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Moonlight:

Purple Thunder.

Chapter 1: Prologue: Prelude to Thunder.

Pai Zhuq Academy:

2003:

A pretty girl around the age of eighteen with long loosely curled brown hair, lightly tanned skin, and stormy gray eyes hidden behind closed eyelids sat cross-legged on a stone wall overlooking the large drop down from the Academy to the land below.

Anyone else would be shocked and question her sanity, especially if said person was afraid of heights, but for Piper this was an everyday activity. While she might appear to be napping to others she was in fact meditating. When she had first began at the Pai Zhuq Academy she had been a terrible student when it came to sitting still.

She picked up fighting quickly, and unlocked her animal spirit within a few months of training, but meditating and sitting still for longer than a few minutes was a challenge for the girl. Her father and brother had the same problem getting her to sit still. She'd gotten better at it, and it always helped when she was up high. That probably had something to do with her animal spirit being an Eagle.

"Hey Pipes, Master Mao wishes to see you," a girl with mocha skin, black hair, and light brown eyes said from behind her.

Her gray eyes snapped open and she sighed, before gracefully standing up on the rather narrow wall – Sarai, the black haired girl, never understood how Piper could stand being so close to the edge like that. If it were her she'd have given in to vertigo long before she could get comfortable enough to meditate.

"Thanks Sarai," Piper said, turning around and jumping down the few feet onto the stone ground of the plateau.

Sarai nodded and left, and she followed after her. There were plenty of steps from the plateau back to the main part of the Academy. She made it back quickly though and headed to where she knew she'd find Master Mao. Passing a bunch of cubs training as she did, sending them a small smile of encouragement as she passed.

She found found Master Mao in the chamber where a box was kept, a box no one was allowed to be around. Piper wasn't sure the exact reasons, but she'd always felt a dark presence from the box so she never bothered asking. She doubted she'd get a straight answer even if she did ask.

"Master Mao, you asked for me?" Piper asked with a polite bow.

Master Mao looked at his student and allowed a faint smile to cross his face. Piper Watanabe was a special case – her mother had been a Pai Zhuq master and yet her father was a ninja from the Wind Ninja Academy with an interesting past. Her parents and older brother died when she was six and the sensei of the Wind Ninja Academy was the first to step up to take her in, adopting her into the Watanabe family.

Piper had no other relatives that could take her (her mother's brother had been estranged from the family for years and Piper had only met him a few times before the accident) so she had few options, but it was agreed that she would attend the Pai Zhuq Academy when she was older instead of the Wind Ninja Academy. He knew Kanoi and his son had still taught Piper some things, she'd been ahead of most her fellow cubs when she began attending the Academy nearly a decade ago. While she had attention problems she had come a long way since then, and if it weren't for how far she'd come and his trust in her he'd not be asking her to do this.

"I did. Piper you have been a wonderful student these past eight years. You remind me of your mother, she was as quick a learner as you are. She would be proud of you."

"Thank you, Master Mao, but is everything okay?" she asked, confused and concerned. The Master wouldn't have called her here to talk about that.

"Do you know about the Ninja Academies, all of them?" Master Mao asked.

"Yes. When the Academies were founded there was four – the Wind Ninja Academy, The Fire Ninja Academy, The Cosmic Ninja Academy, and the Thunder Ninja Academy. When Dai Shi was loose he destroyed the Fire Ninja and Cosmic Ninja. The Academies were left in ruins."

"Very good. The Ninja had agreed to help our fight, one of the only times all four Ninja Academies and Pai Zhuq worked together. During that time devices were made to help in the fight, but no one was able to harness them since the fight was already over by the time they were completed. These objects were called morphers. The Wind Morphers were kept safe by the Wind Ninja's, and the Thunder Morphers were kept by the Thunder Ninja. The Fire Ninja were gone and with them so was the Fire Morpher, destroyed in their last stand. The story is similar for the Cosmic Morphers. The Solar Morpher was destroyed with the ninja, but we were able to recover the Lunar Morpher and it was agreed that it would be safe guarded by the Pai Zhuq Academy."

"Morphers? Are you talking about Power Rangers, Master?" Piper asked credulously. She knew Power Rangers were real. She'd heard about them when they were active in Angel Grove, and she remembered the Countdown to Destruction clearly. She wasn't there, but she remembered the panic and her father talking about sending their older ninja out to help the Rangers.

Master Mao nodded, and pulled out a box which he opened. Inside was what she could only assume was a morpher. It was white and silver in coloring with black accents. The disk in the center of the morpher portrayed a wolf howling at the moon.

"I've had contact with the Academies. Both had been captured by Lothor except for a handful who have taken up the other morphers. Now it is time I choose someone to take up the power of light to join the Rangers in battle. After much thought I have chosen you, Piper, to become the new Lunar Ninja Ranger."

Piper's eyes widened. "Me! Oh wow, you must be crazy!" she exclaimed. "I'm not a Power Ranger, I mean I haven't even finished my training... I-I..."

"Are ready for this, I wouldn't have chosen you if I did not have faith in your abilities, Piper," Master Mao interrupted.

Piper swallowed hard and bit the inside of her cheek before reaching out to pick up the morpher. "Are you sure about this, Master?"

"I am. You will do your parents and master proud, Piper Shiba-Watanabe."

Piper smiled and strapped the morpher to her wrist. She would help the Rangers in their battle. She wouldn't disappoint her parents – adopted and biological – by failing in the task she'd been trusted with.

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Shane, Tori, and Dustin groaned as they struggled to their feet. These new Thunder Rangers were strong, and they all had the bruises to prove it. They hadn't been expecting to come across more Rangers, much less evil ones. How does one handle evil Power Rangers?

"It looks like this is the end, Rangers," the Crimson Ranger said, raising his weapon to bring down on the Rangers.

The staff was blocked though by a blade, and they were all surprised to see a Ranger standing on the other end of the ninja sword. The Ranger was female, the skirt attached to her Ranger suit and build gave this away. It was silver in color, and the animal depicted on her chest and forehead of her helmet was a howling wolf.

One of the biggest differences was that where the other Wind Ninja Rangers had gold and silver accents to their uniform, the silver was black on the Silver Ranger and the gold was replaced with white in most places – the gold on the helmet and ninja sword remained.

"Didn't anyone teach you to play nice with others?" the Silver Ranger asked, before kicked her leg out to impact the back of the Crimson Rangers knee. Not expecting the attack he went down on one knee and was thrown back across the ground by a strong kick to the chest.

Piper stood in front of the Wind Rangers in a defensive stance. Her ninja sword was back on her back, but she was just as tough without a weapon. Her stance spoke of experience.

"You've not heard the last of us, Rangers," The Navy Ranger said, helping his brother up and the two of them disappeared in ninja streaks from the quarry.

Piper sighed and relaxed, before turning to look at her new teammates – or supposed teammates. She wasn't sure she wanted to work with them, she'd never been the best at working with others. She found it hard to connect with a team in the past, but she did want to see her father and brother.

"Who are you?" Tori asked, now standing with the rest of the Rangers.

"I didn't know they made Rangers in Silver. Dude, you're rocking the outfit," Dustin said, and Piper couldn't help but chuckle. Shane was the only one to be more suspicious of the new Ranger, and it showed by his stance and facial expression.

"Power down," she muttered and her morph dispersed leaving her standing in her Pai Zhuq uniform.

"Huh, a Pai Zhuq student?" Tori questioned, not believing what she was seeing. The two Academies were on friendly terms but rarely saw one another. Ocean Bluff was a few hours from Blue Bay as well.

"My names Piper Watanabe, I was sent to help you with the fight against Lothor," Piper told them, her face never betraying her nerves. The Wind Rangers just exchanged surprised glances at the news. What does one say to a revelation like that?

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Several Months Later;

Reefside, CA:

January 2004:

"Stupid father, stupid brother, stupid Master..." Piper grumbled her words in a low mutter as she moved around her new apartment in Reefside – a town a few hours from Blue Bay Harbor, easily within Ninja Streaking distance (meaning it would only take a few minutes to get from Reefside to the Wind Ninja Academy, even closer if she was going to the Thunder Ninja Academy). "...who needs to finish High School? I could easily get my GED and be done with it, but nooo... they think it's a great idea to graduate with kids around my own age!"

Piper looked over at her Egyptian Mau, which had pounced on her small round dinning table, and smiled. "What are you thinking, Isis?" she asked, but obviously not expecting her cat to talk back. Isis had been a birthday gift from her parents just before they died. Isis was getting older now, having been with her since she was six.

"Meow..." Piper sighed, petting Isis' head and grabbing her multi-colored messenger bag and slinging it over her shoulder.

"Figures, even the cats against me," she muttered, taking Isis' 'meow' to mean 'suck it up, and go to school'. She supposed it couldn't be that bad. There could be evil megalomaniacs trying to take over the world... again.

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AN: So, it's been a long time and I'll admit, I'm a little nervous about this one. I've been busy in recent days and I just didn't have the inspiration to write for Power Rangers I once did. I do plan on editing my other stories, both Neveah's series and Aria's, which is why in between working on the changes to those stories I've decided to work on a series I'd been thinking of for a while.

I want to address the pairings. For this series I decided to pair my OC with Tommy. I love Kim/Tommy stories and even the occasional Kat/Tommy... but sometimes I like more variety. There are few Tommy/OC stories that I can find so I decided to write one. It'll be a rather slow build though. I don't know how often this will be updated, since I only have so much free time and working on editing my prior stories. I'll update when I can though.