Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters

Author's Notes: I'm sorry for the long wait, but my writing process has been blocked, lately. Must be all those papers I had to write for this semester (laughs).

This was rather hard to write because I wanted Gia and Dustin to have tools used by more professional ninjas, but I had to make sure to choose weapons that would be acceptable if they appeared on the show.

Chapter 3: Ninjas in action

Noah, Jake, Emma, and Orion continued fighting the evil Flowery Squad using their Legendary Modes, but were easily outmatched by their opponents. And the length of being in Legendary Mode this long was beginning to take a toll on them.

Now the rangers were exhausted and growing desperate as the Ninja squad crept closer.

"Guys, we can't win." Jake wheezed as he de-morphed.

The others did as well, and Jake sank to his knees in exhaustion.

"Now to finish you pathetic Rangers off!" The Blue Ninja sneered.

The Five Ninjas raised their sabers at the Rangers direction. They fired a massive blast that would have incinerated the rangers. Suddenly, an unseen wave of water rolled in front of the Rangers and blocked the attack.

"What?" The Blue Ninja gasped as she and her comrades stepped forward in confusion.

"Rangers, I'll hold them off." A rather distorted voice echoed through the forest. "Now run!"

At that moment, a blurry bluish-white figure appeared and slashed the ninjas several times, engulfing them in smoke.

Jake and Emma stood in awe, befuddled about what just happened.

"Guys, let's go!" Orion urged.

Jake and Emma nodded as they turned around and followed Orion and Noah into the forest.

The ninjas emerged as the smoke cleared, learning their targets had escaped. And at inconvenient time too, as the sun was now setting.

"Know this, rangers." The Blue Ninja called. "You can run all you like, but you will never escape this forest."

Dustin's camp

Dustin pulled out his backpack and unloaded the many parcels inside it.

Meanwhile, Marah was in the tent with Gia so she could help her put on a ninja uniform.

"Do I really have to wear this?" Gia scowled as she and Marah came outside the tent.

Dustin turned around to see Gia wearing a similar ninja outfit that Marah had, except hers had yellow trim.

Dustin smiled as he rose to his feet. "Trust me, Gia, that uniform will come in handy for this mission."

Gia turned to face Marah, who nodded in agreement.

"Alright." Gia sighed sharply. "So how are we going to rescue Troy?"

"With the use of smoke and mirrors." Dustin smirked.

"What?" Gia squinted in confusion.

Marah stepped forward. "He means we're going to use our ninja skills."

"Correct, Marah." Dustin stated as he picked up several of the items from his bag. "And to do that, we're going to need to use some tools."

He held out a tiny saw and kunai to Gia.

"These are for you." Dustin told her as she took the items. "Remember, a good ninja travels light. So don't resort to using your ranger powers for this mission."

Gia nodded.

Dustin turned to face Marah. "Are we all set?"

Marah nodded.

The abandoned plant factory

Troy was still bound and nearly unconscious. He had given up trying to free his tied hands hours ago. The only thing he'd accomplished by doing that was rubbing his wrists raw, leaving them open for blisters to form. Even his legs were tied down to the ground, so it's not like he could have moved around to find anything that could help him, especially since the entire hall was being guarded by armed X-Borgs.

"Man, I hope the others are okay." Troy thought to himself.

Troy's eyes were about to close, allowing him to slip into unconsciousness, when he heard Zilas talking to someone in the other room.

"What, you lost them!" Zilas barked.

Troy perked up at Zilas' statement. "Good job, guys." He thought to himself.

He knew the others would put up fight without him.

"Keep a lookout, I'm on my way." Zilas stated.

Zilas' footsteps echoed closer to the dirty hall that Troy resided. Catching wind of this, Troy let his body sink back down to the floor, and pretended to be unconscious.

The halls doors creaked open loudly as Zilas walked in. The X-Borgs whirred in a robotic manner.

"Well, troops, it looks like I must capture the other rangers myself." Zilas announced. "So make sure that no one gets in or out of this building without my permission. Understood?"

The X-Borgs whirred in response.

"Good." Zilas told them as he walked out of the room.

As the doors creaked close again, Troy opened his eyes to see the X-Borgs surrounding all the entrances around the hall, and by extension the entire facility.

"Come on, guys, I need you." Troy prayed.

Outside the plant warehouse

Dustin, Gia, and Marah hid atop a tree from afar, surveying Zilas' secret base, while holding up several broken tree branches for camouflage.

"This is the place?" Gia asked.

Dustin put down his binoculars. "Oh, yeah. No doubt."

At that moment, Zilas emerged from the warehouse. The three humans held up their tree branches before the evil warrior could spot them. Dustin raised his head a bit to get a better look at Zilas.

"That him?" Dustin whispered

Before going into the forest, Dustin had warned Gia not to use words with the letter "S" to frequently because it's sound is the most likely to be heard over a whisper.

Gia carefully raised her head to get a better look. What she saw was Zilas talking to several of the X-Borgs.

"Yeah, that'd be him." Gia whispered.

"He look like he'd leave." Marah pointed out.

"That will make our job much ea-ier." Dustin whispered.

After a few minutes, Zilas and the X-Borgs ended their conversation. The two X-Borgs bowed to their general before he took off into the woods. The X-Borgs then stood in front of the entrance to the abandoned building, soon joined by a Bruiser.

"Look like trouble." Gia quivered.

"Don't worry, Gia." Dustin assured her. "I have a plan. We'll go down now, very carefully. Click the button on your uniform."

Gia and Marah did so. The button produced a silent hum only a little above a whisper.

"Now what?" Gia asked.

Dustin carefully placed the broken branch he was holding against a branch in front of him, thus maintaining their camouflage lookout. Once that was done, he pulled his hood over his face and raised his handkerchief across his mouth. His face now almost completely covered.

"Now you." Dustin whispered.

Gia and Marah did the same. Thankfully, Marah had a hair kit back at the camp or hiding their hair would have been more challenging.

"Okay, now watch me." Dustin instructed as he placed his foot on a lower branch of the tree.

The branch let out a tiny creak, causing the X-Borgs to perk up in alert.

"Back! Back! Back!" Dustin hissed, carefully shoving himself back into the camouflage lookout.

The Bruiser began walking through the area, searching for the source of the noise. He slowly made his way toward the tree.

"Marah, now!" Dustin hissed.

Marah bent down carefully to her sack and pulled something out Gia would have expected.

It was a white dove! Gia couldn't believe it had been quiet the whole trip.

"Okay, Marah let it go." Dustin whispered.

Marah nodded and threw the bird into the air, allowing it to fly away. The Bruiser took note of this, obviously believing that the dove was the sound it had heard. With the mystery seemingly solved, the grunt went back to guarding its post.

Gia turned to face Dustin in shock. "Amazing!" She said in a half-whisper

"Gia, remember we have to be quiet!" Dustin warned. "That dove for emergency only."

"Babe, how are we going to get down now?" Marah asked.

"I've got an idea." Dustin told her. "Hand me the container."

Marah nodded, digging into the sack of tools. Finally she pulled out a plastic container filled with crickets and handed it to Dustin.

"What?" Gia scoffed in half disgust and half disbelief.

"They'll hide our movement." Dustin explained as he opened the lid and dumped out the crickets. The freed insects immediately hopped off into the wooded area.

After five minutes, Dustin decided to make the attempt again. He stepped on the branch, which creaked like before, except this time, the X-Borgs and Bruiser didn't notice.

"Alright!" Dustin cheered in a whisper. "Okay, follow me."

Marah followed Dustin, while Gia stood in place, not believing what she was witnessing. Dustin carefully climbed down the tree, in full sight of the enemy, as did Marah. Once they were on the ground, they beckoned Gia to follow.

Swallowing her anxiety, Gia began to climb down the tree, carefully. She was so sure that she'd mess up and the enemy would spot her at any second. She tried to distract herself by concentrating on her friends, who needed her help.

After what seemed like forever, Gia finally made it off the wooden tower and back onto the ground.

"Good work!" Marah whispered.

"I don't- but-how did we do that?" Gia questioned.

"The Cricket chirp covered our movement, that way the X-Borg wouldn't be able to hear it." Dustin explained. "And our uniform blend with the environment around it."

"Okay, now what?" Gia asked. "How are we going to get around them?"

"I'll handle it." Dustin told her. "In the meantime, you both creep toward the door, and I'll have it ready for you."

Gia and Marah nodded as Dustin took off.

Five minutes Later

"Where Dustin?" Gia worried.

At the moment, she and Marah were hiding behind a large tree that stood between them in the seeing range of the X-Borgs.

"He there yet?" Marah asked anxiously.

Gia poked her head from behind the tree slightly to see. At that moment, another X-Borg arrived at the entrance.

"What going on?" Marah tugged at Gia.

"Another X-Borg here." Gia answered.

Suddenly, the X-Borg bopped one of the X-Borgs with his staff, and began to take out the Bruiser as well. After the fight, the X-Borg turned to face the girl's direction.

"Hey, come on, it's clear." Dustin's voice whispered.

The girls emerged from the tree to see the X-Borg remove its head to reveal…

"Dustin!" The girls gasped in shock.

The Former Ranger pulled off his disguise as the girls rushed over to the entrance.

"No time to explain." Dustin said before they say anything. "My comrade says that your friends are in danger. We have to hurry"

The girls nodded. They were about to enter the warehouse only to be stopped by Dustin pulling on their hoods.

"Hey!" Gia and Marah groaned.

"Rule of a Ninja: we don't use the front door." Dustin told them. "We enter with the element of surprise in our favor. Follow me."

Gia and Marah shrugged as they followed Dustin to the other side of the warehouse. On the other side was a ladder leading to the roof.

"This way!" Dustin said as he began climbing, with the girls following.

Once they were on top, Dustin began looking around for some sort of entrance.

"Dustin, over here!" Marah called.

Dustin and Gia walked over to Marah, who pointed to an air vent system.

"Good work, Marah!" Dustin commended.

Marah blushed as Dustin dug into his pockets for more tools, which included a tiny saw and his kunai.

"Alright, we're going in." Dustin explained to the two. "The plan is to break Troy out, not to engage the enemy."

The girls nodded as he removed the vent cover from the venting chamber.

"Gia, you're with me." Dustin told her. "Marah, we need you to create a distraction to lure those goons away. After that, I need you to leave a clue to Troy's location, so we'll know where to drill the holes."

Marah nodded taking off back down the ladder.

"She's a nice girl, isn't she?" Dustin sighed.

Gia narrowed her eyes. "I guess."

"Well, ladies first." Dustin stated extending his arm toward the air vent.

Gia stepped up and climbed into the musty vent chamber. Dustin followed suit.

Meanwhile, on the ground floor, Marah finally found the room that Troy was being held captured. Unfortunately, the entire room was guarded by X-Borgs and Bruisers.

Remembering what Dustin told her, she whipped out a tiny shruiken and hurled at the ventilation shaft above Troy.

It clanked as it impaled the metal shaft, alerting the X-Borgs and Bruiser.

"Oh, boys, yoo-hoo!" Marah yodeled.

The grunts turned around to see Marah standing in full view. Except now she was dressed up in a Pink Ninja Storm Ranger outfit. She grasped her helmet to her side as she flipped her hair.

"Oh, dear, I'm all alone and none of the other power rangers are here." Marah pouted in a faux damsel in distress voice. "I guess I was in over my head trying to rescue my teammate."

The X-Borgs brandished their staffs, as the Bruisers raised their arms up ready to charge.

"Alright, catch me if you can." Marah teased, blowing a kiss before taking off into the hallway.

The X-Borgs and Bruisers followed her, leaving a confused Troy wondering what was going on.

"Man, that was weird." Troy puzzled. "And who was that girl?"

Troy lied back down to rest when he felt something touch his face.

"What the-" Troy sputter before he saw what it was.

It was a tiny saw attach to a string that came from the ventilation shaft above. The rope was released and fell to the ground, behind Troy's hands.

"I knew someone would come for me." Troy smiled as he grasped the saw and began cutting away his bonds.

Before long, Troy was freed and dashed outside of the warehouse, trying to get his bearings.

"Troy." A voice whispered.

Troy jumped and got into a fighting stance.

"Hey, Hey, relax! It's me, Gia." Gia laughed.

Troy let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank goodness." Troy sighed with relief. "Man, you don't have any idea how glad….Wait, what are you wearing?"

"I'll explain later." Gia told him as she handed him his morpher. "Right now, the others need our help."

"Alright, then let's go!" Troy agreed as the two took off into the woods.

Little did they know, Dustin and Marah were observing them from afar.

"Well, looks like our work here is done, babe." Dustin sighed. "Ready to go?"

Marah smiled at her beloved.

"Not until we see those kids in action." Marah said.

End Notes: Again sorry for the wait, but the next two chapters will be finished by the end of the week.