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Now that Anna knew the secrets of her friends, they decided it would be a good idea for her to see the base they operate out of. The way Izzy and Amelia described it, it was a haven that was built just underneath Dinohenge. This didn't surprise Anna one bit.
All along, Javi had probably known about the treehouse too and that explained why she seemed to always be running into her there. The other must have been sneakier about it.
Their command center was a place meant only for their eyes, with the exception of Anna's now. She followed the two girls through a little tunnel and into the place. She looked around, seeing all the variations of high tech planted on the walls and in groups of panels.
"There is one more thing we have to tell you," Izzy stood next to her, shifting her weight and looked at her. "It might freak you out."
Anna tilted her head to the side. "What is it?"
"Our mentor, Solon, she's kind of a dinosaur partly." Amelia told her.
"That," Anna paused, "Honestly surprise me."
"Really?" the girls looked at her.
"I mean," she thought about it, "It kind of makes sense. You guys are the Dino Fury rangers. Your powers are inherited from the spirits of dinosaurs and past ranger species, right?"
They nodded at her.
"Then it makes sense. Who else would be a better mentor than a dinosaur. It might sound weird, but is it really weird?" Anna asked.
"She's part cyborg too." Javi interrupted as he casually strolled into the command center with Ollie, Zayto, and an unfamiliar face. Anna looked at the new face and studied it for a second before turning her attention back to Javi and giving him a small smile.
"When can I meet her?" Anna asked.
Javi moved so that he was studying behind Anna and looking over at her shoulder - admiring her while she was admiring everything else.
"Later," Zayto said, "She's out collecting some samples in the woods right now."
"Wow - this place is beautiful." Anna ran her fingers across everything, gently touching it and reading the little words next to each thing, "I really do promise that I'll keep everything a secret."
"We know you will." Javi patted her slightly on her shoulder and then stepped away.
"This is Ayion by the way," Ollie introduced the new face to her, "He joined the team a few days ago."
"Nice to meet you." Anna smiled.
"The pleasure is all mine." he smiled at her as he reached forward and took her hand in his. He cupped her hand and bent down to press his lips to her knuckles. Anna swallowed nervously, unsure of what he was doing. She didn't even know him so she found this encounter strange.
She pulled her hand away and looked up at him briefly before stepping next to Javi. The others in the room could see the steam radiating off of Javi, but Anna was clueless.
"It's nice to meet you too." she nodded.
"You're incredibly beautiful," Aiyon smiled, "I just thought you should know that."
"Thanks." she swallowed.
"Tell me, what are my odds of getting you to go on a date with me?" he asked.
"Uh," she cleared her throat looking up to Javi for help, "Uh..."
"None." Javi answered for her.
"Why's that?" Aiyon asked him.
"That's Javi's girl." Ollie spoke up.
"Oh," Ayion looked at the two of them, "My bad..."
"Let's go look around the rest of the place." Izzy grabbed Anna's hand and pulled her along. Amelia followed behind and lef the boys to talk, presumably about Anna.
"That was awkward." Amelia said.
"A little bit." Anna agreed.
"I thought Javi's head was going to burst open." Izzy said.
"Was Javi jealous?" Anna asked.
"Yes." both girls answered.
"That's kind of cute." Anna blushed.
"We showed you this place," Amelia said, "Now you have to show us your treehouse."
Anna smiled, leading the girls around the statue and pointed out the treehouse up in the tree. She talked to the girls about it for a few minutes, talking about all the moments that her and Javi had had there since they cohesively agreed it was their spot.
"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Izzy asked.
"I think that we should go back to Anna's and make sure everything is perfect for you now what." Amelia suggested.
"Good idea." they agreed.
"Perfect," Anna smiled, "This gives me the chance to tell you guys about this trail we're about to walk through. This was mine and my mom's favorite spot to walk. We'd come here almost every night and walk through this patch and into the park."
"That's very sweet." they thought.
The walk back to Anna's house seemed like it took forever. Not because the day was dragging or the weather was bad, but simply because the girls took their time and laughed about everything they could think of on the walk home.
The air was blowing at a comfortable pace, the heat was raging down through the bare sky, but the girls were happy. It had been such a long time where Anna felt a moment of pure happiness and she was going to suck in every moment of it that she could. Friends had always been hard for her to make, but with them - everything seemed easy. They listened with open ears and understood with passion. They didn't treat Anna differently like many others did.
Not when she skipped over the cracks, or had to walk on the grass, or an even amount of sidewalk spaces... not even when she had to repeat the same task or word four or five times before it felt right. They adored her without judgement and that's all Anna ever wanted from a friend.
As they approached her house, the three of them heard a slight commotion coming from her backyard. None of them knew what the sounds were until they all went running through the house and entered the backyard. Anna's jaw dropped when she saw that all the decorations had been knocked over, broken, and ruined. Behind it all, were those annoying little pests that often ran with the Sporix Beasts.
Amelia and Izzy scared them away with ease - but not before the damage had already been done. Anna walked around the backyard, picking up the streamers and rolling them into balls to carry to the trash. Everything they had been working so hard to put together, was ruined in the matter of seconds and none of them understood why.
"Why would they do this?" Izzy asked.
"I don't know." Amelia shook her head.
Anna remained silent as she collected the decorations for the trash.
"We should call the others and let them know what's up." Izzy said.
"Are you okay Anna?" Amelia asked.
Anna stayed quiet as she shook her head no. She wanted to cry, but she knew the situation could be worse. They could have gotten hurt - and she knew that should be their priority, but instead she was sad because Javi's surprise party had been ruined just like his gift had been spoiled.
"We'll figure something out. We're not going to let those hags ruin this for you." Izzy told her.
"They already have," she angrily stuffed the trash into the garbage, "You guys can go. I'll get this all cleaned up."
"No, we'll stay and help." Amelia insisted.
"How am I going to tell my dad about why all the decorations are down? They're obviously going to know." Anna sighed.
"Well, if we get lucky... we can say it rained?" Izzy looked up to the clouds and saw that they were darkening.
"I'm never lucky," Anna sighed again, "Which is why this happened in the first place. Why me though? Why this moment?"
"I'm not entirely sure. I think we should go back to Dinohenge and talk with Solon." Izzy suggested.
"I agree." Amelia nodded, "Let's clean this up and go. We can explain everything that happened there. Hopefully Solon is back and she can help us try to figure this out."
Anna felt sad when the rain did start coming down. Everything she had worked hard to put together for someone else was ruined in the matter of seconds. She sighed as she finished picking up the streamers off the ground before throwing them away. Amelia and Izzy helped finish up and then stopped to make sure Anna is okay.
She gave them a half fake smile and then followed the girls into the house so they could get in the rain. It started coming down harder so they knew they would have to wait out the rain before going to Dinohenge, or go with Izzy's option - teleporting.
Anna was a little nervous as Amelia explained the process to her. She figured it must be alright though since they seemed to do it all the time, but that didn't stop her from feeling a little anxious about it. She put her hand on Amelia's shoulder and braced herself for the transition.
She watched the girl slide the watch down to her wrist and twist part of it before pressing her finger to the screen. The room lit up in shades of yellow and white that swirled together in lines of perfection as the objects in the room started to disappear around them. Anna felt weightless as they were lifted off the ground and the brightness intensified. She closed her eyes, probably gripping onto Amelia's shoulder tighter than she intended too.
Within seconds she felt her feet slam back onto the ground and she had almost lost her balance if Javi hadn't been standing there to catch her when she let go of Amelia - almost as if he had expected them to be showing up. She placed her hand on his chest, looking up at him as she looked back down at her - making sure she was okay. She gave him a small nod before taking a step back from and looking around at the others.
That's when she spotted Solon and was incredibly blown away by the existence of seeing something so unique. Solon was part cyborg and part solonosourus from the planet Rafkon, where Zayto claimed to hail from. Her features were like none other Anna had ever seen before. She admired them while Amelia and Izzy started explaining what happened, making sure to leave out the surprise of Javi's party. They played it off as them just decorating the backyard because they were bored and wanted to have their own party.
"What if Void Knight is targeting Anna because she knows the truth about all of us and them?" Zayto suggested.
"Do you really think he'd do that?" Ollie asked.
"It's Void Knight," Izzy glared, "Yes."
"He won't get anywhere near her." Javi said.
"You got that right," Amelia agreed, "She has nothing to do with our fight."
"I think it's best we keep an extra eye on the sweet girl until we can figure out why Void Knight might be targeting her. I hope this was just a random occurrence but something is telling me that is not the case." Solon said.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Anna asked.
"I'm afraid not." Solon answered her.
"We'll get to the bottom of this." Aiyon added.
"Until then, we have to pretend like we don't know anything is going on. This is for Anna and her family's safety." Solon told them.
Anna looked back to Javi, who took a step closer to her and slung his arm around her shoulder after she gave him a nod for approval. He led her a little closer to her, reliving some of the anxiety she had about everything currently unfolding.
"We will get this figured out." Javi tried to assure her.
"I know," she smiled, "The Power Rangers have always been a symbol for hope and bravery. I have no doubt that you guys will figure this out as best as you can with the resources and information at hand."
"We have a lot to live up to. The morphin masters chose us for a reason. We will never live up to the expectations that the other teams before us set." Zayto said.
"No you won't," Anna shook her head, "You'll break those expectations and live up to your own limits. You've saved the world up to this point, and like you said, you were chosen for a reason. They wouldn't have chosen you guys if you weren't ready for these responsibilities."
"We should hire her to be our hype man." Ollie laughed.
"I think this was meant to be a serious moment." Solon looked at the boy.
"It's okay," Anna laughed, "It's a nice break from the seriousness."
"Now go on all of you. I'll let you know if anything comes up." Solon shooed them out.
"Can I take you home?" Javi asked Anna as the others split apart and headed in different directions.
"Can we go to the treehouse instead?" Anna looked up at him.
"Sure," he smiled back at her, "I think that sounds perfect."
He removed his arm from around her shoulders and then took the lead to direct her out of their command center. The rain was still coming down heavily and slowly making its way through the treetops and hitting the ground around them.
Anna stopped and looked at how the raindrops made the statues surrounding them glisten as if they had glitter dumped all over them. She thought the sight was so pretty that she didn't even care that she was getting soaked from the rain.
Javi walked ahead of her, giving her a little bit of space until she followed him up the ladder. They sat underneath the shelter of the treehouse roof in silence with each other until Anna started blushing. She was thinking about Javi being jealous of Ayion earlier and she found it cute.
She giggled, catching Javi's attention.
"What?" he asked her.
"Nothing," she shook her head, "Just thinking about something - that's all."
He raised a brow in suspicion, "Okay..."
"I'm sorry about Void Knight sending the hengemen to your house earlier." Javi apologized.
"Javi, it was out of your control. I'm just glad that my family wasn't there." she said.
"Yeah, me too." he nodded slightly.
The two sat and chatted while listening to the rain patter around them. Anna wanted to sit there for hours and just talk with him. His distractions kept her mind at bay and even helped calm her OCD in a sense - she found herself having less tics with it when he was around, but he also had been finding ways to redirect her without her even knowing that he was doing it.
When Anna decided to go home, Javi teleported her there before her parents got home. She wanted to make it seem as if she had been there all day and never left. So, she laid down on the couch waiting to see her baby brother when he came home and unintentionally fell asleep while waiting.
The girls had stayed up late, and she was more tired than she thought, so the exhaustion caught up to her. She needed the sleep after the last few days and it was the most peaceful sleep she had gotten in a while and it was uninterrupted, which was even better. With everything on her mind all the time, her sleep was the thing most disturbed and sometimes it made Anna cracky - but getting a few extra hours of shut eye always helped.
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