06
Angel Grove Middle School's gymnasium was filled with students from Angel Grove High School, parents of said students, and other students looking for their friends, classmates, and children. Police walked around, barking through their walkie-talkies and to those that got in their way, and newscasters that descended upon the school as soon as the news broke shoved microphones into the students' faces, trying to get soundbites and as much information as possible.
And Marge watched it all with disgust. How could they ignore the tears and fear the students were dealing with and continue to badger them to figure out what was going on. She watched as one of the girls, a cheerleader if she remembered correctly, sat on the bleachers, tears streaming down her face as the woman from the five o'clock news kept a microphone directly in front of her lips. Marge huffed, bringing up her shoulders, and stormed over to the two.
"Do you know who the shooter is?" The newscaster, April Leery was asking. She had no emotion on her face, almost stern as she watched the cheerleader, Marley. Almost as if Marley's tears disgusted her. "Do you know why he or she would want to do this?"
"I don't know!" Marley was saying. "This wasn't supposed to happen." And she buried her face in her hands, shoulders quaking as if the earthquakes amongst every monster attack was happening. It would be their luck if they were to have a monster attack. It's be funny in a way, but also some of the worst luck they could ever have.
"But you must know something," April insisted.
Marge walked over and grabbed April's microphone from her hand, tossing it to the gym floor. There was a screech of feedback and April winced, turning away to hold her ear. "That's enough!" Marge snapped. "Don't you think it's bad enough there are people out there who might have been hurt? But all you care about is your job."
"And you are?"
"My name is Marge Brown, I go to Angel Grove High School." Marge crossed her arms, bared her teeth. "How dare you go to these traumatized kids and ask how they're feeling. They're scared. They're hurt. And they just want to see their friends again, they just want everyone to be alive!"
April's eyes narrowed for a moment. A fluttering of her eyelids, almost as if she were disgusted with Marge herself. Maybe her job was on the line and Marge was keeping her from getting the scoop of a lifetime. Who cares? She was worse than the police who kept all information and emotion from those they were questioning. But at least it was their job to figure out who was the one who put the whole school in harms' way.
"And how do you, personally, feel about the situation?" April asked. She looked Marge in the eye, daring her to say anything else. "Can you put into words how you feel about the tragedy?"
Marge's jaw started to hurt, she was clenching her teeth so hard. She had never been so angry in her life. No. Not angry. She was shaking. Her adrenaline was either starting to wear off or she was much more terrified than she gave herself credit for. Hearing those bangs, hearing the glass shatter, hearing her classmates scream, some hitting the floors while others pushed and shoved each other out of the way.
"Like I want to punch you in the face," Marge replied. "How do you think I feel?" She turned no her heel and glanced at Marley. A few other members of the cheerleading team had materialized out of nowhere and had wrapped her up in their arms, holding her tightly as they rocked back and forth.
"Does that warm your heart?" April asked. Something shifted into her voice this time. Something that made her sound a little more human, but also kept her professionalism. "Do you think people will tune into that every night? We're a country obsessed with tragedy, Marge. If I'm part of the problem while doing my job then so be it. But let me ask you something, how often do you spend time with people outside of your own group?"
Marge's smile faltered. How often did she spend time with people outside of herself and her friends? Not so much. She was part of different organizations in school but she preferred to hang out with those she was incredibly close to. She had met Jason, Zack, Billy, Trini, and Kimberly when she had gone to the dance with Billy but after that…they all stopped. And she hadn't thought it was so weird. But now…was she as bad as everyone else?"
"Lila Hernandez?"
The question caught Marge's attention and she and April turned to find Lt. Stone walking up to a Hispanic woman who clutched her purse to her side, looking frantically around the gym. She stopped as her name was called and gave a hesitant, "Yes?"
"We need you to come with us."
Mrs. Hernandez held her purse tighter to her body. Her eyes lit up with hope as she asked, "Is my son okay? Ian?"
"Please, just, come with us," Lt. Stone said.
Mrs. Hernandez's hopeful look immediately turned to confusion, but allowed herself to be led out of the gym. It was then that Marge noticed a group of other adults gathering around together. She recognized Trini's parents and knew from the way they were segregated that they had to still be in the school, or had something to do with the incident. Marge flashed back to her statements when she got to the bus and saw the football coach, that she was with them but didn't see where they went. How she had blood all over her hand sand clothes that weren't hers…
Then she saw Mrs. Hernandez being led over to the group, saw Bailey Mitchell, Avalon's little sister, race over to Mr. and Mrs. Cranston, and knew then they were all involved.
Marge's heart sank.
She glanced over at April, who watched the group for a few moments. Then she picked up her microphone from the floor and messed with it as she took long, confident strides towards the group, hoping to pick up a few tidbits of information she clearly wasn't getting from Marge.
Marge eased herself down onto the bleachers, afraid her legs were about to give way beneath her. Her eyes filled with tears, her breathing growing heavy, she felt tingly all over. She wanted to go home, to go to bed, and wake up to know all of this was a dream…but she knew it wasn't going to be a dream. This was their reality now.
And the worst part was…the Power Rangers had done nothing to save them.
"Don't look!"
Kimberly shook her head, trying to come to terms with what she had seen. She ran hard and fast but couldn't get to Ian in time. She saw him shoot himself rather than heard it. She didn't hear herself scream, didn't hear her friends scream. Didn't hear the gun shot. All she saw was Ian turn the gun to himself and a spray of red as he fell over and hit the floor. It hit the wall and dripped down. It was only a few seconds and it had been a few quick seconds, she whipped around and dropped to the floor just as the gun went off.
She was safe.
She was okay.
She hadn't been hurt.
But she had seen too much.
Then she felt Tommy grab her arm and pulled her into his chest, his strong arms around her as she started to shake. She didn't know what happened to Ian, she needed to know. Kimberly started to turn her head to look over her shoulder once more but Avalon's bark kept her from doing so.
"Don't look." She crouched over Ian's body, her left hand out to rest on his neck. His eyes stared at her and she forced herself not to look back at him. She focused on her fingers on his neck and not the blood stain that widened across the front of his shirt. "I've got a pulse," she said, the words coming out in a gasp. She got a good look at him then, noticing that he hadn't shot himself in the heart like they had all thought, hadn't shot himself in the head like she excepted, but shot himself in the shoulder.
Maybe he had spooked himself at the thought of it happening, maybe the ranger's screams had caused him to flinch at the last moment. As it was, he wasn't dead and from the look of the blood she didn't think he was in danger of dying either, more in shock. His eyes barely moved but his chest shallowly moved up and down. His fingers twisted every few seconds, a low gasp coming from his lips.
"What do we do?" Zack asked.
"We have to get him out of here, get him and Trini to a hospital," Jason explained.
Avalon shook her head. "You can't move him. Where he's been hit, if you move him, there'll be too much blood lost. You lot go, I'll wait here with him." The orange ranger looked over her shoulder, noticing they didn't move. Her eyes blazed with fury at first, demanding to know why they weren't moving. Then her face softened and she understood.
For most of their lives they had been sheltered by their parents and everything Angel Grove had for them. The worst thing they had ever seen was probably a few fights form Bulk and Skull before becoming rangers. Before seeing how many people were injured from being caught in the crossfire of their attacks, those that had died. Before overseeing the lives of everyone within Angel Grove. With her few years' experience of being in the Vipers, stabbings and shootings were common place for her. As sad as it was, she was too used to it than most people should be.
But that didn't mean it was ever easy for anyone.
And as she looked over the faces of her friends and teammates, Avalon knew they were feeling just as bad, just as horrified as she was. This kid was so young and he was already stuck seeing so much danger and destruction that the only way he could feel to get out was to kill himself. Honestly, she didn't know what was worse, if it was successful or the fact that it wasn't successful.
Everything happened at once after that.
There was a flurry of movement.
Doors banged open.
Shouts echoed down the hallway.
And in the next few seconds the teens were surrounded by police officers dressed all in black armor, some holding up guns, others holding large shields that covered them from top to bottom. The rangers were swept up in the chaos, all talking and shouting at once.
Trini was taken from Jason's arm and quickly taken out of the school. Billy and Zack were the next ones to be taken, them taken peacefully amongst the injuries they had, but with Jason, Tommy, Kimberly, and Avalon, they were forced down onto their knees with their hands up in the air. The police patted them down before they were allowed back to their feet and led out of the school, EMTs running by to administer preliminary examination.
The next thing Kimberly knew, microphones and cameras were being shoved into her face as she walked out of the school. And while she noticed them, they also were insignificant. She only noticed the blood smeared along the floors of the school, the backpacks, books, sweatshirts, and other school supplies that were normal for any student. But things were never going to be normal with them ever again.
Kimberly considered the faces of those holding onto the microphones. Their lips moved rapidly with as many questions they could get out but she didn't hear any of what they were saying. A low roar hummed through her ears. She could feel Tommy's hand holding tightly onto hers, tighter, tighter. Her eyebrows came together in confusion. No. Why was he being taken from her.
Then she understood why.
She blinked and the crowd parted and she saw her mother, running towards her as fast as she could. So fast, she had taken off her heels and ran barefoot. And this was a woman who, like Kim, took pride in her appearance. But it all went out the window when her precious baby was in trouble. Ms. Hart grabbed Kimberly in her arms and hugged her tightly, rocking her back and forth. And then the tears fell and Kimberly felt herself sobbing like a baby who wanted nothing more than for her mother to console after she had gotten hurt.
The cameras pushed in on her and her mother but she didn't care. She safe now. Everyone was safe. They were going to go to the hospital and get patched up and everything was going to be okay.
Maybe if she thought it hard enough, it'd be true.
The next few days were a whirlwind, and Trini had been lost to those days. Once arriving at the hospital, she was immediately admitted into surgery to retrieve the bullet that had been lodged into her leg. It was bad. Not only was there already damage to the muscles, veins, and arteries in her leg from where she had been hit, but the bullet being lodged there made it worse. Once the doctors went in to retrieve the bullet, they realized the extend of the damage.
The bullet was removed and blood poured out, blood from a nearly severed artery that was held intact b the bullet's presence that was otherwise not noticed before. The backup of blood that had pooled into her leg, of which made Trini pass out, leaked out, making her life placed in jeopardy.
While she was in surgery, the other rangers got treated for their injuries. None were as extensively bad as Trini's in comparison and were all discharged from the hospital soon after being admitted. Zack's wound had been stitched shut and his arm placed in a sling, Kimberly's cuts from the glass looked worse than they were, but bandages were wrapped around her legs with strong medication prescribed to her to stave off infection. Billy's surgery had been completely in a few hours, the bullet removed from his hip and wound closed. Thankfully none of his bones had been broken but he would be in a wheelchair for some time before being moved to crutches, and Avalon's wound was mostly wood splinters embedded into her skin but like Zack, had been grazed by the bullet, resulting in stitches and careful covering of the wound.
Then they were all suggested to see the hospital's psychologist, to get an idea of what they would be going through in the next few months. PTSD was something they were bound to go through, especially with the press coverage of the event and the safety measures the school was to put into place when it opened again. Not to mention the community's response to the incident.
That's what they were already calling it. An incident.
Their names, which used to be synonymous with their work in the community was now synonymous with the victims of the incident. With those who were in critical danger and those who had done something to stop the shooting. That's what some of the papers said. Others claimed they were part of the plot, their niceness being a front of what was to come. Their pasts were dug into, Avalon's and Bailey's residency with the Cranstons were questioned, their martial arts training and gymnastics backgrounds were eyed. Anything to make them seem like the perpetrators rather than the victims.
Angel Grove was never going to be the same and they were going to have to get used to it fast.
Still, none of them left the hospital once they were able to leave. Not just because of the press that were waiting to speak to them, but because they couldn't leave their friend behind before knowing if she was going to pull through. They camped out in the hallway outside her room, went to the cafeteria together, always took shifts in terms of being able to stretch their legs while walking around the hospital.
Jason was the one who didn't leave unless he had to go to the bathroom. Even if it was his turn to go to the cafeteria he would have one of the others bring his food back to him and continue to wait. He slept on the floor, being the first person a doctor would see when they left Trini's room, rather than the chairs that had been brought for them. He consistently relayed information to and from Mr. and Mrs. Kwan and refused to go home. When his parents forced him to change his clothes and take a shower, he was right back at the hospital.
Yawning, Jason ran his hand over his face and looked at his watch. He wasn't sure whether it was morning or night anymore. He stayed in a hallway filled with fluorescent lights. Looking at his watch didn't help pass the time, nor did it help keep him from becoming disoriented. The only thing that kept his attention at times was to close his eyes as tightly as possible and meditate. Meditating was something he struggled with at the very beginning, until Trini taught him how to become in sync with all parts of his body.
So, he meditated; using that time to calm himself. But his thoughts didn't stray far from Trini. He would never forgive himself if he waited too long to get her to safety. If he hadn't done all he could to help her. Not when there was so much more that could be done. He could've forced her to leave earlier. Could've made sure that she understood the danger she was in from the very beginning. There were so many things he would've done differently.
The rest of his friends continued to reassure him there was nothing else that could be done but he didn't to it. He knew there was a lot more that could be done. They stopped after that first attempt. They must've realized how much he cared for Trini then, if not long before he found out. Maybe the way they looked at each other when making a joke, always went to each other for training practice, looked to each other in battle. Little things that Jason hadn't put so much thought into before, though he noticed it.
They'd always been close. He never realized his burgeoning feelings until maybe it was a little too late. She had said, if he couldn't keep his promise…he didn't know for sure if he had. Finally, Jason heard the door to her room open and looked up to see her doctor slowly easing his way out of the room, to be as quiet as possible.
He looked over at Jason, watching the teen leap to his feet, eyes searching his for answers. "She's awake, and she's doing just fine," the doctor said. He hugged a clipboard to his chest. "Now, I don't have the permission to explain much to you, until her parents give consent but I believe she'll be okay."
Jason's shoulders slumped in relief. She was going to be okay. Now all he had to do was let the others know. Not after seeing how she was for himself, first. The doctor noticed his hesitation and said, "It's oaky, you can go in."
"Thank you." Jason reached out and grabbed the doctor's hand, shaking it firmly. "Thank you, so much." He waited for the doctor to leave before taking in a deep breath and going into Trini's room. Flowers, balloons, cards, and stuffed animals from the gift shop covered nearly every inch of the room. Trini was looking at them as her eyelids fluttered, struggling to keep her eyes open.
Then Trini noticed him and managed a small smile. "So, do you think we'll ever get anything as big as this after our ranger duties?" She asked in nearly a whisper. "Because I could get used to this."
Jason laughed to himself. He couldn't do anything else but laugh. He'd cried enough when he was released after his examination, when his mother and father had finally been able to see him. He cried more than he could remember. Now he felt nothing but elation, everyone and everything was okay.
"The gifts, maybe, the hospital, I don't think so," Jason said. He stood over her with a gentle smile. "I don't think any of us will want to explain how we keep getting hurt."
"I think you're right," Trini agreed. She frowned. "Zordon and Alpha?"
"We haven't been able to get our communicators and morphers from the school yet. But so far no one has found them." Jason reached out and grabbed her hand, gently rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. "I'm sure they know what's been going on and are relieved to know we're okay."
"And proud," Trini said.
"Proud?"
Jason wasn't sure what there was to be proud about. They didn't do anything to stop Ian from his rampage, didn't save him from the problems they were having. They got stuck in the school and were victims themselves. They did a lot more just fighting off the putties than anything else. What did they do?
"That we didn't run away," Trini said. She continued, seeming to have read his thoughts, something she always managed to do, "We don't need powers or to be proactive in everything we do to be heroes. It's in the little things that we do and that we don't expect the recognition for it."
"I don't know, your idea about having some sort of gifts from these guys would be great!" Jason and Trini laughed. Jason couldn't help but notice how quiet her laugh was. Her energy must've been fading fast. "I'll let you get some rest."
"No, it's okay." Trini squeezed his hand. "I wanted to thank you."
"For what?"
"For keeping your promise."
"I didn't do much."
"You did enough." Trini motioned for Jason to get closer. He leaned down and she pressed a gently kiss to his cheek, making him smile. There was a knock on the door and Lt. Stone walked into the room, removing his hat form his head. "Lt. Stone."
"Trini." Lt. Stone nodded. "I wanted to see how you were doing."
"I'm alive to see another day," Trini said. Jason smiled. She was the only one could be so positive all the time. But then he noticed the expression on Lt. Stone's face. Something in his eyes. There was something wrong. Trini must've noticed it too. "What's wrong, Lt. Stone?"
"We have some news on Ian Hernandez," Lt. Stone said.
Jason held his breath. Ian had been in a medically induced coma since he was admitted to the hospital. Since then it seemed that he was getting better as the days passed and they were expecting him to wake up soon. His vitals were steadily increasing and there was recorded brain activity. What was it that he came to say?
"I want to see him," Trini said, suddenly. She struggled to sit up, using Jason's arm as support. For someone who was in a hospital bed, she still had a lot of strength. It hit him then, that if they weren't rangers, she surely would've died. No one was invincible, but their ranger powers helped the notion. "I need to talk to him."
"Is there any reason that you believe it would be better for you to speak to him?" Lt. Stone asked gently.
"I'm the only one who he trusts," Trini explained. "Please. I talked to him for a long time. I understand how he's feeling, I'm the only one he'll talk to."
Lt. Stone let out a long sigh. "Trini, I'm sorry…Ian passed away this morning."
A/N: Sorry I've bene so MIA guys, there's been so much car problems and other stuff I've been going through. But everything is fine now and I've got this chapter up for you guys.
I'm glad you're all enjoying the idea so much. Thank you for all of the recent favorites and alerts. Please let me know what you think of this one.
~Av
