"I hope this works," Raven said quietly as they walked toward the park.
"It can only get better," Skull tried to comfort her. He was dressed in leather pants, a black tank top, fedora, and had a red bandana wrapped around his neck.
Raven, dressed in black jeans, a red shirt with a black heart, and one of skulls hoodies, along with a newly dyed pink streak in her hair, sat down at the picnic table. They were the first of the group to show.
A few minutes later, Aiden and Elle arrived, both in blue jeans, with Aiden in a green shirt and Elle in yellow.
Jack and Piper finally showed a few minutes later. Jack was in a navy blue shirt, with a light blue over-shirt and jeans. Piper, who was hardly ever unmorphed, needed more clothes, so Jack had taken her shopping. She was in a long sleeve big purple shirt and light jeans. Her dark hair was pulled up in a ponytail.
"I know we've all been through a lot," Raven started, "I first want to thank you for choosing me to be the group's leader. I know I can't replace Tommy, but I will try my best to help us win this."
"We think you'll do great," Aiden confirmed.
"We were talking last night, and we think we need to train. Strengthen our powers and learn to work together as a team," Elle added.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Raven nodded, "Our powers keep growing stronger, but now we have some issues. First off, Skull is new to these ranger powers, meaning he has not found what his are yet. Secondly, we need to find a way to use Pipers powers to our advantage, if she would be willing to use them at all."
"We talked about that last night," Jack started.
Piper put her hand on his arm and started speaking, "I thought that maybe I can only give bad thoughts, which wouldn't work on Lucifer. I've never been able to affect him. However, Jack suggested I use my power for good thoughts. He let me test it on him, and it seems to have worked. Just little things, like boosting confidence or helping with courage."
"I think we'll need the confidence boost," Aiden admitted.
The rest of the group nodded.
"Let's get to training then," Raven decided.
They paired off and worked on different stances for a while. Then once they felt they got them down better, they started working on their powers. Elle stood by in case anyone got hurt. Piper stood by her to watch what the others could do.
Jack had started carrying blades on him which he could fling at enemies with his mind while he used his body to do double the attacks.
He started flinging them out into an open field where Aiden practiced hitting the targets with lightning.
After a while, Aiden started chasing Elle with a rainbow, "Stay still, you have to be the pot of gold at the end!"
Raven started practicing her light screen defenses.
"How did you guys find your power?" Skull asked them.
"I got attacked," Raven mentioned.
"Sorry," Piper said, realizing it was her that attacked.
"It's fine, I guess I wouldn't be so good at this now if you hadn't," Raven replied smiling.
"I got myself a drink out of the fridge without getting up," Jack laughed.
"I flooded Elle's room," Aiden joked.
"So, attacks and accidents, right?" Skull asked, and then suggested, "Maybe we need to fight it out of me?"
"Heads up," Jack started throwing his blades.
Skull dodged them quickly, and then Aiden tried by making and throwing snowballs. Skull dodged those just as quickly. After he gained his breathe back, he said, who's next?
"I can't help," Elle laughed.
"I don't think I can either," Piper confessed.
"My turn then," Raven went after him. She started in hand to hand using her light shield to block his strikes.
"I don't think this is working," he admitted.
"Want me to go for it?" Raven asked him, and he nodded, "Stand back guys."
She threw her arms out letting a barrage of light out in a stream around her, using her full force, she got close to hitting him when he vanished.
"See that?" Aiden pointed out.
A cloud of smoke had moved out of the way and formed into Skull a few feet away.
"You can turn into smoke?" Elle asked.
Skull shrugged unsure of what just happened.
"You ok?" He asked Raven who had sat down on the grass. The last attack took a lot out of her, on top of her wounds still weren't' fully healed.
"We found you your power, I'm great," She smiled trying to reassure him.
He stood where he was and thought hard, slowly, his hand turned into a thick black smoke. Suddenly, his shape was gone, just a simple dark cloud of smoke spinning around in the air. He went past his friends and landed in front of Raven.
Suddenly, his phone rang, "Hello?"
"Yeah Bulkie, we'll be there soon. Bye," Skull talked to the phone, and then turned to the group, "Hungry?"
They hadn't noticed how quickly the day had gone by. The sun was starting to set when they headed toward Bulk and Skulls house.
When they got there, the sun had gone down, leaving the street dark. Generally, they could see some kind of light coming from the house, but now, darkness.
"Wait," Piper said before Skull put his key in the door.
They stood there in silence for a moment.
"It's Damien," she whispered in shocked realization.
"Who?" Aiden asked.
"Lucifer's last general," she replied.
"Really? What is he?" Jack asked.
"Vampire."
The group stood in silence.
"I'm going to save Bulk," Skull resolved.
"I have an idea that will take him by surprise," Raven stalled him. She turned to Piper, "Is he weak to sunlight?"
Piper nodded.
Raven whispered her plan to Skull, and told the rest of the group to stay outside.
Skull turned into smoke and glided into the house through the door frame. Raven, testing a theory, disappeared into the darkness and moved into the shadows. She moved straight through a window without making any noise. Skull and Raven floated through the house until they found Bulk.
"Keep quiet," the vampire hit Bulk.
Bulk quieted down. He was tied to a chair, mouth gagged so he couldn't scream.
"If they don't hurry up, I'll drain you," Damien hissed.
Skull went behind Bulk so he could loosen him from the chair.
Still unnoticed, Raven braced herself. If she could muster enough light, she could burn him right now and end this.
When she was into position, Skull moved in front of Bulk to prevent him from getting blinded.
All of a sudden, a great flash of light burst through the house.
"What's happening?" The vampire squealed in pain, his skin started to burn.
The others burst into the room, Aiden hitting him with lightning, Jack hitting the vampire in the heart with one of his blades.
The vampire burst into darkness and disappeared.
After getting the cloth off his mouth Bulk spoke, "What was that?"
"Vampire," Elle answered.
"Bad guy," Aiden also answered.
"No, the smoke thing?" He asked Skull, who disappeared into a puff of smoke in response.
"He found his powers," Raven smiled.
"You don't seem surprised at the vampire part?" Piper asked.
"You must be Piper," he introduced himself, "I'm Farkas. Well, just call me Bulk. And this was nothing compared to being on Astronema's ship."
"At least you weren't there for 3 weeks," Skull joked.
"At least I could have lost some weight," Bulk laughed about his size.
"We discovered I'm called Skull for a reason," Skull quipped.
The group cleaned up the mess while Bulk went on to cook them dinner.
They all stayed over, staying up late and having a movie night.
'I think we've finally become a team,' Raven thought to herself smiling.