Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, or any of the characters in this story. They are the property of Disney now; although, there might be characters in this story that will be mine. I think it's useless and would be somewhat hypocritical for me to say not to use any characters without my permission since I didn't have any permission taking the Power Ranger characters in the first place.

A/N: This story takes place after the Rangers received their Zeo Crystals, but before Jason got there. It's going to be a series, so if you wanna see Jason in here, I suggest you keep reading the story. Just so you know, it's going to be a Tanya/Adam, Kat/Tommy, Jason/Emily fic. Oh, and this story will lead up to 'Blooming'.

I'm really sorry that I deleted this story. I felt that I really wasn't at peace with it. I went back and made some modifications. Chapter One is prettey much the same...just a heads up; but from there on the story takes a different turn. It's pretty much more action. I completely had messed up with the timeline making me so uneasy. In the end, I realized, the only way I was going to be truly happy with this story was to rewrite it. I'm still working on a few more clitches with the other chapters. I hope these will do for now.

Budding

Chapter I / New Powers: New Faces

"Jeff, leave the kid alone." A stern voice came from behind the 17 year old bully. Jeff Anderson turned around to see a plump teen wearing a Junior Police badge with his hands on his sides.

The tall teenage boy with dark brown hair was bullying a freshman in the entrance of the Angel Grove Youth Center Gym and Juice Bar.

"Oh, come on Bulk, you can't be serious" said Jeff.

"Does it look like I'm kidding?" Jeff looked straight into Farkas Bulkmeier's eyes and left without saying another word.

"Nice work Bulk, next one's mine" said Eugene Skullovitch.

Bulk and Skull were known as the school's bullies since they were kids. They both decided to straighten up and become Junior Police officers for Angel Grove under the supervision of Lt. Jerome Stone. No one knew that Bulk and Skull were seniors and were almost going to graduate. It was something both of them liked to keep under wraps.

In the past few days, Bulk, with the help of his protégé Skull, had both managed to accidentally get their Lieutenant fired. They felt that having their boss leave on account of their faults, both decided that they should quit and follow in Jerome Stone's footsteps.

The three teens sitting at their usual table are amazed at the sight they had seen. They had all been left with their mouths open when the two boys first announced their decision.

"I can't believe they actually went through with it," said Adam Park.

"I know what you mean," Tanya Sloan added in, "you know what happened to me yesterday?"

"What?" Her best friend, Katherine Hillard, asked.

"Well, I was in the Resource Ceenter studying, when all of a sudden I dropped my pen. Then, Skull went by my side and he picked it up, and guess what he said… 'I think this belongs to you'."

"No" Kat and Adam said uniting their voices to get a louder whisper than they had anticipated.

"Umm hmm. I couldn't believe it. I guess they really told them something useful at the police academy."

"Well, maybe it's a good thing. It seems like it's been working out so far," said Kat.

"Oh man, speaking of working out, I promised Tommy I'd meet him at the park to work on some katas," said Adam, standing up frantically from the table.

"Calm down Adam, knowing Tommy, he's probably as distressed as you are right now remembering the same thing." Tanya joked about the Red Zeo Ranger's faulty memory.

Katherine laughed as Adam said his goodbye to the girls and rushed over to the park not acknowledging the joke about his friend.

Katherine sighed and fell back on her chair asking, "So, what do you wanna do today?"

"Girl, it's Saturday," Tanya said.

Katherine looked at her with confusion.

"The mall…" Tanya stated, waving her palm in the air, then pointing at her communicator, "it's almost twelve."

Kat quickly gasped and sat up, remembering what they were going to do that Saturday.

"Sale!" they both said at the same time, before getting up and heading to Kat's car.

- - -

At the park, Tommy Oliver was performing a number of concentrated katas before his extreme workout with Adam.

They are both trying to get practice time in for the karate tournament Adam entered.

Adam ran up to the hill Tommy was on.

"Hey man, sorry I'm late. I got caught up with the girls at the Youth Center."

"It's alright; I was just about to finish."

Adam went over and put his belongings that he won't need into his backpack.

"So, ready?" Asks Tommy as he saw Adam approaching him.

"Ready", he responded.

- - -

"Where are you going?" Rocky DeSantos asked his girlfriend, Sherry Marquez.

"I'm going with the girls to the mall. There's a sale and it ends at five! I have to go."

Katherine and Tanya waited for Sherry outside her driveway. She came out with Rocky following behind her.

"What am I supposed to do for the rest of the day?" He asked her.

Tanya heard him and said, "You know, Adam and Tommy are at the park doing katas. You can go over there."

Sherry turned around and hugged her boyfriend, "Yeah babe, go get that body even more buff for me."

Rocky smiled before planting a kiss on her.

"Okay", he said, before adding, "Kat, you think you could give me a ride?"

"Sure" she responded.

Both Rocky and Sherry got into Kat's convertible.

"Whoa Kat, nice wheels!" Rocky complimented.

"Thanks" she said while turning on the ignition, "Birthday present."

"From your folks?" Asked Sherry.

"Na', they think me getting a car is dangerous. My aunt gave it to me after she bought a new car for herself."

As they were heading out of the driveway, Rocky had to ask, "How did your folks take it?"

"They just said as long as I'm careful and don't screw up, then they won't make a big fuss about it."

"And have they?" Sherry asked.

"You know parents", answered Tanya for Kat, "they say they're gonna do something, and they end up doing another."

"Yup" Kat said, nodding her head as she stepped on the accelerator and drove off.

- - -

The four teens arrived at the park. Katherine didn't go all the way inside the parking lot because Rocky had told her to park on the side.

"Alright guys, see you later." Rocky said, getting off.

"You sure you don't wanna go to the mall with us?" Asked Tanya.

"Heeeellll No!" Rocky said jokingly, but still saying the truth.

The girls laughed while Rocky leaned over and kissed Sherry quickly before heading over and running towards the guys.

Tommy and Adam, from the distance saw the girls and both waved. The girls waved back before going off to the mall.

- - -

"Oh my gosh, this 'Easter Savings' sale is so awesome!" Sherry exclaimed as she looked around at all the people.

The three girls were roaming the stores. The entire mall, store after store, was having an April sale from twelve to five. They knew they had to work fast.

"I have to go to Dillard's and buy a coat!" Exclaimed Tanya.

"Umm, Tanya, we're going into summer." Kat told her.

"Yeah, I know, but with the sale going on, and the coats already being cheap cuz summer's coming up, they're a lot cheaper." She replied.

Both Kat and Sherry looked at each other, "You know I never really saw it that way", said Sherry.

Katherine gasped as she remembered something, "Do you think they still have the yellow leather coat there?"

"I don't know, you think?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out", said Sherry, taking them both by the hand and pulling them towards the store.

- - -

"What do you think the girls are doing?" asked Adam, after he and Tommy sat down for a break.

"They went shopping." Answered Rocky, "Kat and Tanya picked Sherry up, then dropped me off here so they could go."

"Oh," said Adam.

"Weren't they talking about some big sale that was going on or something?" asked Tommy.

"Yeah, it has to be a pretty big sale," said Adam with disappointment in his voice, "Tanya missed her lesson today."

"Awww" both Tommy and Rocky said in unity, laughing afterwards at Adams fake, childish nod.

"Don't worry, man, I'm sure Tanya's sorry." Tommy tried to cheer him up.

"It's alright," Adam said shrugging his shoulders and speaking with easiness in his voice, "there's always next time. Besides, it's not like these girls like to shopping 24/7, right?"

"Oh, come on Adam," said Rocky looking at Adam, "don't try to play it all smooth either."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, you've been gaga over Tanya since she said she liked baseball and you two started spending more time with each other."

Tommy laughed, "He's got a point there," he said still laughing.

Adam, jokingly looking annoyed, looked at Tommy, "And what are you laughing at? As I remember, who was the one telling Kat, 'it doesn't matter what you wear, you look great in anything'" Adam teased.

Both Adam and Rocky laughed at the expense of a now blushing Tommy.

"Dude I had to tell him," said Rocky, being the one that heard Tommy say that to Kat when the 'come as your favorite decade' dance was approaching.

"Don't bring me into this okay?" said Tommy, letting the other two continue with their bickering.

- - -

"I need to go to Hot Topic," said Kat.

"What for?" asked Tanya in curiosity while they were heading up the escalator.

"I need to buy nail polish. I'm running out."

"Oh please, you expect me to believe that?"

"Why not? It's the only store that has Morbid"

"You just wanna go and check out that hot guy who works in the back."

"And?"

They both started laughing knowing that Tanya was right.

"What hot guy?" asked Sherry, wanting to get up to date.

"There's this guy who works at Hot Topic," began Tanya, "we were there last week checking out the store for her cousin's birthday. She's into rock and stuff. Anyways, we go in, and instantly this guy is just staring at Kat. She first asks me if she has something on her face, but then we realized that he was looking at her the whole time we were there."

"Really? What does he look like?"

"Well," said Tanya, "he's like six something; tall, in other words. Thin…"

"And cute, don't forget cute" said Kat with a smile, then she looked at Sherry and added, "Really cute."

"Yeah, he's really cute, with hair down to his ears. He has that sort of covering one eye hair do. But it suits him really well. Umm, what else?" Tanya tried to remember more about him then Kat cut in.

"He's got his eyebrow pierced. Very sexy" she added.

"So, is he like a bad boy or something?" questioned Sherry.

"Umm, yeah, but he seems really nice" Kat said.

"You know us girls," said Tanya, "suckers for bad boys."

"In your case, shy ones," added Kat.

"Oh, you wanna go there?" asked Tanya.

"Nonono, I was just kidding," said Kat, not wanting Tanya to bring up Tommy.

Sherry just laughed as she watched her two friends quarrel like that.

- - -

"You know Adam, I think we should call it quits for today, man" said Tommy, heading over to get his water bottle.

"Yeah, I'm with you there," said Adam, gasping for air.

Tommy had sparred with him for a while, and then Rocky took over while Tommy rested. When Rocky was through sparring, Tommy started on Adam again.

"You took it grand today, buddy" Rocky encouraged Adam as he went over to help them with their equipment.

"I just hope I'll be ready for the tournament" he said.

"Aww, don't worry about that man. You got this in the bag" said Tommy while patting Adam's back.

Rocky thought for a while, "Hey, have any of you seen Billy lately?"

Both Tommy and Adam looked at each other and shrugged.

Rocky continued, "Ever since we got our Zeo powers, I haven't really seen him."

"I know, we're used to seeing a lot more of him," Tommy said as he put his gym bag strap over his shoulder.

"Ever since the Alien Rangers left, he's been kinda distant" noted Rocky.

Adam then jumped in, "All I know is I need a shower before I faint."

The three of them laughed while heading to Tommy's jeep.

- - -

"I can't believe I bought so much, and didn't even cost me that much," said Sherry, while putting her bags into the trunk of Kat's car.

"I know what you mean, I feel everything's gonna come out irregular for the prices they had" said Tanya noticing everything she had bought for so little.

"Well, at least I came out satisfied" added Kat while she too was placing her bags in the trunk.

"Shoot, I would too if I got that cute guy's number" said Tanya.

"What did you say his name was again?" asked Sherry.

"Joel" answered Kat.

"What exactly happened though? Did you just go up to him and ask him for his number?" asked Sherry.

"No, I went over to ask him about the nail polishes. Then he asked me for my number so I gave it to him, then I got his."

"So are you gonna call him?" asked Tanya.

"I didn't get his number for nothing" responded Kat jokingly.

The girls just laughed while getting inside the car.