Inevitable

It was early. Way too early for Hunters liking. If he had it his way, he would sleep into the late morning everyday, at least till' 11:00. But with the responsibilities he had came sacrifices; really crappy sacrifices. The sleepy dirty blonde vigorously rubbed his eyes in attempt to rid the sleepiness from his eyes. After failing to due so, he relentlessly pulled the covers from his legs, revealing the cool dawn air. The crimson ranger sighed at the thought of his morning that awaited him. In attempts to temporarily rid that annoyance from his mind, he quickly grabbed a pair of dark, baggy jeans that were laying on a heap on his floor, along with a clean, long-sleeve, deep red, fitted T-shirt with a grey eagle covering the majority of the upper right hand side, and walked to the bathroom. If he was lucky, he'd beat Blake to the shower, giving him more time to eat breakfast. No such luck. Hunter nearly ran into the closed wood door before he realized that it was closed, even after being awake for five minutes, his mind was still clouded with the fuzziness of sleep. Great. Another amazing start to another splendid day. Oh Joy. Hunter thought sarcastically. He knew he shouldn't be so sarcastic, but it was so much easier to be brooding in the morning than to be hyper and chipper. Not everyone could produce as much energy as Dustin did 24/7.

After the frustration of morning preparations passed, Hunter made his way to work. He had promised Kelly that he would watch over the store while she visited her sick, dieing father in Northern California. He was surely happy to help his close friend when she needed it the most; he just wished he didn't have to wake up so early every morning to open Storm Chargers. Opening the store up at 7:00 am was way too early. Nobody woke up at 6:30 to go and buy sports gear. Didn't Kelly know that athletes, much like himself, liked their sleep? Really liked their sleep? He pondered these thoughts as he made the final preparations for the stores opening and then finally flipping the sign over from closed to open. Taking his seat behind the counter, he began to read one of the magazines that happened to be under the counter. He could occupy his time by reading about surfing. It was no motocross, but it did have cute girls in it, and he had always been fascinated by the sport. However, not even five minutes later was Hunter's attention distracted by the sound of four small bells ringing. Then again, you always have those odd balls He commented to his previous thoughts without even looking up from his magazine. The dirty blonde looked up to the only other person occupying the store, expecting to see some geeky nerd, looking for a biking helmet or something. However, to his surprise, he found a very beautiful young lady, with long straight blonde hair and deep blue eyes, almost like midnight sky blue eyes. He stared at her darting eyes, hypnotized by their intensity. Her denim mini skirt accented her well formed, long legs, just as her dark red tank top accented her curves perfectly. Hunter couldn't help but stare at her as she looked around the store in somewhat confusion. Only after finally realizing his rudeness of staring did he decide that he should actually ask her if she need his assistance.

"May I help you?" Hunter asked coolly as he walked around the counter and then too the thin blonde.

"Ummm…yes. Yes you can. I'm looking for some riding gloves. I don't seem to see them…anywhere." She asked, but not even bothering to look at Hunter. She was still searching the room for the gloves.

"Well, if you would look to your right, you would see a wonderful counter that happened to have a wonderfully handsome worker, just moments before occupying it. Any coincidently, just below said person, is a wonderful variety of riding gloves, ranging from x small to xxx large, arranged ever so perfectly by yours truly." Hunter replied cheekily, gesturing towards the cashiers' counter. The young lady blushed slightly for her failure to see the obvious display and her rudeness to Hunter. She simply followed Hunter as he led her to the display. "Is there anything else I can get you?" Hunter asked, already knowing that she would give the same answer that 99 of the rest of the customers that visited this store gave him.

"No, thank you." She smiled as she laid the crimson and black gloves on the counter.

"So, you ride huh? Or are you getting these for someone else." He commented playfully, trying to start small talk with the customer.

"No, these are for me." She replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Sorry, I don't meet too many girls who ride. Most who come in there usually surf or just come to flirt with the guy who actually do ride, or skateboard, or whatever else."

"Well, yea. My parents hated it when I first began. They didn't think it was 'lady like'", she started, using her fingers as quotations to add emphasis to her words. "They wanted me to take dance or something ridiculously girly, but I refused. At one point, I chopped all my hair off and wore boy shorts and T-shirts, just to piss them off. Eventually they gave in and Ta-da!" She finished with arms stretched out, gesturing to herself. Hunter aloud a small chuckle to escape his mouth at his amusement in her energy. "What is so funny?" She asked with a confused look on her face.

"Nothing, it's just that I don't see too many people with that much energy at 7:15 in the morning, and I also don't see too many girls who ride who, well, look like you do. And trust me; I've seen a lot of riders in my time." Hunter half laughed as he shook his head. "That'll be $11.25" She gave him the money while glaring at him, and then began to argue his last statement.

"Girls who look like me? That sounds kind of judgmental, and sexist, don't you think?'

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean yes it is but I didn't mean it like the way you too-"he began to ramble on in attempt to defend himself, that was until she cut him off.

Relax…Hunter" She told him to calm him down while leaning over the counter to read his name tag. "I was just kidding okay? So you see a lot of riders huh? That must mean you ride too, right?"

"Yea, as a matter of fact I do." He stated as he placed one arm on the counter and then proceeded to lean on it for support.

"150 or 250?" She questioned while handing him the money for her gloves.

"250"

"Perfect! Then you won't mind a race against me sometime." She stated flirtatiously.

"No, but it kind of would be hard to get a hold of you without a name or even a number." She simply smiled and pulled out a pad of paper from her purse and scribbled some numbers on the paper and gave it to Hunter.

"Hayden. Hayden Dawson." She said simply as she grabbed her gloves and walked out of Storm chargers. Hunter stared at her until she was out of sight. Something about her, seemed familiar. The way she looked, her smile, her name…her eyes. Yes her eyes were freakishly familiar. She seemed oddly familiar, but Hunter couldn't think of why. Shrugging it off for the moment, Hunter returned to read about the exciting world of surfers.

As 11:00 rolled around, Hunter received company from four of the people who he called his friends. Dustin came running into work, late as usual, pulling on his yellow button up shirt over his white T-shirt. About a minute later, Shane stolen in with Blake and Tori close behind with their hands clasped. This, of course, was the teams favorite hang out, right next to ninja ops. After the final three plopped down on the nearby cough, Hunter began to walk out to the back, grabbing an old T-shirt on the way.

"Hey dude, where are you headed off too?" Dustin questioned, taking his place behind the cash register.

"Out back, to work on my bike. I would have earlier, but someone was late." Hunter replied with slight aggression behind his words, without even turning around to face his happy-go-lucky friend.

"Does he seem a little more brooding than usual?" Dustin questioned to his friends from across the room.

"Nah, that's just Hunter for you; dark and emotionless." Blake responded rather loudly.

"Hey, I hear that!" yelled Hunter from the back room in a teasing hurt voice. Tori and Shane let out a soft giggle while Blake just smiled at his brother's good nature humor. Hunter too was smiling as he prepared all of his tools to work on maintenance for his bike. He knew he was blessed to have such good friends, but his mind quickly drifted to Hayden from that morning. The crimson ranger was still trying to figure out why he felt like he knew her for some reason. His thoughts continued to flood his mind as he changed the oil in his bike for probably the one-hundredth time in his career. It's almost like I know her, subconsciously. Is that possible? I don't really recognize her, but she feels…she has this presence that reminds me or…well me. And her eyes. How do I know those eyes? And with that last thought, Hunter began to involuntarily send out small, short burst of crimson lightning. One of them hit the engine of Hunters prized position, where Hunter's hand laid, and with that, electricity formed, shocking Hunter just slightly. He quickly removed his hand from the engine, but not soon after did Hunter feel over come by the sensation of spinning around. Stumbling back and forth, he knocked over the tool box, sending it to the floor with a loud crash. Within seconds, the blonde lost the battle to remain conscious, and he too fell to the ground, colliding with his bike, landing with a thud against the concrete floor. The commotion from the backroom could be heard from the front of the store clearly.

"Hunter, are you dieing back there?" Dustin joked to his fried due to all of the loud noise. The four rangers waited for a moment, expecting to hear a sarcastic remark. When none came, Tori and Shane exchanged worried glances. Blake was the first to rise to check on the blonde.

"Hunter, are you okay man?" Blake called, worried about his brother; still no response. With that, all four rushed to the back room. When they arrived, they saw tools scattered across the floor, Hunters bike on its side, lying on top of an unconscious Hunter who had a faint, hazed, glow of crimson surrounding his body. Rushing to aid his brother, Blake leapt forward to pull the heavy bike off of the frail body while Dustin, Tori, and Shane ran to Hunter.

"Hunter! Wake up! This isn't funny! Hunter, wake up!" Tori pleaded in attempts to wake up her friend from his comatose state. There still was no movement. As she went to pick his head off the ground, she was struck with a bolt of energy, like a shock of electricity. She leapt backwards not able to understand how she could help her friend. Taking his leadership role, Shane took charge.

"We need to get him to ninja ops and have Cam take a look at him. Blake, you take one side and Dustin, you grab the other. Hopefully you will be able to resist his energy better than me or Tori could."

"Wait, I know how Blake can resist him, but how can I?" Dustin asked in confusion, not wanting to be electrocuted.

"Because lightning is absorbed into the ground Einstein, now help me grab him." Blake mumbled out of agitation and lack of patients when it came to Hunter's safety. The two of them pulled Hunter upright and proceeded to carry him to Tori's van from the back entrance while Shane ran to close up the store. None of them had any idea what was going on with Hunter, they just knew that it wasn't good. Nothing can be good when you loose consciousness and begin to glow crimson. Could it?

Authors note: O.K. this is my first attempt in a chapter format story. It may take a while to get the next chapter up. I blame my hectic life. I'm going to be gone until Wednesday evening, so I'm not sure when I can update next, but I'll promise to get the next chapter as soon as possible, as long as I don't experience writers block. All reviews welcomed and greatly appreciated. (No rude ones or flames though...thank you very much.)