Location: The Hollow Grid – A broken nexus suspended between timelines, constructed from fragments of dead Ranger bases, Zord hangars, and digital remnants of the original Command Center.
It wasn't a base.
It was a scar.
The Hollow Grid hovered in nothingness—a station stitched together from wreckage and memory. Time didn't move here. Space bent awkwardly around each corner. It smelled like old fire and ozone, and occasionally, it whispered.
Kael paced along the metal walkway overlooking the war table—an unstable morph-tech construct that flickered with shifting fragments of different realities. Cityscapes. Ruins. Forests of glass. Rivers that flowed upward.
He didn't trust it. Didn't trust this place. Didn't trust them.
Not that he said that out loud.
He wasn't here to make friends. He was here to find the Eclipse Knight and end him.
Behind him, voices echoed.
Scene 1: Sparking Wires and Cold Introductions
Ayla was upside down.
Literally. Hanging by her knees from a beam near the ceiling, chewing on a stick of neon gum she'd found in some long-dead vending machine.
"So," she said, blowing a bright yellow bubble, "anyone else feel like this is one big cosmic joke?"
Mira didn't even glance up from her console. Her fingers moved fast—rewriting core code into the morphing frequency stabilizer Zara's AI had left behind.
"Do you ever shut up?" Mira asked dryly.
"Nope," Ayla said brightly. "I talk when I'm stressed."
Thorne snorted. He was sharpening a blade he'd built from repurposed Zord alloy. "You talk like someone who's never seen the inside of a war bunker."
Ayla swung upright, dropped to the floor, and pointed two fingers at him like imaginary pistols. "Oh, I have, big guy. It was made out of cake and trauma."
Thorne blinked. "…What?"
"Don't ask," Mira muttered.
Kael finally turned around.
"Enough."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried weight.
"You think this is a game?" he snapped, looking directly at Ayla. "We're here because everything we cared about is gone. Erased. I don't care how you process that—but act like a Ranger."
Ayla stared at him, the smile fading slightly.
And for the first time, there was a shadow behind her eyes. "Right. Of course, Red. Sir. Team leader. Guy with trauma and no chill."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "I'm not your leader."
"No," Mira said, standing. "But someone should be. Because we won't survive fractured-space running around like angry orphans with weapons."
Thorne grunted. "Speak for yourself."
"I am," she said sharply. "And I'm also speaking for you. You're unpredictable. You reek of darkness—like the Morph didn't fully purge you."
Thorne stood now, looming.
"You want to say that again?"
"Gladly."
Kael stepped between them. "Enough."
"You keep saying that," Mira said coldly. "But no one's listening."
From the corner, a quiet voice finally spoke.
Rin.
"I'm listening."
They turned. Rin stood near the edge of the platform, wrapped in white armor and silence. His face was partially obscured by a half-mask. Unlike the others, he radiated stillness. Calm… and something else.
"You're all loud," Rin said simply.
Ayla raised a brow. "And you're mysterious and vaguely scary. You gonna share your whole silent samurai vibe, or do we just accept it?"
Rin didn't answer. Instead, he turned and faced the war table.
"Something's coming," he said.
They all turned to look.
The war table shimmered. Zara's AI flickered into view—dimmer now, her form even more broken than before.
"The Eclipse Knight has begun harvesting a corrupted core in Timeline 717-Gamma."
"This timeline was once home to the Quantum Rangers of Terra-Mars."
"Now… they serve him."
Kael leaned forward.
"How long do we have?"
"Time doesn't flow here. But if you wait… they'll anchor that core. And a thousand more timelines will fall."
Thorne's eyes darkened. "So we're going in blind."
"No," Mira said, arms folded. "We're going in fractured."
Scene 2: One Minute Before the Drop
The team stood in the Phase Chamber—what passed for a teleporter in the Hollow Grid. It was unstable, flickering, pulsing with raw Morph energy.
Everyone was armed.
Everyone was tense.
Kael slid his cracked helmet on. The red visor lit up with a faint hum.
"You don't have to follow me," he said, quietly. "I wouldn't blame any of you for staying."
Thorne strapped his blade to his back. "I didn't come here to hide."
Mira adjusted her Morpher. "Statistically, our chances of survival are 11.3%. Which means we might as well go."
Ayla grinned. "You people are such downers. Let's go blow something up."
Rin simply nodded.
Zara's voice echoed one last time.
"This is the first fracture. Many more will follow. Trust no one. Not even each other."
"The Eclipse Knight knows you're coming."
Kael's voice was steel.
"Then let him know what we are."
The chamber flared—
And the Rangers vanished into fractured light.
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