Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes. Small wonder that what he craves most is self-forgetting.
—Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
The truck door opened to allow Cecil Mercuric to climb out of the vehicle and slam the door shut once again. Adjusting his sunglasses, Cecil pretended not to be irritated as his friend—and everything short of brother—Craig Hopwood exited the pickup himself and went about filling its tank with gas. The seventh compact disc had just finished, so this should have been about their seventh hour on the road. It was times like these Cecil was glad he had developed his own little insights and philosophies of life such as the measurement of time being a conscious invention and hindrance to the progression of life; they derailed him from situational reality. Devising his own unique phrases was another diversion he used more often than he should. Situational reality?
"Sooner or later," Cecil mused, leaning on one leg against the back of the pickup and folding his arms across his chest, "you are going to have to start talking. Where better than a gas station in the middle of the Nothing Universe?"
Craig smiled, a flash of emotion that touched his radiant azure eyes. "I told you what I can tell you. The others made a promise not to say a word to anyone and I feel guilty enough already having told you as much as I did." Tall and athletic as he was, handsome and clever, thin reddish brown hair stirring in as little wind as there was here, Craig could be so simple sometimes. Get past those outwardly collected features and liberal attitude to find the stray child within.
"True," admitted Cecil, pulling a toothpick from his pocket and placing it between his teeth, the pressure often helped him cope with Craig's stubborn nature. "Let me see if I understand." Craig tilted his head back with a grin and prepared for the disbelieving review to follow. "You followed genius Brittany Elliott, beautiful Becky Spencer, your clone Alex Revell, and this new kid Michael Tracer to...to Donaldson's building outside of town. Alpha Complex is what I think you called it." Continuing without laughing seemed impossible, but Cecil managed it to his amazement. "There you meet some people who want your help. Oh, wait, not people! Aliens! From Venus!"
"I didn't say they were from Venus..."
"Aliens from Venus who need your help! 'Lowly Earthling Craig, from revered town of Ivory Glade forever hidden from the rest of society, please help us!' And let us not forget to include the computer who called you Professor, these watches that give the wearer super-powers, and you picking a fight with the lead alien. Did I get it all?"
Craig finished filling the tank and snapped, "You're going to get it, all right." He began walking toward the entrance to the station and Cecil hurried to catch up. Inside they found themselves drinks and paid for everything at the counter before returning to the truck and eventually the highway.
Holding his hand across the player as Craig attempted to insert the eighth disc, Cecil said coldly and seriously, "Start talking now or never breath another word."
"You know most of it already," sighed Craig. "All of it is true. Soleron and his friends—they're not from Venus—told us what was really going on at Alpha Complex. Professor Donaldson was trying to duplicate their special powers and before he could finish the villain they captured, named Arcanza, escaped and vowed to conquer Earth. Donaldson put these Rangers into a cryogenic state that we disrupted when we snuck inside last night and now they want to transfer those powers to us because they are getting weaker and will start going mad if they don't." Cecil fought the urge to say he thought someone else was going mad. But still, Craig had never made up a ridiculous story like this before, he had always been honest and straightforward, to a fault if that were possible. "They wanted our answers this morning."
With a nod, Cecil concluded, "And your answer was running away to Mongolia."
"I'm not running to Mongolia," growled Craig. "I'm running to Texas."
"Same difference." Shaking his head Cecil stretched out and laid his head against the window, his voice going hollow and monotonous as it always did when he was losing interest. "What are you going to do about school tomorrow? Everyone expects me disappearing without warning, but when perfect attender Craig Hopwood does not show up, questions will be asked. Do your parents know what you plan, or that you left, or that you abducted your best friend on this mad dash to Mongolia to avoid Soleron the martial artist alien from Venus?"
Craig spotted the next turn and switched his blinker on while saying, "There's no need to be snide. We're stopping again; I shouldn't have gotten that drink."
At the rest stop Craig made his way to the restroom while Cecil stretched and sat down on the bench, fishing for another toothpick. He knew something was deeply troubling his best friend and being of no help irritated him to no end. Gradually he started to relax for the first time since he was snatched away earlier that day.
Suddenly he felt pressure on his shoulder and was forced to the ground, his breath escaping at once and senses shattering. "I saw this one with him," he heard a scratchy voice above him say. "I'll keep toothpick boy busy." Another person replied with a satisfied grunt.
Cecil inhaled, closed his eyes, and as he exhaled he drove himself forward. The pressure keeping him down disappeared and he leaped to his feet, swinging himself completely around to see his assailant. A tall woman with tasseled white hair decorated with glittering decorations of many shapes stared back in disgust that could have been directed at him or at herself. "Toothpick boy?" Cecil asked innocently. "Forgive me for breathing, sparkle girl."
"Is sad you choose your last words to be sarcastic." The female attacker lunged forward, but was stopped as another person from out of nowhere slammed into her from the side.
Cecil turned quickly to see Craig running up to him, panting, "Let's go!" Together they fled back to the truck, where two more aggressors waited, two thick men scowling upon spotting the teenagers. "Stay back," warned Craig, assuming a defensive martial artistic stance.
"No need to tell me." The first two had gotten to their feet and were approaching them from behind, trapping them on both sides. "Um...Professor?" he said, his attempt to inject humor failing miserably and understandably considering the situation.
The woman with decorated hair was far from beautiful, a thug as rough and ready as they come, muscular and imposing. She wore a black outfit slashed with violet, similar to her male companion's black and orange, with the top half of a golden sun embedded on the upper left side of the chest. Both man and woman's eyes were empty and lifeless.
"Twilight Legion," Craig whispered.
"Oh, they're friends of yours!" hissed Cecil, clenching his fists and readying himself to fight despite his lack of experience. His quick mind and loose mouth had gotten him out of trouble before but it seemed extremely unlikely now. "Or friends of you Venus aliens?"
Something was happening behind him, but Cecil concentrated on his own battle. Leaping out of the way of the woman's forceful strike he returned an untrained kick without counting on the man who grabbed his leg and pulled to bring him back to the ground. Craig was there instantly, his flowing combination of hands to feet to feet to air to feet to hands knocking out the stronger man with concentrated effort. The woman panicked, mumbling something about failing her lord, and disappeared from the struggle.
Cecil kneeled down to examine the man who had come after him. "You better start explaining about this Legion something," he growled to Craig, who stood nearby lost in thought. The attacker possessed a hand-held device that looked like a cellular phone but mapped out the area they were in and showed their exact location. "And if they get a discount on global positioning."
"I can't explain it," Craig said quietly. "But Soleron can. We have to go back."
A bitter reply was on the tip of Cecil's tongue, but his attention was stolen by the fallen bodies of the other two men nearby. The flesh was melting and merging together, forming a larger body that stood up and stretched. It was a monster, a very solid form with sharp projections, a twisted face of a lizard of some type.
"Sweet," Cecil groaned. The creature roared angrily.
"I'll distract it," directed Craig, "you run to the truck. Start it, drive it, and I'll jump on when you go by. We have to get back to Ivory Glade immediately."
"Anything you say, Batman," came Cecil's response as he started his dash for the truck. Meanwhile Craig launched forward at the creature, ducking to avoid a swing of the monster's fierce claw, and retaliating with a sweep of his leg that failed its intention to trip the beast. Suddenly two bone-like projections pierced through the skin of his back as the monster slowly unfolded large wings moist with some type of substance with a poisonous tint to them. Stopping at the door to the truck, Cecil cried, "Over here!"
The monster turned as time slowed. One instant he was hovering over Craig, the next instant he was in Cecil's face, and the following minute hanging limply off the blade of a glowing golden sword. Close by, a woman in a yellow costume slid the creature off of her weapon with her booted foot and lifted her sword to the sky, exclaiming, "OmniTech Shine Saber power down!" Flashing light carried the weapon away, followed by the costume. Examining herself, the silvery haired woman seemed disappointed and nervous.
"Thank you, Seraide," Craig wheezed, "I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't have enough strength to find that...thing. Are you okay, Cecil?"
He waved, saying, "Just fine."
"This is proof Arcanza knows of you," the woman called Seraide spoke in a commanding tone that contradicted her gentle appearance. "Soleron is definitely upset with you. All of the others have accepted their fate. Why do you run from destiny?" As an apparently afterthought she added, "And who is this? Should I assume you told him everything?"
Craig nodded, eyes cast to the dead creature. "I have told him what I understand. This is my best friend, Cecil Mercuric, and I trust him with my life."
"Soleron told me you would want this." Seraide extended some type of wristband to Craig, but he made no move to accept the offer. Their eyes locked in a silent battle of wills, the younger man with the older woman, two complete strangers and two complete opposites, thrust onto the same team by this evil Arcanza person they kept mentioning. Suddenly Cecil was very bored and checked the truck to make sure it was still there in case he wanted a fast getaway.
Looking back, Craig was sliding the band around his wrist, eyes closed and mouth whispering, while Seraide sighed in relief and touched her own already worn. "OmniTech Communicator! The new Red Omni Ranger has accepted our offering. We're returning to Alpha Complex now." She turned to Cecil and told him, "Thank you for transmitting his location to us, though Soleron will be interested in hearing how you acquired a Point Navigator."
He was about to ask what a Point Navigator was, but was halted by Craig, holding his hand up with a dangerous look in his eyes. "I sense something," he said darkly, "presences. Good and evil." His strange look settled upon the scaled and winged monster. "It is still alive!"
The cry was barely out of his mouth when the monster sprung to life, wings twisting violently as they carried it higher, dark reddish black thickness trailing down the sword wound Seraide had made. "We have to go!" exclaimed the woman, grabbing Cecil's arm and pulling him away with her. "OmniTech..." Cecil broke free of her hold and scrambled toward Craig's side. "...Teleport!" Instantly Seraide disappeared in a beam of yellow energy.
Craig met the monster's stare without hesitation or any other visible emotion, his arm extended slowly to point off to the side. It was a direction, Cecil knew, to run while his best friend handled the situation, and a direction he immediately followed. Turning back to watch from a reasonable distance, both friends' lives changed in an instant.
"It's morphing time!"
As children, Craig and Cecil were inseparable. Playing in snow, looking from trouble, sharing ideas, or walking down the street, it was always the two of them. Born months apart yet they might as well have been the same person. Until recently they could predict one another's words and actions like clockwork, like two minds interconnected, together the almost-brothers were unbreakable. Now Craig Hopwood slipped a small round disc into the metallic wristband around his wrist and began to radiate with crimson energy, a single act that broke that bond.
Cecil remembered the time he made Craig believe that Joyce and Leonard Hopwood were not his true parents and Craig's father grew so upset he came a fraction of an inch from total rage. They were separate then, too. He remembered the Church production Craig was so excited to take part in, then on performance day Cecil instilled so many questions and flaws in the character his friend would portray that Craig hesitated when his turn in the spotlight came and ruined the entire play. They were separate then until they naturally drifted back together. Teasing Brittany Elliott, Craig with the idea and he with the blame, severed their bond for the shortest of intervals. Coping with the loss of Cecil's older sister split them for what seemed like eternity but brought them back as one stronger than ever.
Standing in the place where his friend had once been was someone else, a person in a suit of red holding the attention of a ferocious winged monster out of legend. And more than ever, Cecil Mercuric felt alone.
A hand grasped tightly on his shoulder and pulled him back. Focused on the empty feeling inside at the loss of his once best friend, he hardly realized it.
It was a simple room at first glance, but anyone present within for more than a minute could tell you it was anything but. This place was a throne, a shrine, a focal point, the center of the universe, a point of no return. Dark gray carpet lined the floor, soft enough to glide across if so chosen, blending in seamlessly to the lighter gray shades on the walls. On three walls was a window of glass so clean and perfect no material was visible at all until something met the cold, unbreakable surface, while the fourth wall held in place the door to an elevator that could only move down. The room at the top of the Digireign Industries building was the highest point in the walled Twilight City. And each and every thing encased in those outer walls belonged to him.
Arcanza smiled at the reflection that smiled back at him. "Everything still goes according to plan, I assume? Were it otherwise, you would be running as fast as possible away from here, until before long the Legion would capture you. And I'm sure you do not need me to explain the rest." His eyes, crystal clear and deceivingly bright, shined with satisfaction. Carefully he reached up a hand to brush his long hair, as dark as possible without being truly black, away from the aristocratic features of his face. Twenty years on Earth and he had aged little more than twenty minutes. This planet was right and ready for conquest.
"Lord Arcanza, the four members of Twilight Legion you sent after the boy were beaten, as expected," the woman reported with a shaken voice, exactly the way he liked to be addressed. "But two of them were pseudoine-evolved members. It was Serpantant that they were infused with. The team leader was also stripped of his Point Navigator by an outside factor."
Those were things he already knew, but she would be unaware of that. Arcanza had arranged for Serpantant to be sent as a last resort, should things fall short of what he intended, a sacrifice that was minor compared to some he had made in the past. "Anything else?" he demanded of her, turning to stare at the woman, tall and thin with a pale complexion and trying desperately not to lose what little balance she still possessed.
"The boy has activated the OmniTech Ability Band, Lord Arcanza."
Anything else she said after that was drowned out by his deep laughter. Outside, through the window and to the south over the temporary wall limiting his belongings, a dark storm cloud seemed to spring to life. Lightning forcefully jolted groundward from the shadow of the skies. Arcanza smiled in satisfaction. "My strike against this world has begun."
Original Publication Date: 13 August 1999
