Disclaimer: 'Power Rangers' is copyright of Buena Vista Entertainment and others of that ilk. No infringement is intended.
RESTLESS WARRIORS
Chapter Four: Explanations
Maya sighed and snuggled into the blankets. Wait a second… blankets? She sat straight up in bed and looked around. Wherever she was, it wasn't on Mirinoi and it was nowhere she had slept on Earth. Then it all came tumbling back to her. She was at the Wind Ninja Academy and this was someone's bedroom from the looks of it. The comforter was dark green and the room was devoid of decorations except for a few photos. A laptop was on the desk next to a door that Cam had explained led to a bathroom. A digital clock on the nightstand read 10:45 and from the sun outside, she assumed it was still morning.
Dustin had helped her get to the building that was the actual academy. A man named Cam, who had been another Ninja Storm Ranger was another sensei here and whose father was the head of the school, had given her a meal without asking questions. He had then dug up some clothes for her to sleep in, promising to wash what she had. He had then guided her towards a shower and a place to sleep. She looked down at the oversized striped green button-up shirt and loose gray pajama pants. Neither garment appeared to be something Cam wore overmuch. He also appeared to really like the color green.
"Dustin, you need to go check on her," a voice came from the hallway.
"No way, dude! I can't just, like, walk in on a girl. Tori used to beat me up for doing that when we were younger!"
"Chances are she's sleeping so you'll avoid getting hit."
"Dude, you're not very nice!" Dustin whined. Maya smiled. She had not realized until seeing him in person how young he actually was.
"When was I ever nice?" There was a pause. "Take her laundry in to her and use that as an excuse for barging in. If it makes you feel better, blame it on me."
She decided to give Dustin a break. Pushing away the blankets, she got out of bed and padded across to the door that led to the hallway. She opened it just as Cam was handing Dustin a stack of washed and folded clothes. Both of them were in some sort of uniform, probably what the teachers at this academy wore.
"You got lucky," Cam said smugly to Dustin. He added in her direction, "Do you feel better?"
Maya nodded, smiling. "I do."
"Good," Cam replied. "Feel free to raid the kitchen. I've got to get back to my students. See you guys later!" He took off down the hallway.
"Later, dude!" Dustin called after him. He looked around awkwardly for a moment. "Oh," he said, his cheeks growing pink as he handed her the stack of clothes.
"Thanks," she replied, taking the clothes from him. "Come on in." She opened the door and gestured him in. He followed her in, but still looked incredibly awkward. "Just give me a second to change," she said, going into the bathroom.
Dustin really was young. She would have guessed eighteen or nineteen, twenty at the most. She supposed, from what Kendrix and the others had said of Earth, he would have just graduated from high school and was probably either working or attending university classes. Maybe he was doing both and that was why he seemed a touch too pale and pinched to be entirely healthy. She didn't want to pry, but figured that it would probably come up over the coming weeks. He seemed like a genuine person—nothing hidden from the world. If he could get over being awkward around her—an unknown older woman—then things would go well.
She put on the cargo pants and sweater from this morning, now clean. She then pulled on a pair of thick wool sock meant to go with hiking boots. Well, she wasn't sure what Cam had done with her boots, but it wasn't necessary to find out at this moment in time.
Dustin was staring at the laptop and laptop accessories when she came out of the bathroom. "Can you believe with all this stuff he refuses to buy games?" he asked absently. Upon noticing Maya properly, he snapped to attention, his cheeks coloring again.
"Why don't we go downstairs?" she suggested as she pulled the blankets into place on Cam's bed and laid the folded borrowed clothes at the foot.
"Sure," Dustin replied.
The trip downstairs was wordless. They ran into Cam and three others, presumably students, heading for another part of the academy. Dustin led her into the kitchen and they settled down at the table.
"Are you all right?" she asked him.
He opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the arrival of another man in the room. He was wearing a teaching uniform like Dustin's, but where his was yellow, it was red. He carried a scroll and whacked Dustin on the side of the head with it.
"Ow!" Dustin cried, rubbing his temple. "Dude! That's not cool!"
"Sorry," the man in red said. "Hunter's here and Sensei wants you and Maya to meet with him in Ninja Ops before the others arrive.
Did everyone here know about her? Dustin nodded to the man and he left the kitchen. "Who was that?" she asked.
"Shane," Dustin said sullenly. Maya smiled. This was obviously a subject that he felt comfortable talking about. Well, friends were normally something people liked to talk about. "He's an idiot," he grumbled. She had the feeling that he didn't mean that, but it gave him an outlet to vent. "He's the air teacher."
"Is he an airhead?"
Dustin looked up at her, momentarily surprised by what she said, before he started laughing. His laugh was warm and sincere. "Actually, they accuse me of being the airhead." He paused. "We need to get to Ninja Ops."
As they stood up and began the walk, she asked, "What's Ninja Ops?"
"It was all that was left of the academy when Lothor and his space freaks decimated the grounds, kidnapped all the ninjas and turned Sensei into a guinea pig." Maya smiled. He was more intelligent than his persona gave him credit for. "It was kind of like our headquarters when we were rangers. Lothor destroyed the place, but the samurai students' project was to fix it up. Now it's kind of like a faculty lounge. All the teachers can hang there."
Dustin stopped in the middle of a hallway and pulled up a trap door. Maya would have completely missed it had he not stopped. A short set of stairs led them to a spacious room with a table in the middle. The older man there she assumed was the 'Sensei' that Dustin referred to and was Cam's father from the resemblance. Cam was there, along with the man in red, a young woman with blonde hair in blue and another man wearing a dark red teacher's uniform who also had blonde hair.
The older man stood up. "Welcome," he said to her. "I am Kanoi Wantanabe." He motioned around the table at each person as he introduced them. "You know my son, Cameron. This is Shane Clarke and Tori Hanson, the air and water teachers here." He motioned to the man in red and the lone woman. "And this is Hunter Bradley, the head teacher at the Thunder Ninja Academy." The blonde man nodded.
Cam spread out the scroll that Shane had been carrying. Maya stepped forward. It was the scroll of destiny that Trini had told her about. "The scroll," she breathed, fingering the drawings of the five yellow rangers.
"You knew about this," Kanoi asked her.
She nodded. "Trini told me."
"Dude," Dustin whispered. "Isn't she, like, dead?"
"I think perhaps we should listen to Maya's story," Kanoi said, silencing the others who were about to contribute their two cents worth.
Maya nodded. It was time for Dustin to know what she did. They both held one of the keys to putting this mystery together. She took a deep breath. "I saw the signs a while ago when I was still on Mirinoi. That's why I came to Earth. My people practice the art of communicating with the dead…"
Kira had known that the Wind Ninja Academy was shrouded in secrecy, but she hadn't expected to wander around in the woods looking for a spot that didn't seem to exist. Dustin had called her that morning, sounding frazzled and frantic. He had wanted her to get to the academy by noon, because the others were coming. What others she still had to find out. It sounded like it had something to do with the strange things she had been sensing. So she chose to trust Dustin when he said all would be explained.
That would be great, if she could find this waterfall that Dustin kept babbling about. There was a clearing in the woods that served as a parking lot—she had found that with no problem. He had then told her to follow the rough path that led out of the clearing and keep going straight when the path disappeared. In a few minutes, she would come across a waterfall. By then, one of the ninja students would have found her and would help her come the rest of the way to the academy.
No waterfall. No ninja student. No way to get back to the parking lot.
This was lovely. What had made her listen to Dustin in the first place was starting to seem questionable. Sure, she knew him when he and the other Ninja Storm Rangers had helped her team out when Lothor decided the Abyss of Evil was getting boring. All she knew about him was that he was a teacher at the Wind Ninja Academy and he was an airhead. Perhaps the airhead thing was coming out and he forgot to mention a key landmark when trying to find this blasted waterfall.
"Looking for the Wind Ninja Academy?"
She turned to see a young woman with brown hair in a high ponytail coming towards her from another part of the woods. Kira gave her a questioning look. "Who are you?"
The woman smiled. "I'm Kelsey. I was the Lightspeed Rescue Yellow Ranger."
Kira returned the smile. "Kira. Dino Thunder Yellow Ranger."
"Did Maya call you too?"
She shook her head. "Dustin called me. But from the fact that we're both lost, I'm assuming both of them gave shoddy directions."
Kelsey laughed. "Normally I have a decent sense of direction, but I think someone designed this place to throw you off."
"No kidding," Kira muttered. "Damn ninjas."
Kelsey grinned. Kira immediately liked her. She seemed to be one of those people who just went with the flow and not much bothered them. They were both obviously lost in the woods with no way of getting to their cars again and Kelsey was smiling and laughing. She supposed that the phrase 'like calls to like' made sense in the case of former rangers. It also helped that Kelsey was wearing a light yellow shirt under a bright yellow windbreaker. Kira looked down and realized she had on her yellow Converses. Perhaps things were more obvious than they appeared.
"So let's just keep going this way," Kelsey suggested, motioning to the direction that Kira had been trudging. "We're bound to find something." She paused. "Maybe it will only be the other side of the woods, but it'll be something."
"I like the idea of getting out of these woods," Kira agreed.
"So what do you do for a living?" Kelsey asked as they pretended to know where they were going in the foliage.
"I'm a musician," she replied. "I sing, play guitar."
"Do you go to school?"
"Yeah. Third semester at community college, although I could have gone to NYU."
Kelsey gave her a sidelong glance, blue eyes curious. "Why didn't you?"
"Long story," she said evasively. "How about you? What do you do?"
"I work at a rock gym. It's pretty nice except when youth groups bring the kids and dump them off, expecting us to discipline them."
"Don't like kids?"
"Oh, I like kids. I just don't like them in large groups. I never would have lasted as a camp counselor."
"I hear that." Kira paused as Kelsey stopped and appeared to be listening to something. She stopped and tried to listen.
"Running water," Kelsey said. "If we find that, then this elusive waterfall won't be too far off."
"All right," Kira said with a grin.
"Password."
They both froze at the sound of the voice. Turning slowly, Kira saw a sight she had never thought she would be so glad to see. There was a ninja student in the traditional black leather outfit. His was blue and the girl next to him had a red one on. Their faces were obscured by the ridiculous looking hats and masks that they wore. So they were facing an air student and a water student. Somehow it didn't surprise her that Dustin's students were not the ones patrolling the forest for intruders.
And Dustin had told her the password.
"Air, water and earth as one."
Both the students froze. "How did you know that?" the girl sputtered. Kelsey looked like she wanted to ask the same thing.
"We're here to see the earth sensei," she replied. "Sensei Brooks."
"You're the ones he's expecting."
"There're only two of them."
"Maybe the other is lost further in the woods."
"Send Marah and the others to look for them. And make sure Marah has a partner."
The girl disappeared. The boy bowed to them. "Come on. I'll take you to the academy. Sensei Brooks and Maya are waiting for you."
Kira and Kelsey exchanged a look before following the boy in blue through the woods. He appeared to know where he was going, so there was no need to question him. "I'll never get over how weird their outfits are," Kira muttered to Kelsey.
Kelsey glanced at the boy and stifled a giggle. He either didn't hear them or was choosing to ignore them. Soon enough they came to a waterfall that fell into a small pool. A group of people was by the pool. Kira recognized the man giving orders to the students as Cam Wantanabe. The girl looking confused in a red uniform was Marah. She told Kelsey all this in an undertone as they approached the group. Some students in green along with Marah and some others streaked away. Cam turned to them.
"They found you." It wasn't a question. "Come on. Dustin and Maya are waiting in Ninja Ops." He stepped out onto the pool for all intents and purposes walking on water. He turned when neither of them followed him.
"You are walking on water," Kelsey stated, even though it was obvious. Kira inwardly seconded the sentiment.
Cam came to the shore and held out a hand for each of them. They exchanged another glance and took his extended hands. Kira had no idea what he did, but she felt a tickling sensation before she felt light as a feather, like she was floating. One glance at Kelsey told her that she was feeling the same thing. He led them across the pool and through a portal. One second they were in the middle of the pool and the next they were standing on a bluff that overlooked the Wind Ninja Academy and its grounds.
The trip across the grounds and into the building was silent. Cam opened a trapdoor in one of the hallways and they found themselves in an underground control room of sorts. Dustin was sitting at the table in the center of the room along with Hunter, Tori, Shane, Cam's father and a woman that Kira assumed was Maya.
"You made it!" Maya said, standing up to greet them. She then introduced everyone in the room to Kelsey and herself to Kira. She looked of the ilk as Kelsey—maybe a little more wild and a little more rustic, but friendly and easygoing all the same.
The ninja teachers stood up and left the room, saying their goodbyes and promising to be in earshot if any of them were needed. Kira approached the table and stared at the scroll lying open in the center of it. The pictures on it showed her as one of the five that would complete a task.
"Who drew this?" she asked Dustin.
He drew in a deep breath. He looked confused and slightly afraid, as well as looking like he had the beginnings of a cold. "One of the ancient ninjas," he replied. "That scroll is thousands of years old."
Kira looked at him, her hazel eyes meeting his brown eyes. "What's going on?"
Lucivar looked around the familiar faces at the table. For centuries he had been accused of isolationism, keeping himself and his demons away from the other factions in the realm. Well, no one had anything good to say about them when they had wandered the realm freely, why should it matter that they kept to themselves. He glanced at the stewards standing behind their masters around the large conference table. He recognized Parrot and the Green Man, Primrose and Dreamweaver, Boon and Iris—all fairies of different species and talents. The only one missing was Owling Byrrd, Parrot's brother and the Master of the Guard. Fairies co-existed between the realms. They were able to stay in the spirit realm without being called upon and could stay longer before their energy began to drain. Boric was their king and no one could miss him and his entourage when they chose to leave Fairyland.
Falcon and Christian were standing behind him, stoic and solid as usual. He represented what was left of the Dark Council. The rest of the demons had scattered and there was almost no help of uniting them in a short time.
The Council of Light had all its members present and none of them had stewards. They represented the rest of the spirit realm. Demons and others of that ilk picked another demon as a leader and followed him or her. Fairies kept to themselves. The others currently looked to Power Rangers as their leader.
Zordon was head of the Council of Light. Dimitria was there although she tended to keep an eye on her reformed and very much alive sister, Divatox. The Magna Defender was now on the council, even though his son, Zinka, had led the council for a long time. The newest addition to that council had been Trini Kwan, a ranger in life who met her demise too early.
He kept his expression neutral as Zordon stood up to start the proceedings.
"We are here to discuss an alliance between the Dark Council, the Council of Light and the Fairy Court," Zordon intoned in his rich, deep voice. He was wearing a simple black robe. If Lucivar had been unaware of their power, he would have said that the Council of Light looked like one motley crew. Black, white, strange armor and yellow burst out from their section of the table.
"The worst is happening. It has been put into motion," Zordon continued. "It would be best to have the three major powers in the spirit realm unified against them."
Lucivar tapped the table impatiently with his long fingernails. "Leave Vypra herself to me," he said softly. "She will pay for this madness."
"Lucivar," the Magna Defender replied, almost disgusted. "You have read the scroll of destiny. Only the five can stop this now that it has started."
"I'm sure they can stop it, but I want Vypra when all is said and done."
"We can make that accommodation," Zordon replied carefully, laying a hand on the Magna Defender's shoulder to stop any forthcoming storms.
Lucivar leaned back and listened to Zordon continue to talk about what an alliance would do in this time of peril. He glanced to Boric. The fairy king was beautiful by any standards—golden skin, blonde hair that curled slightly at the ends, stunningly blue eyes, a finely sculpted body—and he was obviously upset with the proceedings.
Well, well… an alliance might take some time coming, more time than Zordon thought it would. He sighed, hoping that the five were strong enough to stop Vypra and Jareth and any others they had ensnared with their plot.To Be Continued...
Author's Note: Thanks for all the great feedback guys! I'm back in college with the cable internet-- great internet, but not too thrilled about being back here and facing four lit classes this semester. :) At any rate, I apologize for it taking longer than normal for me to update. So, I would like to pick up a practice that I have not been keeping up with in my past few stories-- reviewer responses! (I do not have the review e-mail alerts on, so I have to come here to manually check for reviews. Leaving everyone messages at the end of a chapter is easier!)
Aria Fox- Thanks for your sweet comments! I'm flattered that you decided to read this in spite of the fact that you do not like color team-ups. As for the ninjas not liking outsiders-- that is true, however, the teachers (especially Kanoi and Cam) have seen this particular scroll of destiny and know that Dustin and the others have to get together. In light of that, I feel that they would be willing to offer their resources to help them out, such as letting them all gather at the school. However, that is just me. I hope you decide to keep reading and once more, thanks for your review!
CamFan4Ever- Thanks! I'm glad you like it! :)
fenestrae- I love Dustin too-- he's adorable in a lovable dingbat sort of way. And he will definitely be coming into the story full force along with the others! :)
Funky In Fishnet- Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you like the story! I do like Eric/Taylor myself, the only problem is that most writers cannot put a realistic spin on it. But once more, thanks for reviewing!
Hagar- You have a good point that I might be writing Taylor too frosty. My take on her current attitude is that she's been immersed in the military lifestyle once more, has little tolerance for Dustin and doesn't know the other three from anyone else-- so, she's going to be hesitant and frosty towards them for a while. I do admit, I have not seen many Wild Force episodes, so input about those characters is always appreciated! :) Thanks for your kind words!
Peter Smith- Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you like the story!
Satori Blackthorn- I don't see Kira as pure and innocent either. Unicorns always struck me as fierce fighters, despite what some of the other legends might say. To me, she's a fighter, but graceful and beautiful while fighting. (And I LOVE the Chronicles of Narnia!) I'm glad your liking the story!
Sreym- Thanks! I'm glad the animal spirits are working out! :)
Stormchild- I'm glad you like the concept. Dustin and the others involved are all rangers that I like, but feel they do not receive enough credit. I'm glad you like the story and I will endeavor to keep the updates pretty consistent.
