Disclaimer: Characters belong to B V E and Village Roadshow Productions Ltd. Dialogue on this one probably belongs to Ann Austen. Borrowing both not for profit. Hope no suing. Episode interpretation is mine. Inspiration provided by Rach. Boxes provided by Office Depot.
Spoilers: There's no "I" in Team
Author's Notes: Made it to episode #2. Barring preemptions, should be about six weeks behind on the storyline. I'm doing these in episode order, though I sometimes am tempted to skip an ep or two. (I *am* doing a Cam POV for "Nowhere to Grow" that's refusing to wait.) This piece is far less literal in following the action and dialogue than the first piece.
The Practical One: Grouped Together
By Stultulo
Copyright 2003
It was windy, and her wrist hurt. Dressed in her ninja uniform, with a cloth across her mouth to prevent her from choking on the sand, Tori could only wish the torture would be done soon... or that Shane would stop walking so fast. Their Red Ranger was focused on the goal, and nothing would stop him... even being handcuffed to his teammates. Unfortunately, that meant he was ignoring the pain of said teammates. "Ow!" she exclaimed, as a way of getting Shane's attention.
"Sorry, Tori," Shane apologized, but the tone indicated that it was an absentminded apology. Single-track mind, that was for sure. "It would be so much faster if we were allowed to split up."
"Not to mention less painful." But Sensei had a reason for this, she was sure. Now that they were a team, they had to act like a team, she guessed.
"You know, this 'scroll of three' thing better be worth it, man," Dustin complained. Shane was jerking him along as surely as he was hauling Tori. "These cuffs are brutal!"
"Sensei wouldn't have sent us if it wasn't important," Shane stated plainly. None of them quite remembered how they'd gotten to this desert, as if the journey from Ninja Ops had clouded their minds. She remembered Sensei's command, and Cam engaging a control... and that was it. She frowned. Shane, ignoring her "Ow!" of pain, continued. "It's gotta be around here somewhere."
"What kind of scroll are we talking about anyway?" Dustin asked.
"I thinking if we see a scroll *anywhere* around here, that's probably it," she replied, snapping because she was tired of the wind and the sand and Shane's constant pulling.
"Well, there's one," Dustin said, saving her from thinking of what they'd have to do if it required digging the thing out of a cave, or something like that. Maybe a cave would be great. It might be cool and less windy and sandy. She looked up. There was a scroll in midair, surrounded by some... lanterns, it looked like. She had just enough time to gape in awe at the sparkling scroll before Shane was running towards it.
"Wait, there's something on it!" Tori cried, bringing Shane to a screeching halt and pausing the abuse on her abused arm socket.
"Stronger is one than three," Shane mused, reading the wording on the scroll.
"That's it?" Dustin cried. "We'd be better off buying fortune cookies!"
"Let's just get it," Tori said, wanting the torture to end.
"I'll get it," Shane called, and leaped forward as if she and Dustin weren't cuffed to him. Unprepared for the leap, she felt herself being lifted up in the air... and as she and Dustin weren't prepared, falling down in a heap with her two teammates.
"Who's on my foot? Shane!" Dustin cried, no doubt because of the landing.
"That was *so* not effective," she said. Her wrist hurt, she was tired... she wanted to get out of there, but how could she, tied to the other two?
"Never mind," Shane said, with a touch of annoyance. "I'll do this myself." No small matter that the three of them were tied together.
As the three of them tried to get up, dark shapes leaped and landed around them. "Kelzak, party of ten," Dustin gulped as the three of them got ready for battle.
Of course, fighting when they were cuffed together wasn't easy. No matter how hard Tori tried to defend herself, she was being pulled off balance by Shane, and no amount of yelling would get him to do things her way.
Eventually, a lucky blow by a kelzak saber caused the cuffs to fall off. "I'll get the scroll!" Shane cried.
"Shane!" she yelled, trying to get his attention. She knew that she was being overwhelmed, and she could really do with some help right then and there. Dustin couldn't help; he was equally overwhelmed. "Wait! Stop!"
Eventually, their cries penetrated through to Shane, but it was too late. They were toast. "No!" the could hear Shane cry, as the swords came crashing down....
And suddenly, the world broke up into pixels. She was lying on the floor of their headquarters. Tori blinked as her memories swam up, and she remembered that they'd done their scroll quest at least half a dozen times.
They'd failed at least half a dozen times.
"I almost had it," Shane moaned. He looked pained... and annoyed.
"Simulation over," Cam said from one end of the table, opposite them. The holographic technology adaptation had been Cam's idea; the clouding of their minds, the forced forgetting that they were not in the desert, was Sensei's. "Well, that was... below average," he continued in his usual dry, sarcastic tone, as he closed the computer. "It'll be on the mainframe if you want to relive it." With that, he left to what must be his private quarters, or for all they knew, he was going to the mainframe and thinking up more torture for them on Sensei's behalf.
"Rangers," Sensei intoned, "you were lucky this was only a simulation." The guinea pig face didn't allow much expression, but his tone conveyed what his face could not.
"Sensei," Tori pleaded, "why can't we get this right? Why do we keep failing?" She wasn't happy to go through the simulation again and again, but it was obvious they sucked at being able to work together. Why couldn't they do this? They'd been friends for years.
"That is for you to figure out," Sensei said. He backflipped off the table. "Tomorrow, we will try again."
The lesson was over, obviously. She saw Dustin stretch and turn to leave, and she followed. "Where are you guys going?" Shane asked from behind them. She turned to see their Red Ranger still holding his hat.
"Home. Aren't you?" Tori asked.
Shane ignored that. "We've got to get this right!"
"Sensei said we'd try this again tomorrow," Tori offered. She was tired, she was still sore... taking a break seemed like a very good thing.
"Man, if I don't get some sleep, tomorrow's just going to be a repeat of today." Dustin yawned once again, for effect. She didn't blame him, after they'd spent almost their entire Saturday training.
"Look, that's why we need to keep practicing. Until you guys get it right."
She could see the expression on Shane's face as he realized what he'd said. But it was too late to swallow the words now; he'd meant what he'd said. And she wasn't about to let him off the hook for it.
"Until *we* get it right?" she demanded.
To his credit, Shane looked ashamed. "Look, that's not what I meant."
No, she wasn't going to let him off the hook. "Oh, we *know* what you meant." Shane wanted to blame it all on them. Wanted to pretend that he was the best person on the team.
She'd about made it to the stairs when someone grabbed her arm and she was swung around, along with Dustin, to Shane's glaring expression. "Look, this is not ninja school anymore. This is the real deal, and if you're not willing to focus on what's important, then...."
Dustin grabbed Shane's hand and forced it off him. "Dude, if you think you can do a better job all by yourself, then just go for it."
"Maybe I will," Shane seethed.
"Fine," Tori said, about ready to throw her teammate out the window... if Ops had a window to throw him through.
"Later, Dude," Dustin said finally.
Shane's look was enough as he stomped off like a spoiled child. Dustin looked at her. "Let's go up. I'm about ready to hit something... or someone."
"I know the feeling," Tori said. "I can't believe Shane. I've known him Ð we've both known him for years."
"Yeah," Dustin agreed. "It's like, we're Rangers now, so he has to be this big serious dude, 'cause he's the Red Ranger."
"Yeah." Tori agreed. "Think he's coming home with us?"
"Knowing him," Dustin said, "he'll probably stay up all night and rewatch 'our' glorious failures. I mean, hasn't he ever heard 'what's the point of growing up if you can't act childish sometimes'? The guy needs a serious chill pill, and fast."
"Yeah," Tori agreed once more. "So, let me take you home?"
"Tori," Dustin said, smiling, "I'd let you take me home any time."
=
Dustin was still yawning when they returned to Ninja Ops the next day. "I bet," he said between yawns, "that he'll be having tea and arguing with Sensei or Cam."
But as the two of them walked down and arrived at Ops, Shane wasn't there. Sensei was at the table, working a jigsaw puzzle that was probably his size all wadded together, and Cam was working on his computer, again. Of course, they'd never seen Cam do anything *but* work on his computer. "Where's Shane?" Cam asked.
She and Dustin exchanged a look. Obviously, Shane had gone somewhere after they'd left, though they would have liked to know how, since they'd all come in Tori's van. "You mean he's not here?" she asked.
"Look, he viewed the archives on the mainframe for a while, and then took him home." Cam looked annoyed. "Because nobody else was here to take him home."
Tori blinked at the fact that Cam knew how to drive. Of course, Sensei's son was a computer genius, but that didn't always mean that he could drive a car. Or a truck. She tried to imagine him driving and failed.
"He said he'd be here this morning. So where is he?" Cam asked.
"We don't know- out there, saving the world, maybe?" Dustin sounded as irritated as she felt.
"Yeah," Tori added. "I guess it's kind of nice, being a one-man army." She glanced down at Sensei's jigsaw puzzle. He was patiently moving about pieces with his tiny staff, as if Shane's actions didn't bother him.
"Every piece has its place," Sensei intoned in his 'teaching' voice. "Shane will learn... but you must help him."
"That's the problem," she said to Sensei. She watched Dustin yawn. "He won't let us."
"He will. Give him time." Sensei turned and moved another puzzle piece into place.
There was little more that could be said. Tori looked at Dustin. She was still furious at Shane, but she was rapidly becoming more worried as well. If he was alone, and something got him... it was going to be a long wait for him to come back to Ops.
=
It was only a few minutes later, or maybe a few hours, when Cam's console began to beep and Cam started pounding frantically on the keys. "What's going on, Cam?" Tori asked, as the picture resolved into Shane fighting something monstrous.
"It's some magnet head thing," Cam managed. "I'm tapping into a police surveillance camera that's near a power reading that's off the scale." The three of them watched as Shane continued to be pounded.
Finally, she couldn't stand it any more. She raced off towards the stairs, knowing Dustin was joining her. "Wait," Sensei called, and the two of them stopped. "I will let you know when it is time."
She looked at Dustin. Dustin looked at her. But something told her that Sensei was right. Almost as one, the two of them came back to watch the uneven battle.
Despite any proclamations to the contrary, Shane wasn't doing too well. No matter how he protested that he could do it on his own, Tori felt her heart strain as she watched him try to fight... and fail. She wondered if she'd be able to stop from running to his side, but one look at Sensei stopped that.
She could only hope that Shane realized he needed help, and soon. As it seemed like he was going to be buried under a pile of metal, she heard him cry out, "Tori! Dustin! I need your help!"
"Now?" Tori asked, pleading silently with Sensei to let them go.
"Now," Sensei confirmed.
"Let's do it," Dustin said, obviously ready to morph and get out of there. They both let out their morphing cries, and within seconds, were transformed into their Ranger forms.
It was a quick hop and jump to the warehouse, where they caught the magnet monster by surprise, thoroughly dusting him. Shane's faceplace slid open. "Tori! Dustin! You guys came!"
She thought she'd never seen Shane so relieved, or so humble, as he did that moment. "Well, of course we did," she said, as if he'd not acted like an idiot the night before.
"I can't believe I was such a jerk," Shane continued on.
"I can," Dustin said. At her nudge, he added, "Not dissin' you, bro."
That was all they had time for before their opponent crashed in from where he'd sent them. However, with the three of them together, it was quickly finished off, if only for a few moments.
=
Tori felt elated as the three of them returned to Ops. The three of them had gotten Zords, and Dustin was doing his best at dancing all the way to Ops. The moment that they'd realized what the scroll meant - that three people working together as one was stronger than three working apart as individuals - they were able to piece their megazord together and defeat the monster.
Dustin was still dancing as they reached the main area of Ops "We got Zords! How stoked is that?"
"They are not toys," Sensei said, gently but reprovingly. "Remember your ninja training. Never escalate a battle."
Holding out his hands, Dustin said, "Hey, that's fine with me, man."
Sensei gave a miniscule nod in acknowledgment. "Now that you have learned to work as one, the balance of power will always be in your hands." With that, he slid the last piece of the puzzle in place, flipped down off the table, and walked away, leaving the three Rangers with a view of the finished puzzle - their Megazord. She felt Shane's arm snake around her shoulders as she gazed on the puzzle, and found a little peace. For the moment, everything was good.
=
Some time later, after they and Cam had made sure that there were no lingering aftereffects of the magnet monster, Tori saw Shane slip away up the stairs. Some impulse made her follow him, slowly, until she found herself a seat on a piece of wreckage. "Penny for your thoughts?"
Shane gave her a half-smile. "Just feeling stupid right now," Shane admitted. "I wanted to do it alone. I didn't want you guys to be in my way... I just didn't want you to be hurt. So I tried to be a hero."
Tori smiled and nudged him. "You *are* a hero," she said. "It's just that... we're a team. We have to learn to do things together."
"To trust each other," Shane said, and she could tell he was pondering something. "You know, I was talking to Kelly today."
"And?" Tori asked, wondering what Dustin's boss had to do with anything.
"I asked her how she was such a good boss." He paused, looking at the boundaries of the former school. "She told me it was because she treated everybody like a member of the team. That she trusted them to do their part, and she'd do hers. I didn't understand how it applied... but I think I do now."
"Good," she said. "I think."
Shane got up. "In fact, I want to try Sensei's simulation again. I'm sure we'll do great... this time."
"You're not serious," Tori stated, but she could see the twinkle in his eye. "Shane, you're not serious?"
Her only response was a grin and a jog towards Ops. Tori sighed and started to make her way back.
-to be followed by "Tomboy"
Spoilers: There's no "I" in Team
Author's Notes: Made it to episode #2. Barring preemptions, should be about six weeks behind on the storyline. I'm doing these in episode order, though I sometimes am tempted to skip an ep or two. (I *am* doing a Cam POV for "Nowhere to Grow" that's refusing to wait.) This piece is far less literal in following the action and dialogue than the first piece.
The Practical One: Grouped Together
By Stultulo
Copyright 2003
It was windy, and her wrist hurt. Dressed in her ninja uniform, with a cloth across her mouth to prevent her from choking on the sand, Tori could only wish the torture would be done soon... or that Shane would stop walking so fast. Their Red Ranger was focused on the goal, and nothing would stop him... even being handcuffed to his teammates. Unfortunately, that meant he was ignoring the pain of said teammates. "Ow!" she exclaimed, as a way of getting Shane's attention.
"Sorry, Tori," Shane apologized, but the tone indicated that it was an absentminded apology. Single-track mind, that was for sure. "It would be so much faster if we were allowed to split up."
"Not to mention less painful." But Sensei had a reason for this, she was sure. Now that they were a team, they had to act like a team, she guessed.
"You know, this 'scroll of three' thing better be worth it, man," Dustin complained. Shane was jerking him along as surely as he was hauling Tori. "These cuffs are brutal!"
"Sensei wouldn't have sent us if it wasn't important," Shane stated plainly. None of them quite remembered how they'd gotten to this desert, as if the journey from Ninja Ops had clouded their minds. She remembered Sensei's command, and Cam engaging a control... and that was it. She frowned. Shane, ignoring her "Ow!" of pain, continued. "It's gotta be around here somewhere."
"What kind of scroll are we talking about anyway?" Dustin asked.
"I thinking if we see a scroll *anywhere* around here, that's probably it," she replied, snapping because she was tired of the wind and the sand and Shane's constant pulling.
"Well, there's one," Dustin said, saving her from thinking of what they'd have to do if it required digging the thing out of a cave, or something like that. Maybe a cave would be great. It might be cool and less windy and sandy. She looked up. There was a scroll in midair, surrounded by some... lanterns, it looked like. She had just enough time to gape in awe at the sparkling scroll before Shane was running towards it.
"Wait, there's something on it!" Tori cried, bringing Shane to a screeching halt and pausing the abuse on her abused arm socket.
"Stronger is one than three," Shane mused, reading the wording on the scroll.
"That's it?" Dustin cried. "We'd be better off buying fortune cookies!"
"Let's just get it," Tori said, wanting the torture to end.
"I'll get it," Shane called, and leaped forward as if she and Dustin weren't cuffed to him. Unprepared for the leap, she felt herself being lifted up in the air... and as she and Dustin weren't prepared, falling down in a heap with her two teammates.
"Who's on my foot? Shane!" Dustin cried, no doubt because of the landing.
"That was *so* not effective," she said. Her wrist hurt, she was tired... she wanted to get out of there, but how could she, tied to the other two?
"Never mind," Shane said, with a touch of annoyance. "I'll do this myself." No small matter that the three of them were tied together.
As the three of them tried to get up, dark shapes leaped and landed around them. "Kelzak, party of ten," Dustin gulped as the three of them got ready for battle.
Of course, fighting when they were cuffed together wasn't easy. No matter how hard Tori tried to defend herself, she was being pulled off balance by Shane, and no amount of yelling would get him to do things her way.
Eventually, a lucky blow by a kelzak saber caused the cuffs to fall off. "I'll get the scroll!" Shane cried.
"Shane!" she yelled, trying to get his attention. She knew that she was being overwhelmed, and she could really do with some help right then and there. Dustin couldn't help; he was equally overwhelmed. "Wait! Stop!"
Eventually, their cries penetrated through to Shane, but it was too late. They were toast. "No!" the could hear Shane cry, as the swords came crashing down....
And suddenly, the world broke up into pixels. She was lying on the floor of their headquarters. Tori blinked as her memories swam up, and she remembered that they'd done their scroll quest at least half a dozen times.
They'd failed at least half a dozen times.
"I almost had it," Shane moaned. He looked pained... and annoyed.
"Simulation over," Cam said from one end of the table, opposite them. The holographic technology adaptation had been Cam's idea; the clouding of their minds, the forced forgetting that they were not in the desert, was Sensei's. "Well, that was... below average," he continued in his usual dry, sarcastic tone, as he closed the computer. "It'll be on the mainframe if you want to relive it." With that, he left to what must be his private quarters, or for all they knew, he was going to the mainframe and thinking up more torture for them on Sensei's behalf.
"Rangers," Sensei intoned, "you were lucky this was only a simulation." The guinea pig face didn't allow much expression, but his tone conveyed what his face could not.
"Sensei," Tori pleaded, "why can't we get this right? Why do we keep failing?" She wasn't happy to go through the simulation again and again, but it was obvious they sucked at being able to work together. Why couldn't they do this? They'd been friends for years.
"That is for you to figure out," Sensei said. He backflipped off the table. "Tomorrow, we will try again."
The lesson was over, obviously. She saw Dustin stretch and turn to leave, and she followed. "Where are you guys going?" Shane asked from behind them. She turned to see their Red Ranger still holding his hat.
"Home. Aren't you?" Tori asked.
Shane ignored that. "We've got to get this right!"
"Sensei said we'd try this again tomorrow," Tori offered. She was tired, she was still sore... taking a break seemed like a very good thing.
"Man, if I don't get some sleep, tomorrow's just going to be a repeat of today." Dustin yawned once again, for effect. She didn't blame him, after they'd spent almost their entire Saturday training.
"Look, that's why we need to keep practicing. Until you guys get it right."
She could see the expression on Shane's face as he realized what he'd said. But it was too late to swallow the words now; he'd meant what he'd said. And she wasn't about to let him off the hook for it.
"Until *we* get it right?" she demanded.
To his credit, Shane looked ashamed. "Look, that's not what I meant."
No, she wasn't going to let him off the hook. "Oh, we *know* what you meant." Shane wanted to blame it all on them. Wanted to pretend that he was the best person on the team.
She'd about made it to the stairs when someone grabbed her arm and she was swung around, along with Dustin, to Shane's glaring expression. "Look, this is not ninja school anymore. This is the real deal, and if you're not willing to focus on what's important, then...."
Dustin grabbed Shane's hand and forced it off him. "Dude, if you think you can do a better job all by yourself, then just go for it."
"Maybe I will," Shane seethed.
"Fine," Tori said, about ready to throw her teammate out the window... if Ops had a window to throw him through.
"Later, Dude," Dustin said finally.
Shane's look was enough as he stomped off like a spoiled child. Dustin looked at her. "Let's go up. I'm about ready to hit something... or someone."
"I know the feeling," Tori said. "I can't believe Shane. I've known him Ð we've both known him for years."
"Yeah," Dustin agreed. "It's like, we're Rangers now, so he has to be this big serious dude, 'cause he's the Red Ranger."
"Yeah." Tori agreed. "Think he's coming home with us?"
"Knowing him," Dustin said, "he'll probably stay up all night and rewatch 'our' glorious failures. I mean, hasn't he ever heard 'what's the point of growing up if you can't act childish sometimes'? The guy needs a serious chill pill, and fast."
"Yeah," Tori agreed once more. "So, let me take you home?"
"Tori," Dustin said, smiling, "I'd let you take me home any time."
=
Dustin was still yawning when they returned to Ninja Ops the next day. "I bet," he said between yawns, "that he'll be having tea and arguing with Sensei or Cam."
But as the two of them walked down and arrived at Ops, Shane wasn't there. Sensei was at the table, working a jigsaw puzzle that was probably his size all wadded together, and Cam was working on his computer, again. Of course, they'd never seen Cam do anything *but* work on his computer. "Where's Shane?" Cam asked.
She and Dustin exchanged a look. Obviously, Shane had gone somewhere after they'd left, though they would have liked to know how, since they'd all come in Tori's van. "You mean he's not here?" she asked.
"Look, he viewed the archives on the mainframe for a while, and then took him home." Cam looked annoyed. "Because nobody else was here to take him home."
Tori blinked at the fact that Cam knew how to drive. Of course, Sensei's son was a computer genius, but that didn't always mean that he could drive a car. Or a truck. She tried to imagine him driving and failed.
"He said he'd be here this morning. So where is he?" Cam asked.
"We don't know- out there, saving the world, maybe?" Dustin sounded as irritated as she felt.
"Yeah," Tori added. "I guess it's kind of nice, being a one-man army." She glanced down at Sensei's jigsaw puzzle. He was patiently moving about pieces with his tiny staff, as if Shane's actions didn't bother him.
"Every piece has its place," Sensei intoned in his 'teaching' voice. "Shane will learn... but you must help him."
"That's the problem," she said to Sensei. She watched Dustin yawn. "He won't let us."
"He will. Give him time." Sensei turned and moved another puzzle piece into place.
There was little more that could be said. Tori looked at Dustin. She was still furious at Shane, but she was rapidly becoming more worried as well. If he was alone, and something got him... it was going to be a long wait for him to come back to Ops.
=
It was only a few minutes later, or maybe a few hours, when Cam's console began to beep and Cam started pounding frantically on the keys. "What's going on, Cam?" Tori asked, as the picture resolved into Shane fighting something monstrous.
"It's some magnet head thing," Cam managed. "I'm tapping into a police surveillance camera that's near a power reading that's off the scale." The three of them watched as Shane continued to be pounded.
Finally, she couldn't stand it any more. She raced off towards the stairs, knowing Dustin was joining her. "Wait," Sensei called, and the two of them stopped. "I will let you know when it is time."
She looked at Dustin. Dustin looked at her. But something told her that Sensei was right. Almost as one, the two of them came back to watch the uneven battle.
Despite any proclamations to the contrary, Shane wasn't doing too well. No matter how he protested that he could do it on his own, Tori felt her heart strain as she watched him try to fight... and fail. She wondered if she'd be able to stop from running to his side, but one look at Sensei stopped that.
She could only hope that Shane realized he needed help, and soon. As it seemed like he was going to be buried under a pile of metal, she heard him cry out, "Tori! Dustin! I need your help!"
"Now?" Tori asked, pleading silently with Sensei to let them go.
"Now," Sensei confirmed.
"Let's do it," Dustin said, obviously ready to morph and get out of there. They both let out their morphing cries, and within seconds, were transformed into their Ranger forms.
It was a quick hop and jump to the warehouse, where they caught the magnet monster by surprise, thoroughly dusting him. Shane's faceplace slid open. "Tori! Dustin! You guys came!"
She thought she'd never seen Shane so relieved, or so humble, as he did that moment. "Well, of course we did," she said, as if he'd not acted like an idiot the night before.
"I can't believe I was such a jerk," Shane continued on.
"I can," Dustin said. At her nudge, he added, "Not dissin' you, bro."
That was all they had time for before their opponent crashed in from where he'd sent them. However, with the three of them together, it was quickly finished off, if only for a few moments.
=
Tori felt elated as the three of them returned to Ops. The three of them had gotten Zords, and Dustin was doing his best at dancing all the way to Ops. The moment that they'd realized what the scroll meant - that three people working together as one was stronger than three working apart as individuals - they were able to piece their megazord together and defeat the monster.
Dustin was still dancing as they reached the main area of Ops "We got Zords! How stoked is that?"
"They are not toys," Sensei said, gently but reprovingly. "Remember your ninja training. Never escalate a battle."
Holding out his hands, Dustin said, "Hey, that's fine with me, man."
Sensei gave a miniscule nod in acknowledgment. "Now that you have learned to work as one, the balance of power will always be in your hands." With that, he slid the last piece of the puzzle in place, flipped down off the table, and walked away, leaving the three Rangers with a view of the finished puzzle - their Megazord. She felt Shane's arm snake around her shoulders as she gazed on the puzzle, and found a little peace. For the moment, everything was good.
=
Some time later, after they and Cam had made sure that there were no lingering aftereffects of the magnet monster, Tori saw Shane slip away up the stairs. Some impulse made her follow him, slowly, until she found herself a seat on a piece of wreckage. "Penny for your thoughts?"
Shane gave her a half-smile. "Just feeling stupid right now," Shane admitted. "I wanted to do it alone. I didn't want you guys to be in my way... I just didn't want you to be hurt. So I tried to be a hero."
Tori smiled and nudged him. "You *are* a hero," she said. "It's just that... we're a team. We have to learn to do things together."
"To trust each other," Shane said, and she could tell he was pondering something. "You know, I was talking to Kelly today."
"And?" Tori asked, wondering what Dustin's boss had to do with anything.
"I asked her how she was such a good boss." He paused, looking at the boundaries of the former school. "She told me it was because she treated everybody like a member of the team. That she trusted them to do their part, and she'd do hers. I didn't understand how it applied... but I think I do now."
"Good," she said. "I think."
Shane got up. "In fact, I want to try Sensei's simulation again. I'm sure we'll do great... this time."
"You're not serious," Tori stated, but she could see the twinkle in his eye. "Shane, you're not serious?"
Her only response was a grin and a jog towards Ops. Tori sighed and started to make her way back.
-to be followed by "Tomboy"