Copyright © 2003 If its not in the original PRNS, we own it.
Author's Note: This was solely written by Jade. You guys might find it a tad bit- shallow. But that was the intention. I don't normally write this way, but this is meant to be a spoof. Just imagine that there is some reporter or interviewer asking me about the details of my life as a Power Ranger.
I had fun writing it. Hope you guys enjoy it too. I am planning on writing one from Hunter's POV later as well.
I also plan on writing a more serious version of Rika' and Hunter's POV.
Let me know what you guys think.Reeview please!
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My Life as a Power Ranger: Rika's POV
Hi, my name is Rika. I'm your average teen, attending college, hanging out with friends, and just enjoying life. I'm Asian, although I was born in the U.S. I stand at about 5'6", which isn't very tall, but I'll never hear that I'm short. I have black hair with auburn highlights streaked through it and brown eyes. However, there's a fact about me, an aspect that permeates my life. I'm a superhero. Or super heroine. OK, yeah, you heard right. I don't think of myself as one, but I suppose I could be counted as that.
Actually, I'll be more specific. I'm 1/8 of a fighting force called the Power Rangers that battles Lothor's constant attempts at world domination. Who is Lothor? He's this evil ninja that got banished into Space and somehow regained the power to come back and suck up all the Ninja Academies. He's also my uncle. That's a fact I wish I didn't have to state. But it is, and this Ranger thing was thrust upon my sister, Clare and I when our parents passed away.
So what Ranger am I? I'm one of the Lightning Rangers. Specifically, I'm the Crimson Lightning Ranger. Guess that's just my color. But Crimson isn't a bad color, perhaps that's because my boyfriend, Hunter (although I hate calling him that and never do), just a "friend" is good enough for me, is the Crimson Thunder Ranger. Yep, he's a Ranger too. My sister Clare is the Navy Lightning Ranger. Her "boyfriend", Blake, incidentally is the Navy Thunder Ranger and he's Hunter's adopted brother.
We all get along pretty well. Actually, there are 4 others in addition to us. The "Winds" or the Wind Rangers are Shane, Dustin, and Tori. Then there's my cousin Cam. He's not technically a Ninja Ranger, he's a samurai- the Green Samurai Ranger. We're led by my uncle, or Sensei Kanoi as is his full name. However, he's a bit unique. He's a guinea pig. It's a long story as to how he became that way, but the short of it is that he battled Lothor who is his brother Kiya gone bad, and was turned into a furry little guy. Together we all make up the Ninja Storm Power Ranger force, which has our base of operations under what used to be the Wind Ninja Academy before Lothor attacked. It's called Ninja Ops.
Ninja Ops is relatively homey and comfortable. My sister Clare and I along with Hunter and Blake live there. Uncle or sensei took us under his care when a drunk driver killed my parents.
Anyways, most of the time, I don't really think of us as being special. Just living our lives, I mean, we've got hobbies like everyone else. I specifically like to read, sing, blade, golf, and hang out with my friends. I'm a premed in college, so that demands a pretty rigorous schedule. I admit, sometimes it interferes with my alternative or secret identity. Yeah, we all try to keep our identities on the "DL" as Blake would say it.
So, now that I've given you a quick run down of my life, I'll give you a glimpse into my life as a Power Ranger. Juggling a college student's curriculum with life in general all on top of my Ranger duties, can be demanding. Let me show you. . .
7:30 AM - My alarm is ringing and I reach up to shut it off. Did I say off? More like hit the snooze button. That means that the insufferable clock will be quiet for approximately 9 minutes before ringing again. After hitting the snooze button like 3 times, it's finally 8:00 and I finally drag myself out of bed. I shuffle to the bathroom, muttering a groggy "good morning" to my sister with whom I share a room and I go about my business. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to wake up fully. During that time, I am rather irascible. But, what can I say; I'm not a morning person. Bathroom is always an issue in the morning because we share it with Hunter and Blake. Clare is a bathroom hog. She's in there forever! Unfortunately, Hunter and I are not morning people. But since his and Blake's class start one hour after mine, we don't run into them too much. At least, not 3 out of five days of the week.
8:15 AM - By this time, I'm usually chomping on some breakfast. It could be a variety of things. Like cereal, bagels, or yogurt with fruit. I hang around a bit, getting ready for the day. Then I shuffle off to my classes around 8:45 AM. It would be sooo much easier if I could just Ninja Streak, but Uncle has a rule against using Ninja skills for personal use or in public. I commute to school. So that means, I have to walk like everyone else. Sigh. Uncle is a cool guy, er - pig, but he's an absolute stickler for the rules. Don't get me wrong - I love him to pieces, but sometimes, its so much nicer if I could just roll out of bed at 9:00, I would get 1 more hour of sleep. To a pre-med, that's precious!
9:07 AM - I'm sitting in my Orgo class while Professor Wooley is droning on and on about Benzene's structure and talking about SN 1 and SN 2 reactions, when guess what? My morpher goes off. Seriously, I've told Cam this so many times - that we need to develop a 'vibrate' or 'silence mode' for our morphers. They always inevitably ring at a VERY inconvenient time or in the middle of class. So what do I do? I slip outside to the bathroom and after looking in all the stalls and making sure no one is around, I ask my cuz what's up. Of course, it's another of Lothor's goons. Seriously, he has the worst timing. Since I am already behind in my Orgo class, I ask if there is no other Ranger available to handle the monster. I tell him that I'll come if they are seriously getting their Ranger butts handed to them. I know for a fact that Hunter has study period at this time. And he's a very competent Ranger and great fighter. He could probably more than hold his own against whatever Lothor has cooked up. So I beg Cam to be let off. He understands and tells me he'll let me know if they need my help. Having settled that, I return to class, only to find that I've missed an important part of lecture and that means that I'll probably have to re- watch the lectures again. At least they are videotaped. Otherwise, I'd be flunking Orgo. Thank heavens for technology!
10:00 AM - Orgo is over, but its time to go to my next class. English! Whoohoo. Coincidentally, I'm an English major, or at least planning to be one. In the couple of minutes I have before my next class, as I walk to my English Class, I surreptitiously question Cam regarding the status of the others against Lothor's freaks. Luckily, the news is good, the others being Hunter, Shane, and Tori have taken down the freak. They don't need more help and we can all go back to our lives. I walk into my class and sit down next to Hunter. He's in this class too. Funny, wouldn't you think? A dark brooding guy like him, although his brother and I have managed to lighten him up considerably takes English? AND he's good at it. Hunter's breathing a bit hard from his battle with Lothor's unimaginative creation. I question him on how the battle went. Typically, he smirks replying it was "cake." We both laugh and turn our attention to Prof. Haddad who is talking about Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre. I've read that book many times. I like it. We manage to get through class without any "beeps" from Cam.
Lunch - This is always a highlight of my day. This is the time I get to meet up with my other friends, who are all Rangers. So, if there is some notice, it's not half as bad. Today I'm eating with Hunter. Normally Blake and the Winds would join us, but they aren't there for various schedule-related reasons. So it's just me and Hunter. Hmm, so lets see now. What to eat for lunch? I'm always starving by this time and as always, I'm impatient. I hate waiting on lines. It looks like the subway line is the shortest. So I wait there. Hunter decides he'll go for Subway today too, so we enjoy each other's company while waiting for our lunches. I love these times. We catch up on how our day has gone so far and make plans for the rest of the day. Today we plan to meet up and hit the movies after my exam. He's done at 4:00 PM and normally I'm done at 5:00 PM due to lab. But today, I have an exam. So I'll be done at 8 PM tonight. So he'll either study or something while he waits. Or he might get some laps at the track with his brother Blake. Lunch is over and he and I split to go our ways.
1:00 PM - Now I'm sitting in Lab. It's bio lab. And actually around this time, I get antsy. Why? Because after dealing so much with Lothor, he's gotten predictable. He likes to attack around this time. Why? Heaven only knows. But maybe its because he's probably just had lunch, is feeling lazy and languorous, so refuses to spin more hopeless evil plots in his head. So he decides to entertain himself by watching us Rangers kick his monster's butts. It's not too bad, but it can get annoying. It's not fair that he gets to choose the time and place, while we have to cater to his whims.
3:00 PM - Like I predicted, Lothor has struck again and sent a horde of KelzaKs to the library. I get the message after sneaking off. I tell Cam to give me 5 minutes so I could finish up my experiment. It's a simple titration experiment. Not really time consuming but tricky and it can't be rushed. So I painstakingly wait for my solution to change color indicating I've reached the right pH. It can't come fast enough, especially when my morpher beeps again. This time, the voice is Hunter's. His voice is calm, but I can hear a tinge of worry and something else, which gets my attention immediately - pain. Thinly veiled, but there for sure. Apparently Cam can't get anyone else and he's taking the KelzaKs on by himself. He's finished those red and black striped pinheads off, but now there's always a monster lurking not far behind. He's being worked by this monster and needs help fast!
Thank God! It's finished. I grab my stuff and bolt out of there. I take the back exit since I know that's empty and no one's hardly there. I run out and after a quick glance, you can't be too careful, morph while on the run, calling "Lightning Storm, Ranger Form!" I morph and Streak to the library just to see Hunter take a particularly harsh blast to the chest, making his Ranger form spark crazily. He's obviously hurting from that last assault. I streak to his side and help him up, but he doesn't say much, but asks what took me so long. I reply, "titration." He gives me an understanding nod and we both turn to face Lothor's newest inception. This time Lothor's outdone himself. It's an ugly looking cross between a jellyfish and a snail. It's really ugly and I say so. Hunter agrees, but warns that its looks are deceiving.
I nod in acknowledgement of the warning. With that, I leap into the air bringing my Tsais together in a double-sided lance mode. I quickly slash at the monster and still in mid air, bounce off the monster to back flip away from it. Hunter soon joins me by smashing his Thunder Staff into the monster's stomach and spinning away, slashes it again in a repeated set of attacks in Thunder mode. It's crazy to watch him fight. He moves quite gracefully for someone who is as tall as he is. It's actually maddeningly unfair for someone his size to have that much grace and poise. But he does thanks to his ninja training. He's one of the best fighters I know. And myself being trained as well, I can say he certainly is a very capable fighter.
I think about this as I look for an opening to attack again. There. The monster lowered its guard and I dart in to take my shot, but Hunter shouts a warning. Unfortunately, I'm already there and I see the monster's ploy too late. He lowered his guard to draw me in closer as I quickly find out, he ensnared me in his jelly-like tentacles and I find myself sufficiently pinned, unable to move or escape as I struggle furiously. I cry out for Hunter just as I find out painfully that wasn't the only thing the monster had planned. Suddenly I feel bolts of electricity furiously streaming into my Ranger body. Now, I'm a Lightning Ranger, with the ability to harness and control lightning, but for some reason, which I've never figured out, I can't repel electricity not called or generated by my will. So I basically get fried, while screaming in pain.
During this time, I'm sure Hunter is desperately trying to find a way to help me. Luckily, the monster helps him. After frying me, he threw me to the side where I collided with the library wall before falling on my back. With all the wind knocked out of me, I can only lie there forcing my lungs to take in oxygen. I struggle to my knees, head still dizzy from the influx of voltage and regain my bearings. Hunter rushes over to me and helps me gently to my feet. I shake my head, trying to clear it and willfully force my blood to pump more endorphins to soothe the fire in my body. Luckily, one of the perks, but also downfalls of being in Ranger form is that it allows you a much greater pain tolerance. That's a good thing. The bad thing is that coupled with my martial arts training makes it possible for all of us to have ingrained in us that pain is not important. It can be sufficiently controlled and diverted until we can give it the attention required. I push away the pain and call forth my personal attack-White Lightning.
I raise my hand above me pointing at the sky and call for it. Lightning leaps down to my outstretched hand as I gather more and more lightning. Once satisfied, I release it towards the ugly jellyfish monster. It doesn't blow up, but it does get blasted hard, temporarily distracting it enough to give Hunter time to run up and strike it with an attack from his Thunder Staff in Full Power Mode. That's enough for the oozy jellyfish.He bugs out of here, but he'll be back.
Now, remember back to what I said about being in Ranger form and pain management? All that comes flooding back in full force. It slams into both of us as we power down to our civilian forms. It's the downside of being a Ranger. While morphed, we don't feel it. I mean, we do, but we can take a lot more. Once we power down however, we're human. And we feel every blast, and bump, and scrape, and yeah, it beats our bodies.
Both Hunter and I wearily slump down on the stairs, catching our breaths. I look at my watch in shock. Oh crap! It's already 4:00 PM! That fight didn't seem that long, but apparently it took much longer than I'd anticipated. Frustrated, I tell Hunter I only have an hour to study before my exam tonight. He tells me not to worry. That's what I love about him. He's so practical, but very compassionate. Under that hard exterior, there is a heart of gold that beats under there. You just have to know how to get to it. I guess I'm one of the lucky few that gets to see that. And while he's still a dark and brooding guy, he's gotten much better. I mean, you can't blame the guy. Life's handed him some crappy turns. But those turns have strengthened and molded him.
I tell Hunter that I HAVE to go study and tell him I'll see him back at Ops after my exam. He agrees and I tell him to go and rest as he was hit pretty hard and must be tired from fighting those KelzaKs by himself. He protests, but I give him a Look. You know, one of those, "I'm telling you sweetly, but actually I'm ordering you and if you don't listen, I'll kick your butt." That kind of look. He sees it and sighs, resigned. I kiss him lightly on the cheek and tell him good. He smiles and wishes me good luck on my test tonight and I Streak away to go do some last minute studying for my exam tonight.
6:00 PM - Its been about an hour into the exam and I'm about halfway through, when surprise surprise. My communicator goes off. Everyone is looking for the person who would be so brash to bring a cell phone or pager into the test room and have the nerve to NOT shut it off or silence it. Muttering apologies to everyone around me, I duck out of the room, rolling my eyes, and heatedly ask Cam, what's up. I warn him that "it better be good" as you just called me out of my exam! He tells me it's that jellyfish freak again. I wince knowing that I'm probably going to be needed eventually, but ask if he can alert the others. "I'll try to finish as fast as I can and get there." Cam sighs, but he knows. He tells me that he will alert the others and this time, they should all be there. I thank Cam and head back to finish my test.
About 30 minutes later, I'm done and I hand in my test paper. As I walk out of the room, my communicator beeps. "Your timing is getting better" I tell Cam. He just quips sarcastically, "funny", but tells me that I'd better get my Ranger butt over there. I tell him that I'm on my way as we speak.
I streak to the quarry and see my fellow Rangers battling the freaky jellyfish. The whole team is there, but I don't think they are faring well. From the looks of the Winds groaning on the ground and the Thunders' chests smoking, I deduce that they probably took a hard hit just before I arrived. I run over to the others, helping them to their feet. Shane asks wryly, "What took yah?" I just glare at him from under my helmet's visor and remark, "Exam." Hunter looks over at Shane and says, "We gotta come up with a new plan. We've thrown everything at this guy, but he just eats it up!" Hmm.I'm thinking of something we could do when the freaky fish comes rampaging at us. We all try to dodge out of the way, but he streaks by us, managing to hit all of us. As I come groggily to my feet, I feel a tiny bit of annoyance beginning to thread its way. Ok, a LOT of annoyance. I mean, I just took a killer Orgo exam and now I have to battle one of Lothor's mutational experiments gone bad? Now, I'm just mad, not to mention stressed and tired. And stress + tired + Lothor's goons = one very annoyed Rika. Usually not the best reactive mixture.
I suggest that the monster likes to eat energy, but everything explodes with too much energy. Why? Because of the simple reason that matter expands until it cannot. Then all that energy has to go somewhere, which usually means in every which direction possible. Thanks to physics. Never thought I'd have to use that again. I mean, I'm going to be a doctor eventually, when Lothor's dead and gone and I get to live my life like well, normal people. Ok, as normal as you can get. Anyways, I suggest that we overload the monster. Shane glances at Hunter who shrugs, "it's the best chance we've got. We've got nothing to lose." Cam wryly remarks, "Just our lives if that bit backfires on us." Clare glances at Cam and gives him a Look. If only we could see through our visors. We're in the middle of battle so no raising visors. We might be blinded from the flashes or worse, burn our eyebrows off. HAHA. Ok, that was a bit of self- deprecating humor.
Anyways, back to the issue. Shane says, "let's do it." OK, he's gotta think of something more original. I understand that usually that is the catch-all-phrase, but common. I KNOW he's more original than that. By the way, all this debate and discussion happens in about 3.5 seconds. Shane and the Winds form the Storm Striker while Hunter and Blake form their Thunder Blaster. Clare and I combine our energies together to call forth our strongest attack - Lightning Strike Attack. On a predetermined signal, which doesn't come from Shane, we all decide when to unleash our attacks. Thanks to many drills and training, we've been able to practically read each other. So we let go all together. Our three spheres crackling and glowing with energy zip towards Mr. Jellyfish gone bad, smacking into him in quick succession, one after the other. We wait apprehensively to see if that did the trick. For about .5 seconds, we're all holding our breaths as we wait to see the characteristic markings of a monster in its death throes.
Finally, we get the sign we're looking for. The monster screams and electric blue energy lines snake out of him, or it, whatever it is. I don't think it can be justified to have a gender. And then BOOM! HUUGE explosion. I mean like mega explosion. It's actually so big that we feel the shockwave hit us, knocking us back and off our feet. We all get to our feet, tired but happy that the snail freak is gone. But oh ho! Here comes Lothor's Scroll of Empowerment. It comes down, the monster grows to super size and goes, "Raaor! I'll destroy you puny Power Rangers!" Typical. Lothor's lack of creativity seems to trickle down to his monsters. Shane and Hunter call for their Zords, these huge clunky-looking but, amazingly agile mechanical machines formed from the melding of Ranger powers and technology. Clare and I don't have Zords, or at least we've never been told about them. Instead, we just blast the monster with our elemental attacks. Elemental on my behalf, Clare unleashes electric attacks. Lightning has 1.21 Jigawatts, compliments of Back to the Future, which is a LOT of wattage. Anyways, so Hunter and Shane combine their respective Zords, Storm and Thunder Megazords to make the Thunderstorm Megazord.
Clare and I blast it with our energies. We have a bit of trouble staying on our feet. One of the setbacks of not being in a zord of our own. But our Ranger buddies make quick work of the jellyfish, slicing it with a Flood Laser Attack. It explodes and FINALLY we can go home. Home is Ninja Ops, the only home that I've got now. Don't get me wrong, its totally cool with me and I love living with the people there, but it can be a bit cold down there. I hate the cold. Give me warm weather any day. You might think that's a bit strange seeing as I grew up in NJ where it's usually colder. However, today I'm very ready to go home. It's been a long day.
We all streak back to Ninja Ops and congratulate each other on another job well done. Uncle tells us to get some rest and as it is a Friday, we're free to do whatever we want. That is, until we have to come back for early morning training tomorrow. Yup, like I said before. Saturday or no, Uncle is absolutely adamant on insisting that we keep up our Ninja skills. So we sit around asking others what they have planned for the rest of the evening. Contrary to popular belief, we do not always hang out with each other 24-7. We have other friends who know NOTHING of our alternative lives and its totally cool.
Shane and Tori plan to hit the movies as Cradle 2 the Grave is out and Tori wants to see it. Funny. I would have thought that Tori would like much girlier movies. She struck me as a "girly girl", not totally girly, but girlier than I or Clare am. But I've been proven wrong. Shes definitely is a girl, but tough where she needs to be. Her interests are diverse too. She's a jazz dancer, fierce and serious surfer and one of the closest girl friends I've had. I don't usually have girl friends. I prefer guys, cuz its just easier for me to identify with them. But Tori has been a godsend. Her friendship is awesome. I can totally gripe to her about the "girly" things that Hunter likes to think I don't worry about. Haha. Guess he still doesn't know me as well as he thought. But that's ok. We've got plenty of time for that, as we're both pretty serious about each other.
Shane on the other hand, is the opposite of Tori. She's easy-going, open and friendly. Shane is not. He and I had our squabbles in the beginning. He likes to think he's bulletproof and takes his job as being leader very seriously. I never thought I'd say that, but its true. I hear that he had to learn the lesson of teamwork sometime before Clare and I joined up. But he's a cool guy. He doesn't bash us around with his leadership. In fact, I think he and Hunter are co-leaders and pretty damn good ones at that. Shane is definitely chivalrous and that sometimes gets him into trouble. But all in all, he's a noble guy, committed to defending and protecting the planet from Lothor's assaults. Oh yeah, I've also heard him sing. He's pretty good, but I never did like Backstreet Boys, which is kinda what his singing reminds me of. Then again, I've only seen him once when all the guys tried out for Totally Talented.
Dustin is the comic relief among us. He doesn't try to be, at least I don't think, but he's refreshing, sometimes. He's kinda a goof, but a good one at that. His heart is in the right place and he's always there for his friends. He does Motocross like the Thunders and he plays the sax. He's pretty good at that too. I like him. He likes to give the benefit of the doubt to everyone. Sometimes that gets him into trouble, like the time he trusted Marah. Still, I think he really did care for her and that Marah probably cares back. But that's something I only keep to myself. He's a good guy and a good friend.
Blake is Hunter's younger adopted brother. He's also Clare's boy"friend." I admit that in the beginning that bothered me to no end. Of course, that was when I had my differences with the older Thunder boy -Hunter. But that's an entirely different matter. Blake is like his brother in some ways, but also very different. When their parents were killed by Lothor, they were really angry. I mean, furiously raging pissed. They almost knocked off the Winds and Uncle for that matter before they were finally told the truth. Still, I think that Blake keeps Hunter's anger in check. I know that Blake is completely and 100% loyal and devoted to his bro. He's a great fighter in his own right and he's good for Clare. Even though he's younger, he's more mature than Clare is. Clare is pretty mature for her age too, but she needs to get out more in the world. Blake has been exposed to too much of the world, but he's learned to cope with it and its made his stronger, steadier. All in all, I'm glad that Clare's found the love of her life.
Cam is my cousin. He's quite sarcastic, a techie although he hates it when I call him that, but also a pretty honorable guy. He's not a Ninja Ranger like I've said before, but that doesn't stop him. He wasn't a Ranger at first, but through some screwy warping of Time, he went back in TIME to get permission to be a Ranger from Miko, my mom's sister. She gave him the Samurai Amulet and that turns into a morpher. He morphs to control and harness the Green Samurai Powers. He's awesome with the sword. And he's a very agile and wily fighter. He can be a bit overprotective of Clare and I. We kinda grew up together so that would explain it. He didn't like Hunter at first, which if you think about it, is rather understandable. I mean, Hunter and Blake tried to kill my uncle, which is Cam's father. But they are all cool now. And Cam totally rocks with some of the technological wonders he dreams up. I think one of his coolest were the Tsunami Cycles. Clare and I don't have one, but he's working on it. Thanks Cam! You rock! Oh yeah, he also made some adjustments to Perry's bike to give Hunter his Ninja Glider Cycle, which is SWEET!!!
Lastly, but certainly not the least, there is Hunter. Where do I begin with this guy? He's an awesome Ranger and great fighter, capable leader, but the most stubborn person I've ever met-excluding me. We actually hated each other's guts before we finally got along. It was totally his fault though and he admits it. I had just moved to Blue Bay Harbor and Clare had conned me into going to the beach. We were hitting volleyball, but I guess I hit it too hard. Clare barely got to it, it ricocheted off of her hands and headed straight for a group of teens who were the Power Rangers, though I didn't know it at the time. I got there too late and the ball flew smack into Hunter who caught it just in time. Figures. His ninja training has honed his reflexes so sharply that he caught it. However, that didn't matter because apparently he had been having a bad day and that was the last straw. Can't say that I blame him. Getting pummeled in the back of the head when I had been having a crappy day probably would have made me react the same way he did. But to make a long story short, he totally went off on me. Now you gotta remember, I have no idea who this guy is, heck a complete stranger! So of course, my own temper got the better of me and I reacted in a similar manner.
That didn't help or improve when Clare and I found out he was a Power Ranger. Finally though, to get to the point, we settled our differences, finding that we're really not that different from each other. And now, he's my best friend, well, I don't count Clare. She's my sister so that's given. But he's a great guy. Really loyal to his friends and his brother and quite compassionate under that hard exterior. He's already let me into his life, but sometimes cracking and chipping away at the numerous hardened layers of his heart can be challenging. Still, I suppose that's nothing strange. I am probably just as hardened as he is. But we're committed to each other and I wouldn't dream of being with anyone else.
Anyways, there's a little bit into my life as a Power Ranger. I'm just an average teen trying to lead a normal life, well as normal as life can get when you you're the last line of defense against the wiles of an evil space ninja. It's my life though and I wouldn't trade it in for any other.
Thanks for listening!
--Rika
Just something I thought up at like 3 am.flame, comment, and review. I don't care! =)
Author's Note: This was solely written by Jade. You guys might find it a tad bit- shallow. But that was the intention. I don't normally write this way, but this is meant to be a spoof. Just imagine that there is some reporter or interviewer asking me about the details of my life as a Power Ranger.
I had fun writing it. Hope you guys enjoy it too. I am planning on writing one from Hunter's POV later as well.
I also plan on writing a more serious version of Rika' and Hunter's POV.
Let me know what you guys think.Reeview please!
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My Life as a Power Ranger: Rika's POV
Hi, my name is Rika. I'm your average teen, attending college, hanging out with friends, and just enjoying life. I'm Asian, although I was born in the U.S. I stand at about 5'6", which isn't very tall, but I'll never hear that I'm short. I have black hair with auburn highlights streaked through it and brown eyes. However, there's a fact about me, an aspect that permeates my life. I'm a superhero. Or super heroine. OK, yeah, you heard right. I don't think of myself as one, but I suppose I could be counted as that.
Actually, I'll be more specific. I'm 1/8 of a fighting force called the Power Rangers that battles Lothor's constant attempts at world domination. Who is Lothor? He's this evil ninja that got banished into Space and somehow regained the power to come back and suck up all the Ninja Academies. He's also my uncle. That's a fact I wish I didn't have to state. But it is, and this Ranger thing was thrust upon my sister, Clare and I when our parents passed away.
So what Ranger am I? I'm one of the Lightning Rangers. Specifically, I'm the Crimson Lightning Ranger. Guess that's just my color. But Crimson isn't a bad color, perhaps that's because my boyfriend, Hunter (although I hate calling him that and never do), just a "friend" is good enough for me, is the Crimson Thunder Ranger. Yep, he's a Ranger too. My sister Clare is the Navy Lightning Ranger. Her "boyfriend", Blake, incidentally is the Navy Thunder Ranger and he's Hunter's adopted brother.
We all get along pretty well. Actually, there are 4 others in addition to us. The "Winds" or the Wind Rangers are Shane, Dustin, and Tori. Then there's my cousin Cam. He's not technically a Ninja Ranger, he's a samurai- the Green Samurai Ranger. We're led by my uncle, or Sensei Kanoi as is his full name. However, he's a bit unique. He's a guinea pig. It's a long story as to how he became that way, but the short of it is that he battled Lothor who is his brother Kiya gone bad, and was turned into a furry little guy. Together we all make up the Ninja Storm Power Ranger force, which has our base of operations under what used to be the Wind Ninja Academy before Lothor attacked. It's called Ninja Ops.
Ninja Ops is relatively homey and comfortable. My sister Clare and I along with Hunter and Blake live there. Uncle or sensei took us under his care when a drunk driver killed my parents.
Anyways, most of the time, I don't really think of us as being special. Just living our lives, I mean, we've got hobbies like everyone else. I specifically like to read, sing, blade, golf, and hang out with my friends. I'm a premed in college, so that demands a pretty rigorous schedule. I admit, sometimes it interferes with my alternative or secret identity. Yeah, we all try to keep our identities on the "DL" as Blake would say it.
So, now that I've given you a quick run down of my life, I'll give you a glimpse into my life as a Power Ranger. Juggling a college student's curriculum with life in general all on top of my Ranger duties, can be demanding. Let me show you. . .
7:30 AM - My alarm is ringing and I reach up to shut it off. Did I say off? More like hit the snooze button. That means that the insufferable clock will be quiet for approximately 9 minutes before ringing again. After hitting the snooze button like 3 times, it's finally 8:00 and I finally drag myself out of bed. I shuffle to the bathroom, muttering a groggy "good morning" to my sister with whom I share a room and I go about my business. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to wake up fully. During that time, I am rather irascible. But, what can I say; I'm not a morning person. Bathroom is always an issue in the morning because we share it with Hunter and Blake. Clare is a bathroom hog. She's in there forever! Unfortunately, Hunter and I are not morning people. But since his and Blake's class start one hour after mine, we don't run into them too much. At least, not 3 out of five days of the week.
8:15 AM - By this time, I'm usually chomping on some breakfast. It could be a variety of things. Like cereal, bagels, or yogurt with fruit. I hang around a bit, getting ready for the day. Then I shuffle off to my classes around 8:45 AM. It would be sooo much easier if I could just Ninja Streak, but Uncle has a rule against using Ninja skills for personal use or in public. I commute to school. So that means, I have to walk like everyone else. Sigh. Uncle is a cool guy, er - pig, but he's an absolute stickler for the rules. Don't get me wrong - I love him to pieces, but sometimes, its so much nicer if I could just roll out of bed at 9:00, I would get 1 more hour of sleep. To a pre-med, that's precious!
9:07 AM - I'm sitting in my Orgo class while Professor Wooley is droning on and on about Benzene's structure and talking about SN 1 and SN 2 reactions, when guess what? My morpher goes off. Seriously, I've told Cam this so many times - that we need to develop a 'vibrate' or 'silence mode' for our morphers. They always inevitably ring at a VERY inconvenient time or in the middle of class. So what do I do? I slip outside to the bathroom and after looking in all the stalls and making sure no one is around, I ask my cuz what's up. Of course, it's another of Lothor's goons. Seriously, he has the worst timing. Since I am already behind in my Orgo class, I ask if there is no other Ranger available to handle the monster. I tell him that I'll come if they are seriously getting their Ranger butts handed to them. I know for a fact that Hunter has study period at this time. And he's a very competent Ranger and great fighter. He could probably more than hold his own against whatever Lothor has cooked up. So I beg Cam to be let off. He understands and tells me he'll let me know if they need my help. Having settled that, I return to class, only to find that I've missed an important part of lecture and that means that I'll probably have to re- watch the lectures again. At least they are videotaped. Otherwise, I'd be flunking Orgo. Thank heavens for technology!
10:00 AM - Orgo is over, but its time to go to my next class. English! Whoohoo. Coincidentally, I'm an English major, or at least planning to be one. In the couple of minutes I have before my next class, as I walk to my English Class, I surreptitiously question Cam regarding the status of the others against Lothor's freaks. Luckily, the news is good, the others being Hunter, Shane, and Tori have taken down the freak. They don't need more help and we can all go back to our lives. I walk into my class and sit down next to Hunter. He's in this class too. Funny, wouldn't you think? A dark brooding guy like him, although his brother and I have managed to lighten him up considerably takes English? AND he's good at it. Hunter's breathing a bit hard from his battle with Lothor's unimaginative creation. I question him on how the battle went. Typically, he smirks replying it was "cake." We both laugh and turn our attention to Prof. Haddad who is talking about Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre. I've read that book many times. I like it. We manage to get through class without any "beeps" from Cam.
Lunch - This is always a highlight of my day. This is the time I get to meet up with my other friends, who are all Rangers. So, if there is some notice, it's not half as bad. Today I'm eating with Hunter. Normally Blake and the Winds would join us, but they aren't there for various schedule-related reasons. So it's just me and Hunter. Hmm, so lets see now. What to eat for lunch? I'm always starving by this time and as always, I'm impatient. I hate waiting on lines. It looks like the subway line is the shortest. So I wait there. Hunter decides he'll go for Subway today too, so we enjoy each other's company while waiting for our lunches. I love these times. We catch up on how our day has gone so far and make plans for the rest of the day. Today we plan to meet up and hit the movies after my exam. He's done at 4:00 PM and normally I'm done at 5:00 PM due to lab. But today, I have an exam. So I'll be done at 8 PM tonight. So he'll either study or something while he waits. Or he might get some laps at the track with his brother Blake. Lunch is over and he and I split to go our ways.
1:00 PM - Now I'm sitting in Lab. It's bio lab. And actually around this time, I get antsy. Why? Because after dealing so much with Lothor, he's gotten predictable. He likes to attack around this time. Why? Heaven only knows. But maybe its because he's probably just had lunch, is feeling lazy and languorous, so refuses to spin more hopeless evil plots in his head. So he decides to entertain himself by watching us Rangers kick his monster's butts. It's not too bad, but it can get annoying. It's not fair that he gets to choose the time and place, while we have to cater to his whims.
3:00 PM - Like I predicted, Lothor has struck again and sent a horde of KelzaKs to the library. I get the message after sneaking off. I tell Cam to give me 5 minutes so I could finish up my experiment. It's a simple titration experiment. Not really time consuming but tricky and it can't be rushed. So I painstakingly wait for my solution to change color indicating I've reached the right pH. It can't come fast enough, especially when my morpher beeps again. This time, the voice is Hunter's. His voice is calm, but I can hear a tinge of worry and something else, which gets my attention immediately - pain. Thinly veiled, but there for sure. Apparently Cam can't get anyone else and he's taking the KelzaKs on by himself. He's finished those red and black striped pinheads off, but now there's always a monster lurking not far behind. He's being worked by this monster and needs help fast!
Thank God! It's finished. I grab my stuff and bolt out of there. I take the back exit since I know that's empty and no one's hardly there. I run out and after a quick glance, you can't be too careful, morph while on the run, calling "Lightning Storm, Ranger Form!" I morph and Streak to the library just to see Hunter take a particularly harsh blast to the chest, making his Ranger form spark crazily. He's obviously hurting from that last assault. I streak to his side and help him up, but he doesn't say much, but asks what took me so long. I reply, "titration." He gives me an understanding nod and we both turn to face Lothor's newest inception. This time Lothor's outdone himself. It's an ugly looking cross between a jellyfish and a snail. It's really ugly and I say so. Hunter agrees, but warns that its looks are deceiving.
I nod in acknowledgement of the warning. With that, I leap into the air bringing my Tsais together in a double-sided lance mode. I quickly slash at the monster and still in mid air, bounce off the monster to back flip away from it. Hunter soon joins me by smashing his Thunder Staff into the monster's stomach and spinning away, slashes it again in a repeated set of attacks in Thunder mode. It's crazy to watch him fight. He moves quite gracefully for someone who is as tall as he is. It's actually maddeningly unfair for someone his size to have that much grace and poise. But he does thanks to his ninja training. He's one of the best fighters I know. And myself being trained as well, I can say he certainly is a very capable fighter.
I think about this as I look for an opening to attack again. There. The monster lowered its guard and I dart in to take my shot, but Hunter shouts a warning. Unfortunately, I'm already there and I see the monster's ploy too late. He lowered his guard to draw me in closer as I quickly find out, he ensnared me in his jelly-like tentacles and I find myself sufficiently pinned, unable to move or escape as I struggle furiously. I cry out for Hunter just as I find out painfully that wasn't the only thing the monster had planned. Suddenly I feel bolts of electricity furiously streaming into my Ranger body. Now, I'm a Lightning Ranger, with the ability to harness and control lightning, but for some reason, which I've never figured out, I can't repel electricity not called or generated by my will. So I basically get fried, while screaming in pain.
During this time, I'm sure Hunter is desperately trying to find a way to help me. Luckily, the monster helps him. After frying me, he threw me to the side where I collided with the library wall before falling on my back. With all the wind knocked out of me, I can only lie there forcing my lungs to take in oxygen. I struggle to my knees, head still dizzy from the influx of voltage and regain my bearings. Hunter rushes over to me and helps me gently to my feet. I shake my head, trying to clear it and willfully force my blood to pump more endorphins to soothe the fire in my body. Luckily, one of the perks, but also downfalls of being in Ranger form is that it allows you a much greater pain tolerance. That's a good thing. The bad thing is that coupled with my martial arts training makes it possible for all of us to have ingrained in us that pain is not important. It can be sufficiently controlled and diverted until we can give it the attention required. I push away the pain and call forth my personal attack-White Lightning.
I raise my hand above me pointing at the sky and call for it. Lightning leaps down to my outstretched hand as I gather more and more lightning. Once satisfied, I release it towards the ugly jellyfish monster. It doesn't blow up, but it does get blasted hard, temporarily distracting it enough to give Hunter time to run up and strike it with an attack from his Thunder Staff in Full Power Mode. That's enough for the oozy jellyfish.He bugs out of here, but he'll be back.
Now, remember back to what I said about being in Ranger form and pain management? All that comes flooding back in full force. It slams into both of us as we power down to our civilian forms. It's the downside of being a Ranger. While morphed, we don't feel it. I mean, we do, but we can take a lot more. Once we power down however, we're human. And we feel every blast, and bump, and scrape, and yeah, it beats our bodies.
Both Hunter and I wearily slump down on the stairs, catching our breaths. I look at my watch in shock. Oh crap! It's already 4:00 PM! That fight didn't seem that long, but apparently it took much longer than I'd anticipated. Frustrated, I tell Hunter I only have an hour to study before my exam tonight. He tells me not to worry. That's what I love about him. He's so practical, but very compassionate. Under that hard exterior, there is a heart of gold that beats under there. You just have to know how to get to it. I guess I'm one of the lucky few that gets to see that. And while he's still a dark and brooding guy, he's gotten much better. I mean, you can't blame the guy. Life's handed him some crappy turns. But those turns have strengthened and molded him.
I tell Hunter that I HAVE to go study and tell him I'll see him back at Ops after my exam. He agrees and I tell him to go and rest as he was hit pretty hard and must be tired from fighting those KelzaKs by himself. He protests, but I give him a Look. You know, one of those, "I'm telling you sweetly, but actually I'm ordering you and if you don't listen, I'll kick your butt." That kind of look. He sees it and sighs, resigned. I kiss him lightly on the cheek and tell him good. He smiles and wishes me good luck on my test tonight and I Streak away to go do some last minute studying for my exam tonight.
6:00 PM - Its been about an hour into the exam and I'm about halfway through, when surprise surprise. My communicator goes off. Everyone is looking for the person who would be so brash to bring a cell phone or pager into the test room and have the nerve to NOT shut it off or silence it. Muttering apologies to everyone around me, I duck out of the room, rolling my eyes, and heatedly ask Cam, what's up. I warn him that "it better be good" as you just called me out of my exam! He tells me it's that jellyfish freak again. I wince knowing that I'm probably going to be needed eventually, but ask if he can alert the others. "I'll try to finish as fast as I can and get there." Cam sighs, but he knows. He tells me that he will alert the others and this time, they should all be there. I thank Cam and head back to finish my test.
About 30 minutes later, I'm done and I hand in my test paper. As I walk out of the room, my communicator beeps. "Your timing is getting better" I tell Cam. He just quips sarcastically, "funny", but tells me that I'd better get my Ranger butt over there. I tell him that I'm on my way as we speak.
I streak to the quarry and see my fellow Rangers battling the freaky jellyfish. The whole team is there, but I don't think they are faring well. From the looks of the Winds groaning on the ground and the Thunders' chests smoking, I deduce that they probably took a hard hit just before I arrived. I run over to the others, helping them to their feet. Shane asks wryly, "What took yah?" I just glare at him from under my helmet's visor and remark, "Exam." Hunter looks over at Shane and says, "We gotta come up with a new plan. We've thrown everything at this guy, but he just eats it up!" Hmm.I'm thinking of something we could do when the freaky fish comes rampaging at us. We all try to dodge out of the way, but he streaks by us, managing to hit all of us. As I come groggily to my feet, I feel a tiny bit of annoyance beginning to thread its way. Ok, a LOT of annoyance. I mean, I just took a killer Orgo exam and now I have to battle one of Lothor's mutational experiments gone bad? Now, I'm just mad, not to mention stressed and tired. And stress + tired + Lothor's goons = one very annoyed Rika. Usually not the best reactive mixture.
I suggest that the monster likes to eat energy, but everything explodes with too much energy. Why? Because of the simple reason that matter expands until it cannot. Then all that energy has to go somewhere, which usually means in every which direction possible. Thanks to physics. Never thought I'd have to use that again. I mean, I'm going to be a doctor eventually, when Lothor's dead and gone and I get to live my life like well, normal people. Ok, as normal as you can get. Anyways, I suggest that we overload the monster. Shane glances at Hunter who shrugs, "it's the best chance we've got. We've got nothing to lose." Cam wryly remarks, "Just our lives if that bit backfires on us." Clare glances at Cam and gives him a Look. If only we could see through our visors. We're in the middle of battle so no raising visors. We might be blinded from the flashes or worse, burn our eyebrows off. HAHA. Ok, that was a bit of self- deprecating humor.
Anyways, back to the issue. Shane says, "let's do it." OK, he's gotta think of something more original. I understand that usually that is the catch-all-phrase, but common. I KNOW he's more original than that. By the way, all this debate and discussion happens in about 3.5 seconds. Shane and the Winds form the Storm Striker while Hunter and Blake form their Thunder Blaster. Clare and I combine our energies together to call forth our strongest attack - Lightning Strike Attack. On a predetermined signal, which doesn't come from Shane, we all decide when to unleash our attacks. Thanks to many drills and training, we've been able to practically read each other. So we let go all together. Our three spheres crackling and glowing with energy zip towards Mr. Jellyfish gone bad, smacking into him in quick succession, one after the other. We wait apprehensively to see if that did the trick. For about .5 seconds, we're all holding our breaths as we wait to see the characteristic markings of a monster in its death throes.
Finally, we get the sign we're looking for. The monster screams and electric blue energy lines snake out of him, or it, whatever it is. I don't think it can be justified to have a gender. And then BOOM! HUUGE explosion. I mean like mega explosion. It's actually so big that we feel the shockwave hit us, knocking us back and off our feet. We all get to our feet, tired but happy that the snail freak is gone. But oh ho! Here comes Lothor's Scroll of Empowerment. It comes down, the monster grows to super size and goes, "Raaor! I'll destroy you puny Power Rangers!" Typical. Lothor's lack of creativity seems to trickle down to his monsters. Shane and Hunter call for their Zords, these huge clunky-looking but, amazingly agile mechanical machines formed from the melding of Ranger powers and technology. Clare and I don't have Zords, or at least we've never been told about them. Instead, we just blast the monster with our elemental attacks. Elemental on my behalf, Clare unleashes electric attacks. Lightning has 1.21 Jigawatts, compliments of Back to the Future, which is a LOT of wattage. Anyways, so Hunter and Shane combine their respective Zords, Storm and Thunder Megazords to make the Thunderstorm Megazord.
Clare and I blast it with our energies. We have a bit of trouble staying on our feet. One of the setbacks of not being in a zord of our own. But our Ranger buddies make quick work of the jellyfish, slicing it with a Flood Laser Attack. It explodes and FINALLY we can go home. Home is Ninja Ops, the only home that I've got now. Don't get me wrong, its totally cool with me and I love living with the people there, but it can be a bit cold down there. I hate the cold. Give me warm weather any day. You might think that's a bit strange seeing as I grew up in NJ where it's usually colder. However, today I'm very ready to go home. It's been a long day.
We all streak back to Ninja Ops and congratulate each other on another job well done. Uncle tells us to get some rest and as it is a Friday, we're free to do whatever we want. That is, until we have to come back for early morning training tomorrow. Yup, like I said before. Saturday or no, Uncle is absolutely adamant on insisting that we keep up our Ninja skills. So we sit around asking others what they have planned for the rest of the evening. Contrary to popular belief, we do not always hang out with each other 24-7. We have other friends who know NOTHING of our alternative lives and its totally cool.
Shane and Tori plan to hit the movies as Cradle 2 the Grave is out and Tori wants to see it. Funny. I would have thought that Tori would like much girlier movies. She struck me as a "girly girl", not totally girly, but girlier than I or Clare am. But I've been proven wrong. Shes definitely is a girl, but tough where she needs to be. Her interests are diverse too. She's a jazz dancer, fierce and serious surfer and one of the closest girl friends I've had. I don't usually have girl friends. I prefer guys, cuz its just easier for me to identify with them. But Tori has been a godsend. Her friendship is awesome. I can totally gripe to her about the "girly" things that Hunter likes to think I don't worry about. Haha. Guess he still doesn't know me as well as he thought. But that's ok. We've got plenty of time for that, as we're both pretty serious about each other.
Shane on the other hand, is the opposite of Tori. She's easy-going, open and friendly. Shane is not. He and I had our squabbles in the beginning. He likes to think he's bulletproof and takes his job as being leader very seriously. I never thought I'd say that, but its true. I hear that he had to learn the lesson of teamwork sometime before Clare and I joined up. But he's a cool guy. He doesn't bash us around with his leadership. In fact, I think he and Hunter are co-leaders and pretty damn good ones at that. Shane is definitely chivalrous and that sometimes gets him into trouble. But all in all, he's a noble guy, committed to defending and protecting the planet from Lothor's assaults. Oh yeah, I've also heard him sing. He's pretty good, but I never did like Backstreet Boys, which is kinda what his singing reminds me of. Then again, I've only seen him once when all the guys tried out for Totally Talented.
Dustin is the comic relief among us. He doesn't try to be, at least I don't think, but he's refreshing, sometimes. He's kinda a goof, but a good one at that. His heart is in the right place and he's always there for his friends. He does Motocross like the Thunders and he plays the sax. He's pretty good at that too. I like him. He likes to give the benefit of the doubt to everyone. Sometimes that gets him into trouble, like the time he trusted Marah. Still, I think he really did care for her and that Marah probably cares back. But that's something I only keep to myself. He's a good guy and a good friend.
Blake is Hunter's younger adopted brother. He's also Clare's boy"friend." I admit that in the beginning that bothered me to no end. Of course, that was when I had my differences with the older Thunder boy -Hunter. But that's an entirely different matter. Blake is like his brother in some ways, but also very different. When their parents were killed by Lothor, they were really angry. I mean, furiously raging pissed. They almost knocked off the Winds and Uncle for that matter before they were finally told the truth. Still, I think that Blake keeps Hunter's anger in check. I know that Blake is completely and 100% loyal and devoted to his bro. He's a great fighter in his own right and he's good for Clare. Even though he's younger, he's more mature than Clare is. Clare is pretty mature for her age too, but she needs to get out more in the world. Blake has been exposed to too much of the world, but he's learned to cope with it and its made his stronger, steadier. All in all, I'm glad that Clare's found the love of her life.
Cam is my cousin. He's quite sarcastic, a techie although he hates it when I call him that, but also a pretty honorable guy. He's not a Ninja Ranger like I've said before, but that doesn't stop him. He wasn't a Ranger at first, but through some screwy warping of Time, he went back in TIME to get permission to be a Ranger from Miko, my mom's sister. She gave him the Samurai Amulet and that turns into a morpher. He morphs to control and harness the Green Samurai Powers. He's awesome with the sword. And he's a very agile and wily fighter. He can be a bit overprotective of Clare and I. We kinda grew up together so that would explain it. He didn't like Hunter at first, which if you think about it, is rather understandable. I mean, Hunter and Blake tried to kill my uncle, which is Cam's father. But they are all cool now. And Cam totally rocks with some of the technological wonders he dreams up. I think one of his coolest were the Tsunami Cycles. Clare and I don't have one, but he's working on it. Thanks Cam! You rock! Oh yeah, he also made some adjustments to Perry's bike to give Hunter his Ninja Glider Cycle, which is SWEET!!!
Lastly, but certainly not the least, there is Hunter. Where do I begin with this guy? He's an awesome Ranger and great fighter, capable leader, but the most stubborn person I've ever met-excluding me. We actually hated each other's guts before we finally got along. It was totally his fault though and he admits it. I had just moved to Blue Bay Harbor and Clare had conned me into going to the beach. We were hitting volleyball, but I guess I hit it too hard. Clare barely got to it, it ricocheted off of her hands and headed straight for a group of teens who were the Power Rangers, though I didn't know it at the time. I got there too late and the ball flew smack into Hunter who caught it just in time. Figures. His ninja training has honed his reflexes so sharply that he caught it. However, that didn't matter because apparently he had been having a bad day and that was the last straw. Can't say that I blame him. Getting pummeled in the back of the head when I had been having a crappy day probably would have made me react the same way he did. But to make a long story short, he totally went off on me. Now you gotta remember, I have no idea who this guy is, heck a complete stranger! So of course, my own temper got the better of me and I reacted in a similar manner.
That didn't help or improve when Clare and I found out he was a Power Ranger. Finally though, to get to the point, we settled our differences, finding that we're really not that different from each other. And now, he's my best friend, well, I don't count Clare. She's my sister so that's given. But he's a great guy. Really loyal to his friends and his brother and quite compassionate under that hard exterior. He's already let me into his life, but sometimes cracking and chipping away at the numerous hardened layers of his heart can be challenging. Still, I suppose that's nothing strange. I am probably just as hardened as he is. But we're committed to each other and I wouldn't dream of being with anyone else.
Anyways, there's a little bit into my life as a Power Ranger. I'm just an average teen trying to lead a normal life, well as normal as life can get when you you're the last line of defense against the wiles of an evil space ninja. It's my life though and I wouldn't trade it in for any other.
Thanks for listening!
--Rika
Just something I thought up at like 3 am.flame, comment, and review. I don't care! =)