Authors Notes: Few quick things. First the concept of having Jessica in LA came from a conversation with KSuzie after the fic “Trapped” came out. So thanks to her for the idea. Second, I am not really going to address a lot of the Astro Rangers separate missions. There will be stories where they are involved with the Ninja Zeo team, but as far as what they are doing you can assume that they are carrying on missions close to the same time line as what you saw on PriS.
Power Rangers
“Crush”
A group of friends found themselves sitting in Angel Grove park on a Sunday afternoon. Well, they weren’t friends, more like acquaintances, but they were working on the friendship part. That was what this afternoon was all about, assuming they could get through it without some of them being called away.
Four girls found themselves sitting in their own little gossip circle, as the older girls intently listened to what the younger girls had to say.
“Then we let them take a spin on our galaxy gliders.”, Ashley Hammond finished the girls story with a smile on her face. So far, they had been having a lot of fun as Astro Rangers.
“So Ninja Turtles huh?”, Carri Hillard asked as she smiled at the two new rangers. She had lived in New York for a few years, and as far as she knew they were only comic book legends. Of course, Ashley and Cassie would say the same thing about creatures such as vampires, but Carri’s friendship with the slayer could quickly prove that wrong.
Cassie Chan smiled and nodded. “It’s just wild. We’ve barely been rangers for a week and already we’ve seen a lot of action.”
“Well you just stepped into a lot more than just someone trying to take over the world.”, Kimberly Heart explained. “With Astronema out there trying to destroy all of us, things are going to be a little more action packed than when the rest of us became rangers.”, she added gesturing to all of the Ninja Zeo rangers
“Yeah and she may be just testing you now.”, Carri added to what Kim was saying. “Like Divatox and Rita and Zedd have been doing with us this last week. Trying to figure out where you stand, what your combined powers do, that sort of thing.”
“All I know is,” Ashley stopped abruptly when something hit the middle of the girls circle with a soft thud. She looked down to see it was a volleyball.
“Are you girls going to gossip all day, or do you want to come play?”, asked TJ Johnson as he smiled at them
Rocky DeSantos walked up behind the girls and leaned against his girlfriend, looking down at the foursome. “Yeah we thought it might be fun to play Ninja Zeos versus Astros.”
Kim looked over at TJ and laughed. “Fun for us maybe.”, she said as she and Carri smiled at each other
“Is she trash talking us?”, Cassie asked as she raised an eyebrow and looked over at Ashley
“I think so.”, Ashley said hopping up. She motioned for Cassie to get up. “Come on.”, she said
The Pink Astro Ranger quickly hopped up and walked off with Ashley and TJ, leaving the three Ninja Zeo’s alone. “Let’s do this.”, Carri said as she and Kim got up as well and Rocky led them over to the net
“It’s about time you got here.”, Jason Lee Scott said with a smile. Kim made a face and Carri stuck her tongue out at him as Tommy Oliver laughed.
“Come on, let’s get started.”, Tommy said eyeing the other side of the court
The Astro Rangers stood four strong. Tommy glanced around to see Andros standing off to the side of the court. Andros had never played volleyball before, and didn’t really know what it was. And although he agreed with letting the rangers try and get to know each other, he felt as though he would have been better off on the ship, helping DECA and Alpha keep an eye on things and following up on that lead he left them.
Ashley looked over at her teams leader and smiled. “Come on, you have to play.”
“Well,” Andros started as he tried to formulate an excuse in his mind
“It will be fun.”, Ashley added as she motioned for him to come on
Andros smiled at her. He couldn’t think of an excuse, and Ashley really wanted him to play so he figured why not. As he crossed over onto the court, Carlos smiled at him. “Good, now we’re ready to start.”, Carlos said glancing over at the other ranger team
“As ready as we’re going to be.”, Tommy replied lofting the ball up and serving it over the net
The ball flew in Andros’s direction, and he hit it clumsily and watched as it hit the net and fell down. TJ smiled at him and looked over at the other rangers. “Ok give us five minutes to explain this to him.”
The Ninja Zeo’s smiled and nodded as the Astro Rangers surrounded their leader and tried to teach him the best way to play volleyball. A few minutes later they were ready, and the game resumed. Andros was able to get a hold of the concept fairly quickly and got really into the game. Twenty minutes later the Ninja Zeo’s had won the first set and the trash talking on both sides of the net was full force.
“See I told you. We’re having a blast.”, Kim said as she smiled at TJ
TJ laughed at her. “We just didn’t want to cream you up front. Then you might not want to play with us again.”
“You just keep telling yourself that if it’s what makes you feel better.”, Carri responded as she grinned at the Blue Astro Ranger
“Come on guys let’s show them.”, Ashley said as she threw the ball up and sent it flying towards the other rangers
“Got it!”, Tommy yelled as he dove for it and bumped it high in the air. Jason ran over to the ball and leaped up, spiking it down. Cassie tried to get it but with no luck.
Rocky smiled and extended his arms for the ball. “I think, once again, that would be our serve.”
“Yeah yeah.”, Cassie replied as she threw it back at him. “I just felt bad for you that time.”
“Let’s see if you feel bad for us again.”, Rocky said as he served it back across the net
Carlos was in place to hit it, but he stopped and turned as Andros’s communicator went off, allowing the ball to hit the ground and roll off. Andros went to answer it as his four rangers surrounded him. “Go ahead.”
“Andros we have found a clue off on another planet but you must hurry. Astronema is headed there to destroy it.”, Alpha responded
Andros looked over at his team. “We’re on our way.” The Astro Rangers quickly said goodbye to the Ninja Zeo team, then they found somewhere secure and took off.
“You think they payed Alpha to do that?”, Carri said with a grin as she walked over to the other side of the net and picked up the volleyball
“Yeah I’m sure.”, Jason replied making sure she saw him as he rolled his eyes at her. She made a face back then smiled.
“So then are we done?”, asked Tommy
Kim went over and put her arms around him. “Not unless you guys want to loose to me and Carri.”
Tommy gave her a quick kiss. “I think we’re done.”, he said as he smiled down at her
Jason looked over at his watch. “Besides Emily should be getting off soon and I promised I’d take her out.”
“Then why don’t the rest of us grab everything and head on back to LA.”, Carri suggested as she walked back to the other side of the net, volleyball in tow
“Sounds like a plan.”, Rocky said as he smiled over at her
“I’ll see you guys later.”, Jason called out as he waved and took off. He was left with a chorus of goodbyes from the other rangers before they turned back toward each other.
“You guys want to hang out for a while?”, Rocky asked as he walked over and put an arm around Carri’s waist
“With you?”, she asked skeptically as she pulled away. “No thanks. Come on Kim.”, she said leading her friend off. The two girls smiled as they headed for the car, waiting to see how long it would take the boys to catch up. A few seconds later both girls found themselves being tackled from behind. The boys left them in the grass as they got up and headed for the car. Carri and Kim laughed then jumped up to join them, as the four of them headed back to LA to have dinner and spend some time at the apartment.
Jessica McClintock sat on a bench along with her older sister Stephanie. She was dying to come to LA, only her learners permit prohibited that. However her sister wanted to go, and her parents just wanted her to get away from the weird things that happened in Sunnydale, so here they were staying with an uncle of theirs.
She found herself sitting outside of a dorm room building on the USC campus. The very second they arrived she had gone to the campus website and looked up one of their students. She found what dorm building he was located at, and headed over to campus. Since then she had been sitting on a bench outside the one entrance waiting for him to come home. It was now late at night, but she didn’t care. She had a feeling Stephanie was going to give up soon though.
“What if he’s been in there all day? Or what if he’s partying with no intention of coming in until two am?”, Stephanie asked her sister
“Or what if he’s on his way home right now.”, Jessica replied as she sat back against the bench, arms crossed
Stephanie sighed. Just a half a semester at UC Sunnydale had taught her what college life was like. There was no guarantee this guy was going to come home at all. And as he was more her age than her sisters, she doubted he would want to give her the time of day. She readjusted herself in her seat and closed her eyes, leaning back against the bench. She was glad to be out of Sunnydale. The place itself was creepy, she spent the entire fall semester hating school, and she had always wanted to be in LA. As she sat there absorbed in her own thoughts, her little sister suddenly grabbed her leg.
“That’s him!”, she exclaimed as she hopped up off the bench. Stephanie sat up and her eyes followed her little sisters movements, but she declined to get up. “Rocky!”, Jessica yelled as she ran over to him. He was making his way home with the other guy who had done the martial arts seminar in the Sunnydale gym last fall.
Rocky looked around to see who had been calling his name. As he saw her coming close, he recognized her. “Jessica?”, he asked as one of his students from his previous seminars approached
“Hey Rocky.”, she said coming to an abrupt stop in front of him
“What are you doing here?”, he asked
“My sister and I came to LA. To stay.”, Jessica explained
Tommy moved past Rocky and pointed toward the building. “I’ll be upstairs.”, he said as he went on and Rocky nodded acknowledging him
“So your parents moved?”, he questioned
She shook her head no. “We’re staying with my uncle. But my parents wanted me out of Sunnydale.”
“Oh.”, was all Rocky could manage to say. He couldn’t help but think that the last thing he needed right now was this girl to follow him around like a lost puppy dog. Between work and school, friends and family, and of course the ongoing attacks on the Earth he had more important things to concern himself with. “That’s cool.”, he finally managed to spit out
“Yeah and we can hang out some.”, Jessica replied, her excitement getting the best of her
“That’s great.”, Rocky said although he really didn’t mean it. “Well I have to go inside and do some work.”, he lied. The semester didn’t start until the next morning, and he really didn’t have anything to do, but he figured she didn’t realize that.
“Ok cool.”, she said. She looked at him for a moment then smiled and gave him a quick hug. Rocky took a step back not expecting that. “See ya later.”, she said as she jogged back over to her sister
Rocky smiled at her when she glanced back at him before he headed inside his building. Jessica was beaming when she walked back over to her sister. “I told you I’d find him.”, she replied as she smiled at her
“Yeah you did.”, Stephanie replied as she smiled back. She had to admit, her sister had good taste. “Come on, let’s head home.”
“Alright. Maybe we can run into him tomorrow too.”, she said excitedly as she allowed her sister to rush her off
“Look the red ranger has and admirer.”, Rita said as she looked back at Zedd after peering into her telescope. “Maybe we can use that to our advantage.”
“I have an excellent idea.”, Divatox said as she appeared before the duo
Rita looked at her. “It’s about time you got here.”
“Honestly I don’t know why we had to meet at your place anyway. My place is much nicer.”, Divatox replied
Zedd laughed as he stood up from his throne and walked down to her. “In that cramped little submarine of yours? I think not.”
“Anyway,” Divatox started brushing his comment off, “we have to think of some new ways to defeat the rangers. None of what we have done so far has been useful.”
Rita and Zedd agreed, because that was the primary reason they had called this meeting. They had been sending out their individual tengas and piranhatrons, and their individual monsters this past week, none of which were successful. “With the rangers new powers, there has to be a way for us to combine our powers.”, Rita said. Not that she was excited to combine powers with Divatox, but if working with her was the only way for her and Zedd to finally conquer Earth, she was all for it.
“And what exactly do you suggest?”, Divatox asked eyeing the duo
“First,” Zedd started as he looked at her sternly, “the piranhatrons have proven no more useful then the tengas. They can distract the rangers, but they can be easily defeated in the end.”
“So what are you saying? Get rid of my piranhatrons? I think not.”, Divatox said. She wasn’t about to let Rita and Zedd take over every aspect of this operation.
“Finster!”, Rita bellowed. Finster came running in as soon as he heard his name called. Rita looked over at him, then back to Divatox, and smiled. “Finster said that he can figure out a way to mutate the two into one strong warrior.”
Divatox shot Finster a look. He smiled and nodded. “It’s going to take some time, but yes I can do it.”
“Hm...”, Divatox said as she paused to think, “That might not be such a bad idea.”, she said as she snapped her head up and looked at Zedd. “What else?”
“As much as it pains me to say it, we need to make monsters together. They can defeat our individual ones easily.”, Zedd suggested. He watched as Divatox nodded her head yes. “Do you have any ideas on how to destroy those power punks?”
“Just one.”, Divatox said as she smiled. “Use a detonator.” She said as she turned and headed for the exit. “Now I don’t know about you all, but I have some work to do.”, she said. And with that Divatox disappeared, leaving Rita and Zedd alone in the Lunar Palace.
The next day marked the start of the spring semester at USC. This January day was a bit warmer than most, and a lot of students were sitting outside trying to enjoy the weather, and waiting until the last possible second before running into their next class.
This afternoon there were two students heading across the lawn. They weren’t looking for their next class, they were heading home as all their classes that day had been morning classes. “So how’s your semester looking so far?”, Carri asked
“It should be alright. Hopefully easier than last semester.”, Rocky replied as he looked over at her. “You?”
“Eh. I’m taking some more advanced classes so we’ll see how that works out.”, she replied. She turned to stare across the field as she started thinking about things. She didn’t notice the girl running over to them.
“Rocky! Hey!”, a voice called out. Carri turned to see who had come running over and interrupted them. She wasn’t expecting who she saw, the younger girl from Sunnydale who had a crush on her boyfriend.
“Jessica, hey what are you doing here?”, Rocky asked looking at her curiously. She made a face. “I mean, don’t you have school or something?”
“We’re done for the day. My sister wanted to come check out the campus.”, she lied. Actually she had wanted to come in hopes of running into Rocky again. She turned toward her sister and motioned for her to come over there.
“You remember Carri right?”, Rocky asked motioning to his girlfriend
Carri forced a smile at the girl as she nodded. Jessica didn’t want to see Rocky’s mean friends, but she figured she’d have to take the bad with the good. She turned to see that her sister had found her way to her side. “This is Stephanie.”, she said introducing her. “And Stephanie, this is Rocky and Carri.”
“Nice to meet you.”, Stephanie said as she extended her hand to Rocky who shook it. She went to shake Carri’s hand, but Carri looked like she was off in another galaxy as she gave her a fake smile. Stephanie dropped her hand.
Carri sighed as she looked at the duo. She didn’t know what in the hell they were doing here, and she wasn’t sure if she liked it. Not that she was in any way jealous of the girl, but that still didn’t mean she’d have to like her hanging on her boyfriend. She turned her head and caught a glimpse of someone. “Kim!”, she yelled smiling and waving, and cutting off the conversation that was going on beside her. Rocky and the two girls glanced at her as she took off in Kim’s direction. She was glad to get out of there before she said something rude or cruel or hurtful, or knowing her big mouth all of the above.
Rocky watched his girlfriend walk away and he turned back to the two girls standing beside him. “So are you thinking of applying?”, Rocky asked
“Maybe.”, Stephanie said. Maybe meaning no way in hell, but for her sisters sake she would let him think they were checking out the campus. “I have to check out the programs and stuff they have here.”, she added
“It’s a great campus. It’s got almost anything you’d be interested in.”, Rocky said with a smile
“Hey Rocky.”, Jessica said to get his attention. She dragged her sister over here to meet him, not to have a conversation with him. “Wanna go hang out later?”
“I’d love to but I have plans.”, Rocky said with a smile. Which was only kind of a lie. He hadn’t officially made plans, but he was sure that he would end up doing something with either his girlfriend or his friends.
“Aw that’s too bad.”, Jessica said giving him the sad puppy dog face
“Yeah but some other time definitely.”, Rocky said while pondering if he could hide out and not run into her again. He thought maybe he’d have a chance if nobody objected to him walking around as a ranger or a ninjetti from place to place, then powering down when he got there. Rocky thought about the idea for a moment and smiled.
Jessica beamed as she thought Rocky was smiling at her. “Ok. See ya later then.”, she said as she waved and took off with her sister
Rocky turned and headed off in the direction that Carri had run off to earlier. As he approached her and Kim, he noticed that both girls were standing there with their sunglasses at the end of their noses, eyeing him over the top. Kim had her arms crossed while Carri’s hands were planted firmly on her hips. “Jealous?”, Rocky asked with a smile
“Jealous?”, Carri repeated with a laugh as she pushed her sunglasses back up. “Not hardly.”, she replied as she turned and walked away. Kim turned and followed suite, both girls enjoying giving Rocky a hard time.
Rocky laughed at the duo as he walked to catch up. It was kind of exciting to think that Carri might be jealous of another woman, or women as the case may be. Not that she would ever clue him in on that fact unless she thought there was something seriously wrong. But for as long as they’d been together, he didn’t think anyone had made her jealous. He on the other hand had lots to be jealous about. She had a lot of male friends in high school. Not that he for one second didn’t trust her, but he couldn’t help not trusting them.
Then, of course, there was her close friendship with Jason. He never expressed his jealousy of Jason except when Jason first became the gold ranger and he felt like he was being replaced. In every aspect. Then Jason became close with Tommy again, and started to become close friends with Carri.... those two live together, share secrets together, Rocky has all the reason to be slightly jealous. He knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that neither cares for the other like that, but that doesn’t keep jealous thoughts from crossing his mind every once in a while. Not that he actually expressed those with her, if he did he knew she’d just laugh them off and assure him that she only loves him, which, of course, he knew already.
But still, to think now that the girl who was all over him in Sunnydale was here, and that Carri may be jealous about that, pleased him a bit. He caught up to the girls and put his arms around Carri from behind. “So is everyone going back to the apartment?”, he asked
“Yup.”, Kim replied. “Tommy’s last class is now so he was going to meet me over there in a bit.”
“Sounds like a plan.”, Rocky said as he moved to Carri’s side, dropping one arm and leaving the other around her waist as the trio headed back to the apartments
“Is my detonator ready yet?”, Divatox snapped as she spun around toward Porto
“Almost.”, Porto replied
Divatox smiled. “Good.”, she said. “We’ll get a monster ready to occupy those rangers, and by the time they figure out about the detonator, it will be too late.”
“Where are we planting the detonator?”, asked Elgar
“We are not planting it anywhere.”, Divatox snapped. There wasn’t much she trusted Elgar to do, and planting a detonator certainly wasn’t one of the things on the list. “I’m sending a piranhatron to plan it behind the rangers apartment building.” Her idea was that she would distract them with a monster, and while they were fighting a piranhatron would be able to plant the detonator while nobody was looking. They would have it rigged so when the sun set, the center part of the device would disintegrate, allowing the two liquids to mix. Later that night, when they were completely mixed, the device would go off destroying the building and taking three rangers down with it. And if Divatox got really lucky, the blast would capture all five pests in the building at one time.
She hadn’t filled Zedd and Rita in on the entire idea, only that they would have to get together to have a monster ready. She would have to get with the duo to make sure that the rangers were really distracted so that she could carry out her plan.
“Can I help?”, Elgar asked ripping Divatox away from her thoughts
“No.”, Divatox said as she turned away from him and headed off so she could contact Zedd and Rita and get everything finalized
Early that evening, the three male rangers were making their way back from the gym. The boys had thought that a good workout was just what they needed to wind down from the first day of class. The girls had thought that shopping would do the trick, especially since Kim had just finished reading a new fashion magazine which included tips on how to buy the hottest styles for less. So the group had separated, all saying they would be back around dinnertime.
Tommy smiled as he looked up at the sky, watching as the sun was making its way down the horizon. They had a good workout that afternoon, and he wanted to get back home and shower then head over to the apartment to take Kim out for dinner. He figured he had a while, considering the girls had left to do some major shopping.
“Hey bro, what are you thinking about so hard over there?”, Jason asked interrupting Tommy’s thoughts
Tommy glanced over at him, his face still glowing from thinking about Kim. “Nothing.”, he was quick to reply
Jason smiled at him. He wasn’t going to give him a hard time about it, but from the look on his face he had an idea that nothing meant Kim. “So what is everybody’s plans for tonight?”, Jason asked looking over at his two friends
“Dinner.”, Tommy said. “With Kim.”, he added
“Me too.”, Rocky was quick to reply. He thought for a moment. “Not with Kim. But you know what I mean.”
Tommy laughed. “Yeah.”, he said figuring that Rocky had just spoke too soon without thinking about it
“I think I’m having dinner... by myself.”, Jason replied with a fake frown
“Sorry bro.”
Jason looked over at Tommy and smiled. “It’s alright. Billy and I used to be the ones with the long distance relationships who would eat together. But the past week, when you guys had gone out, Billy has been eating with Trini who’s been hanging around helping a lot lately.”
“It’s nice that...”, Tommy was going to say how nice it was that Trini was helping and Billy actually got to see her, but they were interrupted when Rocky’s friend grabbed him from behind
Rocky spun around to see who the culprit was. He pretended to smile as he saw Jessica standing there. “I thought you would have gone home by now.”, he said before realizing how that must sound. “I mean I figured you’d be done touring the campus.”
“Hey Rocky...”, Jason started before Rocky shot him and Tommy a look that could kill. Rocky wasn’t about to let them bail on him. He had told them about Jessica while they were in the gym. To Rocky’s irritation, both Jason and Tommy found it amusing that he was being followed by a fifteen year old girl. “Never mind.”, Jason finished with a smile as he and Tommy tried hard not to laugh
Jessica smiled sweetly at Rocky. “Well we just finished on campus.”, which wasn’t a lie, Jessica had wanted to spend the afternoon checking out the hang out spots around the campus. They had just finished looking at the gym, which she came out and thought she saw Rocky in the distance. “Anyway it’s cool that I ran into you. Stephanie and I were just getting ready to go eat and it would be awesome if you could come along.”
“I....”, Rocky said trying to formulate an excuse. He didn’t get much time to think about it, as quite possibly the ugliest monster he had ever laid eyes on, along with a few tengas, piranhatrons, and something that looked like a hybrid of the two appeared before them.
“Looks like it’s time for me to have a little fun.”, the monster said eying Jessica. Rita and Zedd wanted him to try and capture her. They didn’t want him to be successful right now, but they wanted to make sure that the rangers were distracted long enough for Divatox to plant her detonator. They had sent some of Finster’s new creation down to see how the rangers fared against them.
Jessica screamed as the monster came after her. Rocky grabbed her and pulled her away, only to be attacked by Rita and Zedd’s army. Rocky stood up and tried to protect her, hoping that the female rangers would be on their way soon.
“What do you think?”, Carri asked as she stepped out of the dressing room and went to stand beside Kim in front of the three way mirror. Both girls were checking out potential new outfits.
“Fabulous.”, Kim said with a smile as she eyed her friend then went back to looking herself over. “And mine?”
Carri grinned. “Excellent as always.”
“I seriously think I’m going to get this one.”, Kim said. The more she looked at what she was wearing, the more she liked it.
“Yeah I was thinking about buying this one too.”, Carri said as she looked herself over. She took a hand and smoothed out the creases in the top as she spun around and tried to see from every angle. “You think...”, she started but was interrupted as their communicators went off
The two girls looked at each other and quickly huddled together in one of their dressing room stalls. “Go ahead.”, Kim said quietly
“They guys have been attacked near the school. They can’t morph and they need your help.”, Billy explained
“Got it.”, Kim said. She glanced over at Carri, who flew out of Kim’s stall and into her own. Both girls flung the store’s clothes off, putting their clothes back on.
Kim and Carri ran out the dressing room, throwing their clothes on the counter in front of the attendant. “Small emergency.”, Carri said with a smile. “But we’ll be back for these.”, she added as she and Kim took off
They found the back door to the store and snuck out behind the building. Both girls looked at each other and nodded. “It’s morphin time!”, Kim yelled as they transformed into the pink and yellow Ninja Zeo rangers before appearing on scene
“What the...”, Kim started as the first thing they noticed when they arrived on scene was the hybrids running around
Carri sighed as Kim ran to face the hybrids. She quickly realized why the boys weren’t able to morph. Because Jessica was trying to hang out with her boyfriend yet again. And now Jessica was being attacked by the monster. As much as Carri thought it would be fun to see how that would turn out, duty took over and she called for her weapons. “Power daggers!”
She took the two daggers and ran towards the monster. Out of the corner of her eye she caught Kim shooting her bow off at everything evil that was moving. Carri leaped up into the air and clicked her daggers together, slicing the monster and knocking him back. She pulled them apart and stared him down. “What do you think about that?”, she asked twirling her daggers in her hands
“Why I outta...”, the monster started as he jumped to attack. Carri was ready for him but never got a chance as three pink arrows flew through the air hitting him square in the chest.
“Outta what?”, Kim asked as she stood strong beside Carri. Kim looked to see the three ranger boys, along with Stephanie and Jessica standing behind them, while the monster along with the hybrids she didn’t destroy were standing in front of them. Kim was able to take out the tengas and piranhatrons easily, but these new hybrids proved to be stronger and more efficient than they were separately. They were going to need to be at full strength to take this crew on. Kim pulled her communicator to her wrist. “I have some civilians who need to be teleported out.”
Billy took that to mean get the non rangers out of there, and as Kim and Carri glanced back they saw Stephanie and Jessica disappear in white light. Tommy looked at the other two rangers as they quickly jumped into action. “It’s morphin time!”, he yelled, and in a matter of seconds the entire Ninja Zeo team was standing there
“Please do you think three extra rangers will make a difference?”, the monster asked
“I do.”, Tommy said as he jumped into the air. “Power sword!”, he cried as it appeared in his hands and he attacked, starting the fight between the forces of good and evil
“These guys are tough.”, Rocky said as he got into it with the hybrids. They had been difficult trying to defend against not morphed, but he wasn’t expecting them to put up a fight once he was morphed. Especially considering they were created from tengas and piranhatrons.
“Yeah no kidding.”, Carri said as she got ambushed by a few and thrown back
Jason separated his axe and starting swinging it around, trying to take care of the hybrids that were coming at him from all directions. Kim and Carri continued to use their weapons against the advancing army. Rocky, who was getting surrounded, quickly slammed his lance down, sending them all flying.
After a few rounds of this, the rangers found that they had defeated the hybrids. They regrouped and went to stand beside Tommy so that they could make short work of the monster. “Let’s do this.”, Tommy said as they all threw their weapons together to create the Power Blaster
They fired the weapon and watched as the monster fell backwards, then watched as the monster was grown to city wrecking size. “We need Super Zeo Zord power now!”, Tommy yelled as the zords came barreling toward them
The ranges each jumped into their respective zords, before quickly combining to form the Super Zeo Megazord. “Time to teach this guy a lesson.”, Jason said as they got ready to attack
But what the rangers didn’t realize was that although this was Rita and Zedd’s monster initially, when Divatox made him grow she also launched something at him to change him, making him stronger. The monster wasted no time attacking the Megazord. “How do you like me now?”, he asked as he issued blow after blow to the zord
The rangers found their zord stumbling backwards, and they struggled to pull it together and get back to their feet. “What got into this guy?”, Kim asked as he hit them again
“I don’t know, but I don’t think I like it.”, Tommy replied as they struggled to maintain some sort of offence
Suddenly the monster started firing strange blasts at the rangers. The zord started to tumble and they had to work hard to keep from being thrown from it. “This isn’t working.”, Carri pointed out the obvious. “Billy any suggestions?”
There was a moment of silence coming from the other end, giving the rangers a moment of concern. Then, to their relief, they got an answer. “I just finished working on your Ninja Zeo Zords. I haven’t had time to test them yet, but you can call on those and they should be able to take this guy down easily.”
Tommy looked at the other rangers. It was always exciting to try new zords, but kind of frightening too as you never knew if they were going to work the way they should. But at this point they really didn’t have a choice. “We need Ninja Zeo Zord power now!”, he yelled as the five rangers abandoned the Super Zeo Megazord and headed for their new zords
“Yes!”, Kim said excitedly as she entered her zord and realized she was once again in control of a Crane Zord. This one was different than her last, as it was all pink and it’s eyes were in the shape of her zeo symbol. It also flew better, and had more weapons than her last Crane Zord.
Tommy and Rocky were also reliving past experiences as they had a white Falcon Zord and a red Ape Zord, both having eyes in the shapes of their zeo symbols. Both zords were built to be more efficient than before, with both wielding more fire power. Jason found himself in a black Cougar Zord while Carri was in a yellow Panther Zord with zeo symbol eyes.
Kim and Tommy flew their zords in towards the monster, firing at him as a first run. As the monster was occupied with the Crane and Falcon Zords, the Panther and Cougar Zords surrounded the monster and waited, just as cats in the wild stalked their prey. When they were ready they attacked, both zords having the capability to attack the monster with their claws and fire energy beams from them while gripping onto the monster with their teeth for support. As those two zords backed off, the Ape Zord attacked the monster with brute strength, his punches sending shocking waves of energy at the monster.
The five zords backed up and surrounded the monster. They each decided to try their special attack on the monster. Using power from the zeo crystal, each ranger charged up their zords causing the eyes on the zords to turn red. When the zords were ready, they fired blasts at the monster.
The monster fell back and hit the ground. As he started to crawl back up, the rangers decided it was a good time to test out the new megazord. They quickly worked to form the Ninja Zeo Megazord. The Crane and Falcon Zords created the legs of the megazord, while the Cougar and Panther zords became the arms. The Ape Zord became the main part of the body, and also formed the head. The head of the zord was capped with a battle helmet, much like the one worn by the Zeo Megazord. Only this set of battle helmets had different blasts from each helmet, blasts that were stronger than the original megazord.
The rangers cycled around the battle helmets to see what they could do. As they finished firing on the monster, they cycled back to the main helmet and called for their saber. Two sabers appeared in the megazord’s hands. They brought them together and held them high in the sky, collecting enough energy to slam the sword down hard on the monster, slicing him and finishing him for good.
“New zords?”, Rita whined. “Nobody said they had new zords.”
“Silence!”, Zedd yelled before muttering something under his breath. Most of the time, Rita was nothing but an annoyance. “We will just have to work more closely with Divatox on our next monster.”
“Great.”, Rita said as she rolled her eyes and made a face. “Well at least those new hybrids were worth something.”
“Yes but I would like to make them stronger.”, Zedd replied. He had like what he saw, but he would like it even more if he could add something to them.
“How do you plan on doing that?”, Rita snapped
“You’ll find out in time.”, Zedd replied. “For now, we shall continue to watch the rangers. If Divatox’s detonator works out, then this day may not have been such a waste after all.”, Zedd said as he laughed and looked back down to Earth to see how the detonator was coming along.
“That was incredible.”, Carri said as they teleported back down to the surface and powered down. The sun had set by now and noone was around to see them.
“Yeah that was pretty cool.”, Jason added
Kim nodded. “Well, I think we’re going to head back to the mall. But we’ll be home soon.”, Kim said gesturing to herself and Carri
“Yeah and we need to find Jessica and Stephanie and make sure they’re alright. But we’ll see you later.”, Rocky said as he smiled at his girlfriend
“Definitely.”, she replied smiling back. As he turned away and they went to teleport back, Carri rolled her eyes. Not at hanging out with him, but at him going back to check on Jessica.
Tommy smiled, as he was the only one who caught that. He was watching as the girls, mainly Kim, teleported away. “So where do you think they went off to?”, he asked
“I don’t know, but knowing her she’s around here somewhere looking for me.”, Rocky replied. With that, the trio started to walk around campus to see if they could find them.
They quickly found Rocky to be right as after a little bit of looking, Jessica found them. “Rocky!”, she yelled as she ran up and threw her arms around him. “We had no idea where they sent you guys and we thought that icky monster had gotten you.”
“We’re alright.”, Rocky said as he smiled at her and returned the hug. He let her go and gently pushed her off of him.
“Thank you guys so much for saving us.”, Jessica said as she stood beside Rocky and smiled. “That’s twice now. I really owe you one.” Rocky smiled as she batted her eyelashes, trying to play the damsel in distress. “I wanted to try to help, after all you did teach me a lot, but those guys were just so scary.”
Stephanie smiled at her sisters efforts before chiming in with her own gratitude. “Yeah they could have killed us out there. We’re just thankful you guys could hold them off until the Power Rangers got there.”
“Anytime.”, Jason said as he smiled at her. “You guys ready to head back?”
“Yeah.”, Tommy said as they started to turn off
“See ya later Jessica.”, Rocky said as he turned to join his friends
“Wait.”, Jessica said grabbing Rocky’s arm. She spun him around and the other rangers stopped for a second. “What about dinner?”
“It’s been such a stressful afternoon. I think tonight I’m just going to go home and crash.”, Rocky said as he turned to head off with the others
“Oh.”, she said not hiding the disappointment in her voice. “Well I’ll talk to you later right?”, she asked
Rocky turned back. “Yeah. Later.”, he said as he turned again and started walking off with Tommy and Jason
“You have to tell her.”, Jason said as they were out of earshot
Rocky sighed. “I know. I’m just trying to be nice.”
“It’s going to hurt worse to find out later than to find out now.”, Tommy pointed out
Rocky nodded. He knew his friends were right. And eventually he would sit her down and have a conversation with her. But not now. Now he was going home to get ready to take his girlfriend to dinner.
As the night progressed, two figures sat in the Command Chamber trying to finish up some work. “The zords worked great Billy.”, Trini commented as she worked on her analysis of both Angel Grove and Los Angeles
“Thanks.”, Billy said blushing slightly. He was used to getting complements, but they always made him blush when they came from Trini. She complemented him often, especially with everything he had done lately, so one would think he would be used to it by now, but he’s not.
Billy came and sat next to Trini. “It’s getting late. You still want to do dinner?”
“Of course.”, Trini replied as she leaned over and gave him a kiss. “Let me just finish this.”, she said
“You’ve been working on this for a while now.”, Billy pointed out. Trini was just scanning to make sure everything was all clear. A task like that shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Everything that red flagged they would have to double check. But usually it turned out to be nothing. If something major occurred, the alarms would go off. And if Billy wasn’t there, he had it rigged so that a special alarm went off on his communicator. What she was doing now was just precautionary.
“It’s just,” Trini started as Billy leaned in closer to her. “Everything’s fine in Angel Grove. But there’s something strange going on in LA. Look at this reading.”, she said showing him what the computer showed her
Billy looked to see what the computer scan had picked up. There wasn’t much that would account for that. It could be important, but then it could be nothing. He sighed. The computer wasn’t helping which means he would have to work the information manually. “Do you mind if we postpone dinner a little while longer?”
Trini smiled up at him. “Not at all.”, she said as she watched him start to go to work with the information she had found
The five rangers had finished their dinners and were slowly making their way back to the apartment. Rocky and Carri were the first to come back in. They came in and went for the couch, Rocky sitting on the end with Carri in the middle.
“So,” Carri started as she turned to face him, “what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.”, Rocky said leaning in close to her. “We do have the apartment to ourselves.”
Carri smiled. “For now.”, she added as she leaned in towards him and gave him a kiss. He put his hands on her hips and brought her close, then put his arms around her. As she fell into his embrace, they heard the door open.
“Hey guys.”, Kim said as she swung the door open in time to see Carri bounce back to the couch seat cushion
“See.”, Carri said smiling at Rocky before she turned to Kim and Tommy. “Hey, how was dinner?”
“Good.”, Kim said as she walked over to the couch. “Yours?”
“Good.”, Carri replied, watching as Kim stood in front of her and Tommy came around and sat next to her. “Want to watch a movie?”, Carri suggested
“Sure.”, Kim said. She watched as Carri scooted close to Rocky, leaving Kim space to sit in between her and Tommy. “Does it matter what?”, she asked. She heard Carri say no and Tommy and Rocky say yes. “Fine then, you pick.” , she said as she gestured to the boys and sat down on the couch
Tommy got up and thumbed through the video collection before picking one out and throwing it in. He went and sat back down next to his girlfriend. About fifteen minutes into the movie Jason arrived home, walking through the door phone in hand.
“Shh.”, Kim and Carri both hushed him
Jason made a gesture brushing them off then went back quietly to his conversation. He finished speaking to Emily before walking over and sitting in the recliner, joining the others. Just as he was getting settled, their communicators went off. Rocky jumped up and paused the movie then the rangers turned toward Tommy.
“Go ahead.”, Tommy spoke into his communicator
“I need you guys to get over here.”, Billy said
“On our way.”, Tommy replied. The rangers all stood and teleported themselves back to the Command Chamber.
“Billy what’s up?”, Jason asked
“Look at this.”, Billy said showing them on screen the results that Trini initially found
Kim looked at the other rangers. “I don’t know about you guys, but that makes no sense to me.”
“That’s the reading I picked up from LA. I couldn’t tell what it was, and the computer was having problems analyzing it.”, Trini explained
“We couldn’t tell if it was important or not, so I did the analysis manually.”, Billy explained. “And this is what I found.”, he said hitting a button and showing them another screen
The looks on their faces indicated that they had no clue what that meant either, and Billy didn’t expect them to. “What the sensors picked up on was a series of galactic elements that by themselves mean nothing. But in analyzing them I found that they were used in combination on Earth. There’s only one thing that they can be used in combination for, and that’s a detonator.”
“So you’re saying that someone is trying to blow something up?”, asked Rocky
“Not someone, most likely Divatox as most of the elements are from her home world. And we have a pretty good idea of what she’s trying to blow up. We traced the signal to somewhere near your apartment building.”, Billy explained
Carri sighed. “Great so she’s trying to blow us up.”
“What do we do?”, asked Tommy
“Take this.”, Billy said handing him a device. “It will allow you to scan for the detonator based on the elements. When you find it, get it out of there. I have no idea how long you have before it blows.”
“Does the detonator have a timer?”, asked Jason
“It depends on what kind she used.”, Billy replied
Tommy looked around at the team. “Let’s morph and do this.”, he said as the others nodded. “It’s morphin time!”
Quickly the five rangers appeared on the outside of the complex. Tommy had the scanner and was using it to try and find the detonator.
“Where do you think she put it?”, Rocky asked as he looked around
“She wouldn’t put it anywhere where someone would notice.”, Carri pointed out as she looked behind some of the bushes on the front of the building
Tommy walked towards the side of the building. “Guys the signal gets stronger going this way.”
Suddenly it occurred to Kim where she would have put the detonator. “Check in the back of the building.”, she suggested. All the porches were at the front of the building, and there was an entrance on each side of the building, but nobody ever wandered around back.
The rangers rushed back behind the building. “It’s got to be here this thing’s going crazy.”, Tommy said as his handheld scanner started ticking quickly and pointing him in a direction. He followed the arrow and it led him straight to something. “Guys I think I’ve got it.”
The other rangers went to his side. “No timer.”, Jason pointed out
“No time to worry about that. This could go off any second, we need to get it out of here.”, Carri pointed out
“Right.”, Tommy agreed as he picked it up and took off
“What are you doing?”, Kim yelled at him
“Getting this somewhere safe.”, he replied
They watched their leader run until he was gone. A few minutes later there was a small explosion in the open field over at the park. The rangers watched the horizon until Tommy appeared again. “Everything’s safe.”, he called out
The team let out a sigh of relief as they went to join Tommy to teleport back to the Command Chamber. “That was too close.”, Rocky pointed out when they got back
“Well now that we know Divatox is in the detonator business, we can set our scanners to look for the signs. Hopefully the next one she makes we’ll be able to catch sooner.”, Billy said
“You guys want to finish the movie?”, Kim asked as she looked at the other rangers
“Sure.”, Jason said as the others nodded
Kim looked at Billy. “You coming?”, she asked
Billy shook his head no as he looked over at Trini and smiled. “No I owe someone a late dinner.”
“Alright. See you guys later.”, Kim said as the other rangers said their goodbyes, teleporting out and leaving Billy and Trini alone
Divatox couldn’t contain her frustration as she shoved Elgar out of her way as she stormed over to her seat. “How could they find the detonator? They should be dead by now.”
“Maybe they’re smart.”, Elgar said as he shrugged
Divatox glared at him. “I want you out of my sight, now.”, she growled. Elgar scrambled off as Divatox yelled for Porto, who came running in. She glanced over at him. “I did not bring you to Earth for failure. I want to see success.”
“The next detonator I create will destroy the rangers.”, Porto promised
“You better hope so.”, Divatox said as she slouched back in her seat contemplating what went wrong with her master plan
Jessica sighed as she paced back and forth in front of the apartment building she had watched Rocky go into earlier that evening. She figured out which apartment he had gone to before she left to have dinner with her sister. Upon her sisters request, she went home for a bit and thought before she came back. To her delight, his car was still out front when she returned.
She stopped suddenly and turned toward her sister, having made up her mind. “I have to tell him.”
Stephanie frowned. That wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. That her high school freshman sister wanted to tell a college sophomore that she thought the world of him and wanted to be his girlfriend. He was going to let her down. She had tried to tell her that, but Jessica said that he wasn’t that kind of guy. That he was better than that. But maybe this is what she needed. She was obsessed ever since he came to Sunnydale, and if he lets her down maybe she’ll concentrated on more important things, such as school. “Fine. Do what you have to do.”
“I will.”, Jessica replied. She marched into the side of the building and up the stairs to the second floor, knocking on the door of the apartment Rocky was visiting.
Inside the rangers had just finished watching their movie. Rocky had gotten up to get a soda when they heard the knock. “I’ll get it.”, he said as he walked over to the door
“Good ‘cause we weren’t getting up.”, Carri said, motioning to herself and Kim who had spread out on the couch in Rocky’s absence
His jaw dropped as he opened the door to see Jessica standing there. “Jessica... what... what are you doing here?”, he asked in disbelief. As the other rangers peeked at what was going on, Carri started to stand and Kim pulled the back of her shirt back, so she found herself sitting on her knees on the couch pillow leaning on the arm rest.
“I came to talk to you.”, she said softly
As Rocky started to absorb what was going on he spoke again. “How did you find me here?”
“I sort of followed you.”, she said trying to flash him a comforting smile
“Jessica...”, he started sternly
“Wait before you yell at me, let me say something.”, she said. She was just going to get it out before she lost her nerve. “See my parents did let me come to LA because they wanted me out of Sunnydale. But I wanted to come to find you. Ever since that seminar you’re all I can think about. And I thought if I came to LA we could have a chance.”
Rocky knew she liked him, but he didn’t know it would come to this. He wasn’t sure what to say. Even if he wasn’t in a serious relationship he wouldn’t date her, not now anyway. He was in college and she was only a freshman. He had to figure out how to let her down easily. “Jessica... you’re a nice girl, but Carri’s my girlfriend.”, he said moving to the side and gesturing to her. Carri resisted the urge to comment, as the girl was already getting her heart broken and she wasn’t going to be that cruel to her.
Jessica tried hard to push the tears back as she looked at Carri. She hated that girl in Sunnydale, and it was no wonder she was mean to her since her boyfriend had shown interest in her at the seminar. She tried hard to contain her anger, but the more she glared the worse it got until she finally exploded. “That mean bitch? You can do so much better with me than that whore.”, she spat
Carri cocked her head and thought for a moment about what just came out of that fifteen year old girls mouth before she jumped up in the air to take off. Before she could even get started she felt someone’s arms around her pulling her back. “Don’t do anything stupid.”, Jason warned
“See your friend just doesn’t want to see you get your ass kicked by me.”, Jessica said with a smile. Carri struggled for a minute to break free of Jason’s grip before she realized it was a lost cause and she calmed down.
Rocky turned back to the duo. “Thank you.”, he mouthed to Jason as he pushed Jessica back into the hallway and closed the door. He was appreciative that Jason wasn’t going to let his girlfriend go to jail. He motioned for Jessica to walk with him as he led her back outside.
“I don’t know why you would choose her over me.”, Jessica said as she burst into tears. “We could be so much better together.”
Rocky smiled and looked down at her. “You don’t know Carri like I do. She’s a very nice person, and you can’t judge her by what happened in Sunnydale. We were in a crisis, and she was in crisis mode.”
“I think she’s just mean because she’s jealous.”, Jessica said
The duo arrived at the exit to the building. “Maybe.”, Rocky said with a smile. “Listen, we can still be friends. But friends don’t follow their friends around all the time ok?”
Jessica nodded. Friends was a start, but she vowed to herself to keep trying for a relationship. “Ok. Friends.”, she said as she leaned in and gave Rocky a hug
Rocky returned the hug then sent her on her way before heading back up the stairs to the apartment. He opened the door and saw Carri by herself sprawled out on the couch. “Where did everybody go?”, he asked as he walked over to her
She pointed towards the bedrooms as she moved her feet back to the middle pillow, giving Rocky a place to sit. “Where’s your foul mouthed fifteen year old friend?”
Rocky smiled as he sat down and turned toward her. “I sent her home.”, he replied as he put a hand on her feet. “Were you really going to beat her up?”
Carri shrugged and grinned. “I was thinking about it.”, she said as she pulled her feet underneath her body and scooted onto the middle pillow. “What would you have said if I did?”
“That you’re crazy.”, Rocky replied. “Which of course I knew already.”
She gave him light shove. “Hey.”, she said
Rocky laughed as he grabbed her and pulled her close, giving her a kiss. “I shouldn’t really stay long you know.”
“I know.”, Carri replied as she kissed him again. The two stayed together on the couch for another few minutes until Kim and Tommy emerged from the bedroom.
“You ready to head back?”, Tommy asked. He needed to get some rest for class tomorrow and he assumed Rocky did too. He would have left earlier but Kim had convinced him to sit with her for a few minutes while they waited for Rocky to finish with Jessica and then the boys could just leave together. She spent her time giving him a fashion show using what she purchased that day, which Tommy throughly enjoyed. Well he could have cared less for the clothes, but he loved watching Kim tease him as she switched in and out of outfits.
“Yeah I’ve got class in the morning.”, Rocky replied. He pulled his girlfriend in for one last kiss before he stood up and headed for the door with Tommy. “See you girls tomorrow.”, he said
Tommy kissed Kim before joining Rocky at the door, saying goodnight to the girls as well. The duo left and the girls locked up behind them, then headed for their bedrooms and got ready for bed.
The End