A/N: Fair warning, if you don't like OCs
"Hey there," Cam says as they walk over. The Jungle Fury rangers had already left from talking to them. "Sorry to interrupt you guys, but I feel that we've left the Wind and Thunder Academy in the hands of Cyber Cam for too long."
"No, no, it's fine." Emily waves away his apologies. "I'm glad you could come for a few short hours anyway."
"Trust me, I'd much rather have been here then at my shop. A massive surfing contest is coming up and everyone wants their own surfboards." Tori sighs.
"Well, with your work, where else would they go?" Emily compliments Tori. Tori smiles gratefully, pleased at the compliment. She had heard that Emily was a sweetheart to everyone she knew, but even though Tori didn't know her that well, from that single sentence, she knew that Emily was nice to everyone she met. Good choice Jayden, Tori thinks. Emily then turns to Dustin. He's looking at her expectantly, yet his eyes seem miles away.
"I guess you and me have the same element-earth." She nods to the small earth symbol woven into his tie. Shane has the fire symbol on his, Cam the Samurai star and Tori her water sign engraved among her dress's folds.
"Yeah, except Dustin's always living up in the clouds when he should be firmly planted on the ground," Shane breaks in before Dustin can say anything. He slings an arm over his shoulder until Dustin pushes him away.
"Thanks Shane. What he means is that I have an-"
"Over-the-top imagination? Yeah, that's about right." Tori chimes in. Emily laughs.
"I just really like, like, magical and adventurous things, okay?" Dustin says stubbornly.
"And there's nothing wrong with that," Emily points out. "I like fairytale things too. I just never imagined it would happen in reality."
"Then I guess my job's done," Jayden mummers to her. She smiles.
"So I was wondering how is it being a teacher? I was thinking of maybe training younger samurai," Jayden says. He had already run that idea by Emily and she had loved it. Now that Serena was better, she didn't have to take care of her anymore. Not that she had minded in the first place anyway.
They were even thinking of opening a karate school for kids. The classes would just teach them how to fight, train them, and give them more confidence and get them to trust in teamwork. It was an idea-in-progress though.
"It's not that hard. I just realized all the things that I did that annoyed them and that I didn't care about, I kinda care about now." Dustin informs them. Emily and Jayden look at each other.
"What he means, is that we're now seeing things from the teacher's point of view," Tori clears up.
"And if you want more insider's tips, you might want to see Hunter. Speaking of which, where are they?" Shane asks. Tori and Dustin look around.
"Oh, they were over talking to the Dino rangers," Cam says causally. They look at him, expecting him to elaborate a little more.
"What? I was talking to Hayley about their technology for their Raptor Riders, thinking I might use some of it to improve the Ninja Gliders for the future and I just happened to see them there."
"Hey man, Lothor's been pretty quiet lately. It's not like he can get out of the Abyss. So why worry?" Dustin leans back on his heels, his hands behind his head.
"I just want to be prepared," Cam defends.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Dustin waves away his concerns.
"You want to get the Bradley's then Tori?" Shane asks. Tori smiles mischievously.
"Why? Afraid Hunter will beat you again?" Shane's eyes widen as the rest chuckle.
"Hey! He never beat me! We agreed everything was a fair tie and-"
"I'll be back," Tori cuts in and walks to get them.
"I guess all red rangers are a little competitive," Emily says. She has a knowing look in her eyes that Jayden notices. He nudges her. They remember how intent Mike was at first at beating Jayden. But he mellowed out eventually.
"Oh, you should've seen them. They competed over everything," Dustin says.
"Yeah, it wasn't pretty," Cam adds.
"We did not! ...Okay, maybe a little." Shane admits.
"Then it's a little like Mike and you. He always tried to pass you, always be stronger. He told me so once," Emily tells Jayden. He nods.
"I know. And he improved a lot-under my direct training, of course." Jayden boasts. Emily laughs.
"Not just you, all of us. And Mentor."
"I suppose you're right." Jayden concedes. "But you and Mike both share the title green samurai ranger?"
"Yeah. But I've met him, and we couldn't be more different. I'm surprised he gets anything done. He's more a Dustin-type."
"Hey!" Dustin exclaims. Then he pauses. "Uh, is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"I'd say a good thing," Emily says. "And he's a good ranger. He's a rebel though-the most out of all of us-and almost walked away because of his old friends."
"I, uh, almost did that when I first met Hunter and Blake." Dustin smiles sheepishly.
"Hey man, what's up?" A voice puts in and an Asian man is saunters up to them. He bumps fists with Dustin and Shane then turns to Jayden.
"My congrats dude. I'm hoping that you will end up like me and Tori here?"
"If you ever propose that is." Tori rolls her eyes. Blake puts his hands up in defeat. Shane snorts behind his own hand.
"Nice," he snickers. "Yet so true." Emily notices Blake put some heavy gloves into his pocket and remembers what Jayden had told her that he and his brother had done.
"I've heard you do professional motocross. How is that?" Emily asks, intrigued. It sounds fascinating to her. Nothing compared to the rush she gets from horseback riding or just being with Jayden, but still.
"Oh, you know, it's awesome. That rush is the best feeling in the world." Blake responds.
"You got that right," A blond, muscular man walks up to them and Emily felt her mouth drop. So this is the Crimson ranger? She feels her cheeks heat to that exact color.
"I'm Hunter." He puts his hand out for Jayden to shake. Jayden, seeing the look of wonder on Emily's face and misinterpreting it, takes it and grasps Hunter's hand a little more firmly than usual.
"So you two are brothers?" He asks, trying to make conversation. Hunter raises his eyebrows.
"We're adopted," he answers bluntly. Jayden is surprised by his abruptness but lets it go.
"He's always kind of like that," Shane whispers. Hunter glares at him.
"Congratulations, Emily, right?" Hunter turns to her. She stares at him dreamily for a moment.
"Uh, yeah, Emily. And thanks. I'm so glad you could make it." As soon as those words leave her mouth, she's angry at herself.
Come on Emily. You just got married to the guy of your dreams. Sure, he's attractive, but still. You're just surprised, that's all. Yes, surprised.
At that moment a tall brunette comes up to them. She's wearing a sleeveless crimson dress that falls just above her knees. Her hair's down in loose curls. Jayden doesn't recognize her, as she doesn't look like any of the other rangers he's seen or heard about.
"Jayden, Emily, I want you to meet Eve. She's my girlfriend." Jayden hears those words and lets out a sigh of relief. Now Hunter can't do anything to Emily and he feels his frosty feelings towards the Thunder ranger warm a bit.
"It's so nice to meet you guys. Thanks for letting Hunter take me," she says sincerely. Emily can't help but love the girl, even though she's just met her. She seems like a sweet person. After all, even when you're married, it's not bad to find other guys attractive, right?
"Oh, no problem. We wouldn't want Hunter to be unhappy, would we?" Emily winks.
"Well, then that's an impossible feat." Eve laughs.
"You said it," Blake echoes. The others nod and Tori whispers: "You actually get used to it after awhile."
"Hey! I'm not unhappy all the time, just…cautious." Hunter says. "Besides, you sure as heck changed that about me." He takes her hand and she smiles at him.
"So how did you two exactly meet?" Emily questions. Being a ranger, you didn't have much time for getting into a relationship outside of your team. It was just you were always busy, saving the world and all. She knew from firsthand experience. Jayden too was curious. If he hadn't found his soul mate in his Samurai team, he would probably be out looking for a girlfriend right now. Hunter and Eve look at each other while the others shuffle their feet.
"It's kind of a long story," Eve finally says. "And as much as we'd love to tell you guys, it-"
"We don't really feel like hearing it since we were kinda there," Dustin breaks in. Cam elbows him in the ribs.
"Ow! What did I say?"
"Oh, nothing," Shane says sarcastically. Dustin still looks oblivious but just shrugs.
"No, no, it's fine," Emily hastily says. "We were just curious, that's all."
"Speaking of curious-or rather curios-ready for the Operation Overdrive rangers? I saw them over there." Jayden points in a vague direction. Emily giggles.
"It's not much to go on, but let's try anyway." She turns to the others. "We'll see you around, okay? And it was lovely meeting you," she adds. They bid each other goodbye and Jayden and Emily head for the Operation Overdrive rangers.
A/N: By the way, Eve is my OC. She will be in one of my future stories that I have planned out but have yet to write.