Ch 4
"You're thinking of a reason to say yes, right?" Tommy asked after another lengthy silence had passed between himself and his fiancée.
Even after Kimberly had forgiven him at the café for keeping the morphers from her, she had become unusually quiet when he had expressed his desire to retrieve them from the underwater cave. Asking her whether or not she was okay with him doing so was not necessary, as she had made a point to tell him, yet he did anyway if only to prove to her that her opinion mattered to him. Kim had sighed upon his leaving and he had asked her again if he should go, but she had only waved him off with another sigh, telling him that the morphers would be safer in his possession than with anyone else that she could think of.
And so he had left, a heavy feeling setting in as he drove to the beach that told him that Kim was not happy. She was not angry, he knew that much, but she was certainly annoyed with him. Her unhappiness was confirmed upon his return when he walked into their apartment and she stared silently at him as he greeted her, receiving no smile or frown, just an empty expression that made him wish that he had left the morphers where they had been.
Kim had gone for a walk then, a few hours passing before her return and his growing worry replaced by frustration when she refused to answer her cell phone. By the time she had walked into the bedroom door, Tommy had set up the morphers on the dresser, staring at them from his bed as he wondered how much trouble they were really going to be worth. But Kim had said nothing then, pausing as she passed by the morphers and clenching her jaw a little tighter.
So when Tommy asked her the first time, she did not answer right away, more or less because of the tension in her jaw. But she was more than ready with a response the second time.
"I'm not thinking of a reason to say yes, Tommy," Kim said calmly. "I'm thinking of a million reasons to say no."
"Nothing's written in stone that says that I have to use these morphers," Tommy said with a sigh. "In fact, I kind of hope that I don't have to."
"You are such a liar," Kim replied, shaking her head with a smile. "You know that your decision was made the day that you found those things. You're just thinking of a reason for me to say yes."
"Kim, if you say no, I'll say no too," Tommy said, sitting up on the bed. "I won't even think about it anymore if you say no."
"Tommy," Kim began in the way that made Tommy feel a similar heaviness inside. "The truth is that… you don't really care what I think."
"That's not true," Tommy argued. "I'll always care what you think –about this, about everything."
"Tommy, there's a difference between respecting my feelings and caring what I think about something," Kim explained. "You're telling me that you won't use the morphers unless I say that it's okay because you think that I'll be mad at you if you don't. And I will, in case you might still be wondering. But that's you caring about how I feel and how it'll affect you. On the other hand, can you really say that you care about what I think if you've already made your decision? I mean, you had the meeting, you brought the morphers into our house along with that communicator. It just sounds like you're a ranger already, you know?"
"Kim, I -" Tommy began.
"I know how much you love me and respect me, Tommy," Kim interrupted with a sigh. "But it's just like with anything else you do. You start and stop whenever you feel like it, regardless of what other people try to tell you."
"You mean like with you and gymnastics?" Tommy asked, folding his arms.
"Not the same," Kim replied sharply. "I built my life around gymnastics –my whole life, Tommy. And if you think –"
"It's the same with me, Kim," Tommy said, cutting her off. "I've been doing martial arts for as long as I can remember and being a Power Ranger was like… it was a dream. As a ranger, I could use martial arts to help people. I've built my whole life around it."
"It's not the same," Kim said quietly, though the look in her eyes was fierce.
"Would it really be so bad being rangers again?" Tommy asked, standing from the bed and walking over to her. "I mean, we would see more of each other, something that we won't be able to do with classes starting this fall."
"Yeah, I know," Kim agreed with a nod. "But being rangers again means quite a few other things too –the secrets and lies that we have to tell our new friends when monsters attack, the danger, missing school. And my extracurriculars… Oh, I wanted to pledge this year too…"
"You can still do all that stuff," Tommy said, resting his hands on her shoulders when she turned away from him. "We handled it in high school and we can handle it in college."
"When I gave up my morpher, I meant to be done with it forever," Kim said, moving his hands from her shoulders and pulling his arms around her waist until she could feel his body against hers. "How is it that you can keep going back?"
"Because I'm not," Tommy said softly, lightly resting his chin on her shoulder. "I don't ever go back, only forward. Being a Power Ranger isn't a burden to me. We don't have to save the world… but we get to."
Kim smiled and glanced back at him, leaning her head against his. It did not sound so bad, getting to save the world. And getting to save the world with her friends and her future husband didn't sound so bad either.
***
Maybe it was her hair.
Ashley's hair had been one of the first things that Andros had noticed about her. Its length, its color, even its style –it was so much like… hers. Even now it teased his senses a little, telling his mind that when Ashley faced him again that it would be Arcadia's face that he would see though he was well aware of the impossibility. And now it was only a matter of time before she would morph as the Yellow Astroranger, ensuring that his mind would be fooled again. A year was still too soon, especially when it came to Arcadia –the love of his life.
He glanced up quickly from his Am-Scanner, wondering how she had not caught him doing so the past twenty or so times. Andros had convinced himself before that he was just double-checking her work, looking up at her to make sure that she did everything according to protocol. By now, he knew what he was doing –he just had to make sure that he saw the same thing each time.
And he did. It was Arcadia that he saw standing quietly by the engine –that is, before Ashley turned back to press a button on the panel behind her and she briefly was herself again, her hair lightly falling away from her shoulders as she turned back the engine and became Arcadia again.
Andros shook his head at himself, less amused by his mini-hallucination that he had been an hour ago. He lowered his eyes back to the data that had been on the Am-Scanner's screen for the past half-hour, little of it making much sense he was far from focused. But he stared at it until the numbers and words started to have meaning. Something was flashing on the screen and he stared at it, concluding that it was important but not understanding it at the moment. Something about the Mega Accelerator… well that was important, he thought to himself as he said each word on the screen softly to himself.
"Mega… Accelerator… System… Malfunction… 40 percent," he said softly as he tried to concentrate.
"Did you say something?" Ashley asked, turning to him.
"Um, how does everything look so far?" he asked instead as the words continued to roll around in his head.
"Pretty good so far," she replied. "The engine is fully repaired but the Mega Accelerator doesn't seem to want to cooperate. The system still says that its offline. I can't figure out what's wrong with it."
"Mega Accelerator," Andros repeated after her, the words on the scanner finally landing. "Did Zhane recalibrate the Mega Accelerator's Power Sanction?"
"I don't think so," Ashley answered, checking the information on the panel in front of her. "It isn't in the protocol either. What does it do?"
"The Mega Accelerator allows us to achieve Hyper Rush velocity and serves as our only connection to the morphing grid," he explained. "Without calibrating the Power Sanction, the Mega Accelerator has to redistribute the Astroranger powers again."
"Redistribute them?"
"Before yesterday, the powers were shared between me and Zhane," Andros said. "And now it seems that the Mega Accelerator is distributing that power amongst six morphers. And it can take a while for that to happen if the Power Sanction isn't done first, which means that we won't be able to morph until it's finished."
"Oh," Ashley said, lowering her eyes. "When did you figure it out?"
"You're wearing it right now," Andros said, watching as she unconsciously pulled her jacket sleeve down to cover it. "I'm not blind."
"Are you angry?" she asked, looking back up at him.
"Would it make any difference if I was?" Andros asked her with a sigh.
Ashley's eyes met his as she removed the morpher from her wrist and held it out to him. "If you really don't want me to have it, then I'll give it back."
Andros shook his head. "I'm not going to be the bad guy that takes your morpher away from you."
"You'd rather be the guy that silently hates us every time we morph?" she asked, strapping the morpher back to her wrist. "Because I don't know that I can handle you being mad at me, especially if we're going to be sharing space for a while."
"There's nothing about you –there's no hate," Andros stammered. "Not even if you morph will I hate you… But I… I just really don't want you here."
"Because you lost your team?" she asked, regretting it as his eyes lowered and he frowned.
"Not because I lost my team," he replied, putting his hands into his jacket pockets and clutching tightly to the small envelope inside. "Because I don't want to be reminded of everything that I lost when I lost my team… I lost my family that day."
"I'm sorry," Ashley said, taking a step toward him. "I shouldn't have brought it up."
"That's just it," he said, looking up at her. "It's brought every time I see you. You will always be a constant reminder of that day… And it's not your fault at all. I just can't forget that easily."
"Well, what else can we –" Ashley cut herself off at the sound of DECA's alarm.
"Quantrons are attacking Angel Grove," DECA reported. "The others are waiting for you on the bridge."
Andros and Ashley rushed from the engine room, taking the Megalift to the bridge, trying not to make eye contact as they gladly fled from their conversation in the engine room. They arrived on the bridge, taking in the nervous looks of the others.
"What's wrong?" Andros asked.
"Quantrons on Earth," Zhane answered, motioning to the main viewing screen where several quantrons were running around the shopping district in the center of the city.
"I heard," Andros said. "So why are we still standing here?"
"Well," Zhane began somewhat nervously. "According to DECA, the Mega Accelerator is offline which means that –"
"Morphing is an impossibility," Andros finished with a nod. "It'll be a few hours or more. But so what? We can still teleport and communicate with DECA if we need to."
"So, we don't have any powers," T.J. said.
"We don't need powers to take care of those guys," Andros said. "They're just quantrons."
"Yeah, except there are like thirty of them and six of us," Cassie pointed out.
"It's just five quantrons for each of us," Andros said with a shrug. "We can handle it."
"But what if –" Carlos began.
"If you can't handle it, then maybe you should just turn in your morphers right now," Andros said, leading them from the bridge. "We can't rely solely on our powers. The Astroranger suits don't really scare quantrons anymore. But if you can defeat them without morphing, they'll fear you when you do. Now let's go, we're wasting time."
***
As soon as the rangers teleported to Earth, they were immediately thrust into a swarm of quantrons. The rangers fought hard, finally able to leave the enclosed circle of quantrons and splitting into six small groups.
Andros watched the others as he fought, glad that the teens could hold their own against the foot-soldiers. And they were actually good, though he was not entirely surprised. But he was surprised by the strength of their moves, knowing that they had once possessed the strength of the Turbo powers and may have leaned heavily on that power. It was clear that the Turbo power must have only added to their own power.
The rangers continued to fight as a team, in spite of having no powers, taking care of a few of their quantrons before helping a nearby teammate with theirs. With one final sweeping kick, the last of the quantrons went down and the teens stood victorious.
"Great job, guys," Zhane congratulated them, though he sensed something suddenly and glanced over at Andros who stood listening silently for the same something that Zhane sensed.
"Astronema," Andros whispered, looking around them.
No sooner had the words left his mouth did he hear groans of pain from the others, joining in when he felt a sharp pain in his back. Unable to get away from the energy that they felt going through their bodies, he and the others could only fall to their knees as they struggled to recover.
By the time the feeling in their legs returned, coming toward them was Astronema and a large monster covered in what appeared to be holes all over its stone-like body.
"You seem surprised to see me," Astronema said with a smile. "I told you that I'd get those shards one way or another."
She snapped her fingers and several quantrons appeared, holding the rangers by their arms.
"Now I'll ask you again," Astronema said, summoning her Wrath Staff in her hands. "Where are the Ka'ana Veo Shards?"
"You'll never know if you destroy us," Andros said, struggling to release himself from the quantrons to no avail.
Astronema raised her staff, pointing it at Ashley as the quantrons gripped her tighter. "I only have to destroy one of you to get the answers I seek," Astronema replied. "So I'll ask you one last time… Where are the Ka'ana Veo Shards?"
"Say pretty please," Ashley spat at her, watching Astronema's eyes cloud over in anger.
"So be it," Astronema said with a smile, turning to the monster by her side. "I'll just find the shards myself. Thorn-Bearer, you can destroy them now."
Astronema disappeared and Thorn-Bearer laughed evilly as huge thorns emanated from each of the holes on his body and began to glow brightly.
"Say goodbye Power Rangers," it said. "It's too bad that you couldn't morph and at least attempt to defend yourselves. You're just making this too easy."
"Well, we won't," a familiar voice called out as the sound of cycles filled the air. "And you've got about ten seconds to let our friends go."
From five separate directions rolled five different colored cycles with a ranger of corresponding color on each one and aimed directly at the monster. The teens looked up at the new rangers, having never seen anything like them before. They looked a little different from the rangers they had encountered in the past with white helmets widely streaked with the ranger's color on its crown. But through their large dark visors, Andros could make out who these rangers were and he could not help smiling a little as he read the word 'VEO' on the crests on their helmets.
But Thorn-Bearer only laughed at the new rangers, his thorns glowing even brighter than before. If he released energy from his thorns, the energy would likely go in every direction, Andros thought to himself, finally freeing his arm and elbowing the quantrons behind him to escape their grasp. He helped the others do the same, quickly dispatching of the quantrons and leaving them in the way of Thorn-Bearer's blasts as they hurried away. The blasts of energy from the monster's thorns knocked the quantrons down, and when the smoke cleared, the cycles and rangers were gone too.
"Looks like your friends were about as useless as they looked," Thorn-Bearer said, turning his attention back to the teens.
They stood defensively, not as ready to fight as they looked but more than willing. But as the monster walked toward them, the sound of cycles was heard again and a barrage of laser blasts hit it and sent it staggering backward. The cycles rushed at Thorn-Bearer and disappeared as the rangers jumped off of the cycles and into the air, coming down with blasters aimed at it and firing.
The monster growled and released another blast of energy in all directions, and laughing when it heard the blasts hit something. This time, when the smoke cleared, the rangers were standing several feet away from Thorn-Bearer all behind a large red shield that shrunk down significantly when its owner stepped back in line with his teammates. When the Red Ranger moved back, a long red sword appeared in his hands.
"You're in some real trouble now," the Red Ranger called out. "Veo Tech Long-Sword activate!"
"Veo Tech Trio Cannon activate," the Green Ranger called, as he lifted a large round green cannon onto his shoulder with three short barrels on its front.
"Veo Tech Batons activate," the Pink Ranger said, holding a long, thin pink baton in each hand.
"Veo Tech Water Cannon activate," the Blue Ranger called, gripping a blue square cannon in front of him with both hands.
"Veo Tech High Whip activate," the Yellow Ranger said, holding up the lengthy yellow shaft of an energy whip that crackled upon activation.
Thorn-Bearer waved the quantrons at them, the small swarm running at the Veo Tech Rangers with weapons in their hands. The teens stood back and watched in awe as the Veo Tech Rangers rushed at the minions with their weapons ready.
The Blue and Green Rangers kneeled down side by side and aimed their cannons at the quantrons, the Trio Cannon spinning its barrels as it bombarded the quantrons with blasts of green energy while the Water Cannon let out a strong expulsion of water that shot quantrons several feet away.
The Yellow Ranger swung her whip in the air, cracking it just above the quantrons' heads, the sound of it knocking some of them down. The broken line segments of yellow energy that made up the whip vanished, reappearing around the quantrons in a powerful attack that dropped the rest of them like flies.
Quantrons fought weapon-to-weapon with the Pink Ranger, unable to keep up with the speed of her fighting style as she struck at them with her batons. She flipped backward, crossing her now glowing batons in an x-formation to release the force of pink energy that blasted from the center of her weapon.
"You aren't the rangers that I was supposed to destroy," Thorn-Bearer said, blocking the Red Ranger's sword with the thorns on his arm. "But you'll do just fine."
"The only one going down is you, Spike," he retorted, executing a jumping roundhouse kick to send the monster flying back. He raised the glowing red sword in his grip and pierced the shield in his other hand with it, watching the blade of his sword quadruple in width. Finally, he brought the sword down on Thorn-Bearer, the bright red power from the sword enveloping the monster as it went down and exploded.
The teens ran over to the Veo Tech Rangers, standing back a little until they powered down, revealing themselves to be the five former rangers that they had run into a day before.
"That was awesome," Aisha said excitedly.
"Yeah, it kinda was," Rocky admitted with a smile.
"You guys were awesome," Cassie said.
"Yeah, thanks for the save," Carlos added. "We thought we were toast."
"Yeah, thank you," Andros said, shaking Tommy's hand when he held it out to him.
"Hey, you guys were the awesome ones," Tommy said. "You came down here and fought without your powers. That took a lot of guts."
"Well, we're chockfull of those," Zhane replied. "How were you able to morph? We can't even morph right now."
"We don't know," Kim said with a shrug. "We just put on the morphers and, you know… morphed."
"Then that means that your power source is nearby," Andros said. "And that would explain why Astronema followed us here. She's still looking for those Ka'ana Veo Shards."
"Is there any way that we can help you find them?" Adam asked. "I mean, we're the Veo Tech Rangers now and you want to find the Veo Shards… Maybe we're supposed to help."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Zhane said. "You guys aren't afraid to fly, are you?"
Author's Note: The Veo Tech Ranger powers are modeled after the Choushinsei Flashman Super Sentai Powers for anyone who might want a visual of what those rangers looked like. Certain weapons were based on that Super Sentai team and do not belong to me, while others are based on original ideas from BellaVision. Happy reading, everyone!
