"Subject is 16 years of age, single entry wound near Cervical spine." The nurse called over as a team of surgeons pulled a gurney into an operating room. Malice lay on it, bleeding profusely.
The three teens were sitting in the waiting room.
"I was right there... she got hurt because of me." Dustin said tearfully.
"Dustin, it isn't your fault, if we were there the same thing would have happened to us." Shane tried to comfort him.
Kelly walked into the room, she too had been crying.
"Are the doctors saying anything?" Tori asked,
"Um... not a lot, they said she lost a lot of blood... and her blood type is O-"
"oh god."
"yeah, they asked if she had any family, that they would be more likely to have a closer match." she said weakly "But what could I tell them."
Tori gave Kelly a hug before the four of them headed to the lab to have their blood tested.
"Ok" a girl in a white lab coat said, "results will be back in about half an hour."
They were back in the waiting room when a doctor walked in. "Ms. Holloway, I'm afraid there was no match, but we do have a plane bringing in her blood type, ETA is 13 minutes."
Kelly nodded, she couldn't bring herself to talk.
Code blue: room 2113, Code blue: room 2113 A voice announced over the intercom. The doctor turned and ran off.
"Oh god!" Kelly said "That's Malice's room."
"ECG is flat!" a nurse called out.
"prepare Adrenaline!" a doctor ordered. The team bustled about trying to bring the young girl back to life. They tried, and tried, and tried, finally 10 minutes had passed.
The surgeon looked down in despair, "Call it..." he muttered.
"Time of death... 3:59 PM."
"When will they tell us what's going on?" Kelly said as she paced back and forth.
Finally a doctor walked in slowly,
"what's going on? is my niece okay?" Kelly said frantically, desperately trying to cling onto some good news.
The doctor waited for what seemed like ages before he muttered "I'm...sorry."
Dustin, clenching his teeth, punched the wall and Kelly fell onto her knees, Tori and Shane began to weep.
"Time of death, was 3:59 PM" The doctor said as he left the room.
"I was... supposed to keep her safe." Kelly said, her eyes wide and teary. "This wasn't... supposed to happen!"
Tori and Shane helped Kelly up, the four of them cried even more, they walked into the room where they were keeping Malice, at a dead man's pace. They finally arrived and stood by her side, and Dustin leaned in. He fixed her hair and kept on weeping.
"You always said you wanted an elder brother." he continued weakly "and that when we met your wish was granted." Dustin began crying, his tears burning against his face, filled with anguish, fury, and guilt. Why did Malice always have to be the martyr? Why did she have to suffer so much?
Malice shot up from the bed, scaring the living !%#$ out of the group as she gasped for air.
"God Malice!" Kelly said, holding her chest "I'm gonna kill you!" the group of four ran over and hugged Malice tightly crying tears of joy.
Upon hearing the screaming, doctors ran in, some were petrified and other delighted to see the "miracle child."
"Malice i'm so sorry, I should have kept you safe." Dustin said, he was filled with relief, he was secretly hoping her regeneration powers would kick in.
Malice hugged Dustin tightly, "It isn't your fault, besides, we should all know by know I'm not dying so easily."
The Hunters Dustin thought, I'm going to kill every last one!
Hunter and Blake stood in the middle of a desert on a sand dune.
"You sure he said here?" Hunter asked.
"Yeah," Blake nodded.
A bolt of light appeared behind them and Chubo appeared.
"This better be worth the hike." Hunter snapped.
"Oh it will be! I've made a life altering decision that could affect the entire balance of power in the whole universe.
"Are you for real?" Blake asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"I've decided to leave Lothor's army, turn over a new leaf, go to the light side. I want payback for all the things they said about me." Chubo explained.
The crimson ranger scoffed at him "What makes you think the light side would want you?"
"bitter ex-employees have all kinds of valuable intel, files, and secret passwords to get into places, get it?"
"Like Lothor's ship!" Blake smirked at Hunter.
Malice was walking with Shane from school.
"So how you feeling?" he asked.
"Um, like I got hit with a bullet." she replied, the two teens smiled. "No, but I feel much better."
"Does it ever scare you? This is the third time you've almost died."
"Not really, we all have to die someday, why worry about something that isn't in my control?"
Shane nodded having received his answer, "What gives you the strength to go through all this?"
"Well," she thought about it for a second, "I don't know, I guess it's just knowing that I have too."
The two teens turned around a corner and approached Storm Chargers, Tori was loading Dustin's bike into her van. Shane and Malice were shocked and ran up to Dustin.
"Dude! I just saw Tori out front-" the red ranger was cut off
"loading my pride and joy into her van," Dustin said, he was sweating like a worried parent.
"You never even let me ride that thing!"
"Well she hits harder than you."
Shane nodded, he couldn't argue with that.
Tori walked into Ninja Ops; Cam, Sensei, Shane, Dustin, and Malice were there. The blonde explained to them how she had crashed Dustin's bike, ran into Blake, and how they were going to sneak on it.
"I don't buy it." Shane said. "I mean, why would Chubo suddenly decide to turn good?"
"Look" Tori explained, "Hunter and Blake said they were going to check it out."
"I must agree with Shane." The sensei said, "it seems far too convenient."
Tori looked towards Malice for help I hope Malice can help me out. The blue ranger thought, she was a little surprised to see the young girl have a confused look on her face.
"Malice, do you foresee anything bad happening?"
the young girl shifted her weight onto her other foot "Well, my visions don't exactly work like that, They just come and go as they please."
Thanks for the help! Tori thought, again, she was surprised to find Malice glaring at her.
"But," the young girl trailed off, "I don't know how much this means, but I had a vision, weeks ago."
The group turned to her with interest.
"It was a mess, but in one of the scenes I saw the four of you standing alongside Hunter and Blake at some sports event."
That's what I needed! Tori thought, Malice had begun to smile.
Oh duh! realization dawned on the blue ranger, She's an empath now!
"See!" The blonde pushed with her case, "besides, they said even if they got on the ship they wouldn't attack until they could bring us in for back up."
"Good, that gives us time." Dustin sighed,
"time for what?" Tori was baffled, what did he mean?
"Time for you to fix my bike miss-freestyle-no-hand-landing" everyone but Tori and Dustin laughed.
"it wasn't that bad." she looked around sheepishly, "it was just a little spill."
"The fender is facing backwards." the yellow ranger spun his finger in the air as if to make a point.
"Alright! I get it, I'll go fix it."
Dustin and Malice parked in front of Storm Chargers. Dustin had made sure to keep Malice near him since she got shot.
"You get the gloves, I'll get the oil." he said.
She nodded and went to the back of the truck while Dustin went inside carrying a box. He saw Hunter and Blake finishing a conversation with Roger Hannah, a team manager for Factory Blue.
"Did you guys sign with Factory Blue?" Dustin was ecstatic "that's awesome man."
"Yeah, we'll catch you later." Hunter said as the two walked out.
"Hey don't you think we got some things we need to talk about?" He called over them, but to no avail.
Malice was carrying a big brown box of oil, as she walked towards the Storm Charger's entrance she saw the Bradley brothers.
"Hey, so how did it go?" she asked, but they just walked past, and Hunter bumped into her.
An image popped in her head, and her pupil turned yellow. It was a picture of the two thunder rangers attached to strings, and pulling these strings was a familiar man in a black mask - Lothor!
"They said they would let us know." a girl's voice echoed through the tunnel to Ninja Ops. Dustin and Malice walked down the steps.
"If them is Hunter and Blake you might want to rethink that" he said as he walked over to his friends. "I just saw them in the store and they completely blew me off, it's like our little journey to the Cavern of Souls didn't even happen."
"But I thought we were all cool." Tori said, looking for some logical way to explain it.
"Yeah right, like those guys have ever been reliable." Shane had an obvious dislike for them.
"Lothor is somehow pressing their buttons." The shy and quiet girl spoke up, "I saw an image, he was pulling their strings."
"See!" Tori said, "We have to help them!"
"Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Cam said from his computer, it showed an abnormal heat reading at an old factory.
"Where does Lothor get these losers?" The red ranger questioned.
"You want to say it, or should I?" The blonde asked.
"Ready?"
"Ready!"
"Ninja Storm! Ranger Form!" They yelled as they appeared in their ranger forms.
Malice held out her hand and a small purple flame appeared in it.
"Oh no you don't!" Dustin said as he closed her hand, "The Hunters might be trying to draw you out."
"Good, I'm looking for an actual fight this time, not someone cowering with a rifle."
Dustin frowned at her persistence, "besides, you haven't even fully recovered from the bullet wound."
She couldn't argue with that, she was still feeling light headed. "ok, but if it gets bad, i'm coming in."
Dustin nodded, and the three rangers turned and streaked to the factory.
"There's nothing here." The red ranger spun around, looking for a monster.
"I hate to say it, but this is how it always starts." Tori said.
A fog condensed around them, and unseen hands slashed at them, sending the rangers flying.
"I rest my case."
"The world famous power rangers." The fog revealed a large snail monster, "has anyone ever told you that you look taller on TV?"
Dustin glared at him "has anyone ever told you you're stinkier in person?"
The rangers stood up and fired ninja beams at the snail, sending him stumbling backwards. Suddenly, bolts of thunder struck the rangers, sending them flying.
"Hey, remember us!?" the two thunder rangers jumped off a pillar and charged towards Dustin and Tori while Shane was busy fighting the snail.
Blake ran towards Tori, "Blake stop!" she cried out, not wanting to hurt her friend.
"Not until you're destroyed!" the navy ranger slashed at her chest.
Meanwhile Dustin was fighting with Hunter, matching blow for blow until Hunter landed his staff. But instead of hurting Dustin he split into two yellow rangers! The tide quickly turned and the yellow rangers landed a double slash on Hunter, but his ranger uniform fell to the ground, and he was gone.
"Hey that's my move!" Dustin said,
"where is he?" his counterpart asked.
"Give me five down low!" A giant Hunter appeared above and smashed Dustin into the ground.
Shane was blasted into the other two rangers, "Follow me!" he commanded.
The three rangers ran into the factory while the snail chased them. For some reason Blake was kneeling on the floor, holding onto his head.
On the computer screen, the three wind rangers were blasted off a ramp and onto the floor, and the snail was right behind them, ready to finish the job.
"Ok I'm going." Malice said, she couldn't watch her friends get thrashed around any longer.
"Be aware of the consequences." The sensei cautioned.
she nodded and her pupil turned gold, she held out her hand and opened her palm. A purple flame appeared in it, it engulfed her body and her eyes began to glow with a purple mist, her black cloak transformed into armored robes. and a thick raven hood concealed her face. She appeared on her phantom horse, Toorab, before fading into the air.
"Oh man!" Shane cried out. The snail was walking towards them but for some reason stopped. They turned around to the a phantom rider.
"Malice, no!" Dustin said.
The rider rode towards the snail and slashed at it, sending it hurtling into a pile of garbage.
"I'm supposed to trash you!" it cried out.
The rider spun around once more, and charged again, this time ice formed around the tips of the scythe, and it struck the monster, causing it to shatter into a thousand shards.
The Reaper transformed back into Malice's original form, she stumbled a little, but was steadied by Dustin.
"you shouldn't have done that." he said, but was met with a halfhearted smile from Malice.
A scroll descended from the sky and the snail monster grew, it grew until it stood a titan.
"your plan better work Lothor" the dark hooded figure said. "We just gave up our best opportunity."
"Relax, evil plans are like fine wine, you must let them sit a while before uncorking them." The evil alien tried to reassure this powerful and mysterious group.
"They also go bad if you let them sit too long."
"No need to get nasty," he looked down towards his screen, The snail was destroyed and the five rangers were battling each other in their megazords.
"See now, Toxipod has been destroyed." he said, he lifted his P.A.M and hit a button. ON the screen a green fog swarmed around the megazords and the factory.
"The megazord is offline!" Cam yelled from his screen.
"Are you able to locate the rangers?" The Sensei worriedly asked.
"No, i'm not getting any heat signatures, it's like they vanished into thin air!"
"What about Malice?"
"She's not there either..."
"I must say Lothor." the mysterious figure spoke once again, "I am impressed."
"Yes," The evil space ninja beamed. "But I am worried you will not be able to fulfill your end of the deal, you already tried to kill her, and yet you-"
he was quickly cut off by the figure "Mind your tongue Lothor, we haven't tried to kill her yet, this was only..."
Shane slowly came to his senses, he stood up off the gravely rock, in the distance the waves smashed against the rocks. He was alone.
"Hello!? Guys!?"
He surveyed the land, and saw no one. "WHERE AM I?!" he yelled, beckoning to the sky.
The black figure finished her sentence"...The greeting card."
