"The Grid was never the first light. It was just the loudest." – Unknown Signal, Timeline [REDACTED]
Scene 1: The Phantom Atlas – Deep Grid Scanner
Location: Central core chamber of the Phantom Atlas
Cast: Mira, Rin, Zara (hologram), Kael (later)
A vast circular room hums quietly. Thick cables pulse faintly with blue morph energy. This is where the Phantom Atlas taps into the remains of the fractured timelines — the scanner designed to sweep for morph echoes, dimensional tears, and fading sparks of corrupted Rangers.
But now?
Now it detects something else.
Mira adjusts the crystalline interface.
Mira (focused):
"I'm seeing pulse patterns beyond the Ultra Spectrum. They're… alien to the Grid."
Zara's hologram flickers into existence.
Zara:
"That's not just a foreign signal. That's pre-Grid resonance. Older than morph energy."
Rin glances at the screen. The patterns dance like a heartbeat out of rhythm.
Rin:
"It's like it's breathing."
Mira stiffens.
Mira:
"This signal was dormant until the Null War… until we fractured the Grid further."
Zara scans the signal again.
Zara:
"It calls itself Erevis. That's all I can extract."
Kael enters quietly, holding his helmet at his side. His voice cuts through the tension.
Kael:
"What does it want?"
The screen pulses faster.
Zara:
"It's not reaching out for communication. It's searching."
A beat.
Zara:
"It's hunting."
Scene 2: Timeline 09-Vanta – The First Ruin
Location: Abandoned world orbiting a dead star
Cast: Kael, Mira, Thorne, Rin, Ayla
The team lands in an ashen city where the buildings are skeletal, melted from within. There are no bodies. No Ranger tech. Just scorched shadows burned into the walls.
Ayla keeps close to Rin, clutching her dual daggers, unnerved.
Ayla:
"I've seen ghost worlds, but this one feels… drained. Like it got swallowed."
Thorne touches a crumbled wall. His black-gloved fingers smear the surface.
Thorne:
"There's no morph residue. Not even corruption."
Kael:
"Whatever hit this world… erased everything."
Mira activates a pulse scan.
Mira:
"No lifeforms. But—wait… I'm picking up a morph signal deep underground. Very faint."
They follow it.
Scene 3: Subterranean Chamber – The Prison
Beneath the ruins, the Rangers descend into a chasm where strange glyphs line the walls. They're not from any known civilization.
Suddenly, Rin freezes.
His hand goes to his chest.
Rin (quietly):
"It's here."
A massive seal — circular, ancient, carved from obsidian and pulsing dimly — stands before them.
Kael:
"This… isn't Ranger tech."
Mira:
"No. It's suppressing Ranger signals. It's trying to push us away."
Thorne:
"Or keep something in."
The seal cracks slightly.
Just slightly.
And then… a voice.
Not heard through ears, but felt in the bones.
Erevis (whispering):
"Unshaped… children of color… you cling to order… but I remember the silence before your sparks."
Everyone stumbles back.
A blinding white pulse explodes from the seal.
Suddenly:
Rin collapses, screaming. His morph aura flickers violently.
Ayla vanishes for a brief second, her form replaced by a flickering echo, then returns gasping.
Mira's scanner shatters in her hand.
Zara's voice panics through comms.
Zara (urgently):
"Get out. Now! It's piercing the Grid's core safeguards. That's not an entity. That's a primordial void!"
Kael grabs Rin's arm.
Kael:
"We leave. Now."
But as they ascend…
Scene 4: Return to the Atlas – Something Came Back
Rin wakes in the medical bay.
His eyes are different. Pale. Clouded.
Rin (dazed):
"I heard it speak my name."
Mira steps back, shaken.
Mira:
"That's impossible. It didn't have your name…"
Rin looks up slowly.
Rin:
"It gave it to me."
Silence.
Ayla grips Kael's arm tightly.
Ayla:
"I think we woke it up."
Kael looks out toward the stars.
Kael (grim):
"No. I think it always knew we were coming."
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