House of Rangers
Chapter 37: The Great Duel
A/N: Last time, Jayden and Nina's big secret was revealed. Nina and Jayden were injured, but they overcame it. The others learned about Lauren when she joined the team. Nina's mad at Jayden for leaving, and she's confused about everything going on. Jayden left, and the others are upset by it. Antonio left to go look for Jayden while the others deal with everything else.
Sorry if this chapter is short!
I know I updated this a couple days ago, but I want to finish this story so I can move on to the next one. Info about the poll at the bottom.
What'll happen now?
Disclaimer: I only own things not originally in the show.
It was night, and everyone was in bed. It didn't mean they were asleep, but they were all in their own rooms, letting the day's events sink in. They were all upset about Jayden leaving, no one more so than Nina, but they also knew they had no say in the matter. Antonio had run off to go find Jayden and to try and convince him to come back. At the moment, Nina and Lauren were sitting in their own beds, reading different books.
"How are you doing?" Lauren wondered, starting a conversation.
"I don't know," Nina sighed. "I have too many thoughts running through my mind to choose an emotion."
"Well, pick it apart, piece by piece," Lauren suggested. "How do you feel about Jayden leaving?"
"Mad," Nina answered quickly. "I thought now that you're back, we could finally be a family again, the three of us."
Lauren nodded. "What about me? In general and my coming back home?"
"I feel glad that you're back home," Nina admitted. "And in general? I don't know…I guess I feel jealous?"
"Jealous?" Lauren sat up, an eyebrow raised. "Of me? Shouldn't it be me who's jealous of you?" Nina sat up as well. "After all, you're the one of us that got to live the normal life?"
"Normal?" Nina scoffed. "The past two years or so of my life have been far from normal."
"You'll explain what you mean by that, right?" Lauren hoped. Nina nodded. "So, why are you jealous of me?"
Nina hesitated on answering, debating whether or not she should really tell her. "It's a stupid reason."
"Come on," Lauren urged. "Humor me."
"Well," Nina bit her lip. "I'm jealous of you because you have more memories of mom and dad and got to spend time with them."
Lauren's face fell, not realizing that had been the problem. "You do have some memories of them, though, don't you?"
"Only two," Nina stated. "The one from the night they died, and then the one from when I helped Jayden beat you in a training match about a month or two before you were sent away. I wouldn't have even remembered the last one had it not been for a fight Jayden got himself into."
"I didn't know that," Lauren frowned. She got up and moved over to her sister's bed, sitting beside her. "I can tell you that mom and dad were great parents, but that's about all I'd be able to tell you. I may have a few more memories about them than you do, and it's perfectly reasonable for you to be jealous about it."
"It just sounds stupid when you think about it, though," Nina shrugged.
"Well, mom and dad may not be here," Lauren sighed. "But you, Jayden, and I can always work on being a strange family after this whole thing is over. Though from what I hear, you're going back to England to finish school."
"I plan to," Nina nodded. "A lot happened there, and all my friends aside from the rest of the team are there, one of which happens to be Emily's cousin."
"Really?"
"Strange coincidence," Nina chuckled.
Lauren rolled her eyes. "I stopped by there, once, looking for you. I didn't realize you guys had already started this when I visited, and it was really awkward. They seem like an interesting bunch over there."
"You have no idea," Nina let a small grin come to her face. "I guess I should start at the beginning of this explanation, though."
The rest of the night was spent with Lauren listening to Nina's adventures as the Chosen One and what had happened on the team so far.
In the morning, Lauren had gotten up earlier than anyone in order to train some more. Nina had told her all about the Cup of Ankh, Mask of Anubis, and the elixir of life. Lauren had also told Nina about some of her adventures while she was supposed to be in hiding, and they didn't fall asleep until after midnight. When Lauren had gotten up, Nina was still sleeping. The blonde stood in the indoor dojo across from the Light Zord.
The zord tossed discs at her, and he deflected each and every one with ease. Mia, Mike, Emily, and Kevin, all in their training uniforms, stood in the doorway and watched. Ji appeared beside them. "Why aren't you practicing with her?"
"We want to go and look for him," Emily admitted as Nina appeared.
"Jayden would want you to help Lauren to complete the mission to seal Master Xandred away," Ji stated.
"But what about…"
"The fate of the world," Ji cut Mike off. "Rests on you working with Lauren. I'll go find Jayden. And you stay focused." They all nodded as Ji left. The five other rangers turned their attention back to Lauren.
Kevin agreed. "Our mission isn't over yet. It's our duty to stay with the red ranger."
"In that case, maybe she needs a training partner," Mike moved to go do so.
"Mike, she's our leader," Kevin held him back. "You know Jayden never liked it when you challenged him."
"She's not Jayden," Mike reminded him. He stepped forward. "Hey, Lauren. Do you want to spar?" Lauren turned her head toward him. "I'm pretty good with a sword."
To everyone but Nina's surprise, she smiled. "It'd be an honor. I've always had to train alone." Mike nodded and they grabbed the practice swords. Both stood in different positions, and the green ranger began the attack. With only a few simple moves, Lauren had him down on his back, sword flying out of his hands.
"Wow, you're awesome," Mike groaned. The others couldn't help but chuckle.
"Who's next?" Lauren looked at them.
"I'll go," Nina volunteered. "Let's see if your training can compare to gran's."
Nina grabbed a practice sword, and the two got in position. They were both in different positions, waiting for the other to make the move. The orange ranger finally started the fight, and the others watched as both girls battled each other. Within seconds, the match became longer than the one with Mike. The other four watched, wondering why they hadn't seen something like this before.
Kevin picked up on a pattern. "They're mirroring each other."
Before they knew it, both girls had knocked the other down.
It was lunch, and Mia had offered to cook. Lauren didn't know what the big deal was about Mia cooking, but the others knew it wasn't going to be good. Emily and Lauren had walked in last, talking about Lauren's training. The other four were already in the room. The girls took seats as Mia placed the other napkins on the table.
"That's not too far from the truth," Lauren replied to Emily's statement.
"But I bet nothing," Mike began. "Nothing…could have prepared you for this."
"Lunch is ready," Mia called as she brought over a couple of plates. She placed one in front of Lauren and Emily before returning to the pot. Lauren took a bite of hers as Mia handed the other three their plates. To their surprise, Lauren kept eating.
"So, Lauren," Kevin started. "You say you trained day and night, right?"
"Yeah," Lauren nodded. "I mean, that's my life. I practice the sealing power. I exercise. I train. This tastes great."
Mike ignored that comment and asked another question. "So…what do you do for fun? Do you go to the movies or go dancing?"
"I train," the blonde shrugged.
"Do you ever go out to eat?" Nina wondered. They did talk a lot last night, but the dirty blonde still wanted to be part of the conversation.
"No," Lauren shook her head. "But I bet you don't either with Mia cooking. This is so good."
"Is this really happening?" Mike looked to Kevin, hoping he had an answer for why Lauren liked the cooking they all didn't.
Before anything else could happen, the gap sensor went off.
When the others arrived on the scene, they saw Antonio was already there, morphed and fighting. The Nighlok, as usual, didn't look too pretty. Antonio lost his morph after being slammed into the building a couple of times. The others stood in their normal position, Lauren taking Jayden's spot. "Nighlok," she called. "Back off."
They all drew their samurizers. "Go, go samurai!" They all morphed and drew their swords. "Rangers together, samurai forever!"
"Oh, color coded target practice," the Nighlok laughed. He charged, and so did the rangers. "Fine, let's rumble!"
The rangers kept moving in to attack him no matter how many times they were thrown off. Mike ran to check on Antonio as Lauren and Nina landed a couple of hits. The green ranger rejoined them, and Nina looked at the others. Seeing a couple nod, she pulled out and ran off. Lauren wondered what her sister was doing, but kept her focus on the fight. However, she was not prepared for when she was knocked back. The others stood in front of her, protectively. The Nighlok fired at them, and they deflected it the best they could.
"Guys, are you okay?" Lauren asked as she was back on her feet. "It's time to get serious." She pulled out the Black Box. "Super Samurai mode!"
"You don't scare me," the Nighlok scoffed. A growl gained their attention, and before they knew it, an ocelot was coming at the Nighlok and attacking it. Lauren was gravely confused, but the others knew what was going on. The Nighlok shoved Nina off of him and fired at Lauren. Nina, however, jumped in the way just before it could hit Lauren and deflected it. Nina nudged Lauren out of the way as the others got ready to strike.
"Spin sword, quadruple slash!" The attack knocked the Nighlok down, and Lauren realized it was her turn.
"Super bullzooka," she called on the weapon. She took aim. "Bullzooka blast!" she fired the weapon. The blast hit the Nighlok dead on and destroyed him.
"Excellent shot," Kevin commented.
Lauren nodded thanks as Nina transformed back into her human form, still in morph. The Nighlok grew back.
"It's not over yet!" he called.
With Lauren's instructions, the rangers were able to take down yet another Nighlok. They had to admit she was fitting into the role of red ranger nicely. On the way back to the Shiba house, the girls explained why Nina was there as the animal her zord was, and the minute the words Pai Zhuq left someone's mouth, Lauren understood. She knew about the women in her family belonging to the Pai Zhuq. The fight to destroy the Nighlok had been good, and they destroyed it how they normally did.
"Antonio!" Mia shouted as the girls entered the house first and walked by the common room. Antonio looked heavily injured and in pain, and the girls moved to help them. "You're injured."
"I'm okay," he groaned. "Just worried about Jayden." The girls helped him lay down as Lauren watched, unsure of what to do.
"I'm gonna go get you some ice," Emily ran for the kitchen. Kevin and Mike entered the room and moved to help Mia and Nina. They moved another chair over and grabbed a pillow and blanket for him.
"A little easier on the care-giving, okay?" Antonio winced. Emily brought back the ice and set it on Antonio's head. Lauren say Ji enter and take a seat on the opposite side of the room, looking tired.
Lauren ran over to him. "Are you okay? What happened?"
Hearing Lauren speak, the others turned and saw who she was talking to. "Mentor!" With speed, they all took everything from Antonio and moved it over to Ji.
"Did you find our brother?" Lauren asked.
"Yes," Ji nodded, not looking happy. "He is fighting Dekker."
"Jayden's fighting Dekker?" Nina demanded.
A/N: Ending this here. What'll happen next? Only three chapters left!
Poll Info:
Scott and Flynn are tied for first. If you haven't voted, please do so! If there ends up being a tie, another poll will be out shortly to break the tie.
As for why I chose those three...
Scott - he and Nina and Fabian's daughter are going to be childhood friends, so I could easily do the classic friends growing up and falling in love thing
Flynn - who doesn't love Flynn and his accent?
Gem - I fell bad for the poor guy. If you pair off the rangers of RPM into their obvious pairings (Summer/Dillon, Ziggy/Dr. K, and if you want, Flynn/Gemma), then that only leaves Scott and Gem without a guy, and I've seen quite a few stories were the pairing of Scott with someone is usually a Scott/Tenaya pairing, leaving Gem all alone. So please, vote!