Disclaimer: the usual…………………….

Chapter 19

Rescue of Light Speed

Lina had once again fallen into a sleeping kind of trance while she realm hopped. Before she knew it, she was waking up having arrived in what was supposed to be the Light Speed Rescue Rangers realm. She did not even get a chance to look around to make sure it was the right place before she heard an explosion. It was then that Lina realized she had landed in an alley. She crept alongside the wall and peeked out to one side, seeing the last thing she wanted to face right when she got into a new realm.

"The end has finally come for you rangers!" Vypra declared as she her companions laughed at the rangers. They were chained together and were hanging about ten feet in the air. Approaching from the opposite side was a group of minions carrying a board filled with sharp objects sticking out. Lina knew they were going to put it under the rangers.

"Time to go to work," she said before shifting into her morphing motions.

"WAIT!" came a hushed yell as a hand grabbed her wrist. Lina got into a stance but stopped herself when she realized it was Zeek.

"What are you doing? Trying to give me a heart attack before I can legally drink!" she asked.

"It's dangerous for you to morph right now. We think Alagor released some type of virus into our computer system which is messing with all of your powers. Luke tried to morph and his powers ended up attacking him," Zeek explained. Lina's eyes widened in horror at the mention of Luke in distress.

"Is he okay?" she asked. Zeek held up a hand to silence her.

"He's fine. Just, until I come back and tell you otherwise, limit yourself to using your internal powers and martial arts skills only. Once you've allied with the rangers, I'm sure that's all you'll need, but just try not to morph," Zeek said before disappearing without another word. Lina groaned.

"I hate it when he does that," she said before looking back to the commotion outside the alleyway. She took a deep breath.

"Here I go," she said before making her way into the commotion.

"HURRY UP!" Vypra yelled to the group that was pushing the sharp board towards the rangers.

"Ah, what are we going to go?" Kelsey asked as she struggled against the chains and ropes.

"I'd say praying for a miracle is a great option right about now," Joel commented sarcastically yet slightly seriously. Suddenly, the rangers heard something and looked over to the group that had been pushing the board. They were running around, all engulfed in flames.

"Wow, good call Joel," Dana said.

"I didn't do it," Joel said, still amazed at what happened. Vypra growled in anger as she approached the group of burning minions. They were all in ashes and pieces by the time she got to them.

"SPREAD OUT, FIND OUT WHO DID THIS!" she ordered of everyone else who was with her. All of their concentration was going into finding who was interfering that they didn't take much notice of Ms. Fairweather and Captain Mitchell arriving to help the rangers down.

"All rights, reinforcements," Ryan said as his dad got to work in getting the rangers down. Lina, meanwhile, had used the device Zeek had given her to use an invisibility shield. She know he had said to use her internal powers but a simple shield couldn't do too much to her, so she took a chance. She took the first opportunity she got and ran out of her hiding place, kicking and punching as fast and as accurately as she could. Nobody, not even the rangers, knew what was going on. They watched in amazement as one monster after another struggled before ultimately being knocked to their feet, seemingly by nothing at all.

"Okay, what's all this?" Captain Mitchell asked.

"Wish we knew sir," Carter said. Vypra was following the motions of her companions with a glare in her eye. She followed as best as she could and when she thought the time was right, she struck with her sword, getting a very lucky hit in. Lina flew backwards from the force of the hit and the invisible force field broke, revealing her to the rangers and to Vypra.

"You will pay for interfering with my plans," she declared, approaching Lina to finish her off. Lina backed away, pain still surging through her from the force of the blow. Suddenly, a blast knocked the sword out of Vypra's hand. Everyone turned towards the rangers, however, even some of the rangers were stunned.

"Chad?" Carter asked, looked at the blue ranger as he held up a freshly fired blaster. Vypra let out a growl of frustration.

"This isn't over!" she yelled before disappearing.

"When is it ever?" Lina asked to basically no one as she struggled to get up. She was surprised to feel two strong pair of arms go around her own. She gasped and looked up to see that it was Chad.

"Are you all right?" he asked gently, as his visor came down. Lina tried to nod her head but pain came again and she winced, almost falling into Chad.

"Let's get her back to base so I can check her out," Ms. Fairweather said. The rangers nodded in agreement and Lina nervously followed, as she couldn't really run away in the pain she was in. She couldn't understand why she felt vulnerability when she had been so head strong in the other realms. Maybe it was part of her test, she didn't know.

A short time later, Lina had her stomach bandaged by Ms. Fairweather. Dana and Kelsey had come to assist in anyway that could.

"There, much better. How does that feel?" Ms. Fairweather asked.

"Fine," Lina replied shyly. Ms. Fairweather glanced at the pink and yellow rangers and shrugged her shoulders, unsure of how to further question the mystery girl.

"What's your name? My name's Kelsey and this is Dana," the yellow ranger said in her typical perky manner.

"Lina," the Inferno Ranger replied, not really glancing at them. The three girls glanced at each other again but before they could speak, Lina spoke up.

"You want to know if I was responsible for the fire, right?" she asked suddenly. Despite being shocked, the others managed to nod their heads. Lina held out her palm and concentrated, causing a small flame to ignite in her hand.

"Oh wow," Dana said, not taking her gaze off the flame. Lina further showed the extent of her power by performing small tricks, like creating a fire stream around her hands.

"I've got to go get Captain Mitchell," Ms. Fairweather said before bolting from the room, a curious smile upon her face. Lina abruptly stopped her tricks and shyly sat back on the medical table she was sitting on.

"Well, um, we'll be right back. We promised the guys we'd tell them how you were doing," Dana said as she ushered Kelsey out of the room. Lina sighed in relief after they left, still not understanding why she was so shy and vulnerable right now. She glanced over at one of the windows that looked out into the ocean that was the location of the base. She smiled in fascination as she watched the ocean life swim by. She was so caught up in it, that she didn't notice the swoosh of the doors as they opened. Chad walked in with a plate of food, only to stop and see a girl with fire powers entranced by the life of the sea. It was kind of amusing to him and let out a small chuckle. Lina heard him and turned around.

"Uh, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I brought you something to eat. I wasn't sure what you would like, so I just brought a sampler .. uh.. yeah, I'm Chad," rambled the typically quiet blue ranger as he put his hand out to, what he considered, beautiful stranger. Lina smiled at the gesture, not noticing that she was relaxing for almost the first time since she got there.

"Lina," she said, shaking his hand. The two rangers engaged in a conversation as they shared the food Chad had brought her.

'Zeek, whatever this test is, it better be worth it,' Lina thought to herself before Chad said something to make her laugh.