Power Rangers Zeo
“Old Loves”
Jason Lee Scott walked out into his living room in a t-shirt and swim trunks. He went to gather his friend, who was sitting at the kitchen table with books spread out everywhere. “Are you ready to go?”, he asked
Kimberly Heart looked up at him. “Do I look ready?”
He smiled. “Well hurry up we can’t keep Carri waiting all day.”
“She’ll just lay out there and fry. She won’t even notice.”, Kim said with a smile. “Besides, just because this is the first day of spring break, doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything better to do. We went out yesterday and Saturday, and I didn’t even get to touch my paper. And it’s due next Monday.”
“Everybody needs a little sun to make them feel better. Besides, you told Carri you’d go.”, Jason pointed out
“I think I’m going to work on this. Maybe later this week I’ll hit the beach with you guys. And if Carri protests please remind her that Friday is the big day and if she wants me to go out she has to let me get finished.”
Jason smiled. “I’ll tell her. Good luck with that.”
“Thank you.”
Jason grabbed his towel and keys and took off. Kim started to look at her books again. She didn’t think the paper was going to be too hard. She had gathered a lot of information. She just wasn’t sure yet where to start.
Kim silence was interrupted when someone else entered the apartment. She looked up at him and smiled. “Hey.”
“Hey Kim.”, Tommy Oliver greeted. “Working hard?”
“For now.”, she said
Tommy came in and sat down beside her. “Anything I can help with?”
“Nope. I’ve pretty much got it handled. But thank you.”
“So... are you going to be doing this all day?”
“I sure hope not. It would drive me crazy. A girl’s got to have a break sometime.”, she said smiling at him. “But it is going to be my main focus so if you are trying to get me to go to the beach with everyone count me out.”
“Actually I can’t go to the beach today. I had something I had to do. I just wanted to stop by here first.”
“Why?”
“To see you.”
Kim blushed. “Why?”
“To see.... to see if you would like to have dinner with me tonight.”
“Tommy Oliver... are you asking me out on a date?”
He smiled. “Yeah... I guess I am.”
“I was wondering if you would ever do it.”
“Can I take that as a yes?”
She laughed. “Of course.”
He let out a sigh of relief. She looked at him. “What you didn’t think I’d go?”
“No, I did. It was just... well you know me it’s hard for me to get things like that out.”, he said smiling. “I’m glad you were here alone.”
“Why do you say that?”, asked Kim
“I wanted to go out on a date first before we said anything to the others.”, he told her
She smiled. “In other words, you’re glad Jason and Carri weren’t here.”
Tommy laughed. “Yeah pretty much. The two of them have been egging us on forever.”
“They were right weren’t they?”
“Yeah... yeah they were.”, he smiled. “Well... I will let you get back to your paper. I have to get going anyway.”
“Ok. So then I will see you tonight?”, Kim asked
“Yeah. See you then.”, Tommy said as he left
Kim smiled as she turned back to her books. She was excited to finally be getting another chance to date Tommy. She couldn’t wait until that night. She looked down at what she was doing. Now if only she could concentrate.
Billy Cranston and Trini Kwan had gone to Angel Grove, to take a walk on a quieter beach, not like the one that was near the college campus.
“I can’t believe that you guys are leaving at the end of the week.”, Billy said
“I know... time flew by so quickly. I can’t wait to get started with work though. But I am going to miss you guys.”, Trini told him
“I’ll have to make this week especially special for you.”
Trini looked at him. “You’ve made all my time special.”, she said giving him a kiss on the cheek
Billy felt her kiss him. He gazed over at her. Without thinking, he leaned in and gave her a real kiss. Billy stood up straight and blushed.
“Was that...”, Trini smiled as her voice trailed off
“I don’t know if I should have...”
“You mean this whole time and you haven’t thought about kissing me once?”, Trini asked
“Well... yes... I mean... of course I have.”, Billy stammered
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I’ve come to feel strongly about you Trini, and I don’t know if you feel the same, and you’re leaving and it’s not feasible and...”
“Shh.”, Trini said placing a finger to his lips. “You worry too much.” Trini took his hand in hers and started to walk. “If we make it work, that’s fabulous. If not, well at least we can say that we tried.”
Billy smiled. She was right, he shouldn’t worry about it. That was sometimes hard for him though. He figured at the moment though, nothing else mattered. He continued to hold Trini’s hand and he walked her down the beach.
The beaches of LA were packed for college spring break. There were college kids everywhere. Some where playing volleyball. Some where laying out. And some had ventured into the ocean.
One girl was enjoying her time in the sun more than others. She was laying on her towel face down. She was so zoned out she didn’t even notice the volleyball coming in her direction. She felt it hit her back and roll off to the side. “What the...”, Carri Hillard questioned as she turned around at sat up. She picked up the volleyball and scanned for who it belonged to.
She didn’t have to wait long before someone came to claim it. “Well I’ll be damned.”, David Myers said as he walked over to Carri. “What are you doing here?”
Carri rolled her eyes. “I live here. The question is what are you doing here?”
“It’s spring break. And you can’t stay cooped up in New York for spring break.”, David pointed out
She just shrugged as she held up the volleyball. “So this belongs to you?”
“Yeah.”, he replied as he took it. He extended a hand to her. “Why don’t you come play with us?”
“I don’t know I’m...”
David cut her off. “Some of your old friends are over there and they are dying to see you.”
She sighed. She was almost positive her parents, well her mother, told him how to find her. And God forbid she blow him off and he goes back to tell them how awful she’s become. “Sure why not.”, she said. She was going to ignore his outstretched hand but he leaned down and helped her up anyway.
She picked up her things and walked over to the net with him. She had to bite her tongue to keep from saying anything rude when she saw who they were playing with.
“Oh my gosh, Carri, I can’t believe it.”, Cindy King said as she ran over and gave an old friend a hug
“Yeah it’s so cool to see you.”, Amanda Martin said as she came up for a hug as well
Carri returned the hugs. “It’s good to see you too.”, she said although she wasn’t sure how much she meant it. She was thrilled to leave New York behind, and there were reasons why she hadn’t written any of these people.
“You remember Cory?”, asked Cindy
Carri smiled and waved at Cory McIntyre, Cindy’s on again off again boyfriend for as long as she could remember. Amanda grabbed Carri’s hand and walked her over to the last male on the court. “This is my boyfriend, Paul Jacobs.”
“Nice to meet you.”, Paul said extending his hand
“Nice to meet you too.”, Carri replied. She turned to David. “Did you bring a girlfriend?”
“Kinda hard to bring one if there’s not one.”, he told her
“Right.”, she said
“So maybe we could start fresh. New game. How about... me, Carri and Cindy against Paul, Amanda and Cory.”, David suggested
Carri shrugged. “Whatever.”
Cindy smiled. “This is going to be so much fun.”
David grinned. He was happy that he got to be the dominate player on the team. Why else would you side with two females? Besides being able to impress them. David took the volleyball back. “We’ll serve.” He hit the ball as the game started.
The ball went flying back and forth over the net. The teens were trying to make small talk as it did.
“So tell me,” David started as he hit the ball, “what’s so special about LA?”
Carri ran up for one. “I love it here. The sand and sun of course.... then there’s the city, my friends.”
“You should come back to New York. We’d all love to have you at NYU.”, David told her
“I’m quite happy at USC.”, she replied
“Yeah but don’t you miss us?”, asked Cindy
“Of course.”, she lied
“It would be great to have you back. It would be just like old times.”, Amanda said
Carri ran in front of David and slammed the ball so hard it rolled quite a ways out of bounds. She sighed. This was getting irritating. She looked as the ball rolled off and Cory jogged after it. As she watched Cory, she saw another figure appear from behind him. She had never been so happy to see anyone in her entire life. “Jason!”, she yelled as she ran over and gave him a hug
Jason looked baffled. “Ok since you only haven’t seen me since this morning.”
“Please save me.”, she whispered in his ear
Cory picked up the ball and then extended his hand to the stranger. “Cory McIntyre.”
“Jason Scott.”, he said shaking his hand
“You her boyfriend?”, Cory asked
“Nope. Friend. Roommate. But absolutely not boyfriend.”
She made a face. “You say that like it would be some god awful thing to have me as your girlfriend.”
Jason laughed. “Maybe it wouldn’t be. But then again....”
Carri slapped him in the stomach and laughed. “Come on, you’re playing.” She dragged him over to her side of the net, barely giving him time to throw his towel and shirt down next to her stuff.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend?”, asked David
“Everyone this is Jason Scott. Jason meet Amanda Martin and Paul Jacobs. You met Cory. And this is Cindy King and David Myres.”
“Nice to meet you.”, Jason said as he shot Carri a look. He had a bad feeling about this. “So... how do you guys know each other?”
“We went to Westside together in New York.”, Carri explained. “Well except for Paul. I just met him.”
“So that would be...”
Carri cut Jason off before he could say it. “Where’s Kim?”
“She said to tell you that if you wanted her to go out on Friday, you would let her work on her paper today.”, Jason told her. “So are we it?”
“Tommy can’t come, Kat and Chris might come, Billy and Trini are together, Zack’s with his family, and Rocky is working.”
David came up and put a hand on Carri’s lower back. “So what are we waiting for, let’s play.”
Jason shot her a look. She made a face. They both took positions on the court as the ball came flying over.
“So Carri, about that New York idea....”, David let his voice trail off. She rolled her eyes.
“You could cheerlead with us.”, Cindy said excitedly
“It would be just like high school!”, exclaimed Amanda. “Senior year was the best. I wish you were there. How was your squad?”
“I wasn’t a cheerleader my senior year.”, Carri told them
“You didn’t make the team?”, asked Cindy
“Something like that.”, she replied. Carri didn’t want to get into why she didn’t try out for cheerleading when she came back home.
“You were on the cheerleading squad?”, Jason asked looking at her in disbelief
“Yeah, yeah. But that’s my little secret.”, she said hitting a ball over the net
“So Carri, we met this girl from here, she said she knew you.”, Cory said
“Who?”, asked Carri
“Tanya.... something....”, Cory tried to remember the name
“Oh!”, Carri felt like hitting herself for not realizing it faster. “Tanya Sloan. Yeah I met her just before she came up there.”
“She was nice. It seemed like senior year was kind of hard for her though. She kept talking about this guy she was seeing back in California.”, Cory told her
“Adam.”, Carri said
“You knew her boyfriend?”, asked Amanda
“Yeah. He moved up there last summer. He was friends with me and Jase.”, she said
“Jase?”, Cindy asked. She looked over at Jason. “Oh, yeah, him.”
Jason glared at his friend. He had a million questions he wanted to ask.
Carri was busy trying to figure out how she was going to make it through the rest of the day. She dived for a ball and missed. She rolled over in the sand and laid there for a minute. Jason laughed at her. David shot him a look. “Are you ok?”, he asked walking over to her. “You don’t need to be diving for balls you know. Let me and your friend take care of those.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m fine. I’m enjoying the sand on my back at the moment.”
“Let me help you up.”, he said pulling her up against her will. Then he started to brush sand off her back.
Carri jerked back. “I like having sand on my back.”, she said matter-of-factly . She looked down and noticed a few grains that had slipped into her bikini. “It’s that sand that can get irritating.”, she said more to herself than anything. She got back in her spot and they continued to play.
They played for a while, with her old acquaintances from New York continuing to drive her nuts. Eventually they decided it was time for them to leave. David held the ball. “Guys I think we had better get going so that we can get ready for tonight. Would you care to join us?”, he asked turning to Carri
“No thanks. I’ve got plans.”, she said. Which for the record, wasn’t a lie. She had a date that night.
“Well then I do expect to see you out here tomorrow.”, David said
She sighed. It would be so easy to blow him off for the rest of the week. But her mom would get so mad at her. At least if she gave him one more day of her time maybe things would be ok. “Sure. We’ll be here.”, she said smiling and looking at Jason
“Actually I...”
Carri never let Jason say a word as she elbowed him.
“See you tomorrow.”, David said as he gave her a hug. She half returned it. The others waved and called goodbye and Carri waved back.
“You are not leaving me alone with those people tomorrow.”, Carri told him
“Emily is off tomorrow and we are going out.”, Jason said
“She can come too.”, Carri pointed out
He laughed. “I don’t think that would exactly be her idea of a romantic day. Make Rocky come.”
She frowned. “He can’t, he’s working. He’s off Wednesday and Thursday for sure so if I have to play volleyball any of those day’s he is coming, like it or not.”
The two started to walk towards the ocean to take a dip in the water. Jason was the first to collapse in the ocean. “So tell me, why can you not just say no.”
“Because.... because he’ll go back and tell my mom that I’m an evil stuck up snob and then... well I don’t really want to know what happens then.”
“What does your dad think?”
“He just wants me to be happy. But he also wants my mom to be happy. And mom likes David.”
“So then that was the David.”
She sighed. “The one and only.”
“Are you going to talk to Rocky about it tonight?”
“Eh.”
“Eh?”
“I certainly don’t need him coming down here to act jealous. And if he never has to cross paths with David, that’s fine by me. I would really prefer them to never meet because Rocky might kick his ass and that might not look good.”
Jason gave her a look. She didn’t say anything. “So, I have to ask, do you have multiple personalities? Because those aren’t your type of people and you are not a cheerleader.”
Carri laughed. “Well if you must know my story.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t told me your story already.”
“To be honest, nobody here really knows the details about my life in New York. Because I hated it. And I hate talking about it. And now it’s here so I shall share it with you.” She looked at him as she started. “When I lived in Angel Grove, I was the me you know now. I played baseball, I surfed, I sunned, I was best friends with Matt and them... we used to have a whole group of us than hung out all the time. I lost touch with them when I moved away.” Carri paused. “As you know, my dad got to start his own production company in New York. So we moved there.”
“Let me guess. Since New York didn't have your friends, or the surf or the sun, you took up something else.”
She made a face. “Kind of. With me having absolutely no friends in New York, my mom convinced, well pushed, me into trying out for the cheerleading squad. I made the JV squad my freshman year, and was varsity by the time I was a sophomore. That’s how I became friends with Cindy and Amanda. That’s how I met David. He was a quarterback on the JV squad freshman year, and his best friend Cory was the teams kicker.”
“I didn’t know you were such the cheerleader.”, Jason said
“Well I didn’t either. Nobody was more surprised than I was when I made co-captain my junior year. By that time David was also one of the captains of the varsity squad, and we had been dating for almost two years. By my junior year, I had really come to dislike cheerleading. I also started to realize that I really disliked the friends my mom and set me up with. And the boyfriend she loved so much. In fact when I thought about it, David and I had nothing in common. Except he was the quarterback and I was the cheerleader.”
“So you guys broke up?”
“That summer. I was tired of him putting women down and treating me like crap. But my mom was so happy with everything I was doing. However I missed Angel Grove so much. Kat made me so happy when she called to say that she was moving there. I spent months begging. My father was easy to convince. It was my mother who was harder. I think she thought I would do the long distance relationships/friendships thing. She was shocked when I broke up with David before I took off.”
“I didn’t know New York sucked that much for you.”, Jason said
“Yeah well... I got to come back home. I got to surf. And play baseball. And tan. And see my old friends. And most importantly, I met you guys who are the best friends a girl could ever ask for.”
He smiled. “We are lucky to have so many friends who are so close.”
She nodded. “I don’t know what I would have done if my parents had made me stay in New York.”
“It would be different.”, Jason said
The two of them continued to sit out there for a while talking before they came back in and were ready to go home.
Kim looked herself over in the mirror a dozen times. She knew that Tommy already cared about her, that it shouldn’t be important what she looked like. But at the same time, she wanted to make her self look.... special for him. She sighed. Tommy would be there any minute.
This was the chance she had been waiting for. The chance to make things right with Tommy. Everything had to be so perfect. She looked over at the bathroom counter and thought for a moment. She smiled as she crept in to Carri’s room and stole a splash of the perfume the girls loved so much. Kim had promised to buy a new one and share. And she would. Eventually. She stopped and looked at herself. She walked back into the bathroom and stared in the mirror one last time.
She thought she looked good. Well as good as she was going to get. She reached up and touched the necklace Tommy had given her for her birthday. He never stopped caring about her. And she had always loved him. Now that she was home... well the possibilities were endless. As she walked out into the living room there was a knock on the door. Kim couldn’t help but smile as she answered it.
“Hey beautiful.”, Tommy said giving Kim a kiss on the cheek
She smiled harder. “Hey Tommy.”
“Are you ready to go?”, Tommy asked
“Yup.”, Kim said
Tommy smiled at her as he grabbed her hand and led her out the door for a romantic night out on the town.
The apartment didn’t stay empty for long. Carri and Jason were both on their way back from the beach. They did miss Kim and Tommy’s departure. But not by much.
Carri burst through the door, phone in hand. “I just can’t believe... it’s just so irritating... I’m going to kill him.”
Katherine Hillard smiled. “Calm down. How bad can it be? He’s just here for spring break, then he’s gone.”
“He’s going to go after me again. I know it. I mean he had the balls to try and get me to transfer to NYU.”, Carri said
“Well I know he’s pushing and I know he’s touching, but you are just going to have to bite your tongue. And not let Rocky anywhere near him.”
Carri laughed. “I know that’s right.”
“Next time he sees your mom and dad, he’ll tell them how happy you are in California and how your friends were so nice and blah, blah, blah.”
“I hope so. I mean Josh told them once. Dad thinks it’s fabulous that I’m so happy. But you know mom.”
“Well your mom's just stuck in her ways. I'm sure when she finally meets Rocky and everybody else she'll love them.”
“I hope you're right.”
Kat smiled. "Of course I am”, she paused. “Hey do you want to go to a movie tonight?”
“Maybe the ten. I’ll have to call you and see. Me and Rocky are going out. If not tonight though, we can go tomorrow night.”
“It will have to be after me and Chris get back.”
“That’s fine. And I can’t believe you can’t support me tomorrow either.”
“You know we’ve been planning this for weeks.”
“I know. Have fun.”
“You too.”
“I have to go start getting ready. I’ll talk to ya later.”
“Bye.”, Kat said as the girls hung up the phone
Carri walked into her room and collapsed on the bed. She thought for a moment. Although Kat knew her parents, she knew of one person who she could get an even better opinion from. She picked up her phone and dialed a number.
Three rings later a man picked up. “Hello?”, asked Josh Hillard
“Hey.”, she replied
“What’s up?”, he asked
“I need some advice.”
“Shoot.”
Carri took a deep breath and prepared to tell him her story. She saw Jason come in and sit down on the bed beside her. She spent a few minutes sharing and then she waited for his reply.
“I told you he was an asshole.”, Josh said
“Thanks.”, she replied. “So what do mom and dad think really?”
“You know mom... she still talks to him. He tells her how much he misses you, and how great it would be if you would come back for college. But mom and dad know you love it there. And they know that I think your friends are great and that your boyfriend’s great. But I don’t think it would hurt mom’s feelings if you transferred.”
“Tell her to bite me.”
Josh laughed. “She just misses her little girl, that’s all.”
“I just don’t know what to do. I mean... if I tell David how I feel... or one of my friends tells him how I feel, it’s going to get back to mom and dad and he’s going to make it sound like either I’m awful or my friends are. I don’t want them to make snap judgements based on what one jerk says before they get to meet anyone.”
“Why don’t I come take care of the problem for you?”
“Yeah, right. You gonna catch the next flight?”
“No I’ll drive.”
“From New York?”
“Don’t be stupid. From Vegas.”
“You’re in Vegas?”
“Well you know. Finally twenty-one. Spring break. Me and a bunch of my buddies came down. So really, I can come by in the morning, kick his ass in the afternoon, and be back in time for the late night strippers.”
“Haha funny.”
“I’ll do it. I’ll be down there.”, he said seriously
“Are you sure? That’s five hours. Each way.”
“I don’t do anything during the day anyway. And I could probably get my boys to come with me. They’ve always wanted to go to LA. And if we hang around the city for a while, and we don’t go back until late, well Vegas will still be here and going. Besides, what are big brothers for?”
“Protection.”, she said laughing
“Exactly. I’ll see you in the morning.”, he said
“Thank you.”, she said as they hung up
“What was that all about?”, asked Jason
“My brother is actually in Las Vegas. He is going to drive here and take care of David, that way he can tell my parents what an asshole he was and they will hear it from him not me.”
“That’s a long way to drive for one afternoon.”, Jason pointed out
She shrugged. “He’s going to bring his friends. They want to see LA. He says it doesn’t matter what time they get back.”, she said. Jason smiled at her. Carri hopped off the bed. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a date tonight.”
Jason took off and left Carri to get ready for her evening.
Later that night, two figures took a moonlit walk down a beach that was now empty but had been full of activity earlier.
“It’s beautiful out here.”, Kim said as she looked out over the ocean
“Not as beautiful as you.”, Tommy replied
Kim blushed. “Thank you for taking me out tonight. It was wonderful.”
“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for that chance?”
“Two years would be my guess.”, Kim said smiling
“Has it been that long since you left for Florida?”, Tommy asked. Kim nodded in reply. “I can’t believe it. It doesn’t seem like it’s been two years.”
“I know. A lot has happened since then. A lot has changed.”
“Most of it for the better I hope. You’re a gold medal winner. You’ve got powers back...”
“Ninjetti powers.”, Kim pointed out
“Yeah but you can still fight with us.”
“Not like I used to. I missed that you know. Now it’s if there’s a few too many tengas, I’m your gal. If there’s real evil, not so much.”
“Well if we ever need another female ranger, we know who to call.”
Kim smiled. “Thank you. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Carri and Kat are both pretty settled in LA.”, she paused. “Besides, that wasn’t exactly what I was talking about when I said change.”
“Then what were you talking about?”
“We’ve changed. I broke up with you over nothing, you dated Kat, I excelled in gymnastics, you started college...”
“But none of that matters anymore. I broke up with Kat... well... she broke up with me. And we are both in school now.”
“You’ll graduate a semester before me.”
Tommy looked over at her. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll wait for you.”
“For what?”
“Forever.”
“Tommy..”, Kim said as she smiled and put an arm around him
“It doesn’t matter to me what happens in the future, or what has happened. You’re back, you’re here with me, and everything else is, well, trivial.”
“I know. The first thing... well the reason that I moved back was you. Sure I missed talking Kat and Rocky and Carri, I mean we have become such good friends, and Jason, I’ve known him forever. But nobody made me want to come back more than you. Especially after I saw you last summer.”
“Do you regret coming home?”
“Absolutely not. I have missed you guys, this place, so much. No Olympic dream is worth giving all this up for.”
“Are you sure? That’s a lot to give up.”
“You were a lot to give up. My powers were a lot to give up. The Olympics... well that was just a fantasy that was never guaranteed. Not to mention I never had the friends there like I have here.”
“Well we’re all glad you have you back.”, Tommy told her
“It makes me happy to hear you say that.”
Tommy stopped and looked at her. “I am especially glad to have you back.”
She gazed up into his eyes. “You make everything worth it.”
He leaned down and gave her a kiss. She looked up and him and smiled, as she pressed her lips against his one more time. They continued looking into each other’s eyes. With one last passionate kiss, Tommy took her hand and continued to walk with her down the shoreline.
“Bleh. Young love.”, Rita said stepping away from her telescope. She had turned away from spying on Trini and Billy in the coffee shop long enough to see Tommy and Kim kissing. “You know I always knew that blondie would have to stay evil to hold onto him.”
“Well sis why don’t we try and make her evil again.”, suggested Rito
“So she can go after Tommy? Too much work. Besides, she’s lost interest.”, Rita told him
“Why don’t you let me go down there and confront the red ranger? That will break the two up.” asked Goldar
“Goldar, let the rangers have their fun.”, Lord Zedd said as he walked into his throne room
“Why your highness?”
“Because my plan is finally finished. I am going to destroy those power rangers.”, Zedd told him
“Right now?”, asked Rita as her excitement grew
“No. There is one more component of my plan that won’t be ready until the morning. But tomorrow my dear, tomorrow will bring the destruction of those power punks.”
Rita frowned. “I don’t know if I can wait that long.”
Rito scratched his head. “So does that mean that nobody can go down there tonight and attack?”
“Let the rangers have their fun tonight, because tonight will be their last.”, Zedd said as he laughed and took a seat so that he could spy on the rangers as well.
Late that night Kim came home. She was surprised to see Billy standing in the kitchen. Carri and Jason had already gone to bed.
“What are you still doing up?”, asked Kim
“I was... out.”, Billy replied
“Out?”, she asked
“So where have you been?”, Billy asked trying to get her off subject
“Out.”, she replied smiling. “You were with Trini weren’t you?”
He smiled. “And I assume you were with Tommy.”
“We had our first date. Just don’t tell the others yet. We will on our own time.”, she told him
“You’re secret’s safe with me.”, Billy said
“What about you and Trini? Are you, ya know, dating?”
“Well... yes... I guess you could say that as of today it’s official.”, Billy told her
“Billy that’s great.”
“Yes. We are going to try to make the long distance thing work. We’ll see how it goes.”
“I’m sure it will work out for you guys.”, Kim told him
“It didn’t work for you and Tommy.”
“That’s because... that’s because I knew that Kat was here and I didn’t want him to feel obliged to me if he had any kind of feelings for her. We always loved each other.”
Billy smiled. “I know.”
“Well, I think I’m off to bed. I still have a lot of that paper to work on.”, Kim said
“Me too. I actually have something I have been working on really hard for the guys. I just got behind because... well...”
“Because you’ve been courting Trini.”
Billy blushed. “Well, yeah. I hope the others don’t get mad at me.”
“For what? For spending time with someone you care about instead of wasting every moment cooped up in the Power Chamber?”
“I guess you’re right. It’s just, you know, I’ve been doing a lot for them and...”
Kim made a face. “They love what you do for them, but they love you more. Your happiness is more important than anything you could possibly create for them.”
“You think so?”, asked Billy
“I know so.”, replied Kim
Billy smiled at his friend as he started to walk towards the bedrooms. “Goodnight Kim.”
“Night Billy.”
The two friends walked into their bedrooms and went to sleep, both thinking of the days events.
Kim woke up early the next morning. Billy was the only one who had beaten her out of bed. She had breakfast and got ready, then she sat back down with her paper. She hoped that a few more hours out of her day and she would be triumphantly finished. The apartment was quiet. Nobody else had emerged yet. Well, Jason had gotten up around ten thirty, grabbed breakfast, and went back to his room. He had wanted to give her some quiet time. Carri hadn’t shown her face yet, but she had heard movement in her room. She assumed she was up.
At least with them being quiet, she had gotten to do a lot on her paper. She was confidant that she would be able to finish that afternoon. She had almost complete concentration until a knock at the door a little bit before noon. Kim got up and glanced through the peephole. She didn’t recognize her visitor. She cracked the door open.
“Hi.”, he said smiling at her
“Hello. Can I help you?”, she asked
“I’m looking for Carri. This is the right place isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”, Kim said extending the door open. “She hasn’t actually come out to the world of the living yet though.”
He walked through the door as he rolled his eyes. “Figures.”
She looked him over. “And you would be...”
“Sorry.”, he apologized for not identifying himself earlier. He extended his hand. “Josh Hillard.”
“Kimberly Heart.”, she said taking his hand. “But you can call me Kim.”
“Well if you could tell my sister than I didn’t drive all morning for her lazy ass to stay in bed, I would appreciate it.”
“Not a problem.”, she said walking down the hall. She knocked on Carri’s door.
“Just a sec.”, Carri said
“Ok.”, Kim replied as she walked back out. “Can I get you anything?”
“No thanks. I’m good.”, Josh said
The bedroom door cracked open and Carri walked out, dressed in a bikini with shorts and a spaghetti strap on over it.
“You’re actually ready to go?”, Josh asked
“Of course. Just let me grab a bite to eat.”, she said. She walked over and gave her brother a hug. “How are you?”
“Good.”, he said
“Where are your friends?”, she asked as she went to make a sandwich
“I had them drop me off here. They wanted to see some LA sites. They may find the beach later, if we are still out there.”
“Have you met Kim?”, Carri asked. He nodded.
“So you came to visit your sister?”, asked Kim
Josh smiled. “Something like that.”
Kim looked at Carri. “You’ve been unavailable the last day. I haven’t had time to catch you up on current events. If you are here when I get back, I’d be glad to.”, Carri said. “Or if you come down to the beach with us...”
Kim smiled. “I might be here when you get back. And I might show up at the beach later. I am almost done with my paper. Is anybody else going?”
“Rocky will whenever he gets off. Tommy is. I’m not sure when though. He didn’t give me a time, I didn’t ask. Usually with him it’s just a ballpark guess anyway.”
Kim laughed. She heard another bedroom door open. A few seconds later, Jason appeared.
“I’m going.”, Jason said
Carri looked at him. “What happened to the romantic afternoon with Emily?”
He made a face. “One of Ernie’s waitresses begged Emily to cover for her at the beach club today. So Emily is working today, and the other girl is taking Emily’s shift tomorrow. So we rescheduled.”
Josh nudged Carri. He didn’t know this guy. Hell he didn’t even know that she was rooming with a guy. Not like it mattered. As long as he was respectful. Mom may not like it though.
Carri realized that her brother had never met Jason. “Jason, this is my brother Josh. Josh, I’d like for you to meet one of good friends Jason.”
The boys shook hands. “Nice to meet you.”, Josh said
“You too.”, Jason replied
“So who has the fourth room?”, Josh asked
“Our friend Billy. He left early for work this morning.”, Kim explained
Josh thought for a moment. “I’ve met Billy, haven’t I?”
Carri nodded. She took the last few bites of her sandwich. “You guys ready?”
“As ready as I’m gonna be.”, Josh told her. Jason nodded.
The trio walked towards the door. “Good luck with your paper.”, Jason said
“Yeah hurry up and finish it so you can come down.”, Carri said. Jason smiled. She wanted as many people as she could get down there.
“I will. I’ll see you guys later.”, Kim said
They exchanged goodbyes then left, leaving Kim some much needed silence to work on her paper.
“So did you decide to tell Rocky?”, Jason asked as they walked down the beach
“Well... I told him Josh and his friends were in Vegas and they were coming to LA to visit. I told him that I ran into some old friends on the beach.”
“So what happens if he drops by this afternoon?”
She shrugged. “Josh will have taken care of the problem by then and the three of us, Rocky, Tommy and Kim can play volleyball.”
“Zack and Trini may come by in a few hours, if we’re still here. They wanted to spend some extra time with their families.”, Jason told her
“That would be cool.”, Carri said
“Who’s Zack and Trini?”, asked Josh
Carri smiled. “You remember the two kids I ran around with in elementary school? And you thought it was funny to make fun of us because we were shorter than you?”
Josh laughed. “Wow that’s been a long time. I can’t believe you met back up with them.”
“Turns out, they became best friends with the same group I became best friends with I came back. They have been in Europe doing work, and they came home for a visit.” Carri explained. As she looked up, she saw someone approaching them. “Great.”
“Hey!”, David yelled as he led his group down the beach. He walked up to them. “You didn’t tell me your brother would be here.”
Josh smiled. “I was in Vegas. And I told my sister I couldn’t be so close without coming by to say hello.”
“You remember everybody right?”, David asked
Josh looked over. He remembered Cindy, Cory and Amanda. He didn’t know the other guy. “Except him.”
“Paul Jacobs.”, he said extending his hand
He took it. “Josh Hillard.”
“Come on guys, let’s play a game.”, David said grabbing Carri’s hand and walking off. David’s friends followed close by.
“I’ve been wanting to step in for her, but she won’t let me.”, Jason said once the others were out of earshot
“She doesn’t want you guys to get involved. Don’t worry I’ll take care of it.”, Josh assured him
“Just do her a favor and do it before Rocky swings by because he won’t show restraint.”
Josh smiled. “Don’t worry I don’t plan on letting it last that long.”
The two caught up to the others and saw that they had already started dividing people. Jason noticed that the court looked the same as yesterday.
“Why don’t you play with us,” David said pointed to Jason, “and you can play over there.”
Josh knew that David didn’t care for him too much. The feeling was mutual. Josh took his spot as the game began. He watched as things progressed. David kept on his sister. He would put a hand on her once in a while. It was irritating to watch, but he just had to wait for the right moment. He wanted for him and her to be able to convince their parents about what a jerk he really was. Their mom would swear allegiance to David and not give anybody else a chance. Mom would be pissed if he kicked his ass over a touch. But the way things were going, he had a feeling that he would have the reason he was looking for.
They didn’t play much more than an hour before Josh was given that reason. The ball kept sailing back and forth. Carri was trying to stay near Jason and away from David. At one point David squeezed in between the two and jumped up and hit the ball hard. It went flying out of bounds and towards the ocean. Paul took off for the ball. “My bad.”, David said as he turned toward Carri and grinned
She rolled her eyes as she started to walk off. He grabbed her by the arm and spun her towards him. “Isn’t this great?”, he asked
She gave a half smile. “I love being on the beach and playing volleyball.”
“No, I mean me and you. Hanging together, just like old times.”
“It’s fun.”, she lied
He put both hands on her arms and looked into her eyes. “I know we broke up because you were coming home. I know how much you missed Angel Grove. But I missed you. And I know you missed me. So why don’t we give us another chance? You can come to New York next year and we can be together.”
“I can’t. I’m seeing someone here and I’m really happy.”, she said. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Josh approach the net and Jason stand by his side.
David grabbed her arms tighter. “We worked so well. And we loved each other.”
“That hurts.”, she hissed looking at him. “And love is such a strong word.”
“Tell me that this isn’t love.”, he said as he forced her to him and gave her a kiss
Josh had seen enough. He grabbed David’s shoulder and yanked his head back. “Don’t touch her.”, he threatened
Carri made a face as David’s head went flying back. Josh started to step in between them. David grabbed Carri and forced her to the side. She slipped and hit the sand between Josh and David, then scooted back. Jason knelt down beside her. “Are you ok?”, he asked. She nodded as she looked up at Josh and David.
“What do you think you’re doing?”, asked David
“Keeping you away from my sister.”, Josh said
“You think you need to protect her? From me?”
“I think you just made that obvious.”
“She still loves me you know.”
“No, my mom still loves you. She loves someone else. She never loved you.”
“If she cares so much about someone else, then why is he not out here with her?”
“She would invite him but she’s afraid he’d kick your ass.”
David laughed as his friends came and stood by his side. “I think the only one who’s getting an ass kicking is you.” With that, Jason stood up and glared at him. David smiled. “It’s still two on three.”
“I think you need to leave.”, David threatened
“Fine. We’ll all go.”, Jason said as he started to extend a hand to Carri to pull her up
David grabbed Jason’s hand and knocked it away. “Not her. She’s welcome with us. Just the two of you.”
“Don’t worry about leaving. I have some business to take care of first anyway.”, Josh said as he glared at David
Carri watched the boys argue. She wished more than anything that she could just make him go away. That she could put him on a plane, and ship him back to New York. One way. Never to return again. She was so busy watching them, she almost missed the other figure drop his stuff down with hers and Jason’s and jog over there.
“You don’t want to do this Josh. Besides, it’s an unfair fight.”, David told him
“Three on three seems pretty fair to me.”, Tommy said as he walked over and stood beside Jason
Carri smiled. Now maybe David would consider backing off and leaving her alone. She glanced around the beach. She saw Cindy and Amanda standing together a ways away. They smiled at her. She knew they didn’t want to come over, that they didn’t want to be involved. As she turned away from them, something caught her eye. She reached over and tugged Tommy’s swim trunks. “Uh, guys...”
Tommy swatted her hand away. They were too involved in what they were doing. She sighed. “Fine then I’ll just fight the forces of evil on my own.”
“Suit yourself.”, Rito said as he sent tengas in her direction
The minute the birds started squawking loudly, the boys stopped arguing and turned to see what was going on. Carri kicked one bird back as the others advanced on everyone else. For the moment, the boys forgot about arguing with each other and started taking out some aggression on the tengas. Amanda and Cindy were trying to huddle away from the group.
Carri hit one tenga and got smacked from behind by Rito. She fell on the ground. She sat up, spitting out grains of sand. “That was a cheap shot.” She stood up and turned to face Rito. She never noticed David come at her from the side. He put his arms around her and threw both of them to the ground, and out of Rito’s path.
“What do you think you’re doing? You should go over there with the other girls and let us handle this.”, he said not letting her get up
“I’ll be fine. Now move.”, she said. He refused. He wasn’t going to let her up until she agreed to hide. She knew she had to jump back into the fight, especially when she saw the monster come down.
“Hm... where to start...”, said Zedd and Rita’s latest creation. “There, that looks good.”
Before Carri had a chance to jump up, the monster threw some sort of net around her and David, temporarily paralyzing them both.
Tommy and Josh saw what happened. The others had been drawn from the fight by Rito, who was distracting them at the moment. The two boys ran over to help, but couldn’t avoid being caught in one of the monsters nets.
Cindy saw the monster scanning the area. She stepped away from Amanda and started running towards the others. “Guys look out!”, she yelled mainly for her boyfriend
The monster smiled as he threw his final net over her. Then he and all three nets disappeared.
Jason kicked Rito back. As Rito regained his balance, he looked for the monster. He had heard him come in. However, he didn’t see him. And five of the kids that were out here were missing. Even an idiot like Rito couldn’t miss what had happened here. “Ed’s not going to like this too much.”, he said. As he turned to go back to the fight, he got attacked by two zeo rangers.
The blue and pink rangers worked furiously to defeat the tengas and Rito. It didn’t take them long to send them packing. Amanda came flying over and threw her arms around Paul is tears fell down her cheeks. “They took them.”, she spat out through the tears
“What the hell happened here?”, asked Cory
“A monster has kidnaped your friends.”, explained the blue ranger, Rocky DeSantos. “But don’t worry, we’ll get them back.”
“You guys just hang tight.”, Kat said as the two rangers teleported off
Jason waited a second then started to jog down the beach.
“Where are you going? Those guys just said for us to stay.”, Cory said
“I’ve... I’ve got to let their significant others know what happened so they don’t worry.”, Jason said as he went searching for a place to teleport
Zedd saw the five paralyzed figures appear in a cage a few meters in front of him. He could feel his blood boiling as he looked at their faces. One glance at Rita showed the disappointment on her face. He stormed off and approached the monster. “I gave you one simple task. To bring me the power rangers. And you have failed.”
“I did not fail you my lord. I brought you the blonde, the long haired one, the brunette, her boyfriend and their friend.”, the monster explained his actions
“Idiot! Did you not even look at the information we gave you?”, Zedd asked. He could hear the group start to regain their feeling. He looked over at them, glaring at two in particular. “They’ll have to do.”, he said as he walked over and stood in front of the cage. “Welcome to your worst nightmare.”
Carri rolled her eyes. “Sorry that started yesterday.”
“Silence!”, he yelled
Josh, David and Cindy jumped. Tommy glanced over at Carri. “What do you want with us?”, he asked
“Simple. To kill you.”, Zedd replied
They could hear Cindy start to cry in the back. David put a hand on Carri’s shoulder. She brushed it off.
“Let the girls go.”, Josh said, concerned for his sister
“No. I think they will have as much fun in the Maze of Doom as the rest of you.”, he said as he laughed. With one wave of his wand, all five disappeared. Zedd walked back over to Rita.
“You promised the destruction of the power rangers.”, she whined
“Well if I could get some good help around here....”, Zedd said looking at the monster. He turned to Rita. “Don’t worry, if we destroy two rangers and three civilians, it will tear apart the rest of the team leaving them vulnerable.”
Rita managed a smile. She looked at the monster. “And what about him?”
“He can go down to Earth and try to finish the job.”, Zedd growled glaring at the monster. The monster nodded and took off.
Rocky and Kat quickly appeared in the Power Chamber and took off their helmets. “What happened?”, Kat asked looking to Zordon for answers
“It appears as though Lord Zedd’s monster has taken Tommy and Carri, as well as three others, to another dimension.”, Zordon explained
“One of Rita’s dimensions?”, asked Rocky
“It doesn’t look like it.”, said Billy, who had been working quickly to come up with answers since the others disappeared.
“Why would they take three random people.”, asked Kat
“Maybe the monster thought they were you.”, suggested Alpha
“That’s absurd, why would a monster think that?”, asked Rocky as Jason teleported in
“Maybe Jason can answer that question. He was down there.”, Billy pointed out
“What question?”, asked Jason
“Why a monster would kidnap two rangers and three random people, possibly mistaking the others for us.”, Rocky filled in
“I... I don’t know. If he’d never seen our pictures before, and just gotten descriptions... maybe he could get it confused. Everything did move so quickly... I think Josh was standing with Tommy, maybe because they were friends they thought he was me. Cindy is a tall skinny blonde... and David”, Jason stopped short
“David what? Was he one of Josh’s friends?”, asked Rocky
Kat shot Jason a look. But it was too late now. He couldn’t very well lie to him. “No... he was one of Carri’s old friends.... from New York...”
Rocky raised an eyebrow. “Tell me that it’s a coincidence that David is her exboyfriend’s name.” He glared at Jason. Jason didn’t know what to say. “So she kept me in the dark so she could run around with her exboyfriend?”, he said. He stopped as something hit him. “The reason the monster would have mistaken him for me... he was all over her wasn’t he?”
“Rocky you know that’s not true.”, Kat said putting a hand on his shoulder
Jason looked at his friend. “Not entirely. He was all over her. But she didn’t want him to be. And she made that clear. But for the last two days he’s been trying to touch her and insist that she come back with him. She felt like her hands were tied. She couldn’t blow him off. Her mother apparently cherishes his opinion. That’s why Josh was there. To take care of her problem. That’s why she couldn’t tell you. She couldn’t have you beating the crap out of him, and then him running back and telling her mom how bad she was and how cruel you were.”
Rocky frowned. “I wish she had told me.”
“She didn’t want you to worry. She didn’t want you to confront him and give him the chance to give her parents a bad impression. And she knew you wouldn’t stand for her being mistreated.”, Kat told him.
“And now she’s out there somewhere with him? We’ve got to find them.”
“Don’t worry Rocky. Tommy and Josh are there.”, Jason reminded him
“Yes but...”, Rocky didn’t get to finish his thought as the alarm went off
“Rangers Zedd’s monster is attacking Angel Grove. You must go down there, but be careful of his nets.”, Alpha said
“Right.”, Rocky said. “Back to action.”
The pink and blue zeo rangers put their helmets back on as Jason morphed into the green zeo ranger.
“Ha. You rangers can’t stop me.”, the monster said
“We’ll see about that.”, Jason replied
The rangers and the monster got into a fight. The monster tried to trap the rangers. He thought if he could bring the rest of them to Lord Zedd, all would be forgiven. The rangers however did not make easy targets.
They were dodging the monsters attacks, while trying to launch some of their own. They wanted to pull out the zeo cannon and bring him down, but they couldn’t without somehow distracting him first.
As if Trey read their minds, he teleported down behind the monster. “It’s time for a gold rush!”, he yelled. The monster turned around just in time to see the staff hit him. As he got up and turned to face the other rangers, they fired a weapon of their own. The monster hit the ground hard.
Rita and Zedd would not let the rangers go that easily. As he hit the ground, they transformed him to city wrecking size.
“Not again.”, Rocky said sighing. “We need super zeo zord power now!”
The three rangers jumped into their super zeo zords, quickly followed by pyramidas. They fought Zedd’s monster for a while, and with the help of the Super Zeo MegaZord, they brought him down.
“Thanks for the help Trey.”, Jason said
“Anytime.”, Trey replied
The rangers teleported back to the Power Chamber to see what Billy had found out.
Zedd had slung his five captives to different corners of his Maze of Doom. It was, of course, possible that they would survive the maze. That he had counted on. They wouldn’t, however, survive the finish line.
Upon arrival, all of them quickly realized they would have to fend for themselves, at least for the time being. The fist two to find each other were Carri and Cindy. After Carri had gotten her to quit sobbing, she convinced her that they had to keep moving or else they would be killed.
“Do you really think they want to kill us?”, Cindy asked. Carri nodded. “Why?”
Carri sighed. “I don’t know. Weird stuff happens when you’re near Angel Grove.”
Cindy shrieked. “Those birds are back.”
Carri turned to see more tengas. She fought them while trying to protect Cindy. She had knocked most of them back, when one came at her twirling some sort of weapon. Carri grabbed Cindy by the wrist. “Run!”, she exclaimed as the two took off.
They had no idea where they were going. It was hard enough to maneuver through Zedd’s maze without a tenga on their heels. Carri took what turned out to be a wrong turn and she ran towards a dead end. She had to think quickly. “Get down!”, she yelled as they approached the back wall. Cindy fell to the floor as the tenga took a swing near their mid sections. Carri used her forward momentum to take a few steps up the stone wall. The tenga swung above Cindy’s head and below Carri’s feet. As Carri got to her highest point, she pushed off the wall and kicked the surprised tenga back.
Fortunately the girls didn’t have to worry about another attack, because while the bird was dazed, Tommy kicked him in the stomach causing him to drop the weapon. He picked it up and used it to knock the tenga out. “I thought that was you running by.”
“Thanks Tommy.”, Carri said as she helped Cindy up
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”, said Tommy as he motioned for the girls to follow
“Have you seen the others?”, Carri asked as she got in step with Tommy. He shook his head no. “I’m worried about Josh.”
“And David.”, Cindy chimed in.
“I’m sure they’re alright.”, Tommy replied
Carri sighed as she looked around the maze. She folded her arms and shivered. A bikini on the beach felt fabulous. A bikini in here, not so much. She felt Tommy take his hands and rub her arms to try and warm her up. “Anything?”, he asked
She gave him a half smile. “Thanks for trying though.”
“I don’t even have a shirt to offer.”, Tommy said. He had been ready for soaking up the sun as well.
“I’ll live.”, she told him. “Well hopefully.”, she added remembering her surroundings
“Is this your boyfriend?”, Cindy asked
Tommy smiled. “No, I’m her best friend’s boyfriend.”
Carri shot him a look. “Since when?”
“Since last night.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“Nope.”, he said with a grin on his face
“All that pestering I’ve been doing and she couldn’t even tell me she was going on a date.”
“Kim and I decided we wanted to go on a date first before we told anyone, especially you and Jason because of the pestering.”
Carri laughed. “Fine. I’m just glad you guys finally did it.”
Tommy stopped suddenly and took a step forward, weapon in hand. More tengas had shown up to try and take them out.
“Have you found anything?”, Rocky asked Billy as they powered down
“Well I have some good news. When the monster teleported back down, we tried to run a trace on it’s signature. We found the dimension that it came from. There was evidence of two evil signatures recently there. There was also evidence of two zeo signatures and three other humans. The signatures were sent elsewhere. We can’t pinpoint them exactly, but we have an idea. It shouldn’t take us long to find them.”, Billy explained
“What do we do when we find them?”, asked Kat
“It is doubtful that Lord Zedd will allow you to teleport in to his dimension.”, Alpha pointed out
“But my dimensional device will allow you access. If I can get Kim’s help, then the three of you can go in and rescue the others.”, Billy told them
“Sounds like a plan.”, Jason said
“Can we do anything to help?”, asked Rocky
“No. But this shouldn’t take much longer.”, Billy replied
Rocky sighed as he leaned against a console and waited for results. He couldn’t help but worry about his girlfriend. He wished she would have told him about all of this. He could have helped. He would have... well he would have gone to the beach and confronted her ex. Maybe he could still do that. After all, he was almost home when this whole thing started. He smiled. Once they made it out of this jam, he would definitely see what he could do to help.
David had found Josh first in the maze. He was more concerned about finding the girls. Well Carri anyway. He was afraid for her life out here. He did still love her. And he truly believed that she still cared about him. He sighed as he and Josh continued to walk around. They weren’t talking. But there was certainly something to be said about safety in numbers. Especially with these giant birds around.
Of course, they hadn’t really been fighting the birds. More like running from them. Which proved to be harder than expected with the maze in their path. Suddenly they heard a noise. They couldn’t be sure what it was. Maybe the birds? Then they heard it again. It was definitely female. And it was definitely screaming.
The two boys raced to where they thought the source of the screaming was coming from. It was getting louder as they got closer. They knew they were on the right path when they saw Carri slide across the floor and hit the rock wall with a soft thud. “That’s going to leave a mark.”, she said as she jumped up and ran back
“Carri!”, David yelled as he ran after her. Josh muttered something under his breath as he followed.
When they caught up to her, they saw several of the birds attacking. Tommy and Carri were fighting them. And Cindy was screaming in the corner as the other two tried to protect her. “Go hide with Cindy.”, David said as he jumped in front of Carri and took a shot from a tenga.
“Sure.”, she said rolling her eyes as she slipped past him and into the arms of some tengas. Of course, she would rather be in their hands than his. If that wasn’t sad, she didn’t know what was.
She slammed two together and hit two more. She saw David keep trying to get to her, but a few minutes later the fight was over.
“You don’t need to fight those things they’ll kill us.”, David said
“This is not the time nor the place for you to try and act all macho.”, Carri snapped
“She’s right.”, Tommy agreed. “Besides we need all the hands we can get if we are going to survive this.”
“But she’s a woman, she shouldn’t be fighting.”, David protested
Tommy grabbed Carri’s arms and pulled her away from anywhere near David. The look in her eyes said it all. She was about to show him why she was the yellow ranger. “Come on guys we need to keep moving.”, Tommy said
“Who do you think you are bossing us around and putting a hand on her?”, David asked. “Wait, you’re her boyfriend aren’t you?”
“Lucky for you I’m not.”, Tommy replied
“Two male friends sticking up for you and not one boyfriend? Either you lied about having a love or you’ve turned into a slut.”, David said
Before Carri could even protest Josh socked David in the jaw. “Don’t you ever say that about my sister again.”, he growled
“Come on.”, Tommy said. He and Carri led the way, followed by Josh and Cindy, and finally David.
Kim hit the save button on her computer and smiled. She was finally done. She could print her report. And she could go to the beach. She hoped Tommy was there. She was sure he would have shown up by now. If Carri told him she was going around lunch, and it was after two, well even he wouldn’t show up that late. She couldn’t wait to share the news with her friends. They would be so excited. They have been rooting them on since she came back.
As Kim finished stapling her pages, the communicator Billy gave her went off. She put her report down and lifted her wrist to her mouth. “What’s up?”
“Kim I’m going to need your help with something. Can you teleport up here?”, Billy asked
“Sure thing.”, she replied. In a flash of light, she was gone.
She arrived in the Power Chamber to see Kat, Jason and Rocky standing around. Kat looked bored, Jason looked irritated, and Rocky was obviously upset. “What’s going on?”, she asked
“Josh, Tommy, Carri, her friend Cindy and her ex David were all kidnaped by Lord Zedd and taken to another dimension.”, explained Jason
“Her ex?”, questioned Kim. “Why didn’t she tell me her ex was in town.”
“Because you weren’t around last night.”, Jason replied
“I was out.”, she said
“With who?”, he asked
“With one of the boys who is missing.”, Kim said with a frown on her face. “So what can I do to help?”
“The coordinates to the dimension that they have been taken to should...”, Billy paused as a few buttons flashed, “well they are coming up now.” Rocky smiled as Billy continued. “You and I will need to operate and man my dimensional traveling device so that the others can go in and rescue everyone.”
Jason looked at his friend. “Do I need to remind you of the rules of being a ranger before we leave?”
“What are you taking about?”, asked Rocky
“I mean you can’t go in and fight or blast or sacrifice anyone that may be evil but is really just human.”, Jason explained
Rocky smiled. “Yeah, yeah. Is everyone ready?”, he asked. They nodded. “It’s morphin time!”
“ZEO RANGER I, PINK!”
“ZEO RANGER III, BLUE!”
“ZEO RANGER IV, GREEN!”
“Ninjetti, Crane!”, Kim yelled
“Wolf!”, yelled Billy
The two ninjetti’s and the three zeo’s teleported down to the surface to start on their plan.
After many more battles, Tommy and Carri were the first of the group to emerge in front of the exit to the maze. They were all exhausted and wanted more than anything for this to end. One glance, and they realized that they still had more to deal with.
Goldar and Rito were standing off to the side, looking at a warrior in the middle. The warrior smiled. “I am here to guarantee your destruction.”, she said smiling
“Who are you?”, asked Josh
“I am Scorpina.”, she said with a smile
“A scorpion lackey? Ha. See ya.”, Carri said as she started to spin around and walk away.
Tommy grabbed her by the arm and spun her forward, pulling her back beside him. “You don’t scare us.”
She laughed at the former white ranger. “You don’t lie very well.” With that, she jumped down from her perch and attacked the group. Carri and Tommy tried to lure her away from the others. Seeing as that was working, Goldar and Rito went down to chase the rest of the group.
Fighting Scorpina was harder than Carri had anticipated. She was strong. And Tommy made it a point to tell her to avoid her tail. She didn’t know how much longer they would hold up. Scorpina backed them into a corner.
“You know, Lord Zedd wanted me to destroy all five rangers. It’s not my fault he hired a monster too stupid to capture the right people. But then again, two is better than none.”, Scorpina said as she pulled something out
“What’s that?”, Carri asked of the glowing orb in her hands
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think we want to find out.”, Tommy replied
She grinned. “It’s a present from Rita. I thought it would be more fun to destroy you by hand. But it will be just as much fun to blow you to bits and tear apart your friends.” Scorpina was so excited that she didn’t notice all the commotion as the rangers invaded their little party. Rocky came in and shot Scorpina from the side.
She turned towards him. Jason took the opportunity to use his zeo power kick in her back. Scorpina went flying. Rocky ran to check on the other two rangers. “Are you guys ok?”, he asked
“Much better now that you’re here.”, Carri replied with a smile
“So I imagine you have a way to get us out?”, Tommy asked
“Just follow Kat. Jason and I will distract Rita and Zedd’s goons then we’ll be right behind you.”, Rocky said
Tommy and Carri turned to see that Kat and Jason were protecting the others, who were terrified about what had happened earlier. Carri squeezed Rocky’s gloved hand. “Be careful.”
He smiled. “Always am.” Rocky ran off to help Jason distract the bad guys. Carri and Tommy ran over to join the others.
“I’m so happy you’re ok.”, David said throwing his arms around Carri and rubbing his hands on her back.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rocky saw him. He saw the look of disgust on her face as she tried to push him away. He couldn’t watch long as Goldar snapped him back to reality. But he wished that he could go over there and give him a piece of his mind.
As Carri got David off of her, she turned to the pink ranger. “K...”, she started holding that first syllable out for a few seconds, “come on pink ranger the blue ranger said you could get us out of here.”
Tommy tried hard not to smile. Fortunately Kat didn’t have to hide it as she grinned under her helmet. “Follow me.”, she said as she led them around the maze.
A few minutes later they had found the portal back to Earth. “We have to go through there?”, asked Cindy
“Don’t worry it’s not dangerous.”, Kat said
“Ladies first.”, Josh said sticking his hand out
“I don’t know...”, Cindy said. Carri sighed and grabbed her hand. Then she led both of them through at the same time. David didn’t hesitate to follow. Tommy motioned for Josh to go before him. Then Tommy went through, leaving Kat there. Kat glanced over and saw the two male rangers running towards her. She jumped through.
Everyone landed on the grass and were greeted by the pink and blue ninjetti. Rocky and Jason were the last ones through.
“Close it quick!”, Rocky hollered as his feet hit the ground
Billy hit a button and the portal before them shut. He turned to the others. “Now I believe you guys have a beach to get back to.”
“Thank you for saving us.”, Cindy said. The others nodded their heads to say thank you as well.
“Anytime.”, Kim said
Billy raised his communicator to his mouth. “Alpha I’ve got five people who need to be teleported back to Los Angeles.”
“Will do rangers.”, Alpha said. A few seconds later, they were gone.
“I’d better hurry up and get back too.”, Jason said as he powered down and teleported to a safe spot.
“Let’s take this stuff back, then we can get back to what we were doing.”, Billy said picking up a part of his device
Rocky grabbed the other piece. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”, he said as they teleported to the Power Chamber
“I cannot believe we failed. This plan was perfect. If your stupid monster had captured the right people, we would have had those rangers worn down and beaten and they would never have been able to defeat Scorpina. Instead, we had two worn down rangers in there, leaving three morphed rangers to find them.”, Zedd complained
Rita glared at him. “Why does it have to be my stupid monster? We used one of Finster’s molds anyway. Finster!”
He scurried into the throne room. “Yes?”, he asked
“Your monster failed us.”
“I’m sorry my queen, perhaps next time...”
“Perhaps next time you’ll get it right.”, she said with an annoyed look on her face
“Next time I will make the monster.”, Zedd said
“So what are we going to do about Scorpina?”, asked Rita
“We can keep her close by. I will think of another plan. She can still be useful to us.”, Zedd told her
Rita huffed. “All that planning and for what? Nothing.”
“Don’t worry Rita. We will get those rangers someday.”, Zedd promised as he slouched in his throne and looked out over Earth.
The group of five landed back on the beach. “Are you ok?”, Cory asked as he ran over and gave his girlfriend a hug
She nodded. “It was so scarey. But the power rangers saved us.”
Jason jogged back over to the group. “You guys are back.”
“Yeah. We made it.”, Tommy said
“That had to have been the worst thing ever.”, Amanda said. Paul nodded.
“It was pretty close.”, David agreed. He put an arm around Carri.
Josh glared at him. “Which reminds me we were in the middle of something before we left.”
“Yeah, we were.”, David said and with a smile he hit Josh. Josh fell backwards not expecting the punch. He stood up and glared at David. Tommy and Jason stood beside him, while Cory and Paul stood by David.
“You guys don’t have to do this. We can all be friends.”, Amanda said as Cindy nodded her head in agreement.
“I think it’s too late for us to be friends.”, Josh said
The boys started to argue. Carri sighed and walked off. She didn’t want any of this. But maybe it would be better in the long run. A few minutes later, she felt a hand on her back. She turned to see David standing there. He and stormed off from the others, and they had yet to realized where he stormed off too. “Can’t we talk this through?”, he asked
“There’s nothing to talk about. I don’t love you. I never loved you.”, she said
“How can you say that after all we went through together?”
“Everything I did in New York wasn’t real to me. It wasn’t who I was. It was who my mom set me up to be.”
“Even me?”
“Especially you. The whole us thing didn’t have one leg to stand on.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”, he erupted. “We were perfect for each other. We still are. Why do you think we got together in the first place?”
“Because it fit the mold.”, she snapped
He made a face. “I know that you said we couldn’t work because of the long distance thing. But we are older now. We can make it work. Hell you can come back home where you belong.”
“This is my home. Why don’t you take your friends and get the hell off my beach.”
He grabbed her hard and pulled her into him. “You don’t mean that.”, he said as he tried to give her a kiss
“Actually she does.”, Rocky said as he hit David. David fell to the ground.
Carri smiled. She never even saw Rocky approach. But she was thrilled to see him. “David meet my boyfriend. The person that I do love.”
Rocky put an arm around her and looked down at him. “Don’t you ever lay another hand on her again.”
As he spoke the other boys approached them. Josh saw David on the sand trying to get up. He kicked him in the stomach and David fell back down. Josh pushed him on his back. And knelt down towards him. “If I ever get word that you tried to approach or call my sister or my parents again I will hunt you down. And believe me when I say you don’t want that.”
David slowly stood up as he scooted back towards his friends. He glared at Josh. “This isn’t finished.”
“What are you going to do? Hunt me down on campus?”, Josh said smiling
David scowled. He knew Josh had more resources than he did. He said nothing as he turned and collected his friends, then left.
Carri let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so sorry you guys for involving you in this. I mean he was my problem I just...”
“Hey we’re like family right?”, Jason asked. Carri nodded.
“And what’s family for?”, Tommy chimed in
She smiled. “Days like these.” She turned to Rocky. “I’m sorry I wasn’t straight forward with you earlier. I mean I should have told you, but I just didn’t want you to get involved, I didn’t want you to get into a fight...”
“Don’t worry Jason explained everything.”, Rocky said as he gave her a kiss. “I would have liked to kick his ass earlier but...”
“I just.... I didn’t want him to say anything to my parents that’s all.”
“Don’t worry about that. It won’t be hard for me to find out if he were to say something. But I don’t think he will. I think I scare him.”, Josh said with a smile
“Hey guys!”, Kim hollered as she ran over and threw her arms around Tommy, giving him a kiss
Jason and Rocky shot them a look. Jason cleared his throat. Tommy grinned. “Oh yeah. I almost forgot to tell you. Me and Kim went out last night.”
“So you two are...”, Jason let his voice trailed off as he made hand gestures
Kim smiled. “Uh-huh.”
“Congrats you guys.”, Rocky said. Carri grinned.
“So are we going to play are what?”, Josh asked picking the ball up from where it had been dropped earlier.
“Oh but of course.”, Carri replied. “Come on Rocky, you’re with me. You too Josh. We can take out those three over there.”
“Sounds like a challenge.”, Tommy said smiling
“Well I never refuse a challenge.”, Jason replied. The three jogged after the others as they went for a fun afternoon in the sun.
The rest of the week went by peacefully. They all played volleyball all afternoon on Tuesday. Eventually Josh’s friends came by, wanting to collect him to see the LA nightlife. Josh said his goodbyes and took off. The other friends went out that night. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday had led to a variety of activities between different people. And Friday night the entire group went out one last time before Zack and Trini left.
Saturday morning brought the departure of old friends. They all met in Billy’s apartment to say goodbye, before Billy drove them to LAX.
“I wish we could stay longer.”, Zack said
“Me too.”, Jason said as he hugged his old friend.
“Next time we get the opportunity, we will have to fly home so we can see everybody again.”, said Trini. The others agreed with her.
After a few more minutes of saying goodbyes, Billy looked at his watch and motioned towards the door. “If we don’t take off soon, we’ll never make it in time.”
Trini looked up at him. “Ok.”, she said squeezing his hand. The others smiled as they looked at Trini and Billy. It was nice to see that Billy was happy again. He claimed to be happy on Aquitar, but they knew that Trini made him happier than anything there ever did.
Billy led the way out the door. He climbed into the drivers seat of his car. Zack scooted in the back to let the two lovebirds sit next to each other. They arrived at the airport a little faster than Billy had anticipated. After they had checked in, Zack started walking towards the gate.
“I’m going to give you guys some time. It was good to see you Billy.”, he said
“It was good to see you too.”, Billy replied
Zack smiled and took off. Billy looked down at Trini. “So this is it?”
“Don’t say it like that Billy. I may be thousands of miles away but that doesn’t mean that we won’t ever see each other again.”, she replied
“I guess you’re right.”
She smiled. “We can send each other letters. And don’t forget about this invention called the internet.”
That got a smile out of Billy. “I know. We’ll stay in contact.”
“And you can come visit.”, Trini pointed out. “They can live without you here for a few days. They have before. Besides, you have these if they need you.”, she said as she placed her hand on top of his communicator.
“True. And maybe you can come back here some.”
“Maybe.”
“We will make this work.”
“I know we will.”
Billy smiled not sure of how to phrase what he wanted to say. “You... you make me feel so special. So wanted.”
“I feel the same way when I’m with you. Nobody knows me like you do Billy. We’ve been friends for so long...”
“Nobody ever understood me like you do.”
“I love you Billy.”, Trini said
Billy started to blush. It was the first time she had said that. “I love you too.” He then wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her close and gave her a kiss. He was going to miss having her here with him. But at least he had her.
They pulled away and gazed into each others eyes for a moment. “I need to get over there.”, Trini said
“What’s the worst that could happen?”, asked Billy
Trini smiled. “I would have to stay here with you.”
“And?”
“Billy...”, she said with a grin
“I know.”, he replied. He gave her one last kiss. As they parted, he squeezed her hand. He watched as she walked over to her gate and boarded the plane. For the first time in his life, Billy was really, truly happy. He could not wait to see what the future would bring for him.