The sun was finally rising as they touched back down on the ground. RJ looked up once more and saw nothing again but empty sky.
"It's been a long night, how about you and I find a place to stay in town and get some rest? We can start our search tomorrow morning." asked Billy as he started walking into town.
"Yeah, sounds like a great idea," said RJ as he followed Billy's lead.
They decided to stay in a small motel just on the outskirt of the city. There was little traffic and no one paid much attention to two strangers passing through. Billy had already gone back a few times to the Power Chamber to retrieve some of his equipment and set it up in his room. For someone so in tune with this animal spirit, he sure knew his way around technology. RJ on the other hand unpacked his small backpack. As he pulled out his unwashed clothes a small picture fell out. It was the only thing personal that he carried around with him. It was a picture of him and his father laughing on the beach.
RJ stared at the picture a little longer than usual. He had forgotten about the fight he and his father had gotten into when he set out to find a master. RJ could still hear his father's disappointed tone as he yelled at him outside the Pai Zhuq Academy's gates.
"If you leave, don't ever expect to return! No son of mine will disrespect our family by taking up an animal that is not the Shark!" yelled RJ's father at the top of his lungs.
"Then maybe it's time we part ways Dad, I need to find an animal sprit of my own. Not one that is forced upon me by you or anyone else," yelled RJ.
That was the last time RJ spoke to his father. He thought about tossing the picture aside, but then thought against it. It was the last real happy memory he had of his father before their disagreement.
"Missing your dad?" asked Billy as he leaned against the open door.
"Not really, just wondering what he's up to," said RJ as he stuffed the picture back into his bag.
"Why don't you give him a call, you do have a phone in your room," said Billy as he pointed to the large white phone on the table.
"I don't think he'd want to hear from me. Not really happy I decided to choose an animal spirit different than the family's," said RJ.
"Does he even know you've chosen the wolf?" asked Billy.
RJ just shook his head and turned away from Billy.
"Alright, well I'm heading down the road for lunch in about an hour if you want to join me," said Billy.
"Yeah, sounds good. I'll swing by once I'm ready to go," said RJ as he grabbed a new change of clothes and headed into the bathroom.
Billy made his way back to his room and booted up a small tablet. The old triceratops logo appeared as the display came to life. Billy smiled and made a mental note to change the logo on all his devices as soon as he had time.
He quickly wrote an email to Cam explaining their current situation and what they had learned. Cam quickly responded with his current status on adapting ranger technology for the Ninja Academy's usage. Billy troubleshooted a few of Cam's issues and then went on to respond to his former ranger partners whom had been waiting on news of his current mission.
Kimberly was again the first one to respond, requesting that as soon as he was done with his current adventure to stop by her gymnastic studios for a quick lesson for RJ. Billy told her that he would make sure to use all of his ranger friend's resources in training RJ.
It was about a half hour later that RJ walked into Billy's room. Billy had four monitors currently displaying live images of the current Ranger incarnation battling monsters with their Megazord.
"Do you know them?" asked RJ as he stared at the image of their Megazord pummeling away at the monster.
"Not really. I know they're from the year 3000 and they've recruited two contemporary individuals to act as their Red and 6th/Auxiliary Red Rangers," said Billy as he pulled out schematics and bios of the current Rangers across two additional screens.
"So why aren't you helping them like you did with Cam and I?" asked RJ.
"Their Ranger technology is extremely advanced. I've only managed to hack into a few of their secondary systems to gather this much information. I also don't need to mess with the whole space/time continuum by learning more about the future than I need to," said Billy with a smile. "So how about that lunch?"
"I've been starving since we checked in," said RJ. "I could really go for some pizza!"
"I'm sure we can find a suitable place to order pizza," said Billy.
They hadn't even finished placing their order when they felt something cold pass over them. They exchanged looks letting each other know that they both felt the same thing. RJ made a beeline for the door as Billy assessed the situation. After a few minutes of scanning and sweeping the immediate area they came up with nothing.
"Please tell me I'm not going crazy on top of everything else," said RJ as he leaned against the pizzaria's wall.
"No, I felt it as well. How about we take the pizza to go?" asked Billy as they made their way back inside.
"There goes our nice little break," said RJ "Don't even give us enough time to eat!"
Back at the hotel Billy was furiously typing away at his computer, while RJ attempted to meditate the way Billy had taught him.
"There's got to be a way to adjust the scanners to pick up spirit energy. I mean if they were rangers I'd know exactly what to do," said Billy as he pushed the keyboard away and looked in RJ's direction.
RJ looked so peaceful to Billy. The slow even breaths he was taking almost made him look like he wasn't breathing. Billy could feel RJ's aura expand and contract as he quietly meditated on the floor. The power that emanated from the young Pai Zhuq student could not be ignored. Billy knew that RJ was still not ready to face this new foe. Another push like the one back in Angel Grove would surely send him over the edge. He'd probably lose RJ for good to the power of the wolf if he let it happen. Billy made himself promise that no harm would come to RJ, even if it meant lying to him.
Billy was again lost in thought when a loud beeping noise emanating from one of the monitors went off. The sound quickly brought RJ out of his meditation.
"What's going on?" asked RJ as he got up from the floor and crossed the room in a single stride.
Billy was furiously typing away at his keyboard. Entering commands and manipulating the information on the screen.
"The program I've been working on to amplify the scanning equipment finally finished installing. It's registering multiple spirits in and around our vicinity," said Billy as he continued to adjust the scanner.
"Wait, so you're saying there is more than one wolf spirit out there?" asked RJ as he made his way to the window and peered out.
"Not necessarily. The program is having some trouble pinpointing the exact type of signature it's registering. It might be a ghosting effect due to the nature of spirit energy lingering long after the entity has moved on," said Billy.
"You mean like how I can track your streaks pattern even after you're miles ahead of me?" asked RJ.
Billy smiled back finally acknowledging that maybe his student was more than just street smart. "Yeah, exactly like that. But since this energy source is so powerful its leaving a massive signature all over town. The scanners can't seem to differentiate between residual energy and active movement," said Billy.
RJ began to channel his animal spirit and forced Geki to manifest himself. The large purple wolf stretched and yawned as if being woken from a nap.
"Geki, are you able to snif out spirit signatures?" asked RJ.
The wolf shook its head, without any words the wolf informed RJ that his tracking skills would be useless since the entire town was covered in the black wolf's sent. He could barely stand the smell now.
"I asked Rogan when we first arrived. By the look on your face I'm guessing Geki said the same thing?" asked Billy.
"That neither can find them for the same reason the scanner can't locate them," said RJ.
Billy nodded and laid down the keyboard. There wouldn't be much else they could do until the black wolf made itself known.
Suddenly Rogan materialized at Billy's side. With a gentle nudge from his snout Rogan managed to inform Billy that Mia was reaching out to them. Billy told RJ to link with Geki so they could all converse together.
A few seconds later they found themselves in a massive bubble of energy crackling between purple, blue, and yellow.
Before them Mia was already waiting for them with Verrick.
"Where are you?" asked Mia.
The bubble of energy crackled again with jagged lines of black energy.
"We've been trying to contact you for hours. Verrick and I were finally able to reach Rogan to let him know we needed to speak," said Mia.
"We're close to what we believe could be the source of the disturbance we all felt," said Billy as the protective bubble began to open allowing gusts of winds to pummel them.
"What's going on?" yelled RJ over the howling winds.
"It might have something to do with the black wolf. We'll try to reach you again when we've gotten more information until then what is it you needed to tell us?" yelled Billy.
"The wolf, I've seen it before. In a dre,.." said Mia as the bubble finally collapsed around them. Their spirit animals quickly enveloped them in their own aura and safely transported them back to our plane of existence.
"This is getting out of hand," said Billy as he rose from his meditative state.
However, before RJ could even ask a question there was a loud pounding on the door.