The future.
Possessing changes no one could have expected.
After a during a hardship in history... how do people grapple with ghosts? Ghosts... of the lives lost in the storm...
Some grapple with the past by focusing on work.
"Dustin?" Kelly asked, "What are you working on back here?
"Nothing Kel."Dustin said, covering his little project.
"You've been acting so strange lately."
"And that's different for me?" Dustin said, laughing it off.
Kelly walked away and he sighed, trying to get back to work before the memories would come back to haunt him.
Others by benefiting others...
"You're doing great Todd." Tori told her young student, "A couple more sessions and you'll be grade-A."
"Thanks Ms. Hanson."
She smiled and went to her van, checking her schedule.
"Shit." She muttered, forgetting that today was the day she had signed up to work a charity event.
She began to pack up her surfing and teaching equipment, knowing that actions like this would only ease her conscience.
She made it to the event just as they started setting up, which was fine by her. The longer she worked, the less she thought of that final battle the better off she'd be.
Plus after what happened in Reefside barely a year later... Tori could use some normalcy.
But every act reminded her of the past. Every time she looked at the devastation caused by some evil forced her to look back on her days as the Blue Wind Ninja Ranger and wonder if it was all worth it.
"Focus." She told herself, carrying two tables by herself while most other women were doing a single table in pairs.
Some... by staying in the game.
Shane was chasing a stalker.
His job at the Federal Bureau of Investigations required a lot of days like this.
"Stop! FBI!" Shane screamed as he ran, having caught the man off guard thanks to a little bit of "in the right place, at the right time."
The man jumped a fence, which Shane leisurely leaped over thanks to his ninja training.
He kicked off the top railing of the fence and landed from a flip in front of the runner.
The runner collided with him and fell backward.
"Don't move!" Shane shouted as he reached for something in his jacket. "I said stop!"
But he could see the gun.
'God dammit.' He thought to himself, pulling the trigger of his weapon.
As the stalker dropped the weapon Shane moved quickly and placed the weapon in his belt, trying to apply pressure to the wound just below the heart as he cuffed the suspect.
"You... you shot me..."
"That's when happens when you pull a gun on a federal agent." Shane told him, calling in for back up and medical help.
When the other agents and EMS showed up he was relieved. His rise through the Bureau had been fast by anyone's pace. Most people needed special training to get into the Bureau, but Sensei Watanabe had a few friends and made some calls for him and landed him the job.
His new superiors would say that wasn't a mistake.
But the past has a way of catching up to us... even when we run from it.
Shane walked into Blue Bay Harbor after a five year streak of not stepping foot in his hometown.
After the Dino Rangers helped them defeat Lothor and Mesogog's forces... Shane and his teammates discovered that they all harbored some level of grief for the lives lost in the battle for good and evil.
'Maybe if the Ninja rangers had had a better leader.' Shane thought to himself, 'A stronger one.'
In truth, it was that guilt that he harbored for these past several years that pushed him to the FBI. To working as hard as he did. Teaching just wasn't that appealing when you spent every night waking up in a cold sweat with the faces of the innocent plaguing your nightmares.
"Shane?" A voice came from behind him.
Shane instinctively went for his gun but didn't draw it.
He turned his head and saw that it was his old partner in crime-fighting.
"Dustin, good to see you." Shane said, shaking the hand of one of his oldest friends.
"What are you doing man? Brothers gotta hug!" He hugged his longtime friend and felt something metal as his hand fell. "What...?"
Shane flashed his jacket to show him the source.
"Shit man. Whatcha doing packing like that?"
Shane showed him the badge.
"No way! You're a cop."
"Fed actually. Look, I came because I heard the news. How's she doing?"
"Better than he is."
"Obviously." Shane followed Dustin to a secret break in the waterfall.
"So, you're really not here to stay?" Dustin asked.
"Wish I could. I just wrapped up a stalker case this morning... twelve more files landed on my desk by the time I got back from lunch."
"Damn. And Kelly says I work too hard."
"You? Work? Are those even synonymous?"
"Haha." Dustin said, passing through the secret entrance in the water fall.
Shane followed.
The sight was truly one to behold.
But neither Dustin nor Shane could look at it and see it is anything less than it was the day of the first attack.
Blood everywhere... ninja tools... weapons... strewn on the battlefield that was meant only for training. And not a ninja student in sight.
"Come on." Shane said, patting Dustin on the back because he knew he was seeing the same thing he was. But Shane had gotten good at compartmentalizing his feelings to be saved for a later day.
They entered the temple devoted to the highest level teachers of the Wind Ninja Academy. Currently, there were four High Masters.
"Dustin, Shane, my dudes."
"How's it going Cyber Cam?" Shane said, noticing the glitch in the fake a lot quicker than he used too.
"Wait, you're Cyber Cam?" Dustin asked, waving his hand through it just to confirm. "Didn't see that coming like at all."
"I thought I fixed that glitch." Cam complained, coming out from behind a statue commemorating one of the original founders of the Wind Ninja Academy tens of thousands of years ago.
"He fizzed out for a split second." Shane told him, shaking his old friend's hand.
"Well, we're all here now." Cam stated, clearly not happy about the reunion either.
On a different day, for a different reason, a reunion would have been welcomed... enjoyed. But a reunion because of a death is rarely so joyful.
Cam led them to the secret entrance of the old base and keyed in the new password.
"We had to change it when you resigned." Cam told Shane, "Nothing personal. It's just the rules."
Shane nodded and followed Dustin and Cam into the base.
He could see Tori sitting there next to Hunter, who had his head in his hands.
"Hey..." Tori said, shaking Hunter at the shoulder slightly and jerking her head.
Hunter went over and bear-hugged his old friends.
"I missed you guys." Hunter said with a sniffle, having had tears in his eyes.
"How you doing?"
Hunter shrugged, "As good as can be expected I guess."
"Hey." Shane gave Tori a hug, but there was a pause in it like neither knew when to let go. Hunter noticed this but didn't say anything out of respect to his brother.
"Hunter." Sensei Omino spoke plainly, "They're here."
Hunter nodded and followed him. Everyone tried to follow him but he waved them off. This was something he had to do on his own.
When he was gone, Shane spoke before anyone got the chance...
"What the hell happened?"
Tori shrugged, "They say he was riding alone. Something in his bike went screwy and he lost control."
"Coroner ruled it an accident." Cam interjected.
"But I just can't see Blake riding on a bad bike." Dustin confessed, "I mean he knows bikes better than I do... if there was something wrong he'd know. He checks his bike before he gets on it every time..."
"But why didn't he this time?" Shane asked.
Tori sighed, "That's the question."
"And no one was with him?"
They all shrugged, "According to his sponsors, he liked to ride alone."
"I don't suppose you can check it out?" Cam asked, nodding to Shane.
Shane shook his head, "I mean, it'd have be a suspected murder. And that would require some kind of... evidence. Plus it would have to involve some kind federal law infringement... otherwise it would just be Blue Bay P.D."
Cam nodded glumly, accepting that there was nothing Shane could do.
A soft ring interrupted the silence.
Shane went for his phone until he realized that the sound wasn't coming from his pocket.
"Hello?" Tori asked. "Todd? Wait... wait Todd, slow down. All right, I'm on my way." She closed her phone and had a lot of raised eyebrows to answer too.
"What was that?"
"One of my student's for surfing is in foster care, I guess there was a fire. He said everyone made it out but that he's scared so I have to go." Tori explained to Shane, who posed the question. She grabbed her backpack and shouldered it.
"But you didn't drive here." Shane pointed out, having not seen her van at the old usual hiding place. "We'll take my car."
"No, you should stay with..."
"Well, i can't lend you my car without getting fired. Plus, I can get you there faster." Shane was practically up the stairs by the time he was done talking.
Tori followed reluctantly.
"And what about us?" Dustin asked.
"Stay here." Tori and Shane replied together.
Shane got into the car and practically burned out of the private stretch of 'road'. He flipped his siren on when he got to the road and drifted around the corner like a pro.
"Since when do you drive so recklessly?" Tori asked, even though she didn't mind.
"Training at the FBI." He explained briefly, "Address?"
She told him the address, and he stepped on it, recognizing the street name because it was the one he grew up on.
"You seem stiff." Shane noted, having gotten better at reading people over the years.
"Todd is a good kid," Tori explained, "a bit challenged, but he's got a good heart. It hurts to not be able to do more for him than just teach him surfing."
"Maybe there is more you can do for him... and you just haven't thought of it yet."
Tori thought on that while he sped down the street past the firefighters and EMS personnel.
"Special Agent Clarke." Shane said, flashing his badge to anyone who tried to stop him from getting closer to the fire. "She's with me."
Tori ran ahead and went to the young boy of ten, "Todd are you okay?"
"There was a man." Todd told her.
"A man?" Tori asked, "You mean still in the building?" Tori looked but didn't see what he was referring too.
Todd shook his head, "In the fire. He caused it."
"What do you mean he caused it?" Shane asked, walking up to the young boy.
"Todd, this is my friend Shane. He was one of my close friends... you remember Dustin?"
Todd nodded, "He started the fire."
"Who Todd?" Tori asked.
If it wasn't for his ninja training, Shane would be a corpse right now.
He heard the whistle like only a master of the power of air could. To him, a whistle... to others... a gunshot.
He sidestepped faster than any eye could see and had his weapon out and pointed at the source long before the source could even see that his mark missed.
Shane kept himself positioned in front of Tori and Todd while he pulled the trigger, aiming at the sniper on the roof. The sniper scrambled up and started going down the roof.
"Stay here!" Shane said, running into the backyard and following the sniper through several yards. Shane used his ninja powers to lift off over the fence that barricaded his own yards from the ones next to it, "Freeze FBI!"
The sniper had already made it to the next fence.
Tori jumped out of nowhere on the other side of the fence by the fleeing sniper and shouldered the fence, knocking the sniper off the fence and sending him onto the ground.
Shane used his nija streak to get on top of the sniper before he had a chance to draw the weapon.
"Hands!" Shane said, pointing the gun at the center of his chest. "One wrong move, and I'll put two bullets in you."
The culprit showed his hands.
Shane kicked him over to his side and cuffed him, swiping the sniper and the concealed handgun before he had a chance to turn them against the former red ranger.
"You just shot at a Federal Agent... you'll be lucky to avoid life without parole." Shane told him, making him get up(while reading him his rights) and stand facing the fence. Shane quickly called in what happened on his cell, after he closed the call he turned to Tori, who'd jumped the fence to assist Shane. "Are you okay?"
She nodded, "Are you?"
"Fine. Go back to Todd, I got this."
"Todd's fine. I'm worried about you..."
"There's no reason to be." Shane told her quickly, "I've got BBPD on the way,we're gonna prosecute this guy on everything we can find... including attempted murder." Shane shot the last piece at the suspect who was still standing where he was told.
"You won't win this Clarke... You never win."
"I'm sorry what? What did you say to me?"
The suspect turned his head, "You failed them Clarke... as well, Hanson. You will never undo the damage you've done... do us all a favor. Put one in my head... and then two in yours." He nodded to both Shane and Tori.
"You realize that since I already read you your rights I can use that against you in court? Anything you say... no matter what, is now admissible in a court of law."
"Oh, it's supposed to be. The fire's already begun... you're just too late to watch it burn."
Tori saw the thumb twitch before Shane did.
Using an ancient form, she drew a protective shield of water around them and drenched the bomb as it went off, destroying just about everything in a ten foot radius. That is, except Shane and Tori.
Tori nearly fainted from the effort, having not attempted that trick in many years.
Shane caught her and carried her into his house, scaring the snot out of his family.
"Wait..." Tori coughed, trying to clear her head. "What did he say?"
"Now's not the time." Shane said, calling his supervisor. "Yeah, I got a suicide bomber. My arrest is dead, blew himself up. I need a full team here ASAP."
"What the hell happened out there?" His brother, Porter, asked. "Shane? What the hell happened to the backyard?"
"Honestly, Porter. I have no idea." Shane confessed looking at the back door and thinking, 'This is gonna be a long week.'
Well, we haven't met yet. I'm Gyotso.
This is my first Power Ranger Ninja Storm fanfic, stemming from a desire to write PR fanfiction for mature audiences as well as a recent binge-watch of Numb3rs on Amazon Prime. As you may have guessed, Shane is the lead character because he's my favorite from this particular series. This short series will deal with the lives we didn't know as viewers were lost in the storm of Lothor's invasion of Earth.
It also deals with how our rangers dealt with the after events of everything that happened (based off a modified version of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD)
As stated, this will be a short story. The original idea was a one shot, which fanned into an idea for a three-shot. Honestly, at this point I'm aiming for a seven-to-ten chapter mark. Just to kickstart.
Lastly, leave me a review saying what you liked or what you think could happen or what you hate. Criticism of all kinds in the same review is the best kind of review. Favorite, follow, if wondering what happens next pertains to you. And if you're interested, I have a plethora of other stories that are in need of love and affection from my slowly growing fanbase.
Until next time!