PRLG: A Different Shade of Pink
Episode XXXVI. Power of the Ancients
by Green Senturion

Kai, remembering the words the Guardian had spoken earlier, replied solemnly, “We’re in the Lost Galaxy.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, he said, “I’ve got to talk to the Commander with Mike. You guys talk with Alpha. We’ll meet in our quarters in an hour. All right?”

The five Rangers nodded before turning around and going their separate ways. Leo, Cassie, Damon, and Maya walked to the holding bay of the Astro Megaship to see whether Alpha had an opinion on the situation, while Mike and Kai ran from their tunnel straight to the City Dome. Once there, Mike looked up at the Control Tower. Up in the sky, it was a perfect sunny day—the thunder and lightning had long since stopped, and no one would have guessed that on the outside, in space, everything was askew. Kai nodded to Mike and the two ran toward the Control Tower and prepared to take the lift up to Commander Stanton’s office.

Commander Stanton was currently gazing out into space at the rainbow colored sky before him. The sight was beautiful, he conceded to himself—but it was unknown. And the unknown generally meant danger in the intricate fabrics of space, he knew. He and his subordinate officers continued to gaze out at the odd rift of space before them. Commander Stanton’s mind began to wonder as he moved his eyes across the window, thinking how he’d better take everything he saw in before he and the high-ranking councilors of the Galactic Space Alliance had their meeting. As he blinked his eyes at the neon pattern of light outside the Control Room windows, the colors began to swirl and fade into a gray, mountainous setting. He quickly glanced around, confused, before a silvery specter appeared in his sight and began to speak with him.

“Please…go away,” the ghost pleaded with him.

The Commander stared in disbelief at the pale, translucent figure in a yellowing robe that stood before him. He seemed to be nothing more than a dream—but then, what was the rainbow spacescape he had been looking at moments before this intrusion?

“Leave this place, or you will perish,” the ghost continued.

Mike was the first to reach the Control Room. None of his fellow commanding officers so much as blinked as he entered the room. They were intently focusing on the odd design of the realm they had entered. Only when Mike began to shake the sleeping Commander did the fellow officers come and attempt to pull him off.

“Wake up,” Captain Stanton heard from behind him. He turned and looked to see no one standing there…but when he turned back around, the ghost was not there either.

“What are you all doing?!” Kai called as he rushed into the room and saw the tussle between the officers and the Captain. He managed to peel all the officers, including Mike, off the Commander and halt the commotion just as the Commander slowly turned around, a placid expression on his face.

“I’m sorry…I think I dozed off,” the Commander said dreamily, “All of you…I would like to speak to Mike alone…would you mind exiting the room for a moment?”

The grumbling officers, Kai included, retreated from the Control Room and shut the doors behind him. Mike breathed heavily and glanced at Commander Stanton expectantly. “So…what’s up?”

“Filth!” Captain Mutiny yelled as he used his hook hand to whirl around the man in the yellow robes who had previously been pleading with Commander Stanton. “You and your dream doings again…if only I had a monster with the power of dreams that you wield. Who was that you were talking to just now? Speak or I shall…”

“I’ll never tell you!” the man spat at the angry Captain.

“Well…looks like another ship has entered the Lost Galaxy,” Captain Mutiny smirked, staring at the man who was glaring at having his intentions discovered once more. He angrily tried to fight off a squad of orange, expressionless pirates known as Swabbies, but they outnumbered him and took him down. As he glared up angrily at the boat-shaped buccaneer, Captain Mutiny laughed, “Thanks for the tip off. To the stocks with you again!” As the Swabbies dragged him off, the man called, “He won’t trust you! I am sure of that!” Captain Mutiny pondered these words and thought, Maybe I do need to make myself a little more approachable…but how? As he wondered this, he walked toward his castle and prepared to search for this new spacecraft that had entered his kingdom.

“What’s up?” Mike asked again, a little unnerved by the Commander’s silence.

“What’s up?” Commander Stanton echoed. “I think you know why you’re here, Mike.”

“Sir?” Mike asked uneasily.

“Come on, Mike…the unexplained, prolonged absence, and now the constant running away…didn’t you wonder why I let you off so easily?”

“Well, I…”

“We both know, Mike,” Commander Stanton interrupted, “That you are the Red Galaxy Ranger.”

Mike stared at the Commander in shock. How could he have come so close to the truth? Maybe he would have to play along. Holding back a laugh, Mike asked, “So…you…are going to keep my secret, right?”

Commander Stanton smiled and said, “Of course…in fact, I wanted to let you know that we are relying on you and your fellow Rangers to continue to help protect the colony. We owe you for much, but our journey is not yet over. You will help us, right?”

Mike feigned a cough so as to release his laughter before commenting, “Yes, sir…we will protect you.”

Commander Stanton shook Mike’s hand and smiled, saying, “Thank you…Red Ranger.”

Mike walked out the door, grabbed Kai and began to tell him his story when they were out of earshot of the other officers. As Kai laughed at hearing the details, Mike wondered why fate just couldn’t stop pinning him as the Red Galaxy Ranger.

Meanwhile, Commander Stanton still believed his judgment to have been correct, and chuckled to himself. As he began to ponder what new sorts of threats would greet them in this strange place, a transmission occurred on the screen in front of him.

“Commander,” the boat-shaped creature began as the transmission went through, “I am an inhabitant of this galaxy and I believe that you are not supposed to be here. I have something that could get you out, though. Meet me outside…the, uh…where are you?”

“The Control Tower,” the Commander replied.

“Very good,” the buccaneer said, “Then I shall meet you outside there in an hour.”

The screen shut off and Commander Stanton smiled, thinking about all the solved problems and averted crises that he had negotiated that day. My daughter will be proud, he thought, as he casually strode away.

Kai had raced ahead of Mike to begin dinner. He was shocked to arrive outside their living quarters and see the Guardian standing next to a withered Asian man blocking the entrance. Mike arrived a few moments later and looked at the Warrior standing next to an old man in dreadlocks and gasped. Neither Mike nor Kai recognized the opposite man. At once they blurted the two’s names, just as the four other Rangers crowded behind them.

“So, Alpha didn’t know much,” Leo called, “Now what’s the hold…whoa,” Leo demanded, “What’s going on here?”

“I am the Warrior,” the Asian man dressed in red proclaimed proudly.

“And I am the Guardian,” the tall, Caucasian man with dreadlocks, dressed in a blue cloak proclaimed as well. “Together…we are…”

“The Galaxy Defenders,” they stated simultaneously.

Seeing the confusion on the six teens’ faces, the Warrior added, “Or, you may better know us as…Power Rangers.” As he said this, he raised his wrists, and with a flash of red light, two red morphers nearly identical to Mike’s Magna Morphers appeared on his wrists. With flashes of blue light, the Guardian summoned his own set of blue morphers.

“But that’s not possible,” Mike stated, “WE’RE the Power Rangers.”

“Have you never met another team of Rangers before?” the Guardian proposed defensively.

The Warrior chuckled before saying, “We forget, my friend, how dated we are. I suppose that in comparison to these young teens…we, in fact, are ANCIENT Rangers.”

Maya gazed at the two in amazement as they performed a few wrist gestures and quickly muttered an indecipherable phrase, transforming into Power Rangers after being enveloped by swirling vortexes of light and energy.

The Warrior was the Red Ancient Ranger:

While the Guardian was the Blue Ancient Ranger:

Cassie shook her head and turned back to the others. They all exchanged confused glances and quickly huddled into their living quarters after ushering in the two Ancient Rangers first. Damon then shut the doors before anyone could walk around the corner and see what had happened. Mike then approached the two Rangers as they de-morphed and said, “Could you please explain…exactly who you are and what it is that you want?”

The Guardian and the Warrior nodded at one another. They gestured for the teens to sit down, which they did, five of them in chairs, and Maya in her hammock. The Warrior cleared his throat, unofficially designating himself to be the first to speak.

“3000 years ago,” the Warrior began, “A war erupted in the Lost Galaxy in which you are now. Scorpius and his army were there, as well as the dreaded Captain Mutiny…whom I am sure you will meet soon.”

“We fought hard, and won the battle with the help of our four teammates,” the Guardian continued, “But in the process, we lost one of our allies and our zords.”

“But new zords were born,” the Warrior interrupted, “New zords that you seem to possess. The life’s energy that left our zords seemed to empower five new ones to replace them.”

“So…the Lost Galactabeasts belong to you?” Damon asked.

“And to our teammates,” the Guardian said, “Who…are not with us.”

“Where are they?” Kai asked.

The Warrior sighed, and said, “Scorpius was not much of a threat after we had defeated him in battle. Still, we placed the Quasar Sabers, magical weapons forged for us though unused by us, in the stone, in case anyone should ever need them. And indeed, you did. You claimed the powers, and we—as well as Scorpius—escaped from the Lost Galaxy into your own after the sabers were claimed.”

“Our partners did not,” the Guardian added, “When we two and a third member of our team left the Lost Galaxy, two remained behind. With Scorpius gone, Mutiny began his reign of terror again. And we fear that with only two of them…they are…no more.”

“So…you have two who stayed behind…one who was lost three thousand years ago…and that leaves one more besides you two,” Leo derived.

The Guardian sighed as well, before saying, “He, unfortunately, was the one with the closest ties to the Galaxy Book, a book recording all of our weapons and the future Rangers’ weapons. He wrote most of it, being prophetic and all, and…well, it was not meant to exist outside of the Lost Galaxy. We all began to slowly die in your dimension, and what was worse was that the Galaxy Book had trapped our powers and our teammates’ inside its pages and would only release them to us when the Keonta Spell had been recited. While I began to slowly lose my life force, and the Warrior turned to stone…”

“I thought Astronema did that to you? But then…chronologically…” Cassie trailed off.

“It is not possible,” the Warrior completed for her with a smile, “Yes, I took myself and my keys to Ankia and told the skeleton warrior, the soul inhabitant of the planet, that the most powerful force in the galaxy had caused my misfortune, and to use an illusion of him or her to ward off those who were unworthy. As Astronema had been most recently at the top, and no one had bothered to inform the skeleton of current events, he supposed that she was the most recent—and presumably current—villain. So, when my life force was gone, I turned to stone. And you Rangers were able to save me.”

“While, since I had written the least of anyone, since my job was to protect the book,” the Guardian continued, “I lost my life force at a much slower rate. But now that we are back here, we are back to normal, and we…”

“Still haven’t told us about your teammate,” Mike interrupted.

The Warrior narrowed his eyes at Mike’s impetuousness before saying, “His fate is an unfortunate one. Having been the main writer of the Galaxy Book, his fate was the worst of the three. He…mutated into this horrible creature. He went crazy, and began killing everyone aboard our ship, believing them to want to steal the book. The Guardian went into hiding elsewhere, while I fled to Ankia and was petrified, and…well, now you know our story.”

“It is our shared destiny,” the Guardian said, swallowing, “Of both present and former defenders of the Galaxy…to defeat the evil that is Captain Mutiny once and for all, and to make our dimension a safe one for living in again. But…only when all our teammates have been found can that happen…this I know. The Galaxy Book will be key in our victory, though for it ties us all together. I protect it.”

“And I forged the weapons in it,” the Warrior said. “Our third teammate wrote it, and the two others…well, now is not the time for them.”

“I have a feeling…that they’re still alive, and waiting to rejoin you,” a voice spoke from the shadows.

The eight Rangers turned to the hallway, where the Phantom Ranger now stood.

Cassie shook her head and said, “You always do make quite the entrance. How long were you listening?”

The Phantom Ranger chuckled before saying, “Long enough to know that I should not have mistrusted the Guardian. I was familiar with his mutated teammate’s actions, and judged him for it. He lived quietly on Eltar until he met up with you Rangers, and though he did nothing but hibernate to preserve his energy, I never quite trusted him until now…and for misjudging you before, I am sorry.”

The Guardian rose and shook the Phantom Ranger’s hand as he said, “It is all right. We are now a team. And the team will continue to grow, hopefully, the closer we come to defeating Mutiny and letting you leave the Lost Galaxy.”

“So then,” Maya, who had been listening intently to the Ancient Rangers for the past while, started “We have more alien Rangers. This I could get used to.”

“Together,” the Warrior stated as the nine Rangers put their hands into a circle, “We will defeat Mutiny, find our teammates, and allow you to return home. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” the eight Rangers echoed.

“And, now that we’re a team,” Cassie added, “We should stay together, so that there’s less of a chance of our getting hurt. Phantom Ranger,” she said, turning to the only morphed one among them, “You and your little ship will be a target in the Lost Galaxy, unless you stay with us. Warrior, Guardian” she then said, turning to the Ancient Rangers, “You too have nowhere to stay, I take it. We have room for a few more aboard the Astro Megaship, so…guys…is it okay for them to say?”

The five other teens looked around hesitantly, a little taken aback by Cassie’s presumptuousness. However, knowing that her solution was best, they slowly nodded in agreement. Cassie turned to the two Ancient Rangers, and then to the Phantom Ranger, and asked, “Do you accept?”

The Phantom Ranger looked down at the ground, and then up at Cassie, before slowly nodding his head at her. The two Ancient Rangers proudly nodded their heads as well.

“Now,” Cassie said, as Mike, Kai, and Leo escorted the three to their respective rooms, while Kai began to make dinner, “Are we really a team of Power Rangers.”

And, she thought to herself as Maya strode away behind the Phantom Ranger, as a good teammate, I should get to know all my teammates and their faces…including the Phantom Ranger’s. She then giggled to herself giddily and quickly pranced off to think of a plan to catch his unmasked.