What Lies Ahead... [Jack Rannells]

Mae stared out the window, drinking tea. The sun was shining, everybody seemed happy, but underneath all this Mae knew that things were anything but peaceful. Hence why she had sent that text message to Jack a couple of minutes prior. Now that she was a Ranger, She  needed to get some sort of task or something. She couldn't be the only Ranger without something to do.

Normally, she would have brought Ayane with her, but considering the subject that she was about to discuss with Jack, it was probably a better idea to keep the pigtailed girl in the dark. The less she knew about the other worlds and everything else regarding them, the better...

"Uh this is gunna sound weird but... could you like... grind the tea in some dirt and rub it on some rotten beef before you brew it?... Yeah yeah I know sounds utterly disgusting but... well there is no but... It's utterly disgusting but that's the way I like it..." Jack had tryed many times to recreate the taste of Zyugreen tea. He had found that rotten beef tended to have the right flavor when added to dirt and a little lemon pepper. After placing his order he would look around the tea house for his pink haired comrade. Ah! Sitting by the window gazing out into the sunset.... ah! So picturesque!

"Yo Mae!" Jack called out as he sat at the table with a smile "What's up? What did you want to talk to me about?" Jack would take a quick sip of his tea, his face scrunching in total disgust.

"Well, yeah..." Mae took a sip out of her cup, before continuing. "Uh... I was thinking about it the other day, and feel a little bit at loss as to what I should do as a Ranger. Things are starting to become a bit... unsettling to say the least. I want to know what I'm supposed to do in order to prepare for what lies ahead of us in the future. I'm still new to this, and... I feel like I need to do something to prove myself." Mae thought back on that Mass Awakening... She had fared quite well there, but she needed to get stronger. "I guess what I'm trying to say is... I want to get stronger. Strong enough to protect the ones I care about. And for that... I need your help." She was of course talking about Charles... Not that Jack knew anything about that yet. He would learn about their relationship eventually.

"heh... Ahaha... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Jack couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it all. Here Mae was, asking HIM about persona and how to go about being a user... When he was certain he was the most clueless Persona user ever born. He tryed his damndest to stop laughing but the Ha's just kept comen... "I-I'm so sorry! I-I-I'm not l-laughing at you! It's ju-PFFFT... Just so funny!... AH... ehe... Maeehehe...Mae. Let me let you in on a little secret. I've only been in about 5 fights, and I spent one of them flat on my ass. What I'm trying to say is... The rangers are not an elite fighting force made up of the best persona users from around the world... We're a bunch of kids just trying to figure out what to do with out powers." Jack would smile and sip from his tea,"Buuut, if you tell me exactly what you can do I can offer some advice."

Mae chuckled at Jack's words. "Yeah. We are just a bunch of students after all." Yeah, Mae had not gone into this expecting them all to be experienced with this stuff. Maybe that's why she had joined in the first place? Fighting together with friends on common ground made alot more sense to her. "Well, Me and Qilin can do a number of things. Our main Specialty is fire casting, and supporting others with healing. We do carry a light spell as well... And that's about it for now. I'd rather fight from a distance, if at all. If my attacks prove ineffective, I can fall back on supporting you guys. So, in a nutshell, I'm quite flexible." The only thing Mae really lacked was... well... Physical strength. But as long as she kept her distance, the fire should prove to be effective enough on its own. "I guess that's everything... What do you need the most at the moment? I can certainly fill one nische, if not multiple ones."

Healing huh?... That could prove useful"So you're a Blazing Medic. Good! We could really use one of those.". Jack came up with the term on the spot... it was pretty good if he had to say so himself. When it came to healers all the rangers had was Kaz and himself, and while the two of them were competent healers they were better suited for battle then anything else. So having a dedicated healer would be a god send."Well Mae I must say that you will fit in just fine. We have a bunch of fighters but not many healers, which is something we always need. Just so you know a bit more about me and my powers though, I'm very much a front line fighter. Me and Golem only use physical attacks and focus on dishing out a lot of damage really fast. Not the most effective strategy, but it works for us."

"Well, if you wanna give it a term, I guess that works." Mae chuckled at the nickname. Blazing Medic, huh? That's Jack for you. "I'm not that good of a healer yet, but I'll do my best to keep you all healthy and in tip-top shape!" The aspiring healer smiled back at the team leader. It felt nice, talking like this. Now that the two knew about the power they held within, their relationship felt... deeper somehow. They had more things in common now than before, which was a big plus in Mae's book. "Well, don't overdo it okay? I might be a healer, but that doesn't mean you can toss yourself into battles at every turn. I feel responsible for all of you guys' safety and wellbeing. Both on and off the battlefield." Mae gave him a serious look, with her tone of voice matching it perfectly. "I'm serious. Don't do anything rash or hasty... I know you're impulsive, but please, contain yourself from time to time. If not for yourself, then do it for me, alright?"

"Pffffffft... Yes Moooom! heh" Jack would take a hearty sip from his tea. His face would then turn a sickly green as he began to gag and pound his fist on the table. Hot tears streamed down his face as he choked down his sip. Afterwords he would pant heavly and wipe the sweat from his brow... MAN! What a drink!"D-Don;t worry! I'll be fine... I t-tend to lose a lot of stamina... but I'm g-great at getting myself back up... Besides... I-I bet me and Golem can dish out just as much pain as you and Qilin can and then some heh... Oh god this stuff is good..." Jack would look down at his cup then up to Mae with a mischievous glint in his eye"Would you like to try a sip?... It tastes just like ZyuGreen Tea... Probably some of the rarest tea on the market."

"Well, someone's gotta take care of you all." Mae chuckled, as she took another sip out of her tea. This one was her favorite, earl grey. Not paticularly japanese, and nothing super-fancy, but she liked it all the same. Pretty bland choice of tea many would say, but Mae just honestly liked the flavor and aroma of it. Besides, it calmed her down, which was more than enough for the pinkette to like it. Jack, on the other hand didn't seem to enjoy his, despite his words. "You okay there? You look a little green..." Mae asked him with a raised eyebrow. What had he taken? "Well, yes... I got your back, leader!" She would salute, but stopped herself. It would just look ridiculous, and Mae did not want to accidentally spill out her tea. That stuff was hot, and she would most likely get burned really bad if she got an entire cups worth of tea all over her legs.

"ZyuGreen?" That was something Mae had never heard of. She took the cup carefully and looked at the contents. It was a combination of A sickly green and black. W-Was that mold?! She carefully took a whaft of the smell, and she instantly put down the cup on the table. "EWWW! That stuff reeks! What even is that!?" Yep... Definetly mold, and that tea cup from hell would most likely poison her. "D-did you order this?"

"AHAHAHAHA! Yes sir! Nothing like a nice cup of Zyugreen tea to wake you up in the mornin and put hair on your chest! It's by far the most foul disgusting and vial drink known to man or best alike! Just one sip is all it takes to knock a lesser man on his ass!" Jack would let out a hearty laugh and take another hearty swig of the tea. His entire face froze for a moment before twitching slightly. He then brought his head down onto the table at full force causing a loud booming sound fallowed by a sickening crack... that hopefully came from the table.

"WHAHOOOOO!" Jack would lift his head from the crater and let out another laugh of manly passions"This is a TRUE drink of MEN! Just a sip is enough to light my soul ablaze and turn my burning heart into a roaring inferno of passion and love! AHAHAH!" jack would laugh as a small trickle of blood began to flow down his face. "Unfortunately this is not a true cup of ZyuGreen, only a close imitation! True Zyugreen is rarer then gold and much much stronger then this."

"Y-you okay!?" Mae asked worriedly as Jack looked up from the table again. "Geez... You shouldn't be drinking that stuff. Look, your bleeding for crying out loud!" The pinkette stood up and grabbed some tissues for Jack. "What did I just say about being careful?" She said in a reprimanding tone, not paying all the scared on-lookers any mind. "We can't have our leader suffer a concussion just because of a drink, now can we? What if something bad happens, and you're out of commission? And besides, I care about my friends, Jack." Geez... Jack could be so foolhardy sometimes... But sometimes, that passion of his was a good asset. "So, how are things going for you? You know... with the dorms closing down and all?" She asked curiously. How was Jack going to find somewhere to crash for the time being...? Mae already had a place for her to stay...

"Well, while yes it dose make me smash my head into tables and stuff. I can;t really STOP drinking it... It means a lot to me. Someone very special to me introduced me to this tea. And it reminds me of someone even more special. That and I think I get some Masochistic pleasure from drinking it... Weird huh..." Jack would smile at Mae's speech however. He felt a warm happiness wash over him as he realized how much Mae cared about him... She was a really good friend. "Though I appreciate the concern Mae, it means a lot to me..."He would flash Mae a warm smile and nod as she asked her next question."As for the dorms, I've been staying with a friend of mine named Quinn, one that you may know yourself Ranger Pink hehe..." Jack would smirk at Mae and take another... much smaller... sip of his tea.

"I.... uh... see..." Mae said awkwardly, looking worriedly at Jack. Was he really out of his mind? Or was this person that important to him? "So... Who is this 'Special Someone' then?" She asked curiously. Could it be a...? Naaaah, no girl in their right mind would give that stuff to him... Unless they wanted to poison him... "Is it a girl?" the only reason Mae had asked that in the first place was to get rid of any doubt in her mind that there was some girl out there actively trying to poison people... A scary thought.

"Hehe, you would've done the same thing for me, I'm sure." Mae chuckled modestly. The answer to her last question nearly made Mae choke on her tea. "Wait... You're staying with Quinn?" Now that was suprising. "Ooooh... What do you think of Quinny? I want all the details! Are you dating?" Mae honestly couldn't help herself. This was great news, no? She wanted to know everything. After all, Mae was supposed to help Jack with this kind of stuff to begin with...

A slight blush crossed Jack's cheeks as he looked down at the tea. Damn it.. he still got all flushed over Oki... Though to be fair hie exchange with her was not to terribly long ago. He still had the right to get a little flushed over an old crush. "It's not really important, just a friend of mine named Oki. She introduced me to this tea at my request. It's legendary in the Ranger Fandom.... I'm probably only in a hand full of people who know what it tastes like," he would chuckle and take another sip... that he promptly choked on at Mae's next line of questioning.

If he was flushed before, he was beat red now. "D-Dating!? N-No! Not at all! I'm just crashing at Quinn's place while the dorm gets cleaned out... In their room... and... sleeping... in their... bed... Oh god this looks bad doesn't it?... I-I swear I'm just crashing there! Nothing is going on." the Red in Jack's cheeks would put even the Akaranger to shame...

W-Wait... Jack knew Oki? "Hold on... Did you just say Oki?" Mae raised a suprised eyebrow at Jack. What were the odds? It seemed that Mae had met a good chunk of people that Jack knew as well... Was it just mere coincidence? "Well, if it is the Oki I think you're talking about then yes... I've met 'em... Once, a couple of weeks back. They helped me with getting a boxed lunch ready. Wait... Why are you blushing?" Mae chuckled. "Oh... I see how it is." Well, there was only one explanation to Jack's behaviour... But she wasn't going to make a big deal about it. She just left it hanging there, as Jack said something even more interesting...

"Wow, Jack... You move fast." Mae chuckled again. She was only kidding with him of course. "Well, it's okay. At least you're not living on the streets. And you know Quinn Ayers too? Huh... Funny. I just helped her and two others dealing with shadows. It wasn't that big of a deal anyway... But yeah, we know each other. We're not very close though..."