The light blue VW van cruised slowly along the shabby neighborhood, looking for a suitable spot to park where it might be left unguarded for a while without it getting broken into or stolen altogether. There were not many such spots.

Orchid Park, on the dilapidated east side of the city, was also known as 'Dealer's Playground', where anyone – from the spoiled offspring of Blue Bay Harbor's upper-class citizens to the most strung-out street crackhead – could find just the kind of dope they were craving.

Dustin pointed to the left. "Over there. Looks halfway safe."

Tori pulled the van into the parking lot of a mini-shopping center and parked in the most well-lit area, right outside a large supermarket entrance. Since they hadn't been able to procure a car suitable for their charade, they had decided to walk the last block to the park.

She killed the ignition and for a moment, the three teenagers simply sat, mentally preparing for the performance they were about to put on.

Next to her in the passenger seat, Shane was a formidable figure in all-black: Sean John jeans, shirt and coat. Black Ray Ban sunglasses completed his appearance.

Dustin had chosen the 'designer-casual' look with Tommy Hilfiger jeans and brown leather jacket, accentuated with a gold loop earring and gold chain around his neck. Clipped to his belt were a cell phone, a pager and a Blackberry.

"Where in the world did you get that?" The Earth ninja pointed at Shane's wrist.

The Air ninja held it up to better reveal the expensive-looking Kenneth Cole watch and grinned. "Oh, Tori and I went shopping after we left Ops. Got that in the jewelry section at Sears. I kept the box and the receipt, so as long as it doesn't get scratched, I can return it within thirty days."

Dustin chuckled and rapped knuckles with his friend. "Smart move, my man."

Tori smiled as well. "Gotta love cash-less shopping. I put this here -" she touched the fur-rimmed collar of her thigh-length suede coat, "- on my Sears card and it has a 30-day return guarantee, too." She glanced at the wrist of her sleeve. "As long as the tag doesn't slip out."

Her smirk, however, lasted only a moment before she let out a sigh. "I feel like a circus clown," she lamented as she scrutinized her made-up face in the van's mirror.

"Actually, you look pretty darn hot," Shane said, casting her a long, appreciative look. "If Blake saw you right now, he'd probably finally work up the guts to ask you out."

Tori did indeed look the part of the sexy society brat. She was wearing the tightest jeans Dustin and Shane had ever seen her in and the low-cut beige cashmere sweater and knee-length, high-heeled boots added very nicely to the sexy effect she had aimed for.

"I wish," the Water ninja mumbled. She slipped on a pair of fashionable, yellow-tinted sunglasses and regarded her two fellow ninjas. "Ready?"

It took only a few minutes to reach the entrance of Orchid Park. Years ago, this park was a place where whole families would spend the entire day, women watching their children play while fathers were teaching their young sons how to fish in Orchid Pond.

Until the dealers moved in and took it over so completely that now only memories of good times past remained. Now the playground was abandoned, swings and slides rusting in the sun, the withered grass littered with trash and used syringes. The sight made Tori slightly nauseated. A quick glance to her left and right confirmed that her fellow ninjas were feeling

the same way. Dustin put a comforting arm around her shoulder and she instinctively reached around his waist, hugging him close to her as they kept walking.

A few figures were visible in the near distance, most of them propped up against trees or stretched out on the brown grass, but they were clearly all users. So Dustin, Tori and Shane stoically kept moving, ignoring the occasional remarks drifting towards them from the strung-out addicts all around; they were mostly obscenities or inquiries about cash.

"Dudes, I was just thinking...I don't even know how to ask for any of this stuff," Dustin suddenly said. "I mean, I'm sure there's some kind of lingo we got to use, right? If we want to sound genuine..."

A few yards up ahead, right before a bend in the pathway, stood a man dressed in an Army camouflage parka, jeans and heavy steel-toed boots. Although pale-faced and skinny almost to the point of gauntness, the man did not show any visible signs of the drug addictions that were so obvious in everybody else in his immediate surroundings. This man didn't use - he delivered.

He was casually leaning against a park bench, smoking a cigarette, but he straightened up when he saw the well-dressed trio coming towards him. Apparently, he could smell an impending deal from quite a distance.

"Leave the talking to me, then." Shane decided. "They've been showing re-runs of 'Miami Vice' on TV all last week and I'm sure I caught enough to get us through this."

Shane traded a look with Dustin and Tori, tried his best to ignore their wry looks and squared his shoulders. Not the place and time to be showing nerves...

The Red Ranger put on his poker face and resolutely approached the pusher. Tori and Dustin followed on his heels.

The dealer watched them with narrowed, wary eyes. He offered no greeting when they came to a stop in front of him. Neither did Shane. This close up, Shane suddenly noticed that the man was wearing the exact same cell phone model on his belt that was delivered to Cam yesterday in such an improper fashion. It had to be one of Morales' men.

"Whatcha got?" he said in a low, almost conspiratorial tone.

The scrawny man gave the trio a thorough look-over. "Whatcha need?"

"My friends and I are throwing a rave tomorrow and I was told that we could find the best-quality stuff here, but only from 'Morales Inc,'" Shane began. "You on that team?"

"Maybe," the peddler replied, vague and still suspicious. "Who told you to connect here? I ain't seen you around here before."

"Guy at the last rave party we went to."

"Who?"

Shane shrugged nonchalantly. "I didn't get his name. I might've asked his name, but I was so ripped at the time..." He shrugged again. "The name didn't stick."

Before the dealer could say anything, Dustin broke in. "Shouldn't matter who sent us here, anyway. What should matter to you is that we're here to seriously make your day, dude."

Shane nodded. "Look, this is kind of our first time doing this, but…"

"You don't say," the dealer remarked wryly.

"...but we want everyone who comes to our party tomorrow to be blown away by it, so we need to be hooked up in a major way."

Now there was a spark of interest in the man's askant gaze. "How 'major' are we talking?" he wanted to know. "Couple of Ben Franklins?"

Deliberately slowly, Shane took off his Ray Ban's. "More like a couple of G's," he replied, fixing the dealer with as sincere a gaze as he could muster. If they didn't snag him now, the whole deal would certainly fall through. The man looked at them, then at the ground, contemplating.

"A rave, huh?"

"Not a rave, babe; the rave," Tori said, then blew a chewing gum bubble before she continued. "This is gonna be the most slamming party ever!"

Having apparently come to the conclusion that these three snobby, yet obviously inexperienced kids could not possibly be undercover police, greed was now rapidly taking precedence over caution with the dealer and his eyes took on an eager gleam. "All right, so what're you looking for? I can get you Crystal T, Fairy Dust, Binkies, Quartz, M&M's, E,…"

Shane jumped on the only word he recognized. "Definitely some E pills. How much for those?"

"They're an Abe a bean." The dealer rolled his eyes at the three uncomprehending stares he received. "Five bucks a pill."

Dustin snorted derisively. "That's too cheap to be good quality stuff." He let his gaze drift over the other dealers in the area. "Maybe we should…"

"Hey, hey, I don't sell no bad trips here, okay?" their pusher exclaimed, indignant. "This is the corner for the best stuff anywhere in Blue Bay. Besides, everyone else around here works for J. M. too, so you might as well stick with me."

The man relaxed visibly as the three teens turned towards him again. Eager to please now, he let out a crooked grin and said, "You'll be lit up for at least an hour on my E. Cloud nine. Guaranteed."

Shane, Dustin and Tori traded exaggerated looks, pretending to seriously contemplate the sales pitch. Then Shane nodded, shooting off an order from the hip.

"All right. We need at least a hundred...Binkies, three to four dozen pops of E. and a few hundred bucks worth of M&M's. And we need it today!"

The scrawny man's eyes promptly narrowed again. "That's a lot of stuff for a coupla joy poppers like you." He looked once more from Shane to Dustin and Tori, scrutinizing them for a long moment before he scratched his head. "Some party you're planning there."

From her position still snuggled into Dustin's side, Tori smiled seductively. "Believe it."

"I would have to make a call first."

"You do that," Shane nodded, schooling his game-face for his next words. "And once you got your boss on the line, I want to talk to him myself about the price of his supplies."

The dealer immediately shook his head, frowning. "No way, man." But Shane matched him glare for glare.

"Listen, this order is too large for me to risk dealing with anyone else but your main man. I'm not used to dealing with brokers. Whenever I make a purchase, I don't deal with the first clerk that comes my way the minute I walk into the shop - I go straight to the store manager. And I don't plan on changing that habit now, you understand?"

The dealer, however, was resolute. Clearly, he was worried about being cut out of the commission for this deal. "I'll call Ju.. – my boss - but I'll be the one talking to him!"

Shane sighed exasperatedly and held up his hands. "All right, fine," he relented. "But you tell him we want to meet him when we pick up the merchandise. At that large a quantity - and that high a price - I wanna make sure we get everything we're paying for." The Red Ranger put an extra dose of snobbishness into his smirk.

The dealer started to protest again, but Dustin quickly stepped in. "Hey, those are the conditions, dude. Morales delivers the wares. Otherwise, no deal."

"The boss doesn't work that way," the pusher snapped, but the three teens were unfazed. Shane folded his arms across his chest. "He better make an exception this time, because if we close this deal to our satisfaction, and the party's a success, we'll want to do it again. And who knows - the next one might be twice as big, so we'll need a whole lot more supplies…" He let the sentence trail off and the implication worked on the pusher, for the man held up his hands.

"All right, all right, lemme see what I can do, 'kay?" One hand dropped to his belt, unclipping the cell phone while he took a few steps away from them. Shane, Tori and Dustin waited in tense silence while he spoke in murmured tones for a few minutes. Several times during the one-sided conversation, he glanced at them, but finally, he flipped the phone shut.

"All right, guys, all taken care of," he announced when he rejoined their little circle.

Now it was Shane's turn to narrow his eyes suspiciously. "Really? Morales had no problem with the...uh, personalized delivery?"

"Nope," the pusher replied, giving them a crooked grin which looked just a bit too amused. "Mr. M. said to meet him here at six tonight and he'll have your order ready and waiting for ya. Also told me to tell you that he hopes this will be the start of a mutually beneficial business relationship. Just don't expect your stuff to come gift-wrapped."

The skinny pusher chuckled at his little joke, pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his parka pocket and lit a stick.

Shane cast a glance at his two friends and in their eyes he saw the reflection of his own thoughts; seemed almost too easy.

But since they had to keep up the appearance of being pleased about the deal, they grinned at each other and Shane stuck his hand out to the dealer. "All right, man..."

The pusher ignored the gesture and instead took a long drag on his cigarette, speaking as he exhaled. "I guess I'll see y'all back here at six, then."

The dismissal was obvious, but Shane, Dustin and Tori gladly adhered to it and made their way down the path back towards the park's entrance. The encounter had left them all with a bitter taste in their mouths and the pressing urge to take a long shower.

They had almost reached the entrance of the park again when suddenly, Dustin's cell phone went off. The display window showed Hunter's number. Dustin cast a worried glance at his friends; the team had agreed that the Thunders and Cam would wait for the Winds to call when they were on the way back. So why would Hunter call them? A bad feeling surged through Dustin as he flipped open the phone. "Hello…"

Ninja Ops, a little earlier…

Cam rubbed his eyes, sighing. This was the third time in the past hour that his vision had become blurred to the point where he could not make out the individual lines on his computer screen anymore.

Behind him, disconcertingly alert to any changes in Cam's condition, Hunter said, "I think you should stop, Cam. You need to con..."

"Conserve my energy," Cam spoke to his screen. "Yes, I know, but I have no intention of letting Dustin, Tori and Shane be out there unmonitored." He indicated the three pulsating dots on the huge screen. "And on top of that, there are still Zord upgrades I have to do." And I don't know how much time I still have for all this, he added silently.

A firm hand on his shoulder made him glance up. Hunter was solemn.

"Cam, please. Rest. I can monitor the Winds' morpher signals from here."

Cam regarded his partner and there was something almost imploring in Hunter's gaze as the blond ninja looked back at him. "Okay."

Knowing that he would have a hard time rising from the chair on his own, Cam wordlessly held out his hand to Hunter. The Thunder Ranger reached for it and hoisted him out of the chair.

Cam moved stiffly and practically fell into the couch cushions. He had just closed his eyes when the silver cell phone rang.

Across the room, Blake froze from his shadow-boxing, and Sensei looked up sharply from the book he was pretending to read. Everyone stared at the phone for a moment before Hunter picked it up from where it lay on the computer console and, with an apprehensive glance at Cam, handed it to him.

Cam sighed; no need to wonder who this would be.

"Yes?"

"Cameron, my friend, you amuse me to no end." Julio Morales sounded genuinely tickled. "That ridiculous charade your three friends just pulled..." the drug lord chuckled. "I can't remember the last time I had such a good laugh."

Dread and despair made Cam squeeze the phone in a white-knuckled grip. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Aw, come on. I just got off the phone with my boy from Orchard Park and the moment he was describing his three 'buyers' to me, I knew who they were. They might as well have worn their Ranger suits." Morales laughed again. "They might be good monster-fighters, but they are horrible actors. So call them off and stop wasting my time and yours; get to putting my money together instead.
"You've already exceeded the normal amount of time a body can function without sleep, so I reckon you probably have less than twenty-four hours now," Julio concluded matter-of-factly. "So how about this: instead of meeting your friends at Orchard Park tonight at six, I will be meeting you thereat six for our little exchange of presents. If you can still manage to walk by then, that is."

Morales was clearly enjoying this immensely. "Hasta luego, my friend," he said cheerfully and terminated the connection before Cam had a chance to reply.

The samurai looked up to meet his partner's enquiring gaze. "He knows," Cam murmured feebly as he tossed the phone onto the command table where it landed next to Kanoi.

Sensei said nothing, but the look in his lucent black eyes spoke volumes. Cam evaded the chagrin he saw there by letting his head fall back into the couch cushion and slinging an arm across his eyes.

"Hunter," he heard his father say. "Contact the Winds, please. Pull them back."

While Hunter was calling Dustin, Cam suddenly felt a familiar small weight land on his chest. He raised the crook of his arm just enough to squint one-eyed at his dad.

"Cam," Sensei implored. "We can still try to purge the poison using our ninja healing powers. I believe we might be successful if all of us combine our efforts."

"Dad, I thought we had established the understanding that we first needed to know exactly what it is we're trying to neutralize here."

"Yes," Sensei admitted, "but since we do not possess this knowledge we will just have to go off the little bit of information Julio Morales has disclosed to you earlier."

Blake, who had settled himself on the edge of the command table near Cam's head, now chimed in. "I think at this point it's as good a plan as any, Cam. Otherwise - " The younger Bradley consulted his wrist watch. "It's almost three now. That means we have about three hours left to figure out how to either get our hands on Morales - or how to get our hands on the five hundred thousand dollars floating a few hundred miles above our heads."

Three hours. Cam ran a hand through his hair. Three hours and they still weren't an inch closer to somehow getting together half a million dollars. Cam knew that the Wind Academy's bank accounts were still active at Harbor Federal Bank, but he had given only half a fleeting thought to that possibility. No way was Morales getting his dirty hands on his father's hard-earned money, even if the funds from those accounts were enough – which they weren't.

No, there had ever only been one choice, really. They had to find the antidote within the next several hours.

A few feet away, Hunter had concluded his call to Dustin and picked up the discussion where Blake had left off. "Maybe we can try to sneak onto the ship?" he suggested without much conviction.

"Been there, tried that, didn't work, remember?" Cam reminded him. "The shields around it were too strong then, and I'm sure Lothor has upped his surveillance and security even more since that attempt."

"I suppose we couldn't just ask Lothor for the bag?" Blake mumbled mostly to himself only to promptly receive three highly wry looks. "Uhm, yeah, forget it," he said sheepishly. "Stupid idea."

From his position on Cam's chest, Sensei addressed his three students. "We shall wait for Shane, Dustin and Tori to return and then we will try the combined healing-power technique," he decided and the next few minutes passed in contemplative silence until several shuffling noises from the stairs announced the arrival of the Wind ninjas.

Dressed once again in their leather training suits, the three teens all but bowed before their mentor and teammates in shame at their failure, anger and misery radiating from every one of them. However, no words of apology were uttered; the Rangers all understood that what little time remained was not to be wasted with drawn-out apologies.

"I just can't believe he saw right through us," was Tori's only doleful comment.

From the couch, Cam waved a tired hand. "Yeah, well, that's why he's on top of the drug food chain in this city." He put his arm back over his eyes just as the Blue Ranger gave him a look that was virtually dripping with guilt.

Sensei took that moment to hop from Cam's chest onto the command table and immediately proceeded to fill the Wind Rangers in on the next agreed-upon plan.

But the more Cam listened to his father instructing his students how to most efficiently tap into their inner healing powers, the more futile that plan was beginning to sound to his over-exerted brain. He lowered his arm from his eyes to voice his skepticism once more, but when his gaze focused on his teammates, the words died in his throat and his eyes widened in disbelief. The five people in the room with him had changed.

Physically, Shane, Tori, Dustin, Blake and Hunter were still the same, but the exposed skin of their hands and faces were now tinted with their respective Ranger colors. Cam gaped at his teammates. Hunter's blond hair made his crimson complexion even more fiery-looking. It was a downright frightening sight. His boyfriend looked like a boiled lobster – or the devil.

'Hallucinations! Has to be!' The small part of Cam's brain that was still thinking rationally was telling him. Heart pounding, he squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his temples. He took a few deep breaths before he dared to open them again to find the Crimson Ranger's blue eyes regarding him worriedly from a face that – mercifully – was now back to his normal, pale skin tone. Thank God.

"Cam? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a headache." It's getting worse; we have to act fast. All previous qualms forgotten now, Cam schooled his face into a blank expression. "Let's just go ahead with Dad's plan."

And while Cam transferred from the couch to a lotus position on the floor, the Wind and Thunder ninjas arranged themselves in a tight circle around him, kneeling close enough to each touch a different part of the samurai's body. Shane and Hunter each claimed a shoulder, Dustin placed his hand flat on his back, Tori had her palm pressed firmly against his heart and Blake's hand was touching his thigh. With their free hands, the Rangers also touched each other, each connecting with the teammate beside him or her to form an unbroken circle of energy. Cam cupped his hands in his lap and Sensei somersaulted onto his son's open palm.

"Rangers," he addressed his team solemnly. "You must clear your heads of everything but the task before us. Focus wholly on your healing powers. You all know how to do this; all of you have used your skills before, whether on yourselves or on others."

At that, Hunter's gaze reflexively locked with Shane's for a moment, both remembering their not-brief-enough time as Lothor's captives, when the evil space ninja had used them as test subjects for his latest and most ferocious monster. ((See footnote))

If it hadn't been for Shane and his healing powers, Hunter would most likely not have survived that encounter. Facing impending death, Hunter had also made certain revelations to Shane that day and so far the Red Ranger had been true to his word and kept quiet about it.

In silent consensus, the Rangers took a joint deep breath and closed their eyes as each of them reached inside themselves to connect with and disperse their healing energy towards Cam. Ninja Ops was utterly quiet while the teens drew strength and confidence from one another as well as from Sensei, who was still kneeling inside Cam's open palms and had his son's wrists gripped with tiny hands. An aura of healing seemed to surround the Wind teacher and for the next few minutes every thought of everyone in the room was concentrated into channeling cleansing energy into their stricken teammate.

They were so intently focused that the sudden blaring of the monster alarm startled them all enough to jump halfway out of their skins. No one made a move to get up, but the damage was done; the Rangers' concentration was broken.

"Aw man, we so don't need this right now," Blake moaned.

Sensei let out a heavy sigh and his tiny shoulder sagged. "Let us see what Lothor is up to this time."

Hunter was mumbling something unintelligible under his breath as he shot to his feet and made his way towards the Supercomputer while the rest of the team scrambled to their feet as well.

"What's up with all these attacks lately?" Dustin snapped. "It's almost like Lothor's collaborating with Morales or something."

With obvious effort, Cam pushed himself up from the floor. Once upright, he swayed and Shane quickly reached out to steady him. Hunter shot his partner an inconspicuous look. Cam had almost completely lost his usual, easy grace by now and it worried Hunter tremendously. It was a disconcertingly visual sign for the samurai's rapidly deteriorating condition, for even despite the amulet's power boost, Cam seemed to get weaker by the hour.

Cam collapsed into his desk chair and zoomed in on the disturbance while behind him, the team assumed their morphing positions. By the time they had transferred into their suits, Cam's computer had already devised a battle strategy. Which was a good thing, because Cam's mind could no longer stay focused enough anymore to come up with one of his own.

After the morph, the Rangers assembled around Cam as the screen revealed not one, but two of Lothor's already giant-sized monsters materializing at the beach. They leveled the lifeguard tower and its adjoining cabana rental booth before they turned to make their way towards the city. One of them was picking its teeth with the pole of a beach umbrella.

"Great, a new tactic. Tag teaming," Hunter grumbled. "Just what we need right now."

Cam scowled at the screen. "Can't let them reach the city. Better get a move on, guys. I'm sending the..." Cam paused, blinking. He meant to say Zords, but could not for the life of him dredge the word from the background of his foggy mind. "...machines," he finished

lamely, avoiding the team's concerned glances by doggedly staring at the screen and hitting command keys. Thankfully, even though he could not remember the names of the Rangers' battle robots, he still recalled how to release them from the underground bay.

He felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder, then Hunter's voice. "I can stay..."

"No." Cam shook his head resolutely. "From the looks of those freaks, it's going to take all of you to bring them down." Cam fixed his tired eyes on Hunter, resisting the impulse to put his hand over his partner's. "I'll be all right, don't worry."

Hunter's eyes flickered between Cam and the computer screen for a long moment, then the Crimson Ranger gave a hesitant nod. "All right. Then I'll see you in a little while. We'll try to make this quick."

Hunter was the last one to streak out of Ninja Ops, obviously very reluctant to be leaving at all. The city was in danger, however, and that took precedence over everything. Cam stoically kept himself from looking over his shoulder until he sensed that he was alone. Only then did he give in to the dismayed sigh that was building up in the back of his throat. He raked his hands through his hair and tried to focus on the screen in front of him, deliberately ignoring the steadily pulsing pendant beneath his shirt.

((footnote)) See: Shades of Red

To Be Continued…

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing the drug deal scene. A big thanks to Camille for some very helpful links that resulted in a lot of good information on illegal drugs and dealer lingo.