Chapter 8: Five Freaking Miles

"This… is… nuts!" Chip panted heavily as they jogged along.

"You're… telling… me!" Nick replied, just as stained to keep up with Sky's insane training regiment.

When Sky had asked them if they wanted to train with them they'd kind of expected something more along the lines of sparring or weapons training or even pushups. But a five mile jog? If Nick had even wanted to become a jogger he wouldn't have bought a motorcycle. Who the hell was this guy anyways? Some futuristic Olympian? Or maybe a futuristic drill sergeant?

"Five… freaking… miles!" exclaimed Vida annoyedly. If she wasn't so angry about the insanity of the jog she probably wouldn't have the motivation to run it.

"Okay people, walk it off," Sky called out as he slowed down to a walk. "We've actually only gone about four miles but I feel pretty warmed up by now. I went jogging earlier this morning so…"

"You already went jogging?" Chip exclaimed disbelievingly as he leaned his hands on his knees, still gasping for breath.

"Well, yeah, but it was like at 5:30 so I've had plenty of rest since then."

"Wait a minute, you got up at 5:30 AM?" Vida asked, just as shocked as Chip.

"Well 5 actually," Sky replied matter of factly. "I wanted to grab something to eat first and I usually get a cup of coffee before I go."

"What? Are you like in the army or something?" Nick asked, giving Sky a disbelieving stare.

"Or something,"

The rangers just gave Sky a strange look before returning their focus to their own personal exhaustion. Sky gave the rangers an equally strange look though at their disheveled state.

"What's up with you guys?" Sky asked curiously, "Don't you ever do training sessions like this at all?"

Nick raised an eyebrow at Sky, "No, not really. I mean we train. We just don't… jog."

"Well, you might want to consider it. Jogging helps build stamina, which is something you need if you plan on fighting monsters for any length of time. They aren't going to stop just because you get tired." Sky added, emphasizing on his last statement.

"Hey," Vida said, suddenly getting defensive at Sky's condescending tone, "Just because we don't jog, doesn't mean we can't kick some monster butt."

Sky rolled his eyes. "I never assumed as much. I saw you guys fight. I know you're competent rangers. I was just suggesting that it would help. It never hurts to do a little extra training. If anything I'm sure you guys could show me a thing or two. I mean, what do you guys do in your daily training regiments?"

"Daily?" Chip replied, to which he received a sharp jab from Vida.

"We do a lot of… stuff. Too much to mention actually," she added hastily.

"Well, how about a little sparring then?" Sky asked. "You guys are warmed up right? Because we could always do that last mile if you want."

"No no no!" the Mystic rangers replied in unison receiving an odd look from Sky.

"I mean, uh, we're warmed up, right guys?" Nick said trying to cover their embarrassing outburst.

"Absolutely!" Vida replied.

"I don't think I could get any warmer!" added Chip.

"Well, there you go," Nick said unconvincingly as he got to his feet. The other rangers followed suit and automatically took their place on either side of Nick. "Ready guys?"

"Ready!" Chip and Vida replied.

"Magical source! Mystic –

"Wait a minute! Hold up!" Sky called out, stopping the rangers in mid morph.

"What on earth are you guys doing?"

"We were about to morph," stated Nick, sending Vida and Chip questioning glances.

"Why?"

"Because you said you wanted to spar," Chip replied.

"Yeah, sparring. As in hand to hand combat. As in you don't need to use your weapons, thus, you don't need to morph. I don't want to waste my morphing energy in case I'm not tapped into the morphing grid in this time period. You know? Better safe than sorry? Besides, it's not like you can't fight unmorphed."

The mystic rangers remained silent exchanging knowing glances. Sky, fortunately, didn't completely pick up on this.

"You can fight unmorphed, right?"

"Of course we can," Vida exclaimed. She may not be as strong without her morpher but she wasn't about to let this futuristic soldier boy show them up. She was already by far one of the best fighters on the team, and that was when she was morphed. Taking this guy on unmorphed shouldn't be that difficult. He wasn't morphed either anyways.

"Yeah, sure, we can handle it," Nick added as well. Since becoming a ranger he had already felt like his fighting skills has increased quite a bit. In his new magically infused state being he could probably wipe the floor with this snotty future ranger.

"Great," Sky replied, actually gracing them with an enthusiastic smile. "So, you guys want to break off into pairs or something?"

"Sure," Nick replied, a smirk spreading across his face. "How about we take turns? You and Vida can go first and then Chip and I."

"Are you sure it's a good idea putting him up against – OW!" Chip yelped as he was jabbed by Vida again.

"Don't worry," she said, a smile spreading across her face at the prospect of getting to take her frustrations out on the new ranger. "I'll go easy on him."

Sky merely looked at them queerly. "I don't think that'll be necessary but thanks."

"Be gentle V," Nick said, patting her on the shoulder, "but not too gentle."

Vida smirked. "Who me? Gentle is my middle name."

"O-kay," Sky said, shrugging off their odd behavior and taking a fighting stance, "I'm ready when you are."

With that Vida charged at Sky, swinging wildly. Sky quickly dodged the nearest punch thrown, while grabbing her arm at the same time. Still holding her arm he shifted his weight and used her own momentum to flip her over onto her back. The other rangers inhaled quickly, shocked by Sky's surprising skill. He held out his hand to Vida who was less shocked than angry. She swatted away his hand and quickly got to her feet.

"Are you alright?" Sky asked, genuinely concerned. He didn't think he'd be able to take the girl down so quickly after seeing her fight before but maybe he needed to take it easier with these rangers.

Vida only growled in response though and lunged at Sky. Seeing this coming, Sky quickly side stepped her attack and used her own momentum to trip her and once again send her sprawling across the forest floor.

"Can I make a sugge- Woah!" Sky yelled, barely avoiding Vida as she leapt wildly in his direction. Acting on instinct he quickly twisted her around pinning her arms behind her back before shoving her away at to a save distance. (Safe for him at least.)

This pattern repeated several times as Vida made her offensive attacks and Sky continued to counter her moves. Finally, after about the sixth fall, she was fete up.

"Alright," Vida huffed angrily as she got to her feet once more, "Enough of these games. We're rangers. I say we take this to the next level."

Sky looked at, quite perplexed by her statement. "I thought we agreed no morphing?"

A smirk spread across Vida's face. "Who said anything about morphing?"

With that Vida began spin towards Sky. Sky only stared at her strangely until he noticed her momentum quite quickly pick. Before he could even react Vida was engulf in a pink tornado knocking Sky back and sending him sprawling nearly twenty feet away.

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Sky as he painfully tried to pull himself back onto his feet. Vida, who by that point had resumed normal human form, walked over to Sky's fallen form.

"Just think of it as a blast from the past."

Sky rolled his eyes. "Cute," he stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I hope you know what this means by bringing powers into this."

"Enlighten me,"

"It means," replied Sky as he took a fighting stance, "That all rules (and bets) are off. And I'm also not going to take it easy on you any more."

Vida shrugged confidently as she took a fighting stance as well, "Bring it."b

To be continued…