Ok. This, of course, is the classic new ranger team, with old ranger team, love and romance, and death and crapola. Whatever. Point is, if you like that sort of stuff, keep reading. If you don't, please stop now. I don't take kindly to flaming. Ok. Here goes.

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Ninja Storm, or Dino Thunder, or anything asociated with power rangers. I do, however, own the Anibattle Rangers, and their associated ties, bonds, etc. And I own Charken and his associated minions, the Crare etc....

Enough Disclaimer. Oh yeah. This story takes place during the Dino Thunder Rangers, right after Trent joins the team. Pairings consist of: ConnerKira, ToriBlake, HunterOC, and maybe something else will pop up later.

Just A Bit Early

Chapter 1: A Change of Scenery.

"Dude. Ok. Isn't it like, customary for people, who like, invite you to meet them, to show up?" Dustin shoved the stick he was playing with into the ground and groaned, running a hand through his brown locks, "And today was our day off too!"

Shane shook his head and settled down from his pacing, taking a seat on a nearby rock. Smoothing out his black pants, he shrugged, "We were early Dustin. They're only three or four minutes late. Dude, relax."

"But I was going to practice my freestyle today!" He whined, childishly, as always.

"Dustin. Chill. When Blake and Hunter say they'll be here, they'll be here. Blake doesn't lie." Tori yawned softly, "Although, it is awfully early. Maybe they slept in." The blonde haired girl glanced across the sand and into the sea where the sun was just beginning to rise.

"Hey guys." Sure enough, Hunter's voice range clear. His brother and him had snuck up on them during their little conversation. They hadn't heard any of it except Tori's last comments, "Teachers don't sleep in, remember?"

"Biker's do though. Sorry we're sort of late. Hunter had to shove me out of bed. My race yesterday was totally brutal." Blake smiled slightly at the sight of Tori. Even after all this time, they had yet to express their true feelings. With Blake touring as a Factory Blue racer, and Tori as a full time Wind Ninja Teacher, they didn't have much time to see eachother.

Dustin stood and brushed off his yellow attire, before walking over and giving Hunter a little shove, "Too bad you didn't continue as a racer. Factory Blue is missing out."

"Yeah, well, I find teaching's a bit more exciting. I get to see how many students as just as stupid as you are Dustin." He smirked back at the brown haired, brown eyed boy, "I think you just might be one of a kind."

"Hey! I'll have you know---" He was interrupted by a slightly impatient Shane.

"So what are we here for?"

Hunter glanced around, as if checking to see if they were alone, before he dropped the backpack he was carrying from his shoulders and bent down, fishing around in it for a moment. He withdrew a small black velvet sack, and from that, he pulled out a small black marble. No bigger than the size of a large grape.

"A marble? You dragged us down here to see a marble?" Shane grimaced, "And I thought you guys were intelligent or something."

"Maybe they lost the others of the set and like, need us to help find them." Dustin pointed out, "Like a quest of something."

"I'm so sure Dustin. They lost their marbles... Right. Rates right up there with us saving the world. What a mission. Seriously, what's this about Hunter?" Tori peered at the object in question.

The tall blonde glanced towards Blake, and his bro started the small tale, "Well, you see, I was kind of, walking through the woods you know, just for the fun of it. I like to go think on my own some times. So, I was walking, and I see what looks like a fight going on. Of course, ranger instincts kick in, and I run forward to help." He paused a moment, as if to dramatize the story, "There was some girl, or I guess it was a girl, since I didn't really get to see her face, fighting these weird creatures, like half wolf and half snake, standing on two legs and stuff. I go to hit one, to help her out, and my hand just goes right through it."

"Was it a ghost or something?" Tori inquired.

He shrugged and rubbed his head, "I don't know. The fight lasted a couple more seconds, before the girl turned to me, and tossed the marble at me. She didn't even say a word or anything. Then they all vanished."

"So, Blake brought me the marble, and we wanted to get Cam to check it out. However, since he's out of the country at the moment, we thought you guys would be the next best bet." Hunter explained.

"Hey, can I see it?" Dustin reached his hand out eagerly.

Hunter shrugged, "Yeah. Whatever. Just don't drop it." Ironic last words.

Sure enough, as Hunter went to give it to the yellow clad boy, Dustin fumbled with his butter fingers, and the marble dropped.

Yeah, slow mo time, as everyone's eyes followed the marble in it's slow descent towards the ground. They didn't have time to even think before it smacked into the sand, a brilliant flash of light occurred, and then the explosion which rocked the surrounding area and left a gigantic, twenty meter hole where the former rangers stood.

Or used to stand. They had vanished, not even the slightest trace left.

"Oh c'mon Kira! I said I was sorry!" Conner whined behind her. He had been appologizing for the last half hour, and the blonde still refused to talk to him. Ethan and Trent trailed slowly behind, careful not to get in the way of the dueling duo.

The yellow ranger suddenly twirled around and placed her hands on her hips, "You knew that gig meant everything to me, and then you had to go and smash my guitar with one of your lame fighting techniques! Now I'm late for the show, and I don't have ANYTHING to play with."

"Dude! I'll buy you a new guitar, I swear." Conner sighed and rubbed his head, "Look, all I can do is say I'm sorry, and replace what I broke. It's up to you to forgive me. Even if I wanted to take my actions back, I couldn't alright? So can you please, calm down?"

"Woah. Deep for the dumb jock, huh?" Ethan prodded Trent, and the male beside him shrugged.

He hadn't been very talkative since yesterday, when he had made the instant reformation from bad to good. Conner had noticed, and was really beginning to grow on edge. He was still rather tense about Trent. For two reasons.

Kira groaned and ran a hand through her hair. Taking a deep breath, she grumbled to herself, "Ok. breath. Calm. I can do this." Sighing, she dropped her arms, "I'm sorry Conner. I'm just really on edge lately, and your little diasco didn't help. I forgive you. After all, I'm sure Hayley has a spare guitar I can use, well, hopefully."

The red ranger looked relieved.

"However, that doesn't get you off the hook of buying me a new one. We're going shopping, right after I play. Better have your credit card ready." She offered him a slight smirk, and took off again.

Ethan wandered up and prodded Conner in the side, "That was close, huh?"

"Yeah. It was. I really screwed up."

"You're just lucky Kira's so nice." The boy in blue snickered, before starting forward again, "But let's not keep her from her audience any longer, ok?"

"Uh. Guys."

Both sets of eyes shot towards Trent, who only pointed back up ahead of them, towards Kira. All eyes turned to see the yellow ranger, standing there with a shock ridden face, as fierce looking canine-snake mixed creatures fought ahead of her. What were they fighting? Some person clothed in black clothing.

They took off running.

Conner, as always, the impulsive one, lunged into the midst of it all and began attacking, trying to save the human, of course. Unfortunately, he was doing no good, as his fists went right through the creatures. Backing off, he came to regroup with the others.

"What the hell are they?" Kira's eyes widened at the fight.

"I don't know, but I had no effect on them, whatsoever."

At that moment, the figure in black lunged out of the small grouping, and for once they could see the shape of the body. It was a woman, well, most likely a woman, and she was heading directly for them, while digging in some pouch of hers. As she passed them by at a flat run, she tossed a black marble up into the air, directly at Conner.

Of course, like idiots, not saying they are, the rangers simply stood and stared as the marble fell, again, in slow motion. Upon contact with the ground, so formed the large black gaping crater, and so vanished the Dino Thunder Rangers.

"Oof!" Tori coughed out as Dustin landed heavily on her. With a shove, she sent him rolling, and just as she managed to stand, yet another person landed on her. Blake. There was no surprise when she failed to shove him away.

Hunter and Shane were already standing, brushing themselves off, when they finally took a look at their surroundings. It was the exact same beach they had been on before....well, sorta. The sand, instead of the light tan it had always been, was now a dark, nearly black color, and the water was a faded, purplish red. As if tons of gallons of blood had been poured into it.

"Dude. Ummm... Where are we?" Dustin rubbed his head.

"I don't know." Blake had rolled off Tori, and helped her to her feet.

"You're exactly where you were before. Well, before you dropped your marble, that is."

All eyes suddenly twirled to catch sight of the five people nearby. The one who had spoken, was a teenage male, standing there dressed entirely in black. He was tall, about Shane's height, with short, blond streaked black hair, and amber colored eyes.

His companions? Well, the two closest to him were both male as well. The one on his right side was dressed in deep red and black. Like the color of dried blood. His hair was long, to his chin, and bleached white, jagged ends colored the same red he wore. His eyes? A mocking ice blue. The one on his left was brown haired, brown eyed, wearing a dark green shirt and some black slacks.

And the last two? Well those were the ones that caught everyones attention. The first was a tall, slender female, nearly Hunter's height. She was donned in baggy black pants and a tight gray shirt, black sleeves extending to cover her arms. Her hair was a medium brown, extending to her shoulders, and her eyes were a light hazel. However, what caused them to stare, and refuse to utter any words, were the huge wings extending from her back. Not just any wings. No, there was something horribly wrong with these. Take a dragons wing as an example. Her wings looked just like those, only without the skin stretching in between. Basically, they were just black bones protruding from her flesh.

Her companion was almost just as weird looking. Dressed in a black shirt and baggy black pants with a fire decal printed upon them, he seemed fairly normal, aside from his brilliant orange hair, like the crayon color orange, and his shocking red eyes. Oh yeah, and don't forget the black scales that peppered his skin, and the matching snake winding itself around his neck.

The first male to have spoken frowned slightly at their stares, before shrugging, "I forgot that these guys have never seen angels or demons before. Pity."

"Wah.. Wah...." Shane was gaping.

"Dude. That's incredible. That girls got like, bones on her back, and that dudes like some sorta snake guy."

"Wow. He's got a knack for the obvious." The white haired, red donned male snickered at Dustin.

"Who are you guys?" Hunter finally had the sense to stand in a defensive mode. His companions quickly followed suit.

The leader, or so they guessed, smirked, "Finally. Introduction time. Well then, my names Cole. The white haired guy beside me is Dray, and this brown haired dude to my left is Mike. Those two behind us, well, as you can see, they aren't quite human. Sarah over there is the former angel of death, and her brother, well, adopted brother any way, is a Lao demon. A Half snake, fire elemental dude. He goes by Acacious. All together, we're known as the Anibattle Rangers."

Jaws dropped. A customary shocked look. Blake stammered, "Rangers?"

"Yes yes, we're all aware of your shock, since you too used to be rangers. You're not exactly on an entirely different dimension you know. Ours is based off yours, with just a couple of twists. If you haven't noticed, you aren't exactly home."

"Yeah. We saw that." Tori ran a hand through her hair, "So if you're rangers, you're good guys, right?"

"You could say that." Mike spoke up, "We fight the so called evil dudes of this place, trying to save this pathetic world. Although, we don't exactly enjoy it."

Dray yawned, and crossed his arms, "Bbboorrriinnggg."

"Don't enjoy it? What do you mean? Where are we?"

"Earth." Sarah finally spoke up, and made her way to the front, "Earths parallel reality. You guys ever had nightmares before?"

"Uh. Yeah. Everyone does." Shane stated, matter-o-factly.

"Well, this is the place those nightmares get sent. Literally. This is a dream world. A plane of non existance, and yet we exist. We're real, yet everything else you see isn't. We're here to fight a battle for people that don't even fucking breath for themselves." Acacious wandered up, to finish off what his sister had started.

"Acacious, if you interrupt me one more time, I'm seriously going to kill you. Understand?" She hissed at him.

"Right right." He backed away, hands raised in a surrender mode. Then glancing at the rangers, he shrugged, "She's a little moody ever since she lost her job and her feathers were stripped from her wings. Piss her off, and she'll totally go on a killing spree."

"Aca...."

"Sorry!" He yelped, and dodged her fist just in time.

Hunter frowned, "So you guys fight the fears of others? But how did you get here?"

"We got brought here by some sick demon bitch, who wants to see us destroyed."

"Hey! Don't diss my mom like that!" Acacious smacked Dray upside the head, and immediately they were in an all out brawl.

Cole shook his head, "You'll have to excuse those two. Acacious is still a bit upset over the whole mother wanting to kill him thing, and Dray is just an idiot."

"Can we wrap this up? We're still expecting four more." Sarah glanced at the watch adorning her wrist, "Plus, it's getting about time for Charken's creatures to start showing up."

"Yeah yeah. Let's get going to the next crater, and wait for the others."

"Wait, what others?" Tori asked.

Mike glanced at her, "We sent Eve to go collect the four newest rangers, since you five lost your morphing powers not to long ago. She should have been back by now, after having delivered the marble, so we should be expecting the other four pretty soon."

"Woah. Wait. Newest rangers? There's more rangers?" Blake's jaw dropped, "Since when?"

"Since, like, a couple months ago dude. You guys don't ever want to news do you?" Dray snapped, as he managed to shove Acacious off of him, and snarled at the demon, "Fuck off already you bastard! Whether you like it or not, your mother fucking sent us here."

"ENOUGH!" Sarah lashed at the two, and instantly they calmed down, nearly shrinking back in fear. She sighed and rubbed her head, before flashing a small smile at the others, "Well, let's get going."

They managed to arrive at exactly the right time. With a brilliant flash of light, the four Dino Thunder rangers were dumped unceremoniously into a pile infront of them.

"Get off of me!" Kira gave Conner a shove, and managed to squeeze out from underneath them all. Amongst the twisted pile of bodies, she dragged Ethan out, and Trent stood, offering his hand to Conner. No surprise came when Conner refused the hand and stood himself.

"Right on schedule." Sarah grinned at the new arrivals, "Heyas." She frowned when all she got were stares. Sighing, she ran a hand through her hair, "Damn wings. That's all anyone ever sees."

"Guys, is it just me, or is theresome girl with like, bones coming out of her back, standing infront of us?" Kira pointed a shaky finger at Sarah.

The brown haired female groaned, "Nice work Sherlock. What's next? Going to notice the dude with the black scales? Why don't you start with where you are, and what you're doing here. Those are always great questions."

"Wow. Dude. The newest power rangers! Hey guys!" Dustin waved excitedly.

"Sarah!"

All heads suddenly shot towards the side as a girl clad in black lunged forward, breathing heavily. With black hair and green eyes, and stunningly white skin, she was a sight to behold, ragged looking, and bleeding.

"Crare. Heading this way. We need to get moving, now."

"Gotcha. Cole?"

"I'm on it." The male closed his eyes and pressed his hands together. Then, with a sudden snap, they were instantly transferred to a new position. Atop a cliff was a small campsite overlooking the land. Now they could really see what the new world looked like.

It was massive, as far as the eye could see. At places, the modern buildings were torn down, cracked and leveled, as the ground seeped in oil, blood, fire and dead bodies. At other places, the buildings were black, and amongst their brilliance laid a single castle, the exact same color. Monsters of all hideous sizes and colors roamed the area, destroying, maiming, and chasing screaming children, adults, and even old people. Yet none dare venture near the castle. The sky was ablaze, not literally of course, but painted the colored of newly spilt blood. The place was a madhouse. A dream from one's mind so twisted, that insanity was all they could have ever known.

"Not exactly a pretty picture." Sarah yawned, and settled down on a nearby rock, "Sit. Don't worry, the monsters can't harm you at the moment. Dray set up a protective forcefield, and we are quite capable of defending ourselves if and when the time comes."

Everyone promptly sat, finding a place on the ground, rocks, logs or even the occasional chair.

"First, let's get through the introductions. Since you seem to be so good at it Cole, go ahead."

Cole shrugged, and leaned back in his chair, "I'm Cole, duh. The white and red haired dude is Dray. The brown haired one in green is Mike. Acacious is the one over there with the scales. Whatever you do, don't mention his mother, or the fact he's a demon, or he'll want to demonstrate his demoness on you. Eve over there is the one who was sent to get you all. As you can see, she's not exactly human. Well, maybe you didn't know that. Anyway, she's a half mortal, half illusionist. If you want to know what this is, ask her. And finally, our almighty leader, not that she likes that title in anyway, Sarah, the former angel of death." He glanced at their still dumbfounded faces.

"Ok then. You four, the Dino Thunder Rangers.... Want to introduce yourself to the Wind and Thunder ninjas, please?"

"Uh...Ummm..." Kira blinked a moment, before assuming the responsibility and standing, "I'm Kira, and since you already seem to know we're rangers, I'm the yellow one. Conner over there is red, Ethan is blue, and Trent is the white one." She said, pointing at each one.

"Great." Sarah shot the antsy Conner a glance, "And we're not enemies, so stop fidgeting. Ninja's, time for your introduction."

Tori calmly stood, "Well, we used to be rangers, but I guess we passed on that title. I'm Tori, Blue Water Ninja. Shane's the Red Air Ninja, Dustin the Yellow Earth Ninja, and Those two over there are the Thunder Ninjas, Blake being Navy and Hunter as Crimson." She pointed out the respective owners of the colors, before sitting back down again.

Sarah stretched idly and leaned forward, "Now, I'm sure you all are wondering why you're here, what this place is, who we are...etc...Atleast, some of you are. To begin with, you're here because we need your help."

End of chapter one. Long I guess. Please read, review, leave comments about what you think was good or bad, or what I could improve on, but please, no flaming. I don't take kindly to it. Thanks. Next chapter will be up soon.