Chapter eleven:
"Hey geek," a voice sounded above Ethan as he was slammed into his locker.
"Hi Derek," he said lamely, great he could fight mutant dinosaur lizard robots but he couldn't stand up to the school bully. Derek had been picking on him since grade school.
"Don't Hi me!" he growled, lifting the smaller boy up off the ground, "Just because it's a new school year doesn't mean that you can escape our little deal geek. You do my homework and I don't beat you up it is as simple as that."
"Come on Derek, can't you think of something better to do than beat up Ethan, he hasn't done anything to you," a voice called out, a voice Ethan knew well by now, Ronny Robinson, Kira's adopted sister and Dr Oliver's adopted daughter. She was also Conner's biggest revel.
Derek let Ethan go, before turning to Ronny, "What make's you think I'll listen to you?"
Ronny shrugged, "You aren't that tough, I could beat you at any sport you name at any time."
Ethan groaned as he slipped away, only Ronny could turn a simple thing like standing up to a bully into a competition. That girl was too competitive for her own good.
...
Ethan managed to avoid Derek, Conner, Kira, and Ronny throughout school, but not Dr. Oliver who obviously sensed that something was wrong.
"Ethan," He called out after the dismissal bell rung, "Can I have a word?"
Ethan groaned as Derek, in the class as well let out a catcall, "Ohh... Teacher Pet's in trouble!"
"Shut up Derek!" Kira snapped, fixing the bully with a glare that she had picked up from her mother. It was the same glare she used when she send power ranger scrambling for safety. Fat chance of that, there was no safe place to avoid the wrath of the Legendary Pink Ranger.
Derek didn't know this of course, but he did know that with that single look he became very very nervous. If looks could kill that was the look to do it with.
Several others also saw the look and backed away slowly, except Tommy, who having been married to Kim for so long had built up an immunity to The Look, "Kira, I suggest you stop and take a deep breath before you kill someone, or something."
Ethan stared at Tommy in amazement, he had been totally petrefied at that look but he didn't so much as blinked an eye.
Tommy was so use to Rocky and Zack he knew that Ethan would try to change the topic before he could even bring up the topic so he simply said, "You should have seen Goldar after he received the look from Kim, but enough with that, I understand you are having problems with a bully?"
This was it, no way was someone who couldn't stand up to a bully could be a power ranger, he'll ask for his morpher for sure, no way did Dr. O want someone as pathetic as him on the team, he removed his morpher and handed it over to Tommy who looked confused before handing it back, "I'll like to see Derek face down a monster, everybody has different strengths. Trust me, do you know how many people my sister had to mind wipe because they were teasing her and she, ummm, left them floating on the ceiling for a couple of hours by accident."
Ethan gasped, "if you don't want my morpher want do you want?"
"To check and make sure that you are okay, and to invite you to my place for training around five."
...
Kira dismounted from her cycle, it was awesome, even better than the one Nick was fixing up, Nick and Ronny had been begging to take it out for a spin but it was only for power ranger duties so she had to tell them no.
"Where's Ethan?" Tommy asked glancing at his daughter and Conner, he had invited all three of them but he was mostly worried about Ethan, he was a typical blue, like Billy he might get overwhelmed easily by the foot soldiers.
"He must still be at the Cybercafe." Kira explained, "We better go get him, there's this new challenge whoever wins the game during a period of time gets to test out the next game in the series."
"What's the big deal anyway," Conner asked, "it's just practice?"
"Training is important," Tommy started, ready to launch into the lecture he and Jason used to give their karate students about practicing at home, "You never know when you can be attacked." As if to prove his point he was suddenly kicked into the teens. He straighten himself, watching as tyronadrones and Zeltrax appeared, "Couldn't have planned this better if I tried," Tommy informed the Teens and Kim, this was insane.
...
Ethan had been playing Wizard Woods since school let out, he was determine to win. He only vaguely remember Hayley talking to him and he thought his watch beeped once but surely that was a mistake. He only had one more level to go, but the boss was being most difficult to work with. Slowly the cafe emptied and Hayley walked over, "You do remember that I'm closing early today right?"
"Yeah yeah," Ethan said, not taking his eyes off his game, "I almost got this figured out." Then he had an idea, "Tell you what I'll lock up once i'm done."
Hayley finished cleaning up, and had left the building although she had a distinct feeling that something bad was going to happen, but she had a meeting that she had to be at and Ethan was a power ranger after all. Though she wasn't sure if that was a positive or a negative at this point.
Ethan had only been alone when something strange happened, suddenly the computer started to glow blue and a force seemed to shuck him towards it, in only seconds he was inside the computer.