Chapter 21
Diamonds and Pearls
"It's morphin' time!"
"Stegosaurus!"
"Tiger zord!"
"Mastodon!"
"Pterodactyl!"
"Triceratops!"
"Saber-Tooth Tiger!"
"Tyrannosaurus!"
Despite the circumstances, Kimberly gently smiled as she raised her communicator and pressed the button on the side. She glanced over at her friends momentarily before they were turned into beams of energy, teleporting up to the Command Center. It was always so surreal, being able to change into energy and traveling over hundreds of miles in only a matter of seconds, watching the world flash by them in the time it took for her to blink. Kimberly gracefully landed in the Command Center with her friends all around her, mentally giggling at the memory of her and the other rangers having crash landed on the ground the first couple of times they had teleported. It was kind o strange to contemplate the passage of time by being a ranger rather than by days, weeks, months, and years. Kimberly reached up and took off her helmet, shaking out her hair as she did so, her smile instantly fading with the anxiety and exhaustion that washed over her.
Having been called out to confront a monster in the park, the rangers had come face to face with Caprice, Rita's and Zedd's newest horoscope monster, based off of Capricorn, the goat. Its fighting style was reminiscent to that of Arieselle, but each time they tried to attack it, using the same tactics they had with other monster they had faced before along with Arieselle, they would get knocked back down. Gemma and Nie didn't appear to be as strong, but they were still no match for the brute strength that Caprice had. And they still had the rest of the horoscope monsters to go with no end in sight and no idea how to defeat them.
"What's going on, Alpha?" Tommy asked, getting straight to business as the rangers all moved towards the animatronic robot as he stood by the viewing globe. "What is it about Rita's and Zedd's new monsters that we can't defeat them? It's like, every time they're sent down; they know exactly what we're going to do." He shook his head, his long ponytail swishing behind him. "We had to morph just to be sure we wouldn't get destroyed."
"I seriously think that's the worst that we've been beaten'," Avalon added. She winced, a fresh scrape on her cheek, placing her helmet on the ground in front of her. She placed her hands on her spandex covered hips and shook her head. "There must be something else we can do, yeah?" She held up her fist a ball of fire appearing around it, glowing brighter and brighter the longer she held her hand in a clenched fist.
"Rita's and Zedd's monster are more powerful than anything we've ever gone against before," Alpha said, waving his hands in the air. "They came up with a formidable foe this time, Zordon. I don't know if we can beat them."
"Don't say that, Alpha," Trini pleaded. "There's always something that we can do. We've faced strong monsters before and we've managed to defeat them," she said, trying to stay as positive as possible. The other rangers continued to look glum. "We've done it before and we can do it again, guys."
"Both Alpha and Trini are correct," Zordon said. "The horoscope monsters are stronger than we have ever faced, but that doesn't mean that there isn't an answer to our problem. You can do this, rangers, you just need to have faith." As he spoke, there was a white flash of light and Bailey appeared beside the rangers. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she went over to a control panel and pushed a button, allowing a panel in the floor to open and a tray of weapons appeared. "Bailey has told us that she thinks the only way they'll be able to reverse the stegosaurus zord back to the way it was, as well as de-powering their monsters to lesser forms is if their wand and scepter are destroyed."
"Really?" Zack looked interested.
"Wouldn't that be really hard to do?" Kimberly asked, resting her helmet against her side. She twisted her mouth to the side, exchanging a worried glance with Tommy. She hoped that he would be able to reassure her in some way, but she could see the unmistakable flash of worry in his brown eyes. Kimberly's eyebrows lowered as she looked up at Zordon again. He had been a mentor and a father figure to all of them, helping them through their problems and helping them become the best rangers they could be. He and Alpha could have easily given the rangers their powers and then turned their back on them, to have them figure out how to balance their normally teenage life along with their superhero life, but they hadn't. She wished they could do what Zordon and Alpha wanted; to be able to help them rid the Earth of Rita. They had been progressing for a while, not it seemed that everything had gone to waste just over a few dozen monsters. "I mean they, like, always have them with them."
"Not when they want their monsters to grow," Jason spoke up. He tapped his chin as he thought. "Rita usually throws her wand down to earth when that time comes, and Zedd uses his powers from his scepter to create an electrical current that will make the monsters grow as well."
"But is that a wise move to make?" Trini looked a little skeptical, despite her positivity the moment before. Kimberly had to admit though; it was a bit of a far-fetched idea. Actually, it was a good idea, but it was hard to believe that there would be a chance for Rita and Zedd to put down their weapons. If they were sleeping, maybe, otherwise, she could barely think about it.
"Bailey didn't say it would work, she just said it was an idea," Avalon quickly came to her sister's defense, her dark eyes flashing as she did so. She suddenly looked very tired, rubbing her eyes before tilting her head to the side. "Besides, it's not like she'd know when the two of them are going to all of a sudden decide to drop their wand and scepter on the ground."
"Relax, Av." Billy placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We know that Bailey is doing her best, giving us ideas to questions we don't know the answers to, we're all just getting equally frustrated, not seemingly able to get ahead with anything we try."
"I guess." Avalon crossed her arms over her chest, frowning, a crease appearing in her forehead as she jutted out her lower jaw.
"Look." Tommy held up a hand, turning to the rest of his ranger team. He looked each and every one of them in the eye before he spoke again. "This is really starting to stress us out and with everything else that we need to deal with right now…we just need to take a step back away from it and figure out things later." He held out his hand and the rangers piled theirs on top. "But don't think that we're going to let them get away with what they're doing. We all have the ability and the power in ourselves to get through this. Right?"
"Right," was the unanimous reply, though there was an underlying tone of low morale.
"Power down!" Jason declared and the rangers de-morphed out of their power ranger suits and back to their street clothes. Jason ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. He seemed to be just as frustrated as anyone else, Kimberly realized as she watched him. Probably because he was used to being the leader and having a plan that would take them all to victory. Now, however, it seemed that Rita and Zedd knew everything they were going to do before they did it and were always one step ahead of them. "Tommy's right guys, we should just get some rest and regroup, and come back when we have a complete game plan."
"Sounds good to me, man," Zack said, clasping his hand onto Jason's shoulder. "Not that I'm not enjoying this pity party that we seem to be throwing, but I gotta jet. Doesn't seem like we're doing anything else here, anyway."
"Don't despair rangers, you will all get through this," Alpha reassured them.
"Thanks Alpha," Billy said. With that, he, Jason, Zack, and Tommy all teleported out of the Command Center.
"You know what we need?" Kimberly walked over to Trini and Avalon and put her arms around their shoulders. "We need some retail therapy. Who wants to go to the mall? I think going into a shopping coma will at least lift my mood a little bit."
"'Cause the world revolves around you, right?" Avalon said sarcastically. Kimberly took the sarcasm in stride and gave the orange ranger a bright smile.
"No, but the sales do," Kimberly's comment made Trini and Avalon burst out laughing, wrapping their arms around their stomachs as they did so. Kimberly giggled and turned to the young girl that held up a screwdriver and seemed to be working on Zack's power lance, a deep frown on her face. "Hey, Bay, do you want to come to the mall with us?"
Bailey shook her head, pursing her lips. "Sorry, Kim, but I think I should probably stay here and get some of this stuff done. Maybe if I was actually getting some sort of progress with this stuff, we could actually get something done."
"Hey." Avalon walked over to her sister and placed her hand on her sister's cheeks, tilting her head back so she could look down into Bailey's eyes. "You need to stop being so hard on yourself. This is hard on everyone and it's not going to help much if you keep putting a lot of pressure on yourself, yeah?"
"Yeah," Bailey mumbled.
"Good." Avalon dropped her hands from her sister's cheeks. "Ok. Don't stay here too late; you still have homework to do. I'll see you at home." She turned to walk away and turned back to Bailey, pointing a finger at her. "And stay out of trouble!"
Bailey cocked her right eyebrow before giving her sister a look that Kimberly couldn't decipher. "I should be saying that you." Avalon's eyes narrowed. Kimberly turned to Trini and exchanged a look with her. She was glad that Trini was her best friend; she could tell they were on the same page with that one look that said, what was that all about? They had seen the Mitchell sisters bicker and play fight with each other, but this was more serious than the two of them had seen before.
"Whatever booger, I'll see you later." Avalon dismissed her sister and she, Trini, and Kimberly teleported out of the command center and to the school's parking lot, where they started to walk towards Kimberly's car, getting ready to head out to the mall. Avalon then spoke up, breaking the silence that had fallen between the three girls. "So, Kim, why don't you just tell Trini that you want to go to the mall so we can pick out and outfit for her?"
Kimberly stopped in her tracks and looked at Avalon with a slightly reproachful look. There went her master plan. Trini did like to go to the mall with Kimberly, but most of the time she didn't buy nearly as much as Kim did, nor did she like to try things on just for the sake of trying things on. When Trini had called Kimberly and Avalon and told them that Billy had asked her out, Kimberly had screamed so loud that her mother had come racing into her room, wondering if Kimberly had been attacked or if she someone had broken into their house again. That's what Kimberly and her mother had reasoned; that their things had gone missing because their house had been targeted by the local gangs. It made sense, they were in a rich neighborhood and they never really thought that things would get to that point. Maybe being a ranger had made her views on safety a bit skewed, she was used to protecting people outside of her home and from afar. She hadn't thought of having to do it from inside her home. She didn't worry about that now, now she was wondering how the, now smirking; orange ranger knew what she had planned.
"Kim." Trini shot Kimberly a disapproving glance.
"Av!" Kimberly pouted. "Why'd you do that? How'd you even know that I was planning?"
"One; don't call me Av," Avalon said, holding up a finger. She held up another, giving the pink and yellow rangers the peace sign. "Two; I can see right through you, Pinkerbell. You think you're sneaky, but you have this whole heart on your sleeve thing going on. Three; why else would you, all of a sudden, really want to go to the mall? I mean, Trini just told us a few days ago that Billy asked her out,"—Avalon's upper lip curled—"which I still don't understand why that little booger didn't tell me that he was thinking about it,"—she waved a hand dismissively—"and I like the mall as much as you do. Trust me, I could live there, and there are no sales right now for shoes. And shoes your kryptonite."
"Fine." Kimberly stuck out her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest, turning away from Avalon. "You can't use my discount at the shoe store anymore."
"Ooh, that hurts Kim," Avalon said sardonically, tracing a tear track from her right eye down her cheek. "You hit me right where it hurts. In the shoes." To further exasperate Kimberly, she pressed her feet together, smacking the heels of her ever present, black, ankle boots together, and made a shoe of knocking her knees.
"Guys!" Trini laughed, holding up her hands. Kimberly and Avalon stuck their tongues out at each other before finally turning back to the yellow ranger, who was waiting for their attention before continuing. She gave a tiny smile, blushing a little as she did so. "I'm…I'm as excited as you are about what's going on with me and Billy. But he just asked me out, we haven't really made plans yet. For all I know, we probably won't even go-"
"Don't say that," Kimberly interrupted her, placing a hand over Trini's mouth. "You're going to jinx it and anger the dating gods." She ignored Avalon's snort and raised eyebrow. The orange and pink rangers were good friends; however Avalon always seemed to be teasing her about something, causing the two girls to find a way to playfully bicker, ending up sticking their tongues out at each other. "Yes, Miss. Mitchell, there are such things as dating gods. There are dating gods and there are shopping gods and you're angering broth." Avalon held her hands up defensively, turning her dark eyes away from her. "Anyway, Trini, you're going to go on a date and we're going to make sure you have a super cute outfit for when the time comes. So,"—Kimberly pulled out her car keys and pressed a button on the remote, unlocking the convertible—"let's go to the mall!"
Avalon smiled, shaking her head and walked over to the driver's seat and pushed it forward before sliding into the backseat of the convertible. Leaning back, she moved her legs out of the way as Kimberly climbed into the driver's seat and pushed the seat back so it rested against Avalon's knees. Trini got into the passenger seat and pulled the door closed. Kimberly started up the car and backed out of the parking space, only turning on the radio when she had gotten on the road to start driving to the mall. She started to bop her head along with the beat of the pop song that blasted through Kimberly's speakers—not that it surprised Avalon, she was rock, Kim was pop, and Trini was a mixture of both—and started to sing under her breath. She hadn't noticed that Kimberly and Trini were listening until she turned away from the window and looked ahead, noticing they weren't talking.
Avalon's voice slowly lowered into a whisper until she stopped singing all together. Fuck. This is the second time this happened. Avalon scowled when she caught Trini's gaze in the rearview mirror. "I wish you'd stop doing that."
"But you have a good voice, Av," Trini protested.
"I said the same thing," Kimberly protested.
"Yeah, and I said that you were a great friend and I guess I lied about that as well," Avalon replied and then chuckled slightly, running a hand through her hair. In front of her, she could Trini wince a little, bringing her hand up to her mouth and start to chew on one of her fingernails. Avalon's lips twitched but she didn't ask what was wrong, thinking it wasn't her business if she didn't want to volunteer the information. Now that she thought about it, Trini had been a bit quieter than usual. She's probably just really nervous about her date with Billy. "Besides, I thought we were supposed to be focusing on Trini and her date."
"I can multi-task," Kimberly protested.
Avalon let the conversation drop. She closed her eyes, thinking about Bailey and how much work she was putting in the Command Center. She really did a lot of work and didn't get a lot of recognition for it and she had, admittedly, been dropping Bailey off with Tommy every time she needed to go on a hit with Chase and the others if she didn't just leave her at the apartment to fend for herself. Now that she thought about it, her life and her problems seemed to pale in comparison to Bailey's. The girl was twelve years old, she had only recently gotten her period, she had her first heartbreak, she was working in the Command Center at a moment's notice, and on top of that, she was trying to be a normal pre-teen girl. Avalon's lips started to twitch up into a smile. Bailey's birthday was coming up soon and she was determined to make sure it was a good one.
"What's that smile for?" Trini leaned into the backseat, noticing the orange ranger's grin.
"Just, like, thinking of all the shoe sales," Avalon said, mimicking a valley girl accent. She then laughed gleefully as Kimberly made a sound of annoyance. "No, seriously, I was thinking that Bailey's birthday is coming up and I really want to do something for her, especially since she's been working so hard."
"That's a good idea," Trini said. She then moved her mouth to the side, lowering her gaze a little. "I hope we're invited."
"Of course," Avalon said with a wave of a hand. "That goes without saying. Besides, I'm sure she'd kill me if you all weren't there."
"Um." Trini sucked her lips into her mouth. "How is Bailey feeling…you know about what happened with her and Billy and the two of us now going to go out on a date?" She waited for Avalon's answer, twisting her fingers as she did so. Avalon made a humming sound and shrugged saying, "she seems ok," and left it at that. Trini nodded back, settling back into place. The three girls listened to the radio the rest of the way to the mall. Once they arrived, they all climbed out of the pink convertible and headed into the mall. Kimberly lead the way, walking with a determined purpose as Trini and Avalon followed behind them, trying to walk as quickly as possible to keep up with her.
All of a sudden, Kimberly stopped and Trini almost walked into her. She turned to ask what Kimberly was looking at, and then made a sound of understanding. Kimberly stared longingly at a pearl necklace that sat on the neck of a mannequin in the jewelry store window. Kimberly tilted her head down to the side to look at the price as she continued to stare at the pearl necklace. Her fingers curled on the glass. Of everything the thieves could've taken, they had to take her pearl necklace? It seemed like just a regular necklace to anyone else that had it, but it had been given a gift, one of the last things that her father had given her.
Avalon glanced at Kimberly and turned away from her, running a hand through her hair. She squeezed her eyes shut. God, Av, you're such a boofhead! Each and every time you try to get out of the gang, each and every time you try and make things better, it all blows up in your face once more. The money is great, everything was great at the beginning, being able to have a place to live and not having to worry about anything. You really screwed up this time. She couldn't stand to look at Kimberly or at the pearl necklace.
She made a vow, then and there, that she was going to get it back, no matter what or how long it took.
Zack kicked at the ground, sending a rock shooting down the sidewalk. He lifted his hands and ran them over his flat top haircut before holding them on the back of his neck. Glancing at Jason out of the corner of his eye, he could see the stoic expression that Jason almost always seemed to have on his face. This time, it was tinged with anger and annoyance. Zack sighed and lowered a hand, shaking Jason's shoulder. "Jase, dude, it's no one's fault," he said, trying to reassure him as they walked through town. "We don't know the power that these monsters have and we underestimated them a little bit."
"That's kind of what's bothering me," Jason murmured. He lifted his gaze from the ground and kept his eyes straight ahead. "How much more can we underestimate Rita and Zedd before we get destroyed? We had to morph and then get teleported out just to be sure that didn't happen." He shook his head before reaching a hand out and tugging at the earring that was in his ear. "We never had to do that before. Ever."
"I know," Zack said quietly. "I'm just as frustrated as you are. I mean, how many more times can we have our asses handed to us before we come up with something that will stop them." He cocked his head to the side. "Ok, let's think about the homecoming dance. Arieselle is like Caprice in the way she fights and it makes sense considering Arieselle was a ram and Caprice is a goat."
He stopped walking and raised a hand to his chin. He thought back to the homecoming dance. The rangers had planned on going to have a good time and he did have a good time with Angela, but, as usual, Rita and Zedd had destroyed their good time by sending Arieselle down to attack the school. In a way, that was very smart, as Billy had pointed out. They waited for them to completely let their guard down before attacking. Avalon, at the time, had been the only one who had heard the communicator going off and, knowing that Zordon and Alpha couldn't forcibly teleport them while the other rangers were dancing, she tried to take the monster on herself, wanting the rangers to have a good night. She ended up getting kidnapped by Rita and Zedd and the other rangers raced off to save her. She, in turn, ended up declaring them as her friends and saving them from Arieselle before they all created the Megazord to finally beat off the first of the horoscope monsters.
"The only way we were able to defeat her was when Billy used the new powers that he got from the cube that was created from Avalon's power," Zack reminded her. "And if that's the only way that we can defeat the rest of the monsters and Rita's magic, then we're screwed. Because only Billy and Avalon can use that power."
"What if the rest of us touch the cube too?" Jason pointed out. "What if the rest of us can develop powers like that?" He shook his head, frustrating causing a growl to come to his voice. "We wouldn't know, though, because Alpha and Zordon said it's too dangerous, not knowing what side effect can happen."
Zack was amazed as he stared his best friend. He and Jason were total opposite, Zack was a chatter box and outgoing with his emotions and Jason was a man of few words who kept his emotions to himself. But the two balanced each other out with their enjoyment of school—though not to the point of Billy and Trini—hanging out, having fun, and scoping out babes. He had never seen Jason get to this point, where he questioned what Zordon and Alpha had thought. He had never seen him get to a more emotional spot, used to having short orders and short sentences being barked around whenever he got serious.
"Jase, man, are you ok?" Zack asked tentatively.
"No," Jason replied, and left it at that. Zack decided to leave him alone, knowing if he continued to try and pressure him to talk about it; nothing good would come of it. They couldn't know how things were going to go with the rest of Rita's and Zedd's monsters. They had no game plan and, just like what happened with Tommy when he was the green ranger, they had to go on blind faith. They managed to gain a good friend out of Tommy and defeat one of Rita's and Zedd's stronger henchmen during that time. They could do it now, too.
But at what cost?
How much longer could they sit back and try to figure things out without a plan of action? Jason was never the one that would blindly rush into battle, but maybe this was one of those times that they should have tried it out?
Jason looked up as they approached a sports store. He stopped short and flung his arm out, catching Zack across the chest. Zack stumbled against Jason's arm and looked sharply over at his friend, ready to rip him a new one, but stopped, following Jason's gaze. Jason squinted his eyes and looked harder at the small group of teenagers. There were only three of them, a short blonde girl, a tall blonde boy and a taller brunette boy. They were all talking quietly, their pockets bulging with something and constantly looking over their shoulders. Jason's eyes moved over to the blonde boy, he seemed to be the ringleader of them all, the other two nodding at whatever he said and only speaking when he was done, though the other two would speak over each other. Jason studied him; tall, blonde hair, gray eyes, and a strong jawbone hat seemed to increase his masculinity and intimidation. Jason's eyes lowered to the guys' neck and his eyes moved over the intricate looking 'V' that was tattooed there.
That looks so familiar… Jason thought, wracking his brain. Where have I seen that before? With a start, it came crashing back to him. Shortly after the homecoming dance, when Avalon had gone over to Zack's house to get some more work done on their project. He had seen the same tattoo on the inside of her wrist.
"What's that?" Jason pointed at her wrist. Avalon lifted her hand and revealed a 'V 'tattooed on the inside of her wrist. "What's it stand for?"
"Valor," Avalon said.
Did it really stand for Valor or was it a line she was feeding him? He thought her admitting they were friends had opened her up a bit more to reveal things to the rangers. And she had revealed more things to them, but that didn't stop the shroud of mystery that appeared to get thicker and thicker with every step that she took forward. Jason watched as Chase, Skye, and Summer looked their way and looked the two boys up and down. Chase turned to face Jason fully and lifted his chin before smirking and turning away and walking down the street, disappearing around the corner.
"That was weird," Zack murmured.
"I was thinking the same thing," Jason added. He tilted his head to the side. "Did he have the same tattoo Av has?"
"I didn't notice," Zack admitted.
"It looked exactly the same," Jason insisted. "Down to the little squiggles and swirls and stuff." And what was that smirk about? Had he recognized him or something? Jason was sure he had never seen him before. Maybe once or twice, but wasn't sure exactly who he was. Mistaken identity? He could only be so lucky.
"Are you sure that's the same tattoo?" Zack seemed to be trying his hardest to come up with any other explanation for it. "I mean, how many people in the world have a 'V' tattooed on them. It can stand for virtually anything."
"I know," Jason agreed. "But his tattoo was freaking sitting on his neck. And it's huge and looks exactly the same, that can't be a coincidence." He crossed his arms over his chest. "They seemed to be acting pretty suspicious." He scratched the back of his neck. "And…we've seen him hanging around Av before." Jason started to rub his neck, turning away from Zack his eyes shifting back and forth. He wasn't entirely sure of that, but he had a feeling. "I don't know; I have a feeling that something is wrong…"
"Getting a little protective?" Zack grinned.
Jason rolled his eyes, turning back to the black ranger. "I'm protective of all my friends, Zack. It's just something that Av has said before." He lifted his thumb to scratch his forehead before crossing his arms. "When Kim and I went to her apartment that one time, she had this massive bruise on her face. I didn't say before, but I had seen it earlier when we were having movie night at Trini's house that one time."
"That was ages ago, Jase," Zack pointed out.
"I know."
"So why did you wait so long to say something?"
"I didn't think it was my business," Jason admitted. He paused. "But, not I think it is. When I asked her about it, she said that she deserved to get hit." He pointed his chin over in the direction that Chase, Skye, and Summer had just disappeared around. "I thought it was weird, but now it kind of makes sense…do you think he's dating her?"
It took Zack a moment to understand what Jason was implying before Zack's eyes widened. "You think he's hitting her?"
"I don't know for sure," Jason said quickly. "It's just a thought. And you have to admit that it makes sense as to why she acts so weird about everything at home. I mean, we don't really know anything about her other than she's from Australia, she just transferred to Angel Grove, their parents are busy, she keeps running off at a moment's notice to do whatever and…apparently she has singing stage-fright ." He reached out and poked Zack in the chest. "I knew more about you in the first ten minutes of meeting you and that's because you never stopped talking."
Zack gave a sarcastic laugh, pushing Jason's hands away. "I think you're overreacting, man."
"I hope I am."
A/N: I'm going to have the rangers find out about Avalon's and Bailey's home life as well as Avalon being in the gang, I just don't know if I want to have it happen at the same time or sooner rather than later, especially because the 'pearl necklace' portion is going to end soon. If later, it's not going to be that much later, but still, I'm not entirely sure about that. I hope to have some really long chapters up soon as well. Those that are wondering where Giving Up The Game went, I deleted it because it was basically a re-telling of this story, set in the show, however, ideas I had planned for that story will be moved here.
Thanks to everyone that answered my poll and said that they like Avalon, I'm glad you're enjoying her character. Sometimes I think that I have too many bad things happen to her, but then I realized that it just stemmed off of the problem of their parents and when that gets fixed, everything else will. I hope I didn't take her too clichéd at times, I'm trying to even her out as I go along, it's really my first time working with her and Bailey and I'm trying to make this story as good as I can make it.
Anyway enough about be, as this went up, its Christmas Day for me, but the website says that I uploaded it on Christmas Eve. The cool thing is that I've been working on this story for about five months and I've really enjoyed it. I've made cool friends and I've had people really help me as this story went along so to all of you, thank you so much. But I really want to say Merry Christmas to all of my friends and to everyone on FFN. I hope you all have a great day with family friends and food and I hope the rest of your year is just as awesome.
-Avalon