Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers

Chapter 20 – Here We Go Again

After having evacuated the Academy, the other Masters thankfully believing them immediately, the three left the plateau and made their way through the jungle, coming out of the protected area into the forest surrounding Ocean Bluff. When they did, Kira decided that they'd walked in silence enough and demanded answers.

"The honour us six senior students were fighting for was apparently to act as the new guardians for Dai Shi." Said Theo, continuing before Kira could interrupt and ask who Dai Shi was. "Dai Shi was once Pai Zhuq. According to Master Mao, he had, or has, the Spirit of the Dragon, and thousands of years ago used it to rally Animal Spirits behind him. He hated how humans treated animals, thinking them nothing more then dumb creatures to be used, abused and killed when they outlived their usefulness. He wanted animals to rule the world, to give humans a taste of their own medicine, and so he started the Spirit Wars. All beings with Animal Spirits became divided, some following Dai Shi, others remaining with Pai Zhuq, wanting to protect the humans and bring about a world where both humans and animals lived in harmony. Three Pai Zhuq warriors stood above the rest and captured Dai Shi's Spirit in a box-"

"A box?" Kira finally interrupted, though not exactly sure why. She believed every word Theo said, how could she not after living the life she had and especially after fighting Mesogog who had a similar goal as Dai Shi, to rid the world of humans. A Spirit being captured in a box also wasn't out of the realm of believability for her.

"Yes a box. The three warriors guarded the Dai Shi until the end of their days, at which point three more Guardians were chosen, and so it has been for the last few thousand years. Three Pai Zhuq trapped Dai Shi, only three could release him, and only three can re-captured him."

"So how did he escape then?" Asked Kira. "I mean did you three cast your powers and release him? And where are Lily and Jarrod?"

"No one purposefully released Dai Shi. Something happened and Jarrod, Master Mao's and Lily's powers combined, releasing the Dai Shi."

"Theo what happened?" Kira demanded, not liking his evasiveness. "Where are Jarrod and Lily?"

"Lily, Jarrod and I were chosen to be the new Guardians." Theo said with a sigh. "But…afterwards, Jarrod…he…he bullied a Cub. Casey stood up to him so Jarrod bullied him too, but Casey's Animal Spirit, the Tiger, defended him, knocking Jarrod back on his ass. Master Mao saw the whole thing, and replaced Jarrod as Guardian with Casey. When Master Mao took Lily, Casey and I down to where Dai Shi was kept, Jarrod followed us and confronted Master Mao. A fight broke out, but he didn't mean it too, I know Jarrod, and I know he just came to talk. But a fight did break out between him and Master Mao. Lily stepped in to try and stop Jarrod, and at some point the three of them released their Spirits, releasing Dai Shi. He injured Master Mao, and Jarrod ran when he saw what he'd done and Lily followed her mate. Master Mao told Casey to go find you, and…you know the rest."

"Why would Jarrod bully a Cub?" Kira questioned, that being the one thing in all this that she found hard to believe. "I've only known Jarrod for two months, but he's not a bully."

"I don't know." Theo admitted. "There could be a whole number of reasons, or any combination of them. We won't know until we ask him."

"But he ran off." Casey spoke up for the first time. "He ran off like a coward after releasing Dai Shi. He's no good-"

"You don't know that." Kira said sharply. "You don't know what was going through his mind. I know some amazing people who are truly good, but who have done bad things because of stress, or because they trusted the wrong person, or because they were forced to for one reason or another. I find it hard to believe that Jarrod's intentions were malicious, which means it was an accident. Him running doesn't make him guilty, it makes him human."

"You seem to have given this a lot of thought." Casey said suspiciously.

"Like I said, I know some good people who have done some bad things."

"But how?"

"Doesn't concern you." Kira said forcefully. "If there comes a time when it does I'll tell you, but that time is not now. Right now we need to get into the city and find our new Master. That's all that matters right now."

It took them nearly three hours of walking to make it to Ocean Bluff, though Theo was certain it should have only taken two except both Kira and Casey had gotten them lost instead of listening to his amazing sense of direction. Another half hour, and some asking around for directions, saw them arrive at Jungle Karma Pizza. The three looked around, thinking that jungle was certainly an apt word in the name given the décor, which featured a multitude of trees and animals in the motif.

"That must be him." Theo said, pointing to a booth at the back where an old Asian man was sitting. Now Kira, who was used to things not being what they appeared, seeing patterns in almost everything, and knowing that most of the time the obvious is the right answer, couldn't agree with him. Theo was stereotyping, though this one she couldn't entirely blame on him as there were a lot of Masters at Pai Zhuq who were old, male and Asian. But given the importance of Animal Spirits at Pai Zhuq, and the fact that it was in the middle of a jungle, Jungle Karma Pizza, with a very in your face animal theme told Kira that probably whoever owned the place was the one they were looking for. No matter her thoughts though, she followed his lead and said a silent 'I told you so' when she was proven right.

"Ok, so now where do we look?" Theo asked. Kira was about to speak up when an explosion was heard and a man in chef whites entered from the kitchen, completely covered in pizza dough and flour.

"Woah…intense." He said, his eyes unfocused. "So much for my Mt. Kilimanjaro pizza experiment." His eyes refocused and landed on the three Pai Zhuq students. Both Theo and Casey were looking at him weirdly, clearly quite unimpressed, and so missed what Kira did not, the flash of recognition as his gaze alighted on them. As Kira knew she'd never seen him before, and by Theo and Casey's reactions neither had they, she assumed it was because of the Pai Zhuq uniforms, further confirming her suspicion that they were looking for the owner, who was apparently this guy.

"Woah, customers." He said, picking up a couple menus as he made his way over to them. "Welcome to Jungle Karma Pizza. The name's RJ."

"No, no we're not customers." Said Theo. "We're…looking for someone. Come on guys, let's go."

"Wait, why don't you stay here and wait for whoever it is you're waiting for?" RJ suggested.

"We can't." Theo insisted. "We have a job to do and we really don't have time for-"He cut off as screams were heard from outside. The three looked to each other then back outside as more screams sounded. "We really don't have time." Theo and Casey ran out of there with Kira making to follow them though she stopped momentarily and turned to RJ.

"None of us really have any idea what we're getting into, but those two really don't have any idea." Kira said with a meaningful look. "So don't take too long." Not caring about RJ's shocked expression Kira ran out after the boys, catching up pretty fast. They arrived at the scene to see a large group of monsters, that all looked alike, jumping around with their arms held in front of them when they weren't attacking innocent people.

'Why are there always large groups of foot soldiers?' Kira wondered. While she'd never seen these particular monsters before in her life, the concept wasn't at all new to her.

"What are those things?" Casey asked, fear evident in his voice.

"My guess? Friends of Dai Shi." Kira muttered as all three fell into a fighting stance.

"Let's do it." Theo said and the three of them went on the attack, getting people out of harms way while trying to take down the horde of whatever these foot soldiers were called. Having never fought anything like this before, Theo and Casey fell pretty fast, Theo lasting slightly longer only due to having trained longer, but Kira was still going. These guys were tough, tougher then she remembered Tyrannodrones being, but they were still only foot soldiers and she'd fought enough of them to be able to hold her own. Learning the best way to fight your opponent in as little time as possible was a necessity in her life that she'd learned early on, and so she was able to take down quite of few of them, but eventually ended up having to go on the defense as both Theo and Casey had fallen, unable to fight any longer and so she had to protect them.

"Time for my true form!" Another monster said as it appeared, it being the only one to look different from the others, though still bore a quality to it that resembled the foot soldiers. At least it did, until its true form made an appearance, at which point it then looked like all the other 'monsters of the day' they'd fought as Rangers, though this one bore a resemblance to a mantis. It began slowly walking towards them while the foot soldiers broke off and went to stand behind him, allowing him the honour of finishing them off. Seeing no other choice unless they wanted to retreat and let the monster roam free through the city, Kira prepared to morph, only to stop when RJ finally showed up.

"Woah!" He said, in that tone of voice that was uniquely RJ, a mix of dreamy, and dazed, while having a certain strength to it. "Step back."

"Took you long enough." Kira muttered as she came to stand beside him. This guy may be a Pai Zhuq Master, but this monster, who Kira supposed possessed the Spirit of the Mantis if she were to follow the trend of Animal Spirits, possessed a great deal of power that no one, not her, Connor, her parents or any of the most powerful people she could think of, could destroy without Ranger powers, and as a Ranger, she couldn't let any harm come to him.

"It's time for your first lesson." RJ said, entirely to the two boys, his tone now all business, but he looked over his shoulder at them from the side Kira was on as if to include her in that as well; it had been obvious that there were things she hadn't told these two boys and he'd keep her secrets for now. "Don't judge a book by its cover." He raised the sleeve of his right arm to reveal the tattoo, the symbol of Pai Zhuq, that marked him as Master.

"Attack!" The Mantis ordered the foot soldiers. Between RJ and Kira they didn't last long and Kira let RJ deal with the Mantis, hitting him with a strong blast of power that forced him to lose power and return to his more foot soldier like form. "I'll get you later!" He screamed as he ran off. RJ then turned to the others with a smile.

"You're him." Casey said as he and Theo stood up and joined Kira standing in front of RJ. "You're our Master." The three bowed in respect and RJ made various noises of discomfort and motioned for them to stop bowing.

"Oh…uh…just call me RJ. Now, my students, your real journey begins." He said, and led them back to the pizza parlour.

"Where was everyone?!" A voice demanded when they entered. They all turned to see a woman, around Theo's age, that had been sitting quietly in the corner when they'd first arrived. "The door was open and people were waiting so I ended up taking orders and making pizzas and stuff, and I took money and put it in the register and I cleaned and I turned off the oven and I"

"Oh, uh, breathe Fran." Said RJ and she did as asked. "Uh, Fran, this is Theo, Kira and Casey."

"Hi Fran." They all said.

"Fran is our best customer! She's here everyday!"

"Oh…well it's not like I have nothing else to do." Fran said, a little embarrassed. "I do. It's just I love pizza. All the toppings and the smell and the taste. And I like spaghetti as well you know the sauce and the meatballs and the-"

"Uh, breathe Fran." RJ said yet again, and the three got the impression he said that a lot. "We'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye." She said and grabbing her coat she ran out the door.

"Follow me." RJ said once he'd locked up. He led them through the kitchen and up the stairs into a loft, the size of which belittled what they would have expected.

"Look at the size of this place!" Said Theo.

"Wow! This place is great!" Casey added. There was a lower level that was basically a gym, with mats and a basketball net. There was a stereo along the wall and one part of the floor had been turned into a sort of home theatre, though with only one ratty old chair and a few small TVs surrounding it.

"Mi casa es su casa." Said RJ. "This is where you will be living, training, playing and working. Everything is yours." Kira smiled and went over to the TV area going to sit in the chair only to jump up when RJ yelled from across the room. "Except that chair!" His yell wasn't mad or anything but it still surprised Kira. He rushed over to her and gently but firmly pushed her away from it. "My chair. It's mine, it's off limits got it?"

"Got it." They all said.

"Ok." He said, happy once more. "Next order of business is to get you out of those pyjamas." He went over to a dresser that was against the wall and from one of the drawers pulled out three sets of clothing, colour coded red, blue and yellow. He handed the red to Casey, blue to Theo and yellow to Kira. Seeing the colours she had an idea of what was coming, but thought she'd just let it play out.

"You've got a lot of TVs there RJ." She commented instead.

"TVs?" He asked. "No, these are state of the art city wide monitoring systems. Plus 1,253 cable channels." He added proudly. "Pretty sweet huh?" Suddenly, one of the TVs lit up to reveal more of those foot soldiers terrorizing downtown.

"Looks like our new friends are up to no good again." Said Theo. "Let's get 'em!" The three ran over to the stairs, stopping when they noticed it was just the three of them. "Come on RJ." Said Theo.

"Uh, no, no, I have a pizza store to run." He said. "Fighting evil is your job." Kira stifled a snort, RJ didn't know how true that was when it came to her, while Casey and Theo looked despondent and a little scared. "But I did notice you were a bit overpowered last time." He said, shooting Kira a look that clearly said he didn't include her in that but they'd talk about why that was later. He then went back over to the dresser and opened another drawer, this one containing three pairs of colour coded sunglasses. "I got a gift for you to even out the odds." He handed out the glasses and was met by two sceptical looks.

"Sunglasses?" Casey asked.

"They're not just sunglasses." RJ assured them. "They're Solar Morphers." Kira nodded at that very familiar term and mentally asked Connor, who'd been listening in the whole time and watching through her eyes to ensure she was alright, to tell her parents for her, kind of glad she wasn't there when they found out she was a Ranger again. "Did you ever hear of the Power Rangers?"

"Yeah, who hasn't?" Casey asked.

"Well guess what? You. Be. Them."

"No way!" Theo cried, his all business attitude melting and a bit of a little boy shining through. "Ever since I was a little kid I always wanted to be a…" he trailed off when he saw Casey and Kira smiling at him and regained his grown up attitude. "If that's what it takes." He finished.

"Now, Power Rangers aren't part of the Order of the Claw. But, I figured we needed everything we could get to fight the Dai Shi, so I know this guy, who knew this other guy, who had an uncle who had a connection…anyway, he tapped into the Morphing Grid and voila! Your Morphers. Once you activate them, all the knowledge you need will come instantaneously into your cellular make up. Gnarly huh? Now, go down there and beat evil. And now you look good doing it." The three nodded and didn't waste any more time. They ran out of the room, did a fast change, and then headed right downtown. There they met up with more foot soldiers, and a different monster who kind of resembled a chameleon.

"Go Rin Shi!" She called to the foot soldiers, finally giving the new Rangers a name for them. "Feed on the fear of the people!"

"Hey!" Kira cried as they came to a stop some feet away.

"Oh look, humans." The chameleon monster said, quite unimpressed.

"I don't know about you two, but I think it's time to show them what we got." Said Theo, and Kira couldn't agree more; she was ready to kick some ass. She and Theo stepped forward, believing Casey to be with them, and pulled out their Morphers, sliding them onto their faces, this being an entirely new feeling for Kira; as far as she knew, there's never been Morphers before that were sunglasses. Once the Morphers were in place, the two hit a button on the side and saw the Morphers come to life, the lenses acting like computer screens that showed them exactly what to do, while the information on what the morphing call was, was implanted in their minds, just as it always was. The two brought their right arms across their chest, their hand forming a claw, this being their ready position, before going right into their morph.

"Ready!"

"Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleashed!" Morphing with these powers was much different then her Dino powers and Kira couldn't help but feel a thrill as The Power overwhelmed her.

"With the Speed of a Cheetah! Jungle Fury Yellow Ranger!" She called, striking a pose for her first roll call as a Jungle Fury Ranger.

"With the Stealth of a Jaguar! Jungle Fury Blue Ranger!" Theo followed suit and they then went on the attack, the Rin Shi not standing a chance with their new powers.

"Call to the beast inside, bring out the Cheetah!" Kira cried, summoning her Animal Spirit and letting the Cheetah finished the job. Only once Kira and Theo had dealt with their Rin Shi did they notice that Casey was not with them. They saw that he remained un-morphed and surrounded by yet more Rin Shi as the Mantis, who had apparently returned while they'd been busy, was terrifying Fran. However, before Kira or Theo could do anything to help either of them, Casey broke free and unconsciously tapped into his Animal Spirit, the Tiger destroying the Rin Shi and morphing Casey in the process. He then promptly destroyed the Mantis and got Fran out of danger all on his own.

"Wow, Casey, that was amazing!" Said Kira.

"Fran was in danger." He explained. "I just…snapped…"

"That's not a bad thing in this case." She assured him.

"But that is! Theo cried, pointing up and behind them. Kira turned and sure enough the Mantis had grown big.

"RJ, the Zords!" She called through their comm system.

"Uh…you guys aren't ready for the growing big technique yet." He said.

"Then how are we supposed to fight that?!" Casey yelled.

"I'm not exactly sure…"

"You mean to tell us that you had Ranger powers ready but no Zords?!" Kira growled. "Or at least no plan on how to deal with giant monsters? How do you create a Ranger team and not account for giant monsters? They've been growing big since the Rangers first appeared in '93!"

"Kira, Ethan, Trent and I are on our way!" Connor shouted through their bond. "Your dad's operating the Pterazord by remote."

"I love you guys!" She replied as she was forced to sit back and watch the Mantis destroy the city, having no way of stopping it. Thankfully, it wasn't long before the Thundersaurus Megazord appeared. Connor and Ethan were piloting it and Trent came to meet up with them, being on standby in case his Megazord was needed.

"Where's your Megazord?" He asked, truly not knowing. Connor hadn't explained why they were heading to Ocean Bluff fully morphed, but had simply jumped up and told them to move it; they did, however, know that Kira was this new Yellow Ranger.

"We don't have one." Kira grumbled.

"What…? How do you not have a Megazord?!" The White Dino Ranger asked. "You're Power Rangers, Megazords are standard equipment!"

"That's exactly what I said." She muttered. The Dino Zords weren't meant to fight this kind of monster, so it took longer then usual to defeat him, but eventually they did succeed, and Connor and Ethan sent the Zords back and came to join the others.

"You guys really need to sort your Zord situation out." Said Ethan. "And fast."

"No really? I never would have guessed that!" Kira snarled with biting sarcasm, so not in the mood right now after having just been helpless to defeat a monster all because they 'weren't ready for the growing big technique'.

"Someone's in a bad mood. There's no need for the sarcasm."

"You stop saying stupid things and I'll stop being sarcastic." She retorted. "Come on." She led them all back to JKP, entering from the secret entrance at the back of the building as stealthily as six fully morphed Rangers could be.

"Power down!" Kira and the three Dino Rangers called once they were up in the loft, Casey and Theo following their example.

"Connor?!" Theo cried upon seeing who had been in the red suit.

"Hey Theo." Connor greeted while coming up beside Kira and wrapping an arm around her.

"You're a Power Ranger?!"

"Yep. Red Dino Thunder Ranger to be exact. And these are my friends, Ethan and Trent. I'm sure you can guess their colours if you missed them de-morphing."

"Would someone mind explaining to me what's going on?" Casey asked. RJ too wanted to hear the answer to this.

"This is Connor." Kira introduced. "My mate."

"Your mate?!" Casey cried. As he'd only been at the Academy a few weeks he hadn't yet gotten to the lecture on mates yet.

"Yep." Kira left it at that and while Casey was still confused it was enough for RJ.

"Well, thank you all for your help." RJ said. "We weren't exactly prepared for a giant Mantis."

"And I still don't know why." Kira said, turning to face him. "It's not like giant monsters are something new, especially for Power Rangers."

"And you would know would you?" Theo asked suspiciously. Kira smiled and raised her wrist, activating her Dino Morpher.

"I'm the Yellow Dino Thunder Ranger."

"That would actually explain so much." Said RJ. "Least of all why you seem to know so much about Power Rangers."

"So anyways," Trent spoke up. "We're happy to help if needed, but you should really get yourselves some Zords."

"Do you really not have any?" Ethan tried to clarify, finding it really hard to believe that Rangers didn't automatically come with Zords.

"They will." RJ said. "They can channel their Animal Spirits to become Zords. They just haven't learned how to do that yet."

"And how long until they have learned that?" Ethan asked.

"The whole team must be in harmony first. If they do not work as a team, they shall fail."

"Alright, well…work on that." Said Connor. "And try for no later then the end of summer. Ethan and Trent go back to school out of state in September, so it'll be harder to help out."

"Speaking of school," Kira said. "California law says I can't drop out of school yet-"

"Which you're never going to do." Growled Connor causing Kira to roll her eyes for he knew full well that wasn't what she was getting at.

"I'm supposed to be starting at Reefside High in September, but Dai Shi is attacking here in Ocean Bluff…"

"Maybe you could teleport here when needed?" Trent suggested.

"And how is the team supposed to be in harmony if I only see them for battles?"

"Well maybe you teleport home only for school. I don't know, it's not my job to figure this out."

"Sorry Trent." Kira said, realizing she was being kinda bitchy.

"I can't see Dr. and Mrs. O going for only seeing their daughter for a few minutes before or after school." Said Connor.

"They'll have to." Kira said. "I'll have to make them understand this is where I need to be. I'll tell them it's like attending boarding school or something." With their plans in place, the three Dino Rangers said goodbye. Kira then borrowed RJ's phone and called her parents. It was a long phone call, but one that Kira was happy about. While she'd been on the phone, RJ had made them a pizza for dinner, which they hungrily ate before he showed them where they'd be sleeping. There were two bedrooms in the loft, one belonging to RJ while the other was given to Kira as the only girl. The boys were given hammocks in a large alcove. But while not actual beds, RJ had some pretty awesome hammocks that when lined with pillows were very comfortable, and so neither complained about their new sleeping quarters and promptly fell asleep after their heads hit their pillows.

A/N - Basically 'Welcome to the Jungle pt 2'. Though with some obvious scene differences. Not really anything else to say about this chapter except that you will be learning more about what happened to Lily and Jarrod later on, and I hope I did RJ's quirkiness justice. Actually I'm not too worried about it in this chapter as almost all his scenes/lines were taken directly from the show, but I hope I succeed in future chapters!

Review please!