Roses and Thorns
Chapter Two
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, and I'm not making any money from this fic
Replies to Reviews:
Jorgitosbabe: -Impressed- Wow, you got that review up fast. I don't think it was even up on my url . Thanks for reviewing
CamFan4Ever: Thanks for reviewing . A Mary Sue is a perfect character, liked by everyone in the story, has loads of special abilities, can't do anything wrong, etc. Type Mary Sue into a search engine (especially Google) and you'll get loads of examples up
Author's Note: I have actually put the original characters I created through a Power Rangers Ninja Storm Mary Sue Litmus test, and they've all come up as unlikely to be Mary Sues. Which is a good thing
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"Hey, bro, can I talk to you for a moment?"
Hunter glanced up, and saw Blake hovering in the doorway of his room. "Sure," he said, waving his brother inside.
Blake came in, and sat down on the bed next to Hunter.
"What's the problem?" Hunter wanted to know.
Blake took a deep breath. "I want to ask Tori out on a date," he explained. "A proper date. But I don't know how to go about asking it. Should I just come straight out with it, or lead up to asking it, or what?"
Hunter blinked. "Why don't you just ask her straight out?" he suggested. His expression changed to one of concern as he saw the look on his brother's face. "Blake, what's wrong?"
Blake hesitated, then said, all in one big rush with the words merged together so that Hunter couldn't understand him, "I'mworriedthatthedatewillbeadisasterandthatToriwillhatemeandneverwanttogooutonadatewithmeagainbecauseshehadsuchabadtime."
Hunter blinked. "Could you repeat that, bro?" he asked. "I couldn't understand a word of what you just said."
"Sorry," Blake mumbled. "What I actually said was I'm worried that the date will be a disaster and that Tori will hate me and never want to go out on a date with me again because she had such a bad time."
Hunter frowned a little at that. "Blake, even if your first date is a disaster, Tori won't hate you," he told his brother. "You two like each other too much."
"But what if I make a complete fool of myself?" Blake demanded.
"Blake, you've been hanging around with Tori for ages," Hunter said. "You always try and spar together, you always work together, you always try and train together..."
"Ok, ok, I get the picture!" Blake interrupted, laughing a little. He looked steadily at Hunter. "Thanks bro," he said softly, sincerely.
"No problem." Hunter smiled at Blake. "Just ask her out, and I'm sure she'll say yes. You two are practically dating anyway. All you'll be doing is making it official."
Blake nodded slowly. Then, he asked, "That girl you were talking to earlier today? What did you think of her?"
Hunter blinked, thinking back to Lila. "She seemed... all right," he replied slowly. "She talked a little too much, though. She seemed worried about getting a good helmet for her brother's birthday, so I told her to bring him down to the race track tomorrow afternoon so that he could watch us. Why do you ask?"
"I just think that there's something... strange about her," Blake explained.
Hunter blinked. "Strange how?" he wanted to know. "She seemed perfectly fine to me, if a little annoying."
I hate to bring this up again, Blake thought to himself. But I really have no other choice. He looked steadily at his brother as he brought up memories that would be harsh for Hunter. "Bro, do you remember when you were hit by Lothor's beam?"
Hunter flinched, remembering that all too well. Afterwards, he had felt so guilty and ashamed, not worthy to be called Blake's brother. He had started avoiding the navy thunder ranger as much as possible. He had spent a lot more time at the race track and at training in an attempt to vent his frustration.
Blake had gotten tired of it eventually, though. He had come to the race track one day, and, as soon as Hunter had finished riding, had said, quite simply, "We need to talk."
Hunter had started apologising immediately, but Blake wasn't having any of it. After a moment of just looking into his brother's eyes, he had then reached out and hugged Hunter tightly while the crimson thunder ranger had cried, reassuring him that he was forgiven, and telling him over and over again that he knew that it wasn't his fault and that he still loved him.
Now, though, Blake had to drag up Hunter's bad memories again, and he hated himself for doing it.
Slowly, Hunter nodded, his eyes wary.
"From what I saw of her, this girl was acting a little like you were," Blake explained slowly. "Like she wasn't acting like she usually does, or something like that."
"What do you mean?" Hunter asked.
"I mean that you have to be very careful around her," Blake explained. He looked steadily into his brother's eyes. "I think you have to watch out for her. I don't like her, Hunter. She seems... wrong, somehow."
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"Lila, we're going to be late! Lila!"
Lila grumbled a little, and turned over onto her bed, pulling her covers closer around her. "Go 'way," she grumbled.
"Lila, we have things that we need to do!" the voice snapped.
Lila ignored her brother's voice. Maybe if she was quiet for long enough, he would think that she had gone back to sleep and would leave her alone.
No such luck. The blanket was pulled off Lila, leaving her legs cold.
Lila jerked upright in her bed, glaring at Peter. "I don't want to wake up!" she snapped.
Peter raised his eyebrows. "But you're already awake," he pointed out.
"You know what I mean!" Lila snapped, feeling grouchy. She all but fell off her bed, grabbed a hairbrush, and raked it through her hair, wincing a little as it pulled at the tangles. Her eyes almost watered at the pain. Why was it that her hair was always such a mess whenever she woke up in the mornings?!
"I should get this cut," Lila muttered.
"And then you'd probably regret it," Peter replied. He walked over to Lila's wardrobe, and opened it. "Now, what are you going to wear today?" he asked.
"Give me a chance to have a shower first, at least!" Lila said sharply. "You are such a control freak, Peter."
"Someone has to keep you in line," Peter shrugged, pulling out a metallic silver top from Lila's wardrobe and holding it up for his sister to see. "How about wearing this and jeans?"
"Too flashy," Lila replied. She shot her brother a sharp look. "Why should I want to dress up anyway?" she demanded.
Peter grinned wickedly. "Don't you want to impress that guy you met yesterday? What was his name again? Stalker?"
Peter ducked as Lila threw a book at his head. He shook his head as it hit the wall behind him. "Gonna have to do better than that, Lila. I'm still too quick for you."
Lila pointed to her bedroom door. "Out!" she ordered.
Peter gave a mocking almost-bow, and left the room. "I'll have breakfast ready in ten minutes," he called over his shoulder.
This time, the book only just missed his head.
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"Hey, Dustin, what'cha doing?"
Dustin glanced up at Tori. "Um, that's kind of obvious, Tor," he replied, gesturing towards the bike he was working on.
Tori shrugged. "Hey, you seen Blake?" she asked.
"He's probably out back with Hunter," Dustin answered. "Or, at least, he was the last time I looked."
"And how long ago was that?" Tori teased.
Dustin thought for a moment. "Maybe an hour or so ago," he replied.
Tori glanced towards the shop door. "Hey, it looks like there's a couple of customers here," she said.
"Oh, who?" Dustin stood up, and then went pale, his eyes going extremely wide.
Tori shot Dustin a surprised glance. "What is it?" she wanted to know.
"Faye and Cally are there," Dustin replied, his voice flat and devoid of any emotion.
Tori's eyes narrowed. "Cally, the one who two-timed you?"
Dustin nodded slowly. "I thought she left," he muttered, staring at the brunette and the blonde.
Tori touched his arm sympathetically. "You want me to go and get Hunter or Blake to deal with them?" she questioned. "You don't have to see them if you don't want to."
Dustin shook his head. "I'd have to see them at some point anyway," he said. Taking a deep breath, he slowly made his way towards the two teenagers.
Neither of them appeared to notice his presence at first. They were talking animatedly, their eyes on each other's faces, though Cally's eyes looked rather dark. She was also wearing a top with quite long sleeves, which was odd because the weather was quite warm.
"Can I help either of you?" Dustin asked shortly, worried that if he said too much, he would end up yelling at Cally. How dared she come back here after what she had done?
But Dustin merely shifted his weight slightly from one foot to the other and tried to keep his thoughts from showing on his face. Kelly definitely wouldn't thank him for yelling at a customer, no matter what she had done to him.
Faye's expression had brightened when she saw Dustin, but now she looked a little worried. She glanced from Dustin to Cally and back again before taking a slight step to put herself almost between the two.
Dustin remembered that Faye had always tried to be the peacemaker. She had always tried to diffuse an argument with a softly spoken word or suggestion. Of course, that meant that Faye also tended to back away from confrontations rather than risk getting involved in any type of fight or argument.
"Dustin..." Cally began. Her voice trailed off, and she looked down. I don't have the words to try and make things better. I've hurt him too much.
Dustin glanced over his shoulder at Tori for help. How was he supposed to deal with something like this? How was he supposed to deal with Cally returning? She'd just end up ripping his heart apart again.
However, when Tori started to come over, Dustin waved her back again. This was something that he had to deal with alone.
Dustin turned back to Faye and Cally, and found Cally's eyes fastened on his face.
"Maybe we shouldn't do this here?" Faye suggested, her voice soft. "It might be a good idea to go somewhere else to talk."
Dustin turned his head to glare at Faye, and the blonde gave a soft squeak, taking a slight step back. "Here is as good a place as any to talk," Dustin replied, his tone level. His gaze returned to Cally's face. She hadn't spoken at all yet, and the yellow wind ranger wondered if the brunette actually had anything to say to him at all.
Apparently, she did. Cally took a deep breath, and said, quite simply, "Dustin, I'm so sorry for what I did to you. I have no excuse for it. I'd do anything to take back what happened. But I know that sorry doesn't cut it."
Dustin looked at Cally for a long moment. "It doesn't," he said finally, his voice dangerously calm. "Not at all..."
Faye shifted slightly. "Dustin..." she began.
Get out," Dustin told Cally shortly. "If you're not going to buy anything here, just get out."
Faye looked like she wanted to say something else, but Cally took her arm, and led her out of the shop without a backwards glance.
Tori came over to Dustin. "Hey, are you all right?" she asked softly.
Dustin turned to Tori, and gave her a weak attempt at a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "I had to do that." But tears still shimmered in his eyes, threatening to fall.
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Lila came downstairs to find Peter sitting at the table with a plate of pancakes in the middle, reading the newspaper.
Peter glanced over the top of his newspaper at Lila, and grinned as he saw what she was wearing. "So you decided to take my suggestion after all?"
Lila shrugged. Reaching over, she tweaked the newspaper out of Peter's hands, and slipped her reading glasses on.
"Hey!" Peter protested.
Ignoring her twin, Lila sat down. Snagging a pancake from the pile, she started scanning the main headlines.
"There's nothing really interesting in there," Peter commented. "Just the usual stuff."
Lila raised her eyebrows. "Like stuff about the so-called Power Rangers?" she asked, turning the newspaper around and gesturing towards the headline she was referring to.
Peter met Lila's eyes, and his lips curled upwards into a smile. "Oh, that's interesting," he admitted. "But it doesn't really tell us a lot. Like, how to meet them."
Lila flashed him a smile. "I'm sure we'll be able to sooner or later," she replied.
"Yeah, sooner or later," Peter echoed. He looked levelly at his sister. "Just don't forget what we're really here for, ok?"
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Read and review, please!
Ok... I admit that I kind of made Dustin act a little out of character. But I think that it works for this fic