Ninja Storm/Hurricanger fragment

[estirise]

Here's a story fragment that is actually a outline/summary for two much longer stories that I can't write because I haven't seen all that much of Hurricanger. Read at your own risk.



Disclaimer: Ninja Storm Rangers belong to Buena Vista. Mentioned Hurricanger characters belong to Toei.


The five Rangers sat at the table, enjoying their meal. "What a day!" Shane announced, and various and sundry heads bobbed in agreement.

"Especially for Tori," Blake said, looking proud of his girlfriend. "Not every day you get catapulted through space and time to end up in an alternate universe Japan."

Tori shrugged. "It wasn't a big. They were kinda nice there," she said.

"Yeah, but the language barrier...."

"I lived," Tori answered, taking a bite of her pizza. "Wonder if Nanami got home safe?"

"Hey, if you got home, she got home," Shane assured her. "That lady was *tough*."

"Little weird to see her in your Ranger uniform, though," Dustin added.

"I have to say, it's even *weirder* to see a bunch of guys that you don't even know in you guys' morphed forms rescuing you from the local version of kelzaks," Tori said. She sipped at her soda. "I mean, here was me, nearly panicking because I had no money, couldn't speak the language worth anything, and couldn't reach you guys, and suddenly 'you' show up. Speaking Japanese. And calling me Nanami, at least until I demorphed and scared them."

"Must have been scary for you too," Blake said, putting a hand on Tori's arm.

"Not like Nanami was overly prepared to deal with suddenly-American teammates any better," Shane pointed out. "Nor was her English that great."

"Better than my Japanese," Tori retorted. "My spoken was so rusty that everybody had to speak English around me. Most of them didn't seem to mind, except Issou. He didn't seem to like me very much, and I don't know why."

"Issou?" Shane asked. "Who's Issou?" He looked genuinely confused.

"You could say he's Blake's counterpart," Tori said, motioning at her boyfriend, "But Issou isn't anything like Blake. Of course, he didn't seem to like me very much, as I said."

"So, who were the others?" Hunter asked. "I think Nanami named them off, but it's not like she spent a huge amount of time around the five of us. She mostly spent time around Cam!"

"Speaking of our resident computer genius," Tori said, "didn't he say he'd be here by now?"

"Still fixing the computers, I guess," Dustin contributed. "Nanami leaving really blew out the systems."

"He's gotta start leaving some of that to CyberCam," Shane said. "He's overworking himself again."

"You *trust* CyberCam?" Hunter asked in amazement.

"Not outside Ops," Shane said. "But at least he's there so that Cam doesn't think he has to be. We really need to drag him out to do more stuff. Cam, that is. Can't imaging how *his* counterpart handles things. If he has one."

"Two, actually," Tori said thoughtfully.

"Two?" Shane asked. "Who could put up with two Cams?"

"Hey, we put up with CyberCam," Tori pointed out.

"Barely," Shane pointed out.

"You were saying?" Hunter asked. "About Cam and two other people?"

"One of them's Oboro - she's kinda like Cam, same kind of attitude, and like Cam, her father got turned into a rodent. A hamster. The other's some guy named Shurikenger... Kouta and Yousuke say that they don't know who he really is... a different looking guy morphs into him every time. He was one of the ones who came in to 'rescue' me, but he left shortly after. Looked exactly like Cam's morphed form, though. Spooky."

"I bet," Blake said, putting an arm around Tori's waist. She didn't seem to notice.

Anticipating Shane's next question, Tori said, "They're the Yellow and Red Rangers in that universe. Yousuke reminded me a little of you, Shane, and Kenta a little of Dustin. But not much."

"How about mine?" Hunter wanted to know. "We know everyone's but mine."

"His name was Ikkou. He kinda... well, he vaguely looked like Blake, but he most definitely wasn't!" Tori told him. "He spent the whole time I was there either asking me about my battles or talking to Oboro about what they'd need to do if I had to stay there, according to Kenta. Yousuke and Kenta were sure that I'd get to get home, and they were arguing with Ikkou...."

"At least we got you back," Shane said. "I liked Nanami, she seemed nice, but I couldn't relate to her."

Tori nodded. "If they'd had to, most of her teammates would have gotten used to me, but... I was glad to go home."

"I think Nanami was too," Blake said.

"Dude, she spent most of her time avoiding you," Dustin pointed out. "Like she didn't know what to do with you."

"Hey, she didn't go for my magnetic personality. It happens," Blake said, looking defensive. "At least she didn't spend most of her time here pinching *me* and pulling my hair like she did Cam."

"I bet it's because she's seen so many people morph into Shurikenger," Tori said. "Probably to her, he was just one more identity." She bit into a new slice of pizza.

"Wow," was Dustin's verdict.

"Just don't do it again, okay?" Blake told her.

"I won't," she promised. "I don't ever want to go through that, ever again."

Blake hugged her, and the group went back to eating pizza.