AN: This is going to be an incredible task to try and finish, but here is the first chapter of one of my all time favorite ideas that I finally got the courage to write. I can't promise I will update this often, but I hope you'll follow it and enjoy it!
Before We Met
Cam awoke easily, a good five minutes before the alarm went off. He starred at the ceiling absently, then finally he sat up and rolled out of bed, a usual routine. The alarm was really just for security; Cam had his own inner alarm. He turned it off and sat there, starring at the wall.
No dreams. Not even one.
He didn't know why he had expected that having the amulet would suddenly change things. He thought that maybe after having such a strange experience with his mother that maybe… just maybe he would start dreaming. A nightmare at least. Anything.
But it had been 2 weeks since he'd gotten the amulet, and nothing had changed. He had never dreamed before, not even when he was young, and there was no reason for him to start dreaming now.
He stood and walked to his closet, flipping on the lights to his room on the way. He pulled out his training uniform and laid it on the bed, pulling out a pair of pants and a shirt along with it. He dressed in the cloths and then slid his training uniform over them. Then came his glasses, and finally he combed through his hair.
He stood and looked in the mirror. The amulet hung heavily around his neck; a symbol of something he didn't quite understand, and probably never would. He hadn't been able to decide yet if being a ranger was really all it was cracked up to be. He wasn't sure he liked some of the changes in himself because of the amulet, and there were things he had expected that hadn't quite turned out right.
He had become more and more active, finding it hard to sit at his desk all day as before. Training had been easier, and his ninja skills had become sharpened and fine tuned. He hadn't expected his body to get in that good of shape that quickly, but it had, and he hadn't felt a thing. With the power coursing through his veins there seemed to be a green tint to everything these days.
Of course, his father had warned him that being a ranger was never what one expected it to be. He had been right. Of course. Like always.
Cam sighed once more and prepared himself to meet with his teammates in only a few moments. Sliding on his shoes, he left his room, and locked the door behind him.
Ninja ops was mostly quiet, save for a rustling he heard from the kitchen. He walked through to the small kitchenette and bumped into a crimson training outfit and cursed.
"Woo, sorry Cam. You shouldn't sneak up on people." Hunter told him as he balanced a bowl of cereal in one hand and the entire jug of milk in the other. His ever obnoxious grin was present even at the early hour.
"I wasn't sneaking. Don't you two eat breakfast at your own house?" Cam asked, annoyed as Hunter sidestepped him back into the training area, and Blake followed him out of the kitchen.
"Dude, with what we make at Storm Chargers, we're lucky we have a place to sleep. We can't afford groceries!" Blake chimed in, joining his brother at the table. Cam rolled his eyes, going into the kitchen to grab an orange, or something.
When he came back out the Bradley brothers were already on their third bowl of cereal. While Cam used to 'rag' on them for that, he understood now what being a ranger did to you. It increased your metabolism ten-fold. You're stamina was doubled too. And if the wind and thunder ninja's had thought Cam a terror to behold before he became a ranger, they hadn't seen anything yet.
He leaned against the consol and pealed his orange with all his concentration, for lack of something better to think about.
As the three students ate in silence (except for the occasional sniggering of the Bradley brothers) his father emerged from his habitat cart. Sometimes, Cam still expected him to walk out of his regular room down the hall as a normal human being, instead of a furry little creature.
"Good morning, Blake, Hunter. Good morning, Cameron." Sensei bowed respectfully to each of his students.
"Morning Sensei," the Bradley brothers said in unison.
"Good morning, father. Sleep well?" Cam asked, going over to pour his father some guinea pig food.
"Very well indeed, thank you my son." His father began to nibble on the food, and Cam went back to his orange.
"So Sensei, what have we got planned for today?" Blake wanted to know. "Simulated fight training in the deserts? Treasure hunts in the Amazon? Maybe just some regular sparing, for a change?" Blake's tone told everyone how tired he was of the preprogrammed scenarios, and Cam couldn't deny that was the general consensus of the rangers. He seemed to be finished with his cereal, but Hunter was pouring a fourth bowl.
"Indeed, Blake, today we will focus on combining our elements to achieve a common goal, as is often needed in battle." His father grabbed another bite of food, and then hopped down to the table Hunter was still eating at. "However, if you would still be up for it after, I'm sure I could put sparing into today's training." His father didn't see Blake's look of anguish, which was probably for the best.
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Cam wondered aloud, eyeing the Bradley's. "The elemental combination, I mean, not the sparing. Isn't that a 4th year thing?" Thunder was not something Cameron Watanabe preferred to mess with. Let the Bradley's injure themselves on their own time.
"Perhaps it is considered an advanced tactic by some older, more arrogant ninjas," his father gave him a pointed look, which was a strange thing for a guinea pig. "However I feel that the rangers have accomplished a sufficient amount of training to be ready for such a test. The time may soon come when you all may be tested, and this skill might come in handy before then, if you are willing enough to learn it." Sometimes Cam thought his father looked more noble and threatening as a guinea pig than he ever had as a human.
Cam sighed and bit into his orange, glancing warily at the Thunder rangers. Taming thunder was not something he was looking forward to.
Cam sputtered as another splash of water hit him in the face. He sighed and reached up to wipe the water from his eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Tori called to him from a little ways away. Compared to this, fighting off Shane's air attack and Dustin's dirt had been easy. At least theirs didn't leave him soaking wet.
"It's all right, let's just try it again." He told Tori as patiently as he could. She shot him one of her smiles and returned to her position.
Cam hoisted his bokken up as Tori began to pull the water around her into a sphere in her hands. He focused his energy on it before she'd even began to move it towards him. It came at him in one solid wave, and he slid his bokken through it and divided it around him. He forced his mind to control the space around him, and the water surrounded him. He made his mind focus on lifting them, and this time Tori was ready for it, so she didn't protest, but her stream of water that surrounded them wavered a bit without the ground beneath her.
After what seemed like an incredibly long second he felt the water stop as Tori held it in place, and Cam focused his bokken up towards the sky. Cam's green energy surrounded by Tori's stream of water shot upwards, and Cam smiled as he lowered them back down to the ground.
"Alright Cam!" Tori said as she clasped his hand in hers. "That wasn't hard at all."
"Sure. No big deal." Cam rolled his eyes. Tori smiled back at him.
"Well done, Tori, Cameron. You have demonstrated an understanding of each other's elements not yet established by any of the other trials." Sensei nodded to them as the others converged around them.
Tori shot him a sideways glance. "Thank you sensei." She told the guinea pig. Cam nodded respectively to his father, but said nothing.
"I believe we should switch partners now, and try again with new elements." Sensei turned and surveyed the students for a moment. "Tori, you will work with Shane. Blake and Dustin, please take the second area. And that leaves-"
"Hunter." Cam cut his father off. "Great."
Hunter shot him a glare. "Don't sound so excited." He turned his back and headed towards the area where he had been working with Dustin a moment before. Cam rolled his eyes, but followed reluctantly.
Hunter placed himself a short distance away from Cam, closer than Tori had. Cam took a step back, and Hunter stepped forward. They repeated this three times before Cam frowned.
"I don't like being this close." He told Hunter evenly. Hunter shrugged.
"Too bad. Thunder and lightning are fast elements. You gotta think fast and act faster." Hunter positioned himself to begin, and Cam tried not to glare at him.
Cam placed his Bokken over his head, waiting for Hunter to begin. He waited. And waited. Hunter's eyes were closed and his arms crossed, hands positioned on either side of his face. He wasn't moving. Cam waited another few moments, and then let his stance down.
He opened his mouth to tell Hunter to hurry up, but he never got the words out. Hunters hand shot up and lightning shot right at Cam. He raised his Bokken out of instinct and struggled to deflect Hunter's energy. Hunter's lightning split and surrounded him just as Tori's water had moments before. Cam's ears roared, and he realized belatedly that was part of Hunter's element as well; the Thunder. He wondered if the others had experienced it this way. He didn't have time to think about it though, because he felt his footing slip. He pushed forward with his mind, trying to contain the force around him.
It wasn't easy. If he made any progress in one place, he lost his hold somewhere else. It became increasingly difficult to stay focused as time went on, and he wanted to tell Hunter to lighten up. This was different than practicing with the others; if he and Tori screwed up he got wet. If he and Hunter screwed up he got electrocuted.
Hunter's lighting swarmed around him, and Cam felt lost in the chaos. Desperate to get out of the situation, he pushed forward hard. He was met with a blinding light in his eyes, and suddenly he found himself lifted, falling backwards. He could do nothing be brace himself for a fall that didn't come. Time stood still for what felt like forever as Cam tried to clear his vision, but all around him was that same blinding light. For the briefest of moments Cam thought he might have died, but all thoughts stopped when he saw them.
Those eyes… He knew those eyes. Deep dark pools of sadness stared back at him in the light, and he could see nothing but those eyes. A rush of calm swept over him and he found himself the most peaceful he had ever been.
But then the feeling was gone, and he crashed to the ground, unable to breathe. He heard hurried footsteps around him, coming closer, but as he lie on the ground he could do nothing but star blankly at the sky above him.
"Cam!" He heard a voice shout. He heard more shouts, but they weren't his name. Someone helped him sit up, but he still couldn't make sense of anything…
Until he saw him. As quickly as it had come, the peaceful feeling vanished only to be replaced by unfathomable burning rage.
"You!" Cam called to Hunter as he stood up. "What did you do?!" He yelled, almost jogging towards the other boy. Hunter had stood, and instead of slowing just before he met the other boy, he used his momentum to knock the other boy backwards.
Hands held him back, and he registered other people were around him again. The rangers. Blake was quick to defend his brother, but Cam couldn't even hear what he was saying. His ears were ringing.
"Me?!" Hunter's voice was perfectly clear in his ears as he answered incredulously. "I didn't do anything!"
"You must have done something!" Cam snapped back at him. Hunter glowered at him from where he was, and Cam felt the rage inside him about to take over.
He was one second away from pushing the Navy Thunder ranger aside and tearing the Crimson Thunder to pieces when a commanding voice he had known all his life demanded his attention.
"That is enough!" Sensei joined the group, almost yelling to be heard over all the voices. Cam barely managed to tear his gaze away from Hunter long enough to look at his father. "That is quite enough." He repeated. "Training is over for today." And with that he turned away, leaving the rangers gaping at him without an explanation.
"But sensei-" Tori tried from Cam's side, her arm still firmly in place on his shoulder.
"That is all." Sensei interrupted her without turning around.
That was when he noticed it. As he glanced back at the Crimson Ranger, Cam noticed something incredibly odd. Hunter was glowing. Just glowing. It seemed perfectly natural, accept that Cam had never noticed him glowing before. Cam shut his eyes and shook his head, and when he opened them again, the white light that had surrounded Hunter was gone.
None of the rangers had spoken, waiting to make sure that sensei was out of earshot.
"What happened?" Shane asked, glancing back and forth between Hunter and Cam. The voices around him no longer sounded muffled and his vision was fine. Hunter wasn't glowing, so he took that as a good sign.
"Ask him." Hunter said, nodding towards Cam.
Cam realized suddenly that the burning fire in his stomach hadn't subsided, had only been interrupted for a moment, and he was once again struck with the urge to punch Hunter as hard as he possibly could. From the way Hunter was looking at him, it appeared the feeling was mutual.
"Okay," Tori said as calming as she could. "Let's just take a minute and cool off."
"I'm fine." He said it at the same time Hunter did, and he almost winced. Tori glanced warily between them.
"Come on, bro." Blake was saying to Hunter. "Let's just go man." Blake attempted to turn his brother away, but Hunter didn't move.
It took every ounce of restraint Cam had not to tear into Hunter right there. He felt like a bull seeing red. Finally, Hunter let his brother drag him away, and Cam felt the rage subsiding. With the rage gone, Cam felt a sudden emptiness he couldn't explain.
It was a very long moment before any of the winds spoke. Finally, Tori gave Cam a practiced look.
"What was that about?" She asked quietly. Cam shook his head. He had just experienced two of the most powerful emotions he had ever felt, and he was feeling the strain already.
"I honestly don't know. What happened?" He still wasn't sure what the others had seen.
"We were all practicing dude, and them BAM!" Dustin began, making a large explosion with his hands.
"There was this huge white light coming from over here." Tori continued.
"And then it was gone, and you and Hunter were like, 20 feet back from where you had been, and both on the ground." Shane finished.
"That's when he came running. What happened to you?" Tori probed for his side of the story.
"The same thing I suppose. Only, it seemed to last longer than that." He left out the part about how it made him feel and the disturbing image of the eyes, storing those thoughts away in his mind for later. "Did…" He wasn't sure how to ask this without it sounding strange. "Did Hunter look any… different to you?" He asked them.
Dustin and Shane exchanged looks, then shook their heads no. Tori watched them, and when Cam looked to her she shrugged. "He looked kinda like you did; dazed, tired, and mad." She elaborated. Cam nodded, feeling thoroughly freaked out. "Why?"
He hadn't expected that, to be honest. The winds usually didn't question him. "No reason. I was just wondering." He shrugged it off easy enough. "I'm going back to ops."
"You look wiped out dude!" Dustin remarked, and Cam rolled his eyes.
"I'm fine." He assured them. Dustin and Shane shrugged and turned to head for Tori's van, but Tori lingered, eyeing him oddly.
"You sure?" She wanted to know.
"Positive." Leave it to Tori to be the caring motherly figure.
"Alright." She gave him a once over, letting him know that she didn't think so. "You should try and rest. We'll probably go grab some burgers. You want anything? French fries, maybe a shake?" She offered generously. At least she wasn't going to drag him out with them like usual.
"No, but thanks anyway." He didn't feel much like fast food. He had healthy food in the kitchen if he needed it.
"Okay, but I mean it Cam. Take a nap!" She pointed a commanding finger at him as she backed away to follow the other winds. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she turned around to catch up with the others. He watched her leave, knowing she would probably bring him a strawberry shake later anyways.
Cam sighed deeply, and once he felt totally alone, he turned and trudged back towards Ninja Ops.
There were a lot of things he couldn't stand. He hated it when his father patronized him. He hated it when people didn't agree with him. He hated bugs, but that was beside the point.
What he really hated right now was a certain crimson ranger who made his blood boil. He would have never given the crimson ranger powers to anyone like Hunter, if he could have chosen. Anyone would have been a better candidate for a ranger, let alone a friend. And that was the last thing Cam intended on becoming; Hunter's friend.
No, he was sure of it. There was nothing he hated more than Hunter Bradley.
"Why do you hate me?" The voice startled him. Cam turned in his chair to see Hunter leaning nonchalantly against the entrance frame, as though he had asked for a drink instead of the confrontational question he had just posed.
"I don't hate you." Cam retorted without thinking. Then, in an effort to avoid the argument that was sure to ensue, he added, "much."
Hunter raised his eyebrows. "Ditto." He answered after a moment's silence. "So what is your problem then?"
"My problem? My problem is rangers who interrupt my work with stupid questions." Cam turned back to his computer quickly, but he could feel the odd look Hunter was giving his back.
"So," Hunter suggested conversationally, "That would mean I actually am your problem."
"At the moment? Yeah, guess it does." He typed impatiently looking for something that could distract him. Maybe if Hunter caught on he was ignoring him, he'd leave.
No such luck, Cam thought as Hunter stepped into the room. "You know, I can see why your dad didn't want you to be a ranger." Hunter's voice held a certain amount of nonchalance to it, but the words made Cam turn around again.
"How is that any of your business?" He demanded, standing. Hunter shot him an even look.
"It's because you're a spoiled, temperamental, selfish brat, who never learned social skills in preschool." Hunter told him matter-of-factly, as though Cam wouldn't be entitled to hit him for it. "Not for some promise he made your mom. It's because you don't trust anyone, and you don't let anyone trust you."
"Get out." Cam told him carefully. He wasn't going to fight about this with Hunter Bradley. Hunter Bradley, the boy who had listened to Lothor about his father being a murdering villain. Hunter Bradley, the arrogant, pig headed, stubborn, orphan who thought he was entitled to something great because of it. "Or I'll throw you out myself."
Hunter starred him down, and Cam returned his stare equally. He felt it again; that same bubbling rage that made him want to lash out at the Crimson Ranger. He started to see red and was about to charge, when Hunter turned away. As quickly as it had come, the rage had subsided, leaving that same emptiness inside him as before.
Cam watched him until he reached the steps, and then resumed his seat at his desk.
"I'm not the one who broke you, you know. I'm not the one you have to be afraid of." Hunter's voice resounded quietly through Ninja Ops, and Cam had the strangest sensation of it being more in his head than in his surroundings.
When he finally turned back to look at the entrance, Hunter was gone.