Legal: I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, places, characters, events etc. Anything not covered by the above rights should be considered purely the creation of the author.
Rating: T – There will be some adult themes, including adult language and violence.
In the Paint Room, Sarah was working on a computer, while Brody was preparing the morning lesson for the Rangers. The team were willing to work hard to develop their skills, knowing that they had a long way to go to catch up to Brody. He had spent the better part of a decade honing his abilities, desperately using every second he had to work towards his escape from the Warrior Dome. Brody had never really considered teaching before, his dad had always been the sensei, but over the past couple of weeks, Brody found he was starting to come into his own.
The most difficult part of teaching as opposed to simply training was in figuring out lesson plans that both challenged the students, but at the same time weren't so challenging they discouraged them. Figuring out the best way to explain how to do something that was both simple enough to understand that his students could understand what he intended them to do, but at the same time wasn't patronising or seeming like he was showing off. Lastly, it was about figuring out what level his students were at so that he could figure out when he could push them a little harder and when he had to slow down a little to let them catch up a bit.
He wasn't doing too badly either. It wasn't as though teaching was in his immediate plans. It wasn't really in his plans at all to take on students, but as soon as he started trying to figure out how to teach the others his abilities, he was just able to see in his mind ideas for exercises and lessons that he could use to be able to help them perfect essential skills. Mick came in, putting down his latest batch of throwing stars and smiled.
"Well, that should keep us going for a while." He declared. "Now we have a good supply for when the Nexus Prism decides to grant us more visions."
"That's great Mick." Brody declared, closing over his book. "The guys' lessons are coming along great, so they should be ready by the time the Prism's ready to increase our arsenal."
Just then, his Ninja Comm bleeped.
"Go ahead." He responded.
"Brody, its Sarah, where are you?" Sarah asked him.
"I'm...in the paint room." He said.
"You didn't forget did you?" She asked. "Brody, Preston's show starts in just a couple of minutes!"
Brody brought his hand to his forehead as he heard this. Preston usually held shows outside, perhaps only getting audiences of about 6-7 people now that his friends would now attend his shows, but today he had managed to convince Principal Hastings to allow him to perform in the main dining hall. His audience still wouldn't be huge, but since the school was part of a federal breakfast programme, there would be a significant increase in his usual audience by virtue of the number of kids there to get a free breakfast.
In the breakfast room, Sarah had arrived early to ensure she and her friends got seats with a good view. Ever since missing his first show thanks to Victor taking her hoverboard on a rather chaotic joy ride, she had made sure she had attended every single one of his shows since then.
She appreciated how hard Preston worked on his shows, and she genuinely felt bad for him any time one of his tricks didn't go quite right or his audience criticised him for either the simplicity of his tricks or the transparent nature of how they were done. She knew a little something about failure; her experiments hadn't always gone smoothly either.
While Sarah had managed to invent her hoverboard, in the process she had created around a hundred ways NOT to create a hoverboard, including but not limited to one that had exploded in her face depriving her of her eyebrows for a few weeks, one that had propelled her at speed into oncoming traffic, breaking her arm and one that had burned down the garden shed in her last house. It was always heartbreaking to see the look of disappointment on his face whenever people would jeer him or taunt him, or even throw things when his show didn't live up to the expectations set for them by the likes of Penn and Teller or David Blaine. She could already tell by the fact that none of the kids were even looking at Preston setting up that it was likely to be another frosty audience.
Hayley and Calvin came in, making their way over to Sarah and taking up seats with her.
"See, I told you we'd get here on time." Hayley told her boyfriend as they arrived. "The show hasn't started yet; you're here in loads of time."
"What happened?" Sarah asked.
"Hayley was late picking me up." Calvin responded as he went through some notes he had scribbled down. It all looked more than a little random, being written on the backs of envelopes, letters, napkins...pretty much it looked like he had written notes on any random pieces of paper he had found lying around. Sarah could admit having done similar things when inspiration came to her for her experiments, but after being unable to figure out what she could and couldn't throw out when she cleaned her room, Sarah's mom had gotten her into the habit of carrying a notebook wherever she went so that she could at least keep them in some kind of order.
"I slept in alright?" Hayley asked him. "I forgot to set my alarm, but we're still here in time."
"Only because your dad called you." Calvin stated. Hayley just smiled. She had told Calvin that her dad had called her to wake her up when her alarm didn't go off, but the fact was...she didn't know who it was. For the last couple of weeks, she had been hearing a strange voice wherever she went, one that she couldn't identify. It just seemed to remind her of things she was forgetting to do or guide her whenever there was something she needed to do, but she couldn't place whose voice it was. While it was worrying, so far the voice hadn't led her to do anything that would lead her or her friends into harms' way, and even with all the bizarre things she and her friends were seeing and experiencing as Rangers, she was reluctant to tell them she was hearing voices. Somehow she doubted that was considered a good sign for them either. "Hey, Sarah, what do you think of these?"
"Calvin, you know electronics is more my thing, I don't know a distributer cap from an oil filter." She told him, looking at his notes. "Besides, Preston..."
"Preston's still setting up." He interrupted Sarah, his enthusiasm getting the better of him. "I was thinking of things we could do to get Brody's truck up and running."
"You mean his dad's truck." Sarah reminded him.
"Well...it's not like his dad is around. It's kind of a waste for it to just sit in the yard doing nothing." Hayley reasoned with her as she picked Kody up, putting him on the table beside her. "You should be able to see from there."
"Maybe Mick can give you a second opinion." Sarah suggested. "He's more into mechanical engineering than I am."
"I don't know what it is, I just started coming up with all these ideas. I just couldn't stop myself!" Calvin said as he looked to the notes.
"Well, maybe you can put that into action a little later?" Hayley said as she put her hand over the notes, flicking her eyes down the hall. "It's not going to be much of a surprise if you have the plans sitting out while Brody's here is it?"
"That's a good point." Calvin replied, stuffing his notes away in his pocket as Brody arrived. He sat with the rest of them.
"Good, it looks like I haven't missed anything." Brody said, sitting down with them. "Guys, I have an amazing lesson plan for you today. I think you're all going to..."
"Yeah, that's great, Brody shh!" Sarah reprimanded him. "Preston's just starting!"
Preston had been waiting for all his friends to arrive. He had never performed in front of a crowd this large whose average age had been in double digits. While he had done some kiddies birthday parties, it was mostly for pre-school kids who were totally oblivious to the 'truth' that magic was all a trick. They still bought into the illusions and hadn't heard all the shows and specials that gave away all of the tricks he had mastered. While performing for the three or four kids that would turn up to his shows in the quad, more out of having nothing better to do than anything else, there were at least thirty kids here today. He wanted to wait until he had at least four that wouldn't be out to savage his performance to be there for moral support. He twirled his top hat onto his head and began to make exaggerated motions to attract the attention of the kids in the hall.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Time for moments of amazement, from master magician, Preston Chango!" He declared at the top of his lungs, drawing their attention. While some of the kids looked up to see what all the noise was about, most of them just kept concentrating on their breakfasts.
"Oh pipe down; I'm just trying to enjoy this...whatever it is." Monty told him. "I only came to get breakfast so that I could save my kidney, anchovies and sauerkraut for lunch."
Calvin started to noticeably gag just hearing this combination.
"Liver, anchovies and sauerkraut?" He asked. "Doesn't sending a kid to school with a lunch like that constitute child abuse?"
"No one's making you pay attention Monty, just eat your cornflakes!" Sarah called out, defending Preston. While she had a feeling the audience was going to be as receptive as it ever was, the last thing Preston needed was anyone going out of their way to make trouble. "Go Pres!"
"More like Presto Lameo." Victor answered, playing about with his phone. He had returned to school following a trip to the hospital following his 'battle' with Spinferno. He had, fortunately, only suffered a few minor injuries, mostly superficial burns, but now that the video had gone viral, it had only increased his image, and his ego. Sarah could foresee it being trouble if he decided to act out during Preston's show. Monty started laughing so much he almost started snorting milk at Victor's 'humour'.
"Let's hope this works." Sarah whispered to herself, crossing her fingers and willing things to go well for Preston. He pulled off his hat and started to show it around the room, tipping it ever so slightly towards the crowd.
"Before you, you see an entirely normal, empty hat." Preston stated. Sarah started to get a little concerned now; he only titled the hat a short way, allowing the kids to see a few millimetres at most inside. It wasn't like he was letting anyone actually inspect the hat or anything, so it was pretty obvious how the trick was going to be done. The rabbit was already in the hat. She just hoped...
"Hang on there Chango!" Victor called out. All of the Rangers immediately groaned. This was exactly what he didn't need. Victor had seemed to take it upon himself to call out his show before it had really started. Like any other kind of show, if the opening act fell flat, then it would be virtually impossible to recover from there.
"Victor, why don't you just sit down?" Hayley asked him. Victor though did precisely the opposite, heading over to Preston and pulling the hat out of Preston's hands.
"HEY!" Preston protested, but he didn't really want to start any trouble in front of the other kids. It wasn't that long ago that Victor had been in the hospital, and there was still a large part of Preston that was the kid that Victor had pushed around for years.
"An entirely empty hat eh?" Victor asked as he reached inside, pulling out Preston's pet rabbit. "Empty hat, eh? I think not!"
Preston was struggling standing before all the assembled kids in the breakfast room. He was angry that Victor had taken it upon himself to spoil his show, he was embarrassed that his very first trick had been so obvious that even someone as dense as Victor could figure it out, and most of all, he was nervous seeing the judgemental crowd now staring at him, wordlessly questioning how he thought they would ever be impressed with something like that. He tried his best to salvage the situation.
"A rabbit! Amazing! It's Magic!" He declared. Unfortunately the whole room with the exception of his friends were booing and started to throw stuff at him. The Rangers were quickly in Victor's face about the whole incident.
"Victor, why would you do that?" Sarah screamed at him.
"Don't blame me; the silver spoon kid was the one that was interrupting everybody! I just wanted to get my breakfast in peace." Victor snorted.
"Could you stop swinging me around please?" A voice asked. Hayley just blinked. "I'm kind of not feeling good here."
"You couldn't just leave him alone could you? You always have to pick on people to make yourself feel like a big shot don't you Victor?" Sarah snapped at him, shoving him. "That doesn't make you smart, that makes you an ass!"
"Whoa, could someone tell this asshole to stop handling my junk?" The voice said again. "There's a little situation here!"
"Well, the least you can do is..."
"Awww gross!" Victor said, recoiling as he looked to his arm in disgust, throwing the rabbit into Preston's hat and handing it back to him. "Your rabbit peed all over me!"
"I tried to warn him!" The voice said as Preston took the hat sheepishly.
"Well...it serves you right!" Sarah yelled at him as he went to the nurse's office, likely concerned about the effects of rabbit urine on his burns. Preston looked a little down-trodden as he clutched the hat to his chest. Sarah was over by his side, putting her arm around him.
"I'm sorry about that Preston." She told him. "Come on, I'll help you clear all this away."
Preston didn't say anything though, instead he just nodded his head and went with her, while the rest of the kids all scattered to get ready for their first class. Calvin just noticed that Hayley was standing, looking completely confused.
"Hayley, it's not the biggest deal in the world." Calvin told her. "We always knew Victor was an asshole. So does everyone else, you know most of the kids only voted for him as Class President as a joke."
Hayley didn't say anything, instead just thinking of the whole situation that had gone down. She had now heard two voices that no one else seemed to, two separate, distinct voices.
"Hayls, is everything alright?" He asked her.
"Yeah...yeah, sure Cal." She answered, pulling into him. "How about we take those notes of yours to Mick, see what he says about them?"
Up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo had been summoned to the Throne Room at Galvanax's insistence. He was becoming frustrated with how long it was taking to crush a few humans and acquire the Ninja Power Stars, and while Cosmo had tried to stall him with talks of meetings and conference calls with the network, he had eventually been railroaded into a meeting. Quite literally, as he was on his way to his office, Ripcon on Galvanax's orders had grabbed him and physically dragged him into his throne room.
Galvanax was flipping through a few cards that Cosmo had with him, that he was telling him were prospective candidates for the next challenger for the Rangers. Galvanax didn't have much in the way of control over the production of the show, but he did have a certain level of creative control over his own matches by contract...not to mention the threat of a few random executions meant that every now and then it was better to give him a little bit of leeway in controlling the show, even if it was more of an illusion of control than anything else.
"This one looks weak!" He complained as he flipped through the cards, considering each of the monsters in turn. This had been the way of things for the better part of an hour. Every monster he came across in the deck had something wrong with it. It didn't look strong, it was too old, it was too young...there was one truth in the matter. Galvanax really didn't want to choose another competitor. He wanted to force his hand and go to Earth himself. "This one looks dumber than his brother! And this one, this one looks like a real bruiser, but it's just so UGLY!"
"Hey! That's my mother!" Ripcon complained loudly, seeing the card. His mother had been on the roster for a long time, and it was her that had encouraged Ripcon to go into the Warrior Dome in the first place. His mother was coming close to retirement age, and he was well aware of the fact that the odds increased every time she went to the arena that she wouldn't come back. In many ways, he was hoping that Cosmo would make the decision for her and simply terminate her contract before sending her to a bout she couldn't survive.
"Well, you've got to pick SOMEONE to fight the Rangers or we don't have a show!" Cosmo reminded him. "I keep telling you champ, this production stuff is way harder than it looks, and I know you've got a LOT of responsibilities. Tell you what, I have an executive coming from a soft drinks company that I know will be just DYING to meet you and..."
"Enough with the lightweights! It's time the Rangers faced a true heavyweight!" Ripcon said, taking his cue. His true ambition was to go from the active roster to production. While the money was better on a per-show basis for the warriors, the fact was that production was a steady wage, and also didn't have the occupational hazard that each show could be their last. Galvanax had suggested to Ripcon to put on this show for Cosmo so that he could see he wasn't the only one that wanted to see him have a piece of the Rangers. For Cosmo, it was a way to demonstrate that he could come up with entertaining matches and show he was suitable for production. Perhaps if Galvanax could best the Rangers and get the Power Stars, he could finally get his production job and maybe even get paid enough for his mother to retire out of her contract. Ripcon took the championship belt down from its case and presented it to Galvanax. "Like you boss!"
"Ah, my championship belt!" He declared, taking it from him and beginning to strap it on. "I'll start by destroying that Red Ranger twerp that stole my Nexus Prism, and prove once again that there is only one true Galaxy Warriors Champion!"
"Champ, I'm not so sure..."
"You're not so sure what?" Galvanax roared. Cosmo started to back away in terror, only for Madame Odious to step between them.
"I think all he was going to suggest champ, is that I'm not so sure the Rangers have proven they are worthy of facing a heavyweight of your calibre." She suggested. "You wouldn't want to look like you're only willing to face paper opponents would you?"
"You call them paper opponents?" Galvanax asked her. "They've defeated FOUR of your warriors!"
"And the threshold for the championship scene is normally 25 wins." Cosmo reminded him.
"Well, rules can be bent, even broken, can't they?" Galvanax stated as he headed for the door. Ripcon followed him closely. Cosmo just looked to Odious for a moment.
"Odious, the Champ isn't thinking things through." He told her. "I have a real gravy train rolling with these Rangers, the last thing I want is to feed them to Galvanax and have them chewed up before I even get the first action figures off the production line!"
"Well, speaking as the champion's representative, I'm not keen on this idea either." She agreed. "It has been a while since his last bout. I really would prefer to see him get a few practice bouts to make sure he's still in shape before he faces someone like the Rangers."
"So you'll convince him to change his mind?" Cosmo asked.
"I think you overestimate anyone's ability to get the champ to change his mind." She replied. "But perhaps we can limit the damage if we put out a little challenge bout...under supervision of course."
"I like the way you think Odious." He answered. "I know I can always count on you to ensure you keep getting your management checks."
As he left, she smirked.
"Oh yes, but only I can babysit such an ego for so long." She stated. "Sooner or later, I have to start looking for new, younger talent to replace them. A manager is only as good as their Next Big Thing."
