In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it's more dangerous to lose than to win.
—George Bernard Shaw, The Statue, in Man and Superman
"I can't believe you told Soleron you planned to destroy the OmniTech," Michael griped. "You know those five dedicated their lives to preserving the Omni Ranger power and protecting all the good of the universe. Do you have any idea how much you must have insulted them?"
Sitting on a snow-covered rocky ledge overlooking most of Ivory Glade, Craig nodded for the sake of moving, not for agreement. It had been almost an entire week since his overnight rise to leadership of the most powerful force the world had seen. And his announcement that the tradition of passing the power to a new generation every twenty-five years would stop with this group.
"We never really had a choice to take OmniTech or not," Craig tried to explain himself. "Now that it belongs to us, we have a right to use it as we see fit. Earth is not fit for this type of power, neither are we."
"But OmniTech doesn't even belong to Earth!" Michael argued. "Pyrial and his friends brought it here. Actually, they crashed here and just happened to bring it along. One thing led to another..."
Craig interrupted him, "I know the story. Did you come up here for a reason, or just to irritate me more?"
"Both," answered Michael, but the humor was lost somewhere between thought and voice. "We need you to run an Analysis on a newcomer, an old retired man who arrived yesterday and moved into the empty house next door to Alex."
Another Analysis. He had run four today alone, four times four yesterday, on people the others suspected were Twilight Legion members. There had to be a better method of finding them. "How is Alex doing?"
"Fine, as far as we can tell," Michael said, sitting down next to Craig to take in the view. "The scratches still aren't healing but they aren't getting better either. Are you going to run the Analysis now or later? The others are keeping the guy stalled until you get there. What's that?"
Craig hid the golden worry globe in his jacket pocket and answered, "Nothing. Let's go not find ourselves another Legionnaire." He stood up and turned to start the trip back down to Ivory Glade, ignoring Michael's dirty look of disapproval.
By the time the party of two joined up with that of three, the tip of the golden sun had touched the tops of distant mountains and began to cast the jagged shadows of dusk. Brittany watched anxiously as they approached, Rebecca paced back and forth staring at the dimly shaded house with its "For Sale" sign and "Sold" announcement above that, and Alex was finishing tying up the bleeding scratches on his left arm with a long bandage.
"Michael said you were fine," Craig observed.
Alex flinched, shrugged, and answered, "It was fine until a few minutes ago, then the wound just opened up and started bleeding."
Leaders are such because they read between the lines. They see possibilities before they happen. They must think. Soleron's words of wisdom haunted him, but Craig shook them away and began his approach to the house, seizing the flow of power from the Omni Morpher wrapped around his forearm. He reached out to knock on the door, sensing his friends gathering behind him and preparing themselves for anything.
An old man opened the door and glared at Craig with his tired gray eyes. "I thought I told you no more housewarming gifts." He felt Becky close behind him shake with laughter.
Only an instant passed before the OmniTech Analysis was underway. Strength level, strengths and weaknesses, composition, biorhythms, everything seemed normal, another wasted effort. He was about to turn and tell them so when...
Pseudoine detected! Level 28! The man's shook his head and opened the door completely, grumbling, "Well, you children shouldn't stand out there in the cold. Come on in and tell me why you keep bothering me."
"He is," Craig turned and said to the others.
"What was that?" the elder questioned.
Craig turned back, away from the stunned looks of his friends, and told him, "I said 'We will.' Come in, that is."
"My arm is burning," Alex whispered to Craig as they filed into the entryway to the house and the elderly gentleman closed the door. "Burning," he added to emphasize.
The man continued talking, "Name's Ed, but most folks back home called me Old Ed. I already met little Rebecca. Who are your friends here?"
"Craig Hopwood," he introduced himself.
"Brittany Elliott," said Brittany, waving her hand.
Michael stepped forward to shake Old Ed's hand. "Michael Tracer."
Behind them Alex tried to avoid introducing himself, but Old Ed spotted him shying away and asked, "How did you get that nasty arm broken, young man?" It was clear Alex was increasing in pain by the moment, and Ed was getting irritated. "Do you speak?"
"We know you're a part of Twilight Legion," growled Alex. Craig really wanted to smack him one upside the head.
The elderly man's eyebrows drew together and the silver fire that flickered in the depths of his eyes was coldly disturbing. "A young cavalier like you shouldn't use such a tone."
The Analysis flared to life on its own: Pseudoine level 29 and rising. "He's increasing in strength!" Craig exclaimed to the others. Lifting the band, he exclaimed, "OmniTech Cyto Cage!" A wall of red energy began to form around Old Ed in a circular shape and Craig motioned his friends away from the small prison. The wall began to close in around the gentleman until it touched him and blended into his clothing and wrinkled skin. When it had been completely absorbed Ed stood in rigid disbelief studying the teenagers closely.
"What did you do?" asked Michael.
"Sealed off the pseudoine from multiplying," Craig explained, "but I have no idea how."
Suddenly Old Ed lunged forward to attack the Rangers' leader, but Alex instantly jumped to his defense. The old man curled his lips back in rage and growled, "How dare you!" His wrinkled skin began to melt away, revealing the true identity of the Legion member, a short wild-eyed red-fleshed monster with glassy eyes that locked steadily on his pseudoine imprisoner.
Brittany exclaimed, "Amazing! That pseudoine chemical base is absolutely incredible. First it combines two people into one giant snake-creature. Then it used Dominic's anger to change him into something fierce. Now it's being used to mask identities."
"We have to take Ed...or whoever it is...back to Alpha Complex," said Michael.
"No," Craig said firmly.
Michael gave him a considering, sharp look. "Don't be playing the gallant leader now, Hopwood, this is important. As much as you hate Soleron for what he has done to your life, he has much more experience with these..." He gestured, bewilderedly, at the monster.
Old Ed had been taken and held in tight grips by Alexander and Rebecca and was desperately struggling to free himself. "You cannot do this to me!" he hissed. "I am Fiertoth, second-in-command of the Twilight Legion! Release me at once!"
"Fiertoth," Craig repeated the name. "Commander of Twilight Legion."
Until they were practically on top of him, Craig never saw the two other Twilight Legion members, an ungroomed man in dark orange and a woman in dark violet. "Get them!" Alex was shouting. "Fiertoth is mine!" Suddenly the weight of two Legionnaires lifted and Craig was able to see them running outside, following their commander. Alex and Michael had disappeared too.
"You okay?" Becky asked.
He nodded, grabbing her arm with one hand and Brittany's with the other, and began running after the escaping people. Or were they creatures like Ed/Fiertoth, too? Somehow the Cyto Cage had been broken, probably by his loss of concentration, and had taken some of his own energy with it. The chase was difficult at first until they caught sight of their crimson main target, with his two aides, hiding with its back pressed against a building. Flames sprang up around Fiertoth, then extended to absorb the other two Twilight Legion members. Suddenly the commander of the alien forces began to increase in size, gradually at first until the final burst pushed him well toward skyscraper level. Alex and Michael arrived just as the amazing growth stopped.
"Geez!" Michael exclaimed, staring upward.
Alexander, however, was too solemn to let his amazement show. "You okay?" he asked.
"I'm alive," Craig responded flatly. He reached over to rub the Omni Morpher wrapped around his forearm. "But it's time to see that Commander Fiertoth of the Twilight Legion is not." He lifted his arm, the band began to glow with red light, and exclaimed, "It's morphin' time!"
"Omni Dragon!" Alexander raised his gleaming Morpher and instantly became the Green Omni Ranger, causing the ground around them to tremble. "Dragon OmniZord power!" The heavily-armored and yet lighter than air mechanical beast of mythology heeded the call and swept down low enough for Alex to leap—with assistance from OmniTech—into the piloting chamber.
"Omni Pegasus!" Rebecca moved the pink light of her Morpher skyward and seconds lighter was enveloped by the crackling energy of electricity. "Pegasus OmniZord power!" Directly above her, a winged horse descended from the heavens, a beautiful white and pink machine version of the Pegasus, and she leaped into the piloting chamber.
"Omni Hydra!" Michael summoned the power of the Blue Omni Ranger, almost forcefully, and energy cascaded onto him like a waterfall. "Hydra OmniZord power!" A large chasm opened in the ground, a chasm filled with actual water, from which emerged a long neck attached to a monstrous metal body with four legs that Michael jumped into as it rose.
"Omni Sphinx!" Brittany gently reached for the sky as her Morpher radiated golden light then began trickling down her arm and forming the Yellow Omni Ranger costume around her. "Sphinx OmniZord power!" Reacting instantly to her call, the Egyptian-famed animal and man and riddle-forming combination of legend arrived on scene and allowed Brittany to board.
"Omni Titan!" Craig could not tell what happened as he felt the rising surge of incredible power that always came when he changed into the Red Omni Ranger. "Titan OmniZord power!" From wherever it came the massive human-like fighting machine arrived, shining red and gold in the setting sunlight. Suddenly he felt an upward pulling sensation and found himself inside.
The piloting chamber was about four paces wide and two long. One large window in front, taking up three of the four walls, gave Craig a panoramic view of the battlefield from the middle of five chairs positioned about. About waist-high were the controls for operating the OmniZord—two movable joystick-like devices, blinking lights and monitors displaying his vehicles vital statistics. There was just enough room above him for him to reach the ceiling where a panel that activated the Megazord sequence waited.
"Activating Omni Megazord sequence," announced the Red Ranger as he pressed the black panel with four of his fingers.
Titan lifted into the air, converting into what would become the main body of the combined-five-Zords. Pegasus was separating in flight to alter itself into shoulders and arms while Sphinx did likewise to form the legs. The Hydra wrapped around the new formation and installed it with strong armor, ensured the durability of the joints, and finally converted itself into a large black-bladed sword. Finally the Dragon swooped down to settle on the new Megazord's back, supplying it with both a green and silver helmet and smooth-tipped wings.
Suddenly the other four Rangers were teleported into his piloting chamber and it became more crowded than before. Together they exclaimed, "Omni Megazord power up!" and took their positions at the controls of the mighty machine.
Fiertoth was not amused. He lashed out with a fist that sizzled with a ring of fire surrounding it only to be blocked by the Megasaber.
"Pseudoine level one hundred percent," Brittany was saying with awe. "The same as Serpentant when we fought it."
"We'll discuss it later," Craig instructed her coldly. "Focus."
The Megazord was rocked by a strike that connected directly with its target, mere feet below the window of where the Rangers were. "Minor damage to torso," reported Michael. "Lost a little stamina, and probably need a couple repairs, but still at full energy."
"Megazord Ion Beam fire!" ordered Craig. Alex depressed the button that discharged four powerful rays of light from the palms and eyes of the Omni Megazord. Fiertoth was stunned by the surprise attack and channeled his fury into a charge that knocked his opponent's vehicle to the ground. "Get us up!" Craig shouted at Brittany. "Charge the Megasaber," he said as he turned to Rebecca. "Relax some unnecessary Analysis energy to Defenses." The Yellow and Pink Rangers gave the thumbs-up sign.
Leaning forward as the Megazord stood and prepared to strike with its weapon, Craig summoned an incredible amount of power from the OmniTech. "I need a better view for this to work," he muttered to himself.
"For what to work?" asked Becky, but he teleported out with no answer.
Standing atop the Megazord and facing the burning irritation of the Twilight Legion's most powerful member next to Arcanza, or at least he believed that was the case, Craig realized the incredible amount of power he was drawing had de-morphed him back into his street clothes. Wind laced with heat tossed his thin hair every which way and moisture formed effortlessly on any skin exposed to the air. In his mind he could see the desired result and hoped against hope he kept enough strength to pull this crazy idea off. Lifting the Morpher, unnecessary of course but nice for display, he cried out: "OmniTech Sever Barrier!"
Fiertoth noticed him on the Zord's head and positioned himself to deliver another fiery strike in that direction. Suddenly he stopped. Not a lowering of his fist, or a distraction of attention, but he just stopped cold and remained motionless. The fire was dispersing rapidly.
"Now!" Craig gasped into the communicator. He watched as the Megasaber was raised to the sky, seemingly beginning to gather all of the light around the area as the blade changed from black to stainless white, and was brought down powerfully and sharply. It sliced directly through Fiertoth. The monster lasted perhaps five seconds after, then exploded into millions and millions of tiny fragments that fell to the ground as heated dust on the wind.
Back in the piloting chamber, the other four Omni Rangers cheered at their victory. Perched on the highest point, from which he could see the entire city of Ivory Glade and the row of devastation they had left, Craig Hopwood sat down to catch his breath.
The men and women dressed in orange and violet carried boxes as they marched in straight lines through the underground caverns far below the surface of the earth. The location was just above Earth's mantle but protective barriers made of invinsilver—a remarkable discovery after a spontaneous test of living pseudoine on non-living silver-prevented magma and heat from searing them all where they stood. Soon they would be the first group to reach their new home, from which Arcanza would set his final, ultimate plan into action.
"Neo Twilight City will soon be reality," he reported with a dark smile, "and no one outside the Legion will know the location of the heart of the empire that will soon control this world and, eventually, every world." The woman beside him nodded, but remained frightfully quiet. "Do you have something to say?" Arcanza demanded, stopping and turning toward her.
The woman was rubbing her hands together nervously now, and stuttered, "I...I do, Lord Arcanza. I was just given word. Fiertoth has been destroyed by the Omni Rangers."
He should have been enraged, but the news washed over him without emotional reaction. Calmly he returned questions, "What was he doing confronting them? He is supposed to be in Ivory Glade monitoring them."
"The Rangers confronted him, my lord," she replied. "I know little more than that."
"You know nothing," he growled disgustedly, and with a wave of his hand a surge of concentrated black lightning enveloped the woman's body. Every molecule was ripped apart from the next except the pseudoine which, unfortunately, was not affected by his incredible power. "Now I have replacements to make. Finding a replacement for Fiertoth will be difficult, but probably for the best; it was true he was slowly losing his mentality. You, on the other hand, can be replaced by..." He kneeled down and picked up a smooth oval rock, admiring its perfect shape and fit in the palm of his hand. "This rock." He laughed adversely and continued walking toward the same destiny on a new path.
In the confrontation of old Rangers and new, Soleron clearly believed he ranked highest among them and acted accordingly. Instead of congratulating the fighters, or asking how they fared, or inquiring about any number of others subjects, he examined his replacement Craig with interest. "OmniTech," he said slowly, "Sever," he continued with interest, repeating the sour words that had ended the battle with Fiertoth, "Barrier."
"Yes." The tone Craig used intentionally challenged the bossy alien.
"Craig, stay cool," Brittany whispered. Seraide was saying something similar to Soleron.
Finally the leader of the retired Rangers nodded. "The battle was impressive and each of you performed your tasks well. We have some things to discuss. Talyserys..."
The muscular man with golden eyes who looked much older than he actually was—or, perhaps, considering he was in a cryogenic state for twenty years, was the only one who looked his true age—stepped forward and motioned toward the scratch down Alex's arm. "That was given to you by Dom Coyote during battle, correct?"
"Yeah," the younger man in green answered, rubbing it gently. "It feels okay now."
"Seraide and the rest of us believe, only you could know for certain, the Legionnaire was being possessed by Arcanza's tainted pseudoine at the time." His eyes went dark as though reflecting his inner mood. "If that is so, it is possible some pseudoine entered your system. Though merely using the OmniTech once will protect your body from alien agents, that substance will remain right where it is in your arm. And if it nears other source of pseudoine, it will react."
Alex grew uneasy, but must have been prepared for unfavorable news like this. "That's why my arm burned whenever I got near Fiertoth, and why I was able to track him when he fled." Seraide nodded affirmatively.
"While we are addressing pseudoine-related things," Craig began, but Soleron snapped, "We are not finished. There is still the matter of your talent for creating barriers. Dangerous barriers. You have done it twice now: once to separate your logic from your emotion—inside yourself, lineage bless us!—and twice to separate pseudoine bases from the rest of the series in Fiertoth's DNA structure. Not only things you should not be able to do, but places you should not have the ability to reach. You are more adaptable to OmniTech than anyone. Ever. Which means in twenty-five years, when this cycle is up, you not only might but certainly will lose sanity. Stop using these barriers immediately. Now, you were saying?"
Craig stood, biting his bottom lip and clenching his fists tightly. He knew from Soleron's icy stare that this was no deliberate lie or selfish order. Soleron was seriously concerned about him. "I..." he began, pausing a moment to think.
"You...?" Soleron probed.
"...want to apologize," the Ranger finished. "For what I said last week. I didn't realize how much I had insulted you and your legacy until I felt their presence myself. I can feel their courage and sadness and emotion when I'm using OmniTech. My promise, my pledge to you, is that I will preserve this power until it is my time to relinquish it."
Soleron did not smile, but the expression was probably his equivalent. Pyrial did, though, and Seraide and Laurasia. Talyserys and Michael nodded approval. Alex put a comforting hand on Craig's shoulder. He could not see Becky's and Brittany's reactions.
"We both show progress in trusting one another," said Soleron solemnly. "Perhaps someday it will not be an issue. Your apology is noted, accepted, and I offer my own, for appearing too critical and too demanding. It is as difficult for us to understand you as it is for you to understand us." With that, he turned and left Control Point.
Craig allowed a moment of silence before turning to Seraide and continuing. "When I was running from Serpentant his pseudoine level was increasing slowly. Don, too, had a slow-moving level but it never reached one hundred. Fiertoth, however, went from thirty to one hundred in less than a few minutes. What do you know about its multiplication?"
"Nothing," Seraide replied, "other than a few select Twilight Legionnaires control their own levels, whereas the rest are totally dependent upon Arcanza's bidding. I would imagine the commander of his forces would be trusted enough to be in the first category."
"Sure," Craig agreed. "That's all." He turned to his friends and asked, "Ready to get back to Ivory Glade now?" They walked with a four-Omnian escort to the exit and stood together in silence before heading toward the final shades of the setting sun.
Original Publication Date: 13 August 1999
