He didn't want to open his eyes but a steady high pitched beep. beep. beep. was piercing his slumber, rousing him from the dream he didn't want to wake from.
The woman in his arms he'd wanted to hold a little longer.
No! He thought to himself. There's no time! We're outta time...
He clutched the woman tighter and before his subconcious lost control of his mind, he held the woman at arms length willing himself to commit her face to memory and then...
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The young man in bed rolled over onto his side and moaned. He opened his eyes, bleary against the rays of the sun and shot a hand deftly out and slapped it against the black alarm clock whos digital face read 6:45 AM.
"Gooood Morning! It's another beautiful day here in sunshiney Angel Grove, California! I'm DJ McMuffin spinning out the best tunes to mooove and grooove you to work or school or wherever you need to go this morning. Here's SNAP! with Rythem is a Dancer on KANG 91.7!" A techno beat soon pulsed from the radio alram clock and Jason Scott sat up in bed. He shook his head, trying to shake the grogginess that washed over him. He yawned and stretched his arms wide catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror attached to the dresser on the left side of the bed. He ran a hand through his short brown hair and yawned. He afforded a glance at the nightstand again and noticed the digital face on the clock now read 6:53 and with the natural resolve he possesed, swung his legs over the the bed and pushed himself up, begrudgingly ready to start the day.
Jason approched the dresser and grabbed the neccesities for a shower noticing that his shoulders and neck were tight. The right side of his rib cage was unusually tender. Jason glanced at his right side noting that the skin had a blueish black tinge to it. Yeah, he was bruised, that wasn't unusual. What was unusual was that he didn't remember getting the bruise. He turned his thoughts inward again and when he thought about it, he couldn't remember anything that happened yesterday. He remembered school. He remembered teaching his Karate class at the Youth Center. The thought of his communicator tugged at his mind and as he looked on the dresser in search of the watchlike device, he remembered that after the Youth Center he had come home, ate a light dinner and had gone straight to bed. He found his communicator and laid it next to his socks on top of the dresser.
Twenty minutes later he was dressed in black jeans, a red t-shirt and white high top sneakers. Picking up his communicator, Jason pulled back the plain white curtains of his bedroom window and looked at the house directly across the street to see one of his lifelong friends, Zackary Taylor step out onto the porch and close the door behind him. Jason clasped the metal band around his wrist. He spared a few moments to straighten out the sheets on his full sized bed, grabbed his red backpack, thudded down the stairs, shouted a cheery goodbye to his dark haired father and blond headed mother and out the front door he went.
Zack was waiting for him. Jason's face split into a grin.
"What up, my mans?" Zack asked as Jason cleared the last few steps of the porch easy.
"Nothing much man, ready to knock this day out."
They slapped hands and began walking in the direction of Angel Grove High. They walked in silence for a few moments, thier sneakers scuffing against the concrete.
"So," Jason asked, remembering suddenly."Angela? How did it go?"
Zack grinned but shook his head.
"Man, I couldn't do it, I chickened out. She's always rejecting me anyway, so you know, I didn't want to try anything because I didn't want to blow it."
"You mean you haven't told her that the reason you asked her to be your chemistry study partner is because you have a crush on her?"
Zack shook his head again. The silence resumed.
It was indeed a beautiful day in Angel Grove. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky. Little white, puffy clouds sailed along thier invisable paths, thier weird shapes casting giant shadows on the ground so far below. Jason couldn't shake the feeling that he was forgetting something incrediably important had happened.
"So, uh, Zack," Jason looked around making sure he and Zack weren't in earshot of anyone else. As they got closer to the brick building more and more teens could be seen walking in small groups towards the school. Satisfied that there was no one around, Jason continued in a hushed voice. "Nothing weird happened last night, right? Rita didn't try anything?"
Zack's smooth, dark face twisted in a look of confusion.
"Aye man, shhhh-" Zack stopped walking and turned towards Jason. "Don't mention her, she's been quiet for two weeks and I for one am enjoying being a normal teenager."
"Alright man," Jason said, embarassed slightly. They resumed thier walk. The high school loomed ahead.
"Why would you ask that though? You know if something did happen you would be the first one to know." Zack added giving his friend a sideways glance. He hitched his black backpack back on his shoulder. Sometimes he worried that the stress of being their leader would get to Jason. He shrugged off the feeling and said nothing further. He assumed Jason had asked out of concern.
"I just had this...feeling that something happened." Jason tried to explain it but found he lacked the words to do so without risking sounding idiotic. Zack had just told him nothing out of the ordinary happened last night, and he was right, if something did happen, Jason would be the first one to know.
Zack and Jason finally reached Angel Grove High. The occasional "Hey Zack!" or "Hey Jason!" rang out through the crowded hallways as the two young men made thier way to thier lockers. Zack waved at the pretty ebony beauty that was at his locker. Her dark hair spilled over her shoulders and her brown eyes lit up when she saw Zack approching. Jason didn't know what was holding Zack back, he thought Angela liked Zack as much as he liked her.
"I'll catch you later, bro." Jason said to Zack. They slapped hands again and went their separate ways.
Jason reached his locker. Putting in the combination he didn't notice the new person two lockers down. It wasn't until one his book for first period Biology had fallen from its perth in his locker to the scuffed floor that he noticed the apparent new girl.
She had been unfortunate enough to have a bottom half locker and it appeared as if she couldn't get the combination right. The girl, stooped in an awkward position jangled the lock furiously, finally resorting to beating the locker with her clenched fist.
Jason noted the the girl was unusually pretty. Her skin was a smooth cafe au lait. She had a mass of tight, dark auburn curls that was currently pulled back into a neat bun.
Closing his locker, Jason walked over and hunkered down next to the new girl.
"Need some help?" He asked.
Startled, the girl jumped up slightly, lost her balance and tumbled onto her back, her papers and pens flying out of her hands. Laughter immidiatly chorused through the hall and the girl stood quickly, trying to compose herself. Her creamy face was colored red from embarassment as she made her way further from her locker to pick up her supplies that had scattered everywhere.
Jason felt horrible and instantly rose to assist her. He gathered up what papers she hadn't and walked them back over to her.
"I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that-"
She looked at him then causing him to stop mid sentence. Jason realized two things, the first being her remarkable golden colored eyes and the second was that he knew her. He didn't know from where or when but he was positive he knew her. She took the papers from his hands, mumbled a thank you and walked away. Her dark head soon blended into a crowd of high schoolers walking up a flight of stairs.
The bell for first period rang out then. He had three minutes to get to class before the second bell tolled. Jason made his way down the hall towards the science lab, his thoughts preoccupied with the girl in the hallway. How strange to have felt like he knew her when he couldn't remember where he'd recognized her from.
Maybe it was another one of Rita's tricks?
The wicked intergalatic sorceress was not afraid to stoop to any length in her pursuit of trying to take over the world. In the past school year since Jason and four of his closest friends had taken up the mantle of the Power Rangers, they had successfully thwarted Rita Repulsa's evil attempts to conquer Earth a total of 17 times.
The latest attempt, over two months ago, occured when a new student, Tommy Oliver had arrived at Angel Grove High. Rita had placed Tommy under a powerful mind altering spell, completely commanding him. Holding Tommy in her thrall, she bestowed to him the Dragonzord Power Coin, unleashing the legendary Green Ranger to the world. Tommy became twisted, green with evil almost. Together, he and his powerful Dragon Zord destroyed sections of Angel Grove and the surrounding towns and areas.
Jason slipped through the door and onto his assigned stool. The classroom was dark, the shades in the back of the room drawn down, cutting out the bright sunlight. The projector screen at the front of the room was down, covering the chalkboard. Movie time, Jason thought to himself as he pulled out his biology book. He let his thoughts once again wonder off as the classroom slowly filled.
Jason and the other Rangers finally defeated the Green Ranger and freed Tommy from Rita's mind control spell. Finding himself still able to weild the Dragonzord Power, but now able to think for himself, Tommy joined forces with Jason and the others and quickly became one of the gang.