Unfortunately, the peace and quiet wasn't going to last. As if on cue, the Psycho Rangers made their presence known as the rangers and Rina reached the mall.
"Rina, find a place to hide. We'll handle them," T.J. said, giving the girl a small shove towards the building where everyone else was fleeing to.
Rina glanced at the blue ranger before looking back at the six in front of them. She felt a wave of relief seeing Zhane amongst Astronema's evil rangers. Nodding slightly, she bolted towards a location away from the mall's interior while her friends found a place to morph.
"Silver, get the girl," Red ordered, a hint of glee in his voice at giving their new weapon a target that wasn't his own. Hearing the chuckle of Yellow beside him told him that he wasn't the only one glad for it. After all, none of them wanted to credit their victory against their counterpart to another.
/You damn cowards!/ Zhane yelled in his mind as his body acted on the commands given to him. It took nearly no time for him to corner the honorary ranger in a lot filled with a variety of construction materials.
Finding herself blocked, Rina glanced around and grabbed the closest thing she could find to use as a weapon while turning to face who had chased her. She was surprised that the Psychos would consider her to be a threat, but the sound of footsteps running after her told her to take no chances. But seeing Zhane was the one staring her down, that was even more of a surprise.
/Why did he come after me?/ She wondered, holding the metal pipe she'd grabbed up like a kind of sword and shifted her feet into a defensive stance. As if answering her thoughts, the sensation of desperation and anger and guilt hit her like a punch to the gut.
/Damnit, Rina! Don't just stand there! Get out of here!/ Zhane mentally shouted. He saw her choice of weapon and was certain that if she tried to fight him, it was going to end in disaster for the both of them.
The sight of the silver ranger's signature weapon, the super silverizer, caused Rina to become more guarded. Something was very wrong. Zhane would never draw his weapon on a civilian. And that feeling of dread and desperation grew stronger as the weapon was slowly aimed at her.
/Sorry, Zhane./ Rina lunged at the faux Psycho, shifting her grip on the pipe and swinging it like a bat at his outstretched arm.
/Ah! Son of a-/ Pain from the pipe's impact shot from his wrist and clear up through Zhane's shoulder. The stars hadn't even cleared his vision when another blow, this time to the back, knocked the wind out of him and forced him to his knees. /Holy shit… I'll be feeling that later./
It was the third blow, this time to his midsection that made him realize that he was wrong. Rina wasn't as defenseless as he had initially thought. He felt foolish that he had ever even considered her to be unable to protect herself, especially knowing she had lived with his best friend and the other rangers for who knew how long before he'd met her after waking from cryo. Seeing her now, at this moment, he was never going to see her as weak and defenseless.
/Babe, you're the only one I'm ever going to thank for kicking my ass,/ Zhane thought, mentally cringing from a fourth blow, this time to the head which knocked him flat on the ground and caused him to black out.
For a moment, Rina thought she had heard Zhane's voice as she swung the pipe at the silver psycho helmet. She shook it off for the moment and bolted, using her communicator to get D.E.C.A. to teleport her back onto the ship.
