Sorry it took so long, guys; Exam Season was long and unkind, and this is the second-largest chapter so far.
Love and Gratitude to the Constellations Team: Mara and Camille (beta), Tami (characterization and discussion pal), Navot (battle scene advisor) and Roie (who made this possible).
Enjoy, and please review!
12. Gestalt
Climbing down the ladder, Tori surveyed her handiwork. "Banner's looking good, Kelly!" she called out.
"Good!" called Kelly back. "I don't suppose I'll see you participating, huh?"
Tori put the ladder aside. "If you'd added surfing I'd be all over it."
"Dude, because competing against you on the water is so fair to everyone else," said Dustin, passing through with a can of motor oil.
Tori just rolled her eyes at him, silently glad that Kelly took comments such as this as humor.
"What about you, Dustin?" asked Kelly. "Are you going to sign up?"
"No way," said Dustin, raising both his arms in mock-apprehension. "I'm still sore from last year's skating!"
Kelly shook her head, 'but put the stack of forms she'd been holding down on the counter. "Think any of the others will sign up?"
"Not Blake," said Tori automatically. "He won't go within three feet of a skateboard."
"What is it with moto guys and skate-phobia?" demanded Kelly. She threw up her hands, half exasperated and half amused. "Besides, that's what the team competition is for."
"Well, maybe," Dustin relented. "I'll ask Shane once… Oh, there they are!"
And indeed, Shane and Hunter stepped in. Tori surveyed them surreptitiously: their sparring sessions, closely supervised as they were, still tended to get too violent too fast. Today, though, it seemed they'd managed to keep from bruising each other in visible areas – they weren't even wearing long sleeves.
"Shane! Hunter!" Kelly's face lit up. "Any chance you'd like to sign up for the Total Track Tournament?"
Hunter glanced up at the banner, and then at the board detailing the events. "Sure," he said.
Shane shot him a sidelong glance. "I'm in."
"Great!" Kelly reached out to the stack of forms, hand hovering over it. "Individual, or team competition?"
"What?" Shane's sneer wasn't as good as Hunter's, yet, but he was improving. "Individual, definitely."
"Yeah," agreed Hunter, giving Shane a look of disgust.
"Hey, Shane, man," started Dustin, "I thought maybe we could…"
"Individual," reiterated Shane. He took the offered form from Kelly's hand. "You are so going to get it," he told Hunter before turning his back and walking away.
Hunter pressed his lips together for a second, and Tori wished yet again that she could read him: what small signs of emotion he showed were always too faint for her to decipher. Then his expression relaxed into the familiar cool mask, and he said: "Wait, did you hear that?"
She hated that tone of voice. It made her feel as if the temperature in the room just dropped.
Shane paused, turned around. He looked wary as Hunter approached him, each step a silent declaration of skill to a ninja's trained eye. "No, I didn't," he said.
One step away from Shane, Hunter paused. "It sounds like your hopes and dreams coming crashing down around you," he said, his tone still smooth, still icy. "I'm gonna tear your ass."
"You wish," said Shane, haughty tone just this side of controlled.
Hunter raised his eyebrows questioningly, and then turned and walked towards the back room, where Blake already was, setting crates in their place. Shane remained standing for another moment, then snorted deliberately and disappeared into the crowd of customers.
"Two alpha males in their natural habitat," said Tori neutrally, hoping to ease the tension in the air, and quite conscious of Kelly's confusion at Shane's behaviour.
Kelly smiled sympathetically. "Boys," she agreed. "Some of them remain five-year-olds forever."
"Yeah," agreed Tori, faking a smile. It had gone far enough. "I'll see you later, okay?"
"Hey, where are you going?" called Kelly after her.
"Forgot something at the dojo!" called Tori back. "Twenty minutes, I'll be back!"
Cam was at his perpetual perch by the computer. He wasn't the one she was looking for, though.
"No, I don't know where he is," said Cam. "All he said was that he's gone to meditate on some things."
"Oh." She hadn't counted on Sensei being unavailable. "I guess you don't know when he'll be back, either."
"Sorry." Cam considered her for a moment. "What happened? You guys just left here less than an hour ago."
"It's about Shane and Hunter."
Cam's lip pressed into a thin line. "What happened?"
Tori shrugged. "The usual: insulting each other, nearly brawling. Nothing special."
"Nearly brawling?" Cam seemed torn between alarm and skepticism. "You don't really think they would, right?"
"No, but they scare me still."
"Dad's doing what he can."
"Cam, this sparring together thing isn't working," she said exasperatedly. That's what she wanted to tell Sensei. "It's only making it worse. I don't think their problem is not being used to each other. I think they need to ignore each other as much as they can for a while." It only made sense if one knew what caused the explosion, and she was pretty sure she was the only one who knew. "They'll do just that if he'll leave them be, and after a while they'll be able to be civil to each other again. But forcing them to interact is only aggravating the situation."
"I told him that."
"You did?" That surprised her. Cam didn't tend to openly disagree with his father, and he tended to believe in banging people's heads together.
"Yes."
"And he didn't change his mind." She sighed.
"He treats it like a regular conflict," said Cam after a moment. "It's hard to explain to him why it isn't."
She gave him a weird look. That sounded too much like what she'd been thinking. "How do you figure it's not a regular conflict?"
Cam shifted in his chair. "It just seems that way."
"Sure," she agreed. "It's so obvious that your dad, who's pretty good with people, got it right away."
"So I've had a hunch."
"You don't get hunches, Cam. Or if you do, you don't trust them until you have you gut feeling backed up with facts." It was a long shot, but it was worth it. "You know."
"Know what?"
"Come on." A smile was tugging at the corner of her lips, now. It was so obvious, now that she actually thought of it instead of just panicking over Shane's denial. "Nothing can happen in Ninja Ops without your knowing. You had cameras running outside the infirmary, or something."
"Voice sensors," he said, "which didn't record anything that would justify all this hostility." His lips twitched. "There are cameras now, obviously."
She waited.
"Hunter," he said finally.
Her eyebrows shot up. "He actually knows how to talk? Wow."
"Mostly, he broods," said Cam dryly, "but Dustin got under his skin once."
"Got under Shane's, too," she said.
Silence. There wasn't much they could say without betraying trust. She was dying to know what Hunter was thinking and feeling – it would've made it easier for her to work things out with Shane, regardless of her own plain curiosity. She didn't ask, though, because Cam's expression clearly said that anything he knew, he wasn't sharing. As for her, she would've risked it and shared with Cam, if only she knew where Shane was standing – if only Shane had known: he had not yet worked beyond grudgingly accepting that he wasn't straight.
"I'll tell my dad what you said," said Cam, "and I'll give you a call when he's back, see if you can drop by again and tell him yourself."
"Think it would help any?"
"Worth a shot."
"He didn't listen to you," she pointed.
Cam nearly snorted. "Yeah. Because he holds my ability judge to people in such a high regard. You, on the other hand, have a good track record. Maybe he'll consider it if it comes from you, too."
She didn't know what to say to that, so she simply said: "Thanks."
Cam nodded. "Anytime."
He returned his attention to the monitor, and she turned to leave.
"Tori," he called when she already had her foot on the first step.
She turned around.
Cam considered her seriously over the rim of his glasses.
"Why is Shane doing it?" he asked. "It's not the kiss that did this. You don't have to answer," he added hastily.
She shook her head. "They're not talking, so maybe you and I should," she said. After a long pause, she added: "I think he's afraid, Cam."
Cam nodded. "I'll call you when Dad's back. And good luck," he added, "You're going straight back to the lions' den, right?"
"Right," she confirmed. "And thanks. For everything."
He smiled. "Anytime."
The boxing Bop-a-Roo was probably Kapri's least-liked trainer. His programming was a masterpiece, but still he was a robot, with all the advantages and disadvantages it implied: strong, fast and impossible to tire, a good practice for facing off against Rangers, but not the most inspired when it came to tactics. Still, stamina and raw force were Kapri's and Marah's greatest weaknesses against the Rangers, thus Lothor's purchase of the Bop-a-Roo.
The buzzer sounded, indicating the end of the training session. Kapri stepped back. She, Marah and Bop-a-Roo bowed to each other.
"Good, but not good enough," said Lothor. He came to watch the girls' session with Bop-a-Roo at least twice a week, and never failed to point out at least five things each of them needed to improve.
"Ew, Uncle, come on!" complained Marah, gingerly testing her freshly-bruised shoulder. "Bop-a-Roo is brutal. We can't be as strong as he, and you know it. You should send him against the Rangers, they won't stand a chance."
Lothor opened his mouth, quite possibly to tell her off, but then closed it, looking quite surprised. "Was that an actual idea that came from the empty space between your ears, Marah?"
Kapri, too, was surprised, though probably less than her Uncle. She knew that her sister was far from stupid: she was incredibly unmotivated, which Kapri considered to be even worse.
"It's a good idea," ruled Lothor. "I like it. Get changed, girls. I'll see you on the bridge in ten."
"I'm never going to get showered and ready in ten minutes!" protested Marah. "I'm all stinky and filthy! Look at my hair!" she held out a damp, sweat-soaked lock.
"I'll hurry if I were you, then," called Lothor behind his shoulder. "You've already lost fifteen seconds."
Kapri smirked. With a snap of her fingers, her sweaty training suit was replaced with fresh clothes from her closet, her makeup corrected and her body cleansed of the sweat and dust. Her hair was immaculate. It was hard for her not to laugh at Marah's look of surprise – Kapri didn't usually boast her few, hard-earned sorcery skills. "See you on the bridge, sis," she teased as she turned towards the door.
"You're just jealous because it was my idea, for a change!" shouted Marah at her back. "We're together in this, Kapri, in case you've forgotten! We're…"
The door closed behind Kapri's back, cutting off the rest of Marah's words.
"There must be a thousand things you would die for
I can hardly think of two
But not everything is better spoken aloud
Not when I'm talking to you"
-Mystery, Indigo Girls
He calculated odds as he ran. He and Hunter were pretty equal in stamina and general fitness: the running and urban climbing competitions would be pretty close. He'd best Hunter at the skate ramp, no problem, but was bound to lose at the moto track. It didn't matter, though, so long as he sucked with a bike less than Hunter would with a board. Shane figured the chances of that happening were pretty decent: he had at least some experience with bikes, while as far as he knew Hunter had never stepped on a skateboard. He didn't have to win the tournament: he just had to beat Hunter.
He had to end this issue, somehow, because it was taking over his life. Hunter's eyes were haunting him, Hunter's voice constantly playing in his ears. Sensei was practically building training sessions around the two of them. He had to resolve this. Maybe if he managed to beat Hunter at something, strike a blow at that insufferable arrogance…
It wouldn't change anything for the better. Shane knew that, if he was completely honest with himself. It wasn't about who was the better Ranger, the better fighter, the better leader. It was about how they stood with one another. All chances to pretend he had never kissed Hunter were long gone out the window – if such chances ever existed. All chances to fold that incident into the fabric of their lives without a trace were gone, because he couldn't bring himself to not care.
The sight of Hunter coming out of one of the alleyways was a near-physical shock. Their eyes met, but Hunter's body language betrayed nothing. That was what Shane hated about Hunter from the beginning – that uncaring attitude.
They turned up the same stairway. Shane looked straight ahead, ignoring Hunter and hoping their paths would separate soon.
Maybe Hunter's cold attitude drove him nuts because it didn't gel with anything else. It didn't fit with the passion with which Hunter protected Blake; with that burning need for vengeance that had to stem from a love as great; with the intensity with which he watched Dustin at the track so he could offer advice later, practically coaching him. Now that he was thinking about it, Shane also realized that Hunter had also adopted Tori's habit of drawing Cam into conversations.
If only he could crack the indifferent mask, damn it.
It wasn't so much the falling into step that bothered him, as it was how fast it had happened. Hunter knew that running with someone meant falling in step with them, but he hadn't expected to sync with Shane in seconds. That was just freaky – and the sense of comfort that stemmed from it even scarier.
Being horrible to Shane annoyed him because he didn't get why they had to go through that. He was pretty sure that Shane wasn't really a jerk. Shane was no Blake – he didn't have what it took to be sympathetic towards someone while planning to screw them over. The way Shane usually acted, bringing people in, easily keeping track of everyone, that had to be the real Shane – not the guy who would not even look at him. Hunter felt a pang of guilt whenever he thought of those times Shane cornered him after a battle or a tough training, demanded to know how Hunter was really doing and not letting go until he was sure Hunter was all right.
He was angry with himself for that guilt, for yearning for Shane to act that way again; angry with the way he kept excusing Shane's current behaviour; and he was angry with Shane.
That was when the teleportation beam hit.
When it came to evil space ninjas, Shane had learned that their bark was usually as bad as their bite: the more annoying they were, the more dangerous they were likely to be. This particular nuisance had verbal diarrhea, so Shane figured it was probably going to be a tough one.
And the guy at his side was the single least cooperative Ranger on the team. Perfect.
"What are you doing?" he snapped at Hunter, seeing that Hunter was raising his morpher hand.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" shot Hunter.
"It's not time to morph yet."
"Are you going to wait until he blasts us and see how we survive it unmorphed?"
The ball of fire roared as it shot towards them. Hunter and Shane dove to the sides and rolled in opposite directions, making themselves two separate targets instead of one.
"Now it's time to morph," said Shane, rising from his crouch.
Hunter's look was sour, but he morphed along, launching himself at their foe together with Shane. They nearly got in each other's way.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" shouted Shane angrily.
"What do you mean what I'm doing?"
Another ball of fire. The stupid boxing kangaroo-like robot was apparently not one to waste time. Shane rose with his blaster in hand and started looking for the thing's weak spots by the trial-and-error tactic – shooting rapid fire and hoping to hit anything sensitive. He cursed aloud as Hunter ran forward, staff drawn. What the hell was he thinking, running into a volley like that?
"Can't you stay put for three seconds?" he demanded as he holstered the blaster and drew his sword, joining the close-up combat.
"Can't you accept help from anyone?"
"Like you're one to talk!"
Sidestepping a cutting blow from Shane, their opponent moved straight into Hunter's waiting staff, falling forward. He threw himself into the fall, though, rolling in the air and sending a massive energy blast almost before he'd landed. The blast was so bright it nearly blinded Shane even through his visor.
Then a shadow came between him and the light. Hunter had rearranged his staff into its shield form faster than Shane could think, and was holding off the steady current of energy the kangaroo-robot was pumping out. Step by step, Hunter moved forward, shoulders hunched as if he was pushing against a terrible weight. Then their opponent was gone. Hunter stumbled forward, but didn't fall.
Shane ran towards him, visor pulled back. "What the hell were you thinking, walking straight into a blast like that?"
Hunter glared at him, having pulled back his visor as well. "Because you can't shield for shit and that was too fast to dodge!"
"I don't care, just stop giving me heart attacks like this!" Shane bit his lip, realizing what he'd just said.
"Fine, I'll let you get blasted to pieces next time!" snapped Hunter. Then he, too, realized that for the first time in over a week, Shane hadn't run him down just for the sake of it – and had actually showed some of the concern he'd used to, before.
Shane saw it, this time – the fraction of a second in which Hunter's fury was gone, replaced by that expression which made Shane nearly kiss him again.
He took a deep breath and turned his head, demorphing so that the sparks would hide his expression. "Let's get running," he said, knowing there was no way Hunter missed the tremor in his voice. When he looked again, Hunter had demorphed as well and was considering Shane with unreadable eyes.
Blake remembered looking down at the Winds, because they only began practicing in their teens, while he and Hunter had lived and breathed ninjitsu since they'd learned to walk. After two weeks of training together almost every day, Blake wasn't nearly as cocky. There was the issue of adaptability, for one: Blake had always trained against Thunder ninjas, and fighting against people of different schools and styles was not something he was used to. The Winds, though, had been trained to fight against styles not their own from their very first class. Then there was the issue of the morphers: Blake had learned that different morphers gave their holders different advantages the first time he and Hunter had sparred morphed. He knew Hunter's abilities like he knew his own: he could tell that the morphers strengthened different things to slightly different degrees for each of them. 'Slightly' was the keyword: he hadn't realized how different morphers could be until his first training session with the Winds. Speed was the most prominent factor: morphed, it was Blake's greatest asset. Unmorphed, it was hard to remember that he couldn't rely on his reflexes alone. That was why Sensei Watanabe kept assigning him to spar against Tori or Dustin: Tori's fast thinking and ability to improvise more than made up for her relative lack of experience, and Dustin's true Earth Ninja knack for knocking his opponents legs was a nightmare for Blake, who tended to rely on flying maneuvers. Sensei's insistence to pair Hunter and Shane meant that Blake often found himself sparring against Dustin and Tori simultaneously. It was hardly a fun experience, but it forced him to improve – and fast.
The three of them returned to Ninja Ops after Tori's watch beeped, indicating the end of their allotted sparring time. Cam was there, of course. So was Sensei – but Hunter and Shane weren't.
"What's going on?" asked Blake. "Where are Hunter and Shane?"
"Sensei, you didn't let them spar unsupervised, did you?" asked Tori.
"I did not, Tori," said Sensei calmly. "I released Shane and Hunter early, today, so that they may prepare for the tournament they are soon to participate in."
"Hey, Sensei, that's really cool of you," said Dustin.
Tori, though, didn't seem as pleased. She crossed her arms on her chest and demanded, "What's the catch?"
"Why do you assume that there is a 'catch', Tori?" asked Sensei pleasantly.
"Come on, Sensei." Tori breathed a lock of hair away from her face. "Shane and Hunter don't need to train for the Total Track – not to beat the other competitors. We run all the time. We do push-ups and sit-ups all the time. We're all stronger and faster than we should be, even when we're not morphed. They only need to train if they're competing against each other. I didn't think you'd approve of that."
"You are right, Tori. However, something interesting happened yesterday."
Blake, Tori and Dustin exchanged looks.
"The only thing that happened yesterday was the new alien," Blake said.
"Right, the robotic kick-boxing kangaroo," said Dustin. "What's so interesting about him picking a fight with Shane and Hunter?"
"It's more interesting that they fought it instead of each other," said Cam wryly.
"Oh, no, not this again," said Tori. She sounded quite exasperated. "Really, Sensei, are you sure it's necessary?"
Blake looked between Tori and the guinea pig. "Did I miss something?"
"Back in the really early days of us being Rangers, Shane pretty much sucked as a leader," said Tori. "He was really impossible to work worth. So when Shane found himself fighting an alien on his own, Sensei held Dustin and me back from helping him, until Shane asked for help. That's what this is about, right?" she asked Sensei.
"Indeed."
"Great." Blake found himself echoing Tori's tone. "Just great."
"They're not really out there on their own," said Cam. "I'm keeping constant surveillance on them. You can stay here and watch, too. This way, backup will only be seconds away, when they need it."
The three of them exchanged looks again. Tori said it for all three of them: "You didn't really think we wouldn't stay, right?"
Cam placed his laptop of the table, and they settled around it.
"They're jogging together," said Tori. "Did you tell them to do that, Sensei?"
"No, I did not, Tori"
Blake shook his head. "The end is nigh."
"Dude, you don't know that," said Dustin, "It could be the vision of peace. What?" he added at Tori's and Cam's twin Looks. "I was just saying."
Running had never been one of Shane's favourite sports: it was boring, and solitary. The skating ramp always had a crowd, and every move was a new world to be discovered. Ninjitsu held a similar allure, with the secrecy of the Academy being an added bonus. Running, though, was monotonous and boring, and Shane only did it for sports when Sensei assigned them laps.
Running with Hunter was everything but boring. Shane could remember battles when he'd felt less on edge. Partially it was caused by unspoken competition – each of them trying to get ahead of the other without opening too much of a distance. Mostly, though, the tension was caused by the short looks they kept exchanging: they'd ignore each other for a minute or three, and then Shane would sneak a look at Hunter, or he'll catch Hunter looking at him. They kept looking, and they kept avoiding direct eye contact – on the few occasions that had happened, they both jerked their heads sideways and avoided looking at each other studiously for a few moments, until one of them got the dance started again.
Five miles into their run, they spotted a large, dark figure walking around a truck parked some 400 yards from them. Recognizing the shadow of the figure, they stepped out of sight, between two buildings.
"Looks like somebody paid for an upgrade," said Hunter.
"Yeah," agreed Shane. Bop-a-Roo's boxing gloves seemed significantly larger than they had been the day before, and sported studs. "Time to morph."
Hunter's lips quirked, but the wry smile disappeared almost before it appeared. He nodded. "Let's do it."
Morphed, Shane cast a cautious glance around the corner. Bop-a-Roo showed clearly on the helmet display, and Shane really didn't like what the specs were telling him. "Any ideas?"
"Hit hard and block harder?"
Shane smiled tightly. "Works for me. And let's make it fast."
Hunter's voice was grimly amused as he said: "Gotcha."
Shane nodded and drew his sword. "On my mark: three, two, one… Ninja shadow spar!"
They were lucky: Bop-a-Roo hadn't seen them before they leaped at him, giving them five seconds straight. In shadow spar terms, this was almost forever. When they broke back to normal space, though, Bop-a-Roo was still standing on his feet, seemingly unaffected by the barrage.
"I can't believe it!" cried Shane.
"Damn this guy," growled Hunter. He unholstered his blaster. "Let's give him some real fire."
"I hear ya," answered Shane.
Together, they pulled the triggers of their weapons, but the brilliant energy beams of their blasters were scattered by the luminescent wall of energy that suddenly appeared in front of Bop-a-Roo.
"My shield worked!" called a female voice delightedly.
Shane turned his head sharply. There, on top of one of the buildings, were Marah, Kapri and Zurgane. Marah was clapping her hands and jumping up and down, and Kapri was looking sour. It didn't take Cam to figure out what just happened.
"My shield worked!" repeated Marah. "How cool am I?"
"How lucky are you?" shot Hunter.
Four to two. While Shane was pretty certain he and Hunter could pull it off on a good day, he had no intention to find out if today was a good day. He raised his wrist to his mouth. "Cam!" he called.
The answer was prompt. "I read you, Shane."
"I think some backup will be nice, here!"
"All you had to do was ask," said Cam.
Later, Shane would remember that sentence, would realize that the cavalry had arrived within three seconds of his call, and would grill Cam for it. At that moment, though, he was just glad for the quick reply.
"Dudes, you started the party without us?" complained Dustin the second he, Blake and Tori became more than blurred streaks of colour.
"Plenty for everyone," said Hunter. The girls and Zurgane had jumped down from the building top, and the four space ninjas circled the Rangers slowly. In response, the five Rangers formed a circle, standing back to back.
"So, what's the plan?" asked Tori.
"No plan," said Shane. "It's a free buffet today."
"Hey!" protested Kapri.
"You got a problem with that?" retorted Hunter.
"No," said Kapri, "I have a problem with you."
As if it was a signal, all nine combatants moved simultaneously. Shane, in typical fashion, headed directly for the threat of the day. Quickly, though, he found out that he was alone against Bop-a-Roo. Jaws set, a blaster in one hand and a sword in the other, he dove forward, determined to teach the space robot the definition of 'hell'.
He didn't like Kapri. Once upon a time he may have felt a hint of sympathy towards her, which quickly changed to indifference and then to cold indifference. Now, though, that emotion was quickly turning into active loathing. She was toying with him – he could tell as much. She was dodging him expertly, pulling him forward, away from the others. He tried overturning the game, but she was better at it than he. It annoyed him, because he was pretty sure that she did not stand a chance against him in an honest fight. She probably knew that, too, which was why she was playing this game.
Even under his helmet, he did not let his frustration leak to his face. He kept his expression cool, schooled, and tried to think up a snare for the big-mouthed space ninja.
It wasn't that she disregarded Dustin. Tori liked to think that she had a pretty realistic grasp of her friends, talents and pitfalls alike. Still, picking herself up after a bad hit, she was a bit surprised to discover that Dustin was holding up fairly well against Zurgane and his two swords. For a moment she stood in place, just watching: Dustin and Zurgane were stepping backwards and forward, like in a fencing tournament, Zurgane slashing and hacking, Dustin rolling, dodging and throwing punches. Her mind raced forward, analyzing and categorizing, fascinated by the display. Then she shook herself, remembering where she was and what she was doing, and she threw herself at Zurgane, her sword raised at an angle relatively hard for her enemy to block.
He failed to dodge a ball of fire, again. Shane rolled behind an overturned car, hoping to catch a few seconds' breather and using the time to take a look around. Dustin and Tori were handling Zurgane pretty okay, Kapri didn't seem to give Hunter too much trouble, and Marah and Blake appeared to be having a round of drunken boxing. Then Marah stepped back, breaking contact. Blake hesitated, possibly suspecting a trick – and two energy beams shot out of the huge jewels in Marah's hair, wrapping around Blake and spinning him in the air, in an undeniable mockery of one of Blake's moves. Shane stared. A sudden cry redirected his attention to Hunter and Kapri – the latter was actually standing on Hunter's staff, a position she maintained for a full second before doing a back flip and sending out her own fireball. Hunter rolled away – behind another car, close to Shane.
"Stupid bitch," spat Hunter.
Shane was inclined to agree. "That Bop-a-Roo's a pain, too," he said. "I could really use your Thunder attacks against him."
Hunter shook his head. "It takes a sword against him."
"Pity we can't combine our attacks, or something."
"Maybe we can." Hunter raised his wrist to his mouth. "Cam! Is there some way for Shane and me to combine our energies against Bop-a-Roo?"
One second. Two.
"Give me a moment," said Cam. Seconds later, his voice came on again: "I've got it. Hunter, you're going to have to direct the energy from your morpher to Shane's. The morphers will supply the calibration needed, and the energy will be redirected to Shane's sword."
"Got it." Hunter lowered his arm, holding it as if in a morphing position. "You'd better make this one good," he said.
Shane thought it sounded more like a blessing than a warning. "You can count on me. Let's go!"
Hunter brought down his arm in a sharp movement. "Thunder Power!"
Shane raised his arm, intercepting the arc of sizzling energy. It almost hurt, like a hit directly to a nerve. Still, the energy went almost immediately to his sword, like Cam said would happen. He rose to his feet, jumping on top of the car and then – without pausing to hesitate or consider, knowing that he only had seconds – launched himself directly at Bop-a-Roo, hoping that some miracle would prevent the robot from blocking him. Bop-a-Roo sent a last-second fireball, and Shane caught it with his sword, adding it to the blast he delivered to his rival upon impact. Everything seemed to explode when his sword cut through Bop-a-Roo's armour, sending him flying back through the air. He managed to land on his feet, but the momentum would've sent him to the ground if not for the strong pair of arms that grabbed his shoulders, not letting him fall. It was the most natural thing to do, to put his hand on top of Hunter's as he turned to face him.
The others were running towards them. "Let's put them together!" shouted Dustin, and Shane reacted on instinct, forming the Storm Striker with Tori and Dustin as Hunter and Blake formed the Thunder Blaster. "Now!" he called out, and the two subteams shot simultaneously at Bop-a-Roo.
The energy was absorbed into a glistening shield. Lothor's nieces and Zurgane were standing next to Bop-a-Roo.
"You thought hers was good," said Kapri. "Try mine."
"It looks strong," said Tori quietly. Unlike Marah's translucent shield, Kapri's was opaque, nearly solid-looking.
"Ideas, anyone?" Shane asked.
One heartbeat. Two. Three.
"What if we put them all together?" asked Hunter. "Combine all of our weapons."
It was the right solution – and Shane knew it, because he felt Dustin and Tori moving before he even spoke, because he felt the Power in his blood responding to it, because it was what Rangers did.
Carefully he supported the base of the massive canon, as the other four gently directed it.
"Try this one on for size," he told Kapri, and then ordered: "Fire!"
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, and the fire made way, none of their enemies were visible.
After the briefing at Ninja Ops, Dustin was in a real hurry to get to Storm Chargers without being too late. Somehow all of them ended going into the store, 'just to say hi', and somehow Tori and Blake got sucked into the whirlwind of activity. Hunter, still in his workout clothes, really didn't want to just hang around. Tori was the only ones with wheels, and he didn't feel like interrupting her and Blake, so he figured he'd just jog back to the apartment. It was just a couple of miles; no biggie.
He hadn't counted on Shane following him out of the store. Instead of running, like he had planned to do, he walked into that useful alley just right of the store. Then he turned and faced Shane. "What?" he asked, not bothering to sound nice.
Shane looked a bit embarrassed, but also determined. "I just wanted to apologize."
Hunter considered. "For which part?"
He could tell that Shane was taken aback with that response, and felt a pang of satisfaction. Good. Let him writhe a little.
"I'm sorry for hurting you," said Shane finally. "I hoped… maybe we can be friends."
Hunter was tempted to draw this out, to make Shane squirm some more. But it wasn't fair, he knew: not if Shane really meant what he'd just said. Hunter thought he did – it was in Shane's eyes, in his posture, in the way his jaw was set. He was also turn between the need to ask more questions, to define exactly what Shane had meant by 'friends', and the need to preserve his pride, to not show what he wanted.
Besides, he could tell what Shane wanted. He'd seen the truth in Shane's eyes the day before, had felt it earlier, when he caught Shane after the explosion.
"Don't be a jerk," he finally said, "Ever again."
"Promise."
"Good."
They remained standing. Hunter wasn't sure what to do.
"I was just going home," he finally said.
Shane raised an eyebrow. "Which is why you went in here?"
"I heard you, stupid. Didn't want to have this conversation in full view of the others."
"Point."
Silence.
Damn. He really wanted out of that alley, but just walking past Shane didn't seem the right thing to do.
"We can go around the block couple of times," suggested Shane. "Tori will get bored of the video by then and will be ready to head out. If you want to," he added. "You probably really want to go home already."
Hunter considered him. Sincere.
"Couple of laps would be cool."
As Shane's face lit up, Hunter thought that maybe this wouldn't such a bad idea after all.
