Today, Magnolia High School students were taking a visit to a plant sanctuary. They were assigned to research a plant of their choice. Gajeel seemed to be the only one that wasn't into the whole thing as they all walked outside to study some of the plants.
"Why do we have to research some stupid plants?" Gajeel said.
"It's part of our assignment." Lucy said. "Look here." She went down to look at a venus flytrap. "This is one of the venus flytraps. Any bug that gets caught in it is going to get crushed."
"Sounds like my kind of flower if it's a crusher." Gajeel said. Lucy looked across the field and saw a girl with short blue hair in an orange dress.
"Gajeel, look." Lucy said as he pointed to her. "You know Levy, right?"
"The bookworm? I've seen her around. Why?" Gajeel said.
"I happen to know that she thinks you're cute." Lucy said. "Why don't you go over and talk to her?"
"I don't know." Gajeel said.
"It will be fine. There's no need to be shy." Lucy said, but Gajeel got up in her face.
"I am not shy. You got that?" Gajeel said and Lucy was getting a little intimidated.
"Yeah. I got it. I'm just helping out a friend and fellow ranger by hooking him up with a nice girl." Lucy said.
"I don't remember saying we were friends." Gajeel said as he just walked off and Lucy felt offended from hearing that.
"Excuse me?" Lucy said as she went after Gajeel to give him a piece of her mind. With everyone moved away, Keyes came out from hiding and he too seemed interested in the plant.
"A plant named after a goddess of love and beauty." Keyes said. "Soon it shall be an etherious of destruction and pain." He used his power on the plant and transformed it. The flytrap jumped out of its place in the dirt and formed a green monster with the flytrap's teeth on its chest.
"Greetings. It feels nice to move something besides my teeth."
"I welcome thee….Venap." Keyes said. "You will help us crush the rangers….literally. Come for we have much to talk." The two of them were starting to walk away. As Gajeel managed to loose Lucy, he spotted the two of them.
"Hey!" Gajeel called out as he went after the two of them and he caught their attention.
"Black Ranger!" Keyes said. "I wasn't expecting you or the other rangers to come so early. Tartaro soldiers, deal with this fool." He called upon the soldiers as they all came out of black flash.
"Don't know why you're here and don't care since I get to do something than watch plants." Gajeel said as he went to fight. He deflected a club swing and tossed it to the ground. He gave one a strong kick and knocked it down. Two tried using spears on both sides, but Gajeel caught them and banged the two together. He gave one other a kick and then a roundhouse kick.
"If you don't mind, I live to give it a shot." Venap said.
"Very well." Keyes said as Venap went to join the fight. When Gajeel knocked another soldier down, Venap grabbed a hold of him tossed him down.
"Better watch it. I've got a serious bite." Venap said.
"Bring it, salad." Gajeel said as he continued to fight. Meanwhile, Lucy lost Gajeel, but she was able to find the others.
"Have you guys seen Gajeel?" Lucy asked.
"We thought we was with you." Natsu said.
"He was until he made a rude comment and just walked off. I still owe him a piece of my mind." Lucy said. Gray heard some sort of struggle and saw through a couple trees and saw the fight.
"I think I just found him!" Gray said as he pointed to the fight and they saw Gajeel could use some help.
"Come on." Natsu said as they all went to help him. Gajeel landed a kick on Venap and tried a right hook, but Venap caught his fist.
"You'll have to do better than that and I'm just a plant." Venap said as he kicked Gajeel in the gut and shoved him to the ground. Two tartaro soldiers used their spears to hold him down. "This was easier than I thought." That was when the others showed up. Natsu and Gray pulled the soldiers off and knocked them down. One tried to strike Erza, but she kicked the weapon out of the way. She hit it a few times and flipped it over her. Lucy jumped behind one. She grabbed it and drove her knee into it and tossed it down.
"What are you doing here, bonehead?" Natsu asked.
"Simply using the power these flowers have." Keyes said. "Venap, let's fall back for now. Master Mard Geer would like to meet you."
"You got it. So long." Venap said as the two made a run for it.
"Get back here!" Natsu called out.
"Leave it, Natsu." Gray said. "We'll be seeing those two sooner than we might think." Erza went over to help Gajeel get up.
"You okay?" Erza asked as she offered her hand, but Gajeel just shoved it out of the way and got up himself.
"I had everything under controlled." Gajeel said.
"Sure you did." Lucy said with sarcasm in her tone.
"Zip it. Next time, don't get in the way of my fights." Gajeel said.
"Gajeel, you were in trouble. We jumped in and helped you." Natsu said.
"That's how a team works. Besides, we're all friends here. It's natural for us to jump in and help." Erza said.
"Hold on. We're not friends." Gajeel said. "We're all just people that got mixed up in this whole mess and became a team."
"Yeah and because of that we all became friends." Lucy said.
"That doesn't mean we have to be friends." Gajeel said. "I'm better off on my own. If I would have known being a ranger would mean we have to all palsy, I would have ditched this place."
"What is your problem?" Gray said as he sounded as upset as the others were. "We're all in this together. You don't have to sound like such a jerk."
"Seriously. You better change your attitude before I do it for you." Natsu said.
"Forget this. I'm out of here." Gajeel said and left with the idea of just leaving the Power Rangers.
"Gajeel, wait." Lucy said as she wanted to go after him, but Gray grabbed her arm and stopped her.
"Forget him. He's obviously not a team player." Gray said. "We'll just have to solve this problem without him. Let's go see Mavis." All of them pulled out their morphers and used them to teleport to their base and leave Gajeel behind.
….
The Cube
Keyes returned to the etherious hideout with Venap. Tempester and Kyoka were there, but Mard Geer seemed to have been missing.
"I have returned. Where is Master Mard Geer?" Keyes asked.
"His 'problem' came up again." Kyoka said.
"He should return soon, hopefully." Tempester said.
"I have returned now." All of them looked to see Mard Geer has returned and sat upon his throne. "Who might this be?"
"Venap. I created him from a carnivorous plant." Keyes said.
"That's right. You need me to do something? I'll do it." Venap said.
"What exactly is this new minion capable of?" Mard Geer asked.
"Once he has the Power Rangers entangled in his vines, he shall pull them in and crush them." Keyes said. "We already have an advantage for it seemed there was problems surrounding Black Ranger."
"Is that so? Perhaps we can use that to our advantage." Mard Geer said. "Tempester, go down with Venap and destroy them."
"As you wish." Tempester said.
"Better not mess up. I'm actually tempted to see what these Power Rangers are capable of doing myself." Kyoka said.
"You don't need to worry." Venap said. "I'm going to chew those rangers up and not spit them out." With one of the rangers going rogue, is four going to be enough to beat this weed.
…
Rangers' Base
Natsu and the others headed for their base and told Mavis and Mirajane everything that is already going on with Keyes creating a new monster.
"The flytrap species of plants are powerful ones." Mavis said. "Amplified with the power Keyes has, this plant monster could be quite the problem."
"By the way, where's Gajeel?" Mirajane said.
"If you ask me, I say who cares." Gray said. "Gajeel's obviously not a team player and doesn't acknowledge as his friends."
"Yeah. I think you made a mistake choosing him as a ranger." Natsu said.
"I had no say on who would have been chosen." Mavis said. "My magic guided itself. If Gajeel didn't had the capabilities to be a true ranger, he wouldn't have come here in the first place. Gajeel just needs to realize that a team can mean more than one thing. Give him some time and I'm sure he'll come around."
"Let's hope you're right." Erza said.
"How is it a little girl is so wise?" Natsu said and Mavis was a little hurt.
"I am not a little girl! I'm actually a few years older than you. I'm just short for my age." Mavis said. Even though she squealed like a little kid, Natsu felt like he was in trouble and didn't know what to say. Luckily for him, Mavis' crystal ball started glowing. Mavis looked into it and saw Tempester and Venap attacking. "Rangers, go!"
"I'll try to contact Gajeel. We might need him." Mirajane said as the rest of them headed out.
…
Gajeel
Gajeel went to hang at the Mystic Star and just get his mind off the whole thing. He heard his morpher go off and that meant he knew of danger. However, he decided to just ignore it.
"Hi, Gajeel." He looked and saw Levy came up to him.
"Hey, Levy." Gajeel said.
"Are you okay? You look like there's something bothering you." Levy said, but Gajeel refused to answer. "Where are Lucy and the others? Aren't they your friends?"
"No, they're not." Gajeel said.
"Oh. I see you guys have been hanging out a lot. I just thought you guys were." Levy said.
"We all just caught in the same situation. That's all." Gajeel said. "They say because we're a team that means we're friends now."
"I see." Levy said. "Well, if you ask me, that's enough." Gajeel looked at her wondering what she was talking about. "Gajeel, I don't know what you guys got into, but it seems like they consider you their friend. With you being on a team that gives you the opportunity to become friends. Maybe the others were just ahead of you and you just don't see that you're already friends." Gajeel didn't think of it like that, but now he wasn't so sure.
…
Downtown
Venap and Tempester attacked the entire city. They laid waste to everything to get the rangers to come out. It worked as four of them jumped out and faced off against them.
"That's enough." Natsu said.
"It looks like Keyes was right. The Black Ranger hasn't arrived." Tempester said.
"It doesn't matter if who's here and who's not." Venap said. "I'll take every one of them down." The fight starting as all of them went in. The girls took on Venap. Erza tried to hit him, but Venap struck her and kicked her back. Lucy flipped in and kicked Venap. She tried again on the side, but Venap caught her and tossed her away. The boys took on Tempester. Natsu tried kicking him a couple times, but he hit Natsu back. Gray grabbed a hold of his arm and drove his leg against him, but Tempester brushed him off.
"Magical Wind Sword!" Erza pulled out her weapon and slashed against Venap a few times.
"Sorry, but there's no gardening today." Venap said. His chest opened up and he shot a few vines and lashed against Erza and knocked her down.
"Erza, are you okay?" Lucy asked.
"Look out!" Erza said as Venap unleashed more of his vines and struck both of them. The boys noticed both of them were down.
"Oh no! The girls!" Gray said.
"Rumble!" Tempester had a bolt of thunder crash down and both the boys got hit.
"How many tricks does this guy have?" Natsu questioned.
"Swoosh!" Tempester created a gust of wind that hit against both of them and knocked them into the girls. "Finish them off."
"No problem." Venap said as he unleashed his vines and got all of them. He pulled all of them closer to him. He stretched out his chest and closed it around all of four of them with them getting crushed. "I've got you now, rangers. I don't intend on letting go."
"I can't move." Gray said.
"Having trouble breathing." Lucy said. All of them couldn't get free and there didn't seem to be a way out.
….
Gajeel
Gajeel thought about what Levy said, but he just didn't seem so sure. He saw a bunch of people run up front to listen to the television hanging on the wall.
"I'm currently on my way to a battle commencing between the Power Rangers and the monsters." A reporter said and showed what was happening. "It looks like the Power Rangers are in serious trouble. Are they going to make it?" Gajeel saw what was happening to them and got his answers. He grabbed his morpher and ran out the door. He ran outside where he saw no one around.
"Magical Energy, Unleash!" Gajeel said as he morphed and went to help the others.
…
The Battle
All four of them felt their bodies getting crushed against each other and it was too hard for them to breathe at this point.
"It looks like this is the end." Tempester said. Natsu tried reaching his hand out to get free, but it wasn't looking good. That was until Gajeel showed up and pounded Tempester out of the way. Gajeel got behind Venap and grabbed a hold of his flytrap teeth.
"Let them go!" Gajeel said as he was using great strength and was prying Venap open.
"Ow! That hurts! Cut it out!" Venap pleased with the pain of his chest being torn open. Gajeel opened it up enough for all of them to slip out.
"Oh! That's much better!" Natsu said.
"Hold still." Erza said as she pulled out her sword and slashed the vines for them to get free. When Gajeel saw they were free, he tossed Venap away.
"Oh man! Talk about chest pains." Venap said as he agonized with pain.
"Are you guys okay?" Gajeel asked.
"Yeah. We're lucky you showed up when you did." Lucy said.
"Listen…..I'm…..I'm….." Gajeel knew what to say, but was having trouble saying it.
"I believe the word you're looking for is sorry." Erza said.
"Yeah." Gajeel said. "Look, I'm not much of a team player. Probably because I never actually had friends before." Now all of them were starting to feel bad.
"Well, you got four now." Gray said.
"How touching." Venap said as he stood up and stood with Tempester.
"Destroy them!" Tempester ordered before he left and Venap went to attack. He tried swinging his arms and legs around, but the rangers avoided him. Erza and Gray got a hold of his arms and Gajeel pulled out his club.
"Time to do some weed whacking." Gajeel said. He swung full force as Gray and Erza let go and sent Venap flying. "Let's put them together." All of them pulled out their weapons and brought them together.
"Magic Cannon!"
"Not good!" Venap said.
"Fire!" All of them shot out the blast of magic. Venap got caught in the blast and collapsed as he exploded and met his destruction from all five rangers.
…
Mystic Star
All of them headed for the Mystic Star to celebrate their latest victory. Mirajane came to their table with their drinks and handed it to them.
"To Gajeel for saving our skins!" Lucy said as all of them tapped their glasses together.
"Thanks guys. I guess I have a lot to learn what it means to be a ranger and a friend." Gajeel said.
"You're learning. That's a start." Erza said as all of them shared a laugh. Gajeel looked over and saw Levy came by.
"Hey, Lucy. You sue Levy likes me?" Gajeel asked.
"She does. Trust me." Lucy said.
"Aw! How adorable." Gray mocked.
"Big tough Gajeel seems to have a crush." Natsu said.
"Okay, you two. You just woke the beast." Gajeel said as he went after the two as they got up and ran. Gajeel's got quite the set of friends.