Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to Disney/Haim Saban

"What the – shit!"

David Bradley and Trevor Watanabe both let out yelps, followed by groans, as Trev landed on the other boy. They lay still for a moment – Trev lying on David's back – before the blond stirred, beginning to push up. "Get off Trev. You're heavy."

With another groan, Trev managed to push himself up and off, flopping to the side with his arms flung out. "Gah."

On his other side, James Clarke laughed, snapped out of his meditative state by the yells and thumping. "Well, that didn't exactly go to plan."

Trev scowled. "Shut up Jay."

The 'plan' had been for Trev to Relocate out of the command base to the park, pluck a flower for evidence, return back to the base and give the flower to Dayton – though Jay, Ris and Eva had demanded he give it to Jeanie, much to Dayton and David's amusement and his embarrassment.

"Funny," Marissa Brooks commented with a grin, "I didn't realise David had turned into the park."

"Shut up Ris."

Eva Stevens got up, strolled over to the two boys. "You okay?" She asked.

"Give him a kiss," Jeanie Bradley said with a wide, wide grin. "Make it all better."

"Okay."

Even as David coloured and Jeanie laughed, Eva leant down – and placed a soft kiss on Trev's brow. "Better?"

"Oh." He blinked up at her. "Um…I guess."

"Or," now Eva's smile was sly and her eyes slid over to a slightly stunned looking Jeanie, "would you prefer a kiss from –"

"Okay!" Trev sat up so fast, the top of his head would have hit Eva's chin if the brunette hadn't pulled away in the nick of time. "I think I'm ready to go again, Dayton."

The others laughed – even Jeanie – at Trev's sudden recovery. Dayton, their millenia old mentor, had to smile at Trev's slowly pinking cheeks. "If you wish so Trevor."

"Yeah," he got to his feet, dusted himself off. "I 'wish so'."

"Hey," Jay stretched out his legs, leant back on his hands. "Do me and David had to get back to meditating? 'Cause I don't know about him but my butt went numb about five minutes ago."

"If you were really meditating, you wouldn't have felt your butt go numb."

"Shut up Jeanie."

"I'm afraid she is right, James. And the best way to find your Spirit power is meditation."

Jay scowled, glanced over at David as he sat up, one arm looped over his raised knees. "Jeanie and Ris didn't need to meditate so hard to find their power."

"Every power has a trigger. They simply found theirs."

David raised a brow. "Trigger?"

"Knowledge through want. Resurrection through love. Metaphase through strength of will. Relocation through strength of will." Dayton spoke as if reciting. "The triggers of your power."

"Metaphase and Relocation have the same trigger," Trev commented.

"Some of the powers do," Dayton replied. "'Tis your strength of will that triggers your power. When Eva wants to know something, her power is triggered. Marissa heals and resurrects through love. You have a well of love," he added to her. "'Tis, I think, part of the reason the Phoenix chose you. Jeanie, you willed badly to be released from your prison, and thus your power was triggered. Trevor, you willed for the power that would bring you to the Zords and so it was triggered."

"What about us?" Jay asked.

Dayton looked at him. "You must find your triggers for yourself."

"No shortcuts," Trev taunted and earned glares from both David and Jay.

"Get back to practicing, Centaur," David shot back. "And this time, don't Relocate on me."

There was a taut silence. Then Jay snorted and the girls burst into fits of giggles. "That," Jay managed between bouts of laughter. "Is just so, so, so wrong!"

David coloured – could feel himself colouring some more because it was just so damn embarrassing. "It wouldn't be if you guys didn't have dirty minds."

"David, David, David," smirking, Jeanie strolled over, drilled a finger into the centre of his forehead. "We're teenagers. That's pretty mush synonymous with dirty minded."

"For guys maybe." Trev was frowning, arms crossed over his chest. "But not for girls."

"Yeah," Ris said. "No one could accuse you of being dirty minded."

Trev blinked, then scowled as the insult hit. "Hey!"

"Hey!" Eva and Jeanie said at the same time.

Ris looked at them. "What?"

Jeanie rolled her eyes. "You just called us guys."

"Really?"

Eva nodded. "Yes."

"Rangers." Dayton had to bite back a laugh at their expressions, had to actually work to keep a calm, kind look on his face. "Please. Focus. There is much to go before you have full control of your skills, Trevor. In the meantime, you must practice."

Trev sighed, slapped his hands together as if brushing dust off them. "All right then. Back to work it is."

Dinner time always meant one-on-two time for Jay and his parents. His mum, Jasmine, was always home first. As soon as she was home, the law professor disappeared, left at the door. She might still be dressed in the prim suit, but the jacket was gone, the long sleeves rolled up and the leather shoes exchanged for comfortable flip flops. Her hair was down but pulled away so it was a long spill of black down her back. She was his dad's opposite in every other way and that suited them.

Shane Clarke was Maori and very obviously so with his build, his dark complexion, his square face. He was built along the lines of a linebacker or a prop in rugby; broad shoulders, strong chest, muscled arms and legs. His jaw was strong, stubborn his wife liked to say. He had hair dark as midnight, cut closer to his head than it'd been when he'd been a ranger. His eyes were dark, bittersweet chocolate, and his smile wide and disarming.

Describing Shane was like describing his son. Jay was the exact version of his dad at seventeen. He knew because he'd seen the photos. Heck, he even styled his hair the same way his dad had back then; short and spiked away from his face. Not because he wanted to look like his dad but because it was cool and made him look good. Not his fault he and his dad had similar tastes.

Sometimes, his mum despaired of them, wondering, out loud, how she could have gotten saddled with two muscle bound hulking jocks. But that was only when they'd done something incredibly stupid – like the time they'd managed to take out the window to her study with a badly aimed baseball bat. Yes, the bat. Not one of their finer moments and, man, had she made them suffer for that.

But you couldn't tell it now, not the way she was laughing, one slim hand holding her half filled wine glass as she listened to Shane relate a story from one of his ninja classes. Apparently, one of his experienced air students had managed to get himself stuck in a tree.

"How long did it take?" Jasmine asked, mouth still curled in a little smile.

"Three hours," Jay replied for Shane, laughter in his voice as he remembered the scene. "Thomas was panicking like crazy, shrieking and crying like a gi – baby." He amended quickly and got a quick wink from his dad. "When we got him down, we found out he's afraid of heights. That's why he freaked so bad."

Shane's laugh was low and rollicking and seemed to tickle Jasmine even more. "I've never heard of it; an air ninja scared of heights. But I've got him on some extra time with me, trying to get over that. I just can't believe he didn't say anything." Shane shook his head and took a sip of his wine.

"It makes you think, though," Jasmine said, "of the lengths people'll go through, just to prove to themselves they aren't scared."

Shane cocked his head, wine glass still half lowered. "No," he said at length. "Not really."

Both he and Jay laughed when Jasmine glared, Shane jumping a little when Jasmine's foot connected with his shin. He put down his wine glass, took his wife's hand and rubbed his thumb over knuckles covered by skin so soft, he still marvelled at it. "Okay, yes, it's an interesting prospect, maybe, but you know me. That type of stuff isn't my forte."

"Oh, you said forte." Jasmine's smile was wide but not mocking. "I must be rubbing off on you."

"That's not the –"

"Dad," Jay cut in hurriedly, just to remind them he was there. Sometimes, they got carried away. And most times, they did it just to freak him out.

Obviously, this was one of those freak-Jay-out-times because neither of them started and Shane chuckled as he put Jasmine's hand back on the table. "You're far too easy," Shane informed his son, picking up his fork and knife.

"Careful dad," Jay warned, "I could take that the wrong way."

"But you won't, will you?"

"No," Jay said hastily at the look in his mum's eyes. The one that promised grounding and enough chores to make him beg for forgiveness if he didn't agree with her.

Shane chuckled away, neatly cutting his meatloaf. "Anything interesting happen in training today?" He asked.

Jay grinned at the memory and spent the rest of the meal regaling his parents with Trev's escapade during training. "Man," Shane was still shaking his head, sides still hurting from laughter, as they cleared the table. "That is beyond what we did during training – and we thought some of the mistakes we'd made were pretty major."

"Yes, well, you didn't have the power the kids have now," Jasmine replied, loading the dishwasher. Jay was scraping the remains on the plates into the bin. "You had your ninja powers, yes, and combined with the ranger power, I'm sure it was a great combination. But the kids have that and these – Life Spirits, is it, Jay?" At Jay's nod, she continued, "as an extra punch. Of course their training will be above what you did."

"In other words," Jay said a grin that reminded Shane of the one Tori said he'd sometimes used before going to battle, "we could take you and win."

Shane, as expected, rose to the challenge. "Please," he sneered and used the end of the cloth he'd been using to wipe the table to flick his son's butt. "We're seasoned ninjas. You're nothing but green."

"Hey, in case you haven't noticed, I'm black."

"Yeah, and that's another thing I don't get. How did David end up red? Both Tori and Blake are blue."

Jasmine raised a brow. "What does it matter what colour Jay is? He's still a ranger and doing us proud." She reached out, gave Jay's shoulder a squeeze as she passed him on her way to the fridge.

"Yeah, but red's the leader. You know, the one everyone listens to, the one who decides what to do."

Jay snorted. "Hey, I've got no interest in deciding what to do next. Too much stress, thank you very much. Being listened to, yeah, but everyone listens to me, so it makes no difference." He grinned, quick and easy, and turned the water off.

"Yeah but –"

"Shane, Jay is a ranger. He has no interest in being leader. He's happy as he is. Be quiet." Jasmine's voice was pleasant, dangerously so and after living with her for more than twenty years now, Shane knew it was best to do as she said. So he shut up.

"Hey," Jay said, spotting the box in his mum's hands. "Is that dessert? Did you pick up dessert?"

Jasmine smiled, lifted the box slightly higher. "I was in the mood for chocolate. Chocolate mud cake to be more specific."

"Yes!" Jay practically danced before bopping over to the cupboard to get out dishes. Shane grabbed three forks from the drawer and three glasses as well, for the milk that just went with chocolate.

"I want –" Jay broke off as a weird tune filled the air.

Shane and Jasmine turned to look at him as he put the plates on the counter, lifted his wrist to his mouth. He pressed on the silver and black lined bracelet he always wore nowadays and spoke into it. "Yeah Dayton?"

"There is a monster at the place where sea meets this city."

That took a moment for Jay to figure out. "You mean the docks?"

"Yes, I believe that is what Eva called them."

"Oh yeah, the others?"

"David and Eva are on their way. Trevor is attempting to get away from dinner without being too conspicuous. And Jeanie and Marissa are already there."

"On my way." Even as he spoke, Jay was unlatching the window behind the sink, pushing it wide enough so he could climb through.

"Jay." At his mum's dry voice, he turned, only just remembering his parents were in the room as well. "We have doors for a reason."

Jay's smile was rueful and begged for sympathy and looked exactly like his dad's when he'd done something wrong. "Sorry mum, but this is closer, you know. I swear, one and only time. Don't let dad hog all the cake!" With that, he was gone, diving through the window.

Shane crossed the room, closed the window. "I'm not as greedy as him."

Jasmine had to roll her eyes at that, her husband knowing exactly what to say to ease her worry. "Oh, you're both the same. You're having one slice – one," she repeated and held up a finger to emphasize, "only."

"Aw." But even as he did his version of a pout, Shane was moving across the room, taking the box from her and setting it on the counter. "Bet I can make you give me more."

Jasmine rolled her eyes but twined her arms around his neck. "Prove it."

A/N: As promised, the next installment of "my" (ahem) series. Not sure if I should really call it that considering I don't even know if anyone's reading this anymore....especially since I take FOREVER between updates. Which I am so sorry for, by the way. But yeah, erm, even anoyone's still following this, thanks for reading. And enjoy!