Disclaimer: the usual…………………..

CHAPTER 20

Time for Everything

Lina had settled into a simple kind of life over the next few days with the Light Speed Rangers. She broke through her shyness but she hadn't quite gotten back to her spunky self and she still wasn't sure why. She got along with Joel, Carter, and Ryan pretty well but she mostly spent her time with Dana, Kelsey, and Chad. Lina wasn't sure what drew her towards the gentle blue ranger, but she wasn't about to back down from finding out. This particular day, she was getting ready to go out with Chad, but he hadn't told her what they were doing. She was excited nonetheless. When they left the base, Chad drove one of the Light Speed jeeps and put a blindfold over Lina's eyes, causing the Red Inferno Ranger to laugh.

She did feel a twinge of regret when she had such a good time with any of them, especially Chad. She had managed to come up with some type of explanation for her powers, but hadn't told the entire truth, least of all told them that she was a ranger from another realm. She hoped she had made the right decision in doing that. She came out of her trance when the jeep stopped. Using her overly trained senses, she managed to get out of the jeep, blindfolded, by herself with the grace of a dancer, but Chad insisted on leading her the rest of the way and Lina had no objections.

"Chad, come on, where are you taking me?" Lina pleaded while laughing. The Blue ranger laughed at his 'date'.

"You'll see," he whispered. He stopped her for a second and Lina thought she heard splashing. The blindfold started to loosen and Lina was shown the surprise. Chad had brought her to the water park where he was working when first approached to become the Blue Light Speed Ranger. There was an alcove on one of the platforms with a picnic set overlooking both the whale tank and the nearby beach. Inside the tank were two beautiful orca whales.

"Oh my gosh, this is so cool," Lina exclaimed, fascinated by the sight before her. Chad smiled, happy to see that all his planning had paid off.

"You want to feed them?" he asked. Lina looked a little shocked at his question but smiled and nodded nonetheless. After some time with playing with the whales, Chad led Lina over to the picnic he had set up for them. Not a lot of eating went on as the couple chatted, laughed, and enjoyed each other's company. The next thing Lina, she was walking hand in hand with Chad down the beach, holding her shoes in the other hand. Lina's mind started to wonder. She became curious about the fact that nothing out of the ordinary had happened since after the fight when she had first arrived. She felt Chad stopped and looked at him, then glanced in the direction where his gaze was focused. She noticed in the distance that a young boy, looked around fourteen, was being haggled by three older looking boys. They pushed the younger boy around, laughing like it was the joke of the century to see the little boy suffer. Lina started to feel her old self surface and started to walk towards the group but Chad held her back. She looked at him in surprise.

"Shouldn't we help him?" she pleaded. Chad only smiled softly.

"There is a time and a place for everything. And the time right now is to let this battle be fought without us," he said wisely. Lina didn't quite understand and was about to protest when she heard a familiar yell of a martial artist. She jerked her head in the direction of the yell and nearly doubled over in laughter. The tiny boy was defending himself well against the three older boys. He wasn't beating them to a pulp but he was using enough force to get his point across. Lina was pleasingly shocked. She scowled playfully when she heard Chad chuckle. She glanced up at him suspiciously.

"You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?" she asked. Chad only smiled.

"Well, seeing as that he's been one of my students for the last six years, yeah," Chad managed to get out before breaking down into laughter at Lina's reaction. She playfully let out a yell and chased after him, immediately laughing along with him. Chad ran for a little bit then stopped and scooped Lina up before she had a chance to stop.

"CHAD! What are you doing? Put me down," she ordered. Chad shrugged his shoulders and started to walk into the ocean.

"Uh, uh, don't even think about it," Lina warned, turning to Chad and clutching his shoulders.

"And what if I already have?" he asked playfully. Lina chuckled.

"Then don't DO it," she replied, leaning in closer to him to latch her arms around him. If she was going down, she was going to take him down with her. She didn't realize how close the gesture put her to him until they were gazing at each other. Instinctively, both rangers leaned in, their lips getting closer and closer until………

"CHAD! COME IN! DO YOU READ ME!" came the familiar voice of Captain Mitchell. The two got over the initial shock and Chad gently put Lina down.

"I read you Captain," Chad replied.

"Get back to the base. We need you immediately," the Captain said.

"Yes sir. I'm on my way," Chad responded before looking regretfully at Lina. He gently put an arm around her waist, not sure what to say. Lina only half smiled and looked up at him.

"A time and a place for EVERYTHING," she said, sending his words back at him. Chad had to let out a soft laugh before the two retraced their steps back to the jeep and made their way to the underwater base. Once they made it, both ran into the main conference room where the other rangers, Captain Mitchell, and Ms. Fairweather were waiting.

"What's going on?" Lina asked.

"Loki and the Batlings are attacking the city. They're on a rampage. Get down there and stop them before Vypra and Diabolico show up," Captain Mitchell ordered.

"Yes, sir. Let's go guys!" Carter said. The rangers stood in formation, while Lina stood back. Despite having her powers, the others were hesitant to let her fight and she knew it.

"Light Speed, Rescue!"

"Titanium Power!" Flashes of color blinded Lina's vision as the spandex suits of the Light Speed era covered the bodies of the rangers. They immediately rushed out to engage in the never ending battle to keep evil at bay. Lina sighed, wondering what the whole point of this realm was. She perked up when she saw that the rangers had arrived and took to the battle in the usual manner. Kicks and punches flew in every sense of the word. Eventually, weapons came out and the rangers seemed to be holding their own. Lina bit her lip, wondering what this uneasy feeling in her stomach was. She finally spotted it and gasped.

"Lina what is it?" Ms. Fairweather asked. Lina couldn't respond. She knew communicating the problem to them wouldn't do any good so she ran from the room, going for the escape hatch.

"LINA!" Captain Mitchell called. He was about to go after her when Ms. Fairweather clutched his shoulder.

"SIR!" she cried desperately. He turned around and gasped at the sight. Dana was being held by her throat by Diabolico. The other rangers tried to help her, but something was off. They were exhausted and plus, he seemed to have new found strength. They watched helplessly as he tossed Dana aside like she was a rag doll.

"I will enjoy this," he said. Suddenly, a fire ball grazed his back. He turned around and growled. He knew someone was there but he couldn't see anyone.

"Lina, stay back," Chad whispered to himself. Lina, who was kneeling behind some crates, scolded herself for firing without thinking.

"Time and a place for everything, time and a place for everything," she whispered to herself until an explosion blast the crates beside her. She yelped and jumped back, just in time to stand up and see Diabolico laugh at her.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A little girl with a death wish. No matter, the rangers can wait, you will be just as fun to get rid of," Diabolico said.

'All the times these bad guys take to waste time talking, why'd I'd have to get scared NOW?' Lina asked herself as she backed away, not taking her eyes off the creature before her. Lina felt the fire blazing deep in her gut but she knew morphing was out of the question, that would just make her more vulnerable to Diabolico when the power attacked her body. Something, out of the corner of her eye, made the fire burn even more. She saw a fire forming near the rangers and knew that was her shot. She had to do a 'natural' morph rather than the one programmed into her morpher. Taking a deep breath, she knew now was the time to show what she could really do. She stopped backing up and started running towards Diabolico. This caught him off guard but he got ready to strike, only to have Lina do a perfect flip over him, then do a series of tumbles and flips away from him, back towards the rangers.

"Running won't do you any good girl," he said as he approached her.

"That's what you think," Lina said, feeling her old spark coming back to her. She quickly concentrated on the fire and was pleased when it almost immediately started to encircle her body.

"Lina, what are you doing?" Joel asked. She was concentrating too hard to answer as the fire spread over her body and engulfed her.

"NO!" Chad yelled, thinking she was burning alive. But really, the fire was bringing her to life. Running through her veins and igniting the power that was embedded in her. She didn't NEED the technology that Alagor had infected. She had the power within her but there was a time and a place to use that kind of power, and now was that time.

"STORM CALLERS, INFERNO BLAZE RANGER!" she cried, summoning a new call. The fire ignited into a more powerful blaze then quickly dispersed, leaving Lina clad in her red inferno ranger uniform, but with her blaze armor now embedded into her suit like it had been there from the beginning.

"What?" Kelsey said. Ms. Fairweather and Captain Mitchell's mouths gapped at the sight.

"She's a ranger too?" Ms. Fairweather asked, not really to anyone in particular. Lina came out of her stance and ran towards Diabolico. She leapt into the air and Diabolico was prepared to block her strike, but he was not prepared for his to disappear right in front of him.

"What? Where did you go?" he asked, looking around. Suddenly, he was blasted from the side and knocked off his feet.

"Bulls Eye!" Lina exclaimed happily as she carefully approached Diabolico. In the one second that Lina found herself relaxing, Diabolico jumped up and knocked her to the ground. Her weapons were knocked away from her and Diabolico had his sword pressed to her throat while Lina tried to push him off by clutching his hands. The rangers wanted to help but suddenly Vypra appeared with more Batlings.

"LINA! HOLD ON!" Chad cried, attempting to make his way to her.

"Yes, Lina, hold on, hold on while I take your life away," Diabolico taunted her. Lina smirked under her helmet.

'We'll see who's life is taken here,' she thought as she started to concentrate. Suddenly, Diabolico started screaming in pain. Anyone who turned to witnessed saw a stream of energy flowing from him into Lina. Lina's body was jerking from all the evil energy she was draining into her.

"LINA!" the rangers cried.

"Diabolico!" Vypra yelled. Lina finally had enough and launched Diabolico off of her. She couldn't withstand all the evil energy flowing around inside of her. She concentrated it into one large energy ball as quickly as she could and launched it into the nearby ocean, collapsing in exhaustion as her morph left her. The rangers ran to her side, Chad lifting her up into his arms. They quickly regained themselves and turned their attention to Vypra and Diabolico. Only the winged woman was kneeling next to her apparent unconscious master. She glared at the rangers.

"You WILL pay for this," she said before disappearing, along with Diabolico and the Batlings.

"That is so getting old," Lina whispered. Chad let his face mask drop as he looked at the girl in his arms.

"Are you okay? What was all that?" he asked desperately. Lina just smiled and squeezed his hand.

"Time and a place for everything just like you said. It was time to fight," she said softly. Each word got softer and softer until she finally fell into unconsciousness. The rangers didn't notice the small glow in her pocket and her next stone appeared. A few hours later found Lina waking up in her room at the base. She moved around tried to stretch but found something in her way. That something was Chad resting his head on the bed. Her movement bolted him awake and it took him a second to register that Lina was awake.

"Hey you, how are you feeling?" he asked. Lina groaned a little and stretched.

"I'm okay. Sore, but okay. What's this?" she asked, noticing a small package next to Chad's hand.

"Oh, this, I was going to give it to you on our date but I didn't get a chance," he said before handing it to her. Lina smiled at the somewhat familiar but new gift. There were several pictures of her and the other rangers, particular a few with just her and Chad. And there was a small whale charm to add to her ever growing charm bracelet.

"Thank you," she said as she clipped the charm to her bracelet, then took the blue ranger's hand in her own.

"Why didn't you tell me? And don't say it," he warned, not wanting to hear his own words fire back at him. Lina chuckled.

"It was dangerous for me to morph the old fashioned way, so I figured it was safer not to say anything. I didn't feel right keeping it from you just to let you know, but I guess it was the best way to go," Lina said. Suddenly, the familiar portal started to open up on the other side of the room, taking Lina and Chad completely by surprise.

"What is that?" Chad asked, moving to look at it as Lina stood up and felt around in her pockets. Her eyes widened in surprise when she felt her next stone in her pocket.

"How long have I been unconscious?" she asked.

"About two hours, why?" Chad asked. Lina grimaced sadly and placed the stone back in her pocket, then picked up her package.

"It's time for me to go," she said sadly. Chad was flabbergasted.

"Go! Go where? Why can't you stay here?" he asked sadly, not the least bit angry though.

"My place right now is to finish my mission and I can't stay and do that. I need to find my way home, just like you need to stay here and fight. I'm sorry," Lina said, looking into the blue ranger's eyes, hoping she wouldn't leave with him angry at her. Even though it hurt to accept it, Chad knew she was speaking the truth. His only response was to finish something he didn't get to earlier. Swiftly, he pulled Lina to his and covered her mouth with his. The kiss escalated into one of pure passion in less than three seconds. The two reluctantly parted, panting at the shock of the sudden kiss and the passion behind it.

"Say good bye to the others for me?" Lina asked. Chad nodded suddenly, trying to keep himself together. Lina pressed her lips gently to his again before running into the portal, the light flashing and the portal closing as Chad watched her disappear.

"Good luck Lina," he said quietly before turning and walking out of the room. He needed to find his teammates and share the news of Lina with them. He stuck his hands in his pocket as he walked, only to find a note inside of one. He took it out and opened the piece of paper.

"Chad-

Don't even ask me how I got this in your pocket, I'm just good. I didn't want you to go on without knowing more about me than I had a chance to explain. So from one ranger to another, and from one friend to another, here's my story……."

Chad smiled as he read the note Lina had mysteriously managed to slip him before she left. It calmed his nerves to read about how she became a ranger and get to know her a little bit better through her letter. He sighed once he finished it.

"Good luck Inferno Ranger," he said once again, smiling at the memories of her and wondered what was in store for her on the rest of her mission.