Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Power Rangers used here; all are the property of Saban/Jetix/Disney (Who does own the rights to the series these days anyway?)
Feedback: Please do; I'd like to know I'm not wasting my time here
Dino Thunder: Generations
As they entered the cave, Conner couldn't contain a small sigh of frustration as he failed to see anything that could help him or Kira discover the entrance to the Temple of Power. As far as he could see, the cave just went a few metres into the rock and then abruptly terminated, a faint light the only indication that there was anything remarkable about this cave beyond its location in the 'Desert of Despair'.
"Is this it?" he asked, glancing over at Kira. "Is this all some elaborate joke, or did Doctor O. say something about the entrance to this place that I'm forgetting right now?"
"Maybe…" Kira said, nodding thoughtfully as she studied the cave around her, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "It's been a while since I read the records, but I think, if what I remember from Doctor O.'s information about this place was right, there's a concealed entrance somewhere around here…"
Reaching out to a nearby wall, Kira began to run her hands over the rock, stopping when she reached a section of the rock that proved to be less solid than appearances would suggest; her hand passed right through the wall with a glow and crackle of yellow energy.
Looking back at Conner, Kira raised an eyebrow and smiled at him.
"Shall we?" she asked.
Conner nodded. "Yeah, let's go," he said, a slightly resigned expression on his face as he stared at the wall, tensing himself up for a moment, and then walking straight through the wall to vanish in a crackle of red energy.
Kira waited for a second or two to allow him time to get out of the way of the entrance- she wasn't sure how this thing worked, and didn't want to risk materialising in Conner rather than some distance away from him- and then walked through the 'door' in the wall before them…
To come out in a large garden, filled with all kinds of greenery, and find Conner facing some kind of massive stone creature that looked like some bizarre combination of a Japanese samurai and the Thing from the Fantastic Four comics. It wasn't quite as bulky as the man who had once been known as Ben Grimm, and it looked a bit smoother around the edges than the Thing had ever been- from what she could see under its armour, anyway- but it was still bulky enough to be a significant threat.
"Conner!" Kira screamed, staring in horror at the sight before her.
"Get out of here, Kira!" Conner yelled back at her, desperately ducking underneath a sword-blow from his opponent as he spun around to stare in her direction. "I'll hold it off, but one of us needs to get back to stop this crap from happening!"
No! Kira thought to herself, as Conner tried desperately to stay ahead of his adversary's sword. He was doing a decent job, true, but it was evident that he'd come to rely too much on his dino-power of superspeed in a combat situation like this. When they'd given their Dino Gems to the other Rangers, something must have happened to their Dino Powers to ensure they kept this 'test' fair…
Kira shook her head violently to clear her thoughts; the fine print about what had happened to prevent them from accessing their Dino Powers at the moment wasn't important.
What mattered was that Conner was in trouble, and Kira was the only person available to help him at the moment.
Glancing around, her eyes fell on a couple of nearby large rocks. They weren't that much in the way of a weapon, but they might just be enough…
Diving off to the side, Kira grabbed one of the rocks in her hands and hurled it towards the creature, unable to contain a brief "Yes!" as the rock struck the creature's shoulder, sending it staggering back. As it turned to look at Kira, its attention diverted from Conner at last, Kira hurled the second rock, smiling once again as it struck the creature in the face; it seemed as though it was relatively fast when attacking, but when it came to defending itself, it was hardly the fastest thing on the planet.
All she needed to do was find a couple more decent-sized rocks, hit this sucker in the head a few more times, and she and Conner should be able to reach the temple before things went too far…
Then the creature began to charge towards her, its sword outstretched, and she was forced to desperately dive to one side before it could impale her to the next available surface. As she dived out of the way, she vaguely registered Conner charging after the creature, but for the moment she was too busy focusing on regaining her breath to do something about it…
As she staggered back onto her feet, Kira heard a loud clunk from the direction Conner had just charged after the creature. Looking up, she saw that Conner had grabbed a nearby rock and, lunging onto the creature's back, had struck it directly in the head, sending the creature staggering forward slightly to crash into another rock. As it turned around, Kira saw that its nose had been damaged by the attack, but otherwise its face appeared to be intact.
Its eyes flashing red as it stared in his direction, the creature raised its sword to strike at Conner, but as soon as its lower quarters seemed reasonably undefended, Kira had charged forward, hitting it in the leg with such force that, even given the creature's greater mass, it was sent staggering backwards
As Kira rolled out of the path of the creature's retaliatory kick, the rock clutched in his hand, Conner leapt forward, striking the creature in the face with as much strength as he could muster without his Ranger abilities. A loud roar of pain sounded from the creature's throat as it reached up to grab Conner, but the Red Ranger had already released his grip on his opponent's neck and had leapt backwards to escape the attack. Glancing up, Kira saw that the creature's left eye- each one originally glowing a deep, threatening blue- was now cracked, as though it were made of glass, and a thick green substance was leaking out of a larger crack stretching from the creature's forehead to the left corner of its mouth.
"We've got it on the ropes!" Kira yelled to Conner as he leapt back onto his feet and glanced over in her direction. "Another couple of hits like that, and it's finished!"
"Right!" Conner said, nodding back at her. "I'll see about finding another rock; you-"
"GET DOWN!" Kira yelled, leaping to her feet and diving towards Conner, sending him flying back just as the creature lunged forward with its sword in an attempt to stab Conner in the side. Kira winced as she felt the blade touch her back, but she tried to put it out of her mind; so long as Conner was still alive and she wasn't seriously injured, she could cope with a bit of discomfort.
Then she moved her arm slightly, sending a very prominent ache through her entire side and causing her to gasp for air, and she re-evaluated just how much damage she'd taken; it felt like the blade had gone further in than she'd thought.
This isn't good… she thought to herself, pain shooting through her side as she tried to take another breath.
She wasn't going to die, but she definitely wasn't in a very good shape…
"Kira!" Conner yelled, as he looked down at the Yellow Ranger who'd just knocked him out of the way of the creature, blood leaking from the long scratch in her stomach as she lay on top of him, clutching her side as she looked at him.
"Go…" she whispered, staring back at him anxiously. "You have to go… you have to get the power… one of us has to get back…"
"No!" Conner insisted, as he reached up to clasp Kira's shoulders and stare at her. "I'm not leaving you here!"
Then, before he knew what he was doing, before he'd even had the time to fully process the consequences of his actions, in a single moment of desperate fear and passion, Conner leaned forward and pressed his lips against Kira's.
It was only after his lips had parted from Kira's that Conner realised three things.
One, he'd just done the very thing he'd always, always promised himself he'd never do; he'd kissed a girl who he… cared for… despite the fact that he knew that she was in love with someone else.
Second, her top was no longer covered in blood; indeed, from what he could feel, with his hands still holding Kira, her entire side had healed itself.
Thirdly, the creature they'd been fighting had just vanished, to be replaced by an almost sheepish-looking figure in massive blue and gold armour who was standing in front of the doors of what had to be the Temple of Power.
"I acknowledge that my timing could be better, but I would like to apologise for the rather… volatile nature of that test," the creature said, as Conner and Kira stared up at him, for the moment unsure how to react. "I simply allowed the magic of the Temple free reign to come up with a means of appropriately testing your spiritual worthiness to receive Ninja powers; I had no idea it would be as dangerous as that."
After a moment's pause, Conner and Kira finally spoke.
"WHAT!" they yelled, both of them leaping to their feet to stare incredulously at the figure standing before them.
"You mean that was a test?" Kira yelled angrily at the blue figure in front of them; she vaguely registered that the figure seemed to be Ninjor, the being who'd created the original Power Coins, but she was too focused on being angry at the moment. "I could have died in a test? I nearly lost a lung because you wanted to make sure we could cope with this power?"
"Yes, well, as I said, I didn't exactly think it would turn out quite like this…" Ninjor said as he looked awkwardly at the two Rangers.
"Oh, you didn't THINK-" Kira began, stepping forward to glare ever more at the blue warrior before her, but stopped as Conner place a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back slightly as he stepped forward to look at Ninjor.
"Uh… putting aside the fact that we really don't appreciate being attacked for a 'test', did we do well?" he asked, looking awkwardly at the ninja master before him.
"Oh, rest assured, Conner McKnight, you and Kira Ford have passed my test with the proverbial flying colours," Ninjor replied, as he looked over at the Red Dino Thunder Ranger; if his face had been visible, he would doubtless have been smiling at Conner. "Can you guess why?"
"We… proved that we're prepared to fight even if we don't have any powers?" Conner said, looking at Ninjor uncertainly.
"Close, but not the entirety of the test," Ninjor replied, waving a hand at Conner in a prompting manner. "It also taught you both…"
Turning to look at Kira once again, Conner swallowed slightly, and then, knowing that he'd have to admit it now or possibly never get the chance, and then spoke.
"That we- or I, at least- need to actually tell us how we feel about each other," Conner said, sighing as he looked back at Kira. "Because… in our line of work… no matter what else we think… the next mission might be the one we don't come back from."
As Kira looked at him in confusion, Conner sighed, swallowed slightly and turned to look at her.
"Kira…" he began, looking uncertainly at her as he tried to think of the best way to say what he wanted to say, before deciding to just say it.
"I've… well, I've… kinda… had… feelings for you… for a while now- actually, you could say that… I… love you," he said, shifting his head slightly as he tried to look at everything but the Dino Thunder Yellow Ranger, not wanting to see her face when she had to tell him she didn't feel the same way. "I didn't want to tell you because… well, I knew how you felt about Trent, I didn't want to make things difficult, and I actually do care about our friendship-"
However, Conner was never able to say more than that; as soon as she'd had the time to process what he'd just told her, Kira had grabbed Conner and pulled him up to her before kissing him a second time, only pulling back when oxygen was becoming an issue.
Noting her friend's slightly startled expression, Kira smiled at him.
"Just to clarify, seeing as how it took you this long to figure out that I don't have any sort of feelings for Trent, I love you too," Kira said, a teasing grin on her face as she looked at the Red Ranger.
For a moment, the two Rangers just stared at each other, uncertain what else they could say to each other, until Ninjor finally broke the silence with a slight chuckle.
"So, now that this bit of business is attended to, shall we get down to why you came here in the first place?" he said, as he looked between Conner and Kira. As the two Rangers nodded, he smiled in approval as he indicated the Temple of Power. "Just step inside there, and I'll be with you in a minute."
A few moments later, Conner and Kira stood inside the Temple of Power, eyes closed and heads bowed as they clasped hands, multi-coloured energy crackling around their arms. Ninjor stood off to one side, looking at them approvingly for a moment (Along with a hint of satisfaction; it had been a long time since he'd been able to help Rangers beyond just giving them powers) before he began to speak.
"I shall guide you in your quest for knowledge and power," he began, walking slowly around Kira and Conner as their clothes shimmered, changing into the cloth garments of the Ninja Rangers. The suits remained unsettled, constantly shifting colours slightly, but Ninjor knew that this was only a temporary thing.
"Older than time itself- man has always known the calling…" Ninjor continued, continuing to stare at Conner and Kira as he walked, the Ninja energy around them almost a solid thing. "Light of the light, strength of the soul, ignite this eternal power inside of me. I am Ninja! I am pure of heart, body, mind, and spirit. Join with me now as I become one with the power of Ninja…"
Pausing for a moment, he smiled as he stared at their costumes, which had now settled into their new colours. Conner's outfit was a deep green, the same colour as had once been wielded by Tommy, while Kira, Ninjor noted with a slight degree of surprise, was in purple; it had been a long time since he'd seen a Ranger in that colour.
"Your journey is complete," he said, as he looked approvingly at them. "Open your eyes and claim your destiny."
Conner and Kira did so, and instantly released their grip on each other's hands, the better to stare at their new costumes.
"Whoa…" Conner said, half to himself, as he stared at his new costume, the colour that had once belonged to his mentor and was now uniquely his.
"Yeah, I know," Kira said, as she studied her costume for a moment, lost in thought as she admired the colour. Even if it wasn't quite what she was used to, a part of her was secretly rather proud that she had just become the first Purple Ranger…
"Wait a minute…" she said, her brow furrowing in confusion as she looked up at Ninjor. "What's with the new colours? When the other Rangers came here, they just had the same colours in their Ninja form as they had before!"
Ninjor smiled reassuringly. "It's quite simply, Miss Ford," he explained. "Unlike with the Rangers of the present, you two have no previous connection to the Morphing Grid that could be readily accessed by the ninja power."
"But… what about our Dino Gems?" Conner said, indicating the wrist where their gems would have been normally. "Hayley told me that they accessed the Morphing Grid-
"Your Dino Gems access a different kind of grid energy to that available to the Power Coins," Ninjor explained, as he turned to look at Conner. "Under the 'rules' that govern that level of morphing energy, you are the Red and Yellow Rangers, true, but under the rules of the Ninja power, you are the Green and Purple Rangers."
He paused for a moment, as though giving them time to process what he had, and then continued with the words of the ritual.
"You now possess the power of Ninja deep within your souls," he explained, indicating a door a short distance away from the main entrance. "Come and learn of your new gifts."
With that, he turned and walked out of the door he'd just pointed out, leaving Conner and Kira to follow him, still staring at their new costumes in awe as they felt their new power flowing through them.
