Labyrinth of Stone

Labyrinth of Stone is the third episode of Power Rangers: Lost Ninjas.

Synopsis
In the Ethereal Ninja Academy, Energy Ninja Easton gathers a few students and hides from General Tauza's forces.

The Himalayas, February 2nd, 2:08 am
Easton ducked into a narrow tunnel, pebbles showering his back as the Snipers kept shooting. Swinging around, he gestured, both hands together, and hurled a ball of blinding golden energy at them. It hit one, and as the others recovered, Easton pulled aside a wall hanging and crawled into a narrow tunnel.

It was barely wide enough for the tall teen to crawl through. His breathing rasped in the passage, and slowly, his eyes adjusted to the darkness. His hands looked very white against the blue-black rock, ribbed with streaks of multicolored minerals. The sour tang of mildew hung in the damp, stale air.

Easton kept crawling until he reached a crossroads. Pausing, he listened. From the tunnel to the right, he could hear voices. Survivors or invaders, he couldn't tell. He took the right tunnel, struggling a little to turn the corner. His grey uniform, the collar, front and cuffs trimmed with gold, was splotched with slime.

As Easton crawled, the voices grew louder and more distinct. They weren't familiar; grimly, Easton realized that he'd found some of the attackers. The school was small and exclusive, and Easton had lived in it his entire life. He knew everything and everyone in it.

"Sensei Orual Ngapoi, I presume," a woman said. She sounded very smug. Easton crawled faster. Soon, he reached the end of the tunnel, and was met by what looked like the back of a computer. A little hot air blew in his face as the machine thrummed.

Cautiously, Easton pushed the computer aside, just enough to see. It was the computer room, in relatively good shape compared to most of the school. Two snipers kept their weapons trained on an old Asian woman, somewhere in her late fifties or even early sixties. Her steel grey hair was combed up in a high bun, somehow immaculate despite the scorch marks on her robes—and bleeding gash running down one side of her face. Easton's eyes narrowed, and he pushed the computer aside a bit further.

"Aren't you a little old for this?" The woman from before said again, stepping between Easton and the Sensei. She wore purple armor, and tossed baseball-sized orb of white stone in one hand. Even though he couldn't see it, Easton knew that the Ethereal sigil, a gold square with four lines extending along each of its sides, was on the other side. Ngapoi had actually used the morpher?

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Sensei Ngapoi asked. Her expression was stony.

"General Tauza. My commander is Lothor."

Sensei Ngapoi drew in a slow breath. Her dark eyes flicked towards the crack, but her expression didn't change. She looked from the morpher to the crack, and gave a very faint nod. Easton understood.

"I know of you."

"Good. Snipers, take her to the ship, put her in a stasis bubble like the others," General Tauza ordered. The pair of foot soldiers bowed, and vanished along with the Sensei.

Easton crouched, bracing himself against the tunnel walls. In the other room, Tauza was pacing. She'd stopped tossing the morpher, so he guessed she was just holding it. Breathing in, Easton focused his energy. Then he sprang.

The computer was blasted aside with a flash of energy, and Easton lunged into the room. Somersaulting, he came up directly behind Tauza. As she whirled, he plucked the morpher out of her hands, and roundhouse-kicked her into a computer. It sparked, and as she scrambled up, Easton ran.

The tunnel outside was empty, but Easton could hear running footsteps. Where was it, where was it—there! Jumping, he caught the sides of the hole in the roof and scrambled through it. The tunnel was a little wider than the other had been, and Easton started crawling. None of the Snipers thought to look up, and he wasn't chased. Soon, the only noises were Easton's breathing and a faint, distant dripping.

Easton headed down the slanting passage, still clutching the morpher in one hand. He could feel the center of the sigil; as he'd guessed, a goldfish was etched into it. As the adrenaline faded, the exhaustion began to creep up on the ninja. Generating energy blasts took a lot out of him. He pushed himself on regardless. Sure, he was safe in here, but what if there were other students on the run?

Reaching another junction in the tunnels, Easton caught the noises of Sniper rifles. He turned around in the passage, and slid down a slanting tunnel. Coming out feet-first, he landed on a foot soldier's shoulders, slamming it to the ground. He ducked just in time; lasers punctured one of the wall tubes, and luminescent blue fluid splattered all over him.

There were a few students lying on the floor, limp and unbreathing. With a sick jolt, Easton recognized a few faces; Jannie Walt, Kyoto Hoshi, Val Tyson, some of the best Sound Ninjas in the Academy. Surging to his feet, he wheeled on the Snipers. There were five of them. Without even thinking about it, he hurled five energy balls, vaporizing them instantly.

Shaking and drained, Easton stopped. Blue spots glowed on his uniform and skin where the mineral fluid had spilled and was still glowing; it was starting to burn. Easton ripped off what was left of his tunic and scrubbed the stuff off his skin. Throwing the garment aside, he shivered as goosebumps sprang up on his bare back and arms.

With a shudder, he turned back, and began checking the bodies one by one. All were warm but dead, until he moved to a slight girl lying beneath one of the corpses. As he brushed aside her black hair to check her pulse, she rolled over, catching his wrist. Her eyes were wide, but milky white cataracts covered them, leaving only narrow blue rings of her irises.

"Who's there?" She demanded, in a Welsh accent. She couldn't have been older than sixteen, and her dirty, torn uniform was covered in little silver bangles. They jingled as she moved.

"Easton Lewis, Energy Ninja. You're Kerri Long?" Easton asked. Catching her breath, Kerri nodded. "Are you hurt?"

"My leg," Kerri replied, and Easton went to check. A nasty burn scored the back of her right calf, and Kerri flinched as he touched it. Tearing off one of her sleeves, Easton tied up the burn, and helped Kerri to her feet. Only then did he notice the small white ball clutched in one of her hands. It was cracked.

"Where did you get that?"

"This? I tripped over it running down here. I-is it what I think it is?" She held it up. In the heart of its gold sigil was a bat carved out of diamond. It glinted eerily in the bluish light, now coming from puddles of fluid where the lighting tubes had spilled.

"If you think it's the Sound Morpher, then yes." Easton looked back at the dead bodies, and his throat closed up. "The others must have been trying to get it to safety."

"Getting things to safety sounds like a good idea," Kerri said. Easton handed her the Energy Morpher.

"Take these. You know the Cave of Bubbling Pools?"

"Yes." Kerri wrinkled up her nose, probably remembering the smell of the place. The hot springs reeked of sulfur.

"Wait there for me. I'll come back with anyone I can find. If I don't show up for twelve hours, assume I've been captured or killed, and get out."

"Are you sure?"

Easton hesitated. Distantly, he could hear noises, probably explosions. "Yes, I'm sure. Get going."

Nodding, Kerri turned and hobbled into the darkness. Easton headed back up the tunnel, to what he guessed was the fourth level of the school. Soon, Easton found himself in a hall honeycombed with rooms; student quarters. The blasts and explosions were louder here, though fewer and farther between than before. He guessed the students were being rounded up or killed off. Despite the cold, he started to sweat. There was a stitch in his side, feeling like a red-hot triangle stabbing with each breath.

Rounding a corner, Easton nearly ran into a cluster of Empathy students. Instantly, terror swept through his mind. He doubled over and screamed, trying to resist the alien emotions the ninjas were projecting into him. They shoved past him, slamming him into a wall, and large blue energy balls zoomed towards them.

Paralyzed with the other students' terror, Easton couldn't react as the blue balls started snatching them up, sweeping back up the tunnel with their quarry. Then a brunette seized a panicking boy, ripped something out of his hands, and shoved him aside, holding it up as the blue balls shot towards them. It blazed sky blue, and the ball swerved around her—snatching the boy she'd been trying to protect.

"No!" The girl screamed. Easton thought he knew her, but he was so scared he thought he might throw up. The Empathy ninja tried to ward off as many of the balls as she could, but more and more students were snatched. As they were, Easton's terror faded. Pulling himself together, he hurled a final burst of energy at the balls. It hit the roof, and stone showered into the tunnel. In seconds, it was blocked completely.

The dust settled. Easton tried to stand, even though his legs were jelly. There was only one other person left in their side of the tunnel—that girl—and she caught Easton by the arm. Her hair was falling out of its bun, rippling down to her shoulders in clumps.

"We need to go before they come back," she said. An American, of course. Easton nodded, and stood. The shorter, slim girl let go as soon as she saw he could walk. She didn't seem to want to touch him.

"Someone else—Kerri—Bubbling Pools," Easton managed. He caught his breath. "We'll need warmer clothes, we'll have to leave the caves eventually."

"Right." The girl ran ahead, vanishing into one of the student rooms. There was a clatter, and soon she emerged, arms full of fur and grey fabric. With a wry half-smile, she tossed a tunic at him. "Here, Captain Shirtless."

"Thanks." Easton fastened the tunic at the right shoulder and down that side. It was an Empathy tunic, and a little too big for him, but clothes was clothes. Then he snapped his fingers. "Callaghan! Susana Callaghan, one of the new students!"

"Yep. You just going to stand here for a while, or should we go meet this Kerri person?" Susana would have folded her arms, but they were full.

"Right. Follow me." Easton lurched down the tunnel, and Susana followed.

The Cave of Bubbling Pools, the Himalayas, 2:49 am
Kerri sat with her back to the wall, staring at the pool immediately in front of her. It glowed, probably from minerals, so she could see it as a vague greenish blur. The entire cavern was lit by pools like it, different colors from all the minerals boiling away there. A thick, sulfurous mist hung over the cave, making it feel like a sauna. Kerri's leg throbbed, and her hair already clung to her face and neck with sweat.

Pipes rose like black snakes out of the pools, still pumping the stuff up into the school for light and heat. It'd probably keep going until it ran out of energy. It had to someday, with all the Energy ninjas gone.

Then Kerri heard footsteps, and looked up. Out of a dark tunnel came two blurry people. She stood with a jingle, and focused on them. The cave's echo made them hard to pick out, but they sounded like normal-sized people.

"Kerri!" That was Easton's voice.

"Over here!" Kerri called, heading towards them, still limping. Her burnt leg protested, so she sat down with a thump and let them come to her. The newcomer was a girl, and a fairly pretty one at that.

"Susana, Kerri, Kerri, Susana," Easton said. He was tired and slurring a little. The lights made his fair hair look greenish. Fishing the two morpher balls out of her pocket, Kerri held them up, which drew a gasp from Susana and a grin from Easton. He took his. "Good. Those guys will come looking for these eventually, dunno when. We should hide and rest, then sneak out another way."

"Who put you in charge?" Susana snapped. Easton shrugged.

"Sorry. What do you think?"

Susana paused, and thought. "You two rest, I'll keep watch. Then you guide us out of here. Be ready to run if I yell." Kerri indicated her leg, and Susana sighed, sounding exasperated. "We'll help you. Get some rest." She handed each of them one of the bundles of cloth she was holding. Unfolding hers, Kerri found one of the thick, fur-lined overcoats they wore when they had to go out in the snow. Nodding, she scooted to a corner, snuggled up in it and went to sleep. The ceiling rumbled.

Allies

 * Sensei Orual Ngapoi

Villains

 * Tauza