(Disclaimer: I do not own power rangers or any of its affiliated characters. I do not own Kaylee, she is an original character belonging to authoress Lily Hanson. This idea as well as the big red ball obstacle was inspired by the show Wipeout.)
"You have got to be kidding me." Shane stood jaw hanging low in awe at the sight before him.
"Dude..." Was the only word Dustin could intelligently pronounce as his eyes widened.
"No way" Tori muttered staring skyward.
"Ho-ho-holy c-c-cra-ap" Cam stuttered
"Oh my god" Hunter shouted.
"Mommy?" Blake squealed.
Leanne and sensei chuckled calmly as they looked at the young teens. They then all turned to Kaylee including her young ranger teammates. The young girl could only lower her head and bite her lower lip.
"I am so sorry guys" Kaylee whispered.
"Rangers, welcome to the worst day of training ever." Sensei told the teens calmly looking each of them in the eye.
"Remind me again why we deserve this?" Shane asked turning to Kaylee who was hiding sheepishly behind Dustin.
"Hey I may be your boyfriend but I want an explanation too." Dustin said turning to face Kaylee.
"Well," Leanne interrupted the inquisition to be. "Little Miss Hanson thought it might be funny to stick a beehive down my pants." Despite a few suppressed chuckles from the boys, including sensei, the group fell silent looking over once again to the green ranger.
"You didn't" Tori sighed, disappointed at her sister.
"Oh she did" Leanne interrupted once again lifting her pant leg to reveal a number of beestings on the inside of her right leg.
"So what is this exactly?" Hunter asked motioning to the colossal structure erected behind Leanne and Sensei.
The Largest obstacle course ever created and it's all here just for you. Sensei began; For starters you guys may want to morph for this one because I won't lie it will get dangerous if you don't. First off we have the giant wall seems simple enough doesn't it? All you have to do is climb your way to the top and back over to the bottom. Afterwards; my personal favourite, the turntables of doom; they spin and spin and spin endlessly at high speeds. Next we have the quicksand sprint, just make your away across the quicksand you can handle it right rangers? Next are the slam walls; Walls that jut out in random directions and retract at the same time interval which you will have to figure out. Next we have the rapids; wild, turbulent waters that you will have to find a way across. And finally Leanne saw this on a television show somewhere, the big red balls. Four enormous red balls just hop across them to make it to the finish line.
Leanne leaned over to the guinea pig and whispered into his ear. Sensei gave her a knowing nod and looked back at the rangers.
"Oh and did I mention that hidden cannons placed in strategic places will be shooting fireballs at you all throughout?" Sensei added on.
"We are so dead" Shane murmured as he stood entirely stunned.
"Yeah and sensei I've got a question" Dustin asked.
"Yes Dustin?" Sensei allowed the question to be asked.
"If Kaylee did this to Leanne why are we all being punished?" The yellow ranger asked.
"Oh I can answer this!" Leanne jumped up and down with her hand in the air as sensei stepped back motioning for her to explain the situation to the rangers.
"Well you see you guys are a team; and that means when one of you falls you all fall, plus this way Kaylee will feel much worse for what she did and never do it again." Leanne said with a smirk stretched from one ear to the other.
The rangers all lined up at the starting line, morphed and ready. They all looked up towards the top of the first obstacle and contemplated how they would tackle it. Shane kept a sly smile concealed as best as he could as he came up with an ingenious plan.
Leanne pointed a pistol in the air prepared to fire it.
"On your marks...Get set...GO!" She shouted the last part as she fired off a blank round into the air. The seven rangers sprinted to the first obstacle. Most of the rangers quickly began their ascent. Shane was the only one to stay behind he looked up, chuckled and then began quickly motioning his hands and as soon as he stopped he began to float up into the sky.
"Now sensei?" Leanne leaned over and whispered into the guinea pig's ear.
"Wait until he reaches the top" The small fuzzy animal suggested.
The other rangers looked on in shock as their fearless leader flew past them. Shane just kept going up until he reached the top of the wall. That's when Leanne activated the cannons. One of the fireballs managed to hit Shane who fell back to the bottom where he had to restart the whole obstacle. The others struggled to reach the top. It had been an easy climb at first but it wasn't until they had got to about a third of the way up that realised just how large this wall actually was. Blake and Hunter were currently ahead of the others on the trek to the top of the wall when another fireball hit Blake directly in the back. He managed to keep his grip on the wall but howled out in agony as the fire hit him. The momentary pause was enough for Cam to break ahead and be the first to reach the top of the wall and the first to begin the descent down the other side. The rangers all reached the bottom in turn with Blake and Shane trailing in last due to their unfortunate meeting with the fireballs during the first obstacle. They had to continuously dodge fireballs as they stood contemplating how best to attack their next challenge.
"They just keep on going, and going, and going, and going..." Dustin repeated to himself over and over.
"Umm careful there Dirt boy I'm pretty sure that's a registered catch phrase for something." Tori chuckled as she watched the boy's head attempt desperately to follow the movements of the platforms.
There were three platforms, the first one was spinning in a clockwise motion and so was the third. The second one however spun counter clockwise. Blake and Hunter were the first two to make a run for the obstacle. Hunter was slightly quicker and hopped on to the first platform. He had underestimated the power of these platforms, and was thrown off is feet. Blake was just about to make his first step on to the platform when the flailing body of the crimson ranger came at him as a high speed blur; Hunter's fist connected with Blake's more "sensitive" area, a crippling blow that brought the man to his knees. Shane, Dustin and Cam all looked at the terrible scene and cringed as they moved around uncomfortably fixing their suits.
After Hunter got out of the way and helped up his brother Kaylee was the next to take a try at the turntables of doom. She made it two steps across the first platform before she got too dizzy, and slipped falling face first with her helmet being the only thing saving her from a broken nose or worse. Her limp figure bounced and spun a few times before landing at the feet of her teammates.
"Well that didn't work" The girl exclaimed happily as Tori helped her up.
"Evidently not" Was the older girl's reply.
"Okay dude our turn!" Shane hollered looking over to Dustin who nodded in agreement.
The two boys ran for the platform and stepped on opposite sides Dustin was unable to keep his balance and fell. Shane however was making good progress, he was only a step away from the next platform when Dustin uncontrollably came hurtling towards him and knocked both boys off the platform with great force.
Cam decided to take his chance after long thought for a strategy. He slowly got on to the platform, taking careful steps and just as he neared the end of the first platform one of the random fireballs landed a direct hit on Cam who was sent soaring through the air and off to the side of the obstacle.
Tori was the only one to have not yet attempt this obstacle and she now decided she would take her chance. With much grace, and of course a few acrobatics learned in training, she made it to the second platform. She repeated a similar process for this spinning death trap, as she did for the third one. Tori made it to the other side safe and sound. The other rangers caught on to her technique and quickly followed suit.
The rangers made it to the other end of the second obstacle with no major injuries, aside from some pretty serious bruising for Blake.
The rangers stared at the next obstacle before them. A giant long pit of quicksand; a deadly expanse of slow moving earth prepared to swallow whole all those who attempt across it's the dangerous desert.
"Well I'll be seeing you guys on the other side." Dustin mocked the others as he stepped forward making complicated hand signals similar to those Shane made before flying and instantly he was underground. The other rangers stood and watched attempting not to let themselves be hit by the fire balls. The ground made very bugs bunny like upward lumps in a line as Dustin quickly moved across the sand pit. He was reaching the end; but just millimetres away he stopped abruptly. The boy slowly pulled himself out and onto the ground on the other side while grasping his now cracked helmet.
"What happened?" Kaylee shouted worriedly.
"Underground cement wall" The boy wailed angrily still gripping his head.
"You broke your helmet" Cam gasped.
"You're damn right I did," The boy chuckled. "And you get to fix it" He was now laughing hysterically as he fell over holding his sides with one arm and his skull with the other.
"Hey kernel giggle think you could lend us a hand here?" Tori asked the earth ranger.
"What do you need?" The boy asked wiping a tear from his eyes.
"Well can't you control the earth, and you know, make it more solid?" Tori inquired.
"Sure thing Tor" Was the boys reply as he quickly commanded the earth to do as he pleased.
The rest of the rangers began making their way across the now solid ground as if it weren't even a challenge. Suddenly a big "SLURP" sound resounded in the air and all the rangers turned to the source of the noise, to see Blake neck deep in quicksand and ever so slowly being pulled further under.
"Umm, Dustin man, you missed a spot." The navy ranger spoke with a heavily worried tone.
"Oh, my bad dude one sec." The yellow ranger responded cheerfully as he commanded the ground to release his teammate.
The rangers looked ahead of them after having cleared the quicksand to view their next obstacle. Ahead of them were four archways one after the other with just enough space for a person in between each. After every few seconds they would all close at the same time then retract quickly, the catch was they shut from different directions every time. The rangers all stood counting the seconds to be able to time their movements.
"They're closing every three seconds" Shane stated dryly. The other rangers shook their head in agreement.
Kaylee went across first and had no problems timing her movements. The others were soon behind her without a problem either. Blake was the only one left and he prepared himself to go. He made it past the first three walls without a single hitch and he chuckled as he waited to charge through the last exit. As he did, one of the fireballs came screaming straight for him and hit him in the side slamming him face first into the door frame. Instants later the wall fired out in front of him slamming him in the face and pushing him up against the other side of the door frame. Moments after the first blow the wall came upward out of the floor slamming him in his "sensitive" area for the second time today and crushing his head against the top of the door frame. Then, before he had time to recover the wall slammed out from behind him sending him face first to the spot in the frame of the door where he was originally after the fire ball had hit him. Before he could even react the door came downward directly on his head slamming him to the ground. Seconds later it came downward again and crushed his chest again. Before the walls could hit him again, the other rangers were upon him and dragged him out of harm's way. The others had been too shocked at first to react but now they dragged him over to their next obstacle.
The waters were wild, too wild for the average person to swim across without drowning, but not a difficult task for the blue water ninja ranger. Tori just called upon her powers and began running across the water when suddenly a wave she had not yet spotted flew at her side slamming into her like a brick wall and dragging her under. The girl quickly pulled herself out and to shore, but she was indeed rattled.
"Okay that isn't going to work." Tori remarked as she coughed out some water.
"Any other ideas Tor?" Kaylee asked her older sister.
"I might" she replied.
"Mind letting us in on the plan?" Hunter intruded too impatient to wait.
"Oh hold your horses" Kaylee laughed pushing the crimson ranger back.
Tori stepped up to the other rangers and they all looked at her awaiting this brilliant plan she had devised.
"I'm gonna part the water" she told them.
"Moses says what now?" Dustin exclaimed confused.
"What, you don't think I can do it?" She looked to the boy and raised her eyebrows.
"N-n-no s-sure y-you c-c-ca-can" The boy stumbled backing away.
With that Tori grinned with satisfaction as she turned to the water and raised her arms concentrating as hard as she could. Slowly but surely the water parted ways leaving a big alley way right down the middle that the rangers could follow. The walls water also made good protection from the fireballs. The rangers came out the other side unscathed and looked up to see a platform leading to their final obstacle.
"Wow this looks easy" Blake chuckled being the first to reach the top of the stairs and fully witness the last obstacle. They were just as sensei had described them; they were enormous, they were red, and they were balls. Four of them to be exact, it seemed almost like a joke after everything they had been through so far today.
Blake took a running start and jumped across to the first ball he landed with one foot slipped and went face first into the next ball. After hitting his face he bounced flipped onto the third ball and then fell to the ground below. The navy ranger groaned as he got up and limped his way back to the platform.
"I think I may have figured this one out." Kaylee said as she began running. She jumped off the platform flying straight for the first ball and landing on her stomach. She simply bounced up and fell to the ground, and had to make the same walk of shame that Blake had made only moments ago.
"Guys this is all about weight placement" Cam started "You have to try as best as you can to land right in the middle of the top of the ball and then absorb the shock. If you keep doing that you should make it across."
"Sounds easy enough" Tori laughed attempting to follow Cam's advice. Unfortunately she was just off centre on the first ball and was thrown forward and landed on the fourth ball with her stomach she then bounced and fell face first in the dirt below.
"Dustin, your element sucks!" She whined as she pulled herself up off the ground.
Dustin was next to try the big red balls. He managed to make it to the second ball safely but on his attempt to jump to the third, he slipped and fell ass first to the ground.
"Okay let me try again" Blake said stepping up again. He skilfully made it to the second ball and prepared himself for the third. He made it to the third ball safely and began lining up his next jump. He jumped for the last ball; he nearly slipped but managed to keep his balance. And from there he jumped to the platform on the other side and turned to wait for the others. The others made their way across one by one with a few more mess-ups but nothing to serious. The rangers all slowly crept their way to the finish line where Leanne and their guinea pig sensei awaited them.
"Not a bad job today rangers" Leanne told them smirking evilly.
"Not bad!? I almost died, repeatedly!" Blake yelled.
"That's because you guys didn't work enough as a team. One of you guys did something did something stupid and we used that to show you that a something like that could be costly to all of you. This is why you guys need to work together better." Leanne explained.
"So next time Kaylee wants to stick a beehive down your pants we should help her?" Dustin asked confused.
"No that's not it," Leanne shook her head. "You should be there to warn her that it's a bad idea. Consult each other that way you guys will never have to be in as bad a situation as this." She repeated in better terms.
"Now rangers go home and get some rest you will need it." Sensei told the rangers. When they looked up at the clock the rangers realised it was already nine thirty at night and so they all made their way home never forgetting the lesson they learned that day.
"So do you think that was too cruel of us?" Leanne asked looking to sensei.
"No they needed to learn this plus it was quite funny" Sensei chuckled.
"That's so true," Leanne laughed. "Especially when Blake got sacked"
"Which time?" Sensei asked as he fell on his side laughing. Leanne fell to the floor holding her sides in laughter as in their heads they went over the greatest plot the two of them had ever come up with.