When Kelly woke up, she could feel herself bobbing up and down. She opened her eyes slowly, reaching down to her head.
Down...?
Kelly opened her eyes and saw the ground moving under someone's feet. Panic took over and she started squirming.
"Whoa, bro!" someone called, touching Kelly's back. "She's up."
"Good," the person carrying her said, "My shoulder's getting tired."
"I thought you said you could handle her."
"This walk is a lot longer than I thought."
Kelly was suddenly dropped on the ground. She crawled over to a tree and leaned against it as her vision cleared. She looked up and saw Hunter and Blake.
Hunter grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet, "C'mon. We have to keep walking."
"What's going on?" Kelly asked, "Last thing I remember..."
Hunter pushed Kelly forward, "Just walk. Don't talk."
Kelly frowned as she looked at the two brothers, before she saw something in Blake's hand. It was a white sphere. Occasionally there would be a spark coming from it, but never once did Blake wince in pain as it sparked.
"What's that?" she asked.
Hunter shoved her forward again, "I said, shut up."
"You should be afraid, Thunder Rangers," the orb spoke. "There are spirits here of the darkest warriors the world has ever known."
"Quiet!" Hunter shouted to the orb, "We know what we're doing."
"Have you not learned that taking revenge on one that has caused you no harm makes you ask guilty as the one who hurt you to begin with?"
Hunter grabbed the orb from Blake and stopped in his path. Blake grabbed onto Kelly to keep her from running as he stopped as well.
Hunter glared down at the orb, "You destroyed our parents; parents who adopted us and gave us a life. You deserve everything that's coming to you."
Kelly couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Why where Blake and Hunter taking her out into this forest? Why was the freaky white ball talking? What were Thunder Rangers?
Blake pulled on Kelly's arm as they continued to walk. As they reached a bit of a clearing, Blake spoke.
"How much further?" he asked.
"Almost there," Hunter assured his little brother.
"Good," Blake nodded.
Suddenly, there was a noise. Blake and Hunter turned around just as an army of grey ghoul creatures materialized before them.
Blake let go of Kelly while Hunter put down the talking orb. They both raised their arms slightly so they were hovering in front of their chests. Kelly thought this was odd behaviour, until she heard them cry: "Thunder Storm, Ranger Form!"
Her jaw dropped as they morphed into the same Rangers who had been attacking the red, blue and yellow ones for the past week.
Thinking it was just her head injury acting up, Kelly tried shaking her head. She looked back up and focused, but saw the two Rangers fighting the ghouls.
She turned to run, but a ghoul grabbed her, while another grabbed the little orb. The Thunder Rangers went to help her, not wanting to lose their prisoners, but the ghouls grabbed them, holding them in place.
Suddenly, the ghouls were blasted away as the Blue Bay Harbour Rangers appeared on their bikes. When they stopped and looked around, it was obvious they were confused.
"Whoa, who do we fight?" the yellow one cried out.
"Anyone not wearing a primary colour?" the red one stated.
"Good plan," blue agreed before she was pushed off her bike by one of the ghouls and just like that, the fight was on.
Crimson made his way over to Kelly and the orb, ripping the ghoul off the red head and kicking the ghoul holding the orb in the stomach. He grabbed both Kelly and the orb, standing before them protectively while the others dealt with the monsters.
Suddenly, from behind, the yellow Ranger rode up on his bike, grabbing the orb and Kelly. He skidded to a stop a little ways away.
"I'll take that," he smiled, keeping one arm wrapped around Kelly as she held the orb. He looked to her through the visor. "You okay?"
"Not for long!" Navy called, hopping over yellow and Kelly and stealing the orb. Kelly tried to hold onto it, figuring it was important, but Navy ripped it from her hands.
Just as Navy landed, a group of ghouls surrounded him. Yellow hopped off his bike to grab the orb, leaving Kelly vulnerable to the ghouls.
Before Yellow could get the orb back, Navy tossed it to Crimson. For a moment, everyone forgot about the battle for the orb to keep the ghouls away and form a circle.
"These guys are fearless," Red stated, looking around at the other Rangers.
"They're dead," Blue said. "It's not like they have much to lose."
"So, that would be the glass half-empty, right?" Yellow said.
Suddenly, Kelly let out a loud cry as a ghoul threw her down. Obviously he wasn't attacking only the Rangers. He was going after every living being.
"Kelly!" Yellow frowned, trying to leave the circle, but the ghouls surrounding him and the other Rangers stepped forward, ready to attack.
"How about a truce?" Red offered to Crimson and Navy. "Let's do this together."
"Fine by me," Crimson nodded, "But only for now."
The Rangers all jumped forward to attack, with only Yellow running over to Kelly. The ghoul was about to bring down a blade on her when he got in the way, stopping it before it reached her face.
Kelly looked up at her hero in shock.
"Get out!" Yellow told her, "Get to safety!"
Kelly nodded, stumbling to her feet before running over to a tree and hiding behind it. She knew she wouldn't be able to get far if she wanted to run.
Yellow ran back over to the other rangers as they finished off the ghouls. He placed his arm over Navy's shoulder and patted it.
"You rock, bro!" he said.
Navy grabbed Yellow's arm, throwing him to the ground.
"Don't call me bro!" he shouted.
Blue touched his shoulder, "Blake!"
He threw her aside as well.
Red tried to acknowledge Crimson with a high-five, but Crimson refused, instead knocking Red to the ground with an elbow to the ribs.
Navy grabbed the talking orb, while Crimson ran over to Kelly. He grabbed her arm roughly and yanked her over before the Rangers.
Yellow growled, stepping ahead of the group.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked.
"Simple," Crimson shrugged, "Revenge."
"Revenge for what?" Red asked.
"What did Kelly do?" Yellow added.
Hunter pushed Kelly down to her knees and pulled out this Thunder staff.
"Nothing," he said, "We just need a distraction."
With that, he brought his Thunder Staff down, striking Kelly across the back. She barely made a sound as she fell forward.
Before the three Rangers could say anything, Crimson and Navy took off with the talking orb.
"You guys go," Yellow told his team-mates. "I'll look after Kelly."
Red retracted his visor, and blue quickly followed.
"Are you sure, bro?"
Yellow nodded, powering down, "I'm sure. I'll take her back; just make sure you get Sensei back home."
-----Storm-Chargers-----
Kelly woke with a start, pushing herself off her bed only to scream in pain and drop back, stomach on the mat.
She heard someone running over and felt a hand touching her arm.
"It's okay... you're okay," Dustin said softly.
"What happened?" Kelly asked, turning her head so she could look at Dustin, "I feel like I've just been run over."
"I was hoping you could tell me," Dustin shrugged. "I stopped by to get the sweater I left here and you weren't home. You're always home."
Kelly nodded and rolled over so she could sit up. She felt something pulling on her back, but ignored it. After years in the athletic life, she knew how to deal with intense pain. She refused to let it stop her from going on with her day.
Dustin didn't seem too comfortable with that idea though. He got into the bed behind Kelly and gently pushed her forward then leaned her back so she wasn't hurting herself as much.
"What's the last thing you remember?" he asked her.
"Hunter was at the door," Kelly told him, thinking back to what happened before her adventure. "He was talking to me about... something, before something hit me over the head."
Dustin quickly brushed through her hair, finding the injury that the clipboard had made. He breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was still healing up fine, and the blow to the head hadn't done anything to aggravate it. However, he was going to have to have a long talk with the two brothers who used to be his friends.
"Next thing I knew," Kelly continued, "Hunter and Blake were forcing me to walk with them through a forest. They weren't exactly being friendly while doing it."
"Shane was right about those guys," Dustin nodded. "They do have a mean streak."
"It's not that," Kelly said, looking up at Dustin, "These freaky grey monsters appeared, and Hunter and Blake turned into those evil Power Rangers."
"Wait, what?" Dustin asked, looking down at Kelly with an odd look. He was already aware of Hunter and Blake's little secret, but he had to act like he didn't know for Kelly's sake.
"They are the evil Power Rangers," Kelly repeated.
Dustin didn't know what to do. He couldn't leave Kelly to believe this, but he didn't want to discourage it again. It would surely raise suspicion.
Suddenly, Shane and Tori walked in.
"Hey, we heard about the incident," Tori said, sitting on the end of Kelly's bed, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Kelly nodded.
"Seems like Hunter got what he wanted," Shane breathed deeply, "The store's trashed."
"What?" Kelly asked, jumping up.
"Yeah," Shane nodded, scratching his head, "The store's totally messed. Apparently Hunter had planned on stealing or something."
"But... Kelly frowned, turning to Dustin, "I was in a forest, and..."
Dustin shrugged. He didn't know what was going on. He looked to Tori and Shane for help. Tori bit her lower lip as her eyes pointed to Shane.
Shane continued to scratch his head before tapping it and winking. Dustin got the message.
"Maybe that was just a dream," Dustin told her. "Apparently the Rangers have been on your mind a lot lately. First me and Shane; and now Hunter and Blake?"
Kelly didn't believe this. She couldn't! She knew she had been in a forest, attacked by ghouls and Hunter and Blake were there.
"But..."
"The store's messed up, Kelly," Tori said, placing a hand on Kelly's leg. "I wish it weren't but..."
Kelly threw the blankets off and ran for the stairs, ignoring the pain in her back, which was another sign that her dream was more than a dream.
As she got downstairs, she saw that Shane and Tori were right. Everything was overturned, all the stock was on the ground, the register had been pulled open, and the money gone.
Over by the door, on the floor, was a red stain. Shane walked up behind Kelly and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Look, Kel... we're really sorry about this."
"But..."
"I found you right here, Kelly," Dustin said, pointing to the spot on the floor that was stained. "You must have put up a fight when Hunter tried to take you out. Maybe that's why your back's a little torn up."
"We'll stay here," Tori told her friend, "and make sure this place is cleaned up before tomorrow."
"You just go rest," Shane said, leading Kelly back to the stairs. He walked her up while Tori and Dustin started cleaning.
Dustin glared at Tori, "What did you guys do?"
Tori sighed, walking over to her friend, "We had to..."
"You're protecting them!" Dustin shouted. "They did her wrong, and you're protecting them!"
"You don't get it, Dustin," Tori snapped, "We followed them back to the cavern of lost souls. Their parents appeared and told us all the truth."
"What's that?" Dustin growled, "That Hunter and Blake deserve to die?"
"Lothor killed their parents," Tori explained, and Dustin's face softened. "Lothor killed them, and framed Sensei. That's why they went after him. They wanted revenge."
"That still doesn't explain why they took Kelly," he grumbled.
"They took her because they know she's a weak spot," Tori breathed. She brought Dustin over to the couches and sat him down. "Their plan almost worked too. Because you had to leave with her, Shane and I almost lost Sensei. If it weren't for Blake and Hunter's parents showing up..."
"Dude..."
"Dustin, we need to tell her," Tori begged. "If they can find out about her, Lothor can too! At least if she knows she can protect herself better! Stuff like this wouldn't be..."
"We can't, Tor," Dustin said. "Do you know what she'll do to me if she found out I lied?"
"For a good reason!"
"Dude, we made her believe her head injury was worst than it was! I don't know if you know this, but chicks freak out when you lie to them."
Tori frowned, "Dustin..."
"Right. Sorry, dude."
Tori leaned back in her seat, "I just feel terrible for all this. Saving the world isn't supposed to be this hard."
"We'll work around it," Dustin assured her. "We have to. For Kelly's sake."
Tori nodded, leaving the room in silence for a moment. Dustin looked around at the wreck and sighed.
"So, did you and Shane really trash this place?"
Tori nodded sadly, pulling out the money from the register from her pocket.
"We knew it was the only way she would believe our story," Tori said, "Hunter and Blake aren't bad guys... they were lied too."
"Kinda like you were?" Dustin asked, turning to Tori.
"Don't remind me," she breathed.
"You didn't know, Tor," Dustin said. "He took advantage of you. It won't happen again, I'll make sure of it."
As Tori started to sob, Dustin grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her, protecting her for the moment.
-----Storm-Chargers-----
The following day, Kelly was stomping around Storm Chargers. She was a little upset the boys weren't letting her work (Shane was even helping out for the day to cover her shift), but she was infuriated about the fact that Hunter had proven he was evil to the core.
She had to admit, Tori and the boys did a great job cleaning up the shop, but that didn't do anything to soften the blow for Kelly. Storm Chargers was her baby.
Tori walked into the shop and went straight for the back desk, where Shane and Dustin were talking.
"Guys... about Blake and Hunter..." she started, and instantly both boys tensed up. Even Kelly seemed to react to their names. "They're gone."
"Gone, where?" Shane asked a little concerned.
"Not sure," Tori shrugged, "But they said to say goodbye... and sorry."
Tori looked over to Kelly for that last part. The apology didn't change her mood, but she was definitely listening.
"They just left?" Dustin asked, infuriated. He had a right to be. Both Bradley boys hurt his two best girl friends. Blake had used Tori and betrayed her trust for personal gain, and Hunter attacked his boss and friend and left her for dead. Now, they were gone. "Just like that? They take off?"
He slammed his hands down on the counter, making Tori jump slightly. He face softened a bit, and everyone could tell she was deeply hurt.
Dustin wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her back into his arms. Kelly walked over behind the counter and Shane touched her back gently. He could feel the scar under her shirt and was sure not to press down as he too held her protectively.
Shane looked over at Dustin, with an obvious look of irritation on his face. Dustin gazed back and nodded.
No one hurt their girls and walked away. If it were up to them, Blake and Hunter would be on their knees begging not to die a very slow and painful death.
