Ryuranger
07-07-2003, 05:15 AM
“I, Ranger”- Chapter One: Call of the Dragon
I leaned over the crib as I looked at the tiny infant sprawled across his light blue blanket. My mother made it for him shortly after he was born. I reached down and ran my fingers through his freshly grown fine hair, unable to believe I was responsible for bringing such a small and innocent life into the world. And it was such a harsh world, too…
Five years had past since the last time I embarked on a journey similar to the one I was mentally preparing for in that moment. Five years since I had donned the mask of a Power Ranger.
“I’m doing this for you, Ty,” I said to my son softly. His full name was Tyler Tristan Oliver. He was born a little more than a month prior to that night.
I gave my son one last look before walking out of his room and slowly shutting the door behind me. I walked down the hall towards the bedroom I shared with my wife as I took a moment to look at the picture that lined the wall.
My wedding picture with Kat was framed in the center of the wall. My groomsmen all stood to my left. My brother David served as my best man. I didn’t even know of his existence until he was practically forced upon me during my time as a Zeo Ranger. He quickly became part of the family none the less and I loved him like family. Next to David stood Rocky. Rocky and I never drifted apart as I did with Jason, Billy, or any of the other guys. He still lived in the city and I occasionally paid visits to the martial arts school he ran near the children’s shelter. Jason stood besides Rocky. Even after the years since parting with the gold Zeo staff, he still possessed an aura of power around him. Jason was always there for me during my time as the Green Ranger…what seemed like eons ago.
Below our wedding picture was a photo we took as a group shortly after becoming Zeo Rangers. I smiled, remembering back when I wore my hair in that ponytail.
Other pictures lined the walls. Shots of me, Kat, and Tyler shortly after his birth. A picture of me and Kat and Euro Disney. She was still attending ballet school at London at the time so I flew in to visit her.
I sighed to myself as I looked over the pictures. I told myself never to forget the memories I had experienced. Never to forget why I had to fight once more.
I walked down the hall and left my home for what I feared would be the last time.
***
I walked across Angel’s Bluff, the night-lit city spread out miles beneath me. It looked so peaceful from that view. So quiet. It was hard to believe how much torment the one city had gone through over the years. How much tragedy.
When I’m through this time, I thought to myself, There will be no more torment. No more sadness…
“Are you ready, Tommy?” a voice asked from behind me. I turned around slowly to face a tall, dark Asian man dressed in a black kimono.
When I looked into his deep brown eyes, I saw nothing but fierce determination. A will so strong it defied any I had ever met.
I slowly nodded as I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m ready.”
“Good…” the man said as he moved in a lightning fast blur of motion and whipped a stone at my head. The small stone crashed against my skull and I was consumed by darkness.
***
The dark shroud swirled around me like a hurricane of anger, rage, and loss. Its dark winds seeped inside of my pores, sending a chill throughout my entire body.
I thought of my loves ones: Kat, Tyler, my parents…Using memories of them I summoned the light within my self to slowly pull away the shroud, but the results were not what I expected.
In the absence of the darkness, I felt pain. I felt weak. Incomplete. A failure. I wanted nothing more than the pain to go away, so I reached back out for the shroud and wrapped it around my body.
It’s frigid cold cooled the pain across my body and gave me strength. A strength I had not worn since my days as…
<No!!> I shouted as I struggled to rip the shroud from my body. I remembered the shroud almost too well. It covered me once when I served under Rita as her agent of evil, the green ranger. I spent what felt like a dozen lifetimes trying to escape the taint of the green ranger’s evil, and I was not about to revisit that part of my life. I pushed the darkness away, but again was met with pain.
<No! This isn’t right either! What’s happening?!>
A face emerged from the darkness. It was a long reptilian face covered in green and gold scales that vibrated with power. Bony spikes ran across his brow, just above his deep golden eyes. It was the face of a dragon.
<Why do you push away your darkness?> the dragon asked in a deep voice that filled the empty void I was trapped in.
<I’m not falling for this again> I told the dragon as I continued to defiantly rip the shroud from my flesh.
<You tear off your darkness> the dragon said as he looked me over with the giant orbs that served as his eyes.
I glared at the creature. <How observant>
<Why?> the dragon asked as it tilted his head.
<I told you…I’m not falling for this…I’m not evil…> I shook my head as I continued to tear the darkness away.
<What is evil?> the dragon asked.
I wasn’t sure what game the creature was trying to play, but I was sure I didn’t like it.
<Evil is hatred. Anger. Death> I answered through clenched teeth.
The dragon nodded its massive head. <So to be angry at an injustice is to be evil>
<That’s different> I was growing more and more impatient with the creature as he stared at me. It was like he was staring through me.
<How?>
I shook my head. <It just is>
<Think, Thomas…> the dragon said, almost as if he was pleading. The tone of his voice echoed through my mind and compelled me to find an answer.
The dragon continued. <If I were to kill your family in cold blood, Tommy…>
<Keep your paws off of them!>
The dragon opened his eyes wide. <There. The anger you felt just now. Is that evil?>
<No…>
<Then define evil…> the dragon said, his voice once again compelling me to answer.
I shook my head, my own frustration gnawing at my consciousness. <I don’t know…>
<Good, good…now we’re getting somewhere. Let us not focus on evil for a moment, but on the emotions you used to define evil before you admitted to your lack of knowledge on the subject. Anger…fear…death…>
<What about them?> I asked. I was tired of fighting against the creature’s game, so I decided to play along so perhaps I could learn his motive.
<The shroud that you just ripped from your body…you associated the emotions it brought you with a specific period in your life. The period as the Green Dragon Ranger. You associated anger, hatred and death with the Dragon Power.>
<What’s your point?> I asked.
<You will see in a moment…think to the time immediately following the breaking of the spell, when you first joined the forces of Zordon. Did you feel anger or hatred then?>
I knew the answer of course, but didn’t like it. <Yes…>
<Explain, Thomas…>
I sighed and shook my head. <I was angry with Rita…about what she did to me and countless others. I hated her for it.>
<What did you do with this hatred, Thomas? With this anger?>
I shook my head. <What are you getting at?>
<I will show you…but only because we are short on time…>
A vision blurred into view behind the dragon. It was a park in Angel Grove, covered in multicolored flowers. The original team of Rangers stood at the park in uniform. Jason, Zack, Billy, Trini, and Kimberly, my first love. They looked up at the Spit Flower monster Rita had just made grow with her staff. Small predatory flowers were latched on to the Rangers and sucking the life on them. I remembered the battle quite well, being that it was my second time fighting besides the Rangers. I remembered moving in and blasting the creature back with my Dragon Dagger before it could harm my new-found friends. In this vision however, I never appeared.
The Spit Flower stomped on my friends, crushing them to the ground as their armor dematerialized. I watched them cry out in pain as the small flowers dug through their skin and continued to drain their life force. I watched in horror as my friends died a slow, horrible death while the flowers reduced their bodies to shriveled up corpses.
<No!!!!! What is this?! That’s not how it happened!>
The dragon shook his head. <No…but that’s how it would have happened, had your anger and hatred disappeared with Rita’s spell. You see, Thomas, there is no such thing as negative or positive emotions. Emotions are tools. Learn to master them. To wield them.
<When you joined Zordon, your anger at the injustices suffered at the hands of Rita lead you to do a great many things. You did not shy from your anger or try to rip it from you. You also accepted death. You did not fear it, nor did you dismiss it as a possibility.
<Fear, anger, aggression, death…they all make you human. They are a part of you. Accept them. If you try to strip them from your being, not only will you fail, but you will cause yourself great pain.
<My lesson for you is this Tommy: Courage is not the absence of fear and anger, but the mastery of fear and anger.>
The dragon’s words rang true in my mind, and for the first time since I could remember, I was no longer haunted by darkness. <It almost seems too simple>
The dragon sighed, one of the oddest sights I had ever seen. <isn’t it though?>
The dragon disappeared into the darkness. In that moment, I thought whatever I was experiencing would end. My lesson learned, I expected to wake up and carry out what would be my last mission.
The head of a white tiger then appeared, it slowly looked me up and down with large black eyes.
<Hello Thomas>
It was at that moment I knew my vision was far from over.
---to be continued in chapter two…
--don't worry, I'm still hard at work on Thunderstrike. Silver Wolf is on hold.
I leaned over the crib as I looked at the tiny infant sprawled across his light blue blanket. My mother made it for him shortly after he was born. I reached down and ran my fingers through his freshly grown fine hair, unable to believe I was responsible for bringing such a small and innocent life into the world. And it was such a harsh world, too…
Five years had past since the last time I embarked on a journey similar to the one I was mentally preparing for in that moment. Five years since I had donned the mask of a Power Ranger.
“I’m doing this for you, Ty,” I said to my son softly. His full name was Tyler Tristan Oliver. He was born a little more than a month prior to that night.
I gave my son one last look before walking out of his room and slowly shutting the door behind me. I walked down the hall towards the bedroom I shared with my wife as I took a moment to look at the picture that lined the wall.
My wedding picture with Kat was framed in the center of the wall. My groomsmen all stood to my left. My brother David served as my best man. I didn’t even know of his existence until he was practically forced upon me during my time as a Zeo Ranger. He quickly became part of the family none the less and I loved him like family. Next to David stood Rocky. Rocky and I never drifted apart as I did with Jason, Billy, or any of the other guys. He still lived in the city and I occasionally paid visits to the martial arts school he ran near the children’s shelter. Jason stood besides Rocky. Even after the years since parting with the gold Zeo staff, he still possessed an aura of power around him. Jason was always there for me during my time as the Green Ranger…what seemed like eons ago.
Below our wedding picture was a photo we took as a group shortly after becoming Zeo Rangers. I smiled, remembering back when I wore my hair in that ponytail.
Other pictures lined the walls. Shots of me, Kat, and Tyler shortly after his birth. A picture of me and Kat and Euro Disney. She was still attending ballet school at London at the time so I flew in to visit her.
I sighed to myself as I looked over the pictures. I told myself never to forget the memories I had experienced. Never to forget why I had to fight once more.
I walked down the hall and left my home for what I feared would be the last time.
***
I walked across Angel’s Bluff, the night-lit city spread out miles beneath me. It looked so peaceful from that view. So quiet. It was hard to believe how much torment the one city had gone through over the years. How much tragedy.
When I’m through this time, I thought to myself, There will be no more torment. No more sadness…
“Are you ready, Tommy?” a voice asked from behind me. I turned around slowly to face a tall, dark Asian man dressed in a black kimono.
When I looked into his deep brown eyes, I saw nothing but fierce determination. A will so strong it defied any I had ever met.
I slowly nodded as I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m ready.”
“Good…” the man said as he moved in a lightning fast blur of motion and whipped a stone at my head. The small stone crashed against my skull and I was consumed by darkness.
***
The dark shroud swirled around me like a hurricane of anger, rage, and loss. Its dark winds seeped inside of my pores, sending a chill throughout my entire body.
I thought of my loves ones: Kat, Tyler, my parents…Using memories of them I summoned the light within my self to slowly pull away the shroud, but the results were not what I expected.
In the absence of the darkness, I felt pain. I felt weak. Incomplete. A failure. I wanted nothing more than the pain to go away, so I reached back out for the shroud and wrapped it around my body.
It’s frigid cold cooled the pain across my body and gave me strength. A strength I had not worn since my days as…
<No!!> I shouted as I struggled to rip the shroud from my body. I remembered the shroud almost too well. It covered me once when I served under Rita as her agent of evil, the green ranger. I spent what felt like a dozen lifetimes trying to escape the taint of the green ranger’s evil, and I was not about to revisit that part of my life. I pushed the darkness away, but again was met with pain.
<No! This isn’t right either! What’s happening?!>
A face emerged from the darkness. It was a long reptilian face covered in green and gold scales that vibrated with power. Bony spikes ran across his brow, just above his deep golden eyes. It was the face of a dragon.
<Why do you push away your darkness?> the dragon asked in a deep voice that filled the empty void I was trapped in.
<I’m not falling for this again> I told the dragon as I continued to defiantly rip the shroud from my flesh.
<You tear off your darkness> the dragon said as he looked me over with the giant orbs that served as his eyes.
I glared at the creature. <How observant>
<Why?> the dragon asked as it tilted his head.
<I told you…I’m not falling for this…I’m not evil…> I shook my head as I continued to tear the darkness away.
<What is evil?> the dragon asked.
I wasn’t sure what game the creature was trying to play, but I was sure I didn’t like it.
<Evil is hatred. Anger. Death> I answered through clenched teeth.
The dragon nodded its massive head. <So to be angry at an injustice is to be evil>
<That’s different> I was growing more and more impatient with the creature as he stared at me. It was like he was staring through me.
<How?>
I shook my head. <It just is>
<Think, Thomas…> the dragon said, almost as if he was pleading. The tone of his voice echoed through my mind and compelled me to find an answer.
The dragon continued. <If I were to kill your family in cold blood, Tommy…>
<Keep your paws off of them!>
The dragon opened his eyes wide. <There. The anger you felt just now. Is that evil?>
<No…>
<Then define evil…> the dragon said, his voice once again compelling me to answer.
I shook my head, my own frustration gnawing at my consciousness. <I don’t know…>
<Good, good…now we’re getting somewhere. Let us not focus on evil for a moment, but on the emotions you used to define evil before you admitted to your lack of knowledge on the subject. Anger…fear…death…>
<What about them?> I asked. I was tired of fighting against the creature’s game, so I decided to play along so perhaps I could learn his motive.
<The shroud that you just ripped from your body…you associated the emotions it brought you with a specific period in your life. The period as the Green Dragon Ranger. You associated anger, hatred and death with the Dragon Power.>
<What’s your point?> I asked.
<You will see in a moment…think to the time immediately following the breaking of the spell, when you first joined the forces of Zordon. Did you feel anger or hatred then?>
I knew the answer of course, but didn’t like it. <Yes…>
<Explain, Thomas…>
I sighed and shook my head. <I was angry with Rita…about what she did to me and countless others. I hated her for it.>
<What did you do with this hatred, Thomas? With this anger?>
I shook my head. <What are you getting at?>
<I will show you…but only because we are short on time…>
A vision blurred into view behind the dragon. It was a park in Angel Grove, covered in multicolored flowers. The original team of Rangers stood at the park in uniform. Jason, Zack, Billy, Trini, and Kimberly, my first love. They looked up at the Spit Flower monster Rita had just made grow with her staff. Small predatory flowers were latched on to the Rangers and sucking the life on them. I remembered the battle quite well, being that it was my second time fighting besides the Rangers. I remembered moving in and blasting the creature back with my Dragon Dagger before it could harm my new-found friends. In this vision however, I never appeared.
The Spit Flower stomped on my friends, crushing them to the ground as their armor dematerialized. I watched them cry out in pain as the small flowers dug through their skin and continued to drain their life force. I watched in horror as my friends died a slow, horrible death while the flowers reduced their bodies to shriveled up corpses.
<No!!!!! What is this?! That’s not how it happened!>
The dragon shook his head. <No…but that’s how it would have happened, had your anger and hatred disappeared with Rita’s spell. You see, Thomas, there is no such thing as negative or positive emotions. Emotions are tools. Learn to master them. To wield them.
<When you joined Zordon, your anger at the injustices suffered at the hands of Rita lead you to do a great many things. You did not shy from your anger or try to rip it from you. You also accepted death. You did not fear it, nor did you dismiss it as a possibility.
<Fear, anger, aggression, death…they all make you human. They are a part of you. Accept them. If you try to strip them from your being, not only will you fail, but you will cause yourself great pain.
<My lesson for you is this Tommy: Courage is not the absence of fear and anger, but the mastery of fear and anger.>
The dragon’s words rang true in my mind, and for the first time since I could remember, I was no longer haunted by darkness. <It almost seems too simple>
The dragon sighed, one of the oddest sights I had ever seen. <isn’t it though?>
The dragon disappeared into the darkness. In that moment, I thought whatever I was experiencing would end. My lesson learned, I expected to wake up and carry out what would be my last mission.
The head of a white tiger then appeared, it slowly looked me up and down with large black eyes.
<Hello Thomas>
It was at that moment I knew my vision was far from over.
---to be continued in chapter two…
--don't worry, I'm still hard at work on Thunderstrike. Silver Wolf is on hold.