The rangers came into Ninja Ops chatting amongst themselves.
'Hey Cam, what's up dude?' asked Dustin cheerfully.
'Not much except you're late again,' he replied stressing the again.
'Oh yeah, sorry about that,' said Dustin putting on his best innocent face.
Cam frowned and shook his head; he turned back to his computer and continued upgrading the zords.
'Rangers, first we shall start with meditation,' said Sensei bouncing off Dustin's head and onto the low rise wooden table.
Tristen towel dried her hair and brushed it through. She pulled on a fresh pair of beige canvas trousers and a white vest top, carefully slipping the amulet back over her head. She walked out of her room and could hear fighting in the main room; Tristen put her head round the door cautiously and saw a group of teenagers about the same age as her sparring with each other. She came through the door and stood watching.
'Come join us,' said Sensei looking over to her.
The rangers stopped sparring and followed his gaze to the girl standing by the door. She had shoulder length blonde-brown hair and brown eyes.
'Guys, this is Tristen Harker,' said Cam standing up to introduce her, 'Tris, these are the Wind and Thunder rangers,'
Tristen smiled, 'Er, Cam do they have names?' she said nudging him in the side.
Cam laughed, 'Yeah, sorry, that's Dustin, Tori, Shane, Blake and Hunter,'
'I thought all the other ninja's were captured,' said Blake.
'Oh I'm not a ninja,' said Tristen,' I'm the Life-force Guardian.'
'Life-force what?' asked Dustin looking confused.
'Life-force Guardian,' she repeated with a grin.
'Oh right, what's that?' said Dustin.
'I'll explain later, but training hasn't finished yet,' interrupted Sensei.
The rangers groaned.
'Tristen are you in?' asked Dustin
'If nobody minds,' she replied stepping forward.
'Tristen, if you want to go against Hunter,' said Sensei as the other rangers sat down by the table to watch.
Hunter put himself into a fighting stance and Tristen did the same. The crimson ranger leapt forward and Tristen ducked under his leg as he sent a roundhouse her way, as he replaced his foot on the floor she easily swiped it out from under him. Hunter quickly flipped back onto his feet and aimed a punch at her. Tristen caught his wrist, her opponent raised his other fist and she caught that one too, she pulled him down to the floor with her and kicked him over her head finishing with a neat backwards roll which saw her on her feet again. Hunter scrambled up realising that he was losing.
'Enough,' came Sensei's calm order.
Tristen lowered her guard with a smile.
Hunter shook his head, slightly out of breath, 'You're good,'
'Not too bad yourself,' said Tristen sitting down next to Tori.
An hour later, Sensei stopped the rangers and began to explain as he had promised earlier.
'The Life-force powers are extremely strong; they are so powerful that no human body could hold them. The amulet that Tristen wears is how the powers are stored and channelled. This makes her a guardian rather than a ninja who possesses powers,'
'So if they aren't part of you, how do you use them?' asked Hunter to Tristen.
'They aren't part of me in the same respect as your powers, but I was born to have them, that's why I can channel them from the amulet to me when I need them,'
'That's cool but what are these powers then, what can you do?' said Dustin curiously.
'Well, I have power over the elements like you do, er, telekinesis,' Tristen stopped when she saw Dustin looking confused, 'I can move things with my mind,' she clarified.
'Oh, cool,' mumbled Dustin feeling embarrassed. 'Anything else?'
'Er, I can transform into some animals, make sense lines - they're kind of like trip wires in my head that I can send out.'
'That's nice and all, but why are you here?' asked Hunter who promptly received a jab in the ribs from Tori at the phrasing of his question.
Tristen fell silent and looked to Cam.
'That doesn't matter yet, it's late you all should think about going home,' he said to change the subject.
Hunter looked dissatisfied but stood up with the others.
'Catch you later,' said Dustin waving back to Cam and smiling at Tristen as he and the others left.
'Thanks Cam,' said Tristen when the rangers had gone.
'I'll tell them tomorrow if you like,'
'Please, they should know,'
'How many bounty hunters have you encountered?' asked Cam as he shut down his computer.
'Just the one so far but there's bound to be more,' answered Tristen trying to sound as calm as possible.
Cam picked up on her tone but didn't say anything about it.
'We'll talk in the morning, you should get some rest,' he said.
Tristen nodded and gave Cam a hug, 'Thank you,' she said before going to her room.
She was just about to go through the door when she called back to Cam, 'Hey Cam?'
'Yeah,' he said looking up.
'This is going to sound silly, but does Dustin like, have a girlfriend or anything?'
Cam laughed, 'You're right, it does sound silly, but no he doesn't'
'Okay, night,' she said leaving the room.
'Night,'said Cam almost sadly.