This Chapter is dedicated to Brankel1. You've been a big support for me with you comments and I appreciate the fact that you take the time out of your day to read this story, and review after every single chapter.
Act I Pt. VI
The yellow Camry pulled into the parking lot in front of Haley's Cyberspace, turning off the car, Trini got out and stole a glance at the red Corvette that was parked right next to her car. T.J seriously took his speed obsession way too seriously; and the fact that he never really represented his blue affiliations always had Trini wondering if having more than one color after you had worn red made it irrelevant. Then again, Tommy was wore more black than anything nowadays—but in his case trying to tie that man down to a single color was like telling the rainbow to stick to one; it just wasn't going to happen.
Walking in through the front door, she looked around and let the atmosphere around her calm her down. It had been four days since they had found out that Billy was missing and still, every moment of every day she was finding that to be the only things that her mind could concentrate on, staying in there here and now had been getting harder and harder, but the almost familiar environment of the Cyberspace Café had a calming effect. Next to Ernie's juice bar and recreational center, this place would have been one she wouldn't have been able to keep Billy out of.
The mass of teenagers that occupied the café was almost overwhelming, and Trini could see that even though the place was about to close that the active teens that frequented the place would have to be told that the place was about to be closed down. Smiling, she remembered how often her and her friends had stayed in the Juice bar way past closing time on several occasions. Ernie had been such a great individual back then, and had helped them get through a lot—it had been a great place to have in Angel Grove.
Spotting T.J sitting on one of the couches in the heart of the Café, Trini walked over, noting that he was managing to have a seat opened next to him; not that any of the teens were paying attention to one of the possibly four adults in the building at the moment. They were either too caught up in their drinks and conversation, or in the latest attracting over at the computers to pay any note to anyone else. Oh, the joys of being a teenager.
As she walked up, it seemed as if the former Red could sense her walking up, because before he could even see her, he turned around and looked her way, a big smile on his face. Gesturing for her to hurry up over to him, he got up, hugging her tightly. It'd been too long since the two of them had seen each other, and even though they had never served on the same team, had different mentors, and were twice removed from the same power source, the friendship they had developed was a strong one.
"It's been way too long Trin, how's Jason doing?"
Sitting down with him on the couch, she looked over to him and smiled. Good friends were hard to find for anyone, but with Rangers it was even harder. Being a Ranger had isolated and ostracized them from the normal society of people. Looking back on her High School life, Trini could barely remember anyone aside from her Ranger friends. Even after that, being in the Peace Conferences, she really only bonded with maybe one or two people—but since then she had lost touch with them and could only remember them in association with Jason or Zack. Having new Rangers to meet and come back to had been amazing; they were family.
"Oh, you know how it is; still throwing people across the Dojo, as usual—what about you? I'm surprised you're not being swarmed right now." With a smile on his face T.J pointed to a picture across the room. His face was on it along with a sign that read: "Meet the man who looks exactly like the legendary Blue Space Ranger T.J Johnson!" Unable to help herself, Trini burst out laughing!
Leaning closer to him, she whispered, "So what should I call you?" Smiling, he returned with, "T.J is fine, it comes with the job." She absolutely loved this devious little plan. It was honestly clever; she would have never thought that he would pose as himself to get out of drawing attention to himself.
"Any business so far?"
Shrugging his shoulders, he muttered, "Teenagers." Nodding in understanding, Trini took a moment to find Haley. She was coming out of the back at the moment, talking with one of her staff. Walking over to a center point of her shop, she stood little higher, signaled another of her employees, and clapped her hands three times—along with the rest of her staff. Every Teenager in the store turned or lucked up from what they were doing to stare at Haley. "Alright Kiddo's, it's been great having you here, but it's time for me to close up, as usual. If everyone can please log off, and start exiting the building, I can get around to having this place ready for you guys tomorrow. Thanks!"
Turning away from the kids, she began walking towards herself and T.J a big smile on her face. The teenagers who had been around the Cyberspace were clearing out; apparently this was a normal procedure.
As Haley walked up, Trini and T.J got up for the round of hugs that was about to start. Starting with T.J, she wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled. "So how did the meeting sessions go?"
"Well, I think some of them thought about coming and seeing what all the fuss was all about." The smile on both of their faces was classic. Who had come up with the idea to have T.J act as his own double. As soon as Haley was done hugging T.J she moved to Trini. Embracing each other they stayed like that.
"We'll find him Trini—with everyone we all know, there's got to be someone who knows where he is." Trini almost melted into Haley's arms. Honestly, aside from the small freak out she had managed at Jason's apartment, she'd remained composed since then and had been taking on the others, reassuring them alongside Jason that Billy was fine and alright. It was nice to have someone do the same for her, even though Jason was supporting her, sometimes the more the merrier.
"Thanks Haley, I really needed that." Smiling at one another, the two women turned towards Haley's office, T.J in tow.
"So how long does it take for this place to clear out?"
"Not too much longer, my staff is trained to start clean up about 30 minutes before I close—and all my sales are taken care of on the spot; oddly enough when I started off Tommy told me that it was best not to do open tabs. I have no idea where he got that idea from, but it's saved me a lot." Trini couldn't help but laugh at that.
"No doubt Tommy was remembering some of the times we had to leave Ernie's place in a rush—there were times when we would get tabs from his place that would have us working like crazy to pay off; Ernie was sweet enough though to never charge us the full price of the entire tab." Trini was happy for that; if he hadn't of reduced the price, she was sure she would still be paying for the cost of running out to handle Ranger business. He'd been a wonderful man.
When they managed to reach Haley's office, they all collectively stepped inside. Closing and locking the door behind them, Trini watched as Haley went behind her desk and motioned for them to get comfortable.
"We're good to start talking whenever you guys want; I've had this room secure since the Dino Rangers hung out here so much—plus, it's a great stress reliever to come in here and scream at pictures of Tommy."
T.J nodded as he began pulling out some files from the briefcase he was carrying. Laying them out across Haley's table, he handed one to Trini, the other to Haley, and kept one for himself.
"Normally I would have had to have this meeting with the current leader of the new team, but luckily for me this team is pretty well connected; not to mention this team has Haley and Tommy so you guys already know what's up. Trini's just here as a secondary member of the council to back me up so that nothing can go amiss."
Smiling, T.J motioned to the files that were in front of him and smiled as he saw Haley's eyes widen at what was laid out before them. Trini looked at the reports with familiarity—the numbers were nothing to her and she had dealt with seeing numbers way higher than this before; it came with the territory of being apart of the most popular team on the planet.
"And this is segmented between the four of them for any venture they want to take?" Haley's eyes rolled over the sheets' looking at what the Rangers had made from the Japanese T.V show that had been launched about them, the secondary toy sales in Japan, and the deal that had just been made with another toy maker for a release of toys based on the Dino Rangers here in America…along with a listing of which one was currently selling best in Japan.
"Are you kidding me? I swear, I thought Trent would have been the best selling one! Once, just once!" Trini and T.J nodded their heads in agreement, all noticing that the Black Dino Ranger was selling better than any of the other Ranger Toys.
"Yeah, I was shocked myself until I learned why—apparently the Black Dino Ranger comes with several different Zords and some how they'd managed to figure out that the Black Dino Ranger was a mentor to the team, and so it made his Toy a very sought after one. I was shocked it sold better than the Triassic Ranger one, but the people like what the people like."
Trini's head was in her hands. "Why! Why does Tommy always win these! He became Dr. Oliver just a month and a half before I became Dr. Kwan, out sold my toys every single reissue, and jumped into Paleontology with Anton only three weeks before I opened my private practice! This is really not fair!"
T.J was nodding his head. "I know the feeling Trini—whenever I end up at a public function its kind of grating whenever someone ask if I knew the White Ranger or Original Green Ranger."
Although Trini was still in a ranting type mood, when she looked over at Haley she couldn't help but notice the small smile that was directed at the sheets. As much as she loved to rant against Tommy, Trini knew that she was extremely proud of Tommy, the way the rest of their team was. He had really shocked all of them and being the one to lead and crate a team of his own when the Power called again without question…there couldn't have been anyone better. Although Haley was proud of all the Rangers, none of them had her friendship the way Tommy did. It almost reminded Trini of how natural and right his friendship with Kim had been.
"So when do we tell the Dino Rangers all about this? I mean, right now most of them are about to start College and everything, and aside from Trent the rest could really use the aid."
"We were thinking it should be left up to you and Tommy to explain it to them Haley. T.J or I could do it, but there's not need for us to complicate it for them. From what you and Tommy have told us about them, they're a great bunch of kids and most likely won't abuse this privilege."
Haley nodded her head, confirming what Trini was saying. "Yeah Trin, they are good kids. I know Ethan and Conner have both been silently worrying about what they're going to do. Ethan missed out on a few great scholarship opportunities due to his Ranger stint, and as we all know Conner missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime with Soccer."
Tommy had mentioned to Trini that these kids had been very dedicated to the Rangers, especially Conner and Ethan. Where Kira had her music, and Trent his art, the other two relied heavily on getting into schools to progress their needed talents. Computers and, apparently in a very surprising turn for Conner, the desire to open up a 501C-3 nonprofit organization so that he could teach kids across the nation how to play Soccer.
"It'll be taken care of. As usual, for the teams that are S.I we'll approach their parents: usually we claim that their student caught our eye through some type of event or test, run a bunch of official looking but completely bogus test and assessment, and then let the parents know that we are completely happy with everything about their little star child. From then on, through a few untraceable accounts and dummy charities, the Ranger Fund supports them through any endeavors that they may want to pursue." Trini nodded, T.J was already used to having this discussion—she'd only started coming along with him recently; before her, Zack had been one of the Rangers that would approach the Ranger leader with T.J. Having a background in negotiations helped a lot, although the only known Ranger of the group would usually be T.J. Although they had no problem trusting other Ranger teams, keeping their identities a secret was something that they held to for a number of reasons.
"And what about the rest of it? Obviously even if these kids were to splurge—although the only one who could do it successfully without being busted would be Trent, the income from the show and toys is ridiculous."
"The rest of that portion of the Ranger Fund is directed to Reefside. When the original Rangers were around, and Jason managed a meeting with a production company while fully morphed it was strictly agreed to that any funds made that were over a 30% net profit were to be used to repair Angel Grove. It was also used to coax insurance agencies to add monster attacks clauses into existing insurance contracts under the designations of "acts of God"."
Haley nodded. This was stuff she probably knew, or had figured out—but there was no hurt in keeping herself to date and informed with this. Trini could have applauded her. Tommy had been smart when he told T.J to have this meeting with Haley instead of him. She really was the brain behind the operation.
"Okay, awesome. I'll be sure to drop this news on the kids whenever I get the chance. Is there anything more that you have for me T.J?"
"Nope, so far as this that's basically it. Although I'm pretty sure Trini has a lot for us to talk about. I'm assuming you've heard of the Ranger Reunion that these guys are throwing?"
Haley smiled, but Trini could see her eyes slightly narrow at her. This was going to be a hell of a situation with her. No doubt about it.
"Yeah, Jason told me that we might have to do some planning after our little meeting."
Both of them looked to Trini, luckily, she had come prepared. "Yeah, I hope you guys don't mind staying here a bit longer. Jason and I kind of decided to do this on the fly—we only have three weeks to arrange all of this now; I was hoping we could kill two birds with one stone here today: Where it's going to be, and covering the cost of it."
"And like I told you when you told me about it Trini, the Ranger Fund can take care of every single monetary cost for this trip—including the travel and accommodation's of every Ranger."
"Is it possible to do that for all of you without raising any red flags?" Keeping the secret was important; it was something that Tommy had instilled in this team. It made Trini happy to see how much Tommy had kept to Zordon's code, and knowing that Haley valued that too was even better.
"Before Carter it wouldn't have been possible—but because we have access to be able to block out everything, and since they owe Carter and the Lightspeed Rescue Rangers a lot, he can get them to overlook any red flags for us."
"Man, it's nice that all you guys were able to play nice after that Red Ranger mission." Trini was still kind of sore about that. That was probably the most sexist thing that any team of Rangers had ever done…not to mention egotistical. She'd read Jason the riot act after she had found out about that. And they hadn't even been dating then—it was just degrading for her to think that the big strong 'men' of the Rangers felt that they didn't need their teams to handle stuff like this.
"Yeah. So like I was saying, the Ranger Fund could cover all expenses—it'll guarantee that all the Ranger teams will be able to be there. So cost for this thing is really not an issue."
"The only issue that I can honestly see is where to have this. Each of the P.I Rangers are watched whenever they go out into the public eye, and it wouldn't be hard for people to start making guesses if they see the Rangers they know, talking familiarly with a group of unknown people they don't know." Haley hit the proverbial nail on the head. Jason and her had been racking their brains trying to figure out where they could hold this where no one would notice.
"If it were possible, I would ask Anton to let us use the Island that he had while he was Mesogog—"
"You mean the one that Tommy was escaping from while it was blowing up?"
"That would be the one T.J." Trini couldn't help the small smile on her face. So what if she had a little ego competition with Tommy going on? It made her proud whenever anyone not on their team would reference something Tommy had done—or Jason. Mostly she just knew the Red Rangers, and like all Red's, they mostly just bragged about other Reds.
"So why can't we use the Island?"
"Well, it blew up again—plus Anton can't remember if there are any surprises there waiting for us." T.J nodded. It would have bee nice to use the Island, but there was just no way it would be possible.
"What about renting out somewhere?" Trini shook her head.
"Not possible, first off one of the things we want is complete anonymity from the public—we don't want to worry about having to keep our identities under lock. Plus, I don't even think it would be possible." Haley nodded her head in complete agreement with her. Jason had referenced that finding the right kind of place would be near on impossible.
"Are you sure we can't use that Island?" Haley shrugged her shoulders.
"We can give Anton a call, he's usually free at this time of day—he likes to spend time with Trent whenever he gets off from work; even though Trent was off today I'm pretty sure that Anton's still got this time slot free. And if nothing else, he may have a better idea for us." Nodding enthusiastically, Trini and T.J just sat back while Haley dialed up Anton, when he answered, she put the phone on speaker.
"This is Anton Mercer speaking."
"Hey Anton, this is Haley."
"Haley, how's it going?"
"Actually it's going great, are you able to talk right now? And is there a way we can make this line a little more secure?"
"I'm able to talk but give me one moment," Tommy had referenced multiple times how rich Anton Mercer was, but sometimes the abilities that normal people with enough money had blew her away. Her practice thrived, but having money she could blow like crazy she did not have.
"Okay, we're all good. What can I do for you Haley?"
"Actually Anton, I'm sitting here with T.J Johnson, the Blue Space Ranger, and Trini Kwan—Earths original Yellow Ranger."
"Well this is a pleasurable surprise, it's an honor to informally meet the two of you."
"The pleasure is all on our side Mr. Mercer."
"Please Ms. Kwan, Anton is perfectly fine."
"And you're more than welcome to call me Trini."
Smiling at the little bit of interaction she was having, Trini could see why this man was such a successful businessman. He was charismatic, had a very level voice, and extended courtesy with an easy hand. It wasn't forced, and his casualness with talking with two living legends was easy going and not strained—then again when you were the most recent evil entity on the planet, what could you do but be casual about it? Not to mention, he probably had more money than the Ranger Fund generated annually.
"Well, what can I do for the three of you?"
"Anton, this is T.J, more than welcome to call me T.J. Recently Trini and Jason—earths original Red Ranger, decided that they wanted to hold a reunion of every Ranger team due to the fact that two of the Rangers from their original team were coming back home from London. Kimberly Hart, the Original Pink Ranger, and Katherine Hilliard, the woman who replaced Kimberly."
Anton started laughing almost as soon as the names were out of T.J's mouth. "Wait, do you mean to tell me that THE Kimberly and Katherine are coming back to California?"
Eyeing Haley, Trini spoke up, "Um, yes. If you're talking about Tommy's ex-girlfriends, then that's exactly who we're talking about."
"No wonder that guy never dated, honestly I was surprised that he turned as many women down as he did; I've got to admit, when he said that he'd been crushed by two former girlfriends, I thought that he'd just had some pretty bad experiences, I would have never guessed that both of them had been Rangers." Jeez, how much of his past did Tommy share with people! Then again, Trini had to remember that Anton had been like a Mentor to Tommy back when he was in school—confiding stuff like this was normal for individuals. Not to mention that their relationship had gone deeper than just normal civilian activities. If Trini remembered correctly, Tommy had revealed his identity to Anton even before the Mesogog fiasco.
"Yeah, apparently Tommy likes to taste the rainbow." Anton and T.J both chuckled at T.J's little joke, although T.J ended up being the only one to have to suffer through the raised eyes and pointed looks from Trini and Haley. Swallowing a little, T.J adjusted in his chair. That's right, as tough as Red's were, they knew way better than to screw with Yellow's. And if Haley had ever been a Ranger, she would have for sure been a Yellow. Winking at Haley, the smug look on both of their faces stayed.
"Anyways Anton, the reason we called was due to the fact that we're having a bit of a dilemma trying to Organize this Ranger Reunion. See, we don't want the Public Identity Rangers to bust the Secret Identity Rangers; location is something we're having some trouble with—we were wondering if you knew of somewhere we that we could go." Trini watched as Haley crossed her fingers, and as T.J sat up straighter. Back to business…sometimes she missed saying back to action.
"Huh, I actually may be able to help out with this. Not too long ago, a subsidiary company of mine acquired a resort here that's completely gated off from the community at large. It's located about 30 miles outside of Angel Grove in the desert. The place is basically an Oasis though—I was surprised when I saw it for the first time. Apparently high society individuals use it as a get away whenever their lives become too hectic."
"Really? And how much space would we have? There are going to be about 50 through 60 people attending, and we would hate for there not to be enough room." Really, that would suck, this place sounded perfect.
"Actually, this place is pretty massive. It's 400 acres of land—30 surrounding the main perimeter all around, the inner resort is protected by layered security to insure total and complete privacy. Honestly, I'm surprised we were able to acquire this place."
Looking in between themselves, Trini, Haley, and T.J smiled. They had found their place. Speaking up in her excitement, Trini continued on.
"If you don't mine me asking, what kind of things does this place have at it? I mean, it sounds pretty impressive."
"I'm actually looking at it right now, it's fully loaded, a complete resort like I said. It has everything from a Golf course to tennis, a gym, indoor pools, it's own club, bar, you name it, this place has it. Then again, I'm not overly surprised. If the high society spends their getaways here, it's what I would expect."
Trini, T.J, and Haley shared another look and shrugged. The highest Trini had gone in high society living was the Alumni meeting at her College. Anything more than that and she felt out of place; even with T.J and the Space Rangers being celebrities, they rarely went out like that.
"I think we may have our place, what's it called? I'd like to get everything settled as soon as possible so I can let everyone know where this thing is going to be at." Trini was smiling. She could kiss whoever had designed this place.
"Pretty interesting name actually. The place is called Bulkmier's, no accounting for the taste of the ridiculously rich, then again it'd be the type of place I would go since no one would expect it of me."
A shock went down Trini's spine as she heard the name. Looking around at T.J and Haley, she could tell both of them were familiar with the sound of the name. There was no way…
"Bulkmier's?" Haley's voice almost squeaked at the word. Tommy had to have told her about them. But there was no way…
"Yeah, apparently the place now co-owned by three individuals: a one Eugene Skullovitch, Farkas Bulkmeier,"
"Oh no." Trini couldn't help but face palm her forehead. Haley had hit her head against her desk, and T.J just started laughing, uncontrollably, and without any regard to the rest of them. Trini couldn't blame him. If she weren't so annoyed already, she would be laughing too.
"Did I miss something?"
Picking her head up from her desk, Haley shushed T.J. Trini didn't trust herself to speak.
"Farkus Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch, are you sure about those names?"
"Positive Haley, I'm reading the ownership documents right now. Is there something wrong."
"How in the world did Bulk and Skull end up running a private resort for High Society individuals?" Trini just couldn't believe it. It sounded completely insane! How!
"Who?" The confusion coming through the line had all of them staring at each other. Then again, they could only be impressionable to people who had known them.
"Farkas and Eugene, back in High School they went by the nicknames Bulk and Skull—us original Rangers were very well acquainted with them."
"Not just the original Rangers, Turbo 2 and Space dealt with them too. How did they end up running a top class resort?"
"From what I can see here, they opened it back in the year 2000, it started as a small little bar in Angel Grove—they were extremely successful due to the fact that they were local legends. During the Astronema invasion of Angel Grove the two of them had surrendered to her invading armies claiming to be the Power Rangers in order to protect the actual Rangers. When the Space Rangers revealed themselves and ended up in a losing battle, it was the two of them that rallied the citizens of Angel Grove to stop cowering and stand up and fight for their own city. It's commonly believed that had they not done that, the Rangers would have suffered some major loses."
T.J nodded his head. "I remember the citizens coming to our aid in that fight. I just didn't know it was Bulk and Skull who had rallied them."
Trini was shocked to say the least. From high school bullies to citizen soldiers? She would have never saw it coming.
"Anyways, due to their local fame, a lot of high society life commonly stopped by their place. In doing so the two of them managed to make enough money over the next two years to fund the more exclusively private Bulkmeier's. Of course, their high society custom followed, and soon the word spread—although it was due to their third owner that they were so successful."
"I'd almost forgotten, you said that there was one more owner to the place." Who would willingly go into business with Bulk and Skull? Trini had to know. The person was either the living embodiment of Zordon, ora saint. That was the only thing that could explain it.
"Well, according to the papers I've got here, Farkas and Eugene gave 1/3 of their company to this man without any exchange whatsoever. They just added him to the company—of course it was a brilliant business deal on their part since he himself was a very popular addition."
"So who was it?" Honestly? Who could stand Bulk and Skull enough to work with them? She had to know. She would go and personally apologize—it was probably the reason they'd had to give him such a large part of the company.
"From what these papers say here, it's a man by the name of Ernie—"
"OH MY GOD!" Trini's hands came up to her mouth before she could let out anything else. For a moment the only thing she could do was stare at the other two while they both looked back at her. Of course she expected T.J's look of confusion; she also expected Haley's surprised and shocked look too. What they probably didn't expect from Trini was the tears that slowly came to her eyes. She couldn't explain them either—but it was serendipitous; with Billy missing she felt that apart of her past had been ripped from her, now here came another back into her life as if my design. Something seemed right.
Haley had jumped up and walked around to where Trini was sitting as soon as the water works had started, quickly wrapping Trini in a hug. Trini just let her hug her; it felt nice to have her there. Not too mention that she really had been under a lot.
"Is everything alright?"
"Everything is perfect Anton, absolutely perfect." Trini knew that her voice was a little bit stuffy from the slight cry she'd just had, but she didn't care. Ernie! The others were going to flip out! "If possible Anton, can we get that place? We're going to need to rent out the entire thing—how much will that be?"
"Nonsense, don't worry about the price—you can consider it a gift from me."
"Anton, really we coul—"
"Yes you can Trini—I've done a lot against the world, both as Mesogog and as Anton Mercer. Giving this little bit back to those who have worked so hard to protect this world is the least I could do; I'd rather none of you have a conscious for having to use the Ranger fund for this. And don't worry about this costing me anything—remember I own a large part of the company now and get a great corporate discount rate. When do you need the place by?"
Looking over at Haley, Trini mouthed the words 'Are we sure this guy was evil?' Haley's response was to simply shrug and smile brightly.
"Two and a half weeks from now. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday."
"Okay, I'll call down there and let them know that those days are not blocked off—I'll claim we're going to be doing some renovations or something so no one suspects that anyone is going to even be there. I'll also let them know that you'll be calling them to give them the details as well."
"Thanks Anton, this means a whole lot to us."
"It's my pleasure Trini."
Getting up, Haley walked over to her desk and went over to the phone. "Okay Anton, we'll be seeing you in three weeks, do me a favor and ask Trent to let the others know about this?"
"Sure, but are you sure it's okay if I go?"
"Are you kidding me Anton?"
"Thanks Haley."
"Oh and Anton!" Trini spoke up before Haley could get the chance.
"Yes Trini?"
"Do me a favor and don't tell Tommy, us Rangers want to tell him about this in a special way." She couldn't help that a little deviousness popped into her voice as she said it. Anton's chuckle at the other end of the line told her that he had a pretty good idea as to why they didn't want him telling Tommy about it, but Trini was sure he would keep the secret.
"Will do Trini. Alright, I'll get to work on this matter right now—you'll be able to call Bulkmeier's anytime you want to tomorrow Trini."
"Alright Anton, it was good talking with you, and thanks again."
"Same to you Trini, bye." With that the line disconnected and Haley hung up the phone. Trini was practically beaming. As numbskulled as she was sure Bulk and Skull were, it would be worth it all just to see Ernie again—no wonder they had been so successful in running a private operation, what couldn't Ernie do?
"This is going to be so awesome! Ernie's back, I can't believe it!"
"Who's Ernie?" Trini beamed at T.J.
"I guess he was around before your time. Do you know the Youth Center and Juice bar in Angel Grove?"
"Yeah, Jerome Stone ran that."
"I have no idea who that is. Anyways, Ernie was the one who owned it back when the originals were the Rangers. It holds so much memory for us. You could say that we started our Ranger Journey at the Juice bar, we met Tommy there, and there's just too much stuff that we did there for the place not to be special, but what made it special was the fact that Ernie was there. He was a fantastic guy that no one could ever match. Honestly, it was seriously like having another Zordon, having Ernie around."
T.J nodded, knowing that it was the highest compliment that Trini could give a person, comparing them to Zordon.
"Yeah, Tommy's told me about Ernie before. He mentioned that the Cyberspace reminded him of Ernie's juice bar. After that comment, I can honestly say that I never got the full magnitude of the complement."
"Believe me, Ernie meant a lot to us. I was so sad when I got back to Angel Grove and found that Ernie no longer owned the Juice Bar—it was like a part of my history went with it." They stayed quiet for a moment, letting her go down memory lane. There really were a lot of great moments that they had spent at that place. Most of their time was spent there, if they weren't at school or doing Ranger type things. Or in Tommy and Kimberly's case, at the park or lake.
"Okay you two, well I've got to get out of here—there are something's I've got to take care of. I have another meeting tonight." The smile on his face was a dead give away.
"How many girls figure out you're the real T.J?" Haley couldn't help herself, could she? Then again, Trini almost said the same exact thing.
"Enough, bye you two!" Laughing, T.J rushed out the door leaving Trini alone with Haley.
"Well, that was fun. Learned some new stuff and got a lot of work done. Not to mention that I looked up Bulkmeier's while we were talking—the place is fantastic and it comes with everything—we literally won't have to leave unless we want to."
Trini nodded, although…"Yeah, although it being located where it is quite fortunate."
"Why do you say that Trini?"
"Jason and I were talking—if all of us are going to be together again, then we want to visit the ruins of the Command Center. Bulkmeier's is only about 20 minutes from where the Command Center used to be. I haven't been back since I first got back to California, and even then I could only make it to where I could see the skeleton of the building that it once was. I couldn't bring myself to go any farther—not by myself." Trini was sure there was a faraway look in her eyes; She could feel it there. Knew it was there because at that moment she was anywhere but in Haley's office. Se could smell the rock, and still feel the slight strain on her muscles from climbing that day. Only to catch a glimpse of the place.
"What was it like?"
"It was like staring into one of my nightmares." It had been a place that she had thought would be eternal—seeing it like that had made her choke up and be unable to continue. She hadn't been able to sleep that night.
"That must have been hard to see alone." Trini just nodded. Going alone had been the worst choice she had made. She hadn't expected it to be like that, not at all, and yet there the Command Center had been; a portrait of a ruined kingdom that she had once been a knight for.
"Anyways, there's something I want to talk to you about Haley." Trini did a half frown. They knew each other well enough that Trini knew that Haley knew what was about to get brought up.
"Jason told me about the last time he came down here to tell the Dino team about the Ranger Reunion. From what I heard, you weren't too happy about it."
"Let's not beat around the bush Trini—I'm all for the Ranger Reunion, I literally just helped set it up. What I'm not for is Katherine Hilliard and Kimberly Hart."
Trini winced at the venom in Haley's voice.
"Yeah, Jason mentioned something about that. Look Haley, you're going to have to trust me when I say that this is honestly for the best. I know you have your doubts about this entire situation, but I know that this is the right move to make."
"Oh yeah Trini and what makes you so sure about that?" Geez, if Haley could retract the claws a little this would be going a lot smoother. She knew that Haley was over protective of Tommy, knew that Haley absolutely adored Tommy in fact. Although it was in the sweetest friendship she had seen kind of way. She had managed to predict what Haley would do when Jason laid on the big news, but she had no idea what kind of thought process had gone through her mind—what she did know what that Haley WOULD do anything she could to protect Tommy. She knew their history, and knew what Tommy had done for her.
"Because, I know these people. I know Kat, Kimberly, and Tommy—all three of them. I knew two of them before they were Power Rangers, and I knew all of them after. I also knew Kimberly and Tommy both before they were ever Kimberly and Tommy. I know them—I know the Falcon and the Cranes."
Haley winced a bit at that. It was the one thing that Trini could say to silence any argument. The Falcon and the Crane. The Rangers tie to the Ninjetti powers had come after her time as a Ranger, but she knew the depth of those Powers. Billy had explained that when Ninjor had made those connections that he hadn't just revived their power coins, he'd delved into their very souls and pulled out apart of the essence of what they were, what made them, them.
Although all of the then Rangers had been united in something sacred, there had been something special and unique about the Falcon and the Crane. At the time, the very essence of Tommy and Kimberly had been in love with one another, and the manifestations of their Ninjetti spirit animals had reflected that. The fact that they were both not only flight animals, but that they had always flown together had a lot to do with it. The same could be reflected in Kat. Some of the Ranger assumed that Kat just took on the mantle of the Ninjetti Crane and Pink Ranger powers—but if she hadn't been a kindred spirit with Kimberly, and hadn't shared a growing link with Tommy, then the Powers would have rejected her and Kimberly would have had to wait to find a new host for the powers. But Katherine had been the perfect person to pass on the Ninjetti powers to.
"They're still linked in ways that none of us can even begin to imagine. From what Adam tells me, back when they were on Murianthias—when Kimberly and Jason had gone evil, they had some severe trouble with them. Jason was tearing through the team like it was nothing, due to the fact that Tommy was busy trying to talk Kim down. From what I heard, if Katherine hadn't moved in to try and help Tommy, he would have actually severed Maligore's link to Kimberly without the need for Lerigo's magic to free her."
Haley swallowed and nodded her head.
"You've thought about this a lot haven't you?"
"Haley, when I heard they wanted to do this, I was halfway out the door to buy a plane ticket to make sure the two of them hadn't gone insane. This is so unlike anything the two of them would ever do. Despite what you may think of them, they're actually two very good and very sweet women. They deserve happiness, but right now they're locked down by one thing: Tommy. As long as he's a free agent, the "What if…" will always be there. In order for both of them to move on, one of them has to have him—and apparently Tommy can't seem to make a relationship work that doesn't involve either one of them. So the end result is that he needs one of them, just the same as one of them needs him."
Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Trini sank back in her chair. She had thought long and hard while coming up with that answer, but it was the right one. She knew it was. It was a mess of a situation, and those Ninjetti powers only made it worse.
"It's a crazy position we're all in here Haley. When Kimberly dumped Tommy it caused a rift in the team, not just in the standing team, but in the former Rangers as well. In all honesty, back then when I saw myself looking ahead, I had always seen Tommy and Kimberly married with at least one kid by now. All of us had placed so much stock in that relationship because it was so strong—and then for them to end the way it did? It caused a bit of a rock in all of us. Zack's a player, Billy left Earth—although not directly because of it, he did end up engaged to an alien woman, Jason wasn't able to keep a stable relationship, Adam and Tanya keep dancing around each other, Kat's sucked up in the love triangle of Ranger history, and I wasn't able to make it work with Richard due to the fact that I didn't trust long distance relationships. I'm not going to even comment on Rocky and Aisha!"
The two of them couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Regardless of anything Trini, I still want to talk to them before hand. I know they get into town tomorrow. I want them here as soon as possible. I don't even want the chance of Tommy running into them before I get a chance to talk to them. I'm going to have the café closed tomorrow, so tell them where I am, and let them know that I'll be waiting for them whenever the two of them show up." The look on Haley's face was adamant, and Trini knew that there was no way in getting out of this. Sighing, Trini nodded her head.
"And what about the other thing Jason told me about? Your fail safe?"
Haley narrowed her eyes.
"What about it."
"Do you want to tal—"
"There's nothing to talk about Trini—that was not a threat, it wasn't a ploy. I'm serious. And it's not something that I'm willing to talk about either, but I do expect the two of you to keep this between yourselves." The woman was amazing clear-cut and simple. No hesitation whatsoever. Man, she would have made a fantastic Yellow.
"Understood."
"Was there anything else Trini?"
"No, I actually have to get going now. Jason only has one guest bedroom, so the two of them are going to have to share. I found them a place here where the can stay, a nice Loft in downtown Reefside about 6 miles from here, it's a great place for the two of them. It won't be ready until the day after tomorrow though." Getting up from her chair, Haley walked around he desk, while Trini stood up from hers.
"Remember Trini, tomorrow. I know they're going to be jet lagged, but I'll be here at 1:00AM if that's what it takes."
Hugging Trini, Haley walked with her to her front door and whispered a quick, "Be safe." Before locking the door to The Cyberspace behind her.
Walking to her car and getting in, she grabbed her phone and dialed up Jason as she pulled out from Reefside.
"What's up babe?"
"I just finished talking with Haley."
"See what I mean?"
"Yeah, I see exactly what you mean. It's going to be an interesting time, that's for sure." The road between Reefside and Angel Grove was luckily just a straight shot. All she had to do was hop on the freeway. There was so much stuff to get done.
So, even for the magnitude of the meeting, it lasted a little long, did you find out anything or work anything out that I should know about?"
"Yeah, we figured out where to have it and all, but I want to tell you in person, you're not going to believe this! Right now I just want to concentrate on getting home though—Kat and Kim are probably on their flight already which doesn't leave us much time for sleep."
"…Trini they get in at 9:35 tomorrow morning."
"Exactly my point Jason, not much time to sleep at all."
"…Hurry up and get here."
With a smile on her face, Trini hung up the phone and pushed the gas pedal down on her car a little harder racing to get back to Jason's. If their life was anything to judge by, the next few weeks were going to get hectic, messy, invasive, and exhausting—they were definitely not going to be getting much alone time, and she was almost more that sure they would not have any time for the activities they were going to be performing as soon as she rushed through that door. She was going to make the best of it.
Plane Flight 4231
First Class-Cubicles 1&2
Kimberly sat across from Kat looking outside the window and over the city of Angel Grove as they flew over it. It had been a long plane ride, definitely longer than she had remembered—then again, she hadn't made the trip in over 4 years. She had woken up as soon as they were over Angel Grove—Kat and her had planned on beating the Jet lag by altering their sleeping times back when they were in London—it seemed to have worked. More than that though, the skies over Angel Grove were almost calling her home. If everything else had changed, the skies over Angel Grove hadn't…
"It feels nostalgic to be flying over these skies again…" Kim nodded. Kat would understand. They had talked about it before, and even though Kat hadn't felt truly accustomed to her Ranger Powers until she had switched to the Zeo outfits, the Zord they both loved the most was the Crane. Although Kimberly did like to think fondly back on her Pterodactyl Zord, she had shared the skies with Tommy in the Crane Zord-flying side by side along with his Falcon.
"Fight 4231 will be landing in the next five minutes, please make sure you have all your items stowed away, your seat is in an upright position, and that your seatbelts are buckled. A flight attendant will come by to make one final check before we land. We thank you for flying with us today and we hope to see you again soon."
Sitting back down and fastening her seat belt, Kim shared a look with Katherine. Jason and Trini were going to be the one's to pick them up; they had shipped their stuff to the loft that Trini had picked out for them and it was already there waiting for them. There was a hint of excitement in the air for the both of them.
"So, are you ready for this?"
"As ready as I'm ever going to be Kimberly."
"Why couldn't I have picked up a cool accent while I was overseas?"
Kat had to contain her laughter at that.
"Because then you'd be too adorable to resist. Plus, you do have an accent."
"No I don't."
"American's sound…different than other English speaking cultures out there."
"Well, not in America Kat." Kat shrugged and gave her a lackadaisical smile. Kim smiled back. Sitting back they relaxed while the flight landed. She was so happy that Trini had arranged for them to somehow get last minute first class tickets! It would have sucked having to fly this flight coach—again.
"Please be careful when grabbing your luggage, as some items may have shifted, if you have checked baggage, it will be located at baggage claim 3, We thank you for flying with us and hope you've had a pleasant journey."
Getting up from their seats, the two of them walked over to where their onboard carry on bags had been stored and grabbed them from the attendant there. Really the experience of a first class passenger compared to that of a coach passenger made a lot of difference—although nothing would match her flights as a member of Team USA. Olympics were no joke. They had a private plane and everything for that ride.
Departing from the plane was a simple matter, getting off the plane Kat and her skipped going to the baggage claim, they had shipped everything over here before hand and only had two carry on bags between them. Walking out of their gate and into the Terminal Kim's heart jumped as soon as she saw a splash of red and yellow. Without waiting, she ran forward and jumped straight into Jason's open arms.
"It's so good to see you big brother!" The laughing coming from him couldn't be ignored. Looking up, Kim pouted.
"What's so funny!?" Now that she noticed it, Trini was laughing too. Was something on her? Looking over at Katherine, who shrugged back at her, Kim looked back at her two friends.
"What!"
"Did the two of you seriously have to both take Pink Carry on bags!" Trini, always the yellow, waved up both of her hands as a sign of peace as soon as she said the word, right before she wrapped them around Katherine.
"MY favorite AUSSIE! How've you been Blondie?" Kat laughed at Trini's identifying markers.
"Well, I've been on a plane for the last 14 hours, so now too great, but my day has just gotten a lot better." Switching places with Kat, Kim hugged Trini for what felt like the first time in forever.
"Its bee too long Pinky!"
"Way too long Yeller."
After the hugs and initial pleasantries, Kim and Kat both handed their bags of to Jason. Trini commenting as they did so that, "Red's have all the brawn." And that, "I knew he was useful for something."
Getting to the Red Truck that Jason drove, he dumped their bags in the back, and opened it so that they could all get in.
"So, where are we headed to?"
"You're finally going to get the chance to see my Dojo Kimmie!" She stuck her tongue out at Jason from the back seat. Although Kat sometimes called her that, with her it was a term of endearment. With Jason, the term was used to bring back memories of her pigtail wearing days.
"Seriously Jason, it's our first day back in America, and the thing you want us to do first is go to your Dojo?" Both her and Kat had mock looks of immediate boredom on their faces. She had been dying to see the Dojo that Jason had opened in person—it had been great that he had opened his own business! When he had sent her the first pictures of it, she had literally jumped up and did a small happy dance.
"Yups, we have to drop your stuff off somewhere. Your place won't be ready for another day and so we can't drop you off there. You'll be spending the night with me tonight."
"Why can't we stay at Trini's?"
"Because Kat, I'll be spending the night at Jason's tonight too!" Again, Kat and Kim mimicked each other with mock signs of throwing up and gagging.
"Yeah, yeah. Keep it up Power Pukes, we'll see who's making the gagging sounds in a few days." At Jason's subtle reminder of why they had both come back to America, Kimberly had to fight very hard not to blush. Kat, on the other hand, smiled sweetly back at Jason.
"Green's not your color Jason, why don't you stick to Red?" Kim caught Kat's wink and returned it, while she also noticed Jason rolling his eyes.
"Sure kitty, sure. At least I don't look like I got puked on by a retarded rainbow."
"At least he can pull it off." Trini burst out laughing at Kim's comment, while Jason just focused on driving.
"You should have known better than to try to out sass not one, but TWO former Pinks Jason." Kim watched as Trini rubbed Jason's shoulder, trying to alleviate his pride.
"Yeah, whatever."
"So what else do you guys have planed for today, cause honestly the two of us are starving!"
"Why didn't you two eat on the plane Kim? You had first class seats! A meal was included with your ticket!"
"Have you ever had airplane food Trini? Even the good stuff is horrid." Kim nodded her head in agreement with Kat.
"What are the two of you feeling?"
"Jason, honestly right now I can go for anything, it doesn't matter what it is." At Kat's words, Kim buried her head in her hands and she was sure that Trini was looking for an escape.
"Anything huh?"
"Just help me get some food Red."
"Alright Pink 02, food coming right up."
Kimberly could practically hear the smirk on Jason's lips as he got onto Main Street. As much as she loved Jason, he liked to play games way too much, so when they pulled into the McDonalds drive thru, Kim was glaring daggers at that back of Jason's head. Kat had a slight confused face, before she looked at the menu, and discovered Jason's evil plan.
"Hi, Welcome to McDonalds—Order when you're ready."
"Yeah, let me have a #4 with everything on it, a #3 with no Onions," At Trini's sweet smile, Kim had to relent a little. Jason could be so sweet and considerate sometimes; something as simple as knowing the meal she would choose—that was awesome. It was something she missed.
"Oh, and can I get two Happy Meals with the #4 toy please?" And her entire sentimental moment came crashing down.
"Will that be all sir?"
"Yup, that'll be it."
Pulling up, both Kim and Kat stuck their tongues out at Jason while he was driving up to the window. Paying for the food, he grabbed the bags, and drove off, but not before digging into both of the Happy Meals and pulling out both of the toys. Throwing them to either one, Kim caught the toy as it came towards her. Looking at it, it was an action figure of the latest Black Ranger.
"There, now the two of you don't have to share him."
Trini died laughing.
Hey Everyone! Sorry it's been so long! I apologize and I promise it'll never take this long to get a chapter out to you guys again! I don't know if any of you guys are Wheel of Time fans, but the convention for the Wheel of Time, JordanCon , is coming up soon and I'm one of the Directors for the convention, so I've been having to deal with a bunch of last minute stuff from there. As promised, there are som reunions here. This chapter was supposed to be longer, but I honestly couldn't justify another 20,000 word chapter! I hope you're able to enjoy this, and I hope that you guys will read and review.
Oh! And just to give you a little heads up, the next chapter in this story is most likely my favorite one so far-it stands right there next to "The Call" for me. I've had the scene that comes in the next chapter in my head for so long now, that I've been itching to write it for the longest time! Next chapter is the first time Haley, Kat and Kim will meet! Oh, and Tommy will make his first ONSCREEN (Words) appearance. So yeah, show me some love for this one though.
Divinitas.