"Jaiden Oliver, huh? So the entire school knows that I'm related to the new science teacher?" Jaiden rose a brow as she sat in the car with Tommy, the two heading to Reefside High for both of their first day.
"Well, I couldn't do your last name. The paperwork was complicated as is, imagine having to explain to the Board of Ed that I picked you up from the side of the road," Tommy retorted, and the girl had nothing to say back to that.
The past weekend had been a long one. Cam had dropped her off at Reefside after their little altercation in the Ice Academy. Strangely, Jaiden felt no different than before. Though putting two and two together, she assumed that Dakrian had suppressed her powers somehow. But hey, not that she needed them anymore, right? At least she still had her ninja abilities.
She decided against mentioning the whole situation to Tommy. At least, not yet. He was nervous as is to start teaching, and not to mention busy with his super secret research that he hasn't told the girl about yet. He said he'd take her to his lab once he finished the last touches on it, and she was going to hold him to that. The only reason she was there in Reefside was to help him with it, after all. Whatever it was.
All she knew was that it could possibly relate to the Morphing Grid. But that's all Tommy's told her.
The drive to school was somewhat long, since Tommy decided to get a house deep in the forest for whatever reason. 'For the research' he'd said. 'For the big basement space', where he's forbidden the girl to enter.
But this forty minute drive every morning would suck.
Eventually, the two former rangers made it to the high school, and Jaiden couldn't help her frown when she saw the teens greeting their friends happily and filing inside.
She missed her friends.
She missed Hunter.
He was heading back to the Thunder Academy this week with his Sensei and the students. He'd promised to call her once he was settled.
"Ah, jacket please." Tommy commented when they parked.
"I know~" Jaiden half rolled her eyes, grabbing her denim jacket, and she threw it over her shoulders. Tommy sent her an approving nod, and the two got out. Jaiden swung her backpack across her one shoulder, and let out a sigh.
"Oh, c'mon, you'll make friends quick," Tommy encouraged as they walked together.
"You know, technically I'm already a school graduate," she told the man in a smart tone.
"Yeah, a super secret ninja academy. You think these people would accept an ancient scroll as a diploma?" Tommy teased right back, and Jaiden could only shake her head.
"Well, see you around, Dr. Oliver," Tommy half grimaced when his title came out of the girl's mouth. The two were way too close to call one another by their official titles. Well, Jaiden didn't have an official title, but you get it.
"You will, Ms. Oliver." Jaiden made a makeshift barfing noise, and left the man chuckling as she headed inside first.
"Woah, who is that?"
"New girl? She's hot, dude!"
"You think she's a model?"
"Gotta be! Look at her!"
"Who knew the transfer would be this hot?"
"Dibs!"
Jaiden disregarded every single male she walked by, even as they stared obviously at her. Tommy had given her all of her paperwork; her locker information, class schedule, and other formality-esque papers. She managed to find her locker, and thankfully there wasn't a lock or anything on it. She made a mental note to buy one after school.
Oh man, would her friends get a kick out of seeing this. Jaiden, going to high school. Blake and Shane would tease her to no end.
She inwardly smiled at the thought of that.
Jaiden then left the books she wouldn't need for her first few classes in her locker, and then checked her schedule.
Of course, first period had to be with Tommy. She shook her head, and scanned for the room down the hallway. She peeked inside the room, and at seeing the lab tables and all sorts of sciency things around the room, she assumed this was it.
And it was an utter pigsty. The guys were throwing papers around, the girls hopped up on desks chattering. She picked out only two people were normal enough to actually sit in chairs and wait for class to start.
"Woah, that's the new girl?"
"Dude, no wonder she's the talk of the school! Damn!"
"This seat taken?" Jaiden walked up to one of the two normals, as she called them in her head. The blonde girl gave her a polite smile.
"No, go ahead," Jaiden returned the gesture and took that empty seat.
"Hi there, you must be the new transfer, right?" And here we go again.
Jaiden looked to the group of guys huddling around her. Kira couldn't help her eye roll.
"I am." Jaiden nodded curtly.
"I'm Sam, co-captain of the soccer team here. If you need any help getting used to the town, look out for me." The boy then sent her a wink, and Jaiden fought an eye roll.
"Thank you, but I'm good." Jaiden let out, and the entire room went dead silent.
No one turned down Sam Cook. Ever.
"Alright class, settle down!" Right on cue, Tommy came in and managed to get the class under control. Sam and his friends had gone back to their seats though with expressions that made everyone swear they'd been punched in the face. A mix of anger, shame, and pure shock.
"That's Sam Cook for you, all the soccer guys are just like him, especially his other co-captain," Jaiden looked to the blonde beside her, "I'd say be careful, but looks like you can take care of yourself just fine."
"Oh you have no idea," Jaiden half chuckled. "I'm Jaiden." The two girls spoke as Tommy went back and forth with a girl from the front.
"Kira," she smiled to her once more.
"Right now I wanna talk about you guys," Tommy drew in everyone's attention, "and what you should expect from yourselves in this class." He then noticed that there was a single empty stool at the front. "Is, uh, someone missing?" Jaiden looked to it, but once more paid it no mind.
You couldn't really say that Conner Mcknight had changed because of the incident that happened two weeks ago, but it definitely left a mark n his mind. He'd gone to Blue Bay Harbor to go support a friend in the US Action Games. There, he saw some people being attacked by weird monsters, so he and two other teens he didn't know jumped in to try and help. Of course, they were overpowered and no match for the creatures.
Conner was almost done in when she saved him. The most beautiful girl he'd ever laid eyes on. She'd been so strong and fierce, yet elegant when she fought. Conner hasn't been able to get the beauty out of his mind since then.
The rest of the day had been long for Jaiden. Countless people would come up to her and try to bring her in to their little 'cliques' and groups of friends (especially the jocks), but she hid out away from crowded areas like the cafeteria by going outside during the breaks. Eventually, the first day was over and she was looking forward to heading with Tommy to a museum outside of town to search for ancient artifacts. She wasn't a paleontology nerd like Tommy, but she could appreciate rare artifacts when she saw them.
"So, Dr. Oliver, how was your first day?" Jaiden met up with the man as he walked in one hallway when the day ended.
"Oh marvelous, how was yours Ms. Oliver?"
"Okay, we can stop that now. It's weird," Jaiden shook off, making the man chuckle.
"Got some bad news though," he then brought up, making the beauty look over to him. "Principle Randall's left me in charge of detention. We're gonna have to bring some kids along."
"Who even gets detention on the first day of school?" Jaiden let out in a sort of grumble. Tommy nodded in agreement, and then the two turned the corner to where the front office was.
Waiting outside of it were three students; two boys, and the girl Jaiden sat with in science class.
"Kira?" Jaiden questioned.
"You have detention too, Jaiden?" The blonde wondered.
"Not really," the beauty replied. She then glanced over to the boy wearing blue, who gave her a shy half smile, and then to the taller in red. And why was he looking at her like he'd seen a ghost? She furrowed her brows at him, but turned back to Tommy.
Conner couldn't believe his eyes. This was her, no doubt about it! The girl who'd saved him at the Action Games! Why was she here, at his school? This couldn't just be a coincidence. His friends had told them about a crazy hot transfer student, was it really her?
"Well, looks like we'll be spending the afternoon together," Tommy then spoke, "you'll come with Jaiden and I to do some research."
"You and Jaiden?" The boy in blue questioned.
"I'm Jaiden's legal guardian," Tommy responded, and the three dropped their jaws in shock.
"Really? So that makes you Jaiden Oliver?" Kira asked the beauty.
"I guess so," her and Tommy shared a knowing look, leaving it at that.
"Right, well. Let's get going, shall we?" Tommy clapped his hands together with a nod.
"I'm Ethan by the way," the boy in blue smiled to Jaiden as they walked out of the school.
"Pleasure," the beauty nodded politely his way.
"And the guy in red that can't stop staring at you is Conner Mcknight," Ethan then grumbled, making Jaiden chuckle. Conner blinked out of his daze, now looking to Jaiden curiously.
"You don't remember, do you?" He eyed her. Jaiden looked to him carefully, as if examining him.
"Remember what-" and then her eyes widened in realization. Oh shit.
"You're the guy from the Action Games," she realized, thankful that Tommy walked up ahead so he wasn't a part of this conversation.
"Uh, you guys know each other?" Kira looked between the two.
"Not really," the beauty mentioned. "We ran into each other once."
"Yeah, something like that," Conner seemed displeased with that explanation and how she'd brushed the whole situation off, but he let it go.
The four then piled into Tommy's jeep, Jaiden of course sitting up front. The ride out of town was pretty awkward, since the teens weren't friends at all and were practically being forced on this little field trip.
"Woah, look at the t-rex!" Ethan awed once they pulled up to the museum.
"That's weird," Tommy uttered when they walked up to the front, seeing that the museum was locked up and closed.
"Guess we gotta go home," Kira shrugged.
"Tell you what, you guys look around the grounds and if you find anything prehistoric, I'll cancel detention for the rest of the week," Tommy bribed. "Jai, you're on babysitting duty."
"Oh fun," the beauty grumbled.
"I'll see if I can find someone who can tell us when they're open," Jaiden nodded to Tommy, and from there the four turned and headed down walking passed the road.
"So, what got you guys in trouble?" Jaiden decided to make conversation.
"Apparently singing on school grounds is prohibited," Kira scoffed," but it was probably the way I talked back to Principal Randall that got me here." Jaiden chuckled, nodding approvingly to the blonde.
"I hacked into the sprinklers and made 'em go off at lunch," Ethan said with a shrug.
"That was you? Everyone was talking about that," Jaiden laughed, earning a grin from the boy.
"I skipped first period," Conner shrugged as if it was nothing.
"Playing soccer?" Jaiden assumed, seeing as he wore his training gear.
"What gave it away?" He responded cheekily, earning an eye roll from the girl.
"What were you doing at Blue Bay back then?" She had to ask as the four now headed into the woods. "No offense, but you don't look like the action sports type."
"I was going to go watch my friend," Conner said, "instead I got attacked by monsters."
"Monsters?" Ethan cut in.
"More like you got your ass kicked by them," Jaiden mentioned, and that earned a glare from the tall boy.
"Wait, Blue Bay Harbor, as in where the Power Rangers were?" Kira followed, "they're still all over the news. Apparently they saved the world without anyone even knowing it. You lived there?"
"Yeah, for the summer. Never got to see the action up close, though." She shrugged, and it should've scared her how easily it was for her to lie like that. "Except when this one had to be saved."
"Yeah alright, I'll give you that one." Conner complied, "you were incredible, though. Where did you learn how to fight like that?"
"Oh, I trained in martial arts growing up," Jaiden shrugged. "Anyways, let's focus on finding something interesting for Tommy. Not that I don't love spending my afternoons with you all, don't get me wrong." Kira and Ethan chuckled, while Conner still smiled toward the beauty. After walking around for a while, Ethan spoke up.
"Hey, did you guys ever hear about the story of how a guy fell through a sinkhole around here?"
"Uh, no." Kira stated.
"Oh, c'mon, it was all over the urban legend websites," Ethan continued.
"Dude, you know this isn't computer club, right?" Conner mentioned, and Jaiden eyed him. He was a jock, she wasn't expecting him to be the nicest person, but still.
"Oh, I guess you're too big and bad to surf the web," Ethan taunted, and Jaiden smiled approvingly at him. At least he could defend himself. "Well, what do you do in your spare time?"
"Go out with girls," Conner let out like it was the most obvious thing ever. "They're the ones at school that smell really good with the long hair and makeup." And Jaiden scoffed, Kira was already looking to her when the beauty rolled her eyes to her.
"Oh, it's like that, is it?" Ethan turned to face Conner, who mind you, was an entire head taller than the boy in blue.
"Yeah. It's like that." Conner wasn't backing down, and the two boys faced each other.
"Oh, grow up," Jaiden scoffed, as her and Kira walked passed the two. Conner smirked, eyeing the beauty as she did this. He disregarded Ethan, and followed the girls.
"Hey, I'm just warning you! Don't come crying to me when you fall through a giant sinkhole- Woah!"
Jaiden's heart dropped to her stomach as she fell through the ground.
The three landed roughly, while Jaiden managed to land skillfully on one knee. You know, ninja reflexes and all. Jaiden straightened up as the three got to their feet and dusted themselves off. She looked up to the countless feet they had fallen from.
"Alright, you guys stay here where it's safe. I'll climb up and get help," Conner decided, taking the lead and moving toward the rocks.
"Not a good idea, hot shot." Jaiden mentioned, but he just shot her a look and continued with what he was doing. He got about two feet up in the air before he lost his footing and fell right back on his ass.
"Back already," Jaiden had a feeling her and Ethan would get along swimmingly. She sent him a nod of approval at his sarcasm. Then her and Ethan helped Conner back up to his feet.
From there, they decided to just walk through the strange tunnels. Jaiden had debated whether she should Ninja Streak to find help, but she decided against it. They'd figure something out, it wasn't worth her risking her secret. Kira hummed as they walked, and Jaiden did realize that she had a nice voice. Jaiden decided to hum along as well, harmonizing a bit and Kira smiled to her in surprise as they did.
"Babe, can you keep it down? I'm trying to stay focused here," Conner looked to Jaiden as he said this with a frown, and then continued walking.
"Did he just...?" Kira looked to Jaiden in shock. The beauty had her mouth hanging open in disbelief. Oh, Hunter would have a field day with this guy...
"Uh oh," Ethan commented from behind the two.
"Hey." Jaiden then stalked up to Conner, who of course towered over her, and shoved him toward the wall rather harshly. "Don't forget that this babe can kick your ass." She shone him a sarcastic smile before pushing passed him with a scoff. "I should've just let the Kelzacks destroy him." She grumbled under her breath. And for a second at the beginning there she thought he was cool.
So much for that.
"Dude, you deserved that," Ethan chuckled, walking passed a still shocked Conner. Kira simply sent him a glare before continuing on.
Reaching the end of the pathway, Jaiden saw a dinosaur skeleton etched onto the wall.
"What is this?" Ethan awed at the bones.
"This'll get us out of detention forever," Conner said as the four now stood before the skeleton, completely unfazed by the little altercation him and the beauty had had just moments ago. Conner then reached over and grabbed its jaw.
"Do you think you should be-"
When he lowered the jaw, the wall next to it began to shake. And then Jaiden saw as it opened up, like a whole secret door to a secret lair.
"Woah!" Ethan marveled as the four stepped into the room.
It looked a lot like a research facility. And she'll say, this screamed Tommy.
Should she have expected this? Probably. Is she still just as shocked as the others? Yep.
"Yo, don't touch that!" Jaiden turned to see Conner hovering around a strange meteor kind of rock, where four gems were resting atop it.
"Why not?" Conner asked Ethan.
"You really are taking this 'dumb jock' thing to a whole new level." Ethan shook his head. Jaiden and Kira then went to stand next to the boys, and the beauty couldn't help but eye a certain rock curiously.
"Look, I've sat in enough dumb science classes to know that this thing looks fully prehistoric," Conner argued, and to prove his point, he snatched the red gem into his hands.
"Oh, now you've done it," Kira shook her head disapprovingly.
"We should go," Jaiden told the three, "we aren't supposed to be here."
"Well, that's a given," Conner argued, throwing the gem up and down in his palm. "I can't miss another practice."
"I hate to agree with him, I do, but I already missed one rehearsal," Kira added, looking to both Ethan and Jaiden with an apologetic smile. She took the yellow gem, and Ethan then grabbed the blue one.
"C'mon Jai, think about it, you could sell it, you'll be rich," Conner added with a grin.
"I don't need the money, and don't call me Jai." She sent him another sarcastic smile, and looked back to the last gem that was on the larger rock.
It was calling to her, and she'd had enough experiences with weird alien gems and things to know that this couldn't be good.
With a sigh, she grabbed the last gem. She'd give it back to Tommy later anyways.
"Woah." Jaiden blinked as all the gems began to glow the second she'd picked hers up.
A bright red, a blue, a yellow, and a crimson.
And no second later did the glowing stop.
"What are they?" Kira asked.
"I'll go online later and look it up," Ethan told her.
"You in front of a computer, why am I not surprised?" Conner rolled his eyes at the shorter boy.
"You know, ten years from now when your hairline's receding and you're playing pickup soccer at the park because your dreams of going pro never worked out," Ethan took a breath, "I'll own my very own multi-billion dollar software business. Yeah." And he smiled to himself confidently. Kira then turned to head out.
"Where are you going?" Conner asked the blonde.
"I don't wanna know what kind of freak lives down here," she told the boy, and him and Ethan actually looked to one another in agreement.
"Jaiden, let's go." Ethan urged, seeing as the beauty was still looking out to the research facility.
"Yeah," she breathed out, and snapped out of it, following the three. These gems were different, Jaiden knew this. She'd have to stick close to the three and make sure they didn't fall into the wrong hands.
Oh god, what had she gotten herself into?
Suddenly Hunter's voice echoed in her mind. Don't be reckless.
Yeah well, that's practically impossible for her, isn't it?
Somehow the four had found a small cave-like entrance on their way out, and managed to reach the surface.
"Compass. A compass, does anyone have one?" Ethan looked back to the three.
"Ah, I forgot to pack mine," Conner replied, his tone oozing sarcasm, and it earned him an annoyed eye roll from the beauty. Kira let out a scoff, and the two girls shared a smile at their same reaction.
Just then, Jaiden's hair was blown back by an ominous wind, and the four teens looked to one another with furrowed brows.
Until they heard growls, and literally from the sky appeared these monster-like creatures.
And why did they remind Jaiden of Kelzacks?
"Woah, what are those?" Kira asked hurriedly, failing at hiding her fear.
Jaiden then glanced at the gem she held, and it shone once more.
The gem, the monsters, Tommy's research...
Oh, you've got to be kidding.
Again? Really?!
These were Jaiden's thoughts as the dozen monsters charged at the four. She wasn't afraid, wasn't shaken up. She was annoyed, and ticked off.
Unlike Conner, Ethan, and Kira, Jaiden was holding her own against six of these creatures. The others struggled against two each.
Jaiden threw a back kick at one that was behind her while simultaneously throwing a palm thrust at the chest of one that was in front of her. She then flipped sideways and on her way down struck another and sent it to the ground. She spun, hitting the fourth with a sharp kick to its face and it flew from her enhanced physical abilities.
Enhanced abilities. That only confirmed her assumption.
And not just that, but when she went after the last one, she had extended her palm out at it as a ready stance, when from that palm came a weird force that sent the monster flying. If Dustin was there, he'd joke and say that it was the Force. The monster had literally been sent flying by an invisible gravity-like power coming from Jaiden's palm.
It was then that the beauty saw the others' fights. At one point, Conner had practically disappeared and appeared behind the monsters, almost similar to Jaiden's Ninja Streak. Ethan had blocked the monsters' weird blade-like arms with his forearms, and they glowed a dim blue, showing tough scales.
And how could she miss Kira's screech? She sent the two monsters flying with just that.
Once the creatures had vanished, the four rushed to one another and regrouped.
"Woah, how much do I love detention," Ethan panted, half grinning from excitement and adrenaline. They all held their gems in their hands, but now they weren't glowing.
"Hey!" Jaiden whipped her head around to find Tommy running up to them. They all hid away their gems, Jaiden didn't really want to have this conversation right now. "Are you guys alright?"
"Yeah, couldn't be better," Ethan shrugged, and Jaiden just smiled to the man.
"Nothing out of the ordinary happened?" Tommy wondered.
"Nah," Ethan shook his head, "just your routine hike in the woods, saw some furry little creatures."
"And a few scaley ones," Kira mumbled under her breath.
"So! Did you get into the Dino exhibit?" Conner changed the subject, and Tommy shook his head.
"No, they're still working the kinks out," he replied, "we better get you guys back, c'mon." The teens nodded, and followed Tommy. Conner then couldn't help but eye the beauty as they walked.
Her gaze was distant, and her hand was in her jean back pocket, no doubt fiddling with the gem that was hidden there.
He'd seen her fight the creatures, and how she'd taken on six at a time without a problem made him wonder...
"Don't you guys think we should tell him?" Kira whispered to the three as they walked.
"I don't know about you, but I've got about a thousand sci fi dvd's about how the dude with superpowers ends up in a freaky government lab facility," Ethan mentioned.
"Even I know about all that," Conner added.
"Tommy's not like that," Jaiden quickly defended, sending the boys warning looks. "You actually have no idea."
"You guys coming?" Tommy turned back to look at the teens. Conner was the first to quicken his step, and then the others followed.
The ride back was just as silent as the way there.
"I'm gonna hang back for a second, I'll meet you at home," Jaiden told Tommy as she saw Conner, Ethan, and Kira talking lowly in front of the school.
"You sure? You don't exactly have a car," Tommy mentioned.
"I'm a Ninja, Tommy. I'll probably get there before you anyways," Jaiden sent a smirk at the man, and got out of his Jeep before he could ask any questions.
"I'll make it easy," Jaiden walked up to the three when Kira handed her gem over to Conner. The blonde gave an apologetic smile to Jaiden before she walked away.
"She's out." Ethan told Jaiden.
"You guys have no idea what you're dealing with, we should go talk to Tommy," Jaiden then stood facing the two boys.
"Oh, and you do?" Conner retorted, raising a brow to the beauty. She let out a scoff.
Oh, if only he knew.
"Uh, guys?!" Ethan snapped Conner and Jaiden out of their stare down as he pointed behind Jaiden. The girl turned, and gasped.
Kira was being grabbed by the same creatures as they'd encountered in the woods, and no second later disappeared with them into the sky.
"What do we do!?" Conner exclaimed, looking around to see if someone else saw any of that. But it was getting late, no one was at school anymore.
Jaiden clicked her tongue, "we have to go see Tommy. Any of you have a car?" She could just Ninja Streak, but she couldn't just leave these two, especially since they had three gems with them.
"Yeah, c'mon!" Conner took off in a sprint, and her and Ethan followed.
Jaiden slid into the passenger's seat with Ethan in the back, and she'd barely closed the door before Conner sped off.
"Why Dr. O?" Conner had to ask.
"Because he knows about this stuff," Jaiden brushed it off, her eyes telling her not to worry about it.
"Fine, where do you live?" He then asked.
"Verona Drive, up in the forest," the boy looked to her with furrowed brows.
"In the middle of nowhere, really?" He huffed, but revved his engine nonetheless.
Jaiden sighed as they drove. Conner was speeding like a mother, so the forty minute ride was cut by a third of the time.
She'd been here for a day, and already everything's gone to hell.
Is her luck really this bad? Like c'mon, give her a break!
Pulling into the small cottage house, Jaiden noticed that they'd beat Tommy.
"I'm never getting in a car with you again," Ethan huffed as he stumbled out of Conner's car.
"Oh, don't be a wuss," Conner rolled his eyes. The boys followed Jaiden to the door, and she stepped inside with them close behind.
"He's not back yet," Jaiden told them, putting her bag down on the kitchen counter.
"What's down there?" Conner motioned to the stairs leading downstairs into what would be the basement.
"Don't know, Tommy doesn't let me go down there," Jaiden shrugged.
"And you're not even a little curious?" He pressed.
"And you're such a good guest, by all means, wonder around my house," Ethan looked between Jaiden and Conner when they glared at one another.
"I just think that he's hiding something,"
Well duh.
"Okay! How about we just take a breath, and all calm down," Ethan tried, "we should focus on finding Kira."
Right, Kira. She's in trouble.
So Jaiden sighed. If there was something in Tommy's research that could help somehow, then she's got to give it a shot.
"Stay here," she told the boys, moving passed Conner as she headed down the stairs that were at the end of the kitchen. As she went down, she couldn't help but think that the stairs were extremely steep, and it went fairly deep. Deeper than a regular basement.
And well, what she found when she reached the bottom didn't really surprise her.
"Well, fuck..." she let out, seeing the exact same room that her and the others had fallen into. So this was the research that related to the Morphing Grid?
It had to be the gems.
"Oh, wow you've got to be kidding me," Jaiden whipped around to find both Conner and Ethan at the bottom of the stairs.
"Dr. O is a mad scientist," Ethan let out.
"No, he's not. And I told you guys to stay upstairs!" She scolded, but neither of them were paying her attention as the walked around the research area.
"You do realize you've been living under an alien workshop, right?" Conner rose a brow at the beauty, and she shot him a warning glare.
"Look, Tommy and I will find Kira. You two need to leave," Jaiden decided, facing the two boys. "Leave the gems."
"Uh, and who are you to say that?" Jaiden was just about ready to punch Conner square in the jaw.
"Because she's right." The three turned to see Tommy at the second entrance of the facility, the one they had stumbled upon earlier. "You don't know what you're dealing with."
"Why do you two keep saying that?" Conner had just about had it, "what is all this? And where's Kira?" Tommy furrowed his brows, looking to Jaiden for answers.
"She was taken by monsters," Jaiden told him.
"Same ones that attacked us back in the forest," Ethan added, and Conner looked to the boy in blue with a 'what the hell' expression. "What? He's our best bet at finding Kira." Tommy then turned his back on the three.
"They're called Tyrannodrones," he said, to Jaiden's surprise.
"And you know that because..." Ethan urged curiously.
"I helped create them." The man sighed.
"Oh, class project?" Jaiden rose a brow at Ethan's sarcasm.
"It's a long story. For now we gotta figure out what they want with Kira."
"We may have a guess," Jaiden looked to the boys, and they gave her knowing looks. The three pulled out their gems, and each glowed their distinct color in their palms.
Tommy's eyes widened in a mixture of dread, shock, and horror.
Conner handed Tommy the yellow gem, and Tommy sort of paced around, debating what to do next. Jaiden didn't say anything, she was still in shock at how he really hadn't told her about any of this.
"We're really sorry," Conner said, "how were we supposed to know these things had, like, superpowers and those lizard dudes were gonna come looking for 'em?"
"I guess this may seem a bit strange," Tommy acknowledged.
"Yeah, like our high school science teacher living under ancient dinosaur ruins?" Ethan was still marveling at the facility.
"Seriously, dude, you've got to come clean," Tommy walked up to Conner almost warningly.
"First of all, don't call me dude," he said, "second of all, as hard as this may seem, you're gonna have to forget all about this. I'll find Kira." Tommy then turned and was walking to the monitors when Conner vanished, his speed superhuman as he appeared in front of Tommy, blocking his way.
"The gem's powers are already starting to bond with you," he breathed out in realization. He then glanced over to Jaiden. "You too?"
"Yeah well, guess one time wasn't enough," Conner and Ethan gave her confused looks, but she disregarded them. Tommy gave Jaiden a sympathetic look, knowing what she'd meant.
"How about you tell us all about it now?" Conner continued to press.
"I'll explain on the way, for now, let's go back to where Kira was taken. We'll go from there." Tommy concluded, and gave the teens no choice as he was heading upstairs without another word.
"You really didn't know anything about this?" Ethan looked to Jaiden before the three followed.
"No, I just moved here a week ago. He didn't tell me a thing," neither of the boys made a snarky comment, seeing in her expression that she was actually frustrated by this.
From there they headed upstairs and into Tommy's car where he waited.
"When were you going to tell me?" Jaiden had to ask the man as they drove. The boys listened intently, curious.
"When you got home, actually. I was gonna show you everything I'd been working on this summer while you were away," Tommy said sincerely, "who knew you'd get to it before me?"
"Were you going to give me one of these gems?" She asked vaguely, but Tommy understood the underlying question. These gems were tapped into the Morphing Grid somehow. Had he created them in order to produce more Power Rangers? Was he going to make her one again?
"Of course not, I only wanted to study them, and keep them out of the wrong hands,"
"Now they're in the hands of teenagers," Ethan cut in sarcastically. "So, when you said you helped create those tyranno-whatevers, you were just kidding, right?"
"They weren't supposed to be used like this," Tommy sighed," someone modified their programming. A few years back I was doing research on combining dinosaur DNA and technology." Jaiden knew about this, how he'd been working with his friend from college to create new tech. He never went into detail about it, though, it was before he'd met her. "My partner, a scientist named Anton Mercer-"
"The rich guy who disappeared years ago?" Ethan wondered.
"Yeah, shortly after Mercer disappeared, our lab was attacked," Tommy nodded. He explained how the research had been destroyed, or so he'd thought.
"And the guy who did that is back?" Conner asked.
"He calls himself Mesogog."
Jaiden's heart dropped.
Her mind flashed back to the incident at the Ice Academy with Cam just a week ago. Dakrian had clearly said 'send Mesogog'.
This was that monster's doing? But it was too much of a coincidence that it involved Tommy.
Unless Dakrian's been planning this since all those years ago...
No, it couldn't be.
Jaiden chewed on her lip as Tommy explained who Mesogog was and that he may be after the gems.
"Look, this is all fascinating and all, but how is this helping us find Kira?" Ethan then asked the golden question. "I mean, she's not just gonna fall out of the sky and land right in front of us."
And well. Boom.
There goes Kira, falling out of the sky and landing on the hood of the car.
Just like that.
Everyone jumped out, and Ethan and Conner helped her down from the hood.
"Are you okay?" Jaiden asked quickly.
"Think so, yeah." Kira gave the girl a nod.
"How did you do that?" Ethan awed with a grin.
"I have no idea." She sighed, "one minute I'm being chased by franked-lizard, the next I'm a hood ornament."
"Invisi-portals," Tommy concluded.
"Whatever," Kira shook her head, "what're you guys doing here?"
"We came to rescue you," Ethan mentioned.
"Nice job, A plus work." Kira's tone dripped sarcasm.
"Guys, trouble." Jaiden was the one who spotted the group of Tyrannodrones appear ahead of them, along with a monster that looked to be stronger than the creatures.
"Great," Conner huffed, and the four then stood beside one another. Tommy stood ready a bit ahead of them.
"Mesogog find a new goon to do his dirty work?" Tommy taunted, and Jaiden almost let out a scoff.
"You are not fit to speak my master's name," the monster spat, "come with me quietly or you will suffer the consequences."
"Yeah, how about, no." Jaiden stated confidently, and Conner couldn't help but look to her. She looked way too at ease in this situation. As if she were used to it.
The monster let out a growl, and no second later did they all charge.
Jaiden immediately watched as the monster faced off with Tommy, so she turned to the Tyrannodrones. A couple had broken off to take on the other three teens, but most stayed on Jaiden.
Fine by her, they were just as weak as kelzacks.
"Ha!" She took a fighting stance, and charged. Dodging one of their swings, she bent backward and flipped, kicking it back. When she landed, she spun low and swept at two of their legs, bringing them to the ground.
She almost rolled her eyes, she really could've just frozen all of them, but she couldn't expose her identity. Bummer.
So she tried out her new ability.
"How about this?" She extended her palm out, and felt a strange tingling sensation in her hand. That was when a maroon colored aura shot out from it, barely visible, and threw three of the creatures off of their feet and meters away.
Yeah, she could get used to this.
She did the same with her other palm, sending two more flying. It really was like the Force!
With the last two that faced her, Jaiden spun around and threw a high jump kick at one's head, and a side kick when she landed at the second's chest.
Once she'd finished off her bunch, she saw the monster Tommy was facing retreat, and the three teens had just finished off their own batch of monsters. The five then regrouped with each other, facing the last monster.
"Make sure you tell Mesogog, Dr. Oliver is back." Tommy declared.
"This battle may be over," the monster growled, "but the war is just beginning."
And then it disappeared into the sky.
Tommy then began walking to the car.
"Let's get out of here, you should get home, I don't want your parents to worry."
"Bet you don't," Conner shot, "you might have to explain something."
"I'll fill you in tomorrow after school, I promise." He complied, and left it at that.
Tommy drove back to his house, where Kira and Ethan jumped into Conner's car (Ethan with much protest, but who else was gonna drop him off?).
"Try and get something out of him tonight, will you?" Conner told Jaiden aside, and she sent him a glare.
"If I do, why would I tell you?" She retorted, only making Conner roll his eyes and scoff. He backed off, and without saying another word, the three had gone.
Tommy was waiting in the kitchen for Jaiden to bombard him with questions.
"This Mesogog," and well, she did, "he's like Lothor, right? Another form of evil that wants to destroy the world?"
"Basically." Tommy rubbed his temple, tired of the long day. He slouched sitting on the kitchen stool, looking at the girl that stood in front of him.
"And he wants these gems that you found a few years ago," Tommy nodded. "And he appears now, why?"
"I'm not sure. Something must've come up on his radar," that something was a dark haired mastermind that wanted Jaiden's power. This confirmed it. Dakrian had sent Mesogog, not because he wants to destroy the world with the gems, but because he wants Jaiden to fight this monster to increase whatever power she has.
This was all because of her...
"Alright," she was exhausted, and she turned to head upstairs.
"That's it?" Tommy had to wonder.
"I'm going to bed, we can talk about this tomorrow," she waved off, not looking to him once as she trudged up the stairs.
After a nice five minute shower, Jaiden laid in bed staring at the ceiling. Her body screamed for sleep, but her mind was wide awake.
She held up the gem, and she eyed it. Maroon, huh?
How ironic.
Why couldn't it be white? Maroon sure as hell wasn't her color.
It made her think of Hunter. She wondered if he was doing alright. She missed him. She missed all of them. Her friends...
Was she really going to have to fight again?
Not that she didn't love being a Power Ranger and helping people, but...
This is all too much.