Disclaimer: the usual…….
CHAPTER 14
Time for a Team-Up
"Will you shut up and face facts, Seth? We can't do this without the space rangers!" Barry screamed at his cousin. Seth ran his hands through his hair and suppressed a scream of frustration.
"We put Lina in this situation, we should fix it," Seth argued.
"Damn it, Seth, we couldn't keep him in our realm, what makes you think we can get him back there by ourselves!" Lex asked.
"Would you guys shut up already!" Corey screamed at his teammates, massaging his temples, having gained a headache from all their arguing. They were in a spare room next to the medical deck where Lina still laid unconscious. Luke was watching over her, listening to his teammates yell at each in ever increasing volumes. While keeping some attention on the door, he focused at much of it as he could on Lina. He gently took her limp hand into his and ran a thumb over her soft skin.
"I doubt this is what Zhane meant by telling you how I feel, but I like you Lina. I like you a lot. I've liked you since I met you, and it's only grown over the years. I can't stand seeing Carlos look at you the way he does because I know the way this mission works, you won't see him again, and that it'll only hurt you. But I can't distract you with my own feelings for you right now, there's enough pressure on you right now. I know it sounds cheesy, but I just want you to be happy…Please wake up soon, Lina," he whispered. He leaned down and gently kissed Lina's cheek. He got distracted when Seth, Lex, and Barry started arguing again. Luke rolled his eyes and gently tightened his grip on Lina's hand.
"For not only the fate of the world, but for the fate of our sanity, PLEASE wake up," he whispered to her. Meanwhile, Andros and Zhane were running scans for Alagor, Samantha or any of the Dones. They didn't even have much concern on Astronema, Quantrons, or Ecliptor.
"So what do you think of the Storm Callers?" Andros asked his best friend. Zhane frowned at the question.
"Why do you ask?" Zhane asked. Andros shrugged his shoulders.
"I just want to know," he responded. Zhane sighed and thought for a moment.
"I think the arrogance you see if really them mad at letting Alagor escape into this realm. They're mad at themselves for letting it happen but it seems like they are taking it out on you," Zhane explained. Andros let out a confused huff.
"What do we do?" he asked, not really directly. Zhane shook his head, not knowing himself. Suddenly the alarms started blaring. Zhane and Andros immediately went to work at the consoles, as Ashley, Cassie, TJ, and Carlos came running in with Alpha. The male Storm Callers soon followed.
"What's going on?" Corey asked.
"Alagor and the Dones are back in the park," Zhane said.
"Where's the little girl?" TJ asked.
"Not sure. There's an energy reading for her here but I don't see her," Andros explained.
"He must have hidden her somewhere nearby," Cassie said.
"Let's get him out of this realm and get Sam safe," Carlos pitched in.
"Hold on, what about Lina?" Lex asked.
"I'll watch out for her rangers. You guys get down there and take care of that jerk before he runs off again," Alpha said urgently. The rangers became a little hesitant, knowing they were slightly at odds with each other. Seth swallowed hard and walked over to Andros, holding out his hand.
"Truce?" he asked. Andros glanced at his hand then up at Seth. He saw sincerity in his eyes, knowing that the Blue Monsoon ranger had to put the pettiness aside for the greater good. Andros smiled at this showing of true leadership and shook his hand.
"Truce, now let's go," he said. Seth nodded and joined his teammates.
"LET'S ROCKET!" cried the Space rangers.
"STORM CALLERS, GO!" cried the storm caller rangers. Lights engulfed the bodies of the eleven rangers, dying down to reveal their spandex suits. Alpha immediately teleported them to the park to face off against Alagor.
"POWER RANGERS UNITE!" cried all eleven young people.
"Red Ranger Power!" Andros cried.
"Blue Ranger Power!" TJ cried.
"Black Ranger Power!" Carlos cried.
"Yellow Ranger Power!" Ashley cried.
"Pink Ranger Power!" Cassie cried.
"Silver Ranger Power!" Zhane cried.
"SPACE RANGERS!" cried all six of them.
"Blue Monsoon Power!" Seth cried.
"Green Hurricane Power!" Lex screamed.
"Yellow Tornado Power!" Barry cried.
"White Tsunami Power!" Corey cried.
"Black Lightning Power!" Luke cried.
"STORM CALLERS, GO!" called the five males. Colored smoke blasted behind the eleven rangers, in red blue, green, yellow, white, silver, black, and pink.
"Well that was a waste of three minutes. DONES ATTACK!" Alagor ordered, after remarking sarcastically at the rangers' entrance. The minions ran at the rangers, engaging in a fierce battle. Andros and Seth took on Alagor face to face.
"Where's the girl freak show!" Andros demanded. Alagor laughed cockily.
"You'll never know!" he declared. Andros and Seth charged Alagor together, holding on to their fight as best as they could. Meanwhile, Astronema appeared at the edge of the fight, hiding behind some trees. She observed the fight, frowning at Alagor. Never in her life had to wanted to go against another enemy of the rangers, but something about his method of kidnapping that little girl got to her. She heard some rustling and muffled screams nearby. She snapped her fingers and switched into regular clothes and her short blonde hair. She snuck over to the bush and discovered the little girl tied up and struggling to get free.
"Hey, hold on," she told Sam, quickly going to her rescue. She untied the ropes that bounded the little girl's limbs and undid the gag in her mouth. Sam, burst into tears, and embraced the human-looking Astronema in a hug. Astronema was surprised beyond belief, stunned even. She recovered and gently hugged the girl back, comforting her.
"Come on, I'm going to get you somewhere safe," she told Sam. Sam sniffed and nodded. Astronema scooped the little girl up and snuck around the woods. She came to the side where Zhane was fighting. She picked up a few pebbles and threw them at him. One finally swiped the side of his helmet and he looked around.
"HEY!" he cried, thinking it was a Done or something. He noticed two figures in the bushes and quickly ran towards them. He was shocked beyond belief to see Astronema.
"What are you doing here?" he asked in a surprised manner.
"Letting you take HER somewhere safe," she replied, pointing to Samantha, who remained silent. Zhane was again, shocked.
"Did you..?" he asked. Astronema nodded, knowing he was going to ask if she had rescued her.
"Why?" he asked. Astronema looked straight into his eye piece.
"I don't know. Just please get her out of here," Astronema said before getting up and running off. Zhane looked after her, then turned his attention to Samantha.
"Would you like to get some icecream while a friend of mine watches you?" he asked. Sam smiled and nodded, immediately trusting the ranger. Zhane spoke into his communicator.
"Alpha, teleport Samantha to the megaship," Zhane said.
"You got it Zhane," Alpha responded. Samantha was engulfed in a white light and disappeared. Zhane instantly returned to the fight, unable to grasp what happened.
"GUYS, Samantha is safe and on the megaship!" he called to his teammates.
"All right!" Corey said.
"One job down," Cassie said.
"Let's do this together!" Andros suggested.
"That won't destroy him," Seth said.
"Trust me, we know," Luke added.
"Yea, but if Alpha opens a portal, then that should be enough to launch him back to your time," TJ said.
"Did you hear that Alpha?" Carlos asked into his communicator.
"Loud and clear Carlos, I'm working on it," Alpha said.
"Space Rangers, Fire Weapons!" Andros cried, as the rangers put their weapons together and fired them all at once. The Storm Callers shifted into their inborn powers.
"Power of the Monsoon!"
"Power of the Hurricane!"
"Power of the Tornado!"
"Power of the Tsunami!"
"Power of Lightning!"
Much like the Ninja storm Rangers, rays of light power blasted from their hands, combing with the lasers from the Space Ranger's blaster, blasting right into Alagor's chest. The Rangers would never know how he did it, but Alpha managed to time the opening of the portal so well that it came up the second the powerful laser came into contact with Alagor's chest, tripping him back into the Storm Caller's time, along with the Dones.
"All right!" the rangers chorused, congratulating each other on a job well done. Meanwhile, a light formed around the unconscious Lina, then died down. Once it died down, she slowly opened her eyes, coming back to consciousness. She took off all the attachments on her and carefully got off of the medical cot, clutching her aching head.
"What happened?" she whispered, right before another light ball formed in her hand, dying down to reveal another stone.
"Huh?" she said before Zeek appeared.
"You're probably wondering why you have a stone when you haven't really done anything," he suggested. Lina nodded in a bit of a sarcastic manner. Zeek chuckled, glad to know the blast hadn't changed Lina completely.
"This time, it wasn't really about YOU learning something, it was about your teammates. You may be doing all the traveling, but this entire journey is about all of you working together. The boys had to learn that they may have to take steps they don't want to in order to fulfill their duties, hence their hesitation to work with the Space Rangers. They were successful in learning that which is how you were healed and how you got the stone," Zeek said. Lina took a second to grasp everything Zeek had said before she remembered everything.
"What about Alagor and Sam?" she asked.
"Alagor is back in your realm and Sam is in the mess hall eating ice cream. You may need to explain a few things to her, OR you could give her this soda," he said, causing a small cup of soda to appear in his hand. Lina took it from him and looked at him.
"What's in it?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Nothing dangerous. It will just erase her memory of any of the events that have happened in the last few hours," Zeek said.
"But what about her parents?" she asked. Zeek smirked.
"They think she's at daycare, anything else is beyond me," he explained. Lina sighed.
"Okay, the journey continues," she said sarcastically. Zeek playfully saluted before disappearing. A short time passed and the rangers returned to the Mega ship to discover Lina was well and had a new stone in hand. She related everything Zeek had to her to them, along with the soda she had given Sam. The little girl was now sleeping in her arms and she carefully handed her off to Seth. The five male Storm Callers had morphed into their suits before their portal opened up.
"Good luck sis," Seth said before disappearing.
"Bye guys, be safe," Lina said. Before he went through the portal, Luke gave Lina a small wave. She smiled and returned it, noticing something different about his gestures but couldn't figure out why. As soon as the boys had disappeared, Lina's portal started to form. She turned to the Space Rangers and smiled.
"I wish we had had more fun time together," she said sadly. The girls smiled at her.
"That would've been nice but you have a mission to complete," Ashley said.
"Good luck girl," Cassie said as the pink and yellow rangers engulfed the red ranger in a hug. Lina exchanged hugs with TJ, Andros, and Zhane. She finally came to Carlos and smiled at the Black Ranger.
"Thanks for everything Carlos," she said. He smiled at her.
"Good luck, Lina," he said before handing her a small bag. Lina gave him a questioning look.
"Open it," he said. Lina opened the bag and emptied to contents onto her hand. Their was a charm that looked like Carlos' turbo zord and a charm that looked like the astro megaship, along with a picture of the Turbo Team as well as the Space Ranger Team. Lina smiled and placed the contents into a special compartment in the device Zeek had given her. She then hugged Carlos and gave him a "friendly" kiss on the lips, short but sweet.
"Bye guys," she said before walking into the light and disappearing from sight. The Space Rangers waved goodbye, wondering where the Red Inferno Ranger was headed next.