Tales of the Morphin Masters: Ascension

Disclaimer: I do not own the Power Rangers. They belong to whomever owns the copyright. Not profit is made from this piece of writing, it is purely a fanwork.

"The Morphin Masters were craftsmen without compare. During their earliest days spent studying the nature of the Grid, their creations were large, physical and infused with the Power upon
completion. They worked in all manner of materials from wood to metal. But it was when they discovered how to enter and leave the Morphin Grid that their creations became so much more. No longer were they toying with physical materials and imbuing it with energy… now they were taking the energy and shaping it into matter."

– An Unknown Observer

"Grid Energy changes those exposed to it. In high doses it can cause the
break down of tissues and extreme mutations at a cellular level. If treatment is
not sought and extreme care exercised such exposure can prove fatal. In lower
levels over a prolonged period those exposed to Grid Energy become more
efficient at handling it effects. It is true that as a group, we Morphin Masters
had seen an improvement to our health and longevity caused by exposure to latent
Grid Energy.

Our new task is to find a way to safely mitigate the effects of short-term
exposure to high levels of Grid Energy at least long enough to safely enter and
leave the Morphin Grid."

– Unaccredited Morphin Master

It was an exciting day for all Morphin Masters. After aeons of
research and preparation, the time had come for The Ascension. The Morphin
Masters planned to enter the Morphin Grid and make it their new home, leaving
behind the physical world where they had previously lived.

When The Celestials had departed the mortal realm, they had left behind several of
the races that they had chosen to be a part of their first alliance. It had been
their hope that these races would rise up and help guide the evolution of the
lower dimension and history showed that they had done so.

All had had some success, even going so far as to find ways to transcend
their mortal state to something more suited to their role. The Time Lords had
achieved such changes through exposure to a rift in space and time, and genetic
alterations. The Maltusians had used a symbiotic relationship to limit their
mortality. And the Morphin Masters had over millions of years of exposure to the
Morphin Grid found themselves altered into something less mortal.

Prolonged exposure to the energies within the Morphin Grid had altered their physiologies. It was inevitable that with such constant exposure to such raw magical, psychic and spiritual energy, they
were bound to evolve. They became powerful, capable of bestowing gifts upon the ones they left behind or of bringing destruction upon the physical universe.
Time had shown that they were not immune to the temptation such power offered
and that even the most well-meaning of their kind could be corrupted by the
darker emotions the use of Grid Energy seemed to cause.

And now the Morphin Masters were looking forward to not only a relocation
into the Morphin Grid, but a reunion with family from across the universe – for
access to the Morphin Grid had allowed the Morphin Masters to travel the cosmos,
spreading their society throughout existence.

Yet despite the excitement there was an underlying tension. There were
rumours that some of those attempting to make the transition into the Morphin
Grid had vanished. There had even been reports of catastrophic failures of the
Morphin Masters’ technology resulting in planets being devastated by the
resulting explosions.

There were rumours that some new darkness had been unleashed upon the
universe and that the Morphin Masters had attracted its attention. There were
even whispers that a new type of energy had been discovered inside the Grid,
which had coincided with the emergence and that this energy had corrupted a part
of the Grid itself.

It was therefore not a surprise to find that while any were excited about
reunions and new horizons, some had come to the conclusion that they were
running away from something and leaving the rest of the population of their old
home to face it.

Regardless of the true reasons for The Ascension, it was finally happening.
As Morphin Masters around the universe gathered their belonging and made the
preparations needs to handle the sudden spike in Grid Energy, those members of
their society that had either chosen to remain behind or were unsuited to the
harsh environment of the Grid bid them a fond farewell.

Billions of years earlier

The Dark One had been imprisoned by his father. The One had sealed him inside
a dimension on the far side of exitence, as far from any living being as
he could find. And then he had sealed the dimension using every known technique
to create the layered locks that would restrain his wayward son for all time.

Of course The One had not foreseen the evolution of the universe or how
certain races would grow up while his attention was diverted. He had not
foreseen the possibility that a race could access the energy he tried so hard to
control and that the resulting explosion would be enough to cause a small hole
in the prison he had constructed. The hold had sealed almost immediately, but
the Dark One’s power and influence had interacted with the energy and corrupted
it. From there it had set in motion a series of events that would one day lead
to the rise of followers capable of releasing him. And the Morphin Masters would
be a key part of his plan.

A long time after The Ascension, the Morphin Masters had become beings of
myth and legend. Since that day, members of their society had frequently returned
from the Grid long enough to impart
their knowledge to those willing to listen. But as time had moved on so the Morphin Masters’
appearances had become less frequent.

Their studies of the Morphin Grid had spanned many generations and billions
of years. Their knowledge of how things worked had grown and as they had
uncovered the mysteries of the Grid, so their technology had changed to embrace
their discoveries.

However, more and more of the time was being spent inside the Morphin Grid
and many of them had started to feel more at home within its boundaries than
outside.

It took almost four thousand years before the Morphin Masters were seen again. Many believed that they were gone for good, perhaps weakened from their efforts to
stay there so long. The truth was that time passed differently inside the Morphin
Grid. Each day the Morphin Masters journeyed further into the source of the Power and unlocked more and more secrets. They had revised their understanding of the Morphin Grid
several times as new facts proved their earlier theories wrong.

The Grid was so much more than they had ever dreamed. For the inside of the Grid was seemingly endless. And it was not limited to a single
universe as the Morphin masters had once believed. Instead it spread through all existences, touching every plane, dimension and realm. It was connected to the brightest stars in the heavens and the
pitch darkness that lurked within the depths of a demonic hell.

Not only was the Grid a place of power and energy, it had its own ecosystem. There were creatures living within the dimension that the Morphin Masters had never seen before. Some were humanoid
in shape, others were more animalistic. Then there were those that defied explanation with forms that were truly alien to the travellers. However, regardless of their appearances they shared a common
nature of being created from the elements and energy that existed within the Morphin Grid, an environment that somehow also allowed the Morphin Masters to survive.

As time passed, the Morphin Masters uncovered more and more secrets about the workings of the Morphin Grid. Inside its confines they learned the skills necessary to transform energy into matter,
giving it form as they did so. With practice they were able to build simply constructs using the energy around them and then transform the energy into physical materials. And as part of that learning
they masters the arts of conjuring and directing energy at targets and willing that energy to take on the shapes that they needed.

It was with their mastery of such techniques that some of the Morphin Masters felt the need to return to the world outside of the Morphin Grid and share their new knowledge with those they had left
behind. The majority however chose to journey onward, seeking out new secrets within the never-ending expanse of their new home. But first they at least agreed to help make the various forces within
the Grid more stable in their original dimension.

And so they journeyed to the world of Magitopia and there they created the Magical Source and the Mystic Force, the conduits through which magic could flow into the universe safely before
spreading out across the stars. This was not all the magic within the Grid, but they knew that accessing such power would one day lead to new races capable of handling the more potent powers the Grid
could offer. And to watch over and monitor how magic functioned in its new environment, they created the Tribunal of Magic: three powerful entities granted the ability to control and regulate the flow
of magical and mystical energy.

Next the Morphin Masters travelled to the temples and foundries they had built during their early days learning about the Grid. Using their vast understanding and manipulation of
Grid Energy, they cast spells to hide the
locations from those seeking them except where the need existed and the intention was worthy. They hid many of their larger constructs, the pylons they had created to channel the Power before they
found better ways to do so. They did the same for the Morphin Engines they had placed on previously lifeless worlds to help encourage them to grow. And finally they gathered as many of their creations
as possible and placed them with a large storage facility on the planet Imphos. There they set a guardian capable of assessing the needs of those that wished to remove an item and capable of ejecting
those that did so with the intention of abusing the Morphin Masters’ legacy.

And a a final gift and act of protection for their former home, the Morphin Masters created
beings to
act as intermediaries between the Morphin Masters and those the left behind. For it had become
apparent that prolonged exposure to the Grid had caused them to evolve beyond the mere mortals they had once been. They were now gods steeped in the power of the Grid.
But such elevation came at the cost of no longer being able to endure long
stints in former home. And as they were concerned that there were those that might abuse their gifts, the Morphin
Masters created angels of death and rebirth, to purge those that defiled their works
and replace them with something new…

They did not realise that their actions had caused a shift in the cosmic balance,
breaking the remaining seals that had kept the upper dimensions locked away as
well as stressing those that kept the Dark One restrained. With their final departure, the other
dimensions were now freely accessible to those that had the means, the desire and the mentality to open them. And with such an act they had brought the unsuspecting mortal realm to the attention of
those that would seek to add it to their own domains.

They also failed to understand that their ascension had caused the people of the universe to worship them as gods and in doing
they had changed the nature of the Power as most mortals understood it for
generations to come.

End of Part