Those Who Fight Monsters
A/N: A bit about me and what went into writing this story: Like everyone else, I grew up watching MMPR, loved it, was a big fan of the show, however it became harder to keep an interest as they shifted from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to every other kind of Power Rangers they had a series for. I also preferred the show before Tommy became the leader of the group, where I've always been concerned, Jason the Red Ranger is always the rightful leader of the Rangers, so this story is set in season one pre-the Green Ranger episodes. I wanted to do a story that tackled the idea of what the Power Rangers would do against a different kind of evil where their powers wouldn't have any use and they would have to step outside their comfort zone of how to handle a problem. It's been several years since I've actually seen the show so if I get any canon details wrong, please excuse them. This is my first and probably only attempt at a Power Rangers story, so I hope you enjoy it. All standard disclaimers apply: don't own, don't sue, please read and review.
It was just another ordinary day in Angel Grove, just like any one of a dozen other days where not much of anything out of the ordinary happened. The weather was normal, people were at work, and the kids were at school. At Angel Grove High, Algebra class was in session, and while this was not the best subject of most students who attended, most of them were doing their best to take in the day's lesson and figure out how to work the new equations. Most. Bulk and Skull sat towards the back and semi-quietly goofed off and ignored the teacher's lecture, that was as much a given as the sun rising in the morning. The other students who had the misfortune of sitting near the two slackers tried to ignore them and focus on their work, and anyone else who opted out of paying attention at least had the decency to be discreet about it. A few quietly doodled in their notebooks things that had absolutely nothing to do with Algebra, and a few others just sat straight and stared ahead but were daydreaming about being anywhere but there.
The high school could at times be a revolving door, there were always new students transferring from other schools nearby or because new kids had moved into Angel Grove, and halfway through this semester they'd been graced with the presence of five new transfers, four of which adapted very quickly to their new school and made friends with the others and soon it was like they'd always been there. Then there was the fifth and most recent transfer student.
Nadine Pritchard had just transferred a month ago, and it wasn't confirmed, but suspected that she and her family had just moved to Angel Grove since nobody could recall seeing her around before and nobody knew the family or what they did. In the month she'd been there, she joined no extracurricular activities, she belonged to no team or group, she hadn't made any friends, and nobody knew anything about her, this was largely due to the fact that she didn't talk. She could talk, this they knew because her first few days there she'd said a few words to the teachers, but she never talked to any of the other students and had made no attempt to make friends with any of them. Ordinarily this might be of concern to the school faculty, but she seemed to get the curriculum and handed her work in on time, so they didn't make a big deal out of it. To most of the students, this newfound and largely mute classmate didn't faze them and in time it became easy to ignore her, except for the school bullies who used her muteness to their advantage and picked on her almost daily since they'd quickly figured out she would just take it, but for the Power Rangers who had been observing her from the first day she arrived, it left all of them puzzled.
It was easy to pick her out of the student body, she was 16 and constantly wore a purple tank top with black stretch pants or blue jeans, she was most recognizable by her bright red hair that made her stick out like a sore thumb among all the blondes and brunettes of the school, which did her no favors anytime she fell asleep during class, which she seldom did the first couple weeks of her transfer, but now did almost every day in one class or another, such as was the case now.
Jason and the others had quickly caught on to when she did this; she waited until the teacher was focusing on whatever they had on the board, then she leaned forward in her seat, folded one arm on the desk, laid her head on her arm as she sometimes did when she wrote in her notebook, and fell asleep. Even though the Rangers weren't friends with her, they didn't want to see her get in trouble since she never did anything to anybody to actually deserve it; so they'd gotten in the habit of whoever was seated nearest her would try and wake her up before the teacher noticed her. Jason was seated right behind her in Algebra, he gradually sank lower in his seat and tried to reach over and tap her foot with his to get her attention, but he couldn't reach, so he sat back up, subtly reached into his desk and pulled out a ruler and reached forward and tapped her on the back with it. Her head jerked and she opened her eyes and sat up and looked back at him. She didn't say anything to him and he didn't say anything to her, he just pulled the ruler back and was about to put it back in his desk when the teacher took notice.
"Jason, what are you doing?" she inquired in an authoritative tone.
Uh oh. Thinking quickly, he answered, "I had an itch," and proceeded to use the ruler as a backscratcher, drawing laughs from most of his classmates.
The teacher just shook her head and gave him a stern look that without saying a word, strongly advised him to pay attention to the lesson plan, then she turned back to the board.
That was the first time he'd almost gotten in trouble for helping her, and though it wasn't anything serious, he mildly resented her for it. He just couldn't figure out why she couldn't come to school a single day now without doing this, he and his friends had plenty hectic lives between normal teenage stuff and saving the world whenever Rita decided to attack, and none of them ever did this. Even Bulk and Skull managed to stay awake in class most days, and they didn't even have any idea what was going on. There was something downright infuriating about having someone around who never talked, you couldn't find out anything, it left you with plenty of nagging questions, and no answers.
It certainly wasn't like they hadn't tried to be friends with her, first day in they'd all introduced themselves and tried to make her feel at home, tried to get to know her, but it had all been to no avail, she wouldn't open up to anybody for anything. It was something none of them had ever seen before, and none of them knew what to make of it. But trying to help somebody who never talked was like trying to get through to a brick wall. It was frustrating but they knew there wasn't much they could do about it, so they resolved themselves to keeping a fair distance, if she changed her mind and wanted to talk to them, it was going to have to be her decision.
They could already hear Bulk and Skull taunting Nadine before they reached their lockers after the last period ended.
Kimberly rolled her eyes and groaned under her breath, "Not this again."
"Do you think anybody would do anything if I rammed my chemistry book down their throats?" Trini asked.
"Come on, let's see what's going on," Jason told them, and they ran the rest of the way down the corridor.
They turned the corner and figured out what all the commotion was about. Bulk and Skull were laughing themselves sick in delight of what they'd accomplished, while Nadine stood by her open locker soaking wet. From what the Rangers could gather based on the sight before them, the two goons had booby trapped her locker so when she opened it she was bombarded with water balloons, except, based on the color of the liquid on the floor pooled around her feet, some of them had been filled with soda pop. Nadine just looked like she wanted to kill them, but she stood back and just watched them as they fell over each other laughing at her.
"You should see the look on your face!" Bulk told her, and stopped laughing long enough to try imitating it.
"Why don't you pick on somebody your own size, Bulk?" Kimberly asked as she headed over towards them.
Bulk turned around and stared her down and wanted to know, "Like you?"
"I've got a better idea," Billy told them, "Try picking on someone your own intelligence quotient," he pointed back the way they came and said, "I think I saw a potted plant back there that'd be fair game for you two."
"Huh?" Skull turned to Bulk, "What'd he say?"
Bulk looked at him and answered, "He's calling us stupid."
"Stupid?" Skull looked to them and told them, "This was brilliant! Do you have any idea how long it took to pull this off?"
Kimberly went over to Nadine and started to ask her, "Are you alr—" but she just stormed past Kimberly, and the rest of them, and disappeared down the hall. Kimberly bit on her bottom lip, let out a frustrated screech through her gritted teeth, strode over to the two knuckleheads and told them, "That was really low, even for you two."
"Oh come on, it was funny!" Skull told them.
"I don't know, guys," Zack shook his head with a knowing look on his face, "You know what they say about those strong silent types…keep pushing, and one day they just…SNAP!" On the last word he lunged at them with one hand raised like he was going to hit them, Skull let out a high pitched scream and jumped into Bulk's arms, who in return promptly dropped him on the floor.
"What's the matter, guys?" Zack asked them coyly, "Can't you take a joke?"
"Sure, if it's funny," Skull replied, "But what was funny about that?"
"You should've seen the looks on your faces," he answered.
"Oh yeah?" Bulk asked, and pointed at them, "Well who elected you guys as her guard dogs?"
"Why don't you guys just leave her alone?" Trini asked, "She never did anything to you."
"And she's not going to, that's what makes it perfect," Bulk told them, "There's nothing more perfect than somebody who's never going to rat you out."
"Oh yeah?" Trini asked, then turned and called down the hall, "Mr. Kaplan!"
Now a look of terror formed on the two bullies' faces.
"Hey!" Bulk said to her, "What're you doing?"
"Mr. Kaplan!" Trini yelled louder.
"Hey, you know what?" Skull said to them, "Go ahead, tell him, it's your word against ours, what's that gonna prove?"
That earned a collective laugh from the Rangers.
"Oh yeah," Skull was brought down a notch as his memory served him all the run-ins they'd had with the principal over the year.
"Just leave her alone, got it?" Jason told them.
Bulk made an annoyed face and responded, "Okay, fine, got it." He looked to his partner in crime and said halfheartedly, "Right, Skully?"
It was obvious Skull wasn't sure what to think so he did what he always did, he agreed with his friend, "Right, Bulky, okay, fine, got it."
"Now clean up this mess before we do get Mr. Kaplan," Jason told them.
"Alright, alright," the two of them grumbled.
Skull turned to reach into Nadine's locker, but before he could, Kimberly came up and with a pronounced, "Uh-uh", kicked the door shut, resetting the lock.
"Bye guys," Trini waved with a small laugh.
"Don't be a stranger!" Zack called to them as they walked away.
"Ha-ha-ha," Skull dryly remarked.
Once they were gone, Bulk looked to Skull and said to him, "What do you know?"
"What?" Skull turned to him.
Bulk held up his left hand that showed his middle finger over his index finger, "Had my fingers crossed," and added sarcastically, "Whoops."
Skull grinned at this revelation and said, "Great, so what'll we do tomorrow?"