Mandragorin growled as the Pink and Blue Rangers worked together to carve through the super Sting Wingers and block the strikes of his bladed arms before counter attacking. Parrying aside another swing with his Quasar Saber, Kai struck low kicking out the mantis monster's feet while Kendrix rolled off his back and landed a high follow up blow on the insectoid's head. As Mandragorin regained his senses, he was thrown back again by the elemental charged sword strikes of the two Rangers.
"Have you had enough?" Kendrix called leveling her saber and taking another ready stance.
The mantis monster staggered to its feet and brandished the pink syringe in its claws. With what almost looked like a grin from its mandibles, Mandragorin injected himself with his own serum. "You two think you're the only ones who can metamorph? Well, so can I!"
Both Rangers backpedaled a moment and watched in shock while the mantis seemed to suddenly grow a few inches taller and turn an angry red color. Even the shape of the monsters' exoskeleton bulged while its wings and claws took on a jagged and more menacing appearance.
"Oh, this does not look good at all," Kai muttered bracing himself for the monster to charge.
But the charge never came. Before Kai and Kendrix could react, the sound of jet jammer engines echoed through the trees and the other Galaxy Rangers dropped onto the battlefield from above.
"Sorry we're late," Mike called as the Magna Defender pulled his sword and looked to his two friends "We came here as fast as we could."
Nearby, the Green Ranger gave a thumbs up and added, "I owe you guys one. I'll take battling monsters over scrubbing out Terra Venture's engines any day of the week."
Kai nodded and pointed toward the furious Mandragorin, "Be careful everyone. That bug just took some sort of super steroid. He just got a lot tougher than before."
"Well we can get a lot tougher too," Leo grinned stepping forward and gathering the others together, "Ready? Lights of Orion! Activate!"
As the Galaxy Rangers moved in unison, they were engulfed in a powerful golden glow of light, endowing them with their enhanced weapons and armor.
"All right, let's end this now," the Red Ranger called leading the charge.
In a flash, the Galaxy Rangers surged forward and combined into a brilliant fireball of pulsing golden energy. Before Mandragoin knew what hit him, the ball of energy blasted a hole clean through him and destroyed the monster while the Rangers rematerialized across the battlefield.
Upon seeing the mantis scientist destroyed, Kendrix powered down and quickly turned to the others, "Everyone, I'm going back to camp to make sure the others are ok. Don't wait up for me."
"Wait! Hold on Kendrix. What's the big rush?" Kai asked reaching out to stop her a moment.
"Rich got hurt in the fight. I have to make sure he's ok."
The Blue Ranger paused a moment, glad that his face was still concealed by his helmet. The Ranger part of him knew that she was right and that a hurt civilian was always first priority. Still, the selfish human part of him still couldn't help but feel a little jealous. He simply nodded and let her go.
As he watched her hurry off into the brush back toward base camp, Leo walked over and put a steadying hand on Kai's shoulder, "Hey, Mike and Damon will head back to Terra Venture and get help. In the mean time, Maya and I will stay with you guys just in case there are any more of those Sting Wingers left, ok?"
Kai turned to him and took a breath, reminding himself yet again that he had to stay focused on helping the colonists. His duty as a Ranger and a GSA officer always had to come first. "All right Leo. Let's go help the others. But while we're here, you might want to stay morphed…"
After disposing of Mandragorin's research and tearing down the enemy campsite, the Rangers spent the rest of the day evacuating their scientists back to Terra Venture. It had been a grueling and time consuming process to load all their cargo and salvage what was left of their damaged supplies.
Despite the fact that their stay on the planet of Oasis was short, the science team did manage to gather some data and samples of the local flora, though not as much as they would have liked. Whether or not the data was enough to make the trip worthwhile remained to be seen, but that wasn't Kai's problem. While the away team took off from the site in their shuttle and left the planet's atmosphere, the Blue Ranger felt relief that all their people had been recovered.
Having gotten away from all those pink mind numbing flowers, he was more relieved he could think clearly again. Still, he was not looking forward to giving Stanton a full mission report at the next briefing… or talking to Kendrix again when they got back to work.
A few days later, Kai Chen emerged from Commander Stanton's office and gave a deep sigh. Although he had nothing to worry about and received only praise from the Commander, the Blue Ranger felt exhausted after enduring an hour of questions and preparing a complete written report. On the plus side, he had been given a few days off before the colony left the orbit of Oasis so he wondered what to do with his free time.
No doubt Damon and Mike were still busy with their duties so that ruled them out. Maya would likely be in one of the nature domes communing with the wilderness… so another definite no. After the misadventure on Oasis, Kai felt he had his fill of "nature" for a while. That left Leo, but Kai wasn't really in the mood for going out and doing anything exciting with the Red Ranger either.
As he aimlessly wandered the hallways, he eventually found himself at the entrance to the Hydroponics lab. Ambling inside, he looked about and admired the many rows of different flowers and vegetable plants growing in tubes of mineral water. For once, it was nice to know that none of the plants around here were harmful to him or his peace of mind. Finally, he came upon several blue colored flowers and stopped to touch them gently.
It was like the lab itself was telling him that he should go and try to talk with Kendrix and sort out that awkward exchange they had on the planet below. They had been too busy to talk the past few days, but it probably wasn't helping that he was putting it off either. They weren't pink flowers, but these ones seemed as good as any. Giving a sigh, he went to try and go find the lab director to see if he could take a few flowers as a peace offering.
A little while later, Kai headed down the hallways of the crew living quarters and pressed the chime to Kendrix and Maya's room. When the door opened, Maya answered in surprise as she saw the Blue Ranger and the flowers he was carrying, "Oh! Hello Kai. Those are lovely flowers."
"Thanks, but they're actually for Kendrix," Kai said quickly so she wouldn't ask too many questions, "Do you know where she is?"
Maya frowned and gave a thoughtful look, "Last I heard, she was visiting her friend Rich to make sure his leg was recovering from those Sting Wingers."
"Oh... I see. Thanks Maya," Kai sighed glumly turning around and heading back down the hallway before the Yellow Ranger could say anything more.
As he continued on his way and stopped at the doors to the central turbolift, the Blue Ranger decided that at this point there was only one logical thing to do to make himself feel better. He punched in the code to the command deck and straightened his collar. He was going to go back to work.
Late that evening, Kai gave a yawn in the dimmed lights of the command deck as he sat at his workstation and pushed aside the last of his datapads. It was now late evening hours on the colony and much of the bridge's command crew had retired for the night. Even so, Kai Chen was happy that he volunteered for a double shift and that no one was around. Without the distractions, he had caught up on his work and for now just had the twinkling stars from the viewport to keep him company.
"I thought I might find you here," came a familiar voice from behind making the Blue Ranger jump in his seat. Turning around, Kai found Kendrix making her way up the bridge toward his workstation.
"Kendrix! What are you doing here? I didn't think you were still awake."
"And I did think you'd actually be working after Commander Stanton gave us orders to take a few days off," the Pink Ranger replied coming to stop in front of his desk. "If I had to guess, I'd say you were probably avoiding me."
Kai did his best to maintain his normally cool facade while feigning indifference, "What? Don't be silly. Why would I do that?"
Kendrix gave him a pointed look and put her hands on her hips echoing his words, "Do you really have to ask me that?"
Kai stopped a moment before giving a relenting sigh, "Observant as always Kendrix. I'm guessing Maya told you I stopped by?"
"With a lovely bouquet of blue flowers might I add," Kendrix added gesturing to the small vase of water Kai had placed them in near his desk, "though I doubt these are regulation on the bridge."
Kai sat back in his seat and shrugged, "Well... I was going to bring them to you to say I'm sorry for everything that happened on Oasis. I was unprofessional, and out of line, and I shouldn't have let my feelings get the better of me either."
Kendrix looked over the flowers in the vase, "Well, you shouldn't be too hard on yourself. The pink flowers' chemicals weren't making you think straight after all."
"It doesn't matter," Kai answered quickly, "I still feel really sorry for what I did Kendrix."
Kendrix looked at him curiously for a moment before glancing away with a small blush, "You shouldn't have to, because I'm not sorry about what you did. In fact, I was actually kinda hoping you would have done that at some point... just... maybe not under those particular circumstances."
The Blue Ranger's chin nearly dropped to the floor, "Wait... what?"
Kendrix smiled and reached out, putting a gentle hand over his, "I kinda gathered you were feeling jealous of Rich. He's a great guy, but he and I are just friends... nothing more."
"Well, you could have fooled me," Kai muttered gently rolling his eyes but taking her hand in return.
"Come on Kai. Now you're being silly," Kendrix replied, "That relationship could never compare to the bond between you and I. We've been best friends since our first days of officer training, and even if we're both Power Rangers now, I've seen how you still fuss and look out for me. You don't have to worry, because I know you've always cared... even if you do have a hard time expressing it."
Kai rose to his feet with a slightly relieved look on his face, "Really?"
"Well, I guess I wouldn't be here if I didn't feel the same way too," Kendrix admitted sheepishly.
The Blue Ranger stopped a moment in surprise before giving a small smile, "You know this could change things... I mean the way we fight as Power Rangers, or how we operate at work..."
"A chance I'm willing to take," Kendrix grinned back stepping forward while casually putting her arms around his waist.
"You know," he chuckled softly pulling her closer, "I'd probably have to double check to make sure this isn't against the rules and regs too."
Kendrix rolled her eyes playfully "Oh, you already know from experience that some rules are ok to break, Kai. Besides, you were the one who kissed me first, remember?"
"I did... didn't I?" Kai laughed as he reached over to the desk and presented the vase of flowers with his free hand. "You know, you should be careful. I suddenly have reason to believe these blue flowers might be giving off some pheremones that cloud female judgment too."
"Well, why don't we do a little scientific research and find out together?" the Pink Ranger smiled removing her glasses.
With a laugh, Kai loosened the collar of his uniform and leaned down to draw Kendrix into a soft kiss. While the two friends continued to share a romantic kiss in the dim ambient light of the command deck, they couldn't help but feel relief, not only from their harrowing experience on the planet below, but also for putting to rest a long simmering tension between the two.
Maybe it hadn't been such a bad week after all. As they held each other and continued to gaze out amid the stars with the bright form of the planet below, the two Rangers knew that whatever challenges lay ahead, they would be stronger than ever so long as they were together. At least for now, their future never looked so bright.
A/N:
And then the Psycho Rangers show up in the next canon episode... yeah, I'll stop right there. As always, lots of thanks to anyone who has commented or reviewed! I hope you Lost Galaxy fans or Kai/Kendrix shippers enjoyed this little short story too, because let's face it, they deserved a little moment of focus and happiness. Thanks for reading!