"Now we need to cover your day. There is much more that needs to be told and not a lot of time," Fred said as Madeline nodded as she pulled out a notebook. She had visited Jason before they had come out here and had gotten his notes from the beginning. He had done it so Tommy would know what had happened when he got back and now she was grateful for it, since it gave her a clear time line.
"All right, let's get this shit going," Sam said as Madeline glared over at him and he scooted away. He felt that she might just kick his ass for old time's sake.
--------------
"All right kids, here is Tommy's little plan for everything you need to learn before any major battles occur," Jason said as he placed a thick notebook on the table and they just stared at it, thinking that there could not possibly be that much to learn before they were in a major battle. The rangers just couldn't have that much experience in major battles. They didn't even think that there were that many major battles in ranger history, but they honestly had no clue as to what had truly occurred during their years of service. The government had done a very good job of hiding everything that they thought the public did not need to know about the rangers and most of their major battles had been placed in that category. No one needed to know that the Power Rangers had saved this earth more times than they could even count. "I'm going to try to get through most of it for you because it's just little things that you need to know and if Tommy hadn't been on so many teams we wouldn't have even thought of half of it until it was too late. So, just bear with me and I'll try to make this short and sweet."
"A Power Ranger manual? You've got to be kidding me," Sam said as BethAnn reached over and slapped him on the back of the head. She had been assigned to keep Sam in check, because they all feared that Madeline or Maddox might just take it too far and they did not want to see either of them pay in their other job.
"Don't be rude!" BethAnn said as Jason smiled as he opened it. He was beginning to think that between BethAnn and Madeline, Sam was going to be a tame man by the time he was done being a ranger. The female rangers always seemed to have a calming effect on the male rangers and they all appreciated that a good bit, especially considering who they were now working with.
"It's not like a rules of engagement book. We don't have that. What it is, is some things that you need to know before all hell breaks loose, because the hell that you are used to is not the hell that we experienced while we were rangers. It's a hell that no one else can even think that they've experienced," Jason said as Rocky looked over at him. Jason was trying to skirt around the other things that had happened today, but he realized that there was no way that the rangers would be able to concentrate until they knew some simple facts.
"First of all, any questions as to why that happened today?" Rocky asked as Madeline nodded. She had to admit to being curious about the entire situation. "Go ahead."
"Don't you have any protection on your houses?" Madeline asked as Rocky shook his head no and Madeline's mouth dropped open. She had thought that they would have gotten some sort of protection after everything that had happened to them in the past. There had to be some payoff for them always risking their lives, they shouldn't have to live in fear when they were done being rangers.
"Kim and Tommy don't have that capability, none of us do, but there are things you have to get used to with this life and knowing that someone might drop into your home is just one of those facts. It's happened more times than we would like to count and most of the times we get away without any sort of injury," Rocky said as they just stared. They had not known this was ahead, they had never expected to hear something like this come out of their mouths as the truth about how rangers lived after they were retired.
"You have to get used to knowing your life could end at any moment?" Madeline asked as Rocky barely nodded as Billy walked back in and they looked over at him. He had been communicating with some unknown source for the last couple of hours, but they were sure that he had gotten them some help, somehow.
"There is not much for me to do unless you need some help," Billy said as Jason and Rocky acknowledged his statement. They wanted to try to keep him out of this if they could; they knew that he didn't want to risk becoming a permanent member of the PANEL.
"Go home, we'll call you if we need you," Jason said as Billy gave them a grateful smile and walked towards the door. Kat was probably having a nervous breakdown by now, considering what had just happened and he hoped that he would be able to comfort her some, although he knew it was futile to even try.
"How is he doing?" Madeline asked, as they had all heard that Kim and Tommy had a boy, but they had not heard much more.
"We don't know. Tommy hasn't called us yet; when he does we'll know more about what's going on. I don't expect him to talk to you for another few days. He's got too much to think about right now that doesn't include the ranger world," Jason said as Madeline nodded and then leaned back in her chair. She had asked all the questions that she was pretty sure would be answered, so there was nothing else that she could do.
"Okay, under Tommy's orders, you have to watch this in its entirety and if any of you fall asleep, you have to watch it again," Rocky said as he began the film and they all seemed to fall into a trance like state. They knew that Tommy had expected it to happen but maybe not that quickly. It was something that everyone was not a Power Ranger found themselves staring at as if they were idiots while the rangers stood back and tried not to hurl. They hated reliving those memories, when so many of them had not had happy endings.
"If you are seeing this I am either dead, captured, or working on another damn ranger team. This is the history of the Power Rangers from the beginning until now. Now, sit back and enjoy," Tommy said as Jason and Rocky both shook their heads.
"Enjoy what?" Jason murmured as the momentous day that they were brought into this life what they would never be able to escape showed on the screen.
"Tommy knows that it's interesting for others. I'm surprised that he went back in and added so much of this stuff. I wouldn't think that he would even remember most of it," Rocky said with a smile as Jason nodded. Tommy's forgetfulness was still legendary among the rangers, even if not much else about the longest serving ranger remained a legend to those that knew him.
"Yeah now he's going to have to get a tattoo to remind himself of his son's birthday," Jason said as Rocky laughed. They had all joked that Tommy would do that for their anniversary, but the only tattoo that he had was the falcon he got on his eighteenth birthday, of course he had sworn off tattoos after that experience. Tommy had a tolerance for pain, but it was not nearly as high as to have another tattoo placed on his body.
"Hey, we're trying to watch this," Sam said as Jason and Rocky turned their stares towards him and he clamped his mouth shut. They were good to their word that they would do what Tommy asked and had so far. He was sure that if he gave them a hard time, then they would take Tommy's other advice too literally.
"Are you sure that they're doing all right?" Rocky asked as he wanted to call Aisha and find out, but didn't think it wise. He knew that if he became distracted that everything would just turn out worse for them.
"Trini just said that he was in the NICU, but he seems to be okay. Other than that I don't know and I doubt we'll get an answer out of Tommy if we call," Jason said as Rocky nodded as the mission to the moon came up and Jason struggled not to walk out. He had paid hell for that mission when he got home. If they had not had to rescue Kim, Trini would have ripped him a new one without even thinking. She, however, was nice enough to look after Kim, and then come after him with hundreds of questions and a few bitter comments.
"He didn't put in her rescue," Rocky muttered as Jason nodded. He had suspected that, as even the Dino Rangers didn't know about the rescue that had occurred, hell he was not even sure they knew about the letter. Tommy tended to keep that part of their relationship a secret, considering everything that they had been through in the past. He didn't like bringing that part of their relationship up in the here and now. It was just better that they didn't know anything about it if they could help it.
"He didn't want to have to explain it all again," Jason said as Rocky fixed him with a questioning gaze. Why had he decided against letting them know that now that they were going to see Kim become evil?
"I guess we're going to have to do some explaining to all of them," Rocky said as they turned towards them with questions in their eyes.
"What the hell have you gotten us into?" Madeline asked as Rocky laughed and then sat down. That was definitely a question that they had thought about a few times themselves and they didn't have an answer for her about that one. They didn't know what would happen to this ranger team, but they could almost guarantee that it would be different from what had happened to every ranger team before them.
"Nothing too bad, I promise that you'll all survive, just like the teams that came before you," Jason said as Rocky nodded and they all seemed to collapse right where they were.
"You know that movie should be shown at the beginning of basic training, I promise no one would complain then," Maddox said as Madeline nodded. She certainly knew that she couldn't any more.
"That's not the purpose, the purpose is for you to know what you've come from and where you might go. We've all been down this road more times than we want to count, but we're back again. You'll do it too when your time comes," Jason said as Madeline nodded. She knew that they would soon be in their shoes; they just didn't want all the responsibility that they had.
"Our time won't come," Sam said as Madeline looked over at him and noticed the determined looked had come back.
"Yeah, just like Kim and Tommy won't have more kids," Jason said, sarcastically, and they looked at him with wonder. They couldn't believe that he would joke around like that especially considering the circumstances. "A time comes for everyone here, so trust me when I say yours will as well and if you don't believe me, ask Tommy and Andros how many times they've been woken up in the middle of the night with a dumb ass question from a new ranger."
"Now, let's get down to business, we are teaching you all of the important skills you'll need. Basic communication," Rocky said opening the book and holding it up with a smile and they laughed. "Yeah, we've screwed up a couple of times and almost gotten caught, but we've always been able to figure a way out of it. You'll have to learn to do that same thing."
"Rule number one," Jason said as he held up the communicator. "Do not take this thing off, sleep, eat, have sex…do everything with this on. We have to be able to get in touch with you if something goes wrong."
"Does that include…" Garrett began as BethAnn slapped her hand over his mouth. She did not want to hear that at all.
"Leave it close by," Rocky said out of frustration as Jason nodded. He didn't want to think of what Kim or Trini would say to something like that, as they were likely to slap him and tell him off before he even realized that he had done something wrong. "Rule number two, do not yell out onto the frequency until someone responds, unless you are about to be killed."
"Then you call us," Jason said, seriously, as they looked at them. They didn't think that they were supposed to do anything, considering their reaction to Tommy staying and fighting earlier today. "You don't know enough yet and when they day comes that you do, we'll tell you."
"Rule number three, do not use the communicator as your personal taxi service," Rocky said as Jason fought not to laugh.
"Although we do that, you cannot. You have not earned that privilege," Jason said with a smile as Rocky watched them look at them in wonder.
"That's why he took so long to take her to the hospital," Madeline said as Jason nodded. Tommy knew that the reserves could dip at anytime and they would be left with no system. He, however, used it just as much as the others if something happened to Kim. They all knew what his priorities in life were and having the job that he now had was definitely messing those up.
"Tommy wants to insure that you have a good connection to it at all times because we've had trouble in the past when we've had to hop around too much," Jason said as Rocky nodded. They both cold remember being stranded and didn't like the feeling of it at all.
"Rule number four," Rocky said bringing the conversation back around to their job. "Absolutely no teleporting in front of anyone. If you get caught our cover is blown and we can be linked to far more people than you would ever imagine, so don't fuck it all up for us."
"Okay, that is the basics for communicator etiquette and teleporting, now it is time for you to morph," Jason said as he pulled out his own morpher with the disabled coin and showed it to them.
"Morph?" Madeline asked as Jason smiled, they obviously hadn't paid much attention to the suits that magically appeared on them.
"The funny little suits that we run around in, you have to morph to wear those," Rocky said with a smile as Jason laughed and Trini and Aisha walked in and they looked over at them. "Why are you here?"
"Kim and Tommy let us see Chris, but we had to leave. Kim's not taking it too well right now. Tommy still hasn't decided how to take all of this right now, but they're saying the next day will decide how long he'll have to stay," Trini said as Jason and Rocky nodded. It was much more than they could really take in right now.
"Chris?" Rocky asked as Trini and Aisha nodded. "We have a Junior on our hands?"
"Yeah, Tommy was a pre-me too and Kim couldn't resist and Tommy didn't stop her. There'd never be any doubt that he's Tommy's though," Aisha said as Jason and Rocky smiled.
"As if there was ever a doubt about that one," Madeline said as they nodded. She had learned enough by being around them that they could not cheat on each other, no matter what anyone else cared about or thought would happen with them. They had been there and done that. They would never do that again, that had been pure hell when they were apart for those years.
"Well, some would say Tommy is awfully friendly with the ladies," Rocky said with a laugh as Maddox and Sam exchanged a confused glance. They hadn't seen that side of Tommy and they were pretty sure that they never would by the way that they were talking.
"Tommy's charm is wasted on no woman. We're his friends, but there have been days when we've all wished that he was our husband," Aisha said as Rocky looked over at her, faking that his feelings had been hurt.
"Yeah and Kim has wanted me too," Rocky said as Jason, Trini, and Aisha laughed.
"I'd like to learn how to morph so that we no longer have to deal with these horrible bruises," Madeline said as she pulled up her shirt and Rocky grimaced as Maddox just stared.
"Down boy," Jason whispered in his ear and he jumped about a mile high as he had not noticed that Jason was right next to him.
"What's wrong?" Madeline asked as Maddox was now glaring at Jason while the older rangers laughed. They had seen that look before on another ranger, but they didn't think it polite to talk about him while he was not there. "Maddox…"
"Nothing is wrong," Maddox managed to say as he resumed breathing and looked back at her. He saw the laughter in her eyes but she was holding it back for some reason. He didn't know if it was to be polite or if it was just because she didn't want to laugh in his face right now.
"Good, I wouldn't want to distract you," Madeline said as Jason and Rocky both had to bite down on their tongues to keep from laughing. She was hitting the nail on the head, but she didn't even know that that was the truth of the matter. "Now, how are we supposed to do this?"
"Well, let me put in my power coin," Jason said as they stared at him and he could only shake his head. "It still has enough power to bring the suit, but not nearly enough for me to actually fight uninhibited and be protected."
"Now the important thing is the correct call for the correct coin," Rocky said as Jason failed in becoming the black ranger. "We're not sure if Tommy told you exactly what element you are yet."
"Element?" Sam asked as Madeline and Maddox looked around and then down at the floor.
"Yeah, I thought it'd only be them," Rocky said as Jason nodded and he went back over to the computer.
"When we found these powers they picked some of us as their match, so I know what a couple are without looking, but the rest I have no clue, we didn't really know the proper names for them, but Tommy found it over the past few months," Jason said as Madeline began carefully studying the others and Maddox watched her, trying to figure out what she was doing.
"I may be able to help you Jason," Madeline said as they looked over at her. They didn't know how she could do that. They weren't even certain that they guessed correctly.
"It can't hurt to let you try," Jason said as he continued to scroll through the files. There was so much on their computer and there was no way to just go to the one thing that they actually needed.
"I know that you are fire," Madeline said pausing in front of Maddox with a smile. "You are darkness."
"I know, you said that before," Sam said as Madeline just looked over at him as she shook her head. This was the reason that he was darkness. This was the reason that he couldn't do her job, otherwise he would have it. They all knew that.
"Now, the two of you," Madeline said as she stood in front of Garrett and BethAnn. She hadn't been around them enough to really figure out what they could be, although she was feeling certain sensations from each of them. "Can you step away from each other, you're confusing me."
"Sure," BethAnn said as she took a couple of steps away from Garrett and Madeline focused on him.
"Air, I'm pretty sure," Madeline said as Garrett nodded his head that he could definitely see that one being the truth.
"Don't tell me that I'm love, I think I might hurl," BethAnn said as Madeline laughed. She was sure that BethAnn was not love, but she was also not exactly sure what she was.
"No, you're not love, I don't think we have that element, but I can't say what I think you are. It's really difficult to discern with all the emotions I feel running through you," Madeline said as she looked back at Jason. There had been a clear reason that that power had wanted Kim to be its suitor, but she had had to hold it away so that she would not have to deal with it.
"What have you always felt with Kimberly?" Jason asked, out of curiosity, as Madeline looked over at him and shook her head. She had never been able to read Kimberly really well; she had always been guarded against all of them. "You can't read her, can you?"
"No, it's nearly impossible, but I don't know why she'd do that. She doesn't have any secrets in her past that she should be ashamed of," Madeline said as the veteran rangers exchanged glances and looked at the floor. "I said something wrong?"
"Yeah, she's got some things to be ashamed of, to say the least," Jason said as Madeline settled her thoughts on Kimberly and BethAnn. What did they have in common? What could possibly be the reason that they would share a power?
"But that doesn't play into this power, I can feel it. I can feel something resonating from her and I just can't put my finger on it…it just seems like raw…hope," Madeline said as Jason smiled. He was certainly glad to not have to dig through all of Tommy's informational files, as he had thought those were the powers, but not known it for sure.
"Hope?" BethAnn asked. "Why would I be hope?"
"Why would I be the human element?" Madeline asked as BethAnn just shrugged her shoulders, she definitely couldn't think of a reason for that. "I don't think we're supposed to know why we are the element that we are, we just have to deal with the fact that this is what we are stuck with."
"Well, now that you have figured that out, it is time for you to morph, which should be as simple as 'Human Element, morph', of course, you might want to act like you actually want to morph," Rocky said as the rangers looked around at each other, before Madeline tentatively took out her morpher and looked down at it. "You have to try it sometime; you might as well try it now."
"Human Element, morph!" Madeline yelled as she felt her body flying through the air and as she twisted the suit materialized and she felt the powers surge through her body and felt fully alive. She hadn't known that something was missing in her life and now it seemed that she wouldn't be able to live without being a ranger ever again. "Wow…"
"Well, I guess that you've learned what it feels like to morph," Jason said as Madeline pulled off her helmet and looked over at him, still trying to keep her breathing calm.
"I never thought that I would feel like this," Madeline said as she took her eyes off Jason and looked at Maddox, she could see straight through him now and what she saw him disturbed her just a little bit. She had never gotten this sort of feeling by the way that he acted, but now she felt something that scared her. "I guess I won't be able to block out what the human side of them wants, will I?"
"I don't think so," Jason said as Madeline nodded and she waited for the others to morph and one by one they did and they all seemed to have similar results, but Madeline had to continually force herself not to face Maddox. If she did she knew that she would not be able to deal with the emotions that were running through her. "Just imagine that Tommy feels like this, even without the powers helping him."
"How does he deal with it?" Madeline asked in shock as Jason just shook his head. He had never been brave enough to ask that question. Tommy had always had to deal with things like this, even when he didn't have a power that made everything more obvious.
"Tommy is a remarkable person, you'll find out more about him when you are able to be around him more," Jason said as the rangers were all beginning to control their powers. It was definitely something that they were having trouble with, considering that they were all feeling different things. "Okay, it's time to power down."
"Power down? Why should we do that so soon?" BethAnn asked as she was tumbling around and Trini just shook her head. That was something that Kim had been known to do when she got new powers, test them out and see exactly how far they could go.
"Because we just wanted you to see what it was like to morph. We didn't want for you to be wandering around in your uniform trying to become accustomed to it, because it'll never happen. In all the years that we've been rangers, none of us have ever fully gotten used to the feeling," Rocky said as they individually powered down and were able to return to their normal state. "Now, just a few rules about morphing and then we'll let you go for the day."
"Okay," Madeline said as she sat down next to Maddox and he looked over at her. He could tell that something had changed with her, but he didn't want to venture into what she had been able to tell about him while she looked at him in uniform.
"Rule number one, morphing is your absolute last option. Now don't get yourself killed, but be smart about when you morph. Depending on how strong their little goons are will determine if you need to morph any time anything shows up, we just don't know enough yet, but the general rule of thumb is, don't morph unless a monster shows up," Rocky said as they all nodded. They could certainly understand why the rangers would not want them to morph before the monster showed up. They had heard that these powers could be finicky.
"Rule number two, do not get caught morphing if you can help it. We've all had to make some life or death decisions about when to morph and when not to morph in front of people, but it's kinda like teleporting in front of people. You don't want to do it, but there are days when you don't really have a choice about it," Jason said as Madeline looked over at him and saw that there had been times when they had almost been caught and had obviously had to do some fast talking to get out of it.
"Rule number three, don't reveal yourself to an evil ranger unless you are dating them and even then only if you think you can bring them back. We'll figure out a way to bring them back, but you might just have to be patient. As you can see, even Kim and Tommy have been guilty of being evil and not coming back to the other without a lot of coaxing," Trini said, as she had not been there to see it, but she had certainly heard enough about it to know that it was a very scary thing to have to live with.
"And the final rule, don't ever think that because you are morphed you are invincible. Trust me there have been more times than I like to count that Kim or Tommy or Jason or Trini or any of us have been on a gurney because we were hit so hard in uniform that we were knocked out and the only reason that we made it back was because we had some people looking out for us. If we hadn't been there for each other, I know that some of us would not be here today," Aisha said as the rangers looked between each other. They had certainly thought that they would be able to handle things away from each other, but they had been wrong about that.
"You are going to need to learn to work together, quickly, because the longer that you stay divided, the longer that we will have problems with teaching you skills that you will need to survive some of the battles that we are afraid lie in front of you," Jason said as they all nodded. They had so much to think about tonight and they just didn't know if they would be able to do it, there was nothing that was going on that would make them believe that this was impossible, but they were asked to be rangers after all.
"Can we go home? I still have homework to do and I have to study before I go to school tomorrow," BethAnn said as Jason nodded that it was fine for them to leave if they wanted to and he noticed that Madeline and Maddox hung back while the others left and he could not help but smile. He did not want to point out what the two of them were feeling for each other, but he was sure that they knew it without him pointing it out. That much had been obvious from Madeline's reaction to her new powers.
---------------
"You're more than just friends?" Fred asked as Madeline looked at the ground Maddox looked over at the other rangers.
"We thought that you didn't care about our real lives, you just cared about what the PANEL members did to us and whether or not that was what they were truly asked to do," BethAnn said, as she was able to manage an answer, although they all knew what the answer was to his question. They just didn't think that the government needed to know what had been brought about by them being rangers together, although they had been slowly heading that way outside of the ranger world.
"Well, I guess that they never expected that you would offer things that had much more to do with real life and a lot less to do with you being a ranger," Fred said as Garrett just shook his head.
"Being a ranger becomes your life, whether you like it or not. We've all experienced it while we've been on the job and the lines between you normal life and ranger life begin to get blurry, until they just meld together without any of your control," Garrett said as Fred stopped the tape and nodded. He felt that if he attempted to listen to anything else, he would not be able to take it right now. There was just so much that he had never expected to hear about what being a ranger truly was.