Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to Disney/Haim Saban

It was late Wednesday afternoon and Eva was just arriving at the motocross track. She had just finished her one-on-one training with Dayton. She needed it to keep up with the others, who had tri-weekly ninja classes, not to mention the daily training they did with their own families. In terms of fighting, she had a long, long way to go before she was even on par with them. But in terms of handling the special powers each of them had…training with Dayton meant she was more in touch with the Griffin's power of knowledge – meaning she could touch something and know who'd been the last person to touch it, and who would be the next. She supposed it could also be called flashbacks and premonitions but she liked Dayton's simplification of it all.

As she hurried to the track, she spotted Ris's distinctive yellow bike. Her dad had bought and modified it for her as soon as she'd been old enough to ride one. Ris was sitting astride it, her helmet hooked on one of the handlebars. Her cousins – or rather, honorary cousins – were gathered around her, each dressed in their ranger/ninja color. There was David, with his white blonde hair in messy spikes, and his warm slanted brown eyes; red-haired Jeanie with bright blue eyes sparkling behind her glasses; Trevor beside her, his dark hair just touching the top of his glasses and his almond shaped eyes serious behind the lenses; Jay with black hair and matching eyes, a good natured grin on his face; and, finally Eva, with her long, curling brown hair and hazel eyes. "Guys!"

As one, they turned to watch her run up; a slim figure of a girl with long, light brown hair streaming away from a face with glittering green eyes. "Hey Eva," David greeted her as she drew up level with them.

"Hey," she replied, only slightly breathless from her run. "You just got here?"

"Uh-huh," Ris replied, already bouncing in her seat. "Come on! Let's ride!"

There were four other bikes there as well. Jeanie and Trev headed for theirs. "I'm just gonna sit here," Eva said. "Catch my breath."

"I'll stay with you," David immediately said.

"I'll give you guys some privacy," Jay smirked, and earned a glare from his cousin. He didn't explain as he strolled over to his bike and swung his leg over it, so Eva turned to look at David.

He shrugged. "He's just being stupid." He said, and refused to say more.

They sat and watched in companionable silence as their friends swung into the track and began racing. After a while Eva said; "Dayton's getting worried."

Keeping his eyes on the track David asked; "what about?"

"It's been quiet…he thinks too quiet. There hasn't been an attack for a couple of weeks now. He thinks Pleance is up to something…and I think so to."

"Pleance has to be up to something," David said. "Why else would he hold off? Now that he knows how strong we are, he knows the only way to get Ris's power is to destroy her." They were speaking under the roar of bike engines, only loud enough for them to hear. "Does Dayton have any idea what he might be up to?"

"Nothing," Eva replied. "That's why he's so worried."

David tapped his fingers on his thigh, turning his head to look at her. "I don't like it," he admitted. "I really don't like it. Does Dayton really have no way to finding where Pleance is hiding out?"

She shook her head. "I've been asking him, and he's working on it, but nothing."

David angled his torso so he was facing her more. She was playing with the grass in front of her, twisting and pulling out the blades. He put his hands on hers to stop the nervous movement. "We'll be fine," he reassured her. "Power Rangers always win."

"Talking of winning," to move the conversation away to lighter matters, Eva shifted her eyes to the track. "Look."

David turned in time to see Ris beat Jeanie by a wheel, Trev and Jay just behind them. They stood up and waited until they had ridden their bikes up the slight slope and in front of them. Ris whipped her helmet off, her hair tumbling out. "Whoop!" She cried out and punched the air with her hands. "I won! Again!" She added.

"Yeah, yeah, we know you're the best Ris," Jeanie said with a roll of her eyes. "No need to push our faces in the dirt."

When Jay pulled his helmet off, he looked a bit put out. "I hate losing to a girl. Every time," he added, hanging his helmet on his handlebars. Jay was pretty competitive, like his dad.

"Not every time." Trev said. "Remember that day when…no, wait. Ris fell off her bike, so I guess that doesn't count."

"Not helping Trev," Jeanie said in a light voice at Jay's darkened expression.

The strange tune they'd become used to filled the air. With a quick look around, David pressed his fingers to the unobtrusive bracelet on his wrist and lifted to his mouth. "David here."

The others crowded around, both to shield David from view and to better hear what Dayton had to say. "Rangers, there is a monster attack at the old warehouses."

"What is with them and warehouses?" Jay asked. "Do you think they're obsessed?"

"Let's find out," David said in a grim voice. They moved away from the track, to a secluded, deserted part of it. "Ready?" A flash of red light and his morpher replaced his bracelet.

"Ready!"

"Dragon Rider, Ranger Form!"

"Griffin Rider, Ranger Form!"

"Unicorn Rider, Ranger Form!"

"Phoenix Rider, Ranger Form!"

"Minotaur Rider, Ranger Form!"

"Centaur Rider, Ranger Form!"

The monster Pleance had created was having the time of its short life. It was a strange cross between what might have been a Barbie doll and a snake. Its thin face was a silver grey but it had lips as red as blood. It didn't seem to notice the six Rangers approaching in multi-coloured streaks. That is, until, Jay – ever the impatient one – blasted it with a gust of air that came from his ninja powers. It immediately turned and, in retaliation, sent a laser blast their way.

They leapt out of its path, but Trev and Eva stumbled, falling and rolling across the concrete. They were on their feet on time to avoid another blast. "Impatient little tyke, isn't it?" Jay said.

"Remind you of someone?" Jeanie asked and, even though her visor hid her expression, he knew she had her eyebrows raised.

"Do you think it's cross-eyed?" Trev wondered aloud. "Every shot it's taken's missed so far."

"Could it be because we keep dodging them?" Eva suggested, doing just that.

"It's weird, isn't it?" Ris said. "That it doesn't have a bunch of Frissons to back it up. The rest all did."

"And cue Frissons appearing," Jay muttered. But none came.

David grinned behind his visor. "What d'ya know? Pleance doesn't go for the cheesy and cliché."

"Enough talk," Jeanie said, her slings already out and whirling. "Let's blow this thing already."

"With you all the way," Eva agreed, summoning her bow.

With that, they all summoned their personal weapons, then assembled them together to create the Spirit Cannon. "Ready," Trev reported, his arms nearly vibrating from the power coursing through him.

"Fire!" David ordered, and steadied himself for the blast.

It exploded from the mouth; a swirling grey mass that headed straight for the monster, enveloping it and, with a golden glow, exploding it while its last screams echoed in the teen's ears. "Bye bye now," Jay said, a taunting tone in his voice.

"Is it my imagination," David asked. "Or was that impossibly easy?"

"Don't question it or something worse will happen," Eva warned.

They waited a while. Nothing. "Okay…this is just too weird." David decided.

"No Frissons, almost no fight from the monster, and no Pleance coming to taunt us. I think this has moved beyond the realm of weird and into the suspicious." Jeanie said.

"Pleance is up to something big. And I think that us blasting the monster was part of his plan," Trev added.

"Are we that predictable?" Eva asked.

"In that aspect, we are."

"See a monster, blast it," Jay added. "That has been our MO for the last few he's tossed our way."

"Why make it so obvious?" Ris asked suddenly. "I mean you said it yourself Jeanie; 'no Frissons, almost no fight from the monster'. It's obvious we'd have gotten suspicious."

"Maybe it's meant to be obvious," David said, and wished he could take off his helmet to rub the worry brewing at his temples.

"How right you are Red ranger."

At the all too familiar insidious voice, they whirled, and weren't too surprised to find a tall, darkly handsome man with fangs for teeth behind them. Pleance, after all, had a penchant for making silent and sudden entrances.

"What're you up to Pleance?" David called, pointing a threatening finger at him.

Hidden behind his visor, Jay rolled his eyes. "Oh, so effective."

"Shut up," David muttered, a little embarrassed. That had sounded so stupid.

Ignoring their little aside, Pleance stepped forward so they could see what he cupped in his hands. It was a large rock, about the size of a man's fist, roughly cut and a faded yellow. It looked harmless enough, but the Rangers still backed up, wary. What the hell was Pleance going to do with a big, not so shiny rock?

With a smile that was more like a reptile's than a human's, he hefted the rock over his head, and tilted it so light shone on it, through it and onto the smouldering remains of the recently destroyed monster.

The Rangers tilted in time to see those remains crowd together, and begin growing. Larger, and larger, all the time crowding closer and closer until…"Fuck!"

No one bothered to respond to Jay's exclamation. But fuck was close to what everyone was thinking. Especially when the now fifty foot monster looked down at that with the sinister permanent smile. And when it lifted its foot.

"Scramble!" David roared, even as his team mates dived away from the descended foot. It thudded at the spot they'd been in, making the ground tremble and Eva, who'd just been getting to her feet to fall again. David caught her, pulled her up. "Shit. How the hell do we fight something that size?" Jay asked, a thin edge of panic lining his voice.

"I don't know," David asked, feeling his own panic rising. Shit, shit, shit. How the hell had his parents dealt with this? "Damnit, I don't know. Dayton!"

"You will need to come back to the command base. Hurry Rangers."

"You heard him." With that, David pulled Eva into his arms. "Hold on to me," he told her. "We're gonna have to ninja streak, and I'm gonna have to take you with me. It's faster to running. Just hold on to me and make sure your feet don't touch the ground."

She nodded and put her arms around his neck. "Let's go."

With that, the six rangers became multi-coloured streaks of five, hopping from building to building to the command base.