"Freeze".
Everything turned black and white.
"Oo!" "Ahh." "Aw." Each of the rangers exclaimed as they landed with a hard thud on the floor of ninja ops. "Sensei, what happened?" Shane asked quickly standing.
"I had to use my ninja powers to stop time for a moment, like I did when Cam had to get the power source."
"But what do we do now father?" Cam asked distressed. "We got ourselves into a real mess this time."
"What about Tori?" Blake asked cutting into Cam.
"Tori will remain frozen in time like the others." Sensei said and then turned to Cam and the others, "I understand the situation you have got yourselves into rangers. I also know however that the decision as to what to do is your to make. I have given you an hour to think about what can be done. After that hour is up, you will find yourselves fading away and will be at the place where Doc, Edward, Mary and Max are right now. Chose wisely rangers. I trust you to do so."
"So, we give Lothor the power source and Edward and Mary get their son back safely. But if we do, we can't use the power source to revive Tori." Dustin said out loud.
"What's the guarantee that Lothor will return Max safely? And the power source in Lothor's hand could mean serious trouble." Blake pointed out angrily, "So that means we use the source for good and save Tori." The others looked at him, but couldn't agree.
"Okay, sit down everyone. We have to think this through carefully. We all care for Tori. That goes without saying. I…we all want to save her. But…?"
"But what?" Dustin asked
"But, we have to think of our duty as rangers as well." Hunter finished for Shane and the latter threw him a grateful look. It had been too hard for him to say.
"Is there any way we can do both at once?" Dustin asked, "Now that time has been frozen for us?" he clarified before anyone thought he was nuts for asking.
"No. Whatever happens has to happen in real time. It's the way it works." Cam answered.
"What happens if Lothor gets the power source?" Hunter asked turning to Cam."
"We get Max back. Besides which," he quickly added as Hunter threw him a look, "Lothor can't access the power unless he has the correct password. Something even Edward and Mary can't reveal and he knows that. His main objective is to get the source and keep it with him."
"Well we can't just hand it to him anyway." Blake said.
"Yes, and we weren't going to anyway. We were to give Doc the source until Max was safe and then go for him, and hopefully get the source back." Shane told him.
Dustin hung is head, "I don't know. I don't know. Damn it, I want Tori to be okay."
Hunter put an arm around his shoulders, "We all do bro."
"So what are we going to do?" Cam asked them all, his hands folded.
"We have ten minutes left." Hunter informed the others breaking the tense silence that had hung about the room for more than half an hour. "Bro, you okay?" He was concerned about Blake. He had been thinking things over and had suddenly realized what deep rooted feelings Blake had for Tori.
Blake turned around to face him, but said nor implied anything. It was in his eyes he was determined to save Tori, one way or another. The others looked at him too, but Blake fixed his eyes on Shane, the leader of the team.
"Our ranger duties come first. We go as planned, fight to get the source back and save Tori with it." Shane said slowly. But the others didn't berate him for it. They could see it took courage and lots of pain for him to admit that. "We can't let Edward and Mary down. Blake?"
"I think about it, and I think Tori would want us to save Max, because that's who she is. The heart of this team. And I…" he paused to steady himself, "I want to do what Tori would want."
Realization hit the team, and hard. Blake was in love with Tori.
"Take him on guys!" Shane whispered fiercely. "Stick to the plan. Here's the power source!"
Shane recklessly threw the power source to the side of Doc. The plan worked. Doc released Max to go for the source. The boy ran towards his mother and father. Cam rushed to all of them and ninja streaked with them taking them to a safe place.
It was now Shane, Dustin and Hunter with the monster. "Go for it boys!" Dustin yelled.
The rangers found themselves moving in to attack Doc. But the monster had already got the source in his hands. At which time Lothor found it rather convenient to send down lots and lots of kelzacks, and grow Doc into a huge monster.
"Time for the Hawk zord! Hunter, Dustin, get rid of the kelzacks." Shane called out before he jumped into his flying machine.
"Bird's the word Doc, remember that!" Shane yelled as his Hawk Zord zoomed around Doc creating a trail of flames.
"Got room for me?" Cam in his zord called out. He didn't wait for an answer as he realeased a power sphere and whacked Doc. "That one was for me. This one's for Tori!" Another hit on the monster, who then retaliated by sending bolts of lightening towards Cam's zord. "Ahh!"
"That's calling my name!" Hunter yelled seeing the bolts of lightening.
"Then join in bro!" Blake called out, his voice fierce as he manned his beetle zord.
"Make way for the lion Zord too!" Dustin called out as he finished the last of the kelzacks.
Doc had them all hanging on to their seats though when he fired shots at them all.
"Shane, Dustin, go for him. Hunter, Blake let's from the samurai thunder zord and show this guy what's it's all about!" Cam yelled.
"Oh yeah!" Blake and Hunter called out.
"Take that!" Shane and Dustin yelled as their zord's fired out blasts.
"Our turn now. Locked and dropped." Their sword appeared and they attacked Doc with it.
"This one's on me. Tori, for you!" Blake yelled as they dealt Doc the final blow.
"No!" The monster screamed as he was blown up.
"Where's the source?" Shane asked, and he and Dustin –now out of their zords- looked for it desperately.
"Hurry guys. She's getting worse." Blake's voice came through the communicator.
"What's this?" Hunter asked as he picked up a shard of purple gem.
Cam came running over. "Shane! Dustin! It's the source." He waited until the others had joined them. "Oh no. It's been destroyed."