Chapter 10

No Apologies

"Kiya!"

"Hiya!"

"Ha!"

The power rangers flew out of the sky, striking putties and making quick work of them. Once they were all defeated, they turned their attention to Gemma and Nie, who had been watching the exchange. Gemma let out a light laugh, the pink toned monster tapping her fingers over her arm. She turned her head to look at her brother, his eyes still on the rangers.

"It's a pity they think they can beat us," she said.

"But we might as well have some fun with this," Nie agreed. The twins looked at each other and their hands started to glow green before they leapt into the air and landed by the rangers. Nie ducked under a spinning kick Tommy sent his way and slammed a glowing fist into his chest, sending him back against the ground. Kimberly jumped over Tommy and moved to attacked Nie as well but received a blow to the side of the head.

Billy, Zack, and Trini all tried to attack Gemma one on one, but ended up being defeated just as easily as Tommy and Kimberly had been. Avalon managed to kick Gemma in the face, causing her to stumble back with a scream then launch a green bolt of energy into the orange ranger's stomach, knocking her to the ground.

"Power Sword!" Jason summoned his weapon and leaped towards Nie, slashing the sword through the air. Nie leaned out of the way and used his free arm to knock the sword back out of the way, and drove a fist into Jason's stomach. Thankfully, Jason started to lean out of the way when he saw Nie's hand start to come back over, and only received a fraction of the blow. However, the shockwave lifted him off his feet and onto his back on the ground.

"This is too easy," Gemma cackled, sending out another wave of green energy.

Tommy shielded his face with his arms then clambered to his feet. "We're not going to give up that easily." He stood up and started to twirl Saba around his hands. "Saba!" He threw him forward and Saba whipped around the two monsters before coming to a halt, red beams of light coming from his eyes. It entrapped Gemma and Nie in the beam.

"Do you think this is going to work, Tommy?" Kimberly asked gripping his arm.

"Yeah, I don't know man," Zack agreed as the rangers flanked Tommy's sides. "Saba is powerful and everything, but these guys have Rita's magic with them." He brought a hand up and knocked on Tommy's helmet. "Do you remember when we tried to fight them last time? One of our zords got shrunk and they feed off each other's power."

"Then we have to be sure to split them up," Jason said, lifting his sword once more. He kept his eyes on the two monsters as they slowly started to move through the paralyzing field Saba had over them. "Make sure they can't use each other's energy, keep them far enough away."

"I don't know," Billy hesitated. "These monsters are stronger than we think and we haven't fought the two of them together in a while." He shook his head. "Rita must have something up her sleeve if she sent both of them down together."

Avalon snorted, rolling her eyes inside her helmet. She held out her hand and summoned her Power Staff, holding a tight grip on it. "Seriously, all you do is talk and analyze things to death! I'm tired of these guys and we're going to get rid of them once and for all!" Without waiting for Tommy's signal to attack, she jumped high into the air and brought her Power Staff down onto the side of Nie's head, the force of the blow knocking him out of Saba's force field.

"Dammit, Avalon!" Tommy swore as his sword flew back to him.

"We can't wait," Trini protested, charging towards Gemma. "Power Daggers!" Her power weapons appeared in her hands and she got close to Gemma, who suddenly moved out of Saba's field. She ducked under a swing of an arm that Gemma sent her way and slashed across the pink monster's front with her weapons. She then jumped backwards, flipping out of the way and giving a scissor kick, hitting her in the front once more.

"Power Lance!" Billy appeared at Trini's side, shoving his lance into the ground and using it as leverage to hoist himself into the air. Gemma, who had been preoccupied with Trini, looked up in surprise seconds before Billy's foot landed on her face, knocking her to her back.

"How dare you!?" Gemma shrieked, her hands moving to cover her face. She removed her hands and shot the up, blasting green energy into Billy and Trini. She laughed evilly as the blast coursed through their veins, rendering the paralyzed. The blue and yellow rangers fell to the ground, quaking as they tried to force themselves through her energy blast.

On the other side of the field, Jason, Tommy, Kimberly, Zack, and Avalon were all trying to attack Nie, but he moved faster than any of them anticipated. Jason grabbed his chest as he was kicked, knocking him flat to the ground. He sat up in time to watch as the white, pink, back, and orange rangers were all hit by his blats of energy. Jason's eyes moved over to Gemma and saw she was doing the same thing, a malicious grin on her face as she continued to hold the two shaking rangers. Then his eyes moved back over to Nie, who held the rest of his friends.

So that's how they're doing it, he realized. Every move they make is the same as to what the other is doing. When she does an attack up high, Nie does an attack up high. Then when she does an attack that's low, he does the same thing. It's like they're synchronized…like twins. Jason got to his knees, holding onto his Power Sword tightly with both hands, trying to figure out what to do. "Splitting them apart isn't going to do anything…maybe attacking them at the same time…?" That's it! Jason, feeling a renewed sense of energy, got to his feet and charged towards Gemma and Nie. He jumped up in the air and with a cry of effort; he slashed his sword sideways, catching both Gemma and Nie across the shoulders. The blows knocked the pink and blue monsters off balance, breaking their attack on the other rangers.

"Man!" Zack slapped the ground with an open palm. "We're never going to beat these guys."

"Wanna bet?" Avalon started to stand up, but Kimberly grabbed onto her. "Let go, Kim!"

"You can't keep running off on your own like that," Kimberly protested. "You're putting the rest of us in danger when you do that. We work as a team or nothing at all. That's the only way we're going to be able to beat these guys."

Avalon laughed obnoxiously loud. "I think at this point it's been proven that we're not a team." She sneered.

"Enough!" Jason snapped, causing the rangers to fall silent. He didn't look at them, choosing rather to keep his gaze on Gem and Nie once again. The two monsters stood next to each other, their fingertips twitching as they snarled at the rangers. "I was thinking about what Billy said, how they feed off each other's energy. When we tried fighting them separately, they were just mirroring what the other was doing." He tightened his grip. "What we need to do—"

"Is fight them at once," Billy broke in. "Thus eradicating the ability for them to sense what the other is thinking." He snapped his fingers. "That's it! They're using each other's sense of psychic abilities to see what move we make next. It's like they can see from each other's eyes."

"Then we just need to blind them," Zack said with an even grin.

"Exactly," Billy agreed.

"Finally, something I can do." Avalon put down her Power Staff and rubbed her gloved hands together. Her hands then started to glow orange and it encased her fingers up to her arms before sending stream of fire towards the monsters. She continued to stream fire at them until there was smoke thick enough they couldn't see through. Gemma's and Nie's coughing could be heard over the smoke.

Trini then clenched her hands into fists as they started to flow yellow. She raised them high over her head and dark storm clouds gathered in the sky above them. She opened her fists then closed them once more, bringing her arms down, causing a large lightning bolt to come from the sky. It shot down and struck the center of the wall of fire where the monsters were standing. The rangers watched as they screamed in pain and were thrown to the ground.

"Aqua Strike!" Billy formed a large ball of water and shot it towards the monsters, striking them as well as dousing out the flames that threatened to spread.

"Don't think you've got us beat, power brats," Gemma snarled, her eyes flashing. Hers and Nie's hands continued to glow green. "There's plenty more where that came from."

Kimberly reacted before they could, creating a large gust of wind with bolts of energy inside, striking both of the monsters.

"Alright guys, let's bring them together!" Jason declared.

"Power Axe!" Zack tossed his weapon into the air, making the bulk of the combined weapon.

"Power Bow!" Kimberly threw hers to add onto Zack's weapon, giving the blaster wings.

"Power Daggers!" Trini spun her weapons around her fingers before throwing it up to add onto the weapon.

"Power Lance!" Billy pulled his lance apart and threw it up onto the weapon as well.

"Power Sword!" Jason jumped up high into the air and brought his sword down on top of the weapon, making the power blaster complete. "Let's do it guys." He held onto the power blaster and Kimberly, Trini, Zack, and Billy all crowded around him to help him hold onto the weapon. "Ready?"

"You got it, guys." Tommy encouraged.

"Fire!" the five of them cried in unison and the blaster show out its energy.

"Fire Blast!" Avalon shot a stream of fire into the energy blast of the Power Cannon. The two fights combined and formed and even greater beam of energy, rocketing right into the faces of Gemma and Nie. They screamed in pain, writing around as they started to glow green, the bright light glowing brighter and bright as the seconds passed. The rangers watched as the light continued to increase in luminosity, bolts of electricity flying off their bodies as well.

Finally, the screams ceased and an explosion blasted up into the air. The shockwave sent the rangers flying off their feet, making them dimorph. They looked at each other as they got to their feet, staring at the crater that had been left by the monsters. Jason wiped some soot off his face, sitting back on his heels. He gaped at the crater and smoke as it wafted away then let out a light laugh.

"They're gone," Zack said. "We did it! We finally did it!"

"Don't get your hopes up too high, Twinkle-Toes," Avalon reminded him. "We still have, like, ten of them to go." She stood up, brushing off her clothes. "We just got lucky this time."

"Yeah, lucky we didn't get destroyed," Jason broke in. He turned his head to look at her. "I know you're upset about what happened at school today, but the last thing we need for our team to fall apart because of it."

Avalon raised a condescending eyebrow and for a long moment, she was silent. Then her face became an empty mask and she crossed her arms over her chest. "The only team I see here is you guys," she said, motioning to the other rangers. "You never keep secrets from each other and I'm sure that you wouldn't ever think about betraying each other either."

"We didn't betray you!" Trini protested.

"And you didn't do me any favors by keeping me in the dark either," Avalon continued. Her mask then cracked and the rangers could see the hurt the orange ranger was trying so hard to hide. "You all keep saying we're friends and everything and I used to think that my feeling I didn't really belong was my fault and now I realize it's not." She shook her head. "I was never really your friend in the first place so why keep acting like it?"

"Av," Kimberly protested. "C'mon, you know you're our friend."

"Please," Billy added. He waved a hand. "Don't punish the rest of them because of a decision I made. I just thought it was a good one at the time and—"

"And nothing," Zack interrupted. He held up his hands, looking back and forth between the two rangers. "I know there's this big crisis going on that, frankly, I'm interested in too. But I think right now would be a good idea if we debriefed with Alpha and Zordon and figure out why these monsters were so easy to beat this time."

"Zack's right," Tommy agreed, hair disheveled around his dirt streaked face. "And the news vans will be here soon, we can't let them find us." His eyes widened slightly as he shook his head. "That'll be something else we don't need."

"You lot do what you want," Avalon said. "I'm out." She brought her hands together and teleported away in a blast of orange light.

She arrived back at the Cranston house, finding it empty. Duh, Avalon, you just left school. She frowned, immediately thinking about her mother and how she had left her on the front steps of Angel Grove High. Where was she right now? Looking for a place to stay? Wandering around the city? Waiting for her to get back to the school? She knows I'm a ranger; at this point the news is broadcasting how we saved the day. Avalon continued to stand on the front step of the Cranston house, trying to figure out what to do. Finally, she made up her mind and teleported back to the middle school. Heading inside, she went straight to the receptionist's desk.

"My name is Avalon Mitchell, I'm here to pick up my sister Bailey for a doctor's appointment," Avalon mumbled, keeping her eyes down. "She's going to be out for the rest of the day."

"Of course," The receptionist replied with a sincere smile. She picked up a clipboard and pushed it over the desk to the orange ranger. "Just fill out this form and I'll send someone back to get her." She picked up her phone and called back to a classroom while Avalon filled out the form.

Her eyes moved over the list of things required to take her sister out of the school: Name, Reason for leaving, signature, emergency contact number. Something that every parent had to do when they picked up their kid, she could see the signatures of all of the other parents then put hers on the form as well. Her handwriting looked very juvenile compared to the others. It was a bit unsettling. Avalon pushed the clipboard back over the counter and shoved her hands into her pockets, looking over the walls filled with drawings, paintings, and projects filled the walls. Things that parents would have put up on the refrigerator when they got an 'A'.

That was what she had always wanted. She wanted to be able to go home with an A on a paper and have it be stuck to the metal front of the refrigerator with a colorful looking magnet. Maybe one of the letters that would spell out her name. However, every time she would arrive home from school she would find another babysitter, most of the time it was Miss. Angela, who she really enjoyed, but not her father. Whenever she would try to show him what grade she got on her homework, he would shoo her off and go back to working with whatever project would keep him behind closed doors.

"Av?" Avalon turned around to find Bailey walking over to her, a jacket draped over her arms, backpack hanging from one hand. "What's going on? Why did you need to take me out of school? Is everything OK?"

"Relax, booger, everything's…fine," Avalon replied. She reached out and took Bailey's backpack, slinging it over her own shoulder. Holding the door to the school open, she let her sister leave the building first before following her. "Now that we got rid of Gemma and Nie."

"I thought I heard my communicator going off," Bailey said. She punched herself in the thigh. "I wasn't sure because we were in music class and I—"she broke off, tilting her head back towards the sky. "Ugh! I knew I should have checked things out. Is everyone alright? Did the helmets hold up?"

"Hang on a tick, Bay, there's something more serious I need to tell you," Avalon said. He turned to Bailey and gave her a meaningful glance. "And this is really serious."

Bailey frowned, looking up at her big sister. "Did someone get hurt?"

Yes, Avalon thought bitterly. She pressed her mouth together, letting out a slow breath through her nose. How was she going to explain this to her sister? It shouldn't be that hard, Bailey was part of Mensa, she could probably find some way to prove that 2 plus 2 equaled a number other than 4 the same way she would breaks the news about their mother being back.

Bailey grabbed her sister's arm and held her still. "What happened, Av?"

Avalon looked up and found they had arrived back at Angel Grove high. She looked at the front steps and saw Ellie was still sitting at the top of the stairs, her arms around her knees. Avalon's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. Why was she still there? "Um." Avalon turned back to her sister then leaned forward, gripping her shoulders. "You know I love you, right?"

"Right," Bailey said slowly. "I love you, too, Av."

"And that I wouldn't do anything to hurt you?"

"You've proven that before."

"Right." Avalon licked her lips. "And you know how I never wanted to talk about Mum and Dad?" Bailey nodded again. Avalon took a breath then turned and motioned to the steps of the school. "Well, now it seems like I don't really have a choice. There's Mum."

Bailey's entire face screwed up in confusion and she gazed at Avalon for a long moment before leaning to the side and followed Avalon's gaze. Her eyes widened then she looked at Avalon once more before she started to run. Ellie, noticing her youngest daughter heading towards her, got to her feet and headed down the rest of the steps of the school. Avalon slowly walked along behind them.

"Mummy!" Bailey opened her arms and flung them around her mother's waist when she reached them.

"Oh, Abigail," Ellie replied, holding onto her daughter and holding her tightly. At Avalon's eyebrows raise, she corrected herself. "Sorry, I know you like to go by Bailey now." She smoothed Baileys' dark hair off her forehead before turning to Avalon. "Apart from the soot, I'm glad to see you're OK." She reached out a hand to smudge some of the dark spots from the orange ranger's face and she backed away from her outstretched hand.

"Monster battles can do that to you sometimes," Avalon murmured.

"Av!" Bailey gasped.

"Relax, Bay, she knows I'm a power ranger," Avalon said dismissively.

"She does?" Bailey turned back to her mother, eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. Her dark eyes were searching her mother's wondering what else she could have known. Avalon was suddenly jealous of her little sister, who wouldn't be as affected by what was to be revealed to her as Avalon had been.

"I do," Ellie agreed. She hugged Bailey once more then lifted her head to find Avalon continuing to stare at her. "Oh, well, I should be getting back to the hotel. I need to check in."

"You can come to our house, Mum," Bailey protested. She shrugged. "Well, it's not really our house; we're staying with our friend Billy."

She must be too excited to notice the tension, Avalon thought. She could feel her mother's eye son her. The last thing she needed was for her to get on her case about being with The Vipers as well. The less she knew the better, she supposed. Avalon reached up a hand and scratched the back of her head, briefly closing her eyes. "I have something I need to take care of," she said, pointing behind her. "I'll be back in a few minutes." She turned to Bailey and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you go with her to the hotel?"

"Ok," Bailey said slowly. "Av, are you sure you're Ok?"

Other than wondering if Mum is going to go to jail for neglect, wondering what the Cranstons and the rest of those guys' parents are going to say when they find out, what Mum will say about The Vipers, and what it means for my community service and my meetings with my probation officer, I'm fine, Avalon thought. She resisted the urge to curl her upper lip. "I'm fine." She ruffled Bailey's hair. "Don't give her any trouble, Goober."

"I won't, Booger," Bailey replied sticking her tongue out. "That's your specialty."

Avalon laughed and dropped her hand from her sister's hair. She straightened and looked at her other once more. Ellie had been watching them with an air of sadness around her. If anyone deserves to be sad, it's me. "I'll see you later." She lifted a hand and turned on her heel, starting down the street. She glanced over her shoulder to find her sister and mother walking away as well, Bailey talking a mile a minute. Perfect. Avalon, using her enhanced speed, arrived at the auto shop in a matter of moments.

The Angel Grove auto shop was like any other place cars were taken to. However there was a better chance a customer wouldn't be ripped off at this shop. Grease stains filled the floor but it otherwise looked clean. As Avalon stepped inside, she could see a few trucks suspended towards the ceiling with a few mechanics walking underneath them. When Avalon passed them they hardly looked at her as she passed. No wonder Chase wanted to work there, no one questioned who she was or what she wanted and it was close enough for him to see what she was doing while at school.

It would have been funny if it wasn't so creepy.

"Is Chase here?" She asked the lead mechanic.

He looked at her for, toweling his hands off with grease stained dishtowel. The man continued to look her up and down for a long moment before standing up from the open hood he had been kneeling by. Reaching out a hand, he placed it on top of the hood and slammed it shut, flipping the towel up onto his shoulder. "Yeah," he finally replied. "He's here. I'll get him for you."

Avalon nodded and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for him to come back. She turned at the sound of footsteps scraping over the garage floor and watched as Chase appeared around the side of a doorway.

Chase looked at her a long moment, leaning against the doorway to the room. He reached up, scratching his bare chest. "Trouble in paradise?" He taunted in a low drawl. "Did your friends get tired of you already?"

Avalon gritted her teeth, turning her head away from him. It was also so annoying how he was still able to see right through her. "Don't get me started, Chase, I'm not in the mood," Avalon replied under her breath. She placed her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

Chase dropped his hand then pushed himself upright. "Then what are you doing here?" His eyes burned into hers. "I don't need you for anything yet."

"Yet is the keyword, mate," Avalon said simply, her eyes still on his.

Chase's cheek twitched before he started to smile. His lips were the only indicator that he was, indeed, smiling. His eyes hadn't changed; there was no light in his eyes, nothing that appeared to make him happy. They were just dead.

"Fine." Chase tilted his head back behind him. "There's an office back there, just wait for me. I finish my shift soon."

"No worries."

…

..

.

When Avalon arrived back at the Cranston's house, she opened the door and rolled her eyes, finding Billy sitting on the bottom step. He stood up as she closed the door behind her, being careful to keep the wad of bills out of sight in her back pocket.

"Ava, please, can we talk?" Billy asked, following her as she headed into the kitchen.

"There's nothing to talk about," Avalon replied shortly. "And please don't call me that!"

"If you would just let me explain why I believed that the restriction of information about your parents was something that was needed—"

"And would you speak English for once?" Avalon turned on her heel and glared at the blue ranger. He took a step back, looking down at her. "Seriously, I don't care why you did it, Billy. You did it." He winced at the use of his name. It felt a little foreign on her tongue; she had become so used to calling him 'Smurf' at the time. She brought a shaking hand up to her head then viciously brought it back down to her side. Clenching her jaw, a vein in her forehead started to throb. "That's not even the worst part about it, honestly. What sucks is that I've been…so honest with you about a lot of things. I told you everything when I was in the hospital, I told you…" her voice lowered to a whisper. "How scared I felt, knowing I had put Bailey into a situation like this…being a ranger and everything I had already done."

"I know," Billy agreed. "I know. But I didn't want to hurt you any further," he said. "I didn't want you think that about your father, not when we didn't know the whole story." He lowered his voice. "I didn't want you to think you were alone."

Avalon regarded him coolly. "Too late for that, mate,"

"C'mon Zack, get up! Today's the big day!"

Zack rolled onto his other side and yanked his blankets up over his head. He settled back down into his pillows once he was settled. He let out a sigh and tried to recover his breathing pattern. As soon as he fell asleep again he could get right back to dreaming about Angela. About the way she smiled, the way she laughed, the way she smelled when she leaned in to—

"Zack!" Zack groaned and pulled the blankets tighter over his head. He could feel the blankets being tugged off him and he tried his hardest to pull them back up. Seconds later he felt a blast of cold air and immediately curled up into a ball. "Zachary Taylor, you're going to be late for the big game today."

Zack groaned, creaking open an eye. "What big game?" He croaked.

"Your first football game, of course," Mr. Taylor replied, coming around the other side of the bed. He leaned down into his son's face. "Remember? It's Saturday. The first day of the football season." Mr. Taylor grabbed Zack's arms and pulled him up into a sitting position. "You have to get a good breakfast before you play, you need the energy. Your mother is making it now."

"Cool." Zack curled up into a ball once more. "Wake me up once it's done."

"No, no!" Mr. Taylor grabbed Zack's arm and helped him to his feet. "You have to get ready now. Be sure you have your cleats, and jerseys and shoes." He then thumped Zack hard on the shoulder. "Make sure you got your athletic cup too."

"Dad!" Zack groaned again. He brought his hands up to his face and ran it over his face, sitting back down on the edge of the bed.

"Ok, ok. I'll go make sure breakfast is ready and you just get your things together," Mr. Taylor said.

Zack nodded, but didn't reply. Once he heard the door close behind him, he let out a long breath. How could he have forgotten that it was the first game of the season that day? He and the other boys had been practicing as much as they could around their monster fights. As a matter of fact, he had forgotten because of the monster fights. Taking on high school guys around his weight was nothing compared to the fear of being squished by the sweaty foot of whatever monster Rita and Zedd had cooked up that time. He had forgotten how much he hadn't wanted to play football land only agreed to it so that his father would be proud of him.

He's proud all right, Zack thought. Him and Uncle Zeke and Uncle DJ. He had seen all of their pictures since he was a kid. They had all played football. No dancers in there. It was a wonder Zack had managed to lat that long before being forced into it in some way. It seemed to be some sort of a family tradition and Zack was the odd man out, preferring to move to the music rather than run down a field, trying not to be tackled by guys that wanted nothing but to pulverize him.

On auto-pilot, Zack gathered his jersey and pulled it on over a pair of jeans. He would change into the rest of his uniform when he got to the school later that day. Not that it made a difference. None of the boys were that excited to play. Tommy, being the leader of the team was frustrated, not sure how to fix the fallout Billy, Trini, and Avalon had. Billy was sulking; he was never one that was sure how to work through his emotions as easily as it was to move through math and science. Jason was the only one that seemed ready for this game; he had so much more energy lately than he had before. If Zack didn't know better, he would say Jason enjoyed the idea of the game more than martial arts.

And that was saying something.

Zack gathered his things and went down to the breakfast table. He finished the eggs, toast, and cereal that was put out for him and got into the car. On the ride to school, he tuned out his parents talking about the game that day, reminiscing when they were in high school and attending the games as well; his father a player and his mother a cheerleader. When he arrived at school he immediately went to the locker room where he found his friends putting on their pads and uniform.

"Hey," he greeted them.

"Hey." The response was muted; Jason was the only one who was amped up, bouncing back and forth on his toes, throwing punches every now and then. Zack regarded him with a strange look and glanced at Tommy, who made the cuckoo sign by the side of his head. Zack then turned to Billy, who was sitting on a bench, slowly pulling on his shoulder pads.

"Hey, c'mon B-Man, things are going to get better soon," Zack said, patting him on the shoulder. "Just give her some time. She'll come around." He sat down on the bench in front of Billy, who looked up at him. "Remember the time I accidentally spilled Kim's perfume? She said she wouldn't talk to me again and now we're as close as ever."

"That's because she's still waiting for you to buy her another bottle of perfume," Jason pointed out.

"She can wait 'till Christmas," Zack said. He waved his hand, and then turned back to Billy who had only managed a half smile. "Don't worry, man. She'll come around." He clapped Billy on the shoulder then stood up to finish getting ready. He had closed his locker door when the coach came into the locker room and ushered them out onto the field. With his helmet in one hand, he jogged out onto the field with the rest of his teammates.

Once they reached their bench he put the helmet down and picked up a cup to get some water. He wasn't going to be playing until the second half and with how hot it got in Angel Grove, becoming dehydrated wouldn't help anyone. Zack turned and scanned the bleachers.

Movement caught his eye and he watched as Avalon, who had been sitting at the top of the bleachers, staring intently at the field came down the steps and stepped down onto the grass, disappearing from sight amongst the crowd.

Zack looked further up at the bleachers. He could see his father and mother sitting in the stands a few rows behind his friends. Kimberly and Trini were holding onto flags and were cheering loudly when saw him. Once he caught his father's gaze, Mr. Taylor grinned and gave him a thumb's up. His eyes then moved down to where the cheerleaders were waving their pom-poms and cheering for the team.

Angela smiled and waved at him.

Zack sighed and turned back to the field.

Not even the image of Angela in a cheerleading uniform was going to change his mood.

A/N: This chapter was a bit of a filler, it hadn't started out that way, but it ended up being it. I know I breezed through Gemma and Nie's destruction, but I needed to have Jason's powers come in sooner rather than later. And, of course, I needed to bring the Vipers back to finish up that storyline.

Anything else you'd like to see as the story goes on?

Btw, if you don't already, follow me on twitter (AvalonAvenue) because it's where I let people know when my stories are updated. If not, I can PM you when they're updated if you want.

~Avalon