Disclaimer: If I owned them, would I be sitting here writing fan fiction?
RESTLESS WARRIORS
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Nineteen: Reinforcements
Kelsey watched as Dustin and Eric trudged back into the camp site nearly five hours after Eric had outfitted them with enough weapons to overthrow the government of a small country and then had Dustin lead the way to where the demons' lair was. She had a feeling that the ancient bonds thing did not have to be between the people entering the lair—they just had to be protected by the bonds in some way. And all of them had blood to go by—or most of them did. She almost wanted to laugh at the small laser gun Dustin had strapped to his thigh in one of the nifty weapons' harnesses. It was the only gun he had ended up taking, since it 'point and shoot.' Both of them could morph as well. If Kelsey remembered anything about Eric, the two of them had probably morphed before going in. The extra weapons had been in case someone accidentally de-morphed during their process.
Once Eric and Dustin had left the camp site, Taylor had explained what she believed to be Eric's reasoning behind the two men going on the scouting expedition. It made sense, but still didn't excuse Eric coming in and taking over. But, after five hours, Kelsey was pretty sure the girls had calmed down enough to listen to whatever the two boys found. They had also talked about sleeping arrangements. (Eric had gotten time off from work, seeing as he was the co-commander and the boss's son was a close friend.) Eric had yet to find out that he and Dustin were sharing a tent. Taylor was anticipating a laughable reaction. Kelsey was anticipating burying some bodies.
Dustin just looked… tired as the two of them came back to camp. Eric had a neutral expression on his face, expertly masking if he was tired or scared or anxious or a whole plethora of emotions that he could be feeling. Dustin collapsed onto the picnic table bench, burying his head in his arms. Eric slapped a handful of crudely drawn maps down onto the center of the table.
"What's all this?" Kelsey asked. The others—Taylor, Maya and Kira—were out collecting firewood for that night's campfire (or nights to follow). They had ten days until the ceremony was supposed to go forth.
"Maps," Eric replied, smoothly sitting on the bench across from Dustin and Kelsey. He picked up the sheet on top. "General map of the whole lair." He rifled through the sheets. "There's a huge cabinet that they keep most of the herbs and crap in. We tried to label it as best we could. It's the only place that they keep that stuff. It'd be easy enough to get in there and switch out the things."
"Where there any guards?"
"The guards were put in bad places."
"I think that Owling dude is trying to throw off the spell subconsciously," Dustin said, his voice muffled as he spoke into the table.
"So can we get in?" Kelsey asked.
Eric gave her a bored look. "If me and him can get in there without anyone remotely suspecting us—in bright colored suits—then I think it's safe to assume that the rest of you can do it reasonably well."
"You guys were morphed?"
"Not taking any chances."
"Did you save the world?" came Taylor's annoyed voice. Eric turned around and narrowed his eyes at her.
"Bailing your ass out," Eric muttered under his breath so that only Kelsey and Dustin could hear him. Dustin snickered into the table. Kelsey suppressed a smile. "We got a layout of their lair," he said at normal volume to Taylor. "And I have told you my reasoning for making the four of you stay here."
"You didn't tell anyone else!" Taylor snapped.
"Was it too much to assume you would explain?" Eric retorted, his dark eyes burning dangerously. "I'm glad you're Wes' problem and not mine," he muttered.
"Excuse me?" Taylor asked, putting her armful of fire wood near their fire pit.
Eric snarled under his breath. "I said I'm glad you report to Wes and not me!"
Dustin propped his head up on the palm of his hand. "I'm seeing a love-hate relationship here," the Wind Ranger said with an evil grin.
"Thank you, Dr. Phil," Eric growled.
At the same time, Taylor snapped, "Shut your pie-hole."
Dustin just shook his head and buried his head in his arms once more. Kelsey gently patted his shoulder in silent support. Kira wandered over to the picnic table. "If those two don't kill each other, we might get something accomplished," she said in an undertone to them.
"I hear that," Kelsey muttered. Eric moved away from the picnic table, grabbing Taylor to help him take inventory of what was in the SUV.
"I could teach him how to dirt-dive," Dustin piped up suddenly. "He's Earth. He could learn how to do it before Halloween."
"Dustin," Kira started, sitting cross-legged on the table. "How do you identify that stuff in people?"
"What?"
"What element they are or if they're Thunder or something."
"It's all observation," Dustin said, propping his head up once more. "Eric is Earth because he always stays close to the ground in a battle or tense situations. Earth uses the lower ground to neutralize an enemy's mobility and so they can dirt-dive easier."
"How do you know what the rest of us are?"
Dustin glanced between Kelsey and Kira. He looked at Kira. "You're Thunder because you attack in short bursts and then retreat—like real thunder." He then turned to Kelsey. She was interested to hear this theory. "You are Water," he said pointing at her. "Because you keep moving in a battle. You flow from one move to the next. Like water." He ended with a quick bob of his head, like he was the expert on this.
And he was. The rest of them didn't know the first thing about ninjas or elements or becoming ninjas.
"So what are Maya and Taylor?" Kira asked, resting her chin on the back of her fingers.
Dustin thought for a moment. "Maya is Thunder," he said. "Taylor is a Samurai."
It was still early. Taylor suppressed a groan and looked around her tent. The others were still asleep and likely to remain that way for some time. There was a good reason she was the one sleeping by the door—she was normally the first one up. She quickly got out of her sleeping bag and changed into her jeans and a flannel shirt she had commandeered from Eric, before grabbing her shoes and moving out of the tent. There was a tarp under the tent so she had a fairly dry place to stop outside the tent and put her shoes on.
The smell of coffee wafted towards her. Eric had brought coffee with him from Silver Hills. Looking up, she saw Eric had indeed made coffee on the propane grill and was reading one of the comic books she and Dustin had bought on that outing to Mariner Bay. She smiled, crossed her arms over her chest and went over to him.
"Morning," he said absently. "Want some coffee?"
She didn't reply, just located one of the tin cups from the huge plastic box on the bench and poured herself a cup of coffee. She took a sip. It was pretty good considering they were out camping and it had been made over a propane stove.
"This isn't bad," she commented, pulling one of the lawn chairs next to the one Eric was sitting in.
"Experience," he replied.
"I didn't know you read comic books."
He looked up at her for the first time that morning, the hint of a smile tugging at his lips. "I don't," he said. "I used to though." He paused and looked thoughtful. "I think my mother passed down all of my comic books to my younger brothers and then she probably threw them out when no one read them anymore."
"How many siblings do you have?" Taylor asked. He never mentioned a specific number of siblings he had. He would talk about his family in general or an unnamed younger brother or sister. The only person she knew for certain was Keith, his older brother, who was something like a Rear Admiral in the Navy.
"Seven."
Taylor nearly choked on the sip of coffee she had just taken. "Seven?" she sputtered.
Eric just smiled at her surprise. "My parents are extremely traditional Catholics—no birth control. I have an older brother, two younger brothers and four younger sisters."
"What do they all do?"
"Well," Eric said, like he knew this was going to be a long story. "Keith's in the navy. Jack still lives at home in the basement. And Eddie's either dead or in jail by now."
"Don't keep in contact with him?"
"He doesn't keep in contact with us." He paused. "Three of my four sisters are all married, barefoot and pregnant. Theresa is the black sheep. She went to New York and became VP for Marketing or something for some ritzy company. My parents disowned her because she became a lesbian in the process."
"Wow," Taylor said softly.
"Why do you think I don't talk to them any more than I have to?"
"And I thought I had it bad with the older brother and younger sister being part of a stereotypical American family." She paused. "Until my folks got divorced."
"Try being the Brady Bunch," Eric muttered.
Taylor just smiled and shook her head. Eric never tended to show this side of himself—a side that was empathetic and enjoyed sharing childhood memories. She had always known it was there, but he had put up so many barriers that it was hard for him to express it. How much did his field trip with Dustin yesterday contribute to this change of heart? Since Dustin didn't come back in tears or mad, she assumed that Eric had gotten the lecture.
She glanced down at his left hand in the gray, misty morning. It was unbelievable that they were engaged—and he had actually bought himself a ring. She had always imagined him to be the type never to wear a wedding band. And no one had asked questions. Well, yesterday had been kind of hectic and Eric hadn't been around much, so no one could put two and two together. Everyone had also calmed down from yesterday and accepted that Eric had the most experience when it came to invading buildings—albeit not demon temples. He was commander of a private elite police force.
She was drawn from her thoughts at the sound of a car coming through the camp sites. It was still early for people to be packing up and leaving, wasn't it? And it was too early for people to be getting a start on their camping trip. Who was this? The red Mustang pulled up to their camp site.
"Who the hell is that?" Eric muttered.
"I don't know," she shot back.
The car engine turned off and two people got out of the car. Taylor vaguely recognized the blonde girl as having been a Ninja Storm Ranger. The boy, however, she did not recognize at all. He was tall and athletic looking with a shock of brown hair that looked like it had been purposely styled to appear all over the place. He was wearing a red t-shirt along with a jean jacket. The girl was wearing a powder blue sweater that actually looked decent on her.
"Hey!" the boy said, approaching them. All right, so he wasn't a boy. He looked like he was old enough to be in college, but just barely.
"And you are?" Eric asked, adopting his 'cop' face.
"I'm Conner," he replied. "This is Tori," he added, gesturing to the girl. "We're here to see Kira and Dustin."
Tori… she had been the Blue Ninja Storm Ranger. "They're still sleeping," Taylor replied motioning towards the tents. "However, you can risk it and try to wake them up."
"Conner?"
Taylor looked towards the tents. Kira was coming out of the girl's tent, rubbing her eyes and giving Conner the strangest look. If Taylor was to surmise things correctly, Conner had been a Dino Thunder Ranger. And he had probably been the red ranger if his choice of clothing color and car color were anything to go by.
"What are you doing here?" Kira asked him.
Conner shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled self-consciously. "I decided you guys needed more man power than what you had." He paused and nodded towards Tori. "I gave Tori a call and asked her if she wanted to come along."
Taylor had a suspicion that pieces of information—like the fact that Dustin had been going to see Tori—had been exchanged between Kira and Conner. Eric didn't look like he was particularly happy with the prospect of sharing the already too small tent with another male, especially someone as tall as Conner.
"Tori?"
Dustin had been coming out of his tent and tripped, falling flat on his face. Taylor snickered into her cup of coffee. It didn't ever seem to be dull around here.
"Can you explain to me what exactly it is we're doing?"
Maya smiled and turned to Conner's question. He didn't look entirely comfortable with the idea of standing around a campfire, summoning spirits. Kira gave his hand a reassuring squeeze—a gesture that did not go unnoticed by the older yellow ranger. Their relationship was obviously very new. They might have been close friends in the past, but there was much that separated close friends and… something more.
"We're going to call upon Trini," she replied matter-of-factly.
"Why though?" he continued. "I mean aren't we sure of what we're doing?"
"Nothing is sure," Maya replied. "You three have decided to join our ranks. The spirit realm must be informed."
Conner didn't look entirely convinced. Eric looked dead on his feet—probably from the idea he got in his head that everyone needed to learn how to shoot the real guns he had and problems abounded when people moved from revolvers to automatics. Tori was just huddled close to Dustin. Those two reminded Maya of young puppies, experiencing something completely over their heads and clinging to each other for something familiar. She was not sure what the exact relationship between the two was—no one was. Her brown-eyed gaze went to Taylor who was standing near Eric, but not close enough to suggest something more. Eric reached up with his left hand and ran it through his black hair. The small glint of gold was enough to tell Maya everything that had been going on behind closed doors.
Maya circled the fire and threw a handful of her 'dust' on the flames. She then motioned to Conner. He stepped forward, looking uncertain.
"I call on the spirit of the Yellow Ranger that has gone beyond. I call on her for guidance in this moment of confusion." She took a small pocket knife from her belt and made a cut in her finger. A drop of blood fell onto the flames with a faint 'hiss.' She then turned to Conner whose brow was furrowed in doubt. "Trust me," she whispered. He sighed and allowed her to cut his finger so that a drop of blood fell on the flames. She then repeated the gesture with Eric and, finally, Tori.
Tiny blue lights rose from the fire and formed into a shape on the opposite side of the fire from where they were. "A wish made with blood is an offering to those who have gone beyond," Trini intoned as she appeared. Zordon appeared beside her. Maya smiled—these were just the people they needed to talk to.
"I see you have company," Zordon commented in his rich, warm voice.
"We do," Maya replied.
The other yellow rangers were unimpressed with the events. Conner was looking at the pair like he felt like he had just lost his mind. Tori's mouth was open as she gaped at them. Eric just blinked.
"Oh, there's another one," he muttered.
"More rangers," Zordon continued, his tone musing. "I know that this task had been assigned to the yellow rangers, but these three are connected to you by the ancient bonds. In a way, they are extensions of yourselves." He paused and gave the three newcomers appraising looks. "This could well work to your advantage."
"Ancient bonds?" Conner asked faintly.
"Love, friendship, passion and blood," Trini informed him. He nodded, but then looked confused. Trini just laughed. "Each of you is protected by these bonds. However, you three are connected to three of the yellow rangers by a bond." She smiled. "Conner, you have a close friendship with Kira—it could become love, if you allow it to grow."
"How do you know my name?"
Trini just gave him a serene look, shaking her head. "We know much about Power Rangers." She paused and turned to Eric, who looked like he had seen enough weird stuff to last him for a lifetime. "Eric, you and Taylor share the bond of love." Eric still had a blank look on his face. Trini turned to Tori. "Tori, you and Dustin have a close friendship, but passion on top of that. You are well-protected."
Maya was expecting someone to comment on Trini's words, even in a flippant fashion, but no one did. She smiled to herself. It was a mark of the respect they now shared. Zordon stepped towards Conner, Tori and Eric.
"I have the power to give you three your powers back," Zordon said. "However, like the others, it would only be for the duration of this mission."
"Got mine, thanks," Eric said, holding up the wrist with his morpher.
Zordon didn't say anything. Blue lights went forward like they had for Kira, Taylor and Dustin what seemed like a lifetime ago. A large silver bracelet, like Kira's but with a red gem, appeared on Conner's wrist. A morpher appeared on Tori's wrist, but it was blue and appeared in tune to her water powers whereas, Dustin's was yellow and for his earth powers.
"You have all chosen well," Zordon said cryptically. "We must leave you now. There are matters in the spirit realm to attend to." He paused with a fond look for all of them. "May the power protect you."
With that, he and Trini disappeared into the blue sparkles they had come from.
"We should have someone keep an eye on their lair," Eric said, kind of absently.
Taylor frowned at him. "Do you ever quit with the strategic crap?"
"You know what they say," he replied. "Hold your friends close, but hold your enemies closer."
"That's not bad advice," Conner commented.
Maya gazed at them. These two men, while different in experience and temperament, were similar. Both them had eyes only for their love and they both saw the value of planning ahead and learning strategy. She had a feeling that Conner had recently matured into that—and that Eric had probably gone through a similar phase when he was younger.
"We should turn in," Kelsey said.
"I think I'm sleeping in my car," Eric muttered.
"That's not your car," Taylor stated. "That's the Silver Guardians car you decided to borrow for the week."
"Yeah and Wes knows I have it. Is there a problem?" he snapped back. "If he needs the sucker, I can shuffle cars and get it back there."
"Are they married?" Kira asked softly.
Maya smiled and shook her head. "I think it's only a matter of time."
Kira rolled her eyes. "I'll help you put out the fire."
The others began to wander back towards the tents and start whatever their ritual for getting ready for bed was. Maya and Kira let the fire burn down to embers and then began to put the embers out. The white smoke rose into the night sky in a swirling pattern. She had mixed feelings about their mission—it was as if they would succeed, but at a terrible cost.To Be Continued...
