Terra Force
"Enemies Return"
Disclaimer: Power Rangers belong to Disney/Saban, Carri belongs to KJ with many thanks, the name Kaycea belongs to KSuzie with many thanks, everyone else is mine.
A/N: This is the sequel to "Ranger Tales" and takes place in 2007. This is sort of an introduction chapter, telling what Jason has been up to since graduating college. I hope everyone enjoys it. I would also like to thank KJ for helping with the title and for the name Elieara. The black metal ranger came to me from KJ's "Dark Inheritence". Also, I noticed some people had trouble pronouncing the enemies name, it's Elie ara. Like Elli in Elliot, and ara. Also, I am borrowing a line from GW: Endless Waltz. For those of you that have seen the movie, I believe it is probably Milliardo's most famous line from the movie. I'm tweaking it a bit to fit with the characters, but still.
As you can see I was able to get the second chapter a lot sooner than expected, I've been working on it all day long, so yeah.
Jason fell to his bed. Bed, it sounded so nice. But he couldn't go to sleep at the moment, he had to finish his book. He talked it over with his editor, and they decided on a one book deal. He was going to write all the adventures he had in space into one book, hopefully that would make him wealthy and he wouldn't need a job anymore. It was odd, being back on Earth. He was used to the freedom he had in space, not being bound by a job. That's why he hoped the one book would make him wealthy. As he lay there he began to think about that afternoons conversation with Kim and Carri. He had told them everything about his adventures, well, almost everything, he supposed he should tell them about Elieara sometime. But there was one detail that happened that he would never tell anyone. He tried his best to forget about it.
After he finished with his mostly accurate tale, leaving out the battle's with Elieara and his new found powers, Kim and Carri began their own. They both never had any intentions of leaving, but Kim found herself stuck in the same routine. School, home, sleep, repeat. Tommy was busy most of the time, mainly working on the BioZords in secret, but all Kim knew was that he was working on a project with some girl named Hayley. She had never been the jealous type, but he was spending more time with this other girl than he was with her, and that buggd her. He constantly assured her that Hayley was more like a sister than anything, but that still didn't make Kim feel any better. She knew there was nothing going on between them sexually, but still. She needed a change.
Carri had been a different story. Things had been going great for her and Rocky, together they just opened their first karate school, DeSantos Martial Arts. She had been quite happy with how her life was going. But she still felt as though something was missing. She just didn't know what.
Kim had been greatful when she received a message from her old friend, Dulcea. Dulcea had contacted her for training. Apparently the Phadosian warrior had sensed a power in Kim that she didn't even know she had. She'd sensed it when she first appeared on Phaedos during the fight with Ivan Ooze, and then again during their search for Zordon. Both times it had been dormant and Dulcea wanted to wait for a time when Kim wasn't active so that she could have her undivided attention. Kim was quite happy to have an excuse to leave Angel Grove, to leave Earth. She enjoyed the space travel as much as Jason had, maybe more so. She doubted Tommy would even notice her missing with how busy he was.
She met up with Carri the following day after receiving the message and told her all about it. The were at Bulkmeier's Bar&Pool, which Jason had found out that that's how the restaurant gotten its start. Kim and Carri met up at the Bar&Pool, and Kim told everything to Carri. It was then that Carri knew what was missing from her life, the adventure, the excitement of being a ranger. She immediately decided to go with Kim, her reason being, other than adventure, was that she couldn't let her sister figure go off into space alone . Kim was going to argue, but before she could Carri had jumped up and left to get packed. She was lucky while packing, if you could call it lucky, that Rocky was busy that day. She packed her things, met up with Kim, and a few minutes later they were being teleported to Phaedos by Dulcea. It was there that they spent the next four years in training.
Kim was learning how to harness the powers within her, as was Carri. Kim was Dulcea's true student, Carri had just tagged along. Even so, Dulcea was honored to teach Carri as well. Carri had a power within her that Dulcea had sensed as well, though not as strong as Kim's it was still powerful. With Dulcea's guidance both girls were able to harness that power, Kim being able to travel through time and space and bend time, and Carri being able to manipulate fire. She couldn't create it, just manipulate it.
Neither girl really understood where these powers came from, or why they had them. After Dulcea bestowed the name Kaycea upon Kim, she explained about the powers they had. Kim's ability came from Zordon himself, he always sensd something about the little pink ranger. He knew she'd need the ability someday, so he granted it to her secretly. Carri's was all natural. She had somehow been born with it, it stemmed from her fiery temper. First she had to learn how to utilize her power, then she had to learn how to control it. After all, she didn't want to get mad at someone who happened to be smoking at the time and accidentally blow their head away.
After four years of training both girls had a hold on their powers. Carri's was easy to master, but Kim still had a long way to go before she could master hers. As such Dulcea granted her the powers of a Phadosian warrior, giving her a long life span. Much longer than any human, as Dulcea herself was over a thousand years old. Throughout the next two years the girls travelled through space, Kim taking a few extra years to practice her abilities. Carri would have never known about it, had Kim not told her. She didn't look like she had been gone for five years, only to return within minutes of her departure. During that two year period they did just what Jason had wanted to do before meeting Elieara, travel. See what the galaxy had to offer.
He pulled himself from his thoughts as he sat up and shuffled over to his desk. Well, at least now he knew Dulcea hadn't lied to him. She had been training a student, two in fact, when he stopped by. And he finally knew just who in the universe Kaycea was. He had heard of her during his travels, but the names Kimberly or Carri never came up. He yawned, the day had been long and the night was looking even longer. He booted his computer up and once it was finished loading he began working on his book again. He pinched his brow, something just didn't seem right. He'd had the feeling for months now, but he had managed to shrug it off. But now the feeling was more intense than it had been. What did it mean?
Rocky headed back into his office. Apparently his second school, which he had recently put his old friend Adam in charge of, was doing quite well. Adam had just stopped by to tell him about it. He felt bad for his friend, his job as a stunt double wasn't doing so well. People were using him less and less as he got older. He also felt bad for him for what happened at the end of college. Though that was years ago. He and Kat had been such a great couple, Adam did his best to show his love for her. But she met another man. Some guy named Andy.
Adam had been busy with his new career, director's hiring him left and right. With all the movies he doubled for it barely left him with any time for Kat, plus with how he could just as easily get hurt stunt doubling as he could rangering it made her feel like it was the old days, back in high school. She didn't care for that feeling, which was when she met Andy. He was a bit of slacker, doing nothing but playing video games when he could. He did work though, as a mechanic. He loved his job, but loved slacking even more. Surprisingly she found herself attracted to him. Before anything could happen that she thought she would regret though, she broke it off with Adam. The former green ranger had been hurt, yeah, but he saw it coming. He'd been preparing for it for a few weeks. That was in the past though, Adam swore up and down that he had moved on.
Rocky leaned back in his seat, thinking about Adam's break up had him thinking about his own, he missed Carri. Things hadn't been the same in the past six years. He sighed, thinking about where she could have gone. He knew she hadn't cheated on him, she wasn't that kind of person. Kim had disappeared about the same time too, as had Jason. He decided not to think about it any longer, he had work to do. He sat up and began to get back to work. A few minutes later he heard his door open. He smiled as he looked up at the woman that entered his office.
A couple days later Jason met up with Kim and Carri at Bulkmeier's. Now that he actually payed attention he did see the bar and the pool in the back. Leave it to Bulk to have an eatery with a lounging area all in one. He still hadn't told anyone else about his return, and apparently the girls hadn't either. He was beginning to worry, not about any of them, but about the feeling he had. The feeling that something didn't seem right. He'd tried to shake it off for past couple of days, but had been unable to. What was this feeling?
"So," Carri said, breaking the silence that had come over the table. "Have you found a job yet?" Her question was directed at Jason, she knew he'd bought a place with the money he'd saved up, but he hadn't told them about his job.
"Yeah." He answered, now all he had to do was come up with a believeable lie.
"Well what is it?" Kim questioned, she was eager to find out what her friend had started doing for a living.
"Well, it's...telemarketing."He didn't know where that came from, he would never work in a place like that and the girls knew it.
Kim made a face, she would have never thought that Jason would be one to be crammed in a cubicle all day. But it may have been all he could get on such short notice. Luckily for him, Kim didn't ask any more questions about it.
Carri didn't quite believe him. Kim may have known him longer, but she knew him better. She could tell he was lying. It showed on his face. She was now making it her job to find out what he actually did for a living, if he did anything at all.
"What about you two?" he questioned. It was a fair question, they asked him now he was asking them.
"Well I haven't found anything yet, but Carri..."
"...Carri is now a producer for her brothers show." Carri interrupted, finishing Kim's sentence in third person. "It was an offer he made me. I had no job, we needed a place to live," she gestured between herself and Kim, "so I took it. Hopefully it's only temporary and I can get my own project started, who knows?"
Jason made an amused sound. Show business, he hadn't thought of Carri as the type. "Well that's great, I'm happy for you Car. And Kim, good luck."
Kim nodded. "Thank you." The rest of the meal went by in silence once again, as all three former rangers ate their food.
He entered the old Power Chamber. Billy Cranston hadn't been here, on Earth, in years. He'd left during everyone's freshman year in college. He'd fallen for an Aquitarian in the brief week he had been on the planet Aquitar. Things had been going great, for a while. A few years after he moved there permanently their relationship had started going down hill. He knew what had caused it, he was homesick. He missed his friends, friends Cestria hadn't much cared for. He didn't know why, they were rangers after all. He supposed it was because of how much he talked about them, a former yellow ranger in particular invaded his thoughts and their conversations more than once. He had been trying to get away for a while now, trying to get back home to Earth. But Cestria was obsessive, even with a doomed relationship eminent she wanted to keep him around, it was an embarassment on Aquitar to have your spouse, be it boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, leave you. Personally he didn't care, she had kept him from seeing his friends for eight years, almost nine. As far as he was concerned she deserved any embarassment.
He looked around that the old Power Chamber. No one had kept it up and running, that was for sure. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, dust was everywhere, and the power was shut off. He supposed that after the defeat of Dark Specter and the loss of their powers they figured they'd never need it again. He understood that. He walked over to the tubes that contained the original Mighty Morphin' suits. Strangely the red ranger suits tube was the only one without a lot of dust covering it. He wondered what that meant. Shrugging it off he made his way to the blue ranger tube, wiping the layers of dust away from the helmet area. He stared into the triceratops visor, memories of days long since past flashing through his head. Shaking them away he began to get to work on cleaning up. They'd need it sooner than they thought they would. A lot sooner.
High above Earth's atmosphere another ship slowly made its way to the moon. The Lunar Palace was coming into view, well, what was left of it. It would need to be repaired, she knew that already. But it would be a simple task, taking only a few days, if not one. Once it was ready she would make her presence known. The black ranger would rue the day he ever messed with her.
Kim sat outside in the waiting room of A&C Clothing. Carri had informed her of this place, not giving her anything other than the building name, and setting an interview up for her. Kim hadn't even had time to google it, Carri had drove her here right after telling her about it. Kim wondered what the boss would be like. Would the boss be a bitch like a lot of the corporate types, or would the boss be extremely friendly? She hoped it was the latter. She would not work well with a bitchy boss. She felt her palms start to sweat, she was nervous. She, the girl who could stand up to Dark Specter, the grand monarch of evil, was afraid of something as trivial as a job interview. It was laughable really. Over the past two years she had fought some of the nastiest villains the universe had ever known. She hadn't lied to Jason, she had seen the what the galaxy had to offer, she just didn't give him all the details. That wasn't lying, right? She was afraid he'd go ballistic if she told him what she'd really been up to.
Kim had actually been trying to locate someone named Elieara. Dulcea had told her about Elieara, saying she was a danger to the universe. She and Carri had hunted her down, but they were always two steps behind. That was partially thanks to Elieara's army, they had faced some of the toughest evil creatures in the universe. Elieara employed nothing short of the best. Had she not been imprisoned during Dark Specter's attempted universal takeover, Kim had a feeling that even the grand monarch of evil would have bowed at that woman's feet. What made them decide to return home was that they had arrived on the planet Chigo-46 about a week before they ran into Jason on Earth. When they arrived the Lunar rangers told them that they had been saved, and that Elieara was dead.
They informed Kim and Carri that they were willing to stay for a while, but the blue Lunar ranger, Eledore, kept hitting on Carri. Kim had thought about accepting their offer, but Carri quickly rejected it. If she had stayed on the planet any longer she was certain she would have fried the blue ranger. Disappointed that they hadn't been able to find Elieara and stop her themselves they returned to Earth. The rest, as they say, is history.
"Ms. Hart, you may go on in." The secretary said, drawing Kim out of her thoughts. Sighing, Kim stood and wiped her hands on her pants in an attempt to get the sweat off. As she headed towards the door her legs felt like they were made of lead. As if she had to force them to move. The short walk to the door seemed to be taking forever. Finally she reached it and let herself in.
The secretary watched as Kim entered the office. "I doubt she'll even make it through the interview."
Kim entered the office and took it in. It was bright, yellow was everywhere. The person behind the desk sat with their back to her. She cleared her throat as she started to speak. "Hello, I'm Kimberly Ann Hart, I'm-"
She was cut short as the person behind the desk held her hand up. "I know who you are, Kim. Or should I say, former pink rnager." Kim felt a lump form in her throat, who was this woman? She really wished Carri had informed her on all the details, rather than being vague. The woman turned her seat around to face Kim, a bright smile spread across her face.
Seeing the smile made Kim smile as well. Now she knew full well who this was. "Ashley!" she cried. Ashley nodded, laughing at Kim's reaction.
"Hey, have a seat." Ashley snickered. "You should have seen your face when I called you out as a ranger. Priceless." Ashley had seen Kim's expression in the reflection of the glass wall that was now behind her. She was surprised that Kim hadn't tried looking at it to figure out who she was.
"You scared me," Kim admitted. "Why did you do that anyway?"
"Because I asked her too," Carri said as she entered the office, ignoring the secretaries warnings not to go in there.
"We thought it would be funny to play a little trick on you first." Ashley admitted with a sly grin. It wasn't professional at all, but she had to admit, it had been fun. Too bad Carri couldn't have seen Kim's face.
"Well that wasnt very nice," Kim commented as she gave Carri an "I'll deal with you later" look.
"Maybe not, but it was fun." Carri said, ignoring Kim's look.
"Well," Ashley said, finally ready to get down to business, "Carri here tells me that you're looking for a job."
"Yes that's right." Kim responded, putting all her focus into the interview.
"What exactly are you looking for?" Ashley questioned. She already had her mind made up as to whether or not she was going to hire the former pink, it was just a matter of where she wanted to be placed.
"Well, something where I don't have a boss breathing down my neck all the time for any mysterious absences," she waited for Ashley to nod in understanding before she continued. "As for placement though, I think I'd to try my hand at designing the clothes, and if it doesn't work out then maybe marketing."
Ashley nodded, she figured those would be Kim's choices. If her first choice didn't work out then she'd transfer her to her second. She didn't take any offfence to the "boss breathing down my neck" comment either. She understood what she meant. If Kim was to ever be called back into action, which she was sure she was seeing as how Tommy already had been, she'd need a boss who would understand her absences. "Alright, you're hired. I expect you start designing bright and early tomorrow morning."
Kim looked at the former astro, who was now her boss. She was amazed that she had gotten the job so easily. She didn't let it bother her though as she began to think about the companies name. "Wait a second, A&C Clothing. The "A" stands for Ashley, doesn't it?" Ashley nodded. "And the "C"?"
"Cassie, Cassie Chan." Ashley replied. "She's the co-founder of A&C Clothing. She's on vacation this week, but you'll see her next week for sure." Cassie was the former pink astro ranger, aside from helping Ashley run A&C she also had a small flower shop in downtown Angel Grove called CC's Flowers.
"Thank you so much," Kim said as soon as she realized she hadn't said it yet. She felt embarassed, didn't people usually say thank you after they told they were hired?
Ashley laughed out loud at the former pink zeo, her cheeks had turned red. "Don't worry about it. I had my mind made up from the time Carri brought it up the other day." Kim nodded and she and Carri made their way for the exit.
Jason was on his way to Bulkmeier's, again. The girls had called him to go out and celebrate Kim's new job. She'd started that morning, and now that her first day was over they wanted to celebrate. He figured why not, he'd been staring at a computer screen all day, so it might do him some good to get out. He stretched as he rounded the corner that lead to the little restaurant. He didn't know what possessed him to walk there, other than thinking he needed the exercise. It felt good to get out, the fresh air, the city noises, he missed it.
As he continued on his way he heard a few people start screaming, he looked around to see what it was that they were so afraid of. He turned around, and that was when he saw her. What they were afraid of. Elieara. How could she still be alive? It didn't make any sense. He was certain that she was dead. She'd been quiet for a little over a month now, why show herself now? It didn't take long before he saw both Kim and Carri on either side of him. They must have come to investigate when they heard the screams.
Standing beside Elieara was her right hand man, Nexarox. He was as ugly as they came, snake face with the body of a humanoid cat. Kim took note of the way Jason was looking at her. "Who is she?" she asked, confused.
Jason didn't remove his glare from her as he answered Kim. "Her name's Elieara. I thought for sure she was dead."
"Elieara?" Kim gasped, so this was who had defeated her before. No wonder they had trouble finding her. "How? I heard you were dead?" She shouted, turning towards Elieara.
Elieara smirked at the trio. "I cannot rest peacefully in my grave so long as Jason Lee Scott still lives." The truth was that she had been extremely close to death after their last battle. She waited underground for a few weeks, recouperating. After she was back at full strength she fled Chigo-46, searching out Jason's morphing signature until it lead her to this backwater dump. How she had been defeated by someone from this podunct planet she wasn't sure. But she would not stand for it.
Jason shifted uncomfortably, he was certain she had died. This had to have been the feeling that had been nagging at him. Damn! He should have realized she was still alive, this time he would have to make sure to finish the job. This time he would need to find a body afterwards. "Black Metal Ranger, Power Up!" He shouted as he flicked his wrist and reached over and pressed the square emblem for metal on his morpher, in flash of black light he stood as the black metal terra ranger. His suit was fairly simply, almost solid black save for the silver metallic stripe going down his torso on the right, the silver lining across the top of his chest that resembled the old zeo design, and the silver metallic accents along his arms and legs. His helmet resembled that of his zeo ranger IV helmet, complete with the rectangular visor.
Kim looked at him, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. "Red Solar Ranger, Power Up!" she shouted as she flicked her wrist, revealing a silver morpher with a symbol for the sun stamped on it, covering it from end to end. In a red flash she stood morphed as the red solar terra ranger. Her outfit was very similar to Jason's, except where he had silver she had white, and her helmet visor was remeniscent of the red zeo helmet, only a sun instead of a star.
Jason glanced over at her, so he wasn't the only terra ranger in existence. Good. He charged Elieara, who jumped over him and landed behind him. "Tsk, tsk Jasey, this isn't a battle visit. It's merely a social call. You'll know when I'm ready to fight. I just want you to know that you can never kill me. So why don't you just give up now? Hm? It'd save yourself a lot of trouble."
Jason turned to face her again, noticing Kim dealing with Nexarox. "Like I would ever surrender to you." He growled. Damn, he should have searched until he found the blasted body on Chiga-46. Chiga-46, what happened to the Lunar rangers? He had to know. "What did you do with the Lunar's?"
Elieara sighed, "I spared them. For now. My primary focus is you, Jasey. Then I'll deal with those insects."
Good, at least they're safe. He ran to attack her again, only to once again hit air. This time she was no where to be found, neither was Nexarox.
"Well that looked like it went well." Carri commented after they got back to Jason's condo. They had decided to skip lunch and go formulate a plan. "You bone heads didn't even look to see if anyone was nearby when you morphed."
"The thought never occured to me. I've been in space for six years, everyone knows who the rangers are there." Jason said simply. He'd have to adapt to Earth's rules again, keeping your identity as a ranger secret. "So you guys were chasing after Elieara in space, while I was battling her?" he asked, changing subjects.
The girls nodded. "Dulcea sent us after her, apparently she escaped her imprisonment on the planet Kalem. No one knows how though, that seal was supposed to be unbreakable."
"I see. I was on Kalem when she escaped then, she attacked the planet. I fought, and I lost. That was what began my search for her and this," he showed them his morpher. "After finding it we looked for her all over, eventually finding her on Chiga-46 and joining up with the Lunar rangers. After that we returned home."
Kim nodded, deciding not to ask who "we" was. "Dulcea handed me mine. Apparently these are supposed to be the strongest powers out there, the only ones capable of fighting her. I was lucky, this one was hidden on Phaedos, so I didn't have to search for it. How did you get yours?"
"Ninjor gave me the coordinates to a planet that was supposed to house this power. He was right, I found it after a series of tests."
Kim nodded. Jason had explained about who Ninjor was a couple of days ago. Apparently he was a senile old man who trained Dulcea. Kim found that hard to believe. Jason did too, still. He was the actual creator of the ninjetti powers, that was something Kim hadn't been expecting. It had been her understanding that Dulcea was in fact the creator, not Ninjor. Oh well.
Carri sat in her seat, thinking. She had yet to dive into Jason's job yet, she hadn't had the time. But that wasn't important now, what was important was stopping Elieara. The wheels in her head began to turn as she thought of a way to fight her. They would need more than just two rangers, that was for sure. But where to find them? "Aha!" she shouted as an idea came to her. The two terra rangers turned to face her, looking at her like she was nuts. "I've got it. We'll need a full team of rangers to handle this, right?" They nodded. "Why not go to Billy's old Power Chamber and do a scan for powers similar to the ones your morphers have? It's worth a shot at least."
Jason and Kim thought about that for a second, she was right. It was probably their best bet. "Alright, let's go." Jason said as he stood, taking the center. He hoped the teleportation system on their communicator's still worked, if not it would take a lot longer to get there. Finding the Power Chamber on foot, even if you knew where it was, was no easy task. They all pushed the button's on their communicators, stood there for a few seconds thinking nothing would happen, then suddenly they teleported off in black, red, and white lights.