Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to Disney/Haim Saban

It was Monday afternoon, and everyone but Jeanie was at the usual table outside of the cafeteria, at the back of the school. Trev was on his laptop, as always, while Jay sat on the table, his skateboard on his lap, fiddling with the wheels. Ris was beside him, eating his lunch. Eva and David sat side by side, talking and sharing her lunch.

"Where's Jeanie?" Ris asked suddenly, nipping a carrot stick in half.

"No idea," Trev replied, eyes on his laptop.

To look at, they were just a bunch of ordinary teens, on the cusp of adulthood – which is kind of the point. Jay was a tall, stocky boy of New Zealand descent, dressed in all black. Ris was a pretty girl with dark brown hair that tumbled in curling waves around her shoulders and hazel eyes. She had on a yellow top. Trev wore glasses that were now perched on the end of his nose. He was of Asian descent, with messy dark hair and wearing a rumpled green sweatshirt. Eva was a pretty brunette dressed in a light blue sleeveless top. David, with a shock of near white blond hair and slanted brown eyes, was dressed in a red t-shirt. Underneath their normal exteriors ran the blood of superheroes.

The five were five-sixths of the newest team of Power Rangers, fighting under the guidance of their mentor; Dayton. They, along with the normal host of Ranger talents, had the ability to control the powers of six legendary magical creatures; the phoenix, the minotaur, the centaur, the dragon, the unicorn and the griffin.

Added to that, four of them; David, Jay, Ris and Trev were students of two secret ninja academies and the off spring to Power Rangers; the Ninja Storm to be exact.

But right now, they were just a bunch of ordinary teens eating lunch together. And wondering where the last part of their team was.

"I think she's doing something for our homeroom teacher," Jay said. "Trev would know that if he bothered to take his head out of his books for five seconds." He shrugged. "Masterson said he wanted to see her after homeroom."

"Do you think she's in trouble?" Eva wondered aloud.

"Jeanie?" Jay snorted. "In trouble? Our Jeanie? Yeah, right. She's –"

"I'm what?" Jeanie asked, approaching the table. She wore a white top with pink writing slashing across it. Her red hair was tied back in a ponytail and her brilliant blue eyes sparkled behind glasses.

"Really, really clever." Jay finished with a goofy smile.

"Nice save," Ris said. "Lettuce leaf?"

"Why don't you get your own lunch?" He asked, taking the leaf from her fingers and biting into it.

"Your's is always so much nicer."

"What were you doing anyway?" David asked, watching Jeanie sit opposite him and Eva.

"Showing the new kid around," she replied, putting her tray of cafeteria food down.

"Oh yeah?" Jay asked, interested. "Guy or girl?"

"Guy," Jeanie answered twirling a fork in the spaghetti.

"Hmph." Abruptly disinterested once more, Jay whirled the wheel of his skateboard.

Ris grinned at David and Eva. "Where's he from?" She asked.

"Atlanta. What the hell is this sauce?" Her brow furrowed as she poked at her meal.

"Here," sympathetic, Eva pushed the rest of her lunch to Jeanie, ignoring David's protests. "What's he like?"

"Who?" Jeanie asked, picking up a fry.

"The new kid," Eva said, and didn't see David's frown.

"Pretty cute," Jeanie said in an off-handed manner. At Ris's startled exclamation, she looked up. "What?"

"Nothing," she replied, shooting a glance at Trev, who still busy typing away at his laptop.

"Define cute," Eva said.

"Hmm. Tall, dark hair, really nice eyes. Nice build," Jeanie added and had the pleasure of seeing David go red. "Why? Sound like your type?" David shot daggers at his cousin.

"Might," Eva replied cheerfully.

"Didn't…" David had to stop and clear his throat. "Didn't know you were in the market for a boyfriend."

Eva looked at him. "I'm not. Really. I was just asking for a description."

"Sure you were," Jay muttered. She glared at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he replied, and used the excuse of a tomato slice to prevent her from forcing a real answer out of him.

"Where is he now?" Ris asked.

"In the cafeteria, getting some food."

"You just left him there?" Eva asked, sounding startled. It wasn't like Jeanie to do such a thing.

"Well," she polished off a fry. "I did give him directions to get here. It's his prerogative if he wants to join us."

"Shit!"

At Trev's exclamation, they turned to face him. "What's up?" Jeanie asked.

"My laptop's just crashed," he said through gritted teeth.

"That's what you get when you pile it with all those programmes designed to make it process better," Jeanie said.

"Urgh." With a disgruntled sound, he switched off his laptop and close the lid. "I'm taking it to the IT lab. Maybe I can reboot it with the internet." He picked it up and stalked off.

"He's got issues," Eva commented, watching him go. "It's like he's married to that laptop."

"Yeah," Jeanie said. "He's so committed he doesn't notice any real girls." Grumpily, she finished Eva's fries.

Eva raised her brow. "Why don't you just tell him the truth?"

"I will when David does."

"What?" She looked at David, who glared at his cousin.

"Nothing," he muttered.

"Hey," Ris said suddenly, pointing. "Is that the new guy?"

Jeanie turned to face the direction she was pointing at. There was a guy walking towards their table, a tray in his hands. He was, just as Jeanie described him; tall, with dark hair and matching eyes, and really, really cute.

"Yep." She lifted a hand, waved at him. "Hey Eric."

"Hi." His smile was pure niceness. "What's up?"

"Just talking about boys and their idiot laptops." She replied. "Eric, these are my cousins; David," David smiled at him; "Eva," Eva nodded, "Jay," Jay look up and flashed his trademark grin, "and Ris." Ris waggled her fingers at him.

"Wait a minute," Eva said as something Jeanie had said occurred to her. "I'm not your cousin."

"You might as well be," Jeanie replied as Eric sat down next to her.

"So, Eric," Ris wriggled until she was closer to him. He looked startled when he realised her knees were touching his tray. "I heard you're from Atlanta."

"Um…yeah."

"Why'd you move here?"

"My dad got transferred here."

"Don't mind Ris," Jeanie said. "She got dropped on her head as a baby and since then, she's always acted like a loon."

"Hey!" Ris frowned but she didn't look too insulted.

"It's okay. I've got two sisters. I'm used to being interrogated."

Jeanie grinned. "Lucky you. I've got two brothers."

"You're the oldest," he asked in a half hopeful voice.

"Nope," Jay said in a gleeful voice. "The youngest."

"Oh. Um." He took a quick bite of his spaghetti. He made a face. "What the hell kind of sauce did they put on this thing?"

"Mystery sauce," Jeanie replied. "In that it's a mystery even to the cafeteria workers."

Eric laughed at that, and made David look at Eva with raised eyebrows. "What was that?" He murmured only for her ears. "It wasn't that funny."

"Maybe not," she murmured back. "But when a guy likes a girl, he laughs at whatever she says that's just the slightest bit funny."

"He…" David looked at Eric, at Jeanie, back to Eva. "He…You're not serious."

"Perfectly." She replied in a solemn voice.

"Wow." He blinked. "That's a bit weird."

"What is?" Jay asked.

"Eric's hitting on Jeanie." Eva replied.

"What?" Jay turned as red as David's shirt. "He's what?"

"I think that's our cue to leave," David said as Jeanie looked over at them. "Come on Jay."

"What?" Jay cursed and struggled as his cousin dragged him away. "No, wait, I haven't beat him up for hitting on – ow! Damnit David that hurt!"

Ris looked at Eva, who just shrugged. "I gotta get going too. I have to do research for my bio project." She stood up, took her container from Jeanie.

"I'll come too," Ris began sliding her butt off the table. "I need to research stuff for my sociology essay."

Jeanie gave her an arched look. "Isn't that due in tomorrow?"

"Yep," she replied in a cheerfully breezy voice and walked away with Eva.

Eric blinked at the now empty table, on which stood only the remains of Jay's lunch and his tray of barely touched cafeteria food. "Wow." He said. "Do I have some contagious disease or something?"

"No," Jeanie replied. "I'm still here, aren't I?"

"Yeah," Eric grinned at her. And she grinned back at him.

"Don't tell me you don't think it's not the slightest bit weird," David said. Sweat beaded his brow and slicked his hair. Eva bent back to avoid his right hook and snapped straight again.

"What?" She asked, blocking his left jab with her forearm and sweeping a leg under his. He responded with a slight hop and a slice to her belly. She danced away in time.

"That new guy…Eric," David said, blocking a well aimed shot at his jaw. "Hitting on Jeanie. Isn't that weird?"

"Let's see," Eva ducked to avoid his left hook and jabbed him in the belly. It was like hitting stone. "Cute, fairly intelligent guy hitting on pretty genius girl. Nope, can't see what's weird about that. Unless you don't think Jeanie's a genius."

"No, that's not what I meant." Huffing more from her words than the mock battle, he tried a roundhouse kick only to have her slide to the floor and attempt to slice his leg out from under him. "You're getting good."

"Thanks." Grinning, she flipped to her feet and hopped back, shifting from foot to foot, her fists raised like a boxer's. "You were saying."

"What I meant was," he stepped back to avoid her fist to his nose. "Whoa. Dangerously close," he warned. "Anyway, what I meant was that I can't ever remember a guy hitting on Jeanie. Not once." He added for emphasis.

"Maybe you just never noticed," she suggested, blocking his fist, twisting and attempting to hit his jaw again. He ducked. "I mean, I had to tell you Eric was hitting on her."

"Yeah…well…" he frowned. "How can I be so oblivious?"

"Exactly the question I was asking myself," she said as Dayton called a halt to the practice bout.

They were in the exercise room of the command base – as Jay called it. Jay backed away from Ris and Jeanie got off Trev. Jay, catching her eye as she got to her feet, gave her a suggestive grin. She sent him a look that promised him slow, burning pain if he took it any further. He looked at Dayton and she smiled her own smile; a curling mean smile.

Ris, spotting it, said; "whoo. Scary smile."

"Been working on it," Jeanie said in an airy voice.

Dayton gave a polite cough designed to transfer their attention to him. They did so. "As always, Rangers, your fighting skills are exemplary."

Eva raised her brows and a hand. "Even mine?"

"Even yours," Dayton confirmed. "However…"

"Here it comes," Jeanie said in dry voice.

"Out of six of you, only two of you have discovered your powers."

"Hey," Ris spoke up. "What about me?"

He glanced at her. "Unfortunately Marissa, you only know what your power is. Only Trevor and Eva have accessed their powers."

"You know what I don't get," Jay piped up. He looked at Eva. "Actually, there's two things I don't get. One; how'd you find your power? I mean, Trev had to go real deep to find his. How'd you find yours?"

Eva shrugged. "Tell you the truth, I've always had it."

David frowned. "Explain." He said before he realised it sounded like an order. He winced but she didn't seem to notice.

"Well, I've always known things. I've never known them clearly, like I do now, but I know things when I touch something or someone. I guess I always had access to it, but like, a watered down version. Getting my Ranger powers just helped me gain, like, full access to it I guess."

"Whoa," Jeanie blinked, grinned. "Deep."

"Makes sense," Trev pointed out. "You probably chalked it down to women's intuition, didn't you?"

"Something like that," she admitted with a shrug. She turned back to Jay. "What's the second thing you don't get?"

"You said your mum's a bit of a hippy, so it means she's probably into health food and stuff right?" Jay said, ignoring Jeanie's and David's warning looks.

"Yeah," she said. "Tofu and all that crap."

"If she's into health foods and everything, then why does she give you all this junk food, like McDs, and KFC for lunch?"

Silence descended as the startled Power Rangers and their mentor just looked at him. "That," Jeanie said eventually. "Is just beyond random. Eva, you know you don't have to answer the idiot's question."

"No, it's okay. I'm just surprised he's the only one who's picked up on that."

Now Jay smirked while the others looked embarrassed. "Looks like I'm busted," Eva said. "Sure, my mum gives me all the health food crap for lunch but I usually throw it out and pick up something on the way." She shrugged. "I've been doing it for years but she still hasn't noticed anything. I'd like to keep that way," she added in a pointed voice.

"Sure," Jay agreed.

Trev spoke up. "How'd we get onto this?"

"Jay and his big mouth," Jeanie replied.

Ris looked at her. "Are you just feeling particularly nasty today or is it something else?" She asked her cousin.

Jeanie glared. "Just feeling particularly nasty," she said.

"Rangers," Dayton said. They looked at him. "I'm afraid that unless the other four gain access to their powers, we may never defeat Pleance."

"Don't worry so much Dayton," Jeanie said, confidence practically pouring off her. "We'll beat him. Rangers have always come out tops."

"Yeah," David nodded. "We'll do it. We'll do whatever it takes to keep the earth safe."

"Our parents did it before us," Trevor said in a quiet voice. "For everyone. There's no way we're gonna fail them."

The others nodded in agreement. Dayton looked at them; six grave faced teens stared right back at him. Slowly, he nodded. "To get closer to your power," he said, "it is a good idea to meditate."

Jay was the first to speak. "Oh man! Anything but that!"

Jeanie and Ris grinned. "C'mon Jay. Surely you can meditate for more than five seconds," Jeanie teased.

He glowered at them. "I can meditate for two hours and you know it."

Jeanie's grin turned wicked. "Prove it. Ten bucks."

"You're on," he immediately said as the others laughed.

Together, they lowered themselves to the floor of the exercise room and closed their eyes. As their features relaxed Dayton stood and watched. And hoped.