Author's Note: This update is a little early than usual, but I have my nephew all day and doubt I will have much time later. I hope you enjoy it.
Dedications: N/A
Rating: T for safety
I don't own Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. But I do own any original characters that are of my own creation.
Title: A Dire Situation
Summary: When Nuala Archer moved to Angel Grove to escape her past she never expected the chain of events that would soon follow. With the power of a morpher bestowed upon her, and the fate of the world hanging in the balance, a difficult choice must be made. One that might result in Nuala doing all that she can to keep her head above water.
Ciaran looked up from the late night homework he was doing, and turned his head to the cake-o-matic beside him. The machine was something that Billy had built - the idea was for it to bake a cake and create a smoothie at the same time.
"Uh, Ernie," Ciaran called, waving at the barman and pointing at the machine. "Is it supposed to sound like that?"
"I don't think so," Ernie said walking out from behind the bar, He stared in at the cake mixture and then turned to flag down Billy, but the blue Ranger was having too much fun dancing to the tape mix that Kim and Nuala had put together.
"You're right, girls," Billy shouted over the blare of the music. "The performers assembled to create this harmonious tune transcend all predecessors to this genre of music."
Kim frowned and turned to Nuala and Trini, they were the only two who seemed to understand Billy-speech. "Translation, please." she said, blowing more air into the purple balloon in her hands.
"He likes the music," Trini answered, returning to her painting as Nuala tossed treats at Chaos and Ceaser. She had promised her mother that she'd keep an eye on the two dogs and Ciaran, if she babysat Ellis until they came home.
"Oh," Kim giggled as Ernie called out from the bar. Nuala and Trini looked around to find the barman elbow deep in foamy blue mixture.
"Billy," Nuala called, tossing a treat at the blue Ranger as he danced near-by. She warned Chaos and Ceaser to stay, seeing as both of them looked ready to pounce at the fallen treat, and then smiled sweetly at Billy as he removed his headphones. "We're glad you like the group, but I think Ernie's having a problem.
"Uh-oh!" Billy said, watching Ernie slip onto the floor and Ciaran move away, a fearful look on his face, .He rushed forward and turned off the machine. "I guess I still got to work the kinks out of this thing," he said sheepishly as Ernie looked less than impressed.
"I hate machines," Ernie sighed, sliding further onto the floor as more foamy blue mixture flopped down onto his head, and slid down to cover his face.
Ciaran bit his lip to smother his laughter, as Nuala exchanged a half-amused look with Trini and Kim.
"What do you think?" Trini asked, tracing a yellow paintbrush down her birthday banner.
"Heh, it looks alright," Kim shrugged, teasingly.
"Kimberly, get back to work," Trini said.
Kim giggled and pushed herself up onto the bar, crossing her legs as she turned to face Ernie and Billy - the latter was fixing the cake-o-matic machine after Nuala had helped Ernie clean up the foamy messy. "How's it going, Billy?" she asked, brushing her hair over her shoulder.
"I fail to ascertain why this appliance isn't working," Billy replied. "I mean, the molecular mix re-arranger's still intact."
"Problems?" Jason asked, arriving with twin tins of paint.
"The cake-o-matic that Billy built for Zack's surprise party went on the warpath," Ernie answered. He was standing behind the bar wearing a towel, after using the shower to wash off the foam. "Nearly drowned me in cake mix!"
"Nearly, Ernie," Nuala said, leaning on the counter between Billy and Ciaran, the latter was still doing home. "Nearly drowned you."
"Listen, Ernie, I wanted to thank you for keeping the place open late tonight, so we could decorate for Zack's birthday party," Jason said,
"Boy is he going to be surprised, and speaking of surprises!" Ernie said, brandishing a cup at the teens. "You guys will never guess what I found out about the Power Rangers."
Silence fell amongst the teens, and Ciaran looked up from his homework to stare at the barman.
"The, uh, Power who?" Billy asked, feigning confusion.
"You know the superheroes with the large Dinozord?" Ernie asked.
"The ones with the coloured costumes?" Jason asked, playing along.
"That's them!" Ernie grinned. "You know, they'll do for Angel Grove what Batman has done for Gotham City."
"Really?" Nuala asked. "You're going to compare the Power Rangers to a graphic novel character, not to mention a weak one."
"Weak?" Ernie replied, aghast. "I take it you're not a batman fan?"
"I'm more of a Spiderman kinda girl," Nuala said, rolling her head to the side.
Jason shook his head at the red-head, and turned his attention back to Ernie. "I think I've seen the Power Rangers in TV," he said. "What have you heard?"
"I've heard they're regular humans, just like you and me!" Ernie said.
"Really?" Ciaran asked. "Well, you know, I heard they were space aliens from a distant planet."
"You're a space alien from a distant planet," Nuala replied, teasingly.
"Hey!" Ciaran whined. "But yeah, space aliens, and the silver Ranger is supposed to be the worst one. I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley."
"Something tells me you wouldn't want to meet her in a well-lit alley," Nuala replied, glaring scornfully at her brother.
"But, to be on the safe side, Ernie, we should keep this space alien stuff under our hats," Ciaran said quickly, avoiding his sister's glare.
Ernie nodded. "Aliens... whoa, this is big," he mumbled, obviously shell-shocked. He pushed away from the counter and disappeared out to the back of the store, leaving the Rangers to stare at Ciaran.
"What?" Ciaran asked, looking up from his homework.
"Aliens?" Nuala asked. "That's the best you could've come up with? Do you have any idea of the mass panic you'd cause if people actually believed that, Ci?"
"It was a joke!" Ciaran huffed.
"We know," Nuala said, "and, I'll admit, it was a good one... but it was also a believable one. We fight the aliens, remember?"
"Fine, I'm sorry," Ciaran said, going back to his homework.
Nuala shook her head and hugged him tightly, causing him to laugh and scrunch his eyes closed as he drew himself closer to her.
The other Rangers smiled and exchanged looks, as Bulk and Skull entered the juice bar from the side entrance. "Well, well, well," said Bulk, dragging Skull in by his nose. "If it isn't the nerd patrol from Angel Grove High."
"This place is closed, fellas," Billy said.
"Yeah, to nerds like you," Bulk replied. He grabbed Billy by the forearms and lifted him up onto the counter. He then grinned a Nuala, "Hey babe, how about we -?"
"Still not interested," Nuala interrupted.
"Hey, Bulky, look at what we have here -" said Skull, showing off Trini's banner. "Whoa! Oops!" he mocked as the yellow Ranger tried to grab it from him, but he pulled it out of her reach. "A birthday party. Awwwww."
"We would've invited you," Kim spat from the bar. "But animals aren't allowed."
"Whoa, easy, Kim, that's an insult to animals," Nuala said.
Bulk sneered at them both, and then blew his nose in Trini's banner. "Party's over, kids!" he said, as Skull laughed.
"Hey! I worked a long time on that!" Trini yelled, reaching for the banner again.
"Hey, I'll tell you what, babe," Skull said, grabbing Trini by the hands and walking backwards towards the back room. "What do you say I help you paint another one, after we're done having a little... fun?"
Trini fake a sweet smile, and shoved him backwards into the door. It opened and he crashed onto the floor, staring up at the growling jaws of both Chaos and Ceaser. He screamed and scrambled out of the room, as both dogs followed him, thankfully for him they had been chained up and could only go as far as their chains allowed.
"Bulky, it's that dog!" Skull said, pointing at Chaos. The dog in question snapped at Skull's hand, whilst the muscles beneath his black coat rippled as he strained to get at the fallen bully. "When did Ernie start keeping Dobermans?"
"They're Rottweiler's idiot," Nuala scoffed.
Bulk mimicked her in a high-pitched and squeaky voice, as he trudged towards her. Panicked, and reminded of a past experience with Ellis's father, Nuala run behind the bar to avoid him. She cursed herself on her choice as Skull joined Bulk in his game of tormenting, and blocked off her only available exit.
"Here, kitty-kitty," Skull taunted, laughing hysterically.
"OK, guys you've had your fun, now knock it off," Ciaran said, sensing the panic rising in his sister. He knew from personal experience that she hated being backed into a corner.
Bulk laughed and lunged at Nuala, at the same time as Skull did. With a terrified scream, Nuala flipped over the bar and stumbled into Jason, her breathing was labored as if coming out of a panic attack.
"Are you OK?" Jason asked.
"I hate being backed into a corner."
Groaning at the head-on collision due to Nuala's disappearance. Bulk and Skull stood up, each holding their heads and looking around their missing victim. They growled and pointed at her, they each darted out from behind the bar, and rushed at Nuala and Jason, colliding with the pole on either side of the steps and groaned again.
Billy chuckled at Skull, only to end up on the receiving end of the bully's temper tantrum. Thankfully smarter than Skull, Billy ducked to the side and opened the door to the cake-o-matic, resulting in Skull running face first into the foamy cake mixture inside the machine.
"I hate party crashers," Kim grumbled to Trini, as the latter laughed openly at Skull.
Grunting and groaning, Bulk lifted himself from the floor, and rounded once again onto Jason and Nuala - the former was doing all that he could to support the latter until she had calmed down. "This isn't over, Archer," he warned.
"It is now," Ciaran said, holding Chaos's chain tightly in his hand. The dog snarled and snapped at Bulk, causing him to jump away in a panic. "You caused my sister to relapse; no one causes my sister to relapse! Either leave now, or I will let him go!"
"Pfft!" Bulk said, trying to act and look tough.
Ciaran stumbled forward as Chaos lunged at Bulk - the bully screamed and ran for the door, as Skull followed him, but Ciaran maintained a firm grip on Chaos's lead and then called for him to heal. The dog obeyed immediately.
~*A Dire Situation*~
At least an hour after Bulk and Skull had run off, screaming, and with the help of Billy and Ciaran, Nuala had calmed down enough to help Kim hang the balloons over the Youth Centre.
"Her proficiency with complex illustrated characterizations is quite impressive, isn't it?" Billy asked Jason, before walking over to help Nuala with her balloons.
"What did he say?" Jason asked, looking over at Kim.
"Don't look at me," Kim replied. "I don't speak Billy."
"He said I draw a good cartoon," Trini replied, before adding, "Thanks, Billy," over her shoulder.
"So we've got all the balloons blown up, the banners are made," Kim listed, as Jason fixed a pink party hat on top of his head, "What else is there left to do?"
"I think we're about done," Jason said, removing the hat.
"All we have left to accomplish now is just to make sure that Zack doesn't find out about the planned festivities prematurely," Billy said.
"Hey, you guys, I just saw Zack pass by my office window!" Ernie shouted, rushing back into the room. "I think he's headed this way!"
"Oh god!" Kim said, turning sharply and starting to pull down all the balloons she and Nuala had set up.
"Ciaran!" Nuala yelled. "Get out here and help!"
Ciaran rushed into the main room. "What's going on?" he asked, panicking.
"Zack's on his way inside," Nuala said. "Here, hide these out back - do not let Chaos and Ceaser at them," she added, stuffing a box of balloons at her brother.
"Got it," Ciaran said, sliding the box into the back room and closing the door. Chaos and Ceaser started to bark behind the closed door, but soon fell silent.
Trini shoved the banner she had been painting off of the bar, allowing it to flutter down onto the floor. Once everything was cleared away, and out of sight, the team rearranged the chairs and stools to make it look like no one had been using them - Jason and Billy hid the cake-o-matic, and then ducked behind the bar with Kim, Trini and Nuala as Zack walked inside.
"Hey, Ernie, what's with the late hours?" Zack asked, approaching the bar.
"Just catching up on some work, Zack," Ernie replied, tossing a piece of popcorn into his mouth, "and I'm all by myself too, see?" he motioned to the empty room.
Nuala rolled her eyes, and shook her head.
"Yeah, right," Zack laughed. "Nuala's mom told me the gang might be here. So I just came down to see if I saw them," he said.
"Nope. I haven't seen anyone," Ernie said, shaking his head. "There's just me, my stack of papers, my bowl of popcorn, a few tables, a couple of chairs..."
"I get the picture," Zack interrupted. "I get the picture."
"Yeah, you get the picture," Ernie nodded.
"Listen, if the gang comes around, tell them I'm lookin' for them OK?" Zack asked.
"Sure, sure, no problem," Ernie said.
"I wonder where they disappeared to." Zack said, looking around. Lana Archer had no reason to lie to him, did she? "I'll see you, Ernie."
"Take it easy, Zack," Ernie called as the soon-to-be birthday boy left. He waited a few seconds before looking down at the teens beside him. "OK, the coast is clear!"
Nuala sighed and walked out from behind the bar; she rapped on the door leading to the back room, and called out to her brother. "Ci, you can come out now!" she said, sitting on a barstool opposite Ernie. "Oh, by the way, has anyone ever told you that you ramble when you're nervous?" she asked the barman.
"You put me on the spot," Ernie said with a shrug. "What did you want me to do? Lie flawlessly?"
Kim chuckled, and patted Ernie's arm. "Either way, that was a close one," she said, reaching for the popcorn.
Ernie and the others nodded in agreement, as Ciaran joined them with Chaos and Ceaser in tow.
~*A Dire Situation*~
The next morning at school, Nuala and Ciaran wandered through the halls towards their lockers and bumped into a very upset Zack.
"Hey, Zack, you OK?" Nuala asked.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Zack asked.
"'Cause you look a little bummed, dude," Ciaran said.
"Yeah, well, today was supposed to be a special day for me," Zack said. "But it's not so special when people forget."
"Forget what?" Nuala asked.
"Like you'd care," Zack said. "I'll see you later or something, maybe." He brushed past them and disappeared into the crowd, leaving the two Archer siblings to look and feel guilty.
Ciaran sighed and looked after the black Ranger. "You sure this is a good idea?" he asked, as they carried on walking. "He looks upset."
"I'm thinking the same, Ci," Nuala agreed, spotting the others. "Hey, guys, we just saw Zack, he didn't look too pleased."
"Yeah, he thinks we've forgotten his birthday," Ciaran agreed.
"Hey, don't sweat it, alright?" Jason said. "He's going to be so surprised later, that we're gonna have to pull him off the ceiling, He'll be OK until then."
"If you're sure," Nuala said, exchanging an uncertain look with her brother. Despite Jason trying to boost them up, they still had a feeling of guilt in the pits of their stomach.
"Yeah, now c'mon," said Jason, taking Nuala by the arm. "We're going to be late for class."
"Me too," Ciaran said. "I'll see you later, Nuala."
"Bye, Ci," Nuala said, waving her brother off, "and if you're this eager to get to biology, Jase, you can cut the frog open."
Kim blanched and stared at her friends. "Uh, excuse me, did you just say "cut the frog open?'" she asked.
"Yeah, we're dissecting today," Jason said, almost excitedly.
Nuala gagged, and shook her head. "I'm not cutting up any frog," she said, folding her arms around her binder.
"You don't have too," said Jason. "I'll do it - now come on, we're going to be late." He pulled her off down the hallway, giving her a limited amount of time to shout 'see you later' to the others, much less wave to them.
"I'd hate to be Nuala right now," said Kim, shuddering at the idea of cutting open an innocent frog.
Trini chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, anyway, see you later guys," she said to Billy and Kim, before heading off to English.
"All ready?" Kim said to Billy as she closed her locker door, and they headed off to Mathematics together.
~*A Dire Situation*~
The ring of the bell echoed loudly throughout the school as Jason and Nuala took their respective seats at their lab bench. Jason gazed at his female companion amusedly, with one hand propped under his chin and his brows raised lazily. He was the picture of innocence, but Nuala knew differently.
"What?" Nuala asked without looking at him.
"You're really dreading this lesson, aren't you?" Jason asked. "Is cutting up a frog really that hard on you?"
"How about we stick a knife in you and cut you up?" Nuala asked. "Just to see how you like it?"
Jason's eyes widened and he shook his head. "OK, first of all," he said, holding up one finger. "The frog is dead, therefore we're not hurting it, and secondly, that's hostile, even for you."
Nuala rolled her eyes and looked down at the frog that was lying neatly on its back in the centre of a glass tray. "I'm not touching him with a knife," she said.
"Oh, come on," Jason said, picking up the small surgical knife. "It'll be like playing doctors - you did play doctors growing up, right?"
"No," Nuala said, shaking her head. "I was horseback riding and figure skating. I never saw the appeal to cutting people open." She shuddered at the idea.
Jason chuckled and rolled the knife between his fingers. He looked up as their teacher, Miss Prescott, called for their attention. She reminded them that they were to take notes of the dissection as they would need them for their reports at the end of the week.
"Begin," Miss Prescott said, sitting down at her desk. All around the room students picked up their scalpels and cut into the rubbery flesh of the poor dead amphibian. Meanwhile, Nuala stared at her own creature, and resisted the urge to gag at the sight.
"Well, let's get started, eh?" Jason said, posing the scalpel at the stop of the frog's stomach.
"Wait," said Nuala, grabbing his hand. "How about a deal? You do the dissecting, and I take notes?"
"But that's not fun."
"I can't do this, Jason," Nuala said.
Jason paused and stared at his white-faced friend. "OK," he said, touching her hand and squeezing. "You read the instructions to me, and I'll cut him open, OK?"
Nuala forced a smile and nodded. She grabbed her notebook, and flipped to the required page. "First you have to make an incision horizontally across the throat. Make sure it's across the top layer of skin, and not the organs below."
Carefully Jason probed the rubbery skin, and sliced across the throat. It was hard, but he managed it with no problems. "Next?" he asked, looking at Nuala, she had her head turned away from what he was doing and was staring intently at the words on the page of her book.
"Make an incision horizontally between the two hind legs - again, carefully," Nuala read, dragging her finger across the smooth page. She heard Jason grunting, but didn't look up.
"Next?"
"Connect the two horizontal incisions with a vertical incision down the belly."
Jason found the belly to be the easiest of places to cut. Within seconds he had opened up the two flaps he had created, and put down the scalpel. "What torture instrument is next?" he asked, staring at his choice of tools.
"Tweezers," Nuala said, "to remove the organs, and a scissors to clip them free when necessary."
"Got it," Jason said. He gently squeezed a few organs between the tweezers, and clipped them free whilst Nuala made notes in her book. She was determined to not look his way, and Jason couldn't help but find her disgust at the lesson amusing.
When the horrible deal was finally over, Jason and Nuala cleaned up their station, washed their hands, and quickly exited the room. Nuala shuddered and made a quick beeline to her locker, almost walking into Billy and Kim as they exited the Mathematics' room together.
"Hey, where's the fire?" Kim called, following her friend. "Are you OK? You're looking a little pale."
Nuala ignored her, wrenched open her locker and grabbed a bottle of water from inside. She had drunk half the bottle by the time Trini had joined them, whilst Jason couldn't keep the amused smirk from his face.
"What's going on?" Trini asked.
"Nuala nearly fainted in Biology," Jason said.
"You did?" Billy asked, looking at the silver Ranger.
"Every time we did dissections in my old school I always passed out or felt sick. I have never been able to do them," Nuala explained.
Trini smiled, comfortingly and slapped Jason in the chest. "Did you talk to Miss Prescott before today?" she asked.
"Yeah, she was the one who suggested that I take notes while Jason does the dissecting," Nuala said.
"Well, it's over now," said Kim, gently. "You've just got the report to do."
Nuala nodded. "Yeah, I can start it tomorrow," she said to Jason.
"OK," Jason said. "We should have a free period tomorrow's lesson, we can meet and start it them."
"Sounds good," Nuala said, checking the time. It was nearly time for second period History.
"Catch you later, guys," Trini said, walking off with Kim and Jason.
"Ready?" Billy asked. Nuala nodded, slammed her locker door and followed Billy onwards to history class.
At the end of the day, the Rangers - save for Zack, who hadn't been seen since earlier that morning, - and Ciaran met outside the front of the entrance to the building.
"I have to check on Ellis before I go anywhere," Nuala said. "So Ciaran and I'll meet you at the youth centre later, OK?"
"OK. See you then," Jason said. "The rest of us will try and find Zack."
"Sure," Nuala nodded. "See you later."
~*A Dire Situation*~
Sometime later that same day, after checking in with her mother and Ellis, Nuala sat in the front garden doing homework. She'd just set Ellis down for a nap and decided to get as much work done before Zack's surprise party later.
Turning the page of her science book, Nuala folded her legs underneath her and put pen to paper. She had promised Jason they'd start the biology report tomorrow during free period, but she wanted to get it out of the way, the more she thought about the dissecting of the frog, the more sick she felt.
Managing to write out her name, and assignment title, Nuala sighed as her communicator jingled and Zordon called out to her.
"Nuala, Zack is in trouble." Zordon said. "Rita has sent one of her creatures to attack him. He needs help fast."
"Where are the others?" Nuala asked, jumping up quickly.
"They are already there!"
"And so am I," Nuala replied. She looked around her surroundings, carefully looking for people who may have been watching her, and then fell into single formation. "It's morphin' time - Dire Wolf!"
Reaching for her communicator, Nuala disappeared in a cylinder of silver, just as her brother walked outside with his homework books. He stopped short as his sister's teleportation sequence disappeared, and then returned inside to tell his mother that Nuala was gone.
Teleporting straight into the battlefield, Nuala wobbled slightly and looked down - surprised to find that she had somehow managed to teleported directly onto the top of the five person pyramid her friends had created.
"Oh! Hi, Nuala," Trini said, looking up.
"How did I get up here?" Nuala asked.
"That's a good question," said Kim, also looking up. "Maybe we should figure it out later. Got your blade blaster?"
Nuala nodded and reached for the weapon on her hip. She prepped it up, and aimed down firing at the three dimensional crystal her friends had created. A ring of light silver energy encased the crystal and it hit the dark creature they were facing. The monster snarled, and deflected the blast back at the rangers, causing the pyramid to collapse.
"Ha! Take that, wise guys!" Rita shouted from her vantage point. She threw her staff at the feet of the dark creature and he grew to thirty-feet.
"We need Dino Zord power. Now!"
"Let's go!" said Zack. He was already bummed that his friends had forgotten his birthday, and now he had to fight Rita on top of it. As soon as the Megazord was complete, the rangers were attacked by the Dark Knight, his poisonous sword sliced straight through their exterior, almost reaching them inside the cockpit.
"Holy crap!" Nuala cursed as sparks flew all over her control panel. "What was that?" she asked, looking around at her friends.
"Apparently his special attack," Kim answered. "He totally trashed our weapons before you arrived."
"I'm gonna take a guess and say he's Rita's trump card," Nuala said, using her controls to block the Dark Knight's sword with the Dire spear. She slashed in down in the form of an 'X', and then jabbed it at the knight, raised him into the air and threw him over the shoulder of the Megazord.
The Dark Knight growled as he landed on his feet behind the Megazord; he turned to attack and found himself face-to-face with a power sword.
"It's not fun when we fight back, is it?" Zack said, raising the sword and blocking the knight's double attack. He then spun the arm of the Megazord around, and the two locked swords twisted until the Dark Knight let his go and it flew out of the way. "
"Where did that come from?" Trini asked as the Dark Knight somehow managed to render the Megazord to its knees, and retrieve his sword. He kicked the Megazord in the chest and they stamped on them, hard enough to draw anguish cries from the Rangers, and sparks from the consoles.
"I think I've figured it out," said Zack, suddenly.
"Figured what out?" Kim asked.
"How ugly man's beating us," Zack replied. "Any energy we throw at him, he just reflects back at us! That's why our weapons all burned out."
"So what do we do about it?!" Jason asked.
"Reflect his energy back at him, along with a bit of our own!" Zack insisted.
"That might just work," Nuala agreed. "We give him a high-powered taste of his own medicine!"
"Morphenomenal, Zack!" Kim said, leaning forward in her seat behind the black Ranger.
"Hey, let me have the honor of zapping Sir Buckethead," said Zack.
"Go for it," Jason agreed.
Zack nodded and recalibrated the controls on his console. The cockpit glowed a bright while colour as the shield-paneled visor of the Zords eyes lit up and fired a high-voltage energy beam at the knight. It hit his sword, holding him in place.
"Dufus, get free!" Rita shouted, angrily.
"I'm trying!" the Knight replied.
Forcing the Megazord to its feet, the Rangers re-energized their sword and slashed it at the knight, slicing his own in half.
"Hey, wait a second!" the knight shouted, alarmed at the sudden turn of events.
"Gotcha now!" said Zack. He powered the sword up to its maximum capacity, and then slashed it down through the monster, cutting him in half.
~*A Dire Situation*~
Zack frowned and looked up at the Youth Centre; he was still confused as to why his friends were insistent on stopping by here after the battle. "Tell me again why we're here?" he asked.
"I promised Ernie I'd stop by after school," Nuala said. "But I forgot in my haste to get home. It won't be two seconds, I swear."
"Uh, OK," Zack said, following her inside. "Hey, wait, why is it so dark in here?" he added, passing through into the room behind Nuala, He didn't feel or sense the silver Ranger slide behind him, until she had flipped the switch and the lights came to life.
"SURPRISE!"
Zack jumped at the sudden loud yell, and a grin broke out over his face as he looked around at everyone there. There were balloons, banners, and half-a-dozen people from school, including Ernie.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ZACK!"
"Aw, man!" Zack said, turning around and pulling Nuala, Kim and Trini into a strong bear hug, while Jason and Billy patted his shoulders in a form of friendly comfort.
"Happy Birthday, Zack," Nuala said, as he pulled away and turned to face his party guests.
"Aw, man, this is all for me?" he asked.
"You thought we forgot, didn't you?" Jason asked, amused.
"Yeah, and I was bumming!" Zack replied. "Oh, this is so cool, you guys! Thanks - wait, what's that noise?" he added as an electrical cackle came from the bar.
"RUN AND HIDE!" Ciaran shouted darting away from the bar as the cake-o-matic started to gurgle and shake. He darted across the dance floor and collided with a chair at the table his mother was sitting at with Ellis.
"Oh, not again!" Ernie shouted, running up to the bar and opening the door of the machine. "I thought this thing was fixed!"
Nuala bit the tip of her fingernail and glanced at Billy, uncertainly. The blue Ranger sighed and rushed forward to help Ernie, while Zack took Nuala by the arm and dragged her down to the dance floor with the others.
"Ciaran tells me you know how to dance," Zack said to the silver Ranger.
"Uh, no, not exactly," Nuala said, glaring around at her brother.
"Don't lie, Nuala," Ciaran shouted from out of reach. "You're an awesome dancer!"
"Yeah, but only on the ice," Nuala said in protest.
"Well, it's about time you learned off the ice," said Zack, taking her hand. "Come on, just follow my lead."
Nuala groaned and tried to escape, only to find her path blocked by an amused looking Kim, Trini and Jason, all of which, like Zack, were insistent that she demonstrate her great dancing skill.
Copyrighted ©
Chapter written by xXxKaraBeckerCutterxXx
Chapter updated Tuesday, 03 June, 2014 at 03:13pm
