Unworthiness part 1 (Patreon)

I'm back and I love you all!

The multiverse is filled with madness, and the Rangerverse is no exception. With Lord Drakkon and evil Andros from the World of the Coinless, heroes can identify that there are wicked versions of themselves across the infinite possibility.

Even if they got a heads-up about an incoming interdimensional threat, how do you expect everything when darkness has conjured all the worst outcomes?

For this story, the team is inspired by the Power Rangers web series that you may already know, but to prevent conflict of interest, this one comes from Earth 2-22.

I don’t think a one-shot story can cover the scenario, so this one longs for a sequel!

Sorry for the short hiatus since I had some problems with my illustrator regarding schedule arrangement. No worries, my other artful friend has lent his hand for this one and the next!

Special thanks to my beautiful, loyal patrons:

izzØ

Wallel Albet

Robert Terwillger

snb

Matt Thomas

hiryu00

Shunsuke Hoshino

Rootbeero

DiamondSerpent

Matthew Peterson

Red Nineteen

Daniel K

Mike020578

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I will find you in every universe.

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It was a battle between the blade and the concrete. The Red Ranger’s Power Sword clashed against the formidable arm of a Chaos Putty Patroller. The ravenous golem shrieked at the hero, showing its sharp fangs that were ready to chew his helmet off.

But the Red Ranger was more agile. Jason pushed the creature away before launching a slashing attack in a flash. The Putty’s arm fell off, but its anger was literally cut short with a clean decapitation.

“These aren’t our average Putty!” commented the Red Ranger with a short breath. “Is Rita planning something big?”

“Rita’s dead, don’t you remember?” countered Trini grimly. “Perhaps these are just the remnants of her experiment.”

One down, ten more to go. But no worries. The entire team of Power Rangers was present to fight these monsters. Utilizing their deadly weapons, Adam, Bily, Kimberly, and Trini fought alongside their team captain.

Not only that, their young spirit was bolstered by crazy martial art skills. The Blue Ranger pummeled a Putty with his lotus kick while Pink with an aerial cartwheel. The Black Ranger’s open-hand attacks shocked two enemies enough to give them a finishing punt. The Yellow Ranger’s kip-up saved her from the Putties’ talons. Her jump split kick hit them right in the face.

“Seems like we hit the jackpot!” exclaimed the excited Pink Ranger.

“More like disturbing a hornet’s nest!” rebutted Red. “What gives?”

“I deduce that they are guarding something in the area,” said Billy as he narrowly avoided a Putty’s jabs. One hit from those claws wouldn’t be so nice to the Blue Ranger. His quick elbow strike ensured that there would be no danger. For additional assertion, he also swept clean four more Putties with his formidable Power Lance.

More explosions filled the empty park as the Rangers were getting the upper hand. Jason was ready with his Power Sword. His grip on the weapon was tight. He swung it.

But the Red Ranger then flinched in agony. Not just him, but the other Rangers were also feeling the pain. Their muscles ached, and their heads throbbed. “What the heck?!” groaned Adam as he was forced to kneel.

The Putties weren’t affected. The creatures were confused at first but then used the momentary weakness to charge at the Rangers. Jason got the direct hit with a kick to his abs. Adam and Billy were slapped on the helmet. Trini and Kimberly were slashed by the dangerous talons. Sparks flew out of their damaged form-fitting suits and the team was writhing on the grassy ground.

“We gotta turn back the tide!” called out the Red Ranger as the Putties held both of his arms wide so that the other monstrous footsoldier could punch his frontside. He even got the uppercut against his helmet.

His teammates were not in a better position. Adam was pinned to the ground. A Putty took his Power Ax and enjoyed striking the hero’s back with it. More sparks burst from the young Black Ranger’s costume.

Billy’s Power Lance was discarded by his enemy. The Ranger was lifted off the ground by a choke on his neck. As much as he tried to free himself from the grip with desperate punches, the concrete arm was too dominating.

Then, the unthinkable happened. An earthquake shook the ground and a strange structure pierced the field ground. It looked like a stupa or a temple albeit with a more sinister tone to it, especially the five demonic heads that guarded the sides like a twisted version of the gargoyle carving.

The sculptures vomited black mist that coalesced into giant spheres of a void. The Putties who held subdued the Rangers began to bring their captives closer. “Jason!” called out the Pink Ranger as she was dragged across the grass.

“Where are they taking us?” yelped the distressed Trini as she tried her best to claw the ground to no avail. The heroes were taken to the void.

“Guys, hang on!” But even the Red Ranger was in the same peril. Jason almost vomited his breakfast when the Putty gave him a good kick to the stomach. It was the seventh time already.

The golems chuckled monstrously. One of them took the Power Sword. The Red Ranger knew the horrible thing that these creatures were about to do. With his powers weakened, he could only try to fruitlessly brace the fatal attack.

The Putty swung the Power Sword up, then was destroyed. The noble weapon stabbed the ground as the figure that held it turned into ash. Before anyone could understand what just happened, the other two Putties suffered the same painful end.

Gasping, the Red Ranger was in relief. He immediately grabbed the Power Sword and readied himself. In the process, he almost hit the incoming female Green Ranger.

“Hey, watch where you’re pointing that thing,” commented Tommy.

“Tommy? I’m so glad to see you!”

“Keep the compliments until we’re done here.” The two Rangers heard a scream. They saw Billy being swallowed feet first into the void. Beside him was Kimberly. “Let’s go!”

The heroes ran at superhuman speed, but perhaps it wasn’t fast enough. While Tommy was able to grab the Pink Ranger’s hand just before she could slip into the sphere, Jason was too late. The Blue Ranger’s scream faded away into muffled babble. “No!”

Jason punched the ground in frustration. Then, he decided to go with the extreme. “I’m going in!”

“Wait, Jason, no! We don’t know what’s beyond these things,” objected Trini who needed to put some pressure on her side as she limply gathered with the rest of the team. Luckily, Adam was there to support her before she could collapse.

“How else will we get Billy back? I’m not gonna disappoint him-”

“Help!” screamed a familiar voice from the sphere.

“Billy!” Without hesitation, the Red Ranger put his hand into the murky surface of the void. He wasn’t afraid of being pulled or clawed at by some hideous monsters on the side, and his bravery was rewarding.

The moment Jason felt his teammate’s reaching hand, he hauled. The team captain shouted to give an extra boost of strength as he pulled Billy out of the interdimensional globule. “Guys, I need help!”

“Say no more!” Trini was the first to hug Jason’s waist, then Adam hugged hers, then Kimberly, and also Tommy. With the strength of the entire team, the Rangers were finally able to pull the Blue Ranger out.

They retrieved him in the nick of time before the whole structure collapsed into itself. Small eruptions grew into bigger ones that broke the demonic heads and cracked open the main structure. The heroes retreated back to safety just before a huge explosion rocked the park. The Power Rangers were even got knocked to the ground.

“Please tell me this is over already,” complained the Pink Ranger as she struggled to get back up.

“I always expect the monsters to go boom in the end, but man, that was something,” added Adam as he helped Tommy.

Trini assisted Jason. “Yeah, looks like Rita got something to threaten us even after her death. It would be nice to know what it is.”

“Perhaps I can help you guys with that,” replied Billy. He held up a strange battery-like device.

“What’s that?” asked the confused Red Ranger.

“A souvenir from my peculiar exploit in the nether realm. Please don’t let me do that again.” The Blue Ranger observed the item closer. His helmet’s shape was reflected on its metallic surface. “I bet that this contraption holds the metaphorical key to our problem.”

..

They got the message.

The Power Rangers received the ominous transmission at the Command Center through Billy’s newest gadget. “This is not what I had in mind when I predicted it to tap into the multiverse,” commented the genius Blue Ranger.

“Can you amplify the signal or something?” asked the anxious Trini. All they got now were disjointed messages of warning. If there was a threat out there, the Power Rangers would need more information to fight it.
“Wait, let me tune the quantum resonance components to the main Morphing Grid frequency,” replied Billy as he tinkered with the computer-like device.

In the meantime, Jason as the Red Ranger turned to his ethereal mentor. “Zordon, what do you know about this?”

“I have sensed a disturbance in the Morphing Grid, Jason. There’s a rising imbalance in the multiverse. I can sense….”

Kimberly noticed Zordon’s voice trailed off. “Sense what, Zordon?”

The space wizard’s electric blue face showed grief. “I can sense myself dying.”

“Zordon!” called Trini in an instant.

“I am in no danger, Trini. It is not the version of me here that is dying, but the other one somewhere in the multiverse. We are at Earth 2-22, the one I am sensing is at Earth 2-19. He is close.”

“That explains the message,” pondered Adam the Black Ranger. “But what kind of evil could defeat Zordon? Billy!”

“I’m working on it!” blurted the Blue Ranger.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help ya,” said the Yellow Ranger with a nod. “Just tell me what you need.”

“Hold that crystalline cable so I can stabilize the interdimensional connection.”

“Got it!”

“Is there anything that we can do?” asked the other figure who teleported into the Command Center.

“Tommy!” called out Kimberly as she hugged her lover, the Green Ranger.

“Hey ya,” acknowledged the Asian girl as she removed her helmet to let her silky long hair unfurl. “These Putty Patroller remnants are getting jumpy.”

“What I said about going to battle alone?” asked the blushing Pink Ranger.

Tommy winked at her. “Haha, I wanted to surprise the team by cleaning up the mess.”

“I will investigate further,” said Zordon as his eyes glowed brighter. He then voiced out words and names that didn’t make sense. “Drakkon… Arbiter… Seek vengeance… Chrono… Remorse… He’s… He’s not alone… There is more… Great evil to the multiverse… Wait!”

Zordon’s interdimensional cylinder flashed out with such intensity that all Rangers must cover their visors. “Are you okay, Zordon?” uttered the Red Ranger.

Then, everything went back to normal. It took a while for the heroes’ mentor to calm down and more to move his lips. “I am well now, Jason.”

“What was that? Drakkon? Evil?”

Tommy noted that Zordon was glancing at her. “Tell me, Zordon.”

“Drakkon was an emerging evil figure in the multiverse. He desires on owning all the Ranger powers. But he wasn’t always along these lines. He was once a Green Ranger.”

“What happened?” inquired the Green Ranger further.

“Miscalculations. Rita poisoned his mind and in turn, created her own demise. Drakkon took over the evil empire after he defeated the Power Rangers and killed the Zordon of his world. Then, his quest to own the multiverse began.”

“Now that we know about his existence, we can devise a plan to anticipate his invasion of our timeline,” concluded Jason.

Kimberly sensed something wrong. “There’s more, isn’t it?”

The team looked at Zordon who seemed conflicted to explain more. “There’s much complexity in this matter. The twists and turns of the multiverse have birthed many corrupted versions of us. Drakkon was one. Arbiter is another. There are more of them.”

Trini frowned. “Wait, ‘was’?”

The mentor nodded. “A version of Drakkon was killed by The Arbiter, a Red Ranger who seeks to destroy all Ranger powers instead of owning them. They are two sides of the same crooked coin.”

The elaboration made Adam shake his helmet. “So we’re not only fighting real villains but also evil versions of us now?”

“We got it!” exclaimed Trini. She wasn’t so sure right after. “Hopefully.”

“I’ve synchronized the receiver’s broadcast to our suits. You should all be able to view it on the helmet.”

The team nodded as they put on their helmets back. They paid attention to Billy’s device as it started the broadcast. The static cleared after a while to show someone with a blue face. “This is a warning to all timelines. Power Rangers, you are in danger. A new force of malevolence has swept through many worlds and dimensions and it is coming for yours if you are in the range of this message. They are here not to destroy the Ranger powers, but to enslave it.”

The Rangers’ helmet interior glowed up as they got the first visuals. Those are images that Jason and his friends never wanted to witness. Those were testaments of agony.

There were Rangers in alternate worlds. Different Red Rangers from the same team, different teams for the same Red Rangers. In one world, the heroes were a trio of red, white, and black warriors. On the other, they were a trio with the color codes of purple, red, and yellow. The themes ranged from prehistoric animals like Jason’s team to wild creatures, even mythological entities. None of them were strong enough to fight the coming darkness.

The Ocean Charge Rangers fought with their combined tsunami power, but an even bigger wave of blood-colored goop overtook them. Gone were the White Octopus, Red Seal, Blue Shark, and the Gray Dolphin Rangers. All that was left were suffocated figures inside the setting latex-like cocoons. Their arms and helmets desperately tried to escape, but the elasticity and the impermeability of the cursed fabric prevented any freedom. Then, symbols burned on the Rangers’ vital parts. They squirmed frantically before standing still.

“They are the Amassers and they have powerful magic that could subjugate any Rangers with ease in their hands. The spells are contained in their Grimoire books and can be unleashed to bind unsuspecting victims into eternal servitude. I have witnessed so many heroes fall under their thrall and now they live empty lives of unearthing riches beneath the endless tunnels of the Amassers’ mines.”

Behind the receding tidal wave of rubbery material were the figures responsible for the heroes’ demise. They were silhouettes in a robe, broken only by their glowing eyes. Their claw-ending arm rose up as the other held a horrid book open. Ethereal enchantments flowed out to the broken Ocean Charge Rangers. The patterns burned onto their cocoons, trapping them in eternal servitude. Their screams were deadened as their deflating latex traced all details of their helmets and suits. Their days as defenders of the Earth were now done.

“Not all hopes are lost. Throughout the Amassers Invasion, we discovered a pattern. Zachary is the key. With it, we were successful in retrieving at least five of their books. We have dispersed the items to the multiverse to prevent them from falling back to the enemies’ hands.” The voice stopped for a while before continuing. “Please, use all the time in the world to decipher the book’s code so that your timeline will not fall as mine has. This is Zordon, may the power protects you all.”

“Why’s Zack being the key?” asked the confused Adam.

“I don’t know, but if this info comes from an alternate version of Zordon that is doomed, we need to act fast on it,” concluded Kimberly.

Everyone nodded. “The only thing now is to find Zack,” added Trini. “His Power Coin was broken. That’s why Adam replaced him. Even with his intact Buckle, it would be a pain in the ass to track him down.”

The Command Center’s alarm blared as if to answer the Yellow Ranger’s problem. “Rangers, to the Viewing Globe!”

The heroes turned their backs to the glowing orb in the middle of the room. “That’s strange, there’s nothing there.”

Usually, Zordon would give a visual glimpse into the current situation. But now, the big crystal ball only showed static and disturbance. “Any problem, Zordon?” asked Billy.

“Something is blocking my reach to Zachary,” replied the concerned mentor.

“Whatever it is, we know that Zack is in trouble. That’s enough for us to jump in, Zordon,” said Jason sternly while forming a fist. “Any lead on his location?”

“I have locked in his whereabouts. He’s near the abandoned lighthouse on the beach. Before I teleport you there, there’s one more thing that we need to discuss. Billy will explain.”

“Come on, Billy. Let’s go,” pressed the impatient Red Ranger.

“Okay, cool down. This is for our own benefit. As you can see, the new threat we are facing presently is a dire one. Thus, we’re going to need a power boost. While new upgrades are still in development, I think I have come up with a perfect solution for that.” The Blue Ranger looked at Green.

“Why are you looking at me?” asked the uneasy Tommy.

“Your Dragon Dagger, Tommy. It’s a conduit to your powers. With it, you can share your Ranger energy to bolster the whole team.”

Kimberly shook her head. “Wait, so basically you want Tommy to give us her Dragon Shield power? But it will deplete her own power!”

“Not if we stick together. You’re not going to share all of the power itself, only a fraction of it just to keep us safe.” Billy saw the hesitation on the Green Ranger. “The decision is up to you.”

Tommy didn’t answer right away, but then she nodded. “Okay, if it’s the best for the team, I’ll go for it!”

The Pink Ranger put her hand on Green’s shoulder. “Are you sure?”

The Green Ranger chuckled, then gave her a thumbs-up. “No worries, Babe. it’ll make the battle even for all of us.”

Jason chuckled too while shaking his helmet. “Show off!”

Tommy exhaled before bringing her Dragon Dagger up. The deadly blade glowed and jade-colored strong bolts of energy hit the other five Rangers. They shrieked as a surge of new power assimilated their costumes before giving an additional layer of fortification. Gold armor appeared throughout, including the signature triangular shield that protected their chests. Moreover, their suits were now brandished capes like true superheroes. “Looking good, Team!” declared the excited Adam.

Everyone agreed, but they had no time to waste. The Rangers already got their helmets on. They stood in a V-formation, ready for a jump. “Good luck, Rangers,” said Zordon.

The sixth youngsters disappeared like colorful comets that launched up beyond the Command Center’s confinement.

The team’s landing blew the stale beach sand. The wind there was picking up, but only the dilapidated fence and broken palm trees made noise. There was no one else other than the investigating Rangers.

“Keep your eyes peeled, Guys.” We don't know where Zack is or what hit him,” ordered the Red Ranger. The team responded with their nods.

The heroes got their individual weapons at hand. No one wanted to risk getting ambushed unarmed. But the place looked pretty much deserted.

“Any signs, Blue?” asked Kimberly.

“I got nothing,” replied Billy. “I have modified our helmet vision to sense Zack’s energy signature.”

“Yeah, I got nothing too,” added the Yellow Ranger.

“Wait, what’s that?” Adam the Black Ranger pointed out the strange wisps of energy that leaked out of the lighthouse door.

“That must be Zack. Let’s go!”

The Power Rangers approached the entrance. Jason tried to open the big hatch door, but it was locked. A simple swing from his Power Sword did the trick. The metallic lock gave up and the heroes were able to enter the dark spiraling staircase.

Kimberly whistled, being awed by the stained glass decoration of the tower window. Her voice echoed up and down. Down as in into the seemingly-endless staircase in the levels much lower than the ground level. “Don’t tell me we’re going down there,” complained the Pink Ranger.

But Trini’s helmet vision showed Zack’s energy signature coming from down there. “Unfortunately, yeah.”

“You guys wanna go the easy or the hard way?” asked Jason cryptically.

“You mean jump?” asked the tense Billy. “I don’t think that-”

They heard a scream. It was Zack. All Rangers froze and went silent.

“No time to go slow!” blurted Adam while jumping out the railing. The Black Ranger’s cape fluttered as he whooshed his way down dozens if not hundreds of meters.

“You gotta be kidding me!” groaned Trini, but she and the whole team followed. Six young heroes jumped down the space between the spiraling staircase all the way to the bottom.

Their landing caused a significant cloud of dust to pile up. They didn’t get to inhale it, but the reflex made Kimberly cough. “Scary like a roller coaster ride,” commented the Pink Ranger.

“This way!” called out the Black Ranger.

“Slow down, Adam!” objected Kimberly although she followed him like the other Rangers into the dark tunnel. The heroes’ helmet visors glowed a bit and the image shown in the interior was that of the infrared version. They ran across the damp floor with some fluid splashed on their boots. There were also faint sounds of dripping water somewhere.

They went ahead for the longest time. Jason felt weird that they could just have stopped, but they kept on going and going. They must have covered more than a kilometer of the tunnel, based on their superhuman speed and the time spent.

Kimberly had enough with it. She went ahead and successfully grabbed the Black Ranger’s arm. “Adam, wait!”

Adam abruptly stopped his run. “Wha- huh?”

“We’ve been exploring for far too long now. There’s no sign of Zack here. We gotta go back.”

The Black Ranger looked confused with himself. “Yeah, uuh, sure…”

“Are you okay?” asked Pink.

While the two chatted, Trini went further down the tunnel as it was already ending not far away. “Guys, you have to see this.”

But the team’s attention was robbed by a sudden eruption far behind them. The tunnel’s other end was collapsing!

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” called out the Red Ranger while pushing Pink and Black away. The heroes ran as fast as they could. If they were in their normal human form, they wouldn’t escape the cave-in.

Jason was the last to leap himself into the chamber. Behind him, a thick plume of dust burst out with a significant force. Their own way out was now blocked by heavy blocks of ancient-looking boulders. “What a beautiful day,” lamented Kim siniscaly.

“Everyone’s okay?” asked the Red Ranger. His teammates answered albeit with tired voices. He immediately went to use his communicator. “Zordon, come in.”

“No signal. Even Zordon can’t help us here,” said the Blue Ranger in a defeated tone.

“Hey, we’re just getting started,” countered Yellow as she offered her hand. Blue welcomed it.

“Okay, we know our situation. It seems that our only option is to go forward until we can re-establish contact with Zordon. Hopefully, this is where Zack escaped his attackers so we can kill two birds with one stone.”

“Nice analogy,” commented Tommy. She saw the Red Ranger still looking at her. She giggled. “I meant that in a sincere way, not sarcasm.”

“Hell of a rough day,” replied Jason more relaxingly.

The team heard a commotion in the distance of that great chamber. Everything was pitch black before the Rangers switched back to their infrared vision. Even Billy cursed at the sight of the coming horde of Putty Patrollers.

“Are those what I think they are?” questioned the Green Ranger.

The Red Ranger already got his answer. “Yeah, they are the same freak Putties as we fought before. Team, ready weapons!”

The tidal wave struck and the Power Rangers found themselves fighting multiple powered-up Putties at once. Their Dragon Shield power was able to fend off most of the deadly talon attacks, even the ravenous bites, but it could barely help them more than that.

Jason swiftly swung his Power Sword to strike down two Putties, then slashed another two that tried to sneak up behind him. Trini’s Power Daggers worked like boomerangs that she could throw and retrieve with the strong magnetic power. The hurls were strong enough to pierce through the Putties’ faces and sever their arms. Billy used his Power Lance to create an area denial effect by sweeping out the enemies who came too close. He even rotated his weapon nimbly as a human propeller that cut through the coming mob. Adam’s Power Ax was strong enough to split various Putties without even touching them. He also used it to block those pesky minions before giving them the fatal counterattack. Kimberly and Tommy worked together as the Dragon Dagger was transformed into a projectile fired by the Power Bow. It acted more like a guiding missile that darted and maneuvered to kill eight, ten, and twelve Putties, thanks to the Pink Ranger’s control while Green finished off the rest with her amazing martial arts techniques.

Even with that, the Power Rangers are slowly losing ground. They needed something else fast. “They’re closing in!” shouted Kimberly as her Dragon Dagger flight control was getting rough. She was forced to call a retreat order before she could lose it to the horde.

“There’s too many of them!”

“The more they are, the harder they fall!” responded Jason as the Red Ranger.

“I’m not sure that’s the correct quote,” criticized Blue.

“Screw the quote. We need to combine our powers. On me, Rangers!”

“Let’s hope that this won’t bury us,” replied Trini as she threw her Power Daggers.

The other heroes also gave up their Power Weapons. Team unity combined the six armaments into a formidable instrument of destruction: the Power Blaster. Jason didn’t waste time pressing the trigger.

A thick stream of multi-colored annihilating energy outpoured the team cannon’s barrel to strike at the Putty Patroller tidal wave. With ease, it made the footsoldiers flared up into charred concrete and dust. The Rangers mopped the chamber and slowly got more space as the enemy number depleted.

When the last Putty exploded, the team sighed in relief. Jason put down the team cannon and it automatically split into the Rangers’ individual weapons that flew back to their owners. Even the team captain’s breaths were shallow. “That’s that,” asserted the Red Ranger.

“Man, these things are tough. I just wish Zack got away just in time,” added the Green Ranger with the same fatigue.

“Speak of the devil, that’s Zack!” pointed out Pink at the figure who laid weakly on the obsidian floor. The details were sketchy but everyone could agree that the person was indeed a Black Ranger.

The team rushed in to help Zack. His costume was still complete albeit showing damages all around. His Power Ax was lying next to him. “Zack! Zack!” shouted Trini as she held his helmet up on her lap.

“Urgh,” groaned the Black Ranger. “Is it lunchtime yet?”

Hearing that, the Yellow Ranger promptly slapped his shoulder. “Don’t make us go crazy like that again!”

“Good to see you back, Zack,” said Jason in the proper team captain tone. “What brings you here?”

Trini and Jason helped Zack get back up. “Well, the Putties for one. These soldiers aren’t what we got here. The second one was the signal.”

“Signal?” asked the intrigued Billy.

“Yeah, signal, message, you just call it whatever you want. I first got this from a dream two nights back. I couldn’t get a good sleep ever since so I tried to trace the information. It turned out that this place really exists!”

“Then what? What do you expect to find here?” asked Kimberly.

But Billy got the answer for her. “The Grimoires. They are here!”

Jason nodded. “That explains a lot. Zordon led you here to find the books and those Putties were also here to prevent you from finding it. Zack, you really are the key!”

The first Black Ranger put his hands on the waist. “Key? What key? How’s Zordon by the way?”

“It’s a long story. In short, you are our only lead on the way to stopping a multiversal threat. One of them is using those cursed books that have been spirited away from a parallel universe.”

“Woah, what? Parallel universe? You mean the multiverse is real?”

“It’s worse than that. We now have multiple versions of the baddest people.”

Zack chuckled as he smug. “No matter how bad it seems, Zachary Taylor will always be the prime gem, first-rate supremo, second to none ace Ranger!”

“Okay, tough guy. Let’s finish the mission first then we’ll buy you a drink,” cut the Pink Ranger while patting her teammate’s shoulder.

“It’s right this way. I just know that it’s this way.” Zack led the team into the big door with a demonic head engraving on it. “Anyone want to do the honor of destroying this ugly-ass face?”

“That would be me,” answered the Blue Ranger. “I reckon that this decoration is the same as the one that nearly took me away. I hate this thing.”

Billy swung his Power Lance. Both ends of this melee weapon glowed with cobalt-blue flame. Once the heat was scorching enough, the hero thrust his hardware at the gate. The effect was immediate with the main barrier’s complete destruction.

“Way to go, Billy!” exclaimed the pumped-up Trini. She even did a high-five with the Blue Ranger.

Inside, they found an altar chamber. On small podiums, the Grimoire books were laid under the seemingly sourceless beams of light. Jason went ahead and tried to take one of the rough-looking books, but he could only groan. “This thing’s kinda heavy….”

Tommy tried too, but her result was the same. Even with both hands and with the assistance of her Dragon Dagger, the book wouldn’t budge. “Looks like they’re locked onto the platforms. Maybe…”

The Green Ranger’s attempt on destroying the pedestal was quickly stopped by Zack’s arm. “Not everything can be solved by destruction.”

“Maybe we can take them off if we do it together.” The Blue Ranger counted the number of the books. “There are six books and six of us.”

“Anyone find the coincidence too perfect?” asked Trini. But she agreed with the plan.

Each Power Ranger stood before a book. Their hands held the items, but everyone was waiting for a unifying command. That was Jason’s role. “Okay, team. On the count of three. One, two-”

Billy’s voice broke the concentration. “Wait, wait, are we pulling the books on three or we’re doing it after? Like ‘one, two, three, go!’”

“Whah- Let’s just do ‘One, two, three, go’, okay? So, we pull at ‘Go’, get it?”

The Blue Ranger nodded too quickly. “Yeah, yeah, got it.”

“Okay, we do this. One, two, three, go!”

The Rangers pulled their books. This time, there was no problem. Jason and his teammates got their own artifacts.

“Right, let’s figure out how to get back to the Command Center so we can start deciphering the codes,” instructed Jason. Inside his helmet, the team captain’s eyes locked with the diabolical face ornament on the cover. His grip was tightening on the cursed object.

But before he could do anything stupid, Kimberly pinched his rear. “Lead the way, Captain.”

Red gasped, both from the surprise and his return to the real world. The same thing couldn’t be said for Billy though. The heavy clacking noise signified his Grimoire unfastening. “There’s so much knowledge in here. I can’t wait-”

He looked inside. It glowed. Inside the helmet, Billy’s eyes glimmered to reflect the beauty. Then, his awe-stricken expression was replaced by terror.

“No!”

“Billy!”