Thursday, 9:13 a.m.
Blue Bay Harbor, California
It was a beautiful day.
The sky was a perfect shade of blue, without a cloud in sight.
Patches of sunlight streamed through the treetops overhead, warming her face whenever she walked through one, and a gentle morning breeze ruffled her hair gently.
"We're almost there," Shane called from ahead of her.
He glanced back at her over his shoulder, frowning in concern when he noticed that she was trailing behind, so Tori flashed him a smile to let him know everything was all right. She was just taking her time, using the hike up the bluffs as an excuse to clear her mind.
She'd been anxious for days now, counting down to the coming weekend.
To the Nationals up in Reefside, the final AMA race of the year.
To Blake's homecoming.
He'd been home to visit for a few days the month before, but the visit had been all too short and she'd had to share him with Hunter, of course.
They had joint custody of Blake, as Hunter liked to joke.
He wanted to see his brother as much as Tori did during the brief trips Blake could manage back to Blue Bay Harbor, but Hunter somehow managed to make sure that he disappeared for a while over the weekend so that the two of them could find some time alone.
Time together was precious these days, due to Blake's hectic schedule, and sometimes it felt like he was being whisked away again when he'd only just gotten home.
She'd known it would be that way when she agreed to marry him, though.
Blake hadn't made any effort to sugarcoat how difficult the first few years would be while he was still riding for Factory Blue, but they both knew he wouldn't be riding forever.
What he was going to do after that, she didn't know and she doubted Blake did either.
He'd toyed with the idea of teaching, since he had an open invitation at both the Wind and Thunder Academies, and had mentioned something about maybe opening up a motocross school for kids someday the last time they talked about the future.
For now, he was loving the life of a racer, and Tori was happy for him, even if it meant they spent so much time apart.
She had known it would be hard to say goodbye when he left for the start of the season just four months after they got married, but in her heart Tori had known it was worth it, that a little loneliness now and then at this point in their lives was nothing when they had their whole lives to share with one another. Her parents hadn't been fully supportive of the idea at first, but they'd genuinely liked Blake and once they realized she was going to marry him whether they agreed or not, they'd done their best to make not only Blake but Hunter, as well, feel like part of their family.
As for Hunter, well, he still claimed that Blake would never have worked up the nerve to ask her if he hadn't kept prodding his little brother about it.
He liked to bring that up from time to time, to remind her that she owed him.
Usually when he wanted to borrow her van.
Even before Blake proposed to her, Tori had found herself spending a lot of time with Hunter whenever Blake was on the road with Factory Blue.
Although she and Hunter had been friends before, it was during Blake's absence that they really connected.
They were both missing Blake, so they'd initially bonded over that, but with Dustin always busy with Marah and Shane so focused on the Wind Academy, soon enough she and Hunter had sort of fallen into a comfortable routine.
She talked to him almost every day by phone, to trade horror stories about their students or just to catch up.
And at least once a week Hunter would streak back to Blue Bay Harbor and they'd have lunch and hang out for a while. Sometimes they'd see a movie or something with Dustin, Marah and Shane, and Cam would join them when he had time, but usually it was just the two of them. That was when they ended up either at the track- where Hunter did his best to help her improve her riding- or at the beach- where she'd spent several weeks teaching him to surf.
He turned out to be a better student than Blake, though not as entertaining to watch.
Not to mention a better motocross teacher, but Tori suspected that might have been because with Blake she was always too distracted by how close he was to her.
Or maybe Hunter was just a natural at teaching.
He'd certainly surprised them all with how quickly he'd fallen into the role of sensei.
The first time she'd visited him at the Thunder Academy, with Dustin in tow, Tori had been taken aback by how serious and calm Hunter could be when there were students present.
As soon as the students left, though, he and Dustin were right back to their old selves.
He was still brooding and intense, but there was a lightness in him that wasn't there when they first met. Teaching agreed with him better than she would have expected, especially his classes with the younger students, all of whom practically idolized him. The preteen girls had crushes on him, the boys wanted to be him... Sensei Bradley, as one of her own students had pointed out once after Hunter visited the Wind Academy and guest-taught a class, was cool.
Although Hunter was technically a year older than she was, in some ways Tori felt like she'd watched him grow up in recent years.
Their time as Rangers had changed them all.
Dustin was wiser now, more thoughtful beneath his playful exterior. He was the sensei that students having difficulty went to for help, because he somehow managed to point out their mistakes without making it seem like he was correcting them.
And Shane, he was the sensei all the students wanted to be like.
Strong, stoic, but still approachable.
He'd become a younger version of Sensei Watanabe in a lot of ways, at least while they were on Academy grounds.
Hand him a skateboard and he was still that thrill-seeking teenager she remembered.
And he was still as competitive as ever.
With the annual InterAcademy demonstration match fast approaching, both Shane and Hunter were focused on preparing their best students.
It was a friendly competition, of course, with the Thunder Academy playing host to not only the students from the Wind Academy but also to students from three other Ninja Academies across the country, but Shane and Hunter always managed to turn it into a macho contest over whose students were better.
This year, though, Tori had a few promising students of her own.
Maybe it was wrong, but she was secretly hoping that Mei-Lin, her fourteen year old prodigy student, would wipe the floor with Hunter and Shane's favorites.
Just to wipe those smug looks off their faces.
"Dude, how stoked are you for this weekend?" Dustin's voice drifted back to her ears, and Tori couldn't help smiling at his enthusiasm. "The Nationals are going to rock, and Blake is totally going to kick ass."
Same old Dustin.
As much as they'd all grown up since their days as Rangers, all of them with their own lives to lead now, it was nice to know some things never changed. Dustin might have been a respected sensei, but he was still the same lovable goof he'd always been.
"Pretty 'stoked', man," Shane answered, and she could practically hear him his eyes rolling in his tone. "Seriously, though," he said, looking back over his shoulder at Tori. "It's gonna be awesome to see Blake in action again. It's been ages since I was able to get out to one of his races. Watching them on tv just doesn't have the same kick."
"Tell me about it," Tori said wryly.
Of course, when Blake's races were televised she got a play-by-play from Dustin and Hunter, who insisted on shouting at the tv as if Blake could hear them.
"I just wish we could have gone up for the whole week," Dustin bemoaned, kicking at a stone in his path.
"Yeah," Tori sighed. "Me, too."
Dustin gave her a sympathetic look and Shane shook his head. "Don't look so down, you guys," he told them, climbing the crest of the hill. "First thing after classes let out for the weekend, we're piling in the van and heading up to Reefside. And Marah offered to pay for the gas, remember?"
"Good thing, too," Dustin muttered. "It'll mean she has less money to go shopping with."
Tori hid a smile at that.
Marah and Kapri were legendary for their need of shopaholics anonymous, and the last time that the girls came home from a day at the mall, Tori knew that Dustin had nearly gone pale looking at the receipts.
It was lucky for him that they'd had Sensei's credit card and not his.
After leaving Lothor and helping them defeat his little army of evil minions, Marah and Kapri had ended up moving in with Sensei Watanabe, decidedly the more tolerable uncle, and they'd even adopted the Watanabe name as their own after living at the Wind Academy for a while.
Cam was mostly exasperated by his cousins, but Tori knew he had a certain affection for them just the same.
Kapri took some getting used to. Reformed though she might be, she hadn't lost all of her abrasive qualities just yet, and Tori thanked fate every day for the fact that Cam had taken his cousins into one of his classes, so that she hadn't gotten stuck with Kapri.
Marah, it turned out, though, was pretty cool.
She was a little too bubbly sometimes for Tori's tastes, but it was nice to have a girl around in their little boy's club.
And she made Dustin happy, which was good enough for Tori.
"There he is," Shane's voice broke through her reverie, and Tori lifted her head to see Sensei Watanabe in the distance, standing on the edge of the bluffs and staring out at the ocean.
"Sensei," Tori called worriedly. "Is everything all right?"
"No, Tori," he sighed, turning to face them with a troubled look. "I am afraid it's not."
"Dude, you don't look so hot," Dustin observed with a frown, as the three of them drew to a halt in front of their teacher. "I mean... no offense or anything."
The corners of Sensei Watanabe's mouth twitched faintly. "None taken, Dustin."
"So," Shane cleared his throat. "What's up?"
"He is back," Sensei Watanabe pronounced softly, turning his head to stare out at the ocean once more, as if could somehow provide him with the answers he was seeking. "Lothor is back."
Tori drew a sharp breath, her chest tightening.
"Wait," Dustin said, shaking his head. "Lothor can't be back."
"Yeah, no way," Shane agreed.
"We saw him disappear into the Abyss of Evil," Tori added, and looked to Sensei Watanabe for confirmation, but he just smiled sadly, his eyes dim with something she couldn't quite define, and her heart sank as she realized that he was serious.
Dustin cursed under his breath, and given the circumstances Sensei didn't chastise him.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tori saw Shane glance in her direction, and she looked up to meet his gaze, knowing they were thinking the same thing.
He would be coming for them.
Lothor would want revenge on the ones who defeated him, and he knew right where to find them.
But at least they had each other.
Hunter and Blake were on their own, with no idea what was happening.
They would have to contact Hunter at the Thunder Academy as soon as they returned to Ninja Ops, but Blake had a race just about to start... they wouldn't be able to warn him about Lothor for a few hours, maybe longer.
Oh, Blake, Tori thought, swallowing hard. Please be careful.
"If Lothor's really back," Dustin said lowly, his expression unusually grim. "How are we gonna fight him with no powers?"
Good question.
They'd managed to defeat Lothor without their Ranger powers the last time, but only because he'd underestimated them. He wouldn't make that mistake again.
"Cam has been saving these," Sensei Watanabe sighed, holding out his hands. "For just such an occasion."
A soft golden glow filled his hands, forming an ornate wooden box.
"Shane, Tori," Sensei looked at each of them in turn, eyes both proud and sad at the same time. "It is with a heavy heart that I must give you your new Wind Morphers."
He opened the box and the three of them exchanged glances.
It was supposed to be over.
They'd done their part, they'd put their regular lives on hold once to fight Lothor, was it really fair that they had to do it all over again?
If not us, Tori thought bitterly. Then who?
Lothor was their responsibility, it was their duty to contain his threat.
"A dark cloud has descended upon us," Sensei Watanabe said lowly. "It is time for you to resume your duties as Power Rangers."
Shane started to reach toward the box, then paused and looked over his shoulder.
Jaw set, Dustin gave a grim nod of agreement, and Shane's dark gaze flickered to Tori, questioning. He wasn't going to make this decision for them, he'd given up the mantle of their leader a long time ago, but it wasn't like any of them really had a choice anyway, so Tori just sighed and gave him a weak smile.
Taking a deep breath, Shane nodded, and that was it.
One by one they took their morphers from the box Sensei held out to them, and Tori felt a lump in her throat as she strapped hers to her wrist.
She'd forgotten how light they were.
And hadn't realized how bare her wrist felt without a morpher there.
Tori looked up, and found Sensei Watanabe watching her closely, with a knowing smile.
She smiled ruefully, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, and looked over at Shane and Dustin, nodding that she was ready.
"We won't let you down, Sensei," Shane vowed, and together they lifted their fists. "Let's do it!"
As she activated her morpher, Tori felt a hot, painful spark of electricity pass into her fingertips and she felt a cry of surprise rise up in her throat as a jolt of alarm shot through her, but then a purple haze descended over her.
And everything went black.