Thursday, 12:41 p.m.
Reefside, California
It was surreal.
Explosions, fire, debris hurtling through their air.
Black smoke billowing up from burning cars and flaming rubble.
The streets of Reefside looked like a war zone, like the city had become the target of one of Lothor's latest invasion attempts.
Only this wasn't Lothor's doing.
Not directly, at least.
Perched high above it all on a nearby rooftop, Hunter Bradley watched his friends wreak havoc on Reefside. Lights exploded, sending out a shower of glass in all directions, and buildings shook under the onslaught, chunks of concrete crumbling and raining down on the streets below.
"Shit," Hunter breathed.
"That's the fourth time you've said that," Cam observed flatly, without tearing his gaze away from the scene in front of them.
"And I repeat, shit," Hunter snapped. "Why are we just standing here?"
"Because, Hunter," Cam said slowly, in a tone that Hunter suspected he used with his students. "Ninjas though we may be, if we go up against evil Power Rangers, we're not going to last more than a few minutes."
Hunter wanted to argue with that, but given just how badly the new trio of Rangers trying to fight off their friends were getting thrashed, he had to admit Cam was right.
"This sucks," Hunter growled, shoving a hand through his hair in frustration. "I hate just standing here."
"I know," Cam murmured.
A shrill sound, metal shrieking, filled the air and they both winced.
Below, Dustin was hurling the door he'd just ripped off a car at the Blue Dino Ranger, and the kid barely ducked in time to avoid having his head decapitated. Shane was pummeling the Red Ranger mercilessly, and Hunter's stomach turned over at the sound of his friend's laughter, so familiar and yet so horribly distorted at the same time.
The female Dino Ranger wasn't faring much better.
Tori was wiping the floor with her, landing blows that Hunter knew from experience would leave bruises, if not break bones.
Even at her nicest Tori was a force to be reckoned with.
Now that she was evil she wasn't holding back, and for the first time Hunter was beginning to understand just how dangerous he must have been when he was under Lothor's control.
And how scared the others must have been.
Not just for him, but of him.
Rangers were powerful, but that had always been a good thing for them in their line of work.
Suddenly Hunter found himself uncertain if anyone should be given that kind of power. Even people like Dustin and Tori, who never wavered in their convictions and morals, weren't immune to spells and tricks.
If the three Wind Rangers could do this much damage in a mere few hours, he didn't want to think about what they could do if they continued to go unchecked.
And judging by how badly the Dino Rangers were losing, there didn't seem to be anyone to stop them.
Hunter was half-tempted to go down there, to try and reason with his friends, but at this point he wasn't sure anything could get through to them. Lothor's magic was strong, he knew that better than anyone. What made him think the fact that he was Tori's favorite brother-in-law would carry any sway with her right now, when she was just as likely to shoot him as she was to talk to him.
He wouldn't be much use to anyone dead.
Besides, even if she didn't kill him while under Lothor's spell, he was certain she'd kill him for being so stupid once the affects wore off.
The Wind Rangers were already going to be horrified, regardless of the fact that they hadn't had any control whatsoever over their actions, so there was no need to add to the guilt by letting them use him as a human punching bag until a better solution could present itself.
Where's Sensei when you need him? Hunter groaned.
To be fair, Cam was pretty sure that his father had been kidnapped by Lothor, and that Lothor must have impersonated Sensei Watanabe to get Tori, Shane and Dustin to let their guard down, so it wasn't like he was off sitting by the pool sipping lemonade or anything.
But they sure could have used his help right about now.
The hairs on the back of his neck bristled, and that was the only warning he had before a dark blur shot down from the sky next to him.
"Blake," he sighed in relief as soon as his brother streaked in. "Am I glad to see you."
"I got here as fast as I could," Blake said apologetically, and they clapped one another on the back before Blake stepped back, nodding at Cam, and shoved his hands into his pockets. "What's up?"
Hunter and Cam exchanged a look.
"We've got trouble," Cam finally said, and nodded toward the street below. "Big trouble."
Blake turned, and confusion crossed his face, the beginnings of an amused smile turning into bafflement that slowly faded as the seriousness of the situation began to sink in.
"Tori?" he breathed.
For a long moment, Blake simply stared at the battle below, or more accurately, Hunter suspected, at his wife. Who just so happened to be slamming a fellow Power Ranger into a concrete wall, clearly hoping to shatter the poor girl's helmet, and maybe even her skull.
"What the hell is going on?" Blake finally demanded.
He whirled, dark eyes sharp and blazing with the kind of burning anger that could only be fueled by fear.
"Lothor," Hunter said quietly. "He's back."
"He's back?" Blake echoed flatly, anger lurking just beneath the surface. "He's back! What does that have to do with why Tori and the others are trying to burn down all of Reefside?"
"We're not sure how he did it," Cam spoke up. "But he's obviously turned them evil."
"Obviously," Blake snapped.
"Look, how he did it doesn't matter right now," Hunter said bluntly, intervening before emotions running high could make things get ugly. "The Dino Rangers are down there getting their asses kicked, and if we don't do something fast the Wind Rangers are going to kill them."
"What are we gonna do?" Blake asked at last, with a bitter laugh. "Ask Tori and the others to play nice?"
"We're going to the Abyss of Evil."
"Yeah, what he said," Hunter agreed, then froze a moment later as that sunk in, and slowly turned to pin Cam with a sharp glare. "What! We're going to do what?"
"Tell me I heard you wrong," Blake implored.
Instead of answering them, Cam glanced down at the street below, where the Dino Rangers were retreating. "Now's our chance," he said. "Let's go."
And he started down to the street, like that settled the matter.
For a long moment Blake and Hunter were frozen in place, staring after him, and then they looked at one another, incredulous, before breaking into a jog after the former Green Samurai Ranger, catching up with him just as he reached the street level.
"Are you nuts?" Blake demanded.
"Dude, I take back everything I ever said about you being smart," Hunter declared.
"Have a look at what they've done," Cam said sharply, gesturing at the destruction to be found in every direction. "We have to get to the Abyss. It's our only chance."
"You were there, right?" Hunter demanded. "You know what's inside of that thing!"
"Yeah, our powers," Cam retorted, as it was that simple.
Unfortunately for them, it kind of was.
"And we have to get them back," Cam continued, sounding irritatingly like Sensei Watanabe, making Cam wonder if the ability to nag was genetic. "If we're gonna have any chance of helping the Dino Rangers deal with Tori, Shane and Dustin."
Hunter opened his mouth to argue, but Blake cut him off.
"No way," Blake said sharply.
Slightly taken aback by his tone, Hunter looked at his brother in surprise. He wasn't exactly a big fan of the whole 'let's go back to the abyss that tried to kill us' plan, either, but one look at the hard glint to Blake's eyes and the way his clenched fists were shaking told him this wasn't just about the Abyss of Evil.
It was about Tori.
"No!" Blake repeated, shaking his head. "There's no possible way I'm going near that thing again."
Just like there was no way he was going to fight Tori.
Hunter understood, he really did.
In Blake's shoes he didn't think he would be able to fight the woman he loved, either. As it was, he wasn't looking forward to having to fight his sister-in-law, but better him than Blake.
"You guys don't get it, do you?" Cam sighed impatiently. "It's not just our powers down there. Whatever power sources Lothor gave to the others, they're not the real thing. If we can get their powers back from the Abyss-"
"We might be able to reverse Lothor's spell," Hunter concluded with a grim smile.
"And if we can't?" Blake demanded.
"We will," Hunter told him, and tried to sound as confident as he wished he felt. "We'll get Tori back, bro. But to do that, we've gotta go into the Abyss."
Blake closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.
"For Tori, dude," Hunter said.
"Yeah," Blake said, letting out a sigh and opening his eyes. "For Tori."
They streaked their way to the Abyss, and found the cavernous ravine now exposed to the sky, a testament to Lothor's escape, and Hunter helped Cam ready the repelling gear while Blake stared down into the Abyss silently, expression clouded and muscles tense.
Hunter let him be, guessing that when your wife turned evil and went on a rampage a guy needed to collect his thoughts.
Before long they had their lines secured and their harnesses on, and the three of them stood on the edge of the Abyss, balancing precariously over a vast nothingness.
"Uh, I just wanna say one last time," Blake said with a nervous smile. "I think this is a bad idea."
Later, when they were dangling from a ledge in the Abyss, it occurred to Hunter that in the future, assuming he survived the experience long enough to have a future, he really ought to pay more attention when Blake thought something was a bad idea.