Hey everyone, sorry I've taken longer to update this time, thought I'd leave you all hanging for a bit longer... No I'm only joking, I have a proper reason why I couldn't update but it doesn't matter, Chapter 14 (wow!) is now up so thanks for all your great reveiws and enjoy...
"Where are Tori and Blake?" Sensei asked as the others arrived for the agreed morning training session.
They shrugged, "We haven't seen them." Shane said. "I hope Blake hasn't don't anything stupid," he added, "He was pretty upset last night."
"Blake does whatever Tori tells him to do." Dustin chipped in. "She probably was comforting him last night and they've over slept," he said with a smirk on his face.
"Dustin!" Shane said shocked.
"What? It's about time the two of them admitted their feelings for one another." But before they could discuss the matter any further, Blake and Tori came running in.
"Hey love birds…" Dustin started to greet them with a grin, but was cut off by the looks on their faces.
"What's happened?" Shane asked, the smile wiped off his face.
Tori was pale and her eyes were slightly red, as if she had been crying. "Don't be angry with us," she began, with a nervous look at Sensei and a tremble in her voice. "But I had Cyber Cam watching the Robinson's house and I knew they were going out this morning so me and Blake thought we'd go and visit Hunter. The door was locked but Blake found a key and we went in but we couldn't find Hunter and his room was trashed and it looked like there was blood on the floor so we looked around the house and then we, we found the door to the basement, and …"
"Slow down, calm down." Cam said, fearing she was going to hyperventilate.
Tori was shaking. "We went down to the basement," she continued softly "and…" her voice cracked and she chocked back a sob, "…and Hunter was, was there." She turned her head away from them so they couldn't see the tears that were running down her cheeks.
"Hunter was in the basement and…?" Shane prompted her.
She shook her head to say she couldn't go on; she didn't trust her voice.
"It was dark." Blake said. They turned to look at him. He hadn't said a word since they'd arrived but he had to continue where Tori could not. "We didn't see the light switch at the top of the stairs and the one at the bottom didn't work. Hunter was in a corner. He was in a terrible state. All bruised and he was covered in, covered in blood. His blood. We managed to get him on his feet and we were almost up the stairs when Phil came back." His voice was calm but it was all he could do to keep it steady.
"What happened then?" Sensei asked, his voice soothing but firm. He could tell something bad had happened and neither Blake nor Tori wanted to really talk about it. Blake was doing his best, it was very hard for him, but they had to know.
"He was really mad." Blake managed to say. "Really mad. He switched on a light and was yelling at us, then Hunter stepped in, said he'd asked us to be there, that it was all his fault. But Phil knew he was lying and that made him angrier. He pushed Hunter. He fell, down the stairs. I heard him hit his head. There was blood I think. On the back of his head. He got up though. Then Phil was down there next to him, he punched him, only he had a knife, there was more blood, so much blood." Blake's eyes were wide now as recounted the horror of what he'd seen.
Tori gave another sob, then ran out of Ninja Ops. They heard her being sick outside.
"So much blood." Blake whispered, his face deathly pale. He looked like he was going to collapse.
"Steady there." Shane put out an arm to stop Blake falling. They got him a chair. He was shivering. Tori came back, still pale but with a bit more colour in her cheeks. She'd stopped crying.
"Can you tell us what happened next?" Sensei said to her. The others were in shock at what they had heard. "Please, it's important. What happened after Hunter was stabbed?"
"He, Hunter, told us to get out of there. He said he'd been fine, he didn't want us hurt for him. So we, we left him there, and Phil followed us up. He said if we told anyone Hunter would die. We ran all the way here. It was so horrible," she finished.
"We have to help him." Blake said, his voice regaining some of its strength. "I don't care what you lot said. If we'd waited, would it have made much difference?"
"Hunter might not have got stabbed…" Dustin began, but was cut off by a kick in the shin from Shane.
"He's my brother." Blake said. "I couldn't just leave him there, knowing what that monster might have been doing to him. And I was right," he said firmly, almost daring anyone to challenge him. No one answered. "We got to help him." It was almost pleading.
"Of course, but how?" Shane, ever the practical thinker, said.
"We blast in there, full ranger form and blast Hunter out." Dustin said, as if it was obvious.
"We can't do that. And we can't just walk in there either. You know what Phil said, we can't show our faces there." Tori said.
"Well if we were in ranger form we wouldn't be showing our faces would we?" Dustin countered. "I don't see why we can't…"
"Because we have rules, remember?" Shane said.
"That is correct, Shane." Sensei said. "Rangers must not use their powers for personal gain."
"Sensei, please…" Dustin said.
"But I think that helping a fellow ranger in need does not count as personal gain, rather as an emergency. Don't you agree?" They nodded. "Very well then. Take Hunter's morpher, Cam's fixed it, we'll get you into the house, strap it on Hunter's wrist and me and Cam can do the rest from there." He smiled a guinea-pig smile.
The others were astonished. Sensei was always so strict about rules, he'd already broken one when he'd had Cam hack into Social Services and now he was encouraging them to use their Ranger powers for something other than fighting the forces of evil, even though it was the general feeling that Phil was a force of evil so they were, in theory, using their powers for what they should be used for!
"All right guys, it's morphing time!" Shane said.
Within moments they were all morphed and ready to go.
"Here." Cam handed Blake his brother's now-fixed morpher. "Just strap in on his wrist and give me a shout. We'll have him outta there in no time."
Blake turned to go, then thought of something. "Cam, he's badly hurt. Will it be safe to transport him here like that? I know how bad it felt that time we did it, when our powers had been drained, just before you got your powers.() Will it affect Hunter?"
Cam shrugged. "I don't know Blake, but I think in the circumstances it's a risk I'm willing to take. The question is, are you?" Seeing Blake's uncertainty, Cam added, more gently, "If Hunter is in a worse a state as you've told me, then the sooner we get him here the more chance there is for him to survive."
Blake nodded and turned to the other three. "Let's do this."
() The Samurai's Journey Pt.1
