Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers... yet. Oh well, a guy can dream, can't he?
The pleasant sounds of a guitar music floated down the hallways of Summer Cove High as another school day drew to a close. Amid the clamor of students headed home for the day, several others hung around the hallways catching up with friends while others gathered in the front atrium which served as an informal student lounge area. Brody Romero sat at one of the tables listening while his older brother Levi strummed some chords on his guitar and dabbled with some new improvised melodies for a country song. At another table across the way, Sarah sat intently writing in a notebook while Hayley was buying some food at one of the nearby snack carts that had been set up.
While the other Ninja Steel Rangers took some time out to relax from their busy school day, Preston finished gathering his belongings from his locker and made his way down the halls to meet them in the atrium. As he walked, he was joined by Calvin who had just showered up after his last period gym class. While they walked, Calvin glanced over to Preston and noticed his friend wore a distracted expression on his face. He was so distracted, he wasn't even paying attention as Monty came walking down the other side of the hall carrying a large stack of books. Calvin reached out at the last moment and pulled Preston clear to avoid a collision before clapping the Blue Ranger's shoulder.
"Hey, Earth to Presto. Everything okay? You almost ran over Monty just now."
Preston gave a sheepish look and adjusted his bookbag on his shoulder, "Oh, sorry Calvin. I kinda spaced out there. I was just thinking a lot about something really big."
"Really? Debating what your next big magic trick is going to be?"
Preston shook his head, "No. I was actually trying to think of what I should get Sarah for her birthday. I'd like to try and get her something really special this year but I've been coming up blank."
"Oh?" Calvin asked with a teasing grin, "Any particular reason for such a special gift?"
The Blue Ranger gave a flustered look and cleared his throat, "What? Come on Calvin! I just wanted to do something extra nice to thank Sarah for being such a good friend to me since we all became Rangers last year. You remember how disappointed she looked when she thought we all forgot about her during Christmas a few months ago? I'd just hate to disappoint her like that again and see her so sad."
Calvin nodded quietly in understanding, "Ah, right. Well, you might want to get on it man. Her birthday is coming up next week and time is running out. You don't want to show up to the party empty handed, right?"
Preston raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Says the guy who forgot his anniversary with his girlfriend."
"Hey, at least I've got one," Calvin retorted gently as he gave his friend a light elbow in the ribs and they made their way back into the atrium. While they approached and stopped to talk to Brody and Levi, Haley came over to the corner table where Sarah was already sitting. When Hayley took a seat across from her, Sarah glanced up and closed her pink notebook that she had been busy scribbling in. Hayley offered her friend some of the pretzel sticks that she had bought from the snack cart while giving an inquisitive look, "Top secret, huh? Brainstorming something for you next mad science experiment?"
Sarah took a pretzel stick and held up the familiar pink cover of one of her books, "Actually, I was just jotting down a few quick things in my diary. I'm almost out of pages in this one so I have to conserve the last bits of free space."
Hayley gave a thoughtful look over to Calvin across the room, "Hmm, it's been kinda quiet at school this week and we haven't had any monster attacks either. You must have come across some juicy gossip?"
Sarah shook her head, "No. I was thinking about my birthday next week. I was just writing some thoughts about what I'd like to do for the party or some of the things I'd like to see happen for the coming year."
Hayley gave her a wink, "Girl, don't you worry. Calvin and I have got you covered with a great gift already. Even Kody helped so I'm sure you'll like it."
"I'm sure I will," Sarah smiled in agreement before the two girls turned to meet Calvin and Preston as they came over to say hello. Calvin sat down first, putting an arm around the White Ranger and giving her a quick kiss on the side of the head, "Aha, already started grubbing without us. They weren't selling any barbecue potato chips?"
Hayley offered him the bag of pretzel sticks with an amused roll of the eyes, "Sorry, we'll just have to settle for something healthy today. Think you can manage?"
"I guess I can make that sacrifice," Calvin replied dramatically as he took one of the pretzels, "But only because I love you."
Sarah laughed gently and shook her head before she leaned back in her seat and addressed her friends in general, "So, any big plans this weekend? The weather should be pretty nice so I'd like to do some work on my hoverboard and take it out for a spin around town. Preston, you want to come too? Maybe I can stop by tomorrow afternoon?"
He paused in surprise, "Me? I… sure, but…"
"But whatever you do, just make sure that Sarah doesn't see that extra special gift you got her for her birthday, okay?" Calvin cut in giving the Blue Ranger a conspiratorial nudge.
Preston silently glared at Calvin for a moment before he felt Sarah reach over and excitedly tug at his sleeve, "Something extra special? Really? What is it?"
Preston fumbled about and tried to quickly think of a way out while giving a weak laugh, "Oh… I can't tell you. Otherwise you won't be surprised, right?"
"Come on Preston, can't you just give me a hint or something? One little clue?" Sarah insisted.
By that point, Brody and Levi had come over to see what was going on and overheard the tail end of the conversation. Brody gave a cheerful look and scratched his chin as he took a seat nearby, "Hey, if we're doing a guessing game about the gifts, can I play too?"
"No. We're not playing any games and I'm not giving any hints," Preston said in a mildly flustered voice while trying to deflect the topic aside, "I think we should all be focusing more on going out next weekend and doing something fun to celebrate, right?"
"I reckon he's got a point," Levi shrugged calmly in agreement while giving a little tip of his Stetson hat toward Preston, "Besides, I'm sure there will be plenty of surprises to go around as far as the party stuff goes."
"Speaking of, let's just hope the monsters don't try to crash the party and give us their own surprises either," Brody added before his brother gave him a light smack upside the head for the threat of possibly jinxing the celebration.
At that moment, any further discussion was cut off as a handsome young man entered the school's atrium. He looked to be about the same age as the other Rangers but he wasn't a familiar student at Summer Cove High either. He had short sandy brown hair in a curtain haircut and wore dark jeans with a dark leather jacket. Unlike the wannabe greaser jacket of the Rangers' classmate Ace, the stranger's attire looked more like that worn by a sports biker.
As he took off his riding gloves, he looked about the lobby and stopped when he spotted Sarah. He immediately smiled and gave a friendly wave before calling out, "Sarah Thompson? Is that you over there?"
The other Rangers all exchanged looks of surprise as Sarah returned the wave and happily bounded over to greet the stranger with a big hug. "Brad? I had no idea you were coming! What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I was just in the neighborhood so I thought I'd try to come by and surprise you."
The new visitor named Brad set her down and turned to greet the other Rangers as they came over to meet the stranger. Sarah gathered her friends and warmly gestured to the new arrival, "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Brad Ellis. He was an old classmate and a good friend of mine from Panorama City. Brad, I'd like you to meet my friends."
She went down the line one by one and introduced the Rangers. Brad stopped at the end when he shook Levi's hand and his eyes went wide, "Wait... you're really Levi Weston? THE country music star?"
"Fraid so," Levi answered exchanging a friendly handshake, "Nice to meet you."
"Wow!" Brad replied before turning back to Sarah, "I had no idea you were hanging out with celebrities over here. How cool is that?"
As Sarah smiled and gave a sheepish shrug, Preston cleared his throat and spoke up, "So... Brad, you said you were from Panorama City too?"
Brad nodded, "Yeah. Sarah and I were classmates before she moved here and I just thought that since I was in town, maybe I'd try to stop in and catch up a little. I have some extended family here and they're letting me stay with them for the week while the Summer Cove Spring Bike Exhibition and Rally is going on."
"You're into sports bikes?" Hayley surmised looking at his clothes.
"What can I say? I've always had a need for speed and excitement," Brad shrugged as he put a friendly arm over Sarah, "Back home in Panorama, Sarah would love to come riding along sometimes and see how fast the bikes could go. I even let her modify my bike engine to get a little more horsepower, but I'm not totally sure it's street legal either."
"That sounds epic," Brody grinned with interest while Calvin stepped forward in eager excitement.
"Hey... I'm kind of a car guy myself. You don't mind showing me what kind of setup you've got, do you?"
Brad shook his head with a laugh, "Nah. We can go outside and I'll show you in a minute."
Calvin looked to Haley and his girlfriend gave a gracious nod, granting him permission to go look at the sports bike along with Brody. Before they turned to head outside, Brad stopped and asked, "Sarah, while I'm here, I was wondering if you wanted a ride home? Maybe catch up a little bit later?"
"Sure! I'd love to," she said enthusiastically.
Before she left, everyone stopped as Preston hurried back to the table and retrieved her pink diary, "Hey, wait up. You might not want to forget this."
As Sarah thanked him for remembering it, Brad gave a chuckle as he eyed the book, "You've still got that silly old thing? I remember you were always writing in that, especially right before you left to go to Summer Cove."
"Well, I had a lot of good experiences and things I wanted to remember so I put them down in here," she said as she tucked her diary in her bookbag. With that, she took her old classmate's arm and headed outside followed by Brody, Calvin, and Levi to admire the bike and talk more. As they departed the atrium, Preston remained quiet and wrinkled his features in a slightly concerned expression while idly straightening up the dark colored track jacket he was wearing. That was until he stopped and realized that Hayley was still present. What he didn't see was that she might have caught the shadow of trouble that had crossed his face before he put on his best cheerful expression.
"Aright Hayley, I don't know about you but I think I'm going to head home. I've got something important to do."
"Anything I can help you with?" she asked gently but the Blue Ranger politely waved her off and shook his head while taking a path to the side doors.
"Nope. Trust me, everything is good. I'll catch you later this weekend."
The White Ranger raised her eyebrow and quietly shook her head to herself before making her way outside to go find Calvin and keep him from drooling too much over the suped up motorcycle parked out front.
Meanwhile up on the Warrior Dome, the villainous host of the game show Galaxy Warriors paced them empty stage while some of his kudabots busily mopped and polished the studio in preparation for the upcoming show in a few days time. Unfortunately for Cosmo Royale, it had been a slow recruiting week for monster contestants and he was dragging his feet about selecting the next challenger for the Power Rangers. If he were to be perfectly honest, all the volunteer contestants he had reviewed that week hadn't quite had any of the entertainment quality he was looking for. As he continued to idly pace and brainstorm his next scheme, he came across his peer Madame Odius as she seemed to slink out of the shadows to meet with him.
"How goes the preparations for your next show?" Odius asked as the sorceress with sinister canine features fixed her narrow eyes on him. It was difficult to tell if she was sincerely curious, or if she was just feigning politeness. Ever since she had partially taken over the ship after the fall of Galvanax, the two monsters had formed a sort of uneasy truce deciding that it was best to maintain a working relationship for now and stay out of each other's way for the sake of peace on the ship.
"If you must know, I was just narrowing down the list of contenders for the next broadcast and I expect it should make for a good show," Cosmo replied officiously while gripping his cane.
"Either you know something I don't, or you're a terrible liar," Odius smirked quietly as she walked with him past a few laboring bots, "I saw the recent list of applicants for the show and I wasn't impressed either."
"Unless you're here to ask a favor or help me with the show, then you're wasting my time," Cosmo replied but Odius straightened her silk oriental style robes and waved a hand.
"My dear Cosmo, I'm actually here to do both. I believe I have a monster ready and waiting who will provide an entertaining challenge for the Rangers. All I ask is that you let me field him."
Cosmo fixed her with a skeptical look, "And what exactly is your angle here Odius?"
"You don't think I sometimes like to cause a little mayhem and destruction too?"
Cosmo crossed his arms, "Not unless you're hoping to get something out of it."
"The fact of the matter is, you're in need of talent right now and I have what you want," Odius pointed out before stalking off into the shadows once more with a malevolent laugh, "I'm not asking for much Cosmo. Just consider my offer... while you still have some time."