Title: Power Rangers NSDT – Fate's Plan

Summary: When a mysterious girl shows up and kidnaps Tori, as well as Kira, the two Rangers teams they belong two are dragged along to rescue them and the girls unlock the secret the their past, and a prophecy that hangs the fate of the planet in the balance.

Disclaimer: Any and all Power Ranger characters now belong to Disney and some other folk, not me. So I'm not cashing in on this deal, sadly. The villains and the storyline are totally mine though. :)


Chapter Three: OF MONSTERS AND ICICLES AND TRUTHS

"She's coming over by the way," Ethan whispered.

"I don't care," Conner muttered. He suddenly felt the weight lift from the bench beside him and shuffling of feet before someone walked off and weight was reapplied to the seat beside him – but much lighter.

"Hi Conner," Kira said slowly.

"Hi," he spat at the grass that he could see at his feet as his forehead still rested against the table.

"What's your damage?" she asked. Although the question could be taken with a tone of annoyance, hers was filled with worry. Even with that knowledge, he didn't look up. She frowned before placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Con, what's wrong, you've looked mopey since we got here," Kira patted his shoulder as she spoke, trying to get his attention.

"Oh, well it's nice of you to finally notice," Conner scoffed, looking up. Kira sat close to him on the picnic bench and Ethan had wandered over to where Eric sat, strumming a few chords he had been taught. "Thought you were to busy playing guitar and flirting with my brother to remember your friends."

"Excuse me?" Kira narrowed here eyes slightly. "I was not flirting with your brother, I was teaching him a song and singing like I always do every Friday afternoon when I come here."

"Well from here, it looked different," Conner muttered.

"Conner, seriously, what's eating you?" Kira relaxed her tone of voice a little and moved her hand from his shoulder to his wrist.

"Nothing," Conner grumbled, shrugging her hand off. "Just go back to playing guitar with my brother."

She sighed and tapped his arm, motioning towards her guitar with her head. "Will your favorite song make you feel better?"

"I believe you just played it a few minutes ago for Eric," Conner pointed out sourly. "No reason to repeat Freak You Out again."

"Ok…," his anger had visibly gotten to her this time, as all her attempts to cheer him up were failing so far.

"Just go back to spending time with your new greatest friend," the former Red Ranger spat, plopping his hands on the table before him and tracing the wood lines there.

"Why do you put it like that?" Kira asked, frowning.

"Because, Eric's only been here a few hours and you act like you've known each other for years," Conner pointed out. "He shows up at Cyberspace randomly, no questions asked, and you sudden go all friendly, snapping at me for saying anything remotely mean to my brother, as if I was suddenly fish food with an attitude."

"Conner," Kira said softly, placing one of her hands on his and making him look at her. "I was just trying to make Eric feel welcome, since you seemed to be on a bit of bad terms with him all of a sudden. But if…if you think I've suddenly gone and made him the closest of friends, you're wrong."

"I am?" Conner frowned, noting out of the corner of his eye both her hand on his, and the smirks Ethan and Eric were shooting their way.

"Yes," Kira smiled, laughing sweetly. "You and Ethan, you guys are my closest friends, I'd never just randomly replace you. I'd never replace you guys; you're the best. And besides Conner, a best friend doesn't change in the blink of an eye, and even if Eric's looks just like you and acts like you, he's not my best friend…you are. I've known you for years…albeit that elementary years and high school until becoming Rangers, you didn't know I existed but hey, that's a different matter now. So you don't have to hate your brother just because you think he's replaced you as my best friend, ok?"

"You still don't get it do you?" Conner laughed darkly. Kira frowned – after all that, something was still wrong? God, he was worse than her cousin who got so moody on Valentine's Day if she didn't have a boyfriend.

"Get what?" she asked.

"I'm not being a jerk to my brother just because he's suddenly like your best friend Kira, god, I thought it was obvious that I'm only doing this because--"

CRACK!!

Whatever Conner had been about to tell her, it was interrupted as several figured suddenly ported into the park around them, causing the people to start panicking and run.

They weren't completely human, that much was obvious, because although their bodies were human-shaped and cloaked in dark robes, their heads were those of animals; large, ferocious, slightly mutated and dangerous-looking animals. There were snakes and all types of lizards, lions and other fearsome cats, and even one that looked like a bug.

In the center of them all stood a girl who looked a little taller than Kira, with chin-length blonde hair that was curly. Her hazel eyes scanned the three of them up and down, and were coated over with a layer of darkness, although the former rangers couldn't tell why. She wore form-fitting black robes like the monsters around her, but hers had a pink belt that resembled that of a ninja belt.

"What the heck?" Conner frowned as he and the other three got to their feet, watching the monsters around them. Everyone in the park had quickly left, save them, because the monsters had formed a ring around them, the blonde girl at the head.

"What are those things?" Eric grimaced as he and Ethan slowly edged closer to where Conner and Kira now stood in the open.

"They are called the Faeli," the blonde spoke calmly as she took a step towards the group. The animal-men shuffled a bit but didn't move much. "They are my master's pets. Do you like them?"

The three former Rangers and Eric exchanged glances, raising their eyebrows.

"Who are you and what do you want with us?" Conner demanded. It may have been a few years since they'd no longer been a Power Ranger team, but he still could pick up his leader-tone when he needed to.

"My name is Allison," she smirked. "And as for my purpose with you all, the pets need to play."

At this, the monsters all suddenly rushed forward, screaming and clawing and snarling. The four teens suddenly separated, and monsters followed them in equal groups.

"We can't use our powers to fight them Con, what about Eric?" Kira yelled to him as she did her best to parry and dodge.

"Eric's fine, he can handle himself!" Conner yelled, physically engaging battle with the monsters using his old fighting skills. While dodging again, Kira noticed Ethan had fighting as well and Eric was using fighting skills like theirs to attack the monsters before him.

Kira took this as a sign it was safe to let Eric know they could literally kick butt and flipped backwards over a monster, kicking it in the back and sending it flying forward into another. She turned around quickly, bringing her leg up to kick the large lizard-headed man behind her in the side of the head, knocking him out cold.

They all went on like this for a while, but it seemed that the monsters felt no pain, for every time they got knocked down; they'd get right back up and into battle.

Suddenly, all the monsters Kira was fighting backed off, creating a small circle around her as the blonde named Allison walked into the middle before her, smirking.

"You all stay there, she's mine," Allison told the monsters. "Plans are for this one."

"Plans?" Kira frowned as she and Allison began to circle one another. "I thought you said you were after us because the monsters wanted a party?"

"All of you yes, but you in particular are another matter Kira," Allison smiled and Kira gasped, stopping in her tracks and staring at her wide-eyed.

"How…how do you know my name?" she asked.

"I told you already, the master has plans for you," Allison grinned mischievously before rushing forward, her hands glowing pale blue.

Kira dodged her opponent's fist only to find the other rushing to meet her stomach. Instead of being thrown back, she felt a sudden cold in the air and all through her. She looked down and gasped as she saw that Allison's hands weren't just glowing pale blue, they were covered in a layer of Ice.

The ice was already moving onto Kira's stomach and wrapping around her, heading to freeze her body. Kira tried to wriggle free but was much too cold, and Allison had stepped on her foot, causing more ice to form there and freeze her foot solid.

"What…what's going on…s-stop!" Kira choked out as her breath caught – the ice was COLD!

Allison stood up straight, grinning as the ice continued to move up and down Kira's body, freezing her. Her stomach was completely frozen, as were both her feet and a bit of her legs. Kira glanced wildly for the others as she could still hear the sounds of fighting but could not see past the circle of monsters.

"Guys help!" she called out. "Guys!"

"Now, now sissy, this is between us," Allison smirked. "It's our family business not theirs."

"Sissy? F-Family?" Kira chattered her teeth, frowning. "What are y-you talking a-about?"

"All in good time sissy," Allison laughed as she stepped closer again. "Now, just relax and let the power of the ice immobilize you, then I'll take you to master and he'll explain everything like he did for me."

"N-No!" Kira yelled, trying to keep moving her body so heat would keep around and stop her from freezing over entirely.

"It's pointless to fight it Kira," Allison mocked as she circled the helpless former Yellow Ranger. "In a matter of moments, my ice will have covered you in a protective isolation shell and then, we can port out of here and leave your little friends behind."

Ignoring her mocking tone and teasing words, Kira called out again. "Guys! Help!"

"They can't hear or see you, the Faeli are fighting them and these ones here have created a circle wall to hide you," Allison laughed. "It's pointless. And besides, your process is almost complete."

Now the ice has covered nearly her whole body except her head and arms. It was so cold that everything hurt, and the more she tried to move, the more it hurt. With depression Kira felt her throat with her hands and knew that she wouldn't be able to use her Ptera Scream to get out of this, since her neck was now entirely frozen as well.

But that didn't mean it was over.

"Guys! Help!" she croaked as tears were now pouring down her face from both the cold pain and the fear of what was going to happen to her.

With one last attempt as she felt her hands tingle now that the ice had reached them, she took a sharp and painful breath, opening her mouth to yell as loud as she could through the tears and the pain. "Conner!"

Despite the battle and the fact that Kira's voice was nearly gone, Conner heard her and his head whipped around to where the monsters were grouped in a circle. He kicked away the two monsters he was fighting and glanced at his brother, who had done the same.

"Eric!" he yelled, and as his brother turned to face him, Conner pointed to the monsters that had been fighting them as they moved to block the path to Kira.

"Got it!" Eric nodded. He clapped his hands together in the direction of the ground at his feet and a shockwave rippled towards the monsters, ripping up like a wall of dirt as it went. It crashed into them and sent them all sprawling to the ground.

Conner took this as his cue and ran towards the circle of monsters, kicking his super speed powers into operation. He zoomed around and around the circle as fast as his powers would allow, smirking as he did. He was determined to give it his all, since Kira had called to him and had sounded in pain, something he was extremely worried about.

Because of the speed he was running at, he had created a tornado around the circle, one that sucked the monsters into it and spit them back out, causing them to fall like rain around and onto the ground with the ones Eric had hit.

Conner skidded to a stop, huffing and puffing, and noticed with a smirk that only Kira and Allison were left. His smirk immediately faded when he saw that Kira was completely frozen, and it looked like she had been crying before she had frozen, since her face still looked like it.

"Kira!" he yelled, running towards her.

Allison groaned and shot a beam of ice towards his feet, but he jumped over it with ease, kicking into super speed again and sliding past her, grabbing her feet as he did and twirling her onto the ground behind him.

He heard her curse along with a sickening crunch but made no move to look, he ran over to Kira, and his face fell immediately. "Kira? Kira!" Conner pleaded, placing his hands on her utterly frozen shoulders. He recoiled at the cold, his fingers nearly sticking to the icy surface.

He rounded on Allison, who was now on her feet, an amulet glowing in her hands as were all the monsters lying on the ground around them.

"What did you do to her?" Conner yelled.

"Froze her, what's it look like?" Allison snorted with insulting laughter. "Anyway, looks like we won't be able to leave with sissy after all. Stupid meddling boys, let's go Faeli!"

CRACK!!

Even with Conner's super speed, he couldn't catch her arm before she and all the monsters teleported away, leaving only the three boys and the frozen Kira in the deserted park. Conner cursed loudly and turned around to face Kira as his face fell again. Eric and Ethan came up beside him.

"Dude what…what happened to her?" Ethan asked, poking Kira's frozen arm.

"Allison could generate and control Ice…," Conner muttered, whacking Ethan's hand away. "She did this."

"What do we do?" Ethan frowned. He looked towards the sun, which was now halfway over the horizon as it was setting.

"Do we bring her to see Dr. O? How do we unfreeze her?" he asked the twins.

"Conner can do it," Eric pointed out and both his twin and the shorter computer-geek looked at him questioningly. "When you move at super speeds, it creates friction which causes heat right?"

"Yeah…," Conner nodded slowly. His brother's idea then clicked in his mind and Conner shook his head vigorously. "No way Eric!"

"Well I think it's our only choice at this point bro," Eric pointed out.

"Wait, what's he think you should do?" Ethan inquired, completely lost.

"I could defrost her if I created enough friction and heat by using my super speed…," Conner trailed off.

"So, that would work wouldn't it…I mean, all you'd have to do is…oh…," Ethan slowed and his confused expression quickly changed into a smirk. "You'd have to be really close to her, like in a really tight bear hug."

"Which is violating Kira's space bubble, and I got a bad feeling that if she finds out, she'll get mad at me," Conner groaned.

"Conner I hate to say this but one – do you have a choice?" Eric laughed. "And two – you guys are like best friends anyway, hugging shouldn't be a problem."

"Fine, but if she does get mad I invaded her bubble, I'm foisting the blame on you Eric," Conner muttered, turning to Kira. "Sorry Kir."

He stepped forward and pulled her frozen body into a hug, gasping a little at the cold touch. He began moving them on the spot at super speeds and smiled as the blue ice heated up, turning a bit red.

Soon and quite quickly, it melted away until Conner stopped and was left with a normal Kira, who was unsteady in his arms and looked up at him with tear-stained eyes.

"Conner?" she mumbled, her senses coming back to her. She looked at how close they were, since she was pressed up against him and narrowed her eyes. "What are you doing?"

"You were frozen remember?" Conner asked, cautiously letting her go. "You were fighting Allison and she ended up freezing you and you called me for help."

"Oh…right…," Kira nodded slowly, heat rising in her cheeks as she remembered that with her last breaths before completely freezing over, she had indeed called for help. But instead of calling to the guys as she had done before, she had just yelled his name as loud as she could.

"So he fought his way over to you and kicked Allison away, who warped off with all her little freaky buddies and then he unfroze you with super speed," Eric grinned and when Conner went to mention Eric had helped too, he kicked him lightly. "And now we're here."

"Uh…oh…right…well…," Kira stammered, something she wasn't used to doing and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Conner in a hug. "Thanks."

"Oh…you're welcome," Conner stated, a smile slowly creeping to his lips as he held her.

"Hey Eric," Ethan began, pretty much killing the quiet moment as Kira let go and backed up to partake in the conversation (this made Conner curse Ethan mentally). "Back there during the fight, was it just me, or did I see you manipulate that ground to push those monsters out of your way?"

Eric nodded and Kira's eyes widened.

"Wait a minute, does that mean you have Earth Manipulation?" she asked in awe, staring at him. Conner rolled his eyes.

"Yeppers," Eric beamed. Both Ethan and Kira turned to look at Conner.

"How come you didn't tell us?" they asked in unison.

"Uh…I think I told you…didn't I?" he inquired and they shook their heads.

"You were too busy hating on him," Ethan grinned knowingly, causing Conner to hit him.

"Oh…well, I did mention he went to the Ninja School in Blue Bay Harbor right?" he added.

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Kira snapped her fingers, looking at Eric again. "So that's the element you train in?"

"Yep," he nodded.

"Wait…," Kira hesitated a moment before asking. "Do you know anyone by the name of Tori Hanson? Or Blake Bradley? Or Hunter Bradley? Or Dustin Brooks? Or--"

"Dustin, Shane, Tori, Blake, Hunter and Cam graduated the year I joined. Tori's teaching my friend Tally with Water Manipulation, Cam's headmaster and teaches the way of the Samurai. They're the only two left at the school, and I only met the others once, but they were awesome!" Eric laughed. "They used to be the Power Rangers like you guys!"

"You knew we were Power Rangers?" Ethan frowned.

"Yeah, Conner told me," Eric grinned and Conner whacked his brother upside the head.

"Conner, you know that's supposed to be a secret!" Kira yelled, making it Conner's turn to be whacked.

"Hey, he already suspected it anyway since he knew the Wind Rangers!" Conner protested. "Not my fault my twin's perceptive like me."

"Since when are you perceptive?" Ethan asked, smiling.

"Since when does he know how to use the word perceptive?" Kira laughed.

"Nice," Conner laughed as well, shaking his head. "Anyway, it's getting dark; we should head back to Hayley's Cyberspace. Besides, that fight worked my appetite up."

"Sounds good to me," Eric agreed and so Kira grabbed her guitar and the four teens were off.