Holding True
by Melissa Morris

"oh when things get messy then we tidy up the room
we'll be no stranger to that dustpan and the broom
let's make peace tonight
(let's make peace tonight)
the moon is bare and shining bright
(moon is shining bright)
let's make peace tonight
(let's make peace tonight)
the moon is bare and shining bright
(moon is shining bright)
let's make peace tonight in a good time
(let's make peace tonight) "

The impromptu peace-treaty lasted until after dinner, Dulcea sighed and quickly retired for the night. Adam tried to ignore them and read, but eventually he got fed up. 'That's it! Now is as good as time as any. I can't take this!' Adam rose and teleported back to a familiar place. He walked to his destination and began to look through the milling people until he spotted his target. He walked purposely over him and began to speak, "Hey, Jase, I need your help with something."

Jason turned to Adam in surprise, "What!?"

"Can we speak in your office? I think Rocky'll have to run class tonight, but he can come over later."

Jason led Adam into his office and after the door was closed, Adam quickly closed the blinds. "What do you need?" he said gravely.

"Okay, this'll sound lame, I know, but I just can't take it anymore, I mean even Dulcea can't take it."

"And?" said Jason bemusedly.

"Okay, this is the quickie version, I'll fill you in later. Billy's super-special ninjetti power is enhanced senses and he's trying to deal with it on his own. Now, I've got some other information, that I can't share with them yet, but Kim is supposed to help him with them. Well, Billy didn't tell her he was having side-effects and I think he tried to blow it off. Kim got a little peeved at that point and after a little while neither one was really being all that rational. I managed to get a few hours peace, but when they tried to gang up on me for answers they fell back to arguing with each other."

"Let me guess, you want me to go back with you and get them to both settle down, since I've been friends with them my entire life and all that," said Jason after a moment of thought.

Adam nodded vigorously, "And all that."

"Let me go tell Rocky . . . " but before Jason could leave the office, Adam stopped him and quickly scribbled a phone number on one of their business cards.

"Give this to him, when he's done tonight, tell him to call and I'll come pick him up. I'll wait here until you get done. Got something else to do," Adam tried to hide a smile as he spoke.

"Okay," Jason shrugged and walked out the office. A couple of minutes later he came back in, "Rocky will take over class tonight and when he gets done he will call you."

Adam was almost bouncing as he took that in, "Coolness," Adam grinned, "You're a pretty straight forward kinda guy, right? And you don't really care about all the fancy trappings and rigamarole, right?"

Jason looked at him curiously, "Right, I suppose, but why are you asking?"

"Oh, just curious." Jason gave him a disbelieving look and Adam shrugged, "Okay, wanna be a ninjetti?"

"Adam, I was never a ninjetti, you can't just make me one. You have to have Dulcea for that," replied Jason carefully, as if explaining something basic to a small child.

Adam grinned wider, "Wanna bet?"

'This is interesting to say the least.' Thought Jason as he sat alone in living room of Adam's place. Adam had come to get him earlier, just so that he could get Kim and Billy under control. It was strange, finding out that Billy could hear a pin drop at any place in the house or identify someone by how they smell. It was also strange that he looked almost half of Jason's age. He was flying blind, but he'd dealt with a stubborn Billy and an overprotective Kim before. Just popping in with Adam had stopped the argument between Kim and Billy and they had talked about everything that had happened to them since he'd seen them last. He'd known them both well enough that he was able to carefully wring all the facts from them. It was strange, Kim could tell what someone was feeling, just by being near them, but ironically she couldn't tell when Billy was hiding something from her. Of course there was the fact that Adam knew more about the whole situation than either Billy or Kim did, but he couldn't tell them for some reason. 'Whole thing is sorta messed up.' But they'd talked until eventually Kim had bowed out for the night and Billy had went to sleep not much after. 'I should probably get some sleep myself, supposed to meet Dulcea tomorrow and tell the others the good news.' He shook his head as he thought back to it, Adam had just grinned at him and said, "Wanna bet?"

Jason had just watched in a sort of dazed amazement as Adam started having a conversation with the air, actually now that he though about it, two conversations. He couldn't remember all that Adam said, it was just too strange. But he did remember Adam's exact words before Jason suddenly found himself in a purple ninjetti outfit, "Um, Hi, Mr. Big Cat, could we . . . oh, Ms. Mountain Lion, sorry. Well, how about it?"

Then a flash of deep purple had blinded him for a second and he was a ninjetti. That was it. Adam had looked at him critically for a moment, "Y'know I'd had trouble picturing you in purple, but it looks good. Congrats, I'll introduce you to Dulcea and then you can tell everybody and all that. Okay, where were we? Oh, yeah, lets get you back to my place."

One flash of black later and he was standing in Adam's house with Adam. "Well Jase, you go talk to them. I've got some reading I'd like to have done before Friday, good night."

Jason couldn't help it as the strangeness of the whole situation had hit him and he was still laughing when he went in to talk to Kim and Billy. 'That was fun.'

Jason woke up slowly as two voices began to intrude on his rest. He didn't remember falling asleep, but a quick mental inventory revealed that he was shoeless and someone had put a pillow under his head and a blanket over him sometime during the night. After that he took a moment to try and identify who was speaking. 'Adam and someone else. Sounds sort of British, must be Dulcea. What did Kim say about her? Master Warrior, i.e. she kicks everyone's butt. Reserved. Has some taboo against wearing pants, count on Kim to pick that up. Someone as old as Zordon.' As he sat up they both grew quiet and he found them smiling expectantly at him. "Hi?"

He took in her appearance as he waited for a response, a little taller than Adam with long auburn hair. She was wearing a deep green skirt of some sort and a billowy green shirt that was a few shades lighter than her skirt. 'Oh, I wonder what color she is?' He thought sarcastically to himself.

Adam spoke up first, "Sleep well? Didn't want to move you, did we wake you up?"

"Don't worry about it, I didn't notice," said Jason as he stretched out a little.

"Oh, by the way, this is Dulcea."

Dulcea reached over and gave Adam a light slap on the shoulder, "It is nice to finally meet you, Jason. I have heard much about you."

"Good, I hope." 'This is her? She seems pretty laid back to me, but Kim and Billy both said she was kinda reserved.'

She smiled, "Very good. Adam wanted me to speak with you when you awoke, but he neglected to tell me what about."

"Oh, nothing much," Adam nonchalantly scooted out of Dulcea's reach, "I just kinda taught Jason a new trick last night and I thought you might like to see it."

'New trick? What a unique way Adam has of describing things. Actually, I think he's gotten a little 'unique.'' Jason smiled at them both, "Well, this is still new to me, but here goes." It felt odd not to have a morpher, but he stood and 'morphed' into his new ninjetti outfit. He looked down at himself again, he still hadn't gotten over how weird it was to be in purple, it was weirder than being a ranger again. 'At least it's a nice dark purple, could have been one of those bright happy colors. Ugh. And it feels so different, maybe my memory's off, but it wasn't this 'substantial' when I was the Red Ranger or even the Gold . . . ' "What do you think?"

Jason managed to stifle a laugh as Dulcea picked up a pillow and, without looking, beaned Adam in the head. She studied him intently and he began to feel a bit uncomfortable as she seemed to look into him and be judging something. She frowned slightly, but then she gave him a soft smile, "I suppose that it would proper for me to welcome you to the ninjetti, since I know that 'someone' has no sense of propriety."

Jason relaxed and smiled, then he chuckled as 'someone' stuck his tongue out at the ninjetti master and she smacked him with another pillow. "Thanks."

Adam and Dulcea seemed to share a silent exchange as they smiled good-naturedly at each other. Then Adam shrugged and Dulcea gave her attention back to Jason, "Would you like to join us for our morning workout? Adam has spoken highly of your skills."

'Spoken highly of my skills!? He creamed me last time!' He gave a small sigh and smiled, "Well, let's see if I live up to your expectations."

They worked out together until the break for breakfast, when Adam went off to read some more, but promised Jason that he'd have some help for the Kim and Billy 'thing' soon. Jason had shrugged it off, but he secretly hoped that Adam would bring in results sooner, rather than later. Jason noticed that when Adam left, Dulcea became a little more reserved, but he kept to his matter-of-fact approach to her and she slowly relaxed a little. After lunch he'd teleported home for awhile and did a few things. 'I've got to get some new clothes.' Then he'd met back up with Dulcea and they went back to his dojo. Once there he called Rocky to ask him why he didn't call Adam last night.

"Doh! I'm sorry, sheesh, do you think Adam's still there?"

"Yeah, I," he stopped as Dulcea tapped him on the shoulder, "Wait a minute, Rocky."

He gave Dulcea a questioning look and she smiled, "Why should Adam have all the fun?"

Jason laughed. 'Give Adam a taste of his own medicine, eh?' "Actually, when you get the time, head on down here and we'll take you up there."

"We'll? And was that a GIRL I heard with you, Mr. Scott?" said Rocky with an exaggerated censorious tone. "Tssk, tssk. Whatever shall we do with you?"

"Oh, stuff it, or I'll start calling you 'monkey-boy' like Adam does."

"Bye," said Rocky quickly as he hung up, before Jason could go any further.

Jason turned back to Dulcea, "He'll be here as soon as he can. Want to see the place? I'll show you around before Rocky gets here."

He'd then shown Dulcea around, but Rocky still hadn't made it there by the time that Jason was done with the tour. They had discussed the martial arts for a while and Jason was enjoying himself immensely as Dulcea shared ideas with him. Eventually, they decided to try and put some of their theory into practice. So they had sparred a great deal as she taught him some of the ninjetti arts. After getting creamed for the umpteenth time, Jason finally conceded for the day, "You're worse than Adam!"

"Actually, I'm better," she said with a smile.

"Yeah, like getting thrashed by the next Master Warrior of Phaedos much better than letting you wipe the walls with me. Man, those were some good moves!" He trailed off as Dulcea frowned.

She studied him thoughtfully for a moment. "Adam will not be a master warrior."

'Oookaaay. What have I just stepped in now?' Jason hands Dulcea a towel, "What do you mean, he's good, heck, he's actually starting to vaguely hold his own with you."

"Adam is a talented warrior and soon he will be able to defeat me, but that is not the point."

Jason looked at her in confusion, "Maybe it's because I'm new to this, but I'm confused."

She smiles sadly, "No, it is confusing. It takes more than skill to be a master warrior. Adam has chosen his path now and it is not the way of the ninjetti warrior."

'Now?' "I'm sorry, but I thought that's what ninjetti were?"

"Ninjetti are warriors, because there are always those who need champions against the dark, but not all ninjetti dedicate themselves to the fighting arts. One can be a master of anything, not just the martial. Only rarely is one able to become a master of multiple things. To put it this way, ninjetti go through phases and some proceed farther than others. You are an Apprentice, the first stage. Then is Ninjetti, which Rocky will soon be."

Jason noted that she didn't include Billy, Kim, or Adam as ninjetti. 'And what are they? And what does this have to do with anything right now?' "Yes, but how is it decided who's a master and who isn't?"

"That is up to the spirits."

"Not to sound rude or anything, but what does this have to do with Adam not being a master warrior? And where exactly do Billy, Kim, and Adam stand?"

"You are blunt," she smiled, "and that is not the same as rudeness, though some may confuse the two. As I have been accused of it in the past, I do not. As to yourself and the others, I do not know exactly where they stand now, but I know where they will be and that is why I know Adam will not be a master warrior."

'Me?' Thought Jason to himself. 'I'm also a part of this weirdness. Oh, joy.' Anything else she might have said was cut off by the sound of the back door being banged against the wall. Jason winced, "That's Rocky, he's going to tear that door off the hinges one of these days . . . "

Dulcea smiled, "Well, how do you want to do this?"

'Oops, Jason's going to chew me out for that again.' Rocky quickly inspected the door and the wall behind it before he closed it. 'He hates when I do that. I wonder what he did with Adam. I wonder who he's with. I wonder what he wants. I wonder when lunch'll be.' Rocky shrugged to himself as he walked into the main area of the dojo. He waved to Jason and paused slightly as he looked at the woman with him. 'She looks kinda familiar. Dulcea!?' "Dulcea!?" Rocky paused and tried to regather his wits. "Sorry, IkindathoughtthatyoulookedlikesomeoneelsethatIknewbefore, but it's not . . . , sorry," stammered Rocky.

Dulcea laughed, "And I'm happy to see you again as well, Rocky."

'Again?' "Uh, you're not . . . are you?"

She laughed once more, "Yes I am."

Rocky bounced over and gave her an enthusiastic hug and set her back down. "But, I thought you couldn't get off Phaedos? Why are you here? Does Jason 'know'? Is this what Adam wanted to see me about? Where is he by the way?"

Jason reached over and clamped his hand over Rocky's mouth, "Give him a moment," Jason chuckled, "I think he had a Jolt on the way over."

Rocky pried Jason's hand off, "Just one and no one's answered my question!"

"Oh, it is good to hear you again, young Ape," said Dulcea with a smile. "I had forgotten your enthusiasm. As for your questions, I have only recently left Phaedos. Yes, Jason 'knows.' Yes, this is part of what Adam wanted to see you about and I think Adam's still locked in his room reading."

Rocky digested that for a moment, "Cool." He bounced slightly, "Now what?"

"Now, we reintroduce you to an old friend."

"Thunder
Don't scare me at all
Lightning
Well just a little
Pressure
It ain't worth a dime
And your wounds
They'll all heal in time

Adam sat quietly reading the last book on shamanism, it had been helpful in a way, it had given him an idea of what questions to ask Frog. Frog had to run off for some, but he did come back with answers. He'd found out all sorts of things. 'Welcome to Spirit Animals 101. Simply put, every person has a spirit animal, but they don't have to know that. There is only one Wolf, Frog, or whatever, but everyone has a 'shadow,' at least, of their animal around them at all times. The 'shadow' represents the eye that the spirit is keeping on it's children. Basically, how much I can see of a spirit animal is a good representation of how powerful a connection they have. With us I see the full 3D-surround sound experience, with others it's just a vague impression. But, if I see someone with any sort of connection, then I can probably get a hold of the spirit. Neat. Now what am I going to do with this information, besides bug Blair about it?' Adam paused in his thoughts and put the book down as he heard a strange noise. As it was slowly rising in volume, Adam stood up and took one step towards the kitchen and at the next he was no longer in his house, but in a jungle looking up a familiar cliff side. 'What?'

Frog was on his shoulder once more, 'We knew this was to happen, this is why we had to leave Phaedos.' There was no humor in Frog's voice as he continued. 'The temple of the ninjetti will soon be no more.'

Adam winced as the noise began to rise to a painful level that made his palms itch. He looked up the cliff and watched the smoke that signified that something was wrong.

'Shit!' Frog hopped from Adam's shoulder and disappeared before he could question him.

'I wonder what's . . . ' Adam clapped his hands to his ears as the noise rose to a scream. It stopped an instant later and another roar brought him to his knees as it seemed to echo through the ground itself. His eyes closed for a moment. When he opened them, he was surprised to say the least. 'HOLY . . . ' He was looking at the ground, but not from the exact perspective he expected. 'I'm going to be sick.'

'Oh, none of that. You're fine.' The deep voice he had heard the night of the storm rumbled around him.

'Fine! Define 'fine!'' Adam blinked a few times and stared at the ground below . . . far, far below.

'Fine as in you're fine.' A rumbling chuckle surrounded him. 'Now, please calm down, I'm not going to drop you or anything. What would that accomplish?'

'Frog pate?'

Roaring laughter filled the air. 'You are amusing, Young Prince. I would enjoy a chat, but we have business to attend.'

'Business?' Adam gulped as he seemed to drop lower suddenly. 'You know, I think . . . ' He went silent as the clouds parted and he saw the ground below once more. A cold certainty filled him. 'That was the temple.' He spoke with a quiet finality as he looked at the smoking pits of jagged rock that now formed the top of the cliff.

'Yes. It is gone forever, a legend that shall now be forever hidden.'

'Why?'

'Which why? Why did this happen? Why are we here? Why was the universe created?'

He carefully debated that. 'Why did this happen in the first place? And why me?'

'A good question and a very good question, but we have no time for those answers.'

Adam rolled his eyes at the blatant obfuscation. 'Okay, why were the ninjetti destroyed?'

The voice sighed. 'An old battle that should have been ended, an oversight, that should have been seen.'

'Could you vague that up for me?'

'You are mildly annoying, do you know that?'

'I've been hanging around Frog too much.' Laughter once again filled the night and they swooped towards the ground. Adam panicked slightly. 'I could take that back!'

'Oh, be quiet. I want to show you something.' They seemed to glide down to a rocky out-cropping formed by the explosion. 'Look.'

Adam found his gaze drawn to one direction in particular and he saw a giant armored warrior of some sort striding through the debris. Behind him marched four more men of lesser stature, but their bearing said that they were important and dangerous. The final piece of the puzzle was the presence of four more of the creatures he had fought on Phaedos. 'He's got to be, like, eight feet tall. This is the guy behind Vadyvov?'

'Yes, he was also a part of the destruction of the ninjetti. An instrument of a quiet cunning that we did not see until a smoking ruin was left of the Masters. We thought it banished, but it had already carefully slipped through the cracks. Weakened, but not defeated.' The voice replied somberly to Adam's question.

The giant figure gestured as a bundle was brought up to him by more of things. 'What's that?' Adam received no response, so he waited to see what it was. 'GROSS!' Adam felt truly ill as he watched the giant open the bundle and pulled Vadyvov's remains out. The jungle had not been kind to him to put it mildly. He sat silently as the giant removed his helmet to reveal a face with a feline cast. An errant thought flitted through Adam's mind. 'Vincent's gone evil!' He shook his head and watched as the giant lifted Vadyvov's corpse as if to look into his eyes. Adam felt his skin crawl as an errant wind seemed to bring the smell of decayed flesh to him and something else. He had the distinct impression that he didn't want to know what was going to happen next, but he was rooted to the spot by the presence that had brought him here. Then the giant spoke, "Vadyvov, my loyal warrior, I have one more task for you. Answer me and I shall release you from your oath, do not . . . "

The threat seemed to hang heavily in the air and Adam was hoping that Vadyvov was very busy someplace else. No such luck. Vadyvov's voice seemed to whisper even though Adam could hear it from where he was. "One last task my lord. I know your question, it is the only one worth asking. Who were they?"

"Correct as always, my loyal one."

Vadyvov's corpse seemed to nod in the giant's hands. "So be it. Dulcea, Master Warrior of Phaedos, survived our attack. Only she." As he spoke Dulcea seemed to shimmer in the air, blood running down her shoulder as her staff seemed to warn the giant away. "The rest are new to us. The first was the Wolf. A warrior fierce, but wearer of the blue." Billy suddenly appeared his light staff flaring as he tore through a couple of the black things. "The Crane. I underestimated her, a fatal error. Pink." Beside them, Kim leapt gracefully from one branch to the next her bow at ready as she suddenly turned and fired at the giant. "The last I did not see, but he is of the Black." The giant nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but Vadyvov spoke once more, "I did spy one last thing, a puzzle for you perhaps."

Beside them appeared three small frog-like individuals. Adam felt himself grow cold as he saw the Cro'ack'croan warriors. Vadyvov's final little bit of revenge could cost them dearly. He shuddered as the giant laughed coldly. "Ah, so that is the way of it? It will not go unpunished," the giant studied Vadyvov and nodded, "you have done well. Your oath is absolved." Vadyvov's corpse went limp and the giant carefully laid it in the bundle and rewrapped it. He gestured to his men, "Burn it and scatter the ashes."

Adam watched as the giant turned away and one of the men raised a weapon and incinerated Vadyvov's remains. As they turned and left the smoldering waste, Adam spoke out to the voice once more. 'What the hell just happened?'

'Something that never should have.' Rumbled the voice quietly. 'Now I must return you to Frog.'

Suddenly Adam was lifted once more. 'Um, how about we walk this time? I think Frogs are meant to hop high, not fly.' The voice chuckled slightly but did not respond. 'Who are you?'

The ground seemed to rush up to meet him, but he touched down gently. 'I hope that you will never need to know.' The presence began to fade. 'You are correct, Frogs are meant to hop high, but they must also remember to look where they leap. We will speak again.' The voice spoke as no more than a fading whisper on wind. 'It is not ours to rebuild or remake, but yours to create.'

"That sounds suspiciously like a prophecy and I think I hate prophecies," grumbled Adam.

"I want the hummingbirds, the dancing bears
Sweetest dreams of you
Look into the stars
Look into the moon."

"What does?" asked Dulcea quietly.

Adam blinked as suddenly as he had left he was back in his room, but now so were all the others, including Rocky. 'Nice to see him in red again.' "Um, nothing really," stammered Adam as he began to feel very uncomfortable under everyone's combined scrutiny. They waited patiently and Adam cracked. "Okay, Frog had to show me something, something important." 'And so did someone else, but that's neither here nor there.' Then something else dawned on him. "Why are you in my room?"

Dulcea spoke up once more, "There was a disturbance."

"You felt it?"

"How could we not?," said Kim irritably, "One minute I'm talking to Billy, the next Crane screams and Billy's a veggie."

Billy sighed, "I was not a 'veggie,' I was distracted by Wolf howling, that is all."

Kim's look said she didn't believe that and Rocky jumped in, "Yeah, I was playing around with Jason and Dulcea when, whammo! Ape starts roaring and I nearly have a heart-attack." Rocky paused for a moment, "Did you guys hear it too? You reacted?"

Jason and Dulcea shook their heads and Jason spoke for them both, "I might be out of line, but I heard the Lioness and I'll bet that Dulcea heard Owl, right?" Dulcea nods and Jason looked back to Adam, "What happened?"

Adam stared at the floor for a minute and gathered his thoughts, "The Ninjetti temple, it was, it was . . . destroyed."

Dulcea looked shocked and it unsettled everyone else in the room. "It cannot be," she said disbelieving.

Adam put a steadying hand on her shoulder. 'Her life for the past FIFTY-THOUSAND YEARS is gone.' "I'm sorry, but . . . it is not ours to rebuild or remake, but yours to create. That sounds prophetic doesn't it." Adam trailed off and noticed something that was missing from the room. "Where are they?"

"Who?" asked Kim carefully.

Adam looked embarrassed, "Did I say that out loud, just ignore me."

Adam quickly bolted out the door leaving the others behind. Jason shook his head sadly and watched Adam's retreating form, "We can't afford to do that anymore."

Adam walked back in about an hour later and ignored everyone as he went into his room and locked the door. He sat down on his bed and tried to figure out what to do next. 'Well, Adam, you've just spied on pretty much every spirit animal in the world. What are you going to do now?' He sighed, he had left earlier and just went after Frog with no real idea of where or what he was doing. Adam knew he went somewhere, but the 'where' was in doubt. The first look at the group of spirit animals had given him a headache. It was just impossible, all these animals were there, some were in forests, jungles, or water, but it all seemed to happen at once. 'Overlapping, but everything was on top.' Adam groaned and closed his eyes. 'Much better.' He sat straining to listen for an indeterminate amount of time and eventually he was able to hear some the conversation out of the cacophony of sound. First he picked out the familiar voice of Frog, " . . . it is, how the hell could that be?"

Another voice he didn't recognize spoke up in a growl, "Maybe someone helped it?"

Many voices rose in dissent, but they were drowned out by a hysterical laughter that made Adam shudder. "And who would be crazy enough to do that?"

More yelling and more laughter, but it was finally silenced. A female voice spoke softly, "Now is not the time to point fingers, it is the time to review the facts, then we may decide a course of action."

An arrogant voice demanded, "Well, what do we know? Frog?" The last word was said with a sneer that made Adam want to deck whomever was talking.

"A petty dictator named Kalieth has orchestrated the destruction of the ninjetti temple. It also seems that he employed Vadyvov in the original destruction of the ninjetti. He is 'protected' by something, not even Leopard could say what, only that it was evil. Whale, do you know anymore?"

A musical singsong voice seemed to sing, "I know only the facts, I am the keeper of records, not of secrets." An expectant silence followed Whale's comment. He sang once more, "I have already given them all the information that they need. It is . . . "

"May I see your hall pass?"

Adam jumped and spun as a voice spoke from right beside him. He turned to look right into the eyes of a large coyote. "Hall pass?"

The coyote sat beside him and looked past him to the spirit animal council. "Do you think They'd be really happy to see you here? Think of what it would do to their image?" The coyote chuckled, "Well, I am Coyote and you, young prince, have strayed far from the beaten path." Adam sat back unsure of where this was going. "Don't you wonder why they haven't noticed you?" Adam nodded, the thought had crossed his mind. "I brought you here." He sighed and looked at Adam seriously, "Sometimes a new perspective is needed. What do you think of this one?"

Adam blinked as he was suddenly in a desert sitting on an outcropping, he could even feel the residual heat of 'day' from the rock beneath him. 'Good thing, it damn cold here.' He thought absently as he stared into the starry sky.

Coyote laughed and cocked his head to listen once more to the council. "I'll bet it was surprising to hear them yelling at each other."

"Yeah, I mean the Spirits that hang around with us seem to get along fine."

"No real personality conflicts in that group. In this one . . . the annoying fellow is Lion, by the way."

"Lion?"

"Yup, and there's a neat story about why Lion is such a prat." He paused as the hysterical laughter bubbled up from the council. "And it is the same story as why Hyena no longer laughs in joy, but in madness." Adam gave Coyote his full attention. "Frog told us that he would tell you part of what happened before. Simply put there was a war and we fought the great Evil that had come among us. Some of our children fell underneath the endless night of Evil and we tried frantically to save them. But we learned a harsh lesson, that this Evil could not only harm our children, but our very beings. Did you know that Bat once could see well?" Adam shook his head, "Oh, yes, nothing exceptional, but far more than now. He was sadly marked by the darkness, only a few were of we Middle Children. Now, you wonder why I tell you this?" Adam nodded once more. "We are not infallible and it is good to remember that. We are more than you, but as we are a part of you, you are part of us. We are idealized conceptualizations of our little children, not copies, and who we are depends on them. Look at me, I am thin and I bear the scars of the old battle, yet others suffered worse injuries but bear no mark." Coyote seemed to regard himself for a moment, "One last story. Now, that I have pointed it out, you wonder why I am this way? My children fell under the darkness and some ran, but others waited. One day Raven, whose wings were white then, came to me with a plan, whilst our Eldest Brothers would strike at the frontlines, we would use stealth and guile to free the worlds behind. My children volunteered to help even though we knew the cost would be high. So we launched our plan and pushed back the darkness." Coyote paused, "And I lost most of my children, now those I have wander as I do. You never know where we'll end up, what we'll turn up, or what we'll see. I fought the Evil, not just metaphorically by having my children help, but in spirit as well. That is part of why I am still scarred, I am thin because I will not cheapen my childrens' sacrifice by just starting over." Coyote raised his head to the sky and studied the stars, "We also learned a lesson, a reason why such sacrifice was necessary. We learned that in the dark, we were . . . mortal, that our existence could be diminished and destroyed irrevocably. Some were permanently crippled, what do you call him? Oh, yes Dodo, he lost many of his children and his injuries weakened him, now he can longer keep his children thriving and on every new world they slowly die away. Eventually, there will be no more children of Dodo born anywhere and he will fade away." Coyote slumped down beside Adam, "Now, I see that I have depressed you, so I will tell you the tale I promised. It is a lesson and there is sadness in it, but that is what makes it true. But I digress, as the Battle was finally ending Hyena's children began to fall to the Evil and he called for help. Lion had never been on good terms with Hyena, but they were Brothers in the same family. Lion was torn over whether his 'pride' included Hyena. In the end he decided that only his children were his 'pride' and an unimaginable thing happened, Lion's power was split. Not by a territorial or species difference, but into Lion and Lioness. Lioness held that all of her Brothers and Sisters were of the 'pride' in this battle. She then rallied those of her children who would follow and tried to help Hyena, but Lion's indecision had cost dearly. Many of Hyena's children were dead or driven mad by . . . the Evil and Hyena now shared that trait, now she is mostly sane, but at times . . . Now, you see Lion is always reminded of his folly, as are we, by the presence of Lioness who is far more respected on the council than he. He blusters to cover his shame, but it only highlights his shortcomings more."

Coyote fell silent and seemed to contemplate the desert night. Adam finally got up the nerve to speak to the rambling spirit. "I have a question, it's one I've always wondered about." Coyote gave Adam his full attention. "What was the Evil?"

Coyote regarded him intently, "I spoke of Raven as my ally for our great trick, well, Raven was marked, wings once white as snow were black as the night he had hidden in as he saw the terrible truth of the matter, but he had the honor of heralding in the light to those who had given up hope. The Evil was terrible, but in truth . . . the truth . . . " Coyote shook his head, "That answer is not mine to give you." Then Coyote suddenly laughed, "Well, I hope I have confused you with my tales, may their unwinding grant you the answers you seek. Now you must return whence you came."

Before he could replay Adam found himself back outside of the lodge. Coyote's conversation had drowned out the council and left him with more questions. But one was nagging him the most at the moment was: what did Whale mean?

'We have all the information we need? Who's Kalieth? Why is he so pissed at the ninjetti?' Adam slumped back on the bed. 'What information do we have? Dulcea might know, but she didn't know who destroyed the ninjetti in the first place so that's a bust.' Adam sighed and began to pick up the book Blair had given him on shamanism. Then it dawned on him. 'Whale said he gave us the answers!' Adam quickly dug underneath his bed and pulled out his duffle bag. A minute later he looked at the book Cestro had given him to read when he was sick. 'Could it be this simple?' Adam flipped through the pages and paused at the first picture. 'Yup, it could.' He stared at a portrait of a King Ral, who very much resembled Kalieth. He started reading the History of Erath Kor.

"The founding history of the Korian Empire is shrouded in myth. The only known fact is that through exceptional foresight and luck the Korian people built a system spanning empire twenty thousand years ago. Acts of seeming random conquest and peaceful alliance forged the greatest government of our time. But before we deal with the hard fact of the last three thousand years, it is helpful to understand the legends the Korians' believe they spring from."

'Yeah, yeah, whatever.' He skimmed through the authors long-winded reasons for including a brief 'mythical' history. He paused a few pages later at an illustration of the Korian Royal Crest. He back-tracked a little until he found the start of the section.

"Erath was the protector and mother to the Kor as they rose from primitive tribes into petty baronies. At this time, Erath herself came down to a warrior named Ral. She guided him and under her tutelage he learned the gift of foresight. With this gift and her wisdom he unified Kor under his leadership. In fact, an image of Erath is still the symbol of the Korian Empire to this day."

'AKA, the Sphinx.'

"The Korians flourished, but for some reason Erath was called away from her children never to return. They mourned her and the gift of foresight began slowly fade as the generations past, only to be attributed a revered religious order.*"

' '*' What the hell does '*' mean?' He sighed and flipped around through the book until he found a section, in the middle of the book, labeled 'Notes.' 'Okay, that was a waste.'

"*Note: Korian custom still dictates that the naming of a new child must be done after a 'foretelling' is done by an Erathian seer. Such foretellings will have a great impact on not only the life of the child, but of the family as well as they seek to avoid or lessen a dark fate."

'Well, the leaving of Sphinx probably coincided with the War. So, how did they go from there to here?' He skimmed until it talked about Sphinx again, but it just led into another legend. 'The Arsenal?'

"After Erath had left her people to fend for themselves the next major legend of the Korian Empire begins. As the empire expanded under the tactical genius of Ral's great-grandson, Kalien, they fought an 'evil' empire.* In the end this empire unleashed a great weapon of darkness that not only threw back the Korian forces, but decimated the planet before it was finally brought back under control. Kalien, with a few of his men, stole the weapon and locked it away, never to be used again.' These events are the center of the Kalien Cycle, by the great bard Al'ain."

'And who would of thought, you would have to put the whole thing in here . . . ' He sighed and skimmed through the story. Finally at nearly the end of the story, he finds a one sentence description of the weapon, supposedly spoken by Kalien.

"Breaker of worlds, bringer of night,
Tool of making, now a blight,
Anvil is broken under your might,
And forever shall you be hid from sight."

'Yeah, I bet he really said that. So, it's a hammer of some sort.' It wasn't what he needed, but it sounded interesting, and since Arsenal implied more than one he read on. Finally, after much searching he found a brief summary of the legend. 'Why couldn't have put this in front? Long-winded git.'

"As time passed, five of these evil weapons were discovered and locked away by the Emperors of Kor. In time the exact attributes had faded, but their names were immortalized. The weapon Kalien captured was the war hammer named Ruin for it's destructive attributes. The next, captured by Kalien's son, Rakath, was the axe named Rage. The next two are mentioned, but no mention is given to whom obtained them. They were a sword named Bane and a staff named Channel. Yet, it is the last that is the most infamous in Korian history. It is also the only weapon with no record of its appearance and the only one that did not stay long in the vaults of the kings. Its true name was unknown, but the epitaph 'Traitor' was given it for it's part in the usurpation of the throne by Azao Kinslayer. This has the distinction of being the only 'successful' revolt in Korian history. Unfortunately for Kinslayer, the evil weapon betrayed him and vanished, without its power he was deposed and executed within a week."

'Oh, a happy story.' He dug up the last two notes. 'Okay, what useless tidbit have you enticed me with this time?'

"*Note: Sources are still unsure if this represents a decadent empire or the true evil tyrant type of today."

'I.e. psycho of the week or Rita. 'True evil tyrant type of today?!' Where did this guy come up with this stuff? Next note.'

"'Note: In fact, it is part of the oath of Korian Emperor's to swear to guard and never use these weapons. As they have not been seen in almost twenty thousand years it is impossible to authenticate their existence."

'Yeah, and I'm a ninjetti which is a big myth that wasn't seen in the last fifty thousand years, so . . . that . . . ' He shrugged and skimmed through the rest of the book looking for any more references to Sphinx, but didn't find anything else that caught his eye. Adam stood up and went to find Dulcea, he didn't have to look far as she was still sitting out in the living room with everyone else. As he walked up everyone began to stare at him. 'What!?' He took a calming breath and decided to act like everything was normal and he wasn't turning a bright red. "Hey, Dulcea, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?"

"What would you like to know?"

"Have you heard of a place called 'Erath Kor?'"

She thought about it and nodded, "Yes, it was an important topic when I first became a ninjetti apprentice." She smiled at some old memories of those days, but quickly drew herself back to issue at hand. "Erath Kor was the seat of the Korian Empire. It is not known why, but after the birth of Prince Kalieth . . . " She paused as Adam started slightly, but he gestured her to go on. "After the birth, the Emperor cut all ties with the ninjetti and banished us on the pain of death from the empire. It is not known what caused this drastic turn around, the Emperor had been a good friend to the ninjetti for many years previous. This banishment would have dire consequences." She sighed, "Around the time I joined the ranks of the ninjetti, the Korian situation deteriorated. A new enemy called the Vrrdk attacked the Korian empire for no strategic reason we could discern. The Korians were powerful, but they were not meant to battle this evil. The Vrrdk were evil, the kind of evil that we ninjetti had battled for ages, the kind that only we could fight effectively. Yet the Emperor ignored our offers of assistance, even as his empire was slowly chipped away, he refused our help. We did not stand idly by, ninjetti worked in secret to help the Korians and many of our number died, not just in battle with the Vrrdk, but by the Korians as well. The Vrrdk war effort finally was stalled at Erath Kor itself and the Vrrdk were defeated with the secret help of the ninjetti. The Vrrdk's final move was one that no one expected, they closed all communications and crashed their fleet into Erath Kor killing most of the planet and rendering it unfit for life. It was the death knell of the Korian Empire and many of it worlds were decimated or so badly damaged that they would not be able to support life for much longer. We tried to help, but many of the Korians believed that we should have done something." She sighed sadly, "They needed something to blame, but there was no enemy left, no government to blame . . . " She trailed off, "It is not a happy story."

Adam shrugged and answered thoughtfully, "I suppose it is a lesson and there is sadness in it, but that is what makes it true." The everyone stared at him once more and he shrugged, "Sorry, someone told me that today." He looked around the room. 'They're still not back, how long is that council going to take? It's not like they were getting much done.' Adam suddenly smiled as an idea formed, "Hey, Billy, do you have a way to get in contact with Cestro?"

"Not here, but I could go get it."

"Neat, why don't you do that." Adam giggled. 'I can't wait till they get back and see this.' Billy was still watching him curiously. "What are you waiting for?" Billy teleported away and Adam began to bounce happily in place. "What?"

Rocky spoke first, "Did you get into my Jolt?"

"Nah, you know that stuff puts me to sleep." Billy popped back in with his gizmo du-jour and Adam rubbed his hands together in something close to glee. "Well, let's call up Cestro, we have a ninjetti council to commence!"

Blank stares met Adam's announcement and Dulcea spoke up, "A council? Now? This is highly unusual."

Dulcea blinked as she thought about how inane that statement was and Adam just smiled happily back. "Weelll, that was productive, what say we get this show on the road. Billy, if you'd do the honors . . . "

Billy rolled his eyes and punched a few buttons on the communicator. "Billy to Cestro. Can you hear us clearly?"

"Affirmative, I am already on my way back to Earth. Something disturbing happened two point three of your hours ago."

Adam spoke up, "Yeah, that's part of what this is about. Did you run that errand I asked?"

"Affirmative," Cestro paused, "He is intrigued as I have told him nothing of our purpose."

Adam ignored everyone's stares once more. 'Man, this is getting to be old hat.' "Well, this is it our first official council of the ninjetti." Adam giggled as he heard a slight gasp from the communicator, "Yup, that's us, the ninjetti. Sounds all spiffy doesn't it?" Adam took a deep breath and calmed down, "I'm sorry, it's just that tonight has been so weird and honestly, most of what I have to talk about isn't that great. You know I've been sorta keeping stuff from you and I wasn't happy with it, but now . . . " He shrugged, "Why not? Let's start with the 'disturbance' or should we start at the beginning?" Adam didn't wait for an answer as he continued, "Let's do the disturbance first. Cestro, that was the destruction of the ninjetti temple you felt. I can tell you that every spirit animal felt it and not just ours. Right now, as we do this they are in a council, but I hope ours goes a little better." Adam began to pace. "Now the next question is probably who, and the answer is a warlord of some sort named Kalieth, whom I think is probably the same one from Dulcea's little history lesson. For those of you who missed that, Kalieth was the heir to the Korian Empire, but it was destroyed by an alien race. Kalieth's father, the Emperor, had banned the ninjetti from the Empire not long after Kalieth was born. So, after the Korians fell, I think Kalieth decided to take matters into his own hands and destroy the ninjetti for some weird revenge thing. He met up with a ninjetti of less than sterling character named Vadyvov and Vadyvov planted a bomb in the ninjetti council hall, killing all of the ninjetti masters except one." He points at Dulcea, "This is Dulcea, Master Warrior of Phaedos, and for a long time, last Master of the Ninjetti."

When Adam paused for the introduction to whomever was with Cestro, Billy spoke up. "How do you know all of this?"

"Well, Frog kinda dragged me off to Phaedos to watch the festivities. Then the annoying little spirit says 'Shit!' and leaves me stranded wondering what the heck is going on. But I managed to get a look at the guy, man, he's big! Think Vincent on Beauty and the Beast and you've got a good idea of what he looks like." He thumbs through the history book to the picture of Ral. "A lot like this for those of you who don't do earth television trivia. He knows who we are, vaguely, but he doesn't know we've increased our numbers. And to give everyone a warm happy feeling, he's working some dark mojo that has the spirit council throwing fits. That's a bad sign I think, well, I came back in a funk and noticed that all of our spirit animals were gone. So, I tried to find Frog and suddenly I was in the middle of nowhere watching, okay, looking made my head hurt, listening to the spirit animals and trying to make sense of the mess. That's how I know what the bad guy's name is and Whale said he'd already given us all the information we'd need, so . . . " He waved the book slightly, "Then . . . " 'Coyote asked to see my hall pass? Not gonna do it.' "Then Coyote came over and talked to me, told me some stories about . . . well, I should have started at the beginning, well, hindsight's twenty-twenty."

"The beginning?" asked Kimberly.

"The beginning of the ninjetti and not which ninjetti came from where or who they worked for, I mean why there are ninjetti in the first place." Adam had been speaking fast before to prevent interruption, but now he had their full attention. "Well, in the beginning," Adam paused as Rocky chuckled, "In the beginning, there were lots of spirits. In fact, I think it started with the, I don't know, mythical spirits, like Dragon, Wyvern, Unicorn, and all of those. Now, eventually, our familiar spirits popped up and everyone was happy. Sometime before the founding of the ninjetti, a great Evil, and I mean with a capital 'E,' showed up and a great war ensued. It was bad, the spirits couldn't decide on a unified course of action and they suffered losses. Some lost their children, some were changed, some were actually injured, and some were destroyed. But in the end our side won. How or what that means, I don't know, but too much had happened. As the mythical spirits had pretty much been in the frontlines, they'd suffered the heaviest casualties and they decided to leave the regular spirits in charge. It's a very touchy subject for Frog and I think that views probably shared, these guys were like older brothers and sisters to our spirits. Well, it was figured out in the end that if they'd worked together as a group and not each just doing his own thing, they might have done better and this loss would have been averted. They held a council and decided that there would be champions for them and they'd work together each balancing out the other. What we like to call ninjetti." Adam drew to a close, it was a brief summary, but that left him lots of room to easily avoid anything that the others might notice. "I guess, it's time to open up the floor."

Everyone looked to one another for a few moments and Billy finally spoke up, "It might be helpful if we knew why the Korians broke from the ninjetti."

Adam shrugged, "I don't know, Kalieth was born . . . Cestro, remind me thank Whale!" Adam flipped through the book once more, "Here it is, 'Korian custom still dictates that the naming of a new child must be done after a 'foretelling' is done by an Erathian seer. Such foretellings will have a great impact on not only the life of the child, but of the family as well as they seek to avoid or lessen a dark fate.' Yeouch, I guess they dropped the ball on that one. So maybe when this ritual was done, Kalieth's future was tied to the ninjetti in a bad way and Daddy tried to keep the two from clashing. I'm betting that instead of avoiding he walked right into it."

Billy nodded, "That sounds reasonable. Who is with Cestro?"

Adam grinned, "I thought we needed to diversify the ranks . . . yeah, that's the ticket. Actually, I was talking to Cestro and it just popped into my head." He leaned down by the communications device, "Well, was it worth the mystery, Trey?"

"It most decidedly was."

"Well, Cestro can fill you in now on the details and when you get to Earth . . . well, if you want to be a ninjetti, the offer's open."

"I know enough of the ninjetti and you, Adam. I will be glad for the knowledge, but I shall accept your offer now."

Adam smiled hugely, "Great! Then we'll party!" Adam snickered as everyone looked at him in confusion. 'Hit em' hard, and leave them reeling.' He blinked as some missing individuals reappeared in the room. He looked down at Frog, "Hey, did you have fun at your little council? We were just discussing the whole Kalieth thing, coulda used your input." He turned back to the ninjetti, "Well, this has been fun." He tossed the history book to Billy, "I've got to be somewhere tomorrow, g'night. Oh, and Rocky, it's good to have you back." Adam started whistling as he walked back into his room. 'Works on spirit animals too.'

The ninjetti and their respective spirit animals just stared silently as he closed the door behind him. The ninjetti began to speak amongst themselves about Adam's impromptu 'council.' The spirit animals listened carefully and carefully nudged their charges to explain what they'd missed. Wolf turned to Frog. 'What exactly has your boy been up to?'

Frog shrugged. 'Can't leave him alone for minute. Can I?'

'Is he always like that?' Asked Ape curiously.

'Unfortunately.' Groused Crane.

'I always thought he was a bit too uptight, nice to see he's mellowed.' Decided Ape.

Crane groaned. 'You would.'

Owl chuckled softly. 'It is good that he accepts his place, but the question we should ask is why? Why now, when he has fought it so hard?'

'Not all knowing is open to us.' Sang Whale. 'But the asking is.'

'Right.' Frog hopped after his charge and vanished through the door.

Mountain Lioness watched him go. 'Perhaps, I am being paranoid, but we are being summoned together for a Purpose. I would not speak of it in council, not this night, for the panic it would cause, but I fear the War shall come again and Frog, and his Prince, are in the center of it.'

Wolf nodded. 'I agree.' He paused thoughtfully. 'I suspect Frog is, but I know that the Young Prince is getting help.'

'I know.' Said Crane quietly.

Wolf gave her a surprised glance. 'Do you?'

Crane gave him a cross look. 'Yes, I know that Frog's little Prince may well be a king. But did you think of what that might mean?'

Silence reigned and finally Owl spoke quietly. 'I will not ask you specifics, but I hope that you are wrong, Crane. It cannot happen again.'

Ape growled. 'IT WILL NOT,' he said forcefully and the others echoed him.

'Then we must be vigilant and hope that we will be enough.' Said Lioness firmly.

Adam sat on his bed and waited. 'Five, four, three, two, one . . . ' He smiled as Frog hopped through his door. 'What the Hell was that about?'

"I think a little bit was revenge for the 'Shit!' and disappearing trick you pulled on Phaedos." Adam shook his head, "You nearly gave me a freaking heart attack!"

Frog winced. 'Sorry, it was a real shock to finally see the schmoe behind this. And the stealing of Vadyvov's body . . . leaving it out to rot wasn't the best idea in hindsight.' He sighed. 'I had to tell the others, especially with the disturbance the temple's destruction would cause.'

Adam sighed, he wasn't really mad, just annoyed and he let it fade. "Okay, but could you give me more warning?"

'Sure, I'll try and leave a note.' Chuckled Frog.

"Thanks," replied Adam sarcastically.

Frog grew serious once more. 'How did you find out about Kalieth?'

"I saw him when I was on Phaedos . . . and Vadyvov."

'Vadyvov's corpse you mean?'

"Yes and no, Vadyvov answered Kalieth's questions and then Kalieth destroyed his remains. Kalieth knows who was on Phaedos, but we have an ace in the hole. We have Jason, Cestro, Rocky, and Trey. We have the Lioness, Whale, Ape, and soon, Hawk. And Kalieth does not know who I am, Vadyvov only saw me from behind. I came back here and you were gone, I tried to follow you."

'Sorry, I was at . . . wait a minute, how did you know I was at council?'

Adam grinned, "Coyote gave me a hall pass. That's where I heard the name, Kalieth, and when Whale said that he'd given us the answers, it stuck in my head. When I got back here I figured out what he meant and from that and a little history lesson with Dulcea, we pieced together a rough history of Kalieth. Did you get it from them?" He looked towards the door and Frog nodded. "Kalieth wants us dead and gone. I think the destruction of the temple was more to tie up a couple loose ends and get our attention than any greater purpose. He's going to try and draw us out." He paused and something made sense, "But, I think that we need to be careful," Adam was suddenly queasy, "Frog you have to be careful. How did you know about Kalieth as a 'petty warlord?'"

'When Phaedos became home to the Great Power, some of my children went to the more nomadic old ways and stayed. A greater portion left to build elsewhere and eventually their world fell under Kalieth's rulership. He isn't all that bad, just seems to be happy saying this planet is his. When I split you the first time, they and a few other worlds decided to rebel and I was pulled there.'

"Pulled there?" 'Why does that give me a bad feeling?'

Frog nodded. 'If enough of my children need me in one place I must go.'

Adam thought about that for a minute or two, but he couldn't figure out why it bothered him. 'Just jealous, I guess.' "Kalieth knows about them."

'WHAT!'

"Vadyvov told Kalieth."

Frog contemplated that for a moment. 'I need to go check some things out, okay?'

"Be careful."

'Always.' Frog vanished from Adam's sight.

"He deals the cards as a meditation
And those he plays never suspect
He doesn't play for the money he wins
He doesn't play for respect
He deals the cards to find the answer
The sacred geometry of chance
The hidden law of a probable outcome
The numbers lead a dance

Adam didn't sleep much that night and a few hours later he gave up the attempt. He knew part of it was the temple, the councils, Vadyvov, Kalieth, and the voice, but there was something else now, he just couldn't put his finger on. It was like he was doing a jigsaw puzzle, but all the pieces started face down and they only flipped over when they wanted to. Whatever picture was unfolding wasn't pretty, he was sure of that. He'd finished his morning exercise and had breakfast, now he was just sitting on the porch waiting for someone to wake up. Yesterday, it had seemed like they would have all the time they needed, but now it felt like time was short. Something was building, he knew it as certainly as he knew the sun would rise. He sighed and stared into the sky as he waited for the sun to rise.

He was still sitting there when Dulcea came outside looking for him. She sat down beside him, "You have awakened early this morning."

Adam shrugged, "Couldn't sleep." 'I'm waiting for something. Don't know what, but I have to wait.'

Dulcea studied Adam carefully, he was tired and she could see it in his eyes. She gave in to her whim and put a careful arm around him. She smiled slightly as he perked up a little and looked at her. "Last night was very momentous," she said in a mildly questioning tone.

He shrugged slightly and tried unsuccessfully not to blush. "Yeah, it was a lot." Dulcea waited patiently as he struggled for words. "I just reached the limit of what I could deal with, too much has happened for it to be chance. I guess, I just decided not to fight it anymore."

Dulcea smiled as Adam sighed slightly. "Sometimes that is all we can do."

"I wish it wasn't. I hate this, I hate everyone looking at me like I have all the answers. I'm just struggling to keep up with what's going on around me, it doesn't . . . okay, that sounds stupid. What's going on around me is what's making me special, isn't it?"

She took a moment to follow Adam's convoluted logic, "Yes, it is. I am not . . . ." She looked at Adam and knew that it was true. 'I told Jason that he had chosen his path, but I did not know how fast he would walk it.'

Owl whispered to Dulcea. 'Nor did I.'

Dulcea continued with barely a pause, " . . . a master of the ways of Spirit, so I can not tell you why, but you have been chosen. We all have, if you think about it. It was seeming chance that I was spared among all the Masters. Chance that Zordon found this place. Chance that you came to Phaedos and quested for the Great Power. Chance that you returned. Would you have chosen Cestro if he hadn't chanced to take you to Phaedos? Jason, if you had not searched for Rocky first?"

Adam nodded thoughtfully, "Chance." He thought about it carefully, "No, seeming chance. You are right, we are chosen and we are guided, but I have no idea of where we're supposed to go."

"You have gotten us this far." She looked uncertain for a moment, "Before you came back to Phaedos, I had . . . I had lost faith in my purpose, in the last words of the Masters. Fifty thousand years had finally bested me, where no other evil could succeed."

Adam gave her a shy hug. 'She looks so defeated.' He smiled as she looked at him sadly, "Hey, everyone has a bad day. I mean, sheesh, fifty thousand years stuck out in the middle of nowhere is enough to make anyone depressed." Dulcea opens her mouth to say something, but Adam continues, "No, don't say anything. It was just a bad day, so yes it took a little spiritual interference to drag you out of it, but they felt you were worth the effort. Heck, Owl, do you think that Dulcea was really out of line or that she deserted her duty or what have you?"

Owl laughed softly, but spoke in a serious tone. 'No, no one, not even I, am perfect. I was disheartened as well, so it is nothing to be ashamed of or feel guilty about.'

Adam gave her his best 'puppy dog' look and smiled, "See? Even she agrees," he giggled slightly. 'I can't believe I'm going to say this.' "So, turn that frown upside down and forget about it."

Dulcea stared at him for a moment silently mouthing what he just said, then she burst out laughing. "You are incorrigible!"

"I'm a Frog," he paused as she laughed harder, "which I think means the same thing!" They all sat on the porch laughing for a while, even Owl joined in.

'Thank you, Young Prince.' Whispered Owl to him.

He rolled his eyes at Owl and whispered back, "Welcome, but could you please stop calling me that?"

'Then, thank you, Adam.'

They had spent the rest of the morning talking, not even stopping to practice. Just sitting on the porch and watching the woods around them, but eventually Adam knew he had to leave. "I've got to go and meet someone today about the Billy thing." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the disk Blair had given him, "Give this to Billy and tell him and Kim both to look at it. It should help." Dulcea accepted it from him and he continued, "Trey and Cestro should be back today. If I'm not back you can make Trey a ninjetti without me, then you have to start training them all." He hadn't wanted to break the light mood from earlier, but it couldn't be helped, "I think we're running on borrowed time, I've got to get this mess with Billy and Kim straightened out now."

Owl shuffled, but kept silent. Dulcea frowned, "Do you know what's going to happen?"

"No, all I know is that Frog is up to his eyes in it and so am I." He quickly stood and walked to the door, "Hey, maybe tonight, we could, um, have dinner," Adam bit his lip and began to turn a fierce crimson as he stood there nervously, "y'know, together?" He studied the planking of the porch carefully.

"But we have dinner together every night?" She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't help teasing him. She watched as he flamed an even brighter red and tried to stammer out something, she wasn't sure what, he had already gotten rather incoherent. 'How can I turn that down?' Asked Dulcea rhetorically, she walked over to Adam and tilted his face up and she smiled at him, "I accept." She smiled even wider as a goofy grin lit Adam's face and he turned and promptly walked into the door. She winced as he stood back up and smiled sheepishly at her, then he opened the door and walked through. She shook her head in amazement. 'He has not yet ceased to amaze me.'

Owl chuckled to herself. 'Nor I.* She said quietly to no one in particular.

"You're one microscopic cog
in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
his red right hand."

On a distant planet . . .
Kalieth was alone as he searched through the ruins. He had sent all of his fleet, except a small ship for him, to blockade those who had dared rebel. But he had an important mission to perform. 'They are powerful. <you cannot defeat them without assistance.>' So he had come to this barren ruin, the only living thing on this shattered landscape. A few lights on his protective suit blinked in cadence to his heartbeat as he upended piles of debris and the occasional brittle skeleton was crushed beneath his feet. 'Where is it? <it is near.>' He paused in his search unsure. 'Is it necessary?' He pondered the consequences. '<yes, it is, nothing that matters shall be harmed. they shall not scape you this day.> Yes, I will finish it this time and I will make my revenge something they will never forget.' He grinned ferally as he pushed another pile to the side to expose a design cut into the floor. He ran his gloved figures over the carvings in the design and they glowed brightly for a moment, then faded. He reached down and pressed on a half moon carving that slid into the floor creating a handle for him to pull up. He opened the secret door and entered. 'Now, it begins'

Rocky was happy, no doubt about it, it was good to be back. 'I'm a ninjetti again, this is so cool.' He absently poked through Adam's cabinets trying to figure out what was what and where. He glanced back to the living room and looked curiously at Kim again and shook his head. For some reason she had came downstairs, still in her pajamas, and dragged a chair right in front of the door and sat down in it. He'd asked her about it, but she just smiled and told him that if he needed to go outside to use the back door. So he'd snuck around the house to try and figure out why Kim was acting so strange, all he'd seen was Dulcea and Adam talking on the front porch. 'Musta been some important ninjetti stuff.' He'd went back in and now he was trying to decide on the most important issue of the day—breakfast.

He made the pancakes first and set out the table with spaces for everyone. 'Now for the patented DeSantos wake up call.' He quickly turned on the coffee pot and started the bacon frying. 'Sheesh, record time.' Billy walked in bleary eyed and sat down at the table, he mumbled something and Rocky just nodded happily and put the first pieces of bacon on Billy's plate. Next came Jason and once she was sure no one was going to try and sneak past her, Kimberly. "Where are Dulcea and Adam?" asked Rocky.

Kim smiled slightly, "Busy."

'Oookaay.' Rocky shrugged and set to serving the others. Once that was done he quickly shoved some pancakes and bacon into some tupperware and set them on the stove. Kim laughed, "Man, you have gotten so . . . "

Billy interrupted, "DOMESTIC!"

Rocky just rolled his eyes as the others laughed, "Yeah, this coming from the man who can catch instant mashed potatoes on fire."

Billy blushed, "It was just an accident, could have happened to anyone."

"Uh huh, do you believe that Kim?"

Kim just laughed harder and Jason joined in, "Instant Mashed Potatoes!? How did you manage to do that?"

Billy just glared at them all and finished his breakfast. "Thank you for breakfast, Rocky."

He left the table and a few minutes later they could hear the sound of running water. Jason grinned, "I think that maybe we should hit the showers before Billy decides to use up all the hot water."

Rocky was cleaning up when Kim suddenly moved her chair from in front of the door. He glanced over curiously as he heard the scraping and a minute later Adam came through the door with the goofiest expression on his face that Rocky had ever seen. 'Well, maybe not since Tanya, but that would mean . . . ' He stood watching as a smiling Dulcea walked in the door and was quickly pounced on by Kim, who was obviously wanting details. ' . . . that Adam and Dulcea!?' He shook his head as the ninjetti master managed to deflect Kim. 'Wow, she's good.' Dulcea laughed and he heard her tell Kim that they'd talk later. Kim laughed as well and they both vanished upstairs into their rooms.

'That was neat, I think I've definitely got to bug Kim for the details. Things have gotten decidedly strange.' He listened to the shower a bit longer. 'Of course, there's not going to be enough hot water in this house to wet a washrag in about ten minutes, so . . . ' Rocky smiled and teleported out. 'Home, James.'

Adam was still feeling pretty good when he'd gotten ready to go see Blair. He'd teleported a little away from the college and walked on down to the office. 'I'm going to have dinner with Dulcea. I'm going to have dinner with Dulcea . . . ' As he walked towards Blair's office he'd noticed a big man sitting in the chairs outside the door. 'That guy's a fighter.' He absently thought as he took a nearby chair. He was mildly surprised when a black jaguar appeared beside the guy and walked over to him. 'Hello, ah, young one.' The jaguar actually rubbed up against Adam's legs, Adam sighed and nonchalantly leaned forward and rested his wrists on his knees so that his hands could dangle over the jaguar. A few light pets later the jaguar purred. 'So, you've come to get help for your sentinel?' Adam nodded. 'Good, look to your left.' He did and the large man was staring at him, though the man looked away as soon as he made eye contact with Adam. The man was over six feet tall with a broad build and a good bit of muscle and very straight posture. His hair had receded a little and had began to pepper with grey. It was cut into a very short haircut and his eyes were a brilliant blue. 'That's my sentinel.'

Adam forgot good manners and common sense as he stared at the man, "This is your sentinel!?" He looked around in complete embarrassment as it dawned on him that he said that out loud. He put his head in his hands, "I'm never going to live this down." He paused and whispered into his hands, "Oh, man, you heard that. I'm sorry, did anyone else hear? I'm not like a wacko or anything, I mean, I'm just trying to get help for Billy. Do you want to see a picture of Billy and Kim? Well, it's not just of Billy and Kim, but . . . " Adam sighed and dug into his wallet for an old picture of the group and pulled out the one of the ninja-era team. He handed it over to the man who stared at it blankly for a minute and grudgingly took it. "The guy in the blue is Billy and the girl in pink is Kim. Billy's started developing 'sentinel' senses and after reading . . . something, I figured out that Kim was his guide. Dr. Sandburg seems to be the only expert on this whole thing, so that's why I'm here. They need help and they needed it yesterday."

Before Adam could say anything more the office door opened and a student filed past them and Blair leaned out, "Hey, Adam, it's good to see you again. I didn't know if you'd make it back. Well, come on in."

Adam paused as his good manners won out, "It's good to see you too, but I can wait a little longer, this guy was here before I came, he's been waiting long enough."

Adam smiled to himself as the other two stared at each other for a moment and Blair motioned the big man in, "Come on in, Jim." Blair turned his attention back to Adam, "Well, you're next, got it?"

Adam nodded and the door closed. He waited patiently and he wished he could hear what was going on in Blair's office, but he'd supposed he'd find out soon enough.

"What the hell is going on?" growled Jim Ellison as he leaned forward over Blair's desk.

"Going on?" asked Blair with an innocent expression, "I thought I'd asked you to come take a look at this kid who told me that he needed my help, because his friend is a sentinel."

Ellison shook his head, "No. What I want to know is why my black jaguar was rubbing up against him like some overgrown housecat!? Why the kid leaned down and started scratching behind it's freaking ears and acting like he was having a conversation with it? And why he knew I was a sentinel!?"

"He did? Man, that is neat! I knew there had to be something up with him, I mean his views on totemic animals were a little out there, but really together. Then of course when he came in my wolf gave him the seal of approval."

Ellison cut him off quietly, "You mean that your spirit animal popped up for this guy and you neglected to tell me?"

Blair shuffled nervously under Ellison's gaze, "Well, I know how you hate all of that 'spiritual mumbo-jumbo' . . . "

"So you decided that I didn't need to know, so that I . . . " Jim stopped dead as the black jaguar growled at him and walked out through the office door.

Blair blinked as the wolf appeared beside him and seemed to roll his eyes before he walked out through the door. "Uh, Jim?"

Adam made himself comfortable as he waited for Blair to get done with 'Jim.' 'Well, at least I'm sure that he's the same guy in the paper.' He raised an eyebrow as the Jaguar and Wolf walked out of Blair's office. The Jaguar curled up contentedly at his feet and the Wolf snorted as he sat beside Adam. "Hi?"

Wolf looked at him for moment, 'Where's Frog?'

Adam looked around to make sure no one was really close and whispered, "I don't know, I haven't seen him since last night. Could you go check on him? I'm vaguely worried."

'Worried.' Wolf seemed to sit up straighter as Jaguar suddenly went from relaxed to totally at ready and spoke. 'While this is the first time we meet, you should not be worried for your mentor, unless . . . ' Jaguar let his words hang in the air as question for Adam.

"I've just got this bad feeling that time's running out." Adam paused knowing that Jim could hear him, "You know what this is about Wolf, so you can fill in Jaguar for me. Can you check?"

Wolf and Jaguar both nodded then Jaguar paused, 'Well, it seems that they've decided to at least take you out for lunch. I'll stay with you for my charge is much more suspicious, for good reason, of course, but I want to help so I'll keep playing 'big kitty.''

Wolf rolled his eyes. 'You make it sound like such a chore, we both know you just like being scratched behind the ears.'

Jaguar laughed. 'At least I'm smart enough to kick back every now and then, get someone to do it, and still look dignified at the same time.' Jaguar chuckled. 'You just sit there and look dignified all the time, because if you let anyone scratch behind your ear you'd start looking like a big puppy.'

Wolf gave him an annoyed growl. 'Puppy?'

Jaguar gave Adam a knowing look. 'Dog was a good idea, but he's still a little sensitive about the whole thing.'

Wolf snorted. 'At least I was useful, you just mooched a free ride.'

'And what's wrong with that?'

Adam snickered as the two bantered back and forth, but stopped as the door opened and Blair and Jim walked out. He watched as they both paused and looked directly to their respective spirit animals and then up at him. Jaguar then put his head on Adam's knee and Adam began to absently scratch behind his ear as the great cat began to purr. He managed not to grin as the big man's eyes widened slightly.

Blair finally looked away from his wolf and noticed that Jim was staring right at the kid. "Um, okay, Adam Park, this is my friend Jim Ellison. He came to invite me to lunch and I told him that I'd made plans to have lunch with you, so he decided to ask if you wouldn't mind having him along," Blair grinned slightly, "he said he'd pay."

By the look that Mr. Ellison shot Blair, Adam was pretty sure that Mr. Ellison had said no such thing. "Uh, sounds fine with me," Adam replied hesitantly.

He suddenly got a bad feeling when the big man grinned and the Jaguar began to chuckle. Ellison grinned, "Yeah, I'm buying and I'm picking the place."

Blair groaned and the Jaguar spoke. 'Wonder Burger.'

Adam decided that Blair had the right idea and groaned as well. 'I'm going to regret this, but if it helped Billy and Kim I'd eat a steak rare.' After another moment of thought. 'I think that might actually be safer.'

Adam stared at the burger before him and tried not to sigh. 'Mr. Ellison will hear it and I really don't want to make him feel too guilty.' Adam smiled inwardly. 'Blair's doing double duty.' He took another careful bite of his burger as the two bantered back and forth about the dietary value of a Wonderburger. 'Billy'd probably like it. I've never figured out he can eat like a little kid and still keep in such great shape, maybe it's a sentinel thing.' Adam did giggle after that and both Blair and Mr. Ellison turned to look at him. He smiled at them both, "Actually, I think I might be some sentinel thing, Billy's the same way." They both waited for some more explanation, "I mean, why they both seem attracted to more junk food than is healthy for human consumption and why they both are far healthier than they should be after living on such garbage. No offense, Mr. Ellison."

They were both silent as they digested the ramifications of that statement and Ellison grinned first, "So, you think that Wonderburgers could be perfectly normal choice for me?"

Blair answered first almost running over his words as he tried to avert a disaster, "That's just a theory, no proof, in fact Billy should be a control and keep eating his normal diet and I can compare the effects of a healthy diet on sentinel senses. So there's no reason . . . " He trailed off as Jim smiled and walked back up to the counter. Blair turned to Adam, "Do you know how long it took me to get him down to just a regular Wonderburger every two weeks?" He gave a long-suffering sigh, "Seven years. Seven long years of listening to him grouse about how 'it doesn't taste right' if it isn't swimming with grease." Blair looked back towards the counter where Jim was grinning hugely back, "Oh, don't think I'm letting you get back on that high-cholesterol-death-train of preservatives, grease, and stuff I don't even want to mention."

Jim walked back to the table and set his Super Wonderburger down and happily tore into it ignoring his guide's entreaties. Adam just snickered. 'He does sound a bit like Wolf, I wish Frog was here to see it.' He sobered and sighed. 'I just wish either one of them would get back.' He started slightly as Jaguar purred and rubbed up against him. 'Thanks.'

'Welcome.' Adam began to absently pet the insistent spirit guide and Jim nearly choked on his burger as the jaguar reappeared.

"Sheesh, Jim! I know it's been awhile, but I'm not going to throw it away, take your time. When I say that the stuff's going to kill you, I don't mean because you're going to choke on it," complained Blair.

Jim put his half-eaten burger down, it was good, but after a few years of not really indulging, his appetite had quickly faded. Not that he was going to let Blair know that. "Well, Adam, you've wanted to talk to Blair for a reason, so what about we finish up here and go someplace more private?"

Adam nodded and as he gladly threw his burger away, Blair turned to Jim, "What brought that on?"

"Oh, nothing in particular," replied Jim as he watched the Jaguar follow Adam away from the table.

Dulcea had happily taught Jason more of the ninjetti arts as they awaited the return of Cestro. They had talked and sparred not only with each other, but with Billy, Kim, and Rocky as well. In fact they had inadvertently discovered one of Rocky's special powers when he had sparred Jason and he accidentally knocked Jason halfway across the clearing. Fortunately, Jason was only bruised, but Dulcea quickly decreed that Rocky would only spar with her until she was convinced that he had more control. So as Rocky had sat and moped, Billy had tried to test Rocky's powers so that he would have some idea of what he could do.

So, in the end he had run about the area seeing exactly what he could actually lift. It was a lot. Billy had teleported away and returned with the 'most mobile large weight I could find on short notice,' his VW Bug, that had been affectionately nicknamed the Radbug in his youth. It had been repainted an indigo blue and some of the more eye turning extras had been replaced with much less conspicuous devices. Rocky didn't really know what the fuss was about when Kim had squealed happily and Jason had begun chuckling at the sight of Billy's car, but he had patiently waited to find out.

Kim had smiled and poked around it for a few minutes, "All leather interior, you know Trini would have a fit."

Billy shrugged, "It smells nice and feels good."

Jason had walked around it, "You've removed the stuff on the back, does it still have all the 'accessories' it used to?"

Billy grinned, "Oh, yeah and more. Remember, I did most of the original stuff with plain old earth tech and a little bit of ranger tech. This has all the extras, I've replaced almost everything . . . I just like the Bug though, so I kept that basic chasis concept." He began to walk around it as he happily expounded it's new features. He rapped on the door panel, "The basic framework is made out of the same stuff some of the flying Zords were, it's a lot lighter and stronger than anything we make on earth at this time. I could drive him through a Mack truck and maybe scratch the paint. It can also be easily pressurized and contained, so if I want to keep another atmosphere for like, Cestro, I can. The paint is chip resistant and radar resistant, it will also deflect a wide range of active scans. Plus, I love the color." He popped open the trunk and pointed to a thermos sized device, "Power source is a very tweaked version of what I installed in the Zeo bikes, but with some nice tricks I picked up on Aquitar. I really enjoyed the technical challenges of trying to pack everything into the VW chasis, very limited space, so I had to get the most for the least, yet make it 'easy' to replace with earth tech if anything happens and make it very durable, so I don't have to deal with that very often." He went around to the front and opened the storage area. He pulled out a very large blue cooler that took up almost every bit of space in the 'trunk' and pointed to a small device that took up the last quarter of available space, "This is the portable shield generator, it won't give much protection in a space battle, before you ask, but it will protect from high pressures, gravity, and makes sure that internal pressure is kept." He walked back to the trunk, "Those little tanks right there are a very efficient matter conversion system that turns CO2 back into Oxygen, so I don't have to waste space with regular tanks, the Aquitians' have been using a version of this tech for the last 800 years, so I'm going to say it's reliable." He opened the passenger door and popped the dash, "It has an onboard computer that is actually more advanced than Alpha 5, even a few star maps. I call him 'Alpha 5.5' and if anyone calls him the 'Lovebug,' I will kick their butt," even though he was out of uniform he summoned his power weapon and ignited it. The others got the point and wisely decided not to comment. He smiled even wider, "And yes, he can still fly. While it still has rear-wheel drive like a normal VW Bug and is road worthy in a regular sense, it also has a sweet anti-grav system." He gestured for Rocky who was standing with a glazed look on his face, "Wait a second, Rocky, let me set the brake." Billy reached into the car and hit a button. "Okay, Rocky, I want you to CAREFULLY lift up the back of the car." Rocky stared at him for a moment and Billy grinned, "That rock in the clearing was heavier than this car, you could probably lift it over your head, but it's a little unwieldy for that."

"If you're sure," said Rocky uncertainly.

"When am I not?"

Rocky shrugged and barely managed not to flip the car over, Billy just smiled smugly, "See I told you, you just needed to have it put into perspective. Now, while I have a view of the underbody, I'll finish my little tour." He tapped the tires, "These are way beyond steel-belted, no road hazard will even scratch them. They're made of an organic fiber compound quite similar to what our ranger uniforms were created from, its very light and strong. The biggest challenge was figuring out how to apply it to a tire. The tires can also be armored so that they're not just sitting out there when I'm not using them. As you can see, since I don't have to deal with many of the normal car requirements, I've redone the underbody. It's fully enclosed partially for protection and pressurization, but more so I don't have to worry about some VW enthusiast wondering 'what the hell' I've done to my car. The twin exhaust pipes actually enclose some of the navigational thrusters. You can put it down, Rocky." Rocky carefully set the rear end down with one hand and a slightly awed expression. "Oh, the windows are not only tinted, but they act as solar panels too. Storage battery is in the trunk, it's more for emergencies, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Best of all, I've put in a very special device," he went back to the front and pointed to the large cooler he'd removed, "basically, pull out the two six-packs of pop and the bag of Oreo's and it's a spatial distortion storage receptacle." After noting their blank looks, he added, "Think like Mary Poppin's bag or the TARDIS on Dr. Who, in fact that's what gave me the idea. Oh, it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, so I can cram all sorts of stuff into it. So what do you think?"

Jason thought about it for a minute, "It's much cooler than the old Radbug."

"Why didn't we take this when we went shopping?"

Adam had turned down a beer from Jim and accepted some tea from Blair, he wasn't a major tea drinker, but he knew that he was a real cheap drunk. 'It's now 'Jim.'' Mr. Ellison had practically ordered him to call him 'Jim' and Adam wasn't about to risk pissing him off. He had comfortably settled on the couch to wait for one of the others to begin. Jim had cut straight to the point, "You have a friend who's a sentinel?"

Adam nodded, "Yeah, I've been told that Billy's senses were starting to turn on recently, but he lives alone and has been unconsciously living his life so as not to aggravate them. Just recently when I reunited him with an old friend, they came fully back on-line. Kim has always been very protective of her friends, but suddenly she went into over-drive. When Billy neglected to tell her about 'zone-outs' or the fact that a trip to the mall gave him a headache to the point of fainting, well it wasn't pretty. They've both been arguing non-stop for the last three days. I had to call in one of their old friends and make him play peacemaker. It worked and everything is a lot more tolerable, but Billy and Kim need to get a handle on this, now."

Blair spoke up, "Where exactly do you come in? You're some sort of shaman, but you don't seem to have the same views as a traditional shaman."

Adam thought about it, "I don't know, if I didn't have a little more proof, like the fact that both of you and my friends have all occasionally reacted to them, I'd think I was nuts. I was suffering from a really bad case of the stomach flu, could barely keep water down and the occasional sip of soup. One night, I just woke up and could see 'spirit animals' and they seemed to want to talk to me about all sorts of things."

"Did you notice anything last night around 8:40?"

That surprised Adam, "You felt it? No, duh, if you're asking, you must have. That was the destruction of a place very sacred to many spirits, a very old place. It's kinda why I'm in a bit of a hurry to get you to help. More bad mojo on rise and Wolf wants Billy up to snuff."

Jim looked at Adam skeptically, even though his animal seemed to like the kid, it was still a bit hard to swallow. 'I hate this mystic BS.'

Blair leaned forward an interested look on his face, "His animal is the Wolf? Wow. What about Kim, or you?"

"Kim's the Crane and I'm . . . the Frog." Adam shrugged, "You work with what you've got, I've suppose."

"And you're spirit animal is sending you on a quest?"

Adam thought about it, "Yeah, that's one way to think of it, but it isn't only my spirit animal. Wolf asked me to come here, he didn't want to deal with two sentinels in the same territory, I guess."

Blair nodded and voiced another question, "You say you called in an old friend, does he know about Billy's senses?" Adam nodded, "Does he have a spirit animal as well?"

Adam grinned, "I might as well tell you a bit about our little group. A little less than a month ago, I 'reconnected' with my spirit animal. Then I felt the urge to go look up some old friends. Billy and Kim joined up with me and we went to help an old friend named Dulcea. She is the last, um, this does sound a bit corny, master of a mystical-philosophical-martial tradition. Mystical in that it has spirit animals, philosophical because it espouses some basic tenets, like helping others, and martial, because there are some martial arts involved. We'd originally met her on an excursion in high school, it was a great experience for all involved. An old colleague of hers was trying to, well, harm her and destroy the school. We helped her drive him off, but she decided that maybe it was time to leave the school and go with her students. Another old friend, Cestro, had flown us there and Dulcea inducted him into the order. Then when we went back to my place, I picked up, Jason, Billy and Kim's old friend, and Dulcea picked up Rocky, one of my best friends and one of the initial bunch of us. For scorecard reference, Billy's the Wolf, Kim's the Crane, Jason's the Mountain Lion, Cestro's the Whale, Rocky's the Ape, Dulcea's the Owl, and I'm of course, the Frog."

"I've never heard of a group like this, where . . . "

Adam just shook his head and cut him off, "It's very, very obscure. Dulcea found us, we didn't find her. And it's way out in BFE." Adam stopped as Crane landed on the edge of the couch. 'WHAT?'

'You don't have to yell, Kim wishes to know what time you want to meet Dulcea for dinner?'

Adam glanced at his watch. 'Around seven.'

'Formal or informal?'

'What do you think?'

'This is Dulcea . . . '

'Formal.'

Crane nodded. 'Good, I'm glad to see you're not totally clueless. Make sure you get there on time, a few minutes early to be safe. If it's going to be formal, why, you'd better make reservations.'

'Reservations?' Adam panicked slightly, but came to a quick decision, "Hey, guys, do either of you know a really nice place to take a lady for a very nice dinner?"

"How nice?" asked Blair.

"Tux nice."

Blair got up and left the room he came back a minute later with a small address book. "Well, what type of food?"

Adam gave Crane a panicked look, "Uh, something simple, I'm not totally sure what she likes . . . "

Crane rolled her eyes but didn't comment as Blair recommended a couple places and Adam placed a couple frantic calls to get a reservation. Jim and Blair just watched in amusement as Adam panicked, but Blair finally decided that enough was enough, "Hot date?"

'Hot? Dante look out!' Adam nodded happily as he began to blush, "Yeah, I got the nerve to ask her out this morning." He paused as a new thought occurred to him, "Hey, you've got to show me where this place is!"

In the end, Adam had gotten a quick tour of Cascade and he'd stopped for a roadmap. 'I've got to find someplace out of the way to teleport a truck to. Wouldn't do to walk her up to this place. Gotta get the truck cleaned and make sure my tux is . . . no, the tux won't be a problem.' Thought Adam wryly as he remembered what he could do. He shook his head in amazement at the day's events. After he had finally taken leave of Jim and Blair, he'd given them his address and phone number. And while his house was between Angel Grove and Washington, he'd decided to shell out for some plane tickets for the two, he wanted to get them there ASAP. 'They'd agreed!' So now all he had to worry about was a date with Dulcea and the fact that neither Wolf nor Frog had returned. 'Just a couple little worries.' He sighed at his sarcastic thought as he went to the airport to pick up his truck and get it cleaned.

Blair kept staring at Jim as he packed up a bag for the weekend. Finally, Jim got fed up with the attention, "What?"

"Why?"

Jim rolled his eyes, "Why? Why did I agree?" Blair nodded and Jim continued, "It's hard not to like the kid. He's not lying, he didn't tell us everything about that freaky group he belongs to, but he does have a friend who is a sentinel and needs help." Jim shrugged, "And a free trip out to the woods of northern California is hard to turn down."

"And?"

"And the jaguar really likes him." Jim sighed as Blair started to chatter on about spirit animals and his in particular. Blair had suddenly went from staring silently to full tilt inquiry about the jaguar. 'I should have kept my mouth shut.'

Kim tried not to giggle as she watched Adam shuffle nervously as he waited for Dulcea to come down. She'd spent the day preparing Dulcea for the intricacies of a formal date on earth. Dulcea's response when Kim had finished was, "That's all?" Kim had nodded and Dulcea laughed aloud at that. Kim vaguely wondered what traditions were like where she came from, if 'that's all' was her main comment about earth customs.

Cestro had returned with that Trey guy a little after lunch. Jason and Rocky had both been happy to see him and had asked him a whole bunch of questions about what he'd been doing. Then he asked them and it went on and on, until Dulcea had broken it up to do that ninjetti mojo of hers and make Trey a ninjetti, an orange Hawk. 'Orange!? Jason in purple is odd, but orange just seems tons stranger.' Of course, both she and Dulcea were in for a surprise as Jason asked a question and Trey suddenly split into three people. 'It was wiggy. Especially when each bit of Trey wore a different color.' He was orange as Trey of Wisdom, Red as Trey of Courage, and Yellow as Trey of Heart. 'Why wasn't he blue for Wisdom?' Both she and Dulcea had sat shaking their heads for a few minutes, but it was Rocky that pointed out an odd fact, with the addition of Trey they now had all the colors in their group, though Trey was doing 'triple duty.'

They'd laughed about that for a bit and then Dulcea had gotten down to the business of training them and training them hard. 'Phaedos was hard, but I'd almost take Cestro's telepathy lessons over this.' It had broken up about an hour and a half before Adam was supposed to come back and pick Dulcea up. She had vanished into her room and even Kim found herself barred from entrance. They had sat about while Rocky voted himself cook and started to work on dinner. They caught up on old times some more and Rocky waxed enthusiastic that he'd be allowed to spar someone besides Dulcea tomorrow.

Then poor Adam had come back, he was dressed in a very dressy black outfit. 'He could probably have a very profitable career in fashion.' Kim giggled at that thought and Adam looked up at her. She smiled innocently until Adam went back to shuffling nervously. 'He's just so cute.'

Then after making him wait the 'obligatory five minutes,' Dulcea finally came down the stairs and all eyes in the room were on her. 'Nice outfit.' There was something familiar about the style, but Kim couldn't put her finger on it. A quick glance around the room quickly told her that every guy in the room, except Cestro 'liked' the outfit. 'I don't think he counts for this.' She looked back at Adam. 'I think he's going to faint. I still can't believe he asked her out. I can believe he walked into the door, but I can't believe he asked her out.'

Kim felt the urge to either giggle hysterically 'I think that's coming from Adam' or laugh out loud—but that's just her. She managed to keep herself restrained, but she could feel the smile that threatened to split her face. Dulcea finally broke the silence, "Well, Adam are you ready?"

Adam nodded vigorously and opened his mouth to speak, but seemingly thought better of it and gently took Dulcea's hand and gave it a light kiss. Then he guided her the rest of the way down the stairs and they teleported out.

'Where did I put Kat's number? She's not going to believe this!' Kim giggled slightly to herself as she headed up to her room.

'It's not a date. It's not dinner. I just happen to be eating at the same place, the same table, with Dulcea. Doesn't mean a thing.' Adam kept up his strange internal mantra as he sat across from Dulcea. He'd already figured out that thinking about it as a date or in anyway that could be construed as a date was a quick way to a panic attack—he'd barely managed to avoid one as the salads were served. 'I haven't even thought about . . . having a harmless dinner with someone that in no way is datelike in years. And suddenly. Oops.' "Me? Oh, I'm not that interesting." Dulcea smiled at him and he decided that boring here with his life story wasn't that bad a thing. He pulled out his wallet and flipped through it, "Well, these are my parents, Trevor and Eileen Park. He's a policeman, which to me has always been sorta like being a ranger without all the perks and a spiffy suit to protect you. He always used to work a lot when I was younger, so I spent most of my time with my mom. I guess when it comes down to it I take a lot after her, she's now a professor at AGU teaching literature. I always felt sorta honored that I was her first real student, in fact when I went to college that's what I was studying. When I started working on stunts for movies, I went back for whatever classes I could cram in between shoots. It took me seven years and a lot of classes by mail and a few semesters that were very unhealthy for me, but I finally got my degree." He sighed and flipped through the pictures once again, when he found the one he was looking for he held it out and spoke quietly, "This is my mother, Tanya, and I at my graduation."

He stared at picture a while longer and Dulcea spoke up once more, "Tanya? You do not talk about her . . . "

'Because it's easier not to think about her than to deal with it.' He shrugged and stared at the picture intently, "She replaced Aisha when we went through the whole Zeo thing. I ended up teaching her martial arts and stuff, because she didn't want to be a liability to the team. We became friends and eventually started dating." He smiled to himself, "My mom said that I was the kind of person who liked to do things right the first time. We kinda surprised everyone by staying together, but they weren't surprised when we got married. She was just so wonderful, she was like, like sunshine, something that was bright and warmed you inside and out. I loved to watch her, whether she was singing or just studying for a test, it was just so right." He absently wiped his eyes as he continued, "It was kinda hard making everything work while we both started working on our respective careers, both of our chosen professions required a lot of traveling. I was always banging around the world from one stunt shoot to another, I think I spent more time in New Zealand than I did in the states. She was busy touring and doing all the promotion stuff, but every time we could be together we were." He smiled at his memories, a smile that banished all the sadness that had started to hang over him as he talked and another that she had only gotten hints of as she had become reacquainted with him. "It was great, wonderful, wondrous, and any other positive adjectives I could come up with."

Unfortunately, dinner choose this moment to be served and he closed up again. They ate in silence for a little bit and finally Dulcea decided to try and get a conversation started again. "I remember my first love, his name was Adric, he was a fisherman. Oh, don't look so amazed, I didn't live my entire life in the temple. A good deal of it, but I did grow up somewhere else. My world was a little cooler than Phaedos and fishing was a common profession, yes, we were more technologically advanced, but there was a preference for the old ways. My father was a well respected scholar and he would teach in our village. My mother raised me as well, but I took more after my father." She laughed at Adam's expression, "It does seem odd that until I was called to the ninjetti, you could hardly find me without my head in a book." She paused and thought back to those days, so much different than what she had endured in the temple, and much different than what she was experiencing now. "Now, I suppose that I should tell you of Adric." She gave Adam a mischievous smile, "If I wasn't reading a book, I was getting into trouble with Adric. Well, we grew up and friendship turned into love, but unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. I heard the call of the ninjetti and it could not be denied, I left Delucia and traveled to Phaedos."

She fell silent and for one of few times Adam could see the time in her eyes. He reached across the table and gently gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "You never went back did you?"

"My training and the rigors of being a ninjetti kept me away, or maybe it was just cowardice on my part, just better to avoid the problem than to face it head on."

"Cowardice is not something that you could ever be accused of Denial, well I understand that one too." He stared off into space, "Some days, when it gets really bad, I just convince myself that she's in the studio practicing. That makes it all go away, but I never open that door anymore."

"We all have our weaknesses."