TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY 12
Okay just for the record, I'm offended. What kind of idiot do people take me for? Darks Familiar put several votes up on different chapters, apparently he got the idea from someone else...I'm very unhappy. I am so unhappy that I will make it clear: You try and cheat (couples in reviews of the most recent chapter only don't try voting under different names in different chapters!) and I see to it that the couple never come together and no longer have any interest in one another...
So here it goes. I decided the next review I got would determine the couples. Congrats to the winner who's review got their couplings: Nikytti!!!!!!!!
Dustin/Hunt, Tori/Blake, Cam/Hunter and Shane/Kapri but don't fear all you Dustin/Marah fans out there I've got something planned for you! It's kinda obvious near the end what it is but it's only about 80 words on it so...take a guess what I'll be doing! It's corny but I felt I should appease you because it was close anyway that Dustin would be with Marah...
Okay? Okay! It had to be done; no one took that big an interest anyway
Basically: THE VOTING IS CLOSED BECAUSE IT WAS GETTING HECTIC AND BORING AND I FELT THAT THE STORY NEEDED MORE DIRECTION SO NIKYTTI GOT HER WAY! (Assuming it's a she because you can never be sure...)
Chapter 12: Desperation Revelation
Dustin and Hunter were waiting impatiently at the smoothies bar. It's where they always met Christian. Well Cam did.
"Sorry I'm late" Christian said. "Traffic." He brushed his blonde hair off his face a little. "Okay, so where's Cam?"
"Sick" Hunter said at the same time Dustin exclaimed "Work"
"He's – uhh—working with the---umm---sick" Hunter stammered. Christian shrugged and smiled as he opened the book.
Dustin slid off the stool. "You get started amigo," he said. "I'll go grab some sodas"
Hunter noted the beckoning look in Dustin's eyes. "Hey I'll help you man" he said as he followed. Christian rolled his eyes and opened the book to a page on a Binding Spell.
"Why do we need this guy? We have Cassidy" Dustin said.
"She refused" shrugged Hunter. "She said there was no way in hell she'd help us use the book until Matriarchus was destroyed or it was completely unavoidable."
"She's freaky"
"And frosty"
"Amen"
"Astral Morphers" Cyber Cam said as the two morphers appeared. "They have a yin or yang symbol in a ring, that is removed from around the neck and inserted on the arm mounted morpher which creates a connection to a small ring and starts the morphing sequence".
"I remember the morphers were separate...but somehow the first encounters on file the morphers were fused. Which is why the code used was Astrali Maxim. It was a hack to bypass the protocols..."
"A hack?" Senseii asked.
"Ninja Storm Ranger Form is the voice code for our schools morphers" Cam said. "But there's a reverse to that, an anti-code that creates a "curse" program, a virus that affects the suit and the wearer. It was put in to let usurpers believe they had the call to activate the morphers if they got past the other locks. In our case the morphing hurricane would throw the usurper far away and keep him or her trapped in a desolate location for as long as it took for the tracking beacon to be noticed."
"So his use of the incorrect call..."
"Probably destroyed him" shrugged Cassidy. "And this Hunt creep got his hands on it or...he could simply have been forced to un-fuse the morphers, choosing the yin side and some other guy picking the yang"
"So what does this mean?"
"Well the separate entities are in danger, we need to hurry up and save them" replied Cassidy.
Hunt rubbed his arm and entered the boarding house...he froze as he felt the glass under his boots crunch...the walls were spray-painted. "Hello?"
Zack appeared in a doorway. "Those brats from the corner..." he said. "Burst in. Mrs Greys a little shocked but no one got hurt..." With a snarl Hunt turned and stalked out the door. "Hey! Where are you going?"
"To take care of business!" roared Hunt.
Matriarchus teleported onto the cliff then onto a ledge and gave a hiss. "Where is it! How could the sword be gone so fast! ?" She snarled. She teleported away again.
Shane felt Kapri staring at his backside...it was unnerving and kind of...endearing? She was baring up pretty well under the conditions. Ninja Jumping was too dangerous to do on the cliff. He wasn't an earth ninja, he might be able to make the jump but he'd most likely miss his footing and fall.
He reached the top and helped Kapri up. "Okay you're an evil space ninja...which way to the uber-magic sword?" Kapri looked at him and closed her eyes. She put her palm out facing upwards and placed her other hand out vertically on top of it. "That way" she said and pointed straight ahead...the trees were all curved to form a dark portal into the shadow woods of twisted arboreal shapes.
Hunt slammed a fist into the joint of the elbow and spun swiftly backhanding the thug across the warehouse floor. He battered down another and then closed on the leader. "You really shouldn't have done what you did," he said quietly. The leader stabbed at him, Hunt grabbed the wrist twisted the knife and plunged it back into the leaders stomach before snapping his neck with a drop kick.
He looked at the men all around, groaning in pain, and then strode out of the warehouse. "Amateurs" he sneered coldly.
Shane and Kapri walked down the corridor of trees. "This place is sooooo creepy," said Kapri. Shane rolled his eyes. "Don't roll your eyes at me red-boy"
The branch slapped Shane in the face and knocked him flying into a bed of roots. They snared him and pulled him down. Kapri slashed with her sword but a vine wrapped around her waist and arms and held her in the air.
"Great job red-boy!" Kapri snapped. "Now what?" Shane didn't say anything he simply closed his eyes and focused. The hurricane was a small one but it hit the tree that held Kapri, splintering a hole through it and dropping Kapri a few feet to the ground. "That hurt!"
"Hurry- Up" croaked Shane as a vine closed around his throat. The sword slash slit the root away and with glowing slashes Kapri dispatched them. "Man where's Garden Force when you need them?" He leapt high into the air over the vines. There was a shrieking noise and three shapes launched out of the bushes at them. Rabbits! WITH FANGS?
"Oh they're so..." Kapri noted the teeth. "Carnivorous!" she squealed. She fired two bolts at one of the huge rabbits and it disappeared. Shane morphed using his blaster to dispatch the demons a rabbit leapt at the back of his head. Kapri's sword destroyed it with a lightening spark.
"I owe you one"
"Yeah whatever" muttered Kapri. "Come on" as he demorphed and ran she took a quick scan of his leather-clad backside. "Gluts Galore" she murmured and hurried after him.
Standing in the trees Kapri-D watched, her eyes flickered black and she disappeared.
Tori grimaced as Jason flipped Blake again. Blake was good but so far Jason and Kimberly had easily bested him. Tori had found Trini and Adam were no pushovers and Cam and Rocky were trying to make some sort of point with the furious aikido flips and grapples.
Rocky's back had made quite the recovery.
"You're leaving the guard on your left too open" Kim said as Jason helped Blake up. "Then again Jason's been doing martial arts far longer then you so catching onto his weaknesses is a little harder"
"What weaknesses?" Jason smiled. Kim moved fast, grabbing his arm, spinning under it and kicking his ankles from under him as her other hand slapped him in the back of the head.
"You forget your balance a lot," she said. She smiled. "Tai-Chi-Quan" she added.
"Uh...yeah" grimaced Jason as he sat up.
"Well we have to go" Blake said glancing at his watch. "Thanks for the tips" he added.
"Welcome" Trini said as she and Adam sparred, her Mantis-style was pretty potent and Adam fell backwards onto Rocky who toppled onto Cam ending with a three-man pile up. "Graceful Adam" she said.
He stuck his tongue out at her.
Tori and Blake walked down the path. It was late at night, nearly midnight and that meant parental problems. "I'll see you tomorrow" Tori said. She kissed Blake and turned to walk away.
"Hey Tori" Blake said. "I- uh – I like you a lot..." he said. DAMN NO! "And uh maybe we can go to that um- school dance in um- a few months?" Tori was a little confused.
"Definitely" she said.
As soon as she was back in her house and he had walked on to a tree that obscured him he slapped himself in the head. "You abject idiot" he muttered. "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!"
Hunter couldn't sleep, every time he tried to the hands came back, grabbing at him and holding him down... he wanted to avoid that dark place where he was helpless. He hated being helpless.
Hunter found himself in the park. It was a public park that never closed. He liked this place, when he was small he remembered a foster family taking him here on his birthday. It was a good place. It had been before Blake...he'd always felt he needed a brother, someone to protect.
"Hey" Hunter turned around. Swaying on the swings was Christian. His blonde hair was tussled and he was looking sad.
"Christian" Hunter said. He'd felt someone else there... "What are you--?"
"Don't ask what you won't answer yourself" Christian smiled faintly. "I couldn't sleep," he admitted at last.
"Ditto" Hunter sat down on the swing beside Christian. "I like this place..."
"I do to...I think I should remember it" admitted Christian. "But I have really tragic memory...as in I can't remember much from a few weeks ago" he shrugged. "Apparently I'm blotting painful memories out."
"I do it to" Hunter said. "Stuff happened...painful things in my past and..." he felt he could be honest with Christian. "I amn't a good fighter...I gave up fighting too easy when I was young and - "
"You don't give up now, do you?" Christian asked.
"I – I can't"
"You have to get stronger, you aren't born invincible" said Christian. "You're a good person Hunter I can feel it. You have to remember you do need others and that sometimes it's your friends who give you strength."
"Yeah..." Hunter murmured. The dirty feeling was still under his skin... "Let's change the subject," he said.
"Okay" Christian smiled as he started to swing. "I like pizza"
"Bacon and Cheese with lots of sauce and -"
"Tuna, Mushrooms and sweet corn" added Christian.
"And they said I was the only one" laughed Hunter.
Christian smiled. Hunter felt something in the boy's eyes... a kinship.
"Yeah now ice cream" Hunter continued
"Double chocolate chip mint and chocolate flakes!" exclaimed Christian.
"I like the colour green in it" grinned Hunter
"I get that" nodded Christian. "Me too"
Kim looked at the preying mantis on Trini's right arm. The same place as everyone else's. The tattoos had appeared as if by magic. Possibly actually by magic... but they were used to it.
"My Mom is so gonna kill me" Rocky murmured.
Greta Clarke was terrified they'd technically forgotten about her, the strange pot-headed men came and went but neither of the big monsters had spoken to her. Evidently her ransom was being difficult.
Her son was the red ranger. She shook her head...it made sense...maybe she would have actually noticed on her own if she'd been home more often. His behaviour changed so often when monsters were around, he was always running off whenever there was a monster attack and it all made sense.
"Having a nice repast?" a voice called mockingly. Greta looked at the bowl of rice near her feet and looked down at herself. Greta-D laughed.
"Not hungry"
"Eat, you're a surviving mother" Greta-D said. "We wouldn't want you to die...yet"
Greta glared at the woman with her face. "Tell me, are you really that ugly that you need my face?" the shape shifter morphed into a hideous beast of tentacles.
"Trust me there's uglier things out there" it gargled then retracted into the shape of Frax the cyborg. "But let's not let that drag us down you've only got a few hours to live, tops! So let me tell you something...all power rangers are hypocrites. They cut down my parents right before my eyes and for that I'll make them pay. Them and their little Samurai too...you'll get a few minutes to say bye-bye to sonny boy then I'll fry him to a crisp!"
"My son's going to turn you into boot polish you uppity little witch" Greta said firmly.
"Not a motherly thing to say" sang Frax-D. "No matter... you'll be losing your tongue soon enough"
"Your hate is a vicious infinity, it will devour you if you don't let go"
"I'll let go...when they are dead," replied Frax-D vanishing from the cavern to let Greta feel alone again.
Dustin polished the bike and then gave it a final tweak. Confident it was perfect he turned around to go help open the shop. Marah grabbed his ear and pulled him into a supply cupboard.
He was about to shout when she clapped a hand over his mouth. "Ssssshhhhh it's okay!" she said. "I'm not here to kill you! I came to help!"
"Mmmfmmff fmf MMMMM"
"Eh - right" Marah moved her hand away and smiled. "Listen I'll make this quick... My uncle hit the Astral Academy after the Thunders. He used three alien generals up there but he knew a deep dark secret about the Sensei there and used it somehow to turn the geezers students against him. In the end he captured the students easily...but one fought back and used the morphers. Uncle kept him used his psychic visions to foresee stuff about you guys. The cutie tried to escape and nearly made it one day... Uncle decided he needed to be more pro-active and brain zapped the boy to fight you."
"This I kind of guessed...except for the vision stuff coz – I didn't know he could do that"
"Well yeah he kinda can" Marah said. "Anyway, when you guys fought him something happened with the Sensei Mind Mojo and he totally flipped and the mind control went haywire uncle said something about too many unseen Generals – Vegetables – Tentacles – Variables! Yeah!" she snapped her fingers. "Anyway, he only went gaga because of all the stuff in his mind. Now Uncle can't track him because all Astral Ninjas have warping grey matter and Matriarchus is sure the Astral Ninja could find the sword. I mean she's a good trainer but kinda dumb because the Astral Ninja has no interest in helping us again!"
"Yeah...Guess so"
Marah looked around. "I have to go, Uncle will notice I'm missing soon just – watch yourself he's a fruit basket now" she vanished in a crackle of thunder.
"That'd happen," said Cam. "The hack code and the mind control..."
"With the power of the combined morphers" continued Cassidy.
"Brain flux and insanity" finished Cam. "The Astral Ninja would get some sort of Amnesia and eventually loss of control over his powers. But that doesn't help us finding the two new people with the morphers"
"Well" Dustin said. He stood in the middle of Ninja Ops as Cam and Cassidy worked at a terminal with tools that looked like they belonged on the set of Star Trek. "Maybe the book can - "
"The book can't do everything, the book is limited, the book is not the answer sheet" Cassidy said as she tweaked something.
"Speaking of the book" Cam said as he slid out from under the console. "I have to meet up with Christian to do more work on it"
"I still say the Keeper should help" Dustin said.
"Well this Keeper is just a librarian, you've checked the book out, I'm not responsible for it unless you bring it back with dog ears" Cassidy said. "At which point I will no longer be responsible for my actions"
Dustin shuddered and nodded nervously.
Matriarchus looked at the dated schematics. "Astronema was good," she said. "These DNA plans were...advanced for their time. But I need to improve on them" she said. Lothar raised an eyebrow. "So...pick a colour"
"In honour of my old alpha-Matter I'll go with Yellow" Lothar declared.
"Yellow it is... a nice neutral colour" smiled Matriarchus. "Just not very evil"
"I was a yellow Wind Academy student"
"But you're not anymore"
"Good point"
Christian examined the book properly. Up until now he'd only been brought photocopies they'd called the book. He was surprised that they'd allowed him to finally see it up close. "I finally get to see it"
"We trust you" Hunter said. Cam was standing rigidly with Hunter at his shoulder.
"Careful" Christian said sadly. "I amn't sure if I trust myself"
Cam shook his head. "So what are we working on today?" Christian leafed through the pages of the book as Cam asked. He settled on a page.
"The spell to separate the good of a person from the evil" Christian said. "Sounds... useful" He took out a pencil and a notepad. They were in an outdoor café by the beach, though the sky looked a little grey and enjoying it for much longer was doubtful.
"There's a warning on it" read Christian. "But the spell says that it will separate the two parts of the person who reads it aloud into their corporeal forms..."
The flash was blazing. Zurgane and the Kelzacks stood before them. "That book looks overdue," he said. Christian stared. Cam and Hunter looked at one another; Cam had designed a cloaking device for sensors tracing the book.
"I told you it was here," a voice said. Squatt-D materialized. "Now let's get a move on my mentor's a cranky old hag half the time".
"Christian Run" Cam said. Christian nodded...he moved swiftly and kicked a chair at Zurgane knocking the alien over and giving him time to vault over the railings of the café and dart down the street with the book.
"Go catch up" Cam said as the people around them rushed off in fear. "I'll try holding them off so you can hide Christian and jump back to Ninja Ops"
"No way" Hunter said. "I won't leave you"
Cam stared at him. "Do it"
"Okay I will" Squatt-D said as he hurled a power blast at the rangers knocking them flying. They leapt to their feet and engaged the Kelzacks. Squatt-D spotted Christian and in a blur of speed caught up with him. "Going somewhere?"
Christian wrinkled his nose. "Wow...you're ugly, I'll bet not many people like you" before Squatt-D could retort or act Christian flip kicked him into a wall and landed smoothly. He disarmed two Kelzacks and turned the dropped blades against them. Hunter and Cam stared as he back flipped down an alley then they followed him as she tossed the book into the air, slashed the Kelzacks as they looked up, caught the book and spin-kicked Squatt-D aside.
"I'll handle this" Zurgane exclaimed as he charged.
"Fine, do" Squatt-D muttered as he vanished.
Christian dodged the slashes of Zurgane's blade and grabbed the alien's arm flipping him over. "Bad tin can, try to get it right next time" smirked Christian. He ran up a wall, flipped back over and stomped on Zurgane's body, smashing the monster down.
Cam backhanded a Kelzack as Hunter kicked another down the alley. Zurgane hit a garage door and slid down with a groan. Christian plucked the book from the air having thrown it up to double kick Zurgane.
The forces vanished and Cam and Hunter hurried forwards. "We heard you were good at fighting...but that was...out of this world..." Hunter gasped.
"No it wasn't it was Ninjitsu, you know that" said Christian. "So let's face the fact I'm a trained ninja" he turned away. Suddenly he vaulted forwards onto his hands and kicked Cam and Hunter backwards into an open garage space. A stack of boxes fell onto them.
"I like you both, you're the closest to friends I've ever had" Christian said. "But I won't let you stop –mmmme!" He gave a gasp of pain as his body glowed, his limbs twitching and twisting as they were taken over. He started to read the spell.
"Christian stop!"
Hunt laughed and turned around, the last of Christian's dark blonde hair fading to his dark colouring. He was finishing the spell. "He wants it this way," Hunt said. There was a flash of black and white lights, swirling into a cloud of pigments as two shapes stepped out in opposite directions. They were dressed the same but one was Hunt and the other Christian and when they stood together they had the very same face. Just different eyes and hair... different expressions.
"Holy -" breathed Hunter but was stuck for words.
TBC!
THE VOTING IS CLOSED! But you can voice opinions on what you'd like to happen next. I'll be continuing this story in another one that has a pending title. There are only 2 chapters more left. Maybe 3. Then I'll continue the saga with a new one. Arrivederci.