Given the current state of the world, I have decided to update every two days.
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Stay safe, everyone!
On with the story...
Kali laughed as she toppled backwards over the stuffed chair, her legs dangling over the back and her head resting on the edge of the seat. She smirked at Xander as he stood over her, casting a shadow from the store's light.
"You'll get headrush," Xander said, cocking his head to the side.
"Well, until you're a fair distance away, I'm not getting up," said Kali.
"That's my chair, you know," said Xander. "I use it to -"
"Supervise," Kali finished for him. "Yeah. I'm aware. But, how about you try and supervise whilst on your feet for a change? You may help then."
Xander looked around the store. "There's nothing to do," he said, spreading his arms wide. "I was hoping to use this time to practice my guitar skills."
Kali rolled her eyes. "You're supposed to be tuning the guitars ready for purchase," she said. "Besides, my shift doesn't start for another half hour."
"And that concerns my chair, how?"
"I need somewhere to relax while I wait," said Kali. She turned her attention towards the door as Nick walked in, carrying two boxes of supplies. "Why don't you help Nick?"
Xander glanced at the red ranger and hesitated. It had been three days since the Rangers had faced Magma, and the hostility between the Red, Green, and Black Rangers hadn't settled completely. They were being civil towards one another, for the sake of the team, but everyone knew that there was still animosity between the trio.
"Don't bother," Nick said, dropping the last of his boxes onto the floor. "I don't need any help."
Kali looked guilty and avoided Xander's gaze as he looked back at her. She couldn't help but feel the hostility was all her fault, and in a way, it was. She had been the one who had gone to Xander about her worries, she had wanted to kiss him, and she had been the one to tell Nick about it.
But, she still didn't understand why Nick was taking it so hard. Nick had never shown any interest in her before now, he'd never acted jealousy around her other boyfriends, and there had been a few over the years. What made Xander different to the others?
"Uh, hey, Nick, Toby wants to see you in his office," said Vida, stepping out of the back room. "He seems mad. His eye was doing that twitchy thing again."
"Oh, man," Nick sighed. He glanced at Kali and Xander, but they weren't paying any attention to him or Vida, and the others were too busy at the cash register to care about his boss' problem. He set down his box opening tools and headed for the door.
Kali grinned as she flipped back up off the chair and followed behind Vida to the back office.
Nick steeled himself and crept inside, pushing the door open slowly and gasping as Toby stood behind his desk with a huge guitar trophy; it was so big that Nick could barely see his boss from behind it.
"The winner of the first-ever rockployee award goes to, Mr Nick Russell!" Toby announced.
Nick laughed as the others cheered and LeeLee complained that she couldn't see while trying to shove Vida and Kali aside.
"Thank you, Toby," said Nick, shaking hands with the boss. "Thank you, guys." He added to the others. "Wow. Well, I couldn't have done it without the help of my friends and co-workers..." he paused and caught LeeLee's eye from the back of the group. "Recent hires excluded."
Kali smiled as Nick thanked Toby once more and then she turned and led the way out of the office. LeeLee had since stormed off, and was fussing around in the kitchen, her face a mix between furious thunder and hurt.
"Looks like you finally found your groove in Briarwood," said Maddie.
Kali turned to see her standing with Nick.
"Like I told you, I've never stayed in one place long enough to have any real friends," said Nick. He caught Kali's eye and she held his gaze for a split second and then looked away.
"But now you have," said Maddie, smiling. She had noticed how Nick's attention had wandered, and she couldn't help but feel disappointed for him. It was obvious to everyone that he was hurt by the fact that Kali and Xander had kissed, and she wanted more than anything to try and cheer him up. But how?
~X~
"Nick is still not talking to you?" Xander asked as Kali sat on the arm of the chair. He had managed to get it back from her when she had gone to clock in at the start of her shift, but she had made her way back to him afterwards.
Kali nodded as she leaned against his shoulder, her arm resting on the back of the chair whilst her hand rested against her head, holding it up. "He's avoiding you, too, I noticed," she said.
"Unless he has too, yeah," said Xander, tuning the guitar in his hands. "You'd think we had done something wrong."
Kali made a small murmur of agreement and looked around the store. The others were busy, either serving customers, cleaning up the stock that Nick had left, or taking orders over the phone. LeeLee was still in the kitchen and seemed to be taking a small break away from the rest of her co-workers.
"What's up?" Xander asked, tilting his head back and staring at her.
Kali shrugged and shifted her attention away from LeeLee. "Nothing major. Just trying to figure out why LeeLee chose here, of all places, to work. I mean, we're not exactly her biggest fans and she still chooses to work with us."
"You think she's after something?"
"She was the one that told you that I stole from the store, remember?" Kali asked. "I could've lost my job if I hadn't been honest with Toby from the get-go."
Xander glanced over at the kitchen. "Maybe you're on to something," he said. "We should talk with the others. Look, Nick's back, let's get it over while he's in a good mood and there's no emergency call to drag us away."
Xander stood and dragged Kali over to the front counter, as LeeLee looked up at them from her perch in the kitchen. She watched as the team closed ranks and spoke in hushed voices, and then set to work a few minutes later clearing up the boxes that littered the floor.
With her break over, LeeLee returned to the front of the store. The others had disappeared, and she wondered if maybe there was an attack in the city that she wasn't aware of. Since leaving her mother and the Underworld behind, she wasn't privy to such information anymore.
Setting a smaller box on top of a larger one, LeeLee carefully pulled it from the front counter and turned her back. She paused as she felt someone watching her and glanced back to see the Rangers were still there. She smiled at them, dropped the empty boxes and turned to face them.
"Hi -"
"Can the 'Hi's," Vida interrupted. "Why'd you decide to work here?"
"Are you going after Toby?" Maddie asked.
LeeLee's face dropped. "What? No," she said, shaking her head.
"Maybe she's trying to infiltrate the team and take us down one-by-one," said Chip, leaning forward.
"No, I'm not," LeeLee insisted. "I just want to be like everyone else."
Kali scoffed.
"I want to be your friend. Is that so hard to believe?"
"Yes!"
Kali unclipped her Morpher as it chimed from her belt. "That's probably your mom now," she said, brushing past LeeLee and heading out the door. She took the steps leading to the street two at a time and headed down the road as the others followed.
~X~
"Let the hunt begin."
"Hold it right there!" Nick yelled, running into the middle of the street.
"I am Oculous, the Hunter," said the second terror. "And you are my quarry. But I'll make you a deal."
"A deal?" Vida repeated.
"What kind of a deal?" Xander asked.
"I only want the Red Ranger," said Oculous, staring at Nick. "If he surrenders to me now, the rest of you will be spared. Interested?"
"He's the hunter and we're the prey?" Chip wondered aloud.
"That's right, and I'm the best," said Oculous, nodding. "Just surrender, Red ranger, and spare me the trouble."
Kali clenched her hand into a fist. "No deal!" she shouted. "You want one of us then you go through all of us!"
"Yeah!" Vida agreed.
"We don't go down without a fight!" Chip added.
Oculous scoffed. "Okay," he said. "I guess I'll just have to demolecularise your friends one by one with my lasers. If I don't have all five by sundown, I'll surrender. That's the game."
"Didn't you learn anything from Magma?" Kali asked, reaching for her magi staff. "We beat him at his own game, what makes you think we won't beat you at yours?"
Oculous laughed and blasted the team. When the smoke cleared, he was gone.
"Where'd he go?" Maddie asked.
"Something tells me he'll be back," said Chip, looking around.
"Rangers, the hunt is on!" Oculous' voice echoed from somewhere unknown. "I can be anywhere, and everywhere. I suggest you start running!"
Chip raised his staff and deflected a beam of light from high up. He pointed at an office block in the distance. "He's up there," he said.
"He's not so smart," said Nick.
The window where the first beam had come from glinted as a second soared towards the team. They raised their staffs and blocked it before Kali shoved Nick aside and deflected a third shot aimed for the back of his leg.
"How did you know?" Maddie asked, whirling around to face the opposite direction. She glanced at Kali.
"I'm starting to realise why the Hellhound is so important to the other side," said Kali. "Can you imagine my power of detection against your magic?"
The others shuddered at the thought.
"Watch out!" Chip yelled, raising his staff and deflecting a fourth and fifth beam.
Kali raised her staff above her head. "Uthe Sasoray!" she yelled. The hellhound atop of her staff glowed and the team disappeared.
When they reappeared, they were still in the city, but far away from the centre of town as Kali could help.
"Down here," Kali said, leading the team down a side alley and out into a back street parallel with the main road. "We have to get out of the city. Maybe we'll be safer in the Mystic Forest, we know that place better than he does."
The others shared looks and then nodded. Going somewhere that they could have the upper hand seemed like a better chance at stopping Oculous than running around the city trying to hide.
"You used the spell that Leanbow used to get us out of the Underworld," said Vida. "How did you learn it so fast?"
Kali shrugged. "It wasn't that hard," she admitted. "I asked Udonna about it a few weeks ago, and she told me that I had to envision the place that I wanted to go as I said the spell, and it would take me there."
"So, why didn't you just take us straight to the Mystic Forest?" Maddie asked. "Why are we still in the city?"
"Because we're a team," Kali said. "We should make big choices as a team. I didn't want to take us to the Mystic Forest and then have you disagree with my choice. So I brought us here, instead."
The others remained silent as Kali explained her decisions. They were half surprised that she had thought about their opinions in her desire to protect Nick, normally when the red Ranger was in trouble, Kali took matters into her own hands and did what she wanted.
Suddenly, Kali tensed and turned quickly to face Xander. "Look out!" she yelled, reaching for him. Her fingers curled around thin air as Xander's whole body went rigid and he then disappeared in a smatter of red dots.
"Oh, no!" Maddie gasped.
"Kali, we gotta get out of here!" said Vida, deflecting another beam to her right.
Chip turned and raised his staff, using it's shield mode to block another beam to his left. "Say the spell!" he urged the black ranger.
Kali nodded and raised her staff into the air. She couldn't help Xander if she and the others were captured, too. "Uthe Sasoray!" she muttered, disappearing once again in a flash of black light.
~X~
They reappeared on the edge of the forest, just passed the barrier splitting the two worlds, and on the outskirts of the woodland villages.
"We should take a break for Root core," said Vida, as she covered their rear.
"No," said Nick, shaking his head. "I don't want to jeopardise the base. This guy can follow us anywhere."
"Well, I'm running out of suggestions," said Chip, covering the left flank as Maddie covered the right. "If this was a roleplaying game, I'd give myself a time-out."
Ahead of the others, Kali stopped walking and motioned for the others to do the same. "We should rest while we can," she said. "Come up with a plan on what we're going to do."
"At least we have some cover from the trees," said Maddie, clutching her staff and looking around. A nearby oak glowed red and then burst into a million dots, each one splinting into the air. A second oak followed behind it.
"You were saying?" Chip asked.
Maddie sighed. "Guess I spoke too soon," she said, looking around as more and more trees disappeared.
Soon, the entire area was vacated of cover, leaving the team out in the open.
"We're in trouble!" Maddie said, spinning around for any sign of Oculous.
"You can't hide from me!" Oculous shouted.
A beam of light hit Vida in the chest and she pivoted in a half-circle before disappearing.
Kali caught Maddie around the middle as she lunged for her sister, but, just like she had been with Xander, the blue ranger was too late. Vida burst into millions of red dots and floated away.
"Come on!" Kali shouted at Nick and Chip, as she half-dragged, half-carried Maddie into the trees.
The boys followed.
After a long-distance, Kali released Maddie and pinned her against a tree trunk. "Stop resisting!" she yelled. "You can't help her! She's gone!"
"She's not gone," Maddie argued. "She's here somewhere. Her and Xander, we have to find them."
"We can't!" Kali said. "We can't protect Nick and save the others. I won't split this team up any more than Oculous already has."
"What happened to making decisions as a team?" Maddie asked.
Kali shook her head and released the blue ranger. "That was before he started wiping us out," she said. "Things are different now. We need to do things a certain way, and we don't have time to argue about it."
Maddie demorphed and Kali could see tears in her eyes. She sighed and pulled the blue ranger into a hug and glanced around at the other two. She half expected them to argue with her, but they kept uncharacteristically quiet.
"What are we going to do?" Maddie asked, pulling out of the hug.
"I'm going to surrender," said Nick, speaking for the first time in a long while.
Maddie and Chip turned to him. "What?" they exclaimed.
"Like hell you are," said Kali, shaking her head.
"We're a team," Maddie said.
"It's me they're after," Nick argued. "If I give up, it will save Xander and Vida."
"And destroy the rest of the world," Kali snapped. "Now is not the time to be a martyr, Nick."
"She's right. If it's you they're after, it's you we have to protect," said Chip.
Nick looked between his friends, silently.
"Watch out!" Maddie yelled, shoving Kali aside. The black ranger caught her footing seconds before falling and turned just in time to see Maddie disappear.
"Maddie!" Nick yelled.
Kali rubbed a hand over her face and turned to Chip and Nick. They were three rangers down, and still had a long way to go before sunset.
"You know he's going to find us," said Nick, looking from one friend to the other.
Chip took a deep breath and looked around. "I've been thinking. He's probably in another dimension, which allows him to follow us wherever we go," he explained. "If we could somehow find a way there, we could -"
"Stop," Nick interrupted. "I'm going to give myself up. I'm not going to lose all my friends. Not when there's something I can do to stop it."
Kali scoffed and shook her head.
"What?" Nick asked.
"You think Oculous is going to give the others back or let me and him," she nodded at Chip, "walk away if you surrender? They may want to snuff out the light, but they're not going to leave any loose ends lying around after."
Chip nodded in agreement before he was hit in the chest and disappeared instantly.
Nick sighed and turned to Kali. "Now it's just us," he said.
~X~
The others had gone, Oculous had stopped hunting, and sundown was getting closer and closer. Had he given up? Kali and Nick knew he hadn't, as there was still one Ranger between him and his prize.
"I have to end this once and for all," said Nick, quietly. He sat at the base of an oak tree with Kali at his side. She hadn't said a word to him since Chip had been taken, and was currently shredding blades of grass from beside her.
Kali tensed and then relaxed. "Why?" she croaked.
"Why, what?"
"In all the years I have known you, you've never once put yourself above anyone else," said Kali, turning to glare at him. Her eyes swimming with unshed tears, and Nick had to resist the urge to reach out and wipe them away. "Why are you now putting yourself first? Why are you giving yourself up?"
"I'm doing it to save the others," said Nick, unable to fathom why she couldn't see or refused to see his plan. "I'm doing it to save you."
"I don't need you to save me!" Kali snapped. "I need you to be here with me! I can't lose you, don't you get that?! Nick, please, I'm begging you," she shook her head, tears cresting her eyelids and slipping down her cheeks, "don't do this. Don't leave me."
Nick leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm sorry," he murmured as he pulled away, resting his head against her own for a brief second. He met her gaze and swallowed hard, this could've been his last chance to tell her how he felt, even if she didn't feel the same.
"Kali, I -"
He broke off as a beam of light hit Kali between the shoulder blades. Her eyes widened and she slowly disappeared.
Nick felt the breath leave his body as he was left alone in the middle of the Mystic Forest. All his friends had been captured, including his best friend, and there was only one thing he could do to ensure their safety. He had to give himself up. He had to surrender.
Breathing deeply, Nick stood and stepped out into the evening sun. The horizon was painted a deep shade of orange against a pink and yellow skyline. He tore his gaze from it and looked around, searching for where Oculous would strike next.
"Come on, you coward!" Nick called, his voice echoing. "Show yourself. I surrender!"
"Yes, the game is over," Oculous said, triumphantly. "I have won."
"It's me you want," Nick continued. "Let my friends go!"
Oculous laughed at the desperation in Nick's voice.
"I won't even fight you," Nick announced.
"Have it your way. You will be my biggest prize yet."
Nick closed his eyes as a beam of light soared towards him. This was it. He was going to be captured like his friends, and possibly with his capture, they would be released.
"Oof!" Nick winced as something heavy fell against him, knocking him out of the path of the beam. It hit a tree, causing it to disappear. Agitated, Nick looked around and grumbled as Phineas lifted him half off the ground and dragged him behind a tree stump. "I should've known it was you, Phineas!"
"Good to see you, too," Phineas replied, releasing him. Haha! I just saved the Light, again," he chuckled. "We all have things we're good at."
"Let me go!" Nick argued, struggling against the Troblin. "I must surrender to save the others!"
"Interesting conundrum - you have to save us all," said Phineas, tightening his hold.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"You are the Light, the key to destroying the Underworld," Phineas explained. "Quite a burden, I know. But if you surrender, then we are all lost - every bird, squirrel, and fly, caterpillar, alligator, flea. Well, no one cares about the flea, except maybe another flea."
"Okay, okay, okay," Nick interrupted. "I'm the light, but they're my friends. What am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know!" Phineas grumbled. "What does your heart tell you?"
"Heart?" Nick repeated, confused.
"Yeah," Phineas nodded.
Nick paused, realisation flooding him as Daggeron's words raced through his mind. "Heart," he muttered. "Fireheart... That's it. I am the light!"
Phineas grinned as Nick grabbed him by the collar.
"Thanks again, Phineas!" Nick said, releasing the troblin and headed back out in the clearing. He unclipped his Morpher and snapped it open, punching in the three morphin' digits and holding it against his wrist. "Legendary Source, Mystic Force!"
~X~
Kali gasped and fell forward into Xander as she reappeared in the forest. The last thing she could remember was trying to convince Nick to not give himself up to Oculous and then everything had gone black.
"You'd suck at laser tag," Xander teased, setting her gently back on her feet. "You alright?"
"At least I lasted longer than you," Kali said, punching his shoulder. "You were knocked out in the first quarter. I was the last to be taken."
Xander pouted and then leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. Kali smiled and kissed him back, breaking away as the others cat-called and whistled from behind them.
"Give it a rest, you two," Vida called. "We have to find Nick."
Chip grinned and pointed towards the break in the trees. "It looks like he found us," he said, as the red ranger appeared over the hump. "Hey, Nick, over here!" he called, waving.
"You're back!" Nick said, grinning. He caught Kali's gaze and raced over, wrapping his arms tightly around her and lifting her off of her feet.
Kali laughed and she braced herself against him as he set her back down. "I knew you could do it!" she said, disentangling herself from his grasp, and dropping her arms from around his neck.
Nick's smile faded slightly as Kali stepped backwards in Xander's arms. He felt his heart sink as he realised he had taken too long before she had been captured, and missed his chance of telling her how he truly felt.
But, at least she was back and safe, which was all he had wanted.
~X~
While the others had been off fighting whatever monster had crawled its way out of the depths of the Underworld, LeeLee had been hard at work cleaning up the Rock Porium. She was well aware that the Rangers didn't trust her, but was determined enough to get on their good side. Maybe if the shop was clean when they came back, they'd let her into their circle.
Looking up as the team returned, LeeLee grinned at the shocked looks on their faces and their widening eyes as they took in the room. It was a lot cleaner than when they had left - the floors sparkled, the countertops looked like they could be eaten straight off, the trash had been taken out, and even the stock had been put away.
As a reward for her hard work, LeeLee's hair was frazzled and her makeup smudged. But, she managed to grin through the disarray as the team focused their attention on her. "So, what do you think?" she asked, spreading her arms wide.
"It's, uh, clean..." Nick stammered.
"You did all this by yourself?" Kali asked.
LeeLee nodded.
"It seems that in your absence," said Toby, stepping out of the back off carrying Nick's employee of the month award. "LeeLee has earned the right to the rockployee of the month award."
LeeLee squealed in delight.
"Congratulations," Toby told her. He turned to the rest of his employees. "I think we can all learn from her commitment to excellence," he added before disappearing back into his office.
"You have got to be kidding me," Kali scoffed.
LeeLee smirked. "Looks like I'm here to stay," she said.
