Roses and Thorns

Chapter Five

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, and I'm not making any money from this fic

CamFan4Ever and Jorgitosbabe: I'm glad you liked the previous chapter . I actually very nearly deleted this whole fic. I was feeling pretty depressed the other day. I guess it was good that I decided to wait for a little while before I did

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Cam was doing some work on the computer when his morpher started going off.

Cam was still new to actually being a Power Ranger, so the fact that his morpher was going off didn't actually register until his father said, "Cam, aren't you going to see who wants you?"

"Oh, right," Cam said. He picked up his morpher from where it was lying on the table, having left it there when he was been trying to figure out how it worked. "Cam here. What's the problem?"

The shout that echoed from his morpher almost deafened the green samurai ranger. "HELP!"

Cam blinked. "Tori?" He looked at his father. "Dad, was that Tori?"

"What do you think?" the Sensei asked.

Cam hesitated for a moment. Then, "I don't think that it is Tori," he admitted. "It doesn't sound like Tori... But, dad, Tori's the only female Power Ranger around. And I could swear that that voice was definitely female. So, it had to have been Tori."

"Not necessarily," Sensei replied. "There are other Ninja Academies which Lothor has captured, after all."

"But I thought that Lothor captured everyone from those," Cam said slowly. "How could one have escaped? And what if there's more than one? Father, what if it's a trap? What if it's the same thing that happened with Hunter and Blake?"

Sensei looked steadily at his son. "That I cannot tell you," he answered. "You will have to decide for yourself whether it is likely to be a trap. And, if you don't think that it is, should you go and help this person?"

Cam opened his mouth to say something, but was prevented from speaking by the new voice that came from his morpher.

"Hey, did you guys hear that?" Shane's voice asked.

"I did," Cam replied. He heard the others say that they had, too.

"What should we do?" Shane asked. "Cam, can you get a fix on the location where that voice came from?"

"Sure," Cam said, already getting to work on it. It shouldn't be that difficult to find the location, after all. If there were some new Power Rangers around, he just had to lock onto where the heat readings were coming from.

"No one's on the edge of the forest outside town, are they?" Cam wanted to know.

A chorus of no's came from the other Power Rangers.

"Ok, then that means that the call probably came from there," Cam commented. "Should we go and check it out?"

"I think that we should," Tori responded. "Whoever it was called us for help. It doesn't seem like a trap... And we can't just ignore a cry for help."

"I agree with Tori," Blake said.

There's a surprise, Cam thought.

"Does everyone else agree?" Shane asked.

"I do," Hunter said. "As long as we get it wrapped up before this afternoon. I promised that I'd be at the race track then."

"I don't know why," Dustin commented. "You don't even really like the girl, Hunter." Then, before Hunter could say anything to that, he added, "I'm in as well. Better activate CyberCam, Cam. We might need the Zords."

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The brown ranger laughed a little as the orange ranger lowered her hand, breathing heavily in short gasps. "Do you really think that the others will come to your rescue?" he wanted to know.

The orange ranger turned her head to where the violet ranger was hanging from the tree, her struggles growing weaker and weaker. Her Power Ranger abilities weakened the effects of the strangulation, but they couldn't hold out forever. The orange ranger could hear her friend choking quite badly. She wanted to go and help her, but the two silk rangers were blocking her way.

The orange ranger looked back at the silk rangers. "Yes, I do," she replied calmly.

"You are a fool," the silver ranger said bluntly. "Why not join with us?" She took a step forward to lay a gloved hand on the orange ranger's shoulder. "We could do so many things together..."

The orange ranger shook off the silver ranger's hand. "Like destroy the other Power Rangers?" she demanded. "And what would the price be of me joining you? My friend's life?"

"Oh, of course," the silver ranger responded coolly. "Your friend would be cut down as soon as you agree."

The orange ranger hesitated, glancing towards her friend. The last thing she wanted to do was join these two... But how could she condemn her friend to almost certain death?

And I don't have the energy to carry on fighting them for much longer, the orange ranger knew. Especially not with two of them...

"You know, two against one isn't exactly fair odds," a voice commented from behind the orange ranger.

The orange ranger half-turned, and saw six Power Rangers behind her - red, blue, yellow, crimson, navy, and green. She almost wept with relief. Clearly, the others had decided to respond to her plea for help.

"Well, well," the brown ranger commented, drawing the orange ranger's attention again. "Now it's seven against two... And I suppose those odds are much better?"

"Well, dude, it's, like, not fair to gang up on one person," Dustin said.

The orange ranger turned towards the violet ranger. The silk rangers were still blocking her way. "Get out of my way!" she ordered.

"Forget it," the silver ranger told her. "Your friend can't last out much longer. And you can't get to her."

"You know, I thought that we were quite difficult to kill even when we were in our Ranger forms," Tori commented, watching the violet ranger as her gloved hands scrabbled at something wrapped around her neck. The blue wind ranger narrowed her eyes under her helmet, trying to see what was wrapped around the violet ranger's throat. A rope? No... It's a length of silk...

"It's the silk," the orange ranger explained. "Those two are from the Silk Ninja Academy."

"The Silk Ninja Academy?" Cam was puzzled. His father would probably know about that particular academy, and why two of its members were attempting to kill another Power Ranger. Attempting to and succeeding by the looks of it. The violet ranger was finally beginning to go limp. Her struggles were extremely weak.

She can't last out much longer, Cam realised. We have to get past these two silk rangers, otherwise she'll die.

Shane apparently had the same idea. As Cam watched, the red wind ranger leaped at the two silk rangers.

And an all-out brawl began.

The two silk rangers were quite good, but the others had the advantage of larger numbers. The silk rangers were rapidly beginning to lose.

"All right, let's bail!" the brown ranger yelled to the silver ranger.

Both shot off at high speed.

Wasting no time, the orange ranger ran over to her friend, and slashed the silk around her neck. The violet ranger collapsed, coughing and gasping for air. The orange ranger helped her to stand up. "You ok?" she asked worriedly.

The violet ranger nodded. "Just... gotta get my breath back..." she managed to gasp out. Her voice sounded hoarse and scratchy.

The orange ranger looked at the others. "Thank you for coming," she said sincerely. "I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't turned up when you did."

"No problem," Dustin said.

"You should really get her to drink some water," Cam told the orange ranger. "It will probably help her throat."

"Thank you for the advice," the orange ranger replied. "I will do that."

"Why don't you come to our headquarters?" Shane suggested. "You could rest up a bit there."

The orange ranger glanced down at the violet ranger, then shook her head. "No, I don't think so," she answered. "Thank you for the offer, but we'll be fine on our own."

"Well, ok." Shane was puzzled. Then again, he and the others weren't planning to reveal their true identities to these two, so why should they?

"If you need to, come into the other forest," Cam explained after a moment's thought. "There's a portal there which will take you to our headquarters, should you ever feel the need to go there."

"We'll bear that in mind," the orange ranger said. Then, she and the violet ranger left.

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