Chapter 1
Three months later:
Ahhhhh....man. It feels so good to be normal again. I thought as I danced to a song playing on the radio in the kitchen after coming home from a long hard day of work. I had gotten a job at a retail store. Kim had squealed and had begged me that when she came to visit, to give her a discount. I had smiled into the phone and had said that I couldn't I would get fired for sure. My job was hectic at times and demanding but it felt nice do something grownup. Dad was proud of me when he had heard that I had gotten a job, and so was my mom and Jared. I had opened up a bank account and was putting money in it, to do what I wasn't sure, but I liked having it there. Mom had always taught me to save money and to only use it for things that I need, but sometimes for things that I want.
At my job everyone wanted to know why I was walking so funny and what had happened to my ankle to which I would reply with the old "oh, I went skiing with my friends and twisted my ankle, and it's been like that ever since" one of my fellow employers actually gave me a card with the name of a therapist that "could really get that ankle of yours back into shape" even though I was touched by his offer I pretty much doubted that any assistance from a human could help me. Speaking of which, Billy has not given up his quest to finding a cure for the poison that's in my ankle, I would tell him to cut it out, and that no matter how hard he searched there will never be a cure for this. But I couldn't tell him that, Billy would insist that there's a cure out there somewhere.
"I just haven't found it yet." I would shake my head after hearing this and decided to let it go and switch the subject. Talk about my ankle or the scars on my back(which have not gone away!!!) always make me feel uncomfortable, the others know this and they steer clear of both subjects, Billy would bring it up now and then whenever he would visit but he wouldn't ask me any questions about them. He asked all the questions that he could think of on the night that Kimberly saw them for the first time. I'm pretty sure that Tommy and the others must have talked to him after he asked me about my scars, because he stopped asking questions from then on....well, he did ask one or two...but only when Tommy and the others weren't around. I looked at my reflection. I had gone and added some red highlights to my hair and have healed my eyes so that I no longer wore glasses anymore, funnily I looked more grown up. Tentomon liked my highlights, Dad only looked at me for a minute and said that I looked nice, Dex, after giving me a long kiss, said that I looked fantastic and also that he was falling in love with me all over again. Kimberly loved my new look and asked me what had made me want to add highlights. I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders.
"I don't know......I—I guess I wanted a bit of a change, a more radical change ya know? Plus....I........kind of....wanted to look....um....stronger." Kim had blinked.
"But you are strong, you have gotten stronger."
"I know that Kim, it's just that....I want people to know that I look stronger. I don't want them to see that scared little 15 year old any more." Kim's eyes filled with understanding.
"You're thinking about Goldar huh?" I nodded.
"He already knows that you're more stronger than him and that you can beat him in a fight, you've done it countless of times in the past."
"I know that Kim. It's just that I want to show him that not only have I grown stronger in my fighting skills and in controlling my powers...I want to show him that I've also grown mentally and physically stronger than the last time. And I think that my new look really shows that. I know that it sounds dumb...."
"No it doesn't, you want to show Goldar that you're not that scared little girl that he used as a punching bag and whipping post. But most of all you want to show you that you have changed in the past year. It's understandable since all of us want to show that we have changed on the outside as well as in the inside." I grinned at her pleased.
"I'm glad that you understand." She smirked.
"Hey, I may be an ex-Power Ranger but I'm still a teenager with insecurities and junk." She got my hand and gave it a squeeze, I smiled at her, glad that she was back to her old self. When she had seen Tommy and Kat together, she did her best to hid her feelings from the rest of us, and she nearly succeeded too. But Billy and I both noticed and let her cry on both of our shoulders after the party. It was a shock to see Kat and Tommy together, even though she was glad that Tommy was happy and had found someone else to fill in the void that Kim had left in him, still.........seeing your old boyfriend with another girl......it just filled Kim up with pain that she thought she had already dealt with when she made the decision to break up with Tommy. But when she saw them together and had realized that no one had called her up to tell her.....she just broke down and got a bit mad at me. She asked me why I never called her to say that Tommy had found someone else, at that time. I shuffled uncomfortably and said, while looking away from her, that I was sure that Kat or Tommy would do that.
"I mean being your ex-boyfriend and all, he should have told you."
"And that goes for you too. I am your sister." Kim snapped at me. I let out a sigh.
"I didn't tell you because I thought that you might call up Kat, tell her what I told you, then she would yell at me for tattling on her and wh—I mean accuse me of reporting to you first thing about Tommy." I glanced at the doorway.
"She's still a bit touchy that I'm more closer to you and my earth parents than her." I was surprised to see that Kim was fighting back a smile.
"Tattling? I haven't heard that word since the 4th grade." she giggled.. I smiled as well. Soon the two of us were laughing. After a while we stopped and were grinning at each other.
"Sorry about that, it was just a shock, that's all." Kim said. I nodded not saying anything.
"And I'm sorry for not telling you about Kat and Tommy.....I just didn't want to hear Kat question me on why I had to call you up and tell you about it and be accused of not minding my own business and being asked "do you report every little thing that goes on in your life to your sister?"
"And you do not want to go through that again."
"Nope." I said with a grateful smile.
As I made dinner, lasagna, I thought back to all that had happened. A powerful wizard named Lerigot was being hunted down by a space pirate by the name of Divatox, it just got worse Divatox managed to capture Lerigot's family and was holding them hostage on her ship. But that wasn't half of our problems, while training for an upcoming tournament Rocky had injured his back while preforming a move, and ended up in the hospital. Tommy had called the rest of us and we had all rushed to Blue Elf's side. Blue Elf had told us what had happened and I offered to heal him but he said no.
"Too many people were there, if you heal me right now Short stuff then everyone will get suspicious and ask questions." Tommy nodded in agreement although reluctantly. He turned to me and said that I should leave him like this. Frustration and shock filled me. We were actually going to leave a team mate in this condition when I, a half eltarian, could heal him of his injuries in no time flat? We could just say that he made a miraculous recovery. But.... I began to think things through(I hate it when I do that) and saw that Blue Elf and Tommy were right, people would ask Blue Elf questions and think that he had special powers to heal any injury or something. Bottom line: It could create real problems. Before I could say anything our communicators went off, it was dad, alerting us of trouble once again. When we landed in the Power Chamber, we were half expecting for dad and Tentomon to tell us what was up and send us on our way, but he had something to tell us. As usual with a new enemy comes new powers, Zords etc. Tentomon lead us to the center of the Power Chamber and dad gave us our new powers and weapons(the others obtained new weapons, I kept my sword) and new morphing equipment, wrist morphers and keys that we had to insert into the morphers and turn when we wanted to become the Turbo Power Rangers. The Turbo Zords were already in the Zord bay waiting to be used. Dad sure is prepared for this new threat, I wonder if he knew that this was going to happen the whole time. Tentomon told us where Lerigot was and we set off to rescue him, we had to go by ship to reach the island where Lerigot was. After we had arrived on the dock and boarded the ship, all of noticed a blue car heading straight for us, stopping a foot in front of the ship, the door to the car opened.....and out came a little boy! He revealed himself to be Justin Stewart. I've seen him around the Youth Center, he was Blue Elf's student, Blue Elf had told me about Justin, he was only 12 years old when he entered into Blue Elf's martial arts class. Our eyes widen with shock and our mouths nearly hit the floor when Justin revealed that he knew who we were, he had hid underneath Blue Elf's hospital bed and had heard everything.
"Rocky talked it over with Zordon and told him that he was giving me the Blue Turbo Powers." A look of excitement was on his face and I'm pretty sure that he could have gone off screaming his excitement to the heavens if Tommy hadn't stepped forward and told him of the important mission that we were going to embark on. We all climbed aboard the ship and had taken off for the island. Once we got there(with a bit of trouble along the way) we met face to face with Divatox and her crew, other than capturing the family of Lerigot, she had managed to capture Lerigot himself, plus my sister and Jason!! We all sprang forward to help our friends and realized to our horror that Kim and Jason were going to be used as sacrifices to awaken Divatox's fiancee, Maligore, from a deep volcano. Divatox brought out these human like fish dudes to keep us busy while Kim and Jason were lowered into the volcano. Now, when someone messes with my friends its one thing, but when someone messes with my sister it's a whole other deal. Not caring if Justin saw me use my powers or not, I shot forward and managed to save both of them, unfortunately a few of those fish dudes fell into the volcano. Watching old movies with my step-dad has taught me one thing, if a sacrifice is needed it doesn't really matter who the sacrifice is, a sacrifice is a sacrifice. Short version: Maligore awoke, we called on the Zords, Kim and Jason took cover somewhere, and with the Turbo MegaZord we kicked Mailgore's butt and sent Divatox packing. We teleported home with our friends and all was well again.
And we haven't seen hide nor hair of Divatox since then. After setting the table, I began to make a small salad and my thoughts began to drift toward Justin. The boy was a bit too enthusiastic to battle evil aliens and had seemed a tad disappointed when everything returned to normal. That enthusiasm could get him in trouble one day. I thought with a worried frown on my face. The others had pegged it down to the boy's dream of becoming a super hero come true.
"Every little boy wishes he could be a super hero, even me." said Blue Elf. He had just recently gotten out the hospital and was going through therapy right now.
"The doctor says that I should take it easy from now on. And I'm glad that Justin did so well, considering that it was his first battle."
"Yeah, he did didn't he?" I said remembering my first battle with Lord Zedd. Kimberly and Jason were both doing okay after their ordeal. Jason said that he wished he could have helped out more in the battle and Kim said that she'll never look at another volcano the same way again. I was just glad that they were all right. Although a question slipped into my mind while I was talking to Kim on the phone. Was it just a mere coincidence that this new enemy choose two former Rangers, one who happens to be my adopted sister? Could someone might have told Divatox to target these two particular people? I shook my head. Amy, you're getting paranoid. You had better stop it right now or they'll send you off to the loony bin. The front door opened and I turned to greet Kat. I wasn't the only one to get a job, Kat was working to welcome the freshmen that were coming to Angel Grove High next year, Tommy was working over at the race track with his uncle, Adam was in a stunt show, the others had told me that it was a little weird going back to ordinary life for so long, but in due time they would get used to it. Justin, on the other hand, spent his free time exploring the Power Chamber and getting to know his Turbo Zord, I was careful to call dad, Zordon whenever Justin was around, it was a little weird but hopefully Justin will stop his frequent visits to the Power Chamber. Justin thought that Kimberly and Jason had just been two innocent civilians caught in the middle of the battle, he didn't ask about them and Tommy didn't explain, another lucky thing is that Justin didn't see me use my powers to free Jason and Kimberly and a good thing too. It would have been really difficult to explain to a little boy how an alien and a human can produce a half alien half human child. I smiled as I pictured Justin's face contort into confusion then disgust as the facts of life were explained to him. I had already told Dex about Justin and he promised that he wouldn't show up unannounced to the Power Chamber. Combat Chopper and Magno wanted to know all about the little Blue Ranger and I told them as much as I knew. They were a bit put off that they couldn't visit Tentomon in the Power Chamber any more and wanted to meet Justin face to face. I spoke against it, I didn't like the fact that so many people knew the Masked Rider's true identity and that he was my boyfriend. What if Count Dregon went after Justin and spilled the beans about his secret identity and my relationship with him? Voicing all of this to Dex he agreed with me.
"The less people know, the better." he said firmly. Then he walked toward me and wrapped his arms around me and reminded me that if I was to ever find myself in a sticky situation, then I should call on him. I wanted to shake my head and tell him not to worry but I realized that he meant Goldar. He was still out there and even though I wished and prayed that he would never make another appearance, in reality, it was hopeless. Goldar would return someday and I would have to face him in battle. Once again I cursed myself for not being strong enough to strike him down when I had the chance. Now I knew how Zedd felt like. Always asking himself
"Why didn't I kill her when I had the chance?" I felt slightly sick, I didn't like having any similarities to my old master. Shoving that thought from my mind, I focused on what Kat was telling me.
"I can't believe that graduation is almost here!" she said with a little bounce. My friends and my sister would be graduating in a week and all of them were really excited, they were looking forward to going to college and studying new things and choosing their own careers. For a moment, I was wistful, then I remembered that I wasn't going to college with my friends, even after I had graduated from high school I planned on leaving Earth and all of its dark memories and starting life anew on Edenio. The only people that knew my plan was my Earth parents and Dex, I still wasn't sure on how to break it down to the others or to dad. I could just picture their reactions, my friends and sister would be disappointed that I wanted to leave Earth, my dad on the other hand......would start yelling at me about why I didn't want to continue my education and why in all that is holy would I want to get married and move away to a distant planet? You need to have an education first before you do any of this stuff. Then the both of us would probably get in a yelling match with me proclaiming that it was my life and I could do as I please with dad protesting, it may be your life but I am still your father and you will do what I say. Yeah, not a conversation that I am totally looking forward to. I am going to tell them about my plans....just not now.
"Let's see first I'll work part-time and make room for classes at the college of my choice. But what kind of career do I want? Um....a doctor...no no...a fashion designer..... " With half an ear I listened to Kat as she ran down the list of careers that she wanted. Kat and the others are choosing to do new things with their lives now that graduation is upon them. I had better think about my own plans.