This one is a laundry list of things I wanted to explore all in one story, especially in light of Sensei's and Shane's actor's deaths, the season may have been my childhood via reruns with me having SPD (two seasons after Ninja Storm) as my first ever exposure to Power Rangers, but I don't think it would be a surprise for you to know that I have a soft spot for Ninja Storm.
My name is Tori, it's kind of a long story as to how I went from blue wind ranger to sensei/mother/aunt, that would be another story for another time, but for the time being, here's one story about my kids and nephew.
The foliage surrounding me and the kids on our walk around the academy grounds seemed to echo my sad feeling and that's not just because they were weeping willows swaying in the on-again off-again breeze.
It was the beginning of summer, Shane was usually the first to wish all of us a happy summer.
"Mom, are you okay?" Junior asked, I can rarely get anything past him, takes after me like that.
"I'm just thinking about Shane." I glumly answered.
"You miss him too, huh Mom?" Sally asked, a single tear threatening to streak down her face at the mere mention of her surrogate uncle/sensei.
My poor baby, although she was more crimson thunder than… water like me or navy thunder like her father, Shane taught her everything she knew about how to skateboard.
"I know I do." My ginger nephew, Alastair sulked.
Shane taught him how to fly without his wings, how to blast wind in an enemy's face and while his efforts To teach him and Junior how to skate board was in vein, every last one of of his friends children were like sons and daughters to him.
The site of two masculine figures and one giant anthropomorphic butterfly in the distance kept my conversation with my kids and nephew from turning into a cry fest.
The closer they got to us, the more I recognized them.
My husband and Junior and Sally's father and professional motocross racer, Blake.
"Hey Dad." Junior and Sally said in unison, running to give their father a bear hug.
"Ah, they missed you." My brother-in-law and Alastair's father and Thunder ninja sensei, Hunter teased.
And then there was my surrogate niece, Cam's daughter, Camari, if not for her green eyes, she'd basically be a gender swapped version of her father. "Hey, Aunt Tori." Her voice stitched with concern. "You guys feeling down about Grandpa and Shane?"
"Why do you think we're out here?" Alastair sounded glum as he and his father hugged it out, his wings which matched his hair on full display because a hug is uncomfortable for him otherwise.
Camari also had her black butterfly wings on full display, she reached her hand out for Alastair to hold in his own in an adorable attempt to comfort her fellow winged-one; those two, everybody swears.
They both trained under Shane's tutelage and hit it off… platonically at first… then puberty happened to them and we've all been wishing they'd stop beating around the bush and get a room ever since.
But then… a scream, we all streaked back to the academy to see what all the fuss was about.
Someone that accidentally found the academy's front entrance must not have known until… some of the students saw him… as well as Dustin.
The students, while they had their ninja uniforms on masks covering their faces and all, you could actually see the shock in their eyes, as they stared down a kid sitting still in horror.
"What the heck?" Camari scolded the culprit, who looked at her with blue eyes behind glasses and… he looked like Shane, but a little bit skinnier than him, his hair was a smidge longer and he wore light blue instead of red, oh that's what shocked everyone, I know I was in shock at the sight of a late friend. "Shane?"
Unless this is Game of Thrones and he's a white walker now… That's impossible, More possible theory is that Shane had a son and didn't know… that has to be it.
"N-n-no I'm… well… I-I mean." The kid said, his voice sounded a little bit like Shane's, but a tad higher and nasally.
"Who are you?" Sally and Camari asked in unison.
"I'm Pua… no last name." This kid, who we can now know as Pua, The lack of a last name has to mean he's an orphan, poor guy. "Whatever happened to this Shane person, my deepest condolences." Hunter helped him to his feet, this kid was a tad taller than Shane. " well, thank you for helping me up and not hurting me… I should get going, but don't worry, mums the word."
As my kids would say, talk about mental whiplash.
He's leaving already? "What?" We all exclaimed in unison, after all, he just got here.
"I mean, let's be real here, I uh… I don't belong here." Pua said, adjusting his drooping glasses.
"That's not true." Sally laughed.
"If you found this place, that's a sign you belong here." Junior stated, it was the truth, whether it made any sense or not.
"Obviously, you don't know the first rule about being a ninja of any given branch." Camari said, earning a chuckle from Alastair. "But we'll give you the benefit of the doubt; now come on, buddy; time to fit you with a uniform." They tugged him along with them, possibly to go see Camari's father.
"Cam is going to think that this is either the most shocking case of the Fridays or a disrespectful joke." Junior said, more on his "case of the Fridays" comment later… unless you homeschool.
"A kid with Shane's face, that's a grain of salt in our mental wounds." Dustin said with a shocked expression on his tear stained face. "Could that mean the past is coming back to haunt us?
"Anyone's guess at this point, Dustin." Was my only answer, although the Initial shock wore off, some residual shock was still clinging to me.
"The past could come back to haunt us in worse ways." Blake said. "Honestly, I find how it just did better than what happened to the McKnights." I cocked my head in his direction and raised an eyebrow.
"I got off the phone with Conner a few minutes prior to looking for you, he didn't sound so good." Hunter said with a shake of his head and a click of his tongue, must have been something he would've been careful about doing if he were a ninja… that happened a while ago and Conner's having it come back to haunt him must've peaked.
"Last night, he sat his wife down to tell her he was the Dino Thunder red ranger back in high school, their daughter overheard the conversation while looking for her blood glucose monitor and she verbally beat him to a mental pulp… by the sound of it." Blake explained, Yikes, some of the first ever wind ninjas were right, careful who you distrust people, I know it didn't ever benefit Dustin to prioritize that and that's not what the first wind ninjas meant, but still.
"Why would she do that…?" Sally asked before probably remembering Marissa's Incessant rants and rambles about stories her godfather told her when she was little. "…oh… ouch…" She rushed to help the boys and Camari torture Pua.
"Kinda feel like his twin brother should've forewarned him the minute he and Krista took pity on her." I said, my husband chuckled in amusement. "Though to give him the benefit of the doubt, he probably didn't know about having a power ranger for a twin." We watched as Pua anxiously protested, I silently pondered the thought of Shane having a child of his own whether he knew it or not.
I have already outlined a sequel to the crossover episode Thunder Storm (and I might publish said outline), the plot would be what the first excerpt was and this one should setup for the story as a whole, possible third excerpt of this story would star JJ and a son of Dustin that I would name Arlo and Anara (You know her from the boom studios comic book Soul of the Dragon), even though I might withhold it for a little while because of things going on in Australia and the content in the third excerpt might be symbolic of that.
