Kelly couldn't help but smile, even with the weight of a sixteen year old boy pressing down on her arm. After the amputation, Alex had been given a prosthetic leg so he would still be able to walk, and eventually, lead a normal life. It took time to get used to it, though, and before Alex could learn how to live with it, he needed to get used to walking with it.

With his energy back after the amputation, Kelly had offered to take him to the hospital park on a walk. Alex was stumbling constantly, trying to get used to the feel of the fake leg, but he was making quick progress. Soon he wasn't going to need Kelly's help.

But Kelly was still going to worry.

"Just take it easy, kid," she said to him as she felt him releasing his grip on her arm. She could tell Alex was going to try venturing off on his own. "Careful, slowly, that's it…"

"What are you, my mother?" Alex groaned, growing tired of Kelly coddling him. He was sixteen, he knew how to walk.

"We've established that, Alex," Kelly smirked. "You're my father. With the way you've been warding off all the doctors who look at me…"

"Don't date a doctor," Alex said. "They're always on call."

"Just take it easy. You're not used to…"

Kelly didn't get to finisher sentence before Alex fell over and his prosthetic leg fell off. She rushed over, grabbing his arm and reaching for his leg.

"Are you okay?" she worried before someone clapping in the background caused her to look up. She smiled when she saw Hunter approaching. It was his turn to spend the day with Alex and look after him.

"That was pure genius, little man," Hunter mocked the sixteen year old before pulling Alex to his feet. The teenager rolled his eyes as Kelly helped him attach his leg back on.

"Hey, this isn't easy."

"Not with mother hen hovering over you," Hunter told him. He smirked as he glanced at Kelly, "Let a man teach this kid to walk."

"You think you can do better?" Kelly asked. She placed her hands on her hips and shot Hunter a look that told him she was ready for a challenge. Hunter held his gaze for a moment with a grin plastered on his face.

"First person to get him to walk chooses what we eat from the hospital cafeteria."

"Ha," Kelly scoffed, shaking her head, "I've been eating that food for days. If I get him to walk, you're paying for my dinner, at a real restaurant while you stay here at the hospital with the kid."

"What do I get if I walk?" Alex frowned. This challenge didn't sound like it had an upside for him.

Both Kelly and Hunter looked at him, "The ability to walk."

Alex rolled his eyes while Hunter and Kelly sealed their deal. Kelly took a few steps back. She had her turn teaching Alex to walk; now it was Hunter's, and boy was she excited to see this.

Hunter helped steady Alex before taking a few steps away from the boy, allowing him to stand on his own.

"Okay," Hunter said, "Now… walk."

Alex and Kelly turned to Hunter after that instruction, both wondering how it was going to help Alex walk. Alex scratched his head, gave Kelly a look, and then tried putting one foot in front of the other, using his prosthetic leg first. He took a single step and Hunter was beaming with pride, but when it came time to take his second step, Alex had no idea how to balance on the fake leg and he tumbled over.

Kelly winced as she watched. This was going to take a while.

"I vote we wait for the physiotherapist guy," Alex called from the ground. Kelly shook her head.

"Are you kidding? I couldn't schedule you in for another month. Thanks to the Venjix virus thing that guy's all booked up!"

"A month?" Hunter frowned. "You couldn't get him in anytime sooner?"

"Maybe, if dad here would let me flirt with the guy," Kelly said. She shot Alex a look, but the boy shook his head.

Hunter watched the duo, "What?"

"Never mind," Kelly shook her head. She approached Alex and took one of his arms gently, "Hunter take the other. Maybe he'll do better if he takes a few aided steps."

As Hunter and Kelly helped Alex practice walking by literally holding his hand every step of the way, Alex let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness all my friends are dead," he muttered. "I would be the laughing stock of the entire school if they saw me walking with you two."

"Shut up and walk," Hunter said, smacking the boy on the head. He looked over the boy at Kelly, "How about we scratch our deal and we see if the hospital will let this boy come with us for pizza? RJ's taking the others to what will be JKP."

Kelly nodded, "Sounds good. We were told he could be discharged today anyways. All he needs from the hospital is a few more appointments and sessions with the therapist."

-Fight-Flight-

"Here it is!" RJ smiled as he rushed to the door of his new restaurant, excited to show it off to his team-mates and soon-to-be employees. "The new location for Jungle Karma Pizza!"

Fran hopped out of the truck and took a good look around, "I don't know, RJ. It kinda blends in with the rest of the… uh, wall?"

RJ's arms dropped to his sides as he turned. She had a point. His new restaurant was just going to be another stop on a long commercial strip. Right next door to him was what would be a Laundromat, and on the other side was a fast-food joint that was already in business.

"At least we'll always have clean uniforms," Theo shrugged.

"Hey, I'll wear whatever as long as it's not zebra pants," Dominic commented. He looked at his best friend, "Seriously, RJ, can we talk about the uniforms? I can live with the shirt but…"

"Girls laugh when they see us in the zebra pants," Casey finished for his friend. "Have you ever wondered why all the girls laugh at you when you try to flirt?"

"RJ doesn't know how to flirt, that's the problem," Fran chuckled. She turned to the new JKP establishment and thought for a moment, "Although the pants really didn't help you much."

"A vote for no zebra print pants!" Dominic called before shooting his hand up in the air. Casey, Theo and Fran followed, much to RJ's dismay.

Lily remained silent. She hadn't said anything on the way over here and kept her distance. Though no one really noticed, it was easy to see something was bothering her.

Casey leaned over when he saw Lily hadn't voted, "Um, we kinda want to make this unanimous," he said. "So if you'll…"

"I don't care," Lily said. Truth was she did care. She actually liked the zebra print pants, for reasons even she couldn't explain. All she could really say was that they were unique and different, much like RJ, and they weren't boring or plain.

"Yes, you do," Dominic said for her as he grabbed her arm and held it up for her. He looked at his best friend, "Sorry, RJ, you're outnumbered."

RJ cocked his head to the side and a smirk appeared on his face; one that told Fran and the boys that he had his own little trick up his sleeve.

"My restaurant and therefore I get to choose the uniforms. Anyone who has a problem with that can look for somewhere else to work. I'm sure they'll hire you next door."

"The Landromat?" Casey frowned. RJ shook his head and pointed to the other neighbours.

"Greasy, smelly, and open 24/7."

Casey and the others exchanged looks, "So…"

"Zebra pants!" Dominic cheered before leading the charge into the soon-to-be-restaurant. RJ chuckled as he watched his friends change their opinions. He then turned to Lily.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. Lily snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her master. She nodded her head.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Fran said you didn't sleep well," RJ said. "I think she mentioned nightmares."

"I had a few," Lily nodded. There was no shame in admitting to nightmares, especially after the world had ended. It was perfectly normal to have trouble sleeping, "About the evacuations, mostly."

She wasn't lying there. She did have a few nightmares involving the evacuations. More than a few, actually. Most of her nightmares had been about the evacuation, instead of Hunter and her previous encounters with Thunder Ninjas. She had to relive it several times during the night. Needless to say, it didn't help calm her fears about Hunter. She couldn't understand why, but the more she let this thought about him being a Thunder ninja sit in her head, the more and more she saw him as a threat.

RJ didn't seem happy with her answer. He could tell something was bothering her. Really bothering her. Lily was normally a very happy young lady.

"Are you sure that's it?" he asked her. "If you need to talk…"

"Has Fran asked you about the Ninja Academies?"

RJ looked at the cheetah, "No, not yet… but I've heard Casey, Theo and Dom talking to her about it. They're not as subtle as they think."

"Th-they aren't?" Lily frowned. RJ shook his head.

"Are you kidding me? Dominic's a rhino and Theo doesn't really understand the meaning of the word 'whisper'."

Lily felt a lump rising in her throat. She knew Fran must have continued asking the boys about the ninja academies if RJ heard about it. She knew he hadn't been present when the topic first came up at the hospital. And if Hunter had spent the night, surely he would have overheard, according to RJ.

"So, the topic's come up?" Lily asked. "Lately? I mean, recently… I mean… today?"

RJ nodded his head, "Theo knocked the milk out of my hand and tried to talk to Fran about it. I didn't make much of it; I thought they were just trying to be secretive. I pretended I didn't hear them and…"

"But they were loud?"

"Theo was," RJ nodded.

Lily had to take a few calming breaths to keep RJ from noticing just how tense she was. If Hunter heard the others talking about the Pai Zhuq, wouldn't he had brought it up? He was a ninja, and the only way anyone could know about the Pai Zhuq was if they were students (or Fran's case, knew the Power Rangers). Unless he was hiding something, it would have been the perfect time to question their knowledge of the Pai Zhuq.

Suddenly, Lily felt two strong hands clamping down on her shoulders. She jumped in fright, let out a scream, and pulled away, running right into RJ. He wrapped his arms around her and chuckled before reaching out to shake Hunter's hand.

"Hey, I thought you were on Alex duty today," RJ smiled.

Hunter nodded his head, "I am. I'm just treating Alex and Kelly to your pizza. If you'll make it."

He looked at Lily, figuring he owed her an apology for scaring her, "Sorry about that, Lil."

Lily waved it off as if it was nothing, but RJ could feel her trembling furiously in his arms. Gently, he took her hand by the wrist, as if trying to comfort her. While he did that, he quickly checked her pulse, surprised to find it was racing.

Worried at this point for his cub, RJ looked down at her. He could see she was a little fidgety as she watched Hunter with a careful eye. Even when Kelly and Alex finally joined, Lily never took her eyes off Hunter. He also noticed she was pulling at her sleeve. The dome's temperature was rather warm today, and like himself, Lily had worn a short sleeve shirt, exposing her Master Tattoo.

Lily wouldn't have worn the shirt though if she knew Hunter would stop by with Alex. She assumed he would be gone all day. She started tugging at her shirt hopelessly, and tried hiding her forearm from Hunter.

The former Crimson Ranger looked down when he saw Lily was rubbing her arm quite a bit. That's when he noticed the tattoo. Completely clueless about the meaning, he smiled and pointed, "Hey, sweet tattoo!"

Lily's trembling worsened and she pulled away from RJ. She stumbled as she tried to get away from the small crowd, consisting solely of herself, RJ, Hunter, Kelly and Alex.

"I, uh… going!" she barely managed to form coherent words as she rushed off.

Hunter and the others watched her before he let out an annoyed groan, "Did I do something to freak you guys out?" he asked RJ. "You've all been acting a little wacky."

"There have been a few rumours," RJ shrugged.

"There always are," Kelly said, rolling her eyes, "Hunter's not known for being the friendliest of people."

RJ laughed at Hunter's expense along with Kelly and Alex as he glanced quickly down the street where Lily had run off. He felt like going after her, but a rumbling stomach distracted him. He turned to the culprit.

"Hungry, Alex?" he smirked. The teenager nodded.

"I've been walking all morning!"

"C'mon, it's not a restaurant yet, but I might be able to whip you up a nice pizza."

-Fight-Flight-

Just around the corner, Lily stopped running and pressed her back against the side of the building. She took some deep breaths, trying to calm down.

She couldn't explain it, but Hunter didn't make her feel safe. While he had been standing in front of her, all she could hear in her head was screaming and all she could feel was fear; a deep feeling of fear. She felt like she needed to run away and save herself. She felt like if she didn't get away, something bad was going to happen. Something she couldn't stop.

She felt uneasy and vulnerable around Hunter, like he was just waiting for her to be alone before he made his move. Lily wasn't sure what it was, but she knew one thing.

She didn't want to die.