Heart of Innocence
A ranger has the Heart of Innocence; and with it the power of immortal life... A power that a new evil is desperate to get their hands on...
Chapter Seven
Hayley scrambled around Cyberspace as if the President was visiting, moving anything that even looked as if it could be out of place. Watching her Tommy felt the corners of his mouth tug into a smile; his first one since all this began.
"Hayley will you please stop worrying? They're going to be here to discuss ranger business, not fill out a questionnaire on how clean your cafe is."
"Listen mister, you were the one who invited them here, so you are the one who has to put up with my cleaning wrath. Deal with it."
Tommy couldn't help but chuckle at her words, although two seconds and a glare from Hayley later, he found himself regretting it.
"Seeing as you're just sitting there Thomas, you can do me the honour of mopping-"
"Oh look, the guests!" Tommy said hurriedly, jumping to his feet as Sensei Wantanabe and Shane entered the cafe.
"Coward." Hayley muttered as Tommy went to greet them.
"Sensei, Shane," Tommy greeted, immediately sobering at the mix of confused, worried and angry emotions on their faces. "How's Marah?"
"No better." Shane said shortly, the anger clear in his voice.
"But she is no worse." Sensei spoke calmly, directing a look towards Shane "For which we must be grateful."
Shane nodded, the anger disappearing from his face, although Tommy suspected he had locked it away rather than let go of it.
"Please come and sit down, I'm sure we won't have to wait long till our other guests arrive." Tommy motioned to the counter and the chairs and tables behind him "Is there anything you want to eat or drink?"
"No thank you Tommy."
"You should eat something Sensei." Shane said from where he was pacing the cafe.
"If you do." Came the old man's reply.
"I'm sure we won't have to wait long-" Tommy began before he was interrupted by the arrival of two men, one around his age and another older. The older gentleman was berating the other man who was with him.
"Really sir, Master Mack is perfectly capable of going to a shop by himself. Besides we are running late."
"That wasn't what I meant Spencer and you know it."
"Of course it wasn't sir. I misunderstood you completely when you said that you'd accompany him 'just in case anything happens'."
"Mr Hartford?" Tommy interrupted as the two men neared.
The younger of the two men, who had dark brown hair and eyes, stepped forward, smiling warmly.
"Yes. Dr. Oliver I presume?"
"Yes. Good to meet you. This Sensei Wantanabe and Shane Clark, they are with the ninja storm ranger team."
"It was your friend who was one of the ones attacked wasn't it?" Andrew asked gently.
"Yes, a student of my school who is also my niece." Sensei replied, his voice grave.
"I'm very sorry to hear that." Andrew said.
"Tommy said you had some information about why she was attacked." Shane said suddenly.
"Yes, I do." Andrew said, taken aback by Shane's brusque tone.
"Then where is it?"
"Shane," Sensei admonished "I know you are worried for Marah but being rude to those who may help us is not our way. You must excuse him Mr Hartford."
"It's totally understandable. I was just going to wait for everyone to get here so I didn't have to explain things twice."
"Everyone?" Tommy asked as Hayley arrived with some drinks "There are others coming? I was under the impression it would just be us."
"I invited my ranger team," Andrew said "They also needed to know what is going on and I wanted to tell you as soon as possible so I thought it best for us all to meet together, instead of wasting time saying the same thing twice."
"Is time an issue here?" Hayley asked.
Andrew looked around to her and was about to answer when Tommy answered "Oh, and this is Hayley Viktor. She's one of the finest computer analysts on the planet and is the main technical advisor for the Dino Thunder ranger team."
"Nice to meet you," Andrew said, nodding at her "And in answer to your question, yes. These attacks aren't random, and they will increase before they stop. I wish I could tell you more on this but that's about all I know."
"That's all you can tell us?" Shane asked.
"That's all I can yes, but one of my rangers can tell you a lot more." Turning to Tommy Andrew continued "When you rang me do you remember I had to take another call? Yes, well I'm sorry for that but I found it highly coincidental that the person who I was going to ring to ask about this was ringing me when you were and I was correct. Rose, the pink overdrive ranger, is an intellectual marvel for her age and it's her who knows why all these attacks are happening. As I said she and the other rangers are meeting us here."
Just as Andrew finished talking two young men walked into the cafe, one with blonde hair and silver eyes and the other an Asian, who was animatedly talking about a pair of sunglasses he was wearing.
"Aren't they so cool? I mean, can imagine how good we would've looked morphing with these?!"
"Fantastic Dax," came the dry reply from another newcomer, entering behind them "The ladies wouldn't have been able to stay away from us." The young black man caught up with them as the three walked over to join the group of assembled people.
"How would that work anyway?" Tyzonn asked as they came to a stop.
"Gentlemen," Andrew interrupted "If we could please focus here. I'd like to introduce you to Sensei Wantanabe, and Shane Clark, from the ninja ranger team and Dr. Tommy Oliver and Hayley Viktor, of the Dino ranger team. This is Will, Tyzonn and Dax, the black, mercury and blue overdrive rangers respectively. Oh, and this is Spencer, our sort-of technical assistant."
"Sort of? That's a bit mean Mr Hartford," Said a female voice from the door as Spencer huffed "Without Spencer we wouldn't have use of our zords half of the time."
"Why thank you Miss Rose," the butler replied as the young woman walked over to join the others."
"This is Rose, the lady I was talking about," Andrew said to the ninja and dino representatives "Rose this is-"
"I heard your first introductions Mr Hartford. Dr. Oliver, Sensei Wantanbe," Rose inclined her head towards each man respectively "It's an honour to meet you both. Your contributions to the ranger history books have been amazing."
"We've heard that you're the one to help us." Tommy said, folding his arms across his chest "Do you know why rangers are being attacked and killed?"
Rose bit her lip slightly but then nodded determinedly "Yes I do. It's all because of an ancient Celtic myth and a man known as Faulkos."
And as the pink overdrive ranger began to tell those gathered of the danger facing them, the man known as Faulkos watched a young brown-haired woman, rushing down an alleyway on her way to meet them, not but two blocks away...
