Previously on Omni Crusade...
The Omni Rangers held a conference, reflecting on their present situation, its ties to the past, and came to the decision to actively pursue Twilight Legion instead of waiting around for them to make a move. Xe'ex cast a mood-altering spell over the city of Ivory Glade that made everyone, the Rangers included, hostile to one another. Cecil's OmniTech Band activated itself and freed him from the influence of the spell, but his four teammates surrendered their Morphers and left. The new Pseudo Ranger confronted Cecil on the street outside the Genetopia Building and threatened his life, but unexpected advice from Corout enabled the Red Ranger to turn the tide of the battle. Craig Hopwood reappeared, weilding a mysterious and dark new power, and revealed the true identity of the Pseudo Ranger to be Michael Tracer. Craig informed Cecil that he was going to save Alexander and kill Michael, and that the Rangers should focus on completely eliminating Twilight Legion. After learning this new information, the spell over Amber, Rebecca, Brittany, and Bane was broken. Realizing unity in Ivory Glade was needed to overcome the Legion's power, the Rangers revealed their true identities on television. Arcanza, whose soul is still alive and inside Craig's mind, informs him that Twilight Legion is bound for the Nexus, the dead and empty space that remained after Meridian-Omega's implosion.
At the clock tower at the center of the city, the Omni Rangers confront Xe'ex, who was also a former citizen of Ivory Glade. Xe'ex grows, transforms into a giant demon, and fiercely battles the Crusader Megazord until Xe'ex's own concentrated attack destroys him. An aurora of lights appeared in the sky after the fight. Craig contacts Cecil and tells him where Twilight Legion is headed. Corout informs Michael that Trinity Rising has been finished, and Michael orders all Legionnaires begin gathering at the Genetopia Building immediately. On New Omnis, remnants of the defeated Rapture Legion discovered and attacked Eztram's hideaway, forcing them to flee the planet. Seraide, taking the Spirit Seal with her, boarded Hypegon Shadow and headed for the Nexus as her premonition dictated. Pyrial, Laurasia, Talyserys, and the amnesiac Soleron followed on the larger ship Meridian Hope. Back on Earth, Craig disguised himself as a Twilight Legionnaire and snuck into the Genetopia Building despite Arcanza's frantic resistence to the plan.
"I've already told you," Becky sighed, nervously rocking back on the soles of her feet, "I don't know when we'll be back."
A small fire lit hours before was still burning in the fireplace, casting warm and comfortable heat across an otherwise cold and downcast family meeting. Richard Spencer sat, displeased, in the chair closest to the fire, his eyes firmly locked on his daughter. Becky's mother, Diane, rocked back and forth in the living room recliner, still visibly stunned after learning that her firstborn child was a Power Ranger, and hearing just a short while ago that the same child was leaving for a distant planet in outer space before sunrise. The younger children, Katie and Ellie, lounged on the couch with wide-eyed gapes and a anxious silence, the same one all of the girls used when one of them was in trouble.
Her father, the daily newspaper with the headline "Rangers Revealed" crumpled in his right hand so much it was beginning to fall apart, broke the silence. "You don't have permission to go." Richard spared a glance in Diane's direction as he spoke. "In fact, now that we know, you're going to have to stop being a Power Ranger."
"You can't be serious!" Becky screamed. Curiously, as her anger rose, the Omni Morpher openly displayed around her forearm grew increasingly hotter. "This is my responsibility. Alex is depending on all of us to save him!"
"It's too dangerous!" Richard snapped, flinging the already ruined newspaper into the fireplace. "What happened to Alex could happen to you next; neither your mother or I wants to see that. We're only doing this for your safety, Becca. You have to understand."
Clenching her fists until they were so tight her nails dug deep into her palms, Becky inhaled sharply before renewing her argument. "You have no right to stop me from going," she informed him. "I only told you so you wouldn't worry, not so that you could decide whether I could go or not. There's nothing that's going to hurt us; all we have to do is travel to this Nexus place, save Alex, and come back home."
Until now, Diane had remained quiet and composed, but as she stood up all of that composure bled away, becoming tears and sobbing. She grabbed Becky and hugged her, saying inbetween gasps of air, "Don't do anything stupid, honey."
"I won't," Becky assured her, hugging her back. Looking up at her father, she saw he was still angry, staring at the burning fire instead of staring at them. Quickly she freed herself from her mother's embrace and announced, "I have to get going. We're meeting soon."
Ellie and Katie, unwilling to move from the couch, said together, "Bye, Becca." Katie added, "Take some of the cookies I made yesterday for the aliens, okay?"
Smiling, Becky shook her head no, and lifted the arm with the Morpher attached. "Good-bye, everyone," she told them. "I love you." The teleportation beam hid the tears that followed.
Darkness stretched out in every direction beyond the glass. There were three glass walls enclosing the central command chamber of the newly-built ship, sloping upward to meet in a single point at the top. Somewhere before reaching the top, however, the transparent glass stopped and the translucent, stained glass began. Golden, violet, black, and bright blue, all arranged to resemble three hands, one on each side and all of them reaching for the apex. That depiction was similar to the image engraved on Arcanza's Trinity Seal, and it was fitting to place it at the highest point of Trinity Rising.
The new ship had taken months to build. Using the Genetopia Corporation as a cover, members of Twilight Legion had bought all of the necessary material from other worldwide companies, recruited new members to replace many of those that had been lost, and created a perfect hiding place literally right under the noses of their enemies. Now, in all its finished glory, it had to be the end result of one of the biggest, fastest, and most intense projects ever completed on this pitiful world. It was the size of three rectangular ships all joined together at one point in the center, which was where the piloting chamber had been built above. Elevators connected this place to all three individual sections, and the clear windows enabled him to see the entire ship in addition to the dark cavern below the Genetopia Building where his subjects had built this holy vehicle. Even Corout, the groveling, sad excuse for a commander and subordinate, who had overseen such important undertakings as the Solar Research Project, construction of the Rapture Fortress on New Omnis, and development of the Pseudo Morpher, was impressed by Trinity Rising. And, best of all, it was ready to take off.
Michael Tracer rested his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. It was cold down here, but although he noticed it he could not feel the freezing temperature in the piloting chamber. He could not feel anything at all. Slowly, his right hand caressed the Pseudo Morpher attached around his left forearm, ensuring its slow and steady circulation of power was active. For as long as he had lived, Michael had been blessed with enhanced strength and unique innate abilities, due to the fact both his parents were infused with the dark DNA base pseudoine. That meant that he alone—well, in addition to a very few native wild animals of New Omnis—possessed natural pseudoine. It pulsed through his veins, interlaced among his cells, and altered his brain every single second of his life.
He heard the elevator moving, and as he looked outside he could see Corout's reflection in the glass as the Omnian arrived on the bridge. "Lord Tracer," he announced horasely, "all six hundred and sixty-four members of Earth's Twilight Legion and New Omnis's Rapture Legion have been gathered onboard. All preparations are complete."
"Ahead of schedule?" Michael mused, twisting his lips into an amused smile. "Very good. But I still want to depart at sunrise. Come back shortly beforehand and be ready to initiate take off procedure."
"Of course," Corout muttered, before taking the elevator back down.
Everything changes today, Michael thought to himself. Soon the universe will be mine.
Carefully, the Betrayer reached toward a switch on the panel in front of him. Radiant blue light, shaped like a column, surrounded him; this was a mental image projector and, the minute it was turned on, every person aboard the ship could see his image, could hear his breathing, could smell his scent, could sense his eagerness, could feel the depths of his power and presence. "Greetings, my combined Legions."
Michael smiled, although he could not feel joy, he knew enough to simulate it for the sake of appearance to his followers. They cannot know I am betraying them...yet.
"With the rising of the sun on the Old World, the Rising will begin. Soon we will be bound for the Nexus, the center of the universe, and there I will transfigure before all of your eyes. I will become the second god of the Trinity of Darkness, and bring back your Lord Arcanza in the process. All of us will ascend together. And, together, we will crush those who have crushed our lives for so long. The Legion will rule the universe! And when our glorious Eternal Demon re-emerges into this reality, immortality and ecstasy will be ours at last."
Trinity Rising began to shake violently, and Michael cut off the mental image projector so nobody could him stagger backward. There was a very faint roaring noise coming from all around and below him. "They're cheering," he laughed to himself, realizing his words had reached their targets. "Oh, the hell with it. We're taking off now." He stood up straight once more and began scanning his computer panel for the communications button. "Now, where's Corout?"
"Where's Becky?" Amber asked worriedly, pacing back and forth between her seat on Gemini Destiny's bridge and the entry door several feet away.
Everyone had been gathered for almost half an hour now, except for Rebecca, and they were anxiously awaiting her before taking off for the Nexus. All of them had gone home to inform their friends and families of what they had to do to save Alexander and to say good-bye before the journey began. Cecil had been the first back, so he was able to hear the other Rangers' reports as to how the news was being received. Brittany's father and older brother had already seen the revealing news broadcast, and although not giving their blessing they were understanding of why she had to leave. Brittany herself was not enthusiastic about the trip. Even now, she sat quietly in her chair, staring blankly at monitors displaying several angles of the Genetopia Building.
Amber returned next, and reported she had extensively told both her parents, Charles and Vicki, the truth about the situation. They were hesitant at first, but eventually agreed it had to be done and wished her a safe journey. Bane had spent all of his time at the Manus house, locked in Rachel's bedroom, and returned to the ship a little while ago. Standing against a crystiglass wall, with his arms folded and eyes closed, he looked at the same time content and excited. The dye had been washed out of his hair, and it was its natural light blue color again, and it hung free and loose down his back.
Oriquin had returned shortly himself. Cecil had no clue where the Omnian lord had gone, and there was no hint or answer given to him. "I am glad you four have decided to come," he had said. "We will wait for Becky until sunrise." That gave her a little under twenty more minutes to get here.
"I used to dream about this," Cecil said suddenly, surprising not only himself, but the others around him. "Going on an adventure. Just like the Lord of the Rings or Masters of the Universe. Saving the entire universe seemed a lot more exciting and less dangerous when I was a kid." He picked up a sheet of paper, crumpled it up, and threw it into the trash can near the entry.
"Cecil," Amber began, sympathetically. Her expression was a mixture of confusion and compassion. "You couldn't be more of a dork if your name were Dork Dorkinson." She busted out laughing behind both hands. Brittany sighed and smiled weakly. Bane chuckled to himself, and even Oriquin betrayed the first signs of laughter.
"Don't laugh," he whined. "Fine. I'll stop talking." Folding his arms across his chest, Cecil swiveled around and studying the building on the monitors.
Brittany coughed into her fist to clear her throat, and announced suddenly, "I spent most of my time before now working on this." She reached into her jacket pocket and set a vial of dulled yellow liquid on the console in front of her. "Theoretically, it's an anti-pseudoine serum. But I can't test that theory because all of the potential subjects being kept underneath Eurren Research Center broke free yesterday. And, until we test it, we won't know for sure if it will cure Alex when we find him."
"What about Bane?" asked Amber, turning to the New Omnian. "You've been infused with pseudoine your whole life. Can we test it on you?"
Bane frowned, his face contracting as though considering it for a moment, and then he shook his head firmly. "No. I need every advantage I can for my rematch with Salodis."
A few minutes later, the bridge entry door opened and Rebecca entered quietly, giving a start at seeing everyone already gathered for departure. She blinked and began, "Sorry I'm...late? I thought we had until..."
The entire bridge was flooded in red light and blaring alarms. Becky and Amber threw their hands over their ears, and Cecil fought the urge to do the same. He jumped to his feet, startled, just as Alpha-S2 entered through the already opened door. "Code Blue! Large energy activity originating from Ivory Glade!" Alpha exclaimed. "Too large to triangulate! Ay-yi-yi!"
Cecil flipped a switch on the console and turned off the alarms so everyone could hear him say, "We know where it's coming from." The largest monitor suddenly came to life, displaying the Genetopia Building on its live image. Almost instantaneously the building came apart, the east wall falling east, the west wall falling west, and crushing every other building around it as it opened like a flower in spring. An engine roar pierced the pre-dawn sky and an intense light erupted from below the building. A spacecraft with three conjoined sections rose from the opening, its shape black and ominous against the white backlight. "Michael thinks he's getting a head start."
"We have to leave now!" Amber cried, taking her seat and fastening her safety belt.
"Wait," Becky said as she herself sat down directly next to Cecil, "what about Craig? Is he coming with us?" She clicked the belt in place and turned to him for an answer.
Oriquin switched control of Gemini Destiny from Cecil's console to his own, and answered Becky's question as well. "There is no choice anymore. Craig is on his own." Then, to Alpha, he asked, "Are all systems stable?"
"Every system has been checked, and is in perfect or above-satisfactory condition," Alpha-S2 reported.
Lifting his hand, Cecil grabbed everyone's attention and cleared his throat so their steady stream of nervousness quieted down. On the monitors, Michael's ship was already at a greater altitude than theirs and beginning to break free of gravity altogether. "Get ready, everyone," said Cecil, hardening his voice. "We're blasting off now."
"Seraide!"
"This is Hypegon Shadow. I acknowledge and read you, Meridian Hope."
"Finally! What's wrong, Seraide? Were your communications down? Laurasia, Tally, and I have been trying to open a channel with you for hours now."
"I am on a mission, Pyrial. I have no time to talk now."
"Well then, make time! We're on the same damn team, you know."
"Is there a reason for this contact or may I close the channel now?"
"Wait, don't close! Yes, there's a reason. All of us agree, we want you to join up with us. Meridian Hope was designed to merge with Hypegon Shadow, and we want to do that. Sole is getting worse, Seraide. He keeps muttering to himself about you. Even with amnesia, he's still obsessing about you."
"I might consider merging."
"Under what conditions?"
"We continue on to the Nexus, as my Lightguide instructed me."
"Are you sure? You know what's between us and the Nexus right now, don't you? Is that something you really want to chance? We could go to Earth and see Prince Hopwood instead, or..."
"Seraide out."
"Wait...wait...don't disconnect yet. Alright, we agree to your conditions. Will you start merging proceedure now?"
"Very well. I am sorry I have to do this, Pyrial, but the Lightguide said Amber's life depended on this. If the Spirit Seal is not inside the Nexus soon, she is going to die. I will not lose my daughter, no matter what the cost."
Glancing at his wristwatch/communicator, Cecil noted that four hours had past from the time Gemini Destiny had left Earth's atmosphere. Michael's ship was still a great distance ahead of them, but that was to an advantage to the Rangers: in addition to providing a strong heat trail to follow, it allowed them maximum chance of avoiding the enemy's sensors. At this rate, Alpha-S2 expected to reach the Nexus in twenty hours.
Standing in the spaceship's "kitchen," Cecil was drinking a Pepsi and watching the nearest computer panel display information their scanners were picking up. Six hundred sixty-three low level pseudoine-containing lifeforms. One high level pseudoine lifeform. Compared to when their mission to destroy Twilight Legion had begun, the numbers were miniscule. But, as they were now, they poses just as much threat as ever.
"Gabriel Kaisa and Victor Wilson," Oriquin announced as he entered the dining area and noticed Cecil standing there.
Blinking, the teenager replied, "I'm sorry?"
"They are the government officials who will be watching for and acting on any Legion activity while we are away," the Omnian answered. "Wilson was working with Professor Donaldson almost the entire twenty-five years I was on Earth. Kaisa was assigned to the case around the same time Soleron and the others emerged from cryogenesis. I trust them both completely."
"Good," Cecil muttered, taking another drink, but he did not really care. He was thinking about Craig, wishing they could have waited just a little longer.
And then, out of nowhere, Oriquin continued, "I want to talk to you about Craig."
Cecil swallowed, but the twisting in the pit of his stomach did not go away. "What about him?" he wondered quietly.
"You made a promise to be totally honest with me, Cecil Mercuric," Oriquin reminded him, "and I expect that promise to be carried out to its full effect." The older man opened a cabinet, removed a bag of potato chips, and sat down on the floor with his back against the closed cabinet. As far as he could recall, this was the first time Cecil had seen him eat anything. "Describe the powers you said Craig now has."
Irritated, Cecil answered, "You have the video record. Watch it yourself."
"I need a first-hand account, including any emotional reaction you had to it," Oriquin explained. "Videos are fine, but it is you I believe."
Sighing, Cecil sat down across from the Omnian, putting his hands behind him and leaning back on them for support. "I remember sensing some kind of invisible power around him. Not just around him, like Amber's Zenith Aura, but this was like...pulsing out from somewhere inside him. His clothes were flapping like they were caught in the wind, and his hair was doing the same thing, too. Not only that, but it changed color, from brown to black. Craig's eyes changed color, too. They were clear and unfocused like Bane's are sometimes, or Arcanza's, or Salodis's. He held up his hand and fired some kind of dark energy at Michael."
"Is there anything you can compare the feel of that energy to?"
"Yeah..." Cecil began.
The merging of the two spaceships was complete. Seraide entered the bridge, clutching the Spirit Seal tightly in both her hands and Cataclysm Vein sheathed and strapped to her back. "Thank you," she said to her friends, sniffing sharply to keep from tearing up.
"Oh, Seraide," Laurasia sighed, rushing forward and embracing her best friend. "We're glad you accepted."
Talyserys watched them from a distance, smiling contently as the reunion unfolded before him. Pyrial was facing away, focused on the monitors and the crystiglass viewing window. In the corner of the bridge, sitting on the floor with his head leaning back against the wall, Soleron mumbled to himself.
"We will proceed to the Nexus," Talyserys said, "and follow your Lightguide's instructions. Afterward, we will return to Earth and help the Omni Rangers put an end to Rapture Legion once and for all. I promise."
"It is incredible," Seraide replied. "Incredible that we are actually going to see all of this in our lifetime. If you had told me, when I was a girl, that..."
A sharp and startling comment from Pyrial overtook her voice and paralyzed the blood in her veins. "I doubt that, because our lifetimes just got considerable shorter."
"What do you mean?" demanded Laurasia, an expression on her face that clearly showed her desire to slap Pyrial alongside the head. Soleron stopped mumbling and began laughing chaotically.
Over the noise, Pyrial cried, "We are in the Firmament!" And, for the first time, as her friends exchanged worried and terrified look with one another, Seraide wondered if undertaking this mission might have been the wrong decision. Soleron was still snickering.
"Twenty hours to touchdown," Michael mused as he cracked his knucles and rolled his head from side to side. My biggest betrayal is yet to come...
"Is there anything you can compare the feel of that energy to?"
"Yeah, there is," Cecil said in a barely audible voice. Gemini Destiny shook underneath them, as had done occassionally over the last four hours.
Oriquin leaned forward, using his dark eyes to prompt for an expanded answered to his last question.
"The day that the Twilight Legion invaded Ivory Glade changed everything. Michael betrayed us, Arcanza appeared in the sky, we used the CrusaderZords for the very first time, we freed Bane from his father's mind control, and a whole bunch of Legionnaires were freed, too, by my Psychic Stream power. I remember every little detail about that day. Every detail. We fought Arcanza on the battlefield, and it was the first time I saw him face to face."
There was a large ball of phlegm...or something like phlegm...building up in Cecil's throat. He stood up, walked over to the sink, and spit it out as he turned the cold water on. Filling up a glass to drink, he shut the faucet off and turned back to a still-sitting Oriquin.
"Arcanza fired a dark matter blast at Alex. It didn't hurt him, thank God, because of the pseudoine in his blood. But I remember the feeling, so close to that blast. It made me uncomfortable and calm at the same time, and it was so very black it seemed bright. And...and it was the same as the blast Craig used against Michael."
Oriquin lowered his head, staring intently at his knees.
"It's also not unlike what I feel around you when you use Starlight," Cecil added.
"This is what I feared," Oriquin told him, standing up and looking straight ahead at him with a very troubled look on his face. "I do not know how it has happened, but it has happened."
Tilting his head, now totally lost, Cecil asked, "What?"
"Craig Hopwood," answered Oriquin, clenching his fists, "has the Black Hole power."
Original Publication Date: 7 January 2003
