The Waiting Game

A Ninja Storm and Robo-Knight one shot.

Dustin only thought it was a heap of metal just left there by someone... He didn't know it was something from the future, something that could tell him everything he needed to know.. something that was in major trouble.

Featuring Dustin, Tori, Hunter, Cam and Robo-Knight !

Disclaimer- We do not own any of the characters, some have been created by us but most belong to Saban. We promise not to break them and will put them back when we're done.

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Blue Bay Harbour

Dirt Track.

15th September 2003

The motocross rider came to a sudden stop as he rounded a corner, only just managing to break in time to avoid the metallic heap before him. He switched off his engine, thankful this was only a practice session rather than an actual race.

Who the hell would dump that sort of junk on a dirt track?

The man removed his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow before he turned his attention to the mess. It didn't look like a broken bike, and he'd seen a lot of bad crashes where the bikes were written off on the spot.

"Whoever it was doesn't want that anymore." He climbed off his bike and started over to the scrap metal; he could definitely salvage stuff for Cam in that heap. Ohh! New stuff for Cam to tinker with! "'Well thank you Dustin, this will come in handy for my new-' the hell?!" Dustin jumped away, instantly ceasing his Cam impression when he was sure he has seen part of the heap move. "Na-uh." He took another step back, "No bike moves-" Part of the heap jerked again, this time it had a distinct arm shape. "Wo-woah!" Dustin prepared himself for a battle, though it didn't look like this guy could put up much of a fight. "Who are you?!"

The heap pushed up, managing to lift it's upper half up enough for Dustin to get a proper look at it.

Sweet! A robot!

It had a helmet that consisted of silver and gold accents along with a ruby red visor. It's body was made of a dull black metal with a hard looking silver armour attached and, again, gold accents.

"Can you talk?"

"The- the- the-" The robot turned to Dustin, "Circuits have ta-taken substantial damage- running scans. Scan complete. Repair not possible."

"Wait Dude- Dude-bot, are you busted?"

"The silver Rang-Ranger."

"Did he bring you here?"

"The Silver Ranger, where is he?"

Dustin furrowed his brow and moved to the robot's side, "Silver Ranger as in Power Ranger? There isn't one dude."

"Bring me to Troy. Noah, Noah."

"Dude, I know loads of Troy's, you wanna be more specific?"

"Troy Burrows."

"Never heard of him."

"The Red Ranger!"

"No... I'm pretty sure he's not the Red."

"And who are you to know?"

"I'm Dustin Brookes."

The robot began to stand, very unsteady with much struggle. " Waldo, aka. Dustin Brookes. Yellow Earth Ninja, 2003"

"How'd you know that?"

"Human," The robot spoke authoritatively, "What year is this?"

"2003, well almost 2004."

"Objective, repair circuit board. Ultimate objective, return to 2014." The Robot started up the dirt track, dragging it's damaged leg behind it.

"Wait!" Dustin chased after the Robot excitedly, "You're from the future?! That's awesome! I always wanted to meet someone from the future! There were rumours that the Time Force Rangers were from the future but no one can prove it! What's it like? Is it better? What kinda weather does it have, you know Global warming and that? There's Rangers in the future?!"

"Human. Go about your business."

"Dude, I'm a Ranger- this is my business! How'd you end up here?"

"Short term circuitry compromised."

"Does that mean you don't know? You talk like Cam. Oh! Did Cam make you?!"

"Cameron Watanabe, Ninja Storm green. No. Yes I do not have any internal logs currently."

"Ah man, that sucks, like amnesia or something... wait! Cam! He could help you! He's like a genius! He could fix you up! He'd have you back in your time in, well, no time."

"Likelihood of success, 58.4325%. Human, take me to this Cam."

"Okay but first," Dustin stopped to study the Robot further, "What's your name?"

"I am Robo- Knight."

"Okay Robo- Knight, awesome name by the way, but we gotta keep you a secret. See, people don't generally see Robot's walking around in this time, it might be different when you're from but for us it's a thing to cause panic. Think you can be subtle?" The Robot stood in silence and Dustin sighed, "I figured not seeing as you're like eight feet tall and silver and gold- your creator didn't have subtlety in mind, huh? Okay, we'll be okay. I'll get you to the academy then you can go home.. we'll be super careful."

"Chances of success 22.234%."

"Thanks for that bow of confidence. Okay dude, follow me."

Dustin lead the time travelling robot back towards town, sticking to back roads and the shadows. So maybe they looked like burglars, at least that would be easier for him to explain than why a robot was- but if they were spotted, then Dustin would still have to explain what a robot was doing here!

Dustin abruptly stopped, spinning to face the Robot.

"Okay knighty dude, we have a problem. You stay here, imma go into town and get you some clothes, make you look, you know, more human like." The brunette explained completely rushed, "What size are you?" Stupid question Dustin, stupid. "Right yeah, Robot. Just wait here." He began to back out down an alley, "Stay... good robot." And turned off down the street.

Robo Knight inspected the area around him. He was far from home. Gosei would not be impressed. How had he even got here?

Another time, a different city.

The Ninja Rangers were from Blue Bay Harbour, miles away from where he had last been; helping Troy to save the Silver Ranger, transferring his life force into Orion, then black...

Until he rebooted in the dirt with the male yellow's voice near him.

Gia... She would not be impressed with this yellow. Too juvenile almost. How would she put it? Like a puppy.

Humans were complex.

How could they all be coping? The Armada were fast approaching. They needed his help before it was too late. They were a strong team, but the success rate against the Armada's numbers was low, single figure low.

"Must repair circuits." Robo Knight followed the route Dustin had taken until he came out on a street, littered with very few people.

Their eyes were instantly on him, panic registering on their features.

"Dude! I said stay!" A streak of yellow passed by Robo Knight and Dustin was by his side.

"Dustin?" A female voice came from across the road, belonging to a blonde girl who was a similar age to Dustin.

"Uh oh." Dustin muttered under his breath, "Just play along." He turned to the blonde, "Hi Tori! Weren't you working today?"

Tori crossed over, eyes never leaving the towering robot. "Shane is. What the hell is that?!"

"Oh this?" Dustin looked casually to Robo-Knight, "This is my-my cousin... Hect-Hector... Yeah, Hector."

Tori crossed her arms over her chest, blue eyes reflecting in amusement, "Really? Your 'cousin'?"

"Yeah!" Dustin tried to wrap his arm around Robo-Knight shoulders but couldn't quite reach, "He got the tall genes- I think that's from my dad's side of the family, my Uncle is like nine feet tall."

"Okay 'Hector'," Tori said suspiciously, "Are you going to a costume party?" She looked him up and down and shifted her weight to her other foot, "In the middle of the day?"

"Tori!" Dustin gasped, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to one side. He dropped his voice a few decibels, "Be nice... Hector... Well, he isn't exactly... Normal. You see, he thinks he's a robot -it all goes back to when I was four and he was just born-"

"That guy's fifteen?"

Dustin's eyes widened and he mentally kicked himself, "Uh- yeah... Like I said, tall genes." Stupid slip up Dustin! "Anyway, see, I kinda was really excited to meet him, all my other cousins were girls and I didn't like make up being put on me, so when I got to hold him... I dropped him... on his head."

"Dustin!"

"It was only onto a couch! He was okay! But... he believes he's a robot. We have to liquidise all his food so he thinks it's oil and stuff, plug him in when he goes to sleep to recharge."

"Dustin-"

"It's all pretty tragic but we love him anyway and-"

"He's gone." Tori stated bluntly.

"What? No he's right-" Dustin looked back over his shoulder to the vacant space that Robo- Knight had been in moments prior, "Ah nuts! I gotta find him! He's broken-"

"That's a rude thing to say about someone who you made challenged."

Dustin's anxiety grew. He had to find the Robot before anyone else did, especially Lothor.

"I gotta find him" He began to scan the streets- oh the back alleys! "I needa find Robo-Knight!"

"His robot name?" Tori almost smirked, managing just to contain it before it escaped, "Okay, how about you check the town, and I'll go look by-" Dustin had already sped off down the alley before she had a chance to finish. She groaned but started to walk down the street, "Seriously, sometimes I wonder with him..."

Robo-Knight knew he could not keep this up any longer. His power was draining fast, circuits frying and databases clearing itself. He had taken damage before, but not this drastically. If he could not find someone to help him any time soon, he would shut down in 2003, never to reboot again. The nearest technicians his systems had managed to retain were Billy Cranston, although Billy's residence were divided between Aquitar and Earth currently, Angela Fairweather- Rawlings, who was also unreliable as her profile suggested this date was the day she went into labour with her and the Lightspeed Green Ranger's first child Ciara, or Cameron Watanabe in the secret Wind Ninja Academy.

Dustin had mentioned Cameron, he would be the superior choice for this objective.

"Dude!" Dustin streaked in besides the Robot, relief flooding through his face, "Don't do that! There are really bad people out there!"

"Take me to Cameron."

"That's what I'm trying to do Bro. We're not far now... then we'll get you fixed up and you can tell me how you got here and- oh! Other Rangers! I wanna hear about them before me, 'cause the whole butterfly effect so I don't think you can tell me about the future ones! Like, I've seen reports and news footage! Oh and Lightspeed, I managed to track down a couple of them, I'm not a stalker, I just wanted tips but the woman- pretty blonde girl, Dana I think her name was- told me it was inappropriate to stalk her to her apartment and- well her boyfriend, the Red Ranger, Carter, was there and the guy is freaky tall and big and they threatened to call the cops if I didn't go. I think some wires were crossed and they thought I was some stalker guy-" Dustin saw the Robot flake slightly, "Okay! Enough rambling! Imma get you to Cam now! Just keep walking!" Dustin moved behind Robo-Knight and began to push him, hoping the extra hand could help the Robot conserve energy. "It's just round here and over there and- c'mon dude! Think of your team! I bet they're really worried about you!"

"Energy at critical level."

"Well then drink some coffee! C'mon! You can't give up now! They need you! Don't talk, I'll talk! Just keep going!"

"Hunter Bradley."

"You know Hunter?!" Dustin peeped over Robo-Knight shoulder and saw that Hunter was stood just by a tree in front, silently staring. A smirk tugged at his lips and he stood straighter. "Hunter! How long have you-"

"Followed you from town." The teen uttered.

"And you didn't offer to help?! Dude! No fair!" Hunter shrugged, his glare returning to his face. "This is-"

"Robo-Knight. I heard."

"Okay, I don't have time to explain! But he's busted and he's gonna die and he's from the future and if he doesn't go back, his friends, who are Rangers, are gonna be in trouble and- please Hunter!"

Hunter rolled his icy eyes and turned his back to the pair.

"Hunter!"

"I'll let Cam know."

"Oh." Dustin grinned, "Thanks dude!"

Hunter streaked off toward the academy, leaving a long trail of crimson behind him.

Dustin had to have Hunter help him to carry the robot down the stairs and into Cam's lab as Robo-Knight's energy was too low for him to lift his feet the distance between the stairs.

Cam had everything out prepared and instantly set to work to aid the Robot whilst Dustin sat around watching like an anxious parent whilst their child was being operated on. Hunter hovered near Dustin, not bothered about whether the Robot would be okay or not but partially concerned for Dustin.

Each movement Cam made when focused on the Robot were all done with skill and precision, like all Cam's projects. He was going in blind with this one, no blue prints or manuals or anything, just what he could see.

"Did he dive off a cliff? There's water damage."

"I-i don't know. He just was laying there and he told me he's-"

"From the future. Hunter already explained." Cam grabbed his pliers and wire cutters, "It's circuits are fried- memory needs a little tweaking... Hard drive is intact."

"English." Hunter gruffly said.

Cam looked up at the pair and pushed his glasses further up his nose, "He's in bad shape but I can do it."

Dustin finally released the breath he had been holding in relief, "Thank God! Cam, you're the best!"

"Yeah, okay... just don't pester me for an hour or so." He waved the pair out of his lab and focused the overhead lamp into the circuit board to begin his difficult task.

After an hour, Dustin couldn't contain himself anymore, even with Hunter's cutting boards that told him to stay sat down and silent. The second sixty minutes were up, the yellow was back in Cam's lab by the robot's side.

Cam had his back to Dustin, hunched over his computer and squinting at some coding on the screen.

"Did you do it?" Dustin asked eagerly.

"Barely," Cam answered, "His coding isn't something I recognize-"

"Well duh, he's from the future. Future coding!"

"More like not made by humans." Cam shut down his screen and swivelled the chair around to face the motocross racer, "He's rebooting. I saved his codes for future projects."

"He might not like that."

"He's a Robot."

"Doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings."

"Okay, you believe that."

Robo-Knight made multiple whirling noises before he was sat up, "Running scans. Scans complete. Results: circuits fully functional, power restored, objective complete."

"Hey buddy!" Dustin perched himself on the work bench, "Are you still busted?"

Cam cast Dustin a withering stare, "Functional, restored."

"Oh right, sorry." His attention returned to Robo-Knight, "Has your amnesia gone?"

"Robot Dustin."

"He couldn't remember!" Dustin countered, "C'mon Robo-Knight, can't you remember?"

Robo-Knight looked out across the lab, the scene materialising before him. The beach... Troy... Orion... "The Silver Ranger was dying."

"Is he talking about the Titanium Ranger in Mariner Bay or the Silver Space Ranger?"

"He means his own team"

"My systems were failing. I transferred my life force into him."

Hunter leaned against the wall, "You sacrificed yourself."

"I could not be repaired. The Silver could be saved."

"That's really brave Robo-Knight. But how did you end up here? I found you at the dirt track, not a beach and you're like ten years too early."

"Unknown. My mainframe suggests my circuits malfunctioned when I attempted to leave the beach before my system crashed."

"So you glitched and came back here? Awesome!"

"Thank you Rangers for restoring me." He stood and started to leave the room, "I must return to-"

"We can't time travel..." Dustin spoke softly, "Even Cam hasn't mastered that yet..."

Robo-Knight reload. He couldn't time travel, it was a glitch that got him there. His team...

"Main objective failed."

"I'm sorry Robo-Knight..."

"He's from the future." Tori's voice echoed in from the doorway. She walked in and began to inspect the Robot, "That's easier than if he was from the past stuck in the future." She met what she believed to be Robo-Knights eyes, "I'm sorry you're stuck here, but you are going to be able to help your team."

"How if he can't get back?"

"Dustin, he's a robot, he doesn't age!"

"We just power him down and store him somewhere safe until the date he was originally from." Cam explained, "That way it's like he never left. It gives his system time to fully repair."

"Like a vacation?" Dustin chirped, "See Robo-Knight! I told you we'd help! When are you from?"

"November 22nd 2014."

"Okay then, we just reactivate him then." Tori smiled, "Problem solved."

"We can't keep him here," Cam stated, "It's not secure enough."

"It's a secret academy."

Cam looked to Hunter, "I know, but whilst Lothor is still around, we need somewhere safer... And the safest Ranger related place is-"

"Dustin's already stalked them." Tori sat down next to Dustin, who was currently pouting.

"I told her I didn't mean any harm, I just wanted some tips."

"Yeah but people who don't know you don't quite understand that when you show up on their doorstep with a ton of information on them and their past, you aren't trying to stalk them, you just want to be friends."

"But she seemed so nice in interviews."

"She's military trained. Not so nice." Hunter cut in.

"Dana Alison Mitchell, born 5th July 1982 to William Francis Mitchell, Fire captain, and Alison Elizabeth Mitchell, home maker. Brother, Ryan Alexander William Charles Wolfgang Mitchell, born 19th September 1980, died 26th December 1986, resurrected 19th September 1980- Titanium Ranger. Currently Senior studying Medical Science and Paediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Currently on placement at Mariner Bay General. In a relationship with Carter Michael Grayson, born 26th March 1978, profession firefighter and Lightspeed Aqua Base safety officer and Co-Captain-"

Dustin's eyes visibly lit up, "Wait! Do you know that for all Rangers? Like their whole history?"

"Dustin. No." Tori scorned, "You know you can't use him to get every Ranger's identity. Have you thought that maybe if they wanted people to know who they were, they would have revealed it?"

"Technically Lightspeed did!"

"Doesn't mean they want to be bothered! Under no circumstances do you-"

Cam stood up and walked to Robo-Knight, "Sorry for this, but it's for the sake of everyone's identity. I think you're still glitched so I'm going to power you down, fix you then you'll be rebooted in 2014."

"I understand."

"Thanks." Cam paused for a moment, "But I have to know... Do we win?"

"Success rate is calculated at 46.977%."

Cam sighed, "So we fail?"

"He's saying we have nearly 50% chance of destroying Lothor!" Dustin spoke excitedly again, "That's good!"

Hunter nodded, "I'll take those odds."

"Night Robo-Knight. You're gonna go somewhere safe." Dustin hugged the Robot as Cam disabled him. He pressed his ear to Robo-Knights back, listening as the whirling of his machinery slowed until it stopped. "I like him... but so not fair you guys won't let me know about Rangers!" Dustin pouted.

Hunter patted Dustin on the head patronisingly whilst Cam went about tweaking Robo-Knight's chest plate. "You could always go to the hospital-"

"Don't plant ideas in his head." Cam muttered, "Who's gonna take him to the Lightspeed storage hanger on the Aqua Base."

"Hunter and Blake." Tori answered, "they're less likely to trigger alarm and Dustin will probably get a restraining order."

Dustin pulled away from Robo-Knight and furrowed his brow, "You guys are mean, you know that?"

"C'mon," Tori wrapped her arm around Dustin, "How about we go to the comic book store to cheer you up?"

Dustin perked up, "Okay!" He clapped Robo-Knight on the shoulder, "I'll see you in ten years buddy..."

Mariner Bay

Aqua Base Storage Hanger

"No one really comes down here anymore." The man informed the blonde who followed him in after he had pressed his keycard to the entry pad.

"I think you're forgetting how long I lived on board Carter," she replied as she moved past the Rescue Cycles over to where the Rescue Bird was hanging on the wall behind protective glass, "No one really came here before Operation Lightspeed. If Dad opened this up to the public then he could make a real killing as a museum." She reached up, hand grazing the glass that stood between her and the part of the Rescue Bird she was use to holding. "Not that I don't mind coming home with no bruises and stuff, but at times I really wanna go back to when we were Rangers."

"You say that now, but if we had to come out of retirement-"

"Again."

He smiled and stood beside her admiring the Rescue Bird, "Again," he corrected, "You wouldn't be happy."

"Hmm, maybe." She met his blue eyes, "What was it you wanted to show me?"

Carter's lip curled up slightly, "Did I say I wanted to show you something?"

Dana gasped jokingly but curled her arms around his neck, "You lied? Now that's not Captain behaviour."

"Ryan's been annoying me all day, I just needed time to myself."

"Oh well, I can go then," she teased begin to pull away.

Carter let his hands drop to her waist, "Okay, let me rephrase that. I wanted time alone with you and no one comes here anymore..."

"Oh, in that case," she smiled and leaned up to kiss him.

A gust of wind followed by a navy streak and a crimson streak flashed through the hanger, making the pair jump apart. Carter pushed Dana behind him protectively in case of an attack and withdrew his authorised gun, the same as his Rescue Blaster only a little more discrete. He looked around but there was no one there.

"Is it normal to see the same fireworks and feel wind like that?" Dana asked as she fixed her hair.

"In my experience, no."

Dana knocked his arm and pointed to a wooden crate across the hanger, "That wasn't there before." She started over to the box and pulled a note that was attached to it. She opened the paper, noting a symbol on the top left corner of the page and the haste that the note was written.

'Sorry for the inconvenience. This is our friend, Robo-Knight. He had an accident and ended up in the wrong hands. This is safer than our hide out so we thought you would look after him for us.

We'll be back in 2014 to reactivate him so just make sure he doesn't get wet and is stored safely.

Thank you!

Signed,

The Ninja Storm Power Rangers

Blue Bay Harbour.

P.s. We apologise for our yellow Ranger. He was very eager to meet the people he believed to be urban legends that he didn't think it through when showing up out of the blue. He has personal space issues, he doesn't mean harm! Thank you for not pressing charges.'

Dana passed the note to Carter with a soft glare, "No one comes here, huh?"

He skim read the note as Dana inspected the crate. "Not usually... Are we gonna keep it here?"

"You know evil can't enter the Aqua Base so whoever these Ninjas are, they're the good guys so I think we can trust them. Though I'd get Angela to make an air tight, water tight glass containment unit."

"Do you think the yellow was that guy the other month?"

"The guy who looked like a skate boarder? I hope so because at least that means I'm not being stalked." Carter pocketed the note and began to walked out of the hanger when Dana caught ahold of his arm, "Where are you going?"

"To the tech lab."

"No you're not." She gently pulled him back over to her, "It's highly unlikely another person is going to come here."

"Ah right... Angela can definitely wait..." His hand slipped back down to her waist, "So, where were we?"L

[A/N]

GREG: Hiya folks, it's just me again I'm afraid (are you sick of me yet? :P). It's Ramadan and Sam is exhausted so I offered to take a few updates this month so she has one less stress.

So, we had a request A LONG time ago to write either a Ninja Storm one shot or a Megaforce one *looks back* actually, a really long time ago... 15th February 2015 from Dash Master 48... whoops, our bad... I'm gonna be honest with you here Dash, we did actually plan this sorta thing when you asked... and we wrote a basic script outline- OKAY! I WROTE A JOKEY SPEECH OUTLINE TO CHEER SAM UP WHICH INVOLVED A LOT OF IMMATURITY, SWEARING AND (as we in Britain are commonly use to from school) CHAVY GANGSTER LANGUAGE...But we were going to a genuine version and here it is!

Though, the ending is very different to the one we spoke about last year...in our original plan, Robo-Knight was not malfunctioning and had travelled back. Dustin wanted to hide him from his team so Cam could send Robo-Knight back so it was literally going to be him bumping into everyone of his team or trying to spy roll away and then Robo Knight went back to his time... but in this one I switched it up.

So, in the show, I seem to remember Robo Knight showing up at the Legendary Battle even though he should be dead? (Then again, both the Turbo and In Space Rangers were present when they were the same people so Saban had little issues... really Andros and Zhane should have been standing alone on the cliff) I might have imagined Robo-Knight dying to save Orion so if I did, whoopsie sorry, this is not to cannon? But if he did, here's my explanation to the little plot hole created by Saban! As Sam pointed out to me last night when she had a first read before it was finished, I love to fix plot holes with either small details or huge plans... what can I say, I love details!

Sam and I would also like run an idea past you guys!

So, you see here I mentioned Dustin may have accidentally stalked Dana? Well we have an idea focused on Dustin wanting to locate old Rangers, and it begins with the Dana/Dustin episode, so it would be like a mini series... what do you guys think? If you don't like that idea it's fine! We just wanted to see if there was any interest before we started... though I have been working on the plan :P

Anyway, thanks for reading guys! I hope you liked it! If you did, Fav, follow and review! No flames please!

And if you have a request for me, Sam or both of us then just message us it or leave it in a review with any specific details you want in there, such as which character/ groups/ theme etc. We'll get back to you asap!

Okay! Bye guys! See you well really soon!