Twisted Ninjas Part One
It was yet another day of school, and Max was walking through the hall, ignoring the flirtatious looks girls were giving him. Max was perhaps what you would expect from an All-American teenager. He was captain of the soccer team and track team, he knew how to ride a skateboard, had good grades, and was respectable and charming. He was the ideal prize for any girl at his school. The school day was just about over, and he made it to his locker just in time for his mischievous best friend to sneak up on him from behind.
"If you plan on scaring me again, I am not amused," Max said plainly, not even turning around to look at DJ
DJ dropped his arms as he was initially planning on shaking Max violently to stun him, but he shouldn't have been surprised that Max could see through his tricks. After all, they had been best friends for 10 years, and Max was better at processing information, so it was clear that the Red Ranger knew more about the Blue Ranger than the other way around.
DJ sighed and leaned against the locker that was next to Max's. As he waited for him to get ready, DJ noticed a familiar person approaching them from the side. He groaned. "Red alert." He muttered to Max.
Max pulled his backpack out of the locker before shutting it and turning around. That's when the figure spoke in a scratchy voice. "Well, if it isn't Mr. Boy Next Door?"
Max sighed and swung his backpack to his back. "What do you need, Henry?"
DJ narrowed his eyes as he crossed his arms. "Shouldn't you be heading home to that dusty, roach-infested apartment your family resides in?"
Max nudged DJ's shoulder, signaling him to be quiet.
The blond-haired bully merely smirked as he stared at the redhead with evil eyes. "I would LOVE to see how well you perform at the track meet this Saturday!"
"Henry, I have kicked your butt every year since you came to town 7 years ago. Don't get your hopes up and destroy more property in a fit of rage because you end up tipping and scratching your knee."
DJ laughed out loud. "I remember that year. He was crying like a baby!"
Henry's face turned red as he took a few steps toward DJ, but the latter merely kept his guard up, shooting piercing eyes at the bully. "Hey, unless you want a repeat of that peanut butter and jelly fiasco last year, I'd suggest you take a few steps back."
Just then, Maya appeared. She stepped in between her friends and the bully, pushing Henry back. "Watch out, Henry. Because we all know you are all talk and no game. I beat you up once, and I will do it again."
Henry just scoffed and walked away. Maya turned and shook her head. "Some people never learn."
"Thanks, guys," Max said in gratitude. Just then, his phone rang. He picked it up and answered it. "Yes, Sensei...what...why?...Ok, we'll be there." He hung up and spoke. "Sensei wants us at Karate Ops. He says it's important. Something about Bonnie and Donnie."
Maya and DJ's gazes fell at the mention of the Green and White Rangers. For the past several months, the twins' relationship continued to deteriorate. Maya even visited the Reef Residence and only managed to come into contact with Donnie and Bonnie's legal guardian, their Aunt Rachel. She sadly explained to Maya that the twins have been constantly bickering regarding personal issues including their roles as Rangers, which she was aware of, as her brother and sister-in-law (the twins' late parents) were martial arts teachers who were frequent clients of Sensei Uni and were aware of the Power Rangers, so it made sense that it would be lawfully acceptable for Aunt Rachel to be aware of their identities without having the children be exiled. More information from her drew the main three Rangers to the conclusion that the twins had been emotionally detached from one another following the death of their parents.
It didn't help with the fact that the only things the brother and sister had in coming were their dedication to their martial arts training and their Power Ranger duties. Bonnie was often full of life and constantly asked the other Rangers if they wanted to hang out. Max, Maya, and DJ grew fond of her insane optimism and valued friendship over anything.
In contrast to his sister, Donnie was strict and always abided by the rules. Ten o'clock curfew, a stable diet, and spending the majority of his time at the gym. He had boundaries, but it didn't help that his carefree sister didn't take them in significant regard.
The trio managed to grab their stuff and met with Ellie at the front entrance. They all headed into the parking lot and boarded Maya's car.
Po sat up straight from his throne. "Let me get this straight: that idiot Buck turned his back on me and frolicked off onto his deluded scheme to take over the world, he ended up forgetting one crucial detail regarding the Sacred Box, and now the Red Ranger has obtained the powers of said Box, which means the Rangers have another crucial weapon in their arsenal."
Sky and Chasm both glanced over at one another, before turning straight toward their brother and nodded their heads. "Though I may insist on concurring with your pessimistic state, I would like to inform you that the more monsters the Rangers destroy, the bigger the gap between our world and Earth becomes."
"But now I have to wait longer for the gap to be big enough for me to initiate my ultimate plan on taking their world," Po said through his teeth, his anger became clear from the visible veins growing on his forehead, and the glare that could slice through his siblings if it could.
"Brother-"
"Do you have ANY idea how badly I want to crush those Rangers and that repulsive Uni to bits?!" Po roared, causing both of his siblings to jump in fear. "After everything the Justices of World Karate had put our parents through, resulting in THEIR DEMISE, I would figure my brother and sister would help me come up with more genius plans to bring them down once and for all."
"Brother, we trapped all of Uni's students in a separate dimension," Sky stated.
"And that is NOT ENOUGH!" Po fired back. "Now, do EITHER of you have ANY genius plans to take on the Rangers?"
"We could dress people up as Rangers and humiliate them," Chasm suggested with an absurd amount of confidence, but that just earned how a blast to the chest from his brother launched him to the ground.
"I do not play games!" Po exclaimed, before looking back at his sister, who was busy scratching her chin trying to think up a more lucrative idea.
"I think Chasm may be onto something. We should fight fire with fire!" Skyler suggested. "We have dark powers, and we could inject powers from the ninja division of Nakamura's school."
Po scratched his chin and chuckled. "Not a bad idea there, Skyler. I dare to ask, how are we going to make this plan work out?"
"Easy, we'll find at least three useful imbeciles for this plan."
Uni just stood with his stick in his hand as he watched crossly at Donnie and Bonnie, who were in their green and white uniforms, respectively. The two were at it once again. This time it was about-
"A car?! You spent our hard-earned savings on a CAR?!" Donnie screeched, trying so hard to restrain himself from strangling his sister.
Bonnie crossed her arms and glared at her brother. "Yes, the money was in our joint account. I figured it would come to good use. Not to mention that 75 percent of the cash came from me!"
"Yes, but you spent MY MONEY on a CAR for YOU!"
Bonnie put up a sarcastic grin and said jokingly. "And you can drive it 25 percent of the time, as it would be fair."
"Why you-"
Just then, Max and the other Rangers entered the command center through a portal, just in time for Maya and DJ to rush over and break the twins apart before Donnie could get a chance to put his hands on his sister.
"That is enough!" Uni roared. "You two must learn to get along. You guys are family."
"Well, someone stated how I was never expected, was I?" Donnie grumbled, glaring at his sister.
Bonnie returned the cold glare. "And you mentioned how you never asked for a sister, did you?"
Maya gripped Bonnie's arms tight to signal her to keep quiet.
Max stood between the twins and spoke. "Guys, are you seriously going to let these fights get in the way of our team's dynamic? I mean, Po murdered your parents for crying out loud. I think the last thing they would want is their children fighting all the time."
Donnie shook DJ's grip off of him, staring daggers at his sister. "Honestly, I tried my best to live on their legacy, because unlike the 'rebel' here, I care."
"Care about what? Kissing up to Aunt Rachel?" Bonnie joked.
"You are the embodiment of a disappointment!"
"Well, you are the embodiment of a neat-freak loser who obviously wouldn't get a girlfriend if he tried. No wonder people call you a freak!"
"You belligerent buffoon! How quaint is it that Aunt Rachel is on aspirin after dealing with the stunts you embark on every day?"
"Donnie!" DJ exclaimed.
"That's it for both of you! We cannot allow you two to hinder the team's efforts in stopping Po and his army," Uni reprimanded. "Until you can learn to get along with one another, you guys are hereby suspended from the team."
Both twins looked over at Uni, both stunned by his decision. "Sensei..." Donnie muttered.
"No more excuses. Hand your gems and come back when you decide to behave like an actual team. If you do not, then perhaps your friends should manage to save the world with just a three-person army."
"I have to agree with Sensei. At least that is more effective than a five-person team where two of which are always butting heads." Max said.
Donnie and Bonnie looked over at one another, then back at Uni. Hesitantly, they pulled up their morphers and broke off the bracelet from their Gem, causing the Gem to expand back to its original form. They handed them over to Uni before walking through a portal.
Maya watched as they left before looking back at her friends. "Did that just happen? Did we just lose two Rangers?"
DJ grumbled. "For now, at least."
"It's for the best, honestly," Max commented. "We kind of got sick of them fighting anyway."
Maya frowned sadly before looking down. It was sad to see the twins go, but they all knew it was for the best.
Uni cleared his throat before speaking up. "Now that Buck has been destroyed, there is less of a threatening force against us besides Po, so we should focus more on defeating him and saving the students he had captured.
"Oh," Max muttered. "I completely forgot about them." All three Rangers looked over at one another and sighed. They weren't very motivated to save the students as they were defeating Po. The majority of the students at Uni Karate Academy were either legacy, meaning their families were administered by karate masters, or they were in close relation with someone who knew Uni Nakamura.
However, Maya, DJ, and Max were all different.
It all started early in their high school careers, when Ellie transferred from homeschool to regular school, and urged her father to allow rookies from ordinary families to enroll in his school. He only limited the number of spots to three. Ellie met Maya in her freshman year, and the two got along great. Maya wanted an activity to look good on her resume, so Ellie advised her about an opportunity to join her father's school. Maya was interested and even allowed DJ and Max to come along when they had asked, as DJ wanted to master at least one popular martial art, and Max simply wanted to get out of his house to have some space between him, his smothering mother, and his strict father.
The students at the academy were BRUTAL, to say the least. They were not fond of non-legacy newcomers, and they made it very clear to the three that this was their turf. On the first day, all three teens had come home with a few minor injuries, as well as some gun that was stuck to Max's hair from a smug student who drop-kicked him. After a few weeks, they had gotten only mildly better, but for the next several months, the students still treated them like outcasts and even challenged them to prove Uni wrong about letting them stay.
So why on Earth would Max, DJ, and Maya be so willing to save these students? Well...they are the heroes, and the number one rule Uni displayed is to never let grudges get the better of you.
If they WERE to rescue the students, then every remark, every sudden dropkick, and every piece of gum that was stuck to their hair would have been thrown in the students' faces, and they would have no choice but to respect the heroes who would eventually save them from Po.
Just then, the Rangers were all snapped out of their train of thought as the HDR alarm went off. A portal opened immediately after, and Ellie sprinted inside the dojo and toward her monitor. She looked up her digital map, with a red dot marking where the disturbance was coming from.
"The marketplace at the east side of the city." She stated before zooming in to get a clear vision as to what was going on, but all she could were red, blue, and yellow figures, but Ellie couldn't tell what it was.
Uni glanced over and gave them a nod as the mission was a go. Max and his friends pressed the Gems fused with their communicators and called out. "Call into Combat!"
As the Rangers were fully morphed, they ran through a portal to their mission. Ellie watched and let out a huge sigh.
Her father raised an eyebrow. "A penny of your thoughts, young lady."
Ellie smacked her lips before speaking up. "I want to do more than just fixing some bugs and making new toys for those guys. You know I have the potential, but-"
"You want to do more...I get it. But time will tell, my dear daughter...time will tell. You do have the potential, and I am all for you fighting alongside the others, but as of now, you do not obtain any powers to do so."
Ellie scoffed. "Dad, I designed the communicators and the zords! What else do I need?"
"Patience...that is exactly what you need."
Ellie groaned as she turned her chair over so that she was facing the monitor, brushing her father off. Uni simply shook his head and sighed before walking off.
Shoppers and bystanders were all scattered around the parking lot of the town's most popular marketplace, screaming in terror as three color-coded figures wearing red, yellow, and blue robes and masks were wreaking havoc all over the place.
The Rangers made it to the place.
"Everyone, get out of here!" DJ ushered a few patrons to safety.
Max helped an elderly man up to his feet. "You and your wife need to get to safety."
The man's wife gave the Red Ranger a grateful smile before pulling her husband away from the carnage that was taking place.
The Rangers managed to get everyone out of the danger zone before shifting their focus to the new enemies.
"Who are you?" Max demanded, pointing his finger at the three.
Maya tilted her head. "They look like ninjas."
Indeed. They were wearing robes that looked similar to the Rangers' training uniforms, except they had long sleeves that matched their respective ninja colors, as they as masks that covered their entire heads, minus their eyes, which were all a glowing shade of white.
"We are ninjas!" The Yellow Ninja exclaimed. His voice was very deep and masculine, which caught Maya off-guard.
"And we are here for one thing," the female Blue Ninja stated.
"And that is to destroy you!" The leader, the Red Ninja, announced, balling her fists. Max found it kind of odd that their ninja counterparts were each the opposite gender respectively, but that wasn't what was important. What was is who these ninjas are, why they are here, and what about the Rangers do they want them for?
Max glanced over at DJ then over at Maya, before turning his head toward the three ninjas. The three Rangers, in unison, pulled out their blades and charged at their enemies, anticipating a battle.
"That's our plan?!" Chasm hissed between his teeth. "Turn the only students that were loyal to Po and send them to fight Rangers that were THEIR AGES?!"
Sky snickered. "The more excess energy these three burn, the more I can transfer that energy to Po."
Chasm's eyes widened. "And if they managed to burn enough energy, then..."
"Yes, Chas," Po stated as he entered him into his siblings' conversation. "We can finally break through this world, and the amount of excess energy that is burned, that would be just enough to open portal upon portal for us to sweep our world onto Earth."
To be continued...
Author's Note: Think of the Ninjas as having the same design as the ninjas from season three of MMPR, except that the Blue Ninja's suit is more royal blue, while the DJ's Ranger outfit is cobalt blue. Also, the Yellow Ninja is corn yellow, while Maya's suit is what you would expect a Yellow Ranger would look like. Lastly, the Red Ninja is imperial red, while Max is regular red.
Got it? Good. See you next time!