Disclaimer; Sadly I own nothing.
Billy was seeing red, and it wasn't Jason's shirt.
Not even halfway in and this had already been the day from hell.
First he had woken up late and had to rush through his morning, skipping both his shower and breakfast both of which he was now acutely aware of. Then it had begun raining on his way to school and whilst running to avoid getting soaked he had lost his footing and destroyed at least three textbooks which had landed in a puddle. To make things worse, once arriving at school he realised he had left the assignment due in today, on his desk at home, making this the first occasion in his entire life where he had failed to hand his homework in on time, and he had gotten a detention for it!
If those weren't enough reasons to hate today, he was also aching all over from the latest battle with Rita Repulsa's monsters just two days ago. His Zord was out of action due to damage sustained in the fight and he had spent every moment of his spare time since then working on the repairs to have it ready for the next attack which he knew could happen any day now. That alone meant working late to the night and he had hardly slept at all in the last 48 hours, which is probably why he overslept this morning.
To sum it all up, he was tired, wet, stinking, starving, stressed and altogether pissed off. So it probably wasn't the best moment for the disastrous duo to try to corner him demanding he hand over his lunch money.
From the corner of his eye Billy saw Tommy and Jason start moving towards him, ready to jump to his rescue. They slowed to a halt a few yards away as he raised his hand slightly and gestured to them to hang back.
Even in anger Billy was calm, almost unnaturally so. Blind rage just wasn't his style. That didn't mean he wasn't a force to be reckoned with though.
Reaching up he lightly grabbed hold of Bulks wrists, where the Bully was currently fisting his hands in the front of his shirt, pushing his back up against the row of lockers along the hallway. To his right Skull was leaning in with his trademark sneer and cackling laugh adding to his friends more physical intimidation with his own taunts and jibes.
"You know.." Billy began calmly "The Ancient Persians had a saying 'Even demons run when a good man goes to war'"
The young man watched as his assailants eyebrows drew together in confusion, each glancing towards the other trying to ascertain if they knew what their chosen victim for the day was talking about.
"It means.. " He continued, not letting their ignorance deter him "When a person who is violent by nature; like you, behaves with violence, it's not that big a deal, just business as usual." He looked pointedly at each bewildered face "You know?"
He felt the grip on his shirt tighten as Bulk began to sense he was being insulted though he wasn't quite sure how. "Look dweeb, why don't you ..."
"But ... " He interrupted. Not giving the other teen a chance to speak "When someone who is not violent by nature; like me, is driven to violence... .that's when its truly time to be afraid."
The grip loosened slightly as the bully realised the little nerd was threatening him. To his side Skull cackled again even louder as he reached the same realisation. Both boys were clearly amused by the notion, turning to grin at each other.
Billy smirked.
Shifting his feet to give him better leverage he used all his strength to push forward against Bulk, launching him back against the opposite row of lockers before moving in to bring them eye to eye hands griping the larger boys shirt just as the other had done to him moments before.
He raised his voice, finally allowing his anger to show through.
"Basically, what I'm trying to say is; if you don't get out of my face in the next five seconds, I'm going to spend the next five minutes, rearranging yours"
It was shock as much as strength which held the larger boy in place. To each side Skull, Tommy and Jason stood frozen in their surprise along with everyone else in the hallway.
"We clear?"
Bulk nodded frantically, his fear now visible. A quick glance towards Skull prompted him to show the same affirmation.
"Good"
Satisfied his message had been received Billy dropped the now cowering bully to the floor and retrieved his bag from where it had fallen during the initial altercation. Walking calmly towards the lunch hall the two other rangers who had witnessed the scene could only follow behind him, still in a state of shocked silence.
Listening to the commotion behind him as Skull tried to help his dazed friend off the floor Billy had to admit, although it still wasn't the best day. He did feel better.
Thanks to the joys of Netflix I have just started watching Power rangers again after years of absence and have fallen in love with Billy for the second time in my life.
After giggling my way through the episode "Power Ranger Punks" I decided that Bulk was intimidated by Billy far too easily even with his aggressive personality change, so I figured maybe that was because a past experience had already given him some incentive to be wary of an angry Billy.
I would like to state for the record that despite my unfavourable portrayal of them in this particular fic I am actually a big fan of Bulk and Skull.
The quote is of course from the Doctor Who episode Demons Run and has no actual link to Ancient Persia as far as I know.
Would love to hear your thoughts.