Welcome to the Chamber

Posted on Sun Jun 16th, 2024 @ 2:32pm by Kilena Keithron & Damien McGinnis & Spencer Gustaffson & Ellie Evans & Stephanie (Stephi) Hill

2,070 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Secret of Corvus
Location: Chamber of the Morphin Masters
Timeline: January 5th 2051, 2000 Hours

The Rangers were deposited inside a large, spherical chamber. There were consoles dotted around the room, each one with a number of controls and holographic interfaces. At the edges of the room were a number of podiums, each one housing what looked like various Ranger suits. At one of the consoles, a humanoid figure with a solid white body wearing off white robes manipulated various controls.

"Welcome to the Chamber of the Morphin Masters." Damien said as he removed his helmet "That over there is Aetherion. They were originally keeping this place as a big white open space, but I convinced them that if they wanted people to be able to properly understand it, maybe somewhere that doesn't look like multiple versions of the afterlife was in order. So they made a power chamber instead. Cool, right?"

Kilena looked around taking it all in and shrugged. "This is where you disappeared too?" She wondered as she looked at the creature that Damien had called Aetherion. "Hello." She greeted.

"Ok. This is wild. The morphin masters! Heard about them at the academy but to actually be here! Ok so now what?" Stephi she said as she looked around. "Oh suppose I'd better take off my helmet so you can see me." She did so.

Spencer removed his helmet as well, feeling his self-control come back as he did so. He bowed to the being called Aetherion. "Sir. May the Power be with you, always." There was something in him that told him what to do, what to say. It wasn't entirely separate from him, but the sense of the Grid was strong here. This was where it all stemmed from. If he reached out at all, he could feel the powers - the glowing Zeo abilities, the Space powers whose ship they borrowed, the Mighty and Ninja powers, the powers of the Galaxy, even going further to Lightspeed, and wrapping back around to the Solar Crystal he bore. He looked at Damien, and there was a peace in Spencer here that he rarely had outside of a fight. "To what end have we been summoned?"

"There is a simple explanation for that." Aetherion said, turning from their console "This place is the morphin grid. I created it, along with the morphin masters, with, for the lack of a better descriptor, my brother. Many eons ago, he and I had what you might call a difference of opinion. It was my view that we should raise up the people's of the universe using the power of this place. His was we should use it to rule them. There was a great battle and at it's end, the original core of this chamber was forged into what would become known as the Zeo Crystal. However, any forging process with crystals leaves remnants. I took these and secretly forged each fragment into the Solar Crystals, scattering them across your universe in a dormant state. Then, 33 of your years ago, there was a multiversal event in which the grid itself was shattered by an evil Ranger. Though this was averted by a variant of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, this event caused the Solar Crystals to become active, with my Brother seeking them out so that he may join the primary crystals into the Solar Force Crystal, an energy source of unprecedented power that could be perverted into a weapon capable of subjugating your entire universe and all others."

"Basically, same as the Zeo Crystal, the Solar Crystals get more powerful over time. When Aetherion scattered them, they did it in time as well as space." Damien said, before summarising "Too long didn't read; bad guy wants the Crystals to conquer the universe and or the multiverse. Typical bad guy stuff."

Kilena took her helmet off and shook out her hair feeling good that she was cooling off a little now. "Your brother?" Kilena ventured picking up that remark but not having anything to connect it to.

"Put simply." Aetherion nodded "Our race are not corporeal by nature, so it is something of an analogue as opposed to an exact descriptor."

“Try us.” Valdana commented quietly. She was not maths or science smart but she was business savvy which meant a lot out in the universe right now.

"My race is inherently energy, forming from thoughts and ideas. Myself and my brother formed from the same original source." Aetherion replied "It is an imperfect analogy but the simplest one."

Ellie was among the last to remove her helmet and speak up. "So...why us?" she asked, motioning to the mismatched group. "I mean - we're all just...well, us. I don't feel like I'm that special that I should be a...you know. A Power Ranger."

"Each of you is more 'special' than you know, Ellie Evans." Aetherion replied "I exist here outside of time and space as you know it. I cannot tell you what makes each of you special, what you will accomplish, for if I do, your decisions may change and the future you are headed towards may change. My brother is already trying to make sure that happens, I cannot in good conscience make that task simpler for him."

"Then why can't you just stop him?" Ellie asked, still blushing slightly from being called 'special', especially by name. "If you're here, you must be really powerful, right? So can't you intervene directly?"

"They can't." Damien interjected "Aetherion and their brother have a standing arrangement that direct interference isn't allowed. If either one does, it opens up the other to do it. They can point us in the right direction but if they do anything themselves, we end up with a super powerful bad guy that we can't beat. Believe me, I asked when I was first here."

"He did." Aetherion confirmed, before sighing "A lot."

"I get it. It's about balance. What goes for one side must go for the other side. Like the scales of justice. Ok Atherion. I understand." Stephi said.

Kilena looked at Damien and rolled her eyes. She could 100% believe how annoying he had been. "So we are your interference. Brilliant." Kilena sighed softly. "So now we know the how.... what happens now?"

"I took the liberty of modifying your morphers during teleportation. You can now communicate with the Chamber through them and use your morphers to teleport here as needed." Aetherion noted "I will contact you when needed. I am also providing you with one of the Solar crystals. The Centaurus Crystal will allow you to detect the energy of the other Crystals. Using it, you can recover them before the Imperium or the Cult."

Spencer glanced over at Ellie and nodded, having no trouble seeing her as special - he was the odd man out here, if anyone was. After all, he was just a soldier at the end of the day. A fighter, who'd been given a new battlefield and a new weapon. They all were the really special ones. He looked at Aetherion and considered the situation for a moment. "So we're the boots on the ground, you're the general. And all we can hope is that you don't see us as resources to be expended." There wasn't much of a question there, but there was a slightly cynical sense of hope. "Will you be able to provide us any further direct guidance? Information on our foes, strategic advice?" He stood, and though his cynical nature had come out a bit, there was an unusual sense of peace in what he was saying. Something about being here with the others set him at ease. "And will you tell us which solar crystals are compatible with our current abilities?"

"I will give you what information I can." Aetherion nodded "However, I must be careful not to give you information that may adversely affect your own decision making."

"Helpful," Kilena stated softly before rolling her eyes. "So this new timeline is the one that we are set in?" She asked having one last question before she felt she needed to sleep for a long time.

"Indeed." Aetherion nodded "The timeline as it is now is solidified. There is no returning history to the way it was before your battle with Chronomorph."

Kilena nodded. That made sense and she did not mind, it was just the fading effects of the old universe that was still with her leaving her feeling torn. "That makes sense. Is there anything major different with this world as I feel like I am stuck between them both as the old timeline is fading in my head the longer it stabilises."

"Good question. I'm new here but trying to get the hang of things. How different is the new timeline? was any of my personal past altered?" Stephi asked.

"We don't know... you joined after the event?" Kilena questioned doubting the truth of that but then shook her head. "No you joined after we did know you before but... but this is all that matters now,"

Spencer nodded again, grimly. "Agreed, This is what matters. We are who we are - and for the moment, we're Rangers. If we can fix the damage done to the Earth, so much the better. Right now, we need to plan out our next assault on the Imperium, before they get a chance to attack us."

"We're not in a position to go on the attack. Not yet." Damien spoke up for the first time in a while "We need to have an idea of their overall plan first. Otherwise, we'll get smacked down. They outgun us. Hell, the only reason that other Red Ranger went down this time was because I sucker punched him and, let's face it, you don't expect a sucker punch from a dead guy."

Spencer looked at him, his response quick and quiet. "You were never dead. I knew you were... somewhere. Here, I guess."

"So what is our plan, then?" Ellie asked. "Because so far it feels like we're not doing much in the way of winning. I don't know about anyone else but I really don't like the thought of losing any more of the team..."

"We're not losing anyone else. That much I promise you right here, right now." Damien replied "As for our plan, the dig team aren't here anymore. They've been moved. We're going to get some intel on what happened here and then we're going after them."

He shifted awkwardly as he turned to Kilena.

"I'm sorry, but it may take some time to get your family back." He continued "That said, I swear, we will get them back."

Spencer looked at Kilena as well, and then looked at Ellie. His voice carried the same tone as Damien as he stood back-to-back with the Red Ranger. It was filled with determination and compassion - a tone that said it was for family. He locked eyes with Ellie. "We will not let anyone else die. I don't care what happens, nobody dies. They hit us, badly, no doubts there. I swear, as long as I have the strength to fight, I will keep fighting. I need you, Ellie, and every one of us beside me. This is our family now. This is who we are. We are Rangers. We will save the world."

Ellie felt a weird blush on her cheeks as Spencer called her out, especially talking about needing her. It was hard not to feel like it was personal for a fraction before she set herself on the assumption that he merely meant they needed the Green Ranger.

"Well, I'm on board," she said, looking to the others for their own affirmations.

"I wasn't fishing for a group hug, but hey, looks like we got one." Damien quipped "Come on guys, let's get out of here. We'll grab a shake at the juice bar, I'm buying. Just this once."

Kilena said nothing as she frowned. She glanced around but had no idea why the feeling of her parents missing in action unsettled her so much. They did not know she was a ranger nor did the bad guys know who she was, but she kept thinking back to the dairy she had found. Had that dig team been taken for some specific reason other than the wrong place at the wrong time?

 

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