AN: More Blake centered than anything, but still definitely Tori/Blake. And there's brotherly banter between Blake and Cam and Hunter, because the three of them being all close makes me happy. I'd say the three of them were my favorite, but I love this group too much to pick faves. Oh, and a couple f-bombs. Blake's pissed. Hopefully you guys have seen the team up, but I think it's mostly self explanatory.

18. spellbound - (PR:DT/PR:NS team-up: thunderstorm pt 1)

Blake stared, horrified and spellbound by the sight before him. He'd been called off the circuit before for emergencies, but somehow, this was much worse. Cam and his brother stood beside him, silent - already resigned to the sight of their best friends wiping the floor with the newest Ranger team. "How did they even..." Blake started, before trailing off, unable to tear his eyes from the sight of Tori systematically destroying the new yellow. Dustin looked like he was simply playing around, so little effort did he extend in whooping the ass of the newest blue. Shane delivered stroke after stroke with his sword, merciless in his attack against the red. Tor... Blake desperately wanted to be able to go down there and shake some sense into his almost-not-quite-whatever-they-were-girlfriend, but he knew it would change nothing. He grew frustrated, how could he just stand here and watch this happen? He had to go help and somehow find a way to- Hunter interrupted his musings by sending him a Look that told Blake his older brother knew exactly what he was thinking and no way would he let Blake go be a moron for the sake of being a moron.

"I don't even know," Cam muttered, clapping a hand on Blake's shoulder and squeezing comfortingly. Cam stood between the two Bradleys, the third of their little trio. "Those powers were gone forever, or at least I had thought so - but somehow Lothor twisted it, twisted all of it and..." Cam's gaze settled on the youngest of the three, knowing it had to be difficult to watch Tori acting so... un-Tori like.

"Dude, I'm sorry about Tori," Hunter said, echoing Cam's thoughts as he often did. Hunter looked rather helpless, as though he wanted to help his little brother but had no idea how to go about doing it. Cam felt just as useless - the brothers had taken him in and half-way adopted him as a pseudo-Bradley when his dad had been a guinea pig and now Cam couldn't even return the favor and comfort the younger of the two.

"We'll fix this," Cam said with more confidence than he felt, but when both Bradleys gazed at him, he nodded firmly. "We'll help the Dinos and fix Tori, Shane and Dustin." Hunter nodded and settled a comforting arm across his brother's shoulders. Blake let himself be a little brother for a moment, still watching in horror as the Dino Rangers retreated and his other three best friends followed after. He took a deep breath before glancing at Cam and Hunter.

"Alright, let's do this." Cam nodded and started down from the overpass they'd been watching the chaos occur from.

"Alright, first step is - get our powers back." Hunter froze and Blake stared at Cam like he was crazy. Which he clearly was. Had working at the Academy finally sent him off the deep end? Did he know where their powers were? Exactly how did he propose to- "We'll have to go into the Abyss of Evil." Cam continued down the blazing street casually, like what he'd said wasn't the stupidest and most insane idea to ever come to light. Blake liked Cam, really he did - he'd become a part of Hunter's and his tight knit family recently and Blake would do anything for him.

Except travel down into that damned Abyss of Evil. It was called the freakin' Abyss of Evil. There were reasons why things were named abyss and reasons why they were described as evil. And it wasn't because they housed bunny rabbits and marshmallows and sunshine.

"Cam," Hunter began conversationally, "We officially disown you." Cam snorted and glanced over his shoulder at the Thunders.

"Your overwhelming confidence in me is almost too much to bear," Cam deadpanned, forcing a smirk out of Blake - but only for a moment. He was totally not going along with this crazy ass plan, and that was final.

-

Okay, yeah, so he went along with the crazy ass plan. Sue him. But Hunter and Cam had played the Tori card and that was clearly against the rules of family. He'd told Hunter that family didn't do shit like that to each other - because really, so not fucking fair - and Hunter had laughed in his face as older brothers usually did when their little brothers complained.

"Dude, if you can't blackmail family, who else is there to blackmail?" Cam nodded solemnly in agreement and Blake decided then and there that he was no longer allowing the two eldest ex-Rangers to hang out together any longer. They were clearly bad influences on each other and it only made life harder for Blake in the long run, especially when they ganged up on him.

And now they were following Hunter's stupid ass plan, which clearly made things so much more difficult and complex than was needed, but Cam had agreed and again it had been two against one. Seriously, he was forbidding the two of them from ever seeing each other.

And so they'd arrived just as Tori, Shane and Dustin were about to morph and re-kick the asses of the new Rangers and played the part of the recently-turned-evil Rangers. He felt awful for destroying the hopeful look on that girl Kira's face, but it had to be done. He had to get Tori back, had to save his team, had to fix his friends. Oh, and save the world while he was at it.

"We stick with our own kind," Blake managed to get out, forcing himself not to turn and stare at Tori. He was two feet away, if he just turned right now… Blake clenched his hands into fists and forced himself to stare down the Dino Rangers. The important thing right now was convincing the Winds that they were evil too and to replace their new evil power disks with the old not-so-evil ones Cam had grabbed from the Abyss.

They turned to face the Winds and Blake just stared. C'mon, take them, take the disk, take it, his mind was chanting repeatedly. His gaze never left Tori's face and he knew just by looking at her that this wasn't his Tori. He'd already known that, already realized that she wasn't the same but he hadn't expected it to be so obvious. Her eyes were cold. Hard and cold and distant. She looked suspicious at the appearance of new disks, but her nose didn't wrinkle like when she was confused and she wasn't wearing the cute befuddled face that Blake secretly adored. She wasn't his Tori and nothing hurt more than staring at her, only to receive an empty, emotionless gaze back.

Take it, take the disk, please Tor, please, his mind begged of his spellbound almost-not-quite-oh-who-the-fuck-cared-girlfriend. The sound of the new disk clicking in was one of the most beautiful he'd ever heard. The moment he felt Cam beside him move - officially and silently declaring that it was safe to go after them - Blake was beside Tori, helping her up, afraid to let go of her hand.

Dustin was rambling and Blake managed to get in a few words edgewise about the return of Lothor, but mostly his eyes were for Tori. Her nose was wrinkled in utter confusion and she had that damn befuddled look on and Blake couldn't tear his eyes away. Not even during the ride home did he manage to let Tori out of his sight. When they finally got back to Dr. O's Secret Lair - which was almost as cool as Ninja Ops, but not quite, which he told to Cam who looked rather smugly pleased - Blake was inordinately pleased when Tori took the seat beside him.

Things were of course explained and fights had to be gone and fought, but there was a few minutes of milling around, where Cam and Haley were talking intense techno-geek babble and Hunter stood around looking vaguely impressive and fairly broody - though that kid Trent gave him a run for his money in the 'solemn, puppy dog, I-was-once-evil-but-don't-pity-me look' category. God knows what Shane and Dustin were teaching Conner and Ethan, but Blake took the free moments to talk with Tori.

"Tor, I…" Blake just stared in wonder at the girl before him. What could he tell her that would encompass everything he'd been panicking over, everything he'd thought about her in the last couple hours? Tori blinked up at him and he let out a long, strained breath. "Jeez Tor, don't ever scare me like that again," he managed to get out, a tired smile managing its way across his lips. Tori smiled slightly in return and let her head rest against his chest as she too let out a long breath.

"I'll try to keep my becoming-evil-quota to a minimum for your sake," she muttered into his shirt and he smiled in spite of himself.

"You doing alright?" he asked, wrapping his arms around the ninja and settling his chin atop her head. Tori hummed her acquiescence to this statement and Blake didn't push it any further.

"We've got to go fight soon," Tori said, moments later, though she didn't make any move to shift out of the embrace. Blake didn't shift an inch. This felt too nice to give up just yet and although in the back of his mind he knew he was still on tour and had a race today and his schedule would be hectic for the next few months, it only highlighted what he knew. This almost-whatever-the-hell-it-was-relationship that he had with Tori wasn't enough.

He saw her and he was intoxicated. He heard her voice and he was hooked. She smiled and he was addicted. He was spellbound by her very existence - and trust him, he didn't miss the irony in that statement - but that wasn't keeping him from doing what he knew he had to do.

"Tor?" he asked, lifting his head to catch her gaze with his own. "Be my girlfriend? For real?" Tori blinked up at him and he watched as a slow, astonished smile spread across her lips. His only reply at that moment was a kiss, but he was in no rush. He wasn't going anywhere.

Afterall, he was spellbound.