Poison

Chapter Four

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm, and I'm not making any money from this fic

Replies to reviews:

garnetred: I'm kind of curious now . I won't ask, though. It's kind of rude to be nosy -.-. Anyways, thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it. You'll have to read on to find out about the new Power Ranger. I'll tell you one thing, though: It's a kind of supernatural thing

CamFan4Ever: Hm, well I didn't base Peter on any character in particular - he wasn't even supposed to exist in the first place. Is FYL II still going to be on hold? Thanks for reviewing

BlueAngel07: Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it

Jorgitosbabe: I'm glad you liked it, thanks for reviewing . And I'm pleased that you liked the pictures and bios of Cally and the other original characters. (Note to self: Must write bio for Lia. I don't think I've done that yet)

Author's Note: Sorry it's taken so long for me to update. I was ill last week, and I've been quite busy

Hunter's morpher went off while he was following Lila into yet another shop, really wishing that he hadn't opened his big mouth and offered to be a chaperone to the silver silk ranger.

The crimson thunder ranger cursed, and tried to get to his morpher. Unfortunately, he was so laden down with bags that he couldn't quite reach it.

Everyone in the shop turned to stare accusingly at Hunter. Embarrassed, the crimson thunder ranger ducked his head. "Watch alarm," he mumbled.

Hunter waited until his morpher stopped beeping, and people weren't staring at him, and then looked around for Lila.

The silver silk ranger had wandered off somewhere, presumably to one of the many clothes sections in New Look.

Hunter rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, looking for patience. He'd already asked Lila not to go wandering off without him, and she had apparently chosen not to pay attention.

Hunter eventually found the silver silk ranger standing impatiently in line at the changing rooms. She had her arms folded, holding the hangers of the clothes she was going to try on with one hand, and was tapping her foot as loudly as she could, ignoring the stares and the requests to make less noise.

The crimson thunder ranger transferred the bags he was holding to one hand, then strode up to Lila. "Come on," he said shortly. "We have to go."

"But I've got to try these on," Lila protested.

"No, you don't," Hunter responded, grabbing Lila's arm. "We have to go now." The crimson thunder ranger glanced round to check that no one was listening, then asked in a deadly tone, "Didn't your communicator go off?"

"Well, yeah," Lila replied quietly. "But this sale will be finished soon, Hunter!"

With a sigh, the crimson thunder ranger took the clothes off Lila, and stormed over to the counter.

"Hunter, what if they don't fit?" Lila demanded, following him.

"I'm sure you can exchange them if you find that they don't fit," Hunter replied over his shoulder as he paid. "In any case, you've probably been shopping enough times to be able to estimate your size in any type of clothing."

The shop worker serving Hunter looked faintly amused by this exchange. She probably saw a young man frustrated from having to trail his girlfriend from clothes shop to clothes shop.

Well, that was pretty much true... Aside fromLila beingHunter's girlfriend, of course.

Hunter took the bag of clothes, and walked back over to Lila. "Let's go," he said shortly.

Frustrated and worried, Faye put her mobile down. "She's still not responding," the orange light ranger reported.

Shane looked at the screen which had just been showing Dustin lying on a hospital bed, and sighed. "Dustin's been hurt... And now Cally seems to be missing."

Faye bristled slightly. "I hope you're not implying what I think you are," she said.

"Well, you have to admit that it doesn't look good," Blake spoke up.

Faye switched her glare from Shane to Blake. She and the navy thunder ranger had disliked each other on sight, for no apparent reason. They just seemed to rub each other up the wrong way. Their hostility had actually begun during Cally's foray into the Forest of Feelings, when they had properly met for the first time.

"We should not jump to conclusions," Sensei broke in. "There could be a reasonable explanation as to why Cally cannot be contacted at this moment."

"Yeah, like she maybe crashed?" David suggested. "Having gymnastics and horse riding on, one after the other, must be quite tiring."

The white light ranger, though a good leader, had been rather quiet lately, preferring not to contradict decisions, and not willing to enter into conflicts with anyone. He'd been like that since Lothor had used him against his sister, Cally, and his girlfriend, Faye. He really seemed to listen more to Faye, and possibly Dustin as well.

A brown blur appeared in the rec. room, revealing itself to be Peter. The brown silk ranger tended to keep to himself, but he was quite close to his sister, Lila, and he and Blake had a kind of wary respect for each other.

"Peter, you should not use your ninja powers where you could be seen," Sensei scolded.

"Sorry, Sensei," the brown silk ranger responded to the guinea pig. "I just thought that Cam wanted me to get here as quickly as possible."

The Power Ranger in question gave a worried frown. "Now why are Hunter and Lila not answering their communicators?" he wondered out loud.

"They're probably together somewhere," Blake commented. "Lila came to the race track to talk to Hunter, and they might have gone off together."

Lila probably dragged him into clothes shopping with her," Peter muttered.

"I can't get hold of Tori, either," Cam said, frowning even more.

"Dude, she's probably surfing," Shane said, though he looked worried as well.

"So what do you want us all here for?" Peter wanted to know.

"We'd better wait for Hunter and Lila to get here, at least," Cam answered. "I don't want to repeat this more times than I have to, as the others already know."

At just that moment, Hunter stormed into the rec. room, laden down with a large number of carrier bags. Following close behind him was the silver silk ranger.

"Couldn't resist the temptation of a sale?" Peter dryly asked his sister.

Before Lila could respond, Faye asked, "Have you seen Cally at all?"

All of the girls had grown to be quite good friends. Lila and Cally hung out quite a bit together, though not as much as Cally and Faye did.

Lila blinked, and then slowly shook her head. "No, sorry," she responded. "Hasn't she been with you?"

At just that moment, the violet light ranger stumbled into the rec. room, limping badly and holding her arm against her chest.

Concern flared in David's eyes, but Lila and Faye were the ones who ran over to Cally, and helped her into a chair.

"What happened?" Shane demanded while Cam went over to check on the ranger's injuries.

"Got into a fight," Cally mumbled. She winced as Cam's fingers probed the arm she was holding to her chest.

"Who did you fight with?" Peter wanted to know. Sensei looked a little disapproving, obviously feeling that Cally should have called for help. Well, as disapproving as a guinea pig could look.

Cally hesitated, then responded, "A black ranger." She yelped as Cam jerked slightly, his fingers tightening on her injured arm.

"A black ranger?" Sensei repeated.

"You mean there's another Power Ranger?" Hunter frowned.

Sensei looked very serious. "This may have something to do with what Cam called you all here for," he commented.

"But Tori isn't here yet," Blake protested with a frown. He was quite worried about the blue wind ranger. At the very least, Tori would have let them know if she couldn't make it.

"I think your arm's broken," Cam said to Cally as he started binding up the limb in question. "I don't know if our accelerated healing works on broken bones." The green samurai ranger caught sight of Cally's other wrist, and took a step backwards in surprise and shock. "What happened to your morpher?"

"I'm not sure," the violet light ranger admitted, looking down at her all but destroyed morpher. "I lost consciousness after I hit my head, and when I woke up, my morpher was like this."

Sensei looked even more serious, his eyes showing a gleam of worry. "You will have to keep out of fighting until your morpher is fixed," he told Cally.

Cally looked slightly annoyed, but she held out her arm, and let Cam take off her morpher.

"Well, what did you call us all here for?" Peter wanted to know.

Cam straightened. "Remember that strange virus I told you about?" the green samurai ranger asked. "Dustin's been infected. He's in the hospital."

Cally's eyes widened. "What... But I only saw him yesterday!" she protested.

"We were sort of wondering earlier if you had seen him today," David commented to his sister. "Didn't you get Faye's call?"

Cally's eyes widened even more, and she stared at her friend. "That was you? That phone call broke my concentration!"

Faye squirmed a little. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I was really worried when you didn't answer at all."

"What are we going to do?" Peter questioned. "If we start losing some of us, that could cause some serious problems."

"I believe that it is the work of Lothor," Sensei said.

"Is it fatal?" Hunter wanted to know.

"No one's died yet," Cam responded. "But it's probably only a matter of time. Every victim has gone into a coma. Really, the only thing keeping them alive are the life support machines they're hooked up to... Sooner or later, the hospitals are going to run out."

"Well, at least it's slightly better than when we had that plague of vampires," Blake frowned. "We actually did die then."

Lila shuddered slightly. "Don't remind me of that, please," she said, one hand moving up to touch her neck. "I barely escaped becoming one, and Peter actually did become one."

"How's the little boy doing?" Faye asked. They'd managed to find a family willing to take in the child who didn't know who his parents were. Hunter and Blake both thought that he'd been in the same children's home as them, but that would have meant that he had barely aged at all - he would have been a vampire for quite some time.

They were still trying to work out just how he'd been transformed into one.

"He's fine," Cam answered. "He seems to be settling in all right."

Silence fell, each Power Ranger caught up in his or her own thoughts.

Shane was the first person to break the silence: "Dude, I kind of need to get to skateboarding. If there's nothing else we can do, I'll just go."

Sensei nodded, and, one by one, the others all murmured their excuses and left - Blake was going to look for Tori. Finally, Cam went into the main room of NinjaOps, and Sensei went to have a lie-down.

Cam came to and found that Riana was bending over him. He frowned, wondering where Lia had gone, and why he was no longer in the presence of her father.

"Are you all right, Cameron?" Riana asked, her voice a soft purr.

Cam tried to speak, but he found that his mouth was dry. He swallowed, and tried again: "Where is Lia?"

Riana frowned slightly. "What do you want with that neko?" she questioned. "She cannot interest you."

Riana's wrong, the green samurai ranger thought with certainty. Lia does interest me... I want to know why she seems to think that we are promised to each other.

Cam had to wonder if he had somehow stepped into the identity of his other self - his reflection, if you like, in this world. He wondered if there was an alternate self for everyone in each parallel world. Obviously, though, the green samurai ranger couldn't really experiment. He only knew of two other worlds.

Riana smiled seductively, and leaned close to Cam. "Forget about Lia," she murmured. Then, she kissed him.

Startled, Cam found himself returning the kiss. Riana's lips felt smooth, and she ignited a fire deep inside him. But Cam didn't really want to kiss Riana - he kept on wondering what it would be like to kiss Lia.

The young woman smiled against Cam's lips. Then, Cam saw her eyes shift past him. The green samurai ranger pulled away from Riana, and turned his head.

Lia gave him a wide-eyed stare, then spun on her heel and ran off.

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