Hunter's new sunrise

Two days later, Hunter woke up, with a strong pain in her stomach. His sight was still cloudy and he preferred not to move. He closed his eyes trying to concentrate in what had happened.

"I feel so shaken up" he thought. "My friends helped me and rescued me" He was trying to remember how that happened. "Raine. She went down to where I was. And she thinks that someday I could stop loving her" He was lost in his thoughts, and he didn't notice Cam had entered the room.

"Good morning, Hunter. How do you feel?" Cam asked smiling.

"Fine" he said. "I feel a pain in my stomach, but if I don't move, I can stand it pretty well"

"Yes, and you'll feel that pain for some weeks. You have two broken ribs" Cam informed him. "And your leg is broken, too. But you'll be fine. We found you right on time"

"Thanks, Cam" he said, "and where's Raine? I would like to see my sister"

"There she comes" he said, while Raine entered the room.

"Hey, bro. How do you feel?" she asked him smiling and taking his hand.

"Fine, Cam says that I will be fine in a couple of weeks" he said, rubbing his fingers in her hand.

"Of course you'll be fine. You're strong and brave" she said.

"Raine, I swear I wasn't the one disturbing your dreams. I wouldn't do that to you. Please believe me" he said looking at her with his eyes full of tears.

"Hunter, I know he wasn't you. And I also know that you'd never do such a thing. Now you don't think about it. He's gone!" she said sweetly. "And the only thing I wanted was bringing you back"

Two weeks later, Hunter was in the main room, with his friends. He could walk, but his leg was still plastered, so all the ranger activities should wait.

"Raine is about to come back. I hope her meeting was ok!" Tori said.

"I hope so" said Cam. "It is very important to her"

"What was that meeting about, Cam?" asked Dustin.

"She received a letter from the Director of the National Zoo. It was something related with a Job" Cam explained.

"Well, we´ll soon know" said Hunter looking at the monitors. "She is here"

When she entered the room, all her friends started asking her everything about the meeting. She told them that the Director had offered the Job in a new Reservation Center in the mountains for species in extinction.

She also told them that there the animals will live free, in a place with similar characteristics to their own homes, so they could procreate with no problems.

"So you must be happy" said Cam holding her tight.

"I am… even when I have something inside my heart. It's like a bad feeling" she said.

"About the job?" asked Dustin.

"No, the job seems to be ok, it's something else I can't explain" she said.

"Don't worry, sister, everything will be ok. Why don't we go to celebrate?" Blake said, waiting for approval.

"That's a good idea. We could go to storm chargers and wait for Shane to finish working and go to eat something" said Tori.

"Ok, that's a good idea!" said Raine, trying to get rid of all those thoughts.

At Storm Chargers, the rangers told Shane about the news. He gave Raine a warm hug.

"Well, it seems that we have more than one reason to celebrate" he said, giving Dustin a look.

"Yes, it seems so" said Dustin.

"Ok, what about pizza?" said Tori

"Pizza? I was thinking of a decent dinner" said Cam

"Ok, but we can go to that new Italian restaurant. There you can find Pizza and also decent food" said Raine.

"It's good for me! I'm starving!" said Hunter

During the dinner, they made a lot of toasts for Raine, until Shane told them that he had something to say.

"Ok, bro, we're all ears" said Blake.

"Guys, there's something I have to tell you. I mean, Dustin and I have something to tell you" started Shane.

"That's true" said Dustin. "We never imagined that we could have another reason to celebrate, but it's better this way. We wanted to be with all of you".

"Guys, Dustin and I are in love with each other" said Shane.

"Yes, I love Shane from the very first moment I met him" Dustin said.

"You are our family, so we decided to tell you" said Shane.

After a minute or two of absolute silence, while all of their friends exchanged looks. Raine decided to speak.

"I really appreciate you wanted us to know. The only thing I can say is that I'm very happy for you, and I wish you the best" she said with her eyes full of tears.

"But why are you crying?" asked Dustin.

"Because it means a lot to me that you had shared this moment with me. With us" she said.

"Guys, she's right. Lots of happiness for you and you can be sure that we love you, guys" said Blake.

"Congratulations! I hope you will be very happy together" said Cam.

"Well, I will always be there for you guys, you know that" said Hunter. "Just love and respect each other"

Tori couldn't speak, she was very moved so she stood up and gave them a warm hug. "I love you guys" she just could say.

The rest of the dinner was incredible. All of them sharing their stories and laughing. Some moment after, they decided to go back home.

They were entering the woods, when Raine felt something in the air.

"What happens, babe?" asked Cam

"We're not alone. I can smell someone else" she said, and she started walking to the dark part of the woods.

"Let's split up!" said Blake

"I can see something in front of us. Shane, Dustin, go to the right, Hunter, to the left with Blake, Tori, Cam, follow me" said Raine.

They were forming a circle, trying to enclose the invader. In that moment, they could see a figure behind a tree, right in front of them.

"Get out of there and show yourself" Raine shouted.

All of them were in position, ready to attack, when the figure showed up. It was a girl, Black hair and white skin.

"Please, Raine, don't attack me. It's me, Amanda. Don't you recognize me?" the girl said with a strong French accent, walking to a clearing where the moonlight made her more visible. They could notice her Thunder Ninja training suit.

"Amanda!" Raine said running towards the girl. "How is it possible?"

"Raine, the academy was destroyed. I could escape, and the only thing I thought was trying to find you. Lothor destroyed us" Amanda said crying.

"Guys, come closer. She is Amanda. My friend in Nepal" Raine explained them.

"It's better for us to go back to the Ops" said Cam. "Cyber cam, teleportation!" and saying that, all of them, suddenly appeared inside the Ops.

There, the friends could see the girl. She was very pretty, black hair and blue eyes. She was trembling and crying, still holding Raine tight.

"Ok, Amanda. Please calm down and tell us everything" Raine said.

"Most of us decided to come back to the academy after our colleges. Our sensei offered me to give classes. One day, about two weeks ago, we started being attacked from the sky. The lasers destroyed everything, and Lothor´s army killed all the ninjas. Our friends are dead, Raine" she said and started to cry again.

"Ok, Amanda, calm down. You're here and you're not alone" Raine said comforting her.

"Hunter, could you please bring a glass of warm milk for Amanda, please?" asked Raine.

"Sure" said Hunter while all the rest noticed that he had been looking at Amanda like under a spell.

"Well, it's better for you to stay here, Amanda" said Sensei, appearing suddenly. Amanda saw the Guinea Pig talking to her, but she made no comment.

"Yes, father, we can prepare a room for her. It's better for us to protect her, because Lothor will soon notice that she escaped" said Cam.

"She could sleep in my room" offered Hunter while giving Amanda the glass of milk. "I can sleep here in the main room".

"Ok, so, everything is ready. Let's go to the bed" said Shane.

Next morning, during the breakfast, they could talk more calmly.

"Good morning, guys" said Hunter yawning.

"How did you sleep, bro?" asked Blake

"Sorry for disturbing you" said Amanda.

"No, please don't say that. I slept very well" lied Hunter.

"Hey, Amanda, you have a strange accent" Dustin pointed out

"Yes, I was born in France and I spent my child hood in Canada" Amanda explained. "So I have spoken French during all my life, until I entered the Ninja Academy in Canada. Then I had to learn English"

"Was it difficult?" asked Hunter, offering her some bread.

"A little bit. Still people don't understand what I try to say" she said.

"Good morning everyone" said Raine appearing in the kitchen with Cam. "How do you feel, Amanda? Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thanks" Amanda answered.

"So, you both were friends in Nepal?" Blake asked.

"Yes, during our special training in that Army" Raine said, while everyone noticed that Amanda opened her blue sky eyes looking at Raine terrified.

"Amanda, don't worry. They know everything about the Academy in Nepal" Raine explained. "I told them everything about the training we received"

"You did what! You promised to keep the secret" Amanda said with tears in her eyes again.

"Yes, but now there's no one left to be loyal to, Amanda, and this is my family. They had the right to know" said Raine firmly. "Besides, they understand that we are not bad"

"Is that true? I mean, all the people were afraid of us" said Amanda sadly. "And we made many mistakes"

"But that belongs to the past. Our sensei told Raine that, and I think he's right. Well, he's always right" Dustin pointed out.

"And you have us now" said Shane. "We are family. And you're very welcome"

"Guys, we have training now. Remember that sensei is waiting for us" Hunter let them know, looking at his watch.

The training was especially hard that morning. They had to work in pairs, but tied up by one of the wrists to the other's wrist. It made very difficult all the movements because they were supposed to run, jump some obstacles, and fight to the other couples. Shane and Dustin were tied up together, the same as Tori and Blake, Raine and Cam. Hunter was tied up to Amanda. He started to see something very special in those blue sky eyes.

He was deeply lost in his thoughts that suddenly he didn't see the obstacle in front of him and fell down, making Amanda to fall too.

"Sorry" he said blushing. "I didn't see it"

"It's ok" she said smiling. "So you're a thunder, too"

"Yes" he said proudly. "What is your element? Mine is lightning"

"Mine is thunder" she said. But the conversation was interrupted by the orders of Sensei.

"Now, attack!" he shouted. "Raine against Blake, and Shane against Hunter"

That made the entire group to fall down, because meanwhile one tried to attack the other, the one tied up to him or her was dragged along.

"Get concentrated, boys and girls. You must act as one. If I say Raine, I mean Raine and Cam, like one. You still pretend being a group of one? Look into your inner ninja and you'll find the way" Sensei said moving his whiskers.

Soon they started moving at the same pace. Like one. They understood they had to unite strengths instead of acting separately. Sensei seemed to be very satisfied and that made the friends very happy.

"Class dismissed" said the Sensei, and all the students started their way back home.

Once they reached the water fall, the couples were untied, except Hunter and Amanda that were talking and laughing. Suddenly when Hunter tried to raise his right arm to enter the waterfall, he noticed that Amanda was still tied up to him. That made the rest of the rangers laugh.

"Something strange happens there" whispered Cam.

"Yes, it seems that somebody found you know what" teased Blake.