Author's Notes: This is my first attempt at an action-centered chapter. Please let me know honestly what you think. I can take it! There was a lot of buildup in the story as it led up to this chapter, so I hope it turned out how I hoped it would. Now, on to the reviews!
Don't worry, Magichalo, I will never forget the drama! But some action was necessary to further the story. Sorry to confuse you with what you want for Tobi. You'll either be more confused or less (that really narrows it down) as the other Power Rangers enter the picture in this chapter. And... a whole lot of other stuff happens. Thanks for all the reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Yay! I succeeded in character development! I'm glad you like Tobi's change throughout the story, cancermoon, as it shows I have been able to do what I had hoped in that area. As for what powers he'll have, you'll get a peak at them during end of this chapter, but I intentionally keep things vague... Oh, and your line about "showdown between siblings" actually gave me the idea for the name of this chapter!
Tobi thanks you, YellowPrincess, for thinking he's brilliant! Hmmm... Since I made up Tobi, does that make me brilliant? Ha! Anyway, this chapter is a bit longer and all action centric, so it took longer. I hope it still counts as "update soon" because I'm doing my best! Glad you keep coming back for more!
Ah! So, "Catch ya on the flip side" means "see you later"? Thanks for educating me, Ghostwriter! I feel kind of out of the slang loop now. Is there a slang loop? And to think, I watched the MMPR movie just recently too! Anyway, hope the action lives up to your hopes/expectations and catch ya on the flip side!
Previously in Parallel Realities Ninja Storm:
Tobi is locked in a room with a brainwashed version of this dimension's Tori. His sister pays him a visit, but he refuses to apologize for betraying her to help the others. Then Dustin wants to talk to him. After finally convincing Dustin that the Tori trapped in the room with Tobi is just mind controlled and that Tobi's sister from his dimension is the one outside the room that everyone thinks is their real friend, Tobi come up with a plan to convince Blake and Cam they have their Toris mixed up. Later, Tobi realized that the Power Rangers from this dimension actually care about him, unlike back in his dimension and that's why they feel betrayed. After crying, Tori comes to her senses and the two break out of the room in an attempt to warn the others about the monster that can control minds like it had Tori's. After a brief fight, Tobi's sister escapes. While this dimension's Tori goes off to find the others, Tobi chases after his sister ...
Parallel Realities Ninja Storm: Chapter 18 (Sibling Showdown)
Now that Tobi knew how to ninja streak, it wasn't hard for him to catch up with his sister. She was pretty easy to spot too, being the only blur traveling close to the speed of light while running away from him.
But the chase was short lived, as she was the first to stop. Tobi skidded to a halt, a wave of sand flying out from his feet.
"Since when can you streak?" his sister asked him.
Tobi looked around. They had stopped at the beach and behind his sister was an enormous glowing crack. Edges of gold flickered out from the center as it appeared to be floating on—or possibly in—the water. "When I tried on your—the other Tori's morpher," he quickly corrected, "things changed inside me."
"Like your feelings for me?" she asked coldly, crossing her arms.
"No," he defended. "Look, can we forget about the whole sibling rivalry thing?"
"Is that what you think this is?" she asked, glaring at him.
"We need to seal this hole or it will destroy both our dimensions!" Tobi announced.
"Who told you that?" She asked skeptically.
"Cam" Tobi replied. "He's to this dimension what Dustin is to ours."
She looked back at the expanding crack and thought for a moment. When she turned around, she actually had a smile on her face.
"What?" he asked her.
"Don't you see?" she said, gesturing toward the dimensional hole. "We send the Power Rangers from this dimension to ours and close this thing behind them. With Lothor on our side, no one can stop us. This world will be ours."
Tobi stared at her in horror.
"Don't look at me like that," she protested. "Our mom is alive in this dimension."
"But she doesn't even know me because I wasn't born here," Tobi pointed out.
"We can change all that by building new memories," she insisted. "We can make this home and our friends will—"
"They're not my friends," Tobi interrupted.
"Of course they are!" she insisted.
"I'll stop you," he promised.
She gave him a sympathetic look. "Things don't have to be like this between us."
He felt his emotions overwhelming his judgment. He didn't want to fight with his sister, but... she didn't seem to leave him another option.
She watched Tobi's eyes glisten and seemed to realize something. "I'm sorry, Tobi, but it's for the best." Suddenly she caused a massive tidal wave to sweep over the beach. Using it as cover, she quickly streaked off.
Tobi put up his hands and tried to focus on deflecting the wave, but it still hit him with a force that knocked him off his feet and washed him far inland. By the time he had regained his footing, he only had a sense of the general direction his sister had gone.
Tobi continued to streak through alleys, over fences and through parks until he saw a commotion downtown. Skidding to a stop, he found his sister standing next to what looked like a large brain with tentacles. He noticed Blake and Hunter, both morphed, nearby. Beside them were Tori, Dustin and Shane. They all had blank looks on their faces. He realized he was too late.
"I told you she was good," a female voice commented behind Tobi.
"Like she's so much better than me?" another replied. Tobi turned to see Marah and Kapri arguing.
"Rangers," bring him to me," a deep, booming voice called. Tobi couldn't really tell a direction because it was almost like it was inside his head, but he knew it was coming from the alien behind him.
He spun around and looked at the flailing tentacles reaching out for him and the blank-faced ninjas approaching him and he knew that he didn't stand a chance. If he tried to fight them, they'd win and he'd be brainwashed just like them, so he turned on his heals and decided to streak back to Ninja Ops. Maybe Cam would know what to do. He had to trust Tobi by now.
But, before Tobi could rush off, Marah and Kapri grabbed him by his arms.
"Shane! Dustin! Tori!" Cam's voice came from the three drone's morphers. Cam was trying to get in touch with the others, which meant... they could morph now. "Are you guys morphed yet? Respond!" Cam continued, confirming Tobi's suspicions.
Tobi swiftly flipped backward, twisting his arms so that Marah and Kapri ended up landing on their heads. Naturally, they were not happy. "Get him!" Kapri screamed.
He once again turned to flee, but now Blake and Hunter blocked his path. They drew their thunder weapons.
"Don't hurt him," Tobi's sister called out. "Just bring him over here."
Tobi threw a kick and a couple punches, but fighting against morphed versions of Blake and Hunter was like trying to fight marble statues. If only he had on his sister's morpher. Instead, he found himself being dragged toward the ugly brain alien's waiting tentacles.
"I would have liked to have changed your mind with words," Tobi's sister told him, "but—"
Just then a sword struck Blake and Hunter, sending them tumbling backwards. A morphed version of Cam appeared before Tobi. "Why didn't you guys morph?" he called out to Shane, Dustin and Tori. "Did they morph first? Or, are you... them?"
"They're being controlled by that," Tobi told him.
Cam immediately began slashing away at the creature's flailing tentacles.
"Cam, wait!" Tobi shouted.
Tobi's sister assessed the situation. "It looks like you three can join the party. Well, two of you anyway," she added, activating her morpher. "Ninja Storm, Ranger Form! Power of Water! Shane, Dustin, you too."
As the brainwashed Shane and Dustin activated their morphers, Cam turned to them. "No!" he shouted, but his momentary distraction was just the opportunity the alien needed. A tentacle quickly wrapped around his waist. He fought against it for only a moment before stopping.
The tentacle then released its grip and Cam, still in his Samurai Power Ranger suit, turned his sword toward Tobi.
Tobi only had a single moment and he couldn't waist it with indecision. Instead, he streaked off and he kept running until he finally decided on a destination: Ninja Ops.
When Tobi streaked into Ninja Ops and saw Cyber Dustin busy typing away on Cam's barely repaired computer, he was so excited that he ran right up to him and kissed him on the cheek, which earned him a surprised blush. "You don't know how glad I am to see you!" he shouted. "The others are in trouble. They're being controlled by some brain with tentacles."
"Mindzine," Cyber Dustin offered.
"Right," Tobi agreed. "I barely made it back here and I'm sure they'll be right behind me. The only advantage we have is that aliens can't pass through the waterfall portal. But ninjas can—and the other Power Rangers. What do we have in way of defenses?"
"I could put the entire place on lockdown," Cyber Dustin said. "No one could get in, or out."
Tobi spontaneously hugged Cyber Dustin, causing him to jump at the surprise. "Forget what I said about you not being real. You're just what I need right now... and you did give me my first blowjob," he added. "Let's put the place on lockdown!"
Cyber Dustin blushed before composing himself. "So, I... gave you a blowjob?" he asked.
"Oh," Tobi realized. "I guess Cam couldn't recover all your memories. Then again, maybe he wanted you more focused on work. Yeah," he agreed, "that's probably for the best. After all, we have to help the real Dustin." Tobi thought about that. "There are two real Dustin's here now that the Dustin from my dimension's here. At least, I assume he came with the rest."
"What do you think of... your dimension's Dustin?" Cyber Dustin asked with genuine interest in his eyes.
Tobi sighed. "Well, of course he's really hot, but that's not hard. Even you're designed to be hot, CD," he said, earning him another blush from Cyber Dustin. "I just thought of that. Cyber Dustin, CD." He smiled and continued, "I always had a crush on him and I was convinced I might actually love him... until I came here."
Cyber Dustin raised an eyebrow.
"The Dustin here is geeky like the Dustin back in my dimension," he continued, "but it's a different kind of geeky. They both have kind of odd tastes in movies and shows and stuff, but that's about where it stops. My dimension's Dustin was a master manipulator, whereas this dimension's Dustin is the one constantly being used and manipulated. There's something so... innocent and... radiant about him and his personality. He's trusting and caring to a fault. I guess both Dustin's have this irresistible charm that draws people to them and lights up a room, but this Dustin uses it to keep everyone's spirits up with humor. My dimension's Dustin uses it to get his way. I guess that's why I came to realize that the Dustin I truly love is this dimension's Dustin." He tried to shake off the emotions that came with saying that outloud. "Anyway, we have to help him... and the others."
Cyber Dustin's eyes seemed to flicker and grow cold.
"What's wrong?" Tobi asked. "Are we on lockdown yet?"
"No," Cyber Dustin replied. "I think I have to cross circuit the reactive buffers."
"Then do it!" Tobi encouraged.
Cyber Dustin typed something on Cam's computer. "I bet you'd be really upset if something happened to this dimension's Dustin," he said without looking away from the computer screen.
"Something bad has already happened to him," Tobi reminded him. "He's being mind controlled."
"But what if something bad happened to your dimension's Dustin?" Cyber Dustin asked.
Tobi had to think about that. "I guess I'd be upset, but it might be something he deserved or even caused."
"So, if you had to choose, you would choose this dimension's Dustin?" Cyber Dustin asked.
Tobi gave him a puzzled look. This was a strange line of questioning, but he still answered, "Yeah, I would." He thought of Dustin choosing Hunter and wondered why he'd still choose someone who would never love him back. It made no sense, but then love in general made no sense.
"Hey, it's fairy elf dude," came Cam's voice.
Tobi turned to see Cyber Cam entering the room, but no... The line he said wasn't something Cyber Cam would say, even though he looked and acted like—"Cam!" he realized. It was his dimension's Cam. That was when it finally sunk in why Cyber Dustin was acting so strange. It wasn't Cyber Dustin at all. "Dustin," he whispered, turning back to the real Dustin that he had just been confessing his feelings to and finally noticing the small detail of the longer eyelashes than Cyber Dustin.
"You never were as smart as me," Dustin told Tobi. "Probably why you and Shane had to copy off me during tests." He stood up and walked over to a still shocked Tobi. "And I knew how you felt about me, Tobs. You didn't exactly try to hide it. And, if I felt anything for you at all, I'd act on it, but I don't," he said coldly. "I feel nothing but pity for you... and for your fate. I hope you're happy with the wannabe me because you're going to be with him a long time."
"Dustin, I—" Tobi began.
"Save it," Dustin interrupted, turning away. "We're going."
"Finally some action!" Cam cheered. "Dude, where's my hat? No action without hat. It's like a rule!"
"It's on your head, Cam," a voice answered. Tobi turned to see Shane and Hunter standing at the opening to Ninja Ops. They were both grinning smugly. His escape was blocked and he was significantly outnumbered. He knew fighting would get him nowhere.
"Listen, guys," he began, "you don't have to do this. The Power Rangers here protect the city from Lothor. It's actually kinda... noble when you think about it."
"Lame is more like it," Shane growled.
"Come on, let's go already," Hunter chimed in impatiently.
"You won't win," Tobi told them. "In the end, the bad guys always loose."
This caused the others to laugh hysterically. Even Dustin was cracking up as if Tobi had told the funniest joke ever.
"He is right," came a familiar, wise voice from behind Tobi.
Tobi spun around in time to see Sensei jump toward Shane and Hunter. Something flew out of his tiny hands and Tobi caught it. Looking down, he realized it was… a scroll.
Meanwhile, Shane and Hunter tried to swat at the flying furball, but Sensei was too fast for them. Plus, he was pretty strong for being so small. Shane was hurled into Hunter with a single somersault kick.
"It's like Yoda fighting Count Dooku," Cam commented, enjoying the action. "Where's the popcorn?"
Dustin just reached for the oversized gun Cam had tried to use against Tobi's sister earlier.
"Now would be an opportune time for your escape, Tobi," Sensei suggested, dodging a green laser blast.
"But what about you?" Tobi asked.
"You were able to"—zap!—"bring Tori out of her"—somersault!—"mental control, so you must do the same for"—crash!—"the others," Sensei told him. "And"—jump!—"the scroll should help."
With Sensei as a distraction and a target, Tobi streaked out of Ninja Ops, scroll in hand. The problem was how to get the others away from that alien long enough to break the mind control?
Tobi found a clearing to stop in long enough to examine the scroll. Unrolling it in his hands, he couldn't help but be surprised. Rather than the usual unreadable writing or even glowing page, the scroll seemed to be a mirror. He bent the reflective surface, distorting his image, and wondered what he was supposed to do with a mirror. Obviously Cam would be the most logical choice for who to free from control first, but did he just show Cam his reflection? It was worth a try, he figured. And so, he streaked off in search of the alien Mindzine and his victims.
This dimension's brainwashed Power Rangers and Mindzine had gathered with Tobi's dimension's Power Rangers at the beach near the dimensional hole. As Tobi hid and watched, he knew that it was a huge risk just to test if the scroll did what he thought it might do.
He spotted Cam standing motionless while Tobi's dimension's Cam waved a hand in front of him and seemed to be teasing his zoned out duplicate.
How to get Cam away from the others? Maybe he just needed Cam's attention. He'd get him to look his way while holding the scroll open. The moment Cam had seen his reflection, Tobi would then streak out of there. But how to get the attention of a drone?
He thought of Tori's brief reaction at the mention of Blake's used condom and figured maybe something that elicits a strong emotional response might briefly draw his attention. An idea came to him and he decided to act on it before it was too late.
He streaked around to a spot where Cam would be able to see him easily, the scroll already open in his hands. "Cam!" he called out. "Your dad's in trouble!"
It had worked. Cam turned to face Tobi. Unfortunately, the others had noticed too, so he quickly streaked off.
He had to run through a few streets before he was sure he'd lost any pursuers and could safely return to the beach, but when he returned, everyone was still there. Also, Cam still looked mindless. At first he wondered why it hadn't worked and then he thought about how Cam was always wearing glasses in this dimension. Maybe he was extremely nearsighted. Or, maybe the scroll only worked up close. Then again, maybe Cam's visor protected him from the effect. Either way, it was a huge risk to get close enough. He was sure to be captured and what then? He was their only hope. He thought about that and wondered how many times he had wanted to be a hero. He had always thought that, if he had ninja powers like his sister's friends, he'd use them differently. Now was his chance.
"The interdimensional rupture will tear apart the two dimension's in less than nineteen hours," Tobi heard his dimension's Dustin explain to the others. Tobi immediately repositioned himself to hear more.
"How do we seal it—with them on the other side?" Tobi's dimension's Shane asked in a low, growling voice.
"Someone's going to have to sacrifice their Power Ranger abilities," Dustin replied.
"I have just the person," Tobi's sister quickly chimed in. She then powered down and returned to her black ninja training suit. "Tori," she addressed. "I'm feeling generous today. You get to morph... one last time."
"Stop!" Dustin called, but it was too late. Tori had morphed. He then approached the two Toris. "If she makes the sacrifice now, you'll never be able to morph again."
"What!" Tobi's sister replied in shock.
"I need to realign her morpher to our dimension—to our old dimension," he corrected, motioning for Tobi's sister to have Tori demorph. "Otherwise, she's calling on the morphing matrix from this dimension." He turned to face the others while Tori powered down. "All of us should swap our morphers with our look-alikes."
The others then began swapping morphers with their counterparts. That meant that the brainwashed ninjas were forced to demorph. This left everyone's vision clear. It also meant he at least had a chance at fighting them off if it came to that.
Tobi seized the opportunity and flew into action, streaking to a stop directly in front of Cam and holding the scroll up to Cam's face.
Cam blinked for a moment before shutting his eyes and falling to the sand. "Ah!" he cried out, clutching his head.
Something had happened this time, so Tobi tried to streak off, but he found himself surrounded. He had streaked right into the middle of a trap.
He managed to land a few kicks against his sister's friends, but he found fighting difficult while holding the still open scroll. Though it did momentarily blind his attackers when it reflected the sun, he was trying to aim it toward his mind controlled companions. Of course, doing that left him open to a spinning kick from Blake.
When he tumbled to the sand, he lost his grip on the scroll and it rolled away from him.
He looked around quickly while also trying to dodge attacks until he saw it near a still head-clutching Cam. "Cam!" he called out. "Grab the scroll and show the others their reflection. It'll free them."
Cam shook off whatever pain he was in and grabbed the scroll. After a quick evaluation, he headed with it over to the nearest mind controlled person to him, which was this dimension's Tori.
Tobi lost track of what was happening momentarily as he tried to focus on fighting enough to not constantly be on the ground.
Suddenly he heard Cam cry out again and looked over to see Mindzine grab Cam with its tentacles. "Tori, the mirror, use the—" was all Cam managed to get out before he fell victim to the mind control for a second time.
Tori dove for the scroll just as Mindzine's tentacles wriggled after her. She only had time to lift up the scroll, its reflective surface facing the alien.
Rather than cry out in pain like Cam had, Mindzine seemed intrigued by the mirrored scroll. Slipping its tentacles around the scroll's top, it brought the reflective surface closer and studied it. "I'm so beautiful," it gloated.
This made the others briefly stop fighting Tobi as they watched Mindzine admire itself.
"Someone definitely needs his eyes checked," Tobi's dimension's Hunter commented, making a face.
Suddenly the scroll shattered, broken pieces of its mirrored texture falling to the sand. For a moment, Tobi was worried that the scroll had overloaded, but then he noticed the vacant look in Mindzine's googley eyes.
"Mindzine, what's wrong?" Tobi's sister asked.
When it didn't answer, Tobi thought of something. "Mindzine, stand on your head!" he shouted.
The others gasped as the alien did just that, flipped upside down and used its tentacles to lifts its oversized brainy body.
This dimension's Cam was quick to catch on and called out an order before anyone else had a chance to recover from the surprise. "Mindzine," he shouted, "go blow yourself up!"
And the alien did just that, waddled off and exploded in a massive fireball.
Immediately, the remaining mind controlled Power Rangers came to their senses. Fortunately for them, their recoveries lacked the headache that apparently the scroll caused.
"This is so not looking good, dudes" Tobi's dimension's Cam commented as two versions of each ninja faced off against each other.
"Morph now!" this dimension's Cam called out, activating his own morpher.
But, as nothing happened, the Power Rangers from Tobi's dimension began to laugh. Then they activated their own morphers… and morphed.
"They switched morphers!" Tobi realized.
Suddenly his rescue was not looking as good as it had only seconds before. Unmorphed Power Rangers were no match for morphed Power Rangers.
Tobi's sister and her fellow morphed Power Rangers gloated over their obvious advantage.
"You're going through that thing one way or another," the morphed Shane growled, gesturing toward the expanding dimensional hole.
"It won't be willingly, that's for sure," the unmorphed Shane promised, raising his arms and preparing to fight.
"Kapri, Marah," the morphed Shane called.
"We're here," a voice replied just as Marah and Kapri suddenly appeared out of nowhere. They were holding some sort of glowing ball.
"Stop picking your nose," Kapri scolded. "We're visible now."
Marah quickly obeyed and gave the others a sheepish grin while the morphed Hunter walked over and grabbed the glowing ball. It looked like something was inside the ball… and it looked like a guinea pig in a robe.
"Dad!" the unmorphed Cam shouted, confirming what Tobi had seen.
"Hey!" Kapri protested. "I thought we got to keep him."
"Yeah," Marah agreed. "Our uncle's not gonna be happy."
"Tell him to bill us," the morphed Hunter replied with a laugh, handing the ball to his morphed brother.
"Is that Sensei?" Tobi asked.
"Yeah and he did this before," the unmorphed Tori answered. "The sphere protects him."
"Not from everything," the unmorphed Cam chimed in.
The morphed Shane nodded and the morphed Blake dropped the ball. He then kicked it high into the air and straight for the dimensional hole. The moment it reached the glowing edge, it vanished. "Oops," the morphed Blake said. "My bad." He then began laughing and the others followed suit.
Meanwhile, the unmorphed Cam was staring in horror at the dimensional hole.
"Fetch!" the morphed Hunter teased, still laughing.
"Oh, this is so on," the unmorphed Dustin said, preparing to fight.
"Bring it," the morphed Dustin agreed.
Tobi's sister turned to her brother.
"I don't want to fight you," he told her.
"That makes two of us," she replied, turning her head briefly to see that the two Dustins and Shanes had begun fighting. "Besides, you can't morph and you can't win."
"That won't stop me from trying," Tobi replied, taking up a fighting stance.
"Suit yourself, little brother," she said, taking up a similar stance.
Suddenly Tobi felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see Tori. She smiled at him before turning to address his sister. "How about two against one?" she called.
Tobi's sister tilted her helmet to the side and shrugged. "A little more fair," she agreed, "but not much." She then launched into an air kick that propelled her toward Tobi and Tori. The impact sent them both flying across the sand until they landed at the water's edge.
Tobi looked from the Tori at his side to his sister and he had no doubt whatsoever anymore where his loyalties belonged. He kicked off the wet sand, backflipping over and diving straight down onto his sister.
Meanwhile, Tori summoned a torrent of water from the ocean surf, but Tobi's sister raised her arms and sent it spraying right back against her.
Tobi tried to focus on controlling the water to help the unmorphed Tori out, but found that he could no longer focus on the water itself. Instead, there was something else, maybe something within the water...
He was distracted when he heard Dustin called out. He looked over to see which Dustin it was and his sister's morphed foot connected with his chest, sending him tumbling around in the air before falling very painfully on his side.
He quickly stood up and resumed fighting alongside Tori against his morphed sister.
"Dustin!" Hunter's voice called out.
Tobi looked over to see the unmorphed Dustin being held down by the morphed Blake and Hunter while the morphed Dustin approached.
The unmorphed Hunter streaked over to the two Dustins, but the morphed Shane intercepted him and easily fought back the unmorphed Hunter, Blake and Shane on his own. Suddenly a blast hit Blake, sending him crashing against Shane.
Tobi looked over to see Marah and Kapri joining the fight. Apparently, Marah could shoot a beam out of her fingertips.
"Here," the morphed Dustin called, bending over his counterpart. "I'm going to set his morpher to trigger and then overload a few minutes after he's in our old dimension."
"Are you even trying, Tobi?" Tobi's sister interrupted his attention. He once again tried to focus on the water that the two Toris were hurling back and forth while still fighting off his sister's moves. There was something else he sensed...
Then he saw the morphed Power Rangers lifting an unmorphed, defenseless Dustin into the air, preparing to throw him toward the dimensional hole. "Get your hands off him!" Tobi yelled just as the unmorphed Hunter was knocked to the ground while attempting to help the unmorphed Dustin.
"You can't win, little brother," Tobi's sister declared just as Dustin was hurled through the air.
A feeling of such intense emotions boiled through him as he finally found something intangible that he could control.
Boom! Just then, a blindingly bright flash followed by a massive shock wave exploded out from Tobi. The wave sent everyone, including the airborne Dustin, skidding across the sand. In the end, the only person left standing was Tobi, and he was more in shock than anything else.
"Dude, what was that?" the unmorphed Dustin asked, recovering himself.
"That was... Tobi," the unmorphed Hunter replied. "Don't ask me what he did."
Zap! Before Tobi could see it coming, a blast of purple energy hit him and he was thrown into the surf. He sputtered water as he gasped for air and tried to summon the energy necessary to lift himself out of the shallow water. When he looked up, he saw Lothor... flying. "Don't let it be said I always have others do my work for me," Lothor called down from above.
Crack! Suddenly the ground around him shook and he felt something pull him backward. He turned to see the dimensional hole shimmering and expanding rapidly. Water from the ocean began flying up into the air, where it was sucked out of the dimension.
"The oxygen's ionizing," the unmorphed Cam called out. "Tobi separated the hydrogen out of the surrounding air and converted the photonic energy into kinetic energy. The fissure is destabilizing."
The morphed Power Rangers turned to the morphed Dustin. "He's right," he told them, opening his visor so they could see the seriousness in his eyes. "We only have a matter of moments before both dimension's are destroyed."
"I have no desire to be the ruler of a nonexistent dimension," Lothor declared, landing.
"Who said you'd rule it?" the morphed Shane asked.
"Tori!" Tobi called out, clawing at the sand as he was slowly dragged across it toward the rapidly expanding dimensional hole.
Tobi's sister began to instinctively approach her brother, but then she stopped herself and instead just opened her visor and watched him.
"Leave him, Tori," the morphed Hunter called.
Instead, the unmorphed Tori grabbed Tobi's hands while controlling the water to push against his feet. She managed to pull him far enough away from the fractured dimensional hole that he no longer had to fight against it.
"Maybe, since apparently our dimension's Tobi is an exact opposite of us, this dimension's Tobi will be... less of a wimp," the morphed Dustin commented in a dismissive tone.
"There's no Tobi in this dimension," Tobi's sister told him. "Here, I don't have a twin."
Tobi looked from his sister to the morphed Dustin. Behind his open helmet, something seemed to flicker in Dustin's eyes... Regret? Whatever it was, he quickly blinked it away.
"If you have your clone's morpher rigged, D-man, we gotta send them over now," the morphed Blake said.
"Don't touch him!" Tobi yelled as the morphed Power Rangers once again prepared to throw Dustin, but this time Tobi barely had the energy to lift himself off the ground.
The unmorphed Hunter and Blake ran toward the morphed Power Rangers, but a purple blast hit them, quickly incapacitating the two just as the blast had done for Tobi.
"No!" the unmorphed Hunter chocked out as Dustin flew over their heads and... vanished upon touching the edge of the glowing hole.
"We have to go after my father and Dustin," the unmorphed Cam called just as a purple beam hit him.
"Allow me to give you a hand," Lothor called out, turning to Marah and Kapri. "Girls, help your uncle clean up."
Marah and Kapri then proceeded to throw the incapacitated Hunter and Blake toward the dimensional hole, where the two vanished.
"Hurry up," the morphed Shane growled, rapidly beating up his unmorphed counterpart. "We don't want them stuck here with us."
"Not gonna be a problem, dude," the morphed Cam agreed, grabbing and throwing the unmorphed Cam toward the dimensional hole.
"You'll pay for this, Lothor," the unmorphed Shane cried out, clutching his stomach in pain from the barrage of blows.
"Talk to me, not him," the morphed Shane warned, easily lifting his counterpart and snarling in his face before tossing him with one arm.
"It's not too late to change your mind, Tobi," Tobi's sister told him as she blasted the unmorphed Tori with water. By the time Tori had recovered, she was too close to the ever expanding hole and was pulled toward it. She screamed moments before vanishing.
"The wannabe me's morpher will overload and seal the dimensional rupture any moment now," the remaining, morphed Dustin told Tobi's sister. "You have to make your choice now."
Tobi could see the indecision in his sister's eyes. She... cared about him. But, he had to tell her. "'ll never be able to go along with your friends' plans," he said, blinking up at her.
"Tobi," she said slowly, tears obvious behind her eyes. "You're my brother and I'm your sister. We're..."
"Make up your mind already," Hunter said, tapping his foot.
"I'll just try to stop you," Tobi told his sister. He could have lied, said he'd play nice and then use the opportunity to secretly work against them. It would be like going back to the way it was, his sister and her friends and him, the outcast. And that was the problem right there. He could never go back to who he was. He may have tried to act like one for a long time, but when it came down to it, he wasn't a punk. He belonged with his friends.
"Just toss him," Shane growled.
"I'm sorry, Tobi," his sister told him. "Really, I am. And, despite everything, I hope you're... happy there. Goodbye... little brother." She then easily lifted her severely weakened brother and threw him toward the dimensional hole, tears running down her face the whole time.
Tobi felt himself land back on the beach, but he knew it wasn't the same beach.
"Tobi," Tori called out, running over to him.
"Dude, get it off me!" Tobi heard Dustin yell. He immediately tried to crawl over to the equally injured Dustin, now morphed in his yellow Power Ranger suit.
"You have to take off the morpher," Hunter said, moving himself to Dustin's side.
"I can't when I'm morphed," Dustin complained.
"What's happening?" Tobi asked, Tori helping him over to Dustin.
"Then unmorph," Hunter told Dustin.
"Dude, I can't!" Dustin cried, scrambling with his morpher.
"I heard the other Dustin say his morpher's set to overload or something like that," Shane spoke up, clutching his stomach.
"Cam, we need you over here!" Tori yelled.
"But I can't find my father," he insisted, scrambling around on his knees.
"He'll be fine, bro," Blake chimed in. "We need you over—"
Suddenly Dustin's body began to glow yellow. Tobi looked over at the enormous glowing crack between the dimensions and saw it began to flicker closed. Then—Boom! Dustin's body seemed to explode, sending everyone, especially Tobi, into fits of shock and horror, but when the smoke cleared, Dustin was lying on the sand in his regular clothes.
Hunter, being closest, was the first to grab his hand and hold it. "Dustin, are you okay?" he whispered.
"Uh, yeah, I guess," he mumbled in response.
"Guys," Shane said, drawing their attention. He gestured toward the ocean. "We're stuck here."
And, as Tobi turned back to where the dimensional hole had been only moments ago, he saw nothing but sparkling ocean and clear blue sky stretching out far into the distant horizon...
To be continued...
Author's Note: So, there's my attempt at an action centered chapter. What do you think? Did I successfully create suspense and tension?