Shimazu approached his now favorite spot in the world, flanked by his beautiful Wolf Blades. He had often tried to control his greed, to no avail. And this was another case of his greed leading him on… He caressed the rock face of the solid stone, He loved how magic worked… how stone could become air, or was it that the portal simply superceded the stone? Ok, he loved the fact THAT magic worked, he didn’t know how it worked.

Stepping back, he began to whisper once again, “Deepest realms, far from the sky…” As he reached the end on the first recitation, his volume had increased from the whisper to a conversational level. He took a breath and began the second, wondering why magic needed three recitations of incantations to work… what’s with the three? He brought his voice louder.

As he reached the third time, for dramatic effect, he was almost at a roar. Why should he be careful? He was certain no one had followed, and if they had, there were the Blades. He raised both hands as he finished… “An army much greater now I hold!”

His eyes sparkled as the portal began to glow in front of him, superimposed on the rock face. He stepped through the portal and into the dark mists. His pipe commanded the Blades remain to guard as he went.

Standing in the mists, he gazed through the fog. He saw no movement. He stepped forward, until reaching the murky waters that may soil his silk robes. He squinted and tried to see through the trees on the other side of the nearest bog. They had been here last time. He had heard the other howls. He knew there were more, but where were they? Why were they hiding from him? He blew a set of notes on his pipe, trying to catch their attention.

After sitting motionless for what seemed to be 30 minutes, he bowed his head. They were not in the mood to join him. He did not have the time to wait for them. He had Samurai to attack. The gods were not on his side right now. He turned and strolled out of the cave and through the portal. The flash of light as he emerged let him know the portal was sealed once again.

He glanced around, and noted he had not been seen. He commanded the Blades to follow and headed for his favorite Samurai challenging grounds.

In the shadows, a chuckle echoed quietly, a chuckle that could only belong to General Vexacus. As he switched off his recording device, he whispered, “And now I have access to your Secret Garden, Shimazu, … you fool!”

Kapri settled in and gave the chair a spin. One thing for sure, Cam had a comfortable chair. But then considering how much time he spent sitting in front of the mainframe, it was no wonder. She finally stopped the spinning chair by putting her feet down, and faced the computer.

It was her shift in Ninja Ops. Samurai classes meant an empty Ninja Ops. Cam couldn't deal with that, of course. So he'd asked Kapri to cover the shifts down there when CyberCam and he were in class.

It wasn't a big deal or anything. Before during her Ops shifts she had just continued to make repairs. But now that Ops was mostly operational again, there wasn't as much to do. Usually she just ran diagnostics and tried not to freak Cam out by breaking anything or re-arranging things too much.

But today she had something to do. Today she needed to make some long range scans and yet hide any record that she had done it.

Their parents.

See if their parents were in the area. See if they'd found them. And then backtrack and delete her trail from the mainframe.

This should be fun.

Weaving his skateboard through the crowd, Shane couldn’t help but smile. He had just finished making a big delivery across town, in record time no less, and had to turn down yet another job offer. While the offer was tempting, Shane had no choice but to turn it down. His current position was too ideal to walk away from. Not only did he get paid to ride his skateboard daily, but he had his older brother there, ready to cover for him, should he have to duck out quickly and save the world.

As he passed Storm Chargers, Shane noticed a new poster in the window that quickly got his attention.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Shane turned to see Kelly standing in the store’s doorway.

“I was just looking at this ad.” Shane explained, pointing to the window.

“I noticed.” Kelly said as she walked over to Shane, who turned his attention back to the poster. “That could have been you, you know.”

“I know.” Shane agreed. He could still remember how it felt to turn down the sponsorship from Truth Trucks last year. The same sponsorship that was later offered to Mark Rodriguez that same day. “Mark deserved the opportunity though. He’s really good.”

“So are you.” Kelly told him. “It still couldn’t have been easy to walk away from such an opportunity.”

Shane nodded, knowing she was right. It was, is, still his dream to be a professional skateboarder. What Kelly didn’t know was that he also had something in his life that was just as important. Over the past year, Shane had come to really enjoy teaching, as well as learning to control his new gifts. He definitely wouldn’t pass up living with Dustin, or how close he and Porter had become. Plus, he was a Power Ranger again.

“Any regrets?” Kelly asked.

Shane just smiled. “Not at all.” It may not have been his dream, but Shane knew he would never change a thing about his life now.

From a nearby alleyway, Vexacus watched Shane as he left Storm Chargers. “I’ll give you something to regret, Red Ranger. Soon, you’ll regret the day you stole the Karmanian Power from me.” He quickly disappeared in a flash of light, his laughter echoing through the alley.

The sun beamed down but not too brightly. The breeze was spirited but not annoying. The temperature was warm enough for a short sleeved shirt but not murder in a jersey. Just another perfect day in California.

Blake wished they’d gotten to the track as early as originally planned as he watched Hunter unload his bike from the back of the dark red truck. Since they’d left from the Thunder Academy, it has only made sense to take Hunter’s ride to the closest track. Make the most of their time.

As he watched his bro, Blake suddenly realized he was a little nervous. He’d finally gotten Hunter alone and now he was wigging? Still, the idea of admitting aloud that he was thinking about quitting… well, anything. But moto? He was about to tell his big brother that he was considering bailing on his dream. Their dream.

The ring tone forced his attention back to Hunter. When had Hunter gotten ring tones? And what was the song? It was relatively new but Blake couldn’t place it. Hunter had to adjust his bike before grabbing the phone and the melody played on just to drive Blake nuts.

“Hey, Cam.” Cam had his own theme song? Blake crossed his arms as he studied Hunter’s face. Almost as if he knew, Hunter turned his head and gave Blake a great vantage point of the back of his head. Blake smiled and set his bike, then slowly walked toward Hunter. “Yeah.” Ninja stealth on. “No, I just wanted to talk to you.” They had just gotten back from a long, crazy trip. What more could they have to talk about so soon? “No.” Sure, he’d noticed that they’d been spending lots of time together. “No, not right now.” Back when he’d managed a proper dinner with him and Sensei, Hunter had seemed to kind of even miss Cam. “Look, Cam, I don’t want to talk about it right now, you know?” Blake suddenly moved the last few inches forward in front of Hunter as fast as he could.

Hunter actually jumped! “Not over the phone, okay?” If you didn’t know the guy well, it would have looked like he shifted weight quickly. “No, I’m not annoyed with you.” But there was no one who knew Hunter better than Blake and he’d just gotten his own big brother! “Can we just meet later?” Blake’s smile grew as Hunter gave him his patented eyebrow raise. “I know you have class in a few. Hence the ‘later’ part.” His shoulders starting to bounce with his silent laugher, Blake happily met Hunter’s withering gaze. “No, you’re not listening. Not that that’s new. I want to talk to you today.” Blake’s shoulders stopped bouncing abruptly as the tone in Hunter’s voice cut through his victory. “Privately.”

Why is Hunter suddenly so uncomfortable? “Cool.” Blake’s eyes narrowed as he saw a new expression play across his bro’s face. Relief. “Yeah, I’ll see you there at 5:15.” And who makes a date at 5:15? “Yeah.” Blake’s eyes widened as Hunter flipped his phone closed. “Bye.” That was it. He’s got that thing in his voice that I used to get when I’d ask Tori out on a date.

Moto left Blake’s mind faster than his best finishing time. “Bro, is there something going on between you and Cam?”

The glare from those ice blue eyes was sharp enough to be a deadly weapon in 48 states but Blake didn’t flinch. Until lightning streaked in from the left and slammed into him and Hunter, sending them both flying.

Cam shook his head as he secured his phone in his training robes. Once again, his grandfather was leading them off Academy grounds. As he arrived at the cliffs, he saw Mei Lien and Cy chatting as they limbered up. Cam smirked. Cy was trying so hard to be human, even going through the routine of warm up exercises. He was the ONLY one who didn’t need to warm up… Cam began to stretch his arms as he approached.

Hiro rose from the grass and began Tai Chi. It was common for him to do this, now that Mei Lien had shown him the Yang form a few weeks back. The old man had taken quite readily to it after seeing the meditative qualities. Cam fell into step beside him. Within seconds, Mei Lien and Cy were synchronized. All breathed as one. All moved as one. The Chi flowed around them. Cam fought in vain to hold on to the last bits of stress in him. But it slowly eased away. An image of Hunter trying to keep his rage and practice Tai Chi entered his mind and Cam had to hold back a chuckle. He fell out of the breathing pattern and had to catch up. Leave it to Hunter to invade his thoughts and ruin a perfectly good meditation.

As the four ended their meditation exercise, Hiro turned to his class. “We have come far…”

“But still have far to go! Too bad you won’t make it!” Shimazu dropped down into their midst, chuckling. Three Wolfblades spaced themselves out surrounding the unsuspecting Samurai.

“How did we not sense them?” Cam mumbled as he took stance.

“Obviously your mind was somewhere else?” Cy retorted, mirroring Cam.

“And what about you…” Cam smirked.

“I know my mind was somewhere else.” Cy chuckled and glanced toward Mei Lien.

“Enough! The enemy awaits.” Hiro nodded, motioning each of them to a direction.

Four Samurai sprung into four directions. Hiro had started for Shimazu, but noticed at the last second that Cam was intending to get him and veered off to Cam’s Blade. Cam charged into Shimazu, knocking him back with his shoulder and bringing his practice blade down on him while he recovered. The sword was not sharpened, but at least they had advanced to the metal swords. Cam was tired of wielding wood.

Cam swung again and reversed the blade. He forced a kick and swung around, blocking Shimazu’s attack, and then lunged his sword, catching silk as Shimazu dodged. Cam glanced at his grandfather and saw the Blade go in for a bite. Cam swung away from his foe and thrust his sword into the biting Blade’s mouth.

“Switch?” Cam gazed at the old man and nodded toward Shimazu. Hiro nodded and charged the Kabuki-looking General.

He glanced back at the others, assessing the danger. Mei Lien was becoming overwhelmed, Cy was countering his while assisting her. Hiro was holding his own, but tiring. The new Wolfblades were so much stronger than the last set. They were faster. They were more blood thirsty. It was time to morph. Cam stepped back momentarily. The words were Zen. He felt the change take place, the armor slide over him. Within moments, he felt a better sword in his hand. Yeah. He could see how the Thunders, Hunter in particular, could be so addicted to Ranger Power.

Cam swung his katana at the Blade he faced now. There was a muffled cry of pain. Cam swung his head and his eyes widened. He watched Mei Lien slide to the ground, holding her right shoulder as blood gushed forth. Cy threw himself into her attacker in a fury of sword swings, knocking him back, but even he wasn’t able to knock the Blade down yet. Cy’s opponent crossed to the other side of the battle. Cam countered his opponent and turned toward Hiro.

“Grandfather! Behind you!” Cam yelled, and swung to attack the other Blade. Unfortunately, it had already reached the old man and swung his fist hard, striking his head. The situation was digressing rapidly. Something must be done.

“VEXACUS!!”

Walking in, the general saw the Dark Ninja glaring into a mystical image overhead. “My lord, you called?”

“What in the world does this clown think he is doing?” Lauthore seethed.

Turning towards the image, Vexacus watched as Shimazu led his Wolfblades in an attack against the Green Samurai Ranger. To his surprise, Shimazu actually appeared to have the upper hand.

Lauthore, on the other hand, was far from pleased. “The Power Rangers are MINE to destroy! How dare that insignificant speck try to rob me of my revenge! I will tear that clown limb from limb!”

“Allow me the honor, mighty Lauthore.” Vexacus offered. “You are still recovering from your last encounter with the Power Rangers. I consider it my duty, no, a privilege to take care of him for you.”

“No”. The Dark Ninja whispered.

“No?” Vexacus questioned. “I don’t understand.”

“Bring him to me, Vexacus.” Lauthore commanded, his eyes never leaving the image before him. “I want the pleasure of destroying him myself.”

“As you command.” Vexacus agreed. He could not help but smile as he turned to leave. This could not have worked out better. Lauthore will just have to wait for his vengeance. That brainless fool, Shimazu, has just given me the perfect opportunity for my own revenge!