Part One: Tommy and Kimberly's Dating Years
Chapter Seven: Countdown To Destruction
(You'd Think The People of Angel Grove Would Have Moved By Now)
Date: March 2, 1999; March 3, 1999
"I am so going to kick your butt," Megan growled.
"Oh you are not," Justin said. "I was a Turbo Ranger! You can't beat me at Super Mario Kart!"
"Oh yes I can!" Megan said. "Turbo Zords are not the same thing as Go Karts with little Mario characters on them!"
"Shut up!" Justin said, practically rolling to the side as he directed his car around the final curve.
"Aha! First place! Booya!" Megan yelled as her car crossed the finish line barely ahead of Justin's.
"You suck!" Justin said in irritation.
"I'm the best, I'm the best!" Megan laughed, doing a version of a touchdown dance. "So, want a rematch?"
"You're on," Justin growled.
"Tournament?" Megan asked.
"You're on," Justin growled, setting it up.
Halfway through their third race Megan asked, "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what? The sound of my defeat; no. The sound of your defeat; yes," Justin said with a wicked grin.
"Ha, funny. And no, I mean the one from outside," Megan said.
"Fine. We'll investigate," Justin said, pausing the N64 game.
The two got up and went to the window where they stared out in dismay.
"Holy crap," Megan said.
"Your mother's going to kill us," Justin groaned as the Pirrhanatrons and Quantrons ran amuck on the streets outside his house.
"Probably," Megan said with a shrug. "And I wanted to finish that race. I was so kicking your butt. Anyways, you morphing?"
"Yeah," Justin said. "Glad Dad's not home for this."
"Be glad. Be very glad," Megan said. She did a complicated little twirl while calling, "Ninja form!" and a black leather gi appeared on her form with an additional headdress / mask thing.
"Great disguise," Justin snorted. "Nobody's ever going to wonder what a ninja's doing here."
"Hey!" Megan protested as Justin morphed. "The Wind and Thunder Academies are only like an hour away from here. And the Earth Academies over in Reefside."
"And that helps why?" Justin asked.
"Because there are going to be ninjas all over the area!" Megan said.
"Whatever. Just don't get killed," Justin sighed. "I don't want to think of how I'd explain to your mother and all of the girl Rangers."
"I can only imagine how amusing that would be," Megan said. "But no, I don't plan on getting killed."
**********
Kimberly and Tommy were in a very heavy make out session (though they were supposed to be studying) when the screaming began. The two jerked apart, running to the window of Tommy's dorm.
"What the heck are those?" Kimberly asked as the two saw quite a number of alien creatures running around the quad.
"I have no idea," Tommy said. "Let's go."
"Morph?" Kimberly suggested.
"Got it," Tommy said, rushing around the room.
"You lost your Zeo Morpher, didn't you?" Kimberly asked after a minute.
"No," Tommy said. "It's not lost. Just … misplaced," Tommy said.
"Ninjetti then," Kimberly said. "Tommy come on!" Kimberly grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room.
The quad was a mess. There were two types of aliens that were attacking everyone in sight. "What are these things?" Tommy asked, but was quickly distracted as they launched themselves at him and Kim.
As usual when fighting when Kim was around, a small portion of his attention was directed at Kim to make sure she was all right. He hadn't seen her in action in a while and she seemed to actually be having a lot of fun doing what she was doing.
But these things were hard to destroy. "You know," Kim said just as he thought that. "I really miss the Putties."
"You're not kidding," Tommy said. "Why did everyone have to update their monsters? Putties were easy to deal with."
"Because it's easier on us if they don't," Kim said. "Oh no! Hayley!"
"Hayley?" Tommy asked in alarm, his head jerking up. A Quantron took this as an opportunity to attack, but apparently didn't know that Tommy Oliver was the best Power Ranger to have ever existed. Without even looking at it, Tommy snapped a kick at it and sent it flying.
Hayley was caught by a couple of monsters who were seemingly attempting to rip her apart. Kim was off and running towards her and Tommy soon followed. Kim tackled one of the monsters and Tommy tackled the other. As soon as they burst into non being, Kimberly turned to Hayley. "Are you okay, Hayley?" she asked.
"I'm fine," Hayley said distractedly. Then she blinked and stared at Kimberly. "Kim? Wait, is that you?"
"No," Kimberly said, wincing mentally at her slip up. Yeah, she'd been out of uniform for too long. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Tommy?" Hayley asked, whirling on the white clad ninja.
"I don't know who that is," Tommy said a little too quickly.
"You're Kim! And you're Tommy!" Hayley said, her gaze darting between the two. "And you're – you're Power Rangers?!"
"I don't know who you're talking about. And we've got to go save people. Bye!" Tommy said, but Hayley grabbed his arm before he could leave. With the other hand, before Tommy could react, she had ripped his mask down.
"I told you!" Hayley said, ripping Kim's mask off. "You're Power Rangers! Ninja Power Rangers!"
"Uh…" Tommy said.
"Crap," Kimberly frowned. "Okay. We're talking about this later. Now we have to save the world. Again."
More Quantrons and Piranhatrons appeared and Hayley yelped in
**********
Trini was on the quad when it happened. One minute everything was normal and then the next, there were aliens all over the place. It happened so fast that Trini was unprepared for what happened. One of the aliens ran into her, practically head butting her in the stomach.
She growled as she flipped up off of the ground and began attacking, noting that most students were running around screaming while a few actually began to attack as well, mostly smacking the aliens with backpacks. But hey, at least they were fighting.
**********
Aisha heard screams first. Her training and instincts from her Power Ranger days had her running out to the village and scanning the area for danger. What she saw she had never thought she would actually see again.
Aliens. There were aliens in her village. Oh yeah, something was wrong. She'd felt a growing sense of anxiousness for quite a while now, though she hadn't known why or what was going to happen. Clearly, this was the cause for the feeling.
She took a flying leap at one of the aliens that was attacking a young girl, knocking it away.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes Miss Aisha," the girl said, clearly frightened. "What's going on?"
"I have no idea."
**********
"I hate evil," Megan sighed.
"You're not kidding," Justin groaned. "I ache all over."
"You're the one who was wearing protective spandex from outer space, I wasn't," Megan said.
"Good point," Justin said.
"Where do you think the Astro Rangers are?" Megan asked.
"I don't know," Justin said.
"Shouldn't we group up with them?" Megan asked. "You're a Ranger and I'm a ninja in training. If the stronger people are together than we can kick more ass."
"You want to try and find them, go ahead," Justin said.
"How about we go raid a grocery store instead?" Megan asked. "I'm hungry."
"Yeah, I'm not going to be a superhero who robs," Justin said.
"You're a loser," Megan said. "I'm still hungry."
"Get over it," Justin said. "We've got bigger things to deal with."
"That we do," Megan mused. "That we do."
**********
"You have got to be kidding me," Hayley said. "You guys are magic superheroes?"
"Ex-superheroes," Kim and Tommy said as one.
The three were hiding out in Kim's apartment while the aliens prowled the city's streets. There were just too many for Tommy and Kim to fight off. There was no way to know if this was just located here or around the world.
"Can you contact any of the others to see what's going on?" Hayley asked.
Tommy and Kim exchanged a glance with one another. "Your communicator's in your dorm somewhere isn't it?" she asked.
"Maybe," Tommy said warily.
"You're ridiculous," Kim sighed. She got up and went to her dresser. She pulled it away from the wall and reached behind it, searching the concave portion where she hid both her communicator and now useless morpher. She went over to the other two and sat down again. "Guys, is anybody out there? It's Kim and Tommy. We've got a bit of situation."
There was a pause and then, "Kim? Tommy? Man is it good to hear from you guys!"
"Hey Zack. Where are you?" Tommy asked.
"In London," was Zack's reply.
"He managed to find me," Kat said.
"Guys?" Jason asked. "Where are you?"
"Let's wait until we've got everyone we can," Kim said.
"I'm listening," Trini said.
"Same," Adam said. "And Rocky's here with me."
"Do we have the Astros? Or Justin?" Tommy asked.
"You do recall that the Astros don't have our communicators, right?" Kim said. "I don't know about Justin. His works with the Zeos, but Tommy doesn't have his Zeo."
"I'm using my Zeo," Kat said. "So maybe he could contact me? Would you be able to hear it?"
"Via Zack's maybe," Trini said. "Making these work for all the teams is so my next project. What about Aisha or Tanya?"
"Sorry!" Aisha hissed. "I'm a little busy being captured."
There was a beep and her line went dead.
"Okay, I guess we can assume this is going on everywhere," Adam said. "But what about Tanya?"
"I'm here," Tanya whispered. "I've been kidnapped too. Did you know you can change the volume on these?"
"Really?" Trini asked in surprise. "Billy never told me that."
"Guys," Kim said. "Let's work on finding out what's going on right now, okay?"
"Right," Jason said. "Where is everybody?"
"Zack and I are in London," Kat said.
"Kim and me are hiding out in her apartment from the freakish aliens," Tommy said.
"Why couldn't they just stick with Putties?" Zack whined.
"Not helping Zack," Kim said.
"Me'n Adam are in Stone Canyon," Rocky said. "And these guys seemed to be based in Angel Grove. Big huge spaceship touched down there and some chick named Astronema's asking for the Astro Rangers to out themselves. It's not looking good. The entire town's pretty much been taken hostage."
"Megan was supposed to be visiting Justin today," Kim said worriedly. "I hope they're alright."
"Justin's still got his Turbo powers. He'll be fine," Tommy said. "And you know Megan."
Hayley was staring at the communicator in shock and awe. "That thing connects you to all of the Power Rangers?" she asked.
"Who was that?" Jason asked.
"Uh, later," Kim said. "So this whole fiasco's worldwide and basically the only way to get them to stop is to out the Astro Rangers."
"The only way that'll happen is if Astronema threatens to hurt people. That's the only way they'd reveal their identities," Tanya whispered.
"Which means they're going to do it," Jason said firmly. "Adam, Rocky, you guys are nearby. Can you go help them out?"
"We can try," Adam said.
"We're heading out now," Rocky said. "Hey Tanya, how do you change the volume?"
"There's a button on the back. Slide it down to lower the volume. Pushing it up and holding it raises the volume back to the original level. Holding it down mutes it," Tanya said.
"And which way is down and which way is up?" Rocky murmured.
"We'll update you on what's going on when we get to Angel Grove," Adam said. "We'll find the Astros and figure out what to do."
"In the morning everybody goes back to attacking, got it?" Jason asked.
"I'm kidnapped," Tanya said. "I'm not going to be able to do a lot of fighting."
"Get the others with you to fight," Tommy said.
"I'll try," Tanya whispered.
"Let's do this," Jason said. "Let's take back our planet."
"I wonder what's happening on other planets," Kim mused.
"What do you mean?" Kat asked.
"This can't just be an Earth thing," Kim said. "Cassie's been talking to me a little lately just to update me and Tommy on what's going on. Astronema's working for Dark Specter who's got Zordon. Clearly Dark Specter wants to get rid of all the Power Rangers. We're not the only Power Rangers in the universe."
"Trey," Jason said. "They'd go after Trey."
"And the Aquatians," Trini said. "Billy."
"We've got to find out everything we can about the others out there as soon as this is over," Tommy said.
**********
"Oh God this is a mess," Megan said, ducking and rolling.
"You're not kidding," Justin said. "Wonder how the others are doing."
"I don't know," Megan said. "And this is far from a fair fight. You've got guns."
"You're a ninja! You've got fire powers!" Justin said.
"Okay, good point," Megan said as she punched a Quantron and kicked another in the next beat. "Though it doesn't really work well on robots. They just melt."
"Better than nothing," Justin said.
"Alien robot thing at your back," Megan called out.
"Same," Justin called out to her.
Megan whirled and made to kick the Quantron, but froze mid kick as a wave of good and love went through her. "No!" she cried out in anguish, dimly aware that Justin had also cried out.
Fear not, Rangers. I will be in all that is good now. I love you all as if you were my own children. Do not be sad at this. I will always be with you. May the power protect you.
And with that, Zordon was gone.
**********
The battle was over, but at such a consequence. As Zordon had passed, all former Rangers collapsed where they were standing, ignoring the fact that the monsters that surrounded them were vanishing.
That was the worst day in Ranger history. Their mentor, their leader, their father, had died. He had died to save the universe from evil. And even though he had managed to say a special message to everyone he had touched, and all of them shed at least one tear that day.
Next time on Power Rangers: One Little Change: "The Astro Megaship Museum"
The line to get into the Astro Megaship took quite some time due to the sheer numbers of people there for the Opening Ceremony. But when they did get in to the Astro Megaship, they had to grin at all of the displays.
"Ha! Look! They've got pictures!" Megan giggled.
"Pictures?" Kimberly asked. "Of what?"
"Of who should be the question," Jason said, looking at the pictures.
"Ooh! Look, Green Ranger," Kimberly said, peering at the picture of Tommy.
"Green and Pink, White and Pink, Red and Pink – ew," Megan said.
"Apparently they didn't realize Kat's a foot taller than Kim," Jason said.
"Hey!" Kimberly said, smacking Jason on the shoulder. "That's mean."
"But true," Jason said.
