...event horizon...
"The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends."
Abner Donaldson Memorial Research Center, also called Omega Complex, consisted of seven distinct floors, each with its own designated specialty, painstakingly constructed to serve as the operational center of the Earth Omnis Network and simultaneously represent the whole world's conjoined efforts of preventing future disasters on a potentially universal scale. On the first floor was the main reception area, a cafeteria that was always open for business, an atrium that housed a variety of exotic plants from various locales around the globe, a series of offices belonging to agents and low-ranking officers, and the mainframe of Cipher System, the supercomputer that supplied the lifeline to maintain EON's existence. Above that, on the second floor, was a self-contained training complex, the only purpose of which was to train men and women who would eventually become full ranking agents; it also, perhaps out of necessity, was the location of the locker rooms, arsenal, holding cells for any prisoners, and a small infirmary. A bunch of libraries, research labs, and classrooms scattered around the landscape of floor number three, containing the knowledge of the cosmos, quite literally. The fourth floor was the guts of the building, referred to as Control Point 2000 by some people in honor of the similarly-utilized space in the Professor's original building back in Ivory Glade. All of the communications and surveillance equipment was packed onto the fifth floor, as well as a more comprehensive and advanced medical institution. The sixth floor was the living quarters, where any agents or officials without their own homes lived and slept on-site. And finally the uppermost level was the location of the highest-ranking EON members, meeting rooms where the committee would gather, and the Executive Director's Office, a simple yet elaborate brain that operated the building's body below.
Setting the map down—she had memorized it by now, but still studied it out of nervous habit while waiting for news—Amber glanced at the closed door for the hundredth time to see if anything had changed. Inside that room was millions of dollars of technology, not the least of which was a state-of-the-art life support system. But the most important thing in that room, however, had no dollar amount. Cecil was inside, struggling to stay alive, suffering even so long after foolishly challenging the alien power of Twilight Legion.
The door opened slowly, just enough for a doctor of Italian descent to slip outside quietly, shutting it gently behind him. Locating Amber, he walked over to where she was sitting, his hands awkwardly groping a clipboard with several notes that would eventually wind up in Cecil's medical chart. That damned three-month-old medical chart. "The Director is still unconscious," the physician reported. "His vitals are stable, and there is no detectable damage or failure of any internal organs. We suspected brain damage originally, as I'm sure you know, but the CT scan came back normal. The bottom line is that we don't know what to do next besides wait."
"Thank you," Amber answered. The doctor smiled comfortingly, as though he had told her something new, but she had heard the same report now perhaps thirty days in a row. Life these last three months had spiraled down a seemingly endless tube of torment and guilt, and if that asinine doctor thought his little fifteen seconds of rattling could ease her mind in any way he was sorely mistaken.
Realizing nothing was going to change today, Amber stood up and began walking toward the elevator, intending to check up on each of her friends. Every place in this disgusting building seemed the same; cold, gray, dry, impersonal. For all the time she spent her lately, Amber could not remember the floors being mopped once, except in the cafeteria area and the seventh floor. Sure, it was summer in the northern hemisphere now, and it was especially humid in this area of the Mediterranean, but the complete conservation of water seemed so out of place it was impossible not to be bothered by it. As she came to the elevator doors, a woman she recognized from Communications, her name was Cathy or Candy or something like that, was passing by her.
"I'm glad I found you," the woman said upon seeing Amber. There was some type of accent in her voice that was familiar but unplacable. Canadian, perhaps. "The Omnian assigned to our division, Rade, wanted me to tell you we are making progress in our attempts to contact the planet of New Omnis."
There were no spaceships remaining on Earth, and there was absolutely no protocol in place for contacting Soleron and the other former Rangers on their new home planet, which made soliciting advice from them much more difficult than in the old days. Apparently, Cecil had been in possession of a Point Navigator, an alien device that looked remarkable like a modern-day cellular phone that could send what were in essence text messages between his and Soleron's devices, but nobody at EON knew where he kept that thing at. Amber had a feeling it might be inside that Archetype place, but accessing that place was now utter impossible without him conscious. So, their solution had been, after waiting for permission from the damn so-called EON committee for an entire week before beginning, to allow Rade full access to the communication system to see if he could accomplish where the rest of the agency personnel had failed. So far the answer was no.
"That's good," Amber replied levelly. "Even though, if we do get through, I don't know what they'll be able to do or say that would help us out." The woman, who had been smiling out of courtesy, suddenly dropped her cheerfulness and eyed Amber with a nervous stare. "Thanks for telling me," Amber chirped, a sarcastic smile beaming on her face for a split second. Then, angry with herself for having done that, she slammed her right hand onto the elevator button. The messenger fled in the opposite direction with speed augmented by being startled.
Inside the elevator, thankfully, Amber was alone. She leaned backward against the wall and exhaled deeply, forcing all the air from her lungs, then inhaled just as deeply. It helped to calm her down a bit but she still felt on edge. Calm enough that, when the communicator around her wrist beeped for attention, she was not surprised in the least.
"I'm here," she spoke into the watch-like device.
"Amber," came Rebecca's voice through the speaker. She and Patrick were currently back in Ivory Glade keeping an eye out for any clues that might indicate why the evil Spire had reappeared after so long. Bane was working with them as well; he was eager to assist them in the fight, but he absolutely refused to use the blue Morpher again or even consider visiting Omega Complex. "Remember those cameras we set up to constantly watch Twilight Legion? They must have been found, because we're checking them now and all four are offline."
Sighing, Amber shook her head disdainfully as the bad news continued to pile up on top of itself. "We expected that," she answered back to Rebecca. "A few days ago, they must have discovered we were watching them from the satellite, too, because the entire satellite exploded. Not that it matters, because all we could see was that damn black cloud." Now EON owed the Russian space program millions of dollars, and Amber did not even know who financed the Earth Omnis Network.
"Hey, Amber, it's Patrick," his voice cut in. "I think I have some good news. Bane was showing me how the OmniZords operate, and I accidentally discovered a new attack they can do. It combines energy from the Dragon, Hydra, Pegasus, and Sphinx into one single, long-lasting attack. What do you think of the name 'Elemental Quartet Dirge?' Pretty sweet, huh? Maybe we can try it out and see if it can destroy the force field."
Amber swallowed. "It's worth a shot," she lied, knowing already that it would be useless against that indestructible barrier surrounding the Spire on all sides by a hundred meters. "Let me run it by Brittany and see what she thinks."
A few minutes later, however, as Amber stood in the center of Control Point 2000, she had completely forgotten about her last conversation. All around, people wearing dark jackets, all of them proudly displaying the multicolored five-diamond symbol, were milling back and forth chaotically. A boy who could not have been older than sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing a pair of silver-tinted sunglasses, was hunched over a computer, dripping sweat onto the keyboard as he typed feverishly. Across the aisle, a grandmotherly old woman, pencil and paper in hand, was silently completing a project of her own involving an elaborate three-dimensional render of the area around Digireign Spire. It was fiercely hot in this part of the building, so Amber calmly removed her outmost layer of clothing and felt much more comfortable in only her black undershirt.
An unknown EON agent, not realizing who Amber was, apparently, shoved her out of the way as he ran toward the sweating boy, unable to contain excitement. "Our algorhythm broke the code. If we can reconfigure a server and rededicate it, I think we can emulate the original Alpha System."
"What good will that do?" the boy growled impatiently.
"Well, obviously, light is still getting through the force field, somehow," the rude agent answered with a equal amount of irritation. Apparently EON lacked a decent communications course for their employees. Of course, Amber was the last person on Earth right now to give lectures about communication. "And the original Alpha System transmitted data via light waves. We'll be able to spy on their asses without them suspecting a thing." He laughed.
Brittany smiled, looking up from her own computer terminal from a seat not too far away. "Stop arguing, you two," she scolded. "I want you to work on the idea. Even though Alpha System was constructed specifically to prevent anyone from duplicating it—Professor Donaldson even gave it a unique personality to introduce the ultimate random factor—if we can copy that one aspect of it, it will be worth it."
Sitting down in an empty chair beside her, Amber told Brittany, "I haven't seen you this engaged and satisfied in years." The younger girl had shed some of her clothing, as well, due to the extra heat all the computers and machines were putting off in addition to the summertime heat.
"Ms. Elliott is very engaging," Gabriel Kaisa remarked from behind, and suddenly Brittany's smile was replaced with bright red cheeks and a pair of clenched teeth trying to stop her from revealing further embarrassment. The heat was not touching Gabriel at all, as he was perfectly composed and comfortable in this environment. "She is probably the only person in the building right now who looks cute giving people orders."
Any other time, Amber would be thrilled that Brittany had found someone who clearly was attracted so much to her, and that her friend was doing very little resisting of those affections. That was any other time though. Right now, however, there were a hundred worries weighed her down. "So, have you learned anything new about that barrier? Or are we going to break through with Brittany's cuteness?" Again, she wished she had thought before saying that out loud. If she did not start controlling herself soon, she was going to get a reputation for being a big bitch to everyone.
Gabriel did not seem to notice though. Maybe it was because he was a guy, or maybe he was totally ignoring her, or maybe it was politically better to take an insult in stride. "We finally got ahold of footage from your attempts to break inside three months ago. Half the people here are working on studying it now."
"We'll let you know the second we learn something," Brittany assured her. "By the way, I haven't seen Alex in a couple days. Where has he been?"
This was the one location in Abner Donaldson Memorial Research Center not labeled on any map. It was on the seventh floor; while Cecil's office was at the northernmost end, this place was on the southernmost. Two fountains stood at the entrance, which itself was merely two giant thick wooden doors permanently opened inward. The inner sanctum was simple but breathtaking. There were a few pews stationed toward the back, and a large statue of the Virgin Mother in the front, surrounded by red, blue, and green candles, all of them burning now.
Alexander was kneeling in front of the statue, his hands together, resting quietly in the reflections and shadows draping the chapel. On the side walls hung pictures of people, only some of whom Amber could recognize. There was one of Professor Donaldson, looking very intellectual and, somehow, almost father-like. She wondered for a second whether the Professor had any children of his own, then dismissed the idea because surely they would have been involved with this building somehow. Having another cousin would have been nice, though. Another picture was a little girl who looked about three or four years old, dressed all in white, posing for the picture and innocently holding a bouquet of flowers. The third picture against that wall, however, caught her by surprise. It was Craig Hopwood's senior picture.
Instead of disturbing Alex, she approached Craig's picture. She realized how much she missed him, especially right now, because of that comforting presence he seemed to impose on her. Sometimes, although she would never admit this to anyone, even under the most extreme torture known to man, she could swear she could hear his voice whispering to her from a very far distance.
Breaking out of her introspection, Amber walked quietly up behind Alex and placed her hand on his shoulder. He shivered slightly, a bit surprised, then without looking leaned his head against her thigh. "I have a bad feeling," he whispered. "I know God is protecting us, but what if..." He trailed off for several seconds before finishing the thought. "What if even God can't protect us from this?"
"Protect us from what?" Amber wondered quietly.
"Evil," replied Alex, shaking. "Evil far beyond what we've already seen."
The lab was tiny and cramped, but it had to be this way because it was, after all, located on the thirty-ninth floor of Digireign Spire, on the narrow topside of the gigantic structure, just one floor below hers. Krista was amazed at how efficiently the process had gone these last few months, a very smooth transition from a room with empty and imposing white walls to a genuine laboratory that almost seethed with life already. Prominently displayed in the center of the lab were three tubes, each of them large enough to fit a human inside, filled with dark red fluid, surrounded by a massive life support system.
Approaching one of the tubes, the one with the word "Air" displayed on a metal nameplate above it, Krista could see the embryo inside, curled up and fighting to stay alive. The other tubes, "Fire" and "Ice," contained similar lifeforms. Against the walls of the lab was a collective mass of computer terminals and life sign monitors, all of them glowing with various information about the status of the project.
"Oh, it's you," Dr. Cain muttered in disappointment as he turned around in his swiveling chair upon seeing Krista examining the tubes. "Well, everything you have asked me to do has been completed." He stood up, brushed some dust off the backside of his brilliant white lab coat, then adjusted his spectacles so he could see through them better. "When these babies are able to develop on their own, they will grow into exact duplicates of the men whose DNA sequences you provided me with."
Krista smiled at the news. "Perfect," she purred, rubbing the glass of the "Ice" tube very delicately. "You are an incredible man, Doctor. More incredible than you will ever know."
The fake smile never touched his eyes, but Cain was clearly intelligent enough to know that reacting any other way would earn him another beating, or even worse. He still had scars on his face from the incident ten weeks ago when it was discovered he had tried to intentionally sabotage Project Hououza. In the field of genetics his knowledge was unequal, but when it came to being sneaky he was an outright fool. He tripped over a stray power cord and caught himself against a piece of the life support system. "T-thank you," he stuttered nervously.
"How long before they are fully grown?" she asked.
The question also caught him by surprise. "Excuse me?" he asked, pushing his glasses back into place yet again, then pulling a handkerchief out of his coat to wipe his sweaty hands.
"I want to know," Krista said, slow enough to ensure he would understand, "when my clones will reach their target ages."
Dr. Cain blinked uncertainly as thoughts must have been racing through his head. "Well, that would be...ummm..." He swallowed a lump in his throat. "I put everything I had into the recreation technique, to ensure they would be perfectly identical duplicates—clones, if you will—but I wasn't aware that growth acceleration..."
Her patience had reached an end. "Stop rambling and tell me." Her hands balled up into fists and, when he realized that, Cain jumped back on instinct, probably reliving that bloody day from ten weeks ago.
"They will age at the same rate as normal people!" the scientist exclaimed, his eyes filled with tears. "In about eight months they can be removed from their support systems and will develop like any other normal children. I swear, it's the best I can do! My research was in aging prevention!"
Silently, Krista moved up, close to her captive, until they were literally face to face with mere centimeters between their eyes, the tips of their noses touching, their mouths close enough that they could feel one another breathing. Dr. Cain's body was trembling something fierce, now. "Listen closely," Krista told him coldly. "You disgust me. I am giving you another three months, no more, and I promise no less. I want them at their original ages, all three of them, as soon as possible. The faster you work, the less painful your death will be. Should your three months run out, however..."
While her face had been pressed against his, Krista had slipped a well-used knife out from its hiding place around her leg. With a sharp thrust, the dull but dangerous blade sliced through Cain's right knee, caused him to scream out in blinding pain. His breathing instantly went out of control and he defensively fell backward against the wall, scrambling away and struggling to pull the weapon out from his body.
"Let's just hope your time doesn't run out," she finished, and beamed a big, bright smile at him. "Okay? Oh-kay! I'll send a Legionnaire in a little while with a first aid kit and a wheelchair. Toodles!"
As she walked away, Krista felt a growing bubble of anger start to rise up once more as she realized she was falling back in her race against time. Those foolish Rangers had to be close to discovering a way to break her force field. But, of course, that was totally dependent on if they were as efficient as they were back when they stopped the other beings in the Trinity of Darkness. What she needed was a new way to occupy them.
Miraculously, a Legion man, wearing two orange strips on his clothes indicating his loyalty for at least two full years, appeared on her way back to the top of the Spire. "We have found the second and third locations, Lady Resurrector, and you are not going to believe where." When he told her, Krista's bubble of rage and worry popped harmlessly.
Thump. He caught the rubber ball in his left hand, tossed it into his right, then threw it back at the wall. Thump. As it flew back, he caught it in his right, shifted to the left, then threw it forward once more. Thump. The game was repetitive and not very fun, and Patrick was starting to grow uncomfortable. There was no reason to feel so strange so fast, but there was definitely something—or perhaps someone—telling him to get ready. Get ready for what, though, he had no idea.
"It kinda sucks that we get stuck with watching the city," Rebecca grumbled, chewing on a stick of hard candy. She had bought a whole bag of that stuff from the Cracker Barrel they ate at last night, twelve hours ago, and he had not seen her without sucking on a piece ever since. Bubble gum flavor, this time, he noted. Why he noted that, though, he had no idea.
"Yeah," answered Patrick. Thump. "Although, I don't think I'd want to be with Amber, Brittany, and Alex anyway. I hear the temperature is supposed to be over a hundred degrees at Rhodes right now. I'd much rather be here in the air conditioning."
Rebecca twisted her mouth slightly around the candy to appear somewhat as though flashing a smile, then leaned back in the loveseat and closed her eyes. "I haven't been to a mall in months," she whined. "What if I've missed out on a good sale? What if I forget how to shop? I'll kick Twilight Legion's ass single-handedly if they make me miss the hot Fourth of July clearances."
"Hey," Patrick exclaimed excitedly, grabbing the ball with both hands and stopping its continuum of motion, "I just thought of something! Remember when Omega Complex got robbed a couple years ago?"
Nodding, Rebecca said quickly, "Yeah. Didn't they steal information about the Orion Five Projects?"
"Well, maybe," he continued his train of thought out loud, "they want to complete their own Orion Five Projects. Let's see, those Projects were responsible for building the OmniZords, creating the Black Ranger powers, and who knows what else? Maybe Twilight Legion is creating its own team of evil Rangers and Zords?"
For a long time, Rebecca just stared at him in bewilderment, and he met her gaze for as long as he could before shrugging the idea away with a grin. The candy stick came out of her mouth and she was about to say something back, but he prevented her by saying, "Nah, that's a ridiculous idea. It's already been done to death...huh?"
As Patrick was speaking his last few words, the ground beneath them began to tremble, a powerful shaking that knocked pictures from the wall and cracked the glass in the front storm door. Jumping to their feet, both of them rushed outside in time to see the ground quake again, this time perhaps a bit stronger, and there were people from the houses nearby screaming. Patrick could actually see the wobbling earth below him. The asphalt street even began to crumble at the point it met the curb. Rebecca's first instinct was to reach for her communicator, but it must have been broken, because she tore it off her wrist in frustration and flung it to the ground.
"Come in," Patrick panicked into his own communicator, but only a steady stream of static answered him. "Mine's no good, either," he admitted. "What do we do?"
"Look!" gasped Rebecca, pointing behind him. He turned around and hissed himself, discovering a giant shadow silhouetted in front of a deep blue, cloud-less, empty sky. "Just like the other one!"
He wished he could say he was acting on his own impulses, but Patrick knew that someone else was controlling his body and mind as he growled, "Then we're going to destroy it quickly like the other one, too. It's morphin' time!" Definitely not himself.
"Omni Pegasus!"
"Omni Hydra!"
That was how they ended up in their Zords, Patrick in his Cerulean Crusader and Rebecca in her Rose Crusader, trapping the beast on both left and right sides. They found it less than a mile from Ivory Glade's northern border, without question targeting their home city for complete destruction. The giant's body was frighteningly humanoid in figure, which contrasted in a disturbed fashion with the head of a tiger. There was a bunch of torn red cloth covering much of the form except for the arms and legs, and a broken chain wrapped around each wrist.
Mechanical wings sprouted from the back of the Rose Crusader, and the Pink Ranger's Zord began to hover in the air, brandishing a metallic club that sparkled with electricity as she came down directly on top of the giant. The monster took the full force of the attack, unphased, then grabbed her weapon, placed it in its mouth, and bit down, shattering it thick metal and all. It roared in pain as a charge of electricity shot through its body, but it was clearly grounded, and at the end of the episode stood as dangerously as it had at the beginning.
"Let me try this," Patrick suggested. The Cerulean Crusader removed the trident from its back and thrust it forward at a very quick speed, trying to impale the titan before there was a chance to react. Apparently the tiger-man did not need a chance, because the trident snapped in half as it pressed against the body, doing only slight damage and merely tearing that cloth a little bit more.
"I'm going to teleport away for a few seconds to get my cell phone," said Rebecca. "I think we're going to need some help."
"Or giant-sized Siegfried and Roy," Patrick laughed.
With everyone together inside Cecil's medical room, it was crowded and uncomfortable for them all. Amber stood next to the bed, talking on her cellular phone loud enough to wake the dead due to the static and fuzz that plagued the call from back home. Near the window, Gabriel leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, keeping a quiet watch. Brittany was shuffling through a bunch of progress notes on Cecil's condition, but nothing made sense to her because the extent of her medical knowledge had come from television shows and brief exposure during her mother's cancer treatments. At the foot of the bed, Alex stared at the unconscious body of his friend, a permanent expression of worry etched on his face.
"We're on our way!" screamed Amber into the cell phone and snapped it shut, irritated by the terrible reception. In the back of her mind, she knew she was not supposed to use it around medical equipment, but this definitely qualified as an exception to the rule. "Another giant has appeared near Ivory Glade," she informed the others in a hurried tone. Slipping the phone into her pocket, she continued, "Becky and Patrick are fighting it right now. We need to teleport into our CrusaderZords and meet them now."
Moving smoothly to place a firm hand on Alexander's shoulder, Gabriel told him with assurance, "I will stay and watch him until you get back. Be safe."
"Thanks," Alex replied. Unexpectedly, he removed the necklace holding the emerald-containing cross and placed it gently around Cecil's neck. Something about the act and the manner in which he did it made Amber fear the worst.
Pushing aside her worries for a while, Amber raised the Shadow Morpher around her left arm and cried out, "It's morphin' time!"
"Omni Cerberus!"
"Omni Dragon!"
"Omni Sphinx!"
As Gabriel watched the beams of black, green, and yellow light fade away, he glanced out the window and sighed as he realized it was beginning to rain yet again. He was startled when the door opened to admit Victor Wilson, but his composure never failed him as he turned around and smiled his hello.
"I assume they heard, then," the old man grumbled as he looked around the room and noted the absence of the three Omni Rangers. "Can I see you outside for a minute?" Nodding, Gabriel approached the door and closed it behind him as he stood in the hall to listen to Wilson's briefing on the second giant situation.
Still lying in bed, Cecil opened his eyes.
This was not the first time the Crusader Megazord was defending Ivory Glade from attack, so the entire act almost felt like déjà vu all over again as Amber settled into her center seat and slipped her hands into the controls of the most powerful machine ever designed. Raindrops were beginning to splash against the window, so the image of the tiger monster was becoming a little blurry. Acting proactively, Brittany activated a program that send a superheated charge through the visor that caused the drops to sublimate into gas instantaneously, giving them a clear view of the creature.
"Thanks," Amber said. "Let's handle this qui..."
"Child of Typhon!" a voice boomed instead Amber's skull, and her hand bumped against her helmet when she tried to grab her head to ease the pain it caused. Not again, she complained to herself, not now.
Despite her expression being hidden, Rebecca noticed something was amiss, and asked, "Are you alright?"
"Hear me! I am Cauac. Giant of the Storms, Colossus of the South, the Red Titan, Honor of the Lion, the second of the Legendary Jotuns of the Four Corners."
She noticed Patrick was about to fire a weapon, and she grabbed his hand to stop him from completing his intended action. "It's talking to me again," Amber informed them. "Wait. Let's hear what it has to say, please."
"I can't hear nothing," Alex replied in a doubt-soaked voice.
Ignoring his skepticism, Amber begged to no one in particular, "Please, tell me who you are. Why are you attacking our hometown? Why did Mulac attack us before?"
Cauac's voice returned. "Six thousand years ago, we were protectors of this beautiful planet, but we could not prevent the massive flood that destroyed civilization. Mulac, myself, Ix, and Kan worked alongside the Tribe of Oryon to construct a city that could fly through the stars. We helped the Tribe of Legii build enormous ships, large enough to hold all the living things on Earth. We helped the Tribe of Trembabel work on the tallest tower we could build. We helped the Tribe of Zarus dig into the crust of the planet to establish underground cities. But we could not save them, and our punishment was eternal sleep beneath the waters that consumed everything." The story seemed familiar to Amber, but for the life of her she could not remember where she had heard something similar before. "Now, someone called Mercuric is awakening us, one by one, and using our power to attack and destroy civilization. Please stop us. Kill me before I hurt any humans."
"What's it saying? Is it still talking?" Patrick certainly was curious about what Cauac was telling her, but she was still having trouble digesting the information herself let alone ready to explain it to someone else.
Amber swallowed back a ball of phlegm caught in her throat. "It's telling me it wants me to kill it," she reported, stunned at the level tone of her voice.
That must have been enough confirmation for Alex, because he reported, "Crusader Megazord, full power." Outside, in the pouring rain, the Megazord's sword began to explode with firelight, instantly changing from a weapon of steel to a weapon of orange flame. The sound of raindrops falling against that conflagration made a hissing noise that would make someone evil cringe. A second trail of flames, bright bluish-white in stark contrast to the first series, began to encircle the blade, infusing with an even more fearsome destructive power. Instead of hissing through the storm, these new blue sparks screamed for blood.
Suddenly, Cauac's face took on an entirely different appearance. His lifeless eyes narrowed to slits, an entire cascade of creases began to plaster his face, and ever muscle seemed to tighten and clench. Of course, Amber realized, it was preparing itself for the killing blow.
"Stop," she surprised herself by ordering. "Cauac, we're not going to kill you."
The words must have reached him somehow, because Cauac instantly lashed out, slashing so ferociously it knocked the Megazord's shield from it left hand, while his other claw balled into a fist and smashed into the visor, directly in front of the Rangers. It started to crack, but thankfully did not shatter. Almost immediately water began to seep into the piloting stage. Cauac screamed, withdrawing his fist, perhaps surprised by the pain touching superheated glass caused him.
Patrick took over the controls, and Alex turned around to look at his teammate and say, "I don't know what you want me to do."
"Is it friendly?" Brittany asked, uncertain. "If it's friendly, just tell it not to kill everyone in our city."
"Or if it's not friendly, let's smash its brains in," added Rebecca in frustration.
It became another decision she could not make. Another one. On the one hand, this self-named Jotun appeared to be being compelled by someone or something to be a destructive force, and deserved their best efforts to break whatever spell it was under and let it live or sleep peacefully. On the other hand, it was begging her to be killed, and if the situation was left as is Ivory Glade was going to be completely obliterated, and fairly quickly judging by Cauac's size. This was the sort of thing they needed Cecil for, not Amber Donaldson. Amber was not a leader; she was the outsider. Alex, Rebecca, Patrick, and Brittany—all of them had lived in Ivory Glade their entire life, and had known one another long before Amber showed up unexpected and unannounced on their doorstep five years ago. Their lives would have turned out this way with or without her interference. Why was she thinking such things now? Why was she questioning her worth now? Of all times, why now?
The burden was snatched from her before she could react. "Screw Amber," Patrick growled. "I'm killing the monster."
The Crusader Megazord thrust the fiery sword forward, directly through Cauac's abdomen. Then, with a powerful tug, tore the burning weapon upward, through the monster's heart, passed its throat, deep into its brain, and finally exited from the top of its head. Bits and pieces of flesh and blood, brain and muscle tissue, splattered in the storm, covering the archangel-like Megazord in a gory mask of death. The remains of the Jotun exploded in a crashing sound and display of fire.
Certainly, no one in Ivory Glade will forget that day. The day the Crusader Megazord, covered in the blood of its largest foe, stepped over the burning body and unleashed total panic around the world.
"...right call, but it was absolutely the wrong way to go about it," Wilson was griping, his voice thick with admonishment. Patrick merely hung his head, clearly ashamed at what turmoil he had brought about. They were all walking through the medical wing of Omega Complex toward Cecil's room. It had been a little under a hour since finishing the deed of destroying Cauac. Since then, Amber and her friends had been teleporting EON agents to the site to begin the "housekeeping" process of disposing the monster remains. Of course, the damage control of millions of people frightened by the display of bloodthirst would take a little longer.
At the door to Cecil's room, they met Gabriel Kaisa, who was pacing back and forth outside. "Oh, hi," he said to them when he noticed their presence.
Amber moved to open the door, when Gabriel quickly put his hand over hers and shook his head sadly. Instantly, the worst scenario ran through Amber's head, and the same must have gone through Rebecca's, because she gasped, "Oh no," in a weak, trembling voice. Angrily, Amber slapped Gabriel's hand away and pushed her way through the door to discover an empty bed, the life support system turned off, hospital gown folded neatly on the chair.
"Please don't think the worst," Gabriel told them.
"W-what happened?" asked Alexander.
Inhaling deeply, Gabriel replied, "I stepped out for five minutes when Wilson came to inform me of the appearance of the second giant. When I came back in, the room was exactly like this. Video surveillance confirms that Cecil woke up, got dressed, and teleported away."
"Oh," Amber said. A knot in her chest began to unravel. "Do you know where?"
Gabriel shook his head again, this time with regret rather than depression. "Unfortunately, no."
Rain fell with terrible unrelentingness, and even through his raincoat and wide-brimmed hat, Cecil felt wet and disturbingly cold. Another bolt of lightning tore down from the skies, slamming against the invisible barrier, dissipating when even its incredible force failed to break across it. The sonic boom accompanying the flash was instantaneous. He could morph, of course, and be completely protected from the unkind elements, but there was something poetic about this approach. Besides, he was afraid of using OmniTech now. He knew its secret now.
Finally, he trudged up to the barrier. His rubber boots sloshed in mud as dark as the night itself, as dark as those foreboding clouds encircling the tip of Digireign Spire. Taking a full breath in, feeling the chilled but fresh summer rain air fill his lungs with what he imagined was confidence, Cecil prepared for the worst. He stepped forward, fully expecting to smash his nose and stumble back to Omega Complex laughing about the whole ordeal.
Inside the barrier, there was no rain. He looked around, stunned beyond belief, as the air was as dry and clean as a just-finished load of laundry. Even the thunder outside was completely silenced by the protective shield. Nervously, he slipped out of his raincoat, hat, and boots, leaving the soaked items uncared for where they fell.
Turning toward the Spire, he made an instant sprint for the doors, hoping to reach them before anyone who may be watching saw him. Of course there would be people watching, the back of his mind scolded him, and you are a jackass for even attempting something like this, alone, especially considering what happened last time.
Cecil skidded to a stop when the doors began to open slowly of their own accord. Strange that the smells that emanated from the open entrance would be like a blend of baby powder and candle smoke. Maybe Twilight Legion was running a daycare for hippies, he thought, amused.
The smell eventually faded, and a woman walked out into open to face him. "Be careful," he warned her, lifting the Omni Morpher to display it more clearly, "I'm holding the most deadly weapon on Earth. Just take me to your leader." Take me to your leader? God, even after years of training and preparation, Cecil could still sound like an absolute dork if he did not watch his tongue at all times. When he stopped his self-loathing, he noticed for the first time that this Legionnaire seemed very familiar, like a younger version of his mother, if that made any sense.
"I am the leader," the woman answered him.
Instantly, the world began to spin. He felt himself get weak in the knees, and stumbled backward, with no strength left to compose himself. OmniTech was practically beginning him to draw on it, but he refused. It was a shock beyond anything he had experienced before. Those dark, thoughtful eyes. The unbrushed light brown hair. A face more handsome than beautiful. Almost exactly like the picture above his fireplace, only with twenty additional years added on.
"Krista!" he wanted to scream, but he was barely able to call up enough strength to weakly gasp the name as it burst like a firework in his mind.
And then Krista smiled. "Hello, little brother," she told him sweetly.
Original Publication Date: 29 January 2005
