A few minutes earlier, while the Rangers were busy battling Trayf on the other side of town, Molly was pulling out of the Cinedome's parking lot and onto the street.
True to her word, she had stayed and finished both the movie and the popcorn, but as she was cruising along with the light traffic, her mind was not on Keanu Reeves, but on Shane. She hoped he was all right – wherever he was. Was it Tori or Dustin who was in trouble? Or both?
Thinking of the Earth and Water ninja abruptly brought up a memory that made Molly sit up straighter. Something she had noticed before but had not really given much thought to until now; Tori and Dustin were wearing the same strange watches as Shane, undoubtedly with the same built-in communicators.
Molly sighed. It really wasn't any of her business. So what if they all wanted to play James Bond and have wrist communicators instead of regular cell phones to stay in touch?
But as much as she wanted to just shrug it off as mere eccentricity, she couldn't; the vibes she had received from Shane in the theatre lobby had been clear. There was more to this entire story than he let on, and as she was going down the road Molly wondered just what – and how much – Shane would explain to her later on.
She was so preoccupied with pondering Shane's secretive behavior, she almost missed her turnoff. With a yard to spare she turned right to cut through the new Southshore housing development area. That short cut would save her twenty minutes to get back to downtown Blue Bay Harbor, and Storm Chargers. 'Might as well wait for him there,' she thought. Not like she had anywhere else to go.
She rounded the corner of a half-finished apartment building, still deep in thought – and almost ran straight into the tall, black figure standing right in the middle of the road. With a startled cry, Molly yanked the steering wheel hard to the left. The Honda's tires screeched in protest as she slammed on the brakes, making the car spin 180 degrees before it came to a stop inches before Zurgane's metal feet.
In one swift motion, the black general drew one of his swords from his shoulder sheaths and immediately advanced towards the Honda's driver's side.
Molly was stunned into speechlessness by the sight of the big alien robot. She recognized him immediately, for he had been a major figure in her visions of the attack on the Wind Academy, and to have him suddenly materialize right in front of her scared her more than she would ever have imagined. And now he was coming towards her the same way he had towards the other ninja students. Coming towards me!
That snapped her out of her momentary stupor, and her hands flew down to her side, frantically fumbling with the seat belt lock. Zurgane yanked open the driver's side door the same instant Molly's seatbelt snapped open. She threw herself to the right, trying to get to the passenger door, but Zurgane was faster. Cold, metallic fingers dug into the fabric of Molly's shirt, roughly pulling her backwards and out of the car.
"Here, ninja, ninja, ninja!"
Molly let out an involuntary cry when the robot's hand left the collar of her shirt to grab a handful of her hair while his other arm went around her waist, effortlessly lifting her off the ground. She kicked backwards and threw some ineffective punches towards where she assumed his head would be behind her, but her position was too awkward to efficiently defend herself. Besides, she was only a first-year ninja student, and last in all her defensive classes. The odds against this big, looming machine weren't even worth considering.
"Let…me…go!" she snarled, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of hearing any fear in her voice.
The evil space alien's laughter sent cold shivers down her spine. "I will, once you have met your second date for the night. The one that really counts." He kept on chuckling. "This is four months' overdue."
Molly had not the slightest idea what this thing behind her was talking about. Reacting completely on instinct, she reached for the alien's sword arm around her waist, both of her hands encircling his wrist. The moment she made contact with the robotic limb, the picture of a huge, dark spaceship came before her mental eyes, together with the vision of a throne of some sort – and the creature of her nightmares lounging on it.
The nameless man in the leather mask, the one responsible for the ambush on the Academy. The one in the forefront of every one of her visions.
No, Shane had put a name to the face – Lothor.
She drew her breath in sharply and re-doubled her struggles to break the vice-like grip the black alien had on her, but it was no use.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the alien general was thrown backwards as he was hit first by a flash of red, then yellow and blue. His metal suit erupted in sparks, and amidst a cry of pain he loosened his grips on Molly just enough for her to yank free. She lunged forward and fell to her knees, out of reach of the robot, and whipped her head around.
A few feet behind Zurgane stood Shane, Dustin and Tori, poised in attack positions with death glares on their faces. Molly's heart soared at the sight.
"Hasn't your momma ever taught you how to treat a lady, Zurgane?" Shane growled.
Next to him, Dustin snorted. "Dude, his mother's probably a dishwasher."
"And his dad's a microwave," Tori finished their analysis.
"YOU!" Zurgane screeched furiously. "You aren't supposed…?"
"What? To be here?" Shane finished the sentence. "Guess you didn't expect us to chop Lothor's porker into bite-size pieces quite that fast."
Molly half-scrambled, half-ran to her three fellow ninjas' sides. "Am I glad to see you guys," she said, relief written all over her face. "How did you know…?"
Without turning his head from Zurgane, Shane said, "We have a 'damsel-in-distress' radar."
Molly grinned weakly at his profile. "Another feature of the weird watch?"
Zurgane pointed his sword at the ninjas. "I will not let you ruin my master's plan." Suddenly, there was a remote control in his hands, and a heartbeat later, the robot was surrounded by a swarm of kelzaks. There were at least a dozen of them.
"Destroy them!" he yelled. "And get the girl!"
Shane stepped protectively in front of Molly. "Stand back," he told her and raised his fists, glaring at the bouncing kelzaks who were advancing on them with weapons drawn.
Molly took up defensive stance instead. "No way. I can fight."
Shane shot her an irritated look which she ignored.
"I take it they are not friends of yours?" Molly's strained attempt at a joke failed miserably as she peered warily at the creatures that had just appeared out of thin air. She desperately wanted to know what was going on here, but this just somehow didn't seem to be the perfect time to ask for a lengthy explanation.
Shane snorted. "Heck no. I hang out with some strange people, but not that strange."
"Hey!" Tori and Dustin exclaimed in unison. Shane threw his two friends an amused glance.
"May I suggest something?" Molly asked.
"Suggest away."
Molly eyed the black-helmeted figures. "If they don't know how to streak – then I think maybe we should."
"They don't, but I just hate letting them win," Tori replied.
Molly looked incredulously between the three ninjas. "You've fought those things before?"
"Long story," Dustin said curtly.
"Well, once we're safely somewhere far, far away from those, I have all the time in the world to listen." Molly nodded towards Zurgane. "What about that bad Darth Vader impersonation over there?"
"Zurgane," Shane growled. "Lothor's first general and right-hand man." He gave her his 'I'll explain later' look, an expression Molly was starting to get quite familiar with.
They didn't get much farther, for the kelzaks took that moment to attack.
With battle cries of their own, Dustin, Shane and Tori met the black and red onslaught without hesitation. Shane kept a sharp eye out for Zurgane as he roundhoused two kelzaks while at the same time punching a third into oblivion. The evil robot had not moved from his spot behind his attacking drones, but Shane expected him to make a grab for Molly as soon as he deemed it safe.
Dustin scanned the ground. They were fighting on an open area in front of a half-built house façade and the earth was loose enough. He dropped to one knee, raised his hands, and a moment later, every rock within a five foot diameter flew up and at the kelzaks closing in on him, pelting the drones with the force of an avalanche. The goons went down like the stones they had just been hit with, and the Earth ninja pumped his fist, grinning. "All right!"
A battle cry off to his left made him turn in time to see Molly flip a kelzak over her shoulder, but two more were closing in on her quickly. They grabbed her arms, and the Air ninja struggled against their hold on her. Dustin was about to sprint to her aid when Molly suddenly managed to bring her hands together before her. An instant later there was a cloud of dust, and the two kelzaks stood now empty-handed where Molly had been just a second ago.
Dustin's eyes bulged. "Huh?"
Just then, the ground beneath him vibrated, and Molly burst out of the earth next to him amidst a shower of dirt. She shook herself, and clumps of hard-packed earth were flying from her. "Man, this is no fun," she coughed.
Dustin gaped at her. "Wait a minute," he exclaimed, "you're an Air ninja, how come you know how to do Earth stuff?"
"Uhm, well, I…"
A kelzak jumped into their line of vision, swinging his sword, and Dustin could see a flicker of relief in Molly's face at the intervention before he took a swing at the drone. When he turned back, Molly had already moved off and was busy keeping another one of Lothor's goons at bay. Dustin made a mental note to press the issue later.
A few feet away from him Shane and Tori were taking out their share of attackers with a combination of kicks, punches as well as wind and water attacks. Since they couldn't morph in front of Molly, they had to rely heavily on their elemental powers, but even with the greater numbers of kelzaks, odds were turning in the four Wind ninjas' favor as the ground around them continued to get littered with more and more fallen drones.
Soon there was only Zurgane left, and the alien robot now found himself surrounded by four very angry teens. As they closed in on him, they raised their hands on a silent cue and the black general was suddenly lifted off his feet and spun around by a vortex of such force that made his circuits scream in protest. At the same time he was bombarded by a wall of water laced with rocks. After a minute that seemed to last an eternity, he finally felt the elemental forces subside, and with a crash he landed on his back on the ground.
Four pairs of glaring eyes were hovering over him, and the dark-skinned one spoke first.
"There's no way you are getting your hands on her again, Zurgane," he said. "And you can tell Lothor that we'll get all the other ninjas back, too. It's just a matter of time."
Zurgane's mind went into hyperdrive as he went through and dismissed half a dozen possible responses in the blink of an eye. He decided to counter with the most fitting reply of all: the blatant lie. He let out his most evil cackle. "You hopeless fools! What makes you think that there is anyone left to rescue?" He put as much conviction as possible into his next words. "They're dead; students, teachers…all dead!"
The looks of unconcealed horror that came over the four ninjas' faces were nectar for Zurgane's dark soul.
Molly's hand flew to her mouth, Tori and Dustin looked thunderstruck, and Shane's dark complexion turned a few shades towards the pale side.
Zurgane took advantage of the ninjas' half second of shock and confusion. With a flick of his wrist he produced his alien remote, depressed some buttons, and in the blink of an eye the four teens were surrounded by a fresh wave of kelzaks.
Their heads whipped around, the looks of shock replaced by expressions of alarm.
Zurgane raised himself up on one elbow, the remote ready in his hand, and cackled, "This is far from over, you pests. We'll get all of you in due time."
With that, he punched a button and was instantly sucked into a transportation beam.
The new batch of dones surged forward, the ninjas shook off their grief for now, and the battle began anew.
Dustin, Tori, Shane and Molly fought them as valiantly as before, but the growing exertion from the previous battle was beginning to wear them down.
Three kelzaks descended on Shane, forcing the Air ninja to back off until he suddenly felt raw stone at his back. He turned his head for a split second, getting his bearings.
The kelzaks had backed him into a wall.
Shane wasn't worried; he knew he could take them on and was ready to dish out some punches when suddenly the wall behind him shook.
Molly was gaining confidence with every kelzak she sent flying. 'Pushovers,' she thought with a grin as she took out the last of her opponents with a well-placed kick in the gut. She spun around, ready to help out her fellow ninjas when she spotted Shane surrounded by three more of the black and red clad creatures. He had his back to a half-built, freestanding brick wall that seemed to be about eight to ten feet tall – and pretty flimsy-looking. Molly was about to rush to his aid when she noticed three other kelzaks sneaking behind the wall.
Her senses tingling with alarm, she sprinted towards the structure just in time to see the three drones putting all their weight behind a mighty push. The wall gave and started to tilt precariously.
And Shane was too preoccupied to notice the danger behind him.
"Shane!" Molly shouted, picking up her pace, but instinctively she knew she couldn't reach him in time, for the first few bricks were already falling.
Something's wrong! The thought splashed through Shane's head a split second before he heard Molly's cry. The perception of danger hit him the same instant as the first cinder block hit the kelzak right in front of him. As the drone went down, things seemed to turn slow-motion: Shane turned his head, dropped to one knee in the process. Instinctively, he brought his hands up at the same time even as a part of his brain recognized the futility of the gesture. A wave of grey was coming towards him, ready to bury him under tons of stone. He jerked his head aside, narrowly avoiding one brick, but a few hundred more were following on the heels of the first and there was no way to dodge them all.
Shane remembered once reading an article about peoples' various reactions the moment before their deaths; what had puzzled him most was the description of the resigned acceptance of death, accompanied by what the author had described as an 'eerie calm'. Back then he hadn't understood, but now, as he felt the same sense of calm come over him, it couldn't have been any clearer to him; there was simply no other way, death was inevitable, what else can you do?
His eyes squeezed shut, he simply waited for the impact - but it never came. After a moment, Shane blinked and dared to look up again.
Death – in form of a solid wall of large cinder blocks – hung not five inches above his face. But the bricks were not moving. Instead they hung motionless, suspended in the air, and Shane couldn't believe his eyes.
Had someone pressed the pause button on time? Or had the laws of gravity suddenly been reversed?
From behind him, a strained voice sounded. "Shane, move!"
Shane turned to see Molly a few feet behind him, her face twisted into an expression that bordered on physical agony. She had her hands held out in front of her, palms showing, and even over the distance Shane could see her arms trembling, as if they held an enormous unseen weight. And suddenly, understanding hit him; Molly was holding up the wall solely with the strength of her mind.
Shane scrambled to get his feet under him, then half-ran, half-lunged sideways and to safety. He hit the ground just as the deafening roar of tons of bricks crashing downwards momentarily drowned out all other noises. Coughing, Shane turned his head and could only watch helplessly as Molly sank to her knees, then toppled over into the dust, unconscious.
TBC…
