Skidding to a painful stop on the rocky ground, Cam forced himself to breathe deeply in order to dispel the darkness crowding his vision. It was reassuring to know that he was still alive, though he didn't know how or why, and rather then think too deeply about the matter he decided to simply accept his continued existence as fact and move on from there. The most prudent step he could think of to take now would be to escape, which had been his original plan before being sidetracked by Blake's eminent demise and the whirlpool of light that had been his last memory. He had to get back to Ninja Ops as quickly as possible.

      Rising slowly to a sitting position, the young man dusted himself off tidily before his mind relayed to him a startling fact. Cam's surroundings were deathly silent, missing even the white noise of the native inhabitants of the forest that secluded the Wind Ninja Academy from prying eyes. No explosions rocked the ground, no denizens of the woods scurried, squawking, for cover, and no witty retorts from doomed space aliens ricocheted through the trees. There were no familiar voices from the teenagers he had been fighting along side only moments before to reassure him.

      "What the-" Cam's voice was hushed with revulsion as he took stock of his surroundings. The once vibrant forest, the one that he could remember exploring as a child, lie burnt and blackened around him. Trees rose like ironworks pikes, stripped of their limbs and any semblance of life. The shock of seeing such devastation crowded his heart with anger and determination to bring to justice whoever had perpetrated this heinous act. He had not felt that way since seeing the Academy reduced to ruin before his very eyes.

      "The school!" he exclaimed, shaking his head to clear away the distracting emotions. If there was any place where he could get answers, it would be from his computer hidden safely under the rubble of his previous home. Stumbling in the general direction of the waterfall portal, his mind still reeling at the devastation, Cam could feel a hole beginning to develop in his heart. The scope of the fire, which had consumed everything in sight, had obviously been vicious, and the cynical voice in Cam's head constantly reminded him of the absence of his compatriots.

      So many non-sequiturs in his situation made the young man feel like he had no control. After being hit by a beam of such intensity, Cam knew he should feel some lingering pain, some affect of what had happened. The instantaneous disappearance of all of the Rangers, and the monster they had been fighting, was another quandary. Where had they gone? Or was it he who had been moved?

      These thoughts distracted his mind to the point that, upon arriving at the portal where his answers lie, he didn't recognize it. Cam stopped, gaping in astonishment at the ruins of what had once been the greatest technological feat achieved on Earth. Suddenly, he began to feel very, very afraid. The holographic waterfall was no more, and the once idyllic pond, now murky with mud and ash, barely supported the remnants of the normally camouflaged bridge that lead to the desolate landscape of the Academy.

      Treading lightly over rickety, rotten bridge, the hole in what seemed to be the very fabric of space itself opened wearily into the familiar rubble of the school. Vaulting over various piles of the abandoned surface structures, Cam searched for the secret escape route he prayed still existed. His only plan of action consisted of finding Ninja Ops and deciding what to do from there. If that place, where he had toiled away so many continuous days and nights for the Rangers' benefit, no longer existed, he would have no idea where to go next.

      "Thank God," he breathed, tears almost springing to his eyes, as he spotted the faint outline of a door in the lingering dust. The unnerving amount of sediment that had found a home in the cracks of the escape route told testament to how long it had been since someone had used the entryway, but Cam refused to acknowledge the fact to himself. Finally hefting the impeding block from the entrance, Cam stumbled, as if drunk, down the stairs. No light aided him in his decent, and the inky shadows that the darkness held made the nerve center of the Rangers' operations feel like a catacomb.

      Blue emergency lights pulsed faintly, a dying heartbeat, to light the main chamber. The back, right-hand ceiling had caved in, partially destroying his prized computer, and sealing off the back rooms. Black indentations from energy weapons scorched the once soft, blue walls, while shards of the ceiling decorated the dust on the floor like extra icing on a cake. Without moving towards the dominating, blank, and shattered screen, Cam knew that his computer would be useless. Scrolls he had organized painstakingly in one corner were now nowhere to been seen; taken by whoever had been the victor in the battle for Ninja Ops. Cam had a feeling it hadn't been the good guys. He had come down to the ghost town of a home for nothing.

      Sudden inspiration struck as the programmer wondered how this could have happened with the Rangers protecting Blue Bay Harbor. Sliding on the frictionless marble, he scampered to the relatively undamaged left side of the spacious room. Carefully skirting the splintered, centerpiece table, his eyes struggled to focus in the secluded grotto where he knew the morphers had lain hidden for centuries before Lothor's arrival. It was the only explanation he could think of for the current state of the world that he had witnessed.

      Finding the battle-scarred box, Cam realized that his hands were trembling. Intrinsically, he had a sixth sense that told him what he would find in the glass-sculpted holders, and it was that same precognitive sense that kept him from opening the mahogany lid. It was stupid, he chastened himself, to stand there among the ruin and stare at the intricate black patterns that had faded without polishing, without knowing the truth.

      Cam took a deep breath, and with a determined expression, expertly flipped the catch on the box and opened it. Nestled in their glass protection, unscathed by the wounds of the battle that had obviously occurred in the room, lay the Wind Ninja morphers.

      "Well, that explains a lot," Cam murmured to himself. The theory that he was in some sort of an alternate universe had slowly been nurtured into a hypothesis with the things that he had seen. With the new realization that in this place, in this time, the Rangers had never existed, Cam shivered as a feeling of dread lodged itself in his stomach. If no one had been around to protect Blue Bay Harbor, and the world, from Lothor, there was a very distinct possibility that the destruction that the dark-haired youth had seen outside was only a taste of what was to come.

      He had to know. He had to find out what had become of Tori, Dustin, Shane, Blake, Hunter…and his father. A flash of yellow caught Cam's attention, and for an instant hope flared up in the young man. It wasn't Dustin, however, simply his backpack. It seemed to be in fair condition, though splotched with dirt and dust. With blatant disregard for the owner, Cam snatched at the only usable object in the ruins and threw the morphers unceremoniously inside. If he ever did find the Rangers he could at least give the Wind Academy students their equipment.

      That brought up the next question of where to look for the missing teens. Cam had never prided himself in knowing the extent of the Rangers' social lives, except when they had pertinence to their training or ninja powers. Looking to the ceiling for inspiration, Cam closed his eyes to dredge up any memories that would help. For some reason, the past was becoming a hard thing to grasp, like a dream crushed by harsh reality.

      Storm Chargers. He knew where that was. He knew that all five of the people in question hung out there at one point or another. It would be the perfect place to start from. Whatever had happened to this world, there was nothing he could do about it from the demolished Ops, and nothing that he could do about it alone. It was the Rangers' jobs to save the world, not his. This was the fact that he jogged up the stairs, he convinced himself, with such desperate speed. He didn't have the heaven-sent powers that the students of the Academies did deep within him, and that was why he knew that he couldn't find and fight whatever had committed this atrocity himself.

      Cam would never admit that he was frightened. He would not confide to anyone that his heart had seemed to cease functioning. The obliteration of everything he had worked so hard for, that he had cherished so much, and which he would have died for, was evident before him. It intimidated him more than any of Lothor's aliens, more then any of Hunter's threats, or any of his father's lectures. He only wished that he knew what had caused this, so he could make things return to the way it was supposed to be.

      Bursting into the muted sunlight, Cam felt his determination returning as he shifted Dustin's backpack awkwardly on his back. He remembered having just finished a now-hypocritical lecture on how the Rangers should stay away from his personal things, or at the very least ask him for permission before crashing one or more of his databases. It all seemed so trivial now, and childish, when compared to the disaster around him.

      "Hey! What are you doing here?" A thunderous voice rolled over to Cam, as loud as if the owner had been standing beside him.

      Rather then reply, Cam squinted to see a figure slowly rising over the horizon. The bulky shape grew larger at an alarming speed, a testament to the faster-than-human speed of its gait. Calling out, and slowly walking to meet whomever it was, Cam asked, "Who are you? How did you get here?"

      "I'm the one that asks the questions around here," replied the deep voice haughtily. Suddenly sensing the malevolence behind the tone, Cam began to back away. The bulky figure was too large to be any human. That left only one option.

      Keeping his eyes fixed on the monster that rapidly converged on his position, Cam knew that his only hope was to escape before he was recognized. "I was just…doing some reconnaissance, that's all," he lied.

      The monster was becoming suspicious, as was indicated by his quickening pace. No one had been near this condemned place since they had beaten the last pocket of resistance there. "Why aren't you monitoring the humans, instead of loitering here?" he demanded.

      "Um…I was relieved of duty early," Cam guessed, more question in his voice then certainty.

      The alien paused, squinting into the sun behind the wiry shadow. Despite its less then stellar brain capacity, it was becoming more and more obvious that whoever this was, they were not a member of Lothor's legion. Finally passing the threshold of clear viewing, the alien recognized the unmistakable features of a human.

      For one brief second Cam made eye contact with the minion, and saw the comprehension there. Not sparing a second, the programmer spun around and began to flee.

      "Kelzaks!" The order was instantly heeded, and Cam found himself surrounded at first by the energy of a dozen transports and second by the same amount of gibbering, knife-wielding Kelzaks.

      Cam succeeded in knocking down three of the mindless drones before a well-placed swipe landed him on his back, defenseless.

      "I didn't think that there were any of you humans free anymore," sneered the unrecognized monster as it shuffled through the ebbing mass of Kelzaks to drag Cam to his feet. Though the young man tried to struggle as his feet were lifted from the ground, he had no more control over his fate then a marionette.

      "You'd be surprised how resilient we are," Cam spat back, unwilling to be captured without inflicting some verbal abuse.

      "What did you think you'd find here?" the monster taunted. "Some wisdom from the supposed defenders of your precious Earth? Well, I have news for you. They're gone. Captured. Just like the rest of your pitiful race."

      "We may not be as helpless as you think," countered Cam, though he knew that his defense was weak. Apparently with Lothor's domination of Earth he had become more powerful, and been able to recruit more competent cronies. That would not bode well for any confrontations the Sensei's son might hope for in the future.

      The brute's mouth turned up slightly in a half-smirk. "Since you were so desperate to meet with the Wind Ninjas, perhaps I can accommodate you."

      Before Cam could scathingly demand what the alien meant by that, he felt a sharp pain at the base of his neck, and fell into inescapable unconsciousness.

*~*~*~*~*~*

      Waking up from the enveloping darkness, like a deep sleep, at first confused Cam. Once again his surroundings had changed, and if it weren't for the lingering pain along his spine he could almost be convinced that everything he had experienced had been nothing but a dream. Lying on his back, he could hear indistinct sounds above him that he struggled to understand.

      "Hey, guys, he's waking up." A hushed, male voice tickled his senses, but it was a female face that he saw as he opened his eyes to the painfully bright lights.

      "T-Tori? Is that you?" As unintelligent as the question seemed, it fell out of Cam nonetheless. Being captured wasn't his preferred way to get what he wanted, but as long as it worked….

      A kind, but confused look settled on the blonde's face as she turned, presumably, to Shane, whose voice Cam now realized spoke the first words. Turning back to the Asian, the Blue Wind Ranger wiped the concern from her face before answering him.

      "That's right. And who might you be?"

Notes:

Mandolin-It's nice to know that I'm not the only person that has unfulfilled story ideas. I'm glad I could 'borrow' your idea and expand on it. No plagiarism intended.

Jade Daniels-I have to admit, I liked the cynical, sarcastic, almost bitter Cam of the first few episodes the best. He had so much character, and it was refreshing to have someone working with the Rangers who wasn't enamored with them to the point of hero-worship. Also Hunter, who will be a bigger role player in later chapters, was always a little darker to me. He seemed, out of the Thunder Rangers, to be the one that was forced to grow up too fast because of circumstances and therefore tried to be more of an adult without truly being a child. Similarity with Cam…I think so.

Cmar-I never thought about the parallels to 'It's a Wonderful Life' but you're correct, it is similar. Too bad it's 6 months opposite Christmas. Also, I like to think that, based on the caliber of reviews I've received, the language is perfect. Sure, it's not for the kiddie crowd, but I've always believed that fanfiction's job is not only to write like the show but also, if applicable, write better.

Thank you so much for the generous reviews everyone, and I hope to stay on par with my writing. As always, please continue reviewing with questions, comments, snide remarks, etc. They are always appreciated.

Dusha