Chapter 12 – The Flood
March 30 2003, Unknown Location
Everything felt a little fuzzy for Tori, like she had been awoken from a deep sleep. Her brain was registering that someone was nudging her shoulder and calling her name but she was so tired that she didn't know how to respond. It took a couple of minutes for her eyes to focus on the familiar curly hair of her friend, "Dustin", she croaked out. The yellow ranger's head was positioned a few inches away from her face. She could feel his hand on her left shoulder, "Dude, have you never heard of personal space", she added and pushed him away.
"Yup you're absolutely fine", he chuckled, "can you sit up?" Tori reluctantly complied and got a good look at her surroundings for the first time. They were no longer inside a cave, instead they were on a beach. It didn't look like the beach in Green Valley though, the sand was dull brown instead of the golden colour she remembered. In fact every looks a little grey, the sea, the sky even the trees in the distance.
"Where the hell are we?" Tori asked the yellow ranger, "it feels like we've been swept into a black and white movie".
"It's an island of some sort", Shane made his presence known for the first time. He had returned from the undergrowth that led down from the side of a hill. "I can only see the ocean in every direction", he continued, "there's a slightly bigger hill over there but I can't see any towns".
"How big is the island?" Dustin said to the red ranger.
"Not very big", Shane replied, "a few square miles if that".
"Any sign of Hunter, Blake or Rocky?" Tori asked.
The red ranger shook his head, "Not that I can see but they can't be far away". He paused for a moment and gave Tori the once over, "Are you alright to walk?" The blue ranger nodded and with Dustin's help, she slowly rose to her feet, "There's a clearing on the other side of that hill, maybe some local's live there".
"It's a long shot but I haven't got a better idea", Dustin shrugged and the trio traipsed off into the undergrowth.
As the Wind Rangers hiked up the hill, they tried to reach Cam at Ninja Ops but they weren't getting through. Something was blocking their morphers and their cell phones weren't picking up a signal either. They reached the summit of the hill and began to traverse the other side. As they did, Dustin noticed something in the distance, "That looks like smoke", he pointed towards a small column of white smoke rising up into the sky.
"You're right", Shane replied, "quickly that way". The trio ran down the side of the hill as quickly as possible, being careful not to trip. The smoke was become more prominent so they knew they were getting close. The ground began to level out and they found themselves in the clearing Shane had spotted from the hilltop. Sitting cross-legged on the ground was Rocky, he was poking a small camp fire with a stick, "Rocky, you're alright", Shane called out.
Rocky quickly jumped to his feet, "Yeah I'm fine, I see you three got teleported here too".
"Yeah but where are we?" Shane asked his teacher.
"Somewhere cold", Dustin warmed his hands using the fire, "we're definitely not in California anymore". He gestured to the fire and turned to Rocky, "At least you had the good sense to make a fire".
"That's the weird thing", Rocky answered, "I didn't, I thought you three did". The rangers shook their heads, "If it wasn't us then that only leaves one possible answer".
From behind the tree, a slow handclap echoed across the deserted island, "Stealing our fire now", Hunter said, "and the Wind Ninja Academy sinks to a new low". The crimson ranger gave them an arrogant smirk and just a few paces behind him was his younger brother. Blake averted his gaze from the wind ninjas but tellingly, he wasn't looking at his brother either.
"Is this part of your plot", Shane began, "drag us off to a deserted island and leave us here?"
"As tempting as that sounds, this wasn't my idea", Hunter stated, "the Gem of Souls decided this would be the perfect place for our final battle".
"So you still want to go through with this", Rocky said, resigned to the fact that he would have to fight a fellow ninja, "what about you Blake, are you going to fight us as well?"
Hunter backed up slowly and placed a strong arm around Blake's shoulders, "He's seen the error of his ways", he began, "that temptress of a blue ranger tried to lure him but he knows his place".
The derogatory way that Tori had been described directed Blake's attention fully towards his older brother, "You're right, I do", he said with a quiet voice. To the surprise of everyone, he forcefully shook Hunter's arm off his shoulder and walked slowly over to the wind ninjas. He stood next to Tori and gave her a small smile.
For a few moments Hunter was silent but then his face twisted into an ugly sneer and he bellowed, "Traitor, you would stand against your school and your own brother".
"Don't you remember the oath of the thunder ninja?" Blake began, "we swore to stand against anyone who was a threat to the world. There are no exceptions to that, even if they're our family".
Quick as a flash, Hunter pulled out the Gem of Souls from his ninja suit and aimed a blast towards Tori. The blue ranger was frozen to the spot as a streak of green energy sped towards her. Just as he blast was about to hit her, Blake leapt in front other and took the full force of the attack. The beam hit him in the chest and the Navy Ranger crumpled to the ground, "Blake!" Tori screamed and knelt down next to him.
Rocky's head snapped towards Hunter, "What did you do?" he said with a dangerous whisper.
Hunter's arm was shaking and his eyes were wide with disbelief, "I-I-I", he tried to speak but he was too stunned to form a proper sentence. Suddenly the ground began to rumble and the crimson ranger was knocked off his feet, the Gem of Souls tumbled out of his hand. In a fit of rage, Dustin had punched the ground, setting off a small earth tremor in the vicinity of Hunter. Seeing that the Gem had fallen from his grasp, Hunter scrambled across the grass to retrieve it. He clutched it to his chest like he was holding a small child.
"We've got to get Blake somewhere safe", Tori said to the others.
"Yeah preferable away from Gollum over there", Rocky commented towards Hunter. Shane stepped up and pulled a small pellet out of his uniform. He threw it into the ground and in a flash, the group was teleport away from the clearing, leaving Hunter alone with the Gem of Souls.
Shane's ninja teleportation had moved the ninja's across the island to the other hill they had seen earlier. There was a small sheltered opening in the rocks where they would hopefully be obscured from view. Dustin had used his earth manipulation to create a small bed for Blake to rest up. Tori sat dutifully by his bedside and waited for him to wake up.
"How's he doing?" Shane asked the blue ranger.
"Alive", she replied, "there's no visible signs of injury so hopefully he's just been knocked out".
"I still can't believe Hunter would do something like that", Dustin shook his head.
"Why not, it wouldn't be the first time he's attacked one of us", Shane shot back.
"Yeah but he hit his own brother", Dustin sighed, "this is so messed up".
Rocky meanwhile was looked out over the rest of the island, Shane's initial assessment was correct, there were on a small island with nothing but sea as far as he could see. He was about to try contacting Ninja Ops again when the whole island began to shake violently. The tremor passed in a few moments but everyone was shaken up, "That didn't feel good", Rocky commented.
"I had nothing to do with that", Dustin held his hands up defensively.
"You're a strong ninja Dustin but not even you can make an entire island shake like that", Rocky replied, "it would help if we knew where the hell we were".
"Boreco Island", they heard Blake mumble from his makeshift bed, "Boreco Island", he said again and this time his eyes fluttered open. Tori's immediate reaction was to pull the Navy Ranger up and wrap her arms around him. It took her a few second to realise what she had done and when she did, she sheepishly lowered him back down, "Wow, I should get knocked out more often", Blake gave her a small smile.
"Yeah he's feeling alright", Dustin laughed.
"Then perhaps it's time he gave us some answers", Shane still wasn't as trusting towards the navy ranger as Tori was. He had helped them out with the location of the Gem of Souls but even that had seen them transported to his island.
"Didn't you read all the material I gave you", Blake asked and laughed to himself, "I see the rumours about wind ninjas jumping into action without assessing the situation are true".
"We were also compassionate enough to save you from your deranged brother", Rocky commented, "so perhaps you can give some answers, starting with where you got those morphers from".
Blake looked down at the blue beetle shaped device on his wrist, "We were given them when the Academy was attacked, we had no idea where they came from". It wasn't a total lie, he really didn't know where they had come from. He wasn't prepared to say that an unknown thunder ninja had saved them from Lothor, he didn't trust them that much yet.
"So the Thunder Academy just so happened to be developing morphers at the same time we were", Rocky continued to push the issue.
"Did these three know about their morphers before they received them", Blake asked. Rocky's mouthed opened and quickly shut again, "Yeah that's what I thought".
"Perhaps we can talk about that once we're off this island", Tori steered the conversation away from the stolen morphers, "you mumbled something about Boreco Island?"
Blake nodded, "According to legend, this place only appears when some undergoing the acceptance test for the Gem of Souls".
"That's the second time someone's mentioned a test", Shane frowned, "what does it involve?"
"No idea", Blake shrugged, "the only people who know are the ones to have wielded the Gem of Souls".
"That doesn't sound good for us", Rocky began, "no written reports means that either no one remembered", his voice trailed off into silence.
"Or no one survived", Tori finished his sentence for him. There was another rumble, this time even more violent than the one before. The ninjas that were standing up had to crouch down low to keep their balance.
Once the tremor had eased off, Shane ran to the opening in the cliff and looked outside, "Oh that's not good", he stated, "I think the island's sinking".
"Don't be an idiot Shane", Dustin joined the red ranger but almost immediately, he had to agree with him. The beach where they had landed was now gone and the coastline was halfway up the original hill they had climbed, "Oh man, this is freaky".
"The entire island is unstable", Rocky began, "which means that we need to find Hunter and fast. If we're going to get out of here, then I think we're going to need the Gem of Souls". The others nodded slowly in agreement with the former red ranger. They slowly moved out of the cave in an attempt to locate the crimson ranger.
"Maybe you should stay here", Tori said to Blake.
The navy ranger shook his head, "No, he's my brother if anyone's going to save him from himself, it's going to be me". It took all of his strength but Blake rose stood up and gingerly followed the wind ninjas.
Somewhere else on the island, Hunter sat on a tree stump with his head in his hands. He had hurt Blake, his own brother, possibly seriously injuring him. He still didn't know what possessed him to aim an attack at the blue ranger but he had a fair idea. He looked down at the Gem in his hand and felt a weird presence in the back of his mind. It wasn't a controlling influence, more of an inhibiting force that was blocking out his self control. Hurting Blake had temporarily broken its influence but he could feel it slowly creeping back.
He felt a strong tremor that shook the entire island and once it had finished, Hunter was immediately on his feet, something was alerting him to danger in the area. "Hello crimson ranger", Hunter knew that voice so he wasn't surprised to see Lothor standing beside him, "I have an interesting proposition for you".
TO BE CONTINUED