He tensed and closed his eyes in preparation of a big explosion. Instead he was rewarded with nothing. The bomb remained silent, the countdown frozen at one segment.
"Nice going Kale!" Dustin cheered.
"It's nothing I did." Kale replied. Thank you, Max. You saved my ass as usual.
Hey, it was my idea to cut the red wire! Nick whined. Aren't you going to thank me?
Oh I'll thank you when I see you. Kale replied.
I like the sound of that.
You're welcome by the way. Max piped up. Try and keep yourself out of trouble kid.
Kale sat back with a sigh. He was so lucky Psycho Yellow had unleashed that shockwave of energy otherwise he never would have woken up in time to save his ship, himself, and the other rangers. The crisis was adverted, but it brought a new problem to light. He needed to find a new hiding place for his ship, but he wasn't sure where now. If he went to space he would have to land the ship every time he wanted to join a fight.
Miniaturize it. Max suggested.
That technology was experimental at best. Kale argued. Plus, what if the ship doesn't have enough power to restore itself? And to add to that where am I supposed to live?
Use the crystals to create a cavern to hide the ship in. Then you can set up shield generators to keep unwanted transport beams out. It would be simple and safe and completely hidden. Rez suggested, speaking for the first time in a very long time. Kale smiled as he felt the blue gem glow warmly. In case you forgot, I had Max stock the ship with the crystals. There's plenty to use.
The rangers watched with a little confusion as Kale just sat staring at his ship. They noticed that several of the gems were glowing slightly. Then, he suddenly stood up and moved toward an access hatch. He pushed a few buttons and the hatch slid open to reveal several suitcase-like objects. Kale pulled one of the suitcases out knelt down to place it on the ground. The rangers watched all of this wondering what the hell their ally was up to. Kale glanced at them over his shoulder.
"Thanks for your help, but don't you have something else you should be doing?" Kale asked as politely as he could. He hated other people watching him work.
"Yeah, I think we have some things we need to talk about." Dustin spoke up, sounding way more serious than usual. "C'mon guys."
Kale watched them go before turning his attention back to the brightly colored crystals inside. He had work to do himself.
ZzZzZ
Kalix was way past being mad. He was absolutely furious. He glowered at Yellow, then at Navy who stood beside the older Psycho as if to support him. Yellow hardly seemed to flinch at the threats burning in Kalix's eyes. That just wouldn't do. What more could he do if Yellow didn't fear a beating for himself? Really, there was only one thing he could do and it was a big gamble. Yellow might not even care, though Kalix was willing to bet that wouldn't be the case.
Navy gasped in surprise as a telekinetic force sent him flying. He landed on his back and was instantly under attack. Kalix was punching, clawing, and kicking him and he found a telekinetic force holding him completely still. He couldn't defend himself in any way. He hated the feeling of helplessness and it was even worse when it was his most hated enemy doing it.
Yellow watched with stunned horror. Kalix had never resorted to that tactic. Whenever one of them messed up bad enough to deserve physical punishment they were always the one to receive it. Navy hadn't done anything to deserve the punishment. And just like that red-hot anger flared inside the Psycho Ranger.
"Stop! He hasn't done anything!" Yellow exclaimed.
Kalix turned a burning glare at him. "From now on he gets your punishment and you get his. Think about that before you fail again."
"No!"
Yellow leapt forward and caught Kalix's fist before he could hit Navy again. He looked down in surprise as Kalix's tail wrapped around his leg and swung him up into the air and down into the ground with a bang. Kalix looked at them both with disgust before deciding he was done. He was going to send the remaining Psychos down to Earth and he didn't want half of them functioning poorly because of punishment.
"Both of you get out of my sight." Kalix snarled.
Yellow pulled himself to his feet and started toward the door when he realized Navy wasn't behind him. He stopped short and looked behind him to see Navy still sitting on the ground shaking his head. Yellow quickly went to his teammate's side and offered him a hand up. Navy looked at it for a moment as if the hand might bite him, but accepted it gratefully and let the older Psycho help him up. The two then quickly made their way out of the command room before Kalix changed his mind.
"I'm sorry." Yellow said.
"No you're not. You would rather I take the punishment than you." Navy replied. "You've never been good about taking responsibility for your actions."
"This is different." Yellow argued. "Kalix has never been this cruel before. He's physically punished us, but that was usually with a cane in our unmorphed state. Now he's using electro-poles and his telekinesis against us."
"Times have changed. This isn't training anymore Zadan."
Yellow glared at his teammate, his body language drastically changing. "I know this isn't training anymore. It's either us or them now, but I don't see why you should get my punishment. For that matter, I don't see why either of us should be punished. It was just me against most of the ranger team and the Knight Ranger's big ass cannon."
"Are you admitting it was too much for the mighty Zadan?" Navy taunted. He then realized he was falling into his old behavior, that of the evil Psycho Navy. Why was he being so cruel toward Yellow after he stood up for him in the command room?
"I'm not mighty, but I'm more than enough to take care of you." Yellow growled.
Navy took a step away from his teammate. "Neither of us is any condition to fight, but I'm not scared of you."
"I don't want you to be scared of me." Yellow replied, his anger deflating. His unspoken message burning in his mind - I want you to like me.
"Well, I want both of you to be scared of me."
The two turned to see Crimson standing behind them. Yellow took a subconscious step in front of Navy and glared behind his helmet. Navy took a step toward Yellow, ready to support him if Crimson grew aggressive. Crimson stared at them both, a little surprised to see them supporting each other. Things were changing within the team and he wasn't sure he liked it.
"We're not scared of you Terik and there's nothing you can do about it." Yellow retorted. "You're not as big and bad as you think you are."
"Yeah, you let the Knight Ranger get away." Navy added. He mentally patted himself on the back for thinking of incriminating Crimson. It was a perfect plan. "I doubt Dariv would have been that foolish."
"I didn't let the Knight Ranger get away! I was weight training!" Crimson exclaimed. He was furious no one would believe him. Even more so that one of his so-called teammates had framed him and was obviously a traitor. "Someone framed me."
Yellow laughed mockingly. "Oh just admit you screwed up and take your punishment like a man."
In a flash Crimson had Yellow pinned to the wall by his throat and was giving him a look full of fire and accusation, though it was completely lost behind his helmet. Yellow grunted with surprise and looked to Navy for help. Navy turned instantly and latched onto Crimson's shoulder only to receive a kick to his chest. Crimson tightened his hold.
"You framed me, didn't you! You want me out of the way so you can be leader!" Crimson accused.
Yellow didn't even skip a beat. "If I wanted you out of my way Terik, I'd kill you in your sleep."
"You don't have what it takes to kill someone."
"Alexi."
Crimson and Navy both winced at the name. They didn't want to remember Alexi or what had happened there. It was a sore spot with all of them, but none of the Psychos blamed Yellow for what he did. It had been either him or Alexi, there was no second place.
"You had no choice." Crimson finally said. "If you hadn't killed him he would have killed you. This isn't the same. You don't have the guts to kill someone in cold blood."
"So what if I don't? I can kill when it counts." Yellow retorted. "And if you keep this up it's going to count."
Navy made his move again, this time forcefully throwing Crimson across the hall to the other wall. He then placed himself between the two and stood defiantly. Crimson pushed away from the wall and growled low in his throat.
"Forget Zadan, it was you wasn't it?" Crimson snarled.
Navy smirked, but kept his reply neutral. "I don't want to be a leader Terik. Everyone knows I'm a follower."
"Yeah, Dariv's follower. You framed me so he could be leader again."
"Now you're just making things up." Yellow said. "It doesn't do you any good to run around accusing everyone without proof of anything."
"I know that one of you framed me!"
"You keep thinking that Terik. But if you ever attack me or Niko again you'll be sorry."
Navy watched Yellow walk away with surprise written all over his face and in his body language. He looked at Crimson and found his so-called leader seemed just as surprised. None of the Psychos really stood up for each other anymore. It was kind of a "fend for yourself" attitude most of the time. Sure they would kind of defend each other against outsiders, but inside the group it had become pretty cut throat. To see Yellow standing up for anyone else, let alone Navy, came as quite a surprise to the other two.
Crimson seemed to shake off the surprise and glared at Navy, using body language to express his anger. "Watch your back punk."
"Watch your own." Navy snarled back, unafraid.
Crimson snorted and then turned and sauntered away in the direction he had come from. Navy watched him go before deciding to follow Yellow. He wanted to know what was going on with his teammate.
ZzZzZ
Dustin looked around as he finished explaining his dream. Hunter and Blake looked thunder struck at the idea of having spirit animals. Shane had a thoughtful look on his face while Tori just looked excited. Sensei was the only one with no reaction, so Dustin guessed he probably already knew most of what he'd said.
"How do we find out what our spirit animals are?" Hunter asked.
"Call to them." Dustin replied without thinking.
"How?"
Dustin frowned and scratched his head. "I'm not sure. Apparently I did it without thinking about it."
"Might I suggest you all meditate?" Sensei spoke up. At the groans he received he gave them all as firm of a look as he could in his guinea pig form. "If you clear your minds and open yourselves up they might come to you."
"Is it even necessary?" Hunter questioned. "I mean, will our animal spirits really help us?"
Cam, who had been listening in the whole time, keyed up footage of the battle against Psycho Blue and called the others to look. They all stared in shock as Dustin glowed yellow, the lion emblem on his chest standing out the most, and his visor appeared to have bright white eyes. He looked more intimidating than ever before.
"How'd you do that?" Blake asked, in awe of what he was seeing.
"I called him." Dustin replied. "I called to him for help and his power just seemed to flow into me. It's a totally different feeling than the Elemental power."
"What did it feel like?" Tori asked. She was completely intrigued with the idea of connecting with their spirit animals.
Dustin scratched his head and thought about how explain it. "It felt like...courage, strength, and energy totally pushed out the fear and pain. It made me feel like I could do anything."
"It is something worth looking into." Sensei said. "I would like for you all to try and connect with your spirit animals. They may grant you the power you need to defeat the Psycho Rangers."
The rangers bowed respectfully to Sensei and then split up to try to contact their spirit animals. Cam watched them go, feeling the intense need to help. He wanted to do more than just advise them in battle and go through files on the Psycho Rangers looking for a weakness. He wanted to participate in the fight, get his hands dirty, and be physically involved for once. But he knew it wasn't possible. His father denied him even the chance of fighting. He sighed deeply and shoved the feelings away, seating himself at the computer to continue looking for something to use against the Psychos.
Hunter seated himself Indian style under a tree not far from Ninja Ops. He settled down and let his muscles relax, while trying to clear his mind at the same time. It's not that he disliked meditation, but he didn't really enjoy it either. It was just something he had to do, though sometimes he found it actually helped. At the moment he couldn't even clear his mind. His thoughts had been in a whirl ever since the Psychos showed up. His mind was filled with worries and doubts as well as trying to process every fight to the fullest to find some kind of flaw. Clearing his mind was next to impossible, but he finally managed to silence his thoughts and instead focused on breathing slow and calm. Soon he was completely relaxed, not thinking of anything at all, just opening himself completely to the world around him. Finding nothing in the world around him he turned his attention inward to his inner sanctum.
The temple loomed tranquil and comforting as it always did. He found it symbolized his inner strength as well as his knowledge. The more he learned and grew as both a ninja and a person, the more impressive his temple became. The land around it was as green as ever, the trees blowing slightly in the breeze of the ever present storm clouds. His thunder power was always present, especially in his inner sanctum.
At first everything seemed normal and nothing unexpected, just the energizing feeling he got whenever close to a storm. Then he realized there was something else there, a shadowy figure on the edge of his consciousness. It stopped just short of entering his inner sanctum as if waiting for his approval. Hunter hesitated briefly before pushing feelings of 'welcome' at the figure. Instantly the figure prowled forward, just to the right of the temple. Hunter smiled with approval as a full-grown tiger stalked into view, yellow cat eyes smiling.
"I thought you'd never need my help." The tiger said in deep soothing voice. "I'm glad you have finally called to me."
"I do need your help. I'm sorry it's taken this long for me to connect with you." Hunter said, mostly in surprise of the tiger talking to him. Sure Dustin had mentioned his lion spirit talking to him, but that was in a dream.
"You haven't needed me." Tiger replied wisely. "But now that you do need me, know that I am always here."
ZzZzZ
Blake's inner sanctum had always been a wide-open grassy plain. He liked the freedom to roam and not feel limited in anyway. It was relaxing and peaceful. The thunder clouds that hung over head energized him in a way that was more than physical. It gave his very soul a boost of energy making him feel extremely good in mind, body, and spirit.
Off in the distance at the barrier of his inner sanctum he felt something waiting. Without a thought he reached out with welcoming arms and was instantly rewarded. A pure black horse galloped into view, easily crossing the distance between them. It stood before him proud and more beautiful than Blake ever imagined a horse to be. There was strength and power in the horse.
"Took you long enough." The horse said, tossing his head.
"You didn't exactly make yourself known to me." Blake countered.
The horse relented at that. "No, I haven't. Its a shame it took you needing me for us to finally connect."
"We can make up for lost time."
"When the crisis is over." Horse agreed. "For now, call me when you need me and I'll be there."
ZzZzZ
Forming deeper connections with their spirit animals was no problem for Tori or Shane. The Hawk and the Dolphin seemed prepared as they called. So, it was that they returned to the main room of Ninja Ops to find the rest of the group already there. Blake and Hunter were telling Dustin about their spirit animals and the stories were repeated to Shane and Tori. A new feeling of hope filled the room and the team was clearly feeling stronger than ever.
They were going to need it.
As expected the good mood was broken by the announcement that the Psycho Rangers were back. They were apparently looking for Kale's ship. Obviously they wanted Psycho Blue's gem back, but they weren't going to get it. The rangers morphed and streaked out to meet their enemies.
No words were exchanged when the rangers arrived. The Psychos attacked immediately, some with more ferocity than usual. Red wished he could get a hold of the Yellow Ranger, but he knew he had to stay with his ranger and do his job. He was doing his job well too, bashing the red ranger from one tree to the next. He laughed at his opponent's attempts and tried to brutally crush all hope.
Crimson was taking on Tori and Hunter at the same time and was having no problems handling them both. He made it a point to throw them into each other or cause them to hurt one another in some way. He used his shield to deflect Tori's water attack at Hunter and laughed as the Crimson Ranger was knocked forcefully into a tree. Tori tried to go to her teammate's side, but Crimson caught her with a shield bash straight to the face.
Not far away Navy was trying to fight Blake and look convincing without actually dealing any damage. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Blake. In fact, since Kale broke the spell his attitude toward Blake had completely changed. Instead of feeling the need to destroy, he suddenly felt a keen urge to protect his counterpart. Maybe it came from the guilt of trying to destroy him, but whatever it was it was definitely strong. However, unfortunately for him Blake wasn't having any of the same feelings and he was going all out. He wanted so badly to say something to Blake, but he knew that they would never be able to convincingly fight if Blake knew the truth.
Dustin realized pretty quickly that Yellow seemed distracted by something. He noticed the Psycho Ranger kept them in a position so that Yellow could see Psycho Navy. He found it odd, but took advantage of his enemy's apparent off day. The last time he'd fought Yellow the Psycho had wiped the floor with him and the rest of the team. He felt it was only fair to repay him.
Out of the corner of his eye Hunter saw Blake get the upper hand on Navy and knew that they had the opportunity to deliver a staggering blow to the Psychos. He got close enough to Tori to tell her to try and keep Crimson busy for a minute before he streaked over to Blake. His brother seemed to sense him and his intention and pulled out his Navy Antler at the same time he drew his Crimson Blaster. They put them together quickly and took aim at their target. Then Hunter pulled the trigger. The powerful energy orb streaked toward Navy, but seconds before impact he was shoved out of the way and the energy hit a different color all together.
Navy watched with surprise and horror as Yellow was struck by the Thunder Blaster's energy. The blast consumed Yellow for a moment, but he could hear his teammate's suit sparking before he ever saw it. By the time he could see Yellow clearly again his fellow Psycho was demorphed and lying limp on the ground. Navy stumbled to his feet and rushed over to his injured comrade, feeling his heart tug at the thought of losing another teammate. He was relieved when he saw Zadan's chest rising and falling, but he could tell it was quick and shallow. Neither was a good sign.
"Oh that's great." Crimson grumbled as he and Red took up flanking positions to keep the rangers away. "Kalix is going to love this."
"Shut up Terik." Navy hissed angrily.
Crimson would have lunged at Navy, but Red caught him by the arm. "Leave him alone."
"Why are you all suddenly protecting each other again!" Crimson yelled in frustration. "And why the hell did he jump in front of that blast for you? Didn't he threaten your life a week ago?"
"Shut up Terik." Red and Navy both snarled.
Crimson growled. "I'm going to teach you both to respect your leader. Get back to the ship." With that he transported away.
Red glowered at the rangers as they stood watching them. He glanced behind him at Navy and found himself just as confused as Crimson about this new development. Something was going on with Navy and Yellow and he wanted to know what. He found it much easier to deal with them when they hated each other. With a sigh he transported away.
Navy hesitated. He knew suffering waited for him in the ship for letting something like this happen. All he wanted to do was hold Zadan just a few more minutes before enduring more pain than he was already in. In the end the decision was taken away from him as he was transported away.
The rangers had watched it all in stunned silence. They were all surprised Yellow had taken the hit for Navy. Before that none of the Psychos had really seemed to care about one another. Yellow and Navy had even almost fought each other on several occasions. Apparently, everything was not what it seemed with the Psycho Rangers.