Sorry for the delay! had been having issues lately.
Reviews are much appreciated.
Love and Gratitude to the Constellations Team: Camille and Mara (beta reading), Navot (battle scenes advisor, storytelling), Tami (characterisation, discussion pal) and Roie (who made this possible).
Chapter 2: In the Shadows
Lothor hollered in anguish as Mad Magnet exploded, and banished the monitor with a wave of his hand. Her uncle's temper was not the first of Kapri's worries, though. "How come we're still stuck?" she demanded.
"Don't you mean 'stuck up'?" sniggered Choobo.
Kapri shot him what she hoped was a death glare, and made a mental note to be meaner than usual to him later; but that, too, did not rate the top of her priority list. "Uncle, I know you're in kind of a crabby mood right now," she continued, "but if you could just give us some spell, or a potion…"
"Or some nail polish remover," supplied Marah helpfully.
"Silence!" roared Lothor. "Time has come to pump up the volume on the Power Rangers!"
Power surged in the room, triggering small explosions that made the still-joined girls, Zurgane and Choobo cower. The Power concentrated itself into two bolts of lightning, which landed in the hallway and materialized into two crouching figures. The lights flashed twice more as Thunder rumbled in the throne room.
Marah made a long, appreciate sound. Kapri was inclined to agree.
Lothor smiled. "And this time, no one will stop me!"
The two morphed figures rose. They strode forward, positioning themselves right in front of Lothor. The taller of the two, his uniform a dark shade of red, crossed his arms over his chest; the shorter one, in dark blue, positioned himself at a slight angle to his brother.
Even after ten days of cohabitation, Kapri was yet to see those two not expecting a fight, not constantly watching each other's backs. The confidence the Wind Rangers exuded when morphed had nothing on those two. For the first time, Kapri feared her uncle's plan.
"The Winds are going down," said the older of the brothers, as if echoing her thoughts. "It's only a matter of time."
"There are three of them and two of you," huffed Zurgane. "Don't be so arrogant."
The taller one inclined his chin slightly at Zurgane, a gesture that was probably shorthand for a glare. "It will be a pleasure to disappoint you," he said, his voice low enough to be menacing and accented enough to be taunting.
He's got the evil thing down pat, thought Kapri.
"Don't you want to explore those brand-new powers of yours first?" suggested Lothor.
The blatant favoritism made Kapri want to gag.
"We know all we need to know," said the younger of the two.
"You waited eight years," said Lothor, "What are a few more days?"
"Uh, uncle?" interrupted Kapri. This could go on for days, knowing Hunter's stubbornness, and she so wasn't going to wait that long. "Could you please help us out, here?"
The blast of Ninja energy singed her hair, but also knocked her and her sister apart. Finally.
"Oh, my hair is ruined!" complained Marah from where she landed on her butt. She touched her fingers to her cheek, and her eyes widened in horror as she examined them. "I have soot on my face!"
"Get out of my face!" said Lothor. "Go to your rooms! I have business to attend to."
"Yes, uncle," said Kapri, picking up her sister and steering her away. Favoritism sucks, she thought as she glanced back and saw her uncle advance at the two Earth boys with a smile. It sucks big time.
She was alone in the tech bay. Or so she thought.
"What are you doing?"
Kapri whirled around, dropping the wrench in surprise. The elder of the two boys stood there, half in shadow, regarding her coolly.
"Don't sneak up on me like that!" she snapped. "And it's none of your business what I'm doing."
"You're only going to get into trouble again."
"What do you care?"
"I don't," he said. He uncrossed his arms and began circling her slowly. "I like to know what going on, that's all."
"You're going to find out just like everybody else."
"Oh?" His lips twisted, but he didn't smile, and didn't stop moving, either. "Uncle dear doesn't know, either?"
"You keep my uncle out of this!" She tried to push him away, but he sidestepped her easily. "And get out of my face! Don't you have training to do or something?"
"Don't worry, I won't say a thing to Lothor," he said. Then the bastard had the nerve to smile at her, a small, cold smile. "It'd be much more fun this way." Then he stepped back and disappeared, leaving a shaking Kapri alone in the shop.
She looked down at the device she was building. She had never been great with mechanics - Marah was better than her; but explaining what she wanted built to her sister would be hell, and Kapri would rather build it herself.
She wasn't supposed to launch a mission of her own, without asking Lothor for advice – not to mention permission. But she really wanted to prove that she could come up with her own ideas, and asking for permission would spoil the point she was trying to make. She had to prove that she was good enough on her own.
Elements, but she hated those two boys. The elder one, particularly, seemed to have made it a point to bug the life out of her, appearing from the shadows with snide comments – though it was the younger brother, younger than Marah, even, that had the tongue that could burn holes in metal.
She hated them: they were just as bad as the Wind Rangers, overconfident jerks who never had to fight for anything, least of all for their place in this world. She didn't think the Earth boys Lothor picked belonged on the crew, but they had morphers, and that seemed to be all that everyone cared about; everyone except her.
She picked up her wrench and returned to her work, firmly pushing away the doubts.
"What does it matter to you
When you got a job to do
You got to do it well
You got to give the other fella hell"
- "Live and Let Die", Guns 'n Roses
"Oh, let's clone him!" begged Marah excitedly.
Kapri rolled her eyes. She and Marah were at the beach, hiding behind some convenient rocks and watching their target through Kapri's binoculars: the target being the blue Ranger, not the red. Even though Kapri really wouldn't mind a red Ranger lookalike who would do her bidding.
"Stick to the plan, Marah: it's gotta be blue," she sternly reminded her sister – and herself. The blue Ranger was the smartest of the lot on any given day. She was bound to notice if one of her teammates was switched. The boys, though, were more gullible, more likely to fall to the ploy. Or so Kapri hoped; she had spent a lot of time thinking this one up, and she really didn't want it to fail.
Or rather, to fail too horribly.
"I know," said Marah, shifting position and looking at her sister. "Just look at her, so perky and athletic. I just want to bury her up to her neck in sand."
"First you have to learn how to dig a hole," said Kapri, and tried hard not to roll her eyes at Marah's lost expression. Elements, the girl is even more stupid than those Rangers! Kapri turned, raising the binoculars again.
"Hey, let me see!" said Marah, reaching for the binoculars.
Kapri slapped her hand away. "Never, ever grab. Are we clear?"
"Sorry," said Marah, pouting.
Kapri rolled her eyes and resumed her watch. "Just remember who's running things around here, Marah, and nobody gets hurt." It was a low blow, really, but it wasn't like there was any other kind where Marah was involved. The girl was just asking to be mocked, ridiculed and generally made fun of. Besides, this plan was all Kapri's. She only dragged Marah around to keep her under Kapri's sight and make sure she didn't accidentally botch up the plan. Marah herself was disgustingly lucky, but that did not mean that she could not botch up other people's chances.
Kapri really wanted this plan to succeed. It had taken her days of watching to think up a bait, and several more days to get everything else set up. It was a good plan. Kapri knew her history. Clone-insertions had a pretty good track record, unlike evil-Ranger ploys. Her upper lip curled. Evil-Ranger ploys almost always backfired and despite what her uncle was saying, that was an evil-Ranger ploy he was running with the Thunder Rangers. He could claim all he wanted that he was not attempting to subvert the two boys, but was rather merely manipulating them, but Kapri was too smart to fall for that. He was turning the boys' anger into hate, and hate had a way of burning away everything else in a person.
The blue Ranger's van pulled away.
"Let's go, Marah," said Kapri, getting up and dusting away the sand that stuck to her. "We've got a shooting site to prepare."
Up on one of the cliffs, Hunter and Blake stood, morphed, and watched Marah and Kapri prepare the supposed shooting site.
"Remind me why we're here?" asked Blake.
"To watch."
"You're not thinking about borrowing ideas from these two, are you?" asked Blake skeptically.
"Of course not. Everything they do, we shouldn't do. Which is why we're here, watching them."
"With you, bro," said Blake, and added: "It's not like we don't know what's going to happen. Ten bucks they don't even capture her."
"Ten bucks?" Hunter seemed amused. "How about loser makes dinner?"
"Didn't know you can cook," said Blake pointedly.
"Got me there. How about loser grooms both bikes tonight?"
"Deal," said Blake. "You know," he continued, "Lothor was wrong about those two. There is something they're good for."
"Really?" asked Hunter.
"Aren't you going to ask what for?"
"What for?"
"Entertainment value."
Hunter snorted, imagining the deadpan expression his brother must have had behind the visor. "And you asked why we're watching them."
The lone figure coming up the path distracted them from their argument, returning their thoughts to a more serious track.
"This waiting is getting old," growled Blake.
"Chill," replied Hunter. "We have to do this right."
"With you, bro."
"And we have the blue Ranger trapped in this box, and the clone is on her way to their headquarters right now!" finished Kapri. She pointed to the monitor, where the Storm Chargers van was making its way with much-confused yellow and red Rangers and an equally short-tempered clone. The van screeched into a halt. There, standing in front of the van, was a seriously pissed off blue Ranger.
"But…" said Kapri, gesturing helplessly.
Marah opened the box. "She's not here," she announced needlessly.
"Well, duh, she's out there!" said Choobo. He pointed at the monitor, where the original and the clone were shown dueling.
"Yeah, but she was supposed to be in here," said Kapri. How the hell did this happen? She thought. The brat wasn't supposed to escape!
"Maybe she escaped?" asked Marah.
Kapri punched her sister's shoulder, hard.
"Of course she escaped!" roared Lothor. "I'd call you two incompetent, but that would be restating the obvious. Zurgane!"
The general approached. "Yes, sir?"
"I hope you have something constructive to contribute, Zurgane."
"I have a contingency plan, sir. I'll get on it right away." He bowed and left.
"You two!" Lothor turned on his heels and rounded on the girls, who were venting their frustration on Choobo. "Which of you came up with this half-minded plan?"
My plan is not half minded! Thought Kapri angrily. Lucky for her, Marah spoke first.
"We did it together, uncle," she said brightly. "And it almost worked!"
"Keyword being almost," pointed Lothor. "Oh no, you are not going anywhere. You're going to stay right here and watch Zurgane's alien of the week get trampled."
"Shiny!" said Marah.
Kapri felt like painfully murdering someone.
Kapri was fast discovering the sad truths of fighting Power Rangers. They could find a way out of the tightest of spots, for one thing. They also had a way of turning everything to their favor, and they were insanely capable of bouncing back from virtually anything within a ridiculously short time frame.
"Hold my hair, I'm gonna puke," she muttered, watching the blue Ranger flirt shyly with the surfer guy.
"I think it's kinda cute," said Marah. "I wish I could meet a cute guy like that."
"Any guy you're going to meet is going to have, like, eight legs and an exoskeleton," retorted Kapri. Marah, expectedly, rose to the bait and asked: "Why?"
"Because you're ugly," said Kapri, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Marah hurt so easily, and forgot about it so quickly, that she was too tempting a punching bag for Kapri to ignore; especially when Kapri really needed to vent, and Choobo was avoiding her studiously.
"I'm really beautiful!" protested Marah.
"Kinda plain," said Kapri, feeling guilty pleasure as tears welled up in Marah's eyes.
"No, I'm not!" she protested.
Lothor coughed loudly behind them, and both girls startled. "You have any idea of the consequences of your stupidity?" he demanded. "Can you even begin to comprehend how far back your little romp on the beach almost set my master plan?"
"What's the furthest back there is?" asked Marah curiously.
Unlike Marah, Kapri didn't think it even remotely amusing; but then again, Kapri couldn't get away with anything the way Marah usually did.
"Both of you go to your rooms!" ordered Lothor angrily. "While I can think of a punishment."
Marah, of course, ran off to her room in tears; Kapri hung back, lurking behind a bulkhead. Her suspicions proved correct as two figures stepped from the shadows.
"Lucky for you, we're ready to go," said the taller of the two, crossing his arms on his chest. "All the pieces are in place."
The other one stepped forward, and Kapri could almost see him smiling behind that damn face plate as he said: "Let the games begin!"
The game has already started, she thought as she retreated to her room, and I'm losing.
