So to anybody thinking that the Rangers to be, trusted Leo too quickly that'll be addressed a little bit in this chapter, and there'll be a scene next chapter that should shed a some more light on it.

A New kind of Hero

3rd POV

After leaving Leo in the detention area, the others began making their way towards the shuttle bay.

"So your really just gonna send your brother back just like that without even a goodbye?" Asked Maya.

"It's for the best." Mike sighed and looked down. "He'll be safer on earth than with us and more importantly he has his own life to live."

"Can we put aside the family drama for the moment and focus. Are you sure it was a good idea to trust that Valdez character?" Asked Kai.

The other Leo had disappeared a little while ago into the various corridors. Carrying a propane tank labeled mist, what looked like a can of pepper spray and a set of wire cutter's.

"Honestly, no I'm not. We have a lot more questions than answers about him. But fact is that we're in a crisis situation and we have to do something. Whether it's the right or wrong thing to do, either is better than doing nothing." Mike explained as they entered the hanger bay.

"Can I help you?" A man asked wearing a mechanic's overalls with a name tag reading Damon.

The mechanic watched as Kai pulled out his GSA card and nodded to the others to keep going.

"This ship is being tapped for a top secret mission."

"Wait! What mission? These ships aren't supposed to go back out again." Said Damon.

"Uhh, that's classified." Kai stammered.

"Yeah right." Says Damon as he turns and starts jogging towards the shuttle.

"Sir I'm going to need to see your authorization to take this craft." He shouts going up the ramp with Kai chasing after him.

"Good, Kai you made it." Said Mike as he worked the console starting the shuttle's various systems for takeoff.

"You boys had better strap in." Said Kendrix as she and Maya were both fastening themselves to their seats.

"I didn't sign up for this." Muttered Damon as he sat down.

The decompression alarms in the hanger began blaring as the doors started slowly sliding opened.

The ship's engines slowly began roaring to life as it rolled forward and out into the void.

"Ok, next stop Mirinoi." Said Mike.

"Seems Leo came through for after all." Said Kendrix.

Your right no security no alarms. Said Mike.

"Isn't that for the best?" Asked Maya. "If we'd been caught we'd be sitting right next to your brother waiting to be sent back to earth and probably prison afterwards."

Yeah but I'm worried about how he did it. Said Kai.

"Um, Can I ask what the heck is going on?" Asked Damon.

Kai turned and said. "That's kinda complicated."

Commander Stanton paced in the command center giving orders to subordinates.

"Make sure all the shuttles are on schedule. I want everyone and everything inventoried and accounted for."

"Sir." An aide reported and saluted.

Anything to report ensign. He asked.

"We seem to have a slight problem sir somebody has escaped the detention area I'm admittedly unclear why they were in there to begin with but…" he trailed off.

"Sir I'm getting some very strange reports from one of the shuttle bays. According to my readouts a shuttle has left the ship even though the staff are reporting that none are missing." A different officer reported from his station.

"I'm getting reports of the security system being offline in that area." Another added.

Stanton let out a long sigh. "Trillions of dollars put into this project and it still can't go smoothly." He thought to himself.

They'd managed to find a clearing to land the shuttle.

Kendrix turned to Damon and said. "Nobody would blame you, if you wanted to stay here."

Damon watched as the others left thinking to himself.

"I've already come this far." He says and proceeds to chase after the others.

He finds them with Maya leading the way through the thick foliage.

None of them aware of the stingwinger crouched high above in a nearby tree watching them.

The creature jumps down tackling Mike. Before the others could do someone else grabs it and slams it headfirst into one of the trees knocking it down and then kicking it's head several time to be sure it was down.

The stranger turned giving them a clear view of his face.

"Leo!" Mike shouted momentarily unable to restrain himself and grabbed his brother by the shoulders. "I thought I told you to stay behind. How did you even get here?"

"Some greeting for the guy that just saved your hides. As for how I got here, the other Leo left me a lock pick and told me what hanger you guys were heading for. I somehow managed to get there before you and hid onboard. No offense, but I gotta say though, you GSA guys have some lousy security." Leo explained.

"Yeah… well." Mike sighed and gained a small grin. "Thanks. Come on we need to get going."

A little while later

Percy POV

Back on Mirinoi I watched as the colonists mingled about watching as the stingwingers dug and picked at the alter stone.

"Alright Furio." I was saying. "This crisis is nearly averted almost everyone is here and unharmed. The only thing left is to find the girl who you said ran off earlier."

"The stingwingers that followed her should have found her by now."Countered Furio.

"According to this she seems like a more than capable outdoorsman. It's likely that she could've evaded them, stingwingers really aren't the smartest you know." I Said.

Just then six people emerged from the foliage several of them in military battle armor.

"Wait! Who are they!" I said frantically looking at the holographic display on my PAM. "There was only supposed to one other person to check off."

"Seize them!" Furio shouted. The stingwingers near them leapt into action and rapidly rushed the newcomers.

I recognized one of them though as the girl we'd been looking for, as the minions hauled four of them to their feet.

Turning to the one of the nearby expedition leaders I asked. "Do you recognize the others?" He shook his head no.

"This is likely gonna get ugly you and the others should probably go." I said.

He nodded his assent before scrambling off in a mad dash with the other pioneers.

As I looked back to the struggle, one of the ones in body armor managed to break out of the hold a stingwinger had him in.

Knocking the bug away with his elbow the apparent leader pointed his gun me. And shouted "Let them go creep."

"Please." I couldn't help but scoff. "This armor has stopped much worse than bullets"

"Maybe, but I doubt these old swords are quite as resilient." He challenged grasping the center blade.

"Wanna bet?" I thought sarcastically.

"If you so much as try it and I'll tear you apart." Threatened Furio.

I need to stop this before it really gets out of hand. I thought, having known Furio long enough to know that he'd follow through on that threat.

Of course that's when things went from bad to worse.

Soldier boy followed through on his threat. The results were both predictable and unexpected. The predictable part the bullet didn't do any damage and bounced right off. But that's where the unexpected part came in. The ricochet struck one of the stingwingers in the head killing it instantly. The guy it had been helping restrain "another person in fatigues" naturally took this opportunity to make a flying half leap, half dive, towards the stone.

I watched somewhat dumbfounded, as he used another stingwinger that he somehow managed to drag with him in his jump to cushion his fall.

As he was scrambling to his feet several of the surrounding stingwingers began to break off from their clusters to surround him. Desperately looking for a weapon he looked towards the alter stone grasped the center most blade and pulled but it didn't seem to budge in the slightest.

Idly I noticed that I had Riptide's sword form in my hand.

The older of the two was raising his rifle again. But before I could say or do something to try keep things from going any further south, a loud crack rang out and some enormous force struck my helm knocking me over. As I jumped back to my feet I realized that he'd just shot me.

Well so much for a peaceful solution. I thought.

Seeing me get back up from a headshot rightly startled him, and set him stumbling back slightly, he set one of his hands on the center most blade. Raising his weapon again he noticed that it had been cut in half.

"Looking for this?" I asked from behind him, raising the other half of the barrel crushed in my hand.

Furio cackled. "Hah hah hah, I'm beginning to remember why we've kept you around the last couple years."

"Well I suppose congratulations are in order" I said. "Up till now I've been poisoned, stabbed, set on fire, blown up, buried alive, almost drowned, and stepped on by a giant war machine, but I've never actually been shot before. I thought it'd hurt a lot more than it did really, I'm honestly feeling a little bit let down."

Yeah I'll admit I was feeling pretty macho at that moment. So naturally I was made to regret getting so cocky a minute later.

As the stingwingers began reshuffling their positions the people they were holding all made a break for it and rushing towards the two near the sabers. Similar to the guy from a moment ago they instinctively grasped at the sabers hoping to get any kind of weapon in their hand.

But unlike the guy from earlier they succeeded and in a rapid series of chinks all five of the sabers were freed.

"No I refuse to except this." Growled Furio.

"Wh- what is this energy?" Asked the blonde girl in fatigues.

"Yeah, I'm sure that probably feels great, but could you please hand over the Quasar sabers before somebody gets hurt." I said. Probably me.

"Enough chatter get them." Furio yelled at the stingwingers.

Lets see there's six of them. Only five have weapons, mystical swords they don't know how to use. Against a small army of stingwingers me and Furio. Seems that I have the advantage for a change.

I watched as the team tried to fend off their attackers but were quickly losing ground. Motioning to Furio he vanished in a swirl of green light.

Reappearing in front of the group I called out. "Hi did you miss me?"

"There they are!" Furio yelled from the edge of the woods. Brandishing his sword overhead he stabbed the ground and then the earth or Mirinoi rather started to shake and a massive crack began to form from where Furio's blade pierced the ground.

"Really Furio?" I yelled leaping to relative safety by his side. "Where'd you even pick up a move like this?"

"Where do you think?" He grunted. At least my version isn't likely to destroy an entire-

"MIKE!" Someone yelled.

A friendly piece of advice here. A rapidly growing chasm is bad news. A rapidly growing chasm that actively chases after you, and try's to swallow up you and your friends is obviously much much worse.

The leader from earlier was just barely hanging on the edge of the crevice. Another guy was rushing to pull his friend up.

Looking at them a little closer I thought they might've been brothers with how similar they looked.

"Give me your hand." I managed to overhear.

I didn't catch much of what was said after but I saw the saber change hands, and my heart jumped into my throat when the rock he was holding onto break sending him tumbling off the cliff face.

Under my mask I grit my teeth and glared at Furio. More innocent lives ruined or cut short. Just because enough is never enough for Scorpius.

The survivor turned to face us. Even at this distance I could see almost literal fire in his eyes.

At this time I started to notice that the Quasar sabers steadily glowing brighter.

As the five of them grouped back together, I looked back at Furio. He was breathing hard trying to find his second wind.

Setting my hand on his shoulder I nodded at him to let him know to stay back. Walking towards the group I began twirling riptide in my hand.

I watched as the one guy made a solo charge at me with his sword.

Once he got close enough he made a wide swing with his sword. Causally blocking it, I grabbed him with my other hand (by his face for emphasis) and hurled back towards the others. As they helped him back up I continued my advance, once I got within earshot of them I started talking.

"Your right to be angry I certainly would be in your shoes. But revenge won't bring him back." Pointing my sword at them I added. "But that's not even an option for you."

Yeah looking back I realize that last bit wasn't the most diplomatic thing I could've said. But in my defense I'd spent the last two years living and fighting with aliens, who wouldn't even look at you unless you issued some kind of death threat.

As I looked on at the group, waiting to see what they'd do next. The light I'd noticed from the sabers earlier started to get brighter and brighter. I watched as the five of them raised their swords up one by one almost as if they were in a trance.

Suddenly! The Quasar sabers released an explosion of multicolored light. Once I could see again I saw the group each now in a different colored bodysuit. Pink, blue, red, yellow, green,

"What's this power I'm feeling flowing through my body." The one in red asked.

"The Quasar sabers are even more powerful than I thought." Said Furio

"Furio what exactly am I looking at?" I asked.

"If I'm not mistaken Power Rangers." He said getting to his feet.

"And those are?" I asked pointedly.

"If the old stories are to be believed, trouble." He growled.

Old stories? I'll ask Trakeena later. Assuming I make it back in one piece. It can't ever be easy can it. I thought.

"Stingwingers!" Furio yelled.

A swarm of the foot soldiers landed around us.

"Seize them." he ordered"

The insectoids charged the rangers. I watched trying to get an idea of what I was up against. The stingwingers shot at them with blaster bolts, but rangers dodged or in a few cases I saw even managed to deflect several shots with their swords. I knew from experience that wasn't the easiest thing to do. Every time one of the rangers landed a strike a stingwinger was quickly cutdown.

Finally I called. "Enough!" And the remaining bugs returned to their position behind me and Furio.

Looking to Furio I gave him a nod silently telling him to stay back.

Why is it I always end up having to solve problems with Riptide. I wondered.

Five on one, not the best odds But I was used to much, much worse.

"I'm taking those sabers back." I said before launching forward like a shot out of a cannon.

Pink barely managed to bring her blade up I time to block my first strike. Lashing out with my leg I kicked yellow's legs out from under her. I broke away from from the pink ranger, spinning I slashed at the green ranger catching him right in the chest.

Instead of cutting through the suit and spilling blood, to my surprise a large shower of sparks was released from where I'd struck him.

Rushing at me from the other side Blue came at me with a sword thrust. In response I knocked him back with swift kick to the abdomen.

Now funny thing about the bug armor I was wearing. The antenna on my helm were multi functional. Letting me send and receive messages to and from other insect types enhancing my sense of smell majorly.

It was mind bending to smell out the top of your head at first though.

But one of their handiest functions was letting me sense disturbances in the air around me.

Why is all that relevant you ask? Because that's how I was able to sense the yellow ranger trying to attack me from above.

Best I could figure, she'd somehow managed to rapidly climb one of the countless tall trees surrounding us and had jumped down in an effort to take me by surprise.

Their that strong? That Fast?

Taking a step back I cocked my fist. Timing my punch I struck her right on the head or helmet rather sending her hurtling towards the blue and green rangers sending them tumbling over like bowling pins.

One thing was quickly becoming apparent. Having a magical weapon doesn't mean you automatically know how to use it.

Red and pink were rushing me head on. Raising Riptide to block their joint strikes our blades met with a resounding clang. Sweeping their legs out from under them I grabbed the pink one and held her up by the neck.

"I speak from experience here, it takes more than a magic sword to make you a hero."

Tossing her aside to parry Red's sword thrust and swiftly disarmed him sending his saber flying. His suit faded leaving him defenseless.

"Now while I'm having a great time here." I was saying. "the smart thing would be for you to give up."

Taking a moment I examined the battlefield.

Red was on his knees and back to normal pink was also demorphed, green, yellow, and blue were pulling each other back to their feet.

Acting quickly, I leveled the tip of my sword beneath his chin.

"Give it up haven't enough people been hurt today." I asked.

That's easy for you to say! You didn't just lose your brother and watch him fall to his death. He spat.

I've lost plenty over the years, but would your brother really want you to throw your life away in a futile bid for revenge.

"Then why? just tell me why this is happening?" He asked pressing forward defiantly, inadvertently leaning into my sword.

Under normal conditions his actions might've drawn a pinprick of blood not enough to do any real harm, but Riptide being celestial bronze doesn't work on mortals so the point harmlessly phased into his neck.

So it works on aliens, and them while they're suited up, but not while they're normal?

Seeing opportunity red dove for his sword again while pink struck at my neck, sparks showered out from the impact.

Staggering back slightly Furio joined me at my side having finally recovered from what he did earlier. The stingwingers gathering around us again.

"Hah hah hah you'll regret interfering with the will of lord Scorpius." He cackled.

The red one stood in between us and the other rangers holding his saber in both hands with glowing a bright fiery red. Pointing it skywards he brought it down pointing it towards us releasing a blast of flaming red energy blowing apart the remaining stingwingers and knocking back me and Furio back several hundred feet.

Standing back up I surveyed the fiery carnage around us. Waving a hand to extinguish the surrounding fires, I saw that red and the other rangers had all escaped through the woods

I let out a long sigh as the armor returned to my usual outfit. "Well." I said looking to Furio. "We're dead."

Well, that all just happened.

Can't say I'm hundred percent happy with this chapter especially the fight scene but I'd like to think that I managed to capture Percy's personality fairly well with his inner thoughts.

[Arc 1 Prologue and Quasar Quest]

Arc 2 New Heroes on the Block

Arc 3 Magna Defender

Arc 4 Diplomacy

Spoilers past this point.