Is Love For Real?
Chapter Three - Hurt
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, and I'm not making any money from this fic
CamFan4Ever: Thanks for reviewing! I would lock my muses in a cupboard... But they'd probably end up killing each other
RedFox: -Runs past with a sandwich in her mouth-
DarkAngel: -Chases after RedFox- Come back here with my sandwich
DarkCat: -Glances at the other two, then returns to eating her food-
mysterious-muse: Well... Don't expect Dustin to come round any time soon
DarkAngel: -Pauses in the middle of chasing RedFox to say- She likes torturing characters and making them totally miserable -Starts chasing after RedFox again-
BlueGirl90: Well, you can have Blake/Tori... But you'll have to wait on Dustin/Hunter
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At Storm Chargers, Hunter carried some boxes into the store room. Coming back, he almost ran into Kelly.
"Hey, what's with you and Dustin?" Kelly asked in a low voice, blocking his way. "You two are acting really weird around each other."
Hunter hesitated, wondering just how much Kelly knew about what he had said and done to Dustin. Probably not very much, he decided, looking intently at his employer. She doesn't show any signs of... knowing about me.
Hunter shrugged slightly. "Nothing's with me and Dustin," he lied.
"Hm." Kelly did not look very convinced. "Well, you'll tell me if anything is wrong, right?" she asked. "You know you can always talk to me."
"Yeah, sure," Hunter replied. Not that he had any intention of telling Kelly what was really bothering him. Especially not after how Dustin had reacted to his feelings. He didn't think he could stand another person he thought of as his friend pulling away from him and looking at him with disgust.
Which was what Dustin was doing. Hunter hoped that the yellow wind ranger would be able to come round, but he didn't hold out much hope of that actually happening, despite his brother's words. After all, Dustin was only talking to him when he had to at the moment. Why should that change?
I wonder if he told the other wind rangers about it? Hunter thought as he moved off to do some other things in the shop.
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Later, Hunter was at the race track alone, riding his bike. Blake had offered to come with him, but he had actually had a date arranged with Tori, so Hunter had said that he would be all right on his own.
Actually, riding wasn't really making Hunter feel better. Usually, riding helped him work through his bad moods and aggression, but not today. Today, he didn't have that release.
Hunter stopped his bike, and slammed his fist into his hand. He really felt like hitting something, but there wasn't anything solid nearby. Apart from trees, of course. But Hunter had had experience with punching out trees before to get rid of his aggression. It just made his knuckles hurt.
Suddenly, Hunter became aware of the fact that he was no longer alone. He glanced up, and spotted Dustin some distance away from him, also with his bike.
Oh, great, Hunter thought to himself. I must have been really caught up in my thoughts if I didn't even hear Dustin arriving.
Hunter expected Dustin to start shouting at him, or even to just turn around and leave. But what Dustin actually did caught the crimson thunder ranger completely by surprise.
"Let's have a race," Dustin said firmly.
Hunter was surprised. Dustin wanted to race with him? After what he had said to him the other day? Why did he think that there was more to it than that?
"Ok," Hunter said slowly. He watched as Dustin got onto his bike, then slowly did the same after moving so that he and Dustin were right next to each other.
"All right, let's go!" Dustin exclaimed after a moment.
The two started off, going neck and neck. Both were pretty much evenly matched. Hunter had enough time to note the fact that Dustin had clearly been practicing hard before his attention was taken up entirely by the race.
Hunter's eyes were on the finish line, so he didn't notice the fact that one of the obstacles had fallen into his path at first. Then, when he did, he swerved to one side. Unfortunately, Dustin was right beside him, so Hunter's bike plowed into the yellow wind ranger's, knocking him off, and making him rather angry.
"Hey, you did that deliberately!" Dustin yelled.
"No, I didn't," Hunter replied, stopping his bike and getting off. He made his way over to Dustin, and offered a hand to help him to his feet. "Are you all right?"
Ignoring Hunter's hand, Dustin got to his feet unaided. Then, he swung a hard right at the crimson ranger's jaw, which caught Hunter by surprise.
"Hey, what did you do that for?" Hunter demanded, taking a step back out of reach as Dustin swung his fist at him again.
"I want to fight you!" Dustin replied, catching Hunter in the chest, knocking the wind out of the thunder ranger.
He's been looking for an excuse to do this, Hunter realised as he doubled over, gasping for breath. He wants me to fight him. But... I can't. I can't fight him.
So Hunter didn't resist as Dustin's fist travelled towards his face. Then, everything went black.
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Dustin stood looking down at Hunter's unconscious form, feeling the rage leave him as suddenly as it had arrived. What had he just done? He'd just beaten up one of his closest friends... For absolutely no reason.
Dustin felt tears begin to prick at his eyes. He felt awful. Hunter hadn't even tried to defend himself. He'd refused to fight back.
Dustin started to reach out to Hunter, then stopped as his morpher went off. There was trouble. He had to go.
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Tori sat with her head resting on Blake's shoulder, feeling the navy thunder ranger play with her hair. She smiled slightly, and closed her eyes, content to just be in his company.
"You ok, Tori?" Blake's soft voice brought the blue wind ranger out of the almost-doze she had been in.
Tori smiled up at Blake, and kissed his cheek. "I'm fine," she answered. "Just being here, with you, makes me happy."
Blake returned the smile. "I'm glad," he replied.
Tori frowned slightly as a sudden thought occurred to her. "Blake, is something wrong with Hunter?" she wanted to know. "He hasn't really been acting himself."
"Well..." Blake began. But then, he was cut off as his morpher sounded. Saved by the beep, he thought with an inaudible sigh of relief as he spoke into the morpher, "Cam, what's wrong?"
"There's a monster loose in the city," came Cam's short reply. "He has blasters. You need to go and stop him. I assume that Tori is with you as well?"
"I'm here, Cam," Tori said.
"Tori, you go too," Cam ordered.
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By the time Tori and Blake got to the monster, Dustin had already been fighting it for quite some time.
The yellow wind ranger was tired and hurt quite badly. Blake had barely enough time to wonder where Hunter was before the monster caught sight of them and yelled out, "Kelzacks!"
And Tori and Blake were suddenly attacked by Kelzacks, which left Dustin on his own to deal with the monster.
Pretty soon, the yellow wind ranger was tiring. He ended up falling to the ground, and watched helplessly as the monster raised one of its blasters towards him as his vision darkened.
Just before he lost consciousness, Dustin thought he saw a crimson blur appear in front of him.
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Read and review, please!
Ok, it was a little rushed, I know... And thanks, BlueGirl90, for your great suggestion! It was really helpful. -Moves to one side as RedFox and DarkAngel rush past her-