AN: Sorry this is so short guys, but it's more of a set up for the next story.

Not So Happy Hunting Ground

Why do these things always happen when I'm patrolling with Sky? Jack wondered as he slammed his fist into the face of the man attacking him, knocking him back far enough to flip over and leave him in a groaning heap on the floor. And why is it always me?

The day had started so well. Gruumm had been quiet and Jack was glad of the reprieve: with everything that had happened over the past two weeks, a little quiet was a godsend. After his brief time as a host to an alien parasite things had been awkward between him and Sky - not bad, just awkward - which wasn't too surprising, considering the thing had tried to kill Sky to protect its secret. While Sky knew better than anyone that it hadn't been Jack in control, things were still uncomfortable between them, part of the reason Cruger had assigned them so many patrols together in order to get them past it. Jack had to admit though, that the tactic seemed to be working, he and Sky slowly falling back into their familiar patterns of sniping at each other, the tension between them easing a little more with every day that passed.

Unfortunately for Jack's peace of mind, that wasn't the end of it, not even close, it only made things somewhat easier to deal with. He was haunted by nightmares almost every night, nightmares where he was forced to relive the moments he most wanted to forget, the moments where he'd slammed a knife into Sky's stomach and then left him to die on his bedroom floor. He'd woken up too many nights screaming from those dreams, and while he had a sneaking suspicion that Sky knew about his nightmares, their rooms not being that far apart and well within Sky's hearing range, he also knew Sky wouldn't bring it up unless he did, and he had no intention of doing that, not after the first night he'd had that dream and had desperately needed to hear Sky's voice to convince himself it had only been a dream. Sky had sounded more awake than he'd expected, so either he hadn't been asleep, had had nightmares of his own, or Jack had unintentionally woken him before he'd called. The conversation had been brief, but the tension that filled their interaction during the day had been absent and silent understanding had taken its place. The understanding had been too much for Jack to deal with, not while his guilt was still so raw, and after that he had been determined to deal with the dreams on his own, fighting down the compulsion to call Sky every time he jerked awake, mind full of images of his friend bleeding out all over the floor.

After his initial insistence that what had happened wasn't his fault, Sky hadn't pushed the point, letting Jack deal with it in his own way, unlike the rest of their well-meaning squad who firmly reiterated that it hadn't been his fault so often that Jack felt like screaming that they didn't know what they were talking about and how the hell would they know how he was feeling, anyway? Z was better at it than the other two, not bringing it up as often or being so insistent, but it was still too much, and he infinitely preferred Sky's silence on the subject.

This being the case, it was a topic they carefully avoided talking about when they had no choice but to interact with each other. Their patrols generally took place in silence, which wasn't all that different to how they used to be, except that Jack had stopped trying to encourage his 2IC to chat as they walked along the streets of New Tech City. Halfway round this particular patrol, Sky had stopped suddenly, his head snapping round so fast Jack was surprised it hadn't caused whiplash. "Oh no," Sky whispered, his whole body tensing.

"What?" Jack asked, quickly examining their surroundings for whatever had Sky so worried and coming up empty. "What's wrong?"

Sky looked at him uneasily. "Hunters," was all he said and Jack felt his heart sink. So much for quiet, he thought. This was so not what he needed right now.

"Where?" he said, not doubting Sky's statement for a moment.

Sky's head turned this way and that as he tried to pin down the direction, nostrils flaring slightly as he examined the air around him. He stopped a moment later, his gaze fixed on an alley to their right. "There," he replied firmly and Jack turned to look for himself. At first he couldn't see anything, but then three shapes emerged from the darkness, resolving into the figures of three men. Three heavily armed men.

Jack swallowed slightly, his eyes seemingly fixed on the old-style guns all three were holding, not to mention the knives strapped to their thighs. Knives… oh shit. He glanced sideways at Sky, who had gone noticeably pale and Jack had the sinking suspicion that that had less to do with the three men currently fanning out to surround them and more to do with the hardware they were packing. Jack knew he had no real idea how hard it had been for Sky to pick up his Deltamax Striker after what had happened, but he also knew that Sky had issues with sharp, pointy objects that he hadn't had before, and having to face the prospect of dealing with knife fighters would not be easy for him to do. That said, the blue ranger was standing his ground, not that Jack had expected any less. Sky would face his fears down, even if it killed him, which in this case it just might.

"Feel like introducing us?" he said lightly as he easily slid into a fighting stance, Sky doing the same at his back.

"I would, but they weren't big on introductions last time we met."

"Oh, more of the shoot and don't ask questions type?"

Sky nodded, never taking his eyes off the man in front of him, the one whose face was scarred from what looked like claw marks and who was stroking his gun lovingly, his thoughts on what he was planning to do with it written all over his face. Jack edged a little closer to Sky. No way was he letting this guy shoot his friend, not if he anything to say about it.

"We have a score to settle," said the man to Jack's right, hefting his gun in his hand. "And your little friend here isn't a part of it. He can leave if he wants."

Jack snorted in derision as Scar glared at Leader. "I'll take my chances," he replied anyway, stepping hard on Sky's foot before he could protest.

Leader inclined his head in acknowledgment. "So be it," was all he said before aiming the gun straight at Jack. Dodging quickly out the way, the red ranger rolled back up to his feet, wrist snapping out in an attempt to disarm the man. Apparently the other man hadn't expected his reflexes to be quite that fast because he was slow to react, but somehow managed to keep hold of the gun, much to Jack's irritation as he lashed out again, aiming a kick at the side of the man's head, which his opponent ducked away from.

The fight was brutal, in some ways more brutal than the ones against Gruumm's army, and it was an unwelcome change of pace. A quick glance behind him showed Sky in trouble, struggling to hold off his two opponents and that was when he punched Leader in the face and flipped him over, wondering why things like this always happened to him.

He shoved the non-scarred one out of the way in an ungainly rush that owed more to momentum than training, kicking his feet out from under him and sending the guy's knife skittering across the floor. The loud gun shot that rang out a moment later had him spinning round and he was incredibly relieved to find that Sky had dodged the bullet and dropped to the floor, his face even paler than it had been, his eyes wide with shock. Absently noting that the bullet looked like it was made of silver, Jack pulled out his blaster and blew the gun out of the guy's hand before he could get another shot off and he took no little satisfaction from seeing the disbelief on the other man's face as he cradled his wrist.

About to try and force a surrender, Jack was taken by surprise when he felt a foot connect with the back of his knees, sending him to the floor, and he mentally cursed his stupidity in forgetting the man behind him. He swallowed a little as the blond man aimed his gun squarely at his face, somehow he doubted this guy would be as generous as Katana about fighting an unarmed opponent. A shimmering blue shield flew over his head, slamming into the blond man with force enough to send him flying into a nearby wall and a moment later Sky was pulling Jack to his feet, the two of them falling into a ready stance again, back-to-back.

"This isn't going well," Jack muttered and Sky glared at him slightly.

"Really? Whatever gave you that idea?"

Their momentary reprieve was over as the words left Sky's mouth and Jack desperately tried to make his way back to Sky, their three adversaries being far too adept at separating them. He had the fleeting thought that maybe now would be a good time to call in the cavalry when a triumphant yell came from behind him and he spun round to find Sky in a heap on the floor, frozen at the sight of the knife being held over his head in the hand of the sadistically smiling Scar. Shrugging off Leader, who had somehow managed to regain his gun, Jack grabbed hold of the wrist holding it and fired it over Scar's head, causing the man to jerk round in surprise and shock.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Jack made his way over to Sky and pulled him to his feet, the paralysing fear apparently wearing off. "We need to go," he said urgently. "We're not winning this and we're not doing ourselves any favours by staying. We need to fall back."

Sky nodded immediately without even looking at him and that told Jack a lot about how this was affecting him. About to retreat, their avenue of escape was blocked by the bullet ringing out behind them, missing them by a hair's breadth and they froze momentarily before turning back round. After they'd done so, Jack wished fervently that they hadn't, as they found three guns aimed directly at them, with Scar idly tossing his knife in his other hand. Time seemed to slow down for Jack as fingers closed over triggers and as he was about to phase them both so the bullets would pass through them, Sky beat him to it, erecting a shield in front of them that the bullets smashed into before ricocheting off.

It was then, naturally, that their communicators went off and Z's frantic voice came over it, calling for back up. Jack and Sky exchanged worried glances. After this, they probably wouldn't be up for another protracted fight, but they couldn't take off now and leave these three behind. Now that the hunters knew they were SPD, Jack wasn't sure of the lengths they'd go to in order to take Sky down. "Sky's on his way," he said into his communicator, his eyes never leaving those of his second in command, "and I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Jack…" Sky started before Jack interrupted.

"I'll take care of these guys, you go help the others." As Sky opened his mouth to protest again, Jack cut him off. "Look, I'll catch up, okay? Now go!" He gave Sky a quick shove in the direction of escape and to his relief Sky took the hint after only the briefest flash of hesitation, grabbing his morpher out of its holster as he ran.

That left Jack alone with three pissed off hunters who had proved themselves more than capable of taking on two rangers and doing pretty well. Not good odds. Jack grinned a little recklessly. Who cared about the odds? He had the fleeting glance of Scar's arm moving, his gun tracking Sky as the blue ranger disappeared round the corner. With his blaster God knows where, Jack scooped up a empty can that some drunk had conveniently left on the floor and threw it as hard as he could, smiling in grim amusement as it collided with Scar's head, the shot that had been aimed at Sky going wide.

He threw himself back into the fight, not caring now about how dangerous the situation was. All that mattered was taking these guys down, nothing else was acceptable. He took more and more risks, knowing that he was leaving himself open but uncaring, and he had a moment of bleak satisfaction when he elbowed Scar hard in the face, feeling a little more pleased than he probably should at the sound of the guy's nose breaking.

Now that he didn't have to worry about Sky anymore Jack cut loose, letting his restraints go. All of the guilt and anger that he'd been bottling up came pouring out of him and he let it flow through him, moving with a lethal power that he'd never tapped into before. It worked though, as not too much longer all three hunters were lying in three separate piles on the floor. His fury abating slightly, Jack pulled his morpher out of its holster and switched it to judgement mode. It came as no surprise that the scanner found them guilty and it was with considerable satisfaction that he carded them. One - Leader was the first to go. Two - Blondie was second. Three… Jack swore softly as he turned to where Scar had been lying and now found only empty space. The man was gone.

Cursing under his breath Jack shook his head in frustration, he should have taken that one in first. He sighed and shook his head again. He didn't have time for this, his team needed him and needed him yesterday. Grabbing the cards off the floor he shoved them roughly into his jacket, then he scouted round quickly for his blaster - couldn't leave that lying around - and, sliding it back into its holster, he headed off for the next battle.

Back at the base, Jack made his verbal report then went straight to his room to collapse, the adrenaline that had kept him going finally wearing off. Fortunately, the others had taken Sky's brief 'We ran into some trouble of our own' as being Troobian-related trouble because they hadn't quizzed him over what had happened or questioned his (and Sky's) obvious exhaustion. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow and it was the first time in a fortnight that he slept without dreams. Maybe the fight had been exactly what he'd needed after all.