Location: Timeline 321 – Dystopolis
Event: Echoes of the Forbidden Code
Time Remaining Before Grid Collapse: 02:09:53
Scene 1: Steel Skies, Silent Streets
The rift opened above a silent skyline — towers of cold chrome scraping a blood-red sky.
Kael stepped through first, landing on a rooftop coated in ash. The wind carried echoes — sirens. Distant screams. A city breathing beneath tyranny.
Mira landed beside him. She didn't speak.
She didn't need to.
This was her home.
Or what was left of it.
Ayla poked her head up over the rooftop edge. "Sooo… when you said 'my world sucks,' I didn't expect full-on fascist tech-noir."
Rin narrowed his eyes. "Grid signature is faint, but active. Something's broadcasting Ranger energy…"
Mira cut him off. "It's not Rangers. It's the Reclaimer Corps. They hunted them all. Studied Morph energy. Weaponized it."
Thorne turned toward her. "And your brother leads it?"
She gave a bitter smile. "Dr. Alden Vey. First to outlaw Rangers. Last to survive them."
Scene 2: Enter the Reclaimer Corps
On ground level, patrol drones skimmed across broken pavement. Citizens hurried beneath massive digital billboards:
"MORPHING IS A DISEASE."
"PROTECT THE ORDER. REPORT ALL ANOMALIES."
The team moved through alleys, cloaked by Mira's tech. Her device blurred them from sensors—barely.
"Grid pulse is coming from the Old Institute," Mira said, tapping her gauntlet. "That's where Alden runs experiments. He's the key."
Kael spoke quietly. "You sure you're ready for this?"
She didn't answer right away.
Then: "He was the one who handed me over. When I morphed for the first time. He called me an infection."
Ayla stepped beside her. "Then let's go give your brother a vaccine. The kind that explodes."
Scene 3: The Labyrinth Below
They breached the Institute's underlabs in silence—until the elevator locked mid-drop.
A screen flickered on.
And there he was.
Dr. Alden Vey. Older, colder. His eyes were dead blue, like Mira's—but stripped of all warmth.
"Well," he said calmly, "I see the infection returns. And brings new strains."
Mira stepped forward. "Still obsessed with controlling what you couldn't understand?"
He smiled. "No. Just disappointed. You were always my brightest failure."
A sudden pulse echoed through the lift.
Rin's visor flared. "He's trying to override our Morph states."
Kael grunted. "Override this—" and slammed his blade into the side panel, blowing the override circuit. The lift dropped again, crashing into darkness.
Scene 4: Broken Bloodlines
They emerged into a hollow chamber—circular, metallic, lit by streams of synthetic morph energy.
And in its center—
—a single corrupted Ranger.
But not just any.
A White Ranger.
Slumped, bound, wires pierced into his suit.
Mira froze. "That's… that's one of ours. A pure-streamed Ranger from the Archive Era."
Alden's voice echoed from the walls.
"We extracted the code from his morph. It powers everything in this city now."
Ayla looked sick. "You're using him as a battery?"
"For progress," Alden said. "For peace."
Kael's fists clenched. "You're the same as Elios."
"No," Alden replied coldly. "He failed. I will perfect what he started."
Mira stepped into the center. "Then I'll do what you made me."
"Fractured Grid: Blue Override — Rift Saber Mode!"
She morphed mid-run, leaping through streams of raw energy and striking the tubes holding the captured White Ranger.
Alarms blared.
The corrupted systems screeched, and a wave of Reclaimer Sentinels charged in.
Kael, Thorne, Ayla, and Rin fell into battle formation.
"Go, Mira!" Kael shouted. "We'll hold them!"
Scene 5: Sister vs. Brother
Mira ascended the lift alone—straight to the top of the tower.
Where Alden waited.
No guards. No armor. Just a desk. A wall of broken Ranger helmets behind him.
"You always were stubborn," he said.
"I got it from you," Mira replied, raising her blade.
He touched a button.
A second morph field activated—black and silver.
Alden stepped forward, armor blooming around him. A custom suit—sleek, brutal.
"Dr. Alden Vey — Reclaimer Prototype Morph: Ash Vanguard"
And the duel began.
Steel clashed against science. Sister against brother.
Mira dodged, countered, struck high and low. "You experimented on me. Treated me like data!"
"You were data," Alden hissed. "A failed algorithm in human form!"
They locked blades.
"You're just afraid," Mira whispered. "Afraid of what you couldn't become."
With a roar, she unleashed a surge of blue fractal code through her saber, destabilizing Alden's morph.
He staggered back.
She didn't hesitate.
She plunged her saber into the morph core.
CRACK—!
The suit shattered. Alden collapsed.
Not dead. But defeated.
Scene 6: The Liberation
Down below, the corrupted systems collapsed. The Rangers released the captured White Ranger. The energy grid across Dystopolis flickered… and then turned blue.
Broadcasts changed.
Sirens stopped.
People looked up, blinking in confusion.
Ayla laughed. "We just unplugged a city."
Kael approached Mira as she stepped off the lift.
"You good?"
She nodded. "He's alive. But this place? Finally free."
The Phantom Atlas reappeared in Rin's hands, now glowing brighter.
"One step closer," Rin murmured.
"To restoring the Grid?" Thorne asked.
Rin looked up.
"No. To confronting him."
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