The first thing he felt was fear. He hated being afraid so he started pushing it down as he tried to figure out what as going on. “Dustin?” He asked groggily.
“Hunter! Dude, am I glad you’re awake!” Dustin said, squirming. “Are you okay?
“Yeah,” Hunter groaned. “You okay?”
“Hunter, I didn’t know you cared,” Dustin chuckled. It only got louder as Hunter tried in vain to shove Dustin with the two of them wrapped together. “Dude. If only getting out of here was that easy.”
"How long have I been out?”
“I’m not sure, exactly. I was out, too.”
“Dude, with Motodrone after us, that’s not good.”
Dustin nodded. “You think he’ll follow us, too?”
“I was counting on it. Once I realized he was only using Blake to draw me out, I figured getting him away from the track was the was to go.” Hunter tried struggling against the net. “Of course, I was really hoping my attempt to rabbit would’ve gone better.”
“You and me both.”
Hunter smirked at that. “Hey, have you been able to call Cam?”
Even though Hunter could only see the top of Dustin’s head, he could hear the smile in his voice. “Yeah, you could say that.”
Hunter smiled. “Do you want to try standing? If you’re ready, I’ll try pushing up.”
“Cool,” Dustin said as he shifted his weight around. “Dude, tell me when you’re ready to stand up, ‘cause I’ve got us a helping hand just waiting.”
Hunter thought about it for a second and braced himself. “If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, this should be interesting.”
“You know it.”
“I’m good. Let’s give this a shot.”
From beneath Hunter, the ground suddenly shot up. It hit Hunter squarely in the shoulders and back and rose quickly to a height of about six feet. The net-bound ninja were propelled up and to their feet. Using every ounce of skill both possessed, along with the rock column to their back, they gained their footing after some wobbling and found themselves standing of their own accord.
“All right, Dustin!” Hunter congratulated as he began looking around.
“Yeah!” Dustin said, trying to wiggle free of the net from this new vantage. “I rock!”
“In more ways than one,” Hunter snorted. He flexed with all his strength against the net. He was relieved when he found a little give. “We’re sitting ducks.”
“No kidding,” Dustin said, working with the new-found slack to try and get the net off them.
“Don’t hurry on my account,” Motodrone said. The amusement in his mechanical voice pissed Hunter off. His fear was now completely gone.
“He’s behind your rock column,” Hunter whispered into Dustin’s ear.
“Get the biggest breath you can get,” Dustin whispered back. He could feel Hunter do as he ordered while he saw Motodrone start to walk around the pillar.
Dustin had spent his time awake very productively. Besides dealing with the communicator issue, Dustin had considered Motodrone finding them. He was now glad he’d thought ahead. And now that Hunter was awake, the one flaw in Dustin’s plan was gone.
“Here goes everything,” Dustin whispered. It was his turn to grab onto Hunter with one arm. He brought his other hand up in front of his face, holding two of the fingers up while curling the rest, using that moment to center himself.
Motodrone came around the rock in time to see Dustin make some quick movements with his arm and then point downward. That’s when his quarry disappeared in a puff of smoke. “No!”
“And Blake Bradley wins!” The announcement echoed all around the track, the distortion in the years-old speaker system not bad enough to warrant the money for a new one.
Blake didn’t really slow down as he headed straight to where Jesse was waiting. He hit the breaks and skidded to a stop. Jesse jumped back.
Blake pulled off the helmet and laughed. “Thought you didn’t startle around bikes, Jess?”
Jesse took the helmet with a small grimace on his face. “Hah hah,” he said. He watched as Blake peeled off his gloves. “Dude, Rick says Hunter was here early this morning.”
Blake’s grinned disappeared. “What?” The bad feeling suddenly threatened to overwhelm him. “How early? What was he doing here? Did he say anything?”
“Rick didn’t actually talk to him.”
“He’s sure it was Hunter?”
“Dude, your brother stands out. Hunter’s not exactly average, you know?” Jesse gestured with an arm toward a large stand of trees. “Said he was over that way and he had someone with him. Rick didn’t get a good look at the other guy, but he thought it might’ve been Dustin.” Blake dismounted, put his gloves on his bike’s seat and started walking off. “Where you going?”
“Gotta make a call,” Blake shouted as he ran for the trailer. “Thanks for stowing my gear, dude!”
“I had CyberCam wrapped around my little finger,” Kapri giggled to Marah as they meet up. “I bet he goes and sees Grandfather today!”
Marah giggled, too. “Grandfather is totally down with CyberCam joining the class. I think he’s even excited about it!”
“Score!”
“Oh, bonus,” Marah said. “Grandfather says we can call him Grandfather!”
They both squealed in delight and fell down onto the grass on the side of the path. Laying there, laughing so much they were having trouble breathing, Marah and Kapri happily related to each other how well their plan had gone.
The sensation of swimming through the ground was unreal! Hunter couldn’t believe Dustin did this all the time. It seemed so effortless for his friend.
Dustin suddenly reversed direction. It was a flawless move, executed so smoothly that someone with a weaker stomach might’ve been in trouble. It was an ever-weirder experience going through the ground backwards and Hunter wasn’t sure what – no, he did know what Dustin was doing!
The net was already gone. Once the bottom of net was open, the edges had caught on the soil and it had scraped off around them.
They shifted directions again and Hunter could tell they were going up. He figured they had one shot at surprising Motodrone and there was no way he was going to let Dustin’s brilliant move go to waste. Hunter began gathering his power.
The feeling of busting up through the earth and flying free was fantastic. As soon as they were above ground, Dustin veered to the left and Hunter to the right.
They had come out about twenty feet directly behind Motodrone. While he was turning around, both ninja pointed a hand at him and let loose.
Assaulted by the power of earth and thunder at the same time, Motodrone let out a mighty roar. “You can’t beat me! You don’t have your Ranger powers anymore!”
Hunter landed a vicious kick to the head while the general was reeling. “You think the most important thing to being a Ranger is the power?”
Dustin slid along the dirt and knocked Motodrone’s feet out from underneath him. “Deluded, table for one!”
Hunter did a tight flip and landed with a hard heel to the golden throat. Dustin planted both his feet into the tough torso. They worked together, pelting Motodrone with attack after attack, and never giving him a chance to tag them back.
That’s when their enemy got mad. Energy erupted from him in a bright aura. Hunter and Dustin were blown back through the air.
“Do you really think your meager power is enough to stop me?” He bellowed. “You need far more might at your command!” As if on cue, navy lightning struck him square in the back. “What?”
“Ask and you shall receive, metal head!” Blake laughed as he launched another volley of lightning at Motodrone. Now that he was prepared, though, the general batted it out of the air.
“Pathetic!” Motodrone said. “The three of you are no match for me!”
“You never learn, do you?”
Motodrone spun around and eyed Shane, Tori and Cam now standing in the clearing. Now that he had his attention, Cam continued, “You’ll never win.”
“Ninja Shadow Battle!” Shane yelled. If Motodrone felt the earlier onslaught was frenzied, it couldn’t compare to now as six shadows battle-danced across him.
Realizing his plans were ruined, Motodrone decided to stop wasting his time. “This isn’t over, EX-Power Rangers!” He teleported away, new plots already forming in his evil mind.
“Is anyone else as tired of that teleportation thing as I am?” Dustin asked.
“Are you okay?” Blake asked as he came over to Hunter and Dustin.
“We’re fine, Bro,” Hunter assured him. He looked at Dustin and smiled. “Dustin took a direct hit from old Golden Rod. It barely slowed him down.”
“Me?” Dustin said. “Dude, Hunter streaked with me! AND this huge net thing!”
“Ah, I could’ve done that,” Shane said, grazing his nose with one thumb and looking proudly into the air. Tori barely beat Blake at shoving him. “Hey!”
“How’d you find us?” Hunter asked Blake.
“I called Cam.”
Cam looked over. “We followed Dustin’s arrow. CyberCam was able to tell Blake the coordinates.”
“Arrow?” Hunter asked.
Dustin smiled. “Yeah, well, my communicator was fried. So, I sent a message through the earth. I had it swirl around outside of Ninja Ops ‘cause I knew somebody would find it sooner or later.”
Tori nodded. “Kapri told us. We went out to the lake and there was the writing in the sand. Like somebody would do with their finger or a stick.”
“But no stick,” Cam continued. “It was pretty amazing to watch. It said, ‘Get Cam. Need help. Push the smiley face when Cam is here.’ I pushed as instructed and an arrow glided across the ground.”
“It was a snap to follow,” Shane finished. “Wicked trick, Dustin.”
“Thanks,” Dustin said.
“You were great, Dustin,” Tori said. Blake put an arm around her shoulders.
Hunter looked over at Dustin. “Way to stay grounded, man.”
Over the groans, Cam said, “I can’t believe you guys held out against Motodrone so long by yourselves.”
Dustin put up his fists and Hunter tapped them with his own. Both were wearing killer smiles. Hunter looked over to Blake. “Don’t you have to get back before you miss the next race?”
“Yeah,” Blake said, sounding a little down and pulling Tori closer. “But I don’t want to miss the celebration, man.”
Hunter looked around. They were all going to have to return to their duties. But he was enjoying this just as much as Blake. It felt like old times. That’s when the idea hit him. “The celebration has officially been moved. New place, new time,” he announced. “Blake and I are going to a kung-fu film fest this weekend. What say we all go?”
A chorus of agreement rang out, six individuals’ ways of saying yes coming together in a mass of happy chaos. Yep, it felt like old times… only better.