This is one of my top 10 favorite power ranger episodes. In this episode, we find out Skull is amazing at piano, and the bad guys are after him so he can be their musical slave. But he is hooded and the rangers take the whole episode trying to figure out who this hooded musical guy is.
This fic is basically his thoughts during the episode, plus a little extra thing between Adam and Skull, because other than one or two scenes, we hardly even see him or see what he is thinking. We mostly see Adam's side of things. So this is the other side. Hope you enjoy. I don't own characters or power rangers. Some quotes are mine; some are directly from the episode.
Thanks for reading!
These guys come in, silver suits, the bad guys. Tell me they want me to be Queen Machina's musician. How is it that I get into trouble like this? I try to avoid trouble as much as possible. Except Bulk pulls me into it; this time it's different.
I have been wearing a cape when I play music because I don't want people to find out I can play. It's not who I'm supposed to be.
I go meet up with Bulkie in the hallway, and we go to mess with the gang. Apparently Adam has to join music class.
"You and a bunch of loser playing boring music together, sounds like loads of fun right, Skull?" Bulk asks sarcastically.
I go a bit overboard with making it seem like I don't want to be here.
Oh shit, a teacher just pulled me away to change my schedule.
"You'll be in music class now," She tells me, and sends me on my way.
Great. How do I get out of this?
I go to the class and some guy is on drums. I tell him the teacher doesn't trust him on drums, so he'll move so I can sit here and don't have to play triangle.
This teacher seems a bit ridiculous. I thought Bulk needed to get his stuff together. I try to blow it all off as best as possible.
"Try out your new instruments," the teacher says.
Adam is next to me on the piano. He starts playing chopsticks. People start watching him. I say he's good, and he replies that he had a piano when he was little. Of course. He's not as good as I am though. But I've been training for years.
I go after class, practicing again, I hear something outside. Maybe it's those silver guys again. I keep playing but no one comes in. I finish my song and decide it's time to leave. I go into the hallway and see the rangers fighting. I feel bad that they are fighting because of me. There are many other great piano players that they could take.
I go to my main lessons, and I hear behind me, "Wait up," it's Adams voice.
I stop a second, and a monster comes out of the sky and attacks. I hear Adam morph; making it seem like I couldn't tell because of the hood. No it's not a surprise to me, I've known that group is the rangers, it's pretty obvious. Bulk keeps trying to figure it out though and I keep it secret.
I hide behind a bush, still needing to get into my lessons, and the only door is blocked by those who want to get me.
Of course, the guy, made out of a piano, becomes big. They try to protect me from him. Adam stays down and gets picked up. I hate seeing them go through this, not only for me, today, but every day for whoever the bad guys want. They risk their lives for the city every day, on top of going to school and being in clubs. I don't know how they do it. I can barely hide playing piano from people.
I watch from afar while they fight. I know they'll beat him. I decide to get to my lessons and get on with my day. That night, I go back to school and wait to watch the show for extra credit. I hope to be there just long enough to get credit, because I do actually care about grades, even if it seems like I don't because Bulk is an idiot. He's my idiot though, so I tolerate it.
I spend my time playing piano, because no one is even at the school yet, and there's not much else to do right now.
I finish my song, and my hood gets pulled down. I turn around quickly. It's Adam.
"You're the mysterious piano player?" he asks me.
"No," I respond, though it's obvious, "Yeah I guess so," I say admitting it and going to leave.
"It's no big deal," I tell him, "I'm not the only one with secrets," Hinting that I know his. I wouldn't tell anyone, really, but part of me wishes they knew that I knew, because then I could find a way to help them.
"No big deal? Are you kidding me?" He responds, "And if people have amazing secrets like that, they should share them, share their talents with the world, bring others enjoyment."
"Then why don't you tell yours?" I suggest slightly angrily.
"Mine?" He asks acting like he knows nothing.
"Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. I'm not stupid like everyone things I am. Bulk on the other hand… maybe, but not me," I admit.
He takes a second to process that I know the secret, "We can't tell anyone, because our lives would be at danger, we bring people more joy by saving them, than we could without our powers. We can't tell anyone because then who would be there to save everyone. Please, don't tell anyone, Skull."
"You know I wouldn't, and I didn't mean to say things like that, I just, this is hard for me. No one knows I can play like this. If anyone knew, especially Bulk, I'd be a laughing stock. No one wants a nerdy musician," I have a reputation to keep up. Even if the reputation is a punk.
"I don't want anybody to laugh at me," I finally admit. It sounds bad coming from a punk who laughs at others, but I mainly do it to not lose Bulk, my only friend who really has stayed with me.
"If he's really your friend, he'll respect what you do," Adam told me.
I knew he was right. And if Adam and his friends have the courage to go around fighting bad guys, I could have the courage to play at the concert tonight and tell Bulk what I can do.
"We have one final addition to our program, Mr. Eugene Skullovich?" The teacher announced.
Here I go. I walk out in a ridiculous costume, because it's fun. I stare at the audience a second, and then start like I can't play. I then go full out and show them what I can do. I glance at the audience and people seem to be enjoying it. I notice Bulk joined the audience. I act like an idiot saying thanks. And I then notice Bulk coming up to me.
"I can explain!" I say, looking a bit scared.
"That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard," He says pulling me toward him, "I was wrong buddy, sorry man. You're the best I've ever heard."
I winked at Adam, as a kind of thank you. We started talking and hanging out a bit more after that. Bulk was a little bit better about making fun of other things without trying them, and without making sure I wasn't into them. I continued on and started doing professional concerts. I'm really just glad I didn't end up working for Mondo and Machina.
