Disclaimer: Still don't own them

Author's note: Sorry for the wait, ladies and gentlemen but I have been busy. I was on a three day trip with the university I'll be attending which was super fun! Here's the next chapter! Enjoy! And thank you for the reviews!

Love is in the air
Too close for comfort

Cam had called an emergency meeting at Ninja Ops to discuss the events of the night before. The other rangers listened in shock as Shane and Cam told about their fight with Ben. Hunter's color had gone from already pale to ghostly white by the end of it. Ben was getting way too close for comfort and even worse was that they didn't seem to be able to stop him.

"Do you have any idea what he wanted?" Tori asked.

"I found him standing by the computer. I interrupted him halfway but from what I could gather, the only thing he was able to do was create a loophole with previously shot footage from the day before to mask his arrival and departure." Cam replied.

"And you're sure that's all he did? He didn't create a virus? Didn't sabotage us in some way?" Blake asked, looking from Cam to the computer as if he could determine like that what had happened.

"I ran a check, checked every program I could think of, checked the logs, checked everything. That's all he did." Cam answered with certainty.

"That's good … I guess," Dustin said, "But then there's still one question: what's his plan and will he come back?"

"That's two questions," Shane couldn't help but point out. Dustin rolled his eyes and waved a hand in a 'whatever, dude' way.

"I'm going to put up more security measures." Cam said.

"Like what?" Hunter asked.

"I'm not going to bore you with a technical explanation but basically, I'm going to password protect the portal. Our morphers being the password. When you enter, the morpher will send a signal to the main computer and you'll be allowed access. If you're not wearing a morpher, you'll be kicked out again. I'm going to need your morphers for a couple of minutes."

The rangers handed Cam their morphers and let him get to work. They knew by now Cam liked silence so they headed to a training room. Hunter didn't join them so Dustin excused himself and instead follow Hunter back up to the forest. They walked in silence for a little while before Hunter sat down, Dustin sat down next to him.

"He's getting too close." Hunter said softly.

"I know, but we're going to stop him one way or another." Dustin replied, reaching out and taking Hunter's hand in his. Hunter didn't pull away and entwined their fingers.

"I don't see us stopping him in the near future, he got away from Shane and Cam."

"He caught them by surprise. Look, try not to worry about it too much, dude. We'll deal with it as it comes." Dustin said gently. The words didn't have a soothing effect on Hunter at all but well, Dustin was sure there was nothing that could comfort him at this moment. He knew Hunter was still blaming himself for this mess and Dustin was afraid that if Ben kept pulling stunts like this, Hunter would do something stupid like attempting to find Ben.

They sat in silence for a while, just thinking and in Hunter's case, worrying.

"Hey, Dustin?" Hunter asked breaking the silence.

"Yeah?" Dustin asked, tearing his eyes away from the tree he had been staring at in order to look at Hunter.

"Do you think it'll all be okay?"

"Of course," Dustin said with a smile, "When have we not figured out a solution?"

"You're right." Hunter said with a small smile, "We'll be okay."

Hunter didn't sound entirely convinced but it wasn't as if Dustin was so sure of it. This wasn't one of Lothor's monsters they were facing. This was a guy of flesh and blood with an actual brain and an ability to come up with smart plans instead of the monsters' usually not so smart plans. They had no way of knowing what Ben was going to do, whether he was going to try to get in again or not, whether he was going to come up to one of them or not. It was that fact that drove Dustin crazy the most. They knew Ben was around but they didn't know where. They knew he was going to do something but they had no idea what. With Lothor's monsters, it was easy: they showed up to destroy the city, the rangers fought them, occasionally got the crap beaten out of them but eventually won. It was always the same structure.

"We better go back inside." Hunter said after another silence. Hunter helped him to his feet and didn't let go of his hand which for some reason immensely pleased Dustin because he had no idea how to react around Hunter. He didn't want to say or do the wrong things, he didn't want to trigger another attack of memories. It would be inevitable but he didn't want to push it, not again.

When they reached the common room, the four other rangers were sitting on the floor in a circle. Cam was obviously done. Hunter and Dustin grabbed their morphers and put them back on their wrists which for some reason soothed Dustin. Weird as it was, he felt naked without his morpher. The weight on his wrist was comforting.

"We were just talking about how it might be better if the six of us stay at Ninja Ops." Shane said, turning to look at both of them.

"No way." Dustin argued at once.

"Dustin-" Cam started.

"No, dude. It might be safer but I'm not leaving my house."

"Dustin, we'll be more of a danger to our families if we do stay there," Tori pointed out, "Assuming Ben is somehow keeping track, he'll know that we're not staying there anymore so he won't have reason to go back."

"Or maybe he'll see that as an opportunity to do something," Dustin countered. "With us not there, he might target our families."

"Dustin does have a point," Cam said with a frown.

"We obviously don't know but we're stronger together," Blake replied.

"I don't plan on hiding out the entire time though." Shane chimed in.

"Yeah, me neither, dude. Besides, we still have our jobs at Storm Chargers too and for all we know, Kelly might be in danger too." Dustin pointed out. He hadn't really thought about that before but it was true. She might be a possible target.

"Guys, I know Ben, I don't think he will go after our family or friends, he wants us… me." Hunter chimed in, looking around the group of rangers.

"We can't be sure of that." Shane said.

"I am." Hunter pressed. "He's not stupid enough to go after our families because if he does do something to them, the police will get involved. He knows we're not going to the police as long as it's us. He knows we're going to try to do this on our own, because we know he's dangerous. The police won't be able to stop him."

They fell silent, contemplating what Hunter had just told him.

"So we all stay here?" Blake asked.

"Still no," Dustin replied. A collective groan went through their group.

"Why the hell not?" Shane asked. "Your parents aren't even home!"

"Exactly!" Dustin exclaimed as if it was the most logical thing in the world. The other five just stared at each other and then at Dustin.

Dustin heaved a sigh, "So he may not do anything to our families but my house is fair game. If he does something there, we won't alert the police either because we'll know it's him."

"Good point," Cam remarked.

Dustin nodded proudly.

"Three people stay here, three people stay at Dustin's then." Shane suggested. Shane agreed to go with Dustin and Hunter while Tori, Blake and Cam stayed at Ninja Ops.

It was late afternoon when Dustin started going stir-crazy. They had returned to his place, had played some games on his Playstation but now they were plain bored.

"Let's hit the track. It's been ages since I went riding," Dustin suggested.

"Well, anything beats staring at the empty television screen," Shane replied.

Both friends looked at Hunter who shrugged. "Sure. Should be fun."

Thirty minutes later, Hunter and Dustin were all geared up and ready to go driving. Shane stood by the side-lines. Tori, Blake and Cam said they would join them soon. Shane made him self comfortable on one of the benches.

"Ten laps, winner has to buy the other a six pack. Well, you'll have to do in either case because I'm not 21 yet." Dustin added.

Hunter rolled his eyes behind his helmet but nonetheless agreed.

"Three, Two, One, Go!" Dustin called. They were off in an instant.

--

Ben watched from behind the trees. Hunter had become an excellent racer. He looked good out there and could no doubt become a professional if he didn't have the whole ranger thing going on. Ben sadly shook his head. He wanted Hunter to become famous, wanted people to envy him. But he would never be able to have that as long as he was around those people he called friends. They didn't know what was best for him. Being a ranger wasn't. That much was obvious. Those people were too selfish to let him go, to let him go after his dream. Instead, they forced him to stay because he was 'one of them'. Hunter wasn't, he would never be. The sooner he saw that, the better for everyone.

After a couple of laps, Hunter had driven away from the other. Their friends had by now arrived too which complicated his plan but only slightly. He just had to wait for Hunter's boyfriend to reach the part of the track he was closed to and then he could strike. He closed his eyes, blocking out everything but the distinctive roar of the motors. He could easily distinguish Hunter's from the other one's.

Power started burning inside of him, he was summoning his element. Thunder came roaring closer and was upon them in an instant. Lightening struck once and Ben's eyes shot open. The yellow one was coming close to where he was. An evil smile appeared on his face. Another lightening bolt struck from the sky, aimed precisely at the yellow one's wheel.

Ben was moving in an instant, disappearing into his streak. As in slow motion he heard a shout, the wheel gave out and the bike along with the rider were falling to the ground. In a second, he was there. He knocked the ranger out, removed his morpher and then lifted him up in his arms, streaking away. In three seconds, the job was done.

--

Hunter skidded to a halt at Dustin's shout but by the time he turned his bike around, there was no sign of the yellow ranger. Hunter swallowed heavily and drove back. He kneeled down and picked up the morpher that lay forgotten on the sand. The others joined him. He stood up and showed them the morpher. Their eyes widened. They didn't even need to ask what had happened, they knew.

To be continued

Author's note: Well, I hadn't intended for Dustin to get kidnapped but then I wrote it and decided to keep it in. Poor Dustin though, he's usually the one getting kidnapped in my stories. Anyway, review!