Sanders Sides (power rangers au)

Chapter 8.

Janus already felt bad enough for having gotten so many people into trouble for his stunt that morning. I mean, if the information he had seen was true, then she deserved it, but he still shouldn't have done something that got his classmates in trouble. Then they went to detention and it was weird there too. Janus was really only close with Logan, and Remus was more of a passing fancy to him. So to pretend that they were all close when they got into the woods was weird to him. Then Janus had seen that weird thing in the woods. Something that Janus was distracted by even after they fell into that sinkhole. He could've sworn it was a person, or at least part of the face of one. Then they fell and now they were in some weird hobo-land admiring a nice useless birdbath. The mattress had made Janus's stomach flop when he saw it. It only confirmed that he was seeing some weirdo hiding behind their school in the woods.

"Janus!" Logan's voice snapped Janus out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"What do you make of this?" Logan pointed towards the now open door. Inside was a smaller space, which was even more dimly lit than their current one. What light he could see looked like it came from a computer. Granted, Logan was probably asking what Janus thought about the weird rock statue of a very odd looking humanoid figure. The general shape was like a woman's, but there were spikes at her joints and an odd crown that circled her head. Her hair stuck straight up at odd angles, and Janus wondered if that was an artist rendition, or more accurate to her than he wanted. The statue held what looked like a staff in her right hand, and her left was stretched in front of her, as if reaching for something. Her face was grinning, and reminded Janus of his own "I'm planning something really stupid" face.

"Why the hell would I know?" Janus answered finally. Admittedly, the shape kinda gave him the creeps, and he had really wished the door opened into a nice escalator with a LED sign flashing "Exit to open spaces, this way!"

"What's that on her arm?" Remus asked, barging forward like his usual self into the room and admiring the arm that held her staff. Janus looked at the statue again, but didn't move forwards. Remus was right, it looked like there was something else on her arm. It was a different color, and it stood out in bright contrast compared to the dark colors from the statue.

"Sweet Beetlejuice Remus, can you please not go barging into places for once?" Roman complained, but followed his brother anyway. Janus watched as Patton followed behind, leading Virgil, then Logan. Finally, Janus gathered up the guts, and walked in too. His feet were a bit heavy, and somewhere in his brain, Janus felt like there was something wrong with this place. He neared the statue, and stopped beside Remus. From up close, Janus could very clearly see a weird set of bracelets hanging from the statue's arm. It was a collection of about six different colored bands with a bright jewel hanging from the middle. It was a bit tacky, in Janus's opinion, and he was glad he didn't have such god awful jewelry taste.

"Okay, forgive my language, but what the fuck?" Virgil's voice sounded from Janus's right.

"You are forgiven." Logan said. "However, what is the cause of your alarm?"

"Well, I turned on the computer," Virgil started as the others walked over, "and that's my face." He pointed at the computer where the light had been coming from, and sure enough, a grainy image of Virgil's head could be seen from what looked like a security camera. For a moment, the computer's light faded slightly, and Janus thought that the computer was going to sleep, before the image changed to one of Patton's fuzzy hair. It had the same grain and color of a security camera, but there was no question that it was him. Patton sucked in a small breath from beside Roman, and the less chaotic twin reached to put his arm around Patton's shoulder.

Janus moved forward. "Scooch, computers are my thing." He made a brushing motion with his hands and Virgil got up. Janus switched with him, and moved the cursor. The computer's screen changed again to show a home screen with another image. This time it was of whoever the inspiration from the statue came from. At first, Janus was convinced it was just a really good cosplay, but the more he looked, the more he realized that there was simply no way. The statue didn't do the woman justice. She was terrifying. Her hair was stuck up like the statues, but Janus couldn't really tell where her hair ended and a large crown with sharp points began. Her hair was black, but less a color and more like Janus was looking out at space itself. It gave the impression that someone had taken a piece of the universe and stuck it onto this woman's head.

The spikes Janus had seen on the statue weren't clothing. They were odd points of a dark purplish black that melded to her skin, which was a dark gray. The spikes protruded from her shoulders, elbows, and the sides of her eyes. Her clothing was a full set of armor made for her, with that same gray as her skin. The staff was in her hand still, a wooden stick about as long as she was that held a sphere at the top that seemed to glow a soft rainbow of colors. Janus could also barely make out those same bracelets that he had seen earlier on her wrist.

Other than the bizarre background image, the computer was almost completely empty. It had no access to an internet service, no email background, not even the time or battery life that was normally nestled into the bottom right of computers. The only thing there was a collection of folders that read different things. However, Janus had no idea what they said, as they were all written in a language that he had never even seen.

Suddenly, a loud snap sounded from behind Janus, along with Remus's voice saying, "Shit!"