Chapter 10: Petrified Xander
-Rock Porium-
Apparently Necrolai wasn't through with them, a few weeks ago the bat-bitch turned Vida into a vampire. If it wasn't for Chip, who knows what could've happened to their pink ranger. Aria hates having to fight her friends, especially after everything with Lothor brainwashing her and her brothers. She knew exactly what Vida was feeling. But being the girl she is, Vida got through it and now was back to normal.
Right now Aria was back outside of Rock Porium with her guitar playing some of her old songs as well as some covers of songs she learned in her almost non-existent free time.
She drew in more customers, one of whom; unfortunately was Leelee. She shot her a fake smile as the blonde walked by, only to make a face behind her back.
The black-ranger continued playing until Vida came running out, saying they needed to head back to Rootcore ASAP
-Rootcore-
All the rangers, minus Xander who was using a mirror to check out Mt. Everest growing on his face, huddled around Chip who apparently figured out the map to the Fire Heart.
"So while Xander was staring at himself and I was staring at Xander, the answer was staring at me" Chip told as he plucked a mirror from Xander's hand and held it to the torn map
"What mountain does that look like?" he asked
Realization hit all of them "Mount Fuego!" they all said at the same time. They congratulated Chip. Suddenly they heard Claire scream in excitement.
Aria turned, her hand already on her wand in case she needed to reverse a spell or something but Claire put her worries to rest when she said "It worked! I finally did something right!"
"What is it?" Xander asked
"It's a potion I concocted to make sad, dull-looking flowers become perfectly gorgeous"
"It's a perfection potion" he said, staring at the red roses before him
"Nice job Claire" Aria praised as she checked out the flowers herself.
Nick, however, brought their attention to the task at hand "All right let's go, Fire Heart is waiting, we'll have to split up to cover that much territory."
"Need my help?" Aria asked
"Please"
With a nod, Aria followed, nudging Xander to come along. Little did they know, Xander took Claire's 'perfection potion' and sprayed his nose before joining his team.
-Mt. Fuego-
The six of them split up; Chip and Aria, Maddie and nick, and Vida and Xander. While they were hiking up the mountain Chip kept asking a bunch of questions about Ninjas
"So how long did you guys train for?" he asked "You know before you came rangers?"
"My brothers and I trained for six years, Cam trained for his entire life, but the others didn't even have a year's worth of training" she explained, looking around to try and find the Fire Heart symbol
"So how did you learn how to control lightning?"
"A whole lotta meditation"
"Do your brothers control lightning too?" he asked excitedly
"Crimson and Navy" she replied, slowly getting annoyed with his constant questions
"How come you guys have different colours?"
"Different fighting styles"
"Huh?"
Before she could go into details the two heard an explosion in the distance. Without another word they ran back to the rendezvous point they all agreed on. They were met by Nick and Maddie
"You guys okay?" Aria asked
"Yeah we're fine" Maddie said "But where's V and Xander?" she asked, clearly worried about her twin sister.
At those words Xander and Vida walked up, carrying a crazy looking chest with small red buttons covering the surface of it. Aria heard the blue ranger breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of her sister still intact as she kneeled down before the chest to observe it. Chip and Vida tried to pull the lid off but Aria pushed their hands aside and pulled the tiny scroll tied to the front. As soon as she pulled the red ribbon a timer started
"This ancient puzzle is your task at hand; solve it quickly to receive what's grand." Aria read the small note "But if you fail this timely chore, the Fire Heart will be no more" with that ominous warning in their heads they all shared a look before Chip burst out
"Great another riddle!" he complained
Not five seconds after Chip's complaint, the rangers were knocked off their feet. With her face in the grass Aria growled "Every fucking time!"
"Hand over the chest!" the Hidiac commanded as more of the Demonic henchmen surrounded them
"Let's ranger up! Ready?"
"Ready"
"MAGICAL SOURCE MYSTIC FORCE!"
"Galwit Mysto Ranger!"
"MagiStaff!" the Nick called as he summoned his Mystic Striker to attack the leader of the Hidiacs while the other five fought off the rest. Out of the corner of her eye Aria saw Nick get thrown to the ground. "Nick!" she cried, Xander managed to get to him in time, blocking the fatal attack and destroying the leader.
-Later-
-Rootcore-
After the short battle the six rangers went back to the tree to try and figure out how to solve the puzzle. For the past twenty minutes Aria and Maddie, the brainiacs of the team, sat in front of the chest trying to figure out how to open the damn thing.
"Ugh, it's counting down!" Aria groaned in frustration as another combination failed. "Sorry guys" Maddie sighed
"Give me a sec…" Aria said before rushing to grab her Ninja Storm communicator. "Cam?" she said
"Aria? What's the problem?" he asked in a panicked voice
"We need your help with something, we need to figure out a way to open this chest or else it will destroy whatever's inside"
"I'll need to take a look…"
Using the old monitor Cam and Aria were able to start a video chat, allowing the old Samurai ranger to check out the chest. Aria gave him the full 360 and waited for his response.
"I've never seen anything like it" he admitted
"Do you think you can solve it?" Maddie asked hopefully
"I'd need to be there, unfortunately, I can't leave the Academy while dad is on his meditation retreat" Cam said, rolling his eyes a little
"He always took those at the worst times" Aria reminisced "Thanks anyway Cam, I'll see you guys soon"
After hanging up with him there was now 40 minutes left on the clock
The rangers circled around the chest, while Xander kept to himself, scratching furiously at the back of his neck. "I don't even know where to begin" Chip commented
"Then none of us do" Maddie breathed, frustrated that they couldn't figure out how to open the chest still "And we've already lost half an hour"
Aria noticed how Xander kept stepping back from the group, as well as some stray leaves in his hair. "You've still got leaves in your hair from the battle dude" she said, reaching behind him to pull them out. to her surprise the leaves were stuck to his head, as if it was growing out of him
"OW!" Xander yelped "It's nothing" he tried as the black ranger took a step back. A few seconds later he sighed and made his confession "I'm just having a little issue" Xander opened his arms to reveal that from his bicep to the tips of his fingers were all covered in wood. The four main rangers laughed while Aria had a worried expression on his face.
"This is funny to you guys?" he asked offended
They all nodded yes, not even trying to hide their amusement while Aria still had worry and concern etched on her face.
"Oh come on Xander," Vida egged "Hey, you always laugh at Claire when she turns herself into funny stuff"
"I'm sure it's just a side effect of your organic powers" Maddie tried "It'll go away…knock on wood"
"Guys, guys come on…'leaf' Xander alone" Nick said, causing another burst of laughter from the group.
Fed up Aria spoke up, quite loudly may I add "Hey! This is just another problem we have to face with. We don't know what's causing Xander's transformation and we don't know how serious this could be. But right now we have less than forty minutes left to open this chest"
The four other rangers' faces fell and went back to staring at the chest
"Hey I got it!" Chip announced
"What you solved the puzzle?" Aria asked
"No, but I think I know who can"
-Rock Porium-
Chip, Vida, and Aria presented Toby with the chest claiming that it was the hardest puzzle in the world. After announcing that he could do it before the time runs out Aria bowed her head towards the other two to talk a little more privately.
"You sure he could do it?" Aria asked, a little unsure about Toby's 'skills'
"Hey, don't worry, He can do it. all we have to do is create a diversion after he solves it and slip it outta here" Chip reassured "Simple"
"Famous last words" Vida smirked before turning over her shoulder
Aria followed her towards the front of the store when the two girls found Xander sneaking in, decked out in a trench coat, fedora, and sunglasses
"V, Ria!" he whispered
'Ria, huh, that's a new one' she thought to herself as she approached the green ranger
"Still blossoming I see?" Vida teased, Aria shot her a pointed look
"It's getting worse," he panicked "Look" he opened his shirt a little to reveal a patch of moss growing on his chest as if it were chest hair
"Ooh, some girls like a mossy chest" Vida mocked
Aria smacked her in the arm with a little jolt of electricity, just as she'd done with her brothers, making her rub her now sore arm "This is getting serious Vida"
"I can't be seen like this" Xander complained
"Or more importantly, what if it doesn't stop? For all we know he could turn into a tree" Aria added
"It could go away…in the fall" Vida laughed. But she saw the tired looks she composed herself "Look, you didn't do anything to cause it so I'm sure it'll fix itself" she shrugged
"I did do something" he admitted
Aria sighed "Of course you did"
"I sprayed myself with Claire's 'Perfection Potion' hoping to fix my nose" he turned on his heel and ran out the door.
Aria and Vida followed after him
-Rootcore-
The two girls ran inside to find Claire sulking at her pot of flowers
"Hey, have you seen Xander?" Vida asked
"No," Claire grumbled "But look, my potion failed, all of those pretty flowers I sprayed died." Vida and Aria stared at the dry, dark roses that stood limp in their vase
"Xander…." The two girls breathed when they realized that the vain green ranger didn't have much time left.
-Later-
Vida was tasked to locate the missing green ranger while Aria stayed behind to work on an antidote for the potion. After various tests and multiple combinations the two apprentices managed to figure out the antidote to Claire's potion.
Aria quickly poured it in an empty vial and raced out the door
-Forest-
A quick hop into a shadow and Aria appeared before her friends. Noticing Xander was taking root and losing mobility she tossed the vial to Vida
"V! Use your magic to make the potion rain on Xander. It's the fastest way"
Vida gave a nod and did exactly as she was told. She became a pink cloud and rained on Xander. Seconds later, their Minotaur was back to normal
"It worked!" Aria cheered, breathing a sigh of relief
"It's gone! Thank you" Xander smiled at Vida "I could not have gone through this without you"
"The fuck am I?" Aria teased, placing a hand on her hip "Thanks Ria for the antidote"
Xander's morpher beeped alerting a new spell code as well as a message from Nick calling for help. The two looked at Aria
"Go, you have a new spell code, use it. I'll be watching if you need my help"
The pink and green rangers nodded and ran off to battle. Aria shadow-traveled back to Rootcore to watch the battle
-Rootcore-
Aria joined Udonna and Claire around the Crystal Ball to watch the battle. Xander's new spell code gave him red boxing gloves with the Mystic Force symbol on them, the boxing gloves also gave him incredible speed, allowing to bob-and-weave attacks. It was with these new boxing gloves that Xander was able to defeat the monster.
-Later-
-Rock Porium-
The six rangers waited outside of Toby's office nervously while he continued trying to solve the puzzle. "I think I've got it!" Toby announced causing them all to storm into the cramped office space.
With a quick explanation of the puzzle Toby pressed one of the many red buttons on the chest and with a ding the lock opened.
"I'm the greatest puzzle solver on the face of the planet!" he announced
Before he could reach for the chest Aria felt Nick's hands push her forward while Chip and Xander slipped the chest from under Toby's nose and out of Rock Porium
"Hey Toby have you met our friend Aria?" Nick began, hoping to distract him
"Uh, no, should I have met her?" he questioned
"She's the singer outside the shop."
"The one who brings in the customers?" Toby asked with wide eyes
Nick gave a nod and Aria stuck her hand out "Uh hi…hope you don't mind that"
"Are you kidding me? Business is great whenever you're out there? Do you have a job?"
Nick and Aria shared a glance "Uh, kinda. I help take care of my, uh, aunt" Aria said, using the same lie she told her girlfriends
"Doesn't matter! I'll pay you to play outside the shop!" he said, waving his hands around in the air
Aria laughed at his enthusiasm "Sure, I guess"
The two shook hands before Nick ushered the curly-haired girl out the door.
The last thing they heard was "Where's the chest? What's inside?!"
-Rootcore-
The six of them stood before the chest with Nick taking the lead, "Here we go" he muttered as he slowly opened the chest
Inside laid a giant red, blue, and gold egg. A dragon's egg to be exact. Aria's eyes widened "The last dragon egg…"
A/N: Omfg I actually sorta, kinda updated on time. Go follow my other story Lady Red and check the poll on my profile. XOXO R&R