Blake stared out the window of Hunter’s truck, and tried to ignore Hunter and Cam’s conversation. They were discussing the plan for going into the Abyss.

Going into the Abyss? He didn’t want to go near that thing again, let alone inside it! After Tori and his little adventure there, they had told everyone about how the Abyss had opened and closed again. What they hadn’t mentioned was what the Abyss had done to them. How it had made them fight. Whatever was going on in the Abyss could only be bad, and he wanted nothing to do with it.

But he had to. This was for Tori. It was the only way he could get her back. Without their Powers they didn’t stand a chance against Lothor.

As they pulled up to the field, he could see the energy rising from the obviously open Abyss. This was bad. Really bad.

It was a good thing Uncle was a deep sleeper. Marah and Kapri had spent enough time sneaking around the ship to know how not to wake him up. Of course, they’d never tried to drag their Sensei past him before. And Sensei was heavy. They’d have to remember to say something to him about that later.

They just had to get into the next room or cavern-thingie. That would be a safe enough shelter to use the Ninja magic required to release Sensei.

Once in the cavern, Kapri moved back to the doorway to stand guard while Marah concentrated on freeing Sensei. It was no easy task either. Lothor had needed to use some pretty hefty magic to hold Sensei. Soon she had him free, and the sisters started to fill him in on what was going on. A lot of it he already knew. Like the Winds working for Lothor.

Marah and Kapri swore they weren’t working for Uncle though. Just spying for the good guys. Sensei assured them that he did believe them, and asked them to continue along in their ruse. Hopefully there was more information they could gather, or things they could sabotage. But he did warn them to be careful and take care.

Sensei said he was headed back to the Academy, hoping to find Cam and help the others. Marah asked him to find Ninja for her, if he had a chance. The last she’d seen her dog, he had been in her dorm room. But she’d seen Uncle’s new goons blast the school and she was worried. He had just started to answer when they heard Zurgane in the throne room.

Oh no, this couldn’t be good. Zurgane was out of the Abyss! Everyone was coming back. They snuck back as close to the doorway as they dared to listen to his report to Uncle.

He was saying that the plan had gone well. That the Thunder Rangers and Cam were at the bottom of the Abyss by now.

Marah turned to look at Sensei, only to see nothing but his energy as he ninja streaked out of the cave. She knew where he was going. And she hoped he got there in time.

“So where are we going now?” Cy supported Mei Lien still as they walked. It was tough to say whether she was still worked from the battle or whether he was just enjoying toting her along.

“To see if my suspicions are correct. The Abyss is this way, correct?” Hiro gestured forward.

“Absolutely, Dude-a-roo…” Cy coughed as Hiro glanced at him. “Sir… but why do we want to go there? It’s just a field now.”

“I have my reasons.” Hiro’s back stiffened as he continued.

Cy led Mei Lien on as they followed the old man to where the Abyss had once stood open. He was quite sure he had a bad feeling about even going there. He had a worse feeling that he was going to find things were not good when they got there.

As they approached the location of the Abyss, they saw the gaping rift in the ground.

“Oh… no! No, this is bad!” Mei Lien whispered as she tightened her grip on Cy’s arm. “I was so relieved to see it close last time. When could it have opened? What could have done this?”

“Flesh-bro’s not going to like this,” Cy mumbled as he shook his head. “How did you know, Grandfather, that something was up?”

“I sensed the Amulet. It called out to me the moment the Abyss no longer sealed it from our world.” The Sensei studied the rift, assessing the situation. “I chose to seek out Cameron first, to alert him of the possibility of retrieving the Amulet.”

“And since Cam probably has his hands full tracking Lothor? That is if he wasn’t captured himself,” Mei Lien whispered.

“Yes. A possibility. I chose to see to the Amulet’s retrieval myself, especially after noticing that the malignant being did not carry it with him.”

“So, how do we get it?” Cy strained to see into the pit.

“Get what?” A crimson cuff reached over the rock’s edge.

Cy’s head bobbed. “Huh… I thought that truck looked familiar. You got my flesh-bro down there…” Cy watched a familiar navy adorned wrist grasped the edge as Hunter pulled himself over. “The place is crawling with bros.” Cy snickered at his own comment.

“We should help them.” Hiro kneeled down over the ropes and eased the still slightly shaken Blake onto the ledge.

“Woah… I am NOT doing THAT again!” Blake shook his head.

Mei Lien and Cy moved to each side of Hiro to help him. Hiro directed as the three helped pull Cam and his father out of the Abyss.

The four spelunkers dusted themselves off as the others watched.

Hunter tilted his head. “So, what were you saying about my truck?”

“You too!”

Marah and Kapri slowly turned as they heard Zurgane’s voice behind them. They had been going to find the ninja student jug when Lothor’s general had appeared in their path.

“Yes?” they stuttered a little nervously.

“Take the Ninja Sensei and report to Mesogog’s lab. We’ll be working from there for the time being,” Zurgane turned and stomped out.

Okay, so they just had to take Sensei who they’d already freed to the lab. No problem. Not. Well, they’d just have to tell Uncle that Sensei was in another part of the lab or something, and hope he didn’t go looking for him. Yeah, that would work.

Oh, this was so bad.