Infront of them is a large crystal ball, black smoke coming from inside it.
Nick holds his hands out and explains, "It's a really new method of helping people believe in magic, and as a handy team building tool."
The red mystic Force ranger flexes his hand a bit, and the black smoke inside the crystal ball spews out, covering the 3 Royal rangers and Arjet in a dome of mist.
…
Hours later in the forest:
"Why…are we doing this…again?" Axels gasps out as he and Thruster swing the wooden sticks in their hands.
They've been doing this for hours, their only instructions were to mimic Jaden's movements as best as they could, and to not stop until he did.
Thruster was no worse for wear, the parts he assimilated from the jungle fury rangers made him feel better than he had In years.
Zolda however was at his limit, he was never one for physical activities.
Just as he's about to pass out, the morpher on his waist begins to spark, and Zold feels strange.
"Limit has been reached, basics of swordplay have been recorded, adjusting body to set movements"
Zolda's still exhausted, but his movements are cleaner, sharper, like he'd been mimicking Jaden for years.
Both Jaden and Thruster stop what they're doing, completely enamored with the sudden improvement Zolda was showing.
"Learning complete, now forcing rest period"
Zold drops to the floor.
…
Zolda sits in the white void, unmoving.
Infront of him is his mother, the two orbs that hold the strange books still above her. she is silent as she pinches the bridge of her nose, and her annoyed son breaks the silence.
"You gonna say something?" Zolda asks, the mystic mother stays silent.
"You know I was in prison for 8 years, they beat me within an inch of my life, dug up Dad's grave on the day of his funeral, and rumor has it that they're gonna use his corpse for some kind of super weapon."
The mystic mother remains silent, not looking at her child.
"Would have been real nice to have super powerful, borderline deity of a mother to help me out"
"That breaks her silence, shouldn't you be up by now?"
Almost on cue, Zolda is sucked away from the void, leaving the mystic mother alone again.
…
The body of the royal red ranger rises from the bed he's in. He Rises like someone kicked him in the back and forced him in mid air.
His knees bend, and he lands feet first, the rest of his hovering completely on an x axis.
Zolda pulls himself upright using just his knees and hops of the bed, walking down the stairs of root core as he shakes off the sense of deja-vu.
When he reaches the bottom of the stairwell, he sees a orb of smoke, and the two senior red rangers sitting by the side. A large map on the table he's sitting at.
Neither seem to notice him as they are too engrossed in their own conversation.
"I got word from all the forest inhabitants. All the wildlife has suddenly died here, and no animals will get close to the area" Nick explains as he points to a small circle on the map.
"So that's the best bet, we'll go there tomorrow" Jaden gets up and walks to a long table. on it his sword, his morpher, various disks, and a cannon that resembles a bull.
Nick joins him and looks at the various tools, "you're really not gonna call your team?" Nick asks as he raises up a blank disc.
"Are you?" Jaden responds with a smile.
"Naw, they all got lives to live" Nick answers as he squeezes the blank disc.
"Same here, none of the samurai rangers fought the nighlok of our own will. I'm not dragging any of them back into this."
the blank disc In Nick's hand slowly turns red "then we're in agreement, octomush and Xandread will be gone by tomorrow night, and there resurrection won't even be a footnote on history"
Jaden nods and grabs the now red disc, the symbols of the samurai and mystic Force rangers appearing on its rim.
"The two of us will be enough"