Ninjetti Rebirth
Chapter 8: Beginnings and Endings
A/N: All things Carri belong to KJ, with many thanks. Trixabus, Baneero, Alia, Zokk, Kemma, Gene, Hedara, and Golver all belong to me. The man in the Sky-blue cloak is not mine, but Toei/Bandai/Saban's along with all other Power Rangers/Super Sentai stuff. The multi-verse idea is from two sources, the idea did come from KSuzie's "The Coins"
Wes walked into his house, exhausted from the days work. He shuffled over to the couch and fell into the seat next to his wife, Jen Collins. She looked over at her husband and sighed, the latest project he had been assigned to exhausted him nearly everyday. "How was work?"
Wes rolled his head on his shoulders to look at her and said "That academy is going to be great and all, but did my dad and the others have to locate it over in New Tech City? I mean c'mon, that's a three hour drive for me and Eric!"
"I'm sorry." She said as she absently rubbed his thigh. "By the way, Schuyler has something he wants to talk to you about." Her voice a slight edge in it. At the sound of his name, young Schuyler Tate Collins marched into the living room.
"Dad." He nodded his head, and Wes cocked his, surprised by the militaristic attitude.
"You wanted to talk to me?" Wes asked, still confused.
"Yes. When it is finished, I want to enroll in the Ranger Academy. I'm going to grow up to become a Red Ranger, just like my father."
Wes looked over at Jen in surprise, he hadn't told Sky about the academy, he hadn't told anyone except Jen. "What makes you think there's a Ranger Academy out there?"
Sky rolled his eyes "Dad, you may be a Red Ranger, but you're still forgetful. You left the plans sitting out the other night." Wes made an O shape with his mouth and smiled sheepishly at his wife, who glared at him. "Will you enroll me, or not?" Sky asked, eyes glued to his father.
"We-we'll talk about it later Sky. Promise." Wes said as he pushed his son back to his room.
Jen looked over at her husband, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth as she said "You left the plans out?" Wes smiled.
"It was a mistake! I swear!"
"Uh-huh." Jen said playfully as she looked up at him. Wes grinned sheepishly and raised his hands in mock defense.
Tommy had Mr. Collins, Mr. Hartford, and Capt. Mitchell over at his house, Ryan had told him of the three mens latest venture, and they had requested to see Tommy about it. Mr. Collins shifted in his seat, trying to get comfortable, while Capt. Mitchell and Mr. Hartford just sat there.
"Alright." Tommy began "Tell me, what's all this about a Ranger Academy?" He looked from one man to the next, waiting for one to speak up.
"Well," Capt. Mitchell began "it's sort of like Operation Lightspeed. Except, we won't be throwing civilians into the program. It'll be an enrollment, and people will be assigned squads, A-Squad, B-Squad, etc."
"With all the threats," Mr. Hartford said, picking it up, "we thought it best if we had an academy that has its students graduate into full-fledged Rangers. Here," he said, reaching into his pocket, "is our prototype morpher." He handed Tommy a small gray and black box with red lighting at the top.
"Let me guess," Tommy said "you want me to test it."
"Well," Mr. Collins sat up in his seat "according to Capt. Mitchell here there are only two humans capable of sustaining this morph, his son, Ryan, and yourself."
Tommy cocked an eyebrow at him and asked "Why me?"
"Because," Mr. Hartford picked the monologue back up, "you have had so many morphers, and even the Black DinoGem altered your DNA."
Tommy sighed, he didn't like being a guinea pig for these three. But he decided it may be fun to experience a new morph. "Alright. What do I do?"
Capt. Mitchell stood and said "You hold it up in front of you and say 'S.P.D Emergency'"
Tommy snickered, he knew what was to come of this, he hadn't been present during the Dino Rangers mind wipe, and Krueger had thought it best if he did remember. "Does S.P.D have a meaning?"
"No. At least not yet." Mr. Hartford admitted, looking down at the floor.
"How about; 'Space Patrol Delta.'" Tommy offered, he knew that's what it stood for. He just wondered if they'd consider it first, or try something else.
The three men talked amongst themselves for a while before nodding in agreement. "Alright." Mr. Collins said "Space Patrol Delta it is."
Tommy nodded and stepped outside, motioning for the others to follow him. "S.P.D Emeregency!" He called out. In a gray and black flash the S.P.D Shadow Ranger stood in his place. "Wow." He muttered "this Power is incredible."
"So we were right." Mr. Hartford said, pleased with the results as Tommy powered down.
"If you don't mind," he began "I'd like to hang onto this morpher. I know someone else who could use it." The three me nodded and said it was fine, that they had the plans for them back in the Aqua Base.
The next day Kim was setting up some flowers outside of the condo she and Carri were sharing, when she heard thunder and saw a flash of purplish-black lights. She growled and groaned as she realized who it was standing before her. "Hello Gene." She said in a sigh.
"Kimberly," Gene said as he nodded to her "I've got some great news for you."
"Let me guess," Kim said, putting her best perky face on "It turns out that Tommy has a kid somewhere in the world, and you're going to stop pestering me to have a kid?"
Gene shook his head and said "You are half right. A man in a sky-blue cloak entered our realm, and opposed our leader. That is fortunate for you, as it means you do not need to have a child, not anytime soon anyway." Kim glared at him for a second, then breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad to hear it, she never planned on having a kid just because they said so anyway. She glanced down at her watch.
She looked back up at Gene and said "Listen, I need to be somewhere. If I don't leave now I'll be late." Gene nodded and took his leave through the portal he created.
"Wonder what he's going to say..." Kim muttered, sighing again.
Zedd paced back and forth through the forest, he was getting impatient. These humans are taking too long, he told himself. He could see the top claw covering the egg, but it had taken them nearly a week just to get that much dug out. "If my Powers would work on getting it out, I'd have it out already..." He didn't understand it, he tried using his magic to pull it to the surface, but it wouldn't work. It as though his magic just slid off the egg.
"Why won't you work!" He cried out in anger.
Zhane had smoothed things over with Andros, he apologized for days on end for his behaviour. It had taken some time, but Andros forgave him and said sternly "I'm not going to break them up, or even try to. I mean that." Zhane said he understood.
Tommy had left for his meeting with Kim, which Karone wasn't too happy about, but she wasn't go to show it by tagging along. She knew she could trust him, she just didn't know if she could trust her. She was busy folding her clothes when she heard the doorbell ring. "Come in." She called as she stacked her pants up.
"Hey."
She turned her head, not wanting to believe who she had just heard, standing before her was Zhane.
In the Overseers Realm Hedara was pitching a fit, he'd never had his authority challenged before, not in ten-thousand years. Now suddenly this man returned and began challenging him. It was an outrage, he wouldn't stand for it. He refused to, he'd die first. He watched as the man backed into a portal and took his leave for the time being. Hedara grinded his teeth as he mulled over what to do about this guy. I could always kill him, he thought, that's the easiest thing to do.
He slammed his fist down on the arm of his throne, glancing around at the other twelve overseers. They all had their hooded heads fixed on him, staring. They had never seen Hedara lose his temper like this. He pulled his hood back, showing off his tan face, long gray hair, and yellow eyes. His gaze fell to the Overseer three seats down from him. "Gale," he said, sounding more calm than before, "I want you to take his 'two greatest children' and drop them into this dimension." A card with coordinates materialized in his hand and he tossed it over to Gale.
Stunned at first, Gale caught the card and and examined it. "But, this is..." Hedara glared menacingly at him. "I understand sir..." I can't wait, he told himself, until he returns and gets rid of Hedara.
Hedara chuckled to himself, those two will be in for a surprise in that dimension.
Goldar carved some random symbols in the stone floor with his sword, Rito watching. "Being evil under Baneero really sucks. He doesn't send us out on missions anymore..."
"I know what ya mean Goldy, I mean, I destroyed the Rangers Powers to start with, and now look at me. I'm not even called into battle at all." Goldar let out a gravelly sigh, he missed the days when Lord Zedd was in charge. Those were the good days, the days he had actually been somebody. Now he was just as useless as the skeleton next to him.
Gruumm sat in the throne aboard Baneero's ship. The new moon would soon be upon them, he would then strike. Baneero would know the wrath of his underling. "Morgana," he rasped "leave me for a little while."
"But why?" Morgana pleaded, stomping her foot.
"Because I said so! That's why!" Gruumm bellowed, and Morgana left abruptly.
"Yes, master." He said "The new moon is fast approaching, this ship and the empire will soon be mine." He paused "Yes, the girl was foolish enough to give up her entire inheritence, as long as I turn her back into a child afterwards and let her kill Baneero, all will go as planned."
Karone stared up at Zhane in amazement, she'd forgotten how beautiful his hair was, and how handsome he was. "Hey." She said flatly "What are you doing here?" Zhane flashed her a smile.
"I actually came here to talk with you." He said, sitting next to her "About us."
"I'm in a relationship." She said as she continued folding.
"I understand that, but just hear me out." She sighed and turned to face him. "Thank you. Now for the past decade or so I haven't allowed myself to get attatched to anyone relationship wise. When I heard you were with Tommy, it made me realize that I want to give us another shot." He stared at her, waiting for her to say something. "Anyway," he drolled, seeing she wasn't going to speak. "I was wondering if...well if maybe you felt the same."
Karone stared at him, her eyes locked on his. Yes, she had thought about giving them a second chance, yes it had been more than once. She loved Zhane, but also loved Tommy. One thing Zhane had that she wanted was a kid. She had seen Zhane's six year old son Bridge once or twice, and they had hit it off those couple of times too, but she was still unsure. She weighed her options; she wanted kids, Zhane had a son, and Tommy wasn't the family type. At least, she didn't think he was anyway. But Zhane had loved her, even while she was evil. Tommy said he didn't care that she had been evil, but he hadn't known her back then, Zhane had. She stared into his blue eyes, thinking of what to do and what to say. Finally, she came to a decision. "Zhane...I..."
Kim sat up in a tree, torturing any insects that happened to pass by. She sighed "Who should I go after next? There's just so many itsy-bitsy Rangers out there. As she sat there, pondering over who her next victim would be, a surge of blue energy surrounded her and she vanished.
When she looked around she saw the familiar stone walls and foggy interior of the moon palace. "What the hell?" she muttered, looking up to see Baneero before her. "Oh. It's you. What? You gonna kill me for killing one of your lackey's?" She asked snidely.
Baneero chuckled and said coolly "No. I merely brought you here so that you could serve me." Kim snorted, crossing her arms infront of her chest.
"Not likely."
"Oh." He smiled "I believe you will." He shot a blast of energy towards her, and on her wrist appeared a tattoo that resembled rose thorns.
"What the hell is this?" She asked as examined the tattoo.
Baneero chuckled as he said "It's a binding spell. Any time you disobey my orders," he concentrated, and Kim cried out in pain. "It will send electricity surging through your body. Try to remove it, and you die."
Kim snarled at him, storming off and punching holes into the palace walls.
Billy and Hayley went through the final calculations. Everything seemed alright, the new place was nice and built. As he sat back, he began to think about why he'd returned to Earth. It wasn't because he was tired of Aquitar, he loved it there, it was because of Cestria. Things had gone great for them, at least up until about a month ago. She had begun showing less and less interest in him, mentally and physically. He'd asked her what was wrong, to which she would respond nothing. But he knew that was a lie. So one day he followed her when she left, it was something he hadn't really expected. Cestria had been cheating on him, when he confronted her about it she admitted that it had been going on for about a year. He left the planet then, he couldn't stand to be near her after that. He sighed as he snapped himself out of his thoughts and back to the task at hand.
Hayley wondered what was going on with Jason, it had been days since she'd seen or spoken to him. Ever since that day in the apartment they'd avoided one another. He stayed holed up where ever he was, and she stayed in NASADA working with Billy. Ah Billy, she thought as she looked over at him, he was such a kind man. Stern, and had definitely seen his fair share of troubles, but still kind. She looked up at the computer screen "Alright. It appears to be finished." She said with a smile.
"Affirmative. The new Command Center is fully operational." He agreed. The two smiled at each other. They'd been at this for a little over a week, and finally it was finished.
Carri heard her alarm go off, but she ignored it, covering her head with her pillow. She had never been a morning person, usually sleeping in till noon or later. She groaned, it was too early to get up. "Carri?" said a voice from the door accompanied by knocking. "Carri, you awake? It's Kim, I'm heading out. You better get up and get ready, Rocky'll be here in less than an hour." Carri lifted her head up, blowing strands of hair out of her face, her clock said it was already one-thirty P.M
"Oh shit!" She shrieked as she jumped up "That's right, we agreed to go to the movies today!" She threw her legs over the side of her bed and quickly hopped in the shower, fixed her hair, and looked through her massive closet for something to wear. Once she had her outfit picked out she quickly went to sit on the couch and just turned the T.V on when the doorbell went off. "Come in!" Rocky entered the condo, with a goofy smile on his face.
"Hello." He said, coming to sit next to her. "Ready?"
"Been waiting on you." She lied, smiling at him.
"Now that I seriously doubt." He teased "I've heard your a late sleeper. I'm willing to bet you just woke up." He smiled at her, grabbing her hand as he lifted her up and out the door.
"I did not." She protested "I got up forty-five minutes ago. There is a difference." She smiled as she let him lead her out to his car.
Kim twisted her cup of coffee around her hands nervously. She was waiting for Tommy to show up so the two could talk about recent matters. She didn't exactly know what to say, the two hadn't been on good terms for more than a decade. She sighed as she fiddled with the cup, what was she going to say "Hey, how are ya? Listen, I still love you!" No, that won't work, she told herself. She blew a puff of air out. "Maybe this was a bad idea..."
'I don't think it was was." Tommy said as he sat across from her.
"Yeah, well." She said, staring at her coffee "Considering how things went last time, it was a bad idea."
Tommy frowned and said "I've matured since then. Kim...I..." he thought of how to word what he had to say.
"I still love you!" She blurted, hands flying to cover her mouth as if to hold anything else in. Tommy stared at her as she jumped and yelped "Ow shit that's hot!" He followed her gaze down to her overturned coffee cup and the hot coffee running over the edge of the table.
"Come on." He said as he wrapped his arm around her "Let's get you home so you can change." Kim looked over at him, she felt her ears burning as he smiled at her.
Adam made his way back to the old Zeo Power Chamber, waiting for him was the man in the sky-blue cloak. He entered and nodded to the man. "Sorry about that yesterday, duty calls. You understand."
"Of course Adam." The man said "I am glad to see you have returned to active duty on a team, but I am also sad that you've spent your life devoted to the Power. It was never my intention for the Power to become your life."
Adam nodded and said "It was my choice to return. I'm glad I did too, I missed the excitement, the adventure."
The man nodded and said "I know I kept you busy after you passed the Turbo Power onto Carlos."
"I volunteered," Adam corrected him. "I know Tommy, Kim, Jason, and Billy each had their own quests as well."
He nodded again "How has your search gone for the missing keys?"
Adam shook his head "Not so good. See?" He held his hand out, revealing two keys. One had a Triceratops carved on the flat, and the other had a Sabretooth Tiger. "Thirteen years and I've only managed to find two, and there's still four more to go..."
"We will find them in due time, Adam. Perhaps if we made the others aware of this search..."
"Maybe..." Adam trailed off "But I'd like to at least say I found half of them on my own..."
The man nodded "Very well. We shall wait until you find one more before alerting the others."
Adam nodded and said quietly "Thank you. I mean, just me getting half of them would at least make me feel like I accomplished something."
The man nodded and said "You're in luck. The scanners are detecting one now. Over on...Triforia." Adam nodded, as he vanished in a green streak of light.
Rocky and Carri entered the theater and took a couple seats in the back row. Carri snuggled up next to him as the previews started, and he smiled and kissed the top of her head. He was glad she'd agreed to come to the movies with him today, and tomorrow night was their dinner. He couldn't wait for that, he was planning to take her to Jack's Bistro, a new French restaurant that just opened up. Carri lifted her head up and kissed him on the cheek, placing her head back between his head and shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.
Jason looked down at his hand, he was getting better at controlling when the fire and ice came forth, but he still hadn't mastered it. He sighed, wondering why this was happening to him. He looked over at his right hand and said with a smirk "Flame on, flame off. Ice up, ice down." As he said a fireball came forth, then vanished followed by an ice ball. "Maybe it's time I talked to Tommy about this. He's travelled the universe, he may have heard of something like this." He grunted as he thrust himself up off the bed and walked outside to his Harley. He threw his leg over and got himself situated, then quickly the engine roared to life. He backed it up, and took off. The wind smacked his face hard, he knew he was way beyond the posted speed limit.
When he reached Tommy's place out in the mountains he saw a strange silver car parked there, and his Jeep nowhere in sight. Maybe it's Karone's, he thought as he shrugged his shoulders. He stood just out side the door, contemplating how to tell his friend about these...Powers he had. Once more he shifted them, fire, then ice. He sighed, opening the door he found Karone, but not Tommy. He stared in awe as he saw his bro's girlfriend making out with her ex. "Oh. Shit." He said, drawing out the "i".
Kim and Tommy were sitting in her living room, she had just changed out of the coffee coated clothes and into dry clothes. "So..." he said, still unsure of what to say.
"So..." She mocked him, flopping down next to him.
"Kim, about what you said. I still love you too, but..."
"I know." She looked down "You're in a committed relationship, but-" She didn't get to finish as Gale arrived in a flash of blueish-black light and grabbed them, pulling them through the portal.
