Told ya I wouldn't keep you waiting for long! It took a little bit for me to get in the heads of bullies, (Which I hated to do) but I think I've done this thing justice. Yeah, I hated to do this to my favorite power ranger couple, but it all fits together now.
All of you guys were pretty outraged over what happened last chapter, and I share your anger, so I hope you guys all feel better by the end of this chapter. I myself was the victim of bullies, though mine came at me during 8th grade. So I did get some pleasure from seeing these bullies get what's coming to them.
I know that in the show, during the Aquitar Rangers Arc, the rangers were turned into Kids, but that doesn't happen in this universe. It felt too squicky with everything that happened, so they just simply lost their powers. Also, for reasons that I explain in this chapter, Kimberly stayed on as the pink Zeo Ranger with Kat coming in as the pink Turbo Ranger later. Also, for the same reason, during the Zeo Quest, instead of switching places with Tanya, Aisha just brings her back with her.
For anyone that needs clarification. It would have been agonizing for Rocky and Aisha who have a soul fusion to be apart like that. The same goes for Billy and Kat.
Anyway, I think that does it for any author notes. Other than some trigger warnings for some nasty bullying action. Everyone should be good to go.
So, read on and I'll see you guys at the bottom!
(Continued from the last chapter)
When they were gone, the younger adults looked towards Billy and Kat. "So, what happened next?" Trent asked in a tight voice.
Billy took a long sip of his drink and then gave them a serious look.
"Things got really ugly."
"When Mr. Hart arrived, he was beyond angry, he was almost murderous." Billy stated with soft voice." By the next day, Jason, Trini and Zack arrived back in town."
-Flashback-
" Jason!" Kimberly said with a smile as he walked through the doors. Tommy gave him a tired smile and Mr. Hart got up to pull him into a manly hug.
"Glad that you were able to get away from your duties."
"Nothing could have stopped me from getting here. Not when my little sister is in the hospital."
"It makes me feel better about this situation knowing that she's got you all looking out for her. I'll leave you kids alone to talk, while I go call my lawyer; just promise me that you won't go off half cocked and do something stupid."
Jason nodded slowly and then looked over at Kim with concern. When Mr. Hart walked out, the former leader of the rangers walked over to the hospital bed and sat down on the end of it.
"So, who's ass am I beating?"
Kim snorted. "None, you're not the type to beat up girls."
Jason nodded. "Ok, so who am I sending Trini after?"
"Veronica and her Bitch Squad, but I'm pretty sure that Trini will need a squad of her own." Kimberly told him soberly.
"Huh, that sounds like a girl band that likes to get high and drunk on the weekends."
Tommy snorted and kissed Kimberly's forehead. "I wish that's all they did. These chicks like to play dirty and now they've crossed the line."
That made Jason sober up. "Ok, so tell me everything."
By the time they'd told the story, Jason was seriously pissed. Still, he kept his promise in mind. "This is serious, I won't order a hit on them, but I won't let them get away with what happened. It's time to have a team meeting with everyone. Do we all still have communicators?"
Tommy nodded. "Yeah, but you'll probably need the updated version that Billy made, he and his new girlfriend Kat are staying in the RV out in the parking lot. He can call everyone else in."
"Kat?" Jason asked with a look of confusion. "Is she read in on this?"
Kimberly nodded. "Yeah, she is. She's his mate and they're fused. She'll also probably be your best bet in getting close to the Bitch Squad."
"Got it. You guys take it easy now. I'll send in Trini and then Zac and I are going to get the ball rolling."
-End Flashback-
"We'd really hoped that things would get easier once school was let out for summer break." Billy said. "But it didn't. Veronica's attacks only got more vicious. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and her mother was even more of a bitch. It didn't take more then a few weeks for rumors to spread, and the Angel Grove Mall, which Kim went to every week, became hell for her. We didn't realize how bad it had gotten till the day that Tommy called us for help. The two of them had been sitting in the food court and some girl from Veronica's circle walked by and dumped her entire smoothie over Kimberly's head and said some terrible words that I won't dare repeat. After that, all expeditions to the mall stopped."
"Jason, Zack and Trini did their best to protect them. Jason was especially worried that the stress from the bullies would make Tommy and Kim sloppy during the initial fights with the Tengas. They used some kind of old time tactical gear to lessen the damage taken by the tengas. It helped but they could only do so much."
He took a breath and then continued the story.
"Tommy and Kim had hoped that staying away from that mecca would give them a break, but those bitches didn't let up on them. Being the victim of bullying, I knew they wouldn't and these girls made Bulk and Skull look like Candy Stripers. Somehow those girls found out where the RV resided and while our friends were at the grocery store, they vandalized it. Theybroke all the windows, slashed the tires and destroyed the interior along with any possessions that had been left out in the open and to Kimberly's distress, destroyed all the clothing in her closet. But the worst thing of all was the graffiti left on the exterior. It was…terrible."
Billy took a deep breath and Kat squeezed his hand. That was when Rocky took up the story.
"It's during the hard times that you find out who your friends are. Ernie was a solid supporter and was one of the few people outside of our families that helped them out. All our parents chipped in with bringing them groceries and their basics needs. Mr. Hart had insurance on the RV, so it was covered, and within a month or two, it was restored back to factory standards. Tommy really had to convince Kimberly to move back in."
"While all this was going on, whenever we weren't fighting monsters, we were planning." Billy continued. "As much as I hate to admit it, the bathrooms are a perfect place to attack someone. There's no surveillance for obvious reasons so we had a hard time finding proof outside of Kim's testimony, the police's reports and the Doctors evidence of the attack. We couldn't tie it to the bitch crew."
"Finally, we got desperate and decided to make a move." Billy finished. He looked at Kat and smiled lovingly at her.
-Flashback-
Kat took a deep breath and grounded herself. Billy had wired her up and she wore a small recording device under her shirt and a microphone was hidden in the pretty pink headband she wore. They'd gotten a call from Ernie saying that the bitch squad had shown up.
It was show time.
Kat squared her shoulders and then strode in to the youth center, walked up to the juice bar, sat on a stool and ordered a chocolate banana smoothie. The whole time she felt eyes on her, though she ignored it. Finally, she got up and headed for the bathroom.
Just as she predicted, Vanessa and her crew followed her into the bathroom. She ignored them and made to wash her hands. When she turned to look at them, Veronica slapped her across the face.
"Traitor. I can't believe you'd ruin your reputation by hanging out with that Skank!"
Kat gave gave her a shocked look as she held a hand to her cheek.
"I don't know who you're talking about."
"Kimberly Hart!" Veronica clarified. "We were so nice to you and showed you around and then you leave us for that whore!"
It was such a perfect opening.
Kat looked at them. "I heard about what you did to her. Beating her up in the bathroom and leaving her bloody was a very nasty thing to do. Then you have a go at her at the mall and destroy her home! Not cool!"
Veronica rolled her eyes. "Please! That skank had it coming. No one disrespects us like that. She may have money, but that doesn't make her better then us and leaving the Angel Girl's club over that street rat Aisha was even worse. We had to shut her down and it worked perfectly. That whore will never show her face in this city ever again. Hey, if we're lucky she'll even kill herself!"
Veronica got in her face then. "And the same thing will happen to you if you don't stay away from her and that pathetic crew of hers."
Kat raised an eyebrow. "Woah, you sure think highly of yourself, don't you?"
"Hey, if the crown fits, wear it. Remember what I said, or I'll do worse to you." Then they walked out laughing.
Kat waited for them to leave, and then grinned in triumph. She walked out the door, stopping only to get her smoothie to go. When she left the juice bar, Billy pulled up in his car and they drove off, back to the cabin.
-End flashback-
"Wow! Were they really so stupid?" Conner asked.
Kat nodded. "Most bullies are. The recording was their downfall and within two weeks the Bitch Squad was arrested, and their parents were being notified of the suit being brought against them."
"It was a thing of beauty seeing Mr. Hart in action." Billy said. "He'd already had a lawyer ready to go to court and with the proof he needed, they only had to wait for a court date.
-Flashback-
The crew had all gathered at Mr. Hart's house. Mr. Berringer, who was the lawyer that Kimberly's father had hired sat at the table listening to the recording. He was an older man in his late 60's that looked like he could have retired already. He was sharply dressed, and his gray hair was neatly combed. He was an older gentleman of medium height and build and he had intense green eyes.
As he listened to the recording, he made notes on his legal pad with his gold pen that had #1 Grandpa! Engraved into the side. In fact, Rocky had noted that the pen seemed to be a set because the leather folder that held the legal pad had those same words embossed on the front.
When the lawyer finished listening, He looked up at Kimberly who was being held by Tommy on the couch and gave her a compassionate smile. "Well, this evidence looks solid to me and should have no problem holding up in court. I am truly sorry for everything you've gone through but rest assured that I'm going to go after Miss Veronica and her minions. I've been a lawyer for many years and I'm going to see to it that you get every bit of restitution that you've got coming to you. Though it won't make up for losing a baby." He added a moment later. "You've got a remarkable support group and I have no doubt they are going to keep holding your heads above water through all of this."
He turned to Mr. Hart. "Would you mind seeing me out? I've got a few things to go over with you."
-End Flashback-
"You've heard the saying that lawyers are sharks." Rocky said with a look at the young adults. When they nodded, he continued. "Mr. Berringer proved it. We could all tell that he was a kindly old grandfather that lived to dote on his grandchildren, but the moment he stepped into the court room, his whole demeaner changed.
The lawyer that Veronica's family brought in was a cocky son of a bitch. He took one look at the older lawyer and assumed that he was a pushover. By the end of the day, he was scrambling to contain the damage. Mr. Berringer won the case with hardly any other trouble and got Kimberly a hefty settlement from them. The other two families caved in and settled out of court. One of them, who was going through hard times, handed over this manor as an alternate method of payment. When we got it, it wasn't worth a whole lot, but it had potential.
-Flashback-
Mr. Hart opened the door to the old run-down manor. He'd already had a building inspector come through already to insure the house was sound and it was, but he was also told that it would take some work to bring it up to code.
"Basically, it's going to take some time to make it livable, and I've already got a crew lined up to start updating this place, but in about a year or less, you guys should be able to live here, and it will be a lot cheaper than living in individual apartments."
Rocky and Aisha were the first to walk through the doors.
The house had a peaceful vibe to it and it was a quiet. As Aisha looked around, she could imagine what this place would look like. She could envision kids running around this place, drinking chocolate milk and talking excitedly over cartoons at the kitchen table.
Kimberly looked through the dirty, dusty back windows in the back of what she guessed was the kitchen and saw a run-down thorny garden. It had loads of potential for something beautiful.
Rocky walked into the run-down kitchen and gave it a good look. He'd always wanted a place to experiment with food and this kitchen would give it to him, as soon as it was outfitted with good appliances.
Tommy looked into the sitting room and could see many nights of watching fighting movies with his friends. He looked into the corner of the room and saw a place to have Christmas morning, He could see a tree in the corner and little kids sitting around it excitedly ripping through the brightly colored packages.
Adam walked outside and saw a big open space. He could see himself putting a dojo out here to work out in. It would be his personal project. In the back of his mind, he knew he would stay out here to avoid witnessing all the romance going on.
Maybe one day, he'd be in that dojo, teaching his son or daughter about the martial arts…
Billy walked down the stairs and looked around. The basement was massive! He could see himself putting a computer lab of some kind down here where he could test out his inventions.
Kat looked out the same window as Kimberly. Maybe there would be room for a jacuzzi somewhere in that yard…
They spent a good thirty minutes in that place before they left to get some lunch. Sure this house had been paid for in blood pain and tears, but it was worth the trouble.
-End Flashback-
"Working on that house proved to be a kind of Catharsis to us." Rocky continued again. "During the time that the house was being worked on, we lost our ninja zords, were saved by the Aquitar Rangers and we'd gone on our quest for the Zeo crystals. Tanya came back with Aisha. Billy had to leave for Aquitar during that whole aging thing and Kat went with him. By the time we'd become the Zeo rangers and I'd traded my red clothes for blue ones, this manor was ready for us to start making it ours."
"So, what happened to Veronica and her friends?" Kira asked. "Did they stay in jail or were they able to buy their way out?"
Rocky snorted. "I wish I could say that the judge locked them in jail and threw away the key."
"They got out? Kira asked outraged.
Rocky huffed. "Oh they did their time in juvie and then served a year in jail where they got some sense knocked into them by the female population. I heard when they got out that none of them dared to show their face around school again. According to the gossip mill, those two girls, Pauline and Andi moved out of town with their families and Veronica finished out her high school years at their family estate with a private tutor. Mr. Caplan's final act as Principle was to disband the Angel Girl's club because of the mistreatment some of the girls went through, especially those who didn't come from wealthy families."
"That's a relief." Kira said as Conner kissed her hair. "It would have sucked if those girls got out of jail free and returned to school smelling like roses."
Tanya laughed. "I said the same thing when I was told what happened."
"Yeah, but you had your own trouble when that asshole Shawn showed up." Adam reminded her.
"Yeah but let's save that for another day." Tanya replied while stifling a yawn. "I'm not going to run from telling this story, but I'm gonna need some better fortification to go into that mess."
When the fire pit had been extinguished and everyone had cleaned up and gone to their bedrooms for the night, Adam held Tanya close and kissed the side of her head. I'll go get your some fudge cheesecake and vanilla ice cream when the time comes."
Tanya smiled at him and kissed him back. "For now, let's get to bed, I've had enough of today."
Adam nodded and hugged her tight before they headed for their room. On their way up, they passed the nursery.
Tommy approached them. "Storytime over?"
Adam nodded. "Yeah, it is. Billy left out the gory details, but he did it justice."
Tommy nodded. "Good." He paused as Kimberly stood up with Mav tucked into the baby sling. "We're heading to the nest. I guess we'll see you in the morning."
"Yep, see you then."
And they went their separate ways for the night.
I hope you all feel like the bullies got what they deserved and that I did this thing justice. Next up, Tanya and Adam get the chance to tell their story.
See you then!
