Copyright © 2003
Authors comments: Sorry guys for the slow update. Internet is being
quirky (as usual). This one is kinda short, but it was necessary to keep
to the flow of the story. BTW.The first part is almost done!
Enjoy and REEEVIEW!!!
~~~~~~~~~~
Few days later in the morning
"CCCLLLAAAARREEE!!!!!!!! HURRY UP!!!! YOU'VE BEEN IN THE BATHROOM FOR 2 HOURS!!!!!!" screamed Rika while waiting with her arms folded outside.
"I'VE ONLY BEEN IN HERE FOR 10 MINUTES!!!!"
Hunter and Blake bolted upright in their beds (good thing they weren't in bunk beds) with their fists up in an awkward fighting stance, then hearing the words of the screaming, they looked at each other with surprised faces and smothered their laughter with their pillows in their faces.
"Rise 'n shine guys!" Cam knocked and stuck his head in, both groaned, Blake threw his covers off and wrenched himself from his bed while Hunter threw himself back into bed and pulled the covers over his head.
"You stay in their any longer and you're gonna turn into a prune!!!"
"Lower your voice! What if the guys hear?!"
"Don't worry, Blake's already here."
Blake rubbed the back of his head, mussing his hair while giving Rika a groggy smile, "'morning."
"WHAT?! AERIE!!!!"
Rika merely snickered as Blake flushed. "Morning to you too."
"CLARE, IF YOU DON'T COME OUT IN THE NEXT 5 SECONDS, I'M GONNA COME IN AND SPLASH COLD WATER ALL OVER YOU!!!"
"NO YOU WOULDN'T!!!!" Horrified, Clare showered even faster, knowing that her sister would very well make good upon her threat.
"- 3 - 2 - 1 - I'm coming in, whether you like it or not!!!"
Rika barged in as Blake hastily turned away, next thing anyone who could hear was,
Picture a scene of Ninja Ops. Outside is a graceful waterfall, scream can be heard from within and a flock of birds are disturbed and fly out of the trees.
"AAAAAAARRRGGHHH~!!!!!! AAAAEEEERRRRRRIIIEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Hunter threw his covers off, muttering to himself, "Those two make enough noise to wake the dead."
Grabbing his towel and toiletries, he groggily shuffled to the bathroom. He saw Blake looking a bit amused, and gestured towards the closed bathroom door.
"I don't think you want to go in there right now. It sounds like World War III."
Hunter was about to reply, but then the door slammed open and Clare stomped out of the bathroom. She had a towel wrapped around her; her hair was straggly, still wet from the shower. Glaring at the two brothers, she snapped, "What are you looking at?"
Without giving either of them a chance to respond, Clare stalked down the hall to her room. Blake's head followed her all the way; that is until Hunter pulled his brother's chin forward, "Yo, eyes forward bro."
Hunter was laughing silently at his brother's face, when the door slammed open a second time and this time, a toweled Rika stepped from the bathroom, with her hair trailing down her back. She was flushed from the heat and looked just as annoyed as Clare had. "Hey guys, sorry, bathroom's yours."
With that, she walked down the hall and this time, it was Hunter who needed the reminder as Blake nudged his elbow into his brother's ribs, mockingly adding, "Eyes forward bro."
Hunter glared at his brother and then stalked into the bathroom, shutting the door in Blake's face.
Blake pounded on the door, "Dude! I was here first!"
In his own quarters, Sensei who had been meditating opened his eyes and sighed, "Teenagers."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A week and a few monsters later.
Rika walked into the debriefing room at Ninja Ops where a very exasperated and annoyed Cam was cleaning out the computer's hard drive because Sensei had pushed a button he wasn't supposed to . . . again.
"Wassup, did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, unfortunately Dad did something to the computer . . . again."
Rika laughed, "Well, we all know Uncle was never good with electronics."
"What are you doing now?"
"I'm cleaning out the hard drive. There's so much junk in here from Shane and Dustin's futzing with the computer."
On the screen, a file shows up labeled, "Clare's Fight with Bahraka."
"Hey Cam, what's that file? It's labeled, 'Clare's Fight with Bahraka.' 'Lightning?' Did she fight a monster or something?"
Cam looked over and Rika saw that he was squirming. /Ok, something's definitely up./ "Cam, what is it?"
"Err, uh its nothing. I uh, its something about one of Clare's training exercises," trying to bodily cover up the screen.
Rika saw that Cam was fiddling with his glasses and she knew, Cam only did that when he was hiding something from her. She reached around Cam, pressed a few keys and pulled the file.
She saw Clare and the other Rangers battling a monster that looked shockingly familiar. In fact, it looked like Voltra's twin, but this one had a white aura instead of the bluish-tinge that Voltra had. She had a sneaking suspicion.
"Cam, uh, when was this? How come I don't remember this?"
Cam definitely looked uncomfortable. He looked somewhere for escape, but none was forthcoming. "It was, uh during the time you were out."
"Don't tell me Voltra came back. I destroyed her."
"Well, you did. But turned out Voltra has a sister."
Rika winced sympathetically. "I know how that one must have been like. I wouldn't want to have to fight another like her again."
"Yeah, she was really whipping our butts."
On the screen, she saw Clare being held up by the throat against a rock face by the monster. The monster claimed that she could call forth a storm and proceeded to do so.
"Hey, that monster can control weather?"
"Yeah, in fact, it called a thunderstorm and Clare got wet. So she couldn't use her powers."
"Then how did you guys defeat it? Clare couldn't have used her powers cuz she was wet."
Cam glanced at the screen and then looked away, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Rika had a sneaking suspicion, "Right Cam? Clare couldn't, yes?"
"Uh, well, uh you'll see. Keep watching."
Rika saw Clare, although soaked by the rain call upon her powers. Cam counted down, 3, 2, 1 and then it happened.
"WHAT!!!!? She used her powers WHILE wet!!?!?!?!? She could've died! What was she thinking?!?"
Rika whirled on Cam, "You were supposed to watch her! How could you let her use her powers?"
Cam was visibly shrinking under Rika's wrath and he knew that she was right. He still remembered Clare's screams of pain even while she was electrocuting the monster.
"I'm sorry Rika, I know I should've watched her. We were all pretty much out for the count."
Rika seethed, took a deep breath, "Yeah, I know. Sorry, I shouldn't have bagged on you like that. However, I need to have a little chat with Clare. Excuse me."
With that, she strode out of the room in search of Clare. Cam watched, thinking /oh boy, we're gonna have a huge one when she catches up to Clare./ He sighed, shaking his head and went back to fixing the Ninja Ops mainframe.
"Dammit! Dad has got to stop touching this!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, up in Lothor's ship revolving around Earth, Lothor and his generals were watching the activities of the Rangers. Lothor was spitting mad that not a SINGLE one of his massive army of heinous aliens had yet come up with a plan to defeat the Rangers. He was ticked about the fact that the Thunder Rangers had teamed up with the Wind Rangers. He was even more worked about the fact that the Thunder and Lightning Rangers had teamed up. Lothor knew of the prophecy and refused to let that happen. /If they were to unite, it would spell disaster for him and his empire./
Whirling upon his minions, he yelled, "Is there not ONE of you who can make themselves useful?"
Lothor's top general, Zurgane simply saluted and began stuttering mindless nothings until Choobo, seeing an opportunity to regain favor in Lothor's eyes piped up, "Uh your majesty, I have an idea."
Lothor rolled his eyes, remembering how Choobo's other "plans" had turned out, but sighed, "Alright, I'm listening."
Choobo fidgeted, now being the center of Lothor's baleful and fickle attention. He stuttered and looked at his feet. "I uh, how bout we capture the Lightning Rangers and use them to bargain for the Thunder Rangers?"
Kapri snorted, "That's the stupidest thing you've said yet, Choobo." Sneering derisively, the Kelzacks and others joined in on the laughter.
Choobo turned red, that is if a monster could blush, but was surprised to hear Lothor's wicked laugh, "Hahaha Choobo! That might actually work!" Immediately the others stopped laughing and turned to look incredulously at their leader. Lothor continued, "Yes! The weakness of the Thunder Rangers is their feelings for the Lightning Rangers. If we could get our hands on them and force them to surrender themselves, it just might work!"
Marah piped up, "Uh Uncle, assuming Choobo's plan works, what do you plan to do with them? Can we have them as our boyfriends? That Navy Ranger was absolutely dreamy when he was evil!"
Lothor whirled on his nieces, eyeing them balefully, "What! I doubt that they would go for you two. No alien or Ranger would go for you two. But I do have plans for them."
"Choobo, get down there and capture the Lightning Rangers. Start with the Navy Ranger. She has a weakness for water. Go, and you better not fail me!"
Choobo clumsily bowed, "Yes sire! Right away Sire!"
Zurgane grumbled under his breath. Lothor noticing Zurgane's discontent, smiled wickedly. "Oh and General Zurgane, I have a favor to ask of you."
Zurgane although annoyed that Choobo was the main star, turned and bowed, "Name it sire!"
Lothor smiled, "I need a machine that allows me to send electricity through whomever is attached to it. And I need a brain-washing device!"
Zurgane nodded, but asked, "Sire, May I ask what you plan to do?"
Lothor slowly turned to face his general, "Why isn't it obvious? I will capture the Rangers, torture them in front of the Thunder Rangers, and then . . . HAHAHAHAH!!!!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clare was sparring with Blake, when Rika stormed in furious. /Uh oh/ Clare thought, /I guess she's finally seen the fight with Bahraka./
"Hi Aeri. Wassup?"
"You know what's up. Are you crazy? You could've died! I bet you didn't think about it before you decided to turn yourself into a giant conductor!"
Rika was blazing in fury. Clare knew that part of the reason that she was so mad was because she had feared for Clare's safety. But that didn't make listening to her sister ranting at her any easier.
Clare calmly retorted in a low voice, "You should talk. I'm not the one who decided to use her freak'n life-force to defeat a monster!"
Rika stood there open-mouthed, and then recovered from the verbal slap, "That was a special circumstance. I didn't know she was gonna suck all the energy from around me. I made a split-second decision. And I almost died! Its not one I want to make again!"
Clare stood her ground. "Well, so did I. You saw the fight. That monster was kicking our butts. Everyone would've died if I hadn't done something."
By now, everyone who had ears had heard the sisters' argument. It was reaching a furious pitch. Cam knew from previous experience, that this had to be stopped before it was over the point of no return.
Cam stepped in to separate the two, but Blake and Hunter just watched. They had argued like this before and it didn't kill them. Rika and Clare would argue, make up. That's how siblings worked.
"Hey man, don't worry about it. They won't kill each other."
"Yeah, Blake and I've had some huge fights, but we're still here."
Cam stopped and fixed a hard stare at the brothers. "Yeah, but you didn't shut down half the city block. Last time, they shut nearly all the power off in their neighborhood."
Hunter and Blake stared at each other for a minute and then moved to separate the arguing sisters. Hunter struggled to restrain Rika and Blake tried to hold back Clare who was now shouting.
"Aeri, I'm not a kid anymore! You're so overprotective! I'm a Ranger for God's sake. We knew that means making sacrifices!"
Rika was stunned and hurt, "I'm overprotective cuz I'm your sister! It's my responsibility to watch out for you now that mom and dad aren't here! And I'm not going to let you throw your life away on one of Lothor's goons. Or without thinking about the consequences!"
Blake watched the two sisters feuding, wondering what they were talking about. "Hey Cam, what are they arguing about? What's Rika talking about- sacrificing Clare's life?"
Cam sighed, "While you and Hunter were out to save Rika, Clare had to fight a monster. She used her powers while wet, because the monster had summoned a storm. Rika's right. She could've died."
Blake felt a chill and then he started to get angry. "She did what?!? Is she out of her mind?"
Although Hunter understood what Blake was feeling, he knew that it wouldn't help anyone if Blake got involved. "Cool it, bro. Don't get yourself in this too."
Blake glared at his brother, "She could've died, bro. Imagine how you would feel if it was Rika."
Hunter sighed, and watched the two sisters. "I know. She almost did."
Blake sighed as Clare jerked herself from Blake's grasp and stormed out of the room throwing a glare at her sister, "I'm outta here".
Rika fumed as she watched Clare storm out of the room. "I'm not done yet! Come back here!"
Hunter moved to intercept Rika as she started after Clare. "Let her go. Both of you are too upset to think straight. Let's go take a walk or something, clear your head."
Hunter threw a glance at his brother who nodded and went after Clare.
Rika sighed, consenting. "Ok."
Cam breathed a sigh of relief, "Disaster averted."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside the entrance to Ninja Ops, Rika stood staring stonily ahead of her with her arms crossed, while Hunter was trying to talk some sense into her.
"Common Rika, you know you can't watch out for her forever. Blake and I had a huge fight over that, kinda like this."
Rika sighed, "I know. But she's my sister. And I promised my parents and myself that I'd never let anything happen to her."
Hunter walked to Rika and put his arm around her shoulder, "Hey, don't worry. You're not doing that alone. All of us are watching out for her."
"Yeah, I know. Ever since we lost our parents, its like I've been juggling two roles. A parent and a sister. It's hard balancing the two."
Hunter sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "I feel that way too. But Sensei helps with the parent part and I can just be the older brother."
Rika looked at Hunter. She observed his sandy-blond hair, his twinkling gray-blue eyes and his strong masculine jaw. Her eyes traveled further to his broad chest and strong arms, toned from his martial arts training. Looking into his eyes, she saw pain and strength. Pain that came from being adopted at a young age, losing the only parents he had ever known. The pain she felt at losing her parents sometimes was so strong that she felt like she was suffocating, but that same pain had hardened and strengthened Hunter. Though she would never admit it to Clare, there were some days when she didn't think she could go on.
Hunter looked at Rika and saw her eyes cloud over. His eyes took in her almond shaped brown eyes that at times blazed with a light of their own, when furious or serious and could also look soft and vulnerable. Her straight-black hair had reddish-auburn highlights running through at random places, which framed her face. His eyes traveled down to her mouth that looked warm and inviting.
"You know, you almost look human now."
"What do you mean by that?"
Hunter fumbled for words, "I mean, that uh, you look . . . you look so vulnerable. You're not putting up that hard-core, 'nothing-gets-through' exterior. It's ok to let go once in a while."
Rika looked at Hunter. Hunter started to move forward as did Rika. Closer and closer their heads came until they were only an inch away. Slowly Hunter lowered his head until his mouth brushed Rika's. Rika met Hunter halfway there and felt a warm breath flow over her lips. Hunter felt Rika's sweet warm breath wash over his own and pulled away.
"Uh, I, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so presumptuous."
Rika blushed, "Its ok."
Then to Hunter's surprise, Rika pulled Hunter's head down and kissed him. He felt her soft, warm lips brush his. He felt a bolt of electricity thrum through him. His heart started to beat faster and his head felt light. Rika felt the bolt of electricity that ran through her. She could only think of one thought, /Wow./
Hunter's arms had snaked their way around Rika's waist and Rika's hands had found themselves buried in his hair. They kissed earnestly for what seemed like an eternity to them before breaking apart, both breathless.
"Wow. That was quite something."
Hunter agreed, "Yeah, I've kissed girls before, but I've never had a girl shock me. -Literally."
He grinned. Rika just laughed, "Well, you've never met one who was a Lightning Ranger."
Hunter laughed, "What do you think the others are going to say when they find out?"
Rika smiled, "They'll probably say, it's about time."
Awwww.isn't that sweet? Who would have thought that Rika had such gumption, or maybe its Hunter who had the gumption.Anyways, read and review as always. Love your thoughts, flames, etc.
--Jade and Senga
Enjoy and REEEVIEW!!!
~~~~~~~~~~
Few days later in the morning
"CCCLLLAAAARREEE!!!!!!!! HURRY UP!!!! YOU'VE BEEN IN THE BATHROOM FOR 2 HOURS!!!!!!" screamed Rika while waiting with her arms folded outside.
"I'VE ONLY BEEN IN HERE FOR 10 MINUTES!!!!"
Hunter and Blake bolted upright in their beds (good thing they weren't in bunk beds) with their fists up in an awkward fighting stance, then hearing the words of the screaming, they looked at each other with surprised faces and smothered their laughter with their pillows in their faces.
"Rise 'n shine guys!" Cam knocked and stuck his head in, both groaned, Blake threw his covers off and wrenched himself from his bed while Hunter threw himself back into bed and pulled the covers over his head.
"You stay in their any longer and you're gonna turn into a prune!!!"
"Lower your voice! What if the guys hear?!"
"Don't worry, Blake's already here."
Blake rubbed the back of his head, mussing his hair while giving Rika a groggy smile, "'morning."
"WHAT?! AERIE!!!!"
Rika merely snickered as Blake flushed. "Morning to you too."
"CLARE, IF YOU DON'T COME OUT IN THE NEXT 5 SECONDS, I'M GONNA COME IN AND SPLASH COLD WATER ALL OVER YOU!!!"
"NO YOU WOULDN'T!!!!" Horrified, Clare showered even faster, knowing that her sister would very well make good upon her threat.
"- 3 - 2 - 1 - I'm coming in, whether you like it or not!!!"
Rika barged in as Blake hastily turned away, next thing anyone who could hear was,
Picture a scene of Ninja Ops. Outside is a graceful waterfall, scream can be heard from within and a flock of birds are disturbed and fly out of the trees.
"AAAAAAARRRGGHHH~!!!!!! AAAAEEEERRRRRRIIIEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Hunter threw his covers off, muttering to himself, "Those two make enough noise to wake the dead."
Grabbing his towel and toiletries, he groggily shuffled to the bathroom. He saw Blake looking a bit amused, and gestured towards the closed bathroom door.
"I don't think you want to go in there right now. It sounds like World War III."
Hunter was about to reply, but then the door slammed open and Clare stomped out of the bathroom. She had a towel wrapped around her; her hair was straggly, still wet from the shower. Glaring at the two brothers, she snapped, "What are you looking at?"
Without giving either of them a chance to respond, Clare stalked down the hall to her room. Blake's head followed her all the way; that is until Hunter pulled his brother's chin forward, "Yo, eyes forward bro."
Hunter was laughing silently at his brother's face, when the door slammed open a second time and this time, a toweled Rika stepped from the bathroom, with her hair trailing down her back. She was flushed from the heat and looked just as annoyed as Clare had. "Hey guys, sorry, bathroom's yours."
With that, she walked down the hall and this time, it was Hunter who needed the reminder as Blake nudged his elbow into his brother's ribs, mockingly adding, "Eyes forward bro."
Hunter glared at his brother and then stalked into the bathroom, shutting the door in Blake's face.
Blake pounded on the door, "Dude! I was here first!"
In his own quarters, Sensei who had been meditating opened his eyes and sighed, "Teenagers."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A week and a few monsters later.
Rika walked into the debriefing room at Ninja Ops where a very exasperated and annoyed Cam was cleaning out the computer's hard drive because Sensei had pushed a button he wasn't supposed to . . . again.
"Wassup, did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, unfortunately Dad did something to the computer . . . again."
Rika laughed, "Well, we all know Uncle was never good with electronics."
"What are you doing now?"
"I'm cleaning out the hard drive. There's so much junk in here from Shane and Dustin's futzing with the computer."
On the screen, a file shows up labeled, "Clare's Fight with Bahraka."
"Hey Cam, what's that file? It's labeled, 'Clare's Fight with Bahraka.' 'Lightning?' Did she fight a monster or something?"
Cam looked over and Rika saw that he was squirming. /Ok, something's definitely up./ "Cam, what is it?"
"Err, uh its nothing. I uh, its something about one of Clare's training exercises," trying to bodily cover up the screen.
Rika saw that Cam was fiddling with his glasses and she knew, Cam only did that when he was hiding something from her. She reached around Cam, pressed a few keys and pulled the file.
She saw Clare and the other Rangers battling a monster that looked shockingly familiar. In fact, it looked like Voltra's twin, but this one had a white aura instead of the bluish-tinge that Voltra had. She had a sneaking suspicion.
"Cam, uh, when was this? How come I don't remember this?"
Cam definitely looked uncomfortable. He looked somewhere for escape, but none was forthcoming. "It was, uh during the time you were out."
"Don't tell me Voltra came back. I destroyed her."
"Well, you did. But turned out Voltra has a sister."
Rika winced sympathetically. "I know how that one must have been like. I wouldn't want to have to fight another like her again."
"Yeah, she was really whipping our butts."
On the screen, she saw Clare being held up by the throat against a rock face by the monster. The monster claimed that she could call forth a storm and proceeded to do so.
"Hey, that monster can control weather?"
"Yeah, in fact, it called a thunderstorm and Clare got wet. So she couldn't use her powers."
"Then how did you guys defeat it? Clare couldn't have used her powers cuz she was wet."
Cam glanced at the screen and then looked away, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Rika had a sneaking suspicion, "Right Cam? Clare couldn't, yes?"
"Uh, well, uh you'll see. Keep watching."
Rika saw Clare, although soaked by the rain call upon her powers. Cam counted down, 3, 2, 1 and then it happened.
"WHAT!!!!? She used her powers WHILE wet!!?!?!?!? She could've died! What was she thinking?!?"
Rika whirled on Cam, "You were supposed to watch her! How could you let her use her powers?"
Cam was visibly shrinking under Rika's wrath and he knew that she was right. He still remembered Clare's screams of pain even while she was electrocuting the monster.
"I'm sorry Rika, I know I should've watched her. We were all pretty much out for the count."
Rika seethed, took a deep breath, "Yeah, I know. Sorry, I shouldn't have bagged on you like that. However, I need to have a little chat with Clare. Excuse me."
With that, she strode out of the room in search of Clare. Cam watched, thinking /oh boy, we're gonna have a huge one when she catches up to Clare./ He sighed, shaking his head and went back to fixing the Ninja Ops mainframe.
"Dammit! Dad has got to stop touching this!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, up in Lothor's ship revolving around Earth, Lothor and his generals were watching the activities of the Rangers. Lothor was spitting mad that not a SINGLE one of his massive army of heinous aliens had yet come up with a plan to defeat the Rangers. He was ticked about the fact that the Thunder Rangers had teamed up with the Wind Rangers. He was even more worked about the fact that the Thunder and Lightning Rangers had teamed up. Lothor knew of the prophecy and refused to let that happen. /If they were to unite, it would spell disaster for him and his empire./
Whirling upon his minions, he yelled, "Is there not ONE of you who can make themselves useful?"
Lothor's top general, Zurgane simply saluted and began stuttering mindless nothings until Choobo, seeing an opportunity to regain favor in Lothor's eyes piped up, "Uh your majesty, I have an idea."
Lothor rolled his eyes, remembering how Choobo's other "plans" had turned out, but sighed, "Alright, I'm listening."
Choobo fidgeted, now being the center of Lothor's baleful and fickle attention. He stuttered and looked at his feet. "I uh, how bout we capture the Lightning Rangers and use them to bargain for the Thunder Rangers?"
Kapri snorted, "That's the stupidest thing you've said yet, Choobo." Sneering derisively, the Kelzacks and others joined in on the laughter.
Choobo turned red, that is if a monster could blush, but was surprised to hear Lothor's wicked laugh, "Hahaha Choobo! That might actually work!" Immediately the others stopped laughing and turned to look incredulously at their leader. Lothor continued, "Yes! The weakness of the Thunder Rangers is their feelings for the Lightning Rangers. If we could get our hands on them and force them to surrender themselves, it just might work!"
Marah piped up, "Uh Uncle, assuming Choobo's plan works, what do you plan to do with them? Can we have them as our boyfriends? That Navy Ranger was absolutely dreamy when he was evil!"
Lothor whirled on his nieces, eyeing them balefully, "What! I doubt that they would go for you two. No alien or Ranger would go for you two. But I do have plans for them."
"Choobo, get down there and capture the Lightning Rangers. Start with the Navy Ranger. She has a weakness for water. Go, and you better not fail me!"
Choobo clumsily bowed, "Yes sire! Right away Sire!"
Zurgane grumbled under his breath. Lothor noticing Zurgane's discontent, smiled wickedly. "Oh and General Zurgane, I have a favor to ask of you."
Zurgane although annoyed that Choobo was the main star, turned and bowed, "Name it sire!"
Lothor smiled, "I need a machine that allows me to send electricity through whomever is attached to it. And I need a brain-washing device!"
Zurgane nodded, but asked, "Sire, May I ask what you plan to do?"
Lothor slowly turned to face his general, "Why isn't it obvious? I will capture the Rangers, torture them in front of the Thunder Rangers, and then . . . HAHAHAHAH!!!!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Clare was sparring with Blake, when Rika stormed in furious. /Uh oh/ Clare thought, /I guess she's finally seen the fight with Bahraka./
"Hi Aeri. Wassup?"
"You know what's up. Are you crazy? You could've died! I bet you didn't think about it before you decided to turn yourself into a giant conductor!"
Rika was blazing in fury. Clare knew that part of the reason that she was so mad was because she had feared for Clare's safety. But that didn't make listening to her sister ranting at her any easier.
Clare calmly retorted in a low voice, "You should talk. I'm not the one who decided to use her freak'n life-force to defeat a monster!"
Rika stood there open-mouthed, and then recovered from the verbal slap, "That was a special circumstance. I didn't know she was gonna suck all the energy from around me. I made a split-second decision. And I almost died! Its not one I want to make again!"
Clare stood her ground. "Well, so did I. You saw the fight. That monster was kicking our butts. Everyone would've died if I hadn't done something."
By now, everyone who had ears had heard the sisters' argument. It was reaching a furious pitch. Cam knew from previous experience, that this had to be stopped before it was over the point of no return.
Cam stepped in to separate the two, but Blake and Hunter just watched. They had argued like this before and it didn't kill them. Rika and Clare would argue, make up. That's how siblings worked.
"Hey man, don't worry about it. They won't kill each other."
"Yeah, Blake and I've had some huge fights, but we're still here."
Cam stopped and fixed a hard stare at the brothers. "Yeah, but you didn't shut down half the city block. Last time, they shut nearly all the power off in their neighborhood."
Hunter and Blake stared at each other for a minute and then moved to separate the arguing sisters. Hunter struggled to restrain Rika and Blake tried to hold back Clare who was now shouting.
"Aeri, I'm not a kid anymore! You're so overprotective! I'm a Ranger for God's sake. We knew that means making sacrifices!"
Rika was stunned and hurt, "I'm overprotective cuz I'm your sister! It's my responsibility to watch out for you now that mom and dad aren't here! And I'm not going to let you throw your life away on one of Lothor's goons. Or without thinking about the consequences!"
Blake watched the two sisters feuding, wondering what they were talking about. "Hey Cam, what are they arguing about? What's Rika talking about- sacrificing Clare's life?"
Cam sighed, "While you and Hunter were out to save Rika, Clare had to fight a monster. She used her powers while wet, because the monster had summoned a storm. Rika's right. She could've died."
Blake felt a chill and then he started to get angry. "She did what?!? Is she out of her mind?"
Although Hunter understood what Blake was feeling, he knew that it wouldn't help anyone if Blake got involved. "Cool it, bro. Don't get yourself in this too."
Blake glared at his brother, "She could've died, bro. Imagine how you would feel if it was Rika."
Hunter sighed, and watched the two sisters. "I know. She almost did."
Blake sighed as Clare jerked herself from Blake's grasp and stormed out of the room throwing a glare at her sister, "I'm outta here".
Rika fumed as she watched Clare storm out of the room. "I'm not done yet! Come back here!"
Hunter moved to intercept Rika as she started after Clare. "Let her go. Both of you are too upset to think straight. Let's go take a walk or something, clear your head."
Hunter threw a glance at his brother who nodded and went after Clare.
Rika sighed, consenting. "Ok."
Cam breathed a sigh of relief, "Disaster averted."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outside the entrance to Ninja Ops, Rika stood staring stonily ahead of her with her arms crossed, while Hunter was trying to talk some sense into her.
"Common Rika, you know you can't watch out for her forever. Blake and I had a huge fight over that, kinda like this."
Rika sighed, "I know. But she's my sister. And I promised my parents and myself that I'd never let anything happen to her."
Hunter walked to Rika and put his arm around her shoulder, "Hey, don't worry. You're not doing that alone. All of us are watching out for her."
"Yeah, I know. Ever since we lost our parents, its like I've been juggling two roles. A parent and a sister. It's hard balancing the two."
Hunter sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "I feel that way too. But Sensei helps with the parent part and I can just be the older brother."
Rika looked at Hunter. She observed his sandy-blond hair, his twinkling gray-blue eyes and his strong masculine jaw. Her eyes traveled further to his broad chest and strong arms, toned from his martial arts training. Looking into his eyes, she saw pain and strength. Pain that came from being adopted at a young age, losing the only parents he had ever known. The pain she felt at losing her parents sometimes was so strong that she felt like she was suffocating, but that same pain had hardened and strengthened Hunter. Though she would never admit it to Clare, there were some days when she didn't think she could go on.
Hunter looked at Rika and saw her eyes cloud over. His eyes took in her almond shaped brown eyes that at times blazed with a light of their own, when furious or serious and could also look soft and vulnerable. Her straight-black hair had reddish-auburn highlights running through at random places, which framed her face. His eyes traveled down to her mouth that looked warm and inviting.
"You know, you almost look human now."
"What do you mean by that?"
Hunter fumbled for words, "I mean, that uh, you look . . . you look so vulnerable. You're not putting up that hard-core, 'nothing-gets-through' exterior. It's ok to let go once in a while."
Rika looked at Hunter. Hunter started to move forward as did Rika. Closer and closer their heads came until they were only an inch away. Slowly Hunter lowered his head until his mouth brushed Rika's. Rika met Hunter halfway there and felt a warm breath flow over her lips. Hunter felt Rika's sweet warm breath wash over his own and pulled away.
"Uh, I, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so presumptuous."
Rika blushed, "Its ok."
Then to Hunter's surprise, Rika pulled Hunter's head down and kissed him. He felt her soft, warm lips brush his. He felt a bolt of electricity thrum through him. His heart started to beat faster and his head felt light. Rika felt the bolt of electricity that ran through her. She could only think of one thought, /Wow./
Hunter's arms had snaked their way around Rika's waist and Rika's hands had found themselves buried in his hair. They kissed earnestly for what seemed like an eternity to them before breaking apart, both breathless.
"Wow. That was quite something."
Hunter agreed, "Yeah, I've kissed girls before, but I've never had a girl shock me. -Literally."
He grinned. Rika just laughed, "Well, you've never met one who was a Lightning Ranger."
Hunter laughed, "What do you think the others are going to say when they find out?"
Rika smiled, "They'll probably say, it's about time."
Awwww.isn't that sweet? Who would have thought that Rika had such gumption, or maybe its Hunter who had the gumption.Anyways, read and review as always. Love your thoughts, flames, etc.
--Jade and Senga