Chapter 09


"Kimberly Ann Hart."

"Y-yes?" Kimberly squeaked, slowly sitting down in the chair that had been pulled out for her. She looked around the tiny, gray office she had been thrust into as soon as she arrived at the police station. She and her friends had all come in a group, reassuring each other that things were going to be OK when they got there. Then she was grabbed by a female office and dragged away from her friends. No matter what questions she asked as she was taken through winding hallways and upstairs, she never got a response.

"And you're friends with Jason Lee Scott?" The female officer continued, walking away from the door and back over to the table. She sat down behind it and opened a file folder, her eyes scanning over it a few minutes, before snapping it back shut.

Kimberly jumped at the loud 'slam' the officer's palm made against the table. She gently chewed her bottom lip, bringing it into her mouth. "Yes," she replied, then cleared her throat, wringing her hands together. "He's one of my best friends." She sat up straight, looking earnestly at the officer. "Have you heard anything from him or Av? Are they ok? They're not hurt are they?"

"Relax, we're just trying to find them," the officer said, holding up a hand. Her tough exterior broke down and she looked at Kimberly with concern. "You all have been a big part of the Angel Grove community for such a long time and having teenagers suddenly runaway like this is very alarming." She raised an eyebrow. "Unless there's something we don't know."

Kimberly lowered her gaze. There's a lot you don't know. Of course she couldn't say that. It would bring in a lot more questions she wouldn't be able to answer. Some about the power rangers and others about their friends in general. Everything she could have wanted to say would just be thrown back in her face, twisted around, or used to try and pry something else out of her. It's no wonder we have to keep our identities a secret. Who would believe anything we had to say? They'd probably think we're nuts!

"You wouldn't say that they had any sort of problems with their parents do you?" The officer continued. Kimberly's face twisted up in confusion. The officer smiled, leaning back in her seat. "Calm down, Kimberly. I can see you're getting worked up. I know you're starting to freak out. But we are going to do our best to find your friends. I just need you to work with me as much as you can. And everything you say will be confidential and it'll just help our cause to find your friends." She placed a business card on the table and Kimberly looked it over.

Detective Rachel Jones.

"I thought you were an officer," Kimberly said, gently holding the card in her hand.

"I let people think that when the first meet me," Detective Jones replied with a slight shrug. Her lips curled up in the corner. "It's easier for people to feel that they can trust me. Whenever a Detective comes in, people automatically assume someone's either dead or they freak out even more and don't want to talk." She rested her hands I her lap. "Now, did they have any problems with their parents?"

"Definitely not," Kimberly replied, shaking her head. "Jason loved—"she immediately broke off, realizing her mistake, noticing Detective Jones's eyes narrow slightly. "Loves his parents," she corrected herself. "He wouldn't let anything happen to them if he could help it, even if it means him hurting them."

"And what about Avalon?"

"Avalon's parents aren't here," Kimberly replied with a light shake of her head. "I don't know the whole story about where they are, but they haven't been in the picture for a long time. She and Bailey have been living on their own for a bit, and then Billy and his parents allowed them to stay at their place."

"Right. Right." Detective Jones nodded for a few minutes then raised her eyes to look at the pink ranger once more. "And you wouldn't say that they planned this whole thing would you?" Kimberly's right eye squinted for a moment. "I mean, if there were any romantic feelings involved—"Kimberly cut Detective Jones off with a loud bark of laughter. She immediately moved her hand up to cover her mouth. "I'll take that as a 'no'." Detective Jones opened the folder and marked something on the sheet of paper that was inside it.

"I'm sorry," Kimberly apologized, lowering her hands again, holding her hands up, palms out. "I shouldn't have laughed. It's just…they act so much like brother and sister, they're always getting on each other's nerves in some way or another."

"So what would make them leave together?" Detective Jones pressed.

Kimberly shrugged. "It's what I said. They're like brother and sister, and with what Avalon has been through, sometimes Jason thinks that he needs to protect her." Kimberly rolled her eyes. "Which just opens up another can of worms because if you think Avalon is someone that needs help, she'll quickly prove you wrong." Her eyes lowered to the floor as a sad look filled her face.

"She's one of your best friends, huh?" Detective Jones asked quietly.

Kimberly nodded. "She, Trini, and I…we're so close. We hang out all the time." She chuckled to herself. "I haven't met anyone that likes to go to the mall as much as I do, train as much as Trini does, or work out as much as the guys do." She bobbed her head back and forth. "Not to say she doesn't have any faults: she's aggressive, judgmental, abrasive, impulsive, and can get angry pretty quickly, but she still seems to round us all out." She paused then lifted her head once more. "To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if she ran away, considering how alone she feels sometimes. But to bring Jason with her, I don't believe that."

Detective Jones was quiet for a long moment, bringing her eyes back down to the folder that was sitting in front of her. Kimberly shifted in her seat, her eyes continuously moving around the room. There was nothing for her to look at. Nothing that would give her some sense of comfort while she was being interrogated.

"Would you believe he's a power ranger?"

Kimberly's mouth dropped open.


"Jason a power ranger?" Zack repeated the question he had just been asked before bursting out into laugher. "That's ridiculous." He crossed his arms over his chest and slouched down in his seat. His eyes watched Officer Pickett as he paced back and forth in front of him. "I've known the guy since we were kids, there's no way he's a power ranger, he would have told me."

"Mhm." Officer Picket replied.

He continued to watch Zack.

Zack fidgeted in his seat, his eyes shifting for a moment. What was he going to say now? It was obvious Officer Pickett didn't believe him. But how was he going to convince him that Jason wasn't a power ranger? Who'd believe that it was a teenage boy that was saving the world on a daily basis? Actually who would believe that the black ranger was in fact sitting in front of him, trying to figure out a way to save his friend? He had been taken by Officer Pickett once he got to the station, Kimberly being led in the opposite direction.

As he was being led off, he could hear Bailey said to the others, "What do you think is going on?"

"I'm sure we're just being asked questions," Tommy replied, though he sounded just as concerned as the rangers' technical advisor.

"But wouldn't they want to ask us all at the same time?" Trini asked. "Wouldn't we be able to help better that way?"

"Negative," Billy denied. "They're splitting us up to see if we all have different stories or theories as to why Jason would have wanted to get out of here so quickly and why he wouldn't want to be found." He then paused. "And maybe something else."

Zack thought he was going to be asked if there was something about Jason's life anyone else knew. And he would have been glad to answer any of those questions. He didn't know they were going to ask if he was a power ranger and demand to know if Zack had known about it. His blood ran cold, cold enough Zack was surprised he couldn't see his breath in front of his face. All those times he and his friends had narrowly managed to keep the secret form those that were around them and the police were able to catch onto it quickly. They were trained to notice when someone was lying, trained to push and push and push until they got a confession.

How long could Zack last until he cracked?

He could continue to bluff about it, but it would only last for so long until Officer Puckett realized that he was, indeed, hiding something.

"All I want to know is how long Jason has been a power ranger and if you know who the others are?" Officer Puckett pressed gently. He reached out and placed his finger tips not he folder, turning it around and pushing it towards Zack. Zack stared at the manila folder, briefly wondering why they called it manila, before lifting his eyes to Officer Puckett's. He held the man's steady gaze as long as he could without blinking. "Go ahead." Officer Puckett pressed. "Open it."

Zack let out a deep breath and reached forward, taking the folder. He opened it and his mouth dropped open a second later. Pictures of Jason sat in front of him. He was in some sort of a bank or federal building. Each frame of the picture—there were about seven of them in succession—showed Jason looking around, taking up his morpher, doing his call, and transforming into the red ranger. Zack gulped and slowly lifted his eyes.

Oh God. What are we going to do now? He thought. For the first time in his life, the black ranger didn't have anything witty to say, to try and diffuse the situation. He knew they were caught. It was only a matter of time and that time finally came.

"So now you just have to tell me what you know," Officer Puckett said sternly. "And it's not because we want to know as much of the power rangers as we possibly can, but because we want to help your friend." Zack pressed his lips together, continuing to sit in front of Officer Puckett, wondering what to do. "Ok…" Officer Puckett stood up and started to pace back and forth. "There's something we didn't tell you…something that you need to know or else you'll have something else to worry about other than finding your friend."

"Oh yeah?" Zack's eyebrows rose. "What's that?"

"There's this group…that we've been watching for ages…that we believe are gunning after Jason," Officer Puckett said. "We think they know that he's a power ranger and they've been trying to get him to help with whatever project they're working on at this moment. This may have been the reason that Jason had to leave so quickly and he may have told Avalon what the problem is, which is why she has gone with him. However, because there's so many people that this group can reach, we don't know how safe they are on their own." He bobbed his head back and forth. "But, if he is, indeed, a power ranger, that may not be a problem."

Zack pursed his lips; trying to wrap his head around everything he was being told. It was a large info dump and he was still reeling from the notion that his secret had been exposed.

"So it'd be in your best interest if you would talk to us," Officer Puckett said. He nodded towards the photos once more. "Now…is Jason a power ranger?"

Zack licked his lips, slightly shaking his head. He let out an incredulous laugh then brought his hands up, running them over his face. What would Jason do? He thought back to the time where Goldar had taken their parents hostage and they had no choice but to give over their power coins to get them back. I hope I'm making the right decision. "Yes…" Zack whispered. "He's a power ranger."

Officer Puckett smiled a little, though it was gone in a matter of seconds. He placed his hands on the table and leaned in towards Zack's face. "What about you? And the rest of them? Are you power rangers too?"

"Yes," Zack admitted.


"So if you're power rangers, how were you able to keep the secret for so long?" Officer Aviv questioned, sitting on the edge of the metal table that sat in the middle of the room. "I mean, no offense, but the fact that you all constantly wear the same color as the rangers should have tipped off a lot of people ages ago." She leaned over Tommy who shrugged bashfully.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought of that before, however, none of them really thought about it. It was their favorite colors and they liked to wear it a lot. He had only thought about it a few times, wondering how long it would take for people to figure everything out. Bulk and Skull had a few really close calls and in the end, they still managed to be talked out of what they had come close to knowing. It just proved that their excuses, sometimes, could be lame, they didn't try hard enough to keep their secret, and there were many times they could have potentially let their guard down.

How many people already know? Tommy asked himself. Who out there knows our secret but decided to keep it a secret for us? Who wants to reveal it instead?

"To be honest, there were a lot of times where I wondered if telling people that we're the rangers would have helped us rather than hurt us," Tommy said. He placed his hand in his lap, dragging them off the table. The ring on his right hand scraped against the table, making a jarring sound that immediately caused his teeth to clamp together. "Everyone is always happy to see us and the people of Angel Grove have shown that they really support what we do. But there's always that could get in the way."

"Like?" Officer Aviv pressed.

"Wanting to figure out where we get our powers and how they work," Tommy said. "The mechanics behind it. Being treated differently. Being attacked on a regular basis because of our true identities." Tommy paused then laughed a little. "That's a joke, really, because our identities have always been known by Rita and Zedd, but we couldn't say and have everyone else know or more people would be put in danger."

Officer Aviv nodded. He stood up and cracked his knuckles. "The fact you've kept it this long is a testament to your loyalty to each other." He leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees. "Now, are you sure you don't know where Jason could have gone? We need as much information as we can to—"

Officer Aviv broke off as Tommy's communicator went off. Tommy looked down at it and then up at Officer Aviv. There were a few tense moments between the two. Should Tommy go and see what Zordon wanted? Or should he stay there and continue with the police. Officer Aviv took a step back and nodded at Tommy.

Tommy hesitated a moment then stood up from his seat. Instead of lifting his communicator to his mouth and wondering what Zordon wanted, he made the executive decision, as the leader, to not bring Zordon and Alpha into it. No one needed to know where they got their powers from and who their mentor was. If there was a way to keep the two a secret as long as possible, they would. Tommy pressed his communicator and teleported out of the police station and to the Command Center.

Once his feet hit the ground, he turned to see that the rest of the rangers and Bailey had arrived as well. Taking one look at each of their faces, Tommy knew they had done the same thing and revealed that they were all, in fact, power rangers. Tommy turned back to Zordon and shook his head. "Zordon…we didn't have a choice," he murmured.

"It's alright, Tommy," Zordon reassured him. "We know that you were all faced with a difficult decision and you handled it well."

"What's going to happen now, Zordon?" Trini asked. She exchanged a worried glance with Billy then faced Zordon and Alpha once more. "Now that our secret is revealed, we don't know what they're going to do with that information." She shuffled her feet. "Does this mean the end of the power rangers?"

"Even if your powers were destroyed, it wouldn't be the end of the power rangers," Alpha denied.

"Because the power was and always has been within you," Zordon agreed. "It was only a matter of time until someone caught wind of what you were all doing, but we're proud of how long you managed to hold onto your identities."

"Zordon, they said something about a group that's targeting Jason," Bailey spoke up. She pushed her glasses up her nose then tightened her ponytail behind her. "Do you think it's anything we should be worried about?"

"I speculated the same thing," Billy agreed. He reached up a hand and rubbed his chin. "The probability that they're able to uncover the Command Center isn't great. However, if they know we're the rangers they have to know that we'd have some sort of base around here and probing the desert wouldn't be difficult choice to start."

"But remember, they'd, like, have to have a power coin to get in here," Kimberly spoke up for the first time since they arrived. She had her hands clasped onto Tommy's arm, holding onto him tightly.

"Who says the group that's after Jason doesn't have a power coin?" Zack reminded them.

"Zordon, what do you think we should do?" Tommy turned back to their mentor, placing his hands on his hips. Before Zordon could answer, a loud peal split the air and they all instinctively turned towards the viewing globe, watching as Rita's and Zedd's monster of the day started to attack the city of Angel Grove. Residents ran back and forth, abandoning their cars as they went. "Looks like we got the answer to that question." He dropped his arm from Kimberly's and turned to his friends. "You guys ready?"

"Ready!"

"It's Morphin' time!"

"Tiger Zord!"

"Mastodon!"

"Pterodactyl!"

"Triceratops!"

"Saber-tooth Tiger!"

The rangers teleported into the city, leaving Bailey at the Command Center. As soon as they arrived, the monster, which appeared to be some variation of a cannon, shot out a beam of energy, blasting them off their feet. As the rangers struggled to get up, putties, led by Goldar, surrounded them. Tommy flipped to his feet and sent a roundhouse kick to a putty, catching it in the Z, sending it apart as quickly as he could.

"Spread out guys," he ordered.

"Right!"

Billy launched himself into battle, fighting off as many putties as he could. At his side, Trini matched each of his punches and kicks in her own, slightly spiritual style, matching his systematically powerful style. The putties were defeated quickly; it was when they got to Goldar that they had a problem. Zack brandished his Power Axe and charged towards the golden monkey.

"I don't think so, black ranger!" Goldar cried. He lifted his sword and slapped it against Zack's axe, knocking it out of the way. Before Zack could move, Goldar swung his sword back around and caught the black ranger in the chest, sending him backwards a few feet.

"Zack!" Kimberly called.

"Kim, look out!" Billy shouted. He watched as the canon monster took in bright light, harnessing energy and unleashed it on the pink ranger. She screamed as she was hit with the pulse of energy and rocketed into the side of a building.

"Hang on, Kim!" Tommy called for his girlfriend. He pulled out his sword and charged the cannon monster. Billy and Trini joined in the fray, with Goldar jumping to the monster's side as well.

"Power Lance!" Billy called.

"Power daggers!" Trini added.

The two jumped forward and started to slash their weapons at the monsters as much as they could. Billy ducked and bobbed and weaved out of the way as Goldar swung his sword towards him. He watched, ducking Goldar's sword and struck the canon monster in its face. It fell onto its back, though continued to glow white around the rim of its cannon. Billy held onto his Power Lance as it got back to its feet, the white light glowing brighter.

Its gaining energy each time we hit it, Billy suddenly realized. We're making him stronger. He started to back up as quickly as he could.

"Why don't you try this on for size?" The cannon monster called. He crossed his arms and when he threw them down again, he blasted out a bright blue beam of energy. It stuck Billy in the chest, knocking him off his feet and into the air. With the same blast, the shockwave bowled Tommy and Trini over.

Billy let out a scream as he flew through the air, flailing his arms and legs. His scream was cut off into a grunt as he crashed to the ground and demorphed. The blue ranger groaned; bringing his arms in to cover himself as a beam blast went flying overhead, striking a car. It burst in a ball of flames, sending glass and shrapnel everywhere. Getting back to his feet, Billy wiped blood off his cheek. Some glass had cut him, otherwise, he was ok.

"Billy," Alpha's voice came over the communicator. "You have to try and use the power of the red ranger."

"I don't know if I can." Billy hesitated. He got to his feet and backed away, taking refuge behind a car that was parked on the sides of the street. He could hear the other rangers getting attacked by the canon monster and it sounded that they were losing. Every second he heard the sound of the monster laughing and a cry of pain from each of his friends. "The powers we were given are set for each specific person," Billy said.

"We do have different attributes that equate to the powers you were given," Bailey agreed, her voice coming over the communicator. "But that doesn't mean they're the only ones we have."

"W3hat if something goes wrong?" Billy continued. There's always something that goes wrong when it comes to these things. Who knows what the side effects will be.

"Billy, we don't have time to worry about that!" Alpha cried.

"Alpha's right, Billy. It's your duty as a power ranger to do everything you think will help."

Billy looked up as there was a loud bang on the other side of the car and a thud. He looked up to see Trini getting to her knees. Reaching over, he grabbed onto her arm and pulled her around the car behind him. She brought a hand up to her helmet and pulled it off, turning her kind eyes to Billy, looking him over.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

Billy managed a small smile. Despite how much trouble the rangers were in, she was worried about him. "Affirmative," he replied. Trini looked down and noticed Billy holding onto his morpher. She studied his hands for a moment then glanced up at his face, already knowing what his internal battle was. She had been surprised when Billy upended the package Jason and Avalon had sent them and spilled their communicators and Jason's morpher on the table. She knew then, things had to have been bad if Jason was giving up his morpher. Now that Billy had it that meant Jason had entrusted Billy to use his powers as the red ranger to help everyone out.

It was a good idea, in theory. But who knew whether or not it really would make Billy stronger.

"You have to try, Billy," Trini insisted.

Billy nodded and replaced his morpher. He picked up Jason's and held it in his hands. He then turned and brought the red morpher out in front of him. "Tyrannosaurus!" He called and transformed into the red ranger.


A/N: Ooh. What'll happen now that Billy can morph into the red ranger? Things will definitely get interesting. I hope the wait for the chapter was worth it. If you haven't yet, please answer my poll. It'll help with the future of this story and All the Blame.

Thanks to ZoeyBoey224, brankel1, Son of Whitebeard, and Keren Olivero for reviewing.

~Avalon