Copyright © 2003 PR belongs to BVS. Rika, Clare, Lightning Rangers all that belong to us. So does this plot btw.

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Back at Ninja Ops, Blake went to find his brother. Hunter had his back turned towards Blake. He was breathing heavily, nursing his right hand. Looking around, Blake saw that Hunter had punched through the door to their room.

"Bro."

Blake walked up to his brother and put his hand on Hunter's shoulder. Hunter whirled around, glaring at Blake. Blake looked at his brother. He could barely recognize him. The calm, collected, level-headedness so characteristic of his brother was now replaced with rage and grieving pain. Blake remembered this exhibition of Hunter's anger. It had been after they found out about their parent's death. Blake shuddered at the thought of that time. He and Hunter had been consumed with their rage and grief, that they were blind to everything else. Their whole existence was based on revenge. He saw that Hunter was falling back into that. He couldn't let that happen.

"What do you want Blake? I've failed her! I should have done something!"

"You haven't! You can't blame yourself. You're not invincible and its time you realized that!"

Hunter's gaze bored into Blake's eyes and the two brothers stood glaring at one another. Blake gripped Hunter's arms, "Hunter! I know how you feel! But you've gotta pull yourself together, man! They are depending on you!"

Hunter jerked his arms from Blake's grasp and turned to leave. Blake grabbed Hunter's arm, "Where are you going?"

Hunter retorted, "To Lothor. Let me go!"

Blake held on to Hunter, "What! Bro! Listen to me! You're just gonna get yourself captured or killed if you storm in there! You're not thinking straight!"

Hunter pushed Blake away. "Coward! You would rather sit here and wait! Some way of showing you care!"

Blake stared hard at Hunter, taken aback. Narrowing his eyes, Blake came up close to Hunter's face. "You're wrong. You're dead wrong. I care about Clare as much as you do about Rika. But I'm not foolish enough to go storming in there and acting like a hero! In fact, you're being immature and selfish at the time she needs you most!"

Hunter jerked his head back and lunged at Blake with a roar.

Blake's face showed surprise, but quickly hardened. He blocked Hunter's arm as he swiped for his head and locked Hunter's arms. Hunter pushed Blake away and the two brothers broke apart. Both glared at each other before lunging forward. The two brothers, in an eerie parody of their Ranger battles, fought one another. Hunter sliced a knife hand to Blake's solar plexus, only to have it riposted back towards him as Blake blocked the blow in a knife-hand middle block and pushed his other hand against the hand blocking Hunter's blow. They fought with such intensity as only brothers could. Blake knew that he had to get through Hunter's rage and pain, but Hunter didn't plan to make it easy for him.

Blake sidestepped as Hunter lunged again, but Hunter was prepared. He sidestepped with Blake and knocked him backwards with a well-aimed punch to the chest. Blake stumbled back, looking up as Hunter threw yet another attack at him. Hunter punched aiming for Blake's chest, but Blake was ready. He grabbed Hunter's arm as he came and quickly spinning to the side, flipped his brother onto his back.

Before Hunter could realize what was happening, he felt Blake sitting on his chest, holding down his arms. Breathing heavily, Blake yelled into Hunter's face as he tightly gripped the front of Hunter's Ninja suit, "Hunter-bro! Cool it! You're not thinking straight!!"

Hunter struggled under his brother, but Blake had him firmly pinned. He glared at Blake, breathing heavily through clenched teeth. "Gerroff me!" With that Hunter brought his knee up and thrust it into Blake's back. Rolling backwards and pushing up with his arms, he threw his brother up over his head. Blake temporarily felt gravity do cartwheels on him before he impacted with the ground. Blake landed hard on his back, the wind knocked out of him. He lay there gasping for breath, struggling to get up, but Hunter was already there.

Hunter planted one knee on Blake's heaving chest and brought his forearm down across his throat, pinning his brother and slowly choking the already breathless Blake. Blake stared up into his brother's furious eyes, his own expression cold and angry, but it soon changed. Blake's eyes widened with fear and became sad as he looked up into his brother's rage-filled eyes.

Hunter stopped at the expression on his brother's face. "What am I doing?" He got up, backing up from Blake. "Blake, I-I'm so sorry." Hunter backed away from Blake, shaking his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe it. He had almost destroyed Blake in his anger.

Blake coughed and sat up, trying to regain his breath. He looked at his brother, and managed to gasp out, "Its ok. I know . . ."

Hunter helped his brother up, and the two walked back to their room. Hunter sat down heavily on his bed, sighing deeply, while Blake sat on his own bed. The two brothers looked at each other.

Hunter couldn't keep his gaze on Blake. In shame he looked away. Blake saw what Hunter was thinking and walked over, sitting next to his brother, he put his hand on Hunter's shoulder. "Hey. I know that wasn't you back there. I know how you feel."

Hunter didn't answer, but simply stared at the ground. He stammered, "Blake, I - I, what have I become?"

Blake jerked his brother's shoulder back, Hunter's head whipped around to face his own, Blake caught his brother's eyes flashing in anger for an instant before the fury died down, buried beneath more shame. "Look at me. You have changed but not for the worse. You're Hunter and you're my brother. You love and protect those whom you care about, as you rightly should. You're a Power Ranger who has a duty to protect the world. But you're also human. You can't control everything and you can't be everywhere."

Hunter nodded, the rage that had been clouding his mind, dissipating. He looked up gratefully at Blake, "You're right. I'm sorry. Thanks for bringing me back."

Blake nodded, and then smiled punching Hunter. "Hey, that's what I'm here for, but just warning you, next time, I won't let you off so easy. You totally sucker-punched me there."

Hunter snorted, "Yeah right. I so had you." But he said it with a smile. "Now, lets go figure out a way to get them back!"

Blake jumped up, "Totally. We'll teach Lothor to mess with our women."

Hunter laughed, "I agree, but I don't think you should ever let Rika or Clare hear you calling them, "our women. It might be the last thing you ever say."

Blake grinned, "True, but that's another matter. Oh and Cam might be a teeny bit peeved." Pointing to the door to their room, which had a gaping hole-they could see the dark stonewall of the hallway.

Laughing, the rift between them sealed, the two brothers walked back to the debriefing room, where the other Rangers and Sensei were waiting patiently. Upon entering, the others looked up; Cam noticing Hunter favoring his right hand, glanced wryly-questioning Hunter. Hunter looked sheepishly at Cam and shrugged. "Sorry 'bout the door. We'll buy you a new one."

Cam sighed, "Whatever."

Sensei added, "Cam, have you analyzed the coordinates that Lothor left?"

Cam swiveled back to the mainframe, rapidly punching in some keys, "Yeah, it's sort'a another dimension, but not really. More like an alternative rift. You can't teleport there unless you have a signal to lock onto, like a morpher. I scanned the area for energy signatures and I picked up Clare and Rika's morpher signatures, but there's something strange about Clare's energy pattern. It's distorted."

Blake exchanged a glance with Hunter then back at Cam, "What do you mean distorted?"

Cam replied, "Well, when you guys morph, there is a distinct energy pattern for every Ranger. That output tells of the DNA, and physical energies of the person morphing. I can also isolate brainwave patterns as well, by tracking the signals of the morpher. Haven't you guys wondered why not everyone can become Power Rangers, and it's not only because of the morphers. Only certain energy patterns, which are all distinct, can harness certain types of power. Hence, if there is something abnormal in the person morphing, examining energy signatures can pick that up."

Dustin cocked his head, "You mean, that like only I can be the Yellow Wind Ranger, and Blake and Hunter can be Thunder Rangers? No one else can be another Ranger?"

Cam nodded, "Yeah, something like that. So in Clare and Rika's case, their energy patterns are distinct and unique. The computer has recorded their signatures many times, so by comparing that with the new ones, you guys will see what's different."

Hunter's tactical mind was already mulling over the new information offered by Cam, /So we all have energy patterns. But Rika and Clare have special powers outside of their Ranger powers. Wouldn't that affect the energy signatures?/

Hunter questioned, "Cam, you said that all Rangers have energy signatures, right? But does that apply only to when they are morphed, or does that take into account their entire form?

Blake picking up on Hunter's idea finished, "Yeah, cuz Rika and Clare both have special powers outside of their Ranger powers. So couldn't that be distorting it too?"

Cam glanced back at the Thunder brothers, turning slightly red, "Of course! You don't think I wouldn't take that into account?!" He snorted, but turning back to the console, rapidly typed in something.

Blake glanced at his brother, catching Hunter's eye, both smirked thinking, /The techie forgot something? What is the world coming to?/

Shane saw that Cam was flustered and raised his eyebrows at Tori and Dustin. Dustin grinned, while Tori surreptitiously covered a smile with her hand.

Cam turned to face the Rangers; they could see he was still slightly pink. "Ok guys, here they are. The energy signatures were now similar to regular Ranger patterns, but a huge discrepancy could be seen between Rika and Clare's own signatures.

The Rangers peered over Cam's shoulder. They could see that Rika's looked normal, peaking and rising where it should, but Clare's was all over the place. It was very sporadic and peaked randomly.

Shane pointed at the screen, "What do you think that means?"

Cam shrugged, "It's hard to tell with energy signatures, because they fluctuate depending on the state of mind of the person, but in Clare's case, I'd say there's something definitely wrong with her pattern. It should not be spiking that much if at all. It's almost as if she's struggling between normal and abnormal brain waves."

Dustin questioned, "Does that mean she's like being brain-controlled or something?"

Sensei bowed his head, "It is as I feared. Lothor is using your feelings for your friends against you. I fear that he will not stop at simply at capturing Rika and Clare. You may have to fight her."

Tori added, "Well, at least Rika is still normal. Maybe she can help snap Clare out of it."

Blake in the meanwhile, was slowly becoming angrier, /I might have to fight Clare?! No! I won't fight her!/

Hunter glanced at Blake, knowing what was going through his brother's mind, put his hand on Blake's shoulder. Hunter felt Blake's body tense, but then relax as he dropped his head with a sigh.

Hunter nodded in agreement, "Yeah-I hope." Hunter remembered when Choobo had put him under his spell combined with that snail's Toxic Steam. He had attacked Blake, almost destroying him. /Damn you Lothor./ He didn't put it past Lothor to turn their friends against them. If it came to that . . . Hunter sighed, but knew that if that was the only way to get them back, then he would.

Shane glanced grimly at Hunter, "So Clare might be under some kind of control, but Rika might be ok. We need to think of a way to get someone in, then the others can teleport there."

Hunter thought, /We can only teleport once we have a signature./

He added, "Blake and I will go ahead and make Lothor think that we will give ourselves up. Then Cam can lock onto our signatures and you guys can teleport in."

Shane nodded, "Ok, but warning you guys, if Lothor has a shield or force field, we might not be able to get through for awhile."

Tori reminded them, "What if Lothor is expecting that? Remember last time you guys tried to do that?"

Hunter and Blake surreptitiously avoided making contact with the other Rangers' eyes, "We know, but we have no choice. Blake and I will try to hold them off as long as we can."

Shane nodded grimly at Hunter, questioning Hunter silently with his eyes. Hunter nodded slightly.

"Ok, lets do it!"

The debriefing room of Ninja Ops flashed multiple colors as the Wind and Thunder Rangers morphed into their Ranger forms.

Jade: yaya!!! Finally, we see the Thunder's darker side. Hmmm.I could get used to writing Angst! Ehehe, reeeeeview!!!!