Disclaimer: Just to keep it simple: A. I don't own Power Rangers. B. I just make fun of them; so don't get upset if I mock your favorite. C. Please review. I don't mind constructive criticism. D. Thanks to Writer's Guide to the Universe and Power Rangers Central for providing a lot of the information that I need.

If you haven't done so, please read the first two hundred stories in "When Rangers Meet," "More of When Rangers Meet," "Headquarters Where Rangers Meet," and "Those Rangers Just Keep on Meeting."

This is story number ten. It was requested by Dagmar Buse.

Sky and Carter

By

Eileen (Psycho Tangerine)

Fifteen-year-old Sky swallowed nervously as he raised his hand to knock on the front door. He couldn't believe Sydney had actually blackmailed him into taking her to the annual spring dance at SPD. The fourteen-year-old princess had recorded him in his room dancing around in his red briefs, flashing a plastic sword and calling out various Red Ranger Morphing cries. So here he was doing the one thing Syd insisted he do before he took her to the dance.

"Yes?" asked Carter as he opened the door and saw the young man in the suit. "Oh, no not another one. Look, Kid, I'll figure out how to get into the Kingdom of God in my own way." He proceeded to close the door.

"I'm not here for that," blurted Sky. "I'm here to meet you because… ... he mumbled incoherently.

"What's that?" asked the middle-aged man. "Speak up; my hearing is not as good as it used to be."

"I'm going to the dance with your daughter," Sky repeated nervously. Why the hell was he so nervous? This was just some old guy…some pathetic loser while he himself was the future Red Ranger and ultimate hero of the universe. But then again, thought Sky as he studied Carter's features, why did he seem so familiar?

Carter stared at Sky. "You…want…to …date...my…daughter?" he asked slowly.

"Yes, well, just a dance, Sir. That's all."

"You…. really…want…to…date…my …daughter?" Carter repeated.

"I'll bring her back early!" exclaimed Sky. "We'll just do the fast dances. We won't even hold hands! Don't kill me!" he screeched as Carter reached for him…and slapped him on the back.

"You have got to be the bravest or stupidest kid on Earth to want to date my Sydney," he stated. "She's so demanding she left her last six boyfriends as quivering blobs of flesh."

Sky gulped at this.

"So, continued Carter. "Do you plan on taking her anywhere special afterwards?"

"Sir?"

"You know, to a restaurant, or on a walk around the lake, or to watch a three alarm fire," said Carter with a sigh. "Dana loved watching me put them out." He had even proposed to her as they watched the city dump smolder. Carter never realized that Dana purposely burnt his supper every evening as revenge.

"I was just going to take her home, Mr. Drew," replied Sky.

Carter guffawed at this. "Oh, that's not my last name, Sky. Sydney uses Drew because it sounds better on stage and because it is the name on her illegal id card."

"Okay, then uh…"

"Grayson, Carter Grayson." Carter held his hand out to the boy.

Sky gaped at Carter. Then he fell to the ground and began to prostrate himself in front of the older man. "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!"

"What are you doing that for?" hissed Carter as he looked around to make sure the neighbors didn't see this. There had been many complaints years ago when Joel skywrote elaborate praises of himself on a daily basis. And it only got worse when Chad had decided his role as a Ranger gave him the right to confiscate all the pools in Mariner Bay for his sea creatures to live in.

"You are a Red Ranger!" replied Sky. "I remember your name from the Academy. I'm going to be a Red Ranger also."

Carter chuckled at this. "What makes you think you can be a Red Ranger? You're not…"

"Big? Well, not yet, but my dad was the Red SPD Ranger."

"But, I don't see how that qualifies you for the job, besides you're not…"

"Strong? I'm working on it. It won't be long before that new kid stops kicking me every time I swipe his stupid gloves."

"Yes, yes," said Carter. "I get all that, but you're not wearing red."

"Huh?" asked Sky as he looked down at his blue shirt and blue jeans. "So?"

"So…uh…" Carter hesitated. This kid was just being delusional. There was no way he'd become any type of Ranger, let alone the Red one. "So, you need to wear red to the dance or you'll clash with Syd's dress. And you don't want to make her unhappy."

"I don't?" asked Sky. Then he remembered who he was talking with. "I mean, of course not sir." He pushed his plans to pour the contents of the punch bowl over the pink princess' head to the back of his mind.

"You really, really don't want to make her unhappy." Carter's face had suddenly paled and he began to shake with remembered terror. "The nightmares!" he crumpled to the ground. "Oh, the nightmares!"

Sky stared uncertainly at the sobbing man. What could bring a former Red Ranger down like that? "Oh God! What have I gotten into?" he cried as he ran off.

Carter got up and straightened his clothes. "That'll teach him to try to date my little princess." He then hurried back into the house. He had to get back to categorizing all of his little girl's fashion magazines in order to send them to her as she had demanded. Then he could get started with cleaning every one of her six hundred and twenty-two pairs of shoes.

Sky remained hidden in the only place he knew Syd wouldn't look. But the determined girl simply threw on a hazmat suit and dragged him out by the ear.