- John York -

  John paused at the entrance of the dimly lit stairs, casting o lingering gnce back at Katherine. His for her had not waned; if anything, it had deepened siheir reunion. He knew he had to verify some uling information, but leaving her again tugged at him.

  His gaze shifted to Oliver, standing near Katherine. Reition fshed in John's eyes—He was the boy involved in that past i, the oherine had spoken of during their discussions.

  ‘So this is the talent she discovered at the Academy,’ John thought, appraising the young man. ‘A rough diamond. But with the right guidance…’

  Steeling himself, John turned away, desding another flight of worn, stoairs. The moment his feet touched the p's surface, he could feel it. There was something more in this pce;

  John walked until the sound of everyone else faded, and the oppressive silenveloped him. Only then did he allow himself to rex, shedding the restraints he typically kept on his powers.

  ‘There's something around here, but where?’ he wondered.

  John tinued desding through the dungeon, each step eg off the walls that reflected the st avaible light. As he advahe surfaces previously covered with moss and occasional is began to disappear. Nothing seemed alive there, only the imposing corridor that stretched out before him.

  Upon reag the st corridor on the lowest floor, the darkness was absolute, swallowing any trace of light. The atmosphere became dense, den with silent tension. Joh his heart raot from fear but from the anticipation that he might be right.

  Determio face the darkness, he raised one hand and begaing a soft light from his palm. The adjustable illumination allowed him to navigate through the silent corridors of the dungeon.

  ‘Is this the st cell?’ he thought. ‘There doesn't seem to be anything around here.’

  John was fused; he could feel a strong presence of Energy.

  ‘There's something around here. Could it be hidden?’ He had this hypothesis but didn't know how to find what was being cealed.

  John closed his eyes, breathing deeply as he allowed his Energy to expand like the waves of a vast o. He felt the vibrant pulse of his power flowing smoothly across his skin. With absolute tration, he visualized his energy spreading out, peing the walls of the a cells and winding through the sinuous corridors of the dungeon.

  ‘It's not as good as that of the Blue Division, but it should be enough to find it,’ he thought as he released his energy.

  As his energy expanded, he could feel every space the energy touched. His power was mapping every timeter of that enviro.

  "Found it!" he said happily upon sensing an anomaly.

  In one of the middle cells, he sensed something strange. Uhe others, he could feel that the floor was hollow.

  The Ranger looked between the walls to see if there was some way to activate something or even a space for a key; however, he found nothing that could open that floor.

  ‘Then it'll have to be by force,’ John thought seds before striking the floor with one of his blows.

  Gradually, cracks began to spread across the floor, and the stohat should have been the ground at that level started colpsing. Until there was simply an opening on the floor of the st level leading somewhere even deeper.

  John didn't wait for his energy to tinue mapping the new room; instead, he jumped into the hole. However, there wasn't much of a fall. The Ranger simply found himself unched into a new chamber.

  Johered the new chamber with slow and cautious steps, eaent refleg his for his mission. Although he repared to fay ehat emerged from the shadows, the atmosphere remained silent and uninhabited, without the slightest sign of life. The absenovement only increased his unease, causing his seo be on high alert.

  The chamber revealed itself to be a vast boratory with an intriguing mix of teological and seemingly are elements. Robust stone benches were filled with plex instruments—some radiating a soft, pulsating light, others emitting colored vapors from fsks. Intricately worked metal structures iwined with symbols described as "magical," creating a unique harmoween magic, alchemy, and engineering.

  ‘What the hell are they trying to do with all this?’ he wondered.

  John had dedicated tless hours studying the Orks but still struggled to decipher the plexity of their teology. The papers and notes scattered around the space testified to a tinuous quest for knowledge, with detailed diagrams that mixed alchemical formus and meical schematics.

  Some dots dispyed runiscriptions suggesting the use of magical energy as a power source, while others outlined device designs that defied ventional uanding. ‘Do they see the Z-Crystal as a form of magic?’

  John could uand only part of what was written ies.

  “S 01. That’s it!” The Ranger celebrated. "I o take this with me," he decided, choosing to s some of the notes with his gau. As for the strus, he tried to take photos, even with the low light.

  As John fiaking photos of the maes and symbols, he noticed a small pedestal in the ter of the room—a different kind of maery. It looked like a small aquarium with hundreds of cables ected to it. A slight glow was visible in each cable.

  "This. It's not possible." John noticed a small stone floating ihe aquarium. However, it wasn't just any sto had no color but emitted a dense wave of Energy.

  The Ranger quickly broke the front of the gss and removed the stone; he could easily feel what he had just obtained. ‘It's a Unique Z-Crystal. The amount of power emitted by this is massive.’

  When the crystal was removed, the cables quickly stopped glowing.

  ‘They were using this to power something. But—’ Before John could plete the thought, he felt the ground shaking.

  "Damn, how many floors am I from the surface? Impossible. What are they doing up there?" John muttered to himself, but then it dawned on him.

  ‘They wouldn't leave a crystal like this unguarded. Damn, something is proteg it.’ The Ranger ran out of the chamber as he felt aremor that was even strohan the first.

  When John reached the surface, the battle sted for a few minutes. He saw when the enormous monster used its arms to demolish the buildings housing the Rangers responsible for the artillery.

  "Quinn, what's happening?" he spoke into his gau.

  "Finally! Whe up the prote perimeter, we received ahat a Titan roag," the General expined.

  "What are its characteristics?" John tinued asking.

  "It appears to be Undead with high regeive capacity. We don't know where the Z-Crystal p it is, but it must be powerful," Quinn expined.

  ‘Do they have more than one Unique on this p? Or are they using several Z-Crystals to power this?’ the Ranger wondered; unfortunately, there was no clear answer.

  "Alright. Start pulling the Red Rangers out of the bat area. I will deal with the Titan," John announced.

  " you defeat it?" Quinn asked, startled.

  "No. However, I hold it off. At least until the ship is ready for escape," John expined.

  --

  --

  - Oliver -

  "Isn't that your brother over there?" Oliver asked while pointing to one of the buildings directly before the Titan.

  "Where?" Katherine asked, trying to spot him. However, his golden armleaming against the sunlight made him easy to see. "It is!"

  John ositio the edge of one of the buildings, one of the few still standing after the Titan's rampage. He was far from the monster but could easily draw a straight lio the creature.

  The Titan was still engrossed with its oppos, trying to crush the Red Rangers evacuating the area. Fortunately, Quinn was nearby to ehe defense of her subordinates.

  Whe tried to attaash any of them, she brandished her cymore and sliced off pieces of the creature.

  The group saw Johending one hand forward. He seemed to be juring his Ranger on—a simple golden bow.

  "He's taking it seriously. It's been a long time since I've seen him use his on," Katherine ented.

  However, to the others, it seemed too small to inflict signifit damage oan.

  John took a deep breath and drew the b, carefully aiming at the creature's body before finally releasing it.

  The golden arrow flew swiftly, hitting the Titan's abdomen and exploding upon tact. The explosion was so massive that it pushed all the Rangers away from the creature and once again raised a cloud of dust and debris.

  From Oliver's point of view, the firepower was simir to the artillery.

  ‘However, it's just one person causing all this damage,’ the boy thought.

  "I'm ing, I'm ing," the group heard the ship's captain announg over the unicator. "I mao get the three ships out of my range; I'll nd in the ter. I need you to board the ship immediately."

  As soon as the pilot fihe annou, the group saw the aircraft rapidly desding from the sky. The metallic hull gleamed uhe light as it performed daring mao decelerate. The pilot tilted the ship at extreme ahe teral thrusters r at maximum to reduce speed.

  It weaved between the ruins of the fortress, dodging colpsed towers and structures. The objective was clear: to nd among the debris remaining in the ter—the only space wide enough to aodate the risky nding.

  With a final thrust from the ehe ship reduced its speed enough to touch down with retive safety. The metallic structure groaned uhe pressure but held firm. Clouds of dust and stone fragments were thrown into the air as the shock absorbers absorbed the impact.

  "Rangers, immediate extra!" Quinn said over the unicator to everyone.

  However, before desding from the house, the group noticed that John had lowered his head. He seemed to be trating. The moment he reopened his eyes, the arrow on the bow was trembling slightly.

  Katherine screamed. "Close your eyes and cover your ears!"

  GCLopes