Ultimate Legacy: Chapter Two

The Worth of this Planet

The Legacy Galleon flew through a reality storm that battered its hull and singed its armor. The impact nearly knocked the rangers to the floor of their cockpit.

“This again?” Mat asked. “Really?”

Tyler said nothing. He snapped his wheel, and the ship throttled through the edge of the storm.

Kym sighed with relief when they made it to safety. “Thank god…”

“I’m pretty sure God hates us,” Mat said.

The ship swerved to port and faced a planet: An Earth.

“Again?” Kira asked.

“Is it the same one?” Seth asked.

Tyler looked at a readout next to his wheel. “No…it’s different.”

“And I suppose we’re landing there,” Mat said, less than enthused.

“Look on the bright side,” Kym said. “No Armada-“

Mat shushed her. “Please don’t jinx it.”

An alarm beeped on Tyler’s console.

“Aaaaaand you jinxed it,” Mat said.

The rangers moved into the main crew hold. Mat walked to a small control pedestal and pulled up an image on the main monitor. The image showed an Armada fleet.

“They’re persistent little buggers,” Mat said. “Persistent and annoying. They’re in a holding pattern between the moon and Earth.”

“They don’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon…” Kira said.

“What to do, what to do,” said the rangers’ bird-like droid, Navi.

Navi stood on a pedestal above Tyler’s chair. Weeks ago, Mat had salvaged the droid, originally called Takku, and rebuilt him. 

Kym looked through the nearest viewport. “I hope the people there are OK…If there are people.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Seth said.

Kira nodded. “Right. It’s not like we can save the universe one planet at a time. We need to find the Ultimate Secret. Of course, every time we try to do that….we get caught up in a fight. It’s no wonder the Armada has its eyes on us…”

“We’ll just have to find what we need and leave,” Tyler said casually.

“If it’s here,” Seth said.

“If it’s not, we still leave,” Tyler said. He looked to Navi, the droid who originally told them about the Ultimate Secret’s connection with Earth, without knowing the specifics. “Bird, do your…vision-telling thing.”

“I’m not a bird! I’m Navi!” the droid said.

“Just do it,” Tyler said.

Navi snapped open his wings and fluttered off his pedestal. “TresaNavi-gai-to!”

The droid shot up and bashed against the ceiling. He fluttered downward, as if in a daze.

“A human in black…of magick…will tell you something…useful,” he said as he landed on his pedestal. “That’s all.”

Seth shook his head. “What’s that even mean?”

“That’s…obscure,” Kira said.

“I was going to say useless,” Mat said. “But a lead’s a lead. I’ll take pretty much anything I can get at this point.”

“A person in black,” Kym said as she looked out the viewport. “I wonder who we’re looking for…”

The rangers landed on an Earth that looked normal, between 2001 and 2010 AD, not that they could tell. Not really.

“Huh…” Mat said as he watched people go about their daily lives. “Weird…”

“What?” Kym asked. “Everything seems normal.”

“That’s what’s weird,” Mat said.

Dozens of people moved about the city plaza, and many seemed to wear black. Nuns. Men in suits. Teens in slick jackets.

Kira shook her head. “How are we supposed to find the right person?”

Mat shrugged. “We could just start asking. That wouldn’t be awkward at all.”

“Hey…” a voice said from nearby. “You’re Rangers…aren’t you?”

They turned to see a 13-year-old boy: An alternate version of Teddy Oliver, younger brother of Tommy Oliver through adoption, and the former Red Samurai Ranger. The boy wore a black jacket and rode on a bicycle.

“You know us?” Seth asked skeptically. “You shouldn’t…”

Most people barely understood the nature of their existence in the shattered realities, let alone possessed the ability to recognize people from outside their reality fragments.

“I just…” Teddy said. “I just do.”

Teddy dropped his bicycle and walked towards the rangers. “I think I saw you…somewhere else. You used the Keys…the Power Rangers. Samurai Rangers. Mystic Rangers.”

“Our Ranger Keys?” Kym asked.

Tyler pulled out his Mystic, Samurai, and Battle Task Force keys. “You saw us use these? You weren’t even there to-“

Teddy snatched the Samurai Red key and kicked Tyler backward.

The boy ran to his bike and hopped on. “You left. Just like you’ll leave again. You wouldn’t even stand up to the Armada!”

“What the hell’s wrong with him?” Mat asked.

“He’s Fragged,” Seth said, a term used to describe people whose minds shifted back and forth between the past, present, future and alternate realities.

Teddy sped away on his bike.

Tyler smirked. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a good chase.”

Tyler ran after the boy.

“Tyler, wait!” Kym shouted as she followed.

Tyler and Kym dashed around a corner that seemed to shift in time. The streets degraded. Grass and weeds grew through cracks in the concrete. The city looked as if in ruin.

A Flux World, they called it: A world that fluctuated between the past, present and future.

The rangers barely noticed. They experienced these occurrences often as part of their normal lives. 

Tyler stopped when he noticed Kym behind him. He lowered his shoulders with a silent sigh. “Why are you following me, Kym?”

“I’m worried,” she said. “I don’t want you to hurt that kid.”

“You think I’d do that?” Tyler asked.

“I…” Kym hesitated. “I don’t know. I’m following you because…I don’t know.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Fine…do what you want.”

“Fine,” she said as she followed Tyler after the boy.

Thirteen-year-old Teddy Oliver pedaled as fast as he could. He felt drawn to the Samurai Red Key, as if it belonged to him somehow.

His mind raced in a panic. The Machines. The Gedoushuu. Sauron. The Mogralord. N’ma…N’ma…

The final name threw him into a panic. What did it mean?

He skid to a halt when he saw Tyler standing on a pedestrian bridge above the street. The ranger stood casually with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Hey kid,” he shouted. Tyler leapt to the street and extended his hand. “I’ll take that Key back.”

“Why?” Teddy asked. “It’s not like you’ll use it to protect us. Right?”

“Not really, no,” Tyler said. “We’re thinking big picture.”

Kym joined Tyler on the street.

Teddy took several steps back while clutching the Ranger Key.

“This key…” Teddy said. “It doesn’t even belong to you. It belonged to the Earth. To its champions.”

“I don’t care who it belonged to,” Tyler said. “It’s mine now. The person who saved my life trusted me with it. I need it…to keep my promise.”

“That’s not my problem…” Teddy whispered. “I have my own reasons for needing this key. For fighting the Armada.”

“You can’t…” Kym said softly.

“Why do you want to fight so badly, anyway?” Tyler asked.

Teddy shook his head. “I’m not…” His mind scattered. “My friends. My brother…they died in the Legend War.”

Tyler recognized the name…

Weeks after waking in the Shattering, Tyler fought a group of X-Borgs on a support beam. Explosions flared around him as he flipped a grunt from the beam and punched a soldier’s gut.

An X-Borg chopped its staff and bashed Tyler to his knees. The grunt lifted its staff to strike again.

But a red-clad figure dashed past the X-Borg and cut him down. The figure, a Ranger, slashed through X-Borgs with bursts of spark. His blade tore through their bodies and scattered them to pieces.

Another wave of X-Borgs dropped onto the support beam. The Red Ranger stood between the X-Borgs and Tyler, keeping his back to the teen.

“You’re not done yet, Tyler,” he said. “Your journey’s just started.”

The Red Ranger turned, crouched next to Tyler, and lifted a treasure chest. “These belong to you now. Use them to fight, and find the Ultimate Secret. The Final Prophecy.”

The chest contained the Ranger Keys.

The Red Ranger pushed the chest into Tyler’s hands. “Do you understand? You’ll take your place…someday…in the Great Legend War.”

The Red Ranger stood, held his sword back, and charged towards the X-Borgs.

Tyler climbed to his feet. He watched the Red Ranger hack and slash through dozens of X-Borgs. Explosions erupted across the support beam and engulfed the Ranger, along with his opponents.

The shockwave hurled Tyler off his feet.

Teddy shook his head. “I don’t want to see it anymore,” he said. “People getting killed…”

Tyler knitted his brow and felt a pang of guilt. He focused his life on finding the Ultimate Secret, never giving much thought to the people trapped within the shattered realities.   

Suddenly, a wave of Armada ships passed over the city.

Teddy knitted his brow and ran towards the ships.

“Teddy, wait!” Kym asked.

“His name…” Tyler asked. “How did you know his name?”

“I…” Kym shook her head. “I don’t know.”

The Armada dropped dozens of X-Borgs onto the streets.

Seth, Mat and Kira watched the Armada ships from a distance.

“They’re back…” Seth said coldly.

“Not again…” Mat said as he cowered behind Kira. He placed his hands on her shoulders. “What’ll we do? Running sounds good. Can we run?”

Kira swatted his hands away. “For now, let’s find Tyler and Kym.”

The X-Borgs dropped to the streets alongside an Action Commander, Bongon. Gray armor covered the creature’s bulky green body, with tendrils and tentacles snaking from its face, arms and legs. The villain carried a green, organic shoulder cannon.