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iii | secrets & suspicions

"Are you sure?"

Max's concern caused Nikki to flash a certain look at him as she nodded. "We have to be able to blend in, Max. The only way to do that right now is to use our powers."

"Nikki," Cameron broke in, her expression reflecting Max's, though maybe even with a little bit of challenge, "isn't this an abuse of our powers? Creating money out of thin air?"

Nikki switched her gaze from Max to Cam, and the hidden challenge in the Yellow Ranger's gaze, and even words, did not escape her. Nikki may have understood why Cam and Rina didn't fully like her still, but that didn't mean she would accept their challenges.

After leaving Nick and the other group at the edge of the woods, Nikki had made sure to keep up pretenses until they turned a corner or two and confirmed that they weren't being followed by doubling back alone, then she had quickly found a dark, narrow alleyway squeezed between two run-down buildings that hid her and the team. She knew that they already stuck out, especially to the wrong people, and they needed to start blending in before they attracted other, potentially hostile, eyes. That, unfortunately, included creating money out of thin air, but without it, they had no way to get to food or other resources they needed to have while stuck on this new planet, in a universe that was quite possibly completely different from theirs.

"No." Nikki almost bit off the word, meeting Cam's questioning stare firmly. The Yellow Ranger held the stare evenly, but it almost seemed to waver after a minute. "This constitutes as an emergency, and we're allowed to use our powers in whatever way we have to in an emergency."

Silence reigned over her teammates, as they simply stared at her, wanting to question her more but afraid that she would get angry if they did so.

They had learned a long time ago, pretty quickly, that only a fool would deliberately get on her bad side.

Nikki sighed softly, her gaze once more swiftly searching their dirty, dark surroundings, before she continued. "If I had any choice, I wouldn't be asking all of you to do this. You know very well that this goes against my nature, too, but what good will this magical person or thing do if we're all too weak from starvation and cold to get it, or them, back to Hetar?"

Victor and Rina nodded, acknowledging her point, but Max and Cam still gave her hard stares.

"Alright. Before we do anything else, we need to search the town." She continued, her eyes flitting over the other four Rangers. "We should split up, and explore, just to get an idea of where we are and see if we can discover what we might be up against."

Rina frowned in confusion. "Up against?" Her green eyes locked onto Nikki's.

Nikki nodded. "That group we met? I don't like them." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Max's expression go from confusion as well to understanding in a flash. He knew exactly what she meant. "They seemed... Off, to me."

"But they seemed perfectly normal," Victor replied, his dark brown eyes narrowing in confusion.

"Nick was — is — suspicious of us." She said flatly. "He wasn't fooled for a second by our lies. And he'll be watching our every move," she added. "Don't ask me how I know, I could just tell from his actions. I also don't think he or that group are just simply 'locals'."

"Who do you think they are?" Max asked slowly, and she could almost see his brain at work as he tried to figure out the answer to his own question.

"I don't know, but I intend to find out. Especially if they interfere with our mission," she added grimly, her expression darkening. There was silence as she let that statement hang over her team for a minute, each of them becoming lost in their own thoughts as they worked out the meaning of her words, before she spoke again. "We should split up. All in favor?"