Mia got off the bus and looked around the big city. She had no idea where she was going to start looking, but at least she knew what she was looking for. Any person with a claw tattoo on their forearm was likely a Master at the Pai Zhuq and hopefully they would be willing to help her and her friends out.
She was thankful it was still summer time. Most people in the city were wearing short sleeved shirts, exposing their forearms. At least Mia didn't have to feel like a creeper and carefully eye everyone or roll up their sleeves. She wanted to keep a low profile, especially with all her other friends injured. If a Nighlok found out they were defenceless or she was out here alone someone would be in a lot of trouble.
She sighed as her stomach rumbled. She and Emily hadn't had a proper lunch (cupcakes didn't count) and she was starting to take the hit. She had promised Mike she would bring him home a pizza, and she knew JKP was just around the corner. With three reasons to head over to the restaurant she decided it was a good idea.
When she walked in she smiled as memories from her first date with Kevin flooded her mind. She hadn't been on a second date with him yet, but the first one had been so amazing that it sparked a true relationship, and she had the JKP waiter to thank for that. Fortunately, he was working today so she got her chance.
"I remember you!" he greeted Mia with a grin, "You were here on your first date."
"Yeah," Mia nodded, "Theo, right?"
"Yep. How did it go? You two were very in to each other all night."
"It was amazing. Thank you so much for getting things started. It was a little awkward at first because we see each other every day but once you broke the ice… thank you."
"You're welcome," Theo smiled. He gestured to the dining room, "Are you hear for something to eat? I can talk to the owner about giving you a discount."
As Theo spoke, Mia couldn't help but look at his forearm. There, just under the elbow, was a claw marking, just like Mentor Ji had told her. She couldn't believe it. Theo, the man who had worked his magic to make her and Kevin's date a success, was a Pai Zhuq."
"Pai Zhuq…" she breathed and Theo looked at her. He glanced down at his arm and then pulled his sleeves down.
"What?"
"Pai Zhuq," the name was strange, Mia was aware of that. Hopefully, Theo would realise she knew what the Academy was, and he wouldn't pass her off as crazy, "You're a Pai Zhuq Master!"
Theo looked over, where another waitress was standing, and motioned for her to cover for him as he pulled Mia aside. He dragged her into the kitchen, where other employees were working.
"How do you know about Pai Zhuq?" he asked and Mia noticed the other workers stopped what they were doing. For a moment, she was afraid the Pai Zhuq was maybe a hostile school, and Mentor had forgotten to mention that part.
"I heard about it from my mentor…" Mia said nervously.
"You're mentor?" one of the workers asked before turning to the man dressed as a chef. "RJ…"
"Let her speak, Casey."
Mia blinked, unsure of what to do. She had to clue these people in somehow. But if they weren't going to believe her, she didn't want to spill all the Samurai secrets.
"My friends are hurt," she started, "and there are these things… Nighloks, they're attacking our city. My mentor told me to come find Pai Zhuq masters. We need their help."
"Nighloks?" the chef, RJ, stroked his chin, "As in the monsters the Samurai warriors have been facing for thousands of years."
"Yes!" Mia nodded. "That's exactly it. My friends were hurt in an attack. Two of them are really badly beaten and another one is being chased by the Nighloks. We need help."
"Why would the Nighloks be chasing after your friend?" the only other girl in the room asked.
Feeling a little more confident, Mia reached into her pocket and pulled out her Samuraizer. She showed it to Theo and his friends.
"I'm one of the current Samurai warriors. So are my friends. Please, if you guys are Pai Zhuq Masters, we need your help."
RJ pulled off his apron and rushed to the kitchen door. He opened it slightly and called out to the waitress: "Fran, we need you to cover for us! It's an emergency!"
"Are you kidding me," Mia heard the waitress outside mumble as the suspected Pai Zhuq Masters ran for the stairs. "I thought we were over these emergency exits!"
Mia followed the kitchen staff upstairs where she discovered there was a loft above the restaurant. She saw them walking over to a set of couches and a green reclining chair. They took their seats and Mia followed.
RJ looked at her, "You need help from Pai Zhuq Masters?"
Mia nodded her head, "A lot of help. I'm the only person on my team who can fight. If something happens to me…"
"Nothing's going to happen," RJ assured Mia.
"Are you saying we're going on a mission?" Dominic, the final worker, asked as he clapped his hands together, ready for an adventure. RJ shook his head.
"We're not going on a mission," he said and Mia's heart sunk. This sounded like they weren't going to help her. But RJ turned to her and gave her a smile, "Not all of us. Two of us are going to go. The rest will stay here in case the Nighloks turn up. When the Nighloks realise the Samurai Academy and the Pai Zhuq are working together, they might try to come here."
"Seriously?" Mia grinned. "You'll help us?"
"Of course," RJ nodded. "Casey and I will come with you. Theo, Lily, Dominic, you three stay here and keep an eye out for strange creatures."
"Got it," Lily smiled.
"I'll go pack a few supplies," Casey got up from his seat and disappeared into what Mia assumed was a bedroom. As he left, she looked at the Pai Zhuq.
"Thank you so much. You don't know what this means to us."
"Anything to help," RJ smiled. "However, before we do anything else, I would like to meet your Mentor."
"Yeah, definitely," Mia nodded her head. She was so relieved she had managed to find and get help from the Pai Zhuq Masters. Hopefully Emily was having the same kind of luck with the Ninjas.
As Casey returned from the bedrooms with a bag on his shoulder, Mia and RJ got to their feet to leave. Suddenly, Mia remembered the reason she came into this restaurant in the first place.
"Uh, before we go, my friend has wanted to try the pizza from this place for a while now and…"
"We'll pack up a fresh pizza on the way out," RJ smiled.
-Samurai-
After being dropped off by Mentor, Emily had no idea where to go, or what she was looking for. She envied Mia at lot more at this moment. At least Mia had a tattoo to look for. Emily needed to find Ninjas, and something told her they wouldn't be easy to find.
She had Mike's Samuraizer in her pocket, in case she needed it, and her cell phone clutched in her hand tightly. After her last battle, walking around a strange city alone was not the ideal thing to be doing, but there was no one else who could do the job. Mentor was needed at home to take care of Mike and Kevin, as well as defend the city just in case things were bad while she and Mia were gone. Roaming around Blue Bay Harbour was easily the safest place for Emily to be in these circumstances.
She had checked the park first and saw there were a lot of teenagers, especially at the skate park. If the Ninja Academy was anything like the Samurai Academy, teenagers were probably what Emily would be looking for. However, none of them showed any signs of belonging to a Ninja school; not that Emily knew what those signs looked like.
The park led Emily to the beach and still Emily was coming up empty handed. All she saw was water, sand, and people in bathing suits. She walked along the beach, collecting sand in her shoes, until she reached the end. Giving up, Emily left.
Not too far from the beach was a motocross track. Emily wasn't sure what she was going to find there, but she felt like she fit in a lot more here. Not only were people no longer looking at her scars and bandages, because most of the racers looked somewhat just as banged up as her, but she felt a lot more connected to this location than she did at the beach, or the park, or even at home.
But as the sun started to set, the people began to leave. Emily stayed until there were only a few people left, and then she decide she wasn't going to find anything here. Defeated, and in need of a break, Emily knew she was going to have to stop somewhere and rest.
Many of the racers had been talking about a little shop which was just around the corner from the racetrack. Apparently they got most of their equipment there, and occasionally Emily heard a few compliments about the customer service. She decided to head there, hoping someone would be able to help her find her way around. She knew she couldn't go home until she found at least one Ninja, and she also knew she needed to eat. Her stomach was starting to eat itself. She also couldn't go home because she was afraid of how Mike would react to the kiss. She couldn't face him, not just yet.
She found the store and stepped in. In the back, she saw couches had been set up near the change rooms. Knowing she needed to get off her feet, and knee, she headed straight for the back and sat down. She didn't notice the man in yellow by the cash register watching her closely. She also didn't know that this man was also felt the same connection she did when he was at the dirt track and that he was also feeling a connection to her.
Emily rolled up her legging to get a look at her knee. After all that walking around, she could only hope she hadn't pulled on the gash and reinjured herself. She knew Mia was going to kill her if she did. As she inspected herself, the store owner walked over to her and knelt down.
"Let me guess, you were just at the track," the owner flashed Emily a smile. The yellow Ranger looked at her and nodded.
"Yeah, how do you…?"
"You look like most first time riders," the owner said before she turned to the man behind the counter, "Dustin, mind getting me a first aid kit for this customer."
"Sure thing, Kel," Dustin called back. He gave Emily a look before disappearing into the back room. The owner turned back to Emily.
"I'm Kelly," she said, "This is my store, and normally I don't offer to help patch up customer, but I noticed you came in alone. Where's your coach?"
"My what?"
"Don't tell me you tried to ride by yourself," Kelly frowned.
"I wasn't riding," Emily assumed that Kelly thought her scars were from taking a fall while riding one of the bikes. She was going to set her straight, "This is from a few days ago. A trip in the forest gone wrong."
"I see," Kelly nodded. "Have you been to the doctor?"
"Kinda. My friends and I live with this guy who's amazing at the medical stuff."
"So, where are your friends?" Kelly asked. "Don't tell me they ditched you."
"Here you go," Dustin said as he returned with the first aid kit. He held it out for Kelly, "One amateur doctor tool kit."
"Thanks," Kelly took the kit from Dustin and opened it up. She looked at Emily, "Do you mind?"
"Go for it. The faster I heal the better," Emily nodded.
Dustin watched Emily for a moment. He couldn't shake the feelings he was getting from her, almost like he knew and understood her. But that wasn't possible. They had just met. He didn't even know her name, or why she was in the store.
He decided to ask her, though. He had met a lot of people. It was entirely possible that he had met, or at least seen her before.
"I know this is going to sound really weird," he started as he looked at Emily, "but, do I know you?"
"Definitely not," Emily shook her head. "I'm not from here. I'm just checking the place out. I'm from the next town over."
"What brings you all the way up here?" Kelly asked.
"I'm looking for some people," Emily tried to stick to the truth as much as possible, without giving herself or her friends away. "I have a mentor… I guess a coach, really, who told me I would be able to find some, uh, friends of his up here."
The bell on the door chimed as a woman walked in. Emily didn't make much of it until the woman walked right over to her and the two people she was talking to. The woman looked at Emily, and then turned to Dustin.
"You were just at the track, weren't you?" she asked.
"About an hour ago, why?" Dustin nodded.
The woman pointed to Emily, "You ran her over, didn't you?"
"Dude, I hit you with the bike once and you never let me forget it," Dustin grumbled. Tori smirked and turned to Emily. She pulled up her sleeve, revealing a still healing scar.
"He did this," she chuckled. "But after seeing the state you're in, I think I was lucky."
"I didn't run her over," Dustin frowned.
Emily nodded her head, "Yeah. Forest accident. Trees, branches, rocks and stuff, they can be dangerous."
"Tell me about it," Dustin agreed. Suddenly, Emily felt her phone vibrating. She had put it in her pocket during her walk around the city, and finally remembered it was there. She grabbed it and answered.
"Hello?"
Kelly stopped tending to Emily and let the young girl answer her phone, hoping this would be her coach or one of her friends on their way to pick her up. It wasn't common for teenagers to come into her store without adults, but normally when they did, they came in groups. It was very rare she saw one coming in alone, especially in this condition.
"No," Emily shook her head as she talk to the person on the other end, "I haven't found them yet. I promise I'll keep looking… yes, I'm fine! I'll find a place to stay tonight if I don't find them soon and I'll keep looking tomorrow…. Mia, I'll be fine. Just make sure you bring them home."
Emily hung up her phone and stuffed it away in her pocket. She looked at the people watching her and shrugged.
"It's my friend," she told them. "She's a little protective of me, especially right now."
"And she has reason to be. Is she picking you up?" Kelly asked.
"She's in Ocean Bluff right now picking up some other friends," Emily answered. She got up from the couch, "I have to go. Thanks for your help."
"Wait!" Kelly called. She hadn't finished tending to Emily yet. But the young girl didn't get far thanks to Shane. Kelly watched as he walked into the store and bumped right into Emily. Shane had always had great balance, but Emily bounced right off him and fell to the floor. Mike's Samuraizer flew right out of her pocket and slid over to Dustin's feet.
"Not again," she groaned.
"Sorry!" Shane cried out as he offered his hand to help Emily up.
"No, it's my fault, I…" as Emily dusted herself off, she realised she didn't have Mike's Samuraizer with her. She had her phone in her pocket still, but the Samuraizer was gone. "Oh no…"
"You dropped this," Dustin held out the Samuraizer. He thought it seemed rather familiar. It didn't reassemble anything he knew technology wise. At least, nothing the public knew about. Tori seemed to be thinking the same thing as him as she looked at it.
Just as Emily reached out to take it, her phone vibrated again. Cursing her luck, she grabbed the phone, leaving the Samuraizer in Dustin's hands for a moment longer. Dustin took advantage of this opportunity and opened it up to get a better look at what he was holding in his hands. When he opened it, he saw it looked almost like a phone, but that didn't make sense. It seemed to be working properly, so why would she be carrying around two phones.
But on the screen appeared a green Kanji symbol. Dustin showed it to Tori. She was a lot better at reading Kanji than he was.
"Forest," Tori whispered to him.
"Forest?" Dustin frowned. "So, the girl gets beaten up by the forest and she puts it on her freaky phone thing?"
"I don't know," Tori shrugged.
Emily hung up the phone and quickly snatched the Samuraizer from Dustin, "I have to go!" she told the four people in the store as they watched her, "My friends are… I just… I need to give this back to…"
"Whoa," Shane grabbed Emily by the shoulders before she could leave. She seemed like she was in a state. There was something bothering her. And, given her condition, he didn't know if he wanted her to rush off alone. He saw Kelly was holding some disinfectant and had a worried look on her face already as she watched the girl. It didn't seem like a good idea to let her leave. "Look, kid, it's getting late…"
"I have to get home," Emily shook her head, "Jayden came back home and took Kevin's Samuraizer! Mentor needs this one back with Mike before Jayden comes here!"
"What?" Shane frowned and looked Emily in the eyes. She appeared fine, but she was bumbling nonsense to him.
Emily couldn't stop. Not after hearing about Jayden stealing Kevin's Samuraizer, just like he had stolen hers. She knew the only way he could get Kevin's Samuraizer was if he went home and stole it. The last time she and Mia had seen Jayden, he had made it clear he didn't want to come home, and he had also shown his dislike for her or her friends going into battle. Emily knew there was no way anyone would fight the Moogers or the Nighloks without help from their Rangers powers, and she knew that Jayden was aware of that as well. If he was trying to keep them safe, he had a funny way of doing it.
"Dude, what's a Samuraizer?" Dustin asked as he scratched his head.
"I can't… I have to…," the samuraizer dropped from Emily's hands as she grabbed her head and fell to her knees. Her head was starting to hurt again. She knew she was supposed to take it easy. Look for the ninjas; bring them home. But that was turning out to be difficult; very difficult. And stressful. Mia had already found the Pai Zhuq Masters, and Emily still believed she was nowhere near close to finding the Ninjas.
"Someone should drive her home," Kelly suggested as she looked at her three friends.
Dustin nodded almost immediately. He was concerned for the young girl. Ever since he saw her, he felt like he knew her. Like there was something about her that he could understand, or some kind of connection between them. He couldn't let her leave alone. Not in her state and not without figuring out why he felt this way around her.
He knelt down beside her and carefully got her back to her feet. He held her steady and looked at Tori.
"Can we borrow your van?"
"No way," Tori shook her head. She pulled out her keys, "I'll drive."
"Do you remember how to get home?" Dustin asked Emily. She nodded her head. This wasn't a good idea, bringing strangers back to the Academy, nor was it a good idea to get in the car with them. But she couldn't help but trust the man holding her. Just like at the track, she had a feeling – a good feeling.
