I do not own Power Rangers.

He was a rather strange nighlock, Mike had never seen anything like it. He was surprised to have thought this, but some of the nighlock did look similar. This particular one had a ninja star- esque weapon and his claws were obscenely long. Mike knew to steer clear of them. He was tall and lanky and his entire body was covered in jagged spikes that could easily tear through many things. The green power ranger had know idea what he was up against.

"Hey greenie! Where's the rest of your colorful crew?" he began, "Too scared to face me?"

"No way!" Mike retorted,"Why would they be scared?" The words just flew out of his mouth. With that, Mike lunged at the nighlock, only for it to dodge the strike. The nighlock leaped backwards, out of Mike's reach. Mike attacked again and a back and forth battle ensued, no one participant winning or losing, but over time, Mike began to gain the upper hand. The nighlock was wearing out, and drying up. As Mike began to hear the well-known cracking noise, the nighlock threw himself backwards again.

"NO ONE DEFEATS TEMPERINJANTUS!" The nighlock roared, reminding Mike of it's infamy. "STAR SWIRL ATTACK!"

Suddenly, several ninja stars began flying out of Temperinjantus's hand, aimed directly at the green ranger. He tried as best as he could to block them all, while the nighlock stood in the same position and laughed evilly. The stars were still pouring out of his hands and Mike started to think that it would never end. Then, the nighlock bellowed something unheard of.

"DOUBLE STAR ATTACK!" The nighlock drew two perpendicular lines with his claws, and they crashed into the green ranger, effectively demorphing him. Mike wasn't going to let one strike put him out for good, so he stood up, and charged the nighlock. It once again leaped backwards, sending a multitude of undodgeable attacks at Mike. As he repelled them to the best of his ability, thoughts started to flood into his mind.

I knew this would happen. I knew he would win. I'm not good enough . I can't win. Why did I even try? Consumed in his thoughts, Mike failed to see a star aimed directly at his knee.

"Agh!" Mike fell to the ground and began to writhe in pain. Without his suit, he took the attack full force. When he removed his hand, Mike instantly regretted it. Through his torn pant leg, Mike saw a deep, bloody gash. He also underestimated the force of the stars, as his leg was now bent into an odd position.

Through the ringing in his ears, Mike could make out the nighlock laughing, followed by cracking, followed by unidentifiable words. When the green ranger looked up again, the nighlock was gone. Mike had the instinct that the nighlock had retreated to the netherworld, as he could make out a faint red glow on a curb corner. He was exhausted, soaked in sweat, not to mention the injury, and all he wanted to do was to go the the shiba house and sleep. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. He knew that he would have to get home soon, or else his sick friends would think something had gone wrong.

Mike trudged home, as fast as he could go without bringing his injuries any attention. His whole body was in pain, because not only did he have a deep gash by his knee, he was blatantly exhausted. Suddenly, his samuraizer started to buzz. It was Mia. He mustered up his best possible voice and answered the call.

"Hey Mia," he started nonchalantly, "How are you guys?"

"We're all fine...we'll not fine, but... You know what I mean." She answered. "What about you? You've been gone an awful long time and..."

"Mia, I'm fine," he interrupted. "I'm on my way back right now. Don't sweat it. I'll probably be there in about five minutes."

"Alright. Are you ok? You sound kind of weird." Mia questioned, concerned for her younger ranger.

"Mia, don't stress out. You're sick. I'll be back to take care of you soon. Please just rest until I get there."

"Ok, I'll give you ten minutes to get back." Mia responded, with a mother-like tone in her voice.

"Ok mom, I'll be home soon." Mike answered and hung up. He was going to have to book it back to the shiba house. At his rate, it would take him at least ten minutes to get there. As he picked up his pace, many new thoughts raced through his mind.

How am I supposed to take care of all of my friends? Oh, what am I gonna do? I can't do this. I am one of the least responsible people on the planet. How, just, how?

He finally reached the shiba house after what seemed to be an eternity of walking. He walked inside only to find a very frail appearing Mia staring at the now open door.

"Hey Mia, what's up?" He asked, trying to sound innocent.

"What's up? You've been gone for almost two and a half hours and we were so nervous. We didn't know what had happened to you. We thought you might be hurt."

"Nope, I'm fine. Now you go back to bed and I'll bring you all some tea in a minute, once I clean up and everything." Mia stuck her hand out onto Mike's forehead.

"What are you doing?" He asked her as he took he had off.

"Are you feeling ok?" She asked mockingly, "You're acting, responsible!"

"Ha ah very funny. I mean it, go back to bed." Mike answered.

"Alright mom." Mia responded as a play to his earlier joke. She walked down the hall and into her and Emily's room. Mike started down the hall, to grab clothes from the laundry room before heading into the bathroom to take a shower. As he inspected his wound from the battle, he was surprised to find truely how bad it looked. It was deep, bloody, and dirty, and Mike hoped that it wasn't infected.

He got into the shower and hissed when the hot water touched his skin. He scrub his wounds as gently but thoroughly as he could and got out. He wrapped his wound in as much gauze as he could and make a wooden splint to hide under his pant leg to contain his leg. He hoped that none of his friends noticed the bulk coming from underneath. As he walked out of the bathroom, he realized that he had promised his friend tea and decided to act upon it.

Mike threw his clothes in the washing machine and walked back into the kitchen. He grabbed a kettle, filled it with water, and turned the heat on high. As he waited for the water to boil, his exhaustion began to catch up to him. He was constantly yawning and he wished that he could just lie down and sleep for the rest of the day. In the midst of his daydreaming, he hadn't even realized that the kettle was making the high pitched whirring sound. As he pulled it off of the stove with a yawn, and sluggishly proceeded to finish the tea, Mike knew that he had a freakishly long couple of days ahead of him.

AN- Thanks for all of the reviews! I'm kind've stuck on where to go next. I want to ask you how much fluff I should add. Leave a comment so I can get the next chapter up soon!