The jungle swallowed sound.

  Even Rocky noticed it first—the absence of birds, insects, wind. The kind of silence that pressed in on the ears and made every breath feel louder than it should.

  “Anyone else feel like we just walked into something that doesn’t want us here?” Rocky muttered.

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  Trini adjusted her footing, eyes scanning the dense foliage. Massive trees twisted overhead, their roots coiling like serpents across the forest floor. Stone markers—ancient and cracked—rose intermittently from the earth, half-buried and overgrown.

  “This place is guarded,” she said. “Not by people. By time.”

  Back at the Command Center, Aisha worked beside Billy, tracking their vitals and scanning for hostile teleport signatures.

  “Still nothing,” she said. “But I don’t like how quiet Zedd is being.”

  Billy frowned. “Neither do I.”

  Moments after the Rangers disappeared into the jungle, five crimson flashes ignited in the shadows behind them.

  Zedd’s Putties had arrived.