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Twice Chosen
As Liv had predicted, she, Thresh and I had to don our armour once again as we reached the outskirts of the city that had been identified as Terra Venture, as we were troubled by a greater need to cough and a shortness of breath after walking for only a few minutes. After that, the other Rangers morphed as well, although in their case I guessed that the purpose was to avoid drawing attention to their civilian identities hanging out with us. We moved briskly down the hill and soon found ourselves walking through the city we had previously only seen at a distance, allowing us to take it all in at a more gradual rate.
The further into the city we went, the more I found myself feeling ashamed to think about how little my own culture had accomplished since the last war. History had never been my strong point, but obviously District Twelve hadn't advanced that far over the last few decades, as aside from the Victor's Village most of our homes just met the bare minimum of what we needed to stay alive. From what I'd seen of District One and the Capitol, even the most well-off locations in the Capitol hadn't bothered to do much to improve on our standard buildings beyond what people had built before the wars. This place showed some large buildings similar to what was in the Capitol, although they were made of metal rather than stone, but there were various other buildings as well, including elaborate domed structures, buildings that rose to the sky in in complex spirals, and a few short buildings that included signs on the side that gave the impression there was more underground than what she was seeing.
"It's the challenge of bringing so many species together," Trip put in as he noticed where I was looking. "Our city leaders take pride in accommodating the needs and interests of all citizens, but that does mean taking care that certain cultural issues are taken into account."
"Meaning…?" I asked uncertainly.
"Some species are just more comfortable underground rather than building upwards," Maya put in. "It helps that those species are skilled diggers on their own, so nobody's put to any trouble they wouldn't be invested in themselves, but it made it tricky to set it up so the look works."
"And… why's that important?" Liv asked, looking around the streets as we kept walking. I was trying not to draw too much attention to my interest in case people started making fun of the inexperienced Power Rangers, but the sheer variety of aliens around us was… I didn't want to feel like they made me uncomfortable after the way I'd felt out of place in the Capitol, when I at least had no reason to think these people didn't respect us as Rangers, but it was still unnerving.
"Terra Venture's whole purpose is to promote intergalactic peace," Andros explained, indicating the city around us with a proud tone to his voice. "We have to accommodate all kinds of different species with different living requirements."
"Intergalactic?" Thresh asked, even if he was clearly as impressed by the implications of that term as I was.
"The planet Mirinoi is located at a point basically exactly between at least four space empires," Karone took up the explanation. "The colony of Terra Venture was established here so that the various races in those empires could come together and interact directly, rather than remaining at a distance and never truly communicating with each other."
"So… you all hang out and you all basically realise how you can get along, so your people back on your home planets realise they can do the same?" Liv asked.
"An oversimplification, but yes," Trey affirmed. "I serve as one of the main representatives of the peace process, as my father is the king of Triforia."
"Triforia?" Liv asked.
"My civilisation is one of the first to achieve a level of mastery over the Morphing Grid, and my family have a long-established tradition of serving as Rangers-"
"Hold on; you're a prince because you're a Ranger?" Liv cut in.
"Prince?" I repeated, vaguely recalling the term from history even if I couldn't remember the context. "Isn't that… you mean that your father's kind of like a president?"
"Basically Trey is more like the child of the equivalent of a president, and there's a whole thing about how a prince's family have been in charge for years because they proved themselves in the past; we can get into that later," Liv said, before she turned back to Trey. "But seriously, how does that work? Zordon told us that we explicitly couldn't use our powers to become leaders back on our world…"
"Which is just as it should be," Trey nodded in understanding, and I only now realised that only the central face was talking as he spoke to us. "My father rules our planet and as long as I act as a Ranger one of my brothers will serve as my father's heir if anything should happen to him. It is a long-standing tradition for one of the royal family to serve our people as a Ranger, but that duty comes out of the desire to protect and serve our people; our status as royalty is completely independent of our history as Rangers."
"OK," I nodded in acknowledgement. It still sounded a bit questionable to me based on Zordon's previous warnings, but if it worked for Trey's people I didn't want to make things difficult by asking awkward questions. "So… where are we going?"
"Here," Trip said, as we stopped in front of a large building with a symbol like a lightning bolt on top of it. "This is our base."
"Your base is this public?" Thresh asked.
"Nobody can enter the facility without a link to the Morphing Grid or clear permission from an active Ranger," Trip affirmed. "It's a good way to make sure people know where to contact the Rangers if we're needed, but we all maintain other lives and duties in other parts of the city. Trey's family ties to the Rangers are known, but his presence is relatively discreet and there are others from Triforia who come here to facilitate the peace process."
"So people think that you just work with the Rangers?" Liv grinned as we walked up to the main entrance. Tyzonn reached over to wave the hilt of his sword against a panel next to the front door, which lit up just before the door opened.
"Your sword is your power source?" Liv asked in surprise once our group was inside the building.
"The Quasar Sabers were left in stones until the time came when true wielders could claim them in defence of this part of the galaxy," Karone explained, even as we continued to walk along the corridors.
"Swords in stones to choose the ones who will wield power?" Liv looked at Karone curiously. "That's… it rings a bell… something I heard back home…"
"You probably did hear something like that," Karone smiled at my team's Blue Ranger. "You'll find that's one of the mysteries of the Zeo Crystals. Just as they influence the pattern of evolution on the worlds where they bring life, some tales and myths reach out across the Morphing Grid to leave echoes across other civilisations even without them ever coming into contact."
"Which is one reason we all have a concept of swords, huh?" Thresh put in. "I mean, I kinda assumed our weapons changed to fit something we knew like our zords were modified to fit something local, but if you know about swords…"
"Swords are certainly weapons that have a… historical significance to a wide range of cultures, certainly," Trip nodded at the Black Ranger as we walked into a large chamber with various weapons and objects arranged around it. Even with my limited experience, I could see echoes of Ranger technology in some of the weapons, such as a bow and axe that put me in mind of Glimmer and Thresh's designated weapons when we were morphed. However, even with all these other weapons around the room, it wasn't hard to confirm which was the Sword of Light; the largest weapon in the room hung suspended in the middle of the room, a blade of solid gold covered with jewels in a range of colours such as red, yellow, blue, green, pink, white and even some kind of black gem.
"Nice," Thresh said as he studied the sword, clearly having come to the same conclusion I had.
"Yeah, that's it," Tyzonn nodded at him. "It's mostly useful for the power it possesses rather than as a weapon in itself, so it's not often used in combat, but it's a powerful asset to those who know its full potential."
"And on that topic, what do you need the Sword of Light for, exactly?" Karone asked, the Pink Ranger looking at us in a very pointed manner. "I mean, you said your team's Green coin was corrupted, but do you have a new candidate in mind?"
"The rest of our team are working on that," I said.
"And you can't just purify the coin and give it back to its current wielder?"
"The guy using it now has… a lot of issues that precede him becoming the Green Ranger," I said, unsure how much I should share about our team's history even if I knew I wasn't going to go into detail about my own history with Gale. "He wouldn't be a good fit even if we could deal with his main issues; we need the Sword of Light if we're going to take the Coin back and put it in… more stable hands."
"How did the coin even get corrupted?" Maya asked.
"Long story that… well, it's probably not our place to say," Liv shrugged. "The point is that we have a plan to deal with this, but we need the Sword if we're going to get the job done."
"A challenging situation," Andros said.
"Which certainly justifies your need for the Sword," Karone added.
"Which is why I will accompany you back to assist you in this effort," Trey put in.
"Huh?" Thresh looked at the Gold Ranger in surprise. "I thought Tyzonn said he was gonna come back with us?"
"I am," Tyzonn nodded at us. "But from what you've told us about the current situation, it seems as though Trey's services would be useful to you at this time."
"Your 'services'?" Liv looked at Trey curiously. "What does that mean?"
"If you need them, you'll see when we get to your planet," Trey replied with a brief smile on all three of his faces, before he adopted a more curious expression. "And on that topic, what can we expect from your people in terms of how they will react to our presence?"
"In a nutshell, be careful," Liv said. "We've basically been fighting against our planet's existing government even before we had to deal with Green going psycho on us, and we're trying to keep up a balance of doing damage to stop our leaders without crossing the line and do something that might put innocents at risk."
"You're fighting your government?" Maya asked.
"They've been… to say they don't deserve power is an understatement," Liv said firmly. "We actually met because we were forced into a contest where we were all expected to kill each other for the amusement of others because of a failed revolution that happened at least three generations before any of us were born; is that the kind of thing a good government does?"
"…Yeah, that's the kind of situation where we can't just ask you to stay out of it all," Andros nodded, giving us a sympathetic smile before he looked at me. "And you're sure you can adhere to the rules?"
"We have no intention of taking power once the government has been dealt with," I nodded back at my fellow Red, suddenly wishing I could ask him for more help even as I also knew my current campaign was the kind of situation where not even another Red Ranger could truly understand me. "We're going to make sure our current leaders are no longer in power, and then we'll… well, we'll still be available if anything comes to our planet for the Zeo Crystal, but we're not going to take charge."
"You'll let someone else take power?" Trip asked.
"We'll step in to make sure nobody's going to repeat the last administration's mistakes, but we won't be candidates ourselves," Liv said firmly.
"…We believe you," Andros said after receiving a brief nod from Trip. The purple-eyed Red Ranger walked over to place a reassuring hand on my shoulder for a moment, before he stepped back to look over at Tyzonn and Trey. "You'd better get going; the sooner this is all dealt with, the better for them."
"We appreciate that," I said, as I joined Liv and Thresh in walking over to the Sword of Light. Reaching out, I was expecting to touch a barrier of some kind around the Sword, but was surprised when my hand passed right through the material surrounding the weapon. I quickly adjusted my arm to reach up and grab it by the hilt, taking the Sword out with surprising ease.
"Wow…" I said, taking a couple of practise swings with the weapon. "It's so light…"
"Only if you have a good reason to want it," Tyzonn noted with a smile. "Believe me, if you weren't here to take the Sword for a good reason, you'd never be able to carry it like that."
"One of those cases where you can only carry the sword if you're worthy to wield it, huh?" Liv seemed to be grinning under her helmet as she turned to look at me. "You just keep surprising everyone, huh?"
"I'm surprising myself these days," I smiled, before I looked over at the local Rangers. "We teleported over here; can you get us back to our planet?"
"We can focus our base's energy and transfer your grid access tools back to your planet of origin," Trip nodded at me, walking over to a control console that seemed to have just appeared against one wall of the room.
"Grid access-?" Thresh began.
"Our Power Coins," Liv clarified, indicating the belt where her own coin was on display before she looked over at Trip. "Out of curiosity, is this one of those… automatic bits of knowledge we get from being a Ranger, or do we have to learn how to do that kind of thing?"
"A bit of both," Trip shrugged. "The instinctive knowledge provided by the Grid makes it easier, but each of us have our own expertise; if you're the team's science expert, you have the opportunity to learn, but you still need to work at it."
"Hold on; you're the science guy?" Thresh looked at Trip in surprise. "I thought blue was-"
"That may apply according to the rules defining your own access to the Grid, but keep in mind that we access the Grid in a different way," Trip pointed out. "Blue may be your team's genius, but Green is ours."
"But Red is always the leader?" I looked over at Andros.
"One of the most consistent rules of the Grid," Andros nodded in confirmation. "There have been rare exceptions, but it required very particular circumstances."
"I see," I said, briefly considering and disregarding the idea of asking about those details. If the only way for a Red to not be the leader required 'very particular circumstances', I wasn't going to try and find what kind of loophole that might involve when my team had more than enough problems to face right now. "Well… let's go."
As Tyzonn and Trey walked over to join my own teammates, Trip gave the five of us a thumbs-up (and how that gesture meant the same thing across planets was another mystery to me) before he turned back to finish adjusting the controls.
"We'll be back soon," Tyzonn said, he and Trey waving their swords in a strange manner before the increasingly familiar surge of energy hit us-
We were back in the ship that had become our new home, the strange shifting sensation fading once again as I registered Peeta and Glimmer standing alongside Alpha in front of the wall that usually displayed Zordon, Trey and Tyzonn now transformed into their own Ranger armour. However, the thing that I hadn't been expecting to see was the figure standing between the other two morphed Rangers, looking at the five of us with obvious surprise.
"Johanna Mason?" I said, unsure who I was addressing with that question.
"That's me," Seven's most famous (and most recent) Victor said as she gave me a brief nod. "I'm told you all think I'd look good in green?"