Power Rangers: The Alternate
Chapter 10: Double Exposure.
Disclaimer: The Power Rangers belong to Saban and Disney.
The story takes place in an alternate universe
As Kim mulled over her problems, a deep depression settled around her. It was all her fault. Her fault that she hadn't been strong enough to resist Kemora, her fault her friends had died and her world had been lost, her fault that another world and another team was in danger. She should have died with her friends.
Guilt weighed as heavily around her as loss. The Great Power had never been gentle with her, never given her a peaceful life, she'd been wrong to think things would be different here. Without her ability to morph on this world's grid, Zordon had transported her home, but her tutor wouldn't arrive for another hour, so she caught a bus to the park to walk off her frustrations, not really caring if she got back in time for her lessons or not. She disagreed with Zordon. Home was the very first place the ghost Ranger would look for her.
Putting one mindless foot in front of the other, she wasn't surprised to find herself in front of Angel Elementary. She'd often walked the park's path to her old school on her world. It was the last place her family had been together before the accident.
She'd been in fourth grade, with her twin sister, and her brother had been in Kindergarten. It had been a plain old ordinary day. Her mom had picked them up in the carpool line and they had taken the expressway to her grandmother's house.
Kim was never sure how it happened. She had no memory of it. She'd simply been chattering away about everything from the lunch line to recess and then had woken up from a dreamless sleep in the hospital with her whole world gone forever. From reading the details several years later, she knew that there had been a minor collision several cars ahead of them, but the truck in front of them hadn't been able to stop and its load jack-knifed; the trailer rolling over on several cars behind it. Kim had been the only survivor in the four cars effected by the truck. She'd been in the rear passenger seat and it had been dumb blind luck that section of the car hadn't crumpled. She'd been so small, they'd found her tightly bound by her seatbelt; alive but very badly hurt.
She had survived because she was young and didn't know better. When you're a child, one day comes after the other and you get through it because that's all you know. This time around, however, she wasn't young anymore. She had lost too much, too many times. Her youth had been stripped away so that beneath the child like face that still showed to the outside world, lurked a very wounded and tired spirit.
Rangering had revived that spirit, soothed it, allowed it to heal a little, but Kemora had reopened those wounds. The small safety and security she'd found in her little Ranger family had been ripped away, not by chance, but by her own hand. Rocky's words repeated over and over again in her mind. They touched a nerve that simply would not go away; it was her fault. The ghost was right; she didn't deserve to live.
What gave her the right to stay in this world and take the other Kimberly's place? She thought to herself bitterly. Twice she had cheated death and for what? To start all over again in another world with another life? Why did she deserve another chance to live when those she'd loved most had been given only one? It was overwhelming and she honestly didn't think she had the strength to go on.
Her eyes left the brick and stone building in front of her and traveled over to the small fenced in playground where the fourth and fifth graders took their recess. That was the last place she'd been blissfully innocent of the harsh realities of the world and the universe. The last time she had really belonged somewhere. A scuffle on the other side caught her attention, and as her eyes narrowed on it, she recognized her brother and a few bigger boys arguing over something. She hesitated for a moment and then wandered around the border of the chain link fence to see better.
"Give 'em back!" He brother howled and, like a protective parent, she picked up her pace a little until she was close by. As she approached, her brother hit the ground hard and rolled over with a little yelp; clutching his arm.
"Hey!" She barked like a military sergeant. "Leave him alone!"
"Hey look guys, the little snots got a girl coming to his rescue." The largest of the bullies jeered. "I'm just so scared of a girl on the other side of the fence yelling at me."
"You better be scared," Kim growled. "Especially when I identify your worthless hides to the principal."
"Run!" Shouted one of the boys and the others were quick to follow, but not before the largest of them opened her brother's blue box of collector cards and scattered them across the ground; tossing the box itself harshly at her brother."
"You ok?" Kim asked through the fence as her brother slowly got back up and began to retrieve his collection.
"Fine." He muttered, dusting off one that was apparently special to him.
"That happen often?" She asked, frustrated that the fence kept her out of the yard.
"What do you care?" He snapped back.
"Hey," She said in a mischievous tone. "I'm the alien sister, remember?"
He stopped for a second and gave her an odd look, then turned his attention to picking up the rest of his cards as the bell rang. "Just because you're Miss Popularity at school doesn't mean I am." He said in a disgruntled tone.
"They pick on you a lot?"
"Sometimes." He shrugged. "I'm small for a guy." He admitted.
"As big as me." She quipped. "And I'm four years older."
Her brother turned and gave her a quizzical look, then walked over to the fence, ignoring the rest of his class who were lining up to go inside. "Being a small guy isn't nearly the same as being a small girl."
"No, it's not, but that doesn't mean you have to take that kind of crap. There's no reason why you can't learn to defend yourself from them."
"Oh right, so they can just gang up on me and pound me into the ground for resisting them."
"Why don't you take one of Tommy's karate classes?"
"Tommy?"
"The guy that came over yesterday. He teaches karate at the Youth Center." She answered. When her brother just stared at her like she was crazy she added. "Karate teaches you to defend yourself and be more confident in your abilities. At the very least it'll build a little muscle on your frame."
He opened his mouth to answer and then stopped, eyes focusing in surprised wonder behind her.
"What?" She asked and then turned around. With a huge sinking feeling and more than a little dread, she saw the pink Ranger standing casually behind her with her arms folded across her chest. This pink Ranger, however, was flanked by Goldar and Baboo.
"Oh my god!" Her brother cried excitedly. "It's the pink Ranger, you really are friends with them."
"That's not the pink Ranger." Kim said bitterly. "The pink Ranger would never serve Lord Zedd."
"Oh but I am." Her own voice came back to taunt her. "And Lord Zedd has given me more power than I ever realized."
"Michael run!" She yelled, then pushed herself away from the fence and backed off. "It's me you want, leave him out of it."
"Are you kidding? I think that little twerp brother of mine will do nicely." She snarled.
"Kimberly?" Michael asked, confused by the physical presence of his sister on his left and her voice coming from what looked like the pink Ranger.
"I'd say in the flesh," She answered nastily, "But the flesh part seems to be missing." She reached out her hand and a golden object appeared. Throwing it directly at her brother, the object slid through the fence as if the barrier didn't exist, and slammed into Michael. He had time for one small surprised cry before he was transformed into a six foot tall blue monster, complete with baseball cap and jersey.
"No!" Kim screamed, but the monster had already turned and was causing havoc in the school yard.
"Kimberly!" Tommy's voice called from behind Kim, she turned, but his focus was on the morphed Ranger, not her. "Don't do this. Your spirit could be trapped forever in one of Zedd's evil sub-dimensions."
"Tommy!" Kim cried out. "She's turned Michael into a monster!" She warned. He spared her a small side glance, but kept his attention focused on his former teammate.
"Well, well…if it isn't the evil green masquerading in white." The pink Ranger sneered, stunning Tommy with how much she sounded like Kemora. "What's the matter Tommy? Too much of a coward to finish off what you started?"
Tommy shifted slightly, but his words were calm when he answered. "Kimberly don't do this. Kemora killed you, not me, not Kim. Don't let your anger damn you like hers did."
"You should know about being damned." His former teammate sneered. "You both should. You were damned the minute Rita took you and Zedd tells me she's no more than a soulless shell, too stupid to know she needs to die."
"Leave her alone." Tommy snarled, pushing the panic down at the thought of the former Kimberly hurting the Alternate. "She's powerless now, you took an oath to defend the powerless."
"Ha!" The pink Ranger spat. "And just look where that got me…dead." She turned in an instant and called for her bow, firing rapidly in Kim's direction. Kim dodged evasively, but in the next instant found herself transporting out.
"Ai yi yi." Alpha said. "Kimberly, you were supposed to wait at home, you don't have your powers." He fretted, walking over to help her up where she'd fallen on the floor.
"And wait for her to show up there?" She asked, turning and looking up at Zordon. "I can't sit by and let them do this without me. Is there any chance my other power coin will work?"
"Unfortunately, the coin from your dimension isn't compatible with our grid." Alpha explained.
"Can't we make it compatible?" Kim asked.
"Kimberly, things just don't work that way." Alpha said in an overly patient tone.
"Unfortunately Kimberly, if we align your coin with the morphing grid, Lord Zedd will be alerted to your presence as an Alternate Kimberly." Zordon said evenly. "This risk of exposure is simply too great."
"Is that the only one we can use?" She asked hopefully.
"Ai yi yi…Kimberly. Now is not the time to be argumentative." Alpha said, waving a metallic finger at her. "We need to help the Rangers and you need to go home and wait for them."
"I can't go home and simply wait for the ghost to show up at the house." Kim argued. "Can't we make another grid that Zedd can't tap into?"
"A morphin grid is not easily duplicated." Zordon said patiently. "It is a tool used by the powers of the universe to access the Great Power itself and to scrutinize the balance of good and evil; ensuring a balance exists. Our grid once showed the struggle between Rita and myself, now it monitors my struggle with Lord Zedd. Now that Lord Zedd has tapped into this power using our former pink Ranger, it is simply too dangerous to allow you access to it."
"Can't I go back and use my home grid?"
"Kimberly, Zordon has already explained that is not possible. Lord Zedd will know at once you are an Alternate and then all of us will be placed in great danger." Alpha scolded.
"But, there's only one that can be used?" Kim pressed.
"Of course not." Alpha scolded. "But the older grids are just not powerful enough to support a Ranger team anymore."
"How about just one pink Ranger?" Kim asked hopefully.
"Kimberly!" Alpha fussed.
"No Alpha. Kimberly may have successfully stumbled upon a legitimate alternative."
"Zordon?" Alpha asked hesitantly, turning away from Kimberly and looking up at him.
"I will have to give this matter careful consideration, however, it is true that the power coins have been utilized on more than one grid throughout the ages. It might be possible to communicate with an older grid, one that is familiar with the signature of the coins, and see if enough power could be drawn forth to sustain a viable singular morph during battle."
"Sign me up Zordon." Kim responded eagerly.
"I am not convinced at this time that this is the most suitable form of action Kimberly." Zordon cautioned. "I will need to give the matter thought and see how the others fair against their former companion."
"Zordon, that ghost doesn't have any of the reservations that the Rangers have." Kim argued. "She's out to kill, the team is just out to stop her. She has the advantage. This is a fight between me and her. I'm the one who took her place, who made her angry enough to sign on with Zedd, I need to be the one out there fighting, not cowering in the Power Chamber or in my house."
"Your determination is commendable young Kimberly, however I must consider your ideas very carefully. It is not only you who faces exposure, but all of us. If your true identity is revealed, all of us will pay the penalty for knowingly harboring you."
"All the more reason I need to be out there fighting." She insisted.
As Zordon studied the earnest face in front of him, he couldn't help but be impressed with her determination. It was a characteristic that again brought her into sharp contrast with her predecessor. Perhaps she was right in arguing her need to deal with the ghost of the other Kimberly herself, but he was more inclined to see how the others fared first.
"We must watch the current conflict and see." He said evenly. "The time will soon come when you, and you alone, may be able to convince the spirit of the old Kimberly to leave Zedd's service and move on to the dimension that awaits her, but not now.
Kim exhaled her frustration, but bowed to the authority before her. "At least let me stay here and watch things on the viewing globe." She said resignedly.
The Rangers picked themselves up and re-grouped as the ghost of their former teammate tossed them around as carelessly as if they were last year's action figures. As one, they were all stunned by her power. Kimberly had been a good Ranger, but not one that any of them had ever taken seriously before. Either Zedd had increased her powers a hundred fold, or they had all seriously underestimated her potential.
She laughed cruelly at them; taunting them, goading them on. With each breath she sounded more and more like the demon Kemora, until Tommy had finally had enough.
"Time to pull the gloves off guys." He muttered. The rest of the team nodded and moved toward their ready positions around him. "Enough of this Kimberly." He shouted across the battlefield. "If you've truly taken Zedd's side, then so be it. You're no longer one of us and we'll no longer try to save you from yourself."
"I'm so terrified." The pink ghost taunted back in an overly animated voice.
"Let's bring it together guys." Tommy said authoritatively, ignoring the knot of doubt in his stomach over what he was about to do. He'd killed Kemora, he'd watched their Kimberly die in the process, now he was about to do it all over again.
"I don't think so." The pink snarled as the Rangers began to put their weapons together. She held out her hand and the golden object appeared in it once more. Without seeming to do anything more than hold it out toward the group in front of her, it began to glow ominously. Within seconds, just as the Rangers braced for firing, a golden wave burst forth and suddenly their weapon was gone. A few seconds later, one by one, each of the Rangers de-morphed in a shower of gold sparks and stood powerless and stunned before their former comrade.
"Oh poor little Tommy." The ghost called out in a sing-song voice. "I've stripped you of your powers just as easily as you stripped me of my body!" She laughed then, a laugh so like Kemora it chilled each of them to the bone. "But I'm not done with you yet, my precious white knight." She snarled. "I want you to suffer first. You need to know the torment I've endured these past few weeks. Death is too easy for you."
She turned and held the golden object high in the air. "Twerpsnot!" She shouted, and the six foot, blue monster that had formerly been her brother came running to her side. "Prepare to grow…" She hissed, and lightening shot from the sky and hit him head on. At once, he grew to over sixty feet. "I think you should begin your rein of destruction with Tommy's apartment building." The pink ghost cooed nastily, never taking her visor from Tommy's face.
"Kimberly don't do this!" Tommy shouted, but the pink simply laughed and transported out followed by Goldar and Baboo.
"We did not destroy him!" Goldar complained as they marched back into Zedd's throne room. "The white Ranger still lives."
"Silence you idiot!" The pink ghost Ranger shouted, whirling on him and chastising him despite Zedd's presence just a few feet away from them. "Tommy has to live to suffer the deaths of all those he holds dear to him. The torture of it, the anguish, will break him…and when he whimpers helplessly at my feet, then and only then I will shred his body as he tore apart mine." She rasped.
"Ah, my dear…" Zedd crooned as he rose from his throne and marched over to her. "How deliciously evil you are! How your mind twists to relish even the smallest of vindictive details. I can hardly wait to witness the culmination of your cruelty."
He stepped forward and placed his well armored arm about her waste. She reflexively pulled away, then remembered her place, stilling herself and sensibly allowing the contact. Zedd grinned in triumph behind his helmet. Now this was a female who could aspire to his own greatness.
How beguiling she was, how positively maniacal, how cruel, how utterly spiteful… how intoxicating…and what a fitting revenge to take the pink Ranger as his mistress or even to wife... How Zordon would twist and writhe from the agony of it. Proprietarily, he guided the pink ghost Ranger to his throne and sat her to his right. They would watch the monster destroy the city together.
Off to the side, slipping into the shadows least he be seen, Goldar glowered at her.
"Zordon, what do we do?" Tommy asked in a near panic as they transported back into the Power Chamber. He was desperately torn between his duty to the team and the need to run and get his mom out of their building.
"Billy, I require your assistance please." Alpha said from behind a side consol. Kim was busy pushing a series of buttons on another consol and Alpha directed Billy to take her place.
"Ok Zordon." Kim said nervously, looking up at him. "I'm ready."
"Do you understand the ramifications of what you are about to attempt?" Zordon asked her.
"What's going on?" Tommy asked, the others following him as he approached Zordon's power tube.
"I do." Kim said in what she hoped was a confident tone.
"Ai yi yi…Kimberly, are you sure about this?" Alpha asked fretfully. "No one will think badly of you if you change your mind. If the calculations are even slightly off..."
"I'm ready." Kim insisted, nodding once to show her determination.
"Very well then Kimberly." Zordon said from above them. "Alpha, prepare the morphanological sequencing calibrator to interact with the rhythmic continuity stabilizer. Billy, You must maintain the stability of the epsilon grid with our own output controls. Whatever happens, you must maintain the resonance of the current morphin grid." He advised and Billy simply nodded, eyes wide as he analyzed the readouts and realized what they were about to attempt.
"What's going on?" Tommy asked again as Kim took her place at what looked like a small viewing globe. She placed her gold coin, the one she'd carried from her dimension, into a small tray on the top of it and then shifted her stance, balancing herself with her legs spread apart, as if she expected to be knocked away. "Kim…" he said uncertainly, a cold sinking feeling settling into his gut.
"Ai yi yi… not now Tommy, there will be time to explain later… we'll only get one shot at this…. Zordon, the sequencing modulators are active and primed."
"Then begin the energy transfer." Zordon responded solemnly and, it seemed to Tommy, reluctantly.
All watched as the globe in front of the Alternate began to glow, then, in a mighty burst, Kim was thrown back and her body jolted, but she kept her balance and within seconds she was fully morphed. As if not fully believing it had worked, she took her gloved hands away from the globe and held them out in front of her for a better view.
Although the pink and white uniform looked nearly identical, there were some obvious differences too. The white boots were sharply pointed and tooled, western style, and a thin line of shiny white tassels dripped from each of her arms. The skirt was slightly longer and the material not quite as shiny; as if the spandex were thicker and had a mat finish to it.
"We did it!" She squealed, throwing her arms up in victory. "Can I still use my zord?"
"Congratulations Kimberly." Zordon said, smiling down on her. "For a plan well devised and executed. However, I must advise caution. The morph is, for now, a stable one, but the grid we have utilized has been dormant for nearly one hundred and twenty of Earth's years. Your morphing powers will be limited and we must not press the fortune that has favored us. It is up to you now to pursue the spirit of the other Kimberly. You must either persuade her to see the error of her ways or you must destroy her."
"But what about the monster?" Rocky asked. "We lost our powers."
"They are not lost." Zordon assured him. "Zedd has successfully utilized his connection through your former teammate to temporarily freeze your powers on the grid."
"So how do we get them back?" Tommy asked.
"The Alternate Kimberly must destroy the golden box that Zedd entrusted to your former teammate. The destruction of this object, I am certain, will not only restore your powers, but restore Kimberly's brother Michael as well."
"So it's all up to her?" Rocky asked.
"Oh give it a rest." Aisha spat back, surprising him. "She's the only one who's got her powers. It's obvious she's the one to go after it…unless you want to go up against Kimberly's ghost again unmorphed."
"I concur." Billy piped up. "Kim's the logical choice."
"Ai yi yi…" Alpha fretted. "Kimberly, the ghost Ranger is back in Angel Grove Park and the putties are attacking innocent civilians."
"The monster is also doing a pretty good job of tearing up downtown Angel Grove." Adam noted.
"Oh man…." Tommy groaned. "That's my apartment building…my mom should be home from work by now."
"Tommy, you are released to see to the well being of your family." Zordon said. "Kimberly, the fate of your friends and your new world now lies in your hands."
"I won't let you down." Kim responded, her helmet bobbing in a little bow.
"Just remember, your powers are temporary." Alpha fretted. "Don't get overly confident out there." He added as she transported out.
"Considering she looks like something out of an old TV western," Aisha added confidentially to Adam, "She's gonna need all the confidence she can get."