Getting along

The next morning the seven friends had to go downtown, because Lothor had sent one of his monsters. The Sensei sent them to see if they could stop him.

"But, where it is?" asked Blake. "There's no trace of him" Cam replied. In that moment, Raine closed his eyes and smelled the air. "He went to the woods" she said. "Other freaky game?" asked Shane mocking. "No, I can see it" and saying that, Raine's eyes turned into orange with a vertical pupil like a feline. Her friends looked at her astonished. "Stop that! Freak!" shouted Shane. "Shane, calm down!" said Tori "she knows where we must go".

Finally all of them ran towards the forest and found the creature there, and after a strong battle, they defeated him.

Back at the Ops, Sensei had lost his stick. As he was a Guinea Pig, his stick was very small. "Maybe when I jumped to your desk" he said to Cam. The rangers were all looking to the floor trying to find it.

Raine suddenly closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she had her feline eyes "there, Sensei, right beside Cam's foot!" Cam looked down and saw it.

"It is incredible how the power has increased in you, Raine" said Sensei taking his stick and walking on Cam's super computer.

"Freak!" muttered Shane, so low that only Dustin could hear him.

"Why do you call me freak, Shane?" Raine asked from the other side of the room. "This is my gift; I had to fight to get it. If you don't like my eyes, just don't look at me!" "Hey I said nothing!" replied Shane. "I heard you! I can see things you can't, I can hear things you can't" said Raine. "I'm not a freak!" after saying that, she went out the Ops, crying.

"Shane, she's trying to help. You must be patient. There will be more about her that you won't understand" said Sensei. "Sorry, Sensei, but she makes me nervous. Her power is so… different" "Yes, different, but not bad. I think you owe her an apology" replied the Guinea Pig.

While they all were talking, no one saw Cam slipping away the Ops. When he found Raine, she was looking at the waterfall.

"You ok?" he asked standing beside her.

"I don't know. On one hand, I feel so good with all this power because I can help you. But on the other, Shane's reactions make me really sad" she replied.

"He needs to know you better, that's all" he said looking at her and taking her hand. "You're really special, Raine" he said coming closer to her. She looked up to his eyes with her hand still in his. "Thanks, Cam, you're special, too" she said trembling.

"There you are!" said Hunter. "Raine, Sensei wants you to go back to the Ops". That was enough to break the magic. Cam and Raine looked at Hunter and put their hands in their jacket pockets. "Ok, I'll go right away" said Raine running to the Ops.

"Do you like her, don't you?" Hunter asked. "I think so" Cam replied. And both walked back to the Ops in silence.

At the Ops, Sensei was waiting for Raine, standing on the table. "Raine, let's wait for Hunter and my son because there's something I need you to do" said the Sensei looking at Raine tenderly. "Sure, Sensei" she said.

In that moment Hunter and Cam entered the main room and took seat with the others.

"Raine, come here and show them your real power" said the Sensei. "My real power, Sensei?" asked Raine. "I don't understand". "Look into your inner ninja and show us how connected with your power you are" explained the rodent.

Raine looked at her friends quite confused and closed her eyes. Suddenly a voice inside her head: "our power is inside you… that's your quality" and extended her arms with her eyes still closed, and suddenly she said "I summon the power of the brave felines, panther power come to me" and saying that she crossed her arms and bent over while her figure turned into a black panther, quite bigger than normal, while her friends looked at her in shock.

"Now, Raine, recover your human shape" said the Sensei, and the panther raised her paws to allow her human shape to appear.

"That was awesome!" said Dustin. "But you can transform into any animal, can't you?" asked Tori. "I can only think of those animals that bit me there in the woods" Raine replied. "Incredible!" said Hunter.

"I think that I owe you an apology, Raine" said Shane standing up and walking to her. "It's ok, Shane, I just want you to know that my only interest is helping you. I also know that there are things about me that you don't understand, but I don't either. I'm still learning about my power" said Raine looking at him. "Besides, you're our leader and I will follow you blindly, always".

That morning, after the usual early training, Raine had a lot of work to do in her lab at the back of the Ops, a special place that Cam had offered her to keep her animals and make all her research. She was labeling a lot of glass boxes full of sand and stones.

"Hey, Raine, what are you doing?" said Shane entering her lab. "I need to put some labels to these boxes to know the creatures they contain. "Do you need help?" he asked trying to soften the troubled relationship they had had until now. "Sure! Thanks!" she said smiling.

"Ok, I will work on this box" said Shane, lifting a glass box. "What do I have to write in the labels?".

"Scorpions. Male and Female" she said after giving a look at the box.

In that moment she could hear the glass box crashing on the floor. "What!" shouted Shane. "Are you crazy? Do you have scorpions here?"

"I am studying them, Shane, and now you have set them free!" cried Raine. "Help me to find them!"

With a fast movement, she could see them, male and female running away. She ran to the door and jumped over them, taking them carefully from their stings.

Shane was in shock. "Hurry up, Shane! Give me another glass box!" she said. Shane gave her one in silence. "OK, now we can continue" she said calmly and went to clean all the mess that Shane had left.

"What are you doing with scorpions?" he asked her still trembling. "I study the poison and how it can cure some diseases" she explained. "The same I do with some snakes and spiders".

"Spiders? Here?" he asked, showing real terror in her face. "Yes, I don't like spiders either, but it is necessary to study them so as to prevent consequences if they bite someone. In that way, we can have an antidote"

In that way, talking about Raine's work, they spent almost an hour until all the boxes were labeled.

"What about you, Shane?" she asked. "What do you do in your free time?"

"I like skateboarding. I'm the best!" he said proudly. "Do you have a hobby?"

"Well, I enjoy playing guitar and singing, but I also like climbing mountains and racing cars" she said while walking out to the Ops.

"Racing cars? That sound exciting!" he said, looking at her as he was discovering a new person.

"It is!" she said smiling.

When they entered the Ninja Ops, all the rest looked at them amazed. Some hours before, Shane was shouting at her and now they seemed so friendly.

"Where were you two?" asked Tori

"I was helping Raine to label some boxes at her lab" Shane replied.

"Labeling boxes? Of what?" asked Hunter while playing some kind of computer game with Cam.

"Scorpions, Spiders, Snakes and other strange creatures she's working with" said Shane giving a wink to Raine just to skip the incident.

"Yes, Shane was very kind. Without his help I wouldn't have been able to finish on time" Raine said

"I'm very proud of you two" said the Sensei. "It is important to overcome any differences and help each other. That will allow you to know more about the other. And I assure you that you can discover wonderful things"

"Raine likes racing cars!" said Shane to his friends. "She told me!"

"Have you tried motocross?" asked Blake.

"No, thanks, I don't like motorbikes. I prefer a car. If I crash, I have higher probabilities of surviving" Raine answered

"Have you crashed?" asked Tori.

"Many times, and every time I thank God to have a car instead of a motorbike" Raine said smiling.

"Have you tried trucks?" asked Cam.

"Like those trucks you race in a Rally? Raine asked.

"No, big trucks, like the one we have to transport the Tsunami cycles. It's like a mobile Ops" explained Cam

"No, never, but it must be easy" she said.

"Well, we need someone to drive our truck while we are outside. The truck helps us to get to different places and take all our stuff with us. Do you want to try?" Cam said.

"Sure" Raine said more interested in Cam that in the truck itself.

"Father, if you need us we'll be at the Zords Bay" Cam said to Sensei.

"Zords Bay?" Raine asked. "You'll see" said Cam smiling, while they both walked out the Ops.