Chapter 2 – Winds Of Change
February 12 2003 – Storm Chargers
It was getting late in the afternoon when Rocky arrived at the entrance of Storm Chargers to pay a visit to an old friend. The extreme sports store had become popular in the last year after a change of ownership and it was now the place to shop for sports enthusiasts in the city. After his initial training session with the wind ninjas, Rocky hadn't returned to the Ninja Academy. He was still busy moving everything over from his former home in Angel Grove before he could teach his students. His initial assessment of the potential rangers was mixed. They clearly knew the basics but for whatever reason, they just weren't fulfilling their potential. Perhaps the ultimatum Sensei gave them to focus on their training would steer them down the right path.
Rocky pushed the door open and was surprised to see that the place was totally deserted. The store was scheduled to be open for another hour, it should be full of teenagers fresh out of school. Even the home theatre area was empty and that was the one place that he thought would be occupied, "Hello", he called out, "anyone here?"
"Sorry we're closed", a female voice called out from the back room. There was a loud crash followed by a fair amount of swearing that grabbed Rocky's attention and without a second thought, he dashed into the room.
Almost immediately he saw the probably, one of the motocross bikes had toppled over and had knocked a can of oil over the floor. The owner of the store, a red haired female a couple of years younger than Rocky stood with her hands on her hips and surveyed the damage, "Call me a traditionalist but I thought the oil was meant to go inside the bike", he joked.
The woman turned around, ready to shout at the intruder but her face softened when she saw it was the former red ranger, "Rocky DeSantos", she smiled, "what brings you to my humble store?"
"Well Kelly Harper", he wiggled his eyebrows as he used her full name, "I was in the neighbourhood and Kim asked me to check on her investment".
Kelly Harper had a rich ranger heritage, except she absolutely no idea about any of it. Her older cousin was Kimberly Hart, Olympic medal winning gymnast and the original pink ranger. Kelly was a few grades behind Kim and the rest of the original rangers and when she was in Junior High, she had been taken hostage by Goldar. She managed to use her cheerleading skills to distract her captors before being rescued by Kim and the other originals. She was a regular visitor to the Youth Center and had interacted with all of the early ranger teams and yet somehow, she had no idea about their identities.
Kelly and Kim had been pretty close growing up, her father was Kim's Mom's younger brother. During her parents' divorce, Kim would often spend hours with Kelly and her Uncle, just to escape the stressful atmosphere at home. The pair had drifted apart following Kim's move to Florida but she still remembered that Kelly's true passion wasn't cheerleading, it was motocross. Her father wouldn't allow her compete but Kelly had still gotten heavily involved in the management side after graduating High School. When she told Kim that she wanted to open her own store, the original pink ranger loaned her the money to buy out the original owners of Storm Chargers. That was about a year ago, not long after Kelly's twenty first birthday.
"Apart from spilling the stock and denting an expensive bike, Storm Chargers is doing alright", Kelly replied, "so you can tell my business partner that things are going great".
Rocky took a look around the empty store, "Really", he began, "shouldn't you have customers, or maybe some staff".
"I had to shut early", she sighed, "my only employee took off to some martial arts class and left me with a mountain of bikes to fix". She tossed an oily rag onto a workbench, "I'm going to kill Dustin next time I see him". Rocky smiled, he knew Dustin had a ninja class this afternoon, "I don't see what's so funny about this", Kelly added when she saw the smile on Rocky's face.
"Sorry private joke", he answered, "I met Dustin last week and he reminds me so much of Tommy Oliver".
"I don't remember Tommy being an air head like Dustin", Kelly commented on her cousin's former boyfriend, "forgetful yes but he never ran out during a shift". She paused for a moment and thought about Rocky's statement a little harder, "When did you meet Dustin?"
"Oh yeah that's the other reason I'm in Blue Bay", Rocky replied, "I'm going back to teaching martial arts and Dustin's going to be one of my students. I'll be taking over from his current teacher in a couple of weeks".
"Great, then perhaps you'll schedule classes at a more convenient time", Kelly gave him a fake sweet smile. "Since you're here and at a loose end, do you fancy helping me clean this place up?" Rocky was about to reply in the affirmative when his cell phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket and immediately his eyes widened. Cam had set up an emergency alert system in case someone attacked the Academy. He had just received the secret code warning him of trouble, "Something wrong?" Kelly asked.
"Yeah it's my real estate agent", he lied, "there's been a problem with the deposit. If it's not sorted then I can't get the keys off her today", He slowly backed out of the store, "If I can sort it quickly then I'll be back", he added and dashed out the room. Kelly sighed, looked down at the mess on the floor and wondered if she should've hired someone other than Dustin to work in the store.
Rocky sped out of the city as fast as he could but he was still about forty five minutes away from the Academy, even at top speed, "I really wish I could teleport right about now", he groaned as the countryside flashed past him. He tried to call Cam but there was no answer on the young genius's personal cell or the Academy's emergency number. He did consider dumping his truck and ninja streaking the rest of the way but there were no convenient spots to leave his vehicle.
Fortunately for Rocky there were no patrol cars on the road and he eventually reached the dirt track that led to the Wind Ninja Academy. Skidding to a halt next to the waterfall, Rocky jumped out of his truck and immediately he felt like something was wrong. He was tuned into his inner ninja as well as Sensei Watanabe but Rocky could sense something dark in the atmosphere. As he approached the waterfall he was expecting to be greeted by the guards but this time no one arrived.
Getting more nervous by the minute, he crossed through the portal only to find his worst fears confirmed. Smoke was billowing out from the Academy building, giving the air a thick and hazy texture. The grass was burned and the Academy flags were lying in tatters on the floor. Rocky noticed a few bodies on the ground and ran up to the one nearest to him. The colour of his uniform told him that they were a fellow air ninja. Rocky gently rolled them over but he could tell that this ninja was dead. His pupils were fixed and dilated, he wasn't breathing and there was no pulse. Rocky bowed his head before continuing the grim task of trying to locate any more survivors.
A couple of things soon became apparent to Rocky. Everyone he had checked so far were dead, however, there weren't as many bodies as there were students at the Academy. Today was a general training session so everyone should have been in attendance so unless there were more bodies inside the burning buildings, most of the ninjas had been able to get away. At least that's what Rocky was hoping anyway.
As he finished checking the bodies, Rocky noticed three figures moving towards the location of Ninja Ops. He crouched down low in case it was the ones who attacked the Academy but he didn't need to worry, "They're Power Rangers", Rocky muttered when he noticed their outfits. He didn't know exactly what the new uniforms were meant to look like but each of them bore the crest of an element taught at the school.
The new Power Rangers disappeared inside and Rocky gave them a few minutes before heading over to Ninja Ops. When he got to the sealed door, he remembered that it had taken Cam's palm print to open it up. Since he couldn't see a call button, Rocky placed his palm print on the scanner more in hope than anything. To his surprise the door opened, "Huh, guess my name's on the list", he commented.
He moved as silently down the stairs as he could until he could hear some voices. He stopped at the mouth of the entrance and could see the three rangers lined up but without their helmets. He could see Cam but there was no sign of Sensei Watanabe. As the scroll had predicted, the power had chosen Shane, Dustin and Tori as the latest team. He then heard a loud groan from Cam as the teens started playing around with their morphers. Taking that as his cue, he stepped out of the shadows and into the room, "Sorry to burst in like this", the teens immediately spun around, "but I got the call", Rocky flashed his cell phone.
"Sensei DeSantos", Shane said in surprise, "I thought everyone was gone".
"Fortunately I wasn't teaching today", he replied, "what the hell happened here?"
"Lothor", Tori sighed, "he attacked the school and took most of the student's prisoner", she paused and took a deep breath, "some weren't so lucky".
"I noticed", Rocky said solemnly, "I'm sorry for the loss of your friends".
"Cheers dude", Dustin replied with a muted tone, "but this is good news, we've got another ninja to help us fight Lothor".
"Not just any ninja either", Rocky looked around, the voice belongs to Sensei Watanabe but he couldn't see where the man was. It was then that Shane pointed to a guinea pig that was standing on a nearby table.
"Kanoi?" Rocky asked in confusion, "there's something different about you".
"My fight with Lothor has left me stuck in this form", Kanoi replied, "unfortunately being a guinea pig does limit me somewhat", he paused when Cam snorted from his position at the computer, "so you will have to assist me in training your fellow rangers".
"Did you just say fellow ranger?" Dustin asked. Rocky nodded and pulled out his Power Morpher, complete with his ninja power coin in the middle, "Dude this is awesome", he slapped Shane on the shoulder, "see Power Rangers are totally real".
"Who told you they weren't", Rocky frowned and Dustin pointed to his new team mates, "you about two hours away from Angel Grove, the home of the Power Rangers".
"That was years ago", Shane began, "we were just kids and just thought it was some weird TV show".
"It was less than five years ago that a huge invasion fleet nearly flattened California", Rocky pinched the bridge of his nose, "I mean I'm only twenty four, not hundred and four". He shook his head and added, "That'll be lesson one, learn your ranger history. Fortunately there's an educational video that you can watch".
"Man, homework already", Dustin grumbled.
"I think that's enough for today", Kanoi interjected, "you three go home and rest, who knows when Lothor will attack again". The three new rangers nodded and hurried up the stairs with a very excited Dustin leading the way, "I don't think it's sunk in for them yet", Kanoi added once they had left, "the deaths of their fellow students that is".
"Either that or they have short attention spans", Rocky added, "I'll help you bury the deceased, I should be able to get some assistance from Hexagon".
"So you're officially going to be our watcher then?" Cam asked.
Rocky nodded, "I don't care what they say, they killed my fellow ninja's, I'm not leaving here until Lothor's been dealt with".
"Thank you Rocky", Kanoi replied, "now we should start on the burial of our fallen warriors, the sun will be down soon". Rocky and Cam both agreed and helped Sensei Watanabe outside to see what they could salvage of the Academy. Lothor had fired the first shot in this battle and he was clearly not opposed to using lethal force. The trio knew that the dark ninja would soon turn his attention to other ninja's worldwide but unfortunately, they had no way to warn them. Due to their frosty relationship and rivalry with the Thunder Ninja Academy, they didn't even know where they were based. All they could do was hope that they got off a little better than their own school did.