![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: An Unexpected Mission
Authors:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rivulet027 and moonlite_n_rose
Fandom: Power Rangers with an AU ending for the Operation Overdrive Team-up.
Pairings: Billy/Trini, Tommy/Hayley eventual slash and het.
Rating: Pg-15
Summery: The Once A Ranger vets team continue in Angel Grove with a new set of villains. Wherein Adam gains a team, gets a girl, a couple of tattoos and might just lose his sanity in the process.
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Power Rangers, neither does MnR. We’re just playing in their toy box and we promise to put everyone away when we’re finished.
A/N: This story is originally being written in role playing format. All updates will first be posted here http://pr-stories.escape-from-reality.net/ and then added elsewhere.
Chapter 6:
Adam was leading the team on a 'walking tour' of Angel Grove, "And this is Angel Grove Park, probably the most famous spot in all of Angel Grove," he said with a chuckle, noticing scorch marks that still plagued some statues, and a few trees that had bare spots where branches had been destroyed during monster attacks.
"Why?" Kira asked as she walked arm in arm with Tori.
"Does it have something to do with those scorch marks?" Tori asked.
Adam nodded, "Yup, we…" he coughed, looking around, there were civilians in the park so he had to be careful, "I mean… the power rangers used to get attacked here, all the time."
Bridge pressed his lips together tightly, not about to let it slip that eventually there’d be a statue of the original Power Ranger Team in the middle of the park for that very reason. He looked around what to SPD cadets was considered a historical site not sure how he felt about being shown it by the second black ranger. He shook his head. Yes, his life tended towards the weird, but somehow this was a bit too much, even for him.
Dustin shook his head, “Dude, all the time? What’s like with that? In Blue Bay Harbor the monsters seemed to like the quarry for some reason.”
Adam laughed, "It's always some place, the baddies always pick one spot to constantly attack, for us, this was it."
~~~~~***~~~~~
Ruxandra glared down at her viewing sphere, watching the rangers walking through the park. "Perfect! Deason!!" She screeched for her inept lover. "Tell Finster to send down the new and improved Putties!"
Deason blinked at her, looking up as he put his lunch down, “Now? Shall we send the monster as well, my love?
"Did I say send down a monster?" She paused for a few seconds. "No! I didn't! I said send down the Putties!" She shrieked at him. "I want to test the rangers… see how good they really are. Besides… don't you think it will be fun, when Adam realizes that our Putties are from his dreams? It will just make things worse for him. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times," she said walking over and pushing his lunch out of the way, "We're not going to make the same mistakes that Rita and Zedd made." She leaned forward, her face inches from Deason's, "Is.That.Clear!"
Deason jumped startled as his lunch went flying. His eyes widened as she invaded his space, “Yes, my love. I was merely asking for all the details so as not to make a mistake. It will be glorious fun and all in your name.” He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek hoping it would sooth her frayed nerves and then stalked out to find Finster.
Ruxandra smiled at the kiss and went back to the viewing sphere, intending to watch the moment her Putties attacked. They would finish the job Rita and Zedd had started. They would definitely rule the earth.
~~~~~***~~~~~
Adam paused next to a statue, "This thing became a monster once, nearly took out the rangers," he said patting the side of it. It had happened before his time, but he knew the story well, the other rangers had told it many times.
Kira squinted up at it, "This is the statue that became the monster that the rangers battled when Dr. O… I mean, the White Ranger first showed up," she said a bit in awe. Tommy had told the story to his team once when they begged for stories about earlier rangers.
"That would be it," Adam nodded in agreement.
"Wicked," Kira murmured.
Dustin’s eyes widened as Kira expanded on what Adam had told them, “Dude.”
Bridge tilted his head to the side. Syd had once missed a question about that particular monster on a test and he had had to hear about that particular battle for the better part of a week.
“So if this is the place to get attacked does that mean you think we will?” Xander asked.
"I don't think so. I mean most villains try to do their own thing, why would they choose this place?" Adam responded.
Just as he said that, a squad of foot soldiers that were grey with glowing red eyes protruding from expressionless faces materialized all around them. They began circling the team, moving closer and closer.
"I think you spoke too soon," Kira said looking over at Adam, who was staring at them in disbelief. "Adam!"
"What?" Adam asked shaking out of his daze. How could they be real? These were the foot soldiers from his dreams. "Bust through…" he ordered, "Spread out, take them down… only morph if you get overwhelmed."
“Dude,” Dustin commented, “they look like really freaky Kelzacks.”
Bridge ducked as one went for him, he lashed out with his foot before he rolled away and jumped to his feet.
“Hi…” Xander tried, but never got to finish as a putty launched itself at him.
Dustin shoved Xander out of the way, and as he began to fight the putty told him, “Plan Xander is so not going to work against the mindless foot-soldiers, save that for the slightly more intelligent monsters.”
"Like it even would work then," Kira muttered, ducking under the punch of a putty. "Get'off me," she said kicking the thing away from her and ducking under an attack from a second one. "Fugly things," she commented punching one in the chest, knocking it into another.
“Hey, it’s worked!” Xander protested as he pushed himself off the ground and launched himself towards the patrollers that were surrounding Dustin. Dustin kicked and punched not liking the way this was going.
Tori ran off a distance and taunted the foot-soldiers into following her, "Can't catch me," she called, jumping out of the way of an attacking putty. She ran through the group, ducking under blows and delivering kicks and punches of her own.
Adam quickly shook off his daze as the others spread out, he jumped up onto the base of the statue and kicked at the three that initially came after him, "Freaky… wannabe Putties," he grumbled, jumping onto the shoulders of one and flipping off it, delivering a kick to its back as he came down.
“Okay dude, that’s like it,” Dustin growled before he launched himself into the ground, away from his enemies. He moved himself behind them then launched himself out of the ground at them.
Xander froze for half a moment when Dustin disappeared, that would never stop freaking him out. Traveling though trees, now that was normal, disappearing into the ground and coming out somewhere else was just weird.
Kira yelped as she got knocked into a tree, "That hurt," she glared at the putties who were gathering in front of her, intent on cornering her into the tree. "Oh no you don't!" she said before letting out a powerful ptera-scream, knocking all her attackers to the ground.
The majority of the putties were intent on attacking Adam, and he was struggling to keep himself from being overtaken, "Why are you all attacking me?" He questioned aloud, jumping back up onto the statue to get above his attackers.
Suddenly a wave of water washed all his attackers away from the statue, he looked up and saw Tori grinning at him, "Figured I'd wash away your problems," she said with a laugh.
Bridge had easily launched himself into a back flip that had landed him right in front of one of the patrollers. It’d leaned away from him slightly startled and that allowed him to launch an attack. He grinned, then yelped as another grabbed his arm. “Hey!” he protested attempting to yank free. He kicked at another putty that came at him from the other side. Then another came and another. He couldn’t get the first putty to drop its hold on him as he also attempted to keep the others at bay. “This is not good,” he muttered to himself as he tried to pull the first patroller around and push it at the other two, but all he succeeded into doing was landing himself on the ground and pulling that thing on top of him.
"Bridge!" Tori grabbed one of his attackers off him; then grabbed a second one, shoving it into the first. She guarded Bridge from new attackers until he could get to his feet, then helped him split them into two easier to mange groups.
“Thanks,” Bridge told Tori as they launched into an attack together.
"What the hell," Adam growled as he ducked blow after blow from these creatures. "Why, won't, you, just, die," Adam said, accentuating each word with a kick to its midsection. At the last kick, the putty clutched its stomach and exploded into a thousand specks of clay. "Bout damn time," he panted, before jumping at another one.
"These things need to hurry up and dust," Kira complained, leveling another group with a ptera-scream. "They are worse than the T-drones," she said scissor kicking a particularly nasty patroller, causing it to explode as well. "Finally…" she leaned on her knees to catch her breath before facing another attacker.
Dustin stuck close to Xander, not comfortable with letting the young man out of his sight. He only moved away, taunting the creatures to follow, when Xander fell into the comfortable routine of using his powers to take out the foot soldiers.
“Dude!” he cried out triumphantly as one finally exploded.
It seemed as the modernized Putties had begun to reach their limit. One by one they began to explode. Ruxandra watched in delight, even though her Putties were starting to explode, they'd significantly worn the rangers down, "Deason! Finster!" She shouted, "Bring the army back! Now we know what we're up against," she ordered.
“At once my Queen,” Deason agreed as he began summoned the remaining putties back to them.
“What? Hey where’d they go?” Dustin protested as they disappeared.
Bridge gasped and grabbed his knees. As he caught his breath he shook his head, “That was weird. I never read about Putties being used after Zedd stopped using them.” He took in his teams confused looks and explained, “I got an A in Ranger History.”
“They teach a class in Ranger History?” Xander asked before he smiled, “What’d they say about me?”
“Not the time, Dude,” Dustin told him with a clap to the back.
"They probably said…" Kira paused to catch her breath and clear her throat, "You were the ranger most likely to get your ass kicked for trying 'Plan Xander'."
“Hey! It’s worked. Why fight if you don’t have to? And,” Xander protested, “you won’t know if it’ll work if you don’t try it.”
Dustin whimpered, “No in fighting right now, not while the bad guys are probably watching.”
Adam leaned against the statue, panting a bit as he caught his breath. "Well… that will teach me to never open my mouth about something not happening again," he commented.
Tori walked over to him, "Were they really Putties?"
Adam nodded, then shook his head, "Yes… I mean they looked like Putties, and acted like them, but they were stronger, and faster than the Putties that I remember," he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the hem of his shirt. "It's like someone took Zedd's design and made improvements, removing the Z-Putties weak spot and pumping them up with steroids."
"Just the image I wanted," Kira said in a raspy voice as she walked over to where Tori and Adam were standing.
Dustin dropped onto the ground before he flopped onto his back, “Dude, we got worked. That is like not good.”
Adam nodded, "I hate to admit it, but Dustin's right. We may have to morph the next time these things get send down to attack us, I just hate the idea of morphing for a skirmish with foot soldiers," he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I suggest daily training sessions for all of us, we need to be better than we were today."
"Great," Kira groaned. "Why don't we just morph and take them out?"
"If we have to morph just to take out the foot, what are the monsters going to be like?" Tori pondered. She didn't like that idea.
Adam looked around and bit back another sigh, he had to remember that these guys weren't his original teammates, with the exceptions of Tori, Dustin and Bridge none of them had fighting experience that didn't come with the suit. He’d have to ease Xander and Kira into the idea. "Because we need to conserve our powers for the real threat… the monsters."
“And that’s like so not good,” Dustin agreed, “Training on the other hand would be good.”
“But we know how to fight?” Xander protested weakly.
Bridge shook his head and pointed out, “Part of SPD is running drills daily and I still messed up. If it hadn’t been for Tori…” He trailed off to give Tori a grateful smile.
“We should try training together,” Dustin told Xander trying to ease him into the idea; “Since we both connect with the earth we might be able to learn something from each other.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Xander agreed intrigued at the thought.
Kira nodded, she saw their points, "I'll be the first one to admit, most of my skills came with the suit. As much as it pains me to say, Adam's right, we need to be training," she said making a face at the idea, but knowing that it was part of the job.
"Don't worry Kira," Tori said patting her arm, "I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly."
"Thanks," she said laying her head on Tori's shoulder. "So, are we still heading to Billy's?" She asked them.
Adam nodded, "Yeah, but lets head back to the house, so we can shower and change, Billy hates letting dirt anywhere near his tech equipment," he said rolling his shoulders, sighing in satisfaction as is shouldered popped.
~~~~~***~~~~~
Kat slipped out of Adam's room after shaking him awake from his nightmare. It’d been so vivid in her mind she hadn’t had a choice but to wake him. If it had been so vivid for her, she could only imagine what it was like for poor Adam. He was sleeping soundly, but the imagery of the dream was still ingrained in her head so she headed downstairs, hoping that a nice cup of tea would help get her back to sleep.
Once downstairs, Kat slipped into the kitchen, only to find herself not alone. Sitting at the table, a plate of toast in front of him, was Bridge. "Bridge? What are you doing awake? It's nearly four o'clock," she asked as she headed for the cupboard, intent on finding the tea Dustin had stocked in one of the cupboards.
Bridge looked up guiltily from his stack of toast. He set the piece in his hand down. He wrinkled his nose and shrugged, “My mental shields are weaker when I sleep so if someone has nightmares they tend to wake me up.”
"Adam's nightmares woke me up too," she said with a sigh. "I went in and woke him up though, hopefully they'll settle down now," she said as she filled the tea kettle with water.
"You know…Have you tried strengthening your shields before you go to sleep? If they tend to get weaker when you relax in sleep, strengthening them before you go to sleep might help," she suggested.
Bridge shook his head, “I hadn’t thought of that, but I’ll have to try it.” He frowned wrinkling his nose as another thought occurred to him. He knew why Adam’s nightmare had woken him up but…”Hey, how did he wake you up?”
"Ooh..." Kat paused, "His room is right next to mine, I heard him groaning and tossing and turning, I'm a light sleeper" she told him. And it was true, to an extent. She did hear him once she'd woken up, but it had been his vivid nightmare invading her subconscious that caused her to wake up in the first place.
Bridge nodded, something about what she said didn’t seemed to ring true, but he wasn’t about to question her about it. “He’s been having a lot of nightmares lately,” he commented before he took a bite of his toast. Toast was the cure for frayed nerves.
"I noticed," she said with a sigh. She couldn't remember the last time she got a good nights sleep. "But usually after you wake him up, he seems to sleep a bit more soundly, at least for awhile." She took the tea kettle off the stove just before it started to whistle and poured the hot water over the tea packet she'd set in the bottom of her mug.
“You’ve been waking him up?”
"I couldn't very well let him continue to sleep like that," Kat responded as she dumped the unused water out in the sink. "He looked so uncomfortable, I had to wake him up." Besides, she added to herself, I couldn't take anymore of that particular nightmare.
“I guess I see your point,” Bridge nodded, “It was brutal and I can’t ever see any of us questioning him like that.” Bridge’s hands flew over his mouth. Oh no, he’d just done that thing that Syd said he sometimes did with his foot and his mouth. He stared down uncomfortably at his toast.
"Neither can I," she replied and then looked down at her tea. "I mean... Adam's just not used to the leadership position, he was always comfortable taking orders," she explained, hoping to cover her slip up. "It wasn't until we had the Turbo powers that Adam started to step up into a leadership position, while Tommy was busy with his racing. I don't think he realizes just how good of a leader he is, there's always doubt in his mind." She took a sip of her tea and sighed; she wished he would wake up and see how much of a leader he really was. He wouldn't have been tapped for this mission if he wasn't a competent leader.
Bridge looked up and tilted his head to the side as Kat agreed with him. Did she have powers to? He’d have to ask Adam about the person he knew, see if it had been a woman or a man. He munched on his toast as she talked about Adam. He nodded, “He’ll figure it out and then we’ll get a good night’s sleep.” He paused to smile at her, “I’m just glad it’s not me. I mean its one thing to have been my team’s red for going on about a month, but to come into the past…no. He talked to me about it, but he’s the leader. He’s meant to be the leader of this team. He might not see it now, but maybe with time, maybe after our first battle. This sitting around waiting for them to attack just leaves room for doubts, but then again it does give us time to prepare for when those attacks do start.”
Kat smiled back at Bridge, he had a good head on his shoulders, regardless of his sometimes weird ramblings. "I think it's the waiting that's getting to him too," she agreed. "I think it’s because when we became rangers, the others were already in the middle of a battle, there was no waiting, just constant attacks. This waiting game with the baddies has to be putting him on edge."
“It’s starting to put us all on edge, the not knowing what to expect, but at least Adam’s the only one having nightmares. I mean there has been one here or there with the others, but he’s the only one having them consistently. I’ve even had one, but I think that had more to do with shopping and my claustrophobia than anything else. Kira and Tori were understanding though so I don’t understand why I still had the nightmare,” Bridge paused to shrug, “I’m glad you’re here though. Your company seems to help balance Adam’s mood.”
Kat smiled at that last sentiment. "I try..." she said as she held her mug between her hands to warm them. "We all affect each other differently; I tend to be the one who can calm everyone down," she told him, leaving out the part about how her empathic abilities helped her do so.
Bridge tilted his head to the side thinking about what she’d just said before he laughed, “I think I tend to exasperate everyone. I don’t mean to, but sometimes I get going and one thought just flows into the next until I apparently make no sense to anyone but myself.”
Kat laughed softly at that, "Rocky's the goofball of our group, Aisha has the tendency to get people worked up about things, which can be both good and bad. Tommy and Jason are both the take charge type, and also the broody type too," she shook her head, typical reds, she thought to herself. "Adam can be a bit of a worrier, but he also keeps things to himself, sometimes you have to draw him out," she explained smiling a bit as she thought about him.
Bridge smiled as he thought about the dynamic of his first team, “Jack was our goofball and our first red. Aisha reminds me of Z and Z’s yellow too. Sky’s always been more serious and about the rules, but he’s mellowed a bit in the last year or so. He still broods, but he’s starting to learn to let some things go. Syd’s…” Bridge paused to wrinkle his nose before he continued, “Well except for the one time we all did reports on reds for our ranger history class the only ones she ever wrote reports on were pinks because she said she was subtly hinting what color she wanted. She was so happy when she got it too.”
Kat laughed at that, "I was happy about my color too," she admitted with a smile. "I always did fancy pink, so when Kim passed on her coin to me, I was thrilled with fact I was going to be the pink ranger."
“Pink’s a good color. Syd and Z both refused to change colors when they’re promoted, but I guess Z will have to take red for me while I’m here. Syd’s been at SPD longer, but she really doesn’t want to lead and Z will have more of a knack for it,” Bridge told her before he smiled, “Syd will probably be pink until she retires.”
"There's something about us girls, we love our colors, we wouldn't give them up for anything," Kat laughed as she got up to set her mug in the sink. "You boys on the other hand, color changers, all of you," she teased. "Rocky went from red to blue, Adam from black to green, Jason was red and gold, and Tommy, well he's been green, white, red, and black, he's going for the rainbow effect."
Bridge smiled even though he knew he couldn't tell Kat about the other colors Tommy managed to pick up by his time period. "I can see that," Bridge nodded, "Though Z does have yellow and red in her aura, so I'm sure she'll handle red. Ranger aura's seem to be different than ordinary person's aura's. It's tinted differently, I guess, and most normal people's auras readily change color, but when a person is a ranger their color or colors seem to be what naturally make up their aura."
"Like they're outlined by their ranger colors?" She asked curiously. Aura reading was one aspect of the powers of empathy that she didn't have. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to actually see what a person was feelings, rather than feeling it herself.
"Exactly, it's usually really pretty," Bridge told her with a smile, "Except Tommy, he's a bit too bright and mismatched."
"I can imagine," Kat laughed, shaking her head. "all those colors mixing up around him."
"If I were a kid I'd probably be fascinated by him, but six colors is really too much for one per..." Bridge snapped his mouth shut a look of horror on his face. He groaned and buried his face in his hands. Living in the past and keeping his mouth shut, how did they ever think he'd manage that?
Kat did a quick mental count of Tommy's colors, green, white, red, black, that meant.. oh lordy, she thought with a silent groan. Hayley's gonna kill Tommy. "We'll pretend you didn't say that, yes?" She said giving him a smile to let him know she wasn't going to say anything.
Bridge peeked through his fingers to nod yes at her before he told her with a groan, "Please, that'd probably be the best idea." With a mournful look he told himself he needed to learn to keep his mouth shut before he started on his last piece of toast.
Kat walked over and patted him on the shoulder, "It's alright, it's got to be tough for you," she sympathized. "I'm going to head back to bed, try and get some rest alright?"
Bridge smiled then promised, “As soon as I finish my toast. Goodnight.”
~~~~~***~~~~~
Adam tossed Dustin a staff and nodded towards the middle of the wide circle he'd drawn in the backyard of their new home. "You know the basics of staff fighting right? High, middle, low blocks and high, middle, and low strikes?" He leaned on his upright staff. He was hoping Dustin had, had some bo training, he should have, considering he was at the ninja academy.
Dustin felt himself relax as he caught the staff. At least Adam was using something he already knew in conjunction with teaching him how to meditate. He'd been worried he'd have to learn two new things, not that learning fighting from Adam wouldn’t be cool, just that on top of meditation would've thrown him. "Yeah dude," Dustin nodded.
"Alright, I'll teach you the strike-block combinations first, we'll practice them till they are reflex, then I'll get into the meditation technique," he said twirling the staff around, then holding in front of him. "Alright… the pattern is high block, middle block, low block," he said demonstrating each one out of habit, holding the staff horizontally over his head for the high block, just below his neck for a middle block, and at waist level for the low block. "Then, high strike, middle strike, low strike," he said demonstrating the movements again for each strike. "We'll alternate, you block, I strike, you strike, I block," he explained. "Any questions yet?”
"Nope, sounds good Dude," Dustin nodded with a smile happy that they were starting with basics.
"Alright then, let's start slow and as you get more comfortable we'll speed up the pace," Adam said, watching Dustin get into position. As he started the strike-block combination Adam coached him, "Try not to think about anything but the pattern, block, block, block, strike, strike, strike," he said watching him pick up the pattern easily.
Dustin nodded as he kept pace with Adam, taking in his advice.
Xander made his way to the training area Adam had set up. Somehow he'd managed to be late, oh well. He found a spot near the girls, "Hi." That said he passed them the bowl of popcorn he'd brought with him.
"Only you would think to bring popcorn out to watch a training session," Kira said with a sigh, but took a handful anyway.
Tori nodded, "You should be paying attention, you need to be learning to shield your thoughts too," she pointed out to Xander.
Adam saw Dustin picking it up quicker than he'd expected, "Switch it up, I strike you strike, high, high, middle, middle, low, low, alternating," he decided, moving that step up since Dustin was coming along so readily.
"I am paying attention, but who says I can't pay attention without popcorn and speaking of shielding...where is our resident empath?" Xander asked.
"Billy kidnapped him," Tori replied watching Dustin intensely.
"They started talking shop, then Billy dragged him away," Kira clarified.
“Well at least someone can understand him, if his wife’s not there I feel like I should be scrambling for a dictionary and I wouldn’t even know where to begin for that,” Xander shook his head, “Leave Bridge to understand genius.”
Dustin followed Adam's movements and nodded as he picked up the pace, "Okay dude."
"Hey, is um Dustin actually focusing on something?" Xander asked. It was odd, Dustin was usually laid back, but here he was watching Adam intensely and obviously paying attention.
Kira nodded, "It looks like it," she said a bit breathlessly, as she focused on Dustin's intense expression. He was rather hot when he concentrated. She immediately turned red at that thought and shoved it way quickly. You have a boyfriend, she scolded herself.
Tori watched Kira flush, then pale and smothered a giggle, she had a feeling she knew what her friend was thinking. She turned to watch Dustin once more, "I think this is just what he needed."
Adam smiled encouragingly, "Let's pick up the pace a bit more, focus only on the pattern," he said soothingly, "Strike, block, strike, block, again, again, again," he murmured, speeding up the attack pattern.
Dustin nodded, focused on what Adam was telling him, the weight of the bo and the sounds they made when they hit each other. It was soothing, a bit of what passed for normalcy in his life after the craziness of getting his powers back.
“I should’ve brought drinks,” Xander complained.
"You know where the kitchen is… go get one," Kira replied dispassionately, all her focus on Dustin…and Adam.
Tori laughed softly at Kira's response, "Don't mind her," she told Xander. "She's preoccupied."
After speeding him up, Adam stopped, "Alright… now the tough part," he pulled out a blindfold from his back pocket. "Put it on… oh, and for this next part… no powers," he told him. It would defeat the purpose of pulling everything inside of him if he let his awareness into the ground.
Dustin tilted his head, “Um dude do you mean like no connection to the Earth at all or no like cheating and using the earth to see for me?”
Adam thought about that for a moment, "No cheating and using the earth to see for you," he finally decided. "Put the blindfold on and relax, use your other senses, besides sight and your earth connection."
Xander looked towards Kira and then followed her gaze. He almost asked if her preoccupation had anything to do with why Adam looked so tired lately, but thought better of it. He wasn’t about to have his popcorn overturned onto his head. He shrugged, brushed himself off, gave both girls a charming smile and asked if they wanted anything from the kitchen.
Kira hadn't even paid attention to him, so Tori declined on both of their behalves. "I hope he can do this," Tori murmured to herself.
Adam waited until Dustin had the blindfold on and continued, "Don't follow my voice, don't try to follow my movement," Adam said hypnotically as he circled Dustin, twirling his staff. "Think of nothing but be aware of everything."
Dustin closed his eyes under the blindfold, listening to what Adam was telling him at the same time that a part of him was glad he wasn’t doing this with Hunter…he’d have ended up flat on his back amid laughter already. A part of him wanted to be tense, and yet another part of him trusted Adam. He took a deep slow breath to calm his nerves and listened not only to Adam’s voice, but the sound the staff was making as it was twirled in the air.
Quick as lightening Adam tapped him on the shoulders with the staff, "You're not relaxed Dustin," he said as he continued to circle him, "I'll thwap you if you're not relaxed," he said watching as Dustin was still attempting to follow the sound of his voice, "Stop trying to follow me, pull everything inside yourself and just wait, find your center," he coached.
“Dude,” Dustin allowed himself to complain. He wet his lips and tried to relax. He could do this, he told himself. He’d learn, but every other time he’d tried to learn to meditate he’d failed. How was…no, he could do this, he would do this. One of his teammates needed him to learn this and so he would. The moment of panic gone Dustin started to relax.
Adam had been about to whack him when he literally saw Dustin's rigid body stance relax into a more natural pose, "Empty you're head, you're nothing… and everything," he murmured circling him still. "When you find your center, and I attack, you'll block without thinking," he said and moments later he thrust a middle strike at Dustin. He smiled as Dustin barely managed to deflect his blow. "You're still not emptying your head," he said whacking him quickly in the shoulder. "Empty you're head…"
“Dude you should so tell Cam my head’s not empty,” Dustin muttered as he rolled his shoulders and then once again attempted to do what Adam had told him to.
"Less talking… more relaxing," Adam said, whacking him again. He started circling him again faster, "You can do this Dustin, just relax, remember when we were practicing, get into the zone, find you're center, I know you can do this," he murmured in that soothing tone meant to relax.
Kira kept wincing with each thwap Adam dealt out, "He doesn't have to hit him," Kira complained to Tori.
"That's how you learn," Tori pointed out, looking down at her lap to hide a smile.
"Whatever," Kira scoffed.
Dustin almost apologized, but kept his mouth shut instead, as he tried to get back to the feeling he had when they were practicing and he could see. He knew what he was doing before the blindfold, so he knew what he was doing now. He relaxed and kept his eyes closed beneath the blindfold, waiting and not anticipating. Trying too hard to anticipate Adam’s next move hadn’t worked.
"I can go where I want, I'm in my center, find you're center, when you find your center," he struck a low blow at Dustin, smiling as Dustin blocked it automatically, "That feeling you just had, keep it… hold onto it," he said, letting a bit of pride creep into his voice, he figured Dustin did good on praise.
Had he just…yes he had. A smile tugged at his lips, but Dustin pulled it back, not wanting to be distracted by his sudden happiness. He kept himself still, held onto the calm.
Xander dropped down by the girls, “So what’d I miss?”
"Dustin did it," Kira said with a grin, "He blocked Adam, blindfolded, it was cool."
Tori laughed, "That about sums it up."
Xander paused, put down his drink and looked at Kira. Was Kira liking on Dustin? Nah, Xander told himself, she had a boyfriend which she’d made painfully clear the first time he’d hit on her.
"Hold onto that Dustin, that's your center, study it… mark it, learn how to get there on your own," Adam coached, striking him again, watching him block it easily, now that he was in his center. "Now… pull everything inside yourself, where it should be, leave nothing projecting outside yourself."
Dustin nodded, trying not to tense up at the added level of newness. Everything in, he could do that...couldn’t he? Dude…he’d lost it, his center. Dustin huffed in frustration and started over, quickly getting back to where he was before he’d started to doubt himself. Everything inside, internalized, he told himself.
Adam could tell through his body movement, the tension, that he'd lost his center. "Focus Dustin, you had it… now get it back," he said with a quick tap to his shoulders. "You can do this." He continued to circle him, striking at him when he least expected it.
Relaxed Dustin managed, internalized took a bit more. He'd come this far though. He blocked automatically instead concentrating on what he was supposed to be doing.
"Good," Adam said as Dustin blocked his strike. After that he fell silent, walking the staff up and down Dustin's body, striking him from all directions, only noting when he lost his grip on his center.
"He's doing good," Kira said with a subconscious sigh.
"He really is," Tori said with a soft laugh.
"What?" Kira asked, finally looking away from Dustin.
"Nothing," Tori said with a smile.
"Whatever," Kira said turning back to Dustin and Adam.
Xander watched the exchange. Wait. A smirk spread his face. He stood then laughing dumped his glass of water over her head. “Cool off!” he advised before he broke into a run.
"Xander Bly!" Kira screeched, jumping up and taking after him.
Adam's concentration broke at Kira's screech, "Lesson's over man…work on keeping your center, you kept slipping. We'll work on it again in a couple of days after you've practiced," he said to Dustin before turning around to see what was going on.
"I'm going to send you back to Briarwood in pieces," Kira yelled before tackling him to the grass.
"Kira!!" Adam took off towards the grounded rangers, "You can't kill him, we need him!"
“Okay, Dude,” Dustin agreed, Kira’s shriek had totally ruined his concentration. He pulled down the blindfold in time to see Adam take after Kira and Xander. Bemused he jogged over to Tori, “Think we should help him?”
Tori nodded, "They both need to cool off," she said with a smirk. "Adam! Look out!" She yelled, frowning in concentration as she called up the power inside her.
Dustin nodded and flopped down on the grass content to let Tori handle it.
Adam looked over and saw Tori drawing on her powers and quickly rolled out of the way, just in time to avoid the powerful blast of water that soaked the green and yellow rangers, immediately ending the tussle in the grass.
Kira looked up, her hair over her eyes, "What'd you do that for Tori?!?!"
"You can't kill him, we need him," Tori said. "You should know better," she told Xander.
“Yeah, but it was so worth getting manhandled over,” Xander grinned.
"Why you…" Kira started to go after him again but Adam picked her up by her waist and carried her over to Tori and Dustin, "Put me down!"
"Okay," Adam said dropping her next to Dustin, "Please keep them from killing each other," he begged Dustin and Tori. "I need to head over to Billy's and see how things are going," he said before heading into the house.
Kira crossed her arms and just glared over in Xander's direction. He was still grinning. "One of these days…" she muttered.
Authors:
rivulet027 and moonlite_n_roseFandom: Power Rangers with an AU ending for the Operation Overdrive Team-up.
Pairings: Billy/Trini, Tommy/Hayley eventual slash and het.
Rating: Pg-15
Summery: The Once A Ranger vets team continue in Angel Grove with a new set of villains. Wherein Adam gains a team, gets a girl, a couple of tattoos and might just lose his sanity in the process.
Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Power Rangers, neither does MnR. We’re just playing in their toy box and we promise to put everyone away when we’re finished.
A/N: This story is originally being written in role playing format. All updates will first be posted here http://pr-stories.escape-from-reality.net/ and then added elsewhere.
Chapter 6:
Adam was leading the team on a 'walking tour' of Angel Grove, "And this is Angel Grove Park, probably the most famous spot in all of Angel Grove," he said with a chuckle, noticing scorch marks that still plagued some statues, and a few trees that had bare spots where branches had been destroyed during monster attacks.
"Why?" Kira asked as she walked arm in arm with Tori.
"Does it have something to do with those scorch marks?" Tori asked.
Adam nodded, "Yup, we…" he coughed, looking around, there were civilians in the park so he had to be careful, "I mean… the power rangers used to get attacked here, all the time."
Bridge pressed his lips together tightly, not about to let it slip that eventually there’d be a statue of the original Power Ranger Team in the middle of the park for that very reason. He looked around what to SPD cadets was considered a historical site not sure how he felt about being shown it by the second black ranger. He shook his head. Yes, his life tended towards the weird, but somehow this was a bit too much, even for him.
Dustin shook his head, “Dude, all the time? What’s like with that? In Blue Bay Harbor the monsters seemed to like the quarry for some reason.”
Adam laughed, "It's always some place, the baddies always pick one spot to constantly attack, for us, this was it."
~~~~~***~~~~~
Ruxandra glared down at her viewing sphere, watching the rangers walking through the park. "Perfect! Deason!!" She screeched for her inept lover. "Tell Finster to send down the new and improved Putties!"
Deason blinked at her, looking up as he put his lunch down, “Now? Shall we send the monster as well, my love?
"Did I say send down a monster?" She paused for a few seconds. "No! I didn't! I said send down the Putties!" She shrieked at him. "I want to test the rangers… see how good they really are. Besides… don't you think it will be fun, when Adam realizes that our Putties are from his dreams? It will just make things worse for him. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times," she said walking over and pushing his lunch out of the way, "We're not going to make the same mistakes that Rita and Zedd made." She leaned forward, her face inches from Deason's, "Is.That.Clear!"
Deason jumped startled as his lunch went flying. His eyes widened as she invaded his space, “Yes, my love. I was merely asking for all the details so as not to make a mistake. It will be glorious fun and all in your name.” He pressed a quick kiss to her cheek hoping it would sooth her frayed nerves and then stalked out to find Finster.
Ruxandra smiled at the kiss and went back to the viewing sphere, intending to watch the moment her Putties attacked. They would finish the job Rita and Zedd had started. They would definitely rule the earth.
~~~~~***~~~~~
Adam paused next to a statue, "This thing became a monster once, nearly took out the rangers," he said patting the side of it. It had happened before his time, but he knew the story well, the other rangers had told it many times.
Kira squinted up at it, "This is the statue that became the monster that the rangers battled when Dr. O… I mean, the White Ranger first showed up," she said a bit in awe. Tommy had told the story to his team once when they begged for stories about earlier rangers.
"That would be it," Adam nodded in agreement.
"Wicked," Kira murmured.
Dustin’s eyes widened as Kira expanded on what Adam had told them, “Dude.”
Bridge tilted his head to the side. Syd had once missed a question about that particular monster on a test and he had had to hear about that particular battle for the better part of a week.
“So if this is the place to get attacked does that mean you think we will?” Xander asked.
"I don't think so. I mean most villains try to do their own thing, why would they choose this place?" Adam responded.
Just as he said that, a squad of foot soldiers that were grey with glowing red eyes protruding from expressionless faces materialized all around them. They began circling the team, moving closer and closer.
"I think you spoke too soon," Kira said looking over at Adam, who was staring at them in disbelief. "Adam!"
"What?" Adam asked shaking out of his daze. How could they be real? These were the foot soldiers from his dreams. "Bust through…" he ordered, "Spread out, take them down… only morph if you get overwhelmed."
“Dude,” Dustin commented, “they look like really freaky Kelzacks.”
Bridge ducked as one went for him, he lashed out with his foot before he rolled away and jumped to his feet.
“Hi…” Xander tried, but never got to finish as a putty launched itself at him.
Dustin shoved Xander out of the way, and as he began to fight the putty told him, “Plan Xander is so not going to work against the mindless foot-soldiers, save that for the slightly more intelligent monsters.”
"Like it even would work then," Kira muttered, ducking under the punch of a putty. "Get'off me," she said kicking the thing away from her and ducking under an attack from a second one. "Fugly things," she commented punching one in the chest, knocking it into another.
“Hey, it’s worked!” Xander protested as he pushed himself off the ground and launched himself towards the patrollers that were surrounding Dustin. Dustin kicked and punched not liking the way this was going.
Tori ran off a distance and taunted the foot-soldiers into following her, "Can't catch me," she called, jumping out of the way of an attacking putty. She ran through the group, ducking under blows and delivering kicks and punches of her own.
Adam quickly shook off his daze as the others spread out, he jumped up onto the base of the statue and kicked at the three that initially came after him, "Freaky… wannabe Putties," he grumbled, jumping onto the shoulders of one and flipping off it, delivering a kick to its back as he came down.
“Okay dude, that’s like it,” Dustin growled before he launched himself into the ground, away from his enemies. He moved himself behind them then launched himself out of the ground at them.
Xander froze for half a moment when Dustin disappeared, that would never stop freaking him out. Traveling though trees, now that was normal, disappearing into the ground and coming out somewhere else was just weird.
Kira yelped as she got knocked into a tree, "That hurt," she glared at the putties who were gathering in front of her, intent on cornering her into the tree. "Oh no you don't!" she said before letting out a powerful ptera-scream, knocking all her attackers to the ground.
The majority of the putties were intent on attacking Adam, and he was struggling to keep himself from being overtaken, "Why are you all attacking me?" He questioned aloud, jumping back up onto the statue to get above his attackers.
Suddenly a wave of water washed all his attackers away from the statue, he looked up and saw Tori grinning at him, "Figured I'd wash away your problems," she said with a laugh.
Bridge had easily launched himself into a back flip that had landed him right in front of one of the patrollers. It’d leaned away from him slightly startled and that allowed him to launch an attack. He grinned, then yelped as another grabbed his arm. “Hey!” he protested attempting to yank free. He kicked at another putty that came at him from the other side. Then another came and another. He couldn’t get the first putty to drop its hold on him as he also attempted to keep the others at bay. “This is not good,” he muttered to himself as he tried to pull the first patroller around and push it at the other two, but all he succeeded into doing was landing himself on the ground and pulling that thing on top of him.
"Bridge!" Tori grabbed one of his attackers off him; then grabbed a second one, shoving it into the first. She guarded Bridge from new attackers until he could get to his feet, then helped him split them into two easier to mange groups.
“Thanks,” Bridge told Tori as they launched into an attack together.
"What the hell," Adam growled as he ducked blow after blow from these creatures. "Why, won't, you, just, die," Adam said, accentuating each word with a kick to its midsection. At the last kick, the putty clutched its stomach and exploded into a thousand specks of clay. "Bout damn time," he panted, before jumping at another one.
"These things need to hurry up and dust," Kira complained, leveling another group with a ptera-scream. "They are worse than the T-drones," she said scissor kicking a particularly nasty patroller, causing it to explode as well. "Finally…" she leaned on her knees to catch her breath before facing another attacker.
Dustin stuck close to Xander, not comfortable with letting the young man out of his sight. He only moved away, taunting the creatures to follow, when Xander fell into the comfortable routine of using his powers to take out the foot soldiers.
“Dude!” he cried out triumphantly as one finally exploded.
It seemed as the modernized Putties had begun to reach their limit. One by one they began to explode. Ruxandra watched in delight, even though her Putties were starting to explode, they'd significantly worn the rangers down, "Deason! Finster!" She shouted, "Bring the army back! Now we know what we're up against," she ordered.
“At once my Queen,” Deason agreed as he began summoned the remaining putties back to them.
“What? Hey where’d they go?” Dustin protested as they disappeared.
Bridge gasped and grabbed his knees. As he caught his breath he shook his head, “That was weird. I never read about Putties being used after Zedd stopped using them.” He took in his teams confused looks and explained, “I got an A in Ranger History.”
“They teach a class in Ranger History?” Xander asked before he smiled, “What’d they say about me?”
“Not the time, Dude,” Dustin told him with a clap to the back.
"They probably said…" Kira paused to catch her breath and clear her throat, "You were the ranger most likely to get your ass kicked for trying 'Plan Xander'."
“Hey! It’s worked. Why fight if you don’t have to? And,” Xander protested, “you won’t know if it’ll work if you don’t try it.”
Dustin whimpered, “No in fighting right now, not while the bad guys are probably watching.”
Adam leaned against the statue, panting a bit as he caught his breath. "Well… that will teach me to never open my mouth about something not happening again," he commented.
Tori walked over to him, "Were they really Putties?"
Adam nodded, then shook his head, "Yes… I mean they looked like Putties, and acted like them, but they were stronger, and faster than the Putties that I remember," he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the hem of his shirt. "It's like someone took Zedd's design and made improvements, removing the Z-Putties weak spot and pumping them up with steroids."
"Just the image I wanted," Kira said in a raspy voice as she walked over to where Tori and Adam were standing.
Dustin dropped onto the ground before he flopped onto his back, “Dude, we got worked. That is like not good.”
Adam nodded, "I hate to admit it, but Dustin's right. We may have to morph the next time these things get send down to attack us, I just hate the idea of morphing for a skirmish with foot soldiers," he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I suggest daily training sessions for all of us, we need to be better than we were today."
"Great," Kira groaned. "Why don't we just morph and take them out?"
"If we have to morph just to take out the foot, what are the monsters going to be like?" Tori pondered. She didn't like that idea.
Adam looked around and bit back another sigh, he had to remember that these guys weren't his original teammates, with the exceptions of Tori, Dustin and Bridge none of them had fighting experience that didn't come with the suit. He’d have to ease Xander and Kira into the idea. "Because we need to conserve our powers for the real threat… the monsters."
“And that’s like so not good,” Dustin agreed, “Training on the other hand would be good.”
“But we know how to fight?” Xander protested weakly.
Bridge shook his head and pointed out, “Part of SPD is running drills daily and I still messed up. If it hadn’t been for Tori…” He trailed off to give Tori a grateful smile.
“We should try training together,” Dustin told Xander trying to ease him into the idea; “Since we both connect with the earth we might be able to learn something from each other.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Xander agreed intrigued at the thought.
Kira nodded, she saw their points, "I'll be the first one to admit, most of my skills came with the suit. As much as it pains me to say, Adam's right, we need to be training," she said making a face at the idea, but knowing that it was part of the job.
"Don't worry Kira," Tori said patting her arm, "I'm sure you'll pick it up quickly."
"Thanks," she said laying her head on Tori's shoulder. "So, are we still heading to Billy's?" She asked them.
Adam nodded, "Yeah, but lets head back to the house, so we can shower and change, Billy hates letting dirt anywhere near his tech equipment," he said rolling his shoulders, sighing in satisfaction as is shouldered popped.
~~~~~***~~~~~
Kat slipped out of Adam's room after shaking him awake from his nightmare. It’d been so vivid in her mind she hadn’t had a choice but to wake him. If it had been so vivid for her, she could only imagine what it was like for poor Adam. He was sleeping soundly, but the imagery of the dream was still ingrained in her head so she headed downstairs, hoping that a nice cup of tea would help get her back to sleep.
Once downstairs, Kat slipped into the kitchen, only to find herself not alone. Sitting at the table, a plate of toast in front of him, was Bridge. "Bridge? What are you doing awake? It's nearly four o'clock," she asked as she headed for the cupboard, intent on finding the tea Dustin had stocked in one of the cupboards.
Bridge looked up guiltily from his stack of toast. He set the piece in his hand down. He wrinkled his nose and shrugged, “My mental shields are weaker when I sleep so if someone has nightmares they tend to wake me up.”
"Adam's nightmares woke me up too," she said with a sigh. "I went in and woke him up though, hopefully they'll settle down now," she said as she filled the tea kettle with water.
"You know…Have you tried strengthening your shields before you go to sleep? If they tend to get weaker when you relax in sleep, strengthening them before you go to sleep might help," she suggested.
Bridge shook his head, “I hadn’t thought of that, but I’ll have to try it.” He frowned wrinkling his nose as another thought occurred to him. He knew why Adam’s nightmare had woken him up but…”Hey, how did he wake you up?”
"Ooh..." Kat paused, "His room is right next to mine, I heard him groaning and tossing and turning, I'm a light sleeper" she told him. And it was true, to an extent. She did hear him once she'd woken up, but it had been his vivid nightmare invading her subconscious that caused her to wake up in the first place.
Bridge nodded, something about what she said didn’t seemed to ring true, but he wasn’t about to question her about it. “He’s been having a lot of nightmares lately,” he commented before he took a bite of his toast. Toast was the cure for frayed nerves.
"I noticed," she said with a sigh. She couldn't remember the last time she got a good nights sleep. "But usually after you wake him up, he seems to sleep a bit more soundly, at least for awhile." She took the tea kettle off the stove just before it started to whistle and poured the hot water over the tea packet she'd set in the bottom of her mug.
“You’ve been waking him up?”
"I couldn't very well let him continue to sleep like that," Kat responded as she dumped the unused water out in the sink. "He looked so uncomfortable, I had to wake him up." Besides, she added to herself, I couldn't take anymore of that particular nightmare.
“I guess I see your point,” Bridge nodded, “It was brutal and I can’t ever see any of us questioning him like that.” Bridge’s hands flew over his mouth. Oh no, he’d just done that thing that Syd said he sometimes did with his foot and his mouth. He stared down uncomfortably at his toast.
"Neither can I," she replied and then looked down at her tea. "I mean... Adam's just not used to the leadership position, he was always comfortable taking orders," she explained, hoping to cover her slip up. "It wasn't until we had the Turbo powers that Adam started to step up into a leadership position, while Tommy was busy with his racing. I don't think he realizes just how good of a leader he is, there's always doubt in his mind." She took a sip of her tea and sighed; she wished he would wake up and see how much of a leader he really was. He wouldn't have been tapped for this mission if he wasn't a competent leader.
Bridge looked up and tilted his head to the side as Kat agreed with him. Did she have powers to? He’d have to ask Adam about the person he knew, see if it had been a woman or a man. He munched on his toast as she talked about Adam. He nodded, “He’ll figure it out and then we’ll get a good night’s sleep.” He paused to smile at her, “I’m just glad it’s not me. I mean its one thing to have been my team’s red for going on about a month, but to come into the past…no. He talked to me about it, but he’s the leader. He’s meant to be the leader of this team. He might not see it now, but maybe with time, maybe after our first battle. This sitting around waiting for them to attack just leaves room for doubts, but then again it does give us time to prepare for when those attacks do start.”
Kat smiled back at Bridge, he had a good head on his shoulders, regardless of his sometimes weird ramblings. "I think it's the waiting that's getting to him too," she agreed. "I think it’s because when we became rangers, the others were already in the middle of a battle, there was no waiting, just constant attacks. This waiting game with the baddies has to be putting him on edge."
“It’s starting to put us all on edge, the not knowing what to expect, but at least Adam’s the only one having nightmares. I mean there has been one here or there with the others, but he’s the only one having them consistently. I’ve even had one, but I think that had more to do with shopping and my claustrophobia than anything else. Kira and Tori were understanding though so I don’t understand why I still had the nightmare,” Bridge paused to shrug, “I’m glad you’re here though. Your company seems to help balance Adam’s mood.”
Kat smiled at that last sentiment. "I try..." she said as she held her mug between her hands to warm them. "We all affect each other differently; I tend to be the one who can calm everyone down," she told him, leaving out the part about how her empathic abilities helped her do so.
Bridge tilted his head to the side thinking about what she’d just said before he laughed, “I think I tend to exasperate everyone. I don’t mean to, but sometimes I get going and one thought just flows into the next until I apparently make no sense to anyone but myself.”
Kat laughed softly at that, "Rocky's the goofball of our group, Aisha has the tendency to get people worked up about things, which can be both good and bad. Tommy and Jason are both the take charge type, and also the broody type too," she shook her head, typical reds, she thought to herself. "Adam can be a bit of a worrier, but he also keeps things to himself, sometimes you have to draw him out," she explained smiling a bit as she thought about him.
Bridge smiled as he thought about the dynamic of his first team, “Jack was our goofball and our first red. Aisha reminds me of Z and Z’s yellow too. Sky’s always been more serious and about the rules, but he’s mellowed a bit in the last year or so. He still broods, but he’s starting to learn to let some things go. Syd’s…” Bridge paused to wrinkle his nose before he continued, “Well except for the one time we all did reports on reds for our ranger history class the only ones she ever wrote reports on were pinks because she said she was subtly hinting what color she wanted. She was so happy when she got it too.”
Kat laughed at that, "I was happy about my color too," she admitted with a smile. "I always did fancy pink, so when Kim passed on her coin to me, I was thrilled with fact I was going to be the pink ranger."
“Pink’s a good color. Syd and Z both refused to change colors when they’re promoted, but I guess Z will have to take red for me while I’m here. Syd’s been at SPD longer, but she really doesn’t want to lead and Z will have more of a knack for it,” Bridge told her before he smiled, “Syd will probably be pink until she retires.”
"There's something about us girls, we love our colors, we wouldn't give them up for anything," Kat laughed as she got up to set her mug in the sink. "You boys on the other hand, color changers, all of you," she teased. "Rocky went from red to blue, Adam from black to green, Jason was red and gold, and Tommy, well he's been green, white, red, and black, he's going for the rainbow effect."
Bridge smiled even though he knew he couldn't tell Kat about the other colors Tommy managed to pick up by his time period. "I can see that," Bridge nodded, "Though Z does have yellow and red in her aura, so I'm sure she'll handle red. Ranger aura's seem to be different than ordinary person's aura's. It's tinted differently, I guess, and most normal people's auras readily change color, but when a person is a ranger their color or colors seem to be what naturally make up their aura."
"Like they're outlined by their ranger colors?" She asked curiously. Aura reading was one aspect of the powers of empathy that she didn't have. Sometimes she wondered what it would be like to actually see what a person was feelings, rather than feeling it herself.
"Exactly, it's usually really pretty," Bridge told her with a smile, "Except Tommy, he's a bit too bright and mismatched."
"I can imagine," Kat laughed, shaking her head. "all those colors mixing up around him."
"If I were a kid I'd probably be fascinated by him, but six colors is really too much for one per..." Bridge snapped his mouth shut a look of horror on his face. He groaned and buried his face in his hands. Living in the past and keeping his mouth shut, how did they ever think he'd manage that?
Kat did a quick mental count of Tommy's colors, green, white, red, black, that meant.. oh lordy, she thought with a silent groan. Hayley's gonna kill Tommy. "We'll pretend you didn't say that, yes?" She said giving him a smile to let him know she wasn't going to say anything.
Bridge peeked through his fingers to nod yes at her before he told her with a groan, "Please, that'd probably be the best idea." With a mournful look he told himself he needed to learn to keep his mouth shut before he started on his last piece of toast.
Kat walked over and patted him on the shoulder, "It's alright, it's got to be tough for you," she sympathized. "I'm going to head back to bed, try and get some rest alright?"
Bridge smiled then promised, “As soon as I finish my toast. Goodnight.”
~~~~~***~~~~~
Adam tossed Dustin a staff and nodded towards the middle of the wide circle he'd drawn in the backyard of their new home. "You know the basics of staff fighting right? High, middle, low blocks and high, middle, and low strikes?" He leaned on his upright staff. He was hoping Dustin had, had some bo training, he should have, considering he was at the ninja academy.
Dustin felt himself relax as he caught the staff. At least Adam was using something he already knew in conjunction with teaching him how to meditate. He'd been worried he'd have to learn two new things, not that learning fighting from Adam wouldn’t be cool, just that on top of meditation would've thrown him. "Yeah dude," Dustin nodded.
"Alright, I'll teach you the strike-block combinations first, we'll practice them till they are reflex, then I'll get into the meditation technique," he said twirling the staff around, then holding in front of him. "Alright… the pattern is high block, middle block, low block," he said demonstrating each one out of habit, holding the staff horizontally over his head for the high block, just below his neck for a middle block, and at waist level for the low block. "Then, high strike, middle strike, low strike," he said demonstrating the movements again for each strike. "We'll alternate, you block, I strike, you strike, I block," he explained. "Any questions yet?”
"Nope, sounds good Dude," Dustin nodded with a smile happy that they were starting with basics.
"Alright then, let's start slow and as you get more comfortable we'll speed up the pace," Adam said, watching Dustin get into position. As he started the strike-block combination Adam coached him, "Try not to think about anything but the pattern, block, block, block, strike, strike, strike," he said watching him pick up the pattern easily.
Dustin nodded as he kept pace with Adam, taking in his advice.
Xander made his way to the training area Adam had set up. Somehow he'd managed to be late, oh well. He found a spot near the girls, "Hi." That said he passed them the bowl of popcorn he'd brought with him.
"Only you would think to bring popcorn out to watch a training session," Kira said with a sigh, but took a handful anyway.
Tori nodded, "You should be paying attention, you need to be learning to shield your thoughts too," she pointed out to Xander.
Adam saw Dustin picking it up quicker than he'd expected, "Switch it up, I strike you strike, high, high, middle, middle, low, low, alternating," he decided, moving that step up since Dustin was coming along so readily.
"I am paying attention, but who says I can't pay attention without popcorn and speaking of shielding...where is our resident empath?" Xander asked.
"Billy kidnapped him," Tori replied watching Dustin intensely.
"They started talking shop, then Billy dragged him away," Kira clarified.
“Well at least someone can understand him, if his wife’s not there I feel like I should be scrambling for a dictionary and I wouldn’t even know where to begin for that,” Xander shook his head, “Leave Bridge to understand genius.”
Dustin followed Adam's movements and nodded as he picked up the pace, "Okay dude."
"Hey, is um Dustin actually focusing on something?" Xander asked. It was odd, Dustin was usually laid back, but here he was watching Adam intensely and obviously paying attention.
Kira nodded, "It looks like it," she said a bit breathlessly, as she focused on Dustin's intense expression. He was rather hot when he concentrated. She immediately turned red at that thought and shoved it way quickly. You have a boyfriend, she scolded herself.
Tori watched Kira flush, then pale and smothered a giggle, she had a feeling she knew what her friend was thinking. She turned to watch Dustin once more, "I think this is just what he needed."
Adam smiled encouragingly, "Let's pick up the pace a bit more, focus only on the pattern," he said soothingly, "Strike, block, strike, block, again, again, again," he murmured, speeding up the attack pattern.
Dustin nodded, focused on what Adam was telling him, the weight of the bo and the sounds they made when they hit each other. It was soothing, a bit of what passed for normalcy in his life after the craziness of getting his powers back.
“I should’ve brought drinks,” Xander complained.
"You know where the kitchen is… go get one," Kira replied dispassionately, all her focus on Dustin…and Adam.
Tori laughed softly at Kira's response, "Don't mind her," she told Xander. "She's preoccupied."
After speeding him up, Adam stopped, "Alright… now the tough part," he pulled out a blindfold from his back pocket. "Put it on… oh, and for this next part… no powers," he told him. It would defeat the purpose of pulling everything inside of him if he let his awareness into the ground.
Dustin tilted his head, “Um dude do you mean like no connection to the Earth at all or no like cheating and using the earth to see for me?”
Adam thought about that for a moment, "No cheating and using the earth to see for you," he finally decided. "Put the blindfold on and relax, use your other senses, besides sight and your earth connection."
Xander looked towards Kira and then followed her gaze. He almost asked if her preoccupation had anything to do with why Adam looked so tired lately, but thought better of it. He wasn’t about to have his popcorn overturned onto his head. He shrugged, brushed himself off, gave both girls a charming smile and asked if they wanted anything from the kitchen.
Kira hadn't even paid attention to him, so Tori declined on both of their behalves. "I hope he can do this," Tori murmured to herself.
Adam waited until Dustin had the blindfold on and continued, "Don't follow my voice, don't try to follow my movement," Adam said hypnotically as he circled Dustin, twirling his staff. "Think of nothing but be aware of everything."
Dustin closed his eyes under the blindfold, listening to what Adam was telling him at the same time that a part of him was glad he wasn’t doing this with Hunter…he’d have ended up flat on his back amid laughter already. A part of him wanted to be tense, and yet another part of him trusted Adam. He took a deep slow breath to calm his nerves and listened not only to Adam’s voice, but the sound the staff was making as it was twirled in the air.
Quick as lightening Adam tapped him on the shoulders with the staff, "You're not relaxed Dustin," he said as he continued to circle him, "I'll thwap you if you're not relaxed," he said watching as Dustin was still attempting to follow the sound of his voice, "Stop trying to follow me, pull everything inside yourself and just wait, find your center," he coached.
“Dude,” Dustin allowed himself to complain. He wet his lips and tried to relax. He could do this, he told himself. He’d learn, but every other time he’d tried to learn to meditate he’d failed. How was…no, he could do this, he would do this. One of his teammates needed him to learn this and so he would. The moment of panic gone Dustin started to relax.
Adam had been about to whack him when he literally saw Dustin's rigid body stance relax into a more natural pose, "Empty you're head, you're nothing… and everything," he murmured circling him still. "When you find your center, and I attack, you'll block without thinking," he said and moments later he thrust a middle strike at Dustin. He smiled as Dustin barely managed to deflect his blow. "You're still not emptying your head," he said whacking him quickly in the shoulder. "Empty you're head…"
“Dude you should so tell Cam my head’s not empty,” Dustin muttered as he rolled his shoulders and then once again attempted to do what Adam had told him to.
"Less talking… more relaxing," Adam said, whacking him again. He started circling him again faster, "You can do this Dustin, just relax, remember when we were practicing, get into the zone, find you're center, I know you can do this," he murmured in that soothing tone meant to relax.
Kira kept wincing with each thwap Adam dealt out, "He doesn't have to hit him," Kira complained to Tori.
"That's how you learn," Tori pointed out, looking down at her lap to hide a smile.
"Whatever," Kira scoffed.
Dustin almost apologized, but kept his mouth shut instead, as he tried to get back to the feeling he had when they were practicing and he could see. He knew what he was doing before the blindfold, so he knew what he was doing now. He relaxed and kept his eyes closed beneath the blindfold, waiting and not anticipating. Trying too hard to anticipate Adam’s next move hadn’t worked.
"I can go where I want, I'm in my center, find you're center, when you find your center," he struck a low blow at Dustin, smiling as Dustin blocked it automatically, "That feeling you just had, keep it… hold onto it," he said, letting a bit of pride creep into his voice, he figured Dustin did good on praise.
Had he just…yes he had. A smile tugged at his lips, but Dustin pulled it back, not wanting to be distracted by his sudden happiness. He kept himself still, held onto the calm.
Xander dropped down by the girls, “So what’d I miss?”
"Dustin did it," Kira said with a grin, "He blocked Adam, blindfolded, it was cool."
Tori laughed, "That about sums it up."
Xander paused, put down his drink and looked at Kira. Was Kira liking on Dustin? Nah, Xander told himself, she had a boyfriend which she’d made painfully clear the first time he’d hit on her.
"Hold onto that Dustin, that's your center, study it… mark it, learn how to get there on your own," Adam coached, striking him again, watching him block it easily, now that he was in his center. "Now… pull everything inside yourself, where it should be, leave nothing projecting outside yourself."
Dustin nodded, trying not to tense up at the added level of newness. Everything in, he could do that...couldn’t he? Dude…he’d lost it, his center. Dustin huffed in frustration and started over, quickly getting back to where he was before he’d started to doubt himself. Everything inside, internalized, he told himself.
Adam could tell through his body movement, the tension, that he'd lost his center. "Focus Dustin, you had it… now get it back," he said with a quick tap to his shoulders. "You can do this." He continued to circle him, striking at him when he least expected it.
Relaxed Dustin managed, internalized took a bit more. He'd come this far though. He blocked automatically instead concentrating on what he was supposed to be doing.
"Good," Adam said as Dustin blocked his strike. After that he fell silent, walking the staff up and down Dustin's body, striking him from all directions, only noting when he lost his grip on his center.
"He's doing good," Kira said with a subconscious sigh.
"He really is," Tori said with a soft laugh.
"What?" Kira asked, finally looking away from Dustin.
"Nothing," Tori said with a smile.
"Whatever," Kira said turning back to Dustin and Adam.
Xander watched the exchange. Wait. A smirk spread his face. He stood then laughing dumped his glass of water over her head. “Cool off!” he advised before he broke into a run.
"Xander Bly!" Kira screeched, jumping up and taking after him.
Adam's concentration broke at Kira's screech, "Lesson's over man…work on keeping your center, you kept slipping. We'll work on it again in a couple of days after you've practiced," he said to Dustin before turning around to see what was going on.
"I'm going to send you back to Briarwood in pieces," Kira yelled before tackling him to the grass.
"Kira!!" Adam took off towards the grounded rangers, "You can't kill him, we need him!"
“Okay, Dude,” Dustin agreed, Kira’s shriek had totally ruined his concentration. He pulled down the blindfold in time to see Adam take after Kira and Xander. Bemused he jogged over to Tori, “Think we should help him?”
Tori nodded, "They both need to cool off," she said with a smirk. "Adam! Look out!" She yelled, frowning in concentration as she called up the power inside her.
Dustin nodded and flopped down on the grass content to let Tori handle it.
Adam looked over and saw Tori drawing on her powers and quickly rolled out of the way, just in time to avoid the powerful blast of water that soaked the green and yellow rangers, immediately ending the tussle in the grass.
Kira looked up, her hair over her eyes, "What'd you do that for Tori?!?!"
"You can't kill him, we need him," Tori said. "You should know better," she told Xander.
“Yeah, but it was so worth getting manhandled over,” Xander grinned.
"Why you…" Kira started to go after him again but Adam picked her up by her waist and carried her over to Tori and Dustin, "Put me down!"
"Okay," Adam said dropping her next to Dustin, "Please keep them from killing each other," he begged Dustin and Tori. "I need to head over to Billy's and see how things are going," he said before heading into the house.
Kira crossed her arms and just glared over in Xander's direction. He was still grinning. "One of these days…" she muttered.