Second
Everybody on the ship heard about the Choobo-Crimson incident a while back, where the Master's nephew took Choobo to his famed weapon lab for two days straight, and when the green alien returned, tattered and injured, he only muttered one phrase when anyone asked what had happened: "I must not harm the Crimson Ranger," spoken in a trance-like manner, monotone and repeatedly.
Well, they all knew how the nephew was when it came to his playthings, possessive and protective and wasn't afraid of using everything at his disposal to make life hell for some unfortunate soul on the ship. From generals to kelzaks, everybody got the memo quite clearly, even the Master. Don't hurt the Crimson Ranger or risk facing the nephew's fearsome wrath. It made ninja fighting a whole new experience.
That was just to say when Madtropolis attacked the Rangers and took their power, the Crimson one was unaffected and confused as his brother and friends suddenly became sluggish and powerless.
While watching the battle, Lothor only rolled his eyes at Cam and said, "You can't go around ordering my alien to play favorite,"
"It's just one of him, I thought your alien could handle that much," Cam rolled his eyes back at his uncle, and well, Lothor couldn't say anything against that.
Cam wasn't worried. He made damn sure Madtropolis wouldn't touch a hair on Hunter's head, and well, the rest were power rangers, they could figure something out, it wasn't Cam's problem. He had a new project to focus on in the form of a time travel machine.
The time transporter took ideas from their teleportation tech while employing a similar construction found in the Time Force Rangers' broken time ship. The ship was retrieved, but Cam just happened to stumble on a leftover piece by accident, jump starting his most ambitious project yet.
He had been monitoring the earth's fluctuations of energy, looking for something to power his machine, and Blue Bay Harbor didn't let him down. Near the forest that used to harbor the now destroyed Wind Academy was a foreign energy spike that Cam had never seen before, but it was powerful and stable enough for his purpose. With an excited grin, Cam stepped onto the machine's platform, and wasted no time channeling the power to his transporter, then finally smashed the enter key, engulfing his surroundings in white, and he felt his body unraveling to tiny particles.
If this experiment failed, then at least Cam had activated his backup plan.
.
Cam stumbled onto dirt because the world was spinning in streaks of green and brown, and he was woozy and nauseous. There was a hand catching him before his next blunder and held him up securely while a muffled voice buzzed around his ears. In the back of his mind, Cam made a note of all the side effects.
"Cam, snap out of it, can you hear me?" This was a familiar voice.
Cam shook his head to get rid of the last bit of his vertigo before turning to face someone who looked like Hunter, and he had concern etched onto every line of his features, the exact same way as Cam's Hunter. He was wearing the same Thunder ninja uniform as well. Either Cam's machine fucked up spectacularly or somehow Hunter was actually here with him, in the past in some year, somewhere.
"Hunter?"
Hunter's face blossomed into a relieved smile as he patted Cam's chest. "Hey, you good there? You were scaring me,"
Cam narrowed his eyes. Looked like his Hunter, felt like his Hunter, but Cam's overly paranoid upbringing had him ask anyway. "What's my full name and how many computer monitors do I have?"
"Trick question, it's just Cam, and twenty seven, and yes I still think that is an obnoxious and unnecessary amount of screens, and it's a wonder how you don't actually have prescription glasses," Hunter rolled his eyes.
"Hunter!" At the answer, Cam pressed his lips to Hunter's cheek, which was very near his face and was just asking to be smooch. "Anyway, any idea where we are?"
"Well-" his answer was cut off as another presence surfaced before them, putting Cam and Hunter back to back as they raised their guard. The next moment was a flurry of punch, block and kick, and belatedly Cam realized that he'd left his swords at home. The only weapon he carried was in the silver ring around his index finger, and with a flick of his hand, it transformed into a short blade, a kunai that was sharp and bright as it was made from pure energy-his own life force energy to be specific.
"That's a forbidden ninja art, how did you learn it?!" Their attacker growled and bore down on them with harsher force and wilder swings.
The man had clearly decided Cam to be the bigger threat and focused his strike toward Cam, but Hunter, handsome and full of brute force, matched him blow for blow and synced so well with Cam's slashes and stabs. They've seen plenty of each other on the battlefield, and it made perfect sense that they could link their fighting style so smoothly. If Hunter wasn't a Ranger, he and Cam could make quite a formidable pair within Lothor's army.
"Enough!" Another voice interrupted, and a man, who mirrored Kanoi Watanabe before he was turned into a guinea pig, stood on the water in front of them. The three of them paused in their fighting stances.
Immediately, Cam understood where they were. He glanced at Hunter, and his boyfriend (boyfriend!) didn't look surprised, so he must have known somehow. As their attacker discarded his head piece, Cam's eyes widened and he gaped at the face behind the mask.
The sensei called this man Kanoi, but Cam knew with certainty that that face belonged to his uncle from his younger days. Hunter and Cam were in the past at the Wind Academy, but the thing that shattered Cam's practiced indifferent mask was the fact that Kanoi and his uncle were twins. He knew Lothor had only one brother, an estranged deadbeat who stowed Cam away to Lothor when he was younger, according to his uncle's verbatim words, and that must be Kanoi.
Oh my god. Kanoi Watanabe was his father.
Years of monologuing his revenge on a Wind ninja, and Lothor somehow managed to not mention that it was his twin brother, that it was Cam's father whom he had beef with?
Cam was detached from his body and mind as he mulled over this new knowledge, and the only thing that kept him anchored was Hunter's grip on his arm, leading him into the academy.
Well, fuck.
.
On a normal day, Cam would have made fun of their situation, to think Lothor's nephew was enrolling as a student in the Wind Academy, what a joke. But this wasn't a normal day because Cam had just received the biggest bombshell of his life, and he spent twenty years in space, that wasn't a light statement to make.
"What's wrong with you?" Hunter whispered as they made ways to the assembly, both clad in white ninja uniforms. He ditched the ninja mask that Cam was refusing to part with, letting his messy blond head stick out like a sore thumb in the midst of black hair.
"You know how you got a midlife crisis last month after almost killing Blake and finding out my uncle killed your parents, the whole shebang?"
Hunter grimaced at the reminder, but nodded anyway.
"Let's just say I'm feeling something similar,"
"Yikes man, can I do anything?" Hunter stopped them before they joined the crowd, hanging back for another moment of privacy. His brows scrunched up adorably, and Cam wanted to kiss it. He patted Hunter's cheek instead.
"Not really, just don't let me reveal myself, I can't be seen here," Cam signaled to his covered face.
"Sure, you got it," Hunter said before they fell into place. That no question, no hesitation attitude was what drew Cam to Hunter in the first place. Having him here almost made this 'successful experiment went wrong in a blink, what happened next will shock you' experience bearable.
Or Cam spoke too soon. He didn't know who his father was until now, but his uncle threw around the name Miko various times before when he fought with the ex-wife. Surprise, surprise, Miko was here and she just wiped the floor with Kanoi's arrogant ass. The man looked shocked and mildly awestruck. If that wasn't his mother, Cam would bite his tongue and break up with Hunter.
What was this, a parent-guardian meet-up or something? And then Hunter had to go and ogle his mom's chest. He even got the gall to flirt with her about her sword skill. Cam might just break up with him either way.
.
Academy students back in the day were residential, and each was allotted a single tent for their living space. Cam and Hunter's quarters were next to one another, and it wasn't hard for Hunter to come over, but there was almost no privacy with the thin screen, so before Hunter say anything, Cam dragged him to the wood, shoving him at a tree with an arm pressing to Hunter's neck to trap him where Cam wanted him.
"Why were you hitting on my mother, and how dare you do it in front of me, too, you jerk," Cam snarled. Hunter's mouth dropped open as his words processed.
"Your mother?! What?!" Hunter gasped. Okay, so there was no way he could have known, Cam was a bit unfair for getting angry over that. "And I didn't flirt with her, I was making conversation!"
"You were leering at her chest, you nimwit,"
"Her necklace! I was looking at her necklace," Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, so obviously we are on totally different pages, calm down, and let's talk like rational people, okay," he said, easing Cam's choke from his windpipe and tugged Cam over to sit on a fallen tree.
"You first," Cam harrumphed.
"Fine. You must have seen the battle with Madtropolis? For some reason, I'm the only with power left, and Sensei used the Scroll of Time to send me here to look for 'a mystical power' that could help us defeat your new alien, and your mom- dude I'm still confused about that- well, there was something about Miko's necklace- I swear I wasn't flirting! Your jealousy freak out is only cute the first time around,"
"I'm not jealous! I just have a lot on my mind, and you are infuriating!" Cam hissed.
Instead of getting angry back, Hunter just scooted closer and placed a hand on his thigh. "Yeah, I know, you still haven't told me what's wrong," his thumb did a little caress, placating Cam's temper effortlessly.
Cam sighed loudly, forcing himself back into the 'calm, cool, collected villain' mindset.
"I experimented with a time machine, and must have channeled some of the Scroll's energy when it was activated, and here I am now. With you," Hunter blinked like a deer in the headlight as Cam explained.
"You made a time machine?" Hunter gawked. "You used yourself as a test subject?!"
Okay, in hindsight, it wasn't the best idea, but real scientists have to be a little bit crazy, sue him. Cam didn't bother answering him.
"And by accident, I found out the identity of my parents, who abandoned me when I was younger, and my dear uncle withheld important information from me for twenty years, so excuse me for getting a little bit emotional,"
"Woah, what, your parents abandoned you?" Hunter turned fully to face Cam, distressed on his behalf, making it harder for Cam to stay angry at him.
"It doesn't matter, I don't want to talk about it anymore." Cam sniffed.
"Is that why you have to hide your face?"
"Something like that," time travel was a messy thing, Cam didn't want his uncle to recognize him. (On a side thought, Kiya was totally a better name than Lothor, what was his uncle thinking?) His family origin aside, he didn't want to have to deal with it back in the present. So people can pry the ninja mask from him over his dead body.
After a quiet moment, Hunter knocked their legs together to jar Cam out of his thoughts. "Does this count as our first fight? Can we have make up sex now?" He grinned shamelessly and it was infectious, putting a similar expression on Cam's face. The nerve this man had.
Cam shoved him again, this time harder and pushed Hunter onto his back, climbing up to straddle his hips. "Well, I don't know about makeup sex, but you look terrible in white," he trailed his hands on Hunter's chest. "As your boyfriend, I'm obligated to take these hideous clothes off of you,"
Hunter laughed, deep and rumbling, sending dangerous tremors straight to Cam's heart as he pulled Cam down to connect their mouths.