Disclaimer: 'Power Rangers' (all incarnations) belong to BVE, who are related to Disney. No infringement is intended.
BOND ENFORCEMENT
By Etcetera Kit
Part Three: On the Clock
Chapter Eleven: Ninja Training
Of all the stupid ridiculous… Eric gulped in a large breath, the cool morning air stinging his mouth and throat. He had a stitch in his side and was in that strange state that came from early morning jogs—he was hot and sweating, but cold. He wasn't sure how long he had been running, but it felt good. He hadn't taken a run like this since he had been in the Marines. Sure, he worked out and did weight training, but nothing purely like this.
The sun was just cracking the horizon. Last night, he hadn't been able to sleep. It was almost too quiet around here. He was used to people moving around until at least midnight, sometimes Kira writing a new song. Even then, he didn't go to sleep until Cam was in bed because, otherwise, Cam made noise. He had grown entirely too used to having someone else in the room, just breathing. Kendrix had her bed against one of the walls shared with their room and tended to kick the wall when she rolled over. Things buzzing and beeping at all hours of the night, people's phones ringing because friends and family members forgot about time changes… none of that went on here.
He came to a halt near one of the stone benches in the garden of this place. He peeled off his hoodie, the cool air immediately making goose-bumps appear on his arms. It was an unpleasant feeling, yet a great one. It made him feel alive. His gray t-shirt was soaked with sweat. The others had either continued to or, in Mike's case, started to wear their Thunder Ranger color. Eric had gone through his entire wardrobe and came up with one navy blue t-shirt. Then he had thought, to hell with it. No one was going to force him to wear navy blue and he didn't want to, since it was another reminder that he wasn't the leader.
"You're up pretty early."
Eric looked towards the sound of the voice. Dustin was coming towards him, wearing the casual uniform, something that the teachers seemed to do more often than the students. He didn't have any parts of his uniform on yet, mostly because the color yellow revolted him. It wasn't so much that it was unmanly, as that it was cheerful.
He shrugged. Dustin was giving him a wary expression. So who had told Dustin that he wanted to take an Uzi to him?
"I'm sorry about yesterday," the Earth sensei said tentatively.
Eric gave him a level stare. "You are the same age as my youngest sister," he replied. "There's nothing to be done for it."
"Yeah… you're the first student I've had that's older than me." Dustin paused and gave him an interested look. "How many siblings do you have?"
"Seven."
Dustin blanched. "Seven? How old are they?"
"Oldest is thirty-three. Youngest is twenty."
"Your parents had eight kids in thirteen years?" So the airhead could add. Eric would never be able to understand why people found the size of his family so impressive. It wasn't like he was close to them or went to the family reunions. He sent his siblings and parents birthday cards and, beyond that, he didn't talk to them. His parents still lived in Trenton, while his siblings were scattered across the country. He was the second oldest—and that was a horrible place to be birth order-wise. Always one step behind and nothing ever good enough…
"Yeah," Eric said.
"Wow." This kid would get along really well with Theresa, his youngest sister.
"Does this interrogation have a higher purpose?"
Dustin shrugged. "No. I was just curious."
"Stop being curious."
"I can't help it."
He was entirely too much like Theresa for comfort. Involuntarily, Eric cracked a smile. He didn't have anything fundamentally against Dustin. He just didn't like taking orders from or learning from someone who was Theresa's peer.
"What are you smiling about?"
"I'll set you up on a blind date with my little sister."
Dustin shuddered. "No thanks. You'd probably sit in the backseat with a gun the entire date."
"Actually, that would be my father, not me." Eric almost laughed at his stunned expression. "He's an ex-Navy Seal." Let him chew on that for a while. Of course, there was no need to mention that after his father left the military, he got a blue-collar job at a factory, was almost deaf and drove a taxi for fun. (Or more, so he would be out of the house and stop annoying his mother.) His mother was the more intimidating one. He and his older brother, Keith, would get into trouble in high school and, despite the fact that they were both towering over her by then, she would make both of them cower at her rage.
"I'm going to breakfast," Dustin said after a long pause. "Training starts again right after that," he added.
"Great," Eric muttered.
"I promise I'll be clearer about the elemental stuff."
"Yeah, right." That would be the day…
"Ten mile run," Kira gasped. "This is all your fault!" she added to Eric.
Eric glared at her. "How is it my fault?"
"You're the one who told Dustin he doesn't know anything about combat!"
"Who's the one that threw water on Tori?"
"What's your excuse? You're the smartest one here?"
"I wanted to catch Baldacci!"
"Just shut-up!" Kendrix yelled from behind them. The ten mile run wasn't really the fault of any particular person. It was more a culmination of a series of tragic accidents and snide comments and pranks. That had ended with Sensei Wantanabe sending all of them on a ten mile run while he discussed some things with the teachers. However, a ten mile run wasn't agreeing with Eric and Kira's temper. Kendrix felt ready to throw up. She hadn't been on an official run like this since her time in the GSA. She never went on ten mile runs when left to her own devices. She hated running.
She slowly came to a halt. They weren't going very fast, since pacing was essential and a medium jog gave Eric and Kira enough breath to yell at each other. Bile rose in her throat and she tried to keep it down. How embarrassing would this be? Tears stung her eyes. She really, really hated running.
"Whoa, whoa, Kendrix!"
Eric was beside her. Well, she thought it was Eric from the yellow uniform. Her eyes were watering so much she couldn't really see. She vaguely registered Kira and Mike coming over to them as well.
"Keep moving," Eric was saying to her. He was rubbing her back. He gently lowered her to the ground. Kendrix lay out on the cool grass, suddenly not caring if this ten mile run ever got completed. The others followed suit.
"This is ridiculous," Kira muttered.
"Fuck it," Eric said. "We're not doing this anymore."
"Ninja training or the ten mile run?" Mike asked.
"All of the above," Eric snapped.
"Don't argue," Kendrix almost wailed. "I'm tired of people arguing. That's all we've done since we got here." She curled up into a ball on the grass. She was sick of being at this ninja school, sick of training here and sick of all the consequences of it.
"She's right," Mike said. "Let's go back to the school and get cleaned up. Lunch should be pretty soon."
"If we go back to the school, they'll know we didn't finish the run," Kira stated.
"What the hell are they going to do to us?" Eric growled.
"That's a point," Mike responded, taking in a deep breath. "We could go back to the garden. Our stuff is in the garden." Or more, Kendrix and Kira's backpacks and the guys' water bottles and towels.
"Can anyone move?"
Kira had yet another point. Kendrix didn't feel like getting up from where she was. It wasn't that she couldn't, it was more the fact that she had just lost all motivation to. The training had gone well yesterday. Who had decided on group training this morning? Cam knew that putting the four of them together in one place for any amount of time meant chaos was coming, especially since Kira and Eric snapped at each other when stressed.
Mike dragged himself to his feet. "Let's go."
"Ugh," Kira groaned, standing up.
"Come on." Eric held out a hand for her. She grasped his hands and allowed him to haul her back to her feet.
They walked in silence back to the garden. The school was designed so that runners could use the perimeter of the grounds. Something ridiculous like eight laps equaled the ten miles that they were supposed to run. Now that said something about the size of this school. Kendrix wasn't sure how many laps they had completed, since Kira and Eric had managed to run and bicker, causing her to lose count. Their things were in the garden as they had left them.
"Why are we here again, Mike?" Kira asked.
Their leader gave her a withering look. "I explained why we were coming here before we even left." He paused. "And I'm not repeating it."
Kendrix dug through her backpack, pulling out a hairbrush and a towel before coming to her water bottle. Someone had found it amusing that she upended her purse in order to find her cell phone a few days ago. Her room might be neat, but the mess was hidden in the drawers. She pushed her hair behind her ear, not bothering to fix her ponytail. In fact, most of her hair had fallen out of the ponytail, so that wasn't the correct term anymore.
"We're here to learn stealth," Eric said sarcastically.
"You people are going to be the death of me," Mike muttered.
"That's just your way of saying you love us," Kira responded.
"Like root canals and rabies' shots."
Kendrix sat down on the ground in front of a bench. They were supposed to report back to the school after the run, so it would probably be their best interest to wait awhile. Kira was sprawled on the grass, using her backpack as a pillow. Eric got up and sat down on the bench behind her, picking up the hairbrush from were it had landed on the ground. He tugged the ponytail holder out of her hair and began to brush it. Kendrix didn't really pay attention to what he was doing, since the rhythmic brush strokes were so relaxing.
"Eric, you're so chivalrous," Kira said in a teasing tone.
"There's still time for me to go into town and get that Uzi."
She heard Eric set the brush down on the bench. His fingers were running through her hair, almost like he was braiding it.
"You can French-braid?" Kira sounded amazed.
"It's not that hard."
"Where'd you learn that?"
"I have four younger sisters."
"That explains it."
Eric was French-braiding her hair? That didn't mesh with the image she already had of him. Of course, he was proving to have odd characteristics that he didn't tell people about. The cooking was one of them and now this? In a few moments, he was wrapping the ponytail holder around the end of the braid and handing her hairbrush back to her. She gingerly reached up and felt her hair. He had French-braided it and it was tight, but he had been able to do it without pulling at her hair. What in the world? He must have had a lot of practice at this.
"You guys can stop hiding in here and come back to the school."
She turned to see Cam coming into the garden, an amused smile on his face. "Busted," Kira muttered.
Kendrix gathered up the things she had pulled out of her backpack and stuffed them back in. The others started to get up slowly. Cam looked at Kendrix's hair and then turned to Eric with a mischievous grin on his face.
"Were you a cosmetologist in a previous life?"
Eric glared at him. "You can shut-up now."
All right, so the man with the explosive temper had settled down. Dustin had taught him how to pick up chunks of dirt with his mind and direct them places. Eric was flicking them at Kira when she wasn't looking. They were all a long way from being able to use their elements like the former Wind Rangers could. He hoped that things like dirt-diving and walking on water and even levitation would become a non-issue in the future. The teachers were supposed to focus on the elements with them and not the combat skills.
Cam smiled watching the varying activity. Part of him had known that the ten mile run wouldn't be completed. It had been more of a way to get the four of them occupied or hiding while he could talk to Shane, Tori and Dustin.
"They have the potential to be great ninjas."
He turned as his father came to stand beside him. "They do," he agreed. "We would never have been able to get the thunder powers if they weren't ninjas fundamentally."
"True. It is a shame that we cannot bring in all who sing to the wind ninja spirit." His father fell silent, watching the various activities. Kira squawked as another dirt ball hit her square in the back. She turned and glared at Eric, but he gave her a look that said, 'what?' Mike was creating little gusts of wind, effectively damping the small fire that Kendrix had been trying to build in the fire circle.
"How have you been?" his father asked after a few moments.
Cam turned to him. "I've been fine."
"I know you have wanted to leave the school for a long time now."
He shrugged. "It's always been a part of my life. I wanted to do something different."
"The others miss you."
"You can all get along just fine without me."
His father turned towards him with a small smile on his face. "You always did walk your own path. I cannot stop you from doing that."
"Dad, I'm almost thirty. Isn't it time you let go?"
Silence reigned between them. Cam knew that his father was thinking through the implications of what he had just said. His entire life, he had been protected by his father, even when he had been in college. For the first time, he felt true freedom. He was around people who appreciated and respected what he knew as a computer genius and a ninja. It wasn't all peaches and cream, but it wasn't being bound to a ninja school. He had been exhausted—he was in charge of the Wind Ninja Academy and no one had seemed to be able to do anything without his guidance. This was what he wanted… being a bounty hunter.
"How old does a person have to be to do whatever they want?"
"No one has ever lived that long, Cam."
"I'm just worried about you," his father said softly. "You haven't picked up any of your old habits have you?"
His father would bring that up. "No, Dad," he replied, trying not to be impatient. "I'm fine. Ask the others."
"Your mother –"
"Why do you always drag Mom into these things?"
"She would have wanted you to be happy."
Cam sighed, thinking back to his master's degree. He had blocked out a lot of that period for certain reasons. His father had wanted him to come home, where he would be at the school and be safe. A lot had happened then—he had tried to cut off all ties with the school and what it stood for. That had led to a self-destructive spiral that ended with his father taking him out of the program for a semester and taking him home.
"I know," he said softly.
"Cam, I cannot stop you from doing what you must." His father paused and put a hand on his shoulder. "Good luck in your quest."
"So what did we learn this weekend?"
"Be nice to morons?"
"Okay, that was the wrong answer."
It was Sunday afternoon and the car ride back to Silver Hills was getting interesting. Mike kept his eyes focused and the road and ignored most of the conversation. Kanoi had asked him about when the next time they might come back would be. Mike honestly had no idea since everything hinged so heavily on their workload.
"You'd think ninja masters would be a little more mature," Eric muttered.
"I liked my sensei," Kendrix piped up.
"That's because Kanoi was training you," Kira shot back. "Try getting a surfer chick to explain to you about water."
"I don't plan on it."
"There's still one thing I don't understand," Cam said. "Why haven't we heard from any of Kira's fans?"
"That was random," Kendrix told him.
"It was kept quiet," Kira shrugged. "No press release or anything."
Mike glanced in the rearview mirror. Cam was in the very back of the SUV, his laptop out and his fingers were flying. Eric and Kira were in the middle seat. The former looked disinterested in the conversation while the latter looked bored. Kendrix was sitting shotgun and offering her two cents worth every so often. He liked to think that they wouldn't break off into factions during a domestic war, but he had already seen some of the possible factions.
"I also don't have the look I had on stage," Kira added. "No one recognizes me."
"What was that look?" Cam asked.
"Goth—to the extreme."
Cam shuddered and absently rubbed his shoulder. His t-shirt sleeve slid up his arm with the motion, revealing a network of faint white scars.
"Jesus, Cam!" Kira burst out. "What happened?"
"Looks like a cat got him," Eric commented.
"Yeah," Cam said testily, pulling his sleeve into place. "A cat got me."
"Must have been one freakin' vicious cat," Kira muttered.
"A cat?" Kendrix asked from the front seat.
"I don't know," Eric said. "My little sister has this really vicious cat that takes chunks out of people's hands." He held up his left hand, showing Kendrix a thick scar running between his thumb and index finger.
"Ouch," Kendrix murmured. "A cat did that?"
He nodded and settled back in his seat. Mike was wondering if the conversation was going to move away from cats any time in the near future. This bunch did know how to get off on random tangents about things. He glanced in the rearview mirror again. Cam was absently rubbing his shoulder and looked almost horrified that someone had noticed the scars. All right, so Cam wanted something to stay hidden.
Soon enough, they were pulling into the driveway of the townhouse. Everyone jumped out of the car, taking their stuff with them. It was time to get back into professional mode, picking up their skips.
"Kira!" Eric called. "Are you coming with me to get Baldacci?"
"Sure," she called back. "But we have to be morphed."
"Why?"
"I am not letting him ruin more of my clothing with his freakin' eggs!"To Be Continued...
Author's Note: Moving right along... next part - the downside of being a former pop star and why to always set the timer when you put something in the oven... Thanks for reading and reviewing!
