Dynamic Power Rangers

Chapter 3: Mysterious Power

"So let me get this straight; the thing with the plane, that was you using ninja skills?" Sinclair Monning asked the man across the table from him. He, Taylor Hicks, Enrique Ramon, and Tempest Strong had left Sky Base earlier to get some lunch in Starkweather Valley. They sat at a round picnic table in Valley Park, near the Game Preserve that edged one part of the city.

Taylor Hicks nodded but waited until he swallowed his bite of hamburger before speaking. "I basically generated a funnel of wind that actually moved us in the direction I needed to go. I had no navigation whatsoever. The only thing keeping us in the air was me," he explained.

"I'm not sure I wanted to hear that," Tempest said, and sat down her fork. She had a rather green tinge to her skin. Her scrummy chicken salad just became less scrummy.

Ram was watching him with narrowed eyes. Sin was surprised. In the short amount of time he'd known Enrique 'Ramrod' Ramon, he'd never seen him with such a serious expression.

"What?" Taylor asked.

Ram shook his head. "You do it on purpose don't you. Despite your skills, you stayed upper-middle range of our class unless you weren't being tested," he said.

Ram and Taylor had been in the Air Force flight school together.

"If you're too good at something, people ask questions. How would a scruffy, wet-behind-the-ears nineteen-year-old know how to pilot an A-10 when supposedly he'd never even been -on- an airplane before?" he asked pointedly.

"Good point," Sin said.

Taylor shrugged. "It's a fine line to walk between doing something you shouldn't know how to do too well and being completely inept at it. I always I wanted to learn to fly a plane. Instead I got a flying Zord. My career path seemed inevitable," he said.

"So why'd you get out?" Sin asked.

Taylor shook his head. "Idealistic differences," he said simply.

Sin understood that sentiment. He and Gore were dishonorably discharged from the Army for just that reason.

"What about this Ninja training? How did you get into that?" Sin asked. "How does anyone if it's this secret?"

"Well, usually previous students recommend new students as they go out into the world. In my case, I had an in with the family. That's a story for another time," Tay said and jumped to his feet.

Sin whipped around, hearing the same crunching, crashing sound as Taylor from the forests behind them. Ram's arm was still in a sling because of burns he'd recieved in a lab accident but he and Tempest scrambled to their feet when Sin and Tay did.

The vision that made Sin's skills as a sniper legendary caught the movement of something large running away from them. He took off after it. Taylor and Tempest were right behind him.

"I'll just stay here and guard the food!" Ram called after them. He frowned at his arm and the fact that the Morpher he was meant to have blew up on him. He'd give anything to be with them now. His hand dropped to his sidearm, strapped to his thigh, just in case there was acually trouble.

Commander Kragar turned when he heard them coming up behind him. "Ah, Power Rangers," he said.

"Who are you and what do you want here?" Taylor demanded.

"I suppose it won't hurt to warn you. We are the Warstars. I'm Commander Kragar. My most esteemed Captain Drage will be conquering your world and I'll be having this planet for dinner," he said and rubbed his pincers together.

"We'll give you indegestion and gas," Tay said.

"It'll be worth it. I already had a taste. The petroleum based combustion fuel is most deliscious. Jet-fuel I beleive it's called," he said thoughtfully. As a being that could produce his own meteors, he did enjoy fuel sources.