Disclaimer: The Power Rangers and all show related properties belong to Saban. Elemi and the Novas belong to KSuzie. Everyone else belongs to me.
Dark Inheritance
"Truth and Lies"
It had been another month of continuous failures for Xinas and his army. This last attempt at destroying the rangers, Kaycea had epically defeated him to the point that Deimos had called him back for a personal chat about the situation.
This left Shax in charge. Although, he was not allowed to actually do anything as far as leading battles went. He did not mind, he would rather he be in charge and do nothing than to leave Xinas there. Arius had not had any true successes, but he had come a lot closer than Xinas ever had.
He thought, especially given the last month and a half, that Arius deserved to be the one here leading this campaign. He was not sure if Arius was ever coming back though. He did not even know if their former leader was still alive, there had been no word from Deimos one way or the other. Either way, he hoped he would not send Xinas back. There were a number of other members of this army that were better suited to the job. He could do it better if given the chance. He had seen Arius and Kaycea interact. He might not be as powerful as Arius is, but he knew her strengths and weaknesses and sometimes that could be enough.
He glanced briefly at the commander's chair on the ship's bridge. He thought for a moment. He was technically in charge, was there any harm in going to sit in it? He supposed there was not, and he walked over and took his seat as the head of the ship.
As he started to make himself comfortable, two figures materialized in front of him. He started to evacuate the chair, but then he realized who the two figures were. "How did you get on this ship?" he asked with a hiss. As far as he knew, neither one of them was employed by Deimos.
Jakar simply laughed in response. When the other creature gave him a cold stare, he spoke. "You should consider tightening your security a bit." He said as he looked Shax over. He recognized him from a brief meeting on another world. He was a good fighter; however, there was no way he was in charge. "Who is running this ship?"
"Me. For now." Shax replied. He was not about to let him in on the details of what was going on here. He knew all about the intergalactic tyrant standing in front of him. He did not want him to think he could overstep his bounds. "What do you want?"
"We've come to offer our assistance." Jakar said as he gestured toward Fessus, the only minion that he trusted enough to bring out on a mission like this.
"I can assure you that we don't need your help." Shax replied. The last thing they needed right now was Jakar running around trying to help. There was no question that Jakar had his own agenda, one that probably did not agree with Deimos's.
"Oh but you do. You see, I have heard about your attempts to sway Kaycea. She and I have fought before; I can help you get her." Jakar assured him. By get her, he meant he was going to go down to the surface and destroy her. He did not want her roaming free anymore. By all accounts, her powers had grown exponentially since the last time he saw her. She needed to be destroyed now before she became the thorn in his side he feared she would.
Not only was his goal here to destroy Kaycea, but it was to keep Deimos from getting his greedy little hands on her. It was no secret that Deimos wanted the throne that was vacated years ago by Dark Specter. He happened to like the anarchy that replaced Dark Specter's alliance of evil. He did not want that brought back together, he did not want to have to serve Deimos. Without the Muirantian, Deimos did not stand a chance at the throne. He was here to help make that happen.
"I don't think that will be necessary." Shax replied. He did not know what Jakar wanted with Kaycea. He could want to kill her, or take her for himself. Either way he was not going to allow that to happen on his watch. "Besides, wherever you go, the Nova's tend to follow, and we don't want any dealings with them right now."
"The Nova's are occupied for the moment." Jakar assured him. Last time he tried to come to Earth, the Nova Rangers had not been that far behind him. If it were not for Elemi, he would have succeeded in destroying the red Planetary Ranger. This time he made sure the Nova's were distracted and were not paying him a bit of attention. It had taken a good-sized distraction on his part but the Nova's were out of the way for now.
"Even if that's so, we still don't need the help. I appreciate the offer and"
Before he could finish, Jakar moved the ten steps in between them with speed greater than someone his size should have. He snatched Shax up by the throat and lifted him off his seat and in the air. "I was trying to be polite but I see that I will have to put another way. Either you assist me or I destroy you and use your resources to help anyway. I am going to be a part of this no matter what you do."
There was an obvious fury in Shax eyes. He did not allow anyone to treat him this way. Even with his failures, Arius and Deimos had been kinder. Now though, he did not have much of a choice. Jakar could take him out without thinking about it. He needed to stay alive long enough to figure out how to fix this situation and keep Deimos's plans on track. "I apologize." He spat out as Jakar loosened the grip on his throat and put his feet on the floor. "Our army would love to benefit from your assistance."
"That's what I thought." Jakar said as he let him go. "Now let me share with you how we are going to take care of your little problem." He knew how to keep the other rangers busy. Meanwhile he would take the red ranger on himself, seeing to the destruction of the one enemy who was becoming much too powerful for her own good.
Tommy found himself hiding behind the bushes on the outside of a major Hollywood studio. Production on the Luke Kirk movie had started at the beginning of the week. Luke Kirk had been firmly at the front of his thoughts, especially with all the hype surrounding last month's book release. It was on every TV show and magazine he came across. Now, with the local producer starting filming on the movie that correlated with the first book, he could not do anything without hearing the name Luke Kirk.
He was more curious than ever as to whom the mystery writer was. Kim had not gotten any idea from talking to Carri, so either the white ranger did not know or she was keeping it a secret from everybody. The one way to find out would be to sneak in on the filming and dig around a little bit.
Of course, he had absolutely no right to be there, and he was not sure he would get an invite if he called Carri and asked. Even if he did, she would hide any information that might be helpful. He had no choice but to be stealth about it.
One might ask how someone goes about sneaking onto a lot and getting onto the set of one of the biggest potential blockbusters in years. For most, that would be a problem. For Tommy, it was easy. Inside his pocket was the black Dino Gem. He could not morph with it. Those powers were long gone, except for Kira's who had her gem charged by the Sentinel Knight last year. Still, there was enough residual energy in the gem that he could access something that at the moment was even better.
Feeling what was left of the gem's powers flow through him, Tommy became invisible. He snuck over toward the main gate, being careful not to step on anything that would make a noise and make him suspicious. It was not hard to clear the guard, who was oblivious to everything that was going on except for what was on his monitor.
Once he was inside the lot, he found a safe place to become visible again, and then he walked out and merged with other foot traffic. He took a moment to assess the people around him. He saw one young male as he finished getting reamed by the woman he could only assume was his boss. Once the woman left, he approached him.
"Excuse me." He said, calling out toward the obviously overworked and underpaid man. He hoped he is too burnt out to care and would just answer his question. The man snapped his head up and Tommy smiled at him. "Sorry to bother you, but I am supposed to meet with someone from Ausus Productions, although I can't remember where she said she'd be."
The young man let out a groan. That is all anybody on the lot was talking about. Well not Ausus specifically, but the movie they were working on. He had just gotten his head chewed off because the lead actress on their show would much rather be sneaking a peak at the Luke Kirk movie than here filming. He was not sure he should tell this stranger where the movie was, but at the moment he didn't give a crap. Besides, they had plenty of their own security over there. "Studio fifteen." He replied with a grunt before turning and storming off.
Tommy chuckled. That had been much easier than he anticipated. He followed the signs on the lot until he was within sight of the studio. He found a good place to hide and went for his Dino Gem once more. Armed with invisibility, he strode toward the studio, being careful to avoid others.
This was not going to be as easy as walking past the guards. He walked around the building quickly, trying to find the best place to enter. Eventually he got lucky. Someone was holding a door wide open while he talked to the security personnel. Tommy moved quickly to get to the door, sneaking in right before the man holding it open did.
Moving quickly, he pushed past his surroundings to try to figure out where he needed to go. This hallway appeared to be full of offices. He imagined where they were shooting had to be around there somewhere.
One of the office doors popped open, and to his surprise Carri walked through. Without any better plan in mind, he elected to follow her for a moment. If she looked like she was going to be out of the office for a while, he would sneak back in and poke around.
He had to be careful; if she caught him in there she would kill him. He was not sure if he really cared now. He was still pissed off at her over the fight they got into a few weeks prior. She had landed them in the tabloids; she had people speculating that this team was not up to the task. He was furious. Kim swore she took care of it, but that did not make her actions right.
For the moment, he tried not to think about that as he followed her to the end of the hallway and through a door. The door revealed another hall. This hallway was wide open, and it led out into what was obviously the movie set. If he was one to get more star struck he would stop and look, but at the moment he did not care.
He watched as Carri made it to the end of the hallway, stopping and moving toward the corner. He assumed she had run into someone. He snuck close enough to hear her conversation, but he could not see whom it was with. He hoped it would give him an idea of what she was up to.
"Hey." He heard her say, as she appeared to lean over and either hug or embrace the other person. Tommy groaned inwardly. She did not hug many people. He prayed it was not his fiancé. She was Muirantian. She was liable to figure him out. Then she would kill him.
"Hey." The gruff male voice replied. Tommy would recognize that voice anywhere.
"You here for a visit?" she asked, turning her body so that her back was toward Tommy. It made it harder to listen, so he snuck in a little closer.
"Of course." Jason replied as though visiting were the most logical thing in the world.
He could hear her snort. "So far you've been on the set every day." She pointed out.
"I've got nothing better to do." Jason said in response.
He could tell from the way Carri moved that she was crossing her arms over her chest. "Shouldn't you be working on book three? AKA the third book I'm going to kill you over."
Tommy froze. It could not be Jason, could it? He heard his friend laugh out loud. "Car, the second book has shot to the top of the charts. You are going to get a movie out of that one too. I don't know what you're complaining over."
"That doesn't mean I'm going to like you writing about that crap." Carri replied with a huff.
Tommy did not hear Jason's response, he had heard enough already. Suddenly it all made sense. How an online investor had the money for a new house, a new motorcycle, a new anything he wanted. How he always seemed to have spare time whenever it was good for him. The silver ranger had to bite his tongue to keep from swearing aloud.
Carri obviously knew this entire time. The two of them were working together keeping this secret. He was going to kill them both. Jason for writing books that sound like ranger stories and selling them, not bothering to give him a heads up. They used to be best friends. He is considered the senior red ranger among reds, the senior ranger on the planet, he should have known. As for Carri, well she flat out lied to his face, among other things.
It took every ounce of strength not to walk out there and rip them both a new one right here. Common sense grabbed a hold of him though. He knew that this was a conversation that can not be had among non-rangers as the word ranger was definitely going to come up more than once. He turned around and started to sneak back out.
For now he would leave them be. However, the very first moment he got an opportunity he was going after both of them.
Kim sat in the Mystic Realm during what was technically her lunch break. She had had an appointment with Mystic Mother, and she was glad to keep it. Work was stressing her out; she would take the opportunity to play with magic some to relax.
She hoped that she timed everything right this trip, and would get back just in time to scarf down a sandwich before returning to work. She was usually good about timing. It was only when she allowed herself to get busy and distracted, allowing more time to pass than it should, that she screwed up her window coming back. The two times it happened at work, Sandy had been right there to jump on her when she returned.
Both times, she had reported her to Ashley. The former yellow ranger did not mind her using her lunchtime for bending time to work on her powers, as long as she returned on time and did not let her work suffer. So far, the work was good, and outside of two mishaps, she was returning on time. She did not want to push her luck though. Over all the absences she had had for ranger related things, she did not want it to be a late lunch that got her fired.
With a sigh, she turned back toward the project she was working on. She crossed her arms briefly as she thought about it, trying to figure out how to manipulate it the way Mystic Mother suggested.
"You're never going to figure it out that way." A gravelly voice said from behind.
Kim glanced back to see Mystic Mother standing over her shoulder. "Any advice you could give would help." She pointed out. The woman had been more than a little cryptic with what she wanted her to do here. She understood, it was a test of some sort, but sometimes it was hard to get to the finish line when you were not quite sure where the starting line was.
Mystic Mother grunted in response. "If you need advice you aren't ready." She replied. She knew her student could do it if she just put her mind to it. She had to prove she could do it; she was not going to teach her any of the more advanced techniques until she did.
"Right." Kim said a quick roll of her eyes when Mystic Mother was not looking. She loved being here; loved learning, but sometimes the former Rita drove her batty. She frowned and turned her attention back to the task.
Before she could get any further, a figure burst in. "Oh mother!" Rhianna's voice came through loud enough to eclipse any thoughts Kim was having about her task. Knowing that she was not going to get anything done now, she paused to see what was going on.
Mystic Mother turned and looked at her daughter. "Rhianna. Have you come to work on your training?" Her student was much better at working and listening to her than her daughter was. She supposed she should expect it that way; after all, she has only been with her daughter for a short time. By the time they started building a relationship and working on proper training, Rhianna was already old enough to have developed a good rebellious streak.
She vigorously shook her head no. "I've come to make an announcement." She said proudly as she moved to stand in a position where she would have both her mother's and Kim's attention.
"What kind of announcement?" her mother asked skeptically, watching as she grinned broadly at them. This was not going to be good.
Rhianna held up her left hand and pointed to her ring finger. "Skull and I are getting married!" she exclaimed with a schoolgirl squeal.
Kim's attempt not to laugh aloud was completely overshadowed by Mystic Mother's response. "You are absolutely not marrying that boy!" she exclaimed.
"Well mum, I'm old enough to make my own decisions, and he and I are getting married. I love him and I will love him forever." Rhianna replied, as if daring her mother to say otherwise. She had been so thrilled when Skull proposed. He had joked briefly about eloping, but she wanted to make sure she could run home and tell her mom first, just to see her reaction, then she would consider eloping.
"Old enough? Perhaps you can pass as old enough on the surface world, but I know how old you really are." Mystic Mother argued back. She had been artificially aged, and although she had gained a few years living in the mystic realm, she was hardly old enough to make this kind of decision. "As for loving him forever, don't forget that forever to Skull is a mere eighty human years. You will far outlive that."
Kim looked back over at Rhianna, who was working on a reply. She warned Mystic Mother that she should keep Rhianna from seeing Skull before that relationship spiraled out of hand, but her teacher would not listen to her. Skull helped save Rhianna, and although she understood, it that did not mean it was a good idea to allow the relationship to continue. She had seen the two of them sneaking around. She had a feeling it would one day come to this.
"I've had a lot more life experience than most human girls my age." Rhianna said, in an attempt to prove that age did not matter. It was true; she had done a lot that most girls did not. Her mother could not argue that. "And as far as me outliving Skull," she paused, trying to think of a good response. When she glanced toward the red ranger, she had one. "Kim's marrying Tommy and if she can do it so can I."
Kim snorted, unsure about what kind of argument Mystic Mother could have against that point. Tommy would die early, probably around the same time as Skull, while she will continue to live her life for who only knew how many more years. She and Rhianna were relatively close in age, at least where their life spans were concerned, she supposed they'd live on until about the same point in life together.
"Kim is not my daughter." Mystic Mother fired back. It was no surprise that Kim and Tommy were getting married anyway. They had been together on and off for years. And if she wanted to waste fifty human years watching him grow old and die, then so be it. "You are, and you will listen to me."
Rhianna let out some sort of noise in between a grunt and a squeal as she stopped her foot. "I am going to marry Skull and that's final."
"No child, it's not." Mystic Mother said as she reached up and put her hands to her temples. "You've gone and given your mother a migraine. Why don't you return to your room and try not to get into any trouble. As for you," she paused and turned toward Kim, "we'll continue this at your next session."
Kim watched as their room inside the mystic realm emptied. She could not help but giggle once they were gone. Rhianna got the marriage bug. That seemed to be going around lately. She looked back down at what she was supposed to be working on. At least she would have some time to think about this. Plus she was definitely going to make it back to work in time. She smiled as she opened up a portal and teleported herself away.
Arius sat in Deimos's throne room in a cage. It was the most demeaning position he had ever been in during his entire existence and he hated it. Of course, this was not the worst thing Deimos had put him through over the past few weeks. It was simply another embarrassment in a long line of them that he was forced to suffer through.
He was lucky and he knew it. Deimos could have killed him by now. He did not know what the holdup was; he almost wished he would do it and get it over with. Death was much more dignified than this.
Deimos chose that moment to come storming back in and he took a seat in his chair. Things were not going well at all with his plans regarding Kaycea. Arius, his number one resource, was currently caged beside him. He was only keeping him alive to determine if he had any further usefulness. He seemed to get under Kaycea's skin, which was more than he could say for Xinas.
Xinas was returning, which was another failure. More disturbing than having to call Xinas back to sort through what was going on out there was the news he just received from Shax. Jakar had taken it upon himself to help them out. He agreed with Shax assessment that Jakar was not there to merely help them out. He had some sort of agenda; he needed one of his leaders back there to take care of him.
The question was which one. The door in front of him opened and Xinas entered. He was about to come up with some sort of answer to that. "My lord." Xinas said, bowing, as he got closer.
"Xinas." He said as he stared at his warrior. Xinas stood and Deimos continued. "Your latest in a string of failures was horrendous."
"I apologize." Xinas said. He hoped he was not being brought back to face his death. Then again, Arius was alive, although in a cage, which was worse than any death he could imagine.
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Deimos questioned. He wanted to hear a good argument, wanted to hear some reason why he should send back out there instead of being punished, then relocated.
"Kaycea is not an easy enemy to battle." Xinas replied. "She is a Phadosean Warrior, a Muirantian, plus the Planetary red. I do not believe it's possible to retrieve her with the path we've chosen to go on for this battle."
"You're saying we can't convince Kaycea to return and be my bride?" Deimos questioned. That was the last thing he wanted to hear. He had to get Kaycea to join with him. It was the only way he could get to lead the evil empire. Which he wanted that more than anything.
"It is next to impossible with our current tactics." Xinas replied. He did not want to say that it can't be done, but the truth was he did not see how it could be. Kaycea was powerful, and her team backed her up. He had used his best strategies and she tore them down as if they were nothing.
Before Deimos could open his mouth to ream Xinas, Arius spoke. "It's not impossible." He said, risking consequences of his own by sticking his nose out. He had to though; if he could not get himself back out there, it was over for him. "You just have to know how to do it."
Deimos turned toward him, ignoring for the moment that Arius interrupted him. "Are you saying that after all of your failures, you still believe this is a task you can handle?"
"If you let me return I will prove it to you." Arius assured him. "Kaycea and I are playing a game. She may think she has her pieces lined up for the win, but in the end, I can assure you that it will be us that will come out victorious. You just have to allow me to continue playing."
Deimos thought about it for a moment. Xinas, after such a short period, seemed utterly defeated. He did not see that he had much choice but to put his faith into Arius again. "Fine." He said as he gestured for to open the cage. They did so and he watched as Arius climbed out. "There will be no more second chances. If you fail me again, it is over for you."
"I understand." Arius assured him. He did not intend to fail again. He had failed one too many times, for his liking already.
Deimos nodded and then gestured for his minions to put Xinas in the cage. He watched the other commander struggle as he got thrown in. "You and I have some matters to…. discuss before I allow you to continue." He said before turning his attention back toward Arius. "As for you, you need to get back to the ship immediately. Jakar has apparently paid us a visit. I do not want him interfering with any progress we might have been able to make."
"Of course. He will be appropriately taken care of." Arius assured him. He had crossed paths with Jakar on a few occasions. He was frightening to most, but he knew he could take Jakar on easily. He would need to battle with him; he doubted that he was coming to help their cause. If anything, he was trying to hinder it someway.
"Good." Deimos said before quickly dismissing him. He watched Arius leave, and once the doors shut behind him he turned back to Xinas. "Now what to do with you." He said, smiling evilly as he contemplated how to punish him for his failure.
Carri found herself sitting in her makeshift office in Los Angeles, staring at her computer screen. She was trying to get some work done on something other than the movie however it was proving difficult. With everything starting up, she was getting pulled in several different directions constantly. That was why she made herself a LA office, so she could sit down and try to do some other work while she was up here.
She was hoping that soon she would not be needed in LA every day, but only time would tell. For now, she was here, and for a rare moment, she wasn't needed. She slipped off the set as soon as Jason left, and so far, they had not called looking for her.
Jason was probably going to be there more than she was. He had loomed every day so far, checking things out and making sure they met his approval. Although nobody ever questioned his presence, she was glad he had an excuse to be there. Both Jason and Kim had been established as Mr. Kirk's representatives with the scriptwriter, who was told Mr. Kirk was agoraphobic. Although the scriptwriter was contractually bound not to say he was agoraphobic, he could still point out both Jason and Kim as his assistants.
Jason had tons of time on his hands now that his second book just released. He was going to take a break before starting on his third book. It was nice for him that the break coincided with the start of the moving filming.
Despite all the good publicity and the potential income, Carri did not care if he ever got to his third book. She was still outraged over his second book cover. As soon as she got home from New York, she grabbed Kim and showed her a picture of the image. How the red ranger had not seen it at that point, she was not sure. Of course, Kim was sporting a new ring when Carri got back; she assumed the engagement had kept her distracted from outside events.
When she saw it, she was as ticked as Carri and the two girls wasted no time going to corner the black ranger. They jumped on him about how this was no better than the last book cover, and how from the book description he was still using a lot of their daily drama as his book drama. The rat had the audacity to smile at them in response as he handed them their autographed copies.
Although still peeved, they tried not to let it get to them. There was nothing they could do about it; the book had already firmly secured its place at number one on the charts. Then there was the fact Jason kept pointing out, that the book was going to bring them both money in the end. That did not mean they were going to like it at all but they would have to deal with it. Of course, Jason promised the next book would be better, but they were not falling for that again.
Carri snorted to herself as her computer beeped. She pulled herself back into the moment as she looked down at her laptop. She had a mere two percent left of her battery life. Reaching in to her laptop case, she pulled out her charger and plugged it in. She let out a sigh of relief as she watched the battery start to charge itself. She could not afford the battery dying on her. She was in the middle of working on some ideas for her next show.
She was excited about getting this up and running. Her father promised her once her current show finished airing its spring season and the movie got on its way, he would help her pull together some of her new ideas. For now, she was just working on outlines, pulling together all the thoughts she had. She was working on putting them all together to present something solid for her father to see what he thought.
If it looked good, she wanted to pull back a bit from her current show, leaving it in very competent hands, and start to get this one together. She would like to have something solid by next spring so it would have a chance at a fall lineup somewhere. As she went to focus her full attention back toward what she hoped would one day be her next success, there was a knock at her door.
She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "Come in." she called out.
The door opened and one of the guys who was working on her set walked in. She flashed him a small smile. "Hello." She greeted, not able to think of his name or what he did for the life of her. She did recognize him. "Can I help you?"
"Hi." He said somewhat tentatively. He could tell by the look on her face that she was not sure what was going on here. "I'm Christian, I work in set design." He said, watching as she nodded. She did not say anything so he took that as his cue to continue. "I wanted to talk to you about one of the changes you made this morning."
"Ok." She slightly drew out the word. She did not know what he could have to talk to her about. He was not in charge of anything, technically, he did not have any business in her office, but she would hear him out anyway.
"You see," he started as he sat down in a chair across from her, "I am a huge Luke Kirk fan. I know everything about him. I have read the first book, and I just finished reading the second book. I feel like I know exactly how he would want to represent his book in the movie."
He watched her smile. He was not sure what she found so amusing about that statement but he continued anyway. "The changes that you had them make to the ship… there is no way Luke Kirk would approve of that. I came in here to tell you that you were wrong and they needed to be changed back."
While Carri appreciated his enthusiasm for the book, it took all her strength not to ream the man for thinking he could come in here and tell her she was wrong and she had to change things. She knew the alteration he was talking about; it had actually been Jason's suggestion. While nobody else in a million years would get this, the small change he made was a nod to the original Astro Megaship.
"Since you're new, I'll let this slide." She spoke, trying to choose her words carefully so she did not pick a fight with an employee. "However, I do not appreciate you coming in here and telling me that you think you know this movie better than I do. The change will stand and you need to get back to work." She finished as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I'm telling you, you're wrong." Christian protested. "I know Luke Kirk. He wouldn't approve of you messing with his work like that."
He had some nerve to tell her that he knew her "brother" better than she did. If it weren't for her promise to keep Jason's identity a secret, she would tell him as much. "I have Luke Kirk's best interests at heart. I'm sure he would approve of the changes."
"I know he wouldn't." Christian fired back as calmly as possible.
She was not quite sure how to convince him he was wrong, and to shut up before he lost his job, but before she could think too much on it, her communicator chirped. She stood up and pushed her desk chair in. "I have a matter to attend to. I suggest you go back out there and do your job and stop worrying about the changes you know nothing about."
He watched her as she paused to look at her laptop. She was double-checking to make sure the battery was still good before she headed to the office door and opened it. "If you'll excuse me." She said, pointing forcibly toward the outside.
"I know I'm right." Christian mumbled as he passed her and headed into the hallway.
Carri slammed the door shut as she exited, turning to find the nearest abandoned room before entering and slamming that door as well. "Go ahead." She said into her communicator once she was sure she was safely inside.
"We've got serious trouble brewing in the park." Billy quickly replied.
"On it." Carri said as she shifted. "Planetary ranger, power up!" she called out. With that, the white ranger was off to battle.
The white ranger was the last to arrive on the battlefield. She glanced at the two figures standing in the center of an army of Keresecks. Pausing for a moment, she stared at the one with the giant battle-axe. "Haven't we kicked his ass before?"
"We have." Kim confirmed. She was not surprised that Jakar was back. She knew Elemi was still fighting him, knew that he had mentioned more than once that he was going to kill the red Nova Ranger then destroy the red Planetary Ranger.
"So we'll just do it again." Jason said with a shrug.
"You think you can simply defeat me?" Jakar questioned with a laugh. "Last time it took two teams of rangers, and even then you did no harm to me."
"Last time you weren't faced with an entire team of Planetary Rangers." Kim was quick to point out as she called for her Fire Saber and powered it up. "We don't need the Novas, we'll destroy you ourselves."
"We'll see about that." Jakar said with a laugh as he gestured for Fessus to lead the Keresecks to attack. He watched as they covered all the rangers but one, that was the ranger he was looking to do battle with.
"I take it you still want your shot at me?" Kim asked as she inched toward him. He was in for a surprise. Her abilities had grown exponentially since they last saw each other. That was the benefit of borrowing time to work on them.
"This time I'm going to finish you." Jakar assured her as he swiftly moved toward her, swinging his battle-axe as he went.
Much like the last time they battled, Kim rushed toward him with her sword in hand and immediately attacked. She was good with the weapon, she knew how to push the enemy back and she had done it to Jakar once before. They fought furiously for a while, and then she saw Jakar reach behind his back. She knew this part of the routine, he had done it to her the last time they battled. As Jakar pulled out the small knife to stab her with, she turned and spun away from him, missing his furious advance and ending up behind him. With one swift kick, she sent him tumbling forward.
Jakar stood quickly and turned toward her, lifting his right arm in the air before slamming it to the ground. Much to his surprise, Kim levitated herself up right before he hit. He had not been expecting her to move so quickly and the look of disappointment on his face showed.
"You think I'm going to fall for the same tricks twice?" Kim asked, a bit of cockiness in her voice.
"No, I suppose you wouldn't." Jakar said with a snarl. He then turned and went back to fighting her hand to hand while he worked on a new tactic.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the rangers were handling the small crew that has gotten thrown at them. "I feel like I'm missing something here." Jen said as she destroyed the Kereseck in front of her and found herself back to back with the white ranger.
"You remember Elemi?" Carri asked as she flipped an oncoming Kereseck over while pulling its head back, allowing Jen to get behind it and destroy its power disk.
"Of course." Jen said. Although she had not had much contact with the red Nova Ranger, she had heard a lot about him when she was researching the past with Time Force.
"One of his team's missions is to stop Jakar." Carri said pausing as she and Jen went to take out the three Keresecks that were on coming. A few moments later, she continued. "Jakar took an interest in Kim, seeing as how she's sort of got a lot going on for her ability wise, and last year we beat him back along with the help of the Novas."
"I think I get it." Jen said. She remembered hearing stories from her mentor about how she always had bad guys wanting to challenge her powers. It was never an easy life she led. She wondered if she had ever mentioned Jakar to her before. There was a good chance she had not. After all, if she knew that Jen was going to be there at some point while she fought Jakar, she would not tell her what happened. It was too risky. Unless of course she needed to push Jen in a certain direction for the battle to go the way it was written. Before she could think about that further, she and Carri found themselves taking on another small group of Keresecks.
Once they finished that battle, they looked around and noticed that most of the other Keresecks were gone. Tommy was taking on Fessus, and although he was not much of a challenge, the two girls were looking for a change of scenery so they rushed off to help the silver ranger.
It was not long before Jason, Zhane and Rocky finished the remainder of the Keresecks and joined Tommy as well. Jakar looked over and noticed that the Keresecks were gone and that Fessus was heavily outnumbered. He needed to claim his victory before the other rangers turned their attention toward him.
He blocked a hit from the red ranger, and used brute strength to hold her arms up with one hand while hitting her in the stomach with the sharp end of the axe with his other hand. Kim doubled over and as she did, he swung upwards, hitting her hard enough to crack her helmet as her body flew backwards. One more swipe to the chest and she tumbled across the battlefield.
Kim lay on the ground for a moment. Her visor was cracked, but that would repair itself after she powered down. Her entire body was cracked, and she was certain she had broken several bones underneath her uniform. It was moments like these she was glad she was Muirantian. Her body was already starting to repair itself.
It was a good thing, as Jakar jumped into the air, planning on landing on her using a combination of his strength and his axe to issue the final blow. If it had been anyone else on her team, she was not sure they would have the physical ability to stop him. Although she was still in pain, her body had done enough work that she could roll out of the way.
Jakar hit the empty ground where Kim once laid with a thud that shook the entire battlefield. He let out a roaring noise as he went to attack the red ranger again. This time Kim was ready for him. She concentrated on the flames on the end of her saber, and between her abilities as the red fire ranger and a little sorceress trick Mystic Mother showed her long ago, she pulled fire from the end of her sword turned it into an electric ball, shooting it at Jakar's chest as he flew toward her.
It hit him with an electric jolt and he went flying backwards. Kim pulled herself to her feet and did it again. It was nothing more than a manipulation of the elements. It would not kill him, but it hurt like hell. She did it one more time as the other rangers were running to her side.
"Kim are you alright?" Tommy asked as he went and grabbed her arm, looking into her eyes through the crack in her helmet. He had been worried sick when he saw her go down, but he could not get there fast enough.
"I'll be fine." She assured him, watching as Fessus went to stand next to his master and help him up.
Seemingly, out of nowhere the elements exploded. Lighting rang through the sky; wind blew Jakar back as the ground beneath him begins to shift. Kim chuckled to herself as she glanced over at her opponent. "You ready to call it quits yet?" she called out over the noise her fellow rangers attacks were making.
Before Jakar could answer, he got struck by lightning and knocked down. He was furious as he stood. Her powers had outgrown what they were the last time he fought her. This was going to be more difficult than he anticipated. It did not help his cause that there were other Planetary Rangers ready to attack using their elements on a moment's notice.
He needed to try another tactic, separate her from her team somehow and go about destroying her some other way. Of course, he would have to make sure the Novas were distracted, or destroyed, beforehand. It had to all be done before Deimos got his hands on her and before he let her powers grow even further. It was not an impossible task, not for someone of his skill, but it was not going to get accomplished today.
"Until we meet again red ranger." Jakar said as he took off.
Kim let out a sigh of relief once he was gone. He was a strong fighter, and there was no guarantee how this would have gone had it been allowed to carry on further. "Come on guys." She said as she turned toward her team. "He's gone for now, I think it's safe to say we can get back to our normal lives too." With that, Kim led the mass exodus of rangers from what had just been the battlefield.
After the battle with Jakar, Carri found herself making her way back into her office. She headed behind her desk and plopped down in her chair rather ungracefully. She was tired from the long Kereseck battle and she wished she could just call it a day, but it was still early and there was still work to be done.
She glanced at her black computer screen for a moment before reaching up and hitting the power button to get it to pull itself out of power saver mode. She hit the button once and nothing happened. Frowning she tried a second time, only to get the same results.
A wave of panic hit her. This was so not good. She left it plugged in it could not have died. She went to check the plug and that was when she noticed it. The power cord had been removed from her computer and the wall and was piled up on her laptop carrying case.
She rushed to put it back in and booted up the computer. While she waited, she placed a call to the security office, asking them to look over the tapes for the last little bit and see who was in her office. It had to be deliberate, she knew for a fact it was plugged in when she left. As she put in her password to start windows, she supposed it was partially her fault for not locking the door. However, she was in a hurry to get to the fight. Besides, that did not give anybody the right to sabotage her things.
She gave the computer a minute to finish booting before she opened up the file she had been working on earlier. When she finished scrolling down to the bottom, she flopped over and smacked her head against the table, letting out a groan. Her mind had been in so many different places, she had not saved in a while. She lost a good eighty percent or more of what she had done that day. For reasons she was not going to bother figuring out, the word program had not backed up anything either. If it had, it would have alerted her when she started the program. It was simply gone.
The phone rang and Carri picked it up. "Miss Hillard?" The voice on the other end questioned.
"Yes?" she replied.
"This is Patrick in the security office. The camera facing your door picked up one person entering between the time you left and the time you returned." He had fast-forwarded through the tapes. There was not any other traffic in front of the office; it had not been that hard to do.
"Do you know who it was?" she asked, ready to rip someone a new one.
"The same kid who exited your office when you left." He replied.
She let out a grunt. She was going to let him slide before but not now. "Can you please save a copy of that for me?"
"Yes mam." He replied as she hung up the phone. She stood from her chair and marched over toward the door, flinging it open at the same time someone pushed from the outside.
"Hey babe." Rocky greeted. He told her he was going to be in LA that afternoon checking on his school and she invited him to drop by and take a look at the set. He was not sure if now was a good time though. Something had gotten her seriously riled up in the ten minutes it took him to leave the Command Chamber and finish the drive to the studio.
"Hey." She greeted gruffly before walking past him and heading down the hallway toward the studio. Someone was supposed to alert her if she had a visitor. She was glad Jason had left by now. Not that she couldn't pull it off as her good friend visiting, but she preferred not to have to juggle keeping his writing identity a secret at the moment.
She left that thought behind as a confused blue ranger followed her down the hallway and onto the set. Security stopped Rocky briefly, causing the white ranger to stop in her tracks and indicate he was with her. The way she was walking, pissed and with purpose, Rocky was not sure he wanted to be with her at the moment. However, he continued to follow anyway.
It did not take her long to spot her target. She walked right up to him and pointed her finger in his direction. "You." She said accusingly.
All movement in the area stopped as everyone turned to stare. "Yeah?" Christian replied innocently.
"You were the only person in my office while I was gone. There are maybe two people in this entire building allowed in my office in my absence." She said. She was not going to stand her and let him play this game with her. She had him on camera; he could not pretend to be innocent.
"I was looking for you." He said defensively.
"So what, you couldn't find me and you unplugged my computer?" she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I did no such thing." He lied through his teeth.
She snorted. "Not only did you unplug my computer, but my battery died and I lost an entire day's worth of work."
Christian rolled his eyes and sighed. "Crazy bitch. Don't accuse me of that shit."
Carri's foot started tapping and the blue ranger wondered briefly if he should intervene. However, much to Carri's credit, she held temper together. She was beyond furious. There was a logical part of her said she should not react here in front of all these other employees' watchful eyes. She had gotten herself in enough hot water last month with the tabloids and the airplane incident. Although every instinct told her to punch him in his lying mouth, her response was quite calm and she was quite proud of herself.
"You're fired." She said simply. That one thing she could do that would hurt him the most. She did not care if she could physically prove he did it. Nobody was going to stand in front of her, in front of all her other employees, and call her a bitch. She turned toward the security guard that had gravitated toward all the action. "I want him off of this set and off of the lot now." She ordered.
The well-built security guard grabbed Christian by the arm and started to pull him away. That did not shut him up though. He continued to call her a bitch and swear that the film was going to be a miserable failure and that they were all going down.
Rocky came up behind her as he disappeared and put his arms around her. "You did good." He assured her as he leaned into her.
She spun around, contemplating saying something snappy about whether or not he thought she always did good, but in the end changed her mind. "Yes, well, mark it down on the calendar." She said with a snort. "Now if there were something I could pummel I'd feel better."
He let out a little chuckle in response. "Maybe we should get you a punching bag for your office." And the house, and just about anywhere else she visited. "Do you still have time to give me a tour?" he asked as he watched her physically calm down a bit.
"Sure." She said, noticing that she was finally unclenching her fist. She had a ton of work to redo before she left for the night, but Rocky was not always in LA so she figured she should walk him around a bit first. It might help her calm down some too. Then it was time for an intense session with the computer. The thought made her groan a little. However, she had nothing else that had to get done that day so she would be able to get her work done and head home for what should be an uneventful rest of the day.
Later that evening, Kim stood in the Command Chamber with Billy and Adam, waiting for all the other rangers to show up. She was excited about what she wanted to share with them. She just had to wait for the rest of her team to show up.
Adam reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out his power coin. "So what's going on?" he asked. He had been surprised to hear from Kim, and even more surprised that she asked him to teleport up with his frog coin.
"I have something I want to show the old team." She said as she walked over toward him. There was no point in not getting them ready for a demonstration. She held out her hand and Adam glanced at her for a second before depositing his coin into it.
She took the blue coin and headed over toward the small machine she and Billy created. If she was right, it would not take long before the machine got the grids to recognize the coin and Adam was ready to morph. Billy had contacted her right after she got out of work. By all his estimations, the ancient grid they used had repaired itself and it was ready to hold the rest of the coins.
To test it, she morphed herself and spent a good half an hour running around as the pink ranger, testing out all her old powers. The test had been successful, and there was no sign that the grids could not hold her morph for an infinite amount of time. Now the true test will be if the grid will recognize and hold the others coins and allow the team to sustain their morph as well.
She watched the machine work as several other teleportation streaks came in. "Adam." The blue ranger's voice caused Kim to turn toward the others as he went to greet his best friend.
A black teleportation streak flew in and Kim silently noted they were short one. She certainly was not going to wait forever for her to get here. Carri had said she would be there in a minute; however, she was not sure what a minute meant.
"So what's this about?" Tommy asked. She had called him up there and told him to bring his coin. He imagined it had to do with their old powers since the rest of the team, including Adam was there.
"You'll see." Kim replied, a twinkle in her eye. The machine behind her indicated it was finished and Kim took the coin out. She was certain the coin was ready to go. She did not need Billy to scan it to make sure. She could feel the grid surging through it. It was all part of being Muirantian.
Deciding that she did not want to wait on Carri any longer, she walked the coin over and held it out to Adam. He took it back from her and regarded her curiously. She simply grinned at him. "Morph." She encouraged him.
"Really?" he asked and she nodded. "It's morphin time!" he called out, surprised by the surge of power that started to flow through the coin. "Blue ranger power!"
The rest of the team was stunned to see a fully morphed blue ranger standing in front of them. "Well I'll be damned." Jason said as he got a good look at Adam.
"You fixed it?" Tommy questioned. He should not be surprised, Kim was coming into many abilities and he was certain that he had only scratched the surface of what she could do. Most of it she was either keeping a secret or just not talking about. It frightened and amazed him all at the same time.
"Billy and I did." Kim said with a shrug as though it was not a big deal. She had told him she thought she would eventually be able to fix it. She did not tell him how, but between her natural abilities and Ninjor's tips she could feel the grids, she could work with them, try to get them to work with her. She walked over toward her fiancé and held out her hand. "Here." She said, indicating that he should hand over her coin.
Tommy reached into his pocket and pulled out his falcon coin, then deposited it into her hands. He watched as she went over to a machine and placed his coin inside. A few minutes later, she returned. He took it back and stared at it for a moment as if it held some sort of secret it was going to share. In a way, he supposed it did.
"It's morphin time!" he called out as he thrust his hand behind his back. "White ranger power!"
Kim smiled, satisfied as she had two fully morphed rangers now. She glanced back at Billy briefly. "How are we holding up?"
"Good. The grid shows no signs of weakening or not being able to sustain the morphs." He replied with a smile. He was relieved that it appeared to be working. This was one less task he had to focus on, which meant even more free time to spend with his pregnant wife.
With a smile, she turned toward the next ranger, and took the ape coin from the blue ranger's hands. As she went to put it in the machine, a white streak flew into the Command Chamber. "Sorry I'm late." She said somewhat apologetically. She had spent all afternoon trying to recreate the file from memory. She had it all back now, and she thought it was better than before. This time she emailed it to herself, saved it on her hard disk, and saved it on her flash drive before leaving the office.
It had taken longer to do than she hoped, only because her father had sent her some headlines from TMZ. Apparently, Christian ran straight to them and thanks to his accounts there was speculation of trouble on set and that she was some sort of a tyrant. Her father's legal team was already on it, but it was enough to make her head explode. She was glad to be here and out of the office, away from the drama.
For the first time she looked around and what was going on here and really took it in. "Damn." She said noticing the two morphed rangers.
"That's what I thought." Jason replied, flashing her grin. The exchange between the two got them an evil look from Tommy, whose thoughts immediately flashed back to that morning.
"You like?" Kim asked as she walked back over and handed Rocky his coin.
"Very much so." She replied as her fiancé went to morph. She knew Kim had been working on the grids; however, she had no idea that they were this close to being ready to support a team again. Not that they needed the powers at the moment but they were a nice backup to have.
Tommy watched as Carri shifted closer toward Jason as Rocky let the red uniform take him over. They were in the Command Chamber, the best place to talk in private, and he was not going to hold this conversation in any longer. Kim started to walk up to the duo but Tommy cut her off. "You guys have a good day at work?"
Carri snorted. "Not really." She replied, as she looked at him curiously, trying to read behind the helmet. Tommy never asked about her work, and the tone in his voice suggested he was not really asking now.
"You played with your movie all day?" Tommy asked, watching as she nodded. He let out a little noise from behind his helmet that reminded Jason of when he was the evil green ranger. He could not contemplate that long as Tommy's head turned toward him. "Or should I say you played with Jason's movie all day?"
"What are you talking about bro?" Jason asked, trying his hardest to remain calm and play stupid.
"You two thought you could keep your little secret forever." Tommy said as he cocked his head sideways. "I saw the two of you in the studio this morning, the cats out of the bag." He said with a growl. They had better not keep lying to him. Carri was already on thin ice with him and now, Jason was not faring much better.
"You broke into my studio!" Carri practically exploded, pointing an accusing finger at him. His name was not on any list that would allow him access. The only way in would be to teleport. "What, you used the teleporter for personal use?" she asked, watching as he did not move. "Christ, that's it isn't it. It wasn't ok for me to teleport to New York, you make a big freaking deal out of it and you could actually justify that but you used the teleportation system to break into my studio to spy on me." She finished, contemplating if she could physically throttle the team's leader. She had been on edge earlier in the day, and he just pushed her off of the cliff.
He did not respond to that. He'd let her think he teleported in, it was better than admitting he still had the power of invisibility from his Dino Gem and was using that for personal gain purposes. "That's not the point." He said. He could see her seething from him blowing her off. "The point is the two of you have been hiding the fact that Jason is Luke Kirk."
Carri crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him. "So what if we have?" she asked, somewhat grateful that he did not suspect Kim was in on it as well. She would take the fallout, she and Tommy argued all the time anyway and she doubted it bothered Jason that much, but she did not want this blowing back to Kim.
"Wait a second." Rocky protested, stepping forward. Tommy was not the only one left in the dark on this. As Carri's fiancé, he felt somewhat betrayed that she had not shared that secret with him. He thought they told each other everything and that was huge. "You knew who Luke Kirk was this entire time?"
She shrugged as if it was no big deal. She had kept a thousand secrets for Kim and Jason over the years. This was no different. "It's Jason's secret to tell, not mine." She replied.
"It's a huge secret." Rocky protested. He could not help it, he was jealous she had been keeping it from him. He thought they were supposed to tell each other everything. "This isn't like not telling me who Jason has slept with, you're making his movie. This is important."
Jason looked like he wanted to comment, but Carri continued. "You don't know the names of everybody I work with, why is this any different?"
"Because it's Jason." Rocky stated, knowing how it sounded even as the words came out of his mouth. He did not mean it as she was about to take it.
"So what you jealous because you've known Jason longer than me and he didn't tell you?" Carri asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. "Or maybe you're just jealous because Jason and I share secrets. So what. A girl has got to have some friends to talk to."
"I'm not jealous." Rocky was quick to point out. Maybe he was, but he was not going to tell her that. He had always known they were close, even though it was hard for him to deal with at times they never hid the nature of their sibling-esque relationship. "Jason is a friend and a fellow ranger and while he's entitled to his secrets, I would just think something that big you would feel confident enough to confide in the man you're about to swear to spend the rest of your life with."
She regarded him curiously for a moment. He was obviously hurt and he felt like she did not trust him. "That's not fair." She said rather calmly. "If you think that trust between us depends on me betraying my friends secrets then"
"Enough." Tommy barked. They could have this lover's quarrel later. "This is about you," he said, pointing at Carri as he spoke, "lying to my face when I confronted you about Luke Kirk. About the two of you keeping secrets from the team, and about you," this time he turned and pointed toward Jason, "making money off of books based on ranger adventures. If you were going to do something like this, you should have at the very least given me a heads up. I am the senior red here, this is ranger related. I have every right to know when other rangers are using our lives as writing material."
Jason exploded back at Tommy, which started a three-way argument between the black, silver and white rangers. Kim stood in the back, listening to them go. She knew her friends were trying to keep her out of this, to keep Tommy from finding out that his fiancé was in on this secret as well. She appreciated what they were doing. However, it was not fair that the two of them were going to take a head on assault from the rest of the team while she remained unscathed.
"Enough!" she spoke loudly and authoritatively, causing the others to shut up and turn toward her as she walked over and stood next to Tommy. "It's alright Tommy. You may not have known, but the Planetary Red did."
Jason and Carri exchanged a glance. They knew this was not going to be good as Tommy clinched his fists and turned toward his fiancé. "This whole time I was asking for advice, for you to see if you could find anything out, and you knew?"
"I did." Kim said, her voice staying even despite the fact that Tommy was obviously furious. "Like Carri, I promised to keep Jason's secret. I knew what he was doing, and it doesn't hurt us or compromise us in any way." It pissed her off personally, but that was another matter entirely. As far as the ranger aspects of the books, Jason never wrote anything that a non-ranger reader would assume came from the rangers. He pulled a lot from his ranger memories when he wrote, but he was very good at taking everything and spinning it into his own story.
"So you took it upon yourself to make that decision without consulting me?" Tommy questioned. He knew she was the red ranger now, he knew she had a legacy much different from his own that meant more to other races in other parts of the galaxy, but here on Earth he was the most respected of all the rangers. To him, they were all disrespecting him.
"I found out before we ever assembled the Turbo team. And why would I consult you? If I remember correctly we weren't exactly best friends before we got back together." Kim pointed out. Sure, in the four months they worked together before they started dating again they were friends, but she would use the term loosely at best. Things were awkward between them for a while.
"What about now? What about a few weeks ago when we were talking about it? You didn't think you could share it with me then?" Tommy asked his voice raising. Before Kim could answer, he continued. "You lied to my face. You're no better than Carri."
"Hey!" the white ranger exclaimed, pushing herself into the middle of the argument and cutting off anything her friend would have said in return. "You are not going to stand here and yell at everybody like this. You may be the senior red but that does not mean you have to know everything about everything. So what if we want to keep secrets."
"So what?" Tommy repeated, turning toward her and taking a step in her direction. "It's not about just the secret keeping. I'm not stupid; I know the three of you talk. It is about the lying to my face. It's about the rangers, and protecting the secrets Zordon made us swear to protect, it's"
"You obviously haven't bothered to read a book." Jason said, stepping up beside Carri. "If you did you'd know that I never compromised any of the promises made to Zordon. You are always so full of yourself; you think you're always right. Well you are wrong on this one. You have no idea what you're talking about."
"How dare you." Tommy said with a snarl. "If the three of you think you're going to be able to band together on this and force me to change my mind, you have another thing coming to you. I'm right, and everybody else in here knows it." He said, gesturing to Rocky and the two men not on the current team who had been watching the exchange silently.
"That's bullshit, and I'm not going to stand here and get bitched at by you anymore." Carri said as she took a step back. "I'm out of here."
Jason fell in line beside her before she teleported off. He needed a stiff drink, and he had a feeling the girls did as well. "Me too."
"We'll discuss this when you've had time to think about it." Kim said, surprising Tommy by going to join the others. She knew Tommy too well. He was furious, and this discussion was going to be nothing more than a pointless argument, with him pushing and Jason and Carri not backing down, until he had a chance to cool down.
Jason grabbed both the girls and teleported them off to his house, where he would drive them to a bar away from town for a drink. The three of them disappeared, leaving four confused and upset men behind.
Arius finally returned to his ship and headed toward the bridge, where he found Shax sitting in his chair. His warrior stood immediately and vacated, gesturing for him to sit down. "It's good to see you again." Shax said, relieved that their more competent leader has returned.
"I had some issues to take care of with Deimos before I could return." He said as he sat down, not wanting to go into detail about his humiliation. "Where is Jakar?" he questioned, wanting to take care of that fool first.
"Gone." Shax said simply. "He left after his defeat at Kaycea's hands." He had not taken the loss in battle well at all. He had come back to the ship for a few moments, spewed some anger-induced nonsense, and took off.
"Good. Then I won't have to worry about wasting my time on him." Arius replied. This meant he could hurry up and start working on his newest plan to take out Kaycea. "Have any of our friends agreed to come fight for us?" he questioned. He knew they were constantly putting out requests throughout the galaxy for other aliens to come offer their services.
"So far no. There are rumors that others are afraid to face their demise at the hands of Kaycea." Shax replied. He understood, lately coming here meant certain death. However if they were true warriors they would stand up for the task anyway.
"Those cowards will come out here whether they like it or not." Arius spat. He was not going to tolerate being turned down. Perhaps it did not bother Xinas that he was getting nothing but rejected, however it did bother him. Once they learned he was back and would come for those who were summoned if necessary they were sure to come do his bidding. "Is there anything else I should know?"
"While you were gone, we made a discovery." Shax said. It was something he shared with Xinas, but the other leader did not find it important. He thought it could be, and he thought it was something that needed to get shared with Arius. "There is another active team of rangers that came about recently. At the moment there are only three of them, yellow, blue and red." He was not sure how long they had been there for, he stumbled across them monitoring for something else.
"Are these rangers allied with Kaycea?" He questioned. The last thing he needed was to have three more active rangers joining the battle.
"As far as we can tell from our reports, these are relatively new rangers that have no connection to Kaycea." Shax replied.
Arius thought about this for a moment. Perhaps this could work to his advantage. If they did not know Kaycea, they did not know who he was. Maybe he could sweep in and convince them to work for him without Kaycea ever suspecting anything. He could not think of a better way to beat a ranger than with a ranger. He may need to use a bit of magic to get them to cooperate, but it would be doable.
"Find out everything you can about these new rangers. Perhaps we can convince them to work for us." Arius ordered as he leaned back in his chair. He was feeling somewhat satisfied. This was his best plan yet. Getting rangers on his side would guarantee him a victory over Kaycea.
Jason, Kim and Carri climbed up onto three bar stools in a bar that the black ranger found between LA and Angel Grove. They got the bartender to bring them three beers and as they waited, Kim opened up the conversation.
"Well, so much for testing coins." She said with a sigh. Everything had been a success so far, however they were short the yellow and black coins to see if it would really work and sustain their full team of six. "I suppose I should have made you guys stay and finish, but…" Kim's voice trailed off as she shrugged.
Carri snorted. "Please, Oliver wasn't going to let us get back to the coins for the night." She pointed out as the beers appeared in front of them. She grabbed her bottle and took a huge swig. It had been one of those days and a beer or two to take the edge off would be nice. As she swallowed the cold beverage, she thought about the night's events and sighed. "You shouldn't have jumped in you know."
The white ranger did not indicate whom she was talking to, but Kim knew. "I had to. I couldn't let you guys take all the crap when I'm just as guilty." She understood what they were trying to do for her, but it was not fair to them and as their friend, she was not going to let them stand-alone.
"You know Tommy's gonna hate us for a while." Jason said as he took a swig of his beer.
"Us being us." Carri pointed out, gesturing to herself and Jason. "Kim he'll forgive. They are sleeping together."
"Just because we're sleeping together doesn't mean he's going to be quick to forgive me." Kim replied. Although more than likely, he would not hold a grudge against her as long. After all, he had no idea what she'd been up to regarding her powers and he was well aware that she kept her secrets and he still wanted to marry her. She took a sip of beer before continuing. "I'm sorry about Rocky."
Carri simply shrugged in response. "He knows I've kept secrets for you guys for years. If he is going to equate the level of the secret I keep with trusting him, we have an issue there." She thought it was complete crap to say that by not betraying the trust of her friends, she did not trust him. She had a feeling it really had to do with Jason and that he would get over it, but only time would tell.
There was silence for a moment as the three of them sat there drinking. Finally, Jason continued the conversation. "I hope Tommy knows this doesn't change anything. I'm going to do what I do, I don't give a damn what mister high and mighty thinks."
"I don't think he actually thinks he'll change what you're doing. I think he wants acknowledgements that he is right and we are wrong and apologies to try to work something out." Kim said. She knew Tommy well, and she knew Tommy knew Jason well. He did not think he expected his friend to change. Of course, she was not sure if he really thought that either Carri or Jason would call him right or apologize. They were all stubborn.
"He can wait until hell freezes over." Carri said with a snort. There was no way she was apologizing to Tommy for this.
"I second that." Jason said gesturing as the bartender walked over. "I need three shots of Patron." The bartender walked off and filled up the glasses, returning them to Jason who passed them out. "If there was ever a night for a shot, it would be tonight." He said as he pushed the glasses in their direction. Neither were usually shot takers, but tonight they should make an exception. It wasn't like either wanted to go home and face the pissed off rangers waiting for them anyway.
Carri glanced down at the tequila in front of her. She was not one for shots, and she refused to get drunk. However, there had been so much crap going on lately. She glanced over at Kim and shrugged. One shot certainly would not hurt anything. Who knows, maybe she'd take one and it would be just what she needed to go to bed and get a good night's sleep. She raised her glass. "What the hell." She said as Kim sighed and she and Jason joined her. The three of them tossed their glasses back. Just one shot of tequila isn't bad. What is the worst that could happen?