Pain can be classified into several categories: dull and throbbing, sharp and piercing, white-hot and burning.
Hunter felt them all the moment he regained consciousness, and he let out an agonized groan. Shane's voice was beside him at once. "Don't move, Hunter. You got clocked pretty bad and I don't wanna risk any more damage until we know what shape you're in."
Hunter opened his eyes to see three Shanes hovering above him. It took a moment for the three heads to fuse back into one while his vision cleared.
"The monster…?" Hunter croaked.
"Gone," Shane said. "Right after that freak tried to grind you into the wall, the door suddenly slid open, and the thing went straight for it. Bumped its head a few times before it made it through, too. Guess you got it pretty good."
A throbbing pain in his arm distracted Hunter for a moment. He turned his head to see that, while he had been out of it, Shane had ripped up the long sleeve of his crimson
T-shirt and wrapped the strips tightly around the wound. It had stopped the blood flow, but the makeshift bandage was still slowly staining with red of a different kind.
Hunter frowned at Shane. "Let me get this straight…the door opened, the monster was blinded... and you didn't take this chance to get outta here?"
"Wasn't like I could move you," Shane replied simply and held up his hand. "How many fingers do you see?"
Hunter ignored the digits. "Shane, that was probably your only chance to escape. Why…"
"But I didn't, dude," Shane interrupted him. "So shut up about this and tell me how many fingers you see? I need to be sure you don't have a concussion."
"Not like you actually know how to check for signs of concussions," Hunter remarked, a trace of his old sarcasm in his voice.
"Hey, I've seen George Clooney do this on ER just last week, so how hard can it be?" Shane countered, deadpan.
But Hunter kept pressing the issue. "You could have gone for help, maybe the morphers would have worked outside of these cubicles…"
"Hunter!" Shane's sharp tone actually startled Hunter into silence. The Wind ninja's gaze was intense as he glared down onto the Crimson Ranger. "I have a rule; I don't leave friends behind."
Hunter was so surprised by this simple statement that he could do little else but blink.
"Remember that time when Lothor had me on his ship?" Shane asked solemnly.
Hunter did remember, of course. It had been another one of Lothor's evil schemes: to get his hands on one of the Ranger's morphers to exploit its technology, he had stolen Shane's morpher – with Shane still attached to it. (see footnote below)
"You guys came for me and got me out of there," the Red Ranger continued. "You didn't just give up on me. And I know that Cam and the others won't just give up on us, either. But in the meantime, until they find us, I will not be trying to find a way out of here without you." He waved off Hunter's attempt at a response. "Stop arguing, dude. This discussion is finished." He looked down onto his injured team member with a mischievous grin. "And, yes, I can say that, you know. I am the leader."
Hunter's only reply was a snort, but strangely enough, the Crimson Ranger did not make any further attempts at arguing. Shane took that as encouragement to pick up where they had left off a minute ago. "Now! How many fingers?"
"Fifteen," Hunter mumbled.
"Not funny. How many?"
Hunter made an attempt at eye-rolling. "Two."
Satisfied with that answer, Shane reached out to help Hunter into a sitting position, but the Thunder ninja's torso had barely moved when he let out a sharp cry and froze.
"My ribs…" Hunter lay back heavily, grimacing with pain.
Cursing under his breath, Shane carefully peeled up Hunter's shirt only to gasp at the sight revealed. Even with the bad overhead lighting, the large purplish bruises covering most of the Thunder ninja's left side were plainly visible. And they did look damn painful.
Keeping his face neutral, he looked at Hunter, noticing for the first time just how pale the blond man was. "How deep a breath can you take?"
Hunter tried, and the intake of air before his face once again contorted in pain was way too shallow for Shane's likening.
"How bad is it?" Hunter asked hoarsely. The Crimson Ranger was flat on his back on the dirt ground, therefore unable to properly view the damage himself – and Shane was glad about that. It gave him the chance to prevaricate the truth a bit.
"You'll live, but, man, your torso's gonna look like a Picasso painting by tomorrow," he said in a weak attempt at humor.
"That bad, huh?" Hunter grimaced. "Hopefully I'll still be around tomorrow to admire it."
"Stop talking like that. Of course you will be." Shane tried his best to sound annoyed instead of worried. He knew next to nothing about first aid, but even he could figure out from the Thunder ninja's obvious pain and immobility that at least a few of Hunter's ribs were fractured. He also knew about the danger of one of those ribs puncturing a lung or other essential organs.
Bottom line was that it was too risky to move Hunter. But when that thing comes back…
As if he had read his mind, Hunter suddenly spoke up. "I'm just being realistic, dude. Lothor's not finished with us yet." The Crimson Ranger shook his head weakly. "My bolt wasn't at a hundred percent. I don't think I did any serious damage; probably just stunned and temporarily blinded that thing." He fixed Shane with a dark look. "As soon as it's recovered, he'll send it back; you know that."
Shane nodded his head at that, a wordless consent to his own apprehension.
"And we are in no shape to fight it. I'm hurt, we can't morph, the rest of the team doesn't know where we are…heck, we don't even know where we are."
"They'll find us. Cam will figure out a way." Shane insisted, trying his best to refute Hunter's gloom. "And at least you bought us some time."
The Red Ranger sat back on his heels. "But you are right; that freak will be back. So we have to come up with some sort of plan for when it does."
For a long moment the two Rangers looked at each other, each hoping the other would have at least a halfway feasible idea. Finally Shane sighed. "I guess the first thing we have to focus on is getting you back on your feet."
"I don't see how." Hunter cast Shane a glance that said he had seen through the Wind ninja's earlier attenuation of his injury. "Shane, I've had broken ribs before, so I know how it feels, and obviously I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."
"Well, let's see how we can fix it, then," Shane said, reaching out to pull Hunter's shirt up again.
"Fix it? How in the world are you gonna try and fix this?" Hunter asked puzzled and Shane shot him a slightly incredulous look. "Ninja healing powers, of course. What did you think?" Then he smirked suddenly. "Don't tell me they didn't teach you guys 'Regeneration 101' at the Thunder Academy."
"Well, yeah, they did, but only on ourselves," the blond man replied as he watched Shane rub his palms together slowly and deliberately before he carefully placed them over the bruises on Hunter's torso. He deduced the Wind ninja's actions correctly. "I didn't know there was a way to actually apply them to someone else."
"I didn't either, but after we became Rangers, Sensei taught us the meditative techniques to release our healing energy and transfer it into others," Shane replied and smiled slightly. "I guess the 'Power Ranger' package comes with some privileged knowledge."
He pointed towards Hunter's left arm. "Why don't you get on this, while I start on your work of art down here."
And while Hunter clumsily unwound the bloody bandage from the gash, the Wind ninja closed his eyes and bowed his head, concentrating. His body turned completely still, hands hovering over the battered area, and after a few moments Hunter became aware of a tingling sensation spreading across his bruised skin. Warmth seemed to radiate from Shane's hands directly into his body, soothing his aching ribcage. A healing lethargy came over Hunter as Shane's regenerative energy worked on fusing the fractured ribs back together. But the process was slow, and soon it was getting harder for him to stay awake and to focus on his own healing powers which he was applying to his arm.
He couldn't afford to fall asleep now. Blinking rapidly to shake off the fatigue, Hunter's eyes settled on Shane's face. The Red Ranger was frowning, eyes hooded, entirely absorbed in his task. Hunter hoped he wasn't breaking the Wind's concentration, but there were some things that had to be said, and they had to be addressed right now, before it might be too late. "Shane?"
"Hmm?"
"Sorry about that comment I made yesterday. You know, about Lothor and the schools…" Hunter's voice was quiet, almost subdued.
Now Shane cast him a quick glance. "'s all right, man."
"No, it isn't. I shouldn't have gone off like that. I was mad, and when that happens, I sometimes don't realize when I cross the line. I also didn't mean to belittle your leadership or your fighting skills," Hunter said sincerely, trying to catch Shane's eye. "You have to understand…up until a few months ago it's been just Blake and me, and he's the little brother, so I have always done most of the decision-making. It's a 'big brother' thing, you see?" When the Crimson Ranger realized he was babbling, he sighed. "I guess even after these past few months, I'm still not used to there being more than just Blake and me. We've always looked out for each other, because no one else ever did."
"Well, I've got news for you," Shane replied. "That changed when you became part of the team. Here we all look out for each other." He stopped his ministration for a moment and locked eyes with Hunter. "But I understand. I am a younger brother myself, remember? Besides, I was at fault here, too. I mean, we both said some stuff we shouldn't have said, and I provoked you with that stupid name-calling. So if we're at the apologizing part right now, you need to accept mine, too." The look on Shane's face was sincere, and after a moment, Hunter nodded. "So we're cool for now? Ready to resume our normal hostilities again?" he asked half-jokingly, and Shane chuckled. "Maybe tomorrow. Right now we've got to get you back in shape, so that there will be someone for me to argue with." He was about to turn his attention back to the interrupted task when Hunter spoke again. "Well, I just wanted to let you know that I won't contest you as the team leader anymore." The Thunder ninja's demeanor was solemn now in emphasis of his words, and a guilty kind of relief flooded through Shane. The message behind Hunter's words was that there were going to be no more escalations from now on.
Time to bury the hatchet, make aments, let bygones be bygones and all that.
The Red Wind Ranger regarded Hunter for a moment, then resolutely stuck out his hand to the blond man, and with a look of relief on his own face, the Crimson Thunder Ranger grasped the offered hand in a tight grip. The two young men shook on their newfound understanding before Shane once again lowered his palms over Hunter's side, resuming his treatment. Hunter placed his right hand back over the wound on his arm, continuing his own healing process.
They worked in comfortable silence for a while until Hunter spoke up again. "Shane, can I ask something of you?"
"Sure," Shane replied without looking up from his hands.
The Thunder ninja took as deep a breath as his ribs would let him before he continued. "If I don't make it out of here, there's something you have to do for me, man."
Shane was just about to argue the 'not making it' part again, but thought better of it. He waited silently for Hunter to continue.
"Tell Blake I love him, ok?"
The finality of these words hit Shane like a fist in the gut. He nodded wordlessly, but Hunter wasn't finished yet. Yet the Crimson Ranger hesitated, as if he had to make up his mind about something. Finally he said quietly, "And tell Cam the same thing."
Shane's eyebrows arched in surprise. Cam?
The Red Ranger felt that this needed some more clarification. "Love him like a brother, you mean?"
Hunter hesitated again, but when he spoke, his voice was firm. "No."
Shane was silent for a moment, eyebrows still raised. Then comprehension sank in. "Oh."
Hunter's voice was at once defensive. "Yeah, Shane, Cam and me. And if you have a problem with that,…too bad."
Much to his surprise, Shane actually started to laugh quietly. "No, dude, I don't, so no worries. I'm just surprised, that's all." The Red Ranger's eyes took on a faraway look for a moment, and Hunter's eyes narrowed in puzzlement. Was there something about Shane he didn't know? But before he had a chance to dwell on that thought, Shane's face was neutral again as he turned his gaze upon the Thunder ninja once more. "It's just that…remember that race you and Blake had a few weeks ago? The one where we all came along to watch? You were flirting your head off with the girls at the finish line, for crying out loud!"
A snort of laughter was coming from Hunter. "True, but it didn't mean anything. That was just for feeding the ego, man."
Shane looked down, shaking his head, but still smirking. "That cute blonde, she even gave you her number, and I saw you take it."
"Yeah, but I never called her."
Shane just looked at him, and Hunter rolled his eyes again. "Hey, until Cam is ready to go public about us, I have a reputation to uphold, you know."
Shane rubbed the bridge of his nose, suddenly looking a bit abashed. "So how long have you two..."
"A while," Hunter replied vaguely.
"But why does Cam want to keep it under wraps? It's kinda unlike him to be overly worried about what the rest of the team would think."
Hunter shrugged. "It's mostly because of Sensei. Cam doesn't know how he will react to us being together."
Shane nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that would be a pretty valid reason."
The Wind ninja knew his teacher to be a wise man, patient and tolerant, but just how tolerant would he be in regards to his only son's choice of partner? There was really no way to anticipate any particular reaction, so Shane didn't even try to speculate. Instead, he went for a different kind of reassurance. "Well, you don't have to worry about me slipping up, because, contrary to popular belief, I actually do know when to keep my mouth shut," he grinned, and the Thunder Ranger relaxed visibly, returning the smile.
"And about your messages…" Shane continued, "I don't expect to have to deliver them anyways, because we will make it out of here." Shane wished he sounded more confident than he felt, and Hunter simply nodded, looking as unconvinced as he was himself.
After a moment of awkward silence, they resumed their work on Hunter's hurt body.
Meanwhile…
Huge, gray clouds were rolling in fast overhead, so swollen with rain that they looked ready to burst at any moment. Faint thunder could be heard in the distance, but other than that, the forest was eerily silent. No breeze ruffled the leaves on the trees, no unseen birds were chirping in their branches. It was too quiet. Evil was lurking. They could all feel it.
Dustin's head was moving in all directions, his eyes scanning the area, the mountain, the trees all around them.
"Don't see any sentries," he finally said. "I think the coast's clear."
Blake looked up, sniffing the air. "Let's get inside," he said, nodding towards the narrow, inconspicuous entrance to the Sacred Mountain just ahead of them. "Looks like the heavens are gonna open up at any minute."
"Let's morph first," Cam suggested. "I don't know if we'll be able to once we're inside."
The four Rangers positioned themselves.
"Ready?" It felt strange having Cam calling the morph.
"Samurai Storm…"
"Ninja Storm…"
"Thunder Storm…"
"RANGERFORM!"
They drew their swords and started towards the cave entrance. It was damp and dark inside, and they had to open their visors in order to make out anything in the murky tunnel ahead of them.
"Anyone thought of bringing flashlights?" Tori asked.
Her three team mates mumbled some unintelligible negations as they stumbled along the narrow, rock-strewn path. Blake was in the lead, squinting into the darkness ahead of him. Two steps into the cave he had already recognized it to be the tunnel from his dream, and thus he would have known the way even in perfect blackness. And if real life continued like the dream, then there should be…
There! The silvery light that materialized just a few feet ahead of them was faint at first, but increasing its slightly phosphoric luminescence even as he watched. A thin gasp from behind him told him that the others had seen it, too.
Blake took a deep breath, preparing himself for the sight, even though he knew exactly what was coming next. 'All right, show yourselves,' he thought, heart pounding.
And they did. Exactly as they had in the dream, shimmering within their ghostly bubble, their faces as tight as they had been less than an hour ago.
Blake had thought he was ready for them, but seeing them so close again, this time in real life, suddenly had an even more profound effect on him. The Thunderstaff in his hand started to shake, and he took it in a two-handed grip to hide the tremors. Afraid that Cam, Dustin, and especially Tori, might notice his unsteady state, he resolutely moved forward, towards the apparitions. The others followed closely behind.
His parents greeted them with solemn demeanors, and wasted no time on formalities.
"We must hurry," his mother said urgently. "The beast has already struck once, and the Evil One is readying it for another attack."
Cam appeared at Blake's left side. "Are they all right?" he heard the samurai ask.
The spirits hesitated for a brief moment before Blake's father pointed further down the tunnel. "Follow us," he said gravelly and turned abruptly, floating into the murky darkness. Blake locked eyes with his mother, trying to read the unspoken answer in her eyes, but she also turned, following the shimmering form of her husband.
With a lump in his throat the size of a golf ball, Blake hurried after them.
Close call…The door. The damn door was opening again! The blond and the black head whipped around simultaneously, eyes darting towards the already moving steel.
Shane shot to his feet. Too soon. Hunter's healing process had been going pretty smoothly, but they needed at least another hour until the Thunder ninja would be in anything resembling fighting condition again. The two young men cast each other an uneasy glance as they waited tensely for whatever would be emerging from the darkness of the door's threshold. 'Maybe it' not the freak. Please don't let it be the freak,' Shane prayed silently.
It was. The stench that wafted into the arena left no room for doubt even before the head of the monster re-appeared, complete with radiant eyes that, incredibly, held no trace of blindness or scarring when they immediately focused on the two ninjas.
True to his training, Shane automatically went into defensive stance, but for the first time, he felt foolish about it as he looked up at the formidable wall of evil that came towards him.
"That's either Freakosaurus' brother, or I guess Lothor's healing powers are stronger than ours," he heard Hunter's weak voice and when he dared to cast him a quick glance he saw the Thunder Ranger propped up on his good arm, readying himself to somehow scramble to his feet. His body coiled with tension, Shane turned his attention back to the advancing creature and hissed through clenched teeth, "Stay down, but be ready. Watch the door, and the minute that thing's got its back to you, you somehow make your way over there.
"I'll be right behind you, don't worry," he added, but for once there was no argument coming from the ground below him. Shane slowly backed away from Hunter, moving towards the middle of the room, his eyes never leaving the monster. The creature let out an earsplitting roar, and Shane swallowed heavily. 'No way to beat this thing…the only weapon I have is literally a whole lot of hot air!'
Incredibly, at this very moment, the voice of his English teacher suddenly sounded in his head, quoting a line of verse from yesterday's lesson. T. S. Elliott. Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
'How fitting,' Shane thought grimly, 'but I'm gonna try to evade it like hell anyways.'
The monster took his first swipe at him, but Shane leapt over the deadly arm and landed a few feet further towards the far side of the wall, guiding the creature away from Hunter. Space was already getting tight again in the small arena, and against his will, Shane could feel the fear creeping into his body. He was unable to stop it.
But then his English teacher's voice was replaced with another one; this one more familiar, and calm. To be victorious in battle, one must first master one's emotions. Anger is hard to control, but fear is by far the hardest. It had been one of Sensei's earliest lessons to his students, trying to convey the message that it was only human to be afraid during battle.
Looking into the hideous visage of the monstrosity looming over him, Shane seriously doubted that he would have the chance to practice his emotional restraints ever again.
Another deafening screech from the dino-monster, accompanied by the same nauseating breath, but although the pounding hammer of Shane's heart refused to adhere to Sensei's wise words, the Red Ranger stood his ground.
Empty yourself of all emotions, for if you are emotional, you are unbalanced, therefore unfocused. In battle, it is never the unfocused one who will emerge victorious. And to hope for your opponent to be more unfocused than you is a weak, and usually unsuccessful, strategy. Yeah. Great. Thanks, Sensei! Damn.
Out of the corner of his eye, Shane saw that Hunter was in the process of slowly, - too slowly, - pulling himself to his feet. The Thunder ninja leaned heavily against the wall with pain etched into his face and an arm clutched over his injured side before he took some wobbly steps towards the still open door.
He didn't get far. From an unseen speaker system overhead, a booming voice suddenly filled the arena. "Where do you think you're going, Thunder Ranger? Trying to skip out on our little party here?" Lothor clucked his tongue. "Such bad manners!"
The dino-monster had been about to make a grab for Shane, but froze at the sound of the voice and dull-wittedly looked around for its master. Shane took that opportunity to scurry out of the corner it had backed him into.
The Red Ranger had enough – more than enough. "Lothor, you coward!" he yelled into the shadowy gloom of the arena, "You want a fight, get down here yourself and fight like a man. I'll take you on, Ranger powers or no!"
Roaring laughter came back over the intercom. "You foolish boy! Of course I could finish you myself, but watching my creation do it is so much more fun," Lothor's voice was full of sneer.
"You spineless snake!" Shane cried, his clenched fists shaking with suppressed fury.
Lothor's voice turned to a snarl. "Let me assure you, Ranger, that this creature has more than enough spine for both of you."
"Maybe for two, but how about six?" came a sudden cry from the doorway behind the creature.
Navy, green, yellow and blue colors spilled into the arena, and Lothor's abomination suddenly found itself attacked from three sides with Ninja swords, Thunderstaff and Samurai saber.
With a whoop of joy, Shane bounded out of the way of the fight and towards Hunter. The two ninjas exchanged relieved, goofy grins while their team mates kept the beast at bay, clearing the way towards the door.
"NO, not fair!" Lothor's voice had suddenly changed from gleeful to frantic.
"Fair? Of all people, he talks about unfair." Dustin remarked dryly, all the while ceaselessly slashing at the beast with his sword. It didn't seem to do much damage to the creature, but at least it kept it cornered.
"Let's get out of here," Cam yelled over the furious howls of the monster. "We've got what we came here for."
Suddenly, Blake was at Hunter's side, his visor up. "Bro, you okay?" he asked worriedly his eyes taking in his brother's bloodied arm and hunched posture.
Hunter mock-frowned at him. "What took you guys so long?"
Blake's face split into a grin as he draped Hunter's uninjured arm over his shoulder. "Yeah, you're gonna be all right." With that he tightened his grip around him and streaked out of the room.
"You are not getting away that easily, Rangers!" Lothor's voice screeched over the intercom. "I will see to that!" But his angry rants echoed through an empty arena, for the six figures had already streaked through the huge steel door.
A moment later, the still raging dino-monster started to shimmer, then disappeared.
TO BE CONTINUED…
(from above) see 'Betrayal'