Men and Monsters

Chapter 10

"Kelsi!" Troy called, sprinting down the aisle towards the stage.

Ms. Darbus gave him a pointed glance as he passed and he gave her the best apologetic expression he could muster, which wasn't much. She swept up the aisle in his wake and out the doors, letting them slam closed behind her. Troy winced at the sound and only then noticed Kelsi's expression.

"What's up, Playmaker?" he asked.

She stared at the piano keys as if waiting for them to play themselves. "Ryan threw his audition."

"What?" Troy demanded. He turned to face the audience and fell back on the piano bench beside her, facing the opposite direction. "What is going on?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

He lifted his fist and -- with some deliberate effort -- unclenched it to reveal Gabriella's necklace. Kelsi gasped.

"I don't know why," he said. "I thought things were going well except for …"

"What?" Kelsi asked.

"Gabby's been spending so much time with Sharpay. I thought … I thought it was good, maybe she'd rub off on her. And now Ryan … Something really weird is going on if Ryan threw an audition."

Kelsi sighed and closed the piano. "How about," she said slowly, "I call Taylor and we can have an emergency girl intervention? I'm not promising anything but … it might help."

Troy nodded. There were good things about the girls getting together -- they'd help Gabriella think things through -- and bad things -- they might side with Gabriella in the whole matter and decide that Troy was a bad guy, even though Troy still wasn't sure what was going on. It was a risk he'd have to take, it wasn't like he could stop the girls anyway.

"I came here to talk to Ryan," he said. "I figured if anyone would know what was up with Sharpay and Gabby, he would. I'll track him down and ask him about the auditions."

Kelsi smiled, though it seemed hollow. "Thanks. A lot."

"No problem," he said and bumped lightly against her shoulder. "We can't have East High's resident Playmaker all depressed and mopey."

Kelsi stood and shouldered her bag. "Just so you know," she said, "if he doesn't have a good reason, I'll kill him."

"I'll be sure to tell him that when I find him."

#

"Master Mack!" Spencer's voice crackled over the house's comm system. "You have a phone call."

Mack leapt up from his bed, tossing his new adventure novel carelessly onto his desk in his race across the room. "Is it one of the guys?" he asked, practically slamming into the small wall unit. He hadn't heard from his fellow Rangers in a while. Sure, he heard about Rose's latest controversial theories, Dax's newest films, and Ronny's recent wins (Will's work was far too secretive to appear in the news), but he hadn't actually spoken to any of them in months.

"No," Spencer sighed. "It's Ryan Evans."

Mack blinked. He was supposed to know Ryan, but he all he really knew was that there was some pretty massive magic involved around the boy and his twin. And he was pretty sure in wasn't good magic either. But … as much as he didn't trust Ryan Evans, they needed to know what was going on and this might be their best opportunity.

"Would you like me to inform your father?" Spencer asked. Andrew Hartford had spent every waking moment, as well as most sleeping moments, in the lab beneath the mansion, working on his new Ranger project for the government.

"No," Mack said, "Dad's busy and we can always fill him in later. Put Ryan through."

There was a crackle over the line and a beep.

"Ryan?" Mack asked.

"Hi, Mack," Ryan said, "I'm sorry to call like this but … I wanted to ask you something."

Mack took a seat on the edge of his bed. "Shoot."

"When you were a … Ranger --" Mack didn't miss the way Ryan tripped over the word, "did you ever have to do anything that you would have sworn you'd never do, just to protect someone?"

Mack wasn't sure how to take this. Ryan sure sounded like a confused teenager, but that could be a front for some darker purpose. And even if it wasn't, that "anything" could be something evil. Unable to think of anything else to do, in true Red Ranger fashion he decided to take a gamble.

"First I have a question for you. Are you, by any chance, evil?" Mack winced, waiting for the answer. As the seconds ticked by he reached slowly for his old tracker on his desk, intent on taking a zord to Albuquerque if he had to. Before he could reach it a popping sound to his left startled him and a bright red tongue of flame licked up from the floor, almost reaching the ceiling. It formed into Ryan, who had his arms crossed and was looking more annoyed than evil.

"How does everyone know this?" he asked and marched across the room to fall dramatically into the desk chair. "What? Did someone put it on their blog or something?"

Mack looked at the brooding boy with wide eyes. He quickly grabbed the tracker and, when Ryan only stared at him, asked, "So … you are evil?"

"Technically," Ryan said. He proceeded to tell Mack his life story, which was becoming such a common occurrence that he wondered if he should just write the whole thing out in easy to read pamphlets for next time.

"So," Mack said when he finished, "the Evans know?"

"They did," Ryan said. "We made a deal with them. They get the children they've always wanted, we get a normal existence. Part of normal means we had to erase their memories when we magically wrote ourselves into their lives."

"See, that explains why I know nothing about you."

"What?"

Mack laughed, his fear that Ryan was a threat to humanity forgotten. "I used to be an android," he said, almost proudly.

This time it was Ryan's turn to be shocked. "No. Way."

Mack nodded. "Dad built me, programmed me. I guess the spell you used to write yourselves into the Evans' lives didn't work on machinery."

"But … if you're …" Ryan paused, thinking things through. Finally all he could think to say was, "Wow."

"Our parents are so weird."

"No wonder they're friends."

Mack shrugged.

"Wait," Ryan said, "what do you mean you 'used to be an android'?"

"Our mission as Rangers was to protect the Corona --"

"Aurora!" Ryan cut in, his eyes going wide. "It made you human!"

"Like my own personal Blue Fairy, only not as cute."

"Cool."

The two smiled at each other, each happy to have finally found someone who could relate.

"So," Mack said, "what was your problem again?"

"Oh! Right. So, I'm evil -- born evil, raised evil, all that jazz. And it turns out that my best friend is related to Briarwood's Rangers."

"Ouch," Mack said, wincing. "It's not Xander, is it?"

"No, her cousins are girls."

"Vida and Madison … V'll kill you."

"I kind of figured. And it doesn't help that my friends at school keep finding out about me and Shar. Most of them think I'm going to hurt Kelsi. Though, they also think I'm secretly in love with her so …"

"Kelsi's your best friend, right?"

Ryan nodded, pulling off his hat and running a hand through his hair. "So, in order to keep my friends' fears from coming true and to keep me and Shar safe from the Rangers … I blew my audition for the Autumn Musical."

"You auditioned for a musical?" Mack asked incredulously.

"You read Captain Danger novels?" Ryan returned in kind, picking the book off the desk.

Mack snatched it from his hand. "Touché."

"And I'm the Vice President of the Drama Club. I used to be Co-President with Sharpay but … that was just too much work."

"Is it really that much harder to be a Co-President than a Vice President?"

"It is when Sharpay's angry that someone's as high as her on the totem pole."

Mack nodded. "Well, I can make your problem a little easier. I'll get the Rangers to keep away."

"You can do that? For me?"

"Did you expect me to morph and take you into custody or something?"

"Well, you have been holding that morpher pretty tightly."

Mack looked down at the tracker in his hand. "Tracker," he corrected absently. "And as for your friends," he added, "why are you even listening to them? You don't seem evil to me, regardless of your heritage, and if you know you're not going to hurt Kelsi, that's what matters."

Ryan leaned back in the chair. "Why are you trusting me?"

Mack shrugged. "I took a chance on a lizard once, now he's one of my best friends." He stood and clapped his hands together. "So, you want to stay for dinner? I'm sure Spencer's getting tired of eavesdropping by now and would love to make us something."

There was a thump and a curse from the vent in the wall.

"Right away, Master Mack!" Spencer called, his voice echoing in the ducts.

Ryan's eyebrows rose.

"Spencer used to be a spy," Mack explained. "It's impossible to say anything in this house without him hearing." He led the way to the door, saying, "He can cook just about anything you want too, just don't ask for toast. He's sworn he'll never make it ever again."

#

"What are you doing tonight?" Zeke asked. He was leaning on the locker beside Sharpay's, watching her gather the books she would need.

"Homework," she said shortly, dumping at least five more books into her bag.

"Here," he said, grabbing the textbooks up in his arms. He held them out patiently, waiting for her to give him more.

She looked up at him for a moment before sighing and pulling two old books from the back of her locker. She dropped them in her now light book bag and shouldered it.

"I can take those too," he said eagerly.

"No," she said, closing her locker and breezing past him, "that's okay. You're carrying enough as it is."

Zeke's eyes widened and he hurried after her. Part of him wondered if she was sick and part of him hoped that this was a sign of the good Sharpay he'd always known was hiding underneath her cool exterior.

"Sharpay!" Troy barked, his voice echoing down the empty hall and making both Sharpay and Zeke jump. Troy ran down the hall after them and they both waited.

"What is it?" Sharpay asked, examining her nails. "I'm very busy."

"Where's your brother? I need to talk to him."

"You and everyone else," Sharpay said angrily.

"This isn't about the auditions," Troy said, "it's about Gabriella."

"Is she okay?" Zeke asked.

Before Troy could answer Sharpay's phone rang out.

"If that's Ryan," Troy said as Sharpay dug in her purse, "I want to talk to him."

Sharpay rolled her eyes and flipped the phone open. "Hello?"

"Is it him?" Troy pressed.

Sharpay held up a hand to keep him away. "Already? You're sure? Of course, if you're correct and there aren't any surprises your debt is repaid, but if there are --" As she listened she glanced up at the two boys, looking them over carefully as if searching for something. "You're sure that's all it is?" She smiled. "Good." She shut the phone and grabbed Zeke's wrist. "Come on!" she said eagerly, dragging him down the hall.

"Was that Ryan?" Troy asked, keeping pace with them.

"No," Sharpay said, hitting a few keys on her phone as she walked. "And I don't know where he is. Whatever your problems with Gabriella, you'll have to deal with them on your own." She burst through the school's front doors, leaving Troy behind.

"What's going on?" Zeke asked. He was having a hard time keeping up with her and balancing the books while she held his arm.

She ignored him and made a beeline for her car, not hard since it was one of the few remaining on the lot. "Ryan," she said into the phone as they approached her car, "when you get this message you come to me right away. I don't care if you're begging Ms. D to give you a second chance, this is more important." She paused, having reached the pink convertible, and smiled up at Zeke. "I found her."

"Found who?" Zeke asked when Sharpay shut the phone.

She threw her purse into the back and motioned for Zeke to do the same with the books. "I'll tell you on the way," she said, climbing into the driver's seat.

"On the way?" Zeke asked. "I thought you had homework."

She looked up at him, still smiling and he felt himself go weak at the knees. It wasn't often Sharpay Evans really, truly smiled, but when she did it was well worth the wait.

"I'm going to have an adventure, Zeke," she said. "And I need a shining knight to help me. Will you?"

He wanted to tell her that she never had to ask, that he was always there for her, no matter what. But he was having trouble remembering to breathe regularly so he just hurried around the side of the car and slid in, Dukes of Hazard style.

"Ready?" she asked, gripping the wheel.

He nodded and it occurred to him suddenly that she'd forgotten her keys in her purse.

"Good," she said. "And try not to faint."

The pink convertible disappeared from the lot in a flurry of pink sparks.

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