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Disclaimer: The basic concept belongs to whoever Disney assigned it to but the characters belong to us. Like our previous fic series Viva La Resistance this series requires a lot of work due to differences in Time Zone and Hemispheres.
Dedication: Mistri decided that he would like to dedicate this fic to two friends of his: Vrakyn [and don't question him, her mother was on painkillers!], who sadly died 13th February, Australian Eastern Summer Time, from leukemia. It was a great shock, as she was not expected to go this soon. She is mentioned here, and also Marco Petrolati, [once again, don't quote him on the last name] who sadly departed this earth to live with God on the sixth of February.
Author's Note from Mistri: The monster is a Balrog, courtesy of Tolkien. As you can probably tell, I am obssessed with Lord of the Rings.
On Thursday June 8th, 4124, the day after the State Dinner, Radha looked down at the computer. And slowly, she began to type.
Part I.
The Plains of Simarlyn.
"Sita. I am Radha. I am love," said Lady Radha. "Now, tell me your story, Sita. I shall not condemn you. Nor shall I let anyone else do so." She gazed at Sita, an Aryan with blonde hair and blue eyes. "Are you that which has plagued our little village?"
"Unwillingly, yes," said Sita, haltingly. "I would long to be free of that, but I am bound to it, until such a friend would halve my burden."
"I will walk with you then," said Lady Radha. "You shall tell me more." And she rose from her seat, and held out her hand to Sita. And they came out of her little hut and went into her garden. They sat among flowers of yellow.
"Now, Sita, speak," said Lady Radha. "What is your curse?"
Then, there was a word for this, and now Sita spoke it. "Ùlenriyme." But this word Lady Radha seemed not to understand. And Sita spoketh more. "Ùlenriyme ithil-tiri Aramanor." And at this phrase, Lady Radha raised her eyebrows.
"But that would not cause you to plague our village."
"The invoker changed the chanting," said Sita. "To what, I am not sure. But now... I am no longer wanted anywhere."
"And now what are you?"
"Stronger, faster. I see, feel, taste, smell, hear more."
"Which is common. But what is different?" then asked Lady Radha.
"At height of day and depth of night, I seem to gather such power that if only I wished, all the world would fall at my feet. But I cannot control that power and it erupts. And also... nothing will kill me. And I wish for that to happen, so that this could stop."
Lady Radha sat there, and looked at Sita. Sita gazed back at her. Finally Lady Radha nodded.
"Very well, Sita. You have told me no lies and I think that I can help you."
"How so?"
"I will go with you to journey to Phaeran. There you may find a way to lift your curse. But it is long and dangerous. Therefore you may be required to harness this power, such as it is."
Radha clicked save, and sat back. Thinking it all over, she knew that these stories were merely one story, in some continous form. Not necessarily confined to Earth, although she knew that Sita and Radha were Terran names, and not from any other culture in the universe. Although it did cause her to wonder, for she had related many stories, losing track of the years she had covered. If Sita and Radha had been of another culture, say, Inquirian as an example, why then were there not other Sitas and Radhas in the Inqurian culture?
Which then confined it to Earth, but the years indicated otherwise.
Radha sighed. She had run the arguments over and over again, and still had reached no conclusion that satisfied her. Once more, she let it lapse and turned back to the computer, recalling the next installment.
Part II.
Therefore it was that Lady Radha and Sita were made companions. As has been said, Sita was an Aryan, with long blonde hair, and clear blue eyes. Her height was five foot eight or so, and she moved with a grace that seemed not of her. She wore no fancy clothes, but clothes of a traveller, preferring greens, browns and more often than not, black. Her only weapon was an ornate dagger, with a wavy blade. Sita was only nineteen.
But Lady Radha was five foot eight and a half or so, and wore clothes of her class that were suited to travelling. This meant bright yellows for Lady Radha that floated around her lazily. Lady Radha was an extremely gentle person, with a wisdom and insightful nature that belied her fifteen years.
This they each quickly found out as Lady Radha commanded that provisions and other such things were to be made for the two of them, whilst questioning Sita and answering Sita's few questions.
"We should be able to set out in three ilith," said Lady Radha. An ilith works out to be equal to fourteen of our own Earth minutes. And true to her word, when it drew near to the end of the third ilith, they each had a pack containing provisions for the road. Word had spread most unfortunately that Lady Radha was seemingly leaving, and so outside where she would speak to large gatherings, such a one was gathering.
Lady Radha nodded and went out to speak to them. "Citizens of Simarlyn! Listen to my word! I must leave you now."
"But why, O gracious Lady?" asked a man.
"It is my time for harkening to the call," she said simply.
"But why did the call beckon to you?" asked another.
"We each are used by the fates, Yalin," replied Lady Radha. "To ignore the call is to bring harm. To answer it is to bring whatever may come, be it good or evil. I bid each of you a warm farewell."
She turned to the road that would take them to Phaeran. When the crowd saw Sita join her, many whisperings began.
"It is true to her nature that the Lady would travel with her to break her curse," said one. "Her grace and mercy are unrivalled."
"I wouldn't be too sure," said a man. "I don't think it's wise. We'll likely never see the Lady again."
This was true, although not for the reason that the man thought and so implied.
She suddenly saw the Legislative Complex. Dani and Jolik and a monster that seemed to be composed of fire were ripping it apart. A clock! I need a clock!! she thought. Dani seemed to hear this as she kicked at a clock, sending it towards Radha. It was 1300 Unaka City time.
"Which is in about ten minutes. I'll morph and get there first, and then call them." Morphing in a yellow flash, she hurriedly saved the file and locked the computer and then teleported out.
~*~
Arriving at the Complex, she started yelling for everyone to just get out of there, adding a lot of vernacular when no one paid attention. When President Silvino came along, she snapped at him, "Get everyone out, there may be an attack in about... oh, quarter of a minute?"
Three flashes announced the arrival. "I so do not care about anything, just get to where I am!" Radha started yelling into the helmet communicating systems which were luckily tied to the Fortress and the Rangers wrist phones.
"So Dani," she snapped in between randomly yelling. "Why are you, Jolik and some idiot here? Oh wait. Why are you three idiots here?"
"I must say," Dani said, kicking a clock at Radha. "You Rangers are quite annoying."
"And you dress like a woman of lesser repute," snapped Isidore, as he and the other Rangers ported in. "Trust me. When your father keeps the bloody profession going, you get to be able to tell."
Dani looked at him incredulously, and Sita slapped him. "That's not nice to say about anyone. I don't like it, but that bitch is my mother, so I'd appreciate it. Even if I do agree with you on that assessment. Now. If you don't mind, I'm going to go and beat her up. Daughter's privilege." And with that statement said, Sita and Dani descended into battle, trading many barbs about their biological relationship.
Valdi and Radha went up against Jolik, leaving Isidore to lead the remainder against the fire monster. "You know," said Jolik. "Your Earth literature is quite interesting."
"I feel honored to have the opinion of a scumbag like you, Jolik," said Valdi.
"Especially JRR Tolkien. He spent what, twelve years creating Middle-Earth? Arda, as you may know it?"
"I think so," said Radha. Another flash appeared and she yelled out, "It's a goddam Balrog!!! Durin's Bane!!!"
"He had an interesting creature in Moria, a creature of fire and shadow. A Balrog, or Durin's Bane, as you so pointed out," remarked Jolik. "My master reproduced it for you. Have fun!" And he and Dani disappeared.
"Um," said Kylara. "How do you defeat a 'goddamn Balrog' as it were?"
"It's a figure of speech!" sighed Radha. "Anyone read LOTR? Seen the trilogy? Aside from me?"
"No," said Sita. "As a matter of a bad fact, I began it last night and I got up to the appearance of the Balrog."
"It's the Flame of UdÉn," stated Radha. "To defeat it, you fall through fire and water. From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak, you fight him, the Balrog of Morgoth. Til at last you throw him down and smote his ruin upon the mountain side." She looked up. "Any volunteers?"
"No dungeons, no peaks, highest or lowest or otherwise. No mountain sides, much less a mountain!" snapped Charda. "Ah geez!! Silvino will be pissed!!!" The Balrog was smoking the place out, burning quite a few things and ruining the place.
"Let's not joke around," snapped Isidore. "You know, I'd love to have the Zords right now! Landre could just use Poseidon and strike with water! But we can't escalate a battle!" Hearing this, Landre summoned a huge blaster.
"Ruler of the Sea, empower my weapon, give me the water to command!" As he finished, he blasted the Balrog with much water, quenching its flame. "Well, the Balrog's got no flame. Let's go beat it up."
"It's impossibly strong!" cried Radha. A thought struck her. "Weapons!"
Radha held daggers, Landre, his blaster. Isidore had a staff to Valdi's sword. Kylara had a bow, Charda held a cutlass. Sita twirled an axe, Will, a mace. Adria handled a RAM and Xelia spun a twin bladed lance.
"AstroTwinBlaster!" cried Radha.
The blaster and RAM snapped together. On top the cutlass and sword were crossed. The axe on the right, mace on the left. The lance seemed to disappear into the RAM, while the staff disappeared into the blaster. The daggers snapped together as one, snapped back the string of the bow, and rested upon the top. In a clear flash, an AutoBlaster that was the exact replica of the ones that Tommy and Jason had journeyed for to defeat the Super Putties with appeared in Landre's hand.
"Well," said Landre. "Fire at will." And he fired the AutoBlaster directly at the Balrog. Most fortunately, it did what it was intended to do, albeit by creating a thick layer of soot over the entire area.
"My father is going to kill me," muttered Xelia. "And another thing. What is going on with these people? These fights are nothing like I think they should be." In the middle of speaking, they ported back to Fortress Articia. "It's like they're just toying with us!"
"I believe they are," said Articula.
"But why?" asked Kylara.
"I don't know," said Isidore. "But starting June 11th, we're heading to Phaedos. Be ready, or else." Various groans and curses greeted this statement, and they ported out to their various things.
~*~
Part III.
"How long is it to Phaeran?" asked Sita.
"I think it will take us six weeks, Sita. No more, if we are not delayed." Lady Radha walked slowly, looking at the nature along the little track. "Then again, we may be lucky and get a chance to travel with a merchant."
Sita said nothing, instead revelling in her heightened senses. She could hear happenings of over four eli away. An eli translates to two point six of our Earth kilometers. Her sense of smell was now at such a level that scent trails that were a week old were mountains of information. She could see for seven eli. Her physical strength was amazing to her. If she had wanted to, she could have been in Phaeran within a week, running full pelt. Two weeks if she were to simply shrug it off. Her burden was no more than air.
But of these she kept silent, unsure of what she should do, or should be doing. When at last the sun fell behind a clump of trees, they halted and made camp. Lady Radha sat for an hour, thinking over her decision and what Sita had said.
She is a strange person. She alone could not be that which plagued the village. The power she spoke of, that is very interesting. I feel she is hiding something that is her own secret, not caused by the incantation. Great power lies within this Sita.
And the night passed slowly for Sita, who did not sleep. At dawn Sita rose from her position and woke Lady Radha.
"Did the midnight surge occur?" asked Lady Radha.
Sita held out a dagger. A straight blade, with many notches, Lady Radha noted. "When it happened, I gained this dagger."
Lady Radha took the dagger, and looked at it. Her face betrayed no thoughts or judgements. When she handed it back, she said; "I think you will have no more surges. But keep it with you at all times."
"I just wish I knew," muttered Radha. "These many stories... I just have to know at some point." She clicked save, and went to bed. The next day she spent packing for the trip to Phaedos, making sure she had plenty of unmentionables. The last time she'd gone on an extended trip, she had ended up with no unmentionables, due to the fact that she had nowhere to wash the dirty pairs. Not even a creek.
On Saturday the tenth, she confronted her parents, Toby and Clarisse.
"Uh, Mother, Father?"
"Yes dear?" they said.
"I'm a Power Ranger. I have to go and get some more powers from some far distant planet, so can you cover for me for a week or two?"
"Good one, Radha. What's really on your mind?" asked Toby.
"Ranger Astro Morph! Power of the Yellow Sun!" Radha was now clothed in the Yellow Unakan Ranger armor. Her parents looked at her, and blinked a few times. Radha demorphed. "Now do you believe me?"
Her parents fainted. Radha sighed dramatically. "Will we go through this every time?"
When they recovered, they gave their blessing to the trip.
~*~
Sunday, June 11th.
The Rangers were at Fortress Articia, ready to begin the sequence teleport. All had said their goodbyes and were now waiting.
"Well, Isidore," said Valdi. "This is your command. You know the shots, you call the shots."
Isidore nodded. "Okay. We'll be teleporting to Earth today, where we will rest. Tomorrow, to Aquitar. Then to Phaedos on Tuesday. Wednesday, we'll quest. Thursday, Aquitar. Friday, Earth. And back on Unaka on Saturday with the Great Power."
"Um, you're assuming we're going to succeed in the quest," said Adria. "The ground is littered with the bones of those who have tried for it... and failed."
"Adria, we so didn't need to know that!" snapped Kylara.
"Articula, activate the teleportation beam," sighed Isidore.