Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers. Only my OCs.
Chapter 7: Snip it, Snip it Good
Ninja Ops was next to empty as the five Rangers stood waiting to start their lesson with Sensei. The table that usually sat in the middle, along with Sensei's little house, had been moved out of the way.
"Remember, a Ninja's greatest enemy is himself," Sensei told them, and before they could ask, copies of themselves appeared in front of them, looking serious and determined. "You may begin," he instructed.
Liz exchanged looks of amusement with Dee before turning back to their doubles. This wasn't the first time that they had done this exercise.
"I get it! It's a Ninja stare contest, right?" Dustin grinned and opened his eyes even wider to stare at his copy, who didn't even react to him.
"Uh...maybe we're supposed to fight?" Shane voiced as he looked to the other four. Liz just shook her head and Dee sighed in resignation. Boys.
"Ok dude, I don't care how good looking you are, you're still going down," Dustin taunted his clone with a grin. His clone smirked back and fell into a fighting stance as Shane and his clone did the same. Tori frowned, knowing that he was wrong, and Dustin knocked his clone's fist down, giggling until the replica did the same and smirked back. The two male ninjas started to fight their replicas, and Tori looked confused.
"This can't be what Sensei meant," she looked from the two, to her own copy, and then over to Liz and Dee, who still hadn't moved. She was now watching Shane and Dustin with an amused expression as they were evenly matched with their replicas. "You guys, I really don't think we're supposed to be fighting ourselves," she told them softly, before her eyes lit up in realization. She looked back at her clone quickly. "That's it, isn't it?" she smiled at her clone, who winked and disappeared. Tori looked to the Eclipse Ninjas beside her as their copies disappeared as well. The girls grinned as they saw Shane and Dustin get thrown to the floor. Their replicas disappeared as they lay groaning on the ground.
"Why is it so hard for guys to follow directions?" Tori wondered aloud, making the other girls giggle as the two boys sat up.
"I'm tougher than I thought I was..." Shane complained as Cam walked back in, grinning in amusement.
"I can't believe I kicked my own butt," Dustin moaned as Cam walked up to a bookshelf, and Sensei landed beside him.
"Congratulations Tori," Sensei nodded to the Water Ninja as they all walked over. "As well as Liz and Dee. I believe that you two have done this training before?"
"Yes, sir." Liz confirmed.
"Last year." Dee nodded.
"But they didn't do anything!" Dustin protested in disbelief.
"Precisely," Sensei replied, "He who battles himself can never emerge victorious." He told them as Cam lifted a scroll from the shelf.
"Ninja basics 101," he nodded.
"Oh… right, yeah I must have been sick that day." Dustin commented.
"Sometimes caution is what wins the day," Sensei spoke softly as he looked at the team. "This is why it will be Tori who will seek the Jade Turtle," Tori frowned a little.
"Just Tori?" Shane inquired, "I mean, Liz and Dee passed, too."
"We've also done this before." Liz countered, "And didn't actually need to do it again. So, Tori earned this quest."
"Why do we need this turtle thing anyway?" Dustin questioned curiously, looking up at their teacher.
"When we revived the Zords, several key power spheres were kept hidden," Cam explained as he leaned forwards, rolling up the little scroll.
"Only to be retrieved when you mastered the skills necessary to do so," Sensei continued for his son.
"I hope I don't let you down, Sensei," Tori looked nervous at the thought of going on such an important quest alone.
"Trust in yourself," Sensei told her as Shane patted her back. "Your Inner Ninja will show you the way."
"And this is in case your Inner Ninja gets lost," Cam grinned and held out the scroll to Tori. She smiled, thanking him and taking the scroll.
"Hey Tori, you'll be great," Shane told the Water Ninja, who was still nervous.
"Thanks," Tori smiled at them as Liz, Dee and Dustin nodded, before looking around at Cam and Sensei. She smiled at them, and headed off to look for the Jade Turtle.
"So, what do we do while Tori's turtle-hunting?" Dustin asked as he clapped a hand on Shane's shoulder. The two walked forwards with grins as Liz watched them curiously.
"I'm glad you brought that up, Dustin," Sensei sounded a little amused as Cam grinned as well, not so subtle about it. "I have a special Ninja project for the four of you."
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"Explain to me why this is where you chose for us to hide." Liz sighed as she hung upside from a tree with the other three near to the conference centre. The others looking just as irritated. They watched as important people who ran Blue Bay Harbour walked into the building.
"Yeah," Dee muttered, "there had to be a better way than this."
"Just deal with it, you two." Shane muttered, crossing his arms.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Dustin frowned as he held on to the front of Shane's suite, "we do nothing?"
"We watch, we listen, and we wait," Shane summed up, sounding bored already. "Anything happens, we react."
"Ok, cool," Dustin nodded, and looked a little nervous. "But, in the meantime, you think we could find some other place to hide? I think I'm losing my-whoa!" his hand slipped from Shane's jacket and he fell out of the tree, hitting the ground hard, "Grip."
"Dustin." Dee called, concerned for her brother, "Are you okay, bro."
Shane sighed as Liz watched with a look of concern as the Earth Ninja groaned.
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The Chief Executive of the conference walked into the room, looking around as everyone spoke quietly among themselves.
"Let this meeting come to order." As soon as he spoke and sat down, everyone fell quiet and looked over to him. "Thank you all for coming here today. If we want to make an environmental difference globally, we must start locally." He told them with determination, and everyone clapped. A loud beeping noise echoed through the room, and the applause stopped as the man's smile dropped and he looked up. "I thought we agreed no cellphones." He frowned as he looked for who was responsible.
Shane frowned at Dustin as he looked at his morpher quickly. "You didn't turn it off!" Shane hissed at him as the two of them hid under the table in the middle of the room.
Liz and Dee, hiding in the rafters, rolled their eyes, "Seriously?"
"Sorry, I forgot," Dustin whispered back. "What do we do?" he asked, praying that nobody knew they were there. Shane looked around, before using his power over air to blow the door open. The resulting wind blew peoples notes from the desks, distracting everyone so that they could Ninja Streak outside. They ran down the stairs to get outside, meeting their sisters on the way, before their morphers beeped again.
"Go for Shane," the Red Ranger answered as they looked around the empty hallway.
"I've been monitoring the police radios. Disturbances have been reported all around you." Cam alerted them, and they looked around, curiously.
"You sure? We haven't seen anything," Shane frowned, and they ran outside. They skidded to a stop as they ran straight into a group of Kelzacks.
"I think we found the disturbance," Liz frowned as she fell into a fighting stance.
"So much for a Peace Conference." Dee growled, joining her.
"We take it back. Call you later," Shane spoke into his morpher, and the three began to fight off the Kelzacks. "What's up with this?" he wondered with a frown as the teens stood together, surrounded by the foot soldiers.
"Maybe they heard about the buffet?" Dustin suggested.
"Dustin, bro, they don't have faces!" Liz exclaimed, and they leapt at the Kelzacks. It didn't take long for them to take out the small group of attackers, and as Liz kicked the last one into a wall, they heard a strange voice.
"Time for me to cut out!" a monster ran from the building, and they spun around.
"What was that?" Dustin looked over to their leader, whose eyes widened.
"The conference!" They ran back in and were stunned to find the conference in chaos.
"That is like, totally brutal." Liz breathed as she stared at the fiasco in front of them.
"You think?" Dee asked as their morphers beeped again. Shane lifted his wrist up as they stared at a woman as she tackled a business man. "Wow."
"You didn't happen to see a giant alien with scissors lurking around, did you?" Cam asked as the once calm and composed people yelled at each other furiously.
"Yeah, we were just checking out his handiwork," Shane replied.
"He's not exactly about spreading the love is he?" Dustin asked.
"You better find him."
"On it," Shane nodded, and they left the conference to chase after the monster.
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"This is great!" Snipster laughed as civilians fought it out all around him. Four colored ropes in red, yellow, black and gold grabbed hold of his arms and yanked him forwards.
"We got him on the ropes!" Dustin cheered with a laugh as they pulled him towards them.
"I'm sharper than that!" Snipster retorted, and blasted them with tiny lasers that threw them backwards and forced them to release their ropes.
"This guy thinks he's a real cut-up!" Dustin exclaimed.
"Yeah, it's up to us!" Shane nodded as they jumped back up and stood together.
"Let's cut to the chase," he appeared behind them and slashed up, making them step back in surprise.
"What?" Shane frowned, and looked at Dustin.
"What are you looking at?" Dustin snapped at him. "Are you eyeballing me?!" he demanded, slapping the Red Ranger over the head.
"Yeah, what if I am, helmet head?" Shane pushed forward, slapping Dustin in retaliation.
The girls watched as their brothers started fighting each other, "What the hell is going on here?" Liz turned to the monster, "What did you do?"
"Same thing I'm going to do to you!" He held up his blade and slashed down and jumped in excited as he waited for them to start fighting.
Dee just shook her head, "Was that supposed to do something?"
"Huh?!" Snipster stared in shock, "What do you mean? Why aren't you fighting?"
"I don't know. Maybe we're just smarter than them. Liz shrugged, "Or maybe because we consider each other sisters and our bond is stronger than your blade."
The girls ran forward and started fighting the monster with their staffs. After awhile, they were thrown back and fell onto the fighting boys.
"Use your inner strength to free yourself from the Snipster's spell," Sensei's voice echoed through the boy's heads as they hit the ground, groaning.
"Whoa, Sensei was just talking in my head," Shane frowned, as he puta hand to his helmet.
"Sometimes that guy makes no sense," Dustin shook his head with a grin and got to his feet.
"Hold on man… why am I fighting you?" Shane asked as he glanced from Dustin, to the girls, and back, confused. Liz just sighed as the guys were finally coming to.
"We were under a spell dude!" Dustin clapped his friend on the shoulder as Dee slapped him in the head, "Ow!"
"Oh, do you think?" Snipster spoke up, and they looked over at him.
"Hey, and you did it!" Dustin realized.
"Really, bro?" The Dee chuckled.
"Yeah," Liz scoffed, "come on. He's obviously the only one that could have."
"Nice try, Scissorhands! But nothing can break us apart for long!" Shane yelled as he pointed at him.
"Then I'll split you up the old-fashioned way!" Snipster yelled and ran at them. The four Ninjas met and attacked him individually, before attacking together and destroying him.
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"Hope we're not too late," Dustin looked around the quarry as they ran towards where Tori was, having heard that she was in trouble.
"Me too," Shane nodded, before Tori leapt down and ran over to them. She lowered her visor and grinned widely, and the others followed suite.
"We got here as fast as we could. You ok?" Shane asked.
"No problems," Tori grinned, and held up the Jade Turtle proudly. "Everything is taken care of," she told them as they looked down at it.
"Hey! You got the turtle! Right on!" Dustin grinned as Liz leaned closer to study it.
"Where's the Jade?" she commented.
"Maybe it's encased in the stone?" Dee guessed, joining to look.
"I had a little difficulty, but Marah and Kapri and I worked out a little deal," she smirked deviously. They looked at her in confusion, but as Shane went to ask, Snipster reappeared, towering over them.
"Now, for the final cut!" he declared.
"Man, this guy is sheer torture. Cam, the Zords," Shane called into his morpher.
"First you have to break the turtle, Tori," Cam told them, horrifying Tori. "Hurry!" he called as Tori scowled, looking at the turtle in her hands.
"Does he have any idea what I went through to get this thing?!" Tori demanded, holding the artifact tightly.
"Better just do it," Shane shrugged.
"Okay." Tori nodded, running over to a rock and smashed it open, revealing a tiny scroll inside. "What's this?" She picked it up and opened it, not able to read it, "Cam, are you reading this?" Tori asked, holding it up.
"Got it. I'm sending the Zords. I'll let you know when I have the new codes online," he told them, "Sorry Liz. Sorry Dee. Still working out the problems with your Zords."
As the Wind Zords came down, the two Spectre Rangers nodded and turned to their teammates. "Good luck, guys."
When they left, Tori looked to the boys, "You guys ready?"
"Oh yeah!" they leapt into their Zords and formed the Megazord as Liz stood beside them in her Swan Zord's fighter mode.
"Serpent Sword! Now!"
They swung the weapon as Snipster ran at them. He blocked it and slashed multiple hits across their front with his scissors.
"Rangers, I'm offloading the codes to you by power disk!" Cam told them, sending the Megazord a new weapon.
"Thanks Cam!" Tori picked up the disc from her console, "You always come through."
"No problem. The new weapon is called the Turtle Mace, and it's amazing!"
The Rangers called on their new weapon and threw it at Snipster, hitting him over and over. "Ow! Oh, I've been shell-shocked!" Snipster exclaimed in horror.
"Round two, to the Rangers!" Tori called, ready to finish the fight, "Turtle mace! Maximum power!" The mace began to glow blue, generating lighting around it and the Zord, and slammed into Snipster one final time.
"Rock beats scissors..." he groaned and collapsed to the ground as the Rangers cheered for their latest victory.
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"So, the statue was actually the hiding place for the turtle mace technology," Cam returned the two scrolls to their place on the shelves, and closed off the bookshelf before walking back down to the others.
"How did the conference turn out?" Tori asked curiously as they walked over to Sensei.
"Though the city leaders resolved many issues, Lothor still remains a threat to the Blue Bay Harbour," Sensei explained as he looked up at them.
"Yeah." Shane spoke up, "Good thing we got their backs."
"Yes, it is," Sensei agreed.
Tori smirked, "I wonder if Marah and Kapri learned anything from this little adventure."
"Yeah, you didn't tell us." Dee sidled over, "What deal did you make with them?"
"I talked them into letting me go with the turtle and, in turn, gave them some designer clothes." The group laughed, "They're Space Cases."
"Oh," Liz chuckled, "to be a fly on the ship and watch Lothor punish them."
"I wish."
Alright. Just letting you know that the next few chapters for this story are going to be a little weird. We have plans to create a story that takes place right in the middle of the Return of Thunder chapters. It's going to be very interesting, and I can't wait to get started.
P.S.
Today is very heartbreaking. We in the Power Ranger Fandom, have lost a hero. Jason David Frank (Original Green Ranger, Original White Ranger, Red Zeo Ranger, First Red Turbo Ranger, Black Dino Thunder Ranger, mentor, leader and friend) has passed away. Everyone who knew him and his fans have been expressing their sympathy and sadness all day. He was one of my childhood heroes. He will live on in his work, his legacy, his family & our hearts. To his family and friends, our hearts and prayers go out to all of you. May he join Truy, his brother Eric and all of our lost Ranger family in peace.
Once a Ranger, always a Ranger. RIP Jason… AKA Tommy Oliver.
The Greatest Ranger of All Time. May the Power Protect you… Always.
