Power Rangers GPX SIU side story: Aftermath of Ronald's Wrath: Maria's Fear
Note: It is suggested, but not required that you read episode 6 of "Power Rangers GPX SIU".
:-:-:-: Power Rangers GPX :-:-:-:
"Maria, are you okay?"
"Yes," she said quickly. The two were walking towards the Thompson Point residential area on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus after their Ranger battle with the insane alchemist Ronald of the Ouroboros Society, and Ronald had threatened them… they were shaken, to say the least.
"Maria, are you sure?" asked the brown-eyed Chicago area native. The Venezuelan woman nodded quickly. But he wasn't so sure.
"Of course," she said, kicking a pinecone on the ground. Even though it's February, and there's still some snow on the ground, a few pinecones were strewn about.
"Are you absolutely sure?" he asked. His face showed genuine concern for his Yellow Ranger. She kept walking, trying to get back to her dorm. But Sean wasn't done. "I'm glad we beat him," he said. "He was a pain in the ass…" Nothing came out of her. The GPX Ranger was getting nervous. She usually wasn't this quiet.
"I can't believe Marty took the Gold Morpher," she said.
"Neither can I," he said out of genuine honesty. His old friend had shown up to save them (even if he didn't do such a good job) against Ronald. Sean dug his hands into his vest wondering what he was going to say to her. She was usually more talkative than this, but… they'd been beaten.
Ronald had threatened, in his unstoppable rage, to torture them all to the worst pain imaginable for as long as he wanted. They'd even thought that dying quickly would take away his joy in killing them.
But he died first.
Maybe that's why she's shaken. She'd just seen a man impaled through the chest right in front of her. "I know you're shocked," he said. "I mean, I've never—"
"¿Por qué no te callas?" she interrupted in her native Spanish. He long, dark brown hair whipping around her head.
"Hey, I'm sorry!" he said, his eyes burning angrily under his baseball cap. "Look, we're almost to Thompson Point, you want to get something from Lakeside?"
"No," she said. Sean huffed. Usually, he's not like this, but dammit, his Yellow Ranger is not cooperating! He sighed, his breath making a smoke in the chilly southern Illinois winter air.
He made a choice to try and delay her arrival at Bowyer Hall, her dorm building.
Thompson Point is named because it's on a point on the Campus Lake, a man-made lake used by students for fishing, boating and swimming. It's a campus landmark. There's a walking path along the lake that's popular with exercisers and Sean decided to lead her (subtly) to the lakeside path.
After crossing the road, he led her past the closest dorm building (he didn't get the name, but he heard it was an all-men's engineering hall… that sucks!) and to the path. There was a basketball court outside, right next to the sidewalks, which was next to Lentz Hall. Oh, right, Bailey Hall, that's the dorm's name. "You want to check your mail?" She shook her head.
Sean sighed in annoyance as they passed the basketball court and walked past Lentz. "Maria, I know I've never really been that great with… stuff… but I'm trying my best here! What's going on?"
She was quiet.
"Dammit, Maria, you're never this quiet!" said Sean.
"Shut up, American!"
"HEY!" He grabbed her, making her look at him. "First off, don't tell me to shut up when I'm trying to help! Second, you used 'American' like it's a bad thing!"
"I'm fine!" she said.
"No, you're not!" he shouted back. "You're never this quiet! You're always talking and being sarcastic—that can be bad, but I like your sarcasm, it's funny."
"You do?" she said, genuinely interested.
"I said it's funny," he said. All of the Rangers (Kevin [Blue], Aaron [Green], Rob [Silver]), save for Hitomi [Pink] were good with sarcasm (just read the story some time, you'll see what I mean), but Maria's the best.
"Thanks," she said.
"And if Ronald ever threatened to do anything to you, I'd make him feel ten times worse whatever pain he threatened us with," said Sean. She smiled. "Now tell me, what's wrong?"
"It was during the fight," she said, choking up, "Ronald threatened to torture us to the worst pain imaginable. I… didn't know he was capable of such monstrous thinking. I mean, you said Drake liked us as an enemy."
"Ronald isn't Drake," said Sean.
"Yes, but, not only that, he threatened to…" She choked up. "I… I…"
"What?" He took a hold of her biceps, which were toned and athletic underneath her sweatshirt.
"I…" Sean's not an expert on women, and he's never claimed to be, and he never will be. He has no idea why she's getting so emotional right now, but he's definitely sure he's never seen her act like this before. She's always been a strong woman that she and her mother could be proud of. She wasn't afraid of anything. A threat of the r-word would just make her kick the bastard in the balls.
Wait, is she…
"Are you scared?"
She glared at him in a way that scared him. This is also a young man, age 21, who can stare down a Great Old One and declare he'll kill that Eldritch Abomination. In the main story, he's faced down alien generals and monsters much stronger than him and won. In this continuity, he's faced alchemists with extraordinary powers and come out on top. And he's a hockey player; he's spat at the largest enforcers on the ice and gotten away.
These two are among the strongest and closest to the physically perfect (although not bulked up, and are only about 175 and 140 lbs respectively) humans on the planet. They've been trained since they were kids by a top secret defense organization to take down the worst enemies humanity can face. They're Power Rangers. They don't quit, they don't surrender, they don't lose, and they're not afraid of anything.
But right here, they're still twenty-something college students. They're superheroes, but they're still human. Not only that, they just saw some getting impaled right in front of them.
And right now, Maria is scared.
"Yes," she said.
Instantly, Sean wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face into his vest's shoulder, gripping the maroon sleeve of his hoodie and the back of his vest. She was crying.
"I-I-I don't—" She could barely speak. He squeezed her, strongly, but gently. "P-p-please d-don't t-tell."
"Who?"
"Anyone," she said. He could only chuckle, but understood what she meant.
"It's okay," he said calmly, which he was surprised he was capable of. "If it's okay, I'm kinda scared, too."
"Bullshit," she said.
It may be that this is the only time she ever shows fear to someone, the only time that threats of torture and far worse actually shake her like this. But fear is human and it can be overcome. Showing fear does not mean that you're weak in a bad way. It means that you're still a person, not a machine. You're not a bad character because you're a badass and suddenly show fear. At some point, the reality of what you're facing will come back to bite you, and that's what's going on here.
Two badass superheroes; Power Rangers, are showing the fear that over ten years of training cannot erase, but millennia of human emotions keep in place. They just fought an intense battle for their lives and came out victorious, but scared and weak at the same time. But they will learn from this and they silently swear to each other that they'll beat the Ouroboros Society so that they'll never show this kind of fear again and save this fear for midterms, finals or job interviews.
Maria pulled away when she realized she was getting Sean's vest wet. "Sorry," she said.
"It's okay," he replied.
"I've never seen you act like this before," she said.
"The same with you."
"Oh, right," she said. "I'm so weak."
"Why are you saying that like a bad thing?" said Sean. "Rob and my dad tell me they're always scared on the beat."
"But they're cops," she said, "They're not quite—"
"That's not the point," he said. "If you don't want anyone to know, I swear I won't tell anyone."
"Okay," she said.
"But I want to do something for you," he said. "No, it's not a date. There's a place called Mary Lou's downtown, you wanna go there?"
She shrugged. "I guess."
"Great!" he said. "It's a breakfast place, so we're still going drinking with Marty tonight, but we'll have to wake up early tomorrow."
"Fine," she groaned. "Just get out of here."
"You don't have to be so rude," he said.
:-:-:-: Power Rangers GPX :-:-:-:
End chapter
Okay, so how was that? I tried to put in enough infodump/exposition to make sure you guys can sympathize with these characters, but at least read my character notes on my profile if you have any questions, and/or you can read the fic and the TV Tropes article (HOORAY!).
Yeah, there's some sensitive issues involved, but I wanted to be subtle because said issues, if mishandled, can really bring down your work. And yes, strong women can show fear. It's human! Why the hell do you think horror movies are popular?
