Do not own. Kaylee however is mine.
Closing was about five minutes away then Kelly would be able to go home and sleep. She cursed her father for putting the idea of extra store hours in her head and telling her to try it out for a month. Most of her employees were teenagers and in school, and she didn't want to ask them to stay up late working hard. She took it upon herself to run the store, with a little help from her friends every once in a while.
At the moment, Kelly was alone. Kaylee and Dustin were supposed to be working with her, but they had passed out at midnight after the odd rush of extreme sports fans who were up late training for the X-Games the following month. She decided to leave them be. The store was dead at the moment anyways. No one would come shopping at 1:55 in the morning.
"Get off me!" Kelly barked as the tape attacked her once more. With so little customers and so much time on her hands, she decided to stock up for the following morning. Unfortunately, that meant opening boxes that had been taped shut.
Kelly and tape (whether it was still sticky or not) never got along.
Somehow, the sticky strip of death ended up in her hair. The red head winced as she tried pulling it out.
A man walked into the store and started looking around. Kelly smiled at him while she struggled with the tape. As soon as she got it out, she tried to crumple it into a ball and throw it out.
She achieved the status of ball, but when she tried to throw it out, it stuck.
"Let me go," she whined, shaking her hand desperately. The only thing that managed to do was get the tape to wrap itself around her hand. "Oh come on!"
Kelly tried pulling the tape off one hand, but it stuck to the other.
"Note to self, wear disposable gloves when dealing with tape. I'm sure Kaylee and Dr. K would have a ton extra," she frowned.
The man smirked at Kelly, and she knew he was laughing at her on the inside. She turned her back to him, trying to hide her struggle.
The man walked over to the tools and started looking at the duct tape. Kelly knew that sometimes, duct tape could come in handy for extreme sports athletes and always made sure she kept a few rolls for purchase (even if, when she tried placing it in the customer's bag, it still always managed to stick slightly to her hand).
Kelly tried to shake the tape off her hand once more, but somehow it just started crawling up her arm.
"Oh my God! It's growing!" she muttered.
Suddenly, there was a strange noise that echoed in the near empty store that sounded much like a ripping fart. Kelly turned to the customer and frowned. It wasn't her, it had to be him.
He blushed slightly and held up the tape, showing her that the end had come up slightly and made the noise. She nodded and let him get back to business.
The former Pink Ranger made her way behind the counter to try and deal with the demon tape with scissors. She opened the top drawer and found a small pink pair.
"Aha," she snickered as she cut the tape off her arm and finally trashed it.
She brushed her hands together as she stood back up, spotting the customer with the roll of duct tape.
"Get on the ground," he told her. Kelly raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms.
"Excuse me?" she asked him.
"I said, get on the ground," the man frowned, pulling out a gun from his pocket. Kelly stepped back, but didn't seem fearful at all. She used to be a Power ranger after all. She could handle an armed robber.
"GET ON THE GROUND!" the man yelled, hopping over the counter and standing over Kelly. She rolled her eyes before jumping up and kicking the man in the face.
The man's held his cheek in pain as he turned back to Kelly. Aside from his head, nothing had moved an inch from the kick. Kelly's foot was also throbbing.
"Ow, okay, that hurt," she frowned, leaning her weight on the other leg for the time being.
"Shut up," the man yelled, pushing Kelly into the wall and grabbing the tape.
"I just got a strip off," Kelly whined, before the man forced the duct tape over her mouth. Kelly frowned and went to rip it off, but the man grabbed her hands in one of his, and held the tape in his other. He suddenly spun Kelly around, bringing her hands behind her back and wrapped the tape around her hands. When he was sure it was secure, he ripped off the tape and forced Kelly to the ground.
"Sit while I take the money," he told her, breaking into the cash register. Kelly wouldn't stand for this. She kicked her legs around, tripping the robber.
He groaned, pushing himself up and looking at Kelly.
"You're pretty feisty for a chick," he told her, reaching up for the tape on the counter and holding it out. Kelly watched on in horror as he grabbed her legs. She forced her weight to one side, rolling over and hitting the robber with her feet once more. She tried to get up, but without help from her hands it was difficult.
The robber pulled her back on the ground by her legs and held them tight as he secured them together with the tape. When he let go, Kelly was completely helpless, except for one thing.
She quickly tried to roll to the Employees Only door, hoping she would hit it and wake Kaylee and Dustin, but the robber picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. He carried her over to the couches and dropped her down, before stuffing one of the pillows in her face for a few moments.
Kelly managed to keep herself alive by struggling. The robber had a hard time keeping the pillow over her nose and mouth. Finally, Kelly slowly stopped struggling, pretending she had passed out. The robber stopped, and lifted the pillow, seeing her eyes were shut. He walked back to the cash register, while Kelly opened her eyes to watch. The robber took all the money in the register, stuffing it anywhere he could, before walking out casually.
When he was gone, Kelly tried to roll off the couch. She succeeded, but the fall was too sudden for her and she didn't prepare herself for the impact. The pillow, which the robber had left on top of her, landed right underneath her, softening the blow for her shoulders, but not helping protect her head.
She slammed her head on the ground as she passed out, for real this time.
-----Sticky-Tape-of-Death-----
The following morning, RJ walked into Storm Chargers after dropping Hannah off at Corinth Middle School. He was a little surprised Kelly didn't come home that night, but figured she had fallen asleep after closing up.
He passed behind the counter, never spotting the person passed out on the floor in the couch area, and walked into the back room.
He found Dustin sleeping on a dirt bike, while Kaylee was resting soundly on a skateboard. How she managed to curl herself up small enough to fit was a mystery to RJ.
The pizza lover quickly snapped a picture of the two before waking them.
Dustin yawned and rubbed his eyes as he asked, "Dude, what time is it?"
"Nine," RJ laughed. "Hey, thanks for helping Kelly out last night. She's been coming home every night exhausted."
"We did what we could," Kaylee smirked, rolling over on the skateboard until she was lying on her stomach. "Until we fell asleep of course."
"So where is she?" RJ asked.
Kaylee frowned, pushing herself forward on the skateboard and opening the door to the other room. She didn't see Kelly behind the counter.
"I don't know," she said, pushing herself forward again, passing by the counter to see if RJ had missed Kaylee while coming in.
She wasn't in the store.
Kaylee leaned to right, turning the board until she was facing the couches. That's when she saw red hair coming out from behind a footstool.
"Found her!" Kaylee giggled, pushing herself to the couches. RJ and Dustin followed her laughing.
When the three got closer, they noticed something was wrong with Kelly. RJ pushed the footstool away so he could have a little more room to kneel down next to her and wake her gently.
That's when he saw her hands were tied behind her back with duct tape. He knew she wasn't little miss graceful when it came to tape, but she wasn't that bad. What really threw him off though was the fact that it was wrapped around her wrists like cuffs.
"Dude, her legs too," Dustin pointed to Kelly's ankles, where there was tape keeping them together.
Kaylee rolled over to Kelly's head and gently lifted it up, spotting the tape gag over her mouth.
"Oh God," she breathed, calling her water powers and putting her hand over Kelly's mouth. The water sink in under the tape, loosening it slightly so it wouldn't hurt when Kaylee pulled it off.
The cold water slowly pulled Kaylee away from unconsciousness and once she was fully aware of what had happened, she started to panic.
RJ lifted his wife and pulled her into his arms as Kaylee worked her magic on the rest of the tape. When Kelly's hand and legs were free, she started to cry.
"Shh," RJ whispered into her ear as he held her close. "What happened?"
Kelly's head was still throbbing, and she couldn't remember much from the night before.
"I... sticky tape... man farted... I don't know," Kelly buried her face between RJ's shoulder and his neck.
Dustin walked over to the register and opened it. Nothing had been trashed, so he was guessing whoever the farting man was knew what he wanted. He hoped Storm Chargers had been robbed, because if the money was there, then that meant only one thing.
If something had happened to Kelly while Dustin was available to protect her, the earth sensei would never be able to forgive himself. Kelly was one of his best friends. She had offered him a job when he was short on money, given him advice when he needed it and had always given him a second chance every time he ran out to save the world. Back then, she had no idea he was saving the world. For all she knew, he was just running off and skipping work. But every time she had forgiven him. He owed her so much, and if he failed this one time, the most important time...
Dustin's fist clenched at the thought of someone taking advantage of Kelly. He would destroy the man who even thought about harming her.
Thankfully, there was no money in the register which meant the robber must have tied Kelly up, taken the money and bolted. He showed RJ the empty register, and the wolf nodded.
"You'll be okay, Kelly," RJ whispered calmly, helping his wife onto the couch.
"I fucking hate tape," Kelly sobbed. RJ laughed softly, sitting by Kelly until she was calm enough to fall asleep.
When that happened, Kaylee went to the door and flipped the sign to 'closed'. She then grabbed a pen and paper and wrote down a message.
"Closed for personal emergency; sorry for the inconvenience."
Kaylee turned back to RJ and sighed.
"She didn't deserve this, again," she breathed.
"Again?" RJ asked.
"A few weeks ago two guys from the Cartel tried to rob her. She fought them off, but was still a little shaking up," Kaylee explained.
"She never mentioned that to me," RJ frowned.
"She said one of the guys was scrawny and pathetic," Kaylee laughed. "It wasn't really news."
RJ smiled at his wife sleeping soundly, before spotting a piece of tape in her hair. He gently pulled it out while Kaylee watched, leaning against the door with her arms crossed.
"She's going to have a lifelong fear of tape after this," she told the pizza chef. RJ nodded.
"She already doesn't allow Hannah to make crafts with tape," RJ smiled.
Kaylee turned around and slammed her hand into the wall.
"She didn't deserve this. Kelly did everything for us. When Shane needed leadership advice, Kelly was willing to help. Whenever Dustin ran off, she let it slide, without asking him about it when he got back. She never got mad. When Tori needed a girl to talk to, aside from me, Kelly was always there to listen. She gave Hunter and Blake jobs, allowing them to pay their rent... she helped us Ninja Rangers more than she'll ever know..."
"You know... we never really gave her much thanks for it," Dustin frowned, looking over at Kaylee. "I mean, we said thank you, but... it doesn't feel like enough."
"Well, how about you and I run the shop for the next few days to give her time off?" Kaylee suggested to Dustin. He crossed his arms as he thought.
"It will be nice to work in this place again," he smiled.
"And I can ask Shane, Hunter, Tori, Blake and Cam if they can help out with a special dinner for her tomorrow night," RJ smiled.
"I'll call the police," Dustin laughed. "This guy can't go unpunished."
As RJ walked to the phone, and Dustin pulled out his cell phone, Kaylee sat beside her sleeping friend and whispered into her ear.
"You were totally unappreciated, Kel. Hopefully all this will make up for it. You deserve it."
Author's Note: Okay, I had to write this because Kelly is such a great character and got so little screen time. She was basically a Sensei 2.0 for the Ninja crew and never got the credit she deserved. I couldn't stand to see her go unappreciated any longer. At least this way we know the Rangers realise just how much she helped them.