Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship.
Others have their family—but to a solitary and an exile his friends are everything.
—Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock
The warm June days passed slowly, nervously slow lately, but it mattered little since Craig had been in and out of it for the last month or so. After Sir Vesper took that cheap shot, piercing Craig's leg with his sword, the others had rushed him to Alpha Complex. Only time could heal the wound, they said, but they did have medication that would keep the pain away. He never learned if it was a drug of Omnis origin or from Earth, but it kept his leg feeling fine and his mind behind a thick cloud most of the time. Seraide warned him not to develop an addiction because it was one of the hardest habits to break so half the time, as he did now, he perservered as pain ravaged his injured leg.
He was supposed to meet his friends at the Summit Lounge's outdoor café at one o'clock, but he got there at noon because he wanted to be anywhere but at his house. His parents had noticed his odd behavior—during his own graduation ceremony, pain began exploding through him and had it not been for Cecil's support he would have toppled over and disrupted the entire once-in-a-lifetime event—and they believed his assurances that his lapses in thinking or slacking of physical activities were temporarily things. Piano lessons, baseball, and soccer were the least of his true worries, however.
Soleron was gone. Disappeared shortly after the Rangers defeated Ego. None of the other Omnians knew where he went and were beginning to fall apart. Seraide took over the "leadership" of the group, Laurasia seemed preoccupied with a project that she refused to reveal just yet, Pyrial vigorously used Alpha Systems to scout for any trace of suspicious activity, and Talyserys, whom Craig had learned had been a high-ranking priest before becoming a Ranger, was reverting to his old profession. He had converted an unused bed chamber into a chapel and held vigil at every opportunity. Pyrial claimed now that Taerys, Eztram, Oriquin, and Soleron were all unaccounted for, the only person Talyserys would answer to was Craig. Just great.
The town was buzzing with rumors of Amber Donaldson's disappearance, too. Her parents—foster parents, Craig had discovered—had followed protocol and now everyone was familiar with the face of the missing girl. He heard whispers she was a kidnapping victim, she got caught by the terrible monsters that were appearing, Abner the Mad Professor had returned to punish her because her name was so similar to his. The truth of it was Craig knew how and when Amber had vanished, he had done the deed himself after all, but remained ignorant to what had happened after he delivered her to Soleron. And he didn't want to know.
Twilight Legion remained silent. It seemed a pattern: intense all-out assault, then months of waiting until the next round, an even more vicious attack, and repeat. It could be minutes or days or months away, but sometime they were going to renew their assaults. Craig only hoped his leg would be healed by then. If it was not...
People passing by waved to him. Friends stopped to chat a while but they remained nervous and wary around him because of the odd behaviors the pain or the drugs instilled in him. He did his best to remain normal now and caught up on city-wide gossip. Apparently the newest theory was Dominic Larson had returned and run off again, this time taking Amber with him. Dryly, Craig responded to that, "I doubt it." Sarah Collins stopped for five minutes or so and as they talked he was totally oblivious to his last month of suffering. The men and women of Ivory Glade continued on with their lives, while Craig Hopwood sat on the sidelines and watched.
A short while before the clocktower announced it was one hour past noon, Cecil joined him at the table and ordered a small lunch. He slipped his sunglasses off under the shade and unbuttoned the first button of his dark green dress shirt. "Global warming," he grunted with a twist of his nose.
"The wind off the mountain is nice," countered Craig.
"We are trapped. In an oven." Cecil smiled, taking his drink as the server offered it to him. They apparently knew each other, because they said hello and nodded to one another. "In many ways, old friend, we are trapped."
Relaxing to let another wave of discomfort pass through, he agreed absently, "Uh huh."
"It's bothering you again?" asked Cecil in a whisper. "Take that stuff they gave you, already; I can't stand seeing you in such agonistic throes."
Craig shook his head, responding, "I'm fine. I'll live." His best friend looked doubtful. "Seriously. What's going on in the world of freedom?"
"Another slow summer," the darker of the two answered. Then, finishing his drink, he squinted into the empty glass and added, "Something does seem strange, though. I wanted to talk to you about..."
"Hey!" Michael exclaimed, appearing alongside the table with Brittany at his side. "Good to see you out and about, man," he said to Craig with a pursing of his lips, the closest he ever came to a genuine smile. Michael's hair was growing longer and more tangled every time he appeared, his eyes darker and more withdrawn. He was dressed in blue jeans and a plain sky blue t-shirt.
Brittany, on the contrary, smiled brightly and said, "Hi." Her hair was shorter, cut fashionably to her shoulders and curling there, and eyes a brighter blue than before. She was in blue jeans too, but her shirt was white decorated with yellow flowers. "How are you feeling?"
He answered honestly, then motioned for them to sit down. Turning back to Cecil he began to ask him to finish his train of thought, but Cecil had replaced his sunglasses and said quickly, "I'll tell you the rest later." The strange behavior was intriguing to Craig, as usual. "Cecil Mercuric" meant the same thing as "strange behavior."
Standard conversational protocol commenced. Michael, a graduate like Craig and Cecil, had taken a job at the bigger of the Ivory Glade's two pharmacies and was enrolled in weekend classes at the community college. Brittany was operating and maintaining the information systems for Ivory Glade Savings Bank, where her older brother was a young future executive. Craig's question about Alex and Becky ignited the fire of what Cecil called "Venus-talk."
"Becky is still working at the clothing store in the mall," Brittany explained.
"Alex is at Alpha Complex most of the day," added Michael. The questioning look he received made him continue. "Pyrial is teaching him the martial arts of Omnis, Talyserys is tutoring him in religion, and Seraide is studying his pseudoine scratches."
Craig nodded and let the topic drop. Almost an hour passed before it was brought up again, in the form of three simultaneous beeping communicators. The wrist communication devices Brittany had created were amazing items; even the Omnians thought so. She had used energy or something from the Hypercoins—the true source of the Omni Morpher's powers—and instilled it into ordinary watches. Now, if and when trouble presented itself, the alarm came from a beeping wristwatch. The Morphers themselves, also thanks to Brittany, were invisible and always wrapped around the chosen teenagers' forearms.
The four youths made their way around the Summit Lounge building, Cecil lending his support to Craig, where Michael answered the call, "We read you."
"Twilight Legion is making a move," Alex's voice came through the speaker. "Four moves, actually. We have to act fast."
Instantly Michael disappeared in a beam of blue light and was followed by Brittany after she quickly glanced at Craig and received his nod. Then, drawing power out of the Morpher and using the knowledge Soleron had given him, he teleported himself and Cecil.
They touched down in Control Point just in time for Craig to pull a chair to himself and sit down before the new paths of pain opened up in his leg. Pyrial and Alexander stood watching the hologram machine in the center of the operations chamber project images of four different locations, each tainted by the presence of a hideous monster. Michael and Brittany joined them then, seconds later, Rebecca teleported in and did likewise.
"Shockahn, Tidalion, Sunymrod, and Forestron," dictated Seraide. "Each one of these monsters is not only attacking Ivory Glade from a different direction, but is also equipped with pseudoine levels equal to the Legionaires you encountered in Austria." She noticed then that Pyrial was not Craig and her eyes shifted toward the chair where he sat biting his lower lip to prevent screaming out in pain. "Get him the painkillers," she ordered.
Craig chanced releasing his lip and opening his mouth to say, "No." Everyone turned to him with puzzled or suspicious looks, but he was used to it by now. "I won't be going out this time," he explained. The Omni Morpher materialized—or, more accurately, reappeared—and he detached it, earning disapproving glances from Rangers and former Rangers alike. Slowly he extended the OmniTech Ability Band to Cecil.
"You're kidding, right?" Cecil asked, trying to contain his astonishment. Michael laughed as though he shared the sentiment. The blood drained from Alex's face.
"Any team needs a leader," replied Craig. "Maybe not the smartest, strongest, quickest, most rational of the bunch," he added with a grin, "but someone to follow." Still his friend made no move to take the offering, so he added, "For me."
Carefully, but not slowly, Cecil took the Morpher and acknowledged, "For you." He studied it for a couple seconds or so before attaching it to his own forearm. Then, turning to the other members of the team, he snapped, "Stop gawking. We have a city to save." Michael, Becky, Alex, and Brittany summoned their Ability Bands and together the five raised them high as Cecil exclaimed, "It's morphing time!"
"Omni Dragon!"
"Omni Pegasus!"
"Omni Hydra!"
"Omni Sphinx!"
"Omni Titan!"
Together the five Omni Rangers vanished in teleportation beams to battle the threatening creatures closing in. Just seconds later Seraide turned her silver-eyed stare toward Craig's direction and exclaimed in a part demanding, part fearful voice, "Do you have any idea what you have done?"
He could feel those hot instincts rising in him again. For months they had driven his leadership of the team he was responsible for and offered him a strong defense against allies and enemies alike. "Apparently not," he answered in a sharp tone.
"Transfering the Omni Power before the twenty-five year cycle," explained Pyrial quietly, "breaks Omnis tradition, religious beliefs, the law of the lords, and the Ranger honor code. The only person who ever defied this was put on trial and sentenced to execution."
"What is wrong with temporarily transferring my powers to a friend?" demanded Craig.
Talyserys entered Control Point then, his usual outfit—a match to those the other Omnians wore—had been replaced by forest green robes and silver charms. "Once the Omni Rangers numbered six," he informed Craig as he glided over from the entrance. "Almost three thousand years ago, a woman named Kerith led the team as the White Ranger. Ten years after becoming a Ranger, she discovered her parents, missing since her own childhood, were captives of the shadowed soul of Daermos. She traded her powers for her parents. Although she then, single-handedly and without her powers, defeated Daermos and reclaimed the power, Kerith returned to the royal palace and later discovered her Ability Band was forever tainted by evil. The lord at that time reluctantly held a public trial and sentenced her to death for corrupting the White Omni Ranger Power."
Craig took it all in, but it failed to inject the fear they were aiming to inject in him. "Well, Kerith gave her powers to an evil person. Cecil is not evil."
"Sometimes enemies walk among us, masquerading as friends," said Pyrial.
"I know Cecil Mercuric better than I know myself," growled Craig. "Fine. Listen to me well." He ripped the golden worry globe off of the necklace he wore and threw it to the floor, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. A rush of excitement swept through him, making the pain almost non-existant. "Omnis is dead!" he hollored, flinging the words straight toward their hearts and souls. "Like this minature golden globe. Shattered, broken, useless. As your beloved lineage spirits did to your home, I just destroyed that little world. Their laws, their religion, their folk tales, everything is gone. Even their rules concerning OmniTech."
The golden eyes of Talyserys shimmered with conflicting emotions. He was sworn to Craig and yet now Craig was shooting down everything he stood for. Finally the priest closed his terrified eyes, rolled his head back, and said simply, "You are right."
Pyrial and Seraide stood together, as far from Craig as they could be. "Soleron warned us about you," Pyrial said with scorn. Seraide buried her face against his shoulder in an attempt to hide from reality.
"SYSTEM DISRUPTION." Alpha System's voice invaded the tense moment. "MALFUNCTION. TWO IDENTICAL LIFEFORMS DETECTED. MALFUNCTION. INACCURATE SYSTEM DATA. MALFUNCTION. TWO IDENTICAL LIFEFORMS..."
Craig rushed to the nearest console and ordered, "Identify and locate those identical lifeforms, please, Alpha." Instantly a map of the entire complex appeared, one bright dot flashing in Control Point and other in Professor Donaldson's private lab. His unaccesable private lab. The Professor's file was displayed on another monitor. "It can't be," Craig whispered, breaking into a run and charging out of the large chamber and down the corridors, the intense pain becoming completely non-existant. He reached the doors to the lab...
And they were open.
Slowly Craig moved in, swinging his head around to take in the entire scene. It looked like the classic chemistry lab, complete with equipment and work stations, books and chemicals, bright lighting and sterile smell. In the hall he could hear Alpha Systems still repeating the warning and wished it would be silent so he could use hearing to locate the intruder. Eventually he made his way to the very back of the laboratory where another door stood open, leading into what appeared to be a bedroom. Sitting at a desk and typing away on the computer was an aged man, grey streaks in his dark hair, wearing a white lab coat and protective glasses.
"Hey!" exclaimed Craig. "Who are..." With the rush of adrenaline fading quickly, the rush of pain was returning into his leg. He collapsed on the floor.
The old man was hovering over him, asking, "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"
Nothing but the truth came to his mind, so he answered, "Yeah," and pointed to the injured leg. Carefully the stranger examined the wound, ran a cold finger along the incision Sir Vesper's sword had made, and clicked his tonuge against the top of his mouth. "What?"
"Pseudoine poisoning, third adaptation. It is a more recent evolution, so I would not expect the Omnians to have accurate information on it. If I could take you to my new lab..."
"You're really him!" exclaimed Craig. "Professor Donaldson!"
The Professor nodded, then patted him on the head like a child. "Let us worry about that nasty little cut now, or else it will drain your strength until you have none left. How long have you had it?" Craig answered a month. "You are either lying or are a lot stronger than I assumed. Maybe force of will is keeping you alive, but usually this type of poisoning kills in two weeks. With or without medication. I must get you to the underwater workshop and administer the antidote."
A new person entered the room, a muscular man with a buzz cut and dressed in stained and ragged mechanic clothing. "Gemini Destiny is ready to go," he announced.
"We have a new passenger," the Professor told the newcomer. "Would you be so kind as to carry him? Gently, please."
Craig felt himself being lifted up into the mechanic person's arms. Finally the pain had become too fierce, even worse than the moment he had first been stabbed. With a cold shudder, he relaxed, closed his eyes, and put his tortured spirit to sleep. The darkness welcomed him.
The gathering—the entire collection of nine people, from as many different backgrounds as possible—was tense. Laurasia, the dark woman of another world, stood for the older generation while Cecil Mercuric, the undeserving and unlikely anti-hero, stood for the younger. Their eyes were locked on one another's. Their minds were a different story.
"Tell us again," Cecil was addressing her firmly but formally. "Where did Craig go?"
A tired look draped over the alien woman. "He left to find someone who could help heal his injury. I have tried explaining this several times, Mr. Mercuric. We discovered a new strain of pseudoine poisoning, not completely unlike Mr. Revell's—" Alexander winced at the reminder. "—that needed immediately attention, which we could not provide. Our young champion then undertook the mission of locating Professor Donaldson in hopes he possessed a cure for the condition."
"Tell us now," continued the weary teenager. "Why did he not stick around and tell us himself, or mention this before we left, or take back this abomination he put around my arm?"
"It would be inappropriate for me to speak for Mr. Hopwood," she replied.
Tightening his hands into fists, Cecil growled, "I cannot get an honest answer from any one of you. This is so useless!" He reached out with his mind to touch the Omni Power that seemed to flow from the cold metal on his forearm into his entire body. Then, before he used that strange feeling to teleport himself away, he added, "If something comes up, let me know."
The next moment he stood on a rocky ledge from which he could see the entire town of Ivory Glade circulating far below. It was one of Craig's favorite spots, but his friend was nowhere to be found. Trusting what anyone said was dangerous, double so for trusting men and women from a galaxy far, far away, but perhaps they were telling the truth. Laurasia certainly had no reason to lie.
Cecil's first battle had proceeded awkwardly. Each of the Omni Rangers had split up to confront one of the monsters and Cecil had been teamed with Rebecca. Together they fought Shockahn, a strange creature with an armored shell who could roll into a ball, and discovered his ability to absorb any energy used against it and release a powerful electric discharge. Finally the Yellow Ranger joined them, informing them Sunymrod had fled from battle, and after a while Shockahn did the same. It was then they realized the monsters were not seriously attacking, running away before any actual fighting, and probably a decoy or distraction while something else happening. That was partly why he was suspicious of the Omnians; he would not put it above them to stage their own monster attack and call it someone else's.
Michael and Alexander had similar stories, so the five of them regrouped and returned to Alpha Complex, where they found Craig missing and those still remaining babbling about his health-related departure. Talyserys the big muscle man, though, was sitting in the corner, looking about ready to cry and piecing together some type of golden three-dimensional puzzle. No progress followed that, which brought him here to this parapet in the sky. The Parapet of Power. Cecil smiled, deciding that would be the new name for his and Craig's little ledge, and breathed deeply of the relaxing cool air.
"You're right, Craig," he spoke aloud to his friend, wherever he was. "The wind off the mountain is nice."
Suddenly, unexpectedly, a voice filled his ears, bypassing anything in its path straight to his hearing. "Return to the Complex immediately." It was Becky, speaking via the light itself Alpha Systems used to transfer data, including sound. Then, her voice returned, worried and clearly uncomfortable, "We figured out what we were being distracted from. And it's not good."
Cecil replied, "On my way," and reached out to the Omni Power. It was getting easier every time he used the otherworldly force.
It was his life that was getting more difficult.
Original Publication Date: 13 August 1999
