Title: Thunder Gold
Author: Scyllablue
Rating: SLASH. Mature readers only.
Disclaimer: Does Disney own these boys? Well, I know I do not and nor is any profit being made.
Summary: The Wind Ninjas were not the only dojo with three morphers, but there's only one yellow Ranger to go around.
Pairing: Hunter/Dustin
Author's Note: Okay, Power Rangers has to be one of my guiltiest pleasures. The epitome of cheese, but good cheese, Blarney cheese rather than bland Edam. Really, really good cheese. lol. / indicates using their wrist communicator doohickeys. Please forgive if I goof on the titles, they do tend to get confusing. And I put their ages in their late teens. Did the show ever specify?
The Thunder Ninja dojo was quiet and dark, the dilapidated building deserted save for two ghosts that flitted through its long shadows. The dojo's former glory could be seen in the grace and material of its design, but recent battles had torn through its walls and left it exposed to nature's harsh fancy. Its once polished floors crept with dirt and vine, littered with broken statuary and weapons. The surrounding forest crept closer every day; the trees that had once protected the dojo now seeking to reclaim as the wood rotted and steel rusted.
A black booted foot kicked at a Buddha statue, the preternaturally loud thunking earning a hard glare. "Sorry," Blake muttered, looking anywhere but at his brother. The larger Thunder Ranger shook his head sharply, turning back to the tiles he was carefully prying up. It felt wrong to be doing this to their former home, but what choice was there? To exact revenge on Lothor for killing their parents and destroying the Thunder dojo, they needed to be at full strength.
They needed the Thunder Ninja Gold Ranger.
"I'm sorry, sensei, but there was an earthquake . . . no. Flood? Caught in a stampede to the Spring Sale at the mall? Man, I am so screwed," Dustin moaned as he ran through the woods. Punctuality was never something he excelled at, but usually he had his teammates Shane and Tori to ride him, make sure he got where he needed going. Not today, when he had to stay late at school to finish a chemistry project. If he'd left on time, he'd have made practice at the Wind dojo early for once. And really, was it his fault if Paul Jensen wanted to show him his new wheels? What, was he supposed to be rude to the guy and blow him off?
He hated that when he finally got to practice everyone would just roll their eyes at him, another example of 'Dustin the screw-up'. Like they expected nothing less. It was fun most of the time for people to treat him like an airhead. No expectations of genius meant that whenever he did manage to say something vaguely smart, everyone was impressed. Being Cam, their resident computer whiz and morpher designer, had to suck. Cam, the man with the plan. No thanks, Dustin was cool with just being Dustin, biker and Yellow Ranger. Point him at the bad guy and he was good to go. He didn't want to think; just ride and fight. But that didn't make him an airhead did it?
Dodging around a tree, the slender brunette frowned. Did questioning what made him an airhead make him one? Was it like that whole insanity argument: only sane people think they are insane? He'd have to ask Shane later, the guy was good for that kind of stuff. Tori would laugh or give him one of her pitying looks; Cam would likely just stare at him in bemusement before walking away, and he didn't want to think about the sensei. No thinking.
No thinking jumped immediately to images of his bike. Yesterday he'd finally managed to give her a total tune-up, but he doubted he'd get on her today. The sensei was probably going to have him doing katas until curfew for being late. Maybe tomorrow, but Shane had a thing tomorrow, and Tori wasn't interested since Blake disappeared off the face of the earth, so that meant he'd have to show alone. Which was cool, but it made him miss the two Thunder Rangers, who had both motorcrossed. Way above his league, but when they hadn't been trying to kill him or sabotage the Wind Rangers, they'd been cool with him. Especially Mr. Tall, Blond and Brooding, Hunter. Considering the attitude he gave the world, Dustin had always expected to find himself on the guy's shit list, but one on one Hunter had always seemed to treat him with . . . gentleness.
A weird word and Dustin blushed. Sure, if the Thunder Ranger wasn't so psycho and hadn't pulled a Houdini with his brother Dustin would most definitely be all into him, had been for all the few weeks they'd hung around, but why the 'what if's? Even if they showed up tomorrow, there was nothing Dustin had that he knew the older teen would want in a boyfriend. Serious kick ass into laid back klutz? Erm, no.
Breaking from the tree line, the young ninja didn't slow his pace. A waterfall cascaded into a wide pool before him: the hidden entrance to the Wind Ninja dojo. His sneakered feet barely impressed the water's surface as he ran across, anticipating the portal of white light that would transport him to the dojo. A flicker of air and it appeared, reassuring the teenager that his mentor wasn't so mad as to lock him out. With a relieved grin he pushed himself faster, determined to warrant as little groveling time as possible.
The portal blinked and before he could react, flashed red. With a pained grunt he rebounded off the suddenly solid surface and plunged beneath the water with a violent splash. When the ripples faded out there was no sign of the Yellow Wind Ranger.
A red light flashed through the trees, intersecting briefly with a similar blue streak before bouncing off again. Careening for miles in every direction they eventually circled back to stop within inches of each other, water lapping against their brightly colored boots as they caught their breath on the lake's shore.
"Anything?" Tori gasped.
"No," Shane, the Red Wind Ranger snapped, angry at their lack of results and his inability to think of a better plan than jumping around the countryside like an insane grasshopper. They knew someone had activated the portal to the dojo and that Dustin was the only one who could have, running late as usual to practice. Except, there was no Dustin.
/Shane/ A tiny voice piped from his wrist morpher, bringing him back to the here and now. Lifting his arm, he activated the transceiver as his black eyes locked with Tori's blue ones.
"Nothing, Cam. If Dustin was here, he's long gone now."
/That's not possible/ Cam objected. /He didn't activate his morpher, so he could only move at normal speed. Even at a flat out run, he-/
"I know how fast Dustin can run, Cam, I've chased his skinny butt often enough. Wherever Dustin's gone, he didn't get there on his own." Somehow, right outside the door to safety, the Yellow Wind Ranger had been kidnapped.
/I fear Shane is correct./ The sensei's voice didn't seem to come from the morpher so much as the air itself, but the Red Ranger shrugged it off as standard mystical ninja mojo. /Until Cam can find Dustin through his morpher or more conventional means, I want you both to return to the dojo./
Shane didn't like it, but couldn't think of an argument to let him continue searching. Following Tori back across the water, the ranger couldn't resist casting one last look back into the woods. Whomever had taken their imp had better prepare to suffer for it.
The brush dipped into the shallow bowl of clear liquid. A steady hand dragged it over the lip to catch any excess, then quickly sketched a glyph onto its warm canvas, only to repeat the process. The characters were small, the brush only holding a few hairs, plucked from the head his other hand cupped, holding back the longish curls. A few more strokes and the tiered glyph was done, glowing silver down the length of the spine before disappearing altogether.
"Wouldn't it have just been easier to find a new ranger?" Blake's weight dipped the other side of the mattress, thin fingers reaching out to lightly touch the Wind Ranger morpher still attached to Hunter's canvas.
"No. Unless you know of any ninjas Lothor hasn't imprisoned that are guaranteed to activate a yellow Ranger morpher?" When Blake just grinned in apology he brusquely nodded and carefully set aside his tools.
"Of course, having the hots for Pretty Boy helps, doesn't it?"
"Shut up and get me the morpher." The cold tone was ignored as the smaller Thunder Ranger glided to his feet and out of the room. Hunter didn't take his gaze from the slender teenager stretched out beneath him. Stripped to the waist and his baggy jeans tugged down till the base of his spine was exposed the only Yellow Ranger left on Earth was an exquisite vision of pale golden flesh and Hunter laid his large hand there, at the small of his back. In all honesty, he was uncertain what drew him to the often flighty brunette, but he wouldn't deny the attraction. Perhaps it was his earnest, unfailing innocence and hope. His brother fought to keep a cheerful front, but his eyes were as jaded and scarred as his own. Something bright, fragile, and unflinching within Dustin called for him to protect it, make it his own.
With efficient motion he rolled the Yellow Ranger onto his back and captured the wrist Blake had touched. Hours had elapsed since Dustin had literally run headlong into their trap and Hunter expected him to sleep for a time yet, knowing the energy drain from their Thunder Shield and being transported to have been great. Rotating his deceptively thin arm he smirked at the smooth band of the morpher, similar enough to his own to know where the hidden clasp was. Running his finger lightly over the geometrical swirls he released a small zap of electricity and the clasp clicked open.
"What are you going to do with it?" Blake asked as he came back into the room, holding a familiar small bundle of mud encrusted cloth.
"We need to get rid of it. I don't want Dustin finding it and those posers' computer geek might be able to track it somehow. Drop it in the ocean?"
"No prob." The Royal Thunder Ranger handed him the cloth and accepted the Wind morpher. "Maybe a shark will eat it or something." A mischievous grin and he disappeared.
Discarding the muddied rag Hunter took Dustin's slender hand into his larger one. Almost reverently he pressed a kiss to the back of his knuckles before fastening the new morpher to his wrist. "Everything will be different now, Dustin."
TBC?