A/N: My longest part yet. We have here a rather ooc Dustin here, but there's reason for it, I promise! We also throw in another loop to the story...oh, and to GinaStar: Nah, the SO factor was totally unrelated, besides Ryan and Eric are single. I just wanted to do a story about TJ and Carlos, 'cause I find them to be underwritten around here, and well, it just kind of exploded.
Disclaimer: I have fuzzy bunnies and Happy Bunny stickers, but I don't own Power Rangers
Dedication: To my best friend, Jo, and hope that next week will be better! After all, you've replaced everything that's on the "most likely to break" list for your truck. (Ducks from the rubber penguins)
Cole hadn't realized just how far Blue Bay Harbor was from Turtle Cove until they set out to drive. The Ninjas' ability to move at speeds exceeding anything a car could do had given him the impression they weren't far away. After six hours in the car, he reflected that he hadn't been still that long since his trip up from the Amazon. Max and Danny had begun talking rather excitedly about hour three, and Taylor had settled into a pattern of ignore or yell after the first thirty minutes. Wes had put the radio on and was seemingly lost in the music; only a brief flicker when Taylor yelled belied his attention to anything beyond the road and the music. Cole had simply watched the road flash by, wishing that he had been faster, that he'd gotten to Alyssa before she'd been taken.
A sign flashed by, jolting Cole from his thoughts. They were in Blue Bay Harbor. Ahead of them, Carter moved from the fast lane to the slow lane and behind them, the motorcycles with Merric and Zen Aku followed. They exited the interstate and soon found themselves in the parking lot of a Motel 8. As Wes went in to secure rooms, his phone rang. Cole answered, "Wes Collins's phone, this is Cole Evans."
"Cole? Shane, I'm glad you answered," Shane said, he sounded tense.
"What's going on Shane?" Cole asked.
"Where are you?" Shane replied.
"We're getting rooms at a Motel 8," Cole said, "or rather, Wes is."
"Ok, there's only one of those in town. Dustin, Cam, Hunter and I will be there in about ten minutes." Shane replied, "Cam's the Green Samurai and Hunter is Crimson Thunder."
"Got it," Cole replied. He hung up as Wes came out, "Shane called, he's on his way here with Dustin, and two others, he said to give him ten minutes."
"All right," Wes replied. He held up room keys, "We've got seven rooms, all doubles, so we'll need to pick roommates."
"Danny and I will room together," Max said instantly.
"As will Zen Aku and I," Merric said.
"Chad and I have been roommates before," Joel said, "we can survive a few more nights together."
"Taylor," Dana said, after a short whispered conversation with Kelsey, "Kelsey and I can room together so you can have your own room if you want." Kelsey nodded quickly.
"That sounds good. The Reds can fight each other for the other room," Taylor said bluntly.
The three leaders blinked, then looked at each other, "Wes paid," Carter said, "I say give him a room alone. I can handle sleeping in the same room with someone."
Cole nodded, "As long as you don't snore."
"I won't if you won't," Carter replied.
The teams turned to grab hastily packed bags, and Wes handed out key cards and room assignments. They were heading in when a beat-up crimson pick-up pulled into the lot. Shane and Dustin leapt out of the back and jogged over, "Hey," Shane said as two other young men climbed out of the truck cab. "Sorry about the wait, we had vehicle issues."
One of the two young men who hadn't been introduced, an Asian man who seemed older than the others, rolled his eyes. "Shane, we argued over shot gun privileges. Saying it any other way is not going to impress people."
Shane turned to glare, but stopped at the sight of Hunter's smirk; instead he squared his shoulders, lifted his chin and turned back, "Did you get rooms all right?" He asked.
"Yes, we're just putting our stuff in there now," Wes replied.
Shane nodded, "Dustin and I have a house here in town, which is where Hunter's going to crash. Dustin's got dinner cooking, so we can go there to eat."
"Yeah, you all like Chinese, right?" Dustin asked, "Because that's what I'm making, just gotta do up the stir-fry when we get back."
Agreement came instantly, and Shane found it his turn to smirk at Hunter's look, "Dustin cooks," he told him, "and he's very good at it. Besides doing a full Chinese meal, he also does a mean lasagna. You can try it later, I'm sure there's leftovers."
"While you discuss Dustin's cooking ability," Carter said, "we'll go toss these in our rooms and we'll take you up on food. It's late, I'm hungry, and I want to hear what you've found out."
"Fine," Shane said.
Wes followed the others inside as an argument between the four began over food and who cooked better. "They're like high school students," Taylor muttered.
"They can't be that long out of school," Kelsey said, "they're rather young."
"Still, you'd think they didn't have a worry in the world, the way they carry on." Taylor retorted as she found her room.
Cole left the arguing women and followed Carter into their own room. "You ok?" Carter asked.
"I'm just worried, about Alyssa," Cole replied, dropping his bag on the bed. "She's one of mine and she asked me to help her."
Carter rested his hand on Cole's shoulder, "Cole, she's still alive. If that stick has what I hope it has, she's still there. We all have those regrets inside, especially over things like this. It's a part of being human. I know that not a day goes by that Captain Mitchell doesn't blame himself for what happened to Ryan as a boy, even with Ryan back. Things go wrong, and we always beat ourselves up because we want to be better. Brooding over what could have been isn't going to help Alyssa. We need to focus on now, and what we're doing. Now then, I'm hungry. Are you brave enough to face Dustin's cooking?"
Cole smirked, Dustin had become good friends with Max and Danny over the hours they'd spent together, and the boy's optimistic and almost innocent nature meshed quite well with Max and Danny's 'never give up' motto. "I may not know much about space," he said, rolling his eyes now at how pompous that had sounded the first time he said it, "but I'm hungry and I'd fight Red Lion for good food."
Laughing, Carter steered Cole back into the hall. Cole noticed Wes looking at him, and didn't miss Carter's discrete thumbs up in Wes's direction. The older Reds were looking out for him, knowing, as any good Red Ranger would, that Cole took Alyssa's change personally. The other Rangers joined them in the hall and they headed back outside. Dustin, Shane, and the two others, presumably Hunter and Cam, were still arguing, but as they got closer, they found that they were now arguing over the rules of shotgun. "The way I heard it, the driver pays, but the passenger takes the money in," Dustin was saying.
"Are we eating today, or are we arguing?" Joel asked.
The four looked up and grinned, "Eating," the blond said.
"Oh," Dustin said, "Hunter, Cam, this is Cole, Wes, Carter, Joel, Chad, Max, Danny, Merric, Taylor, Kelsey, and Dana. Everyone, this is Hunter Bradley and Cam Watanabe."
"Nice to meet you," Hunter said.
"We'll get those names repeated later," Cam added, "so we can put faces to names."
"Let's go eat," Shane said, and boosted himself into the back of the truck. Dustin jumped up behind him.
"Follow me," Hunter said, "I'm the only one who drives my truck."
"Unless you're drunk," Cam retorted, climbing up front.
Hunter shook his head and turned to go around to the driver side. Cole got into the front of Wes's SUV while the rest of his team, minus Merric and Zen Aku, climbed in the back. He saw the Lightspeed Rangers climb into their Hummer and then Hunter's truck fired up. The pulled out of the motel parking lot and across the bustling city to a nice neighborhood, filled with beautifully designed one and two story homes. The one that Hunter pulled up to was a two story, with a well maintained yard. By the time everyone had piled out, Dustin had raced into the house while Shane laughingly followed him.
Cole followed the others towards the door, and he overheard Hunter say to Cam, "Are we still sure they're straight?"
"Dustin has a girlfriend," Cam replied.
Cole shook his head and stepped into one of the most tastefully decorated homes he'd ever seen. Shane was getting people settled in the living room while Dustin, apparently, was cooking. "Who decorated?" Dana asked, "This is a beautiful place."
Shane shrugged, "My mom, she's an interior decorator. Dustin's parents own the house, since we don't, exactly, have jobs. When we wanted a place to get away from our work, the parents got together and came up with this."
"Now I'm confused," Wes said, "what, exactly, do you do. We never heard."
"It's going to take about fifteen minutes for this to finish," Dustin announced as he stepped into the room from another door. "If Hunter and Cam agree, you should tell them." He disappeared back into what Cole thought was the kitchen before anyone could say anything.
"Mature Dustin," Hunter commented, "I'm still not used to it."
"He has his moments," Shane said, "mostly he's just the same as ever."
"So, we're doing this," Cam said.
The three took deep breaths, and turned to the expectant room, "We're Ninjas," Shane said, "and we trained at secret Ninja Academies. Tori, Dustin and I studied at the Wind Ninja Academy here in Blue Bay, Hunter and Blake trained at the Thunder Academy up North."
"My father is the head of the Wind Academy," Cam said, "I never officially studied there, although I did take lessons. Dad promised Mom that I wouldn't become a Ninja. I'm not, I'm a Samurai."
"After we defeated Lothor and graduated," Hunter continued, "I accepted the post of head teacher at the Thunder Academy. My brother Blake signed with Factory Blue and is a professional motocross racer."
"Tori, Dustin and I teach at the Wind Academy," Shane added.
"As do I," Cam said, "but I teach Samurai classes."
Hunter crossed his arms, "We trust you not to blab about the academies, they've been a closely held secret for a very long time."
"Don't worry," Wes said, "we won't tell anyone." The other Rangers nodded.
"Sensei Watanabe is the only one who can approve visitors to the Academy," Shane said, "I spoke with him today about what happened. He will permit two people from each team to visit the Academy if need be. For now, our house can be used as a meeting place."
"The computers here aren't as good," Cam said, "but I can remote access the super computer if I need to. Cyber Cam's watching the monitors now, incase something happens."
"Cyber Cam?" Dana repeated.
"Cam's holographic twin," Shane replied, his tone conveying his dislike of the other. "He's not a bad guy, just annoying."
"Food ready," Dustin announced, appearing in the door, "Taylor, Dana and Kelsey, would you like to go first?"
"Thank you," Kelsey replied. The three girls filed past him into the kitchen and soon returned with food. The Lightspeed men, with Wes, went next, then the Wild Force. Shane and the ninjas went last, and when they came back, they settled on the floor with ease.
"Ok," Cam said, "Shane told me that there were papers recovered from Alyssa's home. I'll want to see them tomorrow, the thing I want to ask today is do we know who the Betrayers are?"
Eyes turned to Merric's silent shadow, Zen Aku. The former Duke Org looked back, unmoved. "The Betrayers are Ranger like Merric," he said finally, "Rangers who served Evil for a distinct length of time before returning to the Light. It would make sense that these Rangers would strike at them, because they have, in other eyes, betrayed the Dark."
"Blake and I qualify then," Hunter announced, "we were brainwashed and worked for Lothor at the beginning."
"That also means that Dr. Oliver and Trent should be warned," Cam added.
"Hey, I have a question," Max said, "Who is Blake and why isn't he here?"
Hunter's face became an emotionless mask, "Blake is my brother and the Navy Thunder Ranger, he graduated with us and is a Thunder Master, but he doesn't teach. About four months ago he just disappeared," he said. "It was after Lothor came back and teamed up with Mesogog. Lothor's nieces, Cam's cousins, are, or rather, were training at the Wind Academy. They came back and, well, Cam knows what happened better than I."
Cam nodded, "Mara and Kapri wanted to talk to me about something, but at the time, I was dealing with a second round of withdrawal and wasn't up to listening to their air headed babble. Believe me; none of you would last fifteen minutes in a car with either of them, much less putting them together. Well, when Blake came to visit Tori, they cornered him, and then they all left. No warning; he even stood Tori up. He did contact Factory Blue, the motocross team he races for, and told them he had a family emergency that meant he couldn't come back for a while. No one's heard from any of them since. I've used every method of tracking at my disposal, but it's like they left the planet, even though they don't have access to a ship that I'm aware of."
"You didn't ask any other team about him?" Carter asked.
"We asked Dr Oliver to ask," Shane replied, "we didn't want to cause a big fuss over it, I mean, it could be like that Red Alert just before Mesogog was defeated. Dr Oliver said that the Ranger in question, Justin something, had just forgotten his cell phone when he went on vacation. He was more annoyed and embarrassed than anything."
"Can I ask a stupid question?" Dustin asked, his thoughtful voice catching attention quickly. "Did anyone ask Justin what he knows? Justin was a Turbo Ranger with TJ and Carlos."
Silence reigned as the other Rangers looked at each other.
