(3 months after the prologue)

Chapter 1

'It's been 3 months since I came back from the Thunder Academy, and everytime I try to talk to him he just walks away. Maybe he didn't miss me after all,' Cam thought as he walked through the Academy. 'I need to talk to him about this, whether he likes it or not.' His mind made up, he walked towards his father, passing Shane, Tori, and Dustin. A quick check with his empathy confirmed what he thought he saw. On the outside, you just saw 3 teenagers that looked chastised and beat up, but on the inside you saw sadness and disappointment. "I don't know why you put up with them," Cam said as he stepped next to his father.

"Well then, Cameron, I suppose that's why I'm the Sensei and you're the Sensei's son." Cam's mouth quirked at the reply. Suddenly, Sensei walked a little bit away from Cam and looked at the sky, which was starting to accumalate swirling, purple clouds.

"What's wrong, Dad?"

"Just a shift in the weather, Cameron. Nothing to be alarmed about." His father's tone of voice told Cam that his father was lying. 'He wouldn't sound like that if he was telling the truth.'

"Don't lie to me, Dad. Something's obviously wrong," Cam said to his father, who didn't reply to him. 'Time for the talk.' "Dad, we need to talk about your reaction to my telling you about my sexuality."

"Cameron, are you sure that you're not just...experimenting?"

"Yes Dad, I'm sure. I've never been with a female in my life. You know that. I've never been attracted to a female. I don't know why you can't understand that I don't want to get married to some girl and have 2.3 kids. I'd much rather be with Hunter," Cam told him. His father sighed.

"Cameron, did I not raise you right?"

"Dad, you raised me perfectly. My being gay is not your fault. It's just the way I was born," Cam told his father.

"Cameron, just give me some time alone to think about this, all right?" Asked Sensei as he walked away.

"Sure." 'I just hope you don't come up with a bad answer.'

The next day, after Lothor's attack

'Oh god, my head is killing me. What the heck happened? Why am I covered in rubble?' With that last thought, he started to dig his way up through the rubble. Suddenly he heard voices.

"Who's that?" Shane asked the others as he saw someone someone coming up from the rubble. "It's Cam. Help me get him out," Shane said to Tori and Dustin as they ran to reach Cam. "Cam, are you okay?" Shane asked as he saw that Cam was covered in dirt.

"Yeah, I'm fine. And get your arm off of my back," Cam snapped at Shane, noticing that was starting to act a little too friendly with him.

"Sorry." Suddenly, a beam was shot from Lothor's ship in outer space, aiming towards the young adults. They started running as more beams were shot at them.

Cam ran them to a door situated in the ground. He opened it up and told them to get inside.

"Cam, what is this place?" Shane asked once they were in the passageway.

"Just follow me," Cam said as he walked them towards Ninja Ops. He put his hand on the scanner that got Ninja Ops up and running.

Comments like "No way," and "that's amazing," were spoken, but Cam wasn't listening. He only wanted to get them informed and out of there ASAP.

The students walked into Ninja Ops. "Don't ask any questions because I can't answer them."

"What, this is like, some big secret?" Shane asked, looking at Cam in a slightly disturbing way.

"Yes, Shane, it's like some big secret. And quit looking at me like that. It doesn't suit you," Cam replied.

"And there are times when secrets must be revealed, Cam." Came Sensei's voice. A moving home moved to the Supercomputer and a guinea pig was inside of it. Remarks were made about the guniea pig, but Cam wasn't listening. 'Wow, he used my nickname. Maybe he didn't come up with a bad answer after all.'

"My father's not a rat, he's a guinea pig."

"Dude, did he just explain why and I like missed it?" Dustin asked Shane and Tori.

"He's stuck."

"Stuck?"

"Yes Shane, I'm stuck. Observe." He showed them the footage of when he became a guinea pig.

"Who's gonna be dumb enough to stop them?" Dustin asked after Sensei was done explaining everything.

"An excellent question, Dustin. The morphers, Cam."

"Father, you're not serious!"

"We have no choice."

"But these guys! I mean, them? They're, well they're."

"They're what?" Tori asked, effectively cutting Cam off.

"Yeah, I don't like the way that sounded. Do you?" Shane asked Dustin.

"Acutally, dude, I'm kinda lost here."

"Now, Cam."

'Jeez. We're dead. We're so dead. We're going to die a horrible, painful death.' Cam walked towards the students, holding the morpher box in his hands. "These are your Power Ranger Wind morphers."

"Yeah right," Tori said.

"Yes! See I knew it dude! Power Rangers are real." Dustin said as he and the others grabbed their morphers. Sensei explained to each of them about their Ranger identities, but Cam was beyond listening. His mind was too wrapped up in his own thoughts. 'If Lothor really is back, then Sensei Omino must have known about it. Maybe he already gave the Thunder morphers to whomever he was planning on giving them to. Maybe they're safe. Maybe we won't die a horrible, painful death anytime soon.'

The Rangers started talking about the morphers and Tori tried to convince Dustin that there weren't any games on it. "Ladies and gentlemen, the defenders of the galexy." Cam said, already starting to become fearful for their lives again. 'We're dead, we're so dead.'

Ninja Ops after the Rangers had gone into battle

"Dad, why in the world did you choose them? With our luck we'll end up dying a horrible, painful death," Cam said as he sat down in his chair to watch the battle. "It's 'Ranger Form!'" He said as he watched the Rangers. "I'm serious, Dad. If they can't remember the simple transformation phrase, how can you expect them to defeat Lothor and his army?"

"Cam, they're the only ones left. I'm sure that we won't die a horrible and painful death. Why must you be such a pessimist?"

"Dad, I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist. And I get like this when I'm freaked. You should know that by now," Cam said to his father, who was watching the fight unfold. "Um, Dad, you know the talk we had yesterday? The one about your reaction? Have you thought about it?" He asked, feeling a little uneasy. "Good job Dustin!" He added as he saw Dustin beat up some Kelzaks.

"I have thought about it, Cam. I've come to the conclusion that this whole thing is just a phase that you're going through. We'll talk more about this after the Rangers have left for the day."

"Yeah!" Cam cheered after the Rangers had defeated the monster, but he quickly lost his happiness when he looked at his father. 'How can he think that this is just a phase? I told him yesterday that I was full out gay. Why can't he just accept it?'

Ninja Ops after the Rangers left to go back to their homes

"Dad, how could you think that this is just a phase? This is the way I am. It's not some effing phase!" Cam yelled at his father.

"Simple, Cameron. I believe that it's only a phase because that's what it is. It's a phase that you need to grow out of."

They kept arguing, not noticing that Dustin was standing in the doorway, staring in shock at what was taking place before him.

"Dad, I'm only going to say this one more time. I'm gay. I'm dating Hunter Bradley. It's not a phase. I'm not experimenting. Get used to it," Cam said, turning to walk out of Ninja Ops. He stopped walking when he saw Dustin standing in the doorway. "What do you want, Dustin?"

"Um, I was just coming to talk to Sensei. I'm sorry for listening in on your arguement. I'll get out of your way," Dustin said as he moved out of Cam's way. He watched as Cam stormed past him, mumbling nonsense under his breath. 'Woah,' Dustin thought, 'he must be really POed.'

"Dustin, would you please go after him? The last time we had a fight like this he ran away to the Thunder Academy for 4 years. I don't want him to do that again."

"Sure, Sensei."

The waterfall outside of Ninja Ops

Cam sat near the edge of the waterfall, deep in thought. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he actually jumped when Dustin called his name. "What do you want, Dustin?"

"I wanna talk to you. What was that fight about?"

Cam sighed as he thought on whether he should tell Dustin or not. "I came out to Dad about 3 months ago. He hasn't taken it well. He thinks that it's just a phase I'm going through."

"Ahh man, I know what you mean. I came out to my 'rents, Tori, Shane, and Kelly about 6 months ago. The 'rents still aren't totally believing me, but Tori and Kelly are okay with it. Shane's bi, so he's totally cool with it. But it's totally gonna break his heart when he hears you're off the market."

Cam digested Dustin's words, feeling happy that he wasn't the only person in the world going through this sort of thing. "Good. Maybe he'll stop staring at me as if I'm a piece of meat." He said, hoping that Shane would leave him alone. "Before you ask, I met him at the Thunder Academy. You'd like him. He's into motocross, just like you."

"Dude, sweet! Is there anytime I can meet him?" Dustin asked, excited at the prospect at meeting another moto rider.

"I don't know if he's okay or not, actually. He and his brother might've got taken by Lothor when he raided the Thunder Academy. You'd probably like his brother more than you would him, though. Blake actually likes to talk to people. I've got a picture of them here in my wallet, actually," Cam said as he pulled out his wallet in search of a picture he had in there. "Here it is," he said as he pulled it out and showed it to Dustin. "Hunter's the one with the blond hair. Blake is the dark skinned one."

"Woah, dude. You hooked a hottie! Tori would go for Blake in a second. Wait a sec, do you have long hair in this picture?"

"That picture is about a year old, I'll have you know. Blake's hair is shorter now and Hunter's hair is a little longer. And as you can see, I got my hair cut," Cam said, embarrassed. He sighed, took his picture back from Dustin, then got up. "I should probably head back inside and apologize for my outburst. He sent you out here to make sure I didn't run away again, didn't he?"

"Yea, he did. Why did you run away the first time?"

"Dad had forbidden me from training at the Wind Academy. So, I did what any defiant 18 year old would do: I ran away to a different Academy and trained there for 4 years. I'm starting to wish I had listened to Hunter and didn't come back."

"Dude, if you hadn't come back, we would've died. I'm glad you came back. I've gotta go. I'll come back for training tomorrow. See ya later, dude!" Dustin said as he walked away from Cam.

'Well, I'm glad someone likes the fact that I came back. I can't exactly go back now, so I've just gotta ride it out. This is going to be a long battle.'