Dayu had been acting weird for the last couple of days. Things had been a little strained between them but the situation had really gone downhill since the football game. When Dayu returned from her errand that afternoon she was unusually quiet, even resisting the urge to playfully tease and taunt Lauren throughout their meeting. Lauren noticed the strange ways the yellow ranger kept looking at her over the last few weeks. Sometimes she caught Dayu staring like a lovesick puppy yet other times with utter shame. It was really confusing Lauren and it was getting to the point where she felt like she should say something. But for the last few days there had been nothing, sometimes they went hours without saying a word to each other.
As the day continued Lauren kept searching through her memories, trying to think of how she had annoyed Dayu but she kept coming up blank.
A sudden and violent explosion rocked the near by armoured truck, sending it sliding wildly out of control. Lauren slammed on the brakes and swerved quickly to avoid the crashing into the out of control truck. In the process though she lost control herself. Her mustang fishtailed before doing a complete 360 degree turn. The red ranger barely had time to register the lamppost coming into view before a violent crunch assaulted all of her senses.
Everything was dark for Lauren but a small part of her brain was conscious enough to pick up on some sounds coming through the radio.
"What the hell was that?"
"Something hit the truck"
The next thing Dayu remembered was a strong pair of hands pulling her out of her seat. Her eyes fluttered open but the bright sunlight was too much for her to bear, "Easy Lauren" she heard Kong's calming voice, "I've got you". The blue ranger gently dragged her across the road away from her cruiser and across the street.
When she stopped moving Lauren attempted to open her eyes again. This time her vision was filled with the familiar brown locks of Dayu, "Welcome back to the land of the living", the yellow ranger greeted, "you had us worried for a moment".
Lauren grunted some kind of response. Dayu had to admire Lauren's attempt to put on a brave face. Judging by the size of the cut the red ranger must be in a significant amount of pain. The medical team would have her fixed up pretty quickly though and probably without any major scarring. It didn't seem like the appropriate time to bring up personal matters but since they were alone and minutes removed from escaping certain death, maybe this was the perfect time. Just as Dayu was about to begin, she noticed Lauren struggling to stand up, "You should stay seated", she cautioned her.
Lauren's focus though was on an alley just over their shoulders, "Someone's watching us", she replied with a hushed whisper. She hobbled to her feet and summoned her blaster to her hand. Kong , Salem and Daniel all began to look around at rooftops.
Seeing there was no one in the alley, Dayu slowly lowered her weapon, "There's no one here Lauren", she commented.
"Look harder little girl", a strong male voice taunted from above their heads. Standing on a fire escape above their heads was an African-American male with dark curly hair. The man vaulted over the metal barrier and dropped the storey down to the ground, landing softly in front of the women. It was then that Dayu noticed he was dressed in a dark blue boiler suit. Lauren suddenly realised who this mystery man was. This was Psycho blue's human form, "Power rangers, its been a while", the man continued, "not the same ones i fought, but oh how the mighty have fallen".
"Jax", Lauren gripped her weapon even tighter, "how the fuck did you return?"
Dayu and the other rangers were startled for a moment, despite her brash attitude Lauren hardly ever swore, "A mystery for me to know", Jax smiled, Dayu froze for a moment, the rest of the Psycho's had returned too. As the rangers stood rooted to the spot, Jax took a couple of paces towards the red ranger, "Sorry for the blast, didn't know how else to get your attention", that was directed at the rangers but his gaze was firmly on Lauren " don't remember you but your cute". Dayu's skin crawled at his leering gaze, if her ribs weren't so sore she wouldn't slapped him away.
"You stay away from her", Lauren spat with venom.
The Psycho blue chuckled. Sirens began to fill the air, drawing Jax's attention, "They're playing my song", he gave the momo rangers a mocking salute, "we'll be in touch soon". He turned on his heel and sprinted down the alley away the rangers.
Dayu felt close to collapsing and judging by the shaking arms on Lauren, her partner was feeling the same way too. Another set of footsteps coming up fast from behind shocked the rangers into action. Fearing that another member of the psycho's was coming to attack she spun around quickly with her weapon ready to fire. She was a little embarrassed and surprise to see the SPD rangers, eying the Momo Rangers curiously, "SPD you surprised me", she apologised.
"So I see", Bridge began, "good reactions though". He eyed up the rangers carefully, "You look like you've been in the wars".
"The Psycho rangers are back" Lauren blurted out, limping towards SPD red, "I suspect they were behind the attack".
The SPD red sighed, his shoulder slumping slightly, "There's an ambulance waiting, go get yourselves checked out, that's an order".
Dayu nodded and carefully wrapped her arm around Lauren's waist, gently helping her down the alley. There was a vacant look in the red ranger's eye and Dayu suspected it wasn't just due to her injuries. A previous evil ranger she had encountered in the past was back. Something told Gwen that they weren't looking to play nice either.